Iddya & Orlando's Excellent Adventure

Final Thoughts on our 3 Year Excellent Adventure in Japan

2009-06-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

The time has come to say Good Bye to Japan after 3 wonderful and crazy years living here. Even tough I knew our time in Japan was limited, I have to admit that leaving has been quite bittersweet. Like I told one of my friends who went back to the US last month, Japan has been the best and worst time of my life all rolled into one. It has been the worst because you can’t read, write or fully communicate with the people around you, so off course there where very stressful and frustrating times. On the other hand, it has been the best time because I had a chance to explore a new country and travel all around the world. In 3 years we went all over Japan, explored Europe, relaxed in the island of Bali, hanged out in Thailand and saw how 20 million people live in very close quarters in Shanghai, China. I think me dad expressed it best when he told me that I have seen more of the world in my 30 years that he has seen in his whole life!!! Since I am a glass half full kind of girl, I will concentrate on the good aspects of our experience in Japan.

I can summarize the various stages that I went through while living in Japan using the Japanese suffixes which I have grown accustomed to, these are:

Iddya-san -> San is an honorific ending for names that indicates acquaintance. The Japanese equivalent of Mr. or Mrs.. This suffix definitely expresses my first year or so in Japan. When I first arrived in Japan everything was new and I would spend my days exploring Hiroshima and coercing my friends into taking day trips to nearby towns. Every weekend we would get together with our friends, who where like us young married couples with no kids and hang out all over town. These where really good times, it was like being in College again but this time you could afford to buy a round of beers for everyone. This all changed once I began working as an Engineer in an all Japanese male office. On top of being the only female engineer there, everyone was 65 years + and spoke absolutely no English. The up side to this situation was that I learned allot of Japanese really fast!!! Out of total and complete necessity!!! Everyone there called me Iddya-san, mostly out of respect but also because I was an acquaintance, someone who they did not truly know. At the beginning this bothered me, but with time and as my language skills got better, they began to accept and trust me. Recently I meet one of my old friends who worked in the same division as me but in a different office and she asked me point blank “How in the world did you survive working in that office a year and a half?”. My answer was very simple “Sheer and utter will”. In retrospect this was an excellent experience for me because I learned how to navigate the Japanese business world and truly had the complete Salary man (Japanese white collar worker) experience.

Iddya-chan -> Chan is an honorific ending for names that mostly indicates someone who is extremely close or someone who is much younger. It is mostly a female ending, and rarely used for males. I used to be called Iddya-chan in my second job in Japan which was working for a German based automotive supplier. The best part of my second job was that it was only 5 blocks from my house, so I walked to and from work everyday. At my new office everyone was around the same age as me, half the office was composed of hard working women and everyone was required to speak English in order to work there. Needless to say, I found everything to be so easy that I had trouble adjusting in the beginning. You mean we can have an actual conversation out of the blue? I don’t have to plan ahead my 3 Japanese sentences and try to figure out what the response was or call a translator? Am I in Japan anymore? I fit in really well here since I was able to combine what I already knew about the automotive business worked with the correct way to act in the Japanese business world. I made really good friends at this job. The girls in the office really went the extra mile for me throughout my pregnancy by translating my tests results and even helping make appointments at the doctor. I was happy to be accepted and called Iddya-chan by me peers. Here we are the last that I worked:

Diego-kun – Kun is an honorific ending for names that mostly indicates friendship or someone younger. It is usually used for boys or male colleagues. The good thing about using -kun is that when people ask what is the baby’s name I always answer Diego-kun so they automatically know I have a boy. As you have already heard from everyone who recently had a child, having a kid changes everything. Since Diego was born in January, there was not much to do since it was cold out and the majority of the families completing an international assignment when home in December of 2008. To give you an idea, there where about 60 families at the beginning of 2008 and now there are only 11 left. This did not really bother me in the begging because you can’t really do much with a newborn anyway. I did not interact much with the outside world the first 3 months or so of Diego’s existence, which is pretty normal in any country. Once Diego was sturdier I did start going out and doing stuff with the friends that I had left. I quickly learned that it’s not the quantity that counts it’s the quality, since these gals where there for me every time I needed help with the baby or just needed a piece of mom-to-mom advice.

It’s kind of ironic that recently I have been meeting a lot of really nice people from other walks of life (besides the automotive business). I’ve met some young Japanese moms whose husbands are American and some nice Japanese ladies who wanted to learn Spanish, among others. It’s a pity that I just met them and I have to leave, but that’s life. I actually think it has been somewhat easier to take care of Diego in Japan because I just put him in the stroller and walk around downtown, no need to fiddle with a car seat or drive everywhere. The thing that has been the hardest is that our families are too far away and they have not met Diego yet, so in that aspect I’m glad we are going back to the US and both our families can be in Michigan within a day’s travel.

I really think I had a very FULL life experience in Japan. I went thru periods where I was at home, I worked and I had a baby – what else could I have possibly done? I learned how to navigate the immigration, health and work systems in Japan in a short period of time. The funny thing is I meet so many people in the process that I can barely keep track (Facebook is helping out with this) and some of those people have became life long friends.

Japan will always hold a special place in my heart, not only because my son was born here, but because it opened up my eyes to a whole new world (yes like the song). I sincerely encourage everyone to go out and see the world; it is smaller than it appears. Here is the latest picture of us in the Tokasan (summer kimono) Festival:

I do have one message that I would like to point out: If you or a family member ever have the chance to live abroad via an international assignment or a student exchange or simply by traveling, I would encourage you to go and see what happens. As you can see from this blog you WILL SURVIVE and grow as a person in the process. If someone where to ask me if I would do it all over again my answer is simple: ABSOLUTELY.

Reporting from Japan for the last time,
Iddya

PS. I’m happy to report that some people have contacted me after finding my blog online about life in Hiroshima as a foreigner. I have been more than happy to answer all their questions and help them out, after all that was part of the reasons for writing this blog. If you are one of these people just leave a comment

Raising a baby in Japan

2009-04-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

As you can see from my previous post having a baby in Japan was full of “challenges” to say the least, but little did I know that the birth was the easy part!!! I have not written anything the last few months not because I have nothing to say, but because of absolute lack of time, the baby takes up every minute of the day!!! The 3 weeks my mother-in-law came to Japan to help me out where absolute heaven – news flash to anyone who is thinking of having a baby you need HELP!!! Now that I’m taking care of the baby full time, I try to rest any time I have “off” because guess what? I have to do the same thing all over again tomorrow!!! It’s like the movie Groundhog Day but in Japan. I am just trying to figuring out how to be a mom in the first place, in addition to surviving in a foreign country …how lucky am I? Let me count the ways:

1. Completely different health system – The other day I had an all out fight with the pediatrician (who barely speaks English so I have to go with my Japanese teacher in order for her to translate) because of the kid’s vaccines schedule. It turns out they are different from the US and the ones that are the same are given to the kids at a different frequency (it took me a good month of investigating to figure this out). I refused to give him a vaccine that is given in Japan every month since it’s given every 2 months in the US. The reason I did this was that one of my girlfriends who lives in Japan had her kid vaccinated the Japanese way and then had to re-vaccinate the kid again in the US because of the incompatibility of the frequency the doses are administered. Fighting with the doctor was supper hard because I could tell the translation was very “soft”, in other words my Japanese teacher was trying to “keep it polite” and I was all out loosing a casket. The doctor kept insisting that since I’m living in Japan I have to follow their rules and finally I just told him I was going to follow the American system PERIOD. I’m certain the doctor thinks I was super rude and I’m sure he secretly roles his eyes back every time I walk in the door but seriously why would you put more vaccines into a child if it’s not necessary? I put my foot firmly down and that was the end if the discussion.

2. Who do you call when you have a mommy question? – For a normal person this would be easy just pick up the phone and call your mom, family member or friend. In my case I can only talk to the internet or look it up in the index of my Baby 411 book, since everyone who has a clue as to what is going on with the baby is currently sleeping on the other side of the world. Luckily I have a few fellow mom friends here who have been my angels the past few months. They had recommended doctors and given me lots of advice. I have definitely learned that being a mom is 100% universal.

3. Medicine – If I need medicine for the flu or something and I don’t have it I simply suck it up until it goes away, but what am I supposed to do if the baby needs something? Unfortunately I have to call home and wait for someone to send it to me 1 week later…yey. This is true for all baby products. When the baby was born he had diaper rash and we tried to go to Babies R Us at the local mall to find some type of cream, but guess what? It was a total bust, because there are lots of different kanji kanji kanji brands to choose from and you can’t read any of the labels, what if your kid was allergic to a specific chemical? You basically have no idea what your given and/or applying on your newborn child. Therefore we just had my father-in-law bring as many Johnson and Johnson baby products as he could fit into his luggage when he came to Japan. I’m hoping I won’t run out of baby products before we go back to Michigan in June.

4. Curiosity factor – It turns out that the Japanese people are very curious to see what a non Japanese baby looks like. I’m used to people staring at me basically because I’m tall (5 foot 6 inches) and have curly hair but my kid is another thing. They always stare at the baby while I’m walking with the stroller around downtown Hiroshima and even stop me in the middle of crossing the street just to take a look at him!!! People there is a street car coming, don’t you think we could get out of the way first and then stare at the child on the sidewalk? I got so fed up with the whole thing that I placed a blanket (not as bad as Micheal Jackson’s son nicknamed blanket) on the stroller in order to cover the kid up while walking.
Now you see him:

Now you don't:

Well, guess what it worked but it does not stop people from getting in the middle of my way and trying to take a peek at the baby through the sides!!! If a Japanese person wants to see a non Japanese child then they should look it up on the Internet or simply look at all the American Stores’ advertisements (Gap, Banana Republic etc) which all have blond, blue eyed people posing their clothes!!!

These are just some of the things I have been dealing with while trying to raise a baby in Japan. On the other hand I’m sure I will be laughing about it some day when I’m describing to Diego the place where he was born.

Giving birth in Japan

2009-01-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

My first child was born on January 3rd, 2009 in Hiroshima, Japan. I decided to write this very simple statement down because it is something that will be with me for the rest of my life. It seems surreal that 2 people arrived in Japan in 2006 and now 3 people will be returning to the US in 2009. I still can’t believe we made it, considering all the obstacles we have surpassed throughout my pregnancy.
As you already know this is our first child so we had no idea what to expect and had to get used to the Japanese way of healthcare without having full grasp of the language. Luckily we did find one doctor who “semi-spoke English” and could get his point across well. I also had a very normal, worry free pregnancy so I think that made things less stressful. I can truly say that the healthcare I received was definitely 5 out of 5 stars. The doctor was very thorough, explained to us what was happening to the baby as the pregnancy progress and answered all our questions. I did have my pet peeves off course, mainly having to go to way too many check ups and that the births are 100% natural, meaning that no drugs are used to ease the labor pains. This is not a typo, I endured all the contractions, pains and discomforts associated with giving birth without one drop of pain reliever, not even a Tylenol!!! Believe me I tried to get any drugs available. I had previously “discussed” with the doctor the use of an epidural and explained that in America this was a very widely used drug to reduce labor pains and no matter what argument I used the answer was always no. Note to self: The next baby will be born in the US or in a country where epidurals are commonly used.
The actual labor itself is quite a story. My water broke around 6 am on January 2nd but I had no pain whatsoever. We decided to go to the hospital as a precaution. The first thing you have to do is call the hospital and tell them you are on your way. I proceeded to call the hospital and read my super birth script in Japanese – “It looks like I am going to give birth soon. I will go to the hospital now”. I recited my very specific 2 sentences in Japanese and the nurse started asking all these questions which obviously I did not understand (sorry there is no going into labor chapter in my Japanese for Busy People book). I proceeded to simply say “I’m going to the hospital now”, little did I know this was a precursor for a very long day of “lady I have no idea what your saying but this kid is coming out one way or the other”. I arrived at the hospital and after checking me the nurse basically stated the obvious; your starting labor but it will take a long time. I spent the rest of the day just waiting for the contractions to begin hanging out in my hospital room with Orlando and my Japanese teacher who came to help out.

At 8 pm a nurse came and told me to get a good night sleep because the baby was probably going to come tomorrow morning. As a result, my Japanese teacher went home and we went to sleep.
At around 11 pm I really started to feel hard and constant contractions and we called the nurse, who had no idea what to do with me since we could not understand each other. The nurse actually called my Japanese teacher and told her to come to the hospital. The problem was that it was already too late, the trains close from midnight until 6 am and my teacher lives half an hour away, so there we where just Orlando, the nurse, myself and the unbelievable pain trying to communicate. In reality there is not much a translator could have done in this type of situation – everyone understands the universal AHHHHHH. I defended myself in Japanese the best way I could using the words itai (it hurts), totemo (allot), ima (now) and isha (doctor). You can actually combine these to make such beautiful sentences like totemo itai (it hurt allot), ima itai (now it hurts) and the always useful ima isha (doctor now). You too can have a child in a foreign country with a grand total of 4 vocabulary words, I am living proof!!!
Once the contractions where a few minutes apart I got transferred downstairs to what I call the “pain room”. The idea is to go into this room and “deal with your pain” until your ready to start pushing the baby out. I can sincerely say that a SAW trap would have been less painful than experiencing labor pains, but around 3 am on January 3rd I was finally a mom. The funny thing was that right after the birth one of the nurses left the room, got a camera and actually started taking pictures of the doctor with the baby, the baby with Orlando, the baby with the nurses and I’m just lying there thinking “Umm hello I’m still here”. So there you have it, taking pictures every 3 minutes is normal in Japan even if you’re in a delivery room completely exhausted and looking like you just survived a boxing match with Mike Tyson in his prime.
I spent a whole week in the hospital after Diego’s birth. I really did not need to be in the hospital all this time since I felt pretty good under the circumstances by the third day but that is the Japanese way. In hindsight this is a good way for the mom to learn how to take care of her new child and rest up a little before going home. Everyone in the hospital went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. The nurses explained things to me in very basic Japanese and demonstrated how to do things (bath the baby, feed the baby, change a diaper etc) very thoroughly. I never thought I would have to learn the words and kanji for pee, poop, diaper, bottle and so on in Japanese but there I was feeding the baby with all the other Japanese mothers who where going threw exactly the same thing. Even tough everything I have just written sounds crazy, I would go threw it again in a heartbeat because the feelings a parent has for his or her child does not need any translating.

How to identify your child…Japanese style

2008-09-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

This week we visited our Brazilian friend who just gave birth at the hospital/resort. I was very pleased to finally see the facilities, since I will be giving birth in the same place. Everything looked good and at it’s usual 5 star rating. There was only one thing that caught my attention, the way they identified the babies in the nursery. In the west, babies are given a small wrist band to wear with the mother’s name. The other day my sister was telling me that some hospitals actually put electronic bracelets on the babies that would trigger an alarm if the baby is taken too far outside the hospital premises. This all sounds good and normal right? Well please refer to the way it’s done in Japan in the picture below:
Do not adjust your monitor; yes you are seeing correctly the kid has kanji written on her leg!!! Welcome to the world kid let me introduce you to my friend Mr. Sharpie…this won’t hurt a bit!!! Since my friends are from Brazil (hence they have no kanji characters in their names) their baby was identified with katakana (one of the simplest Japanese scripts that use syllables to make a word). How hilarious!!! It’s not like you can’t tell which kid has foreign parents in the first place!!! The big one!!! All the babies where around 5 to 6 pounds but the Brazilian baby was almost 9 pounds!!!
So I went on my usual investigative rampage - all I was missing was a little note pad and pen – and started asking around if this is a normal practice in Japan. Guess what? …wait for it…think about it…off course its normal, it’s Japan!!! The only thing that varies is where the name is written, my teacher told me her nieces and nephews had their last name written on the sole of their tiny feet. I guess this hospital considered that there was not enough space there and just used the whole lower leg as a kanji canvas.

Apparently a few years back there was a big controversy about kids being mixed up in the hospital and given to the wrong parents. As always there had to be extreme measures taken in order to ensure that it did not happen again. So why don’t we…….write the parents last name on the baby minutes after birth? That sounds like a great idea!!! Let’s implement it immediately even though it might cause some issues like:
1. The ink wearing off after the bay is bathed.
2. Not taking into consideration any weird toxins that the magic marker might have, especially if it’s made in China.
3. Ignoring the fact that the baby might get some type of skin rash due to the ink.
Just write on the baby with a marker bought at the 100 yen shop (1 USD) and he or she will be fine. Once again I love this country. Japan is so quirky all the time that it never let’s me down.

Procedures Related to Baby Birth in Japan

2008-09-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

As everything in Japan there is an actual procedure for EVERYTHING and having a child is no exception. This week I went to renew my work visa, which I have to do every year since I came to Japan with a dependent visa (I call it the luggage visa, basically you have the right to eat and breath and that's all) and the nice lady that went with me said "Iddya -san you are pregnant, I will send you the procedure to follow via e-mail". True to her word she sent me the procedure and I found it A) hilarious that an actual procedure exists but not surprised at all since everything here has to be by the book, there is no cutting corners of any kind in any activity and B) overwhelmed by all the stuff you have to do!!! So I decided to share this interesting baby procedure, maybe some one will need it in the future or you can just see how different countries handle foreigner's births which reads as follows:

Procedures Related to Baby Birth
A. [After becoming pregnant]
1. Obtain a "Mother and Child Health Hand Book" at the Public Health Center
*The expectant mother should obtain a ""Mother and Child Health Handbook"" at a public health center by filling out a Notification of Pregnancy Form. The purpose of the handbook is to record the progress of the pregnancy, the medical condition of the baby after birth, and the vaccination information. An English version of this handbook is available.

B. [After having a baby]
1. "Within 14 days after birth" Birth Registration at the Ward Office
* You will need: Birth Certificate (Issued by the hospital) and Mother and Child Health Handbook.

