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
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Harry Potter
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.
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.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
An Adventure of Missteps
I am sure that my friend Tim would agree with me that the best way to start the day is with a good cup of coffee. In fact I am of the persuasion that the only way to begin the day is with a cup of coffee. And so this story both begins and ends with a cup of coffee. A great way to both start and finish a day. Everything in the middle however is not quite so relaxing as a cup of java. It was a true adventure to be sure.
I woke up Saturday morning and made my morning cup of joe. Here I must give the obligatory thank you to my father-in-law for keeping me supplied in coffee. And I think that I must clarify, that there is Coffee here in Japan. It is just that it is not all that good, or when it is good coffee, it is really expensive. I keep a bag of coffee in my desk at work, because everyone else drinks, believe it or not, instant coffee. And I just can;t bring myself to enjoy it. So back to the story at hand. I sat down and enjoyed my morning coffee while Logan woke up and Jenny got ready to go. We were going once again to Kyoto to see and participate in another festival.
We learned about this festival from the Kyoto Visitor's Guide. This one looked very interesting. It was called the Mitarashi Matsuri. And it was described in this way. "Long, long ago while Princess Seoritsu was wading in the stream that flows through Shimogamo shrine, she saw a fine arrow floating towards her. She took the arrow home, and put it next to her pillow. That night, as she got into bed, the arrow turned into a handsome young man. Nine moths later the princess gave birth to Seoritsu Hime, the goddess of water enshrined at Shimogamo. Every year in July, Shimogamo Shrine celebrates the purifying powers of this deity in a ceremony called the Mitarashi Matsuri." We saw this write -up in the magazine and we decided that this was one for us to go and see.
We left the house sometime in the midmorning. We stopped at the grocery store for some breakfast goodness and some water. The temperature was predicted to be in the low to mid nineties with high humidity. We wanted to stay hydrated in the heat. We did not feel rushed and so we took our time in getting to the station. I was a bit dismayed however when we got to the train station and I noticed that we had just missed a train by one minute, and that the next train would not come for another half an hour. But wait; there was an announcement on the schedule board. The train that we missed was delayed five minutes and it had not arrived yet. What luck! We managed to get on the train, and we made it to Kyoto. Then we transfered to the subway and rode to the north side of Kyoto. We had never been to this particular shrine before. We were however armed with our trusty map and compass. Still I managed to get us a bit lost. We needed to walk east then head north. Well I did not go far enough east before turning north; and I walked too far north once we did go north. We turned around and managed to find the Shrine. But we found the back of walled grounds. We had to walk around the grounds, following the wall. We finally found an entrance and we exhaustedly walked into the park outside of the shrine.
We walked up along the path and into the shrine. We walked around the shrine for a bit and then we went over and took off our shoes and proceeded to wade up a stream. We were given a candle to light and we walked down into the water. The water was very cold, but on such a hot day it felt good. We waded upstream for a few meters where we lit the candle.
Next we went a few more meters up the stream where we placed our candle into the special candle holder. Then we climbed out of the water. Logan had to have a full change of clothes because the water came all the way up to his belly button. We changed his clothes and went over to drink a cup of delicious spring water. It is believed that drinking this water will ensure good health and vitality during the hot summer months.
But the adventure does not end here. We also decided that it was a perfect day to try and find a new restaurant that was in the area. It has been almost an entire year since we have had one of our favorite foods, hummus. We saw an advertisement for a place called, Falafel Garden. We have been waiting to be in the area to try and find the Falafel Garden. The directions in the ad were not very clear; but we were committed to finding it. We wandered the area where we thought it would be, getting weaker and weaker from lack of food. We finally decided to retrace our steps and we were able to find the restaurant about fifteen feet away from where we turned off the main street. If we had only stayed on the one street we started on for another minute or two we would have found it. We went in and ordered our food. It was delicious. Falafel and hummus after about a year. Wow, it was so good. We all relished each and every bite. And to top it all off, I followed it all up with a cup of rich and fruity arabic coffee.
