hanabi

Recently I went to a hanabi (which is a fireworks festival) with my vice-principal and a few teachers. I have always loved fireworks but the ones in Japan are beyond comparison. They have perfected it to an art and the scale of the shows are massive. It was a great evening on the banks of the shinano river (longest in Japan) eating grocery store sushi and viewing the amazingfireworks.

Hanabi means flower fire in Japanese and the stills from my pictures actually do look like flowers.

on washitsu, tatami, and futons...

I guess I have been negligent in discussing daily Japanese life and have decided to remedy this after Shelley's question. Washitsu is a traditional Japanese room where the floor is covered in tatami mats. What is a tatami mat well...tatami mats are made of woven straw and packed with straw or styrofoam and are approximately 5cm thick. Around my area most people have at least one tatami room to entertain in, sleep in or both. I am the only ALT I know without. Tatami gives off a specific grassy type smell so you can always tell if a house has them. Melissa hates the smell but I think it is kind of nice. Anyhow, often rooms in houses are not measure by square feet but by tatami mats (even if there are none) so 6 tatami etc.

I'd say over half the Japanese population around here do not own a bed. They sleep on futon sprawled out on the tatami.

I had a funny conversation with my Japanese tutor a while ago. She asked me if I was scared of falling out of my bed. I can't recall ever falling out though perhaps it happened when I was little or slightly intoxicated but apparently she has this great fear. She lived in Australia for a year and she said she always fell out of her bed. She said that it was a hot topic of conversation between her friends. Can you imagine, "We stayed at a hotel last night and I couldn't sleep because I was so afraid I'd fall out!" I guess she grew up sleeping on the floor and did not develop an awareness for the edge of the bed. Families often sleep in the same room and she was also describing how all three kids are always kicking them during the night(one of the reasons for love hotels I'm sure). Families sleep on their futon on the tatami but during the day the futons, blankets and pillows are folded and stored in a special closet.

Futons need to be aired because of the dripping humidity so during the summer houses are decorated with futons hanging, or draped over ever surface, balcony, windows, roof. It can paint a colourful picture.

fuji rocku

Spent the last weekend in beautiful Yuzawa at a rock concert strangely named Fuji rock (no where near mt. Fuji). Apparently, in the years before there have been really big bands as headliners but this year I thought the line-up kind of stunk. The big bands were The Cure, Beastie Boys and Iggy Pop, all has beens in my opinion. As such I ended up discovering many less know bands that rocked my world. The weather threatened rain but it held off until the end, nonetheless rubber boots were a staple fashion item. Iwan graciously drove us and to my shock did not play a single reggae CD!

Many of the other ALTs decided to camp but we opted for a Japanese style hotel. The room was barely big enough for the four futons and we had a colony of ants tickling us while we slept. Also, there were no western toilets in sight but it did they job.

They had a funky club area set up with random statues and oddities. Unfortunately I never really checked it out, perhaps next year.

Lily Allen

I was looking forward to seeing Feist but she was on the farthest stage which was about a 30 minute walk from the main. She ended up playing my favourite song first and I only vaguely heard it while I was running to get there.

Massive slabs of meat for the kebabs (which is meat in a pita?).

The Shins

Favourite by far was the John Butler Trio. Evan had introduced this Australian band to me earlier this year and they were amazing! I am not much for instrumental solos but the guitar solo practically made me cry. Unfortunately, they were only slotted for an hour so they weren't able to play much. I will definitely go see them if they happen to be anywhere near me in the future!

second leg of the journey- tokyo and kyoto

Well it is past overdue but here is the second half of our trip. We spent some time in Asakusa and Ueno. Went to the National Museum and was overloaded with pottery. I love archeology and history but after the first 200 pots or so it all looks the same. The samurai swords and accouterments were very interesting though and some of the tapestries and scrolls were amazingly beautiful. We also visited Asakusa shrine and caught some low budget Japanese movie in the filming process. Did the sushi thing as well. Mom doesn't like raw fish.

Asakusa at night with movie lights.

Went back during the day to see the whole thing and encountered many crazies along the way.





Next to Kyoto and the nicest hotel along the trip. It is a beautiful city but the weather was horrible and never really stopped raining.

Streets in Gion






Was lucky to catch a few maiko (geisha in training) dashing between a teahouse and a waiting taxi. Some people are really shameless and were sticking their massive cameras right in these poor girls faces.

Kiyomizudera where the flocks of savage tourists gathered. It was incredibly beautiful but with the bazillion tour groups running around it was like a circus. Many of them didn't care about the historical significance or even the beauty they simply wanted to get their picture taken in front of it to say they'd been there.

The popular expression "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu" is the Japanese equivalent of the English expression "to take the plunge". This refers to an Edo period tradition that held that, if one were to survive jumping from the stage, one's wish would be granted.

Survival appears plausible: The lush vegetation below the platform might cushion the fall of a lucky pilgrim, though the practice is now prohibited. 234 jumps were recorded in the Edo period and, of those, 85.4% survived.


