RED

This weekend I spent another, and probably final, day leaf viewing, but it was the best yet. Right here in Okazaki's Higashi Koen, East Park, I spend a lovely afternoon with some "school mates" oooing and aaahing at the spectacular colors of the maples. Mia is from Israel and Unchien (this is probably not spelled right, sorry) is from Korea.

I don't know my trees that well, but all the deep burgundy, bright glowing red and yellow-peach leaves seem to be on Japanese maples. The park includes several ponds, a small, sad zoo where I still couldn't resist taking a picture of the mere cats, numerous gardens, and a Buddhist temple. One of the things that makes the Fall color here so spectacular is that it's not that cold, and there is still a lot of other plants that are green and flowering! Here are a few pictures for you to see. As nice as some of these are, they don't do it justice.

Higashi Koen 11/30/08

Momiji

Japan is famous for its fall colors as is Maine. Here momiji, as the red maple leaves are called, are a passion and daily reports of the colors progress are made on TV and the Internet. The last two weekends I had opportunities to visit some new places and see how the leaves where doing. This past weekend was a peak one for the hilly area north of Okazaki and so, along with a million other people, I went to a “momiji festival” in a park about an hour’s drive north, or so the poster said. As it turned out, the traffic was so bad, we ended up getting off the bus, at the drivers suggestion, and walking the last 7 or 8 kilometers along the side of the road. The bus never caught up with us. As we got closer to the park entrance, all the tour buses started letting their passengers out to go ahead. It was a bit like going to the Common Ground Fair on Saturday! At the park, there were all sorts of booths and food places. The smells were tantalizing, but I didn’t have a lot of money or time, so only snacked on a few local delicacies. The trees would have been beautiful to photograph during the day, but we arrived as the sun was sinking behind the hills and had to enjoy them by the fading light of dusk. At night the park was lit up and was quick a spectacle, but nothing my camera could capture. The last public bus back to Okazaki left at 6:30 p.m. so we soon had to leave to get in the long line waiting to return. Once onboard we were packed in like sardines and stood for the hour and a half trip back. Back at the Okazaki bus station my companions and I found our bikes in the bicycle garage and peddled home. It was quite the adventure. Click below to see a few pictures from the trip.

Momiji

Higashi Kôen

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Yesterday the weather was spectacular, a warm fall day here, so after classes, and a long week of studying, I got out my map and figured out the route to a park on the other side of town. The wonderful thing about Japan is that no mater how busy or industrial the section of town, there is a way to get there by bike. I had a bike lane/sidewalk all the way to the park. The Higashi Koen, East Park, is on a bit of hill over looking the city and offered lovely views at every turn. The fall color was highlighted against the green of bamboo groves and ancient pines.

I don’t have much time to write today as I’m heading out to a museum with some friends, so here are a few pictures from the trip to the park.

Oh, yes, for those of you who did try to guess the flowers of the obis, they were iris and wisteria! Take another look and you will see them now! I'm writing postcards this weekend.

Here's the link to pictures on Picasa or just click the picture below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/aikidosra/HiashiKEn?authkey=2wp-Eucazgs&pli=1#

Hiashi Kôen

Hana Musubi

Yesterday was a gray, rainy, almost-fall day and could have been rather quiet and depressing but instead was one of the most socially entertaining days I’ve had! At ten in the morning I went to Takeda san’s house for the monthly meeting of the English café. It was a special day in that a former member of the group and his Japanese wife and child were visiting from Switzerland, where they now live. Mario, who despite his name is a German speaking Swiss, met his wife when he was a student here at Yamasa. When they come back to Japan to visit her family each year, they also get together with their old friends from the English café. It was also the day that Takeda sensei had a obi show in the afternoon so she was dressed in a beautiful kimono, but, like an idiot, I didn’t think to bring my camera. A luncheon (ランチ、pronounced “runchi”) was planned for after the English practice time and I was thrilled to be invited to join them.


After the “café”, we all walked up the street to a traditional looking Japanese restaurant where a tatami matted room with low table and cushions awaited us. After the usual flurry of photo taking, by the others :-(, we had a delicious meal that started off with green tea and hand towels. The main course took a while to come and during that time the children ran around playing and the adults talked about all sorts of things. The conversation flowing back and forth in Japanese and English and I was thrilled to be able to understand a lot of the main ideas in Japanese! Both Mario, who held “my position” in the club several years ago, and the English club regular, Atsushi san, the Toyota engineer, speak English quite well and could translate whenever that was needed. We talked about the election and they were all happy and hopeful about Obama, and everyone commented on how well spoken he is. This tells you a lot about the perception of the current President, apparently not much different from my own.

