The Tour, part 2: Don't Get Crabby With Me!

~After sorting through masses of jellyfish and picking out a half-dozen tiny white fish, it was time for lunch. What we'd caught was just enough for a small (non-hungry) child, but luckily a real lunch was provided in a beachfront restaurant (free of charge, no less):

^ Mmm, seafood! Note the chopsticks (hashi in Japanese; kanji = 箸 ). The Japanese eat everything with chopsticks. When you go to a restaurant, you always get chopsticks. When I buy lunch at the supermarket, they give me chopsticks. Some Japanese (especially older citizens) don't even own forks!

In China, the government now assesses a 5% tax on chopsticks in an effort to combat deforestation (billions of them are thrown away each year). In Japan, environmentally-conscious people often carry around a set of reusable, washable chopsticks in plastic cases, and decline the free sets offered at restaurants and markets. [Memo to self: pick up a set of those...]

^ "I think it's reaching its claws towards me..." The crab was good, but there's wasn't much meat on it. Fortunately for my stomach, I brought a lunch with me, thus preventing me from getting crabby.

^ Post-lunch, it was time to relax a bit. Notice how everyone is sitting around a low table. The floor was covered with tatami mats, traditional straw "rugs" found in buildings across the nation. The size of a tatami mat is fixed at 90 cm x 180 cm x 5 cm for a full-size mat (half-sizes are also made). As time passes, the mats start to stink (they are straw, after all) and have to be replaced. From a marketing standpoint, it's brilliant!

Tatami mats are so ingrained in Japanese culture that room sizes are measured not in square meters, but rather by the number of tatami mats that will fit on the floor! I often see these measurements in newspaper advertisements for apartments and houses.

^ Example layout pattern of tatami mats in a room. The layout must conform to certain patterns, some of which are considered unlucky. For example, tatami mats are never put down in a grid pattern; there must never be a point where the corners of three or more mats intersect.

^ These unusual volcanic spires litter the area between the beach and the mountains. As our bus departed the beach, I took a picture of this interesting example. I like how this one has a tree growing out of it.

~The next part of the tour consisted of a stop at a mountain observation point that had many temples hidden away in the nearby forest. Stay tuned to David Does Japan! for more.

~Oyasumi!