First up, PRESENTS. OK, so I was definitely baffled in our orientation class by all the ritual that goes along with present-giving here. It seemed frightfully easy to become involved in an endless back-and-forth present-giving game, so I tried really hard to understand the rules. I brought presents to the neighbors when we moved in, but I made sure they weren't too big - just some chocolates I got at the NEX. That seemed to go over well. Some of the neighbors gave us small things back, but also not a big deal. I didn't think I needed to reciprocate again. Some of the neighbors have also given the boys gifts from time to time, but I feel that is not something I have to give something back for. They are usually things like fruit that is in season or candy on Halloween...
So anyway, I thought I had sort of reached a place of stasis so that I could just say "hi" to the neighbors and not worry about it. But lately weird things have been happening! I am at a complete loss again!!!
For starters, one of the neighbors randomly hands us canned coffee from the vending machine now and then. This is a vending machine that is at the end of our driveway, so I can get to it quite easily. But now and then I will walk out of my house and she will walk up and hand me 2 or 3 cans. OK?
Then, a few weeks ago, Adam and I decided to try the sushi place next door to us. The place was empty, which was weird (we were wondering if it might be a front for the Yakuza), but we had some great sushi:
After we ate, the chef/owners, a husband and wife, tried to talk to us a bit. They spoke no English, so we were using our best (awful) Japanese and our translator apps on our phones. It was amicable, and we were all getting our points across in one way or another. All of a sudden, as we are talking, the wife starts bringing us things. She even brought a nice bag out and loaded it up for us. Here is what we walked out with:
Um, bacon?
And some kind of pound cake with red beans on the bottom. But it wasn't just a pound cake. It was wrapped up in a pretty box that took about an hour to get into:
What in the world? We had no idea what to do. We actually left before we intended to because we were afraid if we stayed any longer she would start giving us more and more gifts.
Anyway, that has been a conundrum lately. I guess we should start giving out presents again. Then maybe we will be in the clear for awhile? Who knows! The whole thing has become a bit strange!
Next up, some sight-seeing. We got to go on a day trip to Hakone, which is a mountain area with natural hot springs. Japanese people looooove their hot springs, and now I know why. It can be SO cold here, and none of the houses are heated. Well, none of them have insulation, and they use space heaters and kerosene heaters to heat one room at a time, but it is seriously cold. All the time. Now I understand the draw of sitting in boiling hot water for long periods of time in the dead of winter. It's a chance to warm up, finally! Anyway, we want to go back when we can stay in one of the hotels and do the full-on baths, but this was just a short outing so there was some feet-dipping, but nothing more.
I will spare you most of the pretty mountain photos, but what you should see is this: the hot springs there are hot enough to boil eggs, but the eggs turn black because of the minerals in the water. Supposedly you will add 7 years to your life if you eat one, so of course we had to do just that. It was pretty special:
OK, maybe just one pretty mountain shot with hot springs steaming up. This really was a beautiful area of Japan, and I hope to be able to go back:
And here are the 4 of us, freezing our butts off, about to go look at a shrine:
