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June 5, 2008 - December 2, 2008
Two weeks ago we attended a band festival that was put on by the Japanese Self Defence Forces. Our defence attache had extra tickets so we went. It was quite an amazing event as the performance included guest appearance of the U.S. Marine Corps. I have some very nice video footage except that it is much to large to put up here. But I did take pictures.
The performance included bands from the Air, Sea and Land forces from all over the country. Very patriotic and very good musicians. The music ranged from Sousa to the extra dripping cheesey stuff. Christmas music too. One thing that marching bands should never, ever play, I mean what were they thinking, is "It's a small world". The marching band started playing this with some singers and I thought I was at Disneyworld. It's the achilles heel of the Japanese. They can't resist the cute.
The highlight was the Self Defence Force Drummers. Traditional Kodo drumming. There were so many of them that your whole body shook when during their performance.
There are lots of pictures so I have put them in the photo page.
Remembrance Day was in the middle of the week and here in Japan it is not a holiday for the embassy. Instead on November 9th we joined the other commonwealth countries at a ceremony in Yokohama where there is a commonwealth cemetary. A very well kept cemetary. The ceremonies were organised this year by New Zealand and involved religious leaders from Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hindusim. It was, as it always seems to be on Remembrance day in Canada, a cloudy day. After the main ceremony, the Canadians and New Zealanders went to the section of the cemetary where our soldiers are buried together and had an additional ceremony. The military personnel in the pictures below (except for the piper) are stationed at the embassy and the gentleman without a military uniform is the Ambassador.
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Later in the week I organised (as part of my new job) a screening of a new film from the National Film Board of Canada called front lines which was film footage from the first world war with letters being read while you saw the footage. Quite remarkable.
Several exciting and interesting things have happened in the past two weeks. First off, I am now regularily employed by the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Although it is a half time position, the hours are flexible depending on demand and demand has been high the past week (my first week). I am the new learning coordinator which is essentially an admin position with the ability to also develop new learning initiatives for the embassy staff. Yeah for me!
I also completed my "chuden" or second (out of four) level of tea ceremony on November 3. Again my exam occurred at Yasukuni shrine. This level added more complexity to the basic ceremony. The pictures show my sensi (in purple Kimono) the grand master (in black kimono) and myself.
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The last week of October was also a busy week. Mika had to do one of her quarterly visits to all the incarcerated Canadians in the Osaka area. Its a least a three day affair and so I went with her to see what I could see in the Osaka area. It turns out that Osaka has a castle. At least a restored one since Ossaka closely resembled flat ground after WWII. It was and is a manufacturing and trade hub whereas Tokyo is a paper-pusher hub. You quickly realise that castles in Japan are mostly one story buildings with a single taller building in the middle. I guess you use the big tower to stare out at your kingdom or something. Inside is a recreation of a tea room desinged by Rikkyu (kind of tea ceremony in Japan) for the first Tokugawa shogun. He was obsessed with gold and everything from the kettle to the walls and ceiling is covered with gold. Incidentally he is the same shogun who opened the gold mine we visited in the summer on Sado island.
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We also met up with Dave who was Nick's friend from Trent who joined him teaching English in Japan and ended up marrying a Japanese woman. We had dinner and they showed us the "famous crab". No one is quite sure why this store is famous, but it has a giant moving crab attached to its wall and all the Japanese tourists go there to get their picture taken. So in an order to blend in with the locals, we got Dave to take our picture too.
While Mika was off working I also made the one hour trip to Himeji city to see Himeji castle. This one was the original and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is also the site you go to if you are filming a movie and need a Japanese castle. It was in the James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice" (1967) and "The Last Samurai" as well as all the samurai series made in Japan. It apparently was desined with an internal wall structure of a maze to slow down attackers but was never put to the test. It is an impressive structure. The inside is less so. Lots of steep stairs.
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Finally, it is chrysanthemum season in Japan and that means at most shrines there are exhibitions of a types of chrysanthemums. I never knew there were so many varieties (including bonsai).
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So the election came and went and we have a minority parliament. Again. Thanksgiving came too and that was a whole heap more interesting. We had a three day weekend and we ate our way through the weekend. Saturday we hosted a bunch of Japanese speaking friends and family. Cooking all day to feed 11 adults and 2 little kids. Everyone enjoyed the meal including Henry. Pictures are in the photo section.
Sunday we were invited to another turkey dinner and Monday we had our third turkey dinner. So much for losing a few pounds. All in all it was a massively successful weekend on the food front. Now I have to get back to the exercise.
