Thanks for the comments

To everyone,

We are so glad that our post ended up providing so much comfort to so many people. We're glad so many of your loved ones are safe, but so sorry that that's not the case for a lot of people today. Thank you for keeping all of us in Japan in your thoughts.

For those of you seeking more information, I suggest the New York Times map at http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/newsgraphics/2011/0311-japan-earthquake-map/index.html.

Wendy who posted asking for information on our previous post - as your friend is from Saga-ken on Kyushu, the family was probably fine as long as they were at home. We will think of them.

Nana

Earthquake/Tsunami - Not Fukuoka

For family and friends out there - the tsunami and earthquake you may have seen in the news hit Honshu, Japan's main island, on the Pacific coast. We are on the Sea of Japan coast (the "left side," not the "right side," of the map, if you will) on the island of Kyushu, so this is not a quake that affected us directly. Of course this is kind of self-centered to say since obviously many, many people are being affected right now, but we didn't want anybody to worry. And we're very glad that in spite of being sleepy and in pajamas last night we opened the door to our landlord, who turned out to need to make a correction on the earthquake insurance paperwork!

Day Out in Fukuoka: Ohori Park

Last week was absolutely beautiful: a brief flash of spring before the cold weather returned this past week. After I spent most of Friday outside skiing in Saga-ken, Nana and I spent the better part of Saturday hanging out in Ohori Park, Fukuoka's largest green space.

Ohori Park is built around a big man-made pond, which was itself created from the remains of part of Fukuoka Castle's moat system. The area used to be an inlet before the land was reclaimed. These days, there's a 2-km, plus a series of artificial islands connected by little bridges.

The park is also an extremely popular spot for dog-walkers, which was a sight for our poor, puppy-deprived eyes. And of course, in Japan, wherever you find dogs, you find amusing signs about picking up dog poop.

 Anyway . . . there isn't a whole lot to do at Ohori Park. It was just a nice excuse to get outside.

 And, incidentally, get my first sunburn of 2011!

"Ahh . . . what a day!"

We did see a few cool, Japan-y things, though. First, there was a guy tossing bread to a bunch of seahawks and gulls that were circling overhead.

 Here's a video:

Reminded me of our bird-watching cruise in Shetland.

No idea what species those brown birds were, but we have a bunch of them around here.

Second, it turns out dogs weren't the only members of the menagerie on display at Ohori Park. This guy was apparently walking his rabbit . . .

 . . . and the people sitting across from us at Starbucks had brought their birds out for the day.

Colds, Japanese-style

Due to a sore throat, I went native the last two days, donning the infamous surgical-style face mask people in Asia are famous for wearing at the drop of a hat. Have a cold? Mask. Someone else has a cold? Mask. Bird flu? Mask. Morning commute? Mask. Don't want to participate in school? Mask. (I'm looking at you, middle schoolers...)

Epidemiologically speaking, I am given to understand although the mask can help with spread by trapping coughs, sneezes, and regular old germy breath, it won't prevent you from catching most stuff, since your eye membranes are still exposed, but feel free to correct me, medicine-y people. What I found over the last two days is that it does something really awesome for a sore throat: traps warm/moist air around your face. It's like walking around with your own humidifier. Of course, the breakout around my nose is going to be epic. It really sucks to be teaching high schoolers and realize they all have better skin than me.

In addition to the mask, I've done the Mystery Gargle from my coworker Aki (I swear she just dripped minty-flavored blue ink into a glass) and stolen the hot water heater from the school kitchen so I can have a pot of decaf tea on my desk at all times.

The ultimate reason for all of this? Faculty karaoke is on Friday, and I. WILL. BE. READY. Come rain, come snow, come zits, come ink, come forty trips to the bathroom a day. Because let's face it, people, The Final Countdown ain't gonna count itself.

Wish me luck!

Goodness gracious, great balls of... EVIL

Justin and my love for ACROS continues, as we followed up on the saki-ori and Agano pottery exhibits with a trip to the Yanagawa Sagemon embroidered ball exhibition. I don't really know what the story with these is, and Google has not availed me of further information. Basically, they're springtime decorations. Why? I don't know, except that they're cute.




No, your eyes do not deceive you. That price tag reads 315,000 yen. That's $3,150 in dollars. Handmade cute does not come cheap.

In addition to the traditional ball shape, you also have lots of funny animals, such as the bathtowel-head octopus:


the Sistine Chapel ceiling shrimp:

and the uncomfortable husband who hates pretending to look at things while I take pictures but whose mother is always disappointed when he disappears from the blog:

Also a chicken.

(That one's for my brother-in-law Ryan.)

Since we didn't stand an embroidered ball's chance in... a place inhospitable to embroidery? - of purchasing the top-notch goods for ourselves, we thought it would be a good idea to take on the DIY Sagemon rabbit display. For a mere five bucks we could take home a bunny of our very own. How cute - how kawaii, as they love to say here.

