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Weekend wrap
For Ruby, the weekend started on Thursday, when she was sent home for two days because about a third of her class was away with flu. Such excitement! So much time to hang around and do nothing! Until we discovered that the school is planning to deduct two days from the holidays to compensate. We’re hoping they’ll decide to tack them onto the end of the term rather than the start of next term, because Ruby’s bestest friend Tess is coming to visit on the last day of school and Ruby’s already decided that she’s not going back to school come what may. Whereas if the extra days are at the start of next term it will be harder to morally reconcile not going. So she enjoyed her time off although there’s only so much iPodding, blogging, scrolling endlessly through FaceBook and looking up random things on YouTube before the dreaded boredom starts to set in, testing the patience of any parents in the vicinity, and it was with some sense of relief that we were finally able to push her out the door this morning (Monday).
On Friday, I took Felix snowboarding for the day. I had forgotten to formally ask his teacher the day before but apparently he told her himself and she didn’t bat an eyelid so I guess it was OK. Haven’t had a call from the school yet anyway. The place we went had cheap lessons so I decided to enrol us both but Felix was dead against the idea. In the end however there were no other students for the afternoon session and the cheery instructors were so desperate to teach someone that they offered to give us a dedicated lesson each, and furthermore to refund Felix’s fee if he didn’t like it after half an hour. Well we could hardly refuse an offer like that, and Felix ended up having a great time, not least because the instructors both agreed to a snowfight at the end of the lesson, much to his delight.
On the way back from the slopes we witnessed the most exciting event to take place in our sleepy hamlet for the last six months, ever since the minor collision on the main road during the morning peak that backed up traffic for miles and made all the teachers late for school. I’m talking of course about the OPENING OF THE NEW SEVEN-ELEVEN IN TOWN. Now I hardly need remind you (but if you do need reminding read this) that convenience stores in Japan are amazing things, combining about fifteen different stores in one handy location with a multitude of services. More importantly, they carry a wide range of sandwiches and bentos and sushi packs and all sorts of goodies. I’m especially pleased that we’ve scored a 7-11, which carries my favourite steamed cheesecakes that you can’t get at other convenience stores. It’s so much better than the old Poplar convenience store that closed down last September. So lunchtime is now looking extra good at Sushi on a Stick HQ.
Saturday was soccer training for Felix’s young team, and this week I was on duty for the parent roster, which involves setting up a little tent with a camp table and chairs and laying out all the drinks and biscuits you’ve thoughtfully purchased during the week along with one of those dinky push-button hot water pots (a glorified thermos) and tea and coffee and whatnot. Then when the other parents turn up you take them all cups of coffee on a tray with a selection of biscuits and milk and sugar and little spoons to stir it with and everything. When the coaches wander over you have to zoom out with coffees too to show how much you appreciate their hard work. It’s all so very civilized, I’m thinking I should introduce something along these lines back in Australia. (I’d love to call it “ladies bring a plate” but I don’t think that’d go down too well.)
Sunday saw the Old Man and his Bass up on stage at the Mihara Community Center for some sort of international festival dedicated to the Philippines and Thailand (presumably because there are a few Filipino and Thai people in Japan, although I never did quite work out the reasoning behind it). The band was just cobbled together at the last minute (literally; we had all of 15 minutes’ rehearsal) and they must have been lacking a bass player so Yanagi-san the nice saxophonist guy from the Poporo brass band asked if I’d help out. Then the drummer asked me afterwards if I’d be able to do a few more gigs so it looks like my career has finally taken off, at the tender age of 45.
And to top it off, the Mihara Community Center is right opposite Mr Donuts so we all popped in for a celebratory round thing afterwards.
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Annual jazzfest
Avid readers of Sushi on a Stick may remember that the kids and I play in the local community brass band here in Mihara, also known as the Poporo Junior Swing Orchestra or PJO. This is the one where the kids get centre billing while the adults (or “supporters” as we are technically called) get to feel all warm and rosy that we can still get a gig at our age. At least that’s how I feel about it.
Well, Sunday was the big event on the PJO calendar. We’ve already done a few concerts here and there, including the Illumination Ceremony last November at the local arts and culture center, but the annual jazz concert in February is by far the most important. There are three different bands on the program (including PJO), plus a random Famous Musician who gets invited in as special guest, and for the last part of the concert we all join up together to form a truly big band with something like 40 musicians.
