myers8sushi

Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-24T16:39:00.002+09:00

Well tomorrow is the big day. We are leaving Japan after living here for two years. The way I reckon it Logan has spent half of his life here. We have had an amazing time and have met a lot of wonderful people who we will miss terribly. But we are also excited to be heading home. It has been a long two years and we have people we love a lot and miss terribly that we will be seeing in a day. It is hard to sum up all the feelings that we have, but the biggest one is excitement. We are going to be back on American soil by this time tomorrow (well, about an hour ago according to our tickets.) So pray for our safety and speed as we head back home. And as we begin the process of once again packing up our belongings and building a new home in a new place. We will take it all one step at a time and just be excited to head back to アメリカ. See you soon.

Catching Up

2008-06-20T16:41:00.012+09:00

The past few months have been busy and slow all at the same time. Amazing as it is to think that our time here is drawing to a close. We are having to face the reality that we have to squeeze in all the things that we desire to accomplish in our time here into the next few weeks. We spent the majority of our weekends this past month or so scratching things off the list one at a time. We have been all over the Kansai region in search of excitement and adventure.

Probably the most exciting thing we have been to see during this time was the baseball game we went to at the end of April. Baseball is huge here and there is no other team that rivals the fan base of the Hanshin Tigers. That being said, there would be no other team for us. We would head off and see the Tigers play. Lucky for us the Tigers are considered a local team and we live a mere two hours by train from their home field. I tried to by some tickets for a day game on the twenty-ninth but the game was sold out by the time I tried to buy tickets, three weeks before the game. I settled for three tickets to the night game on the next day. Tiger’s games are almost always capacity crowds, in fact Tiger’s fans sometimes out number the opposing teams fans when the Tigers are the visiting team. We are talking about true fanatics.

We ventured down to Osaka to begin the trip to Koshien Stadium but not before we stopped off at the Hanshin Department Store. The Tigers are owned by the Hanshin Department store and this was the best place to find the proper attire to wear to the game. Logan and I each got a t-shirt and a hat to wear. We also bought some clap-bats to bang together while we cheered for the home team.

Next it was off to the stadium for a chance to watch the spectacle that is Japanese Baseball. I have been to a few West Michigan Whitecaps games in the past and going to a game with my Dad is usually one of the highlights of the summer for me. This game, while it fit the mental schema of a baseball game, was far different from what I am used to. I usually sit in the bleachers eating three dollar hotdogs and drinking five dollar beers chatting with family and friends while keeping half and eye of the game. There was too much going on at a Hanshin Tigers game to sit back and relax.

Our seats were along the third base line and near the field. They were not as prime as I had hoped them to be. A large pole blocked our view of the batter almost completely. It was not as bad as we feared because we still had a view of the action. We may not have been able to see what was happening on the infield, but we could see the fan section just fine. And maybe, just maybe, that is what we were there to see. Baseball is Baseball, but true Hanshin fans are fanatics.

We were able to see the die-hard fans in the seats behind the outfield. They would wave their giant flags in the air chanting and singing the Tiger’s fight song. We could also hear the pep band playing the music to accompany the singing. We reveled in the excitement and energy of the crowd. We tried to sing along with the song, trying to pick up the few words that we could. We would bang our clap sticks together in unison with the rest of the crowd. We were disappointed when the opposing team hit a home run. I must admit it was nice seeing one, but that is neither here nor there.
We had a great time at the game. I think that the most disappointing yet exciting part of the evening occurred when the unexpected happened. It was just before the seventh inning stretch began and the people began to pull out balloons. They proceeded to blow them full of air. Then just before the first pitch of the inning everyone simultaneously released the massive balloons. The meter long slender balloons rose into the air like confetti in reverse. Multi-colored balloons waved and danced on the currents as the air escaped from their untied ends until they deflated fully and came on their quick descent back to earth. Since we forgot to buy balloons at the Tiger's store, it was something we were not prepared for. And a splendid surprise it was.

We left after the eighth inning to try and beat the escaping crowd. We were sad to leave before we knew if our team was winning or not. That is the danger of leaving early from a game that was too close to call. But we also had to keep in mind the two-hour train ride back to our own time and the hour was getting late. I did check the Internet the next day to find that our team had beaten the Swallows six to five with a winning run in the last inning. Go Tigers!!

Night Blossoms Like Fire

2008-05-14T19:45:00.000+09:00

BOOM-Boom-knock. Broke the silence of our home. Was it the sound of the taiko procession making its way through the streets again? Boom-boom-knock, the sound came again. No, not taiko, someone was at the door.

It was Mark with an invitation to head back to the mountain. Our neighbors Justin and Mayumi were gathering a group to head to a park near the mountain. This park is ringed with cherry trees and spot lights to illuminate them in the darkness. That plan was to go hang out in the park drinking sake and enjoying some night blossoms.

We first headed to the grocery store to stock up on snack foods and alcohol. Then it was off to the park. But we did not make it there in a timely fashion. We walked through the streets and near the shrine next to Logan's school we could see, and hear, that there was something happening.

We walked through the still night air. Our peaceful evening stroll was interrupted by the BOOM-BOOM of a giant taiko drum. We could hear it in the distance and as we grew nearer we could see the crowd of people gathered to practice for the matsuri that would be happening in a few weeks time. Most of the people were dressed in their regular clothes; it was a bit weird for me to see students out of their uniforms. There were a group of men all dressed in traditional firefighting clothes, including antique helmets, and special chest plates. It was really cool to see the old way of dressing. But it raised the question of why dress like old time firefighters?

We found our answer soon enough. There were handmade pillars of gathered rice stalks and other dried plant material that towered into the air. They stood twenty feet tall at least. As we grew nearer we could see the torch reach up into the air and ignite the top of one of the half dozen or so sheaves. To the soundtrack of the booming drum the first of them began to burn. The heat radiated and the fire illuminated the dark night. If the booming of the drum was not enough, buried in stalk were firecrackers. As the pillar burned the firecrackers popped and burst punctuating the drum beats.

We stood and watched the fire and marveled in the opportunity to see such marvels. We went over and watched people drumming on the drum, others were watching the fire. We stood witness to the spectacle for a time, but then it was time to mosey along.

We continued up to the park at the bottom of the mountain where Justin and Mayumi were already waiting for us. We all sat down on a ledge at the back of the park and watched the flowers and listened to music that burst forth from the "dollar store" speakers hooked up to Mayumi's ipod. We had not sat for longer than ten minutes when the lights very unceremoniously shut off.

We sat in the dark and talked the late evening away. It was nice and peaceful to visit and commune with our friends and neighbors.
It was fun but bittersweet at the same time. A few more months and most of us will be leaving this place and going different ways. It is amazing to think that we have been here for almost two years now. Even more amazing is the fact that we will soon have to leave and return to start a new life in a new place. We are nervous and excited that another chapter to our adventure filled life will begin when we relocate to Colorado after we get back. We are nervous about what the future holds, but are confident that what ever is in front of us will be an exciting adventure.

Happy Children's Day

2008-05-05T19:45:00.004+09:00

We wanted to wish everyone out there a happy Children's Day. Today is known here as Kodomo no Hi or 子どもの日. We had a great day of spoiling Logan. We took him to Saty and bought a Tomica Car, and then over to the mall where we got an Anpanman CD. After dinner it was time to eat our cake.

Last year we had a cake that looked like one of the fish flags that flies outside our window. This year we bought a cake that was shaped like the helmet of a samurai warrior. We have had a great day as your day is just beginning, so Happy Children's Day.

Picnic in the Clouds

2008-05-03T19:00:00.000+09:00

Hachiman Yama is a magical place. All of the fun and exciting things center on the shrine that sits at the base of the mountain. The area is an old fashioned and quaint area that has a classic look to them. The canal that travels around the mountain from Lake Biwa comes near the shrine. The canal is one of the most picturesque areas in town. In fact it is one of the most authentically historical looking in Japan. Film companies will use this area when filming samurai dramas to achieve the appropriate look and feel. We even managed to recognize our own Hachiman Canal one time as we were watching a movie we rented from Tsutaya. We have also made sure to take a photo of the canal from the same bridge for each season.

We knew that the spring photo would have to be one taken during the height of cherry blossom season. Logan also had a real strong desire to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain. We decided that we would have a nice Sunday afternoon picnic at the top of the mountain. We walked from our home to the mountain stopping at the grocery store to pick up some food to eat.

We bought our tickets and hopped on the cable car ready to ride the ropeway to the top of the mountain. The ride to the top takes about five minutes or so and affords a fine view of the whole city. We looked out on the city as we gently swayed in the soft breeze and rode to the top of the mountain. We could hear the sounds of the city, which in today's case happened to be the sound of giant taiko drums beating all around the city.

Once at the top of the mountain we wandered to the backside of the mountain. The area at the back of the mountain is the viewing area. It is a wide swath of ground that looks out over the majestic Lake Biwa. On a clear day it is almost possible to see all the way to Kyoto, but this day the weather was hazy and we had trouble seeing the other side of the narrow lake.

We found a nice spot in the warm sun and laid out our tarp to eat our picnic. We were not the only group who had the same idea. There were about four other groups of picnickers scattered around the observation area. The weather was perfect for enjoying an outdoor lunch. A cool breeze blew through the air but the sun was out and it's rays on our skin kept our skin warm. We ate our lunch there at the top of the mountain. We had stopped to purchase various sandwiches, doughnut holes, drinks and even a slice of tuna, sweet corn and mayo pizza; yum yum.

After eating our lunch we walked back around the crest of the mountain and up to the temple at the top. The temple is a beautiful temple that sits at the very zenith of the mountain. We did not go in and look at all the statuary and regalia. Instead we played our favorite mountain top game of “hey can we see our house from here?” Well I am happy to report that with the help of the 12x zoom lens on our camera we did manage to see our apartment from the top of the mountain. To be honest we had to wait until we got the photos loaded up on the computer at home to see, but we very obviously have a picture of our home taken from the top of the mountain. We talked about all the things we have seen and things that we would see. We listened to the drums beat in the distance and wondered what the pounding was for.

Strange noises are a part of our lives here as I have mentioned before. This time it was the loud beat of the taiko drums that had us wondering what was happening in our little town. Little did we know that we would be finding out later in the evening...

Sakura Madness - はなみ (hanami)

2008-04-29T18:37:00.000+09:00

We were invited to ride in a small boat that was much like a wooden canoe. There was a community group that was offering rides and Logan was thrilled to take a ride. He was bouncing up and down and almost jumped into the shallow river before we had our turn to ride. When the boat did dock it was our turn to climb down to the landing platform. We climbed down the three steps so we would be level with the boat. We climbed aboard and moved to the far forward of the boat. Logan and Jenny were handed a canoe paddle as about two more families climbed aboard. Men wearing hip waders walked next to the boat to guide it up and down the knee-deep stream. Logan had a fantastic time paddling his oar in the water. He felt like such a big boy to be able to make the boat go. We rowed in the boat between two bridges, turned around in our seats and rowed back to the landing dock. It does not seem like much, but it really was a lot of fun.

After the boat ride we resumed our walk down the sakura-lined lane. It was not long before we received another invitation. This time it was less of an invite and more of a command. There was a middle-aged woman who was urging us rather forcefully to enter an old school that was being used as an art gallery. She stood there on the sidewalk and moved us rather gracefully to the entrance gate, showed us a photo of the painting she created, and told us to go look at the real thing. We did just that. It was nice to go in and see all the art. We saw paintings, sculptures, quilts, and lots of other types of art. I think that the most interesting was being able to see the very old, if not antique, school building. The halls with their wooden floors creaked as we trod quietly on them. Windows that looked out onto the barren playground and were flanked by blossoming cherry trees. We were surprised to be here, but it was a pleasant opportunity to see something that we did not expect.

We walked throughout the city looking at all there was to see. We saw more flowers and people than we ever thought we would see in the course of one day. But still it was nice as the walk brought into neighborhoods we had not yet visited. We walked along a small stream that ran parallel to the Kiyamachi-dori Street. We then had to walk back to our starting point to find our way to the next location for awesome cherry sights. This time instead of retracing our steps along the stream we moved about two blocks east and walked along the Kano-gawa River. There is a walkway that is at river level and this day it was filled with people and some booths selling various goods. These were not the usual fare. This day there were new things including a Middle Eastern food booth selling kebabs and other Middle Eastern fare. The nice thing was that the whole thing was being run by and eco-friendly company and not only were there trash receptacles everywhere but they also were recycling much of the garbage. That is an amazing feat because most of the time when we have trash to pitch in the dust bin there is not one around to use.

We walked along the bank of the river and admired the city that stood around us as we walked to the Gion district. We were looking for another little river only in a different area of town. The Gion area is the entertainment district. And by entertainment I mean the old-fashioned entertainment of Geisha and small drinking bars not movies and Broadway Musicals. We decided that this would be a great place to see the blossoms and who knows what else. So we headed off to find the little stream that feeds into the Kamo-gawa.

We found it with little problem. It was not hard to see the large group of people congregating in the area. It was difficult to make our way into the space because it was so full of people. We wandered along the river looking at all the pale pink blossoms and the colorful people. We even saw a couple of ladies who were dressed up to look like geisha. It is very rare to see an actual geisha; they are usually hidden away for very high paying clients. As a result most of the time when you see a geisha on the streets they are just a regular person who has paid money to be made up to look like one. We also saw what I thought was a really cool sight. We saw a man, a chef I think, standing on some very high stilt like geta sandals. There he was standing down an alleyway about two feet in the air on his single riser sandals. I had just enough time to zoom in with my camera and snap a few pictures.

We wandered around the Gion area for a while. We took time to appreciate the small shrines tucked away and almost hidden from view. We saw ancient looking houses and modern ones too. We wandered throughout this area trying to take it all in without getting to lost in the process. We eventually made our return to the place where we started and we decided to head off for some dinner.

We walked for a while before we found a place to eat. Once long ago we had seen a restaurant that looked like it would be a great place to eat. We decided to hunt it down. We wandered the city streets and eventually found it. We ordered dinner and ate our food when it came. We also happened to run into some of the other people who live in our area. They were getting ready for a big party later in the evening.

After dinner we headed back to the little river where we had taken the boat ride earlier in the afternoon. We did stop at a cake shop for a desert and a coffee first. Last year a confectionery had temporarily shut down due to using day old ingredients in its pastries. It was a giant scandal and we thought it would be fun to eat at one of the recently reopened shops. After our after dinner treat we walked though the now darkened streets viewing the now illuminated trees. While we were doing some night viewing we ran into our neighbor Justin. He was also on his way to the big party and we walked with him as he found his way there.

We had seen many flowers and fascinating sights for one day and the next would be more of the same. The cherry blossoms season is short and sweet. We have to see them while they bloom and before they fall. Last chance.

Sakura Madness - さくら (sakura)

2008-04-26T13:55:00.000+09:00

Like soft pink snowflakes the petals float through the air. Lifted by the wind and pushed along wherever the breeze wills. Up and down, around and around the cherry blossoms float. To me this is the essence of the cherry blossom. They bloom in the spring and for a few weeks they are everywhere. Eventually the breeze grabs the petals, pulling them from the flower. They float on the currents of air in unpredictable directions. I love to watch the petals float like a will-o-the-wisp around me. It is magical to be in the center of a pink petal vortex.

We sat and ate our lunch under the cherry trees in the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park one sunny Saturday afternoon. We planned on eating lunch in the park during hanami for about a year. Last year we went to view the cherry trees in the Maru Yama Park, which happens to be one of the most famous in the city. Seeing families and groups of people camped out for an entire weekend of picnicking fun was great, but it made us wonder if we would have trouble finding a spot to eat our lunch this year.

We stopped for lunch in a fancy new convenience store in Kyoto Station that we noticed for the first time. It was one of those double take moments where you have to look twice and wonder what else you do not pay attention to in life. Where there once was a wall, now there was a shiny new strip of stores including an upscale conbini. Jenny and I each bought a bento containing rice, a slice of broiled fish, pickled cucumber, and some other salads. Logan had a sandwich and some other various goodies. And there we sat under the tree with cherry blossoms falling all around us as we ate our lunch and drank from a big bottle of sake. Well Logan did not imbibe in the sake, but Jenny and I both took advantage of the opportunity to sip some rice wine while viewing the flowers. We ate lunch with surrounded by several other families who must have all been thinking the same thing we were.

We ate, laughed and had fun. After lunch it was time to go play in the playground. Logan was very excited to go and play in the sandbox. This was one of the first nice weekends after a cold wet winter. Logan and Jenny headed up to the play area while I cleaned up after our lunch. I joined them after a few minutes and found Logan happily digging away in the sand. After his time excavating in the sandbox he headed over to the swings to try his luck. He only had to wait a few minutes before one of the four swings became available for his use. He swung back and forth for quite some time. He did not ask to be pushed higher, but he did start to move his legs in the classic pumping action. He even managed to do it all by himself for a time.

After playing on the playground for a time we decided to stroll around the grounds of the park for a while. This was our opportunity to see all the different flowering trees in the park. Many of the trees were cherry trees that blossomed in varying shades of pink. There were others too. I am no flowering tree expert, but there were lots of beautiful trees that were covered in beautiful flowers. And we saw them all. We had a great time wandering through the park and admiring the flowers. Even occasionally giving them a sniff to see how they smell, for the record cherry blossoms do not have much of an odor. There was a small grove of non-cherry trees that did have a great perfume like smell. The odor grabbed us by the nose and pulled us in and we wandered through with our noses high in the air. It was really a lot of fun to spend time in the park and the best part was that it was not very crowded. We were able to cross another item off of our list of things to do: eat a picnic lunch while sitting under a flowering cherry tree.

Our day did not end at this point. Oh no, our day of cheery cherry madness continued on. We hopped on the subway and traveled to a different part of the city to see more of the quintessential Japanese flowering tree. The day would not be complete until we had used every waking minute searching out the best places to see the best trees. This time we were bound for an area we had visited once before. We had walked the street as we were looking for ramen on our ramen meguri. That day we happened upon the street quite by accident. This time we were planning on seeing the street lined with flowering trees. The walk was very pleasant, but crowded. There were people and trees throughout the area. We were walking near a small stream that wound it's way throughout the area. Much like on the Path of Philosophy we walked near the water as often as we could. We wandered and talked, strolled and laughed. It was fun to walk and admire all of the scenery around us. It was as we were admiring a particularly beautiful tree that the invitation came.

Tako-Yaki Town - Loathing

2008-04-24T17:35:00.000+09:00

We headed off to find some more food related fun. Thankfully it was not yet time for "tako-yucky", but it would be coming soon. And I was still not looking forward to it. We were off to find the street where we could find anything and everything we could need to start a restaurant. We would be able to find the little plastic models that sit outside of eateries; big red lanterns or any of the myriads of other restaurant needs be they knives, pans or even a tako-yaki pan. Well maybe not that. We wandered the long way to find the street we were looking for, but eventually we found it. It was as amazing as I imagined it could be. We had fun looking into the different stores with all their varied wares and interesting things that we could ever desire. I really wanted to get one of the big red cylindrical lanterns with the word ramen written in Japanese on the side but they are rather expensive. I settled instead for a cloth banner with the kanji for okonomiyaki written down the front and another with the symbol for our favorite summer time treat, kaki-gori. We also bought a little daruma doll that is quite cute. We continued to wander the streets putting off the inevitable.

I still did not want to eat those fried dough balls with their pencil eraser middle. We walked until we could not put it off any longer. I mean we did not want to eat a snack so late that we would ruin our dinner. Especially when the plan was to have ramen. We found a place to bite the bullet, a gross one at that, after putting it off so long that it actually felt good to rest our weary feet.

Often times tako-yaki is sold at little roadside booths that consist mostly of a special grill and a bunch of bowls of ingredients. This place ended up even having a small area with tables and a counter along the wall tucked back in the building behind the grill. We bought our eight tako-yaki balls and headed off to the seating section to load them up with toppings. Maybe we would even have the courage to eat them. Every time we have tried to eat a full order we have stopped short. The first time Jenny and I each ate one and had to stop. We tried again and that time I managed to choke down one and that was as far as we got. I was fine with never eating them again, but Jenny just would not let it rest. It seemed to me that we always had to try them “one more time”. Everybody here eats them all the time, and I don't even really like fried octopus balls (no, not those kind of balls). School children gape in amazement when I tell them that I don't like them. It would be like someone telling an American kid that you hate mac & cheese. This was our opportunity to have the best tako-yaki that we could hope for since Osaka is famous throughout all of Japan for its tako-yaki. So we gave them one last try. I will admit that these were the best that I have ever eaten. I will also say that they were probably the last ones I will ever eat. They were okay, but I am still not a fan. I guess that Japan and I will have to agree to disagree on the whole tako-yaki thing.

We decided that it was time to head back to the train station and get some dinner and head home. We headed off to Osaka station where we were going to attempt to find a ramen restaurant that did not appear on any map. We had read a review of the chain and wanted to try their noodles. Then we found out that a branch restaurant existed in Osaka we hunted it down. That is exactly what we had to do, hunt. We wandered the streets looking for this elusive beast. I was growing grumpy to say the least from the lack of finding, but Jenny urged us to go that extra mile. In reality we did not need to travel such a long distance. The restaurant was actually very close to the spot where we started our search. We just took the long way in getting there.

We walked in and found a seat at the table that looked like a polished slab of a tree. I ordered us two bowls of their noodles and soup. It was called Akamaru Kasane-aji. This ramen had a small red ball of deep-roasted fragrant oil. The idea is that the red ball enhances the experience by making the eater take time to savor the food rather than just eating. The Akamaru Umamidama, or flavor savor ball as it is called really did add a great flavor to the soup. We swirled the soup around with our chopsticks and mixed the oils into the broth. We ate our noodles with giant slurps of delight and joy. It ranked up there as the best bowl of ramen we have had. I was sad because I was to full for their gyoza, which looked delicious.

After dinner we headed back to the station, but not before a pit stop at 31 Flavors for some ice cream. Logan indulged in his all time favorite flavor called matcha green tea. Jenny and I had some random flavor that is not green tea. It was while sitting at the table in Baskin Robbins that we realized that we lost one of our shopping bags. Jenny asked for the bag of paper balloons that we had just bought at the subway station. It was gone. She had bought some little paper balloons that looked like animals. Worse than the loss of the balloons was the loss of the sucker. Jenny also found a little treat for me in a little poop lollipop. That is correct, she bought me a chocolate lolli that was in the shape of a little pile of poop. Needless to say I was very disappointed as I was looking forward to eating shit.

After ice cream it was time to head home. We left the bright lights and crowded streets of the big big city behind for the bright lights and crowded streets of our little town. Not all that much changed, but it felt good to be home.

Tako-Yaki Town - Fear

2008-04-19T13:49:00.009+09:00

“You know you are going to have to eat it today,” Jenny said.

“What?” I replied tentatively. “No, I don't think so.”

“Oh no, we are on our way to Osaka, tako-yaki town. We're eating it. C'mon give it just one more try,” She said.

So this was how it was going to end. Now the big trip to the big city would be like walking the Green Mile. I felt like a condemned man on his way to the gallows. You see I do not like Tako-yaki. I know that it makes me weird and strange, but I just do not like the mushy, soggy little balls filled with chunks of boiled octopus. But here was the official announcement that at some point during the day we would be giving them one more try. Great, now I have that to look forward to.

We figured that we should make good use of our train pass that would only be good for a few more days. We buy a pass called the Ju-Hachi Kippu that allows us unlimited travel on JR trains for five days. We buy one pass and share it between the two of us. It is a real economical way to go long distances for a small amount of money. We like to travel a bit farther from home during this time when possible. This time we figured that we would head down to Osaka and enjoy the sights and sounds of the big city.

The trip takes about two hours but it is a straight shot from Omihachiman. We got off the train in Osaka station and transferred to the subway and headed down to the southern section of the city, which is where all the action is. The city of Osaka is huge. It ranks as the second largest city in all of Japan, and we had not spent much time here. We came down for an afternoon last winter, but it was a cold day and Jenny was fighting off a cold so we did not explore much. We also came last spring to visit the city's aquarium. The aquarium was really cool and we all enjoyed it especially seeing the giant whale shark. Logan liked it so much that he wanted to go back and he was very disappointed that we were not going to. That disappointment was short lived however.

He soon found a place to take his mind off of it and turn his frown upside down. We can sum it all up with one word: Tomica. While, most three year olds are busy playing with their Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels; Logan has his Tomica cars. And here in the underground mall near the Namba station was a Tomica Store. Logan headed on in to find and play with the sample cars and toys. He found several things that he declared, “Before we leave Japan and go back to America I want to get this.” He would have been content to hang out in the store all day. He decided that now Osaka is his favorite city in Japan supplanting the former favorite of Kusatsu.

We left the underground mall because we came to see the city and that just would not be possible to do while walking below the streets. We exited onto the city streets that were teeming with people. It seems that it is always busy in the big city. We looked around and up. The city stretched around us. There is nothing like being in a big city. Now I will admit that I am not a big city kind of guy, but it is fun to visit one. Here we were smack dab in the middle of one of the biggest and most bustling metropolises in the world.

We walked along the streets heading home, or as close as we could get. America Town, or Ame-Mura as it is called, is the neighborhood where all the members of the young hip crowd congregate. We walked through the streets turning this way and that. We wandered aimlessly and without a purpose. We knew that if we headed a general direction we would find where we wanted to be and something new and exciting.

We found our way to Ame-Mura and had a fun time wandering around and looking at all the colorful characters. Japanese hipsters are very fun to watch. Bright colors, wild hair, and crazy fashions make for a visual treat. It was humorous to see things that were perceived to be American that were almost caricatureish in reality. We looked into shops, but as none of them were Tomica car stores they just did not make the grade. The Hello Kitty shop did come close though. We found a whole store filled with that delightful little cat. All of our Hello Kitty shopping needs satisfied under one roof.

We stopped off for lunch at a great hamburger restaurant called Freshness Burger. Jenny had a Cheeseburger piled high with leafy lettuce, red ripe tomatoes, tangy onions and best of all real cheese. Logan opted for a plain burger of which he ate the fries. I had the WW burger, which is an artery clogger that comprised of two thick patties, lots of cheese and everything else. It was basically Jenny's burger doubled. We all stuffed ourselves silly, well Jenny and I did. I am not so sure about Logan, how full can you get only eating the french fries?

Philosophical Meanerings - Exit

2008-04-17T14:57:00.008+09:00

Nothing could have been more peaceful than the idealistic way our next stop could have been. Imagine, if you will, a small river winding it's way through the city. Both banks of the river are lined with bricks that drop down about two meters to the water. The top of the banks are lined with blossoming cherry trees. Walking along this path could be the highlight of the afternoon. Make no mistake about it, the area was simply stunning and massively beautiful. But as it usually happens the ideal is usually short of the reality. I will treasure my memory of the dream I had of strolling slowly along the river as long as I live. I will have to because the reality of the situation was entirely different than my dream. In reality there were lots of people who were also dreaming the same dream as me. The walkway along the tranquil little river was filled with people milling in both directions. We walked together as a family. Logan sat up on my shoulders and wanted to always walk on the path closest to the river. We tried to do our best to stay as close as we could, but all the people made it difficult to stay on that little pathway. Nothing could detract from the beauty of the blossoms however. The trees with their branches heavy with blossoms hung over the water and occasionally dropped petals softly into the water. It was even possible to, at times, ignore all of the people congregating around us and concentrate on the majesty of the natural world. It became very clear how the path got it's name, Tetsugaku-no-Michi, or Path of Philosophy.

The Tetsugaku-no-Michi lead us to the area around Ginkaku-ji. We reached the end of the path and were presented with two options. Should we turn left or right? We were excited to finally see the famous Silver Pavilion which would be found at the end of our journey. But which way to go? I knew that the answer would be found in following the crowd. We looked in both directions and realized that both ways seemed to be equally crowded. A quick check of the map led us to the conclusion that right was the direction to turn. We confirmed that we were headed in the correct direction when we saw the entrance.

We proceeded to hustle through the entrance and get into line. Yes this temple happens to be one of the three most famous temples in all of Kyoto; the fabled Silver Pavilion. We were not sure if we would be able to make it in and see the gardens and buildings because the line to get in was quite long and it was nearing closing time. The line leading to the entrance was long and winding. The entry way was enclosed on both sides by a tall row of hedges. We decided that we would try our luck. If we could not make it in today we could always come back a different day. And maybe, just maybe we could make it in and see the sights.

We did make it in, but we did not get to see the legendary silver building. We saw that the building that most people were there to see was under restoration. The building was in the middle of getting a new roof and other refurbishments. The outside of the building was surrounded by tall scaffolding that encircled three of the four sides and also covered the roof. All of this metal and tarp made it difficult to see the building itself. We really did not get to see the Silver Pavilion that day.

The Silver Pavilion is a bit of a misnomer as the building is not silver. It is a beautiful white. The building was supposed to have been covered in silver leaf, but that plan was never carried out. The beautiful white sides do almost take a silver shine to them when the sun shines on them. We bought postcards to prove it as the building was shaded and protected. We were left with no other choice but to tour the grounds and purchase postcards to remember the beauty that we did not get to see.

The grounds of the temple were magnificent and stunning. The first thing that we really saw on passing through the entrance was the raked sand piled into an elaborate shape. The first one we saw was almost like a wave preparing to break across the surface. The other was a large cone of gray white sand that stood about six feet tall. It was really cool to see. We continued along the assembly line of a tour. Stopping often to see a new sight rather than to add a new part. It was interesting how the temple had built the walkway to facilitate the movement of people and the best appreciation of the grand beauty. It was amazing to see the gardens and all their beauty. How each and every rock, plant, and pool was purposefully placed by the architect of the garden. My very favorite part of the garden was seeing the small box of the different mosses that grow in the garden. Most gardens here are carpeted with moss. The beauty of the lush green and soft velvety texture are a delight to the eyes. At one turn in the path there was a box containing the different species of mosses that grow. Each moss was labeled and they were ranked from most common to the rarest. The batch on the far right was labeled as “Very Important Moss.” Right under that sign there was another sign that read, “like VIP.” I thought that it was a great bit of humor in a place where I was not expecting. Who knew that Rinzai Zen Buddhist had a sense of humor?

