Sep 2009

There is a train line near our house called the Seibu Chichibu line that I have been really wanting to take to check out the Chichibu national forest. Well, I found an organic market off that line and I thought we should make the trek out there to check it out. On the way, we kept seeing posters with pictures of big forests of what looked like fairy duster flowers. Low and behold, the stop we got off at was happening to have a festival for these flowers. All the locals had little stands set up in front of their houses and you took a little path around the town looking at crafts and various autumn related goods until you came upon a forest full of Japanese fair dusters. Gotta love Japan.

Here are what we thought to be some type of tomato which we later discovered is a decorative plant. Good thing we asked someone what is was before we tasted it. It is now decorating our kitchen countertop until we can figure out what the heck to do with it.

This was a cute little corner garden of someone's house.

They had a bunch of little decorative baskets filled with ornamental gourds.

Here we are in front of some of the fairy dusters.

They planted about 4 acres worth of these flowers in this forest area that follows along the river.

They had another area planted with these wild flowers.

If you recall, I hiked Mt Mitake in the first month or so that I was here. It is a very steep incline the whole way up. There are many beautiful hikes when you get to the top but last time I was too tired to do any of them because of the hike up the hill. So this time, we decided to take the cable car up to the top and then hike around the mountain. There is a small village at the top of the mountain as well as a shrine. This was one of the buildings at the top with a traditional thatched roof. The village was very dog friendly and we brought Ethan along. He was allowed to sit next to our table in the restaurant where we ate.

There were two waterfalls that we hiked to and a beautiful natural rock garden along the way. Everything was covered with moss and we hiked next to a stream the whole way. There were many hikers out but it was not too crowded.

This gum vending machine cracked me up. It was 100 yen for 9 pieces of gum. That is about a dollar. They had many different flavors including: blueberry, black black, caramel and green tea.

You may be wondering how we got to Mt. Mitake with the dog. You can bring your dog on the train but they have to be in a little carrying case or bag. So, Ethan has been learning to ride in a bag and he is not thrilled about it. He does however like to go on adventures so I think he is beginning to realize that the trade off works to his advantage. He is a big hit among the Japanese people and a real conversation starter. People are constantly saying how cute he is and asking what type of dog he is. Sometimes people just start talking to me in Japanese and it is quite embarrassing to tell them I don't understand.

Last weekend we went to another Japanese baseball game. This time we went to the stadium that is really close to our house. Sometimes Quinn and I ride our bikes up and around the stadium and back home. It is a beautiful ride and the stadium is a dome that is open around the middle. Kind of hard to explain. If you go to this link it will show you some good pictures of it http://www.seibu-group.co.jp/rec/dome/index.html. The game was an exciting one and the score final score was 10 to 6. This time we were smart and brought our own snacks and drinks so we didn't need to buy anything. We made friends with the people around us by giving them "American snacks." This is always a big hit among the Japanese. Now we have another week of work until more exploring. Hope you all have a great week.

That's it for now. Miss you all. Send some emails. I would love to hear from you!

Hi Everyone,

It has been a long time since I completed a blog entry. I will give you a synopsis of the last month. I spent the last few weeks of summer lounging around and being a "house wife." Wow is that a great job! I have decided that working is overrated and I would like to be a house wife forever. It is fabulous. But enough about that.

We have been going out many birthday parties and dinners out in Tokyo. We have been to Spanish Tapas, Brazilian all you can eat meat, and Japanese Karoke. Have put on a few pounds in the last few months but I am working on that at the moment.

We recently went to a Brazilian Carnival down in Tokyo. Both Japanese and Brazilian women were dressed up in the typical Brazillian Carnival outfits. (if you can call a few pieces of cloth and a ton of feathers outfits) It was really fun but there were so many people we ended up in a bottle neck of people and almost got trampled. It was a very unJapanese situation. Normally, in big crowds people will just shuffle along but someone must have gotten aggresive and all of the suddden everyone was pushing. Don't worry, we are both okay and Quinn even managed to pick up some elderly people and children along the way.

School has started again and that means work has started again. This year is going well so far and I am already planning our next trip. We are deciding between New Zealand, the Philippines, or Malaysian Borneo. If you have any input on these countries please send me an e-mail. Part of the decision will depend on price of tickets.

We also had our one year anniversary of living in Japan. So that means, some of the annual events are cycling through again. We went to the friendship festival again this year and had a different perspective by knowing a bit more about Japanese culture. We saw a lot of cool planes this year including the F22 and people parachuting from planes. We also took Ethan to the pool again for dog days of summer. He enjoys playing the pool but he likes the river better. Ehtan is still doing well for those of you wondering about him. He has turned into quite the cuddle bug and is now allowed to sleep in the bed.

Here we have some pictures of a neat event we went to a few weekends ago. Here is some background information: a yukata is a type of Japanese robe that in the past was traditionally worn around the home and at Japanese Inns to go to the onsens (Japanese bath). In recenet years the Yukata has been worn outside the home for different Japanese events. The Japanese continue to embrace their history and culture while being forward thinking on technology and development. Hence the idea of a Yukata boat cruise. This is an event where for $30 per person you take a cruise around Tokyo bay (viewing all the light up skyscrapers) and have all you can drink alcohol while wearing a Yukata. Additionally the people working on the boat are wearing hats that have megaphone and microphones attached to give directions and whatnot. It was kind of like being on a floating night club. It was great.