beeduul.com - photos from japan

Hey, new Sticker Sets 10, 11, 12 (scroll to bottom).

JHS (chugakko). Here's where they learn how to transform from cute lil' punkins to snotty, loudmouthed brats (I mean that in the most endearing way possible): students, students, and more students. | me and nori | lil' bastards | mouthing off

Elementrary School (shogakko). They're made of precious and darling dears, a gallon of cuteness and a helping of smiles: Shintotsukawa 5th graders | More of the lil squirts

November 13th... The first snowfall (hatsuyuki) falls on Shintotsukawa:
Shintotsukawa JHS (chugakko) | My apartment

No pictures yet of my Taiko performance, but here are some befores and afters.:
drumsdrumsdrumsdrums | Gregging it up at dinner | Greg and Co | Kampai!

Assorted stuff:
Takemi-sensei, a former Yakuza-turned-English teacher, explains his past.
My supervisor, Ochi-san (on the right), and Kocho-sensei from Shintotsukawa Elementary School
Peering into the heart of Suskino, the entertainment district of Sapporo, Hokkaido's biggest city.
Also in Sapporo, the Tanuki Koji is a covered mall. Lots of shops and it's also where the street performers and artists hang out.
Guillaume and Tanisand more! Guillaume and Tanis
Here's Guillaume gettin down with my Ainu jaw harp.
Halloween in Japan with a couple of dogooders, Keith and Damien
Greetings from Otaru!

Tire Graveyard
There's an illegal tire dumping ground in the coastal town of Atsuta... approx. 60,000 tires here and the local government doesn't have the cash to have them removed: sittin' pretty in the tire graveyard | Colin (near) and Masanori (far) | Masanori, king of the hill | Jeremy, troll of the hill

Colin and I went hitchiking because we missed our bus down to Atsuta, where the Tire Graveyard is. We got picked up by this ojiisan and his "sex friend." They look pretty dour in the picture, but it's just because they clammed up when the cameras came out. I think there was a little fear that somehow this photo might get back into the hands of the man's poor wife.

Mid October: The Ainu Marimo festival at Lake Akan in eastern Hokkaido. The Ainu are a race native to Hokkaido before the Japanese expanded northward. The Marimo are small algae balls that grow only in Lake Akan and somewhere in Russia. They live up to several hundred years old (the Marimo, not the Ainu), assuming the incidiaries from the yearly fireworks celebration don't put a damper on tradition (think dropping sticks of dynamite into the lake for half an hour). Various Ainu groups from around Hokkaido dance and sing, after parading through the town at night. The next day they do it all over again and then drop the little green balls back into the lake where they belong.

Views of the fields of Shintotsukawa:
Fields 01 | Fields 02 | Fields 03 | Fields 04

We did an overnight beach party at Hamamasu, a town about an hour away from Shintotsukawa on the shore of the Sea of Japan. This the final byebye photo.

Some pictures from Otaru -- it's a fancy seaside tourist town north of Sapporo with a heavy Russian contingent. The boys in the photos here were cutting up autos and shipping the parts back home. Not sure sure about the legality of it all. They were a little wary but finally let me take a picture after we had a CIA vs. KGB standoff.
chop shop engines | chop shop boys | 2 pieces of car

Photos from the Shibuki Matsuri (Shibuki Festival) in nearby Takikawa. The performers were jamming on Taiko drums and chanting hype-you-up songs to get the crowd pumping.
Shibuki Matsuri 01 | Shibuki Matsuri 02 | Shibuki Matsuri 03 | Shibuki Matsuri 04