Asahi to osake
My sincerest apologies for the recent paucity (nay, absence) of blog entries, but I guess time flies when you're having fun (and fruit flies like a banana). Can you tell I've had my coffee this morning?
I did not, alas, make it to the quasi-national park this past weekend, so I have no photos of waterfalls or misbehaving monkeys to share. I do have some early-morning photos of the view from my apartment, and they prove that the trees really do change colors here. In fact, it appears the weather is not going to change for at least two straight weeks, and it is perfectly autumnal (in the early October, crisp and clear sense, not the late November blustery blizzard sense). Therefore I expect the leaves to remain in color and on the trees for a while. In fact, they might just stay put through the winter and turn right back to green in the spring. I'll keep you posted.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a national holiday, the Day of Labor, but nobody seems to know if it is akin to Labor Day in the US or some sort of Thanksgiving type day. There is no traditional Thanksgiving here, as the pilgrims seemed not to have made it this far. But some sort of group excursion is being planned for Thursday, and as I am the "honored" guest (and apparently good at deception) I got to choose the locale. So we're going to Kyoto, which should be very interesting, as it is full of temples and Japanese maples and emperors. One of the grad students wanted to go to Universal Studios Japan, but he was roundly rebuked. I hear they have an enormous Christmas tree there, but not an enormous pink one, so it seems pointless.
The ozumo continues to fascinate, with Asashoryu ("Morning Blue Dragon") remaining undefeated through nine bouts out of a total of fifteen. Kotooshu ("Very Large Bulgarian") dropped one over the weekend, but rebounded nicely and has joined a group of four rikishi at 7-2. He will likely need to win at least ten bouts to win promotion to ozeki. Another notable bout lasted for over four minutes, long enough for the referee to call a mizu-iri or water break, an uncommon occurence that I'm fortunate to have witnessed.
On Friday night I had a very good dinner with Anabuki-san, Ozawa-san, and Matsuura-san at a sakaya or sake bar. I am forever spoiled to American sushi.
Happy Birthday to Rob, who (at this moment) is one year older in this hemisphere than he is in the other.
I did not, alas, make it to the quasi-national park this past weekend, so I have no photos of waterfalls or misbehaving monkeys to share. I do have some early-morning photos of the view from my apartment, and they prove that the trees really do change colors here. In fact, it appears the weather is not going to change for at least two straight weeks, and it is perfectly autumnal (in the early October, crisp and clear sense, not the late November blustery blizzard sense). Therefore I expect the leaves to remain in color and on the trees for a while. In fact, they might just stay put through the winter and turn right back to green in the spring. I'll keep you posted.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a national holiday, the Day of Labor, but nobody seems to know if it is akin to Labor Day in the US or some sort of Thanksgiving type day. There is no traditional Thanksgiving here, as the pilgrims seemed not to have made it this far. But some sort of group excursion is being planned for Thursday, and as I am the "honored" guest (and apparently good at deception) I got to choose the locale. So we're going to Kyoto, which should be very interesting, as it is full of temples and Japanese maples and emperors. One of the grad students wanted to go to Universal Studios Japan, but he was roundly rebuked. I hear they have an enormous Christmas tree there, but not an enormous pink one, so it seems pointless.
The ozumo continues to fascinate, with Asashoryu ("Morning Blue Dragon") remaining undefeated through nine bouts out of a total of fifteen. Kotooshu ("Very Large Bulgarian") dropped one over the weekend, but rebounded nicely and has joined a group of four rikishi at 7-2. He will likely need to win at least ten bouts to win promotion to ozeki. Another notable bout lasted for over four minutes, long enough for the referee to call a mizu-iri or water break, an uncommon occurence that I'm fortunate to have witnessed.
On Friday night I had a very good dinner with Anabuki-san, Ozawa-san, and Matsuura-san at a sakaya or sake bar. I am forever spoiled to American sushi.
Happy Birthday to Rob, who (at this moment) is one year older in this hemisphere than he is in the other.
posted by Eric M. at 9:30 AM
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