Beijing: Day 1 -afternoon

After a fabulous lunch at a gyoza (potstickers as they are known at home) restaurant where we tried about 10 different varieties, we visited the Hutongs.As part of the tour, we took the carriage you see in the photo to the site and then got a tour of a traditional house from the area.













In this photo you can see the family that was also on the tour with us, a husband, wife and their 8 year old daughter. We spent the whole day with them, they were very friendly and we had no trouble communicating. The other woman in the photo is the owner of the home.





Here's Mike and I on the way back from the Hutongs.






After the tour of the Hutongs, we had tea along a small lake. It was a very contemporary area with lots of drinking and eating establishments lining the walkway. I imagine it's pretty busy in the summer, but on this day, with the cool weather, we sat and sipped warm tea and watched some men try to paddle there boat through the remaining ice on the lake.





No lack of Starbucks in Beijing!



After tea we were taken to a Jade store -very common on these type of tours...Mike and I were a little excited a first, thinking it a good opportunity to purchase some gifts -that was until we figured out the exchange. It was a very high end store and after the saleswoman followed us around for 15 minutes I had concluded that even if I could have afforded something I wouldn't have bought it from her!!

Shopping over with, it was time for dinner!! We were taken to a restaurant that specialized in spicy dishes. The food was SO GOOD!!









The street outside the restaurant.





Dinner done with, we dropped the Kakinuma family off at their hotel and went back to ours. Having seen so much the very first day we decided to stay in, watch some really bad television and get a good night's rest because the next day we were heading to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!


...to be continued.

Beijing: Day 1 -before lunch

The first morning of our tour, Mike and I were taken to Tianamen Square! It was a crisp, cool, sunny morning and the sight-seers were just starting to make their way to the Fobidden City which lies just beyond this massive gathering place.








Looking through one of the many many many entrance ways in the Forbidden City you start to get a feeling for the magnitude of this fantastic World Heritage site.








Forbidden City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Overview of the Forbidden CityThe Forbidden City or Forbidden Palace (Chinese: 紫禁城; Pinyin: Zǐjìn Chéng; literally "Purple Forbidden City"), located at the exact center of the ancient city of Beijing, was the imperial palace during the mid-Ming and the Qing dynasties. Known now as the Palace Museum (Chinese: 故宫博物院; Pinyin: Gùgōng Bówùyùan), its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square meters, 800 buildings and 9,999 rooms. As such, it is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties". The imperial palace grounds are located directly to the north of Tiananmen Square and are accessible from the square via Tiananmen Gate. It is surrounded by a large area called the Imperial City.

Although no longer occupied by royalty, the Forbidden City remains a symbol of Chinese sovereignty and the image of its entrance gate appears on the seal of the People's Republic of China. The Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Recently, the site has been under much renovation which has limited visitors to the main courtyards and a few gardens.








Any resemblance???
Just kidding Mike!







Looking out over Tianamen Square from the balcony of the South entrance to the Forbidden City (I'm standing right above Mao's painting).








More red.







Early morning roof tops in the Forbidden City.







Remember the movie "The Last Emperor?" This is where it was filmed! It's under restoration at the moment, but still quite astounding! Also notice the distinct lack of people.







There were soldiers on guard everywhere-they all looked about 15 years old (which we found out was the truth) and they wore uniforms they hadn't quite grown into yet.







This stone slab was carved from a single piece of granite and brought to forbidden palace on an ice road which was made by sprinkling water on the road as the slab was being pulled.







Click on this photo and zoom in on the sign on the door...







Inside the Forbidden City.







Looking down one of the loooooong roads inside the Forbidden City.








I'll leave you with some random shots from our first morning:

Well, Saturday could very well have been my last day on the slopes...that idea makes me very depressed, but I might have to hang up my board until next year.



Kirsten scanned the snow reports Friday night, and we found a hill that promised no RAIN for Saturday...we jumped on it. So off the Tsugaike we went. It's always more fun with more people, so we called up Jimmy-san in Toyama and he rouned up a car full of boarders to join us. Tsugaike is twice as far as Seaside Valley, but well worth the drive we discovered.



And the great thing about having others along is that Kirsten and I can be in pictures together!!!!



Kirsten and I rented the same boards this year -one's slightly lighter than the other...they're Rossignal 'Diva's -how appropriate. I'm actually riding the board she rented and she's riding mine...don't ask why, it's just better this way!



Colonel Sanders was riding the lift all day...



Here are the gloves I've worn all winter. They're tattered and torn from multiple lace-ups and wipe outs so they'll be replaced next year. I guess I'll have to wait and see what color my board is before I make that purchase.



Kirsten and I took a wrong turn at the end of the day, and as a result we got a great view on the way back up the lift!

