April Happenings

Quite a lot has happened this month and will be happening soon.

On my birthday, April 9th, Sakurajima exploded. I was at the BoE when I looked out the window. The sky was dark and I thought it had started to rain. I was irritated because the weather hadn't said anything about rain and so I didn't have my umbrella. When I left to go home I realized that it wasn't raining at all. All of Kagoshima City had been enveloped in a giant dust cloud and the ash raining down was everywhere. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and it was hard to breathe and even see. I went to a local restaurant/bar I like called Recife to set up a reservation for that night and the guy that runs the place said he'd never seen anything like it and he's been here for seven years. Apparently the last time Sakurajima threw that much ash into the air was ten years ago. I hopped on the train and the dust cloud followed me. It's impressive that it made it all the way out to Matsumoto, but what made it crazy is that it went out past Ijuin, the next town west, and kept going.

That night seven of us gathered at Recife for my birthday. It was nice. They have Guinness. I ate some Asian Spicy Beef with Rice and some Tacos.

Robin and I just bought a new computer and a camcorder. They are both awesome. We ordered them from a distributing company in New York and in order to get them to ship overseas I needed to call them. Skype lets you call 1-800 numbers for free so it was cool. Apparently it's a company run by observant Jews. They were closed for passover. I called them and the guy had the stereotypical New York Hassidic accent. I called them on a Tuesday and we had our new gear on Friday. UPS got our stuff to us in three days and kept us constantly updated on their progress via their website. UPS gets the "Fuck yeah!" award.

I've started learning Iaido, or traditional Japanese Swordsmanship. My friend Alex is a fourth-year ALT. He has a Japanese wife and a two year-old. He's been into Japanese swordsmanship for a long time. We were talking at one of our big office parties and he offered to get me some information on a couple of the big Iai schools here in Kagoshima.

So I'm learning a style called Muso Shinden Ryu from a teacher named Kamikokuryu, an eighth-rank master in Iai who is also a seventh-rank in Kendo. Alex was jealous because the teacher he had in his style of Eishin Ryu wasn't nearly as high a rank, nor was he the legend in Kagoshima that my teacher is. The ranking goes like this:
1st - 3rd rank are confirmed by your city
4th - 5th rank are confirmed by your prefecture
6th - 8th rank are confirmed by the Nation of Japan
9th and 10th rank are honorary ranks of which there are only a handful of holders in all of Japan.
The Assistant Master at this school, Nishida, is also a local hero. He has won the annual Kagoshima Iai tournament every year for the past six or seven years. So I'm in the right place to properly learn Japanese Swordsmanship which is something I've wanted for a long time. The sword I'm using is being lent to me for the durration of my stay in Japan by a 5th rank guy, a teacher in his own right, which is a very cool thing. Pictures of me in the kimono, hakama, and katana are forthcoming.

More exciting news, Robin and I are headed out of town for a week and a half to meet up with Lisa G in Shimane-ken, Izumo-shi. We're leaving on Saturday May 2nd. On Wednesday May 6th we're going to Osaka for a night before pressing on to Kyoto next door. If you know Rurouni Kenshin, we'll be arriving in Kyoto on May 7th, the day Kenshin and Saito had their reunion battle before Okubo Toshimichi came to enlist Kenshin's help. Epic. We'll spend four nights and five days in Kyoto and then go back to Osaka for two nights. Then we'll head home. I have a crap load of time off saved up. I'm taking seven days off, and including weekends and the holidays, I have a total break from school of like 16 days. I'm just not working for half of May. It's great.

Check out the new photos we've posted. There will be more once we get back from our trip