Rambling Rat

We have been invited to attend a local sports day today for a Junior school local to Edwin’s house, by my Japanese friend kat. It is a real taste of life with the local people and their families, myself and Ulysses sat under a canopy on the floor cross legged with a complete family 4 generations all sat watching the Kids parade around the sandy school yard performing dances and party tricks, non of which looked like a british sports day, in between the children’s events we were asked to join in by dressing up in costumes and making a fool of ourselves trying to copy what the other adults were doing to the amusement of all the crowd, twice a microphone was thrust in front of me and shaken, i replied that i was from Scotland and my name is Tim and i like japan, all the crowd seemed to like this and started to smile clapping hands and nodding, the highlight of the day for me was the huge picnic of rice fish and salad beautifully prepared we drank japanese green tea and beer. Later my legs had had enough of all the sitting as i can’t seem to sit too long how they do and i needed to get up and walk around, the fun and activities ended after one last adults tug of war which was the most fun for me, after this a prize giving where everyone wins their is no 1st 2nd 3rd everyone gets a prize the same, its seems that in schools everyone pulls together to create one team and i have noticed this a lot in Japan everyone is sort of at the same level which sounds a good idea but it does create many people that a scared of stepping out and being individual and as the children get older they struggle with their own identity.

While i was in Russia in Siberia at Lake Baikal i met a lone Backpacker called Ulysses, he is french and is traveling around the world with no fixed agenda, just randomly mooching about, he gets work where he can, sleeps in his tent or at train stations ect.

We met at a backpackers hostel in Irkutsk and he decided to join me on a trek around the Baikal lake area, we spent two weeks around the lake whilst i waited for vehicle parts to be sent to me from the Uk, Ulysses is a very independent lad and is easy to get on with so that makes him a good traveling companion, also we are not dependent on each other we share our resources together which enriches the adventure, he uses a fantastic hammock made from a large parachute to sleep in, he manages to use this in any place that we decide to park whether on a mountain or in a town car park. After our Baikal adventure we drove east out to Chita where we went our separate ways as he wanted to go south to South Korea and i needed to get to Vladivostock to find a shipping company to get to Japan.

Ulysses kept in touch via email and he had worked in Seoul for a while, before deciding to catch a ferry from South Korea to Shimonoseki in japan, so today he is arriving at the nearest station to where i am living, which is Takamori, it is the highest that a train can get into the Mt Aso area.

It was really good to meet up again and it was a surreal experience for the last time we parted it was in the crazy city of Chita in far east Russia and now we are in the calm and relaxing mountains of southern Japan, he told me he needed to be around nature again as he was really tired after working in late bars and living the 24/7 Korean lifestyle of Seoul.

We both went back to Edwins house and shared our missing two months since we last met.

We are planning to tour the southern part of Japan together and then head north to the Island of Shikoku where we will go our separate ways again and maybe meet up in South America in a year’s time.

Today i slept in a little due to the long day yesterday, i spent the day doing some computer work and reading, i got a phone call from Edwin at 16.10 p.m..

Edwin is the lad that i met through Itgen and Edwin has been fantastically kind to me letting me stay at his house and working hard at getting me into schools to be able to speak to the children about street children and the local news papers.

Edwin was very upset on the phone and he asked me to come to the school as soon as i could, i left what i was doing and drove up to the school, i was worried about what had happened and a felt that maybe someone in his family had died, I have not known Edwin long but we have built up a close friendship and we both enjoy music and talk about how we can fix the world, we have been very honest with each other during my stay.

I arrived at the school and was asked to attend the headmasters room, Edwin very upset sitting in a chair discussing something in Dutch on the phone, i asked a fellow teacher if his dad had died and they asked me how i knew, i said i didn’t, Edwin off the phone we hugged each other and i remembered how it was for me when my dad of 53 died suddenly too when i was 23. Edwin’s life has just changed at this moment and i just wanted to do what i could to help him, he has a lot of support from the teacher’s and has a lovely Japanese girlfriend chieko and i was touched by the fact that he had asked me to come as he needed a hug.

A phone call came through from his uncle that his farther had a serious stroke and has gone into a fatal coma.

