The Swayambhunath and one temple, monkeys

スワヤンブナート寺院とあるお寺と猿

Dogs are everywhere

One of the most memorable things that happened in Nepal is.. seeing many dogs and monkeys.

You see street dogs waking and sleeping everywhere specially in Kathmandu. Dogs are believed to be messengers of Lord Yamaraj. Even there is a festival day celebrated the worship of dogs.
Really they are everywhere and I am afraid that one day I would step on them...

Monkeys monkey around

And monkey.Actually where I saw them was only two places in Nepal. One is in the Swayambhunath which is called "Monkey Temple" and another is a small temple which is located at the bottom of the hill where The Swayambhunath is located.
You may know the Swayambhunath is famous with its monkeys living there( there are dogs too but dogs are everywhere in Kathmandu).

But really the most unforgettable scene of monkeys to me was seen in the small temple. I saw one monkey snaked up on a bag of a monk while he left it for mins and looked into it to steal something from it!

Nepali Amazing Sweets

ネパールのオイシイお菓子

Mithai

When we stopped by one cafe on our way to my friend's house from thamel, I discovered one new taste for me. It is this, called "Mithai" in Nepali. Actually there are countless names for it but "mithai" is the most common.

Torii of Japanese Shrine

日本の神社　鳥居

Yasukuni Shrine

Today I walked back to my place for 40 mins, from meeting a friend of mine over dinner. On my way I walked through Yasukuni shrine which may be the most famous temple in Japan.
It is located in Kudanshita of Tokyo and there is a huge Torii at the entrance. The height is 25 meters. This temple is also famous with its cherry blossom trees. There are a plenty of Sakura trees pleasing our eyes if you visit there when it is the peak bloom of cherry blossoms.

Orange Flower

オレンジ色の花

Merigolds

You will see this marigold flowers so often in Nepal. This is called sayepatri in Nepal. Offering flowers　to gods and goodness is ssential to worship the deity.　It is common in Japan.
Marigold is called sayepatri in Nepal. "Saye" means a hundred and "patri" means layers.

このマリーゴールドはネパールでよく見かけます。神様にお花をお供えするのは、欠かせないことです。日本もほぼ同じですね。
マリーゴールドはネパール語でサイパトリといいます。サイは１００、パトリは重ねるという意味です。

Japanese wearing surgical masks

医療用マスク着けてます

Spring is good and bad

I love Spring but at the same time I hate it, no I am afraid of it. Because Spring is when the cypress pollen levels are their highest.
Many people are suffering from allergy to cedar pollen in Japan.
You will see a lot of people wearing surgical masks if you visit Japan in Spring, specially during February and March.

Bottles of water to share

共有水ボトル

It was really a wonder for me. On our home way from Thamel , San and I  dropped by a cafe which was not for tourists but for local people.　That was a small cafe having four or five tables. There is a show case for white sweets near the entrance.
When I sat down, I found there were a bottle of water on each tables.

you can see a bottle on the table over there and two in front 

Happy Holi!

Holi カラーフェスティバル

Spring festival in Nepal

It is Holi today in Nepal. Holi is known as festival of colors to celebrate arriving Spring. It starts one week before the main day on the full moon. Full moon is "Purnima" in Nelali and this festival is called Fagu Purnima Festival too. Fagu is the eleventh month in Nepali calendar. Holi is official holiday and offices are closed. People get together with their family and friends, relatives to smear their faces with colored powder, sometimes painted from head to toe.
ネパールは今日Holiです。Holiは色のお祭りとして知られており、春の訪れをお祝いします。満月の日が祭日ですが、1週間前から始まります。満月はネパール語で「プルニマ」といい、このお祭りはFaguPurnimaとも呼ばれます。Faguとはネパール暦上の11月です。
Holiは祝日で、会社はお休み。みんな家族や友達、親戚などと集まって顔に色の粉を塗りつけますが、体中塗りたくられるときもあります。

Curry! Curry! Curry!

カレ!ーカレー！カレー！

"Curry" is just one category of dishes?

