Mmmmmmm

I missed chicken


Tara

Came Blowing In

On the second day in Kyoto, we headed out to nearby Nara, stopping at Fushimi Inari Shrine en route. Fushimi Inari Shrine is well-known for it's roughly 2 million red torii gates, recently made famous in the film "Memoires of a Geisha". This is definitely one of the nicest and most impressive shrines I've seen in Japan. It manages to be big and impressive, while maintaining the peacefulness you'd hope to find in such a place.


Kevin in the midst.


Old man, young boy.
Come on, this is poetry in motion! They're making it too easy here.


Well framed Tara.


Here Dad is caught becoming not-the-first pilgrim to unexpectedly happen upon enlightment only to stop and think "... how the hell did I get here?"

After much walking through gates we moved on to Nara, home to many deer and one really indescribably enormous Buddha...

(-ian-)

The Summer Wind

It seems the one year mark has snuck by us quite stealthily and I guess we must have enjoyed it because we've signed on for one more year. Of course we miss home, the things there, and sometimes even some of the people... but this run has been given a great boost of endurance from our many guests over the course of the summer.

Last YOU (our faithful fans) saw, we were singing karaoke with Meaghan, then she left and we were wearing yukata (summer kimonos). Hmm.... well, that does skip one little sub-plot we call CLIMBING MOUNT FUJI!!! We still owe you a healthy dose of pictures from that excursion, and I promise they WILL come eventually!

Just a few weeks after Meaghan left, a little group known as "my family" popped in for a visit! Understandably, they are very eager to be featured here on the blog (Fictional magazine recently rated appearance on this blog 8.7 points Cooler - using the standard international system - than appearing on Saturday Night Live), so I'll use this space to introduce them:

Meet (from left): KEVIN - sporting a jinbe top for maximum summer comfort, DAD, MOM, myself and Tara, and my older sister YOUSHINA SHIMASHITA.
This is atop Kyoto station on just their 3rd night in Japan!


HEY LOOK!!! It's the GUPPY; my long-told-of-yet-never-shown-vehicle! Well, sadly this first time will also be the last that the Guppy is shown, as he met an unfortunate end (specifically the end of a blue car) a couple weeks ago when I missed a stop sign. I'm fine, and nobody was hurt badly, but Guppy is damaged beyond the point that he's worth repairing. For the time being I'm back to doing my job entirely by bicycle!

Back to the family visit... I had 10 days off work for summer holidays, during which we did a whirlwind tour of Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo. Much of the rest of the time was spent enjoying the casual lifestyle in our little town, Ichinomiya.

Here are mom and I outside a coffee shop where we tried "morning service", which is a breakfast free with the purchase of any drink. Mmm...free breakfast.
We later tried a few other cafes but this one (just down the street from our house) proved to have the BEST free breakfast around. The "Canadian Coffee House" may have been the skimpiest breakfast, or maybe we were just disappointed because we expected special Canadian treatment.

Kevin had a chance to enjoy these stylish Japanese floor chairs. He enjoyed them so much that he decided to buy one and take it back to Canada.
He was also a big fan of the jinbe, which he wore for most of his time in Japan, at least until he found organic cotton hippy pants in Tokyo.

Everyone found Kyoto beautiful, and it was also unanimously agreed to be HOT. The heat combined with the huge crowds (during Japan's biggest summer holiday) meant that we couldn't walk far without seeking shade and drinks. Despite the intense humidity, we managed to make our way around to some great spots.
Of course, the ever-convenient vendors of ice-cold drinks, proved to be one of the most popular sites with everyone.

Maybe it was partly due to the heat, but the summer feels like a blur! It was great to have so much family time this summer and now that the end of September is nearing it feels like not long at all before we will be coming back to Canada to celebrate Christmas and New Year's at home. We will be both be home for a little under one month, hopefully arriving in Canada in mid-December.

-IAN!

Hi Dad!

Hello to all. As you may have read, I have been visiting with my family for the past 3 weeks. My dad headed back to Canada last Friday (he is already safely back at home), and my mom and brother will begin their trip home tomorrow. Needless to say, it has been a very busy summer, and there will be many more pictures to show of trips to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, as well as adventures in daily life here in Ichinomiya, and a special trip to a Buddhist temple in the mountains.

As many of you already know. Tara ALSO headed back to Canada last Friday for a special 1 week visit, in order to celebrate her grandparents` 50th anniversary! ~~ Congratulations!!! ~~

Tara took her computer back to Canada, so I`m using the internet at a *manga cafe* at the moment -- I:ll explain about those another time. Unfortunately I haven:t been able to figure out how to SEND email on here. Even using my hotmail account, I seem to run into problems sending, but the error message is in Japanese, and I have no idea what it means. SO, SORRY TO THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED TO CONTACT ME!!


Dad, and Justin, I got your messages. Might not be able to respond for awhile, but thanks!
Ok, well that:s all for today. Just didn:t want anyone to feel neglected.

He's looking more and more like them....

The summer months are quite festive in Japan, with Tanabata - a star festival - occuring July 7th, a myriad of fireworks shows in every city (as well as more private shows like in the parking lot of our apartment), and Obon - one of the biggest festival/holiday times of the year - happening in August. These festivals, like many things in Japan, incorporate eons of tradition of which we understand probably only the most superficial layers. Most observably, a great number of people wear 'funny clothes' which they like to call "yukata" (a kind of summer kimono). This past weekend Tara and I, with a little (lot of) help, had the opportunity to don the traditional summer garb and venture out into public.

Key members of our team included Hime and her daughter Yumeka, both ex-students of mine from Nova. We had been invited over for a delicious lunch on Saturday, but lunch turned into yukata-shopping, which lead to a long and complicated session of yukata-dressing (the young Yumeka fortunately quite talented in the extremely complicated methods of obi-tying), and finally to a feeling of "Now that we're all standing around wearing yukata, we might as well go to a festival!"

And so we headed to Nagoya, making it just in time to catch the absolutely spectacular finale of the fireworks display. We probably only managed to catch the last 10 or 15 minutes of the show, but everyone knows that they save the best for last! When we showed up, most people were already heading home, tired from standing around for over an hour.

My yukata has TIGERS!!! COOL!!! And Tara looks pretty, but hers has flowers and not TIGERS!!!


I admit I felt a little nervous walking through the station wearing yukata. Particularly in the main train station where we were the only ones wearing traditional clothing. On the subway line, closer to the festival, many people were dressed for the festival, and we felt more in place.

Yukata pros:
- See Tara's big wide sleeves! Those are sewn at the bottom and you can keep your wallet, keys, cell phone, etc. in them. No need for cargo pockets!
- Hot weather? Light material, and that refreshing up-yukata draft keep things cool even on the most packed subway cars.
- They look cool!

Yukata cons:
- That thin material sure provides a thin boundary between you and the guy behind you on the cramped train car.
- The proper method to tie an obi (sash across your waist) is a skill requiring serious training (they really do have lessons, and people who do this professionally).

Down at the fireworks show we met up with the lovely Yuki. Her mother happens to be a professional kimono dresser.

Come on Charles! Wear yukata! Everyone else is doing it!!!





Hmm... unlike the fireworks show, I save my least impressive comments for last.

TIGERS!!!

There... Finished.

-ian