- Seven days 'till I leave for Japan
- Note to my sevies
- World Traveler, kind of
- In honor of Green Day
- San Francisco update
- Here. Finally.
- It's not the Beloved Vabien...
- Technology rocks
- "How high?" I ask
- Wed. afternoon Kyogen seminar
- Hotel room gadget #1
- Hotel room gadget #2
- 3AM in Tokyo
- Friday morning breakfast
- Testing Zblog
- Sushi breakfast prompts musings on "common sense"
- Japan trip, second leg
- Views from my window
- Views from my window -- Mt. Fuji edition
- Ingredients of culture -- language & food
- How to pronounce Arao
- Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs
- YouTube
- High School Visit, Wed. Oct. 11
- Notes from Arao Daisan Junior High
- Ingredients of culture -- values
- Ingredients of culture -- religion
- Arao update & looking ahead
- More religion pics
- Scenes from Arao
- Hotel Verde
- Yup, I ate basashi
- Ingredients of culture -- ethnicity
- What does an American look like?
- Treading in a Minefield of Cliches
- Ingredients of Culture -- dress
- Ingredients of Culture -- special slipper edition
- Trip Friends
- Leavin' On a Jet Plane
- Way Up High
- Favorite photos
A place to follow the thoughts and reactions of a reluctant traveler.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006,10/24/2006 01:36:00 PM
Japan, Oct. 2006, Table of Contents
Thursday, October 19, 2006,10/19/2006 02:24:00 PM
Favorite Photos
I can't even pretend to have an inkling of photographic talent or senses, but these are my favorite photos from the trip.
I took these next two photos during one of my favorite days on the trip -- when I spent most of the day just wandering Tokyo on foot.
This is a whisk used in a Japanese tea ceremony.
I took these next two photos during one of my favorite days on the trip -- when I spent most of the day just wandering Tokyo on foot.
This is the leader in a fascinating Shinto ritual involving a young boy dressed in princely clothes, sitting atop a big ol' horse, being escorted by some chanting/dancing/performing warrior-type men. I got a decent video shot of it from over the heads of the crowd, but I can't link to YouTube from here at work. 
The contrast between religion and business, between ancient and modern, also taken on my explorations around Tokyo.
Self portrait, maybe?
The contrast between religion and business, between ancient and modern, also taken on my explorations around Tokyo.
Self portrait, maybe?
Four hundred year old bridge that we got to visit briefly.
A shot of Jenny from atop the aforementioned bridge. Really, I'm not a stalker...
A shot of Jenny from atop the aforementioned bridge. Really, I'm not a stalker...
One of Kip's tatoos. He's a good example of how varied culture in the USA is; I find it highly doubtful that he'd be hired here at Concord, given his many tats and ear spacers, etc. (But it would be our loss.)
,10/19/2006 02:04:00 PM
I'm way up high
Uploaded from O'Hare, where I learned that my flight to South Bend is delayed. cest la vie
3:45PM Tokyo time. 2:45AM Eastern Standard Time. 34,000 ft in the air. 1 hr, 15 minutes into the trip. Something like 10 hours remaining.What to say? I'm glad to be headed home. Something about the trip to Japan, as good as it was, never quite clicked for me the way the trip to Korea did. For the last several days in Korea, I was enjoying it enough to wish that the trip would last longer; I'd have happily tacked on another week or so. Not so Japan. Pretty much the entire trip, even when I was having a good time -- as was the case more often than not, I never quite got past a little inkling of homesickness. Whoops -- no time for further reflection at the moment, the flight attendants are serving our first meal, so I gotta go. Back later, perhaps.
12:30AM Tokyo time. 11:30AM EST. We've been in the air for almost nine hours; thankfully the flight is almost over -- just another hour and half or so. Poor sweet Meg wanted to chat to fill the long uncomfortable hours, so she switched seats (with two people actually, to get where she wanted to be), only to discover that on long flights I become the human version of grumpy bear. Not exactly Mr. Conversation. Something about the dry air, the cramped quarters, the lousy movies and food that only resembles real food makes me want to withdraw deep into a dark, solitary cave. So that's sorta what I did, except that every four hours or so Meg would manage to break into my solitude with her "insane chatter" (her words, not mine). Anyway, I'm sure it could have been worse. At least I got an aisle seat. And we didn't crash (yet, at least).Any of you kids into anime? (Nathan W, perhaps?) Meg is into it big time. She recommends the following series: Trigun and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, and mentioned that Naruto is pretty popular with teens, but she's not sure that she actually recommends Naruto for kids. I don't usually enjoy cartoons (except, of course, for The Simpsons), so I doubt I'll be watching anime anytime soon, but if any of you have some recommendations I'd love to hear them.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006,10/18/2006 08:03:00 PM
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
Last post from Hotel New Otani. Hopefully I'll have time to send up some posts if I can find a connection at one of the airports I'll be in sometime in the next twenty hours that this trip home will take. I've got a lot left to post about -- the Shinto festival, staying with my host family, the overnight at the ryoken -- plenty of good stuff, plus a wrap-up on the trip as a whole.
Later.
Later.
,10/18/2006 05:54:00 PM
Trip friends
I learned on my recent travels to Korea that hanging out with a group of teachers isn't actually too bad; there are in fact a goodly number that are pretty doggone cool. I wish I had taken more photos of my Korean trip-friends, but I didn't make the same mistake twice -- on this trip I took plenty of trip-friend photos (it helps that they are a photogenic bunch).
