Autumn Equinox

Today is the autumnal equinox. It's a national holiday in Japan. Both it and the spring equinox are days to visit family graves and pay one's respects.

My friend was going to do that today, so I went along for the ride. She dropped me off at a large 100 yen shop while she visited some family members.

On the way, we stopped at a veggie stand. This stand had pick your own edamame. Edamame are soybeans that you boil and eat. Usually with beer.






















To cook them, boil them in salted water for 10 minutes.

To eat, stick the pod in your mouth and use your teeth to pop the soybeans out. Yum!

I tried growing these once in Wisconsin, but the bunnies ate my plants.

Here is one of the beans.








On the way home, we stopped at a dahlia garden. This garden is one man's hobby. He also does amazing ink and brush paintings, which he invited us to see.

Mt. Takao - 高尾山

Monday, I went on another mountain hike. This time it was to Mt. Takao, which is 599 meters tall, and to the west of Tokyo.

It started out as a very foggy day. Here is a picture from the train, leaving Karasuyama.






Most of the trains are JR (Japan Rail) trains. But the quickest and cheapest route from Shinjuku to Takaosanguchi, the nearest station to Mt. Takao, is run by Keio. Here, Hello Kitty is warning us to keep fingers away from the door on the train, as they can get caught.

I took a chair lift from the bottom of the moutain to 462 m, from 224m at the "base". It's quite steep.
Even part way up the mountain, the view is great.








I walked a short while on trail #1, to the monkey park.

Here is Dad's counterpart in Japan. I think he enjoys talking about the monkeys as much as Dad likes to talk about the birds and animals at the Desert Museum.

They have 7 babies this year.

I didn't see Dana or Connor, though.




The main trail is paved and fairly easy. I saw parents with baby strollers and people with small dogs.












I turned off trail #1 onto trail #4. This trail is unpaved and runs along a ridge. It has a suspension bridge, too.

I made it to the top. You can tell it's the top because of all the people and the shops. A beer was 670 yen at the top, which is why I didn't buy one. As I went down, the price of beer also went down.

I went down on trail #1.

Here is Yakuin temple, which is on Mt. Takao. It belongs to a sect of Shingon Buddhism. Shingon similar to Tibetan Buddhism, which is different from other sects of Japanese Buddhism such as Zen or Tendai.







A foggy day.

Blast from the Past

I went on a trip today, which I'll blog about later. On the way back, I saw some Girl Scouts on the train. Back when I was a kid, I was a Girl Scout. Among the neat things I got to do were camping and going to a horseback riding camp. I think my fondness for hiking came from all the camping I did.

Anyway, there was either a senior scout or the leader and two high school aged girls, in their uniforms. So I asked if I could take their picture, and said that I had been a scout when I was a kid. They agreed. Later, when the girls were getting off the train, they gave me a scout pin and bandanna! Cool! Thanks to the young ladies from Troop 14 -- these will be among my favorite souvenirs of my trip.

A very belated thanks to my parents who were scout leaders. Because both my parents were involved in scouting, I got to go camping with both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Plus we went camping as a family. What fun!

Respect for the Aged Day - 敬老の日

Today is Respect for the Aged Day. So, Happy Respect for the Aged Day to the aged among you. If you have to ask if you are included, you are. This aged blogger got the day off from work -- a nice enough gift for any occasion!

Click here to see more information about Respect for the Aged Day.

Microwave

I remember when microwave ovens first came out. Yes, tomorrow is Respect for the Aged day, a national holiday in Japan...but I digress.

Anyway, when they first came out my first thought was that there wasn't anything they could do that a stovetop or oven couldn't. Then my parents got one, and they gave us one when Rob and I got married and I've had one ever since.

Until I came to Japan. I had considered buying one when I first came here. I based that on the price I paid for my last on at Wal-Mart. I remember seeing the small, dorm-sized ones for maybe $30-40 and figured I'd get one of those.

They are more expensive here. I haven't seen the small, cheap ones at all. They generally run at least 10,000 yen, although I'd seen some for a little as 7900. But when I saw the lower priced ones, I didn't have a car available to transport it. So I decided I could live without one. I have a stove top and a rice cooker.

