Last Day

This time tomorrow I will be on a plane to the USA. I'm both nervous and excited. I've lost count of how many times I've said "goodbye" in the past month. They have started to blur together and I've become numb. Today a group of teachers said their farewells. Some of them I know well, others hardly at all, but they all got the same wave, bow, and "sayonara." I often walk away feeling that I haven't done a proper job of saying "goodbye."

Due to a mixture of being busy and lazy, I never wrote a wrap-up of my trip to Laos. It went well. The cooking class was a lot of fun, and it was very interesting to see such a different part of the world. To see a set of pictures, check out this set I made on flickr.

To my friends back home, I look forward to seeing you soon. And to my friends in Japan, I hope to see you all again some day.

That's it for now.

End of School and Laos

Hello!

Despite many interesting things happenning, the reason that I haven't posted anything recently is because I've been busy. July 21 was my last day of school. I gave a speech to the entire school, had some final classes, received gifts and cards from students and teachers, then had a goodbye party that night. I had three goodbye parties given by different groups within a single week. In one of my classes each student gave me a card with a message and a photo, which will help me remember them later on.

And then after school finished, I was busy cleaning my apartment, which took longer than planned. I've got more things than I can fit in my suitcases to take to america, and right now they are in boxes waiting for me to sort out later.

Right now I am in Vientiane, Laos, at an internet cafe (which is why I haven't posted photos yet). I flew into Thailand on Saturday, spent one night in Bangkok (like the song!), then headed to Laos and met my friend Alex at the border. So far, so good. This is the most undeveloped place I've ever visited, but it does have some charm. The food is excellent. The people are friendly. And everything is very very cheap. Lunch - $1, t-shirt - $2, sauna and massage - $4. I've been trying to improve my bargaining skills, which is required certain kinds of places.

Well, I'm off later today to a town called Luang Prabang, and then on Saturday it's back to Japan.

The Future of "Chris in Japan" and DisneySea

First I'd like address a question some people have asked me: What is going to happen to this blog when I leave Japan? That time is soon approaching, folks (August 21). I only have one week of classes left! To me it seems obviously strange to have a blog called "Chris in Japan" if I'm not in Japan, so it will indeed come to an end. I shall leave it online, but after a few updates from America, I will stop posting. Will I start a new blog? I haven't decided. But in the meantime, you can always check out my pics on Flickr. When not keeping a blog, I will probably put more interesting descriptions under my Flickr photos.

Now on to DisneySea. Satoko and I finally went there this past Monday. I don't know why it took me so long to finally go. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done Disneyland twice, but it all worked out. Anyway, I give DisneySea a thumbs up. I liked the park design better than Disneyland. It's not as kid-oriented (you can even drink alcohol) and parts of it, especially the "Mediterranean Port" area, are quite beautiful. It all has an international flavor, and to my delight there was even a Mexican restaurant (rare in Japan). The rides were good, but did not have the classic feel of Disneyland, but that may simply be due to the fact that I'm experiencing these rides for the first time as an adult, not a kid.

On to the pics:



I won Chip in a game. At the top of this post you can see me sacrificing him to the gods.



Satoko in Fake Europe.

Kramer

I learned from my mom that Kramer, the Hunnicutt family dog, passed away this week. I don't remember precisely how old he is, but somewhere in the range of 12-14 years. He had a good life I figure, and he shall be missed.

Anyway, while writing this I recalled three great Kramer moments.

1) When a turtle found its way into our yard. I learned that day that Kramer hated turtles, or perhaps it was that Kramer hated being helpless. It hid inside its shell and Kramer couldn't do a thing about it. He barked viciously for an hour or so. Eventually I picked up the turtle and took it to the woods.

2) When, upon seeing a squirrel in a tree, Kramer dashed into the screen porch of my house, and leaped through the screen and broke it. He didn't get the squirrel. He did fall about 15 fifteen since the screen porch is high above the ground. Luckily, no damage.

3) When he did the exact same thing a week later. But this time, he realized his mistake at the last moment and turned around and tried to stop. He and I made eye contact for a moment. I could see the regret in his eyes, but he had too much momentum to stop and he slipped through the hole he had made the week before and fell again. Once again, he was fine.

Hiking

Just had a busy weekend.

On Saturday we had a birthday party followed by a night of gaming for my friend Travis. I will remember it as "the night with three cakes." As a group we bought one cake, and then one woman didn't know about the group cake and brought stuff to make cakes. She made one, then offered to make another, and in the late hours of our game, we took her up on her offer.

The following day, five of us went hiking on the west side of Shimokita, up a mountain called Nuidoshiyama (I think). It was very scenic. It was a revisit to a hike I did nearly three years ago when I first came to Japan.



For Christmas I got this cool cooking stove called Jetboil, and I had my first chance to use it while on an actual hike. We drank mate at the top.



and here is a picture of the tiny town of Ushitaki, which we stopped by on the way to meet a friend before the hiking trip.



It was a fun day, and after all that I went to a student concert. I was worried I would be sleepy after the hike, but the music was good and it kept me up. Among others, they played theme of the Godfather, which was the highlight of the night. And then halfway through they had a drawing based on numbers on our tickets, and Satoko and I won a little gift bag with a candle holder and other little prizes. Good times.

Google Mutsu

This blog is not quite dead! Recently Google Earth has updated their maps, and now if you look up Mutsu, Japan, you can see the city clearly. Here is a picture of my apartment:



Here is the school where I work:



There must have been some kind of event at the school, since there are cars parked along the sports' fields. I find it mysterious that the cars are mostly white, probably covered with snow, but yet there is little snow on the ground...

Speaking of Google and maps, has anyone seen their new "street view" function at maps.google.com? It's cool and scary.

Chris Gets Reckless

So after that whole knee incident the doctors told me that maybe I would still be able to fight in the upcoming karate tournament a week later. They also said there may be damage to my knee cartilage and to some tendon. With the language barrier they didn't explain much more than that, and I wasn't left feeling very confident about it being safe to join the tournament.

Over the next week I vacillated back and forth. My karate sensei (who works at the hospital) assured me that as long as we wrapped the knee up tight it would be okay. My dad talked to his orthopedic surgeon, who suggested that exercising a knee after having the kneecap dislocated could possibly result in permanent damage. The knee felt... okay. It ached at times but I could walk on it easily.

I was so indecisive that I didn't make up my mind until the day of the tournament. After seeing the mat laid out and all the other fighters getting ready, I couldn't resist. After all, in my seven years of karate practice, I had never before joined a tournament. I had always wanted to, and doing one in Japan seemed even better, and this was definitely my last chance.

If there is any suspense, I'll break it now. I'm pretty sure I didn't hurt my knee at all, and I was eliminated from the tournament in the first round.

Granted, I had some disadvantages. I fought left-handed, with my left foot back, to keep my hurt knee out of danger (in Kyokushin karate, leg attacks are a central strategy). I hadn't practiced in a week. Although my knee wasn't hurting me, I didn't have much dexterity and couldn't move around as quickly as I would like. I had to cut down on my favorite attack, which is kneeing people in the stomach (it works well for me in Japan, since most of my opponents are shorter than me). Finally, I wore padded gloves, not realizing that they weren't required and that my opponent wasn't wearing any.

But I have to give my opponent his due. For one thing, he had more stamina than me. You can watch my punches getting weaker as time passes. He also had a cleaner technique. In the end, he was the second place winner of the tournament (although I thought he should have won the last fight).

Without further ado, here is the video of my fight:



note: I'm the one in the red belt, and most of the cheering in the background is not for this fight, but rather a fencing tournament that was going on at the other side of the dome.