Escaping from deskwork!
During the winter season, there aren't too many events to prepare for, so 95% of the time I am stuck in front of my desk at work. The only times I really get up are to 1) go to the bathroom or 2) get a drink.
Earlier this week though, I got to escape my office for a day to once again prepare for my tourism course's tour scheduled for February 6. (I posted a little about the first tour here.)
Enjoying the winter sunset in Kamogawa~.
Overlooking most of Kamogawa, seen from Oyama Fudo Temple. Because it's so DRY out, you can even see all the way to the ocean!
Oyama Fudo Temple was a strange mix of just about everything. There are parts that are well maintained, and a lot more that looked in dire need of repair. It's a temple, but it had a lot of stuff that should be in a shrine...not to mention that apparently during the local festival, the mikoshi actually goes INTO the temple! Lots of interesting things to see here. I really enjoyed the way that these ema have aged and faded.
If I knew more about temples and their decorations and stuff I'm sure this would be even more interesting, but basically the lion statues here are supposed to be a male and female...you can tell because the female (on the left) is holding her children...the male (to the right) is holding a large sphere/ball thing. Something about keeping the balance?
Our next stop was the Oyama Senmaida, by far my favorite landmark in Kamogawa. It is a mass of almost 400 rice paddies built in terraces. The scenery looks pretty dead right now, but in a couple of months the rice paddies should be filled with water and it looks AMAZING because they reflect the sky and surrounding scenery in the most amazing way! What's even cooler is that there is absolutely no irrigation system - all the water used here is 100% natural rain water, fallen from the sky.
We picked nanohana flowers (Kamogawa's official flower!) to use for cooking! It was a little weird to eat them at first, but they're surprisingly good - although they have a kind of bitter aftertaste.
I got to take a huge bag of nanohana home to eat, so I made this soup, which also has mushrooms and scallops in it. It was pretty amazing o_O Nanohana are only sold during this season, but I really hope that I can make this again!
Next we made bonsai charcoal things! Basically you take piece of bamboo/tree turned charcoal and plant it in moss.
Mine doesn't look too amazing...but maybe someday! These things have an air-deodorizing effect...and supposedly if you just leave them anywhere and give them a little water when they look like they're drying up, the moss will grow super fluffy and look really cool!
Lastly, we made futomaki sushi, one of the local specialties. You can make all sorts of designs in the sushi...the most common are the flowers of the current season, but can you tell what this is?
The finished products! We made jumping bunnies and camellia flowers. They turned out pretty well!
ARGH it is SUPER freezing here at night and I feel like I will turn into an icicle even inside my apartment....but I hope everyone is doing well! Until next time~~.
Earlier this week though, I got to escape my office for a day to once again prepare for my tourism course's tour scheduled for February 6. (I posted a little about the first tour here.)
Enjoying the winter sunset in Kamogawa~.
Overlooking most of Kamogawa, seen from Oyama Fudo Temple. Because it's so DRY out, you can even see all the way to the ocean!
Oyama Fudo Temple was a strange mix of just about everything. There are parts that are well maintained, and a lot more that looked in dire need of repair. It's a temple, but it had a lot of stuff that should be in a shrine...not to mention that apparently during the local festival, the mikoshi actually goes INTO the temple! Lots of interesting things to see here. I really enjoyed the way that these ema have aged and faded.
If I knew more about temples and their decorations and stuff I'm sure this would be even more interesting, but basically the lion statues here are supposed to be a male and female...you can tell because the female (on the left) is holding her children...the male (to the right) is holding a large sphere/ball thing. Something about keeping the balance?
Our next stop was the Oyama Senmaida, by far my favorite landmark in Kamogawa. It is a mass of almost 400 rice paddies built in terraces. The scenery looks pretty dead right now, but in a couple of months the rice paddies should be filled with water and it looks AMAZING because they reflect the sky and surrounding scenery in the most amazing way! What's even cooler is that there is absolutely no irrigation system - all the water used here is 100% natural rain water, fallen from the sky.
We picked nanohana flowers (Kamogawa's official flower!) to use for cooking! It was a little weird to eat them at first, but they're surprisingly good - although they have a kind of bitter aftertaste.
I got to take a huge bag of nanohana home to eat, so I made this soup, which also has mushrooms and scallops in it. It was pretty amazing o_O Nanohana are only sold during this season, but I really hope that I can make this again!
Next we made bonsai charcoal things! Basically you take piece of bamboo/tree turned charcoal and plant it in moss.
Mine doesn't look too amazing...but maybe someday! These things have an air-deodorizing effect...and supposedly if you just leave them anywhere and give them a little water when they look like they're drying up, the moss will grow super fluffy and look really cool!
Lastly, we made futomaki sushi, one of the local specialties. You can make all sorts of designs in the sushi...the most common are the flowers of the current season, but can you tell what this is?
The finished products! We made jumping bunnies and camellia flowers. They turned out pretty well!
ARGH it is SUPER freezing here at night and I feel like I will turn into an icicle even inside my apartment....but I hope everyone is doing well! Until next time~~.