chris.bracken.jp

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     <title>Japan on Chris Bracken</title>
     <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/japan/</link>
     <description>Recent content in Japan on Chris Bracken</description>
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     <language>en</language>
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     <item>
       <title>Winter Sounds in Japan</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2011/04/winter-sounds-in-japan/</link>
       <pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2011/04/winter-sounds-in-japan/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of uniquely Japanese sounds.  But the two I&amp;rsquo;m writing
 about today appear on cold winter nights, and echo eerily through the
 dark, empty streets between dinner and bedtime.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Japanese winters are cold. They&amp;rsquo;re not -30C cold, but what they do have on
 Canadian winters is how drafty Japanese houses tend to be, and the distinct
 lack of central heating. All across the country the appearance of convenience
 store oden and yaki-imo wagons mark the arrival of winter.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2011-04-25-yakiimo.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Yaki-imo wagon&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;Yaki-imo are sweet potatoes roasted over flames in wood fired ovens in small
 mobile carts or trucks.  They&amp;rsquo;re served up wrapped in newspaper, and are not
 only delicious, but keep your hands warm too.  But the most distinctive thing
 about yaki-imo is that the sellers sing a very distinct &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9yctE9_hQ&#34;&gt;yaki-imo
 song&lt;/a&gt;. They typically make the rounds until just after dinner time,
 and I always found their song a bit eerie drifting though the dark streets.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2011-04-25-hinoyoujin.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Hi no Yōjin&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;Central heating is near non-existent in Japan, one result of which is the
 &lt;a href=&#34;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu&#34;&gt;kotatsu&lt;/a&gt;, but another is that kerosene and gas heaters are still
 commonly used for heating.  Every year, housefires result from people
 forgetting to shut of their heaters before bed.  As a reminder to shut off the
 heaters, people walk through town late at night, carrying lanterns and clacking
 wooden blocks together, calling out &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFqRIKoVckA#t=20s&#34;&gt;hi no yōjin&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo;: be careful
 with fire.  The sound of the blocks typically carries for many blocks, and you
 often hear their calls echoing through town, coming and going for up to half an
 hour as you lay in bed.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Ride to Okutama-ko and back</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/10/ride-to-okutamako/</link>
       <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/10/ride-to-okutamako/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1qLR0za_apX5qMJi32cqDoNYESRI&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;msa=0&amp;amp;ll=35.67441532772013%2C139.44887900000003&amp;amp;spn=0.214689%2C0.47083&amp;amp;t=p&amp;amp;source=embed&amp;amp;z=9&#34;&gt;View map&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;rsquo;t ridden a &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_ride&#34;&gt;century&lt;/a&gt; since I moved to Japan but with a bit of
 spare time on my hands before baby number two is due, I decided I was going to
 get back into decent enough shape that I could pull one off. I&amp;rsquo;ve been using
 mornings and weekends to get back into riding longer distances, and slowly
 building up toward the goal of 160 km by riding further and further up the Tama
 river every weekend.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Five minutes looking at Google maps yesterday morning at 6 am convinced me that
 Lake Okutama was exactly the necessary 80 km away, so without a minute to lose
 I got dressed, headed out the door and rode north up the Tama river.  Here&amp;rsquo;s
 the &lt;a href=&#34;https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/18311395&#34;&gt;activity report&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The ride along the river is gorgeous, one of the few places in Tokyo you can
 ride uninterrupted through a green belt that runs from the ocean at Haneda
 airport all the way into the mountains in the northwest corner of Tokyo. The
 bike path ends at the south Hamura dam, but by then it&amp;rsquo;s pretty &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.ehimeajet.com/inaka.php&#34; title=&#34;Inaka: rural Japan&#34;&gt;inaka&lt;/a&gt;,
 so you can continue by road from there without much worry about traffic. At
 the north Hamura dam, I crossed over to the west side of the river, to pick up
 Route 411 through the towns of Oume, Sawai, and Mitake before leaving the city
 completely and starting the climb up into the mountains.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The trip on from Mitake is a long, slow ascent along a narrow, winding road
 through small towns and villages while criss-crossing the river. Particularly
 this time of year with the leaves changing colour, the trip is visually
 spectactular, with the mountainsides lit up bright orange and red. Okutama is
 the last major town before the final hill-climb up to the lake. At its
 westernmost edge is the world-famous Tokyo &lt;a href=&#34;http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/feature/feature05.html&#34; title=&#34;Conbini: Let&#39;s enjoy convenience store life!&#34;&gt;Conbini&lt;/a&gt; Shuten—the final
 convenience store of Tokyo. Complete with latitude and longitude figures on its
 sign out front, it is a site of pilgrimage for cyclists headed up to the lake
 and the border of Tokyo and Yamanashi prefectures. Too bad it&amp;rsquo;s a &lt;a href=&#34;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Yamazaki&#34;&gt;Daily
 Yamazaki&lt;/a&gt; and not a &lt;a href=&#34;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilyMart&#34;&gt;Famima&lt;/a&gt;, but either way it&amp;rsquo;s got
 &lt;a href=&#34;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat&#34;&gt;Pocari Sweat&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;From the town of Okutama to the lake is a 13 km hill climb up through tunnel
 after tunnel to the dam at the edge of the lake. My the one route change I&amp;rsquo;ll
 make the next time I do this is to go &lt;em&gt;around&lt;/em&gt; the tunnels instead of &lt;em&gt;through&lt;/em&gt;
 them. I can&amp;rsquo;t possibly imagine why someone felt the need to put (very
 expensive) tunnels in on this road given that almost every single one can be
 bypassed on the road. I can only assume that this has something to do with the
 government trying to buy the powerful rural vote with thousands of unnecessary,
 environment-destroying &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.iwanami.co.jp/jpworld/text/publicworks01.html&#34; title=&#34;The LDP and pork-barrel politics&#34;&gt;construction projects&lt;/a&gt; per year.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The good news is that once you hit the top, the views are spectacular, the
 roads are flat, and you&amp;rsquo;re back in &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.flickr.com/photos/68908288@N00/141327403/&#34; title=&#34;Jidohanbaiki: Let&#39;s vending machine!&#34;&gt;jidohanbaiki&lt;/a&gt;-land where
 Pocari Sweat and Aquarius are available in abundance! I&amp;rsquo;d accidentally left my
 cycle computer off for a 3km stretch out of Okutama, so I cycled 3 km down the
 road to make up for it and be able to claim a &lt;em&gt;recorded&lt;/em&gt; 160 km. I ran into a
 German cyclist named Ludwig who&amp;rsquo;d also ridden in from Tokyo; he had a
 drool-worthy Canyan carbon-fibre bike, and interestingly, it turns out he&amp;rsquo;s
 part of the &lt;a href=&#34;http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/&#34;&gt;Positivo Espresso&lt;/a&gt; cycling group whose blog I&amp;rsquo;d
 been reading for a couple months.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Ludvig continued on up towards Yamanashi-ken with the plan of packing up his
 bike and taking the train back when he got as far as he wanted to go. Good
 plan, and something I&amp;rsquo;ll give a try next time. I turned my bike around for the
 long trip back home. The best part of that trip was the 30 minute descent back
 down out of the hills at car speed, before hitting Mitake, and heading back out
 to the flat cycle path along the Tamagawa.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;All in all, a pretty awesome day of cycling and a trip I&amp;rsquo;d definitely do again.
