First Udon Shop Pictures

Here is the shop. That is the line of people waiting to get in and it's only just before 10:30am !!!


Here is the inside of the shop. Pretty crowded/tight, somewhat hot. I realize that none of the pictures show how just to the left of the camera in every shot is the wall, so all of what you see is the open space of the little shop. In the picture, to the right the guy is rolling noodles, the old lady is somewhat in charge of selling gift-bag udon sets (although more just socializing), there is the cutting machine to the left, and in the back is the big stove manned by another woman(which you can't see).


A better shot of the old lady and folk. Each person is manning a different machine/area. You'll see the old lady in the magazine shot.


The cash register! Yep, 500/100/50/10 yen coin baskets. Put whatever amount in, and take the correct amount out. A very trusting system.


The lady in charge of the noodles. Note how the baskets are lifted up out of the boiling tub, probably for easy cleaning. This gives a pretty good idea of how hot/steamy this was. There was a serious gas flame heating up this gigantic tub.


Another shot of the same thing, only this time you can see the noodles and baskets that they're in...


An up close shot of the cutting machine. This machine's pretty neat, although very 1-dimensional. There's one in Genkotsuya Ramen shop (the ramen shop near my apartment that I frequent a couple of times a month, and who play mahjong).


The tempura selection. You can also pick an egg. Prices are listed below on a very short and simple, yet not easy to comprehend if you can't read Japanese menu!


Here it is. The menu in all it's glory. Udon-70yen. Egg-30yen. Tempura-100yen. The one below that in the orange/yellow is a joke or perhaps an off-beat way of advertising the 70yen price of their udon: "shi-awase ippai (ichi-mai) 70yen", or for 1 serving of lots of happiness, 70yen.


Serious flames. This udon shop was the only one where everything was in front of us and laid out, hence the amount of pictures. The others definitely had a more restaurant-like feel to them, whereas this was like an organized bbq or something.


And the final product before consumption (yes, that's a raw scrambled egg, and the green is a spicy/hot kind of chai or something).


Here are the folks and the background/restaurant after our first meal. Physched and off to a good udon start!


Last but not least, the magazine. Doesn't that face look familiar!! I laughed when I saw that.

Udon Fest: 1st Stop

So what I will do is post a description and then pictures of the place for each place, so each store will get it's own post.

That being said, to back track a bit; Masa met me in front of my house (Chie knows where I live), and we hopped on the ferry. I had brought a deck of cards with me, and we played Up and Down the River. They finally got the hang, and we also played a much faster and cut-throat game on the way back to Tamano that afternoon.

Landing in Takamatsu, we drove to the first shop. It was tucked away behind the main straight, almost in what seemed like a little neighborhood; not your usual location for a restaurant.

This place was cheap, and despite it being just 10:30am, it was pretty packed. I was surprised. The price for Udon was 70yen (100yen if you wanted to add an egg, which I did). As you can see, the menu didn't really contain much. Another interested thing about the place was that you ate outside (crammed into the little tent area if it was raining. People shuttled through the inside to pay and get your food. Speaking of paying, it was very nonchalant; Put your coins in the appropriate dish and take whatever change you need. People were too busy to pay much attention, and the Japanese place quite a bit of faith in the honor code that I guess it works.

So there was the option of getting some tempura to go on top as well, but I passed for the raw egg instead (after putting in three pumps of shouyuu, or soy sauce). Scramble the egg (already scrambled in picture), and then eat away. Nearly everyone agree: Despite the cheap price, this was the best place we went to the entire day.

Lastly, we were able to find these places using a "Udon Shops of Takamatsu" book (basically a book on all the Udon shops in Takamatsu and Kagawa Prefecture. They have books like this for Ramen, Udon, Yakiniku, Sushi, Tempura, etc. etc.; The Japanese love their food. The best part was the old lady in the shop is in the picture in the book too!!!

Udon Eating Ryokou

Only in Japan would you actually go somewhere to take a "eating tour". In this case, it was Masa n friends all piling into his sweet spring-break-esque van (seats six, four seats in the back facing each other instead of all facing the front), and headed on the ferry to Takamatsu to go on an Udon eating fest. I thought this was actually going to be a Masa and foreign friends ordeal, but quickly realized that I was the token foreigner, and everybody else was Japanese (Masa, Chie, Miwa, Tsugo, and Maddo). Oh well. The next series of long posts will involve pictures and descriptions of the entire day (and it was an all-day long trip). I tried to take pictures of all the food, but inevitably forgot one or two.


