Toroi-san in Japan: Part 4

Continuing from the last entry on this topic, one night at the Uno House, Troy and I came hobbling in. As usual, the "lobby" was overcrowded with hiking boots, sandals, and sneakers. It was always a test of balance to come in, carrying a backpack and try to balance on one foot while taking off the shoe on the other foot. I was doing my regular act and Troy had already shed his shoes. He disappeared into the dining/common area.

Immediately, I could hear some garbled Engrish. Then, I could hear some garbled Japanglish (from Troy). Soon, I heard a pleading, "Jory-san? Jory-san?" After that, I heard Troy saying, "Wakarimasen (I don't understand). Jory-san?" I finally finished slipping both shoes off and stacking them on top of the hiking shoes pile. I headed into the dining area to see what was troubling Troy, so much.

One of the Uno House denizens (guest? resident? homeless?), the old man with no teeth and in gray polyester long johns, had blocked Troy's with an outstretched hand. "What you need?" He was asking.

"How we can help you?" Another Japanese man chimed in. This guy was the front desk person that actually checked us in.

I told them, "We have a room here. We are staying here."

Mr. Long Johns directed his attention to me, "Are you German?" As he said this, he used his eyes to point at Troy.

My brain was still translating "Are you German?" and was reacting a little slow, because this was an unexpected question, when he said "English?"

I said "Yeah, we speak English." Suddenly, he bowed and immediately got out of the way, apologizing.

Back in our "room" we couldn't figure out what that was all about. Maybe they received a fax from Interpol about two suspicious Eurotrash German hostelers.

The photo above is just a random picture, taken by Troy, in Kyoto.

Everywhere we went, couples were wrapping themselves in the downhanging branches of the cherry trees. Caught up in the moment, I posed for Troy.

Just a couple of more pictures of sakura.

On one of Troy's last days here, we took him to Kamakura. It's often referred to as Little Kyoto (or something like that: the other Kyoto or Kyoto of the East- you get the picture, but I could be confusing it with Kanazawa). Above Noriko, Troy, and some other person are enjoying being in my picture.

Above, is a picture of the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) in Kamakura. Troy treated us the 20 yen each and we all went inside. Ignoring the previous days' lessons, Troy banged his head on the way out. Immediately murmurs of "The tall foreigner banged his head!" could be hear from the line behind us.

On Troy's last day, I accompanied him onto the train and made sure he had enough knowledge to find his way to the airport. On that same day, Kamakura was hosting a parade, so I made a little sidestop. All of the shinto shrine members gather in the streets and each shrine has a float that is carried on their shoulders (the men, anyway) as they make their route. Mostly, I think it's just an excuse to be noisy. I asked a Japanese person what the festival is for. Their answer, "It's for tourists."

Some chanting revelers carrying their float (mikoshi).

Part of the Kamakura Police Drillteam. Does the Muskogee P.D. have a drill team? If they did, I wonder what their uniforms would look like. I was surprised at the number of young women in the K.P.D.

While waiting for the parade to start, another foreigner struck up a conversation with me. His name was Chris and he currently lives in Okinawa with his girlfriend (she's from Hokkaido). That would be like moving from Alaska to live in Hawaii. He teaches at a university and freelances as a photographer/writer for a military magazine. He also takes tons of photos to put online with a company that sells stock photographs. He had just about finished his one thousand and something-th photo when we met. In the picture above, that's him in the corner.

Chris explained that he had to take up his current position because of the sun's location in the sky and because this avenue, with the cherry blossoms and the shinto arch are uniquely identifiable with Kamakura. The problem was that most of his shots that showed this view, only showed the backsides of the paraders (He too, was surprised at the women of the Kamakura P.D.).

He was a really nice, smart guy. After the parade, we had some coffee and we talked a little about teaching English, training in the martial arts, and the Kamakura Drill Team. If you'd like to see some of his work, you can go to http://www.travel67.com. I'm sure that he'd also be tickled if you needed any of his photographs for your own projects.