Beppu and the Family Visit

Beppu is a small town in Oita prefecture on Kyushu island. It's one of the most famous spots in Japan for hot springs. It's both a resort town and a college town with an international university. I went to Beppu in April when my family came to visit me. It's only about an hour and a half by train from East Yahata, where I live now in Kitakyushu City.

The crew that went to Beppu included me, my aunt, mom, dad, and grandma. Though we stayed just for the weekend, it was a nice getaway and we saw some great sights. The hot springs there are for bathing as well as viewing. The hotel we stayed at, set a ways up on a hill overlooking the city and the ocean, was particular for providing guests with hot springs for bathing (onsen). I really enjoyed seeing my dad wearing a sort of yukata, or informal kimono worn before and after taking baths. Also the weather that weekend was amazing, not rainy but cloudy, with a cool breeze blowing into our Japanese style rooms. Lastly the outdoor cedar wood bathtub that linked with our room, accompanied with a wooden bucket and handle made me feel a little like royalty. Short as it was, we all were able to relax in Beppu.

Another highlight for me was hearing my grandma speak Japanese for the first time. I'd never heard her speak a word of it all my life, and in Beppu I was able to hear her have short conversations with cab drivers, hotel workers, and even strangers. Her manners were very polite, and it was more than touching to hear and see her sincerity in conversing in her native tongue. My friend Jay, who's been living in Japan for 6 years and was able to meet Yoshiko for a dinner with the family, said he was very impressed with her sincerity. He mentioned that he's seen many older people in Japan speaking quite insincerely; not because of the words they choose to use but rather because there's no feeling behind them. So it was refreshing to hear my grandma say in her native language 'Excuse me, thank you' when she received food from a chef, and actually mean it. Also, after having spent my first seven months in a pretty rural area on Kyushu, it was good to hear my grandma using words that could never be described as 'dirty Japanese.'

My mom and her mom, inside our Japanese style (Ryokan) hotel room.

Nice scenery outside some famous hot springs for viewing in Beppu.

One of the famous natural hot spring sites in Beppu.

My aunt, dad, grandma, mom and me - actually in Karato, across the water from Kyushu on the main island, Honshu. We took a day trip to Mojiko, a famous port town near Kitakyushu, then rode a ferry here. This day was very enjoyable.

Korea and the DMZ

I have internet! Thank heavens for it, my life feels so much more full than it did yesterday, when I could only use the computers at school (really not for recreational purposes).

I have a little catching up to do because I want to share some of the recent adventures I've had in Korea and Japan. I'll start with Korea, where I visited last month for another short weekend trip. I went to Korea the weekend of April 16-18 to visit Elizabeth. We decided before we left that we were gonna see the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) or go bust. The tour we originally wanted to take would have given us a chance to see and crawl through tunnels that North Koreans had dug beneath the DMZ, discovered in the 1970's. Though this tour was booked, we caught a later one that took us into Panmunjom and other DMZ hotspots. Our tour itinerary can be found here: http://www.tourdmz.com/english/07guid/tour1_1.php?tag=Image1_1

It was interesting learning about the current situation in North Korea, as told to us by our tour guide, a South Korean lady. On our drive up to the DMZ from Seoul, about an hour and a half via bus, she pointed out a few bare mountains on the North Korean side that could be seen from the bus windows. "The mountains are bare because the North Koreans have used all the trees for firewood," she explained. She also told us that all of the media families in North Korea have access to is only government propaganda. She said we can now understand some things about living conditions in North Korea because of the smuggling of a few cellphones to North Korean families, who have since told a few people their stories over the telephone.

It was also interesting for me to check out the DMZ because my grandfather had fought in the Korean War in the early 1950's. Though I didn't know it at the time, the hills and land I saw on the tour was terrain he more than likely lived on and knew intimately; a place where he and his fellow US Marines sacrificed everything they had to prevent Chinese occupation. I'm currently reading a book he wrote about his experiences and the history of US Marines who fought in the latter part of the war, from 1952-53. It's interesting to read this book after seeing with my eyes the kind of place and terrain he was living on during the war. The book is called "The Outpost War," and is the first of two books he wrote, the other being "The Final Crucible" - by Lee Ballenger. I'm certain more of the historical significance of my visit to the DMZ will unfold as I turn the pages to a book my own grandpa wrote! I really didn't realize that he was stationed right there so close to Panmunjom, defending hills I probably just gave a passing gaze to but which were to him, 56 years ago, truly his old 'stomping grounds.'

