Since at least the 80′s Japan has been a lucrative option for foreigners to earn and save and experience an eastern culture. NOVA emerged as largest English teaching corporation in Japan and it was they who recruited me from London. For anyone considering Japan as an English teaching option here’s my five cents:

The NOVA London recruitment office was thoroughly professional, dealt with the Japanese bureaucracy and within 3 months I had a visa in my passport and was on my way. The requirements by the way – a university degree, a clean criminal record and of course being a native English speaker.
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Takayama, lying deep in northern Gifu, is famed for its glimpse back to the old days and the old ways. On a whim, as with most of my weekend trips, my buddy Rick and I rose early to take the cheaper JR train into mountain country. In densely populated Japan it seems to take forever to break into the countryside.

But arriving in Takayama at 10am the day was ours. On a short bus ride on up to the museum village of Hida no Sato we passed a proud golden roofed temple topped with a whopping red ball. Why the ball? A tribute to clowns everywhere? Cot death awareness? Or just the cherry on the top? Before mulling it over any more we arrived outside a huge Hello Kitty, took our first snaps, said hello to kitty and then entered the Hida no Sato open air museum of dwellings from eras past.
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Life’s been ticking over at quite a pace. I’m not complaining– just mad at myself that I been letting all the mad and interesting bites of life turn to crumbs of memories before I can put my fingers on the keys. I could blame the World Cup soccer as a distraction, but since football is my first love I could never lay my blame there. I’m not going to beat on about another disappointing Dutch performance or the mockery of ‘the beautiful game’ that the sly, diving Italians turned in in the final, or Zidane’s brain explosion. I could blame my Toshiba laptop for been out of action again (now repaired – I’d never buy another), the trials of securing a new job or my new apartment – but I’ll stop myself before you do and just write. The following blog entries should hopefully put you back on track with what’s going on with me in the Red Dot and give you an excuse to procrastinate on that spreadsheet / law contract / line of code / whatever for another 10 minutes.

Ogaki Festival
Ogaki is a few towns away from Gifu and where I worked at the time. My first Japanese festival was a buzz, though I’m told its nothing compared to the famous festivals known around Japan. The Saturday it rained so the Mikoshi and Dashi that I had come to see weren’t risked in the rain. The gods cleared the night sky on the Sunday and these multi-towered floats were paraded through the streets, hauled by teams of young men. In front of the Jinja (shrine) the men sent the Dashi spinning on its two wheels as an impressive stunt. Others were less reckless – some of the floats were a few hundred years old, others were decked out with a stage type appendage where young girls in Kimono gracefully performed the ancient traditions with parasols and fans.

Street merchants tried to pass off crap festival food Japanese style (including chocolate penis bananas), cheap flashing widgets, and Manga merchandise. My friend Faith bought a Hello Kitty Lantern. Kawaii! Our favourite little stall though had to be the ‘win a turtle’ corner. Aim: catch a tiny turtle in a rice cracker that turns to soggy mush before your eyes. We won a little turtle, though we could’ve bought a whole family from the pet shop for the same price. And we cheated. Its Sara’s turtle really (I’m only the father who’s never there) and since our red-eared turtle’s higher up the great chain of being than a goldfish it’s being well loved and looked after. It has a name: Akachan (Aka = red, chan = affectionate title.)

Nights Out
I’m a bit light on those… sorry to disappoint, no I’m not feeling unwell…
An 80’s party in Nagoya was just too easy to kit up for. Since fashion has no rules in Japan there’s no ironic retro thing going down. It’s all current and everything goes as far as I can tell. I found a LASS shirt – aka KISS. There’s no story here, all 80s parties end with a hangover and lipsticked kisses slapped all over the face.

More common are the drinking episodes at Izakaya’s (drinking/eating dens) or the local favourite ‘Beerhall’ (where everybody knows your name, da da da). Sometime after the fifth jar someone will have bright idea of a Karaoke-a-thon which never expires after the first hour. I blame the lack of Kebab takeaway joints.

On one of Beerhall’s sterling open-mic nights I saw a sassy Japanese singer woo the crowd. Naomi’s now my girlfriend and her next gigs at the end of the month. Our first night out we ate at Japanese restaurant that was an experience in art as much as food. I still haven’t eaten anything like it since being in Japan – 10 courses, all mini works of art served up on individual handmade pottery for which Gifu is famous, all raw, all delish.

