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posted: January 31st, 2009 |
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This page actually begins with December 31st, 2008 and takes you through the 18th of January, 2009. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Begin December 31st, 2008 |
On December 30th and 31st Kazuya and I were in his home town - Funagata Town, Yamagata Prefecture. It was snowing on and off the entire time we were there. Here are 3 pictures taken on the 31st as we walked to a local Hot Spring.
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Here is one more picture taken on the 31st as we returned from the Hot Spring. The 2nd photo was taken by Kazuya from the window of the Shinkansen Train as we returned to Tokyo on January 1st, 2009.
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| End December 31st, 2008, Begin January 2nd, 2009 |
On January 2nd Kazuya and I went to Jindai Shrine for our New Year's visit. Here is a picture of the crowd waiting to get into the Shrine. The 2nd shot is an orchid at Jindai Botanical Garden and the 3rd shot is Ay-o's New Year's Poster for the Year of the Ox. Sorry this is such poor quality - you should have seen it before I worked on it extensively in PhotoShop.
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| End January 2nd, Begin January 17th |
On January the 17th Kazuya and I went for a long bicycle ride (about 6 hours) down the Nogawa (No River). The most picturesque thing we saw was some Kingfishers. Here are the 2 best shots.
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On our return trip to home on the 17th we bicycled up the Sengawa (Sen River). Here are 2 shots of some kind of duck which is not in my book and which we had never seen before. If anybody knows the scientific and English Common Names of this duck - PLEASE e-mail me. (edited: somebody DID e-mail me and this duck is a Falcated Duck [Anas falcata].)
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| End January 17th, Begin January 18th |
On January 18th Kazuya and I went out to Tamasakai to the Oyama Dairi Park and took part in the "Dondo-yaki" event, which is an event at which people burn their old talismans and so on which people used during the previous year for good luck. The first photo here shows the incredible pile of stuff to be burned. The 2nd picture is a zoomed photo of a small portion of the pile and the 3rd photo is another shot of the entire pile.
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Children stand around the pile and at a signal they set it afire. The first photo in this row was taken at 1:11:26 PM, the 2nd photo at 1:11:40 PM and the 3rd photo at 1:11:48 PM. In 22 seconds it has turned into a conflagration!
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The first photo here was taken at 1:11:57 PM, the 2nd photo at 1:14:19 PM and the 3rd photo at 1:15:25 PM - in this photo it has only been 3 minutes and 59 seconds since the fire was lit!
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This final fire photo was taken at 1:19:58, now 8 minutes and 32 seconds since it was lit afire! Now it's time to buy our "Mayudama" (small balls made from rice flour) and roast them. The 2nd photo shows the "Mayudama" on sticks before they started selling them. The 3rd shot shows people waiting in line to roast their "Mayudama".
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These 2 photos both show what the line of people waiting to roast their "Mayudama" looks like.
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The 1st shot here shows people standing around the fire roasting their "Mayudama". The 2nd shot shows a firefighter in full reflective gear - they had to go in to the fire from time to time and stir it, rake it and so on to ensure a complete burn. We did a much better job of roasting our "Mayudama" this year than we did last year (3rd shot). Last year the event was not so well organized and by the time we got to the fire there was not enough heat left to be able to roast our "Mayudama". This year we were able to roast them to perfection and they were actually quite delicious.
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| End January 18th, End Page 1 |
| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 2 for the continuation of this month's adventures. |
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