Christmas Time In Kashima

Merry Christmas!!! It's getting to be holiday time here in Kashima, and they've decorated the train station with a winter lights display. I hope everyone feels warmth and love this holiday season.

Aloha from Cherio Kashima Mall!!

While stopping by the mall today I was pleasantly surprised to find a display of Hawaiian music and dance! The music was very good and they had several groups of dancers come out. One group of dancers were seniors, another were children and others mixed aged. They were all very graceful. In the end the band was called for an encore, the lady playing keyboard stepped out and played the featured ukulele. She was very impressive, she plucked the strings like a Spanish guitar, then moved into a more funky strumming style, all while the bass player laid a solid back beat. It was a wonderful thing to find when not going out of my way to find something special.

Mysterious Town, Moving Streets

I have been spending a lot of time exploring and riding my bicycle around town. But something that keeps happening, I keep losing places I already found. Even when retracing my steps, I can't find some of these places. Some spots only seem to not exist as I approach one direction, and then there they are traveling back. And then in Tokyo, the city is so dense and honey combed with shops and homes, every side street hides a treasure.

It's amazing how magical and mysterious Japan is. The whole world changes as soon as you turn around, turn your back once more it's all new and magical.

It was right over there... Oh wait, no, it was over there.

Sawara A Nice Place To Visit

Last week I took a little trip to neighboring city, Sawara. Sawara is a beautiful place, with rivers running through it, like Itako, but a unique feature is it's Old Town neighborhood. There all the building are vintage, and many of the shops specialize in hand made crafts: There's a woven baskets store, hand made candy store, all sorts of restaurants, paper mache crafts. While there I buy some presents and explore around. One highlight I found, that didn't appear on google maps, was a "thousand step shrine" one of the shrines that can only be accessed by climbing some very tall, very steep steps. It seems to be there to honor sailors, and ships. Throughout the area are various anchors and propellers. The first time I visited Sawara was for my birthday, to see an amazing parade in the streets. It's an interesting place with lots to see.