More festivals and fun!

The past couple weeks have been so busy. We have not had much downtime with all of the festivals, traveling, work and time with friends. The day after our last post Audrey and I went to a lantern festival in Aboshi. Aboshi is a couple cities away so we got to experience the Japanese railway system first hand. Most of the traveling we had done previous to this was by car or bicycle so it was pretty exciting to take the train. We arrived in Aboshi on found the festival area to be much like the Arizona state Fair (minus the threat of drive by shootings and smell of cow dung). There were street vendors everywhere selling tasty food and other doodads. They even had games for the kids to play and win little prizes. The food was kind of Japanese style "state fair" food. They did have cotton candy (which our Australian friends call "fairy floss") but there was no Indian fry bread, funnel cake, deep fried oreos etc. Those treats were replaced by okonomiyaki on a stick, yakisoba, beef kabobs, crepes and cups of fried chicken. It was so interesting to see the same concepts, but Japanese style. Audrey had a crepe while I had a cup of fried chicken and its safe to say that neither of us were disappointed! The lantern festival itself is famous for its action. Neighboring cities march in like a parade, carrying large bamboo sticks with a paper lantern on the top of them. One at a time each city comes through and makes a circle in the middle of the street. This is followed by some chanting and then all of the sudden everyone screams and runs to the middle of the circle and slam their bamboo sticks and lanterns together. This goes on for hours as city after city take turns demolishing their lanterns, and each other some times! It is pretty intense(we posted a video at the bottom of this post). If all of the lanterns are not smashed they make a circle again and then do it all over again. We stayed and watched for a few hours, enjoyed the "fair" atmosphere and the food before we had to head home because we had work the next morning. Later in the week Audrey had been talking about how much she was craving sushi. Mr. Ayukawa had introduced me to a great little revolving sushi shop about 15 minutes from our apartment and it has quickly become one of our favorite spots. You sit down in a booth and next to you there is a conveyor belt that brings sushi right to your table. So as you see what you want you just grab it and dig in! The atmosphere is wonderful and it tastes delicious! Its only 100 yen (about $1) per plate so you can have a feast without spending a fortune. We ate 10 plates between the two of us and were stuffed. After our meal we rode another 20 minutes to an onsen that is on the other side of the station. This one has the no tattoo rule so I cover mine and no one makes a fuss. We went to our separate bathing areas to wind down after a long week. This has become one of our favorite date nights as we get our sushi fix and then enjoy a relaxing evening at the onsen. The only bad part is that its about a 35 minute bike ride, but well worth it! On that next Saturday we went to the Castle where they are having a chrysanthemum exhibit. They are huge with stunning purple, yellow and white blossoms. They also had bonsai and other Japanese flower arrangements so Audrey was in heaven. All I could think about when I saw the Bonsai was Karate Kid. On Sunday we went to an international food festival. People from all over the world made food from their country for everyone to try. Unfortunately, it was sprinkling, but we did not let that effect our appetite. We ate rolled tacos from Mexico, gnocci from Poland, brownies from America, chocolate cookies from New Zealand, and stew from Malaysia. We were stuffed. They had live music and other exhibits to visit so we enjoyed our multi-cultural afternoon. We have so much more to write and so little time so you will have to wait patiently for our next installment. We hope all is going well in your neck of the woods. We miss and love you all!

Audrey getting her fill of gnocci
Chrysanthemums
Enjoying our afternoon together
Audrey and our stack of sushi plates
Once you start eating its hard to stop... especially when it keeps coming around and taunting you!

Lanterns about to be destroyed
Massive portable shrine... I so glad I didn't have to carry that one!

Video of lantern destruction at its finest!

