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Archives December 23, 2007 to May 27, 2008 August 30, 2007 to December 12, 2007 April 4, 2007 to July 12, 2007 |
The blog has moved locations. Click HERE to get There.
Cherry blossom season is over and now we have moved into the season for azaleas. As with many other Japanese we went to Nezu shrine in Tokyo where they have a garden path whose specialty is azaleas. These flowers used to have a prominent place in the gardens of aristocrats and consequently, they, like the cherry trees, are all over the city. Not surprisingly there are also many varieties. Some are tiny and others are as big as your hand. Well, Mika's hand anyway.
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In the garden was also two ladies playing the koto. The koto is a Japanese harp and if you click the picture you can see a video (8 Mb) and hear what a koto sounds like. I don't think they are playing traditional Japanese music but at least you get the idea.
This also happens to be one of the last places we went with Nick a couple of days before he passed away in Hiroshima on May 9, 2007.
South of Mount Fuji is a protrusion of land called the Izu peninsula. To get to the beginning of it is about a 2 hour drive from Tokyo on the expressway. We went there last weekend for two days and found it very picturesque.
Japan is on the ring of fire. The edge of tectonic plates which created Japan from volcanoes and they also create all the earthquakes the country has. More importantly, however, is that they create onsens (hot mineral baths). for which the Izu peninsula is known. It is to these baths we wanted to go and also to get out of Tokyo when it wasn't a Japanese holiday weekend.
Our first stop was the resort town of Atami. A relatively easy place to get to after work on a Thursday with enough time to enjoy dinner. You see, most of the Ryokan (Japanese style hotels) sell the room with meals included. The fancy meals with all the little dishes of different foods that no one has time or energy to do at home. They are very tasty and not to be missed.
The Ryokan we stayed at in Atami was practically vacant. For starters it was a thursday and also we are out of the summer season. What this meant is that although there was the usual onsen divided between the sexes, this ryokan had private onsens you could book. Easy to do when there is no one else around. Their private onsens happen to be on the roof overlooking the ocean.
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The following day we found Atami castle perched on a hill top. The cherry blossoms were still full.
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We also got a good view how the cities and villages cling to the mountains and exactly how many resorts were in this town alone. Summer must be a mad house around here during the holiday season of August.
Driving down the coast of the Izu peninsula on Friday was a nice country drive on winding roads that were almost always next to the ocean. Without the crowds of people everywhere it was quite pleasant.
Near the Southern end of the peninsula is a resort town called Shimoda. A place I had been to when I was small and where my brother Matthew cracked open his head. A stroll on the massive beach, again with no crowds, in the warm weather was a joy.
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Shimoda, besides being a particularly well known resort city, also happens to be where the U.S. Navy's Admiral Perry forcibly landed in 1853 to open trade with Japan. For about 250 years prior to that, Japan had isolated itself from foreigners and it foreigners were prohibited from coming to Japan (with the exception of some Dutch traders). The arrival of Perry with overwhelming military superiority forced the opening of the ports to the world and ushered in the Meji restoration (restoration of imperial rule after 250 years of the shogunate or military type rule). A significant shift in politics, social norms and economics resulted.
While walking around we also saw some freshly harvested wakame (a common type of seaweed used in Miso soup) hanging to dry outside an older woman's house. She invited Mika and to have some.
By this point it was late afternoon and so we made our way up the middle of the peninsula to our next ryokan at the bottom of the seven falls of Kawazu (Kawazu nanadaru). The ryokan had indoor onsen but more interestingly it had several onsen scattered around the base of one of the falls. Some were even underground in caves. Quite spooky at night especially since there was practically no one staying here either. Ah, the off season benefits.
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One of the onsen was essentially giant pots in which you could soak. Unfortunately, giant is a relative term as I could not completely submerge myself in them.
