Ambiguous Paris

Bonjour folks!

We just got back and boy are our KNEES tired. Yes, knees.

After walking about for over 8 hours for 8 full days, we've returned with severe jet lag, a sunburn (it was hella sunny ALL WEEK!) and sore knees.
So here I am, half asleep, sitting indian style in attempt to share with you our experiences in gay Paree.

I haftu warn ya, this will be long...

If I haven't scared you away yet, I suggest you get comfortable :)

OK, here goes:

Because it is part of the whole experience, I MUST tell you about our commute...

It was HORRIBLE.
Our route was as follows: Fukuoka --> Tokyo --> Switzerland --> Paris.

Crap Luck #1: The whole disaster started at the ANA ticket counter in Fukuoka. The lady told us that we needed to grab our baggage in Switzerland. We thought that was weird since it should transfer over to Paris. So we asked her 2 more times, "Are you SURE Switzerland?" She confirmed twice without an inkling of doubt. "Ooookay," we thought and onward we went.

Crap Luck #2 came when our first flight departed an hour late. The layover we had planned in Tokyo was about 1 hour and 1o minutes -Not good. When we landed in Tokyo, there was already a Swiss Air lady waiting for us right as we got off the plane. She told us we needed to hurry since our next flight was already boarding! And so, with heavy carry-on bags, we ran. We sped thru customs, then sped to our gate. Still in doubt about our luggage, I managed to squeeze in a quick question with our escort. She also confirmed that we needed to get our baggage in Switzerland. Ooookay!

Crap Luck #3 We land in Switzerland and we run...again. We make it to baggage claim. Baggage not there. No one wants to help us. FINALLY, two workers are nice enough to help. They look at our tickets and say that the wording is weird, but they state that our baggage was heading directly to Paris. WTF. Too Late, we miss our flight.

Crap Luck #4: The lady at the Swiss Air customer service counter was not sympathetic. We asked to speak to her manager. The manager was worse! She was a total a$$hole. We had no choice but to pay $450 to catch the next flight.

Crap Luck #5: The wonderful folks at Paris airport's air traffic control decided to go on strike. Our flight was delayed by 5 hours.

Crap Luck #6: Finally reaching Paris, our baggage was nowhere to be found. And at 10 p.m., all offices were closed...so there was NO ONE there to help us. We go to our hotel, luggageless.

Crap Luck #7: From our hotel the next morning, we call the airport baggage claim office. The lady answering responds so quickly (as tho she didn't even bother checking for our stuff) saying that our luggage was not there. She then tells us that we need to go there personally to fill out a baggage claim form. Wait, you're saying we have to go all the way over there just to fill out a piece of paper? You can't fax it? email it? Nope. And so, the disgruntled Matsuos take a 1 hour metro ride back to the airport.

Once with got to the office, there we saw, sitting plain as day, next to the counter, our luggage. Wow, lady-on-the-phone, you mean you could have just turned ur head to the left to see our stuff? Thanks a lot.

As annoyed as we were that we lost a day, we were SO glad we got our luggage back. With our stuff safely back in our hotel room, we could finally start our vacation!

Places: Where Are We? (A couple of mentionables...)

Bike About Tours.
We didn't want to take just the typical bus tour so we signed up for a bike tour. There are a couple bike tours in Paris, but I went with this one just cause it got the highest rating on tripadvisor.com. It was a good decision. Our tour guide Pamela, a gal originally from Brazil was SO much fun. You could tell she really loved Paris. Not only did she give us the skinny on the basic history about places, but she threw in a ton of funny and useful info too! Another cool thing was that she showed us stuff that only the locals knew about.

Chateu de Versailles.
Better known as the estate of Marie Antoinette, this place was ridiculous. The grandness of it was, for lack of better words, over-the-top! If not for the spacious rooms with high ceilings, the larger-than-life old paintings, the numerous giant crystal chadeliers or the decadent guilded sculptures of the palace, it was the garden that was the star of the show. This garden is ENORMOUS! Even with my new eagle eyes, I could just barely see the end of the garden from the palace! The map we received stated that it would take an hour on foot to walk to the end.

Montparnasse Tower
It's just a simple, sleek, high tower with mirrored sides. The only thing this tower had going for it was the fact that it was the second-to-the-tallest structure in Paris. Pamela told us that most Parisians actually hate the look of the Eiffel tower but hate the Montparnasse tower even more. They say that the Montparnasse is the ugly box in which the Eiffel tower came in. (even tho the eiffel is taller) Haha. In any case it was then that we decided that we needed to go up the Monparnasse instead of the Eiffel. This way, all our cityscape shots will have the Eiffel Tower innit!

Eiffel Tower:
I wasn't even interested in the Eiffel Tower before we got there. But my co's raved on and on about how wonderful it was when they visited! To me, visiting it sounded too cliche. I expected to feel nonchalant about it, since I had already seen the Tokyo Tower and was not at all impressed. But here we were, at the top of Montparnasse tower, watching the sun come down on the left side of the Eiffel. "It certainly DOES stand out..." I thought to myself as Daniel excitedly snapped away on his camera. When the sun was finally gone and the dark came, the Eiffel lit up. "Yah. yah, I GUESS it's kinda nice..." I then thought. Daniel still snapping away,..trying to find the right camera setting to capture it. At that point, everyone was waiting. It was known that the tower would sparkle/shimmer every so often, but no one knew for sure when. Was it every 15 minutes? Every half hour? Every hour? Every 2 hours? Oh man, do I have the patience to find out? After about 58 minutes, I was unbearably cold from the whipping winds, and Daniel was done taking pictures. We decided to go. But as we gathered our things, it happened... The Eiffel sparkled. There was a relatively loud, audible gasp from all the people around us when it happened, followed by many camera clicks -much of them added to by Daniel. The tower look like it was covered with millions of blinking fireflies. It was then, that I finally changed my tune and thought, "Uaaaaau,.. that's awesome."

