On Holiday

Monday was another busy and strange day for me. Several exciting and less-than-exciting things were happening all at once. The most importnat less-than-exciting thing was the fact that my car is in the shop, forcing me to walk or hitch rides from friends any time I want to go anywhere. My car had a slight run-in with the concrete wall outside my house. I was the driver, and I spent a long time feeling extremely foolish, but then every person who's heard the story and knows what my driveway looks like reacted with "oh! That was bound to happen eventually..." So I'm getting over it, and now so is the car. The nice (American) man who was recommended by the many people on base who have had similar issues said it would take 3-4 days to fix. Today is day 7. Granted, two of those days were holidays, but still... I wish I could have found someone Japanese to fix it...
Not having the car was not a big deal for the first five days. The only place I had to go was base, and I walk that sometimes just for the fun of it. Other than having to carry groceries home, it didn't really have much effect on my life. But Monday, I had a Family Readiness Group meeting to go to in Hario housing, which is a solid 30 minute drive from my house. Not having a car was not such a good thing. I woke up very irritated at my unfortunate postion. Luckily, I have some very patient friends, and I was able to catch a ride for that, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Monday was a Japanese holiday. According to my handy list of Japanese holidays, it's commemorating the day that, according to historical records, the first Japanese emperor was crowned. As a result, the main shopping center in town, lovingly referred to as the Ginza by the Americans, was jam packed with people when I arrived there on my way to base Monday morning. The Ginza is a pedestrian only street in the middle of town with any type of shop you might desire. It runs for several blocks. I managed to arrive just in time to see a parade go by. It was the biggest display of Japanese nationalism I've seen in my year here. There was a marching band playing an upbeat, marchy version of the national anthem (which sounds really weird because the normal version is slow and mellow sounding), followed by a whole bunch of people who presumably represented various civic groups carrying paper flags. As I walked, I ran into a major gap in the parade. Further along, I discovered the reason for this gap: the parade was stopping at the cross walk and only proceeded when the pedestrian light was green. It made me laugh because no procession like that in the states would just stop for a light.
Anyway, if off base was a little festive, then on base was an all out party. Sasebo is currently being visited by a big ship that is apparently coming from the middle east somewhere. By big ship, I mean that it probably doubles the number of Americans in Sasebo for the time that it's here. It arrived on Monday morning. The last time this happened, I'd been living here for all of a week, and didn't understand what base is normally like. Now that I do understand what base is normally like, I can understand why the "locals" avoid base when there's a big ship in. See, the normal population of Americans here has been carefully trained to behave significantly better than the average American. We've adopted Japanese standards of politeness... almost. Most of the Japanese people we meet here base their entire opinion of Americans on us, and we want them to like us, so we play nice. When a big ship comes in, the base is flooded with not ordinary Americans, but sailors, and there's a reason sailors have the reputation they have. Some of the sailors will probably be delightful guests, but the sheer number of them makes it almost guaranteed that there will be an "incident" between an American and a Japanese person before they leave. Plus, they hang out all over base, and make it a signficantly less pleasant place to be. Also, security closes off several main streets, so driving on base becomes quite a hassle, too. So the rest of us quietly hide and wait for it to be over.
Unfortunately, I had to be on base, so I braved the crowds to get my groceries and found myself leaving base again behind a group of newcomers set on finding downtown. They were the more stereotypical sailors and I really felt uncomfortable being anywhere near them. Right as we exited base, a big black bus came by with speakers on the top. The speakers were blaring the Imperial March from Star Wars. I felt the urge to crawl into the pavement. I can't say for sure, but I'm fairly confident that the truck was a response to the ship that came in. Why? Well, Japanese people are not exactly fond of nuclear power for the most part (and can you really blame them?). I'm not sure about the ship that's currently visiting, but most of the big ships in the US Navy are nuclear powered, and it bugs the heck out of Japanese people when they're visited by those ships. So I'm guessing that the truck was a protest to that. What was really mortifying was the way the sailors reacted to this truck, as if it was privately owned and some weird quirk of Japanese society. They took pictures while shouting obseneties and jokes at each other. Hence my mortification.
On the way home, I passed a gathering that was either in honor of the Japanese holiday or another protest about the ship (it's really hard to tell since protests aren't really that loud or angry here for the most part). I also pondered just how nice it was that I didn't have a car today. If I had, I would have missed all the excitement.

