Near the Alps

Another wonderful trip with Sister Kondo and Sister Morita.  We drove a bit over an hour up into the mountains.  At first it was freeway, but then we headed up along the Kiso River Valley along narrower, winding roads to see more extremely beautiful scenery.  Japan never ceases to surprise me.

Beautiful homes clustered together, and beautiful rice fields and gardens.
The mountains in the distance add a wonderful backdrop.

There is a string of about 36 little villages along the river in the mountain valleys and  it was lush green everywhere.  This is the route that was used for hundreds of years when people needed to walk from the south to the north or vice versa.  I don’t know if many people walked it in the winter, but they did in the summer.  

This is where people used to leave messages for each other.  The local "post office" of many years ago.

Samarai warriors lived in some of these areas and in several places the homes from 400 years ago have been preserved.  We went to two towns like this, and the wood of the buildings is almost black. 

This is one of the Japanese versions of ramen.
It puts the cheap stuff you buy in the US all to shame.
It was incredibly delicious.

You are looking at a 400-year-old floor.

We ate at a restaurant where the food was wonderful.  We thought the floors were concrete--they certainly looked like it, but they were dirt—so long packed down.  The restaurant had been there for 400 years.  It was awesome.  

We also walked a beautiful pathway down to the Kiso River where we climbed down some huge boulders and climbed up on to some massive rocks to the middle of the river.  The rocks were so big they stuck out of the river and were close enough together and flat on top, so that we could walk from one rock to the next, once we got in the river area.  What was amazing to me was that Sister Kondo, once again—she’s 79, went with us and climbed those rocks just like the rest of us.  She constantly surprises me.

One little bunch of brightness amid all the massive rocks.

At the villages, we also bought a few things—a couple of wooden spoons for the kitchen, and a few small toys for the grandchildren.  A couple of cool things they had that we didn’t buy were some woven horses in all sizes, probably most often used as children’s toys back then.  They were made from rice straw.  And also from rice straw were the slippers, more like flip flops, that the people wore as they walked the many miles.  They would need to purchase or weave new ones as they went, because they wouldn’t last the entire trip.  

Some famous Samurai warriors climbed these steps.

I wondered if this black wood had been painted, (it didn't look like it) or if it looks like that when it's that old.

A fountain on left, and a special rock of some kind on right.

These people didn't walk the whole Kiso River Valley,
but they kind of felt like it.

I think this is a spinning wheel, but not sure.

There were businesses all along here.  The people aren't allowed to change the front of their homes.

These old towns where we walked along the streets were really cool.  The homes look so old, and some of them smelled old when we went in.  The only ones we went into had been made into shops, and they sold lots of touristy things, but some things were unusual and interesting, and it was fun at one spot to watch some women weaving Chinese hats.  In one place they had roasted chestnuts, and they offered us each one to sample.  Really good.  (But then I started singing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” to myself.)  We drank some water out of a little pipe that was running into a wooden barrel, which is how it would have been 400 years ago.  

There are very few, if any, places you can go in Japan without seeing a shrine.
But isn't this one pretty.

People needed a place to get a drink, so this little spring
running into an old barrel was available to dip out of.

So I tried it.  It was fresh and good, and I'm still alive.
(But I didn't dip.)

One of the ladies weaving Chinese hats.

This old guy greeted us at one of the shops.  I think he was once a tree.

This caught my interest.  If your roof gets old and you are
afraid it will blow away in the wind, here's what you can do.

Ditto.

One of the prettier sections of this old town.

I love seeing and learning about Japan.  

So it's time for some more beauty shop names:  Hair Style Leaf, Dope Hair, and Opera Hair.  (Some mornings I'm sure I've been to Dope Hair during the night.)

