With Backpack

All Pictures 1, All Pictures 2

Our agenda for today: 1. Go to an ATM, 2. Get a Burger, 3. Take a shower.

Tom made plans to come to Japan for Festivus/ Christmas since February 2011. Last year, Mark stayed at Tom’s place a couple of times, while getting his visa for Japan at the Japanese embassy in Seoul. They also spent last Christmas together because Mark was having some huge visa issues. I think they even had a huge Festivus party where Mark aired all his grievances against the Japanese immigration policies.

We met Tom a few years ago when we lived in Seoul and did some traveling and free biking with him. Tom still lives in Seoul, but I don’t know if he still uses the free bikes in Seoul.

So Mark and I, who are on a tight budget have been saving our ~~pennies~~,.. one yen coins, for the occasion. But, when we asked Tom what sites he wanted to see while in Japan, he said he just wanted to chill out and hang with us.

We said, “Really, there’s nothing at all you want to see?”

Tom – “Well, Ok, just Hiroshima and something in your town.”

So Mark and I thought that since Tom just wanted to hang out, what we would do is to take Tom all the restaurants in town Mark and I always wanted to go, but didn’t because we are saving money. I had about four restaurants in mind, plus some we had already been to.

For the “something in our town” we took him to see Mount Aso. There is really nothing to see in Oita except for Park Place, the biggest mall this side of Kyushu. And yes, we did take him to see Park Place. There we ran into some of my students. I introduced them as, “my husband and a friend from Korea.” My student looked quite confused.

Students – Pointing to Tom “husband” pointing to Mark “韓国人”

Me – “No.” Pointing to Mark “husband” pointing to Tom “friend from Korea”.

They gave me funny looks, but smiled and walked away after the standard “nice-to-meet-chu’s.”

So rather than writing more about places I’ve already been to and blogged about before, some more than once, I will just write about the two unique events from this vacation.

Event #1: Tom Plays Pachinko.

Tom wanted to celebrate finally having money in Japan. Before he left Korea, Mark and I told him that getting non-Japanese bank cards and credit cards to work in Japan is very hard. But, he was running late when going to the airport in Korea and thought that he would just get some money at an ATM at Fukuoka airport.

That did not work. He called his card company and they tried to help him, but the ATM he needed was not at the airport. He didn’t have any yen and could not even pay for a subway ride to the train station. He was stuck at the airport.

Frustrated, he called me to tell me that he would just take another flight back to Seoul. That was when some lady, who overheard him talking to his card company earlier, handed him a 10,000 yen note (equivalent to a hundred dollars). When Tom asked the lady for her address so that he could repay her later, she told him to, “just go to Oita, and later, do something nice for someone else.”

For he next few days Tom had been calling his card company trying to figure this whole thing out. In the mean while, Mark and I paid for all his stuff. We weren’t sure if Tom would ever get any money in Japan. But, we didn’t care if he did. Tom had been so hospitable to Mark when they were in Korea earlier in the year.

Then one day someone from the card company asked if Tom had tried the 7-11 ATM. We went out to try it, and it worked. Well, first Tom tried it and it didn’t work. Then he called the card company again and they thought about it and figured that Tom might have asked for more cash than the daily limit. After that it work.

The moral of this story is, if you go to Japan call your bank and ask what ATM’s you can use, then bring a bunch of cash.

So, the day that Tom finally had his own cash, he wanted to go to a pachinko parlor. So we went.

Everyone put 1,000 yen (~10 bucks) into their machine. Once it spat out a bunch of shiny ball into our baskets we started to play. Mark was the first one to lose all his ~~money~~ balls. He was out within 10 minutes of playing. I hovered the drain for about 30 minutes, then I was out.

Then I looked at Tom. He had 2 basket filled with shiny gold balls.

Me – “Oh my god Tom, are you winning?”

Tom – “I guess.”

Me – “How are you doing this?”

Tom – “I don’t know. That lady told me to hold this nob like so and tap this button like this. Balls just keep fallin’ out.”

Me – “Wow. I lost all my ball.”

Tom – “Feel free to play with my balls. They’re very shiny!”

Mark and I continues to play, grabbing hand-fulls of Tom balls. We tried to copy what Tom was doing, but it didn’t work for us.

When Tom finally got tired of playing, or actually, when Tom started to lose, we stopped. We looked around for someone to help us turn in the ball. An employee ran over to us and poured his balls into a machine. It printed out a receipt.

The lady pointed to another woman behind a counter. He gave the receipt to her. She handed Tom a red bean cake and a small case with some weird coins. Tom was delighted with his prizes. We were happy for him.

We headed towards to exit with thoughts of dinner. Our friend just won some strange coins from a pachinko parlor. Who would believe that?

Then a guy in uniform ran after us. We turned to look at him, wonder what was going on. I mentioned wanting to us the bathroom as we were walking out and thought that he was showing us where the facilities were.

He took us through the casino and out a different door. There was no bathroom out that door, but he pointed to a little window. It looked like a teller’s window for a very shy clerk.

All you could see was a pair of women’s hands. The uniform guy gestures for Tom to put his coin case through the window. The coins were taken and cold hard cash replaced it. Tom got 3,000 yen. He won actual money!

We all agreed that money was better than strange coins.

Event #2: Itsukushima Shrine – OMG are we in a line?

We went to the Itsukushima Shrine on New Year’s day. The shrine is on an island called Miyajima near the city of Hiroshima. It has an iconic gate where tourist gather to take photos. It is also a place where many religious Japanese go on New Year’s day to pray and ask god, or whoever for favors.

It was beautiful and crowded; so very crowded. We were just walking along one of the street as the crowd of people gradually got thicker. We stood there for about 15 minutes slowly making our way forward when we realized that we were in a line for something. We had no idea what it was, but if this many people wanted to see it, it must be good.

It ended up being the Itsukushima shrine itself. After this Mark and I and Tom split up. Tom wanted to take photos of things and Mark and I wanted to get some omiyage, or souvenirs, for our co-workers.

It was nice, but because of the crowd we felt a bit intimidated. The Japanese are generally known for their politeness, but crowds are always the exception. We spend a lot of time hiding out in a nice, but highly overpriced well heated coffee shop. It was nice, almost empty, but the prices were steep.

I recommend going on a non-religious holiday.

Posted in Aso 市, Beppu 市, Hiroshima 県, Hiroshima 市, Honshū, Japan, Kumamoto 県, Kyūshū, Miyajima 町, Oita 県, Oita 市 | Tagged: Itsukushima Shrine, Japan, K's House, Pachinko | Leave a Comment »

Umbra

Posted by withbackpack on December 11, 2011

Date

December 10, 2011 Lunar Eclipse from Japan

How to get there:

We went to the cemetery near our apartment. It’s about a 20 minute walk, up hill all the way, from Minami-Oita train station.

Websites:

Cost: Free to just walk around.

Hours: The cemetery is always open and many people walk there for exercise.

Videos:

History Channel’s

The Universe S01E05 – The Moon
The Universe S02E03 – The Mysteries of the Moon
The Universe S04Eo2 – The Day the Moon was Gone
The Universe S05E07 - Total Eclipse
The Universe S06E01 – The Moon

The Eclipse from June 2011

Map:

Did we miss it?

I knew there was going to be a total lunar eclipse. I read somewhere, Friday morning, that it would take place on Saturday morning. Mark and I planned to wake up early on Saturday to go out and see the eclipse. But we completely forgot about it and slept in.

Then as I we were having lunch on Saturday, we remembered. I felt so disappointed. I began to wonder when the eclipse had taken place. I went back to the article I had read earlier. It just said that it would take place on Saturday morning, but the article did not say where or give an exact time.

