Takaozan & Shodo

6.29.08

As the end of my stay in Japan comes closer and closer to its end, Hiroko made it clear that she wanted to take Lauren and I to a special restaurant to celebrate the past year of teaching. Getting off at Takaosanguchi station, we took a quick shuttle bus ride to a very famous traditional Japanese restaurant called Ukagaitoriyama. At the entrance to the restaurant, we were greeted by waitresses in matching kimonos. It was a beautiful and old Japanese restaurant with several different complexes for different occasions. Our table was located next to a window overlooking a large garden decorated with a waterwheel, lanterns and a pond. The sound of the waterwheel was very calming and the restaurant had a pleasantly fresh smell.

Hiroko and Kawabata-san at the Takaosanguchi train station.

Me at the Takaosanguchi train station.

The Keio train at the Takaosanguchi train station. Hiroko explained that Takaozan (Mount Takao) is a famous mountain in this area and many people come from all over Japan just to climb it.

Entrance to the Ukagaitoriyama Restaurant

Hiroko ordered sake in a bamboo container.

Our traditional Japanese meal consisted of several different courses. Each was very delicious and very new to me. Here are "mountain vegetables" on the left and miso eggplant on the right. It is not pictured here but after this course we were given raw coi--also known as carp or goldfish. The coi didn't have much flavor on its own so we were given sweet mustard sauce as a dip.

This fish is called Ayu. According to wikipedia it is a relative of the smelt from Gunma, Japan. I went to Gunma three weekends ago! Wow.

In the middle of our table was this Japanese style barbecue. A man carried over a large pot full of hot coals and placed in in the middle of three cast iron slabs. The slabs absorbed the heat from the pot and transferred it to the ashes below. A grill was placed over the pot and we were given meat and vegetables to cook.

My five onions from the picture above accidentally slid off the grill and fell into the ash below. Here is a picture of the evidence. After this incident, Lauren told me she "didn't know me". Hiroko, on the other hand, just grabbed my onions from the ashes, cleaned them up and put them back on the grill while saying "It's just like camping!". :)

Just before the last two courses (rice and then dessert), the restaurant prepared for a thirty minute firefly show by distinguishing all the lights in the restaurant. We all sat out on the narrow porch and stared into the rainy garden while captured fireflies were released into the pitch black night. You could see their faint green glow as they flew to their freedom. One of the waitresses came around and placed a glowing firefly into my hand. I tried my best to be gentle and eventually returned it back to the nature of the garden.

6.30.08

Today in my Japanese class I learned how to do Japanese calligraphy, which is also known as Shodo in Japanese. My class provided all the materials: sumi (black ink make from charcoal), suzuri (an ink well), fude (traditional Japanese Shodo brush), bunchin (weight to hold the rice paper), hanshi (rice paper), shitajiki (mat blacked under the rice paper that is used to absorb the excess ink that may happen to bleed through the paper), and fudemaki (bamboo mat that is used to store the fude brush when you're not using it).

My teachers explained that I should hold the fude--with my right hand--at a ninety degree angle to the rice paper. They said I should also place my left hand on the lower left corner of the rice paper to hold it down. We practiced writing some basic kanji--the numbers one and two--and then we learned how to write then kanji for kokoro, which means "heart" in English. We right from top right to bottom left and sign our work on the left side. To be honest, it took me quite a while to feel comfortable with writing from right to left. All my teacher's were very supportive and great motivators!

Here is some new vocabulary for me to learn.

My calligraphy and Nakayama-san (Nakayama-san translated for us.)

Ogino-san is giving us some directions.

Shodo Painting

My Shodo painting of the kanji for "heart" (kokoro) with my first name in kanji (shiira) on the left side. Normally my name would be written as using characters like this　シーラ (shira) サヤ (saya), which are for all foreign/non-Japanese words. However, my friend Ryoji chose this kanji for my name: 紫衣羅 (shira) 早夜 (saya). Many parents will chose kanji for their children because of the meaning behind each character. The kanji for my first name means purple cloth while the kanji for my last name means early or fresh night.

Monica-san and Nakamura-san


Pictures care of Ogino-san posted 7.5.08.



This picture reminds me of when I help my students at Hands On English write their ABC's. I often have to guide their little five year old hands as they learn the shapes of the letters.

I am writing heart (kokoro). The kanji for kokoro has four strokes and in this picture I have finished two of the four.

