I got paid last Friday! I’m starting to understand the travails inherent to a once-a-month salary; the worst one is that the minute you get your paycheck, all you want to do is spend it since you’ve been holding back for the past thirty days. And this being Japan, there’s always plenty of retail therapy waiting to be indulged in, too… some of it endorsed by higher powers, as a matter of fact.

Above is the face of Ebisu, God of Commerce, whom I believe I introduced in this entry about kagura. There is a tiny but well-loved Ebisu shrine tucked in behind the downtown Mitsukoshi Department Store, and apparently when the lucky fisherman’s festival day rolls around, the entire shopping district uses it as an excuse to go on sale. (There’s no Thanksgiving here in Japan, so no Thanksgiving sales, but I find the parallel amusing.) Even the Yamamotos texted me to say I should go and have a look, since “Ebisukou” or just “Ebisu Matsuri” is a much-looked-forward-to seasonal event here in Hiroshima. Well, you don’t have to tell me twice to go to a matsuri, after all…

Ducking in through the main Nagarekawa alleyway and starting around the side of Mitsukoshi, you can already start to see light pouring out of the covered shopping arcades, and hear the boisterous crowds. Not to mention smell the food: I think there were more food stalls than I’ve ever seen in one place before, and immediately upon turning the corner we were enveloped in the mouthwatering scents of fresh manju (think the aroma of sweet pancake batter volatilizing off the griddle) and various meats on a stick (broiled chicken and barbequed steak). Turning onto the main route, you can see that red lanterns and decorations are hung everywhere, and people holding good luck charms from the shrine wind in and out among booths featuring games of chance and sidewalk sale goods.

The shrine charms are specially decorated bamboo rakes, which are supposed to help you “rake in the dough” if you own a store. The priests also bless the crowds who line up in front of the shrine entrance, wishing upon them the usual health, wealth, and purification. Ebisu’s a popular guy, as I’ve noted, so it’s no wonder the merchants from the surrounding areas pack in to this festival. A couple of days before I went to a delicious yakitori bar down in Tokaichi, and they had already made sure to send someone over to Ebisukou to fetch a rake for the izakaya. Not that Nobushi needed it – the food was great and the customers weren’t lacking – but it’s a good tradition, as I was informed by my friends.

Did I mention there was food? A lot of it? The food stalls seemed to go in an unbroken wall from Nagarekawa, though Hachobori, and down into the Hondori intersection, the space of about _ city blocks – not to mention snaking off down some other side streets as well. I saw everything from typical festival fare (like taiyaki, yakisoba, kara-age and potato fries) to the downright curious (Tokyo croquette? French dogs? Tacos filled with sausages?!) on offer. I picked up some of those aromatic manju batter balls and the most meltingly tender grilled beef on a stick I’ve ever had; Ashley and Megan Little (a new Megan from another university) tried out the “French” dogs. Turns out they were corndogs… hmm. That’s kind of a first for Japan…

The Christmas lights in Hiroshima have been up since about the day after Halloween, but it’s finally starting to feel appropriate. The weather’s turned cold, and there’s holiday spirit creeping up everywhere. People are already talking about New Years’ plans; I can’t wait to see Oshogatsu fun, since it’s probably the biggest holiday in the country and I’ve been invited to come over and participate at someone’s house. On Monday I got to see some fall leaves before they’re all done, too – stay tuned for the next post, tentatively entitled “Mitaki-dera and Alexis’ Slightly Ill-Conceived Plan to Climb Soko-yama”!

Í gær fórum við Björk ásamt Joani, vinkonu minni úr skólanum, að þvælast um borgina. Eftir að við Joani sóttum einkunnirnar okkar (mér gekk ágætlega) byrjuðum við á að fá okkur svakalega borgara á Village Vanguard Diner hérna í Asagaya og ákváðum svo að fara til Shinjuku í ævintýraleit. Við vorum reyndar soldið á báðum áttum hvort við ættum að fara enn einu sinni til Shinjuku, endum eiginlega alltaf þar.

Við sáum þó alls ekki eftir því, það reyndist vera svaka hátíð í einu hofinu þar (og reyndar líklega í flestum hofum landsins) sem er kölluð shichi-go-san. Það myndi þýðast sem sjö-fimm-þrír hátíðin en hún er haldin til heiðurs börnum í þeim aldursflokkum. Við sáum reyndar ekki mikið af börnum á þeim aldri en það var aftur á móti aragrúi af fólki og endalaust af matarbásum.

Básarnir seldu allskonar hefðbundinn japanskan götumat, aðalega ýmsa hluti grillaða eða djúpsteikta á priki, og bjór. Joani fann sér hinsvegar bás sem seldi kóreskar pönnusteiktar núðlur, ég er ekki alveg viss en mig minnir að það hafi heitið Sjabutsja eða eitthvað svoleiðis, þær voru víst ansi góðar.

Við Björk ákváðum hinsvegar að fá okkur okonomiyaki, pönnusteikt japanskt millistig milli pizzu og omelettu fyrir þá sem ekki þekkja til, sem okkur fannst svaka girnilegt. Stráknum sem var að elda það fannst rosa gaman að hafa útlendinga í röðinni og spjallaði soldið við okkur meðan við tókum myndir. Hún var svakalega góð og mjög matarmikil.

Góður dagur að öllu leiti.

Hola a todos! Bueno les cuento un poquito como fue mi día el día del Matsuri (día esperado por casi 2 meses de preparación).

El día comenzó tranquilo, hicimos el ensayo final al mediodía y luego ya sólo quedaba esperar la noche. Regresé a casa y apenas comí creo… el apuro, la emoción y todo mezclado siempre me pone algo ansiosa. Estuve lista desde antes de las 5, hora en la que planeaba salir de casa. Finalmente creo que mis amigas y yo salimos un poco fuera de hora y llegamos al Estadio como a las 6pm. Lo primero que notamos fue un montón de gente haciendo cola y dijimos: “Oh no! Nos tardaremos años en entrar!!!” –por mi parte yo podía ingresar de manera libre, pero como estaba yendo con unos amigos lo correcto es estar con ellos y atenderlos como se debe, así que no pude escaparme y entrar por mi cuenta–. En ese momento de incertidumbre pensé “¿Por qué no compré antes entradas para todos?”. Pensamos que al menos era una ventaja que estuviésemos yendo en carro, sólo que íbamos rezando para encontrar estacionamiento (jaja) pero felizmente sí encontramos. La parte chistosa fue que todas íbamos felices pensando que como pagamos 5 soles entonces… “yeah! Nos salió más barato wuuju!!!” y andábamos felices caminando como lombrices hasta que, casi llegando a la puerta, nos preguntaron “¿sus pases?” y todos “oh nooo!” y tuvimos que pagar a parte nuestra entrada individual. Fue demasiado gracioso, tendrían que haber estado ahí para ver nuestras caras de pucheritos…

Luego de dar un paseíto por aquí y por allá entre las comidas y cosas que vendían me di cuenta que, a pesar de que he ido al AELU miles de veces, como este año cambiaron todo de sitio, no sabía exactamente a dónde ir ni dónde estaba. Para variar, estaba media desesperada buscando a Mabi –que, dicho sea de paso para mi mala suerte no la llegué a ver en su performance con A13–, y al resto del grupo que había llegado en otro auto. Finalmente, luego de dar mil vueltas, nos vimos todos cerca del reloj central. Ahí me vi con otros amigos (que de repente conozcan) y luego decidimos ir por algo de comer ya que por el lado del concierto juvenil (Seinen no Matsuri) estaba todo lleno y no encontrábamos un sitio decente –justo yo venía del sitio de las comidas y me tuve que dar el vueltón de nuevo… buuuu–.

