Today’s lovely precipitation combination of sleet, snow, and rain has inspired me to blog about winter in Himeji. It’s miserably cold. The temperature stays right around freezing, and considering that central heating just doesn’t exist here, it’s miserable! It’s just impossible to get warm!
I’m sure you’ve heard me complain before about the unheated classrooms. I literally can see my breath in them. The boys are in their uniforms with many layers underneath, but the poor girls are in uniform skirts with bobby socks, so their legs are bare! I really do not know how they can concentrate! Then, for some unfathomable reason, the teacher or one of the boys will open the window. It’s snowing outside for heaven’s sake, why on earth would you open the window?? It’s the Japanese love for “fresh air”, no matter what the temperature!
At least the staff room tends to be heated, although it’s with a kerosene heater so it’s not a very stable temperature. It gets wicked hot and then the heater is turned off until it becomes too cold to move your fingers. Then the heater is turned back on until it’s hot again. The cycle continues many times throughout each school day.
I have begun to dress like an Eskimo. Today I am wearing tights under my pants, as well as knee highs, and a fleece blanket over my lap. I have on a long underwear shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, and a fleece jacket. I only take off my scarf and gloves when I arrive at school, and the fleece jacket is rapidly becoming my second skin.
Now to tell you about my apartment, which the previous inhabitant affectionately called “The Icebox”. It’s nice and quiet because it’s away from all the other apartments and none of my walls are shared with any other apartment. But that means that every wall is an external wall, and apparently insulation is an unheard-of concept here in Japan. I only turn the heat on when I am in the apartment and awake. So in the morning when I wake up, it’s usually 45 degrees! I turn on the heater and sometimes a space heater while I get ready for work, but it only warms up to 50 degrees or so by the time I leave. In the evenings, I crank the heat again, but except for the weekends it never gets a chance to warm up to “room temperature”. I’ve learned to be satisfied with 60 degrees. Well, not satisfied exactly… I’m counting the days until spring!
P.S. Don't believe that temperature module on my blog. There is NO WAY it was 45 degrees today! 35 degrees at most!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Making Mochi
Today our friendly neighborhood shrine had a mochi making festival. (As always, wikipedia has a nice little article on it.) Mochi is rice that has been pounded into a sticky paste. It's then coated in something and eaten as a sweet treat. Of course, the mochi itself is rather tasteless, just being rice. I've tasted mochi in packaged sweets many times, and it's not bad at all. Except when you're thinking it might be something really delicious, like the time I ate an Oreo chocolate pie and was so disappointed to discover that the cream filling was actually mochi!! It seemed such a betrayal by the good people at Nabisco!
The whole neighborhood turned out for this festival. Seventy kilograms of rice had been soaking in water for two days. 
Then, this morning, it was cooked for just 15 minutes. 
The men were in charge of cooking the rice, then bringing it over to the pounding area, where another group of men were taking turns pounding it with big wooden mallets. Another person was slipping the hands into the rice to wet it and turn it, in between falls of the mallet! 
After it was sufficiently pounded into a doughy mass, it was brought over to a table covered in flour, where the women were waiting to shape it into little balls. 
Those balls were then set in the shrine building itself. (I think they were just resting here and were awaiting some further cooking).
Other balls of mochi were dunked into pots of sweet beans or rolled in a soybean flour (looked and tasted like ground peanuts), and then served to the people loitering around. 
It was a really interesting morning, and great fun to taste freshly made mochi! 
Then, this morning, it was cooked for just 15 minutes. The men were in charge of cooking the rice, then bringing it over to the pounding area, where another group of men were taking turns pounding it with big wooden mallets. Another person was slipping the hands into the rice to wet it and turn it, in between falls of the mallet! After it was sufficiently pounded into a doughy mass, it was brought over to a table covered in flour, where the women were waiting to shape it into little balls. Those balls were then set in the shrine building itself. (I think they were just resting here and were awaiting some further cooking).Other balls of mochi were dunked into pots of sweet beans or rolled in a soybean flour (looked and tasted like ground peanuts), and then served to the people loitering around. It was a really interesting morning, and great fun to taste freshly made mochi! Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Onion
I was home with the flu today, sleeping most of the day, and as a result, I'm now wide awake when I should be sleeping. This is when I really appreciate the internet.