Edwin was booked on the next flight to Amsterdam at 7 am in the morning, I told Edwin i would drive him to the airport in Fukuoka.

Edwin packed his things at the school and we made our way to his house to gather up his essential stuff to take back home to the Nederlands, Edwin made a call to his girlfriend who offered to take him from her house to the airport and i drove him to Chieko’s house about one and a half hours away, it was already 9.30 p.m. and they had a 4 hour journey to the north and he had to check in for his flight at 5 am. I gave them both a hug and they were on their way.

I made my way back to his house shocked by the afternoons occurrences he had told me i could stay at his house but it is strange now he has gone, i also felt how he must be feeling now and i remembered how when my dad died i was working driving trucks on the continent ,and i was in west london it was 7.30 am, and i knew it had happened before my mum told me, i had to drive to another delivery in yorkshire then a night in the truck before i could go home the next day, that was difficult as when you drive your brain is in overdrive.

It took me 6 years to really be at ease with his death and now today i feel a sense of calm, i know life is for living, we owe that to those who have passed and i want Edwin to know that everything will be ok in time, it’s through these experiences that have enabled me to be able to do this trip, i feel peaceful.

God bless you Edwin “My love goes to you” Tim Dennis

A very early start this morning, i was up at 3.45 am to meet up with two brothers from a Mitsubishi 4×4 center not far from where i am staying at the moment near Yamoto Cho Japan. This garage is family owned and i met the older brother when i was at the launderette next door to the garage, turns out that the family own the launderette too.

I became friends after he had helped with an electrical fault last week and he invited me to go motor racing with them today.

We drove 4 hours to the north west coast of the island which is mainly fishing and industrial and i was surprised to see fishing nets similar to where i live in Portling Scotland the type that are set out on poles at the coast line in the sand only on tidal beaches.

When we arrived at the race meeting it had started to rain fairly heavy and they parked their works truck up and unloaded the race car off their slide and tilt Mitsubishi truck, the race car is a Mitsubishi pajreo V6 3500 ltr which has been prepared for Dirt X 4×4 which is rallying but with some obstacles in it, I parked my toyota and put up the awning so we had some shelter from the rain, the rain was now full monsoon rain and the wind picked up too so we got soaked, I was already tired when the racing started at 10.30 am and started nodding off on a bench at lunch time, the brothers won the event outright and i never new they where so well known in their country for this kind of sport.

They bought me a typical japanese lunch box which is normal here but you would pay loads for in the Uk it had rice prawns battered chicken and various vegetables and we all sat around my car eating the food, then attended a presentation where they were given a trophy i also got a T Shirt for being the only “Giagen” foreigner there.

We packed up now in the blazing sun and left at 3 p.m and started the long drive home where i had to stop 3 times for coffee as i was nodding off.

On return to the Garage in Yamoto Cho we unloaded the race car and had some supper in a local Cafe, all of the day’s language activities involved nodding yes no and that kind of communication as i spoke next to no japanese and they spoke no English but you don’t need to speak the same language to have a good time “A smile say’s a lot”

When i left the Uk i asked a magazine Journalist what should i include in my blogs and he said the “the rough and the smooth” or “Warts and all” and i have had many ups and downs.

This kind of overland trip is very demanding and traveling on your own managing logistics and promoting my passion streetKids sometimes can be stressful.

Today it is very wet and the latest update on the typhoon Sinlaku is that it has claimed 12 lives and 14 missing in Taiwan, we are still unsure as to if it will swing towards us but on the edge of this low category typhoon it still is windy and wet.

I am sitting indoors it is humid and we have no air con system just a fan, i have given up showering all the time and i think i am acclimatizing to the heat “wow thank goodness for the spellchecker i would never have used acclimatizing before” I’m waiting on a delivery from which if it arrives today, and they said it would before 12 and it is now 3pm it will have taken 8 days to get here from the UK.

