The Big Two Three

~Yes, the inevitable has happened, and the world is now on Year 23 of the David Calendar. Unfortunately, I had to work on my birthday, but luckily this is one of our "slow" periods, so I only had two classes to teach. My coworkers wrote the hiragana for 'otanjoubi omedetou' on the whiteboard in my room at the school (literally: 'birthday congratulations', the equivalent of "happy birthday"):

^ Wow, 23. I feel like an oya-ji (old man). Hey, that rhymed! I also got a truly unique birthday cake from a friend of mine:

^ The writing reads, "Happy Birthday / insert cake here / Virtual birthday cake, athe most delious cake you can ever imagine."

After work, some friends took me out to a restaurant in Nagaoka called 'Coco Bar'. Their motto: "A Wild Place To Eat". It had a tiki theme going on with decorations designed to make it look like the inside of a cave on a Pacific Island. Here are some pictures of the more amusing decorations:

^A totem pole of some kind inside the restaurant. This place was very dark, presumably to enhance the cave-like atmosphere, so I had to use the flash. The guy on the bottom of the totem pole looks like I just scared him.

^ A disturbing wooden butler outside Coco Bar. Now he's our friend!

I'd write more, but it's been a tiring night. I'm really looking forward to the festival next week. People from the International Center, including myself, will dance in the parade on August 1st, and I'm going to watch the fireworks on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Normally, Nagaoka only has two days of fireworks for the festival, but this year we get a BONUS day because it's the 100th anniversary of the city's official existence.

Here's some Japanglish to amuse you. I want to drink some of this:

~Oyasumi!

Curse This Infernal Contraption!

~I hope everyone has been sleeping well over the past week, because I sure haven't. Construction work has begun next to my apartment, which would be bearable...if it weren't for a certain maddening machine fifty feet from my door:



The horrific machine you see pictured continually hammers at the ground every 1.5 seconds or so, with a vibration that shakes my entire apartment building. It also makes an excellent alarm clock (by 'excellent' I mean good at waking you up), as the smashing begins every morning at the same time like clockwork. Even with a degree in English, I still find it difficult to express my undying hatred of this infernal contraption.

You're probably thinking to yourself, "That's nice, David, but what exactly IS this machine?" Interestingly, I wondered the same thing myself for over a week. The continual smashing baffled me. If it's trying to dig a hole, how would compacting the underlying earth help? Wouldn't a drill be better suited for this?

My second hypothesis was that the machine is pushing concrete/steel foundation blocks into the ground to increase structural stability in case of an earthquake. This hypothesis held until I did a quick calculation and realized that if the builders had to do this for every foundation section, at this speed it would take them several years to build a house.

The third hypothesis (which still holds) is that this is an Infernal Machine from Hades that sucks the soul out of all those who hear it. With every pounding of the hammer, somebody, somewhere, winces in annoyance. With every wince of annoyance, they lose a small part of their soul...which is pulled into the machine and powers its endless labor as it attempts to breach the very Gates of Hell...

Ahem. After asking around a bit, I discovered that the machine is, in fact, digging (smashing?) to the aquifer to create a well. However, the well water will not be o-mizu, which is Japanese for drinking water (as opposed to plain mizu, which is water that is not to be drunk; the kanji for mizu is at right). The water is intended for Nagaoka's street sprinkler system.

Why, you ask, does one need to sprinkle the street? The answer is that the Japanese have developed a new, highly advanced technique for actually growing asphalt using genetically-engineered bacteria. When spread over soil and watered regularly, the asphalt literally grows into a road!

Okay, so I'm full of BS. The sprinklers are actually used in the winter to melt the abundant snows that blanket Nagaoka. The reason well water is used is that underground water in Japan is quite warm due to volcanic activity in the nearby mountains. This is the same reason that Japan has so many hot springs (or onsen in Japanese).

By drilling/pounding deep into the ground, this naturally-warm water is sprayed onto the road, quickly melting the snow...although it gave me quite a surprise when I first arrived in the city. I was walking in the road during a light snow, when all of the sudden, BAM! Water sprayed out from the middle of the road in all directions, including on me. I was irritated at first, but laughed about it for the rest of the day.

The sprinkler system is nearly as ingenious as my fictional asphalt bacteria. But I'd like it a lot more if it didn't require these damn machines pounding into the ground. Why don't they just drill? I don't pretend to understand the method to their madness. I can only hope that they finish soon.

As fate would have it, while walking downtown today I heard an all-too-familiar pounding noise. Sure enough, there was another one of the damn machines beating the ground just a few hundred feet from my workplace.

CURSES!!!

~Oyasumi.

Rice is Always Nice

~The Japanese eat a lot of rice. Actually, that sentence doesn't quite deliver the true impact of just how much rice they eat. They eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They eat it for snacks, and they eat it for dessert. They eat it at parties and celebrations. They eat it just about everywhere, as my students can attest. Because of that, they grow it everywhere, as well.

Outside (and inside) of every city stretch endless rice paddies, which become mosquito breeding pits every spring for hordes of voracious bloodsuckers (not unlike the IRS, actually). Niigata Prefecture, where I'm living at the moment, leads Japan in rice production and is thus an important part of the national economy.

^ Part of the rice section at a local grocery store (by special request). There are dozens of brands of rice in sizes ranging from 2 kg bags to 20 kg bags, enough to feel a platoon or three. This picture shows only one part of the rice section, which is actually about four times larger.

^ Every supermarket also has a large section devoted to seasonings for rice. Because, y'know, that taste gets old after awhile. My personal favorite is a bottle of inky soy sauce called "All-Purpose Seasoning". With a name like that, why bother buying anything else?


A few posts ago, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I was actually eating Niigata rice, because I couldn't read the labels. I promised a full report when/if I was able to try the real stuff, and after a bit of research was able to locate the proper brand. So, without further ado, I present:



<-- Koshihikari, the tastiest and most famous rice in all of Japan, grown right here in Niigata. I was able to read the vertical hiragana こしひかり, meaning 'ko-shi-hi-ka-ri'. This is a 5 kg bag, and cost ~$25, twice the price of other brands in bags of equal weight. But boy, was it worth it. And how could I pass up that phoenix fireworks design?

At first, I wondered "How different can this be from the cheap(est) stuff I usually buy?" I was soon to learn the depth of my misconception. Koshihikari is easily the most delicious rice I've eaten in my entire life. The grains are relatively plump compared to other brands of rice, and the texture is light and fluffy, melting in your mouth (not in your hand).

The taste is slightly sweet and completely delicious, a result of rich Niigata soil and clear water from mountain streams. I can attest to the taste, because I'm eating it in front of the computer as I type this blog post (this bachelor lifestyle rocks!).

In the future, I'll hopefully be posting more about different foods available in Japan as I endeavor to expand my admittedly limited culinary horizons. That's all from the Eastern Hemisphere for today. Remember, as my Dad says, "David, when in doubt, Rice is Always Nice!". ~Oyasumi!

Nagaoka LIVE!: International Center Tour

~In a further attempt at videography, I present to you a tour of the Nagaoka International Center. Or, as my coworker Chris calls it, the "Gaijin Enjoyment Center":



^Yes, I know it cuts off at the end. Bad timing on my part.

My weekly Japanese class (1 David, 1 Japanese teacher, 1 Taiwanese, 20 Brazillians) is held upstairs , and I usually hang around the International Center downstairs for a while after class to talk to people and read an English newspaper. The Brazillian "volunteers" are actually studying Japanese; volunteer workers are helping them. The workers at the desks help foreign residents by providing free consultations on just about anything, from buying train tickets to finding restautants. They're all really nice people.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Expect more "Nagaoka LIVE!" video tours in the future. ~Oyasumi!