Yukata Kimono

We had another kimono event, the first time was during Hina Matsuri, or Girls Day, we tried on the "winter kimono" and this time we tried on the "summer kimono" or Yukata kimono.  It was MUCH lighter and thinner and more comfortable to move around in, although the traditional sandals were not!  My favorite part of the kimono was the Obi, these ladies tied the most beautiful bows, I loved them!

My pretty Obi bow :)

E and I in our Yukata Kimono's!

This is Akie-San, she leads all of our cultural trips and is such a treasure!  She is the sweetest lady, and as it turns out our boys were both born on the exact same day! 

Hinami

Haven't updated in a couple of months, so I'm going to go back to the first week of April, when the Sakura bloomed!  This year the cherry blossom's came in the last week of March through the second week of April.  It is customary during Sakura Matsuri to have a Hinami, which is when you go on a picnic to view the cherry blossoms.  I love that the Japanese basically have a word and a holiday that is just for getting outside and smelling the flowers, literally!  How cool is that?  So on a Thursday A and I decided to get lunch and head to the Kintai Bridge for Hinami. 

It was pretty crowded considering it was the middle of the week!

 

Showing Kyle the cherry blossoms

 

 

  We really had a good time, there is nothing like sitting next to a picturesque river under beautiful flowers and enjoying the sunshine and friends.  

Driving in Japan

Moving to Japan meant a lot of different adjustments, and driving was a big one.  Here they drive on the left side of the road, the steering wheel is on the right side of the vehicle, and the road signs are different then we are used to, not to mention in Japanese. 

The triangle on the top left is a Japanese stop sign.

 

When we got here one of the first things we did was go to the SOFA driving class, it was a couple hours long and at the end we had to pass a test in order to get our SOFA driving license.  (SOFA stands for Status of Forces Agreement, it allows the military to reside in country with certain restrictions and libertys, such as driving) Base road rules follow the same rules as out in town.  Most vehicles bought on base are "recycled", meaning families that are PCS'ing out sell their cars to the families PCS'ing in, most vehicles are older and you can buy for less then $3,000.  We ended up with a 1995 Honda Odyssey that seats 6 for $1,500, instead of the sliding rear doors most vans have, this one just has normal opening back doors.

 

Our van

 

Most vehicles in Japan are very very small, they only seat around 4 people and usually have small engines to make them more economical.  There are also a lot of scooters and bicycles on the roads.  It helps to have a small car here because there are some extremely narrow roads, there have been a couple times I think something is a walkway, or a pedestrian bridge, and it turns out it is a two-way road.

This picture actually makes the bridge look wider then it is.

 

Also a lot of the parking is very narrow and small, and almost everyone backs into the spaces in order to be able to get out successfully.  Being as how we had a pretty big diesel truck back in the states I am no stranger to backing into spaces, I used to consider myself a pro, until we came here. 

 

We all exited the vehicle through the back.

 

It is obviously nervewracking the first time you drive off base in a foreign country, after about a week of driving on base the only thing I was really worrying about was road signs and other vehicles, and the tiny roads of course.  A friend and I decided to go to Nafco, which is the local home depot type store, and instead of taking the main roads, I ended up on one of those pedestrian roads, which turned into a pedestrian bridge, literally.  I turned onto this bridge that barely fit the van, then had two people walking across at the same time, AND a truck at the end of it waiting to take it's turn to cross!  Did I mention that the road bordering the inlet didn't have any guardrails?  I barely made it past the truck, even after a couple of times reversing and pulling forward, and reversing again, and the truck reversing, trying to let the horrible white girl driver by.  Oh yea, I know we sterotype asians driving in the states, but here in Japan, it's the white people who suck at driving.  Needless to say, I barely made it to the store without having a panic attack.  But I did make it. 

 

I had been wanting to go to Ikea since before we even made it to Iwakuni, so as soon as we got there I started making plans.  The closest Ikea is in Fukuoka, which is a couple of hours away.

