Stinked!

Fall is Kamemushi season. Kamemushi are Japanese stinkbugs, and after October, they are everywhere. By all accounts they like white things and bright things, so you often find them hanging out on your laundry or on your kitchen lights.

The Japanese hate them. I mean, they REALLY hate them. Class will stop dead if the kids see a kamemushi. They are paralyzed with fear. Most foreigners are a little mystified with the high level of fear these little things induce. I mean, they're just bugs, right? Maybe they stink a little, but is it really that bad?

Last year, we never managed to get a whiff of stinkbug stink. And given the amount of bugs we hassled onto papers [to move outside] or trapped with a glass, you'd imagine we wouldn've ticked one off. Nope. But this year was different. Aaron accidently stinked himself when he smacked a mosquito on his neck. Whoops, not a mosquito. But it faded pretty quickly. I got my first whiff a week ago at school. Apparently someone stepped on one in the hallway, leading to many whines of "Kusai!" [stinky] Did the stench live up to its reputatation? Nah. I thought it smelled like windex mixed with celery seeds. Not great, but not gut-wrenching.

Another reason the Japanese hate seeing these bugs-- apparently they're harbingers of winter. The more you see, the more snow will fall. Life is interesting in Japan.

Puccho!

Puccho is a fantastic candy. A lot like Mambas, but with little jelly bits. Orange, grape, and cola flavors are available year round, but one of the best things about Pucchos [and many Japanese snacks] is the seasonal flavors. Yep, just in case autumn leaves don't do it for you, you can thrill to the new candy flavors! And to make Puccho-lovers even more neurotic, there are regional flavors. So Okinawa has pineapple [yes, I made my kids pick some up for me], Hokkaido has melon, and Kyushu has strawberry. Annoyingly, Shikoku, the only other island we've made it to, does not get a regional speciality. Which is all well and good according to Matsuda-sensei who opines that Shikoku's Puccho flavor would likely be udon [type of noodle].

Here are some of the flavors I've encountered:



*Aloe and yogurt

*Cinnamon Apple

*Grapefruit

*Melon Soda

I occasionally go to the Puccho site, but it only depresses me-- so many flavors are out of my reach! Gotta... taste... them... all...

Crab Soup

The event-packed fall continues... Nov 11 and 12 was the Eco Festa at the Tajima Dome. Even more exciting, our friends Mike and Colleen were coming up to see it with us! Hooray!

True to form, they brought inclement weather with them. Refer to the blog's history to rediscover their weather-changing tendencies.

But unfortunately, Aaron and I'd both been sick. Aaron recovered right before they arrived, but I was pretty out of it Saturday. Since scheduling gets pretty complicated here, there was no way we were going to cancel. So I toughed it out, and we all went to the Eco Festa with Mari.

In general, the Eco Festa is a lot like an expo. Lots of booths, many with similar items, lots of food, etc. There was also a flea market that we had fun picking through. There were a few craft booths were kids could paint some wooden figures. Very small time, but still fun.

The Eco Festa also features a speciality soup. Winter is crab season, so you can buy a bowl of broth with half a crab inside. And lucky you-- all the tasty innards are there for the slurping! Aaron ignored the guts and just sucked out the leg meat. Mari thought it was hilarious as that style of crab is selected specifically for eating the insides. MMmmm, crab guts.

Izushi Castle Matsuri

November 3rd is National Culture Day, so I had the day off. Yea!! And Izushi, a nearby town, was celebrating their Castle Festival, so we were determined to go. Now, as we don't have a car, we were going to have to learn the bus routes. But then, our fantastic friend/student Chika from our Kaiwa class invited us along with her and her friend, Uenobo. Hooray for not having to learn the bus route!

Uenobo is an English teacher at the JHS and can be a bit domineering, so we were a little worried. Despite our concerns, Uenobo seemed very relaxed, and watching her and Chika interact was really sweet-- you could see what good friends they are.



Izushi is absolutely adorable! A beautiful town, filled with cute shops and tons of soba restuarants. Soba, buckwheat noodles, are popular in Japan and an Izushi speciality. Izushi has only maybe 10,000 people, yet has over 30 soba restuarants. We ran into one of the Izushi ALTs, so we all went to lunch together. THe soba is served on many small plates-- each person is given about 7. You mix together raw egg, green onions, dashi [a stock made from fish], soy sauce, wasabi, and tororo [taro goop] in a cup, then dip each bite of noodles in the mixture. It's really fun and quite tasty. After eating, we ordered soba-yu, the hot water the noodles are boiled in. The noodles give some flavor and starch to the water. You add the flavoring mix to the soba-yu and drink it down. It's pretty tasty, but the egg white and the tororo are a bit too slimy for me to swill easily.

Then we went off and found dessert. Now, we love our ice cream place, Lilac, but the Izushi shop had a wider variety of flavors. Hello mangosteen, chestnut, soba!!, spicy [red pepper flakes, cinnamon, and black pepper], plus all the usual suspects. There were pics of the store's cows, so you could see which wonderful cow provided you with amazing ice cream!



Let's see, we also wandered around the castle walls, browsed the booths, pounded a bit of mochi, and then we settled in to wait for the main event. Izushi men slowly parade through town, carrying these tall poles. Every so often, they stop, take a few choreagraphed steps, then toss the poles to another man. Yes, they are "very adept at handling their poles." Ahem. I believe that's in their official brochure...





