Bicycle Ride in Japan

First of all I apologize for slacking on my blog posts but we have been readjusting to our so-called Japanese life. My Japanese teacher says I forgot my Japanese in the two weeks that we where gone. I told her that I was till switching back from Spanish to English, let alone remember Japanese!!! The way I see it, since I don't know much I should be able to remember it soon!!!

On 5/19/07 Orlando and I joined a group of bicycle riding adventurers. The group headed east of Hiroshima to ride around a few small islands in the Seto inland sea. Since I have no idea what the islands are called I will refer to them as "Mystery Islands". Here is a map of our route:

In order to get to the islands we took a cute little boat ride as you can see:

Check out the view from the boat below. Japan or La Parguera in Puerto Rico? I guess it really is true when people say: "different island, same thing" (once again this is a family friendly blog), even if it is half way around the world.

I thought it was going to be a leisurely bike ride around the small islands, but it turned out to be a 25 mile bicycling route!!! The worst part was that in order to go from one island to the other you had to cross super high suspension bridges!!! HAAAAA the Horror!!!! Here are some of the bridges we took:
The picture above shows the Hakata Oshima bridge.

Here we are with our bikes (you could rent them there, my actual bike is only for carrying groceries) in the Tatara Ohashi Bridge.
Here is the Kurushima Kaikyo bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world. This was the last bridge in our route. At this point I could not feel any part of my lower body and my legs felt like jello!!! We stopped at a fresh fish BBQ restaurant right next to the bridge for some lunch. The interesting thing about this place is that they would literally kill the fish, sell it and place it on top of a small BBQ grill until it was cooked. The fish was sooooooooooo fresh that it was still moving!!! Yes the octopus tentacles where still moving in the plate!!! I took video of it to prove it:

For the record I did not eat this!!! It was in my friend's plate!!! The worst pat is that the tentacle was still moving on top of the BBQ!!! AHHHHHHHHHH This is one of the reasons I will always remember this day. The other reason is that I could not sit correctly for the next 3 days!!! So the moral of the story is: "Find out what your getting yourself into before signing up!!!".

Ponce, Puerto Rico

We spend our last few days in Puerto Rico in Ponce (1 hour south of the San Juan) in the Reyes' Family vacation home. Orlando's mom (pictured above) flew in from California to hang out with us for the week. We where able to play a little golf while we where there as you can see below:

Yes the 18th hole overlooks the Caribbean Sea (http://www.costacaribe-resort.com/). You could literally jump into the water (if your crazy enough) after finishing a round of golf.

My family came to stay with us for the weekend. Here I am with mom, dad and my little sister Vicky, oh yeah and that guy who does not leave me alone (I think he is a stalker, the problem is how do you say that in Japanese?).

We invited some of our good old friends to visit on Saturday. Here we are with Javier, Ydalmi, Valerie and Ydalmi's sister. Valerie was simply huge!!! Last time I saw her when was only 2 weeks old, now she is crawling around grabbing everything within reach!!!

We also had a chance to hang out with our super friends Jey,Liz, Melody and Ludwig. Jey was actually the best man and Melody was our flower girl at our wedding 3.5 years ago (see picture below).

I love this picture of the kids rolling around in the grass. Luckily we found our Valerie is not allergic to grass the old fashion way trying it out.

We had an absolutely great time with everyone and we really appreciate everyone efforts to come and see us!!!!I hope to see everyone again soon, probably in Christmas time.

Home Sweet Home

I finally arrived in my home town of Mayaguez (a 2 hour drive from the capital city of San Juan) on Monday!!! Here is a nice picture of my parent's normal cement house in the suburbs of the city.

For those of you who are wondering, yes that is my old Toyota 4Runner in the right corner of the picture. My little sister, Vicky still uses that car to go to collage, that car is 12 years old!!! I was just surprised to see it moving!!!

The next day Orlando and I went to our old stomping ground UPR-Mayaguez better know as "El Colegio". We did not find much had changed. People still hanged out in the same spots, no one eat at the cafeteria and there are still zero parking spots available. Here is the library.

To all the people who sent there, please feel free to begin reminiscing, you can thank me later.

Once I get home my little sister Vicky showed me her new hairdo.
The streak in her hair looks black in but it's actually a mixture between blue and purple...ok, apparently I did not get the memo stating that this is normal. I was actually too distracted her pink bowed skulled earrings to notice the color. So I asked what's up with the hair and she said it's all part of the "Emo" look. Beuler? What? As a result I researched what Emo is and found out that it is a genre of rock music that emphasises the emotions of people. I soon realized that I'm old, but hey if I thought flannel shirts and army boots where cool back in the 90's I guess some hair color is not going to kill anyone. These crazy kids!!!

Puerto Rico Scenery

Puerto Rican Food

Puerto Rico

After not sleeping on Saturday night we proceeded to go home to our beautiful island of Puerto Rico. Luckily since we have earned a trigillion miles going back and forth from Japan we got a free upgrade to first class, all right!!!!!
Our first stop was Orlando's grandmother's house where a good bunch of the Reyes Family members where waiting for us. Here they are holding up their best Japanese pose.

One very interesting thing happened while we where there, it turns out that one of Orlando's cousins is dating a girl names Iria. Isn't that weird? My mom's name is Ilia and off course I'm Iddya and now I met Iria so I came to the conclusion that you can form a name just by following this formula:

I + random consonant + ia = unique name which no one will ever be able to pronounce

Here is Orlando with his grandma who looks good after raising 8 kids!!!
The next day we went to Villalba to hang out with the Ortiz Family (Orlando's mom's side). As you can see we really know the meaning of extended family. Most of them are actually neighbors so all I had to do was walk outside and imitate Bob Barker from The Price is Right by asking them to "Come on down" for a picture.

Once we where there we answered all the typical "Oh my Gosh you live in Japan" questions and showed them an album I made (hey it's not a fancy scrapbook but it go the point across) to illustrate our adventures. Everyone was really glad to see us and vice versa.

Detroit

We are back from going half way around the world in 1.5 weeks (yes we know we are crazy)!!! Our first stop was good old Detroit. On Thursday we got off the plane at 12:30 pm, went to my friends house to change and proceeded to fight our jet lag by going to Bailey's. I was very happy and touched that so many people showed up!!

Here are I am with my friends from work (from left to right) Deanna, Kristin and Lauren. Kristian and Lauren where literally one of the first people I met when I moved to Michigan. They basically showed me the Michigan ropes when I had no idea where I was going or knew the rules in football and had to deal with snow for the first time and 5 years later they are still hanging around!!! Thanks guys!!!
I also spread the Japanese love showing everyone the typical V sign pose.
Orlando's complete softball team showed up. Seriously first base, second base, third base, the outfield and even the catcher came to say hi. Every week in the summer we could always count on going to a softball game and hanging out around Dearborn afterwards, truly good times...good times.

On Friday (4/27/07) my sister Vanessa flew in from Wisconsin to spend the weekend with us. Here we are looking good as always.
Here is Orlando with 10-month old Jose David, who was a complete delight the whole time.
Later that night we met up with our friends in Ann Arbor to celebrate Cristine's MBA graduation. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Luckily Tina held off the birth of her baby boy (born on May 7) to hang out with us.

On Saturday we had the best Party E-V-E-R at Miriam and Hector's house. We had all the key ingredients to a most excellentPuerto Rican party:

1. Hot chicks



2. Reggaeton (a.k.a booty shaking music)


3. Random Salsa dancing in the living room



4. Dominoes (for the record The Matos team lost but we had not played since I left almost a year ago so we will be back to our old ways next time)
5. RUM (the bottle is empty off course)
6. As a result of all of the above - Lots of kids

On behave of the Reyes-Matos family I would like to thank everyone for making our short stay in Detroit a very lively one. It was really good to see familiar faces with whom you could reminisce with. Detroit is trully our second home. THANKS EVERYONE.

Public Service Announcement

The Reyes-Matos Family is coming to a town near you!!!! We will be visiting our good friends in the D the last week of April. If you want to say hi or just check that I have not made this whole blog up them come and join us!!!! Here are the details:

When: Thursday, April 26th at 5:00 pm
Where: Bailey's in Dearborn

WHEN: Friday, April 27th 9:00 pm
WHERE: Leopold Bros Brewery 523 S. Main St. in Downtown Ann Arbor http://www.leopoldbros.com/pub.html

Hope to see you there!!!!!

Cherry Blossom Slide Show

Cherry Blossoms

The past two weeks everyone in Hiroshima (and the rest of Japan) have been going crazy looking at the cherry blossom trees, which in Japanese is call "Sakura". So Orlando and I decided to be part of the group and go look at some sakura in the nearby town of Iwakuni (see pictures below).

For more pictures Check out:
http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w110/iddya/?action=view¤t=.my_first_widget.pbw

I recently found that it is a Japanese tradition to go to parks, shrines and temples with family and friends and hold a "flower viewing party" known as Hanami. I was invited to the Ford Hamani party and started asking around what do people actually do in these activities? Basically you talk, drink and eat while staring at a tree. I answered back that in Puerto Rico you do the same but on the beach!!! I was very surprised to see the park completely full of people on their own company's Hanami party. Everyone seemed very happy, the party next to us was even singing and dancing (if you can call it that) or maybe it was just too much sake (rice wine)? I will have to investigate further next year because the sakura is already dying!! Here is a picture of the many Hamani Party in the Peace Memorial Park.