Signing My Name: shi-i-ra

P.D. Surf Website

6.26.08

My friends and I are on the main page of the P.D. Surf website! Please click here to see the photos! If you scroll down the page you will see a few pictures of us on the left-hand side. The first picture is of Lauren practicing standing up on the board. I am sitting on the sand, in my friend Mark's silhouette. In the second picture, our instructor is giving us some advice about standing on the board. The third picture is all of my friends waiting to go out in the surf. However, I'm certain that you won't find me in the third picture; I must already be out in the waves. In the fourth picture, we have all finished surfing and are listening to our instructor's comments.

I love you Chichibu!

6.21.08

I left work at 2:30pm to catch the train to visit my two friends, Yuma and Yo-chan, who live in Chichibu. The small city of Chichibu is located within a narrow valley of the Saitama Prefecture, which is immediately north of the Tokyo Prefecture (I live in Chiba, which is to the immediate east of Tokyo). I had to switch train lines twice before boarding the Limited Express train bound for Seibuchichibu station--my final destination. As the train zoomed in and around the mountains, I saw many beautiful and interesting things out of my rain splattered window. Because the region is so mountainous, farmers rely on terraced fields for crop production. Besides the farms, most of the remaining areas were heavily wooded and I noticed a great deal of streams and creeks that would've been ideal fishing spots had my father decided to show up at my front door. I'm not sure if it was due to the rainy, damp weather or the fact that I live in the city, but I felt calmed by the natural world passing by outside my train window.

When I got to the station I emailed Yuma on my phone, and not long after, I heard her voice welcoming me to Chichibu from Yo-chan's silver Toyota. We hugged each other and hoped in the car to head to their favorite Indian curry restaurant for dinner. We shared two bowls of curry; one made with spinach and cheese and the other was seafood curry, three orders of nan; garlic, cheese, and minced fruit with spices and shrimp salad. I was fully impressed with their recommendation by the end of the meal; I was also very full.

After dinner, we braved the rain and headed to a candle party at Yuma and Yo-chan's friend's house. Before arriving at the house, we stopped at the local convenient store to get something to bring to the party. Yuma wanted to buy Haagen Dazs and was disappointed when she realized the store didn't have any. However, in the end she was satisfied with a box of chocolate covered ice cream bars. About a fifteen minute drive away from the convenient store, Yo-chan drove down a narrow, windy driveway lined with old Japanese homes. Yuma got out to see if the ground conditions were dry enough to park the car safely without the tires getting stuck in the mud. With her approval, he stopped the car and the three of us walked toward the house. I had no idea where I was going so I walked quickly ahead. I was amazed by what I saw. Even though it was dark, I could make out a narrow walkway that cut a small rice paddy field in half. I had always seen rice paddies from far away and was so happy to have the opportunity to see one up close. It was quite dark but I could make out the green tufts of rice grass sticking up out of the top of the water in straight, neat rows. My eyes were taking all this in while my ears were listening contently to the euphonious conversations of the frogs surrounding the paddy.

I snapped back to reality when I realized that Yuma and Yo-chan were calling me to come inside their friend's house. I ran towards them and we walked up to the house; the front door of the house faced the paddy that I had found so fascinating. How amazing would it be to see that sight early every morning as you left home for work? Most likely, I would be late everyday since it would be difficult to pry my eyes away from such a stunning image.

Yuma and Yochan's friends who owned the house were a younger couple. The wife, Michiyo (her nickname was Mittan), was creating her own natural clothing line. She showed Yuma and I one of the outfits she had created for Tamaki, her five month old son. It was so adorable and easy to tell that she had enjoyed sewing each stitch. The husband, Hiroshi, was a candle maker; hence all of the large beautiful candles that illuminated both the inside and outside of the house. Obviously, he had been the one who had made all of the candles for the "candle party". Besides Mittan and Hiroshi, I met many other people. There was the Buddist monk Eishou, his wife Naoko and their two children Sorazo (a cute, three year old boy) and Momoko (one of the chubbiest baby girls I have ever seen). Sorazo kept offering us food and beetles--there was one on his shirt that he kept pretending to pull off and give to everyone in the room. I tried to play along with him using the limited Japanese that I know. Sakai-san, an older man nicknamed Momo-san (Mr. Peach), drew a portrait of me with his black ink brush. When he was finished the picture, he presented it to me as a gift! It was starting to get late, but just before we were about to leave Mittan showed us around her old Japanese home. She was so proud to show us her newborn son who was sleeping soundly in his room. She also showed us the kitchen, which I greatly admired for its simplicity (It also had a distinct smell that reminded me of the summers I spent in Canada with my family when I was young.). I have come to appreciate the Japanese sense of simplicity that I find wherever I go.

It was raining pretty hard by the time Yo-chan dropped us off at Yuma's house. Yuma's father, Hiruichi, greeted us at the door. Yuma and I both got ready for bed and then stayed awake talking for quite a while. In the morning we woke up and ate a very traditional and large Japanese breakfast. I ate: cabbage salad, tomatoes, blueberry yogurt drink, miso soup, mackeral made by Hiruichi and a roll with butter. I enjoyed as much as I could and was very full by the end. I told Hiruichi that his fish was delicious and he was very thankful. While we were eating, Yuma's sister Michiko said hello and then left to visit Yuma's oldest sister.

After breakfast we walked to church and saved a seat for Yo-chan who was on his way. By the time church was over it was about 12:30pm. Yuma and Yo-chan wanted to take me to the little cafe where Yuma works part-time. The owner and cook, Mama-san, was a very kind women as well as an excellent cook. We had a big lunch with a little dessert to go with it.

I wanted to leave Chichibu around 4pm to return home. However, since we had some time Yo-chan thought it would be a good idea to stop at one of the most famous shrines of Chichibu appropriately called the Chichibu Shrine. This particular shrine was popular for several reasons:

1. Every year, members drag a float down the shrine steps and into a nearby park. The purpose of this custom is to celebrate the affair between the male god in the shrine and the female god in a mountain shrine close by. The parade participants must walk and drum quietly until they pass the temple built for the god's wife. After passing the god's wife, they beat their drums loudly and yell in celebration as they approach the female god's mountain shrine.
2. The temple is said to be carved by the same artist who carved the famous "Three Monkeys" shrines of Nikko that I saw in November.
3. Yuma and Yo-chan explained the legend behind the shrines famous carving of a chained dragon. There was once a dragon who lived in a nearby lake. The dragon was eating many of the townspeople, and therefore, causing much damage. Around the same time, there also happened to be a carving of a dragon on the shrine. In hopes that the dragon in the lake was connected to the dragon carving, someone decided to wrap chains around the wooden dragon decorating the shrine. After the carving was chained, the beast in the lake no longer terrorized the village.

By the end of our visit to the shrine, it was about time for me to return home. I said goodbye to Yuma and Yo-chan and thanked them many times for their hospitality. The train ride back home was long but relaxing.

I saw these terraced rice paddies from the window of the train as we traveled through Saitama to Chichibu.

It rained on and off all weekend long. Behind the business man hurrying home for Saturday night dinner, you can see the misty clouds hovering in the valley near.

Seibuchichibu Station

I waited on the bench in front of this statue outside the Seibuchichibu station.

The air in Chichibu was fresh and quiet.

The view from Yuma's window.

Father's Day in Gunma

6.16.08

Lauren and I awoke around 6:30am this morning to prepare for our day trip to Gunma. The city of Gunma is located in the Gunma prefecture which is north of the Tokyo prefecture. Accurately speaking, I live in the Chiba prefecture, not the Tokyo prefecture, which is made up of mainly the Tokyo metropolitan area. Anyway, after making our lunch and getting dressed, Lauren and I headed towards the train station around 7:30am. We got on the train around 8am and finally arrived in the Takasaki station at 11am. During the train ride, we listened to a podcast on Lauren's iPod about Trofim Lysenko, Stalin's Director of Bio-agriculture, whose policies may have eventually lead to the Soviet Union's collapse. I should mention that we waited for another train in Ueno for 30 minutes so our total train travel time thus far was about 2.5 hours. We walked around the Takasaki station area and stopped to taste some sweets and then boarded the appropriate bus to Gunma no Mori (Gunma’s Forest).

