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  • 2009
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      • Food or Norse God?
        04/27/09
        We went out with some of Matthew's students last week after their last class together. It was a cold night (because winter lasts forever in Tohoku), so oden was in order.



        Oden is a winter dish made by simmering ingredients in a dashi stock flavored with soy sauce and oth

      • Sakura Shrine
        04/20/09
        Cherry blossoms hover outside the torii gate at Suwa-jinja in downtown Kitakami.

      • Night Train to the Stars
        04/18/09
        Famous writer and poet Miyazawa Kenji was born in Hanamaki, just north of Kitakami. Hanamaki is full of public art that references his works, including this mural of his best-known story, "Night Train to the Stars". The mural is painted in invisible UV-reflective paint, and illuminated by

      • The Temple of Bloom
        04/17/09
        The "cherry blossom front" is finally crossing Kitakami on its northward journey. In the warmest parts of town, the cherry trees are in or near full bloom, while they're just starting to bloom in cooler areas near the rivers or in the mountains. Here are the cherry trees at the tiny B

      • Underfoot
        04/15/09
        The gutters on the sides of many roads here are deep ditches, and in the countryside where they are uncovered, you have to drive carefully lest you allow a wheel to drop into one. In the cities, however, they are usually covered with blocky cement caps. Although there is space between the caps for w

      • Inaniwa Udon
        04/15/09


        Inaniwa udon is a specialty of neighboring Akita Prefecture. Unlike the more common fat, roundish udon, Inaniwa udon is very thin and flat. It has a very slippery texture, which makes it kind of tricky to eat.

      • River Crossing
        04/06/09


        Sangobashi is the bridge connecting central Kitakami to the other side of the Kitakami River. Hayachine-san, visible only on the clearest of days, rises in the background.

      • The Long Goodbye
        04/02/09
        The changing of seasons from winter to spring is marked by personal transitions in Japan. The school year ends in March and resumes in April. March is also the month during which many companies transfer employees, presumably so they can get moved and settled in before school starts again. People

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