Thursday, December 27, 2007

メリークリスマス

Merry Christmas everyone! The holiday season was indeed a joyous one over here. We had lots of fun, plenty of friends over, and way, way too many cookies.
Katherine, our buddy here in Kobe, is a master baker. She decided to make about 1,000 cookies for Christmas. In total she made almond crescents, snickeroodles (the majority of which was consumed in batter form), apricot jam chocolate chip, gingerbread men, and pumpkin chocolate chips...which made Anna cry. Lots of things made Anna cry this season, but mostly it was anything with pumpkin and chocolate chips in them,
We exchanged gag gifts and we also did a more serious gift exchange; lots of fun and everyone got something cool. People stated for a few days and we went shopping and ate out at lots of places. All in all it was a great time. Here are some pictures!


This was Christmas eve day. We are enjoying a nice stroll through a really crowded mall.
From left to right this is Hannah, Andrea, me, Anna, and Mana. They are all Fulbright Fellows as well. Hannah and Anna live on Kyuushuu, Mana lives in the Osaka area, and Andrea lives in Kyoto.
Here I am with my ugly Christmas sweater and my Christmas moustache.
This is the bounty of Christmas cookies that Katherine Made. We ate most of them Christmas Eve night around 11 pm...we all had a major sugar rush. We then ate the rest of them for breakfast Christmas morning.
Here is Mana with her Christmas ensemble, complete with Panda fanny pack (gag gift).
This is Hannah intently watching Charles at his turn of "Black Jenga," which is a Japanese version of Jenga where the pieces tell you to do or say funny and embarrassing things. He knocked it over that turn and had to eat this sugar Santa from the top of the Christmas cake.
Here we are the day after Christmas on our way to shop and eat giant Sasebo burgers at the cafe.From the left, Anna, Charles, Aaron, Ben S., Andrea, and Hannah. Charles doesn't always look like that I swear.

Aaron got me a beautiful kimono set and I got him an acoustic guitar.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas day. We missed you all. New years over here is pretty serious so we have even more events to celebrate before this year is done. I'll be sure to post some more pictures soon.
Happy Holidays!

Friday, December 14, 2007

神戸ルミナリエ Kobe Luminarie

Kendra here again. So, we are back from our trip to see the Luminaire festival and WOW it was worth it. But here are some older photos to show first.


I found this pretty little spot at my University while wandering around and killing time after a class was canceled.
Here is Aaron by a very, very large Asahi Beer can at Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers! Go Tigers!!!
Isn't this so cute! Aaron got it for me for Christmas, but, since it is a plant and all (see the tiny cactus in there) he didn't want to wrap it up for fear that it might die or something.
Okay, onto the Luminaire Festival. This festival started in 1995 to commemorate the many weeks people had to go without lights during the aftermath of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. The towering light sculptures were a donation from the Italian government and each bulb is individually hand painted. The lights go on for a few hours every night for about 2 weeks.
Needless to say, we weren't the only ones who turned out to see the lights. They didn't come on until about 5:30...we got there at 4:15 to get a good spot.
Here is Katherine and Aaron crammed in with hundreds of other people waiting to "ooh" and "ahh" at the lights. Anyone else notice the creepy, blurry baby in the background?
After a good long wait, Shazam! The lights go on, all while loud speakers blare out epic music with lots of church bells and chanting and such. Pretty sweet.
Looks like a painting or something, doesn't it?!
So basically, you could walk down this road with a million other people jostling for elbow room and see the pretty lights. But, they were really pretty and I recommend going to see it, even with all the crowds.
On the way back, we saw this kimono...what a mess! Hearts and leopard print. It's so modern it hurts. And it was a wedding kimono too! Ugh!

After this we went to eat at Pizza Patio! "Nothing Beatsa Patio Pizza," is their slogan and true to word it was the best pizza we have had in Japan. Not only was the menu extensive (and bonus! it had real pizza toppings instead of the regular corn, tuna, and mayonnaise) but it was reasonably priced. The decor was odd but snazzy; playing 50's American tunes but having a log-cabin type feel with random French paintings and-for some reason-pirate guns on the tables. Oh well, they had good food. Aaron was really excited because they claimed to have real pepperoni...alas, it was not to be. It was just ham in a circle shape. Still have yet to find pepperoni on a pizza here. They also had a really awesome looking cheese fondue course that Katherine (a vegetarian cheese-fanatic) was drooling over.

Now we have no more money to spend this weekend so we will spend it playing spider solitaire and doing sudokus. How exciting!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

It's beginning to look alot like...it did last month

Hello there, Kendra here. No new amazing pictures yet but tonight we are going to the Kobe Luminaire festival so we should get some nice pictures there. I bet it is snowy back in Michigan. Not here my friends. Not a single flake. It does get cold at night though. I hear rumor that it might snow here sometime, but I doubt this year. Just doesn't seem cold enough.

