Akiyoshi in Style

We have purchased our first couch!
Yes, the new Morat/Clerk family member is a wonderfully red sofa! It's love-seat size, which is just right. We even threw in matching pillows and curtains! What a difference it can make on our evenings, our Sunday afternoons....



Here it is in the widest view we could get with the camera. Along with putting up the inner doors between the two tatami rooms, and the green walls, it's looking pretty cool in our place. We even discovered, with the help of our Japanese friends, that the table has an electric heater underneath its top! We just need an electrical cord ... who knows what that will take.

And so, life is moving along just fine. Our first Japanese autumn is just beautiful. The air is crisp, and there's this perfect combination of warm sun and cool breeze, EVERYday! --- I never want it to end! What's so great is that the season is quite long this year. The leaves haven't really begun to change around here, but they should be anytime now.

As for me, school is getting more interesting. I had quite a lull there for awhile, but I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable, and so am also able to approach the teachers easier, and am starting to try and gauge what sorts of activities might work, and what sorts might not. I haven't started going to any club activities after school with the kids... mostly out of selfishness for wanting all my after-work time to myself! One of these days, though... one of these days. I'll show up at a Kendo class, or Judo class, or even tennis or volleyball, and try and go once or twice a week. But until then, I have a lovely couch to come home to!

Will and I went out to dinner with two of my teachers last weekend and had a nice time - they showed us around a small town nearby, with some antique shops that had all kinds of things we'd never see in the States. Old dolls, kimonos, tea sets, books... and lots of stuff that I have no idea what they were. Then we all went out to a Shabu-shabu restaurant, and what a treat!

Shabu-shabu is this:
A large pot in the middle of the table, over an internal gas burner, filled with a light dashi-stock (a few pieces of seaweed and maybe some bonito flake stock).
A large plate of fresh cabbage, carrots, greens, rice patties (can't remember their name), and tofu.
Also, a large plate of extremely thin slices of raw pork.
We each make a little sauce in our dishes -- soy sauce and vinegar, or a sesame-based sauce, with sliced green onions and a spicy red paste. Then, the shabu-shabu begins. With our chopsticks, we dip a piece of raw pork into the now-boiling water, and after a few seconds it turns white. Then we dip it in our sauce, and then into our mouths, and there you have it! A delicious, mouth-watering meal! We also dip the veggies, or sometimes just put a bunch of them into the water at once. Soooooooo good. My mouth is watering just writing about it!

And, this weekend, we had our friends over -- a woman from my Eikaiwa and her husband -- and we had a blast. Plenty of beer and shochu, with big salads with blue cheese (I found it!) and avocado, then a veggie stir fry I made... and lots of laughs and a great time. :) Oh. Shochu is a (around here, anyway), sweet-potato based light liquor. Similar to taste with whiskey, but much easier to drink. Too easy sometimes. Drunk hot or cold, we had ours in a small teapot over a fondue stove in the living room, thanks to our guests!

Oh yeah, and I got a haircut -- found a nice guy in Fukuoka who speaks lots of English, and was fun to go to.... on a particularly decent hair day just shortly after, I handed Will the camera just for you blog-readers!

Love to you all!!

-Serenity

Oita-ken!

Well, thanks to our friends Jared and Steph, we explored a little bit of Oita-ken last weekend, and had a great time. --- thanks guys!!

After a great party at their house...

We headed to old Buddha carvings near the town of Usuki, which, since it's in Oita-ken, is on the eastern side of Kyushu. Most of the carvings were from the 10th - 13th centuries, and many had to be restored, as moss and water seeping through the volcanic rock eroded them over time. Apparently, the area in and around Oita-ken was the site of the beginnings of a strong Buddhist influence in Japan. Either way, the statues were pretty interesting, and the small valley they hid in was a great place to spend the afternoon.

The lovely couple!

Kermit and Serenity with the old one...

The bamboo forest surrounding the area -- Will's great shot!

Here's a good example of the erosion of these beautiful carvings --

The small valley, rice harvest and all. The carvings are all in a small ravine just to the right of those houses, out of the photo.

Statue surrounded by 12 kings.

Heehee!

Rice harvester in the small valley:

A carving holding up the ferns...

We had a great time, and hope to go back to Oita-ken for Onsen and more visits!

Uchi-yama hike

We're back from another great hike here on Kyushu. This time we headed to Uchi-yama, just outside the city of Dazaifu, for a ~4 mile hike up a beautiful mountain. There were many great sights ... and stones... along the way. Let's go on a photo journey of our hike!

First, we came to some beautifully red toriis stacked together.


Then to a temple at the base of the mountain, shown here.

And now, let the hike begin!


This stood near a giant Edo-period Torii, leading the way up the mountain that, according to our English-language map, was once considered to be a holy mountain.


Can you spot the torii in this photo?


Up and up we clambered. Oh, and by the way, there was apparently a tour full of parents with their little kids, and I mean little! These kids were between 2 years old and maybe 10 yrs. old, and they all hiked this mountain --- how's THAT for motivation!?


Inscriptions on the way up the mountain. There were others much older looking than these in various places, but the light hit these ones just right.


And finally, after about 2 hours, we reached the top! And what a view it was! In this photo, you are looking out towards the Korea Strait, and, although way out of sight, the tip of South Korea, and China, somewhere out there -- cool!


The shrine at the top of the mountain - quaint, it made for the perfect setting, and a place for lunch!



The typical rope hanging in front of the shrine - it is attached to a bell, which visitors ring to awaken the gods, and then to pray, and clap. Can you see the fresh apple left there? The gods are treated well!


And here's me at the top of the mountain, tired but happy.


Some lovely growth at the top.


And, then..... what comes up, must come down. Oh, the pain!! :)


Luckily, there was a fresh water spring where we filled our bottles -- tasty!


And down and down. It was a lovely hike, with lots to see, not to mention stones hundreds of years old to climb on, toriis, ancient kanji here and there, and a rewarding view at the top.


And at the very bottom, we came across our first Kyushu big game.... deer in cages! Perry - they shouldn't be too hard to hunt!

October in Tachiarai

It's October in Tachiarai (and the rest of the world, of course), and the rice fields are no longer bright green. The weather is wonderful -- a cool breeze with sunshine most days, and clouds in the afternoons. In the mornings, we usually see someone out in their field, harvesting the rice, mostly by small tractor, but there's always others in the field, picking up... really I don't know what all goes into it. Anyway, here's a photo of the rice, as of today.

And here is where we catch the train into the world outside Tachiarai. Some autumn flowers made for a pleasant wait, for about a week.

An afternoon in Dazaifu again

We headed to Dazaifu for a few hours today, to pass through the little souvineer shops and wander through the temple grounds. And here's some photos of what we saw:

The main street leading to Tenmangu Temple, lined with shops, and toriis.

Serenity and Will at the Tenmangu Temple.


Leading to the main temple.


The restaurant where we had a late lunch ~ had a beautiful garden.


See?!

Amagi City on a Sunday afternoon

We hopped on the bikes last weekend and rode out towards Amagi City, and decided to head up one of the valleys to see what was there. On the way, we stopped to eat our PB&J sandwiches and bananas on a small bridge. It was a beautiful day! We actually arrived, as Serenity continued to say the neverending chant "just a little further....", at a quaint town, Akizuki, where there were castle ruins, a tree-lined walkway with lots of little shops, and a creek running through the town. We were tired and sweaty when we got there, and had failed to bring any money at all, so we have vowed to return to the place when the leaves are really changing, and make a day of it. We promise to take photos that time. But, here are two we took on our bike-ride day...

Serenity and banana on bridge.


The creek flowing through Akizuki. And a good ol' palm tree. Reminds us of home. :)