Lauren and I were two of four passengers on the bus—five including the driver. The pink and green bus with dragonflies pulled up to the curb and the driver got off but said that we could wait on the bus while he took a short break. After we got on and took our seat this older man climbed up into the front seat. Lauren and I thought it was so cute of him to give a bottle of milk tea to the driver when he returned to the bus. Despite its length of the bus ride, Lauren and I really enjoyed looking out the window at all the places and sites going by. Close to the station, the town reminded us of America. The roads had an American suburbia feel to them; they weren’t as congested as the streets in and around Tokyo. The stores and shops lining the road also brought about the same feeling. Lauren and I noticed several Shell and Mobile gas stations. As we rode the bus further and further from the train station, we began to notice that many of the houses were quite large. Many had absolutely beautiful gardens and others had their own plots of crops (rice, corn, wheat and much more). I thoroughly enjoyed our little countryside bus ride/tour.

As soon as we stepped off the bus we called Ryoji to let him know that we had arrived in Gunma No Mori. We all planned to meet at the Gunma Museum of Modern Art, which was about a two minute walk from the bus stop. The museum was surrounded by a large park so we decided to eat our lunch in the shade of a tree. After lunch we visited the museum. There were two main exhibitions: one featuring architectural designs and models of famous art museums around the world and a second featuring both Japanese and non-Japanese modern art. One of my favorite pieces in the museum was a large tapestry reproduction of a Pablo Picasso piece. Ryoji explained that Picasso had been inspired and moved to make the piece during WW2. There was an oil painting of a cracked, dripping egg by Kaoru Ueda that Lauren and I both found fascinating because it was so realistic.

Before heading back to Tokyo, Ryoji, Lauren and I stopped at a cute little local roadside shop to get some ice cream, kakigori (flavored shaved ice) and yaki manjuu (fluffy bread that has been fried on a grill and dipped in sweet soy sauce). I hadn’t ever tasted yaki manjuu but I liked it! At another shop nearby Lauren bought a Hello Kitty cabbage pencil. Gunma is famous for cabbage and yaki manjuu as well as daruma and kokeshi dolls.

We headed back to Tokyo and ran into some traffic along the way. By the time we got there, it was about time for dinner –okonomiyaki!

Random Shout Outs: I would like to wish Ashley McBride and her new husband congratulations! I wish you both all the best. I would also like to wish Mark and the rest of The Andrea Doria guys congratulations for completing their first multi-city tour. I’m sorry you had to cut the tour a little short due to technical difficulties. Last but most definitely not least, Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers—especially including my own—out there!

Random Side Notes: All day long Ryoji, Lauren and I kept singing this popular Japanese song by female singer Hikaru Utada. The chorus goes something like this: “Boku wa kuma kuma kuma.” (I am a bear bear bear.). However, the three of us devised several new versions in light of our current trip to Gunma, replacing kuma with Gunma, uma (horse) and several others.

Lauren and I are ready for our trip to Gunma!

The cute older man that I mentioned above drinking milk tea on our bus.

The number of children that I have seen riding unicycles here in Japan amazes me. I want to learn how to do it too! :)

Enjoying the Sun

Fountain at the Gunma Museum of Modern Art

Museum Entrance

Main Lobby

Children were allowed to draw on tape and then stick it to the wall of the museum in order to make this design.

There was a metal mushroom in front of the museum. At least, that's my interpretation of the shape.

Me

From left to right: Cola and Hawaiian Ice Flavored Kakigori (Japanese shaved ice)

I'm trying yaki manjuu for the first time.

Goya and Basil Plants

Shi No Okonomiyaki (my okonomiyaki) that I decorated with my nick-name (Shi).

This moth was just sitting on the wall outside the restaurant.

Here is Hikaru Utada's music video for her song that I mentioned above. Please watch it!

Korean Dinner Dates

6.14.08

Today several of my lessons were canceled so I spent some time reading in the park until 3:30pm. I had plans to meet Azusa and her friend for dinner near the station at that time. Azusa and I went to go get some coffee while waiting for her friend Saori to get off from work. When Azusa and I met up with her, we walked around the outlets--Azusa was looking for a new purse--and then headed to Chagoya, a Korean restuarant, for dinner. We chatted quite a bit and then decided to go take some pictures in a purikura booth. Here is one of the pictures we were able to download onto our cell phones. Japanese cell phones are astounding.

From left to right: me, Azusa and Saori

Totally Tenugui!