 While the trip included a nice hill-climb, it wasn&amp;rsquo;t severe, and didn&amp;rsquo;t last
 more than 15 km. I&amp;rsquo;ve included the GPS map—there are a couple errors where I&amp;rsquo;d
 accidentally switched it off for 3 km near Okutama, and for about 5 km near
 Hamura on the way back.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Monkey Madness</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/08/monkey-madness/</link>
       <pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/08/monkey-madness/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;How many police does it take to catch a monkey in one of Tokyo&amp;rsquo;s busiest train
 stations? Apparently a lot more than the &lt;a href=&#34;https://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=1LbhEJ2NUxE&#34;&gt;40 or so that
 tried&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The monkey was first spotted around 9:45am on top of the Tokyu Toyoko Line
 schedule display, possibly one of the best choices for people-watching in
 Shibuya Station, strategically positions between the exit of the Tokyu
 department store and the entrance to one of Tokyo&amp;rsquo;s busiest train lines.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;It hung around for close to two hours while commuters, shoppers, news crews and
 a posse of net-wielding cops showed up, before finally deciding to
 &lt;a href=&#34;https://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AKFh-Wc7KSE&#34;&gt;make a break for it&lt;/a&gt;. Police never did catch the cheeky
 monkey, and its current whereabouts are unknown.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Apparently this is the third incident of a monkey getting into a train station
 in Tokyo in the last few weeks.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Apple Reinvents the Phone?</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2007/01/apple-reinvents-the-iphone/</link>
       <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2007/01/apple-reinvents-the-iphone/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Update (2009-02-28)&lt;/em&gt;: Alright, guilty as charged. &amp;ldquo;No wireless. Less space
 than a nomad.
 &lt;a href=&#34;https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod&#34;&gt;Lame&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;After watching the Steve Jobs iPhone keynote, I have to say I&amp;rsquo;m a little
 disappointed. While this phone has a slicker GUI than any other phone I&amp;rsquo;ve
 seen, it&amp;rsquo;s not so much the $499 US price-tag, but the stone-age functionality
 of the phone compared to what we have here in Japan that makes my jaw
 drop.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Here in Japan, 3 years ago in 2004, for 1 yen, I had the following in a
 cellphone:&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;3G download speeds of 50 Mb/s.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Two-way video-phone.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Built-in fingerprint scanner (for security checks).&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;MP3 player and download service.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Edy BitWallet (like Interac, except you swipe your finger on the
 phone&amp;rsquo;s scanner to accept the transaction).&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Can be used as a &lt;em&gt;Suica&lt;/em&gt; train pass.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Can buy movie tickets and scan in at the theatre, bypassing the
 lineup.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Can wave it at vending machines for food and drinks.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Will figure out train routes, transfer locations and times, and
 ticket prices.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Can scan barcodes which take you to websites – eg. scan at the bus
 station to pull up the schedule or scan a magazine to order a
 product.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;MP3 player and download service.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Decent email (+ attachments), SMS, calendaring, notepad.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Automatic location triangulation (by determining which antennae are
 nearby) and location-aware mapping, shopping/restaurant listings.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Interactive mapping of current location with zooming and scrolling.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Integrated graphical web-browser.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;1 megapixel Camera, Video camera.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Display/graph your phone usage to the day.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Can write and deploy your own Java/C/C++ applets.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;/ul&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;If you go for a high-end phone with more than the above (e.g. built-in TV
 tuner), you&amp;rsquo;ll need to pay more than one yen, but the price range is normally
 below ¥20,000 ($200 Canadian). In its current state, the iPhone won&amp;rsquo;t sell in
 Japan even if it&amp;rsquo;s free; Apple is going to have to do some major work if it
 wants to compete with even the bare-bones models on the market in Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>A Mystery Solved</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2006/09/mystery-solved/</link>
       <pubDate>Sat, 02 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2006/09/mystery-solved/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;One of my biggest complaints about Japan has always been the complete and utter
 lack of garbage bins in this city. There are none to be found.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;If you buy a (most likely seriously overpackaged) snack, you either have to
 carry all the wrapping and leftovers around with you until you get home, or
 toss it on the street. But the streets are impeccably clean here, which had led
 me to believe that like me, the other 12 million people out for a walk this
 afternoon, will be carrying their litter around in their backpacks and shopping
 bags.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;But it turns out this is not the case: an article in &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.metropolis.co.jp/&#34;&gt;Metropolis&lt;/a&gt;
 unveils the answer to &lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20190222191348/http://archive.metropolis.co.jp/tokyorantsravesarchive349/315/tokyorantsravesinc.htm&#34;&gt;The Big Tokyo Trash Mystery&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Happy 139th Birthday!</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2006/07/happy-139th-birthday/</link>
       <pubDate>Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2006/07/happy-139th-birthday/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;Canadians in Tokyo got a head start on the Canada Day celebrations, kicking
 things off at 8:30 am with a pancake breakfast at the &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.maplesportsbar.jp/&#34;&gt;Maple Leaf Bar &amp;amp;
 Grill&lt;/a&gt;, followed by a Canada Day barbeque at Yoyogi Park including
 hot dogs, yakitori, a massive Canadian Flag cake, and imported Canadian beer.
