Just in time for Christmas...

Christmas is celebrated here in Japan in much the general way as elsewhere in the world, but I came across this display that I am not sure I would find anywhere else but here.  Too good not to post!

So much variety!  Cute dolls with magic staffs or Squad Automatic Weapons!  Just another day in Japan fantasy land.

I promise a bevvy of posts in the next two weeks, including my trips to Misawa, Kyoto, and Nagasaki.  Happy New Year!

Previews of the Aomori and Kyoto Trips, and Tokyo scenes

I have gotten a little behind with my trip reports in the last couple of months.  I plan to post summaries and photos from my trips to Aomori Prefecture from September and also Kyoto from November.  I also have some things to share from around Tokyo.  I will accomplish all this before I move to Okinawa!


In the meantime, please enjoy a few pictures from each as way of preview.  These last months have been incredibly interesting and have taught me much about Japan.

Beautiful lighthouse on the most northern tip of Honshu island, more to come about its history later.  Yes, horses are there, too, roaming free.

You are seeing it correctly...it is a Shinto priest at popular shrine in Yonezawa, blessing a car for it owner.

A subway hall that made me feel suddenly like I was having an Inception performed on me.

Impressive ad agency building downtown.

Entrance to Yasukuni Shrine, I hope to write more on this later.  Is located a couple blocks from the Imperial Palace.

View from the roof of Mori Tower in Rappongi Hills.  I honestly never got the feeling I lived in a huge city until I looked out from this vantage point.

Kyoto, Heian Shrine and gardens, from the look of this display in front of the grounds you would think there was a sake garden somewhere.

Shrines, shrines everywhere in Kyoto, this one with some unusual services included.

Coolest ninja ever, I watched this guy way too much at Toei Kyoto Film Studio Park, also called Eiga Mura (Movie Village).

Got a nice shot of some fall colors, which are very famous in Kyoto, this was taken on a holiday and the temple grounds were packed with people.

So again, I promise some more stuff on each of these topics to come later.  Thanks!

Next stop...Okinawa

Just a quick post to announce that we are now in receipt of orders to move to Okinawa in January 2012, where I will be assigned to III Marine Expeditionary Force (not sure what job yet).

This is an exciting move for the whole family and we are ready to continue our experience in Japan with this new chapter.  I will continue to keep this blog going, though it will shift from an In Country Training focus to a more general review of Japan culture as I see it from Okinawa.  However, what will not be on the blog is any work-related observations and analyses.  I just took the annual Information Security training lesson and I hope to apply it correctly.

We still have two months left in Tokyo, though, and at least one trip to conduct, so stay tuned, there is more to share before we leave.  Thanks!

The Godseys at an observation tower in Uruma City, Okinawa, during our trip there in October.

Cell phone strap accessories- my ICT story in charms

The picture that accompanies this post is a little geeky, I freely admit, but it is also a good opportunity to give another perspective to my ICT travel experiences.

Attached to my daily "manbag" (which all men in Japan carry, foreigners too), I have admittedly gone overboard with the number of ストラップ (decorations for mobile phones or keyrings), total of nine, but they chronicle my ICT travels; allow me to describe them to you:

   -The first one is the round jade disc hanging from the red string.  Bought it in Xian, China, from a poor, dirty, local lady hanging out in a parking lot, for about $2.  The same pendant cost $13 in the Xian Terra Cotta Warriors Museum gift shop. Ah, China...

   -The second one is the rectangle with the map of Korea bought at the DMZ gift store.  It is solar powered and that LCD display always blinks on and off, envisioning unification of North and South.

   -The third is the small rectangle with the Russian Federation flag, which on the other side displays a small outline map of Sakhalin province, including the disputed Kuril islands that remain a controversy with Japan.

The remaining six were all bought in Japan, and describe different aspects of the culture.  In order from left to right, then:

   -The little black rectangle with pictures was bought in Okinawa, and the other side has a phrase written in the local Okinawan dialect that says, "never give up," and the Okinawans never will.

