Out of the frying pan.

Hiyo folks, Dan here for this week's installment of the Compendium.  When last we spoke I was neck deep in school work and Minnesota was doing its best to pretend it was still January.  Since then winter gave up the ghost bypassing spring and moving straight on to summer, and I, gloriously and with many a raised glasses, finished my first year of grad school.

This is a tower of the textbooks I used in my courses this year.  And if it by chance seems insufficient to cure your insomnia fear not! I have countless articles and supplemental reading materials which can lend a hand.

I all seriousness I really enjoyed my first year of this degree.  In spite of some hectic moments, and occasional articles I'd rather not read, I found the material engaging and I've learned an exorbitant amount.  What's more, my cohort of fellow future SLP's is truely fantastic, and helped make what could have been a really long and rough year bearable.

So now that school is out of the way what's on the docket? This:

I plotted all of my flights for the next 8 months on this map . . . yeah it's a lot.  Thirteen legs all told, but there are going to be many amazing stops along the way including, the Summer Vocology Institute, Sante Fe Opera, meeting my new Nephew in Portland, and most importantly getting to spend a big chunk of time actually living with my wife.

Needless to say I'm excited, and future blog posts will deal with more of the little details like "What the $%*# is Vocology?".  For now I am trying to coax a great many ducks into rows, working on everything from my visa application, course registration, and various to do lists . . .

To packing up the apartment to move into storage . . .

. . . so yeah, that last one isn't going so well. Or even at all yet, but god damn did I need a break!  So while I took care of the logistical work, I managed to include a fair amount of downtime.  I raised a glass (or half a dozen) and ate some Russian food with some awesome colleagues.

. . . mmm piroshki

 . . . REALLY good pelmeni . . .

. . . and a flight of house made flavored vodka. It was a good night :).

 And then biked the almost 40 miles to Stillwater with a good friend, to actually enjoy a bit of this weather before sequestering myself in the desert.

Lastly avoiding packing had one more practical motivation.  Tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to our lil' beasties Puck and Rags for the better part of a year.

look at the lil buggers pretending to be docile

Being cats packing causes them to freak out, and I wanted to spend at least a bit of quality time with them before packing them off to live their surrogate family. Of course given the current internet trends that involved a fair bit o' this:

And with that image emblazoned in your mind, I will leave you for this post.  You'll be hearing from me sooner rather than later.

Until then, thanks for reading and don't forget to feed the fish.

DW

Golden Week, Continued!

Now, for installment number two of WR's "Golden Week Adventures."

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GOLDEN WEEK ADVENTURES.
Fukuoka Zoo & Akizuki: Plants, Animals, Pottery, and Inaka.

Mid-Golden Week, on a gorgeous Thursday, I joined the second year students and teachers for my school's annual field trip.  Our destination?  The Fukuoka City Zoo and Botanical Gardens.  I spent the morning and early afternoon wandering the park, strolling from exhibit to exhibit with fellow teachers and students. 

In truth, it wasn't the most amazing of parks (I mean, zoos can sometimes be a little depressing, right?), but it was a lovely day and a great bonding experience with my coworkers.

Photo highlights!

The front gate.  You're adorable, Japan.

A tanooki!  Kawaiiiiiii!

Beautiful birds.

The katakana is the same as my last name!  Tee hee hee!

Cute children watching the cute monkeys.

The botanical garden.

One of the indoor gardens.

Wow.  Uhhh.  Wow.

Oh, Engrish.... (sigh) ....

After the field trip concluded, many of the 2nd-year teachers (and I, of course) went to the Akasaka neighborhood for a super-awesome, always-convivial enkai.  I can't post any pictures, naturally.  I mean, an enkai is like Vegas.  What happens there, stays there.  But I CAN tell you that I had an amazing time.  And I got drunk.  Really, really drunk.

But, I somehow... miraculously... managed to avoid a hangover (or, in Japanese, 二日酔い, "second-day buzz").  This was great news, as the very next day I took a day trip to the Japanese countryside with a few friends.  Akizuki (our destination) is a small, historic town a few mountains over from where I live in Chikushino.  It's sometimes called "Little Kyoto," by locals.  And it was a beautiful, serene taste of pure inaka charm.

To get there, I met up with my friends on the JR Kagoshima line.  They rode down from farther north, in Fukuoka City, and I joined them in their train car when the express stopped at my local station.  They'd even saved a seat for me.  Convenient, no?  Then, together, we continued on for a few more stops until we reached Kiyama station.  There, we switched to the Amagi Rail Way.

In all its glory.

Yep.  It's one car.  A single train car.  And you can't even use the electronic train passes that are basically ubiquitous in the area.  It's yenjamins only, yo.  That's how you know it's an adventure!

