31 October, 2006

Series: Downside of Japanese Education

Sorry about going off track yesterday :p
Anyway, going back to the educational issue thingy I’d been writing about – more and more schools have been proven “guilty” for not giving their students enough compulsory credits, not that they weren’t aware of and made mistakes, but actually acknowledge their intended “mistakes”. The result of this mess so far, is more than 80,000 12th graders across the country not being able to graduate from high school. So far, the number of schools in question has risen to 460 schools in 46 prefectures (out of 47).

Some cases are worse than others: some of the schools out of these 460 were getting away with faking not only one compulsory subject but several. One of these, where they tried to fake the reports in four compulsory subjects, has to give their seniors 350 50-minuite-make-up-classes by the end of next March, but because there are only about 150 days left so even if they gave 100-min-lectures seven days a week they’ll never be able to give their students the credits they need.

All of the TV shows and news feature this issue most times as headlines these days, and when they interviewed people around town and 80% of their replies were that the national government should come up with a relief measure because these students are just way too pitiful.

True, it’s nothing but pathetic that these kids can’t graduate because of the school even though the kids weren’t doing anything wrong within the schools’ standards. It’s not like they didn’t choose the courses they needed to, they couldn’t.

If you can’t graduate from a university or college because you overlooked a credit or two it would be your own fault because you’re the one to keep track of credits, but this case, it’s completely the corruption of the schools.

On the other hand, it would also be unfortunate if the gap in college entrance preparation widens between schools that cheated and did not, because it’s unfair. Puzzling.

So this news has been enjoying heated discussion for a while now along with the bullies, and now a principal of one of the cheater schools committed suicide a couple of days ago.

It’s really sad that the word “suicide” comes up in the news so often, even more so considering the stage and causes of these suicides are schools – places for education. There was also a murder inside the school, too. What is happening with education? What kind of “relaxation” has “relaxed education” brought upon our society?

30 October, 2006

The trip to...

It’s kind of an odd subject to throw in the middle of the discussion of education issues, but anyway, I went to this Yamamoto Mimikakiten (the ear-cleaning place) that I introduced you several days ago (see Oct.18 http://jmode.blogspot.com/2006/10/extreme-of-healing.html for refrence), so I thought I’d give you a short report before I forget.

After writing about it I was talking about it with some of my colleagues in a really casual joking manner, and as we talked, we decided to go have an “experience” there.

Honestly, I was rather reluctant on the idea but at the same time I could not completely resist the temptation of beautiful women dressed in kimono cleaning my ears on their laps. So I convinced myself that it might be worth an article that I can write on Japan Mode and went along with my friends.

The shop could be found on a narrow alley located shoulder to shoulder with a dry cleaner... or in fact, believe it or not, the ear cleaner was part of the dry cleaner. The jolly merry middle-aged guy took care of the customers for dry cleaning and ear cleaning whenever people came to either of the counters. It was the most peculiar double-crop business I have ever seen.

There were only three rooms inside and because we were a group of three, even though all of us weren’t all attended at the same time we technically had the entire shop to ourselves.

As we entered the shop, we were each guided into a small room along a narrow path, one divided from another by blinds. Before long, a woman dressed in kimono came in and gave me instructions to follow, which was only to lie down with my head rested on her lap and relax. First of all, she gave me a massage on the “points” around my ears. This was one of the best moments of life in my past few weeks. Then she started cleaning my ears, but because my face was lightly covered with a sheet of cloth, I’m not sure how “dirty” my ears were.
When both my ears were done, I was given the best massage on my shoulders, head and face in years. It was so relaxing that I fell half asleep, only to be waken by her sneeze which I could only describe as all calculated. Last but not least, she gave me a massage on my hands.

Hmm, it was really nice. It wasn’t anything... dubious like I had imagined in the corner of my mind. I have never been to a professional massage or chiropractic so I can’t exactly compare and I bet the professional massagers can give me even better massages, but the experience of just having mature beautiful women giving you a relaxing massage itself is incomparable “healing”, I thought.

Of course, it would be as comforting for women as men to have the experience. Or perhaps, part of the healing is the fact that you can spend some time in a room with atmosphere of Meiji in Taisho, since there aren’t many occasions nowadays to have people in kimono attend you for a while. I would call it a new hidden spot for those who’re into Japan and healing regardless the gender.

27 October, 2006

The Issues of Japanese Education

The last few entries I have written about bullies in schools and the problems of the schools not dealing with the cases properly, but now a different flaw – which is more than a mere flaw – of Japanese education has been stirring up the news.

Who can believe that there are 282 high schools in the country which have “mistakes” in their curriculum that disables Seniors from graduating due to lack of credits? To give you a very brief background, students must choose Japanese History AND either World History or Geography (that means two subjects in social science) in order to qualify for high school graduation. But these schools only told the students to choose one from three, therefore technically these students cannot obtain high school diploma.

