How much do you like ham? Alot? Enough to drive an hour and a half into the mountains? If so, you'll probably like it. But unless you plan on eating pork all day, don't plan on more than a few hours here. Maybe part of the problem was that it was a burning hot July morning, but all but one of the pigs which were supposed to be available for petting (pet 'em, eat 'em, take some home for later) gone, and the one out was lying in a puddle under the drinking trough dying of eat stroke. There was also a playground, but it wasn't any more than any moderate urban park.
The centerpiece is a large beer hall where you can consume any of a number of forms of pork, all of which is really quite good. Sausage, fillet, cutlet, steak...fresh and delicious. After that you visit a strangely pork-centric supermarket with more cuts of pork than you've ever seen. On the plaza, there are many vendors and ice cream stands (no pork-flavored soft cream, thank goodness!). Again, all good stuff, but quite strange in it's obsessiveness.
There's an onsen there, too but in the heat of summer and after a big pork dinner we just didn't see any appeal.
This is a place to include in a larger trip around North Saitama / Iruma, perhaps for a good lunch after some golf or hiking in the area.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
River Fun in Japan
Summer in Japan is hot and most families look to aquatic recreation for relief...elusive relief.
Back home in Texas, the mother of hot summers, we'd spend many a weekend out on the rivers. Here in Japan, however the rivers are too polluted to swim in (my neighborhood river, Kurome has recently been cleaned-up, yeah!) but I couldn't believe that there weren't any clean rivers here. Not finding anything overtly promoted, I made a habit of taking swimwear with us whenever we went on a drive in the mountains. After several summers of driving, we found one. After a bland morning at the Saiboku Ham village, driving through to Chichibu for a little hike, we spotted some people splashing around in the Koma river (Komagawa). We pulled over where a farmer was offering parking for 500 yen. We quickly changed into swimsuits and hit the water. It was wonderful; clean, clear, not too cold. It wasn't very deep in most areas, but there were some places where boys were jumping off the overpass. I would have, too but my wife wouldn't let me (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Lots of overhanging trees and shade. Cool breeze coming off the water. Pebble shores with plenty of bigger rocks to lounge against. In one place there's a salmon ladder (a series of stepped troughs and a flume to help salmon make their way upstream) that was good fun for people, too. Nearby grocers sold us inner tubes and anything else we needed. My wife, Mami wasn't much for the swim but after wading around and relaxing on the banks she declared that it was the most relaxing, "healing" place she'd ever been to in Japan. The sound of the water, cicadas, and breeze in the trees was transportive. And in contrast to beaches, the water is crystal clean, fragrant, relatively garbage-free, uncrowded, well-shaded, and river rats (river goers, as we're called back home) are some of the friendliest folk in Japan or Texas. I'd like to repeat: uncrowded. Even on a scorching afternoon, the fellow river rats were few and far between. Why? I don't know. But I'm reticent to over-promote these little bits of paradise.
This is what I'd been talking about to my family for years. But for them to understand, they had to experience it themselves. They were hooked. We only left when the sun started going down.
Next week, Mami spent some time searching the Japanese blogs for other rivers and found another one nearby in Hanno, the Naguri river (nagurigawa). Nagurigawa is bigger and even better for an all-day excursion. Nagurigawa has several spots where even an adult can tube a bit, and some places deep enough for bridge diving. One of the parking areas is managed by a grocery, Happy Family (Teddy Bear logo) which also rents grills and will set you up 100% for riverside barbecuing.
Going to a river, here are some considerations. Bring wet socks, or water-proof sandals, or some kind of footwear that will work in the water. The stony banks and riverbeds are tough on bare feet. And walk carefully in the rivers; the rocks on the bottom are mossy and as slippery as ice. Try to walk on the areas of smaller rocks. Expect to get banged and scratched up pretty good on the rocks. It's all part of the fun. Boogie boards and small rafts work well, too. If you barbecue near the river, you can ring-off a bit of river with larger stones to keep your food and drinks (and toddlers) cool. Also, don't take rocks from the rivers home until after O-bon; apparently they'll carry evil spirits.
You can get to either of these rivers by bus and train, but if you drive just head out to the river and watch for signs about parking and swimming. The key kanji to watch for is 川泳び. Plenty of rivers are good for barbecue and picnics, but it's hard to find a good, clean one for swimming.
So to recap:
Komagawa in Hidaka for a few hours.
Nagurigawa in Hanno for an full day.
Our search continues.
If you know of any others, please post them.
- The pools are crowded (see previous post: Taters in the Pool).