2. "Within 60 days after birth" Alien Registration at the Ward Office
Fill out an application. This is available at the ward office.
* You should obtain: Baby's Alien Registration Certificate, Official copies of the Birth Certificate (You need 2 copies) @ 350 yen, Certified copy of Alien Registration (family information) @300 yen

3. "Within 30 days after birth" Status of Residence Certificate at the Immigration Office
*Fill out an application and questionnaire (for parents). These are available at the immigration office.
* You will need: An official copy of the Birth Certificate, Certified copy of Alien Registration (family information), Passports of the parents (and the baby if obtained) and the Mother and Child Health Handbook

C. [After finishing the Birth Registration]
*Obtain a passport for the new baby at the Consulate or Embassy
* You will need: An official copy of the Birth Certificate

D. [After obtaining a passport for the new baby]
1. Transfer of Endorsement - This procedure will transfer the baby's status of residence into the baby's passport at the Immigration Office
*Fill out a petition. This is available at the immigration office.
* You will need: Baby's passport, Baby's Alien Registration Certificate,

2. Re-entry Permit (multiple) at the Immigration Office
*Fill out an application form and Embarkation card. These are available at the immigration office.
* You will need: Baby's passport, Baby's Alien Registration Certificate. A revenue stamp @6000 yen.

3. Update the baby's Alien Registration Certificate at the Ward Office (with new status of residence, passport number, etc.)
* You will need: Baby's passport Baby's Alien Registration Certificate"

End

After all this stuff you can finally call your child "legal" in Japan. What a pain!!! Notice that all this stuff has to be done within 2 months of the baby's birth!!! I did not have a passport until I was like 15 years old!!!! I didn't actually use my passport until I was in college and actually got a cute stamp on it. My child will have a passport almost simultaneously as being able to distinguish colors and he's going to have a stamp (or various I don't know) before he is 1 year old. This is crazy, how times have changed. What ever happened to simply getting a birth certificate and a social security number? As always, nothing is simple in Japan.

Expecting in Japan

2008-09-06T00:56:00.000-07:00

People say a picture is worth 1,000 words and well now I believe it completely. As you can clearly see by this 3D sonogram I'm 5 moths pregnant. There I finally said it (in this case wrote it). Now it's completely out there and no one has to wonder why did I suddenly gain weight in only one spot in my Facebook pictures? The mystery is officially solved.

Being pregnant in another country has been quite interesting to say the least. Luckily I have been feeling well and have had no issues with the pregnancy so far (knock on wood) which is quite positive since there is only one hospital with a semi English speaking doctor around our house. The doctor speaks a little English and as long as he keeps saying "genki" - which is healthy in Japanese - I'm happy. Every month we go over to the hospital/5 star hotel (very posh place people) get a sonogram and wait for the word "genki", it's as simple as that. I'm not really sure why I have to get a sonogram every visit but "when in Rome do as the Romans". I have to accept that it's kind of cool to see exactly what is going on inside my belly and I have been pleasantly surprised to see how much this kid moves (a sign of things to come). Everyone at the hospital is super nice and cordial even though I don't know what their saying. Here is a scan of the hospital's brochure so you have an idea what I'm talking about.

I have received many questions from the people that I have already told about my pregnancy and I'm sure allot of people have the same questions so I will address some of these issues independently.

1. Citizenship - The kid will be an American citizen, after he (yes it's a boy and I am not publishing that sonogram picture for obvious reasons) is born we have 30 days to take the baby to the American embassy in Osaka (2 hours by train) and get a social security number and a passport. Even if your born in Japan that does not mean you are a Japanese citizen. You can only be Japanese by blood (mom or dad are Japanese). There are actually lots of court cases in Japan right now because of that. Imagine being born and raised in a place and then told your not a citizen because your parents are from another country!!! The only thing that we can keep is the babies birth certificate as a souvenir after that he will have a tiny little passport and alien registration card just like all the foreigners in Japan. Interesting.
2. Where is the baby going to be born? I'm having the baby in Japan. The health care here is really good, the government cover 70% of all your expenses. I actually had to go down to the Hiroshima city hall and register that I'm having a baby. I thought this was strange but actually they give you a mother's book where the doctor record your progress during the pregnancy and coupons. I did not know exactly what these coupons where for, free diapers? free massage? no idea since I can't read. I soon found out the coupons are actually to cover your check ups when you go to the doctor. The last check up I went to I had a sonogram and a blood test and only pad about $35 USD. Go Japan that's all I have to say.
3. Is someone going to help you out after the baby is born in January? Yes, Orlando's parents are going to come and help out in January. I don't have a final plan yet until my due date is more fixed, up to now it's January 15, 2009 but it could vary 2 weeks before or after so it's tricky.
4. Maternity clothes - What do you do when all the women around are 5 feet tall and weigh 90 pounds max? well you order clothes from the US because guess what, NOTHING FITS!!!!!!!! So I gave a huge donation to Gap maternity and had my very nice mother in law send it to Japan (another huge donation for duty taxes upon delivery). I have to wear something!!!! even if it's a waste to pay so much for something your going to use only a few months. "Shoganai" - there is nothing I can do - in Japanese. For the record, maternity clothes suck no matter which country you buy them from.
5. Cravings - How do you deal with craving if your live half way around the world from your home country? You have very nice people that send you things. I've only really had 2 craving Froot Loops and plantains. My parents actually send me plantains all the way from Puerto Rico and I'm happy to report they made it in one piece. I recently figured out how to order plantains from a Philippines online store here in Japan and I paid $30 USD for a batch and I don't care, it was a matter of life or death. I also had a box of Fruit Loops send to me from a very good friend in Michigan. I have not figured out where to get these, since cereal (especially sugary ones) are not popular in Japan, but where there is a will there is a way.

Last but not least I just wanted to thank everybody for their good wishes and gifts. I am very grateful to have such good friends and family that ship me books, Froot Loops, Plantains and all sorts of baby gifts to Japan. Orlando and I joke around that we have never received so many boxes consecutively in the whole 2 years we have been here. The good thing about being in Japan is that there is no storage space, so people have to get rid of their stuff quickly, that's where we come in. So far many of the our foreign friends here in Hiroshima have given us their baby furniture and contraptions that they are not going to use anymore. I have no idea how to use or put together some of the stuff we already got, but I guess I'll figure it out 4 months from now.

Two Years living in Japan

2008-07-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

On July 14th, 2008 Orlando and I have been living in Japan two full years. I felt the uncontrollable urge to actually write this down because I could not believe it myself. As a result I needed to keep some type of record that confirms that “Yes this is not a dream”. This is my way of remembering that we lived trough it and have flourished personally as a result.
In general our lives in Japan are pretty normal (hence why I have not written in this blog for a while). Our jobs and surrounding are different but we are the same wacky kids at the core. We are already used to all the bright lights with kanji symbols and nothing really shocks us anymore. Oh look another wacky “Engrish” sign that has horrible spelling or simply can’t be understood. At first I would laugh until I dropped but now I simply appreciate the fact that they tried to translate the information into English in the first place!!! Oh look another temple or shrine – wooooopy duuu. I definitely think our acceptance of weird things has increased greatly in the last few years to the point that we just ignore the girls dressed in full doll costume walking along the streets.
The one aspect that has changed in our two years here is our understanding of the Japanese people. Simply interacting with them on a daily basis gives you a glimpse into the real Japanese culture. I have come to realize that even though a person speaks English that does not mean that they truly understand your weird western ways (or any of my “unique” humor while we are on that subject). In essence the person is talking to you in English but their behavior and complete thought process is 100% Japanese. The only exception to this rule is if someone had lived in a western country for a few years and had integrated themselves culturally in the process. I have only met a hand full of people who meet this requirement. The majority of the people learn English in special language schools after work and the most fluent ones have gone on some type of exchange (6 months to a year) in an English speaking country at some point in their lives.
As a result of this phenomenon, I have learned to read behind the English words being spoken and look for the true Japanese meaning behind it. A perfect example of this is the use of the word yes (“hai” in Japanese). Once you explain a situation and the next steps that need to be taken to solve an issue the probability of obtaining a “hai” at the end from your Japanese colleague is 100%. The trick is to see that this “hai” does not mean that “yes I will take the actions you suggested” it really means that “yes I heard your concern”. After the situation is “heard” it needs to be discussed in extreme details with everyone and their bosses and their respective superiors until everyone agrees on the correct course of action to take. This is done (after way too many meetings) in order to make sure that there is a group consensus and that the action does not affect any individual or group negatively, therefore my patience level has increased 1000% since living in Japan. According to Wikipedia:

“There is a prescribed and orderly feel to the Japanese cultural and social norms. The goal of the Japanese system is the establishment and maintenance of “wa”, or harmony. On the surface, this aspiration for harmony is respectable, but it is also possible that the pursuit of harmony may cause problems as well. The result of such a uniform viewpoint can lead to the stigmatization of even slightest deviance. ”

At first it was frustrating, now it is just the way things are. I think it took me a while to really understand the “rules of the game” but once you do, everything goes allot smoother.

Another aspect of “the game” that I have been working on understanding lately is how to distinguish between the Japanese’s “honne" and “tatemae”. According to good old trusty Wikipedia:

“Honne (本音) refers to a person's true feelings and desires. These may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one's closest friends.
Tatemae (建前), literally "façade," is the behavior and opinions one displays in public. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances and these may or may not match one's honne.
Honne and tatemae are arguably a cultural necessity resulting from a large number of people living in a comparatively small island nation. For this reason, the Japanese tend to go to great lengths to avoid conflict, especially within the context of large groups.”

Being able to tell if a person is telling you what they really think or what they perceive you want to hear in order to avoid conflict is extremely tricky. In essence if you have established a relationship of trust with an individual they will tell you their honne, in private. If there are other people present (especially if the other person is the most senior in the group) the situation completely changes, everyone suddenly begging acting super formal and really quiet. Even the language changes!!! In Japanese there are 3 different verbs for almost EVERYTHING!!! It all depends if the person you’re talking to is you junior, equal or senior. But the kicker is they all mean the same thing!!! That is an easy way of telling that everyone has their tatemae on. In other less formal situations you have to simply rely on your instincts to know which side of the person you’re dealing with at that moment, it’s hard but not impossible.
You might be thinking that is must be hard to figure these things out but if you ask usually you will get an honest answer out of a good friend. Off course if your in Japan make sure you ask in the right environment (basically anywhere outside of the office). Every culture is unique in their own way, and I’m sure there are allot more social aspects of Japan that we have not experienced, but fortunately we still have another year to figure them out.

If you want to see people who have REALLY emerged themselves in the Japanese culture check out this article:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080629x1.html

Fresh Start

2008-04-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to thank all of you for leaving me various comments on this blog and sending me lots of e-mails of encouragement. I really appreciated. Well I guess most of you where wondering what a Type A personality (a nice way of saying workaholic) like myself does without a job. The answer is quite simple get a new job. So after 2 weeks of lamenting myself finally I decided to do something about it and take a look at what was out there. Turns out I got new job in no time. I received a contact from my Mexican neighbor and I e-mailed him. I figured I had nothing to loose just by sending my resume and asking if they had any positions available. The next day I got a call inviting me for an interview and the next week I was already working!!! That's amazing. The first time I was here it took 3 months to find a job, but hey I'm not complaining. I am very happy that I am able to continue my career while we are in Japan. Sincerely everything is possible and once my attitude changed good things happened. Now my new job is full of people from different places so they where happy to be able to add one more country into their diverse work atmosphere. Once again I'm the first Puerto Rican they have met and proud of it. Boricua hasta en la luna -bueno en este caso Japon.

New beginnings

2008-03-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

Closing time

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

These Lyrics for the some Closing time by the band Semisonic (yes from the best of the 90's CD) best describe my current situation. My job contract ended this month. As a result I have been thinking of allot about what this job has meant to me during the past 1.5 years. I got to the conclusion that it has affected me in a positive way personally and professionally.

Personally most of my first memories of Japan are forever linked with this job. When I began working I did not know much about Japan but many people in the office took the time to teach me about its language and culture. Some of them invited me to participate in various sporting events (volleyball, softball and golf tournaments) and work related activities (Hanami party, end of the year party etc.). In general everyone in the office was patient, understanding and accepted me the way I am (kind of laud and very straight forward). Even though sometimes we could not fully communicate or had a difference of opinion we always found a way to get our points across due to our mutual respect.

Professionally it was the first time I was able to work in the development of a vehicle from a design concept to a a working prototype in a very short period of time. This experience is truly unique in the fact that the various teams where all geographically separated. Two years ago I would have never imagined that I would be working on a vehicle that is designed in Australia, engineered in Japan and built in Thailand. Each team had a different working style which made this interaction very challenging but in the end everyone came together to complete the job. I believe that I gained allot of knowledge, in a very short period of time, that will be incredibly valuable in the future.

The last day of work I was surprised to be asked to stand up and give a speech just as I was about to leave. I was caught completely off guard by this request. Later my husband told me that this was a custom in Japan and it was pretty common around his office. A little heads up would have been nice but hey no hard feelings. So I stood up told everyone (the office translator expressed everything I said in Japanese) that it was a pleasure to have worked with them. I also stated that it was my most sincere hope that they had learned a little about me and about Puerto Rico. I think I did accomplish this because at the begging of my job one of the first things people ask you is where you from are. Every time I answered Puerto Rico they just looked at me with a blank stare. Then I would tell them that it is a little island in the Caribbean. The most common response was like the pirates? That is what happens when you let Johnny Depp represent a complete region of the world in a Disney movie. Go figure. I guess my co-workers realized that Puerto Rico was a real country when the National team played the Japan national Volleyball team. The next day everyone came over to my desk to ask if I had seen the volleyball match my response was mochiron (off course in Japanese). I did receive a few gifts that day as you can see below:

Side note: These chopsticks where the simplest but most significant gift of them all. I received these from one girl in the office who I had little interaction with due to the language barrier. She gave me these in a little bag and said "good luck". The most amazing part of it is that I could tell she was very sincere, this is coming from someone I could not even communicate with!!! Amazing!!! I guess I left a good impression.

I grabbed my gifts in one hand and waved good bye to everyone with the other as I walked out. All I was missing was a sash and a crown (which would be technically impossible to find in an office full of engineers). The next week everyone in the office organized a going away party for me. Here I am giving my thank you for everything speech in Japanese!!! I wrote the speech down so I would not forget it but I think my main points came across well.
After my speech I received more gifts!!!

As you can see from my face I was not very amused at the time but then I realized that I needed an apron and an Eco bag anyways.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work while living in Japan - "some other beginning's end". Now I will concentrate on finding my "new beginning" here in Japan, whatever that may be.

What are you wearing?

2008-03-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

This week I started to see a bunch of girls walking around the main shopping street (The Hondori) with the following attire:

Check out the view from the back (I apologize for my bad paparazzi skills):
What is it? I have never seen this before. First I thought they where some type of kimono, which look something like this:
Then I thought well maybe they are some type of yukata (summer kimono) as seen below:
Obviously I was wrong in both of my assumptions so I asked the source of all my Japanese language and culture, my good old Japanese teacher. To my surprise it's a whole different type of Japanese wardrobe!!! Lucky me, more things to learn!!! This new attire (for me) is called a Hakama.
The Hakamas are traditionally worn by men to formal occasions or martial arts events. Recently it is considered fashionable for young women to wear them. These Hakamas are worn specifically for university gradations. Since the Japanese school year ends this week it is common to see them walking around town (always in a group off course). My teacher said that since the hakamas are typically only worn once in a girl's life that most of them are rented just for the graduation ceremony. I love this girl's hair!!! Niceeeeee
These are allot more colorful and interesting than togas, don't you think? Here is an interesting video I found on you tube taken last year at a gradation ceremony:

Side note: I asked what do people normally wear for high school graduation in Japan. The answer is that they wear their school uniforms in a small ceremony at their respective schools. There is no senior prom or anything like or any big celebrations. I asked why to my almighty sensei and she said the graduates are too busy cramming for their University entrance exams and don't have time for any of that stuff. So basically if my family lived in Japan my parents would have not spend all that time and money in 3 high school graduations!!! Shhh don't tell them..

Skiing in Japan

2008-03-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last week one of my friends said "Japan is great because it is the only place I can think of where you could go golfing on one weekend and skiing the next". So I tried the last one on for size with a group of "experts". Everyone seamed to be very good at it or at least decent so I had a lot of catching up to do. In my defense, I grew up in a tropical island so in the winter we would go hit the Baseball stadium instead of the slopes. The first time I went it was absolutely horrible!!! I spent more time on the floor than on the skiing!!! Really no joke!!!! I barley made it down the beginners course in about 2 excruciating hours. The next day I was dead, every step was like being punished for all my sins at once!!! I don't even think I went outside. It hurts just to type about it!!!

The next weekend came around and I had a choice to make either stay home or try again. Fighting against my memories of extreme pain (It hurts just to type about it!!!) I decided on B. To my (and everyone else's) surprise I was actually on my feet (step 1 - the ground is not your friend - check) , going side to side (step 2 - control speed - check) and actually stoping when I wanted to (step 3 - reamain alive - check). I could not believe that I was actually skiing, It is a complete and absolute miracle!!! I'm truly proud of myself because I made it!!! (insert tears of joy here)

The most impressive part of the trip was one of our friends brought his little 9 year old daughter who had never stepped into skies in her life on the trip. She was skiing better than her dad in 2 hours!!! Wow kids really do learn fast, as in instantly. Check out the slope in the picture below:

Japan really has allot to offer. Now that spring is approaching I plan on continuing my search for those experiences.

Maiko (Geisha apprentice) Presentation

2008-03-03T18:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Maiko presentation at a local department store. I went to this activity last year but I only had my cell phone camera this time I was armed with my trusty mini canon. I was able to take some "real" pictures and video. Here are the Maikos performing:

According to wikipedia:
"Maiko are apprentice geisha, and this stage can last for years. Maiko learn from their senior geisha mentor and follow them around to all their engagements. The onee-san/imouto-san (junior) relationship is extremely important. Since the onee-san teaches her maiko everything about working in the hanamachi, her teaching is vital. She will teach her proper ways of serving tea, playing shamisen, and dancing, the casual talk of conversation, which is also important for a maiko to learn for future invitations to more tea houses and gatherings. The onee-san will even help pick the maiko's new professional name with kanji or symbols related to her own name."

I actually saw their onee-san during their performance. She caught my attention because she put a tape (remember those?) in the Sony player (off course) in order for the show to begin. She was basically the old school DJ of the presentation. Here is a picture of her that I took in my best paparazzi style:
The Maiko's exposed skin in the back of their neck is supposed to be "hot". You be the judge:
Unfortunately I was not able to get really close to the Maiko because there was a mob of people there to see them. The 2 ladies behind me moved because according to them I was too tall (I'm understanding allot more Japanese now). I'm only 5 foot 6 inches by the way, which translate to giant in Japan. The moral of the story don't assume the people next to you don't understand your comments just because they look different.

