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8.30.2002 Hi everyone, I just got back from my teacher orientation today. Not the teachers from the school where I'll BE TEACHING ON MONDAY, but other teachers in the JET program. I got loads of good information, lots of scary food, and lots of karoke. Much of the information that we got dealt with cleaning in Japan Cleaning...Its very humid all summer long and now its getting close to rainy season, so mold is a problem. One of the other women ironed her shirt on the floor last week, went to work, and came home to find mold growing all over her tatami matts. Seriously, yuck. So far we've been lucky and have seen very little mold in our apartment...I attribute that to a cleaner that we found that says STRONG! (in Japanese) on the front. That spray goes on everything. Before it REALLY starts raining I'm supposed to get dehumidifier packets from the grocery store. These packets are filled with little balls that take moisture out of the air, and when the balls turn to liquid, its time to throw them out and start over again. Apparently there are similiar products that we need to put in our (dresser) drawers and closets to protect our clothing. Dryers are almost unheard of here, so all of our clothes will go out on the clothesline throughout the seasons! Lots of people have told us how very lucky we are to live in a 2nd floor apartment, otherwise our..umm..umm...foreigner undergarments might be examined and or taken away by our neighbors. This might be an urban legend, but I'm counting my lucky stars for those few extra steps everyday! IMonday is my first real school day here. My backpack is ready and my outfit is already picked out. I'm not excited about the dream (I have it every year before the first day of school) where I forget how to talk to kids and I'm naked. BUT, I am excited to be working with Junior High kids again, I'll just miss all the hugs from my kids at Turtle Lake in Minnesota. My first assignment is to give a speech to the entire school in easy English and in Japanese. Yikes! I'm trying to find that perfect balance between using a Japanese accent (sounds wierd when I do it) and not using one (which also sounds wierd) I, along with the other JETs, gave an introduction speech to our Tochigi Governor on Wednesday. I bowed and remembered to smile, so I think it went just fine. Also, there wasn't anything stuck in my teeth. The internet will soon be coming to our apartment, on Monday, and after that I'll be much more consistant with these updates. It feels so nice that people who love us are reading this and thinking of us often. You are missed. Take care, Julie .: posted by Julie Cannon 10:34 PM Tokyo Time Man, I forgot! On the day of our anniversary, we were out on the main street in the little Lake Chuzenji town, and what do we hear but loud, LOUD engine noises coming down the street. We looked over and we couldn't believe it. About FIFTY motorcycles were just cruising down the block. Not just any little Kawasakis, either. These were Harleys, and they were decked out with the craziest decorations, like angel wings on the handlebars and chainlink detailing all over the bike. Okay, for people who haven't read the FAQs on this site, the appearance of these motorcycles is significant because on the day of our wedding, no fewer than 833 motorcycles interrupted our ceremony for some kind of diabetes benefit. We unofficially adopted the Harley Davidson motorcycle as the tongue-in-cheek symbol of our wedding, and how nice that the good people of Nikko turned out to help us celebrate. Did anyone see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade about ten years ago? Remember how there were those tests that Indy had to get through to get to the grail at the end? The hint for the first one was "Only the penitent man shall pass" and that was a clue that you had to kneel, or else a big blade would chop your head off. I think of that every time I walk through a doorway in Japan, because I basically have to give a polite little bow each time I step through, or else the doorway (a standard 5'11") will crack me on the crown of my skull for my impertinence. I tell you what, that really hurts. It has taught me respect for Door-sensei. A word on cars here. I'm actually really glad that it would be very difficult for us to drive in Japan (Int'l Driver's License, other side of the road, signs in another language) because the drivers here are maniacs. I guess they aren't any worse than American drivers, but the roads are three quarters as wide! So some nut will come barrelling down the road and barely miss you, and not even give a second thought to the fact that he came within three inches of your elbow. We try to stick to the back roads as best we can for any bike travel we are inclined to do. Keep in mind, however, that even the most back of back roads is still fair game for any car in Japan. Our neighbor laughed when we called the little path that goes by our apartment's parking lot an "alley". After all, it is only about 12 feet wide. But no, that there is a road. Cars zip right down it at 20, 25 miles an hour and scare the life out of you. Luckily, there are telephone poles that are right on these roads, just off to the side, and you can duck behind them for a little extra protection if the driver's attention drifts for a second. As for parking in Japan, I think that people choose their parking spot based on one simple rule: "Can a car physically be squeezed into this space?" If yes, then go to it. I saw a sedan parked in front of a store in Tokyo that was wedged under the fire escape with perhaps an inch and a half clearance between its paint job and rusty, pockmarked iron. That takes some serious skill, and quite honestly, I'm not the man for the job. I made friends with a little Japanese boy yesterday when I was walking to the grocery store. He was riding his bike along and we were going through a gate in a fence at about the same time. I smiled at him and he said "Konnichiwa (Hello, good day)". Looking at my watch, I saw it was after 5 pm, so I said back, "Konbanwa (good evening)" and he smiled like I'd given him five bucks. He then rattled off a bunch of Japanese that I didn't understand, so I apologized and told him that I didn't speak Japanese very well. That didn't slow him down at all, and he just smiled and pointed at a woman coming into the parking lot, and (I think) identified her as his obaasan (grandmother). I waved to her, then turned to