… and that was the plan. 602p4w
Today I used a little hammer called a Mekuginuki for the first time. It’s a little brass hammer with a removable punch that you use to knock out the pegs that hold a katana together. I won’t go into detail here, YouTube has all the explanation you could want, or check out this site for a good walk through of the process: www.toyamaryu.org. The reason for taking the sword apart was because I can’t bring the blade into Japan, so it has been held at Narita airport. By taking the sword apart I could at least get back all the furnishings of the sword and I also managed to extend the time they will keep the blade, giving me more time to organise it a trip home. The moral of the story really is don’t bother bringing a sword to Japan unless it’s licensed in Japan. Even if you’ve been doing Japanese martial arts for years and think you know how the system works. Even if your sword is not sharpened. Even if everyone else says you’ll be fine to bring it in. Don’t do it!
Chiba
Narita Airport is not in Tokyo, it’s in Chiba, a prefecture bordering on Tokyo and almost surrounded by sea. It was a perfect excuse to head to the beach today with one of the JTE’s (Japanese Teachers of English) from my school who had offered to take us around. We watched the surf, looking out over the Pacific and ate naartjies and fish palony (it’s better than it sounds) and enjoying the view.
We’ve been watching the HBO series, The Pacific, which is almost like a follow on of Band of Brothers. Watching that, visiting Okinawa and seeing the ocean has made being in Japan all the more meaningful. You start to understand that Japan is so definitely tied to the ocean. Japan lives off the sea, suffers from the seas ills and has changed in a unique way because it was for so long protected by the sea from foreign invasion (both cultural and military). Understanding the history of this unique and amazing nation can hopefully give some insight into how to best teach English to our students.
There were a bunch of other interesting sights today, and I’ll run through them quickly because I’m overdue for sleep:
Up before the sun and back after it was long down. Saw the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Narita Airport, got my sword apart and extended the time they will keep it by a whole year, saw some interesting sites, including a massive statue, wind turbines, tsunami damaged houses, interesting flags on bamboo flying from boats in celebration of the new year and the ever prevalent weird food.
It was a whirlwind tour.
Hopefully we’ll do a t post on Okinawa soon, which was a blast. We’re also heading to Disney Land in a few days (despite the cold), and hopefully we’ll blog on that too, now that we’re enjoying super fast Internet.
Till next time.
Sayonara!
?????(AKA: Rodney, AKA: Rodonii, AKA: sensei, AKA: teacher, AKA: Suron-sensei)