It's Time

Having not posted in months, since our trip to Japan actually, I think it's time.

Time for what? I'd originally thought it was time to let this ol' blog go and join the millions of other dead blogs out in cyberspace. I've found it difficult to find any continuity between the time I started this blog to write about my experiences heading to Japan and living there and now, as a father and a husband, making a life for my family in Canada.

So, I'll be looking at revamping SushiandMapleSyrup, same name, different look, less Japan. The archives will of course always be accessible as I do still get the odd email from someone thinking of heading out Japan-way to teach and I'm always glad to answer any questions that come my way.

The bottom line? Check in again in the next little while, with any luck, I'll be back up and posting on a somewhat regular basis.

I leave you with a recent pic of our little man, taken just last week.

Friends

I've come to the realization that I no longer have former co-workers and former students in Japan, all I am left with are friends. Yesterday was a day set aside to get together with some of the people who made my time in Japan memorable, and helped me survive out here in a distant land. Whether it was lending an ear when I needed to whine about something, or packing up the car for a day trip out somewhere, us traveling teachers would be lost without this support structure.

Our first stop of the day was to have lunch with Ray and his family in Utsunomiya. It was a great afternoon and Keita enjoyed meeting everyone... though he is getting to be a bit hard to pin down for photos!


Here is Rina, Ray's youngest daughter, trying to hold on to a slippery Keita. It was quite funny how she quickly turned from being affraid of holding the little guy to not letting him go...


After a couple of hours of being tossed around, Keita started to get whiny so we put him down for a bit of a nap. I'm amazed at how he can sleep anywhere... almost nothing will wake him up once he's snoozing.


After eating for 4 hours at Ray's place, it was time to move on to dinner... ugh! We were meeting up with some folks at a nice place on O-dori called Kurofune Teppan. Here's the group before the festivities got underway.


Unfortunately, it was getting close to Keita's bed time, so he and Yoshiko had to make an early exit, leaving me to my devices with this bunch of hooligans. I must admit, I do not enjoy being limited to a 10:45 last train out of the city once I get together with these friends.

Here I am with Yasuko and Kyoko, whom I specifically remember from my welcome party, in fact, I seem to recall a very similar photo taken at the time, over three years ago now!


To the right of Kotaro, is the new foreign teaching crew in Utsunomiya. Dayne who replaced Matt, and Anthony who replaced me.


Apparently, my camera was circulating around the table for a while, the best way to get candid pics, ne?


As Kurofune was shutting down and kicking us out a little before ten, and my train wasn't until 10:45, I suggested we stop by another bar to kill a bit more time. Here's Isao, Stacy and myself... you'll notice the empty beer mug... I ran away moments after this pic was taken to make my train...

A fantastic day in Utsunomiya. While I'd have liked to meet a bunch of other people, it gets pretty difficult to do so, especially when one's trip is segmented into travel time and family time. I'll try to do better next time! And there will of course be a next time. Yoshiko and Keita are my permanent link to Japan, and I am quite lucky to have that.

Now it's all over exept the packing. We leave tomorrow afternoon for the long drive out to Narita and our 7PM flight, and then it's bye bye Japan. I will of course miss it, though my back will not miss the whole "floor living" thing... cheers!

Nara

Well, I'm back in Imaichi, after 6 days of traveling, it's nice to be staying put for a bit! The trip all in all was great, though I did find it quite tiring, especially the last couple of days.

After I blogged on Thursday, I joined an Australian couple I met at Yougendou and we headed to an Izakaya across the street for some drinks and grub. It was really nice to be able to have a normal conversation after days of limiting myself to my meager Japanese and small talk with random people who would approach me. A couple of hours later, we wound up back at Yougendou, who has a small dinner bar on top of being an AMAZING guesthouse, and closed that place out. Yougendou (www.yougendou.com) was one of the highlights of my trip. Really nice place, great breakfast, fantastic staff and the owner was great to talk to as well, being an 11 year veteran of Japan. I highly recommend it to anyone spending time in the Nara\Osaka vicinity.