Basilique de Sacre Coeur
A Roman Catholic church in Montmartre. This place is awesome for three reasons. The view, the people and the crypt. Since this church sits on a hill top, the view of the city is amazing. Imagine, if you will: A bright clear day, an ice cold drink, sitting on a massive set of stairs watching musicians and breakdancers perform -using the fabulous view of the city as their backdrop! What's not to love? We didn't find that kind of excitement on the Eiffel or Montparnasse towers! The other cool thing there was the crypt. Dark, chilly, mysterious and just downright creepy, it was a neat contrast to the fun energy outside.

The Louvre
Ah yes, the one place that we just HAD TO visit. Given what I do for a living, I felt it was my artistic resposibility to visit this place. The Louvre houses numerous works of historical and influential art. As we entered thru the main entrance (the giant glass pyramid in the middle) I felt overwhelmed. What did I want to see? What did I NEED to see? Should I see it all? No no, that would be unreasonable, since people have told me that it takes several days to look thru the Louvre in it's entirety. But here's what unexpectedly happened: After walking through one very large section, I, shamefully, got bored. Of course, Daniel wasn't too thrilled about being in there to begin with so running thru it quick wasn't an issue. So what DID we end up seeing? We saw what pretty much every tourist came in to see: the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. I did get a nice surprise when we stumbled across the Nike of Samothrace scupture -one of the few things I actually remembered learning about in Art History 101. I then wondered if Boticelli's Birth of Venus painting was around somewhere. You know, the painting used to brand Adobe Illustrator? Unfortunately, that painting resides in Florence, Italy. Boo.

Dinner Cruise on the Siene
Nearly a month before we got to Paris, I made reservations for a fancy dinner cruise. Since it was pretty darn expensive, I did a lot of research on reviews to find the perfect one. I finally settled on Bateux Parisiens. When we got to Paris, we discovered just how many different cruise ships there really were -a lot. I started thinking that maybe I might have overpaid and shouldve waited till we got to Paris. Turns out it was one of the best things we did. We hoped on a beautiful, one level boat surrounded entirely by glass windows. The inside had a classy but simple feel to it with its white and light gray tableware. Our very attentive waiter made us feel "upper crust" as he served us our fancy food (that actually tasted as good as it looked) and constantly refilled our champagne glasses. There was even a Parisian band aboard that played french and american music. At one moment, the female singer sang a beautiful french song with only a violin accompanying her ethereal voice. Then, in the next moment the band was playing a cover of the BeeGees' "You Should be Dancing" (that one was pretty giggle worthy) All those things wrapped beautifully in a three hour package added up to: Totally worth every penny.


Food: What We Eatin'?

Chez Jean
A small, cafe/deli/shop just down the block from our hotel in Republique. This place gets first mention because they had a salad so killer that we went there like 4 times during our entire stay. Two out of 4 times we went, they had run out of the "Gina." The Gina is a gorgeous salad composed of lettuce, grilled eggplant, grilled chicken, sundried tomatoes and fresh mozzerella cheese, drizzled with pesto-oil-balsamic vinegar dressing. And it was big! And it only cost about 6 bucks. One time, there was only one left and Daniel and I had to fight to see who could have it. It was a draw -so we ended up sharing like civilized people. But even when we shared we'd growl at eachother a little -accusing the other of eating more than his/her share of the eggplant, mozzerella, etc. No joke, that amazing salad had to be split EXACTLY down the middle! :O

Meat
At a little grocery store near our hotel, Monop, sold various cured meats. They all looked rather disgusting, but Daniel, being the carnivore he is, had to try one. He settled on a little log of Salami. MAN, as soon as he opened that package, the smell that emerged was pure death! It reminded me of the mouse that trapped itself in the wall of our house ...and died. Being a good sport, I sampled a little, and it did actually taste pretty good, but the smell was sonasty that I lost my appetite for more. Daniel managed to enjoy about half of it, until the smell finally got to him too and the thing had to go. Even after tossing it out, the fridge still held onto that smell all the way till the day we left. Eww, perhaps we should have left more tip for the maids ;)

Pain du chocolat
Basically a flaky croissant with warm gooey chocolate in the middle. This thing is DAMN good. But not all pain du chocolats are created equal! The first place we went to have it was at a bakery recommended by the folks at Bike About Tours. Theirs was the best. The other ones we had fell between the categories of "so-so" to just plain "bleh."

Le Poissons
One night, we went to a upscale restaurant specializing in le poissons (fish). Our charismatic waiter who spoke his english in such a flamboyant manner, gave us good recommendations. Both Daniel and I were super happy with what we got -SO GOOD! My dish was a white sole fish with kind of a lemon/butter sauce. It reminded me of my favorite dish at L'Uraku in Hawaii (which is now no longer -so sad.) Daniel's fish was of a salt-crusted, baked assortment that kinda reminded me of hibachi-baked Uhu we made at camping trips.

Well folks, I think this is where I'll stop.

Now it's back to life in little Sasebo. As we reflect on our trip, we both came to an agreement: That even with all the new and amazing things we saw, ate and experienced, it sure didn't beat our home in Japan,...and Hawaii :) Love you guys!

Till next time, Au revoir!
-mag

ps. Pix are up on my Facebook page :)

my papa.

I started this blog with the intention of keeping family and friends posted on adventures I've had since I left HI for the motherland.

This particular update, tho not quite an adventure, is still an experience I'll remember forever.

For days now, I have debated on sharing this because it's not about silly, fun things like dancing, eating or seeing new places. It's about something far more personal. Anywho, before I change my mind, I'll just go ahead and write this up and hope it was the right thing to do...

