Cute Overload

November 15 is Shichi-Go-San Day, where parents dress up their 3- and 7-year-old girls and 5-year-old boys and take them to the shines to pray. Although the official day isn't until next Sunday, people start doing this in late October, and it is the most adorable thing in the entire world. Except puppies.

These were all taken at the Meiji Shrine, near Harajuku.

This little girl was loving the attention, but her brother was about to burst into tears. Hilarious.

This little girl was the fanciest we saw.

They get candy or some type of little present when they were finished. The crying boy had a toy airplane.

Visitors, Visitors, and More Visitors!

I know, I know, I haven't written much lately. We opened the Yasaki Bed & Breakfast in October, and just closed it yesterday. First, our friends Lindsay and AJ came from NC, then Gen's parents were in town, then my brother came for a visit. Whew! We've been busy! But it's been a lot of fun. Above is Lindsay and me at Narita-san, a nice temple close to the airport.

Here is Lindsay and AJ at the Osaka Castle moat. The three of us went to Kyoto and Osaka while Gen stayed home for work. Gen's parents were in Japan for most of the month of October, but traveled around and visited friends and family for the majority of their time. They came to Tokyo the last week of October and we had a couple of nice dinners with them.

Look at the tree! This is my brother, Kris, and me at Mt. Takao. This was at the summit. It was a beautiful clear day and we saw the elusive Mt. Fuji. The trees weren't in full color yet, so Gen and I have tentative plans to go back this weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Right now it looks like rain Saturday and Sunday. Boo.

Gen and Kris at an unagi (eel) restaurant. Narita (the town, not the airport) is famous for eel, so we had an early dinner when Kris arrived. They're holding crackers made of the eel spines. They were okay flavorwise, but the little bones poked my gums. Then we had unagi-don, which is barbequed eel over rice. It was yummy. So now all the visitors are gone and all we have to worry about is getting me ready to go home. I only have 2 weeks left! I'm sad. I'm going to miss Japan.

Autumn Colors

Last week, Gen had a business trip near Osaka, then they took a trip up to the mountains after the meeting. This was at a temple called Koyasan. The gates are called torii.

The leaves haven't changed in Tokyo yet. I read that they won't change until late November or even December. My brother is coming for a visit and we have a couple of trips scheduled, one on a mountain west of Tokyo and one for a little town north of Tokyo, so hopefully we'll get to see some of the leaves.

This is my favorite picture of the ones Gen took on this trip.

This is Gen's favorite. He said that tree was so yellow in person that it didn't even look natural.

A-Ma Temple- Macau

This is the entrance to A-Ma temple. Man, it was so hot.

A gift shop. Shopkeepers are pretty aggressive over there. You can't appear to be too interested. When I was looking for jade in Hong Kong, one of the sellers grabbed my arm and put a bracelet on, then tried to cut the tags off and charge me. I didn't even like the thing!

There were lots of people there. Mostly Chinese. It seemed like most of the Westerners spent their time in the casinos.

There were lots of little buildings. I think this one was the main one.

It's built on a little hillside, so you have to do some climbing to see everything. I didn't mind though. The higher up you get, the more breeze there is. Did I mention it was hot?

One of the small shrines.

These are incense coils. Some of them have trays under to catch the ash (on the right side), but I stupidly stood under some that didn't. I got ashed! It hurt a little.

A-Ma is the goddess of the sea and seafarers. This little boat was inside the main temple.

These are fortunes. In Japan, you normally just get a piece of paper. These were so pretty and they sounded like little bells or windchimes.

A famous restaurant in Macau. We went here for lunch after the temple. It was really good. I had some kind of chicken dish cooked with turmeric and coconut milk and Gen had grilled fish with herbs. Another yummy Portuguese/Macanese dish we tried (not at this place) was called African chicken. I am going to make it my mission to figure out how to cook that. Unfortunately, the only Macanese cookbook on Amazon is something like $80.

Leal Senado- Macau

This is the restaurant we ate at the first night on Macau. It was fantastic. I love Portuguese and Chinese food, and Macanese food is basically Portuguese mixed with Chinese. Many of the restaurants have English menus and I can figure out Portuguese from my Spanish. We had a fantastic dish here- it was called Duck Rice, Macanese Style. We like duck, we like rice, so we tried it. It was seriously fantastic, cooked in some kind of rich gravy. Gen liked it so much he wanted to see if we could duplicate the recipe. After much online research, I found out that the "gravy" is made of duck's blood. Ewww. But it was good. But I would never have ordered it if I had known what was in it. Ah, the conundrum. Needless to say, we will not be attempting to make Duck Rice, Macanese Style any time soon.

These are just some of the pretty buildings near Leal Senado, the old town square. I like the colors.

The streets are lined with shops and some restaurants. A delicious snack we discovered by accident was the pork bun (sometimes spelled pork bum- hee hee). It's just a small pork chop cooked with onions on a Portuguese roll. Portuguese bread is the best.

This is a church in the Leal Senado. It is very Mediterranean style, lots of bright colors, even inside.

Most of the buildings were yellow and white, but there were a few bright blue and red, as well.

I think this picture is funny. Look at the white sign at the top- Medicine No Fakes. Ha! This is the street leading from the ruins of St. Paul's down to the Leal Senado.

Happy Weekend!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've had some visitors- Lindsay and AJ were here for 2 weeks and just left yesterday.

I still have some more pictures of Macau, and then I'll post some from the past 2 weeks, but to tide you over, here's my favorite site in all of Tokyo. This is the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Nice pink Caddy. They must only trot this out on special occasions. And now, so you can really understand the awesomeness of Yoyogi Park on Sunday...

Mount Fortress

Gen with the cannon at the top of the fortress near St. Paul's.

This is the entrance to the fortress.

See the cannons at the top of the wall?

A cool picture of the ruins surrounded by the more recent building boom. This is near a residential area. Those are mostly apartment buildings in the background.

The fortress walls. We liked it up here because there was a of of shade and a nice cool breeze. Macau is hot.

This is kind of cool- there was a little park under the fortress and this tree was filled with birdcages.

Pet birds are really popular in China, especially among older men. We think that this group took their birds out for a walk. There are a bunch of hooks in the trees so the men can chill under the tree and hang the birds up for some fresh air. Funny!