Why would such problem occur? The Japanese, academic career-based society is largely held accountable for this issue.

To enter a “good” university, you need to pass a difficult exam. To pass a difficult exam, you have to study hard. But for instance, if you are aiming for a humanity course you don’t need to study mathematics nor any science courses, and when it comes to extreme cases you can even take the test with a single subject, English.

It is most natural for students to want to be effective and efficient and to choose only the subjects they need or the ones they’re good at. As for schools, the most important thing for them is to send out as many alumni as possible to better universities and maintain their reputation in order to survive the age of low fertility. What I mean to say, is that they would do anything to enable their students to enter better higher education – even cutting down the courses the students need to take or credits they need to earn.

Especially in the last few years since this new educational system – which was aimed to be “easy” on the students but turned out to kill the school administration and ended up becoming lax – the schools are having a hard time providing elaborate enough education to prepare for college entrance exams in very limited curriculum with less hours (bound by law).

In the end, despite reducing hours for courses that are not musts for college entrance exams and increased hours for those that are, schools are half forced into corruption of giving credits on the surface (on grade reports) for courses the students have never taken. It was just by chance that the problem became public. First it was one school – now two hundred and eighty two.

What will become of our country? I’ll keep my eyes fixed on this issue.

26 October, 2006

Still with the cold

I feel so sick and weary. My body aches and it feels so heavy and dull and numb. I was complaining a while ago about this nasty cold that I came down with... well, I haven’t been able to get rid of it. I need a good long break to rest my body, but it’s been hell busy these days and I don’t even feel like I’m going to have Christmas break. Anyway, so I’m surviving each day with aspirin available at the most ordinary drugstore.

I never imagined a cold to be so bad. I had always been careful not to catch one in the first place, like I wash my hands always and gurgle whenever I can, but still couldn’t get away from it. Sometimes I go to bed a little early and because the next morning I feel fresh, I feel like I’m over with it finally but in truth not really cuz by the evening on the same day I’m feeling drowsy and feverish again.

There is a proverb in Japanese “a cold is the beginning for all diseases” and right now, I must be at the second or third stage of that proverb, heading straight to a heart attack or a brain stroke or something like that. This ain’t good.

By the way for your information, there is a data saying that Japanese people on average catch colds 5-7 times a year and 2-3 times a winter. Would mine count as one, or more?

25 October, 2006

Bullies cont:

At the second meeting of the Educational Reform held in the morning today on October 25th, Japanese Prime Minister Abe promised urgent response to the increasing suicides of young students, that he along with the reform board will immediately start working on changing aspects that can be changed rather quickly.

It’s quite natural he said that – it’s more like an obligation for him as the political head of state. Leaving no comment to the incidents happening would be a great crime to the future of this country. The news also say that opinions like, “there should be people / organizations that actively takes care of children’s mental health issues” and “the help of media is needed to send out messages to the entire society” were expressed at the meeting.

Uh, what have they been seeing? In which fairy tale world were they living in? Bullies didn’t suddenly well up as a social problem recently, it has been around for a good decade – even that I know of. And it’s not like no one’s responding to it. There are people and organizations trying to improve the situation. The problem is, why should this question and opinion be the center of the argument, now?
Not enough being done? That may be so, but the biggest problem is, like I just wrote, that the argument is old. “Something should be done promptly” – that is a phrase used way too many times to retain the importance that lay in those words. It is a vague and rather easy statement to make.

What would become different if they don’t really change the parts that the snob greedy bureaucrats would suffer if they’d changed? What they don’t suffer won’t be any good, as it is because of they’re personal interests that is killing the country in many ways (this is the same for medical issues here). If they don’t argue the very basis of the problems, educational reform is never going to become real.

I don’t mean to blame just the gov. All of us have to work to show that there are better things in this world than bullying your classmate. The baton we are passing down our coming generation is becoming more and more fragile and dirty.

Educational Problems are big issues that can shape the country’s future in any way.
I’d like to hear some opinions of people outside of Japan. What kind of educational policies do your government have? What are the positive sides and problems? There isn’t much that I can do, but surely you guys’ opinion would be some help.

24 October, 2006

Number Portability Starts

I wrote an article on this some time ago, and as I wrote, the number portability system for mobile phones have finally started.

Since Softbank made a stunning elecrtifying thunder-struck announcement on its “unexpected” schemes including the dramatic lowering of it service prices (I know my English is getting messed up) last night, the medial as well as the society was sort of nervous and excited at the same time how this portability is going to affect the leading carriers... but so far, no big news.