For the past year or so, pops has been in and out of the hospital. He's been fighting liver and kidney disease for a very long time. Its so strange tho, how subtle changes are when you see someone often. Just 3 years ago, when I was still livin' in HI, I saw dad quite a bit. To me, he's looked the same since 5 years previous. But after I moved to Japan, every visit back home made me a little sad. Pops looked weaker and thinner on every visit. Tho every week, on the phone, my parents sounded the same. "Oh, nothing new going on, and everyone is genki," mom would say.

But last year, pops was in and out of the hospital every couple of months. He'd usually stay there for one night, then be allowed to go home the very next day. It was always the day they got home, that mom would call to tell me what happened. It would get so upset when she did that.

I understand that my parents never wanted me to worry about them and would feel bad if I flew home out of concern, but in November when I last visited, I discovered how severe dad's condition was. For reasons unknown, pops decided not to take his medication for just 2 days. On the third day, we had to rush him to emergency. The experience at the hospital was a nightmare. They took forever to give him the treatment he needed -even after the doc told me straight up, that if he didn't get treatment right away, he'd likely die that night. I panicked. After pestering and urging them every 10 minutes for nearly 4 hours, they finally administered his treatment.

Shortly after that, pops said he never wanted to go back to the hospital -no matter what. I can't say I blame him.

After that incident, I made mom promise to keep me updated on the TRUE condition of dad after I flew back home.

She was true to her word. She called me shortly after the new year to make a "suggestion." She suggested I fly home again soon to spend some time with dad before his condition possibly worsens. Dad's foot had developed a large wound and he was now bedridden. Mom had taken the new role of full-time caregiver. There was stress in her voice. She sounded overwhelmed.

I hopped on a plane the very next day to see if I could help.

I didn't realize how bad things were until I got there. Dad didn't just have a foot injury, he was much weaker physically. His disease had grown angrier since I last saw him just two months previous. But this didn't stop my parents. I came to see the wonderful dynamic between the two of them. Not only did they manage to keep their sense of humor thru this rough time, there were also moments of sweetness. I admired the strength of their relationship. Mom was supremely dedicated and dad was totally determined. They had their heart set to treated this "bed-ridden thing" as just a temporary set back. But, as dedicated as mom was, she just wasn't physically able to fully care for dad on her own.

I then decided, that for the duration of my visit, I would get a system in place to help my parents get thru this "temporary set back." I would get caregiver support for my mom. I would get my parents on a smooth routine. I would get them the supplies they needed. I would establish an open communication with dad's doctor, the home-visit nurse and nurse-aid. And the hardest task: get the rest of the family involved.

Please don't get the wrong idea of my family! The "hard part" was me ASKING them. It's just that...when I look back and try to recall on any contributions I've made to my family, during their times of need -I draw a blank. It's shameful.

It took me a couple days to gather the guts to call them. But when I finally did, without question, everyone was on-board to help. I found myself completely humbled and grateful.

Family and friends were always around to bring us food, help dad move, give good advice, or just keep us company. I really can't thank them enough. I also saw a new side to my mom. I have so much more respect and admiration for her now.

With everyone's help, the system I envisioned was finally coming together. I started to feel a sense of ease, that things would be okay when I flew back to Japan. However, despite all our efforts, papa's time was up and he passed away on the last day of January.


It's been nearly 2 months since we lost him and still I find something each day that reminds me of him. Pops had such an amusing awareness of the world. He told me about the pink dolphins of the Amazon River (no believe? google it!) and the mysterious lake discovered UNDER the sea (http://atlasobscura.com/place/undersea-brine-lake). He'd even notice the most subtle of things, like that one crazy (different) little whisker growing out of his cat, Meechan's cheek.

In the three short weeks I got to spend with pops, I lapsed thru so many different emotions. Amongst the sadness, frustration, fear and just plain exhaustion, what I felt most at the end was thankful. Thankful that I had that time with him. I think of the times I quizzed him on random things to keep his mind sharp. I think of the times dad teased mom to loosen her up. I think of his laid back demeanor. I think of his genuine smile. And I remember the moment he finally responded to my "I love you Dad," with a "I love you too."
A lot of people don't get that chance. I consider myself extrememly lucky.

I miss him so much.


Thanks for reading.

Yosakoi Matsuri 2009

Since November of last year, I have been learning Yosakoi. If you ask Wikipedia what Yosakoi is, it will say:

Yosakoi (よさこい) is a unique style of dance that originated in Japan. Yosakoi started in the city of Kōchi in 1954, as a modern rendition of Awa Odori, a traditional summer dance. Yosakoi-style dancing has spread throughout much of Japan. The style of dance is highly energetic, combining traditional Japanese dance movements with modern music.

But if you ask me, I say that it's a combination of Bon dance and Karate! So many times while dancing I recognize the nearly identical movements I've learned in Karate. Of course, in Yosakoi, you gotta do 'em bigger and with a great big smile!... the more exaggerated, the better!

Every year in October, Sasebo hosts a big Yosakoi Festival (matsuri). This year, 158 teams from all over Japan (even as far as Hokkaido) came to compete/perform at this event.
So this year, instead of being a spectator, I got to be spectated! (is that even a word?)
Over the year, even if I was a newbie, I got to perform all over Kyushu. But when I watched my debut dance on video I totally cringed. I really stuck out -not just because I'm freakin' huge, but moreso because my movement lacked the amout of flavor my senior team mates showcased!

In June, we started learning the dance that we were going to use compete in the big Matsuri. I was determined to do my best and brew the "flavor" I admired so much. I soon realized that I DO have to put extra effort BECAUSE I am gojira.

As one of the tallest members of my team, all my low movements had to be modified to EXTRA low to align with the shawties in the front. It was pretty hard, but I wasn't about to slack off and let my team down!

Originally, we practiced once a week, but as soon as August came, it increased to twice a week,... then three times,.. then, on the final week, we practiced everyday. Weeks and weeks of sweat, blisters and body aches, and here we finally were, at the big event.

