Cuckoo Bird

May 28 2010: Finally, I got a picture of the Cuckoo Bird! You didn't know this had been a quest of mine, did you? Ok, the above picture....NOT MINE! Found that on google images (treehugger.com). The slightly blurry picture below...mine.
Last year around this time I heard the Cuckoo for the first time. Out on a walk, I heard the familiar call of someones clock. Well, I thought it was a clock....I didn't know the Cuckoo was still in existence.

But when I realized the sound was following me, I thought "either that is one LOUD clock, or there must be an actual bird". Then, every morning, there would be more and more calls. All day long the calls go, intermittently. Eventually, the bird continues on its migration to wherever. But, all last year, and as soon as I started hearing it this year, I've been trying to spot one. Finally, this morning there was one out on the electric pole. They are very skittish, so couldn't get to close, and had to use my zoom lens. You might have to turn the volume up on the video...

I do love laying in bed and hearing the wake up call! (though sometimes when the sun comes up it is too early....the sun rises at around 4 am)

Rice Planting

May 23 2010: Yippee! Spring is here! I know this for sure, as rice planting got underway this past week. My friend Carol has a rice field 20 feet from her house. On Monday was the start of the prep work for this field.

A little further down the road (on what Andi refers to as "Quiet Road") there are a number of Rice paddies. Some were flooded early in the week. Once flooded, then they are....well, I don't know what you call putting your tractor in the muck, plowing, I guess. The fellow in the tractor was the landowners son. The landowner is quiet the fellow. I've seen him in passing before. I'll give a traditional Japanese greeting and he responds with a semi toothless grin and a big "HOWDY!" I think it is the only English word he knows.

(Just a note, my walking buddy Carol, speaks Japanese...this is how I sound so knowledgeable this week. I nodded my head a lot. In reality, I can understand a tad bit now, just can't speak all that well)

The tractor below is another option used in the plowing of the fields. The paddle wheel attachments seem to make it ideal, as I know I've seen this tractor in the carrot fields as well.

Water running in the trenches. A sure sign that planting is on the way.

There were lots of foggy mornings this past week. Just happened to catch the reflections on this walk.

Carol called me Friday morning to tell me to hurry over after the school bus had come. She knows the landowners daughter (I think that's the relation) so felt comfortable asking if we could take pictures. That's the landowners son (not the same one as above, this is a different field) on the planting tractor.

My friend Jenell has said the tractor reminds her of something from out of a Dr. Seuss book. I think it could be. The rice plantings slide off the back through a mechanism (see video below) He carries extras on the shelves up by the handlebars to reload for the trip back across the field. Really it looks like a modified ATV, with very narrow tires and it just putters right along.

Note the shelves are now empty...as he reloaded for the way back.

The back end of the tractor.


Below: on the left side of the picture, that green is the rice in flats getting ready to be transferred to the tractor. They use a giant tray (the length of the flat, to lift the seedlings and slide them on to the tractor slides.

Below: We think he was the over-seer. He was of no relation to the landowner or the son, but seemed to be in charge. He would rake smooth the area the tractor had driven in on it's reload trip. Keeping it ready to be planted on the final lap.

Below: The landowners wife. Shane and I have often found that it is the women who are out doing the hard labor. In the winter it is often the women out shoveling the driveways. It is often women who are out in the fields doing the weeding and upkeep of the crops.

Here she is individually planting any rice seedlings that had been dropped on the ground during the transfer process. Also making sure the rows come out even. Nothing wasted....each one that was dropped was tenderly planted.

Note that she is covered from head to toe. Some of this is to prevent bugs. But the women traditionally dress very well covered. This is to keep the skin as white as possible. It is not often that you see a Japanese woman with tan skin. They feel porcelain skin is the ideal look. So even if you are a hardworking woman...you take care of your skin. I wonder if they have lower skin cancer rates here?

Below: The landowner. The over-seer said that he used to work quiet hard, but now has a bad back. Given how much hard work they do in their fields, it is easy to see why.

On my errands today there was nothing but flurries of activities around various rice paddies as the planting was finished up. Now to stay on my toes and catch the harvest.

Now that things are green, I need to venture out on other walks and bike rides. Of course the key to that is if they weather could stay sunny, and the wind quit blowing for just a little while.

Be patient with the video, it starts a little blurry, but clears up and you can see the little mechanisms that plant each individual seedling.

May 9-16 2010

May 16 2010- Ok, I know I missed another week. But you must understand....nothing has been happening. Andi and Shane made Mother's Day breakfast (I know a week ago) and we did a few walks. Other than that life has been very mundane. The highlights have been rain, rain, and oh some more rain. In between all that good fun has been dental visits. (At this point I am getting to know the dental staff quiet well, between Andi and I.)
Last week a walk at twilight. Another nice house....wasn't tell afterwards I realized the Honda sign is their nightlight. I don't know if the sign goes out at some point in the night, but gee, I guess you could save on electricity!
Below: A budding cherry tree. I am still playing with the new camera. Have some work to do on getting a decent night shot. So many buttons....

