last birthday in japan

I suppose from now I could probably label all my post last~ so I leave this as the last, last post. Beginning to be redundant but my birthday was a while ago ... Yasuko made a delicious ice cream cake (she made a cake from ice cream!) and she also made a wonderful feast. I didn't really take any pictures but of the cake! Not too much to say, became older...

last halloween in mangaland

The last Halloween...was a good time! Many familiar faces were absent and many new ones came out of nowhere. I whipped together a last minute safari hunter costume with a genuine tiger kleenex box cover (yes they even decorate their kleenex boxes here) and James was a pretty convincing Mr. T and even won a prize for the likeness (thought I did the tough job of crafting the Mr. T hairstyle). Nothing too crazy happened...I think!?

Naomi is one of the Newbies and is the first person to say I have a Canadian accent rather than American!We have a range of costumes going round the guy on the left is suppose to be a tanuki if you don't know what that is please see here!Dustin's Dracula was pretty convincing.Iwan and Tomoko stopped by and Iwan was so sick of dressing up for school that he didn't dress up for the real thing. James really got into the Mr. T spirit, ne!

kanazawa

As in all my recent blogs it has been a while since James and I went to Kanazawa (mid-August) but there are some nice pictures I want to share. Kanazawa is roughly four hours away if one takes the expressway but we decided to meander our way down the seacoast and see what that route had to offer beyond the concrete walls and endless tunnels of the expressway. It was gorgeous! At times the mountains came down and buried themselves in the sea covered in brilliant green or stark black volcanic rock, and others the rice paddies crept almost to the edge of the water. Unfortunately, Japan has a habit of smearing concrete everywhere so many of the beaches were marred by strange concrete Xs that act as breakers and concrete steps that march down into the water. Along the way we saw a few beautiful shrines and many great beaches that we didn't have a chance to stop at. Apparently, sunset viewing is a popular reason to travel the "seaside line" and we stopped to partake as well. It was quite a site but the clouds covered the sun before it had a chance to kissed the water.

We stopped along the way in Toyama to hit a few golf balls. Often, when people think of Japan and golf they think of multitierred driving ranges. In my town there are actually quite a few beautiful , and expensive, country clubs but we had often driven by the driving ranges and thought when in Japan...
The 2nd floor was actually not in use but we went up there anyhow, since it was the only reason we were going. Our clubs were old and chipped and the grip of mine was sticky with who know what. The second floor was dirty and covered with cobwebs but we were determined. The ball tee was actually quite sophisticated and a little machine did everything you simply had to decided your preferred height. We had a little difficulty obtaining our balls in the first place though. We bought a card from a vending machine and after repeated tries at putting the card in the ball vending machine we had to ask for help. It turns out that James had been trying to put in a love hotel member's card rather than the ball card and the lady seemed quite amused. We went during Obon so the only open, available, and cheap hotels were love hotels!

My swing is a little rusty!Kanazawa is know as the "little Kyoto" meaning it has a lot of culture and history. Unfortunately the day we had for touring around was pretty dreary and rainy. We saw a few sites however. Kanazawa castle is no longer standing but a few of it's gates and towers remain so we had a chance to view them. To be honest, thus far my experience in Japan is if you have seen one castle you have seen them all. Don't get me wrong I love castles and all the history surrounding them but they are pretty much all the same. Himeji was definitely the best preserved but even so it was still a building with few adornments. Historically the Japanese decorated with hanging scrolls, beautifully painted screens and curtains but not much of this remains and is never set up in the castles like it would have been, end my rant on castles.

We also visited the 3rd most beautiful garden in Japan or is it the 3rd most beautiful garden in Japan when viewed in the winter? I forget among all the lists and rankings. It was beautiful though. The Japanese form of gardening is very precise and often involves certain elements such as moss, bonsai, ponds and careful placing of rocks. Because it was a holiday we got in free (yeah) but it was raining the whole time. I think this garden would be interesting viewed in all sorts of weather and all season!

We also went to a temple (where photography was not allowed) nicknamed the ninja's temple. It's history has nothing to do with ninjas but the many different secret stairways, trap doors, secret rooms and other such trickeries caused it to received it's nickname. We were exhausted after walking in the rain and didn't have a chance to visit the geisha districts in Kanazawa. I hear next to Kyoto they are the best!

Evan's goodbye bbq

Evan has sadly took his leave of us in Agamachi and he is definitely missed. I could usually count on him to go for Chinese food or yasaiitame at the Minagawaya plus there were our great times at taiko practice. We had a goodbye BBQ for him at the end of July on a riverbank in Muramatsu. The location was quite beautiful and we ended up playing cornhole and swimming in the freezing cold mountain stream. Unfortunately only a few of us opted to stay along with the rain. It ended up being four of us around a campfire huddled under our umbrellas talking and playing drinking games. It was actually quite enjoyable but I realized the next day that had its drawbacks. Namely, fifty or so monster mosquito(or some other creature from the insect family that enjoys sucking blood) bites covering my legs. They were really quite gross because the bites swelled up to massive proportions so it looked like the surface of my skin was bubble wrap though not as uniformed. I survived of course but it was an itchy few days.

The preparations

Iwan and his girl!

Minori and Aiko


The man of the hour

sumo

Back in May James, Evan, Michael, Rie and I went to a Sumo tournament in Tokyo. Official Sumo tournaments last for 15 days and each rikishi has one match a day. I love sumo and watch it everyday after school when a tournament is on. Click here if you want more info on Sumo. I was pretty excited to go and see the real thing. Tickets are quite expensive for seats that are not all that great (like ours). We each paid around $100 for a box which is essentially a small fenced off area on a floor where you sit on pillows, with nothing to lean back on and no leg room. I was quite disappointed to be honest, from where we were sitting I couldn't tell who the individual rikishi were. It was good to take in the atmosphere and there were certain aspects you don't see while watching TV but the actual matches I would prefer to watch up close and personal. Although some of the fat rolls and body hair are a bit too up close. Anyhow, the one thing I was surprised about was how big they actually are. I realized they are fat but I figured they be like really fat Japanese people but many of them are much taller. It was weird being towered over again. Kotooshu (Bulgarian sumo wrestler) is massive at 6'8 and 340pds but he is not fat like the others. Here are some not very good pictures of the tournament.



We also had a few nights out in the city. I didn't really get any pictures because the clubs we went to did not allow photography!?

taking a trip back in time to rice planting

I finally got a bunch of picture of this years events from James. I think the planting was in late April early May and it was quite cold out!

The tender little rice seedlings waiting for our expert hands to take them to their home.

Taka the gospel singing farmer, kindly allowed us to muck about in his fields.

The real farming equipment. Most commercial farmers use farm equipment these days though Taka said this is a really old and crappy tractor. Many families have a couple plots of rice just for their own consumption though and they often have the little old grandmas and grandpas planting by hand.

Initially we started in rubber boots, real planters have thigh high waders.

We found that the suction was incredibly strong and we would get nothing done taking a minute to move five steps...

so the boots came off

and we froze our little toes...and hands

Taka looking mighty and clean on the tractor.

The machine at work

us at work.

It was an interesting experience but we chose a bad day for it. I planted again with one of my elementary schools and it was much more enjoyable with the warm mud tickling your toesrather than freezing them off.

gosen matsuri

I had bought a yukata (summer kimono made from cotton) when I had first come to Japan and did not find the opportunity to wear it. Gosen matsuri is quite small and uneventful but dammit I wanted to wear my yukata, so I did. I had Noriko help put it on because it is a bit of a process. I had to wear a special bra to flatten my chest and a towel around my waist because the square streamline look is desired. She thought it would be funny to dress James up in a Yukata, as well. Tsubo thought James looked like Yakuza(Japanese maffia) though.

Although uneventful as matsuris go, there were many things that I think outside of Japan would be interesting. I will try to be more camera happy in the future. Typically, they carry ancient shrines around town but Gosen has changed and now they carry popular anime characters around. This year ponya and doraemon were populous.