The event spanned over 3 days. We were scheduled to dance 21 times this weekend. Within these 21 dances, the 9th one was the doozie -it was the one to be judged.

The Matsuri was crazy. So many people came out to watch! Even tho we danced all over Sasebo, Nakiri park was where the main event was focused. And I remember standing and lookin at that stage before our first dance that Friday and feeling so unreal. I couldn't believe that I was going to be a part of this..AND with the awesomest team on the planet! ;)

The weather was nice and sunny so we sweated a LOT. The first 8 dances were wearing us down a bit but we knew we had to muster all our strength for the next dance cause that was the BIG one. We were all pretty quiet as we walked over to the judges' gymnasium. It was pretty intimidating. A huge gym with a stage. A long table spanned the entire stage with 10 judges sitting behind it. They all looked so serious!...and here we were with big smiles on our faces hoping they couldn't see thru them.

It started terribly. The music bounced around this huge gymnasium causing it to echo and it threw off our timing. Thankfully, within the first 3 seconds (which felt like forever), we got it together and finished strong.

After that it was all fun and games and we danced with reckless abandon and laughed it off when we made mistakes.

On Sunday it was the same thing, we focused our dance around high energy and fun rather than technique and perfection...the judging was over so now it was just time to make most of the event. But right around 3 p.m. we got anxious. At 3:30 the judges were scheduled to send each team leader a text msg list of 20 teams that made it to the finals. We sat quietly and hoped for the best.

It was now 3:30 and no text message. Then it was 3:40...still no message. Our next dance was scheduled at 4 and we all started to get antsy. Mako-chan started saying (in japanese) "Oh man, if we DON'T make it to the finals I'm going to cry!" then one of the kids asked her what she would do if we DID make it to the finals and she replied "Oh I will cry if we DO make it to the finals!" ..Whaaaat?! So with my limited japanese speakies, how am I supposed to know if we made it?!

Then the text message came and Tottchan read it carefully. We all gathered tightly around him, waiting for him to give u the news. He then started with the words: "Gomenasai minna (I'm sorry everyone)...[insert a bunch of big japanese words]..."

Mako cried out and threw her face in Maiko's arms. Oh man...soooo we didn't make it?

I looked around and a bunch of other girls were crying...dammit.

Then Yui-chan tapped me on the shoulder with teary eyes, smiling and said "Yokkatta ne! Fainaru haita! (Isn't it great? We're in the finals!)"

EEEEEEEEE!!!! So what the heck's everyone cryin' for?! Right then it occurred to me how hard everyone worked for and how bad they all wanted this. That's when MY eyes started to water. Oh my gawd,.. I'm crying.

Now we are back in game mode and we want to win this! Apparently the word spread quick cause by our 4 o'clock performance, the announcer knew what was up and introduced us as one of the finalists!

After that we are summoned to Nakiri park to dance in the finals. We line up with 19 other teams. Although there are about 14 teams in front of us, the line moves quickly and next thing we know, we're two teams away! And then it starts raining. The dance floor starts to shimmer, reflecting the stage lights...uh oh, wet stage =Bad. Then we are up. If there was a time to go fo' broke, this was it. I danced till my limbs caught fire, shouted till my voice cracked and smiled till my lips fused on to my teeth -so sexy! ...and then it was over. It was all up to the judges now...

Okay, I'll skip the suspense and tell you guys that we DIDN'T make it to the top 10. Yes, we were all pretty heartbroken, but we got over it relatively quickly and replaced it with feeling grateful for even making it to the finals. After that, we moseyed our worn-out selves to Yuusuke's (a team member) bar where we ate, drank and got hella merry :)


Speaking of merry, hope u all have a festive Thanksgiving!

Thanks for readin'!
Much aRoha

-Me

Love Hotels

Yes. Love Hotels.

Smaller than your typical hotel, they usually have a fun/silly/blatant sexual theme to their name and you can pay two ways: per night, or per hour.

Living here I have always been fascinated by them. The sheer amount they have here is worth questioning why we have them. At first assumption, I guessed that in Japan, men are seen as the dominant sex, so having extramarital relations was to be expected-hence the need for these love hotels.

The thought made me somewhat angry -thinking: Why would a country allow these types of places to be built? It's like they were condoning, nay SUPPORTING infidelity! What the f#ck right? (Yes, sometimes I let my imaginations and assumptions go too far.)

Anywho, I needed to know the story behind these.

Without looking it up on the net, we consulted a credible japanese local, Eriko. This bubbly Sasebo-ian runs a local japanese radio show AND volunteers to guide various base tours. Her engrish is amazing..and she is hilarious! Anywho, she explains Love Hotels as such:

Long time ago, (not THAT long ago) an arranged marriage was the norm. Because of this, many people could not be with the one they truely LOVEd. And with that, LOVE Hotels were created. But nowadays, a lot of monagamous and even married couples take advantage of these hotels. In Sasebo, it is not uncommon for more than one generation to live under one small roof. Most homes in Sasebo are pretty small and some couples just need some privacy without mom, dad, gramps or grammy walking in! :O

Here are my two favorite Love Hotel signs. I wonder if Disney knows about Ariel's secret life. Be sure to click on the big one to get a good look at the little cartoon in the top right corner. The street sign in front of it is covering the name -it's called "Banado"

Little Islands with Big Character

Hey guys, Sorry it's been a while. Things have been pretty busy with the increase of yosakoi practice -gotta kick ass for the competition in October!

However, I was able to squeeze in 2 weekend-long trips to 2 different islands since my last post!

The first one was to Goto Island. A little island that lives just a 3-hour ferry ride away. I went with a small group of Yosakoi teamsters. On this weekend, Goto Island was having their big annual summer dance festival. They invited us to perform and we happily accepted.

The 3-hour ferry ride was pretty cool. One whole floor of the ship was just carpeted flooring and people just set up picnic and lounged on the carpet. For the first hour, I dazzled everyone with my "american" card tricks and games. Then they taught me some of their card games. That was cool... But then, I busted out my travel-version of Connect Four and whooowee -party time!

We got to Goto Island around 11. As soon as we got there, we were packed into a tiny bus and caravaned to a little house that had only one very big carpeted room, one small room (where the ladies changed into their costumes) and a bathroom. We stayed here for a little over an hour to relax, eat and drink [apparently, with my team, it's never too early to crack open a can of booze]

After relaxing way longer than we should've, we rushed to get ready and headed over to make our first performance for the festival. The festival area was tiny. I'd say it's only about half the size of tamarind park. But the food booths sold cheap food and booze so we were happy! We were scheduled to dance 3 times. I tell ya, it was incredibly hot out, hotter than I have ever experienced -EVER, and so naturally I drank a little more than I should have. The first 2 dances were only about an hour apart...but the last one was scheduled a couple hours later after sundown. So by the time we were up for our final performance, I was pretty toasted. Both from the sun and about 6 chu-his :\

10 minutes till show time, I started getting paranoid: "What if I forget what to do? Oh no! (I run thru the motions...) What comes after this move? Izzit this move? No no no - izzit this? Oh wait, that can't be right...Ohhhh No."

Then we were up. I was in the front row, trying my best to smile -genuinely. Scanning the crowd, I unfortunately locked my sights on the guy holding the video camera. Oh crap. I hate video cameras. What izzit about vid cams that make me feel uneasy? And then the stupid camera's tiny, all-seeing, never-blinking, wretched red eye turns on... and a split second later, our music starts.

...go go go!...

Narukos flailing, legs kicking, fans twirling, the whole thing was a blur...and then, it was over. We graciously bowed, and the audience applauds. *whew*

I'm pretty sure that whatever I did up there looked REALLY messy, but I survived it! More importantly, I learned a very valuable lesson about booze control.

The festival ended shortly after. They closed it with a "charming" fireworks show (and by charming, I mean ONE poof at a time.) After that we walked to the nearest grocery store to grab more food and booze (which I did NOT partake of) then relocated to a creepy old japanese house to spend the night. That japanese house was really something! The room we stayed in was really musty, with worn-in tatami floors and discolored shoji doors. The fold-out tables there reminded me of the ones I saw my grandparents use in front of the t.v. when I was little. Oh, and the t.v. changed channels on it's own! CrEeEePy! :O

The next day we headed to the beach. I however, did not pack a swimsuit. I suppose in all the excitement, no one remembered to tell the American to bring one! Waah :(

But that's okay, pajamas will work -That felt weird tho. But it was pretty worth it! Even tho the beach was pretty crowded, the place was beautiful! And the water was SUPER clear. Even in waist-deep water, I was able to clearly spot little schools of fish darting by and a little starfish resting on the sandy bottom :)

After swimming, we had a awesome BBQ. There was so much food! But since we had the bbq out in the open with no shade, we got burnt up something awful! We realized how bad our burns really were when during the ferry ride back, everyone tried to nap on the carpeted floor but were all too sore to lie down!

Iki Island was the 2nd Island I visited. This time Daniel came with -along with a tour group of 30 base folks. Thankfully the families that came had very well behaved kids -so no screaming and fighting during bus and ferry rides! yay!

This tour revolved around Nishiki beach: a beautiful little beach about the size of Makapuu -maybe smaller. As soon as we got there we were in the water. The waters were as clean at Goto Island's beach! But better yet, it wasn't crowded at all so it almost felt like you were at a special exclusive place.

There was one food joint there: Cafe Hawaii. hehe. They even had Spam musubis and Loco Moco! We HAD to try those. The Spam musubi was a big ball of rice with a thin spam on the top with a little strip of nori around it. Much to our surprise, when Daniel first bit into it, there was also a pretty sizable strip of takuan hiding under the spam. It was actually pretty tasty! We might have to do that next time we make 'em!

The Loco Moco was good but strange. Much like the real thing, it had rice, egg and a hamburger patty... But it also had red pickled daikon, lettuce and instead of gravy: tonkatsu sauce? Whaaaa? I gotta admit, it tasted pretty good..but Loco Moco it was not!

The sun was BLAZING out and we kicked ourselves for forgetting to pack the sun block. We got really burnt up. Daniel moreso than me. When it was time to leave Daniel had transformed into a boiled lobster and I looked like I had a make out session with strawberry jello (only my face was red. hotness.) [Note: the beach shot u see here is of the following day -it was overcast.]

As soon as we hit the hotel we got ready to go out and explore the town. More importantly, to get something to eat and find a nice little bar to chill out afterwards. Less than half a block from our hotel we saw something amazing. At this very moment, we both knew we HAD TO go back to the hotel and get the camera.

We went back, grabbed the camera and quickly shuffled our feet to get back to our crazy discovery...There it was, a shrine housing a giant, 8ft tall weenie -carved out of wood (with great attention to detail) and varnished for extra glamour!

Looking inside, you get to pray to a small room full of various "accoutrements" and a giant one-eyed monster taking aim at you from the upper right corner of the room! Oh my!

We both assumed this was somekind of fertility shrine and left it at that. As we left, we spotted a bright and happy bar sign that read: Girls Bar BITCH. What the heck IS this place?!

Thoroughly amused, we took some pictures and were off to find a place to eat.

Everywhere u looked, there were signs for Uni (sea urchin). We guessed it was in season, or that Iki Island was popular for it. We've tried uni before and it tasted absolutely awful...like how paint would taste. So with no interest in eating paint, we passed on all the restaurants with the big signs promoting uni. After walking for about 10 minutes, and seeing so many uni signs, we had to wonder: Why would anything that awful tasting be that popular?