Mark and I searched the internet. It was very frustrating because no one seems to have a time and a place. One article would say evening another, early morning. One even went so far as to tell us the time in UT, but even after looking up “UT” on Wikipedia, I still had no idea what that meant for us living in Japan.

Mark finally found an amateur astronomy website from Australia where everything was written clearly. We didn’t even have to do the time conversions or any thing. It even told us when the moon would be fully eclipsed, when the “un-eclipsing” would start, and how long the whole thing would last. And it turned out, as you can guess, we hadn’t missed a thing.

The Moon

I was a little kid the first time I saw a lunar eclipse. I was jumping all over the place with excitement, not so much for the moon’s impending trick, but because I could stay up passed 9:00pm. We had a huge patio in front our house and we all sat there with pillows looking up at the nights’ sky.

I was amazed when the earth’s shadow started to move across the moon like my mom said it would. I never thought that something a big as the earth could have a shadow. I wanted to watch every second of the eclipse, but my amazing was not enough to counter balance the fact that I was a little kid and it was way past 9:00pm.

I fell asleep. I woke up the next day feeling like I had miss most of the show.

This Time It Will Be Better

This lunar eclipse I wanted see and take pictures of the eclipse and 3 key stages. First Mark and I walked around our neighborhood to find the ideal spot. We picked a cemetery atop a hill nearby for its complete lack of lighting. Around 9:15pm we brewed several mugs of coffee, got a flash light, blankets, and pillows then headed to the grave yard. (Well, there are no graves in Japan, …shrine yard?)

We played around with the camera, taking long exposure pictures of ourselves as the moon disappeared. Well, turned darker then red. Even though I was suffering from a really bad cold, I had enough padding, hot coffee, and blankets that I felt quite warm.

We were content to stay there the whole night, but it started to rain. We had to pack up and get indoors. I didn’t want to take the chance of getting sicker.

Every half hour or so, we looked out the window to see if the moon had come out. Around 11:00pm we just went out anyway. The full eclipse was supposed to be half way through around 11:30pm and I didn’t want to miss it. We went back to the cemetery, but this time we took the car and one of our neighbors but forgot the coffee.

The sky was very cloudy but we held to the hope of just a small break in the clouds big enough to snap a few pictures. We remembered where the moon was from last time and were checking around that area. Mark even joked about how funny it would be if the moon were behind us and cloud free the whole time. We all span around to look, just in case, but there was no moon. “How silly of Mark to say such a thing.”

We waited and wait… and got tired. So we laid down, and looked straight up into the sky and right into the face of a blood red, unimpeded moon. “How long has the clouds over our heads been gone?”

We watched the sky until we saw earth’s shadow slowing start to creep away. Without hot coffee, we began to get cold and sleepy. The rain started again, so we went home. Mark and I stayed up a little long after that to run out our front door, check on the moon, and take more photos. We fell asleep after the moon was back to shining at its maximum.

Posted in Japan, Kyūshū, Oita 県, Oita 市 | Tagged: Lunar Eclipse | Leave a Comment »

Ultimate

Posted by withbackpack on November 21, 2011

October 1-2, 2011

1st Annual All-Kyushu Mixed
Ultimate Beach Tournament
(Ichi Kyu Bee)
(第一回全九州ビーチアルテメツト大会)

Website:

Downloads:

An AJET e-zine (Page 7)

Cost:

1500YEN

Price includes 2 days of games,
field rental,
insurance,
and a FREE T-shirt

Hours:

2 full days of exhausting fun

Notes:

If you plan to do this next year you will need:

to be in good shape
thick socks
a hat
sunscreen
lots of water

Otachimisaki Park

How to get there:

Address:

御立岬公園 Otachimisaki Park, Ashikita

Japan, 〒869-5305 熊本県葦北郡芦北町大字田浦町１４５

Phone:

0966-87-2390 for a Cabin

Website

Cost:

Swimming – Free
Beach Shower facilities – 100YEN/ minute
Cabins – 18900YEN per Cabin
Onsen – 500Yen / person

Notes:

There are many things to do in this park, like go-cart driving, golf, fishing, …
There are restaurants open during the summer, but not other seasons.

Bring your own food and water if you do this next year (if it is at this park).

Map:

Frisbee at the beach sounds like fun.

First, let me tell you how I got into this mess, because at the start of this particular weekend, I felt tricked. I got an invitation of Facebook. I didn’t read all the details, but what I got from it were the words “beach”, “frisbee”, and “barbecue”. That sounded like fun! The actual event was months away and the exact details hadn’t been completely worked out, but I RSVPed “attenting” anyway. Then I didn’t give it a second thought.

About a month before the event I got an email from someone asking my shirt size, date of birth, and other questions that may or not have included how heart-attack prone I was at the moment. I didn’t think much about it. I don’t even think I responded. Someone actually called me to ask those questions a few times before I got around to responding.

It sounds like you think it’s a real sport

Then I got an invite to practice frisbee one weekend. I didn’t have time, but I though it was cute that people would get together to practice throwing around a frisbee, like it was a real sport… They had 3 or 4 practices, but I was always too busy to go.

Then the weekend of the frisbee thing, Mark told be that we would be leaving at 4:30am.

Me – “What!? 4:30 in the morning!? …on a Saturday?! Why?”

Mark – “Well the tournament is at a beach in Komamoto Prefecture.”

Me – “Wait, what!? Tournament? I thought we were just going to toss around a frisbee on a beach and then have a barbecue.”

Mark – “Yea. That ‘tossing around a frisbee’ is called Ultimate Frisbee”

Me – “It sounds like you think it’s a real sport.”

Mark – “It is a real sport. It’s Ultimate Frisbee.”

Me – “???”

I learned quickly that ultimate is a real sport. Oh my god, the horrible things they made me do! … like running, jumping, catching, and throwing. …for 2 days! I was exhausted by the end of the first day. One girl on my team disappeared after lunch refusing to play any more.

The first day it was just the amateurs. They split up all the teams and put everyone on new teams with people we had never meet before. By coincidence I was on a team with a JET I met the week before in Amakusa. We managed to win one game and I score one point. Both happened after the girl left us one player short. I didn’t hate her for leaving, but I did wish I had the chance to disappear first.

The barbecue that night was amazing and we earned it! We stayed in a cabin by the beach. Many JET’s stayed up to talk with other JET’s from around Kyushu, but those of us from Oita city went to bed early. I for one, was tired. We had just the right amount of people. Our cabin could not hold one more person. All our floor space was taken.

Even with our cabin filled to capacity, we did not finish grilling all the meat we were given. We actually opened another pack of meat and ate that for breakfast. (And, because Mark and I brought a colder filled with ice bags, we took home the last 2 packs of meat and one of vegetables. Someone else took home the other extra pack of vegetables. They gave us a whole lot of food!)

The Disco-saurus Wrex

The next day we played with the teams we came with. These teams were a lot bigger, but now we would play with college teams. We expected to be slaughtered, so we put on crazy costumes and tried to have fun. But we had no strategy. We didn’t think we needed it; we never thought we would win any games.

Our reward is to play more games?

But we did. We, unfortunately, won all our morning games. I say unfortunately, because by winning all our first games, we placed into the highest bracket for the afternoon games. We were up against the young, talented, college aged, ultimate scholarship-receiving teams.

This is where our winning streak ended. But it was not at all shameful. When we lost, we lost by one or two points. Below is a video of one of those points.

In the end, I had tons of fun. I would do it again next year.

No, I really would.

