The meal

So this entire meal was served to us in our room.  There were 6 courses.  It felt that it was just going and going and going.  Just when we thought that it was the last course another one came.  It was endless but so incredibly delicious and wonderful.  I cannot describe it at all.  Just amazing!!!

Lets see...in the blue glass there is what my aunt calls fire water (it's plum wine), in the clear glass is seaweed, in the white dish is a sardine and i think gluten, in the light brown dish is shrimp and some sort of vegetable.

In the tall steaming bowl is soybean.  It was extremely good surprisingly.  I didn't think that it was going to be but oh so delicious. 

I love the dish in the background (green and white with palm trees).  In the dish was sushi.  Yum.  It was interesting.  Such a different texture and flavor then cooked fish.  I think in the bowl was like a miso soup.

Well there were peas in an orange sauce with a piece of onion. There is what I believe is a crab puff type thing and some vegetables.

Well let's see if I can remember I think that in the white dish is i think is soup, the other white dish is some sort of both but I can't remember.

The birdcage...well lets see I think that it is something like fried fish or maybe something else.  My mind is a little fogged about what it is.

This is octopus!!  It is extremely good.  There is also seaweed, and some sort of vegetable.

Well, In the red bowl there is steamed rice and in the colorful dish I can't quite remember.

Well, there is orange, strawberries, and green tea cake.  Very delicious.

The bath

The bath.  The hotel was beautiful!!!  It was amazing.  We checked in and immediately they told us about the three different baths that we could enjoy.  Now let me tell you about the bath.  The bath is really a oversized hot tub with different scenes.  We went to the rock bath so the rock bath was a big hot tub that was made out of rocks.  The rocks made the tub and two of the walls with a waterfall coming down the middle of the wall.  It was actually a very cool room.  Now the set back, are you ready for it, you have to be naked to get into the bath.  Aaaahhhhhhh!!!  I know so completely awful.  So literally you get naked besides having your underwear on and put on a kumoto (see my mom in the above picture).  Then you walk to which bath that you want.  Each bath is open at specific times for a specific sex.  Thank goodness for at least that.  Then once you got to the changing room you would strip down to nothing then walk into the bath room.  Next you would wash your self (soap and shampoo) and enter into the bath.  Then you just soak.  If I had known about the whole nakedness thing before I heard about the hot springs I absolutely WOULD NOT have decided that was where I wanted to spend my birthday.  Now some people might not think that the whole nakedness thing is something that warrants a freak out, well then you haven't met me.  I am the picture of complete modesty.  Modesty is seriously my middle name.  I don't do that sort of thing, the only people that are allowed to see me naked are Bill and unfortunately my doctor.  However, now that I did it once I am not feeling extremely embarassed and as modest.  I think that it's a good thing.  Modesty is still important to me still but I'm not as freaked out as I was before the trip to Japan.  So maybe it was a good thing.

Ohara

We asked if we could take a picture of them in their kumoto's.  They were all extremely nice to let us take their pictures.

I love the tree that is growing out of the rocks under the house.

On the walk up from the train station to the bath (hotel).  We walked past little shops, houses, and we followed the stream up to the hotel.  It was a beautiful little town and was such a fun walk up the mountain.

The Dojo

My dojo experience.

When getting to the dojo we found out that we had to say while bowing "yorosheku onaguyshemas".  (Pronounced - yo ro she koo  on a guy she mas).   I was so extremely nervous about trying to pronounce the words while yelling them out. I had help the first few times and then I was able to say it without having help. It still gave me butterflies though.  Then we had to go up the stairs with the first step being taken with our left foot.  Why the left I don't really know but that is just the way it was done.  Then before we actually stepped into the building we had to bow again.  When we got into the building we had to take our shoes off stepping on a wooden platform while not touching our socks on the concrete where our shoes were.  We would go up the stairs to the second floor drop off our things and then make our way down to the actually dojo.  To get into the dojo we would bow down while stepping in and up with our left foot and then bowed again.  From that point we would start stretching to get ready for drumming all day.  We would then start meditation which was interesting and kind of hurt because we had to sit on the floor while cross legged without moving around.  From there on out we practiced Taiko.

