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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Quick Update

We finally got around to updating some (not all) of our pictures from Children's Day and from our trip with my parents down to Hiroshima and Kyoto - as mentioned in our 05/22/2006 post. I've also gone back and embedded a few sample photos in that post. The remainder are in our Gallery, in two separate sections, both dated 05/22/2006, but one says "Children's Day" next to it and the other, "Hiroshima". I'm still working through the Kyoto/Nara pictures, but those will hopefully be posted soon.

For those that are wondering, my folks took off for the States yesterday afternoon and arrived home safely. After the trip to Hiroshima and Kyoto, you'd think we'd be tired, but we still found a way to let them see Tokyo Disney, a matsuri festival in Asakusa, an archery festival in Miura City, the view from the 69th floor of Landmark Tower in Yokohama, and several other awesome sights. They had a great time and now we're all trying to recover...

Needless to say, it'll take me a while to get through all of the photos, but my priority is on Kyoto and I will post more about the latter part of their trip in the near future.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

The Art of Apologizing

Today I read an interesting article ragarding baseball player, Hideki Matsui's apology to his teamates. Mr. Matsui plays as a left fielder for the New York Yankees. Despite the fact that he plays for the Yankees.....he's proven to be a classy human being by apologizing to his coach and teamates for injuring himself during a game and being benched for 3 months. He's also desplayed a classic Japanese interpretation of responsibility and proper etiquette. Very nobel in my opinion. Check out the below editorial from the Japan Times:

'Mind the gap," the British warn commuters stepping off trains. It's good advice in East-West relations, too, since there are some gaps that appear to be unbridgeable. A rather wide one was revealed last week in the hubbub in the United States over the apology of New York Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui.

Mr. Matsui, as all Japan probably knew within seconds of it happening, broke his wrist May 4 as he dove for a catch in the first inning of the Yankees' 5-3 loss to their baseball archrivals the Boston Red Sox. The injury arguably hurt the Yankees' star even more than it is likely to hurt his team: It snapped a streak of consecutive games that dated back to August 1993, when Mr. Matsui was playing for the Yomiuri Giants. Anyone who had just seen an almost 13-year-long effort abruptly ended could be forgiven for feeling sorry for himself, however briefly.

Yet Mr. Matsui has not voiced a split second's worth of self-pity or even self-concern. The very next day, the popular player was deflecting all expressions of sympathy.

"Due to this injury, I feel very sorry and, at the same time, very disappointed to have let my teammates down," he said in a statement after learning that he would be sidelined for up to three months. "I will do my best to fully recover and return to the field to help my team once again."

Yankees manager Joe Torre initially gave an excellent impression of having grasped why Mr. Matsui's first instinct was to apologize. "It's all about responsibility -- what he thinks his responsibility is to this team, this organization -- because the Yankees committed to him and he feels it's a two-way street in that regard," Mr. Torre told reporters in a sentence that a Japanese etiquette expert could not have bettered. "He's done that before, where he's made an error, he's come up and apologized to me."

Yet by the following Tuesday, when Mr. Matsui visited his teammates at Yankee Stadium, both player and manager seemed to feel that the surprise and, in some cases, outright perplexity expressed in the U.S. media made further explanation necessary. So Mr. Matsui spelled it out as patiently as if Americans were a class of backward second-graders. "I apologized to my teammates because I'm not going to be there, that they have to battle, given the situation I'm in," he said.

Mr. Torre, meanwhile, was having second thoughts, perhaps because he'd read one too many articles over the weekend pointing out that Mr. Matsui had really done nothing wrong. "It's a cultural thing," he said in defense of the injured star whom he has likened to the Rock of Gibraltar. But "apologizing was a little much, because it's not like he hurt himself skiing."

Right there lies the cultural gap. On the one side, you have the concept of an apology as something dictated not by the effect of the action but by the intention of the actor. Has a person "done something wrong" -- such as selfishly risking an injury on his off-time, say, or taking performance-enhancing drugs or assaulting someone? If not, the thinking goes, what's the point of apologizing?

On the other side, you have the concept of an apology as something dictated solely by the damage done. The way Mr. Matsui evidently saw it, the case for an apology following his game injury was crystal-clear: The Yankees were harmed by it, however inadvertently, and he was sorry that was the case. From this perspective, why not apologize?

Such an interpretation had apparently never occurred to many Americans -- although women might argue that it's only American men who have trouble with it. Some questioned Mr. Matsui's response, prompting Tuesday's clarifications. Others, though, held him up as an example of rare sportsmanship, even a kind of nobility.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if other athletes hopped on board this apology train?" one columnist wrote. "It's undoubtedly hoping for too much, but maybe [U.S. athletes] will learn from Matsui," wrote another, noting that almost any time an American star "messes up, their first responsibility is to stiff-arm the issue and insult our intelligence."

It is nice to see Mr. Matsui getting the credit he deserves for being a classy human being and showing his country's customs in a good light. It does not detract from his action, however, to suggest that Americans should not misunderstand the limits of Japan's culture of apology. It is one thing to apply the "harm test" to one's own team, or company, or compatriots. It is another thing to be able to apply it to victims of one's actions who lie outside those categories. There are more gaps in the world than the East-West one.'

The Japan Times: Sunday, May 21, 2006

Monday, May 22, 2006

It's Good to be Home

As Nicki mentioned previously, we were on vacation with my folks last week. They arrived in Japan on May 10 and we took off for Hiroshima and Kyoto on May 13. Apologies are due to David, who told us to let him know if we were going to make it down to Kyoto since he's there on vacation now too. Sorry we didn't get in touch or cross paths, David... between the whirlwind tours of both cities, dodging the nearly constant rainstorms, and trying to stick to Josh's somewhat tempermental nap schedule, we just ran out of time.


It's been quite a while since we've posted much of anything, so I'll try to recall back and make this one meaningful. Unfortunately, I'm very far behind on the processing of pictures, so I'll get some words out now and I'll have to add photos later as I get to them.

Golden Week

Ahh... Golden Week. Golden Week is to Japan what the week between Christmas and New Years tends to be in the United States. It's the one week a year that Japanese people have a vacation from work. In Japan, however, pretty much everyone goes on vacation during Golden Week, making the roads and rails very busy, crowded, and otherwise undesirable. The week, which typically occurs sometime around the end of April and early May, coincides with four Japanese national holidays:

  • April 29: Showa no hi (Showa Day)
  • May 3: Kenpo kinenbi (Constitution Day)
  • May 4: Midori no hi (Greenery Day)
  • May 5: Kodomo no hi (Children's Day)

I won't go into details about Golden Week, but you can run a Google search or click here for more info about the holidays and stuff that's over my head.

This past Golden Week, our family was invited by one of my Japanese coworkers, Hide-san, over to his parents' house to celebrate Kodomo no hi, or Children's Day, with his family. Since Children's Day fell on a Friday, the Kakimoto Family (Hide-san's parents) made plans to celebrate Children's Day on Saturday, May 6.

We were one of several America-jin families to be invited to the Kakimoto home for the celebration. After arriving and being introduced, we took a short stroll down to a local park, where many beautiful flowers and trees were in bloom. The kids ran around or got pulled along in one of two wagons. Afterwards, we returned to the Kakimoto home to enjoy an early dinner and to learn more about the holiday and some of the traditions involved, such as hanging carp flags outside the home as a wish for future successes of sons. Hide-san's family also had a couple of samurai dolls decorated in ornate attire on display.

We have been told that it is a very special honor to be invited into a Japanese family's home and we were indeed honored to spend the afternoon with the Kakimoto Family. Children's Day was our first opportunity to meet Hide-san's father and he treated us very kindly and told wonderful stories about his family's history.

The Arrival of Baba and Granddaddy

My parents, whose real names are Barbara and Clint, have been dubbed the honorable titles of Baba and Granddaddy for use by their grandson, Joshua. They decided to come visit us sometime after Golden Week, but before the Japanese rainy season, which usually starts around the end of May or early June. They arrived in Japan on May 10 and plan to head back to the States on May 30, which is perfectly timed so that we could celebrate my mom's birthday and Mother's Day (for Nicki and my mom) during their visit. It will also give them a perfect amount of time to adjust to the jetlag before heading back to the States and having to adjust back to eastern standard time.