 By 6pm things, as started to wind down at the park, people started the long
 trek back to Shibuya and into the Maple Leaf, where it was standing room
 only.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Some &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbracken/sets/72157594183420453/&#34;&gt;pictures of the event&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>麻酔お願いします！</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/10/masui-onegai-shimasu/</link>
       <pubDate>Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/10/masui-onegai-shimasu/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday was my first trip to the dentist in years. The last time was just
 before moving to Mexico, in the summer of 2001. As you might imagine, I was not
 entirely expecting a clean bill of dental health. The fact that I had once
 again ignored my dentist&amp;rsquo;s advice to floss daily was not improving my outlook
 one bit.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;So it was with some trepidation that I went to see Dr Nakasawa yesterday
 afternoon at 3 o&amp;rsquo;clock. I stepped into the office, swapped my shoes for
 slippers, filled out some forms, and took a seat in the waiting room,
 attempting to pass the time by reading ads in Japanese for Sonicare
 toothbrushes.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Eventually, I heard the receptionist call out &amp;lsquo;Bracken-san!&amp;rsquo; The door swung
 open, and I was escorted to a chair and told to have a seat and wait for a few
 moments with nothing to do except stare at the assortment of torture
 instruments laid out on the table in front of me.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Now, in Canada, this is the point where the hygenist comes in, cleans your
 teeth, tells you what a poor job you&amp;rsquo;ve done of brushing your teeth over the
 last six months, asks you whether you&amp;rsquo;ve actually bothered to floss even once
 since the last time you came, then takes off and the dentist comes in and pokes
 around. In Japan, it goes only slightly differently. The dentist comes straight
 in, cleans your teeth, tells you what a poor job you&amp;rsquo;ve done of brushing your
 teeth, asks you whether you&amp;rsquo;ve actually bothered to floss even once since you
 last came in, then starts poking around. Normally, that is.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chotto akete kudasai.&lt;/em&gt; I opened my mouth. Dr Nakasawa looked around for a
 moment, poking at things with his tools, then paused.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kono chiryou wa Nihon de moraimashita?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;No, didn&amp;rsquo;t get &amp;rsquo;em here. I got all my fillings in Canada.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Another pause. &lt;em&gt;Aah, Canada-jin desu ka? Daigakusei no jidai, Eigo o benkyou
 shimashita kedo, mou hotondo wasurete-shimaimashita.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;That&amp;rsquo;s ok, I&amp;rsquo;ll try my best in Japanese.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Dr Nakasawa takes another glance in my mouth, does a bit more poking and says
 to the hygenist &amp;lsquo;Number 14 looks like an A. 18 looks like a B. 31&amp;hellip; is A-ish.&amp;rsquo;
 Dr Nakasawa sits back in his chair. Another pause.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;These fillings&amp;hellip; the grey ones,&amp;rsquo; he says, &amp;lsquo;how long ago did you get these?&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t know, maybe when I was in middle-school. A long time ago. I haven&amp;rsquo;t
 had a filling in years.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;They&amp;rsquo;re really old. This one here looks like it&amp;rsquo;s chipped away on the edge and
 the tooth underneath has a little bit of discolouration that may well be a
 cavity. We don&amp;rsquo;t really do this style of filling in Japan anymore, but what I&amp;rsquo;d
 suggest — it&amp;rsquo;s up to you — is that we remove these, check for cavities
 underneath, do any cleanup you need, then replace them with modern fillings.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Sure, the last dentist I talked to mentioned these were getting pretty awful
 too, so sure&amp;hellip; sounds good. Let&amp;rsquo;s do it.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Okay, I&amp;rsquo;m particularly worried about this one here, so let&amp;rsquo;s start with this
 one.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Sounds good.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Would you like to book a time next week, or if you have time I could do it
 today?&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve got no plans for the rest of the day, let&amp;rsquo;s just get it over with.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;Alright. &lt;em&gt;Masui wa dou desu ka? Hitsuyou desu ka?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Now here I want to remind you that although I can get by in day-to-day life and
 carry on a conversation in Japanese, one of the unequivocal facts of gaijin
 life is that there are some words you simply don&amp;rsquo;t know, and to keep the flow
 of conversation going, you skip them and pick up the general idea from context.
