North Country

Today we will look back at the closing of 2002, a time I call "the Tokyo days". Every year in December there is a lengthy public holiday, that spans about a week or so for most, but it seems that life as a teacher, we end up getting a couple of weeks off. Well that year Ritsy and I decided to take a 4 day trip up to Furano in Hokkaido. The place is best known to most Japanese for the setting of an old popular drama called "From the North Country".
Once Ritsy gave the thumbs up like in this picture, it was go time! I didn't have any snowboarding equipment with me at that time, so I had to rent it all. Luckily the lift tickets were included in the package, because renting equipment definitely boosts the costs.
We stayed at the New Furano Prince Hotel (which wasn't so new), where outside there was a quaint little villa of huts where you could buy handcrafted goods. It was quite a nice little touch.
The place was very clean and comfortable, but the interior of the rooms didn't scream "state of the art". The reason I chose this pic, I can see the visible age difference in myself from that time. Tough to take when you catch yourself aging!
The day after arriving, we stretched up and hit the slopes. This picture really makes me nostalgic, as our first dates in Whistler were snowboarding! (of course this is Ritsy). The two things that really struck me while riding; it is much colder in Hokkaido than Whistler, my cheap goggles froze over while riding; and the runs were much shorter than back in Canada. I knew I was spoiled and taught myself just to enjoy the experience.

During that time we welcomed the New Year watching from the hotel, there was a small fireworks and we celebrated 2003 together, quietly. It was really nice.

Toba Aquarium

After a great time in Ise, we decided to hit the Toba aquarium on the way home. The aquarium is incredibly convenient as it is right next to the ferry dock. The traffic leading to the parking was at a crawl and some genius with Nagoya license plates cut into the line after I had waited for 30 minutes to get into the parking lot (right in front of me)- naturally my blood rose to a boil, but I was ready to enjoy by time the car was parked.
I'd never seen a purple lobster before, apparently this guy lives in Australia- you ever seen one of these Chris? I always think that food that is this colour tone is inedible- so I'm pretty sure I would send this back if it turned up on my plate...
At first glimpse these guys look like miniature Killer Whales- but they are in fact dolphins- quite cute.
We ended the adventure watching a Walrus show- he was funny but honestly didn't do very much...
At long last we were heading home. Ritsy was quite tuckered and a bit sea sick after all the excitement, but it was a great birthday gift from her! Thanks a lot Ritsuko!

Guess what? More Ise- Okage Yokocho

The evening of our arrival, we finally settled down to rest after an interesting journey and a delicious dinner. The fun didn't end there- I was excited to see this very old TV, I believe it was the first model ever sold in Mie Prefecture...
As this is a family blog, I will spare you the details as to why Ritsy had to make this mask- let's just say there was no fan in the restroom...
The next morning we had a nice breakfast and headed back to the Naiku gate region to check out the ancient looking shopping road known as Okage Yokocho. Apparently according to the link Okage means appreciation- so the road is the road of appreciation leading up to the ancient temple.
All of the shops have an ancient Japan feeling and it was really quite cool to walk down and get a taste of what an old shopping hub would look like in Japan. Naturally we couldn't walk all the way to the end as Ritsy, of course, has a bit of an extra load to carry and got tired pretty quickly.
The area is famous for it's rice cakes covered in sweet bean paste (if you have been to Japan you know that a lot of places are famous for a similar combination) called aka fuku. I thought it must mean red clothes, but I have been told it means Red Luck. Either way, we bought it and enjoyed it later. The above picture is the main headquarters for AkaFuku.
Finally, I liked the visual effect of standing under this loosely-woven straw roof. the light effect actually made me feel like I might be standing in Cambodia or Thailand or something like that. I have never been to either place so I am not sure why I had that feeling.

Our time in Ise had drawn to an end and it was time to head back home. We did make one stop off before hopping on the ferry- so stay tuned for Toba Aquarium Highlights...

