Shaken by Shaken

Shaken (pron. shah-ken) is a tune-up performed on all used cars in Japan every two years. Shaken is basically an additional mechanical tune-up to make sure your car is safe to drive and road ready. Sounds kind of ingenious, right? The idea is that every two years your car is up to par and not going to spontaneously combust or have any other life-threatening malfunctions. Kind of like putting two diapers on a new born instead of one--it is better to be safe than sorry. The thing is, though, that if you put two pairs of pampers on little Johhny just to prevent a little accident you are wasting a lot of money. Same with shaken. Most shaken starts at around 100,000 yen, which is approximately $1000. Furthermore, if the mechanic finds anything wrong with your car, the cost will simply be added on the base cost. For instance, my timing belt needs to be changed and my driver's side automatic window doesn't work. Each of those things costs about 30,000 yen (another $300). So, basically all-in-all the shaken accomplishes the following: for about $1000 they check everything and tell me what is wrong (but don't fix it), refill the fluids in my car (not oil though...that is like going to get your teeth cleaned and not getting a free toothbrush at the end), check the tire pressure, vacuum the inside of my car, wash the outside of my car, and maybe one or two additional things. So you can understand the disappointment of many foreigners when they come over to Japan and need to buy a car (and then later need to get it shaken-ed).


The thing you have to remember though is that Japan is the birthplace of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Subaru, and Nissan. Thus, cars are cheap (like $1000 for a nice used car). Supply is high over here and the demand is relatively low, thus the cost is low (that took me 4 weeks to figure out in 10th grade economics class). For those poor Ford, GM, and Chevrolet lovers back stateside you understand why the market is shrinking for American made cars. They have relatively poor fuel economy and they are generally more expensive. It is crazy to think that Japan can make cars, ship them to America, and still be increasing its shares and profits in the American economy.

So, what does all this automobile economics stuff have to do with shaken? Well, not much. It just shows that you can hit the lottery when you buy a car over here, but get the shaft when you need to shaken. One side note: Concerning gas prices, Americans have it made. Through traveling to many countries and owning a car in one, I have learned that Americans have the cheapest gas in the world (most likely excluding the Middle East). Furthermore, Americans are the first to complain about the price of gas. For example, I drive a car that sounds like your vacuum at home and when I fill it up it costs nearly $40. Back home, I could probably fill it up for less than $20. Maybe that is why Japanese cars are unbelievably fuel efficient, I don't know. If fuel costs can spawn the creation of fuel efficient cars, well then I'm not going to complain (at least not as much).

Six Month Recap

Six months ago I was leaving America, my home, in search of making a new home in Japan. I have experienced and learned a lot since first setting foot off that airplane. I walked into a new country not knowing what to expect AND expecting not to know. What am I doing here? What was I going to eat? How was I going to communicate? All the little things that I took for granted back home were now enormous tasks. For instance, getting my oil changed was just about harder than my advanced organic chemistry final, and they took about the same amount of time. Not knowing a language and being surrounded by people speaking that language is a lot like being completely by yourself. You get a lot of time with you, yourself, and I. So, what did I do with all that time with myself? Explored. Taught English and my culture to others. Learned Japanese and it's culture from others. Ate good food. Ate really bad food. Read more than any time in my life. Had more awkward conversations than any time in my life. Didn't understand things more than any time in my life. But, more than any other time in my life, I feel refreshed and alive.

Anyway, here are some 6 month Top Ten Lists.


