Trains / Being Polite

When I boarded the Yamagoto Shinkansen (bullet train going north from Tokyo) this morning, there was this old lady getting on board just in front of me. Oh and pardon my A.D.D. moment, trains are just COOL - check out the brand-new train model that will start running between downtown Tokyo and Narita airport starting October 1st: I'll be on it that day! But I digress... Anyway, this old lady was trying to lift her suitcase on to the overhead bin above the seats, and I knew this would end in disaster. So I asked her if I could lift it up for her, and after she nearly fell over because this big white dewd was speaking in Japanese to her, she nearly fell over with thanks and praise for helping her. Well it turned out that she was assigned the seat next to me, and so we chatted for the nearly-hour-long ride from Tokyo to Utsunomiya, where I had to change trains.

She was a sweet old lady, but she was brutally honest as most Japanese are. She said, while patting my tummy, "Ya' know... I have a son who is in international business, too, and he's fat, too." She went on to lament how that if you spend your life bouncing all over the place, you get fat, and there's just no going back. She went on to say that before we boarded the train, she noticed me on the platform (CREEPERS!!!), and that I reminded me of her son. She said that she thought it would be a wonderful thing if her son was as nice and polite as I was, and while I'm saying "Oh I'm sure he is...," on the inside I'm thinking, "He's probably as rude as you, ya' ol' windbag!" No no no... it's not actually rude to comment on somebody's rotundness in Japan - in many ways it's still a compliment. But speaking of being rude on trains, the JR East Company has ads all over it's trains and in the stations promoting being polite on trains (as seen on the left in this paragraph). Some of these ads are pretty funny. I should send in a suggestion: a picture of an old lady patting a fat dewd's tummy with a word bubble coming out of her mouth saying "futori."

And finally on trains, I saw something I hadn't seen before today. The newer trains (certainly none in Nikko!) have TV screens where they run ads/commercials. The pink TV screen you see pictured at the right is a horoscope of sorts. And it was running "fortunes" based on your blood type. Displayed here is the fortune for O-type blood carriers. Fretty punny, eh?

Have a great day.

Nikko

I have always believed that I will work better internationally as I better understand the local culture, so as part of that belief, I make it a point to travel to places overseas that are steeped in culture. OK... I wasn't buying that as I typed it, either, so let's just suffice to say that I like to travel. And today I traveled to Nikko, which is most famous for the Shinkyo Bridge spanning the Daiya River (pictured at left). Legend has it that a Buddhist priest by the name of Shodo Shonin crossed the Daiya River at this exact spot more than 1,200 years ago, on the backs of two huge serpents. Alrighty then... I see that sake was big here in Japan even 1,200 years ago... :-)

Today was kind of an historic moment for me, of sorts. In all of my traveling in Japan, I've been to Hokkaido (the northernmost island) and I've seen nearly all of Honshu (the main island) south/southwest of Tokyo, and I've even been down in to Kyushu, but I had NEVER been north of Tokyo on Honshu. Nikko is about 100 miles north of Tokyo, so at least now I can say I've been to that area of Japan (and a pic on the right to prove it - sorry for the hat hair). One of these days I'd like to make it way up to Aomori and Sendai and that part of Honshu, but I was limited today to just a day-trip.

There are dozens of shrines in the Nikko National Park, and they're all pretty cool looking. Many of them are adorned with carvings of monkeys (see left). They even have the "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" statues around there - I wonder if it's Japan where that whole thing originated. But in fact, as in most Asian shrines (not just in Japan), I really love all of the ornate carvings/paintings that are part of these temples. You'll see some of those in all of the pictures I took.

To the right here is a panoramic view of sort of a courtyard that was surrounded by all of these old structures (most of these shrines date from the 1630s). Sure all of this stuff was cool, but what I thought was most cool about Nikko is that ALL of it is old. Tokyo is all modern concrete and glass, and though shiny and neat, it's all modern. Even traditional ol' Kyoto has quite a bit of concrete and glass, as well. But in Nikko? Nope... it all seemed pretty old. Even the train I rode on creaked and squeeled along the rusty old tracks as it swayed back and forth. It honestly reminded me of the first time I rode on an old Kintetsu train from Nagoya to Chiryu way back in August of 1986. Man... that's OLD!!! :-)

Anyway, I had a great time up there, and am happy to have visited a part of Japan that I've never seen before. You can see all the photos I took, by clicking here for Facebook, or here for Flickr.

Basic Training Graduation

On Friday, Fort Benning had its graduation ceremony (pic of PFC Goodale and Dad here at the left) for Company D's 2-47th Infantry Division Basic Training graduates, and it was really cool!!! It was held on the parade grounds (a huge grass field) in front of a large grand stand there that was full to overflowing with visiting family members. The parade grounds are part of National Infantry Museum that was just opened this year (it's a really cool museum that is extremely well-done; the website is cool, too).

