Japan Redux

I am back in Japan for 15 days.  My husband and I have not visited his home for 4 years. This time, I get to experience apartment life because my sister-in-law has decided that we should stay at her apartment and she will bunk back with Mom and the brothers.  Thanks sis!

We woke up and went to Mom's for breakfast.  She cooked like an invading army was arriving! Look at this spread:

She had grilled salmon, fried boneless chicken (karage), ham, boiled egss on sald, chicken meatballs, grilled mushrooms, inagri (fried tofu pockets filled with rice), onion and shrimp tempura, a spicy chicken stir-fry, oden, and of course rice. We also had green tea and coffee. If she keeps trying to feed me like that I won't be able to loose the 10 pounds a always loose in Japan!

Japanese food is good but often unexpected and sometimes gross. I of course must try the gross stuff first: is this brains or tasty inari?

 Fortunately, its two kinds of inari, one with the right side out and one turned inside out just for novelty. I ate the one that looked like brains!

T and his mom also visited one of his dad's old school friends.  He lives in a prefecture that grows many types of fruits. They brought this mystery fruit home.  It kind of looks like a purplish potatoe:

Inside:

You eat the inside that looks like a large white larvae. My brave husband scooped some out and tried it first:

 Verdict: yummy, so I tried some. I wonder what it is? Anyone know?

After that we walked back to the apartment. Oranges and other citrus friut ripen in the fall-wniter. Look at how many organges are on this tree:

 Sayonora for now.

 

More Kamakura

When we attended the yabusame at Kamakura, we also went to see some nearby sites. The Kamakura Daibutsu is the second largest bronze Buddha in Japan. It was cast in 1252 and was in a temple but the temple was washed away by a giant tsunami in the 1600's. He is about 13.5 meters tall. I'm surprised by the little mustache that snakes around his lips!

Festivals

August and September are the time when many festivals are held. The best are in August when you can wear yukatas and watch fireworks. But a few good ones are in September too.

We attended a yabusame- archery on horseback or as the announce put it "the sacred horseback-riding." I was there to watch the riding and the archery skills but it turns out that this is a religious ceremony (I should have known since it was held at a temple). The event started at 1:00pm. They had to drink some sake, bless the riders, swear allegiance to the Shinto religion, and ride. Everything but the riding took an hour and 15 minutes!

I kept thinking that Clint Eastwood could drink a little sake, pray, swear, and hop on his pony in about 15 minutes. Anywho, I love horses and it was fun to watch once the riding commenced. I mostly enjoyed the crowd's reaction as the horses and riders thundered past. Since the Japanese are mostly city slickers who take trains, buses, and cars, they were very impressed by the motion and violence of the horses.

The priests, riders, and attendants-
Walking the riding track to check for safety-
This grey horse was magnificent but I'm partial to greys.
The actual riding-
That's the best I can do photo-wise because this was a sold-out event (so to speak since it was free). It was held in Kamakura, a slightly out of the way spot. I was floored to see how many people came! We were lucky to get as close as we got.

Road trip pt2

Here is a few pics of the countryside-

My husband's idea of a great gardening hut-
The Japanese are so inventive. These orange rings are made out of lightweight hard plastic and are rumble strips to remind you to slow down for road construction! they usually throw down 2 strips (they offset them like the Olympic rings pattern) and they are effective.
They don't seem to like hiring flaggers either. They use animated mannequins! Some of the life-sized mannequins wave their arms up and down but some go up and down and side to side (which is creepy since it looks alive!)

Rice fields

Road Trip

We went on a road trip and drove nearly to the northern end of Honshu (the largest island of Japan) to the Iwate prefecture. We went to attend a car show but we gave ourselves lots of time to explore along the way.

We stopped at Nasu first. That is the place where I took the photos in the last entry about onsens. We stayed at a little ryokan called Pension Nasuka. When you book a room in a ryokan you get dinner and breakfast. This inn was a little charmer and served French cuisine for both dinner and breakfast. The room was small but clean, the hot springs were marvelous! (this pic is shot down the narrow hall to the room.)

