Two weekends ago I was walking down the main street of Takayama when I spotted two women - western women and obviously tourists - holding a map and looking lost. I stopped and asked if I could help them out and we started chatting. Suddenly one of the women turned to me and said,
"By the way, your English is excellent!"
I paused and then replied "Why thank-you! I am Canadian..."
She looked a bit flustered for a second and then said something about how she would have known if only I'd said 'aboot', hahaha. And I explained about teaching English with the JET Programme etc.
They eventually went on their way. I was relieved to hear that my English speaking abilities haven't diminished after 4.5 months of living in Japan.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Wheels, Weddings and Winter Vegetables !!!
The Wheels:
So, I've bought my first car. It's small, red, and zippy, and it has a turbo engine. This helps immensely on the steep, twisty mountain roads here in the Hida region. A few days after I got it I took it on a road trip down to Lake Kawaguchi (at the base of Mt. Fuji - it was breathtaking) and it handled things beautifully. My first car! It's already starting to accumulate a small amount of junk, although so-far there are no plates of toast on the floor (does anyone remember Morello's car?)
I'm already embarrassed about the dorky spoiler so SHUSH!
So, I've bought my first car. It's small, red, and zippy, and it has a turbo engine. This helps immensely on the steep, twisty mountain roads here in the Hida region. A few days after I got it I took it on a road trip down to Lake Kawaguchi (at the base of Mt. Fuji - it was breathtaking) and it handled things beautifully. My first car! It's already starting to accumulate a small amount of junk, although so-far there are no plates of toast on the floor (does anyone remember Morello's car?)
I'm already embarrassed about the dorky spoiler so SHUSH!The Wedding:
Last weekend a fellow ALT married his Japanese girlfriend, and everyone attended. It was a Buddhist ceremony held in the local temple of a nearby village, and it was quite beautiful and dignified, but also seemed quite personal and heartfelt; although they rented traditional Japanese wedding costumes, it was for tradition and not for show. Everyone who showed up for the ceremony was there to support the bride and grooom, and the ceremony itself was fascinating - in short, it was a happy occasion!
The Bride and Groom
Group shot
Exchanging prayer beads with the priest
Yes, they were adorable. And played a very important part in the ceremony! (they poured the sake, several times in fact)
The wedding party
The Bride and Groom
Group shot
Exchanging prayer beads with the priest
Yes, they were adorable. And played a very important part in the ceremony! (they poured the sake, several times in fact)
The wedding partyThe Winter Vegetables !!!:
My landlords - who I've never met - dropped off a box of home-grown vegetables for me. I was quite suprised and touched! They left me cabbage, leeks, daikon, potatoes, rice and some leafy-thing rather like parsley, all of it grown by themselves. I called to thank them, but since they don't speak English and my Japanese is still pretty rudimentary, the call went something like this:
Me: Hello! This is Erin, the ALT! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables and rice!
Them: something something something - winter vegetable!
Me: Yes! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables!
Them: Ahh, something something something vegetables!
Me: umm.... yes! vegetables! thank you! i like vegetables!
And so on. But they did seem quite tickled that I'd called. I think I'll send them a Christmas card. Anyways, here's a picture of my vegetables!
My landlords - who I've never met - dropped off a box of home-grown vegetables for me. I was quite suprised and touched! They left me cabbage, leeks, daikon, potatoes, rice and some leafy-thing rather like parsley, all of it grown by themselves. I called to thank them, but since they don't speak English and my Japanese is still pretty rudimentary, the call went something like this:
Me: Hello! This is Erin, the ALT! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables and rice!
Them: something something something - winter vegetable!
Me: Yes! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables!
Them: Ahh, something something something vegetables!
Me: umm.... yes! vegetables! thank you! i like vegetables!
And so on. But they did seem quite tickled that I'd called. I think I'll send them a Christmas card. Anyways, here's a picture of my vegetables!
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Sushi Pillow!!
This is 'Ebi'. She's a piece of shrimp sushi. She's also a pillow. She cost me 430 yen. She rocks!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Chickpeas, I've missed you so
Two weekends ago I was in Nagoya, which is a very nice, modern city I'd like to go back to someday. Amongst other things, Nagoya has a foreign food store. This is what I came back with (I'll only allude to how ridiculously expensive these purchases were).
Two Weekends Ago, Part II
Technically it's Three Weekends Ago, but we'll overlook it this time. And now that I'm finally connected to the internet at my apartment (while sitting under my kotatsu, which I'll explain about in a forthcoming post), I should be able to update more frequently.
I believe I covered the market, temples and gardens of Kyoto, so now it's time for
I believe I covered the market, temples and gardens of Kyoto, so now it's time for
People
It was C's birthday so first we made him blush by singing 'Happy Birthday' in the Chinese restaurant (it was a decidedly non-singing sort of place) ;then we went out for karaoke.
Some of us at the Imperial Palace
These (japanese) guys were stirring things up at an Irish pub we dropped by, and they were really good! I forget their band's name, but it was weird and had the word 'milk' in it.
Geisha
This is a picture of an old-world geisha disappearing into a modern, urban nightscape *roll eyes here* but seriously, these woman have magical powers. We saw two geisha walking down the street that night on two separate occasions, and both times when we tried to take pictures strange things happened to our cameras. In my case, the camera refused to focus for the 30 seconds or so we had to take an effective photograph, and my friend's camera suddenly ran out of batteries, for those 30 seconds or so only! Crazy.
Look closely: there are two geisha in this photo. You can the backs of their heads. Let's not disturb them though, we want to observe, not intrude. And thus concludes our thrilling attempt to capture the elusive geisha in her natural habitat. The end.
Our Ryokan
Thanks to C, we got to spend several nights at the lovely Casa de Natu Inn, a traditional ryokan. This was the girls room.
Another shot of the girl's room. It was everything you'd expect a traditonal Japanese to be.
Breakfast on the floor in the hallway
This chair was awsomely creepy.
The ryokan garden
Details
It was C's birthday so first we made him blush by singing 'Happy Birthday' in the Chinese restaurant (it was a decidedly non-singing sort of place) ;then we went out for karaoke.
Some of us at the Imperial Palace
These (japanese) guys were stirring things up at an Irish pub we dropped by, and they were really good! I forget their band's name, but it was weird and had the word 'milk' in it.Geisha
This is a picture of an old-world geisha disappearing into a modern, urban nightscape *roll eyes here* but seriously, these woman have magical powers. We saw two geisha walking down the street that night on two separate occasions, and both times when we tried to take pictures strange things happened to our cameras. In my case, the camera refused to focus for the 30 seconds or so we had to take an effective photograph, and my friend's camera suddenly ran out of batteries, for those 30 seconds or so only! Crazy.
Look closely: there are two geisha in this photo. You can the backs of their heads. Let's not disturb them though, we want to observe, not intrude. And thus concludes our thrilling attempt to capture the elusive geisha in her natural habitat. The end.Our Ryokan
Thanks to C, we got to spend several nights at the lovely Casa de Natu Inn, a traditional ryokan. This was the girls room.
Another shot of the girl's room. It was everything you'd expect a traditonal Japanese to be.
Breakfast on the floor in the hallway
This chair was awsomely creepy.
The ryokan garden
Details
Internet Interlude
ahem, I HAVE INTERNET!!! Like, at my apartment. No, I swear. I'm totally not making this up. Look, I'll prove it to you:
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Two Weekends Ago, Part I
Two weekends ago I went to Kyoto. To be honest, I wasn't impressed with the city of Kyoto itself - it was just a huge expanse of concrete sprall - but the temples and gardens were beautiful. I also met up with some old friends from Toronto, and made some new ones too, so all-in-all, it was a great weekend.
I took the early bus from Takayama on the Friday and had pretty much the entire day to myself. This is the first place I went to: Nishiki Market. It was almost entirely devoted to food, and I left entirely devoted to it. Yum!
A market stall selling... tsukemono, I think. (Japanese pickles) Ange, you would fall in love with this place.
Temples and Shrines:
This shrine was off to the side of a busy shopping arcade.
Gardens:
A wedding!
The Market:
I took the early bus from Takayama on the Friday and had pretty much the entire day to myself. This is the first place I went to: Nishiki Market. It was almost entirely devoted to food, and I left entirely devoted to it. Yum!
A market stall selling... tsukemono, I think. (Japanese pickles) Ange, you would fall in love with this place.Temples and Shrines:
This shrine was off to the side of a busy shopping arcade.
