Flowers

Flowers! Everywhere flowers! I like living at this latitude. There are so many flowers! Flowers, flowers, flowers!!! I wish I knew what they were called.

Lunch

This is what I had for lunch today, along with a "drink bar" (all-you-can-drink soft drinks, tea, etc.). It's a "negi-maguro-aburi-salmon-don", or, a, "bowl of rice topped with green onions, raw tuna and roasted raw salmon". And of course some fish eggs, cucumber, shredded daikon, seaweed, a dollop of wasabi, and some sort of sweet-sour Japanese sauce.

Cost about ¥890.

Coming Home From Tokyo

I spotted this all-too-common sight and couldn't help but want a photograph. Big news today.

Fushimi Inari Jinja

Fushimi Inari Jinja at night is a fun thing to do if you like hiking and aren't too spooked by many many many many shinto altars and statues and torii gates. I believe it said it was 4km round-trip, but since the maps along the hiking trail are notoriously disorienting, probably we walked a good deal more than that. We started at 9:05 and ended around 10:30.

Philosopher's Walk

Of course, each time I visit Kyoto, I try to find new places to visit. The Philosopher's Walk, however, is worth visiting every time I'm in town. I fell in love with the Higashiyama area from the first time I visited during the peak momiji season, and this was the second time we've been to see it during the hanami season (a day or so early, but some of the sakura blossoms were out).

Ninja

Iga Ninja Demonstration

Today we continued our adventures in the Kansai region by heading out east to Iga-Ueno to see the home of the Iga Ninja.We spent far more time getting to the Iga Ninja Museum than we did at the museum, but after reading up on the history of the Ninja, it seemed worth the trip. These kids certainly thought so, too.



Laurie & Kerri got ninja-certified:

Kamakura & Yokohama

The 7:05 direct train to Kamakura.
Wasabi Potato Chips, Koala Cookies, Cafe Au Lait.

Met 2 girls from Edogawa High School. They moved so we could sit together. They had a clean, mature look about them and were friendly.

Weather overcast but warm enough.

Got more overcast.

Went to Engakuji. Saw a crane catching fish in the zen pond. Enjoyed tea after climbing 141 steps to the Bell Tower. Walked to Kenchoji and picked up Imo Soft on the way. At Kenchoji, we got to see a Starving Buddha on display. Also, we entered a building and were able to walk around back and admire its garden. From the back of Kenchoji we continued towards the Tengu shrine place. Bought an omamori there and took pictures. Then we walked to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. Ate 6 giant takoyaki balls and a fakey frankfurter. Walked Dengokuoushi to Hokokuji. Was given directions by a nice man riding his bike. Hokokuji blew us away.

Walked back to Wakamiyaoji Street and checked out a Kamakurabori shop (too expensive). Then went down Komachidori to Kamakura Station, took the Enoden line to Hase Station and got out. By that time it was raining. Healthily. All the folks getting off the train (at least a hundred) were queueing up to get cheap umbrellas at the only 100円 store immediately outside the station, so we weeded our way through and ran up trhe road, ducking under eaves where we could and keeping our eyes open for umbrellas. Laurie went into an electronics shop where she was given a spare umbrella by the owners. Soon after we found a shop selling umbrellas and picked up a blue, a green and a pink one for 300 yen a pop. They were small. Next, we made our way to Kotokuin to see the Buddha. Waited with Laurie under the 山門 while Kerri & Brandon went in. Then we made our way back to Hase Station, picking up some more imo soft on the way. And croquette. By then the rain was slower and had nearly stopped.

From Hase we went to Kamakura station and then to Ofuna where we transfered to another line. From there we continued on to Ishikawacho Station which is just on the edge of Yokohama Chinatown. We walked around. Nearly ate at a restaurant but left because of the cigarette smoke and the long wait for someone to come take our order. Instea, we bought 豚まん (Laurie and I traded curry for chashu) and ate it at Starbucks. From there, we walked through Yamashita Park and headed towards the Ferris Wheel. Laurie treated everyone to a ride. It takes 15 minutes to go around once. On the ride, we got a peep in the windows of X Hotel. After this we walked to Sakuragicho Station and took the train to Yokohama, where we waited for the 19:22 direct to Kazusa Ichinomiya.

On Mom's 28th Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!

During your Japanese birthday, we:

nearly tried octopus...

...did play air-guitar with a daikon radish...

...hugged some imitation-wood vinyl rugs.



Lastly, we went out for dinner (Brandon's treat!) and had a great time hanging out. We figured that's what you'd want to do, so that's what we did.



Have a wonderful day!

Love,

The Japanese Contingent

Hidden Things In Kamakura - 1

In the back of Kenchoji is a shrine/temple dedicated to karasu tengu (crow beaked mountain goblin-gods). We found it on accident last time we were in Kamakura, only because we'd been hiking in the mountains and our descent landed us there. So we decided to come back. And good thing we did, too, because one of them blessed Laurie.