One of the lovely things about PJO is that the kids get to stand up the front and do solos. As luck would have it, this year there was a bit of a trumpeter shortage and Felix was lucky enough to score his very own 15 seconds of fame. In the lead-up to the concert I was forcing him to practice virtually every day in order to avoid shame and disappointment on the night, and though I suspect the neighbours are now utterly sick of bars 52 to 63 from The Girl from Ipanema, it was definitely all worth it, as you can see below.
I swear I’m not a pushy stage parent, honest.
Incidentally this weekend was also the Shinmei-ichi Festival, likewise one of the major events on the Mihara festival calendar. Although to be honest it isn’t really a festival, just a long string of outdoor stalls strung along the road behind the station. The posters say there are over 500 stalls, but according to my reckoning there are only about fifteen different variants (fried food, beer and noodles, plastic toys, knock-the-prize-over-with-a-plastic-ball games, etc etc) and they just repeat endlessly all the way down the street. So I wasn’t highly motivated to begin with. We went last year already. And the weather was horrible (it snowed on Friday). Plus we were busy with rehearsals and the concert itself and, well, apathy. Thus it was that the unthinkable came to pass: we stayed away from a cultural event.
So I’d like to apologise right here and now for failing in my solemn duty to experience and report back on important cultural happenings in our locality. You can always read last year’s report.
Next week, however, is the Naked Man Festival at Kui up in the mountains, and that’s one I definitely don’t want to miss. (Here’s what it looked like last year by the way.) Stay tuned for a full report.
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Visitor frenzy
A couple of weeks ago we had friends James and Caro and their daughters Clem and Floss for a six-day stay right here in Sunami Heights. Despite the fact that they’d just spent a week skiing in Nagano and were understandably tired, we determined to take them around as many of our haunts as possible.
The fun began on Friday, when we hauled them straight off to our favourite Cafe Hoxton by the sea:
and then on to Takehara for a dose of genuine Old Japan:
followed by some temple action.
As it so happened that weekend was the annual Tondo festival at Felix’s primary school, the one where you burn all your New Year resolutions in a huge flaming bonfire made of tinder-dry bamboo and then toast mochi rice-cakes on the glowing embers. Which was a bit nostalgic for us, because this very festival was our first major defining cultural event when we arrived in Japan one year ago.
The festival was on the Sunday, and I’d put up my hand to help out with preparations, so on Saturday I was delegated to head up the mountains behind the school with a team of Sturdy Locals to find some nice bamboo to put in the fire. I did wonder whether clambering all over the hillside hacking off bits of bamboo at random might not be a bit environmentally unfriendly, but it was pointed out to me that there’s no shortage of the stuff. Officially we were performing a community service by thinning out the forest and reducing the risk of bushfire, or something along those lines. I got the job of trooping down the mountain carrying the main piece of bamboo which was too long to carry on the truck. On the way down the hill we came across a Real Live Monkey just sitting on top of someone’s roof, which caused a big stir: around these parts it’s quite common to spot wild boars (no really) and other wildlife but no-one had ever seen a monkey before.
On the day of the festival itself we forced James to embarrass himself pounding the mochi rice. It’s a rite of passage. I did mine last year.
And then we watched as the delegated Year 6 kids lit the bamboo fires with impressive flaming torches, under the watchful eye of the local fire brigade. Bamboo burns very fiercely, not unlike Australian gum trees I imagine, and it gives you some idea (albeit from a safe distance with trained fire-fighting personnel nearby) of how frightening a real bushfire must be up close.
That’s my stick right in the middle!
Afterwards we all sat around and ate noodles in the tents that Daddy had helped set up the day before (what a pillar of the local community). Eleni was on kitchen duty at the time; notice the traditional helping-at-a-festival headgear.
