Izumo Taisha

Momo & Shimpei visited us from Tokyo, and we met them in Izumo, which is home to one of the most important shrines in the land. The shrine's resident deity is known for matchmaking, so it's a magnet for singles looking for partners. In October, all Shinto deities come to Izumo for a pow-wow, so the shrine also doubles as a hotel. But the coolest thing about a trip to Izumo is trying to lodge a coin in the enormous rice straw rope. Lori is a natural but the rest of us struggled ...

Monday/Sunday in Yasugi

Today was a perfect spring day ... in mid-June. The rainy season has already begun south of here but it hasn't yet reached Yasugi, so the temperature has remained cool. Today we decided to take off for the Adachi Museum, which is about five miles away. The art was so-so: the collection included a few "I-could-have-done-that" pieces, and even a few "he-could-have-done-that-too" ones, too. The garden was the best part. I'm not sure how you could ever decide, but some organization has rated it the best garden in Japan for the past four years. It was not the sort of place you'd expect to find in the middle of nowhere. After getting back from the museum, we met Yamamoto-san while walking through the backstreets. He's a fifth-generation sake brewer who just last year had to close down the family business because it was losing money. He invited us in for tea and even showed us the brewery, which was just out in back. He invited us back any time, so I'm sure we'll see him again before we return to Tokyo next month. After lunch, we hiked to the top of Tokamiyama (a.k.a. "Ten God Mountain"), which juts into the nearby "Inland Sea." It's 5:30 p.m. and we're zapped. Lori's taking a nap and I'm listening to some of the 25gb of music Tim hooked us up with yesterday. More on life here later!

A day spent with Tim & Zach

As of last Monday, we're living in Yasugi, where Hitachi Metals has its largest factory. More on that in a future post. Today was our first Sunday (actually more like a Saturday since the "weekend" here is Sunday/Monday), so we hopped the train for Yonago and spent a kooky day with Tim & Zach Wiltshire, two buddies of mine from my days teaching English way back when. They're characters by any measure and not the sort you'd expect to come across in the middle of nowhere. We met them for lunch at my old favorite restaurant, Kashimir Darbar, where Hiroko-san still serves up delicious eats. Zach seems to have stepped out of a cartoon book and Tim holds his own. An old friend, Maki, joined us for lunch, too. After eating, we all piled into cars and headed for the local "studio," where we rented a room with a drum kit and made an enormous racket for a few hours. Tim & I used to play in a band, "Yobo-Yobo," and so I suppose this was a reunion of sorts. Rough around the edges but a blast just the same. There's now chatter about a party/gig at a gal named Miho's place in late June -- more on that if it ever materializes. After the musical freak-out, we picked up some beers and random snacks and trekked up the hill to the remains of the old Yonago castle to catch the sunset, and it was a stunner. You get a 360 degree view from up there and the sky tonight was crisp. As for the picture of Lori as a Japanese maiden, that's random waiting-for-the-train entertainment. As for the stuffed animals on the rattan chair, you would have to meet Tim & Zach to understand and I'm not sure any explanation I could offer would cut it. They have the most charming bunny rabbit, Nugget-Head (although they change its name daily), I've ever met; might have to get one of our own one day. It was a charmed day!

Alis & Loren Take Tokyo

We rounded out the month of May with a fantastic visit from two friends from the US - Alis Whitt (Charleston across-the-street neighbor and metaphorical next-door neighbor for life), and Loren Schwerd (sculptor/artist extraordinaire formerly of CofC and currently of LSU). It was great fun tooling around Tokyo with them - seeing everything againthrough two pairs of super-fresh and always unconventional eyes. We hit the wedding jackpot at Meiji Shrine in Harajuku on their first full day here (see pics below).
The next few days were a whirlwind of coz play zoku, kaiten sushi, trying on Issey Miyake, being menanced by an angry crow, cruising the Seibu food floor, making gyoza, missing the Chocolate show, drinking beer, getting turned away for eel, joining a takarazuka fan club, seeing antique matchbooks, collecting fortunes at Senso-ji lounging in the outdoor bath, etc, etc. Mid week, Alis, Loren and I, along with my good friend Momo, headed north for an overnighter at a ryokan in Nikko. Alis and Loren then spent three days/two nights in glorious Kyoto before heading back to Tokyo where we had a fabulous dinner together in a swanky izakaya in Ginza. Check out the pictures below for a little glimpse into our action-packed week of festivities. It was so much fun to share this adventure with great friends - thanks for coming you guys!!!

here comes the train ...

It's been a while since our last post. The main reason: our computer's hard-drive completely melted down, leaving us in limbo for weeks. We'd actually bought an external hard-drive for backups the very same day. Alas, we hadn't yet transferred our files when the crash took place. Aarg! Well, we're back up and running, and, as of this past Monday, spending all of June in Yasugi, where the Hitachi's flagship steel factory is located. It's a stone's throw from where I lived and taught 12 years ago, so I feel right at home. Lori's catching up quickly.

As for this particular post, I spent most of May at the company's management training center in Yasugi north of Tokyo. One of the upsides was riding there and back on the shinkansen (a.k.a. the bullet train). If you have no sense for how fast the thing can go, here's a video of one screaming through Jomokogen station. I don't even think it's going as fast as it's capable of going, but you'll get the idea.