After walking around the grounds it was time to head back to Kyoto station. Unfortunately we had to travel by my least favorite method of transportation, bus. I do not like taking the bus here. I find them difficult to manage. They are usually crowded to the point of being over packed and it is hard to get off at the desired stop. We decided to first walk down the street in hopes of finding a good restaurant for dinning, but there was not one we wanted to eat at. And with the line for the bus growing we decided to head to the bus stop and try our luck.

We stood in that line for quite a while wondering if a bus would come and pick us up and whether or not we would be able to squeeze our way on when it did come. We had been waiting for what seemed to me a long time. I was afraid that when the bus did come we would not fit and we would end up waiting twenty minutes for the next one. Imagine my delight when not one but two buses pulled around the corner. Now all that was left was to see if we would be one of the last to be packed onto the first bus, or would we be one of the first to board the second.

As fate would have it we were left to embark on the second of the two buses. We managed to take the bench like seat at the very back of the bus as the rest of the passengers were forced to cram themselves into the remaining space. The bus then began the long journey to Kyoto Station. The bus took us on a long journey through the streets of the city. We saw new neighborhoods and familiar ones. We were lucky because we had a seat to sit in. Not everyone was so fortunate. Most of the other passengers were forced to stand in the wide middle space and then pushed forward as new passengers got in from the back door. We sat in our seats quietly munching on snacks and mini M&Ms.

About an hour later we made it back to Kyoto Station hungry and a tad travel weary. We filed off the bus along with all the rest of the people. We then went down the stairs looking for a place to eat some dinner. We settled on a Chinese restaurant that makes the best little desert. Usually we are not a fan of the sticky gooey pounded rice, called mochi. This restaurant makes some little mochi balls that are filled with bean paste and rolled in sesame seeds then they are fried. Very delicious and a great way to end the day.

We may not have been alone on the Path of Philosophy. We might not have had a great view of the Silver Pavilion. We possibly got lost in the woods behind Nanzen-ji. We came close to being compacted into a tiny ball by the rest of the passengers on the bus. But it was fun damn it, and we like it that way.

Philosophical Meanderings - approach

2008-04-17T14:53:00.009+09:00

Our walk was pleasant, pure, but mostly long. We walk a lot. We have no car, just our feet. Frankly we have no need for anything else. We walk to the train station, the grocery store, and everywhere we go. It is nice that most of the things we want or need are within walking distance. On this particular day we were planning on taking an urban hike through the city of Kyoto. The walk would bring us through the northwest section of the city on a meandering path. We would be walking the famous “Path of Philosophy”.

We had been saving this trip for a special season, and that season was upon us. All of Japan comes alive during the spring. The long winter is drawing to a close. The freezing temperatures are getting warmer, the spring thaw is happening. Best of all the flowers are beginning to bloom. And there is one blossom that is of special importance here. This is the cherry blossom, or Sakura. Hanami, or cherry blossom viewing is a national obsession in spring. The best parks are crowded with people picnicking and having a good time. It gives new meaning to the idea of stopping to smell the flowers when you see a group of young people who have camped out all weekend in the park in order to secure the best location to watch the flowers; and of course drink.

We began our trek by stepping off the subway and walking down a short hill. About halfway down the hill we passed through a tunnel under an aqueduct and began the approach to Nanzen-ji. Nanzen is a massive temple complex that is one of the most famous in Kyoto. It was not our first time to be at this temple, but it was our first time to actually explore and see different things. Our first time to Nanzen-ji the temple and gardens were closed in preparation for New Years. This time we would take the time to find some of the hidden gems and the more well know attractions.

We walked to the giant entry gate but we did not walk though. Instead we walked up. This particular portal allows visitors to ascend to the top and look out over the city central. We paid the fee and began the perilous trek up to the top and the viewing platform. The climb is so difficult because of the steep angle of the stairs. We have found that the pitch of the stairs in ancient buildings here is much more steep than we are used to. The steps in most very old buildings are more akin to ladders than they are to stairways. We made it to the top of the ladder and were blessed with a glorious view. We could look out over the whole city. We walked around the top observation platform and then climbed back down those treacherous stairs.

Once at the bottom we put back on out shoes and set forth to find what else was in this temple. I was attempting to find a small little shrine with a waterfall. Our guidebook stated that this area is an overlooked gem that is tucked back in the hills of the temple. The guidebook also stated that if we were lucky we might even be able to see someone bathing in the freezing cold water of the waterfall. The cascading water is believed to have a purifying affect on the body and soul. We followed the directions in the book and soon found ourselves off the beaten path. A path was all there was. We had not seen trail markers in some time and we were only following a narrow hiking trail that could have been a game trail for all we knew. Roots became our stairs as we climbed and struggled not to slip. Up and down the hills we followed that narrow dirt path, unsure of whether it would bring us where we wanted to be or lead us to some unknown destination. We hiked over a rotting bridge made of boards nailed to the bridge supports. It was a relief that the bridge was neither long nor was it high. We eventually made it to the small shrine we were hoping to find.

The shrine was a small area with old moss covered rocks and small offerings set into small caves carved into the rock. There was even a waterfall. It was somewhat less impressive than I had imagined it to be but it was still beautiful. I had envisioned a waterfall dropping down sixty feet into a small pool where pious monks would be meditating under the frigged water. What we found was a twenty foot waterfall that splashed on the rocks and trickled off to rejoin the stream. There were no monks standing under the waterfall's purifying power. In fact the entrance to the area was sealed off with a piece of plywood. No waterfall showering this day. We found it amazing the number of people who were also visiting the area. We had not been passed by that many people on our hike in and it soon became apparent that there must be an easier way to access the shrine.

We decided to take easy way out and went against the current of people who where entering the area. We passed an old but well maintained graveyard that was beautiful and serene. There was also a small temple that we walked through that was quite interesting. The hike in to the temple had been quite long and at times had been difficult for Logan's short little legs to make the journey. Now the trip out of the area was easy and Logan easily out paced both Jenny and I.

We found ourselves back in the main temple area and quite near the temple's garden. Once again we had to pay the entry fee to view the garden area. Once we were in we found a small tranquil garden centered with a pond and beautiful foliage. We rested on the edge of the deck that surrounds the garden building. It was not until after we started to walk again we notice the sign asking people not to sit there. In our defense we could not see the sign because the people sitting directly in front of it were blocking our view. We took a short stroll along the path that meanders through through the garden. It was a beautiful area that refreshed our weary souls. The sound of the breeze blowing through the trees, the clacking noise of the bamboo trees, water rushing down the tiny waterfall all made for a tranquil area. We recharged our batteries and headed off to the next destination.

We headed up to the visitors center where once again we paid money to tour the buildings. We walked around and saw all the beautiful rooms, sliding doors and small gardens that are located inside this area of the temple. Followed the red arrows that pointed the proper direction for us to walk. We looped around the buildings and eventually made our way back out where we ate our lunch sitting on some benches.

After lunch we decided that the time had come for us to move onward to the next destination. We would be walking up the street to Eikan-do Temple. The walk was not far and we soon found ourselves at the entrance to yet another temple. It was to be the second of three temples for the day. We paid the fee to get into the grounds and we started the tour. There were arrows and signs signaling which direction to proceed. We followed those arrows along the path and into the buildings. We had read that the architecture of this temple was particularly interesting because it was so varied. We were unable to see much of this as the major buildings were in the process of being restored. We did manage to see some excellent sights.

One of the most interesting things we saw was a statue of the Mikaeri Amida Buddha. This statue is unusual because it is facing backward. It is believed that the statue climbed down and urged a monk to move faster. The temple and building surrounding this work were impressive and I am sure that it would have been more so if the main buildings had not been covered with scaffolding and tarps. The temple was quite impressive but I think that the nicest part was the Sleeping Dragon Stair. We climbed a stairway up the side of a hill to a pagoda that overlooked the city. The covered stairway had a graceful and elegant curve to the beautiful wood tread. The stair is named as such because the shape is said to resemble the form of a sleeping dragon lying along the side of the hill. We completed a tour of the temple grounds and even managed to find a small grotto with a tiny waterfall and many Buddhist statues around the area. I found those statues to be very peaceful.

Up to Our Necks in Hot Water - part two

2008-04-12T08:30:00.000+09:00

The entire trip up the mountain Logan had been playing his favorite mountain climbing game; train. Today we were pretending to be freight trains. Logan was wheeling around the area in front of the temple and coupling and uncoupling his imaginary freight. He was having a great time. But every train needs to take on fuel. We decided to eat some lunch on the park benches here. Fueled up we were ready to head back down and move to the next stage of the plan.

The last time we climbed a mountain Logan decided that he could climb up, but needed to be carried down the hill. Today he decided that he would not only go down under his own power, he would allow gravity to assist him. We descended that hill as two careening, out of control run away freight trains. He was not content to simply walk down, we had to run. We held hands and with a giddy laugh of joy set off burning a path down the hillside. We could hear the sounds of others who were on the path with us as they giggled and laughed as we flew past. And fly he did. It is lucky that we were holding hands because there were moments when Logan’s feet were not touching the ground. My feet were providing stability for both of us as we whipped around corners and his feet began to lift off the ground and helicopter out. We made it back to the temple of the tall trees where we decided to rest and wait for Jenny to make her way to join us.

The rest of the way off the mountain went by smoothly. I did have to restrain my little freight train, who had now changed to an express passenger train due to a personality conflict with his mommy. Logan had insisted that Jenny be a freight truck, but she stated that she was a super express passenger train. Well Logan wanted to be one too, so he changed. I was left to be the only freight train in town.

We walked up the main street in town toward the onsen. The street had no sidewalk. We were left to stroll on the shoulder of the road with cars whizzing by our elbows. I popped Logan up onto my shoulders and we trudged onward to find the big outdoor bathtub. We walked so far and so long in such a tiny little town that I was afraid that we missed the entrance we needed. Just when I was about to give in to despair we saw the sign signaling the entrance.

We crossed over a bridge leading into the onsen. We were not really sure what to expect at this point. This was going to be our first time bathing in public. Were we ready for this? We had no idea what lay ahead beyond the noren of the changing room. We could be walking straight into a mixed gender bath. Our research led us to believe that it was more than likely going to be segregated by gender, but there would be only one way to find out for sure.

We paid the entrance fee by purchasing tickets from a vending machine. We had to pay the entrance fee, rent a bath towel, and buy a small hand towel, called a modesty towel by some. We handed the tickets for all of our items to the man standing in the booth right next to the vending machine. He handed us our towels, and we set off to climb the stairs and meet our fate. Our fears were subdued when we saw the entrance. There was a bath for men and a separate one for women. Logan and I went in the men’s while Jenny entered the women’s area.

This is when the research started to pay off. Once inside I could see that there was lots of activity. Two distinct bathing areas were evident. One outside, the other was located inside the building. We only purchased tickets to use the outdoor facility so after changing out of our clothes and donning our modesty towels, Logan and I ventured out to bathe.

The first step in taking a bath lies not in getting used to the scalding hot temperature of the water, but in getting clean. That’s correct; in order to take a bath one must be clean. Logan and I walked over to the showers and took a seat on a stool to wash our bodies. After lathering up and rinsing off we were ready to slide into the hot water. It is truly an unusual experience to walk around outdoors under the blue sky while wearing no clothes. Logan and I slowly and carefully lowered ourselves into the naturally hot sulfured water and let the warmth sooth our tired muscles.

Sitting in that hot water pulled the tiredness out of my muscles and left me feeling relaxed. I looked up at the few clouds in the blue sky and talked with my son. We discussed how nice the water felt and how much fun it had been to fun down the mountain being trains. We sat in that bath and quietly reflected on our day. Alas all good things must come to an end, and Logan wanted to get out of the too hot water.

Logan and I dressed and went out to wait for Jenny. We did not have to wait long for her to join us. She came out and we all headed down the few steps to the rest station. There were four benches and two vending machines filled with refreshing beverages. We decided that we should just relax a moment and get something to drink before heading back to the train. Logan decided to have an apple juice, Jenny got a tea, and if you guessed that I got a beer then you are correct. One of the two vending machines dispensed beer to round out the enjoyable experience of sitting in a hot bath. We sat and drank our liquid enjoyment knowing that soon we would board the train and head home. Our day was complete.

Up to Our Necks in Hot Water - part one

2008-04-10T11:09:00.001+09:00

Sometimes it is just nice to have a relaxing day and do something at the same time. Bathing is something of a national obsession here in Japan. Soaking in a hot tub every night is considered the way to relax and unwind. Not doing so is considered weird and unusual. Another aspect of this is the onsen. An onsen is a natural hot spring where people pay to sit in the hot tubs and wash their worries away. Onsens and public baths dot the countryside and visiting them is a form of holiday. We did some research in our guide books and found an onsen in the area that is recommended to travelers and is easy to access.

We would have to return to the town of Kurama, where we went to witness a fire festival and all we were able to see was the giant crowd. I was not sure we would ever return to this town, but here we were on our way back to the tiny town north of Kyoto. It was bound to be a relaxing day. The train ride out of Kyoto was on one of the most interesting trains we have ever ridden. This train was built for sightseeing. The train cars, there were two of them, had the fewest seats I have ever seen on a train. There was a row of single seats along the window on one side. On the other side of the car there was a row of double seats. Instead of facing forward or backward, as they do on most passenger trains, the benches faced the window. The window was made for viewing the passing scenery. The windows on this train were the tallest and widest windows on any train we have ever had the opportunity to ride. Unfortunately there was only one seat available when we boarded and it went to Logan and Jenny who sat together and shared. The ride from Kyoto to Kurama takes about an hour and it was not long before a bench facing the gorgeous picture window opened up and we were all able to sit.

We sat and watched the city-scape give way to rolling countryside then move to rolling hills and forest. It was a magnificent chance to see in a simple and relaxing way. We arrived in the town of Kurama and reminisced about visiting that night and how different the town looked with no people around. We strolled down that same street. What took us hours that night in October now took less than five minutes. The stroll was mystifying because when we were here last the street was neigh impassable and now there was nary a soul to be seen.

We found the massive map that stands in the center of town. This and a few souvenir shops were all that stood to mark the fact that we were in the city. There was not even one of the ubiquitous convenience stores that scatter the Japanese landscape. We knew from our book that this town held the onsen and a temple. We consulted the giant map and located the two landmarks and set off to find them.

The temple was first. Not only did it lie closest in proximity but we also thought that it would be wiser to hike the mountain and see what was at the top, and then take a nice long hot soak in an outdoor tub. This order seemed like a good idea and it worked out perfectly. We walked from the map to the entrance of the temple, which lies at the bottom of a mountain. We paid the entrance fee and began to climb the big hill. The path lead us first past a beautiful pond filled with swimming fish and a cascading waterfall. We took a few minutes to contemplate because Logan wanted to watch the fish swim in the pond. We then began to ascend the path again. Next we came to a steep set of stairs that led through a magnificent gate and into a small temple. The beautiful part of the gate was the fact that it was flanked by a pair of enormous trees that towered into the sky. I found it difficult to climb the stairs and stare up at the branches that tickled the clouds. Holding onto the stair rail helped but I still felt as if I would tip over backward at any given moment.

We took some time to rest and smell the roses at this stage. We were not sure if we would take the time to climb all the way to the top of the mountain today. After all, the last time we did that it took most of the afternoon, and we had other things to do today. We worried even more about the difficulty of the climb when we saw the next crew of people climbing the hill. We were being pursued by a group of hikers. I am not talking about a bunch of people like us who are out to have a nice afternoon visiting a nice little temple on a tall hill. I am talking about a hiking club with enough gear to put the editors of a backpacking magazine to shame. Here were about fifteen to twenty people hiking up the same mountain as us. We were wearing our regular clothes, jeans, sweatshirts, and our trusty old beat up slip on shoes. Coming up the mountain was our exact opposite. They were all wearing top of the line exercise clothes, spandex leggings, space age technology jackets, specially built day packs, trekking poles in their hands and hiking boots securely laced to their feet. We had to ask our selves, were we climbing the same mountain as they were?

But that is one of the things about Japan. No one does their hobby in halves. If you are a hiker, then you have all the best hiking gear and use it each and every time you go. If you decide to take up running then you outfit yourself and go out each time like you are a marathoner running the Tokyo Marathon. I am sure that there are many awesome sets of golf clubs or skis sitting in a storage shed that have been used one or two times. Here they were the members of the hiking club from somewhere, preparing to hike to the top and probably further. Our good guide book did mention that there was an excellent hiking trail that led to the next town. In fact it was at this point that we remembered that the train emptied out when we reached that station. We had thought it odd that the train had emptied there as it was even more desolate than Kurama, but now it made sense.

We pushed aside the worry about not having the proper gear to make it to the top and pushed onward. We found that the path to the top of this mountain was no where near as difficult as the trek to the top of the last one we climbed. This could have been due to the fact that the path today was stone paved and coursed its way up the mountain steadily. We found ourselves at the top in what seemed to be no time at all. In fact we thought that we must have arrived at the halfway point, but we had made it all the way to the temple. The view from the temple was astounding, not to mention the sight of the temple itself.

We could look out at all the tree covered mountains surrounding the area. It was a breathtaking sight to behold. The rising hills covered in green trees that stretched off into the distance gave me pause to think about the majesty of creation. Then we turned around and took in the manmade temple that sat on the side of this hill. The temple was beautiful to behold and Jenny wandered off to take a few pictures of the temple buildings while Logan and I played trains.

Flea Market

2008-04-03T16:23:00.007+09:00

Years ago my Grandpa Henry loved to visit the flea market. He would spend his Saturday mornings combing the various stalls looking for junk. He did this because as we all know; one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I was always impressed with his dedication, and I loved to see the latest treasures, but I really never saw the draw of the flea market. Now, however, I am hooked.

A couple Fridays ago we went to the largest flea market in Kyoto. Inside, outside and all around Toji Temple were booths selling anything and everything one could always want but never need. We were there to see what bargains we could find.

We each had our own little mental shopping list of things that we were on the lookout for. Jenny was hunting for a beautiful obi belt to go with her kimono. I was attempting to find a kimono that would fit my tall frame and consist of an interesting pattern. Logan as always was on the look out for toys and candy. We were hoping that we might be able to find interesting and affordable items that would facilitate positive memories of our time in Japan.

We hoped that if we made it to the market early enough in the morning we would escape the crowds and manage to see the best items before they sold. Apparently the crowd had the same idea. We were a bit later than we had expected to be, but it was only just turning to late morning. The sidewalk leading to the temple was filled with tables and booths all selling various wares. There were many of the usual food vendors that were selling the usual festival foods. There were some new foods this time too. We found a booth selling udon noodles and another selling bowls of ramen soup. There were many foods that I could not identify. People were selling spices, seaweeds, dried fish, and all sorts of interesting ingredients.

We continued along the sidewalk and eventually entered the grounds of the temple itself. The area inside the temple was filled with people. There were customers and vendors everywhere the eye could see. This was obviously the place to be. We took our time strolling around looking at all the things that were laid out for consuming. Many of the booths were selling things that bordered on antiques. There were antique pottery, antique cooking ware, antique kimonos, antique scrolls, and even a few antique swords. This was the place to be if you were looking for a bit of historic Japan.

After stopping to eat a small lunch of onigiri that we bought before we left Omi- hachiman we set off to look in earnest for our treasures. Wandering through the densely packed market was difficult at best. It actually became very hard to find our way through the lanes of traffic and looking at things buried in the piles was nearly impossible. We did manage to find some fun things that we were looking for. The sad thing in making the purchases we were unable to do something that is quite common at open-air markets around the world.

As much as we wanted to we could not haggle over the price of objects. Haggling is just not something that is done in Japan. It can be attempted but it is done at your own risk. Often if you try and offer a lower price to the seller they will take it as an affront and refuse to deal with you. Some will, but most have set their prices low and wont haggle. Not that we would have much luck attempting it with our limited knowledge of Japanese. Even without haggling we managed to get Jenny a nice obi that she was pleased with, and I found a kimono that struck me as quite handsome. Logan would have to wait to find a toy, but he was able to eat some candy. It just happened to be the kind that we brought from home.

We wandered the maze of a flea market for most of the morning and early afternoon. We had intended on visiting a different temple in Kyoto later in the afternoon, but our flea market adventure stretched so long we were not able to bus across town before it closed. San-Ju-San Temple would have to wait for another day. We did take sometime to check out some of the temple area at Toji though. There was a beautiful little pond that stretched before a towering pagoda where we sat and watched the fish and turtles swim.

We walked around some more after we took our little break. It was amazing to see so many beautiful things packed into such a small area. There were lots of handmade crafts that were stunning to behold. So much care and attention to detail for hand made items. Whether it was pottery or clothing all were crafted with care. Treasures to some, junk to others. It was amazing to behold and here we were in the middle of it all. All of it junk and being in the midst of it is our treasure.

Burning the Evidence - Evening

2008-04-02T17:18:00.011+09:00

The afternoon began to wear on and our siesta time was drawing to a close. We moved down the steps to the party waiting in the parking lot and prepared to sojourn back to the mountain. We gathered with a collection of people that were also ready to go and see the action. We had been there to witness the sport once in the day already but most of our neighbors had not. It was a pleasant opportunity to walk once again with excellent company. Logan was able to feel like a king because he got to hold Mr. Mark’s hand on the way. We arrived just in time to see more of the floats bashing and crashing into each other.

We stood and watched as the monstrosities collided with great force on the street. It was not long before we decided to heed the call of dinner. We weaved our way through the crowd looking for a nice booth serving up some tasty treat for us to fill our empty bellies. Jenny and I decided that we wanted to eat the okonomiyaki, which has become one of our favorite treats. Okonomiyaki is sometimes called a Japanese pancake or Japanese pizza, though in truth it is neither of these things. It is flat like a pancake, and it is as common to Japan as pizza is to America; but truth be told, it is what it is, and it is delicious. Logan decided on yakisoba, and we all sat down to eat. We ate and watched the growing party. Everywhere were looked we saw people walking, sitting, eating, laughing and having a good time. We saw many of my students. They all made a point to come over and say hi to us, amazed that Kebin-Sensei is eating Japanese food and drinking beer. We sat and enjoyed our festival food dinner as the sun began to set and dusk began to settle.

With our food gone and our bellies full we decided to find a spot to claim as our own. We realized that the best location would be an elevated one. We decided to ascend to the top of the rock wall that surrounds Hachiman Shrine. The wall is about five feet tall and plenty wide enough to provide an excellent viewing location. Unfortunately we were not the only people to make this realization. The crowd on the wall was growing and we knew we must act quickly or lose our opportunity. We clambered up the piled rocks to the platform where we would be able to peer over the heads standing on the ground.

We watched as the commotion grew more and more raucous with every moment. Floats were entering the ground and being paraded around what on a normal day is a parking lot but today is a parade ground. The shouts of “mase – mase” and singing of the Sagicho Matsuri song grew louder and more frenzied. We watched as the floats were once again carried into the area, and once again the great colossuses were set to push and shove in their oversized sumo matches. They squared off to in a very important match this time. Last time it was for entering rights. Winner gets to go first, loser gets to follow behind. This time it was all on the line. Loser burns. This was the beauty contest. No swimsuit competition to determine the winner. The losers would go up in flames first; the winners would have the honor being allowed to live a little longer.

This is the essence of Sagicho. The floats are created to live the span of one short weekend. Committees from around town, one for each ward of the city, meet to build the float for their neighborhood. The floats are paraded, bashed, crashed, and eventually set ablaze. This is all then set to repeat the next year. This being our second Sagicho we had a small inkling of what the weekend held in store for us. We had the smell of the smoke lingering in our olfactory senses from last year. The entire point of the weekend is to let off steam and celebrate the fact that spring is approaching. The culmination of this celebration is the burning of the evidence.

This ritual burning was setting to commence soon. I was growing impatient as Jenny and Logan had left me alone so they could seek out restrooms for Logan. Soon the first float would be torched. The first every year is the children’s float. This allows the children who travailed so hard to create to take an active part in its destruction. There is a procession out of the shrine where the guest of honor carries out a lit torch. The torch is then presented to the float. This presentation is the beginning of the end for the float. The papers and streamers flowing off the top ignite first, followed closely by the dried food that creates the mosaic zodiac design. All this acts as kindling for the wood of the body of the float. The float burns down to ash in a matter of minutes. It starts the day as a towering beast standing twenty feet in the air and ends the day as a pile of ashes that get raked into the gravel of the parking lot.

I watched as the sun set and two floats paid tribute to the orb of fire that was now drifting to sleep in the west. Moments later Jenny and Logan came to rejoin me standing on the top of the wall bearing gifts. The best gift that could be offered at a time like this, Jenny held in her hands two cups of sake. That is what this festival is all about; fire and wine. I dropped one sealed cup in my jacket pocket and popped the top off the other one and look a sip. I handed Jenny the camera so she could snap a few pictures. Logan and I jumped to the ground to get closer to the action.

The evening was growing colder and the heat from the fire of the now slowly burning children’s float felt good. Standing on the ground with the sake warming me from the inside and the fire warming us on the outside Logan and I stood watching as burning embers from the streamers floated across the sky like magic butterflies. We watched as the participants danced and sang in the light of the bonfires that were their hard work and dedication. They ran in circles around their floats drinking sake from paper milk-style cartons. They passed the carton from person to person, urging each other to drink faster and more. Some danced because they could no longer walk straight. Some danced because they were caught up in the heat of the moment, possessed by the fire spirits. This is the essence of Sagicho.

Logan and I watched as the people cavorted and frolicked in the burning joy. We walked and watched as the people partied the night away. Soon enough though the time for us to take our leave and go home had come. The sun had set and the air grew colder. Logan’s eyes began to get that unmistakable look of tiredness that signals his need for sleep. We knew that our night was drawing to a close. Logan and I went back to the rock wall to collect Jenny and make our way home.

We all wandered towards the exit to get back to the street and find our way home. We walked away from the burning fires and towards our home. As we got nearer to the tori gate that marks the entry and the bridge that crosses over the canal we turned and took one more look at the amazing sight behind us. We looked forward across the bridge and saw that there were still floats there fighting for the right to enter the area and which would go up in flames first. We walked the dark streets from the excitement of the base of the mountain to the quiet and solitude of our home. Sometimes a party is nice, but it is always great to be able to come home.

Burning the Evidence - Morning

2008-03-30T16:48:00.011+09:00

This was the morning we had been waiting for all year. We wanted to make Bacchus proud. It was the day of Sagicho. Sagicho is my favorite festival and the best one that we have been to here. It has all the elements of a truly epic party. There are crowds of people, lots of booze, and to top it all off there are huge amounts of fire as the cherry on top. All this and giant floats decorated with rats created out of dried food crashing and banging together, who could ask for anything more? Let’s go!

We headed off after a quick breakfast bound for the mountain. All the action would take place at or near the shrine located at the base of the mountain. Each of the different districts in the town of Omihachiman had been working to build a giant wooden float to parade around the streets near the mountain. The floats take months to build and they are crafted with care. Each year there is a different theme that rotates on a twelve-year cycle along with the Chinese Zodiac. This being the year of the rat all floats were to be decorated with rats. We hoped to find some of the floats on our walk to the yama like we did last year. We managed to walk all the way to the base of the mountain without catching sight of one of the illusive three-ton wooden behemoths.

We decided to wander around the back streets around the area. We managed to find one of the floats as finishing touches were completed before the parade began. We had a good time watching the folks make sure that every little detail was perfect for their walk. After seeing this float we were itching to see more. We started to wander back in the direction from whence we came. Rather than take the same path on the return we decided to walk along the canal. The canal was a pleasant place to walk along until we realized that we were on the wrong side and were unable to climb back up to the street level. Logan had really enjoyed walking along the little path that sits less than a meter above the level of the water. We found that we were stuck on the path and we needed to climb up a short rocky path to get where we wanted to be. We managed to scramble up the rocky path and made it up to the street where we were able to cross over the canal on the bridge to the other side.

Once on the other side of the canal it seemed to be a good time to enjoy some of the lunch we brought with us. We wandered down and found a bench where we took advantage of the spot to rest our bones while we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and apple slices. We enjoyed our lunch and then it was off to find more of the gargantuan floats.

We sojourned back in the original direction we came from. Logan was scared that we were going home but we soon turned off the main road and found more of the floats. The first one we found was nice, but it was the second where we really had a lot of fun. One of the guys who worked on building this float is a member of the adult class I teach on Thursday night. Yasohiro was very glad to see us. Then he brought over his father and his dad’s friend to meet us. We had a great time visiting and hanging out with them. Yasohiro’s dad made a very good observation that Sagicho is not a festival it is a carnival. As it is a carnival it must be treated as such, and he handed me a beer. He also gave Jenny and Logan a can of fruit juice each. We then saw Koji, another member of my night class. He was getting ready to help carry the float on his shoulders. We took our leave and headed off to see some more.

We managed to find our way back to the main street just outside the shrine entrance. The street was now closed to automobile traffic, but not to pedestrians or giant wooden sculptures. This was a blessing because there soon would not be enough room for anything other than the mammoth creations and the people bearing them. The first of the floats that came down the street was the kids’ float. Children from all around the city create this float and though it is smaller than the rest it is still quite large and heavy. There were many children carrying the float, including three or four that I recognized from school. Two of the larger boys were students from my junior high, and from the grimace on their faces I knew that they would be sore the next day. They carried the float along the street, yelling and screaming and cheering their way along. They stopped in front of the tori gate that marks the entrance to the shrine area. Here they proceeded to dance their float. They first lifted it high into the air. Then they spun it around in a circle. Next they moved it a bit forward and spun again. Last they set their massive float down in an out of the way place in order to watch as others were brought in.　　

The next few floats entered in much the same way, only on a grander scale. Everything was bigger about the next floats. They were carried by bigger people, towered higher in the air, weighed more, and took more time to process to the entry tori. By the time the third and fourth floats were getting ready to enter the area at the base of the mountain there seemed to be a traffic jam forming. There was not going to be enough room for two floats to progress across the bridge at the same time. One would have to allow the other to go first. The real question was how to decide who would have the honor of being the first and who would be relegated to the second position. Now in a normal situation I would say that the proper way of settling any dispute here in Japan is by relying on the age-old method of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I have seen it time and time again. When there is a conflict to resolve the Japanese resort to the game they call Janken and we call Rock, Paper, Scissors. Winner takes all. When we flip a coin to decide; they Janken for it. But this was a contest between two giant floats created using dried food and wood, and these floats had no hands to create the signals for rock, paper or scissors. There would be only one way to decide a winner and that would be a grudge match.