We took a short rickshaw ride around Kyoto and felt incredibly bad for our little crazy-eyed driver traversing the slopes with our combined weight.

Next day went to Nijo Castle which was the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns from 1601 - 1867. It was quite fascinating the walls were all brilliantly painted and covered with gold leaf and wood carvings with secret doors for the bodyguards in cases of emergency. For additional security they constructed the floors of the walkways to squeak like birds thus named the Nightingale floors. This was to prevent sneak attacks and assassins from catching the family unaware.

Went back to Tokyo and had a night out with yaki-niku, an Irish pub and karaoke. We also went to Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabara all in the midst of a typhoon. Needless to say the crossing at Shibuya wasn't as busy as always.


All in a good trip! Was awesome to see my ma and catch up and I think I had my Starbucks intake for three years. They are on every corner in Tokyo and Kyoto why do we only have one in Niigata?

onsen

I surprisingly convinced my mom to visit an onsen but we went during the day when there would be few people. We also happened to visit the exact onsen where my naked bathing misadventures occurred. It is a beautiful onsen with a nice view of the river. For those who are not in Japan this is what it looks like. I snuck my camera in!
Many onsen also have rotenburo or outside onsen where you can sit in steaming water and feel the rain or snow on your shoulders. I prefer the rotenburo and tend to go to onsen where they have nice ones rather than be choosy about water quality. Many Japanese people claim different onsens have different healing properties for certain ailments and some even contribute to beauty. These are the little showers where you soap yourself up before dipping in the waters.

first leg of the trip - Niigata

24 hours after leaving Canada my mom finally made it to Niigata! To be honest I was most excited about showing her Niigata. As I am constantly writing about I am absolutely in love with the beauty of my area and I knew she would be as well. Quote "Banff has got nothing on here!" We had the most remarkable weather since the forecast has predicted endless days of cloud and rain and we toured the countryside.

Thought it was funny!

Went to a beach that I had heard about from Justine and it was quite beautiful (devoid of concrete) but had a bit of trash scattered along the water line. We saw a big Buddha statue in the distance and decided to walk to it. Little did we know that is was over two kilometres away and not even accessible from the beach. Winds were a little strong as were the waves so sand in every orifice and drowning discouraged us from staying long.

After went to check out the Murakami festival which is apparently rated number 3 in Niigata. The shrines were quite beautiful and old, the men were drunk and boisterous, and the food was great. I discovered my name is Kasarine (Catherine), children's heads make perfect steps for drunken old men and was even encouraged to help haul a shrine, which I politely declined. Had some delicious festival meat and met the Japanese equivalent of the dumb blond, her hair was even what they consider blond (which is a pukey orange colour). Only picture of us from our whole trip that wasn't taken by one of us. I refused to do the touristy thing after having the unfortunate pleasure of meeting up with the hordes of vulture (i mean tourists) in Kyoto, but that is for another day.

Visited a quaint little flower garden (swamp) out in Kamikawa that is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains. Saw various flora and fauna but unfortunately not the mysterious mountain goats that the pictures proclaimed exhisted and the deer signs on the roads warn us to avoid.

Nice waterfall near the swamp.

Visited an over hyped steak restaurant in Niigata for Minori, Tsubo and Yasuko's birthday and finally went to the Irish bar Robins.

Our last day in Niigata was almost completely spent apart since I was once again screwed over by Japanese bureaucracy and had to spend 2 trips, 8 hours driving and 3 hours waiting to get my fricken Japanese drivers licence. Lucky for me I didn't send my lost passport, which my embassy insisted I do, to the embassy... I guess.

disaster central

Just back from a trip with my ma. Unfortunately, in Tokyo we encountered a typhoon which constantly drenched us with rain and often strong winds. I even bought rubber boots because I was sick of walking through puddles of questionable cleanliness. Anyhow, I get back to Niigata and am rudely woken the next morning by an earthquake. It was quite strong compared to the last I had experienced and I was trapped on the third floor of a concrete monster. The quake tossed my building like it was a mere bowl of jello.Thankfully there was no damage in my area and the building did not come down with me imprison inside. There is an area that was hit pretty bad in Niigata, though and one of my friends is unable to make it home due to train cancelations and highway closures. Just what Niigata needed another earthquake.

Canada Day!

Well, I have been staring at a computer for too long today too desire writing anything much about Canada Day. It was fun we celebrated it well, here are some pictures.

Mel and Nova

Honorary Canadian Kazuya

(is honorary in Canada spelt honourary? I can't remember)

Canadian pride, it looks like she can take me in an arm wrestling contest!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

My boys.

Aww Iwan I am trying to kiss the flag!

The Log Driver's Waltz

Since it was Canada Day and all I thought I would reminisce about this choice little vignette. I think while it was played on TV I found it incredibly annoying but now its just a little piece of Canadian TV history. Did you know that the song says "birling" rather than "whirling" which was apparently a Scots word for revolve but now is defini of revolving logs. People still compete in birling competitions though I am not sure where.

http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=13202&v=h

Canada Day pictures to come!