Tokoname

Saturday, May 22, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
A hot summer trip to Tokoname with my family in Japan.

My host family decided to take me to Tokoname before I left Japan. It would be my last real trip with them before my journey back to America.

A little information about Tokoname:
"Tokoname has been associated with ceramics production since at least the Heian period, and Tokoname-yaki works from this period have been found from Aomori Prefecture in the north of Japan to Kagoshima prefecture in the south. By the Kamakura period, over 3000 kilns were active. During the Sengoku period, the area came under the control of the Isshiki clan, and later came under the rule of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

During the Edo period, the area around present-day Tokoname was part of Owari Domain. In the post Meiji Restoration cadastral reforms of 1889, the town of Tokoname was created. Tokoname was elevated to city status on April 1, 1954 by the merger of Tokoname town with the towns of Onizaki, Nishiura, Ono, and the village of Miwa. Chubu Centrair International Airport built on an artificial island offshore Tokoname opened on February 17, 2005, providing a major boost to local development." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokoname,_Aichi)
I had a great time. There were a lot of different shops that catered to the areas famous pottery. No, not the one with the wand, but more traditional tea pots and things of that nature.

The walk along the scenic town's back-roads was also very pleasant. They were very interesting because some pathways were adorned with pots that looked like jugs protruding out of the walls.

I think it's amazing how people can create such interesting structures with no apparent purpose.

  

Labels:

King of the Hill

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Are all Apitas on a hill? It seems like they all are on some sort of precipice . What's an Apita, you ask? It's the local department store, a kin to Wal-mart, but like one combined with a mall.  A lot of these stores, from my experience, sit on top of a hill and you can see them from most points in the nearby neighborhood. I wonder if this is a trademark of the chain store.

Inside, there's usually a grocery store, a food court, several different kinds clothing stores, and restaurants. 

Like with most companies in Japan, there seems to be a surplus of workers; unlike in America, where you're lucky to find one checkout stand open. Sometimes I wonder, as do many other people living in Japan from America and other countries, how can they afford to have so many workers? I mean there are always signs almost everywhere hiring part-time workers. I would be lucky to even find a job working at a Wal-mart back in America during this time of economic idling. They must be doing something right here in Japan.

There are a lot of other nuances of Japanese culture that can be observed in the workplace. Like once a person gets a job, it's usually hard for the person to get fired. The company usually tries pretty hard to retain the employee. There are also downsides to Japanese companies as well, but I don't care to go much into detail about this aspect of Japanese business.

The service in Japan is phenomenal; wherever you go the people are usually friendly and welcome you to their stores. I don't know why I found this to be such a shock, but in America the expectations you get from a worker at, say Wal-mart, tends to not be that high.

Click on the Pictures to Access the Album
Labels:

A man who won't dye for something is not fit to live

Monday, May 17, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Today, I decided to dye my hair. I managed to crawl over to the local drug store at about 1 in the afternoon, and grabbed the cheapest looking hair dye I could find. The product that I enthusiastically decided upon was the Gatsby High Bleach kit. It had a picture of a computer generated man, with an awesome head of hair that would make even the most reticent Northern European react in an envious rage. I purchased my dye kit and was ready to attempt my bleach blond transformation.

In an inept attempt to dye my hair, I fumbled through the Japanese instructions. I was amazed at my overall fluency and understanding of this detailed, comprehensive dying guide, though it might have been the large pictures.

My first attempt consisted of me pouring the solution randomly in streaks throughout my scalp. I wanted a textured highlight look because I didn't want the whole thing to come out in one color. This was a complete failure because my whole head started to burn within a couple minutes. I was forced to retreat and wash everything out before trying again.

My second attempt consisted of aluminum foil and wrapping the parts that I want dyed. I figured this would prevent the liquid from seeping into my scalp. This worked minimally, but some foil pieces fell off creating a mess.

Please take a look at the pictures and tell me what you think. I personally like the different shades, though some people might call it blotchy. This hair dye is dedicated to new beginnings.



Labels:

Digital Katsu Girl

Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Today, Annie made an awesome mascot for the website!

Thank you, Annie! You can visit her deviantart page by clicking the picture. I will be using this avatar for both my banner and favicon because it's so awesome.  Please refresh the page if you haven't already and enjoy the new look!
Labels:

If you wanna come an take a ride wid me

Sunday, May 16, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Today, I went with Shimon to fix up his little Mitsubishi Minica. Shimon really loves his little egg car and he was going to spruce it up by giving it an oil change, new spark plugs, and a new oil filter. I mean if it was his egg, he had to take care of it like if it was his baby.

While we were waiting for his car tune up, we went for a walk. It was an incredibly warm day; it reminded me why I needed to get the heck out of Japan before summer hit. We wandered and ended up at a nice stream.  The murky, brown stream was the place to be if you were a fish, insect, snake, or turtle. It was brimming with life. We saw turtles taking in sun while perched on the various rocks that managed to protrude just enough out of the water to provide a small secluded island. We also managed to spot a snake floating like a lifeless twig in the water, until it decided to go after one of the turtles. As I watched, I noticed it was some-what silent, and there was no one narrating this interesting event like I'm used to.