A small taste of what's to come

Expanding the Red

create your own visited countries map

Back from Beijing

I arrived safely back in Toyama early this morning.
Will update with photos after I finish writing my application essay...in Japanese.

A quick update before I head to Beijing.

It's been a hectic month, and the past week was extremely busy at work. It's the end of the week for me. Graduation day is over and tonight I'll be on the night bus to Tokyo. Tomorrow I'll meet up with Mike, a former JET and good friend and we'll be off on a wild and crazy Japanese tour to Beijing. 4 nights and 5 days. I'll try not to eat anything too raw, as my mother warned me. And I promise to only drink bottle water.


I wanted to post images from today and the past month, but blogger is not working for me at the moment. It'll have to wait until I get back.

Saying good-bye

Ok, it's Friday. I've said good-bye to two classes of second years (grade 11s) this week. It's not fun. I has taken me a long time to get these guys to warm up to me. To not jump whenever they meet me around a corner or to not repeat everything I say and actually have a conversation with me. I was there when these guys started Grade 10 - they have grown a lot -both physically and socially. I hope that I've had some influence on the latter.

My only consolation is that I'll still be around until July and will hopefully be in Japan next March when they graduate. I wish I could introduce all of you to them. They put a smile on my face everyday - they're friendly, funny, awkward, goofy, smart, not so smart, shy, lazy, energetic - yeah, they're teenagers and I love them all.

How Smoking Destroys Blood Circulation

click here and check this out

Blogging Takes TIme

Well, the last semester is almost over.

I have 200 projects to grade this week before another 200 start coming in next week.

So much for blogging, or studying.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD

What can I say?? He's my dad.
He's smart, he's wise, he's funny, he's creative, he's adventurous, he's brave, he's patient, he's kind, he's generous, AND he can diagnose a car from a million miles away with only sound effects as symptoms.
He's the perfect Dad, good thing he married the perfect Mom!!

More Boarding at Seaside

Saturday was another funtastic day at the hill. The day started out kind of slow as we encountered expressway closures - AFTER we got on the expressway!!
Friday night had been unbareably nasty -wind and snow and roads that were not fit for driving. There was a 61 car pile up on the expressway that night -but in the opposite direction from where we were headed. Yet for some reason the roads were still closed.
At any rate, we had to back track, get off at the Kurobe interchange, drive back through Nyuzen and Asahi (where we go on) and we had no choice but to take route 8.

I didn't take us long to get over our road woes though. Once we were strapped into our boards we had a full day of fun in the powder. Conditions were perfect for trying new stuff. I got braver as the day went on and it wasn't long before Kirsten and Amber had convinced me to try to the jump again. The table top was also attempted but the most fun was had riding the powder!! Once you get the hang of it, there's nothing like it. We basically closed the hill down on Saturday, rode to the very end, had lift attendants closing the gates behind us.

The we and us's of the weekend included my regular partners in crime -Sista K, Johnny P and Cheeks. But to make the day even better we were joined by the Uozu, and Namerikawa crews and even some cool kids from farther down the ken. About 17 of us in all and that included Jamie who drove all the way from the other end of the ken to hang out. Even though she wasn't boarding due to some snowboarding craziness the week before, she kept down the fort at the bottom of the hill, tended to the sick and fed the hungry (nothing cures the winter chills like one of Jamie's RUM BALLS!!).

We finished the day as usual, a soak at an onsen and a chill night at Koshi.

Thanks to Amber for the photo and thanks to all who came out to Seaside.
Sorry you missed it Amy-chan, but I'm sure you'll make up for it this weekend!!

My 3-5s

School grades in Japan are designated by years, as they are in North America. However, instead of Grade One, Grade Two...Grade Twelve (or First Grade, Second Grade, Twelfth Grade if you're American) It's First Year, Second Year...to Sixth Year and then when you reach Junior High School they start again -First Year, Second Year, Third Year. AND again when you reach High School -First Year, Second Year, Third Year.

In addition, there are usually multiple classes of each grade, so they are given a number. At my school there are 5 classes of each grade, so they are given numbers like 1-2 (first year, class 2), 2-4 (second year, class 4), and 3-5 (third year, class 5).

This is quite a useful system especially for schools who have multiple streams of study, such as Science, Math, English, and as is the case at my school, Agriculture. So, for example if you are in the Math stream you're in X-2 class and if you are in the Agricultural Studies stream you are always in X-5.

Nyuzen High School is the only Agricultural school in this district. We are not known for our academics, we are known for our rice and fresh produce! The Agricultural stream is a special curriculum designed to give students hands on experience at farming. All throughout the year the staff are offered bags of fresh produce like tomatoes, eggplant, onions, cauliflower and lettuce (usually a dollar a bag!).
Our school has it's own rice fields and green houses and there is a trained group of teachers who spend more time in the dirt and on combines than they do in the classroom.

