Every May 5th in Japan, there's an event called childrens day. It's basically a nation-wide festival. There wasn't too much that I found interesting about it, except for this.
Another annual event in Japan: cherry blossom viewing. Again, I don't think I got quite as much out of this as the
locals did, but I have to admit it was very impressive. There are millions of cherry trees across Japan and they blossom
in the spring. When many of the trees are gathered together, it's quite the sight. The picture to the left is of Sakura
street in Fukui city. Both sides of the street are lined with nothing but cherry trees. No, that is not snow in the
branches - it is all flowers. This is a very important event in Japan. Tourists flock to the best spots in the country
to see the cherry blossoms. And on the TV news, there's a daily update of the cherry blossom front - the blossoms
first appear in the southern regions of the country and gradually move northward as the weather warms up.
This picture is of a Lantern in a Kanazawa park. Notice the cherry blossoms have just begun to bloom on the trees in the background. Sue took this picture. Good one, eh?
We thought the garden laterns were very cool. Check out this one in Obama:
I'm sure most of you have heard of Sake, the famous Japanese rice wine. We had the pleasure of trying it a few times.
It has quite the kick, and I have to say that it's an aquired taste. It actually reminded me a little of tequila.
Others say that it is similar to a fine french wine. Apparently these 'others' didn't try the same kind as I did. :)
It has been a tradition to drink Sake at social events for hundreds (thousands?) of years. This extends to religious
gatherings as well. The picture to the right of 32 (now empty) sake barrels was taken at a Shinto temple. The sake is
offered to the various dieties, because they apparently like to get juiced up every now and then. And everything the
dieties don't drink is fair game to everyone else at the festivals.
I would estimate that these held about 5 gallons (23 liters) each.
These are my students. I taught private english classes a few hours each week. I met with Emiko, Ikuko and Yoshiko
for about 1 hour each week. They all spoke english at a basic level, but they wanted to improve their communication
skills. It was kind of fun. Emiko also taught Sue and I a little Japanese cooking, and they all helped immensely
with our understanding of Japanese culture. Actually, large portions of this diary would be much more vague if my
students hadn't been around to explain what was going on! And as if that wasn't enough, they actually paid me to
teach them and gave us very nice farewell presents when we returned to Canada. Good deal, eh?
The teachers at Sue's school were also great. They were very friendly and helpful to Sue. The english department was made up of 9 teachers. The photos below were taken at Sue's farewell party. Tanaguchi-sensei (more affectionately known as ichi, far left in the group photo) also gave up some of his spare time to teach me to play Shogi (a version of chess). It was a lot of fun. The hardest part was trying to memorize the symbols on the pieces. On the right, I'm putting all my lessons to the test in a hard faught battle against one of the other teachers. I lost. Badly.
Himeji castle was one of the most impressive castles in Japan. Several hundred years old, it towered above the rest of the city. The tour was very interesting, but right now, all I can remember is that there were a LOT of stairs to climb and it was a scorching hot day.
I'm sure most of you have seen pictures of Geisha before. We crossed paths with these ladies while wondering around
Kyoto. I think they were models, since there seemed to be professional photographers following them around along with all
us nosy tourists. Geisha are entertainers they sing, play musical instruments and dance traditional dances. Contrary
to the western stereotypes, they are not prostitutes.
If this doesn't fit the definition of 'miscellanious', I don't know what does. After a lond day of cycling, we decided to stop for a dip in the sea. While wandering through the small fishing village at the shore, we stumbled across a fisherman's home where his catch was hanging to dry. I learned to love squid (and many other forms of seafood) during our time abroad!
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