Tourist town

Today we headed to Yufuin, a touristy mountain town. Although it is set in beautiful surroundings it has become a bit of a trap for tourists - lots and lots of shops selling things to take home for others.
However despite that we managed to feed the local entertainment - the carp and also managed to find a man who my father made friends with while we were there in May. He is a man who draws portraits of people and when my father wandered past last year he was called into the man's little tent to have his portrait painted for free - the man telling him that he was so sick of painting Japanese faces.... So today I took the photo my father took of the man and also a photo of the painting he drew to say thank you which resulted in Beth getting her portrait painted for free too! Not a 100% true likeness, but not too bad either. I think like many of the places you visit here in Japan it is the people that really make or break the place and he seems to be one of the many nice ones. He is interested in going to New Zealand so I said that he was welcome to stay with any of my family.... yoroshiku!

Space World

Beth has spent the last 2 months or so travelling around South-East Asia so is not so interested in going to lots and lots more temples and shrines and doing a whole lot of sightseeing. So it being Sunday we took off on the train to "Space World", a theme park about an hour or so north of here by train. No temples or shrines in sight, but plenty of new fashion items, smiling characters (gotta love Lucky Rabbit and Vicky Rabbit!) and of course roller coasters! Even the kids enjoyed some this time - doing the splash mountain kind of one twice and laughing their heads off on some of the other ones. Beth managed to go on some of the "scarier" ones by herself, but did finally say no to the one that had a rather long vertical drop with a triple twist!

It was great to have a day of fun with the kids (I'm not really sure who were the biggest kids!) and nice to be able to take the efficient, clean train rather than the dirty, slow car!

Anyone interested in finding out more about the park please look at the following link: Space World

The only real disappointment of the day was the "parade" which featured 3 (yes that's right only 3) floats!

Harvesting season again

I am very fortunate in that I have many family members come to visit me. But as more people come from the same family the pressure to do things that no one else has done increases. When my father was here there were great shouts of joy if we discovered that we were going somewhere that my youngest sister had never been. Now my middle sister is here there is also a little pressure to find some new things - the first of which is rice harvesting. Of course it is not new for me, but I think it is the first for the "Fergies". Today my father-in-law started the first of 3 or 4 (or more depending on the weather) days of harvesting. Of course it is not as difficult a task as it was in the past, but those finished bags of rice are still pretty heavy to heave onto the truck. My son discovered they make a pretty good pillow too... perhaps they could be the next form of "wheat bag"!
Beth and I had a really lazy day - catching up on sleep, e-mails and of course a trip to the 100 yen shop!
For anyone who didn't catch last year's blog about rice harvesting and who is interested in the process please look at this link: rice harvesting

Animal visitors

Yesterday I was driving to a school to teach some English when I saw what I thought was a big dog on the footpath... however after a closer inspection I discovered that it wasn't in fact a dog, but a big monkey just hanging about. It didn't seem too worried by the car and my camera (for once I actually had it with me!), although it did move back a few metres to the safety of a tree. As I have mentioned in previous posts there is a big mountain here in which many monkeys live. It looks like one of the male monkeys was kicked out of his group and has come wandering into this area. Here's hoping he stays away from our house - not too many worries there considering how noisy my children are!

The other animals which are roaming about at the moment are wild boars - they come out to rummage in the chestnuts and unless fences are put up they also love to roll in the muddy rice fields. One farmer near here has an interesting way of putting them off - he puts a tiger in his field! I'm not sure whether it was the fence or the tiger, but his field hasn't been invaded by boars. Maybe it could be a big seller for next year!

Last night my sister, Beth, also arrived which means my children go a little crazier than usual for a while. We thought we would surprise her and go to the station to get her off the EXPRESS train (she was going to call when she arrived, but we thought we would guess which train she was on and surprise her) so went to the 4:08 train, the 5:08 train and finally arrived for the 6:08 train a few minutes early only to discover her there already. She had managed to make it to us via the LOCAL train.... a longer journey than necessary, but at least she got to stop at ALL the stations between here and Kokura! A hint for the unknowing... if the train is at the station for more than one minute before it leaves then chances are it is a local train and not an express train! Either way they both make it to us....

Birthday season

Today is not my daughter's official birthday (that was on Thursday - cake number one....), but today is her 7th birthday party. To her "birthday" means "cake" and this year I decided to give up on a shaped cake and just go for a plain square one - with a few decorations on top. Due to this wise choice the cake is now finished and there are still 4 hours until the "party". Guess what shape I will be making again next year! Today's cake has one photo of my daughter from every year of her life - amazing how fast it has all gone! Anyone in the area is welcome to pop in this afternoon - anytime after 2pm!

Farewells and Welcomes

Trev and Gill took off from here on Tuesday on the Sonic express train for their big adventure to Hiroshima and Kyoto. I'm assuming they made it okay and are now back on their way to New Zealand via Hong Kong. It really was great to have them here - here's hoping they come back again soon!
On Wednesday night we had some other visitors - part of the biking tour group. This time there were two Americans and one Australian along with the American guide. It is always nice to hear about their travels in Japan, although one story about witnessing an old man urinating on a school girl on an escalator in Tokyo wasn't exactly the wonderful image of Japan I always hope people go away with! It was good to hear that the Australian spirit came out though and that the old man was treated to a few whacks around the head with an umbrella and an abuse session - even if it was in English! It is the first real story of that sort of thing that I have heard first-hand, although I know it is not so uncommon.....

Rakanji Temple

After our big day yesterday we took it a little easy today and headed up the ski lift to the 500 plus stone statues in the caves. (Those who are reading this for the first time please check out this link to read a little more about them). I always enjoy heading up to this temple, but one thing that really struck me today was the smaller cave which contains many carved stone figures dedicated to babies who died before they were born and children who died when they were very small. Here the parents or relatives can write their thoughts and prayers on a wooden spoon and place it like an offering to the gods.
When my father was here he was also impressed by the way the Japanese are able to express their grief over mis-carried and still-born babies. Often in New Zealand there is no way to do this, but after reading messages from the parents today I was moved by the fact that they were able to use this place as a means of dealing with their grief. There were some messages expresssing hope that the dead baby would be finding happiness in heaven and others which relayed their regret for not being able to care for the baby well enough. Obviously this cannot bring back the babies, but it does seem to help the parents deal with the death and recognise the death in a way that is not always possible in the western world.
That outing was followed by a trip to revolving sushi (can't come to Japan and miss out on that!) and then a meal out with my husband's parents.
Tomorrow Trev and Gill head off on their big adventure to Hiroshima and Kyoto (don't worry Hannah - they are coping with everything amazingly). Their stay has been far too short and we will all be sad to see them go. Thanks Trev and Gill for a great week - we are looking forward to seeing you in NZ soon and of course back in Japan in the near future too!

Sports Day

Today was my daughter's first experience of a sports day at primary school here in Japan. Trev and Gill were great sports and came along for the whole day to catch a glimpse of another side of Japan....

Most sports days here are very similar and consist of normal running events and many other "not so normal" events. For example children riding on top of human "horses" and trying to take off the hat of their opponents, throwing many small balls into high baskets, catching balls in baskets on your back etc. etc. There were also traditional dance performances and a Tai-chi demonstration. Of course on top of that there is also the main event - lunch to deal with as well. Although many families now order their lunches from shops, we stuck with tradition and I got up early (5:30am...) and my mother-in-law also got up early and our combined efforts meant we had plenty for both lunch and left-overs for tea!

Almost all Japanese sports days work on a "team spirit" concept rather than an individual performance one and today's sports day was no exception. The students are split into white and red teams and they can earn points in each event for their team. There are no records of individual performances and everyone cheers for the team rather than the individual. At the end of the day the points are tallied and the winning team is presented with a big flag.

Because our school is reasonably small (47 students in total) the entire community is involved. There are many events for community members - some combined with the children and others just for the adults. Trev participated in 3 different events in total - including one where my daughter needed a 50 plus partner.

All in all a long day, but a reasonable introduction to another side of Japan. We are taking bookings for next year's experience now.....

By the way, I have made the photos quite small, but if you click on them you should be able to see them in a larger form.

Kitsuki

Yesterday we had a day out in the old Samurai town, Kitsuki. As always our friend, Mr. Nishi, did a great job of showing us around the Samurai house and after Trev managed to pick the lock on the storehouse we headed off to the wonderful 300 year teahouse for a break. As usual the owner charmed us with her knowledge and passion for tea - a dying art here in Japan. She commented that in the past all women were expected to take lessons in both flower arranging and tea ceremony before they were fit to be married, however now very people know how to pour a proper cup of tea. Gill was praised for her wonderful wrist action though and so I'm sure she would now be welcomed into any Japanese family.

For lunch we headed to the convenience store (or dairy for any of you uneducated kiwis) for a few more rice balls and then went to a place that most people wouldn't expect to see in high-tech Japan. My friend, Uncle Tom, has built himself a house in the middle of the bush. He doesn't have any official building qualifications (or skills?), but he has built a great tree house where he lives when he is not being a travel agent. I always take people in the front door without showing them the foundations and poles on which it is built.... that way at least most people aren't too scared to go in! The balcony was a great place to eat lunch and we all decided that the swaying movement of the building may in fact prevent it collapsing in an earthquake. Mind you... I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be the one testing out that theory! Thanks Uncle Tom for a relaxing place to eat lunch.

Today is a lazy day in preparation for the big sports day at school tomorrow....

Safe arrival and .....

Apologies to anyone who has been checking in regularly hoping to catch a glimpse of my uncle and aunty... they arrived safetly on Tuesday night and have been enjoying the peacefulness of the countryside after a couple of days in the frantic city of Taipei.

It was their first full day here yesterday and although we had a pleasant day wandering around here, up to the big stone buddhas (I was assured that this was their best angle as I tried to take their photo....) and to a supermarket the day took a bit of a terrible turn at dinner time.... the weather is still really warm here and therefore eating outside is still the preferred thing. Last night it was tempura - lots of vegetables deep fried in very hot oil - very nice usually! However this turned to disaster last night when my children managed to tip the very hot oil over themselves..... no one actually saw the incident (I have no idea how it happened) despite the fact we were all sitting around the table next to the oil. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and of course there are many things that I can say now that we should have done differently to prevent this terrible thing happening, but on the positive side I can also say the following. Japanese bathrooms are well designed for dealing with burns. As soon as the accident happened I rushed both children into the bathroom and just ran the hand-held shower all over them - the bathrooms are designed so that water can be thrown all over the bathroom - they are completely tiled and therefore there is no worries about where you aim the water. They also have the shower beside the bath so one child can get into the bath and run water on their foot (my daughter) and the other can keep screaming while their mother (me) runs water all over their head and arm (my son). Because the accident happened in the dark outside and because after the water was run on the children it was hard to tell exactly how much damage had been done we all had images of my son being admitted to hospital and not being able to move for weeks etc. However, luck really was on our side in many ways apart from the design of the bathroom.
For starters the burn to his head was all above the hairline, rather than on his face and it wasn't as large as we had originally feared. Secondly although his arm was burnt on quite a large area there was no immediate blistering (due to the good bathroom!). Thirdly just down the road from us is a hospital which is a leader in burns treatment - they have developed a special cream which when applied to burns not only reduces scaring, but also removes all pain. My children haven't been in pain since they came home from the hospital (10 minutes after they arrived!). My daughter only has a very small burn on her foot. I still shudder every time I think about what could have actually happened and have the feeling I won't ever be making tempura again and my children now understand that the warnings I give them are not just for fun!

Back to Trev and Gill's visit.... after that lovely episode last night Gill and I took it easy today and just went for a wander around Usa shrine before an exciting lunch of rice balls. As Gill said "10 years ago I would never have imagined that I would be sitting eating balls of cold rice wrapped in seaweed". But she was and like most people who try them seemed to enjoy them.
Trev had a bit of a harder day as he climbed up the mountain with my husband in record time. Judging by the snores from both of them during their afternooon nap it was definately not as relaxing as our nice stroll in the shrine gardens!

Benefits of having 2 kitchens

My major plan for today was to clean our house and clean the cottage in preparation for my aunty and uncle's arrival tomorrow night. However.... we went on a honey hunt instead and ended up spending the entire day (and half the night) extracting honey. The little community center just near our house has bees pouring out of the basement vents all the time so we decided to remove them - and the honey! It turned out there were two big hives and although we removed them all I'm sure they will make another hive in there soon. We managed to buy a couple of reasonable sized compost buckets that have the tap on the bottom so after cutting all the comb up it was first put into a big seive at the top and then filtered through a pair of stockings and into the jars. The stocking filter seems to take a long time, but it definately makes a big difference - removing all the unwanted pollen and little bugs that have made it through the first sieve.
If my calculations are correct I bottled up almost 10kg of honey today and there is still a lot more that will filter down over the next couple of days. Not too bad for a first attempt!
Hopefully tomorrow I will finally get onto the cleaning.... after bottling a little more honey of course!

First honey harvest

Okay - so I'm sure you have all had enough of reading about my weed war... sorry I haven't been updating lately - life seems to have been full of things other than Japanese agriculture!
Finally today the weather and the weekend worked well together and we were able to take part in some honey harvesting. Unfortunately (like so many things lately) the hives were not our own hives, but a friend's who started a year earlier than us. We need to wait until this time next year to harvest the first of our honey.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience - and we did get to take home some delicious honey!
One major difference between European (?) bees and Japanese honey bees is the way they build their honey comb. With the Japanese bees no frames are used within the hive and therefore the honey comb is literally cut out. Depending on how full the hive is - between one and three boxes can be removed at a time and new, empty boxes added to the bottom of the hive to replace them. A big bread knife is used to slice through the comb so the top box(es) can be removed.
Because the comb is not in frames it is not possible to spin it in an extractor to remove the honey. Instead the comb is cut up into reasonably small pieces and then left in a sieve to drip through. A little more time consuming, but the result is delicious!
Tomorrow we are off across the road to the community center to remove the (hopefully) big nests that some bees have spent the last few years building under the floor. People think we are doing a great community service..... our stomachs tell us otherwise! I'm hoping the space under the floor is reasonably big, otherwise it will be me going under to try and cut it out rather than my husband (who is 190cm tall and therefore has a little trouble getting into small spaces!).
My uncle and aunty arrive on Tuesday night so hopefully we will be doing a few more interesting things to write about.

Weeds

With the children finally back at school and kindy I have managed to get some more time in the garden - something that was definately long overdue! I forgot to take a before and after shot of the garden, but I did remember to take a picture of the pile of weeds that came out of the garden.... it's a little hard to see in the picture, but believe me it is an incredibly big pile of weeds!
Fortunately in Japan they have these wonderful little trucks to cart all the rubbish away, and fortunately my father-in-law has two (I'm not really sure why....) so I got to cruise around in it today - carting away weeds, collecting mulched leaves etc. Sometimes father-in-laws really are useful!
Unfortunately in order to dump the weeds I have to negotiate this rather wonderful piece of architecture, also known as a bridge... Apparently this kind of bridge is designed so that when the typhoons come and the rivers come up really high it can just become part of the river - hence no side rails etc. It is about the width of a car and usually I just close my eyes and hope as I drive over it! Possibly not the most sensible thing to do, but it has worked so far...

Pizza oven

In the last post I mentioned that we had helped to make a pizza oven... unfortunately not at our house! Today we tested it out for the first time and although there are still a few problems with getting it up to the proper heat we managed to make some pretty good pizzas, foccaccia and vegetable skewers on rosemary stalks. I was in charge of the menu, although I must admit the breadmaker did most of the hard work for me!
Now all we need to do is keep looking at all the problems that there are with this one so we can make a perfect one at our house.....
Of course the cost is also pretty big, so I'm thinking about getting people to sponsor bricks! You can have your own personal brick in our pizza oven and unlimited use of the oven (well within reason) for a small fee. Any takers please contact me!

End of the holidays

Sorry about the lack of posts lately.... with the school holidays finally finishing tomorrow we have been spending the last week or so trying to do as many things as possible. Things completed over the last couple of weeks include (in no particular order!):

• 2 nights camping on a friend's property near the beach with another family. It was our first real camping trip and a really good break away - made even more perfect by a fantastic view of the eclipse in a cloudless sky from a deck chair! We spent most of the days at the beach fishing and swimming and avoiding the large numbers of jellyfish (apparently harmless, but still not particularly nice!).
• Hosting 4 people who were taking part in a pizza oven making event. On Tuesday we get to test the oven out... just a pity it isn't on our property! If all goes well we may try to convince a few people to come and help us build one too... after the chicken house, the deck etc. etc......
• Having more guests - this time from Oita City. A brother and sister and their girlfriend and boyfriend. A trip organized by the mother who thought it would be a great way for them to get to know each other better. As it turned out a great time was had by all - especially my kids who loved having big brothers and sisters to play with.
• Yesterday we topped the holidays off with a trip to Fukuoka to go to the movies and of course go shopping. A slight bit of mis-communication led to one member of our family staying home, but apart from that a nice way to finish the holidays.
  

From tomorrow it is back to life as "normal" ... the weeds await!
By the way - I've just done a quick count (I'm not totally sure why....) and from my calculations about 77 different people have now stayed in Kiora Cottage. Maybe I should make a special prize for the 100th visitor.....