Fun In Tokyo

Last week I visited my friend Mondo in Tokyo. We spent most of the day in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ochanomizu. In Shibuya, we visited Meiji Jingu in Yoyogi Park and saw some amazing ice sculptures that were part of a display and contest. Most of the subjects of the ice sculptures are self-evident but the one that looks like a three-headed dragon is actually King Ghidorah, a famous monster from Godzilla movies (hurray! Godzilla!).

One theme from Japanese culture that fascinates me is the visual juxtaposition of ancient and modern. I think it's interesting to me because in America there just isn't as much visible evidence of structures that are very old, and comparatively, in America we define old much differently. On the West Coast of the USA, "old" can mean from 150 years ago. So, scenes that show this cultural difference in Japan sometimes catch my eye. As we were walking out of the park, I saw the Docomo Building framed by a torii (gate) at the entrance to the park. This particular torii isn't that old, but I thought the image was interesting, so I stopped to take a picture.

Later, Mondo and I went to Ochanomizu which is famous for music stores. We stopped in a couple of shops and looked around for a while before going to dinner at a tempura restaurant.

Sumo!

I had been interested in seeing sumo since I first came to Japan, mostly just out of cultural curiosity, but after seeing it live I can say it really was interesting and exciting. Nozomi's father got some tickets, I think on rather short notice. Nozomi couldn't go, so I met her father, sister, and aunt at the arena in Tokyo. The tournament lasts for several hours, but since I had to teach during the day I joined them for about the last two hours. As soon as I finished my last class, I hurried to catch a bus to Utsunomiya station, took a shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo and then local trains to the Ryogoku Kokugikan (sumo arena). It made me laugh a little racing around trying to catch the trains; a couple of times I was running onto the platform as the "train doors closing" announcement started and I was able to jump on the train at the last second.

In one picture you can see a wrestler wearing a red belt-he is currently the largest (heaviest) wrestler. He didn't win his match, however; the smaller competitor apparently had better technique and pushed the larger one out of the ring.

The fight itself is quite short, but there are a series of rituals where the wrestlers enter and walk around the ring, throw salt on the floor, face each other for a moment, leave, re-enter, . . . It was fascinating! Another picture shows Nozomi's aunt, father and sister.

I also took some videos, and I'll try to post those on YouTube later.

Kusaka-san, arigatou gozaimashita! Gochisousama deshita!

Lake Chuzenji

About a week ago, Nozomi and I went to Chuzenjiko, which is about an hour drive from here. Even though it's not far, it's much higher in the mountains, so it's much colder, and there was quite a bit of snow. The waterfalls were partly frozen, and near the lake, there was an area where the trees were covered with a thick layer of ice-amazing! People that have visited before, you might recognize Ryuzu No Taki (Ryuzu Falls), which looks amazing with all the ice. The picture of Nozomi sitting on the fence is on the path above Ryuzu No Taki (some of my previous guests might remember that place too).

I'm engaged!

Well, I THINK most people have either heard in person, by telephone, by e-mail, or by Facebook, so now I'll use the least personal way to announce: on December 24th, Nozomi and I got engaged! If you're hearing that for the first time on this blog: sorry, I couldn't tell you in a more personal way yet. Please call, e-mail, text message, or write a letter and tell me that I missed you!