Nature is a really important cultural driver in Japan. Everything from traditional cultural arts such as tea ceremony, carving, and wood block prints to modern aspects of life such as availability of food, clothing patterns and fashion lines seem to have a deep rooted connection to some aspect of nature. No doubt this has to do with the anamistic beleif system of Shinto (one of the main religions in Japan). It was in the spirit of exploring this cultural fascination that I purchased a book called "A Flower Lovers Guide to Tokyo". The book outlines 40 walks around Tokyo that lead you to all the best places to see the various types of flowers at the best times of the year.
As I have mentioned before, flower bushes are everywhere in this city and each season, particular flowers are highlighted and attract the amateur photographer. The intensely dedicated amateur photo snappers appear at all the right locations through out the year and buzz around the gardens enshrining the floral beauty forever, using their $10,000 cameras on tripods, for digital posterity. So we joined the fray as fall offers many flowers to see; including the designated Seven Herbs of Fall. At this time of year the Bush Clover was the one to see. So we went to The garden was The Best place to see the tiny flowers. A 30 metre tunnel made from this fast growing bush. The flowers themselves look like tiny orchid blossoms and come in white and pink.
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The garden itself is a special garden (Aren't they always) that has been around since 1804 and was once a private garden grown to help inspire artists and haiku poets. It now belongs to the city but is unusually from many Japanese gardens as it "appears" like a wild garden. At any rate it has some other unusual items like snake squash and some flower that looks like it belongs underwater with the other nudibranchs.
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The humidity and temperature have finally dropped here in Tokyo. It could be said that it was cool outside; although if I were Japanese I would probably say that it's slightly more than cool. Regardless the Japanese are always cold as far as I can tell. Even in the summer, when all around are melting, there are some wearing tuques. It's probably a fashion thing though.
Elections abound. Who can miss the interminable U.S. election for which everyone is desparately wanting to end. The Canadian election which we hear very little about unless you read the news websites, and probably a Japanese election, which like in Canada, will be called and completed before the American one (why so long a process U.S.? WHY?).
I am substitute teaching these days and its been really easy. The students here are so well behaved and helpful. A comment by an American teacher to me yesterday was that she didn't think that she could ever teach in the U.S. again after being in teacher heaven for so many years.
I do have a job interview tomorrow at the Canadian embassy. Again. A part-time learning co-ordinator which seems like a match for me but I didn't get it the last time it was open two years ago so we'll see what happens. Meanwhile I tinker.
I have finished another project. A table to be used in tea ceremony made out of Japanese Cypress (or Hinoki). A fabulously smelling wood. As always, a bit trickier to do here with the fewer tools but I think it turned out O.K. It's about half a metre high and is not meant to hold a lot of weight but it adds character to the tea ceremony.
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In just a month's time (Nov. 3) I will be doing my second level examination (chu-den) in Tea ceremony. I will have two more levels to try to complete before we leave Japan and my teacher is as eager as ever to have me complete them.
Henry, or more aptly "Prince" Henry, is thriving. I have never met a more friendly cat. He insists on sitting on our laps and if we are lying down he will lie on your chest or right beside you. He follows us around the house and always wants to be in the room where we are. It is very cute. I have put some more photos of him in a photo album so please check him out.
It has been quiet here the last several weeks. No spectacular events (the Japanese PM stepping down is not a major event here. Happens all the time). There isn't much new and weird that I have discovered about Japan or its people recently either. The only news is that the school year has started again and once again I'm peddling my skills as a substitute teacher and tutor. Obviously everybody is still in school and so I wait for the planned school trips and for teachers to fall ill from some kid virus.
I hear there is going to be an election in Canada and so we are registered to vote from the other side of the world and wondering whether anything will change (probably not).
I did get another carving back with the most expensive lacquer job to date. But it looks good so here it is.
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I'm working on another wood working project for tea ceremony but you'll have to wait until I finish to see it. It's hard with limited tools here but I persist.
Last weekend Mika and out neighbour Amit hosted a party for their friends and contacts. This party is special though because it is a Nagashi somen party. Somen is a type of thin noodle that you can eat hot or cold and dip in a soup broth before slurping up. It is very yummy and someone invented a unique qay to enjoy the noodles. It consists of a bamboo trough with flowing water the carries the noodles down a slope. People fish out noodles as it passes them.
