Life After 50: tochigi prefecture

Showing posts with label tochigi prefecture. Show all posts

Nothing like Homemade Chili and an Art Show on a cold wet day. - Utsunomiyia Museum

Yuji Kashawamuri is the director of the Tochigi Prefecture Museum. It's great to be staying there as he knows many people and we get to see what goes on behind the scenes at a museum.

There is an Art Show at the museum today, featuring things that are made in Tochigi Prefecture. I enjoyed looking at everything.

Click the link to see the short video of this guy making bamboo fishing poles.

https://youtu.be/Ec52Y1nbVYk

Click this link to see this guy make bamboo rings that hold together a scarf. I totally love it. I also was taught how to make one.

https://youtu.be/23JML0sHpNk

This is the bamboo ring I made for my scarves.

I bought a necklace from this gentleman who made the wood ring on my necklace as well as the wooden items in the pics.

Yuji had to do a speech at the school for history of Utsunomiyia. We are now headed to school early so we can look around at all the exhibits. Marlon and I were chosen to be dressed in a kimono for me and Kimono for men for Marlon. We felt very honored. After we were dressed we were to walk around the school for others to see how people used to dress in Japan on a daily basis.

Made chili tonight for the host family. We shopped with Keiko so she could read the cans to make sure I was getting the correct supplies for chili. I started by browning the pork and beef mixture and while that was cooking I cut green pepper and onion to add to the meat mixture. Keiko is paying close attention to what I'm doing and writing down instructions.

Keiko noticed I didn't have an apron on and went and got me one and put it on me. :-)

It's about 40 degrees F outside so Yuji made a fire. Nothing better on a cold wet day than a fire in the fireplace and some homemade chili.

Dipping out the soup and garnishing it with sour cream, cheese, and onion.

I also made some peanut butter sandwiches to eat with the soup. They loved it!! Keiko is going to make some for a small dinner group that is coming to her house next Saturday. I hope they enjoy it as much as we did!

Wakayama Farm Strolling through Bamboo in Japan -Romantic Village -Hide

Special thanks to Hide & Kumi Nagao for taking us on this lovely trip.

A huge chestnut grove started off our walk through the Wakayama Farms. The spines on the outside of the chestnut are sharp.

The first bamboo we see is the Madake bamboo. Madake bamboo is the oldest in Japan.

Loved the tunnel the Moso bamboo made. A light sprinkling of rain is starting. The bamboo plants are keeping the rain off of us.

Madake bamboo has grown in Japan for centuries. It can reach heights of 66 feet and about 5 inches in diameter. The joints between the sections of madake are soft which makes it easy to cut. This type of bamboo is suitable for basket weaving and the production of fans.

Moso bamboo reaches about 66 feet and its diameter is about 8 inches. Moso bamboo is generally cultivated for its edible shoots, which are generally eaten in the spring. This bamboo is the tallest and most popular.

Kikko means tortoise-shell. This type of bamboos nodes is alternately close together. This is known as a mutation type. This bamboo tree on the bottom part looks like a tortoiseshell but the top part of it is in normal form.

Kinimei Moso Bamboo is yellow gold. We could see the bright yellow as we got closer to this huge grove of bamboo trees. There have been several films done here. Can you find Kumi hiding in the bamboo?

They illuminate the bamboo on weekends, this is one of the lights.

We turned the corner and there were 2 huge swings made of bamboo. So much fun to sit and swing. We each took a turn swinging, Marlon gave Hide an extra push to make him go higher.