Losing My Mind (Among Other Things) 

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 establishments in search of our missing items. And I've become quite proficient at filing lost item reports in Japanese, which is the bright side here. Isn't necessity the mother of language learning? I think I heard that somewhere.

Today's chapter in the lost key saga found me at a small key shop located inside a kitchen supply store, run by an old, weathered Tohoku-jin. Our conversation required patience on both sides: for him, because I need a fair amount of repetition, slow talking, and cognition time before I can understand something, and for me because he spoke with a thick accent and the low, mumbly speech frequently used by older northern Japanese men. And he had a boatload of customers coming in and out, including another guy with a thick accent and mumbly speech. They had a long conversation about something while I waited, drooling over the Japanese knives; for all I know, they were talking about the Amerika-jin with negligible language skills needing a hard-to-make key for a German car.

At any rate, we weren't able to work out a keymaking arrangement today, so he asked me to come back tomorrow. I can't make it, so I offered up Matthew as a substitute with the assurance that he speaks better Japanese than I do. In retrospect, I think I actually told him someone's dad would be coming. Oops.
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Reaching for the Sky 



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 shrines dotting the grounds. In many places, any horizontal surface has pebbles piled on it. The piling of stones seems to be a sort of prayer enhancement: you make your prayer, then stack stones up towards the heavens. The higher you can stack them, the better.
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Hiraizumi 



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.
related link
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Ready for Snow 



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 mountain ridge, so it gets far less snow even though it's right next door.

One indicator of this difference is that on the Akita side, many houses' first floor windows and walls are protected by additional boards in winter. They are set against the houses to keep the snow from pushing directly on the walls and damaging them.
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Tazawako 



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 were closed — but the cold winter air and the snow made for a beautiful sight.
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Memo From the Dogs 

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.



Thank you.
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Radio Taiso 

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 while the young women demonstrated a set of stretches, which they then put together as a short calisthenics routine. Nothing terribly taxing, just a bit of exercise, or radio taiso, to get the blood moving after lunch.

I had heard about radio taiso from my Japanese teacher in America. It apparently started as an effort by the Japanese government to keep people from being totally sedentary during the day, and continues on NHK. Some companies, like the concrete plant across the street from our house, still do it in the mornings. It does sound like a good way to keep alert and well-stretched ¡½ provided you're not stuffing your face with okonomiyaki at the time it comes on.
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Ahhh 

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 nice to be able to feel my hands during the day.

Here's our new best friend:



You can't read the placard on the front, but it is, appropriately, an "Excellent" heater.
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The World is Black and White 

A color photograph of a black and white world.


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Straight Lines 

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 these are some of the oldest roads around (one I know for sure is quite old), and the mountain peaks were used as guides for the construction of straight roads.
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