18th Aio World Shrimp Catching Contest

The small seaside town of Aio invites a few foreigners every year to take part in their shrimp catching contest. This is the only way they can call it a "World" Contest. The event started mid morning and began with an early lunch of 焼き肉 (skewered barbecued meat) and 焼きそば (fried soba noodles) kindly prepared by local volunteers. Around 1pm everyone collected the obligatory equipment (a catching net and gardening gloves) and prepared to lunge into the sea. During this time the live shrimp arrived in crates on a truck and were tossed into the sea and onto the beach by event organisers.

Like all Japanese events there was a long and drawn-out opening ceremony during which the 1500 or so competitors of all ages waited patiently behind a rope start-line about 20metres back from the sea. When the starting gun was fired, the rope was dropped and it was a free for all to into the water. Everyone from young kids to grandmothers plunged in and began digging furiously on their hands and knees in the sand in the hope of teasing out the already buried shrimp. The more experienced headed straight for the net barrier in the hope of catching any escaping shrimp which faced an inevitable death of being pulled apart live and eaten raw with soy sauce or being burnt to a crisp on the awaiting barbecues. The event is not for the feint hearted and involves battling with biting jellyfish, nipping crabs, elbowing grandmothers and fast moving shrimp buried so deep in the sand rendering them virtually impossible to catch. Despite this many kids and veteran shrimp catchers were quickly filling their nets, whilst the lagging inexperienced foreigners managed to net on average around 3-4 shrimps in the whole 30 – 40 minute time. The prize for the most shrimp netted was a digital camera and this years world champion reportedly caught over 80 shrimp. Chris Mack managed 35 - a stirling effort, but then again he has been going for the last four years!

As for my effort, I managed a measly 4 shrimp, 3 crabs and a few pretty shells. Poor Rie was bitten by the jellyfish and reacted badly resulting in her early withdrawal. The event seemed to come to a natural end when everyone either gave up through sheer frustration or just let the professionals clear up. Back on the beach everyone enjoyed a harvest of still jumping fresh shrimp (well kinda if you can call shrimp being fished and then put back in the sea and caught again "fresh) pulled apart and eaten 生 (raw) with soy sauce or barbecued. Interestingly the brain is a delicacy in Japan – for all these years, I’ve been missing the best part. Raw live shrimp is very sweet and tasty.

All in all another fun festival and one I was definitely glad I attended in my final year in Japan... well maybe!
Pictures to follow
ご馳走さまでした！

見島の旅 Trip to Mishima

ひまわり畑
Sunflower fields
空ではとんぼが
Dragonflies in the sky
泳いでる
Swimming
いいことだらけの
and good things all around
夏の見島
Summer in Mishima

セブンがない
No Seven Eleven
ｽﾀﾊﾞもないし
No Starbucks
スーパーもない
and no supermarkets
なんにもない
there's nothing at all
けど大好き見島
but we love Mishima

砂浜で
Sandy beaches
小魚と泳いだ
Swimming with the little fish
夏休み
Summer holiday
いいことだらけ
Good things all around
見島の旅
On our trip to Mishima

Mark and Rie
Summer 2008

Mojiko Yukata Leavers Party 門司港ゆかたパーティー

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.



It's been too long since I last posted on here. Sorry to all of you that regularly check for updates. I have been really busy recently. Thankfully things are starting to calm down though and I now have a few days break. The following pictures are from last nights Yukata Party in Mojiko. Enjoy...

ベトナム Vietnam in Golden Week

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Last Thursday morning I returned from a week in Vietnam. Vietnam is a fascinating country and I had a very interesting experience. First I stopped in Hong Kong overnight. This was my third time in Hong Kong and this time I decided to do something a bit different. Having recently become a member of couchsurf.com (refer to my previous post) I decided to stay with a local. Liz (my host) met me at the MTR station and showed me around which was great because not only did I get to see parts of Hong Kong I have not seen before, but she also had two other Japanese couchsurfers with her who I was able to speak Japanese with. After a very late night and a stay in a Hong Kong tower block (a few complications which I wont bore you with) I went for a 6am dim sum breakfast. This was real Hong Kong that I had not experienced before and it made the stop so worthwhile. Liz told me I would have plenty of time to catch my flight which departed at 11am, but what she didn’t bank on was the hectic early morning traffic. Despite arriving at the airport 35 mins before the flight I missed the deadline for check-in and had to wait for the next plane. Thankfully though Cathay Pacific were great and put me on standby for the afternoon flight and luckily didn’t charge me. From Hong Kong we stopped in Taiwan and then on to Hanoi, northern Vietnam.