So this new prices that Softbank promised is subtracting 210 yen from the base prices for DoCoMo and au’s base prices. If either of the companies lower their prices, Softbank will also do so within the next 24 hours. Additionally, Softbank also announced free unlimited phone (talking) and e-mail between Softbank phones. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that these surprises are working as antithesis for au and DoCoMo who are rather reluctant about price cutting.

Perhaps all three of them would compete in cutting low their prices and help us greatly! But nay, I don’t really think so. Things aren’t so simple in this world, eh?

Plus, even though the number portability system has started, I don’t think that people would be rushing to the mobile shops. Most of the phones (hardware) regardless the carrier, have similar functions and qualities and the services are similar as well. It’s just that we have more options now.
Well, go media, act as the promoter like in any other news. And where do the ripples go...? Maybe I should be a bit more optimistic and less skeptical :p

23 October, 2006

Bullying

Our new Prime Minister Abe promised the nation that one of the top priorities of his policies would include “reform of public education that guarantees every child in the country to obtain high scholastic ability and morality.”

He also announced us with an outline that gives more specific policies such as basic scholarship strengthening program and renewal of teacher’s license. The education reform committee is supposedly coming up with precise schedules and guidelines for schools, and is going to turn in a tentative midterm report next March.

Related or unrelated, the news of numerous bullies and student suicides are stirring up the news scene and society once again. I found a surprising article regarding the 8th-grade-student’s bullied-suicide that happened in Kyushu the other day.

”It’s somewhat nice to know he’s done that”
”Nothing’s different even if he’s not around”
”Maybe I’ll be damned forever”

These are words of those who actually bullied the student, told to friends in school after the student committed suicide. Worse, it is said that some of the students sneered as they looked into the coffin, many times.

I was shocked, it was nauseous. I couldn’t believe these were the words of the same human kind – of who knew the deceased and his life right close by. These kids don’t just lack imagination to the student who killed himself and his family. They lack crucial elements as human beings. This is so much more than “bullying”.

It is truly frightening to think that these kids are going to be freed outside in open air under the sky without being punished by any legal and social authorities. The media may be overdoing things as usual, yet I praise the media of not letting the incident pass by as another bullied-suicide.

What had happened is painful, but what how the case is going to be taken care of as well as how the bullies are going to be treated – whether their “human rights” are going to be prioritized over the victim’s – is going to be as a huge and mentally painful issue, I am sure.

I heard some time ago that in the States, situations improved for some schools that tightened their regulations and punishments.
How is Japanese education going to become? Would the education reform be any good?
People, not to mention the government, should realize and be aware even more that it is education
that forms the basis and future of this country. I am going to keep keen eyes on this topic.

20 October, 2006

YouTube and Japanese

23 organizations including domestic broadcasting networks like NHK, Fuji Television, JASRAC (Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) and other copyrights management groups announced that they succeeded in having YouTube delete 29,549 files, claiming them to be violating copyright properties.

No big surprise because Japanese people have been using YouTube madly these days, but wow, nearly 30,000 files... I’m rather impressed that the 23 groups actually forced YouTube to delete all those.
I bet it’s the same with any other YouTube users around the world, but the way Japanese people use it – as for the copyright violating files – is to extract the funniest part or the biggest appeal of the shows and “share” them on YouTube.

But then, it’s going to become (or has already become) a whole lot boring. For example, an amateur posts a really good file on YouTube, and say with publicity, acknowledgements and popularity there, succeeds in creating a TV show. That show would be shown on TV nationwide and could be a great step to his show producing career, but because the rich contents would be copyright protected which means that it will not go on YouTube (you know, legally).

I guess it wouldn’t matter so much to the audience I guess only if you’re within the reach of whatever means save the Internet the work is published. I also understand that it’s on the right track in terms of commerce and regulations accompanying business, but as a creator it can also mean that he lost one huge means to release his work across the globe.

Money, money, profits... sophisticated stuff.

Last but not least... Chapter 2 of the new webmanga Charmy Nurse M is up!

19 October, 2006

Gettin’ Cold

It is getting a bit chilly here in Tokyo in the mornings and evenings. I am by no means a big fan of cold weather so each day I grow bluer.

Several months ago, I started to be given more and more work like I had been moaning here and along with the increasing load of work my outfit changed from casual clothing to suit style (cuz I have to *cry*). And that makes winter even more horrifying because I had never in my life lives in business suits and therefore I don’t own any warm jackets or coats to wear over suits. And it’s not just something you can buy cuz you feel like buying... I mean, it’s pretty expensive, right?

Last year I didn’t care too badly about winter for I was wearing whatever I wanted to, but I’m going to freeze anytime if I don’t get a coat for myself soon!!
I already dream of Okinawa: the good warm time I spent a month ago and then my future life there. I tell you, I am going to live in Okinawa.

This is going nowhere so I think I’m going to stop now.

Check out Japan Mode for the second episode of the new webmanga Charmy Nurse M tomorrow!

