The Wonderful World of Christopher Janca

Life's a Trip: Chapter Twelve - Cambodia Dreamin'

2007-07-09T05:43:00.001-05:00

January 3, 2007

Back in October I had decided that I wanted to take a vacation over winter break. Faced with almost a month of potential vacation time, my imagination raced with possibilities. There were so many places and activities to choose from that I didn't even know where to start. Eventually, I began by simply typing “adventure vacation” into Google to get some ideas. After perusing quite a few sites I had narrowed my search to some sort of mountain biking tour in a foreign country such as China, Laos or Cambodia.

As I was flipping through sites I came across the “Dancing Roads” website. Dancing Roads is a company that is offers dirt biking tours across the Cambodian countryside. Of course, I immediately fell in love with the possibility of ripping around on a 250cc off road motorcycle and the idea that I'd get to travel the country in a unique way. To top it all off, I read that they offer a tour which stops at the Ankor Wat. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world and it boasts some absolutely breathtaking Buddhist art. I have wanted to visit it ever since I did a project on the history of the Angkor Wat in my high school world history class. I was ready to start packing...

But of course, my fantasizing was offset by the practicalities associated with the trip. The first and foremost issue that came to mind was the fact that I'd never ridden a dirt bike. Of course, I've been mountain biking for about 5 years now, so I figured that there should be some transferability between the two disciplines. However, we're talking about switching from city/trail riding in Toronto, where my top speed on the trail is about 30-40 kph and my top road speed is 70 kph, to some pretty challenging dirt biking conditions. I'd be riding in through countryside and jungle at speeds of 60-80 kph and on-road I'd hit speeds in excess of 100 kph. But then again, no one ever learned to ride a dirt bike by sitting at home worrying about whether or not they could do it. I had to just jump in.

The second concern that came to mind was Cambodia's reputation. According to internet sources Cambodia is a pretty dangerous place, with a pretty dark history and it has the highest number of active land mines among all the world's nations. This is thanks to the Khmer Rouge regime which systematically starved and killed devastating numbers of the Cambodian population during an attempt at creating a socialist agrarian revolution. During their crusade the Khmer Rouge littered the country with over 10 million landmines (one for each member of the Cambodian population). This fact definitely made me think long and hard about going off-roading, but after contemplating my potential fate I decided that I should be passionately pursuing my desires even if it meant dismemberment or death.

I began to write to the operators of Dancing Roads to inquire about their tours. The company is run by a lovely couple named Paeng Ton and Sonia Taheri. Paeng was born and raised in Cambodia and has been cruising through life on the seat of a bike since he was youngster, while Sonia is a British ex-patriot who immigrated to Cambodia years ago as an English teacher. Over the course of two months Paeng and Sonia patiently answered (literally) hundreds of my questions and addressed all of my concerns. By the time that I actually met Paeng and Sonia, I felt as though I was seeing friends after a long separation rather than meeting people for the first time.

When I arrive in Phnom Penh at 8:00 am, I'm confronted with a hoard of people holding signs as they wait for friends, family or tourists. As I scan the crowd I find my name and meet Paeng for the first time. From the moment I meet him, Paeng has a beaming smile on his face. It gives me the impression that he's someone who truly enjoys every second of life and that he's passionate about what he does. The following days that I spend with Paeng overwhelmingly confirm my initial impression.

We load my baggage into Paeng's truck and head into the downtown core of Phnom Penh where we eat breakfast and discuss our plans for the day. We decide to stop by my hotel so I can settle in for a little bit and then Paeng will pick me up later in the day for my dirt biking lesson and some practice riding. However, when we get to the hotel we're told that my room isn't ready, so we leave my things with the hotel staff and we immediately head to Paeng's place to get the dirt bikes and go riding.

At this point everything seems surreal. Cambodia is unlike any place I've ever been before, so just being there for the first little while is strange and fascinating. To make things more surreal, I've been in Cambodia for less two hours and I find myself standing in Paeng's garage in full dirt biking gear as he tosses me the keys to one of his bikes and says, “Let's go!” Our plan is to hit the Choeung Ek Memorial, which marks the place of the notorious Cambodian Killing Fields, and then we'll go practice in a field near the Killing Fields...I try not to think of this as some sort of foreshadowing.

I've never really been dirt biking before this. I went for about two hours with my friend Hide while I was still in Japan but that was about a month before I left for Cambodia and I wasn't even good enough to leave the gravel parking lot near Hide's family's house. Now I'm heading into the most lawless traffic that I have ever seen in the busiest city in Cambodia. Greeeeeeaaaat. We hit the streets of Phnom Penh and I'm overwhelmed. I'm trying desperately not to stall the bike with my amateur shifting skill, and we're on the way to my lesson...I begin to think to myself, “What's the lesson going to consist of? Jumping through fire?” I watch Paeng as he rides ahead of me and do my best to mimic him in regards to steering, positioning and shifting. By the time that we get 15km out of Phnom Penh I have forgotten all of my fears and worries and I'm simply in love with dirt biking.

We spend the next hour or so walking through the Killing Fields with a tour guide who recounts chilling details about the events that went on there.

The Choeung Ek Memorial

Lighting incense for the victims of the Khmer Rouge

Some remains from the over 8,000 Cambodian people who were killed at this particular site

After we finish our tour of the Killing Fields, Paeng and I sit by our bikes and simply chat for a while. I ask him about his childhood in Cambodia and his personal experiences with the Khmer Rouge and ask him why he wasn't killed or enlisted. He's very patient with me and answers all of my questions without reservation. I can honestly say that this conversation with Paeng is one of the most interesting conversations that I have ever had. Many times people try to convince you that life is this way or that way and that they know something about life, while you don't. But Paeng doesn't seem to care about being right or wrong, by simply telling me about his experiences many of my perceptions about life and the state of the world are changed. As I listen to him it's humbling to realize how narrow my experiences have been and how good my life has been.

During the afternoon we stop at the side of the road and order a traditional Khmer lunch at a family's house. Among the dishes that we order is some type of chicken curry soup. As soon as we order it, a young man comes out of the family's house and grabs the chicken that's milling about near my feet, taking it inside to make the soup. That's freshness...

When the food arrives, one of the most notable characteristics is the way that the chicken is prepared. It's as though someone has plucked the chicken and then subsequently chopped it from end to end, leaving the bones and internal organs intermingled with the chicken meat. When I ask Paeng about this, he tells me that the meat has been left on the bone so that you can chew the bone and absorb some of the calcium from it. That's the interesting part about Khmer cooking, aside from being delicious, it's also very practical and hearty.

After lunch we drive to a nearby cow field and Paeng lets me practice for a few hours, while he watches and gives me pointers. As I practice, an audience begins to assemble. Many of the children who tend to cows in the surrounding area have come to investigate the rumbling sounds that sweep across the otherwise quiet plains and they're delighted to discover a pair of dirt bikers.

Ready to roll...

Some local kids

Finally cruisin'

Night falls and Paeng drops me off at my hotel so that I can grab a quick shower. It feels great to remove the thick layer of red dirt that had accumulated on my skin. When I'm clean we head out for a nice dinner with Sonia and some of her friends on the bank where the Tonle Sap and Mekong river meet. It's a beautiful night, but I can't enjoy it for too long because Paeng is going to be at the hotel tomorrow at 6:30 am and we're going to be on the road every day after that. Let the adventure begin!

Nighttime on the river

Life's a Trip: Chapter Eleven - My Last Days in Bangkok

2007-05-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

January 1, 2007

On New Year's Day I meet up with Joe and Thias for the last time. We spend the early afternoon kickin' around Siam Square one of the biggest/most expensive malls in Bangkok. Here are a few pictures:

Photo studio at Siam Square

The escalators at Siam Square

While we're at the mall I buy tickets for a Thai theatrical show that I had really wanted to see. It's called Siam Niramit. The show itself is absolutely incredible and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it.

Me at the entrance of Siam Niramit

A river surrounding the traditional Thai village on the grounds of Siam Niramit

Me with an elephant at Siam Niramit

Some performers at Siam Niramit

January 2, 2007

I spend January 2nd, simply relaxing and packing my things. I have to check out and head to the airport at 4:30 am, so I need my rest. Not to mention, I've just completed the relaxing part of my vacation. Now I'm off to Cambodia for some adventure....

Life's a Trip: Chapter Ten - New Year's Eve in Bangkok

2007-05-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

December 31, 2006

Happy New Years!!

During the daytime on the 31st, I switch hotels and spend the day relaxing. After all, during the past week and a half I haven't slept for more than four hours at a time. I'm living it up for every last second of this vacation.

Bangkok at sunset

During the evening I meet up with Joe and Thias at their hotel near Khao San. Our original plan is to head to a big outdoor party at Siam square, however by the time that we get our act together it's late and we probably won't make it in time, considering the insane traffic in downtown Bangkok. Instead we decide to stick around Khao San and enjoy a more relaxed party atmosphere. This turns out to be a very good decision...

As we enter Khao San we notice that the street is barracaded at either end by armed soldiers. It doesn't seem very out of the ordinary considering that there are soldiers crawling all over Bangkok, especially in highly trafficked tourist areas, so we proceed past the barracade and join the party. The night starts out pretty slow. As we hit the streets we grab a few beers and a bottle of whiskey and then mingle. Khao San is relatively quiet considering that it's New Year's Eve.

Here's what we didn't know at the time...

Between 6:00 and 7:30, six coordinated bombings occured across Bangkok, injuring 25 people and killing three. The New Year's festivities in locations were cancelled and the countdown at Siam square was held at 9:00 pm. With the city in relative chaos, everyone is scrambling to find a safe spot to ring in the New Year. Khao San is one of the only remaining parties in the city that hasn't been shut down. However, Joe, Thias and I have no idea that any of this is going on. It's amazing what you can miss if you don't flip on the news before heading out for the evening...

The party at Khao San gets jam packed at about 11 o'clock, as people from the cancelled parties pack into the street. The atmosphere is electric by the time that the countdown takes place. As you can see in the following video, everyone is extremely friendly. People are simply enjoying the company of those who surround them. It's an unforgettable experience. Despite the violence that occrued earlier in the evening, the melting pot party on Khao San goes off without any disruption.

Over the course of the evening, Joe, Thias and I meet a variety of people:

Two Italian sisters who are vacation together after being separated for a year because they attend school in different countries.

Two intense Austrian friends who love heavy metal and Heineken.

Russian twins who are absolutely bombed and struggle to keep track of one another.

Two Canadians who tell us all about their escapes in Southeast Asia.

A guy from India who has lived in Thailed for the past three years.

Two Thai guys who look like trouble but turn out to be really nice.

A guy from Paris who speaks very little English.

Two Americans from Minnesota, who stumble upon Khao San late in the night because they were at one of the cancelled parties.

Joe, one of the Italian girls, Thias and a Dutch guy

The Russian twins (front left), one of the Italian girls (between the Russian twins), the Americans (top left), the guy from India (middle), the Dutch guy (middle back), the Canadians (beside the Indian and Dutch guys), Me and Thias

It's great to meet all of these people. We drink and eat, we talk about our homes and our cultures, our travels, things that bother us and the things that we love. I take a minute to step back and watch the group as they interact and I see something truly incredible. Young people from all over the world speaking to each other in all sorts of different languages, laughing, getting along and having fun.

5 o'clock am rolls around and I decide that I should go back to my hotel and get some sleep. I'm starting to think about preparing myself mentally and physically for my trip to Cambodia now, so my previous vacation habits need to come to an end.

As I sit in the back of a cab, I catch the first sign of sunlight of the New Year. I don't recall ever having seen the first sunrise of the year. It's inspiring. Bangkok whizes by outside the taxi window and I think hard about how lucky I am to have the life that I have and to be doing everything that I want to do. Here's to another year...

Life's a Trip: Chapter Nine - Thailand, Old and New

2007-05-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

December 30th, 2006

I spend the day of the 30th travelling North of Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is a city that acted as the capital of the Ayutthaya kingdom, from 1350 to 1767. It is still home to many of the truly impressive structures that comprised the kingdom.

The train ride out of Bangkok is an experience in and of itself. I get onto a rickety old train which has no doors or windows. Even though the ride will take an hour and a half, I choose to stand so that I can easily film the Thai countryside as it rolls by. Here are a few glimpses of what I saw:

When I arrive in Ayutthaya I hire a tuktuk to bring me to some of the most visited attractions in the late kingdom.

The first stop is Wat Yai Chaimongkhon. The monastery was constructed in 1357 but the large chedi on the grounds was constructed in 1592 in celebration of King Naresuan's defeat of King Maha Upparacha in their famous elephant battle.

The main chedi of Wat Yai Chaimongkhon

A line of lovely Buddhas sitting in a row

Chedi profile

Wat Yai Chaimongkhon tour

The second stop of the day is Wat Mahathat, home to the famous and mysterious Buddha head in the roots of a fig tree. No one knows why the Buddha head is there or how it got there, but I find it quite interesting. It definitely draws your attention to the lifespan of the structures and statues that surround you while walking the grounds. The Wat itself was built between 1374 and 1390 and underwent subsequent periods of restoration. However, despite efforts to preserve the structures, they are now in ruins due to wars waged in the area and natural forces such as earthquakes and vast amounts of rainfall during the Thai rainy season.

Headless Buddhas at Wat Mahathat

More Wat Mahathat

Posing with the famous Buddha head in the fig roots

As the day wears on I decide that it's time to head back to Bangkok to meet up with Joe and Thias in Khao San. On the way back to Bangkok, I meet a young Thai couple and pass the some time chatting while enjoying the breeze created by the train as it shambles it's way from the countryside to the sprawling cityscape.

The Thai couple that I chatted with

Passenger train back to Bangkok

Here's a video of the ride back into the city

Joe, Thias and I meet in Khao San around 8:00 and begin a mission to scour the city for nightlife. Our search brings us from Khao San to Sukhumvit to Patpong and then back to Khao San when we finally realize that we're not going to get into any nightclubs wearing board shorts and sandals. Although we didn't find any nightlife per se, it was a great opportunity to get out and see the city at night while having interesting conversations with friends.

A new spin on drinking and driving.
A bar/truck in the Patpong area

While we're in Patpong we encounter the same bug vendor that Joe and I had met in front of on the previous day, however this time we decide to sample his wares. Joe and Thias bought me some sort of beetle for 60 baht (which is about two dollars Canadian). Here's what ensued:

The setup (featuring Thias)

The money-shot

The bug attempting to escape

Joe sampling some beetle

Putting on a show

When we return to Khao San we grab a few drinks (including a martini...it had been months since I had a proper martini). By this time many of the bars on the street are closing up for the night, so Joe, Thias and I decide to move our little elsewhere. Joe persuades us to go off in search a wat that he had seen while we were riding around in a tuk tuk.

Joe and Thais temple hunting at night

We stop at a convenience store, pick up some redbull and beer and set off on an adventure. About an hour later we still haven't found the Wat and we're close to my Chinatown hotel, so we make plans for hitting a New Year's party and then I call it a night.

Life's a Trip: Chapter Eight - The Jewel Con and Malaysian Mates

2007-04-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

December 29, 2007

Today I decide to do more sightseeing but I have no particular plan. I take to the streets and after about half an hour of wandering, I come across Wat Rachabophit (Sathitmahasimaram Ratchaworawiharn...good luck saying that one). The temple was built in 1869 by King Rama V and it acted as the Royal Temple during his reign.

Wat Ratchabophit

Inner Wihan of Wat Ratchabophit

Mother of Pearl Door Mural

Wat Ratchabophit Door Frame Mural

Initiates Inside the Main Wihan

A short distance from Wat Ratchabophit, I find Wat Ratchapradit. As I wander onto the temple grounds, a middle aged man wearing a yellow shirt with the King's emblem greets me and invites me to enter the main wihan. He says to me, “You're very lucky. Normally people aren't allowed to enter the main wihan, but it's being renovated today so it's open to the public. If you have some time after looking inside I would like to tell you a little bit about the history of this temple, it's very good for me to practice my English.” I agree to chat with him and proceed to enter the temple.

Wat Ratchapradit from the Outside

The Interior of Wat Ratchapradit

Inside I watch as three painters work at restoring the masterpieces that line the walls of the wihan. I can only imagine how the temple will look when restorations are complete, but it is stunning even in it's eroded state.

After a short while of watching and meditating, I join the man outside and take a seat next to him in front of the temple. He begins explaining the meaning behind the colours of the temple. For the life of me I can't remember what he said in regards to the temple, but I remember exactly what happened after he finished talking about it.

He pauses for a moment while he's talking to me and says, “You have really cool earrings.” I thank him for the compliment and he goes on, “You know what would be really cool though, if you got some ruby or emerald earrings. I know a place where you can get them. There's a special market that's open only today. You see, the government of Thailand is having a tourism week to celebrate the New Year and this is the last day for their special sale. You can buy jewels for 50-80% off and then you can sell them for full price in Canada. I've done it and made lots of money.” He carries on about his “great jewel sale” for a while longer but I don't bite. I recognize his scam because it's almost word for word one of the scams that I had read about on the Internet before leaving for Thailand.

As he's winding down, an older man German walks onto the temple grounds. I can see a look of panic on the jewel con man's face. If he's busy with me he won't be able to con the other man as well...at least that's what I thought his expression indicated. The con-man interrupts our dialogue about jewels and gives his introduction speech to the old man: “You're very lucky because the temple is only open to the public for a few days for renovations. Let me have my associate show you around and then I'd like to talk with you after.” He calls out in Thai and a dirty looking man scurries from around the corner of the wihan to escort the old man around the temple grounds.

The con-man watches until they've disappeared from sight and then returns to our dialogue about jewels. However, my patience has run thin and I've grown tired of the discussion so I promptly tell thank him for telling me about the sale, but that I'm not interested in going today because I have too much to do. I get up to leave and the con-man says to me, “You haven't even seen the outside of the temple. There's a magnificent statute of King Rama behind the main wihan. Why don't you have a look?” He's right, I haven't seen everything but I had wanted to before he started chatting about jewels, so I decide to take a quick walk around.

As I'm walking, I run into the old German man. He's taking photos of the King Rama statue and his guide is nowhere to be seen. I figure that it's the perfect opportunity to warn him about the gem scam in case he doesn't already know about it. He thanks me for the warning and I proceed on my way.

About 10 meters from the old man, there is another man sleeping against a column of the temple. As I approach him, he wakes up, sees me and the old man standing in the same relative area and then scurries off to the front of the temple where the con-man is. However, in his haste he drops something. I walk over to see what he has dropped and initially I think that my eyes are playing tricks on me. “That looks like a...no...it couldn't be....” I take a few steps closer and realize that my initial impression was correct, he had left behind his gun.

I stand over it and wonder what I should do. Out of the corner of my eye I see the gun man talking with the con-man. The con-man looks irritated. It becomes obvious that the men are working together and that the gun man just blew his part in the con/robbery. I think about taking the gun with me, just to be sure that they don't use it on me, but I remember seeing many soldiers in the general area of the temple and I think about the possibility of being stopped with a gun or being seen throwing a gun away and decide to leave it where it is.

I call the German man over and explain to him what I've found. He doesn't seem concerned in the slightest and continues to take pictures. I figure, I've done the right thing by telling him and now the only thing left to do is to leave. I turn my camcorder on and make it obvious that I'm filming as I casually pass through the entrance of the temple and make my way to the main road. What a crazy experience!

During the evening I decide to visit Khao San Road. Khao San is an area of Bangkok that's famous for it's bohemian atmosphere, interesting street scene and it's high density of backpackers. I spend a few hours wandering the streets as I take in the sights and shop for souvenirs.

Khao San just before sunset

As night falls food vendors begin to swarm the market and set up shop to serve the mass of drunk foreigners. Most of the vendors serve some variety of pad thai or kabobs, but one particular vendor stands out. He's serving fried bugs. He's got beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and various sorts of larvae. Mmmmmm.

