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First snow at 555
Across the Bay, yesterday was a snowpocalypse, closing all highways heading west from the city, grounding flights, and delaying trains. But here we only had a lot of rain pouring down on us all day. Until evening when the temperature dropped and the snow began. First a dusting and then quickly accumulating to a nice…
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Sayonara, Kaneya route.
Nitto Kotsu has announced one of the local bus routes in our area will be ending on March 31. The Kaneya line (marked in red) is finishing on March 31st. From April 1, you will no longer be able to take a bus all the way across the peninsula between the Tokyo Wan ferry terminal…
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Dondo-yaki for Setsubun
February 3rd is Setsubun, the last day of winter in Japan. It’s commonly celebrated by throwing beans to scare away the ogres and demons, and by eating an overstuffed sushi roll while facing in the lucky direction for the coming year. 2024’s direction is East North East. But in Okugome village in Kimitsu, about a…
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JA Banking
I am joining the Oyama Senmaida “support staff.” In order to do that, I need an account at JA Bank. Support staff get paid for work, whether peeling potatoes for group lunches, assisting with experience programs, or cutting grass. But Oyama Senmaida only pays out to JA accounts. JA stands for Japan Agriculture and it…
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555 Then and Now
50 years ago, this area was pure satoyama – mixed use farm and forest land. I have been aware of the changes that happened well before we arrived. Tod & I were fascinated by some photos of the area in a book about the history of the old elementary school, and later combed through arial…
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Memorial
Yesterday I went to my first Japanese memorial. Funerals in Japan are very formal and I have yet to attend the official part of them. When I do, I will need to brush up on my etiquette. Yesterday’s event was more casual, an affair put on by the NPO where Asada Daisuke worked for 16…
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Senmaida De-lights
Today I helped out at Oyama Senmaida for the first time. The annual illumination event is over – I wrote about the torch lighting in October – and today we removed all the LED lights, cleaned them, and packed them away for next time. The work itself was not too stressful – I filled three…
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The Dragon is Roaring
January 1st: Magnitude 7.6 earthquake rips the land, topples buildings, blazes neighborhoods, and cuts off power to a hundred thousand of households in Ishikawa prefecture. Tsunami waves over a meter high hit the coast. January 2nd: There is a fiery plane crash at Haneda when a JAL flight from Hokkaido hits a Coast Guard plane…
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Moonlight walks with cats
Maura’s wearing an Elizabeth collar since his Christmas day vet visit and can’t safely go outside by himself. The doctor prefers him not to go out at all, but that’s not practical; his litterbox is the big wide world. And he gets salty and destructive when his freedom is impinged. Fortunately (and unexpectedly) Maura seems…
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Nengajou jollity
Today I sent out our nengajou, the holiday cards that are delivered on January 1 in Japan. I am not 100% sure that’s going to work properly for my cards this year. I didn’t buy the special pre-franked cards the post office sells, instead drawing my designs on postcards I already had on hand. So…
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