my winter vacation

although it's only 11am and it's a school day, i'm in massive danger of falling asleep at my desk, so i thought i'd write here to keep me awake.

quite a bit has happened since my last post. namely: my okinawa and kansai trip, helping aaron move, and seeing Natsukawa Rimi. i'll start with Okinawa.

since my crew's (me, aaron, and david) original plan of seeing malaysia, taiwan, hong kong, and singapore was foiled by Cathay Pacific, in a last ditch effort to get off this rock, i planned a trip for us to go to Okinawa instead. since okinawa is a chain of islands, we focused our little expedition around three islands: the main island where Naha is, Ishigaki, and Iriomote.

Naha is where all the tourists go. it's where all the souvenir shopping, shopping in general, and tourists trap are. most guide books say naha can be seen in a day or 2, but really, after doing extensive sightseeing in japan (particularly around kyoto), i'm really tired of all the touristy places, and of late, have been more into "experiencing" a place... going to the heart of the place is (read: boonies), and trying out local foods to get a feel for not only cuisine, but local culture. this said, the most exciting part of naha for me was all the souvenir shops, getting a bunch of freebies through our travel package, and at long last, buying a sanshin.

setting out on christmas eve and having roughly 7 days in okinawa, we spent 2 days in naha, then flew to ishigaki where we stayed till our return to mainland japan. we spent 2 days looking around ishigaki, 2 around iriomote (ferrying RT each day), then our last day bumming around ishigaki till we could fly back to naha then fly back to fukuoka.

so on day 3, the 3 of us flew to ishigaki, and after a 2-hour morning joyride in our rent-a-car, we headed out to a sanshin lesson (which i think may have come out to be free in the end... does it count if i don't remember paying for it?...). so this is going to sound retarded, but from looking through all the pamphlets i got from my travel agency, i was determined to go to this place that had an hour and a half long sanshin lesson in a cafe environment for only 10 bucks (by far the cheapest i saw). this place just happened to be in ishigaki, which is why from the get-go, i wanted to go to ishigaki, and not another popular island (Miyako, home of the guiness world record holder for greatest number of minerals [15 i think] in natural salt. i saw a thing on it on tv a while back...)

it turned out that the guy i bought my sanshin from insisted that if i buy a sanshin from him, that i know how to play it. so on day 2 of our trip, i got a private hour long lesson from one of the sanshin makers, just before purchasing my beautiful sanshin. then, the following day in ishigaki, as a group, the 3 of us learned how to play Nada Sousou. a little tiring, but very worthwhile in my opinion. one cool thing we found out from our instructor was that ishigaki island is actually the hometown of one of my favorite japanese singers -- Natsukawa Rimi (a point i'll emphasize later). Rimi also plays the sanshin, which kinda got me started on the whole sanshin/okinawa obsession to begin with. fitting that i stumbled upon her hometown, don't you think? =P

that evening, starving and wandering aimlessly around the "downtown"ish area of ishigaki, aaron chanced upon a yakiniku joint, where their specialty was Ishigaki beef. omg. sooooo good. ishigaki beef is heavenly. if you ever find yourself there, try it. you can grill it yourself jussst enough so that it's not drippy with blood. seriously. delicious. pricey, but delicious.

day 4 was a very full day of driving all over, sightseeing, and beach hopping. although the water was a bit cold, the sea was absolutely beautiful. i can only imagine how breathtaking it can be during summer.

day 5 was our first day in Iriomote island. to start off festivities, we went on a mangroves tour along Nakama River that runs from the SE end of the island towards the middle of the island. i got some nice pictures along the tour and saw some interesting flora. the highlight of the ride was definitely this big tree with tall ripply-looking roots. you can see pictures of it and the rest of my trip on facebook or shutterfly.

so why iriomote in the first place? it's home to the only other place in japan aside from tsushima where yamanekos (leopard cats) can be found. the way we figured, how many foreigners who come to japan get to see BOTH kinds of yamanekos on native soil? not very many (so i'll keep telling myself). since the yamaneko center was going to be closed the following day for new years vacation, we headed to the southern port of iriomote (Ohara port) and bused up to the wildlife center. rating: poor. there was a small exhibit on the yamaneko, but when it came to actually seeing the cat -- close but no cigar. rather than a viewing room where you can see the yamaneko through a glass window in tsushima, all iriomote had to offer was a TV connected to a camera installed inside the yamaneko cage, broadcasting the cat during visiting hours. in one word: LAME. the tsushima yamaneko by far rocks the iriomote yamaneko. and as far as i could tell, the iriomote cat wasn't dying of feline AIDS or anything. that to me should mean the iriomote cat should be more able to handle visitors gawking at it live. but that's just my humble opinion.

