Summer Fireworks

This is August's Nagaragawa River Fireworks, called
hanabi. Every August there are fireworks celebrations across Japan. Its was a real festival with hundreds of food stands and thousands of people from around Gifu in attendance, including about a hundred of us English teachers. A lot of women and men dress up in Yukata and Kimonos. Now it is trendy, especially for young women, to dress in yukata for special events or just for a walk downtown with their friends.

WE LOVE SUSHI

The best 'everyman's' sushi restaurants are the conveyor belt, aka. merry-go-round, aka revolving, variety where you sit down outside of a ring of revolving sushi that the chefs constantly replenish. There's always lots of selection. See something you like? Grab it! Each plate may cost 100 Yen and up, but usually its cheap. Oh, and if the ever changing variety of sushi in front of your face isn't enough, there's the option to press a button and request your specialty. "How to eat sushi" demonstration courtesy of Hiroko.

Hello?

Takako and me on the porch of an old hotel, in use in the Edo Period*, and now a museum. When you put your ear to the bamboo, you can hear water dropping into the pool on the left onto a drum. It is said that back in the day, life was so quiet that you could easily hear the water drops without any help from bamboo sticks.
*The Edo Period (1603-1867) in Japan was characterized by tight constriction on travel within Japan. Many checkpoints were necessary for travellers. This hotel museum is located across the street from one of the old checkpoints, so that travellers could "check-in" at the checkpoint and the hotel that night. During the Edo Period, Samurais were the elite class. At one point, all foreign literature was banned. However, since foreign influence diminished even within Japan, the Edo Period allowed for national arts such as kabuki theater to fourish.

Festival Fireworks & Food

A face from Kakamigahara

People are patient and friendly enough here to greet with strangers. So as I rode my bike home from work today, this old man and I exchanged an "ohayou gozaimasu".

Welcome to the 'Hood

This is the street in front of my apartment. The brown building on the corner appears to be a restaurant or storefront but it rarely rolls up its straw shades, so who knows. My building is the 3rd one back. It is made of ugly grey concrete. But after the earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons strike, I will be the last of my friends left standing. Always looking on the bright side. The apartments' name is "Sun Rise Height." I live on the 3rd floor next to a wonderful Japanese woman who is an English teacher at a nearby high school. The first floor of the building is a pub on one side and a coffee shop on the other. The clientele all but live there, save their names on the mailbox. Haven't tried either joint yet; but in the mornings as I'm leaving for work I usually run into the coffee shop owner and we exchange an "Ohayo gozaimasu."

Ice cream just aint what it seems

Today was just as hot as it has been since I got here - its like a sauna except I'm in my work clothes.
No better day for an ice cream popsicle, I decided as I eyed the market across the street from my apartment; sure enough they had a little frozen items bin with various ice creams and popsicles. At first glance, one reddish wrapper stuck out. Even though I couldn't read the wrapper, it seemed like strawberry was a fair guess. Yea, strawberry was just what I wanted. It was only 98 yen. That's like 98 cents. So as soon as I bought it I ran out of the store on to the sidewalk and ripped open my prize. Strawberry, alright. So I took a bite. The surprize taste that followed, I may never forget. This was a special Japanese popsicle. No strawberries,... just red kidney beans. It was like eating habichuela dulce (sweet cooked beans) frozen, on a stick. It wasn't bad... but certainly was not strawberry.
Japan is full of surprizes. The moment you're positive about something is actually getting ahead of yourself and is when you can be most easily taken by surprize.

Bright Lights in Shinjuku, Tokyo

My first day in Japan, I was dropped into Shinjuku District, Tokyo, one of the most electric, eccentric places in the world. Here the streets are always flowing with people. Shinjuku is stacked with skyscrapers, phosphorescent advertisements, department stores, 24 hr convenience stores, bars, restaurants, language schools, karaoke and hotels.