Nothing really too exciting been going on. Aaron and I are just about out of money for this month so we have been taking it easy and not really doing anything because doing anything in this country cost money.

Oh, I did finally get to go to a doctor about my ear. Yes, it is still ringing. It has been ringing non-stop since August. I really don't think it will ever stop. Sigh. So, the doctor here put me through the same tests a back home. My hearing in the left hear is permanently damaged but it is not that bad. Still within relatively normal limits. What drives me bonkers is the ringing!! I just want it to stop!! So, I am going to get an MRI done just to take a look-see in my brain to check it out. But, as the Japanese doctor said in his broken English, "To tell truth, there isn't much we can do for the ringing of ears. So sorry."

Hope everyone back home is happy and healthy! Enjoy the Holidays!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Mt. Rokko again!

Kendra here. So, since Aaron had to miss the last climbing of Mount Rokko, we decided to go before all the leaves fall off the trees. Before we left we had some tasty Ringo Pan. Ringo being Japanese for apple, and Pan being French for bread. Yah, French...they kind of use random loan words all over the place. Anyway...

Moving on. So, we packed a nice lunch and headed on over to the base of the mountain...the most boring part of the whole trip. Nothing but walking up a paved road. Boring! Give me nature!
So, we climb without any problems. Though we did run across three teenage Japanese boys with their shirts off taking a group picture of themselves. Odd, I know. And they all had kanji characters written in tape on their chests. Very odd. Well, aside from that, everything was awesome. We ate our lunch on the top of the mountain and we had a few mountain kitties to keep us company. We took a side trail to see this cool little lake at the top of the mountain. Neato!
Who is this mountaineer?! Here I am in my advanced adventure gear. WMU hoodies are essential climbing gear. So are big, obnoxious hats.
The mountains in Japan form in the shape of stairs for convenience.
Up close shot of some awesome Japanese Maple leaves.
And here is the tree they fell from.
Take a look at him! Upon walking back, as we passed another giant drainage ditch, I happened to look down into it and lo and behold! A big ol' wild boar! You can't really tell from this picture but he was so big! We were about 20ft up from the ditch so we weren't afraid of him attacking or anything. Then,we looked further up the ditch and there was Mama boar with two little boar babies...so cute. Daddy boar was just walking by not even caring about us or all the cars whizzing by up ahead. What a sight.

So that was our trip up Mt. Rokko, again. It is really getting rather cold so I am not sure if we will climb again till spring. In other news, the country has all gone insane for Christmas and people here are wearing ugly Christmas sweaters and playing some of the most annoying Christmas music I have ever heard. Techno Jingle Bells...

Aaron and I have decorated the house very simply with a few (very cheap) Christmas decorations. We even bought a cheap little Christmas tree. It is a real tree...just only about 1 ft tall. We'll post some pictures later.
Take care.

Oh and there is no snow over here. Repeat, no snow. Kendra is so happy.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Fall Tour in Kyoto

Don't worry, all you die-hard "where we live" installment fans. We'll get back to talking about the house in no time. But, I think it's more important right now to fill you in on a nice color tour we took in the city of Kyoto. In case you don't know, Kyoto is considered a sort of artistic center of Japan. It is where the Geisha entertainers are from, where Kabuki theater was created, and home of many temples. Fitting, then, that we should meat up with our friends Andea, Mana, and Charles near this statue of Okuni, the Miko (beginning Geisha) who started Kabuki.

Kabuki is a type of theater that incorporates elaborate dress, music, and dancing into a performance. Often, the plays are traditional Japanese stories, and are even spoken in old dialects. Ironically, this art, started by a woman, is now only allowed to be performed by men. Anyway, that's enough about that.


The town around the temples was beautiful. There were nice little rivers running through it, and plenty of Japanese Maples.

Hopefully this photo captures how rediculously huge this Shinto arch is. It's huge, 'nough said.


This is at the entrance to the first temple we visted. You can see that we weren't the only tourists. From here, we had to pay a fee to enter the actual temple complex. It was well worth it. Here's a couple pictures. They speak for themselves:



There wasn't any grass, but rather, this wonderful moss covering the ground. It really was a quite magical place.

Ooohhh! Aaahhhh!


Okay. After this temple, we stopped off at a nice Soba shop. Soba is a type of noodle served in a soup with nice chunks of whatever you want on top. I got chicken and egg, Kendra got duck. It was good. Then we checked out the touristy shops for a little while, and then went to another temple complex. It was only open after dark, which was very nice, because they had lamps shining on all the fall foliage. Even up the side of the mountain. Here's some night trees:

Okay, this next picture is of some importance. This specific temple is famous for having a fountain that is said to contain water that will give you extra long life if you drink it.

