Mt. Maya

Hello Dear Readers, Kendra here. This is a very late update indeed. This little mountain excursion took place around April 10 or so. So...with out further delay, here is our trip up Mt. Maya

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the flowers rejoicing, the hippopotamus chairs singing. The people coming with Aaron and I on this journey were Andrea, Abel, and Katherine. Mt. Maya is in the same chain as Mt. Rokko, which dear reader, I am sure you remember from our previous posts.

Here we are at the train station waiting for Katherine to arrive. She likes to arrive stylishly late. I'm not sure,dear reader, what Aaron is doing with his face...it is lovely though.

After finding our way to the start of the mountain path, we climbed for about 25 minutes before we decided it was lunch time! I think that perhaps our stomachs got the better of us. We found a nice pic-nic table and ate our benots(Japanese lunch box) and munched on various vegetables that Katherine had sliced.

We hiked and climbed and capered , it was a grand time. I found myself a trusty walking stick that must have been sadly abandoned by its previous owner. It served me well. After an hour of climbing we came to the start of the Stairs. The Stairs. It was the Stairwell to the top of the world...or so it seemed. Over 1,200 stone steps awaited us. We were keen on making a wager about who would make it to the top first. The bets were on! Whoever got to the top first got a free round of drinks on the losers. We were off, dear reader!

A few flights up and it seems I was beginning to feel the burn. Abel is trying a strange technique..not sure how that was going to work out for him. Katherine seems confident with her Romanesque pose of might, and Andrea seems like she doesn't care, and just wants to get this over with. We raced, struggled, sputtered, died, revived, stammered drunkenly, died again, and finally...made it to the top. Katherine won with her tortoise-like pace that she was able to keep up, while the rest of us, liken to the hare, ran up a few steps only to be beaten down by our horribly inadequate lung capacity. Katherine's victory dance was truly soul crushing.

The view from the top was indeed worth it. Beautiful tress (anybody know what they are?) in full bloom greeted us as if to say, "Those stairs are a bitch huh!" The man sitting next to us grilling delicate slices of meat was at first thought to be a mirage. But soon the smell of yakiniku (grilled meaty chunks) came wafting toward us. We had to vacate and quickly for fear that we might confront the old man and, like a pack of hungry bullies, steal his delicious foods.

But first, Katherine had to pay homage and give her hugs to a giant, beast of a tree. And of course, dear readers, it hugged back.

After even more stairs, we made it to the top of the mountain, which had been converted into a play ground/vending machine/landing spot for the cable car. We visited the vending machines and everyone bought sometime refreshing, or in Katherine's case, something corny and soupy seeing as how she bought a can of corn soup.

Then we made a side trip to the Buddhist temple that is on top of Mt. Maya. This edition of the temple was rather new, as is with the case with a lot of mountain temples, they seem to burn down frequently. This one was dedicated to Maya, the astrological, cosmological, totally-awesome mother of the Buddha. It also had these cute froggies who, if you rub them, will bring you luck of course!

This rather scary man was at the back of the parking lot...not sure if they just ran out of space or he scared the kids too much. Aaron thought was just awesome though.

And here are the Buddha's feet, dear reader! The whole place was really lovely and peaceful. Being on top of a mountain really does wonders for keeping out noisy tourists.

After we made our way down we cleaned up a bit then went to the World Buffet, a VIKING restaurant. And by viking they just mean all-you-can-eat. It's a decent place to get a meal that you will regret eating afterwards. It's got Italian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Japanese, and a few random things I just can't place. All with unlimited juice drinks and dessert. We even took advantage of the month's promotion and got free alcohol-free cocktails ranging in flavor from Lime Surprise, Pinky Candy, Tequila Sunrise, and Apple Vanilla. They all tasted quite horrible. Even mixing Lime Surprise and Pinky Candy did not improve the taste.

Here are a few videos. I have a bunch from this trip so I will post more later. The first one is of Abel and Katherine going to investigate the playground on the top of the mountain. They quickly abandon the idea. Next video is from on the way down. We found this random park full of odd play ground equipment. So we kind of played around for a bit. If you think I look graceless on this thing, you should have seen Katherine...fell right on her butt.

