tokyo german village

On Sunday, I went to the Tokyo German Village in Sodegaura (I honestly have no idea why Tokyo is part of the name) to see their Christmas illumination! Despite the fact that it's a little hard to get to if you don't have a car (we had to take a taxi from the station), it was really beautiful and worth it.

When we got there it was still light out, but the lights were all already on and we could tell it was going to look amazing when it got dark - which it did. There were tons of lights spread across some little hills, including lots of the parks characters, which for some reason seem to be mostly half-pig half-angel (according to their site here).

Anyway, we ran across lots of fun designs such as a dragon spread out over the hills and hot air balloons, plus things like flamingos, penguins, and Santa in a boat! There was also a magician performing tricks and a light tunnel leading to the ferris wheel. Unfortunately there was a very long line even to get tickets, so we didn't think it was worth it to wait (I do love ferris wheels though), but if I come back I'll be sure to get on it next time!

I think in this case pictures will do better than words to convey what it was like, so I'll end my description here. The illumination is going on until March, so there's still lots of time to go see it if you're in Japan!

tour of tokyo

On Saturday, my supervisor took me on a mini tour of Tokyo, to places where he said he thought I wouldn't be likely to go with my friends - I was interested to find out where we'd be going, since he's a native Tokyo resident (though that sounds kind of strange, haha) - what places may not be famous but are still worth going to.

After having some ramen for lunch, we headed to our first destination, Shibamata. Apparently it's famous for being the home of Tora-san, the protagonist of the TV show and movies 'Otoko wa Tsurai Yo' (It's Tough Being A Man), which my supervisor tells me basically every Japanese person knows (I'd also heard of it before, though I've never seen it). There's even a statue of him that was erected after the death of the actor who played him, which happened to be wearing a scarf that day, haha.

Tora-san

Then we walked down some very picturesque streets that kind of reminded me of Takayama, with lots of little shops selling sweets and souvenirs, before arriving at Taishakuten Temple. What struck me the most about it was the wooden carvings on the buildings, which were very intricate and (I'm assuming) pretty old.

Monkeys!

 Since this was my first temple visit of the year, I guess that counts as my hatsumode, unless hatsumode is supposed to be done at a shrine (I have no idea, oops). At any rate, I drew an omikuji, or a paper fortune, which turned out to be the one with the most luck! Apparently work, romance, health, and everything else should go well for me this year, which is super exciting (although now that I think about it I am not sure where I put it...hope that doesn't change things, haha).

Taishakuten Temple

I had never noticed how this building is a mug of beer until my supervisor pointed it out to me!

Next we went to Asakusa, where we went on a boat ride! In Japanese it was a suijou basu, or water bus (it was definitely a boat though), but the fliers say Tokyo Cruise in English. We went along the Sumida(gawa?) River, which goes into Tokyo Bay and has a lot of bridges (we went under 13!). I was impressed because my supervisor knew most of their names and which train lines happened to cross some of them.

Managed to take a picture just as a train was coming!

We got off at Hama-rikyu Gardens, which was a really gorgeous park that apparently used to be the family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun as well as a palace garden for the Imperial family after the Meiji Restoration. It was very peaceful and pretty even in winter, which means in spring it must be really beautiful. We stopped and had tea at a teahouse there while looking out at the saltwater lake nearby, which was very relaxing. I'd love to go back there once it gets warm and flowers bloom!

Nature amidst the metropolis

After that we went back to my supervisor's place for dinner! I got to meet his family, which was great (his little boy is adorable!), and I had a really good time chatting and having dinner with them. All in all, it was a fun and excellent day. :)

Tokyo Sky Tree!

kimono beauty

At the beginning of the month, I received an invitation to the opening reception for the latest exhibit at the Chiba City Museum of Art, Kimono Beauty! Since it seemed silly to go to the opening reception without having seen the exhibit (though actually I think a lot of people at the reception went to see it right after, since the museum is open late on Fridays), I took off work a little bit early to go check it out.

As you may be able to guess from the name, the main focus of the exhibit was kimonos from the middle of the Edo Period (1603-1867) to the beginning of Showa Era (1926-1989). Some of them actually came from the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, donated by an American named William Sturgess Bigelow in the early 1900s, which I found somewhat ironic but also pretty cool.

