Pizza Oven?

I came across this old building when I was biking around. The section had been cleared, but this old brick place had been left standing. Do you know what it is?

Have a guess and put your guesses on the comment page. I will tell you next time. The Japanese word for this is "Kama". Arita Yaki is pottery from the famous pottery town of Arita.

A few Halloweens Ago

These scary monsters arrived on my doorstep a couple of years ago. One of them had a sweet tooth!

Plastic Display Food - The best menu on earth.

Japanese restaurants show customers models of the food they cook. It is usually displayed in shop windows, so you can see it before you eat it. It is great to be able to see your meal before you order it. There is a company that makes plastic display food. It looks so real, good enough to eat. 

One of my favourite foods in Japan is Japanese curry rice. It's hot, spicy and fills the tummy quite nicely. Everyone loves curry and most mum's know how to make it. Children start to learn how to make it from an early age. It's everyones favourite.

 Plastic fantastic!

Japanese curry rice.

Fun for Japanese kids.

These machines are set up in most shopping malls for children to scoop out a few lollies or their favourite soft toy animation character. Some you have to scoop goodies while others, like the UFO catcher grabs the toy. Can you scoop out some goodies from these? It is quite easy, but don't be too greedy or they will drop off. Can you see the guy that looks like a mushroom? His name is Nameko. He is so popular at the moment and he has lots of other mushroom friends too. Children enjoy growing them online. I met a young boy at a barbecue the other night ( Souma) and he gave me a glow in the dark Nameko sticker for my cell-phone. 

 Anpanman or bread man is a favourite character of Japanese children.

Nameko

Most Japanese people love eating mushrooms and there are many varieties. 

Frogs, frogs, frogs.

Being rainy season, Japan gets lot of rain this time of the year. There is no animal which loves the rain more than the cute and cuddly frog. There are many different kinds of frogs in Japan, river frogs, tree frogs and giant toads. When the rain drives down a chorus of croaks and chirps can be heard in the dark of the night. It can be quite relaxing at bed time. 
Night driving can be difficult when its raining as the road is covered in frogs and I don't like squashing them. 

The tadpoles live in the rice fields and these are now full of water and baby rice plants. Today when out hiking we found this frog hiding in the river. Can you see it? Frogs are of course snakes number one snack. So if you hear or see frogs there will probably be a snake living nearby. But more on snakes another time. 

Frog = Kaeru  (Kai air roo) Tadpole = Otama-jakushi (o ta ma jack ku she)

While we were watching this frog a leech stuck to my hand. Oh no!

I wonder if a snake can see this frog? Can you?

Hotaru - Fire fly

It's Hotaru season in Japan. These friendly little glowing beetles come out of the stream at night and can be seen between about 7pm and 10pm. They are only about 20mm long, have a black shell and look like a normal beetle. There is a huge difference though. They have a beautiful, bright green flashing light on their.... well tails. When they hatch from the stream they make their way up into the sky and start flashing every few seconds. When they find a mate, they flash in time and up to 20 can be flashing together. They are like flying Christmas lights. Pretty neat aye!

It is a little hard to photograph them, because they hang out at night. Pronunciation = Hoe Tar Roo.

 Can you see the glowing spots - Hotaru!

Hello From Japan - Konnichi Wa

Hello to all at Murchison Area School. As you know I'm currently in Japan to brush up my Japanese, eat some curry rice and catch up on the latest Manga (Japanese comics). I will write a small post for you all to read and show you some interesting things that are happening in Japan. 

Firstly I'd like to share with you a strange, but true story from Korea. My friend Mr. Tanaka went on a trip to Korea, which is only about a 1 hour flight from Japan. Very close indeed.( Have  look in the Atlas or online). While he was there he bought some famous aged garlic. It is so old that it turns black and is meant to be very healthy. "That's not so strange I hear you say!" 

The weird thing is that if you eat more than two pieces you will get a bleeding nose. That's right. I wonder what makes this garlic give you a bleeding nose? Anyway I have tried it, but I'm too scared to eat more than two pieces. I wonder if any of you want to try more than two?

 The famous Korean black garlic.