Cars, Cars, Cars

When we go driving in Japan, I need something to take my mind off the road--the teeny, tiny narrow road with teeny, tiny space on each side of the lane. It's major nerve wracking!!  Sister Baird came up with a list of some of the funny names of cars she sees, and that gave me an idea.  I had been thinking that there seemed to be an endless array of kinds of cars. Why not write them all down.  Most of them are different from the cars I've seen in the States, but of course, not all of them.

The Toyota car is our principle vehicle, but we drive a
Toyota van when we need to haul things around.

Keep in mind that vehicles in Japan that are more than three years old have to pass an inspection every two years.  It costs about $220 for small cars, and the price goes up as the size of the engine increases.  Once a car gets to the point where it is unlikely to pass inspection, it's cheaper to pay someone to pick up the car and scrap it.  Therefore, nearly every car we have seen in Japan looks relatively new. 

Some of these cars look more like oversized matchbox cars.  They aren't sold in the US.  Their engines are less than 660 cc's.  They have a different license plate color and their tires are itty-bitty.  They are a perfect fit for the roads here.

Don't ask me which one this is, but it's one of the small engine cars.  

We live within a 20-minute drive of Toyota City, so you can guess which brand of car we see most often.  But I never dreamed there would be so many models.  I'm sure I haven't written down every car model out there, but in just three weeks of occasionally driving and writing down names, I have found 53 models of Toyota cars--nearly all of them 9 years old or newer.


So here's my unofficial, unscientific survey list.  A few cars look the same here as they do in the US, except for the side the steering wheel is on.  Occasionally we see a genuine US car, complete with steering wheel on the left.  But most cars, even with the same name as in the US, look completely different.  It's been kind of interesting.

Make         Model             Comment

Chevy        Corvette          (Steering wheel on the left.)

Chrysler     Classic  

  

Citroen                             (British)

Daihatsu    Cocoa                

Diahatsu    Bego              

Diahatsu    Conte
Diahatsu    Copen 
Diahatsu   Mira             

Diahatsu    Move             

Diahatsu    Naked             (It doesn't look any more naked to me than the other cars.)

Ford          Explorer          (Didn't get a chance to see which side the steering wheel was on.)

          

Honda        Capa              

Honda        Edix               

Honda        Element         (Nothing like the car by the same name in US.  A small station wagon.)
Honda        Fit                  (We see this car a lot, Jesselah.)
Honda        Freed
Honda        Insight
Honda        Life

Honda        Spark             

Honda        Stream 

          

Jaguar                             (FYI:  Tata Motors from India owns it.)

Mazda        Atekza           

Mazda        Axela             

Mazda        Capella          

Mazda        Danlo             

Mazda        Demico          

Mazda        Premacy        

Mazda        Scrum            

Mazda        Biante            

Mazda        RX7

               

Mini Cooper 

                          

Mitsubishi  Colt                

Mitsubishi  Delica            

Mitsubishi  Minica            

Mitsubishi  Pajero Miri 

    

Nissan       AD                 

Nissan       Bluebird         

Nissan       Caravan         

Nissan       Cedric            

Nissan       Cube            (We were wondering:  Does the wrap-around window wrap to the left or right in the     

                                     US?  In Japan, it's on the left, opposite the steering wheel.)

Nissan       Dualis            

Nissan       Fuga              

Nissan       Harno             

Nissan       LaFesta 
Nissan       Liberty          

Nissan       March            

Nissan       Moco             

Nissan       Note               

Nissan       Roox              

Nissan       Serena           

Nissan       Tiana      

Nissan       Tiida              

Nissan       Xtrail              

Nissan       Skyline     

           

Peugeot     Mood             

Peugeot     SW (station wagon)

Range Rover      Vogue 

       

Renault      Espace          

Renault      Lutecia           

                           

Smart Car     

                   

Subaru       Impreza          

Subaru       Legacy           

Subaru       R2

                 

Suzuka       Every              (by Honda)

Suzuka       Palette            (by Honda)

Suzuki        Alto 
Suzuki        Every                

Suzuki        Lepo              

Suzuki        Stingray
Suzuki        Swift
Suzuki        WagonR   

      

Toyota        ?                       (looks like a really wide Hummer) 

Toyota       Ace                

Toyota       Aeras             

Toyota       Allion             

Toyota       Alphard 
Toyota       Aqua          

Toyota       Aristo             

Toyota       Athlete           

Toyota       Auris              

Toyota       Belta              

Toyota       Celsior           

Toyota       Crown             (Nagoya's standard taxi car, a luxury car and a police car.)

