Yellow Rice Fields

[Taylor]

Here’s what it looks like around here right now.  Lots of yellow rice fields, blue skies, and green mountains.

Microwave Pie and Stove Top Nabe

[Julie]

Apple season in Aomori inspired me to make 3 apple pies in the past 2 weeks.  Here’s a look at my first attempt:

before.....

after!

The second and third attempt didn’t stick around long enough for a photo shoot, as some students at a private English class promptly gobbled them up.

All three pies were baked in a microwave oven with only one heating element above the pie and none below.  The first pie crust I made using canola oil, which held together really well, but didn’t have much to offer as far as flavor.  I used butter to make the last two, which tasted better, but didn’t really form a crust.  The bottom of the pie melded into the apple innards.  Please send any pie crust recipes my way!

I tried a new miso fish dish with vegetables.  It was supposed to be cooked in a nabe pot, but I was able to use a covered fry pan on low heat to achieve the same effect.  Here’s a look:

Go Update

[Taylor]

On the second Saturday of every month, my local Go club holds a tournament at the community center.  It’s a low key event.  At the most we have eight people show up and they’re all pretty much club regulars.  First place gets a plastic shopping bag full of tissue boxes.  People who take second and third get the same prize just with fewer boxes and if you participate at all you get two boxes of tissue.

Because of my low ability I was never able to play during these monthly tournaments, that is until last Saturday.  After attending the Go club regularly for about a year, I was finally invited to participate in the tournament.  Of the four games I played, I only won one.  This is partly because I’ve moved up a stone (or rank) again and thus didn’t receive as many stones on the board against some opponents as I normally do.  I’ve had a lot of success in Go the past month, but now that I’ve become a little stronger it looks like I’m going to have to learn through making mistakes again.  Which is fine.

On Sunday I’ll be attending a Go festival in Aomori City.  About 400 people from various parts of Japan will be there, too.  I managed to snag a spot on a five person team with a local electric company.  After the tournament we’ll be treated to a lesson from a professional Go player.  I’m stoked to say the least.

Anyway, once the tournament is over I’ll let you know how it went.  I’ll also include a picture or two.

Summer Break, Britni’s visit: Aomori

[Julie]

My good friend since college, Britni, was able to visit us in Japan from July 31st – August 17th. For the first part of her trip, she was able to observe our daily lives in Aomori, experience a few festivals, and get a feel for the community of Noheji.

During this time, I hosted an “English party” for the students of a private English teacher in town. Britni was the guest of honor.

That afternoon we visited Asamushi Aquarium, about a 30 minute drive from Noheji.

We geared up for the Aomori Nebuta festival. Nothing cures jet-lag like jumping up and down in the streets for 2 hours straight.

After spending a day with me at my office and trying out yoga the next evening, we set off to conquer our next festival: Goshogawara Tachi Neputa.

We were able to join in with the dancing portion of the parade for a bit.

That weekend my tea ceremony teacher, Toriyama-sensei, provided a ceremony for Britni, me, and a Misaki-san, a friend from the college where I teach from time to time. It was so beautiful and relaxing.

Toriyama-sensei has been my Chado (tea ceremony) teacher for the past year. Such a wonderful woman!

Usually the guests and host sits on the floor during a tea ceremony, but she set up tables and chairs for us sense our knees aren't used to that kind of stress. Thank you!

On our last day for the Aomori part of her visit, Britni met the pastor at our church down the hill and afterwards Misaki-san acted as a tour guide to show us Hirosaki City. We enjoyed a stroll through the Hirosaki castle grounds, and later a tour of the Hirosaki Neputa showcase building.

Hirosaki Castle, Julie, Britni, and Misaki-san

Hirosaki Nebuta Museum

Playing with traditional Japanese toys at the Hirosaki Nebuta Museum.

The next day we would be traveling to Kyoto.

Summer Break, Britni’s visit: Kyoto

It took 7 hours to travel from Noheji to Kyoto by train.  Our $3 coffee (!) and novels made the time fly by quickly.  We left early enough to leave time to start exploring Kyoto on the day we arrived.

On the train

Kyoto City

Our first day, we managed to see Toji Temple, featuring the tallest pagoda in Japan, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine, featuring all of the bright orange Shinto gates framing a path through the mountainside.  We also managed to eat some yummy sushi and then bus to our hostel.

Toji

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine

The next day, we rented bikes from the hostel; only $1 for the whole day!  We were delayed by a punctured tire, but still managed to visit Ryoanji (rock garden), Kinkakuji (aka the Golden Pavillion), Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kyoto National Museum, and the Kiyomizu (pure water) temple.  Whew!  This was my favorite day of the whole trip, because of the bikes.  It was sooo hot, so the breeze felt really nice and we were making really good time (better than the busses we passed).

Ryoanji

Kinkakuji

Kyoto Imperial Palace

Kyoto National Museum

Kiyomisu "Pure Water" Temple

View from Kiyomisu

On our third and last day in Kyoto, we went to Arashiyama to visit a famous bridge and a monkey park.  So cute!

Togetsukyo Bridge

We took a train to Tokyo that afternoon.

Summer Break, Britni’s visit: Tokyo

[Julie]

After arriving at Tokyo Station, we were able to navigate to our hostel train stop just fine, but we wandered for a good hour longer than we needed to before finally arriving at the actual hostel.  We actually walked right by it once, failing to notice the tiny sign in the window across the street from where we were walking.  After our third round of asking for directions, we found it!