The first thing that struck me about Vietnam was the crazy busy streets, the noise of traffic and the thick grey polluted air. I have never in my life seen so many motorbikes in one place. Apparently there are two million motorbikes in the city for a population of five million people. It seems everyone, young and old owns or rides a bike and it is not uncommon to see families of five or more on one bike. Kids dangling from their parents or resting a book on the handle bars, and practically everything you can imagine being transported by bike - fridges, animals, scrap metal, lost war veterans (see pic!). The driving is incredible - bumper to bumper, if someone is in your way you nudge them out of the way or beep your horn until they move. How there are not more accidents I don’t know, although it seemed to work and everyone seemed to know who had the right of way. However, I did witness a horrific accident in Sapa (a small rural village further north) where a truck hit a bike and the riders had no helmets – the result was not pretty. The city seemed so safe in comparison.

The main reason I chose Vietnam was because I wanted to climb Mount Fansipan, the highest mountain there at 3400m. I had read a bit about it and it was recommended by my friends who made the trip last year. Despite that, I don’t think I could have been prepared for what I was about to embark upon. My friends did the climb in three days, but I didn’t have time, so I joined a two day climb from the northern village of Sapa (10 hours by overnight train from Hanoi). Because of its rural location, Fansipan is only accessible by climbing several smaller mountains before you can reach the base. The climb is through the thick jungle and I soon discovered is not for the feint hearted. We saw snakes including one in our camp early morning which freaked out our guide who thankfully managed to poke it away with a stick. We asked about anti-venom, but it seems they don’t have any. If you are bitten, it is a quick decent back to base where you will be taken to the nearest hospital (at least 2 hours away from the remote northern village) .... that's if you made it that far!

Anyway the climb itself turned out to be pretty tough as the weather closed in and the heavens opened for virtually the whole two days. The first day was a grueling 7 hour treck to base camp which involved a free abseil down what had become a waterfall with the weather. The camp was basic and lacked amenities. We slept on bamboo poles which was like Chinese torture, so consequently I didn’t sleep all night. Being in the jungle, you are also kept awake by the constant drone of toads, insects and other things that you don’t really want to think about. For the toilet, you went where you could, but had to make sure you didn’t step in anything on the way. The litter and food waste dumped at the camp was disgusting.

The second day we climbed for 7 hours through waterfalls and up rocks. I climbed mount Fuji (3776m) three years ago when I first came to Japan, which although pretty hard-going, seemed like a walk in the park in comparison! Despite the difficulty, we made it to the top with our excellent guide and porter who looked after us all the way, cooking the most amazing Vietnamese dinner - an assortment of local dishes with rice and soups all made with fresh ingredients. Would I climb Fansipan again? Well, unlike Mount Fuji, probably not!! I will tick Fansipan off my list and confine it to my memory. When I eventually made it back from the hike (another 10 hour overnight train journey to Hanoi) I checked into a beautiful hotel where I slept and ate until it was time to leave!

All in all Vietnam was definitely one of the more interesting countries I have visited. With stunning scenery, by far the best coffee in the world, subtle and fresh flavours, Mount Fansipan (which despite the grueling climb, was well worth the effort), market stalls selling everything you can imagine including freshly cooked dogs, (apologies to anyone who may be offended by the picture in the slideshow) live toads and snakes, the most motorbikes I have ever seen in one place, insane driving, the quirkiest internet café I have ever visited with connection speeds that will have you pulling your hair out and computers that belong in a museum, insanely cheap prices and warm and friendly people (except for those trying to steal your camera and charge you way over the going rate!), I would certainly recommend Vietnam.

Yes, Vietnam is incredibly cheap, but there is extreme poverty too - it makes you appreciate what you have. I'm glad to be back in Japan, where everything seems so orderly, clean and safe, and where you know you will never be ripped off. Would I go back to Vietnam? I would love to. It was definitely an experience I won’t forget. Next time I would like to visit Hallom Bay, Saigon, and the south.

As with every solo travelling trip I make, I also met some great people along the way. Thanks to Liz for showing me the “real” Hong Kong, the two South Africans who made Hanoi more fun (despite their jokes about my cheap hotel!!), the gorgeous Norwegian girl who made the 10 hour train journey from Sapa to Hanoi less boring!, the Canadians who dragged me to the top of Fansipan, the Russian bar owner in Hanoi, the Japanese girls who helped pass the first 10 hour train journey and finally the tribal Vietnamese girls in Sapa who were the most adorable, funny and charming kids who made my birthday a much better day.