Hiroshima and Kyoto Vacation

As previously mentioned, we took a trip down to Hiroshima and Kyoto with my folks from May 13 - 19. We decided to start our trip in Hiroshima and then head to Kyoto, since Hiroshima's the furthest destination from Yokosuka and we didn't want a long Shinkansen (bullet train) ride home at the end of our trip. The Shinkansen is awesome... it was our first time riding the bullet train so we got to share a cool new experience with my folks, which helped us feel more like tourists too. I'm really impressed with Japan's rail system already, but riding on the bullet trains made me realize that the States could learn a lot from the system here. We Americans rely so much on our personal vehicles to get to and fro, and it seems like the Japanese have really nailed down an efficient, punctual, and cost-effective means of getting around without the need for gasoline, which seems to be becoming more and more expensive of a commodity. But I tend to wonder if Americans would be willing to give up driving as much if such a system was set in place in the States.

We arrived in Hiroshima on the 13th in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel shortly after figuring out the local tram system from the main Hiroshima Station. We stayed at the ANA Hotel, which is conveniently located within short walking distance of several neat shops and restaurants, but also very close to Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome, a building skeleton that remains from World War II timeframe as a symbol of the bomb's destructive power.

Hiroshima looks to be a really interesting city and I was a little bummed that we couldn't spend more time there. We focused our attention on the Peace Memorial Park area, so that we could take in as much history as possible. But the rest of the center city area was lively as well and we had limited time to check it out, but made the most of it. Having a civil/environmental engineering background, it amazed me to see how the city has been rebuilt and become so expansive since WWII. It was also amazing to see the photographs and items on display at the Peace Memorial Museum, which helped me get a better idea of how the A-bomb's release affected the lives of the people of Hiroshima and Japan as a whole. Prior to the trip, I had preconceived ideas of what to expect, but being there helped me get a better sense of what really happened on August 6, 1945 and in the years that followed. It was a very powerful and somber experience.

On a lighter note, we headed out from Hiroshima on Monday, May 15, and headed up to Kyoto. Kyoto is one of the few major historical cities of Japan that was spared from attacks during WWII and still has many temples, shrines, and historical structures that date back to Japan's period of isolation and before. Some of the most photographed spots in all of Japan are located within the Kyoto city area. I have been told that if you went to exactly one temple or shrine in Kyoto every day without going to the same one twice, it would take you nearly four and a half years to see all of them.

Unfortunately for us, we ran into a lot of rain and wind in Kyoto. We also seemed to time our visit to coincide with the field trips of every elementary, junior-high, and high school in Japan. There were thousands - if not more - of Japanese children at just about every tourist spot that we visited. We were stopped on several occasions to "interview" with some of the school children, which is actually just an opportunity for them to practice their English skills on us. Many of the children also said, "Herro" ("hello"), to us in passing - perhaps as a chance to see if we would say anything back to them. Most of the time we replied in Japanese, with a friendly "ohayo gozaimasu" or "konichiwa", depending on the time of day.

Despite the crowds and the rainstorms, we were able to visit Heian Shrine, Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), Ryoanji and its famous rock garden, Fushimi Inari Shrine, and the Gion area, amongst several other places. My folks also made it down to Nijo Castle, which they said was very photogenic.

Our last day in Kyoto, my parents and I took a day-trip down to Nara, which is about an hour or so South of Kyoto. Nicki decided to stay behind with Josh to do some shopping, resting, and to keep Josh on his nap schedule as well as possible. Nara is very cool. It's a small town with a huge park in the middle, where quite a few temples and shrines are located, along with a huge population of deer that are considered to be messengers of the Shinto gods.

