Angie Arrives in JapanA few weeks ago Angie arrived. She had come all the way from Alaska so the humid weather here hit her pretty hard. But she arrived with an opening ceremony by the government (postal inspection), which gave her a warm welcome, and expedited her on her way to my little corner of Shangri-La.
Angie has been traveling all over the world, you see, and when she was last seen visiting Celeste and Randy up in Alaska, I guess she had had enough of real winter, and wanted to see what an Asian winter was all about. So she donned her cute little parka, put on her sunglasses, packed up her stuff and headed out.
You can See Angie's other adventures on her very own page, called "Angie's World".
Well, when Angie first arrived and jumped out of the box, "Jack-in-a-box style" to greet me and hug me around the neck I was very excited! And then she started pulling out all these wonderful gifts that she had picked up while in Alaska! There was the "MilePost 2004", which is the Alaska travel bible. I'm looking forward to sharing that with Max for whenever we can make that journey up to Alaska together. She also brought a great ulu knife, some tea, some aromatic oils for Mayu, North Pole Coffee, a pair of cooking ohashi (sae-bashi in Japanese) made by hand by Randy, and a great little placque that hangs on my corkboard and reads,
I took a photo of Angie with all of the gifts as she was eating and you can see them all at the top of the page. I wanted to take more, but she was really very hungry and asked me to make something for her. Speaking of food ... Angie can really put back the bacon! She was soooo hungry when she got here that I had to fill her up with a huge amount of Japanese bacon.
Well, after Angie had rested for a while, a day or two later we headed down to the post office so that Cam could mail something for a customer in China. (Ooooh China.....). Angie decided to tag along so in order to keep her busy during the weighing of Cam's package, she decided to monkey around a bit with the staff in the post office. They loved her!
On the way back from the post office we walked past a beautiful traditonal house with a lovely garden. Angie, never having seen a Japanese garden before, couldn't resist. And of course after climbing all the trees, kissing the koi in the pond, and picking at the moss on the rocks, she just had to climb up the stone lantern to see if there were any lights inside.
Here you can see Angie hanging out on the train track which is the line that travels from Fukui City (off in the distance about 30minutes away) all the way to Katsuyama city in the other direction. This train used to be in the Guiness Book of Records as the most expensive train in the world. But now, for 600 yen you can take the 30 minute ride into the city and do your shopping if you don't feel like paying the 1,000 for parking for several hours.
Cam's village, formerly known as Kamishii-mura, but now amalgamated into Eiheiji-cho, is famous around the country for growing ... garlic! And this little fellow you see Angie with is none other than Ninki-kun, the village mascot. In the early summer when the garlic is near ready to harvest, you can walk around and it smells like you are walking through the kitchen of an italian restaurant.
Another day Cam took Angie around the village and she met a few other residents. This fellow was out and enjoying the sun on this sunny, cool March day. Angie enjoyed snuggling up to him but when she left, she whispered to Cam, "he's a little bit smelly..."
Angie didn't realize that when she was coming to visit Cam in Japan that she would meet long lost cousin, Pink, who emigrated from Kansas, to live "on the wild side". Pink was off on a little business trip when Angie arrived so that was why they didn't meet right away. But as soon as they did hook up, there were .. happy as two monkeys in a banana tree!
One day, Cam suggested that they all go up to visit Chama-gon and Chama-rin, the dinosaur mascotts of Katsuyama City. Katsuyama is upriver in the mountains but it is now famous for a lot of dinosaur bone discoveries. There is an amazing museum there all about dinosaurs and it is, according to Cam, a truly fantastic place that he highly recommends for young, and old alike (no English available, sorry).
Before they went to visit the famous dinopair, they decided to stop at an ice cream stand up near the area and have some delicious soft ice cream. It is made from jersey cow milk in the area and is quite famous for the rich delicious taste. Cam had a bite (he doesn't eat a lot of ice cream) and Angie and Pink finished it off.
Cam tried to get to Chama-gon and Chama-rin but it turned out that they weren't able to do so because of all the snow. It looked like they were out of luck! Oh well...
Next, of course, since they were so close to the temple that Cam and Paula visited in the summer of 2007 called Heisenji, Angie wanted to see it. But as you can see, there was a LOT of snow! That did not deter the trio and they decided to trek up the mountain to get a glimpse of this famous temple.
Finally approaching the first shrine, Pink and Angie rush ahead and work their way up the building to see what the sign says. Cam only had two feet to walk on so he was a little slower. And being much taller, his center of gravity did slow him down some.
Here we can see they are a little closer to their goal. Cam thought they seemed a bit winded and were just hanging around to catch their breath, but they denied it.
