Earth Day (?)

Last weekend Taka and I went to an event in Yoyogikoen (Yoyogi Park) that was called Earth Day by most (it wasn't really Earth Day...I think that's in April), but actually called Earth Garden. We had a really good time. These things are some of the few events that Taka and I can go to and actually find things to eat.
This is Taka waiting for some food. One of the drinks in her hand is my Heartland beer (organic) the other is ginger ale (homade organic syrup with with grated ginger and spices poured over ice with Evian).


This is me eating my all-grain macrobiotic veggie burger.

All food and drinks require a refundable deposit on cups, plates, etc. All of them must be pretty much cleaned up (at an ecologically sound cleaning area) before returning them for the deposit. Weird, but pretty cool too.

This event is kind of a cross between retro-hippie and new-age stuff with a wide variety of...well, everything. Lots of stalls selling everything from hemp cloth and tie-dye t-shirts to organic animal-free cosmetics to produce to incense and candles.

There are several stages and there is live music throughout the day. Some of it was very good. Organic beer and wine is sold along side the usual stuff.

This was an especially good Japanese Reggae band.

In all, we had a great time!

Guam trip

These are pictures from a pretty lame beach we were taken to on the first day (a freebie part of the package deal). No snorkeling, not very good swimming and a strong push to buy water sports activities. The lunch looked good, even if there wasn't one thing they served that I could eat. We left early and went shopping.

When you think of Guam and food, think BBQ'd steak. Really. It's everywhere. The other option would be BBQ'd steak with seafood. Your two main choices in just about every restaurant you see are charcoal grilled beef or charcoal grilled surf and turf. In both Saipan and Guam we had the damnedest time trying to find food we could eat. I'm more strict than Taka diet-wise, so most of it was on me. This time around, even I had to relent a little with regards to dairy...managed to avoid meat though.

The shopping was better in Guam, but the convenience of getting around, and the beaches etc. were better in Saipan. Guam has interesting beaches all around the island, but most of the north is restricted to the U.S. Air Force and most of the south is restricted to the U.S. Navy. The center of the island is mountains and jungle. The tourist areas had some good beaches and decent snorkeling but, for the most part, where we were was a huge, sprawling city with little or no planning, rhyme or reason (imagine a strip club next to a Japanese restaurant next to a surf shop next to a gun club next to another strip joint all across the street from a really large, cool supermarket). Public transportation was almost nonexistent.


This is just down the street from our hotel. The gunclubs, strip joints,
Japanese restaurants are just beyond this shot...and behind me up
the hill.



That said, we had a really good time. Taka got some shopping in at more than a few places (including an outlet mall). We even visited the world's largest K-Mart, if you can believe that!

Our main day was going to be spent ocean kayaking out to an island to do some snorkeling (a side package trip). Things worked out a little differently than planned.

That morning the weather was horrible. The tour guide called and told us that the ocean conditions weren't good for the trip, but if we were interested he could take us in to the center of the island for some river kayaking through a jungle. We went with that. It turns out that it was just the guide, Taka and I. On the way, the guide's partner ( the trip was soon to be our guide, his partner, Taka and I) called and said forget it. Conditions at the site were typhoon-like in intensity. We decided to give it a try anyway. It was more than an hour trip to get there and sometimes this stuff passes quickly. We were very glad we did.

By the time we got there, the rain had stopped and the wind had dropped to a breeze just strong enough to keep the bugs down. It was overcast, but that's perfect for that kind of trip. We had a blast! We spend so much time at the seaside on these trips that we rarely get the chance to see the inland areas, and this was really unique. The river was very deep but with almost no noticeable current and we were surrounded by serious jungle. Very cool!

One of our guides was a native Chamorro that has an archaeology degree from UCLA. He even walked us around some 2-3,000 year old ruins of a Chamorro village. He showed us some edible jungle plants and interesting flowers, animals, and the like (all of this was beyond the scope of the original tour...they were feeling guilty about not coming up with the tour we originally requested). All of it was very interesting.

After a few hours of river kayaking, etc., the main guide took us to an absolutely wonderful snorkeling location and even joined us. By then the sun was out, and that is perfect for snorkeling. He later confided that the place we ended up snorkeling was actually a much better location than the one he was going to take us, but that most of the thrill of the originally scheduled trip was in the kayaking. Actually, Taka and I much preferred how it worked out.

Of course I have no photos of any of that (we were told to bring nothing valuable or might be water damaged).

The whole trip was by far, the highlight of the entire vacation!

The next time we end up in that direction, I wouldn't mind Saipan again but for something even smaller and more local, Rota has been recommended.

Police rant

Sorry I haven't posted anything on the Guam trip yet. It'll probably be up tomorrow. I've been busy since getting back.

This is to help me vent a little over the Japanese police. My temper is so much better than it used to be, but I still tend to let it slowly build over hours.

I was hit by a car tonight (a van, actually). I'm fine and it was not really a big deal. I doubt I'll even get a bruise. The guy was driving slower than I usually walk. I saw him coming. He had lots of room and I was standing next to my bike, I figured he'd go around, so I was a little surprised when he hit me in the hip. Catching a wall meant only my bike fell over. Really it was nothing...but he pissed me off. He basically looked at me and said, "You're fine right? Sorry!" It was gruff, not in polite Japanese, and I'm pretty sure he was good and drunk. He didn't even wait for my answer before taking off a lot more quickly than when he hit me (to be honest, I don't think he ever even hit his breaks).

This isn't about the drunk rude guy though...in another day and time I might of pulled him from the van to make sure he was sorry...or at least made his van look like it had actually hit something. This is about the police in the koban (police box) not 60 feet from where this happened. I wasn't hurt, but figured I should report it since the guy was likely drunk, hit me on a traffic-free road with plenty of clearance...I even had the license plate number.

My Japanese is pretty bad, but I made myself understood. They told me I should go to the hospital and call the police from there. I said I wasn't hurt. They said call the police closest to whatever hospital I go to. I said I wasn't hurt, but I had the plate number of the guy, and I was pretty sure he was drunk. They gave me a pencil and paper and told me to write it down. I did. They then gave it back to me and said to give to the police that come to whatever hospital I go to. I said I wasn't going to a hospital. They said well, then it must not be important, thank you. I left.

This is the third accident I've been in in Japan and not one accident report has been filed. Every time I hear about the safety of the roads here, I'm forced to wonder if that's because so little is officially filed. In Matsuyama I was hit by a taxi in broad daylight with seven witnesses that stuck around and no accident report was filed. The police said that because nobody got the license plate number, there's nothing they'd be able to do to catch the driver anyway. That was that. That time I did go to a hospital.

A few years ago my apt. was robbed. It happened in the space of an hour between when I left and when Taka got home. The police that came did a very thorough job (maybe because a passport theft was going to require a lot of paperwork on all sides), but they quite literally brow-beat me into admitting that there was at least some small chance that I may have left the door unlocked when I left. After an hour, I said that anything was possible (I was doubting myself at that point). It went in the report as "entry through an unlocked door". Eight weeks later, they called and said they had just caught a gang of four Chinese lock-picking B&E specialists in our neighborhood and would we come in to check if our possessions were in what was confiscated.

Wonder why the Japanese police have a 97% conviction rate? I don't! Anything that actually gets reported and is not likely to turn out in their favor, gets reported in a way that at least won't go against them.

Rant over.

Taka and some of my Japanese friends will likely be irritated at yet another gaijin complaining about Japan...but hey, I have a rant or two on just about everything. I'm an equal-opportunity rant fiend!

Tomorrow I'll put something up on Guam. The few pictures we took were all so bad, I'm not even sure there's one to post. I'll try though.