Como los chicos iban a llegar luego, nos dedicamos a comer y buscar un sitio para sentarnos. Había tantos puestos de comida que no sabía en cual caer. Al mismo tiempo, no podía tardarme mucho en escoger porque el grupo esperaba una respuesta de recomendación por mi parte así que sin pensar mucho decidimos comprar en el que parecía tener mayor movilidad (porque según todos, como la comida está rotando más rápido, es más fresca… será realmente así?). La verdad es que comprara donde comprara la comida estaba rica e íbamos a comer bien de todas formas. Luego se unieron al grupo MÁS amigos y, sin darnos cuenta, nos habíamos convertido en un grupo internacional: éramos todos peruanos pero de distintas razas (es decir literalmente “todas las sangres” o sea… bien Peruanos!! Jaja). Nos reímos bastante pues éramos coreanos, japoneses, taiwaneses y latinos. Nuestro primer punto en contra es que estuvimos todo el tiempo parados porque no había ni sillas ni mesas disponibles y, por la forma en que estaba todo dispuesto, tampoco había facilidad para sentarse en el pasto. De todos modos la hora se pasó rapidísimo y nos apuramos en buscar asiento en otro lado.

Nuestra siguiente parada fue el pasto libre donde estaban los juegos inflables de los niños. En realidad nunca se nos hubiese ocurrido entrar ahí pero como vimos que había otras personas sentadas y, tomando en cuenta que estábamos agotados de seguir parados, nos dimos el gusto Para esto, Mabi y yo ya estábamos pendientes de la llamada de los Fuku Bros para ver cuándo, dónde y cómo nos encontraríamos. No pasó mucho tiempo hasta que sonó el celular y al toque nos tuvimos que despedir: ya eran casi las 8:20pm y teníamos que ir alistándonos. Los demás amigos fueron aprovechando de buscar sitio en las tribunas para ver el Show Central de los Mikoshi (Templos Andantes) y ver la parte artística.

Después de ese momento, todo voló. Nos alistamos al toque (nos tomó muchísimo menos tiempo que el año pasado) y en un 2 x 3 estábamos listos. Corrimos de nuevo al AELU para estar con tiempo. No sabíamos cuánto faltaba para el número, si es que estábamos atrasados o con buen tiempo: sólo volamos. Fue un alivio saber que el programa se había atrasado un poco y que estábamos bien, al menos eso sirvió de descanso emocional jajaja!

La sala de espera estaba cerca al baño y era un poco cerrada, había mucha gente y el aire estaba caliente (ver: foto derecha). Habremos estado ahí unos 20 minutos y salimos para el escenario. A Eric sólo lo pudimos ver de lejos porque cuando le tocó cantar aún estábamos fuera del escenario con Onaga Daiko. Luego estuvimos esperando un poco debajo del escenario, viendo a Okinawa Champuru, que era la última banda antes de nosotros: “Ya casi ya casi”, pensábamos. Como quien se divierte y relaja, nos pusimos a cantar las canciones que estaban tocando nuestros amigos de Okinawa Champuru y nos tomamos las últimas fotos previas al performance. Salir en la parte central del matsuri es emocionante porque es una zona apto paro todo público, eso me gusta, va mucho con el estilo del grupo también. De hecho, la parte difícil es esperar la noche, pero créanme que vale mucho la pena. También nos acompañaron unos amigos a quienes le encargamos unos tubos que botan papel (jaja lo siento no sé cómo se llaman pero lo que hacen es como un Hanabi de papel). Una última foto y ya estábamos listos para subir. Justo en ese momento nos encontramos con los chicos de Estación Otaku TV a quienes les mandamos un saludo a su camarita y un fuerte abrazo.

Lo que ocurrió a continuación fue un silencio emocional y mental en mi cabeza y corazón. Respiré profundo, le di un abrazo a mis 3 talentosos compañeros y subí al escenario. De este modo pasaron nuevamente los 20 minutos más cortos de mi vida, en los que me divertí, canté, bailé, reí y fui feliz.

Akinee es para mí un sitio en el que puedo expresarme sin miedo porque tengo grandes compañeros, que para mí son como hermanos. Es un espacio en donde puedo hacer cosas distintas, con las que me divierto y divierto a los demás. Pero sobre todo, es siempre un espacio en que me siento feliz de estar. Nosotros –que siempre nos habíamos dedicado a cantar como solistas en la colectividad nikkei– creamos el grupo prácticamente por una idea loca que teníamos dando vueltas en la cabeza (cantar en el matsuri) y puedo dar fe de que no pensábamos llegar tan lejos con la idea, pero estamos muy orgullosos de todo lo que hemos logrado en 1 año. La mejor parte es que todos esos logros no son sólo de nosotros, esos momentos existen gracias a Uds. porque siempre están ahí haciéndonos sonreír con cada palabra, cada detalle. Al mismo tiempo, gracias por dejarnos darles un momento de alegría en una canción, es nuestra forma de devolverles aquella mágica sonrisa que nos han regalado. Ha sido sólo 1 año, pero es un año lleno de magia y experiencia que jamás olvidaremos. Este domingo es exactamente el cumpleaños de Akinee y les aseguro que pensaré en todos ustedes: 本当に ありがとうございます！ (¡Muchas Gracias!)

La semana pasada fue una semana para preocuparse, deprimirse y amanecerse.

Preocuparse porque una de la chicas del lugar donde trabajo renunció. Y eso qué diablos debería importarme, ¿verdad? a fin de cuentas es una situación muy ajena a mí. Eso pensé. Hasta que la jefa pensó en mí como el f*ckin’ potencial reemplazo gracias a las sugerencias de mis muy consideradas compañeras de trabajo ε-(；-ω-｀A) ﾌｩ….

No debería quejarme mucho por el trabajo que tengo. Trabajo un día menos de lo usualmente aceptado y gano igual que las que trabajan más días que yo.

Sin embargo no por ello voy a aceptar ser quien tenga que recibir los horarios horribles que sobren y que nadie quiere tomar -_-.

El turno de los sábados en la noche quedó sin alguien a cargo, todas en el trabajo desde luego huyeron de la imposición ofrecimento. Precisamente porque yo no estoy todos los días en la oficina es que fuí una de las últimas en enterarme y en negarse *sigh*. Cuando llegué el martes a la oficina ya habían tomado por un hecho un “sí” de mi parte ;_; y cambiaron uno de mis turnos.

Estaba al borde de la depresión ｬﾀﾞ((o(；□；`)o))ｬﾀﾞ. Pese a que ya todo estaba decidido no podía realmente asimilar el trabajar los sábados en la noche cuando tengo a alguien que está esperando mi llegada a casa. No era precisamente por mí que me afectaba toda la situación sino por Sonny. Sabía que decirle que no llegaría a casa el sábado lo iba a deprimir y por ello decidí no contarle nada de lo que estaba pasando en mi trabajo.

