Chasing Kanji - 感情を追って

An American's travel traumas
アメリカ人の旅行の外傷

Edo Invasion  

A few weeks ago we noticed more people than usual gathering in Osu. After work, we took a walk to find out what was going on. As it turns out there was a cool parade and festivities to celebrate Japan during the Edo period.



Whenever there is a festival, it seems like hundreds of people turn out. This was no exception. It was neat to see the different period costumes, there were elites, servants, bodyguards, etc. Everyone was in character.
I can't imagine how uncomfortable this woman must have been. She walked in the smallest of steps, always looking forward. At certain points during their parade, the women would pause and do a small dance with their feet. You can't see it in the picture, but the women are so much taller than the men because they are wearing platform wooden sandals about 8 inches thick. The guy behind her with his elbow bent is carrying a huge red umbrella that hung over her.
In the courtyard of Osu Kannon temple later that night, there was a performance done in the old style of Japanese theater. It's so nice to have these little surprises in our weekend entertainment! :)

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The Garden of Orchids  

Two weeks ago while walking around, we came upon a street that we'd never been to, even though it isn't that far from our apartment. We noticed a rather new, stone building. Walking up to the front, we saw that it was The Orchid Garden of Nagoya. So, we made a plan to go check it out. Last weekend, we headed out on a bright, sunny and relatively cool day to see what we could see.



The garden was split into four main areas, the first room was the smallest and contained only orchids. In my opinion, it was orchid art. Each bouquet had it's own little descriptive card. If I read Kanji, maybe I could have seen who had been the florist to make the creation. In short, they were beautiful. But, I have to say that I prefer more lush flowers. And I wasn't disappointed in the next room.

Moving from the first small room, you have to go through a set of doors into a much larger area (but still inside). In this section, many more flowers and plants are on display along with chairs here and there to relax in. This was probably my favorite part. Many of the flowers were so bright and perfect that they easily looked like they were made of plastic. There were also dozens of paper lamps everywhere to fill in the blanks.
After this room, the garden moves outside. In the third section of the garden, there is a small area with seasonal flowers. They also decorated this part. It had witches and gourds galore. And it sat next to the garden's café. We'd already eaten, or maybe we could have had lunch in the garden. The seasonal plants and flowers were so bright that when we looked at the pictures later, we would have thought they they'd been doctored if we didn't know better. In one area that I liked, they were growing peppers. We saw bell pepper plants, but when we looked at their display card, the name was UFO peppers. Perhaps they were peppers from outer space. :)

The final area was the largest and included a walking path. In fact, I was really surprised to see how big the whole garden was. From the outside, you really can't tell there there is so much going on on the other side of the wall. Anyway, in this part, there were many types of trees, including pine (to which I'm allergic, I had to hurry through). And there was a small pond. As well as a statue here and there. The only down side to this part of the garden were the mosquitoes. We couldn't stay out there for too long.
In this picture, we were able to capture both the garden (looking from the pond towards the café area) and the city buildings beyond. It was so peaceful and quiet that it was hard to imagine that it was smack in the middle of the city. An adult ticket costs 700 yen. I'd say it was totally worth it. :)

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Break me off a piece of that ... ... ...  

I have had a couple of students erroneously tell me that Japanese people don't like sweets. I beg to differ. It's true that desserts at a restaurant aren't common, at least not when we go out with people. And, perhaps they don't have dessert after dinner on a daily basis. But, there are hundreds of dessert choices at the supermarket and convenience stores. And I always see people snacking on sweet things. Not to mention, there seems to be an affinity for pastries and candy. I've given exhibits below to demonstrate what I mean.





What you see above is proof that Japanese taste buds are attuned to sugar. I mean, 5 flavors of Kit Kat? And that's not even including the chocolate varieties. Hello, sweet tooth anyone? :) I don't mind, myself. I have these pictures because I've "sampled" all the above.... to help with ..er... my cultural studies! It's true! ;)

And then there are the traditional desserts made with Anco (red bean paste). It's a different kind of sweet entirely. But it's sweet nonetheless, and you can find it in many, many things. Too many to name. They also had shaved ice for sale on the streets during the summer. The common flavors appeared to be green tea and something red, probably strawberry.

So, with that, I rest my case. A sweet tooth can find haven in Japan. :)

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