The next stop was on the Pacific coast in the little town of Minami Sanriku. We stayed in a hotel on the topmost floor to see the view. This time it was a traditional tatami room. When I opened the curtians to see the view, this is what I saw- and behind him, this- the lines floating in the water are oyster, salmon (squares in the distance), abalone, and wakame farms.

Still looking at me-

Public Nudity

Japan is always a mystery. On one hand they are very dignified, private people. On the other hand they do lots of things in public that Americans would consider very undignified. Take onsen culture.

Japan is basically situated on the ring of fire in the Pacific; essentially on a volcanic ridge jutting out from the ocean. There are lots of outlets for that pressure- earthquakes, lava/ash eruptions, and hot springs. There are natural hot springs everywhere and the onsen culture developed. It is very relaxing to travel to a hotel or small ryokan and sit in a hot spring.

When you're at a small ryokan (inn) you can often get the hot spring to yourself. But, if you are at a hotel, the hot spring or bath will be public. Yep, that means getting naked with people you don't know.

I stayed at a small ryokan and sat in this onsen situated on a river in the woods-
It is pretty hot and steamy-

This ryokan had many tubs to choose from. Here is a pic of a traditional wooden tub-


I stayed at 2 large hotels and I went to the public baths there as well (see note). This is where I'm baffled by Japanese behavior. In Japan, at least once a year your company will arrange a retreat or vacation to a hotel. There you will go on tours and possibly meet but in the evening, you and your co-workers will get naked and bath together. How's that for departmental bonding?

One last note: Despite the fact that the Japanese are so skinny, its nice to know that age and gravity are the great equalizers!

Technical Difficulties Over

I can finally download pictures again! Here is a shot from our front door.

The cats are healthy. This is kuro-chan-

This is Higai-chan-

The first day we went to a birthday party. My husband's Aunt's family have many members who's birthdays are in August and September, including mine.

The two sisters are my Mother-in-law in red and my Auntie-in-law in beige in the front. This is a very close family. The party was filled with good hearted teasing, witty banter and catching up. My MIL even played with the WII-

I'm Here!

I'm in Japan finally and am settlng in. It is about 85 degrees out and very, very humid. My husband told me it would be humid but I didn't prepare well. I clearly did not bring the right clothes (loose and breezy)!

Damn! Everyone is skinny here.

Last Trip in Japan: part 2

We started over the Tokyo Bay Bridge at sunset. I loved the graceful light poles that looked like they had bird's tails. Tokyo Bay Bridge has a five story rest area that is practically a resort all on its own. There are three levels of parking and three levels of food (one is a split level), souvenirs and shops. It suddenly rises out of the highway and sort of looks like a ship.
This is the Upper deck. It has several sculptures you can have your picture taken with.
My gracious kidnappers
The Sunset

So far the trip across Tokyo Bay is free. We could turn around and go back and not owe a cent. However, we went forward into the tunnel. The tunnel goes under about 2/3rds of the bay so it is very long and very expensive to go into. You have to pay $70 toll to travel in the tunnel/bridge! We then went up through Tokyo proper, through the worst rush hour traffic in the whole world! However, the city scenery was pretty and you rarely get that view since you always take trains and subways.

One thing that impressed me- the Japanese seem so reserved and don't show emotion very often. I was very impressed about how close my mother-in-law's relationship is with her sister. They are very loving towards one another and the older sister often pets the younger sister's hair and laughs at all of her jokes!

I thought you might like to see their highways. Highways have sound barriers that curve along both sides of the highway. Some have windows so the home owners can have a view

And some are solid (for the most point because you can't see through those dirty bottom windows!).
All in all, a pretty decent kidnapping.

Last Trip in Japan

While I was in Japan, my daughter had a birthday and asked that I bring her a yukata. They are basically cotton kimonos for summer and for after your bath. Of course, this wasn't the season for them so I could not find one. The Japanese do not over-market like we do. For instance, our retailers put out Halloween candy 2 months ahead. In Japan for White Day and for Valentine's Day, they only put out the goodies 2 weeks ahead! (White Day is women's Valentines Day in Japan. They have it all backwards! Women give chocolate and cards to men on the real Valentines Day. Men do nothing! On White Day, March 6th, men then give white gifts and sometimes chocolate to women. Of course they forget a lot. You'd think the retailers would guilt the men to death to increase sales!)

