Halloween

I've been running around and not getting to computer time (nor sewing time, nor corresponding time).  I've mapped out my day today and I have 18 things I need to get finished before noon!  Blogging is number one to check off.

Probably number two or number three is sending my mother's fabric postcard to her this morning.  It is already November 1st in Japan but it is still October 31 in California so I tell myself I am still within my self enforced deadline. 

This month's postcard was an easy choice.  I made an owl.

The paper one was fun to make too and it is up on my wall.

 And both cards together.

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We had Halloween at the preschool on Monday and I dressed up as a witch.  Actually I had made a mistake and went to the preschool LAST Monday dressed as a witch and was met by horrified looks because of my mis-scheduling.  The teachers get the kids all dressed up for Halloween and they hadn't made their costumes yet so the only thing to do was come back this week.  So last Monday I made an unscheduled Halloween visit to Marlene who lives near the preschool and surprised her with my Halloween getup too.

 THIS week Halloween went successfully.  There was a class of Waldos...

This teacher is so good at playing around with the kids and keeping them settled but still having fun.

 I couldn't even SPOT this teacher in her class of Minions she is so young herself.

And there I am as a witch. 

After the preschool I stopped off at Tetsu's Day Service center where I posed with the "guests" one by one while Tetsu took photos.  He was surprised at how everyone wanted to get their photos taken with the witch and as I supplied another witch's hat and a shimmery cape for them to wear I think everyone had a great time.  UNFORTUNATELY those photos haven't been given permission for blog use but take my word for it, I had some great looking witches alongside me!

And yesterday I dressed up again (the poor handmade dress only gets these couple of days use in a year) and met English students at the door.  Actually at the crosswalk yesterday I was singing a Halloween song and scaring kids as they came across the crosswalk and a couple of kids held out their hands and said "Trick or Treat!"

"Sorry, no treats here.  You'll have to come to my house this evening if you want treats!"

I wasn't sure if anyone was really going to come as Trick or Treating is not a custom in Japan (though Halloween decorating has become a fad) and I waited around until 6:00 when it got cold and dark and determined no one was coming.  Tetsu wanted to eat out last night anyway so I left the porch light on and on the slight chance that someone would come by I left a plastic pumpkin filled with chocolates on my front door handle.  When I came home most of it was gone!

"Yeah!  Some kids came by!"

I'm sorry I missed them but I'm glad I had the candy out for them and that they came up to the dark house and noticed the candy filled pumpkin.

At the crosswalk this morning I asked who had come to the house (four kids) and apologized for not being there.  Some of the kids who HADN'T come said,

"You really had candy for Halloween?  Can I come tonight?"

"No way!" said the principal.  "You have to wait for next year!"

The last day in Morioka

Okay....  I'm winding up my posts on our weekend trip to Morioka.  A whole three days and I have, like six posts?

I went out for a walk in the morning before it started raining and thoroughly enjoyed the autumn leaves.  Bright, bright red!

 The rock in the garden was so pretty with all the different colored leaves on it.

 Occasionally I look down.

Coming back to the hotel.

Before breakfast (buffet style with Japanese and Western dishes...  I go for the Japanese) Tetsu and I took another bath up in the sky high onsen.  The scenery was different from the night before's when only hotel's lit premises were visible.  This morning I could see autumn forests for miles around.

And after breakfast ANOTHER bath...  This brings the count up to 6 for this weekend trip!  We went back to the outdoor bathing facilities that we'd visited the night before with our friends...  And I was the only one in the bath so I grabbed my cell phone and took photos!

Along the hallway to the bathing area.  The noren (hanging door divider) says YU which means hot water.  As it is red I know it is the women's side.  And as an aside, the men's and women's norens had been exchanged so that this morning I went into the side that Tetsu had been in the night before.  Another completely different experience...  Last night's bath was stone surrounded, this day's bath was a wooden tub.

This is not a great photo, but I wanted to show how showering goes... Three low stools here and three opposite and another wall of showers on the other side of the room.

This was the indoor bath...  This was wooden too but enclosed in glass windows.

