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?