   -The blue circle that says "Blue Seal" is the logo of the Foremost Blue Seal ice cream, which started as an American company right after WWII but was fully developed in Okinawa and has become very successful there and in mainland Japan.  Terrific ice cream in flavors not to found anywhere else.

   -The metallic key chain with Mt. Fuji is when I climbed Mt. Fuji, bought it at the summit gift store.  'Nuff said.

   -The three yellow train cars are probably my favorite.  This charm is sold by the local train company, Seibu Rail, at our local train station.  And yes, our local train is always yellow.

   -The little duck-like figure is a cartoon character created by the Japan Sumo Association for this season, one of a cast of characters to promote the sumo season.  Most Japanese sports or business ad programs feature cartoon characters.

   -And the last one is maybe the wildest, but I can't resist wearing it.  It is what it looks like- a cupie doll kamikaze pilot.  I bought it at the Yasukuni Shrine gift store; this is the national Shinto shrine where the nation's military heroes are registered and "deified" in Shinto ceremony.  Now, militarism in Japan is certainly not rampant, but it can pop up in unusual places.  Here is a pic of the backing that came with the charm, and it is worth looking at:

So here is what the Japanese says above the figure:
"Certain Victory Japan
Strongest Stalwart Youth of the Rising Sun
Zero Fighter Plane Crew Member"
Interesting, no?

Finally, above all the charms you may notice a button that says "NF" on it.  I bought that in Hiroshima in a Peace Memorial Park gift shop.  It is all in English, and around the big letters it reads, "Nuke Free Since 1945.  Peace from Hiroshima, Japan."  Indeed...maybe once they stop using nuclear power for a quarter of their city's energy they can declare themselves nuke free.

And there they all are.  A long post, but they remind me of how interesting, complex, and often humorous the Northeast Asia region is.   Thanks for reading!

100+ Japanese teas tried, and still going!

A significant milestone was achieved recently.  My quest to try 100 Japanese unsweet teas has been achieved, and even surpassed as I am now looking for tea #103.  A note of trivia: in the below photo compilation of 100 teas, two of them are actually foreign, one Chinese and one Korean, but I believe they are Japanese imports.  Another trivia: 17 of these teas were found in Okinawa!


The photo compilation is not the highest quality, so if you wish to view the full album, be sure to click on the link to my Picassa site.  Thanks!  The quest continues...

Picassa Web Album of all 100+ teas

Climbing Mt. Fuji

I was able to get in a climb of Mt. Fuji on the last week the mountain was open to climbers, end of August, thanks to the invitation from my friend and DLI classmate, LtCol Mike Cady.  This was an event that had certainly been on my bucket list of things to do on my ICT, but I must confess I initially thought that perhaps the experience would be underwhelming.  It was definitely not that at all.  I wrongly thought that it would be a boring, easy, overly commercial and expensive venture.  I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong about everything, except the expensive bit.  I can now wholeheartedly recommend this experience as a must-do for any student of Japan.  It is the real deal and something unique.  There were many climbers on the mountain for our two day ascent (which I can't recommend strongly enough over a one-day hike), and their company reminded me that Fuji-San truly is at the heart of Japan in a very real spiritual sense.  While I have met many Japanese who have never climbed Fuji-San once, there are about 50,000 a year who do, and they receive the benefits which are hard to put in a report like this and best left to the haiku poets, maybe.


Enjoy the pics, I enjoyed taking them, and I would do it again the next season if I could.

Driven one-third of the way up, things look easy so far!

Then pretty quick things start getting more interesting.

I had to buy the climbing stick, and then I committed to getting even firebrand stamp offered, which turned out to be a lot.  Worth it though, got a great souvenir out of it.

Starting to get away from the foliage and into straight moonscape.

Plenty of stations on the ascent broke things up nicely, and we had great weather the first day.

About four or so shrines along the ascent trail, with the largest one being at the summit, this is a smaller one.