Supper was another fancy meal and of note was the fresh wasabi root that was served with the meal. No green wasabi paste in a tube here. You got to grate your own fresh wasabi to your palette's content. It is a much lighter colour and has much grater depth of flavour than the stuff you get in a tube. It's not cheap though, the root in the picture is about 700 yen or $8.50 CDN and would be good for two or three people having sushi. The fish for dinner was trout grilled in front of us on a charcoal burner.
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The following day, we explored the other six falls along a walking trail. A sunny and warm, but not hot, day was perfect for viewing the other falls. It was definitely nice to breath the relatively cleaner air and not hear all the sounds of cars, announcements and general noise of Tokyo.
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We made our way up the middle of Izu through the town of Shuzenji which has a very nice temple.
Further up the road we ascendended one of the mountains by ropeway to try and get a nice view of Mount Fuji. Unfortunately the haze was substantial and you could only just make out the mountain.
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Thankfully, it was not a holiday weekend for the Japanese and it wasn't Sunday evening which meant that there were no traffic jams taking the expressway back to Tokyo.
Last night Mika and I were very forunate to be able to attend a concert held at the Canadian Embassy for the 80th Anniversary of Japan-Canada Diplomatic relations. Forunate because we didn't have to pay, but more forunate because the concert featured Diana Krall.
The concert was held in the aptly named Oscar Peterson Theatre and had three pianists; Diana Krall, Makoto Ozone and Hiromi Uehara. Diana and Makoto went to school together at the Berkley music school and Hiromi Uehara also attended Berkley but a later date.
Hiromi Uehara, in particular, I had never heard before and she is a wonderful composer and pianist who can play blazingly fast improvisations and and has a feel for adjusting the swing of a piece. I highly recommend listening to her fresh compositions and playing. Makoto Ozone, is also very talented and has clearly adopted some techniques of Oscar Peterson. I found his playing very good but perhaps not quite as inovative as Hiromi's. More predicatable, and yet interesting improvisations. Diana Krall played and sang with a guitarist and was as good in person (if not better) as on her CDs.
We were so lucky to be able to hear all three in the small theatre (150 seats) in the embassy. I can easily recommend all three.
They've arrived! The cherry blossoms (Sakura) have bloomed.
"They're just flowers", said an someone from the embassy. Which for Japanese is the understatment of the year.
This is a big deal in Japan. TV weather forecasters broadcast predictions everyday about when they will bloom. When they open it is a big party.
I think the coming of the blossoms is so anticipated in Japan for several reasons.
In short, they are not just flowers. It is one of those things that are hard to explain in words so I have a lot of pictures.
Compare the tree outside our house a week ago and then last weekend.
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The Aoyama cemetary walkway (near our house) a week ago and then last weekend.
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The cemetary actually is quite a cheerful feeling place, especially when the blossoms are out. It's nice if you get there early before the crowds arrive from the outer areas of Tokyo.
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Trees at night are lit up by the city so you can see the flowers at night.
The insanity comes along with this too. The Japanese have picnics underneath the canopies of flowers along with 100,000 of their closest friends in parks across the city. This involves lots of food, drink and cameras taking pictures of the flowers. They must be the most photographed item across Japan.
We went to a park on the west side of downtown Tokyo called Inokashira. A park with especially nice blossoms. Below is the scene we were presented with.
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Lots of people, lots of blue tarps, lots of food and lots of people.
It's Spring and in Japan the Spring equinox (or vernal equinox) is a national holiday (March 20 this year). Coincidentally the embassy had a holiday as well. As with all holidays in Japan, however, everyone is on the move. Traditionally they are supposed to return to their hometown and attend to the family tombstones. Tidy them up, weed and the like. In reality people take a holiday. Compared with North Americans, most Japanese have to take their holidays at the same time. Company rules. Practically speaking this means that everyone is moving around all at the same time. All the hotels are booked and roads are a disaster. We noticed the expressway signs indicating 14km traffic jams. So if your able, it is best to holiday at a different time. All this to say we did not going anywhere new and exciting, but hope to do so the Easter holiday in April that we get but the Japanese don't.
