Mittens and Miniatures!

I discovered a new hobby!  There are dollar store-type shops here called 100 yen shops, and recently i found a really good one, and in it were these miniature Japanese furniture items and tatami mats and everything.  Japanese people think i'm weird for liking this stuff, but i don't mind.  So far i've built up a little room, and i hope to expand it bit by bit.  I'd like to take it home when we go back to Canada, but the pieces would likely not survive the trip intact.  
Meanwhile, Mandy's doing something entirely useful (in Japanese: yakunitatsu - a new word for me) by knitting us some warm mittens for the chilly days when we ride bike to work.  She's already finished two pairs.  Mine are the blue-yellow-greeny ones and Mandy's are the beige ones.  Notice the lovely cable pattern.  I have no idea how she does it; it may as well be magic.  All i know is, my hands are warmer now and i like it.  

Japanese Gardening is EASY

These are highlights of a garden i saw recently in Nishio.  It's blurred out on Google Earth, otherwise i'd put in the coordinates.  It'a a beautiful example of a traditional Japanese garden.  
The maple trees are turning from yellow to red this time of year, and this weekend in Kyoto we will see a good example of a Japanese autumn.  Hopefully i'll get a few worthwhile photos.
This bridge amazed me.  All stone, and looked very natural.

Good inspiration for anyone looking to create a Japanese garden for themselves.  No sweat.

The foliage here grows all year, and many ditches are tangles of deep green plants and probably thousands of spiders and things.  The tangled vines are evocative for the imagination.

Uh oh, I'm starting to feel boring right now, it must be time to say goodnight.  Stay tuned.

Jan ken POI!

One thing we've learned as teachers of Japanese children is that, if ever a dispute should arise, even as minor as who should go first in a game, or who should get the leftover cookie, but even one as serious as who wins the championship title of the 'memory game' (if two children end up with the same amount of cards), the solution is inevitably and invariably and necessarily JANKEN.  We call it 'rock, paper, scissors' back home, and it's played for fun sometimes, but here it's a widely used, slick fix-all, and it's amazing to watch three hyperactive 6-year olds go to this game.  They're really good at it, and whoever comes out on top is the indisputable champion of the moment.  No arguments ever arise from the results of this game.  It's tops!

On our quite recent trip to Fuji Safari Park, we were playing bingo on the bus (duh, of course we were.) and as people got double lines on their cards, they yelled bingo and claimed a prize from the prize bag.  There were many prizes, but naturally, they did run out, and when the last, lonely prize was left in the bag, two people happened to yell bingo on the same turn.  Naturally, a janken battle ensued, which tidied up the game nicely.  Works for adults too!

It's kind of hard to explain, and with all the variations, inadequate.  Youtube has a few samples that might help more.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=1v-qxAM8TtA

Sleepy Sunday Evening

A month ago we took a trip to the venerable Mt. Fuji, and although the top was shrouded in cloudy mystery, it was a breath-taking sight to behold.  We have joined the Nishio Cultural Association, and as members we get to go on fun trips.  This one was to the Fuji Safari Park!  You get to drive around and look out your car windows at all the interesting animals.  I took this shot of Mandy and i at Lake Hamana, Japan's 10th largest lake by area.  By mer-people population it's slightly larger.

The animals at Fuji Safari Park are wild and ferocious beasts, starkly untamed and extremely dangerous.  They will attack anything, just like this mountain sheep is attacking the ranger truck in quest for tasty tid-bits.  Somebody's been playing too much Grand Theft Auto: Safari Nights.
No matter how far away Fuji-san is, it is amazing.  This town probably would be shaking in its boots back in the day when the mountain was an active volcano.  But now it's perfectly safe, except for the ravenous mountain sheep attacks.  They say that Mt. Fuji is nice to climb, but that the view is rather drab, mostly being clouded over by...er, clouds.

Shizuoka is Japan's most famous tea producing area.  These nice hedge-rows are tea shrubs.  They are quite pretty and very well trimmed.  They are interspersed with solar-powered fans to keep them cool.  

ha ha, just jokes.  But the fans help to collect wind to power lights that keep the plants warm, honest.
Another beast ready to attack!

I'll post more recent stuff tomorrow.  Now it's chill-time.

Japanese Oddities

"Ha ha, i got 'im goot, yaaa."

Grocery trips are part of our everyday life.  We seem to 'just stop by' the Yamanaka or Uny every day anyway, and a few items can really add up.  Yen are shockingly easy things to spend.  Way easier than dollars, i think.  

We like to explore different grocery outlets.  Some are quite large supermarkets, and some are small specialty shops.  The odd time we'll come across a foreign food shop, and recently Mandy discovered one near our house.  It's not the best foreign food shop i've ever patronized, but it's ok.  

We found some nice salt and brown sugar, but then we came across some stew from Belgium or somewhere.  The package is in Japanese Katakana script and says, "oriental ace curry", which sounds pretty tasty when you read it, but the freaky kid in the foreground will deter nearly all prospective buyers (even the hungriest Belgians).  The look on the kid's face seems to suggest that he recently stabbed someone in the back, literally, with that spoon.  He's got the 'evil' finger to his mouth and everything.  

If that's doesn't turn everyone away from the delicious stew, the little cartoon mascot will take care of the rest.  It looks like it may have recently been stabbed in the back by a kid in a chef's hat wearing a slack expression.  Would you buy it?

Classified ad #1439

For Sale: Flat-bottomed boat, lots of fun, great for kids.  May require handyman's (or handywoman's) touch.  Call after 6. 

a Reflection

This canal is about a five-minute bike ride from our apartment.  Yesterday i was chatting with my dad and he found our apartment on google earth.  If anyone reading this is a google earth buff, you can look up our coordinates at  34 53'32.16" N, 136 59'48.41" E .  

Google earth is really strange.  If they make satellite images of the entire globe available to every joe on the street, then what information do they have about us?  And i mean they as in 'they'.  THE  'they'.  Capital A 'they'.  

Who's to say they don't have live images of the entire world straight into their offices?  

Anyway, i don't worry too much about this particular question.  It's just not worth the time.  I have too many surveillance cameras to appear on, never mind the satellite cameras.  So much to do. 

The other day, Mandy and i were riding our bikes along this canal on our way to the Hekinan library (where we are now patrons), and we stopped to look into the water.  It was filthy!  I was slightly appalled, but mostly i was reminded of this Japanese cartoon i saw that was about how the environment is getting mucked up.  

I don't understand much about Japanese religious beliefs; most have to do with good luck, from what i have heard.  But a Shinto belief is that everything has a spirit, and in the cartoon, this river spirit goes to a bath house to get clean, and eventually it does, and all the gunk that comes out of it reminded me of the canal water a little bit.  

We were just about to leave, but then i saw something moving in the water, and behold, some sort of ray!  Not as big as a Manta Ray, not as dangerous as a Stingray, but a smaller kind of ray.  Still very nice to catch a glimpse before it swam beneath the murk.  It's nice to know that things can still live in there.

How ya doing?

the Shape of the Island

This is the actual shape of the island we visited yesterday.  It's not so much a bean shape with claws after all.  But here you can see the nice path along the side and top, and that's where we want to bike some sunny day.

Rainy day on Sakushima

Hello!  I decided to forego the continual catching-up of the "update" series of posts.  I've skipped the past two weeks and went straight on to today, which is Sunday.  We don't always make it to church, as it is quite far away.  The journey to the church in Nagoya requires quite a lot of time, energy, and money, and so, the odd weekend, we try to go somewhere local that we haven't seen yet.  Today we visited a small island off the coast of Nishio, called Sakushima.  Shima is the Japanese word for island ('Jima' is a variant of the same word, as in 'Iwo Jima').  

Anyway, i've gone and dumped a bunch of photos onto this post, and i have no idea how it will appear when i post it, so sorry about the mess!  

We somehow got in touch with a couple of good-hearted, Japanese ladies who speak good English, and who were willing to show us around the island.  The ferry ride cost around 8 bucks and took 20 minutes.  It was a rainy day, so we were bundled up and carrying umbrellas.  (The island is the shape of a bean, sort of, with pointy claws making a nice little bay.)  







The ladies know this couple who live on the island (Shin and Kyoko), and we walked up to their house first.  We took some time at first to look around the house, which looked a bit junky from the outside, but turned out to be a beautiful artists' lodge.  It is full of homemade items, from doors and drawers and interiors, to paintings on the wall.  Kyoko loves cats, and she gave Mandy a few prints of her cat paintings.  They cook over fire in their kitchen and grow their own food.  Shin (shown playing guitar), writes music and performed a couple of songs for us.  They had really interesting furniture, mostly homemade, like the ultra low table, which had a fire pit underneath that is meant to keep the people warm.  Under the middle of the table is a separate fire pit that is meant to keep the food warm, like an element.  It's very smart and aesthetically pleasing.  They were very nice people, and as they spoke very little English, we had a chance to practise our smattering of Japanese.  

We walked down to the beach (which took about 4 minutes), and there was this cube thing that is actually a rest house.  It's a simple cube, like on that "celebrity squares" game show, but you can sleep in them or just take a rest.  It seems like a landmark too, a kind of symbol for the island (they even put it on the cover of the island map).  We found some nice rocks and shells and took a few as souvenirs.

Their house looked pretty old and run-down on the outside, but inside it was very cozy and comfortable.  There was a big spider hanging above our heads as we came in the door, but they said that the spiders are harmless and actually are handy at keeping the bug population down.  They also told us about huge centipedes the length of a butter knife and as thick as a thumb, that sometimes get into the house, and they bite really hard and cause terrible pain and a lot of swelling.  Kyoko has been bitten a few times and said that usually the pain lasts for a week.  

We saw a part of Japan that few foreigners get to see, and it was a great time, despite the rain.  I think that the more we look around this area, the more amazing things we'll see.  

There were ostriches wandering around outside a restaurant, a very strange goat tied under some trees, and many large, yellow and black spiders everywhere, webbing up every opening in the trees.  We found some sugarcane too, and Shin said that he is planning to grow sugarcane to make his own sugar.  He already boils sea water and collects the salt for their food.  The two ladies we were with told us that 'naturalist' people are quite rare in Japan.   They were kind, relaxed, and generous, and we plan to visit them again.  

Walking around the island reminded me a little of Thetis Island, where my parents went to Capernwray.  It's quiet, with few cars, and there is an island atmosphere that you don't feel on the mainland, and even though Japan is an island (so is every land mass, i suppose), there is an entirely different feel to little ones.  The buildings are mostly black because of the weather coating they put on, to protect against salty rain and winds.  

There's a nice quiet road around the north side of the island, and next time we'll rent a couple of bikes and tour around, hopefully on a sunny day.  

Halloween in Hekinan is Hilarious

This is Moika (Mo-ee-ka).  Mandy teaches her as well, and says that this girl is quite nice.  

I don't have photos of my students yet. 

First we had about three parties at the  various schools over the span of a week and a half.  It is strange to have to dress up now and then over the course of two weeks for halloween, and then not even get to go door to door for free candies.  It's sooo anticlimactic!  Dressing up is fun and all, but...candies!

Then a couple of co-workers decided to have a halloween shin-dig at their apartment on October 31st.  

We played Twister.  

Obviously, i am the bat there, and Mandy is in the yellow scarf.  I think she's a canary, but i'm pretty sure she's just keeping warm.

The chap with the red horns is Jordan, from Japanese class.  The girl in the Inuit hood is Jacey, the host, from Idaho.  She lives with the witch sitting to the right of Mandy, and her name is Tilly (from Guernsay, Britain).  To the right of Tilly is Orie, an ACC school manager, and her friend is standing in the foreground.  The guy with the beer and the  thumbs up is Kenji, a really good guy who teaches at ACC, but who wants to find work in Tokyo.  

At Nishio's Halloween party, Mandy was in charge of painting on kids.  They loved it!

Mandy was a cat!  

Mostly, they wanted to be painted on their hands, but a few wanted face painting.  These two are actually her own students.

This is Yuto.  He is another student of Mandy's.  She says the devil costume is entirely appropriate.  

How did all y'alls spend the halloween?  Any good hauls of candies?  The candies here are a little disappointing.  

Jacey got a huge bag of candy corn, and i managed to snag a few.  It reminded me of my grandma Peters, who usually seemed to have them on hand.  Pure tooth rot, but delicious!

A Month of Updates part four

This is actually a retrospective already.  When we first trekked out to Nishio on our bikes, we (or i, really) thought that we were going at the right time to catch a Noh play that i had received tickets for from a student of mine.  However, we found that there were no people about, so i took a closer look at the tickets.  Despite all the kanji, i was able to determine that we were in the right place, but 2 weeks early.

We looked around anyway, and saw Nishio castle, a small example of a rebuilt  classical fortress.  Most of the traditional buildings have been 

in wars or accidentally burned down.  Or maybe arsonists were the culprits!

I like the layered, curvy roof.  

Nearby the castle, we saw a quaint, cozy looking building, so we went in for a closer examination.  We were greeted by a nice man named Shige, who spoke to us in english and informed us that the building is a tea house that was brought to Nishio from Kyoto about 40 years ago.  It's a beautiful classical building.  

We tried 3 types of local green tea.  

Nishio is famous for its matcha tea powder.  You know that fad going on at Booster Juice?  Well the powder that feeds the fad likely comes from the Nishio area, unless they found a way to chemically produce it...

Outside the building is a lovely 'Zen' garden, with a stone river that has been raked to look a bit like a current flow, and some nice trees.  There are a few cherry trees, and in spring they will spill forth with beautiful bright blossoms.  We'll have to try and get some pictures of the cherry blossoms in april.  

Mandy was pointing at something here.  Maybe it was the castle.  The castle was off in that direction somewhere.  But i can't be sure what she was pointing at exactly.  Sorry.

The floors are called 'tatami' mats, and we have them in our apartment too.  We have them in our bedroom and in the living room.  The rest of the apartment is hardwood.  

Tatami mats are nice and they give the real Japanese feel to the place, but they can get infested with tiny bugs that bite.  We had to get a special spray thing that you inject 
into the mats to kill the little buggers. Now they're gone, thankfully.  

Right now, i have a sore throat and Mandy's knitting us some mittens, because it's getting a bit chilly here these days!  Can you believe it?  November and already it's chilly.