Toyota       Duet               

Toyota       Estima
Toyota       Fielder    

Toyota       FJ Cruiser      

Toyota       Hi Jet (truck)  

Toyota       Hiace             

Toyota       Ipsum 
Toyata       Isis    

Toyota       Ist                  

Toyota       Kluger            

Toyota       Majesta          

Toyota       Marki             

Toyota       MR-S      (corresponds to MR2-Spider in US)
Toyota       Noah             

Toyota       Opa               

Toyota       Pixis              

Toyota       Porte              

Toyota       Prado             

Toyota       Prebox           

Toyota       Prius               (The car I feel I see the most.)

Toyota       Progres          

Toyota       Pronard          

Toyota       Raum             

Toyota       Rav 4L           

Toyota       Regius           

Toyota       Royal Salmon

Toyota       Rumion          

Toyota       Sette              

Toyota       Sienta          

Toyota       Soarer            

Toyota       Spacio           

Toyota       Spada 
Toyota       Sprinter           

Toyota       Succeed         

Toyota       Taida             

Toyota       Town Ace       

Toyota       TX                 

Toyota       Vellfire           

Toyota       Vitz                

Toyota       Voxy               (Most popular van in Japan)

Toyota       Windom         

Toyota       Windy          

         

Vamos                             (Made by a Costa Rican car company--cool name! Spanish for "let's go")

VW            Passat           

  VW           Jetta

We parked next to this baby at the Nagoya Airport.
I didn't list it; we don't know what kind it is.

Now isn't that just interesting!  (Maybe not.)  So if that totally bored you, here are a few names of hair salons:  

Hair Salon Sincere

Cut Club

Hair River Pool

And a couple of other cute Japanese things:

The sign in front of Tanaka Home Center (a furniture store)--"Smart Your Life, Sweet Your Home"

Sign in a car that passed us:  "Maternity in the Car.  I am Safety Driver."

There is Still Need--Tsunami 2011

We received an e-mail at our office from Brother Nozomi Watanabe.  He works at the Tokyo Japan Mission Accounting Department and Lee often talks with him.  We asked his permission to share his email, and he gladly gave it, saying that there is still a great deal of help needed to recover after the Tsunami of 2011, even though it has been well over a year.  Here is proof of that:


I finally went back to office today! I had been to Ishinomaki –city from last Wednesday to last Friday.

I would like to share the picture I took last week. It already passed more than a year from great disaster at Tohoku area.

Through looked around Tohoku area last week, I felt they still need a lot of help!

お疲れ様です。

先週参加したボランティアツアーの写真をシェアいたします。

今回は雨天のため牡蠣の種つけはキャンセルになり、急きょ石巻市にある相川小学校の瓦礫の仕分作業をしました。

First day was raining and we could not go to fishing port to help Oyster things, but we went to Aikawa Elementary school and helped to separate countless trash.

屋上まで津波で覆われたそうです。多くの生徒は先生の指示のもと裏山に避難し難を逃れたそうですが、

この日学校を案内してくれた地元のおじいさんのお孫さんをはじめ、多くの方が亡くなられたそうです。

Whole school was covered by Tsunami. Most of the students were guided to escaped to the mountain behind this school by their teacher.

However, still many citizen were dead on 3/11 at here, including a grandson of a man who guided this school to us this day.

全ての天井が抜け落ちてました。

Whole ceiling of this building were fallen down.

