Another long hiatus, here's a quick, little post and update. Check out our Flickr page! It contains our latest trip photos. We went to Okinawa over Christmas this winter, did some scuba diving and sightseeing. I'll write about that in a future Blog entry (hopefully soon).

In the mean time, I've started a new Blog! Huh!? What the heck, Atley! You don't even keep up with THIS one!.... True, but the new one may end up being a bit more frequent. It's a restaurant review blog, since Bonnie and I are always on the prowl for a new place to eat and we've experienced some real duds and found some hidden gems too. Anyway, head on over to http://eatkofu.blogspot.com if you're interested in my restaurant reviews! Completely unrelated to this Blog, so you can experience another slice of our lives in Japan...

What can I say about scuba diving that has not already been expressed by the countless myriads in books, essays, TV documentaries and the movie The Abyss? Not much, unfortunately. Originality is a concept that's difficult to seize when you are writing not about venturing down an overgrown path upon which few people travel, but rather, a six-lane, well-paved highway in L.A. directly on the commuter route of thousands.

The same can be said about photography too. My own photos of tropical fish and sunsets offer little that has not already been commercially exploited infinitely over and over again by those with far more ability (and expensive equipment) than myself. Ultimately, however, I've come to the conclusion that such comparisons are completely irrelevant to my life and the lives of those around me. Indeed, why in the world would ANYONE ask me what breathing underwater is like, or sit and look at my picture of a Lionfish when a National Geographic magazine will provide the same information and in a very entertaining way to match?

Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright, who is often credited as the father of modern theater drama was unique in his time for depictions of ordinary people doing ordinary things at a time when going to see a play meant watching kings, queens, noblemen and otherwise stately individuals struggling in moral dilemmas of good versus evil. Aaron Copland's tribute to the ordinary working schmo has been immortalized in Fanfare for the Common Man -- one of today's most recognizable orchestral pieces. Echoing this very same sentiment, just about everything today, from the TV sitcoms like Friends that revolve around normal, otherwise mundane citizens, to the phenomena of Blogging and vanity websites is a testament to the fact that, as commoners we tend to be interested in other common folk; to the point that we will often value their ideas, opinions and oeuvres as much as, if not more than those proceeding from expert or famous sources. If this were not true, I would truly have nothing more to say about scuba diving but "go read a book about it!"

"Absolutely not," many would protest (and rightfully so). "I want to hear YOUR story -- not someone else's." Certainly, such a sentiment makes a person feel good inside -- we all like to feel needed... But much more importantly, the point is that there's something infinitely more intimate about reading a friend's Blog entry about any given topic than picking up a magazine article about the same thing, no matter how well written it may be. We all like to be part of something, and I would have my hope in writing my Blog the same as those reading it -- the establishment of some sort of kinship or bond that almost makes us friends.

This said, we had a very exciting summer. We had some good times, made a number of scuba diving trips which I will get into a little later. Most of the photos are already up on Flickr, all you need to do is click on the link at the right of the page. Speaking of those links, I have removed the link to my 2007 calendars. If you didn't get one, that's alright -- the 2008 calendars are already in the planning stage and I hope to get those completed and ready for distribution by the end of this month. That's one thing I learned with last year's run -- many people loved them, they said that the photography was excellent, but they came out too late to be useful. Most people had already bought (or received as gifts) all the calendars they needed. I plan to remedy that this year. Watch for the public announcement on this page!

I suppose that the most logical place to pick up from my last Blog entry would be talking about mid-July. When school let out for the summer, our first trip was out to Chiba where we attended a week-long Christian surfing and English camp. Why attend that? Well, for starters our church members were invited to participate by the camp's organizers, with whom we have a good relationship. We support a ministry called Christian Surfers International. Specifically, it's a husband and wife team who have made it their goal to teach the local surfers about Jesus. They're really great people who are fun to be around and talk to. They, in cooperation with a local university club, put together this camp, which was mainly focused on the young, university crowd, but since they've been running this camp for several years now, and no one from our church has been able to attend, we decided to provide some representation, just to check things out, encourage people back in Kofu to participate in next year's event, and just to show our interest in their endeavors. In the end, it was a week well spent, we got to meet and interact with some interesting people, do a bit of surfing and body boarding, and even meet with an old friend who used to work with us in Kofu, but moved out to the coast to be with her boyfriend who's a pro-surfer. I'd certainly go and visit again -- the only obstacle being the long trip. It was a good five hours, which included driving through the center of Tokyo. I still don't know if that was the best decision, but the alternative was a long detour that would take us pretty far off-course. Who knows. It's also a constant battle to balance time and money, since one can save a LOT of time by taking the highways and toll roads, but that ends up costing a lot of money. It's impossible to have both, I suppose.

Shortly after our return from Chiba, our church decided to take a trip out to the opposite side of the country -- Niigata Prefecture, which is on the Sea of Japan. The reason being, a major earthquake had struck the region on July 16th, and we wanted to provide some support and earthquake relief in the form of volunteer manpower.

The most interesting thing about this, is that Bonnie and I just about experienced this calamity first-hand, as we were actually scheduled to be in the area when then the earthquake hit. On the (long) weekend of July 14th, 15th and 16th, we had made plans to drive out to Sado Island, a small island just off the coast of Niigata. We had already booked a scuba diving charter to do some boat diving, and were ready to go, except that Mother Nature had other plans. That also happened to be the same weekend as one of the largest typhoons Japan has seen in a long time swept across the islands. Okinawa had already been nailed hard, leaving destruction, overturned cars and even a few fatalities in its wake. As it came across Honshu it lost power and speed. It also changed direction so that Sado Island would be missed but its sheer size caused high winds and waves that put our trip in jeopardy. I wouldn't exactly want to spend all that time and money to go out to Sado Island only to have our dives canceled due to the weather. Luckily we didn't have to pay any kind of deposit and the diving company understood our reasons for cancellation. We are still looking forward to making a future trip out to Sado, hopefully when it will be nice enough to do some diving.

The weekend came and went, but Monday morning we felt a minor earthquake in Kofu. Not 30 minutes later I received a text message on my cell phone from a friend of mine. It said:

"Aren't you glad you didn't go to Sado in the end?"

To which I responded, "How come?"

He answered me quickly, "HUGE earthquake off coast of Niigata right near Sado."

So I clicked on to the USGS (United States Geological Survey) website for earthquakes, and sure enough, a big ol' magnitude 7 quake had shaken up EXACTLY the area where we would have been... Pretty much within a couple kilometers of the epicenter. At no point do I doubt that we would have been in any danger of not surviving this event, but it's a very good thing we didn't go. All ferry service to/from Sado was suspended and some of the roads/highways were shut down due to damage. Both Bonnie and I had to return to work on Tuesday, and we most certainly would have been stuck out there, having to call our employer to explain the situation.

The aftermath was both shocking but at the same time fortuitous in that there were only 11 fatalities. On the shocking end, however, hundreds were injured, over 900 buildings were destroyed and over 10,000 homes were left without power. Even more seriously, the nearby nuclear power reactor had been damaged, forcing them to shut it down indefinitely, and the city's waste incineration facility was put out of commission, causing the city and nearby towns to have to export their trash to other centers.

When we returned from our trip to Chiba, a couple weeks had already passed since the earthquake, but assistance and relief was needed as much as ever. Our church managed to assemble a small team of volunteers that were able to spare almost a week from their everyday lives to make the trip out to Niigata and participate in relief projects.

As a quick aside, since July, I have had numerous requests from family and friends to see some pictures from our trip to Niigata. Luckily, I had my camera with me at all times and managed to capture some excellent footage. I will see about putting up a slideshow or presentation of our trip. There's lots of pictures showing the earthquake's destruction as well as what we were doing to help the local residents.