Matrix ping pong

2008-02-25T00:28:00.001-08:00

I saw this on my friend' blog and decided it was soooooo hilarious that I just have to share it with everyone. Please enjoy:

PS - This is my 100th post wow time goes by really fast in the other side of the world.

Walking to Work

2008-02-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Today I took the train to work in the morning. I have not done this all winter because A. It's cold and B. we have a car (with about 5000 kilometer or 3107 miles in 1.75 years), might as well use it. As I was swiveling through the sea of bikes and people - teenagers walking to the all girls high school and the little kids walking to the elementary school - I stopped for a moment to think how this would all be impossible back home. I felt I should have protected the little kids until they got to school. I wanted to grab them all by the hand and deliver them safely to their classrooms. I think this would have gotten me into a heap of trouble because there is someone who already does that here. There are traffic controllers volunteers on every street corner until you reach the elementary school and they take care of the little five year olds who walk by their itty bitty self with a backpack bigger than them, see below:
I guess it really does take a village and Japan is very good example of that.
Once I finally got on the train everything was pretty normal, quiet as always. Once I got off the train something unexpected happened to me…culture shock. After being in Japan almost 2 years everything seems pretty normal now and I accept it as the way things are and I don't think about it twice. This morning was different. As the train doors opened everyone got out and the mob of people started walking toward the office building. At one point the mob of people was so slow and so similar (EVERYONE in black coats) that I could not help but think "OMG I'm an extra in a zombie movie". Seriously it was like a scene from every zombie movie you have ever seen (my personal favorite is Shawn of the dead but your entitled to your opinion). People were just stomping forward without saying one word to each other or more amazingly not even bumping into each other. It's a mob without chaos!!! Only in Japan my friends, where everyone is so polite that they won't cut in front of you in any line and they will quietly and orderly wait their turn even if it freezing cold!!! A few minutes later a car was trying to pass right threw the small alley way that the mob was walking through and guess what happened?

A. Everyone just stopped walking and formed a traffic jam
B. Everyone charged at the car and started pounding on the windows (once again I've watched too many movies)
C. Everyone just got out of it's way and waited for the car to pass

If you guessed C you are the winner!!! Sorry the only prize you get is knowing that you have read this blog so much that you are in touch with the "Japanese way". I'll report back if any of these days the zombies attach me while exiting the train…if I make it. Yes I have an active imagination, there worse things you know.

Oshiri Kajiri Mushi - Update

2008-02-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

It's not enough to hear and see this song everywhere but now their is a new live version of the song complete with backup dancers. View at your own risk:

PS - I love this lady's hair!!!

Butt Biting Insect Song - Oshiri Kajiri Mushi

2008-02-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

I've seen this video being played over and ove around the shops around town. I have also seen allot of murchandise for the little cute bug so I was wondering where it all came from. I will let the following video speak for itself. I just want to say that this song was a top ten hit in Japan in 2007, you be the judge:

Launch of the 2008 Mazda 6 in Japan

2008-01-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

After 2 years, countless overtime hours and 1 move half way around the world, Orlando finally gets to see his blood, sweat and tears pay off in the showrooms of Japan. Say Konichiwa to the all new Mazda 6:

You can also check the official press release:

http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200801/080129.html

Check out the pictures of the car in it's Australian website:

http://www.newmazda6.com.au/

The reason I'm including these links on the blog is because if I have to hear about this car every day so do you!!! Welcome to my world...

Island of Bali in Indonesia

2008-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Orlando and I had the opportunity of visiting Bali Island from 1/17/08 to 1/21/08 with some of our fellow ISE (International Assignment Employees) friends from Mexico (orange and red shirts) and Brazil (white shirt and blue dress).
We did not even plan on going to Bali until we realized that it was one of the only countries in Asia where anyone of our group (6 people from 3 different countries) did not need a visa to visit. You could actually obtain a visa on arrival (a first for me) by simply paying 10 USD at the airport and in an instant one of the immigration officers would print out a 15 day visitors visa and stick it in your passport, just like that. Caution: At the end of your trip you also have to pay 15 USD to be able to go out of the country and they only accept the money in their currency, Indonesia Rupiahs.
I really did not have high expectations fro Bali. I thought "Since I come from a tropical island why am going to one for vacation?". Boy was I wrong!!! In reality Bali had allot to offer in terms of its rich cultural, natural beauty, tourist facilities and activities.

One of the highlights of the whole trip was being able to ride an elephant for the first time.

The second "must do" activity in Bali is watching one of their tradition dances. This is called the barong (the dragon you see below) Dance.

I actually found the exact same complete dance on youtube if you want to check it out go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxiA-YhRfw
The third must do activity while in Bali is to visit one of their many Hindu temples.

I was really impressed by all the rock carvings inside the temple. This was a completely new experience for us because in Japan you can either go to Buddhist temples or Shinto shrine. It is definitely worth seeing for yourself.
The fourth activity I highly recommend is the absolute bargain shopping. As you all may already know where there are tourist there is allot of shopping!!!
You could practically buy any high end, medium end, no end brand for a few dollars thanks to the incredible conversion between the Indonesia Rupiahs and the US dollar (1 USD = 9,336 Indonesia Rupiahs). Every time I bought something I always felt like I made a killing. If you really think about it since the average person in Bali only makes around 200 USD a month if you bought something for 20 USD then they have already made 10% of their monthly salary in a few minutes!!! So at the end of the day; who really made the killing?
The last activity I would recommend is just relaxing by the pool or on the beach. To be honest I was not very impressed (neither where my friends who have experienced the Acapulco and Sao Pablo beaches) by the beach at all. I consider the beaches of Puerto Rico to be the best world wide!!!
On the other hand considering that it is actually snowing in Hiroshima while I'm writing this I would gladly "sacrifice" and go to the inferior beach right about now.

I was very surprised to see the amount of people who asked me about Bali once I got back to Hiroshima. Many of them already had booked flight and hotel reservations to Bali during their kid's February break from school. Once again I had underestimated Bali's tourist appeal. I can only hope after reading this you (the reader) don't make the same mistake.

Happy New Year - 2008

2008-01-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008 Everybody!!!!

I apologize for not writing much in a while but I have not spend enough time in one place during the month of January to actually sit down and write. Now that I have settled back into our Hiroshima routine I can finally sit back and tell you about our recent adventures.
We went to our small corner of the world (after a 2 day journey from Japan-> Detroit 1 night -> PR) , Puerto Rico (http://www.gotopuertorico.com/), for the holidays this year and in hindsight it was the best decision we made the whole year!!! This year we got the opportunity to reconnect with lots of our old friends in our 10 year High school reunion. It was really nice seeing everybody again and conforting knowing that you did not have to explain to them your life story because they where actually there with you half the time, while it was happening. Most of the people in my class don't live in Mayaguez (my home town of about 100, 000 people) anymore but we still have good memories of our town which for the most part, include each other. I realized how well my old friends knew me when one of them asked me if I was starving in Japan because of my extreme pickyness with food. A person would know that after having countless meals with me and watching me pick out the food I did not like!!! I was very pleased to tell her that now I basically eat anything, but I only changed my ways when I moved to Japan a little over a year ago. Maybe that is why I used to be soooo skinny?!?!? See for yourself in our prom picture from 1997:

And now in 2007:

I realized that It's really good to remember the people and placed that in some shape or form influenzed the way you are, no matter where you are in the world.

Working yourself to death - literally

2007-12-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of December there where various news articles on the Japanese news English websites about a wife who finally got her deceased husband's pension after he worked himself to death in 2002. I find this to be very disturbing but unfortunately quite true. I'm lucky to work in an office where people generally go home at 6 pm to 7 pm unless there is a big deadline the next day where no one leaves until it's finished. On the other hand, I have seen the rest of the offices full of people around 9 pm to 10 pm like if nothing where happening (like their lives passing them by). It is actually common for people to schedule meetings at 9 pm. It's so bad that they had to institute a no overtime day once a week in order to MAKE people go home. In the words of Metallica: "Sad but true".

Here is the best article I found on the subject:

Big in Japan: Man works himself to death, company compensates wife
by Matthew Firestone Dec 6th 2007 @ 10:00AM

Ever hear the joke about the Japanese man who worked himself to death?
Guess what? It's not a joke...
According to the Associated Press (AP), last week a court in Japan ordered the Toyota Motor Corporation to pay compensation to a woman who argued that her husband died from overwork.
According to woman's lawyer, Kenichi Uchino (the departed) had been working overtime as a middle manager at a Toyota factory when he suddenly collapsed and died in February of 2002.
He as just 30 years old.
Before dying, Mr. Uchino had logged 80 hours of overtime a month for a sustained period of six months, and had logged 114 extra hours the month he died.
Sadly, Mr. Uchino is anything but an isolated case. In fact, the Japanese even have a word for punching the clock until you drop.
Working yourself to death is known in Japanese as karōshi (過労死), which directly translates to "death from overwork."
Known in medical circles as occupational sudden death, the major medical causes of karōshi are believed to be stress-induced heart attack and stroke.
Depressed yet? Keep reading as the story gets worse.
Sources indicate that the first recorded case of karōshi was in 1969 following the death by stroke of a 29-year-old man in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper company.
However, karōshi was not officially recognized until 1987 when a large number of business executives started dropping like flies during the glory days of the famous "Bubble Economy."
Following an intense media campaign, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor began to publish annual statistics on karōshi.
Out of morbid curiosity, would you like to hear the statistics for 2006?
Of course you do!
Last year, an estimated 355 workers fell severely ill or died from overwork. This is the highest recorded figure on record, and is sadly a 7.6 percent increase from 2005.
In 147 of these reported cases, individuals died of either strokes or heart attacks.
It gets worse.
A separate 819 workers reported suffering work-induced mental illness. In 176 of these reported cases, workers killed themselves or attempted to do so.
And now back to the original story...
Not surprisingly, karōshi lawsuits are on the rise throughout Japan, and relatives of the deceased have been increasingly awarded compensation payments.
In fact, the protocol has even been streamlined!
Before compensation can be awarded, a specially designated inspection office must acknowledge that the death was work-related. However, this can take several years, and a precedent has been set for court cases to bounce around various judicial systems.
Here is the clincher:
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour also reports that the leading cause of karōshi is the practice of voluntary undocumented unpaid overtime, which is known as sabisu-zangyo. Just to clarify, that means that Japanese workers are choosing to work longer hours without documenting their time or seeking compensation.

Source: http://www.gadling.com/2007/12/06/big-in-japan-man-works-himself-to-death-company-compensates-wi/

Japanese Treadmill Run TV Show

2007-12-06T00:32:00.000-08:00

You have to check this out.
Everyday you can see one of these wacky TV shows. Theres is no possible way of avoiding them, they are on every day at all times!!!

Bowing

2007-11-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not writing in a while but there has been too much going on and I really have not had the time. If you would like to keep up with everything please join facebook and invite me to be your friend (all the cool people are doing it). Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post.
I was surprised to see the following article online:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/news/20071012p2g00m0dm018000c.html
Basically it's a whole article about how the little princess of Japan does not bow. The public seems to be offended by this horrible act. In terms of the magnitude of this unspeakable offense it would be the equivalent of not shaking some one's hands but multiplied by 1000 in Japan. In this particular case it would be multiplied by 10,000 since it's the Royalty of Japan. Oh did I mention the little princess is only 5 years old!!!! I could barley tie my shoes at this age never the less keep my balance long enough to bow at random people who are always coming over to say hi for no specific reason. This got me thinking about how much bowing I do during the day. I determined that it is A_L_L_O_T. When I come into the office I bow, when I leave the office I bow, if I meet anyone outside of work I bow and it goes on and on. My favorite is if a lady at a store bows, I bow and then we keep bowing and bowing until one person (usually me) gives up and just walks away...usually while bowing. In reality I don't even notice bowing any more, it's part of my normal day.
According to reliable sources: "Bowing is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. Different cultures have placed varying degrees of importance on bowing, and have used bowing in a variety of ways. To show the highest degree of politeness, you bend your head and waist about 45 degrees. Common courtesy to most people is shown by bending your head and waist about 15 degrees. In a very casual meeting with a person about your age, nodding your head would be enough. People often bow while shaking hands with one or both hands." I have found this explanation to be 100% true. You have to adjust your bowing angle according to the person that it is directed to. Usually I forget to do this but hey at least I'm not as bad as the 5-year old princess.

Shanghai, China

2007-10-10T01:13:00.001-07:00

Orlando and I went to Shanghai, China this weekend to check out the Formula 1 race there. This is our second race in back to back weekends. In all honesty, I figured that we are only in Japan once and should take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves because you don't know what will happen (in my mother's words: "la luz delante es la que alumbra"). We took a flight from Hiroshima to Shanghai and we where there in a measly 2 hours. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever visit China but apparently I was wrong. Once we got there everything seemed pretty normal, the airport was nice, shiny and new. We had booked a package with our travel agent (he is not exclusive but is one of the few ones that speak English around here) that included the flight, the airport transfer and the hotel.
Our adventure began the split second we got into the bus from the airport to our hotel. The Shanghai airport is about 1 hour away from downtown and it was the longest hour of my life. Apparently there are no driving rules in China. The white lines on the road are merely a "suggestion". You don't have to actually stay in your lane because if you do the other guy in the lane next to you will never let you pass, so you drive somewhere in the middle of the "imaginary lanes" on the road. Hence there was a lot of cutting in front of another car and missing their front bumped by 2 inches (in Spanish we call it "corte de pastelillo"). Speed limit? What speed limit? The faster you can get to a place the better, even if you don't know where you are going and have to cross through 4 lanes of traffic to get to your exit. Also traffic lights are just there for decorative purposes only. Did I mention there where no seat belts on the back seat of any of the cars we where in? Safety first always... I was shocked at seeing the basis for the Crazy Taxi video game in front of my eyes every time I got into a motor vehicle so I decided to do some research. It turns out that (according to wikipedia and if it's on wikipedia it must be true off course): "The Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China is a law which was passed by the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on October 28, 2003, and took effect on May 1, 2004 on all parts of mainland China. It is the People's Republic of China's first-ever law on road traffic safety, and was intended to address an alarmingly high traffic fatality rate, which is four or five times greater than other nations." Ahh this explains it. I was visiting a country which has a traffic law that took effect only 3 years ago!!! Hello I have T-shirts that are older than that!!! It's a miracle we did not get into any accidents.
Once we arrived downtown we took a taxi to the race track to see the qualifying session. We where able to see the cars up close and they where loud!!! Here is Orlando with a big smile the dya of the race. I bet this is the first Colegio (our university's nickname) hat to have made it all the way to China, who knows maybe it was made there and it was just a homecoming for it.
At night we took a tour of the city which took us on a river cruise around the Huangpu River. The crazy thing was that one side of the river you had all the old English settlement buildings and on the other side all the modern skyscrapers. Old school buildings:
Star Trek inspired new school buildings:
After the cruise we vivisted Nanjing Road which is one of the world's busiest shopping streets. I really think you could buy ANYTHING there, no joke. Check out all the Pepsi signs, globalization at it's finest.
The last day we where in Chin we visited Yuyuan Garden which is located in the center of the city and is considered one of the four finest Chinese gardens in the world.

Everything was going well until a little old typhoon named Korsa decided to pay a little visit to China while we where there as you can see here:
As a result of the typhoon our flight back to Hiroshima was canceled at the last minute. We where actually on the plane ready to go when the pilot made the announcement. Personally I was glad the flight was canceled since I did not take it as a good sign that the plain was rocking back and fourth just sitting on the runway!!! So we where officially stuck in China with a group of Japanese tourist. Lucky us. So now we had 2 problems:

1. Stuck in a foreign country with a 1 entry only visa. I seriously thought we where going to be stuck in the airport like Tom Hanks in the movie "The Terminal" but without Catherine Zeta-Jones talking to us while we waited. In the end our exit date was canceled in our visa and we where able to go to a hotel where absolutely no one spoke English (paid for by the airline off course) and come back to the airport the next morning.

2. Our only source of information was our Japanese companions. Who needs to take a Japanese language proficiency test in December when you can count on real life to test you for free??? I am seriously proud of Orlando and I because together we where able to make a semi-competent intermediate Japanese speaker and more or less figure out what was happening. If we could take a "cooperative language test" then all our problems would be solved!!!

The next day we went to the airport and got a flight back home in the morning but by then we where so beat from all the chaos in the last 24 hours that we simply stayed home.

Now look where the typhoon is headed...straight for us. Why are we sooooo lucky?

Formula 1 Race in Fuji Speedway

2007-10-04T01:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend (9/30/07) Orlando and I had the opportunity to go to the Japan Formula 1 Grand Prix in Fuji Speedway. I say opportunity because we needed allot of help to get the tickets at face value and to plan the trip from Hiroshima all the way to the outskirts of Mount Fuji where the race track was located. We went with our Japanese friends Yoshi (like the Nintendo character) and Yoko (every girl around here is named either Yoko or Ryoko or Keiko or anything that ends with ko) who basically arranged the whole trip, we basically just tagged along. Sincerely without their help we would have never made it to the race unless we paid a whole lot of money for a tour. Just imagine having to take a plane from Hiroshima to Tokyo, staying one night in Yokohama (a suburb of Tokyo), the next day tacking a train for 1.5 hours, driving 1 hour and then taking a bus to the race track that took another hour!!! We got to the race 20 minutes before it started!!! Lesson learned: Mt. Fuji is really, really far away!!!! And to top it all off it was raining all day non stop!!!! This was our sexy look for the day:
The actual race was pretty cool because the cars kept spinning out and crashing into each other.

As I mentioned we also has a chance to checkout Yokohama which was actually a pretty cool and very modern city. We went to its Chinatown (this proves you can find one anywhere):

We found this super funny Panda store with every panda product you can imagine:
Here is Orlando goofing around with Yoshi.
We actually staying in Yoshi's parents house after the race and his mom and dad where soooooooo nice to us I can't even begin to describe it. Once we arrived at their house around 9 pm his mom had huge dinner ready for us!!! Hello for total strangers!!! Once again we got to sleep in a tatami room on some futons, which is always an adventure by itself.

