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.

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!

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.

The Toilet!

Introducing the greatest achievement in technological history (or just a freak over-complication of something inherently simplistic, depending on your point of view)--the modern Japanese toilet (not to be confused with the old-school Japanese toilet, which is a totally different story, sure to be told later on). From far off, it appears like any ordinary old--oh, who am I kidding--the thing is a monstrosity! It's a freak of modern science, born from the crazed mind of a crap-driven mad man. Alright, enough intro, let's get to the meat and potatoes of this thing. Here is the toilet in its entirety:

It's probably too small to see in this picture, but I assure you that it says "Toto" somewhere on this toilet--and any other toilet in this country, for that matter. As far as I can tell, Toto has a monopoly on toilets and toilet supplies. I've seen infinite variations of toilets, but all, the old and the new, have the Toto brand name on them. Also, almost all new toilets here are made of plastic, not porcelain. No more praying to the porcelain god! You'll also notice that the water is blue, as though someone had just put toilet bowl cleaner into it. Well, in a way, they did, thanks to the handy dandy tank refill system, pictured here:

You see, in American style toilets, when you flush, the water is released, and a pipeline fills up the tank with fresh water, so it's ready to flush again. The same is true here, only the pipeline that fills up the tank opens above the tank, into a faucet, where fresh tank water runs through a hole into the tank. This allows the water to flow through a pretty porcelain ball, which contains a gel of toilet bowl cleaner. The water runs through it, and turns blue and clean before filling the tank again. It's pretty clever, really. Okay, you probably also noticed that this particular toilet is also equipped with an arm rest. Good eye. Let's take a closer look:

Ooohh, gadgets! That's right. I bet you wish your toilet had adjustments. It took us weeks to figure all this crap out. The orange button on the left is the stop button. This is very important, because you never know what kind of trouble you might get into on this thing, and this is your failsafe. Okay, it should be fairly obvious what the blue button does. Yes, that is a picture of water spraying some nether regions, and that's exactly what that button does. I'll now point you toward the dial on the far right. This is a power adjustment knob. It controls the volume and velocity of water flowage. Trust me, you don't want to accidentally turn that up to full blast if you're going to use the blue button. It's not--comfortable. As for the red button, well, the Japanese think of everything. Once your butt is sprayed clean, you need some way to dry it, right? The red button is a heated air blower to help dry your bum. The power knob also affects the amount of air you get. The yellow button with the wavy lines is to turn on the heated seat--I think. There is also a little plastic door you can open that hides three more adjustment knobs, but I haven't really bothered looking into those. I still haven't decided whether the Japanese motives for the heated toilet are so that you don't sit on a cold seat (they're plastic, remember) or that they just don't want to know whether somebody else was just sitting there or not. In more fancy/business buildings, the heated seat mode is permanently on. I actually can't stand the heated seat when it's hot and humid outside. As if your butt doesn't get sweaty enough, right? Anyway, for the first two weeks we lived here, we couldn't figure out how to shut off the heated seat, so we just unplugged the toilet when we didn't want to use it. That's right, this toilet has a plug. So that's the modern Japanese toilet, in all its glory. And now I know what Captain Picard must feel like, when he takes a crap on the starship Enterprise.

WhereWe Live - Installments.

Aaron here. Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Nothing very exciting has happened this week. We purposely tried not to do too much, as we've been spending a little too much money lately. But, we needed to take advantage of the fall festivals, while they were going on. Anywho, now that we have internet, I plan on posted more often, beginning with a set of installments that show the various parts of our house, and some specifics outlining what makes a Japanese house different from your average American house. Hope they entertain and enlighten you.

We have lift-off

Yatta!!!! We have internet at the house! Our wireless is still a problem, but at least we have a connection through the wall. I am sure Aaron is at home dancing around with his laptop.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon. The other Fulbrighters are going to all crash at our place for a while so it should be a pretty big/fun party for a while.

Been feeling the first twangs of homesickness. It happens after being away from home after about 3 months; after the initial joy of being in a new place is gone. I just wish I would have brought more printed pictures with me. I have frames and lots of fridge magnets (thanks mom!) but now I have no pictures to put in them!! Whine, whine.