Till next time dear reader! I will do my best to make sure that the next up date doesn't take forever! Take it easy,
Kendra.

they're alive!

hey sorry for the unnecessarily long delay in updating. We've been busy. By busy I mean Aaron is addicted to Tetris Attack (panel de pon) and I've been dealing with my semi-dead computer. It keeps wanting to go to the blue screen of death every time I shut it down...

Anyways, we are off to enjoy the nice weather with a bike ride. The story on how Aaron finally got his bike when we get back! We will do some major updating with lots of embarrassing picture and what not.

Check back soon!

-Kendra

Birthday and Sakura

Sorry again for the long delay.Kendra here. We've been doing nothing for a while now...we ran out of money. For reals. Like, no money. We had enough for some food and we managed to scrape by with some help from some friends, but thank goodness I get paid tomorrow!

A while back, we got to celebrate our friend Mana's birthday at a park in Kyoto while doing some Hanami, sakura flower viewing. It was a delightful time. Here are some highlights.
This is the view from Shijo bridge overlooking the famous Kamogawa river in Kyoto. It's lined with all kinds of Sakura all the way down both banks. Brilliant.

Here is Aaraon and I (check out that crooked smile I am rocking...bah!)

This is one of the more famous trees in the park where we went. It is a variety of Sakura that resembles a weeping willow. They get very big and live a long time. This one has been around for quite a while. It is roped off so no one can hurt it. It's always surrounded with tons of people taking it's picture. They even light it up at night (see picture below)

So, the basic set up of one of these hanami trips is kind of like a pic-nic. Only, drinking is encouraged. Really encouraged. It's a big tradition to sit under the Sakura and write poetry and drink sake and lament about the beauty and impermanence of human existence. Or, do like we did and be noisy, blow bubbles, and drink . Although Aaron did compose some Haiku for Mana's birthday. (see video below)

Here is the Birthday girl Mana with Aaron at the start of the day. Nice shades!

Here is Mana and Karen starting with the bubble blowing madness. We figured we spread the love and blow bubbles all over the park. We've been drinking for a while by now.

Yah, you're reading that bag right...Sandpie Assort. It translates to Assorted Cream Pie Sandwich cookies. See. Sandpie Assort is soo much easier to say!

Not sure what is going on,but Andrea has a bottle of wine in her lap and looks really embarrassed or amused by something.

So, people started leaving by 8 pm, but a bunch of us stuck it out for a few more hours (bad idea!) and stayed until it started raining. Well, once it was really coming down, we decided to leave. On the way out, we passed the weeping Sakura with its night lights on. Ohh...aahhh.

The journey home was tough. I had on flip flops and the side walk was wet and I basically slip'n'slided my way to the train station. Once there we bought tickets then realized we missed the last train we could ride. So, we got our money back then called Andrea and begged to stay at her place. Of course, being the awesome person she is, she took us in. We were all wet and all kind of drunk (minus Katherine who doesn't drink) so we were a bunch of soggy yahoos and all ended up borrowing some of Andrea's socks...

This is on the train ride home next morning...nice. But before we left, we went to the Falafel garden and pigged out on falafels....the only place you can get them properly is in Kyoto, and myself being hung-over needed some good food. It was one of those great meals you eat after a hang over and feel 100% better. Amazing.

Before we got all the way home, we had to stop at a famous theatre in Gion (an entertainment district in Kyoto...not that kind of entertainment...this street is famous for traditional Japanese arts and Geisha tea houses). Every Spring they host the Miyako Odori, which a public performance of the geisha of Gion's dancing. I'm a huge fan of geisha art so I've been wanting to go since I was about 14. So, I spent the last bit of our money on the most expensive tickets >_< butttt....you get tea ceremony and a commemorative plate! We ended up with great tickets. I'd do a post about the show but no camera allowed in. I'll try and find some official pictures online or something.

Here is our attempt at poetry under the Sakura. It starts nice...the ends with shouting. Typical!

