I'm posting from a Japanese terminal, so pardon the mistakes.
Just wanted to take a moment to congratulate my esteemed Uncle Tom on becoming a full fledged poop-smith. I think this is a most laudable achievement.

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The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
J. W. Gardner

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I took a quiz just so I could know what I did not know. If I were a die what die might I be...there appears to be no end to my lame.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

**This post is dedicated to Blarn the butthead may his battles be unending.

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I haven't posted in an age and for that I am sorry. I have had some adventures but unfortunately none that I wanted to bring a camera along for. Thus no posts, but I feel I owe it to those people that care to have something of an update to fill the lonely hours at work when work should be done but just not right now.

Let me set the mood; I'm sitting in my freshly cleaned house. The room fan is on and all the windows are open. It has been hot lately a sure sign that the Japanese summer is upon us. Soon all the white folks in the area will be burstin' inta flames. I don't burn fortunately, I explode sweat.. Violently. Along with such a comfortable space I am also enjoying a can of Kirin Green Label and listening to my dinner cook in the background. A medley of burgermeat, potatoes, green peppers, and tomatoes. I don't mean a good medley, more like a melee of random foods stuffs I could dice and throw into a pot. VERY HUNTER GATHERER, except I didn't stalk any hamburger beasts today (they aren't in season anyway).

I'm wandering let me get to the recent adventure.. firefly watching whilst naked.

Certainly that should be enough to bring your attention away from whatever you people do who read my blog. I was invited by Jack, who is Japanese and really isn't named Jack, to go to a public bath (called an onsen in Japan). Public baths are great other than they're public. I have no trouble whipping out my goods, in fact after three years in a country where sexuality and the body is viewed much differently I have spare less thoughts to modesty now that I did before. That being said, the problem with public baths is I live in red-neck central (Japan's version at least) and every thoughtless ignorant inbred brings their wolf pack of kids to these places and they run around and well you all know how much I like kids. Fortunately this place that I went to is out of the way and we hit the timing just perfect so it wasn't a bloody mess by the time I left. The onsen is known for this time of year to host a lot of fire flies. The baths are outside which makes it spectacular for watching the nightsky. The water isn't too hot nor too cold and you can just tip your head back and watch the milky way. As if someone threw a switch right at 2030 (that's 8:30 pm for my mother) all of the milkyway fell upon the onsen as small firey motes of green starlight filled up the river grotto next to the onsen. The interesting thing I never had noticed from my childhood was the fire flies would light up together (nearly so) and beat like a heart beats. Eventually they spilled out of the grotto and into the forest across from the baths (they hate lights so they stayed away from even the dim lights of the onsen, or maybe they hate red necks not sure). That baths were fortunately separated by sex (good too, because young women are too shy to go to onsens usually and that leaves only old ladies--not cool no matter how tightly closed your eyes are).

After that Jack took me to a great dinner of sashimi (raw tuna, squid and a few other choice treats all were excellent). The killer was the sake, I just can't drink sake. No matter how many times I try it still makes me gag and gives me a huge hangover the next day no matter how little I drink. no thanks.


In other news, I am packing to leave soon. I condensed all of the goodies I want to move with me into one room. It's a small mountain, but I think I can climb it.

thanks all.

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I recently went to Kyoto (again)；to see the 102 annual - All Japan - Weapons tournament. It was three days of nothing but weapons, weapons and more weapons. I only went on Tuesday because the other days were devoted to tests and the view would be limited for anyone but the judges. An additional benefit was that I borrowed a new Canon 35mm Digital KissN. A quantum leap above what my crap G2 can do. Double the MP and a lens that you can actually do depth of field and reliable focus with. The Kiss also allows ISO's up to 1600 speed so I didn't need to use a flash at all as long as I kept my f-stop around f5.6.

So I'm sitting here listening to Gregorian Chant music and trying to remember the day. The budokan in Kyoto was awesome. Hardly a surprise since Kyoto is listed most prominently as a city of traditional culture (other than the fact that Nintendo is located there, Mario is a tradition isn't it?). The food there is expensive, the temples are expansive and if culture and snobbery is your aim this is your place; the "dojo" was no exception, it was a complex of building that allowed for nearly every art you can think of. They had a sumo ring, a kyudo pitch (non-mounted archery), a formal wood-floor training hall for jo (short staff), iai (sword) and finally a modern gym for judo, and the other arts that require falls and rolls. I'm sure there was things missed too. The last and most impressive part of the demonstrations was that you could not be invited unless you were above a 5th degree blackbelt. That means no less than 15 years experience, but more like 20-30. As you'll see with the pictures most of the people in them are over 40 and it really showed.

Jodo
As I mentioned there were many arts done that day. My goal was to see foremost iaido. Those picture will follow. My 2nd goal was to see naginata. Naginata for those that don't know is a kind of cross between a sword blade and a spear. It's a pole-arm that is perhaps 6' long and then tipped with a 2' blade. It is a slashing weapon unlike a spear which is mostly a stabbing weapon. Sadly, I wasn't able to get there on time :( I did get to see some of the end of jodo (short staff). It might not show it, but I noticed that the more serene the face was proportional to how frightening it was when necessary. Jodo is a partner practice and I would like it if it weren't for the fact that it centers around Jo. I hate to be a snob but it seems like such a peasant weapon. Formidable, but still a peasant weapon. The most impressive part of Jo was how fast they moved. Imagine swinging a baseball bat full speed into your friend's chest then at the last possible second stopping short. If you didn't know better you'd think that they were actually hitting each other. That was a demonstration of skill and trust as I had never seen.





