The summer was spent doodling away my time in parks or at the beach. I explored my Kobe and met a cat. Good things happened. One time I went to this little park in a secret new place I found in Sannomiya and I had just sat down at a bench to draw, read, etc. and this Japanese girl came up to me and she gave me a popsicle. It was very, very nice. I think her and her friends were on a break and they all worked at the stores just across the way so they decided to split a box of popsicles and maybe they had one left over and the decided to give to me! Anyways, it was a very delicious popsicle. It was green tea ice cream on the outside and inside on top it had this milk syrup stuff that’s quite wonderful and on the bottom it had purple red bean ice cream with little bits of red bean in it. It was the best popsicle ever I would say. I met the cats at that park too. There was a little orange and white one that was very playful and still a little scared of everything, and then there was the mom who was very nonchalant and did seem to care a bit. They were very cute. I watched them with the other Japanese girls and boys and I gave them some milk tea in my palette.
One day I decided to finally visit the temple, right by the park, that I always see but have never been to before, and it was quite nice. There was a large hoop stood up that was made out of straw tied together with little bits of green string (or maybe it was red) and what you were supposed to do was walk through the circle and turn to the right and then walk through again and turn to the left and walk through a third time and keep going straight. I think maybe it was lucky. There were stacks of Saki barrels, and hearts with wishes, a shrine where I saw a monk dressed in white and three girls practicing the guitar, and a little park hidden behind with some very tall trees.
I spent some time at the beach (just a little one in Uozumi, but nice) with Mamiko and her friends. It was nice. The first time I went with Ayako and we swam to the big rocks and played with the kids. We went on the jet ski and Ayako tipped us over and I spent some time lying on my towel and reading. They made lots of food and everyone was really nice. I really like the kids; there are three of them two boys and one girl just like us except the girl is in the middle. I really like the youngest boy ‘cause he’s funny and cute and he reminds me of David when he was little. And it was really hot in the summer, so it was nice to go to the beach and swim too. I met them at the beach a few other times, maybe once by myself and once with Aaron. Everyone really liked Aaron and they thought he was really cool, which of course he is. When Aaron came, he tried water skiing but he didn’t have a chance to make it up because the jet ski stopped working.
Once I went to a Curry party with Ayako and her friends. A curry party is like a BBQ except instead they made curry on these fire pits in big pots for the rice and curry. It was really good. Everyone brought squirt guns and we had a big water gun fight. They were so cute. The kids were really cute, I spent a lot of time helping them fill up their guns at the taps which I was happy to do. Everyone got thoroughly soaked and it was lots of fun.
It was really hot during the summer. Just ask Mom and Aaron. And almost every Friday I had to go posting at work, because I only have four classes in the afternoon and we have all these flyers we need to get rid of and put in people’s mailboxes. So one day I took the bus to a big mansion (cluster of apartment buildings) I had seen in the distance ‘cause I had covered all the walking area already. It was all good and I spent a couple hours walking around this apartment complex stuffing pamphlets in a thousand and one mailboxes and listening to the violin lessons that you could hear from a school across the way. After I was finished I was just heading out, walking back to the bus stop when a lady came up to me and asked me something about the bus. I thought maybe she was asking me if I was going to take the bus so I said yes because I was planning to, but in fact she was asking me if I had been on the bus earlier… apparently we had been on the same bus a few hours earlier to get there. And she just handed me a plastic bag with an ice cream cone in it and a cup of ice water! She said that I should take a break and walked off. It was so nice. For this I love Japan.
