Whats up everyone. The Rainy Season has officially ended in Kyushu, which means sunny days and scattered t-storms for the next two months. Japan summer is pretty brutal: the first half is consumed with pouring rain, tsunami-like winds, and a humidity index averaging about 90% (New York averages about 75%). The second half of summer is super hot, usually about 90 degrees each day and really humid. So if you ever come here in the summer, I suggest packing minimal layers and a few towels for the sweat.
After a nice long week of work, Sat night I hit the gym hard then went to a friends house for some drinks. At the gym, there were two new instructors hired this week. You can see the energy in one guy like it's his "new job" so he's making a super impression to his superior. It's kind of entertaining counting the laps he does around the treadmills trying to make it look like he is making sure everyone is "on the right track". He even takes the initiative to start dusting the machines (empty or while in use). I can tell he is a bit eager to talk with the "foreign guy" because every time he passes on his lap, he stops and watches then when I look at him he scurries away like a squirrel.
Sunday was time for a mountain climbing adventure in the sun. Lately I've been dying for some New York beach action, so on this day all that was on my mind was getting some sort of form of color, be it red or bronze. Unfortunately during the hike we spent a large amount of time in the forest, but the sun was shining bright on the top. The American boy's hiking gear consisted of basketball shorts, Nike Shocks, a white T-Shirt, and a grocery bag consisting of a water, chicken sandwich, and 5 bananas. Whereas my Japanese counterpart had boots, pants, long-sleeved shirt, hat, sunglasses, gloves, compass, backpack, sunscreen...... I was ill equipped to say the least.
As we were hiking I couldn't help but think about the random conversation I had with the gang of ojii-chan (grandpas) that were hanging outside the supermarket this morning. Normally back home I would walk out of Waldbaums with my groceries and spot a bunch of smug high school kids smoking cigarettes and rolling around in shopping carts outside, but the norm in New York differs slightly from the norm in Japan. Those smug teens are in school on Sundays, so instead there are ojii-chan hanging outside smoking cigarettes and sitting on their mopeds talking about how hot it is outside. I figured I'd take a seat and wait for my friend on the bench and before I knew it one of the ojii-chan started talking with me. I asked him what his job was and he said he was a truck driver (no surprise by the looks of him) and said he was getting ready to play some pachinko. Pachinko, oh how do I put it, in Layman's terms, the poor man's slot machine. It's a ridiculously addicting game, some (working) people spend up to 10 hours a day at this place. Check out this quick clip to get a glimpse of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H78VLPqfbfI . So anyway, we're talking about a few other random things, our conversation led to him telling me I need to find a nice girl here because she will take good care of me and then I was on my way to the mountain. It was just one of those "Did that really happen?" moments.
So after the mountain we stopped by some ceramic places because ceramics are really prominent in this region of Japan, thanks to all the trade and commerce with China and Korea back in the day. Funny story someone told me was that Japanese people would take a boat to Korea, find the best artisans in the villages in Korea, then kidnap them and bring them back to Japan. Back in Japan, these Koreans were forced to make all kinds of ceramics and live there. I guess that's one way to "borrow" another place's culture, and why there's a pretty big Korean population in this area. After shopping, we stopped by a hot spring then finished the night at a curry restaurant.
Today I had to go to Nagasaki city (about an hour and half by bus) in order to get my re-entry permit for my visa. This is REALLY important for someone who goes to a foreign country with a working visa. My working visa is valid for 3 years, but if I am to leave the country, I must have a re-entry permit. This permit allows you to leave the country and come back while still maintaining your original visa. Without this permit, if you were to leave you wouldn't be allowed back in the country with that visa. SO, you can enter under a tourist visa to pick up your stuff from your apartment and bring it back home because you now have to reapply for a new working visa and receive it which can take up to 4 months. I met up with one of my friends and she helped me get the permit. Afterwards we walked around for a bit just to grab some food in Chinatown then I headed home. Although it was my first time in Nagasaki, it was way too hot to enjoy the sights and my body was still recovering from yesterdays hike. It's closer than Fukuoka, so it's much easier to access for a weekend trip in the future.
Nagasaki is a really unique city. In 1633 until about 1850 Japan enforced a strong closed door policy in which no foreigner could enter and no Japanese could leave the country under penalty of death. Those who were limited to trade were the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, and Koreans, where the only port allowed to trade at was in Nagasaki. This brought in the ceramics that are prominent in Nagasaki and Saga (next prefecture) prefectures, Christianity, Western architectural ideas, and various other cultural artifacts. Although Nagasaki suffered severe bombing during WWII, downtown Nagasaki city managed to be restored somewhat easily. The original Portuguese style walk ways still remain and many buildings constructed by Portuguese and Dutch design have been restored. There's also a tram that runs through the city. Although the city felt the A-bomb, many cities (including Sasebo) in Nagasaki prefecture suffered heavy damage during WWII. After the war the government planted many new pine trees in the mountains and areas that burned down. Unfortunately, the planting was poorly planned and too many trees were planted too close and too symmetrical in order, which led to a very unnatural and weak growth for the trees. Not to mention Japan started to shift their focus on importing trees for house rebuilding and soon paid less attention to their recovering forests. As a result, many trees here are really tall with only green or pines flourishing at the top of their frail bodies.
That's it for this week's post. Some boring history notes T_T and mountain climbing. Talk to you again soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment