My new home in Kagoshima, Japan

Well, well, well, what a difference a week can make. I am now in my new home town, Kagoshima, Japan.

After my update on the 2nd, I went down to Miami for a pre-departure orientation and reception. We spent the afternoon asking questions and getting information about Japan. The reception took place at the home of the Consul General of the Japanese Consulate in Miami. He had a nice home and about 100 guests for our going away party. I met his daughter, Reiko. She will be coming to Kagoshima to visit her boyfriend soon.

On the morning of Saturday the 3rd, I went down to Miami and flew to Minnesota. Even though I did not leave the airport in Minneapolis, I am counting this as the 48th state I have visited. After lunch, we boarded the plane Japan. Because we left in the morning and were flying northwest, the entire flight took place during daylight. We flew over western Canada and Alaska. I was able to see 50 mile long glaciers and mountains. I recognized many of the places from my tour leading days up there. We passed just south of Anchorage and had a great view of Mt. Denali/McKinley. It would have been nice to stop there for some hiking, but that was not the plan.

Around 5:00 pm, local time, on Sunday the 4th, we landed in Narita Airport near Tokyo, Japan. I am here as a member of the JET Programme (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program). The JET programme is very well organized. We were met by a bunch of people and taken to our five star hotel in downtown Tokyo.

Nothing was planned for that evening and I went to bed early. The next morning I woke up early and explored the city a little bit. The park next to the hotel had a large homeless population. The park's inhabitants had very neat and organized tarp covered shacks. They were up early sweeping the dirt and cooking breakfast. The one's without a shack slept on the pavement on a piece of cardboard. They left their shoes next to them, just like they would at a real home. I have seen many shanty towns in my travels, and this one was the cleanest and most orderly one I have ever seen.

That Monday, the 5th, was taken up with lots of speeches from important government ministers and such. I was in the second orientation. Our group had 1300 people. In all of Japan, there are well over 6000 JETs.

On the 6th, I went to some lectures on teaching in the Junior High Schools. After lunch, I went to a few lectures on adjusting to life in Japan. The US embassy had a raffle and I was one of the 96 lucky winners. I was invited to the Deputy Charge d'mission (DCM) house for a small party. He has a nice home and good food. Some former JETs and current foreign service employees were there to talk to and two of them had lived in Kagoshima. It was nice to talk to them. The DCM seemed very excited for all of us and wished us luck, before making a small recruitment speech for the US foreign service.

On Wednesday, the 7th, I flew to Kagoshima in far southern Japan. With Chris and Dana, my two fellow group B Kagoshima city Jets, I visited the office at the Board of Education. I met some bosses and co-workers and then went to my new home in the Satsuki Mansion.

Mansion is the Japanese word for apartment building. I have a great place. It is at least four times bigger than the van I have lived out of for much of the previous seven years. I measured the floor space. I have nearly 200 square feet all to myself. You walk in the front door into a three foot by three foot entrance way. There you take off your shoes and store them in a small closet before stepping up into the apartment proper. Now, on the right is a closet with the washing machine. Straight ahead a few steps is the kitchen/hallway. On the left side of the hall is my two burner gas stove, sink, cupboards and a really, really tiny refrigerator. On the right is my 16 square foot bathroom. The tub is well under four feet long. The shoulder end is almost two feet wide, but the feet end is only about a foot wide.

After passing through the six foot long hallway, you enter the ten foot by ten foot living space. The walls were recently painted white, so it looks very clean and shiny. I have tatami (reed mats) on the floor. In the room I have a small table and a comfortable chair. That is it. Nothing else. So, when I put the table in the corner and the chair near the rear sliding glass door, the place looks pretty empty. It is great. There are lots of closets, so all of my stuff is put away out of sight. At night, I take my futon out of the closet and set it down on the ground to sleep on.
I have a 36 square foot balcony in the back. I am on the fifth floor, so I have a decent view of lots of buildings. If I stand in the right place, I can catch a glimpse of the bay. I am hoping to get a few plants to decorate the balcony with.

Across the bay is Sakurajima volcano. There is a building blocking my view, but I can still see the sides and top of the volcano. It is usually covered in clouds, but quite often smoke comes out of it. I have only seen the clouds so far, but I will keep looking.

I think that is about it for my place. It is certainly large enough for me, but it is in a city center. It is a five minute walk to the bay and also a five minute walk to a small park with a hill to climb and lots of stray cats.

So, after being shown my home last Wednesday, I was done with work for the day. On Thursday I went to work and applied for my Alien Registration Card. I also received my Inkan. The Inkan is a stamp with my personal Japanese symbol on it. Here, they do not sign documents, they stamp them. So, without a stamp, I would be unable to sign contracts. On Friday I went to the bank and opened up an account. In the afternoons I went back the office and tried to look busy. My desk is in a block of eight, butting up against my neighbors and facing others on the other side of the desk. It is very strange for me to wear nice clothes and go to the office each day. When I get there, I follow the local custom and shout out "good morning" when I get to the door. This is accompanied by a bow. In the afternoon, when I go home, I bow again and shout out "Excuse me for leaving before you".

On Saturday we had a small city orientation. Yesterday I took the 15 minute ferry over to the Sakurajima Volcano. I walked around for about nine hours and found some nice spots. School does not actually start for a few more weeks, so I will be spending my days at the office on the computer or studying Japanese.

I do not have to be at the office until 8:30 in the morning, so I have a few hours each day to explore the city before the sun gets too hot. I wake up at 5:30 and either run or walk around town and see a new bit each day. After work I have time for looking around some more. I hope to find a soccer team and some other afternoon activities soon.

So, all in all, I am keeping busy, enjoying the local food and attempting to make the adjustment to living in a city. I am now very motivated to learn Japanese, so that I can use the buses and trains to explore more of the countryside.

I live downtown, near the big shopping area. There are lots of restaurants to try, so I am happy about that. The cool kids hang out in the shopping area and they all have dyed hair. It is a reddish blond and is very noticeable in this land of black hair. The really cool guys get the hair teased so that they look a bit like Einstein in his famous pictures.

Peru, Bolivia, Florida, US Northeast and three weeks of hiking in Colorado

Well, picking up where I left off in Arequipa on my final GAP trip in South America, we went to the Colca canyon, soaked in the hot springs and saw some condors. Then we flew up to Cuzco and had our free day there. Some of my passengers wanted to go rafting, but only on a really mellow section. We went, and to make it more exciting for myself, I jumped into the river and swam through most of the rapids, when the guide told me it was safe to do so. At the end of the trip, while we were waiting for the bus, I was able to hop into the kayak and fool around for a little while. I was pleased to note that on my very first attempt at an eskimo roll in several years, I pulled it off flawlessly. I practiced the rolls a few times and then played in a rapid for a bit.

Next, we took our Sacred Valley tour and then headed out onto the Inca Trail. We had excellent weather and the hiking was fun. On the second day, we got to the 4200 meter pass at 10:30 am. Everyone seemed to be doing well, so I left the group and hiked up and around a mountain. I saw the lakes I was hoping to see and then came to a pass. It was 3:30 pm. I knew that camp was down the valley, but that it would be slow going due to the lack of a trail. I decided to attempt my new found alternative route. By 5:00 I realized that I would not be anywhere near camp before dark. I climbed up a mountainside and when the sun set at 5:30, I was able to see the camp far below me. I signalled to them with my flashlight. I did not want them to worry about me when I did not show up before dark.

I started down the mountainside. Even though the moon was bright enough to see by, I kept my light on so that my passengers could follow my progress. Several of the porters grabbed flashlights and came up to meet me. I was afraid that my passengers would be worried, but, as I found out later, they just lined their chairs up outside, drank tea, ate popcorn and watched the bouncing lights on the mountainside. It was better than watching television, they tell me. Eventually, I met up with my rescue party of porters. Although, I am not sure who rescued who. I was the one who had extra food, water, and flashlights to offer them.

The group of us headed towards camp. The porters made me laugh because, now that I was on the easiest section of the whole evening, they were there to bend branches out of the way and to tell me to be careful. We got to camp at 8:00pm and the cook was nice enough to have kept my dinner for me. All in all, it was an excellent ten hour little side hike.

After visiting Machu Picchu and soaking in the nearby hot springs, we went back to Cuzco for a free day. Then, it was off to Puno and a visit to the floating reed islands and to the solid islands of Amantani and Taquile. I had another great swim in the ever cold Lake Titicaca. After a border crossing and some slight delays, we were in La Paz. We went to the Andean music and dinner show (Pena) and had our goodbye party. A couple of my passengers were university professors. One of them, a British professor of American Literature, gave me the most incredible speech I have ever heard. He summed up the trip and praised me in an amazingly eloquent way. I was very flattered.

After six movies, four meals, and 24 hours on a bus, I was back in Lima. I visited with Luis and Karem before flying back to the US on the 4th of June.

I spent the rest of June visiting family in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. I enjoyed the drive north and south. The World Cup of Soccer took place then and I had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning quite often to watch tv.

On the 3rd of July, I flew out to Denver. Susie picked me up and we went to a party. We spent the rest of the week visiting and watching some good fireworks. On the 7th, I went out to Telluride and had a good visit with my family in that area. Next, it was a bit further south to Cortez to visit John and Cathy and their family.

John, Cathy and I went on a two night backpacking trip to the West Fork/Rainbow Hot Springs. We had a nice time soaking. After we hiked out, Cathy dropped us me and John off at another trailhead in the Weimenuche Wilderness Area and we hiked for a few more days. We saw lots of elk and finished up the trip back at the hot-springs.

After eight days of backpacking and soaking, we went back to John's house and there I met my biggest challenge of the week. I watched ten hours straight of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes. That was a pleasure, but the sitting still all day part was not easy.

The next day, I took a bus back to Denver. I like taking the bus in the US. It gives me a chance to practice speaking Spanish. Susie and I went on a quick overnight backpacking trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. As soon as we crossed over the one big pass on the trip, the rain and lightening started. It was a bit cold and wet, but I enjoyed it immensely.

From Denver, I went down to Colorado Springs to visit Karla and Daniel. Karla and I went over to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area for a few days of backpacking. We saw three foxes, some elk and a big deer. Also, we were woken up throughout the night by some sort of rodent sniffing around the tent. To finish off this trip, we went to the Cottonwood Hot Springs. These hot springs would make my list of top three commercial hot springs in Colorado.

We spent last weekend in Colorado Springs and got in my final hike in the U.S. for a while.

Now, I am back in Florida and will be leaving for Japan tomorrow.