On July 13th I went to Kyoto for Gion Matsuri which is a festival held in streets surrounding the homes of geisha. Later in the day, Ayako met me at the station and we walked around in search of festivities. We went to a temple where the stalls were set up for all the festival food and games that would be there later that night and rang a big bell, made a wish, and read our fortunes. My life will be half happy. If I get sick I will recover. That’s all I remember. We tied them to the post along with all the others. We ate mochi. From a woman at an outside vendor we got gloops of white rice pounded and smushed to a paste, put on a stick, and toasted with soy sauce poured on top, served with a piece of dried seaweed. It was warm and gooey and delicious and lovely. We walked around and stopped at a little shop to have kakigori which is mounds and mounds of very finely shaved ice. You can have it any which way, but we had it with matcha (green tea) flavouring and milk syrup poured on top, and inside there was a little hill of vanilla ice cream. It was soooo yummy. It’s my new favourite summer thing. You could say it somewhat resembles a snow cone except like a thousand zillion times better. That night we saw the floats lit up like great ships, their masts made out of a thousand paper lanterns, and they looked like they were flying. They reminded me of Peter Pan. They were so beautiful. And there was music. It was a peculiar flute like tune that marched on endlessly and sounded a little bit sad like a funeral march. But it wasn’t sad it was happy. We walked the streets for a bit and decided to have dinner. Down back alley streets; dark but for the light of lanterns hung outside many, many restaurants, we went in search of a place to eat. After much deliberation, we chose a spot and settled down to eat. It was run by a nice old woman and her husband who looked a bit like a rockabilly and their son was the cook. They were really sweet. The food was delicious. We had a certain type of fish I can’t remember the name of, tofu, some of the most delicious eggplant ever, and some very tasty tomato vegetable chicken stewy soup. It was all very tradition, all very spectacular. After dinner, Ayako went home and I went back to the hotel for a long night of very little sleep. The nest day it rained a lot. I spent the day walking around in an arcade where I found a bookstore with only English books! Needless to say, I spent a few hours there looking at book until I settled on one. There was a strip of little stalls selling all kinds of things to eat where I got some wedges of sweet potato and fried chicken that I ate standing in the rain. The rest of the day I spent reading in various spots; by the river, on a bench (where I looked up only to find all these strangers taking my picture… very strange). When night came the floats came out and lit up like stars and this time there were a dozen more. And whereas last night only a few people straggled, this night was a sea of people. It was all crowds squishing you on both sides. It was quite delightful to slip in and lose yourself in the sweep. So I walked the with the people in the direction of the station (or so I thought) and I looked at the bright shipwrecks speckling the streets playing their sick-sweet music and I walked down the little alleyways jammed with people and booths selling yakisoba (fried noodles) and the games of ring toss and go fish. I bought a cup of kakigori (the same kind as before except this time it had red beans in it too) and ate it while I walked along. And when I came to the end I finally realized I had not been walking in the station at all and was now far, far away, so I took the subway back to the station and the train back home and went to sleep.
The weekend before mom and Aaron came I went to Sannomiya and there was something special going on in Chinatown. There were people dressed up as pigs and emperors and Chinese generals that stood beneath bright red lanterns and took pictures with children and their parents. Outside a restaurant there were piles and piles of people so I squished my way through to see what was going on and it was a dragon dance! It was really cool. It was this long white dragon with silver sequins and streaks of colour and a long white beard and fury eyebrows. He looked like an old man dragon. And it danced and wiggled and stood on its hind legs reaching up, up to the top. And inside were two little boys wearing blue t-shirts… they were so cute. And there was a little girl playing the drums and she was sooo good and an old woman playing the cymbals. It was quite wonderful. I really want to go to China for Chinese New Year. After that I bought a bag of cherries sitting in the crowds.
And all the while I went to Fla on Mondays and had lunches with Ayako.
One day I decided to finally visit the temple, right by the park, that I always see but have never been to before, and it was quite nice. There was a large hoop stood up that was made out of straw tied together with little bits of green string (or maybe it was red) and what you were supposed to do was walk through the circle and turn to the right and then walk through again and turn to the left and walk through a third time and keep going straight. I think maybe it was lucky. There were stacks of Saki barrels, and hearts with wishes, a shrine where I saw a monk dressed in white and three girls practicing the guitar, and a little park hidden behind with some very tall trees.
I spent some time at the beach (just a little one in Uozumi, but nice) with Mamiko and her friends. It was nice. The first time I went with Ayako and we swam to the big rocks and played with the kids. We went on the jet ski and Ayako tipped us over and I spent some time lying on my towel and reading. They made lots of food and everyone was really nice. I really like the kids; there are three of them two boys and one girl just like us except the girl is in the middle. I really like the youngest boy ‘cause he’s funny and cute and he reminds me of David when he was little. And it was really hot in the summer, so it was nice to go to the beach and swim too. I met them at the beach a few other times, maybe once by myself and once with Aaron. Everyone really liked Aaron and they thought he was really cool, which of course he is. When Aaron came, he tried water skiing but he didn’t have a chance to make it up because the jet ski stopped working.
Once I went to a Curry party with Ayako and her friends. A curry party is like a BBQ except instead they made curry on these fire pits in big pots for the rice and curry. It was really good. Everyone brought squirt guns and we had a big water gun fight. They were so cute. The kids were really cute, I spent a lot of time helping them fill up their guns at the taps which I was happy to do. Everyone got thoroughly soaked and it was lots of fun.