While in Nara, we stopped at Todaiji to visit one of Japan's largest Buddha statues, which is housed in the Daibutsu-den, which is the world's largest wooden structure. That's impressive, considering that the Daibutsu-den is actually just a 2/3-sized replica of the original wooden structure that was destroyed centuries ago. We also visited Kasuga Taisha shrine, which is famous for its hundreds of stone lanterns that line the path to and around the shrine grounds. We also stopped at Kofukuji temple, home of one of Japan's tallest five-storied pagodas, which is considered the symbol of Nara.

Unfortunately, our trip came to an abrupt finale on Friday, when we hopped on the Shinkansen and headed back up towards Yokosuka. We had a great time, though, and now have quite a few lasting memories and tons of pictures to share.

Not sure when I'll get around to loading all of the pictures, but keep on checking back with us and we'll keep you posted...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

A Promise of Better Things To Come

We have been on vacation with Mike's parents. Weve been to Hiroshima and are now in Kyoto via the Shinkansen. Sorry if we haven't gotten back to folks in a while, but this is why! Also, my apologies for the typos, it's tough getting used to a Japanese keyboard!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Get......ting Out!

A follow up to my little post before about getting out. Since that post, I think that I've been up to Yokohama about 3-4 times & I'm pretty sure I have the train route down. Had a great time with Josh at Toys R Us. They seemed to have most of the same things that they have in the states, but with little differences. I bought Josh some Winnie the Pooh squeaky sandals (which, are all the rage here for new walkers & toddlers) that squeak with every step he takes. I also got him some Japanese style sneakers. Toddler shoes here are just fabulous. They are so easy to get on and off little feet vs. the American style shoes that fit a little more securely, but take a lot longer to get off and on. Here in Japan we have to take our shoes on and off A LOT, so getting shoes that fit the bill are important. An added bonus, Josh can actually take them off himself... HOORAY!

Our friend Takami-san took me around Yokohama on Thursday. Since she had this week off for Golden Week, she was more than happy to spend the day with us! I found out soon enough that she also had a hidden motive. She was excited to get to Queens Tower to dine in the new Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream shop there. We arrived at about 10:15AM. The shop didn't open until 11:00AM, but there was already a line of 40-50 folks waiting. Takami suggested while she wait in line that I take Josh walking around the mall. I was so happy that Takami-san suggested Queens Tower. Mike and I had actually gone there the weekend prior. While Mike and I were there, I stopped by a hat shop and fell in love with a pretty pricey hat. I decided against buying it then, seeing that it was just a little too much to pay. However, the following week, I couldn't stop thinking about the cute hat that got away! Thankfully, I had a second chance to purchase it and I decided to take advantage. It's been a few days now and I have yet to go without wearing this hat. Hats are much more popular for women here in Japan than they are in the states and I'm afraid that I'm being sucked into the trend. In my defense.....they are ideal for sun protection. Instead of slathering on the eye-stinging sunblock on your face; just wear a hat! (This is what I use when explaining my purchases to my husband!) After going to Queens Tower, we headed to Motomachi Shopping Street. Yokohama is famous for it being a port city. So they have all kinds of imports in this shopping area (and throught Yokohama). My favorite one however, was discovering a See's Candy Shop! I couldn't believe I found one here. They don't even have See's Candy on the US East Coast and yet, I find one in Japan!

This weekend was mighty hectic (and it's not quite over yet!). Saturday was a time for me to hang out with the ladies! A friend that I've met here (actually we met on the bus to Tokyo Disney!), Christine, is expecting her second son and a couple of very great women got together to throw her a joint baby shower. They had the fabulous idea of giving away pedicure kits complete with soaking bowl, bath salts, nail file, nail polish and drying towl. The kit also included a candle that we are supposed to light when Christine goes into labor. The idea is to light the candle and think about our own labor or to think positive thoughts and channel them her way. Christine was treated to a premium pedicure and foot massage and she was showered with gifts. I had so much fun shopping for her gift and cruising down the infant boys clothing aisle at the NEX. I had forgotten how small they are! I got her, of course, some little booties that said, "I love my Mommy" and "I love my Daddy". I also got her the cutest little summertime jumper. SO CUTE! We also decided to start a labor pool. We betted on what date little Simon would be born. I' ve got the 19th down. The food was excellent but the company was even better. I've met a lot of different moms on base but I thoughly enjoy this group's fun and sarcastic wit. Following the Baby Shower, Mike picked me up and we met our friend Hide-san for a Boys Day/Children's Day Celebration. I'll have Mike take it from here.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Dawn Patrol for Photographers

It's been a while since Nicki's last "Wimpy" post, so I thought I'd check in before retiring for the evening. It didn't take Nicki long to build up the motivation to explore outside of the Yokosuka metropolitan area without having me around. Just a day or two after that last post, she headed up to the zoo in Yokohama with one of her girlfriends who has been around here about as long as we have. Several days later, Nicki and Josh hopped the train again to head up to Minato Mirai 21 (aka: MM21, where Landmark Tower is located) to explore up there again. This time, she found the Toys R Us that she planned to see the previous week. Now, Nicki has earned the green light to go just about anywhere on Honshu that trains can take her. She's definitely excited!!!

On Saturday, April 22, we decided to head up to Tokyo to see the Asakusa area, where there's a temple and shrine and quite a lot of neat streets filled with vendors that sell everything Japanese. The temple at Asakusa is one of the most famous in all of Tokyo and it's also got one of the largest paper lanterns I've ever seen. We hung around long enough for me to get some decent snapshots and then moved along to Ueno Park, one of Tokyo's largest parks. Ueno Park also contains a bunch of museums, a zoo, a large pond/lake and several playgrounds. Since Josh had spent much of his time in the stroller to that point, we let him run wild in the park and he had a ball. Needless to say, he missed his nap, so we decided to head back over to the Ueno Station and have a relaxing lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe there. Afterwards, we headed back down towards Yokosuka, tired as expected...

The following morning, I went on dawn patrol, photography style. Dawn patrol is a term coined by surfers who get up pre-dawn so that they can get to the nearest break before anyone else and before the wind kicks up too much. My goal was to get up early to get some good pictures before anyone else. So I got up at dark-thirty (5:00 am) with the plan of catching some early sunlight in Kamakura. It had been a while since I visited the Great Buddha there, so I figured I would head to Hase Station and spend the morning there. I missed the first train out of Maborikaigan, so I sat around the station until about 5:30am until the second train arrived. At Shioiri (one stop past Yokosuka Chuo), I got off and walked the 1/4 kilometer or so over to the JR Yokosuka station to catch the train to Kamakura, where I immediately transferred over to the Enoden Line... by far my favorite train line in all of Japan so far.

I stepped off the train at Hase Station right around 6:15am, then headed towards Hase-dera Temple, which I had never seen before. Unfortunately, the temple didn't open until 8:00 am, so I moved along to see if the entrance to the Great Buddha was open. It wasn't... until 7:00 am. Then it started to rain on me. Hard. Cold. Wet. Fortunately, I took shelter under the large gate at the front of the temple that houses the Great Buddha, and waited there until 7:00 am rolled around. As expected, I was the first (and only) person in line when the clock struck 7 am. I walked into the compound and took several really nice shots of the Great Buddha with literally nobody around. By my third shot, I turned around and saw another gaijin (foreigner) approaching... darnit! Well, at least I got a few great uninterrupted shots. Ironically, the other gaijin seemed disappointed that I was there, too. I guess he was upset that I got there before him, but I was kind enough to stay out of his way so that he would have an unobstructed view, too.

After hanging out with the Great Buddha for about 45 minutes, I headed back down to Hase-dera, where I ran into the same gaijin. This time, though, there were quite a few other people waiting to get into the temple, too. Gates opened at 8:00 am precisely and I headed in to get pictures. Words can't describe the gardens in Hase-dera. Must be the time of the year, because everything in that place was in bloom. I caught enough early light to get a few good pictures. By 9:00 am, I had circled the place twice and headed back home.

Some of the weekend's pictures are posted in the Gallery, dated 05/02/2006 to match with the date of this post. Enjoy!