18 October, 2006

The Extreme of Healing

For quite a while “healing” has been a big boom in Japan. There are so many people who are in quest for the ultimate healing that it makes me think, “Geez, I feel sorry for this wiped out country.”

Just about ten years ago, there had been continuous news about overwork and stress deaths stirring up the society. The people who worked their lives off were in the babyboom generation who largely contributed to the rapid economic growth and the early 90s bubble economy, and are about to retire next year.

It was then that people started to think seriously about the significance of taking things slowly and easier. Until then, the Japanese labor force was nothing but working ants that sacrificed their lives for the gross economy. Anyway, people started to look for little refreshments they can enjoy during breaks and weekends.

These “healings” included weekend/day-trips to hot springs/spas, traveling to somewhere far from office with rich nature, items like bath items, fragrance and massaging, or food to even female TV personalities and models who have soft, warm yet fresh characters.

The latest one I found on the news today is this one:

http://www.yamamotomimikaki.com/index.html

YAMAMOTO MIMIKAKI – in a store nicely decorated in Japanese style, female staffs dressed in kimono serve the guests by cleaning their (the guests’) ears on their(staffs’) laps for JPY2,000/30min (special price for the moment).

Wow.

What’s so wow about it is that it does make me feel a bit, “I’d want to try that, it sounds so ‘healing’”.
I’m also impressed that you can make anything into a fair business when you related it with “healing”.

Maybe I should try out this ear-cleaning thing... I’ll have to persuade my boss to support this financially :P

17 October, 2006

Big News Japanoholics!!

I suppose many of you are familiar with online shopping. Well, there’s this famous Japanese internet shopping website called Rakuten and you know what’s been added to the list just recently? It was so unexpected that I had to stare at the screen for a little while to make sure I wasn’t reading things wrongly. I did write here ages ago that a castle was on sale, but this time it’s more than an ancient-looking castle with modern technology, it’s a VILLAGE WITH A CASTLE! And what’s more, it’s a medieval village! And the price... dropped below one billion yen. Just have a look before I go any further (sorry, it’s Japanese):

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/yoroi/142709/146602/



If you calculate the consumption tax that alone is about 50 million yen, but if you do shopping on Rakuten you can earn Rakuten points and the points you can get by buying this village is worth nearly 10 million yen so you can do a lot of shopping with that! And there’re some free gifts of koban* coming along! Wow! Great deal!

*koban... currency used back then. Can’t use them today, though. Careful.

But what’s more surprising is that it says it doesn’t include shipping fee. Hmm, I wonder how much it’s going to be... wait, what do you mean “ship”?

Anyway, such a wonderful village is on sale and it’s the last one, so you’d better rush and hit the “Add to Shopping Cart” RIGHT NOW!! :P

16 October, 2006

Japanese Style Foliage Viewing

Well well, I’d been writing about Okinawa for so long that I don’t know what to write after I’m finished with it. I feel like I haven’t written anything that’s not related to Okinawa for a very long time... or rather, I guess I really haven’t written a normal entry for that long. Oh well.

So today, what should I write about? As far as I can remember, I was getting started with a petit Japan Countryside Guide about a month ago. Why don’t I just say that the entire Okinawa story was part of it? It’s not far off, though, right? It was traveling, it was within Japan, it was... sort of countryside, that’s good enough.

To get back to real-time today, my recommendation this season is above all, colored leaves which you can actually see pretty much anywhere across the country except for the very warm places. I hear that Nikko (which I already touched upon on the entry on Sep.1) has entered its peak season for autumnal foliage. I think it’s the perfect time of year to visit the region since it’s cool but not cold and the landscape would be just pretty pretty pretty. We have a featured section on foliage on Japan Mode so those of you interested in foliage please come see Japan Mode :-)

Personally I like places where they light up the trees so that you can see vivid red and gold colors against the dark night sky (see some pix below, they’re gorgeous!). Those kinds of places are most times parks and gardens which you have to pay a little to go in, but the bright vivid colors against the dark is truly breathtaking. You feel like everything – the trees and the leaves and the moon and stars – are embossed on the night sky, and if it’s quiet there is nothing to complain about.

Autumn leaves in the wild nature (I mean mountains and valleys) are beautiful too, but I wouldn’t really recommend go seeing them during night time because it’s highly likely that they won’t be lit up (illuminated) bright enough for you to really appreciate them. In fact, it’s rather dark and could be dangerous (maybe) and you probably won’t see anything anyway. They are gorgeous during the day, however, especially because if you go to the mountains and the valleys you can see humps and bumps and fields of colored leaves literally spreading in front of you. It’ll be even better if there’s a lake or a pond to double the colors ;-)

Maybe the best plan to enjoy autumn leaves is to get a bit away from central Tokyo during daytime to appreciate the wild nature, and to come back in the evening to see the illuminated garden trees. Having said that, it’s probably the best to just relax and lay back without worrying about time at all.



