Wednesday, June 17, 2009


"Hydrangea" in English, "ajisai" in Japanese


Seiko and me
















Seiko and Satsuki







Hello! Wow, two posts in less than a week. What's going on? I have more photos to share. Yesterday, I went with Seiko and her friend Satsuki to one of my favorite places, Kamakura. Our goal was to see the hydrangeas, which are in full bloom right now. They grow really well in this area of Japan, and the Japanese name for them is "ajisai." We went to two different shrines to see them, and also stopped by a popular money shrine that promises good fortune if you wash your money in the water there. Is it just me, or does "money washing" sound a bit like "money laundering"? Hmmmm. We washed our money and now I'm waiting to see what happens with it. Unfortunately, my photos of our money washing didn't turn out because I had my camera on a weird setting. However, I was really happy with my flower photos and I hope you will be too.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow they are BEAUTIFUL!! Mom and dad have these in their yard and I love to cut some and put them in vases at my house (they always brighten everything up). Thank you for sharing the photos:)

Erica

Karen said...

Oh, I love hydrangeas! Gorgeous!

jennifer blackburn said...

I love ajisai!! I guess they turn different colors if you bury pennies around them. Maybe you can put that squeaky clean money to some use.

Anonymous said...

Ellen,
Love the hydrangeas. I hadn't visited your blog in awhile so I thought I'd get caught up on all your interesting things and share some news that made me think of you. I now have a contact at work (the PBA) that I'm going to try and suck up to for myself and fellow Kitty fans. It is Mrs. Hello Kitty. Actually, her husband is a vice president for Sanrio, in charge of Hello Kitty. They are so into it that he started to call her Kitty and it has stuck as her permanent nickname. She is a professional translator and is working with some Asian players that are participating in a few of our events this season. I thought you'd like to know your 8 degrees of separation has now gotten down to 2. Cool!
Julie Ketter

Ellen said...

That's really cool, Julie. You'll definitely have to get in touch with her. We live a few miles away from the university that Hello Kitty's creator attended. And we also live fairly close to the Sanrio headquarters. My friend Seiko has been to it, and she says you can get some awesome deals there, but you have to be invited by an employee. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

If I send you some money, can you wash it for me? ;)

-Happie :)

Anonymous said...

Ellen,
I love Hydrangeas too (like my girl Jen). BUT said Jennifer can't find your e-mail address, and I have a friend who might be moving to your same Navy base soon and wanted to ask packing questions. Can you e-mail me?
jessicaeastre@hotmail.com Thanks!
Jessica Miller