Anyway, the kimonos were absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately I don't have any photographic evidence, as I forgot to bring my camera and I didn't want to bother people with the sound of my cell phone camera (because you can't silence the shutter sounds on Japanese cell phone cameras), so you'll have to just take my word for it (or go see it, if you're in Japan!). The basic kimono shape was the same, but there were all sorts of different designs, patterns, materials, and of course, colors! It was cool to see designs that weren't symmetrical or whether the details were dyed or embroidered, etc. Some of them kimonos also had what seemed like super modern colors and patterns to me, which made it easier to imagine them as something you could wear every day, like they used to.

There were also a lot of hair ornaments and accessories on display, which were also very cool and beautiful - I had a fun time trying to imagine how exactly they were used (since it wasn't always obvious to me, haha). Then they had obis (the sashes you use to tie up the kimonos) and books and paintings from those time periods, though I was running a little short on time so I didn't really have time to appreciate them fully.

Afterward I went up to the opening reception and heard a few remarks by the mayor, the assembly chairman, and a representative from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which was pretty cool, though I had somewhere else to be later so I didn't stay too long.

Anyway, I thought it was a really great exhibit and I definitely recommend it to anybody who can go, especially since it'll only be here until the mid-February! I think I found it especially interesting because I recently signed up for kimono lessons, aka learning how to put them on, which apparently even Japanese people don't always know how to do. My first lesson is tomorrow, so that'll be exciting! :)

mochi-making in ichihara

Last Sunday, my boss invited me to his house to help make mochi for New Year's! I'd never done it before or been to Ichihara, the city next to Chiba where he lives, so it was a good chance to discover some new things.

I met up with my boss at the station, and before going to his house we took a little detour to Umizuri Kouen, a fishing place in Ichihara. I've said it before, but somehow I always forget that 1) Japan is an island and 2) Chiba City is right by the ocean, even though I live and work really close to Chiba Port - it just doesn't feel that near - so it was nice to see the ocean! It was pretty cloudy that day, but apparently when it's clear you can see Tokyo, Chiba City, and Mt. Fuji from there. Inside the facility there was also a cute little mini museum/play area with some history of the area and a giant whale, as well as a little aquarium (with only one kind of fish, haha). We went on the pier where there were a few people fishing, too.

And then we went to his house to make mochi! Traditionally mochi was made by pounding (instead of a man in the moon, in Japan they say there are rabbits making mochi), but nowadays there are handy dandy machines, so all you do is put in the mochi rice (which is different from normal rice - we ate a little bit of it with soy sauce and it was much stickier, though still delicious) and let it do its work, which is much easier. I don't think I really thought about the fact that mochi is made from rice before, so it was pretty cool to see it go from rice to a big sticky mass!

Since the machine actually made the mochi, what I was actually helping to do was to shape the mochi into blocks, so that they could cut them later to eat during New Year's (I think). After my boss's wife skillfully grabbed the mochi out of the machine (which was constantly rotating), she split it into pieces and we flattened it out into rectangles. It was pretty hot but we covered our hands in some sort of starch, so it wasn't too bad. In the end we also formed them into little round cakes, which I guess is a little easier to store. I enjoyed shaping the mochi, since I'd never done it before, though they kept telling me it was hard to believe it was my first time (though they were probably just saying that to be nice, haha).

After that we had some of the mochi for lunch! Up until now I've only had mochi (a kind of sticky rice cake) in desserts, like mochi ice cream or mochi with red bean paste, so I didn't realize that actually mochi itself isn't sweet at all, but I guess that's what makes it so versatile: for lunch we had it with kinako (a kind of sweet powder), red bean paste, and grated daikon with soy sauce! I even had it the next day (because they were kind enough to give me some to take home) in pizza form - easy to make with a microwave, pizza sauce, and cheese, and super tasty!

Anyway, I'm really glad to have had the chance to help them make mochi, since that's definitely not an experience I would get on my own, and I enjoyed it a lot! :)

nanohana volunteer bus

So last weekend I took part of a volunteer bus to go help with recovery in Tohoku from the Great East Japan Earthquake (and tsunami)! It was a very good experience, and I may very well go again sometime (though maybe not until it gets a little warmer).

I decided to participate because I wanted to go somewhere and do something over Christmas weekend, and as I'd been thinking about volunteering before, it seemed like a perfect chance! I went on a trip organized by Nanohana Bus Company, which I had found out about via work and which I chose because I could get on at Chiba Station instead of Tokyo, which was very convenient. The fee to participate was also fairly low (10000 yen), which included transportation to and from the site, lunch, and even admission into a hot spring!