With another contact of the embassies we acquired bamboo and somen for our party. I was enlisted with the help of the other neighbours and our contact to construct the shoot. To point out again, there is no particular reason you should eat noodles this way except that it is fun.
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The party was a spectacular sucess that I think we may have to host it again next year. We had about 50 people mostly contacts of our neighbour and his bamboo supplier but also embassy people.
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Also last week I attempted to climb Mount Fuji. I studied the weather forecasts for a week and found an opening when it was to be clear at night and in the morning. The tradition is to climb it through the night and see the sun rise. Well, weather is a little hard to predict in Japan so by morning it was not clear nor sunny. I made it to the eigth (out of ten) stations at 3100 m. By this point the climb is quite difficult and the air thin. Also by this point it was cloudy and raining with winds of 11.5 m/s. It would take another 3 hours to climb the next 600 vertical metres. At this altitude I was haveing trouble breathing in the low oxygen and the weather was so bad that you wouldn't be able to see anything anyway so I didn't make it to the top. Another time perhaps.
 Looking up the mountain
from the 8th station |
 Looking down the mountain from the 8th station |
 Me at the eigth
station. Yes it really is that cold and wet. |
There is a week in August in Japan called Obon. It is a time of year when the Japanese are supposed to go back to their home towns and pay their respects to their ancestors. As a result it is a major holiday in Japan and everything closes. The embassy, however, stays open except for one day. So we took the three day weekend and went to Sado Island. It is on the Japan Sea side of Japan. It is the home of the world famous Kodo drumming group. More importantly it is not crowded, it is quiet, the air is clean.
We stayed in a ryokan in Aikawa on the west side of the island. To get there we took a two hour shinkansen to Niigata, then a one hour hydrofoil to the island. You could take a cheaper and slower car ferry (2 hours) but when I read up on the island it said there was public transportation. This is true but if you decided to go I would recommend renting a car because the buses run every hour on the "popular" routes and every 2 to 3 hours on other routes. Not exactly convenient.
Nevertheless it was a relaxing time on the beach and we visited a gold mine that opened in 1601 and closed in 1998. During its lifetime it produced 80 tonnes of gold and over 2000 tonnes of silver. Half of that was mined by hand before the 1800's and was largely responsible for keeping the shoguns in power. The mine also became very important for the Japanese during WWII as their only source of gold. All the pictures can be found in the photo section of the website.
So I finished another project. A screen for tea ceremony. It separates the tea from every day hectic life. This particular screen is a replica with some changes of one made by the tea masters father (the previous tea master) Photos are in the photo album page under projects.
It is summer and we had fireworks on Aug 7 near the embassy which I told you about in the last entry. Sunday Aug 10 were the Tokyo bay fireworks. Even bigger and longer than the last set. Mika's friend Joe (they went to school together) has a condo (condos are called mansions here) that overlooks the bay so it was an excellent place to view the fireworks. Thank goodness too because the crowds were enormous. The first picture is around the subway station about 10 min walk from the bay. The second is from Joe's condo looking at the park area designated for viewing flooded with people.
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Tokyo Bay is a huge place but this part of the bay is between the city and the Rainbow bridge. As you may imagine, there were a considerable number of boats on the bay including the rental barges with their laterns glowing. The dark barges below were the launching platforms.
The show lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. Can you imagine! It was spectacular. Here are some photos.
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After the fireworks we waited at Joe's for about and hour and half before venturing out to catch the subway home. It turned out that we didn't wait long enough. The train station and bus stops were still packed. SO we walked 30 minutes to Tsukiji to get a subway that would be less crowded and then transfer to the one we needed. On the way we saw the tiniest car ever. I don't know who makes it but it is barely big enough for a person.
Since the Japanese Government declared that we had entered the rainy season (after 3 weeks of rain) near the end of May we have had no rain. It has been cloudy and hazy but no rain. So two months have gone by and I decided I was going to climb Mount Fuji on Tuesday. No rain for two months. Guess when that streak was broken. Tuesday was full of lightning and buckets of water falling from the sky. I'm a little annoyed as I had to cancel my plans and I had bought my bus ticket. I will try again near the end of August after the Obon weeks.
Obon is a week in the middle of August when everyone and their pet goes on holiday. Supposedly to return to their home town and visit with ancestors alive and dead. Not a good time to go anywhere if you don't want to be in crowds larger than normal.
