bon dance

It's Bon Dance Season in Hawaii.

If you'd like to know what bon dance is, please read this.

I went to the Wahiawa Ryusenji Soto Mission's Bon Dance on Friday with Aunty M.

There was a nice turn out.

Mini chicken hekka (similar to sukiyaki) sold out fast...

I had their chicken bento...delicious.

Andagi is always a must.

It was our first time going to this bon dance and I'm glad we did.

Thanks Aunty for inviting me.

o-bon

It's O-bon now in Japan.

Many companies have the week off. Satoshi doesn't but was able to take the day off.

So, on Friday, we went to Kyoto.

The priest was making his rounds to say prayers for many families.

It was a nice gathering as we haven't seen BIL and SIL in awhile.

Lunch was a bento from a tiny shop, Uotoku, up the street from MIL's.

Most people are off until Tuesday, but it's back to work for Satoshi tomorrow.

Have a nice week.

hatsubon

Earlier this month marked the one year anniversary of my mom's passing.

There was a hatsubon service at her church for all members who had passed away since the hatsubon service that was held last year. This meant that even members who had died just a month ago were included in this service.

I wrote about hatsubon in Japan here.

Over the weekend, we also held a small service for family.

The food was catered and I cleaned the house as best as I could to get it ready for guests.

I hope everyone had enough to eat and it was nice to see both sides of our family get together.

I must say that there is still a big void without her here.

Missing you Mom.

hawaii culture

Saturday evening, my Grandma wanted to go to the Pearl City Hongwanji's O-bon service so I took her.

We got there a little before 18:00 and there were a LOT of people sitting, eating and chatting, and waiting for the Bon Dance to start (at 19:30).

After the service we came out and it seemed like the amount of people had grown, there were more people sitting on the church's front lawn, some had brought their own chairs, it almost seemed like there was going to be some kind of concert or something.

I overheard that most of the food was sold out by about 19:00!

Luckily, my grandma and I had eaten dinner before going to the service.

I did manage to pick up some andagi (Okinawan donut) made by DA ANDAGI GUY, a local shop that you can find sometimes in front of Pearl City Don Quijote (a local supermarket)...4 golf ball sized andagi for US$1 in plain or cinnamon.

Since Grandma didn't want any, I bought 8 plain to take home to share with my Mom and Dad.

It was nice to see this bon dance, a little different atmosphere from the one last week. It was also nice to spend some time with my Grandma.

Have a nice week.

hawaii culture

It's Bon Dance season in Hawaii. I think it starts in July.

Anyway, the bon dance in Hawaii is great to experience because not only are you able to welcome your ancestors home with dancing, but there is also lots of great food too.

Many churches in Hawaii have their own bon dance groups, they dress up in their church happi coat (short jacket) and go around dancing at other bon dances.

Some churches feed these dancing groups afterwards.

In Japan, they have bon dances but they are not held at temples or churches (at least the ones I've seen in Osaka are not). And the types of foods are different.

Anyway, my cousin is here from the mainland for a really, really short visit and we haven't seen each other in 4 years.

We checked out the Bon Dance at the Koganji and my Aunty M, who goes to this church and was working there, gave us scrips to buy our dinner.

We shared this mixed plate with homemade beef stew and sweet sour spareribs. So good, comfort food at its best! A scoop of mac salad and 2 scoops of rice...Yum!

We also tried their "Kimono Dog" which is like a corn dog except that they use a Polish sausage and the batter for the andagi (Okinawan donut)...different but good!

It's been awhile since my cousin had a spam musubi so we got one for her.

And we had to have some andagi (Okinawan donut) so we got one each.

It was nice spending time with my cousin and being able to see what the bon dance was like. (When we were growing up we used to work in the booths, so it was nice to see it from a "guest" perspective.)

It was also nice to see this rainbow. It was as if our ancestors were smiling down at us. (Thanks again for the scrips, Aunty!)

sneak peek

still working on this post, but thought I'd give you a sneak peek.

If you grew up in Hawaii or have lived in Hawaii, you'll know what it will be about.

Hope to be able to publish this post within a couple of days.

Hope your weekend is going well.

okuribi

In Kyoto, at the end of Obon there is a big event called Daimonji (literally big chinese characters). During this event, they burn a character or picture into the side of 5 mountains around Kyoto, called gozan no okuribi. The wood that they use to light up these mountains are from various temples. People who visit these temples write their wishes onto these sticks and the sticks are carried up the various mountains to be burned.

When these sticks are burned, we send our ancestors off back to "their world", the fire is called okuribi because you are sending your ancestors off with a fire to light their way.

Every year, Satoshi's family temple has a special service. Everyone gathers early to pray and then the priest prays in front of each family's grave. After all the prayers are done, you can watch the okuribi. (You could see Kyoto Tower from the temple and the skies were a pinkish-purple.)

Most years, the service and Daimonji is held during the week, this year since it fell on a Saturday, we were able to participate in the special services. After the services, we went back home to see part of the okuribi from my MIL's house. (The mountain in the background is where the hidaridaimonji (left-big chinese character) is burned).

At 8:00 p.m., the first mountain is lit, this is called Daimonji and a chinese character which means large is lit.

Then at 8:15 p.m., the next mountain is lit and this is the Hidari-daimonji (left-chinese character). This character looks exactly like the Daimonji but it is on the left-side of Kyoto.

There is also a picture called Fune (or boat), this is lit on yet another mountain.

There are two more characters, Myoho & Ho, but we couldn't see these from where we were.

It was a great event, neighbors coming out of their houses, chatting with one another.

There was a sento (public bath) nearby my MIL's and they let us climb up onto their roof to see the Fune & Hidari-daimonji. They also said that we could come earlier next year to see the Daimonji.

It was a humid day and at one point the rain came down in big drops. There was thunder and lightning. We wondered if they would be able to light up the mountainsides with all that rain.

In the end, the skies cleared and we were able to send off our ancestors, as well as my FIL, safely.

On Sunday, we noticed that the skies had changed seasons. Hopefully it will get cooler from now.

Have a good week.

hatsubon

It is Obon here. Obon is the time of year that we welcome our ancestor's spirits back to "our world". Every year about this time, we visit our ancestor's graves, give it a good cleaning, pray and thank them for watching over us over the past year.

Some companies have the week off, but not Satoshi's. Many people return to their hometowns during their week off which is the cause for traffic jams and packed trains.

Since my FIL passed away this year, it is his first obon or hatsubon as they call it.

During this time of year, most of the priests are very busy. They go around to various congregation member's homes to pray for the member's ancestors. Yesterday, the priest from Sennyuji came to the house to pray for my FIL and our family ancestors. It was also the 17th memorial of my FIL's father's death, so we also had special prayers said for him also. This time not many relatives came, just us, BIL, MIL and FIL's younger sister.

It wasn't as stressful as the other memorial services. Since there were less people, there wasn't the need to serve lots of tea. On top of that, we didn't need to wear black. But that didn't mean you could wear hot pink or some bright color, we still had to dress subdued.

Satoshi's mom gave us some chagashi (sweets for tea). These are from Yuuzuki, a little wagashi (Japanese confection) shop down the street. I had seen them the two times we passed in the taxi on our way to the wake and funeral.

This is their usuyaki (literally thin bake). It is a thin wafer, like the ice cream cones that get soggy. And inside is a sugary cream. She gave us matcha and caramel.

Both were very good, not too sweet and the wafer very crisp.

Hope you have a great week.

Yuuzuki
64 Gotodamachi, Murasakinonishi
Kita-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.415.7088
Open 10:00-18:00
Closed Sundays

o-haka mairi

Yesterday Satoshi had the day off so we decided to do ohaka mairi (visit the graves of his ancestors), since it is the end of O-bon (the season to visit your ancestors graves).

We got up at our "normal workday" time and left for Shiga Prefecture, which is about an hour and a half by train. The weather was sunny--HOT and very HUMID. Our first stop was Nagahama. We visited here last year to do ohaka mairi and I posted about that here.

Since then, they have renovated the station and have this huge stained glass.






There were many utsusemi (shells of the released cicada) on the graves which was actually kind of creepy.









And also this little guy was hanging around the gravestone.

From Nagahama, we went to Hikone. We prayed for Satoshi's mother's ancestors here and then had lunch at a cafe called Milk House. They specialized in Mediterranean food and wine.