 So when someone says to you &amp;lsquo;What about &lt;em&gt;masui&lt;/em&gt;? Would you like it?&amp;rsquo; in a tone
 that suggests that really, you probably wouldn&amp;rsquo;t, your instinct tends to be to
 say &amp;rsquo;no, no.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;One of the wonderful things about living in another country is that
 occasionally you&amp;rsquo;re pleasantly surprised by turn of events that leads to an
 experience that you&amp;rsquo;d almost certainly never have stumbled your way into back
 home. These experiences often upend long-held, fundamental beliefs that you&amp;rsquo;d
 have never even thought to question in your life.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;However, I am going to tell you right now that there is no question at all that
 getting your teeth drilled with no freezing hurts almost exactly as much as
 you&amp;rsquo;d imagine it does.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The full meaning of Dr Nakasawa&amp;rsquo;s question, and of what was about to transpire,
 became crystal clear as he picked up the drill, looked me in the eyes and said
 &amp;lsquo;Open wide, and put your hand up if at any point you can&amp;rsquo;t handle the pain.&amp;rsquo; I
 swear I detected just the slightest hint of a smile on his face as he said this
 to me, but I didn&amp;rsquo;t have long to think about it because it was it was at this
 point that I began focussing my entire being on keeping my hands clamped in a
 death grip on the armrests of the dental chair.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I walked out of the office that day with a shiny new hole in my tooth and a
 temporary filling while they create the permanent one. I managed to do this
 without once raising my hand, but Dr Nakasawa&amp;rsquo;s lucky his chair has still got
 its bloody armrests attached.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>結婚してくれますか？</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/07/kekkon-shite-kuremasu-ka/</link>
       <pubDate>Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/07/kekkon-shite-kuremasu-ka/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;The big news is that Yasuko and I will be getting married in November at
 Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto. For the desperately curious, I &amp;lsquo;officially&amp;rsquo; proposed
 in February at &lt;em&gt;Souvenir&lt;/em&gt;, a French restaurant down the street.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;In Japan, getting engaged isn&amp;rsquo;t strictly just proposing. You&amp;rsquo;re really not
 truly engaged until you&amp;rsquo;ve &amp;lsquo;officially&amp;rsquo; proposed, which means not just deciding
 to get married, but getting together with the finacées parents and proposing to
 them. A long time ago, one might typically say &lt;em&gt;O-jou-san o boku ni kudasai.&lt;/em&gt;
 &amp;ldquo;Please give me your [honourable] daughter.&amp;rdquo; I decided I&amp;rsquo;d pass on that line.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;In any case, after a few trips back and forth to Kyoto, we settled on a
 Japanese ceremony just before noon, followed by a party with friends and family
 at a restaurant. The &lt;em&gt;nijikai&lt;/em&gt; party in Tokyo will be western-style, but we
 haven’t even begun to think about when or where yet.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;For those questioning the sanity of a November wedding, keep in mind that in
 Japan, this is &lt;em&gt;kōyō&lt;/em&gt; season, when all the leaves turn red and Japan is at its
 most beautiful. As Fall and Spring are the two most beautiful seasons in Japan,
 we were lucky to reserve when we did, back in April. Even then, some
 restaurants we talked to were already booked solid until mid-December.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;In any case, with the shrine and restaurant out of the way, all we have left to
 figure out is wedding rings, kimonos, invitations, flowers, food, gifts,
 speeches, photos, &amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>桜吹雪</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/04/sakura-fubuki/</link>
       <pubDate>Sat, 09 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/04/sakura-fubuki/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;Last weekend, the temperature shot up to 23 degrees, and in the space of two
 days, the cherry blossom trees erupted into bloom. The Japanese take this
 opportunity to throw impromptu picnics, dinners, and random sake-drinking
 events under &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom&#34;&gt;sakura&lt;/a&gt; trees all across the country.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2005-04-09-sakura.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Cherry blossoms near Naka-Meguro&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;The street behind my building is lined with sakura for as far as you can walk,
 so it’s been packed with everyone in the neighbourhood until almost midnight
 every night this week. With the cherry blossoms falling like snow since this
 morning, the whole thing will be over with by early next week, so Yasuko and I
 plan to get in one last hana-mi event tomorrow evening before heading back to
 work on Monday.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Huh?</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/03/huh/</link>
       <pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/03/huh/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;As I stared blankly out the window of the train on my morning commute,
 something caught my eye. As the train flew along its raised track, whizzing
 past the rooftops of Gakugei-daigaku at 80 km/h, I swear I saw a guy
 standing on the roof of a building alongside the track, dressed in a red cape
 and wearing a giant fish on his head, wailing away on a guitar.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;He was gone from my view before I was able to catch a second glance, though.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Update (2008-03-20):&lt;/em&gt; I’m glad he’s &lt;a href=&#34;http://jiyugaoka.keizai.biz/headline/171/&#34;&gt;not just a figment of my imagination&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2005-03-29-gakugeidai.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Man with fish on head playing guitar&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Update (2011-04-27):&lt;/em&gt; Found a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DbvxgmEAtE&#34;&gt;YouTube video&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>明けましておめでとうございます！</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/01/akemashite-omedetou/</link>
       <pubDate>Wed, 05 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/01/akemashite-omedetou/</guid>
       <description>&lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2005-01-05-yasaka.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Buddhist monk ringing bell&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;今年も宜しくお願いします！Jumped on the Nozomi Shinkansen from Shin-Yokohama
 station on the 31st to arrive in Kyoto two hours later. It was dumping snow
 from Nagoya onwards; and by the time we hit Kyoto, about 10 cm had
 accumulated.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;After stopping by friends’ for the traditional osechi-ryouri and soba dinner,
 Yasuko and I did hatsumoude at Yasaka shrine from 11 at night until 2 in the
 morning in the midst of the blizzard.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Spent the next few days shopping in Kyoto, visiting more friends, and
 re-visiting shrines and temples before heading back to Tokyo on the 3rd—though
 on the return trip, I had to stand from Nagoya onwards since the trains were
 booked to 120%.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Fresh Snow</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/12/fresh-snow/</link>
       <pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/12/fresh-snow/</guid>
       <description>&lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2004-12-30-fuji.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;View of Mt. Fuji from Ebisu Garden Place&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;I came into work to a nice surprise this morning. Sipping on hot green tea, we
 all crowded around the windows to check out the view.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;With the recent cold snap, the views this morning are incredibly clear. A
 little less so when passed through the tiny lens of my cell-phone camera. To
 see it in person, it really does dominate the horizon; and at over 100km away,
 that’s a pretty big feat.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>寒い！</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/12/samui/</link>
       <pubDate>Thu, 09 Dec 2004 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/12/samui/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;With the last days of 2004 upon us, it appears the weather has taken a turn
 from the relative warmth of November and December to plummet sub-zero
 overnight. What started as a light flurry this morning has progressed to a
 full-out blizzard, and it’s still coming down like crazy as I write
 this.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;In unrelated news, I’m off to Kyoto for Oshogatsu from the 31st to the 3rd.