Posted in Ashikita 町, Japan, Kumamoto 県, Kyūshū | Tagged: 1st Annual All-Kyushu Mixed Ultimate Beach Tournament, 第一回全九州ビーチアルテメツト大会, Ichi Kyu Bee, Kyūshū | Leave a Comment »

Hangin’ with Hittites

Posted by withbackpack on November 20, 2011

September 23-25, 2011

Todorokimantarou village campsite
(とどろき万太郎)

How to get there:

The directions are a little tricky.

You must get on road 24.
From road 24 you will turn into the campsite’s parking lot. But it is easy to miss it, so don’t drive too fast.

Address:

2971-1 Shimodakita
Amakusamachi

Phone:

0969-42-3956 Bungalow
0969-42-3424 Camping

Website:

In English (Not a lot of info)

Cost:

¥ 16,000 Tent (permanent)
¥ 1 2,000 per bungalow

Hours:

7:30 – 22:00
May – September for tents
Bungalows available year round

Notes:

Other Campsite and Cabins in the area
This is not a place where you can bring your own tent.

Map:

It’s not really camping, but we’ll take it.

Mark found out about a trip some of our friends from Hita were planning. “They’re going camping on that island we went to,” he told me. “I’ll just ask if we could tag along…”

We went to the Islands of Amakusa (天草) during golden week. That was where we ended up camping in some lady’s backyard.

The Hita people, or Hittites as I like to call them, said we could join them. We didn’t have all the information about what was going on that weekend. We knew that they were going to rent a cabin, but we didn’t know how big it was going to be. We brought our tent and camping gear just in case everyone couldn’t fit.

We got there before the Hittites and were given the key. There was more than enough space and bedding for all. The cabin had a flat rate price and with all the people that showed up, I think we paid about 2,000YEN per person per night.

When our friends arrived we went swimming, or rather they went swimming. I thought it was too cold to swim, so I along with those who didn’t want to swim just chatted in the cabin. There was a water fall at the campsite where Mark and some other jumped off of for some cheap thrills.

I prefer my good old terra firma.

That night we had a had a big barbecue complete with smores for dessert. During our dinner, someone made campfire cooked broccoli and we all went crazy for it. Many of us hadn’t eaten broccoli since coming to Japan. Mark and I don’t eat broccoli much because they are imported vegetables and tend to be quite expensive. I missed broccoli.

Beach hopping

The next day we drove around from one beach to another looking for the ideal spot. The first beach was too rocky, didn’t have interesting underwater life, and had a big old jellyfish on patrol. The next beach didn’t have enough sand. We finally found a great beach and decided to make cheese ramen with egg and kim chee there for lunch.

We played Marco Polo in the water for a few hours. Yes. I jumped in the water too. It was hot that day and, even though I hadn’t planned to go swimming on this trip and did not bring my swim suit, I dived in.

The beach was really nice as you can tell from the pictures I stole from Jen.

We then went to see one of the most beautiful sunsets in all of Japan. By now, if you read this blog often, you may have noticed that every city by the sea in this country boast that it has “one of the most beautiful sunsets in Japan”. Well, it is the same sun…

The next day they went whale and dolphin watching. Mark and I headed back to Oita instead. I live in Florida when I’m in the US. We have whales and dolphins in our backyards there.

Posted in Amakusa 町, Japan, Kumamoto 県, Kyūshū | Tagged: とどろき万太郎, Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Todorokimantarou village campsite | Leave a Comment »

I Want to Hold a Baby Tiger

Posted by withbackpack on November 20, 2011

September 22, 2011

African Safari Wildlife Park
(アフリカンサファリ)

How to get there:

From Oita by car -

Take route 10 heading to Beppu. Turn left onto route 500.

After you pass the Hells, you will see signs to Africa Safari writen in Romaji (Roman Letters). Just follow the signs.

Address:

〒872-0722 大分県宇佐市安心院町南畑2-1755-1

Phone: 0978 (48) 2331

Website

Downloads:

Pamphlets

Cost:

2,300YEN
You can get a 200YEN discount per ticket if you buy your ticket at Lawson.
1,000YEN to ride the Jungle Bus and feed the animals.
500YEN to hold baby lions or tigers.

Hours:

Check Website
The available time for holding baby tigers and/ or lions ends earlier than the times for the park itself.

Notes:

Parking is Free.
You can drive your own car in to where all the wild animal are, but you would have to be crazy to do that with a k-car. (Your average rhino is bigger than a k-car.)

Map:

Eye of the Tiger

After we got married, Mark and I felt like we should do something… We didn’t have enough time to do a long trip because we had plans to meet up with some friends that weekend. But, we really want to go somewhere. So we thought that it would be fun to visit one of the hundreds of amusement parks in our prefecture.

Mark wanted to hold a baby tiger, but as you can see from the video below, the tiger didn’t care too much for Mark.

We got on one of the park’s caged buses. They drove us around the park and stopped to let us feed the many animals. We stayed on the bus and fed the creatures through the bars of the bus. There were many animals that are not to be fed like the buffalos and baby giraffes, but we didn’t know this at first.

They did give us lots of extra instructions and information about each animal, but it was all in Japanese. We don’t speak Japanese well enough to understand something like, “This lion has lion pox. Don’t let him sneeze on, or near you or all your hair will fall out and your skin will turn green.” It was only after we did something that the guide would say, “No. No fed baby!” or “No. No fed buufaaroo!” or “Dis giraffes food, dat rhino food.” Honestly, all pellets look alike to me.

Below is video of Mark having fun with the giraffes.

Posted in Beppu 市, Japan, Kyūshū, Oita 県 | Tagged: African Safari, African Safari Wildlife Park, アフリカンサファリ, Beppu, Kyūshū, Oita | Leave a Comment »

Guess Who Got Married!

Posted by withbackpack on October 31, 2011

Posted in Japan | Leave a Comment »

Once Again, No Dig

Posted by withbackpack on October 30, 2011

August 12 – 15, 2011

The US Embassy in Fukuoka

How to get there:

By car -

The Consulate is seven minutes from the Nishikoen exit of the Fukuoka Urban Expressway. There is no parking at the consulate, but there are parking lots nearby. The Ohori Park lot is the largest.

Directions from the Kyushu Expressway are found here.

Address:

U.S. Consulate Fukuoka
2-5-26, O-hori Chuo-ku
Fukuoka, Japan 810-0052

Phone:

092-751-9331
03-3224-5000 After hours emergency number for US citizens

Website

Hours:

9:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 16:00 Monday – Friday,
excluding Japanese and American Holidays.

Notes:

There is no free parking near the embassy.
You are not allowed to bring any electronic devices into the embassy. So bring a good old fashion paper book to read for your wait.
They have a little library of books that you can read there. Hopefully you will not be there long enough to finish any of them.

Planet Media Cafe

How to get there:

It’s off route 34 when heading east from the historical dig site. When you near the town of Tosu, look out for route 17. Head south on route 17. You will see a big shopping area on your right. Park there.

Address:

佐賀県鳥栖市轟木町1173 ゆめタウン鳥栖別館

Phone:

0942-87-3750 Japanese only

Website:

The Tosu Shop

Cost

Once you get a membership card for 300YEN you can choose from a list of options
For 9 hours Mark and I paid about 2000YEN each for our own rooms in the “reclining” section.
Deals come and go.

Hours:

Always Open.