Daniel recalled a co-worker telling him that he had to try the fresh stuff. He said that if we got it fresh from a specialized place (like Iki Island) it was guaranteed to be totally different from any we have tried here in Sasebo. With that thought, we started to get curious. We ended up at the sushi restaurant, Torou, as recommended by the hotel concierge. It was a cute little family-run place. The papa was the sushi chef. He was a cool, no fuss kind of guy. He basically said "So whattaya want? ...you look like you're not sure,..mori awase is what you want, it has a variety of sashimi....1000yen, mori awase, yes?" I liked his style. Immediately I felt like he was a distant relative. We accepted his offer and he got right to it...the Mori Awase was FANTASTIC.

And then we saw the little sign for uni posted on the wall behind him. We looked at eachother and decided, "yes, let's try it." We ordered a small portion -just to try. It had a reasonable price tag onnit too: 1000yen for a small plate. It was about 1/3 cup of uni. There it sat infront of us. These little golden yellow slug-shaped things. Loading our chopsticks with a big one, I watched Daniel eat it first. "Oh, hey, it's pretty good," he said.

I popped one on my mouth... NO WAY,...it WAS good! It had a light, salty-sweet miso-like flavor. Wow. We cleaned it up within seconds :)

After having our fill of sushi, uni, beer (for him) and chu-his (for me), we thanked the family, payed our tab and were off to the next spot -Girls Bar BITCH.

On the way there, we made a quick stop to the 24hr omiyage shop. We came away with Hello Kitty brand, uni-flavored crackers and a couple of penis & va-j-j lollipops. Our friends, who kindly offered to watch the fuzzy kids are sure to love them!

I wondered if this place was exclusively for girls....or fellas... but when we went in, 4 cheerful 20-something year old girls greeted us in. I asked if it was okay that Daniel came in -they said "Hai hai!" Then I asked if it was okay if I came in and they said "Hai Mochiron!" (of course)

Despite the misleading bar name, this place was pretty classy! Small, but really well designed and CLEAN. On one side, a big flat screen t.v. playing popular american hip hop music vids and two large tanks: one with a giant arowana, the other with a mini python! The other side had a brand new dart boart game. The tables had these cute little glass vases with what looked like decorative twigs in them. One of the hostesses came up to me and tells me that I can eat the them. She grabs a twig and starts nibbling onnit. Whaaaat!? This girl is crazy. Laughing at my reaction, she kindly explains to me that this is a special snack the owner makes: Deep-fried spaghetti noodles. I pick one out and try it -YUM! And so, for the rest of the time there, I am chomping on these twigs, drinking umeshu and beating Daniel at darts -awww yeah!

After our time is up at GBB (it was a pay by hour: all-you-can-drink place)... we were in the mood for karaoke. The GBB girls said that there was only ONE karaoke place to go: USA Karaoke....What's with this town? It was just a couple of store fronts down so we decided to check it out. All they had were old, run down private karaoke rooms. We were lookin' more for a bar scene so we passed on USA K and popped into the cute little cafe next door: Cafe Marimo.

The lady running Cafe Marimo looked about my mom's age. She was so sweet. She recommended some fresh cake. I got a melon shortcake and Daniel got a chocolate roll cake. Both were light and lovely. Daniel even said that this might be a new thing for him: Having cake after drinks. As we enjoyed our cake, we started discussing how these places stay in business. Everywhere we went had little or no customers. I mean, this was a Saturday night! Where was everyone?! The only other customers at Cafe Marimo was a table of 5 mamasans gabbin' away. Moreso, it looked like they were friends of the owner. I mean, with such few customers, how do they pay the girls who work at GBB? ...Let alone the electricity to run the place! We were baffled. And with that, we decided to call it a night.

The next day we visited Monkey Rock. It's basically a giant rock on the edge of the island that's shaped like a gorilla. When our bus pulled up to the view point, we were all pretty darn amazed and how much it really DID look like a gorilla! It was a cool experience. The whole area around this rock was so peaceful and natural...like one of those Hayao Miyazaki landscape scenes.

After taking a bunch of pictures, we hopped back on the bus and spent the last hours of our mini-vacay back at the beach.

That's it for now guys! Happy Summer!

Duuude, I did WHAT?!

Now many of you know that I was never into the whole jogging/running "phenomenon." At this point, I've lost count of how many people I have expressed to regarding my hatred of running. I'd say that the only time I'd run is if I was playing a game or being chased by a rabid dog...

With that said, I did the unthinkable...

On Saturday, May 23rd, I, the self proclaimed anti-runner, took part in Fukuoka's 12hr Relay Marathon.

But first, my training:

I had about one month to transform into a runner. For all you real runners, I'm sure you agree that this is a relatively unrealistic goal. Turning a person who HATES running into a marathon runner? Ridiculous!

But I was determined... Well, sorta.

One might ask WHY in the world would maggie sign up for such a thing?

Well I will answer you in 3 phrases:

1. 12hr ALL NIGHTER (Which means camping with a bunch of friends! =Fun!!! Which also leads me to the next two...)

2. Lots of Food!

3. Lots of Booze!

This was not an opportunity to be missed!

But even with my motive slightly askew from the rest, I did not want to be a useless team member, and so I ran. I ran 3 times a week (Yosakoi and Yoga filled the other 2 weekdays). It was tough. The first week's attempts were aweful. It was on the treadmill at the base gym. I was only able to run continuously for a max of 5 minutes. For three days it was 30 minutes of stop-and-go running. Not only was it difficult, it was rather shameful. On every trip to the gym, I'd encounter a few teammates in training -everyone of them running effortlessly on their 'mills like freakin' gazelles! Even Daniel runs with ease! Okay, I going to need to get more serious.