Mothers Day (May 9) we went down to the beach. One of my favorite places to go. Just love watching the water.....watching, not being in it (creepy things are in there....well not right now, it is down right cold water). Caught the incoming JAL flight as we got there.

Oh, the water looks warm....it's not. Our toes got caught while walking. Andi and I had our flip flops on, our toes were bright red by the time we got out of the surf. So COLD! It was actually painful. For those folks who survive cold water accidents, my hats off to you...I can't even begin to imagine full submersion in water this cold.

Away from the protective cove of the swimming beach the surf was quiet rough.


Heavy cloud cover; a sign of the week to come.

Above: Did I mention that beautiful blue water is down right cold! My toes still hurt. That's ok, though it's still great to look at.

Below: Some little birds looking for whatever you get out of sand. Actually the beach was littered with hundreds of clam shells from the seagulls this winter.

There's only so many pictures one can take at the beach. I know should have gotten some of Andi and Shane, they were there after all. But the wind was blowing, all the pictures of Andi you can't see her face through the hair. I don't know what Shane was doing, dutifully looking for beach treasures with me....none to be found on this day.

Below: Fishing trawler on the way back to the docks.

Well, during all that rain, the farmers managed to prep the fields for rice planting. Some fields have been flooded, but not planted yet. My goal is to get good pictures of the planting. My walking buddy Carol speaks Japanese....I have told her that on morning walks she can engage in conversation, while I take photos....and occasionally I might be able to say a word. My skills are still limited to one word sentences (if you can call them that) with lots of gesturing.

We will see what happens.

The week could be slow again...I must clean my house and prepare for visitors.

Hirosaki Castle April 29 2010

April 29 2010: Actually, the above photo was taken earlier in the week. Nice weather prompted us out for an evening walk. Shane and Andi walked, I strolled along getting distracted by every little thing. The glimmery things in the field are rows of mini greenhouses. Crops have been planted, but this being the North, there is always a chance for heavy frost or snow. Things are covered nicely to protect them. The moon was quiet full, but looks good enough to good.

Oh, there's the snow. No, we are on our way to Hirosaki Castle (we did this on the 29th), located in, oddly enough, Hirosaki. We opted to take the mountain/volcano passes instead of the toll road. One of our goals is to never have to pay a toll while in Japan. Probably added a half hour to our journey, but oh well. 3 hours is 3 hours.

We had to go over the Hokkado Mountains Range. Which, if you have a map of Japan, we went on Route 103. If I understand my map we went of Mt. Ishikurayama. We probably had a peek at Mt. Odake, which is the tallest, but it was a tad foggy/cloudy and didn't see it. There was snow however.

The first picture (above this one) I thought, "oh how nice, a little left over snow".

Then we turned a few hairpins, and got this above. We thought that was impressive. It was taller than the truck.

A bend or two later and it was WELL above the truck. About 10 feet high! Talk about a wall of snow. Did I mention there were a lot of hairpin turns? If you look in the picture above you can make out a mirror on an orange pole. These are quiet handy to see what is on the other side of the turn.....better prepare you for the large tour bus coming down the other way! There were a lot of tour buses, and a lot of turns.

Oh, then from the backseat is "Mom, I don't feel so good....." Poor child. I too suffer from backseat car sickness....no way was I going to give up my front seat! Got her repositioned over to the middle so that she could see out the front window, rolled down her back window, and a supply of hard candy, and garbage bags and good to go. No, she didn't need the garbage bags, which is good, there really wasn't anyplace to pull over.

Above: A view of some mountain peak, I think. At the peak of our travels, none of us thought to write down the elevation. After doing some research....Mt Odake, which is right in the same area is 1585 m, and is the tallest. So, I'm assuming we were a little below that, though Andi would probably say we were as high as the airplanes. 1585 m is equivalent to 5200 feet.

Below: Finally a scenic turnout. Though it was raining/snowing at this point...so didn't stop long for ooohhhh's and aaahhhhh's. I was the only one to get out. And, no mom, I did not go running around and trigger an asthma attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakk%C5%8Dda_Mountains

At long last we arrived at our destination. And we actually did make it to the intended sightseeing object this time. Hirosaki has quite the variety of architecture. This is the bank building on our way to the castle. In real life it looked a little more green. But it was a cloudy day....

Lots more traffic so we know we are headed in the right direction. By this point we had already found a place to park the car and walk a few blocks up. According to my "let's be a tourist" information it would get more crowded the closer to the castle we got. The walk wasn't bad at all, except for the fact that we all REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. (never mind on our way back to the car I realized we walked right past a restroom facility) But we made it to the visitor center and all the wonderful modern convinces they had to offer. Being a visitor center, we of course had to go to the museum as well, before going out to the castle.

Really, I have no idea what these are, other than very interesting and fun to look at.

