Mt. Shosha

This post is catching up a bit from a little while ago, it seems to have slipped through the cracks, but last month we took a trip out to Mt. Shosha, a small mountain at the west edge of Himeji. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful spots in the city. There's a ropeway that leads from the base of the mountain up to the top, where there's a temple. We took the ropeway up and then walked around the temple complex.
Fall was a great time of year to go because of the changing colour of the leaves. This led to not only a beautiful walk around the temple, but also a gorgeous ride on the ropeway above the trees. In fact, the fall foliage was probably the best attraction of the trip, although the temple had some interesting sights. There were several buildings, including a meeting room and a school. One of the buildings featured a roof composed of two different styles. The blending of these styles was supposed to represent harmony in nature.
-Jason

You seriously think I know that?

I get a lot of random questions thrown at me in the course of the day. Most of them come from students and frequently I can't even figure out what they're trying to ask me.
But, my teachers also put me on the spot. Drilling me in front of the class without having given me a heads-up about the topic. These questions usually aren't too bad -- they want to know what's another way to say something or they want me to provide a sample sentence for something. I always think of a much better example later, but that's life.
However, sometimes the teachers ask me things that I have no prayer of answering. In my mind I'm saying, "you seriously think I know that?" I guess I should be flattered that they think I'm that smart, but it feels like they expect me to be a human Google.
Today's was a doozie! "What is one Japanese Yen in Indian Rupees?" Yea, I have no idea.

Note: one Japanese Yen is equal to half a Rupee.
Did any of you actually know that without having to look it up?

Ieshima Island

This weekend we decided to take a boat from Himeji Port to Ieshima Island. This is the biggest of a number of islands just a few miles off Himeji's coast in the Inland Sea. It was a little bit of an adventure, since we weren't sure exactly where to catch the boat or what time it left or anything. However, we found the boat, got on, then got off at the next stop, which we hoped was Ieshima. It was. We thought we might be in trouble, though, when a man came up to us on the dock and said "I think you are in trouble." Fortunately, he just meant he thought we needed help, because we were intently studying the timetable trying to figure out when the boat headed back to Himeji. He was able to help us.
We're not sure if it was because it was Sunday, but the island was very quiet. It was kind of a big, forested hill sticking out of the water, with all the buildings right down on the water along the base of the hill. There was one main road that followed the coastline, and most buildings seemed to be along that road. Chelsey and I took a walk along the road. Aside from the occasional van or scooter zooming by, there sure wasn't a lot of activity. We eventually found a restaurant for lunch, although it was so quiet we wouldn't have been sure it was a restaurant if we hadn't been able to read the Japanese characters for "restaurant." (Japanese classes paying off already!) We were the only customers. Remarkably, the cook spoke English, which helped with our order. I got some shrimp, since the island was supposed to be known for its seafood. Perhaps that means this particular restaurant, since it was the only one we saw. My shrimp also came with some sea salt, which apparently came out of the inland sea.
After lunch we hiked up the hill a bit. Jason met some of the local wild life and we found a temple, but we decided to head back to the boat because it was starting to rain.
-Jason

There are more Ieshima pictures on the picasa site. Plus, I finally had time to go back and upload many other albums.

Tegarayama Park

We rode our bikes down to explore Tegarayama Park this afternoon. This is a large complex in the center of town that is home to the city's aquarium, peace museum, botanical garden, municipal baseball field, an amusement park, a swimming pool/natatorium and a track, to name a few. The entire park sits on top of a hill, so it has a great view of the rest of the city.
We were amused by the castle motif that runs through the park. It seems a bit random and we couldn't quite figure it out, but it was fun to climb around and through the castle walls, gates and towers as we walked through the park.
We had two items of information we hoped to learn on our trip. 1. when would the aquarium re-open. We knew that it was currently closed for repairs and we are hoping it'll reopen soon. We found the aquarium and checked the signs -- but our combined translating efforts only resulted in confirming the date which it closed. Either it didn't say or we couldn't figure out when it will reopen.
2. Is the track open for the general public? Jason is anxious to find a place where he can do a few track workouts in the next few weeks. The main gates to the track were open and nobody seemed to mind when we just walked right in. So Jason's going to bike down there one afternoon and try to run on the track.
Oh, and there's another building (possibly part of the WWII/peace monument) that looks just like the air traffic control tower at LAX.

takoyaki

Takoyaki = octopus balls (no, not like Rocky Mountain Oysters). They are dough balls that have a piece of octopus inside them. We've tried them and they're OK. Not my favorite but certainly preferable to some of the other crazy seafood concoctions the Japanese people come up with. We were at a street fair today that had all kinds of food booths and there was a man in a takoyaki costume.
I did my best to impersonate all of the little Japanese children who stood next to him to get their picture taken -- this means shrugging your shoulders and giving the peace sign. I'm not sure why but this is the standard picture pose for Japanese kids.

sweet potato

Every so often we hear this chanting coming from the street in front of our apartment. There are temples all over the place and a church across the street, so I assumed they were some sort of religious chant or call to prayer.
It turns out that it's a guy who sells sweet potatoes out of the back of his van and he's actually saying (in Japanese, of course) "Sweet potaaaaaaato."
There's really nothing to see in this video, but you can hear him calling.

Weekend update

We had a fairly quiet weekend last weekend. Saturday we mostly used for running some errands. There was a potluck birthday party downstairs Saturday night, so Chelsey figured out how to make some delicious cookies in our toaster oven. They were a big hit, and I was gracious enough to allow some of them to make it to the party.
Sunday we decided to go down and hop on a train and then get off at a random station that looked interesting. We ended up at Tatsuno, a town to the south of Himeji. What caught our eye from the train was a shrine that looked interesting. We poked around a bit. There was a big statue of a horse, and a small statue of a rabbit that spit water from its mouth if you got close. (The water is part of a purification ritual). After looking at the temple, we walked around town a bit. It was an interesting, quiet little town. At the south edge of town, the bullet train (shinkansen) tracks ran along the hill and into a tunnel. As we were walking, we saw four shinkansen fly by, two in each direction. They were fairly quiet for the speed they were traveling. We ended up walking along a nice path by the river that runs through the town, where we saw a restaurant shaped like a boat with a chicken on top. It was a beautiful day to be out exploring.
-Jason

culture day

We had culture day at my junior high school earlier this month. The festivities were shortened because they were worried about having everyone in the gym all day because of the flu -- though that turned out not to matter since 2/3 of the school was out with the next last week.
The festival included a class chorus contest, koto concert, the English club's rendition of the Wizard of Oz, some dancing and the presentation of awards to outstanding students.
Jason came to school with me that day. He was curious about the play. The students had been working on this for quite a long time (about a year and a half), and they were pretty good. When we could hear them (there was some random music inserted here and there), we could understand what they were saying. The combination of the Japanese interpretation and the students' simplification of the English created some funny lines -- can you imagine Aunt Em really saying "Shut up, Dorothy"?

a school full of sick kids

I'm enjoying a quiet evening at home. Jason has picked up a couple of teaching jobs. He splits some night classes with our neighbor, so he's gone every-other Tuesday. -- You know Jason, he doesn't talk that much -- but it's still amazing how quiet it is around here when he's gone. I'd thought I might go out for a walk this evening, but there's been a steady rain since this afternoon.
I'm having a bizarre week at school. Last Friday was the school's Culture Festival (I'm working on the blog about it, I hope to post it soon). It's normally a full-day event, but due to fears about the flu, it was shortened to a half day. They required all of the students to wear masks and encouraged the other attendees to do so, too.
Monday morning the phone was ringing non-stop in the teachers' room with parents calling their children in sick. If there are 4-5 children in one homeroom class who are sick, then they "cancel" that class. All of the children in that class are immediately sent home and usually don't return to school for several days. There are about 120 7th grade students at my school and on Monday more than half of them called in sick. In one homeroom, 29 of the 39 students were sick. So, all of the 7th grade classes were canceled for the entire week. They say that the students "have the flu", but I'm really not sure if this means the normal seasonal flu, the swine flu or just a fever. I know it isn't a good situation to be surrounded by that many sick people, but so far I'm not too worried about it. I just wash my hands a lot and try to be careful.
Today (Tuesday), the 8th grade classes were canceled for the rest of the week and all of those students were sent home. So the only students who will be at the school for the rest of the week are the 9th graders -- I'm curious to see whether they all get sent home, too.
Interestingly, even though the classes are canceled and the students aren't there, the teachers are still required to go to school. So, even though I won't be teaching a single class this week (the 9th graders have exams), I am required to be there all day every day. I even have to stay after school for what is the club activity time, even though all of the club activities are canceled. I've done some preparation work, though there's really not too much I can do. So I study Japanese or read a book. They really don't care what I'm doing, it's just that my physical presence is important (this is a very Japanese concept).
One teacher said today that the classes will be made up over their holiday break. It was strange how the teachers all just seemed to accept that as the way things are. I can't imagine suddenly telling American teachers that they didn't get Christmas break, and they'd have to come to school and teach every day. They'd strike. But here that's just the way it is. -- I think that I am exempt from going in over the holidays, but if not, then I'll take some vacation time. --

Games and Gardens

A couple of weeks ago Chelsey and I spent a quiet weekend taking in some things in Himeji. We started with the gardens next to the castle. They're public gardens, a showcase of traditional Japanese gardens. It's divided into nine areas, such as the "pine tree garden", "bamboo garden", and "garden with a hill and pond". It was a really nice walk going through them. I'm sure it helped that it's autumn and the leaves are changing colour, which is especially beautiful in a garden, but I think it would have been neat at any time. As a result of the ponds in the gardens, we also learned that a koi fish is another name for coloured carp, so it was educational as well!
After the gardens we headed for a game lesson at the International Center. This is where we take Japanese classes, and they also have a library with some English books and newspapers. They had advertised a class for foreigners to learn Shogi and Go (or Igo as they call it). We turned out to be the only foreigners who showed up for the class. The only other person was the instructor, who didn't speak English that well. Nevertheless, he tried to teach us Igo. It was somewhat successful, we were able to play although I sure didn't understand all the rules. That probably partially explains why neither Chelsey and I were a match for him. I've looked up some of the rules online now, and I think I'll be ready to go next time.
After the games, we went out for Indian food. We don't eat out often, but this was the second Indian food place we've tried in Himeji. This prompted Chelsey to note that almost half the times we've eaten out, it's been Indian.
-Jason

Nara

On Halloween Chelsey and I took a trip to Nara. It's about two hours by train, a little longer than to Kyoto, mostly because we had to change trains in Osaka. Like Kyoto, Nara is one of the historic cultural centers of Japan. It's something of the birthplace of Japanese culture, or at least one of the earliest points. It's where Buddhism was introduced to Japan, and was the first capital of Japan, although it soon lost that title to Kyoto.
Our guide books made a deal out of how much smaller Nara is compared to Kyoto, so we were sort of expecting a sleepy little town. We were a little surprised, then, to pull in on the train to what seemed like a fairly sizable city. Smaller, certainly, than Kyoto or Osaka, but not what I would call a small town. Nevertheless, the sites we wanted to see were in easy walking distance from the train station and from each other.
The walk did, however, include passing through the thousand or so deer that inhabit Nara Koen, the park on the east side of the city where most of the big sites are. The deer were believed to be messengers of the gods. Now they're semi-tame, and just wander all over with no real regard for people. Lots of people were petting them or feeding them; there are stands that sell "deer food" for people to give the animals. Many of the deer, no dummies, set up camp next to these stands, waiting for people to come and give them food. After spending our day wandering through all the deer, Chelsey decided she likes them better from at least a small distance, rather than right next to you.
After making our way through the deer, we found Nara's most famous site: a giant statue of seated Buddha, the largest bronze Buddha in the world. Moreover, it's housed in the largest wooden building in the world, although the building is only 2/3 the size it originally was. According to the models inside, it's quite a bit narrower now than before it was damaged by fire. Buddha himself has been subject to fire, earthquake and other disasters during his time, but he remains an impressively large figure.
We walked through a couple of other shrines and temples in the park, and largely just enjoyed being in a peaceful, natural setting.
-Jason
There are more pictures (and video of the deer) on the picasa page.

public toilets

Public toilets here run the whole range from super-high-tech and really fancy to super-low-tech.
The first picture is of a noise maker inside a public toilet. When you enter the stall this little machine starts to make noises -- something like a waterfall, I guess. At first, I didn't know what the sound was and it kind of freaked me out. I guess this noise is a courtesy to those who are shy about using the toilet in public.
The second picture is of what I call the "squatty potty." This is a women's toilet that has no seat. It's just a basin in the ground. I've found they're kind of awkward to use, and I can't figure out how the 90-year-olds manage them without falling over. Clearly, my technique needs some work.

Hello Kitty Challenge

Hello Kitty is very popular here. You see Hello Kitty merchandise everywhere and on everything. Last week I saw Hello Kitty Q-tips!! This has inspired me to start the Hello Kitty Challenge. Please name an item, any item, and I will find and take a picture of it emblazoned with the Hello Kitty logo.

Himeji Castle renovation

Himeji Castle is getting a face lift. They've started on one of the side wings of the castle. We've heard varying dates on when they're actually going to start on the main building. We're hoping that it's not until at least May (after the Cherry Blossom viewing season).
This is a clip from the local English-language newspaper. It shows what the main building looks like now and the smaller photo below is what it's going to look like during construction. They're going to build a massive box around it. Apparently the main building is going to be covered for 5 years!! So we know that we have to enjoy it now.

Halloween party

Halloween's not a big deal in Japan, although we did see pumpkins and assorted Halloween decorations in a few shops. As part of our community outreach efforts, however, the residents of our apartment threw a Halloween party for the neighbourhood kids. Parents brought the kids to the building, where we had set up games and activities for them, and then we took them trick or treating through the building. Most of them seemed to have fun. I was manning the pumpkin fishing booth. Afterward I helped Chelsey lead her group of kids on their trick-or-treating adventure. One of the kids in her group dressed up as a wall, which made going up and down the stairs difficult.
In case you were wondering, Chelsey was grapes for Halloween. I put a lot less work into my costume; I found a frog mask at the 100-yen shop and so went as a frog. As it turned out, my partner at the pumpkin fishing station had a similar costume, only he was a monkey.

***The label for Jason's frog mask actually included an English (well, kind of English) message. It's so funny that we just have to share it ...
-Do not force to wear it when the size is not suitable.
-Do not use this product improperly.
-It might discolor by sweat, friction and getting wet.
-This product cannot be washed.
-In case of unusual symptom appearing, stop using and consult the doctor.
-It might narrow your view and cause unexpected accidents. Please be careful when you wear it.
-Choking hazard. Do not put in the mouth.
-Please do not show it to person with weak heart. It might harm the body.
-Do not treat this product violently. It might damage.
-Please note that it might tear if you pull too hard.
-Keep out of the reach of children.