Most of our work did not involve earthquake survivors directly. The city of Kashiwazaki was well provided for in that regard, with many shelters, first aid and food stations, as well as an entire portable SDF (Self-Defence Force) military and naval base having been errected almost overnight. Driving through the city, it was evident that we were in a disaster zone. Demolished and partly demolished buildings littered the streets, police and military presence was visible at almost every street corner, and civilian traffic was far outnumbered by support vehicles, heavy machinery, construction equipment, dump trucks and other commercial vehicles retrofitted or conscripted into earthquake support duties. One of the most important tasks actually involved climbing on top of residents' houses and waterproofing their roofs using blue plastic tarps, as many clay tile shingles were shaken down and broken by the force of the quake. We were still in the tail end of rainy season so this was one of the more critical jobs and one that had to be done with the most expediency. Other jobs involved removing rubble, rebuilding and helping move peoples' belongings. The most interesting thing was that I ended up becoming the designated dump truck driver, having rented a MASSIVE dump truck from the local industrial vehicle rental shop, and hauling loads of scrap metal to a recycle yard across town. I've never driven a truck so big, and even though I maneuvered it successfully without accident or incident, everyone, starting with me, were amazed that my class of driver's license was actually sufficient to operate something of that magnitude. I think many young boys dream of driving a dump truck when they get older, and believe me, this was one big Tonka Truck. The dumping part was fun too. At first, I wasn't quite sure how to do it but a helpful recycle yard worker was very friendly and patient with me.

"Put the truck in neutral and put on your parking brake. Now activate the PTO clutch with this switch here, and use this lever to dump your load. Then, put the truck into gear, release the brake and move forward slowly to clear out the rest from the bed. Finally, push the lever in the opposite direction, and turn off the PTO when the truck bed comes back down."

It really was quite easy... The more challenging bit was understanding the guy as he only spoke in Japanese. Nevertheless, it was a neat experience, and I can add "driving a 4-ton dump truck" to the list of cool things I've done in my life.

After our volunteer trip out to Niigata, we spent some time in Kofu, but not long before we started our scuba diving trips. It would be too long and boring to provide the gory details for each and every one, so the photos from all of them are up on Flickr for anyone to look at.

Often times, otherwise simple tasks become complicated in Japan -- the language barrier being the most common culprit. Finding a scuba diving shop falls squarely into that category. The unique problems we face are not easily summarized... Perhaps the best way to talk about them is to just copy and paste a question that I posted up on a local scuba diving Internet forum. The answers to my questions are interesting enough as well, but for now, I think I'll just stick to the basics.

Topic: WANTED: Inexpensive diving on Izu

Hey everyone!

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but it seems that most of the previous threads have disappeared off the forum since the big server crash. Anyway, I just got back from diving in Izu the past two weekends. Did some dives in Osezaki and then another couple in Futo, on the other side of the peninsula. We dove IOP and Wakinohama.

It seems that just about all the dive shops in the area have a pretty standard price for fun dives -- a little expensive in my books. 12,600 yen seems to be par for the course. I have a dive buddy who always goes with a small, mom & pop shop that charges a few thousand less and has really cheap accommodations to boot (2000 yen a night I believe). Unfortunately, they don't seem to be terribly receptive to new (read: foreign) clientelle so when we tried to book with him for last weekend, we were given the cold shoulder and told "no" and "maybe next month." In addition, even if we WERE able to get in with them, there's no guarantee that they won't be busy and all booked up. It sucks to have to scrub a scuba trip because your fave LDS is all booked up. As a result, we ended up diving with Papalagi Divers, which wasn't so cheap.

My question to you all is -- do you know of any inexpensive outfits on Izu that you can recommend. My Japanese is passable enough to speak on the phone or make reservations -- so that part doesn't bother me... Although, if they have any English-speaking staff, that would be an added bonus.

But my main concerns are: getting a dive shop that:

1) costs less than 12,600 for 2 beach dives, and...
2) has access to inexpensive overnight accommodations (of any kind).

Ideally, I'd like to develop a relationship with one or two companies that would help me grow over time. I live about 3.5 hours away from Izu by car and my goal is to do at least one dive a month. I'm not a terribly experienced diver yet (got my OW card in April and have logged 14 dives to date) so it would be nice to have a DM or guide that will help out when/where needed but my ideal goal would be to get to the point where I could dive (with a buddy) but without a guide. In other words, a company that would eventually allow me to rent just the tank (as I own all my other gear). I think companies like Jester (http://www.izu.co.jp/~jester/) do allow you to do just that... But I know nothing about them. It's always good to get personal recommendations from other divers.

Anyway, please and thank you for everyone's help!

Well, there you have it. That really sums it up right there. Yes, we got some good diving in, but it cost a lot more than I had hoped to pay, and we had to do a LOT of research (most of which was not very fruitful) to find a decent dive shop, even though dive shops are a dime a dozen out on Izu Peninsula.

Later on, I posted a reply to my own message in case you're wondering about the eventual outcome of our efforts.

Thanks for the tips received so far (both in the forum and via PM)... I'll keep everyone updated on my progress in hunting for cheap dive shops...

Just finished a 3-day dive trip in Futo -- went with Papalagi again for one day and I finally managed to get in with my dive buddy's group -- the one that's afraid of foreigners.

Well, he didn't seem too terrified of me -- it was inexpensive enough too... He's a very skilled dive guide and he showed us some wonderful stuff underwater, but I cannot consider him as a serious option on a regular basis -- the most important consideration being the fact that his (cheap) accommodations will only hold 3 people, whereas if I want to bring my wife, there would be four of us. Second, being the foreigner thing again -- seems that 2 foreigners is OK right now, but faced with the prospect of taking a third may be just a bit much for him still at this point.

Thanks to ciedd for the new tips (that I haven't heard of before) and to Bill: help me figure out a way for us regular folk to get on-base... You've got a hellava good deal... Or like Mar Scuba said -- bring some extra tanks with you and let us dive with you... ;-)

Anyway, it was a lovely, lovely weekend. I didn't get as many good pictures this time -- but I thought I'd share my favorite from Sunday... It's some kind of Batfish I believe... From what limited resources I have, I THINK it's a Platax orbicularis (Orbiculate or Round Batfish). Some call it the "ugly duckling" of batfishes, but I respectfully disagree... :-) There was a pair of them very close to the Yokobama entry point. (Taken with a Ricoh Caplio RR30 in a Sea&Sea DX3000 underwater housing).

Just in case you're curious about the Batfish photo that I referred to in my post, you can find him on my Flickr page with the rest of the diving pictures.

At this point, I've logged about 24 dives since we got our dive cards in April. My goal is to go about once a month for as long as the water is warm enough to wear a wetsuit (versus a drysuit, something that requires a special training course and the suit itself tends to be quite expensive). It's not that long of a drive -- about 3.5 hours to Izu, so it's easily achievable on a regular weekend. The cost issue is always on the forefront so we have to be very careful how we spend our money.

Now, we are in October, and if you've been following my blogs, you may remember that the Nissan Serena minivan we bought from auction is up for shakken (mandatory bi-annual mechanical inspection) this month... Which is going to completely blow the diving budget for the month. Shakken will probably run me about 70,000 yen, which is just over $700 for all the folks back home. The real adventure this time is going to involve me getting it done, as I've decided to attempt something called "user shakken" or "self shakken." This means, rather than taking your car to a shop, you bring the vehicle to the inspection center yourself and do all the paperwork yourself too. Yes, it's a huge pain in the butt, but the payoff is saving at least $200 in mechanics' and paperwork fees. I'm sure I'll have a full, adventure-laden Blog entry in store for everyone when that's over and done with.

Heads up -- look down!

I finally finished and published the story of our trip to Thailand... So now there's something more than just the Flickr photos, which really have no explanations or background. This should help a little bit.

But, since I started this entry in the Spring, you'll have to scroll down to the April entry... This keeps things in chronological order, I suppose.

My next Blog entry should be coming soon, time and patience permitting.

Not only has it been a long time since my last Blog post, many important changes have once again occurred that deal with the administration and viewing of my websites.

First of all, I finally shut down zayith.com. The site still exists but all links have been disabled and it has essentially become a placeholder. I may, at some point revive it, but for now, canadiansushi.info is my only ACTIVE domain. Any e-mail sent to zayith.com will still function normally, however --- as long as the domain is owned by me, anyway.

Next, due to an unscrupulous individual hacking into one of my accounts, the Flickr photo Blog page will likely have to be moved. When/how this will happen is still being worked out, but there should be little no disruption in peoples' ability to view the photos there. Let me just say that this is a HUGE pain in the butt and people who have nothing better to do with their time than to hack into others' inane accounts should be forced to do some hard labour for several years so they can learn and understand the value of an honest day's work. I can understand the thrill (and bragging rights) of being able to hack into a government server or NASA computer or something. But the Yahoo e-mail account of some Joe you've never met and never will meet? Jeez! All that does is cause frustration on my part, which the hacker, even when brimming full with a sense of schadenfreude, can't enjoy and is reduced to imagining how frustrated his victims must be. Yes, communism was bad, but the old Soviet-era philosophy of curing good-for-nothing ne'er-do-wells with hard labour may be something that we should consider to help such individuals.

Aside from that, I have also added a work-related discussion forum to the already existing Kofu FET page. Since this does verge on talking about work, something I said I wouldn't do in this Blog, I'll just leave it at that. However, if anyone is ever curious about that sort of thing, everything -- both work-related and not, is accessible from the main canadiansushi.info web page.

Next, I have a long Blog entry from Thailand sitting on the almost-ready-to-publish pile. The photos are already up on the photo Blog (and have been for months now). As soon as I can, I'll finish off the narrative bits and put it up for everyone to read.

Finally, thank you to all those who supported our 2007 calendar project! I took a pile of them with me back to Canada during the winter holidays and gave them away as Christmas presents. Some people in Japan also got their hands on a few. I received many positive comments about them, and even one positive feedback telling me that I should have put them up for sale at a local retailer. Since this shop is very supportive of the arts and local talent, many artists display and sell their wares in this manner. It is something I will consider for 2008, but so far I have no concrete plans.

The last little bit of housekeeping I will mention is the semi-annual update of this site's theme, colours and layout. I will be pruning the links section soon and you can look forward to a new visual layout as well.

Enjoy your summer, everyone! BBQ lots of steaks, drink lots of beer and remember to stay in cool, air-conditioned places.

Something that I did recently, defies any Blog entry I may have written in the past -- I uploaded the photos first and haven't gotten around to actually writing about it until now. Perhaps this is a better system anyway... Instead of promising my readers galleries of pictures that may or may not ever come, I can get that out of the way first, and worry about the writing (which, inexplicably comes easier to me than resizing and uploading countless photos) after I've successfully completed the more tedious and tiresome task. However, I must say, that a combination of Faststone image editor (and the batch resizer) combined with CorrectPhoto 2.0 and uploading to Flickr using the Flickr Uploader software has REALLY made swift work of it all. The whole experience is much more pleasurable and when I look back to the way I originally started posting photos, I just shudder.

Well, not to ramble on about it any further, why don't you head on over to the Photo section on Flickr (here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88031687@N00/sets/72157600050774717/ ) and once you've gotten your fill of pictures from our latest holiday to Thailand, come back here and read about some of the details.

Let's face it, whenever someone goes on holidays, upon their return our first request is almost unequivocally a request to see all the pictures they took, and only then are we sufficiently curious to hear some of the explanations and adventures our friends may have had... Although I must say, I do know a number of very interesting individuals, whose stories, anecdotes and bizarre encounters, recited narratively, almost poetically over several pints of beer, leave one thoroughly entertained, even spellbound -- much like the archetypal image of a Victorian, hardwood and leather decorated gentlemens' club, witnessing a crusty, handlebar-mustachioed, pith helmet-wearing explorer from some bygone era of British Colonial rule in India or Africa, lighting a pipe and sipping fine scotch, telling anyone who will listen, tall tales of hunting lions on safari and surviving grueling encounters with cannibalistic tribes of savages, all the while emerging unscathed and victorious each time.

I cannot presume to possess such wondrous eloquence, though if I do manage to entertain and inform those of you who have patiently undertaken the reading of our own varied experiences, I feel that I have succeeded in my endeavors. To that end, I shall recount the adventures of our journey to the Kingdom of Siam and our hunt for the mythical white elephants.

Well, okay.... I exaggerated the part about the white elephants. We weren't really hunting for them, and the only one that I DID see was on the T-shirt that I eventually bought at a night market, downtown Bangkok.

Speaking of Bangkok, I suppose that is the most logical place to begin, since it serves as the main International gateway to Thailand, at least if you are traveling by air. From Tokyo, the flight is just over six hours, surprisingly far considering we haven't even left Asia. The plane was jam-packed, as Tokyo is only a stop-over for otherwise "direct" flights from the U.S. being offered by Northwest Airlines. We were in the very middle of the plane (both front to back, as well as having the two middle seats in a row of four on the Airbus A330-200). This was the case both ways, to and from Bangkok. I suppose I've had both better and worse flights than this one, but I did happen to be sitting next to a middle-aged American of Thai descent who was going to visit his family, but otherwise a Houston PD detective. He was a little tiresome at times and it really made me wish that I had remembered to make our seat selections as soon as we bought our tickets, not that it may have made a huge difference.

In the style of Ernest Hemingway, I must at this point, pause and go on a brief tangent (okay, so Hemingway's tangents aren't so brief) and explain a little bit of background behind our seemingly impetuous trip to Thailand. It had, in fact, been planned for a considerable number of months, and whose conception was brought about by a similar trip taken by one of our co-workers a year and a half earlier. Following his return from a Christmas holiday, we had learned that he had visited the island of Koh Tao, a small but very well-known scuba diving mecca that is part of a small archipelago off the coast of Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand (which borders the South China Sea). He had gone with the intention of getting scuba diving certification there, as part of a tropical getaway in the middle of winter.

Excellent, we thought. Since one of our good friends in Kofu is himself an avid diver, we were looking for a good, relatively inexpensive way to also break into this fascinating adventure sport, and being so close to Thailand seemed just the way to do it -- at a price that we calculated would be cheaper than doing the same thing in Japan. In addition, we would be able to get all English instruction and enjoy what this tropical island had to offer. It's interesting to note, that according to PADI, the world's most prolific scuba certification body, the two top purveyors of certification cards are indeed, Cairns, Australia, and Koh Tao, Thailand.

So, with a little bit of luck, and a lot of Internet searching we were able to secure reasonably well-priced tickets to Thailand during Spring Break, which is at least a couple of weeks for us in the Japanese public school system. Japan's school year runs from April to March, with about three weeks of holidays in between. It's a pretty good time to take a trip, especially if you can harangue a departure date of several days prior to the official start of the school holidays. That's the way to ensure a flight ticket that's still fairly affordable but minimizes on the number of work days missed.

Upon our arrival, sifting through the awful mess that they call Suvarnabhumi Airport, we made it to our hotel/hostel shortly after 1 a.m. local time and immediately went to bed. Getting up the next morning and taking a taxi into the centre of Bangkok, we quickly learned what we were in for. Bangkok's a perfectly horrible place. In fact, if you are looking for some positive comments about Thailand, it may be a good idea at this point, to skip through the rest of this paragaph and start reading again when we arrive in Chumphon. I would strongly urge anyone planning to visit Thailand to consider coming in via a different port of entry if at all possible. Much like any large Asian city, Bangkok is polluted, very stinky, crowded, but also very hot, noisy and otherwise about as unpleasant as your imagination can make it out to be. One of its few redeeming features is the fact that there are numerous historical gems scattered throughout, and armed with a good city map, a camera, some cold, bottled water, and a thick skin to deal with the tuk-tuk drivers and everyone else trying to rip you off and make a buck, can make for an interesting afternoon, and may allow you to enjoy the abundant delicious Thai food that can be had just about anywhere. The other aspect of our brief sojourn in Bangkok that made it worthwhile was a wonderful walking tour around downtown, visiting sites and seeing places where most tourists don't get to go. This is all thanks to a wonderful site, namely http://www.oggtours.com/city_bangkok_thailand.html . I was able to download a series of audio mp3 files which I loaded onto a couple of portable MP3 players, one each for Bonnie and me. Then, as we walked down the streets and entered the temples and shops, listened to a very professional narrator give detailed commentary on what we were seeing. This came complete with sound effects, background music and a lot of local history that we would never have otherwise heard. I had also printed out a map of the tour to help guide us along. Most of the pictures from my photo Blog that were taken in Bangkok were part of this tour. However, before we got to finish the tour, we had to grab a quick meal (our first authentic Thai curry) and hightail it to a nearby travel office to catch our bus to the coast.