Andi loved the little dolls below the best.

I liked the mini masks.

Above: A Neputa Float. This is a giant papermache structure that they use at parades.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/history/traditionalevents/a40_fes_nebuta.html

It is really tall. Andi has seen them in pictures before, and some smaller ones, but this is the biggest by far.

All sides of the float are decorated. At this point Shane pointed out a character on the float that we hadn't seen before....and as we went through the day, we saw more of it. Look closely below the lady, in the border is a red swastika. (very small, it's there you'll see it)

Below: A picture of the float taken from above.

Also from above, just a different angle.

All right, enough of the museum. On to the Castle.

The 29th is generally a holiday in Japan. Showa no Hi (that's not 'hi', it's 'he'), the Emperor's birthday from the Showa Period. Apparently he had a love for nature and greenery so was renamed to Midori no Hi (Green Day), and the holiday was moved to May 4 a couple of years ago. My calender still marks the 29th of April as the holiday, and it seems to be an early start to what the Japanese call "Golden Week" the following week. (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2282.html) (my this quiet the education this week isn't it?)

Anyway, the day had been rainy and cloudy, but the rain had stopped by the time we arrived. Crowds were at a minimum (just the way I love it). A few vendors were out with the all important food.

Below: Shane and Andi. You know, you get one to smile right and the other goofs off....oh well, love it! At least she isn't green and queasy anymore.

Below: One of the reflecting pools. It was a nice surprise to see this many cherry blossoms out. We weren't expecting any, as they hadn't started here in Misawa yet. But they were well on their way...an extra bonus, blossoms, and rain holding off!

The castle gate.

I had to do a double take when I looked at the below picture. I didn't remember her dressing up at any point....ah, a wood cutout....fit her perfectly!

Trying to get over this bridge was a hastle. This is the first good view of the castle (well, no, of course you don't see it, I was busy) Getting over the bridge was an obstacle course of everybody taking pictures, so I did what came naturally, and took pictures of them.

Below: The castle. From down here it looks like it could be big.....

And maybe from here. But you know, it's really not that big. Of course it is smaller than the original....ready, here comes another link http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3700.html

(Thank goodness I'm not talking, my mouth would be quiet dry by now, and thank goodness for links, or my fingers would be tired)

Below: At the top of the castle was this fellow. I don't know why he didn't land properly.

We took a VERY rushed tour of the inside. (lots of people, and boy did they keep that line MOVING). No flash photography inside, so pics not as good...but that looks like a very sharp sword!

Ahhh....here it is again, the swastika. We also saw it in the formal garden and various other places. Now you are going to get a history lesson....provided, of course, by a link...

http://history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm

Didn't know all that did you??? I'll have to say I learned a lot this week.

Below: "oh look, the sandwich game!" That's what Andi calls the game Othello (because it looks like Oreo cookies.) Anyway, a little history (yee gads another link?!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversi the article leads to it being introduced in England....I don't know how old this board was...perhaps just from the 1900's. Some things get lost in translation.

For the house builders in the family, a picture of the inside structure work of the castle.

I just like the look. I think that must be what I look like some mornings getting out of bed.

A view from the third floor.

A layout of what it would have looked like many moons ago.

Below: A pretty bridge.

Below: A view of Mt. Takadateyama (I think....that's the best I can figure from my map, there are several in the area though, I could be completely wrong)

Above: There was a little band playing in the park....at the bottom of the blog is a brief snippet of their music.

Above: The castle.

Below: I noticed lots of odd foot apparel today. Only got one good photo....really I need to pay more attention. For the life of me I just can't figure out why you would want to wear 2 inch heels in the mud and rain and lots of walking. Though these weren't spikes....at least they were wedges.

Over in the formal gardens. I think this was by far our favorite place. NO people, and Andi had a great time roaming about by herself (out of sight of her parents) looking for fairies and other magical creatures. Below is an ivy elephant.

Andi, below, off on her own.

At long last we decided it was time to head back. We trekked our way back to the car, and passed this bar (below). We didn't go in. Would've like to, but still had some mountains to get back over, and it was a school night.

At one of the intersections, while waiting for the light, this fellow rode up on his bike. Thank goodness my camera is equipped with a movable viewing lens...that way I wasn't to obvious about taking the picture.

Below: Back into the mountains we headed. At last light came across this large waterfall. No traffic behind us, so were able to do a "Japanese stop" (the process of just stopping on the road, no matter where you are to talk on the phone, look at a map, or whatever other business you have to attend to....still getting used to that)

That concludes this weeks journey. It occured to me last night as I was loading pictures....in another era, not long ago, you would have to wait 'til we came home and subject you to hours of slides.....ah the good ol' days. Though now you can do it all at your leisure and take breaks when you want.

oh, and incase you were wondering.....it was just a one "discussion" trip....no arguements, and as usual it was about what road we could possibly be on, and "how did we do that?"