The look of rice when it's nearly ready for harvest. This particular field was just behind the church, but we saw similar fields all around Kumamoto. They were beautiful!
posted by jcm
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Every week after church, everyone troops down to the dining room, where they all have lunch together. At least once a month, the menu is Japanese style curry rice, and jackpot!, that's what it was the day we were there. So delicious! Rare moment, Koji thought so too and cleaned his plate~
posted by jcm
After church we went to a roller luge park. The roller luge was AWESOME and I wanted to speed down those hills many more times than the three I did (but it turned out to be just as well I stopped at three, the next day my arms and shoulders were sore from all that clinging to the clattering handles). When we had exhausted our luge tickets, we moved the party to this park on a hill next door. Koji was so enamored of this roller slide that though he slid down at least 20--30--40?! times, he still screamed protest when we decided to leave.
posted by jcm
Aogu's oldest friends from Ashikita Church: to the left, the Yamamotos, in the back right corner, the Fujiwaras, next to them, Hannah's family, and the bottom right, Shu-chan's younger sister Masami-san and her family. All wonderful, hospitable people; I'm so thankful we were able to spend the day with them!
posted by jcm
Here's the meal I ordered at the local greasy ramen shop we went to with the Yamamoto family: pork broth with green onions, gyoza (potstickers) and fried rice. My plan was to share with Koji, but he wasn't up for any of it and ended up making dinner out of what you see in the next photo.
posted by jcm
It was Monday morning: Aogu had flown back to Tokyo for work, and Koji was fired up to ride the Kumamoto streetcars: they reminded him of Thomas' friend Toby. They reminded me of the MAX in Portland, but with older cars, with many more random ads painted on the sides, and with more frequent service.
posted by jcm<
Tuesday morning, we walked Yumi to kindergarten with Sayuri-san. Her class starts at 10, but the grounds open at nine and the children are free to arrive anytime during the hour to play. Koji ran right up the ladder to drive this airplane as if he'd been attending this school his whole life! When Yumi's class started and all the kids went inside, I literally had to drag him away kicking and screaming, though he had played for almost an hour.
posted by jcm
Soba noodle and ginger pork lunch set that I ordered when Koji and I went out with Yukiko (host sister from Kanazawa days--that was 15 years ago?!) and her son Takeru before heading to their house for an afternoon play date. I ordered it thinking Koji would eat the soba. Instead, he became fixated on Takeru's udon, to the point that halfway through the meal I had to order another bowl so I could replace what Koji had "borrowed" from him!
posted by jcm
Auntie Hannah and Koji; notice the shrimp in the background? They were covered with a mild spicy red pepperish flavor and I was instructed to eat them absolutely whole, with no thought for peeling or removing things like heads or legs...so I did, and I have to admit they tasted pretty good. Good enough to eat two. Couldn't do a third.
posted by jcm
Koji's main dish: a cake with a piece of grapefruit in the middle. No, he's not normally allowed to choose cake as his main dishes, but many rules were excepted on the trip as his excitement level was stratospheric and eating wasn't in his stratosphere...unless it was cake or shave ice or...
posted by jcm
Aogu amassed this collection of "Kuma jochu," which is shochu made in Kumamoto, during our trip. Since, he's given some of it away, and the rest he's drinking little by little. None for me thanks! But Koji's intrigued...and hard-pressed to understand why he's not allowed to taste Papa's "medicine".
posted by jcm<
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Mountains, Monkeys, Mini Sumo Wrestlers
Day three in Kyushu: on the drive from Kumamoto to Mt. Aso, we stopped at a turn-out. The view was great, but we didn't take pictures of it because we were too busy with shots like this. Left to right, Yurie, Koji and Yumi. As previously mentioned, Yurie is Aogu's 6-year-old niece. Yumi is Aogu's cousin Hiromitsu's 5-year-old daughter. Got that?
Unfortunately when we arrived at the bottom of the ropeway which leads to the active crater of Mt. Aso, the ropeway was temporarily shut down because of there was some kind of mini-eruption going on. Or something. We waited in the gift shop for more than an hour, but volcanic activity wasn't on our side, so we gave up and left. From there we went to the Monkey Theatre and saw a "show" featuring two performing monkeys. I was alarmed to see that the monkeys were kept in collars at the ends of two long ropes, whatever jumps, flips and spins they did. Not that I know anything about monkeys, maybe they really would have run away if they weren't on a rope to their trainer. But if so, then why force them to do a show? I'm the furthest thing from an animal activist, and yet it struck me as an odd scene. Anyway, ropes and collars or not, this particular stunt was impressive: these stilts were flat on the stage, and the monkey picked them up and climbed to the top of them at the same time, ending in the position you see here.
