All Your Stars Are Out

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!

2012-01-24T10:55:00.013+09:00

January/February/March/April/May/June/July/August/September/October/November/December

Well hello there and a happy new year to you all!

All Your Stars Are Out is going through a little period of change right now but posting will resume shortly.

travels

2011-08-15T01:19:00.004+09:00

We are in Vietnam - did you know?

We'll tell you all about it later.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-29T13:48:00.002+09:00

Spotting a happy little bear in Akita.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-29T13:40:00.003+09:00

The secret messy lives of a Japanese family.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-24T16:19:00.000+09:00

20 kids jumping rope.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-24T15:16:00.000+09:00

Bentos and green tea on the shinkansen!

Wasuremasen

2011-07-24T13:13:00.003+09:00

Murals and more murals!

Wasuremasen

2011-07-24T13:11:00.002+09:00

Beautiful futons.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-19T22:51:00.001+09:00

Ice-blocks shaped like watermelon slices.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-19T22:45:00.002+09:00

Having my fortune read by a small pirate.

Lucky number: 5

Lucky animal: Elephant

Wasuremasen

2011-07-18T22:40:00.001+09:00

Colourful elementary schools. And all the many, many bags students have.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-17T22:31:00.001+09:00

Those trees.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-16T22:28:00.002+09:00

...the happiness when its jelly, yoghurt or chocolate spread day at school.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-15T22:24:00.007+09:00

When hydrangea petals get sunburnt after the rainy season. They get such a fright.

Wasuremasen

2011-07-15T22:10:00.005+09:00

Listening to jazz records in a Japanese home on an uncomfortably hot day.

Drinking buckets of iced tea and coffee.

Eating a watermelon with salt (this I might like to forget).

Wasuremasen

2011-07-15T21:48:00.007+09:00

Now a series of posts of things I never want to forget from our last few weeks in Sendai.

Listening to First Aid Kit and cicadas, while sipping a "Sparkling Peach Nectar" chu-hi in the rice fields, under a shy full moon.

Boats from barrels

2011-07-12T13:19:00.001+09:00

On day two of our tour of Sado we were taken to Oji, a little town in the south to take a turn about the waters in a traditional boat.

When we arrived they turned on some old Japanese music, somewhat muffled, that piped around us as we paddled. Pretty darn cute.

Our captain for 20minutes, in the infamous barrel boat hat.

Difficult!

In the lovely clear Sado water we could spot little fish and bioluminescent jellyfish.

Two turtles

2011-07-09T20:27:00.003+09:00

The last activity Chikako had planned for our first day, was a walk around the coast to Futatsugame - a rocky craggy area that looks like two turtles.

The coastal walk was delightful with lots of rockpools, those cheeky little funamushi, and we came across two lovely little shrines tucked into caves/crevices.

When we arrived at the two turtles we kicked ourselves for not bringing any togs - the water was super clear and extremely inviting.

We had to satisfy ourselves with just a paddle.

And for afternoon tea - strawberries from Chikako's garden.

floral carpet

2011-07-09T12:36:00.009+09:00

After the glass bottomed boat ride we snacked on some frozen persimmon before heading to the northernmost part of the island where the wild lilies, Tobishima-kanzo, were in bloom.

(Oh and did you know large flowers of the lily family are called licorices? - I did not!)

It was nothing less than spectacular.

Senkaku-wan bay, baby

2011-07-04T20:27:00.004+09:00

The owner of the hostel on Sado Island asked us when we arrived if we had a schedule planned. "No," said we, and so she decided then and there that she would take us out in her car to see the sights the next day. We didn't seem to have much say in the matter but it worked out quite well indeed, as we managed to see everything we had read about in the Lonely Planet and then some.

One wonderful stop was Senkaku-wan Bay, a place of amazing rock formations and crystal clear water, where we took a spin in a glass-bottom boat.

The tour encouraged the peculiar Japanese pastime of feeding shrimp crisps to seagulls out the windows of moving boats. I was more interested in trying to spot flourescent jellyfish under the surface.

The other guest Kumiko, our hostess Chikako and some guy with a beard.

There were armies of these little guys running around the waterline - funamushi. They scattered as you walked at them like the little soot creatures in Totoro.

Toki Time!

2011-06-22T22:10:00.015+09:00

We just had the best holiday guys.

Taking advantage of a four day weekend, we took some buses and a ferry over to Sado Island off the west coast of Japan to read books and get some sea air.

We stayed at the Green Village Hostel in Niibo which was a joy. The owner, Chikako (Oba-chan), was super kind and fed us delicious dinners and breakfasts. She decided to give us and the only other guest there (a Japanese girl studying the Japanese Crested Ibis) a personal tour of the island. So for two full days we were whisked from one tourist attraction to the next. We wouldn't have seen half the things we did without her - ありがとうちかこさん!

We are going to have to break this trip up into at least four posts as we took nearly 400 photos, went to three museums, sailed in two boats, saw two temples, watched birds, walked on beaches and frolicked in fields.

So without further ado let us begin with a tour of the neighbourhood.

Day 1 breakfast. New Zealand could do with more food trays in adorable colours.

Gareth and the Japanese Crested Ibis - Toki

Window peeping

Toki lamp-post

Buying a cute knitted thing shaped like a fish from a tiny shop with a ferocious small dog.

Kicking around in Kyoto

2011-06-20T18:38:00.001+09:00

Back in March when we went down to Osaka to have a reprieve from the aftershocks, we managed to spend a lovely day in Kyoto visiting Kiyomizu-dera.

And here is the photographic evidence.

This is me knowing exactly where we are.

Kiyomizu-dera was very impressive and the view over Kyoto was exceptional. Unluckily for us we could tell by all the budding cherry trees just how spectacular it could have looked in two weeks' time.

The Jishu Shrine is dedicated to the god of love and has two "love stones" six metres apart. It is said if you can walk between the two in a straight line with your eyes closed you will find true love. How nice.

One of the love stones.

The Jishu Shrine and pretty girls wishing for romance.

Osaka breakfasts with moomin plates

2011-06-09T19:12:00.000+09:00

Oh my birthday

2011-06-07T22:51:00.006+09:00

Thank you, lovely friends and family for your happy wishes, cards and presents!

I had a jolly good day at home with some chums and Gareth.

There were flowers, a cat card, some glasses of Moet, and Gareth made me a friggin awesome strawberry cake. The delights of a northern summer birthday!

Oh and Vanessa and Warren - your brooch went perfectly with my new rabbit leggings! Thanks!!

Then there was a tipple more Moet and some Brideshead Revisited.

The best part of the day however was playing with the new toy Gareth gave me - my own planetarium! It's amaaaazing!!

Thanks love.

Yokohama

2011-06-03T18:59:00.007+09:00

After the wedding business was all wrapped up we spent a day wandering around Yokohama.

We were quite smitten. Wide streets, shiny buildings, Chinatown and trees.

I fell in love with all the Chinese junk shops. I restrained myself to just a pot holder and a lantern.

Blindly taking photos with a wavering hand above the crowds. Ridiculous results.

Animal shaped steamed buns - oh yes.

I ate a green panda with matcha goo in the middle and Gareth got a delightful-looking but disappointingly gelatinous pork pig bun. (Fact: pigs say "boo boo" not "oink" in Japan. What do ghosts say then??)

We also spotted this advertisement. What better way to show your dislike of guns by having adorable otters smashing them on their bellies.

the weddingu

2011-06-03T17:23:00.011+09:00

Joel and Kumi Porter.

babes in the city

2011-05-23T13:04:00.002+09:00

Our lovely friends Kumi and Joel fell in love, he proposed she said "hai" and last weekend they got married.

But before we blog about the wonders of a traditional Japanese wedding this short post is about Kumi's Hens Night in Tokyo, held a few weekends beforehand.

First there was an afternoon picnic in Kumi's parents garage with snazzy sandwiches, fizzy wines, scones, doilies and paper pom-poms.

かんぱい Kumi!

Afterwards we went to a Phantom of the Opera themed restaurant with gigantic chandeliers, mask shaped crackers and dramatic music.

Followed by dancing and McDonalds in the wee small hours. Classy babes.

Next post: the wedding.

kuma no ashi

2011-05-16T21:55:00.011+09:00

The weather is just so lovely right now - bare legs, sunscreen and ice-creams.

On sunday we went off to see Yamadera in its spring green magnificence.

We stopped at the nice soba restaurant again and this time I remembered to take a photo before I wolfed (wolved?) it down. Bowls of tempura soba all around.

Then we had goma (sesame seed) flavoured soft serve ice-cream.

Looking good Gareth

Then we marched on up to the top of the mountain.

Stop taking pictures of small children, Mirabel

The monks' vegetable garden

Unlike last time, and every other temple we have been to in Japan, we were among only a handful of visitors. It was incredibly peaceful.

Wonderful Day!

2011-05-12T22:28:00.000+09:00

From a Japanese sketch show. Yes.

Golden Week Adventures

2011-05-09T22:15:00.002+09:00

So because we ran away to Osaka for a spell after the earthquake, we have no leave left to take from work. Last week was "Golden Week", a collection of three public holidays in a row, but those holidays this year were stranded in the Tuesday to Thursday stretch, and thus we were denied a super long weekend. So we stayed close to home, and took a day trip up to Hiraizumi in Iwate.

Hiraizumi is a collection of hilltop temples, the oldest of which are more than 900 years old. Most of the structures were built by the Fujiwara family way back then. They actually built a whole lot more than what is still standing today, but after a "golden age" of about 100 years (not too bad, really) the family fell from prominence. Many buildings were destroyed as the town faded into obscurity over the centuries, but there are still a good number dotted around the place.

We got to see a traditional sword dance, which was seen over by a rickety-looking old man keeping delighfully dubious time on a taiko drum, with a chorus of wooden flutes whistling a repetitious, hypnotic melody. I swear there were shades of Mark E Smith in the incessant, slightly off-key screedling. We dig repetition in the music and we're never going to lose it.

