Xtrail Jam

There was a snowboarding competition this week in Tokyo. There's no snow in Tokyo yet; in fact, the temperatures haven't been past freezing yet. What they did was build a huge scaffolding in the middle of Tokyo Dome, and then cover it with snow. Pretty nuts. The nuts part was that it was about four hours long, and the boarders that made it to the finals were climbing that thing all night long. There wasn't any snowmobile or lift to take them to the top. There was this rope winch thing that they held on to, but I can't imagine hiking that thing all night. It was huge, steep, and they're wearing their boots. Even getting from the lift to the restaurant in my boots is tiring enough to make me want a beer. At the beginning of the meet they had a bunch of exhibition jumps, and then there were about ten or so Japanese riders that that got a chance to qualify. Four of those made it into the first heat to ride with the pros. Of those four Japanese dudes, one made it to the semifinals, an 18 year old guy from Hokkaido. In the first round there was a 13 year old Japanese kid killing the quarter pipe, but he couldn't get past the first cut. The 18 year old guy didn't make it past semis, and it was funny when they were interviewing him at the end of the semis cause he kept saying the "gaijin" were good, and he didn't want to lose to the "gaijin." Haha. Everyone was laughing cause it's like saying "gringo." I guess you're supposed to say "gaikokujin" to be more polite. I don't really care, but some people get offended. Didn't matter cause the pros didn't understand anyway, which would make for a funny moment later. Anyway, I didn't really know who all was going to show up. I just wanted to go watch some pros, any pros hit the quarter pipe and straight jump, so I got tickets. The only person that I knew from Last year was Travis Rice, and this year they had an announcement that he and another rider got injured during practice, or before that, so they wouldn't be competing. Rice was there on the side, and when they interviewed him, he didn't look to jazzed. None of the people they interviewed looked exactly happy. Must have been the crazy hike, or jet lag or something. So Rice wouldn't be competing, which I didn't really care about cause I don't exactly know who he is. I haven't been keeping up with the Transworld for 4 or 5 years. I was really surprised when they brought out the pros, though. There were tons of them. Among them Shaun White, and Terje. It was nuts. I didn't even know Shaun white




or Terje


would be there. Took a bunch of pictures of everyone, and at the end when they were announcing the winners, they announced the 3rd and 2nd place first. Then they were announcing in Japanese leading up to the first place winner, and they guy says in Japanese, "who will it be? Will it be Risto something or other, or will it be Shaun White!" And he said Shaun White's name with a little more gusto than the other guy, so White thought he won first place, and was jumping around walking to the podium, and everyone was like, "WTF?" The guy had to stop him and say, "wait, wait, not yet." haha. He won anyway, but I guess no one bothered to translate for the riders. I gotta admit thought that my respect for White grew. They interviewed the riders, and everyone was like, "mmm, yeah, I tried my best, thanks." Totally fake like. They must have been super tired, and pissed that they had to climb 100 stairs at a 45 degree angle every other minute, but White was trying to make up for the other riders saying how he likes coming to Japan, and the fans are cool, and even though he was tired, he was happy to be there. He's not like a Sheckler, which I thought was pretty good for someone holding the gold medal, and in such huge demand. Also among the surprises was that one of the guest announcers was Wakatsuki Chinatsu, who has no idea about anything snowboarding, and seemed kind of shocked at how she ended up in this position, but she's one of my favorite talentos, so it was nice to see her there.

mr. fuji

In Japan, you refer to a person as so-and-so-san. You also refer to a mountain in the same way. This is Fuji-san. I'm not sure exactly why they do this, and when I say something in class like, "Did you see Mr. Fuji today?" everybody has no idea what I'm talking about. haha. I'm sure there's a reason, but no one has explained it to me yet.