The next day we took the ferry across to the neighbouring island:
and did the obligatory “I’m the king/queen of the world” shot:
The main purpose of our visit to Setoda was to catch some more culture at Kosanji temple:
Actually it wasn’t the culture at all. On top of the hill inside the temple complex is this marble wonderland fashioned entirely from imported Carrara marble (the temple guy was apparently a converted entrepreneur) including a rather nice cafe that serves pizza and coffee. It’s just to the right in this photo:
And the pizza was actually pretty good, but unfortunately it doesn’t really present as a future pizza option given that in order to get one you’d have to pay the entrance fee to the temple (¥1000) plus the fare for the ferry there and back (¥900) in addition to the cost of the pizza itself, making it highly uneconomical. Still, an excellent place to bring friends.
On the last day we took everyone out for Okonomiyaki at our favourite place that luckily has just enough space for eight people (the other three are sitting around the corner):
We also did some Karaoke that night but the videos and photos have been suppressed to protect the innocent.
There were countless other highlights including a bento box picnic up on top of Mt Fudekage against the backdrop of the Seto Inland sea; a session for the girls at the Print Club sticker machines; several expeditions to the mighty ¥100 shops; a couple of trips to the local onsen (even Ruby finally acquiesced); and the quintessentially Japanese experience of sitting around watching a DVD of Flying High (too much fun can be exhausting).
So what a celebration of Sunami life it was. And I’m pleased to announce that we have a steady stream of visitors coming down our way during the year and we’re looking forward to doing it all again, and again, and again. It’s always nice to show people around and you get to appreciate your world from a new perspective each time.
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From the vaults
Avid readers of these pages will recall the terrible tragedy that occurred on Christmas Day 2010, namely, the loss of Felix’s favourite soccer ball into the murky depths of the Seto Inland Sea.
Well, we’ve recently come across dramatic footage of that very moment and the aftermath, captured for posterity by Ruby with her new Christmas present.
I’m thinking of submitting this to the National Archives as I’ve no doubt that one day it will have massive historical significance. Meanwhile you can relive the moment right here right now.
Warning: contains graphic scenes of childhood angst.
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Akita 2
It was snowing when we arrived in Akita a week ago and pretty much hasn’t let up since. According to Eku, normally it snows for a few days and then the weather will fine up for a while. That softens the snow and gives everyone a breather from the endless shoveling. But the non-stop snowfalls have reached record levels now. There aren’t enough snowploughs to clear it all away, and they’re running out of places to pile it up.
Out the back window of our house the snow has been gaining about half a metre per day; it’s well above two metres by now, and one by one the trees are disappearing into the drift.
You can just make out a bump in the foreground on the left; that used to be a small tree. That thing at the back next to the tree is a light pole. Next week it’ll probably be gone too.
For the first couple of days I was shoveling away snow from the side of the house as it fell off the roof but we had to abandon that too, because there’s still heaps of snow on the roof and nowhere for it to go. The snow could come thundering off the roof and bury you at any moment. As a result, the entire house is now blanketed in a thick layer that goes up one side and down over the other.
As we drive around town I’m amazed that society still continues to function. The roads are in an atrocious state, many of them reduced to one lane. You can’t drive at more than 40 km/h so the pace of life has been halved. How on earth the trucks and delivery vehicles manage to get around is beyond me. Yet it seems to be business as usual at the shops and supermarkets. Speaking of which, going to the shops is a major undertaking. Assuming that you can get the car out of the garage, you have to negotiate your way along roads that you can barely even make out. The poles that used to mark the road boundaries are now all but buried. There are high walls of snow on either side but what with the wind and the swirling snow, sometimes you can’t even see the boundary between road and wall. At the supermarket there is a white lake where the car park used to be. Outside the car of course it’s freezingly cold (top temperature today was -4° C). When you come back you have to brush off a whole new layer of snow from the car, then you have to turn the demister on full blast for a couple of minutes so you can see out the windscreen, and only then are you ready to negotiate the journey back home.
Every morning Eku spends an hour or so shoveling the snow from in front of her garage just so she can get the car out. (Annoying snow fact: the snowplough comes along at 3:30 a.m. to clear the road which is nice, but in the process it piles all the snow up in front of the garages along the way.) Everywhere you look people are shoveling snow: off the rooftops, in front of their homes and shops, off the roads.
The record snowfalls are playing havoc with the trains which is a bit scary as we’re due to leave tomorrow. I rang up the railways and they assured me that we can always catch a later train if ours is delayed but at this rate we won’t get back to Mihara until midnight.
