Higo Blog

The Last Meal

You have NO idea how good this tasted after eating only burgers from Mos, Mac, Freshness, and occasionally Lotteria for over 8 months! I would have paid 20 bucks for this awesome set: Double Whopper with cheese, Large fries, Large Drink! What is the first thing I am going to do when I get home? I will make a circuit of In N Out, followed by Alertos, then dash over to Tommy's, followed by Claim Jumper and Islands. Then I will visit J&J's house of subs, the Indian place next to J&J's, Rally burger, Fuji burger, Arby's, and Rubio's. In the early morning hours I will go to Jack in the Box, of course!
No wonder Japanese are so skinny- they have no real good burger joints...

How To Catch A Wookie

This Pic was taken in Bangkok, in a Lotus Supermarket. For some reason, this reminds me of the piece of meat hanging from the forest canopy in the scene from Return of the Jedi, when Chewie triggers the Ewok net boobytrap.
I love the supermarkets in Thai. They are like the supermarkets in Little Saigon, but cleaner and with a larger selection of weird stuff to look at. My only criticism: get rid of that nasty durian!

Presque Vu

From early Winter, me, Joe, and Jason decided to take a trip to China, but SARS made me back out, and Jason's and Joe's BOE's forbade them to go. I checked out the facts about SARS and decided to go on a trip to Thailand with my Jus and Nam
During this time, it was a real pain trying to leave Japan to go anywhere, as everyone was afraid of SARS. Luckily, I won the battle and slipped out of the country. I needed this. Japan was really getting to me, especially after the long Winter spent layered under no less than 3 garments at any given time.
As soon as I stepped on the airplane, I felt good. Things were gonna change, I could feel it.
On the flight, I noticed that one of the stewardesses was really nice, and we started to chat in the back of the plane. After we had been talking for a while she started asking really specific questions like "what part of Orange County are you from exactly", and "do you know (fill in the blank)". Finally, she asked me "are you Merin's older brother?". It turns out that Kaori (the stewardess) was an old friend of Merin's from OCC. I know that I look like Merin, but this blew me away and it felt really weird to have met someone that I didn't know but sort of did. Anyhow, I snapped this shot (to the ire of the other attendants who told me that cellphones are to be kept OFF during the duration of the flight, thank you very much!), and it still brings back that strange feeling everytime I see it.
At the end of my trip, I randomly met a teacher from Kaset Sart, whom I had become friends with during a previous exchange program 6 months earlier. This was indeed a strange way to start/end a trip.

Shiramizu

Located only 40 minutes away from my pad is this waterfall. There is a hidden ladder you can climb to access the fogotten campsite, complete with pitfalls, rusty danger signs, and the stench of rotting carcass (no joke). Brought back memories of Stand By Me.

Rimshot

Taken from the Milk Road, on the crest of the largest caldera in the world. In addition, this area boasts some of the best driving to be had in Japan, good clean air, and breath taking views.

Taro's Meat Mobile

Heh heh... I said Meat

For my birthday, Justin flew me up to Osaka to go see ADF in concert!!! They rocked the house, but I missed the vocal stylings of Deeter. Anyways, the concert kicked major ass and it was one of the best concerts I've been to in Japan!

This also happened to be prime time for cherry blossom viewing parties (hanami), so we bought a lot of frozen meat(that kicked major ass!) for really cheap, got the other provisions together, and had a hanami party in the rain overlooking the Tenri Dam. It was friggin cold, and there were no cherry blossoms up here, but it was good times. Playing with hanabi, eating awesome food, hanging out with good people- Yes, and it ended with a large bag of assorted fireworks (helecoptors, ladyfingers, bottlerockets, roses, etc...) being tossed in the bonfire, chasing the unwary from the warmth. Its never officially a crazy time in Nara unless someone almost dies from the irresponsible usage of fireworks.

Fireball, Tiger Uppercut!

This is a picture from the famous Aso Shrine fire festival which took place in late March, on a rainy evening. The modest grounds of the temple were crowded past the limits of safety, and the monks handed out bales of hay to anyone wishing to join in on the melee. No instructions for safety were given, and it was a "do as you please" atmosphere. The whole atmosphere took on a hellish air, as more and more people spun fireballs round around them. Some whirled theirs too close to eachother, and cinders shot out as overlapping elipses came into phase, exploding like the Deathstar.
There was one very enthusiastic Japanese girl who loved the fireballs. She swung them in wild trajectories with great enthusiasm, to the horror of people standing 5 feet from her. When the rope burned through, with other people, the fireball would quickly fall to the ground and roll maybe a few feet. With this girl, though, the burning bales would arc through the air, as if lobbed by an aincent artillery battery. Luckily, the first nine times ended without incident, other than scaring the bejesus out of anyone close to her. The tenth time, the rope snapped, and the fireball pounded into a guy not 5 feet away from her. Upon impact, the burning hay bursted from the bundle, fully enveloping the cringing man, creating an aura of countless cinders. Luckily for him, the hay caused no harm (other than psychological) and he walked away (with a slight twitch). If I go next year, I know who NOT to stand next to! Thank goodness for the shrine Japan is not as letigious a society as the good ol U.S. of A.

Mamushi

Don't Fuck with this snake!!! I have had three encounters with this snake so far, with two of them in my town. This pic was taken in the Northern part of Ubuyama, where they are said to be common. Often seen infused in sake, the mamushi is said to give you "special powers" and to be a "genki drink". Translation: it gives you a really big BONER. This is gross, but the Chinese will eat, drink, snort, smoke, or otherwise utilize a wider and more disgusting range of "natural remedies".
Anyhow, I tried to catch my first mamushi four years ago while at a flower park with T-bone in Nara. The small dark snake was just too fast for me, and Taro stopped me from jumping Irwin style into the bushes. Just a month ago, again I tried to catch a snake I saw, this time in front of my house. Armed with my broom, I pinned it down and grabbed the tail, but it freed its head from the broom and started back at my hand. I let it go and it got away. Afterwards I went back to English Camp, and during a hike with my kids, I noticed that this warning sign (In English this time) was the same one I tried to catch just an hour earlier.
Supposedly, people eat Mamushi around here. One of my greatest hopes is to go to a school barbecue and have one of the OG farmer parents pull out a live snake, dress it, throw it on the grill, and say "Adamu sensei, tabete mite onegaishimasu". I'm down with the good ol fashioned country cuisine!