Amanecerse, pues adicionalmente una amiga me pidió que le ayudara a traducir unos textos, y no me pude negar porque le debía un favor *sigh* así que toda la semana estuve hasta muy tarde friendome los ojos frente al monitor sin poder concentrarme al 100% en el documento, no mientras tenía en mente que la próxima semana iba a trabajar con un nuevo horario.

Ya que en el trabajo no había aparentemente una muestra de misericordia hacia mí ORZ… Decidí buscar candidatos por mi cuenta, ya que lo único que podía devolver las cosas a su normalidad era encontrar alguien interesado en sufrir trabajar en ese horario. Publiqué anuncios gratuitos en Internet y como no había ninguna respuesta de la desesperación consideré hasta pagar anuncios en diarios y otros medios xD. Algunos amigos trataron de ayudarme a buscar personas y cuando parecía que por fin encontraba a alguien que aceptaría, se desanimaba.

La semana estaba acabándose al igual que mis esperanzas. Para el día sábado ya estaba completamente resignada. Aún no le había dicho nada a Sonny porque lo último que quería es ver su cara de velorio.

Ese mismo día, recibo una llamada de la jefa.

Jefa: *en un tono animoso* ¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo va todo? ^^

Yo: (Supuestamente) Bien (_　_|||)

 Jefa: Te cuento que ya encontramos un reemplazo.

Yo: Σ(゜ロ゜;)!! *trata de contener la emoción* Ya veo…

Jefa: Va a empezar a trabajar a partir de la próxima semana así que no tendrás que tomar ese turno.

Yo: Entiendo *en éxtasis* +.ｄ(･∀・*)♪ﾟ+.ﾟ

Jefa: No dije nada hasta ahora porque aún no era seguro que aceptara pero ya lo comprometí así que no hay forma de que se niegue.

Yo: Claro…（*´▽`*)

Jefa: Bueno, eso es todo. Avísale a las demás chicas ya que todavía no se los he comunicado.

Yo: Desde luego (*･ω･)(｡｡*)ぅん

Jefa: Estamos en contacto, bye~.

Yo: Bye~ またね〜〜♪(*^-^)ﾉ~~

*Jefa cuelga*

Terminada la llamada… lo primero que hice fue respirar (con tranquilidad), sonreir y acto seguido llamar a Sonny para desahogar y contarle sobre mi pesadilla de una semana.

Ya puedo estar en paz (｡_∀_｡)ｷｬﾊ♡.

[Matsuri - AELU]

Lo mismo de todos lo años sólo que más grande y con más otakus.

Fuí por dos motivos: Comer y ver los fuegos artificiales.

Cuando llegué con Sonny había demasiada gente, no se podía si quiera aproximarse a los stands de comida por lo atiborrado de gente que estaban.

A Sonny le incomodó por el cambio drástico del panorama. Para él el matsuri debía ser como el que vivió hace 15 años: Gente nikkei en su mayoría, ambiente tranquilo, abuelos bebiendo sake y no cerveza Cuzqueña (!), sin conciertos de música de j-pop o de anime, ni gente haciendo cosplay o algo parecido*lol*

Sonny: *mira a una chica que pasa por su costado* Por favor, dime que lleva algo debajo del polo.

Yo: Parece que no ·_·

Sonny: Dios…

Yo: *trata de mirar mejor* Sí, tiene un short, pero muy pequeño *gotas*

Por ahí escuché comentarios de varias obaasan diciendo que era lamentable que ya no se vean jóvenes nikkei cargando el mikoshi.

Sonny y yo estabamos dispuestos a quedarnos hasta la presentación de Eizah para ver a mi amiga Aki pero eso fue imposible dado que el coliseo estaba lleno de gente y nosotros muy cansados.

No fuimos para antes del hanabi, lástima que los fuegos artificiales no se ven desde nuestra casa aunque él me aseguró que desde la de sus papás es bastante visible o_o.

[ Situaciones anti estrés acontecidas a lo largo de los últimos dos meses :3 ]

- Ir al concierto de Depeche Mode con mis dos hermanos y reconocer que estamos todos viejos.

- Ir al concierto de Pet Shop Boys y bailar (como todos los que estaban presentes) sin poder evitarlo.

- Mudarme a un departamente propio con Sonny.

- Concluir el nivel 7 básico de japonés

- Empezar el nivel 8 básico de japonés *smirks* 

- Cena en Edo con Sonny y su papá.

- Almuerzo en casa de la familia de Sonny.

- Ir hasta el Barrio Chino a comprar exclusivamente té verde y jabones de lychee.

- Comprar cosas para el departamento con Sonny.

- Ir a McDonald’s con Sonny a comprar Cajitas Feliz en la madrugada para coleccionar los peluches que vienen de regalo :3

- Comprar cosas kawaii por el simple hecho de que me hacen sonreir.

- Almorzar con Lela, Astrid y Eliana en Casa de Comida China para celebrar la inuaguración de Asianik.

I´ve made this video as a selection of some of my favorite photos taken during my first year living in Japan . Most of the photos were taken with canon eos 5d and ricoh grd3.
A very similar edition of this video will be shown at ” Sestao Photo 2010 ” as a part of the activities programmed on these photographic journeys.

I hope you like it !

Aquí la presentación en el Matsuri! ¿conocían las canciones? Seguro algunas más que otras, pero todas son muy buenas, altamente recomendables!!!

Mix de canciones del Matsuri AELU 2009:
- Doushite kimi wo suki ni natte shimattandarou (Tohoshinki)
- Real Voice (ayaka)
- Eisa (Jero)
- Hero’s comeback (Nobodyknows+)
- Jonkara Onna Bushi (Nagayama Yoko)
- Only human (K)
- One night carnival (Kishidan)
- Chu-lip (Otsuka Ai)
- Wish (Arashi)
- Niji (KOBUKURO)

Créditos: Mitsuki920

Parte 1:

Parte 2:

I’ve actually been lying fairly low the last couple of weeks, due to lack of expendable funds – but this past Wednesday I got a text message from the Yamamotos, a kind older couple that I met at Osako-san’s October BBQ party. The last time we spoke in person, we got onto the topic of cooking, and I mentioned that I wanted to learn how to make tempura at home – mine never seems to turn out right, even though it appears such a straightforward process. Ms. Yamamoto offered to teach me, but up until recently they were actually out of town visiting one of their daughters (turns out the reason was she fell down the stairs in her house, and had to get a neckbrace… scary. She’s okay though.) This text said they were back, and invited me to come to their house on Saturday.

During the negotiations on when and where to meet, I admitted I really had nothing at all planned for the weekend and so could go wherever, whenever. This reminded Fumiko-san that the community center near their house was having a neighborhood matsuri, so we could have lunch there, and then explore a shrine just up the hill. Festivals and shrines always being an easy sell for me, I happily agreed, and we met at noon to drive into Fuchu Town. Japanese Wiki entry here.

The matsuri was very small and homey, held in the center of an apartment complex’s courtyard around the corner from the community center. There were a lot of happy kids running around playing with balloon animals, and four or five small food stalls selling hand-made treats: we started out with the udon line being manned by about a dozen obaasans, and then picked up some takoyaki and dango mid-meal. The dango were really good, and of a type I’d never had before: the fresh, sticky skewered rice balls were coated in a sweet soybean flour called kinako. Like Wiki mentions, it kind of tasted like peanut butter. The Yamamotos were impressed with my taste and knowledge about Japanese food (though that’s a typical compliment for foreigners, admittedly) and we chatted about my upbringing in an internationally-minded house in Alaska.

