Asama-yama: 浅間山

The Pacific Ring of Fire has always been fascinating to me. As a chubby elementary school student, I went to the IMAX theater in the science museum in Minnesota. With my head at full-tilt, I gawked as volcanoes were explored and (read the following with a Dr. Evil voice) liquid-hot magma spewed down moon-like mountainsides. It stuck with me. From that day on I vowed to be a vulcanologist and explore the innards of some of the most active volcanoes in the world. Sadly, that changed when I discovered sports and dreamed of being a professional athlete. It wasn't until last weekend that I got my second helping of volcanoes. My appetite for them has grown. I am satiated by their potential and unpredictability--much like that day-old, half-priced danish sitting at the bakery down the street.


Asama-yama is an active volcano located on the border between Gunma and Nagano. It is known as the ugly twin sister of Mount Fuji, which often causes Asama to get jealous and retaliate by throwing explosive tantrums. Its last eruption was in 2004. It is considered the most active volcano on the main island of Honshu.


My friend, Daniel, and I headed out at 4:30 am to tackle Asama. It was an absolutely beautiful day...one of those days where the temperature feels like you are in a cave--cool and crisp. The fog was thick in the morning but soon got burned off by the sun. Everything seemed to be going our way, that is, up until the volcano erupted and we had to hide behind a gigantic boulder until the lava flows stopped three days later, all the while playing dodgeball with fiery earth-born meteors of decapitation and death and feeling like God was spreading the ashes of the entire cremated population of a medium-sized country.

[That part was just for practicing creative writing and to see if you were paying attention. Also, I want to see if my mom can appreciate my sense of humor. I love you mom.]


The hike was everything you could hope for: beautiful forests, great weather, wildlife, serene mountain streams, panoramic views, and the pay-off at the end. The first half of the ascent was in a beautiful valley before going up the conical peak of the volcano proper. The trail was surrounded by lush vegetation and streaming with spider webs. For this reason, I let Daniel lead. Eventually, we made it to a semi-open area where we saw our first kamoshika (basically a deer/goat mix) and a natural spring. A couple hundred meters later, we ran into the ranger station and "volcano shelter." We went inside and talked with the ranger. From there to the top it was basically the rocky, Fuji-like portion of the hike, equipped with millions of rocks that will make your ankles cry and feet bleed. After what seemed like several nautical miles of climbing straight up, we made it! HALLELUJAH!

That first breath of cool, crisp, noxious, sulphur dioxide air said it all: we made it. It may have been the altitude, or the noxious gas, or even the beer we drank at the top...all's I know is that being up there was exhilarating and euphoric. We needed to celebrate, so we did what any person would do, we threw boulders into the fuming caldera below and listened patiently.

Another Time

I received these photos from the editor of the village newspaper. They are from the all Gunma Sports Day in the capital city of Maebashi. You know, the one where I went to defend Ueno's outstanding tug-of-war performance the previous year, dressed in apparel suitable for a county fair worker directing cars, and accompanied by patrons in need of bran-filled diets and possible hip replacement surgery. Shockingly we lost the first match and were sent home. It is believed that the opposing team tugged with the help of a team member's motorized wheelchair.

These are some of my students' moms who I often play volleyball with every Tuesday night from 7:30 - 9:45 pm in the elementary school gym. They vehemently oppose me jumping during practice to block, spike, or cause havoc in any way, shape, or form. They say, "Iazacku! NO JUMPU!" Don't you love the attire?
This is a picture of the opening ceremony. Pictures like this make me sing a little song in my head that goes like this "One of these things is not like the others....one of these things is not like the others....one of these things is not like the others...(with catchy, cheesy beats and bops inserted in a buffoonish way)" Can you spot the gaijin (foreigner)? I think the prefectural governor was in shock when he noticed the big white guy saluting him....that, and the 7-foot tall squirrel mascot standing at his right.

If you want to read up on the festivities, go here.

An Ode to Eyes

Today was the all-school volleyball tournament. My team consisted of 7 students and 1 other teacher. We were alright, although we only won one game. In the end though, only one highlight sticks out in my mind. One of my favorite students went up to spike the ball and I (on the opposing team) leaped up to block the spike. I ended up blocking the spike with my face. My glasses smashed up against my nose and fell to the floor. The crowd thought it was amazing. I thought my glasses were broken. Thankfully, they were just a little bent. After the tournament I proceeded to bend them back into place...I ended up snapping them right in half. I was so pissed. Here is a poem I wrote about it...it was quite cathartic.

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Problems are Larger Than They Appear
Subtitled: Five Senses

Anger fills me.
It's not that big of a deal.
I only broke my glasses
I can still hear, taste, talk, and feel.

Scratch that!
I'm in shock
For I am in Japan
and Japanese I cannot talk.

Wait, it gets worse
difficult questions are what I fear
the optometrist asking
and I unable to interpretively hear.

Oh well, oh well.
It's not all a waste.
I can still do lots of things,
like feel angry and taste.

.....

