We started moving the tosai tategoi out to the ponds about 4 days ago. Up to this point we have pretty much moved all of them out. Along with moving the fish out, we have been continuing to set up auto-feeders at the ponds. We have also been draining and scrubing clean the tosai tanks at Sanbusho, since most of them have been sold, or moved to Muikaichi.

Next we start preparing for breeding. We had a new house added onto the back of Sanbusho, so we can stay there during breeding. Before they used to just set up a tent at the back, but they got sick of doing that. The new house has electricity in it, so we set up beds, a TV, microwave, desk, table, and air conditioner in it. Marudo asked me what else do you think it needs? I told him a stripper pole, he laughed, but thought it was a good idea.

We'll stay there while breeding, so we can keep an eye on the oyagoi. From what I could understand, I think we will let the fish initiate spawning, then seperate them and artificially spawn them. This way we'll have more control over the results.

A few days ago a bunch of us were up on Myoken mountain cleaning the ponds and prepping them for koi. We raked up all the debri from around the ponds and put down some chemicals (I think it is powdered oyster shells, or atleast it smells like it) to raise the pH of the water. We also used another chemical (powder form) to help lower ammonia.

Besides the usual pond maintainance we preform as described above, some the the ponds up on Myoken mountain needed some brush clear from around them. So we brought a couple chainsaws with to cut the brush. I volunteered to run one of them since nobody else wanted to.

Before starting nobody warned me that one of the trees is poisonous, similar to sumac in America. So, guess what? Bingo, I've got an arm cover in itchy puss bubbles! As I cut this particular tree, with a chainsaw no less, it effectively threw the poison all over my arm the wasn't covered by clothes.

I didn't notice my arm was affected because it didn't show any signs until the next day. At first I though it was a patch of dry skin, but then remembered the a couple days before some little kid had licked my arm there (don't ask, sometimes I just don't understand Japanese people, whether they are young or old). So I though maybe I got an infection from the kids saliva, so I showed it to my friend. He told me it looks like poisoning from a tree, I asked him what the tree looks like. Sure enough the description matched the trees I had cut the day before.

Luckily at home they had some kind of medicine. I used it for a couple days and it didn't really help. Infact, the affected area was spreading, and fast. Even though I wasn't touching it at all. So I decided it would be best to go see a doctor.

I went to the doc today and got some pills and ointment. Before I went I talked to my brother the night before on the phone. I told him about my arm and that I was going to the hospital because of it. In turn he told my mom that I was going to the hospital, and she flipped out thinking that something really bad had happend. I never really told them that in Japan there isn't really a difference between a hospital and doctor's office. They are all called hospitals for some reason, though they do resemble hospitals more than they do a doctor's office, just a really small version.

Japanese people have a very hard time trying to pronouce my name. In the Japanese language along with a mix up between "L" & "R", they completely do not use the letter "V". Making it almost impossible for people to say my name. One such person would be Shinji, Marudo's younger brother.

I noticed Shinji had a problem with my name since I arrived, his english pronouciation is very Japanese. In the fact that he uses only japanese sounds to produce english words, I call it "engrish". A lot of times he would slip up and call me by the japanese word for "chubby", it does sound very similar to my name though. One such occasion would be when he was introducing me to the new girl who works at a gas station we use. Talk about a bad time to slip up, now everytime I go to fill up a car she always gives me a funny smile.

So because Shinji has a very hard time saying my first name he asked if he could start calling me by my last name. I told him it would be fine if he wanted to. Now everbody here is getting confused as to which name to call me by. They even started making up new nic names to call me by.

"Jerry" would be one of them, as in Jerry from the Tom & Jerry cartoon. One day Takuya & Shinji asked me if I thought Jerry was cute. I said, "Not particlarly." To which they responded, "We think Jerry is cute, so we am going to start calling you Jerry." I think it is because they know of my hate about being called cute*.



*I have a problem with people calling me "cute". I think it all started about 3 years ago, when some elderly woman would go on rants calling me cute. It just didn't feel right, even to this day it feesl weird when somebody calls me cute. I guess I'm just an emotionally scarred kid, maybe I should become emo?

Lately we have been cleaning up around & inside the ponds, such as raking up leaves and ceder needles. Plus killing off all the weeds growing in & around the ponds.

Also we have been going around to all the ponds we already released koi in and setting up the stands for auto-feeders. Then setting up the auto-feeders at the ponds too.