You never know what you will find in Japan just take a look at what we found in the airport on the way back to Hiroshima:
Yes people this is an actual Pokemon airplane!!! , you have to have your camera ready to go at all times!!! There is never a dull moment around here.

More interesting car names

2007-10-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to a BBQ with some friends. Instead of taking pictures of the actual BBQ I went around the parking lot taking pictures of more interesting car names in Japan. Here is what I found:
What are you waiting for? Let's...

Why don't you get a..

Let's go (Vamos) and quickly.
And the number #1 most interesting car name:

Enough said...this country has officially lost it.

How to Eat sushi correctly

2007-09-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Humorous etiquette guide on how to properly order and consume Sushi created by Japanese comedy duo the Rahmens.

2008 Mazda 6

2007-09-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

As you all know the main reason why Orlando and I are in Japan is in order for him to work on the development of the 2008 Mazda 6. Finally pictures of the car have been released to the media. Go to this link in order to check them out:

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/09/06/2008-mazda6-breaks-early

Nuria's going away Party

2007-08-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

On 8/30/07 we had a going away party for my very good friend Nuria. She will be returning to Cataluña in Spain to begin her career as a teacher. Her husband David will be returning at the end of the month, so we still have time to bother him for a while. We all got together in one of our most frequented restaurant (they have normal food and an English menu!!!) to say see you later (I don't like good byes) to Nuria. I made a little album with a bunch of pictures of our adventures together. In the process I realized that most of our memories of Japan will always be tied to the people that where with us during any given adventure. So 20 years from now when I find an album of Japan while doing some spring cleaning at home, I will look at it and wonder "How is Nuria doing?".
I gave a speech (is anyone shocked?) at the end of the meal and let her know how lucky we all where to have spend the last year or so hanging out around Japan together and how much we would miss her excessive use of the letter Z. It actually took me a while (and vice-versa) to get used to her thick Spanish accent but in the end we both got used to it and I taught each other some slang works (for example: hangeo from hanging around and Vale for OK). Unfortunately my Spanish did not get more proper (like every good Puerto Rican I skip the last syllable of almost every word and Z's sound like S's) in any way.
Here is our diverse group of friends (Filipino, American, Japanese, Catalan and anyone else who shows up is fine too):

Where do you go after dinner in Japan? To sing Karaoke off course!!! Was there ever any doubt? Every time we go (which is allot) it's a ton of fun. At first I had no interest in it but now I already know which songs I'm going to sing and with who, in case of a duet. Orlando and I always sing any song from Oasis, Erin and I always sing "Baby got back" by Sir Mix Allot (great song, don't knock it) and Nuria and I sing anything in Spanish.
In this particular picture I think we did "Camisa Negra" by Juanes. This song works well because even the people who don't understand a words of Spanish get really into it and even sings along (all you have to do is read).
This is my second really good friend (hard to find true friends in any country) that goes back to their home country while I have been in Japan. I realized that one fact about these international assignments is that you know it's for a specific amount of time, but when the time comes to go back to normal life everyone I have met so far does not want it to end. I wonder if the same will happen to us? I guess only time will tell.

Hector and Miriam's visit

2007-08-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

The past week our good friends Hector and Miriam flew in from Michigan to explore Japan for 10 days. The stayed with us a few of these days and we all had a great time!!! Here we are in hanging around in Miyajima island. I have been here a few times already with different people and every time it's a completely different experience from the last one.

Miriam and I had been planning this trip for MONTHS!!! It's not easy to decide what places are worth seeing and how to get there, but in the end I think they saw the most important parts of Japan in a very short period of time. They bought the Japan Rail pass tickets in which you can use all the trains for 2 weeks for a fixed rate. They explored the nearby cities (Kyoto and Nara) by their brave little selves. Unfortunately this pass is only available to tourists and Orlando and I can't buy it because we are currently residents of Japan.

Every night Miriam and I would sit down in front of the computer and figure out what trains to take in order to get to Kyoto, Nara, Himeji and Tokyo among others, but after that they where on their own in this very complicated country where you can't read any signs or ask anyone for directions. I have to give them props (compliments) on finding their own way around Japan, that takes true bravery and no shyness what so ever.

Here we are after a tea ceremony near our apartment. If our faces look red in this picture it's because they are!!! It's so hot and humid here (I should not complain but it is worse than in Puerto Rico) that I'm surprised we survived sitting like this for half an hour with no air conditioning what so ever.

There was no way we would let our friends leave without going into one of the 10,000 arcades around town. Here are Hector and Orlando trying their best to keep up with the drum machine (always fun when it's going really fast).
In general my friends did a really good job finding they way around Japan (check out their blog [there is a link on the right hand side] and facebook accounts to see more of their trip) and that is why they deserve this:

Interesting article

2007-08-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

'Net cafe refugee' population put at 5,400

Around 5,400 people with no fixed address spend their nights at 24-hour Internet cafes across Japan, of whom 27 percent are in their 20s, the health ministry said Tuesday.
In its first survey on so-called Net cafe refugees, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry also determined that people in their 50s comprise 23 percent of the total, and half of them work low-paying day-hire jobs.
In the survey conducted in June and July, the ministry gave questionnaires to about 1,700 sleepover customers at 87 Net cafes across Japan, while separately interviewing 362 people outside Net cafes in Tokyo and Osaka.
The ministry found that 8 percent of the respondents sleep in Net cafes because they have no home. Based on this figure, the ministry estimated that about 5,400 people in Japan use Net cafes as a home substitute.
In Tokyo, 58 percent are short-term laborers and 17 percent are unemployed.
The monthly income of those in Tokyo averages ¥110,000, compared with ¥80,000 in Osaka, with more than 40 percent of the respondents having experienced sleeping on the streets.
In Tokyo, 33 percent lost their home after quitting work and 20 percent said they left dorms and live-in housing after leaving their jobs.
The survey also found 66 percent of the respondents experience difficulty in saving money to rent an apartment while 38 percent were concerned whether they could continue paying rent.
Many said looking for a job is difficult because they lack a fixed address.
"We are just beginning to understand the underlying dynamics," ministry official Jun Teraoka said. "This survey will help us identify and tackle the many labor and welfare issues involved in this phenomenon."
Takeshi Ikuta, who heads a support group for homeless people in Osaka, said Net cafe refugees should be considered homeless, and the younger ones should be viewed as vulnerable.
"The government should take support measures for people working under unstable labor conditions before they are trapped in a pattern of sleeping in Net cafes," Ikuta said.
Customers at a typical Net cafe can stay overnight for ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 in a small cubicle equipped with a reclining chair, computer and TV. Many cafes offer free soft-drink refills and some even have showers.
The ministry attributes the rise in people making such cafes their home to the ballooning number of young people who hop from one temporary job to the next. Estimates put the figure at 2 million.
The job-hoppers are a byproduct of the economic crisis that hit a decade ago, as well as a shift in values among younger generations less ready to conform to Japan's more traditional corporate work ethic, analysts say.
Many Net cafe inhabitants rely on their cell phones to arrange day jobs that don't require a fixed address. But the casual nature of the work means they often receive low wages and no training, social security or health insurance.
The phenomenon has also raised health concerns. In 2005, 13 people contracted tuberculosis at a Net cafe in Kawasaki that health officials suspect originated from the cafe's homeless population.
Refuge sought by the homeless is not limited to Net cafes. Many also congregate in all-night saunas and 24-hour fast food outlets, according to the study.
A government survey released earlier this year found about 18,500 people — mostly 40 or older — live on the street nationwide, down 27 percent from a similar survey four years ago.
But analysts say the Net cafe refugees signal the existence of hidden forms of homelessness not counted in previous tallies, especially among younger people.

Reference: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070829a3.html

Our favorite vehicles

2007-08-07T05:07:00.001-07:00

This is definitely or ichi ban (number one in Japanese) vehicle. La puta literally mean the slut in Spanish. Every time we see one of these "feisty" vehicles we always bust our laughing!!! To make it even better, Yes it's a Mazda vehicle!!!

In second place we have the always entertaining Nissan Moco. Moco means mucus in Spanish... eewwwwww how gross!!! Atleast the car is not green.I know Japan does not have many foreigners but someone should have taken time (and considering the long ours they work ) to investigate the meaning of the names given to actual vehicles!!! Seriously just think of how in the world will a marketing campaign be developed in Spanish speaking countries? The possibilities are endless...

Our First Visitors

2007-08-07T03:20:00.000-07:00

As I had mentioned before my family came to visit us in Japan for 2 weeks. They literally saw most of the country!!! The first week I scheduled a series of tours for them. They went to Tokyo first and enjoyed the sights. Here is my little sister Vicky in the hotel.
The next day they were off to Mount Fuji, here is Vicky with my mom.

After that they where off to Nara. They where very excited because they used the shinkansen (bullet train) for the first time.

After checking out the giant Budda (refer to August 2006 posting) they spend the day sightseeing in Kyoto. Here they are in front of the Golden Temple. The girl in the curly hair is my cousin Maritere who also came to hang out.
Finally they made their way down (props to them for figuring out how to use the bullet train) to good old Hiroshima. Here they are in front of the Peace Dome.
Once they where here Orlando and I took them around the sights close by. Here we are in Miyajima on Saturday 7/28/07.

We visited Iwakuni (1 hour away) on Sunday.
We also took time to do some "musts" in Japan like singing karaoke (after that we where humming and singing Mr. Roboto the whole time) and dress up in Yukatas (summer kimonos) as you can see below:

If this seems like a really long blog entry it's because they saw more things in 2 weeks that we have in one whole year!!! Imagine that we have not been to Tokyo yet and hey have!!! Crazy no? In general we all had a good time and survived sharing one bathroom for 5 people. I think my cousin summed it up the best when she said "Japan is very interesting and the people are very cordial, it would be perfect it it where not so freaking far away!!!". Agreed. Our main goal the past two weeks was for my family to feel that the 24 hour journey each way was worth it.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY BLOG

2007-07-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

This blog is officially one year old!!! That means we have survived our first year in Japan in one piece. Hurray for us!!! Please join me in bowing deeply in front of the computer to celebrate. (Note: If there is some one else next to you please remember to bow even deeper than them, in order to show respect.) All this time my little blog that could has developed it's own little following. It has received around 3797 hits in one year, that means that about 316 people take the time to check it our each month. Of those 316 people about 160 of them are returning visitors (I have my tricks) from all over the world as you can see below:
Who knew our so-called Japanese life could be so interesting? I mainly write it for myself in order to keep track of everything we have seen and done. Recently I went back to first entries of this blog and laughed my $%# off. I remember how I could not even figure out how to use the appliances around the house, I barely bought anything because all the consumer goods and food around here are extremely expensive and every day I used to go up and down the same street because I was afraid of getting lost!!! It was even a challenge to change the air conditioning to heater and back to air conditioning during the changes of seasons!!! Now I'm getting mentally prepared for my family's visit next week and I'm going to be the one telling them how to work the microwave and giving directions. I think their visit will let me see how much I have really learned in one year. Wish me luck!!!

Natural Disasters

2007-07-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

As you all might all ready know (unless your living under a rock) there was a big earthquake in Japan on Monday. The earthquake was in the northwest part of Japan (indicated by the red area in the map below) and did not affect the Hiroshima area at all.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6 in the Richter scale. There where 7 people killed, more than 830 where injured and 500 houses where destroyed. The powerful quake caused transportation to grind to a halt and several blackouts were reported. Expressways were shut down for safety checks after landslides hit several roads.

(reference: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070717a1.html)

Orlando and I did not feel the earthquake at all. We did not even know that there was an earthquake. We where golfing with some friends (Monday was a Ocean day, a national holiday in Japan) and had no idea until Orlando saw destroyed houses on the club house's TV. On the way back home he kept saying "I think there was an earthquake". Once we got home I checked the computer I realized what had happened. It's really sad to see all the destruction being reported on the local TV channels all day, non stop. We have no idea what the reporter is saying but a picture speaks a thousand words. My heart really goes out to all the people affected.

I realized we have been very lucky this weekend. A typhoon was supposed to hit the southern part of Japan on Sunday. Luckily it just kept turning toward the east and never actually hit us. We even had a typhoon party at the neighbors house and at one point everyone came outside to see where the typhoon was and guess what there was not even one drop of rain!!! Nothing, Nada Zilch!!! Hey I'm not complaining I've been through many hurricanes back home and I don't wish them upon anyone.
I would really like to thank everyone who worried about us and left messages on facebook, called or e-mailed us to check if we where OK. I'm happy to report that we are both fine.

Girls trip to Kyoto and Osaka

2007-07-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the title of this posting a few friends and I left our poor husbands at home with the kids (in Orlando's case with the PlayStation 3) and went off to Kyoto (the historical center of Japan) for a short trip. This was the second time I went to Kyoto (refer to the posts in August of 2006) and I was amazed at all the new places and little corners of the town that we discovered in only one day. My friends and had only one plan - no plan, we would just end up where ever our sense of direction (or lack of) would take us. If there was a side street that looked interesting we would take it and if there was something interesting going on we would just check it out, as simple as that. This strategy turned out to be the absolute best!!! Here are the girls and I in the Shirakara canal which we found by absolute accident.
There where a series of small shrines (Shinto religion) all over Kyoto. Here is one of them:
We wondered around the Gion district which still has many old-style Japanese houses called ochaya, which roughly translated means "teahouses." These are traditional establishments where the geisha have entertained their very exclusive customers (not me) for a long time. Sadly, I have to report that I failed in my second attempt to find a real geisha, but I'm not giving up yet.

There was allot of activity along the Kamogawa river walk. People of all shapes and sizes where walking and hanging out so we spend some time there just people watching and taking in the scenery.

We where very serious about capturing every moment as you can see:
Everyone had huge high tech cameras, all I had was my trusty little Canon:
This proves once again that the size is not the most important thing. I managed to post all the pictures I took in Kytot with my tiny camera, go to the following page to check them out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8677&l=a4f23&id=608576026

We had a chance to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is about twenty-minutes to the south of Kyoto. Dedicated to Inari, the Japanese fox goddess, Fushimi-Inari-taisha is the head shrine (taisha) for 40,000 Inari shrines across Japan. Stretching 230 meters up the hill behind it are hundreds of bright red torii gates. (reference: http://www.wikitravel.org/)We walked through the torii gates up a one of the hillsides and almost got bitten alive by mosquitoes!!! Note to self: don't go a shrine in the middle of the forest late in the afternoon. This shrine was really beautiful and different from the ones I had previously visited I definitely recommend it. Here are more pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8679&l=affc0&id=608576026

The next day we went to Osaka (the second largest city in Japan) and explored the downtown area for the afternoon. There was literally endless streets of shops and restaurant all over the place. My senses where on overload the whole time we where there, as you can see:

To see more pictures of Osaka go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8798&l=928bf&id=608576026

Cultural Exchange in Japanese Middle School

2007-07-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

On 6/23/07 (yes I've been slacking) Orlando and I joined a group of English teachers in a cultural exchange activity in a Japanese Middle School. The English teachers are contracted by the Japanese government to teach English at the public schools for at least one year (some of them were going on their third year here) and in exchange they get cheap housing and a decent salary. Hey sounds like a good deal to me?!?! If your looking for some adventure after college why not come to Japan for a few years? As you can see from the pictures we played a little baseball with the kids (13-15 years old). Here we are in our gear.

The afternoon consisted of trying to relate to the kids by playing sports and trying to talk to them in English so that they would practice what they have been learning. I found that allot of kids once they got over the curiosity of staring at all the foreigners (only 2% of the population in Japan is foreign) they where eager to try to talk to you and ask questions. I tried to answer them back as best I could in Japanese so that they see that learning any language is hard and that making a mistake is OK. The funny part was that a bunch of them would consult what to say and ask each other if anyone knew the word in English and after 5 minutes of group discussion they would come up with a question. This is a very common trait in this culture, to always consult and obtain consensus as a group. Once the chatting was over it was time for...DODGE BALL!!!

As a reminder to everyone who has not played Dodge ball in for ever like myself, it actually hurts more than what you remember!!! I made some friends while playing as you can see in the picture below.

I asked them who was their best friend (BFF) and they said all of them because they are all in the basketball team together... even though none of them was over 4 feet 6 inches tall but that's OK it's the fighting spirit that counts. All the kids where super cute and nice, I really think I learned more from them than they did from me.

Okonomiyaki

2007-06-26T03:34:00.000-07:00

Ok so what is an okonomiyaki anyways (see picture above)? It is a pan-fried Japanese dish cooked with various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked"; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like, the way you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is usually associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas. In Hiroshima, the ingredients are layered rather than mixed together. The layers are typically batter, cabbage, pork, optional items (squid, octopus, cheese, etc.), noodles topped with a fried egg and a generous dollop of okonomiyaki sauce. In town there are various (by that I mean 1 million or more it's pathetic really) restaurants who specialize in this dish.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a work party in an okonomiyaki restaurant. I say lucky because now that one of my superioir left I'm officially the only foreigner left in the office so I did not expect to be invited. I guess all my effort in trying to say something (always grammatically wrong) payed off. Another cool part about the restaurant was their unique way of serving beer for ten people (see picture below):

Now isn't this effective or what? Please proceed to pour your own beer please!!! Overall I had a really good time with everyone and tried my best to fit in...including doing a karaoke song in Spanish after dinner. Hey what not? I have no idea what they are singing anyways so why not reverse it once in a while?

Back in the day in an island in the Caribbean Sea

2007-06-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

I recently joined the Facebook networking service (http://www.facebook.com/) which lets you connect (in some cases re-connect) to your friends. Facebook is nothing new. I had previously rejected invitations to join but I recently received an e-mail from a high school friend letting me know that a 10 year reunion is in the works so I joined. To my extreme surprise everybody and their mother, father and cousins has joined this service and we are now all connected in the cyber world. If my high school classmates could find me in the Japan, I am convinced they can find ANYONE. It's only a matter of time before they get you too!!!
I am very glad to see how everyone's lives have turned out so far. Many people are moms, dads, married, lawyers, doctor, studying for their Masters or PHDs and/or working in companies all around the island or in the US. It's really crazy to think how we all started in the same place and ended up scattered all around the globe. As a result of all this reminiscing I began to look through my old pictures and found this one when I was Nicole Richie skinny in 1997:
This picture was taken in a amusement park the summer after High School when I went to visit Orlando in California. Check out the Wayne's World car in the background (Wayne's World...party time...excellent !!! Note: you can proceed to bob your head up and down now, if your too young to remember these movies please look it up in wikipedia.org). Then it lead me to ask myself (after receiving 10,000 e-mails from old friends asking me the same questions) how in the world did we end up A) Married to our High School sweetheart and B) in Japan? I don't really have a concrete answer for that. It can simply be explained by 2 one-way tickets, one from Puerto Rico to Michigan and the other 4 years later from Michigan to Japan. I guess your just going to have to meet up with me sometime when our paths cross again to fill in the blanks. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, they already have.

