From Yumiko

I left my pencil at my neighbors house. When we came home from dinner this little package was in our mailbox. She wrapped it up and returned it.

This has nothing to do with Japan

Happy Thanksgiving

Daiko

Byou-uchi daiko are typically hollowed out of a single piece of wood. The preferred wood is keyaki due to its density and beautiful grain, but a number of other woods are used, grouped under the generic term meari (目有). Byou-uchi daiko cannot be tuned, and their sizes are limited by the diameter of the tree they are made from.
The typical byou-uchi daiko is the nagado-daiko (長胴太鼓, long-body taiko). It is roughly shaped like a wine barrel, and is available in a variety of sizes, from 1.0 shaku (12" in head diameter), to 3.0 shaku.

Our Japanese teacher invited us to her practice session. It was awesome.

Countries I've visited

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Ice cream!!!

Some friends of Dan’s were in town to visit so we did some sight seeing.
We went to this open air fish market in search of squid ink ice cream.

Here’s the sign. Notice that he’s blowing out some ink and inviting us to have some ice cream.




I am allergic to squid. I found out the hard way. I ate it and got really sick so I didn’t have any ice cream.

But here is Henry enjoying some.



They sprinkle it with ink powder. I hear that it tastes mildly of squid. I don’t know, I had melon ice cream.

For some reason my head looks really big here.


Cantaloupe is also very popular here. They go for about 25 bucks a melon.



We walked around for a bit and ate our ice cream. Which is a major faux pas. Walking around eating and drinking is like picking your nose. It’s a lack of self-control.





We then went to the top of the mountain and took some pics.

Drunk Japanese Teachers

Dan and I were invited to celebrate the 120th anniversary of one of the high schools that he works at. It was a three day weekend due to Culture day. Culture is a day for the promotion of culture and the love for freedom and peace. But the festivities for the anniversary were all day long starting that morning at school for Dan so he didn’t a three day weekend. We met up at the high school and they bussed us downtown to a hotel. We had lunch and lots of drinks and many many speeches.



I learned a few things. It’s a compliment if someone tells you that you have a small face. I have a small face, thank you very much.

At a big party like this there is a practice when serving alcohol. First you never pour yourself a drink. You wait for someone else to serve you. You never drink until the first Kampii (cheers). Then through out the night people from the party will walk around refilling glasses. But they will refill it even if you don’t need it refilled. One person will fill it to the very brim and another person will be right behind them. You are supposed to take a few gulps to make room for that person to fill it up to the brim. This will go on throughout the whole night. I am hesitant to translate what this means. I think it’s a sign of respect to be able to serve you.



I met a lot of nice people and everyone that knew a little English talked to me. Since everyone got drunk pretty quickly this was interesting. One teacher had me guess his age. They thought it was really funny to ask us when we were getting married. Then they just started to refer to me as Dan’s fiancé and laughed and laughed.

We then went onto to a second venue for more food, drinks and speeches. We somehow got put at the drunk table. We weren’t drunk but everyone at our table was sloppy and kept almost causing a scene during the speeches. Then there was singing and Dan joined in.




At some point someone found out it was his birthday and they pulled him up on stage and sang Happy Birthday to him. They also pulled me up on stage when he gave his speech. I can’t show you any photos because Dan thinks he looks dumb in the ones we do have.

The night ended for us around 6 pm but they were going on to another party.
I was exhausted and just wanted to be quiet for a while.

Photos from around where I live

I took a walk to a national park kind of near where I live. It's about an hour walk up hill to get there.
These are some shots of what I saw along the way.





On the hill up to the park




These machines are EVERYWHERE! If you remember Lost In Translation you know that's it's always Suntory Time.


This was halfway up to the park. It's a really steep hill. My Japanese teacher suggested I bike to the university to meet her.
I don't think I could make it. Walking it was enough.



This is on one of the paths at the park.