him and asked him his name, which he rattled off much too fast for me to understand. At a loss, I tried to think of all the other Japanese I know, and, having forgotten how to ask someone's age, ended up asking him if he was six, to which he enthusiastically nodded. I told him "okii desu (you're big)" and flexed like a bodybuilder and he just cracked up. By then the grandmother was next to us and she smiled at me, and I apologized again and said that my Japanese was very bad. She said something comforting in Japanese as the little boy jabbered on, until I finally told them "Hajimemashite (Nice to have met you)" and went into the store, wishing I either spoke a lot better Japanese or had a pad of paper so I could draw cartoons and just skip the whole speaking thing altogether. Cell phones are totally amazing here. You think your American cell phones are neat, with your little tetris game on it? Tell it to the marines. These cell phones have 1) Songs that will play when the phone rings, and not just a bunch of tones in a row, but actual digital music (or sounds: a guy I know has it sound like an old fashioned European phone). 2) Pretty high-resolution color screens both on the inside (most phones open up, with the screen on the top and the keypad on the bottom) and on the outside, which tells you the time and sometimes, who is calling. 3) Just when you were wondering how you would get new pictures on the screen on your phone, well, they have cameras on them too. You can take a picture of anything and make it the background, send it to a friend, program it to come up when someone calls, anything. 4) Network video games that you can play against your friends. I guess there's some samurai game where you and your friends can chop each other up wherever you are. And all of these phones are about the size of about the smallest phone in the US. I think there's some difference in phone standard, like that the Japanese phones only check their reception every five seconds instead of continuously, and it allows them to have a smaller battery so they can fit more cool bells and whistles on 'em. Our phone doesn't have any of that stuff on it though. Our phone is lame. ...Which means it's about five times better than the cell phone I had in the US. Kudos to the Empire of Japan. Keep it up guys. .: posted by Zander Cannon 10:10 PM Tokyo Time 8.28.2002 We're back from Nikko, and we had a great time boatin', eatin', and anniversarizin' up at Lake Chuzenji. We went on a paddleboat ride around the lake, which, I might point out, was not built to be pedaled by people that are six feet tall. Julie thought it was plenty comfortable, but I felt like I was in clown college. So we tootled on out to the middle of this lake and took pictures (again, pending) and just marveled at how pretty everything is at a mountain lake in Japan. The paddleboats, I should mention, had three different designs: swans, teapots, or helicopters. Random! Someone at the paddleboat factory is having a good laugh about that one. Okay, remember how there are bats everywhere in Japan? Add this to the list: huge spiders. Julie and I went for a walk at about seven p.m. looking for a place to have dinner and we just happened by this shack right next to the road and what was lurking right there in a web under the overhang? Well, duh, a spider, but this spider was, no kidding, about an inch and a quarter long, and that was just its body. Its abdomen had to be the size of a large acorn. And the cool part was, just then a dragonfly flew into the web and got stuck. It didn't take long for Spider-san to move on over and wrap that guy up for dinner. It was like the Discovery Channel. Okay, and speaking of looking around for a place to eat dinner at seven p.m.-- Good luck in Lake Chuzenji. Every place in town was closed and dark by 7:01. There was always the option of eating at the hotel, but it was about 8000 yen for two people. Yeah, right. Maybe on our fiftieth anniversary. So we went to the local convenience store and got the traditional anniversary meal of Cup Noodle Ramen, Japanese Pringles, Pucca strawberry cookies, and big cans of Sapporo beer. Delish. This has little to do with Japan, but we had dinner with the Roses from Melbourne, Australia last night, and they taught us the number one best Australian slang word ever. Rose Macdonald felt like her coffee was not quite as hot as it should be, and so she put it on the stove to heat it up a bit and said sorry that she was being such a "sooky-la-la". "What in the name of Paul Hogan is a sooky-la-la?" we asked. Apparently it is their name for someone who is being kind of a crybaby. I'll tell you, "sooky-la-la" has officially replaced "cry-baby" in my vocabulary forever. Sorry world, colorful regionalisms from Australia beat out clarity any day. No lie, internet on the second of September. I would promise, but I've been plenty wrong about this so far. Updates will be more frequent then, I promise. I'm not in love with our current internet system (paying for internet access at the local video arcade), but the world must be told of the wonders we witness here. Boy, I'm out of things to talk about today. I'll have to make myself a list next time. Hope everything's good in the USA. .: posted by Zander Cannon 5:35 PM Tokyo Time 8.25.2002 Okey doke! We're out on vacation, again, in Nikko, again, at the Turtle Inn, AGAIN, but this time it's our one year anniversary! Wow, married one full year. That's pretty great. We look at all the people married only two, three, ten months and turn up our noses. Hah! You people know nothing. Talk to us in six months. So we're at the Turtle Inn again, where we had a GREAT ofuro (hot bath) last night, and a lovely meal at a coffee house around the block. We're having an excellent time, and we are heading up to Lake Chuzenji today to check out the mountain waterfalls, the even better (so we hear) natural hot springs, and generally have a great time together. We spent the day yesterday in Nikko Edomura. Mura means village, and Edo is the name of Tokyo during the, what else, Edo period a couple hundred years ago, when Japan cut itself off from the west and had three hundred plus years of peace. Say... that's not a bad plan; I think I'll cut myself off from the west too. Oh, keep your shirt on, I'm just kidding. Edo Village is the Japanese equivalent of the Renaissance festival. It's a recreation of a Japanese feudal town, with samurai residences, jailhouses, shops, and mysterious houses full of