The photo on today’s entry shows some damage to the front bumper which is an aluminum bumper that was fitted the car in Russia, i exchanged the black metal bumper for this bumper at no cost and it has saved on maybe 25 kg in weight, yesterday after the demonstration to the Kumamoto high school my winch cable would not retract back so i wound it up by hand and stored it on top of the bumper, during the journey home the cable fell onto the road and went under the passenger tyre, i heard two loud thwacks and a hook flying up towards the windscreen and it bashed into the near side wing, i stopped the car and checked what had happened, the cord had jammed under the tyre twice pulling on the bumper tube bending it and the hook has dented the wing and pulled half of the wheel arch off too on the passenger side. It must have hit the car with a lot of force, i secured the cable more securely and drove back to Yamato cho where i am staying. So i know have to straighten the bumper repair the wheel arch fix the number plate the wing can keep the dents, and get the winch fixed, thats on top of the other electrical fault.

I don’t feel too well today and feel i should take it easy for a couple of days.

Seiryou high school in the heart of Kumamoto city on the southern island of Kyushu Japan, is a special school, as explained to me by inviting teacher Kuroak Tomoko her english was a challenge to understand, and when i asked how the school was special she told me that the students have phobia’s, this maybe partly true as i could believe anything here in Japan but speaking to the school’s in house councilor the students suffer from mild mental health problems and cannot attend mainstream education.

The school is a modern design with lots of open spaces and is completely different concept and feel than the conventional japanese schools, you still remove your shoes when you enter the school but the feeling is more relaxed students don’t need to wear uniform and they can choose what classes they want to do, they have access to computer gaming and cartoon magazines, at lunch the students ate packed lunches and could eat anywhere on the premises, this is so different from the Soyo high school where they make a ceremony and thanks for the meal and work together to serve and put away the food area.

I set up my vehicle for the outside demonstration by setting up as i was about to make camp putting up my tent and awning arranging the kitchen area too. I then set up my lap top with the help of two secretarial staff who giggled and smiled all the time. I was early and had time to sit with Kuroak to have a coffee while we waited for Daniel the schools English teacher and translator.

The class that i was giving my presentation to started at 11.30 am and we were inside for 35 minutes, Daniel was really good at translating my English to Japanese for the students so we were able to communicate with them really well about how their lives were different to the streetKids around the world, and their own problems had left them. The students find my mascot cartoon Rat “Dylan” funny and interesting and call him “Gaviee” which is cute!

I explained that not many people like rats or streetkids so they have something in common and they told me they loved them both.

We all left the classroom for the car park where i demonstrated how i live on the road and the importance of access to clean water a roof over your head and safety, they could see that i lived in a very basic way and loved the tent which folds open like a fan and is waterproof even with Japanese monsoon rain, the shower seems to be the main attraction to anyone that has looked at my car, they say “and it has a shower” it is a great asset to the car and i can have a shower anywhere, even in a car park with my swimming trunks on i can wash. I pulled out the winch line about 40 ft and got the students to pull on the line like tug of war, i tried this first at Soyo school and they loved it so much i tried it again and sure enough the students were pulling and they really want to pull the car along but they can’t get enough traction against the electric winch it is lots of fun.

It was time to call it a day and the pupils dispersed a few stayed for a group photo but the group was far more reserved and shy compared to the Junior school children, Daniel assured me that they did enjoy it.

Daniel myself and Kuroak had coffee inside with cake and we talked about the work i had done in England with Nacro and the Princes Trust as an assistant volunteer and in Scotland with young people in care, they then presented streetKids International UK with 8000 Yen gift donation from the school i was surprised and not expecting to be given this they were so kind and wished me all the luck with my travels and work with streetKids International.

Many Thanks to the students at Seiryou high school for inviting me and all the teachers and staff. Tim Dennis

I’m sat in a Japanese garage because i have an electrical fault with my indicators, it looks like a bad earth to me, i have tried to fix the fault myself but really i need an electrical tester on the job. We have now been working on the job for the last 4 hours and it seems complex we cannot find why their is a bad earth on the car, the car has too much electrics The garage is similar to West coast 4×4 in Banks Southport UK, it is a family run business and the sons and daughter are into 4×4 racing and off road driving they race Mitsubishi Pajero’s and drive Toyota landcruiser’s to go out in.