Our next post will be about out climb of Mt. Maya, Mt. Rokko's next door neighbor. Also, Mom and Jason are coming to visit in under a week! Oh boy!
Peace and love,
Kendra

Cherry Trees at my University

Hello everyone, Kendra here. School is back in session at my University, Kwansei Gakuin. in Nishinomiya city, about 1 hour by train from where we live in Kobe. I have started back up attending my adivsor's zemi which is just Japanese for seminar...semi...zemi; see it makes sense!
Anyways, the road leading up to my school is really famous for its Sakura. The whole area is just lined with row after row of beautiful, old cheery trees.

The Sakura just keep going! Like a whole row of pretty pink clouds all along the road.

I thought this was a funny shot. A regular old bench and underneath it a whole mound of sakura petals, it just made me laugh to look at it for some reason.

Here are more blankets of Sakura petals but this time in a garden so it looks quite a bit more magical than under a bench. This is on my campus in the Japanese garden area. The whole ground was carpeted in pink petals, truly an amazing sight.

A big, old sakura tree...kind of looks like a hand, no? A little creepy.

Cherry Trees and Martial Arts

Hey all, Aaron here. I'd like to take a moment to speak about a very memorable daytrip I took a couple weeks ago in Osaka. To bring you up to speed, there is a mystical magical tree in Japan that stays in bloom for only a couple weeks in March. It is called the Sakura tree, and it's actually a breed of cherry tree, though it doesn't get fruit like our cherry trees back home. Unfortunately, the blooming season has both come and gone now, but it's not too late to show some great photos and whatnot. You see, the trees have deep significance in Japan because the blooming and falling of the petals of the Sakura trees represent the brief and beautiful nature of life. So, the Japanese coat their streets and parks with these trees mostly for those few brief days of passing glory, during which time they often take off work and just sit and reflect (and drink--a lot--remember, it's legal in public here). Anyway, Kendra will tell you more about that later, but first, I'm going to tell you about my trip to Osaka with our friend Abel.

I was invited to go to an exhibition of a really neat martial art called Capoeira by our French friend Olivier (pronounced O-live-ee-ay) whom we met through Abel. Olivier is part of a club that participates in Capoeira, which is a Brazilian martial art that incorporates dancing into fighting. If you've ever seen Tony Jaa's The Protector, the guy in the temple with "pray" carved into his chest uses it. It was also used by the character Eddie in the Tekken games. Anyway, the exhibition was going on in a massive park that envelopes Osaka Castle. Abel and I ended up going through part of the castle's outer layers. It was my first castle--yay! Here are some photos of the park.

This is a great closeup of a fully bloomed sakura tree. Notice the great pink color and the density of petals. This was probably the best day of the year for these blossoms, and they were constantly flowing in the breeze. It was something.

This is an outpost on the inner walls of the outer moat. I couldn't believe how huge the outer moat of this castle was. I couldn't help but imagine giant armies marching up and facing such a huge ring of water. This is only one of many outposts on the wall.

Here is a different outpost near one of the outer gates. I really like the pine trees as well.


This is where Abel and I stopped for a snack. We had Yakisoba, which is grilled noodles. Most people don't know this, but most street venders are actually affiliated with the Yakuza, which is the Japanese mafia. It's a little strange paying them for food, but you have to remember that the Yakuza is a different kind of organized crime over here. They actually do a lot of good for the society. For instance, they were the first group to respond with aid after the devistating Kobe earthquake of 1995. We ate literally on the edge of the moat. From where I took this picture, we easily could have dropped at least 70 feet down in to the water below. It was pretty epic.


Here is the second moat, which you will notice doesn't have any water in it. Still pretty imposing. Note the line of sakura trees overhanging the walls. The whole park was coated in them.

Here's a pretty decent view of the Osaka skyline. This is from above the moat. In the water below, we could see the hugest koi fish ever, which are the gold-fish-ish carp that dwell everywhere in Japan.

And this is what you were looking for. This is the actual castle, within two sets of walls and moats. It's difficult to tell how big it is. There are windows and railings by the top. We could see visitors walking around up there. It's pretty big, but the complex around it makes it actually a very tiny part of the overall castle area. The architecture is pretty impressive.