I have two co-workers that run. Sara, a seasoned runner (A fabulous girl from my hometown -who is also on our marathon team) and Fee, a born-again runner. They both agreed that finding the right breathing pattern with ur run makes all the difference.. Oh and the right music really helps too. With that, I cleared everything out of my ishuffle and refilled it with faster adrenaline pumping music. The next week, I foregoed the treadmill and decided to run on the track of the base park. In two warm-up laps, Daniel helped me figure out my most comfortable breathing pattern and speed. Three times around the field equalled a mile -I was only able to manage a single mile. But I gradually got better in the following weeks. I found that running was MUCH easier when I was plugged into a really good set of songs.

*pause*

[inserting tangent here]

I'd like to take a moment to make a "shout out" to Charlie of Kaiju Audio for sending his fabulous mix -Every other step that hit the ground synced perfectly with the beat -muchos mahalos!

[Aaaaand we're back.]

...So anyway I kept at it, eventually increasing my non-stop runnability to 2 miles...and then 3. Gir served as a great running partner. If I ran too slow, he would get distracted and start veering off the path. He was such a big help that I wished so bad that I could run with him in the marathon. Next thing you know, the marathon was upon us. Ohhh crap.

With 3 measly miles mentally noted in my portfolio, I was a bit worried. I didn't want to be "that" person. You know, the one everyone has to wait for... the one everyone secretly wishes wasn't on their team but is too nice to say! But I did design our team shirt -so at least I can say I was good for something!

Note: The shirts say SRF Hashiri Crew. Most of the guys are from Daniel's workplace -SRF (Ship Repair Facility). The fun part is the Hashiri Crew part. The kanji of it roughly translates to "Going mad from running." Yay!

Saturday, May 23rd, Noon. It was finally the day. 6 hours from now, we would be camping and competing against 50 other teams to see who would reign supreme. In 2 vans and 1 car, we packed 14 runners, 2 alternates, 1 chef (just a guy at daniel's work who likes to cook), 1 cheerleader (Our buddy Cary) and a team mascot (our Gir -we were so happy we could take him with us!) The runners were broken up into 3 groups arranged by time slot. Team A took the first and last 2 hours of the 12-hour marathon (a 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. affair). Team B (The team Daniel and I were in) went from 8 to midnight. Team C went from midnight to 3 a.m. I'd say it's pretty clear that my group had the most ideal time slot!

With all the stops we made on our drive, we ended up reaching the marathon site at 4. We quickly set up our tents and settled in. Our chef, Ishimarusan started up the fire and began cooking our first meal. The first runners however, quickly ate their packed musubis, rested for a bit to digest, then hopped to their feet to do a warm up run. 5:30 was the opening ceremony, and it was awesome. After a few minutes of incomprehensible speechery, a japanese-speaking Ronald McDonald saunters up on stage and leads us thru a wonderfully silly warm up stretch. I wouldve taken more pictures, had I not been joining in on the fun! And yes, I did find it a bit ironic that McDonalds was sponsoring this event.

And then it was 6, and the race/marathon had begun. My team had 2 hours to wait for our turn. We were anxious. But it was the hanging out and waiting at our camp site, that made me realize that this event was more serious than anticipated. With coolers chock full of beer, and chu-his, everyone opted for the water and gatorade. And with mouth-watering, perfectly seasoned baby back ribs sizzling on the grill, most people opted for small bites of chicken. Then after eating, some people went straight into their tents to rest up!

And then, when I was just getting used to the idea of chillin' out, we were a half hour away from our turn to run. I popped into the girl's tent and almost ritualistically prepared myself. I changed into my favorite track pants, slipped on a pair of extra cushiony new socks and put on each running shoe with great care and consideration. Then I put my hair up in the smoothest possible ponytail, strategically placing clips to hold down any strays. This took 3 tries.

The wind blew my ponytail as I stepped out of my tent -I felt ready.

This was our strategy: For 4 hours, the 4 out of 5 of us elected to run 2 laps around the course before tagging the next person. Since the course was one mile long -I elected to run once before tagging the next. Daniel was the 4th runner and I was the 5th.

The first run was going to be the deciding factor of whether or not I could really do this. I needed it to be good. I needed to stay motivated. I needed to pick the right song. I cheered and chatted while the first 3 runners ran their hearts out. When Daniel got tagged, I knew my turn was coming up soon, so I started shaking up my limbs, hopping in place and trying to warm up. The cold and windy weather did not help. I popped in my earbuds to find the right song. I settled on a classic: It's a Fine Day by Miss Jane. I pressed pause and waited.

Then, there was Daniel, about 40 feet away, approaching fast. I could feel my heart pounding. I quickly got in "transferral" position. Shouting at him to "Go Go Go!," I pressed play and started running as he ran up next to me and passed me the relay sash.

With sash thrown on, I focused on the run. I tried to pace myself, but the adrenaline made me run faster than I had been training. Much to my dismay, the first half of the course was at a 15 degree incline. I ain't gonna lie, it was pretty hard, but I was determined to keep my pace to the beat. When I hit the decline, I knew I was going to be able to do this.

It was estimated that each person would take approximately 10 minutes per lap. Without doing any math, this figured that each of us would have 3 turns. Four of us would run 6 miles and the 5th, being me, I would run 3. Sounded perfect to me! ...Fortunately and unfortunately, my team mates ran a lot faster than planned and we were ahead of schedule! This meant 4 of us needed to run ONE FINAL LAP. And with me being the 5th runner, I was in the clear... but then the unthinkable occurred: Daniel got a mean cramp.

Koutaro, the first runner from Team C, volunteered to run in Daniel's place and start their time slot early...but that's not what happened. Because like some cheesy heroic moment, I stood up with conviction and said: "I can do it!"

But inside I was a little worried...I was pretty tired, My body felt kinda messed up from the running and stopping. Burning up while running and freezing from the cold air and wind between runs took it's toll. I looked at my tired teammates who busted their ass running TWICE as much as I did and thought, dude, I gotta run like heck for these guys! I stretched out, shook myself off and waited for Matsunaga, the 3rd runner. In no time at all, he was turning the corner running towards me. I pressed play. It was decided that John Legend's Green Light was going to get me thru this. But then that song lasted only 4 minutes and I wasn't quite done yet,... so without slowing down, I skipped thru a couple songs and hit the jackpot with Green Day's Burnout to take me to the end.

