A blog about adventures, academia, adoption and other things starting with the letter 'A'. I'm a geek, a metal head, a shiba inu wrangler and a vegetarian, and I write about all of the above. You have been warned!
I'd read great things about the Zombies, Run! app, but my phone is too old an crap to run it. Last year I discovered that I can use the 5k training version, and since I can't actually run further than a block without collapsing in a gasping heap it was probably the better choice anyway. So, I loaded up some tunes and headed out. While most of the episodes are timed and will just interupt your music when the time is up, the prologue episode goes by songs. This was a bit of an issue... what was estimated to be a 45 minute work out took me an hour and a half. My playlist contained Iron Maiden, Amon Amath and Blind Guardian~ the guitar solos alone are the length of a whole pop song! Still, I loved the app and I loved exploring my neighbourhood. I saw so many awesome things on that first day that I was hooked (it was that time I encountered a wild pheasant). As soon as I got pregnant the running had to stop (I started vomiting 12 hours after conceiving and didn't stop until just before his head emerged), but here are some pictures from the couple of months I kept it up.
Misty farms
Caution: snakes
Stabby bamboo of death
Bloody moon
I had no idea there was a shrine in the middle of that patch of trees
So Cyberpunk- Koi under and oily film in what looked like an abandoned gated community
Hobbits?
Early sakura
Terrifying-alien-egg-plant
Oranges rotting on a tree before falling into the well. A sweet, sickly odor fills the still air. Zombies are close.
Enjoying the view while the human does all the work... excellent shiba-ing!
Back when we just had the one dog... and no kids... and no car, we were a bit stuck on how to transport him around. We found this carrier which is actually for toddlers but modified with a dog insert and thought it was the perfect way to get around by bicycle with dog safely on one of our backs. Like most things we tried with Hayate, it didn't work out quite as planned. He enjoyed it, but his favorite part of the experience was biting the back of the man's head. The man tried wearing a helmet to discourage this, but then Hayate developed motion sickness and vomited all down the man's back. The man called it quits at that point.
Many thanks to Helen of Inn by the Sea for giving me a kick back into blogging with the "five days challenge". The idea is to post five photos, one per day for five days, and to write a story or poem to go with each photo. For each day that we post we are supposed to invite one person to participate.
Today I am tagging Yurikachan for the "five days challenge". Yurika, if you would like to participate, post a photo every day for
five days and write a story to go along with each photo. Your story can
be fiction or non-fiction. It can be a short paragraph, a page, or a
poem. Each day, please select one person to carry on the challenge. It's just for fun, there's no pressure to join in ;)
We live right on the edge of a suburb, with farms on the lowland side and forested mountains on the other. Looking for places to go running I explored some new trails and found a path running between forest and some secluded fields tended by bent old women in huge sun hats and leather-faced old men who wear gumboots all year round. It was shady and peaceful, the soft earth absorbing even the sound of my footfall. I rounded a bend in the path and startled a wild pheasant foraging in a cluster of spring flowers. With a sharp cry and a dazzling flash of emerald feathers he took flight, his wings releasing the sweet scent of daffodils and bluebells into the air.
Many thanks to Helen of Inn by the Sea for giving me a kick back into blogging with the "five days challenge". The idea is to post five photos, one per day for five days, and to write a story or poem to go with each photo. For each day that we post we are supposed to invite one person to participate.
Today I am tagging Erinn of Off on a Whim for the "five days challenge". Erinn, if you would like to participate, post a photo every day for
five days and write a story to go along with each photo. Your story can
be fiction or non-fiction. It can be a short paragraph, a page, or a
poem. Each day, please select one person to carry on the challenge. It's just for fun, there's no pressure to join in ;)
Wild boar foraging for acorns by the side of the road: There is so much beauty when the pachinko parlors are out of sight!
Japan's ailing agricultural sector, demographic crisis and the death of rural towns and villages are not new topics, but I hope you'll forgive me bringing them up when you read this brilliant and passionate recent post:
I thoroughly agree with the criticism of how zoning laws make the
Japanese countryside look dingy and messy when it could be so beautiful.
