Shibazakura & Indoor picnic

Two and a half weeks ago steph and I went to see "shibazakura" ( lawn cherry blossom) in Tono(where the Yoshida's live).


And last weekend Steph and I went to the Yoshida's house...
...we planned to have a picnic but it rained so we had an indoor picnic and played several games of Uno and "Karuta" (Japanese memory card game).



Here you can see various Onigiri (click me) that Stephanie prepared.









The center onigiri is in the shape of a cherry blossom.







And these are called "inari-zushi" , which are sweet fried tofu pockets stuffed with rice and other goodies.

Above are inari-zushi that Reverend Yoshida made. Yummy!

Golden Week: Day 5

Hey Everybody! This is Steph,
Here are some pics of days 4 of our Golden Week holiday!
I'vee included a-lot of links too.

On May 3rd we went to Geibikei Gorge (pronounced like our names Gabe e kay)! It was a beautiful day. At Geibikei you ride down the gorge in wooden boats and the man polling the boat sings some old Japanese songs to you. It is really relaxing and the scenery is gorgeous! It was our second time to go there, but this time it was spring instead of autumn....very nice.




After headind up river 30 min., they let you off the boat to go to check out the cliffs. Then, yeou head back downstream.











Here is Dad getting ready to eat some salted and barbequed Ayu (sweetfish). He practically ate the whole thing!














Above and to the the right are pics from inside a shop that was in Geibikei that sold handmade Japanese washi paper goods. They had beautiful lamps and artwork.






Then we drove to another town nearby called Hiraizumi. There we went to Chusonji to see the Golden Temple and many other temples in the complex. There were so many people there but it was still peaceful and very beautiful.






These to the left are ema.






Below are omikuji (fortune prayer papers) tied to tree. These are present at Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines

Above is a shot of us in front of a very old Noh theatre stage
Here is Gabe standing under a tori (gate indicating a sacred Shinto area)

If you are interested, wikipedia has a lot of good info on Religion in Japan.

Sashimi

Click here to read about sashimi

Me & Jess

Hey guys, It's me, Gabe. Just thought I'd post this pic of me and Jess.

Golden Week: Day 4

Hey everybody! This is Steph. I am sorry that it is taking so long for us to get all the pictures on from our vacation! We took too many pics! But anyways...these are pictures from May 2, Day 4 of our Golden Week holiday. We had a wonderful day at The Goishi Coastline with some of the women from my English cicle. Our dear friend Mutsuko (on the left in the first picture) came to pick us all (Dad, Siri and me) up for a day of sight-seeing because Gabe had to work. The weather was pretty cold that day but it was still beautiful.

This is Mutsuko, Kayo and Machiko. They are part of the afternoon circle. There is always a lot of laughing with these three ladies around! Then we had a picnic! It was wonderful! Probably the fanciest picnic I have ever been too! All of the ladies prepared their best dishes and we had a great time!

Then I walked Dad and Siri down to the water and we relaxed a bit and drank some coffee while the others cleaned up from the picnic.
Next was an unexpected treat. Our friend Kayo's family runs a 200 year old soy sauce and miso factory and she took us for a tour! It was an amazing and rare treat all of us, even for the women you live here! First you see a picture of a 300 year old house that is behind the factory.

This is the store front of the factory. The factory's name is Yamasen.
This is the walk way back to the factory.

Here we are inside getting the inside scoop and a sample too of the most expensive soy sauce made in the factory. It is made with only local soy beans and an old fashion press. This is Kayo and her brother, who runs the factory. It was a wonderful time for all of us! When we left they gave each of us two small bottles of soy sauce as a souvenir.


Last, we finished off the night at "Shibaraku". Our favorite Tonkatsu restaurant. Tonkatsu is a fried pork cutlet. (click me) We ordered the Misokatsu. Which is fried pork cutlet covered in Miso sauce! Yummy!

Golden Week: Day 3- Story

Click on the play button to hear us talk about the pictures from Day 3 of our Golden Week Holiday. We're sorry the sound quality is not that good.

Golden Week: Day 3 Pics