Kimono

This past Saturday, Adam had to work in the morning.  The students wanting to come to Calgary in January had their English interviews.  Since we only had the afternoon to ourselves, we headed over to Nangu Shrine here in Tarui and did the hike up the mountain.  Tarui is just full of surprises.  This shrine was beautiful, it even had a path of Torii gates (we didn't even need to go to Fushimi-Inari in Kyoto :P), and the hike was great.  It seems like hikes in Japan are just straight up and straight down.  It took us about 40-50 minutes to get to the top and once again we were rewarded with a spectacular view.  I thought that we'd be able to see more leaves changing colour since you can see from a distance the differing shades on the mountains now.  On the path though, it was still mostly green.

A flowering tree

Top of the mountain

Nangu Shrine

On Sunday, a lady invited me over to her house so that I could put on a kimono.  She dressed me up in her kimonos.  The one from her single days has long sleeves, and the one that she uses now that she's married has shorter sleeves.  I broke the married/unmarried kimono rules and put on both.  They were both so beautiful.  They're made of real silk so they're very expensive.  I really enjoyed the experience.  I had heard that it takes a long time to get dressed in a kimono.  It really didn't take that long, but that being said it did take longer than putting on my wedding dress.  Maybe I was just expecting it to take longer.  She served Adam and I tea, ginger ale, and doughnuts.  She's one of the students in our adult English class, so she can speak English.  

Kimono for unmarried women

Kimono for married women

This week, I have become a cook extraordinaire!  I made lotus root chips this past Thursday and Saturday which taste kind of like potato chips except they're both crispy and chewy.  I made a coconut milk curry sauce with chicken on rice on Tuesday.  This morning, I made sushi for breakfast (with left over cooked fish, not raw fish).  Today, I made homemade pitas for the falafel that I am currently making.  Looks, like my new hobby is cooking.  I'm having fun finding different things at the market and then finding something to make with them.  I think this is also the result of me being a housewife.  :)