The festival also featured a flea market, so we waited in line for the next opening to see what we could pick up. It was actually pretty hard to scramble through the jostling obaasans all looking for a deal, but I got a cute Hello Kitty plate for 10 yen since I’ve been needing another at the apartment. When we came out, though, I was astonished to see an authentic kamishibai storyteller performing in front of the steps outside; she even had the traditional bike, with the small wooden “stage” box mounted on it to hold and display the pictures. As she narrated and provided the voices for the characters, she pulled the panels out one at a time and rotated them into a separate compartment built into the box. The illustrations for her tale were lovely, they looked like original oil paintings or maybe pastels, and mostly featured Starry Night-style forest-scapes. I have no idea what story it was (it didn’t look like one of the traditional tales – caught the title just for a second and it was ’something something チの木’) but I was thrilled just to get to see her. I thought that performance art had died out entirely in the 60s.

Next was Take Jinja across the street. It’s Shichi-Go-San time right now, and we saw a couple of cute kids hauling “thousand year candy” and being taken for their shrine visit by kimono- and suit-clad adults. There were also a couple of priests performing rites for the children inside the main honden building, which we walked all the way around. Seems like it might be a popular or provident shrine for kids, since there was also a monument on the grounds dedicated to the practice of taking a picture every year to see how much you’ve grown: a big stone set in the ground, with a graduated line on it for one to put their back against.

Inside of the community center itself, I was delighted to find a fantastic and well-hidden museum dedicated to the nature and history of the area. The first floor has displays of stuffed local wildlife, and explanations of the ecology in the nearby forest; but upstairs is the real treasure, a whole floor of antique instruments and displays explaining many aspects of traditional Japanese country lifestyle. There’s even a bit of signage in English! The insides of two old farmhouses have been transplanted into the museum, along with cooking implements, furniture, and other perfectly preserved relics. (I’m definitely going back with a camera, so I’ll go into more detail in a future entry – Fuchu Machi itself has many more shrines and locations to offer, so on the way out I grabbed a couple of maps so I can come back and do some detailed exploration.)

Also, Mikumarikyo Gorge, a large park and collection of hiking trails, is only a little ways up the road – we went and walked around the very bottom part of the park for a few minutes, and it’s gorgeous, full of waterfalls and tall trees. I think I’ll be happy to make a day or two of Fuchu and walking the mountain in the near future.

The Yamamotos’ house is actually up the side of a mountain, five minutes away from the entrance to Mikumarikyo, and they have a ridiculously stunning view of Hiroshima City and the bay beyond. You can see all the way out to Miyajima and Iwakuni from their front porch. Hopefully Mr. Yamamoto will be able to send me some pictures he took of the sunset soon, though I will have to go back and try for a nighttime panorama too, because I was just blown away.

The Yamamotos are so easy to talk to, and it’s great practice for my Japanese even if we sometimes have to resort to the dictionary (A-san got really good at using it on-demand, so Fumiko-san put him in charge of vocabulary checks while we were doing our cooking lesson.) I really had such a fantastic time. Of course, we talked about food a lot! So here’s some wisdom I gleaned during our time.

~ Although it’s possible to make tempura 100% “from scratch,” the pre-mixed batter powder is, quite simply, better-tasting and easier to control.

~ If the ingredients are already cold, it’s not necessary to keep the batter in ice-water. But if they’re at room temp, put the batter container in an ice-water bath.

~ Don’t mix the tempura batter 100% smooth. Leave some lumps and powder in it. Just stir enough to bring the water and the batter barely together. The overall consistency should be thin enough to coat the food evenly without thickly “breading” it.

~ Don’t mix the batter ahead of time. If you do, the starch will start to dissolve into the water and the consistency will come out wrong. It’s better to mix a small amount of batter just before you’re about to fry; if you wind up need more during the cooking process, keep adding new powder and new water little by little to the batter bowl.

~ The ingredients need to be very dry before you batter them. Pat dry any veggies, even scrape out as much moisture as you can from the shrimp tails.

~ The oil should be hot enough that when you press a bamboo chopstick against the bottom of the pan, it will start making bubbles boil up around it. Also, concerning oil temp, most things should go in, cook, and come out within very little time. You want to always be busy rotating items through, unless you have something pretty thick, like lotus root, which has to stay in for a little bit.

~ Rather than trying to time it scientifically, just look at the color of your food to know if it’s done or not. Tempura is best if it’s pure gold, maybe with just a tiny touch of brown at the edges.

Also, here are some recipes for a really fast lotus root side-dish, and a fast spinach side-dish, which we also had at our dinner.

Lotus Root with Bacon

- about half a lotus root bulb, boiled and sliced
- a small piece of bacon or ham
- grated Parmesan cheese
- salt (+ spices, i.e. garlic powder)
- soy sauce
- cooking oil (+ sesame oil)

Chop the meat into small strips, and also cut the lotus root into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a pot or pan over a high flame. Put in the meat first, just for a few seconds, and then add the lotus root. Saute, stirring constantly, as you add the cheese, spices, and just a small dribble of soy sauce. Cook until the lotus root is a pleasing texture, soft but with a bit of resilient crunchy chewiness – about 5 minutes.

Spinach With Sesame

- four bunches of whole, raw spinach
- whole sesame seeds
- Japanese flavoring broth (tsuyu or dashi)
- a Japanese mortar and pestle

Put the sesame seeds into the mortar and grind them against the edges until they reach a slightly pasty consistency. On the stove, bring water to a boil in a medium-sized pot. Turn down the heat and put the spinach bunches into the water until they are soft (only a minute or two); then extract them again and wring out as much water and juice as possible. Chop into bite-sized lengths, and then mix with the sesame paste. Add a small amount of tsuyu for flavor and to help the sesame adhere.

By the way, if you don’t have any sort of grinding device to make up the sesame paste (I actually don’t at my house) I theorize you could get most of the same flavor by adding a little sesame oil to the spinach, and then sprinkling on whole sesame seeds at the end.

Kitaro មានឈ្មោះពិតថា Masanori Takahashi គឺជាតន្រ្តីករជើងចាស់ (ពិតជាចាស់មែន) របស់ប្រទេសជប៉ុន ។ គាត់ធ្លាប់ទទួលបាន ពានរង្វាន់ Grammy ដ៏ល្បីល្បាញរបស់សហរដ្ឋអាមេរិក ។

នេះជាការសម្តែងបទ Matsuri (ប្រែថាពិធីបុណ្យ??? まつり) របស់គាត់ ។ អ្វីដែលគួរអោយសរសើរ គឺសកម្មភាពរួមគ្នារបស់តន្រ្តីករ ទាំងឡាយ ក្រោមការដឹកនាំរបស់ គីតារ៉ូ ។ មើលទៅពួកគេដូចជាសប្បាយរីករាយនឹងតន្រ្តីណាស់ ។ សូមទស្សនាដោយមេត្រីភាព

Saludo de Akinee del Matsuri 2009… nuestro invitado de este año es… Yukio Higa!

Por el momento es el único video a compartir… ¿tú tienes alguno? Si tienes un video de Akinee en el Matsuri compártelo! Queremos verlo (hoy encontré 2…).