We did, however, enjoy the warmer weather by returning to Yokohama (30 mintues by train) for a stroll along the waterfront. We discovered that they were holding their St.Patrick's day parade although we apprently missed it. Still their was the obligatory green everywhere and Japanese dressed in Irish garb playing reels etc. Baisically you can find Japanese afficianados of any country and its culture here in Japan. It certainly saves money bringing someone from each country everytime they hold one of these festival type things.
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Today we went to check on the progress of the cherry blossoms. The "main event" of spring if you will where Japan goes crazy over the blooms and they hold Hanami (blossom viewing) parties and picnics with friends and family under the trees. The news reports every day the predictions of when the blossoms will be out in each city in Japan so people can plan appropriately.
At the moment we are on the cusp of bloomage. I suspect that they will appear in full force towards the middle of this week. That will make every park in Tokyo a madhouse next weekend of people eating, drinking and carrying on under the trees. Our reconnaissance took us to the Aoyama cemetary which is only a few blocks from our house. This cemetaries is one of the oldest in Tokyo and has many cherry trees. Although the blooms were not yet open, people were already having Hanami parties.
The plum blossoms, which come out in middle February were still quite visible though.
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While examining the plum blossoms we found the "foreigners tombs" which makes up a small section of the cemetary. All the people here died around 1910 or so and most seemed to missionaries or religious folk of some sort. We did discover this interesting tombstone though. I'm not sure why it was there, but it was.
My younger brother is now married. On February 28, 2009 in the city of Calgary Tim and Lurene were married. Mika and I were there but for only a short time. We flew from Tokyo to Calgary on Thursday and returned home on Sunday. Unfortunately with my newish job I don't have any holiday days stored up.
It was a grand wedding with about 130 people as Lurene's family is quite numerous. There are many pictures in the photo section of this website.
The Thursday before the wedding, the Oldham family and Lurene and her parents had dinner at a swish restaurant in Calgary called La Chaumiere. The chef is a friend of my parents as he used to be the executive chef to the ambassador at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo. The atmosphere in the wine cellar, although chilly, was very cozy and the food excellent. It was the first time that Mika and I had met Lurene.
On Friday one of the usual crazy things happened whenever I seem to travel out of Japan. I got and idea of something to take back. Not that strange on the face of it but these ideas usually involve bringing woodworking tools in suitcases back to Japan. Japan, of course manufactures many tools, but the kind I needed are not easy to find for a hobbiest and the voltage of 100V would prevent me from using the electric tools in Canada. Plus they aren't cheap.
Anyway the idea was that I needed a router. Since they are half the price in Canada I went out and bought one and managed to fit it into my suitcase. This should make it easier to build some of the things I'm working on in Tokyo. I can only imagine what the x-ray guys at the airport must think when they see my bag coming through. But then again, if I carry this kind of weird stuff, there must be others too. So maybe it's just normal to them.
Friday evening, Sandy and Matthew hosted a dinner at their house. Sandy was, as usual, extremely excited to have everyone there. Mika and I were also excited to see everyone as we haven't seem some of the family since our last trip to Canada in the summer of 2007.
Saturday was the wedding. The theme was "black and white" I think. The hall was wonderfully decorated and the wedding went off without a hitch. Tim and Lurene are both active in music and both trombone players. Thus they had a trombone quartet play all the music at the wedding ceremony. The exception was the musical tribute by Lurene's siblings who sang a cappella.
The reception in the evening featured a prime rib buffet dinner, and dancing with the music of the Southern Stardust big band. Tim is a member of this band but on this night he wasn't allowed to play. Everyone had a very nice time dancing and carrying on.
Sunday morning, Mika and I packed up and headed back to Tokyo; arriving Monday evening. Then back to work on Tuesday. A short trip but it was nice to attend Tim's wedding and see family.
