Shiroi City Pool & A Flat Tire

This past Saturday my wife had to work at the restaurant so Anna and I spent the morning at the Shiroi City Pool located about 20 minutes west of our place in Inzai. This was a great place to go, especially with the temperatures going up into the Hell ranges.

When we arrived the regular parking lot was already full at 930am (They open at 9am). We walked a little way to find a long line to just buy a ticket to get in. Once we finally got in we got changed and walked into the pool area. They had 4 things to do there; First was the kiddie pool with a nice slide. Second was the "River pool" that gently took you around the pool area like a gently flowing river (that's where we spent most of our time). A lap pool and two water slides. All this for an adults ticket of 750yen (Anna's Ticket was free).

We spent our day there until the break time at 11am. It was during that time Anna discovered the high pressure multi positioin nozzle entry shower for the pool. She was too freaked out to go through it when we arrived but she soon realized how fun it was. She would run towards the shower and then run back to me. She did this about 4 times until she fell and skinned her knee. After that she was in no mood to swim any more so I thought I would take her to lunch.

About 30 seconds into the ride to the restaurant Anna soon fell asleep. I then thought I would take a drive out to Inba City on the other side of Inzai. This is not so much a town as it is a wetlands for a wide river and many rice fields. I decided I would try to find this BBQ Eel (Unagi) place that some friends had told us about in this town. Right now, at the beginning of August is Eel day. This is when everyone eats BBQ eel to help stay strong during the very hot and humid Japanese Summer (No wonder the tourists don't come during this time of year!). I love the stuff. The eel not the heat.

The name of the restaurant is Ishibashi. The car navigation said I was getting close but all I could see was river and rice fields. There was virtually no traffic on the road until I was right on top of the restaurant. In the immediate area there was about 4 or 5 other eel restaurants and all of them had just a few cars. It was then that I hit the traffic jam in front of Ishibashi. The place was about as big as a double wide trailer and most of the customers were waiting outside in the stifling heat on plastic chairs.

Since Anna was still asleep I did not stop and started back towards our house. I thought that I could head to Kurumaya Ramen for some noodles and fried rice for lunch. I eventually arrived there and Anna woke up on cue and we had a good lunch.

Coming into the parking lot I had heard a large thump but thought nothing of it. After eating Anna and I walked up to the car and noticed that the Toyota Vitz had a flat passenger side tire. This was going to be fun. 90 degrees, no shade and I have to change a tire. When I knelled down to place the jack under the car my knee was fried by the hot parking lot. I was not having too much success getting the tire off the car when a guy with a hydraulic jack came and helped me finish the job. There are some really great and helpful people here too. Thank you Japanese guy with the hydraulic jack in the stifling heat of Kuramaya Ramen parking lot whomever you are! You saved the day. If I knew who you were you would be getting a box full of eels for Eel Day as a present for your kindness. Now in the USA that would be a cruel and heartless prank. Here a gift of a box of suirming eels is just like getting a chocolate "Heavy Cake" for your birthday. (Heavy Cake: When you take two or three cans of frosting and put it on a cake instead of just one. Mmmmmm.)

Afterwards we spent the rest of the afternoon at the nearby Toyota dealership waiting to get a new tire. My wife also had to wait for us to pick her up from work while we got the car repaired. On top of it all, Anna and I missed meeting our neighbors at a block party nearby the house because of the flat tire. Too bad, maybe next time.

Anna's Ballet Class

This past week I was able to take one more day off to see my daughter's ballet class. It was very nice to be able to see the reason why my daughter always seems to be very tired during one particular day of the week.

The teacher is a dancer in town and runs the class to make it very fun for everyone. I now know why Anna is so tired every week.

Also click the picassa album link or the slide show to see some of the videos from the class.

If I were to make a movie about Japanese Interpretive Dance Groups, this would be the Evil Japanese Interpretive Dance Group.

Suzu Matsuri in Matsusaka

Matsusaka Gion Matsuri

This past weekend we returned to my wife's hometown of Matsusaka. I was actually supposed to be participating in the Gion Matsuri on Saturday to carry one of the portable shrines (mikoshi) in the festival. Unfortunately Typhoon #4 (Manyi) came up from the Philippines and made the festival impossible.

Fortunately though, the second day we were able to complete the children's portion of the festival on Sunday. During that part of while we were busying ourselves with that a reporter from the Yukan Mie (Matsusaka's Local Newspaper) interviewed me for an article on our long relationship with the town. You can see his picture here, taking a picture of us for the paper.

Also, that Sunday night my daughter dressed in her yukata again for the Matsusaka Suzu Odori festival. All day on Sunday, in the main intersection were many dance groups putting on performances on two stages. Then, at the end of the day all of the dance groups all lined up and down the main street and danced. My daughter enjoyed it allot.

Anna's Bon Odori

Playing with friends in her new Yukata

Yusuzumi Kai at Kobayashi Tenjin Yochien

Today was the big day. We attended my daughter's summer festival at her kindergarten for a special treat. My mother in law had made my daughter a yukata just for this event. Here you see her getting ready for the big day. The obi or sash was custom colored by my mother in law and the yukata was also hand made. She looked great.

After arriving we went straight to the gymnasium to see a magician do some pretty amazing stuff to get allot of 3 and 4 year old's attention. I have to admit, he was pretty good. After that all of the children were lined up outside for a group picture. A professional photographer's job is pretty tough. Especially getting all of these kids to sit still for a few seconds to get a really nice picture.

Finally, the big event of the day was the bon odori or traditional dance. All of the kids lined up and danced in the courtyard to the music and the teachers beating taiko drums. This was definitely allot of fun.

Happy 4th of July from Japan!

Here is a great one shot that was taken by the mother of Anna's best friend Honaka. Today was the 4th of July and was not a holiday in Japan (Since this is not the USA). Here Anna is wearing her patriotic all American girl shirt with Honaka under the umbrella.

This was such a great picture I had to include it in my blog today.

Happy Independance Day!

Wife has the Flu

We aren't doing much this weekend. My wife has come down with the flu and she has been pretty much sleeping most of the day.

Yesterday, Anna and I went to the Convenience Store to pick up some lunch for everyone. There she met one of her classmates. I noticed that his parents were much younger than us. The dad had some extremely spiked hair.

Next time, I'll have to get a picture. Today, we'll leave mom to herself and head over to the big play area at the mall. We'll probably have some lunch and then head back home.

Sorry for the slow weekend. If we would have had everyone healthy, we would have had a BBQ at the house today with some family from Funabashi. Maybe next week!