Noh Fun

This weekend we got clued into another small part of traditional Japanese culture - Noh Theatre. Upside, it was free. Downside, boring is kind of an understatement. Imagine samurai culture mixed with opera (sans high C notes) as performed by your local theatre over-actors and you are pretty close to experiencing the real thing. You think it'd be hard to go wrong with spider-demons & sword fights, but it still managed to be pretty dull. More interesting to me were the drums they had as musical accompaniment. (In the photo, the gent in black is holding one of them.) They were beautiful and intricately designed, but basically made the sound of someone knocking on a plank of wood. I'm curious how these instruments have survived so long.

The upside of the theatre experience was that the Noh performance was preceded by another play in the equally ancient style of Kyogen, which is more comedic and definitely more interesting. It's nice to know that the slapstick we see on TV here is actually rooted in hundreds (thousands?) of years of tradition. I won't forget "ITAI!" is the word for "Ouch!" any time soon.

-Mike

Kotaki Okane (Coin Money)

Last week I was talking to Colleen's sister about currency when she mentioned a British women coming into her job and being mystified by the lack of a $1 coin - or you know, one that actually gets used. Apparently the US is in the minority in only having change for such small amounts. Quite the opposite, I'm still struggling to adjust to how much coin I'm always hauling around. Japan doesn't have paper money until you hit the 1000Yen mark - around $10. In the States, I always had enough change to fill that little pocket in my jeans, but never much more. Here, from day one I've had to carry a coin purse.

Today I didn't want to eat the stuff around the house and thought I'd go grab something, but opened up an empty wallet. But then I whipped out the coin purse & found 1790Yen (or $15.16 per today's exchange rate). The coins aren't heavy at all and I never realize how much I actually have. It adds up fast but is also ridiculously hard to keep track of how much you have. I'm sure I've lost more than one 500Yen coin already. I'll take paper any day.

1790Yen: (1) 500, (11) 100, (2) 50, (8) 10, (1) 5, (5) 1:


BTW: Lunch = Salad & String Cheese with a Coke (very Japanese!)

Mike

The Highlight of MY Weekend

Colleen's birthday was great, don't get me wrong, but it really didn't compare to the cinematic wonder that is STEALTH. (How could it?) I've been waiting to see this since I first saw the preview at Star Wars Episode Three last May. My summer tour out west and preparation for the trip over here kept me from the theatres when it was released, but it just came out on DVD here and I finally got my chance.

It was great in its "Ray Bradbury Rewrites Frankenstein As A US Navy Commercial" way and mostly lived up to expectations, though I thought it would be even worse than it actually is and was a little let down it wasn't over-the-top horrible. I was a little bummed when (spoiler) the plane developed 'feelings,' but when it committed suicide that more than made up for it. I only wish I'd had enough time to watch it twice before returning it to Something World. If you like bad movies as much as me, run -don't walk - to your local video store.

A happy birthday at Indus Cottage...

Indus Cottage is a lovely Indian restaurant way out in the mountains of Yamasaki. So far out, that even with a map on the invitation, a few locals got lost on the way. It's worth the trip, cause it's a cultural oasis ;) Ms. Saritha, who runs it, makes everyone feel welcome and at home.

A few friends and co-workers joined in to celebrate my birthday ("tanjyoubi omedetou" is "happy birthday in Japanese ;) over the *best* curry and nan in Shiso city...




Pictured above are my friend Tomomi-chan, her sister, and 3 of my favorite co-workers ;)

We had a delicious "oishii" full-course meal of soup, appetizers, curry, nan, and rice.
Then we relaxed a bit before dessert. The chef invited us into the kitchen to watch how fast nan can cook inside this special nan-makin' machine...



... about 5 seconds! Ms. Saritha said that nan from restaurants has a special taste because of this oven (is it an oven?). When made in a frypan, nan tastes much different.

We also browsed through the beautiful Indian sarees and jewelry on display.
Our friend Naaruo seems to be having more fun with these hats than the chef;



MMmmm.... then it was time for Indian sweets AND B-day cake!



We ended the night with an hour or 2 of Karaoke. Osaki-sensei make sure that you can see Mike's good side;




I felt like such a little kid, cause everyone spoiled me so much! Everyone brought thoughtful gifts, and they didn't let Mike and I pay for our meal. Whenever I try to protest people paying for my meals, I always lose, as I'm told it's Japanese style to pay for the guests. It's so hard, cause my independent spirit always wants to pay. It is really nice though. But when won't I be a guest anymore?

By the way...
fun fact: my actual birthday, March 14th, is a holiday here in Japan. It's called "white day", and girls are given special boxes of chocolates! It's like the favor of Valentine's Day is returned, since on V-day, boys are given chocolate. Could there be a better holiday for me!?! Another fun bit of info: I asked a teacher how long V-day has been celebrated in Japan, and his answer was that it was started by Meiji, a chocolate company, in the 1950's. I guess it's a "Hallmark" holdiay here in Japan too! Why would anyone need a corporate excuse to eat chocolate? I eat it at *least* once a week ;)

Wish you all could've been here for curry and cake! Thank you for all the good wishes and presents!!

love,
Colleen

Long Weekend Sounds

Spent a good chunk of last week in Kyoto with my friend from Switzerland Tomas Korber and some of his fellow Swiss musicians. I caught two shows & heard a lot of great stuff. Favorite set of the weekend was probably the trio of Jason Kahn, Norbert Möslang and Otomo Yoshihide. Close second was a quintet with all five Swiss musicians. Great time all around and Tomas and I finally got to record together. Traveled with the guys to Osaka on Saturday, but had to bid them farewell mid-show so I could catch my train home in time.

Colleen & I then headed to Himeji on Sunday to check out one of my favorite American groups Mount Eerie and the best band in Japan (on the planet?) Eddie Markon. The show was lived up to expectations and we were pleasantly surprised by Japanese folkie Nikaido Kazumi as well.

Pics (top to bottom):
Jason Kahn on modular synthesizer
Tomas Kober and Günter Müller
Eddie Markon

Hinamatsuri

The Doll's Festival, Momo-no-Sekku (Hinamatsuri), takes place on March 3. Hinamatsuri (hina means dolls and matsuri means festival) is a time to pray for the health and well being of young girls. Most homes with young girls will set up a display of hinaningyo (hina dolls). The dolls were originally made from straw and grass but have since become mass produced. Around the display dedications of peach blossoms, cube rice cakes, special colored and diamond shaped rice cakes and white sake are made. This ceremony is similar to a Chinese ceremony in which the sins of the body are transferred to a doll that is then set adrift on a river. The celebration of this festival in Japan is traceable to the Edo Period (1603-1867).

As the festival has grown over the years the dolls have become more elaborate and more expensive. One can guess that people no longer want to set these little treasures to drift on a river. The trend now is to display the dolls on the house and save them for the following years' festivals. The main dolls used in the displays are "Odairi-sama," a prince and "Ohina-sama," a princess. (Thanks to Ask Jeeves! for this explanation)
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Mike and I celebrated Hinamatsuri at Nohohana, for our March cooking exchange. The main room was decorated with an elaborate display of dolls, kinda like the ones pictured above. Those dolls above were given to us by the owners of Nonohana.
For the Japanese part of the meal, we actually made sushi dolls to eat!! "Ohinasama zushi" They were too cute to eat, but you can't let food go to waste...
Stay tuned for an udate with pictures of the hina sushi!

-Colleen

New Addiction

GOOGLE EARTH:




Those are some shots of our town; although being out in the middle of nowhere, there aren't high resolution shots here so they're far from the best. But in urban areas where there are detailed images...oh man. I keep looking up friends houses & checking out what places like Venice & Istanbul look like from above. Addictive.

And speaking of High-Res.... Here is our old house in Columbus:


And there's Osaka Castle:


It's seriously hard to stop once you start. Dork obsession. Beware.

This Is What English Tutoring Looks Like

Well, maybe not every week, but this week our lesson was 'singing English songs at karaoke' - their idea, not mine. Mostly we stuck to simple songs - the Beatles, Elvis, Carpenters - but Tamako did an amazing version of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" - a pretty fast song - and Yuka took stabs at a couple songs no one knew anything but the chorus to: "Endless Love" and "All by Myself". Good times. Personally, I tackled Bob Marley, Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock", "You Ain't Nothing But A Hounddog", and (to show something a little more indicative of my own tastes) The Smiths. Colleen did "Killing Me Softly", "Yellow Submarine" and Blondie's "Tide Is High". Teaching is fun.

-Mike

FOUND

I don't know if many of you are familiar with FOUND magazine - it's name is pretty self-explanitory - but it was a real favorite of mine a few years ago. I've really slacked on keeping up since moving here, but they posted a "find" I sent them a few years ago recently & I found out this morning when my friend Larry sent me an email asking if I was indeed responsible for it. Check it out here:

Mike's Find

Brings back the memories. Sometimes I miss the newspaper business... or at least the hijinks that went on behind the scenes.