long weekend...

I’m back at work after a long weekend. Friday was ‘foundation day’ and Liz and I took the opportunity to go for a road trip. The weather was beautiful for this time of year; warm sun that was deceptive, as it was still really cold out. It was enough to melt the ice on the roads for the day, but it couldn’t save us from the huge accumulation.
Me and my tiny car at a rest stop on road 18.


We drove south-east, through the mountains stopping here and there for photo ops or to check out stores.



We made our way to Nagano city, where the 1998 winter Olympics were held, and managed to find the town’s most famous site, Zenkoji Temple.



Plenty of people watching.


With these outfits, I’m sure many people were watching us too.


Each of these is someone’s wish. This time of year, a lot of them center around passing high school and university entrance exams.



Interesting to see the swastika gracing many of the curtains and hangings on the grounds of the temple. The symbol is found on the chest and feet of many Buddhist statues and it represents universal harmony and the balance of opposites. I have read that after the Nazis bastardized the symbol, many Buddhists began using only the swastika that faces left, in contrast to the racist right-facing mark. I’ve also seen where many Buddhist sanctuaries that rely on tourist dollars for maintenance or support of monks and nuns have removed the symbol due to the opinions of Western travelers. It’s interesting to think about the nature of a symbol, from where it derives its power and if once pure and positive signs can ever regain their true meaning after a huge p.r. problem, like being adopted by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

We then headed downtown, which is a bustling area unlike our city center. We found a bookstore with English magazines which was a treat. On our way out of town we spotted a restaurant named Delhi and promptly u-turned and headed in for some Indian food.

Saturday we grabbed a quick breakfast and hit the slopes. I’m really enjoying snowboarding and I’m progressing quickly enough that it’s enjoyable and not frustrating. It was a bit crowded due to the long holiday. We knew some friends would also be out and we ran into a few of them on the mountain where we made plans for the evening. As we returned to my car, we realized that we must have parked in a clearing in the snow bank intended for a plow, as it was now parked directly behind my car. We tried clearing a path around it but there was too much snow. Our friends rode by, laughing hysterically at us, and one got out to help. As he cranked the plow, it rumbled to life, and finally the operator came sprinting down the hill shouting at us. Eeek. We all adjourned to a mountain onsen for a hot mineral water bath.

Liz and I had them over for food and drinks before we hit the town.


I concocted a great spinach dip to go with the gyoza, cheese, meat crackers, sushi, rice casserole and other snacks. We had beers, chu hi [Japanese wine coolers kind of] and a nice bottle of sake to wash it down. One nice thing about the cold weather is that my tiny balcony has become a walk in freezer of sorts, great for all those things that won’t fit in the fridge. We headed to a local bar where Liz and I have been working on arranging an after-party for next weekend’s musical performance. We ironed out the details with one of the awesome bartenders before moving on to nova, a local club that occasionally brings in music acts. We were treated to a dance filled evening there.


Sunday Liz and I were headed to Gusto, a Japanese-y Denny’s like restaurant, for a hangover cheeseburger. En route I needed to stop for cash. The ATMs here are undoubtedly one of the most frustrating aspects of daily life. Being that you can’t simply go to the bank teller to withdraw cash, it’s a necessity. ATM hours are irregular and we can’t get a handle on when they are open so we just have to walk inside and try the machines. On the weekends, ATMs at convenience stores are the best bet, but also the most confusing. I’ve used the machines at the bank often enough to know many of the kanji symbols that pop up on the screen, however the computers at the 7-11 do all sorts of things in addition to distribute money [like pay bills, rent DVDs, etc] so they are infinitely more complicated. I enlist the help of the counter attendant to point out the button for ‘get money’ and go through the motions. It returns my card, a receipt saying something just happened with $200 and no money. The attendant says he can’t help and urges me to use the customer service phone on the machine. The telephone is always difficult and even more so when I am frustrated and don’t have the vocabulary to adequately discuss the subject [banking terminology hasn’t been high on my study list]. The phone was hopeless…the boy working tried his best to help…I was irritated; I’d watched countless people come in after me and withdraw money. We finally left and drove around, scouring, until I found a post office which, luckily, was open. They have English language buttons and I was able to straighten everything out. What pointless frustration. Turns out I had understood what the man had been telling me, however I wasn’t able to communicate with him clearly enough to confirm my deductions. Same as the confounding hospital situation, because the consequences are important, a misunderstanding has the potential to be disastrous so you can’t always trust your instincts. I sure needed a greasy cheeseburger after that.