enji experience number ni

Last dinner with my parents before they leave Japan (forever?)!

We got our marathon meal started right with some healthy portions of sake!  This is right after the waiter poured my dad's sake almost to the point of spilling all over the table in addition to filling the bowl under the glass.  Someone was excited!

We had made a reservation for the course meal after our great experience there a few weeks before, so we had no idea what to expect.  The whole meal was an adventure!  Here is our mackerel being "cooked" right in front of us.

Never one to shy away from a "food experience," my dad had to try the eyeball from the fish heads delivered to our table.  From what I understand this is some kind of delicacy.  Also, apparently the black part is hard and you're supposed to spit it out.  eew.

Some kind of rice-bake thing that finished stewing at our table.  It had bamboo shoots (yum) and mushrooms (which I so kindly offered to my husband) and was incredibly savory.  I need to learn how to make it!

Full and happy after a great meal.  Maybe a little tipsy too.  Maybe.

See you again in just a few weeks, mom and dad!

And one last thing: I've determined that Jeff was in fact correct in asserting that the place has a name. It's called Enji, and we are trying to figure out if that is a play on the name of our town Koenji.   

Mata ne,
Melissa

oh yea, and ni is two in Japanese.

surprise!

Yesterday Jeff got a mysterious phone call.  Now, almost all of Jeff's phone calls in Japan are a mystery to me, since they are in Japanese.  But this one was especially so, as when he hung up he said "I have a surprise for you!" thus, once again, spoiling the element of surprise.

My curiosity was piqued, however, and I spent the next 20 or so hours trying in vain to figure out what could possibly be delivered to our doorstep. 

What could it be?  I am opening the box with a can opener by the way.

An iron kettle from Morioka (where Jeff lived when he was a Rotary Exchange student 10 years ago).  And it was handmade especially for us by a man we met in his foundry! 

Jeff's given iron kettles to several friends for wedding presents through the years, and we toyed with the idea of getting one for ourselves when we visited there (I guess, I should post about that visit soon...) but couldn't find the perfect one.  So he had it made! 

I wonder when we will have to stop using the "it's a wedding present to ourselves" excuse?  [Correction: Jeff informs me that it is an early anniversary present.  Though this is the first I've heard of it.]

Mata ne,
Melissa

himawari*

Today was a somewhat uneventful day in the lives of the Newlyweds.  You see, we are Upstate New York people.  This hot and humid Tokyo weather really does a number on us.  Allegedly, the high temperature was 82 degrees today.  It felt about 95 degrees with 95% humidity.

In spite of the conditions, we decided it would be a lovely day for a walk.  We found a park, which is not surprising considering there is one on every other corner in Tokyo, and Jeff insisted on climbing the jungle gym.  Of course.

He also insisted on buying me a flower.  Isn't he sweet?

Apparently not enough of the flower could be seen in this photo, so another picture needed to be taken.  This is after our late evening run, showers, dinner, and placing the flower in a wine bottle vase (which you can't see).   But now there's proof.

Now, an evening of watching the World Cup and Wimbledon.  We're cheering for the underdogs: South Africa over France (woohoo!) and Nishikori (the Japanese player) over Nadal (not looking too good).

Mata ne,
Melissa

*Himawari means "circle around the sun." It's the Japanese word for sunflower.

fast times

As I write these words, I am enjoying a celebratory chu-hi with my husband.  What are we celebrating, you ask?  My best time ever running a 10k.

Now, due to a slight issue with the GPS watch, I am not sure of what my precise time was.  I do, however, know that it was in fact a best time as I have never actually been timed for a 10k before.  So no matter what, it was a PR.

Jeff also went a best time.  His watch worked perfectly, and his average pace was somewhere around 6 minutes per mile.  Whew!  That's fast!  As I've said before, he's kind of a big deal. 

We've been preparing for our run by sticking religiously (well, with the exception of my trip to America) to a training plan we got from Runner's World online.   It's actually kind of awesome.  You can adjust the paces to exactly your personal goal time and the program adjusts every run time in response. Then you (or your cute husband) can upload said program to your Garmin watch so all you have to do is listen for the beeps to know when to speed up, slow down, or stop.

