September 12th - Home in Truckee

I have been home almost three weeks. Boy, does time fly when you are having fun! I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing my kids and my doggies. Both dogs did not seemt o recognise me - boo hoo hoo! Well, it has been almost a year since I last saw them.

Dave arrived home on wednesday for about ten days. On thursday he went to the Reno Air Show with Alex and I think they enjoyed being together. On Friday, Dave had some bloodwork done at the hospital, dental appointments, twice, and then back to the hospital - this time at the emergency. I was cooking when he came into the kitchen asking for hydrogen peroxide and cotton wool and bandaids. He said he cut his knee and I asked him “how” and he said with the chain saw!! I said “whaaat??!!” and then ran around getting him what he needed. I am no good in emergencies like this but one look and I knew he had to have stitches. He was only going to put bandaids on! Lucy drove him to the hospital and she said the blood dripping from the wound certainly got him noticed and quick service. He came home with 7 stitches.

Summer in Aizu Wakamatsu - August 16th 2008

Summer is hot and humid here. “Atsui desu ne” is the usual greeting between friends here. “Hot isn’t it?” I say that to strangers too while waiting for the “walk ” lights to turn green before crossing the road. I am good at waiting for the green light, just like the Japanese. I got caught by the police once, crossing the road when it was red and I nearly got Liza and her boyfriend into trouble as well!

It rains off and on too this month, makes running errands difficult on my bicycle. When the sun is out, I have a hat on, long fingerless cotton gloves like all the lady cyclists here and I have my sunglasses on as well. The gloves is to keep one from getting too tan. They like their porcelain white skin here. There are also many different kinds of parasols right now, especially, pretty cotton lacy ones.

Cicadas make loud chirping noises too from sunrise to sunset and even at nights! They fall down dead on the pavements and even in the walkway of our apartment. However, not as bad as Austin Texas in 1991, when the ground was simply covered with dead cicadas. We had to walk on them, crunching all the way.

I look forward to the cooler fall. Just so miserable and energy sapping weather right now.

Chinese Acrobats in Aizu July 23rd 2008

I just got home from seeing the Chinese acrobats at the concert hall. My friend Hiroko san invited me and we decided to ride our bikes. When I met her at Nagano, a department store, she suggestd we take a taxi. Even though the sky looked black, it was not raining and I said we should just ride our bikes. We had not gotten very far, when the skies opened up and we got caught in ahuge downpour! We had to pedal like mad back to the covered shopping arcade! We parked our bikes and waited abit for the rain to abate before we jumped into the taxi but it never did. We got soaking wet just climbing into the taxi. I have never been in this big a downpour here before. The road was like a river within a short time. When we got to the concert hall, the line was very long to get in and people were soaked waiting in line. Hiroko san and I got wet running to the building, even though we had an umbrella.

The acrobats and the contortionists were awesome. I have always wanted to see them and now I have. The concert hall was so crowded and everyone was soaking wet!! They had so many exciting acts, I was so mesmerised. This is one of the top acrobt artists group from China and only here this one performance. The one act that impressed me the most was a girl resting on a platform and on her knees she balanced 8 chairs, one on top of the other, with another girl on top of the 8th chair! The ribbon suspended from the ceiling with 4 acrobats doing  their thing was awesome too and of course the contortionists and acrobats were simply mesmerising. Then there were 8 girls, each of them holding 10 sticks on top of which were spinning plates and they were doing cartwheels etc without dropping the paltes. How did they train for this?! It was one exciting act after another.

After the show, we walked a long way to a cute restaurant. It was still raining and Hiroko san walked so fast for a petit lady. I had a hard time keeping up with her and i ended up with  a blister on t he sole of my feet! SHe had heels on as well!

This restaurant has two set meals - one for 2800 yen and the other 4500. We had the smaller set meal. Started off with egg taufu and pickled fern  in ginger sauce - yum! Then we had kabocha (a small pumpkin) with fish paste in sesame sauce. Then we had fried river fish, very salty, and we dip it in vinegar sauce. Hmm that got me licking my lips…I even ate the head and the tail. Sashimi maguro, sliced octopus and two ebi (shrimp) came beautifully decorated on a bed of grated daikon. Two large shrimps tempura style coated with sliced almonds arrived and we ate this by dipping them in salt and powdered green tea.Then came miso soup, rice with assorted pickles! For dessert, a small scoop of green tea ice cream. It was just marvellous! We washed all these down with two cups of hot green tea.