Bug Vendor

As I contemplate trying one of the exotic delicacies, I turn to the guy who's standing next to me and ask him if he's going to try something. He laughs and replies in a friendly fashion. The question quickly turns into a conversation and then into introductions.

Meet Joe. He and his friend Thias just arrived in Bangkok via bus from their homes in Malaysia. They're about to check out the nightlife on Khao San and they invite me to join them. For the rest of the evening Joe, Thias and I check out various bars and clubs until nothing is open and we call it a night.

Me, Joe and Thias

Life's a Trip: Chapter Seven - Back in Bangkok

2007-03-23T00:43:00.001-05:00

December 28, 2006

Not much happened on December 27th, so I'll sum it up briefly. I spent the day on the beach and got burned beyond belief. During the evening I flew back to Bangkok. Nice and simple.

On the morning of the 28th I wake up and
resolve to go “temple hopping.”

First stop: Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

This temple, colloquially known as Wat Suthat, was constructed in 1807 after the 27th anniversary of the founding of Bangkok by King Rama I. The temple contains the largest bronze cast Buddha image in Thailand and the grounds contain representations of the Satta Mahasathan or the “Seven Great Sites.” The Seven Great Sites are the places where the Lord Buddha resided after enlightenment.

According to the plaque at the entrance of the Seven Great Sites, “Lord Buddha attained under the Bodhi Tree in the fifteenth hour on the lunar full moon day of the sixth month. He enjoyed the happiness of enlightenment through seven weeks in the Seven Great Sites as follows:”

Site One: The Bodhi Tree

“The Lord Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree and meditated for some time. It was here that he attained Supreme Enlightenment.”

Site Two: Animissa Chedi

“After the Lord Buddha had achieved Supreme Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree at Animissa Chedi he gazed at the tree in gratitude for providing him with shelter. From then on the tree was known as the Bodhi Tree or the Tree of Enlightenment. He sat in this place for one week.”

Site Three: Rattanajangkom Chedi

“Lord Buddha created this place for walking meditation between the Bodhi Tree and Animissa Chedi. He practiced walking meditation here for one week.”

Site Four: Rattanakara Chedi

“Lord Buddha sat in a crystal house which a deva (celestial being) created for him and considered Abhidhamma in this place for one week.”

Site Five: Achapalanikrotha

“Lord Buddha sat under a Banyan Tree where a goat herd had rested. At that time Evil's daughters (Tanha, Raka and Aradi) came to seduce the Lord Buddha by dancing, singing and showing their bodies. But he did not succumb to them and drove them out.”

Site Six: Mujjalin

“At the time that the Lord Buddha rested at Mujjalin it rained all day. The King of Naga, Mujjalin, had faith in the Lord Buddha and worried that he might get sick from sitting in the rain. He covered Lord Buddha and made his reverence.”

Site Seven: Rachayatana

“During his seventh week of enlightenment, Lord Buddha sat under the Rachayatana Tree. Two merchants, Tapusee and Phanlika, gave him Sattu rice. They listened to Lord Buddha speak and accepted the Dhamma (his discourse) as the path to true refuge.”

Lines of Buddhas surrounding the minor wihan (chapel).

The main wihan of Wat Suthat.

Pillars of the ordination hall (ubosot).

Phra Sri Sakayamuni, the 8 meter tall bronze cast Buddha inside the ordination hall (ubosot).

Adjacent to Wat Suthat is the Giant Swing of Bangkok. Measuring 30 meters high, this monstrous swing was originally built in 1784 for use in a Brahmin ceremony.

Here's the story. According to an ancient Hindu epic, after the god Brahma created the world he sent Shiva to look after the new world. When Shiva descended to the earth, Naga serpents wrapped around the mountains in order to keep earth in place. When Shiva found the earth solid, the Nagas moved to the seas in celebration. The Swing ceremony is a re-enactment of this story. The pillars of the Giant Swing represent the mountains, while the circular base of the swing represents the earth and the seas. In the ceremony monks swing trying to grab a bag of coins placed on one of the pillars.

The ceremony was discontinued in 1935 due to numerous fatalities during the reenactment. What's the world coming to when you can't safely ride a 30 meter high swing while leaning off your seat in an attempt to grab a bag of coins which is attached to a giant pole as others scramble to do the same? Sometimes I think I just shouldn't leave the house.

Second Stop: The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings which served as the official residence of the King of Thailand from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. After the death of King Ananda Mahidol in the Baromphiman Palace, King Bhumibol moved the official royal residence to Chitralada Palace.

The grounds are absolutely stunning. Here are a few of the more prominent sites:

Entrance to the Grand Palace.

Prasat Phra Debidorn: This building is only open one day a year (Chakri Day - April 6), at which time visitors can view the life-size statutes of the first eight kings of the Chakri dynasty.

Phra Sri Ratana chedi flanked by many other chedis. Interestingly, Phra Sri Ratana houses a piece of the Buddha's breastbone.

A "Yak." These statues of mythical giants are said to protect the Buddha images on the premises from evil spirits.

A model of the Angkor Wat at the Grand Palace.

Incredible artisan work. You could look at it for hours and still not take everything in.

The Emerald Buddha of Wat Phra Kaew: The most important icon for Thai people. This photo may seem to be relatively low in quality because photos are not permitted from inside the wat.

Third Stop: Wat Kanlaya

Upon completing my tour of the Grand Palace, I elect to cross the Chao Phraya River in an attempt to find Wat Arun (the Temple of the Dawn). Once I get to the opposite bank of the river I realize that I don't really know where I'm going, so I simply wind my way through the riverside market looking for someone who looks knowledgeable.

I carefully select a young man who has fallen slightly behind the group of friends that he is walking with. Each guy in the group is wearing a yellow shirt bearing the King of Thailand's emblem, so they practically look like tour guides. I quicken my pace so that I'm in step with the straggler and say, “Excuse me, could you tell me where Wat Arun is?” His reaction simultaneously reads that he's thrilled to have encountered a farang (foreigner) but he also seems petrified to reply. As he stumbles over words which I don't understand he rapidly and repeatedly shifts his gaze from me to his friends, as though he's trying to lure them back through sheer force of will.

It works because in a few seconds his friends realize that he's gone and they head back in our direction. One of the young men politely says hello to me as he approaches so I ask him where Wat Arun is. He happily explains the directions and sends me on my way.

I've walked a mere 25 meters before I hear someone yelling after me. The guy who had just finished giving me directions jogs up to me and says, “Actually we're going to Wat Arun as well, come take the bus with us.” Warning bells are most likely going off in your head right now. Trust me, they we're ringing loudly for me too However, these guys seemed nice enough and I was quite curious to see what would happen next.

The group of us walk down the street in an X formation, I'm in the middle with two of the guys in front of me and two behind me. As we walk everyone stares, which is strange because tourists are an everyday sight in Bangkok. I suppose that this situation was somehow out of the ordinary based on the looks that it attracted.

After about five minutes of walking we encounter a group of about 40 people, all of whom are wearing yellow shirts bearing the King's emblem. The men that I was walking with begin speaking in Thai to the people nearest to them and everyone bursts out laughing. The only word that I catch is “farang,” so aside from the laughter, I know that they're talking about me. As the group converses amongst themselves I scan my surroundings and notice that there is no bus stop where we're standing. Strange... As I begin to wonder what I've gotten myself into, the young guy who I initially spoke with (the one who seemed terrified by me) grabs my hand and stands there, ever so casually holding my hand. Very strange... Once again everyone laughs.

A middle aged man then comes over to me and says, “It looks like you've made a friend.” I laugh and reply, “Apparently...” He then introduces himself and asks where I'm from. I introduce myself and tell him that I'm from Canada. His face lights up. Am I about to get conned again? I feel like I am, but this situation is just so weird that I have no idea what to expect. He smiles at me and says, “I've been to Canada many times. You know, Toronto, Vancouver...I went to school in Pittsburgh for six years, so I had a lots of chances to go to Canada.” He seems really genuine when he says this, so I'm inclined to believe him, but my previous experiences tell me that I shouldn't. We converse further until the bus rolls up and the people closest to the door begin to pile on. It's definately not a public bus...

What the hell is going on? I 'm escorted onto the bus by my “friend” who is still holding my hand at this point. Guess there's no turning back. Upon entering the bus I quickly scan the scene and finally realize what's going on. These people are on a tour! Now I just need to figure out where the tour is going and how much it's going to cost me to join them. I am guided to the back of the bus by the guy who's holding my hand and we take adjacent seats. Seconds later, the man who was talking to me outside of the bus takes the microphone and begins speaking to the group, first in Thai and then he breaks into English and says, “And this is our guest, Chris. He's from Canada.” Everyone claps and says hello to me. Suddenly I'm no longer hesitant to be with this group or on their bus. I smile and wave to all of them. After the man with the mic (Peter) finishes speaking, the bus pulls into traffic and we're off to the next temple. As we drive everyone around me takes turns at asking me questions. They're exceptionally curious and friendly.

My new Thai friends

When the questions finally died down the woman who is sitting across the aisle from me leans over and says, “You have no idea what's going on, do you?” I smile and say, “To be honest with you, I don't have a clue, I just asked for directions!” She explains that I have joined a tour for members of the Computer Science department at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok. The group is celebrating the upcoming New Year and the two year anniversary of their department by visiting ten temples in one day. Their final two stops just happen to be Wat Kanlaya and Wat Arun. She then pulls me in close and quietly explains to me that the guy who is holding my hand has autism, so I shouldn't worry about the deeper implications our hand holding shinanigans.

So, everything makes sense now. I sit back and smile. Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised in life if you simply give people the opportunity to impress you. For the next hour or so I tour Wat Kanlaya and Wat Arun with the incredibly friendly members of Srinakharinwirot University. During our encounter, I exchanged email addresses with many of the group members and have been corresponding with them ever since I returned from vacation.

Buddha under construction at Wat Kanlaya

Wat Arun profile: There is an incredible amount of detail on the building. The apparent gradations in colour come from small tiles that cover most of the outside of the building.

The sun getting ready to set behind Wat Arun.

After seeing Wat Arun I parted ways with the lovely folks from Srinakharinwirot University and headed back to Sukhumvit to round out the day with another suit fitting. My first full day in Bangkok had gone off without a hitch and I had high hopes for the remaining days. And I definately wasn't disappointed...

Life's a Trip: Chapter Six - Island Tour

2007-03-12T02:09:00.001-05:00

December 26, 2006

I wake up at 6:00 am on boxing day and make my way to Starbucks. Starbucks doesn't open until 8:00 am but I want to wish my family a Merry Christmas via iChat and I can get a wireless signal from the Starbucks patio.

It's fantastic and simultaneously surreal to see everyone. On my screen there are images of Christmas evening at home. Beyond the screen there is a fresh morning and warm beach waiting for me. You've got to love technology at times like these.

The view from Starbucks

Before the morning rush

After chatting, I resolve to see a little more of Phuket so I hop on my motorbike and start following the road that leads to the Phrang Thang Cape, the southern tip of the island. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it's a perfect day for a relaxing ride around the island.

Patong from the other side of the bay

I had to take a wrong turn to get this shot...

A little further south at Kata beach

A view of Kata, Karon and Patong from Phrang Thang Cape lookout

On my way back to Patong beach, I see a sign advertising elephant rides and I decide to check it out. Originally my plan was to go elephant trekking in Ayutthaya, a city which acted as the Thai capital from 1350 – 1767. The descriptions of this tour sounded interesting and exotic, but when I made my way to Ayutthaya I discovered that the tour was simply an elephant ride down the main street to a few of the important historical sites. I was really glad that I took the opportunity to go trekking while I was in Phuket! The elephant trekking compound in Phuket certainly met the exotic stereotype that I had envisioned.

Upon arriving at the trek center I am greeted by a man wearing a crocodile skin cowboy hat. Beside him sits an eagle which stares at me menacingly. With my every move it repositions itself, presumably to ensure that it is in a prime position when it decides to peck my eyes out. The man in the cowboy hat offers to show me a live snake show and snake museum but I explain to him that I've already seen many snake shows courtesy of my younger brother and that I'd just like to try elephant trekking today. This piques his interest and leads to a brief discussion about Stephen's snakes. He seems quite satisfied to have met a foreigner with an interest in snakes, or rather a foreigner who has a brother who is interested in snakes and gives me 200 baht off of my elephant ride.

I pay for the ride and moments later I am climbing into a basket on the back of an elephant. As the elephant, trainer and I saunter our way through a variety of steep inclines and declines in the jungle, the trainer sings softly in Thai. This is definitely a well spent 600 baht.

After a short while, the trainer turns to me and realizes that I have been videotaping the ride. He smiles and without warning slides off the side of the elephant's head. On the ground he stretches out his hands and points at my video camera. In response, I point at the video camera and look at him inquisitively. He nods his head and motions for me to pass him the camera. I hesitatingly lean over the edge of the basket and hand him the camera, not entirely sure what to expect. He then walks towards the elephant's head and points at me and then at the elephant's head in succession. I repeat the gesture and he nods to confirm that I have understood him, he wants me to sit on the elephant's head.

Reaction # 1: “Sweet, this is gonna be so cool. AND I'm gonna get it on tape!”
Reaction # 2: “Hmmmm how am I going to get from the back to the head without falling off and paralyzing myself??”

Ever so slowly I stand up, climb out of the basket and make my way to the elephant's head. I sit where the trainer had previously been sitting and try to secure myself in place by putting my legs behind the elephant's ears. The trainer starts the camera and gives a command which sets the elephant in motion. With the first step I almost fall off. I didn't realize that I was sitting directly on the elephant's massive shoulders and that each step meant being heaved from side to side. As I scramble to maintain my balance I notice that there is absolutely nothing to hold on to when you're sitting on an elephant's head. There are no reigns, no steering wheel, no “oh shit” handle...nothing. In contrast, the trainer had made the elephant's head look quite comfortable. He sat there slightly reclined with one knee against his chest while the other leg dangled haphazardly beside the elephant's ear. In retrospect I have to laugh at how spastic I must have looked.

For the next half hour the elephant trainer winds his way through the jungle, sometimes disappearing for minutes at a time before making his location known by hollering out a command to the elephant from somewhere off in the distance. Although I have absolutely no control over the massive beast whose head I'm sitting on, I'm remarkably relaxed. There's nothing to do but enjoy the ride and the experience in general.

I spend the rest of the day on my motorbike and then grab a quick lunch with Katie and Dave before they make their way to the airport to continue on the next leg of their journey.

During the evening I wander up and down the beach. It's occupied by locals and tourists who light paper lanterns to commemorate the two year anniversary of the December 26, 2004 tsunami which hit many parts of Thailand and particularly devastated Phuket.

The night wears on and eventually I make my way back to my hotel, satisfied with another eventful day of vacation.

Life's a Trip: Chapter Five - Christmas in Patong

2007-02-27T01:49:00.000-06:00

December 25, 2006

I wake up and look out the window. It's a sunny day with clear blue skies. A survey of the landscape pulls my attention from the peaks of foliage covered mountains to ocean as it laps at the beach. What a beautiful Christmas day.

I have nothing planned, so I simply relax. I casually make my way to the beach and sit for almost an hour at Starbucks sipping a coffee. As I sit on the beachfront patio, life unfolds around me and I have not a care in the world.

I make my way to the beach and soak up the sun for quite some time before resolving to find myself a bit of adventure. As my thoughts wander, I watch some locals launch a tourist into the air for a short parasailing trip around the bay. It looks like fun. Why not give that a try?

Within five minutes I'm attached to the back of a boat by a long cord and I've got a parachute in tow. As the rope attached to my harness pulls me forward, I take three bounding steps and I'm airbone. For the next five minutes I have a phenomenal view of the bay and the beachfront. It was worth every baht.

Later in the evening Katie, Dave and I get together for Christmas dinner and a night of Thai kickboxing at the Patong Arena. The kickboxing matches start from the youngest and work roughly in age order to the main event, an international match between a local thai boxer and an Australian kickboxer. The matches themselves are not nearly as intense as I had imagined them to be, but they're entertaining nonetheless. FYI: Evan, with a boxing ring and a bottle of whiskey, we could make alot of cash in Phuket.

After the matches finish, Katie, Dave and I make our way back to the beach to watch the locals light huge lanterns on the beach. The lanterns are large cylindrical paper tubes supported by wires. On the bottom side there is a fuel source which, when light, causes the air inside the lantern to become warmer than the ambient temperature, causing the lantern to float away. When a few hundred people are doing this at once, it makes for quite a beautiful sight. I'll leave you with some images of the Christmas Day lantern lighting.

Life's a Trip: Chapter Four - Christmas Eve, Patong Style

2007-02-16T00:48:00.000-06:00

December 24, 2006

The day before Christmas begins as a lazy day on the beach. The weather is beautiful and I have no where else to be. Utter relaxation.

Katie and Dave join me for a few hours of sunbathing before heading back to their hotel for Christmas Eve dinner.

After dinner Katie and I get together for coffee at Starbucks. We seem to both agree that it's surreal to be sipping coffee on a beach in Thailand while random Christmas decorations, act as the sole reminder that it is in fact Christmas Eve. It's completely different from every other holiday season that I've ever experienced.

Katie and I wander the beach for a while after our coffees have depleted and then she returns to her hotel. However, the night is still young for me.

I make my way towards Bangla Road for a drink or two...or three. I had read about Bangla Road while I was trying to figure out what to do on New Year's Eve. However, my travel dates changed and I was no longer going to be in Phuket for New Year's, so I figured that Christmas Eve would be a good substitute night for a visit.

Imagine this. You're walking down a lively street on the beachfront in Phuket. Each restaurant, shop or bar is playing it's own music, so there is an overall ambiance of energetic nightlife. But somewhere off in the distance, you can sense something quite different. It's the combination of music and general chaos. It's presence is dulled by distance but it still somehow intermingles with the sounds of the beachfront. It makes you aware of its presence and it calls you towards it. It's mirage suggests a party of such intensity and magnitude that it promises to be something unlike anything you've seen before. You're attracted to it by the same force that prevents you from averting your eyes when confronted with a horrific car accident.

At first contact your sense are comprehensively assaulted. Music is blaring from each bar that lines the street, yet incredibly you can still discern which song is playing. Neon lights flicker and flash, forming an epileptic gauntlet. The smell of ocean air, perfumes and alcohol mingle to curiously tickle the olfactory and gustatory modes of the palate. Your body is subjected to various forms of stimulation ranging from the bone-shaking bass of dance tunes to the constant ebb and flow of people passing by. It's intensity in it's purest form. You've now entered the world famous Bangla Road area.

The place consists of over 100 bars, ranging from 10 x 10 squares to massive nightclubs. I wander through the area, stopping here and there for a beer. At one of the bars, I'm paying for my drink and my waitress is arguing with me because I've declined to buy her a drink. Just then, a clearly inebriated Australian guy, Andy, steps up to my table, tosses some money down and says, “get yourself a drink and leave him alone.” The waitress happily scoops up the money and skips off to the bar.

Andy then turns to me and says, “I'm going for broke tonight” and laughs before slugging back half a beer. We chat for a bit and I'm informed that he and a few other guys in the area are members of the Australian military. They're on vacation after being on a four month tour of duty in the jungles of Malaysia. Interesting...

After we get through the “whos” and “whys” there is a break in conversation as we both swig at our beers and survey the scene. Suddenly, my new acquaintance sparks to life. He point's to the bar across from us. “Do you see that guy over there?” “Yeah.” “That's my buddy Rayce. He's been hitting on this girl all night, but the funny thing is...she's not a girl. Watch this.”

Before I have a chance to react or reply, he hops up from his seat and walks over to the next bar. He sends Rayce to the bar to get some drinks and then hands the “girl” some cash in his absence. Rayce comes back with the drinks and I watch in disbelief as his escort swiftly pulls him into the night by the collar of his shirt. Andy returns and laughs as he says, “he's gonna be soo pissed when he finds out.” No kidding.

