Nice Wood Carvings

More pictures of Daisho-in Temple on Miyajima that were taken in April. I was really impressed with the wooden carvings on the temples here. They are so detailed and the eyes look very lifelike. Kinda creepy...I like it! I couldn't stop staring at them. They look cool in pictures, but even better in person! I'm excited about revisiting Miyajima in the fall when the leaves are turning beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow.

Anpanman!!!

So, I thought I had to include some Anpanman since he's EVERYWHERE in Japan, and my students are always talking about him. It comes from an anime that's been around a really long time. Anpanman is a "pan", bread, guy that's a hero. His head is made of a bun and he's filled with bean jam. His weakness is anything that makes his head wet. The villian of the story is the leaders of the viruses. This is for real, seriously. I'm not making this up. I don't know lots of the particulars, since I've never actually seen the series. If you want to know more...there is lots of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman

Anyway, I just think he really looks funny, and very childish, but many older kids really like him. It may be a great show; I don't know cause I haven't seen it. I really should invest in a television, but they're so freaking expensive over here. Granted, there WAY nicer than what we have at home. You wouldn't believe the picture quality. It's so clear. Markian likes to go in the electronics store and stare and drool at the tvs. haha! I told him there isn't any sense investing in a nice one when we'll only be here a couple of years.

You see Anpanman toys, and his figure on everything, even food packaging. I was shocked to see an Anpanman statue at Daisho-in Temple on Miyajima, which is where the bottom picture comes from. It's quite strange. I guess he's just so ingrained into the culture you see him everywhere!

Daisho-in Temple

More pictures from Daisho-in Temple on Miyajima. Enjoy! :-)

The Entrance to Daisho-in Temple

This is another temple we visited back in April on Miyajima. Here you see the entrance gate and the guardians of the gate and the stairs leading up to the temple. This temple is at the base of Mt. Misen.
The rainy season is about to start. Apparently next week officially. I can't say I'm looking to forward to that. A month of nothing but high humidity and rain every day. Granted, it's better than the sun beaming down on me. At least it's cloudy when it's raining and I won't get sunburnt. We're thinking of going to the contemporary art museum tomorrow. We've been wanting to go, but can never get up early enough on a Sunday morning since Sunday is the first day of our weekend, we usually like to sleep in. So, hopefully we'll have the energy to go tomorrow. I know this is something Markian really wants to do, and I wouldn't mind seeing it either. It's his kind of art.

Creepy Mayonnaise Babies

No, it's not the name of one of my sisters little music projects, although it sounds like one (similar to "Neutral Baby Duster Nipples" --if you know my sister you know what I'm talking about). Wow, that would make a good band name, "Creepy Mayonnaise Babies." But you need to say "Mayonnaise" in the Japanese way..."my-o-neigh-z". hehe

Alright, now that I'm past it, these mayonnaise babies are creepy as hell. Well, at least I think so. The first time I saw one I knew I would have a bad dream about it. I think they are a character from a popular brand of mayonnaise here called, "Kewpie". My students like to put little ones of these on their cell phones. I think it's supposed to be cute, but I find it to look like a creepy doll from a horror movie. Or some ugly little trinket some lady would hold on to. The ones I have pictured here are ones you could win by playing the oh-so-popular crane game in the arcade. The tv in the top picture is inside with the prizes showing ads about whatever you can win in the machine. They're so horrible, they're kind of wonderful. I want one because it's so awful....well, kinda. I still have a fear it will come to life and hack me up during the middle of the night like some lame R.L. Stein Goosebumps book.

In the forest...

...on Miyajima in April. Still loads of pics from this. Here are some random pictures from walking around in the woods. The above one is of construction of one of the paths up Mt. Misen, Miyajima's tallest mountain. So, that path was closed. The picture below is of a little Shinto Shrine in the woods.

More from my Toukasan evening

An assortment of things here. At the top is someone preparing the original Okonomiyaki. That's what I was told it was because I asked. It doesn't look like any Okonomiyaki I've seen. Okonomiyaki is the regional dish here. It's a pancake batter with cabbage and other veggies and usually pork and mayo all thrown together and then topped with carp sauce. We haven't tried it because honestly, it smells bad to me. Markian says he's willing to try it though. He thinks it smells good.

The second picture is of some light show thingys in the middle of the street at the festival. The logo below it that is blue is the sponsor, Hiroshima Bank. The picture below this paragraph is just to try and show you how freaking crowded it was. Also, the girl in the black yukata with the red obi has a fan shoved in the back of her obi. These are the fans they were selling at the Toukasan Temple I mentioned in my previous post.


This last picture is of us before we left school that day. My friend helped put my Yukata on at school so we took some pictures before we left.

My Toukasan

It's 3:31 AM. Still wide awake. I guess we've been home for about thirty or fourty-five minutes. We went to the Toukasan festival. A friend at work helped me put on my Yukata and even did my hair and makeup for me! It was very nice of her. The yukata was way too big, but we made it work anyway. Usually you use a towel to thicken your waist if your waist is really small. We didn't have one so we ripped up an apron instead. hehe You wouldn't believe how complicated it is to put on one of these things! I don't even wanna know how complicated a full fledged kimono is!

So I've posted lots of pictures of me in my yukata. It is purple with morning glories and sparkly fireworks on it. Markian didn't dress up. It made me sad. We ran into another teacher from our school who was wearing one. He said his student brought it to class and put it on him and forced him to wear it! haha He had tennis shoes on with it though which made it kinda funny. You couldn't tell in the mass of people though. We didn't wait in line to get the fans from the temple (to ward off evil spirits), but we may go back tomorrow. I doubt in my yukata though because there is no way I can put this thing on right by myself. It's seriously way too complicated!

So tonight was lots of fun. There were so many people strolling the streets in their yukata. It was very, very crowded. We just looked around mostly at the things that were being served, expensive beer, squid on a stick, takayaki..etc... and then decided we were starving. Our friend took us to a really nice Japanese Isakaya. I've been to Isakaya's before, but never one this nice. It was kinda pricey, but well worth it. It was really fancy and reminiscent of a scene from Kill Bill Volume 1. I don't like that movie, but the floor in this place was freaking sweet. I have picture of it coming later. So I was the only one in our group dressed up but it was still fun. It was nice to actually social with other people. Not that Markian isn't good company, because he is. But he's mentioned the same thing before. I think we both really enjoyed our night out!