I told you that this story would begin and end with a cup of coffee and so it has. Just one quick footnote to the evening. As we were sitting in our living room later that night we could see fireworks out our window. We could hear some booms and pops of fireworks. I opened the curtains and looked out the window, and we saw big, bright, colorful fireworks. All from the comfort of our living room.
I woke up Saturday morning and made my morning cup of joe. Here I must give the obligatory thank you to my father-in-law for keeping me supplied in coffee. And I think that I must clarify, that there is Coffee here in Japan. It is just that it is not all that good, or when it is good coffee, it is really expensive. I keep a bag of coffee in my desk at work, because everyone else drinks, believe it or not, instant coffee. And I just can;t bring myself to enjoy it. So back to the story at hand. I sat down and enjoyed my morning coffee while Logan woke up and Jenny got ready to go. We were going once again to Kyoto to see and participate in another festival.
We learned about this festival from the Kyoto Visitor's Guide. This one looked very interesting. It was called the Mitarashi Matsuri. And it was described in this way. "Long, long ago while Princess Seoritsu was wading in the stream that flows through Shimogamo shrine, she saw a fine arrow floating towards her. She took the arrow home, and put it next to her pillow. That night, as she got into bed, the arrow turned into a handsome young man. Nine moths later the princess gave birth to Seoritsu Hime, the goddess of water enshrined at Shimogamo. Every year in July, Shimogamo Shrine celebrates the purifying powers of this deity in a ceremony called the Mitarashi Matsuri." We saw this write -up in the magazine and we decided that this was one for us to go and see.
We left the house sometime in the midmorning. We stopped at the grocery store for some breakfast goodness and some water. The temperature was predicted to be in the low to mid nineties with high humidity. We wanted to stay hydrated in the heat. We did not feel rushed and so we took our time in getting to the station. I was a bit dismayed however when we got to the train station and I noticed that we had just missed a train by one minute, and that the next train would not come for another half an hour. But wait; there was an announcement on the schedule board. The train that we missed was delayed five minutes and it had not arrived yet. What luck! We managed to get on the train, and we made it to Kyoto. Then we transfered to the subway and rode to the north side of Kyoto. We had never been to this particular shrine before. We were however armed with our trusty map and compass. Still I managed to get us a bit lost. We needed to walk east then head north. Well I did not go far enough east before turning north; and I walked too far north once we did go north. We turned around and managed to find the Shrine. But we found the back of walled grounds. We had to walk around the grounds, following the wall. We finally found an entrance and we exhaustedly walked into the park outside of the shrine.
We walked up along the path and into the shrine. We walked around the shrine for a bit and then we went over and took off our shoes and proceeded to wade up a stream. We were given a candle to light and we walked down into the water. The water was very cold, but on such a hot day it felt good. We waded upstream for a few meters where we lit the candle.
Next we went a few more meters up the stream where we placed our candle into the special candle holder. Then we climbed out of the water. Logan had to have a full change of clothes because the water came all the way up to his belly button. We changed his clothes and went over to drink a cup of delicious spring water. It is believed that drinking this water will ensure good health and vitality during the hot summer months.
But the adventure does not end here. We also decided that it was a perfect day to try and find a new restaurant that was in the area. It has been almost an entire year since we have had one of our favorite foods, hummus. We saw an advertisement for a place called, Falafel Garden. We have been waiting to be in the area to try and find the Falafel Garden. The directions in the ad were not very clear; but we were committed to finding it. We wandered the area where we thought it would be, getting weaker and weaker from lack of food. We finally decided to retrace our steps and we were able to find the restaurant about fifteen feet away from where we turned off the main street. If we had only stayed on the one street we started on for another minute or two we would have found it. We went in and ordered our food. It was delicious. Falafel and hummus after about a year. Wow, it was so good. We all relished each and every bite. And to top it all off, I followed it all up with a cup of rich and fruity arabic coffee.
