"New" Car

I still don't have a camera, but now I have a car. I bought a sweet ride. It's a 1994 Toyota Carib. For anyone who isn't familiar with the models sold on Japan, it is a station wagon. A compact station wagon. I really have to fold myself to get in and out. The steering wheel doesn't adjust up or down and nine times out of ten I hit my knee on the shifter as I pack my six-and-a-half foot frame into the cozy driver's seat. I need to put my left leg in the car on the far side of the steering wheel and simultaneously drop my body and pivot right while doing a sort of sideways backing-in to the vehicle. In the end, I got a reliable car for $800, so as long as I don't end up on fire or covered in flesh eating insects, I am really in no position to complain.

Speaking of insects, the cockroaches aren't getting any better around here. The last few mornings I have sacrificed precious breakfast time trying to kill the cockroaches coming out of my clothes. This morning was especially nice. The cockroach was inside my t-shirt. When I put on my shirt, the large and smooth bug climbed up my back, across my neck, and started it's way down my arm before I was able to swat it. For anyone who isn't familiar with cockroaches (I have never seen any in Wisconsin, so maybe some of you haven't seen any there either?), let me enlighten you: those things are tough. Even though I smacked it, the only damage it sustained was a broken wing. It fell onto my bed and made it's way into the covers. Perhaps there is something to be said for making your bed in the morning, which is something I don't do. There would be fewer places for roaches to hide, at least. Of course, you don't want to smash a cockroach in the place that you sleep, so I spent ten minutes trying to rid my bed of the intruder. I am convinced that that cockroach was a magician. It just plain disappeared. Somehow even after shaking out every sheet, blanket, pillow case, and comforter, I couldn't flush him out. In the end, my room still has too many cockroaches and they probably mock me when I'm not there. I haven't had success in killing any of them. Seemingly old age is the only thing that kills them. I will have to wait them out.

In other news, now that I have a car, I am able to get around. Last weekend I met up with some old friends from college. I hadn't seen them in four years. It's crazy how quickly the time goes by. I was also able to make it to the northern part of the island. Okinawa is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, there are huge power lines ruining almost every view, but I think I can look past/through/around that. I didn't get to do anything outdoors, but we drove around lost for a while and ended up at a nice, small restaurant. The menu was in Japanese and they had pictures of a lot of the food. One thing I learned this week was that having a menu in English isn't really a benefit for me. Danny and I went to a restaurant Sunday night and I had no characters to reference anything off of. I just pointed to a random dish that started with an 'M'. It ended up being slightly hairy pig feet. There was no meat, just skin, fat, and bone. It reminded me of my first meal in Hong Kong. Sheng ordered a "beef" dish for me. It was beef alright: beef intestine, stomach, and other ingredients that are best eaten when disguised in the form of a hot dog.

This coming weekend I am signed up for some softball. I don't have a glove, but I will make do. Even though I'm not a huge fan of diving, I think I will schedule a dive soon. Everyone tells me that Okinawa has the best scuba diving in the world. There are some underwater ruins around here somewhere that should be interesting.

Hopefully my (different) camera arrives soon. The one I originally ordered was on back order, so I canceled the shipment. I changed to a Canon SD800 IS. It still has the two must haves: wide angle lens (28mm) and image stabilization. I traded the 280mm zoom in the Panasonic for supposed better image quality. Hopefully I made the right choice.

After the Typhoon

I didn't get any pictures of the typhoon because I still don't have a camera. The storm was a pretty awesome display of power on behalf of Mother Nature, though. The winds were blowing at 110mph and the eye of the storm was only 4 miles away. The speed with which the sheets of rain blew across the fields and parking lots was almost hypnotizing. When I stared long enough (it's easy to do when you have nothing but time), my mind would make images of giant ghosts running down and enveloping buildings and trees. At times the rain was so thick you couldn't see 100m in front of you. The parking lot in front of our building would flood, with some of the water coming into the first floor of the building (I'm on the 2d floor). When the rain retreated, so did the water. The whole process happened two or three times. As far as I could tell, there was no real damage from the storm besides some downed trees and signs. Like I mentioned in the last post, the buildings here are designed to withstand the frequent storms.

Overall, the typhoon was a really good time. The whole ordeal was a lot like the time we had the big earthquake in Hawaii. Something I took away from being forced to stay inside is how rare it is to have a day of doing absolutely nothing. There were no appointments or deadlines from anyone. Even if there were, we wouldn't know about them because we had no communications and couldn't leave the building. With the power out, we had no computers, video games, TV, movies, or other distractions. We couldn't go outside and all we had to entertain ourselves were books, a deck of cards, a homemade chess set, and... get this: talking.

There is something to be said for being constantly connected to the outside world, but there is even more to be said for the isolation from the world at large that we so rarely get to experience. Danny is my roommate from Hawaii, but he has been living in Japan for the past 9 months. I hadn't talked to him in quite some time. It was good to be able to catch up.

Playing chess was also fun. The last time I played was in Physics class in high school with Mike (made famous in thehalblog). Neither Danny nor I remembered if the Rooks (aka castles) or Bishops were on the outside of the board, so we just switched their position every game. We also focused on horseys making the L. Yeah, we're that good.

In the end, the storm passed and it has been raining every day since. To be honest, I preferred the storm to the constant rain. At least we didn't have to go to work.

I did purchase a camera as well. I went with the Panasonic DMC TZ3K. The two "must haves" for the purchase were 1. wide angle lens, and 2. image stabilization. This one had both, plus a lot of other cool features. I have no idea how long it will take for it to reach me here in Japan, but I ordered it yesterday (the price dropped $50 today for some reason. Maybe because I bought mine yesterday.). Hopefully I will be posting pictures of Japan soon.

Konnichi Wa

Still no new camera.

Japan has been ok so far. I haven't really had much of a chance to go out and do anything. The weather here is unbelievably hot. The humidity is enough that I have a dehumidifier in my room with a 1.5 gallon tank and I have to empty it twice a day. My room isn't even that big and I have central air conditioning taking out some of the moisture already.

My roommate from Hawaii picked my up at the airport on Saturday. As we were driving back there was a strange explosion/thud in the van, followed by a lot of lights on the instrument panel lighting up. We pressed on, hoping we could make it home before the van died, but we only made it another ten minutes before the van gave up on itself. The headlights got very dim and eventually went out. We pulled over on an exit ramp and called a tow truck. After about two hours of waiting the tow truck showed up and took the vehicle away. Sayonara, van. It was nice knowing you, even if it was only for an incomplete drive.

I was looking forward to getting out and about this weekend, but there is a typhoon coming our way. It is expected to hit on Friday and last for three days. Talk about a ruined weekend. Hopefully I will have a camera by then so that I can get some sweet pictures. Rumor has it that the people here in Japan build their structures to withstand the frequent storms. The people of Florida should take note. I'm sure it would save a lot on insurance costs, even if the buildings aren't quite as visually appealing.

One really nice thing about Japan is that their "kanji" (system of writing, taken from the Chinese) is mostly readable to me. Even if I don't understand what people are saying, I can understand the signs and it is much easier for me to find my way around due to the Chinese. My education is no longer going to waste! I am actually pretty excited to brush up on my Chinese and maybe take some Japanese classes. About an hour ago I bumped into an old classmate and he was saying that some guys are planning on taking a trip to Taiwan over the Labor Day holiday. I promptly invited myself along and shamelessly threw my Chinese experience on the table. I'm in.

Go to Japan

It was good to make it back to Wisconsin. I saw my family for the first time in over a year, I met up with a lot of old friends, I relaxed and actually read a book, and I bought a condo in Madison. The only stressful part of the trip was that I didn't end up finding a renter for the condo before I left, despite my efforts. My parents were good enough to help me out with that and shortly after I left they got someone to sign on the dotted line (thanks Mom and Dad!), so I have a tenant for the next year and am officially a landlord.

(Me, lording over my land.)

(Miller Park)
(What relaxing/reading looked like for a few days)

(Eating raspberries and mulberries.)

Soon I will leave beautiful Hawaii for Japan. I am glad that I got a chance to go home first and I am also glad that I had some time back in Hawaii before my departure. Yesterday, for the 4th of July, we made one last trip out to the Sand Bar. The weather was a bit cloudy, but it was a good time despite that. No more sailing trips for me for a while. I did leave my boat with some friends, though, so hopefully I still get to hear all of the sailing stories.

I will do my best to continue to update the blog, although titling it "Come to Hawaii" may have been a bit short-sighted. Ah, well.

I am looking forward to my time in Japan. First things first, I need to start looking for a new camera. Originally I was planning on getting a Nikon, but they have very slow processors. I think I may go with a Canon instead. Does anyone have an opinions on cameras? I won't get a Kodak or Casio seeing as both of those brands were bad for me (the Casio broke in less than two months and they didn't even attempt to pretend to honor their warranty). Right now I am leaning towards Canon or Nikon. Maybe Olympus... I like the waterproof option.

At any rate, I should be back to Hawaii before Christmas. Until then, this will be less about sailing and more about... Asia.

(Wisconsin sunset.)