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Ken, Jenny & Kip (whose face is starting to show frustration at fact that we'd been walking a long way but were still unable to find a place to eat).
Jenny, Meg & Kate having some fun posing with a fast-asleep teacher.
From left, Kate, Jenny & Kip.
Here's the whole lot of us. Notice how cramped the bus is -- that was our mode of transport while touring all around Arao. We made it work, somehow.
Meg obviously enjoying our karaoke evening at the ryoken.
This is a typically "Kate" face -- mostly mischievous, with an underlying current of zen-like acceptance.
Karoke brings out the silliness in Jenny, Kate & Meg.
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Loretta and Jean -- both the sort of beautiful women who bring much wisdom to any situation.
I snapped this photo while the three of us rode the subway in Tokyo
I snapped this photo while the three of us rode the subway in 
Ken, Jenny & Kip (whose face is starting to show frustration at fact that we'd been walking a long way but were still unable to find a place to eat).
Jenny, Meg & Kate having some fun posing with a fast-asleep teacher.
From left, Kate, Jenny & Kip.
Here's the whole lot of us. Notice how cramped the bus is -- that was our mode of transport while touring all around Arao. We made it work, somehow.
Meg obviously enjoying our karaoke evening at the ryoken.
Jenny dresses more like a movie star than just about anybody else I know.
This is a typically "Kate" face -- mostly mischievous, with an underlying current of zen-like acceptance.
Karoke brings out the silliness in Jenny, Kate & Meg.
,10/18/2006 06:40:00 AM
Ingredients of culture, Part V -- dress (special slipper edition)
Here's the biggie, in terms of knowing how to follow Japanese clothing protocols: Inside schools and homes, one does NOT wear one's outside shoes. Instead, just inside the door, one slips off one's shoes, and switches to slippers or -- more rarely -- inside shoes. The point of this change is cleanliness, to leave the dirt, dust and muck outside. It's not too unusual in the USA to find a household in which people don't wear their shoes inside, it's just that the Japanese take the custom further in the donning of slippers and in the uniformity of the practice. And here's an extra step that I think makes splendid sense: There are special slippers just inside the doorway of every bathroom, for one to change into these special pairs while in the room (which only contains a sink and the toilet; the bathtub is in a separate bathing room), and thus avoid the accumulation of any, er, bathroom residues, shall we say, upon one's shoes.
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,10/18/2006 06:22:00 AM
Ingredients of culture, Part V -- dress
For the most part, I didn't notice any differences between how people in the USA tend to dress and what I saw amongst the Japanese, with a few exceptions: 
Here's trip-friend Jean (right) and her host mother, both in kimonos, for the Shichi-go-san Shinto festival that some of us attended with our host families.
Notice all the intricate detail (front and back) on this typical kimono. This cutie (and dozens if not hundreds) were decked for blessing by the Shinto priest at the Shichi-go-san festival.
The boys' outfits are more subdued in color.
There's Jenny and me in our yukatas. They were more comfortable than you'd think judging from the less-than-enthused looks on our faces; so comfortable in fact that I bought one to wear at home.
1) Adults rarely wear shorts in Japan.
2) For formal ceremonies, elaborate kimonos are worn. When my host family and I visited a festival at a local Shinto shrine, I saw many boys and girls all decked out for blessing by the priest.
3) At a traditional Japanese inn, called a ryoken, simple robes called yukatas are worn by both men and women, even to public meals and out in the gardens -- basically everywhere. There's a photo of me below wearing one at dinner the night we stayed at a ryoken (great experience -- more on that in another post).
I realize this photo doesn't show much of the kimono, but I liked the shot.
Here's trip-friend Jean (right) and her host mother, both in kimonos, for the Shichi-go-san Shinto festival that some of us attended with our host families.
Notice all the intricate detail (front and back) on this typical kimono. This cutie (and dozens if not hundreds) were decked for blessing by the Shinto priest at the Shichi-go-san festival.
The boys' outfits are more subdued in color.
There's Jenny and me in our yukatas. They were more comfortable than you'd think judging from the less-than-enthused looks on our faces; so comfortable in fact that I bought one to wear at home.
,10/18/2006 04:49:00 AM
What does an American look like?
This post is not meant to convey a "we-are-better-than-they-are" attitude. As my trip-friend Kate wisely observed, "It makes sense for Japanese to celebrate their homogenity because that's their reality, and it makes sense for us to celebrate our diversity because that's our reality."
Some of these will be easy to identify -- Alan Iverson, for example, who by the way passed me in the Tokyo airport; I actually held the door open for him though I didn't know who it was until someone told me later -- but some of these faces will be new to my students. See if you can identify the unfamiliar faces to get your name on my IOU Candy/extra credit list. Hint: Probably most of faces you don't know are current or past members of the federal government.
Some of these will be easy to identify -- Alan Iverson, for example, who by the way passed me in the Tokyo airport; I actually held the door open for him though I didn't know who it was until someone told me later -- but some of these faces will be new to my students. See if you can identify the unfamiliar faces to get your name on my IOU Candy/extra credit list. Hint: Probably most of faces you don't know are current or past members of the federal government.