Cut out the parts:

Sew a little pouch for the body:

Sort out body fabric in preferred color order.

Get overruled by Japanese attendants and glue fabric on in their preferred order to appease them:

Apply gold trim:
Add face:
Fail spectacularly at adding ears, necessitating rescue by aforementioned attendants:

(Full disclosure: actually, I needed intervention on basically every step listed here except the cutting out. I sure can cut. If I remembered my preschool teacher's name, I'd send her a thank-you note.)

As far as I could tell, the pink shading on the ears was just blush. Maybe it was special sagemon dye with a special sagemon applicator, but really, I think it was just blush.

Add a cotton tail:
And recoil in horror at the realization of what you have wrought upon the world. I mean, look at this rabbit. Is he not the incarnation of pure evil?

I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL.

We call him Mr. Bun, because when we suggested that name to him, he let us live. Mr. Bun exists at the tragic intersection of unadulterated rage and abject powerlessness. He hates everyone and wishes to destroy everything, yet he is crippled by the realization that he is a styrofoam rabbit without limbs or a mouth. He can neither execute his own vile schemes nor recruit minions to carry out his will. Mostly, he just sits on the pantry shelf next to the peanut butter, exuding impotent loathing and hoping perhaps to fall on somebody and cause them to burn themselves on the microwave. It's not nuclear armageddon, but at this point Mr. Bun has to take what he can get.

Spring Skiing in Saga-ken

Yesterday, I went with a small school trip to a ski center in nearby Saga-ken, the next prefecture over from Fukuoka. There wasn't much snow, but frankly, I was surprised to find any snow in late February at ~33°N (roughly on a level with Atlanta, if you're keeping track back home).

The geography of Japan is interesting that way: the rugged, mountainous interiors of the main islands make for some strange weather patterns. For each of the main islands, the northern and western coasts are much colder in the winter than the southern and eastern coasts at the same latitude, because the mountains shield the southern and eastern coasts from the frigid winds blowing down from Siberia. In addition, the mountains are much colder than the cities, most of which lie at or near sea level on one of Japan's coasts.

We could actually see this phenomenon in action on our bike ride home: while the temperatures in Fukuoka hovered just around freezing for most of the winter, with little or no accumulation, we could see snow on the mountains to the south pretty much constantly since December.

This week, however, the weather definitely turned, and we were lucky to get to the mountain when we did. (I wouldn't be surprised if they were closed today--the slope was beginning to wear thin by yesterday afternoon.)

So what was it like, spring skiing in Saga-ken? First, the ski area was tiny. They were running only one lift, a two-seater, that serviced a gentle green a few hundred yards long.

Despite the small size of the place, however, there were many highlights to the day. First and foremost, the students had a blast, to the point that they're asking me to start a club for next year. The fact that the slope was so beginner-friendly was probably a major factor.

Second, the day was just breathtakingly beautiful. The first truly warm day since fall, and the sky clear and bright for the duration.

Third, the place had a goofy snow-making system of the likes I had never seen in the almost-quarter-century I've been skiing. Sure, they had the traditional hoses and water jets lining the slope, for use only when the weather was cold enough. But in addition, they had these huge ice-making machines at intervals along the run, which seemed to be making gobs of ice, chopping them up, and scooting them to the ski surface through noisy vacuum tubes.

It can't have been cheap to run them . . . and if the video below is any indication, they can't have been doing much to keep the place open.

So that's skiing in Saga-ken. Consider it a teaser for our upcoming spring break trip to Hokkaido!

Pounding Mochi at Japan Day

Mochi are Japanese rice cakes, similar to the Korean tteok. Daifuku is the most popular variety: an oblong disk of rice dough with some sweet filling, usually red bean paste. They can be a bit on the chewy side, but overall they're really tasty--great little snacks, and also great little deserts.

This past week, our school hosted a Japan Day, and one of the events was a big outdoor mochi party. We got to see mochi making firsthand, then to eat a bunch of fresh mochi topped with red bean paste and a delicious brown powder made of dried, crushed soybeans and sugar.

It turns out that the majority of the mochi making process involves whacking a pile of warm, sticky rice dough with a mallet. Fun for the whole family!

Obviously, my technique is lacking. After studying some game film, it turns out the pros use their hips and their bottom arm to lift the mallet straight up, then let gravity do most of the work. This is undoubtedly better than my "Heck, I don't really need that arm this week, do I?" approach, which left me sore after only a few minutes of work. Don't worry, coach, I'll do better next time!

(Full disclosure: Nana and I actually learned a bit about making tteok in Korea, and the process is pretty similar to making mochi. I guess there aren't a lot of different ways to hit rice goop with a hammer.)

The rest of Japan Day was a lot of fun, too--I made a little origami blow-up ball, and got to watch some really cool Japanese performances. The highlight was probably the taiko show: the only thing better than a drum so big and deep it can make your chest shake is ten drums so big they can make your chest shake.