Friday morning, I reluctantly checked out of Yougendou, said my goodbyes and headed to Nara station to lock up my bags (locker fees now up to 1200 Yen for the trip, not all that bad) and begin the trek around Nara Koen.

The sights in Nara are mostly concentrated in Nara Park, which is kind of a double edged sword... on the one hand, it makes for great walking, on the other after a week of walking, I'd had enough! I should have rented a bike like I'd intially planned... dumbass... anywho. I'm going to have to cut this short and do kind of a photo dump here, we have a busy day ahead of us with a trip into Utsunomiya for lunch with Ray and his family, and dinner with some other students\staff from AEON. Cheers!



The Daibbutsu-den at Todai-ji, largest wooden structure in the world.


450+ TONS of bronze went into this massive statue.




Deer roaming Nara Koen








Little mob of elementary students who significantly slowed down my walk back to the station!

Torii! Torii! Torii!

2 things, first an apology for the pun on the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! and next, please disregard my message yesterday about no longer taking photos of Torrii Gates to shrines... not like I had much choice with my destination this morning!

After checking out of my hotel and locking up my luggage at Kyoto station (JR may be giving me a discount, but the buggers got 800 yen out of me today for lockers!) I headed on down the line to Inari and the famed Fushimi Inari Taisha.


Fushimi Inari Taisha is best known for its thousands upon thousands of Torii gates, winding their way through the mountain side.


The shrine was originally established as a shrine to rice and sake I believe, but has now switched to an all encompassing business shrine, with each of these torrii being paid for by companies\individuals wishing for good fortune in business ventures. Of course, if you don't pay up, here's what happens... lol


Each gate is inscribed with the donor's name\company name and also perhaps a message or wish? I see some more elaborate carvings than others...


Now, while the path up the moutain was nice and shaded by both trees and the gates, it was still a climb up a mountain. As I sat near the peak taking a break and wondering how much further I'd be climbing up, I was immediately humbled by these gentlemen going up the hill with a log on their shoulders. Oh yeah! I guess these gates have to come up here somehow? This being Japan, I'd assumed there was some magical stair climbing machine that did all the work... apparently not.


I'd brought my mini tripod along with me today, foreseeing the need for low-lights shots in the forest... and I manged to snap a shot of myself! The first on this solo trip of mine... but not the last...


The interesting thing about walking through these gates is that they're only inscribe on the way back down hill, so on the way up, all you see is orange... but on the way down, you see all the characters.








They even had a bit of a waterfall, where I unfortunately was unable to get a good vantage point for a shot...


Now this shrine up here in the hill above Kyoto is dedicated to the fox, Inari in Japanese, which is apparently the key keeper for the rice store house... interesting. This means that every once in a while, you'll run into a statue of a fox staring out at you.


It was certainlt an interesting place to walk around for the morning. After a quick train ride back to Kyoto to pick up my bag and a run down to Nara for lunch, I then decided on the spur of the moment to visit Horyiuji, which is just one stop from my hotel. This temple is home to the world's oldest building, the last recontruction of which date back 1300 years! This is the inner gate to the temple.


And one of the guardians within the gate, again... over a thousand years old!




According to my volunteer guide, who grabbed me on the way in, 4 of these posts were made using a single tree, which is a problem because there aren't such behemoths out here any more if soemthing were to need replacing. The construction method used was dovetailing, which means no nails! Everything just kind of fits into place.


Here I am with my guide for the tour around the temple. This gentleman has traveled and lived abroad quite a bit, and did a great job of telling me the back story of these buildings and their cultural significance to Japan as one of the first established buddhist temples.


One of the things I learned from my good friend is that dragons here are water guardians, and thus are used to protect buildings from fire... whoda thunk?




And finally for this evening, my view at the moment at Yougendou, an AMAZING guesthouse a couple of stops down from Nara.


And that's that! I've been invited out to dinner by an Aussie couple staying here tonight and I'll join them before grabbing a beer at the bar also run on the Yougendou grounds and turning in for the night. I've scheduled an 8AM breakfast tomorrow morning... so gotta get up early! Gnight!