スウェーデン人のゲスト

二ヶ月前私はcouchsurfing.comの一員になりました。Couchsurfingは世界規模のホームステイプログラムみたい。最近そのプログラムはすごい人気になりました。そのプログラムはタダです。もし外国に行きたいけど、お金が少ししかないならばcouchsurfingはすごい便利です。先週末二人のスウェーデン人は私の家に泊まりました。先週末は私の初めてのcouchsurfing経験でした。本当に楽しかった。土曜日の朝マーターさんとエリックさんは厚狭駅に到着しました。彼らは一週間前日本に来ました。ベトナムとか台湾とか日本でバックパッキングをしています。一緒にいるととても楽しかった。初めての経験としては、ようにはすごいラッキーだっただと思いました。

土曜日の午後一緒に車で秋吉台と秋芳洞に行きました。山口県で秋吉台と秋芳洞はすごく有名です。だから何度も私は友だちや家族と行きました。多分十回行ったことがあります。あの辺の景色はきれいなので私はいつも楽しいです。土曜日の夜私たちは回転すしレストランに行きました。エリックさんとマーターさんは回転すしレストランに行ったことがありませんでした。だから初めてでした。エリックさんはベジタリアンですけど、ときどき魚を食べます。ふだん私は一週間に一回、回転すしレストランに行きます。すし大好き！食べた後、家に帰りました。

土曜日の夜から日曜日の夜まで雨が降りました。だから日曜日に私のアパートで一緒に遊びました。二時にきらら浜と竜王残に行きました。雨天ので景色は見えにくい。ざんねんでした。日曜日の夜私は晩御飯を作りました。後でイギリスのコメディーを見ました。たくさんビールとお酒を飲みました！2時半に寝ました。

約12年前スウェーデンに行きました。もう一回行きたい。スウェーデン人はすごい親切なだと思います。私の次のcouchsurfing経験はベトナムです。

My Couchsurfing Guests from Sweden

This weekend I hosted a couple from Sweden through couchsurf.com. This was my first experience of using couchsurf and I lucked out – I couldn’t have asked for a nicer couple to stay at my house. Erik and Martha arrived at Asa station on Saturday morning. They were both really fun and I really enjoyed the short time we had together.

After eating lunch at home on Saturday I decided to take them to Akiyoshidai and Akiyoshidou (the famous caves and plateau about an hour from my house). Although I have visited the caves probably 10 times now already it was still fun to show new people around. From Saturday afternoon it started raining and unfortunately didn’t stop all day and night. On Saturday night Erik showed me his impressive collection of cooking knives and cook books that he had bought whilst travelling. Yesterday was mostly spent at home because the weather was so bad. We did venture out to Kirara Beach and Ryosan, but there wasn’t much to see and we all ended up with wet feet from walking in so many puddles! Last night was spent watching a crap video, drinking beer and sake, making dinner together and chatting until 2am. It was really nice to share my home with such a lovely couple. Talking to Martha and Erik reminded me how much I enjoyed my trip to Sweden years ago. I'm sure they will love the rest of their visit to Japan. I really hope we can meet again in the future. A visit to Gothenberg on my way back from Japan next year would be great! Martha and Erik spoke perfect English the whole weekend which actually made me realize how bad my English has become since teaching here! My next couchsurf guest arrives in 2 weeks time – a single guy from London. After that it’s time for me to experience some couchsufing in Vietnam.

Mount Ganbusan 雁飛山

Marking English Papers 英語の試験を採点する

To relieve my boredom with marking 160 English papers this week I have to post this...

The first year class were asked to look at some kids books without words and write a short story based on the pictures. The book in question chosen by the student shows a boy at the beach with his family picking up crabs in a rock pool and building sandcastles - all very innocent and nothing untoward about it.

Here is what the kid wrote:

This family is the mafia. Today this family come to the sea that they looking for arms to use rivalry. One's eldest finds a bomb such as a crab. She say "oh it's great! I will use this" The gang is standing back of her and he chuckle. This time the boy find the arms. Boy said "look this is a net" and another found the blunt instrument. Father said I want to (followed by some Japanese which translates as escape forever).

This is great and made me chuckle. I don't know what this kid is taking, but I want some of what he is on!

Story 2 - about a kid that goes to the library to return an overdue book. He reads a book in the kids corner before leaving with several books only to be told that the limit is 3 and he will have to put most of them back. This story is pretty inane, but there!