I had never run that hard in my entire life...98% of me was screaming at me to slow down. I ran so hard that I felt out of control. So much so that he other wickedly stubborn 2% of me was getting worried that my feet wouldn't hit the ground right and I'd gribble royally. And yet, with flailing arms, a painfully dry throat and legs aflame, I managed to overtake 3 runners before I tagged the first runner of Team C. Even with music blasting in my ears, I could hear my team mates cheering me on as I growled and pushed thru the last stretch. It felt great. By the end of our time slot, we were at 17th place out of 50. Hey, I was cool wit that!

After our team was done, we mustered enough strength to cheer on Team C for their first laps. We then stumbled back to camp, dranks lots of water, ate some of Ichimaru's "made-just-for-Team B", garlic fried rice and crashed right out. Even with the hard floor (due to limited space in the van, we didn't bring any cushiony luxuries), the constant music and exuberant announcements from the emcee on the loud speaker and the wind whipping the tent, I slept okay. Gir in particular was very useful, he served as a fuzzy body pillow :)

Conveniently, I suddenly woke up at 2:45, just in time to cheer on the final laps of Team C. Team C, a power house group of avid runners, boosted the Hashiri Crew to 12th place when they were thru!

The hardcore Team A, gave us a strong finish and solidified us in 13th place on the board. Nothing like lucky number 13! :) Ichimarusan welcomed the morning with a wonderful breakfast of 2 different pastas (one Garlic vegetable and the other Alfredo mushroom), toast and vegetable soup. Karato, a speedy fellow from Team C commented that Ichimaru was our MVP -everyone unanimously agreed.

In 12 hours, we ran a total of 98 miles. Darn, so close to 100... Oh well, I suppose we'll have to shoot for that next year! I sguess that also means I kinda like running now -scary yah? :)

My first dance recital...at age 30.

So remember when I said that I joined a Yosakoi team? Well this past Sunday, a small group of 9 Ikkijyu (our team name) members, Daniel and I hopped on a big bus, along with members from other yosakoi teams, and rode 2 hours to Nagasaki. We were set out to perform at the "Yokabai Yosakoi Matsuri." Daniel came along to record this momentus maggie event. (More like catch me acting a fool on film.)

[note:] Yokabai is pretty much Sasebo/Nagasaki slang for saying "It's all good!"

Anywho, I have to tell you how hard I practiced the week before! So 4 days before my debut, I FINALLY got real props to practice with. The props included 2 fans and 2 narukos. Narukos are these wooden clapper things. Lemme tell yah, practicing with the real stuff is A LOT different from faking it with my jazz hands! I practiced every night till that fateful day. On one of my practice days, I whipped open a fan so hard that it flung out of my hand and flew nearly out the back door! :O You can imagine the new anxiety I developed after that happened! But by Saturday night, I was feeling pretty confident and ready to just get out there and do it!

On Sunday morning, the only thing Mami (the team mate that got me in all this madness) told me to do was to make sure I put my hair up when I got there. No problem I thought, I can whip my hair up in a high pony in a matter of minutes right? But when I got to the place where everyone was meeting THEN I understood what she meant. She meant make it NICE. All the girls had their hair done up perfectly -It looked like one of those cute "prom" hairstyles. PLUS they all had fantastic makeup on! ....And here's me, the super-sized japanese-american (yes, I can honestly say that I am pretty much bigger than EVERY member of the team -guys too!) with my sad little ponytail and barely a lick of makeup on. Damn.

Luckily the girls had some spare hair pieces. They were made like scrunchies, hairy scrunchies. They all had a good laugh when they put it on me. The thing looked really fake since the color didn't match with my natural hair color at all. Even so, it still looked better than my sad little "real hair" sprout!

We got there at about 10 a.m. Our first performance was at noon, so we had 2 hours to kill. So what do they decide to do? Get drunk. :\ hoo boy.

We walked to the nearest convenience store and stocked up on beers, chu-his and snackies. Is it just me, or do you get buzzed faster when you drink in the sun? I felt totally relaxed. And then it was 11:50. At this point, I felt surprisingly okay...not at all as nervous as I expected to be. We did a quick stretch and then huddled together for a pep talk from our coach/sensei Miyuki. She said to just have fun, don't worry about messing up and ....Gambare Maggiesan on her debut! And everyone agreed and told me to gambare.

Woah. After that, the ONE butterfly in my stomach decided to multiply. We ran up on stage and made formation. This was it!

~Look out into the audience and smile maggie, SMILE.~

CHEEEEEE........
Two booming pounds of the taiko starts our song. I must've practiced dancing to this song at least 20 times that week, but this time it was different. To the beat of the taiko, my heart felt like it was a big ball, bouncing against the inside of my chest. It was a cool feeling.What added to it was the fact that the stage was set up along the harbor. As I danced, My eyes scanned over the people watching us and out to the water... it was beautiful! I didn't panic about the moves at all... kinda felt like my mind was detached and my body was just goin' on without me! Well, it was like that up until the second segment! That's the part with the fans!

I knelt in position, holding my closed fans, waiting for the exact moment to whip them open....

*fwap* First fan opens...success!

[close fan] prepare for finale...

Here it is, let's do it -both fans open!

*fwap* *fwa...* Uh oh. Right fan opens all the way. Left fan, only halfway.

I spent the next series of movements trying to pry it open with my pinky. No success. It's the end of the song and we have to do a final pose with the fans before we bow to finish. Daniel, captures a priceless moment ...I really need to work on being more discreet :O

After that, we ate lunch, shmoozed with other teams, drank more chu-his and performed again at 3.

All in all it was a great day. And I have the headband tan to prove it :)

Kampai!!