In order from left to right: Chie, Miwa, Tsugo, and Maddo.


And Masa from very up close. He is mid-30's, used to live in Tamano but now lives in the city. I met him in Ibara during the all day concert festival I went to (will post a picture of that below). He's pretty wild, knows a pretty good deal of English, and says the craziest things in both English and Japan. Basically, a really really cool friend to have and good person to know. The concert (picture taken at night), started at about 1pm and ended at somewhere around 8pm I think. This is a neat shot I thought. Fun times. I actually ended up going with Chie, who is in the above picture, and below in front of Masa's massive van.


Here's a picture of Masa's pimping ride. These wheels would have been uber fantastic for string break.

AZZ

Yeah, this place is a little conspicuous. Note the real helicopter on the roof. This place is the notoriety of the sex-toy world in Japan. There was debate on whether or not this year's halloween outfit should be bought from here, but that was short-lived I think. I will actually be Momochi this year for halloween.


Momochi! He is the mascot for Okayama (Peach Boy), and this is the interpretation of him for this year's national games, which are being held in Okayama Prefecture this year (hence an appropriate costume I think!).


I am making a huge yellow star hat and oversized torch using paper-mache, although I am a little behind right now in the costume. Hopefully today I will be able to finish most of it... Last minute job, again.

Love Hotel

New York Dream. Japan's personal "love-take" on the US. 4800yen for a 3 hour stint, or roughly 50 dollars for 3 hours. Must be an exciting place, and no, I don't actually know...

Tamano - Elections?

I believe this is for elections for something in Tamano. It is pretty normal around Japan to hear blaring "arigatou gozaimashita"'s followed by somebody's name and more around town even before you see the car finally pass (amped up speaker cars). That being said, this was at night, and they were going down the snack-bar district area of Tamano stopping at each storefront handing out thankyou's and waving little flags with the person's name written on them. Strange. The crowd too was families, some elementary school kids recognized me and acknowledged me with the usual "niiru sensei!"

Finishing things up...

There was the 100 meter race (originally scheduled for the morning, but since the whole day started late it was pushed until after the block dance-offs), then the tug of war.

I'm not sure how the format really worked, but the yellow team kept winning and had to pull three times in a row, and well, after the third time (which they lost, the finals I think), things weren't looking pretty.

Dance Shots

Cheering Contest

This is split up by block. This is what they are practicing forever and ever. I believe I took a 7 minute movie of an entire performance, and hopefully will see if I can get that up. Regardless, they design costumes (made of their block color of course), and a whole dance routine with leaders and flag-bearers, etc. It's fairly elaborate, although you can tell they put the people who are into it (i.e. who don't mind shakin' some limbs and jiving) in the front, and those that couldn't care less in the back. Of course, the block is being graded on total participation, spirit, noise, and dance choreography. Either than or a number is pulled out of a hat. Beats me.


Note the leaders have more extravagent costumes, and are the ones introducing the block, yelling directions and cheering people on during the dance:

And we're off...

1st year girls relay, right after the gun. Look at those power steps...


Three legged race, note the pair farthest to the left being well-aware, as most Japanese people are, that a picture is being taken.


Jumprope competition. It wouldn't be complete without teachers and students egging on their students telling them to jump higher and with better rhythm.


So I got it wrong, the men's was split into two: This one being badminton club, track club, basketball, and judo. Track won, with Judo taking second, and badminton dead last. Basketball pushed Judo but couldn't quite do it...


This was soft tennis, baseball, soccer, and yep, you guessed it, ping pong club. The ping pongers got trounced, and in a surprise, the soft tennis took the crown. I really messed up the previous results... oops. Next time better check the pictures first.

To start things off...

First a general introduction and speech from the principal... then rajio taisai, or morning stretches, radio-style (on the radio in the morning at 6am, a stretching routine is broadcasted, featuring a really cheesy upbeat voice telling you what to do to start your day, or sports day in this case, off right).

Block Banners

In order: Green, Yellow, Purple, Red, Blue

Sports Day!!!

Came and went. First up, a little synopsis: It occurs in the fall usually coinciding with cultural day, therefore the previous week (or two in the case of my school) there are no afternoon classes and everybody's schedule gets fiddled around with.

Throughout the whole day (there was one last year, although it started late and was cut short because it occured during a typhoon), there are various races and events from tug-of-war, relays, sprints, three-legged races, etc. The school is split up into "blocks" which are labeled by color: yellow, red, green, blue, and purple. In my school's case, each block contains a class from each grade (i.e. blue block has 1-A, 2-C, and 3-E). All events can either be split by block or class: i.e. 3rd year relays, the winning third year class, let's say 3-B, wins points for themselves and whatever block they are a part of.

