Grr.....

I was planning to do another edition of "Another Perspective", but the photos I was intending to use seem to have vanished off my computer. I am a bit perturbed by this so I will forgo posting any more for tonight, and we shall see how I feel tomorrow.

Great director, and an awesome place too.

So while we were traveling, I wanted to head south int0 Kyushu because most people never go there when they tour Japan. Dad wanted to go to Beppu for the hot springs, but I wanted to go further and see what was out there. We quite literally had no idea where we were going, but we got on a train and went. We wound up in a city called Miazaki (Which is also the name of a famous Anime director, hence the entry title.) I think I wrote a bit about this place in an earlier entry, and its already late so I just wanted to post up some pictures of our time there. So here ya go.

They were conducting some kind of service within the main shrine, so we didn't actually approach the main building. but from the secondary gate that you can see in this picture, you could see a shrine maiden doing various chores in the main temple. After a short while the Shrine maiden was joined by a Shinto priest to usher in the guests and run the ceremony (I'm guessing its Shinto by the shrine style and the garb, but I'm not positive).



This is a shot of one of the stalls set up at the garden market thingy that we stumbled upon. Keep in mind this is in a vacant parking lot on a rainy morning. Its not a permanent nursery or anything.



Definitely a highlight of the trip for me. There were some maintained and better yet, Open to the public, traditional style houses. Normally stuff like this is fenced off, but I was actually invited to take my shoes off and step inside by the only other person there. (They were doing some cleaning when we arrived, but apparently had finished there task and left Dad and I alone to enjoy the buildings. I guess these things don't even need to be supervised, they just trust people not to mess things up. Apparently it works because the place looked amazing.)

On our way out we ran into what appeared to be a bride and groom about to have their wedding ceremony. They were kind enough to let us photograph them, and even posed for us. We also got our picture taken with them, but you can see more of the outfit detail in this shot.


Anyway, Sorry for the delay in updates. I actually wrote this yesterday but I wasn't able to get the pictures to load properly. So I've been trying to figure that out since then. It turns out that I was just trying to upload too much at one time, So I had to upload them individually rather then all at once. Now I know ( And knowing is half the battle. G.I. JOE! (....... maybe this is the wrong crowd for that reference, oh well.))

~Daniel

Another day, another Onsen.

Today I got to do something that I’m rather familiar with. We got to use weed whackers to clear weeds and grass away from the base of the trees in the area that we call the “Cat House” (because it’s where Mini Mike and Brandy live). The first part of the day however was thinning apple blossoms. Unfortunately it was cold and starting to rain so it made things a little less then optimal. I’m really glad I bought those rubberized over pant things from Good to Go. The area we were using the weed whackers in has a canopy that can be raised or lowered. So even though it was raining, we could safely work with the machinery.

Our work day actually ended early today, so in the afternoon we had another opportunity to go to an onsen (Japanese hot spring). This time we went to the local one where Obaa-chan goes every day. Well, it certainly was local. I’m guessing every person there was a farmer by the looks of it. This one was much smaller than the others we’ve been to, and it didn’t have an outside bath like the others. (Which is my favorite. I like sitting in the hot water while I’ve got some cool rain coming down.) At any rate, I’ll probably pass if they’re going back to that one. It’s just not worth it for me without the outdoor bath.

After dinner we got to go to “Max Value” which is one of the super markets in the area. This one is located in a bigger shopping center, and right next door was a clothing store that we also went in to. As I expected, basically nothing there fit me. Not even the belts. However I did pick up a beanie (Its been cold in the mornings, and my bandana doesn’t always cut it.) and a couple shirts at the request of a friend. (Hopefully they’ll fit.) I also tried on some sunglasses, but as usual nothing looked good. Once we got over to the supermarket, I picked up some of these delicious seeds that you put on rice, and some more KitKats of different flavors. (I’ve made it my mission to try as many different kinds as I can find, and bring back some of my favorites)

I’d also to take a moment to thank Rachel for locating my toothbrush. I lost it for about a day and a half. It turned out to be between the couch and my futon. I hadn’t even thought to check there, it was just such an unlikely spot. So, thank you Rachel.

As for Pictures, I uploaded some more stuff to my Photobucket. Its mostly stuff from days 2&3 of my trip.

Well, I think that’s all for now. It’s past my bed time (As usual).

~Daniel

Fish Slap

I think I got beaten by a fish. I developed a stomach ache this afternoon, and i think it was due to the fish I had at breakfast. It had nothing to do with how the fish was cooked, but rather how it was presented. Whole fish, head, tail, skin, everything but the eyes it looked like. sliced up the belly and laid out so that the dorsal fin was in the center of the two halves. Kind of like some bizarre aquatic butterfly. I walk into Yoko's this morning and before I even get into the kitchen i can smell the fish. I walk through the curtain and see this thing staring at me from the plate.

(Photo Provided by Vioal. She ate part of hers before taking the photo, but you can see an untouched one across the table slightly out of focus.)

