Izu

Matt and I got to enjoy some time away from the daily grind last week. We went to Izu-Atagawa for some well deserved R&R and stayed in a traditional Japanese Ryokan where we enjoyed living in Yukatas (bath robes) for two full days and bathing in a couple of private onsens (hot springs). We were the only gaijin in the building but managed to communicate with the usual art of hand gestures and pointing. The only two staff members who spoke English were the chef and hotel driver. We made a bit of a faux pas on the first day, one of the staff members caught us walking through the hotel lobby and ran up to the driver who was outside at the time. He came to let us know that we had our Yukatas on the wrong way, the front is supposed to cross left over right and we both had ours on right over left. Apparently right over left is a sign of death. I found out my cat Caesar died when I got home….hrm.

We didn’t do any site seeing which was such a refreshing change. We simply lounged around in our robes slept, tested some tasty and not so tasty traditional food...

and relaxed in a soothing onsen full of floating oranges...

Here's Matt at the train station getting a massage before boarding the train...


Our train ride home was quite funny. Our seats weren’t so good so we decided to go to the smoking car where there were plenty of available seats. A couple of stops down the line a few business men got on the train, looked at their tickets, looked at us, looked at their tickets and looked at us again. We told them we were in their seats and that we could move but they smiled, said “ok ok ok” and sat in the empty seats in front of us. Two stops later two more passengers boarded the train, they looked at their tickets, looked at the business men, looked back down at their tickets, and back at the business men again. We felt awful and once again told them we could move but instead they took the available seats in front of the business men. We felt quite bad about messing up the whole row but an elderly woman and her husband seated next to us motioned for us to stay where we were and not to worry. Next thing we knew it the woman was passing us little pots of vanilla ice cream and we graciously accepted. She was such a ray of sunshine. We gave her a little gift in exchange and she was beaming. Why can’t strangers do this kind of thing for each other more often?

lazy thursday

i saw a blind man sitting in a courtesy seat on the train this morning. he was wearing a baseball cap which read "marriage isn't a word, it's a sentence"

hrm

i’m spending a lazy rainy afternoon at home watching a japanese film called battle royal. A cat keeps meowing outside wanting to be let into a neighbouring house and my washing machine is in spin cycle mode. my eyelids are getting heavy, I better get some rest before this evening’s soccer game at the george in omiya.

d

great news

i found some nylons that fit !!! the size is L-LL and this helpful diagram is printed on the back...

i miss you
d

papa in japan part 1

on wednesday evening i brought papa to a traditional shabu-shabu restaurant and it was delicious. joe took dave and i to the very same place in march and i really wanted to go back. shabu-shabu consists of thin slices of beef, a variety of fresh vegetables and a boiling pot of broth containing a sake, soya and sugar mixture. the pot sits in the centre of your table and you boil your food to perfection. after the food is cooked you have a choice of two sauces, vinaigrette or creamy sesame. after that you're served mochi, noodles, green tea and a scoop of ice cream....yumm!

we decided to walk home from omiya

and ducked into a games centre along the way…

our personal favorite...

here’s a shot of papa walking along a pedestrian path i take regularly to and from work…

we went to kamakura yesterday and i made the mistake of taking the regular commuter route, it took us 1.5 hours each way. luckily we boarded the train and got seats at its starting point on the way home, rush hour was in full swing a couple of stations later.

here’s papa taking a rest on the beach. it was soooooo fantastic seeing the ocean again, i hadn’t seen it since last summer’s magdalene island road trip extravaganza.

we met matt for dinner in ageo after a hour long train mistake on my part. commuter rapid trains are a thorn in my side!!!

today papa and i had lunch and did a little shopping in omiya. we got home around 5pm and papa took a nap.

i made tacos for dinner and now we're just relaxing to the sounds of crickets or what ever the heck those bugs are that sound like power lines.

tomorrow we're going on a hato bus tour of tokyo. we'll spend the first part of our day sitting on an air conditioned bus and boat and the other part walking behind a tour guide holding up a yellow coloured flag. i'll post more pictures soon.

xo d

hearing really loud tropical-type bugs