Akaoka day trip

Last Friday I went with a friend to Akaoka. The town is about half an hour or 45 minutes from Kochi by train. The train was the first awesome bit--we lucked out and got a "conductorless train" (but there was totally a guy sitting in the front, so what the hell) with a balcony-like outdoor space! So we spent most of the trip outside, getting blown away by train speed wind and watching the scenery.

When we got to Akaoka, we wandered through the streets. It's a very old town, and there is a lot of great traditional Japanese architecture. We were "OH ENGLISH HELLO"d by the lady working in a handmade/used goods store, and must have spent at least half an hour looking around inside, there was such a crazy amount of awesome stuff there. Old and new jewelery, obis (the ties for kimono), pretty traditional and modern sandals, old dishes and umbrellas, and even a couple of ancient and VERY awesome-looking cameras. I bought a children's obi to wear as a scarf, and was somehow given an umbrella... no, not just an umbrella. The raddest umbrella IN THE WORLD. It is neon pink and black plaid. I bless the previous owner who broke the curly part of the handle, thus enabling its being given to me many years later.

We also saw an old house than has been taken over by vines! Check out the pictures on my Flickr page; there are many! It looks like the house is TOTALLY FULL OF VINES but according to the neighbours, it's just between the window and the blinds inside. Anyway it looks creepy and awesome.

Then we made our way to the Ekingura, a museum of the paintings of Hirose Kinzou (known as Ekin). They're really dramatic story-paintings from the Edo period, and 23 originals remain in Akaoka. They're displayed outside for one night every year at the Ekin Festival, which is this weekend... but alas! I am not going.

And then we went one town over on the train, and ate awabimushi (abalone on rice) right beside the Pacific Ocean!

Trivial Things I Like About Living In Japan Episode 2

Particularly good pineapple juice.

Propaganda time!

The right wing in Japan is a little bit scary. They have these black vans that drive around, playing nationalist speeches and traditional Japanese music on loudspeakers. The music can sometimes be heard from up to two or three blocks away.

I wonder if it's an effective political tactic?

Japanese Word/Phrase of the Day

らっぱ飲み　(rappa nomi)

Literally, trumpet drinking; it means drinking wine directly from the bottle.

Please use it often in your daily life. (よく使ってください！)

Yeah, that was just showing off. So what!

Hanging Up 1 Million Cranes

I'm waaay behind with this whole blogging thing, so forgive me for posting a week late about what I did on the 30th of June, which is hang up a bunch of paper cranes. (Actually, I didn't do much--as usual, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, so I did whatever I could see needed doing and then fell back on the convenient role of photographer.)

For the last 20 years, Grass Roots House and Peace Wave have been decorating one of Kochi's shopping arcades with 1 million origami cranes. The cranes are made every year by local elementary school students (and some old ladies). They're strung onto long strings, probably over a meter long, which are then hung on wire circles. Then the circles are tied to large bars in the upper reaches of the shopping arcade. The bars are lowerable using pulleys operated by button-push, and I am pretty sure they were installed just for the yearly crane hanging. The result is really beautiful.

And I think it's successful activism, too! The crane-making brings up peace topics in elementary schools--Mana and I made two recent visits to schools in Aki, in both cases to assemblies in honour of the beginning of the peace festival, and at both of which that school's contribution to the cranes was on display. I'm not sure if all schools do assemblies and the same kind of clear educational efforts as the schools we visited, but I hope so.

You mean... squid have eyes?!?!

A couple of Thursdays ago Mana and I went to Aki again to give another school presentation. On the way back, we stopped at a fish market. There were a lot of fish... mostly whole fish.

There were also cephalopods.

But most excitingly, there were squid! I had never seen squid eyes before. They are kinda cute, like cartoon characters. (Which came first: squid eyes or cartoon characters?!) It was exciting.

Canada Day Fireworks

Canada Day fireworks in Japan, you ask?

Yesterday I coincidentally met with a few friends who were planning to set off fireworks along the Kagami River. Unlike in Canada, small/medium fireworks are legal, and a summer tradition. I've seen young people setting off fireworks along the river a few times while walking there, so it was cool to do the same, and although I am not a big Canada Day celebrate-er, it was fun to accidentally do something special for Canada Day in Japan.

This photo demonstrates why fireworks might be illegal... but don't worry, no injuries!