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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Moki Expresses an Opinion 



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

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 octopus, squid, and salmon. Oishikatta desu!
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Onsen in the Snow 

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 cold when you first enter the building, and then again when you change to wash, but sitting in the bath heats you to the core. Then you're warmed through, and ready to go out in the snow again.

Even better is sitting in a rotenburo, or outdoor bath. The water is nice and hot, the air refreshing and cold. Falling snow sublimates on the surface of the bath, melting a little more slowly on your skin. If you're lucky, you can see a beautiful, white mountain from your seat, maybe crowned with the glittering lights of the traditional Japanese inn (ryokan). The cold is an integral part of the experience ¡½ so much that you don't mind the slushy roads that take you there, then lead you home.
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Haircut Chronicles 

Right before I left Washington, I paid one last visit to my fantastic stylist. My hair never looked so good until I started going to Vera (although I had much better stories about the abusive French stylist I saw prior to her), so it was with much sadness and apprehension that I got my last trim. After all, I was leaving her care for a nation composed almost entirely of people with thick, shiny, stick-straight hair. What was a curly-haired girl going to do? Two years is a little long to go without a haircut, even for me (which was a point of contention with the abusive French stylist).

Perms are very popular in Japan, so someone suggested that I find a stylist who cuts permed hair. Fortunately, I was able to find something better. As it turns out, my Japanese teacher's stylist is a Japanese woman with naturally curly hair, which is pretty unusual. Clearly, she was the stylist for me. So, I pushed past the nerves, scheduled an appointment over the phone (Woo-hoo! I made an appointment over the phone!), and got my first haircut in Japan today.

I highly recommend the Japanese haircut. There's lots of head massage action involved, and very close attention to the look of the cut, down to the individual hairs. Also, there's lots of head massage action. It looks and moves like a good cut, though I won't know for sure until I try to do something with it tomorrow. Yay for the J-haircut!
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