 This time, I swear I’ll post pictures!&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Hope everyone had a happy Christmas. See you in 2005!&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Apartment Hunting</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/11/apartment-hunting/</link>
       <pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/11/apartment-hunting/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;Through a stroke of luck, I think I may have actually found a permanent place
 to live in Jiyugaoka close to Toritsu Daigaku station.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I have my current apartment in Ebisu until the 30th, so the plan is to move the
 weekend of the 27th. In the meantime, to placate people asking for pictures,
 here’s the view from my balcony here in Ebisu. The upside is that Ebisu is an
 incredibly central location in Tokyo with a ton of great restaurants; the
 downside is that tea costs 735 yen at the coffee shop across the way.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2004-11-04-balcony.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Tokyo Tower viewed from Ebisu Garden Place&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>東京に引越しする！</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/09/tokyo-ni-hikkoshi/</link>
       <pubDate>Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/09/tokyo-ni-hikkoshi/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;After two years back in Canada and several trips back and forth to Japan, I’ve
 signed a full-time contract as a software developer with a firm in Tokyo and am
 permanently re-locating to Japan. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can get
 around to it.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Summer 2004 in Japan</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/08/summer-2004-in-japan/</link>
       <pubDate>Fri, 20 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2004/08/summer-2004-in-japan/</guid>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;I had originally planned my summer vacations for May, then July, and finally,
 in an effort to match my summer vacations with those of friends in Japan, ended
 up shuffling them back to August. Aside from the scorching heat, August is a
 fantastic time of year to visit. The heat this summer was more than a little
 bit scorching though, it was the hottest summer in ten years.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;It turned out, however, that I would have something more pressing than the
 weather to keep my mind busy though. In the middle of the night, somewhere over
 the Pacific ocean I woke up from my sleep in a cold sweat. My heart was
 pounding. The airplane cabin was surprisingly silent; everyone around me had
 dozed off to sleep and all that was left was the low drone of the jet engines
 and the gentle hiss of the air vents. Slowly, I reached for the back pocket of
 my backpack. My hands trembling, I unzipped it and slowly pulled it open. With
 a huge sigh of relief, I pulled out my wallet. I hadn’t forgotten it at home
 after all. Dropping it back in, I turned back toward the window and fell back
 asleep. It wasn&amp;rsquo;t until the next day in Osaka, as I opened my wallet to pay for
 my hotel that I realised I’d forgotten my bank card at home.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;This would not have been a problem, except that in a flash of brilliance, I had
 decided to forgo the usual traveller’s cheques and use post office bank
 machines to withdraw from my accounts back home. This had worked fantastically
 last year and would save the hassle of cashing traveller’s cheques at a bank.
 Fortunately I had a credit card on me. Unfortunately, Canadian credit cards
 can’t be used to withdraw more than 20,000 yen a day, and then only at special
 Visa bank machines which tend to be incredibly hard to find. Or, as I would
 find out, impossible to find outside of Osaka or Tokyo. Fortunately I was able
 to get hold of Mum on the phone relatively quickly, and she FedEx’ed the card
 to Yasuko in Tokyo. By my math, I had just enough cash to buy Shinkansen
 tickets to Shizuoka, then Tokyo. All I had to do was ensure that I reserved a
 hotel in Shizuoka that accepted Canadian credit cards. No problem.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I spent the first night in the Umeda ward of Osaka, mostly because it’s so
 close to Osaka station, and I was planning to catch the train first thing next
 morning out through Kyoto, then Otsu, to Imazu-cho to meet Annie. Aside from
 spending most of the next day in Osaka desperately seeking out Visa ATMs, I
 can’t say I had that bad a time. Well, the weather was alright anyway.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Annie put me up for a few days in Imazu-cho, where I had the chance to meet up
 with some friends from last year, and do a little exploring of nearby bits of
 Shiga-ken. Caught the ferry out to Chikubushima, an island just 30 minutes out
 from shore into Lake Biwa. The amazing thing about Chikubushima is the temples
 and shrines you find in this remote location. The wood for the buildings did
 not come from the island itself, but was ferried out by hand hundreds of years
 ago. Chikubushima is one of several locations in Japan where the godess of
 artistic inclinations, Benzaiten, is worshipped. Benzaiten, or Benten as she is
 more often called, is the only female among the Shichifukujin¹ and is often
 depicted as a woman carrying a lute. As she is a river godess, temples and
 shrines dedicated to her often appear on lakes or near water.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;After a few days in Imazu, I decided to head to Shizuoka. The best way to get
 there was to catch local trains to Maibara station, on the other side of the
 lake, then take the Shinkansen from there to Shizuoka. As I was running a
 little late, I ended up sprinting through Imazu, suitcase in tow, to the train
 station. With 100m to go, I saw the train pull into the station, so I threw it
 into high gear. I quickly bought the 900 yen ticket from the ticket agent, who
 told me to run for track 3, and remember to change trains at Nagahama station.
