Nagahama bus trip

My friend who owns the kimono shop organizes a bus trip to Nagahama each year to take a boat cruise on Lake Biwa and watch some fireworks.  This year she invited me along!

The streets of Nagahama, known for stained-glass making.  Even the light posts are stained glass lanterns! 

Lunch is oomi niku.  A beef bowl that was quite tasty!

After lunch we decide to try our hand at stained-glass making!!

Yuriko and Gemma pick out their glass tiles.

I'm making a picture frame, and it's all ready to go!

Kerri and Gemma get ready to use their tools!

Step 1: Line all of the glass squares in sticky gold foil. 

I'm halfway done.  This is trickier that you'd think because the gold foil needs to be overlapping on the front and back equally, and the sticky stuff didn't have much staying power.

Step 2: Arrange glass exactly how you want it (but backwards), and "paint" some clear liquid all over the gold seams.

I wish I could tell you what the sticky gold stuff was or the clear paint, but alas all of the instructions were in Japanese, so I just followed along as well as I could!

Step 3: Put on one goofy glove, grab the heating element in your other hand, and start soldering away!

Everyone is hard at work making their masterpieces!!

Gemma, Kerri, & Yuriko show off their finished projects!!

I would have done this tiger window, but I thought I might run out of time.

Maybe next time I'll make a kaleidoscope!

After all of that intense concentration (it took about 2 hours!), we needed a snack.  Or rather, we needed dessert!

Here is my ichigo (strawberry) cake.

Gemma orders shaved ice with azuki (sweet red beans).

Yuriko enjoys chestnut cake and coffee.

Green tea ice cream parfait with azuki.

Kerri shows off her muscles while wandering the streets of Nagahama!

Time to get ready for the boat ride and hanabi (fireworks)!

FYI - I was the fastest person to put on my yukata (we were all in the same room), and everyone was amazed that I didn't require any help.  Several people have never seen a permanent bow (like mine) and were quite curious how it was made!!

Yuriko, Gemma, & Kerri change into their yukatas.

So many ways to tie an obi!

Just a few of the ladies after getting dressed.

There was about 30 of us in total, and each man, woman, and child had on a yukata! 

You probably didn't get invited on this bus trip if you didn't buy a yukata from my friend's shop!

Ready to enjoy the boat cruise.

And may I present your ride for the evening!!

Here is our boat, and everyone is wandering around waiting for permission to board!

Four friends from the Wine Party:  Kerri, Yuriko, Gemma, & Nobue (she owns the kimono shop)

Nobue and her family: Ema (daughter), Toshi (husband), and Kiichi (son).

Ema is 3, and the extent of her English is "Heeeelllllllooooo, Kerri-chan!".  She loves to say it whenever she sees me at the kimono shop (which is every time I go since their house is in the back of the shop).

Eating bento (lunchbox) for dinner inside the boat.

Wind in my hair, water misting my face, and the boat gently swaying... I love being on the water!! 

I need to find more friends with boats in Japan!!

By the way, we are cruising around Lake Biwa, which is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. 

It's 670 square kilometers, or about 8 times larger than Houghton Lake, Michigan's largest inland lake! 

Are sunsets prettier in Japan? 

Not necessarily, but I think any sunset from a boat is a gorgeous one!

Finally, hanabi (fireworks) time!

I've seen some pretty sweet fireworks shows in my time, particularly those sponsored by Toyota in E'ville and Cinci.  So most fireworks shows don't get me too excited anymore.  In fact, I fell asleep a couple times during this show.  I'm pretty sure the rocking boat and beers helped me along the way though. 

Here's a quick video, if you want to judge for yourself.  (You must go directly to the blog to view it.)

Let's Go Fishing!

Another weekend and another road trip to through Japan's countryside. 

This time our destination was the Toyogawa River for fishing.

Unfortunately, the river is a bit too high right now, and the current is too strong to get in and fish. 

The Toyogawa River is beautiful and said to be the 4th cleanest river in Japan.

When the water levels are normal: you buy fish from the fishing company, they release the fish in a small shallow screened off area, and then you must catch them with your hands so you can eat them.  Can you say "total scam"?  The Japanese like to work way too hard for their food...

They found us an alternate place to release the fish.  It is a giant cement hole sunken in the ground.  It honestly reminded me of some kind of sewer drain... Eeewww!

Mamie, Ema, & Kerri and ready to "catch" some fish.

Kerri is on the prowl, but this was so hard!  The brown cement made it really hard to see anything in the water.

Ema catches the first fish!!

I finally caught one, but only because one of the guys trapped it in a corner for me.

After about 30 minutes, we had caught 3 fish and then someone accidentally knocked over our bucket, thereby making it zero again. 

I was getting totally frustrated because the guys were standing outside the water shouting commands in Japanese and pointing to areas of fish. 

Based on the picture, you can tell I want to punch someone.  The guys either needed to keep their mouths shut or get in the water and help.

