December 2003

December 30, 2003

Yesterday was the first day of sightseeing with Laura's sister Nicole. Destination: Osaka. The day started off simply enough, with us catching a train into Osaka from near our house. Being the clever cats that we are, we checked on the time of the last returning train before leaving the station in Osaka...after all, forewarned is forearmed.

This was actually Laura and my first time to get outside of the Umeda area in Osaka. Somehow every time we go, we end up getting lost in Umeda and then leave Osaka because we become tired of being so hopelessly lost. This time we even went up into the Sky Tower - from which you can get a spectacular view of Osaka - before heading into the South of the city.

The Umeda Sky Tower was a really excellent place to go, especially around dusk as all the lights of the city crackled to life around us.

After Umeda we headed for the nightlife in Dotomburi to get some food and see what goes on in Osaka after hours...turns out that most of the stuff that happens after dark is very strange. Last night we were introduced to a new kind of busking: street boxing. For 1000 yen you could get a chance to pound on one of two opponents for one minute...and they don't even try to hit back!

The culmination of this event came when a completely inebriated business man decided to take a crack at street combat, despite the fact that he could barely hold himself upright...truly Osaka at it's finest.

So entertained were we by all the bizarre goings on in the jammed streets that before we knew it, the time for the last train had come upon us. Happily armed with the specific time of the last train, we strolled to the station. What we found out, however, was that those wacky guys at Keihan had actually come up with an ingenious new form of 'last train'; namely one that doesn't go anywhere helpful. In fact, the last train terminates in a tiny town in between Kyoto and Osaka. What a wonderful idea. We had suddenly found ourselves without any means of getting home besides what would likely be a $250 USD cab ride home.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and if that is the case, then Keihan can probably take credit for the line of 24H Internet cafes that cater to stranded travellers who have missed their trains.

The place we ended up in (the other choice was a love hotel) offered - for about $2 USD an hour - had individual booths, each with a 17-inch flat screen TV, a Playstation 2 and a net connected computer. You also had access to a library of thousands of comic books, a small collection of DVD movies and unlimited soft drinks. Not too shabby. And so we passed the intervening hours until the trains started again the next morning...this morning, to be exact.

I don't know that Osaka could have been summed up any better, really.

December 28, 2003

Yesterday was the last day of work in 2003, and with that, the New Year's holidays have begun. It's pretty exciting to kick off the holidays, and now nine full days are stretching out in front of us.

Today Laura's sister Nicole touched down safely in Japan, and we'll be taking her around to see the sights around Kansai over the next week...we'll be sure to really pack it in! Tomorrow it looks like we'll be making the trip into Osaka.

The Christmas party was a resounding success, and I have to say that it was actually one of the best Christmas's that I've had in a very long time. There really are few things quite like sharing a good meal with good friends, and especially at a time like Christmas, it's nice to have good people to pass the day with. The turkey baking went smoothly, thanks to the expert instructions of my Mum, which were procured at the last minute via email...thanks Mum! Also, the staff at the community centre where we held the feast were excellent, and bent a lot of rules to let enjoy our time...they even through together an impromptu dining area for us to have our dinner by putting up a bunch of dividers around some long tables. In a land where rules are usually strictly followed, small compromises such as the ones they made mean a lot (they even let us have wine with dinner).

Of course, having all been in Japan for some time now, none of us were quite used to eating so much, and the many hours of eating and drinking rendered most of us semi-comatose by the end of the evening...but all for a good cause. All told, stuffing my face is just about my favourite way to get sleepy...and that's what Christmas is all about!

December 25, 2003

Well, here it is...well, technically at least. It's after midnight, so it is officially Christmas Day. In just a few hours, we'll be getting up for our Christmas breakfast, and the day of festivities will begin.

Just one problem. It's Christmas Eve and all's quiet on the Bailey front! Please send Laura some Christmas emails, or give a call Christmas morning! We'll only be home for a few hours, so if you're going to call, do it early...I think it would mean a lot.

Anyway...the countdown is on for Turkey....

Merry Christmas to everyone!

December 24, 2003

And here we are, Christmas Eve Day...very exciting! Along with some friends, we've managed to procure a turkey for ourselves, ordered all the way from sunny California. In order to avert the same kind of 'improv' Christmas dinner that I had to resort to last year (soup in the rice cooker, pies in the toaster oven...no trace of turkey) I booked out a community centre with a big TV-cooking-show style kitchen with five cooking stations and - get this - AN OVEN. So good! So as of 10am tomorrow, we'll have the bird roasting in the oven, with a bunch of people trying their very best to replicate their favourite Christmas dishes from home.

So since I might not have the time tomorrow, I'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! Stay warm, eat lots, and enjoy some vino...and I'll do the same.