Perfect evening!

Natchan Ferry - Aomori to Hakodate June 16 2008

We decided to drive to Hokkaido to attend Lucy’s graduation. Alex arrived Sunday June 15th. Woke up really early and left Aizu at about 6am. The drive from Aizu to Aomori took about 6 hours, with several stops for snacks and potty breaks. Aomori is a small town on the northern tip of Honshu island. We took a wrong exit once and that is not bad at all since we had to drive with a map all in Japanese.

The ferry crossing was two hours on the new and fast Natchan Rera. I booked the ferry through faxes. You can get the form by going to their website - no phone contact at all. They sent me a reservation info and with that we went to the ferry wharf and booked our seats and our car.

It was not crowded at all, not like the crossings from England to France or Ireland. The ferry was made in Tasmania and they invited kids to submit drawings and the winners had their drawings painted all over the sides. I will post some pictures.

We landed in Hakodate and when we got off the ferry the police stopped us and did a thorough check of our trunk and passports! they say because of the G8 summit next month they are having extra security. Today we will drive to Sapporo. The G8 will be in the town of Toyako in July. We will be staying there for our last night in Hokkaido.

Before going to Sapporo, we will visit an onsen town called Jozankei. It is a pretty town, which I visited when I was here last February.

A few people thought we were crazy to drive to Hokkaido but truly, the drive was great (that’s because Dave did all the driving - ha ha) and we had no problems even though the map was in japanese. You get to learn all the names of the towns in Kanji. Fortunately, they do write the names in Romaji so that helps alot. Just be prepared for lots of toll charges. They accept credit cards and I think it cost us about $150 in toll from Aizu to Aomori which is roughly 400 km.

June 1st - A busy day!!

We woke up really early to take Lucy to the airport. SHe was flying to Sapporo, meet her classmates and teachers, then fly on to the Phillipines for a weeks’ worth of community projects with Habitat for Humanity. They will be delivering 6 wheel chairs and working on housing projects.

Yesterday I got her steel capped toe work shoes and work pants and leather gloves! But we forgot diarrhea meds and antibiotic creams. Her first casualty was her finger - she sliced it open accidently on her razor while rummaging in her toilet bag looking for her contact lens case at Sapporo Airport. She said she nearly fainted and that worried me alot! Fortunately she had band aids and had her tetanus shots two weeks ago.

Well, after the airport trip we rushed back to bowl with our friends who owned an English school here. There were lots of school kids and parents. I managed 2 strikes in a row at game 10 and the last shot I bowled a 9 - darn - could have been 3 strikes. After bowling we all went to an Okonomiyaki restaurant where we cooked what is basically am omeltte with cabbage, meat or seafood on a hot plate at our table. Once it is cooked, brown sauce like worcestershire sauce and mayo is squeezed on, then sprinkled on shredded seaweed and fish flakes. We also had noodles with all fresh seafood, cooked on the hot plate. For dessert we had green tea ice cream but it was kind of too soft and not cold enough. I was so full, I was not going to eat dinner. Famous last words…

When we got home, while David napped, I did the laundry, hung them out to dry, folded some previously dried clothes, ironed Dave’s shirts, sewed Lucy’s graduation dress, learnt Japanese and wrote my dairy in Japanese!

When Dave got up, we decided to go for a bike ride. I thought it was a jaunt into town so I had my danskos on to ride the bike. Well, we did two hours of riding up and down hills…we rode to small side streets and admired all the beautiful flowers people had in their tiny gardens, then Dave took me to Matsudaira ke Byosho, which was a huge graveyard for Shoguns and their familes, in the mountains. We had to carry our bikes up these steep slippery steps. FInally, I told him we should leave our bikes and walk up without our bikes, as it was getting dark and the steps were slippery.