- The beaches are also crowded. What's more, they're sandy broilers under the sun with no shade. Jellyfish, sharks, sea urchin and countless more threatening organisms lurk unseen. Riptides and undertows keep parents on edge. The water is salty, briny, stinky, and leaves you feeling sticky and nasty. And of the beach-going crowd, many of them tend toward the obnoxious (I'm no fan of beaches).
- Water parks are expensive, stressful and again, overcrowded.
- Onsen are all about hot, and not exactly family recreation.
- There aren't many lakes around here, and most of them don't accommodate swimming.
- Some of the shopping malls have plaza fountains which are fine until about age five.
- They'll arrest you for jumping into the canals no matter who won the pennant, and you'd have to be pretty drunk to consider it in the first place.
- Can you think of any other bodies of recreational water? No, not marshland or sprinklers.
Back home in Texas, the mother of hot summers, we'd spend many a weekend out on the rivers. Here in Japan, however the rivers are too polluted to swim in (my neighborhood river, Kurome has recently been cleaned-up, yeah!) but I couldn't believe that there weren't any clean rivers here. Not finding anything overtly promoted, I made a habit of taking swimwear with us whenever we went on a drive in the mountains. After several summers of driving, we found one. After a bland morning at the Saiboku Ham village, driving through to Chichibu for a little hike, we spotted some people splashing around in the Koma river (Komagawa). We pulled over where a farmer was offering parking for 500 yen. We quickly changed into swimsuits and hit the water. It was wonderful; clean, clear, not too cold. It wasn't very deep in most areas, but there were some places where boys were jumping off the overpass. I would have, too but my wife wouldn't let me (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Lots of overhanging trees and shade. Cool breeze coming off the water. Pebble shores with plenty of bigger rocks to lounge against. In one place there's a salmon ladder (a series of stepped troughs and a flume to help salmon make their way upstream) that was good fun for people, too. Nearby grocers sold us inner tubes and anything else we needed. My wife, Mami wasn't much for the swim but after wading around and relaxing on the banks she declared that it was the most relaxing, "healing" place she'd ever been to in Japan. The sound of the water, cicadas, and breeze in the trees was transportive. And in contrast to beaches, the water is crystal clean, fragrant, relatively garbage-free, uncrowded, well-shaded, and river rats (river goers, as we're called back home) are some of the friendliest folk in Japan or Texas. I'd like to repeat: uncrowded. Even on a scorching afternoon, the fellow river rats were few and far between. Why? I don't know. But I'm reticent to over-promote these little bits of paradise.
 |
| Tubing down a salmon flume. |
Next week, Mami spent some time searching the Japanese blogs for other rivers and found another one nearby in Hanno, the Naguri river (nagurigawa). Nagurigawa is bigger and even better for an all-day excursion. Nagurigawa has several spots where even an adult can tube a bit, and some places deep enough for bridge diving. One of the parking areas is managed by a grocery, Happy Family (Teddy Bear logo) which also rents grills and will set you up 100% for riverside barbecuing.
 |
| grilling up some yakisoba |
 |
| Running aground on some falls. |
 |
| Look for signs like this |
So to recap:
Komagawa in Hidaka for a few hours.
Nagurigawa in Hanno for an full day.
Our search continues.
If you know of any others, please post them.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
School Shoes
うちの息子は1人っ子で日本人とアメリカ人のハーフ。家では英語、外では日本語を話す。見た感じは日本人にも見えないがガイジン顏でもない。そんな彼だが名字がカタカナの為、日本人社会ではかなり目立ってしまう。自分が何人かと言うアイデンティティトラブルが少しずつ出て、だんだん悩みを抱えるようになってしまった。悩んだ末、親子で話し合い、私達親もとから離れてアメリカ、テキサスのおじいちゃんの家に1年間滞在してもらうことにした。当時彼は8才だったが、この経験は子供だけでなく、私達夫婦にも非常にいい影響を与えた。
さて、子供がアメリカの学校初日の
話。子供は英語で生活しているので、言語はまったく問題ない。学校に到着後、履いていた靴を手に持って、靴箱を探し回ったらしい。授業に間にあわず、結局事務所に行き靴箱を尋ねると、「ない」と言う返事が。
アメリカの学校に上履きがないから、靴箱の必要がない。日本の学校では、生徒による掃除があるが、アメリカの学校ではない。だんなは、日本の学校で英語を教えていたので、生徒による掃除の習慣は素晴らしいと大絶賛。
うちの息子は日本にいた時は自分がアメリカ人だと思っていたらしいが、アメリカに行き、両国の文化の違いを体験し、自分の中の日本人を見つけたようだ。
Eiji went to Dallas for his third grade year, as much for the school experience as for the cultural. As much as we'd have liked to have gone with him, we had to stay here for the business. But in his time over there, he had a number of interesting discoveries. Among them, school etiquette where footwear is concerned.
