Happy Birthday, Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday.

Or at least, it's his birth-date over here.

Recently I've been remembering a lot about times spent with Dad in the Great Northwoods. I can't say exactly how many times we've been "up North" and I couldn't point out more than a handful of places on a map that we've been to (because we've been to many and because my memory stinks). I know that Dad's taken us, as a family or one-on-one or in small groups up somewhere since I was very very small. So some memories are blurry and post-natal and deeply ingrained. Others, fortunately, are more clear and recent.

Last time I went camping with Dad it was just the two of us. I just finished college and had no job, and it was early summer or late spring time. We drove a long time. Maybe 8 hours? 12? (like I said, my memory...) and we camped somewhere near the Canadian border. Aside from the two ancient fogies who rented us their campsite and possibly one or two other groups, we were the only humans around for several days.

The stars were visible. The air was clear. We brought along too much junk food and ate all of it. I got to see a loon go fishing in 3 feet of water right after I got done bathing in it. We picked wild fruits growing on tiny islands in the middle of a lake. I don't remember what kind of fish we were after or how many we caught. Really I remember just images and smells and such. But my favorite part of the memory, as with any memory of being in the wild, is the part that includes my earthly father.

Jason and Kerri and I have been lucky to have such a dad as ours. He's humble and honest and generous and loving. He isn't a perfect human being, but he's never hidden that from us, and so we've never had to carry a lot of baggage with us into our adult lives. He taught us to pray and he showed us what it means to repent. He's hard working and fair. And he has a way with words that inspired me to study linguistics in college, if you can believe it.

Unfortunately, today I have no alchohol in the house. Not a drop of liquor. So I'll have to raise my glass of tea instead, and next chance I get to mix a Brandy Ol' Fashioned ("Sweet"), I'll drink it in his honor. If any of you reading this know my Dad, wish him a happy birthday when you see him. And if you can, give him a hug. If there's one thing I hate about being in Japan today, it's that I can't grab a hold of my dad and give him a hug and tell him I love him in person.

Happy Birthday, Pop!

Little Known Fact

At once elegant and elaborate, kimono are meant to complement the women wearing them. I think this one looks rather nice on Laurie.





Of course, men can and do wear kimono, but generally (excepting TV stars and sumo wrestlers) the color and design is more subdued.

One interesting thing I learned about men's kimono concerns the article known as haori (羽織), which is worn over the top of everything like a tuxedo jacket, mostly during formal occasions:

Even though the outside is simple and plain, it's the inside of these jackets that's the interesting part. Take a look.




The little round man above is Daruma, a favorite of mine and a character you're likely to see a lot of in Japan. You can read more about him here.

A Suprise Snowfall

Last year it snowed twice. The first time was a sort of dandruffy snow that amounted to a cold, dry version of sleet, and it was gone before it hit the ground. The second time it melted the next morning, but we did get sopping wet playing in it, and the snowman we made in the park took nearly a week to collapse in the heat (I gave him my good hat, too...).

Well this year we got some real snow. Even the roads had ice! It nearly felt like home. Except here we can walk around in sneakers and not worry about frostbite, unlike back home. Also, there are no snow-plows or trucks spreading rock salt on the roads--just neighbors who, lacking anything resembling a driveway, take it upon themselves to shovel out a sizeable part of the street instead [see below]. Which means that we've had to risk breaking our necks (or backs, or arses) every time we go out of the apartment, because most of the roads and sidewalks are left untouched.



Still, the snow is beautiful and reminds us of what we're probably missing, and it justifies my having bought a nice poofy down-filled winter coat this year, too. Anyway, on to today's quiz quesiton:

What's the difference between a snowman in the U.S. and a snowman in Japan (other than the language they speak)?

Dinner at Ichinoyu Shinkan Ryokan

Here you can see the courses we were served for dinner at the ryokan. I'm not certain of any of the names of things, but I'll try to explain as best as I can. Starting from the top:

1. An appetizer platter consisting of tuna salad salad, also peppered, rare beef, eggplant with a sort of BBQ sauce , pickled (?) fish, and a really yummy, beautiful thing that seemed to include couscous and was wrapped with raw fish and onion (I think, maybe; anyway, you can't see it as it's behind the tuna salad salad).



2. A nabe pot of mussels, carrots, bacon, enoki and shiitake mushrooms, and Chinese cabbage.



3. Shrimp, calamari, and daikon in a chicken, um...glaze? (it was the consistency of a really thick Chinese sweet-sour soup, and you can see the chicken bits floating around in it).



4. Pickled vegetables.



5. Red Snapper, mmmm!



6. Yuzu Sorbet for dessert.



The meal was delicious. Interestingly, it was also required. You see, normally, when making reservations to stay at a ryokan, you can opt out of dinner. However, today is the beginning of the winter holiday season, so the ryokan required everyone to have dinner. But we figured if we were going to have a vacation and stay at a nice place, we may as well pay the extra ¥3000/person and enjoy ourselves. And so we did.