What really interested me, though, are these comments about Japan Agriculture:
Japan’s agriculture actually contributes zero to GDP because the
Tokyo Foundation estimated that subsidies balance the economic wealth
generated by the agricultural sector.
Tragically, real farmers, who want to grow rice profitably, find it hard
to buy farmland. Greedy gerontocrats sit on their micro-plots in the
hope of a re-zoning windfall, and because owning farm land exempts their
family from inheritance tax. Real farmers also find it hard to lease
land because lessors are worried by the strong protection the law grants
leases. Furthermore, non-farm investors like public companies are
officially barred from buying land. These measures are all remnants of
well-meant US efforts post-1945 to prevent the rise of usury, rural
exploitation, tenant farming and absentee landlords.
In short, the farm lobby is ironically destroying Japanese agriculture.
Their perverse policy of using tariffs on rice of almost 800% and of
being paid subsidies NOT to grow rice in order to keep prices high has
been disastrous. Although Japanese rice is good quality and in demand
abroad, a lack of concentration and scale is preventing Japanese rice
farmers from doing for agriculture what Toyota and Panasonic did for
manufacturing – take the world by storm with excellent export products.
Many moons ago I studied the influence of Japan Agriculture in the LDP (the relationship is under strain at the moment) and the way voting district allocation gives farming areas a disproportionate representation that leads to extraordinary pork barreling (more so in the '80s and '90s). It's not a new topic. I do have a different perspective on it having lived in a rural area though. Just the other day we were driving up into the mountains looking for a river swimming hole and we passed through a small group of old farm houses, of which only three or four looked like they were still inhabited. There was an old overgrown gas station and an ancient looking vending machine facing the dirt road. Yet just on the other side of this little settlement there was a brand new, two story concrete JA office resplendently modern-looking with a car-park that looked like it had until recently been a rice field. When riding the local bus a recorded voice gives information about each stop: "get off here to transfer to south-bound routes" and so on. Before the bus stop that is actually named Japan Agriculture, however, the voice over tells me that Japan agriculture is defending Japan's farming culture and giving us safe crops we can be proud of, before playing the JA jingle. I'm deadly serious.
Autumn rice fields~ hard work getting a shot without power lines or (much) concrete in sight
So, as young people abandon the unattractive (in many senses) countryside described in The Delphi Network article, how are those communities responding?
The tiny Japanese community of Mishima was desperate to reverse its
shrinking population so officials came up with what they hoped would be a
game-changing plan: free cows.
Anyone willing to pack up and move to the remote southern village of
379 residents would get a no-cost calf or 500,000 yen in cash.
Mishima’s bovine brainwave has fallen well short of expectations, however.
“The program has been going for more than 20 years, and so far there
has only been one person who took us up on the cow, and that was two
decades ago,” village official Shingo Hidaka told AFP, adding the cash
had only a handful of takers.
Japan needs to stop its population from cramming into the capital and
create towns "overflowing with individuality and charm," Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe said Tuesday at a roundtable on reinvigorating the
countryside.
One unheralded Yubari success story is its rewilding, although no
Japanese administrator would use that expression, which smacks to them
of defeatism.
...
As humanity recedes, nature returns. By a railway station on Yubari’s
somnolent branch line, a man who in a small act of public spiritedness
is watering the bare concrete floors of the station building (“It keeps
the dust down”) points to a Sika Deer doe in the nearby undergrowth.
“Unusual to see one around here until just recently.” More deer vaulted
in front of my car on Yubari’s main street the following day, forcing a
swerve. Good use is being made of the return of nature, too: an
abandoned elementary school has been turned into a nature academy, where
big-city kids can kayak down the now pristine rivers and catch stag
beetles.