I wish I had better anecdotes from the trip, but it was what it was. I can only offer two nerdy facts that everyone should know: the Korean DMZ, 2 and a half miles wide, is the most heavily fortified border in the world, and has some amazingly well preserved landscape but due to the amount of landmines present (and other issues, I'll bet) has not been studied for environmental purposes.

I didn't take many pictures, but I think if I collaborate with Elizabeth I can score some of hers to put up on the site. Here's what I have so far:


A snapshot of the landscape of the DMZ and the Imjin river. In the middle right of the photo, you can see the 'Freedom Bridge,' (the smaller one with people on it) - famous for being a location for POW exchange. It was also used by Korean refugees coming from the North.

The entrance to the Freedom Bridge from the South.

A South Korean soldier standing guard in a room within the Joint Security Area (JSA), the only place where diplomatic negotiations can and have taken place between North and South Korea. Our guide told us that North Korean soldiers are sometimes present in this room, but we didn't see any on this particular day.

A view of South Korean soldiers among the blue JSA buildings and a large, important looking building in the background.

It`s Been a Long Time Coming...

Hey all, I`m writing from a nearby library that allows me internet usage for one hour/day. I should get internet connected in my new place this weekend. I just moved apartments, again, after recently settling into a noisy place in Kitakyushu. My new place is much quieter, more spacious, cheaper, and has a great view of my neighborhood in East-Yahata, Kitakyushu. It`s also closer to the train station, leaving me a little more time to sleep in before I head to work in the morning. For the record, I probably would have stuck it out in the noisy `LeoPalace` brand apartment I was in if it wasn`t for the noise of a nearby industrial highway keeping me up at night. In any case, the timing for the move was perfect because my parents, grandma, and aunt came to visit me at that time and were more than generous in helping me settle in. Props to each of them for hooking me up with furniture and lending some much needed helping hands.

At the end of this short post I`ll post my new address. For now, I want to say that the last month of my time here has been really enriching. I visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with Elizabeth and was able to see more of Seoul, took a trip to Beppu in Japan with my family and saw some awesome hot spring sites, and just got back from a trip to Nagasaki with Elizabeth for Golden Week, a string of national holidays in Japan. Needless to say I have some cool pictures to post and plenty to write about, farther along.

My new address is:

Station Heights, Apt. 808
Yahata-Higashi Ku
Nihon-Machi 2-4-21
Kitakyushu City
Fukuoka, Japan 805-0061

New Address and a Previous Journey

I am officially settled in to my new place in Kitakyushu City. Where I live is strikingly noisier than where I lived in Iizuka, and after a few difficult nights of sleep I am just now getting use to the busy road and parallel train line that surround my apartment.

Before I forget, the address to my new place is:

Paul Meuse
Apt. 204
3-11-15
Maeda Yahata-Higashi Ku
Kitakyushu City
Fukuoka 805-0069
Japan

Any and all mail is surely welcome.

Now, I want to talk about a place I visited a few weeks ago before I moved into the city. On the first day of spring, a national holiday in Japan, I visited a famous worship spot a few train stops from Iizuka station. A friend of mine told me that this spot was more than worth checking out.

The place was real busy when I went, at about 11:00 AM. Lots of old ladies (Oba-chans) and old men (Ogi-sans) came to this spot to pay reverence to deities. From the station, I could tell by walking through the tiny town that it was a kind of touristy spot, with the pathway to the shrines lined with souvenir shops and small ramen and food stalls. Once I made it to the entrance of the shrine(s), there were several different pathways I could take. Taking one pathway, immediately the scent of burning incense was strong and I noticed several smaller shrines where people were doing their prayer rituals. I really wanted to capture on film one old lady paying her respects, but decided against taking her picture out of courtesy (I really needed a spy camera).

Among the several smaller pathways I could take, there were many small stone statues, looking like demons and other characters, and one large, dominating demon figure with a fiery red background. There was also a waterfall flowing down the mountain into smaller ponds, making smaller waterfalls along a worship path. The mountain that lined the background had a grove of interesting looking trees. One path I took led me into a sort of cave. I had to duck my head to enter it and saw an alter at the cave's end filled with eye-burning, strong, smoky incense and old Japanese people praying. At this rural spot in Kyushu, at this particular time, I am sure I was the only non-native Japanese person present, and one of the few individuals checking out the scene.

