 January
1, 2010 -
Happy New Year, Nara Park, Kōfuku-ji, Tōdai-ji. Happy New Year - We would like to wish all of you
Happy Holidays and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New
Year. We should soon be in the new house and
will be posting even more pictures along with some videos. We really
appreciate everyone checking this site and especially all
the email from our friends. Really looking forward to all of
you visiting us in Japan. |
 Nara
Park - Today we headed back to Nara Park to see a
couple of famous temples again. We saw lots more deer and
plenty of people. Within the park, many yatai were set up. A yatai (屋台) is a small, mobile food
stall in Japan typically selling ramen or other hot food.
The name literally means "shop stand." Many of them were
selling hot sweet potatoes and senbei which is a snack you
can feed to the deer. Nara Park (奈良公園, Nara Kōen) is a
public park located in the city of Nara, Japan, at the foot
of Mount Wakakusa, established in 1880. The over 1,200 wild
sika deer (シカ or 鹿 shika) freely roaming around in the park
are classified as a "Natural Monument." The park is also
home to the Nara National Museum and Todai-ji, where the
largest wooden building in the world houses a 50' tall
statue of Buddha.
More information about Nara Park |
 Kōfuku-ji
Temple - We visited the two most famous temples in
the park. The first temple is called Kōfuku-ji. Kōfuku-ji
(興福寺, Kōfuku-ji) is a Buddhist temple in the city of Nara,
in Nara prefecture, Japan. Kōfuku-ji, along with several
Buddhist temples, and other sites in Nara, received the
distinction of being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site
under the name: "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara." The
picture is of the five story pagoda.
More information about Kofuku-ji |
 Tōdai-ji
Temple - Tōdai-ji (東大寺, Tōdai-ji, Eastern Great
Temple), is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of
Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall (大仏殿 Daibutsuden), the
largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's
largest statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese
simply as Daibutsu (大仏). The temple is a listed UNESCO World
Heritage Site as "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara",
together with seven other sites including temples, shrines
and places in the city of Nara. Sika deer, regarded as
messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam the
grounds freely.
More information about Tōdai-ji |
|
January 3, 2010 -
Rice Bowl.
Nope not talking about food. Today was the
Japanese version of the Super Bowl. This is American
Football with a few variations. The rules are basically the
same as college football in the United States. The two
leagues consist of a collegiate league and a corporate
league. The rice bowl is the culmination of the season with
the top team from each league competing for the national
championship. When the players get injured, they run out and cover
them with a blanket and walk them off the field. They
covered one of the players with a honey bear blanket but
could not take the picture in time. |
 Ando
Town, Nara, Japan House Purchase
January 12, 2010 -
Yup, this whole house thingy began 6 months
ago in San Diego when we found this house online. After lots
of controversy and problems surrounding the purchase, we
made it happen today. The house needs tons of work and much
of the repair progress will be chronicled on this page. We
needed to get the numbers from the electric meter and rode
our bikes four miles each way in forty degree temperatures
in the pouring rain with much of the stuff we purchased for
working on the house. It pretty much sucked but no choice.
From tomorrow going to being working on the house. |
 Property Plan
Gray - the road on the North side of the property
Brown - parking
Green - garden area
Yellow - rock walkway to the entry
White - dog run
1st Floor - The entry is on
the lower left. The hallway leads to the toilet on the left,
the sink in an adjacent room accessed from the
dining/kitchen (upside down DK) which then leads to the
bathtub and shower. The bedroom for all of us, until the
little dude is a bit older, (room all the way in the back) is accessed from the DK. There is a back entry from the
bedroom. From the DK there is an entry to the dining room in green which then leads to the
living room which is also in green.
2nd Floor - The stairs going up end at the
entry to what will be the science room and then out to the
veranda which will be remodeled to take advantage of the
view. The room adjacent to the
veranda shown in green will be the classroom office. The largest
room, which is also in green, will be the classroom.
