Pic-a-palooza

I'm back from Kyoto, and I have time! I actually got back on Sunday but had to do some stuff. A group of us newbie JETs all had to acquire re-entry permits from the other side of the prefecture in a distant city known as Yonago. Okay, it's not that distant. One and a half to two and a half hours by train, but it is literally on the exact opposite side of the prefecture from us. Oh, and a re-entry permit is a magical token that the almighty Customs gods revere, and will allow me passage into Japan again should I leave. In normal terms, leaving Japan would automatically cancel my visa - not good. But the re-entry permit allows me just that. Permission to re-enter. It prevents my visa from cancelling itself. So that was a tiny adventure. After getting the permit, a small group of us met up with one of the JETs living in Yonago and bummed around with her for a bit. Then, I took the train halfway back and went to a dinner at another JET's house near Kurayoshi (he's actually in Yurihama, but Kurayoshi may actually be on a map somewhere). That group of people is awesome, and loads of fun. We watched America's Best Dance Crew - it was a good evening :)

Okay. Now I attempt to tackle the piles of images in my Pictures folder. Let's do it! This first group of images will be Things In or Around Tottori City.


I went to find a coin laundry one day where I could dry my clothes instead of line drying them and failed miserably. I was walking across this bridge back towards my area of town and decided to take a picture, so here's a little bit of Tottori City.


Imposing samurai statue!

Incredibly cool Japanese architecture. You can find stuff like this everywhere. Incidentally, this happened to be the entrance to a cemetery. Sorry! Please don't be angry, restless spirits!

I took this while waiting for the train back to Tottori City. It's in the town of Iwami (where I teach), and it's the spot where I called Dad on his birthday! I really liked the mountains, so I pulled out my camera for a quick snapshot.

This is the beginning of my Beach Day photos! We went to Hakuto Beach because it was such a gorgeous day (after grey skies and some intimidating rain). I noticed this torii gate as we were walking down to the beach. So, after we splashed around, we went to find the shrine that was sure to be past said gate. More on that in a minute...


Down the beach to my left...

... and down the beach to my right.


The guy with the frisbee is Eric from Milwaukee, and the other guy is Patrick from southern California. And my shirt is from Uniqlo. Glorious Uniqlo.

The girl on the left is Nóirín (pronounced Noreen) from Ireland, Siya from Johannesburg, South Africa is fanning herself in the middle, and then Patrick deliberately not paying attention to my photo taking efforts.

The two desert people are SO HAPPY to see the sun again!

So, we went exploring for the shrine beyond the torii gate and found this walkway. Which did eventually lead to a little shrine where I bought a good luck charm with a BUNNY on it!

Just at the beginning of the walkway to the little shrine was this statue made of sand. It looks like a really touching moment, and there's a story behind it... that was written in Japanese. So, I have no idea. But maybe we can just fill in the blanks with whatever we want...?

Alright. There is a legend in Tottori about a god and a rabbit. I have heard a couple different versions of it - either being hurriedly explained to me on the way to the train station, or just us newbie JETs swapping with each other what we remember of what other people have told us about the legend. Needless to say a little more research is required on my part, and then I will regale you all.

We have a theory: it could be bunnies.

Next up, I have pictures from Tottori City's Shan Shan Festival!! It's a festival where heaps of people gather to do a traditional umbrella dance. Japan has many, many, many summer festivals and from what I've gathered it's a celebration of the summer itself (obviously) but also a sort of rain-dance that prays for a good rainy season and bountiful harvest in the Fall. Noirin, Patrick, Siya, and another JET, Kieran, had been coerced by their supervisor into dancing on the second day of the festival. So they had been going to practices and rehearsals for almost two weeks in preparation for it. The first day of the festival was very cool, and they pretty much had the main road closed off and groups of people doing the Shan Shan dances up and down it all day and into the night. They even had a modern interpretation of the dance called Shan Shan Shangri-La, which I found to be vastly enjoyable because it was such happy music. The dancers got to jump into the air, and thrust their umbrellas as high as they could. It all seemed very triumphant, victorious somehow.

The second day of the festival was cancelled. Due to rain. Lots and lost of rain. It started in the morning and continued well into the night. I guess Shan Shan don't mess around. You want rain and do your umbrella dance all day for rain, you're gonna get rain. So unfortunately, my fellow JETs who had been practicing their Shan Shan groove for a week and a half did not get their turn in the spotlight. There were fireworks that night above the Sendai River that Siya, Noirin, myself, and returning-more-experienced-than-us-JET Alison went to check out.

Interesting Japan tidbit #17: Fireworks are sponsored by companies. Meaning, the companies around town invest some of their money in fireworks for the festival; consequently, the fireworks are shot off in segments with little advertizements for each company just before their segment of firewaorks starts. It's fireworks with commercials.

Okay, enough of that. On to the pictures! (warning: some are blurry as is quickly becoming my habit)

Aren't they pretty??

Actually the print on their yukatta is the logo for a local bank, so more advertizing.

But they sure do wield those umbrellas, don't they?

Even kids get to participate. There were JETs who showed up to watch students from their respective schools.

So. Cool.

And all that is well and good. But nothing beats...

AN ARMY OF SHAN SHAN PANDAS!

Just in case you missed it. Shan Shan + Pandas = awesome.

...wait a second. There. Do you see it? In the gold? Impossible. It couldn't be... but, but I think it is.