Festival Season

Hey everyone... sorry it has been so long since we last blogged. We have been so busy with festivals and new friends that we haven't found much time to blog. So I will give you a rundown of what has been going on over here since our last update. Work for Audrey and I has been going very well lately. We feel like we are finally getting in the groove of things and our students are starting to warm up to us even. Audrey and I both enjoy taking our lunches down to the cafeteria and eating with the kids. I just love how their faces light up when I walk in. I'm not sure if its excitement that I am there or just that they are stunned to see a teacher in the cafeteria... much less an American teacher. It is also a less intimidating environment for them to speak which allows them to relax a little and not worry about making mistakes. I have also enjoyed the opportunity to think outside the box and try to be creative with many of my lessons. Audrey is less fortunate at her school as much of her curriculum is mapped out for her. We are both building great relationships with the other English teachers which makes a more enjoyable work environment. Next week we are teaching a lesson on Halloween and its origins as well as introducing many of our Halloween traditions in the U.S. We will probably wrap up the lesson by playing Halloween Bingo which I am sure they will love.

On the 12th we had a matsuri festival for our community. We live in the Shinzaike area of Himeji so we dressed in our towns "Happy Coats" and marched around the neighborhood pulling a portable shrine on wheels. When we saw our town shrine for the first time we were awestruck. It is so ornate and beautiful. Someone told us that these shrines cost upwards of $250,000. It was huge... easily big enough for two 10 year old boys to sit inside with a drum that that they kept a beat on through out the day. As we marched through the streets we all shouted "yo yasah" "yo yasah" which apparently means nothing... I guess it just sounds good? We started at 8:00 a.m. and stopped marching around 12:00. We would take occasional breaks and the men in the town... including me... would say some chant and lift the shrine up off the wheels. Then we would chant some more and lift it over our heads. Only to chant some more and begin shaking it... over our heads. Then we would lower it onto our shoulders and walk in circles and then shake it some more. I never could figure out when to lift or when to drop it etc. but I just followed what everyone else was doing. This shrine had to weigh a couple thousand pounds and it seemed to get heavier and heavier as the day went on. At noon we stopped at a park near our apartment where we parked the shrine and had lunch. There were lion dancers that did some awesome dances for entertainment. Just as we were starting to relax three other towns showed up with their shrines... so we had to battle. This entails lining the shrines up side by side and everyone screaming at the top of their lungs as we tried to jostle each other for position and push each other.... without dropping or breaking the shrines of course. Then we would have to show off and lift it over our heads and shake it and yell some more. This lasted for about 30 minutes and drained every ounce of energy in my body. By this time it was already 3:00 so Audrey and I went home to shower and get ready for the dinner party they were having for us at 4:00 that evening. After a cold shower and some relaxing we headed to dinner. They had quite a spread for us but unfortunately we had to eat at the low tables where you sit on the ground. This would all be well and good except for the fact that I am not capable of sitting on the ground that way. For some reason when God made me he gave me giant thighs that are not really meant to be curled up. Needless to say sitting "Indian style" or as Audrey calls it "criss cross apple sauce" just doesn't work for me. None the less we had a wonder day and dinner with the people from our community and look forward to many more time like these.

Thank goodness the 13th was a holiday so we had no school. We were absolutely beat from our exciting day on Sunday but were looking forward to our plans to go into the mountains with Mr. Ayukawa for a little Onsen action and shopping at a farmers market. The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day for a drive. Once we got there we shopped for some fresh produce. Then we got some lunch and headed for the Onsen. Oh man was that just what the doctor ordered. Once again I was the last one out... but I didn't care because I could not bring myself to get out. The open air bath was easily the best one that we have been to so far and the view was amazing as the leaves are changing colors and there was a little stream running next to the bath. I was even more excited because no one was giving me a hard time for my tattoo so I could keep my towel in the proper spot as I walked from bath to bath! After bathing we headed home and got ready for the week rest of our week which ended up being pretty uneventful.

On Saturday we were invited to lunch at the home of one of Audrey's co-workers. She lives pretty far from our Apartment so she was kind enough to pick us up. She had a beautiful family that we really enjoyed spending time with. Her daughter spoke perfect English as they are only 3 years removed from living in Australia. Her husband barbecued shrimp and chicken kabobs and steak. It was so delicious! We also had fish, salad and grapes that were the size of golf balls. After lunch and chatting we went inside and had tea and chatted some more. After 6 hours at her home she decided that she would take us home leaving us feeling very blessed to have been able to spend so much time with our new friends.