The two massive creations of logs and mosaics of dried food were set down on their pedestals on the pavement. The two floats faced each other like two sumo wrestlers facing off in the ring. Giant logs crisscross through the float sticking out in front and behind the float by about two meters and on the side by about one. These giant poles give the people carrying the float something to lift the float using. Now they would serve the float in much the same way a bull moose uses it’s antlers during spring. The poles in the front of the float began to move up as the ones in the back were lowered to the ground. The men who were toting the float through the streets now took places at the back in an attempt to brace, support and push the float forward. Meanwhile the other team was completing the same procedure and was getting ready to push their float forward. Both teams began to chant and cheer their team on as they began to surge forward. The floats crashed into each other with tremendous force. We could feel a slight tremor in the earth beneath our feet as four tons of wood collided in the street. They pushed forward into each other with tremendous force. Neither side wanting to give an inch to the other as the long sticks in the front tangled and intertwined forming a massive bramble of sticks.

In the back of the float the men fought to make sure that their team gave no ground in a colossal shoving match. This was float sumo. Sumo is a sport of brute strength where two massive men attempt to push the other to the ground or out of the circle. The first to fall or leave the circle loses the game. The rules were the same here. The first to go down is the loser and must give way to the champion. After much jostling one finally did give and came crashing to the ground. This is a dangerous sport and lives are on the line. There have been instances when these gargantuan floats have crushed the men responsible for them. People run as they topple to the ground. It was amazing to watch them struggle and fight. Then one began to tip. Moments later it crashed down to earth and the participants were left to resurrect the beast.

We began to watch the people. Everywhere we looked the people were as colorful as the floats. The men carrying the floats were often more made up than the women watching. Multicolored hair is almost expected to match and coordinate with the bright colored happi coats and wild outfits. We saw one middle-aged man with giant hoop earrings and enough makeup to shame a streetwalker. Another guy was wearing nothing more than black stretch pants with a strategically placed flower and a Mexican wrestling mask. Another guy was wearing a tiger mask that in no way seemed out of place. Girls were dressed in their most fun outfits and the guys were wearing their flashiest duds. I felt only a little out of place in my normal everyday clothes. I am not sure if I would have felt comfortable wearing something more elaborate. Then again when fueled with enough sake anything is possible.

The sake and beer flows freely during Sagicho. Each float is followed on the parade by a smaller cart that houses the booze. The booze cart is there to refuel and keep the party flowing. This is the biggest and wildest party this city sees all year and everyone gets into the swing of things. This is a no-holds barred event. As we watched the first of the floats crash into one another on the streets we spied a dog sleeping on the sidewalk. Not more than two feet from his resting muzzle lay an empty beer can. Later as we walked through the area where all the food stalls are located we saw many of my students wandering. A clutch of junior high school boys was only able to giggle, say my name, and giggle some more. When I asked two girls from school what they were drinking they held their beer cans aloft and said in unison, “juice.” The sake keeps all the adverse elements at bay. The weather is usually cold, the floats heavy, days are long and well we just want to have fun.

In order to keep things fun we decided to head home and take a break before things heated back up in the evening. We left one party to find another. As we approached our apartment complex we saw that about twenty people had gathered for a pre-party. This is the way it is. Sagicho is a true party. And after a short respite we would be heading back into the fray.

Festival + Phallus = Epic Proportions (part 2)

2008-03-25T20:22:00.005+09:00

Warning: This post contains frequent references to parts of the male anatomy not usually discussed in polite company. I will do my best to use terminology that is colorful, correct and proper without resorting to speaking like a sailor or a trucker.

It was not long before Logan began to grow restless and wanted to go for a walk. Jenny decided to take him for a stroll, to look around at all the different offerings at the food booths to see if there was anything fun to see and gawk at. After a few minutes they came back and Logan reported that he wanted one of his favorite festival foods, a Hello Kitty decorated chocolate covered banana with rainbow sprinkles. I said that it would be okay if he enjoyed a choco-banana after the parade. Jenny and I then started to discuss all the different crazy swag that we were observing in the area. I thought that it might be fun to have one of the plaques that were offered from the shrine as a little remembrance of our time. Jenny then stated that there was a special board that was being offered on this day that would be perfect. I had seen several people carrying around the pole that was decorated with two ribbons and a plaque. The ribbons were red and white and were tied to the top of the dowel along with two sprigs of dried rice shoot, and a plaque with a three dimensional penis affixed to it. I told her that that would be the perfect item to remember our day. She and Logan sallied forth once again to find the booth selling the trinket.

I waited in our spot patiently for the parade to begin. I could tell from the stream of people moving in our direction that the procession was under way. I worried that Jenny and Logan were not back from their errand yet. Just as I was about to give up hope that they would make it back in time to witness the spectacle they appeared from around the corner. Logan waving the streamer bespangled staff happily. They had managed to return just in time.

I could see off in the distance that there was a mass of costumed people coming our way. The first person, well lets say person, I saw when I looked using the zoom on the camera was a red faced demon. He was surrounded by a cluster of priests and other attendants, one of which was his standard-bearer. This was no ordinary banner though, which I am sure you have by now guessed. And if you guessed that the flag that accompanied the red faced demon bore the image of a penis then you score the points in this bonus round.
I reached over with both of my hands and used them to cover Jenny and Logan’s eyes. The penis on the flag was the most realistic portrayal of male human anatomy I have ever seen on a flag that was flapping in the breeze. Now to be honest I did not cover either of their eyes because I was to busy trying to snap the perfect shot of the flag because I knew that no one would believe my words and that I would need to have photographic proof. My words do not lie however unbelievable they may be.

The red faced demon and the penis flag were the first to make their way down the street. They were soon followed by a small portable shrine that contained some holy object which was locked away so we were unable to see. The interesting thing about this shrine was not the shrine itself, but the people who accompanied it. All of the men were wearing white clothes that had a very bed sheet appearance to them. They also had very large shoulders due to the giant shoulder pads that changed the proportions of their upper body, giving them a definite Quasimodo appearance.

It was not long before we were to see the main attraction. As the Large shrine made its way down the street I could see the sun reflect off the polished wood. There it was, a giant wooden penis, almost dancing down the street. The Phallus rested inside a shrine that was far too short and left the opposing ends poking out of the ends. The shrine was carried by men aged 42, which is considered an unlucky age for men in Japan. They lifted the shrine in the air bouncing the precious cargo. They would walk a dozen yards or so and then they would hoist the shrine higher into the air and spin it by running around in circles. This is obviously the best way to parade a penis down the street. Lift it into the air. Spin it around in a circle. Repeat.

The shrine made its way down the street and we watched it go. We could not watch for long though. We had to turn our attention to the 36 year old ladies, 36 is considered an unlucky age for women in Japan, who were following the shrine. Each of the ladies carried in her arms a smaller, more personal version of the phallus that just moments before had gone down the street. It was cocked in their arms like a baby. They were soon followed by a cart serving drinks, free drinks. I tried, but I was not able to grab one of the offered paper cups of sake. I should have been bolder and knocked down the people in front of me, but I was not that hard up for a drink. I also was once again busy trying to snap a picture of the people ladling rice wine into paper cups from a big wooden bucket. The free drinks were followed by another penis. This one was pointing straight up in the air and was being carried by two elderly men. They offered the opportunity to polish the knob to anyone wishing to. At one point there were three young women standing and waiting for their turn. The men carrying the phallus turned it on its side in order to reach it through the crowd. The young ladies giggled like school girls as they photographed their brave friend’s turn in touching the wooden penile sculpture. As she laid her hand on the wood the phallus was once again resurrected to its full height. The crowd burst out laughing, and the young lady who was responsible blushed as dark as I have ever seen a Japanese person blush.

This proved to be the end of the procession. We headed back to the shrine. While the parade was making its way to the front of the shrine, we were sneaking through the back. We weaved our way through the crowd to find an even larger mass of people waiting for the grand entrance. I moved my way as far to the front of the crowd as I could manage while Jenny and Logan stayed farther to the back. It was amazing to see all of the people gathered to see the entrance of a two-meter long penis. Even more amazing was the fact that I could understand what many of them were saying. This festival happened to be the first of the festivals that had the largest collection of foreigners that we have seen at an event here in Japan. It was wild, amusing and only a tiny bit disturbing to hear four or five different conversations centering on the giant penis that would be coming soon.

The parade once again drew near. All elements entered the grounds of the shrine in the same order. First the red faced demon and the graphic penis flag, followed by the smaller portable shrine, made their way through the parting crowd. The crowd erupted in a loud cheer when the phallic offering first entered. The men carried the shrine through the sea of people that parted as if Moses were leading. Once again the shrine bounced and bobbed along as the procession spun and circled with it. They then proceeded to march that wooden oscar mayer up to the door of the shrine. Many more cheers were called out as they entered the door of the building.

We then started to wander around the area, which was a difficult proposal. The sheer number of people gathered to see the shrine enter and enjoy the festive atmosphere made moving around difficult. We started to go in one direction but realized that it might be too difficult so we proceeded in the other direction. It proved to be a wise decision as this was the direction where the action was going to be. The next activity was going to be mochi throwing. Yes that exact same substance that a few weeks ago we witnessed brave women proving their strength with would be tossed off a two-story scaffold at the waiting crowd.

Jenny and Logan found a nice spot where they could watch out of harm’s way, but me, well I said, “Damn the torpeedos.” Once more into the fray, and I joined the gathered crowd. I did not have to wait to long, but each repeat of the announcement about how heavy and hard the mochi was and how the elderly and young children should refrain from participating, only made my anxiety grow. I looked out at the crowd and I saw the item that I should have brought if I wanted to catch some of the flying mochi. There far across the crowd I could see the arms of some elementary school boys holding aloft their baseball gloves. Now that was a good idea I thought to myself. Less of a good idea were the people I saw who were attempting to use a plastic grocery sack to net the airborn projectile. I could see how that would work in the end, the bottom of the bag ripping out and the mochi smashing into and breaking the nose of the catcher.

Eventually people did appear on the scaffold. One more announcement about how the elderly and young children should not participate in this dangerous event I began to wonder if I should employ the twelve-X zoom lens on my camera and move out of harms way, but the crowd was gathered to closely around me. I had nowhere to go. There was no escape. The people on the ledge began to uncover their piles of mochi and I began to wish for some hockey gear. The mochi started to fly. I wanted to catch one, but I didn’t. Catching it is said to bring good luck, or at least a broken finger or two. The mochi was about the size and weight of a hockey puck, maybe a little larger. Here it was flying out at me from a second story balcony like a slap shot. They were every where and my mind was made up to leave when the guy standing next to me got clocked in the head by a flying white hockey puck. I wandered over to where Jenny and Logan were standing in safety.

We figured that this would be the perfect time to visit the rest of the shrine. Jenny had had an opportunity to look around while I was waiting to take pictures of the other things and she was eager to show me a few of the gems. The first place that we had to see was the small shrine filled with offerings and many carved wooden phalluses. There were also the stones. Jenny had found that there were stones that looked like a penis. In fact there were more than one. We took some time to look at all the different rocks and stones that took on different shapes. Then it was time to enjoy a banana.

We had promised Logan a Hello Kitty chocolate covered banana. We walked over and picked out the banana that he wanted and we found an out of the way spot to enjoy it. We sat and giggled and laughed about all the things we had seen that day. Before long it was time to head back to the station and get on the train to head back toward home. It was at the ticket machine that we saw our neighbor Kyle, he had come too, and we had another good laugh with him. We then boarded the train and headed back to Nagoya Station.

We found Nagoya Station to be very big. It was amazing to wander around the upscale department store inside the station. We managed to find a perfect restaurant to eat some dinner at. Can you guess what it was? If you guessed ramen then you have hit a homerun. It seems as if we always eat ramen after a big adventure. After ramen for dinner it was time to go next door to the Starbucks for a Caramel Machiato. Then it was time to head home. We got on the train and headed back to Omihachiman. A few hours later we were back in our own apartment ready for a nights sleep before we headed off to do the whole festival again the next day.

Coming soon the bacchanalian event of the year: Sagicho. Mase!! Mase!!

Festival + Phallus = Epic Proportions

2008-03-23T20:28:00.006+09:00

Warning: This post contains frequent references to parts of the male anatomy not usually discussed in polite company. I will do my best to use terminology that is colorful, correct and proper without resorting to speaking like a sailor or a trucker.

I never, in my life thought I would be exited to see a giant penis. But I found myself on a street in a little town outside of Nagoya waiting for a giant wooden “man stump” to make its way through. Now let me explain, last Saturday we went to the Tagata Honen Sai Festival. Yeah, that's right we had come all this way to see a penis festival. Every year on March fifteenth, Tagata Shrine in a small town north of Nagoya holds a fertility festival dedicated to bringing about a bountiful harvest. This festival is one of a few of its type in Japan. We learned about it from some of the other English teachers who live in our prefecture, and decided that this was not something to miss out on. So we made plans to go to Nagoya. Is peer pressure what lead me to stand on a sidewalk at two o’clock in the afternoon waiting for a fourteen-foot phallus to be paraded down the street?

No way! I live for experiences. We will only be in Japan for about another four months, or so before we find a new home in a new place, so we have to make the most of our time. I mean come on, who doesn’t want to see a mammoth member being carried along the streets of semi-rural Japan. We traveled the two hours by train to this little town and we were going to have fun. We were greeted upon our arrival by the sight of the souvenir stalls. This is not an unusual sight at a festival or shrine. But the gifts that they were selling at this particular festival were different. The first booth was filled with some of the usual sights and gifts, food. It is very common in Japan to bring small pieces of food; cookies, cakes, etc. back from a trip to give to friends, family and coworkers. I am not sure however if I would be comfortable giving some of these food items as a gift. I think that I would be okay giving a sucker that is molded in the shape of a penis to a friend as a gag gift, but to family or a coworker, never. Yet here they were, under the tent roof, giant multicolored penis lollipops. It was odd and interesting to my eyes when I saw many people, both male and female, enjoying them as the day progressed. We walked farther down the sidewalk and were greeted by another table of wares. This one was home to some hand carved statues. All of the carvings took on the shape of a penis. There were little statues with faces carved into the head. It was comical enough to get a chuckle out of us. We could not stand and laugh long though; the crowd began to push us along.

We followed the crowd as they lead us toward the first of the two shrines that we would be visiting. A large throng of people had gathered inside the shrine to catch an initial glimpse of the "sacred object". There were many people inside the temple precincts and it was difficult to see. We wandered around the inside and managed to worm our way into a position where we were able to view the oversized phallus. There it was in all its glory. Sitting in its portable shrine the two ends sticking out of either end. It did sort of look like a giant hot dog in a tiny bun. The best part was not seeing all the people, foreign and Japanese alike snapping pictures, but in seeing all the people waiting in line to have their picture taken with it. We toured the grounds of the shrine before making our exit to go and eat some lunch.

We wandered the parade route trying to find a good spot to park our buns and eat some lunch and view the parade. There was a nice walking path that would make a great spot to eat some onigiri and other snacks. We even managed to find a bakery where we were able to purchase some nice doughnuts. We found a spot and decided to stake it out as our own. We ate our lunch and waited. And waited. And waited. We slowly realized that we probably were thinking that the parade began earlier than it actually did. There were ten minutes till we thought that the procession began and there was no indication that it was going to begin anytime soon. We decided that it would be in our best interest to ditch our spot and take the time to explore some more.

We headed off on a happy trail to the second shrine. If we thought that the first shrine was crowded it was nothing compared to this one. Once we finally managed to penetrate the crowds of people milling around the outer edges we were in for even more of a treat. We found many more of the same types of food vendors we usually see at a festival. Only this time many of the foods had a penile twist. My favorite example would either be the chocolate covered bananas that looked like a penis or the frankfurter that had more of a definite wiener appearance.

We did our best to look around the shrine but it was very crowded. There were people everywhere and the situation was getting hairier by the moment. I was afraid that we would get separated and one of us might get lost. The first thing that I noticed while wandering around the area was the men who were doing a sword demonstration. They were dressed in the same style kimono that the ancient samurai wore. They were using their katana to make precision slices through a bundle of reeds that were rolled into a tube about the same thickness of a human neck. It was amazing to see them chop it into thirds with three quick movements. I watched as the last two swordsmen gave their demonstration. Then I looked around to see if I could find my wife and child who had wandered off. I found them staring at the various plaques. Every shrine sells a plaque that visitors can inscribe with their wish or dream for the future. The plaque is then hung in a special area of hooks. There are usually hundreds of them hanging on the pegs. It was no different at this shrine. I saw that only the plaque was different than what I was used to observing. I should not have been shocked at the picture that appeared on it. After all the plaque at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is famous for the fox, features the illustrious kitsune fox on it’s plaque, and another shrine has a horse on it’s. So I should have been prepared to see the drawing found on this plaque featured a penis. What was a bit comical was the fact that some people had drawn additions to their illustration. There was one that added a smiley face to the tip. Another turned theirs into a panda, another was a dog, and they were all very creative.

We decided that the time had come to venture forth and stake our claim to a location to view the parade. We wandered down the parade route to find a good location where we would be able to see the, well, action. We hoped that it would not be long, but in truth we had no idea how long it would take. We eventually found a nice spot in the shade. Compared to the same weekend last year this day seemed like summer. The sun shone down on us warming our skin to the point that we did not need our coats. We could not have been happier because this very weekend one year ago it decided to snow. If this weather held it would make one of the most epic weekends as near perfect as can be. We stood in our spot and waited for the procession to begin.

Graduation Day

2008-03-18T15:38:00.003+09:00

I hate graduations. Some may say that it is because I don’t like saying goodbye, but that is not it. I do hate to say sayonara to the students who are leaving. I always have and I always will, but that is not the reason I hate attending graduation. The real reason is the music. I have never been a big fan of that Pomp and Circumstance. I always end up singing the alternate lyrics my sister taught me, “My reindeer flies sideways. Your reindeer flies upside down. Blah, blah blah, soooomething. Your reindeer is dead!” I do not really have a good reason and I can’t explain it, but I really hate that song.

Well imagine my surprise and delight when I found out that this particular song is not played at graduations here at Hachiman Junior High School. In fact there is not much in common with an American graduation ceremony. At the same time not all that much is different either. Lots of pomp, tons of circumstance, but at least there was no Pomp and Circumstance.

Graduation was on Tuesday, but the whole thing got started on Monday. Four out of the five classes for the day were cancelled to make time for practice. The students all filed into the gymnasium after first period to get ready for the ceremony the next day. They started by practicing the school song. The student body sang a beautiful rendition of the song over and over. They must have sung that song close to ten times in a row. Just as I was starting to feel bad for them it was time to move on and begin the difficult practice. It was time to perfect the art of standing and bowing in unison. The students were told to stand, bow, and then sit. They where expected to do so in almost perfect unison. All in all it was two hours well spent, and helped facilitate a wonderful graduation ceremony on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning came and it was time for me to pull my beautiful blue suit out of the closet and get ready for work. Now I do not usually wear a suit to school but today was a special day. Boy oh boy did I feel out of place as I strolled into the office that morning. There I was in my best blue suit and I looked around at the other teachers. Many of the female teachers were wearing formal kimono, as was one of the male teachers. The rest of the school staff was casually wearing their best black suits. To be honest I did know in advance that all the other teachers would be wearing black as it is the color of formality here. Last year when I was told that I would need to wear formal clothes to graduation I was instructed to wear a black suit. I explained that I did not own a black suit and instead would be wearing a blue one, they got a bit flustered. A few days later I was reminded that I needed to wear a black suit. I again stated that I did not have a black suit and would wear my blue one; I was told that everyone else would be wearing black. It was only when I stated that I did not think that I would be able to find a suit in Japan because I was too tall that I was given special permission to wear my blue suit.

Graduation was set for ten o’clock that morning. There would be no classes for the day. There was the usual meeting first thing in the morning, and then students began to go to the gym for the graduation ceremony. Parents of the graduating third graders began to arrive and found seats at the back of the gym. The gym began to fill. Seats were in three different sections. The largest of the areas was for the non-graduating students to sit. These were the first and second graders. Another smaller section was for the parents. This section became filled with moms and dads all dressed very nicely in their black suits. The next section was reserved for the distinguished guests. These guests of honor were the leaders of the PTA and the principals of the elementary schools and kindergartens that feed into Hachiman Junior High. The last section, and the one closest to the stage, was reserved for the graduating third graders.

The distinguished guests of honor were ushered to their seats and once they were seated the lights were dimmed and the procession began. Each homeroom entered the gym in a double file line. They proceeded to walk down the center aisle and split to sit on either side. Once the third graders had entered it was time for all practice to pay off. The student body was instructed to stand, which they did, in unison. Next it was time to sing the national anthem and then the school song. The VIPs were introduced. Next it was time to award the diploma. Each home room teacher read off the names of the members of their class members. The students then filed up to the stage, received their certificate from the principal, bowed, and exited back to their seat. Next it was time to listen to the commencement speeches. There were two, one from the principal and one from the president of the PTA. There were also some short speeches delivered by students. Last it was time for the good-bye song. The students all sang this to the departing third graders as they will disperse and attend many different high schools next year.

By noon I was back sitting at my desk and ready to eat a sushi lunch provided to all the teachers. Though there are enough differences to make graduation here uniquely Japanese, a graduation is still graduation. They are just remarkably better with no “Pomp and Circumstance”.

Mochi Macho Man (the end)

2008-03-17T16:23:00.010+09:00

There is only so much watching of the macho-mochi-man contest we could take in one sitting. We decided that it would be best to have a look around. We wandered over to check out the area around the pagoda. It was a truly impressive structure the towered into the air. Booths selling various souvenirs to the visitors of the festival surrounded the pagoda. We saw all the different things that they were selling. Most of them were selling little trinkets and small food items that people can bring back with them to give to family and co-workers upon their return from their trip. We did not buy any of the uniquely Japanese items.

We began to wander farther into the temple area. The next are we came across was a group of monks blessing people and items of religious significance. The monks had started a fire using fresh pine boughs. Smoke from the fire rose slowly into the air and the smell of the fragrant smoke hung in the air like incense. The spectators brought over bags that contained a lucky talisman or plaque; the monks took the bag over to the fire, held the contents over the smoke. They held the bag over the fire and chanted a prayer as they did so. We watched for a time and then it was time to move on.

Deeper and deeper; we next came to a pond and a small temple set against a small hill. We took some time to admire the view and absorb the majesty of the beauty. I was in the process of taking a picture of Logan and Jenny as they sat on a big rock in front of the temple and pond when a gentleman came up and offered to take our picture as a family. It was really nice that we were able to get a fair family picture in this scenic local. As it always seems to happen Logan decided that he did not want a stranger to take his photo, and as a result he would not smile.

Further and further; next we came to a giant turnstile gate. It was a point of no return. If we proceeded through the gate we would be hiking up the mountain. We did not let the hike stop us. We went right on through the revolving door and set to hike up the mountain. The sign at the bottom said that it would be about an hour to the top. We knew that there would be no way it would be that fast of a walk. Not with short three year old legs trekking up the hill. We thought that Logan would be hiking short way up, get tired, and demand to be carried the rest of the way up. This is not the way that it happened. Logan got determined. He became the little engine that could. More precisely he became the “Little Thomas the Tank Engine” that could. He said that Thomas could make it up the big hill and so would he. And so he did. There was one small section of the hill that he asked to be carried up, but that was it. The rest of the way he hiked up the mountain. (I guess that is another thing to cross off the list: climb a mountain in Japan.) We made it to the top and were greeted by a beautiful and serene temple.

Once at the top we were greeted with the worst part of climbing a mountain, walking back down the mountain. It was at this point that Logan decided that he was too tired to walk any farther and needed to be carried. We all hiked down the mountain. Logan rode on my back and we walked down the hill. I was glad that the weather was pleasant and not summer heat.

We made it back down the mountain and found that the mochi lifting contest was over and we had missed seeing the men. We were a bit disappointed that we did not see the men trying to lift the giant palate of mochi, but how much difference can there be between seeing skinny little Japanese women trying to hold a bunch of mochi in their laps and a bunch of skinny Japanese men trying to do the same. We saw what we came to see and we had a great walk to the top of a big hill. Now it was time to go get a nice hot fish cake before heading off to find dinner.

Now don’t worry they are not what you think they are. Fish cake is the term we use to describe the little cakes that are filled with adzuki bean paste. We call them fish cakes because they are molded in the shape of a fish. When bought fresh and hot from the vendor they are very delicious. The crowd was starting to disperse and we managed to get a hot cake and some fresh doughnut holes before we headed back to the station.

We decided to find the proper way back to the station this time. It was an easy proposition because all we had to do was to follow the crowd. Well it was not so much of a crowd as it was a group of other people. Just go with the flow seems to be a good motto in such circumstances. It is amazing how simple it can be to get places when we follow the proper path. We made it to the station in little to no time, but there was still dinner to be eaten. We had passed a nice looking ramen shop on our original ramble to the temple that was not too far from the station. We had decided that it would be a great place to eat dinner when we first saw it.

We continued our walk to the restaurant and in no time we were sitting in a booth ready to order. We ordered three bowls of soup and two plates of gyoza (Chinese dumplings), one regular and one spicy. We also ordered some extra toppings to go on our ramen. We got some extra meat, veggies, a boiled egg, and some Korean kimchee. We stuffed ourselves silly with our ramen feast. We were not able to walk back to the subway station and we were forced to roll our way down the sidewalk.

The trip home was uneventful other than the snow that started to fall while we waited at the train station in Yamashina. By the time we exited the train in Omihachiman the world seemed to be a swirling snow globe. We walked from the station to our home and we slowly turned into snowmen as we walked. We shook the snow off our coats and bodies as we entered the front door. It was certainly nice to be home. When I looked down at the pedometer on my belt it read over eight miles. Wow, I thought to my self, what a busy day. I guess that when it comes down to it WE were the macho men!

Mochi Macho Man (part 3)

2008-03-12T19:18:00.003+09:00

The contest had begun. The first woman to come out was all decked out in her best work out wear. She was wearing gloves, a track suit, and knee pads. Here she was all set to lift a two hundred pound block of punded rice gluten. The mochi must have weighed more than her. She was tiny. I was expecting to see a bunch of former shot put throwers, cow-girls and women soft-ball coaches. And here was the first contestant all set to throw her full effort into it and she was no larger than an average American seventh grade girl. She hunkered down and set her body to lift the palate of mochi off the platform. My heart began to pound and flutter in my chest. One wrong move and this tiny little woman would be crushed to death by the mass of mochi. She began to lift. Pulling with all her strength she never left her crouch. However, she did manage to lift the mochi off the stage. Not high mind you, but that seemed to be the mode of operation for this contest. It was not how high the cake was lifted, but how long it was held in the contestant’s arms. The people we watched never left their squat. The participant would crouch down, wrap their arms around the mochi cake, grip the wooden pallet, and lift the whole thing into their lap. Once positioned as such they would hold it in their arms, while balancing precariously on their heels. A delicate balance between falling forward thus dropping the mochi, and tipping backward and being crushed by it.

While the contestants were doing their best to lift the giant stacks of mochi onto their laps the judges were extorting them to push ever onward. One of the priest judges in particular was very engaging with both the contestants and the crowd. There were several times in which the crowd bust out in laughter.

Mochi Macho Man (part 2)

2008-03-06T16:25:00.006+09:00

The crowd of people at the gate was nothing compared to the mass of bodies inside the gate. We entered the temple compound and were immediately greeted by the familiar sights of festival food booths. We could get a treat of any kind, taco-yaki, cakes that look like fish that are filled with adzuki bean paste, French fries, candied apples, grilled squid, or a squid cracker covered in mayonnaise and powdered seaweed. We wandered through the throng and looked at all the treats. Some looked delicious and others, well I haven’t tried them so I guess that I should reserve judgment. We had lunch in the backpack so we decided to grab some freshly made French fries before heading over and finding a place to sit and eat our lunch. We had picked up some onigiri at the supermarket before we left Omihachiman. We found a spot to sit on our little tarp and eat our rice ball filled with tuna salad and our now cold French fries. We ate and made a spectacle of ourselves as we did so. Every little old lady that came by our little picnic site commented on how cute Logan was. Many wondered at the fact that the little gaijin boy could eat Japanese food. We ate our food and repacked our bag and headed further into the complex.

Daigo-Ji is a large temple complex consisting of two separate levels. There is a lower level and an upper level to the grounds of the temple complex. The lower level is the first that we were to explore. What we noticed first was the large five storey pagoda. This pagoda was built in 951, and is considered to the oldest of its kind in Japan, and it is the oldest building in Kyoto. We wandered through the mass of people to where the lifting of the mochi was to take place.

There was a large stage near the main temple building. On that stage there were two separate things of mochi. Each one was a two level cake, one pink the other white, perched on a wooden palate. The object was to lift the palate and the mochi off of the ground and hold it as long as possible before setting it back down on the stage. We arrived in time to see the women preparing to lift their mochi off the ground. There was an assortment of people on the stage, including several women and a gaggle of preists. The preists were announcing the contestants and giving each of them the number in which they would be competing.

There was quite a crowd gathered around the stage. We found ourselves towering above much of the crowd not terribly far from the stage, but we were positioned at the back. At first I thought that this would be to our disadvantage until the contest actually got under way. Once the first contestant was brought out to the middle of the stage and invited to begin the contest; the photographers rushed the stage. I thought that we were in a horrible position to see, however we were actually in a very good spot. We could not see the face of the strong woman, but we did not have our line of sight blocked by a wall of paparazzi.

Mochi Macho Man (part 1)

2008-03-02T13:01:00.006+09:00

Any day where I get to watch folks lift giant cakes of pounded rice is a good day in my book. We learned about a festival south of Kyoto City where people would be proving their strength by lifting very large rice cakes called mochi. We figured that it would be like a traditional Japanese strong man competition. This would be fun. I loved watching those strong man contests on ESPN when we had cable. I would waste away a Saturday afternoon watching guys who were big enough to equal three or four of me lifting and carrying rocks, pulling semis, and throwing logs. I was now about to see the Japanese equivalent.

Our destination was Daigo-Ji to the south of Kyoto. The first stop was Yamashina station where we boarded the subway heading south. We traveled four stations to the south and we got off the train at Daigo station. I suppose this is where we made our first mistake, if we can call it such. Waiting outside the station was a bus bound for the temple, but we opted not to ride. The weather was really quite pleasant which made for a perfect day for a walk. The temple was only supposed to be a fifteen-minute walk from the station. We consulted the book and then checked our compass to get our bearing and we set off. We walked and walked, the area was more urban than we had expected. We were walking through a newer section of city. We had passed new apartment buildings, car dealerships and a very nice ramen restaurant we decided might make a nice place to eat dinner. Of course we grew uneasy about our course and decided to check the map and compass once again to make sure we were traveling in the proper direction. Lo and behold we found that we were off course. We decided to correct our bearing. We needed to make a right turn and head more east. The first street that headed off in an easterly direction was a dead end so we kept walking. We took a right turn at the next street and we began to walk through a residential neighborhood.

We actually had fun this time; here we were “lost” in a city halfway around the world from our home. We knew where we were, more or less, and we knew where we were bound, more or less. All we had to do was to find the crowd and we would be all set. We rambled along the streets enjoying the bright sun that warmed us to the point we shed our coats. We kept adjusting our course, always heading in the direction we felt that we needed to go. We kept our eyes open for the signs that our destination was drawing nearer, mainly busses carrying loads of people and crowds of people moving like a herd along the sidewalk. I saw the first clue that we were close when I saw a little girl. There clutched in her little fist was a plastic stick with a balloon suspended by a rubber band dangling from the end. This was the sort of toy she could only get from a festival. A festival like the one we were trying to find. We turned down the street they were leaving and headed toward the colorful banners in the distance. There they were right in front of us, all the people that signaled that we had arrived at our destination.

My Name is Kebin - part 三 (san)

2008-02-24T14:18:00.009+09:00

After dinner we headed off to find the lights. The atmosphere outside had changed. There had been an almost party like mood in the air when we had entered the restaurant.
The rock band that had been performing an impromptu concert on a street corner was now cleaning up their equipment. The crowds of people were drifting like the tide to the other side of the station. We retraced out path, minus the uncertainty and map checking, this brought us back to the station where we would set forth to find the illuminare.

I am not sure how we managed to do it, but we managed to once again be unsure of where we were going. I would love to say that we simply followed the crowds but that was difficult because it was all one big crowd that seemed to be moving everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. There were giant signs that pointed the way and we managed to follow the arrows that signaled the direction. Thank goodness for wordless communication. There was only one real time where we were afraid that we might be going the wrong direction and that was the point where we could not tell where the arrow was pointing. There were two of them and we could not tell if they were directing us to go further down the street or if we were supposed to make a left at a side street. It is a good thing that we continued on straight because all became clear a few moments later when we saw the cattle run.

That truly is the best and only way to describe what we were being driven towards. There were two large fences that pulled the crowd into a nice big line. We were being herded forward like cattle to the train. The fences wound their way through the city streets leading us ever forward. We merged in with the rest of the crowd and began the forward progress. We trekked and trudged along the street in a never-ending river of people. The current of people moved along the path with a friendly demeanor and a pleasant pace. Logan started the journey walking and soon moved to a piggy-back ride because of all of the people. We began to wonder if we would ever make it to the advertised lights when Logan made his announcement.

“I have to go to the bathroom.” He stated as matter of factly as possible. What were we to do? He we were half way along a unidirectional path with no bathroom options until we get closer to the end. “Amazing,” I thought to my self. “Down town, big city, stores lining both sides of the streets, and we can’t get to any of them.” Yes the fence that helped mark the walking path also kept us hemmed in and would not let us out. But that was not the only detractor from visiting the stores that flanked us on each side. The real reason we could not sneak in and use the facilities was that most all of the stores were closed at this late hour of 8:30 in the evening. We continued on in the one direction we could move. Go with the flow was all I could think of at this point, with Logan reminding us that he had to pee every thirty seconds. We finally spotted a department store still open to business at this late hour and decided that it would be our best option. This is when we were confronted with two obstacles to overcome. The first was the chest high fence that contained the crowd and provided us with direction in our walk. The other was the myriad of police officers who were watching the crowd and making sure that there was law and order to accompany that direction. Would we be able to find a way to the other side of that fence that did not involve climbing over it? Would the police officers help us find our way around the fence, and more importantly would they let us rejoin the crowd or would they send us back to the beginning to have to start the long walk all over.

We found a link in the fence and saw that the whole section was on wheels. We began to move the fence to the side a bit in order to sneak through. The officer shot us a glance but when I pointed at Logan and said, “toilet” he waved us on through. We wandered over to the department store and promptly found a bathroom for Logan to use. I was going to go too, but found myself unable to. The reason being that this was a woman’s store and there was no men’s room for me to use. I would just have to hold it. Logan and Jenny came out of the restroom and we headed off to try and rejoin the crush.

We walked back to the same spot we exited from. I began to worry. Would the officer remember the big two-meter giant, his beautiful gaijin wife and his cute darling son? What if he sent us back tot he beginning of the track and we had to start all over. Would all this be worth it? My worry turned out to be all for naught. The police man came over and helped open the gate for us and we soon found ourselves moving along with the human current.

It was not far from the department store to the lights. With in two or three blocks we began to see the lights. The closer we got to them the more impressive them became. We saw that the millions of colored bulbs were arranged in intricate patterns creating a mosaic of light. The entirety formed a tunnel that we walked through. It was magestic and fantastic. It was amazing to walk through these giant arches of lights. We continued along walking through the lights until we came to the end of the tunnel. We then followed the crowd to the next area of illumination. There was a giant park in the city center that was now corralled by lights. They formed a giant uncovered gazebo where people congregated and admired the lights. In the center of this pavilion was another gazebo, this one covered, again created entirely from lights. We were in awe of the lights. They were truly beautiful and it capped off the night perfectly. We wandered around the area looking at the lights and the people for a time.

Then it was off to the train station to return home. We kept our eyes open for a cake shop to get some desert and a cup of coffee or tea before getting on the train but we had no luck. Every time we saw a cake shop it was either closed or closing. We might have been tempted to go into one that was closing but the selection of cake was limited. We did however find a nice alternative to cake at the station. As we were walking to find the ticket machine we happened upon a waffle shop. We bought a half dozen Belgian waffles that were about the size of a donut.

We headed to the train and were able to find a seat on the next homeward bound train. We sat in our seats, ate our waffles and drank our hot bottles of tea we bought from a vending machine. We made it home from the lights and steak in Kobe. What a fantastic night. We saw an amazing array of lights, and had one of the top steak experiences in the world all in one evening. There was definitely a sense of accomplishment as we crossed it off the list before we headed off to bed that night.

Number 163: eat steak in Kobe. Done.

Just to note this all took place in late December, even before Christmas. Sorry about the delay and wait. We have also posted a ton of new pictures on the photo site. -kevin

My Name is Kebin - part 二 (ni)

2008-02-21T16:37:00.008+09:00

We arrived in Kobe about dinnertime. All we had to do was to find the restaurant our trust ol’ guidebook recommended and we would be all set for a nice steak dinner. We wandered around the area of the restaurant, our eyes alternated between our map, compass, and the various signs trying vainly to get a clue. It was then that we heard the voice. “Excuse me, where are you trying to go?” We were so engrossed in studying our map we did not notice the middle aged man approach us. We showed him our map and he attempted to give us directions. He turned the map this way and that. Pointing at various street signs. It was then that he realized that any directions he might give would perhaps be in vain as we might find our selves once again lost in an unfamiliar city. He simply said, “Follow me.” We walked down the street as this very kind man showed us right to the door of the restaurant. He took time from his day and went out of his way to help us. The restaurant was not far from where he encountered us but I would say that he truly went “the extra mile.”

The restaurant was dimly lit and had the feel of a small pub. The walls were dark wood and darker brick. A row of sturdy wood tables sat next to the wall. Between the tables and the kitchen was a high bar counter with stools lined up along its length. We took a seat at one of the three tables along the wall. The menu was tacked up on the wall above the bar and we took a moment to read it over. There was a vast array of four choices. There were two different cuts of steak and we could order as a meal set or a-la-carte. The price for eating Kobe beef ranged from about fifty dollars to around one hundred bucks. As I mentioned Kobe is famous the world round for its beef. And famous beef ain’t cheap.

The restaurant may not have seemed like it was much of an establishment when we first entered but I am glad we chose it. The full experience of the meal was well worth the price. It was fun because only the bar separated the eating area and the kitchen we were able to view them as they cooked our food. One of the two employees came over to our table and we place our order. Jenny and I both ordered steak, which came with a salad. We also ordered a side of garlic rice and of course beer to drink for me, tea for Jenny, and juice for Logan.

They began by preparing our salad, which was fixed in the standard way of placing the ingredients in a bowl and tossing to coat them with the dressing. Then the real fun started. They began to cook the steak. They pulled two large thick steaks out of the refrigerator and placed them onto two metal skewers. The skewers of meat were then placed over a charcoal brazier that was located next to the stove and allowed to cook. After the steak had cooked for a time they began to prepare our plates. The plates were cast iron steak plates. The chef placed them onto the burner of the stove and allowed the plates to heat up. It was amazing to watch the plates heat to a glowing red. Once the plate was hot the cook placed some slices of garlic and onion and about five nice big fried potato wedges onto the plate. Then the steak was placed on the plate. More onions and garlic were loaded on top. This is when the fun started. The chef reached above the bar and brought down a big bottle of sherry or port and began to pour it all over the steaks. The moment the alcohol hit the scalding hot plates it ignited. The flames towered up into the range hood.

The plates were then brought to our table. We tied on our paper bibs that protected our clothes from the grease that spattered off the still hot plates. I could hear the meat and onions sizzle on the plate as they continued to cook. Our food was a perfect example of a steak cooked rare. The center of the steak was a shining crimson red that moved to a soft muted pink on the outer edge. The outside of the steak was perfectly seared, a crisp coating to the brown edged meat. I must say that it tasted as good as it looked. The meat was tender and juicy. Jenny and I each gave Logan a slice of ours to eat. He got meat from the edge that was closer to being well done. I am not sure why but he claimed to like the potatoes better. We clapped our hand together, said “itadakimasu,” picked up our chopsticks, and began to eat. As we did so the meat and veggies continued to cook on the plate. The steak progressed through the stages of being rare ending up at medium. The onions lost their crunch and sweetened to the point of being a great accompaniment to the meat. Each bite was as good as the previous.

My Name is Kebin - part 一　(ichi)

2008-02-19T20:18:00.001+09:00

You know the kind of guy whose head sticks up above the crowd and then wonders why no one sits by him on the train. You know; the kind of guy who points at the pictures on the menu rather than using the words. That was me. Every time something fun happened to me, something boring was always waiting around the corner. Excitement. That’s when I realized I had to change. So, I made a list of everything fun I’ve ever wanted to do in Japan and one by one I’m gonna cross them off my list. I’m just trying to have a funner life. My name is Kebin.

Number 163: eat steak in Kobe.

About ten years ago an earthquake devastated the city of Kobe. The event scarred and transformed the city. The city holds an annual remembrance in memorial of all those who lost their lives. The downtown area is transformed into a festival of lights. Last year we missed the illumination.

This year we decided to visit the city and view the lights. We also wanted to cross eat steak in Kobe off our list of things to do in Japan. We want to do as much as we can here in Japan before we head back to the states and one item on the list is eating world famous Kobe beef. Here was an opportunity to use one stone and kill two birds.

We left after I got off of work on a Friday afternoon. I rode straight from school to the train station, making the fifteen-minute bike ride in about seven. The trip to Kobe should have taken about two hours and would have if it had not been for the over powering smell of cologne man. We were riding the rails around rush hour and when we boarded in Omihachiman the train was already crowded and after a few stops we managed to get a seat to rest our body on. The stretch between Kyoto and Osaka is usually a tranquil area with few passengers and fewer stops. It was not true on this day and the train was relatively full. We were unfortunate enough to have a gentleman sit down near us who must have fallen into a vat of Old Spice. He reeked of cologne. There was little we could do. There were no seats available to move to. Our choice was to remain in our seat or get up and stand. It was a difficult choice because even if we moved there was no guarantee that we would be able to move far enough from the man to avoid the smell. We chose to remain in our seat. The smell grew stronger and stronger gradually overpowering everything else. Jenny made a comment about how she was beginning to get nauseas from the smell. I guess that Logan must have been feeling the same way because a few moments later his face turned green and he lost his lunch all over the front of Jenny’s coat. Well at least he would be hungry for dinner now.

Fighting the Forces of Evil with Soy pt. 2

2008-02-09T18:24:00.000+09:00

With the forces of evil vanquished from our home and good luck welcomed in it was time to head off to Kyoto. Last year we had the awesome opportunity of watching geisha perform their traditional dances. As much as we wanted to return and witness this rare spectacle again we knew we must view something new. After the cultural experience at the international center we headed off to find Rozan-ji, a small shrine near the former imperial palace. We decided to visit as an afterthought. Sort of a, “Well we better just max out the day. We are going to Kyoto anyway. Once in a lifetime opportunity after all.” rationalization. We worried that we might be too late because we overshot the shrine and had walked too far. We took a shortcut through a temple complex. Here we were three strangers in a strange temple sneaking through the alleys and paths of this place in search of a specific shrine. I must admit I was nervous that someone would come out of a building and discover us. Then I imagined we would be escorted back to where we entered and given the old heave-ho. We came out of the entrance to the temple and lo and behold to our left we could see the crowd that signaled our destination. Much like when looking for pirate treasure X marks the spot; in Japan X-tremely large gatherings of people marks the spot.

We strolled up to the gate leading into the shrine and mashed our way into the crowd. Last year we got to the shrine we visited nice and early. We found a wonderful spot to view the dancing geishas. This year we found ourselves at the back of the crowd on the outside of an open doorway. We could barely see into the shrine. We feared we might be unable to see the show. We had read that this would be a particularly entertaining event. There would be men dressed in giant oni costumes dancing on a stage. We would be seeing three demons dance while carrying weapons in their hands. The Black demon wielding a sword represented greed. The green devil brandishing an ax is the personification of anger. And the red oni with hammer and a flaming torch symbolized discontent.

It turned out that we were just in time. Soon after we arrived the crowd began to push its way farther into the interior of the shrine. I prepared the camera and Jenny popped Logan up onto her back so he could see over the crowd. We then heard the drums begin to beat and the music began to play. It was not long before the first of the giant oni came out to perform their dance. It looked like a giant stuffed toy. It was a cross between a toy and a poorly made theater fat suit. Hardly the horrid, frightening image I had in my mind. Still it was fun. When the oni had completed their dance then it was once again time for the beans to be thrown. About six or so people came out and began to throw beans.
I count myself lucky that we were not seriously injured. The projectiles launched at us were not the same as the beans Logan and I threw this morning. Now here were the magic missiles that I had been expecting. Every one that bounced off my coat or my unprotected head stung. These beans were covered in a thick sugar coating and colored pink and white. We tried to catch them as doing so is considered lucky, but every one that we caught slipped through the fingers of our gloves onto the wet ground.
We ended up purchasing a full bag of them. When we did have an opportunity to try them they were not what I expected. Judging by their size I was expecting something similar to an almond M&M. It had more in common, however, with a gobstopper. The sugar coating was hard as a rock and thick as… well let’s just figure it was all rock hard sugar candy. I am a bit worried about the luck we ushered into our lives. Once the oni did take the stage the batteries on my camera died and I had to scramble to replace them before it was all over. We finished with a walk through the imperial palace garden park on our way back to the subway. Then it was back to Kyoto Station were we grabbed a few of the only variety of beer we can not find here in Omihachiman, root beer, before we headed home.

Fighting the Forces of Evil with Soy pt. 1

2008-02-09T18:20:00.000+09:00

Who knew having a three year old pelt you with roasted soy beans while screaming, “Demons out. Good Luck in” could be so much fun. We celebrated the holiday of setsubun with a flair that can only be described as Kevin style. We also enjoyed it in the true Japanese style, but more about that later.

Setsubun marks the traditional first day of spring. The focus of the day is driving out of evil spirits called oni. If the oni are driven out of the home it allows good luck to enter. Now with all my experience watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and playing video games I would have thought a big crucifix and a sharp sword would be the weapons of choice, failing that maybe a sawed off shotgun and a vial of holy water. Imagine my consternation when the weapon I was handed was a small packet of roasted soybeans. I scrutinized the package. “Are they magic beans?” I asked. “No, they are made in a factory,” was the reply. So I am to fight the forces of evil with soy nuts. I couldn’t help but wonder if Flamin’ Hot BBQ flavor might not be a better choice. I imagined the demons bursting into flames from the spicy hot flavor. Then again maybe cool ranch might be more effective against the fiery hoards of Hell. Okay maybe I am getting too imaginative with my description. Setsubun is less about fighting evil and more about filling your home with good luck.

In the morning, just like last year I played the part of the oni. Logan was to be armed with the magic soy nuts. First we had to locate the holy beans. As it always seems to happen when faced with apocalyptic evil the special weapon was nowhere to be found. After searching the cupboard by dragging everything out onto the table we did what anyone else would do. We dredged the depths of the freezer. The beans were nowhere to be found. I should have thought to look under the packet of dried seaweed on the top shelf of the cupboard because the beans were strategically hidden underneath it. I had thought to look with the other holy snack food armaments but not under the seaweed on the top shelf.

Logan insisted on wearing the oni mask he made at school. So we ended up with a demon vs. demon grudge match. Logan threw beans wearing his paper oni mask with eyelashes. I wore the plastic mask with no eyelashes that we bought last year. Apparently it was very important to Logan that his oni have eyelashes. We threw beans at each other chanting, “Oni wa soto. Fuku wa uchi.”

Beans bounced around the room. When the cup was empty it was time to eat. We each had to eat beans equal to our age plus one for good luck. I ate my thirty-four, Jenny ate her twenty-six, and Logan must have eaten two hundred one. Well he started with four and kept eating and eating.
to be continued...

I Hate Monday but Sunday was Kinda Fun

2008-02-04T19:55:00.000+09:00

Well another Monday is over. Tuesday here we come. We had a fun weekend. It was setsubun yesterday and we had an exciting full day yesterday. We had two adventures yesterday and I will take a moment to tell about one of them. Yesterday the Kyoto International Center hosted a Japanese cultural fair. We headed off to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the country in which we live. We were able to try our hand at writing kanji with a brush and various other things. I was unsuccessful at guessing the correct incense smell in the incense game. I though that Jenny would do better at it but she talked me into doing it. Jenny also almost tried on a kimono but the line was quite long and she figured that if she wanted she could wear hers around the house. Our favorite activity that we tried was the tea ceremony. It was fun mixing the matcha tea with the little bamboo whisk. Logan had a great time helping me. Most of the people were surprised to discover that Logan loves the taste of the strongest of the green teas. From the very beginning of our time here Logan has been a big fan of the flavor of matcha tea. Any time we get ice cream he always wants green tea flavor. Yesterday he and I worked together to mix and drink the tea. I took a little sip after giving the tea bowl the requisite quarter turn in a clockwise direction. Then Logan took a large quaff of tea. The hosts of the area were very shocked to see him enjoy the frothy thick tea. When he exclaimed in a very loud voice, "Oishiiiii!!" (delicious) they began to laugh with excitement. We finished the tea and Logan tried to drain the last few drops from the bowls. He came close to trying to lick the bottom of the bowl. I laughed because the hosts were afraid that the tea would be too bitter for him. It was only a small part of our day but it was fun. I will tell more about it later.

Hiking

2008-02-01T20:36:00.000+09:00

Today was the day of my elementary school visit. I enjoy my weekly visits to the little schools and their pint sized inhabitants. I am still a K-6 teacher at heart, and while I enjoy teaching the middle school students Monday through Thursday, it is Friday that I look forward to. I am given the opportunity to play games and really be myself. After the fun commute last week I was expecting another morning of rotten weather. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked outside to see peaceful and soft snowflakes drifting down towards the ground.

I could tell that it was plenty cold outside so I began to bundle up. I suppose that one nice thing about not having central heating or insulation in the walls is that it is plenty easy to tell how cold it is outside. When I finally did fire up the ol' kerosene heater this morning the thermostat read a chilly eight degrees and if the temperature inside was eight after a night of having the heat turned off, the temperature outside would be even lower. I pulled on an extra sweater and headed off for Shima Elementary School.

Last week I had to travel about twenty minutes to get to the school I was visiting. Today the school I was heading to is the farthest I am willing to travel by myself. I figure that a half hour bike ride is about the limit of my willingness to commute by bicycle. I hopped on my bike and began to ride. It is a pleasant ride through the briskly cold morning, and I was glad that I wore the extra layer. Thirty minutes later I was approaching the school. I noticed a softness to the rear tire as I was nearing the entrance. The security guard met me at the gate and helped me find a place to park my bike. I confirmed that the tire was low as I parked my bike under the eaves of the school. I hoped for the best and headed off to teach the morning away.

I had fun teaching the third grade though sixth. The fifth and sixth graders were working on the months of the year. We made a month mini-book and identified our birthdays. In third and fourth grades we practiced colors and I read the book "Green Eggs and Ham." I ate lunch with the third grade students in their classroom. We had soup, rice, salad and fried fish. I thought that the fish was so-so, but many of the students told me that they did not like it. We also had a small packet of roasted soy beans in celebration of setsubun.

My heart sank when I left for the afternoon. When I went into school in the morning I noticed that the rear tire of my bike was low, but now it was completely flat. Here I was clear out by the lake and I would have to walk home. I began to hike. I figure that it must have been close to four or five miles home. The silver lining is that not only did I bundle up this morning but now it turned out to be fairly nice for a cold winter day.

I started walking and about an hour later I found myself at home. A pleasant day of teaching and a nice long walk all on the same day. The only thing that would have made my walk better is if I did not have to drag my old granny bike (mama-chari) along with me.

As I am sure that you have noticed I have figured out how to embed links in the post. A few people have mentioned that they were curious about my infatuation with the character of tanuki. I have included a link to an article here.. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Noise

2008-01-28T18:46:00.000+09:00

I sit here waiting to hear a song. I want to hear it, but at the same time I don't want to. I know that once I hear the sounds of that catchy refrain through the still night air I won't be able to get it out of my head. I don't know the words. There are a few that I can recognize, but as a whole I can not make any sense of it. I just know that tomorrow I will be whistling it as I walk through the halls, and the children will laugh at me. I don't care. Hearing this song will warm my heart and solve a few of my problems. I want to hear the kerosene truck and its song.

Loud music used to be a bane in our old life in Michigan. For a time we had a neighbor who would sit in his blazer for hours on end with the stereo turned up to eleven. The bass was loud enough that it would shake the pictures on our walls and give me a jarring, rattling headache. Then a couple of years later we had a few neighbors who would sit on their porch till the wee hours of the morning talking, arguing, and drinking. On a hot summer night it is a hard decision to have to decide; do I want to be kept awake by the loud neighbors, or do I close the window and be kept awake by the suffocating heat. Now loud music is the cue to which we live our lives. If we listen close we can time our daily existence by what is played over the town loudspeaker. It must be close to dinner time if we hear the pleasing theme to Greensleeves. It is played every evening at five O'clock. I hope to have Logan asleep by the time we hear Auld Lang Syne drifting trough the night. The song that I had associated with New Years Eve, here is played for the whole town every night at nine. I am awoken every morning by our neighborhood temple. Seven thirty-five on the nose the drums begin to bang, and the voices begin to chant sutras. I know that I have to hurry if I am not out of bed when the chanting starts. We time our lives in accordance to the noise in our environment.

So now I sit and wait to hear the sound of the truck that will come around and fill our big blue can with kerosene that we will use to heat our home for the next week or two. I try and distinguish the sound of the kerosene song from the various other sounds that crash through the air. Is that it? No, that is the hot potato truck. Yeah you read correctly. There is a truck that drives around the neighborhood selling baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes. That song could be it, but it's the guy who drives around collecting unwanted electronics and scrap metal. And don't get me started on election season here. I thought negative ads on TV were horrible, but at least you can change the channel or turn the television off. Here the candidates drive around town in a car with a giant megaphone strapped to the roof giving their campaign speeches at full volume. Over and over, starting at about seven in the morning. Imagine being woken on a Saturday morning by, "Hi I'm Fred Thompson. Let's work together. Please vote for me!" It gets even worse when the Hillary car and the Gulliani car drive into your neighborhood too. They all duel it our to see who can be the loudest. They smile and wave their white gloved hands at you while they deafen you with their rock concert volume campaign promises.

I still have not hear the sound I am listening for. I hope he comes soon because I am really cold and the kerosene can is empty and I would like some heat. I sure hope he gets here before Auld Lang Syne.

Ramen Meguri (pilgrimage)

2008-01-27T19:14:00.000+09:00

The good book states that the wages of sin are death. I found out that the wages of eating sinfully rich food might be even worse than death. I hesitate before I answer the question, “Was it worth it?” with a resounding, “Yeah, I think so.” When it comes to good Japanese ramen no price is too high.

Ramen here is a thing of beauty. Forget what you know about the block of dried noodles that poor college students eat to survive. That’s not really ramen. Ramen is so much more. Fresh ramen that you order from a restaurant is one of the greatest foods to be made from the combination of noodles and soup. Jenny knows the answer before she can ask the question if she queries, “Do you want to go and get some ramen for dinner?” The answer is always a resounding, “Yes!” I can almost smell it now as I type, thin noodles immersed in a thick rich soup, slices of pork, crispy vegetables. All of the ingredients grasped with a pair of chopsticks and brought to my lips where they are pulled into my mouth with a resounding SLUUURP.

One Friday I found myself done with work very early and I was able to come home at noon. I walked through the door and asked if Logan and Jenny had eaten lunch. They replied that they had not. I suggested that we head off to Kyoto and cross one of the things on our to do list off. I have wanted to go and eat ramen for lunch and dinner. We rushed off to the station and were on our way. While we were on the train we studied the guidebook and the map to plan our pilgrimage route. We decided on two restaurants from the book that were within walking distance of each other.

We got to Kyoto and boarded the subway hungry for delicious soup and noodles. We walked through neighborhoods and along busy streets before we found the first shop on our list. We found much to our dismay that they were closed. This shop had hours that left them with a siesta time in the middle of the day, and we had just missed the lunch period. We decided that it would be best to save this restaurant for dinner. We began to retrace our steps so we could hike over to the other restaurant and begin from there.

We walked to Santoka Ramen. It was a very nice looking restaurant in a little strip mall near a subway station. This was the shop that I had been itching to visit. I desired to eat the Tokusen Toroniku Ramen. Our book recommended this bowl as being one of the more decadent choices available. The toroniku is pork cheek and if I understand correctly only 200 grams are available from one animal. Now two hundred grams is about half a pound, so I take it that pork cheek is a real delicacy. And at about eleven bucks a bowl my hopes were high for having the most delicious bowl of soup.

I ordered the Tokusen Toriniku and Jenny and Logan decided to share a bowl of miso ramen. Our food came shortly and we began to eat. The food really was delicious. The noodles were perfect. I slurped them with gusto. The pork cheeks were so tender that they quite literally melted in my mouth. In retrospect now I wonder if the melting in my mouth was more due to the high fat content and the heat of the soup turning the fat to oil. I will still attest to the fact that it was one of the most appetizing bowls of soup I have ever indulged in.

We figured a good way to kill some time between lunch and dinner would be to stroll on over to the shopping area a few blocks away and do some window shopping as we passed the time. It was as we were perusing the stacks of books in our favorite bookstore that we got the first clue that this experience was not going to end well. Logan had the look of someone who needed to use the toilet in a hurry, but before we could make it there it was too late. So we abandoned the search for good reading material and began to hunt for some new clothes for the little guy to wear. We managed to find a cheap little sweat suit in a department store.

Never ones to let a little bit, or a lot in this case, of crap stand in our way of a good time we decided to proceed with our plan. After all, Logan was saying that he actually felt fine and was not sick. So on we trudged convinced that Logan’s little accident was just that, an accident. I should have recognized foreshadowing when I saw it.

With all the time spent dealing with getting a change of clothes for Logan it was now time to begin the walk to the other restaurant for dinner. We wandered back through the city streets of Kyoto, Japan. We were able to walk parts of the city that were new to us. We walked through alleyways and streets lined with traditional houses and businesses. The sun was beginning to set and the streets were beginning to light up. Neon signs and lighted lanterns beckoned to us, welcoming us to enter and enjoy the hospitality found within. We truly were pilgrims wandering through a valley of temptation. We resisted and soon found ourselves at the second of our two destinations. Our quasi-spiritual journey was almost at an end.

Where the Santoka Ramen building was a marvelously modern chapel in the church of ramen, Karako Ramen was more of a storefront ministry. We arrived and found a bench at the counter. We had to sit at the counter, not because all the tables were occupied by other worshipers, because that was all there was. The restaurant was very narrow with seating for about fifteen along the counter. We perched ourselves on the stools near the end of the bar and ordered two bowls of kotteri ramen which is the house specialty. The soup was very thick and quite tasty. The most wonderful part of the experience was the friendliness of the proprietors who had laid out small bowls of various pickles, salads and even something that was like a curried tofu. The cook even went into the back storeroom and got a banana for Logan to enjoy with his dinner. We ate the delicious meal with relish.

After dinner it was time to head back to Omihachiman. We walked back to the subway station and started to trip home. We made it home in short order and soon enough found our selves in bed, or in futon as it were. It was in the middle of the night that I had the first premonition that something was amiss. Throughout the night and into the morning my stomach felt queasy, but I chalked it up to rich food and thought little more of it.

It was in the middle of Saturday afternoon that I really began to get sick. Suffice it to say that I had a difficult time and could not leave the house for much of the next three days. I even had to call in sick to work on Monday. It was probably the worst I have felt in a few years. It harkens me back to the days of yore when in college I drank too much peppermint schnapps and found it difficult to brush my teeth for a few weeks because the taste of the mint made me relive the whole experience. While we took our ramen meguri on the last day of November I am writing about it here at the end of January because the wounds are still fresh.