I told you that this story would begin and end with a cup of coffee and so it has. Just one quick footnote to the evening. As we were sitting in our living room later that night we could see fireworks out our window. We could hear some booms and pops of fireworks. I opened the curtains and looked out the window, and we saw big, bright, colorful fireworks. All from the comfort of our living room.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Inari Festival Part Two
Last night we headed back to the fushimi-Inari Shrine. We went back with the intent purpose of climbing the mountain. On Saturday night we went with friends and some of them were less interested in a four kilometer hike up a mountain. As a result the group decided not to go up. It really was not that big of a problem, and we decided as a family to go back on Sunday night. Firstly to go up the mountain and witness the light-up. Secondly to enjoy the festival atmosphere that was ending on Sunday night. We took the train back down to Kyoto in the afternoon to return to the shrine. We had packed a picnic lunch before we left. Some riceballs, a sandwich, some chips, water, and Logan's favorite snack, Koala Yummies.
We started the hike in excellent spirits. The weather was hot, but not unbearable. We began to climb up the path at about 5:30. Now to tell more about the path that winds its way up the mountainside. There is a stone path that you walk upon, but it is not the remarkable thing. It is what is above you that is amazing. The Fushimi-Inari Shrine is famous for its Tori Gates. Tori Gates are the iconic black and orange gates that signal the entrance to a Shinto Shrine. All the way up the mountain the path is encircled by Tori Gates. They are lined up, one next to another, all the way up the mountain. Thousands of gates creating a spectacular corridor all the way up the mountain. There are also small shrines and monuments to various gods along the path. In the evening it creates a very erie and spooky walk.
The hike was by far the best one we have been on here in Japan. It got to be dreadfully hot and deathly humid the closer we got to the top, but it was worth all the hard work. The view from the top was magnificent. My favorite part was listening to Logan talk on the hike up. Some times there was a gap in the line of gates where you could see the remains of the footing of a gate that had been removed. When Logan saw one of these gaps he would chant in a very sing-song voice. "Oh-no. They missed one. They will have to built a new one." And when we got to the next gap he would sing this variation. "Oh-no. They lost one. They will have to built a new one." It got to be a bit tiresome to hear the same thing repeated over and over, but to be honest, I thought it was the cutest thing ever. We ate our picnic at the top, as it began to sprinkle rain on us. I for one did not mind the rain drops. They seemed to cool me off a bit, and it did not rain hard or for very long. Then we started the trek back down the mountain. We started downward by a different path than we used to ascend, but it soon grew too dark and we back tracked and retraced our steps back down the mountain.
We ended the evening with a cold bowl of ichigo kakigori. That would be a big bowl filled with shaved ice covered in strawberry syrup. That was by far the best way to end a hot hike up and down the mountain. A perfect ending to a great day. We finally made it home about ten o'clock and collapsed into bed exhausted.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Inari Festival
Last night we went to the Inari Shrine. There was a festival to ensure a successful harvest. It was very interesting. The Inari Shrine is a shrine that is a series of tori gates running up a mountain. There are thousands of the red gates winding their way up the mountain. Last night was a "light up". Lanterns were lit, and there were dances and singing. It was really, pretty cool. We went with our friends Mark and Minako, Bryan and Yuki, and Eric. We wandered around the festival area looking at all the food and toys. I was tempted to try the bar-b-qued sparrow, but to me it looked more like a bat on a stick, than a bird. I just couldn't bring myself to try it. It was great to just hang out and enjoy the company of our friends. We had so much fun that I think that we just might go back again tonight.
Friday, July 20, 2007
How We made a Day of it.
