March 15: Makurazaki + Yamakawa trip

I wanted to post this although the trip was from last month.
I got a message from Hiromitsu one day saying that they're going out for soba noodles and to the hot springs after and asked whether I would want to join them. I happen to be craving for some zarusoba, soba noodles served cold with a dip.

So here it is:

Here's what the soba place looked like from the outside. Very Japanese.

The dips came first. The one on the left is for the soba noodles, while the one on the right is for the tempura.

Nice interior.


Me and Hiromitsu.

Ryousuke.
The zarusoba and tempura set cost around 1000 yen and was very filling.

I love the clouds above the soba place!


This is what I love most about living in Kagoshima... :)





Hiromitsu and Ryousuke started working this month so this was probably our last trip in a while, though... :(

Volunteer weekend at Hakkenmura

Last weekend, I took part in a volunteer event with Hakkenmura, which is an organization that is dedicated to providing assistance and shelter to homeless people in Japan.

I didn't really understood what I was in for when I told my friend Ayumi that I will be joining her for the volunteer event. It was only later that I understood that we will be asking for donations for the homeless at Tenmonkan, which is located downtown. Two hours later, we collected 65,606 yen for the homeless. It was pretty interesting that most of those who donated money were young males. Who would've thought?

The pictures are, again, out of sequence, so I'll comment on each picture in turn:

This picture was take at the press conference signaling the official establishment of the Kagoshima branch of Hakkenmura. Suffice to say, I was not able to understand most of what was being said... :P

After the donation event and before the press conference, we had dinner at a nearby pasta place. I learned how to make a chick with a wet towel (see below)

Here, we're sorting the money we collected in the afternoon

After the press conference, the volunteers were divided into teams. Each team went to a different area in Kagoshima City to find homeless people, give them information about the organization, and give them some food. My team went to Taniyama and consisted of me, Ayumi, Prof. Batoh, a professor of Economics at IUK, and three other males whose names I forgot (@@)... Two of those males used to live on the streets themselves so they knew where the homeless spend the night. I was surprised that we were able to find 4 in Taniyama alone. According to the official statistics they presented at the press conference, there are at least 100 homeless people in Kagoshima City alone.

This next picture was taken at Chuo Park. The volunteers, people from Hakkenmura, and even some of the former and current homeless people helped out in making lunch and snacks for hanami (flower watching).




I remember thinking to myself that day that I wasn't able to differentiate between the homeless and the volunteers at times because everyone helped out in cooking the food and cleaning afterwards. It was also interesting to see that starving as they were, the homeless sat quietly in front of the food offered to them and waited until they were told that it was okay to start eating. I don't think the same thing could happen in many other countries.

The man in the checkered shirt at the leftmost corner in the last picture is called Wada. He cooked for nearly three hours that day and probably did not eat much. I still don't know whether he's homeless or not, but I do know that I am immensely impressed by his cooking skills and his willingness to do things without asking for anything in return.

Zhao's best shots?

In a previous post, I posted a photo that me and Trisha both agree is probably the best shot we have of Faiz to date here.

So, today I was going through my pictures and saw a couple of shots I have of Zhao that may be his best yet (at least in my camera). See if you agree! :)

Fun ways to kill time in Kagoshima

Here's a little piece I did for Kinko Bay Tidings, an English language publication in Kagoshima that is mostly (9o percent or more?) written by Donican:

Short as my stay has been here so far (six months and counting), me and my friends have found some places that keep us entertained and going back for more.

MUSE CLUB (Frespo Yojiro)

Most foreign citizens only stay in Japan for a couple of years or so, so it would be safe to assume that, like me, you also get around by public transportation, and thus have to watch the time every time you go somewhere. It gets pretty boring after a while to go back home really early and do nothing in particular.

