Garden Scenes in a Small Town, Niigata Prefecture

A board was put under this squash to protect it. Protect it from what? The rough concrete? Water? Or was it because of the angle of its stem? I'm not sure, but I'd rather sit on wood than concrete.




A gardener in his garden by a cemetery.




Morning glories are a common summer flower here. Every first grader grows them at school. Some people like our late Jiji, grandfather, continue to grow them all their lives.




More morning glories with balloon vine also called "love in a puff". When the green balloon or puff turns brown you can shake it and hear the three seeds tumble around. The seeds are round and black with a perfect white heart on one side. Very nice.



This lotus was standing high above its container of water in someone's garden. It was standing beside another one. Later that day they had closed. Maybe you know more about water lilies than I do. Do they close in the heat of the day?

The Streets of a Small Town in Niigata Prefecture

Our destination was a friend's house in a small town in Niigata Prefecture (district) in northern Japan. There is a lot of snow in the area during the winter. The streets and some of the houses have a water system that melts the snow so it doesn't have to be shoveled. These water spouts are along most of the streets here. We have visited the area during the winter and I remember seeing water gurgling out of these spouts along the center of the road.




All that water from melted snow has to go somewhere. Here is a gutter for drainage along the edge of the street. It is covered with concrete slabs with slits in them.




I have always wanted to go around Tokyo to all the different districts and take pictures of the manhole covers. They are all different. Some are very elaborate. Here is a manhole cover from Niigata Prefecture. It is a very nice one. There are mountains and azaleas and a watermelon. A charcoal rubbing would be a nice souvenir. The streets in this town aren't so busy, but there are some manholes on the sidewalk that would make it easier and safer to do.

Around a Small Town in Niigata Prefecture

Niigata Prefecture, a district in northern Japan, is known among other things for its very good rice. There are rice paddies or fields everywhere. The paddies outside town are commercial. The rice is sold all over Japan. There are paddies in town, too. That rice is grown only for the family who farms it to eat. The picture above is rice. At this point in its growing cycle it is bright yellow green. The rice was beautiful on this sunny day, but almost blinding. It was so bright!


This is the irrigation system of one of the paddies. I believe that's grass along the center.




Though we had sunny days for our visit, Japan has received more rain than usual this year. Everyone is concerned about the rice and other crops. It seemed every house here had a rice paddy or a garden or even both. This gardener is protecting her tomatoes from rain. The umbrellas are clear plastic so the tomato plants can still get the sun when its out. In April, I posted about a gardener in Tokyo who put an umbrella over her azaleas.




Walking around town we came across this scene. After the big earthquake in the area two years ago, this family put portable toilets behind their house. Can you see the man in front of the toilets emptying them with a hose attached to the truck? Having portable toilets in your back garden is not common. At one time, however, non-flush toilets were common in Japan. Someone would come along with a wagon to empty them. Nowadays, there are houses with non-flush toilets and trucks like this one come by to empty them. Let's just say that even though the process has surely improved over the centuries, it's not a pleasant job.




This rock was behind another house down the street from the toilets. This gardener planted bonsai or miniature trees on it. It was impressive how these trees could grow on a rock.

Another Stop Along the Way

This is the welcome table at the entrance of a rest stop along our way. On the wall is a device that is used for people who are having heart trouble or a heart attack.




Each area has its specialities and each rest stop sells them as souvenirs. Each item has the name of the place printed on its packaging. There are boxes of cakes and cookies neatly wrapped. This is a small rest stop so the selection is not very big.



This is a local sweet wrapped in a dried leaf. This picture was taken at a food stall like the one in yesterday's post. These sweets were sold individually. Later on our trip I saw these at a grocery store. They were all tied together and sold as a bunch.

Peel away the dried leaf and you find a green mochi, glutinous rice, with anko, sweet adzuki bean paste, inside. Yummy.




At rest stops along the highway and at some tourist attractions, you can use a complimentary stamp in your own notebook or a souvenir stamp book. It looks like a lot of people practiced here before stamping their books.




There is no charge for using the stamp. It's a nice souvenir and collection. We usually go back to Texas in the summers and rarely travel in Japan by car so we haven't done this.

Through the Mountains

On some parts of the highway, there are walls of greenery on both sides and nothing to see except the view from the front windshield. When we are in the car in Tokyo, we are usually surrounded by concrete and tall buildings. This greenery and these mountains were a very nice change of scenery.





Eventually we got to places where we could see the view from all around.




In the far righthand corner there is an entrance to a tunnel. We were literally about to go through the mountains!


This is the car in front of us approaching the entrance.


We're about to follow it back out into the light at the end of the tunnel.

On the Way

We went through the city to get to the highway. I'll show some of those city scenes at another time. Some stretches of highway have blinders along the sides as it moves through residential and urban areas. The sky looks dark and ominous, but we didn't run into much rain. (Actually there was a lot of talk about a typhoon blowing in, but it never reached us or Tokyo.)




There are rest stops along the highway. Here is one that has booths or stalls that sell food.




This booth sells fried noodles, soba, octopus balls...




and frozen cucumbers on sticks among other things. I was looking at and taking a picture of the frozen cucumbers when the guys who were making octopus balls started putting on a show and posing.




This picture was a little unexpected gift! I didn't even have to ask. I guess many tourists pass this way who want a picture. Note the man in the back is doing the peace sign. A lot of people here do that when they are having their picture taken. I'll try to get pictures of the whole process of making octopus balls at another time. We had to get on the road again.