Unfortunately, some food processors have caught up with the idea that everyone has a microwave, and make things that can't be properly heated up any other way. I've seen pre-popped popcorn. microwave popcorn and Jiffypop popcorn, but no regular popcorn. And cocoa mixes call for hot milk instead of hot water. I'm nervous about cookikng milk on the stove because of its tendency to burn.

So today, I was very happy to see that Beisie had a microwave on sale for 4980 yen. AND I was with my friend who has a car! So now I am ready for winter, able to prepare hot beverages easily! (Hot lemonade, anyone?) I'll also be able to reheat anything I get from the deli, as well as my own leftovers.

Of course, now I have to figure out where to put the rice cooker, since the microwave takes up the top of the fridge....

Mushrooms and Sunshine

Here is why I try to carry my camera with me wherever I go. I saw this mushroom on my way to school today. No, I won't try mushrooms I find in the wild. I'll only go mushroom hunting in the produce section.

There are several varieties of mushrooms available at the grocery store -- some that I've never seen before.

And here is a picture of a rare sunny day. I was able to air my futon for a bit when I got home today. The weather report promises much less humidity in the near future. It's getting a little cooler -- right now I have my verandah door open and a fan running instead of the aircon.

Kirin Akiaji

Continuing with the beer theme, here is a seasonal brew from Kirin. It's called Akiaji, "Autumn Flavor". It's a Märzen/Octoberfest style beer. Not bad.

You can also see my souvenir glass from yesterday. It also says, "Save the Planet Drink Beer".

I like the theory that beer is the reason people settled down and became farmers instead of remaining pastoralists.

Yokohama 横浜

Yesterday I went to Yokohama. I traveled around a bit, and have lots of pictures to share with you!

I went to see Sojiji, which is the head temple for the Soto Zen sect in Japan. Soto Zen focuses on gradual enlightenment though meditaion. The Rinzai sect, in contrast believes that sudden enlightenment is possible and tries to achieve this through koan, or riddles/puzzles. "What is the sound of one hand clapping" is a famous one.


















































Near a small wooded area, I saw a woman who brought food for some feral cats. Of course, I took pictures.
You can see the short and bent tails on these cats. That is quite common among cats in Japan, and is the origin of the Japanese Bobtail breed. These guys were cute, not to skittish, but definitely made me want to take them to a vet to get cleaned up a bit.














I then went to Yokohama's Chinatown, which is the largest in the world. The first shop I saw could be any New Age shop anywhere. They even sold dreamcatchers!

A lot of shops had panda themes.

Here is a Chinese gate in Chinatown. There are several in Chinatown.






This is the smallest and most specialized bar I'vee every seen. Apparently, they like to focus on doing only one thing -- serving Guinness. But they don't do it particularly well -- it wasn't staffed when I went by.




Here is why I went to Yokohama in the first place: Beer.

There was a beer festival in Yokohama. Earlier in the year, there had been one in Tokyo and Osaka. It is organized by the Japanese Craft Beer Association. For an entrance fee of Y4100, you get a 50 ml glass and are free to sample the over 120 beers offered.

I tried Japanese craft beers, a Tahitian beer, Belgian Abbey beer and a Palestinian beer. But my favorite was the sweet vanila stout. If you like the idea of Guiness floats or Guinness cheesecake, you'd like this.
Here is a line of folks waiting to get in.










This is inside Osambashi Terminal, where the festival was held. As befits a building on the end of a pier that serves as a terminal for passenger ferries, it had a nice nautical design.

Here are happy samplers.










These folks are taking a food break.









Here is the ham on a stick that I had.









Yokohama has some interesting old architecture. This building is nicknamed "King Tower", because the top looks like a king's had on playing cards. Sailors could recognize Yokohama port by these towers. It was really the prefectural office.

It was destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and rebuilt in 1928.

I think it's beautiful. I love weathered copper!













This next building is "Jack Tower". It's the Port Opening Memorial Hall.

There is also a "Queen Tower", but I wasn't particularly looking for these when I found them. I asked a man at King what the building was, because I liked it so much. He also pointed "Jack" out to me.

Here you can see all three towers-- I've marked them. They are in order, left to right, King, Jack and Queen. Queen was a customs house. Since it was a national building, it was designed to be taller than King, which was only a prefectural building.

I left Yokohama at 18:17 and didn't get back to Karasuyama until after 23:30. But I didn't take the shink. I will definitely go back to Yokohama.