PD: Haz clic aquí para ver el saludo del 2008

Han sido tantos meses, semanas… hasta que por fin se dio . Ahora vamos a descansar un poco…! pero no podemos despedir el día sin decir un GRACIAS enorme por todo lo de ayer (grito, pancarta, sonrisa, foto, etc): Muchas Gracias!

Ya les contaremos el trajín de ese día, pero por el momento nuestra foto oficial… igualito no? (qué maestro Kenneth!!). Un beso a todos!!!

Hola a todos!!!

Ya está todo listo para nuetra presentación! Prueba de sonido, espacios, accesorios, ensayo y muchos, pero muchos ánimos!!! Nos vemos hoy en el Matsuri a las 9:45pm!

Hola a todos!!!

La entrada de hoy, en realidad, iba a estar dividida en dos entradas distintas (1.Cómo se pronuncia Akinee y 2.Qué significa Akinee). Sin embargo, quizás no puedo hablar de una sin hablar de la otra, por eso mismo escribiré las dos entradas en una sola…!

El año pasado, específicamente el Matsuri, fue la primera vez que salimos al escenario a cantar como grupo. Recuerdo que el presentador empezó a hablar: “con ustedes, el grupo….” y dijo algo así como “el grupo… /akní/, que significa…”  fue un momento muy gracioso, primera vez que salíamos como grupo y ya nos estaban presentando con otro nombre…!

En otra ocasión un amigo nuestro bien cercano fue presentador del show de Kumamoto Kenjinkai, el cual fue en la APJ (Cultural Peruano Japonés). Cuando nos presentó dijo lo siguiente “…es un grupo juvenil llamado /akíne/…“. Casi lo matamos!!!

Y la más reciente fue en la obra teatro Yakusoku, de la que hemos hablado en entradas anteriores. Unas personas se nos acercaron muy amablemente y nos preguntaron si nosotros éramos los integrantes de… (“…”)

Así que decidimos escribir esta entrada! Ahora, antes de ver cómo se pronuncia, vayamos por la historia del nombre “Akinee”. Tal y como lo conté en Historia de Akinee, fueron dos semanas de largas y graciosas discusiones en las que no nos decidíamos qué nombre ponernos. No quedaba mucho tiempo para nuestra primera presentación y no sabíamos qué nombre nos definiría. Teníamos propuestas de todo tipo, como MAKEEHIDE o algo por el estilo (las primeras sílabas de nuestros nombres mezcladas en varias formas), pero concluimos que eso podía ser… un poco confuso! Luego seguimos en busca de nombres y se nos ocurrieron otros como TOMOGOE (voz amiga) o CHOKURON (pero ese nombre tentativo es historia para otro día jaja). Días y horas después, luego de estar exprimiendo nuestro cerebro en casa de Mabi, surgió la idea de la dueña de casa: “y si nos llamamos Akinai?” La idea con esa palabra era exactamente lo que queríamos… Akinai es un adjetivo que en japonés siginifica “algo que nunca te aburre”, es como cuando uno escucha una música una y otra vez sin cansarse . Bueno, nosotros queríamos eso, divertir al público y brindarles alegría, así que dijimos “ya!”. Ahora bien, Akinai quizás podía sonar a “Aquí no hay” (idea loca), así que decidimos utilizar el lenguaje de los jóvenes de japón cuando se emocionan (es decir, cambiar el /ai/ del final por el /ee/. Es así como de la palabra Akinai nace el nombre de nuestro grupo: Akinee (アキネェ)!!!

Ahora bien, regresando a la pronunciación, decir Akinee es fácil! Lo primero que se debe saber es que el acento está en la primera “e”, sólo que ésta se alarga, o sea, es como pronunciar /akiné/, pero esa última “e” dura un ratito más, así: /akinée/. Y listo!

Para terminar, les cuento que una vez que decidimos el nombre, pasaron cinco minutos y nos dimos cuenta de algo muy interesante…! Akinee se puede dividir en dos palabras Aki-nee, lo que en japonés bien podría significar ”otoño, no?” (秋、ねぇ？) Lo más gracioso de todo es que coincidentemente todos nosotros nacimos en la estación de AKI (Otoño):

Hisae: 11 de Abril
Kenneth: 20 de Abril
Eric (que en ese entonces pertenecía a Akinee): 27 de Abril
Mabi: 21 de Mayo
Dennis: 20 de Junio

Qué coincidencia no?

Click on the image for a larger version .

Hola a todos! Llegó el última semana antes de nuestro ensayo general antes del matsuri…! El tiempo ha volado rapidísimo, ahora sólo faltan 5 días para la presentación, cuánta emoción junta! Este fin de semana fue un poco complicado porque justo en la tarde todos teníamos cosas que hacer, entonces reservamos la mañana y la noche para poder ensayar full todo. Felizmente ya lo tenemos todo desde la semana pasada así que bueno, lo que hicimos básicamente fue hacer una especie de repaso y aparte de eso probarnos nuestros vestuarios para ver la combinación y todo. También ensayamos con nuestras ropas puestas para ver si había alguna dificultad pero no, parece que todo está bien! Así que bueno, ensayamos duro hasta bien tarde (1:30am aprox) y para colmo ese mismo día nos llamaron para que cantemos en el festival gastronómico del domingo, o sea… del día siguiente! Mabi y Dennis iban a estar ocupados, así que sólo Hisae y yo fuimos a cantar al festival gastronómico como solistas. Lo peor de todo es que creo que ese día (ayer) estaba un poco desabrigado, así que me enfermé de la garganta aparte de coger un buen resfriado! De lo peor! Jaja pero no importa, voy a estar bien dentro de unos días! Quizás durante la semana también nos juntemos para afinar cositas, pero eso está por verse… luego el sábado iremos para el AELU temprano a probar sonido y listo! Manos a la obra, y voz también, sobre todo! Nos vemos!

This past Tuesday was 文化の日, “Culture Day” holiday, so no school! While I enjoy my job, I also enjoy the many official holidays scattered throughout the Japanese calendar: I’ve seen statistics citing how overworked Americans are, versus other countries’ vacation schedules, and although Japan is nowhere near having France’s level of free time, it’s still quite nice. (Additionally, it helps dent the stereotype of the obsessive-compulsive Japanese work ethic – though there’s plenty of overtime, exam crunch, and ‘death from overwork’ stories to go around, people here love to play, too, and consider it important on a societal level.)

As it was “Culture Day,” there were a lot of appropriately cultural things going on. Many museums have free admission on this day, and a number of festivals were taking place. My pick was a revisit to Miyajima, the famous shrine island, and perhaps the popular definition of “culture” here in Hiroshima. The autumn weather has been lovely all through these past couple of weeks, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to see the place in daylight (last time I went at night and could only see Itsukushima Shrine.) Also, I heard that a Fudo Myoo Buddhist ritual would be taking place in the afternoon, featuring fire-walking at the end (appropriately enough, given Fudo Myoo’s typical depiction as a fierce godlet surrounded by flames.) While I tried to round up some other people at the last minute, in the end only myself and Ayaka Matsuda, a fourth-year HJU student friend, ended up going – but we had a great time! You can see Ayaka in about four of the Miyajima shots further down.