Notes:

No Showers
Comes with all you can drink, soft drink machines.
You can order food at any time, you pay when you check out.
Free toothbrush and tooth paste
pretty quite

Yoshinogari Historical Park
(吉野ヶ里遺跡)
(Yoshinogari iseki)

How to get there:

From Fukuoka -

Get on route 3 heading north
Take a left (west) on route 209
Stay straight on route 264 which will turn into road 22
Turn left (southwest) on route 34
At the 6th light, turn right (north) on route 385
The park will be on your left

Phone:

0952-55-9351

Website:

Downloads

e-mail: himika@yoshinogari.jp

Cost:

Parking 300YEN flat rate
Adult 400YEN
For 100YEN they will teach you how to make fire, sort of…

Hours:

9:00 – 17:00
The dig site closes at 16:30

“Campsite in Northern Oita-Ken”

How to get there:

From Matama Beach -

Get on Route 213 heading east.
You will pass 4 tunnels.
After the 4th tunnel you will be in a little town. You will need to make a left onto a little road that is opposite to a pedestrian tunnel. The first time you go, it will be a little tricky, because you can’t really see the pedestrian tunnel when making the left. But if you reach a 5th tunnel, that is kind of long, turn around and you will be able to clearly see the pedestrian tunnel.
Take the road across the little one lane bridge and take the biggest road up the hill.
You will pass a rape field and a sunflower field.

Cost:

1,000YEN per tent &
300YEN per person (Though, sometimes they skip this charge if they like you.)
The second night they only charged us for the tent. I don’t know if they always do this, or they just liked us.

Hours:

I don’t know, but there is a time when it’s too late or too early to check-in.

Notes:

They also have cabins, some with AC.
There is a beach at the campsite.
Plot 16 is the best place for camping!
There are free electric bikes you can borrow.

1 person – 1 hour max
2 people – 2 hours max

Special Attack Monument &
Underground Hanger

How to get there:

Well, it’s kind of hard to get to mainly because Oita Prefecture has so many damn route 10′s.

Basically go to route 629 off of one of the route 10′s in Usa. Then at one of the stop lights near a river you will head south on an interesting looking road.

I know; these are really bad directions. But, it the best I can do with roads that either have no name or have the same name as other roads close by.

Website

Cost:

Free. It’s really just something in the middle of rice fields.

Hours:

Always available

Map:

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines in Pieces on the Ground

That’s Never Happened Before!

Mark and I had to head west to Fukuoka to get some paper work done to get married. That part of the trip was not very interesting, though there was some confusion with our transaction. They kept asking Mark and me where we were from.

Mark – “I was born in Korea, but I’m American.”

Embassy Guy – “Ok, so where is Josephine from?”

Me – “I was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

Embassy Guy – “The United States Virgin Island?”

Me – “Yes.”

Embassy Guy – “Wait, you’re both Americans?”

Mark and Me – “Yes.”

Embassy Guy – “Wow. That’s never happened before. I have to go look this up. I’ve never seen two Americans coming in here to get married. I don’t even know what papers you would fill out…”

Mark did his research before hand, so we already had the correct American-American marriage forms in both English and Japanese. We got our paper work notarized and went along our way.

Try Again*

Since we were in the area anyway, we decided to go back to Yoshinogari Historical Park. I didn’t get to see the active dig last time since we got there at 16:00 in the afternoon. I thought that this would be my second opportunity.

We were going to spend the night at a campsite in Fukuoka and then go to the historic park the next day. When we got to the campgrounds we were told that the cost of camping with our own tent would be 4,500YEN per person per night. That would be about 100USD for the both us. A hundred bucks to use our own tent!? It would be cheaper to get a hotel! We did not stay.

Instead we opted for an internet cafe near the dig site in a town called Tosu. It cost less than half the price of the Fukuoka campsite and we didn’t have to set up our tent. It came with internet and free all you can drink soda, juice, coffee, and watery soup. There was even a 24-hour restaurant in the cafe that had inexpensive bland food. It was great!

We made sure the get the to historical park early this time, but alas, the area of the dig was closed for two weeks starting the day we got there. If I had arrived the day before I could have seen it. I have now officially given up hope of ever seeing this thing.

We did get to see much more of the park than we did last time. Mark even signed up for fire making lessons. It only took him about 45 minutes to make fire.

After spending half a disappointing day at the park we went back to our prefecture. I found a website that talked about hidden airplane hangers that were used during WWII. There were some in Usa a few towns over from Oita. So, we stopped by to see them on our way home.

But, by the time we got to Usa, it was too dark to see anything. We drove to our favorite Oita prefecture campsite, which is not too far from Usa, and set up the tent for the night.

The next day we drove around for hours looking for the hangers which were about a half an hour drive from where we spent the night. It was not on our map of the prefecture. Even though our map has detailed picture representation of mountain elevations, it doesn’t mention anything about possible tourist attractions.

We had to stop by a temple and look for the big map of interesting things in the area that usually accompanies temples, waterfalls, and the like. The map at these things are usually cartoonishly drawn with many icons and no-to-scale roads. We compared it with our map and figured that we would have to pass a broken down train station, and sorry looking river, and then turn at a stop light that may or may not exist.

We found the hangers, eventually.

* I apologize for the horrible Japanese song. I hear it in every store I go and I didn’t want to suffer alone.

Posted in Fukuoka 県, Fukuoka 市, Japan, Kanzaki 市, Kyūshū, Oita 県, Saga 県, Thailand, Tosu 市, Usa 市 | Tagged: internet cafes in Japan, Japan, Planet Media Cafe, Special Attack Monument, spending the night at an interne, The US Embassy in Fukuoka, travel, Underground Hanger, Yoshinogari Historical Park | Leave a Comment »

One of Japan’s Best 100 Sunsets

Posted by withbackpack on July 27, 2011

July 16 – 17

Matama Beach
(真玉ビーチ)

How to get there:

From Oita by car -

Take route 10 North.
When you reach Hiji town, you can stay on route 10 or take route 213

If you stay on route 10 at Hiji town, you will get on route 213 in Usa. Be careful because the turn is at an odd angle making it a little easy to miss. This is the shorter way.
If you get on route 213 in Hiji, stay on route 213 until you pass the beach.

It doesn’t really look like a beach when you’re driving by. It mostly a cemented area with lots of parking across the road from the “beach”.

Address:

〒872-1101 大分県西国東郡真玉町2144-12

Cost:

Free

Hours:

always available

Notes:

There is a little restaurant at the beach that sells drinks, snacks, and meals.
When we went, the water was not deep enough to swim in. But I don’t know what it is like at high tide or at other times of the year

“Campsite in Northern Oita-Ken”

How to get there:

From Matama Beach -

Get on Route 213 heading east.
You will pass 4 tunnels.
After the 4th tunnel you will be in a little town. You will need to make a left onto a little road that is opposite to a pedestrian tunnel. The first time you go, it will be a little tricky, because you can’t really see the pedestrian tunnel when making the left. But if you reach a 5th tunnel, that is kind of long, turn around and you will be able to clearly see the pedestrian tunnel.
Take the road across the little one lane bridge and take the biggest road up the hill.
You will pass a rape field and a sunflower field.

Cost:

1,000YEN per tent &
300YEN per person
The second night they only charged us for the tent. I don’t know if they always do this, or they just liked us.

Hours:

I don’t know, but there is a time when it’s too late or too early to check-in.

Notes:

They also have cabins, some with AC.
There is a beach at the campsite.
There are free electric bikes you can borrow.

1 person – 1 hour max
2 people – 2 hours max

Map:

Band-aid (Adhesive plaster)

Finally!

I have blogged about Mark’s and my many attempts to see the sunset at Matama beach. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful sunsets in Japan and we, up until this time, have always managed to miss it.

This time we showed up a good 4 hours before sunset. We ate at the restaurant on the beach, then sat in the water until the tide came in. When it was almost sunset we got out of the water and sat on the cement steps leading to the sea.