This was the outdoor bath...  Just plain forest out there!  The side with the screening was un-glassed too but maybe the screens were to keep the breezes down.

Someone asked me what my first reaction to public bathing had been when I came to Japan...   Actually my very first time had been when I was eleven and our family visited Japan for two weeks.  My father wanted us to stay at an onsen and arranged to have a room with a "family style bath" where our family could have the experience but not have to mix with Japanese guests.  I can remember having to psyc myself up for the experience and the whole idea of bathing with my FATHER was slightly traumatic.  I remember not knowing which direction I was suppose to look and being very embarrassed at HIM, not me!

The next time I took public baths I think was when I was in college as an exchange student and my girlfriends and I thought it oh so modern and radical.  And by the time I arrived in Japan to work here, Nobuko-san (from the earlier posts) took me with her when she went to the street-side sento　(public bath).  Nobuko-san lived in a tiny one room apartment with a shared toilet down the hall and no bathing facilities so she would walk (no car) down the street to the local sento carrying her bucket and soap and shampoo.  Though I was staying in a Christian center that supplied all my needs, I really enjoyed joining her in the public bath, handing over a few coins to the old lady who sat at a desk that overlooked both the men's and the women's changing rooms.  I learned a lot of Japanese chatting with Nobuko-san in the bath as well as a lot about Japan.

Tetsu was waiting for me in the lobby dressed in the hotel provided lounging wear.

 And then heading back to our room.

 This was the view from the room...

Instructions on how to open the windows.  And packaging tape?  Ah... the memo above the packaging tape explains how the stink bugs in the forest do their best to try to get into the rooms so if a guest should find a stink bug, to please, dab it with the sticky side of the tape, entomb the stink bug with a fold of the tape and dispose of the small package in the waste paper basket.  Stink bugs are everywhere!

A very relaxing weekend though the 6 hour drive home in a major typhoon was rather harrowing.  We arrived home before it got too bad and collected Choco from where she was staying with the Yanos.

Morioka (all of Japan!) is heading into ice and snow so we won't be going back til at least next spring.  Great memories made!

Onsen/hotel

Tetsu and I said good-bye to Nobuko-san and headed off to the hotel/onsen where we were to stay that evening.  And we had also made arrangements to meet up with Tetsu's two friends from high school and one man's wife.

 The hotel's name was Yukotan no mori.  "An inn in the forest"

The hotel parking lot

Looking in from the hotel entrance

Japan has the interesting custom of onsen (hot springs) and it really is a cultural thing.  We go to the hot springs not so much to bathe, as to warm our bodies, to get the health benefits from whatever the water's minerals offer, to relax.  And then there is the socializing.  How many couples in America would say,

"Let's get together this evening and soak in the bath naked together."?

But all of us have our ready little onsen bags sometimes holding our own towel or favorite shampoo though usually that is already supplied.  And all of us are willing to peel off our clothes and go soak in a hot water tub while carrying on a conversation.  Granted I'm not willing to join Tetsu's friends in their baths with them but I think nothing of sitting around naked with their wives or with other women friends (or strangers). 

It is the culture of not-seeing.  We don't really look nor much care what other people's bodies look like.  I admit to being aware of my own spare tire around my waist in front of friends but once down in the water it isn't all that visible anyway. 

In front of the elevator.  I love the rough cut table and benches

So we met up with Tetsu's friends at the onsen/hotel and they were very envious that we were staying there that night as the hotel is close enough to them that it doesn't really warrant an overnight stay.  The hotel was so beautiful!!  Very back to nature and the whole place had a calming atmosphere.

The hotel lobby

The hotel had two hot-spring areas, one on top of the hotel looking over the countryside, and the main area that was also open to non-staying guests and that is where we met up with our friends.  It was getting on towards night so I'm afraid I didn't get great photos on this day... but the roten-buro (outdoor bath) was FANTASTIC!!!  Down a winding outdoor enclosed pathway and opening out into forest!  The smell of the wood in the bath, the aroma of the forest, the lit up leaves and tree trunks were just magical!