But it was comfortable and cute (and picture-worthy), and we rode it all the way to it's terminal station: Amagi.  While we waited for the last few of our group to join us, my friends and I browsed in a nearby local-arts-and-crafts-and-tourism-type store, where they were incredibly kind and gave us English maps of the area.

Once we'd all gathered, we took a bus from Amagi to Akizuki.  Again, it was cash only.  No fancy e-card bullshit in the inaka.

On the bus, we passed mountains and farms and hills and streams and little obaachans toting things around in patterned furoshiki, until at last we arrived at our bus stop.  I don't remember what it was called.  (I wasn't leading the party.)  But it was a quaint little intersection, one branch of which looked like this.

Small town Japan.

So, finally on the ground in Akizuki, our fearless leader lead this troupe of Gaijin (or gaggle of Gaijin, or scourge of Gaijin) up this very hill, onward and upward, toward our ultimate goal: delicious coffee and tea, homemade treats, and an afternoon of making Japanese pottery.

Only... this hill was the wrong way.

But, it was basically fate that we should walk all the way up this hill.  Because, firstly, we saw this, which caused us break out into song (frightening the elderly people nearby).

Top Gun, anyone?

And secondly, we saw this sign, a mere 30 seconds after we had a discussion about how we should bring the expression "Hot dog!" back into favor.
 

"Hot dog!  It's a hot dog!"

So, fate.  Yes.  And who cares if we get lost and turned around and have no idea where we're going and the locals are staring suspiciously at us?

ADVENTURE, MOTHERFUCKERS.

We turned, found the right road, and continued on our journey.  (I mean, the city's not all that big, so it's not like we were really lost.)  Here are a few pictures from our walk.

And then, we arrived!  The cafe, set up inside a refurbished old house, was absolutely lovely.  It had the feeling of a modern, casual coffee shop, yet still rich with a traditional Japanese sophistication. (The pictures I took of the inside don't do it any justice, so I'll not post them.)  The owners, a husband and wife, were very welcoming and let us camp out on their gorgeous patio for a few refreshments pre-pottery-making.  Here are a few photos!

Tasty cookies!

Natalie, looking positively radiant.

More friends!

My adorable coffee cup (made by the owner).

After much chatting and relaxing, we made our way to the pottery studio (a converted barn to one side of the house).  The ever-so-patient pottery-sensei helped us to make whatever we felt like.  Bowls, cups, spoons, chopstick rests, and candle-decor-things were among our creations.  Mine was the latter.  I... don't know what to call it.  A sconce?  A votive?  Anyway, you put it over a candle and, hypothetically, it'll look pretty when lit up.

My candle thing!

It's meant to look like fuji, or wisteria, which is in season right now.  It'll be glazed a deep green.  The holes in the sides are the tiny blossoms, and I'm hoping it'll look nice with a candle inside.  We'll see when I get it back in a few weeks.  But, I'll admit.  I'm damn proud of the thing.

Here's a shot of my friends, hard at work.

After we finished making pottery, we said goodbye to the cafe owners and wandered back into town in search of food and our bus / train / trains home.  On the way, we came across some particularly beautiful views, including my first real-life encounter with wisteria!

 Back on "main street," as it were, we found a cute little okonomiyaki joint, which advertized "Okonomiyaki Burgers" as a special.  I mean, come on.  How could we NOT go in?

Eleanor ordered one.  It consisted of two small, crispy-fried okonomiyaki acting as buns, a beef burger patty, a fried egg, shredded cabbage, the standard sauce, and powdered nori.  It looked and smelled DELICIOUS.

Eleanor approves.

I, not wanting to order the same thing as my tablemates, went in for the more traditional okonomiyaki.  Mine was made with pork.  And it was STUPIDLY DELICIOUS.  Seriously.  One of the very best I've had.

Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

Stomachs full of tastiness, we caught the last bus out of Akizuki and boarded the Amagi Rail (now available in RED!) and headed back toward our respective homes.

Gaijinin' it up!

All in all, an amazing little day trip.  And yet, we're STILL not done with Golden Week!  Stay tuned for the last installment of "Golden Week Adventures," in which my favorite neighborhood is taken over by a giant-freaking-festival, I see a ridiculous parade, and I take pictures with some seriously bizarre Japanese mascots.


Thanks for reading!  And don't forget to feed the fish!
WR

Something to Tide You Over...

Well, we had noble intentions to post last Friday, but both DW and I are neck deep in school / work.  There was just no way for us to make it happen.

But: For the record, we're both alive and good.  If incredibly busy.

Here's a little something to tide you over until the next post.  It's a commercial for Boss coffee.  And, yes, that's Tommy Lee Jones.  He's been a spokesperson for Suntory's Boss coffee for years, playing the role of an alien that comes to Japan and tries his hand at a multitude of jobs.  (Also, Tommy's a big fan of Japan.  You can read about it here.)