- JMode.com Japan Guide... http://www.jmode.com/japanguide/japanguide.html
- JMode.com Autumn Foliage... http://www.jmode.com/japanguide/koyo_nov1.html (November. Enter from Japan Guide)
- Autumn Leaves Photos: Koishikawa Korakuen /Rikugien (night) / Hamarikyu / Kamakura (night) / Akasaka (gold)

13 October, 2006

The Ocean is Grand

With the double-shock of rain sprinkling on my shoulders and no friends to accompany the beach tour, I stepped out my first step as a nasty bad loser.
But because my phone would soon lose reception I had to promise them I’d be back to the port in only an hour.

Considering the delay of coming here due to the emotional sea, we had to act quick with everything cuz it was highly likely that the return boat would be delayed and would take twice as much time than usual. So if we aren’t quick enough we’ll miss our plane and that would automatically mean denial to return home. That, we had to avoid, so even though it was already 12:30 by the time we got to the island we had to leave on the 15:30 boat.

Although, it didn’t necessarily mean that I had to give up all the fun on this island. The road from Hizushi Beach to Nishibama was pretty hilly and I had to walk about half an hour at the shortest. But then, soon after I started out the rain stopped. Almight god had not taken away my last hope! From that moment I was fighting time as I dragged my bags to Nishibama.
It was only then that I realized an unfamiliar feeling: the road had been paved and the trees were cut down. Two years ago when I was here the last time trees were growing thick along the unpaved road.
I guess development is going further than I had imagined. Sure, it made our walks and drives easy and comfortable, but I had a mixed feeling.

When I reached Nishibama I immediately noticed several people swimming.
Perhaps the NO SWIMMING ban had been lifted!

I couldn’t be standing still with a blank face anymore! I took a few pics and then changed my outfit into my swimming suit. I had to give up my marine boots considering about the trouble afterwards and very very limited time, so with bare feet and fins in my hands I dashed and splashed into the water. The waves were still big and the water wasn’t as clear, but it was still, the very blue water of Kerama.

I already knew the geography for I swam the beach so many times before, so I could take more time making observations of the beach and water. It’s sad to say that dead corals were more conspicuous than my last visit here. There was a favorite spot of mine with corals shaped like a big spoon, but that place too, although not completely dead, had lost the vivid color it used to have.

After a little while of swimming and thinking in the water, I noticed a sound above the surface so I stuck my head out.
”Swimming ban has been lifted” the announcement said.
Well you guys out in the water, you guys went a bit ahead. Me too.

Even though that was the official moment my fun could start, I consulted my body clock and it said that it was about time I had to start getting back.

I so felt like the beach was trying to keep me – it was like a very strong magnet – but I gave up and got back on the road that led to the port.

I was afraid I was a bit late, but I couldn’t find my friends when I got back to the port. It wasn’t for another half hour that they appeared... on a car.
I was like, “Hey, what were you guys up to?” and they told me that since they heard the announcement they thought that I’d still be swimming at Nishibama and asked one of the island people to give them a ride to the beach.

Wow, how could we miss each other like that?
Anyway, we got on the boat safely and got back to Naha safely. We were on Akashima Island for 4 hours and the time I floated in the Kerama Blue was no more than 20 minutes max.

Still I was satisfied with myself, because I did get to see the current situation of Kerama. Certainly, like many have reported, development was surely on its way and it was more than clear that it was deeply affected by tourism. But it’s not that people aren’t doing anything about it: there are signs here and there saying “don’t sit on the corals!” and other efforts being made.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that preservation is guaranteed by those efforts. There may come the time when the Kerama Blue becomes a plain blue. What I strongly felt this time on this trip was that you really can’t resist the power of nature. But if you can make use of that power – dunno if “making use” would be an appropriate term, but anyway – there might be a way to bring back the ocean to what it used to be. After all, humans are powereless.

This was what was on my mind on the plane back to Tokyo as I stared at the swollen bag of chips. Maybe I can make use of this in some way... maybe.

I’ll keep writing about Kerama and nature in Japan as well as giving out other information on this country. Well, guess I’ll get back to daily life blog from next Monday. Thanks for reading all this, if you did ;-)

12 October, 2006

Kerama Blue

In the rough waves of the typhoon the boat loaded with people and hope mightily moved forward!
Well really, the waves were rough as they could be. Most of the passengers got seasick and myself of course, having had that much breakfast was also one of the poor people who were half dead on the boat. Fortunately, because we got on the boat early enough to secure seats for all of us I was able to keep myself from getting too sick.

