Are you sure this is Africa?

Did you know that when you step foot in an embassy technically you're stepping foot on the soil of that country? Well, when one of my AET friends, A.T., who is Ethiopian-American, invited me a few weeks ago to attend a Japanese-Ethiopian culture night celebration with him and his wife at the Ethiopian embassy, I was more than ready to go. I wouldn't get a stamp in my passport for walking through the doors. And the scenery would look a whole lot more like Tokyo than Addis Ababa. But I'd be attending a state party in Ethiopia!

When yesterday arrived for our 12-member party to travel for the event, we had to make the decision of whether or not to go due to an incoming typhoon. Many of us would have preferred to stay home. But A.T. was so excited to share his country's food, music, and dancing with us that none of us could tell him no. So we piled into two vehicles and took off for Tokyo at 1pm Africa time, which means that while we were supposed to leave at 1pm, we actually left at 2pm. Unfortunately, that late departure was an unknown-at-the-time foreshadowing of how our travel to the party would go, for when we finally arrived at a metered parking lot that was as close as we could get to the embassy, A.T. told us that the party wasn't at the embassy at all but at another location instead. After another hour of cell-phone-GPS consulting, hailing a cab whose driver couldn't find the building, and pulling one of two Ethiopian guys who were walking on the street into said cab to lead us to our destination, we arrived completely frustrated. But thankfully the event was very enjoyable and most of us were able to forget about the stress of our travel during the course of the evening.

The event was attended mainly by Japanese people, naturally. However, there were several Ethiopian expatriates at the party. And A.T. introduced our group to the ambassador from Ethiopia. Unfortunately, I only got to see him rather than meet him.

The Ethiopian food that we ate was good but very spicy. Having become accustomed to much milder food this past six months, I don't know if I would have found the food to be so spicy if my U.S. palate were still intact. But my mouth was on fire with just a few bites and I was unable to finish my meal.

The Japanese dancers doing both traditional Japanese as well as traditional Ethiopian dances were quite good. But the best part of the evening was when the people attending the party were invited to join in with the dancing.

H.V. and N.N. dancing on the sidelines, although H.V. earlier in the evening had been one of the people to get up and perform with the dancers.

Ethiopian dancing heavily involves moving the shoulders, which the two Ethiopians in this picture were able to do quite well. J.M. couldn't quite manage the shoulders, although he would have been more than happy to show us the hips-driven Latin dances that he learned while growing up in Honduras.

I never made it to Africa last night. So I guess I'll just have to go at some point in the future. But at one of the traffic lights on the way home, I saw what is surely the world's smallest liquor store (and its bored-looking employee). If I'd wanted to lie down on the floor to measure the store's width, I would have touched the exterior wall with my head and the interior wall with my feet. (Please don't fail to notice the store's name.) When you live and work in a city as crowded as Tokyo, you make the most of every square inch.

Until next time...

Teachers' Trip Activities

On the last Saturday of July, approximately 20 teachers and I went on the annual teachers' trip that occurs at the end of each summer term. We met at the school at 7:00am for the bus ride to Tokyo and returned at 8:30pm. I was uncertain about what to expect, since many other AETs have talked about their schools' party committees renting buses stocked with alcohol and some of their teachers embarrassing themselves and others when they over-indulge in beer, wine, and cocktails. But as I have been discovering with each enkai that I attend, the teachers at my school enjoy alcoholic beverages responsibly. Perhaps this is due to the influence of my school's administrators or party committee, I don't know. But it's a huge relief for me, nevertheless.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, we immediately went to the Nippon Television Network to see a clock weighing 28 tons, standing 36 feet tall, and measuring 54 feet wide. It was designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the man who runs Studio Ghibli, an animation house which created the recent Ponyo and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. For fifty-five minutes of every hour, the clock is a regular, albeit steampunk-looking, clock. However, at five minutes to the hour during a certain window every day, the clock begins its magic, as seen in the clip below.



After watching the clock, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the Keio Plaza Hotel, an upscale hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. The meal was served buffet-style. But if you're picturing Golden Corral, you're doing an injustice to this restaurant. Yes, a salad bar and carved roast beef were provided. Would a buffet be complete without them? But picture also main dishes such as black spaghetti (which gets its color from squid ink) tossed with Genoan ham, green peas, and pesto sauce and Japanese beef curry served with rice; an assortment of gourmet cheeses; steamed whole shrimp and other Japanese seafood selections; white wine jelly (gelatin), a variety of small cakes, and vanilla or pumpkin ice cream for dessert. As I can never eat my money's worth at an American buffet, there's absolutely no way that I ate my money's worth at this buffet!