Beer Garden

2007-06-15T00:33:00.000-07:00

Orlando and I got the opportunity to go to one of the beer gardens that have opened up for the summer around Hiroshima. Basically they take the top of the department stores and put some some tables and chairs outside and serve some beer and everyone is happy. This seems pretty normal except nothing is normal around here!!! We decided to go to this particular Beer Garden because it had a big Budweiser sign on the first floor. Hey it's Budweiser, how can you go wrong? Actually many thing can go wrong. First of all the menu was completely in Japanese so I just started blurting out random food (chicken, french fries, beef) and the waitress would tell us if they had it or not. After a while we started noticing that they would bring food to the other tables and for some reason (this will remain a life long mystery) started singing and dancing after they placed the food on the table. So as the nosy foreigners that we are we started to point at the table next to us and order the same thing in order to figure out the big mystery. These are the things that we discovered:

1. If you order french fries they bring them in a brown and proceed to sing and dance while shaking the bag.

2. If you order some sake they will come and do another song while squeezing a lemon (for your drink).

3. If you order an egg (boiled) they would sing and dance again but at the end they would break the egg open on your head. Since you are now "hurt" by this malignant egg they place a band aid on your four head.

Needless to say I have never laughed harder in my life. No wonder I was only able to take 2 pictures. Every time I would try the "head Budweiser girl" would come along and tell us that taking pictures was not permitted. Hey I would not want anyone to have proof of these "interesting entertainment" either.

Secondly they had Budweiser girls wearing the same lack of attire they wear in the US except these chicks where so skinny they could not fill them in!!! They are basically spandex with a Budweiser logo on. Hello those outfits are skin tight and they still had space to wiggle around!!!

Last but not least they had this guy singing karaoke songs with the Budweiser girls "dancing" (at least they thought they where dancing" to the music. I really think the kids in the elementary school in front of our apartment building could have done a better job. The picture is blurry because of the movement but you get the idea.
All I can say is that this was truly a ONLY IN JAPAN experience.

Tokasan Festival

2007-06-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend Hiroshima held their annual Tokasan Festival. People put on their Yukatas (summer kimonos) in order to go downtown and enjoy food, parades, summer bon dancing and games. It was very similar to "Las fiestas patronales" in Puerto Rico, except they served all kids of weird food!!! Yes they had my favorite: octopus!!! love it!!! Not!!! What ever happened to good old hamburgers?
People line up at the Tokasan (Enryuji) Temple, a mixed Buddhist and Shinto temple/shrine, which is adorned with red lanterns to pray for good luck by throwing a money offering into the shrine's coin box and clapping their hands.
Here are some people praying inside the temple.

On Saturday night we went to hang out and check out the festival. Along the way we found some of our friends in the middle of the mob of people. Now look carefully at the picture because this is how you properly wear a Yukata.
On Sunday I decided to join my neighbors in the fun and get dressed up. This is my best attempt at wearing a Yukata. Please feel free to laugh because I had no idea how to put this on, so my neighbor's mom (who is 100% Japanese) fixed it up before we left.
Here I am with the kids. Arent they the cutest (besides your own children) you have ever seen?
The kids had a blast and so did I!!! Everything was new and fun to them. We even had a chance to join in the bon dancing, here is a video:

I can't take a video of myself so your just going to have to imagine how "well" I followed the steps. I did find out one thing in the process, that the steps are simple because the yukatas are so tightly wrapped that you can bearly move!!! I guess I'll have better luck next year.

Bicycle Ride in Japan

2007-05-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

First of all I apologize for slacking on my blog posts but we have been readjusting to our so-called Japanese life. My Japanese teacher says I forgot my Japanese in the two weeks that we where gone. I told her that I was till switching back from Spanish to English, let alone remember Japanese!!! The way I see it, since I don't know much I should be able to remember it soon!!!

On 5/19/07 Orlando and I joined a group of bicycle riding adventurers. The group headed east of Hiroshima to ride around a few small islands in the Seto inland sea. Since I have no idea what the islands are called I will refer to them as "Mystery Islands". Here is a map of our route:

In order to get to the islands we took a cute little boat ride as you can see:

Check out the view from the boat below. Japan or La Parguera in Puerto Rico? I guess it really is true when people say: "different island, same thing" (once again this is a family friendly blog), even if it is half way around the world.

I thought it was going to be a leisurely bike ride around the small islands, but it turned out to be a 25 mile bicycling route!!! The worst part was that in order to go from one island to the other you had to cross super high suspension bridges!!! HAAAAA the Horror!!!! Here are some of the bridges we took:
The picture above shows the Hakata Oshima bridge.

Here we are with our bikes (you could rent them there, my actual bike is only for carrying groceries) in the Tatara Ohashi Bridge.
Here is the Kurushima Kaikyo bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world. This was the last bridge in our route. At this point I could not feel any part of my lower body and my legs felt like jello!!! We stopped at a fresh fish BBQ restaurant right next to the bridge for some lunch. The interesting thing about this place is that they would literally kill the fish, sell it and place it on top of a small BBQ grill until it was cooked. The fish was sooooooooooo fresh that it was still moving!!! Yes the octopus tentacles where still moving in the plate!!! I took video of it to prove it:

For the record I did not eat this!!! It was in my friend's plate!!! The worst pat is that the tentacle was still moving on top of the BBQ!!! AHHHHHHHHHH This is one of the reasons I will always remember this day. The other reason is that I could not sit correctly for the next 3 days!!! So the moral of the story is: "Find out what your getting yourself into before signing up!!!".

Ponce, Puerto Rico

2007-05-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

We spend our last few days in Puerto Rico in Ponce (1 hour south of the San Juan) in the Reyes' Family vacation home. Orlando's mom (pictured above) flew in from California to hang out with us for the week. We where able to play a little golf while we where there as you can see below:

Yes the 18th hole overlooks the Caribbean Sea (http://www.costacaribe-resort.com/). You could literally jump into the water (if your crazy enough) after finishing a round of golf.

My family came to stay with us for the weekend. Here I am with mom, dad and my little sister Vicky, oh yeah and that guy who does not leave me alone (I think he is a stalker, the problem is how do you say that in Japanese?).

We invited some of our good old friends to visit on Saturday. Here we are with Javier, Ydalmi, Valerie and Ydalmi's sister. Valerie was simply huge!!! Last time I saw her when was only 2 weeks old, now she is crawling around grabbing everything within reach!!!

We also had a chance to hang out with our super friends Jey,Liz, Melody and Ludwig. Jey was actually the best man and Melody was our flower girl at our wedding 3.5 years ago (see picture below).

I love this picture of the kids rolling around in the grass. Luckily we found our Valerie is not allergic to grass the old fashion way trying it out.

We had an absolutely great time with everyone and we really appreciate everyone efforts to come and see us!!!!I hope to see everyone again soon, probably in Christmas time.

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-10T01:31:00.000-07:00

I finally arrived in my home town of Mayaguez (a 2 hour drive from the capital city of San Juan) on Monday!!! Here is a nice picture of my parent's normal cement house in the suburbs of the city.

For those of you who are wondering, yes that is my old Toyota 4Runner in the right corner of the picture. My little sister, Vicky still uses that car to go to collage, that car is 12 years old!!! I was just surprised to see it moving!!!

The next day Orlando and I went to our old stomping ground UPR-Mayaguez better know as "El Colegio". We did not find much had changed. People still hanged out in the same spots, no one eat at the cafeteria and there are still zero parking spots available. Here is the library.

To all the people who sent there, please feel free to begin reminiscing, you can thank me later.

Once I get home my little sister Vicky showed me her new hairdo.
The streak in her hair looks black in but it's actually a mixture between blue and purple...ok, apparently I did not get the memo stating that this is normal. I was actually too distracted her pink bowed skulled earrings to notice the color. So I asked what's up with the hair and she said it's all part of the "Emo" look. Beuler? What? As a result I researched what Emo is and found out that it is a genre of rock music that emphasises the emotions of people. I soon realized that I'm old, but hey if I thought flannel shirts and army boots where cool back in the 90's I guess some hair color is not going to kill anyone. These crazy kids!!!

Puerto Rico Scenery

2007-05-09T01:43:00.001-07:00

Puerto Rican Food

2007-05-08T23:40:00.001-07:00

Puerto Rico

2007-05-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

After not sleeping on Saturday night we proceeded to go home to our beautiful island of Puerto Rico. Luckily since we have earned a trigillion miles going back and forth from Japan we got a free upgrade to first class, all right!!!!!
Our first stop was Orlando's grandmother's house where a good bunch of the Reyes Family members where waiting for us. Here they are holding up their best Japanese pose.

One very interesting thing happened while we where there, it turns out that one of Orlando's cousins is dating a girl names Iria. Isn't that weird? My mom's name is Ilia and off course I'm Iddya and now I met Iria so I came to the conclusion that you can form a name just by following this formula:

I + random consonant + ia = unique name which no one will ever be able to pronounce

Here is Orlando with his grandma who looks good after raising 8 kids!!!
The next day we went to Villalba to hang out with the Ortiz Family (Orlando's mom's side). As you can see we really know the meaning of extended family. Most of them are actually neighbors so all I had to do was walk outside and imitate Bob Barker from The Price is Right by asking them to "Come on down" for a picture.

Once we where there we answered all the typical "Oh my Gosh you live in Japan" questions and showed them an album I made (hey it's not a fancy scrapbook but it go the point across) to illustrate our adventures. Everyone was really glad to see us and vice versa.

Detroit

2007-05-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

We are back from going half way around the world in 1.5 weeks (yes we know we are crazy)!!! Our first stop was good old Detroit. On Thursday we got off the plane at 12:30 pm, went to my friends house to change and proceeded to fight our jet lag by going to Bailey's. I was very happy and touched that so many people showed up!!

Here are I am with my friends from work (from left to right) Deanna, Kristin and Lauren. Kristian and Lauren where literally one of the first people I met when I moved to Michigan. They basically showed me the Michigan ropes when I had no idea where I was going or knew the rules in football and had to deal with snow for the first time and 5 years later they are still hanging around!!! Thanks guys!!!
I also spread the Japanese love showing everyone the typical V sign pose.
Orlando's complete softball team showed up. Seriously first base, second base, third base, the outfield and even the catcher came to say hi. Every week in the summer we could always count on going to a softball game and hanging out around Dearborn afterwards, truly good times...good times.

On Friday (4/27/07) my sister Vanessa flew in from Wisconsin to spend the weekend with us. Here we are looking good as always.
Here is Orlando with 10-month old Jose David, who was a complete delight the whole time.
Later that night we met up with our friends in Ann Arbor to celebrate Cristine's MBA graduation. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Luckily Tina held off the birth of her baby boy (born on May 7) to hang out with us.

On Saturday we had the best Party E-V-E-R at Miriam and Hector's house. We had all the key ingredients to a most excellentPuerto Rican party:

1. Hot chicks

2. Reggaeton (a.k.a booty shaking music)

3. Random Salsa dancing in the living room

4. Dominoes (for the record The Matos team lost but we had not played since I left almost a year ago so we will be back to our old ways next time)
5. RUM (the bottle is empty off course)
6. As a result of all of the above - Lots of kids

On behave of the Reyes-Matos family I would like to thank everyone for making our short stay in Detroit a very lively one. It was really good to see familiar faces with whom you could reminisce with. Detroit is trully our second home. THANKS EVERYONE.

Public Service Announcement

2007-04-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

The Reyes-Matos Family is coming to a town near you!!!! We will be visiting our good friends in the D the last week of April. If you want to say hi or just check that I have not made this whole blog up them come and join us!!!! Here are the details:

When: Thursday, April 26th at 5:00 pm
Where: Bailey's in Dearborn

WHEN: Friday, April 27th 9:00 pm
WHERE: Leopold Bros Brewery 523 S. Main St. in Downtown Ann Arbor http://www.leopoldbros.com/pub.html

Hope to see you there!!!!!

Cherry Blossom Slide Show

2007-04-18T21:10:00.001-07:00

Cherry Blossoms

2007-04-11T22:01:00.001-07:00

The past two weeks everyone in Hiroshima (and the rest of Japan) have been going crazy looking at the cherry blossom trees, which in Japanese is call "Sakura". So Orlando and I decided to be part of the group and go look at some sakura in the nearby town of Iwakuni (see pictures below).

For more pictures Check out:
http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w110/iddya/?action=view¤t=.my_first_widget.pbw

I recently found that it is a Japanese tradition to go to parks, shrines and temples with family and friends and hold a "flower viewing party" known as Hanami. I was invited to the Ford Hamani party and started asking around what do people actually do in these activities? Basically you talk, drink and eat while staring at a tree. I answered back that in Puerto Rico you do the same but on the beach!!! I was very surprised to see the park completely full of people on their own company's Hanami party. Everyone seemed very happy, the party next to us was even singing and dancing (if you can call it that) or maybe it was just too much sake (rice wine)? I will have to investigate further next year because the sakura is already dying!! Here is a picture of the many Hamani Party in the Peace Memorial Park.

We also visited Shukkeien gardens just 3 blocks from our apartment. It only took us 9 months to go check it out!?!?!?!? That's normal? right..?

Ok that's enough tree watching, at least next year I know what to expect.

Map of Japan

2007-04-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

Since a few people have been inquiring about coming over for a visit. Here is an interactive map of the places we have visited in Japan. If you click on the icon you will see the name of the city. Also you can move the map to the right in order to see how far Tokyo (pink bubble) is from Hiroshima (8 hours driving and 5 hours via bullet train).

Tea Ceremony

2007-04-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

On 3/25/07 I had the opportunity to attend a Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony in Miyajima Island (30 minutes from Hiroshima). Check out the tiny entrance to the tea house. I asked the lady "Why do you have to crawl through such a small door?". She said "In order to show respect, it forces you to enter the tea room bowing." Interesting.
There was a beautiful garden in front of the tea house.

Before entering the tea room you have to wash your hands in order to "purify your soul". Here is some proof that I'm "purified" (I'm not sure if it counts if you are not Buddhist but hey might as well try).

The Tea Ceremony ladies taught us how to make some tea. Is seemed easy but one of the ladies said she has been studying 8 years in order to master the art of the Tea Ceremony.

Here I am stirring as fast as I could, but it was not enough. The lady next to me got tired of waiting and took the bowl away and began to stir herself !!!

Here is some video I took of the ceremony:
Tea ceremony part 1

Tea ceremony part 2

Here is our lucky group of people, notice that almost all the Japanese ladies where wearing a kimono. The host, male or female, wears a kimono, while guests may wear kimono or subdued formal wear. According to my research "The host, male or female, wears a kimono, while guests may wear kimono or subdued formal wear. " If by "subdued formal wear" you mean a shirt and some jeans I'm there!!! Never the less, I was happy in my super Hello Kitty shirt... hey at least she is Japanese OK? I guess I should have read some information before going, so don't let the same thing happen to you!!! Check out the following link for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

There was also the Japanese Doll Festival called Hina-matsuri, or Girls' Day. Platforms with a red cloth (called hi-mōsen), are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (called hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress.

Here they used a kimono to decorate the background instead of the traditional red cloth.

The dolls had extremely detailed faces and costumes. I talked to some people at work and they said these dolls are usually very expensive (around $2,000 for a set) and are often handed down from generation to generation. So now you know that if you come and visit me we can't buy one and cut their hair and alter their clothes like an old barbie. If you want to learn more about these dolls visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_doll

See you later Therese and Martin

2007-03-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sadly our friends Therese and Martin left Hiroshima today to go back to England. Orlando and I went to dinner with them yesterday in the same restaurant we first met a little over a year ago!!! We could not believe how quick time has passed and all the adventures we had together. They where here only 18 months!!!! Still they became one our most valued and cherished friends. The kind you can count on to help you out in any circumstance, which in a strange far away land consists of many little things like: "Where is the best place to buy normal food?", "Which restaurants have English menus" or the crucial "Is there Bacardi around here?". Therese would promptly be at my door on her spiky bike to take me to all the right places in the city. On 3/24/07 I had everyone over at our apartment for a "See you later party". For those of you who are wondering (everyone), yes I did cook. I made lasagna for 12 people!!!! Including our special guest my friend Erin's mom who hanged out with "the kids" all night.

We gave a Therese a few going away gifts as you can see below:

What you are seeing above is not an optical illusion. That Big Bird actually has 4 legs, thanks to some creative craftsmanship from Erin. You may think what is going on? So the story of the 4 legged chicken begins. usually when we have a party at someone's apartment (no 2 story houses here unless you live about 1 hour away) we would play some time of quirky game after everyone was "happy". One of my favorite games to play is Cranium. One one of the challenges of the game is to draw something with your eyes closed and the rest of your team has to guess what it is. One time after many many glasses of wine, Therese's team was counting on her to draw a beautiful illustration of a chicken. Simple enough right? Well no one guessed what it was and Therese was very disappointed. Once she let everyone see her drawing paper the chicken had 4 legs instead of 2!!!!! Off course no one guessed it right!!! In reality Therese's futuristic rendition of a chicken was not that far of. Read the following article to see that it is possible to have a four legged bird:
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0218-quadpedal_chick.html
Therese laughed so hard when she saw the "transformed" stuffed animal that she ended up crying!!!!!
Here is the whole "gaijin (Japanese slang word for foreigner) kids gang". Off course we are all on the floor, this is Japan after all!!! Who would have thought that a fluffy rug would be so useful?

I mean this in the most sincere way that they will be missed alot in our microscopic foreigner community in Hiroshima and that they can visit us any time, wherever we might be. If you would like to know more about them just click on the links section to check out their blog, it has really good travel information on Japan and interesting anecdotes on what it is like to live here.

