Greatest Game EVER

~Japan is the video game capital of the world, with gigantic companies like Nintendo and Sony. Perhaps fortunately, I don't have much time for gaming; annoying things like "sleep", "job", and "life" get in the way. However, every so often, a game arrives that is so amazing, so awe-inspiring, so mind-shatteringly perfect that it seems as though it was forged on the Anvil of Hephaestus. I refer, of course, to this:



^To recap: Instead of saving the President, you ARE the President, who makes even James Marshall look weak. You're in a mecha loaded with an insanely powerful arsenal of weapons, your goal is to annihilate a military rebellion led by the Vice President, who just happens to be named Richard, and you end the game by space-surfing back to Earth.

He certainly has my vote. Wilson-Hawke 2008!

Clearly, this game is a political statement of some kind, but who cares? With dialog gems like, "Nothing is pointless, and the reason is because I'm the President of the great United States of America! ...I'm gonna step into outer space!" and "Nothing like sipping some delicious darjeeling tea...and watching you getting your clock cleaned!", you don't need a believable plotline. There's more about Metal Wolf Chaos here and here. It's almost enough to make me run out and get an X-Box.

Almost.

~Oyasumi!

Hey y'all, this is Little Daryl here to tell you all about the ex-ci-ting sport of drift-net fishin'!

[Note: Here Be Inside Jokes. You Have Been Warned]

~Last weekend, I went on a bus tour offered by the city civics center. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Nagaoka, the tour included fishing, two museums, and a mountain observation point. Best of all, it was free! This was done in an effort to promote tourism in the newly-expanded city whose borders, like a many-tentacled kraken of the deep, now stretch all the way to the coast. So, early one Sunday morning, I jumped on my bike and rode the to the meeting place, where a large crowd had gathered for the trip:

^ If you look carefully at the people in this picture, you might notice something interesting: we've been segregated! That's right, the Japanese people are on the right and the gaijin are on the left. They put us on separate buses, too. I think this was because the tour guides were using Japanese on one bus and English on the other...yeah, let's go with that explanation.

^ The day was absolutely gorgeous with blue sky and fluffy clouds. Not wanting to get burned, I was covered in SPF 50+ sunblock and wearing my sunglasses and fedora. Still, I had a strong urge to jump in the water and swim around. Later, I was very glad that I didn't, for reasons that will become abundantly clear...

^ The drift net had already been towed into the water, and all we had to do was pull it to the shore. There were about a hundred people, working on both sides of the net.

^ We all grabbed the rope and began to pull. It was hard work! How much rope did each person hold? About three feet. But not four, because that would be wrong.

^ Pulling the whole drift net to the shore took about half an hour.

^ Finally, we'd pulled the entire net to shore! Now to claim our prizes...and devour them! Our hard work paid off, and we managed to pull in a huge catch of...

^ Poachers! No, wait, they're jellyfish. Known as kurage (くらげ) in Japanese, these creatures currently infest the Sea of Japan. Our net was chock-full of these little guys.

^ Everyone got a kick out of messing around with the Jellyfish. They felt like...well, like Jell-o. Interestingly, I later found out that one of my students likes to eat jellyfish. I nearly vomited at the mental and gustatory images that this presented. He said that when he eats it, the jellyfish is flattened into thin strips. Although he claims the taste is delicious, I think this is one piece of Japanese cuisine that I'll decline.

^ How many of you girls could do this?

After playing with the jellyfish, it was time to get rid of the huge pile of gelatinous flesh that had accumulated on the beach. Thus, I was privileged to see the exciting Japanese sport of jellyfish-tossing:

^ Even more fun than throwing mobile phones!

^ Fly, you fools!

^ Fortunately, jellyfish weren't the only things that we managed to haul in from the sea. Like diamonds in the rough, a few small silver fish were mixed among the catch. Our "net gain" was enough food for perhaps one small child, but that didn't matter, because lunch at a restaurant was being provided free of charge!

Stay tuned for more from my crazy bus tour of the Nagaoka environs. ~Oyasumi!

Return to Yuzawa, Part 4: Octopus Waggle

~By now, you've probably heard: Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter of TV fame, died after being stung through the heart by a stingray while underwater in Australia. To be honest, I always figured he'd be eaten or worse sooner or later; at the time of his death, he was filming for a nature documentary called Ocean's Deadliest. Still, his shows always made me laugh ("Crickey!"), and I'll miss seeing his crazy nature shows.

Moving along, here's the rest of my second trip to Yuzawa. After eating lunch near the waterfall, I took a ride up the Yuzawa ropeway, a large (100+ capacity) cable car:

^ The ropeway and cable car docked on the ground side. The ground ropeway station actually has a hot spring (onsen) built into it! I imagine it's great to soak your feet in hot water after a long day of skiing on the slopes at the top.

^ On the hillside beneath the ropeway are these large snow-barriers, which help prevent avalanches during Yuzawa's snowy winters. Although it's difficult to see in this picture, there were a couple of workers cutting branches and clearing debris on the hill (I circled them in red; you can click on the picture for a larger view).

^ The view of the mountains from the top was spectacular. Above is the ski area that was covered in snow the last time I was here.

^ The formerly-frozen ground had been carefully sculpted into a series of gardens, including this collection of flowers grown in rows with zen-like precision. Here are some closeups of flowers atop the mountain:

^ The part I like best about this flower is where the petals meet the center and there's a slight "bleeding" of color, creating a reddish ring around the middle.

^ The bees were very fond of this one. I managed to snap off a picture in one of the bug-free moments.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore the mountain area, as the final descent of the ropeway for the day was scheduled soon. At the ground ropeway station, I passed some time in the gift shop:

^ I've noticed a major difference between Japanese gift shops and there American counterparts: Japanese shops have much more food! Instead of buying keychains or other tchotchkies, most Japanese on vacation purchase local food (which is what these boxes contain) and bring it back to share with their coworkers and family.

A bizarre side-effect of this custom is the existence of shops in train stations that sell "local" foods from other towns. The idea behind this is that you can buy regional food from a distant place to show that you were on a vacation there, even if you were not. From what I'm told, businessmen sometimes use this tactic when visiting their mistresses, to "prove" to their wives that, yes dear, I really was negotiating a contract in Osaka. I swear! I imagine most women are wise to this tactic.

So what exactly, you might ask, constitutes local/specialty food? Here's a striking example:

^ Mmm, mmm, good! Octopus (or is it squid? I can't tell) in the gift shop freezer. I assume you eat it. Or perhaps it's only frozen and not really dead, and you can thaw it out and put it in an aquarium to be your beloved household pet. Just don't let small children stray nearby lest they be eaten by the ravenous cephalopod! For scale, it's about eight inches long.

That's about it for Yuzawa, although I do hope to visit once or twice more before the snow arrives. Here's some Japanglish I found at a convenience store (a 7-11, to be exact) near the train station:

^ Japanese convenience stores and bookstores are crammed with rack after rack of strange magazines. Here are two interesting examples: on the left, we have an auto parts magazine called "Goo Parts" (I wonder if the parts liquefy after a few uses?). On the right is a golf magazine called "Golf Waggle", which, strangely enough, is actually the name of a golfing technique. However, I don't think most Americans, even hard-core golfers, would be able to take a magazine with the name "Golf Waggle" very seriously.

~Oyasumi!

Return to Yuzawa, part 3: Falling for the Falls

~Happy September, everyone! I hope the fall season will soon bring some much-needed cold air and clouds to block out the accursed sun. For now, here's part three of my latest trip to Yuzawa, in which I searched for a waterfall vaguely marked on my poorly-written area map for tourists. After a few minutes of traveling down a concrete path into the woods, I found it:

^ Idyllic, isn't it? I want a waterfall like this in my backyard. The day was hot and muggy, or, as the Japanese say, "Mushi atsui desu!" (It's hot and humid!). The blast of chilly water from the falls was a welcome relief, and also kept the omnipresent buzzing insects at bay.

^ Near the waterfall was a pipe with a cup next to it, tied to the pipe with a string. Using the cup (which was pink and had a cartoon character called "Ham-Star the Hamster" on it), I took a sip of the river water. It was extremely cold and very refreshing.

^ Next to the pipe and cup was this little stone marker, with the kanji for "mizu" (water). I guess you're supposed to make a donation for something (?), although these coins look like they've been out here for a looooong time...

^ Getting closer, I estimated the waterfall to be between 50 and 75 feet high. The roar of the water was very loud, but in a relaxing sort of way. There was a large buildup of debris near the pool, perhaps made by Japanese ninja-beavers.

^ Another path led right up to the falls. Tucked to one side of the path was this little Buddha shrine with flowers and a collection box. There was also a bottle of what I think was sake, which you can see in the middle of the picture. It too had been there for quite some time and was most likely unfit for human consumption.

^ These yellow flowers were near the waterfall, giving me a chance to use my camera's macro function.

^ Right in front of the falls, the spray roared over me like wave after wave of arctic air! It was great.

^ Looking down from above to where the water slammed into the pool below. Despite the crashing water, I felt a wild urge to jump in and take a swim. I suppose it's best that I didn't, seeing as the water was only about one foot deep and the jump would be twenty times that.

Coming soon on David Does Japan: the epic conclusion of the "Return to Yuzawa" series, and several posts on an intriguing tour I took today that involved net fishing, jellyfish, dams, and a suspension bridge, all in one day! ~Oyasumi.