We're back. We travelled to Australia the last week and a half of January to visit some friends who live in Brisbane and Burleigh Heads. Our first long holiday in 13 months.
Brisbane is located in the State of Queensland about half way up the East coast of Australia and is 9 hour flight from Japan. Our friend Sue, who spent a year on a teacher exchange in Ottawa, lives in Brisbane and she has already visited us in Tokyo with her friend, and now ours, Ross.
Since it`s summer there, it is also the wet season. This is tropical weather though which means that it can rain fairly heavily for an hour (they call them showers) and then be sunny for several hours, followed by more rain. It is a bit hard to predict whether you are going to have a good day or not.
We took a lot of pictures and they are in the photo section. Brisbane city is a nice place and the downtown area is very foot traffic friendly. With many parks around the city and especially the South Bank park right downtown, it is quite a change from Tokyo. Everyone is more relaxed.
As it is the capital of the state of Queensland (bigger than any province) it has some interesting architecture. In particular is the former treasury building which has now become a casino. Ironic isn`t it. South Bank park follows the Brisbane river and gives you nice sunset views of the downtown while you can relax in the man-made lagoon and water-park. All free by the way. The Queensland museum gave us a nice perspective on the area and it too is free. A novel concept indeed.
We travelled to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which a fabulous place where you can see and hold koalas, get up close with Kangaroos, emu and lizards of all kinds. It is a great place as it hasn't become over developed like many other zoos even though it has been around since, I think, 1921.
After spending a several days in Brisbane, we travelled down to the renowned Gold Coast. An area of many beaches and, so I`m told, some of the best surfers in the world. The Gold Coast ranks as one of the most expensive places to buy a residence. Never-the-less Ross, a principal at one of the states three super schools, lives about a 5 minute walk from Burleigh Heads beach. Despite being a very expensive place to buy a house, a good portion of the Gold coast is made up of villages with a small town or relaxed feeling. The exception is Surfers Paradise which has giant skyscraper residential towers (e.g. 88 floors) within two blocks of the beach. It looks like a New York skyline for two blocks.
We spent Australia Day (Jan 26) at the beach (Surfers Paradise) and enjoyed some very nice home cooking with Ross's family. For the several days we spent at Burleigh Heads we traveled up and down the beach area. Going to places such as Point Danger (named by Lieutenant Cook) and south just over the state border to New South Wales where the "Mexicans" live. Mexican refers to anyone from south of Queensland and is one of the manyn slang terms that we got to learn. We made it to Byron Bay, a community that actively ensures that it doesn't lose its agricultural land and become built up like Surfers Paradise. Byron bay ends at a lighthouse which is the most easterly point on the Australian mainland.
We went to the Australian Outback Spectacular one of the nights which is a show akin to a Rodeo but with dinner served while you watch the show. Lots of horse riding and skills performed on the stations in the outback. One man recited the "The Man from Snowy River" which is considered quite a feat as it is a very long poem. Written by Banjo Paterson who also wrote the famous "Waltzing Matilda" song everyone thinks (incorrectly) is Australia's national anthem. All this with "authentic outback tucker" for dinner. The tucker consisted of a beautiful green salad, tender filet minon and dessert. I'm not entirely conviced that the cowboys at the stations eat that well. The dessert was pavlova, a merange sort of dessert with fruit which both the Autralians and Kiwi's claim as the originators (one of the many small friendly disagreements between the two natiosn).
We also flew up to the Whitsunday Islands which is north of Brisbane. The bus driver also told us they are known as the Wetsundays at this time of year. Last year they received 1.5 metres of rain in a 48h period flooding, and closing, everything for 9 days. It is sugar cane country but it is also in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. We were headed for Airlie Beach. A small town that is only now becoming popular with tourists. The resorts are now open all year. We took a cruise on a sailing catameran around the islands making a stop at Whitehaven beach. A beach that is 100% silica and "as white as...". It's a beautiful area. After two days we returned to Brisbane and then back to Tokyo. A nice vacation. I wish it could have been longer.