That last quote brings is very nicely to Alex Kerr, who wrote in Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan
over a decade ago about the failure of the government response to dying villages and offers a different approach which he describes in this 2013 TEDxKyoto talk:
This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. That
means if you click and then buy the item I get a small commission. It
does not mean that I am being paid to promote a particular product or
opinion. I will only include affiliate links that are directly related
to the subject of a post. If you want to know why I have begun including
affiliate links you can read about it here.
The shades of green become vibrant to the point of seeming surreal during rainy season
My first and second rainy seasons were an experience of awe. Silly though it sounds, I had no idea so much water could fall from the sky. I know theoretically that Australia is the driest inhabited continent and that not raining for seven years at a time isn't exactly normal, but theory and experience are worlds apart. I took literally hours of video of rain falling (see a small sample below). It was all new and amazing.
Then, the magic wore off. I read a short sci fi story once (unfortunately I don't remember the title or the author) about explorers on a planet where it rains constantly. They go gradually insane, unable to ever get completely dry or avoid the sound of dripping. That's basically what rainy season is like, but add in everything growing mold and mushrooms. Wear a pair of shoes, put them away, take them out two days later and they are green and furry. Forget your sandwich on the counter for an hour? Don't even think about eating that bad boy. I mean it. Food poisoning spikes nation wide in June.
I seriously thought about quitting my job and leaving Japan during rainy season two years ago. My hatred of the season progressed to irrational levels of anger: why doesn't someone DO SOMETHINGabout this STUPID WEATHER?! It didn't help that I was being forced to cycle to work because of a very stupid policy. No matter how many layers of rain suiting I wore, I'd arrive soaked every day and developed a perpetual smell of damp dog from my steaming, damp, dog hair speckled clothing. I feared for my life every time a truck drove by spraying me with water and leaving me blinded and shaky. I started to go mad. Then one of my co-workers started cycling to work in his swim suit, his work clothes in a waterproof back pack. "I get soaked no matter what" he explained, I may as well keep cool and not have to carry wet things around. Somehow, that made everything better.
On our way to see a famous waterfall we saw a hand-made wooden sign with excited red lettering pointing to a waterfall we'd never heard of. It was only a little detour, so we decided to take a look.
The waterfall itself was impressive, but look at the ruins! Like an abandoned cathedral... Christianity has a long history in Kyushu (there's a statue of Francis Xavier outside the prefectural government offices), but it seemed an unlikely explanation. We climbed down to take a closer look.
Braving some fallen trees and slippery rocks, we found we could actually go inside.
I wish the photo showed how lush the green really was.
In fact, the ruins were of an old hydro-electric station, but no less beautiful for their utilitarian past.
Soy milk and sesame nabe for dinner~ perfect end to a rainy day of exploring and a goodbye to a much-missed sister.
Reason #2 for the long time between photos is that my older sister came to visit so we have been busy hanging out with monkeys, ninja and playing in the snow.
Love Japan's sunny winters
We were chased by this ninja, but Tiger defeated him
This lovely little waterfall is about 5 km from our house
This past summer was my sixth in Japan, and it was (is) by far the driest and longest (and typooniest). In five and a half weeks it will be winter; yesterday was so hot that I wore a tank top and took the dogs to the river for a swim (they swam, I paddled~ it's not that deep!). This autumn has been hotter than midsummer in Tasmania.
Local river
The trees have been deeply confused. Friends who live further north have shared pictures on facebook of cherry trees blossoming. In our neighbourhood the leaves remain stubbornly green, despite the calendar. The neighbourhood association has done the only thing viable given the circumstances: seasonal-corrective treatment. AKA, plastic autumnal foliage affixed with wire.
#onlyinjapan
PS Yo, Brittney! Brittney Dalton! I've been wanted to get in touch but can't find you. Drop me a line :)
I am happy to
report that no children were injured this year, although there was "an
incident" last year no one wants to talk about. One firework did shoot
downwards instead of up, but it missed the kids.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links. That
means if you click then buy the item I get a small commission. It
does not mean that I am being paid to promote a particular product or
opinion. I will only include affiliate links that are directly related
to the subject of a post. If you want to know why I have begun including
affiliate links you can read about it here.