Instead they choose to walk back to the fish shop and buy us nets instead.  This was only a slightly easier way to catch fish.  They were still sneaky little suckers.

After 90 minutes, we finally rounded up our 21 fish, and headed back to have them prepared for lunch.

Back at the fish shop.  You can eat outside by kneeling at the low tables with a breeze or inside the stifling hot rooms.

We ordered 4 kinds of fish:

(1) Grilled with miso sauce

(2) Grilled

(3) Raw

(4) Breaded and fried

Our group is ready to enjoy the feast while gazing out over the river!

Here's my finished fish.  One of each.  Nothing to write home about.  I hate having to work so hard for my food.  Avoiding bones, heads, & tails, and peeling off skin is not exactly what I call good times!

Thank goodness I was rewarded with ice cream at the end of the meal. 

Have you ever seen ice cream in a bag?  I think it's way more than just "coolish"--more like super cool!

Kerri and Kishi demonstrate how to properly squeeze it out!

By this time you can see that I have given up on sitting on my knees like a proper lady.  I hate eating outside, especially when it's on a dirty plank of rotting wood with bugs crawling around.  Something had to go, and I decided going without the leg cramps would make me much happier.

Yummy... kind of like a push-pop!

Next stop is Mt. Horaiji, which is 2,243 ft high.

You can see the tiny house-like temple in the distance.

They wanted to climb up this mountain, and in 100 degree weather, I flat-out refused. 

(Why climb any where when there is a perfectly good road leading to the top?)

There were still a few stairs to get to the shrine.

How old do you think this thing is?

Over 1,300 years old, built in 703 to be exact.

Horaiji Shrine

At the Horaiji Temple, the group bought me a gift:

It's a teeny, tiny fan with flowers on it representing June birthdays! 

Since I refused to climb up the mountain, instead we had to climb down.

That's right, 1,425 stone steps in the woods on a 100 degree day.

It was beautiful, but the steps were also uneven and treacherous since they were 1,300 years old!

They told me it would be nice and cool in the woods. 

What a crock!  It was shady, but there was no breeze and the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. 

We stopped 3 times to put on bug spray, but somehow I still ended up with 8 bug bites. 

(We counted and treated them with medicine while we were naked at the onsen (hot springs) later that afternoon!) 

No one else had any bug bites.  My new friends said "you must have delicious blood".  Hmm... somehow that doesn't make me feel any better!

Ema and Kerri are ready to be at the bottom. 

At the bottom of the mountain is a National Natural Treasure, Kasa Sugi, a giant umbrella cedar tree. 

It is over 800 years old and 200 feet tall. 

Final stop, as I mentioned earlier, was a relaxing hot springs bath at the onsen. 

I needed to rest and wash off all of the sweat from walking down the mountain. 

My legs were killing me for the next few days, especially going down the subway stairs!

After little experiences like this it really reaffirms my decision not to climb Mt. Fuji this summer!

Endless Tofu

Last week I had dinner at a tofu restaurant.  You may recall that I have previously said that tofu is on my list of "safe foods".  I still stick to that statement.  Tofu is not so bad, as long as I know that a plate of chicken or fish or beef is coming out next.  This place only served endless varieties of tofu.  If you are wondering, tofu is actually made from bean curd, usually fermented soy beans... sounds yummy!

There were plenty of tofu dishes to choose from, but I am only featuring a few of the wackiest ones!  Here's just a couple of pics:

Regular tofu in 3 kinds of sauce.

Tofu "skin" -- it's scraped off the top of the bean curd as you are making it.  It's rather tasteless, so you have to dip it in soy sauce and/or wasabi to bring it some flavor.

Fried tofu.  If you are wondering what this tastes like, go ahead and grab a sponge and start munching away!!  It's pretty much the same consistency, and eventually you just have to swallow it.

Mr. Uemera is the one who picked out this restaurant especially for me.  He kept saying it is very "healthy and delicious".  One of those descriptive words is total crap!!  Also, halfway into the meal, I noticed he wasn't carrying his weight.  As in he wasn't eating anything... look at his clean plate, even his chopsticks aren't pulled apart!  When I asked him about it, he said he prefers to drink his dinner.  Well, I didn't realize that was an option!  How dare he pick out this restaurant, and then not even enjoy the "delicious" food!

Salad topped with seaweed and tofu.

Fried balls of tofu drizzled with mayonnaise and fish flakes.

Tofu wrapped in seaweed and wontons then dipped in soy & radish sauce.  If I were pressured to choose the best one of the night, this would be it!

Tofu breaded and fried and slathered in miso sauce.

Ramen soup with tofu broth.

They tried to order tofu for dessert, but I declined claiming for the first time ever I didn't have betsu bara (a separate stomach for dessert).  I went home hungry since tofu doesn't fill me up. 

Then I woke up at 5am when the sun was rising and my stomach was still growling... 

Some days it's a rough life in Japan!