Ise part 3- Revenge of the Ise

After replenishing our liquids we hopped on a bus across town to the other main location of Ise Jingu- known as Naiku. From getting off the bus we could tell that this was the more popular of the two locations as it is a much bigger area and there were a lot more people.
To enter we must first cross this bridge which tempts us with a glimpse of green scenery.
Here the gods are smiling on Ritsy and baby as they stand under the large tree.
These trees really impressed me with their positive outlook (get it? They are looking up!).
Unexpectedly, Ritsy launched into a picture taking war with me. Naturally I won with this great shot.
Much like Geku we had to scrape for glimpses of the interesting ancient buildings, here a couple of buildings tease us through the cover of the trees.
Finally the walk out was lined with bonsai trees completing the entire Japanese feeling of the setting. Actually we walked the course backwards though, this should have been the beginning walk. Oh well, we make our own rules!

An Ise tale continued

It's been nine days since posting! What has happened? Well I have just been busy! It's been an amazing last week or so, my company classes really filled out for August and partially for September (thanks Satomi and Time Life gang!) and it really felt great to have a productive week. The unfortunate thing is that I had little time to sit in front of the PC. I will try to get back on track now.

Our first day in Ise continues... Our Japanese style inn was very close to one of the 2 areas for Ise Jingu- known as Geku. We headed out pretty quickly and we were quickly impressed with the overall neatness and the always present serenity of the area(as you will know if you read the Nara posts).
All the buildings looked incredibly old (in a cool way). Indeed the area is very old- looks like it was originating in the late 5th century if I read this signpost and cross reference to the emperor mentioned correctly. {Wikipedia has a bit of a deeper analyses on the shrines} The thing that interested me is how neatly the rocks are arranged, you can see in the above picture the contrast between the white and the grey rocks.
Unfortunately the coolest looking places were blocked out. No photographs, and even through the archway, we couldn't see the area to it's fullest extent. The buildings and areas were quite beautiful and thusly even more frustrating that we couldn't see them a little closer.
This day turned out to be the hottest day on record in some cities in Japan (thankfully not in Ise where we were)- it hit 40.9 degrees in Gifu Prefecture. All the same, it was incredibly hot and by time we finished at Geku- we needed to cool off, so we hit this restaurant's tea room for a drink and a dose of air conditioning before moving on to Naiku, the other area.

An Ise tale: Part 1

I have no idea why, but I didn't blog once during my six days off! I thought that a lot would be written in that time, but I guess I decided to just lay low and enjoy the free time. One issue is probably the heat, the other day we recorded a record heat in Japan - 40.9 degrees. Luckily not in Hamamatsu, but it sure feels like it to me!
The other day, Ritsy treated me to a trip to Ise in Mie prefecture for a late birthday present. We can actually drive over there, but there is, in fact, a ferry that we can take that covers less distance for the trip (but takes more time because of waiting time - we had to wait 2 sailings). Anyway, the ferry sounded nice as I enjoy travelling by boat, so it was quite a nice way to travel.
At last, we were off! You can see how the dock looks on this clear day as we set sail. Very beautiful day.
This post has lots of Ritsy pics- here she is Hangin' Tough by the railing of the boat.
And finally she got to rest, this picture really shows how much she is showing now! Junior is well on the way now...
Finally we arrived at our accomodation, a really old looking ryokan, that in some ways was incredibly cool because of it's old look. The room was comfortable enough and they really redeemed themselves with that evenings' food offerings. We enjoyed a 12 piece meal (far too much, honestly) that included Matsuzaka beef, Ise Ebi (also known as lobster) fresh scallop and more- it was in incredible meal!

More next time...

After all was said and done...