Today was the day that we went to take care of our visa. We are here on a one year visa and in order to stay another year we needed to extend our visa. We woke up on the bright, and were off to the train station to met our contact from the Board of Education. We got on the train and headed toward the capital of the prefecture, Otsu. The train was rather crowded, as is usually the case traveling in that direction, so we ended up standing. When we were about half way to Otsu, a young man standing near us just simply collapsed. One minute he was standing and the next he was laying on the ground. The elderly gentleman standing next to him gave him a few slaps in the face and made sure he was okay. When the kid tried to stand up the old guy made him sit back down on the floor. It was kinda weird to see everyone else go on with their lives and go about their own business while this was happening. We got to Otsu and went to the immigration office. We got our number and waited a long time to be helped. It really reminded me of going to the Secretary of State, back in Michigan, to renew a drivers license or license plates. You go in and sit on a seat for an hour or two and then go to the counter and turn in the paper work, and then a month later they send you a post card and you get to go back and do it all over again. We were there at the immigration office for a couple of hours, and by the time we were done we decided to go and get some lunch. Not far from downtown Otsu there is a mall that has a Mos Burger. Now I believe that Mos burger is the best fast food hamburger in Japan. If we have the opportunity to eat there we take it. I simply love eating a "Mos Burger". A "Mos Burger" is really just a chili-burger, but they are so delicious. We decided however, rather than take the train one stop up the line that we would walk the 1 kilometer or so that it would be to get there. It was a really nice walk. We were able to walk through some back alleys and places that we normally would not see. We made it to Mos Burger in good order. We ordered our food, Jenny got a fresh burger, I had a Mos Burger, and Logan wanted a hotdog. Once we sat down however we noticed that they had a new sandwich, a curry chicken burger. So I went up to the counter and ordered one of those too. We ate our burgers, they were delicious. The curry chicken sandwich was awesome! It was a fried chicken patty covered in curry gravy. delicious!! We then wandered around the mall for a short time, and found Logan a Thomas the Tank Engine book at the bookstore. We decided that it was time to head home, but a sign caught our eye outside of Starbucks. We just had to try the new frapucino. The new flavor this month is Azuki bean. Yes the same Azuki bean that has been the bane of our existence here. Oh wow! we think, this looks like a cinnamon roll. Nope, Azuki bean. Oh, is this treat filled with chocolate? No, that's Azuki bean. So, we got one. It was really good. Enjoyed it immensely. While we sat outside there was the friendliest little sparrow, just fluttering around. We fed it some cookies that we were munching on and Logan had fun watching it drag the cookie crumbs under a table to eat them. It was a fun day, and by the time that we made it back to Omihachiman it was too late for me to go into work. Oh nuts!! And that is the story of how we made an entire day out of going to the immigration office in Otsu, Japan.
ハンバガ
(hambaga)
hamburger
すずめ
(suzume)
sparrow
ハンバガ
(hambaga)
hamburger
すずめ
(suzume)
sparrow
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Gion Matsuri
Well today was the big day for the Gion Matsuri Festival in Kyoto. I took a day of vacation time and we headed off to the big parade. We woke up bright and early. I am tempted to say that we "woke up at the break of dawn", but seeing as how dawn breaks at about 4:30 or so, that would be a big, fat lie. But we were up nice and early, around 7:00ish. Not super early, but a respectable time when you have a three year old who likes to sleep late. We were out the door and on our way to Kyoto a little after eight. We were in Kyoto around nine and ready to see the parade.
We had gone to the festival last night, and had a great time. The atmosphere at a festival here is awesome. Lots of people walking around, talking, laughing, drinking, and drinking. Beer seemed to be everywhere last night. Even McDonalds was selling glasses of draft beer. We enjoyed our time. Eating, talking, laughing and drinking, mostly eating. We had fried chicken on a stick, beef on a stick, beer on a sti.. (no, no, sorry that was in a cup.) Yakisoba and strawberry shaved ice. Jenny bought a few souvenirs to remember our time, and Logan chose an Ampanman mask. The evening festival was a lot of fun.
That was all gone by the time we got to Kyoto this morning. The food vendors and the trinket shops were all packed up and put away. Today was the day of the parade. About thirty giant parade floats weighing about 12 tons each were wheeled around the Gion district of Kyoto. It was fantastic to watch. Amazing to see these colossal carts being dragged by gangs of men in traditional clothing. The size of the carts was fantastic. But the height was even more amazing. Some of them were around the area of thirty to forty feet in height. I had a tough time choosing a picture to post because I wanted to be able to show how tall they were, but I don't know how to rotate photos on this site so please check the photo site soon, to see more pictures. I hope to have them up some time this week. The Gion Matsuri in Kyoto is one of the three biggest festivals in Japan, and I believe that we are quite lucky to have seen it.
ぎおんまつり
gion matsuri
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