We left Bangkok shortly after 9 in the evening, via night bus to the coastal city of Chumphon. I could sure do without an 8-hour bus ride but our final destination, Koh Tao is a rather difficult place to get to. I felt better about Thailand as soon as we left the mess that is Bangkok. We arrived at the ferry port shortly after 5 in the morning, and our boat wouldn't leave for another hour and half. In the mean time, I rested, listening to music on my iPod Shuffle, sitting at a concrete slab picnic table, trying not to be disturbed by the incessant rooster crowing his damn lungs out not 10 feet away from me. When they finally opened the chicken coop, the overly friendly birds came right up to me, obviously used to receiving handouts from all the tourists coming through. Every two minutes or so I had to shoo them away with my foot, lest they crap on it, or worse yet, spread some kind of avian influenza... So reluctantly, I got up, head full of horrific images of strange, tropical diseases that I could contract, and made my way to the beach where some local fishermen were just bringing in their boats with the morning's catch. I have a couple shots of them in my photo Blog too.

By half past six we found ourselves on a high-speed catamaran, noisily racing towards our dive paradise destination.

Now, the problem with most paradise destinations is that usually, you have to go through hell to get to them, and Koh Tao certainly fits this bill. In spite of all the misery I already outlined, waiting for us at Koh Tao's harbour, was the same gaggle of people all shouting at you from every direction, nearly physically trying to pull you in their direction so they can take you to some overpriced resort, from which they undoubtedly get kickbacks from bringing in unsuspecting travelers.

Fortunately for us, all our arrangements already had been made, including for a driver from our dive resort to come and pick us up and deliver us to our final destination. This only took about 20 minutes but in the back of a covered safari truck that was completely devoid of shocks, and across some of the most awful roads to grace the planet. The traffic is already something else in Thailand, but the condition of the roads makes it a place best suited for dirt bikes and pickup trucks. In fact, during our entire sojourn on Koh Tau, I can't think of a single time I actually saw a CAR... Everyone there seems to drive some kind of truck. I suppose for practicality and commerce nothing beats it -- especially given the condition of the roads.

At this point in the story, it's almost tempting to allow the photos to recount the rest, as many of them indeed speak for themselves. I will, however point out a few other things so I can finally post this very delayed blog entry. Our resort, Big Blue Diving is considered one of the larger companies operating on Koh Tao, and they certainly have no shortage of instructors, dive masters, dive master trainees and scads of (mostly young) guests eager to undertake their first scuba diving lessons. At first glance, the view of the small office, outdoor restaurant/bar and weather-beaten resort rooms seemed nice enough for our intended stay -- a relaxing, tropical holiday.

Alas, the romantic image (or images, if you've seen my Flickr photos) paint a somewhat rosy picture. This is not to say that we were miserable -- not at all. Well, to be perfectly honest, Bonnie picked up some kind of bug on our first day in Bangkok, leaving her quite ill for the duration of our trip. She truly put on a good face (as much as she could) even going to the local doctor/clinic to see if they could help her. Some anti-nausea, anti-vertigo pills helped her get through the remainder of our holiday, but even upon our return to Japan, Bonnie had at least another week of recovery before returning somewhat to her old self. Nevertheless, illness aside, we found out quickly that paradise was really a hot, bug-infested place!

If it weren't for all the research and forethought that went into planning this trip, I can't imagine how we would have made it through the hot, humid, mosquito-infested rooms offered on the island if it weren't for our room's air conditioner, piles of mosquito coils, gallons of DEET repellent and a tennis-raquet-style bug zapper. When we first walked into our room, we were immediately welcomed by a literal SWARM of the hungry creatures, each bent on extracting their share of my blood, and in so doing, infecting me with heaven only knows what, awful tropical disease that one can contract in this manner. Until now we were virtually untouched by these awful bugs, but this is where the real fun started.

To make a long story short, that, along with a number of other wonderful problems, like things breaking, doors not closing, shower rods falling on our heads and finding sand, used chewing gum and other surprises left by the previous riff-raff to stay at the resort prompted us to complain quite bitterly to the management -- something we should have done immediately upon entering the room in the very beginning. They had no qualms about moving us upstairs to another room, though far from perfect, much more free of the ridiculous problems in our first room. Apparently mosquitoes like to stay much closer to the ground, so my continued vigilance combined with my religious use of 100% DEET lotion, permethrin-soaked clothes and 24-hour burning mosquito coils seriously reduced our infestation further. In the end, when we returned home, I was disappointed to discover that in spite of my best efforts, I had still succumbed to two of the devil-insects' bites. Not bad, I suppose for a two-week stay on a tropical island, but still, two bites too many in my opinion, when all it takes is one to come down with Malaria, Dengue or some other disease I wouldn't care much to think about. What did cheer me up a little, was that the long-term residents (the teachers and instructors at the resort) assured us that Malaria was virtually unheard of on Koh Tao, even though travel-advisory websites (like the American CDC) seem to think otherwise... And as for Dengue, only if there have been many days of daily rain... And even then, I was told, not very common at all. Unfortunately, they don't quite realize how bloody tasty I must be to your average mosquito! I kid you not, that I could be standing, fully clothed, in a room with 100 naked people, (no, I don't know what I'd be doing in such a situation either, but please bear with me for the sake of example) and there could be ONE mosquito there with us, and it would zero in directly on ME! Not only that, but I'm good friends with Murphy, whose law may as well be tattooed on my head. It would be MY luck that the ONE mosquito in a room of 100 naked people, with only me fully clothed, would bite ME and give me Malaria! Yes, I probably would be that lucky!

Well, to get on with the story, our introduction to the world of scuba diving and our diving instructor-to-be was a rather strange one. You see, it turns out that our arrival was also shared by a number of other prospective diving students, all of whom hailed from every possible vestige of Germania -- something also in common with our instructor-to-be. Oh joy! Bliss! Almost as if on cue, the "reunion" began, and I started to feel like I was in Munich again. When we finally got back on task, the instructor gave us her introduction to diving, diving courses and learning systems available to us.

"I am not biased," she claimed, giving us the chance to make up our mind whether we wanted to get our diving certification through one of two rival agencies, PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) or SSI (Scuba Schools International).

Well, for someone who wasn't biased, she had a LOT of wonderful, glowing praises for SSI, compared to the many "drawbacks" she pointed out were hallmarks of the PADI system...

And "Don't get me wrong," she went on. "PADI is fine. After all, I, myself am a licensed and certified PADI diver and scuba instructor."

What really clinched it, and sold the crowd on SSI was her promise of proudly returning to your land of origin, with scuba certification card in-hand. Whereas the poor, unfortunate PADI graduates would be forced to wait for up to a month before the Asian regional headquarters in Australia would send your card in the mail. She even went on how "cool" it would be if she could present everyone with their dive cards underwater, the whole event, of course, being photographed for posterity. BUT -- the choice was ours... SSI or PADI. Note to self: look up this person if I ever decide to run for office and need a campaign manager.

If I mentioned right now, that we didn't receive our dive cards in an underwater ceremony, you'd know right away what we chose... We agonized over the decision for quite some time, actually... Even though the choice should have been obvious from the moment we set foot in little Berlin. We were ASSURED that all our instruction would be in ENGLISH, and that the only German spoken would be above and beyond the regular course matter. Be that as it may, I could already see the situation in my mind, Die Trapp-Familie skipping along, clad in lederhosen, by Maria, the governess, singing about their favorite things, while Bonnie and I sit in some corner, before finally getting irritated and frustrated, marching off, singing So Long, Farewell!

It worked out for the best. The happy, Deutsches Volk went their way, and we went ours. This, of course, required them to bring in a new instructor, one that would teach only Bonnie and I. This, they assured us, was also no trouble -- that they did so all the time. We were very glad to have our own instructor, as it allowed Bonnie the extra time and focus she needed to complete the scuba course. The course itself was rather intense, and there was a lot of reading, remembering and practical exercises that had to be fit into a rather short time. I know that PADI (and SSI, for that matter) have designed their Open Water certification courses to be achievable in a weekend, but honestly, I wouldn't mind one bit if it were spread out into a longer course. Writing this Blog entry many months later and already having logged over 24 dives at the time of writing, I have seen more than my share of idiocy, incompetence and dangerous behaviour which has almost always been a result of off training, poor retention and insufficient
time spent underwater and in the classroom with a qualified teacher.