Osaka

2007-03-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Osaka the day after the Sumo tournament and went sightseeing the whole day. I was very surprised to realize that Osaka is the second largest city in Japan, second only to Tokyo. The city has a population of about 2.7 million which is double the size of Hiroshima (about 1.2 million people live here). Hiroshima itself seams huge to me since my home town of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico only has around 100, 000 inhabitants. Osaka had so many transportation options, subways, bullet trains, taxis, even the train station seemed like a little city itself!!! Thankfully Orlando figured out where to go, because I had no idea!!! I could have ended up in Tokyo for all I know!!
Our first Stop was the Umeda Sky building. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at the top, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide space in the center. Here we are in front of the building:

If you think I went up there then you have not been reading this blog!!!! Orlando went up and took some cool pictures of Osaka:

I stayed nice and safe on the ground and took some artsy pictures of the building:

The first day of Spring was officially March 21st!!! It is a National Holiday in Japan, but off course we had to go to work!!! I prefer working that day than having to come to work on Saturday...again?!?!?!?!
Afterwards we went to the Osaka Castle which was originally built in 1598. Don't we look cute?

Here we are in the castle's entrance:

I actually went to the top of the castle and here are the pictures to prove it.

How can there be a castle without a garden? NEVER!!!!

The castle had a really interesting exhibition of old Japanese military armor. I wonder who could maintain their balance and run around in this spiffy outfit:
After navigating trough the complete subway system we made it to the Kaiyukan aquarium,one of the world's largest. Go to:
http://www.kaiyukan.com/eng/
for more information on the aquarium. As you can see our friends Nuria and David where with us the whole weekend. I think the picture below explains how they where able to survive being with us 48 hours straight. Good Humor!!!!

In general the aquarium was pretty normal except for the various exhibit's quirky picture illustrations. Like everything here there has to be some type of cute cartoon to explain everything. This picture is the one for the sea otter exhibit. How does a leave on top of a chubby guy's head mean sea otter? It will remain on of life's great mysteries.
The next picture was used for the penguin exhibit:
This picture represents the largest tank in this aquarium which is 30 feet deep, and has 5,400 tons of water. Apparently if there is a big shark behind you all you have to do is ride the sting ray in order to get away.

Here is some video from the huge water tank:

You can see a whale shark in this video, which is 14 feet in length and weights about 1,800 pounds.

SUMO WRESTLING

2007-03-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

On 3/17/07 we went to go watch Sumo wrestling in Osaka (about 1.5 hours by bullet train from Hiroshima) with a few friends. Here I am in front of the Sumo Stadium, as you can see it was easy to identify where it was thanks to all the colorful flags outside.
Here we are in from of the Stadium, for the record we have no idea what the guy in the right hand side of the picture was doing. I think he was just there guarding the decorations...seriously.
We had a the chance to see some of the Sumo wrestlers coming in to the Stadium. Notice how huge this guy is in comparison to the people around him. Needless to say they really stand out in a crowd!!!

I tried to stop some of the wrestlers in order to take a picture but they completely ignored me, so I took a picture with my new cardboard friend. Are we a happy couple of what?

Since we got there early we had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the fighters.

Here is a good view of the ring:

I bought the box seats for this event thinking they where like the ones in Detroit's Tiger Stadium, boy was I wrong. These where our box seats. What ever happened to regular seats?
After 6 hours of sitting in our "extremely huge" space we where feeling the togetherness (since everyone's feet where numb that's about all we could feel) in our cushions as you can see below:

A total of 8 foreigners went with us to the Sumo event. We began to make bets (10 cents each fight nothing mayor) as to who would win. Orlando just picked the guys with the funniest names and then my friend would match them to the picture in the event book. If we still had no idea who was fighting we would ask our neighbors, "Who is that". We where actually very loud and would cheer hysterically for our picks. I thought "we must be quite annoying" but to the contrary, our box neighbor bought all of us ice cream and some guy sitting behind us gave a few people free beer!!! What a great country, free stuff!!!!

Here are the Sumo wrestlers in the Ring Entering Ceremony. What could be better than big men with colorful skirts?

If you want to get into Sumo then just follow these easy steps:

1. Assume the position.
2. Engage your opponent.

3. Knock your opponent down swiftly.

Now let's see that in real time:

Here they go again:

To learn more about sumo wrestling go to the information section of this site:

http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/index.html

He's baaaack!!!!!!

2007-03-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Orlando's back from visiting his parents in San Francisco. He went to checkout their new house (see picture above) and bring me back some good old fashioned American goodies!!!!! Orlando brought back a grand total of 5 pictures from his trip!!!! So here they are hanging in Pebble beach golf course:

In general I am very glad that Orlando is back because it was way too quite in the apartment without him. I also wanted to take this chance and say THANKS to all the people in Hiroshima who called me, invited me over for dinner and generally took care of me these last 10 days. It's good to know you have friends you can count on.

Taco Party

2007-03-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I had a few people over for dinner. Here I am hard at work cooking. Please take a mental note of the picture above because it is very rare to actually see me in the kitchen and in addition, actually cooking something. You might want to mark your calendars for this special occasion. I invited some new friends from work and a English teacher (10 points if you can guess which one he is) who where looking for good tacos (the ones you can get here are very expensive and the taste is questionable) last week so I volunteered to make some.

Everything turned out fine and they actually liked my cooking. It's a miracle call the Vatican to investigate!!!! I cooked 5.5 pounds of beef and we eat around 34 tacos along with some spanish rice!!!!

In the end we ended up talking about an array of interesting subjects (note" alcohol is always good for that). We discussed everything all the way from why Hello Kitty has no mouth (the artist did this on purpose in order for the person to reflect his/her feeling on the doll) to infidelity in society (I proclaimed my extreme feminists views on how this is extremely wrong, off course). I also taught them some must English works like: Hot (as in "that dude is hot"), player (as in a guy/girl having many girlfriends/boyfriends), gay (no explanation necessary) and too much information (as in too much detail). In general I think every one had a good time and I am happy to have succeed in my first Japanese friends party.

Maiko Encounter

2007-03-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I got a chance to see some real Maiko's (Geisha's in training) at a department store's (similar to Macy's) Kyoto fair. I was reading that after a period as short as six months or as long as five years, the Maiko can be promoted to a geisha. I took a few pictures of them with my cel phone, and so did everyone else!!! you could hear the cel phone cameras working overtime!!!!

Check out the details on the back of her Kimono.

2 Maikos are better than 1. The one in the blue is only 15 years old and the one in the black is 19 years old.

Strike a POSE!!!! Maiko style!!! Don't they look like dolls? I think that is the whole point!!

After the performance I had a chance to take a picture with the Maikos.

I took a video of them dancing with my cell phone, check it out (use the small screen) at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT7whPzXYDE

Their dancing seems simple but t really is not. You noticed quickly that they can bearly walk in those super tight Kimonos it is a miracle they can even move so much!!! I had great time watching them since I know that you have to pay good money (around $200 or more) to see a real Geisha but hey I'll settle for a free viewing any day.

Kurashiki

2007-02-25T23:06:00.000-08:00

On Sunday the girls, David and I (Orlando was playing golf in 37 F weather) went to the little town of Kurashiki about 2 hours by car from Hiroshima. Here we are looking hot (actually it was quite cold) as always:

The town had a very cute preserved area which is surrounded by shops and museums. In one of these shops I found a Japanese doll representation of my family, Mom, Dad and 3 girls as you can see below:

I also found some very comfortable and modern looking Reefs (a brand of flip flops) in one of the little shops:
We where lucky enough to run into a wedding, check it out:
I wonder if we could have crashed the wedding....I don't think so, but hey it would have been extremely educational. Here is a close up of the happy bride and groom:
He's thinking "I love you even though you have the world's worse wig on". Seriously you can't notice it on the picture but I could have bought a better wig at Halloween USA. Now that is commitment. Our initial intention was to go sightseeing but we got "derailed" and ended up shopping most of the day. He we are happily carrying our bags:

We also had a chance to go to the Achi Shrine as you can see below:To those of you who are wondering our pour Taxi driver/camera man/body guard/bag carrier, I mean David, survived driving 2 hours each way and shopping with 3 girls for 5 hours. Golf Claps please!!!! I'm certain Orlando would have given me money to take the train back home after 1 hour of shopping. Inside the shrine there where some "Daruma dolls".

These dolls are hollow and round wish dolls. Using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish. Should the wish later come true, the second eye is filled in and the doll is taken back to the temple where it was purchased. I found that out from a colleague on Monday, when I was actually there I just thought they where funny looking, but it's good to know that they actually have a specific meaning. Here is an artsy picture of the shrine:

It is traditional for the visitors to a shrine purchases a wooden tablet, writes a wish or prayer on the tablet, and hangs it at the shrine. For those of you who are planning to visit start thinking of a good wish. Your going to have to send me your wish 3 months ahead of time in order to figure out how to write it in Japanese.

A Very Japanese Weekend

2007-02-19T00:16:00.000-08:00

After having to work on Saturday to make up for the National Holiday On Monday (God forbid that everyone just takes a day off) we went to Fujimoto-san's house (one of my co-worker's). He invited us to stay over at his house on Saturday in order to play in a volleyball tournament on Sunday. Our German friend Elmar came to play with us. He is over 6 feet tall and can spike the ball like no one's business, basically he was our secret weapon. Our friend Yoshi (who lived in the US for 8 years) drove us to the small town of Onomichi which is about an hour away from Hiroshima. Finally a real house!!!!!!!! well at least for one weekend. It was the first time we had ever stayed in someones house. The funny thing is that no one in the house speaks English. Fujimoto-san is learning how to speak English, between what he had learned and my 59.5% knowledge of basic Japanese we some how understand each other. Here we are eating with his family on the floor:

Fujimoto-san is the guy in the couch and judging from the picture I'm sure you can understand why we get along besides the huge language barrier. His wife and daughters, who are 15, 11 and 8, where really nice and attentive to us. The only one who did not like us was the dog Minto.

It was the first time we slept "the Japanese way", on top of a futon on the floor. We also had 2 mini pillows that felt like you where sleeping on a giant Bennie baby.

I think the dolls did not come alive in the middle of the night. Or did they?!?!?!?
The next day we where off to the Volleyball tournament. Once we got there we met the rest of our team. Aren't we intimidating or what!?!?!?!

We played with 4 complete strangers who could not speak any English and somehow ended up in third place. In my opinion we did well. The girls came to see us play and hang out for a while.

After the tournament we went to eat Onomichi's famous ramen noddles in a little shop near by. I'm almost certain that the people there had never seen a foreigner in their lives because they stared at us like we had 3 arms the whole time. I did not care because the noddles where damm good.
In general I think this weekend was a good experience for everyone. We got to practice some Japanese and Fujimoto-san's family got interested in learning English so that they could talk to use next time. On Monday when we where all back to work Fujimoto-san came over and said how grateful he was that we encouraged his girls to speak English. I told him that we where the one that where grateful for his family's sincere kindness. He said that his dream was for them to be fluent in 2 languages. I told him that my father (we are 3 girls also) had the same desire and it came true. I realized that things are not so different after all.

Sushi Party!!!!!

2007-02-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

As you can see we had a sushi party at the Mosley's residence on Saturday. You can see the "Sushi Master Erin" hard at work teaching everyone how to make sushi roles. Don't worry we actually cooked all the food before putting it in the sushi, so last I checked we are all still alive and kicking.

Here I am with my masterpieces.

Orlando is hard at work making some shrimp and steak sushi (hey don't judge, it's make your own sushi night you can make whatever you want). As you can see on your left presentation is important.

Our new neighbor Noi joined the party with her husband Cheyenne (not to be confused with Puerto Rican Hottie Chayanne http://www.chayanne.net/english.htm). The least I could do was help her out with her sushi since they where nice enough to let us borrow their RX-8.

Update on Japanese Test

2007-02-07T23:26:00.000-08:00

As some of you may remember I took a basic level Japanese language proficiency test in December of last year. Yesterday I finally got my results and of course I failed. I'm ok with that because even my Japanese teacher had told me I was not going to pass. The issue is that I needed to get 60% correct in order to pass the test. Does anyone want to guess how much I got? Anyone? Well I got a beautiful 59.5% and apparently the mathematical rules of rounding a number up do not apply in the Japanese Language test office, so I failed by 0.5 %. Basically if I would have know one more Kanji or one more verb I could have passed. I think my Japanese teacher said it best: "If you pass after 5 months only, it crime". Ohh well, a certificate was not going to save me from a menu full of Kanjis in a restaurant. I will just have to find comfort in the fact that at least I can order take out pizza, thank God for Pizza Hut.

It's Snowing!!!!

2007-02-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up to this view from our apartment (8th floor), IT'S SNOWING!!!!! I'm cursed there is snow everywhere I go!!!! It follows me!!! I can only be thankful that we don't have to shovel the school yard!!!! There are going to be a bunch of mad parents when their kids get home wet and muddy!!!! Check out the snow in the balcony's safety rails!!!!
What's funny about the whole thing is that it only snows here once or twice a year since the average temperature for February is from 33 - 48 F, but we are just soooo lucky. I'm not complaining because back in Michigan (average temperature for Feb. is 20-36F) poor Orlando would have shoveled the drive way many times by now.

In order to add insult to injury, our neighbor asked us to switch cars with him for 2 weeks (he has a bad back) so we went from our beautiful Verisa with it's 133 hp engine ( I call it the lawnmower):
To this:

A 220 hp RX-8!!! What a perfect rear wheel drive vehicle to have when it snows!!!!!!! You know we don't care. I'm sure we will survive this small "inconvenience"!!! Needless to say we will continue "sacrificing" ourselves driving this little monster around.

London, England

2007-01-19T00:40:00.000-08:00

Our last stop was London, England. We decided to walk around even though it was raining and freezing. We took out our secret weapon, a super yellow post it note our friend Therese (who works in London) gave us with detailed instructions of where to go. The first thing that caught our attention was the old phone booths all over the city. Here I am on the right trying to call home (it did not work) on the picture on the left. Then we saw Big Ben right in front us. I'm trying to give it a hug on the picture on the right. I'm sure he appreciated it.

Here is Orlando in the middle of the city:

Oh look my friend Big Ben again.

We walked to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen but her guards would not let me in.

I actually felt bad for the guards because it was raining and they where in these little dog house looking rain shelters. I know they are not supposed to have any expressions but I know in the inside he was wondering "Why did I choose this job?". In general I thought the palace would be bigger, but as my friend Martin said "The real estate in London is so expensive that not even the Queen of England can afford a huge home".
Visiting London was bittersweet because we knew that our European adventure was coming to an end. We did not have much time to complain because soon we where on a plane going back to Japan. Goodbye big food portions, normal clothes sizes, English language and funny looking money!!! Adios Europa!!!! Some day we will see each other again :-) !!!

Paris, France

2007-01-16T17:29:00.001-08:00

Paris!!! La ville de l'amour (the city of love)!!! OUI!!! (yes). I was very excited to finally see the Eiffel Tower. In case you where wondering the green cone in the middle is supposed to represent a X-mas tree. Here we are cold but happy.
Every hour the Eiffel Tower completely lights up. It was truly an amazing sight, as you can see in the picture below:
Orlando and I decided to have some good old coffee right by the tower. It was actually very good and all the people had a completely laid back attitude, they just wanted to relax and look at the tower. There was even one lady with just her dog hanging out by the window. Actually this is one of my favorite picture of the whole trip, very European.

We got to the city on January 4, 2007 and the bus took us around the Champs-Élysées, which was actually quite scary!!! Cars every where just going around in a circle!?!?!? I had no idea who had the right of way, but luckily the bus driver did and we made it out of the roundabout in one piece.Early the next morning in the morning we went to the Louvre Museum.

Here is Orlando trying to find Mary Magdalene (rent The DaVinci Code if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Once inside the museum we went straight to see the Mona Lisa (you where not allowed to take picture of it). I was very surprised by how small it is. I did test out the theory that she is looking at you from every angle, I think she is!!!

We where able to see some great pieces of art. To the right I'm with the Venus de Milo. This statue is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek Sculpture. It is believed to depict Aprodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. To the right I'm with the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It is a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory), discovered in April 1863 on the island of Samothrace.
Once Orlando figured out the subway system we went to Les Invalides in Paris, which consists of a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to France's military history. Here is Orlando posing in front of the building:

The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is the one for Napoleon Bonaparte. Here I am next to his sarcophagus, which is huge for such a short guy (he was believed to be 5 ft 2 in tall).

In honor of all the Chapelle's shows we watched in our ipod through out the trip we visited Sainte-Chapelle. This Gothic chapel was completed in 1246 and the best part is in the inside. Check out all the stained glass!!! The amazing part is that each huge glass has sections depicting stories from the bible.

Afterwards we crossed the bridge over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We did not find any hunchbacks though :-(. Even the back of the church was astonishing as you can see in the picture on the right.

We continued exploring the city and found this really cozy little French restaurant to have some lunch. We had a perfect seat right next to the window. The funny part is that it was cheaper to order wine than a Coca-Cola!!! We watched the people go by of all different shapes and sizes. We where there for a long time just reminding ourselves of all we have done, all the new friends we have made and all the places we have seen in just a few months. After living in Japan for 6 months everything seems easier, even if it's all written in French.

Lucerne, Switzerland

2007-01-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

"Yodl - Ay - EEE - Ooooo", Welcome to the Swiss Alps!!!!!! In reality no one was yodeling or dressed like these guys to your right. I was sooo disappointed!!! Lucerne was actually a very cute, safe, clean (now that I live in meticulously clean Japan every piece of trash on the ground is disturbing) and beautiful town. There where however thousands of watch and chocolate stores all over town. So we did the "tourist thing" and bought a watch for me (very cute by the way) and loads of chocolate which Orlando and I brought back to work (the ones that survived that is).
Everywhere you looked it seamed like a picture from a fairytale complete with a prince. I have proof look at the picture below:

Here he is again:

Here I am in front of the most famous sight in Lucerne, is the Chapel Bridge, a 204 m (670 ft) long wooden bridge originally built in1333 and it's still used every day!!!