I was amazed when I reached the giant Buddha, the main attraction. I think aside from the size and grandeur of the statue, I was truly awed to realize how spectacularly interesting this place was, and how it was only a 15 minute train ride from my apartment! It is a nook of Buddhist culture that has, in my opinion, a statue as breathtaking as the big Buddha (Daibutsu) in Kamakura; yet here there aren't millions of tourists coming to see it, only native Japanese people that have an understanding of its meaning beyond just 'a neat sight.' I was in the middle of all this, fortunate to walk around and simply observe.

Leaving Iizuka and Starting Fresh in Kitakyushu

Hey everyone, this post may be a bit overdue, but here it is anyway. I am officially moving out of my place in Iizuka on Monday, March 31st, and moving to a bigger city, Kitakyushu, about an hour and 15 minutes from here by train. I am still working for the same company, One World Language Services (OWLS Co., Ltd), just relocating. The contract I signed last week says I will be working in Japan from April 1st 2009 for a full year. I am excited about my new position and moving to a new place. I should be able to post my new, correct address shortly. If you are kind enough to send me mail please don't send it to my old address and wait for me to post the new one. I should have it posted in the next week or so.

Overall, it was a bit stressful securing a job for this upcoming school year (which begins in April). Since January, I was telling my bosses that I would prefer to move to a high school position, but that the bottom line for me was to simply have a job. I wasn't actually given a job guarantee until a couple weeks ago. So, having had no job guarantee for a few months in between, with a heavy understanding that without a job I would be sent packing, I started looking for work elsewhere. I applied for other ALT jobs in and around Tokyo, hoping to land closer to my relatives. However, I didn't get a position up there and was left with whatever my company had to offer. Lucky for me, what they offered was something relatively good.

This new job will be at two junior high schools in Kitakyushu. I just finished up 7 months of work at 4 different junior high schools in a greatly smaller, more rural place. I am happy to be working at only two schools, and from what I've heard, they are decent places to work with nice teachers and not so bad students. I am also happy to be living in a bigger city, with more nightlife and an easier time connecting with other people my age. One of the hardest things about living in Iizuka for me was not necessarily having a lack of things to do, but rather the lack of a network of young people to meet and get to know. I was lucky to be living in an apartment complex with two other ALT's. Without that, having had no other prior connection to this area I am positive my life here for the past 7 months would have been a lot more difficult.

In Kitakyushu it should be easier to connect with other ALT's, and there will be plenty of things to do in a city of about a million people. I will be able to enjoy live music and movies, a wide food selection and less staredowns from the locals. I'm not too excited about all the ugly smokestacks in the city, and I'm certain I'll miss the quietness of Iizuka before long. In any case, I hope my next transition goes smoothly and rest of the particulars of my new life in Kitakyushu turn out ok. I'll be having to deal with them for a year...

A Few Pictures of Winter

The day after tomorrow, March 20th, is Vernal Equinox Day, a national holiday in Japan. I have to mention that the weather has been very 'springlike' and unbelievably great the past few days. It's been warm but not hot nor humid, with no mosquitoes buzzing around, and plenty of light outside lasting well into the evening. The trees are budding and we should be able to see the famous cherry blossoms (sakura) in full bloom shortly. I am excited to experience spring over here, especially if the weather continues to be how it's been lately.

Having grown up in Oregon I consider myself more or less acclimatized to what many Japanese people around here consider 'cold weather.' Though the students tend to be better (not having a heated teachers' room to hang out in all day) , I've seen quite a few Japanese teachers shuffling around in the non-heated school hallways, rubbing their arms and saying 'samui' (I'm cold) when I thought it was merely 'a cool temp.' But, I also remember quite a few times waking up chilly in the early mornings and having a few cold bike rides to school. I think the first couple of pictures will speak to the coldness of the mornings during the past couple months.

These are just a few random pictures I took this past winter.

On the way to Ni-Chuu in the morning.

The other side of the road.

Last month I saw Elizabeth in Seoul, and she took me to a Shamanist temple on the outskirts of the city. This picture is from halfway up the path to the temple. It was a very clear day.

From the top of the climb, above the Shamanist ritual grounds, looking into Seoul.

[Myeong-dong], a huge shopping area in Seoul.

A sign near my place in Iizuka.

Sea Turtles

These are pictures I drew for ichi nensei (7th graders) for my last week at Shonai Chuu. This is an appendage to a lesson the students are learning in their textbooks. One class, known for their enthusiasm, or genki-ness, would ask 'Really?' after I read each card. 'Yes,' I said every time.