What's amusing me tonight? The Onion:
Earthquake sets Japan back to 2147
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/japanese_quake_led_to_nuclear_leak
Attempts made to enjoy sake
I tried to watch an Onion video, but they were talking too fast! Has five months of speaking incredibly slow English diminished my ability to understand the language as spoken at a normal pace?
Enjoy! and stay healthy!
What's amusing me tonight? The Onion:
Earthquake sets Japan back to 2147
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/japanese_quake_led_to_nuclear_leak
Attempts made to enjoy sake
I tried to watch an Onion video, but they were talking too fast! Has five months of speaking incredibly slow English diminished my ability to understand the language as spoken at a normal pace?
Enjoy! and stay healthy!
The Indelicate Topic of Toilets
I was out sightseeing on the twelfth of this month, so instead of twelve photos I took that day (which you’ve already seen in the Beppu blog), I’ll show you some (less than twelve, sorry!) photos of toilets here in Japan! (And this first photo isn't even mine; it was taken by another American here in Himeji.) 
First, let’s get the terminology straight. The bathroom is called a “toilet” here, since typically the bath is in a room separate from the toilet. Asking for the bathroom will just get you a confused look. I wonder if it might get you pointed in the direction of the onsens (public baths). One day I’ll have to experiment and see what happens!
Once you find the toilet, you might be lucky enough to choose between the “western” style toilet and Japanese style toilet. Sometimes the stalls are conveniently labeled!
But before going into the bathroom, you’d better be sure you have tissues on you – or you might have to buy “used tissue”!!
Luckily, in the downtown areas, people are standing around passing out little travel size packages of tissues with advertising on them. Definitely take a package every time they’re offered!
I’ve already mentioned the “toilet slippers” – required footgear for Japanese bathrooms. I certainly see the necessity in the Japanese style toilets, but for western style toilets, I’m not convinced they’re needed. But I play along.
Inside the stall, you may find a roll of toilet tissue, but likely it does not perforations so you have to rip it against the toilet paper holder.
Some toilet stalls have white noise makers, to cover up any sounds you may be making. They think of EVERYTHING here!!
And there is always the “powerful deodorizer” button if necessary!
And in one public bathroom, I saw this helpful sign, instructing people on how poop should look.
Once you’ve finished your business, you’ll wander to the sink, because Mom said to always wash your hands after going to the bathroom. But there will likely be no hot water, no soap, and no towels. So if you think running your hands under ice cold water and then letting them drip dry is really accomplishing anything, except insuring chapped hands, by all means, wash your hands!
First, let’s get the terminology straight. The bathroom is called a “toilet” here, since typically the bath is in a room separate from the toilet. Asking for the bathroom will just get you a confused look. I wonder if it might get you pointed in the direction of the onsens (public baths). One day I’ll have to experiment and see what happens!
Once you find the toilet, you might be lucky enough to choose between the “western” style toilet and Japanese style toilet. Sometimes the stalls are conveniently labeled!
But before going into the bathroom, you’d better be sure you have tissues on you – or you might have to buy “used tissue”!!
Luckily, in the downtown areas, people are standing around passing out little travel size packages of tissues with advertising on them. Definitely take a package every time they’re offered!
I’ve already mentioned the “toilet slippers” – required footgear for Japanese bathrooms. I certainly see the necessity in the Japanese style toilets, but for western style toilets, I’m not convinced they’re needed. But I play along.
Inside the stall, you may find a roll of toilet tissue, but likely it does not perforations so you have to rip it against the toilet paper holder.
Some toilet stalls have white noise makers, to cover up any sounds you may be making. They think of EVERYTHING here!!
And there is always the “powerful deodorizer” button if necessary!
And in one public bathroom, I saw this helpful sign, instructing people on how poop should look.
Once you’ve finished your business, you’ll wander to the sink, because Mom said to always wash your hands after going to the bathroom. But there will likely be no hot water, no soap, and no towels. So if you think running your hands under ice cold water and then letting them drip dry is really accomplishing anything, except insuring chapped hands, by all means, wash your hands!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Beppu
(Phew I'm finally almost all caught up with blogging! I was really starting to despair of that ever happening!)
That afternoon, we visited the first of many onsens. This one, Takegawara, is a hot sand bath. 
We put on the yukata (cotton robes) and laid down in the depressions dug for us in the sand. Then using ancient-looking hoes, the attendants buried us to our necks in hot black sand! We were to lay there for 10 minutes. The sand was a very comfortable temperature, and I could have fallen asleep, except that I had to lie perfectly still so as not to disturb my sand blanket!
After our sand baths, we visited another onsen. This one was at a community center and reminded us of the onsen here in Himeji. The special feature here was the waterfall onsen. The water fell from a height of about 15 feet, so it felt like one of those fancy pulsating, high pressure shower heads. This onsen also had a whirlpool, a bubbly pool, and a cooler pool for doing water exercises.
Our second day was devoted to seeing the hells of Beppu. We first took a bus up the mountain-side so we could look down on Beppu and see the steam rising within the city. And we checked out these replica buildings where they were making bath salts the old-fashioned way. Very steamy and stinky!
Then we had a mud bath! We went to Hoyoland Onsen where first we soaked in sulfury water (our skin stunk for the rest of the day!). Next we sat in the very steamy steam room until we couldn’t stand it anymore (about 2 minutes!). The first mud bath was indoors. The water had lots of suspended clay in it and we dug up more mud from the bottom to rub onto our skin. Then we went to the outdoors mud bath. We could have stayed there for hours! The water and mud were the perfect temperature. The sign at the onsen described the experience this way, but we didn’t agree! It was heavenly and we could have stayed in all day! But it was already noon and we had yet to visit any of the hells! 
The first hell we visited was Oniishibouzu-jigoku. The “bouzu” part of the name refers to Buddhist monks. The boiling mud looks like a monk’s shaven head, hence the name of the hell!
Most of the hells also had footbaths for people to soak their feet in.
We had a lunch of the traditional food of the area. I ordered the Dango soup. It was different from other Japanese soups – the noodles were very thick, like lasagna noodles and the broth was citrus flavored. For dessert we had steamed pudding. It was basically flan, but it was cooked in the hot springs!
The next hell we visited was Umi-jigoku. The “umi” in the name refers to the sea, since this hell is a beautiful bright blue (we read somewhere that it was “artificial”, but we didn’t know if that meant it was so bright that it looked unnatural). 
In the hell was a basket of eggs, being boiled in the water. 
I tried one of these at a later onsen. It tasted like boiled egg with just a taste of hot spring water flavor. How do I know what hot spring water tastes like, you ask? Well, drinking hot spring water is reputed to be good for all that ails you, so I drank a bit. 
We skipped a couple of the hells, because their version of Japanese kitsch was animals kept in deplorable conditions, according to the guidebooks. (From what I saw at Himeji Zoo over winter break, I have seen exactly what constitutes “deplorable” conditions here. It’s appalling and very depressing.)
Kamado-jigoku was the next hell to be visited. Check out the “cooking pot” in the background of the photo!
And I had to take this photo of these cute kids and the raccoon-turtle creature.
And the ubiquitous basket of hard-boiled eggs. 
The next hell was Shiraike-jigoku which was surrounded by a nice Japanese garden.
Then Chinoike-jigoku, the blood pond hell which looked kind of a muddy red that day.