Today we ventured through the nuclear waste lands to Ogami to release a few more nisai in the pond there. On the way the weather was clear so we could see the island that Jenkins lives on. After releasing the fish we had lunch and watched all the hangliders fly around the mountain. After lunch we built a new stand for an auto-feeder, since this is the first year using the pond at Ogami, and mounted an auto-feeder on the stand. Next we set up a new auto-feeder at Yoshikawa, we bought the biggest size feeder they make so it can hold more food, since the drive to the pond takes so long. After that we set up another feeder at Kashiwazaki before racing home. And by racing home, I litterally mean racing (we were in two seperate cars). Until we got stuck behind a slow semi in a tunnel.

A couple weeks ago, on one of my days off, I decided to go check out a forest park that I always see signs for on the way to some of the mudponds. When I got there there was a ton of little kids and families playing on the swing sets and kids stuff that was set up there. As I walked past on the way to the trails I got the usual OMG its a gaijin looks, or even some of the HSIAG looks (take a guess at what that means).

The trails were pretty cool and had some weird obstacles and stuff set up, but none of it looked very well maintained. Kinda odd for being Japan, maybe its cause it is still kinda off season. The place seemed kinda like an old secret ninja training ground. But the samurai discovered it and turned it into a kids / forest park.

Anyways I was walking for quite a while and I didn't see anybody, I didn't even hear anybody. So it was kind of creepy, but then I turned a corner and ran into a grown man (all alone) with a butterfly net. He was all sweaty and out of breath, so I just said good afternoon and kept walking. That just made the place seem more creepy, not only was I not alone, but I was alone with a grown man catching butterflies!?! Is it just me, I thought butterfly catching was usually an activity reserved for children or maybe scientists trying to find a rare variety? Trust me this guy was no scientist.

As I continued on I came upon a weird bridge, it was made out of logs that were suspended by ropes. Again it wasn't or didn't look like it had been maintained since the samurai claimed it from the ninjas. I though about trying to cross it, but since I was by myself (besides butterfly man) and didn't want to die from a horrible fall, I turned around and headed back.

On the way back I ran into butterfly man again, I asked him whats up with the bridge. He told me that it is dangerous and that I shouldn't try to pass it (before running off after a butterfly). Like I couldn't see that. I was more looking for an explaination of why it hasn't been maintained in the last 1,000 years.

Anybody want to go butterfly hunting with me next week?

This past weekend Toshihiro & I went down to Aichi preficture to help a koi dealer down there. The koi dealer was holding a Marudo tosai sale/event, so Toshi & I went down there to answer any questions about the fish and just help out in general. The dealer had a really weird looking dog, it was tiny and had huge ears, I had never seen anything like it before. Kinda looked like Gizmo from Gremlins (the movie). I was really tempted to splash some water on the dog or feed it at night to see if anything would happen, but I didn't. Probably safer that I didn't do anything, because I think I had an allergic reaction to it. The last thing I needed was 50 of them running around causing me to sneeze.

Also after returning home we have been cleaning up all the ceder branches & needles around the ponds at Horinochi. Next we are going to remake some of the ponds there with a bulldozer.

Right now is not only prime season for releasing koi into the ponds, but also prime season for the rice farmers to get to work. After they crawl out of their rice dryers they've been sleeping in all winter waiting for spring to, well, spring. Along with them they bring out their weird tractors and equipment (and gravity defying skills, but I'll get to that later). What kind of weird equipment you might ask? Well for starters, fertilizers (I think) that look like the ectoplasm guns that the Ghost Busters use. Plus it doesn't help that most of them wear jump suits that match the color of the Ghost Busters'.

Besides their ectoplasm fetilizers and nifty jump suits, they use special tires for their walk behind or tractor tillers, that kinda look like wheels of pain. I have yet to see a converted station wagon tiller yet, I won't know what to think if I do though. Who knows, maybe they'd be tilling the ghosts out of the fields? Back too the wheels of pain, they are design to be able to move through the mud, water, packed clay, or whatever state the feild is in without getting stuck.

Most of the rice paddies I see have no actuals way to get a tractor in them. The edges are raised as to be able to hold water, and usually around the outside of the raised edge is an irregation canal. Also the paddies are terraced, so they can use gravity to flood the fields. So I have no clue how they get their tractors into the field to till it. But somehow the do, and they leave no trace as to how they got into the field, tilled it, and got out. Granted some of the paddies have ramps built into them, but they are usually so steep and narrow that it seems like it would be suicide to use them. I have yet to actually see how they get into the field, which is suprising considering the amount of rice paddies around the area I live. I don't remember the Ghost Busters being able to levitate objects?

I sometimes wonder why the rice from this area is famous, maybe it cause of the ectoplasm.