From there we proceeded to Aso Farmland Village, which I'm too lazy to link to. This was like the mother of all souvenir shops, with a couple of restaurants, a petting zoo and a spa. We had lunch at one of the restaurants (I'm brilliant with the details, aren't I?) where Koji's highlight was drinking melon soda with Yumi.
Next we were off to the petting zoo. Koji was bolder than I expected. In fact, with the exception of the ostriches, the llama and the cow, I think he managed to touch every single animal there, and it wasn't exactly a small petting zoo. But he is still a relatively small boy, and that's why he was allowed to have a seat on the back of this giant turtle. He's sitting right on top of the sign taped to the turtle's shell that says "do not sit on me".
Koji's boldest move is pictured to the left. He walked right up to this capybara and petted it as shown. At the time, I didn't even know what it was so I was slightly alarmed. I think Aogu may have suggested that it was some kind of huge mouse, which I didn't want to believe. But actually, he was right!From there, we drove back to Kumamoto, arriving a little early for our dinner reservation at a tofu restaurant. Aogu's aunt, Rumi-obachan, is the one who kindly made the arrangements, so this time I have a legitimate excuse for not knowing where I was...The restaurant's specialty is tofu, and we had several courses which were all exquisitely arranged. Most-but not all-items also tasted correspondingly exquisite. Thank God we had our own private tatami room. Koji enjoyed challenging the cousins (who weigh the same amount as him though they are three and four years older!) to rounds of sumo. Having watched much sumo, on this day, he figured that he needs to wipe his brow and his armpits to prepare for a match. Japanese restaurants are convenient like that: we had been supplied with lots of small, wet towels to wipe our hands before the meal. They were perfect for Koji's pre-match hygenic needs....
Monday, October 03, 2005
Shame on You, Auntie
How could I be so careless as to not report that as of last week on Wednesday (I think, I'm always mixing dates up because I'm not in same time zone!) Mr. Eli Benjamin Case has departed from Doernbecher Hospital and is now living in Salem, OR with his mommy, daddy and big brother Ollie?Thank you, Jesus!
And thanks to all of you for praying. Please continue to do so. Thankfully Eli is strong enough now to be home, but he's not quite strong enough to take in all necessary nourishment by mouth. So he still needs a feeding tube, which I'm pretty sure is not much fun for him or my sister (though it's much more fun than having him in the hospital...).
I will continue to keep you posted and I promise to be more prompt next time! Or, if you are very curious, head to Life on Ollie Lane.
70 Down, 69 to Go?!
I didn't have any plans for Koji and myself today.
When will I next be able to make this statement? Not anytime this month; for lo, our departure from Tokyo looms in less than four weeks. For the curious and precise, we will be leaving Tokyo on October 30 at 7 pm and arriving in Chicago the same day around 3 pm. Isn't that weird? Going from here to the U.S. feels like something of a time warp, and yet it's also the longest day, with the most eating, ever.
Tangent. The point is, for the rest of this month, I've booked Koji into nursery school every Wednesday and Friday morning since I know that he and I both will miss it very much when we aren't here. Also, we've made various appointments and plans to catch up with friends one last time, and the very few days that aren't already taken up with either of these things will likely be swallowed up in packing.
But for now it's too early to pack, and though I still feel less than peppy coming off the Kumamoto trip, staying in the room all day is a little too claustrophobic. And, the Stamp Rally is looming!
There was no way I was up for the 32 station marathon that Koji and I did the other week. If I'm feeling a little tired now, maybe it's a fatigue that started back then?! That was too much, even for me!
However, I really really want that Tokyo Metro bag...and there are only 25 stamping days left before riding the Metro isn't an option anymore.
So today, we managed to finish off the line we live on, Nanboku. We went to 10 stations and collected 11 stamps. This means that we are three lines down (Hibiya, Chiyoda and Nanboku) and five to go (Marunouchi, Tozai, Yurakucho, Ginza, Hanzomon). As I mentioned previously there are 139 stations in the Metro system. We have now visited at least half of them, and we have 69 more blank spaces in our book, waiting to be stamped.
I'm such a nerd about this...I might have to ask the fam to sacrafice Saturday morning pancakes this week so I can race out and try to conquer the Metro by myself?! I do think the process would be a bit faster, were I not simultaneously trying to entertain, placate, discipline, feed, hydrate and/or wrestle with a small boy.
Ah, these ARE the good old days, right here and now.
When will I next be able to make this statement? Not anytime this month; for lo, our departure from Tokyo looms in less than four weeks. For the curious and precise, we will be leaving Tokyo on October 30 at 7 pm and arriving in Chicago the same day around 3 pm. Isn't that weird? Going from here to the U.S. feels like something of a time warp, and yet it's also the longest day, with the most eating, ever.