Right before the sunset I noticed that my shoes were a bit sandy. I wanted to rinse them off in the ocean water before I put them on. I stepped on the last step above the water, which was beginning to get flooded. There was a patch of slick moss under my foot and before I realized that I was falling, I was on the ground with one leg under me and the other awkwardly reaching out into the water.

I got up and I felt no pain initially. In a few seconds there were streams of blood running down my right leg. I rinsed it off with the salt water so I could see the wound. It was not too bad. I enjoyed the sunset as I bled.

Japanese Lesson for this situation

So, I’ve been living in Japan for almost a year now and that’s a total of almost 2 years of my life spent in Japan. But still I speak very little Japanese. Don’t feel bad Japan, I grew up with 2 Spanish-speaking parents and still have no idea what the heck Speedy Gonzales says. It’s not you, it’s me.

I basically learn just want is needed for me to survive. This is why I can order food in Korean, I can say, “Fill-her-up,” in Japanese, and say bad things about your mother in Spanish. But I can’t ask about the weather in any language other than English.

And for the record, my parents did not teach me to say bad things about your mother in Spanish. …And tu madre es una dama simpática.

I will put here, for future reference, for me or whoever else needs it, the vocabulary needed for this situation.

Rubbing alcohol

消毒用アルコール
(Shōdoku-yō arukōru)

Topical antibiotic cream (Like Neosporin in the US, or Fucidin in many countries)

抗菌外用薬クリーム
(Kōkin gaiyō-yaku kurīmu)
Make sure to ask a pharmacist about this one. Not all topical antibiotic creams are for wounds, most in Japan are for rashes.
This one might be hard to find.

絆創膏
Bansōkō

or in my case

大きい絆創膏 (Big band-aid)
Ōkii bansōkō

No need for sentences. That will just give me more things to forget.

Typhooie!

Before we went to Matama beach we pitched our tent and Mark sprayed it down with Scotch Guard to make it more water proof. The last time we were camping, the tent leaked so this needed to be done. Before we left the apartment we saw that a typhoon was heading our way. The storm would hit Oita Monday night, so we didn’t cancel our trip. The Scotch Guard would help us if it started to rain a couple of days before the storm.

Just to get something straight before I continue. I do not recommend camping during a Typhoon, or even a tropical storm. A tent is not good shelter from anything other than mild rain. We checked the weather forecast before heading out and we knew that we were good for camping until Monday night. By then we were safely back in our apartment.

Mark – ”What’s the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?”

Me – “Geography”

I grew up on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a kid I loved hurricanes. It usually meant that my parents would let me stay up late to see what was going on. The electricity would sometimes go out, and my mom would bring out her kerosene lantern.We would sit in the living room listening to the radio. I would curl up in a blanket on the sofa next to my mom or dad as the wind whistled outside. The reception on the radio would crackle as the fire in the lantern danced about. I loved the sound of the radio snow over the howling of the wind along with the smell of the burning kerosene. I would go the bed hoping that school would be cancelled the next day.

Usually, nothing more than a couple of trees or telephone polls would be knocked down. Most of the time, I and many other kids, would be in school the following morning making up tales of people blown away in the winds. The hurricanes, would either just miss us and only dump rain on us, get down graded to a tropical storm, or turn away from us completely. My first real hurricane was Hugo. Few people on the island were prepared for the disaster Hugo would bring.

You haven’t seen a real hurricane yet!

The morning of September 17, 1989 I was excited. It was a Sunday. Not only was my piano lessons for that day cancelled because of the hurricane, but so was school the next day. I hated piano lessons!

My family and I went to the crowded grocery store where everyone was buying the hurricane essentials, batteries, water, canned food… I, for one, was thrilled. The air was filled with hurricane anticipation as everyone, excited about the hurricane, talked about what they thought about the hurricane.

The afternoon we and all our neighbors prepared for the hurricane. I remember my parents arguing about some sand we had in the back yard. My parents were fixing up the house, so my father bought some sand with which to make cement. My father said that it wasn’t necessary to cover the sand with tarp. “Would you cover the whole beach with tarp?”

Mom – “No but the beach gets its sand from the ocean. If some sand gets blown away, more will wash up on shore the next day. I’m telling you, if you don’t cover the sand, it will be gone by tomorrow.”

My father covered the sand, but it and the tarp would be gone by the next day anyway.

My mother was the only one, who seemed uneasy. Everyone else was looking forward to a little excitement and a day off that Monday. This would be the biggest hurricane the island had seen in over 60 years, so schools and business had already announced that they would be closed on Monday.

My mom walked around like Cassandra warning people that this hurricane would not be any fun if it did hit St. Croix. She lived through hurricane Hattie when it hit her home town of Belize City, Belize. “We were excite, just like you are now.” My mom made my dad take extra precautions. They parked the cars closer to the house and away from the trees in the backyard. They took in anything that could be taken inside.

I didn’t know wind could do that!

The hurricane was supposed to hit late that night, so I was surprised, when at 6:00 pm I could see the bushes in the yard in front of ours laying down because of the wind. “Wow, I didn’t know wind could do that!” My mom dryly replied, “This hurricane hasn’t even started yet.”

I wanted to stay up, but my parents made me go to bed around 9:00 pm. I’m not sure how long I was asleep, but sometime that night my father woke me up. “Come, we have to go to the living room.” I was a little groggy, but I got up and followed him. He seemed worried and agitated. As we passed my bathroom, I stopped. “Can I used the bathroom first?”

I asked, only out of respect. I didn’t really think he would say no. He hesitated, looking back down the hall where we had just come. He seemed to be thinking it over. “Make it quick.”

I didn’t understand what was going on. I was a kid and I was too sleepy to care. When we got to the living room my mom was sitting on the floor with her flash light. The electricity was out. I started to remember the hurricane. “Are we camping out in the living room?” This seemed like fun.

“No”, my dad said, “It’s… it’s… “

“Just show her,” my mom interrupted.

My dad took my hand and a flash light and led me back down the hallway. My parents bedroom door was closed. “One quick look, then we have to go back to the living room.” I could not imagine what could be in their bedroom that would cause them to spend the night in the living room.

He opened the door. I could hear the wind outside screaming around the house, but everything looked normal. He closed the door. “What? I didn’t see anything.”

He opened the door again, but this time he turned on the flash light. I followed the spot of light with my eyes. It moved from the floor, onto the bed, then up the wall. There was a gap between where the wall ended and the roof began. The roof was moving up and down. “Wow! Do you think that could happen in my room?”

My room was across the hall from my parents’. “It is happening in your room. That’s why we woke you up.” I didn’t believe him. I was asleep in that room not more than 10 minutes ago. If my roof was dancing, I think I would have noticed. He open my bed room door to show me. Sure enough, the roof was bobbing up and down like a play thing of the wind.

I felt sick. I sat in the living feeling cold on the inside. The roof of my bed room was being pulled off the house as I slept. I was right under it and I didn’t even know. What if my parent slept as deeply as I did?

We tried to get some sleep. Just when I had calmed down I heard a crash. The chandelier on the living room ceiling came crashing down inches from my mom’s head. I began to think how lucky that was. If she have been hit, there would be no way of getting her to the hospital any time soon. After that I could not sleep.

I sat there rocking myself as my parents tried to sleep. My mom kept telling me that everything would be ok. But, I was feeling too sick to believe her.

Sometime after that we heard a big woosh sound. My dad went to look at the rooms down the hall. I followed too. My parents let me. I guess they thought that my imagination was too active and I would be less afraid if I saw what was going on, then if I didn’t.

We looked into my parents’ bedroom. The roof was gone. The bed, clothes, and other things in the room were spinning around as if being stirred with a giant invisible spoon. “This can’t be good,” I said to myself.