Therefore, in the end, there are (as usual in Japan) TONS of prizes, these being given out to the best class in each grade, best in each event, and finally, the most coveted, best block.

Teacher's usually join in the relays, but of course, we never win. Who could against kids that play or practice some form of sport 3 hours a day, 6 days a week (sometimes 7).

The funniest and best relay was the club sports relay. What made this really funny was that each sport dressed in their gear, so the baseball guys wore their uniforms, judo players wore the white robe, tennis players passed a tennis racquet instead of a baton... The judo team, despite wearing robes and being the more bulky of the men's club sports participating, almost won. Of course, as would be expected, the track team won. Baseball did okay, soft tennis blew it.

Amongst the women, it was the judo team that kicked ass. Now you want a surprising 2nd place finish...!!!??? Try the dance team!!! Yeah, no kidn. They wore their "noise control" t-shirts, and beat out the volleyball team, the softball team, and the soft tennis team to take second. Wow. Dance machine!

I participated in the teacher's relay, and was "hayai!" or very fast. I also snuck onto the 3rd year class relay (not part of the teacher's group that joined onto this) because I wanted to be a part of the first lap where everybody's clipping each other's heels, and, as I was hoping, several kids wiped out and hit the dirt on the tight turn.

Lastly, they have each block split up, and the 3rd year's all give farewell thankyou's and inevitably cry (the girls at least). The most interesting thing I saw here was one of the teacher's who was in charge of the winning block (which was purple), was during his speech constantly hammering home how this was a team effort and it only worked because everybody worked hard, just how the classroom and school should work, that everybody should work to learn, to study, and to come to school. You all pushed and cheered each other out here, and you should cheer and push each other in the classroom as well. Wow. Rudi...Rudi...Rudi...Rudi...Rudi.......

Coming up will be the block banners...

Milestones

So I hit a big milestone about two weeks ago. Finally I have decided to register it: I passed the 10,000km mark on my bike. This is equivalent to 6,125miles. Yep, that's quite a bit. My goal of 8000km in a year, or 5000miles happened, and now I'm working on the goal of reaching 18,000km (or 10,000km this year). Next up should be to get clips (yeah, I've been crazy enough to do this with baskets still).

Here's a picture of the milestone for you to appreciate: Note I am going a little over 15 miles/hr while taking the picture... hehe.

Beautiful Fall Day

If I could quickly take a picture and put it on the web, I would, but just trust me when I say it is a beautiful fall day.

What has been happening recently? Well, lots of "spontaneous dinners" as Jez would say. I received some omiyage in one, namely a little fern. I was told implicitly to "not kill it". So far so good, I think.

Last week was sports day at my H.S. I will post pictures later, but for a brief description: It was another great day, and lots of fun. I was in the teacher's relay with the third year's, and received much praise on being "早い" or fast, although most other teachers don't really keep up the physique to be able to keep up with third year boys.

I also started the third year class relays just for the thrill of 5 people starting at once, and had two kids wipe out in front of me on the turn, prompting me to pull off the track laughing and not even bother to run any more. Teachers asked me why I joined from the start and I said because I wanted the thrill of the first 100 meters, although the surprise and humor at seeing two fall down like dominoes on the turn was sufficient.

Last weekend at the nursing school in Tamano there was cultural day. I went only on Saturday, although just at the end, so didn't see very much. I did run into my friend "Butch" (that's the nickname he wanted to be called), and talked a bit. I didn't see any "nurses" although I am sure that there are some. Supposedly if you hang out at the station around 5pm, you can see the whole lot all pile onto the train since of course nobody of that age that's single actually lives in Tamano!!

The next Sunday I went to a barbeque. You can check out Claire's blog for some pictures (I will post her link on the side). That was good fun, just relaxing under the bridge with a whole bunch of friends and making some new ones...

I had dinner on Friday night with Kondo-san, Ben's last host mother. Dinner was, as usual, fantastic, the highlight being Daikon Leaf Tempura: The story being she pulled up a couple of Daikon from the garden since it was overcrowded, and what came out were these little pinky-stubs of Daikon. Not wanted to waste a whole lot, she went uber-creative (very rare for Japanese), and decided to create a Daikon Leaf Tempura. It was really crunchy, and actually tasted a lot like spinach.