I have begun to eat ramen again, but I still have not eaten at a restaurant since the “episode”. When I do I will be sure to do so in moderation. Maybe that is the best way to deal with any vice. Lesson learned. All things are best in Moderation. And never let a bit of crap spoil a good time.

My Weekly Elementary Visit

2008-01-26T08:56:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the day of my weekly visit to an elementary school for some english fun and game time. This week it was time to venture out to Okayama Elementary School. I had a premonition that the weather would be less than pleasant, and I was correct. It started to snow on Thursday morning and it really has not stopped. I knew that the weather would be awful because the one major snow storm that we had last year happened on the day I was to go to Okayama School. I just had a feeling that the time I went there this year it would snow too.

Okayama is about a twenty minute bike ride on a nice sumer day. And it is a lovely ride too. I can hop on the bike path that leads to the lake and ride most of the way with no worries about cars. Last year when about six inches of fresh, wet, sticky snow fell it made the ride unbearable. I was forced to walk part of the way, and where I did have to ride along a street I was constantly splashed by slush thrown up by the tires of passing cars. I arrived at the school forty minutes after leaving home soaking wet and terribly cold.

I was hoping for the best on my bike ride yesterday. Luckily there was only about an inch of snow on the ground and it was not to difficult to ride through. The hard thing was beating the wind. I had to ride against a cross wind that lashed my face with stinging wet snow. I ended up pulling up the hood of my jacket to protect my face. I made it to school in about thirty minutes and this time I was rather hot from all the exercise. In fact as I was sitting in the principal's office in my short sleeved green eggs and ham t-shirt the school secretary asked if I wanted the air-conditioning turned on.

I taught the morning away and was invited to eat lunch with the sixth grade class. I usually eat lunch with the students during my Friday visit. I was glad to eat and goof around with the sixth graders as they will be coming to my junior high school in April. Lunch was a scary combination. It was the usual assortment of rice, soup, salad, and meat. The salad was a very bland combination of wilted and vinegared greens. The soup was actually the best part of the lunch. The boy next to me told me it was kim-chee soup. It tasted like every other school lunch soup I have ever eaten except it had some spice to it. Not a lot, just enough to give it a kick as it ran down the back of my throat. The rice was rice. The chicken was the single worst piece of chicken I have ever eaten. The best thing I can say about it was that it wasn't big. I had only what can be described as a knuckle of stuff. There were about three or four little chunks of meat all held together by connective tissue and skin. It was all covered with a slimy sauce that can best be described as greenish yellow in color. The meat itself had turned almost reddish and to be combined with the green sauce it was not very appetizing. I did it though. I ate the whole thing. I felt like I was eight again. "Plug your nose. If you can't smell it, you can't taste it." I kept telling my self. Well I couldn't plug my nose and still be polite so I went with my other maxim, for eating green beans and the like, from my childhood. Take a bite of something gross, then a bite of something good. So I ate in this fashion. Bite of chicken. Bite of rice. Bite of chicken. Bite of rice. (This is the procedure for eating much of the offerings of Japanese hot lunch, which is often actually served at room temperature or slightly above, never hot.)

After Lunch the sixth graders invited my outside to join them in a snow ball fight. I accepted figuring it would be fun to toss some snow balls around with them. I did not envision that their invitation meant, "Come outside so we can all throw snow balls at you." Which apparently it did. I also forgot what a Japanese playground is constructed with. Playgrounds here are gravel. Gravel has a tendency to turn into mud after a heavy wet snow. So I find myself outside running through the slushy mud with every kid in the school throwing ice missiles at my crotch. How do I know that they were aiming for my swimsuit area you ask? Well the fact that when the whole ordeal was over I looked like I had had an accident in my pants would be the biggest indicator that they were aiming for my "stuff." I ended up retreating to a section of pavement where the school would be behind my back giving me a more fortifiable position. I also managed to make friends with some of the first grade girls who kept me supplied with plenty of snow grenades to lob at the attacking forces. I was very relieved when the bell rang and it was time for the kids to begin cleaning time. They ran off to go and look like they were cleaning, and I ran off to lick my wounded pride.

While I was teaching the day away, and getting blasted by some serious snowballs, Jenny and Logan were off on their own adventure. After school Jenny and Logan wandered off to see what Hachiman Shrine and the canal looked like all covered in fresh snow. Logan's school is about halfway to the mountain so it was not too far to walk after school. The shrine sits at the base of Hachiman-yama, and the canal was built hundreds of years ago to force ships sailing on the lake to pass by the castle that sat on the mountain thus having to pay taxes to the lord of the castle. The canal has a great old world feel to it. One evening we were watching a period drama on TV set in medieval times and we recognized Hachiman Canal in the movie. Jenny managed to get some very beautiful pictures of the snow covered canal. She also took one of the snowman that you see. The snowman was outside of the army recruiting station. As they walked to school in the morning the recruiters were hard at work building the snowman. One of the men was only doing so in a short sleeve white t-shirt. On the way home from "The Yama" Logan fell asleep while getting a piggy-back ride from Jenny.

雪
(yuki)
snow

New Year Resolution

2008-01-24T15:59:00.000+09:00

This year I resolve to update my blog with increasing regularity, hopefully to write something everyday. Oh sh*t, I guess that I already blew that one. I never have been one to make and meet my New Year Resolution. I almost did not even make one this year. And then around the second week of January I thought that it would be a good motivator for me if I resolved to write more. I was doing fairly well updating more often, because I was using my free periods to write and then bringing it home and posting it in the evening. Then came winter vacation. We had plenty of little of adventures that I hope to write up and add to the blog, but i will also try to keep people updated with our lives.

This week the weather has turned colder. I thought it was cold before, but it has become winter in the last couple of days. As I type there is snow falling outside for the second time this winter, and this time it is cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground. The worst part of the cold is the mornings. We wake up in the morning and the temperature hovers around forty-five degrees in our living space. It is even colder in the hallway where the bathroom is. We have taken to showering in the evening because there is no way we are going to bathe in the morning when the air is so cold we can see our breath. I guess that Japan is a nation of extremes. In the summer it was unbearably hot. Now we go to the store to escape the cold.

Monday I quickly got ready to go school. I had to because of the cold. I pulled on all fifty layers. Sixteen pairs of socks, long-johns, pants, five or six shirts, seventy-five sweaters, all in a vain attempt to stay warm on the ten minute bike ride to school. On my way to school I saw one of the students from my school in front of me. I sidled up to her and bumped the back of her bike with my front tire. She jumped about three feet in the air. Then she saw it was me and she started to laugh. Yelling at me the whole time, "Kebin yamete, Kevin stop." We rode together for a short way. Me all bundled up in my winter gear and her in a sweater and knee length skirt and over the calf socks.

I passed her after a block or so of riding together. It was as I was stopped at a traffic light that she joined me once again. I noticed that sitting in the helmet that was hanging from her handlebars was her cell phone. She was using her phone as an MP3 player. I pointed at it giving her my best school yard, "ooooohhhhh your going to get in trouble." She looked at me with pleading eyes and begged me not to turn her in. I told her that it would be our secret. It was then that she offered me the last thing I expected to seal our bargain. She held up the pinky of her right hand. She wanted to pinky swear with me to seal our secret. I did the only thing I could in the circumstance, I locked pinkies with her and pinky swore that I would never tell. It was not until later in the day that I realized how binding our contract was when all of her friends wanted to pinky swear with me too.

Tuesday brought an unexpected change of work duties for me. I was contacted about eleven in the morning and told to be at city hall at two-thirty to meet the mayor. And I would be helping to give him a tour of the city. Oh yeah sorry, this was not the mayor of Omihachiman who of course knows every inch of his town, but the esteemed mayor of Grand Rapids; Mr. George Heartwell and his beautiful wife. At first my going on the tour was canceled because I had a meeting with a teacher in the afternoon, but the investigation went higher up the totem pole and by the time the vice-principal was trying to find out about it, it became apparent that "it would be best if Kevin went on the tour." So it was time to go and change into my suit and go to meet the mayor. I was brought to the new hospital where we would be given a tour of the facility. I was very impressed with the new hospital and the Mayor. He was a very nice fella, down to earth and impressive at the same time. We toured the hospital, a crematorium, and a museum/art gallery. The hospital and even the funeral parlour made sense to me. Both were beautiful facilities that are recent additions to the city. The art museum however, I am at a loss to describe. It was like a special needs art facility. The best way to illustrate my point is by painting a picture of one of the areas. I will do my best to describe the area know as, "けんちゃんのファテジランド" or Ken-chan's Fantasy Land. An autistic man of about 18 years old has created an amusement park out of old milk cartons, curry boxes, paper and cardboard. It is very similar in every regard to the creations Logan's classmates make in kindergarten. (editorial comment: I don't say this to humiliate or degrade the art, because it really is quite impressive and cool. I describe it as such to provide the most accurate picture.) After the museum it was time to call it a day. I headed off home while Mr. Mayor and the first lady of Grand Rapids were driven off to their next appointment. A chance to meet the mayor of my home town was quite an honor.

I will do my best in the coming weeks to keep you better informed of our time here. I will continue to write about our adventures and describe the more mundane parts of our life in a fun and informative way.

またあしたね
(mata ashita ne)
see you tomorrow

Operation Tanuki Town

2007-12-27T12:44:00.000+09:00

Our mission should we choose to accept it was to infiltrate the town, view pottery made in one of six ancient kilns in Japan, purchase a tanuki statue and return home. The main objective of the mission would to be the purchasing of the tanuki statue. We had to go to the source. We were bound for Tanuki Town. In the middle of Shiga is a town that crafts the majority of the tanuki statues that are seen in Japan. The name of the town is Shigaraki. Shigaraki is a tiny little town that is situated out in the middle of nowhere. We did our research and planned the best route to the town. This trip would take a total of six train rides, three there and three home. We did not encounter any problems until we went to board the third train of the morning. It should not have been a complicated procedure. We needed to get off the train, exit the terminal, buy a ticket for a new train line, and head off to Shigaraki. It should have been easy. But as it seems, nothing is ever simple.

We exited the JR line and proceeded to the other train line. There was no ticket machine so I walked up to the window and asked for two tickets to Shigaraki. The gentleman on the other side of the glass responded by crossing his forearms into an X and speaking far too rapidly in Japanese for my ears to comprehend. As he did this, his comrade began to point toward the other side of the station and motioned in an arc. All in all I understood the meaning perfectly. We were in the wrong place. This was not the train line that traveled to Shigaraki. That line was somewhere “over there”. Now all we had to do was to locate the third train company that operated out of this tiny station. This proved to be a tricky proposition. By the time we finally located the hidden entrance to the needed train line we found that we had missed the train by two minutes.

On the up side we had located the hidden entrance, but now we were left to entertain ourselves for one hour in the middle of nowhere. So we did the only thing that seemed reasonable. We went to Seven-Eleven. Convenience stores here sell all manner of treats and we walked out with a box of chocolates called “Melty Kiss”, an apple Kit-Kat, and some rice balls filled with tuna salad. We hoofed it back to the train station and we sat on a bench eating our lunch.

Finally the appointed hour came and we went to board the train bound for Shigaraki. The train was one of the smallest trains we have ridden. It was a total of two cars long. We found a seat in the back car and prepared for a trip through the countryside. I thought it very interesting that I found the ride on this quaint little train to be more romantic than the ride we took in Kyoto that was billed as a romantic train ride. I was impressed by the myriad of fall colors that we could see as the train winded its way through the valleys of the Shiga countryside. The blazing yellows, reds and oranges that covered the hills and low mountains were striking and beautiful. It made me realize that I will always long to be near the mountains. I enjoyed watching the track drift off in the distance as the train progressed. The majestic view and tranquil country almost made up for having to wait to ride the train.

We arrived in the town of Shigaraki and were immediately greeted by the largest statue of tanuki I have ever seen. It made me laugh when I looked at his midsection and sitting in the middle of his tummy was a pay phone. It could have been worse and have sat a bit lower. That is not a phone I would like to place calls from.

Our first destination after arriving at the Shigaraki Station was the ceramic institute and museum. We were lucky that we found a giant map of the town and plotted our course. The walk to the institute was about a mile. It was a very pleasant day and the weather could not have been any better for a nice long walk. We finally reached the ceramic institute and took the opportunity to look around and admire the beautiful pottery creations made by some talented artists. It was a cross between a gallery and a museum. The art created was stunning. There was a vast array of styles. Some of the artists created cutesy knick-knacks, while others produced pieces of abstract modern art. We opted not to tour the actual museum because the price was too high for our liking. We also took some time to tour the grounds of the institute. The campus is situated on a very large hill that afforded an awesome view of the fall colors found in rural Japan.

The afternoon was beginning to wane and it was time to move on. We still had to find and purchase the perfect tanuki statue. This would not be a little decision. On our walk to the ceramic institute we had passed not fewer than ten large shops that displayed hundreds of tanuki statues each. We would have thousands of statues to choose from. We found the perfect one after much browsing and searching. I hope to one day set outside the front door of our home. Carrying the wrapped statue under my arm because it was too large to fit in the backpack we headed back to the train station. The sight of a very picturesque and vacant shrine just off the main road distracted us. We took advantage of the opportunity and entered the shrine to take in the sights.

In doing so we missed the only train out of town. Once again we found our selves stranded in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. This time the length of time we had before the next train was an hour and a half. We started to look around for someplace to eat dinner. Not far from the station was a sukiyaki restaurant that looked delicious, but at almost sixty dollars a person it seemed too dear for us. There was another restaurant next door, but the sounds of off key karaoke coming through the walls deterred us from entering. We were left with only one reasonable choice. Once again we would go to Seven-Eleven. This time we left with a snack. I had a can of hot coffee and a sandwich; Jenny had a bottle of hot milk tea and a box of milk cake. We wandered back to the station where we ate our food in quiet solitude until the stationmaster approached us and said that it would be okay to board the train that had arrived forty-five minutes before departure.

We rode the train back to Omihachiman and walked to the only restaurant still open at eight-thirty in the evening: McDonalds. We stumbled through the front door wearing and exhausted from our day of being stranded in small town Japan. We had to laugh that we headed off to a small town and found ourselves spending time in two small towns. It made us realize how fortunate we are to be located in Omihachiman. Our city is a fair size, not too big, not too small. Omihachiman station has trains that depart on a very regular basis. We find life and traveling to be convenient and simple.

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-25T13:36:00.000+09:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sukiyaki Thanksgiving

2007-11-29T20:21:00.000+09:00

Thursday was Thanksgiving. It did not feel like a real Thanksgiving though. There was no turkey, no mashed potatoes, no big family gathering, and worst of all, no pumpkin pie. Equipped with the knowledge that anything we did would not make for a true holiday feast we decided on patronizing a new restaurant. There were several restaurants on our list. We were not sure which one would fit the bill. Whatever choice we made it had to fit three criteria: first, it must be someplace we had never been. Second it needed to be close to our home. Last and most important it must not be named McDonalds. We had to cross most off the list at the last minute due to rain and our own lack of willingness to walk great distances with water falling from the clouds.

The list was narrowed down to three choices. We could visit a local Italian restaurant called Prema Prema, a Japanese restaurant near Logan’s school or we could stay home and scrape together a meager supper. Staying home was the wild card. About midday dark clouds began rolling across the sky, and soon after that a cold rain started to fall. The thought of trudging across town in a cold and dreary rain made staying at home seem more and more like a viable option.

However, eating spaghetti made with bland sauce from a bag, and garlic bread fashioned from slices of white bread spread with butter and sprinkled with what remains of our dwindling garlic supplies would never be an acceptable holiday meal. Our minds were made up. We would trek to the restaurant closest to home. That restaurant happens to be Prema Prema.

We geared up for a walk in the rain. Logan put on his raincoat. We grabbed our umbrellas, and set off. But we would not eat at Prema Prema that night.

They were closed. We stood in front of the door. The rain beat a soft pitter-patter on our umbrellas. I looked at the dark restaurant. Then I looked over at Jenny and said, “I think they are closed.”

She glared back at me with a wry grin and said, “What makes you think that Mr. Wizard? Is it the fact that it is pitch dark in there? Or is it the fact that there aren’t any people inside.”

“Nope.” I replied tugging on the door handle, “The door won’t open.”

It was about a two block walk to the Japanese restaurant near Logan’s school so the trip did not take long. We did not exactly know what type of food they served or if we would be able to order anything on the menu. Japanese restaurants are generally very helpful to people who can not read the words on the menu. In the front window of the shop there are plastic models of the food served in the establishment. Before we decided to go we had never bothered to look at the window to see what kind of food they served. It turns out that they were an upscale udon restaurant. Udon is a type of noodle served in a thin broth. The udon noodle is very thick and the broth is sweet. It is a very popular dish here in Japan, but it is not my favorite. I think that the udon noodle is mushy and the broth is too sweet, but that is my personal opinion. Even though we do not particularly care for udon we decided to go ahead and eat dinner at the restaurant. We saw in the foyer that there was a stone grinding wheel to make the flower for the noodles, and farther in the restaurant we could see where the noodles were made fresh everyday.

The hostess ushered us back to our own private room where we sat on the floor around a low table. We had taken plenty of time to stare at the offerings in the window and had made some preliminary choices for our dinner. I wanted to try the sukiyaki udon, and Jenny was leaning toward something that looked a lot like nabe. I ordered the sukiyaki udon and Jenny ended up choosing the tempura and sushi set that came with a big bowl of udon soup. Logan wanted the Thomas kid’s meal. A few minutes after ordering we were brought our food on giant serving trays. Jenny’s came first. The tray contained a large bowl of udon, a plate with six pieces of sushi on it, and a dish of tempura. Tempura is a type of deep frying. Tempura refers more to the batter used to coat the food than anything else. Tempura batter is delicate, sweet, bread like, and delicious. Next, out came Logan’s food. He had a hamburger patty, a piece of fried chicken, two fried shrimp, some french-fries, rice, and a cup of chocolate mousse. My dinner came last. On my tray there were three bowls.

In the first bowl there was rice. In the second bowl there was a raw egg. In the last bowl there was the sukiyaki udon. Sukiyaki is similar to nabe. Beef and vegetables are cooked in a pot with a sauce. The sauce for sukiyaki is made up of soy sauce, sake, and sugar. It is very delicious. The beef, vegetables, and tofu are placed into the sauce and cooked, and in my case there were udon noodles too. This is when the raw egg comes into play. I used my chopsticks to beat the egg until it was thoroughly mixed. Then I pulled out a slice of cooked beef and dipped it into the raw egg. After going into the raw egg the beef made a short trip into my mouth. This process was done with all the contents of the sukiyaki.

Jenny and I swapped food halfway through. We both agreed that the sukiyaki was the better of the two meals. Logan ate his slowly. Not because he was enjoying every bite more because we were eating in a new location and he was overwhelmed. I must admit that the udon at the restaurant was the best that we have ever eaten and probably will ever eat. We ate until we were stuffed in the spirit of the holiday that it was. After all that is what Thanksgiving is all about. Sitting back and shoveling massive amounts of food into your belly while being surrounded by turkeys. Now if only we could have found a decent pumpkin pie in this country Thanksgiving would have been complete. I guess some things will have to wait until next year.

Nabe+Drinking=Fun

2007-11-26T20:54:00.000+09:00

Last Wednesday night was a staff dinner party with the teachers at my grade level. About once a month the second grade teachers all gather together for dinner. To say that this was a dinner party is misleading, it happened more like this.

On the Friday prior I came into work and found a note on my desk. The note read, “We will have a drinking (crossed out) nabe party on Wednesday. Please check with your wife.” It is hard to say if the drinking was crossed out to be polite or so that I could check with my wife about dinner without mentioning the drinking. I was verbally reminded about the party and how much fun it would be to drink some alcohol together. It was a subtle hint and reminder that I had not been out drinking with them in quite some time. I checked with Jenny and she confirmed that it would be cool for me to go out with the people I work with in my day to day.

So on Wednesday evening I set off to find the nabe restaurant. It was easy to find, as it was the same location as when we had the first drinking, er... nabe party there. It is hard for me to believe that it is a functioning eatery. The place is a bit run down. In order to describe it best I will borrow a term from my students in Grand Rapids. The place was “broke down.” It is situated in between two railroad tracks so that every twenty minutes or so there is a train going by on one side or the other. I found a spot to park my bike outside which was a sticky wicket as the front of the restaurant was situated along a busy street, so I propped my bike up along the wall hoping it would not be carried away by a train. I entered and was greeted by the oldest restaurateur I have ever met. He must have been approaching eighty and the restaurant he tended must be in the exact same condition as when his father handed him the reigns. I would not be at all surprised to learn that the eatery predates the train line. The room I was ushered to was as dilapidated as the rest of the location. In the corner of the room was a large screen that at one time featured a majestic painting of a large eagle. Today, however, that eagle appears to have undergone drastic surgery. Large portions of the fabric are being held together with pieces of bright white medical tape. But I suppose that the condition of the building has little bearing on the deliciousness of the food. And the nabe at this place is supposed to be some of the best around

Nabe is a complex dish that requires throwing a bunch of vegetables and chicken in a pot of broth and allowing it to cook. It is the broth that makes it special. There is a lot of garlic in it. I happen to love garlic and will put lots of it into just about everything I eat which makes nabe a thing of beauty. Sitting at the bottom of the pot are four or five giant cloves of garlic. The broth is then brought to a boil then the chunks of chicken are thrown in along with bok choy cabbage, mushrooms, carrot, tofu and chicken meatballs. Once the meat is cooked thoroughly it is scooped out and placed in a bowl and eaten. It is delicious. The best part is that it tastes great with a nice cold glass of beer. Then again what food doesn’t taste better when accompanied with a nice cold lager? We ate all of the food including some pork that one of the teachers had brought from the grocery store. The pork is used to make a dish called shabushabu. Shabushabu is very similar to nabe. I picked up a thin slice of pork with my chopsticks and dipped it into the boiling broth and swished it around until it was cooked. When it was cooked I ate it.

We talked, ate, laughed, drank, and ate some more. When all of the veggies and meat were gone it was time to make the rice. Cooked rice it added to the broth along with a couple of beaten raw eggs and some chopped green onions. The rice, egg and broth mixture is allowed to cook until the egg is done. Then it is all scooped out and placed into a bowl and eaten. My favorite part of eating the rice is getting one of the big cloves of garlic in my bowl.

The entire time the eating is going on the beer is flowing like wine. Well in a way. You must never pour a beer for yourself, it is considered rude to do so. So when you need a refill you grab the bottle and fill up your neighbor’s glass and they, in turn, do the same in return. Well this leads to one seldom having an empty glass, which makes it difficult to gauge how much you have consumed. When this happens the most reliable method is to judge how fast the room is spinning. If you find it hard to stand then you turn your glass upside down. This gets tricky when you are drinking sake because the bottom of a sake glass is just a smaller cup and people will continue to fill it. I, how ever made an early evening of it leaving before the sake even came out. I retired about nine and was home tucked safely in my spinning bed around nine thirty.

Birthday Party at Ren-kun's House

2007-11-23T10:56:00.000+09:00

We followed up the Friday night birthday fun with some Saturday daytime birthday fun. Logan’s friend Shigeru was having a birthday party in conjunction with some other children from Logan’s class, and he invited Logan to be one of the guests. We met Shigeru and his mother in our parking lot and waited for a ride to the party. The party would be held at the home of another member of Logan’s class. We arrived at Ren’s house, where the party was being held, in a matter of minutes. It would not have been at all difficult to walk there, but I am glad that we got a ride because I do not think that I could have found the house without an excellent map.

Logan had a great time playing with his friends. In all there were about eight children there ranging in age from not yet born to four. They played with Ren’s massive collection of toys for about an hour. All this time the adults were trying to figure out what to talk about. The common theme of the morning was silence. Ren’s Dad stayed and visited for a short time before he had to go to work. Other than that I was the only man there. We sat and talked a little but mostly watched the kids play. Then the magic thing that brings all people together came out. No, not that! Food.

Ren’s Mom began to bring out plate after plate of food. There were sandwiches and fried chicken. My favorite though was the big giant bowl of sushi. Now this was not ordinary sushi it was a special type of sushi called chirashizushi, and Ren’s Mom had gotten up at five in the morning to prepare it. Chirashizushi is sushi that is all mixed up. The rice is prepared and mixed with long strands of scrambled egg, seaweed, and little tiny fish that are almost too small to see. It is a very special and very delicious type of sushi that is usually served in the spring for the Hina doll festival. We were also fortunate enough to eat some authentic Chinese gyoza. Shigeru mother and father are Chinese, and his mother made some delicious steamed pork wontons. It was a lot of fun to eat our fill of the delicious food.

We enjoyed the lunch and the kids went back to playing. It was time for after lunch karaoke. Ren had a little keyboard with a microphone. The children took turns sitting at the toy piano and playing while another would sing into the microphone. Ren was quite a rock star. He really had a good time singing, and he was dressed the part too. He had the glam rock look down pat. He had decked himself out in a pink barrette and a bright pink headband. Logan tickled the ivories while his front man Ren belted out the tunes. He was just a little eyeliner short of being David Bowie’s Iggy Stardust. Logan and his friends had a great time. They did not seem quite satisfied however. There was something missing from this birthday party.

Then that which was missing was found, and out came the cake. It was a simple cake with white frosting and strawberries on top. I was a bit shocked and delighted when I was asked to cut the cake.
I was horrified however that they wanted me to carve it up before singing Happy Birthday. I lead a rousing rendition dedicated to “everyone” then I sliced the cake into twelve portions. We devoured the cake. I think that the cake was the first homemade cake that did not come out of a rice cooker; we have had in a little over a year. And a delicious cake it was. I ate my entire piece and some of Logan’s piece too, as he was more interested in playing with his friends than in eating cake. Not too long after cake we made a graceful exit and soon found ourselves in the loving confines of our own home.

Always trying to find a way to escape the prison of our own four walls we soon found ourselves making our way to the local Starbucks. It is a bit amazing but it was Jenny who made the suggestion. We were sitting in our chilly apartment when she suddenly exclaimed, “I think a nice hot latte would be nice.” Me never being one to pass up an opportunity to drink a nice latte; I was up and standing at the door with my coat on as my answer. I figured that actions speak louder than words. So off we trooped to the one Starbucks in Omihachiman. I drank a gingerbread latte and Jenny had a crème brulee. Logan shared whichever one he could get his hands on. We sat and joked about our day and how much fun we had as we sipped our coffee. Once again the day ended with a nice cup of Joe. Perfect.

Otanjobi Omedeto means Happy Birthday

2007-11-21T18:59:00.000+09:00

“Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday deeeeaaarrrr Jeeeennnny! Happy Birthday to You!!!!!” This is possibly the best song that gets sung only once a year. Now I realize that the song gets sung over and over through out the year, but each person really only gets it sung to them once a year. Friday we got to sing it to my beautiful wife Jenny. Yes on Friday, November 16 my wife turned 24. She was very excited for the big day and kept asking about her present. But I told her that she would have to wait to find out.

We started the evening by going to the store to pick up some necessary supplies. First we had to purchase some gifts for a birthday party on Saturday. Then it was downstairs to get the fixin’s for fajitas. We grabbed onions, peppers, corn chips and some beef. We were all set for fajita fun. Now all we needed was a birthday cake.

We walked down to the Andenken Bakery. Jenny had to pick out her birthday cake from an amazing array of delicious deserts. She chose a white cake covered in fruit. They even offered to write Happy Birthday on it. The real shock, for them, came when we asked if they could write it in Japanese. I am fairly sure that her jaw almost hit the floor. Then she asked again in broken English if we wanted “Happy Birthday” written in English. We assured her that we wanted “おたんじょび　おめでと” written on the cake. She gave us a worried look and hurried off to write our message. At this point we were all prepared for an evening of bacchanalian birthday fun.

We walked on home and started cooking Jenny’s birthday dinner. We had all we needed to make some marvelous Mexican food. We created a spread of foods that was quite impressive. We had steak, onion and pepper fajitas, guacamole, real cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and plenty of tortillas. It was a feast and we enjoyed each morsel of it. We then finished the meal with a big slice of birthday cake.

Then it was time to open present. Well, yes there was only one present to open. Logan and I bought a jigsaw puzzle for Jenny featuring characters from the movie “My Neighbor Totoro.” I know it doesn’t seem like much of a gift, but Logan and I wrapped each of the one thousand pieces separately. It took quite a bit of effort on her part to open the gift, and when done this way it sure seemed like she got a lot of presents. Now all she has to do is assemble the puzzle, which she spent some time doing that evening.

七五三

2007-11-20T20:51:00.000+09:00

I suppose when your three year old son asks, “What are we going to do today Kevin?” The best answer is not “The same thing we do everyday Logan. Try to take over the world.” I say this only because at the age of three children should be expected to set and meet attainable goals. Conquering the world at such an age may just be too lofty a goal for one so small. And if we did manage to do so would he really know what to do with such great power? No, one so young should not rise so high so early. Instead we set our mind to conquering kindergarten, and that is just what we did on Thursday morning. It was a perfect start to our Shichi-Go-San celebration.

Shichi-Go-San is a festival celebrated by families who have young children ages seven, five and three. In fact that is what the name of the festival means, seven, five, three. It is a minor festival that families seem to celebrate individually. Families with a child aged three, five or seven will go to a Shinto Shrine to pray for the health, safety and happiness of their child. Sometimes the child is dressed in a traditional kimono while other times the child is dressed in their best suit of clothes. What we have seen here is that girls tend to be dressed in an elaborately beautiful kimono; while boys tend to wear more western clothing like slacks and a sweater, or a suit. While at the shrine the family will pray for their child and perhaps have the priest say a prayer of blessing over the child. The child will then be given special candy to commemorate the day.

I have wanted to visit Logan’s school and Thursday was the perfect opportunity. I had already taken the day off of work in order to celebrate the shichi-go-san holiday and now I would be able to go and watch him play at school too. We walked to school together in the morning. Logan led the way holding my hand much of the way. We got to school and Logan began by putting all of his school things in their proper places. Then he began to play with his friends. He started the day by playing house with some of the other boys and girls. They all had a great time bringing plates and cups over to me from the kitchen. I would then ask them, “Kore wa nan desu ka?” (what’s this?) They would then tell me, cake, sushi, tea or whatever it was that I was eating or drinking. I thought that it was hilarious when I asked one of the boys what was in the cup he just handed me and he replied, “Biru.” (beer) My personal inclination was that maybe ten o’clock in the morning was still a tad early to be drinking a beer, not to mention the fact that we were at school. But I drank it non the less and I even told him that it was delicious. We continued to play house with students bringing me food and me asking what it was then eating it. They brought such peculiarities as lemon juice, orange beer and corn soup. We played until it was clean up time.

