Q1 2005

 

Our New Year in Japan starts as “usual” with Jaap taking part in the Tamaseseri.

This event is held here in Meinohama on Jan3^rd by fishermen only and I have been privileged to join them for the last 8 years. A privilege, because it shows how much the fishing society has accepted us as part of them. Most unusual for such a tight Japanese community. Basically, it is a rugby scrum that fights over a huge wooden ball, the Tama. The scrum starts at the fishing harbor (where we are moored) and ends at the Sumuyoshi shrine, about 3 Km down the road. Old legends say that the person to hold this ball and actually put it on the entrance of the shrine will have a lucky fishing year. As you can see on the picture we are not wearing much and to make things worse: Onlookers throw buckets and buckets of COLD water to cool us down. Definitely a must with temps only just above zero. January can be pretty cold  in Fukuoka.

Wow do I love Global Warming.

But afterwards we all take in a long hot soak in the Sento (public bath house) and of course gallons of Sake!

Some great butt work;-)) 

Then it’s Marijke’s Birthday, with a preview of spring!

This plum Bonsai flowers at the end of January, even Wakame and Nori are happy to share the table with this beauty.

(oops, picture missing)

Yes, it’s winter time.

The real cold weather showed up late in the season. Nice for some pictures...

For Wakame it was a first, that white stuff….so cold on her feet.

Nori is a tough boy… he just loves it.

We too like snow, but NOT at sea level. On top of the mountains it’s good fun. We went skiing twice, once near Hiroshima and once in Hokkaido….

Ski weekend in Hiroshima with our Marathon friends, here in a cross country outfit

Ski weekend in Hokkaido. It can be so crowded in Japan;-))

(oops, pictures missing)   

Like last year, we went to ski resort Rusutsu in the south of Hokkaido.

We were welcomed by a 50cm layer of nice fresh snow and Marijke turned out to be the Queen of the Black Trails.

The first day we skied in the evening until 9 PM. After that the ever so important big long soak in the hot spring. The next day it was up and down and up and down Mt. Isola.  Boy did we have fun.

In March we were asked to attend a wedding.

Of Emi, the daughter of Eiji and Etsuko, who we help out selling fish every Sunday morning at the fish market. The wedding was held at the Evergreen Hotel in Marinoa,

that big shopping complex across the river. The ceremony was colorful, the party too and the food was super.

Emi and hubby, papa and mama and sister Mayumi

Jummy

 

If you know...you can see ALISHAN

Ohh shoot, see here Piet Boeff again.. 

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Mmmm, Boatprojects.

We did only a few boat jobs, but the major one was re-lining the ceiling.

A problem seen on many boats: The leather lining comes off the panels as the glue disintegrates, mainly due to humidity (but also age). When we bought Alishan there was just a little sagging here and there, soon it looked like we had drapes. It didn’t look that bad, because all panels had that problem and some people even believed it was mend to look like that. Tell you, it looked good! Until the corners started coming undone…

At first we had this job planned for Hong Kong or so ($$ wise)…

But it turned out that the owner of the boat next door, mv Rosso,  has a company that does this kind of work and a deal was made. One week later we were looking at our new boat-show-type ceiling!

The New Stuff.

What's behind those ceiling pannels ...

The Old stuff, bye bye sagging lining.