The heavy swell also kept the boat from picking up speed, and it was an hour past schedule when we finally got to our final destination of the trip. Final destination on the final day... finally I got my feet step on Akashima Island of the Kerama Islands!!!

The island port was full of staffs from the inns to welcome their guests. Since transportation has been stopped and no or very very few people came to the island during the typhoon days, the people at the port welcomed us with bright big smiles on their faces.

I bet people who went there that day and stayed on till the following day would be able to swim in the beautiful waters of Kerama. But for me, a person with a tad bit of hope still simmering in himself, it was the beginning of a dilemma of stepping on my love land and having to have to leave that same day.

As soon as we go to the island I took my friends to Hizushi Beach, a beach famous for having less people. Some time ago, I heard that when the most popular beach on this island Nishibama disallowed swimming many people moved to Hizushi and swam here.
Hizushi was not too far from the village, but we had to cross a little hill and getting there wasn’t that easy. We carried our bags on our backs and dragged out carry bags with fins and other water-playing tools as we climbed up the hill to the top.

A magnificent view of Hizushi Beach spread across in front of us when we reached the peak.

Beautiful, Grand and... Wild.

Yeah, wild.

Huge waves were crashing against the rocks and splashing to the beach and they were so huge that we could tell its force even from quite a height. No doubt, there was not a single human around and it was as though the waves were telling us that “you guys are gonna kill yourselves if you swim!”

The fatigue of coming all this way fell upon me at once.
What was this trip all about...? What are these new fins for...?
Feelings of despair and failure went around my body with eyes blank and lips twitching.

BUT!

I did declare here months ago that I was going to report on the ocean & beach situation Kerama, Akashima and Nishibama were facing!_
I turned my heels and decided to go down over to Nishibama...
But then, I felt rain drops and my friend suddenly goes,

”Hey, I’m kinda tired. I don’t think I wanna bother going way over.”

This is what you call an adversity of life. Right.

Tomorrow, final chapter!
And like I suspected, this has become a long series.

11 October, 2006

And Off to Kerama...

Hi Kain, thank you very much for your kind comment. I am honored for such comment. I’ll do my best to keep brightening up everybody’s days!!

So we are now in my fourth day of my short short vacation. It was also my last day of Okinawa probably for a while, sadly. I got up an hour earlier than the previous days and stared at my mobile internet connection to check up with the latest news on the boat to Kerama Islands. But the information displayed didn’t seem like it was going to be renewed forever.

Me, suspecting that the boat company wasn’t sure if they wanted to let the boats cross the water or not, grabbed my friends and rushed to the port. If they’re trying to decide that moment, I was so ready to make an appeal that this many people are so eagerly wanting to take the boat to the far away islands.

By the time we got to the port, the deserted port the day before was now flooded with people to the smallest corner. For a moment I thought, “hey, all these people have the same thing on their minds as I do” but then I found this note proudly announcing that the first jet boat had been cancelled but the first ferry was ready to go. No more of those for kanjis, yay!

I was sooooo ready to go to Kerama!! I stuck to the very end of the line to get tickets with a wide smile on my face. I didn’t know what I wanted to do first – swimming at Nishibama would be nice, but then I also wanted to have a try at Hizushi Beach where I had never been – and as I was building up my imagination my turn came. I was so happy I almost shouted out “three round tickets to Akashima!” but this person at the ticket counter replied in a rather cold tone, “You can’t really swim on Akashima today, are you sure you want to go there?”
Yeah right, go figure, it’s ok, it’s ok. No swimming, right. Well, were there turtles on Hizushi Beach?


... uh, what!? NO SWIMMING!?!?!??!?
Does that mean I’m not allowed to swim on either of the beaches? What am I supposed to do then!?
If there is the almighty god somewhere up there, why does he have to do this to me?

Still, I did want to go see the island. It was far better than leaving Okinawa without having a glance at the island I once loved so much. My mind went blank for a split second, but I replied “Yes, we’re still going.”

For about an hour and a half while we waited for the ferry to leave, we bought Okinawa Pork Egg at the nearby convenience store for breakfast. It’s kind of natural, but here in Okinawa you can get Okinawa cuisine even in convenience stores that you can’t get elsewhere. It’s like paradise!

Because we were eating out at the park right next to the ferry dock, we could jump on the ferry as soon as it was ready and were able to get good seats easily.
Like I have written in my previous entries, all the possible transportation means were stopped for several days due to the typhoon so those who live away from Okinawa main island had to wait for the transportation to recover and those like us who wanted to travel over to the isolated islands couldn’t go either. There were a bunch of people getting on the boat – so many that once you sit down it was almost impossible to get up again.

And the boat starts to move...!!

Okay, I was going to finish this today but I guess I’d have to extend it to tomorrow. Um, I’ll try wrapping the whole thing up tomorrow, but sorry if it goes on to the following day.

