Goodbye Godzilla and Hello Kitty*

 *the title of this blog post is from an essay by Norihiro Kato, a professor at Waseda (the university where I just spent two weeks).

After my week in Akita Prefecture, I  have now completed my two weeks in Tokyo, and I am on the train from Tokyo Station to Narita Airport. I came to Japan with carryon only, but I am returning with a checked back, because I bought a lot of souvineers and presents. (by the way, here's a quick travel tip for people thinking of coming to Japan: Japan is not really set up for people to be bringing huge checked bags on subways and bullet trains. However, there is a very convenient service that you can use to quickly ship bags from anywhere in Japan to the airport for not very much money. You can also ship bags from the airport to your hotel. I set this shipping up at the 7-11 right accross from my professor dorm, and it cost around $15. I sent my big bag on Wednesday for a Friday flight).

I last posted on the return train from Yamanashi, and my final week in Tokyo was great. I got to see my old host sister Ryoko. There is a picture of her in high school in this post, and here is a picture of me with her and her daughter:

At the end of our lunch Ryoko pointed out to her daughter that she and I were about here daughter's age when we first met.

My last interview was with a Member of Parliament from Osaka. Since this week was the first week of the Osaka Expo, he had a huge doll of the Expo's mascot, which is named Myaku Myaku:

At my local grocery store I bought some white strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture. They were really good. 

On my last day, I decided to visit the famous and controversial Shinto Shrine to Japan's war dead, Yasukuni Shrine. I am glad that I finally went there, as I teach my students about it so it will be good to be able to refer to my own visit. One of the most remarked upon aspects of the shrine is the Yusukan museum of Japan's wars. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of most of the museum, but I thought this sign just before the "no pictures" policy started was funny:

It has been 22 days away from my family, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing them again!

Next year in Yamanashi Prefecture?

I am writing today from an express train between Kofu, a small city in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in Tokyo (and I believe also the busiest in the world). 

I was in Yamanashi to visit my host family from the study abroad program that I did in college. I have kept in touch with this family and long time readers of the blog who also attended the 2004 Fishforbreakfast Wedding(tm)  might remember the woman in this picture from that wedding (she wore a kimono):

They took me to a few places to look at cherry blossoms. Here is one of the pictures, where you can see Mt. Fuji in the background.

I have also gotten some nice views of the cherry blossoms in Tokyo. This is by Waseda, the University where I am staying:

Here is a picture of me with some other old friends. The woman taking the picture, was pregnant with the man in the front right, at our wedding (that man is now a college student in Tokyo)

And here is a picture of me with Horst. Horst is spending a year as a visiting professor in Japan with his family. My father texted me while we were having dinner, and I had Horst call my dad from my phone. That really surprised my dad!

Here I am presenting on some of my research:

 

Sayonara Odate

 I am writing this on a train from Odate in northeast Akita Prefecture to Akita City in the west. In Akita City I will do a research interview, spend the night at a hotel called "Dormy", and then head to Tokyo tomorrow. 

My trip to Odate was incredibly useful, and I will have to spend a good amount of time looking over the data that I gathered. In addition to being the home of the famous dog Hachiko, as I mentioned in the last post, Odate also claims to be the birthplace of the dog breed "Akita." A sign in the Hachiko Museum says that the Akita breed was originally called the Odate breed. Dog images are EVERYWHERE in Odate.

Here are some photos from my time in Odate:

That is me with Mayor Ishida. At 27, he is the youngest mayor in all of Japan.

That is my hotel breakfast from yesterday. I ate some version of this every morning in Odate except this morning, as I had to leave before they started service.

That was the sign posted dramatically in the curry restaurant where I had lunch yesterday. It was one of their only decorations. The guy I was eating with asked if it was a famous expression, and I had to say no. I also realized that it is beyond the limits of my Japanese to translate it (maybe because I don't totally understand what it means in English?). 

That is the restaurant that I retreated to when I got tired of Japanese food. Alacran, Cheese and Dining.

That is the route of the train that I am on right now.

Greetings from snowy Odate

 It is Sunday nlate afternoon, and I am writing from my hotel room in Odate, in northern Akita Prefecture. Akita is one of the northernmost prefectures in Honshu, Japan's biggest island (the island where Tokyo and Kyoto are located), I came to Odate because it is in Akita's Second Electoral District, which is the most elderly electoral district in all of Japan, and I am working on a project about aging and Japanese democracy.

I have my first research interview tomorrow morning. Here are a few pictures and videos of what I have been up to (the first two pictures are actually of Aomori Prefecture, which is north of Akita -- I took them from the train):

This was my lunch today a a very nice family run restaurant called Miura. 

This is on the Tokyo Electric Building in Odate, and the big caption says "A Place called Odate." Odate's claim to fame is that it is the home of the Akita dog named Hachiko (there is a very famous statue of that dog in Shibuya in Tokyo).

Tadaima

 I am writing this email from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, getting ready for my first trip to Japan since 2019. The six year interval between 2019 and 2025 is the longest interval between my Japan trips since my first Japan trip, in the summer of 1994. On a recent trip back to Michigan, I found some pictures from that trip:

I was in the calligraphy club in my high school (Jonan Koko in Fukuoka). This is me with the club.

This is me with my goofy host father at the summit of Mt. Aso, the tallest mountain on Kyushu (its also an active vocano). We took the cable car up, and I remember that my host father said "sometimes, the rope breaks, and everone dies." He was really funny (seriously).

This is me with my beloved host mom, the late Reiko Nejime. She was truly a wonderful, sweet, very loving woman. I wish that I could see her on this trip.

That is me with my volleyball team. There was an all school field day, and we were on one of our class's two all boys volleyball teams. The guy in the blue hat was an exchange student from Australia. We lost both of our games.

Because domestic travel around Japan is really difficult with large bags, I am doing this trip with only carry on (I am going to be in Tokyo, but also in Akita Prefecture, way up north). Here are all of the bags that I am bringing. I consider this a championship level of baggage for a three week trip:

Outdoor Fun

June is the rainy season here. And, well, it's definitely delivering. Also, super humid and sticky and icky! But we are still making the best of it, getting outside when we can and just accepting that it will be wet, muddy, and sweaty.

Part I

A few weeks ago, Jacob's school had a "day camp" day at a local campground. This was something between a family fun day and an organized family field day. It was totally awesome, really beautiful, and lots of fun.

First, we got to ride in the little school bus out to the campground:

The campground was really pretty. It also had a pretty fun playground area, which the kids definitely enjoyed!

Then it was time to sing songs and make lunch (which involved both making the campfire and washing the veggies).

Lunch was . . . yakisoba! Here's the grillmaster himself at work!

Which meant that my kids ate grapes, cookies, and juice.

Afterwards, there was a scavenger hunt and some races. This was exactly as awesome and as successful and as hilarious as you'd think it would be.

And then we went home and the parents collapsed. The end.


Part II

Our town had a big international culture festival, celebrating the cultures / traditions / foods of all the different people who live here. I'm not sure if this was a thing when we lived here ten years ago, but it is definitely a thing now - this festival was crowded! There were so many countries represented - booths were selling food, crafts, books, art, fabric, toys, etc. It was really fun. 

It's also interesting because it's my sense that there are comparatively few Americans here and that even Americans + Europeans + Australians together aren't the most significant foreigner group. I think there are far more Chinese, Indians, and South(east) Asians here - but I might be wrong about this. Anyway, whenever we go to Tokyo, I'm always shocked to see and overhear so many Americans and so much English. That is definitely not my daily experience here. It's not that there aren't foreigners here (there obviously are, many of them!) - it's that the distribution makes it a pretty diverse place to live, which is sort of unexpected in Japan.

The international festival also included a ropes / challenge course. Natalie could not wait to try it! She did great!


And then we celebrated with shave ice. Because: duh.

A few more random festival pics:

Part III

A few more random festival pics:We've also been going to the local parks. This takes lots of sunscreen and reminders to drink water, but, well, on nice days we feel like we have to get out because soon enough it will be raining again.

A few more random festival pics:Of course, no post (or park trip) is complete without ice cream. Consider this my sweet conclusion: