In some of my photos you can see people wearing white clothes & conical (= cone shape) hats. This is the traditional dress for pilgrims [gyouja]. Because I was cycling, I didn`t wear them, & I couldn`t carry a walking staff [kongoutsue] either. That`s kind of a shame, because they`re very ornate & colorful, & I`d quite like to have one. Maybe next time I`ll buy one as a souvenir.
Actually, most henro pilgrims don`t use their staffs for walking - I often see groups arrive by bus or mini-van, & just before they get off the bus, they get their staffs & conical hats, then they walk from the carpark into the temple. Nowadays not many people do the full henro on foot (it takes one or two months to complete).
While trying to find out how high henro temple number 45 (Iwaya-ji) was, I found this interesting GPS graph. It was posted online by someone who cycled the same route. I think the beginning point is Matsuyama, & the final point is Iwaya-ji.
I feel tired just looking at it.
Day 2 was the toughest day of our trip - we had to climb a big mountain. Sometimes we rode, sometimes we walked, and sometimes I just sat down by the side of the road, ate a mandarin [mikan] (Ehime prefecture is famous for mandarins) and cried for a while. It was hard work.
But coming down the other side was fun.
As you can see, the leaves have started changing colour in some places.
We were on Shikoku for four days altogether. These are some photos from the first day. If you have any questions, please ask me in Comments. For example:
- What kind of flowers are those in the second picture? A: They`re cosmos.
- What kind of crab is that? A: Sorry, I don`t know. I saw a few of them on one mountain road we were on.
- How big was it? A: About 7cm across.
- Did you pick it up? A: Yes.
- Did you keep it? A: No.
- Did you cook it & eat it? A: No!
Click on the picture to enlarge.
During our school`s autumn holiday, my father-in-law & I took our bicycles to Shikoku Island to continue our cycling tour of the island`s 88 `henro` temples. As you can see from this map, we completed about a quarter in 2008, another quarter in 2010, & this time we managed about the same.
The weather was good, & we didn`t have too many problems. Of course I took a lot of photos - I`ll post some of them over the next day or two.
My father-in-law has lots of old machine spare parts. I saw some plastic wheels in a bucket & thought they would be good as toy car wheels. Of course I used recycled wood for the bodies. So far I`ve made 3 cars, & I hope to make more in the future. It was interesting to research & design the shapes.
The designs are based on the following:
- 1950s F1 Ferrari
- 1970s/80s New York taxi
- 1960s Landrover
Which one do you like the most? What do you think I should make next?
Recently, because of roadworks (dori kouji), I took a different way to work, and to my surprise I found this old Mercedes Benz (250S? from around 1967).
The paintwork is in bad shape, but otherwise it seems undamaged, and the tyres are even inflated, so I wonder if it still works. What do you think?
I imagine similar conversations in this house everyday:
Breakfast: "You going to fix that car today?" "Yeh, maybe"
Lunch: "You started on the car yet?" "Not yet"
Dinner: "You fix the car?" "Sorry - too busy. Maybe tomorrow"
I really wonder if it works...
As expected, Saturday`s halloween party for adults at Gifu was great fun. Everyone had really interesting costumes and we all had a lot of fun chatting, playing games and of course taking photos. Some lucky attendees also received complimentary (= free) whippings by Dominatrix Henriette.
I wore the same costume that I wore to the kids` party last Sunday - Sadako from the movie `The Ring`. Last week I scared some kids so much that they cried, but I didn`t really scare anyone at the adults party. I tried hard - crawling along the floor making creepy noises and grabbing people`s legs - but nobody seemed surprised. Probably because I often behave this way at Teragoya parties.
Happy Halloween!
Click on the above picture to enlarge.
Have you seen the movie "The Ring"? If so, then you`ll recognise my costume for last Sunday`s kids halloween party at our Ginan school. This character`s name is `Sadako`. I guess this is a really unpopular girl`s name since that movie came out....
Even though most small kids have never (I hope!) seen the movie, some at the party were really scared by my costume. A few even cried. Of course I felt bad about that. I felt so bad I chased some of them and made them cry more.
This Saturday night is our adults` halloween party at our Gifu school. I will wear the same costume. I think it will be hard to make make adults cry, but if I drink too much & behave badly enough, maybe my boss will.
By the way, you can see more photos from the party on our schools` blogs.
Everybody knows that Japanese people love visiting Hawaii, but not everyone knows that hula dancing is a popular pastime in Japan. That`s lucky for Teragoya, because it means we could find lots of excellent performers for our Hawaiian party in Gifu last week. They look fantastic, don`t they? Thanks, ladies!
A student also played the ukelele and sang a Hawaiian song for us - I was pretty impressed.
People were also impressed by my delicious cocktails, though they were a little surprised that my `Blue Hawaii` was green.
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