The student turns this into:

Please give me the drug. NO! NO! You are lacking for money. Ohh! Really? Hey, my dad!! Let's go there. What's your problem Bob? Oh!! I remember the drug which is caught in the book because I hid the drug in the other book.

Is this kid a Yakuza child?!!

I wish all my students had such a wonderful imagination.

Kit Kat in Japan キットカツ

Useless fact of the day

I finally discovered why KitKat is so big in Japan. This has been a mystery for a long time. I have often wondered why there are dozens of flavours here which are never seen in the UK, or indeed in other countries I have been to. I have tried everything from melon, apple, banana, green tea, salt (yes SALT!), cookies and cream, white chocolate, papaya, pumpkin, strawberry, dark chocolate, mint, mango, sakura (Japanese cherry blossom), some kind of new snow flower flavour?!, orange, caramel.... I'm sure there are more that I have forgotten. It is often the source of debate among my friends who regularly ask "Have you seen/tried the new Kit Kat flavour?" Usually their supermarket stocks it and mine doesn't! I recently learnt that they even have regional varitions of Kit Kat flavours in Japan.

Apparently the reason Kit Kat is such a commercial success here is because kitto (キット) means surely and katsu (カツ) means win. Therefore students buy many Kit Kats before exams - as it is lucky chocolate!!

Re-Contracting

The day has finally come. Today I signed the papers to stay for a third year in Japan. It was a tough decision to make and I have spent literally hours pondering over what I should do. It's made particularly hard by the fact that almost all my close friends are leaving in August. Friends mean a lot to you when you are so far away from home and I will really miss Teresa, Tim, Natalie and Christophe, Stephanie and Matt who I have spent so much time with over the past 18 months. In the end there were far more reasons to stay than to leave. I know that one more year will be enough and I can come home and settle down. There is still a lot to achieve in another year - namely improving my dicey Japanese!, taking the Japanese JLPT level 2 test next year, becomming a PA for the JET programme, taking a more active role in school, making more Japanese friends etc etc. I also have a tonne of places that I still want to travel to!

After I announced my decision to stay my supervisor came back into the staffroom and told the Vice Principal who promptly announced to everyone that I was staying. They all stood up and clapped and said well done and it was a heart warming moment!

I'm in for a third. I'm pretty sure I will call it a day after that though!

Japanese Calligraphy Display at Yamaguchi Ube Airport

Last weekend I went to Yamaguchi Airport to watch three local calligraphy artists who had been commissioned to write special pieces for a display in the airport. I have been practicing calligraphy for over a year now, but I will never make it to this level!

My shodo teacher and good friend (Hamazaki Sensei) a very talented shodo writer herself, told me that these guys practice many many times to be able to present 1 piece. This may look easy, but trust me, getting the right balance and flow to produce something like this takes years and years of practice. Also there is just one chance to get it right on the day. The size of the canvas is 6 tatami mats. Very impressive! To see the video below, click on the arrow.

One thing I will really miss when I eventually leave Japan is shodo.

New Years Greetings

Happy New Year to you all

It’s been a long time since I last posted here and I’m sorry to all those who have regularly checked my site. I’m still here, loving life in Japan more than ever. As usual, my life here is non-stop and round the clock. My bedtime has become an unhealthy 2-3am and I have given up on getting a sensible amount of sleep. I seem to be busy most nights of the week, and at weekends I usually end up going away with friends or partying at home. I don’t think I ever adjusted to the time difference in Japan. I think I am walking around in my own timezone, oblivious to that fact that it’s 3am on a week night and I’m not in bed or I got up at 1pm at the weekend.. again.

At the end of last year I finally headed home for the first time in 18 months of living in Japan. It was strange to be home after so long and I found myself viewing my own country from a different perspective. The immediate things that I did not miss were the awful weather – it practically rained the whole time I was home, the cost of petrol (gas to all my American friends), the cost of things in general and service stations. Don’t even get me started on British Service stations – I could write a whole new blog on the subject. However, the UK is not all bad… I did miss my mum’s haggis and mash! Christmas dinner, London and not being the only foreigner in town! It was nice to be back and to see my family once again and I realised how far I am removed from homelife being here. Sadly my grandad passed away whilst I was home. At 94 he was a remarkable man and he will be sadly missed by many people. His strength, level headed approach to life and extreme generosity and kindness were remarkable and he is certainly someone who I will look up to and always have the highest respect for.