It’s certainly been an educational experience. When we first came up here, we couldn’t get enough of the white stuff. Now, I’m praying for it to stop so that we just can catch our train home back to a normal life. Finally I’m starting to sympathise with those who regard snow as an annoyance; I can see how much effort is involved. Plus when the sky is grey and low and the snow is swirling all around, the world can seem a miserable place. Could we have lived like this for two years? Well, the weather this week has been record-breaking on a number of levels so it’s hard to say. In a normal year, the full-on snow season only lasts for about two months, so I still reckon it would have been fun. But it’s safe to say that winter 2011 would have sorely tested our resolve, just as summer 2010 did.
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Akita
I’m writing from chilly Akita up in northern Japan, where we’ve come to stay for a week with our longstanding friend Eku, who along with her now departed husband Shige was a surrogate parent to us during our Young Person years in Tokyo.
Akita is snow country, and this year Japan has been having record snowfalls (hot on the heels of the record hot summer), and the first thing to say is that there’s an UNBELIEVABLE amount of snow around the place. It’s been snowing nonstop for three days and nights which apparently is unprecedented even in this part of the country.
The first couple of nights we stayed at a hotel located at a popular onsen (hot springs) and ski resort called Lake Tazawako. When the weather is fine you can see the enormous lake spread about before you as you hurtle down the mountain but the view was blocked by all these snowflakes falling out of the sky. In any case the lack of view didn’t matter too much because the kids and I had decided to take up snowboarding, so there was very little hurtling and quite a bit of falling over in the snow. But snowboarding looks like excellent fun once you can get your balance, and we’re determined to get in as much practice as possible before the ski season ends in March.
The hotel had its own onsen, including even an outdoor bit where you sit in the hot spring while snow flakes fall on your head, which was rather nice. The meals were amazing too; the table was crowded with so many little pots and pans of various delicacies that there was barely room to put down your chopsticks.
The next day we caught a cute little local train over to Eku’s place:
At some points the rails were buried in snow and it was quite eerie to be thundering through a sea of white where the lines overhead were almost the only thing visible.
Eku’s station is so small it’s just a platform and this little hut:
(We’re all squinting because the sun came out at that moment.)
Anyway here we are now ensconced in Eku’s house which is surrounded by a metre or two of snow all around. Every morning I go outside to shovel away the snow that’s fallen off the roof during the night. Some days there is so much that it reaches right up to the roofline.
This morning we went for a walk through the world of pure white. The houses are all covered in a thick layer of soft fresh snow like icing on a wedding cake, that droops from the eaves and occasionally falls to the ground with a huge thud. (Akita fact: don’t walk near the roof line as a huge lump of snow could come crashing down on your head at any time.)
The Akita visit has special significance because this is the place where we were originally planning to spend our two years in Japan, before Eleni unilaterally declared that it would be too cold. Living by the sea in Sunami is lovely too, but the kids and I have never quite forgiven mummy for depriving us of the joy of snow and we’ve been using every opportunity possible this week to point out how beautiful it is and how much fun we could have had.
Although I have to admit that the novelty of shoveling snow every morning might wear off after a couple of months.
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Christmas wrap
Well that’s another Christmas out of the way. At least now it’s safe to go back into the department stores again, which is always nice.
First there was the opening of the presents in bed. (This photo was taken with Ruby’s present. You guessed it: a camera.)
There followed a frenzied session of cooking by mummy and daddy while the kids played with their loot. Ruby went and shot video clips of herself singing and dancing, while Felix did his best to destroy his new lego creations.
The end result: a traditional roast Christmas dinner but this time it’s actually cold weather outside for a change. Eleni had cleverly prepared a Christmas pudding weeks earlier so we got to have that too with brandy butter and everything. A friend had thoughtfully mailed us four Christmas crackers from Australia several months back. They’d been waiting all that time on top of the cupboard just for this moment. Oh the fun we had.
Then we all got dressed up in beanies coats scarves and gloves and went for a bracing walk along the beach. Felix wanted to take his ball. Against my better judgement I said yes. Against my better judgement I tried to play kick to kick with him. The result?
