No News is Good News

We're alive. We've just been a little too hyperactive in real life to find blog time. I've been to Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka in the past two weeks, had American guests (our first) over for a few nights last week, and assembled ~300 CDs by hand in between all that. Sorry for keeping you out of the loop.

A few awesome revelations the past few weeks:

- Our friend Satomi is really into zombie movies. Never would have guessed.

- There's a small road that cuts up to ten minutes off our drive to Himeji. Only took us 15 months to figure that out.

- The Highway bus to Osaka is both faster and cheaper than driving to Himeji and catching a train from there. AGAIN a little slow on the uptake there.

- One-day trips to Kyoto are worthless. Too much sprawl, city busses are too slow. Half or more of the day is spent in transit.

- AND THE BEST: Almost all Pachinko parlors are owned by North Korean corporations that funnel the money back to the NK government. Japanese gambling built the bomb!

Yamasaki International Festival this weekend. Luckily no cover band this year. And we're making what is quite possibly the best food in the history of all mankind: Macaroni & Cheese. Oishiyo!

-Mike

bumper to bumper

This morning I was really late getting ready for work. It's usually cause I take my time making coffee & packing a lunch. Today I slept in. This monday morning followed a weekend of fesivals, BBQ's, and neighborhood parties. The party continued into Monday! I slept through the alarm, but then woke up at 7:30 am to the pounding of a "wadaiko" drum and chanting as a group of neighborhood guys carried a portable shrine down the street. In our town, every year the famous Iwa jinja (shrine) has a festival on October 16th- so, it's a Monday this year.
I left the apartment with about 10 minutes to get to work. Which is plenty of time, cause I was driving instead of biking. thought I was in the clear until I turned onto the main drag and joined a looooong line of traffic backed up too far for me to do any "rubber-necking". I just patiently turned up my music, askin' myself when I'll learn to leave on time and watching my students fly by on their bikes ;) (Damn! why didn't I ride today?)

A few minutes later (and after 10 or so students fly past on their bikes), I could see what the hold up was. The local firemen and police were making sure that the ancient, tassled, golden-ornamented portable shrine could safely make it up the main road!! It would've been awesome if I had my camera in the car, but instead have a look at the pictures takes the day before, when they were just practicing for today's festival...





Needless to say, I couldn't be the least bit annoyed when I saw the cause of the traffic jam. I was laughing and smiling to myself at how cool the situation was; trying to think if there might be some equivelent to this back home in the States. What do you think?

-Colleen

Wildflowers

It is only the slightest of exaggerations to say that these pink flowers are everywhere out here in the inaka. It really is hard to look anywhere without seeing them. Pretty crazy to drive into the city and see them selling for about five dollars there. Maybe I should get in on this racket.

-Mike

beir, biru, brauerei, BEER!

After spending the afternoon in the crowds, seeing marching cheerleaders, floats, peeps dancing with tubas... we found our way to the International beer tasting festival :) It was our chance to hang out amoung hundreds (thousands?) of people & beer from all over the world. The event was set up under one of Osaka's famous sky scrapers; the Umeda Sky building; you know, one of those tall buildings that people pay money to go up and look at the city lights. After having a couple brews and veggie samosas, we fell victim to this tradition ourselves. But, I have to say, it was an *awesome* date. The view was gorgeous, the festival had a great vibe, and we were able to sample a spectrum of beer. First was the Belgium Hoegaarten, then a flat Guinness. Then Mike found a bottle of beer brewed right here in Japan: "Hemp High"! Since 2001. Complete with a big green leaf on the label. Very classy. I had to find something to make up for the disappointing Guinness, so we both tried some German brauerei, Diebels & Weihenstephaner. Anyone out there tried these? Part of me wonders if we weren't just drinking the German version of Bud Light. But, no Bud Light in sight though

Some pretty pictures of the best date spot of 2006...







Plus- live, international entertainment. We missed the bagpipers, but came down from the Sky building just in time to see some Flamenco dancers. Which brought us to the end of a perfect day. Too bad we had a 3 hour commute ahead of us. What were we thinking? we should've checked into a "love hotel" ;)

-Colleen

Parade!

Sunday we headed down to Osaka to take in the somewhat famous Midosuji Parade which runs through the heart of the city. We figured we haven't witnessed a Japanese parade yet and probably should. For the most part it was what you would expect - marching bands, batons, floats - but there was a much more international flare than I'm used to. Contributions came from neighboring Asian countries but also from as far as Egypt and Bolivia. The American inclusions were (of course) exceptionally lame. The highlight was when around 4pm the parade stopped and formed "stage" areas where the various participants did their things for select crowds. The best was the 6-on-2 kids-versus-professional-soccer-players game.

Back in Japan (not in black)

Been home about 13 hours now, 8 of which were spent sleeping. Some flight drama (more on that later), but I survived and am glad to be back. The States were nice. NYC was more welcoming than I remember. Good to see everyone, especially musician friends. Reimmersion is coming on quick as the 61st National Sports Festival (aka The Habatan Festival) is going on right up the mountainside this weekend. Colleen is up there "working" right now. More as my brain solidifies.

Mike