December 23, 2003

I had an interesting 'Japan' moment yesterday, brought on - ironically enough - by an American film. I went and saw The Last Samurai. The irony comes from the fact that this is a film about the pressure of Western powers beginning a period of radical transformations which would result in the gutting of Japanese culture, but it is a film that is also made by that same Western country and is now being sold back to the Japanese just over 130 years later (not that long, considering the average life expectancy here is well over 70). I actually found the movie quite powerful and well done, but it became infinitely more poignant when I considered where I was when I was watching it, and especially when I became aware of how many people in the audience were crying.

The most salient point in the movie for me was not so much the struggle of Japan with aggressive colonial powers (which, historically speaking, is still a highly contentious issue even now) but with the struggle of traditional groups against modernism. Though depictions of village life in the movie were somewhat idyllic, I can't help but feel some affinity for that kind of lifestyle. Living in direct contact with the earth, I would think, would leave one with little of the questioning of 'purpose' that plagues modern people so much.

This is a common theme in Japan, and one that you need only to turn on your TV(again, somewhat ironically) to be exposed to here. Only the other day I watched a program about a group of people who went and lived on a farm in a Japanese village for the show, and experienced what it would be like to grow all of their own foods and, more importantly, what it would be like for them to eat the foods which they had grown. The show centred on rice cultivation, and even though I'm not Japanese you could feel the sense of nostalgia that the show was designed to produce.

The lights went up last night, and the cellphones clicked back on. Everyone's eyes were dry by now, and I stared around in bewilderment. "Everyone's going on like nothing happened," I said, somewhat perturbed that everyone had apparently compartmentalized the feelings that had been stirred up in them just before. "What do you expect?" Laura asked me...

Laura and I were both a little unsettled at this point, I think largely because we are also considering our own futures and are struggling with many similar questions. Our date to leave Japan feels very set at this point, and on the other side of the date lies only the unknown.

On our way home we decided to leave our bikes aside and stroll up a side alley near our house which we had never explored. It was late, so as we made our way up the incline and through an an old gate which lay at the end of the alley, we found ourselves surrounded only by silence. The path we were on led straight up a hill, and before long we found ourselves in the midst of a burial ground on the top of the hill. We strolled along a little further and there, overlooking the city below, was a beautiful complex of temple buildings.

And so there we sat, at the top of a long set of stone steps which trailed back down the hill, looking at the city through the silhouetted form of the temple's bell tower. Never could the juxtaposition be made more succinctly; even on that rise, the hum of the city surrounded us, permeating even the peacful grounds of this temple, the lights burning around us like a phosphorescent sea.

I can't say for sure why people were crying in that audience last night. Maybe it was for a culture lost, for a heritage sacrificed. Maybe it was for memories of a simpler time, or for frustration or for some kind of national pride. But what I saw was the loss of a way of life, the loss of a lifestyle suffused with purpose.

December 21, 2003

Wooooohooooo! Yesterday was our first day of snow here in Kyoto, and it was soooo beautiful. I was able to enjoy it all the more because I had the day off, and was able to enjoy it from the comfort of a traditional restaurant in a converted temple, while sipping on beer and sake. It really doesn't get any better than that!

Above is the old training hall at the Budo Centre, where we had one of our last practices of the year. Yesterday was our Bonenkai, a Japanese tradition of having a big party to see out the old year (the word translates roughly as "forget the year party"). We went to a traditional hotel after practice for a bath and a couple hours of drinking, accompanied by an elaborate Japanese meal that had me asking "What's this?" again and again...sometimes nobody knew.

The first stage of the party led inexorably to the second, which was at a small restaurant in Kyoto's famous Ponto-cho. At this point we'd all been drinking for quite some time, so I was a little thrown off when - upon leaving the restaurant - the key to my bike lock snapped off in the lock. Now looking back on it, I can see why the police were a little wary when I showed up at the police box, carrying a mountain bike, smelling very strongly of alcohol and asking them if they wouldn't mind cutting the lock off for me. Ah well, they were obliging nonetheless.

Today I had my last zazen practice until the New Year, which was very fun. I brought a friend along with me who did very well with the practice, even though we ended up doing quite a long sitting. We were joined by about 20 college students, who added an interesting element to the practice. The meditation session was constantly punctuated by all of their cell-phones vibrating madly in their purses and pockets.

December 15, 2003

Payday. Thank god. It doesn't seem to matter how long I stay here, I just can't get used to the monthly paycheque thing. But as of this paycheque, I won't be paying double rent any more, so things should be okay, and we can stop spending our life savings on food.

I had a very relaxing weekend, which was a first for the last little while. Laura and I went downtown on our bikes yesterday to stroll around and do some shopping (I got a new toque...very exciting) and then we grabbed some pints at an Irish Pub that - now get this - is run by real Irish people...I swear. It was so nice to drink some good beer and have some good food...I think we'll be going back there often. Though I didn't mind Japanese beer when we first got here, drinking nothing but lager for a year and a half gets a little boring, if you know what I mean.

Today I put up some bits and pieces from an old writing project that some of you may or may not remember (the permanent link for the page is on the 'Writing' page). It never actually saw the light of day, and I dropped it ages ago, though some bits of it are kind of amusing. It's also on a new sample template that I'm toying with as a contender for the next redesign of my site...let me know what you think.

December 14, 2003

A nice early start to the morning today. I went to a zazen-kai at 6:30 this morning at Nanzen-in, which was really good. It's nice to get up early on a day off, as the rest of the day seems to stretch right out in front of you.

Though I'm getting used to the postures, I wouldn't say that zazen is getting any easier for me. It seems that once you sort one thing out, there's always ten more things that you didn't realize were there. It's never-ending, I guess.

Speaking of never-ending, I'm working on a redesign for the website here...something which I imagine is going to take a fairly significant amount of time. I have some ideas for a new format which I'm hoping to try out, but I won't be able to put anything up for a while yet. It's part of an effort to tame the beast that this website has become; the number of pictures, pages and files that are involved now form a rather unruly mess on my computer, and are not particularly well organized on the page, either. At this point, the use of a template seems wise.

Laura and I received another Christmas package from my parents, which was a real treat indeed. It's actually starting to feel a little like Christmas around here, which is pretty nice. We have a good stack of presents under the palm plant now!

December 9, 2003

A bit of a rough day yesterday, as I somehow managed to drink just a little too much at Patrick's going away party on Sunday night. That left me in the rather difficult predicament of trying to conceal a hangover from a Zen master...not the easiest thing to do, really. But it gave me the great opportunity during zazen practice to not be hungover, but instead to be my hangover. Ahhh, oneness.

So to Patrick, I hope its not goodbye, but au revoir...it's been fun knowing you. I must say though, that being here both when people come and then when they go makes you feel that perhaps you have overstayed.

I also have to say a special 'thank you' to everyone who has sent us Christmas packages so far...there were two at our door just this morning! It's tough spending another Christmas away from home, so thanks, because it really does make a difference.

Laura and I are now counting down the days to the New Year's holiday...it's been more than five months since we've had so much as an extra day off, so this is going to be sweet.

December 5, 2003

Wow, a random day off at long last. I guess things do even out sometimes. I had to go in to work for a meeting on my day off last weekend, so now I'm getting a reciprocal day off today. I had forgotten what spare time actually felt like. It's 3:30 in the afternoon, and I haven't even left my apartment yet...damn that feels nice!

It really makes me think back to when Laura and I were first making our plans to come over here. At the time, we were looking to make a little more time for ourselves, and I was trying to escape the situation in which I had no time with which to follow the things that were most important to me. It just goes to show how watchful we need to be over ourselves in order to make sure we stay happy. Only a year and a half later and I'm busier than I was before coming. Same thing, different location!

I think I'm also having a little dose of 'astronaut syndrome'; it had always been my goal to come to Japan, to learn the language, etc. etc. Here I am now, on the brink of getting my black belt, able to speak the language (somewhat), studying Zen with a Zen master, I climbed Fuji and I got published...

What I need to figure out now is a reason to get out of bed tomorrow. The trouble with achieving some goals is that then you have to think of new ones.

Anyways...baby steps, baby steps. A little pain now will give Laura and I enough money to pull our next caper, and will hopefully put me in a position to knock off another life goal; getting that book finished. For now, I've taken the very small step today of putting together a new page...that's right, I've actually got some new content for the website! Please indulge me and check out Todai-ji, a rather impressive temple in Nara (a lovely city which realistically needs a page all its own).

December 2, 2003

I've finally gotten the chance to sit down with my scanner for a little while in order to start chiseling away at the heaps of pictures that are sitting around here. I've started work on a page for Todaiji in Nara, which is coming together quite well. I have a tonne of good pictures from there, so if anything, it's proving difficult just to narrow things down.

The weather seems to be hanging on here, even as I get news from home that Ottawa has already reached a frosty -10 degrees. It was 16C here today, and I'm shivering already.

December seems to have brought to an end the package bus tours that were trucking tourists into our neighbourhood by the...er, busload. That means that now, each day I go to work there will be - on average - roughly 2,000 fewer people between me and the subway station. It does, however, bring an end to my newfound favourite hobby, which involves hurtling towards groups of hapless tourists on my bike at breakneck speeds. Ah well, to all good things must come an end, I suppose.

It's hard to believe that already more than a week has passed since Maki came to visit us. By now, I suppose she has already arrived back in Canada. Thanks again Maki for stopping through; it was a pleasure to have you!

December 1, 2003

December already...hard to believe. It's still autumn here, and in the nearby temple Nanzen-ji, the leaves only just came to their peak colour this past week.

Our weekend this week has been cut short by some big training meeting at work, so as I right this I'm actually making myself late for work.

I'm getting a reciprocal day off later in the week, so I'm going to scan and post a bunch of new stuff then.