We each had a plate of appetizers (smoked mackerel, brook trout fritter, octopus carpaccio and tuna carpaccio).

Satoshi had the seafood pasta.

I had their homemade bacon with tomato pasta.

And we each had an assorted dessert plate (grapfruit gelatin, chestnut cake, coffee gelatin, and pannacotta).

After eating a big, delicious lunch, we walked back to Hikone station. Walking down the street was kind of like taking a trip to old Japan. There were many wooden signs.

Like this pachinko parlor, the top half of the building is modern, but the bottom half is maintaining the theme of the town.









There were also these cute tiles all over the place.

It is the "world series" of high school baseball now, many teams from around Japan play-off to enter this event. This event happens every spring and summer. Summer's games are a bigger deal than the spring. The whole town kind of stops to watch their team play and the team get lots of attention--like this team from Shiga.

From Hikone, we went to Kyoto to visit Satoshi's father's ancestor's graves.

We decided to take a taxi since we were in no mood to stand in a crowded bus. The line was long for the taxi. But, still moved rather quickly.

The taxi driver we had, had zero personality (he didn't even answer us when we told him where we were headed, but could stop and shout out to his friend to go drinking!), plus he smelled REALLY stinky. BLAH! Thank goodness the ride wasn't too long!

I noticed on many of the graves that families have their mon (crest) on the container that holds the candles. Satoshi's family crest is the chigai kashiwa (different oak).

As we were making our way down from the cemetery to catch the bus, we were lucky to come upon a taxi with a very personable driver. After chatting with the driver, we caught the train and made it back to Osaka. (What a hot, sticky day! I think they said it was 37C(98.6F) in Osaka.) It definitely felt hotter, almost like when you stick your hand in the oven to take something out.

We bought ourselves some Nagahama beer, made by the Nagahama Romanticist Beer Company.

I got their stout--a smoky dark beer and Satoshi got their Weitzen (he didn't let me taste it! must have been good!)

It was a very long, sizzling day and a very long post, but at least we got to do all the things we set out to do, and they say today will be even hotter...oh, boy!

Milk House
3-5-46 Kyomachi
Hikone, Shiga
Phone: 0749-22-1676
Lunch: 11:30-14:00
Dinner: 18:00-21:00
Closed on Wednesdays

foodie saturday

Since we didn't get to go during O-bon, we decided to visit the graves of Satoshi's mother's family and a friend of their family, today. (We'll probably visit Satoshi's father's family grave a little later.) We travelled to Shiga prefecture. It is about an hour and a half by train from Osaka.

Since we left kind of early in the morning, I made us some pastrami sandwiches (don't worry there IS pastrami in there!) for breakfast. (Yesterday, I was feeling ambitious and made more rolls, this time putting Italian seasoning as I kneaded the bread. It came out really good!)

It was a very nice SUNNY day and of course the humidity made it dreadful! The first grave that we went to was in Nagahama. The taxi driver was kind enough to turn off the meter while we went to clean the grave and say a prayer. There was even this cute little guy on the gravestone.

At the Nagahama station, we were able to check out the S.L. North Lake Biwa train, S.L. stands for steam locomotive. It was exciting to see a running coal fueled steam engine! (actually the first time for me!)


Except, look at all that pollution coming out! eew!

From Nagahama, we caught the train and went a couple of stations over to Hikone. There we visited a couple more graves and said a few more prayers.







There was a REALLY old fire "engine" in the entryway of the temple!

After saying our prayers, we walked to a cafe called Club Harie, they belong to the same company as Taneya which I posted about here and are known for their baum kuchen (a round cake that looks like the rings of a tree.

As soon as you are seated they bring you these lovely truffles.

I ordered the "cake set"--two cakes of my choice from the showcase plus a drink of my choice. Here's what I chose: Tropique--a chocolate mousse with a yellow spong cake layer and lots of tropical fruits on top. Cassis and Tea--A black currant mousse with a thin layer of cake and an earl grey flavored truffle in the center. The hot pink color was nice too! Amazingly, both of these weren't too sweet!

Satoshi had the mango ice cream, which came with these thin butter cookies.

It was a long day, but we enjoyed ourselves and did our part to uphold family traditions.

Hope you are having a great weekend!