Sunday we went to church! I had begged Mr. Ayukawa to ask around and find us a church in our area, which he graciously did for us. The previous Friday he announced that he had found one and that he would take me during our lunch break so I could check it out. When we got their we rang the bell on the front door and the pastor greeted us and invited us up for coffee. We met his wife and the youth evangelist who speaks impeccable English which was quite a blessing. The pastor speaks good conversational English but has a hard time getting too in depth in our conversations but Masako was always able to bridge that gap. As we were chatting they were asking all kinds of questions about Audrey and I and then they asked if we were going home for Christmas. I told him that we were not and he promptly replied " well then you will spend Christmas with my family." I was absolutely blown away by his kindness... I mean I am just some Joe Shmoe off the street and he was all ready to have us come to his home for Christmas. So on Sunday Audrey and I went to the morning service and had an amazing time! We met a couple more people who spoke English.  One of the young men is actually an English teacher at a nearby Jr. High School and he translated the message flawlessly for Audrey and I. The pastors words really spoke to our hearts and we were almost moved to tears as we listened to this group of believers sing praise songs. It kinda opens your eyes to how BIG God really is when you see other people around the world worshiping him in a totally different language.  In true Japanese style we had tea after the service and then Audrey and I had to rush out of there because we had another engagement across town that one of my University students had invited us to.  She is a piano teacher and her students were playing at a community event and she wanted us to come watch.  We are so glad that we went because we got much more than we bargained for.  They had a kimono fashion show, they played beautiful Japanese instruments and sang traditional Japanese songs.  By the time we were done there it was almost 5:00 and we were starving because we hadn't had dinner yet.  Thankfully our favorite Japanese restaurant was on our way home so we stopped in for some yakisoba (my favorite) and okonomiyaki (Audrey's favorite).  It was delicious as usual and we definitely went home happy... and a little heavier for sure.  This week the students at Himeji high school and Kotogaoka are taking their midterms so Audrey and I have had a smaller work load.  I had to write the exam for my students and then grade them when they finished.  It took me pretty much all day but I graded all 280 so now I just have to input all of the grades.  Audrey got lucky and somehow has other teachers that are grading the test for her... needless to say I am pretty jealous.  Once again we have exciting plans for these next couple weekends but you will have to check back with us soon as we will do our best to keep you posted.  We hope all is going well for everyone back home.  We love you and miss you!!

Andre and I getting ready to lift the shrine over our heads as we jostle with a neighboring shrine

Audrey and I in front of the shrine while it was parked for one of our breaks

Me with the lion dancers... I had to give the lion noogie!

Thats me with the lion head on... I know some of you are thinking that it is a little easier on the eyes than my normal head:)

A picture from up in the mountains when we went to the onsen... the scenery around her is just beautiful

Lunch at Kondo sensei's house

Kimono fashion show

Traditional Japanese music

Our favorite chef and my yakisoba... she makes it right there on the hot tops in front of us!!!

Spoiled Rotten!