We had to stop while he dealt with a phone call from work. By the time he was done, it was really dark and I said to myself that is getting creepy visiting a graveyard in the dark! We managed to see one gravestone. It was a huge stone structure . Dave said there were hundreds and bigger stones further up in the woods but I told him that I wanted to go back NOW!! There were several shogun leaders and their families buried in the mountians and one day I will go back up there to take some pictures for you to see.

We staggered back down the slippery steps to our bikes. From here we rode our bikes to Higashiyama Spa which is a hotel in the mountains with hot spring baths (Onsens). I went in to find a bathroom and then we rode further up the mountain road in the dark!

By the time we rode back into AIzu, it was almost 8.30pm. We had burnt some of the calorieswe had over lunch and being us, we had to replenish those! So we stopped at the local Thai restaurant and had a lovely dinner.

Nice day all in all. I hope Lucy gets into the Phillipines as there is no way of contacting her.

 

Sapporo, Date, Lake Toya - May 7th

Dried FLowers in garden room

Toyako Town

Dining area

American Door

Tea Room Rose

Lucy and I were back in Sapporo for her AP tests. We were there for 5 days. The first day was nice and warm, the rest of the stay, however, was very windy and cold! All the ice and snow were gone, of course, but the wind brought tears to my eyes.

I visited my favourite craft shops, walked the mall and went to my fave bookshop. Lucy wanted a dress for graduation but they were too frou frou baby doll stuff and expensive to boot! Alot of them were over 250 US $. We ended up at the craft store - fabric section and she chose a yellowish piece with hot air balloons and airplanes.  Well…I would have preferred more flowery fabric but we got what she wanted. I reckoned hot air balloons and planes mean that she is flying high after high school.

That saturday, I visited my friend Rie whom I had met in February. She had moved to Date, a small town on the south coast of Hokkaido. I took the train from Sapporo, the journey took an hour and a half - expensive too. We had sushi and then we rented  a car and drove towards Lake Toya. On the way we stopped at a volcanic crater and walked along it. Steam was spouting in places and we went to a site where the eruption took place in 2000. Houses were damaged and roads were buckled. The earth along the trails were hot to the touch and if you dig a hole, steam would shoot out.

We then drove to the lake. It was really cold so instead of walking along the shores we decided to drive around. We found a sign that said “Rose’s Tea House” and decided to go have a cuppa. When we found it, I thought I had died and gone back to Truckee!! Rose’s house was so much like a house at home, with pine rafters and walls and her kitchen and the garden room reminded me of our home in Truckee, even the front door was just like ours at home! Rose used to own a Folkcraft shop in Yokohama but she moved to Hokkaido about ten years ago and decided to build an American log house. She has some interesting pieces of furniture - african log bed , Afghanistan chest, ENglish table. The tea and cake was delicious too.

We also met another lady, Edo san, who seemed on the lonely side. After Rose’s place we went to Edo san’s apartment, which seemed “empty” compared to Rose’s. Edo san had just moved from Sapporo and so Rie said she will meet up with her once in a while.

I cannot believe that an American style home existed in the forest of Lake Toya!! Amazing.

Ohanami (cherry blossom) Festival - april 20th 2008

The International Association arranged for a lunch potluck under the cherry trees today at 11am. I cooked a huge pot of Malay curry and rice. However, we wanted to see the parade first so Dave went into town on his bike to check it out - we knew driving would be a mistake with all the people and traffic. He rang me up to say the parade had not started and to come into town. I said ‘how about the curry?” He said we will come back for it. Lucy’s bike has a basket.

The parade was really fun, reminded me of July the 4th parade in Truckee, only very different. The men, somehow are pant-less!! Dave said they wore diapers but I saw a guy with bare buttocks!! Some had underwear on - they wore a short yukata - like a short kimono top but nothing on the bottom!! There were alot of dancing and gold chariots on top of wooden structures and were carried by lots of chanting men and women, and always, there will be a lady or two balanced on the wood structure dancing. It is as if the men and women carrying the chariots wanted to unbalance the dancing ladies. The route they took was lined with awesome cherry blossoms.