The rest of the evening was spent cruising up and down the sois of Bangla Road drinking, dancing and chatting with people from all over the world. At 5:00 am hunger set in, so I deserted the party grabbed some Pad Thai and made my way back to my hotel. Thus ended my first Christmas Eve on my own...what a trip.

End of the night...

Life's a Trip: Chapter Three - Dancing Through Saturday

2007-02-12T07:54:00.001-06:00

December 23, 2006

“I slept through my alarm. Oh my god I slept through my alarm. I'm gonna miss my flight” These are my waking thoughts on December 23rd. It's nearly 5:00 am. I'm supposed to fly out of Bangkok at 7:00 am and I'm presently sitting in a hotel that's an hour away from the airport. I frantically throw everything into my suitcase without any regard for what's going where. In under two minutes I'm packed and out the door. This is serious.

When I get to the lobby there is a line-up at the reception desk. What the hell is going on!?!?! It's 5:00 am! After a painstaking wait I finally get to the front of the line, take care of my bill and scramble for the front door. I flag down the first taxi I see. No time to negotiate a meter this time.

To the airport.
As fast as you can go.
Money's no object.
Go, go, GO!

Twelve minutes later I arrive at the airport. Yes, an hour long drive turned into a twelve minute drive for a $10 pay raise. This means I might actually make my flight. Awesome. I rush into the terminal and get into the check-in line. However, at this point I realize that I have no idea where my passport is. I open my bags and search for it, dragging my scattered belongings with me as the line slowly edges forward. I'm such a mess.

Moments before I get to the front of the line I find my passport, cram everything back into my bag, zip it, lock it and I'm ready to roll. I stumble up to the Air Asia agent with a forced smile on my face and hand her my passport along with my reservation. She keys my information into the computer. One minute later she's still pounding away at the keyboard. After two minutes she looks concerned. Abruptly, she stops typing, composes the most diplomatic smile that she can manage and says to me, “Sir, your reservation is for next year.”

WHAT!?!?! What the hell does that mean. She hands me the reservation form and points to the date. Sure enough, I've booked my flight for December 23, 2007 not December 23, 2006. I had poured over the details of this trip time after time. I had double and triple checked everything. But I didn't catch this. Unbelievable. So here I am, sitting in Suvarnabhumi Airport at 6:00 am, with no flight, no hotel and no sleep. Just great. Despite an overwhelming sense of agitation and exhaustion, I enter crisis mode. You need to fix this Chris. What are you going to do?

Attempt one: Talk to the Air Asia representatives and see if I can switch to a different flight.
Result: No. They're all booked up.

Attempt two: Talk to all of the other airlines to see if they have any availability.
Result: Nothing.

Attempt three: I must have been delirious because I actually thought that I could make the 900km drive from Bangkok to Phuket on my own, in one day, with only one hour of sleep under my belt. The plan hinged on having access to Starbucks coffee and Redbull. Heart attack, Phuket or bust!
Result: I couldn't find a car rental agency in the airport. Attempts to locate a car rental agency and make a booking online failed.

Attempt four: Try to find VERY last minute flights online.
Result: Partial success. I discover that Thai Airways has some openings, but I can't book anything because you have to book at least 24 hours in advance.

I reschedule the dates of my Air Asia flight from December 23, 2007 to December 24, 2006 as a contingency plan and head for the Thai Airways counter. The woman informs me that there are no openings. This is beginning to look hopeless...I wonder how long it would take to walk to Phuket. But wait! She offers to sell me a standby ticket. You pay for a ticket and if there is an available seat, you hop on the plane. If there are no seats, you get your money back. Maybe it's dementia setting in, but I figure it's worth a shot. I purchase my ticket and the woman working the counter tells me to come back at 11:00. It's presently 7:00 am. I have four hours to kill. What to do?

Step one, hit Starbucks. Start a tab.
Step two, get a one hour massage.
Step three, hit Starbucks again.
That's four hours well spent.

When 11 o'clock rolls around I make my way up to the check-in counter, at which point they herd me into a waiting area for standby passengers. At about 11:30 I get the good news. I'm going to Phuket!

Two hours later I'm stepping into a cab that's destined for Patong beach. Life is good. The drive from the airport to Patong is absolutely beautiful. It begins amidst plains that are filled with palm trees and farm country. The road then winds through a mountain range at steep angles with sharp curves before sloping down the opposite side of the mountain to the beach.

I arrive at my hotel and discover that it's gorgeous. Not only that, the staff are really helpful and friendly! It's gonna be a good week. After I check-in I proceed to the motorbike rental place adjacent to the hotel and rent the sweetest little bike you've ever seen. For the following five days I would challenge the definition of “scooter” on this motorbike. I mean, are you really “scooting” if you're going 80 km/h? I didn't think so.

The first order of business is to get my bearings. I hop on the bike and explore the Patong beachfront. As I'm heading down the main strip, I see the police off to the side of the road ahead of me. This ignites a slight sense of anxiousness. Let me explain why, by way of back story.

When I was planning my trip I had researched car and motorbike rentals. Many sites asserted that rental companies would allow you to rent anything that you wanted, regardless of whether or not you had a license, although "legally" you needed to be in possession of an international drivers permit. Further investigations revealed that the fine for driving without a license was a small fee ranging from $10-$60. This fee was usually set at the “discretion” of the issuing officer. Even though I don't have an international drivers license I figured that I could simply handle the fee if I got pulled over.

When I see the police in front of me, scenes from "Brokedown Palace" roll through the back of my mind as I wonder about the accuracy of reports that I had read. I see the foreigner directly in front of me get pulled over and I'm slightly relieved. They wouldn't pull over two foreigners in a row for no reason, would they? They would. As I approach the checkpoint an officer steps in front of my bike and signals for me to pull over. Keep your cool Chris...

“Do you have a license?”
“Yes”
(This is NOT a lie. I have a license, it's just not valid in the country that I'm presently in. I stand blankly staring at the officer, wondering if he'll ask to see it or if he'll take my word for it.)
“Can I see it?”
(Shit)
“Yeeees”

Now, I had somewhat planned ahead for this occasion. All of my money was in my pocket, meanwhile my license was in the storage compartment in the seat of the bike. I open the compartment and reveal my license along with approximately $2 worth of Thai baht. Not nearly enough to cover a fine. I hand the officer my license and he stares at it intently. After about 30 seconds he looks up at me and says, “Where is it from?” I smile and reply, “Canada.” With that, he hands me my license and says “Ok, you can go.” Sweet. I escaped.

I continue along the street and eventually spot Katie and Dave's hotel. I park the bike and stop in for a visit. It's great to see them. Even though I've only been travelling on my own for three days, it's been a stressful three days filled with various forms of harassment. It will be nice to have some companionship for the next three days.

We head to Starbucks to grab some coffee and talk in brief about the highlights of our trip thus far. Dave then tells me that he and Katie are going to a party tonight with his friend Jamie and invites me to join them. Even though I'm exhausted and I have no idea who Jamie is, I agree to come.

About an hour later, we're packed into Jamie's pickup truck heading towards Phuket city. He's bringing us to an outdoor concert/party, although he doesn't know where the party is. He knows the vicinity where the party SHOULD be, but he's “relying on the energy of the party do draw us in.” This should be an interesting night.

Shockingly, we stumble upon the party with relatively little fuss. It's a large gathering in front of city hall. It's not so much a party, it's more like a festival. We follow Jamie through a crowd of bewildered locals. There are very few foreigners at the festival and we're probably the only one's that don't actually live in Phuket city, so we attract a great deal of attention. After a while Jamie finds his friends and introduces us. His friends are some local guys who are just gearing up to hit the stage as the last act of the evening. However, before they go on, they bring us to the drink table and we all toss back glasses of whiskey on the rocks.

The band goes on and plays a short set. Here's a clip. Watch the kids in front of the stage. Priceless.

After the band finishes the festival organizers begin to clean up, which is our cue to leave. We decide that the night's still young and that we should bar hop around Phuket.

The first place we visit is simply insane. It's wall-to-wall packed, the music is insanely loud and people are having the time of their lives. We stay there for about 45 minutes before moving on to the next bar.

Seeing as the bar is about three blocks away Katie, Dave and I decide to ride Thai style.

The second bar is called Lava. It's got a live band who like to cover the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a hip crowd in their 20's and 30's.

We stick around for a few rounds before moving on to our final destination for the evening. We're cruising along a country road, apparently in the middle of nowhere, when Jamie pulls off the road into a gravel lot in front of a small open concept bar. This is his friend's bar. It comes complete with a Foosball table and a live Christmas tree that was flown into Thailand for the holidays. Amazing.

It is here that we spend the rest of our evening, pounding away at the Foosball table while soaking up the Thai ambiance.

At about 3:00 am we decide to head back to Patong and call it a night. Jamie drops us off at Katie and Dave's hotel, which was a short walk from the place that I'm staying. As I saunter down the street I encounter many locals, who are still awake to peddle their wares and harass tourists. As I'm walking a prostitute of an undecided sex begins to walk alongside me, grabs my arm and won't let go! She smiles at me ominously and asks where my hotel is. Of course I don't tell her. I try to politely express my disinterest and then subsequently struggle to release myself from her persistent grip as the other locals laugh at the hijinks unfolding in front of them. Brutal. When I finally pry myself loose, I head in the opposite direction and take the long way home. What a strange end to an utterly strange day.

Life's a Trip: Chapter Two - City of Angels

2007-01-30T05:50:00.000-06:00

December 22, 2006

I wake up at 8 am despite my recent lack of sleep. I don't want to waste a second of vacation time. There will be time to sleep when I return to the “normal life.”

My plan is to head into Sukhumvit to have two suits made and then spend the rest of the day seeing Bangkok. One of the tailors that I had been in contact with was supposed to send a taxi to bring me to his shop, but the taxi didn't show up. Instead I hail my own cab and make my way to the shop only to discover that it's not open yet.

I figure that I might as well use the time to get a coffee and some breakfast. I'll return to the shop to see if it's open in a little while. The next hour is spent worshipping the glorious god of caffeine at Starbucks.. I return to the tailor and they are still closed, but three foreigners are now standing in front of the shop looking quite confused.

“You guys have an appointment as well?”
“Yeah mate, don't know what's going on. What time was your appointment for?”
“10”
“Same with us...”
“Interesting...they were going to have four fittings at the same time...well, I'm gonna have a look around at some other shops and see what's open...good luck.”
“G'luck to you too mate.”

With that I begin to head down Sukhumvit road in search of a tailor. As I walked down the street I began to experience some Thai hospitality, Bangkok style... A dirty looking man approaches me and says to me, “Where are you from?” Without breaking stride I turn to him and say, “Canada.” Mistake number one. When confronted by a stranger in Thailand there are many diplomatic tactics for evasion. Here are a few of my favourites:

Tactic one: This one is the simplest. Pick a language that the person is not likely to speak or string together some sounds that have absolutely no meaning. Your sidekick will quickly assess that he won't be able to turn your interaction into a transaction and he'll move on the next passer-by.

I often used French to make it through the crowded markets, but once in a while the vendors would understand and reply en francais. At this point I'd have to confess that I simply wasn't interested in buying anything. So be warned, Thai merchants are exceptionally resourceful. They'll do anything, including learning a language, to give themselves an edge on the competition.

Tactic two: Pick a country that no one is likely to know about and do your best to kill the conversation. For instance:

Man on the street: “Where are you from?”
You: “Brunei.”
Man on the street: “Where is that?”
You: “42 degrees latitude and 24 degrees longitude.”

After the last syllable leaves your lips, smile as wide as you can manage, turn your face forward and walk away. Congratulations. You played the game and won, the next ten seconds of your life belong to you now...use them carefully.

Tactic Three: This one actually became my favourite after a little bit of practice. It's not always an easy out, but sometimes it's quicker than the preceding two tactics. It is centered around the Thai smile.

Thai people always smile. It's the staple of con-men and women across the country. They use it as a distraction while they force you to do something that you don't want to do. You can't be a jerk to someone who's smiling right? They're only trying to help, right? Wrong. Tactic three reclaims this powerful expression and uses it to deliver a message.

Let's replay our scenario.

Man on the street: “Where are you from?”
You: “Thailand”

(Insert beaming smile. The type of smile that says, I've heard this a million times before and I'm not interested in any services or products that you are about to try to sell me. The smile should also say, “I'm not going to be rude about this, but if you continue to ask me questions I'll continue to blatantly lie to you so you might as well give up now.”)

Man on the street: (laughing) “No you're not”
You: “Yes I am. I'm from (name a location and smile again).”

(If you know a Thai city, you can name it here. If not you can simply say the name of the city that you're presently in or you can use any city name or random word. The more absurd you are, the quicker your interaction will end.)

Man on the street: “Do you speak Thai?”

(Instead of asking whether you speak Thai, they may just begin speaking in Thai. This is where things get fun because you've now broken them out of their script and things get a little spontaneous.)

From here you control the interaction and the initiator is dragged along for the ride. They may try to escape the conversation, but you can always keep it going. Try following them down the street asking them for more and more personal information.

I thoroughly enjoyed telling one man that I was fluent in Thai because I was born in Thailand and that the language which he was speaking was not Thai. I told him that it sounded Scandinavian. The look on his face was priceless.

I told a different guy that even though I was born and raised in Thailand I couldn't speak Thai because I had an allergic reaction to bamboo chutes when I was six years old and the reaction had destroyed the part of my brain that contains knowledge of the Thai language. I proceeded to tell him that I was tragically forced to learn English, the next most popular language in Thailand. I couldn't even have a conversation with my family because they didn't understand what I was saying. I told him that I had finally made my way into the city where more people spoke English but I had no money because the trip was so long and expensive. I then proceeded to follow him down the street asking for money. Priceless.

Let's return to the conversation with the tuk tuk driver.
“Where are you from?”
“Canada.”
“Toronto or Vancouver?”
So he's heard of Canada before...“Toronto.”

And with that, they have you. Your pace slows to a halt and they see their chance to begin their pitch. “Toronto...hmmm...I've never been there, but I've been to Vancouver about 6 years ago.” Unless every tuk-tuk driver in Bangkok made a pilgrimage to Vancouver six years ago, this is a lie. “Where are you going now?” “I'm just walking down the street doing some shopping.” Mistake number two. Never tell a tuk-tuk driver or other “public servant” what you're doing. Undoubtedly they will offer to “help” you to achieve your objectives until you part ways on less than amicable terms. In this case the tuk-tuk driver offered to take me on a tour of the city, which included stops at a suit wholesaler and a jewel market. I told him that I just wanted to walk around for a while to see the city by foot and that I might be back later in the event that I finished shopping and still had time for a tour. This didn't sit well with him, so he flipped out at me. I just smiled at him and walked away as he hurled insults at me. Welcome to Bangkok.

Bangkok street vendors

Sukhumvit traffic

I walked the streets of Sukhumvit for quite some time before I found the place where I would eventually have two suits made: World Famous Boss Tailors. I spent a great deal of time liesurely selecting fabrics for the suits and shirts, talking with the tailors and drinking beer. What a life I lead!

I took care of all the details at the suit shop and asked Peter, one of the young tailors, to find me a metered cab to the royal palace. Within a few minutes I'm sitting in the back of a cab and the meter is running. I should have known it was too good to be true. As we traverse the rush-hour gridlock my driver turns to me and says,

“You need jewels?”
“No.”
“I know good place. I make you a deal. You go into the shop and look for 15 minutes. They give me a gas ticket for 300 baht. I only charge you 80 baht for ride. Come on man, good for me, good for you. You don't need buy anything.”
“No. If you take me anywhere except directly to the Grand Palace, then I'm not paying you.”
“Come on man. 15 minutes.”
“You know what I'll just find another cab. I don't want to buy jewels.”
“Fine, then get the f*$% out.”

With that he slams the car to a halt in the middle lane of traffic and stares at me until I open the door and get out of the cab. Nice. Bangkok is beginning to test my patience. I stand on the side of the road hailing cab after cab.

“Will you give me a metered fare to the Royal Palace?”
“It's rush hour man, 250 baht.”
“No way man, meter only.”
“No taxi.”

Finally, after about ten minutes of trying a hopeful looking man in a blue cab pulls up.

“Will you give me a metered fare to the Royal Palace?”
“Yes”
“No stops?”
“Hahaha...no stops”

I get in and we pull away. For the next hour and a half Mr. Chen would challenge my perception of taxi-drivers as a social group and redefine my experience of Bangkok.

I tell Mr. Chen about my experience with my previous taxi driver. He laughs and tells me that he often offers various “products and services” to his customers, but assures me that he won't ask me because I'm clearly not interested. He then breaks into the typical taxi driver dialogue, asking me where I come from. I reply and return the gesture, asking if he is originally from Bangkok or if he hails from somewhere else. This is where things started to get interesting.

I discover that Mr. Chen is originally from Burma but he immigrated to Bangkok in order to make more money. His income is modest and his contract states that he is not permitted to leave Bangkok. Not such a great life. I also find out that he was a Buddhist monk for eight years when he was a child and that he still practices mindfulness in daily life, even though he is no longer a monk.

As we talk we reveal the biases of our cultures. I, the opportunist and Mr Chen the fatalist. He perplexes himself over the karmic actions that have brought him to his present circumstances, while I stress the importance of present and future actions as a means for improving our lives. It seems natural for each of us to occupy these mindsets. Mr. Chen leads a tough life. He isn't a bad man, yet bad things happen to him. This makes him wonder why he deserves his life. On the other hand, I've had a great life filled with wonderful circumstances and kind people. I haven't done anything in particular to deserve my life, yet I somehow come out on top.

It's times like these that you stop for a moment and genuinely consider your place in the world. Some search for reason in the randomness, while others simply take things as it comes. It's funny how those who are less fortunate ask the tough “why” questions, while those of us who have the world at our fingertips never stop to ask the questions that would lead us to truly appreciate what we have.

Over the course of our encounter I speak earnestly with Mr. Chen and I feel as though he is doing the same with me. I encourage him to use his english language ability to develop an additional source of income. He has never put much thought into the idea and genuinely doubts his ability. I try to instil confidence in him and offer him my email address so that I can email him teaching materials as a starting point for his new venture.

As we arrive at the Royal Palace, I tell Mr. Chen that it was a pleasure to meet him and he returns the sentiments. I reach for my wallet, prepared to offer him a generous tip, but he stops me and refuses payment altogether. It's quite a gesture on his part. With a beaming smile I wish him the best and shut the door. What a trip.

For the next few hours I wander around the outer grounds of the Royal Palace, which contain Wat Pho. It's absolutely majestic here, however there is a sense of tension. The soaring pagodas and glittering gold are juxtaposed with the pleas of poor merchants and the sales of trinkets. It's difficult to put into words how these worlds could even conceivably co-exist, yet they do.

Grounds of the Royal Palace

Royal Palace outer wall

Monk exodus

Wat Pho pagodas

Golden Buddha

The courtyard

Sundown at Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha

As I explore Wat Pho, I stumble upon a Buddhist ordination ceremony. A number of monks are being honoured as they move from one level of studies to next. I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled into the ordination hall at just the right time.

The sun sets and I grab a taxi back to Sukhumvit in order to have my second fitting at World Famous Boss. Things go very well and I am happy with the progress of the suits.

Following the fitting, I return to my hotel for a bit rest. Half an hour later after arriving I'm back out the door, headed for the Patpong night market. I find a place that serves Strongbow and savour a few as I watch people stream through the market. It's nice to be a static observer for a little while. Bangkok has a habit of constantly making you feel like the center of attention because everyone wants something from you.

I settle the bill and venture into the market. It's crawling with vendors who offer various sorts of wares, but curiously, all the shoe vendors have the same shoes, all of the perfume vendors have the same perfumes and all of the souvenir vendors have the same souvenirs. After a short while of walking you feel like you've seen it all. But then, you reach the end of the street and you're confronted by a new breed of salesperson. These people want you to come into their club to see a live sex show (or “Ping Pong show”). They follow you down the street explaining what you'll see and it's assuredly enough to make you walk a little bit faster.

