Back to Tokyo

Saturday, Brad arrived in Japan for a visit. I went early so that I could make the most of the trip. I visited the Tokyo Temple and wandered around a few of the districts. Here are some highlights (I also must say that I was there with my friend Jon).

Suddenly Santa! You could say that I am a great ambassador for western culture to these kids. I took a minorly creepy photo of me dressed as Santa...they didn't appear to be as excited as I thought they should have been. I guess they are desensitized to big white guys now.  

 Best part of the Tokyo Temple? A&W Root Beer vending machine.

 I also visited the World's Smallest (I assume) LDS bookstore! It is roughly the size of my bedroom. 

I felt like Godzilla walking around. I knocked at least 7 things over. 

 We ate some wings from a little shack. They were delicious and relatively expensive. Those are two good words to describe Tokyo.

We found ourselves in the middle of a big shopping district in Ueno. I was in the mood to buy some useless garbage.

 Having only visited Asian markets and Asian parts of cities before coming to Japan, I felt like this was a good depiction of "real Asia."

 I think this is a Pachinko parlor. I just liked it because it had pirates on the top!

 Ah...the useless crap I bought. See that around my neck? That is bling. Bling is super cool jewlery that sets you apart from the general population by the sheer gawdyness and weight. It was a tossup between a rhinestone microphone and a rhinestone giant U.S. quarter. I went with the mic for Karaoke purposes in the future. You better believe I wore it around Tokyo.

On to the better item. You may notice that I look pretty awesome and fearsome in this picture. That is because I have what looks like a samurai sword on my back. Yeah. I bought what looks like a samurai sword. However, it is not a samurai sword. It is a SAMURAI UMBRELLA! I had seen these on the internet, but this was fairly cheap. I bought it as soon as I saw it. It has a holder that makes it sling over your shoulder so it looks like you are a samurai warrior. The nice man who sold it to me also showed me that when the top gets wet (as it would when it rains), all of the symbols of the samurai clans become visible. So impossibly cool. 

 After that, we went to Akihabara, which is a district known for technology and electronics. 

The buildings are tall and interesting.  

... 

 I'm a rebel who takes pictures while crossing the street. 

 This is the largest electronics store in the world.

After that, I went to pick up Brad from the airport. It was a long day for us both, but we made it back. The next afternoon we went up to the Paul Rusch place to see the surroundings and get some ice cream. Here you can see the mountains and Fuji in the background. 

 You can't really tell, but it was cold. 

We stuck our feet in the foot onsen (hot spring). It was really, really hot. I guess I don't know what I expected... All of the Japanese folks thought it was quite entertaining to see two giant white dudes chillin' in the footbath.

Party with St. Paul

This weekend was the Paul Rusch Festival and Yatsugatake County Fair up here in our fair city. Unfortunately, the weather was kind of like the high moors of Scotland, rather than the fields of Kentucky. Let me back up first and let you know who Paul Rusch is. Paul Rusch was a man who came to Japan in the 20's after the Great Kanto Earthquake as a missionary. He stayed in Japan until the war started. He returned to Japan after the war and found the people of Kiyosato (the place I leave) eating potatoes and grains that were meant for livestock. He arranged the importing of Jersey cows to the area, which are especially good at high altitudes and cold weather. He started an organization here that teaches about high altitude farming and other environmental programs called the Kiyosato Education Experiment Project. Sometime in the 80's they started with the Paul Rusch Festival which is also a county fair. 

That is a big old block of text...on to the pictures.

 A giant picture of the man, the myth and the legend. Paul Rusch. People say I look like him...

 I guess I see it...

 Looks like a good old fashioned county fair...in the highlands of Japan.

 Check out that super sweet archway made out of hay bales. 

All sorts of different stuff. Unfortunately, most of the stuff is super boring (like crafts). 

 This was about as clear as it got all day. 

 Ah...this is more like it. Like where me ancestors be from on the ol' emerald isle.

 These are the Japanese version of those rubber band guns. They are made of metal. I had to snap this picture all sneaky like. This was right across from the chopstick booth. They had chopsticks there that cost 900 dollars. Perhaps I am being culturally insensitive...but they are chopsticks. Two sticks that taper in size...that's an expensive stick. 

 No county fair would be complete without cheerleaders. What do they cheer for? Why our good friend Paul of course. 

 You may remember this organ truck from an earlier post. The organ was cranking out tunes like Stars and Stripes Forever and Dixie.

I challenge you to find something more adorable than these little children (who look too little to be real life) dancing to this song. 

 Food on a stick is common at fairs, but how often do you get the whole dang fish? Only in Japan.

 They make their own ice cream from the fresh jersey cow dairy. I have it on good authority that this is the best ice cream in all of southeast Asia. The specialty flavor for this year was strawberry. So good!

 Yeah. Turns out that I can't take normal pictures. I am just trying to show off these pork ribs (that were terribly expensive) and I look like a wizard that not only didn't find the rabbit in the hat, but managed to find rabbit poo in there. 

Don't I look happy? Ribs will do that. Also that guy in the background was saying "Can you hear me now? Good!" in Japanese. Verizon has had 18 new spokespeople in the 4 years since that commercial, get with the times buddy.

It was quite a fun time, and I am glad for the opportunity to have some down home country food. Paul Rusch is also called the Father of American Football in Japan. Now, I haven't seen any Japanese playing football, but I guess he is the father of it. The speech contest for the second year Junior High students this year is about Paul Rusch and American football. The speech is kind of confusing when it outlines the life of Paul Rusch. Here is an excerpt from the speech that the students memorize:


But in the late 30s, Japan and the U.S. were ready for war. Paul really wanted to stop the war. On December the 7th, 1941, he spoke to the American people through the radio. "The friendship between our countries is growing. Let's stop the war!" But, it was no use. On the very next day, the war started. Many of his students had to go to war. Paul had to leave Japan too. He was very sad.


I find it intriguing how they frame this. Clearly it is written from the Japanese perspective. Interesting guy nonetheless. He doesn't have a Wikipedia page though, perhaps someone should get on that. 


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