Thirty students (as opposed to forty which is the norm in the other streams) are chosen every year from over 80 applicants. Because of the smaller class size and the type of studying they do (getting muddy together) they tend to form stronger bonds with each other as compared to the other classes. They really are a unique group of students.

When I came to Nyuzen High School I didn't know much about this 'special' class. Quickly I learned that these students really didn't HAVE to learn English -there was no big test for them at the end of the year like the other streams had. As a result, most of the English teachers who taught them didn't hold high expectations. I was told to just 'dumb it down' a bit when I taught this class. Yet when I walked into my first class with the 1-5s (two and a half years ago) they were the keenest, liveliest, most eager group of kids who wanted to communicate in English more than any other class I had. Every week I looked forward to teaching them. Every week they didn't disappoint. Sure, their English wasn't great, but they COMMUNICATED better than the academic students did.

Now they are my 3-5s. -sigh- And they are in their last month at Nyuzen High School, with graduation in exactly 4 weeks. I haven't taught them since last spring, but they have managed to keep me involved in their goings on. I've gone out to the rice fields to harvest rice, I've been invited to watch all of their special presentations and they are always happy to chat if I drop in to their classroom at lunchtime or after school.

I know that a lot of who they have turned out to be has been a result of an amazing homeroom teacher who has really nurtured them over the past 3 years. He is a very caring and involved teacher who taught them to be polite, generous and most importantly, accepting of others. Let's face it, they're teenagers and it's difficult to be inclusive at times. The other classes are full of cliques -the cool kids, the nerds, the quiet kids...they're different, they know it and they stick to their own. But the 3-5s are not like this. They don't discriminate, they don't talk down to others and they never exclude anyone. How could I not love them?

I'm writing this today because last week I was given an invitation by the 3-5s to a buffet lunch held in honor of all the Third Year teachers. I'm not a Third Year teacher, but it just goes to show that they still consider me one of their teachers. I felt very honored and special. Today was the luncheon! It was amazing to say the least. The students prepared all the food, which ranged from sushi roles to macaroni casserole to bibimba (Korean food) to roast beef. We had fruit salad and chocolate cake for dessert. The students were their usual bubbly selves as they went around making sure all the teachers got enough to eat. I was so proud of them for putting on such a huge event.

These 30 kids were the ultimate reason I stayed for a 3rd contract term. I want so much to see them graduate and go on to prove and improve themselves in whatever path they've chosen. Don't worry, they're not all going to be farmers! Some of them are off to university to study Art, Science, and yes, even English. I've already had an invitation to visit one of my students in Kyoto once she's settle into her studies.

March 2 will be a bitter sweet day. These students have defined my NyuKo (Nyuzen High School) life.

Ridiculousness

here are the other choices my student had:

Laugh, Cry and Think -Jim Valvano

Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left, and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I'll have something that will be important to other people too.

But, I can't help it. Now, I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I'm a very emotional, passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. And when people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I'm gonna say it again: Cancer can take away all my physical ability. It cannot touch my mind; it cannot touch my heart; and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

I thank you and God bless you all.




She Walks in Beauty - Lord Byron

SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that 's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light 5
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face; 10
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow, 15
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!



The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald


Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.



KWAIDAN:
STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE THINGS
by LAFCADIO HEARN
The Story of MIMI-NASHI-HOICHI

"Hôïchi!" the deep voice called. But the blind man held his breath, and sat motionless.

"Hôïchi!" grimly called the voice a second time. Then a third time--savagely:--

"Hôïchi!"

Hôïchi remained as still as a stone,--and the voice grumbled:--

"No answer!--that won't do!...Must see where the fellow is." ...

There was a noise of heavy feet mounting upon the verandah. The feet approached deliberately,--halted beside him. Then, for long minutes,--during which Hôïchi felt his whole body shake to the beating of his heart, there was dead silence.

At last the gruff voice muttered close to him:--

"Here is the biwa; but of the biwa-player I see--only two ears!... So that explains why he did not answer: he had no mouth to answer with--there is nothing left of him but his ears.... Now to my lord those ears I will take--in proof that the august commands have been obeyed, so far as was possible"...

At that instant Hôïchi felt his ears gripped by fingers of iron, and torn off! Great as the pain was, he gave no cry. The heavy footfalls receded along the verandah,--descended into the garden,--passed out to the roadway,--ceased. From either side of his head, the blind man felt a thick warm trickling; but he dared not lift his hands....



Before sunrise the priest came back. He hastened at once to the verandah in the rear, stepped and slipped upon something clammy, and uttered a cry of horror;--for he saw, by the light of his lantern, that the clamminess was blood. But he perceived Hôïchi sitting there, in the attitude of meditation--with the blood still oozing from his wounds.