That Way To Yoshinogarikouen

The four of us walked up and down some of the streets in Kanzaki. We decided that Sue maybe knew the streets within Kanzaki better since she rode her bike to school everyday whereas I mostly headed to the train station to get to work.

Mike liked the rice field up on the left right in the middle of town. Makiko said there was no rice growing in her hometown in Saitama prefecture because there is no river providing tons of water needed from rice.

Here we are on the footpath that led from our neighborhood to the small grocery store. We literally walked through rice fields to do our grocery shopping.

 

Sapie is still there.

Who gets their photo taken in a grocery store?

The B-Dubs do, that’s who.

Here is some day old sashimi for ~$2.50. I’d would have bought this but I was still stuffed from our buffet breakfast featuring beef curry, miso soup, pickles, cabbage salad, rice, grilled fish, and runny scrambled eggs.

 

Back in the late 1990s I used to take a photo from this spot at different times of the year to show the passing of the seasons. I think they grew soy beans here in the winter and rice in the summer. We have series of four photos hanging in our living room.  The orange thing on the left is Sapie and our house is straight ahead.

 

American Grandfather and Japanese Grand Daughter

Here is the Sumo ring at the Shinto Shrine in Kanzaki. This is the one Makiko advised us not to body slam someone on.

While in Japan this time, I think we saw more praying going on at the temples and shrines. I don’t remember seeing people wash up, then walk up and throw coins in before performing their brief prayer. Maybe you notice different things as you get older.

American Host Mother and Japanese Daughter

Here is the sidewalk to Kanzaki Junior High School. [Sorry about using a picture with Sue’s eyes closed]

 

This school was finished during Sue’s second year teaching here.

It was built on the school’s sports fields and then the old school was torn down to make way for the new sports fields.

Back to Saga City feeling hot and sweaty.

Mr. Hirata told us who the statue was but maybe we didn’t hear why she is pointing towards Yoshinogarikouen. Yoshinogari is a historic ruins park in the next town. Maybe she is saying, “Excuse me, I’m sorry. Maybe you meant to get off the train one stop to the east where the historical park is located. . . “