The first sunny day I donned my hat and went out to the
playground with my students, I had to beat a hasty retreat to the staffroom
with tears streaming from my eyes. The intense glare reflecting off the pale
packed dirt rendered my hat completely useless as far as eye protection goes.
For the next few years I caused much amusement among my kids by religiously
wearing sunglasses. They found it hilarious, for reasons you will understand if
you’ve watched much anime; sunglasses seem to be either for fashionable
purposes or as a disguise, not everyday sun protection.
Athrun Zala
Totally unrecognisable body-guard
Unfortunately years of dodgeballs to the face, being dropped
or sat on and in one case falling overboard into the ocean (the glasses, not
me) have taken their toll on the glasses I brought over from Australia. It’s
not that I have anything against Japanese sunglasses, it’s just that they all
say “UV cut” and nothing else, which tells me exactly nothing about how much
protection my eyes are actually getting. It’s even worse when it comes to
motorcycle glasses. Australia has safety standards to rate how shatter-proof
riding glasses are. There’s no point in wearing a shatter-proof helmet if
inside it your eyes are being cut to ribbons by a cheap pair of regular
sunnies. While I am sure one can obtain safe sports eye-wear in Japan I just
don’t have the language ability to figure out what ratings to look at or what
brands to trust. I’ve been suffering recently with glare while riding (as well
as in the playground) and frankly driving in Japan is scary enough when I can
see for me to want to attempt it squinting.
Luckily for me, an online discount eye-wear outlet site called Smartbuyglasses not only stocks high velocity rated sunglasses in amongst the Ray-Bans and Juicy Couture but also were kind enough to give me a
pair in exchange for me introducing their site. I’m not personally interested in fashion or
brand names; I always bought my sunglasses from the Cancer Council in Australia.
If fashion is your thing, the 50 % off price tags will probably be
appealing. For me the advantages of the site are two-fold. First, I can google
the models in English to get an SPF for sunglasses, and second, they have motorcycle and other sports glasses (PAINTBALL GLASSES!!!) with durability and safety ratings I can
trust and understand.
The fact of the matter is, I can be a bit of a dick on the road. I follow the rules as much as I can, no one else does, and there are never any police there to protect me. Australians who complain that traffic policing is all about revenue raising, please try riding two wheels in Japan and then see how you feel. I've had lit cigarettes and cans thrown at me for daring to drive only seven or eight kilometres over the speed limit instead of twenty like everyone else. So, I have been known to take my revenge on people who overtake me dangerously by waiting until they get stopped at the next set of traffic lights, coolly and calmly making my way up to the head of the queue (legal in Japan) and then taking off at exactly the speed limit. It drives them crazy, they do another insane over-take on a blind corner, burn off into the distance, get stuck at traffic lights, rinse, repeat. I know it is evil but sometimes I just need to make myself feel better (for the record, I started doing this after having things thrown at me, it has not been the cause of any projectiles yet). After confessing this naughty habit to my dear husband he mildly suggested that I should "ride safely now that we are starting a family..." XD So, long story short, I am happy to be adding some high velocity glasses to my collection of safety gear. Thanks Smartbuyglasses.
Last year I mentioned 毛虫 in the orientation lecture I did
for the ALTs coming into my prefecture. It was part of a section on annoyances
and dangers, and I told them all to stay away from the hairy caterpillars. I’d
never seen one, so it was pretty hypothetical. In English 毛虫 seems to translate as either Pine Processionary Caterpillars or Oak Processionary Caterpillars (closely related).
Fast forward to last week, and
the hedge beside my carport was crawling with the cute but scary little
buggers(sorry, I can’t resist EVERY
pun!).
Forgive the blur, I was in a hurry to get away from them... but see how close they are to my bike?!