Update
The outside property plan completely changed after
purchasing the house. We soon realized parking was going to
be a bitch and I completely changed everything around to
maximize the yard space for our personal use instead of
wasting it on parking. Much more about this as the house
nears completion and the pictures are uploaded. |
 Floor Plan
This
is basically the same as the property plan above except in
these diagrams the first and second floor are shown
vertically. The first set shows the room plan while the
second set shows the furniture plan.
We originally planned to use the second floor as bedrooms
and the first floor as classrooms and then realized there
was no place to entertain guests. In addition, going pee in
the middle of the night pretty much sucks when you need to
go down and back up a steep flight of stairs. The single
bedroom on the first floor will be good enough until Shai
gets a little older.
I plan to make an outside laundry space accessed from the
bedroom instead of using the second floor veranda which is
typical in Japan. Instead, we plan to use the veranda for a
relaxing spot to read, drink wine, BBQ, and take advantage
of the wonderful view. The veranda is accessed via the
Science room where I plan to install instruments to measure
daily climatic conditions. This will benefit Shai in his
science studies and the room will be used for planned
science classes in English.
The first floor living room will be the location of a wood
burning fireplace assuming we can find a kit in Japan. We
went to the building supply store but could not find the
materials we need. |
Gardening Plan - Spring 2010
This is my tentative gardening plan. Yeah being pretty anal as
usual but most of you who know me already expect this kind of
planning. Anyway, trying to fit as much as possible into this
small garden. Even this small garden should produce quite a bit
thanks to the quality of the soil and this hot and humid growing
season.
Quite a bit went into the planning of the garden including
calculation of the solar angle during the Spring and Summer. The
garden is in the shade of the house during the cooler months. |
 Gardening Plan
The trees are on the North side of the garden and should not
pose any problems. In fact, the plan is to use the trees to
support the pumpkin and zucchini vines and use less garden space
for these space consuming vegetables.
The other vine crops, peas and cucumbers, will be trained
along the wall on the West side of the garden.
This is all tentative at the point but seems to be a good
plan. Really looking forward to gardening again after being in
the condo for many years. Certainly is nice to be in a house
with a yard. |
Gardening Schedule
The
information on this page was obtained from the Nara
Prefecture site. The site is written totally in Japanese but
can easily be translated using Google Translate or some
other translation program. The gardening schedule pretty
much follows a time frame very similar to what you would
expect in a climate like Buffalo, New York. Kind of
interesting though. This location in Japan is very similar
in Latitude to San Diego but with a climate much closer to
that of Buffalo, which is located at a considerably more
Northern latitude.
Nara, Japan
Latitude = 34 30 00 North
San Diego, California
Latitude = 32 48 00 North
Buffalo, New York
Latitude = 42 57 00 North |
| Nara
Prefecture Vegetable Garden Schedule |
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Vegetable |
JAN |
FEB |
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APR |
MAY |
JUN |
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AUG |
SEP |
OCT |
NOV |
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アスパラガス |
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| Strawberry |
イチゴ |
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| Soybean |
エダマメ |
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| Peas |
エンドウ |
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| Beans |
エンドウ |
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| Okra |
オクラ |
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| Turnip |
カブ |
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| Pumpkin |
カボチャ |
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| Cabbage |
キャベツ |
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| Cucumber |
キュウリ |
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Vegetable |
JAN |
FEB |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUN |
JUL |
AUG |
SEP |
OCT |
NOV |
DEC |
| Burdock |
ゴボウ |
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| Komatsuna |
コマツナ |
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| Konnyaku |
コンニャク |
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| Sweet Potato |
サツマイモ |
