Portland Japanese Garden

I've neglected my blog for a *whole* year!  (At least I've kept up blogging on my other page, Lively Exchanges.) Picking up where I left off would just take too long so I'll stick to recent events for now.

How about a trip to a garden?

Here are some shots from the Portland Japanese Garden (ポートランド日本庭園), taken on a visit there with a few friends in December. If you live in the area and haven't been there--or even if you have--make sure to get there. (And don't forget your camera!)

          
          
Having lived in Japan, it's also remarkable to see a true Japanese garden with all those Oregon firs in the background...
         

             
Construction taking place outside the garden entrance will be completed in the spring of this year, but the garden itself is open. Come see it in winter, and then head back in the spring...and summer, and autumn. :)

Back in PDX and looking for groceries

Well...here we are. Freshly done with graduate school, back in my hometown, a new year, and not yet a new job.

I've been back in Portland for a little over two weeks now, and though all of my boxes from Tokyo have been back for most of that time, most of my belongings are still tucked away inside them.

On the road to visit my grandparents, shortly after Christmas

    
The last two weeks have been spent pretty much the same way I usually spend a break in Portland: Christmas with the family, of course, as well as catch-ups with friends, a visit to see my grandparents in the Tri-Cities, trips to the dentist and hair salon...In some ways, it still feels pretty much like I'm on vacation (albeit a lengthy one).

Taken on the drive home from visiting grandparents. Isn't Oregon pretty?

       
Although re-entry shock hasn't really kicked in yet, it's important to me to find ways of maintaining small parts of the life I had in Japan. Nine years taught me a lot about myself and was plenty of time for me to make new habits. But that's a topic we'll have to return to later.

For now, one of the things I really miss from Tokyo is the food. Nothing fancy, just some flavors, ingredients (especially the quality and varieties of the veggies!), and cooking methods that we don't really use here that often.

Daikon and leeks (the closest I'll get to naga-negi in Oregon) spotted on today's shopping trip

      
But today I got a treat. This afternoon my parents and I took a drive out to Tigard to check out H Mart, a Korean grocery store that also carries imported items from Japan, several other regions in Asia, and even Latin America. (For those really important Japanese items, Uwajimaya is still the best hook-up, but if we're being honest, H Mart is the more affordable of the two.)

Taro-imo from Mexico. Who knew?

I picked up an American-grown kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), for basically the same price I would pay in Tokyo.

      
I enjoyed the produce section quite a bit, but it was also fun to walk around and pick out familiar Japanese products and labels.

Ok, ok, so the label's not exactly in Japanese. But I got a good laugh out of this one--for nostalgic reasons.
And I think a student or two in Tokyo might see the humor in this one, too. ;)

    
I also enjoyed the packages of California-grown Japanese rice.

Koshihikari (pictured here) and Akita komachi (below) are two popular varieties of Japanese rice.

     
Many of their products were labeled in Korean and thus unreadable (I'll have to wait for my next trip to Uwajimaya to get miso...), but it's nice to know that there's at least one more Portland-area location where I can find things not otherwise available at my local supermarket. Today's purchase included a kabocha pumpkin and a bottle of mirin (a sweet rice wine used for cooking).

Maybe I'll be able to use some of my "free time" to cook up some Japanese dishes...Who's got suggestions? What should I cook? :)

Hakodate and Tohoku: Day 8

Back in Tokyo again!  Trying to get my room to warm up since I've been away for so long, so for the next little bit it'll be multiple layers and maybe a blanket to wrap up in while I type...

I'd decided on my plans a couple of days ago, but was still feeling uncertain about them even as I was on the way to the train station after checking out of my hotel this morning. I just wasn't sure that all of my trains and buses would get me where I needed to be.  But it turns out, I did all that worrying over nothing.  Even though I was still out in a rural area, everything was on time--right down to the minute!

My destination was a place called Ginzan-Onsen ("Silver Mountain Hot Springs"), a popular place for tourists in Yamagata and one of the only major tourist destinations in the prefecture that I'd never been to before.  Of course, I'm not the kind of person who enjoys public baths, which is the main thing to do while staying here.  I went primarily to see this picturesque little town that always pops up in tourist brochures. 

      
It's the off-season so there weren't a lot of other people walking around, which was nice, but also meant that most of the shops were closed. However, since it hasn't snowed heavily yet this year, access to the trail behind the town was open and I went for a walk.

First, there is the waterfall that feeds the canal running through the middle of the town.

The top of the falls

      
And the trail winds all the way up behind it, basically tracing the path of the stream backwards out to some lovely open spaces.

      
Until I stumbled upon this:

Beware of bears!