We Japanese sometimes joke about meals in India like, " their meals must be always curries". Actually we don't expect that they really eat always curries while saying it. Because if it so they must be tired with them.

But the answer is.... Yes they mostly have curries for their meals! Ah.. this is about Nepal, not India. But I believe they have similar customs.... And somehow you don't get tired with meals of curries even if breakfast and lunch, dinner are curries.

Because curries vary more in their kinds and tastes than you think.
When I visited my friend San's mother, she cooked curries for me.

the Seto Machhendranath and the Swayambhunath vs Japanese shrines

スワヤンブナートとセト マチェンドラナート

Eyes on four sides of Swayambhunath 

Speaking of Nepali temples, this eyes painted on the four sides of the spire of stupa may be famous.This is the Swayambhunath in Kathmandu and the eyes are Buddha's eyes.
We also have Buddhist temples and shrines here in Japan but it is not common for them to have eyes. And the eyes are actually like cartoons and even they have eyebrows too. They look funny a bit.... But these Buddha's eyes mean a lot. Question-marks between each pairs of eyes is the Nepali character for the number 1. They lead us to one way to reach enlightenment or became awakened.
Anyway this style is pretty different from our temples and shrines.

Spring in Japan

日本の春

Official announcement of Sakura's blooming

Spring is arriving in Japan.
Today the Weather Ministry made an official announcement that the cherry trees are in bloom in Fukuoka and Nagoya today. Actually I found on tree in full bloom last week in Tokyo. But they haven't announced it for Tokyo.

I found this Sakura in the night

That is why there are some kinds of Sakura trees and when to bloom depends on them. For instance, Kawazu-sakura blooms in the middle of February but the most bloom from the middle of March to the middle of April.

Hard workers in Nepal

ネパールのがんばってる人たち

In Nepal, I saw amazing scene of wonders sometimes. ネパールでは、ときどきびっくりする光景を見ました。

On heads

One day I walked by a construction site one day in San's house's neighborhood . Guys were trying filling a big hole with sands. They didn't use any electronic machines but they were carrying sands out on their heads. Indeed I have seen people carrying something on their head in pictures but it was the first time to see such way in real. It is amazing....

Anyway they wore special caps. I hope their caps protecting their heads.

Hospitals in Kathmandu

カトマンズ病院事情

Traveler's Diarrhea and Cold room in a hospital....

Unfortunately I got Traveler's Diarrhea when I visited Nepal for the second time. I drunk some amount of tap-water directly by mistake. Originally I have a sensitive stomach and a problem with my stomach often. So I am used to it but　 this time I suffered from it every thirty mins for two days that made me totally nervous. I asked San to take me to a hospital. He took me Green City Hospital in his neighbor. The place I was taken to was an emergency room because it was still 6 am. There were about ten beds and it was cold like outside... It was in the end of Feb. Maybe some windows are opened....

One young doctor told me to lay down on a bed and checked my stomach from outside. I explained my problem and he told me to pick some stool up in a small container for examination.It was so small small container that I could not do it easily... but I managed to do it!
Btw it was surprisingly they didn't have toilet paper in the toilet although they are a big hospital....

Fun in Mi's shop

楽しいミのお店

Mi’s shop in Dhapasi 

I like looking around in local grocery stores when I travel abroad and I could experience a real Nepali local shop! San’s anti, Mi is running a grocery store where I got yummy Nepali snacks that I introduced here before.

How safe is it?

安全度合いは？

Japan may be very safe... but

I saw one "salary man" (it means office workers in Japanese) wearing an eye mask for sleeping in the commute train this morning.
Yes that man was sleeping on the seat.
I was so surprised that I could not take my eyes on his face.. A couple of mins later, he woke up and took off the mask down on his neck and started to look at his phone. After a while he took up the eye mask from his neck to put it into the eye mask bag and got off the train.
hmmm, Viva Japan! even he sleeps deeply with an eye mask like in bed putting his bag on his legs, nobody steals it. It is Japan.

Japanese Valentin day

日本のバレンタインデイ

One month after Valentine's Day is White Day

Tomorrow March 14th is called "white day" here in Japan. Actually people celebrate this day same way in Korea and China, Taiwan.

Men who received something in Valentine's Day will give something back to girls. Something to be received in Valentine's Day is commonly fancy chocolate in Japan and something to be received in White Day is fancy candies and cookies, something sweet. Japanese Valentine's and White Day is commercialized by confection industry.(Of course people show their special affection too)
Those days are supposed to be days for couples originally but they have another aspect.

Japanese wedding parties

～日本の結婚式

Today I want to think about Japanese wedding parties. Actually I don't have experiences of hoding it but have attended friends wedding ceremonies and parties.

There are rare Christian in Japan but...

Couples have many options for places to have wedding parties like hotels and special halls for wedding parties, fancy restaurants. There are options for ceremonies too.

Shinto style and Christian style ceremonies are common options. If you hold Shinto one, ceremonies are held in temples. Bride will wear Kimonos. Shinto is a kind of traditional religion.

Only 1.3 percent of Japanese are Christian, but Christian style ceremonies account for most wedding ceremonies in Japan . That means  couples who aren't Christian hold Christian ceremonies.
 Girls admire white western wedding dresses since they are kids. And you can see small chapels in many hotels in Japan.

Wedding parties in Nepal

ネパールの結婚式

During staying in Pokhara where 200 km away from Kathmandu and the second biggest city in Nepal, I saw two weeding parties.
Nepalese weddings are much different from what we are used to in Japan.
カトマンズから200キロ離れた、ネパール第二の街ポカラに滞在していたとき、結婚式を見かけました。.
ネパールの結婚式は日本のとはずいぶん違います。.

Wedding parties are held even on weekdays!

Parties are held sometimes in open and the places look more

Japanese nice snacks

日本のお菓子

Today I want to introduce Japanese snacks. Japanese snacks are great as much as Nepli!
From the left....Calpis Gumi Drops, Umaibo, Koala's martch, Caplico. On the top is Look A la mode.
今度は日本のお菓子の紹介。日本のお菓子はネパールのお菓子に勝るとも劣らずすごいんです！
左からカルピスグミ、うまい棒、コアラのマーチ、カプリコ、Look A la modeです。

Calpis Gum Drops

This is gum drops flavored with “Calpis”.

Dark but Bright !

暗いけど明るい！

Colors of Nepal in my mind are black and bright colors at the same time.
ネパールの色、は　私の中では　黒と明るい色たちです。

Black

If you are out after dark and during power-outage, it is totally dark in Nepal. You can see nothing if you don't carry a torch light. You often have black-out in Nepal.
Unfortunately recently Nepal is becoming a land of black-out.
That is not because of the quake, people say. It is due to bad politics. This is a schedule for rotational load shedding. Total hours of black-out is sometimes more than 12 hours.

Unique tastes in Nepal

ネパールのお菓子は独特に美味しい

You can find foods of complicated tastes in Nepal.
Today I introduce three snacks here.
ネパールでは複雑な味の食べ物に出会えます。

JEERA COOKIES

This is JEERA COOKIES. Cookie is supposed to be sweet, right? But this cookie is sweet and spicy at the same time !
Because it is flavored with jeera. Jeera is always associated with curry to me and it felt weird for the first time when I tried it but I could not stop eating it after I tired two.
これはクッキー。
クッキーは普通甘いと思いますよね。でも、これは甘くてスパイシー！　クミンが使われてるから。クミンは、わたしの中ではカレーと結びついてるので、初めて食べたときは変な感じがしましたが、二つ食べたらもう止まりませんでした。

The earthquake

MARK FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

Coming March 11 is the Japan earthquake and tsunami fifth anniversary. I am watching a TV program details about the disaster now. Tokyo where I am living is far from the epicenter in Tohoku area but we felt the strong shaking in the office that day. I remember many things on the desks fell down and I saw the walls cracked.