And finally, I went rowing yesterday. Yes, I am trying lots of new different sports here in Japan: Cycling, Touch Rugby, now Rowing. I understand now why rowers love their sport. The feeling you get when everybody's oar hits the water and pulls at the same time, the lurching of the boat and the rhythm when everyone is in psynche, it pretty sweet. But, unfortunately it is not sweet when you screw up, either burying your oar, or skipping the water entirely.

We barely lost our first race, holding the lead for most of the race but losing by a couple of feet in the last 20 meters (due to a member burying his oar twice). As for the second race, well, about halfway through the lead rower had his oar dig in and actually swing behind him, so for the second half of the race, only one person was rowing on one side of the boat, and we rocked and rolled and jerked our way to the finish. The fact that we also had cries of "we're done" twice before we actually finished the race also meant that there was no chance we would finish second and advance to the final.

What was really unfortunate though was that our first time would have put us in second place and in the finals, but we were unable to recreate that magic. All I have left now are the blister on my right thumb and the heel of my right foot.

The women's gaijin boat on the other hand (mind you none of us have ever rowed before in our lives), actually managed to win second place in amateur division (the men's boat was also in the amateur division, meaning in Japanese standards though you've practiced the sport for less than 8 years). They got really cool etched medals (silver of course), and really ugly bath towels which they intend to regift as birthday presents for members of the men's boat!

I actually am intrigued enough to try again, and will be going next Sunday at 9:30am for the bimonthly informal adult club practice. The workout that your upperbody (forearms, shoulders) get was much more than I expected, but am not sore today at all, probably due more to the fact we only raced twice than the couple of pushups I do after runs.

桜 (Sakura) Dance Club Results

So I decided to test out my ability to search for things in Japanese on the web, and I was decently surprised. Turns out I was able to find the website for the event by inputing into yahoo japan "Fukuoka Dance Festival Sakura".

There were over 100 teams, and Sakura, the team that I watched and we all watched practice, placed 5th! Not too bad. Unfortunately though, there is not website for the dance school, and I have been unable to find an e-mail from the dance competition website, so maybe I'll call and ask, or maybe I'll just go on with things and be happy about what I was able to find.

Every year there is this dance competition, here's the website if you care to try and work your way around it: Fukukoi Dance Festival

Fukuoka International Dance Festival

While we were in Fukuoka it so happened that there was an international dance festival going on as well! This meant that there were LOTS of people walking around with costumes and makeup, and impromptu rehearsals and practice in the parks near the venues... We started watching this group of people all dressed as tigers, all the way from adults (moms) to 5 year olds... I talked afterwards with the leader for a bit, and decided that I wanted to see them perform. And although Yarek and the others didn't stick around to watch the group of "tigers" (Sakura Dance Club) perform, Yarek did give me his uber sweet 12 megapixel super zoom camera to take some pictures. Although I didn't snap a whole lot of pictures, I did get some half decent shots...

Here's the preparation area, with a group in red getting really excited and about to go on stage:


Next up we have the Sakura Dance Club. Their leader I think was the gal up front, who spoke ridiculously good English, although I can't remember for sure since with all the same makeup and clothes, I won't lie to you, it was tough to spot her out amongst the crowd of other "tigers".


Then we have the end pose of a small group. I am especially proud of this shot since I took it as the guy was waving the flag but caught it in a perfect position to read and visually:


And last but not least, another fairly small group from I believe China, everyone in rhythm and synch.

You know you can't help but hug 'em!

There is another picture in this series that I will get from Yarek, but here was the first one. We were walking along in Fukuoka when I spotted him, and before rushing over, I asked Yarek if his camera was ready to take a picture. It was, and I nearly broke the pig's neck it seems...... but.... boy was I excited!

A reprieve

This is one of my favorite shots of the Mount Fuji trip taken by Yarek. I just like the fog, the outlines of people, and the fabulous view to the right below...

Fukuoka Extravaganza

Ah.... nothing like a little frisbee and fun to really stir things up.

I was in charge of organizing a team (out of my own will and desire) to go and play in the coed beach tournament in Fukuoka. My goal, after going last year and seeing how it went, was to create a competitive team that was completely composed of gaijin, and have fun both during the day on Saturday, during Saturday night's fiestas, and play well/hard during the day on Sunday (it was a one day tournament, Sunday only).

Given the circumstances, I think I did pretty well. The biggest difficulty though was finding gals who wanted to play frisbee. Turns out there was a constant changing of the roster when it came to women up until the last minute, and even then, thanks to some friends that Rachel had in Fukuoka, we were able to fill out the team to a hearty 4 boys and 4 girls, perfect for a tournament where the requirement was 2 or 3 girls on the field (5 against 5) at all times.