Lastly, as yet I am unable to report on Japanese Love Hotels. There will be notification when this changes.
Gomenasai moo ichido, Sorry once again for the long silence – my catchup posts are on their way. For now, check out the Ogaki festival photos under my photolog >Japan>Ogaki-festival

Crikey, time for a round up on what’s been going on around Gifu-Shi. I think I’ve got the hang of this town. I’ve been here for 4 weeks, I bought a bike to terrorize the pavements, I’m learning Japanese (though I still can’t write my name), and I’m in the swing of work, working on my patient plaster smile for the lower level students. I spare a though for my own Jap tutors.

So straight into it: There have been 1 or 2 notorious Karaoke incidents in downtown Gifu. Private booths, all you can drink (a lot), dancing on tables, and possibly singing some Kylie? No one can confirm or deny that. Props to Kelly for her superb effort capably ordering pizza on the phone the next day. Now, because this whole situ is likely to reoccur again (and again) I’ll take any Karaoke requests that you might have. I’ll do an intro if you like (one of those ‘this goes out to my homeboy ‘…Stan’). The song will be butchered but it might be a nice connector between absent friends. So, requests people?
We celebrated Mother Natures delicate beauty with a Hanami (Cherry Blossom) Party in Gifu Koen last week. ‘The Friendship Garden’ (friendship between Japan and China) was a surreal night stage of cherry blossom trees around a pond. It was pretty cool for so many of the Gaijin (foreign) tutors to be in the one place, listening to music, hanging out, speaking english. And as beer drops from vending machines you never have to worry about when the bottle shop’s going to close. A final word on the cherry blossoms: They are loverly, prittee and beautifil, but now sadly they’re gone. Two days after our party wind and rain decimated our beloved cherry blossom trees leaving little pink-white petals littered in every street like confetti after a wedding. Till next year I guess…

I visited Yoro yesterday, which doesn’t make a mention in the Lonely Planet, though it should for its bizarre park, ‘The Garden of Reversible Destiny’. Yes, I did visit just for the name. Set in the backdrop of Yoro Mountain, ‘The Garden’ is a micro-world of play and discovery. It’s all a bit Alice in Wonderland with random household items (kitchen ovens, sofas, baths…) mixed up with mazes, glass floors, pathways that confused my balance, and a wonderfully disorientating use of scale. In all this chaos the natural garden elements still remain quite Japanese. The pretty brochure describes it as an ‘experience park’ conceived on the theme of experiencing the unexpected. I love it because it’s the opposite of the order we traditionally expect of the Japanese. Check out more about the garden and its creators Arakawa and Gins here. I was kept company on my reversible walk-around by an interesting character with a white helmet who clearly took his job as security quite seriously and insisted on joking with me in Japanese. Really he was keeping an eye out to make sure I left by 5:00 on the dot. Ah, the order returns.

Otherwise, work is going well; I’ve had two observations which I’ve come through just fine. Golden Week (the biggest Japanese week off) is approaching which would be exiting if we had the time off like the rest of Japan (or paid in lieu). NOVA staff don’t get any public holidays which I’m feeling a little mis-informed about.

But in a happy final paragraph can I say happy Easter to you all too. The bunny didn’t make it to me this year (mum, dad, you did forward him my change of address?) but thanks Susan for sending that chocolate bunny pic that comes out every year.

Japans castles don’t give the impression of stubborn resistance that the Welsh castles gave me. Japanese castles are too… preetty, I guess. They are striking buildings of beauty that give few clues of the battles and butchery they must’ve seen. To me the oddest feature is that the Donjon (inner keep) is made of wood, which is surely asking to get razed to the ground – and exactly what happened to many of them.

I visited Hikone with Michelle, an Aussie who arrived in the ‘land of the red dot’ when I did. The cherry blossoms weren’t popping then but the town and its castle were definitely worth going out of your way for. The donjon of Hikone-jo stands in beautiful elevated grounds behind the outer walls and castle moat on the highest point in the town. I had some trouble appreciating how the defences would’ve worked here – the sloping stones walls, curved roof and manicured gardens were probably working against the fierce and booby-trapped defences I though they should have. But looking at the castle on google maps (scroll down to hikone) I can see they’d thought out the location rather more strategically. Maybe a little disappointing is the absence of decoration or carvings inside the donjon that I had expected from the graceful exterior. The view out to Lake Biwako (japans largest) with falcons circling above still made the climb up the steep steps inside worth it. (remember shoes off