On January 11, we attended the first tea ceremony of the new year called Hatsugama. It is one of the rare times that the head of the tea school performs the ceremony. The decorations of the tea room centred on this year's zodiac sign which is the Ox. Each year the emporer chooses a theme for cultural artists to work around and this year's theme is birth. So in addition to the Ox symbols, there were two new tea bowls with designs related to birth. The black one below has new snow flakes falling and the cream coloured bowl has various depictions of flowers and plants blooming after the winter. The other picture is of Mika and the vice-head of the tea school who happens to be our teacher.
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Below is the head of the tea school, Iemoto-sensei, during the ceremony and Mika having some of the tea from the common bowl that everyone shares.
These are some of the other teachers in the school. The one in the middle is turning 89 in a couple of months and she is still active teaching tea and flower arranging.
After the tea ceremony we had a celebratory lunch at which sake is served to ring in the new year. The sake is special as it has real gold flecks in it and if you are get these in your sake and drink it, you are supposed to be extra lucky. Remember that the Japanese are a superstitious bunch.
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Although I have more stuff to update you on, I know have to finish my packing in order for us to finally have a vacation. We are leaving for Australia tomorrow after work until Feb 1. Our first real holiday in 13 months.
I have some catching up to do. Not all of it will get done in this post so look for another one soon after this.
Happy New Year!
or in Japanese "Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu. Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaitashimasu".
Mark Kotlarewsky was here for a week after Christmas to enjoy the New Year in Japan. The guy still has the energy of a teenager and I think thoroughly enjoyed himself. We managed to do a bunch of things together despite having to work as well. Took him to eat all the good food including Afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt. The view compared to when Mika and I where there in the summer was stunning. You could see Mount Fuji quite clearly (sorry no good photograph since our seats did not face it) and also the rest of the city.
We also managed a weekend together in Nikko. It's about a 2 hour drive north of Tokyo in the mountains where we found snow. Not a big deal for those in Canada, but when living in Tokyo, it is nice to see. We did the tour of all the famous temples which are World Heritage sites and crowded with people. We arrived on Jan 3, which, being the first weekend of the new year, meant that everyone was visiting and getting blessed and purified and good luck thrust on them etc. So we did all that too. Although Japan does not suffer from a lack of shrines and temples (they're more common than Tim Horton's in Canada) these temples are particularily impressive. The carvings and general decorations are vibrant in colour and striking in their complexity. The main shrine, Tosho-gu, has Ieyasu Tokugawa enshrined there. This is the fella who brought all of Japan under one rule in 1600 and was the beginning of the Shogunate system in Japan that lasted nearly 250 years. It was in this era that peace flourished in Japan, allowing people to stop slaughtering each other and pay more attention to more worthwhile cultural pursuits. Much of what non-Japanese see as Japanese style comes from this era. So he was historically an important guy. There are more pictures on the photo page of the splendid architecture.
After spending the day touring the shrines we drove up the mountain-side to Lake Chuzenji where we stayed in a hotel right on the lack. This is a popular summer resort area. It is a little quiter in the winter but with the snow that had fallen on New Years Day it was very pretty. While up by the lake we took in the natural sites including the various waterfalls.
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There are more pictures of the area and also the food we had at the hotel which is attractive to look at as well as eat. The two day trip brought us to the end of Mark's visit.
The end of 2008 is here. We've had a quite Christmas this year compared with our European adventure last year. We put up the Christmas tree and Mika, myself and Henry had a Christmas morning to ourselves.
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We had one couple over for dinner on the 24th and a different one over on the 25th and now Mark is here visiting from Washington D.C. A man with no limits to energy. He also seems to not feel the effects of jet lag. Must be something to do with his shift work and his constantly changing shifts.