Gardens:
A wedding!Three Weekends Ago
Three weekends ago I climbed to the top of Haku-san, one of Japan’s three sacred peaks. 8 of us crashed at a fellow ALT’s house in Shirakawa (about an hour’s drive away from Takayama, and a UNESCO world heritage site). Oh! but first we all went out for dinner at one of Takayama’s two Mexican restaurants. I love guacamole, but that evening I LOVED guacamole!
It was a beautiful fall day, and the colours were spectacular. We started off in one big group, but eventually broke off into pairs. The beginning was a long, vertical hike through fairly dense forest. The leaves were at their peak, so we were surrounded by red and yellow and gold, with the peaks of other mountains looming on the horizon. Eventually the thick tree cover began to thin out. At that altitude the leaves had already dropped, so the trees that did manage to grow there looked like twisted, white bones; they were especially striking when the clouds began to roll in. We came across patches of snow,our first of the season. Eventually, above the tree line, our surroundings changed again, this time to the wide-open expanse of a sunny, alpine meadow (like-thing. I doubt that’s the correct terminology) The sky was a deep, clear blue and reminded me of a Miyazaki film. After hiking through the “meadow” for some time, we came across an expansive mountain lodge. Although it was boarded up for the season, there were still a few groups stopped for a rest. This was the where the final climb to the peak was, so there was also a small Shinto shrine with a Torii gate. We stayed there just a bit too long and it was tough getting going again, but we eventually fell back into a rhythm and before we knew it, we were standing on the top of the world. Honestly, that’s what it felt like. When you looked off into the horizon, all you could see were clouds far, far below, and the peaks of distant mountains. It was exhilarating!
There were 5 Canadians, and we all had Mountain Equipment Co-op backpacks (most Canadians do)
This shot was taken from the trail: mountains off in the distance
Everyone else stopped to take pictures too
Trees in the mist
As we approached the treeline the trees started to look rather skeletal
Our first glimpse of snow. It's hard to tell from this picture, but we're actually quite high up. If you look closely, you can see the 'skeleton' trees far below.
The alpine 'meadow' and the lodge
The Torii gate and small shrine at the bottm. (It looks like a simple stroll to the top, but it wasn't!)
The small shrine at the top!
Looking... north? I don't remember now. But the little lake was the most beautiful shade of blue.
Clouds on the horizon and rolling-in over the lodge down below.
On top of the world...
Hanging out and having lunch - on top of the world!
It was a beautiful fall day, and the colours were spectacular. We started off in one big group, but eventually broke off into pairs. The beginning was a long, vertical hike through fairly dense forest. The leaves were at their peak, so we were surrounded by red and yellow and gold, with the peaks of other mountains looming on the horizon. Eventually the thick tree cover began to thin out. At that altitude the leaves had already dropped, so the trees that did manage to grow there looked like twisted, white bones; they were especially striking when the clouds began to roll in. We came across patches of snow,our first of the season. Eventually, above the tree line, our surroundings changed again, this time to the wide-open expanse of a sunny, alpine meadow (like-thing. I doubt that’s the correct terminology) The sky was a deep, clear blue and reminded me of a Miyazaki film. After hiking through the “meadow” for some time, we came across an expansive mountain lodge. Although it was boarded up for the season, there were still a few groups stopped for a rest. This was the where the final climb to the peak was, so there was also a small Shinto shrine with a Torii gate. We stayed there just a bit too long and it was tough getting going again, but we eventually fell back into a rhythm and before we knew it, we were standing on the top of the world. Honestly, that’s what it felt like. When you looked off into the horizon, all you could see were clouds far, far below, and the peaks of distant mountains. It was exhilarating!
There were 5 Canadians, and we all had Mountain Equipment Co-op backpacks (most Canadians do)
This shot was taken from the trail: mountains off in the distance
Everyone else stopped to take pictures too
Trees in the mist
As we approached the treeline the trees started to look rather skeletal
Our first glimpse of snow. It's hard to tell from this picture, but we're actually quite high up. If you look closely, you can see the 'skeleton' trees far below.
The alpine 'meadow' and the lodge
The Torii gate and small shrine at the bottm. (It looks like a simple stroll to the top, but it wasn't!)
The small shrine at the top!
Looking... north? I don't remember now. But the little lake was the most beautiful shade of blue.
Clouds on the horizon and rolling-in over the lodge down below.
On top of the world...
Hanging out and having lunch - on top of the world!
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