I still had to arrange a visit with my husband's Aunt. She is older than my mother-in-law but speaks better English because she worked as a receptionist just after World War II (during the occupation of Japan) at the Emperor's Hotel. She is well connected and has a sharp memory. She decided we should go visit relatives. So, her and her daughter came over and we started a road trip.

I love these types of trips in Japan because no one tells me anything. I have no clue as to where we are going! They amount to an interesting kidnapping. The Matsudo area is at the top of Tokyo Bay. They drove me down the right side of the bay to the Kawasaki area and the town of Kisaru. There, we met up with the daughter of a great aunt who had a kimono shop who still had some yukatas in stock. My Aunt bought my daughter and my little granddaughter yukatas. From left to right- my mother-in-law, her sister (the Aunt), the Aunt's daughter. The women standing in back is the daughter of the great Aunt.

From there we drove a few blocks to the Great Aunt's grave to make a memorial. This was an old grave yard but the graves are so well cared for they seem new.When making a visit or memorial at a grave site you have to do the following: wash and scrub the grave, weed if needed, buy at the office or bring with you a huge bundle of incense sticks, flowers and/or food or drink the loved one liked. Smaller cemeteries provide buckets, scoops and scrub brushes. As you wash and weed, you talk about the person and how old they were and any interesting stories. After it is clean, you lay out the food or flowers and light that huge bundle of incense. You put the incense in the little grotto to burn. Then you all pray.

Many of you reading this are fairly strict Christians and probably wonder what I do at shrines that worship gods other than mine, who employ demon statues to scare off other demons and pray to people and to other entities. When it is time to pray or wash with water or wash with smoke, I pray to my God. Its as simple as that. Since everyone is praying silently, we all just pray to our own God. My Aunt actually knew a Buddhist/Shinto prayer and said it out loud. It was like a little song or mantra that kind of drones. No one would have asked me to pray out loud because I don't know any proper Buddhist or Shinto prayers.

It was a beautiful graveyard. Right behind the Great Aunt's grave was a grave with this serene statue of a praying priest

They also had this mountain of Buddha blocks with a small shrine at the top that was interesting-



Then we hopped back in the car and started over the Tokyo Bay Bridge. You'll have to read the next blog entry for that!

Disney Sea photos

Since I took many pictures and I don't want to waste your time loading too many pictures, I loaded them into Picassa. Click here to see them.

DisneySea - the newest addition to the Japanese Disneyland

Yesterday, I went with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law to DisneySea to listen my brother-in-law play his saxaphone. He is part of a walking band that plays Latin American songs about 6 times a day in the Lost River Delta area of the park.

The Japanese Disneyland is too small to hold everyone that wants to go there and the Japanese like new experiences so, they made DisneySea. Its Disneyland with water. Think of all the different Disney movies you've seen that involve water or occur in an interesting location and you have DisneySea. It is laid out like the other Disneylands. There is an American waterfront (Cape Cod theme), Mediterranean harbour, the Arabian coast (Aladdin), Port Discovery, Mysterious Island (1000 Leagues Under the Sea), the Lost River Delta (South American theme) and the Mermaid Lagoon (the Little Mermaid movie).

Instead of a parade, they have a big boat show. Since this is a whole new disney area and the Japanese crave a "new" experience (as opposed to Americans who tend to crave nostalgic experiences, in other words, we don't want our Disneyland to change too much. This is also evident in Japanese grocery stores. I have gone to our stores and seen the same brand names and labels since I was a child. But, in Japan there is more choice and the labels change contantly to keep them interested.), their parade is more mythical and involves story lines I don't recognize.

Here is a picture of my brother-in-law (to the left)

Since this is my last day in Japan and I took many disney pictures, I will load them into Picassa back at home and put the link in my next posting. See ya!

Oranges in the Snow

I'm not sure what latitude that Tokyo is on but I always thought it was close to Seattle's. But I'm rather unsure since I don't have a globe handy. Oranges ripen in the winter! People grow them and kumquats all over the place. It's too cold to do this in Seattle!




The bamboo forests are common sights here but look very exotic to me-