The weather is getting worse at the moment winds are picking up and everyone here is keeping an eye on the Typhoon Sinlaku which is heading in this direction from Taiwan this is causing heavy rain and wind, however the Typhoon is a category 1 which is the least destructive and has a maximum wind speed of 95 mph, which the locals tell me is going to be ok, but when you are not used to hurricanes and typhoons you don’t know what to expect, a hurricane and a typhoon are the same except a typhoons is the name given to hurricanes in the pacific and comes from the Chinese word for strong wind.

I’m looking at my options for leaving japan for myself and the car. I am talking to three shipping companies two offering Ro Ro services which is where the car is loaded, as drive on cargo and the second option is to ship in a container. Ro Ro shipping is more cost affective but some people complain about the fact that the car can be interfered with whilst on board and on the dockside and this has happened to an English couple i met in Russia www.wrinkliesontherun.com they had shipped their vehicle from Seattle to Vladivostock and on collection in Vladivostock Russia had noticed that a lot of personal camping equipment had gone missing and also the alternator was broken.

This does not put me off as we have designed the 4×4 to be able to lock all of my loose equipment away. Container shipping does away with all these problems and you can put whatever you like in your own container but it comes at a cost and i am trying to keep cost as low as i can.

I have just been told by one of the companies that i am dealing with here in japan which is a Ro Ro operator, that he is not happy to ship the vehicle as the company does not except personal items and he doesn’t know how to define all the added equipment to the vehicle. I am not happy about this as they ship similar items like motor homes and other utility vehicles like exhibition units that are also out of the ordinary. This is is not good news on the Ro Ro idea as this information is coming from Willanius shipping’s office in Japan and they are the only option of Ro Ro to U.S.A that i have found.

The opposite of this is that i have a Ro Ro shipping company in Germany that is happy to ship the car, however they will have to use Willanius lines and that means that they will have to contact the Japan office and they could refuse to carry my vehicle .

So the next option which sounds the most logical is to container the vehicle and all my equipment onto a vessel called the Hanjin Madrid on the 28th of October, the exciting thing about this option is that i can book a cabin for myself on the same vessel which will call into Vancouver Canada and seattle U.S.A around the 5th or 6th of November 2008. I will look more into this option and get some prices for the Container for my car and inquire as to how we proceed with customs documentation. Meantime i have reserved a cabin on the hanjin Madrid for no charge, so far i am in contact with a London based company that specializes in this kind of freighter ship travel for passengers, the company are very helpful and i provide a link to their site if you want to see what freighter travel is all about. www.cruisepeople.co.uk

Today has to be the most rewarding day of my trip so far, i was asked to attend Soyo junior high school to do a presentation to two classes of children from ages 12 to 15. The presentation was an introduction to teach about charity and to give them an insight into the work of streetKids international. It was fantastic, i spent the previous day in the school meeting the teachers and preparing a slide show and video of my interviews in Russia. The teacher to invite me is Sayuri Mitsuda a lovely lady that has traveled to Europe and was very keen for me to interact with the children so that they would have to speak as much english as possible, a Japanese newspaper journalist had also attended to to take notes during the presentation and take photo’s and interview me after, it was so exciting for me and the students loved it, the two groups both had a 50 minute lesson of which 25 minutes were in the classroom looking at a slide presentation about who i was, who Dylan the rat was, where we were from and about street children around the world, streetkids international and how people can help, the students then asked me questions that they had learnt in english and Sayuri translated any words from english to Japanese and vice versa.

The second part of the class was outside where i had fully set out a camp site with my tent kitchen shower and awning, the children loved the water from the shower and climbed into the tent and over the car, i also extended my winch rope and the whole class tried a tug of war against the winch.

Teaching to japanese children is so rewarding as they are the most culturally polite people that i have met so far, every one shook my hand afterwards and some gave me a hug it was even emotional. I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to teach at this school and it has to be the most rewarding thing i have ever done.

I was invited to attend lunch in the food hall where the whole school attend a traditional lunch with etiquette and politeness that made me proud to be part of a highly organized japanese school, with all seated in the hall after lunch i was asked to stand in front of the whole school and was presented with photographs of the day’s activities, i made a short speech in english to the school and they thanked me.

I would like to thank Edwin Huits from the ALT Jet program who teaches english at the school for inviting me, Sayuri Mitsuda for inviting me to teach her classes. To all the children i have learnt more than you today and i will never forget your smiles and enthusiasm.