In the end, Bonnie and I did five open water dives instead of the standard four, and are very happy we did. Our instructor was a Brit named Alex who had been diving since he was a teenager, and had become a very, very competent diver and instructor. He was absolutely brilliant, and I could only hope that others who manage to take a scuba course end up with someone like him. I was also happy to let Big Blue Diving know this, as I do hope they value their assets and try to keep people like him on by treating their teachers right and keeping them happy.

Our final exams turned out very well. True to Alex's word, who said that he had never seen anyone fail the test, ours were no exception. My final score was in the upper nineties, only having missed one or two questions, and Bonnie wasn't too far behind either. Celebrating fully with many Singha beers, Thai curry and massages, we definitely tried to make the most of our remaining time on Koh Tao. On our second-to-last day, I managed to fit in an extra day of diving, this time as part of a "Fun Dive" group. This was an exhilarating experience, since we went with the usual group of instructors and dive masters who we had gotten know through the week, but for the first time, we did everything ourselves, assembling our gear, pre-dive checks, all without any of their intervention. My dive-buddy was an "insta-buddy." That is, someone who I had never met before until that dive. My new, regular buddy Bonnie was, unfortunately too ill to go. We had two fantastic dives that morning, and I came back with some great underwater photos.

The remainder of our trip was relatively uneventful. That same evening we had to catch the night boat to the city of Surat Thani. This was a night boat that would arrive in the early hours of the morning. Then, around noon we would board a local flight back to Bangkok, and back to the first hotel where we stayed on our inbound leg. Bonnie was worse than ever, so she rested in the air-conditioned room, while I went on to explore Bangkok a little more.

In some ways, I was almost a glutton for punishment. Bangkok did not magically improve from the first day we visited it. It was as awful as ever. Except this time, I actually had a goal and a purpose. Souvenirs and gifts. The first on my hit list was a cigar shop. My co-worker and friend Jarret had bought an entire box of nice, cheap Romeo & Juliettas from Cuba... So I was hopeful that I too might stumble on a similar bargain. This was not in the cards, however, so I had to settle for a few T-shirts, and some Thai artwork, both for ourselves and for friends back home. After a bit of aimless wandering through some of Bangkok's various shopping districts, evening had fallen and I proceeded to one of the city's infamous night markets.

Sex was for sale everywhere, and it was the same old story of beating back the locals trying to sell it to you... Either that, or con men trying to make a fast buck. Oh man, let me tell you -- that's a story for another time, but at times it seems that EVERYONE in Thailand has been specially trained in ripping off tourists. Everything that you read in travel guides and on some Internet websites is true when it comes to Thai people and avoiding getting ripped off. Most Thai people are very polite and shy. They will not walk up to a foreigner and start speaking to them at random. If any Thai person does that (walks up to you and starts talking to you) alarm bells should be clanging - SCAM ARTIST AT WORK! I definitely found this to hold true.

In the end, I found a noce little souvenir and art shop where I bought most of my stuff. It seems that everyone who worked there was deaf/mute, as they only communicated in sign language with each other, and my interactions with them was limited to lip-reading (which they did remarkably well) and pre-written scripts on bits of worn paper that they kept in their pockets or around the shop. The English was atrocious but it got the point across, which was good enough for me. I haggled and drove as hard a bargain as I could, but the man was probably happy in the end, because I ended up buying probably a lot more than your average tourist... The T-shirts, well, I just found the first street vendor that looked a smidgen more honest than his neighbours, and purchased a couple from him. Then, I took about 30 minutes to walk through the market, getting harassed every step of the way... Ahhh, memories of Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur... One short, shifty little fellow stopped right in front of me at one point.

"Sir, sir, sir. Ping pong show! Ping pong show! All live! You come see. Ping pong show. Ping pong show. Lovely Thai woman... Please, please. Ping pong show."

So I looked down at him, as he was nearly half my height, and I tried to explain to him, "I'm sorry. Not interested."

Obviously used to this, he just kept repeating himself, "No, good ping pong show. You see."

So, I tried a different tactic: "No... I'm sorry. I can't. I'm a Christian. "

He looked at me very quizzically as this was something he was not ready for. He obviously was struggling to understand what I was talking about, since his English was not so great.

"No ping pong show. Ping pong show bad. I. Christian. Christian. Do you understand "Christian?" It means I follow Jesus. You know "Jesus." Not Buddha. "

Suddenly his face lit up in comprehension. "AHHHH!!!! I see! I see! I see! Ok. No problem! No problem! How about "masageee then?" his face remaining in a full grin as he pronounced his final 'ee'.

As he looked at me hopefully, I just shook my head, and with a sigh told him, "No. No masagee. Masagee not good. Me -- Christian. So sorry. Bye now." Then I continued on my way... But not before having to pass a short, old man standing in the middle of the sidewalk, with a hand-written piece of brown cardboard torn off the lid of a box, with the words "SEX DVD!" scrawled on it. As people would walk along the sidewalk, he would flash "SEX DVD!" to each and every person who made eye contact with him as they passed. I just about burst out laughing, because it really was quite the sight -- but at the same time, it was all very sad, seeing what so many people have to resort to just to earn a living in this awful city. My taxi ride back to the hotel was another adventure, as it seems that we chose a place that was exceedingly well hidden in the heart of a part of Bangkok that was brand new, under construction, with deforestation happening everywhere around us. Hiring a taxi was one thing, as many drivers would literally tell me "no" when I asked them to take me to the location I showed them on a map I had printed out from the hotel's website -- with directions written in Thai so taxi drivers would understand them.. The other challenge was actually finding the place since it was so well hidden. The trip from downtown Bangkok took close to an hour, and maybe even longer in heavy traffic. I'm sure Bonnie would have been worried if it weren't for the fortunate fact that our Japanese cell phones allow us global roaming, and we were able to keep in touch just as easily as when we're back home in Kofu.

Eventually, I returned in the evening, souvenirs in tow, and we packed our bags, getting ready for our middle-of-the-night departure back to the airport, to catch the 6 a.m. red eye express back to Tokyo.

It was an insane trip in so many ways! It was all just too much for my poor wife, and even though she is VERY happy to have her dive card, and also very happy to have experienced Thailand and Koh Tao, the trip left her quite burned out by the end of it all, and had to recover from her illness for almost another full week after returning home. Since then, we've managed to go diving more than a few times, as we vowed that we would not put good money to waste. Getting a scuba license is not cheap, so it would be a shame to go to all that trouble and then not scuba dive. I had already bought my dive mask in Koh Tao, but shortly after our return to Japan, both Bonnie and I had invested in our own diving gear, from wetsuits to regulators. Not only is it more comfortable to use all your own gear, since you get to really know it and become comfortable using it, but renting all the time takes a financial toll -- alright if you do it once or twice, but anyone who dives on a semi-frequent basis soon discovers that new gear pays for itself only after a few trips of not having to rent gear.

Once again, I'm sorry that this silly blog entry took so long to publish, but I do hope that everyone has at least found the time to enjoy our photos in the mean time.

Happy New Year!

My last article back in July is a real testament to how busy this past year has been. Of course, the longer I leave things like this, the more difficult it becomes to catch up and to provide any sort of information or detail on what Bonnie and I have been up to. However, not to worry... I'm going to summarize things the best way I can by giving you some of 2006's highlights for us. 2007 promises to be an interesting year, and if it's anything like last year, I'll have a lot to talk about. In 2006, here are some of the things that happened to us:

We went to Korea

It was inevitable, that after several years of living in Japan we should start exploring some of the country's closest neighbours, and South Korea was the logical place to start. Yes, in 2005 we also visited Malaysia, but that's a bit more of a distant neighbour to us, though still far more feasible to visit when flying out of Japan, compared to say, North America. What made our trip to Korea largely possible was our friend Dennis, an American teacher in our area who got engaged to a lovely Korean gal who also lives in the neighbourhood. It only made sense, for the sake of her family, to hold the wedding not in Japan, but in Pusan, R.O.K. Dennis's family made the long trip from the U.S. but we were much more fortunate, as flights from Tokyo to Pusan are cheap and frequent. (Well, about as "cheap" as it gets given the outrageous prices of air tickets in general these days).

