Today

As I dismissed class, my smart-alec, nerdy student Walter started shouting, "Mother Teresa! Teriyaki Chicken!" and some other random things.

These are the moments I want to remember...

A Head of Lettuce

Caleb and Pat random skyped us, haha. This is his lettuce creation.

Promo MtDew for the new Metal Gear Solid

Bret played this game when it first came out on PS1 so he was excited when he saw these. We want to try the new version :)

I am just obsessed with random Japanese products. I'm surprised I haven't done a fanta update (they have Hawaiian pineapple edition, it's clear)



I dented this can. You can't buy mt. dew in grocery stores, it's exclusively available through a limited number of vending machines (we know the location of every vending machine that stocks mt dew in our city and quite a few locations in cities we frequent) So anyways, I wanted to get one of every character, so I ride my bike with a basket down to the nearest vending machine and start throwing in 1 dollar coins. It took about 15 cans to get all 4 characters (maybe there are more, but i gave up at 4), but the looks school kids gave me riding by seeing my bike basket full of mt dew was priceless. Besides, IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE NOT GONNA DRINK IT. cane sugar ftw

I wish I had...

Mucinex (I am sick right now AGAIN and feel like crap, but don't send me any because by the time I get it I'll probably better)

Allegra (again, by the time we get it sent allergy season will likely be over)

the Mark Anthony hair product I use that comes in the orange tube (maybe I can order it online)

Mascara (I tried on Japanese mascara a few weeks ago and it was the most terrifying experience of my life (almost as bad as the time I was 12 and got sunblock in my eye and couldn't make the burning stop for 20 minutes). It would not come off for three days. I tried 5 different soaps, shampoo, nail polish remover... (just kidding on the last one) EVERYTHING. It wouldn't come off. I asked my friend Rie how to get it off, and she wrote down the name of a makeup remover, but even when I went out and bought that at 6 in the morning it only took half of it off. I am never putting it on again)

OFF bug spray

normal chap stick.

A camel back water dispenser. I drink about 3 liters of water a day and the heat and humidity of Japanese summers is only going to get worse...

Dinner at Hiroe's Place

Hiroe is one of my adult students (pronounced hee-ro-eh). She's really nice and I always look forward to our lessons. Today we went to dinner at her place and she let me try on one of her amazing kimonos. She wore it to her wedding and it was specially made for her. It was hand dyed and embroidered by 15 people and took almost a year to make.

These types of kimono robes were originally made for empresses and princesses, but because they are so beautiful people order them for their weddings. I feel so lucky to have been able to try it on. The first kimono, the black one with cherry blossoms, is 100% silk and was really comfortable. The extravagant colored kimono is also 100% silk, but was heavy but still nice.

So, there is Mexican food in Japan, you just have to drive for an hour to get it...

Seriously, how cute are Pat's kids?

AND STILL NO CILANTRO! and no sour cream, and no guacamole. I am going on a food rampage when I come back home. I want an extra large pepperoni pizza, and carton of to go pad thai, and enchiladas with the works waiting for me when I come home.

plants

So we've been growing some plants. It started with a packet of seeds from America. The exotic imported plant that is CILANTRO. I planted them about 2 months ago, and they are now spry 4 or 5 inches tall. Too young to be sacrificed for salsa or guacamole. I did eat a single leaf, and realized as I was munching it that it has been a remarkable NINE MONTHS since I've tasted cilantro. It was really weird. Almost like I forgot what it tasted like but then had a taste-memory epiphany.

In America I would buy cilantro just about every other week, so this is a big deal for me.

Then I came home one day and bret had constructed a little garden bench for the cilantro to sit on, so it would get more sun. He also got a blueberry bush and a strawberry plant. The strawberry plant is out of control. It recently tried to claim territory in the outlying regions of the cilantro planter, but I cut off the offshoots and replanted them in abandoned planting pots that litter most of our 2 meter by 0.5 meter "yard."

The blueberry bush is the source of Bret's pride and love. Every day when we come home he remarks on it's progress and gives it words of encouragement.

