Going to Guam With the Girls! Part 1

The translator for the water sign in our hotel
may have been a pirate. Argh!

This is the cautionary tale of poor planning and travel mistakes.

My friends Ao and Lucy may be leaving for Canada soon, so we all decided that before they left we should have a girls trip somewhere sunny and beautiful. It would definitely be a change from the gray, Japanese winter. At first we thought Okinawa would be a good pick, but because I waited too long to confirm on the trip, the ticket prices skyrocketed. In retrospect, though, Okinawa isn't THAT much warmer than Shima in February, so we set our sights on a new location: Guam! Lucy and I could travel there easily since she is Canadian and I'm America. Ao had been there ten years before, but she was interested in a second visit. With our hotels and tickets booked, I was super excited to go traveling again. Sure, I visited the US last summer and lots of places in Japan in the fall with my boyfriend, but this a "never have I ever been there before in my life" place! The best kind!

Say goodbye to snow, girls!

Unfortunately, I had been apartment hunting for about two weeks and had hardly any extra time to help with the planning. I didn't know ANY of the schedule or locations and had entrusted all of the preparation to the girls. All I knew was that we were going to try scuba diving and to pack summer clothes. 80 degrees weather was so hard to fathom! Was anywhere really that temperature outside? Could I really walk outside without a jacket? It is odd what distance from an experience will do. I was hard to image any of this having been in the cold weather for so long.

We all had work on Friday, but decided to try and catch the train to Nagoya together. We were able to get train seats next to each other and used the ride to catch up about recent events, schemes, and dreams. This is also the time when I found out that we wouldn't be in Guam for as long as I was expecting. Oh, well. I could always layer on the summer stuff I brought to make more outfits.

You look a little chilly, sir.

Our first night in Nagoya was spent dancing in the biggest club. I was really impressed with the different vibes each floor had (about five floors in all), but Lucy was shocked that they even had separate floors! I guess stairs in a night club back home are too much of a liability, so all of them are one story or have elevators instead. Also, the Japanese clubs have coin lockers to store your things. No coat checking here. I had seen this sort of set-up in Tokyo, but after she mentioned that difference, I thought of Paris, Greece, and Cleveland - those were usually one story and didn't have lockers either. Definitely a different mindset due to space limitations and lower crime rate here.

My friends trudge on towards the train station.

Personally, I was more impressed with how EVERYONE KNEW ALL OF THE SONGS IN ENGLISH!! Seriously! How was it that everyone in the club knew the words to all of these songs so perfectly and I had a hassle teaching my students Auld Lang Syne? Ugh. As we moved through the club, people we passed were singing along with the music and smiling as they completed long rap segments. Really now? Wow. Sadly, some very happy guys ended up buying us some drinks that I had not anticipated on receiving and I got sick. At this point Ao got stuck dancing with a Brazilian boy that was following me around the whole night. Sorry, girl! But she was able to get a great line out of him that became one of our catchphrases for the rest of the trip: 最高の夜を見せ上げるぜ (Saikou no yoru wo mise ageru ze)。Translated, it is the same kind of super cheesy pickup line that any guy at a bar or club would give: "I'll show you the best night ever." But grammatically it is super showy, totally over-macho, and only ever found in TV dramas or cartoons. No one talks like that in real life! When she told me that line, I cringed and we had to fill Lucy in on how oily and gross it sounded in Japanese. He was very kind and seemed like he would be really funny in any other situation. But a "ze" as a final particle? Bleh!

Look at all the pretty pictures!

The next day was super snowy - a good send off to our island paradise. After much searching, we found coin lockers at the station that would fit our suitcases so that we had our arms free to do some shopping in the city! We had all purposefully left extra room in our luggage for the gifts, presents, and personal things we were going to buy on the trip, and Nagoya was part of the trip, right? Of course! While walking around one of the malls, we stumbled upon a Disney "Fine Art" collection. Different themes, characters, mediums, and styles covered the walls. Tucked in the back corner was an artist drawing Daffy Duck over and over for people to buy at a cheaper rate than the more expensive and larger works. He was an America, so I spoke to him about how he started, when he got here, and what he had been doing since Disney moved away from 2D art before we moved onto the Pokemon center. When I came back, he was giving a speech to the visitors of the collection. The Japanese love Disney so much, and the guests seemed blown away to have him there. It made me really happy they they could all enjoy it together.

Salad on a waffel. So Japanese!