Eventually exhaustion set in and I looked at my watch to discover that it was close to 3:00 am. I have to be up at 4:00 am to leave for Phuket tomorrow morning. I sense disaster...

Life's a Trip: Chapter One - Departure

2007-01-17T20:40:00.000-06:00

December 21, 2006 5:00 am.

Three alarm clocks go off at the same time. I make my way around my bedroom, sleepily fidgeting with each one until the room falls silent again. After letting my eyes adjust to the pre-dawn morning I sit on the floor and methodically root through two bags that lay on the floor beside my bed. Camera...check, video camera...check, shirts and pants....check...I really hope that I didn't forget anything. I've been through this list a thousand times, but this time it's for real.

I lug everything out the door and lock my apartment. As I lock the door I muse over the fact that no one will enter the place for almost a month. A series of “if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest” scenarios briefly flash into consciousness and fade into absurdity.

I turn towards the street and take a deep breath. As I exhale, the warm air forms a veil of smoke that surrounds me momentarily. This is it. At this moment 27 days of vacation begin. Excitement and anxiety force my body into motion.

It took about two hours by train and 45 minutes by boat to reach my point of departure, Nagoya airport.

(Calm morning waters on the way to Nagoya Airport)

At the airport I found a Starbucks, ordered a coffee and a sandwich and stared into oblivion as I pondered what lay ahead. As my surroundings faded back into awareness. I realized that someone was watching me. Meet Sean Farmer.

Sean is a young woman who has far too much energy, especially after drinking a coffee. We smile at each other, I ask if she'd like some company for lunch and she agrees. As we chit chat, we discover that we're both teachers in Japan, which is not surprising. Over coffee we muse over Japanese culture and the quirks of teaching children. At one point she bursts into the “Hello song” for a Japanese kids who was sitting behind me. The kid was freaked out...so was I. When the cups ran dry we exchanged pleasantries, wished each other a pleasant life and headed in our separate directions.

I checked-in to my flight and proceeded to a different waiting area. These waiting areas would soon become all too familiar. I sat in the same row as a young woman named Natalie, whom I recognized as a JET. I had never spoken to her, so I opted to pass the time by studying Japanese instead of seeing if she remembered me. However, when I pulled out my Japanese textbook, I gave away the fact that I was with JET and she gave away the fact that she didn't remember me, asking if we had met before. This lead to introductions and talk about our experiences in Japan and the world at large. After a few hours of talking it was time to board the plane and make our way to Beijing for a five hour layover before proceeding to Bangkok.

(Flying over the port in Nagoya)

When we landed in Beijing there was a haze over the city. This haze captured the orange glow of the setting sun, causing the world to look like some sort of post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. It made Beijing seem barren and harsh.

(The Beijing Haze)

This initial impression was compounded when I entered the airport to take care of the administrative details for my connection. Not a single person smiled. Everyone seemed quite depressed or generally unhappy. The immigration agent actually threw my passport at me after checking it and the customs agents were equally rude. Despite the fact that I didn't even officially enter China, it secured a position as my least favourite place on the planet.

(The only glimpse of redemption for Beijing)

After a long day of travelling, I arrived in Bangkok at 12:20 am local time, which is 2:20 am Japan time. I was exhausted. By this point I had already spent 21 hours in a boat, train, airplane or airport terminal. It certainly made me think hard about the saying, “it's not the destination, it's the journey that counts.” Not true for the modern traveller.

After an extensive search I found a taxi driver who was willing to give me a metered rate to my hotel in Chinatown. When we got onto the open road he showed me what Thai driving is all about, high speeds, no signals and no regard for lane markers or traffic signals. It's actually quite incredible to watch during rush hour.

arrived at my hotel at about 3:00 am and proceeded to go directly to bed. I laid down and let my imagination relish at the excitement and mystery of the future while my body slipped into sleep.

Through the nose of the Buddha you will achieve enlightenment

2006-12-06T06:30:00.000-06:00

Thursday, November 23rd was Thanksgiving/Labour Day in Japan (...no relation to the North American "Labour Day" or "Thanksgiving" holidays). I had been invited to celebrate the day by taking a trip to Nara, with a man named Hideshi Yamamoto (Hide) and his family.

I met Hide at a welcome party that was put together to celebrate the arrival of new international teachers in the Ise-Shima area. I happened to sit beside Hide and he happened to speak English. What a wonderful coincidence! It was at this time that Hide invited me to go to Nara, a prefecture which acted as the ancient capital of Japan from 710 AD to 784 AD.

On the morning of the 23rd Hide arrived early in the morning with his wife, Chiho, his sister-in-law, Mari, and his nephews Kai and Sei. The ride to Nara took a few hours, so we used the time to become better acquainted as we winded our way through multicoloured mountain ranges. During autumn the mountains are truly majestic. They reveal a history that is hidden by the summer. During the summer everything is green. But autumn distinguishes the deciduous from the coniferous, the evergreen from the flaming orange, red and yellow. It allows you trace an age old history, in which two races of tree coexist in harmony. As one recedes, the other advances. The model civilization...hidden in the mountains of Japan.

When we arrived in Nara we began a six hour walking course that takes visitors to some of the most significant remnants of the ancient capital. First we walked through Nara park, which is full of sacred deer. Adherents of the Shinto religion believed that the deer were the sacred messengers of the gods of Kasuga shrine, which is located in Nara. The descendants of these sacred messengers seamlessly mingle with the town folk of Nara as the citizens have cared for them and afforded them a special status for centuries.

The next stop on our tour was Todaiji Temple. This temple is the largest wooden building in the world. Hopefully you can get an impression of the size from this photo. You can see how colossal the building is in relation to the people standing in front of it.

The temple and Buddha statue were built between 745 and 751 AD. Prior to that time, the people of Japan had suffered many disasters and epidemics. In response to these devastating events, Emperor Shomu enacted a law which held that all people should build a Buddha for their homes in order to protect them and bring them luck. In accordance with this law, Emperor Shomu commissioned 2,180,000 workers to build the 53 foot high Buddha (so the legend goes).

Entering the temple was an overwhelming experience. It was as though you had walked through the massive doors into the distant past, to a time of unparalleled extravagance and grandeur.

The giant Buddha

A golden Buddha flanking the large Buddha statue

Perspective...

What follows is a photo depicting a young girl preparing to squeeze through a small hole one of the support beams in the temple. It is identical in size to the nostril hole on the giant Buddha statue.

Many parents were encouraging their children to wiggle through, as it is said that anyone who can fit through the hole will find enlightenment. As we watched the children push their way through Hide and Chiho convinced me to try as well. I thought, "I'll be a good sport and give everyone a good show." I mean, who doesn't enjoy watching a foreigner make a fool of himself. Plus, Hide and his family had driven me all the way to Nara, at very least I could give them a laugh in return.

As I approached the hole I tried to size it up. I estimated that my shoulders would be too broad, so all that I would simply have to get in as far as my shoulders. Basically I would just stick my head and arms into the hole, prove that I was clearly not suitable for enlightenment and then resign back to my hosts.

By now I should know that plans are most often laid over the foundation of ideal circumstances, while reality is not. I put my head and arms into the hole, at which point my shoulders naturally angled so that they cleared the boundaries of the hole on a diagonal. "Can't turn back now Chris, you're already in." I reached forward and grabbed a hold of the wood on the opposite side of the support beam, pulling myself as far as I could into the hole. Then I ran into an unforeseen problem. I had exhausted all potential handholds and now had no way to pull myself further. My legs were constricted because they were in the hole and there was nothing for me to push off of. I was stuck. In the middle of a Buddhist temple on a busy national holiday, I laid helplessly on my stomach wearing the temple itself as a belt. As I tried to kick my way through, panic set in. Should I admit that I was stuck and ask for help? Or should I continue to flail indefinitely?

At that moment everything faded out of awareness and I focused on the problem at hand. I used my hands to angle my body upwards so that my legs could make contact with the ground and then pushed off. This movement dislodged my body, allowing me to pull myself the rest of the way through. Although I regained my freedom, the jury is still out on the enlightenment part. At least I'm now enlightened enough to avoid small holes in temple support beams!

The remainder of the day was spent walking around the UNESCO heritage sites surrounding Todaiji Temple. Here are some of the sites that we stopped at:

Kai and Sei ringing a bell for good luck at one of the shrines

Fall colours

More fall colours

I didn't realize that this deer stuck its tongue out at me until I looked at the picture later. I guess after you're sacred for a few centuries you don't have to follow social conventions anymore

Life cycle: A tree growing out of a tree

Me in front of the five story pagoda

Rows of Laterns

Hide and Chiho being harassed by the deer

A strange looking tree

The boys eating deer food...

The Mysteries of Bunkasai

2006-12-05T03:51:00.001-06:00

Japanese high schools annually celebrate a festival called "bunkasai." The term literally means culture (bunka) festival (sai). The event itself is a two day extravaganza, but preparations for the event begin months in advance. In fact, the students were already planning for bunkasai when I arrived in Japan in August! Here is a portrait of my bunkasai experience.

My first glimpse of the event came from Katie. Her school in Ise had their festival about a month and a half before the Toba high festival. She told me to expect pandemonium and had pictures to prove that it would be.

As the countdown reached "one month until bunkasai," I was beginning to believe that the Toba festival would be much more placid. There was no insanity. The students practiced their dances after school and I found a few of them making a film, but other than that school life continued as normal.

Two weeks to bunkasai. No insanity. What was Katie talking about?

At one and a half weeks until bunkasai I started to become overtly curious. What was this bunkasai thing? At that point I still didn't even know the English translation. I thought it was just a big party. It was time to conduct some research...

I walked into one of my classes with my co-worker and friend Ken (who happened to be team teaching with me that day) and began to interrogate the students: "Ohayo gozaimasu, good morning." "Good morning," droned the class. "Sooo, today I thought it would be fun if we talked about bunkasai." Their eyes perked when they hear the word bunkasai, but they stared at me suspiciously.

For the next fifty minutes I learned the basic logistics of bunkasai. Every class decorates their homeroom, puts on a performance of some sort and cooks a dish to be sold on the second day of the festival (I bought tickets to each of the class meals and ate for six consecutive hours...Hahahaha!) However, the class' explanation only provided the bare bones of bunkasai. As you can see from the photo below, we concluded that "Bunkasai is shrouded in mystery." Each class keeps everything a secret so that the festival itself is full of surprises...and it was.

At about one week until bunkasai I was walking down the hallway to one of my classes, when I saw something quite strange out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a class, proceeding as usual BUT half of the class was sitting inside of a large wooden structure that had been erected sometime over the previous evening. Mysterious indeed...

The Many Faces of Bunkasai

2006-12-05T03:50:00.015-06:00

After all the waiting and wondering, bunkasai arrived. I could sense the change in atmosphere as I made my way to the school grounds. This may have been due, in part, to the blaring music...but it was also evident in the beaming smiles on my students' faces, a drastic change from the listless expressions that they normally sport.

The event began in the gymnasium. The principal and a few teachers made short introductory speeches and then the student council invited each class to send a representative to the stage to announce what the class would be presenting. The presenters came in two varieties. First, there were the cocky jock guys who presented like they were at the MTV teen awards. They swaggered up on stage waiting to deliver the one line that they had been assigned, but when it was their turn the cockiness dissipated and they rigidly stumbled through the line.

The second type of student was the loner. The kid was never seen talking to anyone in the class. This is the same kid who most likely single handedly put the class project together. They were up on stage to ensure that their class and their hard work was recognized, however, in most instances the crowd was already laughing at them before they even opened their mouths. Awkward. You could pretty much see complexes forming before your eyes.

After each class had been introduced, the festivities began. First was the school choir. They were quite impressive. While they were singing, I decided to move from my seat amongst my fellow teachers, to a seat in the center of the gym amidst the students where I could take better photos. As I sat down, the students stared at me as though I was doing the most absurd thing that they had ever seen. What strange things foreigners do.

The second act of the day was the boys from the English club, Atsushi and Takuro. They did two fantastic Beatles covers. I was especially impressed with Atsushi's rendition of "Let It Be." After the second song the boys peered into the crowd as though they were looking for someone. After a long pause, Atsushi says, "Chris....where is Chris?" Everyone looks towards the section where all of the teachers are sitting, but I'm not there, so I stand and give a wave, not exactly sure about what is going on. As soon as they see me they gesture for me to come on stage.

When I get there we have a little huddle, at which point I ask, "What's going on boys?" They inform me that they would like me to sing "Imagine" with them. There's a bit of a back story to this, so let me take you back to my second time hosting English club.

On this particular day we sat around belting out Beatles tunes like, "Hey Jude," "Let It Be," and "Helter Skelter." In between songs they asked me if I'd sing at bunkasai with them and I had agreed. BUT this was the first and last time that I heard anything about it up until the present moment, in which I found myself standing in front of 500 people who were waiting to find out why I was on stage. Awkward. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to add that I hadn't even HEARD "Imagine" in the past couple of years so I was pretty fuzzy on the lyrics. I mean I could remember some of the chorus, but there was no way that I was going to remember the verses or even what order everything was supposed to go in. However, I refused to let me students down. I had told them that I would do this with them and even if it meant butchering a classic tune, I was going to come through...at least that's what I was hoping for.

I smiled at them and grabbed the mic. As I turned to face the anxious crowd, I casually said to the two boys, "I should probably warn you that I don't really remember all of the lyrics, but let's give this a shot!"

The music starts...

I listen for the first little bit. I'm getting the feel for the song and jump in...

Imagine there's no heaven,
it's easy if you try.
No hell below us,
above us only sky.
Imagine mmhmhmhmm mmhmhm
hmmhmmm mhhm hmhmh mmmmmm

Nice one Chris.

I made it through the whole song with a smile on my face though and I was really glad that I had been invited to take part in the festivities. After the song, both of the boys bowed to me and said "Thank you so much Chris," with beaming smiles on their faces. It was a priceless moment.

Here's a video of the first two songs:

Next to perform was the school band. They did three fabulous songs. Here's a short clip to give you an idea of what they sounded like.

Following the band's performance there was a ten minute break, during which time I was informed that I would be one of the judges for the class singing competition. Sure enough, when they showed me to my seat there was a little namecard on the table in front of it reading "Kurisu" (my name) in Katakana. It was looking like bunkasai was going to be FULL of surprises for me!

The competition was a hodge podge of sorts. Some classes knew all the words to their song, had actions to go along with the singing and utilized some pretty impressive harmonies, while other classes simply read off of lyrics sheets and could barely be heard over the music. Overall I was impressed by the general level of talent that the students displayed, ESPECIALLY because I had never seen any of them practicing their songs!

Following the singing contest a local band called "The O.N.G" played a set. They were pretty good even though I couldn't understand what they were saying. Most importantly, the students LOVED them as you can see from the picture. They were jumping up and down and throwing each other around. I've got to give them credit, they know how to enjoy a rock show!

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Halloween

2006-12-05T03:50:00.013-06:00

The remainder of the day was spent touring the classrooms to admire the products of youthful creativity. Here is a photo tour with some explanations.

Class 3A: Halloween

3A decorated with a Halloween theme. The highlight of the classroom was the gigantic pumpkin that was constructed out of wire and subsequently covered in orange balloons.

Inside the giant pumpkin.

Outside the giant pumpkin.

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Christmas

2006-12-05T03:50:00.011-06:00

Class 3B: Christmas

3B adopted a North American Christmas theme, complete with a chimney for Santa to climb down, a Christmas tree and a Christmas dinner for two.

Waiting for Santa Claus...

Waiting for someone to eat dinner with...

This was the back wall of the classroom, a giant class portrait!

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Tradgedies of War

2006-12-05T03:50:00.009-06:00

Class 3C: The Tragedies of War

In drastic contrast to classes 3A and 3B, class 3C pursued a serious and somber theme, detailing the atrocities of world war II. As Ken and I entered the classroom we were confronted by graphic images of causalities. The 5 girls who were acting as hostesses barely noted our presence in between taking cellphone calls and doing their makeup. The carefully engineered juxtaposition between political concern and youthful apathy was absolutely striking (insert sarcastic face here).

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: The Tottoro Bus

2006-12-05T03:50:00.007-06:00

Class 3D: The Tottoro bus

There is a popular cartoon in Japan called "Tottoro." It's some sort of magical cat...I don't really understand it. Anyhow, the students from 3D constructed a life sized version of the bus from the cartoon, complete with padded seats and a portrait of Tottoro inside. The bus itself was constructed from cardboard boxes and faux fur fabric. It was incredible!

A Tottoro parking job...the rest of the bus is inside the classroom...after a few glasses of sake that cat will park his bus anywhere...

The front of the Tottoro bus...

Inside the Tottoro bus: A self portrait of Tottoro.

Tottoro himself...mischievously sitting beside his bus

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Traditional Japanese Home

2006-12-05T03:50:00.005-06:00

Class 3E: Traditional Japanese Style Home

The aforementioned strange wooden structure that half of the students were seated in (that I saw about a week before bunkasai) was located in 3E. The students had constructed a traditional Japanese style home out of wood and cardboard boxes. They even made indoor shoes out of cardboard boxes!

Ken and one of the 3E students.

Some students lounging in the Japanese style house.

The other side of the house.

Me and two of the students from 3E.

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Jamaica

2006-12-05T03:50:00.003-06:00

Class 2A: Jamaica, Ganja and Darts

As Ken and I approached 2A we could hear Sean Paul blasting from the room. As we entered through the Jamaica curtains we found a bunch of students hanging around, listening to music while playing darts. Hanging in the middle of the classroom was a banner (see picture below) which said the following in English: "DRUGS: The trafficking and consumption of controlled drugs will not (the word "not" is crossed out with red marker) be tolerated, any such instances will (the word "not" is inserted here) be reported to the police." Underneath the message there was a big picture of a pot leaf. I asked Ken if he thought any of the teachers understood what it meant. He laughed and replied, "not a chance, it wouldn't be up if they knew what it meant."

Now entering Jamaica...

Some students enjoying a game of darts while listening to their favourite artist: Sean Paul

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Casino

2006-12-05T03:50:00.001-06:00

Class 2B: Niteclub/Casino

2B was lit by blicklights and the mood was set by pumping music at a volume that rivalled the music in 2A. As people entered the room, the students who were hosting the classroom project called out for them to come over and try their games.

Shoot the bottles down, win a prize...

Fishing for balloons...

My supervisor, Mukumoto sensei, trying to shoot the students instead of the bottles

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Seeing Stars

2006-12-05T03:48:00.005-06:00

Class 2C: Observatory

2C constructed an observatory out of an old sheet, bamboo, glow in the dark stars, a disco ball and a flashlight. It was actually quite ingenious. The students ushered everyone into the observatory and then read a passage about our solar system. Of course I had no idea what was being said, but it was an interesting idea nonetheless.

Here is the entrance to the observatory

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Pet Bottle Model

2006-12-05T03:48:00.003-06:00

Class 2D: Pet Bottle Model

I think the students in 2D were more interested in the theatrical aspect of bunkasai than the decorative aspect. Their idea was pretty simple but it was impressive to see. I'm not sure which building this is supposed to be, but it did resemble the picture that they showed me.

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Cartoons

2006-12-05T03:48:00.001-06:00

Class 2E: Random Cartoon Characters

The title speaks for itself. One student in this class painted the three large paintings, while the rest of the class made some other cartoon related decorations.

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: A-maze-ing

2006-12-05T03:30:00.001-06:00

Class 2F: Maze!

When I saw the students of 2F constructing this maze out of garbage bags. I was under the impression that I was a simple maze. This idea is pretty common for halloween decorating contests at York. But this maze was in a league of its own. When Ken and I entered the maze we decided to take different directions and just shout to each other which direction was correct. After about 30 seconds we were both standing in the same spot that we started at and we were both under the impression that the route we had taken was the wrong route.