On our way to the car we found a soba making shop, and were treated to watching a man make the noodles. Looks like a lot of work. I know soba making clubs are pretty popular in Japan, and in Izushi in particular. I wish Wadayama was famous for something edible... all we're known for is furniture.

Kyoto n Kobe

For the folks' last few days we ran around Kobe and Kyoto. We went to a gigantic flea market at Toji Temple and bought far too much stuff. Wandered around Gion and Yasuka Shrine, but didn't stumble across any geisha. Sunday was the Jidai Matsuri- one of Kyoto's "Big Three" festivals. Accordingly, we were expecting something stellar. Well, the Jidai festival is pretty much just a long parade of people in period costumes. It was really entertaining to see who was enjoying playing their role [usually older men and the really young kids] and who had clearly been drafted [generally all the teenagers]. Later that night was the Kurama Fire Festival, which was something I've wanted to see ever since we came to Japan. But we got to the station to find an hour-long wait just to board the train. Crowds are not my favorite thing, and we were all fairly tired from our busy days, so we decided to head back to Kobe.

Monday we took a 15 minute ferris wheel ride in Osaka, then went to Costco so the folks could see the similiarities/differences. Then we said our goodbyes and headed our seperate ways.

Some highlights

* Accidentally ordering raw beef [but it was delicious!]
* Stumbling across a small mikoshi carrying in Kobe
* Seeing some guy's butt as he just dropped his pants to change in full view of the street
* Drinks at the bar on the top floor of the hotel
* Kobe beef at yakiniku in Kobe
* Shrimp burgers

Bullet Train

Within a single day we sampled all 3 categories of the bullet train. First, we took the medium speed from Himeji to Hiroshima. On our way back, we caught the slower speed until Okayama, then jumped onto the super high speed Nozomi til Himeji.

And with the price we had to pay, we were shocked- Shocked!- to discover that you weren't guaranteed a seat. I supposed I can understand the logistics problem [since you don't have to reserve in advance], but man! The idea of crashing while standing on a train going so fast was kinda scary.

Hiroshima

I took some time off for a long weekend with the folks. A super-packed weekend. Friday we took the Shinkansen [Bullet Train] to Hiroshima.

Obviously, we went to the Peace Dome and the Peace Museum. There were tons of school trips there, so hundreds of students were swarming around. Several came up to Mom and Aaron, asking them to write a reflection on the bombing for their required scavenger-report.



I was impressed with the museum. Japan often prefers to gloss over negative aspects of Japan's history. So I've often heard that many Japanese feel that the bombing had no build-ups- nothing to explain it. But the museum was very detailed and even-handed-- pointing out that Hiroshima was a major military and industrial area. The museum didn't pull any punches. There were displays of a preserved tongue, pieces of skin, and plenty of melted objects.



The juxtaposition of being an American at the museum with all the smiling and excited schoolchildren wanting to talk to us was really heartening.

After the museum we encountered a Buddhist woman who offered to pray for us. She told us she could feel the sadness from the experience, and that she hoped she could lighten our burdens. We agreed and stood quietly for five minutes while she passed in front of each of us. I'm unsure if it was her prayers or her simple kindness, but I felt some relief after.

And after all the grisliness, it was lunchtime. Yep, our iron-clad stomachs stop for nothing. And Hiroshima is famous for their okonimiyaki, which is much more pizza-like than our pancake-like Osaka style. Wonderful!

To top off our day we went to a traditional Japanese garden. In the middle of a busy area, we felt wonderfully isolated within the greenery. There was a small lake with many bridges to walk over. In a few more weeks, the maples would be turning red, but at the moment, everything was brilliantly green and refreshing.

Ramen Truck!!

Most of the week the folks kicked around with Aaron. They also did a solo daytrip to view Himeji Castle and the Rodin exhibit. And on Wednesday, they served as our guests of honor at our Kaiwa class.

Everything went over really well. The students really enjoyed meeting my parents and asking them questions. The weekly notes our student Yasuhiro types up declared my Momma to be charming and my Poppa to be a gentleman! Guess we fooled them! ;)

After class Chika madly drove us back to catch the Ramen Truck. Yes, we have a Ramen Truck. Haven't written about it yet 'cos, um, laziness... Our Ramen Truck comes every Wednesday night between 9 and 10. It plays incredibly creepy pipe music to announce its presence-- sounds like a horde of ghosts are sneaking about. THe driver stops the truck [and the music, thankfully!] and comes to the back. He has some vats with boiling water and broth. Quickly cooks the noodles, then serves you up a great bowl of ramen. While the idea might not be as great as an ice cream truck, ramen trucks are incredibly cool.

Kinosaki Kenka Matsuri

The next day was another fighting festival in nearby Kinosaki. As Kinosaki is a cute little tourist trap, we'd already planned on taking the folks there-- the matsuri was a bonus.

But we did the same thing as before. Arrived around noon, spent a few hours wandering around, watching the shrines parade downtown. But after a good four hours, still no crashing! Ugh! We were all starving, and Kinosaki's restaurants are expensive and they usually shut down from 2-5, so we decided to head to Toyooka. We thought we might have the energy to return for the fighting, but ....

But all was not lost! During our wanderings, we stumbled across a beautiful secluded temple, a small shrine, a wall of statues, and plenty of koi.