Click here to find out.
That afternoon I went out and bought him a new ball.
Despite the ball fiasco Felix declared Christmas 2011 to be “one of the best” while Ruby was well pleased with her haul and Eleni and I thought we did a good job of the Christmas meal.
Meanwhile, 2011 is shaping up as an exciting year for a number of reasons:
• January is officially silly season in the Sushi on a Stick household. First of all, the kids and I are off skiing on 2-3 January at a place near Hiroshima (Eleni tragically is a late scratching due to the broken cheekbone). Then comes Eleni’s birthday. A couple of days later we set off on the big family trip up north to Akita, where a bit more skiing will be taking place. Normal school/work programming resumes for a week in the middle of January, then we’ve got friends coming on the 20th so further shenanigans will undoubtedly ensue, and that takes us through to 26 Jan.
• Ruby’s friend Tess is coming over at the end of March for a couple of weeks and we’re going to drive up to Osaka to pick her up then take the opportunity to check out Universal Studios while we’re there.
• Katy Perry is coming to Japan in May and we’re all going to drive up to Osaka (again!) to check out a pop concert experience. Apparently it’s a fairly small venue (2,000 capacity) so we should be fairly close to the action. Felix is already practicing his shoulder-ride technique on Ruby so he can get a good view. Though he is mightily disgusted that we didn’t get to see Lady GaGa in April this year, when she played at Kobe, a measly three hours up the road, and I share his frustration. That would have been one interesting concert.
• Term 3 (Jan-March) will be only nine weeks long, what with a week off at the start for Akita and a few days off at the end to go up to Osaka, and then it’s the end of year holidays, yay.
• Ruby bravely told her teacher that she’s quitting the brass band so as of next April she’ll be getting home at the very reasonable hour of about four o’clock every day, affording much more time for Skype, email, Facebook, homework, helping with meal preparation (as if) etc etc.
• And, we’ve got a steady succession of visitors arriving at various times during the year and we’re looking forward to showing them around our tiny seaside corner of Japan.So bring on 2011!
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How to make a maiko
First of all, what’s a maiko? Ruby’s recent dress-up experience in Kyoto was called “maiko” rather than “geisha” as we might expect.
That’s because in Kyoto they don’t use the term geisha; the correct word is “geiko”. And an apprentice geiko is called a maiko, so there you go.
Anyway I thought it might be fun to document the hour-long process of creating a maiko out of a normal person.
First of all, you have to get rid of all that pesky hair by stuffing it into a net.
Then start painting on the White Stuff. Start at the back, making this little pattern at the base of the neck rather than going all the way up. (Is that like in Goldfinger to let the skin breath so the maiko doesn’t die?)
Then do the front:
Instant goth! Or was that emo.
Now for the eyes.
And of course those lips!
Avril Lavigne, eat your heart out. (In her earlier incarnation, that is. Before she sold out and went all girly.)
The wig makes all the difference. But it’s still Ruby in there.
The finishing touches, including spray-painting any stray tell-tale brown hairs.
Now it’s time for the kimono fit-out. It took ages to choose a kimono and matching band, but then… that’s the fun of dressing up, isn’t it?
Wig decorations go in…
…and it’s off to the studio for a rock star photoshoot!
Here’s the finished product:
And one with the family for good measure:
It takes another hour to get all the make-up off again, and while I was waiting it was funny to see all these people emerging again after their maiko experiences, back in their normal clothes and normal lives once more. The whole dressing up and being a rock star for an hour thing is literally a transforming experience, with interesting parallels to those people who dress up in masks at Carnevale time in Venice.
And I have to say that I quite enjoyed playing the role of rock star minder for an hour too. If only I’d been a bit more enterprising I could have put out a hat and started charging for photo opportunities to cover costs. Never mind, there’s always next time.
Incidentally, if you’re ever in Kyoto and feel like dressing up as a maiko, the place we went to was called Aya and their website is here.
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Kyoto
OK strap yourselves in, it’s going to be a big one.
Last weekend we took a three-day trip up to Kyoto to fulfill a longstanding promise to give Ruby an ancient traditional cultural geisha dress-up experience.