Guess what, we drank it! We waited in line and drank some of the cool, delicious, life-giving water. It was fun. You put these long cups under the water streams, pull it in, and take a drink. Then you put the cups in the ultra-violet light machine that staralizes the cup for the next person. Needless to say, we'll be alright for quite a while after this magic water. Sorry, but you can only get it in Kyoto. That was our last stop before making our way home. It was a lovely day trip. I recommend it to anyone who lives within a couple hours train-ride of Kyoto, and to anyone who wants to live forever. This is Aaron, the eternal, signing off.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Japan Thanksgiving Extravaganza 2007!

Hey gang. Time to take a break from talking about the house and fill you in on our holiday experiences. Don't worry, we won't forget about the exciting action of the "where we live" installments. They are sure to return.

Hopefully everyone back home in the good ol' U.S. of A. had a wonderful turkey day. We sure did. I should start by explaining that even during the first couple days of orientation in Tokyo, back in September, it was decided that because of our ample amount of space in our three story house, the Thanksgiving party for the Fulbrighters would be at our place. As we love to host parties, we took on this task optimistically.

Because Thanksgiving isn't a national holiday in Japan, everyone had obligations on Thursday, so we knew it would have to be a weekend endeavor. Several of our guests couldn't make it until Sunday, so that became our Thanksgiving day. In the weeks before the event, our guest list began to grow, as Fulbrighters began inviting their friends along. Not having the heart to turn Americans down (especially because several of them are here teaching English with a company called NOVA, which has just declared bankrupsy and isn't paying their employees) everyone who got invited was allowed to come. Our final total, 20 people! It was a huge crew.

Everyone brought a dish to pass, or drinks, or something to offer for the festivities. Friends started arriving as early as Friday morning from all over the country. The first to arrive was our Friend Anna, who lives on Kyushu, the Southernmost main island of Japan. If you recall from an earlier post, we went to visit near where she is from a couple weeks ago. She came by ferry, just as we did.

By Friday night, there were 6 of us, and by Saturday night, 10. On Saturday, Kendra led an expedition up Mt. Rokko for some fall foliage watching. Here's a picture.



They ended up taking a different route back down the mountain than last time, and found this neat little pond up in the hills. Pretty, huh? I (Aaron) stayed home, awaiting other guests' arrival. That night, we all went out for Mexican food, and stopped out at an all you can play arcade. It was quite fun. Sunday, it got crazy.

All day, eveyone scrambled to cook their contribution to the meal. We had about 16 people in the livingroom/kitchen for most of the day. Needless to say, the kitchen was a brutal mess.

We had the stove and two hot plates going. It smelled great, and everyone was very hungry. But it took forever to get everything ready. Amidst the chaos, Katherine found a secluded place to prepare part of her contribution.


Yes, this is our stairway. Anway. We didn't have nearly enough room for everyone upstairs, so we decided to use the sacred tatami room on the bottom floor for our dinner (see upcoming post on the tatami room for more information).

Picture this, only with 20 people instead of seven. Yeah, it was a little tight. We actually had to spread out in the room during the actual meal. If you look closely, you'll see that the left portion of our dinner table is actually the door to our wash room. Hey, we had to work with what we had.

Also, many of us wore little turkey/native american headgear that our friend Mana made for us on the Shinkansen (bullet train) ride over. Here she is, sporting her decorative hat:

As for food, we had one of the craziest spreads I've ever seen. Picture twenty people each bringing something different to the table. We had a great combination of classic American and traditional Japanese food in one epoc meal. First thanksgiving I ever ate octopus at:

Yes, that's a tentacle. Andrea nad Anna did an excellent job making a traditional Kansai dish called Takoyaki. Tako is the Japanese word for octopus, (not to be confused with Mexican tacos)and yaki just means something grilled (though it usually just refers to anything cooked in a pan of any kind). They are like tiny dumplings with a piece of octopus inside. Quite excellent.

Alright, I'm sure your wondering, "they had octopus, but did they have Turkey?" Don't worry friends. We had turkey like we've never had turkey before. Actually, it took Kendra and I two separate trips to the nearby Rokko island (a man-made island accessible by train) to find a turkey. Don't gasp too hard, but it cost us around $50 American for a roughly 14 lb turkey. It was worth it.