Top Ten things I miss back home.
10. (put anything here).
America has everything and you can get it so easily. If you crave something there are scores of choices to help quench that craving. If you want to be entertained there are more ways than ever to have a good time. Simply put, you can basically find anything in America.
9. Names.
In America it's easy. Ted. Bob. Jim. Jill. Sarah. Japanese names, like most foreign names, are hard to remember. Although my town is small and I know every name of every student in kindergarten through junior high school, I still have the occasional relapse into name-amnesia syndrome. This is particularly difficult with adults. There are some people I talk to every week and I still don't know their names, and as weeks go by it makes it harder and harder to just ask. Furthermore, they probably already think I know their names because it is written on a nametag or something (in Kanji, mind you).
8. Cooked things.
I think the discovery of fire has revolutionized the world...it is up there with the wheel. We can use it for warmth, light, and cooking. Instead of having to eat raw things we can now cook them and make them even more delicious. The Japanese on the other hand don't agree with this way of thinking in some cases. Now, I am not anti-raw meats, I am just anti-raw meats that taste like I'm eating my own tongue. Moral of the story: go to a good sushi restaurant or always have a small camp-stove on hand.
7. Normal toilets.
Squatting toilets are a pain in the butt....FOR the butt, rather. If you have a normal toilet please do me a favor and take a moment to reflect on how nice it is to sit and take your time and be comfortable. Also, I think lines like "There are kids in Japan that don't get normal toilets! How would you like that?" should become a staple when kids complain about having to clean the bathroom.
6. TV.
There is nothing that says home like watching hours upon hours of football in the fall, college basketball in March, baseball in the summer, and a mix of all of them in between. The only sports televised here are sumo, Japanese baseball, and K-1 boxing (which is actually awesome). I love sumo, but there are times when I just want to sit and vegetate while watching a good game. Note: they broadcast Monday Night Football here, however, it airs on Tuesday night at 6 pm. Taped and ready to go. Also, sumo tournaments are held every odd month, so what am I supposed to do during the other ones?
5. Sweets.
One day a small Japanese candy was passed out at work and many of the teachers wouldn't eat it, stating it was too sweet. As an American, I think I had an expression on my face that said something like "Too Sweet!!! Is that possible?!?!" I was excited to eat this oh-too-sweet candy. Later, I ate the candy and discovered that it was about as sweet as a piece of cardboard. Moreover, it was about as sweet as carbon monoxide--you know, the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that can kill you. Moral of the story; Japanese sweets are tasteless.
4. Spices.
The Japanese have three spices: salt, wasabi, and more salt. Note: soy sauce is basically liquid salt.
3. Breakfasts.
A typical breakfast in Japan: Rice, Miso, something salty and fishy, onions, some sort of meat that came from an animal with more than 4 legs or was an organ in the digestive system, and no sort of drink.
2. Communicating on a level higher than "Hello, I'm Isaac. It's cold. I like..." Etc.
For those of you at home try going an entire day without using a verb in a strange tense. Furthermore, only use simple verbs that don't conjugate irregularly. Also, no words longer than 3 syllables. Let me know how it goes. Note: I don't always have to speak this way, but a lot of the time I do.
1. Loved ones. This doesn't really need any explanation.


My Japan Top Ten.

10. Food.
Alright, alright, I know I bad mouth the food a lot, but I only do that because the bad food in Japan is really, really bad. With that said, there is a lot of really good food. Some of my favorites include udon (which is a thick wheat noodle in some yummy broth), yakisoba (fried soba noodles with veggies and meat), gyoza (kind of like an eggroll but not fried so much), curry, and lot of other stuff. Surprisingly, the school lunches are way above average on the school lunch list. I remember hating school lunches back when I was a chunky adolescent looking forward to afternoon cartoons.
9. Tokyo.
It's the city that never sleeps on the Far East side. Much like New York, it has everything and there is always something to do.
8. Ueno.
My little village is a really good place to call home. Ueno has about 1500 people, it is about 200 square km, and it doesn't have a convenience store (which is unheard of for Japan). I live in the teacher's dormitory with a bunch of other teachers. They have this setup because most teachers don't teach in Ueno for their entire career so they need temporary housing. Because of this there is a lady that cooks meals for me during the week and the rent is really cheap. The village for being so small has a lot of stuff going on. It also has a lot of tradition and appeal. I don't think I could've been placed in a better area.
7. Kindergarten.
When you get a big group of cute kindergarteners together and sing a song and do a dance, there is nothing cuter or more rewarding. Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes will forever hold a special place in my heart.
6. Enkai.
Drinking parties with your co-workers couldn't be anymore fun. Great food. Lots of beer. And a wild feeling in the air make it one of the best nights I can remember. Also, getting to see a different side of some of the teachers I work with is always surprising.
5. Everyday things.
Living in Japan. The constant learning involved when living in another country can be a bit draining at times, but most of the time it is exactly the reason why I came.
4. Hiking.
Despite being filled with people and having an ultra-modern lifestyle, Japan has some amazing hiking. Mount Fuji, Myogi, and around Ueno have been some of the best hikes of my life.
3. Driving.
I feel like Magellan when I hop in my car and go for a drive. I never know what I'll discover, but most of the time it's superb. One thing I did discover really quickly was that driving on the opposite side of a narrow, windy, mountain road is a lot of fun (and dangerous).
2. Friends.
I have met some amazing people here, and I look forward to continuing these relationships and beginning new ones. Note: the picture to the right was a poop party. It was in celebration of a friend getting a new toilet seat, which is heated and has all kinds of other sanitary gizmos. Everything was either toilet or poop oriented at the party.
1. Students.
My students are amazing! They are fun. They are respectful. They want to learn. They are good jokers. They teach me a lot. And, they make my job rewarding and a lot of fun.


Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Staying Another Year

10. I need more material for this blog.
9. I want to continue hitting my head on door frames.
8. I can't leave until I learn at least two full sentences in Japanese.
7. I am training to be a professional sumo wrestler.
6. The title Mr. Isaac comes around only once in a lifetime.
5. I can't find my way back to any major cities.
4. I accidently signed the wrong line on my Kanji-filled re-contracting papers.
3. Sake.
2. I want to learn English, too.
1. I am a millionaire (in yen form).

One thing to note, although yen may be small, it is not that small...I'm not even a millionaire in yen form, sadly. I guess I am really staying because I need to experience more of the world (by world, I mean Japan, Asia, and different cultures) before getting set to start the real world. I also don't feel ready to leave....this experience has been unreal, the students too wonderful, and the surroundings too beautiful for me to leave just yet. I have learned a lot these last six months--a lot about Japanese, Asia, food, cultures, and many other things. Most of all though, I have learned about myself. Yep, I can survive in Japan. Keep me posted on your whereabouts and happenings. I'd love to hear from you.

All Thai-ed Up

Thailand: Land of elephants, Bangkok (it's so ugly it's beautiful), kamikaze cabs, a long peninsula-like thing, delicious food, crystal clear waters, intestine-hating water, more islands than single men at a Star Trek convention, and muscle-relaxing, bone-crushing massages. I experienced that and a lot more while being Thai-ed up in Thailand.


We begin this little Thai story not in Thailand, but Cambodia. Courtney, Ashlee, and I got in our $3 tuk tuk and cruised down the strip to the ultra small airport. To give you an idea on how small the Siem Reap International Airport is, one of my grandpa's quonsets in western Nebraska devoted to holding his tractors, planters, diggers, and other miscellaneous machinery was easily bigger than this mass transportation hub in southeast Asia. We actually rode in an airplane with propellors (see right). Yeah, I thought those disappeared back when Nixon resigned from office. Anyway, they were pretty cool because you could wave goodbye and do the patented Nixon double peace pose from the top of the stairs on the tarmac.


Once in Bangkok, Ashlee and I ate a couple bowls of thai ramen, said our goodbyes to Courtney, and took the overnight sleeper train down that long peninsula toward Surat Thani. The train was delightful except for a deadly combination of things: my unusual and explosive bowel movements and the dirty squatter toilet which deposits your goods on the moving tracks below. I felt like I was doing a yoga pose or a pre-aerobic stretch while trying not to fall into the nastiness that comes with a squatter toilet and the 6+ hours of being one of only a few bathrooms for hordes of people. Thankfully, I made it through most of the night peacefully asleep as the infinitely-long lullaby known only as "tunk-tunk......tunk-tunk......tunk-tunk......tunk-tunk" sang to me from the tracks below.



From Surat Thani, we hopped on a bus and took a quick ride to the docks where we boarded our boat to Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is an island paradise world renowned for its astronomical full moon parties. Unfortunately, the moon didn't cooperate with us while we were there. However, we never would have noticed because we were too busy enjoying our time under the sea. Yep, that's right. Ashlee and I are the newest PADI certified open water divers. It took us about 4 days and we went on about 5 dives. The first dive was a bit difficult. It takes a while to convince your land-dwelling mind that you can breathe underwater. We learned all the tricks to diving and how to avoid possible dangerous situations. After each dive we felt more and more comfortable and soon were doing all kinds of underwater tricks. It was amazing and one of the best things I have done....ever! I saw millions of fish, a moray eel peeking out of his home in the coral, some stingrays, angel fish, barracuda, and about a thousand others in which I don't know the name. I used to think that the ocean was just a giant, drab waste of space good for becoming nauseous. Now that I have seen all the life and colors down below those marine waters, it is hard not to want to go back.