Nothing else too exciting to update. Life can be boring over here too.

Boats, Trains, and Buses

Kendra:

This past weekend most schools in Japan had a school festival, so Aaron and I had a long weekend. We decided to join some friends on a trip to Kyūshū, the third largest of the 4 main island of Japan. To be economical we traveled by overnight ferry. Pretty good deal too.

Our ferry kind of looked like this one up here.
While on Kyūshū we went to a city called Fukuoka. This place is famous for its numeros yatai's. A yatai is the coolest thing ever!! It is basically a food vendor on the street but it has seats and usually a curtain up to keep the wind out. It is like your own private party. The menu is usually just snack type food, or food made for drinking with beer. I had ramen and Aaron had an eggplant dish with meat. Very tasty.

Then since we are such big pigs, we went to an izakaiya, which is a traditional Japanese style bar. They all are a little different but all of them are going to have lots of drinks an usually specailty regional food. The one we went to had nabe which is like a stew that you cook at your table then take the pieces out of the broth then dip either in raw egg or sauce. Oh, and according to the sign up here, this place was staffed by nudist. Could they read it? Who knows.

Here we are in Yanagawa, getting ready for the festival.

There were over 200 of these gondola-type boats all particpating in this "boat parade." Basically, you rent a boat and everyone brings food and drinks and you go down the river while people on the banks light fireworks and yell, "Konbanwa! Irashaimase!" Which basically means "Hello, good evening, welcome!" Also, people with loud speakers would be shouting "Banzai!," which is like "Horray!" in english. One group saw us and that we were Americans and yelled, "You know English? Horray! Horray!" instead of the usual "Banzai!" It was very funny.

The festival we went to is in honor of Hakushu Kitahara, a poet who wrote about Yanagawa. So groups all along the river were singing songs that had his poetry in them. But mainly, the think the big attraction at this festival is the boats and the fireworks...lots of fireworks.

Here we are getting our send off as our boat started its way down the river. The guy in the blue is a samurai.Yah, like swords and stuff samurai. Except well, modern day samurai can't very well go around chopping off heads and stuff, so they basically just own hotels and make people pay to see their families old samurai stuff.

This guy was a hoot. This was at bathroom stop number one. This guy just basically danced around like a crazy person and joked around with people whose boat parked under his pavillion. He mock punched me in the head. Very..er..interesting.

So, all the boats were basically stuffed to the brim with explosives of the firework kind. Here is Aaron demonstrating the proper technique of holding the fire over the water not the boat. Can't say that everone really had this concept down, but as far as I know, no boat was lost to fire damage.

There were also many taiko drummers set up along the river. I got some amazing video of it but I can't figure out how to post it on here. It is all in Japanese and I can't read the directions!

The next day, we bought a shorter day-time boat trip. It was cool to see the place in the day time as well. Our boatman was about 150 years old I swear. But, he was cool.

Ohh...pretty!

More pretty things.

So all in all, a good trip. Wish we had more time to relax though. We spent most of the time commuting from place to place.

Also, we got stopped by the police for the first time. And no, we were not doing anything wrong. This is going to sounds a little bad, but simply being a young foreigner in a large group walking around at night is enough to get you stopped. Not that crazy really. The only part that makes me mad is that we seriously were doing nothing wrong. I mean, we were not even being the slighest bit noisy. Basically it was just because we were young and foreign. All we had to do though was show them our Alien registration cards and that was it, so it really wasn't a big deal. The guy was actually pretty nice.

Christmas decorations are becoming more and more abundant. They have had some up for over two weeks now but last weekend they really went into x-mas overdrive. They don't have thanksgiving here of course so they jump right to christmas. We are trying to find thanksgiving-type food but it is hard to find it. We got stuffing (600 yen-$5.20) for one small box! and some frozen corn but that is about it.

We should be getting the internet by the end of this week, so finally Aaron will be able to get on here. He is going kind of crazy without it.

Till then! Bye!