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| Taro |
サトイモ |
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| Shirona |
シロナ |
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| Crown Daisy |
シュンギク |
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| Ginger |
ショウガ |
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| Potato |
ジャガイモ |
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| Watermelon |
スイカ |
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Vegetable |
JAN |
FEB |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUN |
JUL |
AUG |
SEP |
OCT |
NOV |
DEC |
| Celery |
セロリ |
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| Broad Beans |
ソラマメ |
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| Onion |
タマネギ |
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| Radish |
ダイコン |
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| Corn |
トウモロコシ |
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| Tomato |
トマト |
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| Eggplant |
ナス |
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| Leek |
ニラ |
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| Garlic |
ニンニク |
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| Carrot |
ニンジン |
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Vegetable |
JAN |
FEB |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUN |
JUL |
AUG |
SEP |
OCT |
NOV |
DEC |
| Green Onion |
ネギ |
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| Napa |
ハクサイ |
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| Chayote |
ハヤトウリ |
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| Pepper |
ピーマン／
トウガラシ |
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| Broc/Caul |
ブロッコリー／カリフラワー |
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| Spinach |
ホウレンソウ |
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| Mizuna |
ミズナ／
ミブナ |
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| Mitsuba |
ミツバ |
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| Melon |
メロン |
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| Moroheiya |
モロヘイヤ |
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| Bean Sprouts |
もやし／
かいわれダイコン |
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| Tukuneimo |
ヤマノイモ |
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| Scallion |
ワケギ |
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Home
Purchase - Shopping List
Yup, this house is a total fixer but should be a pretty fun
project. Since most Japanese people are not into
do-it-yourself home repair, we cannot scam many tools from
family members or friends since none are available. We are
getting tons of household stuff though. Many family members
are purchasing some big ticket items for us such as a
refrigerator, stove, washing machine, rice cooker and more.
We are also getting lots of used stuff from the house
amounting to pretty much all the furnishings we need. The
family is happy to get rid of many things in order to create
more space in the house. The following is a list we began
making of things we need from the building supply store.
Decided to put it online to make it easier for us to keep
track of our purchases. |
|
Home Purchase - Shopping List
- prices are per unit |
|
Construction Materials |
| Price
円 |
Product |
| 400 |
Concrete mix - 25 kg |
| 100 |
Concrete block |
| 40 |
Concrete brick |
| 900 |
Plywood sheet |
| 2100 |
Door knob |
| 50 |
Ceramic tile |
| 600 |
Wall patch |
| 3500 |
Regular paint - 3
liters |
| 10000 |
Regular paint - 14
liters |
| 3300 |
Bathroom paint - 3
liters |
| 5800 |
Bathroom paint - 7
liters |
| 1000 |
Laundry roof sheet |
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Drywall patch |
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Wood cleaner |
| |
Bathroom cleaner |
| |
Kitchen cleaner |
| |
Sponge |
| |
Brush |
|
Tools |
| Price
円 |
Product |
| 2500 |
Drill |
| 2000 |
Pad sander |
| 3000 |
Jig saw |
| 1000 |
Extension cord - 10 m |
| 200 |
Dust mask - pack of
16 |
| 500 |
Eye protector |
| 1000 |
Tape measure |
| |
Wire brush |
| |
Concrete trowel |
| |
Putty tool |
| |
Sandpaper |
| |
Utility rope |
| |
Paint brushes - 2" 4" |
| |
Rubber gloves |
| |
Work gloves |
|
|
Gardening |
| Price
円 |
Product |
| 1000 |
Standard shovel |
| 1000 |
Standard hoe |
| 1500 |
Standard rake |
| 200 |
Hand shovel |
| 200 |
Hand rake |
| 500 |
Broom |
| 3000 |
Hose with holder |
| 2000 |
Hand pruner |
| 2000 |
Bush trimmer |
| 100 - Hyakin |
Tree saw |
| |
Bamboo |
|
Miscellaneous |
| Price
円 |
Product |
| 1000 |
Electric timer |
| |
Electric lights |
| 4000 |
Bike baby seat |
| 1000 |
Surge protector |
| 8000 |
Nabe |
| 1000 |
Bulletin board |
| 7000 |
Vacuum |
| 3000 |
Toaster |
| 3000 |
Coffee maker |
| 1000 |
Bulletin board |
|
|
|
|
