From Texas, In Japan

Discover if a square matrix is skew-symmetric.

The photos in the left column are from 2007, and the photos in the right column are from 2013. My husband and I have visited the beautiful Geibikei Gorge in Japan twice now. In 2007, I had just graduated from college, and David was in his second year of living in Karakuwa as an ALT with the JET Programme. Today, David's here as a grad student and I'm the one who's teaching kids, heh! Geibikei was one of the spots we wanted to revisit the most because it made such an impression on us the first time.

Our first visit was during the month of October, and our second was near the end of November. That made a difference in the scenery. In October, the foliage was lush and green, and in November, it was multicolored. Our first visit did have a couple of advantages--there was less cloud cover, and the warmer weather meant that we didn't need a covered boat. The covered boats are fun to ride in and warm, but it's harder to get photos : ) The koi fish were still active in October but were nowhere to be seen in November.

Learning Japanese is difficult for me, and my study progress seems glacial. I use a textbook, a highly recommended free app called Obenkyo, and advertisements left in our mailbox. The textbook and app are solid foundations, and the advertisements are a little fun, but I need something interesting, too. TV is way out of my league, as is almost everything, even typical interactions.

To that end, I decided to find an easy to read manga! I got some great recommendations from this site: http://japanesetease.net/easy-to-read-manga-for-japanese-beginners-vol-01/. The top choice was a manga called Yotsubato, or "with Yotsuba," the name of the protagonist. It's about a kid experiencing everyday problems. A couple of other people recommended that title for beginners as well, and it seemed like exactly the kind of book I would want to read. 

Hi all, this is Karen's husband David.  This is my first post on this Tumblr.  I'm going to talk a bit about my beloved local soccer team, Vegalta Sendai.

I am a big fan of soccer in general, but specifically I follow Major League Soccer (MLS), America's top-tier men's league.  I thought it would be interesting therefore to discuss Vegalta Sendai and the J-League with reference to the MLS.  The J-League is only slightly older than MLS, having been founded in 1992 (1996 for MLS), so the comparison is perhaps more appropriate than if either were stacked up against a European league.

Vegalta Sendai's home ground in northern Sendai (Sendai's population, by the way, is about a million) stacks up pretty well against MLS stadia.  It's called Yurtec Stadium, was built in 1997, and seats about 20,000.  It's got natural grass and a partial roof all the way around.  There are no stages (yay) or beer gardens (boo).  It's a 5-minute walk from the nearest subway station, and the station itself is about 20 minutes by subway train from Sendai's main downtown station.  Subways here run very frequently, so stadium access is a cinch.  Yurtec isn't a pretty stadium and doesn't have a ton of personality, but it does contain several displays related to the Italian national team, which trained here during the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan.  Perhaps the best thing about the stadium aesthetically is Nanakitakoen Park out back, a huge and well-manicured public space full of trees, fountains, walking trails, and a large yard for pick-up games, kite-flying, and hanging out.

When it comes to attendance, Vegalta would be within MLS's typical range, but most J-League teams actually do not draw well.  Vegalta is probably averaging about 15,000 this year (check the 2013 Vegalta Sendai season Wikipedia page, which I alone seem to maintain, and run the numbers if you like), but it's not at all unusual for games to draw over 17,000.  Yet many of Vegalta's opponents routinely draw less than 10,000, and only a few J-League teams like Urawa Red Diamonds can pull in over 30,000 on a regular basis (in MLS, only Seattle Sounders can boast that and more). Vegalta fans in my biased opinion stand out in the J-League not only for their numbers but for their spirit.  For a normal league game the stadium not only looks but feels full, and the atmosphere is comparable to the current Sporting Kansas City crowd (I have been fortunate enough to attend a game at Sporting Park), with a large supporters' group that sings throughout the match. Most fans have scarves and display them at the beginning of each game while singing the tune of "Country Roads" by John Denver.  Vegalta's fans were just as present and vocal when Vegalta was a J-2 (second division) team, which it was for most of its existence including when I lived in this part of Japan several years ago.  Now that I'm back in the area, I'm thrilled that we seem to have settled into a comfortably mid-table J-1 existence (though we nearly won the league last year).

Though J-League attendance isn't as good as MLS's, it is easy to see that the awareness and popularity of the league is far superior here.  Baseball is by far the most popular sport in Japan, but Vegalta is ever-present as you walk around Sendai.  Ads are on the sides (and in some cases cover all) of vending machines, buses, and trains.  A large TV on top of a department store across from Sendai station displays information about the next home game, and there is a large glass display case in the central subway station.  I have seen many people wearing Vegalta gear out and about town.  A billboard as you take an escalator to the subway platforms at the main station gives equal space to all three of the city's professional sports teams.  A team store has a large street-facing entrance on Hirose Dori, one of the most popular shopping streets in the city.

Games are probably easy to watch on satellite TV, which most people have, but I can't speak to this because I only receive over-the-air broadcasts.  Sadly, the TV presence on the "free" channels (which aren't completely free in Japan, but that's another story) isn't great.  Their final home game of the year will be broadcast on local TV, so I'm looking forward to that and will probably watch from the comfort of home, but most are only available on satellite.  Still, many is the time I have caught highlights and recaps on a local news station.  MLS fans have reason to feel envious of the J-League in this category too, with the usual exception of Seattleites who have TV access to nearly every Sounders game.

This year I have attended a Vegalta Sendai Ladies game and an Emperor's Cup game for the men's team.  The Ladies drew rather well, about 5000 (this is the game in Yurtec pictured above), including a respectable contingent of hard-core supporters who sang the same songs with the same passion that they bring to the mens' games.  Women's professional soccer seems to be on about the same page in Japan as it is in the USA in terms of popularity, which makes sense considering that Japan and the USA have two of the best women's national teams in the world, taking first and second respectively in the last Women's World Cup and silver and gold respectively in the last Olympics.  One difference is that in Japan, most women's teams are affiliated with a J-League team, and I think the US would do well to follow suit.  There's a clear overlap when it comes to fans of the men's and women's teams. As for the Emperor's Cup, it's Japan's equivalent of the US Open Cup (or the FA Cup in England).  Unfortunately, it draws just as badly as the USOC, with only about 7000 attending the game I went to a few weeks ago.  It's in its 93rd year and has a slightly higher profile than the USOC given that the final is traditionally the last game of the season and always takes place in Tokyo.  The winner gets into the Asian Champions League, and I'm hoping Vegalta continues their run, because we won't finish high enough in the league table this year to make it in that way.

Today we took a stroll through a pleasantly misty and wet park in Sendai called Dianohara Forest Park. It lives up to the forest part of its name. Some areas reminded me of one of my favorite video games, Myst. In particular, the boardwalks in the pond area remind me of Channelwood. Unfortunately, due to the weather and my lack of professional photography skills, the pictures are a little blurry.