I'll soon be there with snow
I'll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I'll built a man that's made of snow

(quick, name that movie)

That's right. It's snowing again. On March 29th. A lot.

Hannah's first udon.
Check this out. This is the EXACT yellow polyester suit that I purchased from the Olympia Goodwill store in 9th grade. The one that Hannah and Elisha and I fought over when we saw it (we were thrift store style pioneers). Imagine my shock when I found it in this trendy second hand goods boutique in Kyoto. For all I know this could actually be MY yellow suit, since I'm pretty sure it made it back to the thrift store after high school.
This hat surprisingly not from the second hand store. Was in the clearance pile though. I think this should be Phil's head shot if he ever decides to go into theater.

Yuhara Ryokan

We managed to do an admirable amount of sightseeing our first day, but by dinner time we were starving, tired, and probably still traumatized by the encounter with Pervy on the bus, so we headed to our ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse) to reload.

After getting off at the appropriate bus stop, our place was nowhere to be seen. No problem, I had the phone number. Unfortunately the kind woman who answered refused to speak Japanese, and instead preferred a garbled mashing of syllables that was most definitely not English either.

"Smoru reebah [small river]? Sjooowlbulssuhfhwlsigaba smoru reebah? Bajiwjoslaiiebne there is smoru reebah. Parking lot? Jiwasobkwivoaoooowiiba smoru reebah you see?"

After about 8 minutes of this I was ready to drown myself in the "smoru reebah," if only I could find it.

Maybe sensing this, she finally said "Shiwaoslbbbooosowalarabu you stay I come." When at last the tiny lady came hobbling down the street, I think we all had thoughts that maybe she was taking us to her living room to sleep on the floor with her 17 cats, but after leading us through a maze of small back streets (pointing: "See? Smoru reebah..." Oh, of course...) we found our nice, spacious, lovely ryokan.

Phil traverses the smoru reebah.
Our huge room, with complimentary tea and cake snacks.Again with the tallness.
Freaky photo of me in my pj's.
"Shobuorlorrrossienbeiwasahai goodbye!"

Kiyomizudera

All right, raise your hand if you want to see more pictures of Hannah and Phil's visit.

Good answer. Here we go. (Warning: no naked men in upcoming posts. Sorry.)

Ginkakuji

Hannah and Phil kept being reminded by low doorways that they are tall.
Ginkakuji is famous for its rocks.
And its moss.

Oh for the love of...

This is the view we woke up to on Monday morning. Luckily we had our visit to Kyoto scheduled for the next three days, so we managed to flee the upcoming snowstorm. Good thing, because we were dumped with another 40 cm. Check Lewis' site for what we missed out on.
It reached Holy Crap levels of coldness the day we left.
Seriously cold.
When we arrived in Kyoto it was snowing a little, but impossibly sunny at the same time. Very charming. We hopped on the city bus for a day of culture-o-rama.

It was from this bus, within an hour of arriving, that we saw our first cultural exhibit: Man With No Pants.

And by no pants I mean no anything. Being the lucky passenger in the window seat, I was first to notice Mr. Pants-less, driving the car directly beside us. I know that I probably gave him the reaction he was looking for when I exploded with horrified laughter, but HE WAS WEARING NO PANTS. "Surely he is just late to work, and has decided to change his pants... and, accompanying undergarments...because he...spilled his coffee..." I thought to myself in shock. Until I glanced again, as at a car accident, and noticed that he was... performing an inappropriate action, let's say. I lost it at this point. Thank god his lane was soon forced to turn, and he could no longer slowly follow alongside the bus as he had been doing.

Overall a good introduction to historical Kyoto and the shy, reserved, and above all, polite people of Japan.

Last week was one of the worst weeks of weather I've ever seen in Fukui. I am from WASHINGTON STATE, and have a reputation of loving the rain, but this was nasty. As a result, we spent a lot of our time exploring the cultural centers that are the malls of Japan. Luckily they had a budget set aside for funny English t-shirts.Phil decided early on to document every piece of food that entered his mouth while in Japan. I'll spare you the pictures of toast.
Omurice. Not exactly considered a traditional Japanese dish, but one of my favorite restaurant meals. Phil is blown away by Hannah's okonomiyaki (grilled cabbage pancake) stirring prowess.End of day 1, and Phil settles into his blanket pile.

They're heeeere...

The buddies have arrived.

So if I'm bad about responding to emails this week, it's because I'm towing these guys around Japan.

Bye!

Skate-o

Like the rest of Japan, we caught the ice skating fever and decided to test our skills last weekend. Results: Canadians took the gold, Japan got silver, Americans bronze by default, and Singapore... ah, poor Singapore. Canadian skating pro Lee acts as a portable railing for Japan (Akiko) and Singapore (Sandy). The place was crawling with little kids in yellow helmets. Dan is deathly afraid of small people in helmets, but we locked him in anyway. He got over it. It was while dodging one of these little roadblocks that I was gracefully planted flat on my back. Either that or Lee pushed me down. I can't remember which. Tania comes in for one of her signature spins (the only way she can stop).Tania and Dan perfect their pairs routine, set to the music of New Kids on the Block.Then Dan blatantly disobeys the rules (see below).

baby mohawks

Few things delight me more than Japanese baby mohawks. Please enjoy while I work on updating other current events. My coworker at city hall invited me over to see their Hina Matsuri (girl's festival) display. This is sort of like setting up a Christmas tree for us, with lots of pieces that have been passed down over the years.