Sunrise the next morning, storm was coming in over the night but we had some breaks in it, enough  for some great views of a different kind than what might be available in most books.

Heading down at 0515, still above the clouds.

A money shot.

Good overall image of the long and winding road down.

Done and done, awesome time, look forward to the next!

Kunashir, Russia, August 2011

I had a very unique experience traveling to Far East Russia, Sakhalin province, Kunashir island, in August.  Here is the executive summary of my official report along with pictures and captions.  If you would like to receive the full report, please contact me.

Executive Summary.   Territorial disputes are real issues in East Asia, and the ones concerning Japan and its neighbors often make the news in the countries involved.  Japan currently has disputes with China, South Korea and Russia, the issue with Russia involves the largest amount of land and people.  In Japan the dispute is called the Northern Territories Problem.  There are four larger islands in the center of the dispute and many small islands also involved.  The island of Kunashir is the closest to Japan and the most populated and developed.

                Japanese middle and high school textbooks still read that these islands belong to Japan but are being administered by Russia.  If occupation means ownership, however, then these are most certainly Russian islands.  Kunashir island contains two military bases with a homogenous Russian population of about 5,000 citizens engaged in commercial fishing with tourism as a second, smaller industry.  The Federal Security Service/Bureau (FSB) is prominent on the island, and the island community operates like any Russian territory.  In 2010 the region, or state, of Sakhalin to which Kunashir belongs celebrated its 65^th anniversary of its liberation from the Japanese.  Billboards and other items commemorating that milestone remain visible today.

                However, there exist interesting factors to consider that the future of Kunashir is not fixed in place.  The population of Kunashir is in decline, now 5,000 from a height of 15,000 about ten years ago.  The fishing industry produces only for Western Russia export: seafood costs more to buy on the island than it does in Moscow.  The island’s extremely unique and beautiful geography attracts Russian tourists and some international vacationers but the industry languishes in a second-world state of management.  The citizens of Kunashir speak candidly of their impression that unless their government reinvests in the area, it is only a matter of time before the Japanese move in and quickly develop it.

                Within this framework there exists visible though low-key reciprocal engagement between Japan and Russia.  Cultural exchange takes the form of annual conferences and public effort on the main island of Sakhalin.  On Kunashir, there exists a Russian and Japanese Friendship House, built by the Japanese 12 years ago, which cultivates positive sentiments from the island’s populace.  More formally, Russia continues to allow visa-free, tightly guarded trips to groups of Japanese citizens who come onto Kunashir and visit the graves of their ancestors- perhaps the most prominent issue in the territory dispute from the Japanese perspective. 

                At this time, it appears that neither Japan nor Russia is in a position financially or politically to commit to truly resolving this territory dispute.  There still remain deep emotions on both sides toward the issue, at least at the senior leadership level.  A question remains as to if those strong sentiments will be handed down to future generations of Russians and Japanese so as to make the issue remain difficult, or whether the next generations will decide to let the emotions of the old war fade into history and instead look at the area with a more pragmatic mind toward the strengthening of two distinct cultures that merge in unique ways on these islands. 

-A volcanic lake valley.  The small sulfur lake to the left was channeled into the fresh water lake by the Japanese.

-Mt Mendeleev, the high peak on Kunashir, named after the Russian father of the periodic table of elements due to so many kinds of minerals found around the volcano.

-A picture of a group of Japanese citizens preparing to depart the island via boat after visiting family gravesites; the entire visit to the island lasted only 12 hours and the group was tightly escorted by Russian FSG personnel.

-An example of a Japanese cemetery, the marker in the center records a surprisingly recent date of 2004, though other markers date into the Showa era prior to WWII.

-An example of a Russian cemetery, connected to the Japanese site in the other picture.

-An example of the hexagonal rock formations found on one of the coasts. 

-Another example of the unique rock coastal rock formations.

-Inside a taxi, an interesting decoration hangs from the mirror: a Russian Orthodox icon of Jesus Christ but decorated with Chinese designs.      