Nevertheless, it's a short, hour-long hop to the Korean Peninsula, but very much a whole new world! It was exciting to be there, and a bit of a personal, anthropological, sociological study for us, comparing and contrasting how Korean people and even society in general differ from their Japanese counterparts and neighbours. All in all, it was hard to draw any sort of logical conclusions, other than the fact that there are indeed many superficial similarities but also some very deep differences. But then, I'm just stating the obvious, aren't I? For what it was worth, I could easily see myself taking the occasional trip to Korea just for fun, as Pusan was a pleasant enough place and the people for the most part were very nice to interact with. From the shopkeepers to people on the street, we had positive experiences throughout.

A few of the experiences that made our time quite memorable I will briefly mention, but it was really the overall feel of the trip that made it especially enjoyable. Our first experience getting around in Pusan involved taking the subway to our destination. Every country's public transportation system being somewhat different, we were studying the transit map as well as the mysterious-looking machines designed to take your fare and dispense tickets when a Korean family exiting the station stopped, seeing our confusion, and in fair (although broken) English managed to explain to us how to buy our tickets and where to go. I was impressed by this, as complete strangers taking a moment to assist a foreigner is rather rare in my experience and I was pleasantly surprised that people in Pusan did so quite readily. As soon as we stepped onto the subway, however, we had another interesting little experience... The Korean equivalent of door-to-door salesman started pitching their wares in the middle of the subway car, timing their presentations accurately so as to gain everyone's undivided attention, and leaving just enough time for people to handle the merchandise and make a quick purchase, just before the doors opened at the next station and the salesman proceeded to the next subway car, ready for his next mini-presentation. If you're curious what they were selling, ask Bonnie -- she bought some...

The wedding itself was quite interesting. Like the Japanese, the Koreans often book a "wedding hall" which is essentially a company that takes care of all the planning from A to Z, even providing the venue, minister, photography, and a reception. I really cannot comment on how expensive these services might be, but at least in Japan, they tend to be very, very pricey. The service was done in a quasi-Western style (and by Western I DON'T mean cowboys shouting 'Yeehaw!') with the various parts of the ceremony being explained to the people in attendance, both in Korean and in English by two masters of ceremonies. Imagine my surprise when Bonnie and I arrived at the wedding place, only to be asked if I would be the English-speaking MC? I was happy to do it -- but felt a little foolish as the wedding company had taken some liberties with the ceremony (which, as I later found out was unbeknownst even to the bride and groom) which made providing English play-by-play commentary rather difficult at times. In the end, I was told that I pulled it off well and that people couldn't tell where the mistakes were -- making me feel much better.

Since the wedding was at about noon, the reception that followed mid-afternoon was a welcome event. There was lots of buffet-style goodies, covering the culinary gamut -- from American to Chinese, to Japanese, to Korean... Beer and shochu (a kind of Korean vodka made from rice) were plentiful and the whole thing was wrapped up with some karaoke. That's not all though... We're talking about a wedding between a Catholic and a Korean -- both people who like to drink! A lot! After we left the wedding hall, we went our separate ways for a few hours -- Bonnie and I wanted to do some shopping and the wedding party left to rest up for the after-reception party. This was held in the evening at a relative's basement pub, where much eating, drinking and karaoke ensued. You think that's where it ended? Ha! Guess again! No, after this we went on to the after-party party. As we were trying to decide where to go, I believe it was me who was a little bit vocal about wanting to go eat a dog... And our most gracious hosts, the bride's parents, not wanting to disappoint, said they'd be more than happy to indulge us -- but unfortunately, we'd have to wait till the next day and we'd go for lunch.

Coming back to our hotel after a hard night of partying with the happy couple, their family and mutual friends, it was a relief to get some sleep. Just as a sideline, I should add that something which added to our sense of fatigue was the constant effort required to communicate with everyone. Though we had people who could speak English, Korean and Japanese, we had NO ONE who could fluently speak Korean AND English. We were up to our armpits in people who could speak: English and Japanese, Japanese and Korean -- but the challenge was getting the people who spoke ONLY English talking to those who spoke ONLY Korean, as it took a two-way interpreter, using Japanese as the intermediary language. In fact, on that note, let me just mention that our knowledge of Japanese was EXCEEDINGLY useful in so many ways while we were in Pusan. Even though there are heaps of people whose English is at least passable, heaps more don't speak a word. Of all THOSE people, however, communication was frequently possible because I just busted out the Japanese, and there was a fair to good chance that they spoke some (if not fluent) Japanese. That's how we spoke with the people at our hotel, for instance... Turns out that the fellow working the front desk used to live in Osaka for 8 years prior, making him far more comfortable to speak in Japanese than in English.

Sunday, high noon. The sun shines brightly on the deserted street. The theme music to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" plays softly in the background. A cowboy dressed in white nervously stands in front of the doors to the saloon. Another cowboy, dressed in black slowly emerges from inside, as the sun's rays catch the gleam of the six-gun at his hip. The two cowboys acknowledge each other with a slow nod. The cowboy in white swaggers up to the other, the spurs on his boots jingling with each step.

"So, shall we do it?"

"Yup," the cowboy in black replies.

"Are you ready to go eat some puppies?"

"Yup. Are you?"

"Let's do it!"

And so, our posse shuffled off into the distance, mind made up, ready to tackle our fears (and slightly hung-over stomachs) by having traditional, Korean dog for lunch, graciously sponsored by the parents of the bride.

The restaurant itself wasn't much. It looked like an average, family-owned eatery, with a few Korean condiments adorning the otherwise bare tables. I'm sure they had menus and prices, but we saw none of that, as arrangements had been made ahead of time, and we only had to sit down and wait for a few minutes before a middle-aged woman started bringing out plates of steaming, hot meat. No one but us would have known that it wasn't beef -- it looked, smelled and even tasted much like Bessy, except for a somewhat odd, rather unmistakable, almost gamy odor and taste.... Not something I'd describe as pleasant, but I could easily see that someone who had grown up with it, or had developed a taste for it could ignore it completely. Probably the best part of the meal was the dog soup, which was essentially the broth in which the dog had been boiled, but it was rich, tasty and adding assorted vegetables and condiments made it even more interesting. I can definitely say that this was a great experience, if for no other reason, but to regale others with its telling, and watching the expressions on their faces when we tell them all about eating Rover with a side of kimchi, vegetables and a cup of shochu.

The remainder of our Korean holiday passed smoothly, as did the dog we ate (surprisingly enough). We shopped, we ate, we did some sightseeing at a Korean Buddhist temple complex and some other spots in Pusan. Because of the wedding and the time we spent with our friends, we saw much less of the sites than we otherwise would have, but I suppose that's alright, as it gives us all the more reason to come back and visit again. If we were to just go for a long weekend, the overall cost wouldn't be much more than taking a weekend trip to Tokyo for the same purpose. In addition, I could bring back a motherlode of Korean-produced fake designer merchandise.... Bogus Louis Vuitton handbags as far as the eye can see! Cheap! I'm not much for designer labels, but they do tend to turn heads when people notice you have one... Most people can't tell that they're looking at a fake. Speaking of which, I think that a trip to China may be in order within the next couple years -- I've been looking forward to going to China for a long, long time -- especially for the shopping!

We went to Disney Sea

I won't get into this one too much, but I will try to put up some pictures from this trip onto the photo Blog site. We decided that summer was too expensive to take any trips abroad like we did the year before. Even though Bonnie really wanted to make a trip to Canada, the ticket prices were rather outrageous, so we settled on making a number of short, local trips within Japan. The longest of these was a multi-day affair where we went to Tokyo and one of the places we visited for a whole day was the Disney Sea resort, located next to Tokyo Disneyland. What's Disney Sea you may ask? It's a lot like Disneyland, except the the entire theme of the park is nautical, with all your favourite Disney characters dressed as sailors and involved in sea-related activities.

It also boasts a number of unique rides related to some of Disney's movies like Aladdin, or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, (a Disney adaptation of a classic novel by Jules Vernes). Even though it's very much a kid-friendly world, (this being Disney after all), adults can probably find more entertainment here than in Disneyland. There are tons of shows, shops and restaurants of EVERY kind, from Western to Italian to French... The dining experience, if nothing else, is almost worth the price of the ticket. During this trip, something happened that would affect the course of our year quite significantly.