ところどころに相川小在学生が残していったと思われるメッセージが書かれていました。

Aikawa school students left many message on the blackboard and walls.

On the above picture`s message says “Remember 3/11”.

学校の隣にある体育館です。ひどい有様でした。

This is a gym next to school. It easy to tell that 3/11 was a great disaster.

午後にはテレビでおなじみのさんさん商店街にいきました。

牡蠣やホタテの食べ歩きができたり、地元の様々な特産品を購入することができます。

私は初めてマンボウの刺身を試食しました。意外とおいしかったです。

This shopping street is build by a citizen who lose their business and shop by Tsunami.

We ate many tasty Oysters, Scallops, fresh Seafood, and many other local food at here. I ate a Mola fish for the first time in my life at here! It was good than I expected!

かまぼこコロッケです。とてもおいしかったです。今度自分でも作ってみたいと思います。

This is fish cake fry. It was so good, and I would like to cook it by myself next time!

石巻産の生わかめが入ったロールケーキです。甘さ控えめの生クリームの味の後からほんのり磯の香りを含んだワカメの味がします。なかなかの美味でした。

Those white and green spots are not blue cheese, but fresh seaweed! It was tasty!

2日目のホテルでの夕食です。右上の赤身はクジラの刺身です。初めてクジラの刺身を食べましたが、癖もなくとてもおいしかったです。

写真には写ってませんが他にホタテの蒸し焼きがありました。次の日の朝食も大変美味でした（＾＾）。

This is what we ate at the hotel for dinner. Red meat on the right side of this picture is a whale`s raw meat. It was my first time to eat a whale`s raw meat. I love whale and hesitated to eat them, but It was so good! I wish I could eat more!

まだまだ多くの瓦礫がそこらじゅうの放置されている状態でした。

Many trash were still left all around.

よく見るとこの建物は津波によって真横に倒れています。

The building on the picture was came down right behind the ground by Tsunami.

何もない平地に見えますが、津波前は多くの家々が立ち並んでいた場所です。

今は悲しいほどに何もない平地になっています。

Looks like this picture shows any particular building but just a flat field. Sadly, many building and house were here at this place before Tsunami.

3日目に参加した布草履を制作している「うみねこハウス」です。

This is “Umineko House” where we donated our T-shirt and made “Nuno Zori”

今回は帯の部分のみの作成でした。まずはたくさんあるTシャツの中から本体にあった色の帯を作るためのTシャツを選びます。

完成姿を想像しながらTシャツを選ぶのはとても楽しかったです。選んだTシャツを細く3つに切り三編みにして帯を作成します。

このあと編んだ三編みを本体にくくりつける作業が大変な力仕事でして一日に一足作るのが限界というのもうなずけました。

教えてくれた地元のおばあさんたちはとても元気で、冗談もたくさん飛び交って作業中ずっと笑顔と笑い声が絶えませんでした。

This is what I made this day with “Senssei”. It was fun to chose T-shirt to use. To making a Nuno Zori was hard works than I expected. Even skilful person would take a day to make only one zori. People in Umineko House were filled with power. They smile always, share some jokes, and the house were filled with laugh all day. We had a great time at here.

(Yes, this is me! You finally see who you talk with on the phone!)

Facebookで「ママサポーターズ」と検索するとうみねこハウスの詳しい活動内容がみれます。

If you search by “ママサポーターズ” at Facebook, you can learn about their activity more.

お昼は近くの漁港の市場で海鮮丼をいただきました。大もりで1300円と安くておいしかったです。

We ate a lot of fresh local seafood at Ishinomaki for launch. It was so good!

帰りの佐野パーキングエリアにて。

栃木レモン１０％使用と上には書かれていますが、下のほうには無果汁と表記されています（笑）。

This is what I found at Sano Parking Area on the way back to Tokyo. On above, it says this ice contains 10% local lemon, but when I saw below, it says contains 0% fruit. Which description is right?