10 October, 2006

The Shrine on the Water

Third day of my Okinawa trip, the typhoon was gone but the waves were still big and so again I lost my hope to go to this isolated island. Reluctantly, I went to take some pictures of the busiest street in Naha for there were particularly nowhere else I wanted to go to, and then I went to have a look at this shrine where the biggest number of people pay visits in Okinawa and is located on the water and at the same time has a beach right next to it. The shrine’s called Naminouegu (na-mi-no-oo-eh-goo).

It was from pure curiosity that I went there – next to the beach and located on top of the water? How can I not go have a look? It was surprisingly close to Kokusai Street, but lesser and lesser people could be seen as I got closer to the shrine and before long the atmosphere became quiet and calm.

I passed through underneath the torii (shrine gate) and climbed up the mild stairs, and at the top faced the quiet but dignified figure of the bright vermilion shrine pavilion. I was lucky to come here at that particular moment, for it seemed like it was praying time for the mikos (female attendants). Young mikos who looked no older than high school students were quietly praying to the shrine with serious yet graceful expressions. I bet they’d want to hang out on the Kokusai Street which is just out there... I mean, they were that young... but I was very impressed by their mature-ness.

Though I was impressed by the mikos, I couldn’t really feel like being on the water so on my way back I took the other way (the stairs were split into three directions) that I didn’t come on. As I went down the steps I soon found the beach that I heard about. I proceeded further on to the beach and looked back... and sure, the shrine looked like it was on the water. Precisely, it sat on a cliff about 10 meters high, but the side of the cliff was carved by the waves over centuries so it looked like it was on the tip of a diving platform sticking out to the open sea.

The beach was very small. It was no larger than a swimming pool separated from the open sea with a helpless rope, but because the big waves were shut out by the embankments the shallow waters were calm and quite a bit of people were splashing in it.

It happened to be just around sunset and the ocean was glittering in gold, the sky was painted with a beautiful gradation of red to yellow and the view of the shrine on the cliff was absolutely gorgeous. Actually, gorgeous wouldn’t explain it well enough. I felt sacredness there.

After a while of enjoying the texture of sand on my bare feet I headed back to the commercial avenue.

That night I hung out on Kokusai St till quite late at night and enjoyed the last night in Okinawa. Having said that, my trip was not over. I still had my last and final day (of hope) to enjoy so I hit the bed with heart full of excitement and hope.

Tomorrow, the final day!! See ya!

06 October, 2006

New Webmanga Starts!!

So we now have a new webmanga Charmy Nurse M on Japan Mode.
This one isn’t a ninja manga like ChamaTama, the one before, but is about a timid, introverted, purposelessly living teenager and an alien girl (and she’s a nurse!) plus iiTage – whom I bet those Japan Mode frequent viewers are fond of by now. It’s pop and cute. Hope you guys enjoy :-)

Oh yeah, and this time we’re going to have it in two languages both released at the same time! That gives me twice the work load even though I haven’t gotten rid of the nastiest cold in years *cry*

Anyway, Okinawa story is postponed till next week.
All right! Check out Japan Mode as always!!

05 October, 2006

Typhoon Sunshine

On the third day when the typhoon has completely passed the island, we headed straight to the port with a tad piece of hope. It was cloudy but it was not raining and the wind was almost nothing. It was right after the typhoon was gone so I wasn’t expecting any boats to leave the island in the morning, but was hoping there’d be at least one that goes to my dream island in the evening. Nonetheless, my faint light of hope was extinguished by the same zenbin-kekkou *hatred* again.

I was very disappointed, but there was no other way but to convince myself when I saw the sea. The sky wasn’t, but the ocean was storming. The waves crashing into the rocks and the embankment were no smaller than 14-15 meters, and although I wanted to go to the island I wouldn’t dare go into such water even on the largest ship in the world.

Besides, it was pretty clear that even if I did make it to the island on a plane I wouldn’t be able to swim so I’d sit there gazing at the ocean. Actually, I didn’t mind that but my friends who are first time Okinawa travelers couldn’t get any souvenirs because of the typhoon, we decided to go again to Kokusai St and I made sure to extend our stay at our favorite dormitory.

After we got back to the dorm we left our luggage and I decided to go out on my own separately from my two friends. I walked around Kokusai St taking pix but soon grew tired so I decided to go see this shrine that’s said to be built right on the edge of a cliff.

And so I did... and it was surely a very nice place. So I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

As for my cold... it’s giving me a really hard time.

04 October, 2006

Experiencing Okinawa Typhoon

I am really coming down with a nasty cold and I was so going to go home early BUT more work was being piled up on my desk and I ended up leaving office the same as usual... which is almost midnight. So so, I am feeling wiped out, heavy and dull from the cold and drowsy from the pills.