Extreme Japan

Welcome to Japan--land of extremes! A place where you will find old ladies wearing kimono and riding futuristic bullet trains. A place where rich tradition meets technological super power. A place where you will find both the neanderthalian squatting toilet and the toilet that also acts as a washer, dryer, and bum-warmer (all with a half dozen settings). Japan is basically the only country in the world with sumo wrestling, yet it is one of the most difficult countries to find large-sized clothing. Japan can be bone-chilling on the northern island of Hokkaido and horribly hot on the southern islands of Okinawa. Around every corner, Japan has a cigarette vending machine. Also, around that corner you will find many old people (Japan has the highest life expectancy of all countries; about 81 years).

Japan is also a place where you will find extreme sports. I did, last weekend. In a tiny mountain town in northern Gunma lies everything extreme--whitewater rafting, caving, spelunking, (real) mountain biking, bungee jumping, kayaking, cliff jumping, backcountry skiing and snowboarding, and some other crazy stuff that I can't remember. Some friends and I did the whitewater rafting and canyoning combo.


First, the rafting. We stretched ourselves into our wet suits and strapped on our helmets. The water was a deep, dark, cold blue. The ride was amazing...filled with several instances where I thought we were going to flip the raft. I was in the very front and taking the brunt of all the incoming ice-cold water. It was awesome!


Canyoning, for those of you who don't know (which included me up until last weekend), is simply following a river downstream through a canyon. You do this by jumping off of waterfalls, repelling down cliffs and waterfalls, and doing your best floating log imitation and zooming down chutes and rapids--you rarely get out of the water. Some of the highlights included being shot down a 18-meter waterfall, doing a straight 12-meter drop into a pool below, and going down a series of small waterfalls in succession. Needlesss to say, all of it was extremely fun.

Sumo Sampler

Call it a vocation...a calling...a nine-to-five eureka!...an unhealthy obsession. I call it sumo, my all of the above. Sumo is not a popular world sport. In fact, there are only a handful of countries that actually have sumo wrestling. And only one (Japan) where it is in the limelight. Sumo is saturated with tradition, and I eat it up. I gotta be a part of it.


Above is a picture of the fast-movers known as rikishi (sumo wrestlers). Too fast for my shutter, they crash into each other with so much force it makes tectonic plates look like nuzzling house cats. Not only are they deceptively quick, but also flexible and agile. I am guessing they could give Brian Boitano and Mikhail Baryshnikov a run for their money.

The top rikishi generally have a posse of other wrestlers under them that follow them whereever they go--making sure the "big kahuna" is comfortable, likes his yukata (robe), and looks powerful. Each rikishi is from a stable where they train and spar with other wrestlers from that stable. Training takes place almost everyday during non-tournament days. Tournaments are 15 days long and are held during every odd month--3 in Tokyo and 1 each in Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. Generally, each rikishi has one match per day with the lower divisions wrestling in the morning and the best (big money) matches in the afternoon.

Some of my favorite rikishi are Kotooshu, Ama, Baruto, Takamisakari, and Hakuho. Kotooshu is a very tall, lean, handsome rikishi from Bulgaria. He is my all-time favorite and the first European to be as highly ranked as he is (ozeki). He will most likely be the best rikishi one day. Ama is a very tiny man from Mongolia...he fights with heart and passion, and is always smaller than his competition. Baruto is the new guy on the block. He is from Estonia and one of the fastest rising sumo wrestlers in history. Takamisakari is from Japan. He isn't actually that good, but he always spazzes out (e.g., beats his chest, and pumps his arms up and down) during the "pre-game warm-up" which makes him fun to watch. Hakuho is also from Mongolia and is one of the most talented wrestlers at this time.


Anyway, I hope you enjoyed getting a little taste for sumo. This was just a tiny bit of the huge world of sumo, so if you have any questions please ask.

Poems

I'll be in Yokohama and Tokyo the next 5 days so I figured I would post something before setting sail. I realize I am no Bobby Frost of Eddie "Al" Poe, but I will try nonetheless. Enjoy!

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Ways of Japan

In Japan, there are many peculiar ways...
afternoon assemblies and sleeping senseis.
Though they stay until 8 or 9
they are bound to say they are fine
that they don't mind
but they constantly sleep to pass the time.

And of course the formal ways...
the set phrase and proper etiquette craze,
with side-stepping and brown-nosing galore
the inability to show someone the door
and tell them "uh-uh, no more!"
all of this (and more) can make being a foreigner quite a chore.

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Footnote: I wrote that while being stuck in the middle of all the Japanese bureaucracy that comes with getting an driver's license in a foreign country. It should be noted that about 90% of the time I love Japan.

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Haiku For You

Now who thought of this?
ahh....seventeen syllables!?!?!

Think and choose wisely.


.....

I realize my haiku needs some work. I am actually trying to write some in Japanese, but that is harder said than done. Why? Well, my name "Isaac" has 2 syllables according to the English way of writing haiku. Whereas, in Japanese it has 5 syllables (or characters)--アイザック. Furthermore, each haiku has to represent a season--different words representing different seasons. However, some words have no season associated with it and thus you have to make sure at least one of the words has a season associated with it and no other words have a season associated with it that contradicts the others. Understand?

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Fresh Drabby Moldy Medicine

Each day is new
and each day is fresh.
Each day begins
and ends with a stretch.

Swallows fly still
in the blue gray sky,
although this day may be
the day that they die.

So I get up...
brush, wash, and give.
There is life in my bones
and days to live.


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