Finally, Tatsumaki-jigoku, a geyser which erupted every 25 minutes.
While we were waiting for the next eruption, I amused myself by taking these photos.
(I was trying to get a covert photo of this guy's furry white pimp coat)
After the geyser, the last hell to be visited, we headed to the beach to be buried in hot sand there. Unfortunately, the onsen was closed, so after dinner, we went to Hyotan Onsen. This onsen was beautiful. There was a sand bath, a steam bath, waterfall bath, a pebble bath (for walking on barefoot for a self-administered foot massage), and an outdoor bath with a waterfall to contemplate. We loved it so much that we went back the next morning for one final onsen in Beppu before catching the shinkansen home!
Last weekend, Heather, Amanda and I took a weekend trip to Beppu. The city of Beppu is full of natural hot springs, in fact, it is the second-largest outpouring of thermal water in the world (after Yosemite). Some are the perfect temperature for bathing and are called “onsen”. Others are way too hot and are called “hells” (jigoku). The hells have been made into tourist attractions, in a style I like to call “Japanese kitsch” (you’ll see what I mean when you see the photos)!
It was a holiday on Monday (Coming of Age Day) so we had a three day weekend. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) on Friday night to Beppu, about a three hour trip. We had reservations at a really nice hostel. Of course, as soon as we arrived, the first order of business was to visit the hostel’s onsen! We had a beautiful Japanese style room. Heather and I shared a bunk bed, while Amanda slept on a Japanese-style futon on the floor.
The next day we visited two bamboo museums where we were really impressed by the beautiful ways which bamboo was woven to make baskets and screens and lamp shades as well as carved into toys and kitchen things. And we had no idea of the wide variety of bamboo!! (I thought of you, Angie! We could have used your expertise in deciphering some of the displays!) One of the museums also had some exhibits on the hot springs in the area, with samples of the water. Unfortunately, we couldn’t read the Japanese signs, but you can see Heather and Amanda getting into the hands-on science!
It was a holiday on Monday (Coming of Age Day) so we had a three day weekend. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) on Friday night to Beppu, about a three hour trip. We had reservations at a really nice hostel. Of course, as soon as we arrived, the first order of business was to visit the hostel’s onsen! We had a beautiful Japanese style room. Heather and I shared a bunk bed, while Amanda slept on a Japanese-style futon on the floor.
The next day we visited two bamboo museums where we were really impressed by the beautiful ways which bamboo was woven to make baskets and screens and lamp shades as well as carved into toys and kitchen things. And we had no idea of the wide variety of bamboo!! (I thought of you, Angie! We could have used your expertise in deciphering some of the displays!) One of the museums also had some exhibits on the hot springs in the area, with samples of the water. Unfortunately, we couldn’t read the Japanese signs, but you can see Heather and Amanda getting into the hands-on science!
That afternoon, we visited the first of many onsens. This one, Takegawara, is a hot sand bath. We put on the yukata (cotton robes) and laid down in the depressions dug for us in the sand. Then using ancient-looking hoes, the attendants buried us to our necks in hot black sand! We were to lay there for 10 minutes. The sand was a very comfortable temperature, and I could have fallen asleep, except that I had to lie perfectly still so as not to disturb my sand blanket!After our sand baths, we visited another onsen. This one was at a community center and reminded us of the onsen here in Himeji. The special feature here was the waterfall onsen. The water fell from a height of about 15 feet, so it felt like one of those fancy pulsating, high pressure shower heads. This onsen also had a whirlpool, a bubbly pool, and a cooler pool for doing water exercises.
Our second day was devoted to seeing the hells of Beppu. We first took a bus up the mountain-side so we could look down on Beppu and see the steam rising within the city. And we checked out these replica buildings where they were making bath salts the old-fashioned way. Very steamy and stinky!