Iaido
No real order to the pictures here. This first set is of a sensei from the neighborhood. I met him in the city at a practice. I don't know much about him other than what I have seen. He's a wee-little fellow barely 5'. I watched him teach my group that first time and wing his sword around like it was a butter knife. It wasn't until the end of the day I found out it was a real sword capable of cutting off real fingers just as easy as anything. It was hair raising to remember how casual he was with it. Casual only to a beginner's eyes I'm sure.
On a more serious note, I wanted this last picture to thank Joe "I AM! Osaka" Gorski for letting me crash at his place. The chorizo was great, the pizza was excellent and as always, the company compelling.

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Well as I related recently a coworker from my last job (back in the states) came to visit. In point of fact, he was the only one from the world that visited me while I've been here (yes family, I am *ahem* looking at you :D).

The highlights for me personally were many. To name a few; seeing just how far along in the language I have sank was huge, "meow, meow... meow?" Blazing a 'trail' through the mountains I will return, make no mistake, forwards always forwards. Watching Big D get almost made part of a Japanese family [suddenly], "sure you can stay with us any time. Please take our daughter, she's too old be living at home still, PLEASE!!" Of course who could forget all the sushi, I never ate so much sushi as I did when he was here. good stuff.

He was here for about 14 days and I can say we pretty much hit all the sights that were close by. Fortunately for the both of us that Wakayamaken has a very old history and many interesting places to go. Personally I had seen nearly all of the places already (except for Kyoto), but that is no matter since they are all very dear to me. So w/o first adieu I will let your eyes pass over the frames I stole from the cold grasp of time, memory and history quickly forgotten.


Nara - Home of the big buddha

The Kumano Kodo (Sacred Road)
This 'road' runs from Kyoto all the way down to Shingu. It was used as a pilgrim tail back in the day and even the emperor was supposed to have ridden it (I have heard). A lot of it now is under asphalt, but still there are some really nice stretches that are the old style of cobble stones and Big D and I walked the section closest to our town. Best parts were finding an awesome waterfall (that you can do waterfall training if you want) and Big D almost getting flicked off the mountain.
(the middle is him thanking the mountain gods for not eating him)

Koya-san
I've mentioned this place before, still one of my favorites and we really gave it a good look over while there.

Kyoto
I had been here before, but I never really got a chance to look around. I can say I've finally gotten a good taste of this town. It was really touristed and for me surrounded usually by only Japanese people, being surrounded by so many foreigners I was kinda weirded out. For the readers back home just take my word for it. When you live your last three years surrounded by people that share a lot of their traits its a shock to see people with big noses, fat bodies, pale skin, strange hair and on and on..

Shingu, Nachi, and surrounds..

** a small interjection while I do this update, I am watching a bit of TV. As I've said before I TV here is a trip. Right now they have a bunch of TV personality actors etc.. playing tag in a soccer stadium. The thing is, the "monster" is a granny and if she tags out all 8 of the young actors then she wins a rice cooker. Not fair right? What if that granny happens to be an olympic marathon runner? (she's got 20 minutes left and only 5 people to tag)...

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That's right a cougar... the online-urban dictionary defines a Cougar as follows:

Noun. A 35+ year old female who is on the "hunt" for a much younger, energetic, willing-to-do-anything male. The cougar can frequently be seen in a padded bra, cleavage exposed, propped up against a swanky bar in San Francisco (or other cities) waiting, watching, calculating; gearing up to sink her claws into an innocent young and strapping buck who happens to cross her path. "Man is cougar's number one prey"

Although that wasn't exactually my experience I recently had a run in with a teacher that school that was fairly entertaining. A new teacher from another school recently joined the staff. When I heard she was coming I called up the foreigner that I knew in the school the teacher was coming from. I heard she was married, 2 boys, aged about 45.. pretty standard stuff. So the first day came around and I met this woman who was just a sex-bomb waiting to explode. I know 20 year olds back home that would crave the look and vibe this woman gives off and that was even before I talked with her.

So in the spirit of all things Japanese I extended the olive branch and invited her to lunch (we had sushi, she didn't eat much, but she did choose only the best cuts of fish to eat). By the end of the meal the conversation had gone so far that she was doing all the visual cues that you read about in woman's magazines. You know, the kind that try to tell you if you [a woman] flip your hair or touch a man's arm he'll notice yadda yadda.. well I noticed alright. I think the real cherry was when we were walking through the parking lot and she full-body brushed up against me. Accidental I'm sure.

As experiences go I'm satisfied with the memories I had, she still often touches me at work and I enjoy what little talking we do. I hope that all men that read my blog at least once in their lives have a run in with a cougar just for the memories it provides. Even limited as mine was I think it will certainly be a highlight of 2006.

thanks for stopping by,

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I was sent this link and it seems interesting enough to post. I wonder how many loyal readers will follow the link.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Evil+Dr+Grignard

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