After a lunch of salad waffles (that is right, no breakfast food is safe from the Japanese), we made our way to the airport for a bath before the flight. Bath? Yeah, the airport has a bath house on the second floor, so we stopped in for a soak! It was a great way to kill time before our late flight and my hair still smelled of smoke from the club. We had arrived there earlier than we expected, which was good because it gave us enough time to get lost amid the second floor shopping town, have the bath, make a guy pack up some mochi treats only to realize that we couldn't take them, find out that there was an extra "a" in my name on the ticket, and that I might not be able to go on the trip after all. Spoiler: I was able to go after an hour wait to get clearance.

Anpanman and I have a smile contest

We found an interesting shopping center along
the way. Shonen Jump, anyone?

A very Nagoya style noodle dish for dinner.

Last time I came to the airport, they had ninjas instead of
winter sport mannequins.

Phew! That was just to get into the heart of the airport. More later. I'm tired just remembering all of that.

Spain Village from Afar

I have mentioned this to a few people, so I may as well bring everyone up to speed.

My area isn't known for very much. Sure Mie prefecture may have some special spots, importnat people, and interesting culture, but little Shima is a bit more humble. We have aosa (see Shima Mascots post), ama (ocean women - a topic for another time), lots of beaches, lovely scenery, and we are also at the end of the train line. So what is our major claim to fame? What put us on the map???

~Spain Village~

That is right, Spain Village! Where you can find all the magic of Spain without leaving Japan. Where Don Quixote (now transformed into an animal mascot along with other characters from Miguel de Cervantes' novel) takes you on a tour of flamenco dancers and roller coasters. People from nearby prefectures only know and come to Shima in order to visit Spain Village. There are special buses from our main station just for Spain Village visitors. People can enjoy the theme park, restaurants  the spa, and the main hotel.

Why Spain? Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. Maybe because Spain is so foreign and interesting to the Japanese. Maybe because Japan did so much trading with the Spanish, Dutch, and Portugese in its history. Maybe because Spain is so colorful and cultural. Or Maybe because one of Shima's sister cities is Valencia, Spain. Maybe they caught a deal. Who knows? It is here now, though, and open (what seems to be) all year round.

I plan on going there myself, and giving a fuller report, but I was advised to wait until a little later in the summer when ticket prices go down. Until then, I am content in just seeing all of the advertisements around town and periodically running into and or being mistaken for the Spanish performers who live and work there. Lovely people, and they are all in great shape, but I haven't quite plucked up the courage to go talk with them yet. I don't want to just walk up to them in the freezer section like a creeper, "Excuse me, are you Spanish? You look Spanish. Want to be friends? Heheheheh." So, for now, I'll wait.

Don Quixote (dog character head on left) and Dores (cat character head on right)
greet arrivals Shima's Ugata train station with the words
"Welcome to Shima Spain Village!"

They actually have a very good English website, which you can easily find here. The Japanese version, for those bold enough to try it, can be found here.

Shima City Mascots

My mother sometimes shakes her head when she sees the animal, anime, and superhero characters Japan has come up with. She does like some of them, but there rest are too bizarre, too unreal, or too "freaky" for her taste. Many of my friends have expressed a similar feeling. But the Japanese love their mascots and characters so much, that they have grown into necessity for almost every group and organization. Not only are they made for the sake of storytelling, but for marketing, team building, holidays, locations, and events.

I may go on a rant about mascots and characters in general pop-culture another day, but for now, let us focus on my dear, little town of Shima.

On the first day here, I kept my eyes peeled for signs of the Shima mascot. I didn't know what it would look like at all, but I knew that they would have one. It would be on fliers and displayed around the train station, I thought. Sure enough there was a poster covered with mascots of Mie. And next to Shima's name was...

An alien?

A green glove?

A germ?

I wasn't quite sure what he was. The poster said that his name was "Aosa~", but what was that? Maybe I had made an mistake. Sure that whats-its wasn't our mascot. So I asked the ladies in charge of us. But they weren't sure who the mascot even was. We had to stop off at the city office building anyway, so we went upstairs to ask for Shima information and ask the workers there. Luckily enough, the mayor walked by and filled us in. The ladies became all flustered when they saw him, but I wasn't sure who he was until he left and they told me. Thanks for the help, Mr. Mayor!