For the past couple of weeks Josh's University students have been planning a day long outing for us. So on Saturday morning six of his students picked us up around 10am and promptly split us up into two cars so that they could practice their English during the 2 hour car ride up into the mountains. We enjoyed the car ride as we were able to get to know Josh's students a little better and we especially enjoyed the scenery as we got farther up the mountain into the more rural area. About an hour into the drive they decided to stop for a quick rest and we found a mini market where they bought a flat of pears from that region to split between themselves and one of the ladies also treated us to a little snack. It was like a stuffed pancake that was shaped like a fish. Inside the pancake was a sweet bean paste which is pretty high on Josh's list of Japanese foods he could go without eating. After the pit stop we hopped back into the cars and drove another 45 minutes or so to a Somen noodle restaurant. When we got there the students paid for our lunch ticket and we all sat down at a stainless steel counter that was located on the back porch of the restaurant. Across from us was a building with what looked like rain gutters coming down from it and towards us flowing with fresh water. At the end of the rain gutters was an empty strainer. However, the strainer wasn't empty for long! As soon as we gave the lady our lunch ticket and sat down, somen noodles started flowing down the gutters and into our strainers. Josh's students are pros with the chopsticks and quickly scooped the noodles up with their chopsticks and put them into another cup that was in front of us. (That cup had some kind of soy sauce in it and we had the choice to put green onion and wasabi in it as well.) Then they slurped up the noodles before the next clump came into their strainer. Josh and I, still being chop stick beginners and easily amused by the way our food was being served to us, took a bit longer. The last bunch of noodles came down the gutter with a cherry in it which signified the end of our lunch. While the noodles were delicious it was no match for the presentation! Josh is still trying to figure our how we can replicate the experience when we get back to Phoenix:) After our large lunch, the students took us to pick apples at the Hara Apple Farm. They paid 500 yen for us to get in and while we were inside we were able to eat as many apples as we could for free and then we had to pay for the other apples that we picked. So as we were walking along and deciding which trees to pick from the students told us that we should pick the ones that were up high because the sun hits those the most and they are the ripest. Also since Josh was the tallest one in our group they wanted him to get the high ones. We were under the impression that they wanted us to get the apples for all of us to share. So Josh had a brilliant idea to use his hands as a stirrup and hoist me up into the trees to pick the ripest apples for everyone. Once I had picked a quite few and came down we noticed that everyone had taken off and left us with a ton of apples. As Josh would say "WELL CRAP." So we grabbed our baskets of 20 or so apples and set off to find Josh's students in hope of pawning some of these apples off on them so that we wouldn't have to pay for them on the way out of the park. Much to our dismay everyone had picked their own apples and were not looking to take on anymore. One of Josh's students said that he probably needed to eat about 3 apples to get his moneys worth because apples are so expensive here in Japan, so we figured we needed to do the same. After we rinsed our apples we noticed that everyone was peeling them before they ate them, so we figured "when in Rome" and Josh started peeling away. I was able to eat 2 and a half apples while Josh managed to eat 4 and a half. The whole time we were sitting there Josh, in his ever frugal self was trying to figure out what we could do with all of these apples that we had picked that no one was eating. They had told us going in that whatever we pick and don't eat we have to weigh and pay 550 yen per kilogram for. Josh had guesstimated that we had about 4 kilograms at this point and was not too keen on paying over $20 for these apples, especially since we would never be able to eat them all before they went bad. As everyone was starting to finish up we decided that we were going to need to get rid of some of our apples that had imperfections and also weren't looking too good because we didn't want to buy them all. So while Josh stayed and chatted with everyone I went and hid a few apples in various trees like little Easter eggs. Then when I got back, Mr. Tanaka brought us 3 more GIANT apples and placed them in our baskets. I'm talking softball sized apples! Mr Tanaka was so proud of them and as Josh graciously accepted I could see the dollar signs in his eyes and his brain spinning as he tried to figure out how we just got three more apples that weigh at least a kilo by themselves. So we made the trek back up to the top where we parked and paid to get in. When we got inside we put our apples on the scale and they weighed about 3kg which was about 1700 yen. As Josh was taking out his wallet to pay, Mr. Tanaka abruptly stopped him and paid for our apples. We were shocked... they had already paid for our little snack, our lunch, our ticket in, and now they were paying for our apples. What a lovely treat. So we got back into the cars and went to Maple Village, which is an onsen/resort in the mountains. These students were so thoughtful and had purposefully picked this onsen so that Josh could enter with no problems with his tattoo. It was so beautiful up in the mountains... the leaves had started to change colors and it was so very peaceful. We walked into the onsen and there was a place to wash before and after entering the baths, an inside bath with jets and bubbles, a sauna, a little nook for something like a massaging shower, and a rotemburo (outside) bath. The weather in the low 70's and relaxing in the warm bath outside in the cool air was so refreshing. One of the men told Josh that he didn't like going to onsens with his wife because women like their baths and take to long so he would have to wait... BUT not this time. The ladies in our group all came out first! Then we were followed by the two older men and finally about 5 minutes later Josh walked out. They didn't know that Josh enjoys his baths too! Before we headed home we walked up to a little playground and enjoyed other little treats that some of the ladies brought to share with everyone. Josh and I also played on a see saw for a bit while everyone was enjoying the weather and the utsucooshi (beautiful) landscape! It was about 5:30 or 6 when we finally got back to our apartment. We were all talking about what a lovely day we had and all of the students were already talking about planning another trip to take us on! As we were gathering our apples and belongings from the car they handed us 2 more bags.... one full of apples and one full of pears that they had bought at the first stop of the day. Our hands were so full that we could hardly open the door to get into our apartment. We were completely spoiled by our new friends and feel so blessed to be amongst such generous people.