Okay, not really. But there are a lot of statues on the side of the hill that are very photogenic. Kenchoji could make so much money if they sold little army-figure-sized versions of these.




Turns out, this part of the temple was created in the 1890s after a priest had a dream in which he was told to enshrine the tengu, and in the war years the statues were confiscated because they were made of iron, so the ones we saw yesterday were put there in 1979. In any case, I was so excited to see it I had little trouble getting up the 250+ stairs.

The Beauties of Kenchoji

Long the top-ranked Zen temple in Kamakura, Kenchoji continues to impress me every time we visit. This time we also were privileged to see a special exhibit of a rare starving Buddha statue. I am still looking into whether this piece is owned by Kenchoji and is merely being displayed because it's spring (many temples "air out" their collections of national treasures once or twice a year in order to keep dust from settling and so they can charge you to see what they've got) or because it is possibly on loan from somewhere. In any case, starving Buddha statues are rare and this is the first time I've seen one in the flesh, so-to-speak, outside of a textbook.






I'm guessing by the presence of the 5 colored curtains hanging around the hall that this is a pretty important cultural property.

Also worthy of note is the marvelous dragon painting on the ceiling. In Japanese mythology, dragons were the guardians of the sky. Being sky creatures, they were also water-deities, and therefore it was thought that a dragon would protect the buildings by warding off fire.

Here you can see the stylized clouds around the outside of the painting.

While we're at it, how about I throw in a picture of common items found in temples. The big bronze bowl is a bell, and so is the little one that's on the desk in front of it, and so is the interestingly carved wooden mokugyo on the pillow to the right. I had the chance to sound one of the big bells off one time. The sound lasted for well over a minute.


Finally, a shot of a garden.

Picking Up Brandon & Kerri

Today's exciting items:


A policeman standing on the platform at Monoi Station. (Monoi is a barren, not-busy place).
Another policeman between Narita Station & Airport Terminal 2, tapping me on the shoulder and asking me if a bag is mine or not.
Thinking, "Hm...I could be riding next to a bomb!"

Kerri & Brandon Arrive: Days 1 & 2

I’ve only seen Narita-san (it’s like saying, “Mr. Temple” but that’s what it’s called) from the train, as usually when I’m going to Narita it’s for picking people up or dropping them off at the airport, but someday I hope to go see it.


On the ride home this cute little girl kept furtively glancing over at us, and so I casually included her in the picture. She was too shy to say hello, but I could tell she really wanted to play with us.



This morning we were all up early and the momentum carried us to Showa-no-Mori, where one Mountain Sakura tree is still faithfully carrying the torch, so-to-speak, while all his plum tree brethren have long since ceased their blossomings.



After visiting Toke High School, we all went out at noon to Chiba City. Laurie and I are breaking Kerri & Brandon in for next week's trip to the Kansai region. We kept them on their feet from noon until 8:30. No rough terrain yet. That's tomorrow. Here the are just out the door.



Brandon looked so good today. I think that girl was checking him out.



We stopped at the library to see what Japanese books are like. Kerri gets quite absorbed with her reading. She likes to read big books. Ha ha.



And one more before bed:

I Think They Meant "Gentle"...

A lot of construction is going on in our town lately. This sign is from a recently completed set of apartments.

I tried thinking of an appropriate comment for a good ten minutes before posting this, but only inappropriate things came to mind.

Updates

Just 2 days ago I finally started to look my age. Prior to that, I felt I looked both younger and older, but not 27. Maybe it was a good hair day, I don't know. Anyway, today in class I realized this is the age my first Japanese ALT was when he taught me in my first year of Japanese. Maybe that's why this year's sophomore class is so endearing to me (lucky for them, too, because their work ethic isn't exactly bent on English mastery of late).

Two thoughts occurred from this:

1. I should get in touch with Toyama 先生. Even though it's been a while since my last correspondence with him, I can reasonably assume he would be happy to hear something from me since I know I'd be glad to hear from some of my students in 10 years or so.
2. I should conform this blog to my original intentions, which were to post bilingually, and to keep things short, frequent, and media-rich.

The day being well spent, I'm saving item #1 for another time; concerning #2 however, I just started up a parallel blog for Japanese entries. So for anybody interested in reading (and correcting!) my Japanese, please take a look. Nouvelles de Toke in Japanese. There's not much there currently, but depending on how long my current spirit of revival holds out, I may just be able to duplicate some of the posts here in Japanese. Approximately.

And now, to keep things media-rich, my favorites of the day:

豚まん, contains pork. So why not make it look like a little piggy? I'd still eat it.

I had to take a photo of this one. Canned bottled water. Only ¥100, too.

Wishlist: Recording The Beatles

It recently occured to me that someone reading this might have an extra hundred dollars laying around they don't yet have a use for. If you happen to be such a person, I am here to help. This morning I found just the thing to take your anxiety away. Take that worthless hundred dollars, buy me this book, and have a wonderful day!