Gone to Niigata

We're going on a trip for a couple of days to the mountainsin Niigata prefecture. I hope to have lots of pictures to show and things to tell. I hope our morning glories make it while we're gone! Grandmother and Aunt will take care of them and the dogs.

Sorry there won't be a posting until we get back. Check back, though.

Mouse Trap

Fortunately, we have never had to use one of these. Grandmother said she saw a mouse run across the deck recently, but she didn't seem too worried about it. Mice can be a fire hazard if they chew on the wiring of a house. Some of the wiring is actually on the outside of some houses. Fire is a real concern.

Gift for Repair

A few weeks ago we had to have our shower door replaced. Afterwards, someone from the company asked to meet with Papa. He came with this nicely wrapped gift. (Papa unwrapped it before I could take a picture of the wrapping.) The box contained two bone china tea cups! What a nice repairman!

We have had repair work done in the past but never received a gift. The gesture could have been because the faulty door caused damage to the ceiling. It could have been the inconvenience of having everything torn out. (I had to wait in the kitchen to keep the dogs quiet.) Or it could have been because they gave us the wrong style of door. They put in a door without a lock on it. Our old shower door had a lock on the outside to keep out small children. Fortunately, we no longer have small children in the house.

P.S. I finally got the full story from Papa. The gift was for all those reasons, but especially for not explaining well. They stopped making the door with a lock because people got trapped inside (someone locked them in by mistake). Besides the door was defective because it leaked. They felt at fault. Apology and cups gladly accepted!

Scenes of Tokyo

This highway sign lights up to show where there is a traffic jam.




On the streets of Tokyo, there are small buildings called koban where police are stationed. They keep an eye on things. Here is one that has a nice fountain on the side. There is a sign out front that says "Danger!" in what looks like a blue water splash.




The orange streak under the traffic light is the Chuo train line. The line crosses through the center of Tokyo, but not all of it is up over the streets.




Just a street scene at dusk in Nihombashi, Tokyo. Note the guy on the bicycle on the sidewalk on the left.

Delivery and Free Curb Service

I have already posted a picture of this kind of food delivery bike. It was a picture of one parked outside a restaurant. I thought you might be interested in seeing one in use. He is probably delivering lunch to someone's home.




These pumps were outside a bicycle shop as a free service. People can stop by this shop to put air in their tires. Bicycles are a major form of transportation although you won't see hoards of them on the streets of Tokyo like you might in other Asian countries.

More Ice Cream

These look like slices of melon on sticks, but they are watermelon and melon flavored ice bars. The red one tastes like watermelon. There are small chocolate drops in it that look like watermelon seeds. The green melon bar has white chocolate drops for seeds. The chocolate seeds are cold and crunchy.



This is ice cream covered in a thin layer of glutinous rice. Sounds yummy, huh? It is! These have peach ice cream in them. Usually they have vanilla ice cream inside, but peach is a summer fruit and things change around here during the seasons. Especially the flavors of ice cream.

Somen, Cold Noodles

These thin noodles are called somen. They are bound by a paper tab and come in a package with several bundles. They boil quickly and then they are chilled. They are served cold. We rinse them in cold water and then put them in the refrigerator for a few minutes. I have seen others serve them with ice cubes in the bowl.

They are eaten with chopsticks and are dunked in sauce in a small cup made especially for somen and soba (thicker noodles). We buy the sauce in a bottle and keep it in the refrigerator. It is concentrated so after pouring a little in the small cup we put cold water in it. The sauce has mostly soy sauce and seaweed broth with a little sugar. My kids like to eat somen with mandarin orange slices. These came from a can. My daughter likes to put horseradish in her sauce. Papa likes to put slices of leek. My son likes lots of orange slices.

Summertime Gifts

A truck like this delivered a box to our house. This is a delivery service called Pelican.




A business assoicate of Papa's sent it to us. The box was full of cookies, cakes and jellies like Jell-o.

In the summer, gifts are given to show appreciation. The gifts are usually food or drink items, soap, or even household cleaning items. (We got a nice box of laundry detergent one year.) Department stores and grocery stores have big displays and an ordering service where you can have the gifts delivered.

I want to point out that the gift was partially wrapped. When I first came to Japan these gifts were carefully and completely wrapped. Even purchases you made at a department store were wrapped. Each store had its own design. Clerks were trained how to wrap packages using only one piece of tape. My sister kept the wrapping paper of a purchase so she could learn how to do it. Now, items are just placed in bags.




This tin of cookies was hand delivered by Papa's aunt. It was plainly wrapped. Grandfather passed away three years ago in July. For the anniversary of his death, relatives came to pray for him. Some brought boxes of things to eat. Others sent boxes of summer fruit.

Preparing Summer Vegetables For Sale

The farmers in the field behind our house dug potatoes and left them for a couple of days. They then gathered them and loaded them onto their truck. They took them to wash and to sell.

There are other farmers in the neighborhood. One couple has been farming near our house for over 30 years. They sell their vegetables in a vegetable stand in a parking lot on the north side of our house. Both of them work in the fields and take turns sitting in the stand selling their vegetables. They usually sit in the back. There are two chairs in the front. Customers sometimes sit there to chat with them. The stand is open from 8:00 to 6:00 during the summer months. Their lunch break is from 12:00 to 1:00. The stand is closed in the winter.




Here she is preparing edamame for sale.




Here he is in the morning going off to get more vegetables.




These shoes have always interested me. They fit snugly and have very flat rubber soles. I'm sure they prevent slipping. I have seen construction workers and gardeners wear them, too.