Keeping with the trend, we decided to explore the area without a map or destination in mind.  We ended up stumbing upon not only a vending machine with HUGE cans of soda, but also a very polite waiter of a fancy bistro who gave us directions to a cheap yet delicious sushi place.  We found our way back with minimal confusion.

The next 5 days went like this: Disney Sea, shopping Harajuku and Shibuya, Ueno Park and Zoo, baseball at Tokyo Dome, and saying farewell at Tokyo Station.

Disney train

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

red panda, Ueno Zoo

anteater

flamingos

Ueno Park Fountain

Tokyo Dome

Hanshin Tigers vs. Yomiuri Giants

Tiger fans cheered their team to victory!

Thunder Dolphin, roller coaster near Tokyo Dome.

We did this at night! The view from the top was beautiful and the ride was crazy!

Thanks for visiting, Britni! )

Last Days of Summer

[Taylor]

Actually, summer is over.  Typhoon season is officially in session and fall is right around the corner.  However, we still had some fantastic summery weather this weekend.  To celebrate the last bit of summer, as well as some birthdays, an ALT gathering was held at a beach on the outskirts of Hachinohe this weekend.

Hardcore fishing. At one point this guy had three rods going at once.

Those two pictures were obviously taken with my cell phone. I wish I’d have taken my camera with me because the light was just about perfect in the late afternoon.

As for the event itself, it was an awesome time. There was a healthy mix of conversation, swimming, frisbee, football, and barbecue.  I was able to meet a bunch of new ALTs in our area and catch up with some not-so-new people who I hadn’t seen in a while as well. The new crew is a pretty solid bunch.

In what was probably the most surreal moment on the weekend, one of the (awesome) new ALTs told me that I looked familiar.  Then he realized he had seen pictures of me on our blog before his arrival to Japan.  He’d Googled for Hachinohe blogs and stumbled upon our entry about the concert and unexpected springtime blizzard amidst cherry blossoms.  I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised as we purposely tag entries so people can find them, but I was.  It’s a small world I guess.  Or maybe just a small Aomori-ken blogosphere.

Anyway, we may have a few more entries in the works later in the week.  Julie wants to write up an entry or two about her trip to Tokyo and Kyoto with our friend Britni.  There may also be an entry about omnikin ball and I’m debating about whether or not I want to type something up about the recent election here in Japan.  We’ll see.

Gone Fishin’

[Taylor]

As you may recall, my friend Bryan and I went hunting in June.  By “hunting” I mean stumbling around in the woods in the morning looking for animals with no intention of harming them.  A few weeks back we decided we should also go fishing.  But it was agreed that needed to make our equipment.

After going on a few reconnaissance missions to our local river, I discovered that the preferred way to fish involved using a telescopic rod without a reel to catch the tiny, inch long fish swimming up and downstream.  Instead of buying a fancy telescopic rod, we purchased bamboo poles about fifteen feet in length and duct taped fishing line on at the end.  For bait we used some flies and mosquitoes that died in our stairwell the night before.

Although we didn’t catch any fish, and some ants carried off most of our bait while we weren’t looking, it was a huge success.  Highlights included spotting a river crab (!), locating a small school of fish just out of reach of our gear, snagging a newspaper and possibly some sort of worm-like creature, identifying birds, and enjoying what might have been the best weather we’ve had all summer.

“

Bryan snagged an unidentified decomposing invertebrate.

Snagged some twigs. Earlier I caught newspaper.

Julie trying to coax a crab out of hiding.

More photos here.  We’re planning on going fishing again in the fall when the local trout return to Noheji River.

Fireworks

[Taylor]

On the third day of the Noheji Festival, we went to the beach with friends and watched a glorious fireworks show.  The guy who planned the performance choreographed the fireworks to music which pumped out of a big set of speakers on the sand.  My favorite melody was the “William Tell Overture.”

Also, in the middle of the show, we were given a brief lecture on fireworks.  During this time a single firework was sent into the sky and, after it exploded, someone would explain what kind of firework it was to the audience.  It was kind of cool.

Check out this video:

And these photos:

More photos here.

Noheji Gion Festival

[Taylor]

In Japan I’d say just about every town has a festival or some well known event that takes place at the same time each year.  Every August, a few weeks after Nebuta, Noheji celebrates its Gion Festival — a four day event featuring parades, floats, food, fireworks, dancing, and music.

I think we’ve mentioned this before, but back in the day (in Japan this means hundreds of years ago) Noheji was a major shipping port.  We’ve been told that Noheji sort of acted like the middleman along maritime trade routes between Hokkaido and Kyoto (the old capital city).  As you can probably imagine, the sailors and merchants brought back some cultural elements of Kyoto in addition to goods and merchandise.

Nowhere is this more evident than the Noheji Gion Festival.  The Noheji Festival borrows heavily from the Kyoto Gion Festival.  The music, dancing, floats, and geisha style performers are all very similar.  Though to be fair, it’s not completely identical.

I mentioned earlier that just about every town has a festival.  The week before I was able to attend a festival in our neighbor town of Hiranai.  A person I was with explained the history of the festival and how its origins were rooted in religion.  He went on to add that nowadays people in Japan aren’t so religious and implied that the festival was more of a way to remember the past and the people who have come before us.  I think today’s Noheji Gion Festival serves a similar purpose.  People have been living in the Noheji area for hundreds years.  It seems the festival is an attempt to link this sense of history and tradition to the present.  Or maybe it’s just an excuse to have fun, eat fried food, and shoot off fireworks.

Anyway, on with the photos.