My First Earthquake

Luckily my earthquake virginity was taken from me gently. I was in my apartment working on my laptop when I had a strange sensation. The laptop screen and the wall were subtly moving in relation to each other, or maybe it was me moving. I felt slightly off-balance. I looked up and realised the whole apartment was flexing slightly with a gentle rhythm. I suddenly realised it was an earthquake, but it was so subtle that I was unsure of whether it was worth doing anything. There was no sound like I had imagined there would be either. After a couple of seconds it was over. I got up and went to the window, wondering if it had been worse for anyone else or if there would be another tremor, but all was calm.

Countryside

There was a public holiday recently, and Chihiro's aunt and uncle invited us along with her younger sisters for a drive around the Fuji area. One of the highlights was a small dairy farm that had the absolute best icecream I have EVER tasted before. It's going to be tough going back to eating regular icecream. For lunch we had cold soba noodles with tenpura and marinated cucumber - very popular during summer. Did I mention this part of Japan gets up to 30 degrees at this time of year?

These waterfalls were pretty spectacular. I like the name of the name of the first one - Otodome, which means "stop the noise". The second one looks very inviting on a hot day, but the water is absolutely freezing. I couldn't last 30 seconds with just my feet in.

I just love the greenery in Japan, though sometimes it's interrupted quite rudely by powerlines or highways. This bridge is part of a massive new national highway that ran out of funding and remains in a state of purgatory.

Some photos of the countryside on the way back.

Paul's Visit

A friend from Australia has been visiting, and I've had great fun hearing about his adventures in Cambodia and showing him around this part of Japan. We also had a fantastic roll-your-own sushi dinner together with a Japanese friend of his he met in Brisbane too. We went to a few places like the Hiroshige Art Museum (online gallery), and Kunozan Toshogu. I also got to go back to the Toro ruins and this time the shop was open so I could get one of those cool alien-looking clay figurines. I only realised just now that I was wearing a shirt of a person doing the same thing!

We had a day driving around Mount Fuji with Paul's friend too, and although the summer skies are pretty hazy and clouds obscured it during the day, we did get a good view as the sun set. We also went to one of the caves in the dense forest around Mount Fuji. Actually there are many caves in the area and the whole forest area is pretty treacherous because the lava crust has collapsed unevenly. It's said that compasses don't work in the area because of local magnetism, and that campers have been lost for days and even died there. It's also common for suicidal people to wander off into the forest to die or hang themselves, and hikers find many dead bodies each year. At first I thought it was being greatly exaggerated, but it really is a big problem. The forest itself is spectacular to be in though (just don't stray from the path!)

On a lighter note, here's a helpful sign for travellers. It's even more bizarre because the Japanese actually says something completely different about putting your rubbish in the bin instead of throwing it out the window. I wonder if Australian tourist signs have similar mis-translations (though strange English seems to be a bit of a fad here, and is often done on purpose). Oh, and this truck had such a bad exhaust problem I had to take a picture. The poor car stuck behind it couldn't pass it either because the smoke was too thick to see oncoming traffic.

Tanabata Festival

It's also called the "Star Festival" and is celebrated because of a folk tale about people who lived in the heavens. There was a girl who wove cloth for the gods, and although she worked very hard she didn't do anything else. So her father, the god of the sky, introduced her to a nice boy who was a cow herder on the other side of the milky way (also a workaholic). They quickly fell in love and spent all their time together. In fact they were so hot for each other they didn't do any work, and the cows became sick and the gods clothes wore out. The girl's father got angry and so he separated them permanently, but they became too sad to work. So he lets them see each other once a year on this day (if they work hard). The paper decorations everywhere usually have people's wishes written on them, along with a wish for the boy and girl to be allowed to see each other this year.

Little Surprises

Even after six months of living in Japan, I'm still surprised by something new almost every day. Recently I walked into a convenience store to use the toilet, and was surprised on entering the small bathroom to see the toilet cover and seat automatically lifting for me. How did this computerised toilet know I was a guy, and I only wanted to do a pee? Did it scan for Y chromosomes? Did it ultrasound my bladder and rectum to gauge my needs? And of course it also flushed for me when I was finished.

And sometimes the surprises aren't so delightful (which doesn't make them any less interesting though), like last night when I was woken up at half past midnight by a loud voice on the neighbourhood PA system. At first I thought it was announcing some kind of imminent disaster (maybe even an attack from North Korea!) but the neighbourhood remained silent and I just went back to sleep. Today I discovered that it was announcing the end of a flood warning (heavy rains at this time of year can swell the rivers very quickly, but I don't think there was any danger of roads or houses being flooded).

Kendo Shop

Kendo has been going pretty well, so I decided to go shopping for some kendo gear. My Sensei had recommended a store to me, and also phoned them to let them know I was coming, which was a great help. At the store I was halfway through explaining in halting Japanese that I was from the Chuo-Taikukan Kendo club, when he finished the sentence for me and said with a smile, "I know". He measured me up for some Hakama (those massive pants) and Dogi (thick shirt) which I can start wearing to lessons now. However I won't start using the armour until August, so I wanted to shop around a bit - I've heard they can cost $1000 to $4000. I asked whether I could buy second-hand armour anywhere, and he didn't really understand. I found out later that the dictionary I used had translated second-hand as meaning the hand of a clock that ticks once a second! I tried again saying I wanted to buy cheap old armour, and he seemed to avoid answering directly. This kind of response is pretty normal if a Japanese person doesn't want to offend you with a "no", or "i don't know", but can be confusing because I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself properly. I decided to take the hint and let him measure me up for some armour and see how much it would be. While he was doing this I realised that it would be almost impossible to find a secondhand suit of armour that fit me well, so it's better to get a new set anyway. I think my sensei had told him exactly what I needed, because I hardly told him a thing and he prepared everything for me. He said the second cheapest set would be good for me, and when he told me he'd give me a discount making it cheaper than the cheapest set, I was amazed, and couldn't refuse. It will end up costing me about $800. Arigatou Gozaimasu!

We spent the next half an hour choosing some Kanji characters to be embroidered on my armour. The wearer's surname is put on the armour to identify them, but because my name is in English, and the machine can only do a limited set of Kanji, I had to choose some characters that sound like my name. Wooller becomes Ura in Japanese, so I had to choose one sounding like "U", and one sounding like "ra". We looked up the meaning of each character I could choose from using a combination of his dictionary and mine, my horrible Japanese and a few English words he knew! The "U" character I chose is related to rain. I originally wanted to choose one that meant rabbit, but when I said I liked it, he pretty much ignored me and went onto discuss other ones! Later, I said I really did like it, and he did the same thing, so I took the hint! I was confused, but later Chihiro told me that people are never named after animals in Japan. The "ra" character I chose means thorn, so my name in Japanese will be Rainthorn. Ok, so it won't really inspire fear in the hearts of my enemies, but I like it.