So what happened to yesterday’s post? I guess I thought I hit the “publish” button and just fell asleep. All the editing of photos and posting must have been lost. Oh, well.
So let me try to recreate what I did the two earlier days (Friday and Saturday). I spent most of the time in the back of a car, getting from Maebashi to a Japanese hot spring on Friday, and then from the hot spring to Toyama where we’re going to spend most of a week and I’m going to be doing much of nothing while my mom hangs out with her friends.
We started out Friday going to the Gunma prefectural office looking for a display of kokeshi dolls that my mom saw on TV. Unfortunately, they were somewhere else, though we did see them eventually since they were on the way to where we were having lunch. Some of the dolls were some pretty modern interpretations of a traditional art form and nothing that I really would want to display at home though my dad would have bought something, I’m sure. I didn’t get a picture of any of the dolls but here’s a picture from the top of the prefectural building, 17 stories up.
The picture faces the mountains we drove into. I had no idea which direction we were going most of the time. Lunch was soba somewhere seemingly far away and up a ways, but the food was worth the trip.
That’s my mom’s friend Mieko on the left and my mom on the right. We continued the trip and made a stop at Mieko’s apple tree. I guess she owns one tree in this apple orchard. I should have taken a picture of a Japanese apple. They’re really sweet and about the size of a grapefruit.
After that it was off to the hot springs where I spent a lot of time soaking in the large public baths, where we met Dr. Kobayashi, Mieko’s husband. I think it’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve seen him. It really is relaxing sitting in a pool full of hot water. I wish I could have taken a picture of the various baths, but this isn’t the blog you want if you’re looking to see a bunch of naked middle-aged Japanese men. I bet google could help you out if that’s your preference. In any case, in a Japanese hot spring you usually wash yourself off outside of the bath and then soak for a while, wash yourself again and soak for some more. There were a series of baths inside and a couple of outdoor baths where you could stand and look at the rapids below and the sound of the rushing water was an added soothing feature. I also forgot to take pictures of the food we ate because I was busy doing what most people do at a Japanese hot spring: relaxing.
The next day we were off to see Sho Shimomura and her family. Sho is the eldest daughter of the Kawasaki’s, where I’m spending most of my time this trip. I’ve seen Sho and the Kawasaki’s fairly regularly, but I hadn’t seen her husband Atsushi since their eldest daughter was 1 1/2. She’s 17 or 18 now so it’s been a while. It’s also the first time I got to visit their famous house in the rice fields. I didn’t see much of it, but I think it’s pretty large. Before we got to the house we visited Yasuhiko Jinja, a Shinto shrine, which was busy with a Chrysanthemum festival and 7-5-3 celebrations.
That’s my mom and the Shimomura’s younger daughter.
And again with the Chrysanthemums.
After the visit to the Shimomura’s house, it was off to the Kawasaki’s in Toyama. The other two weird things I saw that day were an interesting t-shirt and a cow truck. I wanted to get my minimal Halloween fix at Baskin & Robbin’s by buying some pumpkin ice cream and I saw a t-shirt that I thought was oddly appropriate for Halloween.
And here’s the cow truck.
For some reason the cows were all sideways to the direction of travel and lighted up. I dunno. It’s Japan.