Saru wa ki ni imasen

Today was quite nice out, so I went to the Meiji-no-Mori (Forest of Meiji) Minoh Quasi National Park, as I have threatened to for the past several months. It's three train stops north of Toyonaka, at the end of the Minoh line, in fact, and features a 2-mile walk up a valley alongside a scenic river. Along the way are a butterfly garden (no butterflies today), an insect museum, and various temples and small snacky shops. There are also supposed to be a number of mischievious monkeys, but they appeared to be AWOL. Maybe they're wintering over in Okinawa.

Anyway, at the end of the trail is a 100-foot waterfall (Minoh no taki) and a place one can sit and eat octopus balls (Minoh no tako?) and drink beer. My kinda hike. You can see photos of all this and more. I have discovered that I can stomach eight tako-yaki (aforementioned battered chunks of octopus) much more easily now than I could my second week in Japan, and they're downright tasty, weird sauce and all. They're very hot, though, and I have not yet figured out how to keep from searing my entire mouth.

I've been struggling to learn Japanese, and still have yet to successfully order a pizza by phone. I think that is the true litmus test, as it requires both listening comprehension and verbal communication without the aid of visual cues, not to mention the ability to remember my address and phone number. Of course, I haven't actually tried to order a pizza yet, which might explain my failure. But it is my goal before I leave Japan. I think first I have to understand my pre-paid telephone account. (And no, I probably can't just go to the place and order in person. It would completely screw up the whole pizza delivery process. Delivery is delivery.)

I'm also trying to learn the local dialect, Kansai-ben, and its more local, concentrated form of Osaka-ben. Yes, it does sound like the name of a pool player or some hirsute mountain man, but it's not. I've heard it's similar to a Brooklyn or Jersey accent in the US in the way it's regarded throughout Japan. I'd have thought it'd be more like a Texas drawl, since western Japan is seriously hick-town to most urbane Tokyojin. You make the call. I'll stop my ignorant analysis before I offend an entire country. Either one.

Happy Groundhog Day, if I don't write more before then. I'm hoping for cloudy weather when Osaka Ben pops out of his hole.

Shin-yokozuna ga machi ni iru?

Your daily sumo update (last one till March): Saturday saw Asashoryu dumping Kotooshu to the dohyo, but before that the yokozuna was eliminated when front-running ozeki Tochiazuma won his bout. So ends his record run of Emperor's Cup yusho at seven.

Today was senshuraku, the last day of the basho. Tochiazuma faced an injured Asahoryu and threw him down, winning the tournament at 14-1 and putting himself in position to gain yokozuna promotion in the March Osaka basho, should he win again outright or (perhaps) come in a close second. This should be big for the popularity of the sport, as Tochiazuma is a local boy, and foreigners (i.e. Asashoryu) have dominated the top positions the past several years. I plan on going to some bouts with the little lady, who'll be in town. (Nothing says "I love you" like sumo tickets.)

With the tournament over, I'll have to find some other things to write about.

Ookii otoko no koto

With snow in forecast, today (Saturday) is start of the two-day nation-wide college entrance exam. The tension over the city is palpable. The science center here is one of the testing sites, and to limit noise and distractions, we need to get special red ribbons to enter the building and go to our offices over the weekend. I think I'll work (or not) from home.

The tests here are big business, with years of after-school cram school training leading up to this weekend. I think all I did for the SAT was sharpen my No. 2 pencil, but maybe I've selectively forgot some things.

In other Japan news, US beef is verboten once again, Japan has had its first Enron, and 18,000 people were "inconvenienced" by a suicide. (Perhaps something was lost in translation in that last story, but even the Globe chooses its words more carefully when the Red Line is held up for similar reasons.)

Last night saw some sumo excitement, with both Kotooshu and Asashoryu losing and falling to 10-3. Mongolian Ama, a diminutive No. 6 maegashira, achieved the upset of the yokozuna, while Kotooshu succumbed to fellow ozeki and current leader Tochiazuma. Both I and the Japanese crowd are partial to Takamisakari, mostly for his pre-bout head slapping and open emotion.

Speaking of big men hitting each other, go Steelers.

Amerika kara kimasu

I'm back in Osaka after a two-week hiatus back home. It was great to see friends and family and eat some extremely tasty, fat-rich, nutrient-poor food. One of the highlights was a trip to DC for the American Astronomical Society meeting, not because of that, but because the hotel was 1 1/2 blocks from the National Zoo. We spent a sunny Sunday morning watching the baby panda frolick.

Not much has changed here in my absence, although the weather is a bit warmer. Northwestern Honshu continued to get clobbered with record snowfall over the holidays, with some places in Niigata prefecture getting over 10 feet of snow. Now the warm weather and rain is causing avalanche warnings. Osaka, Tokyo and other Pacific coast areas have been unaffected.

I have returned in the midst of the January sumo basho, which enters its eighth day (of fifteen) today. Grand Champion Asashoryu suffered an early defeat, but has rebounded to a 6-1 record. Shin-ozeki Kotooshu also struggled with an opening round upset loss, but has so far compiled a 5-2 record in his debut at the Champion level. Both rikishi trail a pair of undefeated wrestlers, ozeki Tochiazuma and maegashira 11 Hokutoriki, as they face a challenging second week.