 I sprinted up the stairs, and threw myself headlong through the train doors
 seconds before they closed. 20 minutes later, the train driver called Nagahama
 station over the crackly radio, and I hopped off. I was the only one. The train
 pulled away, and I was left standing on the train platform with nothing but the
 scorching heat and humidity, and the chirping of cicadas. It was then that I
 read the station name: Nagahara. I’d misheard the name. There would surely be
 another train in ten minutes though, so I staggered down the stairs and noticed
 the utter lack of automatic ticket gates.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;An old woman sat in the station-master’s booth. She looked up at me with a
 half-surprised, half-worried expression and asked me for my ticket. I handed it
 over. Noticing the apparent discrepancy in train fare she asked, “where are you
 headed?” I answered “Maibara.” She said, “that’s on the other side of the lake.
 You’re at Nagahara.” I said “I know. I’d meant to change at Nagahama…” at which
 point she started laughing. ”The next train’s in three hours.” Three hours. I
 asked when the next train to Oumi-Shiotsu station was. It was one station to
 the north, at the junction of two train lines, so there’d be a much better
 chance of catching an earlier train. She said ”That&amp;rsquo;s the one. The next train
 anywhere is three hours from now. There’s a bus in two though. Or I could call
 a taxi, if that would help.” Maibara had to be at least 80km from here. No way
 I could afford a taxi. But I could probably get a taxi to Oumi-Shiotsu, which I
 did. And was laughed at some more over my mistake.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Turned out I wasn’t the only one. When I arrived at Oumi-Shiotsu, I was greeted
 by three Japanese backpackers from Kyushu who’d apparently gotten off at
 Nagahara the day before, and decided to stay the night at a nearby hotspring
 and continue on to Maibara the next day. We sat for an hour, jumped on the
 train, and eventually arrived at Nagahama, changed trains, and completed the
 journey to Maibara. From there, it was the Kodama Shinkansen to Shizuoka.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I crashed the night in Shizuoka, then spent the next day exploring town. I
 visited Sumpu-jou, a small castle in central Shizuoka, and Sumpu-jou Kouen, a
 nearby park where I was invited in to try a whole series of green teas.
 Shizuoka is famous for green tea, and as I had been the only foreigner that
 week, I was treated to a detailed history of tea cultivation in the area, an
 explanation of the many varieties and styles of green tea, and a pile of free
 desserts! They asked if I had some spare time, as they’d love to take me on a
 guided tour of the rest of the teahouse, and show me the private gardens in the
 back. It was pretty spectacular.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;After Sumpu-jou Kouen, I tried to find a bank machine that would allow me to do
 a cash advance on my credit card, but finally gave up while I still had my
 sanity. I bought a Shinkansen ticket for Tokyo with the plan to meet Setsuko at
 Tennodai station at 9pm.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;On the train, I met a professor with the Shimizu Univeristy Naval Engineering
 school, and we ended up chatting the entire way to Tokyo. He was originally
 from Kyoto, but had lived in Holland for years, and half-way through the
 conversation, I discovered that he also spoke flawless English. He was
 incredibly polite and put up with my fairly dodgy Japanese the entire way. It
 was pretty good practice for me, though we did switch to English as the
 conversation got into ship-building and a few other topics I knew nothing about
 in Japanese.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;In the end, I got to Ueno station a little bit early, stuffed my suitcase in a
 locker, and ended up exploring the park for a few hours. I ended up doing a
 huge survey on what I thought of Ueno Park, which was also great Japanese
 practice, and I got a free pen out of the deal, to boot. I also discovered a
 big festival going on at the far end of the park, near a temple that Yasuko and
 I had visited last year. I wandered past the booths selling onigiri² and
 kaki-kori³, listened to the music, took some pictures, and stopped by the
 temple for a bit. It sits in the middle of a large pond full of blossoming
 lotus flowers, and combined with the smell of incense wafting over the pond, it
 makes for a very peaceful experience.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Eventually, I grabbed some onigiri and headed back to the train station to
 catch the next train for Tennodai, in Chiba. Got there just in time, sat down
 and waited on the platform for Setsuko, who arrived 5 minutes later. It was
 crazy to see her again on the other side of the world. We headed off to the
 supermarket, grabbed some food for dinner, and headed back to her apartment to
 eat.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The next day, we did some shopping around Kashiwa station in Chiba, and I ended
 up ordering a hand-made traditional futon. They measured me, we selected
 fabrics and they said to come back in ten days to pick it up. Grabbed some
 chinese food for lunch and some snacks, and did a bit more shopping. Eventually
 we headed back, and I went to sleep. I remember being woken by an earthquake at
 about 2am, but falling back asleep before it was even over. I can’t stay awake
 for long on futons; they’re incredibly comfortable.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Yasuko and I arranged to meet at Shinagawa station early the next morning under
 the big clock by the central ticket gates. It was great to see her again, and
 we immediately bolted off to drop my gear at the apartment in Shinagawa she’d
 rented and head out for lunch at an Italian place nearby. The rest of the week
 was spent eating some of the most amazing sushi, soba, French, and Italian food
 you can imagine, and checking out two huge fireworks festivals. Aside from all
 the eating, we also visited art galleries in Ueno park, and did a bit of
 shopping in Jiyuugaoka and Ginza. I got to visit Apple’s flagship Ginza store
 which is a noble goal for any true Mac fanatic. Well, technically I also needed
 a new AC adapter, since I’d accidentally destroyed mine earlier in the day.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;After a week in Tokyo, it was off on a business trip to Oita, on Kyushu. I’d