One of Fort Benning's bands played there, too, marching on the field. We even got some video of them for Justin's benefit.

One of the coolest parts of the ceremony was a battle simulation that they did on the parade grounds. Complete with lots of smoke, really loud explosions, and gunfire, it was really cool!!! Christopher was part of that demo squad (which is why he is dressed in full combat gear as you see here in his photo with Michelle on the right). Christopher was the automatic gunner in the demo squad, carrying his 17-pound M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). In the video you see embedded (or linked) below, as the soldiers run forward they stop in front of the grand stands. Christopher is in the group directly in front of our side of the grand stands, the third one in from the left. I like the announcer's comments, too, talking about America's greatest secret weapon in warfare: the foot soldier. Check it out below.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDhrnpHq2M

After graduation, we got to spend the rest of the day with Christopher. We spent a lot of time checking out the museum and doing lunch there. Then we went and to our hotel to hang out. We watched a movie and ate junk food (woo hoo!!!), and Christopher also got to video Skype call Brianna, Andrew, and Mark at home. Check out a photo of that on the left. They had fun videoconferencing, and we can tell that Skype is going to be fun while Christopher is away at AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He is already there (arrived there last last night), and after a couple of weeks, he should have pretty regular internet access.

Michelle and I had a REALLY great time with Christopher. We had him from 10am and 11am on Wednesday and Thursday, and he didn't have to be back to barracks until 20:45 each night. We also got to spend some time with him on Friday. That was unexpected, so it was a nice surprise. He was dropped off at the airport in Atlanta around 10am on Friday, but his flight to Richmond, Virginia wasn't until more than eight hours later! Our return flight to Boise (via SLC) wasn't until late afternoon, and as Christopher didn't have any specific orders during his free time, Michelle and I picked him up and took him to lunch.

I have uploaded 23 photos and 7 videos from our time with Christopher at Fort Benning on to our Flickr site. To view all of them, please click here.

Family Day at Fort Benning

Today was "Family Day" at Fort Benning, and after a brief orientation session this morning, Michelle and I got to spend a truly awesome day with Christopher. To the right here is a picture of mom and PFC Goodale this morning.

We had a lot of fun mostly sitting around talking (and eating), and getting to hear all of the fun stories that he didn't put in his letters home. Tomorrow morning he graduates and then we get to spend another day with him before Michelle and I fly back home, and Christopher heads to Virginia, on Friday.

Christopher's such an awesome young man and we're so proud of him! He's in terrific shape and he's very much a soldier, but he's still the fun-loving, happy Christopher that we all love. :-)

I have posted a couple of videos below, as well. The first one is of all of the soldiers making their entrance in to the orientation session, and the second one is of the whole group singing the Army song. It's apparent that all of their intensive training these past several weeks did NOT include much singing practice!!! :-) But they sounded awesome to these proud Army parents!

Kyoto

I spent the day touring Kyoto, Japan today with three work associates (our group pictured at right, at "Kinkakuji," or the Golden Pavilion"). I absolutely LOVE Kyoto; it's my favorite city in Japan. Kyoto is much more laid back than Tokyo, and it has one of the most awesome train stations in the world. There is SO much of historical significance here, too - it's just way fun. One gets a much better understanding of historical Japan by touring Kyoto.

We first started at Nijo Castle, a shogun castle originally built in the 1600s. It's the "miracle of Japanese joinery" - you can ask me about that later if you want. :-) I like Nijo-jo because it really gives you a sense of what life was like in that era.

Then we went to Kinkakuji - it was probably close to my 20th trip there, but it's still cool every time! Nearby is Ryoanji where the famous rock gardens pictured in many Japan books, plus a gorgeous zen garden. However, it was undergoing renovation and though still open, we didn't feel we'd get the true sense of the place. So we skipped it and then...

...we went on to Kiyomizu-dera, or the purified water temple. Not only is this cool for all of the temple buildings, but it also sits up on a hill overlooking Kyoto, which is really kind of cool.

One of our taxi drivers today was SUPER talkative!!! He even had pictures of lots of things here in Kyoto, and he was flipping through these picture books while he was driving us, showing all of these places. That was kind of scary!!! He said there are over 1,600 (was that the number? anyway it's a lot!!!) temples/shrines/sites in the Kyoto area, but we saw what I think are the three coolest.

Posted herein and below are some of the pictures from the day. To see all 35 pics that I've posted on Flickr, please click here.

Overlooking part of Nijo Castle.

This dude had DARTS on his backpack (plus a cute little furry duck). Waddup???

The back side of Kinkakuji. This side isn't photographed as often, but it's still pretty!

Kiyomizu-dera, with Kyoto in the background.

Kiyomizu-dera.