cold mountian, warm jacket

Today we started using some of the pollen that we have harvested from the flowers and started manually pollinating plum trees. We also spent some time thining the buds on the apple trees so that they will produce less fruit. (But the fruit produced will be bigger and sweeter because more energy will go into each apple.)

Today It was clear enough in the afternoon that we could see Fuji. It was still partially covered by clouds for most of the day though. (And of course the few minutes it was unobstructed, I wasn't near my camera.)

(Click to embiggen)

Also, in an unexpected turn of events, Kazu managed to locate a hanten for me to buy. A hanten is the traditional cold weather coat worn by Japanese people that I wanted to buy, but had gone out of season. As it turned out, the parrents of one of Kazu's old students (He used to teach English at a local college) owns a futon shop here in town. (Apparently futon shops are where you buy these kinds of things.) and this shop happened to have a few that they hadn't sent off yet. And what was better, is that they had one very big one (By Japanese standards anyway).

So after work Kazu, Nick, Phina (the girl who's name I couldn't remember), Rachael and I all walked down to this futon shop. It was about a 20 minute walk. Nick also wanted to buy one. The girls just wanted to go for a walk I think. While we were walking Kazu let them know we were coming, so by the time we got there, they already had the Hanten set aside. The largest one they had fit me perfectly. The Color was also quite good, it matches the rest of my Japanese clothing. The price on the tag was 4980 yen which converts to $57.05 I was totally ok with this price, but because Kazu brought us in, they gave us a discount that amounted to about $11 off for me. Rachael also bought one. although since Nick and Rachael's were smaller, they were a bit less expensive. What makes this purchase even sweeter for me is that my hanten got Obaa-chan's (Grandma's) seal of approval. Getting an elderly persons approval on a traditional piece of clothing just makes it that much better. Anyway, here is a picture of me in my hanten.
I'll try and get a photo of all three of us in all of our hanten together. (I'd say "hantens", but Japanese doesn't have any plurals, so I don't know if it would be right.)

Anyway, my roommate has fallen asleep, so I'd better get to bed too. (Oh yeah, I have a roommate for the next 2 days. I'll write more about him tomorrow probably)

~Daniel