Sanja Fesitval, Maddie's 8th Birthday, Tokyo Giants

Once late spring arrives in Japan the annuals festivals (matsuri) start up and it seems there is a different one every other weekend. On May 17th we went to the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa which occurs on the third weekend of each May. The Sanja Matsuri is one of three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo and this one is considered one of the wildest. Throughout Asakusa you hear continuous flutes, drums, and other musical instruments along with chanting, singing, etc. There is food, picnics, and people having a good time everywhere. Over two million people attend over three days. One of the rituals for each of the neighborhoods to build and carry over 100 portable shrines (mikoshi) through the streets of Asakusa. Each portable shrine "contains" a kami, or deity which are carried around the streets by Ujiko (people from neighboring communities). The shrines are big and heavy so a lot of men and women in the costume of their neighborhood carry them. The shrines are thought to bring good luck and fortune to the homes and businesses in the neighborhoods.



As you can tell by the video, the people are very passionate about this festival. Some people carrying the mikoshi looked like they were having a blast while others didn't appear to be having as much fun (they were getting squished!) but still participated. You can see in the video that the people will switch out with others when they get tired. It was fascinating to watch.















Madeline had an "Enchanted" 8th birthday slumber party on May 23. There were six girls there including Maddie. These are Maddlie's closest friends and all are in her cartwheel "club." The girls watched the movie Enchanted and had a fun fashion show with Maddie's wardrobe (among many other things!). The next morning Darren took them to Arisugawa Park (across the street from our apartment) and they all ate ice cream at McDonald's.

I made a three tiered "enchanted" cake for the party. The cake mix was $7.50 a box (it took two boxes) from National Azabu Market (this is the non-Japanese market that is more expensive than local markets). The strangest thing though, is that they don't sell packaged frosting in Tokyo. So I had to make the frosting with powdered sugar. THAT was an experience since it soaked into the cake and gave it a funky...or should I say...enchanted look. But...sugar is sugar when you get down to it and it was a yummy cake!

The kids' new favorite outdoor activity is to go fishing for crawfish in the pond at Arisugawa Park (we catch and release). Darren and Nathan have made several traps out of plastic water bottles. So far we have caught small crawfish (see in the net below) and minnows. Apparently crawfish-trapping is a universally-loved activity for children (and parents) as we have met kids from many countries here sharing their latest "catch" and trapping techniques. So far the record goes to a Japanese boy who caught a deep-red crawfish longer than your average cell phone. Sorry I didn't have our camera that day!

Below is Darren and Maddie netting some crawfish by the rocks.

Nathan is still waiting to catch that "mack" daddy crawfish!
































On Friday, June 6, we went to our first baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. We watched the Tokyo Giants play the Chiba Lotte Marines (no not US Marines, just the name of the other Japanese team). As you can see from the video, the fans go crazy (in a VERY organized way of course!). They knew every word to every chant and every song. It was much closer to a European or Latin American soccer match than a US baseball game. Nathan and Madeline really got into it which was fun to see. Of course we were excited when the Giants won in the 10th (overtime) inning with a "walkoff" home run with two outs to win the game! Final score 4-3.




Here are some of the goodies we got at that game. The ketchup/mustard packet was cool. You just squeeze them together and they both come out on your hotdog withour having to get your hands messy. Too neat.














There are girls that walk up and down the bleechers the entire time selling various things. The beer they sell comes in kegs that that girls wear on their backs! We were joking that at least the girls weren't wearing high heels!





The kids finish school this Thursday, June 12th! Our wonderful friend (and the kids' teacher from the USA) Paige is coming over to visit us for 2 weeks. She arrives this Thursday too! We are so excited!!!! The kids and I will actually be flying back with her to the USA for our summer vacation. We will be in the US from June 12th-August 13th. We are excited to see all our friends and family!

Language Lesson of the Week: Months of the Year

January - ichi-gatsu
February - ni-gatsu
March - san-gatsu
April - shi-gatsu
May - go-gatsu
June - roku-gatsu
July - shichi-gatsu
August - hachi-gatsu
September - ku-gatsu
October - ju-gatsu
November - juichi-gatsu
December - juni-gatsu


Funny Photo of the Week:



This is a picture of a roller coaster right outside of Tokyo Dome. As you can see, it goes on top of and through a building! I guess when space is tight...

Rice Planting

For all of you Survivor show fans, we won the Survivor Challenge Reward…at least that’s what it felt like. On May 10, we took the Shinkansen about an hour outside of Tokyo (150 km) to Nasu Kogen in the Tochigi Prefecture to plant rice at a local farm. It was one of the best cultural experiences we have had so far. We plan on going back in September to harvest the same rice we planted. Here are the photos from our trip.

Here is Nathan and Maddie stirring fermented beans (gross!). They smelled awful and Darren said they tasted just like they smelled. We helped prepare the lunch feast before we left to plant the rice (although our Japanese hosts did most of the work).

We couldn't find boots here that would fit the kids, or if we did, they weren't tall enough. So, we made some makeshift boots using garbage bags. I actually think their "boots" worked better than ours.

This is what the rice looks like before it is planted. You rip off about three or four seedlings to plant in the mud.