 never been to southern Japan before, and I was looking forward to meeting some
 of my Japanese counterparts for work after many email conversations. Not only
 did I get to visit a Japanese shipyard and see firsthand the incredible
 precision with which they manufacture their vessels, but I also got to visit a
 rural Japanese town, and meet Matsumoto-san and Kato-san, who treated me to
 some of the most memorable karaoke of my life. After the business trip to
 Nagasaki, we headed out for one last night together, with an amazing
 traditional Kyushu-style sashimi and sushi dinner, and karaoke until two in the
 morning.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;For my final day in Japan, I was scheduled to fly out of Oita airport, arriving
 at Tokyo Haneda airport at 12:15. At 5pm, my return flight to Canada departed
 Tokyo Narita airport. In the intervening 3 hours, the brilliant plan was to
 jump from train to train at breakneck pace and make it to Togoshi-ginza station
 to meet Yasuko for lunch, then jump straight back on the train and make it out
 to Narita just in time for my flight. I made every single train as the doors
 were closing. Literally, with under two seconds to spare every time&amp;hellip; but we
 did have a fantastic Italian lunch, and make it to the airport with such
 impeccable timing that by the time I arrived at the gate, everyone had boarded
 but ten people. You can’t cut it much closer than that.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Once again, one of the most memorable trips of my life. The best part is that
 I’ll be permanently moving back to Japan within a couple of months, so I’ll be
 even closer to all the places I’ve been looking forward to visiting. Thanks to
 everyone who put me up again this year: Annie, Setsuko, and Yasuko! I can’t
 wait to be back.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;h3 id=&#34;glossary&#34;&gt;Glossary&lt;/h3&gt;
 &lt;ol&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shichifukujin:&lt;/em&gt; The seven gods of good luck.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Onigiri:&lt;/em&gt; Rice balls, often stuffed with pickled plum or fish.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;kaki-kori:&lt;/em&gt; Shaved ice covered in flavoured syrup such as strawberry,
 blueberry, or green tea.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;/ol&gt;
 </description>
     </item>
     
     <item>
       <title>Biking Japan 2003</title>
       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2003/08/biking-japan-2003/</link>
       <pubDate>Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2003/08/biking-japan-2003/</guid>
       <description>&lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-cycling-in-japan.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Brodie bike parked beside vending machines in front of restaurant&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;The plan was to travel from Osaka north to the Japan Sea, northeast along the
 coast to Joetsu, south through the alps to Nagano, then southeast all the way
 to Tokyo — a total distance of close to 1200 km, entirely by bicycle.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately for me, disaster struck just over half-way, in the form of
 150km/h winds and torrential downpours. Typhoon Number 10 ploughed straight
 through Japan, following a track from the island of Shikoku through Nagano
 before it died out, dumping up to 650mm of rain a day, and flooding out every
 town and village in its path.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I arrived in Osaka the night of July 28th and promptly hauled my bike,
 panniers, and tools through customs and immigration, across the airport, and
 into a hotel. I’m not entirely sure how happy they were to have a
 grotty-looking guy assembling his bike in his hotel room overnight, but no one
 said anything, and I snuck out around 6am anyway.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;It’s unbelievable just how slowly you start and stop when your bike is loaded
 with 40kg of gear. Sort of the cycling equivalent of driving an 18-wheeler. The
 weather was a scorching 36C, with the humidity hovering around 85%. Over the
 first 70km from Osaka Itami Airport to downtown Kyoto, I consumed 8 litres of
 Dakara, Boku, Miu, and the oh-so-deliciously named Poccari Sweat, crashed
 twice, and got lost every 5 minutes. Took a break in Kyoto, stopping by to take
 a look at Sanjuusan Gendo, take some pictures, and chat with Taxi drivers, the
 police, and anyone else who wanted to know just what the hell I was doing.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Eventually, after a few more Poccari Sweats and some ramen for lunch, I jumped
 on my bike and started the trek to Otsu. Half an hour later, winding my way
 slowly uphill, along a narrow shoulder on a bridge 30m above a cemetary, I had
 the first major close call of the ride. Fortunately, through a combination of
 luck and skill, I deftly avoided flying over the railing and plummeting 30m to
 my death. Unfortunately, I did so by launching myself headlong into a traffic
 barrier, failing to release my toe-clips, breaking the seat right off the post,
 and trashing both my leg and pannier on the pavement in the process. Pretty
 sure my leg was broken, I lay there for a few minutes contemplating the
 resounding success of my bike trip thusfar while the last of the Poccari Sweat
 drained out of my water bottles into my shoes.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-fireworks-in-fukui.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Fireworks in Fukui&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;Suffice to say that the rest of the day went uphill from there (both literally
 and figuratively) and I arrived in Otsu, on the edge of lake Biwa, in one
 piece. Annie met me at the JR train station, we ditched the bike in a parking
 lot, and rode the train back to Kyoto, where we met up with the entire
 complement of Shiga JET Programme teachers at The Hub, an Irish Pub in
 Karamachi. After a few beers, some fish &amp;amp; chips and edamame, Annie and Brent
 hauled me back to their apartment in Imazu, where they (and I am forever
 indebted to them for this) put me up for three days.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Although I didn’t get to go to SummerSonic in Osaka, I did get to pick up my
 bike in Otsu, ride 95km back north to Imazu, and spend the evening at Imazu’s
 Natsu-matsuri¹ with friends of Annie’s and Brent’s (Josh, Yo, and Hatsumi).
