Amazing winter time

     Winter time in Japan is quite interesting. I would love it, if I wouldn’t have to go everywhere on bicycle, especially to work at 4 in the morning. But I must say, that after finishing the work, I get to see all the sunrises, amazing sunrises. They always make me so happy and their beauty makes me sometimes cry. It is something you need to see one day.

The city where I live, Atsugi, is in east side of the Japanese island. We have mostly nice dry cold weather. Almost no rain or snow, but we had about 2 cm snow few weeks ago… The hills around our city looked so amazing, covered in white colour of the winter. The highest hill is about 1200 m tall, just beautiful.

On the other hand, the west side of the island is almost all the time covered in snow. Some parts have 2 to 3 meters of snow throughout whole winter season. And actually this part of Japan is not that far away from us. It is tough life especially for elders.

One of the most famous places to visit in the West side is called “Yuki-no-Otani” (The Great Wall of Snow). In this place there is about 5m of snow every year. Amazing. 

Another amazing winter magic made by human beings is in the North of Japan. There is a Winter snow festival organized in Sapporo every year. It is a place I definitely want to visit one day. It looks cold, but amazing too. The coldest place of Japan is of course in that area. This winter they had about -30 degree there. But look at the pictures….

Another amazing winter magic, but made by nature is also in the north area. There are amazing trees covered in snow and ice, called “snow monsters”. Another place I will definitely visit one day. Just check the pictures… Magical…

So that is something I wanted to share with you about the amazing Japan in winter. And here is little bit about me…

My school is finishing in one week, so now we have final tests (essay writing, grammar and kanji test). I have now 3 days holiday, which is great. I have time to study. 

     That also means that my original plan to study in Japan is at its end. Unfortunately, I did not realize that my student visa will expire in that case by 1^st of April. That makes things very complicated and difficult, especially with upcoming wedding party. I would have to leave the country, at least for one day, and return. But without any visa and that means also no working permission, etc.

     But I have a very intelligent lady next to me, and she said that it will be easier if I study for one more semester. And it will cost about the same amount of money as travelling abroad and coming back. How can I say no. 

     So there you go, I will continue my study till August. Which is only great, cause my Japanese is still very poor.

     That also means that my visit to Europe is postponed. I won’t be able to visit Allanton ceremony, but maybe I will be able to come sometime in August. Not sure now.

     And the last thing to say is… that from 29^th January 2012, I am officially married with Mitsuyo. Just yesterday I picked up the documents from local government office. 

     As Donald sang to me at Allanton many times before I left: “I think I am turning Japanese, I think I am turning Japanese, I really thing soooooo… “

     

     Wish you all the best….

The New Year - お正月

     For the New Year (正月) we went to visit Mitsuyo family. It is very different celebration compared to Europe, but actually it is similar to Christmas time.

The families get together, prepare special food, watch TV and eat a lot.

Before we left we decorated the house with few nice looking decorations. One for the doors outside and one inside the room. I am not sure about their meanings, but it has something to do with greeting the God, I think. 

got caught (this one is made of rice)

 

on our doors (looks so nice)

 On the 31^st lot of people visits temples and shrines. They wait till the midnight and right after the first seconds of the New Year come, they enter the shrines and pray to God. They really want to meet God as soon as possible in the beginning of the year. Sometimes they have to wait for 3 or 4 hours in queues to get to the altar to pray.

Here is a photo I found on Internet, cause I am not really interested in queueing for hours.

 In Asakusa, Tokyo

Others on this occasion perform a purification ritual, that you might heard of, and that is standing under the waterfall (or in sea, or some pool of water in temple). I have seen on TV a little boy, maybe 5 years old, to perform such a ritual in sea. Brave young soul. 

 found on Internet

If people don’t visit the shrines or temples at midnight, they will definitely go on the 1^st of January. We went as well.

But before that we had breakfast made especially for the New Year. It is a mixture of many things and mostly it has sweet taste. The breakfast started with ritual of drinking sake and I must say that I really enjoyed that one.

 sake ritual

special New Year foods

After eating a lot we went to local shrine, which is famous for its cherry trees. Of course there was a lot of people (as it always is in Japan, when there is holiday time), and many little shops to sell delicious foods and drinks outside the shrine.

After entering the shrine, we had to wait in queue to wash our hands, (which I didn’t – I was a bad boy). After that another queue to get to the altar (which I did – I was a good boy), and then other queues for other things, like special protections for the house or people, special food, special fortune telling papers, etc. (which I didn’t – I was bad boy again).

Interesting was that after our prayer at the altar, maybe one minute after, we had an earthquake. Not strong one, just an average one, but of course for many people it has a meaning, a message from Gods of Nature or the Earth.

Well with this message and good fortune telling for the Year 2012, and drinking nice hot seaweed soup we did some shopping and returned to the house. 

In the evening we played games at Wii Nintendo. It was great fun. If you have kids (or adults), and they bother you with buying them some game console, get them this one. They have to move as they play. 

In sword play I have badly lost with Mitsuyo’s mum, in Ping-Pong I have lost too with her father, and in other sports I have lost even more, but it was really great fun and we actually continued playing till about 2 in the morning.

Really recommend it.

 Mitsuyo's parents enjoyed it too

 archery (at least one game I was good at)

Well and that’s about all. 

Wish you all great fun in the New Year 2012.

Season's Greetings to all

I have not been writing for a while, sorry for that, but I actually thought there is not much to write anyway.

So here is a short Stano News: 

I had a little concert in my boss’s restaurant; it was great I played on congas with his band too. It was cooooooool. We played some Hawaiian music and jazz standards. 