Miyajima can only be reached by ferry, and the ferry landing is in the far south of the city. Previously, I wrote the Hiroden tram line from Hiroshima Station to get to Ujina Port, but this time we hopped the JR train. Potential sightseers take note: turns out it’s much, much faster on the JR, plus you can get ferry fare included when you first buy your rail ticket. Upon emerging from the station, you’ll be immediately confronted with the water, the beginnings of a welter of souvenir shops, and signs pointing down the street a little ways to the boats.

The ferries themselves run with extreme frequency all day, though I always advise checking when the last one to the mainland leaves… just common sense. Amusing anecdote: right after I took the picture below, a police car rolled up to the dock with sirens howling and drove into the hold of our boat. It made Ayaka and I wonder if they don’t have any native police cars on the island? Probably not, there are really few cars there… and when we saw the police station later in the day, it only had a bicycle parked in the parking lot, hahaha.

The weather turned out to be truly astonishing this day. There were clouds rolling swiftly between big patches of bright, dazzling fall sunlight; looking back at the city from the harbor, you could see the shadows drifting distinctly, and the patchwork gave the island ahead a mysterious air, too. I don’t think I’ve ever caught such a blue sky on film before. The short crossing was truly beautiful, so I took a lot of pictures.

We were greeted by the island’s semi-tame sacred deer, first thing off the boat. Though I have to say that I agree with my guidebook: these guys are better mannered than the Nara set.

Luxurious hotels and exuberant souvenir shops front onto the main road to Itsukushima Shrine. The souvenir stores are pretty cool once you dig past the really gimmicky things… actually, it reminds me of my hometown Sitka quite a bit! Obviously the town caters to tourists, but it has a sweet charm all the same. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to see it when everything is open and bustling now – quite a contrast with the silent, almost ghostly streets after dark.

And… well, yes, I have an ulterior motive for mentioning how much I liked the souvenir shops. Ayaka turned me on to the joys of deep-fried momiji manju (“age momiji”) – that’s “custard-filled cake dumplings shaped like maple leaves,” to the uninitiated. Crunchy tempura batter on the outside, spongy cake and hot gooey frosting/pudding on the inside. On a stick. Also available filled with an paste, which is sweet bean mash! But really, the custard ones are ludicrously delicious… I’m tempted to make a comparison to deep-fried Twinkies, even though I’ve never been brave enough to try those back at home. We ate age momiji twice, once on the way in and once on the way out…

We got to the island around noon, which turned out to be perfect timing – the tide was still just high enough that there were boatmen offering rides out into the bay, punting around the much-famed Ootori (big red floating shrine gate). Ayaka said she’d actually never done this herself, so after a little bit of debate (we’re poor, and the price was 800 yen) we decided we should just go for it. I’m so glad we did, being out on the water on a day like this was so lovely. Also, the Ootori truly deserves its reputation as “one of the country’s Three Great Views/possibly most photographed object in Japan,” for reasons I hope are obvious in the following pictures.

After the boat ride, we skirted around the crowds inside Itsukushima Shrine itself, and headed up the hill to where I thought the Fudo Myoo ritual was supposed to be. Daisho-in Temple is a stunningly elaborate example of Buddhist architecture and statuary, with some of the most varied and intricate buildings and monuments I’ve ever seen. The garden sort of rambles through everything, sheltering literally hundreds of small, child-like Jizo along with the other, bigger stone and bronze inhabitants. Chanting, bell ringing and lit candles were the order of the day, and the (again, famous) Miyajima maple leaves were just beginning to turn inside the grounds, too. My first momiji of the season, in an appropriately dramatic setting! Aside from Kiyomizu-dera I almost have to say that this is the most impressive temple I’ve been to in Japan… that I can remember lately anyway, haha. Incidentally they also had a superbly informative English brochure, much better than is typical.

Unfortunately, it turned out I was rather off in thinking that the fire walking was going to happen on the temple grounds, though. When Ayaka and I happened to notice a huge cloud of smoke coming from somewhere down the hill, we had to scuttle off without having a chance to finish exploring Daisho-in. Definitely gotta go back there! But as Ayaka pointed out, the ritual was our “main event” for the day, so we’re lucky we caught sight of what was happening. Backtracking a couple of blocks toward the Ootori’s delta again, we came upon monks sending up burnt offerings from worshippers.

After all the wooden offering plaques had gone up in smoke, the monks began preparing the fire for the other half of the ritual. They smoothed out a path through the coals, threw some salt at the entrance and exit, and heaped on some quick-burning black sticks that I heard them refer to as being chopsticks (?! no idea what the significance was there, if anything.) Then the lead monk began chanting, and making esoteric Buddhist hand symbols over the fire – the same kind of mnemonic gestures as they use in anime like Naruto. Then he pulled out a katana sword, and charged right through the leaping flames! Four or five other monks followed suit, not even waiting for the fire to go down into coals. Super intense – I was actually really scared for them.

Even more amazingly though, once the fire did go down somewhat, they re-cleared the path and started letting ordinary people walk through too! Most of the crowd, judging by their chanting and prayers, were actually Buddhist believers, so this was an official part of the ritual as well. A really long line formed up, everyone barefooted, to stroll through the devotional coals. There were quite a few old people and young kids, too – Ayaka and I decided that by and large, the obaasans (old ladies) were the most impressive, because they walked the slowest and most calmly out of everyone. It was definitely hot enough to burn in there the whole time, we witnessed a couple people loosing their cool (hahaha sorry, bad pun) and hotfooting it out as quickly as they could (ahahah even worse pun.)

We headed back to the ferry at about four o’clock, since Ayaka had to get ready to teach a Japanese class to the exchange students the next day. It was a great trip, though, and I’m looking forward to future excursions – I really want to go up the cable car ropeway to the top of Mt. Misen next time!

Also, this weekend deserves honorable mention. On Saturday, Megan, Ashley, Ayaka, Azusa, Junko and I went out to karaoke and yakiniku all together! I had the best time, since I’ve been dying to do both things since I got back to Japan. We chose a big karaoke barn near Hiroshima Station, called “Billy the Kid,” for our four-hour sing-a-thon (we were waiting for Junko to finish at her part-time job before heading to dinner.) At Billy’s, up until 8 o’clock, a flat rate of 1280 yen each (1000 for students) will get your party a super-clean private room with an impressive array of songs; not just the UGA catalogue, but also three other companies’ extensive playlists as well. They also have genuinely drool-worthy french fries, and all-you-can-drink soda machines – really, the amenities and song selection kinda blew what I was used to in Osaka out of the water. Highly recommended!

Just down the street, we tried out a yakiniku place I spotted during previous ramblings to Bic Camera – it’s on the corner of the big Akebono-dori/Ozu-dori intersection, dead ahead if you’re walking toward BC from the station, across the street from the International House. Called Bucchi (which means “Alot” in Hiroshima dialect, if I recall correctly) they keep their establishment haze-free by hanging vacuum pipes dead-center over every grill. (Incidentally, I found out afterward that they’re part of a local chain, and I’ve seen some other establishments elsewhere in the city.) The suction wicks away smoke, and twists any flare-ups from the charcoal into little tornadoes of flame – super cool to look at, though be aware you can lose food too if you’re not paying attention.

