Roadside Cemeteries

Perhaps it’s because of the proximity of the gravestones to each other that, I find whenever I drive past one of the innumerable cemeteries, I want to take a closer look. I realize that cremation is the norm here, but it isn’t natural for me to think that when I see the tiered rows of memorials.

Halloween Omiyage

This week's Omiyage, Halloween Candy from Canada and another cake for nighttime.

Hoshigaoka

Hoshigaoka is the next stop after Issha, on the way into the center of Nagoya. I love walking to Hoshigaoka on the weekends or getting off the subway one stop early to see what is happening at the shops.This weekend the landscape in front of the shops was decorated for Halloween.

Nagoya City Art Museum

Last Sunday was a nasty fall day, in contrast to all of the beautiful fall days we had during the work week, so I visited the Nagoya City Art Museum. I wasn't interested in seeing the temporary exhibit, works by Picasso from the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Germany, so I purchased a ticket to see the museum's permanent collection.

The building is two stories with visiting exhibits on the top two floors and the permanent collection in the basement. The permanent collection was disappointingly small, only 3 gallery spaces. I found several things about the display of the collection distracting and frustrating.

-The wallpaper behind the pieces is filled with pierce holes, scuffs, and dirt remaining from previous arrangements.

-About 1/3 of the collection behind glass walls creating glare

-bright overhead florescent lighting and few targeted light sources

-No apparent connection, other than size, in the arrangement of the pieces

My favorite piece in the collection was a portion of a Diego Rivera mural, It made me appreciate how lucky we are to have the Rivera gallery at the DIA.

In contrast to the museum upkeep the grounds on which the building sits, along with the city science center, are a well kept beautiful green spaces where I would have spent more time if not for the rain.

http://www.art-museum.city.nagoya.jp/index.shtml

Congratulations ACB!

Bells

Before it gets so ingrained in my head that I forget about the absurdity, I want to mention the working hours in my office. Every morning at 8:25 the first bell rings, the bell continues to ring throughout the day on the following schedule.

8:25 Get Ready to Start the Day!
8:30 Start of the Day
11:45 First Lunch
12:00 Second Lunch
12:15 My Lunch
12:40 Warning for the end of First Lunch
12:45 End of First Lunch
12:55 Warning for the end of Second Lunch
1:00 End of Second Lunch
1:10 Warning for the end of Third Lunch
1:15 End of Third Lunch
5:30 End of the Day
9:00 Actual end of the Day

The 9:00 bell is accompanied by a nice announcement stating that it was a great work day and it is time to go home At 9:10 the lights go out and my group members can return home.

Stove Top & Fish Broiler Cooking 3

Black bean cakes on a bed of cabbage with pepper lime mayonnaise and a side of avocado and tomato.

Halloween Party

Yesterday well planned and much anticipated Halloween Party hosted by M & L.I wont know the final count until they come down, but Friday night, over pizza, we put up several hundred rats on every surface of the apartment. One guest was very confused as to what Mickey Mouse had to do with Halloween. I wish I had taken more photos to document the fun. My excuse is that I was too busy trying all of the delicious food. In addition to the food that L and I prepared it seamed that every guest brought something fun and Japanese to share. Post party M&L and I headed out to raid our neighbors persimmon tree (http://ictjapan.blogspot.com/2008/10/persimmon-tree.html), but failed after fearing that our fits of laughter tipped our neighbor off.