This time we decided to stick together and carefully scout out the terrain. We finally discovered a small hole in the garbage bags that lead to a tunnel underneath a table, they had divided the entire classroom into an upper and lower maze by using tables as bridges or tunnels! It was awesome.

Here's a pic of the kids who designed the maze congratulating people as they finished.

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: More Tottoro

2006-12-05T03:27:00.001-06:00

Class 1C: Mystical Tottoro Walk

1C, like class 3D, decided to adopt the Tottoro theme. They also constructed a Tottoro bus and a model of Tottoro himself. Presently the Tottoro model still lives at the back of their classroom. They tell me that their homeroom teacher hides inside of it to spy on them. Haha!

Mukumoto sensei's spy stronghold

Tottoro waiting for the bus

The Tottoro bus version two

The Many Faces of Bunkasai: Gameshow!

2006-12-05T01:11:00.001-06:00

The day ended with a gameshow that was hosted by student council. Competitors came on stage in groups based on grade level and gender. Each group was given two rounds of questions.

Round one consisted of multiple choice travia questions, which included questions about my personal life. Of all the questions about me, only one student got a question wrong. Should I be impressed or scared?

Round two consisted of invasive or embarassing questions for the competitors. Each students had to pull a question out of a mystery box and answer the question in front of the whole group.

The contestants got a score for each round and the top score for each gender/grade level won a prize. The student who won the top prize received the highest points from the audience for his answer to the.e following question: "What is the name of your favourite pornstar?" His response..."I don't know her name because I only like to watch European porn." Day one of bunkasai ended on that note, but day two was just around the corner!

Here's a short clip of the students introducing themselves for the first portion of the gameshow...just to give you a taste of what it was like to be there. The host is asking them to give their names, grade level and hobbies.

Bunkasai Day Two...

2006-12-05T00:18:00.000-06:00

Day two was performance and food day. Basically the whole day consisted of students dressing up in costumes, serving food, singing songs and showing off their dance moves. Here is a picture/video guide to day two:

COSTUMES
For some reason, bunkasai is an excuse for the students to wear crazy outfits. Here are a few of my favourites.

Here we have a bunch of Winnie the Pooh's and some sort of strange chicken boy, albiet a very happy chicken boy.

Sporting the teddy bear, sans hood.

Bunkasai wouldn't be complete without french maids and Playboy bunnies! Here are some of the french maids.

Ladybugs, Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) and another Winnie the Pooh!

Spiderman! To be fair, this isn't a bunkasai costume. This kid carries it around with him everyday. Some days he even wears it to class! The kid on the left is wearing a sash that says "I need love"

Tigerboy...

FOOD
There was a vast assortment of food at bunkasai, ranging from crepes and fried chicken, to soba (noodles) and ikayaki (fried squid). Below is a picture of my ikayaki.

PERFORMANCES
There were many bands and dances on day two of bunkasai. Here are three videos from the performances.

This is a video of a few guys doing an a cappella song. They were really good, but the sound quality on my recording doesn't do them justice.

Here's a video of a group of students doing the "Soran Bushi" a dance derived from a traditional song and dance which comes from the north of Japan in Hokkaido.

Finally, this video shows a dance that some of the guys from Toba High put together. I was blown away! Enjoy!

That's about it for bunkasai! I hope that you enjoyed reading about it and watching it as much as I enjoyed being there!!

"For whatever we lose, ( Like a you or a me), It's always ourselves we find in the sea".

2006-10-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

On Sunday morning my friend Kevin picked me up for a sailing trip. When we got to the yacht club we wandered down to the dock with obscene amounts of food and beer. On the dock we heard the soft echos of some old country song wafting through the air with an accompaniment of lapping waves. We honed in on the music to find our ship and our captain.

My first glance at "Hank" told me that he was going to be an interesting guy. Picture a sixty year old Japanese man sitting in a beat up old lawn chair on his boat, staring at nothing in particular with the hint of a smile on his face. He seems to be enjoying the music, the rocking of the ocean and generally being alive on a Sunday morning. This is Hank.

As Kevin and I approached the boat he noticed our presence. His smile widened and his eyes lost their cloudy contemplative appearance, becoming instantly attentive. He and Kevin began to chirp back and forth in Japanese. Despite my efforts to listen I could only understand one word, "fugu." Sure enough, I wandered towards the bucket that he was pointing at to discover three small poisonous Japanese blowfish (fugu). He seemed equally proud of his catch as I was impressed.

As I climbed on board Kevin said to Hank,"This is Chris," and without thinking I immediately began the "introduction sequence." "Hajimimashite. Watashi wa Kurisu. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu." (This is my first time meeting you. My name is Chris. It's nice to meet you). Both Hank and Kevin laughed as Kevin explained, "Hank speaks English man...why do you think his name's Hank?" Alright, fair enough...I overlooked that detail. "Hi Hank, I'm Chris."
"Nice to meet you, where are you from?"
"Toronto...in Canada."
"Ah, I see...Canadian."

As we chatted some young women got on the boat and made themselves comfortable. They were part of a gospel choir. I still have no idea why they were on the boat with us, but they we very nice so I'm glad they were. After a few quick preparations we headed out on the Pacific. When we got far enough to open the sails, Kevin enlisted me to help him with some of the labour. Pull this to raise the sail. Tie this off. Etc, etc. I loved it. I was glad that I could be of use and it made me want to learn more.

When we began to tack (zig zag back and forth based on the direction of the wind in order to make large turns) I was surprised at the incredible angles that the boat was capable of. I could have sworn at one point that the boat was going to tip. The sail was on about a 30 degree angle to the water and it seemed as though the hull was as far on its side as it could be. However, Kevin and Hank assured me that the boat wouldn't tip, so I tried to simply enjoy the ride. And I did!

After we had finished tacking Hank asked the ladies to sing a song for us as we sailed. They sang "Amazing Grace." It was surreal to be out on the water while these young gospel singers serenaded us. Here's a video. It gives a rough idea what it was like, but during the real thing the wind wasn't so loud or invasive.

Before I knew it we were back at the yacht club. It began to rain just as we pulled up to the dock, so our timing was perfect. We took a few quick pictures with the whole "crew" and then the singers went to the clubhouse to practice their songs and we covered the boat. As we worked I asked Hank what his real name was and why everyone called him Hank. He explained to me that he listened to Hank Williams alot when he was young. Then when he was twenty he travelled to California (which explains the English) and brought his guitar with him. He played for as many people as he could and as often as he could...either Hank Williams or something that sounded like Hank Williams. Alot of the people that he began to encounter knew him as the kid who played Hank Williams, but no one could say his real name. So, after a while he was dubbed Hank and the name had stuck with him ever since.

When everything was in order, we went into the underbelly of another boat to have some food and a few drinks with other members of the club. The club members asked me lots of questions about Canada and about my life and I asked them lots of questions about sailing and where they had travelled. At one point they invited me to crew a ship with them on a race from Japan to Australia. The race takes about a month on the seas to complete but the way back would be longer because they were planning to stop in Fiji or Bora Bora. I would loved to try it...but there's no way that I could take that much time off work. Maybe I'll join them for a trip after my contract is finished or sometime later in my life. For now, I want to visit the club as often as possible so that I can learn to sail! Next month I'm trying to get onto a crew to take part in an overnight race. I'm eager to learn and they're eager to teach.

When Life Gives You Oysters, Make Pearls

2006-10-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

When I found out that I would be living in Toba, I began to research the city's main attractions. One of the first things that I came across was Mikimoto Pearl Island, it's an island in Toba which commemorates the accomplishments of Kokichi Mikimoto. In 1893 Mikimoto, who was a resident of the Toba area, produced the first cultivated pearl in history. Ever since then his name and the town of Toba have been associated with quality in the pearl industry.

I thought it would be great if I could bring my mother back a pearl necklace as a souvenir of my time in Toba. Shortly after settling in to my new surroundings I set to work, trying to discover where I could get a good pearl necklace. At a work party I mentioned that I was looking for a Mikimoto shop, at which point my co-workers informed me that one of the other teachers at our school could get me pearls of the same quality as Mikimoto for a greatly discounted price.

About a week later, I tracked down Uemura sensei. Uemura teaches physical education and coaches the wrestling team. He's a really interesting and down to earth guy. He's a professional wrestler (ranking number 2 in Japan in Greek-style wrestling a few years back) and has travelled the world to compete in competitions. Despite his daunting figure and the violent nature of his hobby, Uemura is one of the kindest persons I have ever met. He's ALWAYS smiling and he tries to the best of his ability to converse in English with me. When I asked him about buying pearls, he told me that his wife's family sold pearl jewelry and that they would give me a great price on Mikimoto quality necklaces. As a point of fact, I discovered that they sell the SAME pearls as Mikimoto. His wife's family and Mikimoto buy their pearls from the same harvester, but Mikimoto jacks up the prices because they are a big name now.

Uemura asked me if I was available to meet with him during exam week so that I could pick something out. My schedule was wide open, so we decided to meet on October 18th. At just before noon on the 18th, Uemura walked into the staff room and asked me if I was okay to leave. As we left the building I was greeted by a charming young Japanese woman, who Uemura introduced as his wife (I couldn't say her name, so unfortunately I can't write it). We all hopped into his car and headed towards Ise to take care of some business. At first conversation was slow because Uemura and his wife don't speak a great deal of English. But after a while we began to chat about our families and the ride seemed to fly by. After entering Ise, Uemura turned to me and said, "we will pick up my wife's older sister," and then promptly pulled over in front of a house and his wife's sister hopped in. She laughed when I said hello and introduced myself in Japanese and then proceeded to introduce herself in English. It seems that Uemura had recruited Mia (his wife's sister) to assist with the language gap. It was a really nice gesture on his part and it definitely made communication a great deal easier.

They treated me to an Italian buffet for lunch. It was kind of funny because it was basically Japanese food with spaghetti. After eating lunch we headed to the family's house. When we arrived I was introduced to Uemura's brother-in-law, the future president of the family business. He immediately placed a white cloth over the living room table, retrieved three boxes of jewelery from his office laid out a series of earrings and necklaces. They were gorgeous. It was obvious that he had taken a great deal of care in selecting the pearls to make his jewelery. There were necklaces of white pearls and black pearls. Among the white pearls there were a variety of different hues. Some were slightly pink or yellow or blue. Some of the necklaces appeared white, but when the light hit them in a certain way it revealed a pattern of pink, blue and yellow. Fascinating!

Uemura explained how to judge the quality of a pearl based on the size, shape, colour and clarity. We then proceeded as a collective to select the best necklace in my price range. After a great deal of scrutinizing I made my selection. Uemura's brother-in-law immediately stood and said something in Japanese, which Uemura translated for me, "It will be about an hour, is that okay?" I had been looking at sample necklaces. Uemura's brother-in-law was now going to specially prepare my necklace while Uemura and the ladies took me sight seeing in Ise. I picked a clasp for the necklace and then left with my hosts.

They took me to a very old neighbourhood adjacent to Ise Jingu. It was fantastic. While we were there we stopped into a Mikimoto shop, where I saw a necklace that was very similar to the one that I had just bought for my mother. It was 90,000 yen more than the one that I bought ($900 CAD). I was blown away. They had necklaces for $17,000 at this particular shop and it wasn't even one of the nicer shops! After leaving Mikimoto, my guides gave me a short history lesson about the area and then they treated me to "mochi" (rice balls with red bean paste on them) and tea. It was nice to have good company and good food while relaxing on the bank of the Isuzu river, especially since I was supposed to be at work! As long as I'm with another teacher the school doesn't seem to care too much about my absence though.

Just before an hour passed, Mia received a call from her brother, who was calling to tell us that the necklace was ready. We finished our teas and headed back to the house. I was ecstatic to see the necklace and I was endlessly pleased when I did. It is truly beautiful. After thanking everyone for their kindness, Uemura, his wife and I got back into the car and began to drive back to Toba. I was pretty quiet because I was still overwhelmed by the hospitality that Uemura and his family had shown me.

About half-way back to Toba, Uemura pulled the car off to the side of the road and turned to look at me with a beaming smile. I had no idea what was happening or what he was doing. "Chris..." he paused as his wife handed him a small blue bag, "my wife's father would like you to have this." He then handed me the bag and watched in anticipation with his wife. Inside was a jewelery box, which I carefully opened to reveal a silver tie-clip with a pearl encrusted on it. I didn't know what to do or say, but I think that my indelible smile and profuse attempts at words of thanks in English and Japanese expressed how truly appreciative I was.

My tie-clip

My mother's necklace

If you're interested in buying pearls, or you know someone who is, please let me know and I'll facilitate for you! It would be great to offer the great prices that Uemura offered to me, to my family and friends.

Osaka: Modern Maze Minus the Minotaur

2006-10-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

The weekend of the 16th and 17th was a long weekend because the 18th was a national holiday...“Respect for the Elders” day. In light of the long weekend Katie and I planned a trip to Osaka, which is about 2 ½ hours away by trian. After I finished teaching my Saturday morning class, we hopped on a train bound for Osaka and in a matter of hours we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the bustling metropolitan. It was quite different from little old Toba. The streets were flooded with restaurants, neon lights, shops, hotels, and tonnes of people!

The station that Katie and I stopped at had about 80 exits...seriously...so we guessed which one was the right one based on the map that I had printed out and headed in the direction that the hotel “should” have been in (I write “should” because I was assuming that my map bore some relation to reality...but it didn't). After wandering for a while, we stopped to ask for directions. The phenomenal part about Japan is that even when you put your ego aside and ask for directions...from a person who speaks english...and shows you a map...you still have to make checkpoint stops to make sure that your're still heading in the right direction. Our first set of directions ended up getting us lost because the new map that we were given did not have some of the streets printed on it AND the ones that were on it weren't labelled. The map showed the street that we were on and then were were supposed to turn left at the NEXT street north of where we were. However, in REALITY there were three streets before the one that we were supposed to turn at...they just decided not to put them on the map for some odd reason. I speculate that the lack geographical accuracy is REALLY why Osaka is such a big city. People can find the city, but once they're in they get lost. Then they ask directions from other people who are stuck in Osaka because they're lost too...it's a gigantic urban labyrinthe.

When we finally found our hotel we ditched our luggage and headed out to explore the city. We began with Dotombori street, which is famous for it's many restaurants and wide variety of entertainment establishments (anything from nightclubs to strip clubs, arcades, movie theatres, live shows, etc., all on one street).

We had dinner at a great okinamiyaki restaurant. We were seated at the okinamiyaki bar, so our food was prepared for us, unlike most okinamiyaki restaurants where you prepared the food for yourself on a grill that is built into your table. Here's a short clip of our okinamiyaki being made.

After dinner we wandered through the arcades and gift shops in search of entertainment and souveniers. At one point we ended up in the SEGA Joypolis, where we did “purintu club” or something like that. I think it's supposed to be a translation of “print club.” Basically you go into a photo booth and have your picture taken in front of various digitally imposed backgrounds. After you've selected which poses you would like to use, you enter another room and use a photo editing program to add captions, or objects to the scene. “Purintu Club” is phenomenally popular in Japan. We walked through another SEGA arcade later in the trip and there were huge lineups for the print club booths.

Before heading back to the hotel we stumbled across a department store with a ferris wheel (of sorts) on top of it and decided to give it a try. The ride gave an incredible view of the city, check out the video below!

The next morning we had an awesome buffet breakfast at the hotel and then packed up all of our things and grabbed some Starbucks while we planned out our day.

The plan was to find our second hotel, visit the Osaka zoo, go to the Osaka aquarium and then come back to Dotombori street around dinnertime. Note...that was the PLAN. Instead, we walked for about an hour in search of the second hotel. Then when we got to the hotel and attempted to check-in we were informed that we were at the wrong Dormy Inn. The Dormy Inn that we had reserved at was about two blocks away from the hotel that we had just checked out from. Greeeeeeeeaaaat. So we headed back towards the original hotel with detailed directions from the hotel clerk. This meant that we only had to stop three times to ask for directions. It turned out that he had actually given us wrong directions...basically at this point we realized that we would have to ask for directions every block or so. I'm presently planning to revolutionize Japanese tourism by “inventing” street signs and maps with all the streets on them. My gift from the west.

After finally arriving at our second hotel, we dropped off our bags and decided to cancel our visit to the zoo and head straight to the aquarium. Aside from being packed tighter than a can of sardines, the Osaka aquarium was really cool. I was really impressed by some of the larger tanks that they had in the aquarium, especially the tank with the whale shark and the giant rays. Here are some pictures and a video from the aquarium.

The tunnel entrance to the aquarium

A few photos from the largest tank at the aquarium. It housed many species of fish, giant rays and a whale shark.

Here are a few pics of Katie and I posing with some Osaka Aquarium celebrities:

The sea turtle tank, one of my favourites.

The fish in action!

Next to the aquarium is the Tempozan Giant (Ferris) Wheel. It's the largest ferris wheel in the world. Katie and I decided to take a ride and despite the poor weather (rain) the view of the city and the world's longest suspension bridge was quite impressive.

After riding the ferris wheel we decided to go back to the hotel to put our bags away and change our clothes for dinner. Once again we got lost. I'm not even kidding. It's that confusing. We got off at the SAME station that we had departed from when we were heading to the aquarium but we took a different exit and ended up getting lost. I think both Katie and I were pretty fed up at that point. No one likes to spend their whole vacation looking for where they want to go rather than being where they want to be.

After two different sets of directions we found our hotel and quickly changed for dinner. We headed back to Dotombori street in search of an interesting restaurant/bar to eat at. Careful debate led us to choose “Dusk” a hip little hole in the wall bar in a basement on Dotombori. It was a great choice. The server's English was really good, he was really friendly and the bar itself was really interesting.

We ordered dinner and drinks on the server's recommendations; beer and seafood linguine for me, Umesho and Mediterranean pizza for Katie. After dinner and a few more rounds, we decided to spice things up a little bit. We ordered the house special. We really had no idea what we were in for because...well...we don't read Japanese. The server rushed off to the other side of the bar where he took out about a dozen ingredients and tools. There were martini shakers, fruits, ice, knives, a slew of different liquers, milk, etc. After about 5 minutes of labour two white coloured drinks sat in brandy snifters on the opposite end of the bar from us. Then something strange happened. Instead of bringing us our drinks, the bartender simply walked away. In fact, he left the bar altogether. Every additional minute of his absence made me wonder what was going on and why he wouldn't just bring us our drinks. As Katie and I waited, we chatted and soaked in the bar's trendy decor. As my gaze returned to the drinks I noticed that the bartender had returned. He was doing something out of view underneath the bar ledge directly in front of our drinks. I watched for a while, trying to figure out what was going on, but then I resolved to just forget about the drinks until he decided that it was an appropriate time to deliver them.

The drinks arrived mid-conversation. They were amazing. It was like alcoholic art in both aesthetic and taste. Katie's drink came with a pink glow in the dark ice cube, freshly cut flowers, and fresh fruits carved into the shape of flowers. Mine came with a blue glow in the dark ice cube, freshly cut flowers and fresh fruits. Have a look at these masterpieces, they tasted as good as they look!

Once the drinks were no more, we settled up and headed back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped at a convenience store where I picked up three more drinks. I worked on one while we walked and I kept the reserves in my back pockets...

Back at the hotel I finished my drinks and then Katie and I decided to head to the onsen. As I've mentioned before, an onsen is a public bath that is divided into men's and women's baths. In the typical onsen there is a shower area and a shared hot bath (hot tub). However, in this particular onsen there was also a sauna! It was incredibly relaxing to rinse off, have a hot tub, a sauna and then a cool rinse....heavenly. If you ever get the chance to try it, do it! Katie and I met outside the onsen after we had both finished and decided to try out the massage chairs that were located near the onsen. Best idea ever. I was already relaxed and the massage chair relaxed me further. I went to bed feeling completely and utterly relaxed. The tension from the hours of being lost in Osaka had simply melted away and I slept peacefully.

The following morning we packed our things and left them at the hotel desk, while we walked got breakfast and some Starbucks. Over breakfast we decided that we would head to a place called HEP 5, a five story shopping complex aimed at the mid-twenties demographic. It was a pretty cool place. Upon entering, shoppers are confronted by two lifesize whale models that are suspended from the ceiling. One is an infant whale and the other is an adult. Both were red, and matched with the outer decor of the building. Past the whales was a shopping mecca that sucked at the souls and wallets of all those who entered. Katie and I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the shopping complex, but neither of us found what we were looking for. It was a fun afternoon all the same though.

After we departed from the mall we collected our things from the hotel and hopped on a train bound for Toba. The weekend was over and it was time to head back to the world of routine and responsibility.

So Much To Do...So Little Time

2006-09-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

I spent Monday and Tuesday teaching at an English camp that was hosted by Katie's school in Ise. They put us up in a hotel in Meotoiwa, which is technically part of Ise, but it lies between Toba and the downtown area of Ise where Katie and Pam live. I really like teaching at English camps. It takes the kids out of the school environment and causes them to open up a little more. It's also a great way to see Japan and get paid without going into the office. On Monday night all of the teachers and the students went to the ocean front for fireworks. When I heard that there were going to be fireworks, I figured that one or two of the teachers would take care of the firework show and the other teachers would sit with the students and watch.

Wrong-o...when we had picked an appropriate place on the boardwalk, the teachers tossed five bags of fireworks into the middle of the group of students, handed out some lighters and then took a few steps back to watch the show. All the of JETs stood watching in disbelief...and then we stepped back to avoid being blown to bits. I was geniunely surprised by what happened during the firework display. The students were cautious, courteous and cleaned up every last bit of firework casing. After about 45 minutes of explosions we left the beach the exact same way that we found it. Incredible... Here are some of the students lighting up the boardwalk...

A portion of the arsenal...

Check out the video on YouTube...I think it captures the events a little more accurately.

After the fireworks were done, everyone headed to bed. However, Tom (a fellow JET) and I decided to walk to the Meotoiwa Married Rocks. The married rocks are a place of worship for members of the Shinto religion. They're also a fairly large tourist attaction. I asked about the history of the rocks, but those questions tend to be fruitless in Japan. I was told that the rocks had been found tied together over 2000 years ago and that they have been ceremonially retied using new ropes twice a year, every year since then.

When I asked WHY the rocks were tied together, I got a series of blank stares...some people even laughed at the question. People just don't ask those sorts of questions here. For most people that I've talked to, the thought never even crossed their mind. Those are the married rocks, they're tied together because that's what makes them the married rocks...and they're married because they're tied together. The philosoper in me dies a little each time I ask a “why” question in Japan. When I asked my supervisor about the rocks, I tried to clarify my question by making it situational. I said to her, “okay, imagine that you're walking down the beach and you see two rocks near each other about 15 feet off the shore...what compels you to jump in the water and tie them together with a huge rope??” She laughed at me and replied, “you ask too many questions for Japan. In Japan we have a saying that means 'that is the way things are.'” So, that's ultimately the answer I received...they're tied together because they are...that's it. Regardless of the “whys,” the rocks are very picturesque. I got some great shots of them during the evening and then woke up at 6:00 am to get some morning shots of them before the camp started on Tuesday morning at 7:00.

Married rocks at night...

Married rocks in the morning...

After the camp ended, I headed back to Toba and spent the rest of the evening hiking the mountains of Toba and Asama. Here are some of pictures from my hike...I'll also post some videos on YouTube. It is incredibly peaceful in the mountains...the pictures don't even do it justice.

The next few days were spent at school. At the time my schedule was pretty empty so I studied Japanese and got to know some of the teachers and students from my school. On Thursday I had to make a speech in front of all of the students and teachers. As I entered the gym with my speech in hand, I realized that I hadn't read it over for about a week. That might not have been such a problem if the speech was in English...but I was supposed to be speaking in Japanese. I quickly pulled the speech out of my pocket and began to rehearse. At this point I realized that I KNEW the words...but I couldn't SAY some of the words. My hands started to shake as they called me to the podium on the stage. So there I am. Standing alone on a stage in front of 500 students. Before I begin, I take a look around the gym at the adolescent faces that are studying me in return. Most of the students have an inquisitive smile on their faces...this is good...they're not going to lynch me yet. Okay.....let's go.

Ohayo gozaimasu
(Good morning)....
(Scattered laughter ripples accross the gym)
(I laugh and pause...am I doing okay so far?)
Mina san hajimemashite
(How is everyone today?)
Watashi wa Kurisu Janca desu
(My name is Chris Janca)
But you can call me Chris...okkkkkkk
(No reaction whatsoever)
Watashi wa Eigo no kyoshi desu
(I am an English teacher)
Kanada no Toronto kara kimashita
(I come from Toronto in Canada)
Nihon wa hajimete desu
(It is my first time in Japan)
Ima watashi wa Nihon-go no benkyou o...(there's something about saying “shit” in front of 500 people that just doesn't seem right...so I stutter) shit...shitei...shiteimasu
(I am learning Japanese)
Nihon-go ni narerumade (couldn't pronounce this word...so I said it really quickly...) yukkuri hanashite kudasai.
(Please speak to me slowly in Japanese)
Eigo demo itsudemo ha-na-shi-ka-ke-te (the kids love it when I talk syllable by syllable)...kudasaine
(Please try to speak English with me).
Mina san to issho ni oshigoto ga dekiru koto o koei (THREE VOWELS IN A ROW?!?!? What am I supposed to do with this??)...ni omoimasu. Oku no katagata to oshiriai ni nareru koto o tanoshimi ni shite orimasu. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu
(I am proud to be working with you and I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can. I hope that our relationship will be a happy one).

When I finished speaking all the kids clapped for me. I was shocked. When the other teachers spoke, the students merely scowled...but for me they clapped. It definately made me feel a little more comfortable at Toba Highschool. After that speech, everytime I see a student, either at school or on the street, they shout out, “Clis, Clis, Clis” (which is how they say my name) and wave to me. It's a great feeling to walk down the street in a foreign country and to have people recognize you and say hello. It's not just the students either. Sometimes random people will just stare at me as though they are looking at an alien and then when I look them in the eyes and smile, you see the wheels turning very quickly...a smile creeps across there face...and then they say, “hellllo” very quickly and bashfully. It's a truly charming experience.

Friday was my first day of classes. Most people think of Japanese students as obedient and motivated students who silently soak up information as you present it to them. In my experience, this is not the case...not even close (but keep in mind, this is only a reflection of the school that I work at...I have no idea what other schools are like). Before I started teaching classes the teachers had warned me that the students don't speak very much English, they're shy and some of them will sleep during my class. I had my doubts...it couldn't be THAT bad right?...right? Wrong. It could be...and it was.

When I walked in with the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) the students didn't even notice that we had entered the room. While Okuyama sensei got the class' attention I handed out the worksheet for my presentation. Some of the students were ALREADY asleep on their desks, so I had to put the worksheet on their heads. When I began my introduction the students simply conversed as though I wasn't there. So I stopped and waited until they were finished. At first they didn't notice...but the JTE did. His eyes bugged out of his head with every second of silence. He stared at me with a look that said, “What ARE you doing?!?!” Eventually, most likely out of sheer curiosity, the classroom quieted down. Then for about 10 glorious minutes I had their attention...but that ended when I asked the students where they had travelled to. When they didn't volunteer an answer I chose one of them. I pointed at a young girl in the front, left of the class. She froze...absolutely petrified that she had to use English. I tried to encourage her...but while my attention was on her, the rest of the class grew unruly...and stayed that way for the remainder of the class.

Over the course of the following week and a half I have taught many more times, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes the students are interested in what I'm saying, other times they sleep or just converse amongst themselves while I'm talking. However, in the past week or so I feel as though I have made a breakthrough with the students. My predecessor, Mark, left me some very valuable advice: the key to teaching is motivation. Exceptionally true. At first I was simply a stranger who didn't speak the same language as the students. They needed to put great effort into understanding what I was saying and responding. Now, I have met numerous students through practicing with the baseball team, working out with the baseball team, talking to students in the hall, etc. I try to show them that I am interested in THEM and they respond by showing an interest in me...and English.

The other day I was walking to class and as I walked down the hall students tried to coax me into their classrooms (while their classes were going on) by yelling "Clis! Clis! Clis!" and waving. They do this with such genuiness that it's hard not to walk down the halls with a beaming smile. I have come to love my job because of the kindness and friendliness of all of the students and teachers that I work with.

On Thursday night, one of my co-workers arranged to stop by my apartment to help me figure out how to upload music onto my cellphone. I'm sure I've mentioned him before. His name is Kenichi, or Ken, he's a year older than me, sits next to me at school and pretty much translates everything for me. Without his help, my stay would have been much more difficult up to this point. When I arrived home after school on Thursday, I realized that something in my apartment smelled pretty bad...I had forgotten to take out my food garbage. I ran it outside and then sprayed my apartment with a women's bodyspray that had been left in my apartment. I know...it sounds weird...but I found the stuff on the shelf...I have no use for it, but it smelled pretty good, so I decided to use it as a room spray.

Anyways, seconds after I had coated my apartment in women's bodyspray Ken rang my doorbell. He stood in the doorway and said to me, “I came with a few friends and we are going to go for dinner after...can we come in...and do you want to join us for dinner.” I promptly invited them in and told him that I would love to grab some dinner. So Ken runs back to the car and gets his two friends...who turn out to be two teachers from my school. In fact, one of them is the fencing instructor who I speculate is trying to kill me. His name is Onokota. The other teacher, Nakaou, is a math teacher. Just great...I feel like I'm going to be the butt end of every joke at school now...

After we discover that it's impossible to figure out the cellphone upload program, we call up another teacher and head for kappa sushi (which is sushi that goes around a long island/median on a conveyor belt...when you see something you want, you grab it! It's really cheap...about a dollar a plate). I had a blast! It was nice to socialize with Japanese people. When I needed a translation, Ken was more than willing to explain to me what had happened, but for the most part I simply listened and tried to understand what was going on. They also made me try everything under the sun...including natto, which is slimy rotted soybeans. Check out the pictures! (They're actually from my second natto experience, but they give you an idea of what it's like).

Of course, I ate EVERYTHING they put in front of me. It was a really comfortable environment for learning because the guys are really casual, so I didn't feel the pressure of strict Japanese eating and socializing etiquette. Altogether we at over 70 plates of sushi with two pieces of sushi on each plate. We also had a bowl of soup each AND desert. It was the first time in my life that I was completely full on sushi. It would have only cost me $10 but they covered my bill since it was the first time that I had eaten kappa sushi. We kicked around the restaurant for a little while after we had eaten, discussing plans for Friday night and resolved that we should get together for drinks at my place.

When Friday night rolled around, I stopped by the store to pick up a few snack foods and some booze. Pam and Katie arrived at about 8:00 and Ken, Nakau and Onokota arrived seconds after. Ken, Nakau and Onokota brought about six bottles of sake and a wide variety of Japanese foods. We spent the evening chatting, playing drinking games (which were utterly hilarious) and eating chips with chopsticks. Hahahaa

On Saturday, I wandered around Toba for a while before heading to Ise to have some pizza with Pam and Katie. As I wandered I came across a Buddhist shrine and cemetary. I took some photographs in an attempt to show everyone back home how picturesque my new hometown is.

On Sunday Katie, Pam and I went to the visitor centre on the Shima Akasaki Skyline (a private road that connects Ise and Toba). I love spending my time in the mountains...and of course I photographed pretty much everything so that you can get an idea of what it is like!

Below is a landscape shot of Ise (where Katie and Pam live) and a shot of Katie and Pam in front of Ise.

Katie in front of the Shima Skyline and the nature trail winding through the visitor centre.

Katie and I posing with the guardians of the temple...obviously they aren't doing a good enough job because they didn't keep us out!

Below is a huge bell that was located at the Buddhist temple.

Here is an absurdly constructed bridge that crosses a pond at the Buddhist monastary (no way you could walk across it), and a dragon fountain.

The temple had many beautiful statues. Below is the Buddha riding a bull (brush up on your Buddhist philosophy or check out this link for an explanation: http://www.exeas.org/resources/oxherding.html#intro). I have no idea what the relevance of the tiger statue is.

A tree full of wishes and the Buddhist temple on the Asama mountain range.

Ise Jingu and the Mirror of Mystery

2006-09-07T01:03:00.000-05:00

Sunday, August 27

On Sunday, we decided to visit the main attraction in Ise...the Ise Grand Shrine. Also known as Ise Jingu. The shrine actually consists of two parts, Naiku, the inner shrine (which we visited) and Geku, the outer shrine. At Naiku the main shrine is rebuilt every 20 years out of new materials. It is an exceptionally fascinating tradition that has been carried out for the past 1,300 years! They build the shrine on an alternate site beside the old one, purify everything, move everything from one shrine to the other and then deconstruct the old shrine, using its parts to maintain other shinto shrines. If you're interested in reading up on Ise Jingu you should check out: http://www.isejingu.or.jp/english/index.htm

At the entrance of the site there is a large tori, pictured below. It's hard to describe, but passing through the tori and crossing over the pure waters of the Isuzu River instantly calms you.

Here is the entrance to the Naiku site of Ise Jingu.

The calm holy waters of the Isuzu River.

Visiting Ise Jingu is a process of sorts. It's not simply a tourist attraction. Visitors and Shinto worshippers alike take part in rituals along the route to the main shrine. First, visitors cleanse themselves at small pools of pure water. First you wash your left hand, then your right hand, then your left hand once more. I'm not too sure why. Everytime that I ask a Japanese person a question like this, they look at me as though I'm insane and reply, "that is the way it is." I am slowly learning to moderate my Western inquisitiveness. In Japan there is often no reason or explanation aside from tradition.

Next, visitors stop at the bank of the Isuzu River to wash their feet. As far as I know there is no real process here. I watched as we sat on the river bank and it appeared to me that people would simply sit down by the river, talk quietly with one another for a little while and then they would continue on to the shrine. Perhaps stopping by the river does more for cleansing and relaxing the mind than it does for the body. Here's Katie soaking her feet while I photographed pretty much everything around me...

After a short walk through the sacred forests of Jingu we arrived at the Ise Grand Shrine. It's quite peaceful and mysterious. After the point depicted below cameras are not allowed...so unfortunately I could not take you with me.

Just beyond the tori there is a small area for prayer and just to the left is an area where visitors can speak with Shinto monks. The monk who was sitting in the small house was clothed in full ceremonial garb, he was perhaps the most peaceful looking person I have ever seen. It made me wish that I could speak Japanese, I would have loved to ask him about his experiences and beliefs. Instead, I merely smiled and bowed to him...maybe when my Japanese gets better I will return to the shrine and speak with some of the monks. To the right of the small house there was a path that led to the shrine itself. Only the Imperial family and the Prime Minister of Japan are permitted past this point. The Emperor and his wife are the only people in Japan who are actually permitted inside of Ise Jingu...the Prime Minister is only permitted as far as the entrance gate to the shrine. A tall fence surrounds the shrine, so visitors can only see the golden buttresses of the shrine's roof. Here is a photo of the shrine's roof, courtesy of the Ise Jingu website.

While we were admiring the (limited) sight of the shrine and the revent atmosphere a security guard approached us and began telling us about the shrine. (Random side story - The guard's name was Kuni. He spoke Enlgish because he spent a year studying in Winnipeg?!?!? The week following our meeting Pam, Katie and I had dinner with him and a bunch of his friends) Apparently Ise Jingu houses one of Japan's national treasures, a sacred mirror (Yata-no-Kagami), which was a gift from the sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami. The mirror is inside of a box and no one is permitted to open the box...who knows, maybe there isn't even a mirror inside of the box...for all that anyone knows there are a few rocks for weight and an IOU for "one sacred mirror." But, the Japanese people have very deep faith and an affection for mystery, so all that truly matters is the history and tradition of Ise Jingu. Maybe one day I will learn to censor my inquisitiveness so that I can appreciate some of the lesser understood phenomena of life...but that day appears to be a long way off. For now I can merely scratch my head and respect the beliefs and cultures of other people.

Good People, Good Food, Good Rhythm

2006-08-31T00:02:00.000-05:00

August 26, 2006

On Saturday night Katie, Pam, Tom, Kristine, Marsha and I decided to go out for dinner and drinks. Katie, Pam and I left from their place via bicycle to meet up with the others at Iseshi station. On the ride Katie turns to me and sarcastically says, "check it out, my bike shakes like there are bumps even when there are no bumps...sweet." We're pretty much at the station, but I switch her bikes to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself and to try to figure out what the problem is. By the time we get to the station I have it figured out. The front tire is flat. Awesome. AND it's totally my fault. I was supposed to fill the tire for Katie and Pam, but I had forgotten about it...and now I had to fix it.

While we were waiting around for the rest of the group to arrive Pam asked a cabby where the closest place with an air pump was. He gave her directions to a bike shop a few blocks away, but warned her that it was going to close very soon. Pam relayed the directions to me and I headed off while the rest of the group went to the restaurant to make a reservation. Let me just pause for a second to tell you something about taking directions in Japan. You can never be sure if you're following the directions properly, if you even remember all of them...correctly. It turns out that I was going the right way, but I was thrown off by the fact that one of the directions was "turn right at the barber shop and go down the small street." Problem number one. There are three barber shops on the street that I'm on. Problem number two. The Japanese are very liberal with using the words "street" and "road." I was staring down what looked like an ALLEY at best. But it was close to a barber shop, so I figured I would give it a try. I head down the alley a little way and reach a crossroad. I stop and survey my surroundings while I try to figure out what to do next. Picture this, you're standing in an alley, there are small entrance ways here and there. They look as though they lead to apartments, but it's slightly hard to believe because you're standing in an alley. As I marvel, a guy who is about my age comes along on his bike. I stop him to try to ask for directions to the bike shop. "Sumimasen (excuse me)...uhhhhh...can you tell me where to find...uhhhh...bike shopo?" (Sometimes you can get lucky asking for things by just tacking a vowel into the english word...it's not a typo). He looks at me blankly and then launches into a Japanese. Now it's my turn to stare blankly. I try to think of all of the Japanese that I know...but the most appropriate phrase that comes to mind is, "Nihon-go wakarimasen" (I don't understand Japanese). He nods. Then we both stand there, looking at each other shiftily trying to figure out how we are going to bridge the communication gap. Silence. It's an interesting silence though. He can see that I need his help and I can see that he wants to help, but both of us are in the same akward situation...we use different noises to signify what we mean when we communicate with other people...his sounds are different from mine and mine are different from his. That is the impediment that we're both standing in an alley trying to confront. Both of us are perfectly able to communicate...just not with each other. After a solid 20 seconds of silence I lean down and squeeze the tire and smile. He sees me do this and he understands. My tire is flat and I need a pump. Here's the funny part. He looks up at a sign and then looks at the garage door we were standing in front of. I look up to see what he was looking at and I see a picture of a bike on the sign. We were standing in front of the shop...I HAD followed the directions. Incredible. However, the shop was closed so I was out of luck...or so I thought. The guy walks up to the garage and tries to open it. I stand there wondering if he is affiliated with the bike shop in any way...but he gives up after he discovers that the door is locked and I conclude that he isn't. He turns to me and says something in Japanese. I sit there wishing that I had learned the Japanese equivalent to, "nevermind...but thanks for your help anyways." As I try to figure out how I'm going to tell him that I'll just walk the bike home, he walks by me and knocks on a door. No answer. Then he calls into an open window, "konbanwa...." (good evening). A million questions flow through my head. Is this his neighborhood? Does he know these people? Is someone really going this far out of their way to help me with a flat bike tire?

After he gets no answer he turns back to me. Again we stand the quietly. What to do? I'm standing there thinking, "this guy has gone above and beyond what I would expect from someone...I'll just fix the tire some other time and let him go on his way...I feel bad that I've taken up this much of his time." At this point, another guy comes walking down the alley. He's about 50 and he's rocking out to his ipod while he takes an evening walk. The young guy approaches him and explains what that I need a bike pump. He looks at me and smiles. He then motions for me to follow him. The three of us walk a short way to another bike shop. It closed, but there's a woman inside so the older guy knocks on the window and asks to borrow a pump. She won't open the door and she turns the light off. I don't really blame her. I mean there are three guys knocking on her window during the night to borrow a bike pump...not a common occurence. The older guy and the younger guy have a brief conversation in Japanese...periodically glancing at me and then the older guy says, "please come" and begins waking again. I'm bewildered. He speaks english? How far are they going to go to pump my tire?? While we walk the older guy says to me, "where...from?" I reply, "Toronto...Ca-na-da." He smiles and says, "ahhhh...sooo sooo...Ka-na-da." It might not seem like much of a conversation...but for him and I that was a great little conversation. After about 5 minutes of walking we stop in front of a small house. The older guy disappears inside and returns with a bike pump...he brought me to his HOME to fill my tire. We fill the tire and he sends me on my way with the younger guy. Despite the language barrier, I try my best to convey my sincere gratitude. The young guy leads me back to the road that I came from and I head back to the train station to see if I can find everyone again.

When I arrive at Iseshi, I spot everyone standing in front of a restaurant across the street. Shortly after I arrive we get a table and step inside. Everyone is starving. Pam graciously translates the menu for us and we all order. When our food arrives, I begin to wonder if we have ordered off of the appetizer menu...and that's not the first time that thought has crossed my mind. The portions in Japan are very small, so you usually order two or three dishes. Have a look at Katie's bacon wrapped asparagus and the daikon (Japanese radish) served with full fish head.

Katie and the plentiful bacon asparagus.

Fish head and daikon

Due to the tragic extinction of spoons in Japan, you can now slurp soup from your bowl...but no one told me that you weren't supposed to slurp out of common serving bowls.

The street the restuarant was on.

After dinner Pam decided to go home and Tom invited the rest of us to go to a techno club with some girl that he had randomly met. We all piled into her car and headed about 20 minutes out of town towards sprawling fields of rice. After staring out the window at utter darkness, we came upon an underpass. It seemed very out of place since we were in the middle of nowhere. However, the pumping techno music that was eminating from a small house-like building just past the underpass seemed disproportionately more out of place. Welcome to Club Rhythm. Check out the slogan on the sign.

I have no idea WHY that is the slogan...but nonsensical english phrases are one of the most endearing parts of Japan. Some of the english that you come across is innocently terrible and simultaneously hilarious. I bought a tee-shirt for 500 yen ($5) that says:
Ramp Ladder
Butter
R98938453
Grass without root

And on the back it reads:
We are not permitted
Forget the promise

It's absolutely the most rediculous shirt I own, but I couldn't resist. Anyhow, we pay our 2,000 yen ($20) for cover and head inside the club for our first taste of Japanese club life. We step inside and the music is pumping. There are a few Japanese guys swaying back and forth to the music, but they woul fit in really well as extras in "The Night of the Living Dead." We each grab a drink...because we had to...check out the policy. I was kind of afraid that the dancing guys WERE zombies and that they would eat our brains if we didn't obey the golden rule of Rhythm.

After we get our drinks, Tom's friend Chahiro leaves the club and doesn't come back until 5 am. Kristine, Marsha, Katie and I had taken a cab home...but Tom had to wait for her because he left a bag of belongings in her car. With drinks in hand we head to the dance floor to confront and possibly dance fight with the zombies. EVERYBODY is staring as we walk to the front. We're the only foreigners in the place. We get to the front of the room and all of us begin to bust it out. I don't dance much...but in this country I always look like an idiot, so I figured dancing couldn't hurt. The zombies stop dancing and everyone watches as we fail ourselves around the room in to the steady beat of the techno. Welcome to the gaijin circus. We danced for quite some time and then Katie, Kristine, Marsha and I decided that it was time for us to leave. On the way out one of the guys who was collecting money at the door points to his shirt and say, "what mean?" His shirt read, "Got Weed?" Hahahaha...how do I explain this to a person who doesn't speak English? I tried my best to explain it to him...but somehow I think don't think he really understood. No harm done though...most likely nobody else understands his shirt either.

Check out the videos from the club on youtube. Here are some pics from inside the club:

Life on the Flipside

2006-08-16T02:20:00.000-05:00

Where were we? Ah, yes...one day down...one year to go. Day two in Toba simultaneously incited hope and dispair. I was told to take the morning off because my supervisor figured that I would still be jet-lagged and that I'd want to sleep in a little bit. Ha! Not me...the morning off means taking a mountain biking tour of my area! Equipped with a set of directions from my predecessor, I set out to find Katie's place in Ise. I should probably mention that:

a) I had directions to Katie's apartment BUILDING...but not the actual apartment number...and I had no way of contacting her
b) Japanese directions are quite...omnious. Since there are no street names, Japanese directions take the following format:
"You’ll pass thru a little town and after that u’ll see a sign pointing right. I think it says kazuki or something like that but I could be well off. There is no light at this sign. U’ll know it’s the right turn off cus there’ll be a big wide open space of rice paddies in front of u on ur right, a hedge or something along the road on ur left and u’ll see the highway to your right and maybe jusco in front of u in the distance."

I got lost. It might be because I can't read signs in Japanese, or it might be because I was completely absorbed in the lucious scenery. Either way, I'm biking through the mountains, taking it on faith that I might stumble across one of the landmarks from the directions. I tried to ask for directions, but I don't speak Japanese...and people here don't speak English. It's a good thing have an affinity for wandering around aimlessly. After two hours of riding, I finally stumbled across one of the landmarks mentioned in the directions and FOUND Katie's apartment complex. A small miracle. Now to find her actual apartment...come on logic don't fail me now. I stood at the back of the apartment and looked at all of the balconies. If it had plants on it, laundry hanging on a rack, or any other sign of prolonged inhabitance, it wasn't Katie's. This lowered it down to four apartments. Time for my first game of nicky-nicky-nine-doors in Japan. Sweet. After knocking on all of the candidate doors without receiving an answer I checked my watch to discover that I only had an hour and a half to get home, shower and take the 20 minute walk to school to meet my supervisor. Another miracle was in order, but this time I knew the way and thus wasn't aimlessly wandering. I booked it home as fast as I could...but I did get lost again. Upon finding my place I hopped into the world's coldest shower and made a valiant attempt to make myself presentable for my meeting with my supervisor. I had been out of the shower for about 10 minutes when I realized that I was still sweating, HEAVILY. Not good. I grabbed an extra shirt and threw a golf shirt into my bag and quickly walked to school.

When I arrived at school I had completely sweated through my first shirt. Attractive. Additionally, I was POURING sweat. My hair looked like I had just walked out of the shower without drying it. I walked into the teacher's lounge and everyone stares. Nice...way to make a great second impression Chris. My supervisor takes one look at me and says, "Janca-san, why are you always sweating?" I hear snickers from the other teachers. I try to explain that I went for a bike ride and then came to school very quickly, but she looks at me as though I'm some sort of mutant...my superpower is profuse sweating leading to severe dehydration.

My supervisor (Kae) and I leave the school to run a few errands around town. As she grabbed her car, I switched into my fresh shirt. Five minutes later it was soaked. Mmmmmm. Our first stop was Toba city hall to get me registered as an alien. Ha! I feel like one, why not register as one?! When we arrived at city hall, Kae walked me through the registry form. I tried my best to follow her directions, but at this point the stifling heat and dehydration were beginning to take a toll on me. I was spacing out when Kae informed me that we had to go to a photo shop down the street to have my picture taken for the application. We cruised down to the photo shop and I'm still pouring sweat. At the photo shop a nice young woman took the worst picture of me that I've ever seen. Half smile, hair soaked, sweat covered face. Hot. While she was printing the photos the heat finally got the best of me. My stomach turned sharply, stars flashed in front of my eyes and I needed to have a seat. Kae quickly got me a water and I sat for a while in the photo shop doing my best not to vomit. Japan: 1 Chris: 0. When I felt well enough, we proceeded back to city hall and finished the application. I still wasn't doing well when we hit the bank, so Kae took me home immediately after we left. Did I mention that my welcome party was scheduled for that night? Well it was. Greeeeat. I stumbled into my apartment on the pretense that I would call Kae if I couldn't make it to the welcome party. As I was guzzling water to rehydrate, my phone started ringing. Weird...who knows my phone number?? It was Katie, she got my number from a JET who knew my predecessor and therefore had his number. She informed me that there was a party for Ise-shima JETs on Friday and a beach party on Saturday. So it was settled. If I wanted to go out on the weekend I would HAVE to make it to my welcome party. Otherwise it would be rescheduled for either Friday or Saturday and I would have to miss one of the parties. I got off the phone with Katie, hopped into bed for a bit of a sleep and vowed that if I made it through the night, I would take it easy in the coming days and be more attentive to the fact that I can't live like I did in North America.

Upon waking I felt MUCH better. Maybe not "eating large quantities of raw fish" better...but better nonetheless. Kae picked me up and we headed out with the other English teachers for a night on the town. Our first stop was a sushi restaurant. By the time we had been seated (on the floor...for those of you who were wondering) my stomach felt much better and I was ready to sushi. They ordered LOADS of food and kept on making me eat strange things. "Janca-san, try this. Do you like it".....(chewing)....(chewing)..."Yep, that's pretty good." After a while, I think they got the point. I'll eat anything. I have a universal stomach. I'll come to your home country and eat the domestic foods that YOU won't even eat. Brains, raw stuff, strange stuff, organs...bring it on. They seemed to like my consumption ethic.

After the sushi place, we went to another restaurant for Japanese pizza. This stuff is great. You order one, two or three meats (in our case, Okuyama sensei ordered squid and pork) and then a few minutes later they bring you a bowl that's filled with cabbage, water, egg and flour and topped with your meat choice. You're sitting on the floor in front of a table with a grill on it. You take the meat off the top and toss it on the grill. Next, you thoroughly stir the cabbage, egg, flour and water and pour about half of the mix onto the grill in a pancake shape. After the mix is cooked enough that it will hold together when flipped, you top the patty with your meats, pour the rest of the batter on top of the meats and then flip the whole thing to cook the other side. After both sides are thoroughly cooked you have a patty that is about two inches thick. You top it with pizza sauce (barbecue sauce), fish flakes and mayonaise. It might not sound great...but it is!! After we finished our pizzas, I felt as though I had connected a little bit more with the teachers. They're all really great and really patient people. It made me feel more at ease with my new living situation. We left the pizza place and headed to our respective homes. I was facing six consecutive days off...time to live it up!

Day Three:
As previously mentioned, I had a JET party on Friday night. I spent most of the day sleeping, as per my promise to take it easy. After sleeping I spent most of the day bumming around my apartment indulging utter randomness. At about 5:30 I headed towards the local train station which I had scouted out earlier in the day. It was well hidden. I found it by following train tracks. I'm a genius in disguise...in case you were unaware. My first attempt at buying a train ticket was...interesting. In Japan you buy train tickets from...well basically a vending machine. I hadn't a clue where to begin, so I asked the train attendant. Of course, he had only a slight clue what I was talking about because I speak English and he spoke Japanese. Nevertheless, by stressing the name of the station that I wanted to end up at, he pointed to the buttons that I needed to press and after a few beeps and clanks I had bought my first train ticket. Awesome. After an absolutely beautiful 25 minute ride I arrived at Ujiyamada station where I was to meet Katie and her new friend Pamela. However, before I met up with the girls I bumped into a group of three white guys...gaijin (foreigners). In Japan, you can spot a gaijin from a mile away. You see, Japan is 99% Japanese, so it's rare to see someone who doesn't look Asian. I walk up to the guys and ask if they're there for the JET party. Of course they are...what else would three white guys be doing hanging out at Ujiyamada station?? We introduce ourselves, chit-chat for a bit and then hop into a car in order to find the other JETs who we are supposed to be meeting up with. After a short time we find them and get sketchy directions to a restaurant in the area. After turning around about 15 times we run into the people who gave us the directions...they're lost too. Ha! They call someone who knows where the restaurant is and we're back in business. We get to the restaurant and everyone slowly trickles in. After introductions and a few drinks everyone begins to gel. It's only been one day since I had a full fledged English conversation...but let me tell you, it was GREAT! You don't realise how vital communication is until you lose conversational ability...perhaps that's why telecom is such big business. After we finish our drinks and random seafood apatizers we decide to head to a kareoke bar. I went via cab with a few fellow JETs, so we arrived quite a bit earlier than the folks who were biking. In our spare time we hit up a beer vending machine and purchased the biggest cans of beer that I've ever seen! Check out these pics:

We promptly headed back to the kareoke club with beers in hand. The club looked like a car rental shop. The people were even wearing uniforms that said car rental...maybe they did in fact rent cars and provide kareoke services. I have no idea...but it seemed right at the time. As we approached the door I'm thinking, “what do I do with my beer?” We're going into a bar, right? You can't possibly bring your own booze into a bar!?!? Wrong. It's pretty much self serve. You and your friends walk in with your own booze, food, etc, get a room and each toss in about 400 yen ($4.00) to sit around and sing kareoke. Craziness.

That night I crashed at Katie's place in Ise because we were heading to the beach in the morning and the girl who lives above her was our ride. Plus, I wanted to see what her apartment was like and to witness for myself the cockroach infestation that was making her apartment uninhabitable. It didn't seem so bad that night...but I would soon find out just how bad the infestation was.

Day Four:
The next morning we head for the beach at about 10:00 am. It was about a 45 minute drive through a national park. It was, once again, gorgeous. After getting lost....AGAIN, we arrived in a place called Chuo (“Ko”) and began searching for the other JETs. We have to walk to the other end of the beach to find them, but after we do it's a lazy day at the beach consisting of lounging and mingling. Here's a few pics:

This is a dead sea turtle...I was supposed to be riding it...but it was rotten, so I couldn't get too close.

After the beach, Katie's friend Pamela decides that we should all go out for an onsen (public bath/hot tub) and then dinner. I think everyone was a bit iffy about the onsen because a) we were all tired, hungry and sunburned and b) we had all met mere hours ago...and now we were going to be naked in a tub together (note: there are separate rooms for males and females). After a while of convincing Pam got us to the onsen...and I think we were all glad that she did. The group consisted of Katie, Pam, Christine, Marsha, Nobiko, Taylor and I. As you can tell, there are only two guys...akward...but then again, I've never been shy about being naked. We head to our respective rooms, rinse off and jump into the onsen. Taylor and I decide to use the outdoor onsen. It was great, you're basically sitting naked in a hot tub just off the beach, on a third floor balcony watching the tide come in. Completely and utterly relaxing.

After about 45 minutes in the onsen we all met in the lobby and headed to dinner quite refreshed. I convinced the group to head back to the okonomiage (Japanese pizza) place that my co-workers had taken me for my work party. Good times. After dinner we headed back to Ise to hang out for a while longer. Here's where I found out how bad the cockroach infestation was.

After everyone had called it a night, Katie and I were standing in her living room...she looks at me horrified and points to the wall and says, “What's that?!?!” I turn around...COCKROACH...it's big...probably a couple on inches in length. Katie runs into the washroom and says to me, “tell me when it's over.” Now, I've always been a sort of pacifist...I don't really like to kill anything, but obviously this roach had to go. I rolled up a newspaper...thought to myself, “I hope that aliens don't look at me like I'm a pest and swat me to death.” I know, kind of random. I look at the thing really close...it stays deathly still as I eye it. It knows what's coming. I think, “just hit it quick and hard...make it painless” and then I swing. I hit it...but it's only stunned. It scurries away into Katie's closet, I think “she is gonna FREAK out if I don't find this thing.” So I begin hunting it. All feelings of sympathy have vanished. IT'S ON NOW!! I hear scuffling and it runs out of the closet...I lean in an smack it again. STILL the thing is moving. I've broken some of it's legs on one side of it's body...but it's still moving at a pretty good pace. I quickly overtake it, wind up, and wail it. This time it splatters all over the wall. Mission accomplished. I clean it up and let Katie out of the washroom. I realize that I definately need to take action if she's going to live comfortably in this apartment.

The next day Katie and Pam head to work and I begin preparing for war. Rule number one of war: know your enemy. Cockroaches have existed, unchanged for about 150 million years. Why? Because they can lay up to a million eggs in a year and THEY NEVER DIE. Cockroaches are capable of living for a month without food and remaining alive headless for up to a week. A cockroach can also hold its breath for 45 minutes and has the ability to slow down its heart rate. It's speculated that these things will survive nuclear war, should it ever happen. I guess that removes nuclear warfare from my list of termination strategies.

Cockroach Weaknesses:
1)Cockroaches can't go more than a day without water
2)Cockroaches can be squished by hard, blunt objects
3)The natural enemy of the cockroach just happens to be...Christopher Janca: Cockroach Commando.

I spent the better part of the day containing all sources of water, sealing any open cracks, and pulverizing any of the unfortunate roaches that crossed my path. By the end of the day I had become so hardened by war that I was crushing roaches between my fingers when I saw them. The day was mine...but the war is still raging on...the roaches refuse to vacate...but the Cockroach-apocalypse is near...Katie's school has ordered a company to come in and fumegate...but it's summer vacation...so it's going to take a while. Have a look at a spider that I found it Katie's apartment...it took me a few blows to kill it...because it was big enough to have bones...BONES!

Day Five:
I decided to climb a moutain on day five. I had no real strategy. My place is surrounded by mountains, so I just started walking towards one and hoped for the best. I basically ended up wandering around in the woods for about 20 minutes...and then I stumbled upon a trail! Success! After another 20 minutes the trail disappeared. Back to picking my way through thick bushes. Not so much fun...especially when you walk through a spider web find the spider on your FACE. You can't freak out either...if you do, you'll lose your footing and fall down a steep slope for a while. After about 2 hours of slowly winding my way up the side of the mountain, I reached the top...just gorgeous. There was a shrine of some sort at the top. I'm not sure if it was Shinto or Buddhist, but it was very interesting to find at the top of a mountain! I wish that all of you could have seen it with me. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The following few days were spent hanging out here and there. I spent a couple of days in the capital of Mie prefecture for an orientation and I've spent a few days at the school preparing for my self introduction and lessons for the first week. Katie and I went hiking on a mountain near her place two days ago. It was a blast! We didn't reach the top because we weren't really on a trail...but I think we're gonna give it another try soon.

Yesterday I went to school during the day and then went for a bike ride after school. On the ride I hit up the 100 yen store and the grocery store. Before continuing, I have to say that I LOVE 100 yen stores. I got a belt, bike light, reflector, batteries, laundry detergent, an airfreshener, incense, some food and some other random stuff for 1,300 yen...that's about $13 Canadian. INSANE!

I haven't really grocery shopped since I got here. The Japanese way is to buy a few things here and there when you need them, but I needed SOME food in my fridge so that I could cook dinner and make my lunch for school. In Japan you walk into the store and grab a basket, which you place on a small cart-like thing, that makes your basket into a shopping cart...but it's pretty much a basket on wheels. Let me preface this story by mentioning that I am clearly a foreigner in my town. Everyone stares at me when I walk down the street. Yesterday a midget stared at me...I guess I know how he feels now...no more midget jokes. So yeah, I cruise into the store and everyone is naturally looking at me...but I biked there..so I'm wearing a helmet...and I'm dripping sweat...and I'm a crazy foreigner. It was actually quite funny, because I forgot that I was wearing the helmet, until I bent over to pick up some vegetables and I smoked my head off of a metal pole. The helmet saved me from injury...but it made a loud noise...everyone around me turned to see what had happened... “OH, that's why the crazy foreigner is wearing a helmet...he's an idiot.” I had to hold back laughter...they looked at me as though I was the most absurd thing they had ever seen. THEN, I packed my basket FULL...food was practically falling out of the basket it was so full. At the checkout there's quite a few people waiting to check out. As I roll up, they slowly fall silent and stare...I imagine that they were thinking something along the lines of, “What the hell is this guy doing?!? Is the apocalypse coming? Who wears a helmet to the grocery store and stockpiles food??” I turn slowly to all of them and grin widely. So I'm a freak...sweet.

Today I got the grand tour at school. Up until this point I had simply walked in and gone directly to the staff room. My supervisor, Kae, showed me where I would be teaching, the school gym, the school club rooms, etc. On the tour we end up walking by a building where a few students are fencing. I look hesitantly inside as the two fencers attack one another. As Kae and I watch, a student spots us and invites us inside to watch the match. Upon entering the building, I can see who the fencers are. One is a student that I have never seen before, the other is the fencing instructor that I met on day one...he smiles when I walk in...greeeeaaaat. After the match finishes, he hands me one of the swords (whatever they're called in fencing) and shows me how to hold it. I smile, try my best to follow along and then hand it back to him. They say a few things in Japanese, I smile and then Kae and I excuse ourselves and leave the building. As we walk I say to her, “that looked very interesting, would they allow me to come by and try it out sometime?” She responds, “Oh yes, they very much like it when people come to fence with them. It costs alot of money for the equipment, so not many students want to fence...A few years ago the fencing team was very strong. Our best student was ranked number six in Japan Highschool Tournament. Do you say that?” “Yes, highschool tournament makes sense.” “Ok, yes. But then, the professional teacher was transferred to a different school and I was put in charge of the fencing club. They were not so happy because I don't know about fencing. But he..” she points to the fencing instructor “...is a professional fencer, so the students are happy.” Then she adds as a sidebar...completely devoid of emotion or expression, “But be careful if you do go, it can be dangerous. I brought a team to the highschool tournament and my student's vest was pierced and he died.” WHAT?!? HE DIED?!? She says THAT and then just keeps walking. So yeah, I'm not going ANYWHERE near the fencing club. Maybe I'll stick to English.

Day One - Tales of Terror in Toba

2006-08-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

Where do I even begin? I left off on my train ride to Toba. As I mentioned, it was a BEAUTIFUL day even though we were supposed to be getting hit by a typhoon. After getting off the train in Tsu (which is the capital of the province that I'm living in) we walked to the Mie Prefectural Board of Education. It was 38 degrees farenheit, so needless to say, the whole group rolled up just DRIPPING sweat. Attractive. At the BOE we were greeted by our supervisors and carted off by car to our respective cities. My supervisor is a very nice woman by the name of Kae. Me, Kae and another co-worker Okuyama passed the hour and half car ride by asking each other introductory questions, but mainly we all sat silently. I didn't know what to say...I don't think they did either. When we arrived in Toba I was informed that we would be going directly to a hotel where the teachers from Toba High were having a meeting. Great, I'm dripping sweat and completely exhausted and I'm going to meet all of my co-workers. We find the room where the meeting is being held and Okuyama knocks on the door, sticks his head in and then ushers me in. I walk in to find a room of middle aged Japanese people silently staring at me. Ehhhhhh...akward. After a few seconds of silence I turn to Okuyama and say out of the corner of my mouth, "what do you want me to do?" He looks kind of concerned and says, "introduce yourself." At that moment I couldn't think of a SINGLE word in Japanese, so I turned to him again and whispered, "in English or Japanese??" He replied, "Japanese is better." I turn back to the group of people who have been silently watching this odd exchange between Okuyama and I and begin, "Konnichiwa gozaimasu, watashi wa Kurisu Janca desu. I am very happy to meet all of you and I am very glad to be teaching at Toba High this year."....Silence falls over the room again. They all continue to stare at me blankly. I turn to Kae and Okuyama for support and Okuyama says, "that's it?" I reply coyly, "yep, that's it." He then turns and translates the world's worst introduction to all of the teachers. As soon as he does, the look of recognition flashes over their faces and they all smile and nod. Okuyama pulls me out of the room and says, "okay, next room!" Dammit. This is going to be a long year. After butchering my second attempt, the teachers all leave the meeting and begin to smoke outside of the hotel. There are only about five who speak English, so they're all speaking Japanese, laughing and then looking at me. Great, I'm making friends already. As we're standing there waiting for Okuyama to finish his cigarette, one of the teachers starts talking to me in Japanese. Since I have no clue what he's saying I turn to Kae for an interpretation. She looks at me, half laughs and says, "he says that you are beautiful." Hmmm...I'm guessing from the cold and unwelcoming look on his face that his comment was somewhere along the lines of calling me a pretty-boy. Nice...I'm REALLY making friends now. AND THEN, Kae says to me, "he is the fencing instructor...he says that he would like to fence with you." This is DEFINATELY going to be a long year. After escaping death at the hands of my fencing friend, we proceeded to Toba High, which is the school I will be teaching at. Upon arriving, I met the rest of the staff and spoke to the teachers that I will be teaching English with. There's one guy, who has to be the friendliest person on earth. He's very considerate of other people and speaks fairly good English. There's a young guy who's only a year older than me. He sits beside me. Should be pretty good, he speaks English, Japanese, Swedish, German and something else. I'll probably rely on him to teach me Japanese. Then there's another guy who comes from Malaysia. He's an interesting character as far as I can tell. He spoke very little to me, but he invited me to his place to speak English with him and meet his family. Additionally, there is Kae and Okuyama and another teacher who I didn't meet. After picking up the rest of my luggage at the office we finally headed to my apartment for the first time. When we get there, the key won't open the lock. At this point I just grab my bike out of the car and start assembling it in the parking lot with the younger teacher, Sugimoto sensei. After a while they figure out the lock and we begin to load my things into the apartment. The other teachers work on unloading the car, while I head inside to find a place to store everything temporarily until I can unpack. As I head out to grab a second bag, I notice that Kae and Sugimoto are staring at me as though they are horrified. I look at them and say, "ummmm...what's up?" Kae responds distraughtly, "Janca-san, in Japan we do not wear our shoes in the house." I look down and realize that I had just cruised through the whole apartment with my shoes on and they had been watching me the whole time in disbelief. Great, now I'm infringing on their customs...what's next? I accidentally light a Japanese flag on fire? After everything was loaded into the apartment Kae and Sugimoto were waiting around for Okuyama to return with some lock grease before we went to grab a few groceries. They kind of stood in the doorway and watched as I jostled around inside of the apartment. Kae called in to me, "Janca-san may we come in?" I half-laughed invited them in. They politely took off their shoes and took about two steps into the apartment and looked around. I was continuing to move everything around and Kae calls to me again, "Janca-san can we sit down somewhere?" These people are serious about being polite. I turned around again and said to her, "of course! Come in, make yourself at home! You've lived here as long as I have." I don't think they saw the humour in it. I had better get used to that. Okuyama returned shortly with the lock grease, fixed the lock and then took us grocery shopping. After the teachers dropped me off, they said goodnight and I spent the rest of the evening unpacking and setting up my apartment to my liking. As I unpacked a million thoughts raced through my head. "What the hell am I doing here?" "This is not at all what I had expected." "I thought these people spoke English?!?!" "How am I going to survive for a year here?" "Why didn't I learn Japanese?!?!" Eventually I became completely exhausted and went to bed, hoping that the next day would be better...it got worse before it got better...but it got ALOT better!!

I'll leave you with a few images of Toba at night, more pics and stories to come...for now it's off to bed so that I'll have energy for another adventure tomorrow!

Train to Toba

2006-08-10T07:45:00.000-05:00

I'm presently sitting on a bullet train headed for my new home in Toba-Shi, Mie-Ken (that means Toba city, Mie province). It's nice to be relaxing and listening to some tunes as Japan rushes by outside my window. This morning I said goodbye to Tokyo and my fellow JET participants and embarked on my journey. Everyone met in the lobby of the hotel and split into our prefectural (provincial) groups. Luckily Katie and I are heading to the same prefecture, so we will be making the trip together. It will be about 5 hours of travelling to get to the Mie board of education (BOE) and then we head in separate directions to travel to our respective cities. Upon departing from the hotel, employees from the Mie board of education led the Mie-ken group onto the subway at Shinjuku station. It was INSANE! I took a couple of pictures, but they really don't do it justice. It was absolutely packed and I had a bunch of luggage with me...again. Not much fun, but I didn't let the inconvenience ruin the experience. As we got onto the subway platform the group crowded onto the first commuter train that came by. However, by the time that Katie and I reached the train it was so packed that not a single person could get on. Two of the BOE employees quickly hopped off the train to accompany us and one other JET on the next available train. The next train came and we hopped on. As we entered the car, the other JET that we were travelling with nudged me and pointed to a sign that was right above our heads. It had half-naked women all over it and I can only imagine what the writing said. He laughed and said:

“Man, we ended up in the red light district last night. It was CRAZY. You're walking down the street and these guys keep coming up to you and tug on your sleeve and say, 'Japanese brow-job, japanese brow-job.”

Now, keep in mind that we're standing on the train with two employees from the board of education, which EMPLOYS US!?!?! I couldn't believe it. Not to mention that you're on a PACKED subway car and there are people who understand english and even if they don't understand english, they probably understand that much. I just turned my back and pretended that I didn't know him. Yet another instance of my fellow JETs being absolute idiots. Sometimes I wonder how they got the job and whether or not I want to call myself a JET if it means associating myself with them.

Yesterday there was another instance of ignorance while I was riding an elevator from one of the conference sessions to my room. We're standing in a packed elevator. There are four JET members and the rest of the riders are Japanese people who were staying at the hotel. Two of the JETs were conversing and one of them said, “Yeah, I've been practicing my Japanese responses...ooooooooohhhhhh, yeeeeeessss, yeeeeeessss,” as he nodded his head profusely and smiled cluelessly. I guess he thought that he was mimicking the typical Japanese response to English speakers. As soon as he said it everyone went deathly silent. He then looked around and realized that he was surrounded by Japanese people and proceeded to akwardly pronounce, “hey...it reaaaly hot out today...isn't it?” People like this are really beginning to get on my nerves. We're in Japan and they're making fun of the Japanese people, who have been absolutely hospitable to us in every way. If you ask someone on the street a question in English, they do their best to answer and if they don't know English they look genuinely upset that they were not able to help and apologize profusely in Japanese. The people here have been incredibly friendly so far, but it really makes you wonder if it's warranted when you witness displays of disrespect like the two preceeding accounts. I genuinely hope that I can avoid falling into one of these negative attitudes while I'm here.

As I've been typing, I've also been looking out the window as we travel south. It is incredibly beautiful! The region that we have been travelling through is alot more mountainous than the Tokyo area which is relatively flat. I wish that I could describe it adequately, but I don't feel as though I can do it justice. I've been taking pictures and videos, so I'll post a few on my blog and then figure out how to post them all online somewhere.

When we departed from Tokyo, there was some concern that a typhoon was headed for the area that we are travelling to. It was really dark and rainy in Tokyo and for the beginning of the train ride, but the sun has broken through the clouds and it's a perfect day now. I keep staring out the window and I'm just amazed how different and beautiful the scenery is. Right now nothing can stop me from thinking about how incredible this experience is going to be and from smiling ear to ear.

These pics show Tokyo in the afternoon...the highrises go on as far as the eye can see

These pics are night shots of the Tokyo skyline. Believe it or not, you can photograph most of Tokyo at night using the daytime settings on your camera because there is so much light emitted from the city.

Here's a pic of some school girls who wanted their picture taken with Katie and I.

Tired in Tokyo

2006-08-07T06:26:00.000-05:00

Hello again!

Here's the rundown since the last post. Last night Katie and I took a short walk with her roomate. We saw a bit of the Shinjuku area, but we were so tired that we had to head home fairly early to crash. Today my roomates and I woke up at 6:30 am Tokyo time and hit the gym and then breakfast. I've met quite a few people from all over the world and discovered something very startling...my sense of humour is not universal. I know that you're probably all very shocked...I know, so am I. Nonetheless, I find it funny when people fail to appreciate the humour in what I'm saying. This happened two or three times during breakfast!

While heading to the morning session Katie and I were standing around grabbing a drink of water with my roomate before heading into the opening ceremony. Katie gave me an odd look and said, "there's some school girls over there who keep talking to each other and then pointing at me....they just did it again." My roomate and I turn around and the girls start waving, so we look at each other and laugh...they were pointing at us. It was really flattering at first...but it soon got embarassing. I walked by a few minutes later and the same girls made this odd, "oooooohhhhhh" noise as I walked by and then giggled and waved. Most of the people around me turned around to see what was going on and I didn't really know how to react, so I smiled and waved and then quickly headed for the washroom. Just one of those situations where you're not sure what to do. The conference was nothing special, it was basically a mass distribution of information to a group of people who are far too jet-lagged and naive to realize the importance of what is being said. After we came out of the morning session the school girls struck again. This time my roomate, Yuri, and I were standing around talking and we noticed that the girls were just staring at us. Not very subtle...and somewhat akward. I don't think either of us really knew how to react. Then the girls (who don't speak English) came up and started waving their cameras at us. We shrug and hop in for a picture. It's nice to already feel like a celebrity in Japan...hahaha.

During the afternoon Katie and I took a walk to the electronics store and I bought an electronic dictionary. It took us about half an hour to find the floor where they sold electronic dictionaries and about an hour to pick one out. I imagine it will take ALOT longer to figure out how to USE IT! It was a pretty challenging experience, but it makes you appreciate how vital communication skills are. Even if you don't have linguistic grace you can still communicate quite a bit with sufficient patience.

All in all I'm loving Tokyo. It's a great city and the people are absolutely fascinating. I'm heading out again with Katie to see what kind of trouble we can get into tonight! I'll report back later.

Here's another picture installment. It's the view from my hotel room!

On the Plane

2006-08-07T00:29:00.000-05:00

I am writing from above the clouds. We're still over North America somewhere, but soon there will be nothing but ocean in every direction. It's been a marathon of a trip already... Last night I decided that I wouldn't sleep before I left for the airport. I figured that it would be a good idea because Japan is 13 hours ahead of Canada, so I would be staying up through the Japanese afternoon. At about 2:30 in the morning I went for a 10 kilometer jog. At the beginning I thought that I wouldn't make it because I was exhausted, but I warmed up after a while and felt great. We left for the airport at 7 am because I wanted to be the first person to check in for the flight. They had warned us that they might begin to refuse passengers' additional luggage if the flight was really full, and I wanted to bring my bike with me...I figured that they couldn't tell the first passenger that the flight was getting overloaded. Shortly after arriving I checked in and said my goodbyes to my Dad, brother and sister. They helped me with my luggage as far as customs would allow, but I still had a marathon of procedures to get through with a 70 lb bike box, two 50 lb suitcases, a 40 lb carry-on and my computer bag. So my family helped me pack a trolly with all of my luggage and sent me on my way. I enter the cutoms office and see three lines which were set up as follows. There were two striaght lines, one for US passport holders and one for non-US passport holders. The third line was for Canadian passport holders. It was very narrow and winding...no way I was going to fit through with the bike box. It was one of those moments where you laugh and think, “You've got to be freakin kidding me.” I attempted to negotiate the labrinthe leading to the customs agent, laughing the whole time because the line barriers only had about an inch of leeway on either side of my bike box. Needless to say, most of the barriers were on the ground by the time that I got to the customs agent. Lucky for me, I roll up to discover that I'm about to meet the least personable customs agent in Pearson Airport. Before he even says hello he look at me and then looks at my luggage cart and says, “move that right against the booth so that people can get by.” I pause, look at the luggage cart (which is already as close to the customs booth as it can be) and figure that I'll humour him by moving it forward and backward a little bit to make it look like I've pulled it in closer. After I finish, he looks at me and says, “move it in closer...people need to get through.” At this point his voice is pretty edgy and I'm wondering what the attitude is for. So I do the same thing again. Now he's looking pissed. “RIGHT against the booth!” I'm pretty confused at this point, I didn't see the need to get upset or give me attitude, but I figured that I'd try something different. So I turn the cart sideways, which ends up taking up even more of the walkway than before. Now he's really ticked off, he looks at me like I'm an idiot and gets up to do it for me, but before he can come around the desk he sees the bike box and realizes that I had been doing exactly what he was asking me to do the whole time, the problem was that the bike box prevented the cart from being pushed any closer to the booth. At this point he sits back down and says, “ahhh...I see, there's a box...sorry about that.” He then proceeds to ask me the typical customs questions.

“How long will you be in the United States?”
“I'm just passing through, I'm on my way to Japan.”
“What are you doing there?”
“I'm going to teach English.”
“How long are you staying there for?”
“One year.”
“You're going to Japan for ONE DAY?!?” (Once again the inner jerk surfaces)
“No. Oooonnnneee Yeeeeeaaar.”
“Oh.”

Needless to say, this guy was only in a trasitional phase of his career and will one day be somebody's boss. Ha! The one good thing about idiots is that they make you realize that you're not one of them. After making my way through the rest of the airport formalities, I was joined by some of the other JET participants and we hopped on our flight to Detriot. From Detroit we got onto a 747 400 series for the remainder of our trip. Currently we're about 3 hours in...9 left to go. I still don't think that it's fully sunken in that when this plane lands I'll be in Japan... I'll be on the opposite side of the world from where I grew up, in a place where I don't speak the language and in a culture that is very different from my own. There's nothing to do now but try to sleep...we'll find out very shortly whether the Janca charm transcends language and culture...

Later on...

I arrived at my hotel in Tokyo at about 9:00 pm Tokyo time. That's about 10:00 am Canadian time, which means that I was in transit for nearly 24 hours. Exhausting. I don't have the energy to write anything right now but I've got a few pics from downtown Tokyo to tide you over for now. Notice the bikes in the second picture...I love this city already!

2006-07-10T13:09:00.000-05:00

Hello again...the countdown is currently sitting at 26 days. Freaky. I don't really know how to describe what I'm feeling right now. I'll be moving from Toronto to Whitby this weekend, then about a week later is Kevin's wedding, and a week after that I move to Japan. With each day the thought of moving becomes more and more real. It's an odd feeling. I know what the future holds but it seems unreal until it actually happens. It's not bad feeling, it's just something that is very different from anything that I've experienced before. Everything takes on a deeper significance and a sense of finality. I walk around thinking, "This could be the last time that I do this or see this person for another year...maybe more." Spending time with family and friends becomes that much more important and enjoyable. The routine things that I do everyday become pleasurable because they are fleeting, I'm about to walk into a new life with no routine and no familiarity. It's exciting, but it brings to mind the Forrest Gump saying, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." Hahaha...so true for me right now, I really have no clue what I'm getting myself into. I just hope that I meet alot of good people and that I make a good impression on the people that I will be working for. For those of you who are interested, I am including my new address in Japan. Feel free to send me snail mail or to come and visit! I would love to host anyone who is interested in taking a trip to Japan, so let me know! My address is:

vivre b-102
254 funatsu cho
toba shi
mie-ken
517-0045

For now, I'm out...but check again soon and I think of something really interesting to write...

2006-07-04T11:47:00.000-05:00

So, I'm moving to Japan. 31 days to go. It's starting to become completely and utterly surreal. I'm really excited right now, especially because I recently recevied an email from my predecessor which gave me a number of details about my new life. For those of you who are interested I will be living in Toba, which is a city in Mie prefecture (province). The city's population is 26,000, so it is a smaller city, which is what I had wanted when I applied. Toba is known for their seafood and surfing and as the first place to cultivate pearls. If you want to learn more about the city visit: http://www.city.toba.mie.jp/page/eigo/hyousi/hyousi.htm

I will be teaching English at Toba Highschool. Apparently, I live a 20 minute walk away from the school and a 10-15 minute walk from the Pacific Coast. Sweet. I think that is all for now, I hope that you will all check back often and enjoy sharing my experiences with me!

Here are two pictures from my new home...I think I'm going to like this!