I can see Mt. Fuji regularly from Saitama during the Winter months. I guess the air is cleaner or something, I'm not sure. You know how in Maui when we have nothing to do we go to the top of haleakala, and then come back down? The like to do that here, too. Tons of people climb, yup climb, Mt. Fuji during the Summer months. Apparently, there's no road all the way to the top, so you have to walk it. It takes something crazy like 6 hours. People hike up in the dark of night, so they can see the sunrise from the top. That is probably the last thing I ever want to do in Japan. No hate. I'm just not a hiker. When I lived in Arizona, my roommate, who was from Nigeria/Amsterdam/New zealand, wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, so he could take a leak of the edge of it. I said okay, which started one of the longest days of my life. N/A's (Never Again). Since then, I've shied away from any type of hiking activity.

I guess the hike isn't so bad up Fuji, or so I've heard. Some people get altitude sickness, but there are little huts where you can crash out if you get sick or sleepy. There are stores and restaurants on the way up where you can buy things for ten times the amount. I wonder if to replenish the store they gotta carry everything up in their backpack? You can buy a stick to help you keep your footing as you climb, and then you can put the stick in your room to show other people that you climbed fuji. Maybe when they introduce a ropeway I'll go.


Also headed out to Harajuku the other week to get some clothes, and saw these two dudes. I guess it's somewhat cool to wear the same clothes as your friend. I found it a bit strange. Like they were JHS girls. "What are you going to wear tomorrow?" "I think I'll go with the Nitraid all over zip-up." "oh, oh, me too then. I"ll wear black, and let's wear the hat, too." "OK. See you tomorrow."


Except that these guys were kind of big, and not girly at all. If I made fun of them, they might punch me in the face. Still thought it was funny, though. I guess the total opposite could be true, too. They both show up and are wearing the exact same clothes by accident. "Damn it. Now we look like idiots." "Well I can't go all the way back to my inaka town in Tochigi and change. Oh well, dems da breaks."

the orange dreamsicle and fruit punch

On my way to teach my conversation class, I always stop at the nearby AM/PM. In Japan, new drinks are coming out every couple of weeks. I think there is some kind of ten year plan among the major distributors over here to take all the flavors in the entire world, and combine them in every way possible until there are no more combinations left. Sometimes you get weird, and bad combinations such as cucumber and pepsi, and once in a while, good ones come out. Here we have the waku waku something something orange and yoghurt. They love the yoghurt over here. This drink is a hit for anyone who grew up on meadow gold orange dreamsicles. Yummmmmmy. It's also got a little bonus added in the form of natadekoko, which is like little pieces of coconut pulp floating around. It sounds weird, but tastes good. This will be my main drink for the next couple of weeks until they replace it with something like "tako" and "yoghurt."

Here's another drink that I picked up over the weekend. Oh fruit punch, how I have been searching for you. In vending machines in dark alleys, and convenience stores in remote places, but you have evaded my eye. Here we finally meet at Seiyu. When was the last time we met? I cannot recall, but I can still recall the sweetness of your flavor. The taste that I know not what fruit comes (cherries maybe?). Japan has finally introduced fruit punch to the masses in the form of a Fanta soda. Fanta blasts out new flavors every month or so, and then stops selling them. It must kind of a lot, to go through the flavor making process, develop and print the labels, and process the drinks for a nation every month. This month we finally have fruit punch. I was really excited for this. The equivalent of fruit punch in Japan is melon soda. I've gotten tired of melon soda, so when I saw this one I instantly threw down the 98 yen. I gotta be honest, it's a poor rendition of the awesomeness that is fruit punch in Hawaii. This one tastes like. . .fruits. Apples and grapes to be exact. I miss the Hawaiian fruit punch.

amuro

Went to a concert at the Super Arena last night. Amuro Namie is a pop/r&b singer from Okinawa. Apparently she was popular, then not really, and recently popular again. Someone told me that she was like 1/8 or 1/4 Italian or something. Whatever it is she's smoking. One of the better 31 year olds I've seen. The concert was pretty good. It was sold out, and Japanese fans are pretty nuts at concerts. Most of the people were girls in their 20s and 30s. Didn't see any young'uns there. Must not be their type of music. One thing about Japan is that there is no shortage of concerts to go to. If I win the lottery, I'm going to concerts every week. Janet is coming, NAS is coming, Pharrel was just here, Clapton is coming, Sting is coming, it just keeps going on and on. I wish Yuna Ito would do a concert.