-A full statue of Lenin in the downtown train station park of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.    

–A recently renovated Russian Orthodox church in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. 

–A memorial park area commemorating the liberation of Sakhalin from the Japanese in 1945.     

-A lone rock formation on a beach, called both The Candle or the Devil’s Finger (a discarded bottle of Japanese Asahi beer was found nearby and set upright for effect). 

-A bust of Lenin in the town square of Yuzhno-Kurilsk.       

-The Russian and Japanese Friendship House, located in the center of Yuzhno-Kurilsk and built by the Japanese 12 years ago to promote warm relations.

-Sunset view from the Kunashir hotel.  That is a peninsula spur of Hokkaido seen on the far horizon.  

-A business center in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with a lone banner on the front entrance announcing the 6^th Annual Russia and Japan Cultural Exchange Conference, occurring for four days.

.     –The provincial museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, displaying distinctively Northeast Asian design and architecture.

-In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk’s provincial museum, an outside display of a Japanese artillery cannon with a Meiji era date engraved on the barrel.

Seoul-Okinawa-Guam, July 2011

This post is taken from the Executive Summary and photos/captions of my report on this trip.  If you'd like the more detailed report, let me know, I'd be happy to send it to you!

The U.S. military presence in Korea, Okinawa, and Guam represents a majority of our strategic presence in Asia.  These areas are currently in a state of flux, though mostly at the political level at this point in time.  Korea is the most stable of the three at present but it is also the most strategically positioned, tactically forward, and therefore tense environment.  Okinawa and Guam are vital players in the national political negotiations of U.S. force realignment between America and Japan.  Weaving through all three of these areas is a complex convergence of histories and cultures that will no doubt shape the future in ways that may be difficult to predict and detect, but which nonetheless deserve future study and discussion at all levels of military and government.

                The common thread of this trip was, in my opinion, the role of the United States as big brother and how each area responds to that relationship.  South Korea clearly embraces its alliance with the U.S., and our commitment of forces there is key to the myriad of unification scenarios that exist.  However, South Korea is also very much in competition with its Asian neighbors economically and desires to preserve its cultural distinctiveness after so many shameful years of colonization, so its attitude toward the U.S. can also become adversarial very quickly and with little warning, though the issues do not pose a threat to a continued strong relationship.  The prefecture of Okinawa, in contrast, is in a state of perpetual political conflict which has players at very different levels of government- from the national governments of Japan and the U.S. to the prefectural and even municipal governments on Okinawa- voicing strong opinions about how Big Brother is living in their neighborhood.  The unincorporated territory of Guam is another player in the U.S. force realignment which is connected to Okinawa.  While the Guam government is naturally pro-American, its dependence on Japanese, Korean, and even Chinese tourism, coupled with a vocal cultural minority vying for more independence from the States and against anti-force enlargement creates an environment that requires Big Brother to tread lightly there, as well.  Indeed, transparency and constant reassurance is needed in all these areas to maintain the U.S. presence with continued success.

The Panmunjom facility at the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone.  The Republic of Korea soldiers standing in the foreground only assume these positions when visitors are present, which can be many times each day- otherwise, they sit inside the Freedom Center behind the cameraman, which is not allowed to be photographed due in part to the large amount of surveillance equipment mounted on the building pointed toward the North.  A North Korean solider can be seen at the top of the steps across the way, observing the visitors: there is also another soldier on duty, observing from within a room to the right of the soldier.

A sculpture at the Tunnel #3 site on the DMZ conveys a desire for unification of the North and South.  Tunnel #3 itself was not allowed to be photographed, and is one of four tunnels discovered so far for the express purpose of infiltration.

The Dorasan Train Station, which now has a rail line that connects North and South and travels to Pyongyang.  No trains run through this station- it is rather a product of the Sunshine Policy of the past South Korean government to improve relations with the North.  It remains as a tourist destination and a symbol of desired unification.

