Sara - Rice Planting

On May 31st, Patrick and I went to plant rice. In Japanese it's called Taue (Tah-oo-eh)田植え. We were invited by our friend, Mr. Kamura, who is the owner of a restaurant we frequent.

Patrick had done it last year and I was unable to attend because I had fractured a bone in my foot. I was very happy to go with them this year.

The rice field was for making sake and it was being maintained by a group Mr. Kamura's friends. It was a very friendly atmosphere. I've never planted rice before but it was really fun. I took off my boots and went into the mud barefoot. The mud was warm and felt pretty good under my feet. I was almost knee deep in it.

But before we went into the mud, there was a tractor that planted rows of rice. We were to plant to remaining rice plants between the rows. Planting rice was pretty easy. You don't plant seeds, but the actual plant. This is because the fields are flooded with a lot of water and a seed would just wash away. Instead, the rice are grown elsewhere until there are several inches tall. Then you take the plant and gently place it in the mud. You have to give it a slight twist when you plant it to make sure that it stays in the mud and not just be sitting on top of it.

After we planted the rice, we went and had a great lunch that included great sake. Here are some pictures that I took of the rice planting.

This is the field before it was planted.


This is the rice tractor.


These are the rice plants in bunches.



This is the field after we planted the rice.



This is a close up of the rice.

Sara-Akita trip

This past weekend, Patrick and I went up to Akita as part of my birthday celebration.
Patrick took me to the aquarium there. I really love aquariums, and this one was really fun. So I put together a little video.


After the aquarium we stayed at a very nice onsen (public bath house, one for men, one for women). An onsen is also a hotel.


We had a very spacious room with a good view of the ocean. The room was actually bigger than our apartments!


We had a great dinner of fresh sea food that they brought to our rooms.



The food was incredibly good. And the bath was very relaxing after you get over the shyness.
After dinner and our bathing, we met up again to go to a taiko drumming performance that was at a small community theatre down the street. I can't particularly remember the troupe's name, but they dressed up as Namahage (A type of demon/god of Akita). People usually dress up as these beings for various festivals in Akita. This troupe performed as Namahage as a way of preserving tradition and teaching their culture in Akita. Namahage are beings who would punish/take away bad children so when they performed, the Namahage would wander the audience yelling "Arrgh! Are there any bad children here today?? Are there lazy, or rude children?" Parents were told to hold tightly to their child to protect them from these gods. It was a really great show. The drumming was amazing and it was free. It is a must see for anyone going to Akita.
This is a brief video I put together of the performance. The last piece they performed, I believe they composed themselves. For anyone who is familiar with taiko drumming, you may notice the more modern sound.



The next day we had another wonderful meal. Breakfast was served in their dinning room. It was a traditional tatami mat room. We were the only ones there but it was nice to have a quiet and relaxing morning. After breakfast, we checked out and wandered around the small town and then took the train to Akita city, in Akita. We went to a small art museum and wandered through a nice park. We ate dinner at the train station and then took the shinkansen back to Morioka. Though it was a brief trip, it was a lot of fun.

Sara-Fourth of July and Wanko soba

So this past weekend Risa and Jura came to visit us. On their first night, Friday, Catherine, Patrick and I took them to eat wanko soba. Wanko soba is basically a soba eating contest. My record best is 100 bowls, but that night I could only eat 90.

All together, we probably ate around 400 bowls.
Then on Saturday, Catherine organized a Fourth of July picnic dinner for us and our other ALT friends in the neighborhood.

We had a lot to eat and we had a lot of fun. After the picnic, we then went down to the river and lit up some sparklers.

Catherine is holding a 'senko' sparkler. You have to keep it very still and it is very pretty. As Martin said, it looks like a sparkling holly.
Then to finish off a fun night, we all went to a local Karaoke and sang for three hours or so.

Sara-Chagu Chagu Umakko

Yesterday Patrick and I went to the Chagu-chagu Umakko festival. The festival celebrates the horses of Iwate/Morioka. 100 horses came and walked down the main street to a temple. The horses were elaborately decorated and children were riding them. Before the horses there were a few bands and other parade festivities, including a super hero. The horses rested at a river and there you could see them up close. However it was raining and there were thousands of people so Patrick and I left before seeing them close. The horses were really beautiful and it's definitely a must see for horse lovers.

Patrick, Sara- Trip to Sendai for Japanese Test

Last weekend Sara and I went to Sendai for me to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I may or may not have passed. The beginning (vocabulary) was great; the middle (listening) was ok; but the end (reading comprehension) was killer.

We didn't have a guide, but near as we can tell, Sendai is a city full of (expensive) shopping and bars. Still, we have a few interesting pictures.

A Comfort Inn in Japan (significantly more expensive than US counterpart):

Behold, the clean toilet:

Great place to buy clothes?

To get to this statue we walked a vertical mile:

The night view:

Sara about to get reaaalllll happy:

The horde of taxis outside the train station:

Patrick- Lake Takamatsu

Inside Morioka, this is my favorite place, at least as far as fall is concerned. Iwate Park is a close second.

But as you can see, the ducks are a little too domesticated:

Patrick- First snow of the new season

Last night it was melting on contact, but when I woke up this morning (the view from my backyard, as it were):

What Morioka Castle Once Looked Like

Since Morioka still advertises it as a castle town, though the castle was destroyed, I was always curious what it looked like. Well, thankfully, I found these posters at my school during the cultural festival which give one some idea:

Patrick- Cultural Festival

This past weekend we had the cultural festival, where the students spend two days having an open house with many performances. They decorate the classrooms, rearranging everything:




In the classrooms, they displayed projects they had created in most of their classes.

For example, all of the students in the school painted different pictures of the Prefectural Park which is about a five minutes' walk from the school:







And here's one of the school itself:


Some of the students also made anti-drunk driving and anti-bullying posters:


Third year students had to paint self-portraits. Some of them gave themselves blue eyes:






Third year students also made enormous banners for their classes:




Second year students had to sew cargo pants together. When I took home ec, we only had to make a bag:



Students also showed off their calligraphy skills:



Second grade students wrote their dream in English. Third years wrote a poem. These are some of my favorites:











I'll add more about the performances and such when I am able to get some of the video and audio recordings up here.