We all went back to the living room to wait out the rest of the storm. No one tried to sleep now. I don’t know what was going on in my parents’ heads, but my mind was buzzing. “What is tomorrow going to be like? My parents will have to sleep in the living room until the roof over their room is fixed. Maybe we’ll have to get a new house.”

Sometime after that we heard the woosh sound again. It was the roof over my bedroom. We just sat there. We did not feel the need to look. I knew that all my things were gone.

Later the winds died down. My dad went outside the check on the cars. He wanted to walk down the street to see what happened to the neighborhood, but my mom wouldn’t let him.

“The hurricane is not over. This is just the eye.” She told us.

“What? You mean there’s more?” I asked.

“That was just the first half. Now the wind will come in the other direction. We should really move to the other side of the house, but…”

I had never heard of an “eye of a storm” before. I don’t think I was the only one, because later I heard stories of people going out during the eye thinking everything was over, only to be caught outdoors when the second part of the storm began. I don’t know how true any of those stories were. Maybe they thought the eye would last longer than it did and didn’t have enough time to get back indoors.

When the storm started again we sat in the living room. No one spoke a word. The winds roared outside mocking us. It moved like a monster trying to ripe open our home to get at us.

I looked up at the roof on the other side of the room. “Mom, this roof is going to go.” My mom shone her flash light where the roof and wall meet. It looked normal. There wasn’t even a crack on the wall. “I think it will be fine.”

“No mom. This roof is going to go.” I insisted.

“You’re just scared. Everything will be fine.” she said.

I muttered to myself, “That roof is going to go!.”

Half an hour later, as I was staring at the roof, it just lifted up. It broke apart in the air and disappearing into the dark windy night. It even took the lighting fixtures with it. I don’t remember the sound it made. I just sat there, looking at it go, blown away like paper. The blackness of the night came in my house and it brought rain. I was getting wet.

My parents grabbed me and took me to the middle room. They closed the door and we sat on the bed.

I felt really sick and I really needed to pee. Even though the bathroom was right across the hall, my mom would not let me leave the room. There was an orange tub that she used to bathe me in when I was a baby. She gave it to me and told me to take it to the closet and pee in it. I went to the closet and sat over the basin, but I could not pee. I was just really scared.

My mom did not want to be trapped in the house. She and my dad started to think of things they could do to ensure our survival.

“If this house catches on fire, something crashes down on this roof, or this roof goes, we’re trapped.” My mom said.

“If only we had a basement.” My dad put in.

Houses in the Caribbean don’t have basements. Under our houses, we have cisterns, where we keep the water from the rain that falls on the roof. We use this water to flush the toilets and for showering. I did hear of a family who, after losing their roof and most of their walls, spent this hurricane standing in their half empty cistern. They must have openned some sort of lever to keep the water flowing out the cistern so it would not fill up and drown them all.

“But, Mr. Ash, has a two-story house. We must go to Mr. Ash’s house.”

Mr. Ash was our next door neighbor. I had been over to his house countless times to play with his oldest daughter Kizzy. The family lived on the second floor and Mr. Ash worked on the first floor.

He made and improved houses for a living. He had his own business. He designed his house. The first floor of the Ash house was his office. It looked like a smaller version of a hardware store. There were tools, machines, and equipment on this floor of the Ash residence. Kizzy, her sister and brother, me, and all the other kids in the neighborhood were never allow on the first floor. So of course, we were always trying to get in.

The family lived upstairs. There were steps that went from their front garden to the second floor, completely bypassing the ground floor. I don’t even think there was a way to go from the first to second floor without going outside.

I didn’t want to go. It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of walking out in the storm. The dangers of that only occurred to me years later. I didn’t want to see the living room without its roof again.

In the spare bed room, nothing had changed. It looked like it did before the hurricane. Its roof was still on. Its floor was still dry. Everything in the room was as it is should be. Outside the room was complete disorder. And the storm was just about halfway passed.

Later we would find out that the hurricane was moving very slowly. Although the winds were moving at 140 mph the storm itself was moving at about 3 or 4 mph. I remember my dad using his car the show me how fast 3 mph was. “I can run faster that this!”

My parents each held onto one of my forearms. I was given a hat and jacket and was told to cover my face and keep my head down. The wind was so strong, I remember, that it stung my face. It was very hard to walk because the winds made putting my foot on the ground almost impossible.

We got over the Ashs’ house and their gate was latched but unlock, like it usually was. They had 2 big, mean looking dogs, Blackman and Whiteman, that guarded the house, but they were indoors for the storm. We opened the gate and closed it behind us. We got to their downstairs door and started yelling and banging on the door. My mom prayed that they would hear us. We stood out there for a minute or two wondering if we had made a huge mistake. When the door open, I fell in.

I sat on the floor in complete shock. I could not stop shaking. I threw up and kept throwing up even though my stomach was empty. I saw Kizzy and her brother and sister. They looked scared too, but they were not in the state I was in. Mrs. Ash, kept bringing me water and asking if I needed anything, but I just wanted to be alone with my vomit bucket. I move to a corner where I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up on the floor. My bucket was gone and so were my parents. I sat there thinking, “I’m homeless. I don’t have a home anymore. Where am I going to sleep tonight?” Mrs. Ash told me that my parents went to do something for the house. She tried to feed me cereal, but I could not eat.

The upstairs of the Ashes’ house was heavily damaged. Parts of their roof had been damaged, but it did not come off like my the roof of my house.They spent the next couple months living on the first floor until the upstairs was completely fixed.

When my parents got back they took me to see the house. “Is it safe? There is a lot of water; what about live wires?”

“There is no electricity on this island. No stop lights. Nothing is working.” My dad said.

We walked through the house. It did not look familiar. Everything was thrown about and wet. The only glimmer of hope for me was that, among all the soaked and bloated items floating around our house, was the piano. Well, it didn’t float.

My mom sat on its bench which sagged a bit and threatened to give out. She stood up and tapped a key. It groaned like a dying cat. “Oh no, not the piano. I wanted to have at least one child learn the play the piano well.” Days later when we loaded up a borrowed truck of our things to be taken to Anguilla, the dumpsite, I happily tossed part of that piano bench in. Did I mention that I hated that piano?

We went to the back yard. “There’s our roof! Can we just put it back on?” I asked.

My parents looked at the roof suspiciously. It was a completely intact roof, laying galvanize side down. All it was missing was the rest of its house. “That’s not our roof.” my mom said.

I looked at the thing. I was smaller than our house and it was the wrong shape. Besides, we didn’t lose our whole roof, just the bits in the front and the bits in the back. Many of our neighbors roofs were missing but none had a roof like that.

Mr. Ash came over, along with other neighbors and they butchered that roof. Parts of it went on our house, Mr. Ash’s house, and other neighbors’ houses to keep the rain out. There was small tropical storm coming and it rained the entire next day.

The tropical storm was Gabrielle, formally hurricane Gabrielle, but by the time she got to us, she was weak and old and only delivered rain. She would have never even stayed in my mind, if my house had a roof. But when she came every Cruzan was listening to the weather forecast on his or her radio like it was the latest gossip.

Thankfully, our radios still worked. They were our only connection to the outside world. We had no electricity and the phones were down. The day after Hugo we stay glued to the radio as we tried to clean up what we could. I remember that the governor at the time, Alexander Farrelly who lived on St. Thomas, got on the air and told the world that the US Virgin Islands were all OK.

Those of us on the island of St. Croix were shocked. Apparently, the island of St. Thomas was not hit as severely. But since we, on St. Croix, had no electricity or any means of contact to the outside world, the governor assumed that no news was good news. Later he would have to retract his statement and ask President Bush, not only for aid for St. Croix, but for soldiers to put the island under Marshal Law. There was wild looting, fighting, and all around chaos in the streets for days following Hugo.