It was 28th Orlando's B-day!!! That morning everybody sang Happy Birthday in the bus as best as they could considering the late night most people had from the Florence night club. This picture is from dinner that night.

We went to a cool bar next to the hotel to celebrate. There everyone got confused between Euros and Swiss Franks but nothing can stop a bunch of kids trying to get some beer!!! We found 2 of the most entertaining objects of the entire trip at the bar. The first was this very explicit flyer advertising "Frigay Nights" at a local club, which you can see to your right. All I have to say is that thank God that January 3, 2007 was a Wednesday!!!

The second interesting object was this David (like in David and Goliath) Energy Drink to your left. Who thinks of this stuff??? I guess only the Europeans!!!

Florence, Italy

2007-01-15T00:47:00.001-08:00

Italia!Italia! Florencia! Florencia! We are still in Italia(Jan. 2,2007)! Look at this view !!! Out of all the countries this was definitely the best one because we loved the food and being able to speak Spanish all day. For some reason there where allot of nude statues all over the place. The most famous one being the David Statue. Here is a replica of it since the real one had a 2 hour line to see it. I had to make David decent by adding some leaves (this is a family oriented blog):

Here we are walking around town, everything looked super cute with their X-mas decorations.

We had a chance to see the crowning architectural jewel of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, known as "The Dome".

We also got to see The Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery of St John) which is believed to be the oldest building in Florence. Michelangelo referred to these doors as fit to be the "Gates of Paradise", and the name stuck for ever and ever. These gilded bronze doors took 27 years to complete!!! (reference: wikipedia.org) Now that's persistence!!!

One of the bridges that stood out in Florece was The Ponte Vecchio - Old Bridge (For my PR peeps all we kept saying was "Sr. Ponte Vecchio, llamando al Sr. Ponte Vecchio" from those 1980's commercials. This bridge was interesting because of the corridor on the top of it was built in order for the rich people (Medici family - the bankers of the Renaissance period) to go from their home to their jobs without mingling with the commoners. How special where they?

After another exhausting day of walking, walking and walking some more we went to a huge Tuscan Dinner (there where like 5 courses or more) in the beautiful Italian country side. There we stuffed our faces with lasagna, pasta, bread and all you could drink wine. The fun part was that this really funny waiter came and started singing "Lo que paso, paso entro tu y to..." and we had not said one word in Spanish!!! He knew a bunch of Reggaeton songs by heart!!! Then the actual music started with a one-man band. The Puerto Ricans girls and I stood up and started dancing. The singer asked where we where from and we said Puerto Rico. He proceeded to put on a merengue song. Everyone cleared the dance floor and there was only the 3 of left. I turned to the girls and said "Ok let's grab some guys and teach them a few things". It turns out the closest table had the Japanese kids from our tour, so we made them stand up and shake their bon bons. Technically I could do that here, but it was fun and everyone complemented us at the end. The one-man band then started singing "En mi Viejo San Juan" (like America the Beautiful in the US) and we all joined him ( somewhat out of tune but we tried). I got very sentimental all of a sudden but knowing that I will be back home in May made me feel better.

Once the dinner was over we danced the night away in a Florence disco. Once again there where lots of Reggeaton music all through out the night.

Rome, Italy

2007-01-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

ROMA, ROMA, ROMA Bellisimo!!! We arrived in Rome, Italy on New Years Eve. We went to our hotel and then straight to a huge Italian dinner as you can see in the above picture. There was even an opera singer on hand to serenade us all through out the meal. The restaurant we went to happened to be next to the Vatican so we rushed to see it once dinner was over. Here is Orlando in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Here are some pictures inside the Basilica (taken on New Year's Day):

I can't even begin to explain how breathtaking the Basilica was, every where you looked there was a painting or an amazing sculpture, even the roof was amazing. I felt like I had attention deficit disorder my eyes could not concentrate on one thing!!!
We continued walking toward the Piazza del Popoloma Rome where the New year's eve countdown occurs. The only problem is that there were about 5 million people in town that day all going toward the same place!!! As you can see on the picture on the right. Everyone had champagne on hand for the big countdown. Once 2007 hit everyone opened their bottles and proceeded to soak us completely with it!!! it was crazy all I could see was lights (from the fireworks) and champagne falling on me!!! It was truly a crazy experience. Once the celebration had ended everyone was trying to walk back to the bus. The problem was that the mob of people where all going the same way. At one point I said to Orlando and the other Puerto Ricans "Ok no matter what happens hold on and stay together". So we navigated through the crowd and made it back to the bus on time. Thank God because some of the people who missed it had to pay a taxi $150 Euros ($194 US dollars) to get back to the hotel!!!

The next day we walked for 8 hours straight all over Rome. We visited the Colosseum first.

Peace out at the Roman Ruins.

Here we are at the Trevi Fountain:

Gelato!!!! MMmmmm

Here we are inside the Vatican Museum:

We also got a chance to see the Sistine Chapel (you can't take pictures inside) which ceiling was painted by some dude called Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtle) maybe you have heard of him. Rome was definitely our favorite city of the whole trip.

Venice, Italy

2007-01-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to wonderful Venice, Italy. As you already know there are no cars allowed in this island and everyone moves via boats or gondolas. Below you can see the view from our boat going toward Venice:

We went straight into St. Mark's square and I could not believe all the beauty around us. I could not comprehend that little old me was actually there!!! If there is one thing I have learned this year is that anything is possible. The first thing that catches your eye in the plaza is St. Mark's Basilica which was completed on 1105. The walls where all covered in gold leaves inside the Basilica:
Here we are on the Basilica's balcony overlooking the square.

Out of no where a blast of fog came into Venice and even though it got colder (yupi!!..not) it really gave us an interesting view of the city. At least it did not flood like it has in the past. The fog let us take these amazing pictures of Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and St. Mark's Campanile.

The most famous part about this city is off course the Gondolas!! Here we are in a gondola ride (i thought it was going to tip over but we survived) and a view of the "streets":

There where 6 people per gondola (we managed to make an all Spanish speaking gondola in which the girls where asking the gondolier lots of questions), except one that only had a couple on it. I said to Orlando "I wonder what's going on?". It turns out that the guy proposed to his girlfriend right there!!!! The gondolas are the 10th best place in the world to propose. If you are wondering the 1st place to propose is in Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa (reference: http://www.thisisthelife.com/en/ultimate-places-to-propose/index.htm). Later in the day we found out that a second couple in our tour had gotten engaged in the Rialto Bridge. Go Venice!!! Needless to say everyone was happy that night wishing the couples the best in their new lives together.

Note: A few blocks from our hotel Orlando saw a sign that had a Puerto Rico flag and said "Clases de salsa todos los sabados" (salsa class every Saturday). I guess our musical impact has reached many corners of the world.

Innsbruck, Austria

2007-01-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

On our way to Austria (Dec. 29, 2006) the tour bus crossed through the Alps and the views where amazing as you can see from the picture above. We also had a chance to see the Neuschwanstein Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein) in Germany. You can see it from the road (the yellow box is not actually there).
A few people had never seen snow before and they got out of the bus and started a snow fight!!! As for me I thought I would escape snow this year but it seems to follow me everywhere :-(.
Here we are on the road toward the castle:

As you can see the castle was huge and we had to go up the mountain in a horse carriage in order to get to it. The castle employees where trying to get as many people as possible inside the carriage so I ended up almost on the lap of the carriage driver..lucky me?!?!?! I think he smelled worse than the horses!!!! But it was worth it!!!

Here we are in front of the castle's main entrance.
The castle was very impressive inside (sorry you can't take pictures in the inside). It was full of paintings, mosaics, murals and very elaborate wood carvings. There was one room that had paintings and sculptures everywhere with more than 1,000 white swans. We where like why are they so many swans? At the end of the tour I asked the guide "Where was the queen of this castle?" (she was never mentioned). The guide replied: "The only queen was the king", hahaha no wonder, the king was gay!!! That explains all the extravagances!!!

Once we arrived in Innsbruck I was impressed by the view of this huge town in the middle of the Alps as you can see below:
Here is a picture of The Golden Roof. It's balcony was used by royalty to watch events in the square below since 1500 and it looks like new!!!
Iddya in the streets (I'm not actually dancing if you where wondering)

Check out one of the cool buildings all around town:

For a parting thought here is Orlando in his signature pose:

Munich, Germany

2007-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

On our way to Munich we stopped in a little town next to the Rhine River called St. Goar (Dec. 27, 2006). The area was actually very nice, I was too sleepy in the morning to take a picture but thanks to the Internet here we where:
That night we went to this white whine tasting inside of a cave!!!! The wine was good but it was cold!!!! Here we are (for some reason I have bunch of pictures of use drinking but hey what can I do about it now?):

We saw this very interesting Jägermeister dispenser at the hotel bar and a giant beer stein (it keeps your beer cold). Go German engineering!!!

Once we finally got to Munich Orlando and I went exploring around the city and he found a street in his honor as you can see:

Here are some nice artsy pictures of the city. This is the town hall:

Here is the Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Lady) which is the most famous building in the city center and it's more than 500 years old!!!

There was also really good shopping (as you can see form the bag that I am carrying):

Here we are in one the biggest beer halls in Germany, Hofbrauhaus established in 1589. Basically it was this huge open hall with a bunch of pick nick tables full of people, even people who did not know each other!!! You just talked to whom ever was next to you, raised you glass and said cheers. Those are one full liter of beer!!!! This was definitely a very interesting way of spending our 3rd wedding anniversary.

I have to give it up for the band that was playing they really contributed to the atmosphere. I love their clothes!!!

Reggeaton sighting (if you have no idea what this kind of music is then check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggeaton - yes someone actually took the time to research this stuff) - On our way back to the hotel Orlando and I where waiting for a street light to change when suddenly an SUV passes by with a Daddy Yankee song blasting from his rolled down windows. We just stared at each other and started laughing hysterically. I don't remember what song it was but it was one of the early ones completely in Spanish. To our surprise this was not the only time we would have such an encounter, more to come on that in later blogs.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2007-01-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

In order to get to our European tour we spent X-mas day in an airplane!!! We where like Merry X-mas now grab your stuff and let's go to the train station. Actually this was the longest X-mas day ever since we left Japan on the 25th and arrived in England around 9pm the same day!!! So we actually had 1.5 days of X-mas!! Crazy huh? I was kind of bummed because it was our first X-mas away from home. We had spent X-mas eve with friends at an Irish bar a few block away. The bar had some live music (like the soundtrack from Braveheart) and I was thinking that this is truly a first for me, where are the guitars, sticks, maracas and "panderetas"? Where are the "trovadores" (typical singers) and everyone singing along (mostly out of tune) traditional Puerto Rican songs? I was somewhat sad but the excitement of our upcoming trip made me feel better.

Once we arrived in London we realized that everything was closed!!! There was no public transportation!!! We had forgotten that it was still Christmas day!!! So we just chilled at the hotel bar that night. The next day we went to the tour's meeting spot and realized that we had already seen all this people the day before in the same bar we where in, apparently there was absolutely nothing open. We where soon off to Amsterdam in the motor coach that would be home for the next 2 weeks.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam (Dec. 26, 2006), we went on a boat cruise around the city canals. There where lots of little floating houses around the canal (which people where having X-mas parties in) which remeinded me of "La Parguera" in Puerto Rico.

The best part was that it was open bar.

So we proceeded to meet a few a people by sharing some "cheers". The funniest thing was that there where 3 Japanese guys sitting in a corner. That would soon change since one of the girls from South Africa asked Orlando how to say cheers in Japanese which is "Kompai". She proceeded to get them some drinks and started saying Kompai and proceeded to drink up. The issue is that she kept doing it!!! I went over and introduced myself and after about 10 minutes ran out of Japanese phrases but I don't think they cared because by that time they where all really drunk, but I still participate in the Kompai moments.

After everyone was "happy" from the cruise we went to the red light district of Amsterdam. In all honesty I did not know what to expect. It was basically "coffee shops", "ladies of the night" behind glass windows, bars and pizza parlors in succession. For the record we did not go into any of the shops, we just stared at the decadence it that place. You are not supposed to take pictures but here I am in front of a "coffee shop":

The next day we walked around Amsterdam. The city looked completely different during the day!!! It actually has some pretty cool sights. Here is a good view of the city, and Orlando looks nice too:

Here is Orlando in Dam Square the middle of the city.

Here I am inside a huge Dutch wooden clog:

I followed my friend Miriam's advice (she studied history and has been all over Europe) and visited Ann Frank's House. It was quite impressive to see how they lived in such a small place. You could go up to all the rooms and see the infamous book case that covered the entrance to the rear annex. They managed to stay alive thanks to the Mr. Frank's coworkers who gave them food and supplies. To the right you can see a picture of Anne Frank's house.

Afterwards we went to see the Van Gogh Museum. They had a pretty impressive collection of paintings and memorabilia from his life. In general Amsterdam had a little bit of everything to offer.

Europe

2007-01-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

We are back from Europe!!!! This year Orlando and I decided to do something different since we are in the other side of world so finally we put our foots down and went to Europe for 2 weeks!!! It was great!!!! we are completely exhausted after using every type of transportation available (high speed trains, airplanes, ferries, taxis, motor coach, subways and 1 horse carriage) to visit 10 cities and 7 countries in 14 days!!! After a while I would wake up and ask "Where are we?". I will be processing the more than 1000 pictures we took over the next few weeks and writing down some anecdotes about the trip but for now this was our general impression of Europe.

A. Good things

1. Big food portions - since we usually order about 3 or 4 entrees in Japan in order to be full, it was a relief to be able to order just one thing and be stuffed (especially in Italy).

Here I am eating some pizza in front of the Roman Coliseum:

2. Being able to communicate - for the most part everyone would speak English and in Italy we just spoke Spanish and they would answer back in Italian and everyone was happy.

3. Normal clothes sizes - finally no more 1, 0 and 00 sized pants!!!

4. The history - we went from visiting Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan back to good old catholic churches.

The best part was the Basilica of San Pedro by far, here is Orlando inside:

5. 7% of the French

B. Annoying things (according to our tour guide "It's not wrong, it's just different" but still)

1. Paying for using the bathroom

2. Paying for ketchup and any other type of sauce - we did not notice this until the end when we checked the receipt!!!

3. The use of different currencies - England and Switzerland should just join the European union so we would not have to be changing from Pounds to Franks to Euros (so annoying!!!)

4. Using 20 cent and 2 cent coins - why? what's wrong with the 1 cent or 10 cent coins?

5. 93% of the French.

C. People

We took a tour around Europe with about 50 people ages 18-35. It was very much like a senior trip except you can't call your parents if you run out of money!!! There where people from everywhere the majority was from Australia and the others where from Brazil, South Africa, Canada and even 3 from Puerto Rico!!! We where not the only ones!!!! I was sooooo happy to be part of an actual group that you can't even image, plus it was good having a little bit of home so far away. We where called a little bit of everything, some of the people in the tour group called us the Puerto Rican express, others the Puerto Rican posse or Team Puerto Rico which where all good. Here we are in from of the Eiffel Tower:

Everyone was from different walks of life. A few people where still in college, some where engineers, teaches, soldiers, accountants and a doctor (one of my new PR buddies). Here we are with some of our new friends hanging out in Switzerland:

My absolute favorite picture of the whole trip is this one we took in Paris:

I know we where not the only ones that took a trip during X-mas so please let us know how your vactions went!!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD

2006-12-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS

MERRY X-MAS EVERYBODY

I know everyone must be packing right now to go home or on super adventure trip for Christmas so I decided to publish the X-mas post as soon as possible. I hope everyone has a really good time with their family and friends, and don't eat too much!!! I was thinking this year brought a lot of change not only for Orlan and I but for many of our friends. Some people had kids, others moved and some got married all in a really short amount of time, just one year!!!!! So congratulations to everyone!!!! I'm sure the new year will bring more crazy adventures for everyone.

If your going to Puerto Rico or anywhere tropical take a few minutes to admire the beautiful view and take a nice picture like this one:

P.S. We will be gone for 2 weeks and I won't be updated the Blog so if you want to stare at the same pictures and read the same stories then that's fine, but you have been warned.
2nd P.S. - The pictures are from last year at my In-laws place in Ponce, PR. Everyone here is Buddhist (there are X-mas decorations in the shops but it's like a Hallmark Holiday) and mainly celebrate the New Year.

Mitaki Temple

2006-12-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

On Sunday Erin decided to stop taking Aly (our friend who has been here working from Michigan for 5 weeks) shopping or to the arcade (seriously we spend 3 hours in the photo booth last time) and go to the Mitaki Buddhist Temple near by Hiroshima. It turn out to be a great idea because even though it's officially winter it still looks like fall!!! I had been to the temple before but the "fall" colors made everything look 10 times more scenic. Here are a series of "artsy" pictures that I took:

These statues are called "Jizu" and they where all over the temple's surroundings. According to http://www.wikipedia.com/ Jizo is a Buddist enlightened being who provides Salvation from suffering and is the guardian of deceased children, expectant mothers, firemen, travelers, and pilgrims.These statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children's clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō's features are also commonly made more babylike in order to resemble the children he protects.

This is "Iddya in the fall":

Here is "Iddya in the Bambu Forest" like in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

We decided to climb up the small mountain to see the view from the city. Once we got there I was very desapointed to find a giant electrical tower instead of a nice look our place, but it had the funniest sign I have even seen:

Japanese Party

2006-12-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

This Friday I went to my first Japanese Work Party. It was extremely well organized with presentations and lots entertainment. The good part was you could eat and drink anything you wanted for 3 hours!! All Right!!! Here is a picture of the people who work with me.

The funniest part about the night was that the most quite guy in the whole office came out of his shell and sang a Kareoke song. Gues which one is the before and after in the pictures to the right. After his very interesting song I actually stood up and read a message from one of the managers in the office could not attend. No one wanted to read the message out loud (it was in english), offcourse who ended up reading it? Me !!! So what if there 70 people who had no idea who I was since I only started working 1 month ago.?!?!?! Little did they know that as the daughter of an ex-politician, I love making speaches and jump to the chance of making any presentations. At the end everyone congratulated me and I was like "ok so I can read....great" no big deal.
After the party there was an actual bus that took everyone to the Kareoke hall. This place was huge it had 7 stories full of Kareoke rooms!!! The best part is the video I took:

Here is our "out of his shell guy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0DAarhNBoE
And now one of the guys who sang very well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsy8Rqjs1bw

If your wondering I did sing a few songs, but I stayed away from the ones in Spanish so I would not bucher them and give everyone a bad impression about Latin music.