THE TSUNAMI

In Tohoku, the tsunami followed the quake swallowed many buildings and cars, people and damaged the nuclear power plants. The tsunami was pretty huge and had reached the fourth floor. Tohoku area is still winter in March. Many survivors even were supposed to be killed by coldness.

this is just after the day

It may be

Kathmandu is dusty?

カトマンズは埃っぽい？

View of Kathmandu town

The view from the window of a taxi driving me to a hotel from the airport was many narrow alleys and dust rising from the ground when I arrived in Nepal for the first time.
That was back to Oct of 2015, less than six months after the quake.

I thought the dust was caused by the debris that the earthquake made. But people seem to suffer from the dust even before the quake…I guess it is because there are many road unpaved yet.

Amazing Nepali sweets

ネパールのオイシイスイーツ

Discovery of new tastes

I discovered new taste in Nepal. After I came back to work, I shared them with my colleagues.
One of them fell love in with them and asked me to ask San to send a plenty of them. And they arrived today!

SOAN PAPDI

I sheared this with my colleagues. :) Everyone appearanlty enjoyed eating this.
San told me that is from India. When I tasted this for the first time, I was thrilled actually. The taste and texture is amazing.

Its main ingredients are

Girl's Day in Japan(Hina matsuri) ひな祭り

Today I visited a museum to see exhibition of ancient dolls "Hina-ningyo" collected by Mitsui-group that is one of the biggest company group in Japan.

 

March 3 is Doll's Day and families celebrate praying for the growth and happiness of their girls. So people call this holiday Girl's day also.

History of this festival starts back to ancient era like the 17th century. People believed their sins could be transferred to dolls and they started the practice of setting dolls with their sins afloat on a small boat and sending down a river to the sea. In modern times, we don't do it. 

Families generally start to display ceramic dolls dressed in the ancient imperial court from the middle of Feb.

The dolls called "Hina-ningyo" are commonly bought by grand-parents when a baby girl is born. Hina means small and lovely object, Ningyo means doll. So people call this festival "Hina-matsuri" too. Matsuri is the Japanese word for festival.

Hina-ningyo has many kinds of style in the display. A full one consists of seven-tiers, with 15 dolls.  The top tier holds two dolls, known as a imperial couple. Other dolls are their attendants.

BTW, there is a superstition says that the daughter misses her chance of marriage if you leave the dolls past March 4.　Actually my mother always left them more than one month later than March 4…..

今日は三井グループ所蔵の雛人形展を見に、美術館に行きました。 

三月三日は、ひな祭りといって、女の子の成長や幸せを祈ってお祝いをします。なので、女の子の日とも呼ばれます。

ひな祭りの歴史は17世紀に、さかのぼります。罪を人間に移すことができると信じ、人形を小さな船に乗せて、罪と共に川から海に向けて流しました。現代は、この習慣はもうないですけど。

昔の宮中衣装をまとったこの人形は、2月半ばから飾られます。 

人形は、「ひな人形」と呼ばれ、女の赤ちゃんが生まれたとき、祖父母が買うのが一般的です。「ひな」とは小さくて愛らしいものという意味です。なので、「ひな祭り」とも呼ばれます。

ひな人形の飾り方はいろいろあります。全部飾る場合、7台に15個の人形で構成されます。一番上は二つの人形が置かれますが、これは皇室カップルです。ほかの人形はお付きの人たち。

ところで、もし人形を三月四日以降も出しっぱなしにすると、娘が今期を逃すと言う言い伝えがあります。うちの母は、いっつも一箇月くらい出しっぱなしでした。。

Delicious foods and buffalo

Nepali curries and green peppers

I love spicy food and often eat Indian and Thai food. I have them twice a week at least.

I looked forward to tasting real Nepali curries!

But…Nepali curries pretty spicy and hot to me. First time I tasted a local curry, tears came out from my eyes. San was eating it sometimes tasting green peppers….

San told me that Nepali curries are not hotter than Indian and Sri Lankan ones.