ninjas. It was totally awesome. Some of the features were really interesting, some were unbelievably cheesy, and it was really great to see so many Far East elements treated as normal things, rather than how they would be in America, as the "honorable mysteries of the Orient". If you ever wondered how ninjas are perceived in Japan, think pirates. Going into the "Mysterious House of the Ninja" was, in practically every way, like going into "Black Bart's Cave" at a State Fair or something. You walk in, there's lighting tricks, skeletons, a booming voice over the speakers probably telling you to turn back now, and dark tunnels to walk through that are filled with scary things, like a moving floor. The main difference was that the ninjas are known for their mystical illusions, and there were a bunch of rooms that had everything all wacky-like, such as a floor at 45 degrees or an upside-down room with all the furniture (i.e. pillows) nailed to the ceiling. The sideways room even had a ninja mannequin sitting sideways on the wall. Mysterious! Right toward the end, there was an opening in the wall and what looked like a legendary, important, and of course, mysterious ninja scroll was sitting inside it. Naturally, we took the bait and reached in for it, and it was suddenly replaced, through some ancient mysterious ninja trick like mirrors, with piece of poop! For real! That of course started the booming recorded ninja laugh in the room and we thought, "what the heck is up with ninjas anyway?" More on ninjas and pirates later. We're off to Lake Chuzenji. .: posted by Zander Cannon 10:03 AM Tokyo Time 8.23.2002 Gomen nasai! So sorry, but even though we are getting our phone line bought and figured out today, we will still be without phone or internet for another week. So all those pictures I promised will have to wait. And sorry about the lag in updating. We were feeling pretty broke for the last few days, so we couldn't get over to the internet place until Julie's first check came through. Never have I seen such big numbers! I felt like we were rich, but that's how it looks when it's... let me see...119.99 yen to the dollar. We're so used to assuming that 1000 yen is about ten dollars, because you use it pretty much like a ten dollar bill, that it's kind of weird to check up on it and realize, wow, I guess that's about eight dollars. Today, anyway. Candy. Everybody loves candy. We have only experienced a little bit of the candy here, being that we are so dissuaded from eating by the intense, omnipresent heat that we just eat as little as necessary to survive and leave it at that. But so far, this is what we've had: 1. Crunky. This is like a Nestles Crunch bar, except with semisweet chocolate rather than milk chocolate. It's delish. The same company makes another bar, also semisweet but without the crisped rice, called Ghana. Boy, that conjures up images of some good eating. 2. Kit Kat. Like all other imports, it's the same. And it's everywhere. And they have different flavors, like pineapple and orange. We didn't try those yet, but mmmm.... Kit Kat. 3. Um... there are a couple other ones that we tried, but they were in Japanese and they aren't right in front of me so I can't tell you what they were called. But at the restaurant called Maramara they have some candies that taste like Coke. And we got a tin of hard candy at the Hyaku En store that was pretty good. Boy, this is a terrible list. Okay, I'll try this again in a few days when I have better information. One more thing, 'cause I'm late for lunch. Maybe it was the heat, maybe the change in diet, or maybe all the biking around or something, but I have lost a ton of weight. I weighed 205 pounds when we left the US, and here our scale says 85!!! Oh my God!! I'm dying!! Oh, wait, right, kilograms. Still, 85 times 2.2 is uh... carry the one... hold on... wow, 187 pounds. I'm as thin as the proverbial rail. I went running a couple times this week and my knees don't even hurt. Japan is cool. .: posted by Zander Cannon 12:00 PM Tokyo Time 8.19.2002 Okay. We are T minus two days from internet access, so pictures are coming. Shad has been good enough to put a few general ones up already, such as Japanese money, Tokyo Big Sight, etc. But the real stuff is coming soon. Cars are small here. Everyone knows that Japanese cars are small, but these aren't the little Nissans that you see people driving around Anytown USA in; these are like Chuck E Cheese cars. There's some certain designation that your car can have, like having half the horsepower or something, that gives a person a yellow license plate instead of a white one and usually is on a car that is about three quarters as long and three quarters as wide as a small American car. Seriously! It's incredible. They even have those fancy new Mini Coopers here, but they've got to be, like, Micro Coopers. It looks like they took a Mini Cooper and put it through the dryer on the highest setting. Same with the drivers, as they would have to be to fit into these little cars. It really changes your perspective, too. I saw someone driving a Ford Mustang the other day and it looked like a freakin' Suburban. Video games. Okay, everywhere you go there is a video arcade. There's about four in a three block radius in downtown Utsunomiya. Now, just like in the US, they have realized here that practically any video game can be had on a Playstation 2 or X Box or whatever, so the ones in the arcade are all ones that have some sort of fantastically complicated input system. For example, just like in the states, they have a ton of linked-up car-racing games, a bunch of shoot-all-the-zombies-with-light-guns games, and a couple race-around-on-a-jetski-or-motorcycle games. But if you've been to a video arcade in the states lately, you know that they also have dancing video games, where you have to keep just the right beat on a floor pad or else you lose. Okay. Imagine that as the starting point, then fill up the arcade with games that have that same philosphy but with every single input you could come up with. Every game has a beat and you have to dance, drum, bongo, traditional Japanese drum, run, sing, talk, play the guitar, you name it, to that beat. They even have typing games. IN THE ARCADE. That would go over like a ton of bricks in the US. Zombies or monsters will jump up and try to kill you, just like in the light gun games, but they have a word written on them and you have to type it to blow their head off. There's another typing game in which you have to train a virtual dog to perform tricks by typing things on targets that he runs by. There's another game that gives you a hilt of a sword and senses your sword strokes against virtual samurai. There's another one that senses your movements as you perform martial arts moves. Another has you boxing against virtual opponents and can sense when you duck. Another has you and a friend running like mad on a floor pad to make your respective characters win a track meet. And sadly, there is not a Pac-man in sight. The closest they have are a few old-school space shoot-em-ups like Galaga or Raiden. But say you're a girl, and all this sounds like total crap so far? Well, remember in some Chuck E Cheeses or Showbiz Pizza places where they would have those machines that had little bulldozers or something that pushed coins forward, and you would semistrategically drop new coins in to force some of them off into your cup? 