Before Christmas we had one last tea lesson for the year and we had a specially decorated sweet that resembled a Christmas tree. Although the Japanese are generally not Christian and they do not get holidays on the 25th they enthusiastically embrace the chance to decorate stores, homes etc. with Christmas decorations and shop (as always).
The Japanese have no reservations about adopting holiday traditions of other cultures, even if they come from religion. That's one of the nice things about Japan is you don't have to deal with the politically sensitive "Christmas" issue by wishing someone "Happy Holdiays". You can come right out and say "Merry Christmas" to anyone and everyone without them being offended/outraged. And yes schools can hold "Christmas concerts" instead of "Holiday concerts".
Happy New Year
It seems as if we haven't been at home very long in the past couple of weeks. What a busy end to the year.
Every year the city of Kitami, located in Northern Hokkaido, invites a delegation from the Canadian embassy to participate in a curling tournament. This has been going on since the 1980's. They organise the tournament and arrange for us to come and play. They do this because it was a Canadian (apparently from the embassy, although I'm fuzzy on this part) who introduced curling to the area. This area of Japan is where most of Japan's Olympic curlers come from.
Well the problem is that most people at the embassy have never curled before. So every year the teams go and lose all their games and hand out trophies and prizes to the winning teams. This year, myself and another Canadian have curling experience and the team captain (who has never curled) decided it was time to improve the record. So the weekend of December 6 and 7 we arranged for the team to get some practice at a curling rink run by a former business contact of the embassy (tourism) who went into coaching curling. At any rate, there is no curling ice in Tokyo so we went to Lake Yamanakako which is at the base of mount Fuji to make sure everyone who hadn't curled before (most of the team) got some instruction and time on the sheets. Myself and the other experienced curler taught the men's team and the former Japanes olympic coach taught the female team.
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There are more pictures on the photo page.
It was wildly successful and everyone felt very confident heading to Hokkaido, and Kitamo city in particular, and were sure to win a game. On the flight out of Tokyo we could see the top of Mount Fuji poking out of the clouds like some magical island in the sky.
The women drew an unlucky schedule in that they had to play a game directly after getting off the plane in Hokkaido while the men's team went on to meet the Deputy Mayor (They we in the middle of elections for Mayor) and do all the diplomatic curtesy stuff.
On our drive from the airport, everyone remarked on how similar to winter in Canada it looked. Not so much because everyone was surprised by this, but some of us haven't been back to Canada in a while and it made us a little home sick.
After the women played their first game, the opening ceremonies were held in which a lot of speeches were made, including one from the head of our delegation. The obligatory toast, or Kampai in Japanese, and lots of eating of fresh seafood such as scallops (in season now), crab legs, sushi and sashimi etc. Exhausting us that we needed to recouperate in the hotel Onsen (sorry no photos of that).
The Saturday was the most tiring as we had to play three games of 6 ends only in which the Canadian mens team did spectacularily well winning two games and losing one. Keep in mind that we are playing against people who curl regularily all year from when they are teens on up to death. In light of this we were outstanding. This accomplishment took us to the final eight competition (Total of 16 teams) the following day. But first we ate. Again.
Another supper hosted by the Kitami-Canada Association which seemed to have only one Canadian. Fantastic sushi, sashimi and copious amounts of Sake (look at the photo page for more pictures). Exhausted completely from curling and eating, we retired to the hotel to drink some more and, of course, take an onsen bath.
The day of the finals meant a game at 9 a.m. and so that also meant getting up early to get there on time. With the womens team cheering on (they didn't make it to the finals)
We curled strongly in the first few ends keeping a roughly even score. An unlucky hit on a guard opened the house in one end for our opponents and we never recovered. Considering we had only two experienced curlers in our team of five, we did well.
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After spending the remainder of the day watching the finals. A wonderful lunch
and then handing out trophies and prizes
we returned to Tokyo tired but satisfied and very very full from all that food. There are more pictures in the photo area.
| Page last updated: April 25, 2009 |