Persnickety Project 365 - 2013 in photos: December 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Day 363- Kobe view

29 December 2011- We ventured down to the waterfront area, and rode in the Kpbe ferris wheel. A pretty view, but perhaps not the best decision to choose the completely clear carriage...

Day 362- Nishiki markets

28 December 2011- The Nishiki market is a series of covered over arcades in the middle of Kyoto, lined with mostly food shops. Open daily. Here a pickles store shows its wares.

Day 361- Wishes and hopes

27 December 2011- We went to Kiyamizudera- a Buddhist temple. It's usual to find these wooden plaques at Japanese shrines and temples- wishes and hopes and prayers, placed where they can be heard.

26 December 2011 - We did something different this day- we took a "romantic" train ride through a mountain gorge, and back again (we didn't take the river boat ride that was the other return optin). While there were flurries on our way to the train, nothing was sticking. We did get a glimspe of snow dusted mountains here. Later we found out that one of the temples near where we caught the train received a hefty amount of snow- maybe we should have gone there.

Day 359- Merry Christmas

25 December 2011- We spent Christmas morning at a huge Temple market in Kyoto. The market is held every month on the 25th, and is biggest in December and January.

Day 358- pretty lights

24 December 2011- Japan does fairy light installations on a massive scale around Christmas- here trees along a stretch of riverbank for over 500 metres were decorated in lights, that went from yellow, to red and green to blue. Amazing. and packed with people

Day 357- Making mochi

23 December 2011- We went to an open air farmhouse museum in a park in Osaka. As we came to the final house we spotted this group of people, with tables set up as an outdoor kitchen. We looked at the house, and I went inside (taking off hiking boots is not fun, so Greg didn't.) While I was inside, one of the old ladies decided to tell Greg what they were doing. By the time I came outside, he had a bowl of vegetable miso soup, and another was on the way to me. They were making mochi- a traditional year end/new year food in japan. It is made by pounding cooked gelatinous rice into a gelatinous mass, adding flavouring (such as ginger) and shaping into cakes/balls that fit into the palm. While I have been given mochi before (it is like christmas fruit cake in that respect, given to all the neighbours), I have never made it. Mochi rice is different from normal rice. They were cooking it in a very oldfashioned bamboo steamer over a wood fire, then put in the big stone bowl and pounded with wooden mallets. It is hard work.

Day 356

22 December 2011- A long day of traveling- an hour or so to the airport, 8 or 9 on the plane and another hour on the train and taxi. No pictures along the way, so here is a shot of the hotel bathroom.