Today's Photos

I went to Showa-no-Mori this morning and took a few pictures (okay, like, forty) of the plum trees which are blossoming now. If I didn't have a stuffy, runny nose and sinuses more tightly packed than a 7 o'clock commuter train from Shinagawa to Shinjuku, I would be able to tell you about how wonderful the scent was. But as it happened, I could barely smell anything. Just a second of sweet cinnamon and then it went static on me. Even that was enough to recall those times when I haven't had a head cold. Simply put: Ume blossoms are better than any other blossoming of any plant I can think of, year-round. They even beat out the lilac bushes in Grandma's backyard in summertime. I swear, if Heaven gets fashioned for each of us differently, mine will have a giant grove of always blossoming plum trees somewhere near the entrance...



On a different subject...
I'd thought I'd finally found a great place to upload photos online in Picasa. I tend to like everything Big Brother Google does for us, because Google likes to do things massively and freely (take Blogger, for instance, or Gmail). However, I just found out that my limit for pictures there is 250MB and they do something funny with their compression (I know because the buds in the top photo of this post should be much deeper red and the contrast and saturation levels are muddied somewhat on all the photos compared to the originals). Turns out I'd have been better off with Flickr because there I have no limit so long as I only upload so much per month. I don't like Flickr, though, because Yahoo! owns it and the more Yahoo! touches stuff the less useful and more Spam-filled it gets. Alas...

Is there no company out there who will give me unlimited uploads forever and charge me nothing? And have all the best options and add-ons? And do my ironing?

Hinamatsuri Displays - ひな祭りの品物

On March 3rd, the Japanese celebrate Hinamatsuri, also known as the Doll Festival (and sometimes the Peach Festival because it used to occur during peach blossom season). It's mainly a day for families with girls, and part of the celebration includes displaying Hina Dolls.
[You can read more about the festival here and here if you want, but this post is just going to be about the displays.]

"Hina" can be understood to mean little and cute, small and lovely, or miniature ("matsuri" is the Japanese word for festival) and the prominent little cute miniature things around Hinamatsuri are certainly doll displays. They can range from $20 up to $2000 in price, and are made of all sorts of materials, mostly porcelain or plastic made to look like porcelain, and also really nice fabric. My understanding is that the principal characters are the Emperor and Empress, and the others are their retinue. Smaller sets display only the royal couple and instead of the various lords, ladies and servants, it is popular to include ornaments such as lamps, lanterns, tiny food offerings, flower petals (especially peach blossoms), and various symbols of long life or good fortune or love (cranes, rabbits, cherry or plum blossoms come to mind). Over the past few weeks I've made it a goal to snap as many photos of these as I can. I've posted the full set on Picasa if you want to see them all; meanwhile, here are some of my favorites with a few comments thrown in for good measure.

This one I'd say is a typical display, excepting the fact that it's glass-enclosed. But it's got the royal family, three court ladies (sannin kanjo), some flowers, lanterns, a wagon and what seems to be a mikoshi, with some peach blossoms blooming on the gilded wall in back.

This one is smaller, and is made out of Japanese fabric. Notice that the couple are seated in peach blossoms, and that adjacent displays also have peach blossom motifs.

I like this variation a lot. The royal couple being rabbits, it makes sense that the food should be carrots instead of rice dumplings! Also worth mentioning is the background of plum, pine and bamboo trees (these trees have a special meaning, and are featured together especially during the winter) and the cherry blossom fabric underneath the display.

This set is from a sort of Kmart-like store, where you can buy goods of all kinds at low prices. It's got all the trappings of its more expensive relatives (the flower arrangements, food offerings, multi-layered kimono, and folding screen background) but if you take a closer look you can tell it's not of the highest caliber. Even so, I believe it was around ¥2000 ($16).

On the opposite end of the price-scale, we have here a set from the Sogo Department Store's 9th floor, "Ye Olde Japan-Style Goods" shop. (They don't actually call it that, but it does a good job of selling totally upper-class, high-end products in a patriotic way. I imagine the Japanese who shop there feel nostalgic for the good ol' days without remembering that back in those same good ol' days, no one could afford this stuff.) Priced at ¥189,000, it's the most expensive couple on this post. I wasn't sure if the small chest of drawers came with, but I think it was supposed to.

This is a closeup of the dolls. It's not in focus, but you can tell that the material used to make their clothes is real, and the Empress' hair below the braid looks like doll hair. I doubt they make them anymore, but some time ago, Hina dolls were made with human hair.

The Hinamatsuri itself doesn't occur until March 3rd, so I have a few more weeks to collect photos. I'm curious to find the biggest, most audaciously expensive display. The other day at a train station I saw a poster advertising a huge event down in Katsura, where they fill up an entire street with dolls, so maybe we'll go check that out too if there's time.