Gaijin San

Some selected pictures…

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:03:52 +0000

Arashi Daiko

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:42:22 +0000

The Japanese community in Montreal organizes a Fall festival with traditional Japanese food, musical and martial arts performances. The following clip is from a performance of Arashi Daiko, a taiko drum ensemble from Montreal. You just finished reading Arashi Daiko! … Continue reading →

Stay tuned!

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:53:20 +0000

Stay tuned for more pictures and anecdotes of my upcoming trip to Japan on February 2012. Some winter scenes from Nagano, Kyoto and probably mount Fuji are expected… You just finished reading Stay tuned!! Consider leaving a comment!Read more!

Farewell Dinner

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:16:14 +0000

For our last dinner in Japan, we had a special fest with a lot of food and a lot of beer and sake. I was very emotional because the welcome I received from the Yamamoto familly in Japan was extraordinary. I took some funny shots with Hiroaki-san as it is not the custom in Japan to have any form of body contact, even for family members. Mitsuko got her hug too on the next day before the departure.

Gardening with mama and the rice mill

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:09:41 +0000

Mitsuko really wanted me to have some fresh rice for our last meal, so we got some rice bags from the latest crop and went to the rice mill. The rice mill is a do-it-yourself automatic facility where you simply put some money to start the machine and select your preferred setting from highly refined (white rice) to coarser (brown rice). You put the rice with the shells on one side and it comes out as white rice on the other. Fresh rice tastes so good!

Zenko-ji Temple

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:59:55 +0000

We enjoyed perfect weather for the visit of the Zenko-ji temple. The temple was built in the 7th century. There is a rumor that the temple would be the host to the first Buddha statue brought to Japan. This statue cannot be seen by anyone, including the chief priest.

Short video presenting the ambiance of the Zenko-ji temple.

Downtown Nagano

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:52:09 +0000

Nagano is the capital of the Nagano prefecture. It is notably famous for being the host city of the 1998 winter olympic games but also for the Zenkō-ji temple. Downtown Nagano has a nice and quiet atmosphere (at least in comparison to Tokyo!) in the middle of magnificent mountain scenery.

Togakushi shrine

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:49:13 +0000

Nagano city is reputed for the Togakushi shrine. The sky cleared up after the typhoon (hurricane) and we could enjoy a short sunny hike to the shrine. On some pictures, you may notice the dangling pieces of white paper, this is because the word paper (kami) is very similar to the word god (kami)!

Tateyama mountain and Kurobe dam

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:43:43 +0000

To reach Tateyama mountain, we took : 1) underground electric bus to the Kurobe dam 2) an underground funicular, 3) a cable car, and then 4) another underground electric bus that crosses the summit of the mountain to reach the Tateyama resort. Unfortunately there was no view because of persistent rain on that day but we enjoyed some tasty instant rice backpacking meals on the floor of a nature conservation museum, priceless!

Wasabi farm

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:33:46 +0000

In the Nagano prefecture, you can visit a wasabi farm. The wasabi root has an extremely strong flavor akin to hot mustard and is it most commonly seen as a green paste used in sushi. You can walk freely in wasabi farm and observe how the root is cultivated. It basically grows directly in water in a system of man-made basins where water from a river is channeled to continuously irrigate the plants. At the farm, you can also taste many different food made with wasabi such as the teriyaki wasabi-croquette-burger and wasabi ice-cream.