Boat Ride on Lake Ashinoko

We took a little excursion to Hakone this week for an early Christmas vacation. Money and time permitted one night and two days, otherwise we'd certainly have stayed some more. Hakone is a very popular vacation spot for Japanese and foreign visitor alike, and is noted for its spectacular views of Mt. Fuji, a nice big lake complete with odd 17th century-styled warships, and hundreds of hot spring baths, as well as local woodworking crafts known as yosegi-zaigo.

We took a ride in one of the above mentioned boats (modeled after King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden's "Vasa") during our trip. This picture is from the main deck, looking north-ish towards Mt. Komagatake, which has an observation tower at its summit. The white cloudy sky to the left of it is obscuring the aforementioned view of Fuji-san, but he was there. Also, you can see the red torii gate at the water's edge, marking the entrance to Hakone Jinja.

A Cool Playground

The Hakone Open Air Museum has a really neat play area for kids. Check it out. Kids can climb into various nets...all the way to the top! Or, they can swing on the balls that look like drips coming from it. Oh to be little again...

Post of the Day

I haven't blogged anything recent lately, because I've been getting some old news up. So you'll have to scroll down to see it, or even check the archives. I finally took a Saturday and went through a lot of pictures from Brandon's visit back in October, and so a few posts are sneaking in through the back door. When I figure out how, I'm thinking of adding a new sidebar option where you can see the newest post, not just the most recent dated post. (I do a lot of retroactive posts on this blog.) Believe it or not, Brandon has a blog about his trip here, but you'll have to ask him for the link.

Anyway, it's mundane, but here's some news:

We bought a kerosene space heater. I guess they don't sell them in the U.S. much anymore because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. But they're big sellers over here. Cheaper than other methods of keeping warm.



Anyway, this is what it looks like.

Bunnies!

Click on the picture above and be sent to an hilarious site I just happened upon. You can watch your favorite movies in about 30 seconds, done by bunnies. This one should put everybody in the Christmas spirit.

Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving, but we didn’t get the day off. Nor has their been any football games on TV. But we still have plenty to be thankful for, and to celebrate, we even had something resembling a Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to the Stove Top® Stuffing and Instant Gravy mom sent us a while back.



I hadn’t remembered the gravy until after I’d finished the chicken, so instead I made the chicken oriental-syle (sort-of). Oh, yeah, it was chicken, too. Ha! The only place we know around here where we can get turkey is at Subway--and it’s one leg at a time, for around four bucks a pop (¥460).

Storm Troopers Take Tokyo

No longer content to dominate feeble galaxies populated with Ewoks, Wookies and Tusken Raiders, an advance detachment of Storm Troopers accompanied Darth Vader to a local electronics shop here in Tokyo tonight. Our new overlords soon provoked a counter-attack from local Rebels after taking an unarmed Japanese woman (see below). Equipped only with Keitai Blasters, Rebel forces set their guns to stun, as it wasn't certain whether or not the Empire had dispatched any Star Cruisers within striking distance. We were able to capture this footage, and left before the fighting escalated, so what happened to the woman is anybody's guess.



The "official" word from the Imperial News Service denied reports of an upcoming invasion and insisted that the unannounced appearance was only a publicity stunt for Darth to promote his new movie. Imperial News also reported that the woman was a well known smuggler of pirated DVDs. Local accounts differ, however, and as always, everyone here is taking the Empire's "official" report with a grain of salt.

Hokusai

Today was as close as we can get to Thanksgiving in Japan for two reasons: First, it's the day before Thanksgiving, and Second, it's a national holiday and the theme is something like "Thanks to Workers Day".

So we met up with Akiko and Tetsunori to go see the Hokusai Exhibit at the National Museum. The leaves at Ueno Park have finally turned colors, so today was as good a time as any to go and have a walk. Actually, thousands of other residents thought so too.







We got to the museum around 10:30 or so, and the wait in line was only a half hour long. When we left sometime after noon, the wait had trebled.

* * * * * * * *

Naturally, photography was prohibited inside the museum, but the trip was well worth the price: over 500 original works were on display, and were shown in order of six stages of Hokusai's life as an artist. We also got to see all the prints from his famous 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series (including #2 above), several samples of his Manga sketches, and many of his paintings (including the one below).



While we were there, we also made sure to visit the statue of Saigo Takamori and his dog. He continues to be very popular with Japanese people, as does his monument. Incidentally, the 2003 movie, The Last Samurai is sort of based on him. Sort of.

Marvelous Curry Party

Tony & Louise had us over for a sumptuous curry meal as a birthday present to me. And man what a wonderful gift: bellies full of excellent food! I say bellies, because I tried my darndest to eat as much as possible, and I hope for her sake Laurie did too. Does that man know how to cook or does he know how to cook!



And the twosome make a grand pair of hosts. Always engaging in conversation, banter and witty remarks, always hospitable, likeable and amicable. Truly these two are born Entertainers, in the "have some folks over for dinner" sense of the word.