Whoever thought of this contraption is soooo clever!

A close up of Josh's noodles as they came down the chute.

The last batch waiting to be devoured!

Josh showing off his new found chopstick skills... not be confused with his nunchuck skills or bow staff skills.

From left to right: Tanaka San, Kazuko San, Maumi San,
Michi San, Josh, Hino San, Audrey, and Ken San.

Hara Apple Farm

Be thankful this picture does not have sound because you would hear me screaming "hurry up and take the picutre...My hands are slipping!"

The view from the front of the onsen.

Maple Hot Spring Onsen
Higashiyama (East Mountain)

Food, friends and fun...

Well another week has come and gone and things are going wonderfully here in Himeji.  The past couple weeks have been busy with work but we have also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend some real quality time outside of work with some of our coworkers.  A couple of weeks ago Audrey and I were invited to the home of Mr. Yamamoto who once was the principal of Himeji High School and also Kotogaoka.  His wife still teaches at Himeji High School and is known through out the school as tremendous cook.  She made a delicious spread that included sushi, shrimp tempura, vegetable tempura, meatballs, a spinach and beef dish, french fries and much more.  The food was fantastic and the company was even better.  We enjoyed chatting with several English teachers from Himeji High School, the chaperone's from our exchange school in Australia, an English teacher from Audrey's school and her husband who also teaches with me at Himeji High School.  We left that night feeling stuffed and so blessed to have made such wonderful friends here in Himeji.  Saturday was another exciting day for us.  We finally got to take a tour of the Himeji Castle.  We had wonderful tour guides that spoke English very well and were incredibly knowledgeable about the Castle.  It is amazing all of the history that is associated with this castle, that was built over 400 years ago.  We could talk about it for hours and tell you all about how the castle was made as a fortress and how there are many defense mechanisms built right into the Castle and surrounding areas but if you want to know more than you will just have to come visit and see for yourself.  Then just as we were able to breath again after all the food we ate on Wednesday we were invited for another dinner party on Monday.  This time we were having dinner with the head of the international language department at Kotogaoka.  His wife made us a traditional Japanese dish called sukiyaki.  It was a hot pot filled with beef, carrots, Japanese radish, cabbage and some other mystery foods we have never seen before and cooked in soy sauce, sugar and sake.  You can check out the picture below to get a better idea.  Once again, the food was delicious and we ate way too much.  I think we actually ate more in those two nights than we typically eat in a week here in Japan.  Besides our exciting excursions everything else has been going pretty well.  We have had typhoon warnings and massive amounts of rain the past couple weeks.  We are definitely not complaining though since we don't see much of the wet stuff in the valley.  We just wish it would rain when we are NOT forced to ride our bikes.  For some reason it pours all morning and we get drenched on our ride to school.  Then of course it stops raining or slows to a sprinkle for the rest of the school day, but when 4:00 rolls around and our underwear are just about dry, it starts coming down in buckets again for the ride home.  The rain has brought much cooler weather also which is so nice.  I don't think I have ever worn a long sleeve shirt it September before but I did last week.  I think the high on Monday was 70 so it was perfect long sleeve weather.  Well, we have lots of exciting things planned for the next couple of weekends so we will do our best to keep you all in the loop.  We miss you and love you all and pray that all is well in your neck of the woods!

Our feast at Mr. and Mrs. Yamamoto's house!

Sukiyaki!!!  The dinner of Champions:)

Yes that is a whole fish cut in half... half for me and half for my lovely wife who LOVES fish!

Mr. Momoi and our Australian friend Paul who also teaches with Audrey.

The Castle in all its glory!

Audrey is completely obsessed with these seals.  Each family that lived in castle has their own seal and they can be found all over the castle.

This fish is so cool.  They told us something about how they are supposed to protect the castle from fire

An ancient Samurai outfit... they have so much great historical stuff inside the castle.