The flyaway cabbage leaves and one strip of misplaced pork caused much hilarity to our party, though, and then Azusa chucked in a piece of lemon peel on purpose… Really, the novelty caused us all to get a bit silly, thinking up new potential uses for the invention. Was a great time – the food was inexpensive (particularly for this type of cuisine: party of six, about a dozen different dishes, 11,600 yen before discount) and delicious. The “negi kalubi,” tender beef rib-meat strips marinated with green onion paste, was particularly fantastic!

Sunday, Ashley, Megan and I went in-depth with the university’s school festival. (We actually visited Saturday afternoon, too, but only caught a few things before heading out, like Azusa’s choir concert.) This time around, we availed ourselves of the two dozen or so student-run food stalls, which were lining the campus streets and parking lots. School festivals are a well-established tradition in Japan, but while some other activities and guest speakers were featured here, our “Ayame-Festa” mostly centered on clubs raising money for themselves by selling all kinds of mouth-watering treats. I tried:

fresh mochi

hand-made boiled gyoza

deep-fried gyoza

pan-fried

yaki-gyoza

curry udon

french fries

hand-made cookies

fried pasta (cinnamon flavor… tasted like really tiny, crunchy churros)

yakitori

chijimi

I feel like I’m forgetting a few (if I left out your club’s treat, I’m sorry! Everything was so great, and I ate so much…) It was all in the range of 100 yen to 230 yen per serving, too, which really fits my budget at the moment. The exchange students and I were also invited to take part in a reception for the Speech Contest contestants, where there was yet MORE to chow down on, buffet-style, while we spoke with the high-schooler participants and their teachers. Also visited the second-hand goods market inside of our cafeteria and bought a couple of really cute stuffed animals for a whole 80 yen! Now that it’s over, I’m doubly sad that our school festival is only once a year…

Halloween is fun, though I don’t get into it as much as some people I know. This year, at the HJU International Center’s request, I hosted a Halloween Party during our English Lunch Time on the 28th. It was actually much shorter than I was hoping, since I worked hard on getting party games and mask-making supplies ready, but what we did have time to do was extremely entertaining. The main event was a giant game of “hot potato,” played with two adorable Halloween-themed plushies I picked up at Sogo Department Store. To the tune of “The Munsters Theme,” “Frankenstein” and “The Halloween Movie Theme” a rousing musical-chairs-style battle ensued, with the aim of not being the one holding the stuffed animals whenever the music turned off. By the time it was down to five contestants, they were basically just chucking the plushies at each other nonstop. The last two people left in the ring got to keep the ghost and pumpkin chibis, and everyone else seemed to enjoy cheering their friends on, so I count it as a success.

Even though I was invited to a great number and variety of Halloween parties on the actual Saturday of, I wound up declining them all because of a festival in a nearby city – Takehara again! (Thanks for the invitations though, everyone.) I just really felt I needed to go to this matsuri, because if you recall, I passed through “The Little Kyoto of Aki Province” on a previous occasion but didn’t get to see much of what actually makes the town famous. So when I found out they were having a festival involving candle-lit streets and light-up events for their many historic sights, I basically felt obligated to give the place another shot.

Once again, I was impressed with the beautiful views from the JR Kure Line trains (an Express from Hiroshima to Hiro City, and then a Local to Takehara.) I made a tourist of myself by standing next to windows the entire way and taking pictures of the shoreline and passing farms. (Kind of sad I didn’t have a camera the first time around, though, since the previously verdant rice fields have now all been cut, and their glorious green color replaced with brown mud.) Some of these shots turned out surprisingly well for how fast we were going, though I’ve left out the ones that ended up being just bushes and power poles, haha.

It was fairly hazy out over the water for the first half of the 2-hour trip, but lightened up a bit as we went through Kure City and on down the coast.

I got to Takehara pretty early in the day still, around 2 PM; I used the opportunity to scout around the town, get my bearings, visit a convenient shrine, and look out over the harbor.

The previous time when I visited, Mamiko, Asami and I all agreed that Takehara is something of a “不思議な町” – a town with a mysterious air – due to how quiet and still it is. Although I saw quite a few more residents on this occasion, there was a conspicuous lack of pedestrians as I wandered around the streets. In fact, it was so silent, at one point I started to question if there was really a matsuri in the offing. Shokei no Michi sounds like the kind of thing that could potentially attract large crowds, but there was hardly anybody around the station when I arrived. When I finally sat down in the center of town to have a snack, though, I saw some of those ubiquitous older guys with their tripods and cameras that show up at every festival in Japan, so I knew I was in the right place. There was even a nice couple who had come early like me, and they asked me to take their picture in front of the canal, which reassured me I wasn’t the only visitor.

Once I had snacked and navigated around, it was finally starting to get on towards dusk. The Candle Festival activities actually take place in several different locations, connected by lit-up streets winding through the Historic District, so I had to decide where I wanted to begin walking the paths from. Detouring around the main candle venues (didn’t want to see them before full dark) I picked Saihouji Temple, since the high view from it is said to be great, and I thought it’d be nice to watch the sunset from the mountainside.

On the way up, I asked a family if I could take a picture of them starting to light the candles:

Here’s a better look at the “bamboo candleholders,” with the candles inside. They’re quite beautiful, each evidently hand-made from the local bamboo. I’m not sure if the city keeps them or if they actually belong to locals, but it’s definitely the town residents responsible for setting them up and lighting them, as above. They’re set out lining the edges of the Historic Preservation Area’s main thoroughfares.

The main mass of people was just beginning to arrive as I came down from Saihouji. I read in the matsuri’s official brochure that you can rent kimonos to wear around the event, and I did see several groups of ladies dressed up and clacking around in wooden geta sandals. Especially with the beautiful old houses and shops, the place did remind me of Kyoto’s Gion a bit (and you can really see the resemblance in some of these pictures, I think.) For lack of a better description, though, I feel like Takehara is a more “down to earth” kind of town overall, especially with the harbor and seawater canals being such a prominent feature of the landscape. Instead of being a part of the Floating World entertainment district like Gion, these streets were populated by salt merchants in days past.

In addition to the simple attraction of the candle-lit streets themselves, Shokei no Michi features many different kinds of light/lantern displays, late-night souvenir shop deals, live performances, and fresh-made festival food. (My delicious find of the evening was “take-tori,” literally “bamboo bird”: large chunks of white-meat chicken, sauteed on a yakisoba grill with marinated bits of bamboo shoot. Delicious, and apparently featured on TV as a Takehara specialty at some point, according to the sign next to the vendor booth.)

Along with the taketori, the other highlight of my evening was stumbling upon a live music/storytelling show, featuring the tale of Kaguya-Hime. This version of the fairytale, about a beautiful girl from the moon found inside of a glowing bamboo stalk, was told with a traditional orchestra (koto, bamboo flutes, taiko, singers) and a narrator who did all the voices, plus a screen with projected illustrations. The music was so beautiful, I wound up taking several videos toward the end to help me remember it. I’m only sad I didn’t get to see the entire performance – seems I happened by about halfway through. Here are the videos I took, posted on YouTube.

Since it takes about two hours to get to Takehara, I unfortunately had to hustle back to the station for the 8 o’clock train. But I finally got to see the canal completely filled with water on the way out, since the tide had come back in while I was wandering.

