Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from Japan!  Winter has arrived in Akita the empty rice fields, roads, and treetops are now covered in snow.  I woke up this morning to  fresh snow and blue skies.  Christmas in Japan is largely known as a holiday for couples.  While Christmas is celebrated in Japan, the more significant holiday is the upcoming New Year.  During the New Year’s celebrations, which last about three days, families gather and celebrate enjoying the days by relaxing and spending time together.  I will be in Nagoya during お正月 (Oshougatsu) New Year’s and am looking forward to welcoming the new year in Japan!

I spent my Christmas traveling to Aomori by train.  This is the northern most city on Honshu Island. I previously wrote about Aomori and its famous Nebuta festival.  However when I arrived, the area was covered in snow, and I mean covered!  Snow was everywhere, and when I say Aomori gets a lot of snow, I mean that they measure it in meters and use a massive truck with a snow conveyor belt that drops the snow in another truck which then drives to the ocean and drops it there as there is no other place to put it.  Snowplows do not plow that often and many roads remain covered in snow during the Winter, part of the reason being there is often no where to push the snow to in the small space efficient neighborhoods.  That isn’t to say they never plow but it is an expectation that drivers purchase snow tires and it works out fine.  Furthermore, as neighborhoods’ often have little room in front of houses, snow is shoveled into sleds and pulled to a nearby open field or a kind of community snow drop off point so to speak. The phenomenal amount of snow would make for some great snow forts.  The entire area has a wonderful nostalgic and natural feel to it and I was truly taken aback by the winter wonderland.  I had a great time staying at my friend’s house and it was nice to shovel some snow again.  The trip or perhaps more appropriately, the snow there has convinced me to grab my skis and move to Aomori as soon as possible.

The night after Christmas I boarded a night bus headed for Tokyo, the trip takes about 11 hours, but as it travels during the night passengers try and sleep as much as they can.  I arrived yesterday at Tokyo station and experienced the shock of seeing the busiest subway station in the world.  Wow!  I boarded the subway and headed to Shinjuku where I would begin my journey in Tokyo.  I will spend the next few days exploring the area and will update my blog after the trip with stories and photos!

Happy holidays everyone and safe travels!

ジェフ

Below is a picture of where we would take the snow by sled and drop it.

A view of one of the streets in Shinjuku early in the morning.

Kakunodate, Cycling, and Bowling!

As Winter steadily approaches the weather has been a mixture of cold days with snow, to the last warm sunny days of Fall.  Fortunately before the snow falls with intention to stay, I was able to travel to the nearby town of Kakunodate with Watanabe san.  Kakunodate is also the place where I visited a night festival and wrote about in one of my early blogs, but this time I was able to walk around the town during the day and visit some of its many historical sites.

Kakunodate is famous for its samurai houses and cherry trees.  Interestingly, almost all of the samurai houses, dating back to 1620 the year Kakunodate was founded, are still owned by various families. Today there are 6 of the houses open to the public free of charge.  Out of the six there are two of the samurai houses renown for their size and structures.  The Aoyagi House and Ishiguro House.  Both have multiple structures and artifacts on display.  When we visited the Ishiguro House we were able to speak with the family that lives there now and we were shown some of the key features of the architecture, as well as were able to see the adjacent warehouse where rice was stored.  Perhaps the feature I found to be the most unique was the subtle carving of turtles in the wood above the sliding doors into one of the rooms.  The carving was designed so that the lantern light from the ground of the adjacent room would cast a shadow of the turtles on the walls creating a beautiful illumination and bringing the walls to life as the turtles seemed to move in the flickering of the candle light.  It is such subtleness and quiet functionality of the samurai architecture that leave an impression on the viewer.

The samurai class of the era not only built incredibly ornate buildings , but also imported the beautiful cherry trees that line the river, border roads, and shelter houses, from Kyoto during the Edo period (1603-1868) and since then Kakunodate has been a famous location for cherry blossom viewing.  I hope to return in the spring to view the vivid flowering trees.  Below I have posted a picture of a view over Kakunodate from a hike we took to the top of a nearby hill as well as some of the samurai houses of the area.

We also visted a local museum, the Kakunodate Densyokan which featured Kabazaiku, or cherry bark crafts.  Kabazaiku is an art form in which the artists polishes the bark of cherry trees and creates various objects such as chests, Douran (small case), Inrou (pill box), pipe containers, etc.  The craft was first introduced to the area of Kakunodate over 200 years ago.  It was a kind of hobby or side-job for local samurai and the craft has been passed down from generation to generation.  The museum had many incredible pieces on display as well as an area where a local artist was working on some new pieces.  Furthermore the following link has a great example and information about the art and if you'd like to see some pictures, learn about how the bark is acquired (the tree is not cut down, there is a special technique used in order to preserve the tree), as well as some interesting information on the topic! Kabaziku Information.

Above pictures taken from http://kakunodate-kanko.jp/kabazaiku.html.

It was a delightful journey and we are grateful to have had Wantanabe San to guide us through the city.

In order to give an update on the past few weeks, below are some recent happenings.  The first pictures are from a cycling adventure during one of the final days of Fall.  I also recently met the Akita City Rotary Club for a night of bowling and Karaoke where I was able to find out that both my bowling and singing skills have much room for improvement.  Nevertheless, we all had a fun night together.