We bought a "new" car

New, of course, being a relative term -- it was "new" to us, but the car itself, of course was used. But on our way back to the hotel from Disney Sea, it was already about 9pm, I started to notice something had gone terribly wrong with our van. A loud knocking reverberated throughout the vehicle: THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! So I pulled over to the side of the road, thinking, "Sounds like a flat tire to me." Well, it wasn't. Getting out, inspecting the vehicle, I noticed that all four tires were indeed intact, the problem lay elsewhere. It was then that I noticed the engine temperature was all the way in the red zone, completely overheated.

Immediately shutting off the engine, opening the engine compartment, we sat there in the dark, contemplating what to do next. To make a long story short(er), after the engine cooled sufficiently, and with the bumbling "help" of a police car passing by, we managed to make it to the nearest gas station where they assisted us further. From there, hop by painful hop we drove about 200m at a time, stopping each time to cool down the engine and to throw bottles of water on the engine block to bring the temperature down further. Eventually we made it back to our hotel.

The next morning, I took the car to a nearby Nissan shop to have it looked after, thereby completely killing any other plans we had for the day. They removed the thermostat, which stopped the car from overheating, but they could NOT figure out what was causing the problem. You'd think it would be the thermostat, but according to the mechanic, it seemed to be fine. Well, this was the beginning of the end. Our "shaken" -- the mandatory bi-annual inspection was due to be performed on our van by the end of September, so we did a little bit of mental math, and it didn't take long to figure out that it would be cheaper to scrap the van, and get a new car that already had been inspected for less than what it would cost to bring the old van up to standard to pass the inspection (and then the cost of the inspection itself). What followed then was our foray into the entertaining world of Japanese automobile auctions!

There was a boy in Arkansas who wouldn't listen to his ma,
When she told him that he should go to school.
He'd sneak away in the afternoon, take a little walk and pretty soon
You'd find him at the local auction barn.
(The Auctioneer's song)

I imagine that buying a car in Japan must be very much like shopping for a computer in Silicon Valley. It's a rather paradoxical experience. On one hand, you have some phenomenal bargains that you wouldn't get anywhere else, but at the same time, not necessarily -- most "deals" I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. When two years ago, the pastor of our church here in Japan offered us their vehicle free of charge, as they were planning on buying a new one, it was a tough bargain to pass up. This was one of those uniquely Japanese experiences... Someone just GIVES you a free car.... Man! It's the land of cars, after all. Right? They are so plentiful, a complete stranger will just give you one for nothing! Well, there IS a catch. Anyone who has spent any time living in Japan already knows what that catch is -- the big 'S.' SHAKEN (pronounced: shAH-ken, as opposed to shAYken). This is a mandatory vehicle inspection that is supposed to keep old, broken vehicles off the road, and rolling along safely and in a mechanically sound manner. Well, actually it's just a money-grab and a bi-annual rip-off designed to pad the pockets of people in the know, and provide artificial employment to countless office workers country-wide, processing and poring over the reams of useless paperwork this practice produces. But since your average shaken bill will run you anywhere from $800 to about $1600 (CDN), it's easy to see how some people prefer to just scrap their old cars and get a newer one that already has valid shaken for two years rather than pay that kind of money for keeping the old one on the road. But even scrapping a car isn't free -- it will cost you at least $100 in paperwork to have the sucker crushed and melted and deleted from public records.

To summarize, after we took the pastor's car, we paid the shaken on it, so we essentially had a reliable van for two years -- to take on trips, buy groceries, and whatever else we needed a vehicle for. Unfortunately, due to our little incident in Tokyo coming home from Disney, we were forced to re-think the wisdom in keeping and repairing an old beater over buying something newer where the inspection fees may have already been recently paid. Aside from the overheating, the air conditioner started dying, the timing belt needed replacing, and other "little" problems started to come up... But adding them all together, they weren't so "little" any more -- especially considering that they would probably need to be fixed in order for the van to pass inspection. With a mechanic friend of mine, we did a bit of math and determined that to repair the van, and renew the shaken would cost us in excess of $2200. Was it worth it? We didn't think so. We figured that with $2000 in our pockets (money we saved up for shaken renewal) we would certainly be able to find a viable, newer replacement to our old van.

We began by checking out local car lots and online (Yahoo) auctions. The local used car lots were by far the most expensive option. The bare-bones minimum price for any kind of reasonable vehicle was well in excess of $5000 (CDN) -- something we were not prepared to pay. Yahoo auctions on the other hand, deals would vary and I was even able to come up with some cars that looked like they might be in reasonable shape and being sold for a reasonable price. I called a friend and asked him his opinion on buying a car online (not even having test-driven it) -- but he himself had purchased no less than two cars this way, both of which were decent purchases and he had no complaints, and nothing but positive things to say about his experiences. I was almost content with following this process through, except we were introduced to a Peruvian fellow some months back, who said that he deals in used cars, exporting them mainly to Latin America, but also selling them within Japan as well (to the Peruvian and Brazilian communities).

When I spoke to Jorge, I found out that he got his cars from an auction. Not an online auction, but a real, actual auction. Most Japanese people I've spoken to know very little about auctions in general, and aside from the famous fish auctions in some of the coastal ports throughout Japan, it seems to be a concept little-known (or at least not oft-spoken about) among the general population. Since my expectations were rather specific in terms of what kind of car I wanted, and was very concerned about getting a lemon, it was agreed that my wife and I would accompany Jorge to the auction on a Saturday, where we could see, examine, and otherwise choose the car we wanted ourselves. Brilliant!

It was about a three hour drive out to the NAA (Nissan Auto Auction) in Kanagawa. We left early in the morning and arrived shortly after 10 in the morning. When we finally disembarked, Jorge informed us that this in fact was a "dealer-only" auction, and members of the general public were not permitted. In fact, we technically weren't even supposed to be on the premises, but this being a typically Japanese experience, this rule seems to only get enforced if necessary -- which is rarely. If any of you have ever been to Disneyland in California or Florida, you may remember what the parking lots looked like. Well, the auction yard looked very much like that. Cars upon cars upon cars, all packed to within inches of each other, spanning across several humungous lots, pretty much as far as you could see. Each time an auction gets held here, over 400 cars get sold, and auctions are held twice a week, on Fridays and Saturdays. Even more interesting, is that this is considered a small auction. Some of the larger ones can sell anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 vehicles a week! The whole purpose of a dealer-only auction is this. Used car dealers in Japan often cannot get rid of their stock (HUGE surprise there, given the exorbitant prices) so they sell the cars at auction and purchase fresh ones to put on their lot, hoping that they may better entice their customers. Another large chunk of these cars are considered "junk" in Japan, given the culture's bloodlust for the newest, greatest, latest technology -- and that includes cars. These "junk" cars may just be old, some may have problems that most Japanese people can't be bothered to repair (due to expense or just the "annoyance" factor) -- but nonetheless, thousands of cars which are deemed "unfit" for Japanese drivers sucessfully get shipped across the globe, where they live out many more happy years with buyers who don't need to be, or don't have the money to be quite so choosy.

I found out about mid-way through the auction that we were attending such a "junk" auction. Apparently, all the "nice" cars get sold on Fridays... No matter... Off we went, lot guide in hand, into this massive maze of a parking lot, full of cars to be auctioned. Each car has the key in the ignition and its doors unlocked, so any potential bidder can fire up the engine, test out some of the car's features and give it a thorough inspection before placing a bid. This pre-bidding inspection goes on for roughly two hours before the first auction starts at 12:30.

We scoped out a number of cars that were of interest to us, including one certain Nissan Serena that looked like it was in reasonable shape. I opened the driver's side door, fired up the engine, revved it for a bit, then turned the engine off and proceeded to check some of the other parts of the car. A minute later, I came back to the driver's seat, and tried to start it up again, only to be surprised that the car wouldn't start. What the....%&'*? Later on, I found out that it was common practise to "sabotage" cars in an attempt to deter other bidders from bidding too highly on a car someone may have wanted to bid on themselves. If it doesn't start, it's a piece of junk, right? Well, it wasn't even 5 minutes before a sharp-eyed dealer came up to the car, fiddled around with it for no more than 10 seconds and had it purring like a kitten. Obviously, he knew what was up and knew exactly what to do about it. After scoping out the cars on the lot, the next step is to go into the auction building for the actual bidding.

