Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
So Thursday Chris says, “Uh, do you have any plans tomorrow? Because I kind of need you to come to my motorcycle class so I can get a passenger rating.” Then Thursday night a little after 10 pm we get several phone calls: the class has been overbooked. It has been rescheduled to Sunday. Yes,…
Old Folks’ Day is a mid-September holiday now officially called Respect for the Aged Day, or 敬老の日, “Keirō no hi.” Someone had the idea for the holiday in 1947 and it soon spread all across Japan. It was celebrated this week and apparently Japanese media features elderly people, talks about the oldest people in the…
Japanese people are not just fashion-forward but more like fashion-future. I photoed this girl in March and lo and behold, all the fall fashions feature belted, cap-sleeved warmies and faux fur. Only in Japan can you piece together an outfit that makes you look like Attila the Hun’s closest living relative and know no one…
What fun and culture I was set to experience this week! The tours office offered a tour Wednesday to the Ohara Hadaka Festival. Usually I teach an English class on Wednesdays, but this year several Japanese holidays aligned and people got a long weekend, jokingly called Silver Week as a reference to Golden Week in…
I like to take pictures from this point on the bridge every time I walk by here so I have kind of a flip book of the seasons changing. Lately I’ve been monitoring the bloom-progress of these crazy red flowers in neat rows along the right bank. Incense was drifting over on the breeze from…
22 May 2008 — When Hannie and I arrived in Granada, we ate in a restaurant all lit up with small torches by the fountain in Plaza Nueve. Afterwards we strolled around and bought ice cream. We love Granada! It’s clean and smells like orange blossoms and jasmine and people are friendly and there’s lots…
Every third Saturday of the month Chris and I LOVE going to the Yamato Open Market. We like to poke around the booths and see what the vendors are showing this season. September brought tables full of fall colored kimono and obi in browns, golds and oranges stitched with chrysanthemums and Japanese maple leaves. Chrysanthemums…