We ate green tea ice creams and wandered around in mossy contemplation.

When the famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho visited the area in 1689 he wrote this:

Ah, summer grasses!
All that remains
Of the warriors' dreams.

The new school year

2011-05-06T19:00:00.001+09:00

The 1st years are eagerly writing big and small letters, the 2nd years are becoming too cool for school, and the 3rd years have put their serious student hats on. School life is back up and running.

And I'm enjoying the flowers and decorations around the grounds that seem to be helping everyone keep their chins up.

Hanami picnic parties!

2011-05-06T16:30:00.000+09:00

Bring a tarpaulin, your drink of choice, some friends, sit under some cherry blossoms and boom its Hanami!

Happy belated Easter!

2011-05-04T18:21:00.000+09:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Thanks to all the kind aunts, uncles, cousins and mothers for our delicious chocolatey treats.

We managed to hold off scoffing them all till Easter Sunday.

This year we made our own hot cross buns from an Alison and Simon Holst recipe. We made two batches - one for our bun deprived friends and one just for us. Although it took a good chunk out of the day to make them the results were definitely worth it - they were really really yum!!

Suddenly Sakura!

2011-04-20T16:53:00.000+09:00

The last two days have been cold, rainy, sleety and overcast - not the best weather for flower gazing. But while I walked home this afternoon the sun wrestled with the clouds and briefly managed to throw some rays about.

Here is the first of potentially a zillion posts filled with photos of cherry blossoms.

On the streets of Osaka

2011-04-12T22:43:00.000+09:00

While in Osaka, Gareth and I spent many days walking round our new neighbourhood.

We were utterly charmed by the old narrow streets, funny coffee shops and all the spring flower pots.

Volunteering in Ishinomaki

2011-04-10T13:15:00.000+09:00

Ishinomaki is a town just north east of Sendai which was, like many other coastal areas of northern Honshuu, very badly affected by the tsunami that occured after last month's earthquake. When we got back from Osaka, Mirabel and I went volunteering there.

The parts of Ishinomaki that weren't completely washed away look like this, up and down every street. Basically everything that was at ground level has been ruined, and is now piled at the sides of the roads for some eventual collection. Cars, boats, appliances, bits of destroyed buildings are strewn about and covered in mud.

We went to three houses to help pick up and throw away the ruined contents and to dig out the inches of thick black mud that coated the floors.

In one house we even found a fish, who was probably quite surprised to end up in someone's hallway under their shoe rack.

Here's the band of volunteers being transported to the next job, and there will be plenty of work to do for weeks, months and years to come in Ishinomaki and other towns. We are very lucky to live where we do in northern Sendai, high above sea level and away from the coast.

Still, even the mud and debris couldn't stop spring from showing through in little spots here and there. There's hope yet.

collections

2011-04-04T17:08:00.000+09:00

Omiyage (souvenirs) from Osaka

The book is by photographer Kotori Kawashima and features her delightful darling daughter Mirai - scowls, snotty noses and all.

Omiyage on my desk when I returned to Sendai.

Lots of delicious cakes and mochi from kindly teachers.

Gareth and I are big fans of the bottom left cake - "a financier".

Osaka cats

2011-03-31T12:46:00.000+09:00

Turns out Osaka is a pretty funny place.

resting

2011-03-19T18:25:00.000+09:00

We are now staying with our good friend Darlene in Osaka. Out of any harms way.

I wanted to post some pictures we took in Matsushima Bay, 4 days before the earthquake struck.
We are not sure how badly affected it was by the tsunami, but its neighbouring coastal towns have been destroyed.

We will always remember Matsushima as a beautiful bay with calm forests, curious islands and blue-chocolate coated bananas.

We are okay!

2011-03-16T21:23:00.000+09:00

Mirabel and I are okay. Our area of Sendai was not badly damaged by the earthquake, and we are in no immediate danger. Please don't worry!

Did you know?

2011-03-02T19:10:00.000+09:00

Oh Christchurch!

2011-02-28T19:18:00.000+09:00

Our beautiful home town has been brought to its knees by a massive earthquake. Our families and friends are safe, but many people were not so lucky. It's very hard knowing all this is happening so far away.

(photo by Logan McMillan, via Facebook)

No business like snow business

2011-02-20T13:14:00.000+09:00

Last weekend we took the long, lolling (LOL) ferry ride from Sendai to Hokkaido, to take a look at Sapporo's famous yuki matsuri, or snow festival. Hokkaido, being the northernmost island of Japan, really is quite cold at this time of year, and, not to disappoint, within minutes of our arrival a thick blanketing of snow started falling, adding to the already impressive drifts along the roads and footpaths.

The main draw for the yuki matsuri is the impressive array of snow and ice sculptures that the city puts together. The scale of the snow sculpures was just incredible. The above (and below) sculpture of the fox and owl was the size of a building!

Mirabel spent a lot of time taking sneaky pictures of cute Japanese kids in puffy winter clothes or being pulled on sleds. Also a very awkward-looking reindeer mascot for something-or-other.