Tal vez algunas personas se han preguntado (quizás ustedes también) dónde y cuándo nace Akinee! Así que hoy compartiré la historia con ustedes! Bueno, como verán, antes de que nosotros nos formaramos como grupo, cantábamos únicamente como solistas. Fue cerca de febrero del año pasado (2008), a raíz de un show que se nos encargó a nosotros, que desarrollamos un número mezclando canciones y realizando coreografías (en su mayoría graciosas) como grupo. Para ese entonces, todos éramos amigos muy cercanos pero, fue recién luego de ese show, en el que se nos ocurrió la idea de “a futuro” armar un grupo vocal para desarrollarlo paralelamente con nuestro canto como solistas. En septiembre de 2008, más o menos, ya estábamos tomando en serio la idea, y fue cuando nos juntamos los 5 en ese momento ~Eric, Mabi, Dennis, Hisae y yo (Kenneth)~ para planear cuándo nos lanzaríamos. La decisión finalmente fue presentarnos por primera vez… en el Matsuri!!!

Dicho esto, empezamos a ver cómo armar el número para tal evento, contábamos con pocas semanas para prepararnos. Demoramos como 2 semanas en decidir las canciones que irían en nuestro primer mix, ponerlas en orden y mezlcarlas, luego, otras 2 semanas en decidir nuestro nombre de grupo, ya que para ese entonces sólo estábamos en un  ”proyecto para el matsuri sin nombre”. Una vez que nos autobautizamos como Akinee, empezamos  a practicar las canciones que el año pasado presentamos! El día del Matsuri fue muy gracioso ya que estuvimos desde muy temprano ensayando como locos, era nuestra primera presentación y era una gran presentación!!! Fue mientras estábamos ensayando antes de presentarnos cuando llegó nuestro gran amigo John Azama y se tomó algunas fotos graciosas con nosotros, hasta grabamos un video de presentación que terminó en youtube!

Fue así como, finalmente, nos presentamos en el Matsuri AELU 2008 nosotros cinco. Es así como hicimos nuestro debut, por lo que Akinee nació realmente en el Matsuri y de esta manera, cada uno de los Matsuri que pasen será un año más cumplido para el grupo… este año cumplimos nuestro primer año!!!

Akinee y John Azama en el Matsuri 2008

Luego del Matsuri 2008, nos presentamos unas cuantas veces más como en el Shinnenkai (celebración de año nuevo) de la AELU. Sin embargo, posteriormente, Eric empezó a prepararse para hacerse cantante de enka en Japón, por lo que ya no iba a poder preparar más presentaciones con nosotros. Es así como tuvimos nuestra última presentación como quinteto en el Star no Yoru, que fue en Marzoo de éste año (2009). En esa presentación le hicimos la despedida oficialmente a Eric y desde ese momento  nos hemos presentado como cuarteto. Eso sí, cabe resaltar que aun así Eric nunca se despegó de nosotros, aún sigue colaborando con todo y muchas veces está presente en los ensayos, inventándose pasos de baile y proponiendo muchas buenas ideas… bueno, haciéndonos reír también!!!

Así que bueno, ésta es en resumen la historia de Akinee… luego estaré escribiendo más posts con detalles acerca de las cosas que les he narrado en este resumen de nuestra vida como grupo. Nos vemos, espero que les haya gustado!!!

Y seguimos con los ensayos! La preocupación pasó por mi cabeza un momento de la semana, pensé “wowow!!! Sólo tenemos este fin de semana y el próximo para ensayar Matsuri!!!” Así que lo inevitable pasó, como ratos libres en la semana no tuvimos y aparte se venía Halloween, Día de la Canción Criolla y Día de los Santos, nos reunimos ayer (viernes) a las 11:30pm, luego de que Hisae y Mabi llegaran de comer un rico Pollo a la Brasa! Con un poco de sueño, empezamos a crear y pulir las canciones que nos faltaban… hasta que finalmente, luego de 4 horas concluimos casi el mix completo, ahora sólo nos falta decidir el final del mix!!! Jajaja fue una realización total saber que ya tenemos prácticamente todo listo para ser presentado, nos dimos cuenta de que de tanto practicar ya no nos cansamos tanto como antes de hacer todos los movimientos, aparte que este año hemos incoporado algunos pasos más complicados que el año pasado! A las 3:30am, un poco cansados pero felices, nos fuimos a dormir! Uuuf qué tal día de ensayooo!!! Y para colmo hoy Dennis y yo teníamos que levantarnos a las 8:30am para salir a tomar desayuno al barrio chino con la familia!!! En resumen, sólo dormimos 4 horas y media pero felices, al menos! Yo por mi parte creo que dormiré un rato ahora en la tarde y practicaré lo hecho ayer luego, antes de los planes para la noche (creo que algunos amigos vendrán a mi casa)! Ahora si nos vamos con fuerza al Matsuri!!! Nos vemos!!!

Had a bit of a low-key weekend last week – as Kobayashi-sensei pointed out in Japanese class, it’s that time of seasonal transition when a lot of people are feeling under the weather. On Sunday I was planning to go to Sandankyo Gorge for their Momiji Matsuri, but I felt utterly exhausted and I had the beginnings of a cough so I just stayed home under the covers that day. Sad, because I love maple leaves… but on the other hand I was not feeling a four-hour thirty dollar roundtrip on the bus, despite my thorough advance scouting of the Bus Center. Probably the right decision, because I was much better when Monday rolled around. Even now I can tell I’m kinda fighting with something, though: my nose and throat are both acting mysterious… gotta keep an eye out, before I end up with one of those facemasks!

Speaking of home, here are some shots of my apartment and my neighborhood with my new Pentax Optio P80.

I did make it to the Hiroshima International Food Festival on Saturday, though. Excellent, crowded fun pressing through Carp Castle Park in search of goodies. The main entrance area also had a big exhibition of chrysanthemums, allowing visitors to savor the anticipatory smells of cooking before reaching all the actual food booths.

I snacked on chijimi (Korean leek pancake), German-style bratwurst, and tried Kirin Lemon for the first time, since I swear everyone without a beer in their hand had this soda instead. Everything very good, the sausage especially was to die for. Although, I regret not standing in line for one of the many variations of “beef on a stick” – one of the exchange students later told me the version she tried was the best meat she’d ever had, which is really saying something for someone from Tennessee BBQ country.

Not only food and flowers on offer, either. Seems the local environmentalists integrated themselves into the program rather neatly by offering several kinds of recycling services. There were booths scattered throughout where people would sort your food garbage for you (seems to be a common feature of Chugoku region matsuri) but also a designated “Recycling Section” of the festival dedicated to education, plus a flea market with used goods.

Walking around the castle, I managed to catch a little of the beatific evening light that seems to hit Hiroshima so amazingly around sunset.

Honestly, I’ve never noticed such consistently perfect “magic hour” lighting as I’ve seen around here. It basically does the photography work for me, when I’m lucky enough to catch it. Having my new camera has been a particular joy this week because of that – here are some glowing shots of downtown Hachobori, and the Peace Park from Wednesday, too.

Wednesday was an ikebana exhibition at Fukuya Department Store as well. Once again, my part-time job friends are to thank for me getting to see it, as I got free tickets to the last day of the event. My teachers were nice enough to let me out early so I could go grab these photos; this is a very modern take on the traditional art of flower arrangement, but I think it’s an astonishingly lovely evolution for the most part.

Last but definitely not least, a little nighttime display from the Hondori shopping arcade and the southern part of downtown (Kamiyacho), as I headed home from the park.