Also me and my classmates, we were invited by one of our teachers to Yokohama’s China town. We ate soooo much of Chinese cuisine there and of course had to drink a lot of beer too. But luckily for me, I was saved by a classical concert in which Mitsuyo’s younger sister performed too, so I left earlier. Lucky me. It was the same day and also in Yokohama, not far away from the China town. The performance was nice. The orchestra played composition by Mahler and Brahms. 

 

 with classmates in Chinatown

After the concert we have been invited by Mitsuyo’s parents to restaurant for dinner. And I was back in china town, having more of their famous cuisine. Later on they told me, that I am eating a shark. So I was very surprised. Cause I remembered a documentary about how they catch sharks and actually it is very sad. Human beings can be very cruel. The part of shark used for cooking is only a very small part of the animals body. And most of the time they don’t even kill the shark, just cut its fin alive and throw it back to the sea. So when eating, all the images came back and made me sad. Forgive us dear sharks, for how we treat you. Humanity is still so immature.

Last weekend we climbed a lovely hill called 大山。(big mountain). Really nice view from the top, there was a lovely temple as well. That hill is very famous for its tofu and little wooden toys for spinning. I thing that in English they are called the spinning tops. 

 on the way to 大山

 view from the top

     Well, and that is about all from the interesting things that happened since I wrote last time. Oh.. and one more. Few weeks ago we started an Intermediate level in Japanese language. So I am quite happy that the progress is so quick. But I must say, it is still hard, new grammar, billions of new vocabulary and we finally started the Japanese kanji (Chinese characters), scary stuff.

The Christmas time:

Now the Christmas season is here and finally, probably first time in my life, it was peaceful, without any stress and anybody fighting in shops or on the streets. 

Actually there is not such a thing as Christmas here. They love the flashing lights, Christmas tree and the decorations on the streets and in shops. But it is not the same as in Europe. They love the romance of it. Also very popular is a Christmas cake. That is a nice soft sponge with lot of cream and of course strawberries. Cream and strawberries… always, everywhere, all the time, every celebration – same cake…… interesting… 

The Christmas here feels actually like a Valentine’s Day. Nice, romantic evening for lovers with the flashing lights on the small Christmas tree, having dinner and cake and exchanging presents between each other, pure Valentine’s Day.

    

On the other hand, they have the New Year as the main event of the year. So far I only heard about it, but soon I will experience it, so later I will write about it. It is the time when families get together and welcome the New Year together, eating a lot and drinking a bit too. (just like the Christmas in Europe)

Anyway I will write about it later. But there is one interesting thing I heard about the New Year. Long, long time ago, the New Year’s Day, was a day when everybody celebrated birthdays in Japan. I love it. I must have been Japanese in previous lifetime, because I never remember the dates and always forget about it and that upsets people. Now I have a nice story to tell and excuse for it too…

This Christmas I tried to make nice romantic dinner for Mitsuyo. So I cooked the full Slovakian Christmas dinner. That is sour cabbage soup, fish with potato salad and also we baked with Mitsuyo some cakes too. 

 

Of course the ingredients for the European food are hard to find. And if you find here something, it is so expensive, that it actually hurts. If you can find here something from Europe, it will be countries like France, UK, Spain or Italy. But Slovakia…. They never even heard about such a country. So it is actually impossible to find anything. So the sour cabbage soup, had very different taste, but we managed to eat it, with a sour face. And the fish, they have not such a fish here, but we bought some sea fish with name I don’t remember, and it was actually nice taste, maybe even nicer than Slovakian fish. And the potato salad was delicious, almost like made by my father every year. 

And the cakes, we gave them to many people as a present, and we had only a good response. We liked them too, and actually they were so delicious that we had to bake the same type of cakes 3 times in a week. I am thinking about opening a shop soon… 

Well and tomorrow we are going to Mitsuyo’s parents’ house for the お正月 (New Year’s day celebration). We will be there for few days. So I am sure I will have a lot to write after I came back. 

Wish you all Happy New Year 2012. 

May only happiness overflows your minds.

First concert and other first time things...

First concert

This weekend we had a concert with Yoshie and Junko in a school where Yoshie is teaching. So here are few photos from our performance.

I was told that Japanese kids are very shy, and it is hard to make them speak or do something. But actually when we asked them to join us to sing and dance few famous Japanese children’s songs, they just jumped with happiness and sang so beautifully. It was really nice to hear about 600 children’s voices. Just like angels.

We also performed a Canon by Pachelbel with 2 girls from the school. One of them is really talented violinist. Her father is a guardian of local temple, so their family lives there. Very nice place to grow up. 

We also had a little party in the evening and before that I was introduced to a local farmer, who is growing vegetables in organic way. He invited us to his house and his wife prepared for us lovely carrot juice and some magic potions made from vegetables and rice and plums and lettuces. It was like in a winery, just instead of a wine, we tasted vegetable juices and rice extract. It was very nice. It reminded me of Uma san and his Allanton morning super power juice.

We also visited Fuji sanctuary the next day, and joined their celebration of the founder’s birthday. It was interesting to see lots of tents with local produced vegetables and foods. More like a Sunday market in Slovakia. I met there also with Haggit, a friend from Izrael. She was very surprised to see me in Japan. We had a nice chat.

First shrine

After the celebration we went to a near shrine. It was actually a shrine I visited on my first visit to Japan in 2006. It was nice to see it again, this time in its autumn colors.

It is really beautiful now here. All the maple trees have amazing colors.

Even Mitsuyo bought a small maple tree for our balcony, so we can enjoy the autumn colors. It is very nice.

Well and the best at the end.

First time (and hopefully the only) ...

On 7^th of April next year, Mitsuyo and me; we will get married.

Life is amazing.