Next we all had to gather for circle time. I can not decide if the sound of twenty-five preschoolers screaming/singing is cute or horrific. Right now I am leaning toward cute because hearing all of those little tykes belting out the Anpanman March was enough to bring a smile to my face. The kiddies sang two or three songs. Jenny and I watched while three of Logan’s friends all jockeyed for position trying to sit next to him. They would move their chair to be right next to his. Then when they got up to sing another student would come and move the first chair out of the way and place their chair next to Logan. It was quite comical to see them moving the competition out of the circle only to have their chair moved in turn.

After circle time it was time to head off to banana room for a special nutrition presentation. We got to learn all about the three food groups and how they work together to give us plenty of energy to play and have fun at school. What? Did I misspeak? You did not know that there were only three food groups? Alas, yes here in Japan there are only three food groups. There is the fruit and veggie group, the dairy and meat group, and there is the grain and rice group. I thought that there was another too, but I was wrong. The teachers had a story about pigs that ran out of energy because they did not eat a balanced diet. Now when Logan needs a bit of convincing to eat his veggies we remind him about the pigs that did not have enough energy to play at school. This usually does the trick and he responds with a healthy, “That’s OK I’m at home now. I’ll just take a nap.”

After the nutrition presentation it was time to go outside and play on the playground. We had a lot of fun playing. The children all wanted to show me all the fun things that they have to play with on the playground. We first went over to the sandbox where they taught me how to dig in the sand. Then it was off to climb on the jungle gym. There were many shouts of, “Rogan no Otto-san kochira wa” (Logan’s dad over here) We climbed, ran, dug and swang all over that playground. I then went over to where there was a group of kids playing in the sand and I ordered a couple of hamburgers and a coke from their “restaurant.” They had a great time making food for me. Kids would come running across the playground with a plate of sand to bring me a piece of “cake.” We had a great time playing and I especially enjoyed meeting Logan’s teacher and all of the boys and girls in his class.

After school we decided to go and get some lunch. We decided that as it was a nice day that we would get some boxed lunches and go and eat picnic style. We walked to our favorite bento shop and ordered. We then wandered toward the mountain. We found a nice spot near the canal at the base of the mountain to eat our lunch. It was a great spot to eat our food. The weather was pleasant and the view was nice. The leaves on the trees along the canal are just starting to change color so we were able to appreciate the fall colors as we ate.

After lunch we headed off to Hachiman-jingu. The shrine was all prepared for the Shichi-go-san celebration. They had placed an inflatable Anpanman, Baikinman, and Dokinchan near the Shrine to encourage families to come to the shrine for the festival. Logan and I went up to the shrine to say a prayer and ring the giant bell. I took a moment to pray for Logan’s health and happiness. Then we went down to the information booth where we got some chitoseame. Chitoseame is thousand year candy. Thousand year candy is given to children on shichigosan because it is believed to ensure long life. The package is decorated with a crane and a turtle which are both symbols of long life here in Japan. We opted not to have the priest say a blessing over Logan because we learned that the blessing would cost about fifty dollars. It was actually one of our Japanese friends who said that she thought that the price was very expensive.

We decided to cap off our fun day with a piece of cake. We went over to a cake shop near the shrine for a couple of pieces of cake. We got a caramel cake and green tea desert and went outside to eat. Jenny walked over to the vending machine and bought a nice hot bottle of milk tea and we sat on top of a rock wall eating our cake and drinking tea. It made me laugh when we were in the cake shop ordering cake Logan had said that he did not want any cake and that he was full. When we got outside and Jenny and I were eating. Logan suddenly decided that he did want some cake after all. I found it comical that he was so matter of fact about the idea that he did not want cake. Then the words came out of his mouth once we were outside and eating, “I do. I do want some cake.”

We walked home and spent the rest of the afternoon resting and enjoying the time together. We had a good day and the day made me eternally grateful for my family. Watching Logan play with his friends was a lot of fun. It made me glad to see him act like a little boy. At one point when he was at school he was using the hose to fill a tub of water when he moved the steam of water and got his friend’s shoe wet. I noticed it happen and I made him turn off the water. He then had to apologize and set her shoes in the sun to dry. Though I was not happy that he had gotten her shoe wet it did make me glad that he is learning to get along with others. He did need me to help him apologize to the little girl, but once he did she was not so mad at him any more. I am glad that we took the opportunity to go and celebrate 七五三. We had a good time and I pray that my little boy will have a long and happy life.

七　shichi　(seven)
五　go (five)
三 san (three)

Yaki Niku

2007-11-15T16:27:00.000+09:00

Roger if you are reading I have found the perfect food for you. It is called niku. I know that you are a big fan of it and I know where to get some of the best of it in the world. Let me clear up a little bit of confusion, niku is the Japanese word for meat, and where we live, the city of Omihachiman, is famous all across Japan as having some of the best beef in the country. Omi-beef or Om-gyu, as it is called, is held in higher regard here than is the world famous Kobe Beef. Kobe Beef is the beef that is used in the ultra-expensive hamburger that I read about in the news a while back. The cows for omi-beef are hand fed big bottles of beer and given daily massages to keep the meat tender and juicy. Eating omi-beef truly is a mind-blowing experience.

On Sunday night we went out to eat with our neighbors. Our neighbor Justin organized all of the people in the building, and a few others, to have a night of Yaki-niku, or grilled meat. We met in the parking lot of our building around seven in the evening and walked about ten minutes to the restaurant. This particular restaurant is called Nishimura-ya and it is known for having some of the best and most expensive yaki-niku in town. We arrived at the restaurant after about a ten-minute walk through the cold and a few raindrops. We were guided up to a private dining room where we were able to sit on the tatami floor around a low table. In the middle of the table were two holes sunk into the table. The hole was topped with a grate that was just a little below the level of the table. Under the grill was a flame. The table is a grill where we would be grilling our own slices of meat and vegetables.

The servers came in a few moments later and took our drink orders. I of course had a beer, because what else could go so well with grilled meat other than beer? A few moments later the servers returned, not only with our drinks but also with large platters filled with small slices of beef and some vegetables. The veg selection was not the best, but we were not there to eat healthy. The vegetable platter was heaped high with large leaves of cabbage, onions, Japanese potatoes, and mushrooms. The meat tray was just as large and was filled with thin slices of bite sized raw beef just waiting to be placed onto the grill and seared and cooked to deliciousness.

The first meat that was put on to the grill was what I think must have been tongue. It was sliced thin. The slices of meat were placed onto the grill and cooked. We then removed them from the grill with our chopsticks, dipped them into the sauce and ate. Logan however did not get the meat off the grill, though he did try, Jenny or I took care of that duty for him. Other cuts of meat were also grilled to perfection.

The tongue meat was good but it was not the best that Nakamura-ya had to offer. Some of the cuts that came out next were beautiful and tasted as good as they looked. The meat was beautifully marbled with fat in a way that you can’t find in America. The meat is not low in fat, nor is it lean. The fat runs through the meat in little white streams that divide the reddish pink meat into tiny little islands of muscle. The meat, in the best spots, looks like a piece of marble waiting for an artist to sculpt a beautiful relief of a cow. I suppose this is why the fat that funs through the muscle in a slice of steak is called marbling. I made sure to place a couple of well-chosen slices on the grill for my own personal enjoyment. I did everything in my power to ensure that my carefully selected cuts were not poached by anyone else. The enjoyment was sublime. I timed everything perfectly. I peeled my meat off the hot grill and dipped it into my sauce. Then it went straight into my mouth. It was not at all necessary to chew the meat; it simply melted in my mouth. The fat had all turned into juice and flavor. I was left with the second most tender piece of meat I have ever eaten. The first being at a different, more expensive, restaurant here in Omihachiman that also serves Om-gyu called Tiffany. Tiffany served the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. It was also at Tiffany that I ate beef sushi for the first time. Yaki-niku is not steak though, and not all of the meat was as prime.

I will admit that some of the meat looked more like fat with a tiny but of meat running through it. There were even a few pieces that looked as if they were entirely made up of fat. I am not sure that I have ever eaten beef that actually looks more like bacon before it is cooked, but eat it we did. The fat usually melted away leaving tender and juicy meat to eat.
There was even a few times that the melted fat caught on fire resulting in little flare-ups on the grill. Once or twice the grease ignited as someone lifted the meat off the grill. This resulted with them holding a burning ball of meat in their chopsticks for a few moments. One of our friends, Katy, has just purchased a very fancy camera and she was trying to catch the little bursts of flame on film. We ate plenty of beef that night.

I am glad that we took the opportunity to go out with the people around us. Not only was the company good but the food was too. There will only be so many opportunities to eat food in this way. We have a limited time left here in Japan before we have to figure out what is next and move back to America. Even though the meal was expensive the experience was worth the price of the meal. We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Om-gyu is an expensive luxury, even here in Omihachiman, and someday we will not be able to eat it. Now when we come home to our American lives we can say that we have eaten the best yaki-niku made from the best om-gyu in Japan. What awesome bragging rights we will have.

Monkey-kun visits the Monkey Park

2007-11-09T23:00:00.000+09:00

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed off to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto. Arashiyama is the area of Kyoto that is known to have the best fall colors. Only part of this day would be about seeing the changing leaves. The majority of the day would be spent at the Arashiyama monkey park.

The monkey park is a mountain in Kyoto inhabited by about 150 wild monkeys. The monkeys roam the mountain freely. There was a nice little hike up the mountain. I expected to see some monkeys as we wild, but we did not see any until we were almost at the top.

The pathway zigzagged its way up the face of the mountain. As we neared the top of the mountain the trees gave way and there was a large clearing. We heard them before we saw them. Their high-pitched screams grew louder as we approached the clearing. At first there were a couple of monkeys along the path. Then we spotted one perched in a tree and another one lying in the sun next to the trail. Then as we entered the clearing we saw many more. There were probably thirty to forty monkeys congregated in the clearing. This was the place to be. There was a building on the edge of the open space. We looked around for a moment and then headed into the building to feed the monkeys.

The best way to describe the building is to say that it is the opposite of a zoo. The building was the cage, and the people trapped inside were watching the animals that were free to roam about. Inside the building we were able to feed the monkeys. We bought a few bags of peanuts and a bag of apple slices. We held the food and the monkeys shoved their hands through the chain link fence to grab them out of our palms. Logan had a great time. He would reach into the bag and pull out a peanut. Hold it in out between his fingers. He would say, “Here monkey-kun. Here is a peanut for you.” He fed the monkeys four bags of peanuts. He would have gladly continued feeding them peanuts but the smell, a mixture of old peanut shells, stale cigarettes, and monkey, was starting to get to me.

We went outside where we could see an impressive view of the city. We looked around and watched the monkeys play for a spell before we went to play ourselves. We wandered down to a small playground. Logan took the opportunity to play. He went up and down on the seesaw. He swung on the porch swing. And he slid down the longest slide I have ever seen. The playing made us hungry so we headed back up to the shelter to eat some lunch.

We ate our lunch of onigiri. Onigiri are Japanese rice balls stuffed with various fillings. Our favorite is the tuna salad onigiri. It is the Japanese equivalent of a tuna salad sandwich. We filled up and prepared to hike back down the mountain and walk to our next destination, the romantic train.

There is a train that takes a scenic tour of the Hozu-gawa valley. It is supposed to be an excellent way to view the fall colors. We had to walk from the monkey park to the train station. It was not a long walk, only about twenty minutes or so, and for us that is not all that long seeing as how we walk pretty much everywhere we go these days. We made it to the station and bought a one-way ticket on the last train of the day. We had time before the train left so we had a snack at the little café inside the station. We found ourselves with time to kill so we looked around the museum that was there. The museum was a combination steam locomotive and classical music museum. There were four steam engines and statues of five composers. All of them were located in one big room. It took us about ten minutes to take it all in, and that is being generous.

The time finally came and we got in line to board the romantic train. The romantic train however did not live up to its name. It was a tad less than romantic. We boarded the train and it was a very old fashioned looking train. We thought that the engine might even be a steam engine, but we are pretty sure now that it was a diesel. The benches on the train were wooden. Sitting on them reminded me of straight-backed wooden church pews. The train ride was a nice one that followed the Hozu River on its winding path.

The view from the window was incredible. The Hozu River Valley is very beautiful and I for one was impressed with what I saw, when I could see. The problem was that for all the beautiful scenery it was difficult to see because sometimes the good view was out the window on the opposite side of the train car. Sometimes it is possible to see out the window on the other side of the car, but when the aisle is full of standing people it is difficult to see through them. The other big obstacle to seeing was the fact that the train traveled through a lot of long tunnels. When the train was in a tunnel there was nothing to see. One of the tunnels was lit with some neon lights that were shaped like important sights in Kyoto. That was nice to see, if only they could all have been like that. I think that my favorite part of the trip was when a demon came on board.

At one of the stations there was a man wearing a demon costume waiting on the platform. When the train began to move I noticed that he had boarded the train and was making his way through the train cars. He was in the best Oni costume I have ever seen. The hair on the wig went all the way down his back and the mask was very scary. To keep from being too frightening for the small children he kept his demon face covered with another mask of the cartoon character of Doraemon. Doraemon is a blue cat that is very popular here in Japan. He wandered up and down the aisle of the car stopping to talk with the people in the seats. He even stopped to say that my hair was not long enough and that I should grow it out so I could wear a pink curler just like him. The train ride took about half an hour and really was quite pleasant. We got off at the last stop and walked the ten minutes to a different train station to begin the journey home. When we finally made it home we were exhausted after our long day and we all gladly dropped off to sleep.

Halloween Extravaganza

2007-11-09T15:38:00.000+09:00

Neighbors make all the difference. We are fortunate enough to have some great neighbors in our building. We live in the Toraoka Mansion; mansion being the word for apartment building. But everyone knows the building as the Gaijin Heights. There are ten apartments in our building. Americans inhabit seven of the ten and two are home to Japanese families. All of our neighbors are incredibly nice people.

Last week was Halloween. One of our Japanese neighbors, Mrs. Fujita, wanted to take her children and some friends trick-or-treating. She invited us to join in the fun. So on Tuesday October thirtieth we gathered in the parking lot of our building to wander the neighborhood in search of candy. There were about fifteen children and five or six parents all of who live in close proximity to our home. Including two kids who are in Logan’s class at school. The group walked to each family’s home and shouted, “trick-or-treat” while standing at the door. They were rewarded for their efforts with candy and snacks. The adults were given the sense of delight that goes with seeing your child receive massive amounts of sugary candy. And the look of amazement in their eyes when they see all of the loot they have accumulated.

It was a lot of fun not only to see Logan go trick-or-treating for the first time but to witness the Japanese kids have fun doing it too. They had a great time strutting through the neighborhood wearing their homemade costumes and shouting, “trick-or-treat” at the top of their lungs. Logan had fun getting a ton of candy and walking with his friend from school named Risa.

The fun did not begin or end on Tuesday. On Wednesday Logan brought small bags of candy to school to share with his classmates. We also shoved bags of candy through the mail slots of our American neighbor’s doors. We also had the opportunity to attend a Halloween party to kick off the holiday fun.

A friend of ours here in Omihachiman is an American who owns his own English school. Every year he holds several Halloween parties. He divides the fun by age, little kids, big kids, and adults. He invited us to join the party for little kids, which was held on Sunday morning. It was a truly beautiful day as we walked over to his school. We could hear the sounds of fun, in this case fun sounds like the sound of screaming three to six year olds, as we approached the school. It was a fantastic party. Logan had a great time playing games like pin the wart on the witch and ring toss. He also had fun playing in a bucket of green slime and making play-dough creatures. After game time all the kids went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood around the school. This time as well Logan had a blast saying, “Trick-or-treat” and collecting candy.

Halloween for us was not a one-day event. It was more of a weeklong collection of fun events that led us to remember how kind and generous the people around us are. Halloween was fun primarily because of the people in our day-to-day life. Sometimes good neighbors make all the difference.

A Fire Festival?

2007-11-01T15:34:00.000+09:00

I suppose when the travel book states that you will be packed into a train car like grains of rice then one should listen and heed the warning. We often turn to our trusted travel guide when exploring the area around us. We use it to find beautiful temples, good restaurants, shopping, and exciting events. We even have an entire guidebook dedicated to the city of Kyoto. This book combined with a compass, that always points north, except when riding on an electric train that is essentially a giant electro-magnet, has been instrumental in finding our way around this magnificent city. We read in our book about a fire festival in a town just to the north of Kyoto. The book stated something along the lines of, “If you are able to go this in one of the most spectacular events in the Kyoto area.” We decided that we would try and make it to this festival.

We plotted our route. Found the train lines. Created an itinerary and figured out the timeline. I snuck out of work a few minutes early so we could make it to the train as early as possible. We packed up our backpack with a picnic supper and headed out the door. We made it to the train station in record time and managed to get on a train that left soon after we made it to the station. We were on our way to the tiny town of Kuruma to see a marvelous fire festival where half dressed men would be carrying burning torches measuring five to six meters and weighing hundreds of pounds down the main street of the town. We made it to Kyoto Station changed trains and rode down one station where we changed trains again. We transferred to the subway and rode to the north of the city where we transferred to another line. This is where the surprises began. The trip had been uneventful to this point but it all changed at this time. We got off the subway and were confronted with a line to purchase tickets. To be honest we did not know what the line was for when we first saw it. The ticket machine was on the street level and we had to head up the stairs. We noticed there was a line of people winding up the escalator and there were guards stationed directing traffic. We walked up the stairs to and were confronted with the line of people waiting to get on the train. We had a short huddle to decide how we should proceed. We figured that we had come this far and it would be our only chance in this lifetime to see this particular festival. We figured that we should go ahead and attend. We bought our tickets and walked back down the stairs to get in the line for the train. We strolled down the stairs as briskly as we could and promptly rode the escalator back up as a part of the line for the train. It was like waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park. There were ropes that cordoned off the lobby forming a maze that the line meandered through. A train arrived and the crowd began to move toward the turnstiles. The closer we got to the front of the line the more I began to hope that we would actually have to wait for the next train. The line had seemed long when we joined the end; and now all those people were on the train. I hoped that we would have to wait for the next train in hopes that rather than being the last on the train and having to stand the entire ride we would be the first on and possibly get to sit for the forty minute journey. This was a vain hope however as we were not even to be some of the last people on the train. We clambered onto what seemed to be a very full train at the time. Jenny and Logan were very luck in that someone offered their seat to them. Jenny and Logan were able to sit for the journey. I had to stand. I was not even lucky enough to stand near their seat. As more and more people got onto the train I was pushed farther and farther away from them. The train ride itself was uneventful. We stayed on one train from the beginning of the line to the end, which is good because we could not have made it off the train before the last stop if we had wanted to.

The train made it the town of Kuruma. We made it off the train with the rest of the crush. We had little idea of where to go to find this particular festival. Our motto of “when in doubt, follow the crowd” did not let us down this time either. Of course everyone on the train was here for the same reason we were. So finding the festival was going to be of little difficulty. We followed the crowd down a path and onto a street that we thought would lead to the festival. Or at least that is what we thought. Apparently that street was the festival. One narrow street, half of it roped off with police tape was where the festival would be taking place. What seemed to be thousands of people began to walk and push along a very narrow pathway about the width of a sidewalk. On one side was the police tape and police officers keeping the street clear of people on the other side of the path were houses. We were pushed along the path, not even being given an opportunity to see what, if anything, might be happening.

We found a parking lot that had been taken over by people needing a moment of respite from the madness. We set down our tarp and used the area to have a bit of supper. Well at least Jenny and Logan did. While they ate I tried to see what might be going on. I managed to see nothing more than a glimpse of some small children dressed in traditional clothing marching down the street carrying a very large torch accompanied by their parents. After trying unsuccessfully to get a good vantage point to witness the spectacle I joined Jenny and Logan for a spot of dinner. We sat watching the crowd move along the path as we ate our curry-pan and rice balls. After our dinner we joined the fray. There were times in that crowd where we were able to walk along, most of the time however was spent being pushed and shoved. We soon ducked onto the front porch of a house to escape the crowd. Here we were able to see a portion of what we came to witness. Grown men wearing little more than sleeves and a loincloth carrying giant torches down the street. It was not long before the police asked the small group of people; us included, to vacate the porch. We were forced, once again, back into the crush of people moving steadily down the street.

The whole experience soon began to overwhelm us and we grew frustrated with being pushed along. We felt as if every minute were a fight to see something that we would probably not going to have the opportunity to see. First we attempted to go backward through the crowd, but we were warned that that was a bad idea, and that the line formed a circle leading back to the train station. We forced our way through the crowd and pushed our way to the station where we were once again confronted with a line. We would have to wait to ride the train back to Kyoto. Luckily for us the line was not too long and we were able to find a nice corner to stand in for the long train ride back to Kyoto. Again this train grew more and more crowded. It became so full that I did not think that there would be enough room to squeeze any more people on board, but they did, about five more people squished their way into the car. Then the train began the trip back to Kyoto.

This trip was rather disappointing. We knew that there would be a lot of people to confront, but we hoped that we would be able to see more than furtive glimpses of an age-old ceremony. All the pushing had overwhelmed us and prodding and we had not really seen what it was that we had gone to witness. The guidebook had recommended this festival and we took a chance to see it, but so did every other reader of the guidebook. Crowds are a way of life here in Japan and sometimes they make for fun. This night however they made time a nightmare. The crowds of people made it difficult for us to enjoy and even see the festivities. I am glad we took the opportunity but the experience that I expected to have was not the one we were able to live. I had figured on seeing a fire festival that evening, but ended up with an experiential opportunity to find out just how big a crowd can get here in Japan. The difference between expectations and reality are great. The opportunity to learn and experience life however does not change it you keep you mind and eyes open to different possibilities.

Universal Studios Japan

2007-10-19T20:30:00.001+09:00

I am a big fan of roller coasters. I remember the first time I rode the Gemini at Cedar Point. The rush and thrill of rolling and shaking around curves, anticipation in the pit of my stomach as the car slowly climbs that first hill. The weightless feeling you get when your bottom leaves your seat as you crest that first hill. To be honest I what I remember most was crying with fright, my Dad dragging me into the car and pulling me into the seat and locking the lap bar into place effectively trapping me in the seat of the vehicle that would soon, in my mind, be hurtling me to my death. Tears streamed down my face as the car began to climb. The sharp click, click of the racheting chain pulling us up that first hill echoed ominously in my ear. We reached the zenith of the mountain and rocketed down and moments later I was a full fledged roller coaster junkie. Though it would take years before I developed a taste for any roller coaster that inverts its rider.

So when Jenny brought up the possibility of going to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka I was all for it. I took a day off of work in hopes that the park might be less crowded on a Wednesday in the middle of October. We were partially correct. I am sure that the park was less crowded, but there were still plenty of people enjoying their time at the theme park. We arrived at the park shortly after it opened and made our way into the theme park proper. I was instantly amazed at the sheer size of the park. I was shocked at just how small the park was. After visiting American theme parks that seem to sprawl in all directions; Universal Studios Japan is surrounded on all sides by the city of Osaka. In fact one of the first things that I noticed upon entering the park was that I could see cars driving along the big bridge that spans the river.

We wandered into the park and had the opportunity to enjoy a parade. There were characters from Sesame Street singing and dancing in a miniature show. Logan thought it was fun to watch Elmo, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Zoe and two other "friends" dance and sing as they tried to restart their "stalled" bus. We all enjoyed it, but for Jenny and I it was strange to hear these familiar characters speaking with unfamiliar voices in Japanese.

After the parade we decided to walk down the street and find a location to view the outdoor stage show. The show was called Sorciere and was a stylish stage show. Music, dancing and acrobatics were choreographed into a fun and entertaining show that was a visual delight. All of the characters were dressed in bright colorful Halloweenesque costumes such as spiders, pumpkins, witches, scarecrows, and other wild creatures. We enjoyed watching their performance.

After the show it was time for lunch. We had chosen to eat at Mel's diner. This is the fifties theme burger restaurant in the park. There are old classic cars in the parking lot, old time rock 'n' roll playing on the juke box, including Elvis, Buddy Holley, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Cheese burgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, Coca-cola and tofu donuts with pumpkin sugar were lunch. It was good. Much in the same way food at a theme park is anywhere. It was just fun to eat in the classic American style restaurant in a Japanese theme park. Listening to the King sing "Heart Break Hotel" and "Jailhouse Rock" over the loudspeakers.

After lunch Jenny and Logan headed off to visit Snoopy's Playland while I rode the one real roller coaster in the park. It was nice to see that there were two separate lines to stand in. I was able to go in the single rider line. I walked through the maze. Past other people waiting with their friends and families. In fact I walked straight to the front of the line. I only had to wait about five minutes until a group of three were ready to ride and then there was room for me to ride. The roller coaster was perhaps the smoothest ride I have ever taken on a roller coaster. It was very nice; not remarkable, just nice. A few twists and turns, big hills and small dips made for an exciting ride. I must say however that the best part was the fact that I only stood in line for five minutes or so. Later in the day I went to ride "Spiderman, the Ride" and I waited in that line for close to an hour and a half. The ride was nice but waiting that long was enough to spoil the ride making it less enjoyable.

Jenny and Logan spent time having fun in the play area. Logan broke out of Spike's Jailhouse, had batting practice with Lucy, went to school with the Peanuts Gang, and visited with his buddy Joe Cool. We all got our picture taken with Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy. Logan said that his favorite part of the play area was ringing the bell in the school house. I think that the picture Jenny took of him "bending" the bars in the old west jail cell is the best; followed a close second by him holding hands with the statue of Charlie Brown.

We all headed into the Land of Oz to ride the Carousel. Logan planned on riding the horse. We had a lot of fun waiting in line talking about riding the carousel and which animal we would choose, and about the scene in the movie "Mary Poppins" where they ride the round-about and the horses leave the carousel and run in a horse race and go on a fox hunt. The thought came to me as we were waiting in line how much more enjoyable it is to wait in line with someone. The wait was more fun when you don't have to do it alone. Also riding the attraction is more enjoyable when you get to share it with another. Logan did manage to ride the horse he wanted to. I helped to make sure that he did not fall off, and Jenny rode the pig that was next to Logan's horse. Good old fashioned family fun.

Next it was time for the Sesame Street 4-D movie. It is one of the movies that is not just 3-D but has an added fourth dimension to increase the sensory experience. It was fun to see the movie. I must say that really see and experience was about all we could do, the dialogue was entirely in Japanese and Muppet voices are difficult to understand in English. The experience was great. One part of the movie had Bert and Ernie in the bathtub with Rubber Duckie. When Bert splashed and sent bubbles flying everywhere bubbles began to fall from the ceiling. The most precious thing I saw was when Ernie threw Rubber Duckie out into the crowd, and wearing the 3-D glasses made the duck appear to come right out into the audience. It was at this point that I looked over at Logan, and there he was sitting with his hand stretched out trying to touch Duckie. Later on in the movie a short bust of air shot out at our ankles and it shocked Logan so much that he pulled his feet up onto the seat and refused to put them back down. He really enjoyed the multi-sensory aspect of the movie. I am afraid that his first movie theatre experience will make it difficult for regular movies to measure up.

Our last ride of the day was the E.T. ride. We waited together to ride on the movie ride. Logan was very excited to ride on this ride because the seats and the car take the appearance of a bicycle. He was very happy to ride until the ride got to the part where you visit E.T.'s home planet. I think that this was a bit disturbing for the little guy. When we finally got off the ride he said that he was ready to "go home right now! Let's just go home." But we still had to eat dinner before we could begin the two hour trek back to Omihachiman.

We had a plethora of restaurant choices waiting for us outside the park, but first I had to stop and get some Omiyage. Here in Japan it is customary to bring back small souvenirs for the people you know and work with. I thought that It would be nice to pick up something for the people I work with. We also wanted to find something that said Universal Studios Japan as a remembrance of our day there. I found some small chocolates for my coworkers and we found a fun Jaws pot holder to remember the day. We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We all managed to find a nice Hard Rock t-shirt and had a great dinner. The train ride home was quiet and uneventful. We practically crashed into bed and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

Golden Weekend

2007-10-10T22:05:00.000+09:00

Lady luck is a fickle mistress. But she seemed to smile upon us this past weekend. Things just seemed to work out in our favor. It amazes me how golden our weekend ended up. And this coming from a guy who usually says, "If it weren't for bad luck; I'd have no luck at all."

Friday night we started our weekend off on a fun note. We ate pizza. We were feeling a little bored with some of our food choices, so we decided, on the fly, to have pizza. We were wandering the streets of our fair city with a rumbling in our bellies. With each advancing step our hunger grew. The signs hanging above the doorways didn't entice us in to the restaurants. The pictures and food models in the windows seemed more to repel us, push us away. The food we eat and love eating just did not appeal to us. We found ourselves at our favorite pizza joint. We ordered a couple of pies to go. Comfort food of sorts. Japanese food is different. It is the same basic principle, but it is different none the less. Our first pizza was the Potato and Corn. It was covered in ham, potato, corn, and onions with fresh cracked black pepper on top. The other pizza was a BBQ beef with onions, peppers, and tender juicy beef. Topped off with a bit of yellow mustard it made for a delicious meal. Washed down with a nice big glass of Coca-Cola it was a very satisfying meal.

The golden times did not end with a great meal. Saturday we decided, quite on a whim, to travel up to the city of Nagahama. Nagahama is about thirty minutes north of us and we had no idea what the town held in store for us. We were pleasantly surprised to find we stumbled into an art fair. We wandered around what might be considered to be the town square. We took time to watch the artisans at work and we looked at all the wares. There seemed to be a nice sized art community located in the town. We went on the right day. Unknowingly we struck upon the annual "Art in Nagahama" event. We had only gone to look around the town to see what there was to see and we found gold. I ended up purchasing a sake drinking set. I found a beautiful pitcher and five cups that match. I can hardly wait to share some rice wine with my family and friends when we return. We enjoyed looking at all the beautiful crafts and handiworks that were produced by local artisans. But in the end it was the crowd that did us in. We have done well with crowds living here in Japan, but this last weekend was too much. Too many people pushing and shoving trying to get at too little space. By the time we returned home we were glad to be home.