In Japanese schools, you take off your outdoor shoes at the entry chamber, put them in cubbies or lockers, and change into indoor shoes. You do this just as surely as you would wash your hands after cleaning out the cat box or flush the toilet after doing your business. This keeps the school floors clean, and follows the Japanese customs of not wearing outdoor shoes indoors as is also observed in homes as well as clinics, temples, and some offices. It's strictly observed, as students and staff clean their own floors in Japan (janitors are a rarity).
On Eiji's first day at Lake Highlands Elementary, he walked into the school with all the other kids, more excited than most at his first adventure in English-language, American academia. Well-raised and eager to make a good impression, he stopped just inside the entry, removed his shoes and looked around for the shoe lockers. As you can imagine, he didn't find any. He spent 15 minutes trudging around in his socks, bags and shoes in hand, looking diligently for shoe lockers. He went to the principal's office and asked her, "excuse me, where are the shoe boxes?" Busy and otherwise occupied, she thought he was making some kind of joke and dismissed him. Why would anyone there guess for a minute what he was talking about, even if they knew where he was coming from? The bell rang. The halls emptied. A teacher scolded him for wandering the halls. He made a second attempt to explain his dilemma. This teacher, Ms. White, didn't quite understand the situation either, but she made a cognitive leap and told him that he should wear his outdoor shoes inside, and get to class! He did, but he was a little shocked. For him, after three years of kindergarten and two and a half years of elementary in Japan, wearing outside shoes inside school felt about as weird as wearing them into the bathtub.
さて、子供がアメリカの学校初日の
話。子供は英語で生活しているので、言語はまったく問題ない。学校に到着後、履いていた靴を手に持って、靴箱を探し回ったらしい。授業に間にあわず、結局事務所に行き靴箱を尋ねると、「ない」と言う返事が。
アメリカの学校に上履きがないから、靴箱の必要がない。日本の学校では、生徒による掃除があるが、アメリカの学校ではない。だんなは、日本の学校で英語を教えていたので、生徒による掃除の習慣は素晴らしいと大絶賛。
うちの息子は日本にいた時は自分がアメリカ人だと思っていたらしいが、アメリカに行き、両国の文化の違いを体験し、自分の中の日本人を見つけたようだ。
Eiji went to Dallas for his third grade year, as much for the school experience as for the cultural. As much as we'd have liked to have gone with him, we had to stay here for the business. But in his time over there, he had a number of interesting discoveries. Among them, school etiquette where footwear is concerned.
In Japanese schools, you take off your outdoor shoes at the entry chamber, put them in cubbies or lockers, and change into indoor shoes. You do this just as surely as you would wash your hands after cleaning out the cat box or flush the toilet after doing your business. This keeps the school floors clean, and follows the Japanese customs of not wearing outdoor shoes indoors as is also observed in homes as well as clinics, temples, and some offices. It's strictly observed, as students and staff clean their own floors in Japan (janitors are a rarity).