"Wow! Would you look at that! Look at the radius of that foliage!"
"That is one good looking blueberry bush! it'll have fruit within the year!"

yes, bret the ever avid blueberry farmer.

Fun Fruit Discovery

AMAKAN

we found these on the 2-day trek. local farmers/monks put out fruit and a lock box with the honor-system understanding that you'll put in 100 yen. I thought they were oranges. I saw oranges, strawberries and onions along the road and at the shrines for sale.



looks like an orange, peels like a grapefruit, tastes like a not-yet-ripe grapefruit. you have to peel each section to make it bearable.

Camping, Minus the Sleeping Outside

finding a spot


putting up a tent: not that hard

(so despite the fact that remi and I put up the tent, it got cold and we went home, leaving the men to sleep in the out of doors)



bonfire!


Remi and I


All in all, it was a fun faux camping weekend. Thanks to Pat and Bellini's for orchestrating the event!

2 day trek

Packed:

2 pairs socks/underthings
1 tour book
1 tube of benadryl
1 chapstick
2 mandarin oranges
2 sweatshirts
1 disposable camera
1 2-liter bottle of water

animal encounters:
1,000 bats (approx)
1 40-centimeter lizard
2 coppery-gold colored gecko lizards (pictured)
6 turtles
1 eel
3 cranes
1 large black butterfly the size of my hand (pictured)







Mosquito Bites Recieved:
Me: 27
Bret: 0

Yasakaji Temple

Most Buddhist temples are rather similar in japan. Most of the time, they are just a fancy-roofed building with a huge bell adjacent to a graveyard. I loosely use the term graveyard because they don't bury the bodies of their dead in Japan. Mostly, one person or several generations of families will have a stone statue (they are pretty we've taken pictures) that they are enshrined in. They may or may not have the ashes of cremated people inside or in an urn, but the idea is that the corpse isn't as necessary for creating a place where the spirit can reside (and thus people visit them and maybe pray/commune the way westerners do at a grave site without anything being buried). Now, the 88 sacred temples of shikoku are a little different. The tradition of a pilgrimage was started when Kukai walked around the island and spent a great deal of time restoring/augmenting some major local temples. The path he walked is now a pilgrimage for many Japanese seeking a connection with the spiritual world, who have lost a loved one or perhaps have a loved one that is ill and wish to pray for them while at the same time making a sacrifice, who is seeking enlightenment, or even for tourists who want a little adventure. We have been checking out many of these temples and each one has its own character, quite unique from the standard temple and grave set up. Today we went to one that trumped them all in its uniqueness, Yasakaji. It had quite a few interesting statues, including a large myodo (which is a fiery guardian for protection). Underneath the main hall, which enshrines the Amida Buddha, was a cellar full of thousands of little Buddha statues arranged in every nook and cranny on shelves. Each one had a name written in it, and whether it was the names of monks who have worked at the shrine or what, I wasn't sure. But there were sooooo many. Also outside there was a strange structure. There was a small path leading through a 5 or so foot high tunnel that then looped back around to a second tunnel of the size. The first tunnel was grotesque. On one side was painted flames, demons, an anguished souls. It was quite large, so of course there were many many humans suffering all kinds of terrible pain (being eaten alive by dogs, being stabbed through by poles, being stabbed by demons, burned by flames, etc). On the other side was some kind of battle on the left and some demons eating each other on the right. Really bizarre. The other tunnel was much not creepy or evil at all, and was kind of pleasant. Anyway, I have never seen any kind of artwork like this, nor seen hell heavily depicted in Buddhism (not all kinds have a hell). So I researched it. Turns out the main deity (Amida Buddha, whose associated sects I think resemble in many ways Christianity, making Amida something like Buddhism's Jesus) was carved by Genshin (or Eshin Sozu) who was a very influential figure in Tendai sects of Buddhism. His magnum opus contained very graphic and detailed descriptions of heaven and hell (not unlike dante's inferno or in the Revelations). His ideas were interwoven in genres of horror and morality tales in Japanese culture over years. SO it seems that the reason for the presence of these heaven/hell painting lay in this influential patron of the temple. Mystery solved!