'Member?!? Okay, how about thirty of them, all with a slightly different twist, like with candy, or toys, and you operate a crane that brings new toys up to be pushed off into your little bin. Or you have a gun that shoots coins up into targets and starts a slot-machine-like spinner. Or you move an arm of some kind into a spinning turntable full of prizes to try to force them off. That one had the equivalent of a carny barker there to holler all about what was going on. And crane games? Like 'em? Good, 'cause they're freakin' everywhere. Big cranes, little cranes, prizes that are just Hello Kitty, prizes that are just Winnie the Pooh, prizes that are impossible-to-pick-up boxes. Okay, seriously. I think they're a big hoax. No one's ever won anything in those stupid machines. And this doesn't even include the betting games. You bet on a slot horse race, or a virtual soccer match, or a Mah-Jongg tournament. And there are even games where you have to drive a bus. That's right, a bus. And there are no zombies to run over either. You just have to get your bus to the bus stop on time without missing any turns. Oh, THAT'LL get the blood pumping. The one thing they didn't have, and I can't quite believe it, was pinball. I guess pinball is a uniquely American game, but they have absolutely none. And that's all I ever want to play in a video arcade. Man, what a gyp. .: posted by Zander Cannon 7:16 PM Tokyo Time Hi everyone, Zander and I have been exploring the city today. We started out by riding our bikes down by the river, which we'll call the Utsunomiya River, because we don't know the difference yet. It was a little misty down on the path, which was almost like cobblestone, except sharper. It was a really peaceful ride except that without a car I now worry about our bike tires. These bikes get us everywhere! This week we're going to find out where there's a bike shop and how to ask them to fix a flat. I'm really fond of my bike...it only has one speed and I can sit up perfectly straight in my seat. It has a basket on the front and on the back, so its very practical for visiting the 100 Yen store. The seat is a little bit torn and the foam inside is slightly exposed, which acts like a sponge with all of this rain! I used to have a permanent wet spot on my butt until I put a showercap over the seat. Problem solved. Actually, there is a bicycle graveyard behind our apartment building, so Zanders going to swap one of the seats for me. At the end of our ride we stopped by a gyoza place for lunch. Its the specialty here in Utsunomiya and it shows with all of the gyoza restaurants around. We picked this one because it has stone sculptures of cartoon characters on the patio. (Mickey Mouse, Pokemon, and a super gyoza with a K on his chest...not sure what his name is yet) The food was good, and I learned that peek-a-boo is a game that toddlers world-wide just adore. The little boy was just set free from his highchair and was cracking up at our little game. It was so cute until he filled his nostrils with his little pointer fingers and wanted me to laugh. Sorry kid, game over. On our way to Utsunomiya from the Tokyo JET orientation, we stopped at a truck stop for lunch. It was interesting because it had vending machines covering all of the walls. You can buy snacks or your actual meal from the machines. We ordered noodles from the machine and it popped out a ticket that we gave to the cook. I love this, its so efficient. BUT, the most interesting part of this stop were the pet beatles that were for sale at the front entrance. They are about 3 inches long and have a sharp horn on their face. With this horn they can pierce a container full of jelly open and have their lunch! Totally disgusting! I thought this might be a truck stop fad, but there are kits for these beetles everywhere. The grocery store has the little jelly containers with 'cute' little beetles on the front. Every department store here has a floor that's almost like a carnival for kids. They have video games and photo booths and all kinds of things that kids like...the beetles are there. Well, we're going to head for home. Hopefully you'll see some pictures of our apartment soon. Until then, just remember that you should never judge a girl by her ugly drapes. Love, Julie .: posted by Julie Cannon 7:04 PM Tokyo Time 8.16.2002 Just bought a monitor today. It will be delivered tomorrow, and we have our Gaikokujin cards too, so we'll have internet access at the beginning of next week. Double Huzzah! Just want to let you people know: if you ever want to buy a monitor in Japan, it is very helpful if you know Japanese. Ahh, the subtle necessities of Japan are slowly being revealed. However, I have noticed, and this goes against all philosophies of being a respectful foreigner, that in certain situations, speaking English with a Japanese accent will get you somewhere. The Japanese word for monitor is monita. The Japanese word for computer is konpyuta. I know it sounds terrible, but it does work. Pulling back your eyes with your fingers does NOT help, I should add. One more thing: about a week ago, we were at a Hyaku En (100 Yen) store, and there were a bunch of kids running around and chasing each other on these ramps that were toward the front of the store. When we were bagging up our stuff, we looked over and watched them for a second and saw that the girl doing the chasing was pulling the skin around her eyes up and down, the opposite of making oneself look Japanese. We must be pretty scary pair if the kids can terrorize each other by looking like us. Here's something else you may not know about Japan. Practically everything is done in cash.  You have to carry around a fortune just to live. We paid for our monitor (30,000 yen) in cash, and get this-- you even pay your bills in cash. You get a bill sent to your house that has a barcode on it, then you take it down to the local 7-11 (yep, they got 'em), where they will scan it and add it to whatever you are buying at the time. And you can pay for just about anything with as big a bill as you would like. People would smack you in the face in the US if you tried to pay for anything under 20 bucks with a fifty dollar bill, but you can pay for something that's sen en (1000 yen, just under $10) with an ichiman bill (10,000 yen, just under $100) and no one will even blink. That is nice, though it was a good reminder in the states that you were spending too much money when people looked at you with pure hatred in their eyes for daring to pass a twenty at 8:30 in the morning.
.: posted by Zander Cannon 4:55 PM Tokyo Time Hi everyone! You might be wondering why, only now, after weeks in Japan that I'm finally writing? Well, the truth is that I thought it would be way too hard for me to do (computerally speaking). Zander gave me a quick lesson though, and here I am. Actually, I was typing away last night, when a HUGE thunderstorm came through and knocked out the power and erased my message! So far we've experienced more lightning and thunder than I've ever seen before. It was like a strobe lighting up our apartment last night. Its very common here to see two people on one bike, one person steering and pedaling, and the other person holding up the umbrella. We haven't tried that yet, but are getting brave enough to drive separately with our own umbrellas up. I'll keep you posted on our progress, so far, too scary for more than 5 seconds at a time. In Zander's last message he talked about our day trip to Mt. Nikko. Utsunomiya is a wonderful city, partially because its so easy to hop on a train and go anywhere we want to. Nikko is a popular get-away, and we'll definitely go back. (We have reservations booked there already for our Anniversary) It was so quiet and peaceful. We saw some traditional Japanese gardens and even stumbled on a grove filled with rows and rows of stone Buddhas. Some of them were missing their heads, but throughout time people have placed other rocks on top, as a replacement and moss has joined them together. Just beautiful. Work has been really easy for the first few weeks. Unfortunately I won't get to go into my schools until the first week in September. I'm so excited to meet my students and the teachers that I'll be working with. It looks like I'll teach about 3-4 classes per day, and the rest of the time will be spent studying Japanese or working on future lesson plans. (If you're a Turtle Lake student reading this, I can't wait to be able to tell my new students all about you. You are the sweetest kids that I know! I hope you're having a great summer and are getting ready to try some fun art projects with Mrs. Nara. Remember to always do your best!) Until September, I will be meeting with other JETS from my area at the Utsunomiya City Hall. We are all Jr. High teachers that will teach an Elementary class on Fridays. So, we've been getting together everyday and learning about life skills in Japan. Fortunately, one of the things I've learned about is the 100 Yen store! Oh my gosh, it has a magic that just cannot compare to any Dollar Store that I've ever been to. (Rebecca, Savers is still my favorite) I feel very fortunate to be placed here, and not just because of the 100 Yen store. There is such a strong support system here with other JETs. Many other JETs are the only English speaker in their town, with no other JETs closer than an hour away. This is a great placement for us, but it wouldn't feel near as much like an adventure without Zander. Its so fun to make new discoveries everyday, and have someone to share them with. Oh, our downstairs neighbor is in the program too, and she's been a wonderful help to us. She has a cat that likes to bring her presents...the latest gift being a snake! But she's also brought in bats (which are everywhere here!), mice, lizards and yes, even a RAT...We will not be getting ANY animals here in Japan! Hopefully... Before I go, I just want to say thanks to all of you that read this and think about us so often. You are missed, loved, thought of daily, and we REALLY would love for you to come and visit. More updates on the way from me, I'm unstoppable now, computerally speaking. Love, Julie .: posted by Julie Cannon 4:37 PM Tokyo Time 8.13.2002 I've got a couple things to write about this time. First of all, I went to Comiket, the big Japanese comic convention in Tokyo, with my friend Bill MacPhee, and you would really not believe your eyes. For anyone who has been to an American comic convention, you will understand the comparisons I'm about to make. Anyone else, try to keep up. It was at a convention center called Tokyo Big Sight , which is in a section south of Tokyo whose name I can't remember which is reclaimed land in the Tokyo bay. I guess they threw heaps of garbage and stuff into the bay until it filled up enough that they could start to pave it over and plunk big buildings on it. I wouldn't guess that it would be the best place to hang around when an earthquake is going on. So as for this convention center, well, imagine, say, the San Diego convention center crammed full of people, and then double it, and then you have one wing of this Big Sight place. There were 400,000 people at Big Sight that day, and about a thousand of them had terrifically intricate costumes that they wore out on a patio for people to take their pictures. It was about 40 degrees Celsius that day, so the guy dressed as My Neighbor Totoro was having a hell of a time. We got a bunch of photos, though the guy that was about six feet tall and 160 pounds dressed as Pikachu covered up his face with a fan as I tried to snap one of him. The unofficial rule in the "Cosplay" area is that you have to ask permission to take photos, generally because the people don't want to be photographed out of character, so every time someone would get ready to take a picture, the costumed people would strike the most theatrical and melodramatic of poses so that they would be seen just as they imagined they would be. As for the convention itself, I thought that it would be a big time comic convention