Anyway I enjoyed fully many curries because my San's sister, Pun kindly changed her recipes and cooked curries which were less spicy than regular ones.  And always I visit there, she cook many dishes for me.

She is a great chef and doesn't have any dishes that she is not able to cook !

Nepal is suffering from outage so often and people don't have microwaves in their house. I have never seen any processed meals like in the US.  Meals are hand cooked. That is why every meals are so delicious and feel healthy.

Nepali MOMOs are stuffed with Baffalo

This is "momo" which is a traditional dumpling. Originally this is from Tibet.

Pun cooked them for me!

"momos" are filled with vegetables or buffalo meat. Nepali people basically don't eat beef,  instead they eat buffalo a meat.  Nepali people consider cows holly animals because they produce milk. 

Slaughtering of cows and bulls is completely banned.I remember…. There are wild cows walking on the streets….　

I asked San whether he had never had beef in his life. His answer is … indeed he has never eaten beef;Actually buffalo's Japanese name is "water-cow" . Yes, they are one kind of cattles to me.

わたしはスパイスを使ったお料理が大好きで、頻繁にインド料理やタイ料理を食べます。1週間に2回は少なくとも食べるかな。なので、ネパール本番のカレーを食べることを楽しみにしてました！

でも、、。ネパールのカレーはわたしにはスパイシーで辛すぎました。初めてカレーを口にしたとき、辛すぎて涙がでてきた。そのよこでサンは青唐辛子をかじりながらカレー食べてたけど。。。

サンによると、ネパールのカレーはインドやスリランカのものに比べれば、辛くないそうです。

ともあれ、サンお姉さんのプンがレシピを変え、スパイスを減らして作ってくれたので、カレーを存分に楽しみました！プンのお料理の腕はすごくて、なんでも作っちゃうんです！

ご存知のようにネパールは貧しい国。電子レンジなんて誰も持っていません。結果、食事用の加工食品は見かけず。その結果、お食事は基本的にオーガニックになるわけで、だから何食べても美味しくて、健康的な感じがします！

これはネパールの餃子、Momo。もともとはチベットから伝播したとか。プンの手作り。

momoの中身は、バッファローのお肉。水牛です。ネパールの人は、基本的に牛肉を食べません。ネパールでは牛は牛乳を生み出すことから、崇められているんです。殺すことは禁止されています。そういえば道を野良牛が歩いてたの見たな・・。

サンに聞いた、では今まで一度も牛を食べたことがないのかと。答えは・・ないらしい！

日本語ではバッファローって水牛。つまり彼らも、わたしにとっては牛ですが。

Nepal and Japan to me

I visited Kathmandu in Nepal for the first time last October after the quake disaster to meet San and Nepal.

I have been practicing English very hard to speak it at work since three years ago. One of my practicing English, I made pen pals outside of Japan. He was one of them.

We built our friendship by skype and chat for one year. I got interested in him and Nepal and decided to go over there.

I have some friends who visited Nepal. Everyone says that Nepal is amazing.  Their suggestions made me interested in the country, perhaps.

And Nepal really amazed me.

The noise and bustle of Kathmandu overwhelmed me first. And religious and friendly people attracted me.

I want to write down about Nepal, and Japan where I am born and raised in. 

Both have a lot of wonders…

あの大地震の被害の後、Sanに会いに、 去年の10月わたしは初めてカトマンズを訪れました。

3年前から英語を仕事で使えるようになるために、真剣に勉強しています。勉強の一手段として、海外のペンパルを作りました。彼はその中の一人です。

スカイプやチャットで友情を深めました。Sanにもネパールにも興味を持つようになって、ネパール訪問を決めました。わたしにはネパールにいったことのある友人が数人いますが、全員がネパールは素敵だ！といいます。それで、興味を持つようになったのかも。

そして、実際、ネパールは魅了的でした。

最初はカトマンズの喧騒に圧倒されました。そして、心神深く、人懐こいネパールの人たちにも魅了されました。

ネパールについて、そしてわたしの生まれ育った日本について、書き留めたいと思います。両国とも、不思議がいっぱいなので・・。