Tangent. The point is, for the rest of this month, I've booked Koji into nursery school every Wednesday and Friday morning since I know that he and I both will miss it very much when we aren't here. Also, we've made various appointments and plans to catch up with friends one last time, and the very few days that aren't already taken up with either of these things will likely be swallowed up in packing.
But for now it's too early to pack, and though I still feel less than peppy coming off the Kumamoto trip, staying in the room all day is a little too claustrophobic. And, the Stamp Rally is looming!
There was no way I was up for the 32 station marathon that Koji and I did the other week. If I'm feeling a little tired now, maybe it's a fatigue that started back then?! That was too much, even for me!
However, I really really want that Tokyo Metro bag...and there are only 25 stamping days left before riding the Metro isn't an option anymore.
So today, we managed to finish off the line we live on, Nanboku. We went to 10 stations and collected 11 stamps. This means that we are three lines down (Hibiya, Chiyoda and Nanboku) and five to go (Marunouchi, Tozai, Yurakucho, Ginza, Hanzomon). As I mentioned previously there are 139 stations in the Metro system. We have now visited at least half of them, and we have 69 more blank spaces in our book, waiting to be stamped.
I'm such a nerd about this...I might have to ask the fam to sacrafice Saturday morning pancakes this week so I can race out and try to conquer the Metro by myself?! I do think the process would be a bit faster, were I not simultaneously trying to entertain, placate, discipline, feed, hydrate and/or wrestle with a small boy.
Ah, these ARE the good old days, right here and now.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
This "guard" and his companion, dressed in similar fashion, were posted at either side of the gates to Kumamoto Castle. In spite of all of our efforts to persuade Koji that the guard was a friendly "oniichan" (elder brother), he would have none of it. This desperate clutch on my neck is as close as he would get. Oh well, at least we reaped a smile from the guard, who, prior to the "win Koji over" campaign, was quite stoic.
posted by jcm
Lunch at Hokuyu, a ramen restaurant, or should I say, ramen counter? We sat in a line in front of this red counter and watched hungrily as two men and a lady boiled up our ramen and fried up our gyoza (potstickers). When they were finished, this is what we got. The angle of this photo doesn't do justice to the enormity of the bowl of noodles and vegetables that you see here! For a long time, I ate and slurped and swallowed and shoveled, and all my efforts made no difference to the amount of food in the bowl. Koji helped a little, but not much; mostly he just ate up all the wontons (that I had ordered for me!) and ignored the noodles, which were the real problem. A tasty problem they were though; Kumamoto is famous for ramen that is nestled in tonkotsu (pork marrow?) style broth, and now I know why! Oishii!
posted by jcm
Let me introduce you to Aogu's maternal Obaachan (grandmother), Shizuko Higashi. She is 82 (we think, we might be off by a year or two) and she lives in a home for the elderly in Hitoyoshi, which is about an hour south of Kumamoto by car. We spent more than an hour visiting her. She didn't seem to know us at first, but as we were there longer she seemed to remember meeting me five years ago, and that Aogu is her grandson! Whatever she's forgotten, she has no trouble enjoying her sweets. The carrot cake that I brought for her was gone in an instant! We are so thankful that we got to spend time with her.
posted by jcm
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Kumamoto Literally Means "Bear Base"
We arrived in Kumamoto on Thursday afternoon, the 22nd of last month (why does time go so quickly?!!). After a quiet afternoon at Aogu's sister's place, we met up with her husband for dinner at this restaurant, which had a name that I'm not detailed oriented enough to remember. It did boast a lovely view of Kumamoto Castle and some other wonders which are described below. "Bear" with me--haha--on this Kumamoto round up, I can tell it's going to take me a few days to get through it!
posted by jcm
This is the "pond" that was in the middle of the restaurant and bordered our seats. The squid that can been seen ever so faintly at the top of the picture were for sale to anyone who would instruct the chef to pull them out and slice them up--as were all the other fish in the pond! Thankfully none of the kids fell in; who knows what we would have had to pay to have them fished back out
posted by jcm
Horse meat is a Kumamoto specialty, though somehow the Japanese term "basashi"--which technically means raw horse meat--sounds a little more elegant. In any case, though I was up for trying the meat, I was not ready to venture into the raw camp. Fortunately, this little dish of raw meat and vegetables also came with a little grill. We were able to finish our meat to personal preference and then dip away in the partitioned dishes. All those sauces, and the one that ended up complimenting horse meat the best was the salt in the lower left corner!
posted by jcm
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