in terms of its exhibitors, but apparently the rule was that none of the comics there were professionally published. Everything there was small press, or Dojenshi, as they call it. So for you people in the American comics industry, imagine APE or SPX, except that instead of 250 exhibitors, you have 22,000. And in fact, every day of this three day convention, they switch out all the exhibitors so that everyone can have a chance to sell. The sheer size of it was mind-boggling. One other thing: the show was free for attendees. Unlike the San Diego Comicon, where you have to pay $20 per day for the privilege of spending a couple hundred bucks on comics and things, you could just walk right in and walk right out, and not spend a thin dime (or 10 yen piece). Not bad, since the general quality, from what I could tell, was only average. As an example, about half of one of the football field-sized rooms was dedicated to naked versions of popular Japanese characters, whose creators are apparently harder to sue than you would expect. And the rest seemed at about the same level of quality as American small press work; some good, some bad, some horrible, it's just that there were a hundred times as many. It really gives an insight into the japanese comics market when you see how many people there are that have honest-to-Buddha hopes and dreams of being a manga-ka. I mean, it's like a real job here. Must be nice.In other news, Julie and I have come up to Nikko for the day with two other JETs, or actually, one other JET, and another (like me) JET hanger-on. Rose from Melbourne, Australia (the JET), and the other Rose from Melbourne, Australia (the hanger-on) and we caught a train at the station in Utsunomiya and traveled about forty-five minutes west to a beautiful area of Japan, where the mountains are covered without an inch to spare with huge mossy trees and there are Buddhist and Shinto shrines everywhere. We came and looked at the Toshogu shrine, where they have the carvings of the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys on the eaves of their buildings. We wandered in, and, well, we've got a bunch of pictures in our Compact Flash card, and we'll have it to you soon, but you'll have to wait for now. I shall simply state for now that they are unbelievable. This evening, we headed into the town of Nikko and got a couple rooms at a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), where Julie and I walked into our rooms (after taking off our shoes, naturally, since there were tatami mats on the floor), then headed down for an ofuro (hot spring bath). You don't wash yourself in the bath here, but rather take a shower off to the side of the tub and get as clean as you can, then get in and soak in the rather hot water for fifteen minutes or so. It's a public bath, so you have to keep it pretty clean for the next person, and it really is nice to take a bath without feeling like you're stewing in your own filth. After I got out of the bath, I have to admit I have never felt so good. Certainly not since we arrived in this sweat bath of a country. I think the fact that you are so hot in the water that you are dripping sweat really cleans out your pores and makes you feel just a little bit cheerier. I promised Julie that when we have a million dollars we'll have one of those baths in our house. Right now Julie and Rose and Rose are out getting some coffee and I'm just clickety clacking away getting this weblog updated. And every person that's walked by me in the lobby of this ryokan has been either British or Australian. I am starting to feel like a tourist, rather than an immigrant, and I'm not sure I like it. Oh, another thing. The only thing to eat that was cheap at Tokyo Big Sight was Makodonodoru (McDonalds), so I got to try a Japanese Big Mac for the first time. And the shocking truth of it is: it is EXACTLY the same. I did not distinguish a single difference in either the Big Mac or the fries. I really couldn't believe it. Those McDonalds guys really have this fast food thing down. I did like my Qoo soda a little better than Coke, however. A word on sodas: 1. Qoo. It tastes like Tang, or some other fruity sugar drink. Not carbonated. Pretty good, I think. 2. Smap! It tastes like a super-carbonated, super intense Welch's grape. Blech. Didn't even finish it, despite the name. 3. Diet Coke. Julie has labeled it a major disappointment. I think it tastes almost exactly like Coke, which in my mind is a hell of an improvement over the vile swill that calls itself Diet Coke in the US. Julie's theory is that it isn't actually sugar-free. I think Julie needs to get her priorities straight, cola-wise. 4. Aquarius. Kind of a carbonated grapefruit/pear soda, by my reckoning. It's okay. Not as good as the US drink Fresca. 5. Pocari Sweat. Best name ever, first of all. Also, pretty tasty. Along the lines of Gatorade, as it's intended as a sports drink that replaces electrolytes and what have you. 6. Calpis. Below the name on the label it says "Sukkuri up!" and God only knows what that means. Similarly, this drink is practically impossible to compare to anything and/or describe. It looks like skim milk; white until the edges, where it's semi-transparent and grey. It tastes like a sweet, creamy, and very slightly carbonated milk. Actually, you know what-- it tastes like the milk after you ate all the Frosted Flakes, and then you put just a dash of Sprite into the bowl. Ah, sukkuri up! More on drinks as we experience them. .: posted by Zander Cannon 11:03 PM Tokyo Time 8.9.2002 Okay, now that you all know everything there is to know about Japan, let's move on to other little things that are interesting about our time here. 1. Well, first, you may not know that there are little free internet rooms here and there. You just pop in, and you can surf around, though they ask you to be considerate and keep your surfing to a maximum of 2 hours. TWO HOURS! Boy, they sure are tough on people who use their computers for free. The other day Julie and I were in one of those places when all of a sudden about thirty little kindergarteners come in. This isn't Tokyo, so it's a good bet none of them had ever seen anyone who isn't Japanese before. So a few of them just walked on over and stood right behind our chairs and stared at us, their mouths wide open. Then they would turn to their friends and giggle and jibberjabber in Japanese, and then stare some more. Then one girl said to us in Japanese that she is roku (six), and asked us how