Iku-san (the wife) and I got caught up with our families' lives and after about an hour of going in and out of the tub (it gets hot and I get light-headed after too long) we joined the men in the waiting area for tea and cold milk from the nearby Koiwai farm.  Our friends finally left around 7:00 and Tetsu and I went to the dining room for dinner.

Dinner was sashimi, (raw fish and shrimp and scallops)

 Vinegared dishes and three potato pods off the vine (that I can even collect near our house!  But I collect hundreds and when confronted with them Tetsu always says the look like rabbit pellets.  Three pods are a delicacy...  twenty or thirty are a commitment to eat.  It is the fun of looking for them that I like.

 A mushroom dish, and some raw octopus there in the back.

There was a vegetable dish back there (still with its cover on) and three pieces of choice beef from the farm that were cooked on the table.

There was also a fish stew cooked individually at the table and rice and miso soup.

After dinner Tetsu and I went up to the top of the hotel and took another bath in the glass enclosed skylight bath...

That is two more baths for this day... Making four baths in two days.

Nokotsu-shiki

So...  We had our nokotsu-shiki on Saturday afternoon and thankfully the weather cleared just beautifully that one day.  I had imagine trying to traipse up to the grave with umbrellas (it is situated at the top of a hill) and slipping on the grassy, muddy paths...  There was also the problem of opening up the grave and placing Tetsu's mother's urn down into the chamber...  Tetsu was probably going to have to go down onto his hands and knees to settle the urn and in the rain that wouldn't have been fun.

I had contacted my friend Nobuko who lives near Morioka and told her about the ceremony as she is one of my few friends that Tetsu's mother had asked about over the years.  Nobuko-san arrived a few minutes before the ceremony.  (I had called her again to ask her to lunch but she lives so far off in the mountains that she doesn't get cell phone reception!  She is the friend whose children once told me instead of traffic safety class at school they were taught what to do when confronted by a bear...  That's up in the mountains!)

Nobuko-san had asked if she should wear her formal black outfit for the ceremony but as it was only going to be Tetsu and me I said we would be in jeans so not to worry about formalities.  Here is Tetsu before the ceremony after spreading new gravel around the grave.

The urn was quite small as, if you remember, we only placed a few of Obaachan's ashes/bones in it and the main urn was given to Tetsu's brother.

Our pastor arrived rather more turned out than we expected (and he probably thought us rather casual).  And with his little hymn player we had a proper ceremony at the grave site. 

Tetsu did the honors of moving the name stone which serves as a cover for the chamber below.  It is rather easy to get into the ashes chamber...  You can see what Tetsu's version of formal is for this ceremony...  He did change into a gray sweater.

 The pastor's wife also attended the service with us (in formal black).

And afterwards I showed them photos I had from when we first had built the grave, and of Tetsu's mother in earlier years.

OLD PHOTO!  This was taken at the same grave 35 years ago for our daughter's nokotsu-shiki.  Church friends, Tetsu's aunt, me and Tetsu (so young!), Nokuko, another church member and Tetsu's mother on the far right.

 It is a relief that that job is done.  Now!  For the rest of the weekend to enjoy ourselves!

Morioka countryside

We had a lot of time actually before the "nokotsu-shiki" and so Tetsu and I enjoyed the autumn scenery on the way back to town and stopped randomly to take photos. 

The rice fields have been harvested.

Probably another week and the mountains will be orange.  Just a hint of color here and there at the base of the Mt. Iwate. 

This trip we never saw as Mt. Iwate which is considered the Mt. Fuji of northern Japan.   It was covered in clouds the whole weekend.  This is just a small foothill at its base.

The scenery really is different from what we see daily in Nikko.  The countryside wider and wilder and farmhouses more connected with nature.

The red gates from a neighborhood local shrine were very pretty against the autumn colors.

Me.

The people at this farmhouse liked blue.  They had a blue roof, a blue barn, a blue car, blue sheets covering their wood, a blue truck and even blue electric wires!

We drove past Koiwai Farm which is a 7400 acre privately owned dairy farm in Japan and is rather famous.

 Hi cow!  All these photos and it was still only 10:00 AM!