As it turns out the alien-green-glove-germ is actually our city's mascot! His name is Aosa because he is aosa: a type of seaweed that is grown specifically in this region. The people here love aosa and are so proud of it that they use it in a lot of things: soups and ramen to cookies and other snacks. The funny marks on his head are Shima (しま) the city's name artfully written. He is wide-eyed and smiling warmly at all his friends and anyone who visits us. What do you think of him? I have a feeling my mother would not approve entirely, but I've warmed up to him this past month and a half.

Besides our city mascot, we also have a symbol. An S for Shima! It marks our city flag: Just replace the red circle in the Japanese national flag with this green S and you've got it. Different items dedicated to Shima may also be decorated with this S or made in its shape. It almost looks like a super S, right?

Actually, I'm so glad that you mentioned that comparison! That brings us to the next group of characters in this fine city: The Shima Rangers!!

This group of super heroes (the colorful costume people) are actually residents of Shima who help save the day, represent the good in the city, and fight the bad guys (the black characters). The Yellow Ranger is actually my IC! She is taking a break from crime fighting for a while to take care of her baby, but he husband still serves as the Blue Ranger, protecting Shima from mayhem with the Red, Green, Pink, and new Yellow Rangers. In these photos, they are at the Aeon Mall for an event and are working alongside the "bad guys" (who seem to be doing good for once) passing out balloons to the children.

The Rangers also give live performances! Maybe I can join in their fight against evil one day. Or, I could just sit in the audience like everyone, too, I guess. Of course, I'll let you know if I ever can attend a Ranger show. If you are interested in photos of the first appearance of the Shima Rangers or the fight photos just click on the hyperlinks.

Not quite as impressive, our little unit of interac language teachers has also created a superhero team: The Shima Super Sentai (Squad)! I am the Green member, Jennifer is the Pink one, Travis is Black, Bridgette is Blue, and our ICs and friends round out the group and color spectrum. Instead of fighters, we are just a team. For now ;)

(Photo of the rangers at Aeon Mall came from: http://blog.canpan.info/shima0nsc/archive/371)

Going to Ise: Things on Google Maps Are Closer Than They Appear

Turns out that I was at the outer shrine that first day in Ise.

I'm going to Ise Shrine today with some friends, but I remembered that I still hadn't finished writing the post from my last Ise trip. At that time, I had thought that I had visited Ise Shrine, but maybe I hadn't really. We'll find out today. Either I'll be going to the exact same spot, or finding a new treasure.

"What is so special at Ise?" you may ask. That is a valid question, but one I will allow Wikipedia to take over. Wiki, what are your thoughts on the matter?

 Bird view Area of the Jingū(Naikū)

Ise Grand Shrine (伊勢神宮 Ise Jingū^?) is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as Jingū (神宮^?), Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū (内宮^?) and Gekū(外宮^?). 

Bird view Area of the Jingū(Gekū)

The Inner Shrine, Naikū (also officially known as "Kotai Jingū"), is located in the town of Uji-tachi, south of central Ise City, and is dedicated to the worship of Amaterasu-ōmikami. The Outer Shrine, Gekū (also officially known as "Toyouke Daijingu"), is located about six kilometers from Naikū and dedicated to Toyouke no ōmikami, the deity of agriculture and industry.^[1] Besides Naikū and Gekū, there are an additional 123 Shinto shrines in Ise City and the surrounding areas, 91 of them connected to Naikū and 32 to Gekū.^[2] 

Purportedly the home of the Sacred Mirror, the shrine is one of Shinto's holiest and most important sites. Access to both sites is strictly limited, with the common public allowed to see little more than the thatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind four tall wooden fences. The high priest or priestess of Ise Shrine must come from the Japanese imperial family, and is responsible for watching over the Shrine.
The two main shrines of Ise are joined by a pilgrimage road that passes through the old entertainment district of Furuichi. The region around the shrines consists of the Ise-Shima National Park and numerous other holy and historic sites including the "wedded rocks" (Meoto Iwa), and the Saiku (the site of the Heian period imperial residence).^[3]

Nice work, Wiki. That will be all for now. I think that I may have gone to the outer shrine before, which means if today is the inner shrine, I would have seen it all!! Mwahahaha!! But how did I go to the outer shrine before? Isn't Ise far away from Shima? Well, it all happened on Google Maps...

A really cool building I found in Ise. Satoko says
that it is a boarding house for foreigners.
I'd love to see the inside!

