Twas the Night Before Christmas

After spending our morning and afternoon in Nara, we took a JR train to Uji to start our Christmas Eve celebrating. One of my English tutoring students owns a cafe/ryokan on the Uji River and she was having a special Christmas Eve party. The festivities included dinner, a delicious dessert, coffee and a rock concert.

The main band was comprised of three 8th graders. I was impressed by their musicality. I'm pretty sure that most of the Battle of the Bands hopefuls that I went to high school with couldn't play guitar or bass as well as these guys already do. And, most of the songs they played were all classic rock songs in English! The video clip shows them performing I Can't Explain by The Who. (Many thanks to Jimmy Peterson for identifying the song for me!)

The second band was two even younger (and more nervous) fellows who also did very well. But, later sets were solos performed by the main guitar/vocalist from the first band, or songs performed together with his 1st grade brother and their "Real Rock Star" Dad. What a talented family! You haven't celebrated Christmas Eve the right way until you've enjoyed a six year rocking out on the vocals to Sweet Home Chicago.

But, the most impressive part of the evening was that the bands made their stage banter bilingual for our benefit. I'm sure that I couldn't sing and improvise in Japanese when I was six or thirteen! In fact, I still can't. :) They also sang Silent Night and asked us to join in. Sugoi desu ne!

Many thanks to Hifumi for such a fun night! Much Christmas merriment was enjoyed by all!

Fall Leaves

The weekend before last we traveled to Ohara, a small town to the north of Kyoto to enjoy the fall foliage. Since the color-changing was delayed this year due to the extra hot, extra long summer, the crowds were out in full force to enjoy the new hues before the leaves fall.

Ohara is home to Sanzen-in Temple, one of the most famous Tendai Monzeki temples in Japan. This means that the chief priest of the temple was a member of the imperial family. Even more wonderful than the temple's Buddhist chanting or famous Amitabha Trinity (beautiful golden statues) are the magnificent gardens filled with moss, Japanese cedars and maple trees. In the fall, Ohara is a must see! The town is also home to several onsens, or hot springs, that we hope to have the chance to visit.

Along the path between the bus station and the entrance to Sanzen-in were several restaurants, cafés and little shops selling all sorts of goodies. We bought some amazing homemade jams in unique flavors like pumpkin, lemon and apple. Yum! We also got to try several types of senbei, or rice crackers/cookies. The ginger-glazed senbei were our favorites. It was fun to talk with the vendors and ask them what each treat was called in Japanese. One woman was very excited to see us writing down the name to her cookies in hiragana.