Adventures in Isahaya

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes" - Winnie the Pooh

自分の写真
名前:
場所: Burnt Hills, New York, United States

I'm a SAHM to a little girl born October 2003, a little boy born August 2006 and another little boy born January 2012.

火曜日, 5月 31, 2005

Tagalong

On our return trip, we got to bring someone back. Fyoire tagged along with us. We snuck her into the business class lounge in Tokyo. She convinced me to try the cinnamon raisin cookies - num! Sadly, they didn't have onigiri like the SFO lounge so I didn't get to tag bunches of those to feed to Roo on the plane as I had before.

We bought duty free booze for the first time so Chrys could have good rum instead of the SUPER strong Japanese stuff. This way, maybe I'll actually drink some of it, too. Duty free Godiva, too - num, again.

On the plane, she snuck up to see us. We snuck food to her, she wasn't impressed with the leftovers. I gloated over the lobster I had just eaten. Then I felt bad. I almost stole Chrys' to feed to her, but they took it. During snack time, I snagged a few extra baby packs of peanut M&Ms (like 3 per pack) and some Fran to give to her later. Movies sucked, same stuff as headed out there - Alexander (blech), Phantom of the Opera (pretty decent), Bonnie and Clyde (from like 1960, what??!), Shall We Dance? (not bad), Cell Phone 2 (maybe?, it was Japanese and subtitled and stupid horror just like the American stuff) and some other stuff I'd seen or didn't care about.

We Kuro Neko'ed luggage for the first time from Haneda. That way, we were sure Kuro Neko was open and we didn't risk having to cram it into our little car, which can barely hold the luggage for the 3 (4) of us, much less an extra. (Side note, it only took two days to show up - not bad!)

We met one of Chrys' co-workers in Haneda, on his weekly trip from his family there to work in Isahaya.

水曜日, 5月 18, 2005

Already ready to come back

Chrys and I were talking about the trip to the US. While we're excited about getting to go home and see family, we're really looking forward to coming back to Japan. Neither of us could really think of anything we NEEDed to eat or do in the US. We decided we weren't really looking forward to anything other than seeing family. I guess we've finally found our niche. We're comfortable with things. I am keeping busy during the day, which keeps me happier, and me being happier seems to help him out some.

Of course, there's also the fact that Fyoire, Chrys' sister, will be coming back with us. I think we're both really looking forward to that. We've discussed all of the things to do with her, and not to do with her, and what can be done when and under what time constraints. I think we'll keep her busy enough, but only time will tell. Hopefully she has some idea of things she wants to see, but being 18, she may not.

Bottom line is that this trip, and longest time in Japan without a trip home that follows it, seem to come at a good time. We are no longer dreading the return, but embracing it and the peace of not having to travel and wreck our schedules. We're in a good place for the time being.

土曜日, 5月 07, 2005

Golden Week (Part 2)

We spent the second 3 day stretch of Golden Week mostly relaxing. Lots of trips to the park, wandering used book stores, trolling arcades. We did take the advice of our tutor, though, and wander up to Arita/Hasami on the last day (5/5). She said they had great deals on Japanese ceramics, especially in the afternoon. Given that I want a nice set of rice bowls to use at home, it seemed like a good thing to take advantage of. Japanese ceramics are truly a wonder...light, durable. I wanted some to take home and what better than rice bowls to commemorate our visit.

We started with Arita, the farthest away. We used our new tollroad friend to get us up to Saga prefecture and then took the fork toward Arita. We stopped at their ceramic park and saw lots of nice stuff in the shops. It was all regular price and very pricey so we got back in the car and kept driving. In central Arita, we found what I'd been looking for. There were tents lining the streets and they were full of porcelains. After stumbling onto some parking, we started walking. There was a ton of really beautiful Japanese pottery - meaning that it was heavily decorated in mostly reds and blues and not my style. I did see one piece, a decorative plate, that I should have bought despite the overwhelming price tag - $250, supposedly half off of the normal $500. (It was probably 16"-24" in diameter. It was mostly blues with some silver metallics. It was a sakura tree in full bloom. Gorgeous! I'm having severe frugality induced remorse over leaving it behind. Oh well...) I left empty handed.

We went back to the fork and turned toward Hasami. At their ceramics park, we found more tents. They were full of more ceramics at even better prices. We walked (and walked and walked...it was huge) around and saw lots of cute designs that I knew wouldn't last in our kitchen. They were too cute to keep using for years. They were sold out of an intricate sakura design on a white bowl that I would have loved, but I kept on. As the vendors began to close, I settled on a nice set of plain white bowls. They actually had 10 of them once I dug into a couple of bins. The best part...they cost 100¥ each. Yup, that's about $10 for a set of simple, handcrafted, but elegant, ceramic bowls that will last me for a very long time and look wonderful with my existing china.

I even know just the set of chopstick holders to go with them. Guess I have a reason to go back to Arita (to look for that wonderful plate) after all.

月曜日, 5月 02, 2005

Golden Week (Part 1)

First of all, pictures are linked in the title (for this post and the previous one).

On Friday, we drove up to Fukuoka. Yup, the place with all of the earthquakes. We decided to brave it, but that was the first question we got when we mentioned that we were going there.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this trip is that it marked our first use of the toll roads here. They are quite expensive. I think it was around $40 to get to Fukuoka (about a 2 hour car ride). The speed limit on most stretches was 80km/h, but most people go 90-100km/h. They are empty, though. Given that it was a holiday weekend, we were prepared for the worst. Thankfully, though, there was little traffic and smooth sailing the whole way. We are in love!

We stayed at the JAL Seahawk Resort on the beach. It was an amazing hotel - very nice. It was also really close to the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) which was our primary reason for going.

We got there on Friday night. We wandered around Hawkstown, braving the post-game crowds. We looked through the Toys R Us, and it looked a lot like home. They even had imported Nacho Cheese Doritos - YUM! That night, we had dinner at the HRC and got our HRC Fukuoka shirts. Ryanne even got her first HRC shirt, aptly labeled such. The food was typical poor quality American HRC fare, and we loved every bite of it.

On Saturday, we went to the Fukuoka Tower and looked around the area. On our way up, they had a special card written in English explaining that we'd have to come down via the stairs if there was an earthquake. We had lunch at a great brick oven pizza place. We spent the afternoon on the beach, even though it was a little cool. Roo loved being in the water and was having a great time playing chicken with the waves.

Sunday, we went to Marine World and Roo got to see lots of fish and watch the dolphin shows. It was a good time. There was an amazing amount of damage in that area, though. Whole segments of side walk had been lifted 3+ feet in the air. They had much of the grounds and walkways blocked off. There was obvious damage on the foot bridge from the boat that took us across the bay. The sidewalks had mats over every joint to try to prevent tripping. We knew the quake was severe, but it was something else to see the damage firsthand. After many hours with the fish, Roo pooped out and we made our way home.