Sunday was the day of the big Otsu Matsuri. We had been planning to go to this festival in the capital city for several weeks. We resisted some peer pressure from our neighbors and did not go to the big Omihachiman sports day. Instead we headed off to travel down the coast of Lake Biwa to the grand city of Otsu. We were unsure of where the festival was located. We decided to stick with our tried and true adage of living in Japan, "when in doubt, follow the crowd." This day again the crowd did not let us down. The lines of people can be annoying and frustrating at the best of times, can make it next to impossible to get the photo you were framing up, but when you don't know where to go just follow the line and nine times out of ten you will end up where you want to be. And that tenth time, well, you will probably end up some place better than your original plan. The Otsu Matsuri was very similar to the Gion Matsuri. It was a lot smaller. But the end result of the smaller festival was that it was much more fun. The giant floats would stop and throw small bundles of rice straw called chimaki, the people would also chat with the spectators. Many of the people accompanying the various floats would stop and speak with us. We went home with several bundles of chimaki and about six towels that were part of the celebration. To top it all off we managed to end up at our favorite burger restaurant, Mos Burger. Nothing tastes better after a long day of watching giant floats being pulled by drunken men than a chili cheese burger.

The fun did not end on Sunday evening. Good weekends only get better when accompanied by these three words, THREE DAY WEEKEND!! No work on Monday. We spent the day hanging out and relaxing. Definitely a great weekend.

Okishima Island

2007-09-25T22:10:00.000+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit one of the smallest schools in Japan. Now this is not a verifiable fact, it is just conjecture but a school with only eight students must come close to being one of the smallest. We live in the prefecture of Shiga, and Shiga is dominated by the largest lake in Japan. This in a way makes Shiga the Japanese "Great Lake State" that is why Shiga and Michigan are sister states. The city of Omihachiman, where we live, lies very close to the shores of Lake Biwa. Not far from the shore is the island of Okishima. The population of the island is not large, just a handful of families live there. The school has a grand total of eight students. Two students in first grade, two second graders, two fourth graders, and two sixth grade students.

I was picked up by someone from the Board of Education office in the morning at my school. We drove for about a half an hour to the ferry dock. We had to wait fifteen minutes for the boat to leave, but soon we were underway. We rode out to the island. The boat was a bit small and cramped. It was nice to feel the waves under us and the boat chopping across the water. the trip to the island took about ten minutes. next we had to walk from the dock to the school. It seemed to be just a hop, skip and a jump to the elementary school. We walked into the school and were immediately escorted to the principals office. We were given a nice cool glass of ice tea to cool us off on such a hot day. I had a chance to meet the principal and exchange pleasantries with him.

After about ten minutes in the presence of the principal, awkward silences and crickets chirping in the background, we headed off to teach my one class for the day. I walked into the multipurpose room and was greeted by about twelve smiling faces. There were eight students in four grades, and four teachers, one for each grade. We had a lot of fun with our lesson for that day. We worked on counting. We played games and sang songs. Yup, believe it or not I sang songs with the kiddies. They went screamin' for the hills, but what could they do? They were stuck on an Island. There was no escape from my English greatness. It was interesting to work with such a wide range of students. They ranged in age from first grade to sixth grade. But the levels of the students were about equal. They all worked and had fun.

The saddest part of the day for me was that I had to leave the school before lunch. The ferry boat left the dock before they ate, so we had to make it back to the mainland before lunch. The positive side to this coin is that I managed to make it home earlier. I was able to eat lunch at my own kitchen table. Before leaving however I was given the gift of a bottle of C.C. Lemon. I drank this beverage which is like drinking bottled sunshine on the nice bike ride home. I felt much better after drinking my lemon soda as there are fifty lemons worth of vitamin C in every bottle. Good stuff.

All in all it was a neat day. I had a great day seeing one of the smallest schools that exists in Japan, and possibly the smallest school I will have the opportunity to teach at. It was neat to spend the morning with the students and teachers there. It was doubly nice when I returned to my desk on Monday and in the middle of the afternoon the secretary dropped a nice big fat envelope on my desk. I opened it and spilled the contents out onto the desk and I found that they had all written me thank you letters. Now all I have to do is get some help reading them. Doesn't really matter if I can read them or not though as I will treasure them forever.

Sports Day

2007-09-25T21:04:00.000+09:00

Every year, in America, elementary school students and teachers have a morning of fun near the end of the school year. Field day stands out in the memories of Americans across our great land as a day full of running short races, tug of war, water balloon tosses, and obstacle courses. I remember being in Elementary school and having a great time every year for field day. My favorite memory is the year we had a water relay. Each person was given a bucket and water had to be passed between the buckets, often in creative ways. One way I remember is that the water had to be sluiced down the slide and collected at the bottom. This day was great fun and it was a sad day when I found out that there would be no field day in junior high school. Field day was a fun day that meant, at least, part of a school day off, and usually an ice cream treat at the end of the day. A highlight to any school year.

Here in Japan there is no field day. Instead there is a sports festival. It is field day on a grand and serious scale. There is a sports festival at every school in Japan. They begin having sports festivals at the nursery schools and go all the way through high school. The sports festival at my junior high was held about two weeks ago. It was a great day filled with races, fun and dancing. The day began early. I was stepping onto the athletic field around 8:30 in the morning. I still think that 8:30 is early for a Saturday. Oh, did I forget to mention that the sports festivals are all held on Saturdays? No need to miss out on a precious school day here kids; field day is on a Saturday. That did not stop them from missing class time though, as they canceled afternoon classes all week to allow time to practice for the sports day. When I arrived early in the morning the students were all sitting in their straight rows listening intently to the principal give the welcome speech. Each class was split into two lines that stretched parallel across the gravel field, one for boys and one for girls. Perfectly organized and straight, for my eyes it was a sight to behold and marvel at. Once the welcome speech was concluded the classes split up into their teams. There were six teams and they were color coded: pink, blue, red, green, yellow, and orange.

The morning was spent running races and competing in traditional field events. There were students jumping the high jump. throwing shot put, long jumping, and of course running races. There were many races. Students had their work cut out for them as the day was a very hot one. The sun was very unforgiving that day. I found myself with a sunburn at the end of the day. I had a great time watching and cheering for all of my students that day. They ran and I cheered. I split my time walking from team to team encouraging them to do their best. Jenny and Logan came to watch and Logan and I had a great time rooting for the different teams. The morning seemed to play out like a traditional track and field meet. The only difference was that right before lunch there was jump-rope competition. A class would form a line. Then two students would grab the ends of a giant rope and they would twirl it over the heads of the class and they would jump. It was amazing to see classes of almost forty kids jumping together in unison.

After lunch it was time for dancing. Each team created, choreographed, and danced their own original dance. The teams even chose their own music. I think that this was my favorite part of the day. I have seen kids run races before. I have even run in a few in my time, but the dancing was unique. I thought that it was cool to see close to a hundred kids out on the field all dancing together. Each team took a turn and each one seemed to end with a human pyramid. They all were very similar, but yet it was a truly unique event.

The day ended with the awards ceremony. The winning team was named and trophies and certificates were awarded by the principal. The students once again lined up in their perfectly straight rows of boys and girls for this part of the day. It was an end to the day, I was a bit sad however that there was no ice-cream from the principal. I was certainly glad to make my way home as it was now almost five o'clock in the evening.

But my friends this is not the end of our sports day tale. Last Saturday Logan was invited to the sports festival at the kindergarten that he will begin attending this week. We went for the morning to watch and meet some of the people. Now where the students at my school were very serious the sports festival at the kindergarten was nothing but cute. The students would line up to race. The teacher would say go. The students would run from one side of the playground to the other into the waiting arms of their teacher. Every one is a winner when the race ends with a hug. Logan was even invited to run in one of the races. He and I ran across the playground and were presented with a prize of origami paper. We also got to see the students dance. Logan was very excited because one of the dances was performed to the theme music of our favorite cartoon, Anpanman. The sight of little three and four year old students dancing their little hearts out is one that I will treasure forever. We had a great time and enjoyed our time at the kindergarten sports festival.

Sports festivals are something that are very unique to Japan. I was asked many times if there there are such festivals in America, and each time I would just have to answer, "no." While America does have a field day it is different from what I witnessed here in Omihachiman. A truly unique and truly fun event.

Milestones

2007-09-10T20:20:00.000+09:00

Today was a milestone in our life here in Omihachiman. Today marked our one year anniversary here in Japan. It is amazing to think that we have been here in the land of the rising sun for a full year. It is equally amazing to think that in one year we will be winging our way back home to the states. Today being the anniversary of our arrival here, we decided that we would have to do something to celebrate the occasion. We thought long and hard about how to best celebrate the date of our arrival. Usually we get a pizza when we have a reason to celebrate or otherwise mark an occasion, but it just did not seem to be the right way to measure this date.

We decided that we would have to search out and do our best to find and visit the first restaurant that we went to on our first night here in Omihachiman. It was a long night that night, but it is one that I remember well. We stepped off the plane at Kansai International Airport after a long fourteen hour flight. We had to wait in the line for customs with all of worldly belongings strapped together, seven big suitcases, three big backpacks, a laptop computer,a child car seat, and one guitar. We struggled with keeping all of our belongings together and with keeping them from either falling over or falling off the trolley that we used to cart them around. We managed to make it out of customs with almost no hassles. We did have an issue with the paper work that we were supposed to fill out on the plane, but I think that when the customs inspectors saw us with all of our junk falling off our cart they took pity on us and let us through without too much hassle. We made it out of the customs area into the arrivals area looking for whomever would be picking us up and bringing us to Omihachiman, a twoish hour journey from the airport, which is located outside of Osaka. We were not sure what the people who would pick us up would look like. I also did not have any contact information for them other than an email address. It was a nerve-racking fifteen minute wait. Then I heard my name being called out in a very Japanese way, a high pitched, "Kebeen, Kebeen?" I turned and there were three people walking towards us, two women and a man. One of the women was my boss Ms. Morimoto, the other woman was a person who was to become a great friend to our family, Takami Yamanaka, and the man was from the board of Education and he had come to drive the van. They helped us to load all of our things into the back of the van, and we set off for the journey to Omihachiman. they brought us to our apartment where there were more people to welcome us and help us settle in a bit. then it was off again. This time we were off to get some food and other sundries at the super market. We managed to get some cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast in the morning, and some bowls, and cups to eat and drink from. It was then decided that we would go and get some sushi to eat, because we had not eaten in a long time. I think that at this point we would have been fine just going home and crashing, as it was now getting close to ten o'clock in the evening. But out for sushi we went. We seemed to ride in that car for what seemed like another hour going to the sushi restaurant. We got there and found the restaurant packed to the gills with people. I was shocked to see that there was a half hour wait to be seated. We finally were seated and we managed to eat a little bit of the delicious sushi that wandered its way around the restaurant on the conveyor belt. I think that i managed to eat about five plates, at two pieces of sushi per plate, and I left feeling very full. It was then that I was told that the average guy will eat at least ten plates of sushi. I looked over at the other men in the shop and saw the piles of plates stacked up next to them and I felt a little bit whimpy. We finally made it home around midnight and managed to fall asleep with no hesitation.

Today was the one year anniversary of that fateful day. We thought that it would be appropriate to visit that little sushi shop once again. Think needle in a haystack. I saw the restaurant about three months ago when riding on a bus, and we all know how good of a memory I have. I was sure of one thing. The general direction that we would have to walk. We set out around noon in order to find some sushi for lunch. The rain began falling in little sprinkles on our head as we walked out of town. The sprinkles faded as we walked out of town, and by the time we reached the shinkansen tracks the rain was falling in earnest on us. It is a good thing we brought our umbrellas with us. We reached route 8 after walking about a half hour. We had wandered the back country roads, through the rice fields, to avoid traffic on route 8 for most of our journey. I was pretty sure that our destination was located on this road, but which way? Jenny was for going right. I agreed and we started to walk up route 8. We walked a couple of blocks up the street and I began to think that maybe we were going the wrong way. We turned around and walked the other way. It lead to nothing. My hunch was wrong. We headed back in the direction we originally traveled. We walked and walked, I began to think that maybe I wasn't even close in my assumption that the place we were looking for was on this street. We were on the verge of turning around when we saw it up ahead on the other side of the street. We walked over and headed in. It was like a completely different place at two o'clock in the afternoon. There were empty booths, no one waiting on the benches, and we were able to sit down and eat right away. We began to eat. We grabbed plate after plate of our favorite sushi. I am partial to the tuna, Jenny likes the boiled shrimp with avacado, onion and mayonaise, and Logan ate some tuna salad sushi, which is the same kind that we make at home. We ate our fill, and yes this time I managed to eat a full ten plates worth of sushi. I was stuffed full. We then had the long walk home. The rain was gone, but it was replace with muggy heat. We made it home in time to watch one of Jenny's favorite sports on TV. Yes this month is a sumo month and the tournament started yesterday. Later in the evening we headed off to the cake shop to get some anniversary cake.

It is wild to think that we have been here for a year already. It is crazy to think that we will be here for another year. When I think of all the sights that we have seen and the events we have witnessed I am extremely grateful that we have had this opportunity to learn and experience this country and its culture. It is not always easy, at times it is taxing on the soul, simple things like trying to find shoes in your son's size can drive you batty. There are times however when I look out the window and see the mountains all shrouded in mist, or as we wander the streets of the city and see a shrine set along the side of the road that my soul stirs and I am filled with a sense of wonder and amazement. I know that this is an experience that we will never forget, and a journey we will savor in our memories until Alzheimer's claims them from us.

The Rainbow Connection

2007-09-07T21:00:00.000+09:00

I know that it might be corny to admit but one of my favorite songs of all time is "The Rainbow Connection." In fact I must admit that it comes from one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Muppet Movie." The movie opens, for those of you who don't remember, with a shot looking down from the sky that slowly moves down to Kermit the Frog playing the banjo and singing. He is singing the song "The Rainbow Connection." Logan and I both love the movie. We enjoy spending lazy Sunday Afternoons whiling away the hours watching the adventures of Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Miss. Piggy. We also love singing the songs from the movie. We will listen to songs like Rainbow Connection and Movin' Right Along on the i-pod while we travel on the train. We even like to share our favorite lines from the movie. There was a while where Logan loved to peer over my shoulder while I carried him on my shoulder and whisper in my ear, "Motorcycle cop." Which is what Kermit whispers to Miss Piggy in the movie. We both love the movie. I am not sure about Jenny. I think that she likes the movie, but she is not as fanatical as Logan and me.

Why am I rambling about The Muppet Movie and Kermit the Frog? Well the other night we saw the most beautiful and perfect rainbow that I have ever had the opportunity to witness. We were all sitting at the dinner table enjoying the last few bites of our spaghetti when I happened to look out the back window of our apartment. I had to do a double take because I thought that I saw a rainbow. I got out of my chair and I walked over to the window to peer out at the evening sky. I could see a beautiful rainbow arcing down directly in front of me. I ran to the other side of the apartment, yes I ran the whole twenty feet, to get the camera from the desk where it lay. I came back to the living room and took a step out onto the balcony and tried my best to take a photograph of the magnificent arch that was simply painted across the sky. It was as I was taking a picture that Jenny who was standing directly behind me remarked that if you followed the bow far enough you could see that there were really two complete rainbows across our horizon. By looking off to our left we could see one end of the rainbow and following it right we could see the entire arch. It was truly an amazing sight. We could see the whole thing, from one end to the other. The ends were even shrouded in some clouds. It was the perfect cloud, like a poster on the wall of a sixth grade girl's bedroom. The only difference was that there were no unicorns flying around, and the fact that it was real. Simply stunning.

Momentary Reflections

2007-09-02T19:25:00.000+09:00

We have been home from our vacation for almost a week now. It just took some time for me to write up all of the adventures. I spent about an hour and a half to two hours on each entry. Because it took some time to write I would write on a night or so. I thought that tonight I would take a moment to reflect on some of the moments that we want to remember and treasure from the trip. I think that it is only fair that I should be honest with you dear reader that most of these are going to be some of the precious and precocious things that our three year old little boy did. Yes these will be the long awaited "Logan stories".

I have already stated how much logan loved staying in the hotel, and that is true. There were many things about the hotel for Logan to enjoy. One of the procedures of this hotel was that they asked that you check your room key at the front desk when you left the building. This presented Logan with the opportunity to ask for our room key each time we returned to the front desk. The desk clerks all loved it when Logan would walk up to the desk and ask, "Our key please." The clerk would lean out over the desk in order to see the diminutive three year old who would dare and ask for the room key. Then they would hand it over to him. Logan would grasp the key in his hands, holding tightly as not to drop it. He would walk to the elevator and press the up button. When the elevator doors would open we would all file in, Logan first, then Jenny and finally me. Logan must have remembered the incident in Otsu. Each and every time we got into the he would grow very irritated and anxious. He would ask in an urgent and pleading voice, "Is everybody in? Hurry up Daddy! Get in! Get in!!" He was very insistent that we all be in the elevator quickly and in a timely manner.

Riding up the elevator was not a problem, but the exit from the car was the same procedure repeated on the way out. Logan would then carry the key down the corridor to our room. Once at the doorway he would reach the key up to the door and attempt to unlock the door. He never quite managed to unlock the door, or even get the key in the lock for that manner, but still it was cute to see him make the attempt. Once in the room it was a new world of fun for this three year old little monkey. The bed, the lights, the tiny refrigerator, the TV, each and every knob in the room were all things to experiment with and test out. When we entered the room Logan would pull the chains and turn on the lights, on and off, off and on. He found the radio controls that were mounted on the wall and spent some time twisting the dials that control the channel and the volume. Amazingly he then found the on switch. He gave it a quick flip and scared himself to the point of tears when the whine and static of an empty frequency at full volume greeted him. It was the one and only time that he flipped that switch. He became very concerned however when he could not find a remote control for the television. He scoured the room high and low trying to find it.

My favorite story comes from the day before we went to Miyajima Island. Logan and I were talking about how much fun it was going to be to ride a boat. Logan got very excited and began to chant, "We're going on a boat ride!" over and over. As he made his exclamation he began to bounce on the bed. He continued to bounce, I can't say he was jumping on the bed 'cause truth be told the kid can't jump, until he bounced right of the bed. He bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. That scared him quite well and brought his mother running. We had to go and get some ice from the ice machine down the hall to create an ice pack for his head. After that each and every little bump and scrape and Logan wanted to go and get some ice from the machine.

Logan was also very careful with his belongings. Each and every time we entered the room he would remind everyone to take off their shoes. Once we had our shoes off he would then place them in the little coat closet nest to the door. He would also place his bag and some of his toys in the closet too. When we would leave the room Logan would always spend about five minutes of our walk asking, "Where is our luggage?" We would reassure him that the luggage was safe in the hotel room only to have him ask once again, "Where's our luggage?" He was also very concerned about our bags and baggage as we rode on our various forms of transportation. Often as we rode I would have to keep at least one hand on a strap of the backpack. The closer we got to our destination the more insistent he would grow, often placing my hand on the carry strap of the backpack if I tried to place it any where but. On the trip there and back having several bags was almost enough to drive the poor kid nuts.

All in all it was a great time and we enjoyed each others company. We had fun and that is what is the most important. Logan has talked all week about going back to the hotel. Sometimes he refers to it as "the other Omihachiman". Now we will have to start planning for our next big trip. Tokyo here we come. Just, not yet.

On Our Way Home

2007-09-01T21:22:00.000+09:00

We didn't even bother to try and wake ourselves early the morning we began the long journey home. It just seemed to be a bit too much to try and wake up just so we could go home. I was afraid however that if I left it in the hand of fate we would sleep beyond our ten o'clock check out time so I set the alarm for somewhere in the neighborhood of eight-thirty. When it began to make its infernal racket we were all well on our way to being awake. We ate a small breakfast of banana and some fruit juice; packed all of our belongings up into our bags and went to check out of the hotel. We checked out and were on our way back to the train station around nine-thirty. Logan was very sad to leave the hotel. He really enjoyed our time staying in a room that was not our home. He took a few minutes to say good-bye to the hotel and all of the people that worked there. Once that was accomplished it was off to the station.

Before embarking on our monumental return journey we stopped at the foreign food market located in the train station. There is one in Kyoto too but the one in Hiroshima seemed bigger and better. We took a few moments to shop for some old favorites from home. Foods that believe it or not are hard to come by here, things like pretzels, gummy bears, and Pepperidge Farms Cookies. For the record Jenny settled on Chessmen Cookies, but I could not choose and ended up with regular pretzels and honey mustard flavored pretzels, you know who chose the gummy bears, he loves those things. We wandered around the station for what seemed like hours in the blistering heat, why they do not aircondition the station I will never figure out, trying to find the store we were looking for, and it caused us to miss the first train available to us. We were bound on the first leg of the trip for the city of Okayama. As a result we meandered around for a while before getting on the next train. We took advantage of the delay to grab a few snacks for the trip. We then stepped onto the next rapid train going to Okayama and we were off.

We made it to Okayama with no difficulty. We ended up on a different route this time. We took a more direct track and it ended up being a little bit faster so that was nice. We also were able to see some different scenery which was a pleasant diversion. Logan spent most of the trip to Okayama putting stickers in his different sticker books, and eating gummy bears. And in a couple of hours we were in the city of Okayama. Okayama is famous in Japan for being the birthplace of the story of Momotaro, Peach Boy. It is a classic Japanese folk tale, and if you have not read it I would suggest that you head on down to the local library and check it out. Out side of the station there is a statue of the Momotaro and his companions that is a nice sculpture. Okayama is also famous in Japan for its fruit, namely peaches. We found the average price of the peaches in the grocery store that we wandered around in to be around ten dollars. There was a woman in line ahead of us who was buying three boxes of peaches. Each box contained five of the biggest, sweetest, juiciest, most perfectest looking peaches I have ever seen in my entire life. The price of each box was fifty bucks.

We headed out of the station in search of an indoor mall type place where we could stretch our legs in air conditioned comfort. On our way we took a moment to admire the statue of Momotaro. Then we headed off in the direction that our guide book said that the shopping center was located. We found the center with little to no problem. We did at one time find ourselves on the wrong side of the street but that was due more to construction than to incompetence. I am not sure how we do it but it never seems to fail. Once again we found ourselves in the dirt mall. The dirt mall is the mall that no one goes to, and is full of the type of store that rarely get business. We had hoped to find a place to eat some lunch and some shops to do some window shopping in while we took a walk. It was not to be, we found a Mister Donut and that was it. Now don't get me wrong I like Mr. Donut and will chose their donuts above any other here in Japan, just not for lunch. The stores were also a great disappointment. They were not the type that you want to see when on vacation. Truth be told it was like walking around a four story K-mart.

We headed back to the station. It was once again too hot to wander around the city and we had had enough of the dreadful heat the day before. The station held one of my favorite Japanese foods and so we stopped for lunch and ate ramen. I never could understand how people could write about the times when they were starving college students and lived off ramen. Those stringy little noodles in a broth I would think to myself, how can that offer up any sustenance to the body? Well after living here I can surely say that is Japan one could almost live off them. The Japanese know how to do it up right. A bowl of ramen at a ramen shop is truly a thing of beauty. Fresh noodles, chunks of pork, veggies like bean sprouts, corn and onion grace a rich homestyle broth. Jenny and I each had our own bowl, Logan just shared with us, and we split an order of gyoza, a steamed pork dumpling. I must admit that I will pick good ramen for lunch most days if given the chance. After eating our soup we headed off to find a cake shop. We found one inside the station basement. We got a couple of pieces of cake and sat on a bench and savored each and ever bite we took.

After we finished our cake we jumped on the next available train headed toward Himeji. This train connected us to a train that was bound to Nagahama. Things went very smooth on the trip home. We would get on this train and we would be able to ride all the way home. Omihachiman is on the way to Nagahama. We would be home in about two hours. The best part was that we would get a seat on the train and not have to worry about standing durring rush hour when there were no seats available. Well it would have been nice if that were the case. We managed to ride the train from Himeji almost all the way to Osaka when tragedy struck. Well not tragedy, but a small bladder. Logan stated that he needed to go to the bathroom. Trains are equipped with a toilet for use in such circumstances, but evidently during rush hour it is just not a reality. Logan a I went off in search of the toilet. We made it through two cars and did not manage to find the toilet. What we did manage to find was ourselves unable to move. We were stuck in the middle of a train car. I don't know that I ever want to be in that situation again. The sound of Logan repeating in my ear that he needed to go while I thought over and over about how I did not want to be wet is not my happy thought. We finally made it back to our seat and decided that our only recourse was to leave the train and use the toilet in the station. We exited the train at the next stop and found ourselves one stop away from Osaka. We all went and took a restroom break and were about to get back on the train when we saw that the next train only went to the city of Yasu. Yasu is two stops away from Omihachiman, but it was two stops in the too short direction. We figured that shy of our destination was better than waiting, we would just have to change trains in Yasu, something we do all the time, it was when the train pulled up to the platform that we changed our minds. The train was packed full. We were not at all interested in standing the hour and half to Yasu. It just was not worth it. We let the train roll on with out us. We would wait for the next one. We were in luck. The next train through the station was headed all the way past Omihachiman; and there were empty seats. We would be able to sit down and ride in comfort. Our patience had been rewarded.

We rode that train all the way back to the "Hatch", as we like to call it. It is a good thing that we were in such good shape from all the walking that we had done over the past few days because we were not done using our feet to locomote ourselves. We still had to walk home from the train station. It was a beautiful evening. We walked home under the star lit skies, feeling the cool evening breeze flow. It was at this time that Logan decided to sum up our vacation. He said, "I don't want to go home! I want to go back to the hotel!"

Miyajima Bound

2007-08-30T15:22:00.001+09:00

We slept well again, perhaps a bit too well. We had planned to be up and out the door early in order to be on our way to Miyajima Island before the real heat of the day set in. Early we were up, but not out. The air felt a bit cooler to the touch this morning however. A soft breeze gently flowed over our skin cooling us every so slightly. But in the end it did little to quell the heat of the day that bore down on us. We had hoped to make another early day of it on the beautiful island of Miyajima, but it was not to be. It became instead a long day on the beautiful island of Miyajima.

Logan was undecided about riding on the street car. One minute he wanted to, the next he said that he didn't want to ride the street car. But we had to take the street car across the city, where we would transfer to a train. We would then ride the train around the outskirts of the city to the sea shore. Once at the sea shore we would board a ferry boat and ride to the island. Logan was extremely excited about riding on a boat. We made it to the train and then to the ferry boat about an hour later than our original plan. The plan to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day was beginning to unravel.

We rode the ferry boat to the island. Jenny and Logan stood at the railing looking out at the ocean and the island that grew larger and larger in the distance. Jenny was slightly dismayed by all the trash in the ocean. She called me over to look at all of the little trash bags that were floating in the wake of the boat. As I came walking over to the railing from my seat, she exclaimed, "Hey they aren't bags, they are Jelly-fish." Floating in the water were hundreds of little jelly-fish. It was an omen, foreshadowing for the coming day. It would be a day of seeing new and amazing sights.

The first thing that we did upon disembarking the boat was to pick up some of the travel brochures from the information center. We brought them outside where we walked over to a nice shady spot outside to inspect and peruse the information. It was here that our pamphlets and brochures were promptly eaten. Eaten you say? I know what you are thinking, "Well, well, well...You really should give Logan a better breakfast, and then he would not eat your travel brochures." But I assure you that it was not Logan's lack of a healthy breakfast that caused him to... NO; wait a second here, Logan didn't eat them it was a sad misguided Deer. Yes it was a deer, not my healthy little boy. We still have the other half of the map that the deer ate. The best part of it was that after getting a taste of our little map he came after our little boy. The deer did not give up and came in for a second helping of "not deer food" and went after Logan. The little man had to scramble away and move up into Jenny's lap for protection. It was then that we had to go back into the visitor center to get a new map and study it indoors.

We first headed to the shrine and tori gate. The tori gate is considered to be one of the three most scenic places in Japan. When you see the pictures from Japan of the giant orange gate standing out in the ocean you are seeing the gate at Miyajima Island. The gate is so massive that it actually is standing right on the sea floor. Looking at it one thinks that the timbers but go down meters into the earth to hold it upright. That is not the case. The Gate is free standing right there on the beach. At low tide the water recedes and you can walk out and get close enough to throw a rock. At high tide water completely surrounds the gate and it seems to be floating out in the ocean. when we got there in the morning there was a group of kayakers out paddling around the gate. We wandered through the Shrine and took some time to admire the gate. We then wandered over to some temples that were on the edge of the shrine. Then it was off to the mountain.

The last time I was at Miyajima the highlight and biggest disappointment for me was the mountain. I enjoyed riding the ropeway to the top of the mountain. Once at the top I found the view breathtaking to say the least. I was a trifle disappointed that I was not able to see the monkeys that inhabit the area surrounding the observatory, but they were in the forest. I was incredibly disappointed once I reached the bottom of the ropeway, because it was here that I learned that I had not made it to the top of the mountain and I had missed everything that makes the mountain worthwhile. I was very sad and decided that next time I would go and see all the sights.

We rode the rope way all the way to the observation area. This time we were fortunate enough to see the monkeys. It was really cool to see the monkeys that were at the top of the ropeway. There were about fifteen to twenty monkeys lounging in the shade trying their best to stay out of the heat of the day. We wandered over to the observation area where we could look out and see around the entire island. Then it was off to the trail that lead to the top of the mountain. We began our hike and walked in what seemed to be hundred degree heat. The first part of the hike was rather easy and almost seemed to be going the wrong direction as the trail traveled down hill. We were planning to hike up the mountain, and here we were going down hill, but not to worry the trail soon began to climb up the mountain. We walked for what seemed like an hour, even though our guide book stated that it was an easy twenty minute walk from the observation area to the top of the mountain. That was the toughest twenty minutes of my life. There was a certain comradery that was present on that trail. We heard the word "Gambare", which means work hard, many times on that hike. People walking in our direction would smile and say hello and comment on how hot it was, and people on the return trip would tell us to hang in there and that it was not too much further.

