tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-159765502007-10-31T02:42:23.834+09:00ShifletBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-15742439404057600702007-07-12T08:17:00.000+09:002007-07-12T08:26:02.097+09:00

Sorry for the lack of info, not much to report on the Law & Order marathons. I'm wearing a nice little rut into my parents' sofa. I spent last week down in Columbus though and finally secured both employment for myself and an apartment for us. We'll be returning to our old neighborhood and living about four blocks from our previous apartment. I'll be working at McGraw-Hill text books and Colleen

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-50863032554683606122007-06-26T17:29:00.000+09:002007-06-26T17:52:45.870+09:00

It's been a whirlwind here the past few days. Crazy enough to keep me on my toes and keep me from getting to nostalgic or weepy. Saturday we went to Osaka where we hit several neighborhoods on our own and met up with Iwa High School staff for an amazing goodbye dinner. It was one of the best carefree days I've ever had. That's us color coordinating with a giant ferris wheel up there, by the way

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-76670582913310365092007-06-21T09:02:00.000+09:002007-06-21T09:05:29.969+09:00

Almost as cute as the real potbellies. Undoubedly more delicious.

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-62974355707525540372007-06-20T23:28:00.000+09:002007-06-20T23:44:34.277+09:00

This year Colleen's school moved its Culture Day from Fall to Summer so we got to experience a third dose of culture via teen eyes. Colleen & "five pretty girls" (actual program description) made chocolate pudding that was a smashing success. I helped out a little, but mostly only in the providing jokes department. "Are all Americans handsome?" "No. Only me." That one literally had the girl

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-37584574234502848812007-06-17T16:40:00.001+09:002007-06-17T16:47:35.343+09:00

Watching the Cavs lose quite miserably this week didn't stir up quite the reaction I thought it would. Coming home to so many things that have changed over the past two years, it's comforting to know some things will always be the same. Returning to an NBA title in Cleveland would be on par with walking directly in to the Twilight Zone, inducing a level of reverse culture shock the likes of which

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-20792556090081575092007-06-11T21:59:00.000+09:002007-06-11T22:20:25.143+09:00

Today I attempted to go octopus fishing in the Inland Sea with Testsuya and Maii. Attempted because we came back empty-handed save for two tiny fish that Maii caught. Today just wasn't a good day for the freakishly simple octopus catching technique. The way one fishes for octopus is to simply throw a weighted hook into the water and drag it across the ocean floor. Unfortunately today was

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-59622225173833374122007-06-09T20:18:00.000+09:002007-06-09T21:12:58.752+09:00

Our friend Tamako says, "in May, EVERYONE in Ichinomiya plants rice." Well, we were included in that tradition this year. I couldn't miss out on the chance to take a dip in calf-deep mud! So after begging her to talk with her friend, who is an organic farmer, we arranged to meet him and his father. We did our part to make sure all the baby rice plants found their spot in the mud along with the

Colleentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-48704005775837112352007-06-08T11:02:00.000+09:002007-06-08T11:11:20.007+09:00

For a long time I've been meaning to do a post about Japanese ATMs. I guess if you don't know any better they are okay, but coming from the land of the 24 hour walk up, they are really hard to handle. As you may have guessed from that last sentence they are not available all day, every day. They work banker's hours. They are actually treated better than bank employees. On top of limited access,

Colleentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-71287562849803859822007-05-31T22:13:00.000+09:002007-05-31T22:27:13.240+09:00

Ask this tree. Because it's been around that long. I really can't even think of a way to properly illustrate how long that is. A THOUSAND YEARS. It was already 500 years old when Christopher Columbus made his way over to America. OLD. This tree lives in a Yamaski and has a nice little shrine built around it. It's a Japanese wisteria so of course it's annual blooming is a major deal and we made

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-9982076793066495252007-05-28T14:01:00.000+09:002007-05-28T14:10:12.116+09:00

Jenny and Kyle flew out on Friday and I spent the weekend recovering from a week that required more footwork than the rest of my 2007 combined. It's Monday and I'm still feeling it. Here are a few shots from Osaka which offset all the temples and shrines of the previous week with its record shops and gadgetry. Some shots of the last days wandering: Hustle & Bustle Around Osaka Station (One of

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-27161716871461556232007-05-24T14:00:00.000+09:002007-05-28T14:11:43.528+09:00

It's been a busy couple weeks. After a few days showing Jenny & Kyle around the Shiso area, Kyle and I played a show in Himeji and then hit the road. Here are some photos from our time in Kyoto. Sanjusangendo Hall of 1000 Buddhas View from the mountainside Kiyomizu Temple Tunnel of tori gates The Golden Temple Three Stooges I'm writing during some downtime from the awesome Hotel

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-1995301307179673792007-05-16T23:01:00.000+09:002007-05-16T23:12:08.449+09:00

Adding to Right Wing paranoia about gaijin criminals and the increasing foreign crime rate, I got my first Japanese speeding ticket on Monday. We were on the way to the airport to pick up our friends Jenny and Kyle who are here visiting (more on our time with them soon) but I actually got the ticket mere minutes from our house on a road we take very often as a shortcut. I was clocked going 62 km

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-62172147501858442922007-05-10T21:17:00.000+09:002007-05-10T21:31:42.396+09:00

Monday evening Colleen came home and said she had a surprise. She then proceeded to whip out free tickets to the Hanshin game on Tuesday. We've wanted to go to Tigers game since first tuning in to their division-winning season in '05 (aka the last time they were actually good). These tickets were ACE. Row 5, right between home plate and the Tigers dugout. And they were playing their Rivals the

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-43440002031329439202007-05-09T21:16:00.000+09:002007-05-09T22:21:38.159+09:00

This year's Golden Week fell near the weekend, so instead of heading to Japan's northern most island of Hokkaido, I opted for somewhere a bit closer... Nagano prefecture. Of course it's famous for being a former host of the olympics, but Nagano is also famous for *apples*. So it wasn't hard to find a family of apple farmers who were willing to take in a WWOOF volunteer for a couple days.

Colleentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-51925105385217345072007-05-07T18:49:00.000+09:002007-05-07T19:04:04.019+09:00

Pachinko Dream is actually the name of one of the local parlors. They all have names like Dream, Sepia, King, Emperor, Wish... The one I went to was called TARZAN. Somehow appropriate. For better or worse, I only got an hours worth of the game under my belt. I could have gone for more, but I'd already blown $40 of someone else's money and I think it was agreed I am bad luck. I tried to use some

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-1168507987282591972007-05-03T07:29:00.000+09:002007-05-03T07:38:27.928+09:00

Just dropped Colleen off for her Golden Week travels up to Nagano. Got to see what is probably my fifth sunrise in the past two years. As volunteering on a farm isn't my idea of a vacation, I'm staying behind and my only noteworthy plan for the holiday weekend is to finally break my pachinko virginity. I've held out long enough and refused countless offers, but the time has come. For those that

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-88509522813971509732007-04-26T12:25:00.000+09:002007-04-26T12:31:21.952+09:00

I bought my plane ticket yesterday and on June 27th I'll be boarding Northwest 070 for the one-way trip home. I'm sure those days will fly by with unbelieveable speed. Just saying the date out loud makes it feel like tomorrow.

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-82355160265787762892007-04-23T15:59:00.000+09:002007-04-23T16:03:03.479+09:00

Heavy weekend rains brought out the first of the frogs. I'm very excited for late night chorus to start up again soon, but for now just the occasional ribbit out the window. I can hardly wait. I'm practically giddy.

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-26569792288832463952007-04-23T11:08:00.000+09:002007-04-23T16:04:06.199+09:00

While we're on the subject of procrastination... To a certain degree, our entire life here is lived "out of the way" but living between mountain ranges provides a lot of nooks and crannies we're still only finding out about now. And then the real problem is actually going once we have noticed them. The pics above were taken only about a mile and a half from our house. The waterfall and

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-46883726298570158232007-04-19T17:20:00.000+09:002007-04-19T17:29:36.826+09:00

Laziness has its costs. Since people enjoyed the food post, all week I kept meaning to take a picture of our Kanji Quiz toilet paper & do a post about how gag gifts are pretty universal. As you can see I waited too long, so I grabbed the last strand today and took that sad photo above. The T.P. was a funny gift. I got for Christmas (when I was still making a semblance of an effort to study

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-2591044342239799462007-04-13T12:18:00.000+09:002007-04-13T12:33:25.349+09:00

"Oh! Chips" is an awesome brand name. The fact that they came up with the amazing tuna & mayo flavor is just proof of their greatness. Tuna/mayo is a popular sandwich, rice ball and sushi combo, why wouldn't it work with potato chips? Pretty genius. They brought on some horrid breath that lingered for quite a while, but I'd consider that a very minor downside. Kinoko No Yama: The chocolate

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-6399171130644360342007-04-10T11:23:00.000+09:002007-04-10T11:31:07.415+09:00

It's Spring and that means only one thing around here: Sa-Ku-Ra. Yes, the delicate little cherry blossoms are popping up all over the place and brightening the landscape quite a bit. My only attempt at a hanami (flower viewing picnic complete with copious amounts of food & liquor) was a bust, but maybe I'll get another chance. They should be around for another week or two. Then they will fall

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-75288446065839870012007-04-04T09:40:00.000+09:002007-04-04T09:58:29.993+09:00

A couple scenes that document this: Saturday: As Colleen and I are getting ready to pull out of a parking spot, we are blocked in by a gentleman who wants to practice his English. He doesn't just want to practice the normal basics. No, he'd like to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" for us and have us grade him on it. Luckily, he actually sang it very well as I was quite afraid of cracking up in

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-12819784330661995532007-03-28T22:41:00.000+09:002007-03-28T22:58:17.952+09:00

So last weekend we finally got to see live Sumo; the real deal; the best wrestlers in the world. It was unbelievably great! UNBELIEVABLY! We had good seats thanks to Julie and soaked it all in. Pretty much all my favorite wrestlers lost - Ohio Sports Curse is indeed international - but my very favorite Hakuho pulled out the tie-breaking victory the next day to win the whole tournament. I don't

Shiflettag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15976550.post-75275130990658991822007-03-21T13:32:00.000+09:002007-03-22T08:46:22.511+09:00

Not related to us, but a rad link. Thanks to Matt H. for pointing me to it. Cleaning of the Great Buddha Read it, love it, wish you could suspend yourself alongside them.

Shiflet