Anyway, we checked out the castle and the park and then watched the Capoeira performances for a couple hours. Because of how quickly the performers were working, I couldn't get any good photos. But I do have about 25 videos of them, and I've picked out a couple here for you to watch. One of them is of our friend Olivier. I strongly recommend checking them out. Oh, I almost forgot. There was also a performing monkey in the castle complex. I have a great video of him doing a trick. Check that out as well. I hope you find the videos enjoyable. Oh, and so you know, Olivier is the one in the blue shirt, not the white. See you next time!

WooHoo!

Congratulations !!

Congratulations go to our cousin Shanna and her husband Jayson who just had their first baby! It's a boy and my mom tells me his name is Landon.

I got them a baby gift a while back in Kyoto, it was a real cute kids kimono that was all padded so they could wrap a baby up all tight in it, but....it's pink. I took a gable. Then again, who says baby boys can't wear pink.Who decided that huh, silly rule. If I have a baby boy someday, he'll have a pink mohawk. Ah, I digress!

So, good luck and best wishes cousin Shanna and Jayson on your new baby.

Let's Sumo!

Aaron here: So, last Thursday, we participated in a truly Japanese event. We went to see some wrastling! Of the Sumo persuasion, of course. It was very fun, and exciting, and we made an entire day out of it in the great city of Osaka. We had to get up pretty early to travel to Osaka to buy tickets. Unfortunately, though we got to the booths at 8:00 a.m., the line was ridiculously long, and a police officer on duty told us that we'd be better off waiting in line to buy the more expensive tickets. It ended up costing us about ten extra dollars each, but it was totally worth it.
Here's some introduction info for you. There are about 800 Sumo wrestlers in Japan. Because of this, Sumo is an all day, almost every day activity. We hit up a Macu (McDonald's) after buying our tickets, but we were seated around 10, and already, the bouts were going.

Here is Kendra and Katherine, still early in the morning. There is a large area of floor cushions around the arena, where anyone is allowed to sit until the owners of the seats arrive and boot you. So, we were sitting about 20 yards away from the arena for several hours. It was a good vantage point.

Like a concert, the wrestlers fight in order of rank. The beginners wrestle first, and the later in the day, the higher ranking the wrestlers. Here are a couple low-ranking wrestlers. We got to watch them close up, which was very interesting. You can tell they are low-ranking because of their dull-gray mawashi (their big diaper-ish wrestling garb). There were some real big boys, even in the younger, less experienced ranks.

Before each division of wrestlers began their bouts, they came out in very decorative outfits. The green one here is actually a picture of a small deer pushing a wheelchair-bound child along. We thought this was kind of strange, and it almost definitely means that that particular wrestler is from Nara (mentioned in previous posts) which is famous for its domestic deer population.

Later in the afternoon, we moved up to our seats. Here is a view of the Dohyo (arena) from farther up the stands. The arena is made completely of a special kind of clay. There were even cracks running through it. The boundaries are made of tightly wound straw that are partially buried into the clay.

In case you are unfamiliar with the rules of Sumo, they are very simple. Basically, once the match begins, one wrestler needs only to force the other to cross slightly over the circular boundary, or to tuch the dohyo with any part of their body other than their feet. Because of this, the matches often only last a few seconds.

Here is the introduction of the highest ranking wrestlers. The wrestlers are divided into two divisions--the East and the West. Actually, the divisions have nothing to do with where the wrestlers are from or what locations they represent. It is merely a way to make two groups to fight each other. For instance, there are two Yokozuna (top ranking wrestlers), one from the East, and one from the West, but neither have to be from either side of Japan. In fact, one of them right now is from Mongolia.

Below, there are two videos. One is the introduction dance of one of the Yokozuna. The other, is a video of the final match of the night, between the other Yokozuna and a Ozeki (second highest rank). This night, both Yokozuna lost, which is ridiculous. One of the them was 11-0 and the other was 10-1 before this night, so both of them losing is just strange. When there is a strong upset toward the end of a night, the crowd may throw their cushions to show how impressed they are. You can judge by the amount of cushions thrown in the video how impressed we all were. Enjoy.