Inuyama

After a delicious breakfast of kissime (sp?) noodles in a broth with vegetables, firm fish paste, and leek, we took a group picture and were off to Inuyama, which is North of Kasugai. We arrived in time for a demonstration of karakuri puppets - how they work and how they are made. It was fascinating, even though I couldn't understand much of the Japanese presentation. The puppet can serve tea - the weight of the tea glass starts the puppet moving, and then an attachment to the main wheel of the puppet hits another stick which causes the front wheel of the puppet to turn, typically after the person has picked up their tea glass. That's not a very good explanation, but know that it's pretty amazing that they can make puppets do that! They also use the puppets on floats during the Inuyama Festival. They're rather large puppets that can move quite a bit, so it takes 2-3 people to control one. And since there are 3-4 puppets on a float, that's a lot of people hiding underneath! We also visited the museum with authentic parade floats in it, along with Inuyamia yuki, special pottery made there. We passed by a couple shrines on our way to the castle. There are 20-some castles in Japan, and this is one of the 4 that are considered "national treasures." We had to take our shoes off and wear green slippers they provided to go in the castle. It's not a castle like what we think. It had steep stairways with high steps. It was windy and rather cool today, so when we got up to the top it was COLD!! I got some great views of the city, though. I wish I could post pictures!

We walked around the town for a little bit before having lunch at a Japanese restaurant. We had to take our shoes off (this isn't typical), and we put them in lockers with flat, rectangular wooden keys. The menu had pictures of every item...I loved it! Kana recommended a non-seafood dish of rice, fried pork, and egg. It was delicious! Her dad ordered eel, and he let me taste some. For one who does not like seafood, it wasn't too bad! I thought it would be rubbery, but it wasn't - it was soft like walleye. It probably helped that I ate it with rice and the sauce that came with it. When we were ready to order, we pushed a blue button on our table, then our waitress came to take our order. Good system.

Tonight we had a fabulous supper! I don't remember what it was called (I'm trying to keep track of it all, but it's hard with so many new words!) They set up a burner on the table, and boiled water. Then they added slices of pork, a cabbage-like vegetable, garlic cloves, carrots, mushrooms (skinny, non-American mushrooms), leek, and tofu. They cooked it there, and we took it from the pot in the center and dipped it into our sauces - one was an orange/soy sauce/tangy one, and the other was a sesame seed sauce, which had a slight peanut butter taste to it. Both were excellent! We had 3 rounds of this stuff.....the 2nd round was with shrimp instead of pork. I even ate some of the shrimp - I'm really broadening my horizons! Oh, we put shredded radish in the orangy sauce, too. It was delicious! I hope I can get these same sauces in America, because this was a delicious, healthy meal. I loved it! We had dried persimmons for dessert.

After supper, we talked about places we've been and where we'd like to go, if Kana looks more like Shin or Yoshiko, and other random topics. I laugh a lot with them, and I love it! Kana brought down a couple photo albums, so I got to see pictures of her as a baby and growing up. It was a blast! But we're heading to bed earlier than normal tonight since we're getting up early (6 am - that really is early) to be sure we catch our train to Kyoto. Some brochures came in the mail today (English ones) that Yoshiko had ordered, so I read through them. I think it's going to be a blast!

To turn on the faucets here (lever handles), you push them down instead of pull them up. The heating/insulation on the house isn't as good as in the US, so there are space heaters in the bedrooms and kitchen. The hallways get very cold! They don't have a clothes dryer here, so all the wash gets hung up to dry. Kana explained that clothes dryers are becoming more popular as both husbands and wives are working now. Last night we had sake with supper - Shin described it as being like wine, but it was much sweeter, so of course I liked it. ;) They're figuring out that I'll try anything, but that I always like the sweet things. I saw a Denny's today, and learned that the firefighters do a water show to celebrate the new year. Pajamas are provided at hotels in Japan, and in the last winter Olympics, a Japanese skater performed a routine to the song "You Raise Me Up" and won the gold medal, so they're familiar with that song. There are convex circular mirrors along the road - I'm assuming it's to help decrease your blind spot. Drivers who don't have an accident for 5 years get a gold license (Kana almost has hers!) That's all the random facts I can think of for now. I'm excited to report on my experiences in Kyoto tomorrow!