old we are. I told her nijuukyuu (29) and sanjuu (30), and they gasped in amazement. So they asked us our names and where we are from, and we told them and showed them on a map where Minneapolis is. Then I showed them a little book I had with pictures in it, and we played a little game called "what is this animal called in your language?" They thought that was fun in kind of a limited way, and they as they left, they said *See you!" which is apparently one of the first things they teach in English here. It was pretty fun, but I don't really love it when little kids have better language skills than I do. 2. Another thing: I'm not really updating these weblogs in the middle of the night; the time that's posted is when they go in on Central Time, which is about fourteen hours different from Japan time. To know what time it is here, just add 1 hour for Eastern time, 2 hours for Central, 3 for Mountain, and 4 for Pacific, then switch AM for PM, or vice versa. So the last post was made at 6:44 PM here. Keep that in mind when you want to give us a ring. I'm serious. 3. One of the big pop culture things that's going on now is that Japan's equivalent of Mickey Mouse, a robot boy named Tetsuwan Atom or "Astro Boy" is about to be born. In the original comics in the 50s, the stories were set in the future, and on April 7th, 2003, Astro Boy was born. So on that day, from what I gather, there is going to be some sort of big to-do, perhaps a movie release or parade or whatever. All the department stores have countdown displays for the big day. 4. Oh, here was a cool thing I found in Tokyo our first week here. There's this soda pop, sort of a light citrus-type drink, that has the coolest cork I've ever seen. When you get it, there is a little round thing that looks like an upside down top hat that rests on the top of the bottle. Just inside the neck of the bottle is a glass ball in a plastic collar that stops it up. You use the top hat thing to push the glass ball downwards into the bottle, where it falls into a section of the bottle that is pinched off. Okay, so we have the main part of the bottle at the bottom, then a little section that's pinched off, then the opening. When you drink, you hold the bottle in a certain way so that the ball rests on two little dimples in its pinched-off section, and the ball doesn't roll up to block the opening. God knows if this is clear, but seriously folks, one of these days I'll get pictures of this up on the web. Okay, I have heard tell that one can just wander into a convenience store and buy a prepaid cell phone. That is what I am going to do right now. I'll update you on what the phone number might be as it happens. Unless I don't know you in which case forget it. .: posted by Zander Cannon 2:57 PM Tokyo Time 8.7.2002 Okay, here are some more things you may or may not know about Japan. 1. Most of the toilets in public restrooms are just porcelain holes in the floor. You have to squat down to do your business. Mercifully, I have not had any need of these things just yet. Julie comes out of the bathroom with a haunted look on her face and refuses to discuss it. Perhaps the entire subject is best left alone.2. On a brighter note, the toilet in our house, and in most of the other houses I've seen, have their own little room and on top of the tank (the back of the toilet, you know) there is a little sink where, after you flush the toilet, the water that would just be filling the tank comes out a spigot for you to wash your hands. I think that's the greatest thing that anyone has ever come up with. It just about makes up for the barbaric public restrooms. Also, there are two directions you can turn the flush handle; one for tai, or big, and one for shi, or small. The Japanese sure know how to conserve their water. 3. One of the ways they conserve their water is by serving it by the shot glass in restaurants. On a hot day you feel like a camel, just slugging back glass after glass. 4. There are a lot of bats here. You could see a hundred in a night, just swooping around our apartment and parking lot. I think they are awesome. Julie thinks they are gross. Pfhhf. What a girl. 5. Ramen is dirt cheap here but it doesn't have the same college student connotations. The level of quality is slightly higher and you don't have to be so ashamed to say you had it for dinner. 6. What the Japanese call futons are not what we would call futons. The futon I slept on in college was a normal American futon, and therefore about five times the thickness of a Japanese futon. Good God, was I sore the first couple mornings. I'm starting to get used to it, but even sleeping on two on top of each other, I still feel like I'm on a little camping mattress. The upside is that an American futon would be hell to pick up and put in the closet. These are light as a feather. Cold comfort for a sore shoulder, however. 7. Here's a weird one: Clerks and salespeople greet you as you come in the store with "Irasshaimase" (Welcome) but don't look at you as they do it, and hold the last syllable for about an extra second or two. And they will do it when no one is coming into the store. And they'll do it loud. It kind of makes you jump. I think it's a polite thing to periodically say to customers as they shop, but it's unnerving, especially since they appear to be saying it to no one in particular. IrasshaimasEEEEEEEEH....! A lot of the other JET participants here are from Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, and so I initiated a discussion on embarrassing celebrities at lunch one day, after Rose from Melbourne mentioned that the Australians are humiliated by Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I myself can't understand it, because I think that Steve Irwin is a complete nutball genius and should be considered Australia's number one son. Anyway, we determined that Great Britain's embarrassing celebrity is Anne Robinson from The Weakest Link, Canada's is Celine Dion, and America's is Dennis Rodman. New Zealand seems not to have any embarrassing celebrities so far. This was about a five minute conversation, so if anyone reading this has any more suggestions for any country's embarrassing celebrities, please send a note to zander@zandercannon.com. Off to play pachinko. .: posted by Zander Cannon 6:44 PM Tokyo Time 8.6.2002 I thought these updates would come fast and furious once we got to Utsunomiya, but I'm afraid I was overestimating the speed with which we could get our phone line/ADSL set up. We need Gaikokujin cards here to do anything -- they serve as our IDs for everything, so we're without a phone or anything else for that matter until that goes through (one and a half, two weeks maybe). So I'm staying at home and drawing, and studying my Japanese, occasionally venturing out and buying something at the grocery store. Okay, time for a list of things you may or may not know about Japan. 