The main course arrived and was served on lacquer-ware trays, each one with an array of dishes. I think there were 9 on my tray: two tiny dishes with mini servings of pickles and cold spinach salad, then a covered bowel of miso soup, a dish with three slices of tuna sashimi, a plate with pieces of cooked fish, eggplant and leek, with a miso based sauce, a container of cooked rice, a ceramic covered cup with a warm savory custard and finally a tiny saucer of soy sauce for dipping the sashimi. Each dish was arranged beautiful and was very tasty. The final course was a choice of coffee or green tea ice cream.

In all, the meal took two hours and the four children, ages one and a half to nine, entertained each other and ate their specially ordered, more child-friendly meals, without any complaints. Several of the guests spent time entertaining them while the others chatted on. It’s interesting to see how different cultures handle these kinds of long inter-generational gatherings.

Today was equally filled with fascinating events: a traditional Japanese arts show, the one my tea ceremony teacher had an entry in, and afterward, lunch in a modern bakery/eatery. At 10 this morning, I met Takeda san and Noriko san at a near-by landmark and we went together to these events. Noriko san is a young woman whom I met at the tea ceremony classes. Her English is better than my Japanese so she helped me understand things when the conversation veered from the basic to the sublime, or somewhere in between. (See these friends in the picture above.) The Japanese traditional arts show was held in a large new facility in a part of town I had not been to before. There was obi tying display, one of obis tied like flowers, and one of obis tied for wearing on special occasions. (The obi is the sash that goes with a kimono and can be tied in an infinite number of ways). One of these flower obis is Takeda sensei’s, but I actually didn’t understand which one, as she was very understated about the whole thing and didn’t really indicate which one it was. At about 11:00 we were invited into a mass tea ceremony, with the traditional sweet and tea offered by a host of kimono clad ladies to a room full of people, while a tea master performed the tea making ritual at the front of the room. After that we checked out the handmade figurines/dolls made of silk or other materials and the homemade elixirs made from all manner of fruits and vegetables, including coffee and chili-peppers. These apparently are traditional home remedies for any number of ailments. I got recipes in case you are interested. On the next floor were more obis, these tied for wearing, where the flower-tied obis are for display only. No two were alike and there were 40 of them all in different brocaded fabrics, with various accessories. We then descended to the first floor and took in the calligraphy and scroll painting and finally the ikebana and flower arranging displays (not the same thing here, by the way)! For a Japanese culture freak like myself, it was a fabulous show!

After we had seen all there was to see, my two escorts started thinking about lunch and soon we were off to a near-by shopping center to eat at a popular, modern restaurant. The bread was particularly “famous” and the place was packed, as was the parking lot, where uniformed parking attendants helped direct cars into the available spots as they became free; no fending for yourself here.

At lunch we ordered a light main course. I had a fresh salmon and ginger salad, the others a chicken something, and we all got the drink and bread “set”, as they call it here. This meant that we could have all the small rolls of different flavors that we wished. Japanese bread is very soft and fluffy, so not really the thing for the “hard, crusty bread eaters”, but fresh and tasty. These buns were straight from the oven and several refills were offered from a basket of assorted flavors. We ate with knives and forks. There was not a chopstick in sight. I asked my friends which was the more popular way, American or British, for using these utensils and they each said something different, so “anything goes” is my take, when it comes to Western eating tools.

Here's a challenge for those of you who took the time to read to the end of this long entry: Can you name the flowers that the top two obis are imitating? I'll write a real, postage and all, postcard to anyone who gets them right. Gambate! (roughly: do our best!)

Election time in Japan

Those of you who didn’t support Obama can close your ears for a minute while I yell Hurrah!

I was thrilled about the election out come and have see Obama's speech on line, and read it as well. It was inspiring. It’s going to take a lot of work to turn things around, clearly he is aware of that too, and thus asked for all Americans to get ready to help the nation. In the news I see that people all over the world are expecting a lot of him, too. No wonder he looked so tired as the weight of it all landed on his shoulders. He was generous to his opponents as well I thought.

Here in Japan it was a little lonely, as I only have one American friend who clearly supported Obama and cared about the election. All others were either Republicans or just didn't care, mostly the latter! So I haven't had the fun of jumping up and down with some one yelling, “We did it!!!”.

School continues to challenge me and with the other commitments I've made, I am very busy. My friend who was going to come here at New Years and travel with me is not coming, so I am making plans to travel a bit on my own as I'm dying to go to some of these places I have only seen in pictures. That was a big disappointment, but it will be a good challenge and I plan to spend 5 days in Okinawa with Japanese friends which will be a lot be fun. But truthfully, it's a bit lonesome to be contemplating the holidays away from my family.

Well, I better get back to studying. I had two quizzes today and failed one, and I have two quizzes tomorrow, so I better get in gear. Last night I just couldn't study with all the election stuff!

