Going around my aunts in Kumamoto

The reason why we went to Kumamoto this time was to see my father's sisters who are 101, 95, and 86 years old. My father had 9 siblings (10 including my father), but most of them have passed away. The 101 year old aunt is Aunt Teiko, the oldest girl of the ten children. There were two more brothers above her. One of them died when he was very young, and the other one lived a good life in Tokyo but didn't live as long as Aunt Teiko. Aunt Teiko is into making Japanese dolls. She made about 100 of them, but she has given a number away to many people, and in fact we were given a cute doll during this trip. She has a hearing problem, but other than that she seems to be perfectly healthy and her brain is working like a 60 year old.

The 95 year old aunt is Aunt Mikiko. She has been studying and teaching Ikebana for many years, and about three years ago she became a Iemoto (head master) of Kodo-ryu. Kodo-ryu is a school that is established during the year of 1716 to 1804. Unlike other Ikebana, it does not use the "kenzan" which is typically used to hold the bottom of flowers and twigs to arrange them.

The 86 year old aunt is Aunt Tayoko. She was a teacher of Japanese dance, but about two years ago, she and her husband got into an accident (and soon after that her husband unfortunately passed away because of it), and she doesn't seem to be teaching any more. She comes across to me as a most caring person.

Kofun (Ancient Tombs) in Tamana, Kumamoto

While I was in Kumamoto, we had a chance to visit kofun (ancient tombs). There are many in Kumamoto, but we chose to go to the ones in Tamana city, as it was only a 45 min. drive from Kumamoto city.

Before going we did some research on the net, so we knew which kofun we wanted to visit, but we didn't realize that they were completely closed off from the public for preservation purposes. We called Tamana City Hall and asked how we could see inside the kofun. They told us to call the Tamana History Museum. So we did. The person who answered the phone was very nice, but he needed to stick with the rule which is to go through the school board. He asked us to get permission from the school board, but then when I mentioned that we were visiting Kumamoto for a short period of time and had to go back to the States, he invited us over to the museum and told us that we could join a private tour which happened to be scheduled for that afternoon. We were very lucky! We drove down to the museum right away.

Mr. Araki, the man on the phone, was waiting for us outside of the museum (in the very hot and humid weather!!). I had forgotten such a spirit of hospitality. We felt very welcomed. We went in and said hi to some of the museum staf and those who would join the tour. We had about an hour till the tour, so we decided to explore the museum. The museum was incredibly great. It contained all kinds of information about the kofun that we would go to see. It gave us good information prior to visiting the kofun.

The first kofun we visited was called Taibo Kofun. We enjoyed strolling along the scenic country road to get there. It was extremely hot that day, but I certainly enjoyed the scenery.

Taibo Kofun is said to have been built in the 6th century. The outside is about 43 meters long, the inside about 6 meters long. The inside is divided into three rooms, but you can only see a little bit of them as the entrance is securely sealed with a heavy-duty glass window. There are triangular patterns of blue and red on the wall. The museum had some items found in the tomb such as a gold earring, pearls, and weapons.

The next kofuns we visited were called Eianji Higashi (East) and Nishi (West) Kofun. Unfortunately they were doing some testing on Nishi Kofun, so we only got to see the inside of Higashi Kofun. They are both built side by side. It looks like the east one was built first in the 6th century and the west one right after that. They were both discovered long before the researchers got to them, so all of the items perhaps buried with the body were all gone. What's amazing about the Higashi Kofun is the patterns on the wall painted with red. You can see triangles, circles, ship-like figures, and a horse-like figure. One of the cicles even has the dripping of red ink, which I heard is very rare.

The tour was supposed to end there, but we were pretty excited and decided to go further into the mountain side to see more kofun. Yay! The area we headed for is called Ishinuki. The first one we went to see had an array of 48 tombs on the side of a rock cliff. The cliff is about 300 meters long and 7 meters high. The entrance to each tomb is trapezoid-shaped that are doubled or tripled. Inside, you see carved knives and other weapons on the side wall.

We also visited another kofun in Ishinuki which has a figure of Kannon carved into the wall. This area had three tombs in a row, and the middle one had the Kannon figure in the center of the wall as you go in.

So, that was the end of the tour. It was very educational and fun. Thanks to the director of Tamana History Museum for allowing us to be on the tour, and thanks to Mr. Araki, and Ms. Matsunaga, who guided us through the tombs! Both Mr. Araki and Ms. Matsunaga were experts on kofun, and we were very lucky to have them as tour guides. Although the outside temperature was probably way above 100F and very humid, we enjoyed every single moment of the tour.

Trip to Mount Aso

We made a quick trip to my father's birthplace called Kumamoto during our trip to Japan recently. Kumamoto is located on the southern island of Japan. It is famous for many things, and Mount Aso is definitely one of them.

Mount Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan, which rises to 1592 m above sea level. There are several craters, holes formed by various eruptions. You can go up to see one of the craters by car.

It was very windy that day, but we managed to peek into the crator. It had a pool of water of a beautiful emerald green color, which was pretty much covered by steam coming from the water most of the time. I heard the the temparature of the water is around 50-60 centigrade, which is quite a bit hotter than the normal Japanese bath. The water is heated by the volcano gas. The fact that it has a pool of water seemed to mean that the volcano is very active, and when the water changes its color to black, the eruption occurs in the crator.

Aso weather is pretty unique, as it got nice when you go down the mountain but it was very windy, cloudy, and foggy as we went up. Here is the photo of a very cozy family of "red cows."

Friend's Wedding

It was truely great to see one of our favorite friends getting married happily ever after. He was comfortably happy, witty as usual, and proudly acknowleging the fact that he is now starting a new family. Congratulations friend!

Temakizushi

"Temakizushi" means hand-wrapped (="temaki") sushi. It is easy to prepare and great for any size of party. All you have to do is to get sashimi plate with assorted raw fish, make sushi rice, and it's ready :) I typically make "Atsuyaki Tamago" (egg omelet type if dish but without butter and instead with sake, mirin, sugar, fish broth, and a bit of salt) as my hubby loves it. I also recommend getting some "shiso" leaves if you mind the smell of fish. Its minty flavor will ease out the fish smell. You can also add avocado, immitation crab meat, or tuna mixed with mayonnaise. You serve all that with "Nori" and "Wasabi", and it is ready to eat!

What you do is to get a sheet of nori, put enough amount of sushi rice on either side of nori to cover up approx. 1/3 of nori sheet. Then put wasabi on rice, put shiso (if you like), and put ingredients like fish, eggs, avocado, etc, diagonally, and finally wrap everything with the remaining portion of nori.

After eating sushi, hubby served us his souvenir from Czech Republic. It was a plum-based liquor called Slivovice. I thought it was a liqueur which would be somewhat sweet, but I was very wrong. It was a heavy duty liquor with 45%(!!) alcohol. I thought my tongue would get numbed. I put a piece of ice cube in a shot glass and slowly enjoyed it, but by the time I finished a shot, I was very ready to fall asleep. Strong stuff!

Outside, lots of legal & illegal fireworks were going. Since gG was so scared with all the noise, he hid himself in my closet. It took me about 5 mins to find him :). Poor gG. He was shivering in a dark closet. But he calmed down once my hubby held him in his arm.