kodachrome

Excuse me, dear readers.  I have nothing new for you today.

You see, I've been spending lots of time on this here computer in the last few days; beating the heat and humidity indoors (with the air conditioning on full blast) and preparing to leave our honeymoon home.  We've accumulated quite a bit of stuff in this tiny little apartment over the last nine months, and now it is time to purge.  Everything must go.  And rather than kick it to the curb, we're hoping to sell it to another cute honeymooning couple looking for a variety of household items of superior design and quality who aren't interested in making a trip all the way out to IKEA.

I've made a website, posted pictures, and even met someone in Shinjuku (in front of the Gap, it's the BEST place to meet someone outside one of the busiest train stations in the world) to sell our coffee maker.  But fear not, we still have the espresso maker! We've got A LOT more to get rid of, though, so anyone in need of a printer, rice cooker, cheap shelving, or a lamp, come to Tokyo and you can have it cheap!

When I haven't been working on ridding our home of the comforts of modern living, I've spent quite a bit of time biking around our little town capturing images of the scenes and locations we want to remember when we head back to the States.  It will be hard to leave the place we've spent our first year of marriage, so we want to remember every street, store, and restaurant that have been such a big part of our daily lives.

And Tokyo is constantly changing - a building may be torn down with a new one put up in it's place in a month's time! - so it would be fun to see how different things may look when we come back to visit in a few years. 

I've also gotten to play with my new camera a bit, and take pictures of the blooming flowers that, amazingly, can be seen all over the city.  Individual people take the time to cultivate them in public spaces.  And no one cuts them down or destroys them!  Hard for an American to believe.

I think this is a gardenia.  Anyone want to back me up here?

I could smell this thing about 10 feet away if that's any help. 

And, I think this is a hydrangea.  They were formed into almost perfect balls.

And in order to illustrate just how humid it has been here in Tokyo, there are water droplets on the leaves of these plants and it didn't rain today!  Ok, I grant that these flowers may have been watered recently, but I'm telling you, you don't know humidity until you've endured an east Asian rainy season.


Jeff's been a busy bee too.  He's finishing up a paper he will deliver tomorrow (nothing like the last minute, huh?) and has been furiously typing away and monopolizing the small table space we have all week.  I am so excited to go and watch him speak!  Of course, I say that now....  Don't worry, I'll have some coffee first!  There will be yummy Indian food after though, did I mention that :) ?

So that's all I have to report, not so exciting I know.  But we have something BIG in the works for next week, so stay tuned!

Mata ne,
Melissa

night on the banks of the kamogawa

(Continued from yesterday's post)

You see, it was my birthday, so we had to get a little celebration in.

Now, we had already celebrated a few days early with a lovely dinner at another local favorite, Las Meninas (You may remember it from our six month lunaversary celebration). Here we are walking down our street to the restaurant.  Have I mentioned how much we LOVE being able to walk everywhere?






Those of you who know us well may not be surprised to learn we like to take pictures of meals and celebrations before we start eating them, as we tend to get excited about the food in front of us and can't think about much else.





But back to the banks of the Kamogawa.  When the celebration in question is all about me, well, who am I to decline?

Roz and Dick were still recovering from the long flight to Japan, so they called it a night, but Jeff and I headed down to the sakura lined banks of the Kamogawa river to sip a chu-hi. Can you see us there? 

 There were actually hundreds of other people enjoying the cool breeze that evening on the river bank, but my husband artfully cropped them out.

Since it was still early when we finished our chu-hi, we decided to grab one more drink at a cute bar with outdoor seating (this time on a canal leading to the Kamogawa).

 Cheers to ME!

Mata ne,
Melissa

kyoto on the kamogawa

Jeff's parents arrived shortly after mine left, and we got started right away with our whirlwind tour of southern Japan. 

After a few short days in Tokyo, we hopped on a shinkansen and made our way to Kyoto.  When we got there, we met up with an acquaintance of Jeff's dad for an unforgettable day.

First we headed to the geisha (or as they call them in Kyoto dialect, geiko) district to see the once a year performance of the maiko (apprentice geisha).  Pictures are not allowed, but let me tell you, it was spectacular.  Apparently, the same performance, the Kamogawa Odori - Kamo River Dance, has been performed since 1872.

There is a whole band of very talented musicians (all women) playing shamisen and other instruments and singing.  The maiko and geiko dance and perform a traditional play.  At the end, all of the maiko and geiko are on stage together for, what I have dubbed, the fan dance.  It was amazing.  If you every have cause to go to Japan and Kyoto, go in May and go see the maiko!

After that, we went to a restaurant with only outdoor seating that over looks the Kamogawa river and is only open for a short time each year. 

This was my failed attempt at getting everyone in the picture.

The food was distinctly Japanese, and we all (Roz, Dick, and I at least) did our best to eat like locals for the evening. Some of it was quite good!

Some of it I left for others to enjoy.

Yes, those are entire fish.  To be eaten just like that.  Yum?


After a wonderful meal, we said arigato (thank you) and oyasumi (goodnight) to our hosts and headed for bed.  Or did we....

Mata ne,
Melissa

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