Last Sunday I gave an hour long presentation on my views of traditional Japanese culture to the tea school of which I am a part. The head of the tea school asked my to present my views as a foreigner practicing two of the traditional cultural arts; tea ceremony and Kamakura-bori (carving). The summer lecture day consisted of myself and the school's tea master giving presentations. It was a little different than teaching science though because I was presenting my own opinions and observations rather than basing my talk on tested empirical evidence. I think everyone enjoyed it though. Mika was kind enough to translate my talk and questions.
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Between my talk and the Tea master's talk, we had tea and sweets made with the cherry blossoms of the trees in the area. Yummy.
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Last week was also the Gaien fireworks. One of several firework displays that occur during the summer to celebrate summer. Unlike in Canada these are quite large events. The sidewalks are crammed and people lay down tarps to reserve their pieces of concrete for later in the evening when they return. The "Boom" factor (as the magazines call it) was 15,000 fireworks which lasted about 1 hour. Really, 1 hour. Way longer than in Canada.The embassy is close by to this event so we hold an event of the main floor deck area with drinks and friends. Mika invited her cousin Iyasu who lives in Tokyo and some friends of hers. I dressed in the traditional summer dress of a Yukata; a thin, cool summer kimono.
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I also took some video. If you have a fast internet connection you can see it here (110 Mb).
I also noticed this wonderful evening sunset picture from the main floor of the embassy.
Finally a picture of Henry sleeping on my lap while we watched the amazing opening to the Olympic ceremonies.
Our balcony garden is producing tomatoes by the bucket load. It's nice to have fresh tomatoes that don't cost a fortune. Green peppers too.
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I took another trip to Kamakura a week or so ago to get a different view and maybe catch a breeze that might feel cool. I discovered this sign on the giant beech. Only in Japan would you have a smoking area on the beech.
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The weekend before last we went to an antique fair which is held every 6 months or so at Tokyo Big Site to see if we could find a nice plate for sweets for tea ceremony. Imagine an area of two football fields covered in stalls of all sorts of antique sellers with items from all over the world. Anyway we did find a very nice plate which you'll have to come to Japan to see (hint, hint). On the train over we passed something I wanted to take a picture of for a while but never seemed to have the camera ready when we went by.
The sign says it all. If you have a lot of people I guess it's worthwhile. Nevertheless I find it amusing.
Henry remains very cute and very attention demanding. We have found pictures on the interwebs that make us think he might be part British short hair because of his short legs, belly and round face but there is probably something else in there too.
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This past week we had our second anniversary. As usual there was a consular crisis when we had made plans. Despite havin to give a presentation to the new JET participants and dealing with dummy who didn't have a visa and had no money and had his 7 year old with him, we managed to stick to our plan. We had tickets to see the Bar Kays at the Cotton Club (yes there is a cotton club here as well as a blue note). The Bar Kays area soul/funk group that have been around for years and were the backing band for Otis Redding among others. It was a real fun evening. They pulled a friend who had come to see the show our of the audience to play a few songs on drums and the regular drummer switched to bass. Plus they pulled some Japanese guy I suppose they knew out of the audience to sing a song. A very grand evening.
We also went for afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku. The hotel starts on the 39th floor of a large building. Over the years we have had afternoon tea in several places and this one ranks high in the list. Nice selection of teas and mango scones.
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The room is a glass roofed atrium that is probably 3 floors high with bamboo. It looks out over the city as well which is a nice view but would probably be nicer in the winter when there isn't the summer haze. You look at this stuff and think "I'm breathing this stuff!".
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Finally, I'm still out of work. I entered another competition at the embassy but didn't get it. As with the other positions I came in second. I seem to have a knack for second place. Not much good it does me though. I guess I just keep trying.
It's really hot here. I understand it's also hot in Ottawa but Japan's hot is ridiculous. The past several weeks have involved de-fogging my glasses when I step out of the house. Thank goodness for AC. So with all this heat a couple of weeks ago we thought we would go to a beach I read about in a local English magazine. An island that guards the entrace to Tokyo bay just offshore from Yokosuka. That's where the U.S. naval base is. The island known as "Monkey island" (Sarushima island). (On Google Earth at 35°17'5.95"N and 139°41'37.19"E)
It takes about an hour to get there on the train and then you have to take a fifteen minute ferry to the island.
The beach turned out to be, like the rest of Japan, packed unbrella to umbrella. It seems everyone had the same idea.
So with no space on the beach, we headed up into the middle of the island because this place has been used as a defensive post up until the second world war and there were ruins. It was also a lot cooler in the trees. Not a lot of shade trees in the city.