Cam finally caught up to the two and snapped a photo of them as they were hanging around, looking cool. They WERE cool! It WAS cool!! The temple was cool!!! (it was also good there were no resident monks or priests around too as that wouldn't have been so cool.)
Angie had the right idea to SIT on the twine. You can see that Pink is getting a tad tired hanging there waiting for Cam to show up...
This is what Angie and Pink saw when they looked back toward where the front gate was. It was a looong way back! The trio had a good trudge ahead of them, through the forest, but the air was fresh, the breeze cool and they were alive! Kinda. Sorta...
Just having a look around from their same vantage point, Pink and Angie saw that there really are a LOT of cedar trees on this mountain, in this forest! Imagine how bad it will get when the snow melts a little more and these trees start kicking off their cedar pollen? It is already terrible in Tokyo and Cam will soon be starting to wish he could rip his eyeballs out and wash them in salty, soapy water due to the massive amounts of pollen. It has become a serious problem in Japan, Cam told Angie. Far more destructive than the North American "hay fever". Again, it is one of those "differences unique to Japan" things.
While looking around, Angie got an idea that she would like to start working on when she finally gets home after her worldwide travel. She thought it would be really neat to make a "Lonely Lantern Guide to Spiritual Travel" to different countries around the world. Cam thought that was a cute idea. Pink snorted. Angie, slapped Pink. Pink cried. Angie felt bad and apologized. They hugged and climbed down from their vantage point, hand in hand.
If you look behind the temple where Cam, Angie and Pink were playing around you can see more temples. These temples were under repair construction when Paula was visiting. Cam wanted to take them up there, but there was too much snow and nobody had made any paths to get there. So they passed and slip slided their way back to the car in the parking lot at the base of the mountain.
Once down the mountain, the three drove past the Katsuyama Castle. This castle was build about 15 years ago and has nothing to do with the history of the area. It is a museum now built buy a former resident of Katsuyama who went to Osaka and became very rich running a taxi business. He wanted to "give back" something so he donated the construction of this giant building.
Looking back up into the mountains we can see where the temple is located. This is also the area where Cam and his friend Masaki go mountain biking all the time. It is a beautiful place to relax and enjoy!
After all that hiking through snow, Angie and Pink were hungry so Cam took them to a supermarket. The two went straight to the fruit section and found the bananas.
The surprising thing to them was that each bunch of bananas was quite small, and they were all shrink wrapped in saran wrap. They thought that was dumb and hard on the environment to waste so much petroleum-based natural resources like that.
Angie has a dream to ride on an elephant during one of her trips so she hopes that she can do that in Dubai, or maybe after Dubai someone can invite her to an Elephant-caring country.
While Cam and Pink were off getting batteries in a Home Center, Angie finagled a ride on a mini elephant that was just sticking around, waiting for spring...
On another day Cam went to the local Starbucks (there is only one in Fukui and it is a 30 minute drive from his home) to relax among people, have some soso coffee and read his book. He took Angie along (Pink had other business, or so he claimed). Angie got bored and started monkeying around. She almost went home with some cute Japanese girl who kept sniffing her and saying she smelled like coffee....
On yet another day, Cam took Angie to the Onsen, Relaim where he does his workouts. She waited for him patiently....
When Cam was done he snuck her into the outdoor bath so that she could experience it all to herself.
Since boy monkeys and girl monkeys have different baths in different parts of the complex, it was a little difficult for Angie to get in with Cam, but she did her best and camoflaged herself as a washing towel just to get in on the action.
It was hot! But she really wanted to get this shot becaue Celeste in Alaska wouldn't stop nagging her about getting an onsen shot. Angie hopes that FINALLY Celeste will be able to sleep peacefully.
Angie was getting a little hot in her parka all the time as spring is coming to Japan. She and Cam went clothing shopping but couldn't find a single thing. FINALLY they relented and went online to custom order some traditional clothing for Angie to dress up in.
Here you can See Angie closer showing off her custom-made kimono. If you look at the following photos in detail on Cam's Flickr page, you will see the amazing detail that Ms. Hara made for Angie when hand stitching these clothes. In the end we asked a woman waaaay up in the northern most part of the island to make her a custom kimono.
And you know what? It fit perfectly!
Doesn't Angie look maaaavelous?
It wasn't cheap by any means, but Angie loves it and she wants to show it to everyone that she meets from now on.
So, please be sure to send Angie's clothes with her whenever she packs her bags and heads on to her next destination.
She really has become a clothing collector and is looking for some traditional garb when she gets to Dubai as well as she imagines this kimono might not suit the climate, or the atmosphere (although a kimono really does look elegant anywhere!)