View from the car

2006-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone I just wanted to share one of the nice vews of the city I see on the way to work.

Japanese Test

2006-12-03T21:35:00.000-08:00

There are no nice pictures this week because I did a crazy thing; I took a Japanese Proficiency test and spend the weekend inside studying!!! The first few weeks that I was here I was hanging out with my Catalan friend Nuria and accompanied her to the post office in order to learn where the post office was. It turns out she was applying for the Japanese test and I decided to apply also. Why not? So that was 5 months ago and I did not realize what the test required until 1 week ago when I found a website with review material for the test. The review for the test was 40 pages long with 15 of them just vocabulary words!!!!! I literally started laughing hysterically and saying to myself WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!!!!!
After I got over my freak out I decided to research the requirements for the test. It turns out that you're supposed to have 150 hours of class, learn 120 kanji characters and know 800 words…Why am I so lucky? I calculated that I've taken about 60-70 hours of class since I have been here and know some kanji (the first things you learn are the exit, parking, entrance and the sign for woman to be able to go to the right bathroom). I tried to do the "college thing" and lock myself up all day and study, but there was something missing...all my study buddies from college (shot out to the INQU Posse, I know a few of you read this blog because of the dots in the map, leave me a comment to know your alive!!!).
The day of the test I woke up early, sharpened my #2 pencils, met some friends at the station and got on the train to the test center. I was very surprised at the amount of people from all over the world who where taking the test. Once the proctor started reading the instructions of the test out loud and that's when I realized I was in big trouble. I did not understand one word of what he was saying!!! He could have been talking in Russian and it would have made no difference!!! In the words of Grey's Anatomy – SERIOUSLY!!! I had a sudden urge to just get my stuff and go home but I'm a disaster figuring out the trains without Orlando so I just stayed.
The first part of the test involved matching a bunch of Kanji to their meaning. The whole time I was thinking does this have 3 lines next to the square? Maybe it was 3 lines next to the cross? I really wish I knew what the hell this sentence is talking about because it can be 2 different characters!!!! Anyways that did not go so well but I think I got a few.
I was feeling pretty good until the next part, listening. The speaker started blurring out various conversations and asking a question about it. The only problem was I could not even tell what the subject of the conversation was, it just all sounded like one really big never ending word. I would try to write down the few words that I could recognize but by that time the next conversation was already being played. So for 25 minutes I randomly colored circles...lots of fun. I was completely demoralized by the time the last section of the test came around, grammar and reading comprehension. Since I'm basically reading like a kid in kinder garden (something like: A-ri-ga-to) I did not even finish "reading" the whole thing. In a nut shell there is no way I'm passing this test and if I do I should start playing the Lottery.
The moral of the story is: Don't sign up for random tests without knowing what they really are, especially in a language with 3 alphabets, that conjugates adjectives (why do you need a whole new word just to say "it was cold" or "it will be cold"?) and has 3 ways of saying everything – casual (at home), polite (shows respect) and formal (at work).

PS - A nice community of bloggers has developed in the past few months, come and join us it's fun!!! If you want to see a few of my friends' blog just click the links on the right hand of the page and enjoy!!!! Caution: Some of them are in Spanish but you can look at the pretty pictures for kicks.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2006-11-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving with their family and friends. There is no Thanksgiving per say here but it was a National Holiday. Mazda worked that day and when I asked me Japanese colleagues what was the National Holiday for they said it was worker appreciation day. Apparently Mazda did not get the Memo on this because it was just another normal day at the office on Thursday. I have to accept that I was pretty down that day because I knew that on a normal Thanksgiving I would be at a friends house eating good turkey and lots of food and off course making fun of everyone :-( but that's OK. It's the little things that you really miss about home.

On Friday we played volleyball in the school in front of our apartment with the parents of the kids who attend the school. It was basically a bunch of Japanese parent, one tall German guy and us. Fortunately 2 of the parents spoke English and let us know what was going on. It was really interesting to see how they play. First of all everyone stretched and warmed up together. I felt like I was 15 years old again practicing in my High School volleyball team because they did the same exact drills we used to do!!! Once we started playing the teams had 9 people in them and no one rotated...weird. Nevertheless it was fun and we just kept setting the ball to the German guy who would spike it real hard. In the second set we sent the German guy to the back because he was killing the Japanese parents, who by the way played very well and had hard serves. At the end everyone helped in cleaning up the gym. By the way you had to take 2 pairs of shoes, one to walk to the gym and leave outside and your sneakers to wear inside of the gym., which I found really funny. The parents where very nice to us and even invited us for drinks afterwards, which was very interesting since only one person could translate. I was very happy to be able to go back to something I really enjoy doing. Now if we could only find a softball team we would be all set.

On Saturday we meet a bunch of friends over at Erin's house for our invented Thanksgiving dinner. The theme of the meal was a pot luck dinner with dishes made by the boys. I have to give the boys points because everything was really good. Here is Orlando with Erin in his favorite place, in front of the grill making some kabobs ("pinchos" in Spanish).

Here is the happy bunch of foreigners lots in Hiroshima, Japan.

On Sunday I met up with Erin and Aly to go hang out in the shops downtown. We found this really cool "Dave and Buster's" type of place and decided to take some funny pictures in the booth. At first we could not figure out the picture booth because it was all in Japanese so we just picked random backgrounds. Then we discovered you could write stuff on the pictures. Last but not least we invited the guy working there to join us ... I bet we made his day.

New Events

2006-11-19T00:26:00.000-08:00

Hello Hello everyone!!! First of all a few people heard that there was an earthquake in Japan and called to see if we where ok and as you can see from the pictures below we are fine. The earthquake was in the north of Japan and did not affect us at all. On a happier note, I found this old picture the other day and wanted to place it on the blog because Orlan has a big smile in it and I think it's cute.

Here we are with Orlando's section who organized a welcome dinner for me. We had a lot of fun everyone is super nice and shared a little bit about their culture. We told them that in Puerto Rico we roast pigs on Christmas, celebrate Three Kings day (like a second X-mas) and have "parandas" (basically everyone goes over to your house at 3am with musicians, wakes you up and eats all your food). They all found it very interested and came to the conclusion that the best Christmas celebration is in Puerto Rico, which off course we happily agreed with.

On Saturday we celebrated Keiko (white shirt), our neighbor's B-day with a girls' night. The picture only cover half of one table, there where actually 18 people there!!! Ok let me rephrase 18 very loud foreigners who asked the Japanese people in the restaurant to sing Happy Birthday with us, which they did. Here I am with the ganag and my friend Aly (the one with the peace sign) who is here from Michigan for a few weeks. She is the one that introduced me to Erin (there is a link to her blog on the right hand corner) via E-mail and the rest is history.

Working in Japan

2006-11-15T00:37:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!! Nothing super interesting to report this week. Since I have been working, life has changed from adventure Thursdays (I would meet up with some friends and explore a little town or site around Hiroshima) to adventures on the train to and from work. I do want to share with everyone the good things about working in Japan. Here is my top ten list:

1. I always know which paper is mine in the group printer, the one with roman letters.
2. The girls bathroom is always unoccupied.
3. I realized that I really don't need to know what's happening in a meeting, so my day dreaming skills have increased dramatically.
4. Thanks to my European friends, I have come to appreciate a good cup of coffee at 3 o'clock.
5. I realized that there is no worse feeling in the world that watching the train leave as you run toward the station trying not to hit the other 1,000 people doing the same thing.
6. You can wear anything you want because your the only girl in the office and everyone else is wearing their Mazda jackets, so no one is going to care.
7. I have successfully mastered the art of bowing and smiling without saying a word.
8. My invented sign language vocabulary has increased.
9. My most important document is my English to Japanese dictionary.
10. I have less layers to wear because Japan is not cold!!!!! The average temperature for November is 61-45 degrees Fahrenheit, but people around here are already wearing scarves and gloves while I just wear a light jacket.

2006 World Volleyball Championship

2006-11-05T04:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to see the Puerto Rico National Volleyball team play in Kobe ,about and hour away from Hiroshima. It was really good to meet and talk to the other Puerto Ricans there. We meet some of the team representatives, reporters and the team's #1 fan who actually came all the way from Puerto Rico to see the team play. That deserves a medal!!! Here we are with PR's #1 fan and a very nice Japanese girl who had met the team during the practice rounds and came to support them.

Guess what? We made it to the newspaper!!! Check it out at:

http://www.endi.com/noticia/voleibol/deportes/salen_mas_fanaticos/103901

My name is misspelled but so what!!!! The pictures speaks a thousand words!!! I called home and they did publish the article in the sunday newspaper. The precise moment that I called my neighbors had already come over with the newspaper to tell my family. I could not believe it!!

Here is the tournament's mascot rooting for the right team:

Above you can see the whole team just before the PR's national anthem was played. I have to accept that I was very sentimental during this part because I was so happy to hear "La Borinqueña" on the other side of the world. We all had a really good time!!! I'm sure the players where glad to here a few "VAMOS, VAMOS" (Let's Go) in the midst of all the Japanese takataka...something...takataka. I only wish the best for the PR TEAM!!!!! I'm sure they will keep representing our little piece of land globally with the same class and style they demostrated in Japan.

Work

2006-11-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday I began working for Ford at the Mazda offices in Hiroshima, so every day Orlando and I go to work together. Some times we go by car and other times we take the train. The train is an experience all of it's own. It basically consists of a sea of people all dressed in 1,000 combinations of black and white walking or bicycling (nothing is funnier than a guy in a suit riding a bicycle to work) toward the train station. I realized how safe it was around here one morning when I saw little kids just walking to school by themselves with no parental supervision what so ever, that would never happen in Puerto Rico. Once your at the station everyone buys their respective tickets, puts their ipods on and boards the train, where you try your best not to bump into anyone.

The SUV that I'm working on is the The Ford Everest which is developed and sold in Asia. The Everest is based on the local Ford Ranger platform and made in Thailand. The SUV is also sold as the Ford Endeavour in India (see picture beklow). In general it looks very similar to a Explorer with three-row seating. For more information check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Everest.

I'm slowly working toward tackling the language barrier but it's not that easy folks!!! I'm the only foreigner in my group!! Just my luck!!! It's all part of the motivation factor to work on my Japanese ASAP.

Halloween

2006-10-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

I know Halloween is not until Oct. 31 but everyone celebrated it on Saturday night. I signed up to be on the kids Trick or Treat trail and lots of them came out from the International School. They where sooooo cute. It was funny how everyone had to cram into the elevator to go to the eight floor, but hey it was worth it. Here are some of the cuties that visited:

After the Trick or Treat session we where invited to a costume party. Orlando and I dressed up as Japanese Public employees. He was a construction worker and I was a police women as you can see from the picture below.

Here we are with the hosts of the party Tom and Jan. I would have to take them into police custody for possession after this picture off course.

People kept staring at us when we here walking to the party about 8 blocks away. The costume where a big hit and every one kept taking pictures of us, the problem was that Orlando's vest kept reflecting the light from the flash back into the camera!!!

People kept asking me to arrest them but I could not find any handcuffs and it's Japan so female cops don't really do anything except write tickets (I looked it up on the web).

As Orlando was walking around the party he noticed a couple dressed up as Ohio State Fans and send them my way. We talked football and where both looking forward to the Michigan vs Ohio State game coming up. There where no hard feelings except for the dead wolverine she made up using arts and crafts...the horror. As you can see from the picture to your left there is no escaping Ohio State fans... Even in Japan.

The party was a lot of fun and everyone had on funky costumes. Here are some pictures:

B-day

2006-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

I'm officially older!!!!! It was my B-day yesterday and my first one in Japan!!!
I found out that Happy Birthday in Japan is OTANJOBI OMEDETO and that the birthday song is the same one as in English. The only difference is that when you sing it you have to say Happy Birthday Iddya-san, which I find hilarious.

We went to a really nice dinner (you know with lots of silverware) with our friends to celebrate the occasion.

I got this SWEET Hello Kitty cake:

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who called, send gifts, e-mailed, instant messaged me or used any other form of communication to wish me well on my B-day. I guess now that I'm 27 I can't be conquering more mountains any more. Maybe I would be able to if I got a cane to help me out!!! HAHA just kidding!!!

Nature Hike

2006-10-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we decided to "be one with nature" and go on a nature hike up Mt. Misen in Miyajima Island just off the coast of Hiroshima. We walked all the way from the pier to the top of the mountain, back down the mountain to the aquarium and back to pier. I added blue arrows to the map below to show our path.

At the beginning we where very excited and pupped up to be going up the mountain especially since the sign indicated about a 2 mile hike up. No problem right? WRONG!?!? It was 2 miles of super steep steps next to these huge landslides all over the mountain!!! Every time you would take a step your knees would hit your chin!!! It was like being in the stepmaster machine from hell with the highest and steepest level non-stop. Check out the steps on the backgruond of the picture to your right. Needless to say it took us about 2 hours to get to the top of the mountain. The most embarrasing part was that these two separate old Japanese gentlemen all dressed up in hiking gear, passed us by and beat us to the top!!! I realized that it's really all down hill after your 25 years old folks!

Here is the view from the top (there where deer all over the island):

The interesting part is that we decided to take a different trail to go back down. After 3 hours we realized that the second trail was even longer and steeper than the first one!!! Once I stopped staring and cursing (I exhausted every bad word I knew in Spanish and English, if I would have know some in Japanese I would have thrown them in there too) at the endless steps in front of me, I took a break to admire the great view. Check out the picture on the right.
It was a great accomplishment for me to actually go up the mountain at all, since those of you who know me very well are aware that I'm afraid of heights, but I made it all the way up and down the mountain in one piece. I do know one thing for certain I did it because I realized it was a once in a life time experience.

Miyajima

2006-10-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

On October 12, 2006 Therese and I went on a day trip to Miyajima, a small island of the coast of Hiroshima. Miyajima is considered one of the "Three Most Beautiful Spots" of Japan and is the second tourist spot in Hiroshima after the Peace Museum. There where lots of tourists there from all over the world walking around the island. It was comforting and weird to finally hear some English being spoken around me.

Here are some cool pictures:

Let's play where is Iddya? Can you find me in this picture?

I'm really trying to fit in as you can see:

I found the real tourist attraction in the island a giant golden Hello Kitty:

For more information about the island visit:

http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/miyajima/english/top2.htm

Sports

2006-10-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to the weirdest news in the world - THE DETROIT TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE BASEBALL WORLD SERIES!!!! What?!?!?! I could barely believe it, after so many losing seasons, which Orlan and I presenced the past 4 years in Michigan now that we move they finally decide to win. In the words of Alanis Morrissette - "Isn't it ironic, don't you think?". For all the none Michigan readers of this blog ( I know your out there thanks to the dots on my cluster map on the right corner) here are a few pictures of Comerica Park:

In the picture above we are in front of the park with Orlando's parents. Watching the Tigers win (thanks to MLB.com) really brought back many good memories of the time we spent at the baseball park even though the team never ever won a game when we where there (or at least that's what it felt like). GO TIGERS!!!!

Now back to the usual blog subjects. Saturday we went to the Mazda purchasing annual softball tournament. It was very cool to meet the people who work with Orlando everyday. I spoke to a few English speakers who where mostly girls (younger than me if you can believe it, mostly 22-25 years old) who work in purchasing. They where all very stylish and nice. In the beginning of the activity there was speech made and then everyone stood up in rows and stretched out to the Mazda exercise song. Since I have no idea what the song or anyone speaking was saying I did my best to follow the exercises by imitating the people in front of me, clapped whenever they clapped and laughed whenever they laughed. When the game was about to start both teams made a row facing each other and bowed. Here is Orlando at bat proudly wearing his YA HEARD Dearborn Softball league shirt (notice the scenery in the background, the field was on the top of a mountain, the same as all the golf courses here, no space?..no problem just level the top of a mountain and there you go):

Check out the video of Orlan hitting a home run (I took the video with my cel phone so the quality is not great but you get the idea):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIHp5rcztyU

At the end of the first game time was up and the scored was tied. So how do you decide a winner? Well the answer is simple play 5 sets of rock, paper, scissors and who ever gets the most wins goes on to the next game. I was lucky enough to take a picture of this event since I figured no one would believe me, as you can sse on your right. Our team actually won the rock, paper, scissors Japanese shoot out, assembled in a row, bowed to the other team and continued to the next game. The whole day was allot of fun everyone went with their families and played for fun. There was no batting order or anything like that, if you where on the bench and grabbed the bat then you where next, as simple as that. The good thing was all the baseball terms where the same. First base was first base and an out is an out so even though I can't speak Japanese I defended myself with the universal language of baseball.

Sake Festival

2006-10-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Today a group of friends and us went to a Sake Festival in Saijo about 30 minutes from Hiroshima by train. Sake is alcoholic beverage brewed mainly from rice. I'm not a big fan of sake. I tried it when I was in Michigan and did not particularly like but I went to the festival anyways to give it another shot. We walked around town and went into the different sake breweries. Here are some of them:

Here we are in front of the Sake barrels:

Here I am with my sidekick Erin (she finally updated her blog check it out at: http://erinsjourneys.blogspot.com/).

There where more than 200 different brands of Sake form all the different regions in Japan. You paid $ 15 at the entrance and could order all types of sake by region and number, as many times as you wanted!!! The first one to run out was sake # 69 from the Kinki region, I assume because there where lots of foreigners that where there and found that funny. You got these tiny sake cups or a wooden box with salt on the corner (all you needed was lime and you had a Japanese margarita ready to go) as you can see below:

Even though the containers where small the people where still really drunk all over the place. Since you could not come back out people would just hang around, like this guy to your right. He was just sleeping happily in one of the park benches and absolutely nothing was going to wake him up!!!! The sad part is that he was not the only one like this, you could barely find where to sit. On our way back to Hiroshima this poor man was so drunk that every time the train stopped he would fall on top of Orlando, which he did not enjoy but it was really funny!!! Finally the drunk guy got a chair and went to sleep. In general the sake festival was like being in "El festival del Cafe" back in Maricao, (I think I went there every year when I was in PR with my family) you just had to substitute the coffee for sake.