Kendra decided she wanted to brine the turkey, which is sort of like a marinade, but not really. Anyway, the brine had to be in a container big enough to hold a whole turkey, and it had to be refrigerated. So, naturally, we just used the crisper drawer:


So, problem one was finding the turkey. Problem two was figuring out how to brine it. Problem three was figuring out a way to cook it without an oven. We knew that no matter what we did, we were going to have to disassemble the turkey and cook it piece by piece. Kendra did a masterful job hacking the bird to pieces, despite her lack of a proper chopping knife. First, it was the sound of cracking bone, and then the sizzle of searing flesh. Into the pan the pieces went, one by one, fried to a golden brown perfection.


It was seriously some of the best Turkey I've ever had. I was so thankful to have it, I wrote this Haiku:

Golden crispy skin
Enveloping sweet white meat
Making me thankful

And I was very pleased, because even though I was in Japan, I still got the holy trinity of Thanksgiving: Turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Actually, there were two kinds of mashed potatoes. We had pie, and pumpkin pasties. Kendra made spiced cider, and we had home made fruity sangria. Overall, it was a great success. So that's our Thanksgiving story. Hope your holiday was just as memorable!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The Entryway

Now, for the one you've been waiting for...the entryway! Excitement abounds! Anyway, it's not the most exciting thing in the house, but it is the first thing you see when you get here, and it does have some interesting differences from most American entrances. First of all, let me show you what the whole house looks like from the outside:


Note that the buildings directly adjacent on either side are about four inches away. I guess I should be measuring in metric, but I still don't understand it! The buildings are not connected in anyway, but they are literally four inches apart, the whole length of the building. We even have windows that open up, and all you see is the wall of the building next to you. Anyway, there is a garage on the right where Kendra parks her bike, and we put extra garbage that we don't know what to do with. To the left is the gate and the doorway. Let's take a closer look:

This gate/door combination is actually very similar to several other houses on the block, which made it hard at first to find the right one. But I got it now. As you can see, this gate is a state of the art defense system that holds out any intruders (Because Japan is full of intruders [they may not have sarcasm in this country, but I still have it]). But if the gate doesn't stop them, the locking system will, and I'm not kidding about this. The door has two locks, in case one might fail:

See, there is a lock at the top and bottom of the door handle. You'd think you could just use one, to be quicker, but then we you have to open it from the outside, it becomes a guessing game, and you end up locking the unlocked part and it just gets complicated, so at this point, I've succumbed to using both locks, at all times. If those two locks aren't enough to keep enemies at bay, there is also this little bugger:


Just flip the steel loop over, and nobody can get in, not even with a key. So, our triple lock system keeps us safe from the brutally rough neighborhood we live in. Now we don't have to worry about the six year olds that hang out in the alley busting in.

Okay, once inside the house, there is a very important step that you must take in every Japanese house you go into. You have to take off your shoes! To bring dirt into the house is among the greatest of taboos. Every Japanese house I've been in has been equipped with a single step up into the house. You leave your shoes off at the bottom, and you put your slippers on at the top. You can never walk on the bottom with slippers, and you can never walk on the top with your shoes on. Here's what it looks like:


This little area is known as the Genkan. Don't tell anyone, but when we have American friends over, we don't make them follow the rules. Shhhh. We often don't ourselves, although the colder temperatures are leading me to wear the slippers more often. But to a Japanese person, these rules are dire. To illustrate, let me give you a brief anecdote. When we were first staying with our host mother, Tanigawa-san, Kendra was away at class, and I was left at home helping her run errands. One of the first things we did was go to a friend's house to get a new sofa to put into our house. Keep in mind that Tanigawa-san is a 62 year old woman. She and I carried a sofa out of a house and into another, and each time we crossed this threshold, she stopped to take off slippers and put on shoes, take off shoes to put on slippers, and I followed suit, for fear of being exported. Here is a 62 year old woman kicking off shoes and putting on slippers while holding a couch. If that wasn't enough, the same week, we did the whole bit again, with a refrigerator! I almost died trying to put on tennishoes without my hands, while holding a fridge. But you just don't go down the step without shoes on. It's a cardinal sin. Anyway, you might be wondering, where does everyone put there shoes if they have to take them off? I'll show you:


These handy cupboards have ample room for Kendra's countless shoes, and our half-dozen umbrellas. It's actually quite handy. And when shut, the entrance looks quite nice. So that's the entryway. Exciting stuff.
Also, I have an edit to the "Toilet" post. Upon further inspection, I've come to find that the yellow button with wavy lines is not for the seat heater, but is actually the hot air blower for drying yourself off. The red button isn't the air blower, but actually an alternate water sprayer. You see, the blue one is a jet stream for deap cleansing, and the red one is more of a sprinkler. The seat heater is controlled by a dial behind a plastic door. Hope that clears things up. And no, I generally don't use the buttons.