Winter Break

I actually had a hard time teaching 6 year olds how to say “eyes, ears, mouth, nose” today. Over the past two weeks, I climbed so far out of the groove of work that I’m still settling back in.

My winter vacation was excellent. I didn’t realize that much could be done in two weeks and still be called a vacation. I met my parents in Hawaii and relaxed for a few days, read a few books, went snorkeling with some spinner dolphins, hiked to a 1200 foot high waterfall, mucked around in the jungle with Sienna and her boyfriend and his brother looking for some nonexistent springs, went golfing, jumped off 70-foot cliffs into the ocean at the southernmost point in America, body-surfed on a green sand beach, drank good beer, and generally had a good time.

I then flew to Shanghai through Tokyo, where I met my Russian friend Olga. We stayed at her friend Masha’s apartment, along with her Iranian boyfriend, Mage (Mohammed) and her other friend Elena. I hung out with all of them for a few days and had a very interesting combination of bizarre linguistic challenges, sightseeing, and new cultural experiences. We rode the Maglev that goes to the airport from Shanghai at 430kph, the fastest in the world. We went up the Oriental Pearl Tower, the crazy eye-catching tower on the Shanghai skyline, had drinks in the 47th floor bar of the Radisson hotel, attended a New Years concert of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (the tickets for which we bought for half-price from desperate hawkers outside the concert hall 10 minutes after the performance had started) and had a very exciting New Year celebration at a club with a VIP table and champagne and everything. I might have felt incredibly out of my element at the level of expensive activity, but I really enjoyed the people and was really able to relax in China, where people don’t seem to care as much as the Japanese do about silly things like the fact that you are a foreigner or about standing in line or stopping at red lights. I even bought a fake Armani wool overcoat for 50 bucks and an accompanying scarf at a market, causing me to look anomalously fashionable.

And if that were all! Olga and I hopped on a ferry on the 2nd of January and sat on it for two days as it made its way across the South China Sea, Korea Strait, Strait of Shimonoseki, and the Seto Inland Sea to Osaka Port. It was surprisingly comfortable, and we arrived in Osaka with enough energy to meet Chris and Andrew, check into a capsule hotel, eat takoyaki, wander the shopping streets around Shinsaibashi, go to Nara and see the Big Ol’ Buddha and his Hall, pig out on gyoza, sing karaoke, and make it back to catch a few hours of sleep before taking the Shinkansen to Kumamoto in Kyushu to meet Dr. Nagai, Linguistics and Japanese professor from UAF and former teacher of both Olga and mine. For me, the excitement ends around there, but it was a really fun trip for me, even in Japan, because Olga was experiencing everything for the first time, so I not only got to relive some of my old experiences with Japan, but I actually got to have some new ones, because things were extended to her that would not have been extended to me (being theoretically less of a newbie) and she was much more willing to try new things, where I have already made many judgements on different foods or places, or simply lost my childish enthusiasm for exploration of the country. For example, I now realize that I like Calpis, as long as it contains alcohol. Anyway, after a whirlwind 24 hours in Kumamoto – castle, hot springs, chanko-nabe (sumo wrestler’s stew), purikura, ramen, and more shopping, we got on a Shinkansen back to Tokyo. It was craaaazy packed. We couldn’t get on the train we planned, and had to stand on the platform and wait for 30 minutes for the next Nozomi express to Tokyo. We were very lucky to get seats for the 6 hour trip. That night, I stayed in Tokyo with Olga and we hit a really awesome Gyoza specialty restaurant. The next day I went back home to Murakami, leaving Olga to explore in Tokyo. She met up with me the next day and I drove her around Murakami. We said goodbye in Niigata city, and she successfully flew out of Toyama city the next day to Vladivostok. For those who are curious, Vladivostok Airlines runs non-stop flights between Niigata and Vladivostok on TrS and Toyama on MWF. Incidentally, the airline will start non-stop service between Vlad and Anchorage in March. So, if you wanted to visit me and Vladivostok at the same time from Alaska, keep that in mind.

Oh, and I have a ton of photos, all captioned with plenty of sarcasm.

More Travels

Olga’s Japan