Then we had a mud bath! We went to Hoyoland Onsen where first we soaked in sulfury water (our skin stunk for the rest of the day!). Next we sat in the very steamy steam room until we couldn’t stand it anymore (about 2 minutes!). The first mud bath was indoors. The water had lots of suspended clay in it and we dug up more mud from the bottom to rub onto our skin. Then we went to the outdoors mud bath. We could have stayed there for hours! The water and mud were the perfect temperature. The sign at the onsen described the experience this way, but we didn’t agree! It was heavenly and we could have stayed in all day! But it was already noon and we had yet to visit any of the hells! The first hell we visited was Oniishibouzu-jigoku. The “bouzu” part of the name refers to Buddhist monks. The boiling mud looks like a monk’s shaven head, hence the name of the hell!
Most of the hells also had footbaths for people to soak their feet in.We had a lunch of the traditional food of the area. I ordered the Dango soup. It was different from other Japanese soups – the noodles were very thick, like lasagna noodles and the broth was citrus flavored. For dessert we had steamed pudding. It was basically flan, but it was cooked in the hot springs!
The next hell we visited was Umi-jigoku. The “umi” in the name refers to the sea, since this hell is a beautiful bright blue (we read somewhere that it was “artificial”, but we didn’t know if that meant it was so bright that it looked unnatural). In the hell was a basket of eggs, being boiled in the water. I tried one of these at a later onsen. It tasted like boiled egg with just a taste of hot spring water flavor. How do I know what hot spring water tastes like, you ask? Well, drinking hot spring water is reputed to be good for all that ails you, so I drank a bit. We skipped a couple of the hells, because their version of Japanese kitsch was animals kept in deplorable conditions, according to the guidebooks. (From what I saw at Himeji Zoo over winter break, I have seen exactly what constitutes “deplorable” conditions here. It’s appalling and very depressing.)
Kamado-jigoku was the next hell to be visited. Check out the “cooking pot” in the background of the photo!
And I had to take this photo of these cute kids and the raccoon-turtle creature.
And the ubiquitous basket of hard-boiled eggs. The next hell was Shiraike-jigoku which was surrounded by a nice Japanese garden.
Then Chinoike-jigoku, the blood pond hell which looked kind of a muddy red that day.
Finally, Tatsumaki-jigoku, a geyser which erupted every 25 minutes.
While we were waiting for the next eruption, I amused myself by taking these photos.
(I was trying to get a covert photo of this guy's furry white pimp coat)After the geyser, the last hell to be visited, we headed to the beach to be buried in hot sand there. Unfortunately, the onsen was closed, so after dinner, we went to Hyotan Onsen. This onsen was beautiful. There was a sand bath, a steam bath, waterfall bath, a pebble bath (for walking on barefoot for a self-administered foot massage), and an outdoor bath with a waterfall to contemplate. We loved it so much that we went back the next morning for one final onsen in Beppu before catching the shinkansen home!
January Ikebana Classes
Not too much to say about ikebana class this month– it’s really more about admiring the end product. These photos are of the arrangements from the last two classes. Both celebrate spring (which is still two months away). The first arrangement follows the same formula as our first class. 
And the second arrangement highlights the cherry blossoms. 
And the second arrangement highlights the cherry blossoms.
Okinawa Day 8 – 1/6/08
Our last day in Okinawa was only part of a day, but we still managed to do quite a bit and arrive at the airport with sore feet! We checked into the glass bottomed boat tour again, but the visibility was still poor, so we skipped that.
Instead we went to the fish market, we saw some interesting things. Like this “King Eye”, which is the eye of a huge tuna! Mothers feed it to their children because it’s good for the brain…
Then we headed to the public market (similar to the fish market). Here we saw beautiful tropical fish, like the ones we were all admiring at Churaumi Aquarium, on ice to be served for someone’s dinner.
Another part of the public market sold pig parts. Okinawans love their pork, in fact, all parts of the pig! One guidebook said they put Germans to shame with their “edible” uses of pig parts! We saw lots of pigs’ heads, and knuckles, and something called three-layered pork – the skin, a thick layer of fat, and then the flesh. It’s a “delicacy”.
Our last few hours in Okinawa were spent shopping for souveniours at this shopping arcade before taking the monorail to the airport. The week really flew by, and we were really pleased with all we had managed to see and do!
Instead we went to the fish market, we saw some interesting things. Like this “King Eye”, which is the eye of a huge tuna! Mothers feed it to their children because it’s good for the brain…
Then we headed to the public market (similar to the fish market). Here we saw beautiful tropical fish, like the ones we were all admiring at Churaumi Aquarium, on ice to be served for someone’s dinner.
Another part of the public market sold pig parts. Okinawans love their pork, in fact, all parts of the pig! One guidebook said they put Germans to shame with their “edible” uses of pig parts! We saw lots of pigs’ heads, and knuckles, and something called three-layered pork – the skin, a thick layer of fat, and then the flesh. It’s a “delicacy”.
Our last few hours in Okinawa were spent shopping for souveniours at this shopping arcade before taking the monorail to the airport. The week really flew by, and we were really pleased with all we had managed to see and do!
Okinawa Day 7 – 1/5/08
We got up early to catch the ferry to Zamami Island, about 30 km west of Okinawa island.
After the hour ferry ride, we arrived and went over to sign up for the 2 hour whale watching tour. To my dismay and Karen’s pleasure, there was a TV camera crew there that day! They filmed the introductory speech given at the tour office and carefully panned the audience’s attentive faces. Of course they stayed a long time on our foreign faces so we feigned that we were understanding the speech. Then as we went to board the boat, the TV camera crew stopped us to ask if we spoke Japanese. I quickly said no, but Karen told them she did! I did my best to fade into the wall and stay away from the camera lens while Karen told them our story! We don’t know if we were on the news that night! I hope not!
Luckily, when it came time to board the boats, we were on the boat without the film crew so we were able to enjoy whale watching without always wondering where the camera was! This was the other boat. You can see the camera and boom mike in the back.
We saw about six humpback whales! It was incredible – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time! They were HUGE and we were so close to them (probably closer than we should have been). At one point, we were near a mother and her calf. The mother started doing a movement which the guide told us meant she was angry and feeling threatened. Of course, that prompted our boat driver to get even closer!
It was difficult to take photos of them – at least half of my photos were just of the ocean, because I was torn between just experiencing it, and capturing it on film, but I managed to get a few photos of tails and water spouts.
We had planned to spend some time on the beach that afternoon, but the weather didn’t cooperate.
After the hour ferry ride, we arrived and went over to sign up for the 2 hour whale watching tour. To my dismay and Karen’s pleasure, there was a TV camera crew there that day! They filmed the introductory speech given at the tour office and carefully panned the audience’s attentive faces. Of course they stayed a long time on our foreign faces so we feigned that we were understanding the speech. Then as we went to board the boat, the TV camera crew stopped us to ask if we spoke Japanese. I quickly said no, but Karen told them she did! I did my best to fade into the wall and stay away from the camera lens while Karen told them our story! We don’t know if we were on the news that night! I hope not!
Luckily, when it came time to board the boats, we were on the boat without the film crew so we were able to enjoy whale watching without always wondering where the camera was! This was the other boat. You can see the camera and boom mike in the back.
We saw about six humpback whales! It was incredible – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time! They were HUGE and we were so close to them (probably closer than we should have been). At one point, we were near a mother and her calf. The mother started doing a movement which the guide told us meant she was angry and feeling threatened. Of course, that prompted our boat driver to get even closer!It was difficult to take photos of them – at least half of my photos were just of the ocean, because I was torn between just experiencing it, and capturing it on film, but I managed to get a few photos of tails and water spouts.
We had planned to spend some time on the beach that afternoon, but the weather didn’t cooperate.
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