So now that cherry blossom season is bursting out I took a short train out to Inuyama site of Inuyama-jo, japans oldest standing castle (1537) still in original condition. But first I was blown away by the fluffy pink strip of cherry blossoms that lined the river path and pink lanterns hanging in the trees. I bought a few skewers of unknown food from a street stall (it wasn’t meat. Surprisingly.) and looked over my Hiragana that I’m making an honest attempt to learn. The castle is up a path past a temple where I tossed all the 1Y coins I’d accumulated and repeatedly failed to offload (think kiddie play money as just as worthless). Inuyama-jo shared many of the features of Hikone-jo and even Gifu-jo though it did feature some pretty outrageous armour of the times. And how small were the characters that got into that gear?

I swung into a museum in Inuyama old town that housed some of the rolling floats that get polished up for local festivals. These are amazing multi-multi tiered rolling wagons laden with lanterns and hauled by men – I’ve got to get to a festival like this- unfortunately I’ve already missed Inuyama’s.

It’s all on! Three days of teacher training and then we were tossed to the sharks. It was fun. Really. NOVA seems to have pretty established resources and lesson plans so it was really just getting familiar with those. Sure, the first couple of lessons were a bit daunting but hey, its English, what do I have to worry about? I’m an expert!

Ok, so there are a few students who require bags of patience and encouragement but so far I’m even quietly impressed by the level of some of the higher students. We are encouraged to improvise a little with the lessons which will no doubt be important to our sanity over the year teaching the same material. Some of the highs of my classes so far have been discussing ‘the pros and cons of genetically modified food’, ‘proposals for a mega warehouse type store to set up in a scenic town’, and ‘skeptism and conviction’ where my student taught me about the Kappa – Japan’s Taniwha. That was hilarious coaxing out of my student exactly what a Kappa was and looked like, and her needing to express her absolute conviction in it. It was also interesting to get my student’s perspective on what kind of apples they would buy – the bigger the better, even if they’re white! Genetic Modification was hardly a concern for those students. For the record, apples at the local store costs Y100 (about $1.40nz) and are nothing on the good old Royal Gala. These are the good classes. The worst are the ones that can speak but are too shy to be heard above a whisper. 40 minutes can feel like a long time.
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We were still bleary eyed when we stepped onto the JR train to take us out of Gifu. There was no way Jamie, my flatmate, and I were taking the ‘Shink’, or bullet train – that day will come when I cash my first pay check. And so Selena (Jamie’s mate) bit her tongue while we idled down to Kyoto for the day.

Only 1 ½ hours later we were out of futuristic Kyoto station and walking towards our first temple, Higashi Hongan-ji just north of the station. The exterior was unfortunately under construction but we entered anyway and found what we were looking for – a display of rope used in the 1895 construction of the temple. Quality rope was in short supply in those days so what else would you use but the woven hair of believers! How many families’ heads of hair must have been shaven to produce rope thick enough to dock a ship? It’s a curious object for its physical preservation and symbolic strength. An hour here passed too quickly and soon we returned to the station to catch a bus to Arashyama.

Bad move. The bus crawled when the quite descent subway would’ve had us there in minutes. But when we got there the natural surroundings didn’t disappoint. Crossing the river we approached the bamboo forest through which a path led through towards the temples on the hills. And then ‘Geisha!’ I was off in a shot running after two would be Geisha drawn by a rickshaw running-man. Real Geisha are nearly as rare as fabled goddesses these days and these powdered white faces were merely playing dress up. But to me they were pretty convincing and they might have even been flattered by me running after them. Well they smiled for the camera at least !Crick!

The trove of temples at the foot of these hills makes it difficult to decide where to spend your yen on entrance fees. Time hangs in the very peaceful surrounds of manicured moss gardens, raked pebbles, tended gravestones and the first cherry blossom trees. Only our stomachs warned us that the afternoon was slipping away. After we recharged at a restaurant and passed through the quaintness of some small shops with everything from handmade paper to kids animal lanterns and slap bands (who can remember slap bands! Circa 1989) we headed to the SE outskirts.

This area is also rich in temples, notably Nanzen-ji with its open grounds and sub-temples. With the sun dipping we stepped onto a path leading to nowhere in particular – Tetsugaku-no-Michi, ‘The Philosophers Trail’. Any path with a name like that just calls you to it like it’s your destiny. My destiny is to return here, I’m sure. Cherry blossoms lining the cannel are just biding their time until full bloom.