We also visited Shukkeien gardens just 3 blocks from our apartment. It only took us 9 months to go check it out!?!?!?!? That's normal? right..?


Ok that's enough tree watching, at least next year I know what to expect.

Map of Japan

Since a few people have been inquiring about coming over for a visit. Here is an interactive map of the places we have visited in Japan. If you click on the icon you will see the name of the city. Also you can move the map to the right in order to see how far Tokyo (pink bubble) is from Hiroshima (8 hours driving and 5 hours via bullet train).

Tea Ceremony

On 3/25/07 I had the opportunity to attend a Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony in Miyajima Island (30 minutes from Hiroshima). Check out the tiny entrance to the tea house. I asked the lady "Why do you have to crawl through such a small door?". She said "In order to show respect, it forces you to enter the tea room bowing." Interesting.
There was a beautiful garden in front of the tea house.

Before entering the tea room you have to wash your hands in order to "purify your soul". Here is some proof that I'm "purified" (I'm not sure if it counts if you are not Buddhist but hey might as well try).

The Tea Ceremony ladies taught us how to make some tea. Is seemed easy but one of the ladies said she has been studying 8 years in order to master the art of the Tea Ceremony.

Here I am stirring as fast as I could, but it was not enough. The lady next to me got tired of waiting and took the bowl away and began to stir herself !!!

Here is some video I took of the ceremony:
Tea ceremony part 1



Tea ceremony part 2


Here is our lucky group of people, notice that almost all the Japanese ladies where wearing a kimono. The host, male or female, wears a kimono, while guests may wear kimono or subdued formal wear. According to my research "The host, male or female, wears a kimono, while guests may wear kimono or subdued formal wear. " If by "subdued formal wear" you mean a shirt and some jeans I'm there!!! Never the less, I was happy in my super Hello Kitty shirt... hey at least she is Japanese OK? I guess I should have read some information before going, so don't let the same thing happen to you!!! Check out the following link for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

There was also the Japanese Doll Festival called Hina-matsuri, or Girls' Day. Platforms with a red cloth (called hi-mōsen), are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (called hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress.

Here they used a kimono to decorate the background instead of the traditional red cloth.

The dolls had extremely detailed faces and costumes. I talked to some people at work and they said these dolls are usually very expensive (around $2,000 for a set) and are often handed down from generation to generation. So now you know that if you come and visit me we can't buy one and cut their hair and alter their clothes like an old barbie. If you want to learn more about these dolls visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_doll

See you later Therese and Martin

Sadly our friends Therese and Martin left Hiroshima today to go back to England. Orlando and I went to dinner with them yesterday in the same restaurant we first met a little over a year ago!!! We could not believe how quick time has passed and all the adventures we had together. They where here only 18 months!!!! Still they became one our most valued and cherished friends. The kind you can count on to help you out in any circumstance, which in a strange far away land consists of many little things like: "Where is the best place to buy normal food?", "Which restaurants have English menus" or the crucial "Is there Bacardi around here?". Therese would promptly be at my door on her spiky bike to take me to all the right places in the city. On 3/24/07 I had everyone over at our apartment for a "See you later party". For those of you who are wondering (everyone), yes I did cook. I made lasagna for 12 people!!!! Including our special guest my friend Erin's mom who hanged out with "the kids" all night.

We gave a Therese a few going away gifts as you can see below:

What you are seeing above is not an optical illusion. That Big Bird actually has 4 legs, thanks to some creative craftsmanship from Erin. You may think what is going on? So the story of the 4 legged chicken begins. usually when we have a party at someone's apartment (no 2 story houses here unless you live about 1 hour away) we would play some time of quirky game after everyone was "happy". One of my favorite games to play is Cranium. One one of the challenges of the game is to draw something with your eyes closed and the rest of your team has to guess what it is. One time after many many glasses of wine, Therese's team was counting on her to draw a beautiful illustration of a chicken. Simple enough right? Well no one guessed what it was and Therese was very disappointed. Once she let everyone see her drawing paper the chicken had 4 legs instead of 2!!!!! Off course no one guessed it right!!! In reality Therese's futuristic rendition of a chicken was not that far of. Read the following article to see that it is possible to have a four legged bird:
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0218-quadpedal_chick.html
Therese laughed so hard when she saw the "transformed" stuffed animal that she ended up crying!!!!!
Here is the whole "gaijin (Japanese slang word for foreigner) kids gang". Off course we are all on the floor, this is Japan after all!!! Who would have thought that a fluffy rug would be so useful?

I mean this in the most sincere way that they will be missed alot in our microscopic foreigner community in Hiroshima and that they can visit us any time, wherever we might be. If you would like to know more about them just click on the links section to check out their blog, it has really good travel information on Japan and interesting anecdotes on what it is like to live here.