Back into the flow

I am finally readjusted to life over here. I am getting used to all the stares and compliments. I have to admit that I will never grow tired of hearing compliments, but getting stared at will annoy me eventually. I think on average, I am called cool, handsome or tall at least 5 times a day. Last weekend, I was jogging along the coast in Shimane prefecture and I came upon an old couple. Old people in Japan usually either give me the cold shoulder or are very warm and welcoming. As I ran past them I said, Konnichiwa. The response I received however wasn't what I was expecting, the Grandma (Obachan) said, EEEEEE, Kakkoiiiiii! Which means, whooooooaaaa, coooooll. Pretty hilarious getting such a reaction in the middle of nowhere. Here is a map of Mihonoseki, I jogged about 10KM along the coast up and down hills, I was exhausted of course, but the scenery was so amazing I had to continue.

I jogged along the northern part, there weren't any people around, it was very peaceful. However, there were a lot of hawks, and these hawks seemed very territorial. Every time I jogged through their hood, they would circle me and get within ten feet of my head. Their wingspan made them look like flying junior high school children. I actually stopped at one point, made a fist and braced myself because I thought this one was going to stick his talons in me. It was quite the experience.

Here is what the view was like, I have always wanted to find an amazing coastal road like this to run along and I finally found it.

Here is a picture of a coastal town, it brought about images of the documentary The Cove where the Japanese kill hundreds of dolphins.....Luckily there aren't any dolphins around here.

Here is a picture of a desolate village tucked away in the mountains. I love Japanese style roofs. So other than teaching and exploring my new city, I have been trying to get back into surfing, but this rib injury I got 3 weeks ago refuses to completely heal. I think after another week I'll be able to surf. I can do most things, but laying flat on my stomach still hurts my ribs. I also joined the local gym, it is about 2 blocks from my house which is nice. But once again, the layout is super Japanese. A lot of machines, treadmills and ellipticals. But the free weight area is severely lacking. The dumbbells only go up to 45 lbs.....but they do have a bench press, so I can get my beach body back into shape. haha. Being in Japan is the ultimate ego boost, I get complimented all day and then when I go to the gym I am the biggest, most fit guy around...in America I feel like a mouse at the gym, here I feel like King Kong. I have a funny story to share...so I have been reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel 1Q84 (amazing novel check it out) and in the book the main character's father is an NHK collector. What that means is, he goes door to door and collects money from people who have TVs. Public TV isn't free here and everyone has to pay a certain yearly fee to watch like 5 channels...haha. This dates back to the 1960s. They stopped doing door to door collections for a while, but they started back up. So anyways, in the story he goes into great detail about how his father used to take hime along with him door to door collecting these fees that people try to avoid him.Later his dad is a coma dying, but his spirit or ghost or something goes out and starts collecting NHK fees again. So I'm sitting in my apartment on a Sunday night reading this exact kind of scary/surreal part of the book, when all of a sudden my doorbell rings. It kind of startled me, but I got up thinking it was my neighbor Appea. When I opened the door I was astounded to see an NHK fee collector standing at my door...I was really creeped out because the last time I was in Japan I never received a visit from one of these fee collectors and I didn't know they still did it. Anyways, it was pretty strange. The funny thing is, in the book he tells you that all you have to do is tell them you don't have a TV and they won't bug you ever again, so even though I have a TV, I told the collector that I didn't have one. Thanks to Haruki Murakami I don't have to pay the 200$ fee for 'public' TV. Last weekend I learned that my good friend Eric also has a long vacation! I have a 5-6 week vacation from late July until September!! Completely different from my last teaching job that made us teach like indentured servants. So I've been thinking about what to do with all that free time. I decided I want to experience another beach vacation, because, really is there anything better than that?? Eric and I are tentatively planning to go to the Phillipines! Flights to Manilla are only like 350$ and flights to other islands are like 100$ round trip! I am pumped that the flights are so cheap. Once we get there, we will spend maybe one or two days in Manilla. Manilla, like Bangkok is probably not the safest/cleanest of places so we will only be there for a bit. Then we are thinking about going to an island and just hanging out. We would do that for about 2 weeks, that would leave me with another month of free time when I get back to Japan....hmm what to do? It sure would be nice to host some visitors again like I did 2 years ago...hint hint.