So after purchasing lots of necessary items (steel-lined rubber boots, work gloves, masks, goggles, bright blue jumpsuit, etc), I headed to Chiba Station on Saturday night, ready to spend the night on the bus before arriving in Miyagi Prefecture in the morning. The bus stopped at a few places including Chiba and Tokyo, slowly filling up with volunteers, most of whom seemed to be participating on their own like me. Because of a last-minute cancellation, I was lucky enough to have the two-seat row to myself, which made it much easier to get comfortable and sleep (though I can really sleep anywhere, haha).

Around 5:30am we stopped at a rest station to have breakfast and get changed (we did stop a couple of times during the night as well), before getting to our final destination around 8! We didn't find out exactly where we were going until shortly before we got there: a town called Minamisanriku (南三陸町), on the coast in Miyagi Prefecture, which suffered a lot of damage in the tsunami last year. According to our guide, the government has officially declared Minamisanriku as recovered, but there is still a long way to go before things can be considered normal again. On our way to our volunteer site, we could see huge piles of rocks and things still scattered about.

When we got to the site, they split us into two groups and assigned each one to a different area. The day's task: uprooting all the grass and plants that had grown over the land and then going through the soil to remove all the glass, trash, rocks, and other random objects that were buried there. We each had a little sickle (which I've never used before), and after a brief explanation, we set right to work! It wasn't easy - they told us to try and totally uproot things when possible and a lot of the plants were settled in pretty tight (I had to admire their tenacity! ), and it was tough to be constantly squatting or bending toward the ground, but the weather was bright and clear and warmer than any of us had expected (I shed several layers as the day went on), and it actually felt really nice to be outside doing some physical labor instead of sitting at a desk all day for a change!

It was also pretty interesting to see what came out of the ground, though thinking about where they had come from and how they had gotten there was also a little sobering at times. There was a lot of broken glass and concrete/cement/rocks, as well as shells, trash, plastic, and pottery fragments. A couple of interesting things I found included an electric toothbrush head and a little Donald Duck charm bracelet, and I even saw a tin lunch box somewhere.

After working for a few hours (with plenty of breaks in between), we had an hour for lunch, which was a buffet of things like yakisoba, fried rice, soup, spaghetti, etc. I had a big appetite after working all morning, and it all tasted delicious! There was a fire going outside and they were even grilling oysters (though I'm not a big fan so I didn't try any).

After lunch we went back to work until about 4pm, when we wrapped up for the day, having cleared almost all of the area they gave us! After we got back on the bus, our guide explained that the work we did, while helpful in its own right, was just as much to help encourage the spirits of the people who lived there to not give up and to keep doing their best to rebuild, which was a really interesting thought. As the earthquake/tsunami happened over a year and a half ago now, the number of volunteers and visitors to the area has definitely decreased, but apparently still having volunteers come out has been motivating to the locals (and hopefully will continue to be!).

Next we drove to the shopping street to have dinner and buy souvenirs, which was pretty cool even though they were all in makeshift buildings. I had ramen for dinner with another lady who was on my volunteer bus, and enjoyed wandering around the little shops before we left for our next destination, the hot spring!

It was a hot spring inside a hotel, and it started to snow as we went inside. The onsen (hot spring) was pretty nice, with several different baths and even a sauna. My favorite part, though, was the outdoor onsen in the midst of heavy snow! It felt pretty amazing to soak after a long day's work and enjoy the beautiful view of the snow falling at the same time. I also got to talk with a few more of the ladies who had volunteered with me, which was cool.

After I left the bath (I can't stay in hot water for too long), there was still some time, so I bought some ice cream at the hotel gift shop and read some manga from the little library they had there (which I thought was pretty cool) while enjoying a live band that was playing Christmas music in the lobby. And then it was back onto the bus for the night ride back to Chiba! I definitely had no problem falling asleep after that, and managed to sleep pretty well until I got back just in time for the first bus back to my apartment.

All in all, it was a really great experience, though short, and like I said, I'm definitely considering doing it again. The earthquake and tsunami may have been over 18 months ago, but there is still so much left to be done, and I hope that people don't forget about it anytime soon.

chiba urban monorail wine train!

So yesterday I got to ride on the Chiba Urban Monorail's 'Wine Train', and it was amazing! Basically, it was a chance to ride on the monorail while enjoying wine and a bento dinner, along with the beautiful night scenery of Chiba!

Mono-chan!

I went with a few of my co-workers, and we met up at Chiba Minato Station, which is the beginning (or the end, depending on how you look at it!) of the monorail. The route for the event was to go all the way down one line, to Kenchomae Station, going back to Chiba Minato, then going down the other line to almost the end (though I don't remember which station exactly, oops) before ending at Chiba Station. The whole thing took an hour and a half, which after we got off I think we all agreed went by super fast!

