Lazy Friday

Our days off each week are Friday and Sunday. Lately on Fridays it has been raining, but this past Friday it was nice and sunny (it was also incredibly windy, but we weren't about to complain!). We decided to go for a walk around our area, and made several stops. A couple of these stops included two parks and Yokkaichi's two little shrines.

These pictures were taken at Unomori Park (about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from our apartment).

I wanted to take a picture of Chad up on this rock, and then this little girl started climbing up, too. I shrugged and asked, "Shashin wo tottemoii?" (Is it okay to take a picture?) She got right up next to Chad, offering the common symbol for all pictures of friends in Japan: peace. I let her look at the picture after we took it, and she said the equivalent of "cool" before running to her bike and riding away with a friend.

Above is the entrance from the park to the adjacent shrine. Unfortunately, since Yokkaichi is a relatively small city (about 300,000 people--so, bigger than Grand Rapids, but smaller than many cities here), there isn't much information about the area available for foreigners. I'll have to see if I can find out more information on the shrines at the Yokkaichi International Center, but for now please bear with our limited knowledge!

Pictured are several torii, or gates. These can be seen all over Japan, but usually they represent an entryway to a sacred area. I was lucky enough to visit one of Japan's most famous sites for torii in Miyajima (one of Japan's three most scenic places to visit) the last time I came to Japan.

Most shrines and temples have a place for you to clean your hands and mouth before entering. Above is an example of the fountain at Unomori Shrine used for this purpose.

Here is an example of wooden prayer cards that can be seen in every Japanese shrine and temple. When visiting, you can buy a card and then write a prayer, whether it be for a family member with ailing health, or to get good grades on your next exam. Then you hang the card on the posts and hope that the gods, or kami, grant your prayer(s). Shrines all have certain imagery on the cards, usually hand-painted. Many of the above pictured cards have daruma painted on them.

I was introduced to daruma a few years ago when I was trying to find a good luck gift for Chad. He was going to be taking his black belt test for karate, and I was searching the web when I found daruma dolls for sale. They work like this: the doll is purchased with both eyes painted white. You paint one pupil with black ink while making some sort of wish (I wished Chad luck on his test). While waiting for your wish to come into fruition, you place the doll in a visible place so you can be easily reminded of your goal. Then, when the wish is granted, you carefully, gratefully, paint the other pupil. Chad got his black belt and painted the other eye, because, well, you never know. :-)

In the picture above, you can see many of the daruma on the cards have only one eye painted. Just like other cards, the temple usually burns these cards after one year. This isn't meant to mean the prayer has been abandoned, but that the person who made the card is going to try another path to fulfill his or her goal.

This is one of the few pictures we took of Suwa Shrine. This shrine is much smaller than Unomori, but it's still pretty neat. You can see stone lanterns (another common presence in all shrines) as well as a statue of a mix between a lion and a dog.

White Day and the Fertility Festival

On March 14th, Japan celebrates a counterpart to Valentine's Day called White Day. On this day, men are supposed to get women gifts and chocolates, while on Valentine's Day, women get the men chocolate. It's been a couple years, and I forgot which day is which, so I got Chad some sweets instead (he better just remember that on Valentine's Day!).

Above, Chad is opening some assorted chocolates. I also got him some bear-shaped cookies (pictured on the right). There are some awesome phrases on the cookie box, including the following:

"Did you see the bears in line? Did you watch the bears changed to the sweets? The kind of thing may only happen in the wonderland."

"Guys in their best dress get together in the b.b. CAFE."

"b.b. CAFE Munch, munch. Deliciousness continues forever once you start to taste the sweetness, you can't stop it. You continue to taste them until you make a jar empty."

Totally unrelated to White Day comes another annual event in Japan. Today, March 15, a fertility festival took place outside of Nagoya near the Tagata Jinja (shrine). It's called the Hounen Matsuri (hounen meaning rich harvest, and matsuri meaning festival), and there is a large parade in which a very large wooden phallus is carried around. There are similarly shaped objects EVERYWHERE just for the festival, whether they be for decoration, or sold at little stalls set up. Some of the items available for purchase included candy, keychains, wood carvings, and so forth. Also available (and in normal food-shapes) was some traditional and delicious Japanese food.

Please be careful scrolling down, as some of the pictures are rather explicit (we decided to post some pictures for you to view at your own discretion, keeping in mind that this is a public festival, and parents even bring their children. You may not want your children to see, however, so be warned!).

Tagata Jinja

There were so many people, including loads of foreigners. Apparently, for some reason, the festival is one of the most popular festivals for large crowds of gaikokujin.

Above is an example of some of the festival-oriented food. We tried one of the green bananas, and it was quite delicious, actually.

The procession began with many things, including the scenes captured above. The woman in the picture was engouraging people in the crowd to touch her...prop. Also in the parade were participants handing out cups of sake.

The parade continued with people marching by, some of which were holding a very interesting flag:





Soon enough, we witnessed the the main event:







There's not much that can really be said for that.