The trip was part of a large JET-participant pilgrimage, so it was a fairly social time. The first night the lot of us went to the Sapporo Beer Garden, for a two-hour, all-you-can-eat-and-drink free-for-all. The food served at the beer garden is amusingly called Genghis Khan -- a name which in Japan seems to be more closely related to barbecued lamb than to the fearsome Mongolian warlord.

Other culinary adventures included a walk to "ramen alley", a narrow walkway lined with ramen noodle shops. Good ramen. Yup.

We also ventured out to a nearby town called Otaru. They have a festival of their own going at the same time, which involves setting a lot of pretty lanterns in the canal and around-about in snowdrifts. Very nice.

Otaru also has an amazing German-style microbrewery, where I had far and away the best Japanese beer I've ever encountered. I tried their pilsener, dunkel, and weiss, as well as a deliciously smoky special winter brew. So good I brought a pack home with me (it's sitting in the fridge as I type. So tempting!).

Below are some pictures of the wonderfully detailed ice sculptures. Some of them had real fish frozen into them! On our last night we watched a crew of bulldozers and diggers demolish the whole thing with real relish. Creation and destruction!

A Mini-Diana New Zealand Christmas

2011-02-03T21:34:00.000+09:00

We spent Christmas back home. It was just wonderful!

- grainy crusty bread and cheese

- camping

- summertime

- cats, dogs, birds, seals

- tasty drinks

- bioluminescent water (all my dreams!)

- swimming

- family and friends

Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-01T10:41:00.000+09:00

Knitted bunny pattern

Both these baked treats were filled with strawberry flavoured cream. Extremely delicious, but I am afraid after eating two I can never eat them again.

A winter's night and day

2011-01-30T19:41:00.000+09:00

Last night it snowed and snowed, and we tiptoed outside at midnight to build a snowman.

We named him Yuki.

The next day we went for a wander around the neighbourhood, crunching through the crisp, white snow underfoot. Yuki was still looking a picture of health.

The rice fields were blanketed.

much love winter monday

2011-01-24T12:08:00.000+09:00

Making up hearts as I go along, with Larksfoot crochet pattern.

Taking part in Much Love Monday

Weird fuds

2011-01-23T12:55:00.000+09:00

Here are some weird foods that I bought from the supermarket one day.

This here is a pizza-flavoured instant noodle box -- with mayonaise. It had tiny little instant meatballs in it (just add water!) and did actually taste fairly pizza-ish. Mayo is a typical pizza topping here, so that explains that, but I did feel slightly queasy because of it, I think. 6/10.

Next are some good old corn snacks. These ones are flavoured like Japanese fast food favourite takoyaki, ie. octopus batter balls. I actually like takoyaki a lot, so these were pretty tasty. 7/10.

Next on the list is one for the Metal Gear Solid fans: Calorie Mate! Yes, in Japan you too can dine on the special ration of choice of tactical espionage action hero Solid Snake!

The verdict: extremely dry shortbread consistency and general fruit taste. 7/10. Snaaaaaaaake!

And to wash it down, Calpis. But not just any Calpis; The Premium Calpis. I like Calpis Soda best -- it's kind of like creaming soda -- so I was intrigued when I spotted the premium version. Premium Calpis, however, is thick and milky and tastes a bit like sharpish yoghurt.

Kinda gross. 2/10.

Bonus vending machine entry! Hotcake drink! Actually tasted like caramel milk; not as gross as the buttery image on the can would suggest. 5/10.

to market to market

2011-01-14T17:16:00.000+09:00

I went to a flea-market with Sarah and Kumi. I sold two flying horses.

Advent Calendar mayhem!

2011-01-13T21:17:00.000+09:00

So I wasn't very good at scanning the pictures for Gareths advent calendar on time, but I was doing the drawings.

forgotten Yamadera

2011-01-13T17:20:00.000+09:00

A long time ago, back before Christmas and the New Year, all the way back to November I took a train ride with 3 pals to Yamadera. Yama means mountain, and dera means temple. I was going to see a temple on a mountain!

We managed to catch a glimpse of the autumn leaves before they completely disappeared for the year. The area is famous for its cherry blossoms so I hope to come back in spring.

A beautiful soba shop we ate in after walking back down the mountain.

Wishes written on gold and white paper, tied to branches, dotted the path all the way to the top.

The 1000 step path. Beautiful, meandering and not at all strenuous.

Half-way up there was a sweet garden tended to by hard-working, sure-footed monks.

The view from the top.

By the time we got down the sun was setting and everything was the most wonderful shade of pink.

Advent Calendar December 11th

2010-12-21T00:02:00.001+09:00

Advent Calendar December 10th

2010-12-21T00:01:00.001+09:00

Advent Calendar December 9th

2010-12-21T00:00:00.001+09:00

Part 3: Kyoto at last!

2010-12-11T11:35:00.000+09:00

Here are a million photos of Kyoto. We could only manage to spend one day and one evening there, but we were totally smitten with it and can't wait to go back.