... My city (which is much more of a town - sorry, Shima, but let's be honest with ourselves, okay?) doesn't have many things that larger cities do. Oh, it has things, and maybe imitation places of the larger towns, but not exactly the same thing. For example, we have banks here. And some of the banks are related to other banks in the larger cities in that they are all in the same network or company, but aren't exactly the same. So if you have an account at one of the larger city banks (like I do), you can withdraw money at the smaller ones, but you can't do anything else. And for banks in Japan, if you want anything changed (I feel like I've said this before), you have to be there in person on regular business days between the hours of 9 and 5 with all forms of identification and all documents relating to the items you wish to change. I wanted to change my address, the spelling of my name, and get a new cash card, so I had to go to the closest bank I could: Ise.

Finally in Ise I found the entrance to the
outer shrine.

Trying to live on the cheap, I went to a nearby, but surprisingly small train station. On the map, it looked really close, but I needed to get on these side streets and nothing was straight and there were these hills, and Japan doesn't believe in street signs, so like any good foreigner, I ended up getting lost. Wandering around for a bit, I started to head back in the opposite direction, when I heard the sound of an engine. It was the first car I had seen all day, so I stuck out my thumb hoping to get some proper directions at least. The owner of the car was extremely concerned that I wouldn't get there, so he offered me a ride. This may seem extremely dangerous, but let us all remember that I am in rural and safe Japan. It is actually better that I hitch-hiked with this little Japanese grandpa because he had such a heavy old person's accent and dialect that I couldn't understand 60% of his banter as we went up and down the roads. Something about his daughter.....English.....living in Japan.....fine weather today.....going to the market..... But he seemed happy for me just to smile and nod, say "really?" and "ooh, how nice" a lot.

Would you like to sweep this ENTIRE walkway
(it was very long) for a living?

As I said, he took me to the very small station, but it wasn't a station at all. It was a platform. There was nothing else there. Next to the platform, there was a small pond. With ducks. That was it. There was nothing else there. I don't even remember seeing a timetable. There was a machine that asked you to take a ticket, which I did, and you were expected to either pay when you got off or pay the conductor. I'll be going back there again today, so hopefully I don't get lost again.














The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I had brushed up on my bank terminology before going and I already had the maps set and ready to go, so I was able to get to the bank and then to the post office easily. I had everything in hand, so I changed all my information, update my bankbook, and chatted with all the people so that I would be able to access my money from Shima without more frequent trips to Ise. I finished all of this around noon, so I treated myself with a trip to the Outer Shrine, which was very close to the post office.

Not a riveting story, perhaps, but some interesting insights into life here in the land of the rising sun.

The bridge leading up to the outer shrine and a viewing area for the shrine lake.

Traveling in Japan: Trains, Lanes, and Airplanes

One of the bicycle garages at my college in Tokyo.

I've been in Japan for some time now, so I might as well explain how it is I got here. Usually, that sort of thing isn't noticed, but when you are traveling without a car, everything about transport is important because if there is not easy way to get where you want to go, you probably won't make it (unless you don't mind departing 3 hours early for a heart-healthy walk). And the great thing about Japan is how many modes of travel they have available. Rather than make a laborious story of it all, how about a breakdown? Okay, let me break it down for you!

Planes: Japanese planes may be like everyone else's, but I've found that steward(ess) profession is much different in foreign flight companies. They only hire the most beautiful, well spoken, well mannered, and well educated people only to put them through rigorous training to make them even more perfect. These people are the first example of your nation's citizens to foreign visitors or are the last ones they'll see before they go back to their country, so don't you want to make a great impression? If you are a steward(ess) in Japan, it means that you've passed many tests and can act and present yourself magnificently, so it is considered a rather fashionable and desired position. Soup operas who want to show a lovely and successful girl will cast her as a stewardess, always jetting off to wonderful and distant locations. Likewise, Asian airplane food has to be some of the best that I've ever had. Usually you have two choices but both are delicious, hot, and well presented.

Bullet Trains: Super smooth and quiet, bullet trains are great when you are short on time. Not all of them go the same speed or distance, either. Some of the lesser bullet trains can get you from the airport to a major city or from the south of Japan all the way up to Tokyo. The only issue I've ever had with bullet trains has been bringing too much luggage on them and navigating in the small entrance when you first get n and off. Besides that, I totally recommend them....if you have the cash.

Sure it may be a subway station, but why not
have a live and artistic ikibana arrangement?