since the bus system on iriomote is as inefficient as tsushimas, we had the option of waiting 2 hours for a bus to take us to a place that was a 5 minute drive away, or walk. so we walked. boy did we walk a lot that day.

our next goal was to ride a water buffalo-drawn cart. we didn't even care where it was going. turns out that on the eastern coast of iriomote, you can ride said cart for about 10 minutes to cross over between the larger iriomote island to a teeny tiny island called Yubu-jima. this is where i fell in love with cutesy water buffalo imagery and blew a bunch of money, but all in all, a worthwhile experience. the water buffalo cart is a must if you ever find yourself in okinawa.

the following day (day 6) we attempted to get into the northern port of iriomote (uehara), but thanks to unpleasantly high waves, we had to pull into ohara port, then bus ourselves to our only destination of the day: Urauchi River.

from there, we went on another short tour of mangroves, then were dropped off to do a 2 hour hike to see 2 waterfalls: Maryudo Waterfall, and Kanbire Waterfall. Kanbire was cool because you could get right up to it, whereas Maryudo you could only take pictures of from far away. good exercise regardless. i'd also recommend this hike if you ever found yourself in iriomote.

like all good and expensive things, our trip was coming to an end. our final day in okinawa was spent wandering the streets of ishigaki, making last ditch efforts to find souvenirs for friends and family.

after finally returning to fukuoka, we spent the night there then set off the next day via shinkansen to spend more quality time with david in kobe. it was a slow new years eve, but after getting violently sick after going to a club 2 years ago, i was okay with celebrating at david's place.

as all visits to kansai include, i trekked up to kyoto to visit my host family. i decided to invade them on the evening the whole family was meeting up. i really wanted to see my host sister, as the last time i saw her, she'd just given birth 3 days before. now both she and her brother have growing families, both with 2 year olds and 7 month old sons. ayasa, the oldest and the only girl among the grandchildren, was born while i was living with my host family. it's crazy to think how much time elapses between each time i see her. her existence marks how long ago my kyoto days are. i can honestly say kyoto was one of the happiest times of my life, and while i do miss it the sense of adventure, independence, and fascination, i know it's not a period of my life i can repeat, which i feel is something that took me a while to accept.

so, upon my return to the rock, aaron decided that he was going to move, so that first weekend back was all about helping him pack, clean, and schlep boxes all over the place. thank god he moved too. his place was falling apart, his landlady couldn't really care less, and his upstairs neighbor was a sack of dirt. plus his new place has really shaped up now, and is slowly becoming a pimper and pimper apartment.

the only other really exciting thing that has happened in my life has been Natsukawa Rimi. earlier i mentioned that she was native to Ishigaki in Okinawa, but what i haven't mentioned yet is that she has the prettiest voice i've ever heard in my life, and i'll stand by that claim. and after going to her concert (and hearing Rob's expert opinion on her singing), she is also one of the most talented singers out there.

even though no one aside from me knows who she is, luckily Rob was willing to go with me to Nagasaki (the land of nothing) to see her concert. i was hoping so much that she'd play Nada Sousou on her sanshin, and sure enough, she did! yaaaaay

perhaps more amazingly, though, she opened with Hana, which i'd never heard her sing till that night, but it was so good i cried. her voice is that beautiful. she just strolled out on stage, and started singing it a capella (just like the above link, except imagine the first minute and a half of just her voice). despite the distance and time it took to just get to the venue, i totally think it was worth it. the way i figure, i could have seen muse last year with the guys, but muse is the type of band i could potentially see in the states. but in the case of natsukawa rimi, i feel like this is a concert i'd only be able to see in japan.

it's been a very eventful month, but alas, it's back to class. i can't believe the short amount of time i have left here. it's only about 7 months from now that i'll be leaving japan for who knows how long. i've already started the job/life panic.. the whole what am i going to do with the rest of my life and where do i want to be quarter-life crisis.

at any rate, i finally have class... more [hopefully] soon