Two minutes out of the first subway stop and Mirabel was in love with this crafty store. There were so many lovely little shops like this dotted all over the place, I think we could have easily just shopped for our whole visit and been perfectly happy.

Out of the blue we found a New Zealand-themed cafe, Cafe Green, in the Gion district, where we ate fairly authentic fish and chips and a mince pie with mashed potatoes for dinner. I had a tasty boutique beer (TaaKawa), and we shared a hokey pokey sundae. Unexpected!

On the other side of the street to the cafe was a restaurant with this wacky statue. You can see his doodle!

Kinkakuji is Kyoto's famous golden pavilion. The upper two floors are covered in actual gold leaf! Check out the heron in the bottom of the frame.

The place was pretty packed with adorable school kids and gawking photo oppotunists like ourselves. It would have been a bit more serene with fewer people marching around the garden tracks, but was quite a sight anyway.

Later it was a tasty tofu lunch set in a cute place at our next stop, Arashiyama. Really delicious!

Arashiyama's lillies, temple garden, bamboo grove, mountain and riverside. We took an expensive rickshaw ride with a thoroughly charming guide, Yoshi, who chatted in a mixture of English and Japanese and pointed out interesting points along the way.

Just as the sun was setting we made our way to Nanzenji temple, with a massive, beautiful wooden gate and a lovely stone aqueduct.

We will be going back to Kyoto again at the earliest opportunity.

Advent Calendar December 8th

2010-12-08T17:26:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar December 7th

2010-12-07T17:20:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar December 6th

2010-12-07T00:16:00.000+09:00

Instead of a drawing today I made an origami G

Oh gosh, we are getting behind ourselves: Part 2

2010-12-06T22:44:00.000+09:00

In Osaka we stayed with the totally wonderful awesome Darlene and Kaori.

They fed us home-made takoyaki, traditionally a Japanese dumpling made of batter and diced or whole baby octopus, but luckily for me it was minus the tako.

We filled ours with cheese, spring onion, mushrooms, pineapple and ham.

Pour the batter into the cute little holes, wait for them to cook on one side then wriggle them around with a pair of chop sticks to cook the otherside.

I want to buy one of these cute sets - imagine in the possibilities! They needn't be savoury either, you could use pancake batter and fill them with chocolate and fruit. YUM!

While in Osaka we managed to see Vampire Weekend play. They were marvelous, dressed in costumes, bopping around - jolly good show.

Advent Calendar December 5th

2010-12-05T23:34:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar December 4th

2010-12-04T21:51:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar December 3rd

2010-12-04T16:49:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar December 2nd

2010-12-02T23:08:00.000+09:00

Advent Calendar

2010-12-01T23:05:00.000+09:00

We don't have an advent calendar this year so I have vowed to draw a picture a day for Gareth's advent pleasure.

December 1st.

* incidentally *

2010-11-25T16:54:00.000+09:00

Kohei, the man dressed as a tree in the previous post, is a wonderful painter and designer.

During summer he printed some T-shirts for a music festival and Gareth and I were asked to model them. Turns out we aren't very good at modelling, we bumble and giggle too much.

It wasn't a waste of time though - Shoko got to play with her new camera.

Oh gosh, we are getting behind ourselves

2010-11-23T10:54:00.000+09:00

During the first week of November we took some days off to go down to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. It was an incredible holiday, crazy busy, but just wonderful with lovely friends and delicious food.

Part 1: Tokyo

We took the night bus from Sendai on Friday 29th and arrived in a typhoon stricken Tokyo at 5.30am Saturday morning, with one umbrella between us and three hours to kill before our first engagement -- the national junior high school brass band competition which Gareth's schools was in, representing Miyagi.

We kept ourselves warm and dry in a cafe, pigging out on hotcakes, drink refills and doodling on newspapers.

The brass band competition was really good. We only stayed until Gareth's school Koyodai had played (we felt 5 hours might be too much for us). I was hugely impressed with their conductor who danced, bobbed, crouched, jumped, and gesticulated elegantly. You didn't need to hear the instruments - his gestures expressed the music exactly. I was totally enthralled.

The students were excellent too though and deservedly won silver.

Afterwards we went to a couple of art galleries. The first had an exhibition by the amusing artist Misaki Kawai. So lovely. So fun.

The second gallery was showing a collection of Van Gogh paintings. We were cold and grumpy by the time we got there, and the gallery was packed with people. The show was presented in chronological order, beginning with Van Gogh's earliest works -- sketches, studies and copies of other painings -- which, frankly, were not all that impressive. But by the time we got around to Irises we were awestruck.

Later Gareth and Shoko worked on a last-minute zombie animal poster for Shoko and Sasayu's Halloween party.

Jiizasu (Jesus), owl and the Debiru (devil).

The awesome "I heart NZ" sheep and kiwi.

Sasayu in her adorable ghost costume.

Shinya's minimalistic Kintaro costume (Kintaro is a manga character whose father is an eyeball on a tiny body).

Kohei was a tree.

We played musical chairs and then fell asleep on the sofa.

Then it was time to catch the 7am shinkasen to Osaka ... part 2!