A large trench runs down the middle of the small island with bunkers on either side. It also served as a causeway from one end of the island to the other to supply the large guns once there. No guns anymore. The trace of them were the big concrete platforms on which they stood.
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When you get to the other end of the island, it is easy to see its strategic importance as you can easily see the houses on the other side of the bay.
There was a nice shady area there where you could watch all the ships come in and move around Tokyo bay. We also saw the biggest floating crane that I have ever seen in person being pulled to a docking bay.
A week later we embarked on another adventure. July 14th was the embassy's Canada day holiday instead of July 1st due to the G8 affair. Being a Monday and that Japanese schools were not yet on their mid-summer break we decided to take th opportunity to go to an amusment park at the foot of Mount Fuji. I figured, less people so shorter lines. While I was correct and there were a lot fewer people, I forgot that there are 127 million people here and thus 'fewer' is a relative term. So the big rides had 1 hour wait times so we waited with everyone else. Clearly we are inexperienced at waiting in lines as many of the Japanese came prepared with books, PSPs and other things to pass the time. Nice thing about rides here is that there are lockers when you get on the ride to put your stuff. Anyway, there were, that day, unused signs indicating the point in the line where it would have been a 2 hour wait. I hate cues but clearly this does not bother the Japanese. Or maybe there just used to it.
The place is called Fuji-Q and it is on the edge of Fujiyoshida (Google Earth 35°29'14.17"N and 138°46'49.34"E). It had the usual drop tower and sit in a car roller coaster that starts at 80 m above ground. I thought I might lose my head on the cross beams we went under. Most rides had a height limit of 2 metres which I am not near to but also not far from (1.83 m).
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There was also a coaster which holds the Guiness Book of World Records for the most number of inversions. They have a plaque and everything. At least it did when it opened a few years ago. This was a crazy ride where apart from the loops and rolls the coaster does along the track, the carriage itself spins you on an axis perpendicular to the track. So sometimes your travelling forwards, other times backwards, on your back etc. Quite an exhilarating ride.
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You know what somone should do, that will never get done, is have a park where you have limited number of people in to reduce the lines. Charge extra, of course. It might just work. It'll never happen though
.Finally the latest sweets from our last tea lesson. The one with the two dark beans have flecks of gold as they are supposed to represent fireflies. I forget the explanation of the other one.
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G8 is over finally. Well almost. The PM is in Tokyo today and leaves tomorrow but the embassy can get back to normal work I guess. There hasn't been very much exciting or interesting to tell you about. Japan is covered by a perpetual cloud with sporadic rain so we haven't gone anywhere and haven't really seen much.
I interviewed for a job at the embassy but didn't get it. So we'll see what comes up next.
Canada Day was not a holiday at the embasssy as the G8 was approaching so there were no celebrations. The Americans, on the other hand, with 400 or so people at their embassy were able organise a 4th od July party at a hotel that we were invited to. A lot of people were there and a lot of food.
There was also the 7th Fleet dixieland band who were all right and added a nice festival atmosphere.
A guest singer, Jimmy Angel, who was famous in his day with such hits as "Teenager in Love", has 10 gold records and went to school with Elvis, was also there. Voice still strong. Hair still looks like Elvis'. Apparently he lives in Tokyo because he is in hiding from the Mob or something. I didn't catch a picture of him though.
More importantly, Mickey Mouse and Goofy came from Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate too. If you go to Tokyo Disneyland you need to wait upwards of 45 minutes to get your picture taken. We got it done in 2 minutes.
It was also a chance to see the various contacts from other embassies and say goodbye to some who are off to new posts. Here is Mika with her US embassy contact on her way to Bangladesh, her Panamanian contact and his wife and Autralian contact.
Now that G8 is over, the mass exodus from the embassy will begin next week. I think 15 families in total will be changing and they are all leaving in the next two weeks or so. Moving trucks galore.
While all this excitment goes on at the embassy, I hang out with Henry who follows me from room to room. He demands a lot of attention and we are still working on getting him to recorgnise that he will not be getting people food.
Oh I almost forgot that we had a return visit from an Australian guest who was here 18 months ago. He was here with a teacher who I taught with in Ottawa when she was there on an exchange. Anway, he's a principal in Oz and also a Rotary international member which was sort of the reason that he ended up in Japan again. Plus he does a lot of exchanges with Japan and now has a full Japanese immersion program in his school. At any rate he found this quaint street in Shinjuku that is scheduled to be demolished where we had lunch.