On Eiji's first day at Lake Highlands Elementary, he walked into the school with all the other kids, more excited than most at his first adventure in English-language, American academia. Well-raised and eager to make a good impression, he stopped just inside the entry, removed his shoes and looked around for the shoe lockers. As you can imagine, he didn't find any. He spent 15 minutes trudging around in his socks, bags and shoes in hand, looking diligently for shoe lockers. He went to the principal's office and asked her, "excuse me, where are the shoe boxes?" Busy and otherwise occupied, she thought he was making some kind of joke and dismissed him. Why would anyone there guess for a minute what he was talking about, even if they knew where he was coming from? The bell rang. The halls emptied. A teacher scolded him for wandering the halls. He made a second attempt to explain his dilemma. This teacher, Ms. White, didn't quite understand the situation either, but she made a cognitive leap and told him that he should wear his outdoor shoes inside, and get to class! He did, but he was a little shocked. For him, after three years of kindergarten and two and a half years of elementary in Japan, wearing outside shoes inside school felt about as weird as wearing them into the bathtub.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
ことわざ
インターナショナルスクールに通う子供の学校のバサーは今週末に
行われる。楽しみには違いないが、バサーと言えば掘り出し物を探すチャンス。子供の学校のバサーの品物は、ちょっとユニークだ。「なんでここなで使った物出すの？」「このおもちゃ、一部壊れてるよ。」などなど。
旦那(アメリカ人)曰く、「だから面白いんじゃん!」
なるほど、考え方が変われば解釈は変わるのだ。
本日のことわざ:
"One man's trash is another man's treasure"
行われる。楽しみには違いないが、バサーと言えば掘り出し物を探すチャンス。子供の学校のバサーの品物は、ちょっとユニークだ。「なんでここなで使った物出すの？」「このおもちゃ、一部壊れてるよ。」などなど。
旦那(アメリカ人)曰く、「だから面白いんじゃん!」
なるほど、考え方が変われば解釈は変わるのだ。
本日のことわざ:
"One man's trash is another man's treasure"
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Lock Up
小5の息子と行ける場所って人ホント難しい。
渋谷にあるエンターテイメント型居酒屋、ロックアップ行って来ました。同じ敷地に息子と私達夫婦の大好きな雑貨屋ビレッジバンガードも。
ロックアップ入口がすでにお化け屋敷になっていて、入るのも一苦労。
お化け屋敷を抜けると、受付。
ゴス調コスチュームのおねーさんに、手錠をかけられ、監獄へ。うちのだんなは楽しそうだったよ。
料理は単品でも事前予約のコースでもok。サラダとかパスタとか洋風メニューだった。味はまあまあ。
時間がくるとショータイム。囚人脱走がテーマで、これが超面白かったよ。
うちは小5の息子も一緒だったけど、子供喜びまくり。お化け屋敷屋敷好きならきっと楽しめる場所だね。
Of all the "theme" restaurants we've been to, Lock Up in Shibuya is by far the most memorable.
While most Japanese theme-bars/ clubs/ restaurants run high on concept but lack follow-through in either the food or the theme, I'm happy to report that this place is the exception. I'll get to the food, later. First, the atmosphere, which is the whole reason for going.
I'd heard that some of the Lock Ups like the one in Ikebukuro were rather weak, but that the Shibuya one was better. I'll verify the others in the future. It took some time and effort to find it, wandering around Shibuya, following a map devoid of any useful landmarks or orientation points; it basically indicated that the place was in the basement of a building somewhere among a bunch of buildings. Not helpful. But once we'd located it (beneath the best Village Vanguard we've seen so far), we made our way carefully down a stairwell lined with cheesy cave-type texturing and adorned with mildly scary thins. But by the time we reached the bottom, we were all genuinely reluctant to even open the door (the duty fell on me, of course).
From here I'll have to be a bit vague to avoid spoilers, something I've never had to worry about before with restaurant reviews.
Beyond the entrance we were treated to a fairly good little haunted house that had a few things that effectively put us on edge. Then we waited briefly to be seated in a very weird hall.
The staff shackled me and led us to our "cell." It was all very Count of Monte Cristo down in the dungeons. The layout was surreal and disorienting, and the decor was as good as any professional haunted house I've been through Stateside. Cut-stone-esque walls; wrought-iron bars and cages; paranoid little nooks and crannies; and a good mix of funk and old-school heavy metal echoing through the background. The best part is a periodic event - but that's all I dare say (spoilers). Furthermore, I wasn't asked to leave for repeatedly messing with the other patrons, poking my head through holes, yelling for help, frightening fellow diners.
They did a good job on the interior, but the food? Not bad. Quality-wise, on a par with the average chain-izakaya. The portions are small, but they get bonus points for presentation. About a quarter of the drinks and dishes are given the horror-treatment. Cyclopean spaghetti, eyeballs in beakers, mad scientist test-tube cocktails, rising-from-the-grave-zombie fingers, and such. With set-menus and cocktails we averaged about 3,500 yen per person. A la carte runs higher and takes longer, of course.
This is a great place to take a date, a family, visitors, or a party. You go here to have a scare, a few laughs, some photo ops, and food and libations. Kids are welcome, but any kids younger than about eight would probably be too scared to have a good time; they really make an effort to scare the hell outta you. My eleven year old loved it. There's nothing particularly grotesque or perverse, but the atmos-fear-factor is pretty high.
Best way to find it is to follow the map, head out past the 109 bldg. toward Tokyu Hands, and home-in on Village Vanguard. From there, descend. If you go, please leave a post here and let me know what you thought.