I asked Tony a little bit about the process of making a curry, since it's his hobby and I was curious, and it turns out that there is a lot that goes into making one from scratch.



Some even take days to prepare, and all take various spices in differing quantities, put in at specific times and at certain special temperatures. I fancy myself lucky that taking a picture of the curry isn't nearly so time-consuming or difficult (else I couldn't hope to master it). So here's as much as I can share. You'll have to see Tony and Louise if you want anything more palpable!

What's in A Name?

This one’s out of order, but that’s because if it were in order (chronologically), probably no one would see it.

We went to Yokohama with Brandon and made sure to stop by Chinatown. Yokohama has Japan’s largest Chinatown, so if you’re ever in the mood for Chinatowns, and you only have Japanese locations to choose from, well then I guess Yokohama’s the best decision to make.

Not that that’s the only reason why we went. Anyway, I had to snap a shot of this restaurant.



...Hungry, anyone?

Bye-Bye Brandon!

Tomorrow we've gotta take Brandon to the airport. He's been here for two weeks, and we have tons of stories to tell yet (in time, all in time, people).

Fly safe, Buddy.

大阪料理 - Osaka Cuisine

After enjoying the view from the Floating Garden Observatory, Shige led us to a swanky okonomiyaki restaurant somewhere on the 17th floor of one of the many buildings in Umeda.



That's what it looked like before it was cooked. We didn't waste much time taking pictures after it was done cooking.

After the excellent repast, our man Shige took us to one of his favorite haunts, Org. He said he likes it for the ambience and because it's food is so "...organic" It was here that Shige and Laurie both agreed that, despite being full, one always has a second-stomach for dessert. I’ve since learned that there is a Japanese term for such a thing. It's called 別腹, (betsu-bara, literally "separate-stomach"). And good thing we all have them, too! Because the dessert was excellent!



Many thanks for showing us around, Shige!

Fushimi-Inari Shrine

Before heading south to Osaka, we stopped for a visit to the famous Inari Shrine in Fushimi ward. Best known for a walking path made of thousands of torii gates, it's also worth visiting if you want to ensure yourself a good harvest, as Inari is the Shinto god in charge of such things.







Inari is often depicted as a white fox (above), and Inari shrines are to be found throughout Japan. You'll know you're at one when you see statues like this one. Another indication of an Inari shrine, I am told, is that typically the torii gates at Inari shrines are painted vermillion.





You can see on the map that the torii gates cover quite a distance. (They are the orange scribbles following several sloping hills towards the mountains in the background.) There are literally thousands of gates there, each one donated by some individual, family, or company. While unfortunately we didn't have time to trek the entire path, we did get to see the first few hundred meters or so, and it impressed us enough that we're eager to return (someday...).

Umeda Sky Building

We met Shige at the Umeda Sky Building sometime after sunset. This worked out nicely, though because the view from the "floating garden observatory" is equally as incredible at night as it is during the day. I can say that because now I've been there at both times (coincidentally, the last time was with Shige, too).

The Umeda Sky Building is really two buildings, capped off at the top with the aforementioned "floating garden observatory". The observatory is round-shaped, and on certain days I've heard tell that they have some type of fogger device that makes it look like you are viewing Osaka from on a cloud once you are on the outside deck. It is well worth visiting if you ever find yourself on the North side of Osaka with seven hundred yen in your pocket. For that price, you can go up to the top and see for yourself what I'm talking about. If you happen to have more than that in your pocket, then check out the basement. Down there they've reconstructed an Edo-era street and filled it out with Japanese style restaurants. We didn't go, but I saw some photos and ads for it while we were on our way through.

On clear days you can see quite a few local landmarks, and on clear nights you'll see quite a bit too. We counted five or six ferris wheels, among other things. Osaka Castle seemed like a tiny plastic model of itself among the modern buildings. Here is what it looks like from between the towers, looking up from ground-level through the ring of the observatory.



Unfortunately, only one picture of the view turned out, but here it is:

Pigeons

While in Kyoto, I happened to get a really nice close-up of a pigeon. I don’t particularly like pigeons.

Kiyomizudera

Chip liked the view at Kiyomizudera too.

In Kamakura

Me and Brandon took a quick two-day jaunt to Kamakura, thanks to the advantagest of the "Kamakura Free Kippu", a ticket that goes round trip from Chiba City to Kamakura and back, allowing unlimited travel on trains within Kamakura for the two days.

One of our stops was Hasedera, a temple in the Hase district of town known for it's really old Kannon statue that purportedly washed up from the ocean some eight hundred years ago. It's a beautifully laid-out temple and enjoys perhaps the best view of the ocean of all the places I know of in Kamakura, owing to the fact that it snakes along the side of a steep hill overlooking the shoreline.

Anyway, at the temple, if you go in, you might get the opportunity to gain mucho-karma. By spining one of these babies around (it works much like an old fashioned, by-hand grain mill), you gain the same amount of karma as you would if you'd read every one of the sutras (=scriptures) inside.