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Don't get rid of your old cottage furniture in a garage sale. Send it to an antique dealer in Japan and you could earn a bundle. You think I'm kidding? There is an antique dealer down the street from us that sells what you would see on sale for a few bucks at a garage sale. For example this chair.
Take a guess at the price? How about $400. Can you believe it?!
A couple of weeks ago, we attended a tea and ikebana gathering. A little different because a table version of the tea ceremony was done. I was instructed the week before on the differences between the table version and the traditional version on tatami mats, so I could participate and do the ceremony for some of the guests. What I was unaware of, was the one who would do the majority of tea sessions. No problem for me because I'm used to performing to some extent. But there was an element of a zoo atmosphere too. Look at the foreigner doing the Japanese tea ceremony.
Now don't get me wrong. This is not upsetting. If you live in Japan, or any country where you stand out from the monoethnicity/culture, you have to get used to the locals being fascinated by a foreigner participating so intimately with their culture. Especially the higher forms that require significant training and so closely tied to the countries identity. That and it is uncommon for a foreigner to be doing tea ceremony at all. It happens to a lesser degree with language too. Speak a few words of Japanese to someone and they are immediately impressed. This is more the case for the older Japanese who have little contact with foreigners.
At any rate, the zoo like feeling shades you judement of their comments too you. Everyone seemed impressed with my ceremony, but there is still that nagging thought in my head about whether they were impressed in comparison with other Japanese or impressed that I was doing it at all. I'll never really know but Mika assures me they were genuinely impressed.
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The Chabana (tea ceremony flower arranging) and Ikebana (flower arranging) exhibit was also impressive to see. The pictures from this I have put in a photo album in the photo section for you to browse.
I continue to take carving lessons in the Kamakura style. 2 months ago I got back my first piece from the lacquer works. I may have mentioned this before but the lacquer used is called urushi and does not cure in the same way as paints and lacquers that most people know of. It has to be cured in a humid environment and it takes a long time. Add on the many layers and you have a process that can take up to a year to do. So one year later I have recieved my first piece which is of two carp fish. I have included here a picture of a plate I have just finished and sent to be lacquered. I should see it about this time next year. The dark dirt looking stuff in the new one is pencil lead that gets rubbed around as a result of my hands on the surface of the plate while carving.
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Finally, it is hydrangea season again and thus one of the tea sweets from the last lesson are meant to give the impression of hydrangeas. The second sweet represents a Japanese plum.
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It is down to the last two days of this school year. A relief for everyone involved. Grades are done and submitted to the office and all I have left to do is collect textbooks.
This week the Japanese government has declared that the rainy season has begun. Apparently people can't figure this out on their own despite the on and off rain for the past three weeks. Sounds typical though. Restate the obvious.
Despite the cloudy days and rain, we lucked out last weekend and had a sunny day on Sunday. The forecast was correct and we planned to drive the two hours to Nikko (North of Tokyo) to get some fresh mountain air and greenery. This was our first time going to Nikko where it wasn't cloudy, windy or raining. So much for forecasts. But, as I said, we lucked out this time.
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It really is a nice place when the sun is shining. Just outside the city of Nikko is Lake Chuzenji where there are some nice hiking trails. We picked one that didn't have too many large elevation changes and started at Ryuzu Falls. Where all the photographers were out taking snaps of the flowers and water. Rightly so, but you have to marvel at the intensity with which they undertake this hobby (well any hobby really). This took us along the river/stream that feeds the falls and across the Senjogahara plateau where a great battle took place. A mythical one anyway. The two gods of Mt. Nantai and Mt. Akagi fought for control of Lake Chuzenji on this plateau. In short Mt.Nantai won.
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Unlike hiking in Canada, the undergrowth here is not grass, ferns and the like but bamboo grass. It gives the woods a very different feel. A perfect day to go hiking.
Henry is making himself more at home and we've tried taking him outside on a leash. His tail puffs up everytime because there are a number of strays in the neighbourhood. He managed to escape from the harness once (tighten that some more) and went after one cat nearly giving me a heart attack as he disappeared around the corner of the house. We eventually found him hiding under a porch. Mainly, though, the excursions out the front door have been a success.
He has also made himself quite at home and is a very affectionate cat who likes to sleep on people.
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Finaly the okashi (sweets) of the last tea lesson.
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| Page last updated: Dec 20, 2008 |