Kyu Shinoharake Jutaku 旧篠原家住宅

Friday Kindra and I took a tour of the former residence of the Shinoharas. The Shinoharas were wealthy merchant family who became that way distilling soy sauce and also dealing in manure.
The house is designated as a cultural asset of Utsunomiya. This home was built in 1895, it was donated to the city in 1995 and open to the public in 1996. This Meiji era house is one of the oldest buildings in the Utsunomiya area and is all that remains of what was once a large plantation. The rest of it was burned during the air raids of WWII. Its actually located right down the street and around the corner from our apartment and an interesting piece of local history.

Hanami 花見 is on the horizon.....

Sunday while in a large park down in Omiya, we spotted our first Ume tree in full bloom. The news is already reporting the progress of the bloom down south on the Island of Kyushu. To those of you in the states and elsewhere, I'm sure your thinking no big deal, blooming trees we have those too. But to those living in or who have lived in Japan we know this means that O hanami will soon be here. And in Japan this means the beginning of the outdoor party season. After a fairly cold winter, we are ready. The blooming process across Japan is actually tracked and forecasted with the daily news and weather, more or less like a regional party forecast. Here's an example of a tracking website: http://www.tenki.jp/skr/yosou/index.html
While in Omiya we also did a little shopping at the cocoon mall and while there we visited the Kua-Aina for lunch. Kua-Aina is a burger joint based out of Hawaii. We must say it was a damned good burger. Next was a stop at the Hikawa Shrine (yes, I know, yet more shrine pics), which was located in the large Omiya Koen also containing the Omiya Zoo. We took some time out to people watch, snap a couple of pics, and drink a few cold ones.
http://www.kua-aina.com/

The Tochigi Brex 栃木ブレックス

Tochigi has a team in the JBL2 which is like the AAA of Japans pro basketball league the JBL. The Tochigi Brex split time between the cities of Utsunomiya, and Oyama.
Here in Utsunomiya they play at the City Gym which is a 3 minute walk from our apartment, so we went over yesterday to watch a game. We had court side seats which was nice. The Brex are actually pretty decent(relatively speaking) and are currently in 3rd place in thier league. They easily handled the Ibaraki/Hitachi team they played 109-78.
The Brex currently have 3 American players, 1 of which had 10 years NBA experience(quite a while ago as he is now 38), who along with another had recently been playing in Europe. There is another Japanese American who has only played pro in Japan, but he played his college ball at Nevada-Reno. It was nice to see some hoops, and while the crowd wasn't that large for this game its my understanding that they usually do have some pretty large crowds both here and at Oyama.
For PR they come around after the game and shake hands with the fans and it was kind of funny because several of the guys actually recognized us and our friends because we hang out at the Iceman bar, which is also one of the places they frequent and have "team gatherings".
Since the Gym is close and we like hoops, I'm sure we will attend a few more of their games. It is our understanding they are trying to build the team up and get there fan base better established for a push to acquire a slot in the top level JBL. Anyhow, enjoy the pics and here are some links.
http://www.tochigibrex.com/index.html
http://www.blogger.com/http//www.tochigibrex.com/player/index.html/index.html
http://www.jbl.or.jp/jbl2/

In case you have forgotten the basics...........

Here are some instructions to help you get through、日本語だけごめんなさい。

JLPT 4 Success

This week I received the results of the Japan Language Proficiency Test, taken back in December and I am happy to say that I recieved a passing score. The First level or Level 4 requires knowledge of Hiragana, Katakana, 140 Kanji characters, 800 basic words, and some basic grammar. The test is given once a year and consists of 3 sections, writing/vocabulary, listing/comprehension, and reading/grammar. I took the test on a college campus in Oyama, it took about 3.5 hours to complete, and I really struggled with parts of it, so I was pretty happy to find out I had received a passing score.
Next year I may take on the level 3 test that requires 300 or more Kanji and about 1500 vocabulary words. In consideration of what I have for a brain these days and in talking to other expats who have taken Level 3 I am pretty sure that I would have a snowballs chance in hell of passing it by next December, but it may be fun just to at least try it before we depart Japan in the summer.
If you’re interested in the JLPT, here a few hyper links to some Study Guides:
JLPT Level 4 Study Guide
JLPT Level 3 Study Guide
Original website of the Meguro Language Center who's materials I found very helpful in my preparation to take the test.
Another JLPT Study page Another helpful page with online quizzes.
Now if I could just pass that damned Japan Drivers license test so Heather doesnt have to drive me around for the next year and a half...............

Fresh Seafood Dinner

Friends Ishikawa, Muroi, and Ishihara, dropped by for dinner yesterday evening.
Ishikawa-sans parents had shipped him a pretty large chest of fresh かに (Crab) and 貝(Shellfish) from where they live on west coast of Japan. The crab was fresh and really tasty, while the best description I can give for the shellfish would challenging? This was our first experience with this type of shells and they are nothing like clams, or oysters, which I can usually handle if they are cooked or buried in a soup. I tried them 3 different ways, Raw, Broiled, and Boiled, and I just couldn’t find a way I preferred them. For me they were a tad on the bitter side, very slimy, and I required a heavy dosing of Kirin after each attempt, to make the taste go away. Did I mention how wonderful the Crab was? Anyhow Heather was a bit of a puss and wouldn’t even attempt the shellfish, but she did surprise me by partaking in the traditional drinking of the Sake and "Crab Parts" mix from the shell of the crab. This was actually sweet and quite good. Heather prepared some Shrimp Pasta, the guys brought a Baskin and Robbins ice-cream cake, and of course we washed it all down with a lot of Kirin and Shochu whiskey.

Making Pottery at Mashiko 益子町

Saturday morning Kindra, Shinobu, and I went to Mashiko and made our own pottery.
We made Bowls, Mugs, Vase's, and of course the always popular Ashtray.
It was a bit messy, and lots and lots of fun. When we were finished we had lunch a really nice Japanese organic restuaraunt. The pottery making class is a very popular, so the kilns had a bit of a backlog requiring us to return to the museum next month and pick our finished goods. Perhaps if they look nice we will post some pics along with tour pics of the museum.