I would never had met Edwin if i hadn’t met Itgen Hansen on the ship from Russia. It was the 30th of August a hot sunny day at Kumamoto train station and Itgen and i had just driven 2 and a half days down from Toyama to the island Kyushiu which is where Itgen’s friend Edwin lives. Edwin pulled into the station car park with his girlfriend Chieko in his 750 cc Mitsubishi 4×4 which looked like a shopping trolley next to the Landcruiser Itgen had made it all the way over land and sea via the trans Siberian railway to visit his friend and i had just put the final link into his journey.

Edwin is an english teacher in the Kumamoto prefecture of Japan, he has been in Japan for 2 years and is from Nijmegen in the Nederlands. Edwin came to Japan by being only 1 out of over 200 applicants from the netherlands to be accepted onto the Jet ALT program which stands for The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) the program has been running since 1987 and was established to promote internationalization and mutual understanding through foreign language education and international exchange activities, now in 2008 their is 5100 participants. For more information into the program visit www.jetprogramme.org and www.clair.or.jp

Edwin has let me use his house as a base, it is in the most stunning location in the Mt Aso national park really in the countryside which is what i really love, he has showed myself and Itgen around so i have a better understanding of the local area and i now know allot more about japanese culture than i did before, i owe it to Edwin that he has given me the contacts to be able to teach in local schools about www.streekids.org and give me direct contact with Japanese people that i never would have had chance to do.

Their is no doubt that he is a very talented, devoted and i have to say a perfectionist, it is no surprise he was picked to do this job, he not only speaks fluent Japanese he can also read and write too which i find amazing as it all looks like squiggles to me. These are not his only talents he is artistic too, music has to be his most precious passion where he uses his small amount of free time to give him a release from his Job as teacher, he is in a band called Bashculture www.bashculture.com where all the band members are from different countries so its kind of clashculture i suppose in a creative way, he is full of forward and innovative ideas to promote the band and he produces all the music which is what he used to do in the Netherlands when he worked for a recording studio. I am delighted that the band has hinted that they may write and Record a RamblingRat benefiting streetKids theme tune and possibly find a way in the future to raise funds too for street kids too.

So i would like to say thank you to Edwin Huits for letting me stay at your home and all the positive work you have done giving me the chance and the confidence to teach.

The above picture is taken in central Hiroshima at the peace memorial and to the top right of the picture just above my ear is the only surviving building said to be directly below where to first atomic bomb was dropped by the America in the second world war. I don’t really know what to say to you but it is a very emotional place to be and i will also visit the Nagasaki peace memorial too, i can’t believe that in modern times and indeed still now we inflict such harm on fellow mankind.

Itgen and i have been traveling through Japan south to Yamoto where Edwin lives and we have seen all sorts of sites on our way down including Hiroshima, we have been sharing a cheap business hotel and the group is the Toyoko inn’s, it has cost me about £15 a night i would normally sleep in my tent but as Itgen hasn’t got a tent i have agreed to share with him on a twin room in the hotel, they are really clean with small rooms and really comfortable beds that are wide with feather duvets and i have to mention to all of you that have not been to japan that most of the toilets are electric and either have a heated seat and they wash your bum too, their is a keypad next too your leg and you just press what function you want crazy!

Edwin lives in the Mt Aso park which is like the lake district but bigger and is very mountainous and has a huge active volcano as the main attraction, I have visited the volcano which was a very steep long climb to the car park and my Landcruiser’s automatic gearbox overheated twice. I have also visited a huge gorge created by the Lava flow where you can hire a small boat to look at the water falls, Kumamoto Castle is interesting too and they have spent millions rebuilding it so its really a replica except the walls, I’m not really into visiting loads of pay attractions and in japan they are very geared to tourists. I enjoyed the peace of Suizenji Jojuen gardens with its temples shrine and bridges and beautiful coy carp fish, maybe i could have some coy fish in the future.

Edwin has said he would ask his school if i could come in and teach the children about my work with streetkids so we will have to see what comes of this. The weather is very hot mostly sunshine with some overcast days, I’m told that the typhoon season is coming so to expect more rain from now on in the south.