Japanese Repairmen

So were two things around the house that needed fixing beyond our repair. First, paper in one of the doors on our tatami room was ripped. I would have continued to ignore this, but we also had a major crack in a glass sliding door in the room where I spend most of time, and it's cold in there without extra leakage. As a result, I reluctantly visited my bill paying service (they take care of pretty much anything related to the house that might involve talking to a Japanese person) to get a repair guy. I was prepared for a hassle. I forgot I was in Japan.
The lady at the bill pay service patiently listened to my concerns then called the repair service. They said they could fix both doors on Saturday, but they'd like to come see the glass one to figure out what needed to be done. They promised to stop by sometime after two yesterday. So I figured it would be late afternoon. I forgot I was in Japan.
At 3:00 a kind Japanese repair man was standing on my doorway. He spoke zero English. If I was in America and didn't speak English, a repair guy who spoke only English would pretty much be useless to me, but I'm in Japan. So I grabbed Dory, answered the door, and said "Chotto mate kudasai" which means "just a moment." I meant "I'll be back in a second after I put my insane dog somewhere where she can't kill you." He thought I meant "stay here until I get back." So when I arrived downstairs again, he was patiently waiting in my entryway. I appologized immediately. He took his shoes off and came in to check out the various damages.
The repair guy spent some time measuring the glass door, and actually appologized when he needed help holding the measuring tape. Then I showed him to the tatami room to check out the paper door and left him entirely alone without the slightest concern for my belongings in there. When he returned, he had a question. I appologized for having no clue what the question was, at which point he appologized to me and reverted to sign language. He had the materials with him to fix the paper door, which he proceeded to do for free. So the same day I expressed concern about the door, it was fixed. I love Japan.
Next my new best friend wanted to let me know when he'd be back to fix the other door. He went nice and slow and we successfully agreed that he could come back the next day (no, really) after 3:00 (because I wouldn't be home until then). I am very proud that I could get all that in Japanese. I even learned a new word (after) in the process. I tried to ask him how much it would cost and met with less luck, but he didn't seem concerned about getting paid (no, really) so I didn't let that worry me.
So today my bill service company called to ask me if it was okay if the repair guy came at 3:00. (Remember, originally the company had told me the earliest this would happen was Saturday.) Apparently he called them to make sure we were clear. He also gave them an estimate, and I arranged for them to pay that bill too. I told them after 3:00 would be fine, and they called back to say he'd be here at 4:00 and the repair would take about an hour. Then I forgot I was in Japan again and began to worry. In America, 4:00 in repair man time is 5:00 or 6:00 and one hour is two. Since I had to leave the house again at 5:30, that was a little unsettling. Thankfully, I didn't cancel. At 4:01, my favorite repairman was back. He indicated that he just needed me to unlock the glass door in question, so I did that. The one hour repair job took 20 minutes.
I absolutely love Japan.

Big Day

Lots of super cool things happened today, so I thought I'd share. Here they are in no particular order:
1) I successfully got my car into its parking spot despite the fact that there were cars parked in two of the spots I normally would use as room to turn around. I'd done it before with one or the other spot full, but never both.
2) Zack and I both got brand new ID's that reflect his promotion. He is now a Lt. JG, or O2, and that information is not only on his military ID, but also mine. The ID making process was not nearly as annoying as I'd been lead to believe, either.
3) I got my brand new laptop! Now, not only am I able to write a whole paper for my grad school classes without worrying that the computer might freeze at any moment, destroying all my hard work, I can also sit ina giant arm chair watching a movie while I write. I don't have to deal with error messages the moment my computer opens. AND it has a built in video camera. So I've spent all afternoon playing with my new toy. Life is very good.

The End of Vacation: Auckland

By the time we arrived in Auckland, Zack and I were "all vacationed out" as he put it. He was thinking about work again, and neither of us was sure that we really wanted our two extra days in the city. But there we were, so we tried not to waste them. Yet, somehow, we managed to leave without getting a single picture of the city. Sorry about that.
Our first morning in Auckland was filled with the process of getting off the ship, finding our hotel, and getting settled in there. Then we caught a cab back into town and did a self-guided walking tour of the downtown area, during which we managed to find the Victoria Market and do some last minute shopping. We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant downtown (Zack was going through withdrawal) and then headed back to the hotel to call it an early night.
The next day we slept in. Our theory was that we'd be up before the crack of dawn the next day to catch a plane, and Zack was back at work the day after that, so it was our last chance to get a nice long sleep. Having accomplished this, we set out for the Domain: a park in downtown Auckland that contains lots of nice places to sit and read, and a museum that was supposed to be both free and excellent according to our guidebook. The park was quite lovely. We sat, read, fed some birds and then headed over to the museum. It turned out to be excellent, but not free. They had exhibits on the native Maoris, the history of New Zealand, animals, and an entire floor devoted to the wars in which the people of New Zealand have fought. It was very interesting stuff. By the time we left the museum, it was time to seek some dinner, so we wandered back into downtown, ate and then returned once again to the hotel to see if it was possible to make all our stuff fit into our suitcases.
The day after that, we were back on a plane heading into the Northern Hemisphere and life as usual. It was a great trip, but it was time to go home.