Walking home in autumn with trees

2010-11-12T18:00:00.000+09:00

walking home with trees

cellotape fallen leaves up

white moon sprite rabbits

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T21:42:00.000+09:00

following train lines

2010-10-28T19:14:00.000+09:00

One day I went for a wee walk following some train lines in hope of finding secret op-shops. I found a promising shop called Antique Ramble... but never trust a Japanese shop by its name!

There were no antiques or rambling.

Nevertheless the walk was very enjoyable.

A wonderful letterbox with prism atop that lead the way to delightful washing + bonsais.

Some of the cheapest bikes around happen to be the coolest.

My affection for murals is never ceasing - just call me Murabel.

potato party!

2010-10-28T16:52:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday was a glorious autumnal day.

It was so beautiful it caused suspicion. "Too good to be true," we all said, carefully packing umbrellas as well as sunscreen on our way to the annual ALT imonikai.

But do you know - it was true.

An imonikai is a traditional Tohoku picnic held in autumn. People gather, often by a river, to eat potato and meat soup cooked in big iron pots over an open fire.

The ingredients vary slightly between regions, but meat and potato are the staples, with a handful of seasonal vegetables thrown in.

For dessert there were skewers of dango - a Japanese dumpling made from rice flour, similar to mochi. There are many different flavours and sauces for dango like anko (red bean), kinako (toasted soy flour), goma (seasame seeds) and they are all delicious!

jam and scones

2010-10-24T14:50:00.000+09:00

The first crafternoon of the hibernating season featured fresh scones, home-made jam and so many kinds of tea it was wonderful.

I made the purplest huckleberry jam imaginable and Sophie brought around her zingy kiwi and ginger jam.

(Huckleberries are odd wee things. They look like blueberries, have a slight unpleasant odour, but make a delicious elderflowerish jam.)

Oh, and Gareth spent an age whipping up some cream by hand.

We are the fanciest.

We watched two movies

2010-10-11T21:24:00.000+09:00

Here are some Japanese movies that we think are way cool.

First is House (Hausu), a sugar-coated, mind-melty horror film from 1977. It's about a girl who brings six of her schoolfriends to visit her aunt during the summer holidays. Things very quickly take a turn for the bizarro, however, and the girls start disappearing one by one. Sounds like a pretty standard horror movie, I guess, but in this one a piano eats a person, a disembodied head bites a girl on the bottom, a man gets transformed into a pile of bananas, and there's a cat with laser eyes. The director, Nobuhiko Obayashi, uses pretty much every camera effect available to him at the time, continuously, and the soundtrack is wildly overbearing and unusual. It's awesome.

The Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji) came out in 2004 and is a beautiful and very funny film about an odd family. There's not much of a plot to speak of, but each character has their own little strand of story that sprawls out in its own direction. It's more like a connected series of unusual moments, some weird, some awkward, most pretty hilarious. Our favorite bits are when the uncle tells the story of when he "took a shit outdoors for the first time", the grandfather's songs ("Why are you a triangle?! Why oh why?"), the boy's frantic, spastic bicycling, and any part where the little girl is being stalked by the giant version of herself. It's very quirky, but the end is surprisingly touching.

my princess Diana-Mini

2010-10-05T22:38:00.000+09:00

Our digital camera has given up the ghost! So until we buy another we are left with the surprises my toy cameras create.

A-okay Hokkaido

2010-09-27T21:24:00.000+09:00

In the summer holidays we went to Sapporo, in Hokkaido, for a week to study Japanese at a little school. We went because we thought Sapporo would be nice, and that the weather would be slightly milder (this year's summer = the hottest on record). Both of these things were true. We were studying a lot of the time so we didn't do a lot of sightseeing, but here are some things that we did see.

We took a 15-hour ferry ride back to Sendai, and slept in a big tatami room with dozens of other people. It was actually pretty fine though!

And some more Mori, Onegaishimasu!

2010-09-23T21:52:00.000+09:00

As well as the Sensing Nature exhibition, the Mori Museum also featured an interesting, but a little hokey, dinosaur show.

We liked all the snaggletoothed ones.

RAAAAAHHHH!

nya nya Jenga!

2010-09-19T19:55:00.000+09:00

In Japan cats don't say meow, they say nya nya 　にゃにゃ

Here are some cats we know in Japan:

Recently, to my great happiness, I have started dressmaking classes. This occasion requires a celebratory pin cushion! A cat pin cushion with laser eyes NYA NYA

We are all poets

2010-09-19T16:07:00.000+09:00

Here are some poems written by some of my students. They were given a formula to use and a dictionary to look through and told to write about anything they liked. These are my favourites.

Sister
eat food
crying, raging, laughing
what a so cute
Love.

Atsuhito
my friend
runs very fast
runs faster than bird
surprise.

Space
many stars
making, living, losing
Noone is larger space
Large.

Cat
it's cute
Beard, nose, ears.

I wont it's the game
play the baseball player
It's Koyodai School the hospital in New York
You don't book the like in what is this
She a the how.

