Thanksgiving in Japan

Hi patient blog-readers!

Chris and I cooked our own Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday. Obviously the Japanese do not celebrate Thanksgiving (although they do have a national holiday on Nov 23rd called Labour Thanksgiving, but it's not a big deal) so we both had to work on the actual holiday.

Dinner posed a bit of a quandary for us, as we are pretty limited in cooking equipment/resources. The Japanese don't really eat turkey (never seen it once, in 8 months) so that was out of the question. Not that we had an oven to cook one in anyway. We wanted to find something at least a little special to base the dinner around, so Chris cooked up some pepper steaks. I took a step into the unknown and made Beer Cheese Soup for the first time, and cobbled together something that was based in part on an online recipe, as well as what was available in the store. It ended up being pretty tasty, but you wouldn't want a very big helping ;) Good for roll dipping, though. I love yams, so we got the closest thing to them: Imo . I mashed them with some butter and milk, then sprinkled brown sugar over the top - delicious!

We found some kind of odd little cake for dessert, and I also made some no-bake chocolate peanut butter corn flake treats.

All in all, a pretty good mini-feast. We missed our family and friends, but we managed to create some of the normal holiday spirit, and ended the evening by watching Miracle on 34th Street - the movie does start on Thanksgiving, so technically it was all within November traditions. Plus, if you know me you know I start getting pumped for Christmas pretty early, so I was dying to see a holiday classic.

Check out the pics from our little dinner:

"Climbing" Tskuba-san

Last weekend on Sunday (Nov. 8th) Tessa and I climbed Mt. Tsukuba. They call it "Tsukuba-san" (kinda like "scuba-sahn"), the "san" suffix being the same they apply to people to denote honor or reverence. Basically they call it Mr. Tsukuba. Anyways, while it's not the world famous Mt. Fuji, it is locally quite famous, and we have been trying to get a chance to get out there to climb it for a while now. It is 2,877 feet high (for some really interesting historical info go here). It's almost a two hour drive from the trail head, so we left home at about 9:30 am to make a day of it. I have to admit that when we got to the base of the mountain, we were a little intimidated. Both of us have gotten a bit out of shape recently, not having much to do but hole ourselves up in our apartment, so the looming mountain looked quite daunting. We decided that this time we would forgo the actual hiking up the mountain trail in favor of the cable car that takes you up to the middle of the two peaks. Mt. Tsukuba has two peaks, a male and a female side. The cable car is angled like the steep side of the mountain and took us straight up the steep (35% grade at some points) mountainside in ten minutes. Once the cable car got us to the middle of the two peaks, we picked the male side and began the hike up. It was strenuous, but not too far. At the top there was a small Shinto shrine, and we witnessed some people praying at it. Unfortunately, it was a bit foggy at the top, so our view was a bit obscured. Usually one can have a panoramic view of the whole Kanto plane, but alas. Maybe next time. On our way down the peak, we randomly ran into our coordinator from our company. She and her group had hiked all the way up the mountain (next time, I vowed) and poked fun at us for taking the cable car up. We then decided to hike down the mountain, which we did. It took about an hour and a half with rests, and it really wasn't easy. The trail was quite rocky and rooty from all of the trees, but we made it. So yeah, we may not have climbed *up* the mountain, but we climbed *down* it; that has to count for something, right? I'll answer that question, yes, yes it does. The following three days, Tessa's and my legs were INCREDIBLY sore (did I mention we were out of shape?). Walking up stairs was tough, but walking down them was torturous. I also heard later from seasoned Tsukuba-san scalers that going down was more difficult, so there you go. Anyways, we got some great pictures, this area of Japan is really beautiful in the fall, and not too cold yet too. The first picture is from my iPhone of a sunset over Lake Kasumigaura, and you can see Mt. Tsukuba in the distance. I took it about a month ago, but I added it here to give a bit of perspective. Enjoy!

Beautiful sunset. Mt. Tsukuba is left of center in this shot.



The beautiful fall mountainside.

I am conquering Mt. Tsukuba!

Scaling the rocks.

The shrine at the top of the male peak.


Beautiful fall colors at the top of the male peak.


The view of the cable car tracks down the mountainside.

Action shot of the cable car moving down the mountain.

Pros and Cons of Living in a Rural Area

Sorry again for the lack of updates. So as anyone who has read this blog or talked to us since we've been here knows, we live in Japanese farm country. Not just rice mind you, but sweet potatoes ("imo"), corn, pumpkins, persimmons, watermelons, wheat, etc. Most people in this area live the "simple life" of rustic farm folk. Then you have us citified foreigners ("gaijin"). We stick out pretty well here, sometimes getting double takes from people or stares from children. This actually is part of the reason why our jobs exist, to help acclimate Japanese children into seeing a non-Japanese person. It is important in a country where 99% are Japanese and 99.9% are Asian, and especially important in rural area where the numbers are further skewed. Living in this rural area has pros and cons.

Cons: Boring, Isolated, Expensive to Travel
Not much to do here. No nightlife to speak of, and very few people who speak English around us. It's a good thing Tessa and I have each other here, or else I don't think we would be able to do this. There is a feeling of isolation when you know of only one other native English speaker within a 30 minute drive from where we live (and he doesn't really have anything in common with us). There are a few other people we've met around the area, but they live further away, and it's difficult to get together sometimes. Also, if we want to visit a bigger city, like say, Tokyo, it takes a long time and can be pretty expensive. We were thinking of going to Hokkaido for winter break, but couldn't afford the travel, so we are going to spend three nights in Tokyo in January.

Pro: Quiet, Nice Scenery, Inexpensive, Cultural Experience
Hey, what the heck are those things in the sky? Stars? Huh? Being away from a major city center is a nice and quiet life free of bright lights and noise. It is kind of nice. There is also some beautiful scenery and sunsets. It's not nearly as expensive as living in the city, for rent or for buying everyday items. There also is a nice extra cultural experience. Now I know what you're saying, isn't just living in Japan itself a cultural experience? Well yeah, I suppose it is, but living in the sticks gives us a chance to experience a life that few foreigners get to see. It's that kind of experience that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my life.

A couple of weeks ago I heard some drumming coming from outside our apartment, so I went to investigate. Around the corner, I saw a large cart on large wooden wheels sitting in the parking lot of the city hall. It was topped by a large statue of what looked like a Japanese Samurai. Down the street, I saw many Japanese men and children dressed in traditional clothing pulling ropes attached to another one, pulling it down the street. It was also topped by a statue, and a bunch of Japanese men playing traditional flutes and drums. I watched another one get pulled in too. After they were pulled in, the adults kicked back and started drinking beer and Chu-Hi (sorta like a Japanese Mike's Hard drink). At 9:45 am. That's just how they roll here though, I suppose. This was all part of some sort of local town festival. Anyways, I bring this up because I just think that we're pretty fortunate to see this kind of thing. How many Americans have seen these festivities specific to the tiny town of Aso in the small city of Namegata in the rural Prefecture of Ibaraki? Not many. But Tessa and I have, and so will you (in pictures below):











Night shot!