Any excuse for Chinatown. We came, we lunched, we watched the parade, which was heralded by smoke and firecrackers. Everyone was ox-cited to usher in the New Year in style!! Fortunately, I did not make that joke up. The first time I celebrated Chinese New Year in February was at Texas A&M University with my…
Yokohama’s Chinese New Year Parade
Mame Maki, or Bean-Tossing Festival!
Photos of the Bean-Tossing Festival at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura How often do you get to throw beans at your dad? Roasted soybeans will be tossed at fathers and older brothers alike to attract good luck and celebrate the approach of spring with mame maki, or bean-throwing ceremonies, Tuesday, February 3. Tossing beans indiscriminately…
Some Chris
Chris has been suuuuuuuper busy since we moved here. I’m proud of him, of course, I just hate sharing him with his mistress, the Navy. Sigh. Anywho, we manage to have quite the adventures tromping around Japan, and I wanted to post some of my favorite recent photos of him. I thought they deserved their…
Can’t See the Forrest for the Shrines
Meiji Shrine, Meiji Shrine,You honor kingdoms in their primeRulers thought to be divineLiving aloof and sublimeAbove the daily grimeHaunting from a distant timeMeiji Shrine! “Let us but be gentle, honest —Though we lack the worldly greatness,In the bamboo-grove of life,To tower over all.”— Empress Shoken — That’s one of 30,000 little waka poems, 31 syllables…
Scavenging in Machida
The Machida Shrine Sale…whispered in a hush, shrines sales are supposed to be these huge scavenge fests, but no one seems to have any straight information on them. Like the Holy Grail, it’s something everyone’s heard of and nobody’s seen. The Japanese girls I know say they never go—just a bunch of old junk. Even…
Costa Rica…One Year Ago
Photo: runway in Panama City, Panama My ‘vintage Panama’ outfit and I boarded a plane for Costa Rica to visit my college roommate Mariana in her homeland exactly one year ago today. Passport Diaries did not quite exist in a tangible form, so the only thing I posted about my trip was how I almost…
Beginning Driver — Watch out!!
I’ve got the clutch halfway in, which in theory puts me in the ‘friction zone,’ and I’m giving it a little gas, but apparently not enough. That, or I’m not counter balancing correctly. Either way, none of these things are passing through my head at the moment, because all I’m thinking is, “Going down again!”…