Christmas Cambodian-style

Yes, indeed, I escaped the neuron-chilling cold temperatures of Japan to tour two lovely countries--Cambodia and Thailand. (sidenote: Japan isn't half as cold as Minnesota...it just feels like it because the Japanese people haven't heard of, or invested in, a few amazing inventions called insulation, central-heating, and body fat). My girlfriend, Ashlee, and my friend, Courtney, were my travel buddies.


You may ask, why Cambodia? Well, Cambodia will soon be one of those bustlingly busy tourist destinations (if you don't consider it already) because of their temples. The Angkor Wat area is quickly rising as one of the most visited sites in all the world, and I wanted to see these places before the evil tourist destroyed the culture and messed with authenticity. The strange thing about being a tourist is that you hate when other tourists are getting in the way of what you are trying to tour. We have this mentality: "Sure it's ok for me to be here, but why are all these other tourists here? Don't they know that this would be a lot better if there weren't so many camera-toting, English-speaking, picture-posing, high-spending, culturally-insentive parasites sucking the atmosphere out of this place?" However, it is these "parasites" (a.k.a. tourists) that will help raise Cambodia out of the underdeveloped, impoverished world to a place where a decent living can be made and thus a comfortable, safe life can be lived. Look at the picture to the left. I originally took this picture to help remember what the living conditions looked like for many Cambodians. It wasn't until I got home that I realized the 5-star hotel looming over the less-than-luxurious shanties below. What a strange, backwards world we live in.

Oh, another reason I went to Cambodia was to visit my amazing, beautiful, fun, and inspirational sister, Greta. She will be in Cambodia for about 4 months as she and a team of friends bike from Bangkok, Thailand to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. For all of you inept Southeast Asian geographers, that is, in layman's terms, across Cambodia. She and a friend started the Pepyride. PEPY standing for "Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself". The ride is to help raise money to build a school in Cambodia (which has since been met and completed) and to raise awareness to the situation in Cambodia. Definitely check out the website (http://www.pepyride.org/).



You may recognize the above picture--Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is an old Hindu temple, like basically all the surrounding temples, and was built in the 12th century. Beautifully intricate drawings and carvings cover the huge stones of Angkor Wat, much like blemishes bombard the face of a 15 year old with acne. When you think there couldn't be another carving, a huge one pops up right in the middle.

We spent Christmas eating delicious Khmer cuisine, drinking the finest Cambodian lager (no egg nog), and listening to a traditional Cambodian band (see left). The band was made up of amputees who lost a limb from one of the many landmines that speckle the Cambodian landscape and were fundraising to help themselves and other amputees in need of help. They played some of the most alive music I've ever heard. I am pretty sure they even did the Cambodian version of Jingle Bells. Kind of funny with hand symbols, a satar-like instrument, bongos, and a harpsichord-looking thing.






Feel apathetic when looking at one of the oodles of temples? Looking more at your feet than at the carvings on the walls? Do you find yourself walking through temples post-haste? Well, you may be suffering from temple overload or the medical name "templed-out." Because there are oodles and oodles of temples and almost every tourist will eventually succumb to being templed-out, be sure to see the temples you really want to see right away. For me, this included Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat, and Angkor Thom, among many others. Ta Prohm is famous for being overtaken by the jungle. Many trees have grown on, in, or around many of the huge stones in the complex (see pictures). Also, Ta Phorm is where some scenes from the movie "Tomb Raider" were filmed. Angkor Thom is a huge complex which includes about half a dozen temples. One of the most famous of which is called Bayon. Bayon is a very steep-rising structure with many faces sculpted out of the many towers. Furthermore, there is a picture depicting many war stories on the outerwall (see very top for photo). Bayon may have the best carvings of all the temples I've seen.