Friends from Trumansburg and hot salsa!

I was so excited to see Sarah Saxon and her Mom Tanya, and her and Dad John today! I got to know Sarah last year, as she was in my 5th grade chorus and the cast of Peter Pan. She and her family spent a couple of wonderful weeks in New Zealand over the Winter Holiday, and stopped in Tokyo for several days on the way back. I met them in my station yesterday, and was so happy to meet them, that I bear hugged everyone and gave John Levine a big kiss on the cheek! He was a good sport about it. We walked around my neighborhood briefly, then took the train 2 stops to Harajuku to see some of the wonky fashion on the local teens, traversed up and down Omoto-sando Dori, got some coffee, and then came back to my house for more conversation. It was a gorgeous day for a walk in the sun! They gave me a beautiful photograph of a "Trumansburg garden," taken by local photographer Polly Joan. OUR photograph here shows how happy I am to be with them (and also a mountain of dirty laundry on my kitchen floor- we call it "Mount Washmore," a term I first heard from Karen Bartishevich!)

I gave Sarah a hug to be shared when she gets back, so if you want a hug from me, just ask her for one!

When Robin brought the forwarded mail home from work yesterday evening, I found a package from the middle school. It was a photo album with holiday wishes (and curses) from my dear colleagues at Tburg MS! I have been looking and looking at it. It makes me smile. It was a day filled with Trumansburg people and thoughts!

And now onto the salsa!

While I was out yesterday, Nathan made some salsa that was really delicious. It had a lot of chipotle pepper with adobo sauce flavor, fresh vegetables and was smoky and hot. He was so proud of it, he took some liberties with the salsa jar we had been using.

Finally Fuji!

Thursday we enjoyed taking the train to the Hakone region to see fickle Fuji. The day dawned clear and blue and chilly, so we knew it was the perfect day to try to see Fuji-san. We bought Hakone "Free Passes" for everyone and hopped on the first train car. In this picture, you can see Sandra photographing a little boy who was VERY excited to be in the front of the train. He was having a big time watching the train operator. It really is more exciting to be in the front, and Sandra and I were looking over the operator's shoulder for a long time, trying to figure out exactly how he was making the train start and stop. Apparently it takes 2 hands. Left hand for accelerating, and right hand for breaking. The trains that are NOT shinkansen (bullet) go around 65 miles per hour when they are really moving in the open straight stretches of track.

There was great excitement in our first car when Fuji finally came into view. Just about 2 hours after we started, we stopped. Robin bought bento boxes for lunch and we all hopped on a bus. Bentos are little disposable lunch boxes that are made of carefully crafted wood, and are filled with little samples of Japanese yummies. The bus took us up curvy, hairpin turns, up, up the side of a mountain, on narrow little roads. I was sitting directly in the middle of the very back of the bus, trying to eat my Japanese lunch while feeling like I was on a ride at Disney. It's pretty disorienting to be doing that while on the left side of the road. It was pretty scary- but in a good way.

Our day also included a cruise on a lake, a ride up the side of a mountain in a gondola, a ride back down part way in a cable car, and finally a train ride back home to Tokyo. Some of the things we saw yesterday included gorgeous views of Mount Fuji and the surrounding peaks, sulfurous, steaming pits, ancient giant cedar trees, pirate ships (har), Lake Ashi and happy families everywhere. The day was capped perfectly by a late dinner in a teeny tiny Indian restaurant right here near home. It felt exceedingly good to have the opportunity to walk to and from dinner. Our day was mostly spent in passive sightseeing ecstacy.

Some quirky Japanese highlights from the day:

At the top of the goldola ride, while viewing the steaming pits, (called "Hell Valley") we here treated to the lovely melody of Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight, played by some tinkly little instrument. A weird juxtaposition. We got a snippet of it on video clip.

While waiting for our pirate ship to arrive to take us up the lake, we stopped for a treat. The girls had a sundae of sorts that included green tea icecream on top of sweetened red beans, with mochi on the side. Mochi is the pounded rice cake that is quite chewey and has little taste. Sandra and Claire popped the little mochi balls into their mouths at the same instant and immediately burst into giggles.

I realized that I have some basic understanding of Japanese because I could understand most of what the little adorable 2 year old was saying to his parents on the train. "Papa, Papa! Nan ji?"

"Papa, Papa, what time is it?" AND "Koko a doko?" "Where are we?"

So...I am at a Japanese level of a 2 year old!

Found a box of cookies that had the name "Crunky" on the front.

Now: enjoy the pics from Thursday!

Hakone Pics

Bento boxes on the bus
Our first glimpse of Fuji!


Nice fake pirate ship to take the sightseers up Lake Ashi

Ueno on Wednesday

On Wednesday, we decided to head back to Ueno to check out the museums there. It was the day when they opened back up after the holidays, and the main building, the National Museum of Tokyo had free admission. They also had groups performing outside. When we arrived, there was a group of flute players, Taiko drummers and koto players. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto_(musical_instrument)
That was a lovely surprise. We caught the end of their music. After touring through the museum for about an hour, we met together, (ready for lunch) exited the building, and found this group of actors performing on the steps out front. The story line is a little sketchy, but there was a boy fishing, some dragons who went around nibbling on the tops of people's heads, and this venerable, smiling person who seemed to be using his fan to sprinkle good fortune upon the gathered audience. There was no speaking, just movement and traditional Japanese music as accompaniment. Another lucky accident.

Me, and TWO MILLION of my close personal friends...

Happy Japanese New Year!The view up ahead near the beginning.
Getting closer!

New Year's Day in Japan. The girls and I decided to visit Asakusa Shrine TODAY OF ALL DAYS. It seemed like every other citizen of Tokyo was there too. When we came up out of the subway, we saw the end of a great line forming in the streets. We jumped into the line and thought, why not? Let's give it 20 minutes. One hour and 45 minutes later, we had shuffled our way up the street, around the corner and down the grand walk way towards the main building. We were in a sea of Japanese heads, moving, flowing, being pulled on and on, starting and stopping along with thousands and thousands of others. Along the way, there were shops selling charms, fans, new year's thingies, food, yukatas, Japanese novelty wigs (I gotta get one!), purses, coats, snacks, sweets, stuffed animals...it was never boring. We'd duck into a store briefly, and then merge back into the shuffling crowd. About 3/4 of the way there, they started piping soothing traditional music over the throng. It was definitely a memorable cultural experience. Once we were at the steps, the police with their many bull-horns directed us in smaller groups up the stairs, into the open room where people were literally THROWING their yen over each other's heads into the collection boxes. I am sure many little old ladies got hit in the head with 100 yen coins today. We exited left, and wandered on our way, glad for the chance to walk a little more briskly. I found a couple of gifts in a shop that sells china and glass ware of all kinds, Betty found a spoon today, and Sandra got some hashi (chopsticks). It was a very cool Japanese New Year kind of day.



We are back home now, cleaning up from supper.



Here's a conversation I just heard between Claire and Betty, started by me:



Alice: (ever the gracious hostess) Please let me know when you need clean towels.



Claire: My towel's always wet.



Alice: It's very damp here. Remember, you are on an island in the Pacific.



Betty: If you hung your towel up on the rack, it would dry.



Claire: I DO.



Betty: There are only 2 towels on the rack, mine and Sandra's.



Claire: I'm using the green one.



Betty: But that's MY towel! I wondered why my towel was always wet!!!



(This conversation was followed by very un-Japanese-like open-mouthed belly laughter)