I must admit to having been a bit apprehensive about the trip for weeks beforehand (the journey there, that is, not Kyoto itself) due to the prospect of tackling the Japanese freeway system, which is prone to chronic congestion as we discovered during Golden Week. However I’m pleased to report that there were no traffic jams at all and we were able to sail straight into Kyoto with minimal driver frustration in the very reasonable time of about four and a half hours, which puts Kyoto well within reach for future visits.
Now it just so happens that last weekend was one of the busiest weekends on the Kyoto calendar, right up there with the cherry blossom viewing in April. And the reason is that it’s that part of autumn where the leaves on the trees (possibly certain specific species of trees, maybe Japanese maples although I couldn’t be sure) turn a beautiful shade of red. The Japanese go mad for cherry blossoms as we all know, and it turns out they go almost equally mad for the Red Leaves of November. For instance, inside the Mihara station building in town there’s a little chart showing the best Red Leaf Viewing Spots in the local area, complete with colour-coded indicators that suggest the best time to go for maximum viewing pleasure.
So, having found ourselves in the midst of an Important Cultural Event by default, we felt obliged to take the only honourable course of action which was to snap 1,000,000 photos of the things. To this end, following our triumphant arrival by freeway just after lunch, we headed straight off to Tofukuji, which Eleni had been advised by one of her students was the best place in Kyoto to view them.
Here then are some of our our digital offerings:
Felix models the Red Leaves on his head for extra added effect:
And on his hand. Botanists among you should be able to work out the species from this photo.
At one point within Kofukuji there is this special platform for viewing the Red Leaves where you have to pay an extra ¥400 and wait in line with hundreds of other visitors and then inch your way out on to the platform and then fight one another for access to the prime photo positions with the reddest leaves. So we decided to give that one a miss, but for the sake of posterity here’s what the viewing platform looks like from the other side:
After that we abandoned the kids for a while in order to check out a nearby rock garden in peace and solitude, notwithstanding the hundreds of others attempting to do the same.
Eleni’s over there somewhere:
Oh, and here’s another one. Can’t get enough of them.
By this stage it was getting late so we picked up the kids and did a quick whiz around the other Old Things at Tofukuji, including this rather nice edifice:
When we got back to our hotel the kids were very excited to find that despite being lowly budget accommodation it was fully equipped with a heated toilet seat with built-in bum washer AND a lid that automatically flips up when you open the toilet door. Definitely the highlight of Day 1.
On Day 2 we headed off to a very fine castle called Nijo-jo as recommended by our friend Yumi. (As you can see, we’re happy to be told what to do and where to go: visit here, take photos of those leaves, whatever. It’s so much easier than having to read the books.) Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take photos inside Niji-jo Castle although I accidentally did snap this one before Eleni alerted me to the huge No Photos You Idiot sign at the entrance.
And out the front of the main building. Felix now fancies himself as a photographer which means that I get to get my head in a few more shots these days.
Nijo-jo is famed for its nightingale floors which emit a little squeak when you step on them — apparently this was to alert the occupants to the presence of intruders if they stole in during the night. Of course there were thousands of us trooping through the building that day so it was hard to tell if it really was the floorboards squeaking or, as Ruby suggested, little nightingale speakers mounted under the floor, but it sounds cute in any case.
On the way through the castle gardens we chanced upon a falconing demonstration near a perimeter wall, and Felix wormed his way through to the front of the crowd and then, when they called for four children to take part, shot up his hand shouting “Mepleasemepleasemeplease” and got picked and had a falcon land on his hand and everything.
And all that before lunch! Next stop on the agenda was a walk through the rather lovely backstreets of the Gion area:
through to the place where we got Ruby tarted up for her geisha experience. It took about an hour and a half to do all the make up. They take a few photos in their studio, then she gets to walk around for 60 minutes. Yumi’s daughters Chisato (13) and Mito (6) had rented kimonos for the afternoon, so we headed up the road to begin our photoshoot.
No sooner had we stopped than a crowd began to gather around and the girls found themselves being apprehended for photo opportunities by random passers by.
Felix also got to wear an ancient traditional cultural mens kimono:
I have to say, the transformation is quite amazing. The geisha makeover makes a person look so very elegant:
(who are those people stealing things inside the shop??)And Ruby handled herself with aplomb, posing for endless photos for random onlookers and maintaining a beatific smile throughout:
Having said that, I do love this classic shot right at the end when the girls were waiting to get the makeup removed:
On Day 3 we decided to take the kids to visit another temple. After all, Kyoto is choc full ‘o’ culture so I figure at least one item of culture per day is necessary for a good return on investment. Kinkakuji is covered in gold so we thought the kids would appreciate the connection: gold, rich, famous, pop stars, pop music, iPods, the meaning of life etc.
No no, it’s over that way guys.. etc.
Then we went for a walk through a nice bamboo forest that yet another friend had told us about:
and wound up at a stunning gorge up north of Kyoto called (I think) Arashiyama. Despite the number of visitors it was wonderfully peaceful — a huge wide shallow river with sheer mountains on either side covered red, green and golden colours, so shallow that you can see the bottom, boats being paddled along by guys with poles, no cars or motor boats, everyone just taking it easy. Even teenagers.
To top it all off we found a little place for lunch right on the river where we could gaze out at the serenity while tucking in to some noodles.
It was a wonderful end to an action-packed 48 hours of Kyoto.
And on the return trip we stopped in at one of the massive great parking areas on the freeway where there was a Starbucks and I got to have an extra-large cafe latte. Perfection.
For more Kyoto photos click here.
Incidentally I was very excited about the green tea Kit-Kat that we found in Kyoto. Click here for picture.
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Festival lite
On Sunday the Mihara No. 4 Junior High School Brass Band held a joint performance with the Mihara No. 1 Junior High School, another smallish school located about 20 mins away across the other side of town. The two schools often get together like this because, let’s face it, neither of them have the numbers to put on a creditable brass band performance on their own. In fact even combined they’re one of the smallest going around, if the Hiroshima School Band Championships back in August were anything to go by, but at least they’re trying, dear.
After the performance finished in the morning we agreed to go pick Ruby up from Mihara station because I’d heard that there was a mini festival on in town featuring among other thing a procession of soldier types in ancient battle gear rather like what we saw at the Pirates ‘n’ Fire Festival but right here in our own town. Given that I’ve got a bit of a thing about Men in Uniform I was determined to check it out.
The procession was due to start at 12:30 but we got into town at about eleven. Just by chance when we emerged from the car park we found the Men in Uniform all assembled in a side street doing a bit of rehearsal, so Felix and I snuck up to have a closer look. Suddenly one of the soldiers started waving at us, and after a brief moment’s panic and incomprehension I realised that it was none other than our real estate agent Mr Kobayashi dressed in full battle gear. No wonder I didn’t recognise him; I’ve only ever seen him in a suit and tie, except of course for that time I had a bath with him.
So here’s Felix with Mr Kobayashi:
And here’s Felix with some other handsome soldier dudes who offered their services in the interests of international cooperation and harmony. He was most impressed that he got to hold the sword.
Shortly thereafter the soldiers (or samurai, according to the kids although I’m not fully convinced of this) had to head off for some practice or something so they all trooped off complete with drumming and eerie wailing sounds.
It turns out the eerie wailing sounds come from these ancient traditional conch shells:
Then all the brave fierce battle-hardened warriors waited patiently until the pedestrian lights went green before heading into their mysterious underground lair hidden under the bullet train station.
Meanwhile we took the opportunity to check out the trash ‘n’ treasure market on the lawns in front of the station. (There’s that Mickey Do building in the background again. Still haven’t been inside to see what it is.)
And wander through the streets that had been blocked off and set up with food stalls along with tables kindly set up by the municipal authorities.
While we were there, the procession of soldier/samurai dudes came down the street and everybody was most impressed, but I felt a little bit special that we’d managed to chance upon them in a side street earlier, which was altogether more satisfying and certainly yielded some good photos.
And to finish off our festival experience, what could be finer than to chow down on a ye olde traditional Mihara Dog. (No, they don’t really eat dog in Japan; that’s China. It’s just a hot dog.)
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This blog is about the adventures of a family of Australian barbarians spending two years in the islands of southern Japan. Stay tuned for regular updates on the food, the culture, the earthquakes, the wacky festivals, the school system and more. 
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