After all was said and done, I actually had a pretty nice last few days.
Going back a few days I finally managed to get in touch with my old buddy Alex. I was glad I finally got about to doing that and I am reminded that I should definitely take some more time and call some more of my old friends!
Last year in November I went to visit Alex and take part in his wedding celebration in Chihuahua Mexico. I managed to sandwich the Mexico trip with a couple of brief stints in Vancouver, so I was able to visit everyone but it was quite a tight schedule. The day I took off to Mexico, I got up at 6 am and took a bus to Seattle where I caught a plane to Dallas Fort Worth Airport then I waited a bit and flew to "Dog town" as I like to call it. It was a total of 12 hours travel time. But the times there were really fun and well worth all the traveling.
A few other guys came out to celebrate with us, so it was cool to have some familiar faces to chat with. Pictured here are Me, Alex, Mike Ko and Jesse. Our pal Raf and his wife Yvonne also came. Jesse and I capped the night by walking to Denny's about 20 minutes away. Good idea walking in the middle of night in Mexico on your own! Naturally, we survived to talk about it so there is no harm done! It was all a fun time considering this was the location of the wedding...
Actually, not really- I just wanted to throw that picture in there. Alex's new wife is living with him in Vancouver (Richmond) now and they are struggling through the waiting game of getting her Permanent Residence. Gosh, that reminds me of 3.5 years ago (can you believe it's been 3.5 years already?) when we had to do the same for Ritsy's permanent residence- it's a tough time to wait it out, but it sounds like there has been no complications, so that is a good sign! Anyway it was great to chat with Al and I felt bad I had to cut the conversation short because the Skype connection was crappy. Next time I won't be so cheap and I will use a real phone!
My birthday actually was pretty good. I was surprised to find the Mailman at my door when I came home from my class. I had received a birthday gift from my sister- good timing! I got all sorts of little goodies for me and Ritsy- so I was very pleasantly surprised. When I came home from another class, there was another delivery person leaving, we had received a response to my application for Permanent Residence in Japan. They had rejected my application- with the reason that I my reason wasn't good enough. Later Ritsy researched and we basically have to be married for 3 years before it becomes easy to get the PR. Yes, we have been married for 3 years- but I remembered I made a mistake when filling out the application ( I said it was 2 years) - what a dunderhead I am! I have a 3 year Visa right now anyway, so might as well let that ride out before applying again. When we have the baby it should be easier, too, I think. The day before, Chris and Hisano and Akemi had chipped in to buy us some Hokkaido fresh crab. So that night when my classes were done, we had a nice Crab hotpot. It was delicious! In the end it was a productive and fun day! (except for the immigration thing....)
In the end it was all Lifetime Happy Everyday Thank you!

The Journey Through Aunt Liz's eyes part 2

Continuing with a look at my Aunt's version of the trip here in April. She has so many great pictures of flowers and gave Ritsy and I some advice about what to do with our garden. However, since I am not a flower expert, I can't really explain the pictures, so I thought I would lead in with one of my favorites.
I liked this picture of my mother and I at Bentenjima, though we are quite small in the picture.
I found this picture amusing, taken inside Aeon's Shitoro mall. They were quite amused by the big box shopping center and all the shops inside. Shitoro is the main place to shop here in Hamamatsu. It is the largest shopping center and offers the ultimate in convenience for shoppers.
In this picture we look like explorers delving into the caves at Ryugashido. This is taken seconds before I dove into the water.
This picture, taken as we walked away from Ryotenji is a perfect exit photo, you can see my mother and I walking away, counterbalanced by Red Maple and richly Green bushes. It is the perfect way to draw to a close my picks of favorite pics from my mom and aunt and the trip in general. One last time thanks to them and to Ritsy for making it such a fun time!

The Journey Through Aunt Liz's eyes

In selecting the picture highlights from Aunt Liz's pictures I was challenged with an even bigger selection of pictures and there were some great pictures from before they met with me, but as I can't comment on the places, I thought it better to start from when we met up with them. I also wanted to show some new views, so some of the better pictures I may have skipped as they are similar to the ones I have already shown.

Aunt Liz has a great love for plants and nature and they show in the pictures. Where my pictures tend to focus on the architecture that I find quite interesting, she is always framing hers with plants of some sort or other. The lead picture is quite indicative of this trait, a sakura and another tree frame the main entrance. I am not sure where this was taken though.
This site came to us while walking to the Nara Hotel, a shop owner feeding a deer. It was our first deer siting of many.
Here the ladies, Ritsy and Cathy, and I are checking out the information of the outlying area framed by a Cherry blossom tree and Kofukuji showing in the background.

Outside the entrance of Todaiji, tree and more cherry blossoms.

My car- we progressed back to Hamamatsu and Liz snapped this picture of the interior of my car. I rather like the picture, you can see the new shopping center, Sun Street in the distance, and of course the unique center console of the Vitz.

Next up some more pics from Hama town from Liz's eyes.