My parents were a few of the lucky people who were able to collect their insurance money. Many insurance companies went bankrupt. It took people months, some years, to repair all the damage. Some of them and to pay for the repairs all on their own.

Within a year, our house was completely fixed. The new roof that was put on not only had 3 new sunroofs, but was designed to withstand any hurricane. The roof had smaller eaves and was connected to the bottom of the house. The builder told us, “For this roof to go, the walls must go with it!” As far as I know the house is still there.

Posted in Bungo Takada 市, Japan, Kyūshū, Matama 町, Oita 県, St. Croix, United States, The, US Virgin Islands | Tagged: camping, 真玉ビーチ, hurricane Hugo, Matama Beach | 3 Comments »

Yosh

Posted by withbackpack on July 14, 2011

July 11, 2011

Department of Motor Vehicle Licensing
Oita Keisatsu Honbu Kotsubu Unten Menkyoka

How to get there:

Head towards Park Place, which is near exit #14 on the Oita Express way.
Go south of Park place on the numberless road on the map below.
You will see a lot of parked cars.

Address:

6687 Matsuoka, Oita City

Phone:

097-536-2131 (ext: 702-245)

Website

JET Wikia

Download:

Cost:

It depends on how many times you fail.

Most people fail several times.

3,000YEN to translate your US license at any JAF.
1,000YEN for the “Rules of the Road” book.
8,000YEN to have Mr. Yano teach you how to past the test.
4,000YEN to practice on the course.
2,400YEN for the application fee. (Paid right before the written test.)
1,650YEN to rent the car. (Paid right before you take the driving test.)
2,100YEN for the registration fee. (Paid after you pass the driving test, if you pass.)

Hours:

Mon – Fri 12:30 – 14:00 excluding holidays

Notes:

This is for US citizens.
Australians and New Zealanders don’t have to take this test; those lucky bastards.
You are given one year to drive on an international driver’s license, after that you must get a Japanese license.

Steps to getting a Japanese Driver’s License:

Step 1.

Get your valid driver’s license Translated at JAF. You will need bring:

This PDF form filled out and signed.
Your current American driver’s license.
3,000YEN.

You can buy a copy of the “Rules of the Road” book here, if you cannot find someone to lend it to you. You just need a quick read through this book. There is no need to really study it.

Step 2.

Practice: I was given Mr. Yano’s number by the guy at the DMV.

Call Mr. Yano, or some equivalent. (8,000YEN)
Book practice time on the driving course. (4,000YEN)

If you hire Mr. Yano or an equivalent, they will make the appointment for you.

Pay close attention. Every little thing you do, no matter how mindless or insignificant you think it is, matters a great deal on the test.

Reading the instructions is no substitute for physically practicing the course.

Step 3.

Taking the test.

Make a reservation at your local Department of Motor Vehicle.

You will need to make reservations for your first test.
If you fail, you will not need to make reservations for your second, third, or subsequent tests. Just show up.

On the day of the test bring the following:

Your current American driver’s license.
Translation of your current American driver’s license.
Your Passport.
Proof that you were in the US for at least 3 months after you got your current license.

You can use utility bills, college transcripts (if you just graduated), credit card statements, or whatever you think might be proof.

Your Alien Registration Card also known as your “gaijin card”.
(外国人登録証明書)
(Gaikokujin Toroku Shomeisho)
Certificate of Registered Matters
(登録原票記載事項証明書)
(Toroku Genpyo Kisai Jiko Shomei Sho)

You get this at city hall

Photo

There is a photo booth at the Oita City DMV
700YEN

At least 6,150YEN total

Application Fee – 2,400 YEN
Car Rental Fee – 1,650 YEN
Registration Fee – 2,100 YEN

An Interpreter

Not need at Oita City

Map:

Starting Early

I started this process in April when I showed up at a JAF center to get my license translated. I knew that around July all the new JET’s from last year with cars would need to get Japanese driver’s licenses when their international driving permits expire. I wanted to avoid the rush. But things in life are never straight forward.

3 or more years

I first needed to drive through the practice course. To be allowed to do this I needed to find some who has had a Japanese license for at least 3 years. That eliminated all my JET friends. The ones who have been here long enough, don’t drive.

I needed to find a co-worker to help me. I hate asking my co-workers for stuff like this. They work so hard and are always busy. They usually work 2 or more Saturdays a month, whereas I never work on weekends, so I felt really bad asking this favor. But I needed to get my license. I would have to ask someone to give up a precious Saturday to drive around with me.

So I asked my supervisor. We found one Saturday where we were both free. It was all the way at the end of May. He was a really busy man. I waited until the next time I was able to leave work early then drove over the Oita’s DMV to sign up for time in the practice car.

Proof of 3 Months

At the DMV I ran into another JET trying to get his license. There was a snag in his paper work. His passport was not proof enough that he had been in the states for at least 3 months after getting his license. You see, the US passport control does not stamp the passport of exiting US citizens. He had to come back later when he had some better proof.

I tried to sign up for practice time, but I was told that I would probably fail if I practiced on my own. I was given the number of Mr. Yano. (I have since lost his number.) I was told to call him and he would teach me everything I need to know and that he would take care of making the appointment.

Mr. Yano’s help was a bit expensive, but this would mean that I would not have to steal a Saturday from my supervisor. So, I called Mr. Yano and met him one Saturday morning. He didn’t speak English fluently, but he spoke well enough.

I’m really glad to meet you!

After spending 2 hours with Mr. Yano, I could see why most people fail this driving test. It’s really not a test about how well you drive; you never leave this course, so who knows what kind of bat-out-of-hell driver you are? They test how well you can remember and follow a bunch of silly instructions.

On the first 2 curves of the course, you are not allowed to use your brakes. Mr. Yano said, “It’s dangerous to use the brakes on a curve.” But it was quite safe to use your brakes on all other turns on the course. I also had to break 3 times before really slowing down the car. This is supposed to be a warning for the person behind me that I am stopping. I guess my car slowing down and the brake lights aren’t big enough clues.

I was told not hit the curb on the S-turn part of the coarse. It is better to back up. I just had to make sure to do a 5-point yosh before going in reverse.

What’s a 5-point yosh? Well, let me first explain what a yosh is. It is hard for the proctor to see what you have noticed while you are taking your test. So they make you say this word, which shows that you have noticed something. The 5-point yosh is:

Point 1 – Look at the left side mirror and say, “Yosh”.
Point 2 – Look at the left side blind spot and say, “Yosh.”
Point 3 – Look at the rear view mirror and say, “Yosh.”
Point 4 – Look at the right side mirror and say, “Yosh.”
Point 5 – Look at the right side blind spot and say, “Yosh.”

Mr. Yano also pointed out that I might fail the test if I get my yoshes in the wrong order. When pulling into a lane I yoshed left then right. He said that I must yosh right then left. I also didn’t drive close enough to the curb in certain sections and not close enough to the middle of the road in others. I was taught, in the US to stay the hell away from either the curb or on coming traffic; not so in Japan.

If I had not met Mr. Yano I would have failed the driving test and not know why.

Test Day

I showed up early and handed in all my documents. I used old credit card statements as proof that I was in the states for at least 3 month after getting my current Florida driver’s license. Luckily for me, Discover card keeps statement records for up to 7 years and will mail them to you for free once you request them.

First I had to have an interview. The interviewer was a very friendly man, who speaks English well. He asked me questions about my driving test in the states. It was over before I realized that I was being evaluated. Everything went well and I moved onto the next step.

The written test was made up of 10 questions. They were easy, but I missed some questions because I over analysed them, thinking that they were put on the test to throw me off. I managed to pass with no points to spare.

The next step was my vision test. It was just lights and colors like the vision tests at most DMVs. I passed with no problems.

Then it was time for the driving test. The proctor spoke no English at all. I yoshed my way into the car and yoshed all the way through the course. Half way into the test I realized that I was not paying attention to my hand positions while turning.

Normally I turn hand-over-hand and sometimes I hold the wheel with my palm up for a better grip. These are a big no-no’s. I also notice many other mistakes that I had made, like not driving close enough to the curve.

When I was done, I yoshed myself out of the car. I stood there awkwardly as the proctor sat in the car for about 3 minutes feverishly writing on my evaluation sheet. He got out and, without saying a word, motioned me to follow him.

We got into an elevator and he began to ask me questions in Japanese. All I could say was, “Wa-ca-de-mas sen.” (I don’t understand.) We got out of the elevator and walked to waiting area. He pointed to a chair and I took a seat.

He disappeared into one of the offices and emerged behind the counter. He started taking to the ladies at the desk while still writing on my evaluation sheet. ”Wa-ca-de-mas sen, Wa-ca-de-mas sen, Wa-ca-de-mas sen,” he said to the ladies while shacking his head. “No matter what I ask her, she says, ‘I don’t understand’”.

I felt tired. I was at the DMV since 12:30pm and it was now almost 5:00pm. It had been a long day and I would have to do this again. Near the counter was a bus schedule and I looked at it. My international driver’s license would expire soon, and I might have to take the bus here to re-take this test.

The guy who had interviewed me called me over. He was looking down at my evaluation sheet behind the counter as I walked over to him. “You know, sometimes miracles happen and one happened today. You passed!”

Young Driver

Since my license is new, even though I have been driving since I was 16, I have to put these stupid “new driver” magnets on my car; one the front and one in the back. Usually, only 18-year-olds have these. This is to let everyone know how inexperienced I am. The only good thing about the magnets is that no one is allowed to drive close to me or cut me off on the road.

People still do, though.

Posted in Japan, Kyūshū, Oita 県, Oita 市 | Tagged: 5 point yosh, Getting a Japanese Driver's License, JAF, Japan, Kyūshū, Living in Japan, Mr. Yano, Oita, travel, yosh | 2 Comments »

My Shiny Little Balls

Posted by withbackpack on July 8, 2011

June 26, 2011

Any Pachinko Parlor
(パチンコ)

How to get there:

Go to Japan.
Look out your window.
If you don’t see a pachinko parlor you might have to go outdoors and walk in any directions for about a block or two.

Website:

Japan Society

Cost:

Usually a minimum of 500 or 1,000YEN to play.

Hours:

They NEVER close!

Notes:

They are everywhere.
Never use a machine that has someone’s stuff on or near it.
It is not gambling. That is illegal in Japan. Pachinko is “gambling” which is quite legal.
Never ask where you can exchange the balls you’ve won for cash. That would make it gambling, which is illegal in Japan. Instead just look for the nondescript place outside in the back where they exchange the balls for cash. This is how “gambling” works.

Map: (Any where in Japan)

Do you want to pachinko tomorrow?

If you’ve ever been to Japan, chances are that you’ve seen a pachinko parlor or two. They are everywhere, even in little boondock villages in the middle of swampy rice fields. They are always open and have plenty of parking. Many of them have little restaurants or cafes that serve food until late at night.

I have gone into many panchinko parlors, but have never stayed longer than the time needed to use the bathroom. The machines are noisy. The people are very zombie like. Everything is written in Japanese. And the whole thing is very overwhelming. So when my neighbor, Brandy, offered to go with us and show us what to do, Mark and I jumped at the chance.

We got in and sat down at some open machines. We each put in 1,000YEN into our machines and little silver balls came out. We put those balls back into the machine with hopes of getting more silver balls. Sometimes more balls came out, but more often none did.

We ended up losing all our balls. Well, I kept one as a souvenir. We spent one hour playing pachinko, but many people spend half their lives there. I know I used to work in a place like this.

Would you like a sandwich or some tea?

When I lived in London I needed money to pay for my flight to Japan. It was the summer and my job in Japan started in November. So I found a job working in the “arcade” in the picture above.

It was a miracle that I got the job, because I showed up about an hour late for the interview. I somehow ended up at Victoria Station which was no where near where I needed to be. I managed to charmed Wendy, the manager and was hired.

The odd thing was that I though I would be working in a gaming arcade. You know, the kind where little kids come in and spend all their coins. What it actually was, was a casino with only slot machines.

My job was to give change, clean the machines regularly, serve coffee, tea, and sandwiches, call the hourly bingo, and basically chat up customers to make them want to stay and lose,… um, spend all their money.

He asks for tea, but that’s not what he wants.

It was a pretty easy and I liked most of the customers. One day a guy came in and asked for ” a coppa”

“What?” I asked.

“a coppa”

“Copper?”

“Ah-cup-ah”

I stared at this guy waiting for more of an explanation. He put on he best fake American accent. “I want a cop oFFFF.”

“A cup of what?”

“You know, a coppa…”

“Oh, you mean tea!”

He lit up and nodded. “Yes, please.”

“Sure, I’ll get you some tea. Would you like milk and sugar?”

The people around me laughed. “You don’t put milk in tea, dear, unless you’re Scottish. Oh Americans!” said a lady not looking away from her machine.

“I would like some milk and sugar,” he man said.

So I got him some tea, with milk and sugar and handed it to him.

“What the hell’s this!?” he said.

“Your tea, with milk and sugar, like you asked”

“But I didn’t want this!”

I stood there, completely confused. He asked for tea. I got him tea, just the way he asked for it. Then another one of the floor girls, as we were called, came by. She call me over. With her thick Polish accent she said, “Never give that man tea.”

“But he asked…”

“I know,” she cut me off. “He comes in everyday and asks for tea, but he doesn’t want tea. He wants coffee.”

“So why doesn’t he ask for coffee?” I asked.

“Who the hell knows! But give him coffee with 2 sugars and a little milk.” As she went back to the break room she shouted under her breath while waving her hands, “These people are driving me crazy!” She was joking… somewhat.

But you speak English

Another day while I was on break at work, two of the floor girls came into the break room. “We need your help. You are a native English speaker, talk to this woman.” My co-workers were from Poland and Estonia. I got up and went onto the floor.

I walked over to the red headed lady they wanted me to talk to. “Could I get you anything?” I asked.

She replied with a bunch of rolled R’s and some cackles. What ever she was saying, she seemed to be in a good mood about it.

I walked away, turned to my friends, and told them that I couldn’t help. I had no idea what the lady was saying.

“But you speak English…”

“Yes. But that lady doesn’t. She is Scottish. Her accent so too thick for me to understand. But I guess I could try again.”

I walked over to the lady and said, “I’m sorry, could you speak a little more slowly. I’m having a hard time understanding your accent.”

It turned out she wanted an egg sandwich, but she didn’t say it like this, “I want an egg sandwich. What she said sounded more like this, “Ay won’t un eggy…” and then a word that didn’t come close to sounding like the word “sandwich”.

She then asked me how long I had lived in England. I told her that I had been in the country for over 2 years, but most of that time was spent in Manchester. I had a conversation with the Scottish lady in which I understood less than half of what she said and smiled and nodded through the rest.

Ironically enough, my grandmother’s family comes from Scotland. Her brother still lives there, but I’ve never talked to him, but I’m guessing I wouldn’t understand him any more than I understood the Egg Sandwich lady.