It was really hot during the summer. Just ask Mom and Aaron. And almost every Friday I had to go posting at work, because I only have four classes in the afternoon and we have all these flyers we need to get rid of and put in people’s mailboxes. So one day I took the bus to a big mansion (cluster of apartment buildings) I had seen in the distance ‘cause I had covered all the walking area already. It was all good and I spent a couple hours walking around this apartment complex stuffing pamphlets in a thousand and one mailboxes and listening to the violin lessons that you could hear from a school across the way. After I was finished I was just heading out, walking back to the bus stop when a lady came up to me and asked me something about the bus. I thought maybe she was asking me if I was going to take the bus so I said yes because I was planning to, but in fact she was asking me if I had been on the bus earlier… apparently we had been on the same bus a few hours earlier to get there. And she just handed me a plastic bag with an ice cream cone in it and a cup of ice water! She said that I should take a break and walked off. It was so nice. For this I love Japan.
On July 13th I went to Kyoto for Gion Matsuri which is a festival held in streets surrounding the homes of geisha. Later in the day, Ayako met me at the station and we walked around in search of festivities. We went to a temple where the stalls were set up for all the festival food and games that would be there later that night and rang a big bell, made a wish, and read our fortunes. My life will be half happy. If I get sick I will recover. That’s all I remember. We tied them to the post along with all the others. We ate mochi. From a woman at an outside vendor we got gloops of white rice pounded and smushed to a paste, put on a stick, and toasted with soy sauce poured on top, served with a piece of dried seaweed. It was warm and gooey and delicious and lovely. We walked around and stopped at a little shop to have kakigori which is mounds and mounds of very finely shaved ice. You can have it any which way, but we had it with matcha (green tea) flavouring and milk syrup poured on top, and inside there was a little hill of vanilla ice cream. It was soooo yummy. It’s my new favourite summer thing. You could say it somewhat resembles a snow cone except like a thousand zillion times better. That night we saw the floats lit up like great ships, their masts made out of a thousand paper lanterns, and they looked like they were flying. They reminded me of Peter Pan. They were so beautiful. And there was music. It was a peculiar flute like tune that marched on endlessly and sounded a little bit sad like a funeral march. But it wasn’t sad it was happy. We walked the streets for a bit and decided to have dinner. Down back alley streets; dark but for the light of lanterns hung outside many, many restaurants, we went in search of a place to eat. After much deliberation, we chose a spot and settled down to eat. It was run by a nice old woman and her husband who looked a bit like a rockabilly and their son was the cook. They were really sweet. The food was delicious. We had a certain type of fish I can’t remember the name of, tofu, some of the most delicious eggplant ever, and some very tasty tomato vegetable chicken stewy soup. It was all very tradition, all very spectacular. After dinner, Ayako went home and I went back to the hotel for a long night of very little sleep. The nest day it rained a lot. I spent the day walking around in an arcade where I found a bookstore with only English books! Needless to say, I spent a few hours there looking at book until I settled on one. There was a strip of little stalls selling all kinds of things to eat where I got some wedges of sweet potato and fried chicken that I ate standing in the rain. The rest of the day I spent reading in various spots; by the river, on a bench (where I looked up only to find all these strangers taking my picture… very strange). When night came the floats came out and lit up like stars and this time there were a dozen more. And whereas last night only a few people straggled, this night was a sea of people. It was all crowds squishing you on both sides. It was quite delightful to slip in and lose yourself in the sweep. So I walked the with the people in the direction of the station (or so I thought) and I looked at the bright shipwrecks speckling the streets playing their sick-sweet music and I walked down the little alleyways jammed with people and booths selling yakisoba (fried noodles) and the games of ring toss and go fish. I bought a cup of kakigori (the same kind as before except this time it had red beans in it too) and ate it while I walked along. And when I came to the end I finally realized I had not been walking in the station at all and was now far, far away, so I took the subway back to the station and the train back home and went to sleep.
The weekend before mom and Aaron came I went to Sannomiya and there was something special going on in Chinatown. There were people dressed up as pigs and emperors and Chinese generals that stood beneath bright red lanterns and took pictures with children and their parents. Outside a restaurant there were piles and piles of people so I squished my way through to see what was going on and it was a dragon dance! It was really cool. It was this long white dragon with silver sequins and streaks of colour and a long white beard and fury eyebrows. He looked like an old man dragon. And it danced and wiggled and stood on its hind legs reaching up, up to the top. And inside were two little boys wearing blue t-shirts… they were so cute. And there was a little girl playing the drums and she was sooo good and an old woman playing the cymbals. It was quite wonderful. I really want to go to China for Chinese New Year. After that I bought a bag of cherries sitting in the crowds.
And all the while I went to Fla on Mondays and had lunches with Ayako.