I post this particular commercial because, in this commercial, Tommy plays a high school teacher.  Like me.

If only I had his classroom management skills....

See you next week!
WR

A Golden Week, With Small Adventures.

Hello again, readers!

DW is hairline-deep in school work this week, so you get another post from Japan!  Lucky for me (well, sort of...), this week has been full of many small, unexpected adventures, so a blog topic was easy to find.  And it's Golden Week (a string of several Japanese holidays), which meant I got extra days off!  Hooray!

Since there were so many, many trips and stories this week... I'm going to break them into blog installments.  Blogstallments, if you will.

A-Ah-Ahem.  Let us begin.

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GOLDEN WEEK ADVENTURES.
Fukutsu / Fukuma: The Tale of the Wandering SUGOCA.

Last weekend, on Sunday, I was struck with a sudden, random blueness of mood.  I didn't want to spend much money, but I wanted to get out of the jutaku for a bit, so I hopped a train to Hakata Station.  It's a major entertainment and shopping hub in Fukuoka, so it's a cheap and easy pick-me-up trip (especially since it's included in my "commuter route," so my train ticket is essentially free).

I walked to my home station and entered through the electronic train stalls.  Scanning my SUGOCA card (my 6-month train pass for work, which I can charge with cash and use in tons of places) with a satisfying BEEP, I glanced down at the digital display.  It showed my current card-cash balance.  "Good," I thought.  "Pleeeeenty of money to head to Tenjin, if I feel like it."  Then, I intentionally boarded a very slow local, knowing that the journey itself was a part my evening's escape, not really the destination in itself.  I settled in by a window in Car 4, listening to my audiobook and gazing out at the late afternoon sky.

After about 40 minutes, my train pulled into Hakata Station.  I stood and zipped up my hoodie, thoroughly engrossed in my audiobook, and exited the train.  I trotted down the steps from the platform, reaching into my hoodie-pocket for my train pass.  Nothing.  I patted my jeans pockets.  Nothing.  I turned, found an alcove, and emptied my purse.  NOTHING.  I ran to a JR attendant, but just as I approached, a woman stepped in front of me for directions.  The attendant, apparently confused, turned and consulted a map.  He squinted, removing his glasses.  As I waited, bouncing nervously, a thought hit me: my train might still be here.

FYI, in small stations, the train lets people off and it leaves.  Immediately.  Unless there's a direct connection, it leaves right away.  And even if there is a direct connection, we're talking about a 60 second or so window.  This is what I expected, because this is what usually happens (given that I'm most often boarding at smaller stations).  But not in Hakata.  In the big stations, the train sits on the tracks for a few minutes.  So, with this thought suddenly in my head, I turned and SPRINTED up the stairs, back to to my platform.  I made it to the top step just in time to see the doors shut and the train shift into gear.

(Sigh....)  I won't give you the gruesome, painful details of my talk with the attendant, my tearful handing-over of train fare, my trip to the "Lost & Found," the embarrassing conversation with the clueless, super-fast-speaking JR lady, and the remainder of my mopey, sniffling evening by myself.  But, needless to say, I had a very bad evening.  If they didn't find my pass, I'd have to pay 1000 yen to have the commuters pass reissued, plus I'd lose ALL the cash on the card and my I-spent-a-long-time-picking-it-out-even-though-its-cheap case.  If that wasn't depressing enough, my language skill was totally defeated by the problem.  I could barely do anything about the situation, could hardly communicate at all despite studying and practicing for months.

So, I went home (paying my way... again) feeling even worse than when I'd left.

The next morning, I get a phone call from my supervisor.  They found my card!  It ended up hitching a ride from Chikushino to Ebitsu, to Araki (I think), and finally ending at Fukuma Station in Fukutsu.

Chikushino = where I spent the night.  (A) = where my card spent the night.

HOORAY!  My card!  They had my card!  I could go, reclaim my SUGOCA, and redeem myself by handling the interaction in non-crappy, dry-eyed Japanese.  And, since I was already going to have to pay the fare, I decided that I'd find someplace cool in Fukutsu on the internet and I'd go there.

ADVENTURE, MOTHER F&%KERS.

Here it is.  In photos:

My precious!

A mascot: Fuku-Fuku-chan.

The station.

One of the views as I walked.

My e-directions were frighteningly... residential.

But they were beautiful.

Miyajihama Beach!

Gorgeous.

It was a windy day, so there were lots of windsurfers.

I love beaches.

Ahhh... relaxation.

Yeah, I know.  Selfie at the ocean.

So, in short:  A terrible, weepy evening turned into a long, lovely walk and a picnic-for-one on a beautiful Japanese beach.  Lemons into lemonade, or some such.

Thanks for reading!
WR