...

Later in the afternoon, a crowd gathered around as participants in the ceremony threw large, hard mochi (rice cakes) from a balcony. If you catch some of the mochi, it is good luck, but I would say surviving the event is good luck in itself! Chad and our friend Mike caught several.

(Note: although Chad looks like he's eating one of his prizes, they are not delicious. Normally, mochi is very soft and sweet, and much smaller.)

Upon leaving, we saw the above pictured street performer, making the mannequin dance to some traditional music.

Please keep in mind that this festival is kind of strange even for some Japanese. For more information, you can check out the following links:

http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=529
http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/aichi/tagata_jinja.html

Training is Done!

We are both pretty stoked because we finished training yesterday. For the next couple of weeks, we will be doing sub-shifts. When the new year starts in April, we will finally have our own classes. It's kind of a nice way to come into the company because we can get used to teaching in classes we aren't necessarily responsible for, and get experience before getting our set schedule. Our training group celebrated at a Karaoke bar and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Today we cleaned, got groceries and had a delicious spaghetti meal. Caitlyn has been cooking a variety of dinners, and is excited to try so many new recipes (as well as throw in some Western dishes like spaghetti).

I also took pictures! Please keep in mind we are still trying to make our "house a home" (i.e. we have a lot of decor issues at the moment, including a lack of furniture). Time is flying, and we have been so busy, we haven't had too much of a chance to get settled in!

The first picture shows the road our apartment is on, and the second one is from the same angle, only out our front door. Can you see the mountains? That's what we get to see everyday when the sun is shining :-)

This is the outside of our apartment complex. We are on the second floor, second from the left (with all the laundry hanging up :-) ). This side is our balcony side, and we can see other houses from this view.

This is a picture of our kitchen. We've got cupboards above and below the sink, and across from the sink we have a shelf that we put dishes on. You can also see our baby fridge/freezer, which comes up to our chests.

Our shower area and bathtub, little bathroom, and utility room. Please excuse the utility room mess--we're working on getting some sweet storage containers.

The other side of our kitchen, leading into the living room, and Caitlyn sitting at our table in the living room.

Above are pictures of our bedroom, which has a tatami mat floor. Our futons are laid out because it's almost time for bed!

Speaking of going to bed, I've gotta' go for now. We'll post more pictures soon (especially when our apartment starts to come together a little more!).

Love,
Chad and Caitlyn


P.S. Here's one more picture we took on our way home from work Friday (wish the image were clearer!):

Kids Training Is Done!

Hello everyone! Just wanted to quickly update you before we head off to work.

Yesterday we finished Kids Training, and it feels so good to be done! We both learned a lot, and we worked really hard every day. Before we left work yesterday, they had individual meetings with each trainee, and Chad and I got tons of great feedback. In fact, during the entire meeting, the only thing they told me I might want to be careful of is being too nice! They told Chad he could use more confidence, but anyone who saw his amazing demos would disagree (you should have seen his impersonation of the crows here!!). Hearing that we consistently did a good job was very rewarding. Not only did we put a lot of effort into our work, but we gained a lot of respect for our trainers. Hearing such positive comments from them meant a great deal to us.

In other news, we found out our housing company is going to provide us with a table and chairs! We already bought a set from a recycle shop, but Chad accidently broke one of the chairs, so we're going to take the new one, too. That way we can also move our old table into the kitchen to use as a shelf/desk.

Also, Chad and I went out to eat with our new Japanese friend on Sunday. She took us to a place where you cook Nabe, a delicious soup-like meal that has lots of veggies and is really spicy. When you come into the restaurant (similar to many restaurants in Japan), you remove your shoes near the door and put them in little wooden boxes. You shut the wooden box and pull out the key, and then walk in. The tables in the restaurant are nearly level with the ground, but there is space underneath for your legs and feet. In the middle of each table is a little grill on which to cook your food. Since we just ordered Nabe, it came in a pot and all we had to do was wait to see steam coming out. Out of a range of 1-10, we chose level 1 for spiciness, and we can't imagine how people can handle a number 10! Yikes! Ours ended up being very delicious, although Chad got a surprise. He held up what looked similar to a chunk of fat, and asked our friend Sayaka what it was. She said, "Oh, Ushi." I replied, "Cow?"

"Well, not exactly," she said. Then she pointed to her stomach.

"Cow stomach? Cow fat??"

Then, Sayaka drew a picture on her notebook to explain more accurately.

"Intestines!?!" (At this point I heard Chad gag a little).

"Are you okay," she asked.

Chad quickly adjusted his facial expression and replied, "Yeah, that's great. I've never had that before."

We are pretty open to trying new things, but you can be pretty sure Chad was thinking he'd do his best to never have it again, either :-)

Miss you, everyone! We'll try and get pictures up later today. Got to go start training for our adult classes, so talk to you soon!

Love, Caitlyn and Chad