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    • December
      • Nengajou
        12/30/07
        Nengajou are traditional New Year's postcards in Japan. They are sent to arrive on or after New Year's Day. It's even considered rather awkward if they arrive early! Late is okay, but it's really best for them to arrive on January 1.

        For this reason, the post office

      • Wakarimasu! Wakaranai!
        12/26/07
        One of the biggest frustrations of living in a foreign, non-English-speaking country is learning the language. Immersion is a great thing, especially combined with formal lessons on a daily basis, you have to use the language for communication, so you're forced to practice what you've le

      • Merry Christmas!
        12/25/07
        Our first Christmas in Japan is over, save for the sort of "second Christmas" we get by virtue of having family in the U.S. We can call people pretty much any time between the morning of the 25th and the morning of the 26th, and it's Christmas for someone. It's really rather ni

      • The Shortest Day
        12/22/07
        On Toji, the winter solstice, the Japanese greet the end of darkening days with traditions aimed at improving health. Grocery stores are filled with yuzu, a small yellow citrus fruit with a taste and aroma similar to grapefruit. It is traditional to toss a few yuzu into the ofuro, allowing you to

      • Retreat from Complacency
        12/21/07
        We've both been here long enough to have unusual experiences and eat unusual things. On the eating front, they've almost always been things we've chosen to eat nobody really springs freaky stuff on the unsuspecting gaijin. For example, one night at Hige-oyaji's place, he start

      • Space Mail
        12/20/07
        Technology at work on the mailbox outside JR Mizusawa Station:



        It's actually a model of a radio telescope, presumably to recognize Mizusawa's status as host to one of the radio telescopes in the VERA network. I prefer to think that Japan Post Service simply beams ma

      • No Two Alike
        12/19/07
        How big do snowflakes get? I mean a single six-pointed lacy bit of ice, drifting down from the sky. When you see big snowflakes coming down, they're not just a single snowflake: each fluffy white "flake" is really a clump of small snowflakes and snowflake parts.

        My mornin

      • Losing My Mind (Among Other Things)
        12/19/07
        It's been a tough couple of weeks for relatively valuable items here at Let's Sharing HQ. Between last week's lost wallet and yesterday's lost car key, we've spent a goodly amount of time retracing our steps (fortunately, Kitakami isn't that big) and revisiting establi

      • Reaching for the Sky
        12/18/07


        Chusonji is a famous temple in Hiraizumi, about 40 minutes south of Kitakami by car or train. It is most famous for the large main hall and the opulent Konjikido (golden hall) covered in gold leaf and mother-of-pearl inlay.

        Less well known are the dozens of smaller halls and

      • Hiraizumi
        12/17/07


        Hiraizumi is a major historical attraction of Iwate, and the site of Chusonji, the first temple designated as a National Treasure of Japan. The temple is built on a forested hill, where occasional breaks in the trees offer views like this.

      • Ready for Snow
        12/17/07


        The border between Iwate and Akita runs along the central mountain ridge of Japan, with Iwate on the east and Akita on the west. Cold air from Siberia picks up moisture crossing the Sea of Japan, then socks Akita with deep "lake effect" snows. Iwate is protected by the mounta

      • Tazawako
        12/16/07


        Lake Tazawa, the deepest lake in Japan, is in Akita Prefecture and not too far from the Iwate border. We remember it well from our 2006 visit, and went to see it again last week. It's definitely the off-season there was hardly anyone else there, and many of the shops and kiosks w

      • Memo From the Dogs
        12/15/07
        To: Matthew and Stefanie
        From: Moki and Aki
        Re: Zabutons

        Because we are Japanese dogs, we believe we should get to use the zabutons. Aki wants the red one. She also wants the kotatsu.



        Also, Moki would prefer something a little larger.


      • Radio Taiso
        12/13/07
        Yesterday afternoon, Matthew and I ate lunch at our favorite takoyaki joint and watched the news on Japanese television. At three o'clock, the news broke and a cheery woman at a piano, along with three young women wearing cute gray hoodies and boy shorts, appeared. The woman played the piano

      • Ahhh
        12/13/07
        We finally had our big kerosene heater installed last week, much to Christina's (and our) relief. It's kind of a shame that a Tohoku winter vacation based out of Pension Let's Sharing will no longer have a full day of seeing your breath inside as an attraction. Then again, it's

      • The World is Black and White
        12/09/07
        A color photograph of a black and white world.

      • Straight Lines
        12/08/07
        On some of the roads here especially those that seem to run at odd angles the street points directly at a mountain peak. The result can be quite striking when you go down one of them on a clear day.





        I'm not sure of the reason for this. My guess is that the

      • Moki Expresses an Opinion
        12/07/07


        Opinions expressed in this photo are solely those of Moki, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Let's Sharing management.

      • The Real Deal
        12/07/07
        At dinner the other night, a local friend brought a small piece of wasabi and a grater along. The grater surface is sharkskin.



        He showed us how to grate the wasabi by gently rubbing the root in circles on the grater, then let the rest of us try. We ate it on sashimi of octop

      • Onsen in the Snow
        12/06/07
        For all the complaining we've been doing about the cold (and now that our friend Christina has been visiting for almost a week, there's been half again as much commentary), it does have its benefits. For example, visiting onsen is much, much more awesome in the snow. You're wicked c

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