Everything started with the overnight bus from Okayama. I booked all the reservations so that everyone travelling from Okayama-ken would be on the same bus. This was interesting since Rachel had bought her tickets before me! Using her reservation number, I was able to successfully on the phone get us all on the same bus, even Lee who wanted a round-trip from Kurashiki, and not Okayama. We were placing bets on whether or not he would actually be on the bus, and when he walked on, my abilities in Japanese to successfully organize were amply rewarded.

The main thing about this overnight bus ride, and the return on Sunday night, was that it was "manseki", or a full bus. There were no empty seats! I am actually pretty glad that we all got seats, but in retrospect, I realized afterwards that I should've looked into an overnight train instead, since rumor has it you actually sleep on a bed on an overnight train! Oops... next time I must remember.

I actually got about 6 hours of sleep on the bus (but woke up quite frequently), and arrived in Fukuoka to a bright and sunny day. Luckily, the news on the bus informed us all that the impending typhoon was blowing well west of Japan, so my fear of having invited everybody to Fukuoka for a typhoon was abated!

That day we set out for a famous temple in Fukuoka (don't remember the name, argh, near Gion Station) as our first goal. On the way we passed a classic sex shop, and went inside for a peek (sorry, didn't get a photo). I asked the guy behind the counter how it works, i.e. you give the number, pay here, then what do you do? His answer was pretty short: "Sorry, you can't. Gaijin are not allowed."

So yes, Mom and Dad, have no fear, I had no access to Fukuoka's red light district it seems... What a shame. Perhaps in Takamatsu?!

At the temple we took lots of pictures. Turns out there was a wedding going on, so we started taking pictures of that, but one of the gentlemen in a suit told me to stop. Would you want random foreigners taking pictures of your wedding? Regardless, the bride was beaming, and the groom looked like he was about to wet his kimono.

Here's the main front of the temple.


Here is a great action shot taken from Yarek's PhotoSite (link on the right if you want to check out all of his pictures from Fukuoka and more, some of these are taken from there...):


Here was my final shot of the entire group as they were all assembled for the wedding photo:


Some neat Tori Gates all in a row:

The last weekend of September

This was a three day weekend, and I decided no better way to spend it than to log some time up North in Niimi on my bike. I had put up a couple of pictures on the site before (under), so you can check it out, but here's the full story. I contacted Yarek (Phil's successor), to stay with him and organizing some fun things to do. The ride up was fairly eventful actually, seeing as I didn't leave Tamano until about 4pm, but was hoping to leave closer to before 3pm. That being said, this meant that I didn't have enough day light to reach Niimi, so I stopped in Takahashi to get on the train (580yen) for the rest of the way. Asking the employee if it was okay to take my bike on, and that I had a cover and everything, he said sure, but when the train rolled up, the conductor would not let me on the train despite my being prepared.

I even tried to get on the train myself, but he called over two people to hold me back from getting on. Wow. Despite all my ranting after realizing that I would not get on, including a couple of vehiment "aho's", or a##holes, I didn't get on. Only in Japan can you swear at somebody and they will apologize.

So I ended up biking the rest in the dark, and boy was it dark. I was not pleased about it. Turns out that Rachel Allen, another JET in Takahashi actually passed me in her car. She had hit a rabbit earlier in that same trip, and was traumatized by the possibility of hitting another JET on their bike, but I did have a rear light and reflectors.....

That weekend we went to the caves, Niimi's hotspots (there are only two it seems), and then the kicker: Biked up 30km north for the onsen. The best part about the onsen was going to the "relax room" and taking a 2 and a half hour nap in the middle of the day in a peaceful, quiet, cool room. Heaven.

Here's the Jenglish sign of the day from that ride:


And I couldn't really figure out what all these signs were from or about, but it looked neat. Kind of like putting license plates from around the world or something on your wall...

久しぶり - Hisashiburi .... Long time

Yes, I have been noticably absent from the computer for quite some time. Why? I have been super busy with school, all the extra work on the side, projects, and organizing the trip to Fukuoka for frisbee.

That being said, the next many posts (as many as I can do in the next 45 minutes or so), will be devoted to all the things I have done starting with the first weekend after Fuji.

Thank you for your patience, and enjoy the upcoming ride (on a cool boat, taken along the bridges of the Shimanami Kaidoo, a set of islands and bridges from Hiroshima to Ehime)