Super classy.

When we got ready to board, there was a cute sign at the front of the car with the monorail mascot, Mono-chan, in a Christmas hat and holding a wine glass. When we stepped into the car, though, was the exciting part. Seeing the monorail car, which I've ridden many times before, full of tables with wine and bento boxes and decorated with little bunches of grapes (even all the ads had been changed to ones of wine!), was really really cool!

Delicious!

And then we were off! It was pretty amusing to see the regular monorail passengers at all the stations we passed through, who were clearly very confused (and probably jealous) to see us eating and drinking inside (can't blame them). There was both red and white wine (apparently enough for each person to have 2 bottles!), a delicious bento box, and a running commentary by our emcee, Santa. The monorail passed by the Christmas illumination in Chuo Park on its first round to Kenchomae Station, and then on the way back actually stopped briefly so we could get a good view. They even turned off all the lights and switched on Christmas lights around the windows to make our own illumination inside the cars! There was also a prize drawing, for things like a monorail charm (my co-worker won one!), fancy wine, and a stuffed Mono-chan, and a short explanation about wine from representatives of Mercian, the company that provided the wine. 

Illumination in Chuo Park!

All in all, it was a fantastic event, and if I had the chance I would definitely do it again! I am a huge fan of the monorail, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's longest suspended monorail - I even looked it up in the library to check once (and it was there!) - so I really enjoyed getting to experience it in a new way. We even got to take home our wine glasses and any remaining wine, plus a free 2013 monorail calendar. Well worth the 4000-yen ticket, I think! Apparently they do a similar event with beer in the summer (which is more appealing than wine to me, haha), so maybe I'll be writing about it in a few months. Let's hope! :D

Our own illumination!

a visit from quezon city

Last week some officials from our sister city in the Philippines, Quezon City, came to Chiba in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of our sister-city relationship, and I got to accompany them to a bunch of cool places in the city, which I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to see otherwise!

They were here in Chiba for a total of three days, though the first day was relatively uneventful. We did make a really brief stop at Narita-san Shinshoji, which is one of the most popular temples in Japan, but because it was starting to get dark and also raining really hard, we really just took a few pictures at the entrance. I would really love to go back and actually take a look around sometime - one of my friends was there the same day and she said it was one of the most beautiful places she'd seen.

The next day the delegation had a courtesy visit with the mayor and a courtesy visit/luncheon with the chairman of the Chiba City Assembly and some other assembly members, which I helped interpret for (sort of). After that we went on a study tour of some waste treatment facilities (which I left entirely up to the pro interpreter, haha), which was actually pretty cool! We got to see things like trucks dumping garbage, cranes moving it around, garbage being pressed into blocks, etc. Part of the facilities was a system that created biogas (mostly methane, I think?) from burning garbage, which is then used by a nearby steel factory for energy. Pretty cool, I think, especially considering this is the kind of thing I would probably never see otherwise!

Next we made an unplanned stop at the Fukuda Denshi Arena, aka the soccer stadium that is home to our soccer team, JEF United Chiba. Thanks to the assembly member who was with us, we got to go on a quick tour around and saw things like the control room, locker rooms, the drug testing room (complete with bathrooms with glass doors!), and the VIP room. We also got to go on the field, which was pretty cool. I think it'd be super cool to play frisbee sometime there, though that will probably never happen (though we do practice next door once a month)!

The next morning our first stop was the Chiba City Museum of Art, to see the exhibit I went to with my family a few weeks ago. After that we walked over and got on the monorail, so our guests could experience it. We managed to transfer onto the Urban Flier (the new monorail car), which has a glass bottom in the conductor seat and won a Good Design Award this year!

After that we went to the World Business Garden in Makuhari for lunch. We went all the way to the top of the building (to the 35th floor!), where there was a really great view of Tokyo Bay and Makuhari. Next was a tour of Makuhari Messe, which I've been to before but was still pretty interesting. I learned that the main 8 exhibition halls were built to look like the mountains of Chiba Prefecture, while the newer 3 were designed to look like waves from Chiba's coast, which I'd never realized before. When we walked around, there was a huge line of people stretching across the 8 exhibition halls (which I learned span 530m), who were there for Best Artist 2012, a concert that was broadcast live at 7pm tonight! I was just watching it on TV, and knowing that everybody I saw was actually in Makuhari Messe at that moment was pretty cool.

All in all, it was a super busy three days, but I had a lot of fun being with the delegation and visiting the various places with them. I'm not sure when another delegation will be coming to visit or if I'll be here for it, but I hope that I am! :D