Yes. Michael Jackson isn't dead at all. He's just been hiding out here. At the Shan Shan Festival. Of course.

This concludes the Shan Shan part of our tour. But I still have more to show you. Oh yes, I wasn't joking when I said piles of photos. Well, digital piles. Anyway, now is an opportune time to get up and go to the bathroom, or stand up and stretch your legs (if you haven't done so already). I'll still be here when you get back, so let's just take five real quick. I think I need to get some water meself.
...

Aaaah. That's much better. It's pretty muggy in my apartment, as usual, so I have the fan sitting directly next to me on the highest setting and a glass of water - covered in beads of condensation, the ice already nearly melted - sitting on my little coffeetable. These are the tools I use to fend off the jungle climate, even though I know I'll miss it in the winter.

My next grouping of pictures was from the last part of our prefectural orientation. We were taken to the infamous Tottori Sand Dunes - the only sand dunes like this in Japan. But of course I'll be leading up to that. You have to see the journey there, first.

We took a bus to the dunes. This is an ashtray on the bus. With a No Smoking sticker on it. If you haven't already noticed, I just can't pass up a delicious oxymoron ever.

We passed an area full of boats, and it made me think of Tura. So, I tried to get a quick snapshot of at least one boat in case Tura was reading this.

The bus took us up a winding mountain road, and induced nausea in about one-third of the people present. But then it let us off here, at the Uradome coast. Nausea, worth it.



Any postcard companies wanna start a little side business with me? I'm open.

Sometimes the clouds just do this. They get bored and decide to start creeping over mountaintops. The effect is quite pretty and also eerie. It's preerie.

Okay, so for a week before going to the dunes I had been hearing stories about the glorious, amazing culinary masterpiece known as pear ice cream. Tottori is famous for pears and also it's sand dunes, so you can find both in the same place. And I had craved that ice cream for the whole damn week, so initially I said 'Screw the sand! We have that at home. I want my ICE CREAM.' And anyone who knows me knows to stay outta my way when I am walking even in the general vicinity of food. Even the people here know that, actually, and I've only been here a couple of weeks... (^-^;) Anyway, the moment of triumph!

This picture is actually of me and my second cone. Out of three. I regret nothing.

We're finally here! Sand! Lots of it! Dunes of it, if you will.

A couple of people from the August arrivals! In the black is Lily from Oregon, and the girl giving the peace sign is Pauline, our resident Scot. It was bright out, thus our triple squintyness.





And yes, there are camel rides. Arabian Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiights, like Arabian Daaaaaaaaayyyyyyy...

Pauline, Lily, and Noirin are having a grand time.

That's all I have of the sand dunes, but I fully intend to go back and eat more ice cream. I think I'm gonna go ahead and call it. The nashi (pear) ice cream was easily the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life. So, we're just gonna have to start importing it to the US. Write a letter to Obama, because it will bring about world peace. Oh, speaking of ice cream! I have seen and tasted some weird ass ice cream flavors. The first time I was in Japan I tried the wasabi soft serve, but only because someone who was not me had ordered it thinking it was vanilla - that had been something of a shock to her, if I recall correctly. It was still a shock to me and I knew what was coming. Then at the Shan Shan Festival I saw a "tofu milk" flavor advertized, along with a "milk and salt" flavor (wtf?), the dreaded "wasabi", "macha" or green tea (YUM!), and a "sweet bean paste" flavor. THEN. In Kyoto I actually ate a cone of soybean milk ice cream. It wasn't too bad, not very sweet, but not bad. And I sampled someone else's cone of black sesame seed ice cream. That was... more powerful than I expected. Not quite my cup of macha. And finally, there are rumors of a curry flavored ice cream here in Tottori City (I must try it!) and an elusive squid ink ice cream in the town I teach in. According to the stories it turns your whole mouth black for something like three days. Insane!

Now I am mostly caught up with updating you guys. That's my nice way of saying "forcing a barrage of pictures down your throat", haha. I say mostly, because I have my most recent pictures of our day and a half in Kyoto. That will be another entry in itself, because I just love Kyoto. We have a thing.

Anyway, I'm leaving you with one last image. The day we went to the sand dunes I was invited to dinner out in Yurihama with those cool kids for the first time. Remember how I mentioned at the beginning of this entry that I went to dinner in Yurihama...? Me neither. But that was the second time. This first time, after a day of orientation, winding mountain roads, pear ice cream, heat and sand, I took the train towards Kurayoshi. I had never been out that way before, but I was just flattered to have been invited. There were five of us that night, and we all went to dinner at a sushi restaurant in Kurayoshi. Then the plan was to hit up an onsen* before heading back to Yurihama for the first episode of America's Best Dance Crew. We ended up in the town of Misasa, where one of the new French JETs lives. Christelle - she was with us that night, and she's a lovely person who agreed to help me a little with my French - showed us to the onsen where we soaked for a good 45 minutes. Then she took us down a cute little road nearby. It was really kind of poignant, because the street itself looked like old-style Japan. Or I guess what I would consider "old-style" Japan. Not too old, mind you, but like around the advent of the first camera. Black and white photos of geisha in traditional kimono, lanterns strung up along the street, vendors crying out to sell bowls of steaming hot soba from their little stalls facing the road where pedestrians just peacefully meander... At least those are the images it evoked for me. You can decide for yourself.


Still a little blurry. :)