Now I have to turn my attention back to the pool in preparation for my first swimming race since Nationals 2005.  And since I've never raced 1.2 miles open water before,  I'm pretty sure I'll have another best time on my hands.

Mata ne,
Melissa

P.S. Props to my dad for his great finish at the Green Lakes Triathlon this weekend.  He went his best time in several years and placed in his age group!

torii, torii, torii!

On our last morning in Kyoto, we took my parents to something I consider a must-see, the Fushimi Inari Shrine with the thousands (millions?) of torii.  Torii are the orange gates often found at the entrance to shrines.

There are so many torii it's more like walking in a big orange tunnel than through the woods.  We didn't have time the morning we went with my parents, but when Jeff and I went to Kyoto on our own, we hiked the whole trail to the top of the mountain to see the inner shrine and walked through every one. 

Hurry up you slow pokes!  There's a lot to see!

When looking from the back, as in the picture below, the name of the organization or person that donated is it on the left pillar; the date it was erected and the builder is on the right.  All of the torii have been donated by businesses, many of them sake breweries from what Jeff could determine, as an offering in the hope that it will bring success.  There are huge, brand new, freshly painted torii, smaller and more modest torii, and even tiny ones, that individuals can purchase and leave as an offering higher up the mountain.

I think they enjoyed themselves, even though we didn't have the time to make it to the top (in all honesty, they didn't miss too much - just A LOT more torii).

So long Kyoto!  Back to Tokyo for one last awesome dinner, then K&S head home.

Jeff and I will be back though! 

Mata ne,
Melissa

Big Buddha #2

(backtracking to my parents' visit in mid-April)

On our last full day in Kyoto, we decided to take a small excursion to Nara.  Nara is a small city near Kyoto known for it's very old, culturally important sites.  "But wait," you say, "isn't that what Kyoto is known for?"  Well, yes, but Nara has even older things, just not as many of them.  And deer, but we'll get to that.

We took the train about 45 minutes from Kyoto station to the Nara station, then hopped off and walked to the cultural park. It's definitely close enough that this is quite easy, and there are so many tourists doing the same thing, it's fairly obvious where to go. 

We headed right over to the five story pagoda just a few minutes from the station.  You may recall our visit to a five story pagoda right in the Asakusa district of Tokyo with Aaron.  This one was pretty much the same thing.  Though it did seem a little taller? And maybe it was older? 

And on to the deer.  Nara is known for the wild deer that seem to have overrun the town.   The deer is even part of the awful cartoon baby that is the symbol of the city.  Apparently they are traditionally there as protectors of the city. To me, they seem like dirty pests which, for some reason, the tourists will pay to feed.  It would be sort of like feeding the rats in the New York City subways.  But, that certainly didn't stop my mother from contributing to the problem. Like pigeons, they get uncomfortably close to humans and nibble for food, even if you don't have any of the sembei (crackers) sold throughout the park specifically for the deer.

When she ran out of sembei and started to walk away the deer followed her and nibbled at her clothes and bag.  Ugh. I made her wash her hands immediately.

Then it was off to the real reason we wanted to visit Nara: The Big Buddha!

Well, that is actually the really big building that houses the really big Buddha.  Check out how little the people standing in front of it look.  Turns out, it is the biggest wooden building in the world.  And believe it or not, it is actually only two-thirds the size of the really big building that used to be here.  But on to the main attraction:

And of course, no visit to a giant statue would be complete without a picture of me kissing it:

It's a bit difficult to see from these pictures just how huge this guy really is.  I have a fun fact that will help, though.  There is a pillar in the building behind the Buddha which, legend has it, is the same size as the Buddha's nostril.  It is said that those who pass through the hole will achieve enlightenment.

Enlightenment?  Sign me up.  I made Jeff go first though.

On our way out of town, we stopped for some lunch.  Jeff was really hungry so rather than the regular sized noodles, he got the Big Buddha noodles.  He was warned by the staff they were really big.  Did he listen....?

Coming soon:  Karyn and Steve return to America; Roz and Dick visit Japan.

Mata ne,
Melissa