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      • Wild
        08/31/07
        I've remarked before on how close we feel to nature here. In Kitakami, you're never far from a river or park or rice paddy or other place that is just humming with non-human life, such as these black-winged dragonflies that have been decorating the riverside park all summer.

      • Afterparty!
        08/30/07
        On a couple of occasions during Undoukai, neighbors told us that a party would take place immediately afterwards. Indeed, while the event judges tallied up the points, each team set up picnic spaces on the outer edges of the field. We had lots of sushi, sashimi, pickles, dango (rice dumplings cove

      • Fight Fiercely, Kunenbashi
        08/28/07
        When Matthew and I decided to move to Japan, we were motivated by the desire to learn more about another culture and another way of life. So, when our neighbors invited us to participate in Undoukai, we had to go for it.

        Gathered by teams for opening speeches and organized calisthenics

      • Undoukai
        08/26/07
        It's a little after 4:00 pm, and we're drunk. This can only mean one thing: undoukai! Undou(exercise)kai(meet) is an annual "sports day" when neighborhoods compete with each other in "sports" such as Rock-Paper-Scissors and the 1500 meter "marathon". For th

      • Sustenance
        08/24/07


        Here it is: the grass that forms the basis of the Japanese diet, and is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it serves as a metaphor for food, meals, and even more generally for resources and wealth.

      • Surfin' Miyagi
        08/23/07


        On Saturday, we met up with some friends to caravan down to the Pacific coast in Miyagi Prefecture, heading for the beach where all the Kitakami surfers go to catch waves. The mountains march right out to sea here, separating the beaches with rocky ledges and shelves.

        We'

      • Conquering Your Fears (Well, Mine Anyway)
        08/22/07
        Between the Great Tokyo Junket of '07 and last week's series of road trips, it seems our journeys have settled into a predictable rhythm. We hit the road, full of excitement about The Road Ahead. At some point, Matthew will comment (more or less urgently, depending on the situation) that

      • Tase Dam
        08/19/07


        Tase Dam (pronounced "tah say dah moo") creates Taseko ("Lake Tase"), a mountain lake where we have heard you can go windsurfing and even rent sailboards. So yesterday, we decided to take a brief road trip (it's only thirty minutes from Kitakami) to scout it out

      • Passage to Akita
        08/15/07


        Yesterday, we drove to Akita for some good eats: Inaniwa udon for lunch, and Yokote yakisoba for dinner. (Both are specialty noodle dishes of Akita.)

        Anyway, Akita lies on the other side of the Ou Sanmyaku, the mountain ridge running through the middle of Tohoku, and crossing

      • Listen
        08/13/07
        Before we moved here, our lives were full of noise. Of course there were always some sounds that stood out from the background noise. A passing train, the morning alarm clock, Aki woofing at the neighbor dogs. But behind it all there was a constant barrage of noise, all blended together into an i

      • Iwate Park
        08/11/07
        I traveled to Morioka on Thursday to get permission to work on my current visa, which I couldn't otherwise do (it's the dreaded "dependent visa"). I *heart* the Morioka immigration office -- the staff was cordial, informative, and had me out the door with my permit in about 20 m

      • Puff the Magic Dizeru
        08/09/07
        I hope I'm not stepping on any, ahem, non-densha otaku toes by posting this:



        This little guy appears on some of the East Japan Railway Company's (or JR East) trains. I think he's adorable.

      • The S & M International Matsuri-Fiesta-Party-Thing
        08/07/07
        In the spirit of festivity surrounding matsuri, we invited a couple of friends over for dinner prior to last night's fireworks viewing. I was having some menu-development issues until Sunday, when our neighbor from across the street came over and passed me some garden-fresh tomatoes through th

      • Kitakami City Fireworks
        08/06/07


        The festival came to an end Monday night with a two-hour fireworks display. To Americans, that sounds excessive, but it was actually quite nice. It wasn't a continuous barrage of explosions; instead, it was a series of vignettes, sometimes just a single firework and sometimes a gr

      • Zaru Soba -- Day 4
        08/05/07
        It's been so hot and humid in Kitakami for the last week that, most days, we haven't been able to see the mountains west of town. We got a brief respite on Saturday morning, courtesy of a perfunctory downpour from Typhoon Usagi, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it

      • Onikenbai
        08/05/07


        Onikenbai isn't the only dance performed during Michinoku Geinou Matsuri, but it is the most famous.

      • Mikoshi Parade
        08/04/07


        The first big event of Michinoku Geinou Matsuri is the Mikoshi Parade. More than one thousand children march, chant, and whistle in groups while hoisting their hand-made mikoshi, or demon heads. The amount of energy on display was astonishing.

      • Unloading a Demon
        08/04/07


        In final preparations for the opening of Michinoku Geinou Matsuri, various performance groups were unloading their large demon head creations from the world's tiniest trucks. Later they would march, chant, whistle, and hoist the demon heads up and down with great enthusiasm. Some

      • Are We Ready For a Matsuri?
        08/03/07


        Lanterns? Check. Banners? Check. Rented flood lights to illuminate the dancing demons at night? Check.

        Michinoku Geinou Matsuri ("North Country Performing Arts Festival") starts tomorrow. This is a major festival of Kitakami, and is famous for Onikenbai, the &q

      • The Gaijin Stare
        08/03/07
        Westerners traveling to Japan, especially the more rural areas, usually hear about the "Gaijin Stare" before they arrive. The Gaijin Stare occurs when a native Japanese, well, stares at you because of your foreignness. This phenomenon is likely not unique to Japan.

        At just ove

      • Spider in the Morning
        08/01/07


        Our previous spider has moved on, and this one came to replace it. We discovered it in the morning, which is a bit more auspicious. (Later, I saw it again at night. This spider seems to offer 24-hour service.)

        Its web is really quite distinctive, too - the center is kind of

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