...we (chieko, me, her parents) walked down to the local shrine...it was absolutely beautful...the sky was clear and there were lots of stars, which isn't all that common here in japan since there is so much ambient light, the mountains were clearly visible white with snow...it was cold and beautiful...the only slight drawback was the ice-slicked concrete stairway leading up to the shrine, which somehow we ascended and descended without incident...inside the shrine was pure coziness...they had the kerosene heaters cranking, and there were two men waiting inside with shots of sake to warm us up for the walk home...we lit candles, rang the bell, bowed, and left...it was too short an experience for me...
...i really love going to niigata to visit chieko's parents...in many ways it's the realization of all my images of japan before i came here or new anything about the place...her family has been nothing but warm and accepting of me, i just wish i could communicate my appreciation of that fact more effectively to them...
...anyway, i'm not going down the sentimental road at the moment...back to the eating and drinking...most of the time for the last few days i could be found in this position:
...and when i wasn't half-drunk under the table, chieko's dad was trying to teach me how to write caligraphy, japanese style, which is freaking hard!
...i think i have mentioned before on this blog that japanese uses 3 alphabets; i am proficient in two...the one i am attempting above i am pretty useless with...but mr. iguchi gave me a lesson in writing a few simple characters, and graciously complimented me on my job when i when i sort-of reproduced them...he's a nice guy :-)
...so, enough pictures of my grubby self, i took lots of nice pictures of niigata, which i will reiterate, yet again, is a goddamn beautiful place!!
2 comments:
That town looks schuweet! I take it you drank too much to go snowboarding, eh?
yeah it's a really nice place...i didn't go snowboarding but that was more a function of laziness than booze...next time...though it might not look like it they are hurting a bit for snow here as well...it was raining when we left yesterday...bad year all around i guess...
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