Halloween

The Japanese are so crazy over Halloween...Pocky even made pumpkin-flavoured ones for Halloween!

Chrysanthemum Exhibition

Fall is a time when the Japanese hold Chrysanthemum exhibitions all over the country. The chrysanthemum is the flower representing the imperial family. The temple in my town hosted the chrysanthem exhibition for our region. There were so many different types of chrysanthemums (wide sprawling ones with thin wiry petals, and big fat round balls of fleshy petals), in all kinds of colours and many of the blooms were even bigger than my outstretched palm!

Streets of the town decorated for the exhibition

Entrance of the walkway leading to the temple

Chrysanthemum displays

Halloween party

I've been attending this weekly social gathering called Ladies' Night, which is essentially an opportunity for local ladies to practise speaking English. Ladies' Night is held in this really cool European-looking ski resort in Shiozawa (3 towns away from me, 30 mins drive) because the organiser of Ladies' Night works there.

Chieri, whom I got to know from Ladies' Night, invited me to attend a halloween party that she was throwing for her students. She teaches at a nursery school, so the kids were very young. The kids were all dressed up and they were really fun. I was basically carrying a basket of candy to give out when the kids say "trick or treat!". I borrowed a pair of furry bears' ears on a hairband from my school's drama club to wear for the party.

Chieri, dressed as a pirate, reading a story to the kids

A cute little girl dressed as Minnie Mouse

A reluctant Mickey Mouse...he stripped off his Mickey shorts immediately after the party and ran around in his black leggings

Pikachu and sister, Winnie the Pooh (also known as Pooh-san in Japan)

And this is where we meet for Ladies Night, where the Halloween party was also held. Its a little cafe of the ski resort.

The ski resort...it's big! Its very popular as a wedding venue as it is very large and surrounded by greenery. There was a wedding ceremony being conducted in the lawn during the Halloween party in fact.

One of the ski runs...this is supposed to be one of best ski slopes in the area and gets really crowded in winter. In summer, this place remains a hive of activity as the water park (with water slides and pool), mini golf course and tennis courts are open.

A sign of things to come...

After an afternoon and night of incessant rain yesterday...this is the view I woke up to this morning!
First snowfall of the coming winter!!

My baby!

Introducing my purchase of the month...DRUMROLL!

A Mazda Carol! After 3 weeks of car-hunting, I finally found a car within my budget with all the features I want. This is an 11-year old automatic car, with a 2-year shaken (every car in Japan has to be certified to be road-worthy every 2 years, this is pronounced SHA-can, not like the English word shaken), power steering, aircon/heater, power windows, CD player, 4WD and snow tyres. All for a grand total of S$1,950!

I'm really pleased with the deal. I like the cute, rounded shape of the car. Even the door handles (both interior and exterior) are rounded. Check out the bug-eyed speedometer and whatever the other meter is called:

Obviously for a car that cheap, it's not perfect. For one, dark green would not have been my preferred choice of colour, but beggars can't be choosers. Also, the cloth upholstery is not as clean as I would like it to be. But I suppose I can buy some nice covers for the seats, so that it'll look better.

And yes, I have another funny story. After collecting the car this evening, I stopped by the petrol kiosk coz the car only had half a tank of petrol. I pulled up at an empty stand, turned off the engine and got out of the car. Then a kiosk attendent starts shouting and comes running towards me. Turns out that I stopped at a diesel-only stand. And because it is evident by this time that I was a gaijin, all 3 attendents start directing me towards another stand, waving their arms and all. I got out of the car again and told the guy full-tank. He walked to my oil tank door and told me something in Japanese which I didn't understand. Ah, I need to open the door for him! I looked around the interior but can't find the lever to pull! Turns out that you need to use the car key to open the oil tank door...how silly is that!!

Just so that he wouldn't think I was an idiot, I told him that I just bought the car and it was my first time driving it. And after I paid, he gave me a pack of beansprouts to congratulate me on getting the car! How cool is that? Pump petrol, make a fool of yourself and get a packet of beansprouts in return! So now, I have not one, not two, but THREE packets of beansprouts in my fridge because I bought a 2-pack offer earlier this week...looks like I'll be eating a lot of beansprouts for the next few meals I cook!

Look what I found!!

Found it in a supermarket! But the filling was red bean with walnuts. Doesn't taste the same as my favourite flavour - lotus paste with egg yolks :( But at least I did manage to eat a mooncake this year.

Didn't do much this weekend. Katie from the next town rented some DVDs and invited a bunch of us over for movies and a potluck dinner. I need to learn how to make something decent for potluck. I made these "Quick steamed raisin buns" using a recipe I found, which was really easy - basically mix pancake mix and milk and raisins in a cup, cover and put them in the microwave and they're done! - but they were rock hard by the time I brought them over. They were ok when I took them out of the microwave leh. The others then told me that pancake mix is also called cement mix coz it hardens when cool. So if you have any simple dishes that I can easily whip up for potluck-y events, please email your "simple and easy" recipes to me! Domo arigato gozaimasu!!

Edo Tokyo Architectural Museum

Or Tatemonoen in Japanese, which literally means buildings (tatemono) garden (-en). Basically the Japanese transplanted old buildings (after some restoration) into a really pretty park to create an open-air museum giving visitors a feel of the Japanese lifestyle in the past. There are mansions, houses, all kinds of shops, a bar, a public bath house, a photo studio, a police post, buses, trains, etc. on display, which you can enter. Many of the buildings were donations by private individuals (instead of simply tearing them down and re-building). I think its a great idea.

Miyazaki was inspired by what he saw at this museum when creating his award-winning animation film "Spirited Away" (watch it if you haven't...it's a great film!).

Old-style cash register

Bar from the Edo period (1600s - 1857). Those barrels that you can see from under the curtain are stools in front of the bar counter.

From right: Old-style flower shop and stationery shop. (can't remember what's the grey one on the left)

Bath house from the 1950s (by then, Japanese bath houses have started having separate baths for men and ladies)

Those green tubs just under the painting are where you soak yourself after scrubbing yourself clean by the taps in front.

Old style Japanese train (like the one in Spirited Away)

Ramen museum

Con-chan and I visited the Ramen museum in Shin-Yokohama. The ramen museum tries to recreate the feel of a night market, with traditional street setting and ramen shops and old-time sweets shops (similar to our mama shops) and traditional games played on the streets. It has 8-9 shops selling the different types of ramen found all over Japan.

Displays of all the different instant noodles and cup-a-noodles sold since they were first invented in the 1950s. Incidentally, the Japanese regard the invention of instant noodles as the greatest invention of that century. Haha...

I had a mini-bowl of Tonkotsu ramen from Kyushu and a special autumn-flavour...horse meat ramen! (The shops have the option of mini-bowls so that you can sample the different types of ramen, e.g. clear soy sauce ramen from Tokyo, miso ramen from Hokkaido, etc.)

My favourite...tonkotsu ramen!!! It's OISHI!!! I liked it so much that I even bought the soup stock so that I can cook it at home! :)

And my horse meat ramen...see how they cut carrots and pumpkin to make it look like autumn leaves. In case you're wondering, I think horse meat tastes like deer. This wins only in terms of presentation...I prefer the tonkotsu ramen from Kyushu. That was Con-chan's favourite too! In fact, the tonkotsu one is so popular that it had a 45-min queue!

And I shall end this entry with this very thought-provoking piece I saw in the ramen history exhibition:

It reads:

"All the raumen come in bowls.

And all the bowls have philosophy.

Shape, volume, material, colour, design...

In order to create raumen more delicious,

These bowls were meant to be selected.

They aren't mere pieces of tableware - they are the culture."

Cheem huh? (No, I don't know why they spell ramen raumen.)

Meiji shrine & super-cheap sushi

Another long weekend! Monday is Health and Sports Day (to commemorate the opening of the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964). I stayed over in Tokyo for a night before visiting my friend Con-chan who lives just 40 mins away from Tokyo in the Kanagawa Prefecture.

Today, my friend Iris and I set off to Harajuku to visit the Meiji Shrine. The Meiji Shrine was built in the early 1900s in memory of the late Emperor Meiji. It was destroyed during WWII but has been rebuilt and is very popular among tourists and locals. Its a really peaceful and serene place, completely opposite from the busy, trendy streets of Harajuku just at its doorstep.

The torii gates leading to the Meiji Shrine are HUGE (all Shinto shrines have torii gates)

It is a pleasant but long walk in on pebbled paths. Very rustic ambience.

Another set of torii just before the temple complex...not as big as the ones right in front

Japanese like to hold their wedding ceremonies at Meiji Shrine. We were lucky enough to meet one wedding procession. You can see the Shinto priests leading the procession, followed by the wedding couple (groom is blocked by the saluting guard), followed by parents and relatives.

Japanese dress very formally to weddings. The men wear tuxedos (with coat tails!) and the ladies wear their finest kimonos. It doesn't look very joyous though cos everyone's dressed in black. Close-up of the bridal couple dressed in traditional Shinto garb:

Oh, Iris and I found this superbly cheap sushi conveyor belt restaurant in Harajuku where almost every plate on the conveyor belt was only 100-yen (except chawan mushi, i.e. steamed egg custard, and desserts, but still, nothing more than 250-yen)! They had a really wide selection of sushi (even raw horse meat!) so it was great value for money! For the more expensive stuff like fatty tuna or big prawns, they will put only 1 piece of sushi on the plate instead of 2. Iris and I just kept taking whatever looked interesting cos there was no need to worry about how much it would cost. It was a great meal! We each paid about S$10 for around 8 plates of sushi (yes, we ate about 8 plates of sushi each...couldn't stop ourselves from taking anything that looked good because everything was so cheap).

Bishamon-do temple (3 Oct 2005)

Had the day free from Sports Day on Saturday. Decided to explore this temple in my town. The temple complex is rather big and is known for hosting the Naked Men Shoving Festival every March. Tons of men dressed only in loincloths will try to shove their way in to the temple. If they get in, it bodes well for their families for the coming year. All the male teachers in my school will have to take part...haha!

Even the sign leading to the temple depicts the naked men festival!
Entrance to the temple complex. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn red.

A picturesque area next to the temple that I've never noticed (well, because I've never been to the temple)

One of the buildings in the temple complex

The actual temple building (too bad, can't see it probably because of the shadow cast by the sun. Anyway, its a largish wooden building)

Covered walkway in the temple complex