This is the place to go to if you have a group of people, not much cash in your pockets, and plenty of time to kill. Depending on what time you go there, you can spend between 1000 and 2000 yen per person for a decent number of hours belting songs and downing drinks (yes, it's all you can drink, but no, they're nonalcoholic). If you come in during the evening (after 9:00 pm if I'm not mistaken), you can stay until 5:00 am the next day. This should be good news for people with sleeping problems!

What's really cool about karaoke places in Japan is that they have songs in many different languages. They have songs in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and even Tagalog (Filipino)! I browsed a bit through their song directory (they have a remote control device from which you can browse and order songs from) and songs in other languages in addition to what were already mentioned above can also be found in it (I found a couple of Spanish songs).

The rooms here are also worth some article space. At the MUSE CLUB, they have two types of rooms, smoking and non-smoking, and several different themed rooms. The smoking rooms are not so special. They're basically two long couches set against the walls and a long table in between. But their non-smoking rooms are a different story. One of the rooms we went to was cushioned all over (think mental hospital room). The good thing about this is that it is comfy enough that people would just lie down and feel right at home and really have fun. And, as one of my friends jokingly suggested, you can always come here when you don't have a place to spend a night because it's way cheaper than a hotel room, plus you get to sing when you can't sleep!

Photo Stickers

Okay, this is not exactly a location but a machine that can be found in many places. It may not have crossed your mind, but taking photos at photo sticker booths (what they call 'print club' or 'purikura' in Japan) actually takes a lot of time! So here's an option for you if you and your friends are at a loss for something to do.

Here's the reason why it takes a lot of time. The actual picture taking process doesn't really take any more than a couple of minutes, but the part where you design the photos - adding a few touches here, putting little hearts there - surprisingly takes a lot of time! (That is, unless you choose not to be creative and only add a couple of perfunctory touches)

One thing I learned from my many trips to the photo sticker booth (and yes, I do have a life away from the photo sticker booth) is that it is best to opt for a machine that provides infrared transmission if you have that choice. These days, most machines provide you with the option to download a photo or two off of their website (from your phone, of course) for free. But if you happen to be using a prepaid phone, you won't be able to download that photo because your phone does not have an Internet connection. Bummer. Another thing is that, you may have taken six photos, but the online download option will only give you a couple of digital files for free, whereas the infrared transmission will allow you to download all the digital files to your phone, right outside the machine itself.

So round your friends up and start posing away!

Round 1 (Usuki)

Round 1 is arguably one of the most preferred bowling alleys in Kagoshima. There are definitely less expensive places (like JJ), but people usually opt for Round 1 because it is better lit and better maintained.

The best deal to opt for is the bowl-all-you-can package. For less than 2000 yen per person, you can enjoy six games each!

There is a fun regular event that they call "Moon Light Strike Game." Basically, they turn down the lights, explain the rules to the game, and everyone bowls at the same time. The rules indicate that females and children should knock down 9 pins and males should bowl a strike in order to win this challenge. Victors and their friends get a group shot (where one of them wears a bowling pin costume) and a souvenir. So far they've changed the souvenir from a bowling alley photo stand to a bowling ball-shaped digital clock.

If you come here on your birth month and make reservations a day or two beforehand, you will also get a group picture and a huge inflated bowling pin which stands at about 5 feet!
Round 1 Spo-cha (Usuki)On the upper floors of the bowling alley in the Round 1 entertainment complex is Spo-cha. For a set fee per hour, you can play arcade games, sing karaoke, or engage in a wide variety of sports.

Their indoor sports include a shooting range, billiards, table tennis, skating, and a wide range of other sports. They also have an outdoor-sport option on the rooftop where you can play tennis, badminton, archery, and several others.

Surely, there are many other ways to kill time when you're with a bunch of friends. These are the places that we found so far. Try them out and hope you have as much fun as we did!