I’m including some pictures of Okazaki Castle Park and a flower show that was in progress there. As you can see, the fall colors haven’t really gotten going here yet.

Some Culture

For those of you who keep up with this blog, I apologize for its sporadic nature. I just don't have the time I did when I first came to Japan and here is why: too much culcha ( that's culture with a Maine accent in case you didn't guess!)

Besides taking ikebana classes and calligraphy classes, and of course my regular courses, I squeezed in a concert of Japanese traditional and western music hosted by the same volunteer group that sponsored the lovely cooking class, the CCC. I don't have much time to write tonight but I thought a few pictures would keep me out of the dog house.

The concert was held in a 600 year old Buddhist temple. I got a chance during intermission to peek at the main hall and marvel at the huge wooden beams and pillars that support the structure. At the end of the concert we had a little tea with the volunteers and the musicians, many of whom are also part of the CCC. The shakuhatchi, or bamboo flute, player told us how he had made his "bass flute" himself. The smaller flutes he used were of plastic! I am including a few second of video of the koto player's performance. I could have listened to him a lot longer than his performance lasted.

A full schedule

Barely back from Thailand and my life in Japan has taken off in several directions, all very interesting. I may have mentioned the English Café, a small group that meets once a month to practice their English, but did I tell you that the host of this group is also an ikebana and tea ceremony master? This is the case and she has invited me to come to her house for lessons. Today I went after classes and joined two of her students in learning the tea ceremony and then in attempting to arrange flowers in the ikebana tradition or style. My knees are in pretty bad condition and getting worse form lack of practice, so the big challenge in all this is that the Japanese do theses things in seiza (sitting on the knees). The sensei kindly got me a stool and let me sit cross-legged most of the time, but I have to do some stretching to be able to continue. It was so interesting to see the tea ceremony, the utensils, the hundreds of little ritual details that go together to create a quiet, solemn ceremony. I enjoyed trying to communicate with the young ladies as well and one asked me if I would give her private English lessons. At the end of the lesson, the teacher loaned me a vase and frog to take home so I could keep my flowers at home!

Once the lessons were done, I went upstairs to have dinner with her family, the daughter with the three adorable children. The daughter’s husband is away in Tokyo getting training for a new job so it was just mom and the three little ones: two boys aged 10 and 7 and a little girl age 4. I had fun entertaining the kids while the dinner was being prepared and then we all sat on the floor around the low table and had an absolutely delicious meal. On the table was miso soup, a dish with sweetened rice, raw scallops, avocado and cooked shrimp, three kinds of sashimi, tuna, scallops and another fish I couldn’t name, and a salad, all of it delicious and eaten with gusto. Shortly after sitting down to eat we were joined by a younger sister and later, her mother, my teacher. While I only grasp parts of most conversations, it was so good just be “part of the family” for a short while and hear the day to day kinds of things people talk about. When it was time to go, every one came out to see me off on my bicycle, making sure I could manage the flowers and the vase in the basket on the front of my bike.

All of this follows on the heels of a very busy Saturday in which I had my second calligraphy class. I love the class and teacher. She speaks no English so we make do, but she is patient and kind. I'm starting with the writing that elementary kids learn, then I'll move to middle school writing and on the high school levels and beyond, if I make that much progress. It's relaxing and I don't care if her elementary age students look at me a little strangely, an old lady just learning her letters! This time I was on my own, no friend from Yamasa to interpret for me, but it worked out fine, the sensei had her grandson and daughter there and they helped with their halting English when I got stuck. The grandson has come up with a kanji (Chinese character) name for me, as calligraphers need one to sign their work. I was thrilled. Apparently he is quite talented at inventing names that have nice meanings and still sound sort of like your real name. He's only fourteen, but seemed to enjoy the challenge of figuring out a name that would work. When I can write it I’ll let you see!

Another addition to my schedule is an English class that I’ll be teaching on Wednesdays to a group of women from the Cultural Exchange Organization. The same group that gave us a cooking class just before I left for Thailand. Did I mention that? It was so much fun, but I haven’t had the time to even think about it since.

So, in short, it now appears that I am meeting some of my goals in coming here: to experience some Japanese culture first hand, to meet Japanese and try speaking with them in my halting Japanese, and to teach English and earn a little money to help pay for all these cultural things, which come with some overhead. For example, the brush for doing calligraphy is about $30.00. Today’s flowers were $10. If I get serious about the tea ceremony I could spend a LOT of money on the accoutrement. Probably I won’t go there, but the calligraphy is something I can see really getting into, if I have time. 

The pictures included here come from earlier events, an ikebana show I went to last month and the cooking class.

Matane…