Our first few days in Japan

laundry and bath area

A JAPANESE HOME

The room Jess and I slept in at the Bartstch's

Mark and Stephanie live in a fourth story condo that is about 1000 square feet.  Their building is called a mansion.  You enter and take off your shoes before you step up into the house.  It is considered very rude to wear or even set shoes down on the floor in the main part of the house. The entryway has a hall with a door to the bath and a door to the toilet.  The bath and toilet are always in separate rooms.  The bath has a room with a sink and mirror, their washing machine and a door to the bath area. (Most Japanese people do not own dryers.  They hang all their clothes outside to dry on their balconies.)   The bath area has a tile floor and a shower head and bucket, where you wash off BEFORE you climb in the deep and short-in-length tub. The tub is only for soaking.   Off of the main living area there are three rooms used for bedrooms.  Two of these rooms, including ours, have tatami mats.  Tatami (tah-tah-me) mats are closely woven bamboo mats that are uniform in size. You tell the size of the room by how many tatami mats it has.  These two rooms also have the traditional sliding doors with wood "lattice" frames and paper "window panes".  These doors are very beautiful--letting light in but offering privacy.   These doors face the balconies in our room.  Most homes in this southern central area of Japan do not have central heating.  The temperature here is about 30 degrees during the day.  They have gas heaters and a low heated "coffee table" with a blanket that comes down all around it.  You sit with your legs under the table and it is very cozy.  During the night, the heaters are turned off and we have an electric blanket.  The bath, toilet, and entryway are not heated--but they do have a heated toilet seat--which is very helpful!  There are windows on three sides of the condo.  The living area has huge windows with a beautiful view of the cities surrounding us.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Stephanie and I at the tea shop in her neighborhood

This part of Japan has continuous cities, one blending into the next, for miles along the coast.  The Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto metropolitan area has 18 millions people.  Ashiya, where we are staying is part of that area.  We can see Osaka, Kobe, Ashiya, and a couple other cities from the window.  We see many apartment buildings and "mansions" in this view from the window.  Most of these are several stories high.  The neighborhood Mark and Stephanie live in is more traditional--meaning is has some of the traditional style wooden homes.  The streets are very narrow and can fit only one car at a time.  Some of the streets are so narrow, they look like they are just for walking--but then a car squeezes by.  I love walking in their neighborhood.  Most people do not own a car--everyone walks and uses public transportation.  On a walk in the neighborhood, you will see old people walking, groups of school children in uniforms coming home from the train, and once in a while, foreigners.  There are lots of little shops, like the tea shop Stephanie and I went to.  There were just three tables to sit at and drink tea.  Mark, Jess, and I also hiked up the mountain from their condo.  We walked to a hiking path and then we were immediately "out" of the city in a semi-tropical forest.  The strenuous hike offered awesome views of the city.

FOOD ADVENTURES

Nabe mono soup

The first night we got here, Mark and Steph had nabe mono soup when we arrived.  There is an almost boiling pot at the table on a burner.  It has seaweed flavored "broth" with cooked cabbage and carrots in it.  Throughout the meal, we added fish, mushrooms, tofu and thinly sliced beef into the soup to cook.    Then you take out what you want to eat and dip it in sesame or soy/citron sauce.  YUMMY!

Noodle soup with sliced pork
at Chinese Restaurant

One evening we went to the Garden mall on the train.  This four story mall has a covered walkway directly from the train station.  There we ate at a Chinese restaurant.  We had dumplings, tofu salad, and Jess and I had noodle soup with sliced pork in it.  This was all very different that the Chinese buffets we have in the US.  At the mall, Stephanie and I enjoyed looking at a kimono store, shopping at a paper store, which had lots of pretty stationary, and looking at the fancy little Japanese dolls for sale for Girls Day, March 3.

English tea and scones.
(Note the golden syrup on the right--
if you ever get a chance--eat some!)

At the little tea shop, Stephanie and I had scones and English tea.  The scones came with clotted cream, jam, and golden syrup (which looks like honey but tastes closer to maple syrup).

Last night we had pounded rice that Stephanie's neighbor had made.  This is a traditional New Year's food.  We used a piece of seaweed (that is flat like paper) to grab the chewy pounded rice ball with soy sauce.  We also had rice balls with sweet bean paste in the center and a fresh strawberry--this is a sweet treat.  Oh, and Mark also made pizza in their little convection/microwave oven.  Japanese do not have traditional ovens.   We enjoyed all of these different tastes.

THE ONSEN

Yesterday we went on the train to the onsen by the bay.  A Japanese onsen is a public bath.  It cost about $10.00 (800 yen) and there is a separate bath for men and for women.  When you enter the bath, you put your clothes in a locker and sit at a little stool with a small bucket and movable shower head.  You complete clean yourself.  Then you are ready to enjoy the relaxing bath area, which includes many different types of soaking tubs and saunas.  Everyone is naked and you used a long narrow hand towel to discreetly cover yourself in between baths.  In the women's bath, there were women with toddlers, old women, middle aged women--everyone enjoying the soothing baths.  I tried  everything--the hot baths, a cold bath that I got in between hot baths, even this spot in one tub where they send a mild electric current through you!  That was the only thing I did not like--that felt freaky!  The Roman sauna was very steamy and my favorite.  There was also a salt sauna where you rubbed salt on the areas of rough skin.

Wedding kimonos at the mall.