6.8.08

Today I met up with my friend Kyoko to go to a tenugui show in Ginza. Previously this week, our friend Yuma said her friend Makotou would be showing some of her work at a studio there. When we arrived in Ginza, we took a short lunch break in an Indian restaurant before heading to the gallery. Kyoko reminded me that this area of Ginza was famous for its high fashion stores. As we walked up and down the busy streets--most were blocked off for the Sunday holiday--I noticed Gucci, Prada, Armani, and many other names decorating the building facades. In other words, nothing I could afford. :)

Makotou's (I think her artist name is "boky".) tenugui exhibition took place at the Scott store and gallery. It was a very small gallery not much bigger than my kitchen. The warm lighting focused on four main pieces while on the opposite wall there was a table with samples of her work for sale. We were fortunate enough to meet Makotou herself and talk to her about her work. She explained some of the meanings and inspirations for her designs and also explained--with some translation help from Kyoko--that the tenugui towels could be used for many things. Therefore, her work was not only stylish but practical. I'm assuming that all of her images where done using silk screening techniques. I took home a few of my favorite pieces and Kyoko, who is a collector of tenugui towels, also found something she liked.

In the top right corner of the above picture is a little pouch/case decorated with blue and green people. This image is supposed to represent people going in and out of the 18 ticket gates (see the orange rectangles) in Ueno station. In the left corner is a tenugui towel with repetitive images of Mt. Fuji. There is also a flier from the show depicting one of the four main tenugui towels that was on display in the gallery.

The design for this tenugui was inspired by the area around Sugamo. It is known as "Grandmother's Harajuku" because there are so many elderly people gather there to shop. Just as a reminder, Harajuku is famous for it's outrageous style as well as being a gathering place and shopping district for many young people.

Silly Butterflies

6.4.08

Today on my walk to the train station I was pleasantly surprised by several butterflies fluttering in and around the bushes lining the road to the station. I was forced to stop a few times because the butterflies dared to get so close to me. I almost giggled as one tried to land gently on my noes. The butterflies had black wings with polygon shaped white spots while their bodies were black and yellow. At first I thought they were dragon flies because of their unusually long abdomen but with closer inspection I concluded they had to be butterflies.

Before getting to work I did some window shopping at the outlet mall near my work. I decided to stop and get some gelato--avocado lemon and caramel. The avocado lemon gelato sounded so strange that I had to try it. The flavor was definitely interesting. :)

As of tomorrow my mother and sister will be visiting me in two months. I'm very excited and have a lot of planning to do! With me luck!

Swordfish & Mix CD Potlucks

5.31.08

Ryo-chan made Lauren and I a deliciously scrumptious dinner tonight! From what I understand, he used to cook quite often but for some reason he stopped. Recently, he has gotten back into the habit and I have been lucky enough to step in as a student of this ever so humble sensei.

Our dinner: horenso (spinach), miso shiro (miso soup) with potatoes and tofu, gohan (rice) and tenderly cooked swordfish. Everything was very good.

6.1.08

It is officially rainy season in Japan and for the past few days it has been rainy and cloudy. It seemed like the weather would go on like this indefinitely until today. It turned out to be a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky; a perfect day for a potluck in Yoyogi Koen (Yoyogi Park). The potluck included the stipulation that you not only had to bring food but also some music to share--in the form of a mix CD. Everyone brought a CD and took home a different one filled with all sorts of new music. I should also mention that a great deal of the people who attended the potluck are either musicians or general lovers of music.

I met up with my friend Kyoko in Tsudanuma and we made our way into Tokyo. Even thought the entire journey took me about two hours one way, it was well worth the trip. I ended up meeting lots of new people, listening to music and getting a CD filled with refreshing new music. Despite all the people I didn't know, I managed to randomly selected my friend Kate's CD. My friend David acquired my CD and I hope he likes it. As far as food goes, I made and brought the avocado and cucumber salad Ryoji showed me how to make; everyone seemed to like it.

Tony made this flier for the potluck.

The collaged cover of my mix CD.

It made me laugh to see a fish tank inside the station. I wonder who was the first person to put it there, why it was there in the first place, what the fish's names were and who fed them on a daily basis.

Yuma made onegiri (rice balls)! They were very yummy. :)

A pile of mix CD's.

Yuma brought Cheez-its that she bought while visiting her brother who lives in New Jersey. I haven't had Cheez-its in so long. They tasted like America, if that is possible.

From left to right: Katherine, David, ? and Yoichi.

Kyoko, Yoichi and I

The Skateboarding Dog

Friends and music go well together.

I always think of my grandmother whenever I see a kazoo.

"Greece-ers" performing at the entrance to Yoyogi Koen.