My Toe!

But first...

Easter brunch!
Note: sorry about the crappy layout, blogger sucks with editing.

We were able to have Easter brunch which was really nice. We had a friend over and Caitlyn made some excellent food including peaches, carrot cake, deviled eggs, edamame, and chicken salad sammich (chicken grilled with garlic, salt and pepper, then mixed with terragon, mayo, diced almonds, finely chopped green onions, lettuce, rolls). It was delicious. Thanks ma and dad!

Caitlyn will soon be posting on our hanami season and our trip to Ise Shrine (which was amazing). We are finished with our first week of classes and it went quite well. I have one kids class of punks, but overall my classes are well-behaved. Caitlyn has quite a few private classes which she seems to enjoy. On another note, farmers have begun flooding and planting the rice fields, so it will stop looking so brown everywhere soon :P

Below are some pictures of a bamboo forest that is close to our apartment. We hope to go on a picnic in the forest soon. The bamboo forest is on a hillside, and at the top there is an amazing little park. The road up to it is one of the steepest grades I have ever seen, but it was worth climbing to see the sakura. The flowers were beautiful (and you couldn't see Yokkaichi! haha).

While bumbling through the forest, some old guy gave us a bamboo root and said the equivalent of "good luck." At the time we didn't know it was a bamboo root, but we found out later you are supposed to boil it and then eat it (it smelled like a husk of corn). In the picture of me, I'm holding the bamboo root from the old man.

And now...

My Toe!
Last Friday, I found out why you should wear shoes instead of sandals when riding a bike. We were heading to the bank, and Caitlyn was cranking at me to be "careful" and stop goofing around on my bike. Not more than two seconds after that, I tried a bunny hop and slipped off the pedals. My foot got caught between the ground and pedal, and it ripped my toenail off as well as quite a bit of skin off of my big toe. It looked like this:


To top it off, immediately after it happened Caitlyn said, "I told you to be careful!" Thanks babe.

While this didn't make it worth it, it was pretty cool when I was trying to find bandages and hydrogen pyroxide--I would show Japanese clerks and they would freak (and I didn't pass out! Awesome!).

More soon!

Chad and Caitlyn

Cherry Blossom Season has Arrived!

The cherry blossoms have bloomed and for the next week and a half or so we are in for some beautiful scenery. During this time of year, everyone gets together underneath sakura (cherry blossoms) to appreciate the flowers' beauty. Additionally, people bring food (like obentos, or boxed lunches) and drinks (from sake and beer, to green tea and so on), to celebrate the cherry blossom season all day long. There are also stalls set up in the more popular viewing areas at which you can buy food (similar to the stalls mentioned in our fetility festival post, sans penis).

I never really thought about the history of it all--I just thought it was symbolic of new life and all the sorts of things that come with spring. However, one of the lessons I was teaching included a discussion question that made me wonder more about the origins of cherry blossom viewing. The questions asks why people first began to celebrate this annual event, and how the manner in which people take part in the event has changed over the years. To my astonishment, class after class, none of my students knew much about how this whole thing got started. This brings to the forefront the way cherry blossom viewing is often more about a day-long (or week long) party than about "what it all means."

I read a bit about cherry blossom viewing origins, and there are several theories as to how and when cherry blossom viewing started on a nationwide scale. Most people seem to agree that flower viewing became specific to cherry blossoms after The Tale of Genji was written (there is a sakura party featured in the novel). Symbolic of the beginning of rice-planting season, a prediction about the outcome of the following year's harvest, and deeper contamplations regarding the impermanence of life, beauty, etc., these beautiful flowers became an annual draw. I think that people still recognize the allure of these elegant little blossoms, but that the season has transformed into one in which people celebrate each other's love and friendship, too. And perhaps, like many speculate, many people just really like to party.

Yesterday, I went for a run along the river near our apartment and the area is just so beautiful that I decided to go for a walk later to take some pictures. Over the next week, we'll be attending several hanami (flower viewing) parties, and will be sure to post many pictures, but for now you'll just have to be content with (and jealous of) these. ^^

Take care! Love, Chad and Caitlyn