Trains and Subways: Pretty much the same thing, really. Both are convenient, frequent, on time, and clean! Well, until someone on the late night weekend rides becomes sick, but that is cleaned quickly. I had heard terrible stories about theft on trains, disgusting conditions in subway halls, and late trains, but that hasn't really happened in Japan. The worst things are occasional groping (but just be aware of what is going on, stand on a woman only train car, or stand with your back to the wall and that pretty much solves that problem), suicide when someone jumps on the tracks (an extremely rare event), and if you get on an express train instead of a local (or vice versa) so that you skip right over the stop you wanted (or it takes you and extra 15 minutes because the local stops EVERYWHERE). All the tickets are pretty cheap, but they add up after a while, so be careful and try to get a deal on train passes if you can.

Buses: Besides being amazingly prompt and clean, the buses all have their schedules posted right on the bus stop sign. I remember the the RTA back home had information packets, but if you suddenly had the urge to catch a bus, you had to figure out when and where it was ahead of time or you were out of luck. Here you can suddenly think, "A bus ride would be nicer than a train", spot a bus stop and see when and where the next one is going. And if there is an area without a train, the bus routes are easier for the city to instigate. At the same time, transportation cards can work for trains, subways, and buses, so there is no need to always dig through your change purse before you get on.

Even this cat knows that bicycles are the
way to go. He was snoozing in one outside
of my old dorm at ICU.

Bicycles: Because so many people here have bicycles  there are stores and repair shops in every city. And the bicycles themselves are great! Most have deep baskets in the front for carrying all sorts of things, the light on the front of the bikes are powered by your pedaling, so no need to worry about killing the battery. Besides that, there is sometimes a rack on the back of the bike for futari nori (two people ridding a single person bike), but that is kind of illegal in some areas, so just bike around the police boxes ;) Most cities also have special bike lanes to keep pedestrians and bikers safe from cars and confusion, but these don't occur on all streets.

Walking: Japan is an extremely friendly walking area. Not only are the roads and sidewalks in good condition, but shop keepers keep these pathways immaculate and decorate their storefronts to attract pedestrians. Other walkers are also about, which makes the activity more friendly. What does that mean? Well, if I were ever walking home from a store in America, people thought that I needed help and would pull over to offer me a ride. "You poor thing. You've been walking for 10 minutes?! With that bag? Here, do you need a lift?" "Um, no, I like the exercise, the scenery, and I have a car and just chose not to use it." But here, other people are walking, so it isn't weird and you feel like your part of something normal, not an oddball or poor kid.

Clearly marked bicycle lanes

Taxis: Even after the last train or bus, the taxi's are still running. Taxi drivers aren't upset about dealing with foreigners, just make sure to know your address (writing/printing it on a card in Japanese and handing it to them is the easiest) because they can't understand "the hotel near the station, just past the bridge." When I was in Kyoto, the lady I was riding with had me chat with the taxi driver quite a bit to figure out good tourist spots and figure out why the had lace on all the headrests in the taxi. What is also interesting is that taxi's are also very clean! Who would have guessed right? But in the same way that an office worker organizes their desk, or a classroom is cleaned by the teacher and student, keeping the taxi neat and orderly is the responsibility and pride of the taxi driver. This also means that they can spot if you've left your wallet there rather quickly. HELPFUL HINT: Whenever you ride in a taxi, ALWAYS keep the receipt just in case you do lose something in it because the receipt will have the time and taxi number on it so when you call to report it, they can track down your belongings faster.

An indoor showroom I came across in an underground
shopping mall in Sakae, Nagoya, Japan.

Cars: Um, Japan is a major car maker, so are you surprised that they have stick AND automatic? The oddest thing here would be that they drive on the left, are forbidden to make ANY turns on red, all highways cost money to drive on them, and speed rules are strictly enforced. And while I have been told that Asians are terrible drivers, I would put them up for any World Champion Parking Contest. The spaces that they maneuver and park in (backwards, if they can help it) are so small. More power to them!

Sadly, I wasn't able to add motorcycles or scooters to that list, because I have not ridden on any here in Japan yet. I did ride on the back of a motor scooter in Shanghai with one of the Chinese teachers and that was.... precarious. But she was a Momma and made sure that I was confident the whole time and knew I'd arrive safely. It was the other drivers I was worried about!

Also, Japan has absolutely NO DRINKING AND DRIVING policy. That goes for bikes, scooters, motorcycles, and cars. So if you have had anything to drink within 12 hours, it is best to walk or take a train/taxi/bus. Either that or pay a pretty heavy fine. Just keep all of these things in mind and you'll be able to travel around safely and easily in Japan.