We went back home, loaded the curry and rice and rode our bikes towards the castle grounds. We had been visitng the grounds to view the blossoms since last sunday but today they were at their best - freshly opened a couple of days, they say. What a difference the whole castle area looked - so magnificient. This was even better than Ueno Park in Tokyo! Everywhere you looked was just blossoms - we walked along the moat under a canopy of beautiful flowers.

By the time we found our picnic area, the food was mostly gone. Evryone had gathered there from 11am but we wanted to see the parade. So we ate the food we brought, chatted some, made new friends. Went home about threeish.

When it was dark, we again rode our bikes to the castle - yes, it is the happening place today - to view the blossoms under lights. Awesome! I don’t want them to go away - I just want the blossoms to stay!

Reiki trip - April 2008

My sister in law, who practises Reiki wanted to visit the grave of the founder and to visit Mount Kurama in Kyoto where Reiki started. I had no idea that Reiki started in Japan. When I asked people aound here, they are clueless. No one has even heard of Reiki.

In Tokyo we went to Saitoji Temple to visit the grave of Usui Makao, the founder of Reiki. The temple was in a very quiet neiborhood and besides two little girls playing in the play ground, we met an Australian lady who was a Reiki Master. Julie, my sister in law, paid homage to Usui and meditated at the grave side while I had lunch with Jane and Lucy in the temple yard. The Aussie lady told us that she studied Reiki under  William Lee Rand. Of course, Jane and I had never heard of him but apparently he is highly regarded in the reiki world.

In Kyoto, we took a train to Kurama town, passing cherry blossoms and lovely sights, and then hiked up to the top. The climb was not bad at all, hundreds of steps and well laid path took us to the main temple up top. Along the way, we stopped at various points of interest as pointed by Julie’s book “Reiki” by Jessica Miller, another Reiki master. The book was really helpful and made the trip very meaningful/

The day was gorgeous, sunny and warmish. It had rained the day before and the weather man said rain, so of course, we were delighted.

From the main hall, Julie wanted to see the measuring stone and the tree roots and the old tree Usui meditated under in the early 1920s, so we had to hike up more trails and steps. I had been under the weather and so was huffing and puffing a bit. Jane opted to wait for us by the cable car.

We found the measuring stone, which was what a 16 year old Samurai used to measure his height before going to war. It was hardly three feet tall - wondered how short samurais were! The tree roots that this guy used to hop around for his agility endurance were just there and we saw the old tree. It was fenced off but we managed a picture or two. Julie lit an incense and then we hiked back down.

We took the cable car which took us to about halfway down the mountain, hiked down to the train.

 

 

 

Cherry Blossoms in Japan - April 2008

The picture on the header of this blog was snapped at Chidorigafuchi Park in Tokyo. We walked along the river where hundreds of trees were in full bloom. Occasionally, the wind would pick up and thousands of blossoms would swirled around in the air! We could smell the blossoms too, faint sweetness in the air.

In Kyoto, the wonderful old temples were framed by cherry blossoms too and hundreds of tourists took in the sights. We chased after Maikos - apprentice geishas, although one or two were tourists playing at being geishas we suspect!

Spring has Sprung Mar 22nd 2008

You know how I know? Dave was very busy in the bathroom and I peeked to see that he has shaved his beard! Yes, skiing is over here, at least ski skating. Last week, the snow was kind of sloppy. Below us, the bushes are sprouting red flowers and Dave is going off on his bike.

My kids are gathering in San Francisco and this would be the week that Dave and I were flying  home but it is not to be. I miss my kids and I hope to see them soon, and of course, my dear Hobbes and Jackie too.

I came down with either the flu or food poisoning from all these fresh raw stuff that i eat.  Dave and Lucy were fine so it may not be food poisoning because we all ate the same stuff. The good thing is that i lost a couple of pounds!

Miss Lucy has been accepted by three UCs - Davis, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. She is waiting on one more result before commiting to one. How exciting is that! She has two AP tests that she is supposed to be swotting for and a trip to the Phillipines for Habitat for Humanity in May. Then the graduation ceremony in June. In the mean time, we are looking forward to some Japanese lessons next week. 

I am designing a new hat pattern - can’t wait for the finished results.