Summer of Festivals

Just like in the states, summer is the time for festivals in Japan as well. The ones I remember from my childhood tended to be traditionally centered around vegetables and livestock. My home town festival in Ohio included much anticipated events like the "cow chip" throwing contest and the "tractor pulls" and the Boy Scouts roasting fresh picked local sweet corn.

Each festival in Japan celebrates one specific thing. For example, a particular kind of drum (taiko). or dance, weaving (tanabata), the moon or fire. They really focus on this one element being the reason and meaning for the celebration.

I attended the Domatsuri (dance festival) in Nagoya last weekend and was mesmerized by the performances, the music (even though I couldn't understand the lyrics!) and the costumes. It included 210 teams and over 23,000 dancers. Performances were all around the city, but one stage was right here at the Marriott main entrance terrace. The main goal  of the festival is to demonstrate that all generations can enjoy the fun and fitness of dance and body movement. The ages on the teams ranged from 3 to at least 83. Some teams were very large and so well synchronized that they had to have practiced for months and months reach that level. I don't think it was a competition, as I never saw any scoring or awarding of prizes or ribbons. I think it was just for the fun of it. Imagine that!

Here is a video of one of the best groups that I saw.



Off to pick up our Alien Resident Cards today. Applied a month ago and now  they have been processed and approved. We are officially residents of Nagoya! 4 weeks down, only 100 to go!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, There has been quite a bit of activity taking place. On Friday, we spent over 5 hours completing the purchase of our appliances. Many things are so different here it is sometimes hard to determine what will and won't work.

Our apartment only has a 60 amp breaker, so we can't run more than three 20 amp A/C units at a time (if nothting else in the house is running.) Based on this (and the cost of A/C units), we opted to not to put A/C in the guest bedrooms. Sorry guests! My suggestion is to not come in June, July or August! As an alternative, we thought we would put ceiling fans in those 2 rooms instead.  This is what the outlet in the ceiling looks like. We are hoping that the metal hooks mean it can support a ceiling fan, but no one really seems to know. We bought them anyway and hope that the guys who comes to install will know.

Next major snaffoo was the using the corporate credit card. Well, it seems when you buy something other than meals and hotel rooms on a corporate credit card... like say 40" flat screen TVs and refridgerators --there is evidentally a big red fraud flag that gets raised. It took no less than 3 calls to Citibank to finally get the charges approved and processed.

While Gary was on the phone for hours I kept myself busy translating every sign in katakana around me for practice. The biggest mystery sign, was for ma-ga-na-ti-zi-n-ga glasses, which after using my powers of deduction, I realized they really meant magnifying glasses... aka readers! (but without lights). Also, decoded a-ro-ma te-ra-pi. Diffusers for aroma therapy!

More to come about our Arabic Food Club night and the Domatsuri (dance festival), but have to run now.

Nagoya Castle

So, as I eluded to in my last post, we did have a fun evening out last Sunday. We went to the Summer Lantern Festival at Nagoya Castle.

Entrance to Shiyakusho Station near Nagoya Castle

Women in kimono's waiting in line to enter the festival

For only 800 yen a piece we were able to tour all 5 floors and an observation deck of the castle and attend a festival that was being held on the grounds. We did enjoy seeing the history of Nagoya Castle, the original structure dating back to 1612, although most of it was rebuilt after what they politely refer to as the "air raids" destroyed all but the gate towers in 1945 during WWII.

 

Nagoya Castle

We also saw a 'Bon Odori' or Bon dance, which is a dance to welcome the spirits of the dead during Obon, which is this week. Japanese travel back to their hometowns to visit family and remember their ancestors. Most wormen wore kimonos and performed the dance in unison. It was similar to line dancing and I had an urge to get up and give it try, but I didn't know if it would be appropriate for a gaijiin or not. In turn I could have taught them all 'the cotton-eyed Joe'. : )

Bon Odori



As we were about to leave through the gate, we saw a man holding a sign that said 18:40 with a big red arrow pointing up a hill to the left and a bunch of Japanese characters we couldn't read (as usual). It was 18:39, so we decided to see what was going on. About 8 Samurai, bearing flags of their clans, were up on platforms and in position to fire old Japanese style matchlock guns. They proceeded to shoot and reload 6 times. I've included some live action footage for your enjoyment!

Moving on Up

After 10 days on the 33rd floor, Gary found out that Boeing authorizes stays on the concierge level. So we packed up and moved to the 47th floor on Friday night. Room is basically the same, but with turn down service and chocolate every night! Also included is access to the Towers Spa and Exercise Club which has a fitness room, group classes, pool, whirlpool, sauna and cozy quiet room with actual comfy sofas and chairs(really excited to sit somewhere other than the bed in our room). All of this comes with just a few rules that are posted and STRICTLY enforced for the good of all. Needless to say, we both inadvertently broke some rules. Gary got in trouble for swimming without a cap. I was asked to remove my eye makeup, then made to leave the pool area to take off my wedding rings (no jewelry in the pool). Good thing neither one of us has a tattoo. Can't even come in with a tattoo. Kind of reminded me of being on Gary's boat in Alaska. Now that we have it all down, I think we will do fine.

Also included on this level is the full American breakfast every morning and happy hour appetizers and drinks every evening from 5pm to midnight. First day at cocktail hour we ran into an old colleague (Kevin)of Gary's from 6 years ago in Everett. It was refreshing to participate in a conversation in English (with someone other than Gary). ;)


Well, with all this access to free food and drink it is a really good thing that I can now go work out daily, which is where I am headed now!

Stay tuned for an exciting post with video of our trip to the Nagoya Castle Evening Festival...coming soon!

Our 15 Year Wedding Anniversary!

Had a lovely dinner on the 52nd floor of the Marriott at a French Restaurant named Mikuni. Our little waitress was so patient with us. She translated the entire menu, (which was in Japanese and French). She actually spoke French as well as English (and Japanese) and is taking her test to be a sommelier in 2 weeks. She made the evening very special. It is hard to see in the picture, but she had the chef create a 'cloud' of sugar strands around our dessert plates and had little white chocolate bars that said "Bon Aniversarie" floating on them. We followed dinner with a nightcap in the Zenith Lounge, also on the 52nd floor. The singer was English speaking and pretty good. Enjoyed songs such as "Imagine" and "Wind Beneath my Wings". It was a fabulous night!

After last night, I thought we needed the good old "budget" to kick back in, which resulted in one of my best best finds, since we have been here. A fresh market below the JR Takashimaya station, which has counter after counter of  lovely fresh salads, potstickers and "bento" lunch boxes and other interesting skewered Japanese fare. Here was my lunch today, which was easily 100 times less than dinner last night. They also have a bottled wine and liquor section. Score!

First Weekend in "The Nag"

To start off, Gary got his leased car on Saturday morning. It is a 2006 Mark X, which is a Toyota (of course). Not a model they market in the States, but it's a nice mid-size sedan. Immaculate condition (like everything else here). We decided to take it for a spin down to our soon to be apartment home. Gary did really well. Watching for pedestrians and the hundreds of people flying out of nowhere on bikes is the huge challenge and those right hand turns! Yikes. I don't think I am ready yet. Our 'leasing agent' Uno-san helped us enter key destinations in the Japanese 'navi'. The voice instructions are also in Japanese, not so helpful yet. The screen display is helpful to show when a turn is coming up and which lane to be in. Then it is like a game, you just match the Kanji characters on the screen with the ones on the street sign in front of you to figure out if it is the right road.

After that exhilarating experience, we decided to park it and take the subway to a big downtown shopping area called Sakae. There was an event in town called Cosplay, which is where they dress up in costumes like their favorite Japanese anime characters. Very interesting outfits and hair colors. (The 'old' Seth would have fit right in!)

We then wandered around in the stifling humidity for an hour or so trying to find a bar that was open on a late Saturday afternoon. Found a 'Aussie' bar called Red Rock, that was open and had killer a/c going, but they were having a private party. They suggested a bar called 'My Bar' owned by Armenian sisters. (thought maybe the Kardashians had invaded Japan too!) We walked another mile to have a watered down drink in the their small basement bar, but I don't think we will be returning there anytime soon.

Sunday was a lazy day. We watched golf on Slingbox and walked across to the other side of Nagoya Station to a big electronics store to look at appliances, so when we have our relocation agent with us next week, we can make quick purchases and she can set up delivery and installation and not have to waste much time deciding what we want.

On our way back we were thirsty and decided to get a Coke at McDs --to go. As we were walking we noticed that not ONE other person was drinking anything. They just don't drink while they are walking at ALL. Even in the morning, no one has a morning Starbucks or 'Go Cup'. Maybe this is one more way they stay so fit? We ended up having to carry our cups all the way back to our room to throw them out because there are no trash containers anywhere in the subways or on the streets either.

Sunday night we went to dinner in the 'Towers' above Nagoya Station and next to the Marriott where we are staying at a lovely Italian place called 'The Kitchen'. We had veal scallopine and wild mushroom and smoked mozzarella risotto and also enjoyed this lovely bottle of Italian red! I highly recommend it. Ciao! Ciao!

Coffee Dilemna - August 4, 2011

We awoke this morning about 0530 and I went in search of coffee while Gary got ready for work. I found out that not only can you not get a cup of coffee that early, but I actually couldn't even get out of the hotel. They lock all the doors between 2400 and 0700. The only exit that was open was way at the back of the hotel - the bus entrance, and I had no idea how to get around to the front of the hotel from there. I found this "mezurashii", meaning unusual/strange (which was oddly enough the 'Japanese word of the day' yesterday!)

So my mission for today was to find a coffee maker for our room. Here is what I found. Just need to buy a bag of good ole Starbucks and we are set for tomorrow and beyond!

August 2, 2011 - First evening in Japan

Flights were uneventful, which is always a good thing. Watched Water for Elephants and ate lots of snacks. Toblerone...yummy! Had to take a taxi to the hotel to transport our 7 checked bags, plus 2 carry-ons. Thirty minute cab ride ran us (really Boeing) over $200 USD. Yikes! Nicest cab I have ever been in though. Immaculately clean with perfectly white crocheted seat covers with little ruffles. He also wore white driving gloves!

Checked in at Marriott Associa Nagoya hotel and our room is very spacious. We'll see if I still think so 2 or 3 weeks from now. Still no word on the progress of our lease, but I hope it won't be more than a few weeks. I am anxious to move in and decorate.

First thing I love about Japan. Washlets, which are very high tech toilet seats. You can turn on a seat warmer --very cozy. They also have buttons for 'shower' and 'bidet', not sure what the difference is between those two. HOwever, last night, after 14 hours of traveling, bleary eyed Gary, thought he was pressing 'flush', but instead made a fountain in our bathroom! At least it was clean water that sprayed all over and he did react quickly and closed the lid to minimize the puddle on the floor. ; )