1. It's wicked hot here in the summer. I'm not kidding. High nineties (F) and unbearably humid. Everyone carries a handkerchief around to wipe sweat off their faces. People hand out fans and tissue packets with advertisements on them on the sidewalk. We're getting quite the fan collection already. 2. They drive on the left side of the road here. Not exactly news to most people, but it is hard to get used to when you are trying to bike around properly. 3. 95 percent of bikes here are what at least I think of as "grandma bikes". Basket in front, sit up straight, pleasantly curved handlebars. I've seen maybe two mountain bikes and no road bikes. We have grandma bikes too, and it makes me feel very civilized when I ride it. 4. Half of all t-shirts have English phrases on them. None of them make any sense. We've only been here a week, but already we hardly even notice them anymore. We have some favorites, like "The Challenge from Cat Street" or "Bikini Girl" (a list will be forthcoming). 5. Pachinko is unbelievable. It's like an upright pinball game with no skill involved. Actually, it's a whole bunch of pins stuck into a vertical playing field and balls are shot up to the top, then fall, bouncing off these pins until they land in a little bonus hole or, much much more likely, in the bottom, where you don't get them back. You pay maybe 500 yen and get perhaps 100 balls, and they shoot at varying speeds, according to how you set the knob, which is the only thing you actually control. We saw guys in there who had seven, ten baskets of balls (~1000 balls each) stacked behind their chairs, and a ball in each ear to block out the sound, just mechanically feeding more balls into the machine. Gambling for money is illegal in Japan, so you win prizes instead of money, and you can redeem the prizes for cash at little stores down the street. 6. They have the coolest system of textured tiles for their sidewalks for blind people. On long straightaways, the tiles (going down the middle of the sidewalk, so they also serve to separate the flow of foot traffic) have ridges that run the direction of the sidewalk. As you get closer to the intersection, the ridges get shorter, and as you arrive at the intersection, they become circular bumps. Wicked cool. 7. Instead of dollar stores, they have Hyaku En (100 yen) stores, which is a little less than a dollar. But the difference is-- instead of having a whole bunch of useless garbage, they have a TON of stuff that, I admit, might just be cool because we're in Japan, but is really rather useful. The one nearest our house is three stories tall and has books, snacks, dishes, stationery, toys, etc. It isn't just leftover stuff, either, because it's not that everything is UNDER 100 yen, it's that everything IS 100 yen, so the ones worth more balance out the ones worth less. It's tough to get Julie out of the 100 yen store. 8. Everybody knows that manga (comics) are everywhere in Japan. But did you know that little old men go through the trash in the train stations and pick out all the manga, then sell it on the street from little carts? And when the manga are old and the edges get yellow, they use a belt sander to grind them down a little and make them look new? And that on recycling day, you can go through the alleys and find bundles of manga that people are throwing away? I love Japan. 9. Every popular cartoon character has its own cookies, candy, toys, manga, animated TV show, toilet paper, brand of ramen, cereal, and in at least a few cases, branch of a bank (Hello Kitty was the one I saw). I bought the cookies with Doraemon on them. They said, "PLEASE REMEMBER ME. I am Doraemon, cat-like robot from 23rd century of the future." Can't argue with that. The cookies were good, and I got a little Doraemon toy with it. Did I mention that I love Japan? I'm awfully sorry there aren't any pictures to go along with all this, but until we get our computer and ADSL up and running, we can't upload pictures to the web. So they're staying on the camera for now, but soon the world of Japan will be open to you via our cool little digital camera. And for all our friends, sorry email has been slow to come your way. Once we are on line, we will remedy that as quickly as possible. .: posted by Zander Cannon 3:38 PM Tokyo Time 8.2.2002 Well, konnichiwa! I'm typing to you now from the computers at the Board of Education In Utsunomiya. There's so much to tell-- we've been in Utsunomiya a couple days and before that we were staying in Tokyo for Julie's orientation. I'm having a hell of a time typing here because even though they use a Western Keyboard and basically have to type their Japanese in Romaji (Roman letters), the layout of the keyboard is a little screwy insofar as apostrophes and so forth are concerned. Okay. I'll probably have to continue catching everyone up on the Tokyo stay over the course of the next several installments, so for right now let's just say that it was everything that Tokyo has always promised to be, just hotter, and with fewer ninjas. Here in Utsunomiya, we've got our apartment all set up and we had to have the greatest predecessors in the entire world. They really left us just about everything for a very reasonable price. We've got a TV, a VCR, a small boom box, desks, dressers, etc. One of the things that we were really nervous about with our apartment was that each of the appliances or whatever that use hot water has to have the gas water heater turned on separately. So, next to the shower, washing machine, and kitchen sink, there's a knob to turn on the gas, then another knob to turn on the heat, and then a third knob to control the intensity of the water. Hearing about all this before we came terrified us, but actually it's come to be really pretty easy. Okay, I understand that we're about to leave the BOE, so I'm going to have to continue this later. It might be a while until we ger internet access, since it costs something like 20,000 - 30,000 yen (~200 - 300 dollars). More soon. .: posted by Zander Cannon 12:14 PM Tokyo Time 
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