Aso Volcano in Kumamoto

This is about another one of our day trips in February.
This time we went to Kumamoto, a not-so-near prefecture in Kyushu.
(I think it took us around 6 hours each way, so we had to depart at around 5am...
poor Shinobu had to drive the whole way cuz he was the only person with a valid driver's license)


This is the cable car station (they call it 'ropeway' here) to the mouth of the volcano


Behind these guys are shelters for when the volcano erupts




Doesn't this look like an album cover or something? A pretty cheesy one though... :P


Tired but happy...





Somebody please explain why the liquid is greenish...

Baseball game in Miyazaki

Last month, we went on a day trip to Miyazaki to watch a practice game in a 'baseball camp' there.
It was the Giants versus 'Samurai Japan,' which were the best players in Japan (including those who were recruited overseas) put together.
They were training for the WBC (World Baseball Classics)

I don't really know much about baseball except for what I learned from playing video games and Nintendo Wii, but the game was pretty entertaining.

Ichiro Suzuki, who is now with the New York Yankees (I believe) was also present that day, which explains the large crowd despite the bad weather (see first picture) and the incessant picture taking (as can be seen on the video) whenever he's on the field.

Marie

Was sorting through my pictures and came across some really nice shots of Marie.
She had hair extensions put in for her graduation performances. :)

Interesting maps

This was from a while back, but it's really funny so I thought I should post it here.

A couple of months ago, Faiz and I were invited to Anis' place for some authentic Pakistani fare.
We'd never been to his place so Anis was kind enough to draw us a map to his place (from the train station)

Seemed fairly straightforward, right?
Turned out the path wasn't as clear cut as Anis' map seemed to be (above)
Lol.



That's not all.
The other group of people who were invited were given a different kind of map by Anis' brother, Hafiz.
Check out the map below.


IMO, neither of us had it easy.
Both maps were pretty hard to navigate with, lol.

'White Day' in Japan!

It's "White Day" today in Japan.

In Japan, on February 14th, Valentine's Day, females give chocolates to males.
The type of chocolate that are given can be divided into several types:
(I'm recalling this from memory, so there may be some discrepancy...)
homemade choco for people that are truly special to you
tomo choco for friends
and
giri choco for people you are obligated to be nice to

March 14th, on the other hand, is known as White Day.
Simply put, this is the day when males reciprocate and give females (who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day) sweets or pastries in return.



So, this morning I suddenly remembered that today was White Day and half-jokingly sent a message to a handful of guys I know asking for White Day chocolate.

I didn't expect anyone to actually oblige.

Less than an hour ago, I was surprised by the persistent ringing of my doorbell.
Guess who it was?
Ryoutaro came to give me a box of pastries from both him and Youichi

What a pleasant surprise!
Thanks again you guys!
That definitely made my day! :P

Additional reading: Wiki

I hate people who talk behind other people's backs...

I don't want to name names because I'm not 100% sure of the validity of my hunch but I have to get this off my chest.



A certain someone is quite a character.
Let me start with two recent examples that directly affects me:

A couple of weeks ago, I sent this certain someone an email inviting him for a bowling night with our friends
(I invited him out of kindness, since I didn't want him to feel left out)
Guess what? I didn't receive a reply at all.
It's common courtesy to reply to direct questions, isn't it?
Geez...

Then, a couple of days ago, I accidentally let slip that he's working part time over the break
It turned out he didn't apply for a permit, which is required for us to work
(Who would've thought that he was keeping his work secret?
And, how could you keep such work secret?
And, who would've thought that he would be stupid enough not to apply for a permit?)

By the way, I sent him another email that time informing him of a certain piece of good news and warning him that he should apply for a permit soon.
Guess what? No reply again.
But! Big BUT! He wrote a blog entry *hinting* that me letting slip that he had no permit would probably cause him to lose his job and what not...

Geez, can you just say it directly?
Stop being a hypocrite!
We accidentally ran across one another last week at school and he pretended that nothing was going on (hello? what about your replies to my emails?!) and made plenty of small talk.

Geez, what a faker...