After fixing his car, we decided to just drive around. We ended up going to Hamamatsu. There is a mammoth shopping complex in Hamamatsu called the Aeon mall. It towers with an enormous parking lot of 3500 spaces that announces to everyone that it is the king of the prefecture, and no one should challenge its authority. Here we met an interesting person who was working at a mall booth. He was selling leather wallets and managed to catch that we were speaking in English. He was a fellow English speaker who was from Canada but lived in Japan most of his life. He said he was a surfer and worked at the Mall part-time. It's interesting how English speakers are drawn together in foreign countries.

Anyways, we continued on our journey and visited a couple of random beaches, and I ended up getting a haircut. Long story short, windy, sand, got a bad haircut, but was okay for the price, didn't look like the picture... hope this isn't a run on sentence.

Click on the Picture for the Picture Album
Labels:

There's no place like home, Toto....ro

Saturday, May 15, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
There really is no place like home, and my home for the year was Toyohashi. I'd like to travel back to Toyohashi more, but it's always a burden financially, especially since I'm currently unemployed. But I really had to go back at least once more in order to say goodbye to everyone and pick up some things. So, I decided to embark on this trek at the early hour of 3:30 in the afternoon.


I arrived in Toyohashi around 6 pm at the nostalgic platform from which I began this year-long journey. Toyohashi station was busy like always. People rushed out of the train as soon as the doors opened, like horses at a race track, politely, yet aggressively running toward the exit. I wasn't in a rush, so I just slowly followed the crowd and let a neatly dressed business man break the crowd as I hid in his wake.


Upon exiting the station I was faced with the dilemma of eating some time until I was able to get a ride from my friend Gabby. I wandered the familiar streets near the station and found myself getting back into my old work errand routine. I visited the bookstore I usually went to, to pick up supplies. Followed by a brief stroll to the dollar store, where I usually picked up supplies, and then I wound up back at my old apartment and waited for my friends who had replaced me at my previous job. Something must have happened at the apartment complex because I saw an ambulance pull up in front of it. I saw someone come out, but I didn't manage to see who went in or what happened. Reminds me of the old TV Show Emergency 911.


Anyways, I was picked up from my old apartment after some confusion with who was riding with who. After which, I headed toward Toyohashi University of Technology because they were holding their monthly party. I was apprehensive at first because I wasn't really up to socializing that night, but it turned out to be a really fun event. It was nice to talk to some old friends and meet new people at the party. I met a lot of new students and everyone was nice and welcoming.

After the party, I headed back to my friend Shimon's house. There we talked about life and what we were going to do with our lives until about 3:00 am. I think passed out in the spare room.

Click on the Picture for the Picture Album
Labels:

Blog Moved From Awardspace Hosting

Friday, May 14, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
I moved the blog from awardspace.com hosting. The server host for the mysql database was too unstable, so I decided to move the whole blog to blogspot. I will restore some of the old posts, but I don't know if I can manage to correct the timestamps. There seems to be a problem when searching for posts older than a year. Please me patient and use the archived menu to the left. I have also redesigned the whole layout of the site and I think it looks pretty spiffy. Anyways, Enjoy!
Labels:

Trip to Tokyo Day 3

Monday, May 3, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Akihabara...
What can I say...
It's a nerd's dream.

There's Anime everywhere, cute maid girls everywhere, people cosplaying, floors and floors of comics, video games, and computers (did I mention the maid girls?). 

You can really lose yourself here. I think I could spend days here just checking out the different sights, but I only had one day. It's not the first time I've been here, but there's just so much to see and do I felt like I only scratched the surface.

I also just like the feeling of being somewhere new, especially in a large city like Tokyo. I like knowing that there are tiny little stores and shops in every crevasse of the city. I like the feeling that I have almost an infinite amount of city to explore and I like knowing that in almost every building and every corner there's a person with his or her own story.

Sometimes I just like walking down different blocks to see what's there and to see something new. I did this a lot with Nagoya walking all over the place; sometimes I would discover a little oasis of parks that you would never known existed unless you lived in a certain neighborhood.
I think that in part is why I love Japan so much. There's always something new for me, somewhere left unexplored, and somewhere where I might never venture again. I have to take everything into my memories where they will exist for as long as I can retain them.
Labels:

Trip to Tokyo Day 2

Sunday, May 2, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
After not sleeping on the bus all night we were finally in Tokyo. We were a little tired from not sleeping, but my host sisters were ready to attack the city and get some food.

What's the best way to start your day? With a good ol' Sausage McMuffin.

We had our breakfast and we were on our way to meet up with Ray. We were going to head back to his place for a bit to drop off our stuff and then we were on our way to the "Anime" convention.

It turns out that the "Anime" Convention wasn't really what it was. It was more of a "boy's love" convention. I should have figured this after seeing the crowd. There were so many fan-girls that I really didn't care that they were there just for guy on guy action. I mean what more can you ask for. Horny, nerdy, hot Japanese girls... come on.

I definitely would go back if I had the chance. There were some pretty cute girls in the crowd. I think a fan boy could really lose himself here.
Labels:

Trip to Tokyo Day 1

Saturday, May 1, 2010 Posted by Digital Katsu 0 comments
Traveling to Tokyo from Nagoya on a bus in theory is a great idea. It's cheap, doesn't take to long, and you can sleep on the bus if it's at night. In theory it's a good idea, but have you ever tried sleeping on a bus?

Anyway, my host sisters and I were heading up to good ol' uncle ray's apartment in Yokohama because my host sisters wanted to go to an anime convention.

We were running a little late so we had to rush from Nagoya station to the bus registration area. We made it on time, after a few quick sprints, and there we were ready to embark on our adventure to the big T.
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)