A bus took us back to the city and into the famous entertainment and Geisha district of Gion. We got off outside some lantern lit lanes and slipped into the shadows where Kanji marked sliding doors to Sake bars, restaurants and who knows what else seemed to hold secrets off limits to Gaijin tourists. We did find our way into a private gallery of calligraphic paintings and bumped into the artist. When I really look at masterful calligraphy I can begin to appreciate the hand that created a stroke of blank ink with such authority and confidence. Out on the main streets we booked into a clique restaurant but had some time to wait before a table would be ready. So what else to do but find a bar to pass an hour?

I’ve forgotten the name of the bar with the circular entrance. One set of doors zipped open for us. And then we passed through the second.. ZZzzzzongDonnng! Our entrance was announced with the music of a game show framed by flashing show lights like from ‘Stars in their Eyes’. Mental. And it was a dart hall. (Electronic, of course). I should’ve got a beer. I pointed to a Margarita.. No ice in the mix. No salted rim. No straws. Maybe I asked too much.

Our restaurant DomaDoma, was an outstanding choice. Coming out of the elevator on the 6th floor in downtown Gion, the atmosphere was a fashionable mix of low lit style and mingling young socialites. The staff could’ve been pretentious but were the complete opposite and we had different dishes rolling onto the table every few minutes. Hot spot.

Our night couldn’t last forever when the danger of missing the last train would’ve been a problem. We grabbed a few travellers for the train ride back (Why did you think I wouldn’t be able to buy Asahi beer from a vending machine?) and settled back. Thanks to Jamie for giving me a nudge when to get off. Falling asleep would’ve been worse than waking up at the end of the line on the last train in London.

Is just a matter of time, or timing, when I come back to Kyoto. One day’s not enough, maybe a week isn’t enough for an ancient city that seems to have it all. Im going to say it again – bring on the cherry blossums!

Miserable rain poured down the day I arrived in Gifu. The boys in my new apartment were nice enough to leave me a welcome note, and I went through the motions of unpacking. Where is Gifu? The ‘city’ of 400,000 certainly isn’t the pulsing drama of Tokyo that I had requested as a placement, but for the time being I’ll give Gifu a chance to prove itself.

It’s an easy sized city which behaves more like a satellite suburb of Nagoya. Gifu’s downtown area does little to flatter itself but my apartment is pleasantly situated at the foot of Kinka-zan mountain. It gets better. There is an insect museum next door. And a history museum and park area. And the ‘cherry on the top’ is actually a castle on the top of Mt Kinka.
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I woke up early and over energised, scratching to get out of my Osaka hostel and go on a mission. I had read about Nara, Japans first capital that boasts 8 Unesco World Heritage sites. Small town Nara is only a short day trip away and I weighed it up as a good alternative to cruising around dazed and confused in Osaka central. I Sumimasen’d my way to the right train track and came out the other end at JR Nara station happy to see another tourist information booth. Two early observations – maps are free and everywhere and so are clean public toilets.

I passed a NOVA building (the language corporation Ill begin working for) on my way into the heart of old Nara. I strolled in to some temple grounds where a three storied Pagoda stood, and where around the back families and worshippers splashed gravestones with blessed water, tended them with fresh flowers and where incense wafted through the air. That smell bought back to me the things I loved in my SE Asia travels. Taking my shoes off at the foot of the main temple I slid the door open. Some surprised but friendly eyes greeted me in a room of elderly Japanese. The service had not quite started and I was offered green tea and rice biscuits. A monk, born in Singapore, approached me and we talked in English for a while and handed me some writings on Pure Land Buddhism. I listened to the service for a while, not understanding the words, but feeling in a nice space.

