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      • After-Dinner Entertainment
        06/30/08
        After dinner on Saturday night, Matthew and one of our companions played a friendly game of shogi, a Japanese variant of chess. The rest of us drank and cheered them on.



        Matthew emerged victorious after a long endgame. Next time, we'll play an all-American game: Monopo

      • Teeny-Tiny Railroad Crossing
        06/28/08
        Rice field roads need grade crossings, too just not very big ones.

      • Music on the Wind
        06/27/08
        Iwate Prefecture is famous in Japan for its ironwork, Nanbu-tekki. Although kettles and pots are the most traditional products, ironworkers now make a wide variety of goods, including windchimes



        Nanbu-tekki windchimes currently hang from the platform rafters at JR Mizusawa (w

      • The Long and Short (But Mostly Short) of It
        06/26/08
        I bit the bullet and went sweater shopping yesterday. Stereotypically, trying on clothes is the subject of much wry humor and/or moaning for American women. Especially summer clothing. So imagine the apprehension inherent in a regular shopping foray, and add to that the element of being a wide-sh

      • Ishiwarizakura
        06/24/08
        Ishiwarizakura, or the rock-splitting cherry tree, is located in front of the District Court building in downtown Morioka.



        It is said that the the 300-year-old tree sprouted from a crevasse in the boulder, and split the rock as it grew. It has been designated a national trea

      • Secret Park
        06/23/08
        This pretty little park is tucked into the bottom corner of an office building in Morioka. It's below a wall along the sidewalk, so it's easy to miss.

      • Sweet Cherries
        06/21/08
        The best thing about summer in Japan: Yamagata cherries.



        Yamagata Prefecture is famous for its cherries, which are very sweet and beautiful. They can be very expensive the posh department store sells large boxes of them, carefully stemmed and arranged into rows, for around

      • More Manhole Covers of Iwate
        06/19/08
        Here are some more manhole covers from Iwate.

        First up, Rikuzentakata, a small city on the Pacific coast. I'm not sure what all the designs represent, but the lumpy things around the outside might be sea pineapples (a delicacy of Iwate that most people in Japan wouldn't conside

      • Late Spring Flowers
        06/19/08
        Beautiful wildflowers and pink azaleas alongside the Hitokabe River in Oshu City.

      • Hooked on Comics Works for Me!
        06/18/08
        Some time ago, my language partner loaned me a manga (comic) that she had been reading. It was a very useful one because it was bilingual it had been translated into English, with the original Japanese text on the sides of each frame. I read the English at the time and enjoyed it a lot, but could

      • Comfort Food
        06/17/08
        Or, "Where It All Began."



        This is shouga-yaki, or ginger-glazed pan-fried pork. It was the first dish Matthew made out of his brand-new Japanese cookbook, and later, the first dish he made for me when I arrived in Kitakami. It's probably our favorite dinner, v

      • Aftershocks
        06/15/08
        Forty-eight hours later, we're continuing to feel aftershocks. They've slowed down a lot, but we still get a strongish one every few hours. One of the last reports I saw said that by last night, there had been upward of 400 aftershocks. The JMA warns of a 90 percent chance of a magnitude

      • Sea Sick on Dry Ground
        06/14/08
        By now, you may have heard of the big earthquake that hit northern Japan yesterday morning. At 7.2 on the Richter scale, it ranks as a "major" earthquake. In our part of Kitakami, it reached 5-upper on the shindo scale, intense enough to cause cracks in the walls of earthquake-resistant

      • The Spirit of the Law?
        06/12/08
        Traffic safety is very important in Japan, for bicyclists as well as drivers. All cyclists are required to have headlights on their bikes. It's also illegal for people to carry umbrellas or talk on cell phones while riding a bicycle ordering a pizza while riding your bike down a crowded side

      • Japanese You
        06/09/08
        On my way back to the office last week, I had an unusual cabbie. For one thing, he was chatty, unlike the other Japanese cabbies I've encountered. For another, he looked very much like one of my bosses back in Washington, if my boss had been Japanese rather than of Mediterranean descent. It

      • Extras
        06/08/08
        In Japan, the sakura are not just spectacular to look at they also herald the coming spring. While the cherry blossoms distract everyone, the rest of the plant kingdom quietly push out their buds and flowers.

        These photos are from the end of April.





      • Sea of Japan Sunset
        06/07/08
        The sun setting over the Sea of Japan, as seen from Tsubakiyama, Aomori.


      • Turtle Tree
        06/06/08
        A kame no ki (turtle tree) flowering in early May.

      • Crepuscular Rays
        06/04/08
        I remember crepuscular rays light and dark bands radiating from the sun as a common feature of sunsets in my childhood. Here, they can be seen very frequently, at any time of day.

        This photo was taken in Tono, in mid-afternoon.


      • The Crackersmith At Work
        06/03/08
        At a famous senbei (cracker/cookie) shop in Esashi, crackers are made by hand one at a time. You need a reservation a week in advance to buy the popular varieties from this shop.


      • Grinding Ink
        06/02/08
        A poet grinds ink in preparation for writing his verse at Gokusui no En.

      • Gokusui no En
        06/01/08
        Last weekend, we attended Gokusui no En at Motsuji, a temple in Hiraizumi. Gokusui no En is a festival reenacting a popular entertainment among nobles during the Heian Period. To begin the event, a Buddhist priest places a theme on a small raft that then floats down a stream, followed by cups of s

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