Even though I was tires, I couldn’t help buying the Goya (bitter gourd) champloo cooked with pork luncheon meat and that made me a bit happy :-)

So the story goes on:

I knew the mammoth typhoon was there and I knew it was a killer one but I could not waste a day staying inside – after all, this was my long-waited vacation!! With a strong commitment I went outside with my friends... only to find out that local people were out just like they’d be on a normal rainy day. Even the rain and wind weren’t as bad as they looked from inside, and there seemed to be no big deal going out for a walk.

What surprised me the most were the stores: they only had plastic sheets covering whatever they were selling, and besides that they were operating completely normally. I know it’s quite a distance from where people lost power and their houses are flooded, but still I couldn’t believe that this was the same Okinawa and how people here prepared for the strongest typhoon in ten years... I would have to convince myself that they are simply used to it, I guess. They’ve been dealing with typhoon since the ancient days.

We had some taco rice and went back to the dormitory.
The typhoon didn’t get too bad. Rain and wind were slightly stronger at midnight but nothing more. Go figure :P

And now we go on to the third day. My cold is becoming so bad – worse than the typhoon so I think I’m off for today.

03 October, 2006

The Typhoon Attack

Like the title clearly says, the second day of the trip was the day the typhoon really hit the Okinawa islands. I turned on the TV as soon as I woke up in the morning, and the news showed the disastrous mess of the islands where the typhoon has gone past earlier. The Okinawa islands look small from the mainlands of Japan but they stretch north to south covering quite a large area and unfortunately, that stretch is almost every time the railway for typhoons. On the TV I could see broken telephone poles, flipped cars, flooded houses and broken everything. Nearly 80% of the population (18,900 households) did not have electricity in the Yaeyama Islands. They are accustomed to typhoons than us here in Tokyo, but this one was said to be the biggest in ten years.

By the time we knew that the typhoon did not go off its usual course we had completely given up on the idea of giving a try to go to the isolated island, so instead we went to the gas stand to feed our one-day-travel mate. That stand was connected with the rent-a-car office so we could fill in gas and just leave it there.

Although we had no intentions or hope to fly at all, we still went to see the Air Dolphin that we could’ve taken the previous day. As expected, no one was there and the plane wasn’t flying. Imagine, a nine-passenger-cessna flying through the storm clouds of the largest typhoon in ten years...

So this was actually good. I could commit myself to enjoying the main island: I called the dorm to tell the owner that we’re extending a night. Knowing our circumstance he laughed and said ok.

From the airport we took the only railway in Okinawa Yui Rail (it’s a monorail) to near Kokusai St. It didn’t take time to decide where to go first because we were starving, so the first place we walked into was a restaurant where we could have local Okinawa cuisine. The representative Okinawa food is probably Champloo, a stir fry of veggies and tofu with egg, but I decided to have a full pork&eggs meal since I hadn’t had breakfast yet.

This pork&eggs was brought into Okinawa by the Americans when the islands were still under occupation. The Pork Luncheon Meat brought by the Americans became daily food for the local people. Pork&eggs meal set is a set of fried sliced pork luncheon meat and fried eggs eaten together with rice, and it’s really simple but really really good. Even just writing about it makes me hungry.

By the time we finished our food and got back to the dorm the wind was getting strong and I could feel the typhoon coming right nearby. For several hours we stayed inside because the rain was pouring and the wind was knocking off everything on its way, but I grew kind of boring and hungry again too. So we decided to go on an adventure in the wet weather but that’s for tomorrow.

Coming down with a cold and I want to get back home asap. Later.

02 October, 2006

The Okinawa Night

On our way back towards Naha from Sesoko, I searched for the night’s accommodation using Internet on my cell phone. It could’ve been any decent hotel, but for some reason I looked for a cheap dormitory type of room. I didn’t notice then, but as I reflect upon my feelings and attitude at that time, I was probably like “if I can’t go to the island, I don’t care where I stay. And if I’m staying somewhere away from the island, the cheaper the better.”

Soon I found this dormitory accommodation called Andon located along Kokusai Street – that’s the central commercial/tourist street in Naha – and they said that there was room if all of us stayed in one room, so we decided to head there.

We parked out car in a small coin parking lot right nearby. The place looked new... actually, brand new since I could see traces of unfinished construction. The owner was a very calm person and I liked him a lot.

Quite honestly, I don’t remember what we did or what happened after that. I was exhausted – not so much physically but I sure did receive a critical blow from the typhoon and not being able to even reach the island that I longed for two years. With the physical fatigue of swimming as much as I could, I guess I hit the bed.

This Okinawa series that I’d been continuing for a while, has finally reached the end of the FIRST DAY. Unbelievable myself how slow and long I’m doing this. I’m moving on to the second day of my trip from tomorrow anyways. Better speed up a bit, neh?