Up a stepped pathway to another temple complex I bumped into a deer. And then another one. Deer were tamely strolling amongst tourists and followers through the park. They gravitated around food stands where deer biscuits were on sale for 150yen, obviously hoping to be the beneficiaries. Japanese girls are funny to watch. They like deer because deer are cute, but they’re afraid of deer because… well I’m not sure why. One girl bought some deer biscuits, saw the deer coming over to her, shrieked, tried to run away in heels while throwing deer biscuits over her shoulder, and with the deer trotting close behind like some kind of game. Classic. Apparently, for the record, the deer in pre Buddhist times were considered messengers of the gods and now enjoy the status of national treasures.
Todai-ji temple in Nara Koen (park) houses the great Daibutsu (great Buddha) cast in 746ad from 437tonnes of bronze and 130 kg of gold and standing a massive 16metres high. (substantially more gold than the Kiwis won in these Commonwealth Games.) Todai-ji temple itself is the largest wooden building in the world. What can I say, it’s massive and beautiful – from the gateways to the garden surrounds – and I cant wait for the cherry blossoms to really start bursting out as some are tantalisingly beginning to do.

Following the park trails up to Nigatsu-do and Sangatsu-do halls on the mountainside gave a great view onto the traditional curved roofs below something like the set of ‘Crouching Tiger’. I slurped on a bowl of noodles (you’ve got to slurp’em) in a thatched hut and at Kasuga Taisha shine near the back of the park I stumbled on a wedding party graced in traditional Kimono and formal wear.
In late afternoon I began my trail back through the wooded setting on paths lined with traditional stone lanterns and more sacred deer. Beside some of the smaller trails little carved Buddha sat, a bit like garden gnomes garbed with ‘hello kitty’ fabric. I passed the man selling hotdogs, still watching baseball, and down onto the main streets where bakers were murdering some doughy paste with mallets and chanting between blows, and unafraid of flipping the dough with their hands just before his friends mallet came down again.
I made the call to head into Osaka city from Nara rather than follow the same route back home. A pretty Japanese girl opposite preened herself every second stop, transfixed like a budgie by her appearance in the little mirror. The underground Namba station in central Osaka is a pretty amazing maze of designer shops and restaurants. I followed the maps to the Dotombori district of concrete and screaming neon and exited where the cool kidz were busting out some dance moves in the square. So this is where it is supposed to happen, but exactly where I still have no idea. I just meandered through the energy and past the girls with Prada, Chanel and Gucci everythings and guys whose jeans had been designer ripped. I checked out a Pachinko parlour on the 4th floor of a typically pulsing building. Pachinko is a Japanese craze something like vertical pinball. I tried to see how it was played, or what the aim of the game was but all that was lost on me – throw ball bearings in, watch the lights flash, repeat?

Vending machines are everywhere (as anyone who’s seen ‘lost in translation’ will tell you) so I shouldn’t have been surprised to order my dinner from one and take the ticket to the noodle bar. Behind me there were yelps of delight at giant video screen. Out came the camera phones and !Crick! the kids were taking snaps of themselves flashed up on the screen. Everyone’s famous for 15 seconds. In the end I left downtown Dotomburi to it and returned to the hostel for a bath soak.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be meeting the other new instructors on my way to Gifu, my new hometown. It’s all about to begin.

I touched down in the Land of the Rising Sun in the late afternoon, just as it seemed ready to set. The flyover approach showed off Osaka as a massive sprawling city halted only by the coastline. The 12 hour flight from Auckland should’ve tired me but instead I was wide awake in anticipation of the new.

Tourist Information comforted me by speaking a little English and directing me to the train ticketing machines. For a moment I stood there beaten, each Hiragana button seeming as likely as the next to deliver me the correct ticket. Help came in a smiling Japanese girl who spoke as much English as I did Japanese but who understood I wanted to go to Nagai and got me on my way. (Could someone in Auckland please help 1 lost Japanese tomorrow to repay the favour and boost our Karma?)

Leaving the man-made Island airport (another sign of development pushed beyond city limits) I reached for my phrasebook (thanks to the good people at Ads for that) and learnt my first new word – ‘Sumimasen’. I have a feeling I’ll be saying ‘excuse me’ and pointing and acting a lot. My guesthouse, check this, is on the upper floors of Nagai stadium http://www.cerezo.co.jp/english/stadium.html home to Cerezo Osaka FC. With a prompting that shoes are to be taken off at the door I took my dorm key, got refreshed and took a walk around the suburban streets.

Hungry, I stumbled into a small restaurant, the archetypical kind with lanterns and sliding doors, and took a seat. I told the one chef I couldn’t speak Nihongo but with some helpful pointing I chose the fish next to the plate of tentacles. With that little mission accomplished I sat back and watched the ninja / samurai flick playing in the background and reflected on my new beginnings. The other new NOVA recruits aren’t arriving for another day (I found a much cheaper flight). Tomorrow is for exploring…