The walk was definitely well worth the effort. We found ourselves at a complex of temples near the top of the mountain. One was even a temple where you could pray to ogres. There was even a fire that was lit by Kobo Daishi, a very important Buddhist monk, and kept burning ever since. It is this fire that was the pilot light for the fire that is burning in the eternal flame memorial in the peace park in Hiroshima. We hiked and found small shrines that are supposed to help insure safe childbirth and other good health. When we did finally reach the top of the mountain the view was unbelievable. We enjoyed some kakigori, shaved ice, at the small rest station. After resting we began the hike and ride back down the mountain. I was amazed to see some of the people coming up. There were people hiking the path in dress clothes. One woman was walking the path in a dress and high heels. I still shake my head in disbelief.

We rode the cable car back down the mountain and set off to find a temple. While we were visiting the temple at the top of the mountain one of the monks gave us a brochure for another temple on the island. We decided after looking at the pictures in the pamphlet that this would be a place to visit. We first tried to get into the folklore museum but we were denied because it was so close to closing time. It was by this time close to four thirty and places begin to close around five or five thirty here in Japan. We began to worry abut making it to the temple before it closed. I picked Logan up and we hoofed it as quickly as we could to find this temple complex that was about a five minute walk off the main sightseeing area. We completed the five minute walk in about three, and when we reached the gates my heart sank.

I looked up and saw a giant flight of stairs leading up into the temple grounds. After walking all day in the searing, scorching heat I was spent. I was not sure if my legs had any pull left in them. But we had to do it, we had to go in and see this temple after all this temple was different. All of the temples that we go to visit here are Buddhist. Usually from one of the Japanese schools of Buddhism such as Zen, or Pure Land. This temple however appeared to be more like a Tibetan Buddhist Temple. I suppose that the biggest signal that this was a Tibetan Buddhist temple was the giant portrait of the Dhali Lamma hanging above an altar. The first signal that this temple was different were the prayer wheels. All the way up the entry stairway were little wheels engraved with Buddhist sutras. As you walk up the stairs you spin the wheels and it is a form of prayer. We took our time climbing the stairs praying as we went. It made me laugh when we saw a big statue of Ampanman, the children's anime character, on the stairway. We saw many fantastic sights that day. As we climbed the entry stairway we saw a garden filled with small statues of different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We entered a room filled with small statuary and offerings. Another room that was lit by hundreds of hanging lanterns that illuminated different icons. Statues of the Chinese seven gods of luck, and ones of all the symbols of the Chinese zodiac. It was really the highlight of the trip to see this beautiful temple. We took our time to wander the grounds and absorb all of the fantastic sights.

By the time that we left the temple grounds we were utterly spend and very tired. It was around this time that I caught a glimpse of myself in a bathroom mirror. I found myself to be almost unrecognizable. Sweat poured from my face, and my shirt was soaked all the way through. When we finally made it back to our hotel Jenny commented that my shirt was stained by the salt in the sweat. It was at this point that we meandered our way out to the tori gate. The tide was on its way down and we were able to walk almost all the way out to the gate itself. We even took a chance to cool our feet in the cool water of the Pacific Ocean. The last thing that we had energy to do was to do some shopping. We were only half hearted about it and mostly did it because the shopping street was on the way back to the ferry boat. We rode the ferry back to the mainland, but the adventure did not end there.

We still had to find dinner. Riding on the ferry back to Hiroshima we discussed what we should do for dinner that night. I was in favor of returning to the okonomiyaki village and getting some more Hiroshima-yaki. Jenny however was in the mood for some pizza. We had seen a couple of pizzarias on our search for the okonomiyaki village the night before. I gave in and we staggered off to find some pizza for dinner. But pizza was not to be. We checked with both of the eateries were booked with private parties for the evening. We finally found a semi-classy joint that served curry. We were disappointed with the food that we received. The food was delicious, but the quantity was lacking. We make our own curry and load it with veggies and potatoes, tofu and sometimes meat; and when we make it, we make a huge pot and end up with leftovers. At this restaurant I ordered the beef and potato curry, there were three pieces of beef and two potatoes in my curry. I couldn't help but wonder if this was all twelve bucks could get me. I was just glad that my salad contained between seven and ten pieces of lettuce and two shreds of carrot. My stomach did a lot of grumbling that night. Where oh where was that giant pie I spent the return trip dreaming about.

After dinner we returned to the hotel but not before we stopped to take some night photographs of the A-bomb Dome and some of the peace memorials. That night was the one night of the trip where we literally fell into bed. I am pretty sure that I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. It was a exciting and eventful trip. One that I know that our family will cherish in our collective family memory. The adventure was not over however, we still had the trip home to Omihachiman.

A Day of Wandering and Sad Contemplation

2007-08-29T19:44:00.000+09:00

We decided that our first day in the area would be spent exploring and seeing the sights of Hiroshima City. We slept very well and woke up early in the morning and headed out to explore the city. We hoped that by getting out the door relatively early in the morning we could beat the heat. I guess that is not possible in Japan. When we left the lobby of the hotel at eight thirty in the morning it was already blazing hot. We walked up the street towards the peace park and the different memorials that are located in it. We walked to find the information center, and found out that they did not open for another thirty minutes. We decided to go and view the A-bomb Dome first. The A-bomb Dome is the remains of the agriculture and trade building that was located near the epicenter of the bomb. It is the only building that remains from the devastation wrought by the bomb. There were shells of about three or four buildings that remained standing after the explosion, but the A-bomb Dome, as it is called now, is the only one that was preserved as a memorial to that fateful day. The building is hardly more than a shell and it has been painstakingly preserved in the same condition as it stood over fifty years ago. It is interesting to see the steel skeleton that holds the crumbling walls together. We walked around and took in the sights of the building from all sides before heading off to the memorial for the little girl Sadako.

I remember being an elementary school student and having our teacher read the book, "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" to us. A few years back I read it to a class of my own. It was very hard reading the story of a little girl, whose joy was running races because she was the fastest girl in her class, only to have her life cut short after she developed leukemia. She was only a baby when the bomb detonated but the radiation was still in the air and it ended her life. I thought that it was difficult reading the book to my students. Reading a book was nothing compared to seeing the memorial that was dedicated to her and all of the children who lost their lives. Seeing the cranes that are left in the giant boxes to remember. Going to the museum where they have the actual cranes that were folded by Sadako. Being able to see with my own eyes, and experience this was very difficult.

After seeing the children's memorial we walked down through the park and passed by the eternal flame. The flame was lit and will only be extinguished when there are no more nuclear weapons left on earth. Next to the eternal flame is the symbolic grave of all of the thousands of people who were obliterated that fateful day. When I came with the people from Grand Rapids we were able to witness city workers removing the books that list the names of the dead as a symbolic remembrance. This time we walked by and gazed and offered a silent prayer toward everlasting peace.

Next we went into the peace museum. I will admit that I did not give the museum the attention that it deserves; this time. It was my second time and I wanted Jenny to be able to enjoy and take it all in. She told me that it was difficult to see. I agree and think that it was very sobering. When I signed the visitor book the first time I left the comment area blank. One of the students asked why I didn't write something and I simply responded, "There are no words to explain how I feel right now." Logan seemed to be quite captivated with the model of the city, both before and after the bomb. He enjoyed looking at the map and finding the things that he recognized. "There is a boat. Where is the train Papa? Oh there it is." He spent close to twenty minutes studying the map and finding the things that he knew about. Then we walked over to the model that showed what the city looked like after the bomb exploded. He simply looked at me and said, "This one is all messed up." I could not sum it up better, "Yes Logan" I responded. "Someone wasn't very careful."

After visiting the museum we headed back to the hotel to escape the dreadful heat, and to take a rest. We spent a couple of hours resting and playing in the hotel room with the AC turned all the way up. Once we figured that the temperature had dropped a degree or two we decided to venture forth again. This time it was off to someplace a bit more light hearted; the shopping street. We hoped to find some stores that would be good stores to find traditional Japanese things in. We were a bit out of luck. The stores that we found were for the most part the same stores we have around here. But the night would not be complete without dinner. We decided that we had to eat at the Okonomiyaki Village. It is hard to describe okonomiyaki, some people call it Japanese pancake or pizza, but it is not really either of those things. It is round and flat like a pizza, it is cooked on a griddle like a pancake, but to call it one of those two things is to do it great disrespect. I would simply call it... deeelicious! We headed to a building where it is eight floors of restaurants all selling the same food, Hiroshima's special okonomiyaki called hiroshima-yaki. Okonomiyaki is different in Hiroshima because they use noodles in their okonomiyaki.

The building was fairly narrow and it contained about six restaurants on each floor. Each one looked like your typical greasy spoon from an old movie. An L shaped griddle with a wooden area on the outside flanked by stools. We walked up three flights and I realized that it didn't matter which one we picked because they were all essentially the same. We chose one that had some customers but still had room for us at the bar. It was a lot of fun. The shop was run by an old woman and her husband. She took the orders, yelled them to him, even though he was a foot away, and he cooked the food. It was great fun to watch them make the food right there in front of us. They both took great pride in their work. At one point my glass of beer was sitting on the griddle in front of my, now mind you that this part was not being used, and she told me not to leave it there because my beer might get warm. Of course mind you she said all this in Japanese, so I am only guessing, but he fact that I know the word for hot and that she would touch the grill and move her hand away quickly, well lets just say that I got the picture.

We stubbled home, but not before stopping at the local Hagen-Daz location to enjoy some cold refreshing ice cream. We crawled into bed hoping and praying that tomorrow would not be as hot as today.

Long Train Trip

2007-08-28T19:38:00.000+09:00

The sunshine streaming through the window at five thirty in the morning woke us from our peaceful slumber. The infernal buzzing of the alarm clock in our ears didn't hurt either. Which ever it was we were up and ready on the bright. We had plans to be at the train station before seven o'clock and to be riding the rapid that left Omihachiman bound for Himeji at 7:03 in the morning. This was going to be our train. We wanted, neigh NEEDED, to be on that train. Things like train time tables become important details when you are staring down the tracks of a twelve hour long train trip. We were out bound on our first real family vacation. We were going to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island.

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit both of these places with the group of students from Grand Rapids that visited here in the spring. I wrote about it then. The difference then was the trip and the amount of time that we would be spending in the two locations. When I went with the students from Grand Rapids the trip to Hiroshima was a two hour ride in comfort. We rode the Shinkansen, otherwise know as the "Bullet Train". The Shinkansen is the way to travel in style here in Japan. Running along the rails at a whooping one hundred twenty miles per hour, the Shinkansen competes the journey from Kyoto to Hiroshima in around two hours. This time we as a family were planning on riding the regular rail lines and we were planning on spending closer to eight hours on the tracks. Once we figured in time for changing trains, potty breaks, leg stretching, and the ubiquitous "Logan needs to run around" breaks we estimated that we were looking at closer to twelve hours of riding the rails. It was for this reason that it became imperative that we were on one of the earliest trains out of town.

It was an adventure to say the least. We opted to take the method of travel that we did because of simple economics. Shinkansen tickets are expensive. I would equate them with airline tickets. The cost of two, maybe three tickets from Kyoto to Hiroshima would be a bit cost prohibitive. We were able to take advantage of a special ticket called the "seishun ju-hachi kippu". The ju-hachi kippu is a great ticket. It offers five days of unlimited train travel for about twenty dollars a day. Ride the train as far and as often as you like in one day and it is all good. A trip that could have cost us upward of six hundred dollars only ran us around eighty five bucks. But in terms of time we had to commit to an adventure.

We boarded the seven O'clock train and left Omihachiman for a long weekend. We made it to the city of Himeji with little to no difficulty. Well I must admit that it was mostly due to the fact that the train we were riding on only went as far as the city of Himeji. Himeji is about two hours away from us and is about a quarter of the total journey. After arriving in Himeji the true adventure began. It seemed that none of the trains leaving the station were going the direction or place that we needed. We ended up taking a train that only traveled down the line about three stops and then it terminated. We then found ourselves stuck in a tiny town with nothing to see or do, we couldn't even see a restaurant to eat lunch at, for a little over an hour. Then we were able to travel a short distance in the direction we were going a before again having to transfer trains. The trains we were on seemed to get progressively smaller and smaller. We started the day riding a train that was about ten cars long and at one point toward the end of the day the train we were riding was two cars long. I hesitate to say that we ever got lost, but there were times that it sure seemed that we were. The only thing that stopped me from totally feeling lost was the knowledge that as long as we were going west we were going the correct direction. Although at one point I did have to drag the compass out of the backpack to check and make sure that we were traveling in the appointed direction. It was a futile attempt at orienteering however because the train is propelled by electricity which caused the needle on the compass to spin like a top.

We did make it all the way to Hiroshima though. It ended up being closer to a thirteen hour trip instead of a twelve hour one though. We boarded the bus that would take us to our hotel. Now is the time where I must be brutally honest. I hate taking the bus. It is not that I think that it is a low form of travel, it is simply because riding a bus can be nigh on impossible. It is hard to hear the station names when they are announced, it is hard to figure out the proper fare, and worst of all chances are that you will get stuck on the bus for longer than you want to be. And that is exactly what happened to us. The bus became packed full of people and when the time for us to get off we could barely move and it was not possible for us to get off the bus. We were stuck to say the least. Trapped on the bus, unable to extricate ourselves from the cocoon of transportation. I will be eternally grateful to the people on that bus however. Not only did they tolerate a lot of bumping and jostling from three tourists, but they also alerted the bus driver to our predicament. He stopped the bus and let us off only one block from the stop, just on the other side of the hotel.

We wandered, a bit dazed and confused into the hotel and checked in. We then proceeded to the eighth floor and found our room where we fell into bed. Oh yes you heard me correctly, BED! Our first time sleeping in a real bed in almost a year. We didn't even mind that they were two twin beds set up fifties style. I totally felt like Ricky and Lucy in the old episodes of I Love Lucy. Two beds with a night stand in between. We couldn't have cared less. We jumped into the beds, Logan and Jenny in one and me in the other. It was a blissful nights sleep. What a great way to prepare the body and soul for the devastation that visiting the A-bomb dome, peace museum, memorials, and eternal flame can wreak.

Hey Y'All

2007-08-22T21:06:00.000+09:00

Just thought I would let everyone know that we just uploaded a bunch of new photos to our Smugmug page. Stop on by and see the pictures that detail the things that I have been blogging about. All of the best photos from the Steam Locomotive Museum, Tenbin Matsuri, Shimogamo Book Fair, and the Obon Holiday are now online and ready for your viewing. Use the link on the right side of the page. Enjoy!!

Ahhh!!! Bureaucracy

2007-08-22T13:37:00.000+09:00

I love the smell of paperwork in the morning. Er... mid-afternoon. Last month we went and filed the forms to get an extension on our visas. That all went fine and dandy like sour candy. If you need a refresher on how our day went check the archives. A couple of days ago we got the postcard from the immigration bureau stating that out visa was ready and that we were required to present ourselves at the immigration office with our passports, the postcard, and a revenue stamp (like a postage stamp showing that we payed the proper fees). I came home at lunch and we jumped on a train to the capital city of Otsu, which is about half an hour away by train.

We made it to Otsu and realized we could not remember which floor of the building the office was on. The sign in the lobby was all in Japanese making it next to impossible to read. For us at least. So we had to take care of it the old fashioned way. We pushed the button for floor two and proceeded to check each floor for the office we needed. When we finally got to the fifth floor the elevator door closed before Jenny and Logan could get off and they went off to the sixth floor while I found the office on the fifth floor. Jenny and Logan waited for me to join them one floor above me while I waited for them to return to the fifth floor. Well they finally came back down and Logan told Jenny that she should not push any more buttons in the elevator. We walked down the hall to the immigration office. We waited while they found the proper papers to place into our passports.

When they did get it all taken care of we were then told that we would have to return to Omihachiman and go to city hall and have our alien registration card altered to reflect the new visa number. On the walk, in the blazing sun and oppressive heat, we joked that we would probably be told to return to Otsu so that they could verify that the Gaijin Card had been changed. Which lead to the speculation that we would have to go back to city hall to verify the verification. Well in the end we got the ID card changed and updated with little difficulty, and we did not even have to have it verified. Which is good. Now our visa is extended for another year.

Obon Holiday

2007-08-17T20:52:00.001+09:00

Last night marked the end of the Bon holiday here in Japan. Obon is one of the two major holidays here in Japan. It is the holiday where people pay respect to their ancestors. There are special rituals that are performed and rites that are followed. It is a very special holiday for the veneration of the dead. Most Japanese will travel to their hometown to be with family and to tend the graves of their ancestors, offer special offerings to the dead, and to pay their respects. Obon and New Years are the two times a year that travel in Japan peaks, trains become very full, hotels sell out, and traveling can be difficult.

This holiday was also one that we were aware of before we came here to Japan. We had watched a documentary on PBS about Japan that highlighted the Obon celebration in Kyoto. After seeing that program we were determined to see the sights for our selves. We did our research as to where to go to see the sights that we wanted to see. And we set off to a whole new part of town. Our destination this time was a bridge over the Hozu River. On the river that evening would be placed lanterns that are inscribed with the name of a family member that has passed on. The light in the lantern is supposed to guide the soul of the deceased back to the land of the dead. The lantern floats down the river and guides the spirit back to its resting place.

We were also there to see the fire on the mountain. On the side of six mountains around Kyoto there are huge bonfires that are lit. The fires take the shape of different designs. We were in a location to see the fire that takes the form of a tori gate. There are others as well, two are the kanji for big, one looks like a ship, and there are two that together spell out the words for Buddhist law. I originally wanted to see one of the mountains that said big, but there was not enough time to go everywhere in one night. And we were able to see the tori gate fire from the same place as the lanterns.

We were very excited to see this. What we were not excited about were the crowds of people who were also very excited to see the event. Now for a family who lead a fairly boring life in America crowds used to be a big deal for us. We would time shopping to avoid crowds. And shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, well we never even thought about it. I must admit that we are doing much better at dealing with crowds of people, because well we have to. Everywhere we go and everything that we do we basically deal with crowds. But for some reason the crowd last night seemed to be offensive. I know that offensive might be too harsh a word but last night was very trying of my patience. I was after some nice pictures of the lantern that we would be able to share with you. And it seemed that every time I got a good shot framed up a person would step right into my shot. At one point I had focused in on the tori gate that was burning on the mountain and an old woman stood up right in front of my lens completely blocking my shot. She even ignored all of my excuse mes, sumimasens, and gruff clearing of my throat noises that I made. I had to find a new vantage point from which to shoot.

All in all, I must admit that we were a little let down. We were expecting more from this one. It was nice to see, and it will be something that I hope that I never forget, but still it was a bit of a let down. Just a tiny bit disappointment. I did manage to get a few beautiful shots of the lanterns, and one or two of the fire on the side of the mountain. But the actual holiday did not really live up to all the hype.

BBQ!!! or Salem Gets a Hair Trim

2007-08-15T22:57:00.000+09:00

Last night was the welcome to Japan Bar-B-Que for all the new English teachers here in the area. A Gaijin Heights bar-b-que is an event in itself. Fun is had from early evening until the wee hours of the night. At least until the last train leaves Omihachiman, or later for the people who miss that train. Last night we dragged the grills out about six in the evening and lit the charcoal so that the coals would be hot around seven or so. The charcoal here is a bit different. (I know; I say those words a lot, but it never fails to amaze me how even the little details tend to be different here.) Charcoal is not in a bag, it comes in a box. And it is not in uniform little briquettes; it actually looks like the wood that it was made from. Lighter fluid is not a liquid, but a gel. And the best part about grilling here is that it pretty much can be a never ending process. You start by getting the coals nice and hot and then you start to cook small pieces of vegetables and meat, then you pretty much eat right off the grill. When the grill is empty you put on more food and continue until you are full. And all of the food is accompanied by lots of beer.

While the coals were heating up a guys named Salem, who lives a couple of cities to the south of here, was talking about how he wanted to cut his hair because it was so hot. So I volunteered to give him a quick buzz with the clippers. He took me up on my gracious offer and I went and grabbed the clippers and proceeded to shear him like a sheep. I had a great time cutting off his hair for him. And with temperatures hovering in the upper nineties with high humidity I know that his head will be much cooler. I think that the funniest part of the whole process was when Salem asked Logan what should he do with all of the hair that was trimmed off his head. Logan said that he should give it to Mr. Bryan. Now Bryan recently, much to his wife's dismay, shaved off his already thinning hair. Bryan received a lot of good natured ribbing about his lack of hair, and after shaving his head people still have much fun with him. It was well received when Logan said that Mr. Salem should give his hair to Mr. Bryan.

We had a great night. Our chicken kabobs were delicious. We even managed to bring out the marshmallow that we found at the foreign foods market and make s'mores around the grill. Lots of fun. We retired early. Jenny and Logan about 9:00 and me closer to 10:00, but the party went on until the wee hours.

Hot, Hot Day and Books

2007-08-14T15:15:00.000+09:00

Yesterday we headed off to Kyoto. Yes; again. It does seem that we spend quite a bit of our lives in that city. We have been going there about once a week or so over the past month. But with the one year count down clicking away the days, we must be sure to see all the beautiful sights, and do all the exciting things that we want to do, or risk losing the opportunity forever. Yesterday was a big book fair. Lots of merchants were at the shrine where we went and wandered through the water selling their used books. It was a very hot day. I think that the thermometer may have climbed into the upper nineties with very high humidity. But we wandered back to the shrine. We did not get lost this time. We simply went back the opposite way that we went home last time. Smart, eh? We looked around at all the books for a while. Yes I will admit that We did purchase a few books while we were there. I found what appears to be an old script for a play, and we found some children's books. Then we headed north looking for some lunch. We decided not to go to the Falafel Garden again, this time we were off to find a department store. We figured we could wander around in air conditioned delight for a while before heading home. Well the department store ended up being more like the, "Dirt Mall." It was rather old and not much different than what we have here in Omihachiman. We did manage to find some food to eat for lunch. Logan was more into eating ice cream than his food. Jenny and I split a caramel sundae. The best part was the cornflakes that they put on the sundae as a topping. After lunch it was back to Kyoto station for some more wandering around in the climate controlled bliss. We spent time looking around the 12 floor department store that is next to the station. We got home kinda late and ate dinner and pretty much got ready for bed.

Tenbin Matsuri

2007-08-07T13:02:00.000+09:00

I am not sure if this will be a welcome revelation or not but Sunday contained another first for me. Sunday was the day of the Tenbin Matsuri Festival here in Omihachiman. The festivities began around noon. We left the house, Me, Jenny, Logan and Mark, around 11:30 or so. It was a five minute walk from our apartment to the street where the street where the festivities were taking place. But before we went to watch the taiko drummers from my school and the other performers we made a pit stop at the local 7-11. Here is where we get to the first. Jenny got a bottle of water, Logan got a bottle of frozen sports drink and I got a beer. You must understand that here in Japan it is perfectly acceptable to walk down the street drinking a can of beer. So I did. I am pretty sure that it was my first time drinking a beer that early in the day. It was a lot of fun though.

The festival itself was pretty small. The taiko club from my school performed first thing in the morning. Next there was a karate demonstration from the local dojo. It was fun watching all the little kids run through their forms. the cool part was when the teachers showed off their abilities. They broke boards, baseball bats, and one guy even broke a cinder block with his fist. Then there was a junior high school brass band. The local Self Defense Force Brass Band also played. more Beer. Food. And most important; many, many students and teachers from school telling Logan how cute he is. The downtown part of the festival broke up around four in the afternoon. So we headed on home after making plans with our neighbors to all head off together later in the evening to watch the fireworks.

We ran over to the camera shop to purchase a tripod for our camera. I wanted to try and take pictures of the fireworks later in the evening. Then we headed home for some dinner. About 7:00 in the evening we started to gather up the neighbors to walk out near my school to catch a glimpse of the fireworks. Logan took a crazy stroller ride thanks to Miss. Diana. She pushed him all around, in circles and loop the loops, backward and forward. Those two always manage to have fun together. We walked the twenty minutes or so out to my school so that we would have a nice view over the rice fields. On the way I also managed another first. One thing that Jenny and I have always been wary of is falling into the rain gutters that run along the side of the streets here. The are about two feet deep and sometimes covered, and sometimes not. Well as it happens, in the dark of the night I managed to fall into one of the storm drains. I was walking along when all of a sudden the ground under my left foot just was not there. I fell to the ground. Not hurt, but a bit wounded in the pride. I felt awkward and silly. And my shin hurt a little bit from the scrape that ran a good length of the bottom half of my leg. But we managed to find a nice place to set down our tarps and watch the fireworks. I even managed to get a couple of great photos of the fireworks thanks to my new tripod. I was even able to snap a shot of the one that looked like a smiley face. It was a fun day and a great way to cap off a wonderful weekend.

花火
はなび
hanabi
(firework)

Chugga-Chugga, Choo-Choo

2007-08-05T22:21:00.000+09:00

We have had another busy weekend here in Japan. It has been really hot here, but that has not stopped us from getting out and exploring all that this great country has to offer. Saturday we went to a museum that we have been wanting to take Logan to for a while now, The Kyoto Steam Locomotive Train Museum. Logan really loves to ride trains, he loves to play with his trains, and he also loves Thomas the Tank Engine. We thought that this would make the trip to a train museum a perfect fit for him. And we were correct. We rode the train down to Kyoto. Then it was a twenty minute walk from the station to the museum. The museum was a a bit tricky to find, but not nearly as difficult to find as our trip last weekend. We found the museum and went in. The museum really consisted of about fifteen old steam locomotives. It was really kinda neat to see and in some cases climb aboard and play engineer. The trains were all really neat and Logan had a great time. I think that his favorite part was the ride we took. We were able to take a ten minute trip on a real steam train. Logan was very excited and decided that we were going to ride in Annie. Now if you don't already know, Annie is the passenger car that is pulled by Thomas on his branch line. I will say that I am pretty sure that the sound of a real steam train's whistle came as quite a shock to Logan. As he is used to the quiet and musical, "peep-peep" from the Thomas videos. We really did have a nice morning at the museum.

Then it was off to do some shopping in the big city. I wanted to visit an outdoor sporting goods store that I had just read about, and I wanted to visit a camera shop to see if I could get a bargain on a tripod for our camera. I managed to find a new hat at the hiking shop, but the tripod was more expensive in the big city than at our little shop here in town. Next we decided to get some lunch. We decided on an Indian restaurant. We were very disappointed when we got there and they were closed. So we went to a different pace and had beef-bowls. Well to be truthful, I had an eel and beef bowl, logan had a beef bowl, and Jenny had a piece of salmon, some soup and a bowl of rice. I never thought that I would eat eel, much less say that I thought that it was rather delicious, but I have to admit that it is. Then we wandered around the shopping district for a while, and finally headed home. We made it home after a quick pit stop at Mickey D's for a McFlurry and a cheeseburger; but mostly to stay out of the rain that freakishly began to pour the moment we left the train station. It was a busy day, but that seems to have become our life in these past few months. It is quite a departure from our old life where hangin' out around the house was the status quo.

Best Friends

2007-07-31T19:19:00.000+09:00

Well it is official. Logan now has a new best friend. Logan has always been very friendly with the other children in the neighborhood, but especially with one boy in particular. His name is Shu. Shu scoots around the neighborhood on his little police car scooter, and has always been kind enough to let Logan to ride it too. Last night when we were barbecuing with our neighbors and Shu and Logan were playing in the parking-lot. Then Shu's mom came over and told him that it was time to eat dinner. Logan was having so much fun driving the car that she said that he could use it. Logan was very grateful. Tonight after dinner there was a knock at the door. There was Shu and his mom. They came over to see if Logan wanted to play. We all went out to the parking-lot and drove Shu's scooter. Logan drove and Shu pushed. Then it was over to the vacant lot where the boys played in the rocks. It was so great to see Logan play with a friend. Logan was very sad when Shu had to go home and eat supper, but then again, Logan had to go and finish his.

友達
ともだち
(tomodachi)
friend

Harry Potter

2007-07-30T13:39:00.000+09:00

I went to the movies today. It was my first movie in Japan. Now people who know me, know that I do not go to the movies all that often; and when I do it is usually to accompany students on a field trip. So it was today. The English Club at school decided that today was the day to go and see the new Harry Potter movie as a club function. We met at the movie theatre at nine o'clock in the morning.

Now I don't intend on telling you all about a movie that you may have already seen. Suffice it to say I thought the movie was great. Best movie that I have been to in over a year. Enough said about the movie. My purpose here is to relate and tell you about my movie going experience. I will hold that all of my readers have been to the movies. That you have had an experience seeing a film in the theatre. This way I will be able to relate the differences in seeing a movie here in Japan. The first major difference is in the price. Now one big reason that I do not like going to the theatre in America is that I am not fond of paying the eight dollarsish per person that the movie costs. Well here in Japan movies cost one thousand eight hundred yen. According to my conversions that works out to being about $15.50 a ticket. Now I don't know why, but I got in cheaper and it only cost me 1200 yen, or $10.50 to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Still this price weighs in as more expensive than a matinee back home. The second big difference that I noticed was that there were assigned seats in the theatre. My ticket was for the seat G10. So that is where I sat, row G, seat 10. I was lucky, my seat was in the middle of the theatre. My favorite location. It was unfortunate that I could not teach the students about sitting in the front row, and how much fun that can be. My favorite difference was in the snack choices. Oh yes there was the usual popcorn and pop options, the sizes were however smaller than the American counterparts, and there was candy and nachos, soda and tea, it was not so shocking to see the options laid before us for mid-movie snacking. However had it not been for the fact that I was with school and the fact that it was but 9:30 in the morning I could have enjoyed a nice tasty can of beer with my popcorn. Yes the movie theatre here serves beer to enjoy while watching your movie. In fact there was a beer and popcorn combo. I was a bit surprised to see that one could purchase beer at the movie theatre. Now I am thinking of a way to bring it to America. The last difference that I noticed is a small one. I found it interesting how many people stayed in the theatre all the way to the end of the credits. I believe that only two people left the theatre before the credits stopped rolling. In fact, the house lights did not even come up, not even a little bit as is customary back home, until all the credits had finished rolling.

I most thoroughly enjoyed my movie going experience. I don't know if I will go to another while we are here in Japan, but that will be okay. Really going to a movie, is going to a movie. The differences are minute and barely noticeable. The overall experience is what really counts.