The sensei.

The first and second day was very intimidating.  The sensei would come out and talk to us every morning in Japanese and a little English.  He was so scary at first because he talked really fast and all in Japanese.  However, at the end of day we would go into his study and ask him questions about Taiko.  He is actually extremely funny and extrememly nice.  He speaks pretty good English so we could understand most everything that he says.  He also has a really fun toy.  It is like an I-pad that he speaks into in Japanese and it changes it into English.  Very cool.  We found out that he has played all of the world in many, many, many concerts.  Everyday at some point in the day he would come in and we would get to watch him play.  HE IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!  We would call it "watching studies" (They were the best part of the week).

The Schedule.

Wake up. Eat. Take the Train. Walk to the dojo. Stretch. Meditate. Practice. Eat Lunch. Practice. Walk back to the Train. Eat Dinner. Go to bed.  That was the schedule for the 5 days we were there at Fukui.

The vehicles of Japan

Police Car  -  Very odd looking compared to ours

They have such interesting vehicles.  Some of them we have in the US some of them we don't.  Most of all of their vehicles are all extremely small almost none of them were full sized vehicles like here.  The reason why they are smaller vehicles is because most all of their roads are quite narrow.  I would be scared if they were driving full sized vehicles on some of the roads there.  It would be a sight to see though. 

Japan

Trains are a gigantic part of Japan's culture.  They have trains going practically everywhere and anywhere.  The size of the train depended on where it was going.  The big cities get the bullet trains and the small cities (towns) get the small fun trains.

The train to get us from Fukui to the dojo.  (The small train - 2 cars)

I love the signs.  All of them are so fun, really only because they are in a different language and I have no idea what it says.  Also, because all the words look like art.  I could say something like BEWARE TRAIN TRACKS AHEAD.  I would have no idea and it looks like art.  However the only thing that I know is that it talks about the train because at the bottom of the sign it says the letters JR which is the type of train/company that runs on that line.

This is there cemetaries.  They are all like this and very beautiful.  I think that they have someone that comes everyday that puts fresh flowers on every stone.  So different from our graveyards here in our country.

These pictures are from Fukui to the dojo.  Everyday we would wake up take the elevator down to the lobby of the hotel and have breakfast.  Each morning there would be a bowl of steamed rice, fish, egg, miso soup, seaweed, vegetables, and gluten.  It was always so much food that I could never ever finish it at all.  It was delicious though.  Then we would walk to the train station and usually linger at all the market shops looking at the bright colors, the food, the candy.  Everything was so wonderfully packaged and beautiful.  After lingering in the market for a little while we would make it up to the train (look at the second picture).  We would then make the train ride to the dojo.  We would walk about a mile from the train station to the dojo looking at all the sights (the above pictures).  It was a wonderful walk with the true beauty that God has created for us.  We would then drum with our hearts content.  By the time that we got done with drumming and getting back to Fukui we would grab something to eat and then instantly we would go to bed because we were so exhausted.  It was a wonderful week and full of amazing sights.

A Little Late

So I know that I am ridiculously late in posting about Japan.  My life has been so chaotic and crazy since I've been home now for 2 weeks that I'm finally feeling my life going back to normal. 

Japan...was amazing!!!  I know that is such a small word to explain Japan but it really was amazing.  It surprised me that things so over there reminded me so much of being home.  You would think that it would be completely different, which parts are, but it's not in a lot of areas. 

The mountains, the trees, the flowers, pretty much everything nature reminded me of home.  Some of the buildings are like ours here, not very many though.  A lot of the products and brands are the same here as they are there.  It was very interesting to see all the different brands that are here in America to be there in Japan.  I had no idea that so many brands were international!  Japan was very beautiful full of amazing things.  I'm going to leave you in suspense and you will have to wait until tomorrow until I decide which picture will be the topic of discussion.  Stay tuned!!!