Hornets Galore

This was the Giant Asian Hornets nest hanging just outside our room in Shirakawago. There were at least 4 hornets going in and out. The nest was quite beautiful with its swirly brown patterns. We couldn't figure out what it was made of. I think the nest had been knocked down recently and they were rebuilding. We found remnets of an old one on the ground.

And here is a Giant Asian Hornet ripping into the back of a dead cicada. The cicadas here are huge and so was the hornet. The hornet was very intent on carnage so it didn't notice me getting in close to get some photos.

Nagoya Festival

We went to Nagoya yesterday to check out the Tokugawa Musuem which houses many personal artifacts owned by the Tokugawa family. We got to see Tokugawa Ieyasu's (the first Tokugawa Shogun) armour! Plus there were several letters actually written by him. It was a very interesting museum with a beautiful garden attached.

There was a little girl feeding the carp in the pond and they were going WILD! Swimming on top of each other and unfolding their 'O' mouths!

After the museum we were going to try to watch a movie but when we got to the main downtown of Nagoya we found that there was a summer festival going on.

Even Col. Sanders was getting in on the festivities!

It was quite lively and it was very exciting to just walk around all evening and watch the various dances going on.

Festival Food

One of the greastest things about walking around a Japanese street festival is all the smells coming from the food booths. There are always some standard foods that are always found at festivals but usually something new can be found as well.

Although we always see grilled squid on a stick, we hadn't seen these gigantic whole tenticles!

These spiral cut whole potatoes fried on a stick are quite popular now:

In the Tokyo/Yokohama area we had never seen this yakitori and fried pork on a stick before. They are sitting in different sauces like miso or tonkatsu sauce. Yummy!!!!

For the sweet tooth these candied apples always smell good. They often candy them right there and also usually offer cherries, strawberries and other fruits.

Are these the Jets or the Sharks?

I have always heard about these kinds of guys and seen pictures in my guidebook but had never been able to see them until this big street festival that we stumbled upon in Nagoya last night. We only got to see them dance around for a minute or so. But then we got to watch them sit around in iconic 50s poses and then make sure their hair was just right.

Gujo Hachiman Bon Odori

Last Saturday Damien and I got to see one of the most famous festivals in Japan. It was in the incredibly picturesque mountain town of Gujo Hachiman about an hour and 15 minutes by train from where we live. It celebrates the summer Obon time. Obon is the period in August when it is believed that the spirits of dead ansectors return home for a brief visit. Neighborhood dancing and music is a lively part of this tradition. Gujo's festival is particulary famous because for 4 nights there is dancing all night long. I was a little apprehensive about staying up all night and coming back on the early morning train, but it was worth it. The dancing started around 8pm. A small traditional stage was set up in the middle of a narrow street and as soon as the music started everyone immediately created lines of dancers on either side of the narrow street and started dancing. The lines made a big circle that periodically changed direction depending on which dance was on.
The music consisted of a few shamisen players, some drums and 2 male singers. The music was eerie and the dancing was fun. It only took a few minutes of watching to see what the movements were. We danced off and on until 3:30 in the morning.
When we weren't dancing we were walking around the neighborhood watching people enjoy the night and looking at the colorful yukata (traditional summer robe) and geta (wooden shoes) that most people were wearing. I finally was brave enough to eat yaki ayu. I had seen it for years at festivals. That is a whole sweetfish speared on a stick and slowly grilled over hot coals. I wasn't sure about eating the whole skeleton and everything but the vendor said it was okay. Gujo is famous for the wild ayu caught in the river. It was pretty good!

Shirakawago Village

Damien and I just visited the mountain village of Shirakawago. This place is an UNESCO World Heritage Site that is in Gifu Prefecture where we live. It is famous for its huge thatched roof farmhouses called gassho-zukkuri. The name comes from the fact that their A-frame structure resembles two hands in prayer. These houses were all 100-250 years old and 3-5 stories tall. We were allowed to go into several that were either turned into museums. Each one had an irori (hearth with hanging pot) in the main room where you entered. This was for heating and cooking. The winters in Shirakawago see 2-3 meters of snow!

The upper levels were for cultivating silk worms. Although they don't do this anymore commercially, we were able to see some real silk worms eating leaves and you could actually hear them munching!!!

We were lucky enough to secure a reservation in one of the gassho-zukkuri that is open as an inn. It was run by a tiny little old lady bent at a 45 degree angle who spoke not a word of English. I think she and her husband are at the end of their careers as innkeepers. There weren't many other customers even though the rest of the inns in town were booked to capacity. I found this one by desperately calling around from a list I found on the internet. I can tell you it was a challenge to my limited Japanese to have been able to make the reservation! (Actually I had one of the staff at work call back a few days later and just confirm that I had really made one.) The place was quaint and the food was good. We did have a Giant Asian Hornets nest right outside our room, but they didn't bother us. The second night we were there, there was another guest. When the little old lady called us in for dinner we met him. He was an Iranian immigrant who had fled Iran 17 years ago because he was afraid he would get killed since he didn't believe in Islam. His English was limited so we mainly spoke in broken Japanese. He wanted to know if I like Obama or Clinton better! I said Clinton and he agreed. He asked the little old lady who was listening to us and she said that she didn't know about any of it and it didn't matter to her either way. The day we left we saw her leave the house and hobble down the road and out of sight. We wondered where she had gone and if she would get back before our bus left! She came back several minutes later and had bought us a little memento, a Hello Kitty chain for a cell phone with Hello Kitty dressed up as a gassho-zukkuri house! Cute!

For lunch one of the days we were there we ate in a gassho-zukkuri that was surrounded by ponds and gardens. Their speciality was trout and it was interesting that a guy kept coming out of the kitchen and walking outside to get live fish from their ponds. Talk about fresh!

The whole village was amazing and was quite different from anywhere else we have been in Japan. The conbination of beautiful mountains, a clear cool mountain river, giant old thatched roofs, and fresh local food made the place seem like a real shangra-la!

More Lightning

We walked over to the river this evening for what was supposed to be the Kani Summer festival complete with fireworks and dancing. But just as evening set in large storm clouds appeared and wicked lightning again lit up the sky. The festival was postponed so we went to a little noddle shop for dinner. I mentioned to the waitress that the weather was crazy and she said it was amazing that we had this kind of weather three nights in a row. It made for some more great pictures though!!

Crazy Lightning Storm

The past week has seen some exciting storm systems here. We have fairly sweeping views of the surrounding hills and the past two nights there have been some of the craziest lightning I have ever seen. Strangely, we didn't get much rain and only a bit of thunder but the lightning was so scary I was almost afraid. I have never seen such large systems of forks just spread all across the sky! And they were surrounding all of Kani on all sides. I read in The Japan Times this week that many people believe there has been a marked increase in this kind of weather in Japan over the past 25 years and that it is directly related to global warming.

I was able to get a few pictures and a small movie. Unfortunately they don't even remotely do justice to the real thing but I hope you enjoy them anyway. I had to take about 50 shots just to get a few decent ones!

Japanese Pro-Wrestling

I never imagined that I would ever watch pro-wrestling in Japan, but last night in the parking lot outside a restaurant/pub just near our apartment they set up a ring and brought in a couple of tour buses with male and female wrestlers. We had to go watch a little since it was right there. We could here the bell from our living room. I had actually never watched this kind of thing before. It was mega-fake and it was funny to see the crowd getting into it and cheering and booing. It was funny that the ref would count down in English "one, two, zeree...".

Not something I would ever pay to go see but an interesting diversion on a hot Saturday evening!