Had I known when I said I would go on the teachers' trip that the main event of the day was watching comedians rather than watching the filming of a Japanese game show, which is what I originally thought we would be doing, I wouldn't have gone on the trip since I was also leaving for Guam the next day and could have used that time to finish preparing for the trip. As it was, while the teachers watched the comedians, I fruitlessly searched all the shopping centers in the area (There were at least four in a one-square-mile area.) for a certain gift for my nephew. However, my principal was impressed with the fact that I came on the trip. So since he's the one who can make or break my future employment with this program and I did enjoy the time I spent with the teachers on the bus and at lunch, the trip was ultimately worthwhile.

Until next time...

Bamboo Forest

When I woke up on Wednesday morning of Golden Week, my tired eyes decided to rebel against my contacts with considerable burning and tearing. So my plans to go to the seaside park were thwarted, as I had to go back to bed to give my eyes a rest. However, I had the last laugh over my uncooperative eyes by visiting Kairaku-en Park, a local city park, later that day instead.

Kairaku-en Park was built in the mid-1800s by Lord Tokugawa, a local feudal lord, for regular people to enjoy. (Parks in those days were intended solely for the enjoyment of the aristocracy.) The park is quite large, having upper and lower portions separated by Senba Lake. As it would have taken quite a while to enjoy the entire park, my friend, C.G., and I visited the upper portion. The park itself was quite beautiful on the day we visited but is at its most beautiful in late-February or early-March when the more than 100 varieties of pink-, white-, and red-flowered plum trees blossom. I found the bamboo forest to be quite fascinating.

My friend, C.G., thought that these immature bamboo trees looked like poo. But to me they look like the tail-end of those creepy, giant, burrowing worms from the movie "Tremors." What do you think?

Until next time...

Golden Weekend

Friday evening began Golden Week festivities. On Friday, A.T., a Japanese friend I met in 1998 while I was in another city doing Let's Start Talking, picked me up from work to take me to his home for dinner with his family, one of his wife's American coworkers who's an AET for a private company, a member of the church, and the missionaries in residence at the church. I had such a great time! We had good conversation, ate yummy beef curry and rice, and had completely homemade rice crackers (The rice was grown in the church member's mother's rice field, ground into flour, and then baked.) and store-bought pastries for dessert. (I'm amazed at Japanese bakeries. They give the French a run for their money.) Spending time with the other AETs is a lot of fun. And I'm glad that I have that network of other Americans. But spending time with the people of the country I'm visiting/living in/working in makes my experience of that country so much richer.

On Saturday I went to Yokohama with fellow AETs N.P., C.G. and C.T. We were going to Kamakura to see the bronze Daibutsu (Great Buddha) that has been standing since the mid-13th Century. It is one of the most noted images of Japan, having endured numerous storms that washed away the hall that contained it. And with it being the beginning of Golden Week, there were large crowds of people who wanted to see it as well. (Click here to see more pictures of my visit to the Daibutsu temple.) While we didn't have problems with the crowds on the way to or in the temple of the Daibutsu, we ran into problems with the crowds at the train station.

Japanese people are very polite most of the time. But when it comes to standing in line and catching a train, they can become downright aggressive. People were getting swept off their feet as people behind them pushed to get off or on the train. Children were crying as they got crushed by pushy people and torn away from their parents' hands. N.P., one of the guys I was traveling with, was literally carried onto the train under the power of the people pushing from behind him. He didn't want to board the train at that time, since there wasn't going to be room for all four of us to board. But one person's strength isn't enough to withstand the force of dozens of people from behind and around pushing to get on the train. I'd joked earlier in the day that I wanted to ride a train in Tokyo where the white-gloved train employees push on people to cram them into every available space so that the doors can close. But now that I understand first-hand how people die from the crush of the crowds at soccer games in Europe and how N.P. said that his left foot never touched the ground during that train ride, I never want to experience that again. (Unfortunately, though, I think it's inevitable, since most of my traveling will be done while taking advantage of these national holidays.) When all was said and done, N.P. and C.G. were able to make it on to the second or third train that left the station while C.T. and I weren't able to make it on a train until the fourth or fifth train came through, causing us to stand in line on the train platform for almost one hour.

Kamakura is a coastal town. So before heading back to our hotel in Yokohama to pick up our bags before catching the train home on Sunday evening, we visited the Pacific Ocean. I can't remember what the Pacific Ocean off southern California feels like, if it's warm or chilly. But the Pacific Ocean off this portion of Honshu was quite chilly and felt wonderful to our feet after our miles of walking that day and the day before. While there, we got asked by a Japanese girl if she and her family could have their picture taken with us. Since she said that they live in the prefecture neighboring Tokyo, we doubted that this was their first time to see non-Japanese people. And there were other non-Asians on the beach; so who knows why she singled us out. Maybe we were acting like typically obnoxious (read: loud) Americans. So perhaps she'll blog about us the way I'm blogging about them!

Today was a relaxing day. Tomorrow I'm off to a seaside park with the A.T. family and others from church. I've heard it's beautiful; so I'm sure I'll have pictures to share.

Until next time...