Now, I know full well that people in Asia eat fish like this fairly regularly. I've seen it it movies and Anime many many times. But for some reason, coming face to face to my food like this actually kinda scared me. I flipped it over as soon as was polite and began to pick at the meat. Having never eaten fish like this, consuming it was a very slow process, made slower by the use of chopsticks. (Actually I hardly ever eat fish in America. I'm not a huge fan of the taste. I'd say 95% of my fish intake is through sushi, which for some reason I find delicious despite my dislike of the cooked product.) But the Image of that fish's hallow eye sockets stayed with me all morning, and when it came time to eat lunch I had a stomach ache and couldn't eat very much of my lunch (which also happened to have fish).

Fortunately I got over my stomach ache with the help of some medicine from Yoko, and was back to full capacity by Dinner. And to counter my fear of more fish, I entered the dinning room this evening to find a plate with a hamburger patty covered in some sort of sauce. Not quite how you would eat a hamburger in America, but still, it was a ground beef patty for a little taste of home.

Well, sorry for any Haunting imagery I may have used in this entry. In compensation, here is a photo of Mini Mike and Brandy I took this afternoon, as well as an image of what our lunches sometimes look like.

That's right, several pounds of SUSHI!

~Daniel

Another Perspective (Part 1)

So I have probably mentioned how much I'm loving my new camera, but I also need to acknowledge my new laptop. This laptop is what has been allowing me to keep up to date on my email and other internet things when I can find an internet connection. And when I don't have an internet connection I can still type stuff up and save it for later like I was doing on the trains during the first part of my trip. My little blue laptop with its blue squid sticker has been keeping me in touch and entertained since my arrival in japan. This thing is also housing my language software, although I haven't been using it much (Sorry Dad), but that's because I get to practice with real people every day instead.

But one of my laptops most important functions so far has been as a storage space for my pictures. The images I'm taking are all over 5MB (megabites) each, and even though my memory card is 8GB (Gigabites) I would still have filled up my card 5 times over with pictures alone (I have a bit of video too). And in addition to my own photos, I have also been collecting the pictures of the other people who come and stay at Nakagomi Orchard. Which brings me to the title of this entry. I figured it would be fun to post some pictures that other people took with their own cameras. Todays batch is from Ramie (I spelled her name wrong in my earlier entries). Although her camera has exactly the same body as mine (well, it has a different name plate, it was marketed different in the US for some reason) Ramie has two different lenses. One is like mine but with a much better zoom, and the other is for portraits and close up stuff. She also actually knows what she's doing when she messes with the camera settings, so she can get some really beautiful photos. Here are some of the ones that I liked. (With Captions!)

This was at the Suntory Whiskey factory that we visited on our day off. This is a photo of one of the workers re-charring a barrel. The tour was in Japanese so I cant really tell you anything more about it though. Its a great picture of fire though.

Here is Ramie and Obaa-chan. Ramie actually walked down to the 7/11 and got this printed and pasted it into the guest book.

Here is Ramie and Fakhran posing in one of the orchards. Normally the trees in the background would be full of flowers, but we spent the day picking the blossoms for pollen, so its a bit sparse.

This is Nick and Phina. They are a couple from Taiwan. Nick is kinda quite, but Phina is hilarious. she loves to mock people. They are both pretty goofy. Its kind of hard to see, but they are actually posing in front of mt. Fuji. (It's blending into the clouds. Click the image to see it better)

Here I am taking it easy with Mini Mike. This was take on our lunch break. I'm not actually asleep, but the sun was shining pretty brightly.


I found out that the holes in the side of this crate looked like a huge smiling face.
Can you see it now? Because once you see it, you cant un-see it!


~Daniel

WWOOF

So it was brought to my attention that I never actually explained what WWOOF is. WWOOF stands for "World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers". The organization exists to connect hosts with volunteers. The hosts originally were farmers practicing a totally organic lifestyle, but these days it has extended to any organic minded establishment or family. From organic restaurants and farms to nature tours and ceramics shops, WWOOF covers a large variety of hosts. The volunteers are fed and housed in exchange for doing whatever work needs doing. No money is exchanged between host and volunteer, which is convenient and also avoids complications when applying for a visa. So that's a brief explanation of what I'm doing here. Here is the link to the WWOOF Japan home page if you're interested.

Also, For your view pleasure, here is a cat in a basket.

(Click to embiggen)

This is "Mini Mike" he is one of the two cats that lives on Nakagomi Orchard. during lunch the other day he decided to crawl into one of baskets we were using to pick blossoms and take a nap. The girl holding the basket is Phina A.K.A. "Niko Niko-san" A.K.A. iPhone. (From what I understand Niko Niko-san literally means "Miss Smiley". Obaa-chan gave her the nickname and it has stuck.) and blurred out in the background is Yoko, Kazu's sister-in-law.

Anyway, that's all for now.

~Daniel

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