 

 

 

I kept putting off the trip because I was so worried about driving the far in Japan, I was basically picture the roads of Iwakuni the whole way there.  Which is NOT the case.  Mark and I made the trip and were completely surprised at just how easy the whole drive was.  We got on the Sanyo in Iwakuni, and took it the entire way to Fukuoka.  The Sanyo is the expressway, or toll road, they run all throughout the country, but have different names.  On our way to Fukuoka it changed names about 3 times.  It is not crowded, and has some really awesome rest stops, they are well maintained and are basically a small strip mall with different food vendors, a bakery, lots of bathrooms, a playground and anything else you could imagine.  It can be pretty expensive to take though, from Iwakuni to Fukuoka one way, cost 5,000 yen.  (At the moment the exchange rate is 94 yen to $1)

 

Road signs on the Sanyo, not impossible to figure out.

Well except maybe this one, your guess is as good as mine.

The bridge from the main island Honshu to the southern island Kyushu.

 

There are a ton of tunnels throughout Japan, and they can be really long.  But they are kind of fun :)

 

The exhaust fans look like jet engines to me

 

 

One last thing I want to leave you with...

Japanese road cones!!!

Tsuzu Beach

Last week was going pretty slow, so a couple of us decided to check out a place we had heard about, called the sea glass beach, or technically Tsuzu Beach.  It is only about 10 min down Rt. 188, which is one of the main roads running through Iwakuni, so it is so accesible, and it was absolutely gorgeous!!  There is the main beach, and to the left is a tunnel you can go through to another part of the beach, there is also a gazebo up a little hill and a crazy adult playground.  There was a zip line and rope tunnels to climb through and some other intense obstacles, I want to go back and take our husbands because I think they would get a kick out of it.  We went and looked around and then came back to the main beach where we started finding all of the sea glass, there was tons of it, green and blue, and white and some with Japanese characters on it, and also a ton of broken pottery.  It was a lot of fun seeing all of the pieces, and collecting a few.  Even Kyle had fun picking up shells and other things to show me.  It was really a beautiful place, the second we left I already wanted to go back, and that is always a good sign. 

View from the parking lot

Tropical paradise

The tunnel

Part of the crazy park, A attempted the rope tunnel!

The zip line!

A and I

The sea glass and pottery pieces I took home.

I already can't wait to go back!

Yanai Nishigura Cultural Trip

This month (March) I went on a cultural trip to Yanai to view and make their famous goldfish lanterns.  We have been to Yanai a couple times before, it has the store Mr. Max which is the closest thing to a walmart around, and it's only about 45 min away.  So on the 8th a bunch of us went out there to the old town and had a good time.  The city became known for the goldfish lanterns a very long time ago, when they used to make them for their children, now days they hang all over the city for holidays and special events, and they are even on the sewer covers and other areas of the city.  When we first got there we went immediately to an old soy sauce warehouse that is now a community center of sorts where they make the lanterns and also teach about weaving techniques and other things.  They had already put together the wooden structure of the goldfish with the washi paper covering it (thank goodness, because I would have messed that part up good!)

A and I starting to paint our goldfish!

 

After we painted the red on they had to dry before we could do the rest.

 

All of our goldfish drying

 

Once they were dry we painted the fins and added the black lines and glued them onto the body of the goldfish, and then they were done!

 

My finished goldfish, when I got home, Kyle named him Bubbles :)

A giant goldfish!

 

After we made our lanterns we went out and explored the old town and saw all of the lanterns hanging, which were awesome!

 

Little baby goldfish

Lanterns in the old town

Beautiful mosaic on the street!

 

We decided to save some yen and time so instead of going out to lunch we made a quick stop at a 7-11.  These stores are ALL over Japan, and wildly popular, and for good reason!  They have a huge selection of hot and cold drinks, sushi, salads, sandwiches, all sorts of fresh food items and other yummyness.  We took what we bought and just ate lunch on a park bench in the sunshine before we went to our next stop, it was nice.  So after lunch we made our way to a place called "the willow and the well" which is now in the courtyard of a shrine, but is where Yanai got it's name, apparently Yanai actually means the willow and the well.

 

The willow and the well (behind the willow)

 

A dragon water fountain (to wash your hands before entering the shrine)

Some cool masks that were there

 

 Over all it was a really cool trip, I LOVE when the trips include making something traditional that we get to keep forever! 

"Bubbles" is currently hanging over our dining room table, and Kyle just loves to look and point at it and say BUBBLES!!