Angie would like to thank Hara-san in Aomori Prefecture (really very very far from where Cam lives) for making such a detailed, and gorgeous hand-made kimono. She was ecstactic at how perfectly it fits!
Angie says, "I love you, Hara-san! Arigatou gozaimashita"
Angie just asked Cam to zoom in a bit so she could show off some more of the gorgeous details of her kimono to Stefnee, the Fabric Goddess who will probably be drooling by now. She really is a little attention whore, just like Cam!
Well, with her visit to Cam in Japan coming to a close, Angie had to admit that she had a great time meeting a lot of new folk here and seeing yet another amazing place around the world. Angie asked to have a photo with all of her new friends that she met when she came to visit Cam and Mayu in Japan.
She is going to miss each and every one of them!
*sniff sniff*
Angie waves goodbye to everyone as she starts getting ready to pack up and head off on her next big adventure... Dubai! Angie has decided she is going to visit Gaby in Dubai... but she needs his address so that when she finishes her shopping trip she can catch the next plane out.
She'll never forget this part of her trip, just like each and every family she has met has been a wonderful experience.
But time waits for no monkey, so off she must scoot, into the wild green jungle!
"Thanks for the memories! I love you!"
Now what would an adventure be without a final hug from Cam? It's important to hug Cam whenever you visit him or whenever he visits you! Never forget, because Cam feels sooooo goood to hug!
And yes, Cam loves you, too!
Eiheiji, Japan
What a lovely post about Angie's visit with you, Cam! And her kimono is absolutely beautiful!
ReplyDeleteToo bad Angie didn't want to come to Florida.... I would have given her a screaming good ride on the scoot!
ReplyDeleteLooks like she had a great time!!
:-)
ReplyDeletewell--- :-)))) done ..please more angie stories please..
ReplyDeleteCam.. I spent my morning over on 360 reading about Angie's travels.... the photos of her in Alaska are amazing!! and the ones with her and Pink made me cry a little.
ReplyDeleteI hope someone connected to me gets her sometime.. because.... I would LOVE to show her harvest!! The flint hills... Rock City..... and even take her on a horse ride!!!
What a great adventure for such a small monkey!
I love you!
I love this! Reckon Angie would like to visit Kentucky? I can take her fishing, to see horse farms, to Woodford Reserve and maybe a down home music gathering.....
ReplyDeleteI'm sure she will get back there, my friends. But for now, it's time she take a little break from the west, and cultivate her understanding of the east, and the middle east. Enjoy her future adventures!
ReplyDeleteI love you!
I'm kinda sad that she didn't come my way.... I was sitting here thinking of all the great places in Florida we could have visited. The obvious... Disney World... The oldest city in the US . St Augustine Fl... (I would have let her dip her toe in the Fountain of Youth). who knows.... she even might have liked to go skydiving with me.
ReplyDeletePC - Now you have something else to look forward to in the future!
ReplyDeleteI will continue to make plans..... perhaps someday it could be my turn......
ReplyDeleteOh Cam.. what a wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteI miss Celeste! *booo hooooo* Send her my love.. tell her I hate Y! and how it disconnected me from her and the greenhouse..
The Kimono is so beautiful!
cool blog, I got a chuckle out of this.
ReplyDeleteOur kid's schools do something like this. He's called flat Stanley and you can mail him anywhere, because he's ...well, he's flat (paper). But he can go anywhere and the idea is to send him somewhere interesting and then Stanley can have pictures taken of him doing all sorts of things with his guardian(s) and then return and all the kids get to learn about another place. Cool idea!
Love the pictures and the Kimono!
Amy - Apparently Flat Stanley has been running the globe for 20 years. Thanks!
ReplyDeletekewl! as he should! It's a great way to teach kids about the world, geography, culture, etc etc ad nauseum
ReplyDeleteI love it I love it I love it! I wanna be Angie! Or Flat Stanley. Or Elmo he's cute and has a positive attitude, he gets to go to imagination land- that's a cool place too! lol
ReplyDeleteOK I just now put 2 & 2 together who Angie is off to, Gaby DUH!!!! I saw a picture of she and he this morning over on facebook..so she made it safe and sound....LOL
ReplyDeleteThis is too much fun! I guess I have had my head in the clouds too much lately and didn't realize.... LOL
Believe it or not my friend, I am just reading about Angie's adventure with you...although I probably read it on Yahoo before. Her kimono is beautiful and she was sure lucky to have you had it made for her. If you ever speak with her again let her know that there is a couch or something for her to sleep in here in MO.
ReplyDeletePeace.....