1 Year in the rice fields

2010-09-17T16:44:00.000+09:00

September 2009

Our first glimpse

*** a few months are missing here when it was just too cold to be running around in fields - I will remedy that this year - promise ***

March 2010

After the snow melted

May 2010

Almost rainy season - its time for planting

July 2010

Things a-growing

And right now...

the beginning of harvest fever!

On this harvest moon

2010-09-10T19:54:00.000+09:00

Our friends in Shiogama, on the outskirts of Sendai, invited us to a barbecue a few weeks ago, to celebrate the summer harvest. They have a little plot of land, and had grown so many wonderful vegetables. It was really lovely.

Some of the delicious, fresh vegetables in question. おいしかったよ。

DIY tempura.

Around the corner was a little neighbourhood party, and we poked our noses in to see what was going on. They were doing a traditional bon dance with fans, and as soon as they saw us they roped us both into joining in. It was really easy, and pretty fun, too. The song that they danced to was maybe two minutes long, and they had it on repeat for a long, long time. We danced about five plays, accepted our applause, and then left them to it.

For the rest of the evening we could hear sporadic announcements over their little sound system reminding everyone that New Zealanders had come to their party. It was pretty cute.

At night we had fireworks.

Thanks, Aya, Reiji, Asuka, Kaori, Danke and everyone else!

I'll give you a golden bell

2010-09-09T20:00:00.000+09:00

These photos were taken agessssss ago during Sendai's junior high school baseball tournament in June. It was the middle of the rainy season and everyone was most anxious about the weather.

A week before the tournament students started hanging up these awesome ghosts called Teru-teru-bozu in the classrooms to ward off rain.

Here is a translation of a very famous Japanese nursery rhyme about them:

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu

Do make tomorrow a sunny day

Like the sky in a dream sometime

If it's sunny I'll give you a golden bell

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu

Do make tomorrow a sunny day

If you make my wish come true

We'll drink lots of sweet rice wine

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu

Do make tomorrow a sunny day

But if the clouds are crying

Then I shall snip your head off

The weather turned out to be glorious (thanks to these little guys perhaps?).

And we came first!

おめでとござみあす

adorable adorable

2010-09-07T21:30:00.000+09:00

An adorable cafe in Tokyo called Hattifnatt - named after the mysterious electric Hattifatteners in the Moomin stories.

This cafe was recommended in the Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide, which we were able to buy from the lovely Ebony herself at the Tokyo Art Book Fair.

Gareth was a giant there. He barely fit through the door.

The walls were covered in happy animals.

I read a book about a polar bear and a jar of jam with a tricky lid.

adorable adorable.

More Mori, Onegaishimasu!

2010-08-26T22:08:00.000+09:00

While in Tokyo a few weeks ago we visited the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, which is fast becoming our favourite major gallery in Japan. Our last visit (for Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?) was really great and this time we happened upon an incredible exhibition called Sensing Nature.

Three Japanese artists showed works intended to examine the link between man and nature in modern Japan.

"Snow" by Yoshioka Tokujin. A giant glass box filled with feathers and hidden fans that re-created the movement of a snowstorm.

Another work by Tokujin. This one is called "Waterfall".

Takashi Kuribayashi created a double layered forest, which you could walk around under and peek through like a woodland creature.

And he also contributed "Island", a solid and imposing work which sought to illustrate how much of the Earth we don't see.

Taro Shinoda, for one of his works, created a circular pool from above which droplets of water were timed to fall at exactly the same time, creating splashes that formed an image of part of the Milky Way. It was beautiful, but couldn't be captured in a photograph.

Finding Jesus

2010-08-15T12:45:00.000+09:00

On our way back from Osorezan, we decided to follow up on a strange rumour that we'd heard amongst Sendai ALTs -- that the body of Jesus Christ was buried somewhere in Aomori.

The story goes as follows: in 1935, some scriptures were discovered in Shingo, Aomori, which were supposedly signed by Jesus himself. The scriptures said that, at the age of 21, Jesus came to Japan to study religion for 12 years. After returning to Judea and doing all of that well known Bible stuff, he switched places with his younger brother, who did him quite the fraternal favour by being crucified in Jesus' place.

JC then wandered the globe, apparently visiting Siberia and Alaska before settling in Shingo, where he married a Japanese woman, had three daughters, and died at the ripe old age of 106.

Of course! And we saw it. A couple of burial mounds with crosses above them, one containing the body of Christ, one a memorial to his brother.

The museum at the site had some very old, slightly frightening dummies made up to look like Jesus and his family.

There are several other supposed proofs that Jesus lived and died here, including the tradition of painting a cross on the foreheads of newborn babies, the existence of a local folk song made up of gibberish that sounds faintly Hebrew-ish, and the seal of the area being a star a little bit similar to the Star of David.

Of course, no original copy of the scriptures is known to exist now. And should we skip over the theory that the mayor of Shingo was looking for a way to boost interest in his town at the time of the documents' discovery? Still, it was an interesting diversion on our trip home, and hey, it did get us to visit Shingo.

