Things I Love About Japan

 Random cute things. Everything in Japan is cute. The mascots are cute. The food is cute. Hell, even the little road-side construction signs are cute little animals telling you to drive safely, so it makes sense that public benches are cute too. These are squid benches, which might not ordinarily be the cutest animal ever, but Japan sure tried its best. These guys are in the train station in Hachinohe, the city about 40 minutes away from where I live, and one of the many products they're known for is... ta-dah... squid!

Engrish of the Week

This is the unfortunate band name of the guy group pictured on the cover of this magazine. They're fairly popular too. I feel like someone should tell them.....

McDonald's in Japan

McDonald's in Japan is awesome. Why, you ask? See those toys in the picture above? Those are Taiko no Tetsujin toys, and they make awesome little drum noises. They're from a music game that I happen to adore, and when I saw that they were making Happy Meal Toys out of them (which when played near a DS with the actual game software in it, would recognize the tune and add it into your game library! SO COOL!) I had to have them. Unfortunately, there were two problems with this brilliant plan: one, I'm a grown woman buying freaking Happy Meals... I wasn't sure they would even sell them to me... and two, how was I going to avoid the inevitable doubles? I didn't need two of the same drum toy, for crying out loud... Luckily for me, not only does Japanese McDonald's have no issue with selling adults Happy Meals, they let you CHOOSE YOUR TOYS! So, no doubles for me, and I only had to consume 8 Happy Meals to get a whole set. That awesomeness, combined with the fact that Japanese McDonalds take pride in their food (the product you get actually looks as good as the picture), is enough to make me a believer. I don't really like McDonald's in the States that much, but I love Japanese McDonald's.

If I Was a Manga....

If I was a manga (Japanese comic book), or in a manga, it would be this one. While it's handily translated for you on the bottom there into English (Addicted to curry), a more accurate translation of karei nara shokutaku would be 'If it's curry, then I'm a food fanatic'; this is me to the letter since coming to Japan.

I liked curry when I was in the States too, don't get me wrong, but I liked the Indian variety. While I still love Indian curry, I don't love all of it; shockingly, I don't like the sensation of my tongue turning into liquid fire in my mouth, so some of the spicier varieties I tend to avoid. Japanese curry has the advantage of not only tasting very different, but not being that spicy either. There is also katsu curry (breaded pork cutlet curry) here, which I have had every day for lunch, for a week straight, on more than one occasion. What can I say? I'm addicted.

Summer Blossoms and Castle Repairs

I have good news for you: as of this post, I will only be using pictures taken with my new cell phone's camera from now on. That's right! I've finally gone through and posted all the pictures I had remaining from my previous phone's time-period. Hopefully the 6 and 8mp pictures my new phone is capable of taking will be easier on everyone's eyes than the old ones. Can you tell a difference?

A couple weeks ago, Aaron and I went up to the Castle Park for a few minutes, ostensibly to see the chrysanthemums blooming, but it also ended up being a test run for my new camera. At least I think that's what these flowers are, but I'm not exactly knowledgeable on the subject. What I do know, however, is that they are pretty, and there's lots of them at the Castle Park, so away we went. 

Most of the ones we found were blue or white, but we've seen them in all kinds of colors around town. Purple, yellow, pink, red, blue...sometimes all on one bush together. I have a vague memory of a student's mom telling me last year that what color these flowers bloom depends on what elements are in the soil they're planted in,  but I'm not 100% sure on that.

It was really pretty how they wound around various stone monuments and edged pathways. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing we noticed while we were there.

We also noticed the castle. I wasn't aware it had happened until about a month afterwards, but apparently the tower portion of the museum was damaged in the earthquake. When Aaron and I were up at the Castle Park in May for the Spring Festival, entrance into the tower portion was blocked off, and the cracks running through the foundation were obviously apparent, if you even noticed them past the chunks of stone that had broken off.

When I took this picture, in late July, the repair work was obviously still ongoing. A greater area had been blocked off, as before we were able to go almost right up to the tower. What little of the foundation we could see, however, looks much better than it did, so I believe they will be done soon. I hope so, at least. It was rather heartbreaking to see the awesome castle damaged, and it made me wonder how the ancient items inside weathered the quake. I'm looking forward to when I can go inside and see them again.

Sannohe Autumn Festival, Year 2!

So I've discussed this festival before, but last time I didn't have any pictures to speak of, since I was actually participating in it. It's kinda hard to take pictures when you're helping lug a giant float up a hill, and since Aaron didn't come out to Japan to join me until after this festival started my first year, he couldn't help me out with pictures either. Fortunately, he was here the second year, and now we can all benefit from his picture-taking abilities!

In case you forgot, which I don't blame you if you did, the Autumn Festival in my town involves each neighborhood making a float (by hand!), then pulling it through the main street of town in a parade. Each float is judged by a panel, and winners are chosen every year. Along the street the floats are pulled through, little food booths and shops sell their wares, and the delicious smell of yakitori permeates the air. Little girls wear yukatas and do up their hair, boys wear happi coats and run around, and everyone is just in a jovial mood.

Each float also has drummers and flute players on it, as well as their own unique song that the float pullers sing as they walk. It's very loud, as all the floats are playing at once, even though they usually try to put a little distance between each one. At the end of the parade, however, the floats turn around and head back to their sheds, and on their way they meet the other floats. When this happens, they battle. The floats turn towards each other, the float song changes and becomes more intense, and the two rival floats try to out play each other. Normally it's just loud, but the battles are sheer cacophony. It's pretty exciting though, I have to admit, and you can check out a video of one battle all the way at the bottom of this post.

The picture above shows the 11 Cats, which is a famous children's book here that was actually written by a man who lived in Sannohe. As such, the cats are kind of the town's mascot. This float was also the winner of last year's festival. Yes, that's right, last year's. This festival happens every October, which means this year's happens in another two months. As Aaron took these pictures, they lived on his camera for quite a while, then were dumped onto his profile on the computer, and I completely forgot about them. I will only say, 'better late than never', which I believe is now this blog's official motto. Enjoy the rest of the pictures of that balmy fall day last year, and look forward to more of the same in another couple of months! 

Things I Love About Japan

Random scenes of beauty. That is all. I wish I had a better camera at the time to capture this, unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice.