Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Away from books







The festival starts at 10AM, ends at 8PM and is closed with fireworks. One thing I love about yukata festival which is organized by students, is that it offers many attractions. Food, drinks, drama, music, dance, fashion show, wishlist paper and even World Beer Center. Sometimes some students remind me of how crazy we could be when at school and being among friends.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Welcome Summer




Time to wear yukata or summer kimono. Each year on June 29 Yukata Matsuri/Festival is held at the Hiroshima University to mark the end of spring and to welcome summer.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

When is it over?

For him and those innocent people who have suffered from political dispute, anywhere in the world.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bispapa

Bispapa or Bistro Pa Pa is a cafe, bar and diner. With some flag signs on its facade, I think it offers menus from around the world.
Happy weekend.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Napolian Saijo


Another Italian restaurant, Pizzeria Mar-De Napoli. I've never been inside, guess its primi piatti is pizza? :)

And for your pizza, what to drink? Let's see, coffee, milk/lemon tea, ice coffee/tea, ginger ale, orange juice, green tea, cola.

So far, this is my favorite, it looks cozy.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Buon Appetito!

Everybody loves Italian food and I can tell that in Saijo, it's a favorite. There are many Italian restaurants which serve not only some common Italian food but the special ones, too.
Cheezuu fondyu. Anybody can decipher its meaning? Cheezuu is of course cheese :).

Yuri San: Supagetti wa, doyouni iremashooka (How do you like your spaghetti?)
Hiro San: Aru dente desu (Al dente)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sayounara

The last poppy I saw last week on the street side.

No more spring signs, they have trimmed and cleaned all spring flowers. Time flies so fast.
Hiro San: Mata rainen (See you next year)
Yuri San: Mata oai shitai desu (I want to see you again)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Music Festival Day 2

Second day of the festival was held both indoor and outdoor. Meet the mascot, Nanto the Drunken Raccoon. I don't think it's wise to let your kid to be near this gentleman :).

I came to see at the park late in the afternoon when the show was about to finish, when the last band which I presumed from university students were seriously playing their instruments,
where the only audience were their own friends. Just loved the spirit.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Music Festival

Higashi Hiroshima Music Festival is held annually in the summer. This year the music festival emphasized on brass instrument. The performers came from various groups in Higashi Hiroshima city, mainly students from junior, high school students and university.

This group of teachers and students of Kurose High School. Have you ever heard Africa by Toto played in concert? :).
A cappela also took part in this event. It was nice to listen to them singing J-pop with a cappela.
I have decided to show you Higashi Hiroshima Festival which was held a week ago before it's too late. Summer is here and there is music festival everywhere.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Dare To Climb?

You can guess from the tittle above what sign it is :). It's a sign which is found on most electric masts in Saijo and probably anywhere in Japan.

This one is not a sign actually, it's on a gate of sake house located in my neighborhood. I asked several people about this writing, so far, nobody has answered my challenge :). Let's just enjoy this photo, I personally like it. What about you? :)
PS: Do you think I should continue this theme?
Yuri San : Onegaisimasu (Yes, please)
Hiro San : Unn, chotto (Mmm, maybe not)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Need Help

This sign is in the old street behind my house. I was told there's an electric tower inside the room, which is odd, as we see the room is not too tall to keep a tower. Well, a short tower perhaps?

The other two signs are found on sake houses' wall.

Now I'm open to suggestion about these signs. Anyone can break the codes? :).
Wish you a golden weekend.
Let's see what Gary has found:
The bottom one is easy. It’s like this.

The middle one is a notice about some kind of memorial service at a temple, probably 教善寺 which looks like it is just north of Saijo Station (Kyouzenji?). The memorial service was on April 29 at 1:30 P.M.

The top one is all about fire alarm bells. That might be a fire-watch tower that is illustrated. What blows my mind is how old those signs are. They probably date from WWII or before because after the war horizontal rows of kanji were written from left to right, but before the war kanji were written from right to left, like vertical writing in Japan today. We can see this at the top right of the left sign with this line: 号信災火 which we write this way these days 火災信号。Rarely, I could see old shop signs written from right to left in Tokyo.

I’m guessing that the circles with lines connecting some of them are patterns of hitting the bell depending on what the fire watch people want to communicate, like whether the fire is close, within the local ward, or widespread. The sign on the left has some siren patterns.

There is an example of a watchtower here. And here is one in Kawagoe, near Tokyo. Here is one in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles.

Traditionally towns and cities in Japan were filled with wooden buildings, so fire was a major hazard.
Yuri San: Tomu wa kanji o hyaku gurai shitte imasu (Tom knows about a hundred kanji)
Hiro San: Watashi wa niju gurai desu, anata wa? (I know about twenty kanji, what about you?)

Friday, June 19, 2009

To Smoke or Not to Smoke

Signs for today's post are found at Hiroshima University. Apparently, this sign above doesn't work :).
This is a trash bin special for empty milk box. I wonder who was behind this nice box.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Psst...

Always love this funny sign. It's a sign that tells us to turn off our car engine during the night when parking in front of a konbini store.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Dame yo

Like my five days ago post, these signs look similar, to prevent people from entering the area. This one above is a more serious sign which is aimed for adults.
And this one is for children. We can see it from how funny that man is :).
Hiro Kun: Dame yo (No, we musn't)
Yuri Chan: Haik (Ok)

Friday, June 12, 2009

No Trespassing!!



My new theme starts today. It's all about signs. There are so many signs in Saijo that really catch my attention. Some I completely don't understand, some make me laugh on the street.
This sign is on a cover wall where a new building is under construction. "Prohibited, it's dangerous!!". Well, Sir, I just want to take a picture :).
Happy weekend, everybody.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Angkor II





Angkor II, located in downtown Saijo, is the biggest pachinko in town. For a small town, Saijo quite has many pachinkos. In the morning, usually there's a long line of people waiting to get in to find their luck. I love this one, it has many funny posters outside. Of course this building not only houses pachinko parlor, however, sorry, I haven't found out what other activities run in this huge building. Moreover, I'm not able to go inside yet. Got to find someone for free tour:).
Meanwhile, since Angkor I remains mystery until today, this pachinko theme has to be continued some time until Yuri and Hiro San come back with their finding. Have a nice day, everybody.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Japan's Angkor



Angkor III, one of the Angkor pachinko parlors in Saijo. It is always like this, colorful banners, dramatic anime and plastic flowers.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Local Heroes


I dedicate today's post to our firefighters for their great job.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Gohan

Gohan or rice from Saijo and other areas in Hiroshima. As we all know that rice is staple food in Japan, Japanese rice with its size and texture is different with other varieties that come from let say, South-East Asia.
Makizushi ((巻き寿司) or rolled sushi with cucumber, best for barbeque :).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

I want it curled

An old barbershop, in the old part of the town.
Let's check its tariff:
- straight, permanent: 10.000Yen,
- iron, permanent: 7.000Yen,
- hair color:  5.000Yen,
- hair raising (again, I'll check this with my teacher): 3.000Yen.
Quite expensive for a barber shop I think.
What's the difference between having your hair straightened or ironed? To be honest, I've never been in a beauty salon in Saijo :).

Yuri San: Kirei na kami (Nice hair)
Hiro San: Aironpama simashita (I Had it ironed)