A large picture poster of Dokdo Island, called Takeshima in Japanese.  This is part of a temporary exhibit at the War Museum which claims to desire to educate the Korean people on the issues surrounding the territory dispute but is also unashamedly accusatory in its propaganda campaign against the Japanese position.

The “Statue of Brothers” outside of the War Memorial of Korea museum in Seoul.  Its purpose is to promote the concept of unification, but it is interesting to note how each of the figures is sculpted.  The South Korean is the fully equipped soldier, listed as the “older brother” on the plaque, who is physically larger than the North Korean younger brother refugee seeking protection.

The Chibichirigama historical cave site in Yomitan Village, Okinawa.  On April 2, 1945, toward the conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa, 84 Okinawans of the 139 men, women and children hiding in the cave committed fratricide and suicide, pressured by the Japanese soldiers to do so, for fear of being captured and tortured by the Americans: 47 of the slain were infants and children under 12 years old.  The site is still well maintained by the city but is virtually unknown to Americans and Japanese alike.  It is indicative of many other instances of suicide that occurred during the Battle of Okinawa.

Inside the cave, a sampling of bottles and earthenware used by the refugees is left as an exhibit without additional explanation: among the items are pieces of bone and teeth.

A picture of the ubiquitous Okinawan shi-shi, or shisa, dogs or lions, as they are called various names.  These sculptures are placed, almost exclusively in pairs as shown here, at the entrance to homes and civic buildings of importance.  Similar statues can be seen in mainland Japan and China, but not nearly as profusely and usually alone sitting on a rooftop.  This display type marks Okinawa as distinct and the Okinawan people have continued a concerted effort to make it so, which is, in my opinion, indicative of the continued effort for Okinawa to maintain its Ryukyu culture separate from the nation of Japan.

A vinyl sign is posted outside the main gate of Marine Corps Camp Courtney, home to the Headquarters of III Marine Expeditionary Force and 3d Marine Division.  It is printed in both English and Japanese, and says, “To AAFES:  Do Not Impose Excessive Workload on Employees by Establishment of Unreasonable Productivity (Norm)!”  I was not able to learn who wrote it but the kanji appears to be division from the Zukeran workers organization.  An almost constant presence of protests in written form is the normal environment surrounding the bases, run by an organized minority of citizens who do not represent the majority of Okinawan people or their interests.

Guam’s headquarters for the Soka Gakkai International- USA Chapter, off of main route 1.  Soka Gakkai is a Japanese Buddhist denomination that is powerful enough to support its own political party, the New Komeito Party, which has a significant presence in Japanese national politics.  The organization also boasts a strong international following.

A recreation area off of route 1 with a sign stating “Alcohol Free Zone:” the place was littered with cigarette butts and other trash, including beer cans.  There are other signs on the island but they are far outnumbered by the number of bars, clubs, convenient stores, radio and TV stations that strongly advertise alcohol.  

A historic monument site of Japanese artillery fortifications on Guam.  The Japanese flag is flown along with the U.S. and the Guam flags.  In fact, Japanese flags are flown in other areas around the island, as well, and it is my opinion that it is done deliberately in order to make peaceful overtures to the Japanese resident population and to the Japanese tourist population which accounts for about 75% of Guam’s tourism.

The Sergeant Yokoi Cave dedication site at the Tolofolo Falls museum center.  Japanese soldier Sgt Yokoi survived in hiding near the waterfalls for 27 years, and was brought out of the jungle in 1972.  He is regarded as a hero in every publication on the island, but I was not able to discover any information as to why he chose to stay there for 27 years!  

The last two pictures were taken in the Pacific War Memorial attraction site, which was created by former Marine John Gerber, who is depicted in the second photo.  He was a resident Guamanian who successfully petitioned the Governor’s office to rename Marine Drive (a prominent section of route 1 which goes through the most popular Tumon tourist area) to Marine Corps Drive, which was understood by residents to represent the Marine Corps but confused visitors.