Some of you may have heard that I took one of my students home with me for a homestay visit for Christmas and the New Year. This was both fun and interesting as it reminded of my stay in Hong Kong as a child. My family made Yukata very welcome and treated him to an amazing experience in the UK. We did so much and saw so much that most of the time we had to wake him up to tell him what was going on! I hope he enjoyed his time and I know he is already wanting to go back to visit with his girlfriend.

Ice skating in Norwich

On Boxing Day Yutaka made my family all sushi. His part time job is at a sushi restaurant and he is a good chef. Both he and I were a bit taken aback when we were looking for the ingredients for the sushi in Tesco and ironically enough the name of the only company that makes Sushi rice, nori (dried seaweed) and mirin etc is Yutaka!

So, we visited the Lakes, Liverpool (Yutaka is a big Beatles fan), Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, Southwold and London. I needed a holiday to recover from my trip when I got back. We stopped off in Bangkok both ways for 10 hours which was fun, but exhausting. When we finally made it home I slept for 21 hours straight and still felt tired for work the next day (perhaps I did drink a bit too much red wine on the plane).

Temple in Bangkok

Since coming back I have not stopped. The weekend before last I headed down to Kumamoto city with Teresa and Saranne. We had a great Mexican meal on the Saturday night and Sri Lankan meal on the Sunday night. We drove up to Mount Aso – one of Japan’s active volcanoes on Kyushu island which was fun. I have been twice before, but it was still exciting to see the bubbling lava whilst inhaling dangerous amounts of methane gas. Eventually we were evacuated from the crater as it was too dangerous! What was dubbed as a ‘Hiking weekend’ turned into a quick walk up a hill near the base of Aso. It was SO cold that we didn’t hang around. We also did the obligatory onsen (hot spa) visits along the way. No trip would be complete without a trip to an onsen and karaoke. On the way from Aso san to Kumamoto we stopped at perhaps one of the best onsens I have visited in Japan to date. The inside was like a lunar landscape with random volcanic rocks and tree trunks sprouting amongst baths of bubbling hot spa water. The atmosphere was surreal. You could barely see for the heavy spa mist, dome like ceiling and the dim subdued lighting. Japanese onsens are quiet places. All you can hear is the sound of the water bubbling away as you lie back in a hot bath. You soon forget that you are surrounded by many other naked men! I braved the cold and ventured outside to the rotembro (outside baths) which were amazing. Your head is crisp and cool, your ears sting from the cold, but your body is submerged in a boiling bath. Stick your onsen towel over your head and you are in heaven. If I could die anywhere, I would like to slip away peacefully in a Japanese onsen!

Last weekend was a nabe (Japanese hot pot cooked at the table) party and karaoke session until 3am in Ube followed by 4am ramen (Chinese noodle soup) from a street stall. It is surprising how much you get into karaoke when you are in Japan. I know of very few foreigners who haven’t at least been once and who don’t secretly enjoy it. You don’t even need a drink to relax… I have had plenty of fun sober karaoke sessions. I impressed all with my rendition of Eminem Stan and my bad accented version of La Bamba. Bring back my karaoke buddy Sean who I miss for late night karaoke and snack bar sessions!

Sunday afternoon I was awoken at lunchtime by a minor earthquake. What is strange is that we are supposed to be in a relatively earthquake free area and yet according to the Japan Meteorology website we are practically sitting on top of one. My school teacher kindly reminded me that my house is so old it would probably be one of the first to fall should there be anything more serious that a magnitude 3 (which was experienced on Sunday).

Last night I went to a New Year’s party with the English teachers from Onoda High School. The meal was excellent – 6 courses ending in champu nabe (nabe for sumo wrestlers). After, myself and two teachers ended up at the Pachinko Parlour in my town. Pachinko is a Japanese variation of slot machines. You buy large quantities of ballbarings and fire them around a course – with the aim of getting as many balls as possible in a tiny hole. It is crazily popular and people spend and lose small fortunes. The halls are massive and the noise is excruciating. Pachinko in Japan is said to fund North Korea, but it doesn’t seem to deter the millions of Japanese who regularly play. It is not uncommon to spend 4-5 nights a week or more at the local Pachinko parlour. We went for just 25 minutes and I quickly lost 3000yen (about £14). I decided to call it a night as yen now actually has some value and is worth holding on to following the Asian stock market crash. I fear Japan's economy is in big trouble given that things were already looking bad before the crash.

Wishing you all a very happy and propserous New Year.
マーク