Mount Fear

2010-08-13T12:44:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago we went to the far north of Honshuu, to Aomori, for a festival of the dead at Osorezan (literally "Mount Fear").

The area is known as the gateway to Hell, where the souls of the dead pass on to the afterlife. It is also known as the place where the souls of dead children wait for their parents. The children's souls are said to make new piles of rocks every day to keep themselves entertained. Parents leave offerings of windmills, snacks and money.

We left a miniature taiyaki, a sweet, fish-shaped waffle filled with custard.

It is also said you can communicate with the dead via mediums, elderly blind women who have been trained from a young age to speak to the souls of those passed away.

With all the sulphurous pools it was clear how the area got its reputation as the Japanese equivalent of the River Styx.

making things

2010-08-09T13:17:00.000+09:00

It's summer holidays at the moment so there is not a lot happening at school.

Plenty of time for making things.

My new favourite crochet pattern - Larksfoot.

Inspired by the lovely Pip

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...

2010-08-08T00:39:00.000+09:00

We sing this song to our primary school kids. I want to find some way to introduce them to the Hulkster's version though.

Watch Ahnuld become some sort of mecha-Mothra thing to advertise a drink. I don't really know.

Classic early nineties Keanu Reeves!

This is incredible. Nic Cage at his hammy best. TRIP-LETS?!

Nvr 2 late 2 celebrate

2010-08-06T17:29:00.000+09:00

Our friends Christa and Justin were married way back in March, and they sent these lovely paper balloons out in the post for friends and family to light in lieu of attending the wedding. Ours arrived late, then we took too long setting it off, and then we sat on the photos for a long time until finally here we are. The photos are in reverse for dramatic effect maybe?

Congratulations, guys!

pinwheels

2010-07-24T16:52:00.000+09:00

Pinwheels and Totoro's at the International Festival

2010-07-08T21:57:00.000+09:00

わたしはせいとにプレゼントをもらいました。

I got a present from a student.

Swimming with men/sumimasen

2010-07-06T22:23:00.001+09:00

Oh we have just been so busy!

Last friday night our friendly local gallery Birdo Flugas had a closing party for a sweet acquaintance of ours, Kaori, celebrating her first solo show.

Here she is, with a carved self-portrait. (We all got to wear the cute cheek patches too)

The bulk of the show was a collection of drawings of her family plus a very wee carving of her grandmother.

Oh and the party had such delicious food and drink! nom nom nom

Home-made vanilla and lemon ice-cream. The best I've ever had.

Little chip things shaped as ghosts.

Home-made umeshu (plum wine). This is my favourite Japanese drink. I would love to whip up my own batch but it takes at least a year to mature to its absolute deliciousness.

And what is a party without a cake!

This one was such a goody.

On saturday we scurried off to Tokyo again to met up with rad friends Gemma and Harriet, who were winging their way to Berlin.

It was really nice hanging out with them, just eating treats in the park, looking for felt pens, wandering the streets, hearing Christchurch stories, learning their interesting ways of remembering Japanese phrases (swimming with men = sumimasen) and enjoying NZ accents.

After a delightful izakaya dinner in Shimo-kitazawa, the thrill of World Cup quarter-finals lured me and Gareth into a 'British pub' till 5 in the morning. Gareth was able to enjoy his first IPA in almost a year. I managed to fall asleep in a large glass of cider.

Once the sun rose we popped across the road to sleep for three hours in an internet cafe cubicle on a surprisingly comfortably large vinyl couch.

Then it was one last meander round Harajuku with Gemma and Harriet before they flew off to Abu Dhabi and we bullet trained ourselves back to Sendai.

Macho macho man

2010-06-26T20:55:00.000+09:00

This strapping cigarette mascot is the talk of the town at the moment. Please bear in mind this is a real advertisement. Also, check out the price of a pack of ciggies: 290 yen, or about NZ$5. Oh, Japan.

2010-06-24T20:37:00.000+09:00

ミックスのコバです

Birthday mix cover for Jill

お単所日　おめでと

めいし

2010-06-15T18:55:00.000+09:00

私は学生に名刺をもらいました。

かわいい！

Today some students gave me their business cards.

birthday blog

2010-06-11T22:17:00.000+09:00

Last saturday was my birthday and it was lovely!

It went something like this:

Gareth indulged my every whim with a new set of paints, flowers and cupcakes. He used two recipes from the wonderful website Ming Makes Cupcakes - #33 and #27. We strongly advise baking and eating these.

The lovely crafternoon ladies came round for crafting and champagne.

Then for dinner we filled a local Italian restaurant owned by a swing dancer and her artist husband "Brian".

And no Japanese party would be complete without some karaoke. Here is Gareth being a charming man.

Thanks for all the sweet presents and birthday wishes sent from the lovely folk in NZ.

It made me feel not so far from home!

Big Smile

2010-06-11T21:57:00.000+09:00

I have been dabbling with toy cameras lately.

Let me introduce Peko Chan!

Pink!

We call this dog Rock Dog.
He often sits next to a rock which resembles himself in size, shape and colouring remarkably.