The Lock Up
渋谷にあるエンターテイメント型居酒屋、ロックアップ行って来ました。同じ敷地に息子と私達夫婦の大好きな雑貨屋ビレッジバンガードも。
ロックアップ入口がすでにお化け屋敷になっていて、入るのも一苦労。
お化け屋敷を抜けると、受付。
ゴス調コスチュームのおねーさんに、手錠をかけられ、監獄へ。うちのだんなは楽しそうだったよ。
料理は単品でも事前予約のコースでもok。サラダとかパスタとか洋風メニューだった。味はまあまあ。
時間がくるとショータイム。囚人脱走がテーマで、これが超面白かったよ。
うちは小5の息子も一緒だったけど、子供喜びまくり。お化け屋敷屋敷好きならきっと楽しめる場所だね。
Of all the "theme" restaurants we've been to, Lock Up in Shibuya is by far the most memorable.
While most Japanese theme-bars/ clubs/ restaurants run high on concept but lack follow-through in either the food or the theme, I'm happy to report that this place is the exception. I'll get to the food, later. First, the atmosphere, which is the whole reason for going.
I'd heard that some of the Lock Ups like the one in Ikebukuro were rather weak, but that the Shibuya one was better. I'll verify the others in the future. It took some time and effort to find it, wandering around Shibuya, following a map devoid of any useful landmarks or orientation points; it basically indicated that the place was in the basement of a building somewhere among a bunch of buildings. Not helpful. But once we'd located it (beneath the best Village Vanguard we've seen so far), we made our way carefully down a stairwell lined with cheesy cave-type texturing and adorned with mildly scary thins. But by the time we reached the bottom, we were all genuinely reluctant to even open the door (the duty fell on me, of course).
From here I'll have to be a bit vague to avoid spoilers, something I've never had to worry about before with restaurant reviews.
Beyond the entrance we were treated to a fairly good little haunted house that had a few things that effectively put us on edge. Then we waited briefly to be seated in a very weird hall.
The staff shackled me and led us to our "cell." It was all very Count of Monte Cristo down in the dungeons. The layout was surreal and disorienting, and the decor was as good as any professional haunted house I've been through Stateside. Cut-stone-esque walls; wrought-iron bars and cages; paranoid little nooks and crannies; and a good mix of funk and old-school heavy metal echoing through the background. The best part is a periodic event - but that's all I dare say (spoilers). Furthermore, I wasn't asked to leave for repeatedly messing with the other patrons, poking my head through holes, yelling for help, frightening fellow diners.
They did a good job on the interior, but the food? Not bad. Quality-wise, on a par with the average chain-izakaya. The portions are small, but they get bonus points for presentation. About a quarter of the drinks and dishes are given the horror-treatment. Cyclopean spaghetti, eyeballs in beakers, mad scientist test-tube cocktails, rising-from-the-grave-zombie fingers, and such. With set-menus and cocktails we averaged about 3,500 yen per person. A la carte runs higher and takes longer, of course.
This is a great place to take a date, a family, visitors, or a party. You go here to have a scare, a few laughs, some photo ops, and food and libations. Kids are welcome, but any kids younger than about eight would probably be too scared to have a good time; they really make an effort to scare the hell outta you. My eleven year old loved it. There's nothing particularly grotesque or perverse, but the atmos-fear-factor is pretty high.
Best way to find it is to follow the map, head out past the 109 bldg. toward Tokyu Hands, and home-in on Village Vanguard. From there, descend. If you go, please leave a post here and let me know what you thought.
The Lock Up
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Kanji Study
There are plenty of international and mixed-race Japanese kids who are multilingual. It's the ones with a full six years of kanji (the Chinese-based calligraphy) skill who stand apart in the job market. Even though our son goes to a private, English-language parochial school in Tokyo my wife and I still insist that he maintains a kanji skill commensurate with his age. The after-school study sessions and tutoring times are met with moans and stiff resistance by my son, Eiji, reminding me of my Jewish friends back home who were regularly herded off for Hebrew school. He knows it's important, but it's a monumental undertaking and after he gets done with his ever-increasing homework from school, the last thing he wants to do is deal with any additional study. But as of a few days ago, I was able to put away "the stick." I've started using a smart phone app for my own kanji studies which tracks progress, tests, and re-tests in several different ways. It's been brilliant for my own studies, but since I put it on Eiji's iPod he and I have started studying together. Correct answers and aced mini-tests reward you with sounds; when we study at the same time, these sounds fire our competitive spirit as one can hear the other "doing better" from across the room. The competition is furious, and moreover productive.
Rules for study:
1. lead by example
2. make it fun whenever possible
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