The bidding room resembles a large amphitheatre, with computer terminals at each seat. It looks a lot like the command center at Cape Canaveral... The method is simple. Lots get shown up on a huge projection display at the front of the room. Dealers insert their magnetically encoded membership card into the terminal in front of them, thus activating it. They then use a button control (like the ones you see on the TV show Jeopardy) to register a bid. It works just like an auction back home, except there is no question as to who is the highest bidder. Sometimes the auctioneer may say "mo chotto" if he feels that the highest bid isn't quite high enough. In our case, because this was a "junk" auction, there was a somehat different method. The computer terminals weren't used at all. Instead, they placed large boxes at the front of the room, each of which had 25 slots or cubbyholes, with a number printed above it. Dealers would take special, pink bidding sheets, write their membership number on them, as well as their highest bid, fold the paper over and drop it into the cubbyhole corresponding with the lot number above it. Bidding was open for as long as the box remained on the table at the front. At some point, auction employees would take the box to another table, open it up, and remove the paper bids from the cubbyholes, and sorting them in the order of bid amount. The stack of papers would then get handed to the auctioneer, whose only job was to read out the lot number, the initial bid, and then the highest bid. The highest bidder's membership number along with the lot number were then written in black marker pen onto a poster on the wall at the back of the hall. I also learned a few "tricks of the trade" here. Some dealers, before dropping their bid into the cubbyhole would try to blow and peek inside in an attempt to see how many bids there were for that lot, and if lucky, even to spy a bid amount.

After we found a car which we decided to bid on, being no slouch, also blew into the cubbyhole, and saw at least two or three pink papers inside, one of which had 70,000 written on it. We adjusted our bid accordingly and waited. When it was all said and done, here is what our sucessful bid of 85,000 yen managed to secure us: - 1997 Nissan Serena (forest green) - 14 months of shaken - no accidents, body damage or obvious mechanical problems - nice upholstery (no tears) HOWEVER, because this is Japan, the price was nowhere near 85,000 yen! Just to drive the car out of the lot, you need the paperwork. The paperwork costs extra, eg. a receipt runs you about 10,000... And yes, in case you were wondering, this typical Japanese bureaucracy. I.e. You must have a receipt to take the car. But you cannot choose to NOT have a receipt. But yet, it's added on extra, as if you did have a choice. Well, in the end, paperwork brought the price of the car to 130,000. Then I had to pay comission to my friend Jorge, which was another 30,000. Final price tag: 160,000. We still came in under budget, which was a good thing, because there were a number of small mechanical repairs that had to be made after the fact. So, now we are set with a newer vehicle for the next while.

The Japanese car auction was an excellent experience. I certainly learned a lot from it, and if I had to do it again, would be a lot more confident to do so. In addition, having seen what I had, and knowing where Japanese used car dealers get their stock, don't think I would ever buy a used car from a lot now. I would recommend, that if anyone wants to get a used, Japanese car, get to know a dealer who has access to one of the auctions, and get what you want for a really low price, and just a little bit of comission. You'll be glad you did.

We discovered IKEA

Hooray for Sweden! This was a long time coming and since I found out that IKEA was looking to open outlets in Japan, I've been looking forward to their opening. When it finally happened in the Spring of 2006, I was stoked! It didn't take us long to organize a trip to Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture (right next to Tokyo). My theory on IKEA was, that since Japan is normally super-expensive (compared to the West), IKEA's prices (unlike in the West) would be very reasonable.

I know that when I had a Swedish roommate in university, Frederick discovered the local IKEA and with much glee proceeded to buy a bunch of stuff. When I got home one day and found a collection of black, plastic, folding chairs from IKEA, I asked him why he got them there... Triumphantly he exclaimed that IKEA was the cheapest store in Sweden and that was where everyone went to get the best deals. He looked a little taken aback when I explained that it very well may be the cheapest store in Sweden, but I could've gone to Canadian Tire and gotten the same chairs for about a quarter of the price. (Indeed, I verified my theory not long after that). Well, as for IKEA in Japan, we were not disappointed.

This year we've already made a number of trips to IKEA in Funabashi, and have slowly started to IKEeify our house. The best thing that has come out of all this, however, is the access to all the wonderful Swedish deli goods they carry. In November we hosted a Swedish party at our house, which was complete with Swedish meatballs, lox, cheese, crackers, Swedish beer, mulled wine and Aquavit flowed like water, and we even had ABBA and some other Swedish music playing in the background. This was a followup to the Greek party we had earlier in the year with our Cypriot friends, where Ouzo was the poison of choice and feta cheese-stuffed eggplant, moussaka, baklava and other Greek treats (even Greek folk music) were the order of the day. Next on the party list (coming very soon) is a Russian party -- bread, vodka, Borscht, Beef Stroganoff... Mmmmmm! Then for music maybe I can get my hands on some Red Army Choir songs. I'll see what I can do about teaching The Internationale to everyone in Russian.

We went to Canada

Once again, I don't think I'll be getting into much detail here, but sufficed to say, after another two years in Japan, we made a second trip to Canada, from December 22nd, and returning to Japan on January 5th. It was another whirlwind trip, and even though we tried to see as many friends and family as we could, I apologize to those whom we couldn't meet up with. Each and every day we were up to our necks in things we wanted to accomplish (shopping for stuff we can only find in Canada, for example) as well as meeting people who wanted to see us after all this time. That was the most difficult part! We could only set aside a couple of times for that, so for many of our friends it was a one-shot chance -- so if you were one of those who couldn't make it out to see us for whatever reason, Sorry! We spent Christmas in Fort St. John with Bonnie's family, then met up with my parents when we came back to Edmonton -- they made the trip up from Lethbridge, as far as it was, to spend some time with us there. After a hurried New Year, on the 2nd we left for Abbotsford, where we spent two days with Bonnie's other relatives, including some grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Then it was back to Japan.

Some of the highlights of this trip were: being able to buy a new cordless phone to take back to Japan with us. Cordless phones are obscenely expensive here, and I have no idea why. In fact, even just a simple, ordinary corded hoome phone will set you back at least triple of what it's really worth. I can march down to London Drugs and grab a $20 2.4GHz VTech, and that's the end of it, whereas here I can't find ANYTHING under $100. What's up with that? Next, I bought a Logitech Harmony(tm) universal remote control. And indeed, universal it is. The first step is to plug it into your computer using a USB cable, and connecting to the Internet to download all the codes for your TV, VCR, DVD player, satellite receiver, amp, etc, etc, etc. Then you can customize all that and have one wicked little clicker. Even if it has NO IDEA what kind of device you are trying to control, it doesn't matter... All you need to do is point your original remote control at the Harmony, press a bunch of buttons, and the Harmony learns the IR codes of all the functions and is able to replicate them later on its own. So even our room air conditioner and no-name-brand 5.1 surround sound system were no match for the Harmony -- it truly is The One Remote to control them all. But probably the best features are the "activities" buttons. With the press of one button, the remote turns on your TV, DVD palyer, turns the TV to the appropriate input mode, and even presses 'PLAY' on the DVD player.

That's the year in a nutshell. So far this year, I kicked it off to a great start with a really nasty bout of gastroenteritis, which was likely caused by the norovirus that's been going around lately. It put me out for almost a week, including one day when I had a fever so high I thought I'd jump out of my skin. Then, extreme abdominal cramps and hourly visits to the bathroom were my lot until it slowly started to dissipate almost exactly 7 days later. I'm more or less alright now, but just barely. Within the coming week I hope to get back into my regular low-cal eating pattern and going to the gym to do some daily cardio.

My project is finished! Huzzah! Okay, here's the scoop. Going through many libraries of photos that I've taken since arriving in Japan, I've put together 12 of my favorites to make into a 2007 calendar! The international version has U.S., Canadian, Japanese, Christian, Jewish and Celestial events marked so any of our friends, wherever they may live may find it useful. The final, published product is available for sale at: www.lulu.com -- a nice, little publishing company. The price for these is $15.98 and there is absolutely no obligation to buy one -- I do get some royalties from it (but not much). If this turns out to be successful, I may pursue other similar projects as well.

In any event, the calendar is finished in plenty of time for next year, so if you want something on your wall to remember us by, hop on over to the publisher's website and pick up a copy! It's really easy! Just click on the button at the end of this post.

Bonnie and I are heading out of town on holidays tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some more stuff to write about when we return. Bye for now!

Canadian Sushi 2007 Calendar