Days 12-14: White Island and Tauranga

The day after Wellington was our last full day on the ship. We sailed past a volcanic island. White Island was named by our friend Cook for it's tendency to be covered in white ash. It also smokes from time to time. This is what it looked like when we went by:

The next day was Taraunga. It turned out to be a little busy in the area on the day we arrived. They were hosting a half iron man, so several streets were blocked to make way for bikers and runners, and most of the locals were out cheering them on. Zack and decided to take a hike around this hill:

The trip took most of our morning and was beautiful. It was nice to just walk and enjoy the scenery for the day. Here's some of what we saw:


When our hike was over, we retreated to the ship for lunch. We ventured out in the afternoon again to investigate the local shops. There were several artists set up on the street selling beautiful (and expensive) paintings, and everyone was still out and about from the morning, so there was plenty to see. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the ship for our last dinner aboard, and our final leg of the journey to Auckland.

Day... what day are we on?... :Wellington

So the day after our trip through Christchurch, we arrived in Wellington all set for our biggest excursion of the cruise: a trip through middle earth. You see, Peter Jackson is from Wellington, and filmed several bits of the movies in the area. Nearly the moment our bus pulled out of the harbor, our guide was showing us the rugby stadium in which the first sound clips for the movie were recorded. Jackson had the fans at the game stamp on the bleachers and shout and what not, and this became the sound of gazillions of orcs preparing to attack Helm's Deep in movie 2. Oddly enough, our next stop was Helm's Deep itself:


Yes, I know it looks like a regular old quarry, but Jackson took it over, remodeled a bit using a combination of steel, wood and glorified styrofoam, and it became Helm's Deep. Then, when he was done, he took it all apart again, leaving us with this lovely quarry. That, as it turned out, is how Jackson works. He'd come in and change everything, but only after making sure he knew how to put it all back the way he found it. As a result, many of the sites from the movie look nothing like the movie anymore.

The good news is our guide was extremely knowledgable. For one thing, he was an extra in the Helm's Deep section. For another, I think he was the most Peter Jackson obsessed person I've ever met, so as we drove around through beautiful natural scenery, he told us all kinds of stories about the makings of the movies, and then helped us get our pictures set up just right so we'd take pictures of the right places. Movie or not, it was all beautiful. Anyway, here's one of four rivers used for the scenes with the gray boats at the end of movie 1:


After visiting that site, we did like the hobbits would and had a morning tea complete with scones rasberry jam. Then we took a winding road through these lovely mountains that have no claim to film fame, but are still gorgeous:


And that brought us to New Zealand's wine country. (Did I fail to mention that this was also a wine tasting tour?) So we stopped and tasted some fine wine from several local vineyards:


Having successfully tasted wine and eaten a delicious lunch, we set out to visit the Lady Galadriel. Here, you see the bridge from which she waved good by to the fellowship of the Ring:

And just behind us, right next to the bridge where Galadriel waved goodbye, is the patch of grass on which Smeagol killed his best friend to get his hands on the precious:

Incidentally, both this is the only privately owned setting for the film, and we had to walk through some poor family's sheep farm to get to it. I'd feel bad for them if I wasn't certain they were getting a little compensation for having the tourists tramp through by the busload...

Anyway, after this we went to the most completely changed cite of the day: Rivendell. More specifically, we visited Frodo's bedroom, a courtyard, and the area in which the council was held. Now, it's a lovely park filled with trees and plants and you'd never know it was Rivendell at all except for this:

And then it was time to return to the (almost) real world, where our ship waited to take us off to check out the white island...

Day 11: Christchurch

The day after Dunedin, we arrived in Christchurch. Zack and I had decided to take a mountain biking trip while we were here, and it turned out to be quite an experience. The guide was a teacher during the school year, and a very informative guy. The first thing we learned was that the harbor where our ship was docked was actually the remains of a dead volcano. We were taken to the top of hills surrounding the crater to get a better view:


And on the other side of the same hills lay the city of Christchurch:


Next, we drove through Christchurch to the park where we would be biking. On the way, we discussed the ecology of New Zealand. See, everything grows really well there. Every time some European brings a favorite plant from home, it tends to grow twice as well as it would have in its original habitat and three times as well as any of the native plant life. We kind of knew this because it has resulted in strict importation laws in the country. Every time we got off the ship in New Zealand (and in Australia, for that matter) we were greeted by dogs trained to sniff for any sort of food in our bags. It was all forbidden. They don't want to take any chances.

However, the New Zealanders are not above using the tendency of plants to really take off in their country to their advantage. We learned on our way to biking that a pine tree that would take 60 years in the Northern Hemisphere to reach its fullest height potential takes about 25 years to do the same thing in New Zealand. Therefore, the good people of Christchurch have planted a ton of pine trees on the edge of town to create a recreational park for the citizens. They also cut down the full grown trees and ship them off to other countries, making a lovely profit and replacing them as quickly as they cut them down. Aside from being a good business, the trees provide lovely scenery for a morning bike ride:


The path we took led us through the trees and eventually out to the pacific ocean:


Then we traveled back through the trees and to our waiting bus to return to the ship. After a quick lunch, Zack and I set out to see some of the city. Mostly, what we saw was the market in the city center, and, of course, the church:

Before long, though, it was time to get back on the boat and sail away. Next stop: Middle Earth!