hey all,
It's been a pretty good weekend. Saturday was catching up and preparing for tutoring Michi. Earlier last week, I also ordered a set of magnets to play with: you know, those small BB sized ones that are really powerful and can be arranged into millions of different shapes. I also spent a few hours playing with those.
Sunday, John, myself and our girls went to the Kanamara Festival in Kawasaki. I actually can't say too much more about the festival itself. If you are interested, google it. We also went to Kawasaki Taishi and we did that tracing thing, where they give you a picture of Buddha or another deity, or sometimes a sutra, and you copy it out by hand. With the deities, the outline is already there and you actually just color it in. Pretty fun, like being back in elementary school. I colored in the deity that is supposed to represent my Chinese Zodiac animal, the dog.
In earthquake related news, I have noticed a slight increase in food prices, about 20 Yen more expensive than a few weeks ago, at least for eggs.
I found an interesting article about bouldering in Japan here. Many Japanese people have been telling me the same thing as the article says ever since I came to Japan: that bouldering is becoming more popular, but the number of people actually practicing climbing is decreasing. One of the interesting points is that I've been to both of the gyms whose pictures are featured in the article.
Personally, I would probably attribute the rise in the popularity of bouldering to the somewhat anti-social nature of the Japanese. After all, Sony invented the Walkman, which lets you listen to music BY YOURSELF, even if you're in public or with other people. Bouldering lets you enjoy rock climbing, which in every other case is a sport that requires two or more people, all BY YOURSELF. Of course, there are also the house/room size and transportation issues. Rock climbing requires rope, harness, and lots of other gear, which must be stored in your house and then transported to the climbing site. You need to have space in your house for it, and you might not want to haul that much stuff around on a crowded train on a regular basis.
Cheers,