At first I thought that they wouldn’t be an issue if we stayed away from
them and didn’t provoke their defensive mechanism. I started to get more
worried after the vice principal at one of my schools told me to stop parking
Rothbart under the trees because 毛虫 might fall on the seat. He said
that if they left hairs on the seat and I sat on in, the effects would hit me
while I was on the road and “terrible things will happen”. I didn’t know they
could penetrate clothing. Then the next day at another school, the garden area
was closed off with a big “Danger! 毛虫!” sign and exterminators were
called in.
They were everywhere
“Right” I thought, “I need to refresh myself on what the deal is
with these guys.” I did a quick google and found story after story of dogs
dying in Spain and Portugal after getting the hairs in their mouths and
throats. It sends the tongue narcotic and closes the airways. The man person
suggested that the European ones might be more dangerous, but the pictures
looked the same.
So little, but I hear that terrible things will happen
Then I found one on my bike seat, and the same day a whole
bunch of them started having a little procession (processing? processionaling?) across the front door. I
went out and bought some pesticide.
My decision may have come too late for this poor bush, sadly
Good bye, hairy little caterpillars.
Can anyone tell me, are the Japanese ones REALLY that dangerous?
I live on the edge of the suburbs. My home is decidedly suburban, but walk for five minutes and all you can see are rice fields and bamboo groves. Walk another ten minutes and you will be in a protected forest, what in Australia we call a National Park. This means that the road I ride to work on has a mix of the ubiquitous dead cats and some more rural victims of the traffic, such as squirrels and tanuki and the odd snake. There are signs warning of wild boar and monkeys, but I’ve never seen either. This morning there was a hawk on the road. It was on the small side, quite young I would guess, probably killed while enjoying some carrion. It’s never nice to see road kill, but sight of what was left of the hawk seemed particularly sad to me. They are such perfect creatures of the air, so light, agile, and effortless in the sky. For such a creature to be crushed against the hard ground, made into a weighty, damp clump that will only be pressed further and further into the road as each subsequent car rolls over it, seems a cruelly unfitting death.
So here are some weightless hawks, as they should be.
This weekend is the 16th Annual Oita AJET Charity Bike Ride, a big event on the Kyushu ex-pat calendar. Both foreigners of a
dozen nationalities and Japanese participants travel from all over the country
to take part (eight different prefectures are being represented this year). Riders
and volunteers fund-raise throughout the two-day, two-prefecture-long ride. In the
past the ride has supported tsunami victims in Japan and raised enough in one
ride to build a primary school in Sri Lanka through Room to Read. This year the
ride is supporting Foundation 18, a charity whose primary focus is an orphanage
(with a second soon to be built) in Indonesia. Foundation 18 is providing a
culturally appropriate upbringing for the girls in its care (rarer than you
might think) and also has a range of other activities in the broader community
including helping women escape from human trafficking and caring for elderly
people without families.
If you would like to support Foundation 18 you can donate as little or as much as you like via paypal here. If you donate after reading
this, please write Oita Charity Bike Ride in the donation comments and leave a
comment here too so we can include you in our tally ;) If you want to help out Foundation 18 and also love buttons,
check out SkullButtonry. The profits from this lovely Etsy shop all go to
Foundation 18. International shipping is reasonable (I bought a bunch myself).
So why do bloggers matter? Well, this is a very small blog
and it really doesn’t matter. However, being an occasionally lonely ex-pat some
time ago I searched for other Australian ex-pat blogs and found the wonderful 4 kids, 20 suitcases and a beagle. One day Kirsty posted about the also wonderful Edenland, so I
followed the link and started reading that blog as well. Eden blogs from time
to time about Cate Bolt, Foundation 18 and SkullButtonry. It was as a result of
all these loosely connected events that I was able to suggest Foundation 18 to
the Oita AJET committee as a charity to consider supporting with this year’s
bike ride. So in summary, a charity in Indonesia run by an Australian is being
supported by a bunch of people from all over the world cycling through Japan as
a result of a chain of blog posts beginning in Doha.
over a decade ago about the failure of the government response to dying villages and offers a different approach which he describes in this 2013 TEDxKyoto talk:
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