The Uncarved Block

I took a trip an hour west of Sendai yesterday to a beautiful city called Yamagata. Yamagata is known for it’s great skiing and mountain spas… and a cool little bar called J’s Bar.

With the invitation of Jason, an English teacher, I met the owner Johnny and partook of an amazing musical experience. There is a bunch of guys from a town in the South that have completely embraced Ghanain drumming. They are called Folkian and they put on a great show. Here are a couple of pics and a link to a youtube video. What a great time. I also had the good fortune to meet a local resident, named Snowman, who is a ski nut. He has invited me back to Yamagata for some serious powder skiing once the snow flies. Yes!

Today I traveled about an hour from Sendai to visit an ancient Buddhist temple called Yamadera. It was built about 1200 yrs ago and is a tourist and devout mecca in this area.

Here are some of the things I experienced.

I also have a little video of what I experienced.

Temple Video

It is said that for every step you climb the mountain you are one step closer to enlightenment. Judging from my aching feet I am feeling pretty “Enlightened” tonight :>P

Entrance to the Buddhist shrine

We went for a bit of a drive to a Buddhist shrine

Protector sculptures in front

and caught a view of the Tohoku school from a distance.

Tohoku School

There was an access point to a set of wilderness trails just before the temple entrance.

Trail Map

Small hardwood dowel stamp used for official signatures in Japan

In Japan, signatures that are used on official documents are made with small stamps with a unique set of Japanese characters representing your name. Officials spent a great deal of time and trouble getting the phonics of my name just right – “Jee” + “Ry” + “Ko”.

Here is a little tour of where I live and work in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpdvkYTeFGs

I bought a second hand bike today in order to make getting around cheaper and faster. I found a brand new Giant ATX 840 for about a 1/3 of its regular price with only a few scratches on the frame. The guy at the store said that Japanese buyers are so discriminating that they won’t even look at a “second” unless it is really marked down.
I went exploring the city this morning… no map, can’t read the signs, can’t ask for directions, only a rough idea where the roads go to… skidaddle! It was fun. I was modest and only did an hour or so circuit. I like to go a different direction each day in order to really get the lay of the land. I will head off with my bike tomorrow. I may take a map but I find that I just spend a long time figuring out the map and not trusting my bearings and sense of position.

I have settled into my new domain in japan. The attached files show something of the little place I will be staying in. Jimmy, my boss and Nick/Emiko have been great is helping all the new teachers adjust to life here. Today we shopped for food and necessities for our apartments. I am still fighting sleep and jetlag. I hope to hit the sack soon.

Tomorrow I depart Canada for my adventure in Japan.

Visa and teaching certificates have been acquired, packing is complete and as many things as possible have been squared away in Canada. I feel ready and eager to begin my exploration.

Tomorrow will be largely travel with one big hop across the water (13-hour flight).

Hopefully all will turn out well.

More soon!