      
It scared the crap out of me, and I hightailed it all the way back to the town again.  I'm not sure if there really was any danger (probably not), but I was surprised that in a tourist town there was no warning of the possibility of bears until you were actually in the place where you might see them. Let's hope they were all hibernating or something.

Back in town I stopped for some of Ginzan's famous kare-pan (deep fried dough with spicy curry inside).

    
Then I did a little more browsing in the two or three other shops that were open. Yamagata is famous for a variety of fruits, and most of the souvenir shops sell cans of juices or fruit-flavored sodas. Grape, tomato, pear, peach, apple and cherry are the most common, but this town is famous for its watermelon, too.  I picked up a couple of cans to take home and enjoy later.

Advertising cans of 100% Yamagata juice.

     
By then I had about 20 minutes left to wait for the bus, so I took a leisurely walk up the hill to the bu stop. It was a beautiful day!

I think the most beautiful skies you'll see in Japan are here in Yamagata...

     
The bus ride back to the train station was quiet. I had another 40 minute wait for my next transfer, so I walked around a bit outside. I hadn't noticed when I'd arrived in the morning but outside in the afternoon I realized that the train station was designed in a shape similar to stadium bleachers--you can walk up them, all the way to the top of the station roof!  Once you're at the top, it's another beautiful view of the town.

View from the street outside the station

Bleacher-shaped Ōishida Station, with the stairs on the far left.

And the view of the town behind the station from the top of the station's roof.

Seriously.  The skies.

    
After catching one more local train, I was back at Yamagata Station and ready for a transfer to the bullet train that would take me back to Tokyo.  I had 30 minutes to pick up a gift, retrieve my belongings from a locker, grab some food to eat on the train, and buy my ticket. It was quite the rush, but I made it onto the platform just as the train was pulling into the station.

Once settled into my seat, I enjoyed my gingerbread latte and watched the scenery fly by as the sun went down.

    
Not a bad way to end a trip to my favorite part of Japan!

Hakodate and Tohoku: Day 7

Today was a full day.

I was up relatively early so I could make it to Yamadera (literally "mountain temple") which is, as you might suspect, a mountain with loads of temples and shrines.

Part of the town of Yamadera, on the way to the base of the mountain

        
My first visit was in 2009 and it was one of my first trips outside the Tokyo area. (See the post here, which includes a little more explanation of the mountain itself.) Of course, it hasn't really changed since I was there before, but I went back because I remembered how beautiful it was.

Buddhist monuments, jizō statues, and other relics line the stairs to the top

     

A view across the valley

     

          
The skies were even prettier than my last visit, and I spent quite a while at the lookout point enjoying the view.

At the lookout point. Special prize goes to this woman, for making the trek in those heels...

       

       
Made a loop past one more temple on the way back down to the base where I spotted some kitties!

Perspective is everything: Are these just peaceful zen kitties...

...or clever, hungry kitties waiting for a goldfish-y snack? (P.S. I have no idea what all that yellow string was for.)

      
On the way back to the train station I stopped to get some tama-konnyaku (balls of konjac that have been simmered in soy sauce), a Yamagata specialty.

Simmering in the pot

     

They are often served smeared with Japanese karashi hot mustard

     

One more view of the mountain from the train station platform, then on to Sendai!

      
My friend Paul is in Sendai attending grad school, and since I wasn't going to be that far away I added an extra leg to my trip so I could stop by and see him.

       
But first I had to wait until his classes were finished for the day, so of course I went browsing for Japaneesy things...

Business lotion...

     
We decided to start with a late lunch. After exploring our options we settled on ramen.  Ramen makes Paul happy.

I chose the super-special spicy ramen.  Seriously, that's how the name translates. It was oh-so-good.

      
Full--and suffering from a mild case of heartburn from all the habanero in the soup--Paul took me on a walking tour.  Though I've been here twice before, it's nice to have someone who's familiar with the city to show you around. We even stopped by his university; Paul is in the DJ club, so I got the behind-the-scenes tour of his practice room.

The literal "elephant in the room" was my personal favorite of all their interior decorating choices.

      
And then we were off for a walk through the downtown area.  Lucky us!  We were there to see the Christmas lights.

Even the lion outside the department store was dressed in his holiday best. The beard was a nice touch, don't you think?

       
And of course, there are the obligatory photos of things we like to make fun of:

A clothing store, of course

         

"For the nice tomorrow"

      

Perhaps the children's smoking section is around the corner?

        
We topped off the evening with an ice cream stop. After all those stairs I'd climbed in the morning, plus my walking tour of the city, I figured I could spare the calories.  No photo, though.  It didn't last very long...

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation.  I've got some plans, but I'm not yet sure I can pull them off. It's hard to tour the countryside when you don't drive a car...

Anyways, stay tuned for one more post!