 Natsu-matsuris involve many elements, but some of the most important factors
 are: fireworks that put ours to shame, music and dancing, traditional Yukata²,
 and vast quantites of food and alcohol. After the festival, we dragged
 ourselves to Bumblebee Twist, a local bar, and had a few more before eventually
 hauling ourselves off to bed to recover.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The next day, we were all invited to a barbeque. The one thing that any
 foreigner will immediately notice about a Japanese barbeque is that you can’t
 just light the barbeque using zip-lights or lighter fluid. No&amp;hellip; the correct
 way to light a barbeque in Japan is for one person to heat the coals with a
 torch while the rest stand around fanning the flames with uchiwas³ until the
 barbeque, in a moment of glory, bursts into flames and the cooking begins. We
 had music, more food, beer and Chu-hai (a sort of cider), snacks, and more
 fireworks. It was totally great, even though I was beat over and over at some
 kind of pirate game by a three-year-old.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The next morning, I said bye to Annie and Brent, then hurled myself off
 northwards up the highway towards the north coast. For 30km, the road winds up
 through the mountains over a narrow pass toward Tsuruga. In the scariest
 downhill of the entire ride, I plummeted down the winding road, drafting behind
 semi-trucks at 70km/h, flying in and out of tunnels and around hairpin turns
 for the 8km down into Tsuruga.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Tsuruga sits on the ocean at the edge of the Sea of Japan, at the beginning of
 the long road leading northeast to Fukui and Kanazawa. Unfortunately, it also
 sits at the beginning of a 95km-long leg of straight uphill running along the
 edge of a cliff with no shoulder. Fortunately, it’s some of the most beautiful
 riding you could possibly hope for. Even more fortunately, midway through the
 ride, as I sat at the side of the road huddling in a tiny corner of shade at
 the edge of a cliff, two motorcyclists from Osaka pulled up and offered me
 something to drink, a look at their road maps, and some encouragement in
 Kansai-dialect. This was reinforced over and over throughout my ride by
 children hanging out of car windows waving and shouting &amp;ldquo;ganbare!&amp;rdquo; at the top
 of their lungs.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-lining-up-for-okonomiyaki.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Lining up for okonomiyaki&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;Eventually, I wound my way up through the mountains to Fukui, where I almost
 had to spend the night camped on a park-bench by the river. Just when I’d
 almost given up hope of finding a hostel, someone walked up to me and in
 perfect English, asked if I needed a place to stay for the night. Turns out her
 family ran a hotel downtown, and she and her sister had spent several years
 living in Australia. Their mom invited me in for tea and snacks after dinner
 and we all stayed up late with their little boy, Ryu, yakking about travelling
 and good Japanese food.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;The next day it was off to Kanazawa, which it turns out has a lot in common
 with Kyoto. While it’s much smaller, there were many beautiful old sections of
 town. There are temples and shrines everywhere, Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen —
 probably the most famous Japanese garden in the world. There’s also a crazy guy
 dressed in a cape and John Lennon glasses who runs around dragging people to
 convenience stores. Too embarassed not to buy an ice cream treat from the
 shopkeeper, I grabbed some ice-cream mochi balls, borrowed the phone and set up
 reservations for Nagano.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Because of the typhoon, I ended up doing the rest of the trip by train. I found
 a bike shop and spent the day yammering away in pseudo-Japanese to the little
 old grandma and grandpa who owned the shop. Turns out that he had done almost
 the exact same bike trip about 40 years ago! He had also cycled across
 Australia and much of the rest of Japan. Pretty amazing! If I hadn’t found
 them, my bike would probably be lying in a crumpled heap in a landfill right
 now. It took hours, be we did manage to pack everything into an unbelievably
 small bag that I could haul onto the train with me.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;From Kanazawa, I caught the train to Nagano, taking local lines and limited
 express trains the whole way. Nagano was the site of the 1998 Winter Olympic
 Games, but has since reverted to its pre-Olympic small-town feel. It was a
 beautiful place to visit, hidden away in the Japanese alps, surrounded by
 Japanese hot springs and ski hills. I can’t wait to visit in winter. Nagano’s
 biggest feature is probably Zenkouji, a Buddhist Temple which houses the first
 Buddhist images to come to Japan from the Asian mainland. Underneath the temple
 is a pitch-black maze of tunnels that you can wander into, pushed along by wave
 after wave of school-children on field trips, people on pilgrimmages, and
 curious tourists. It’s almost impossible to tell just how fast you’re moving,
 or how far you’ve gone&amp;hellip; just disembodied voices in the dark. Eventually you
 arrive at the “key to salvation”, which you can’t see, but you can feel. A few
 shakes and rattles, then you’re swept away down the tunnels again.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;From Nagano, I caught the Asama Shinkansen into Tokyo. At 280km/h the trip
 takes just about two hours. The train tore through the edge of the hurricane at
 breakneck speed and we were in Tokyo on schedule to the minute. You can’t help
 but love the Japanese train system.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-akasaka.jpg&#34;
     alt=&#34;Akasaka at night&#34;&gt;
 &lt;/figure&gt;
 
 &lt;p&gt;Met up with Yasuko in Tokyo, and we spent the week bumming around town and
 catching all the sights: Akasaka, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba, the Tsukiji fish
 market. Took a side trip to the art gallery a few hours away in Hakone
 Prefecture where a mix of European and Japanese art is on display. There were
 some absolutely amazing pieces of Japanese pottery in their collection. Back in
 Tokyo, we had the chance to see a Kabuki play. I wasn’t entirely sure what to
 expect, but it was great. The most striking thing is perhaps the movement. It
 was absolutely incredible. I wish I were able to describe it, but the best I
 can do is recommend that if you’re even in Tokyo, you go see a Kabuki play!&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I returned home on August 17th. Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in Tokyo,
 jumped on the plane at 6pm and had another breakfast and lunch. Arrived back in
 Canada 8 hours before I left, and had lunch and dinner again, for a total of
 seven meals on the 17th. Not bad! It was a pretty wild and crazy trip, but it
 was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. I can’t wait to go back.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to everyone who put me up along the way! In particular, Annie &amp;amp; Brent,
 and Yasuko! You guys are the best!&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;h3 id=&#34;glossary&#34;&gt;Glossary&lt;/h3&gt;
 &lt;ol&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Natsu-Matsuri:&lt;/em&gt; every village’s traditional summer festival, usually in
 early- to mid-August, near Obon, the Day of the Dead.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yukata:&lt;/em&gt; traditional light cotton kimonos that come in a variety of colours
 and patterns.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Uchiwa:&lt;/em&gt; Large, flat traditional Japanese fan.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;/ol&gt;
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