Nathan and Maddie get down to planting...or at least Maddie. The mud is very mushy and Nathan got stuck. Mud, a kid's paradise!

Here is the professional. He planted in 5 minutes what it took us 30 minutes to plant!

This is the little section we planted for 45 minutes and we didn't even finish (there were five different families there planting).

Nasu is up in the mountains so it was about 10 degrees cooler than Tokyo. Here we are headed back to the house to eat lunch.

We had to walk through a bamboo forest to get back to the house. This is where the farmers grow their Shiitake mushrooms.

Our hosts caught fish from a local fishing pond. The fish are then salted and put on a stick and placed along the outside of a hot fire. They are covered with newspaper while they cook.

Maddie is pretending to eat the fish whereas Nathan did eat it. The way you eat these fish is by eating the ENTIRE thing...including the head (which still has eyeballs) and the tail. Darren and I both ate one. I ate the head (ewww!) but didn't eat the tail (there was some unchewable "things" from the head so I decided to forgo the tail. (Actually, the head was a little crunchy with a little squishsiness...wonder what that was?!)

Here is one of our hosts cooking steamed rice over an open fire. This rice was used to make mochi. Mochi is a Japanese confection which can be eaten with condiments such as kinako (roastedsoy bean flour), manju (sweet red bean paste), soy sauce dip, and seaweed. Traditionally, mochi is made by pounding steamed glutinous rice in a large wooden mortar, called the usu, with a wooden mallet called the kine.

The sticky dense mounds of rice are made from mochigome, a sweeter stickier type of rice, different from the steamed rice eaten every day. Mochi was originally made as offereings to kami (gods) at shrines. This offering was then cut into small pieces and given to people for good health and fortune. (No, I didn't know that...I had to look all that information up.)

Now it's time to make the mochi! We all take turns.

Now that the rice is a "dough" it is time to roll it out.

Here's the amazing feast we ate!

Maddie's relaxing with the "guys" around the indoor fire

Language Lesson of the Week: Days of the Week

Monday - getsu-yobi

Tuesday - ka-yobi
Wednesday - sui-yobi

Thursday - moku-yobi

Friday - kin-yobi

Saturday - do-yobi

Sunday -nichi-yobi

(Say of the letter o's with the long o sound).

Funny Photo of the Week:

Here is another whacky "lost in translation" moment. This is on a travel bag.

-15

Kamakura

Before we moved to Tokyo we knew that there were earthquakes. In fact, we knew that there were over 1,000 earthquakes or tremors every year (though many of them you don’t feel). Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. It is located on top of several converging tectonic plates, which results in earthquakes (and tsunamis), volcanoes and thousands of mineral rich hot springs (called “onsen,” which we haven’t tried yet but hear they are wonderful).

Up until April 4th, we had only felt small tremors…a small, gentle rocking for only a few seconds. On Friday, April 7th at 7:30 pm we felt our first moderate tremor. While I was making popcorn on the stove for our Family Popcorn Movie night, the kids were in Nathan’s bedroom playing. As I was shaking the popcorn pan I heard the sliding closet doors rattling. My first thought was, “What are those kids doing in there?” When I stopped shaking the pot, I realized that the ground was still moving. At that same time, Nathan and Maddie ran to the kitchen and said, “Mom!” All that happened in the course of about 20 seconds. We were all a little shaken up (pun intended). Darren was still at work and we called him and he said he felt it too. Most of newer high-rise buildings employ shock absorption technology such as rollers so the building will sway in the event of an earthquake. We later learned that the epicenter was 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Tokyo and was a magnitude of 5.0. The US Geologic Survey site is great in that it posts data on the latest earthquakes around the world usually within minutes of them occurring -- http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/.

On May 7th we were awakened at 1:45 am by another moderate earthquake. It lasted about 30 seconds. Somehow, Nathan was able to sleep through it. We learned that the epicenter was near the east coast of Honshu, Japan (about 100 miles from Tokyo) and it registered a magnitude of 6.8. Every time we have a tremor, it reminds me that I need to prepare our earthquake emergency kit!

The last major earthquake in Tokyo was in 1923 (known as the Great Kanto Earthquake). It killed over 100,000 people and damaged most of the buildings in Tokyo. Hopefully, the new building standards will be able to fare better today in the event of a major earthquake. They say that Tokyo will experience that type of earthquake every 70 years…so as you can see, they are well overdue!!! So, every moderate tremor I feel, I hope that it’s not the next Big One! Here’s a great website if you’re interested on reading more about earthquakes in Japan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3950315.stm.

On April 27 we took a trip to Kamakura (about 1 hour from Tokyo taking the train). It is a coastal community with several shrines. The first shrine we visited is called Daibutsu (or the Great Buddha…it’s the statue we all see in the books on Japan...the kids and I are standing in front of it). It is Kamakura’s main attraction and a national treasure. The Kamakura Daibutsu is the second largest bronze Buddha in Japan. There was supposed to be some squirrels that ate nuts out of your hands but--much to Nathan’s dismay--they were not here on this day. You are supposed to wash your hands before entering shrines so Nathan and Maddie are helping each other wash their hands.

We then walked to the Hasedera shrine. It is one of eastern Japan’s most popular temples and houses an ancient gilded Kannon (a Buddhist goddess of mercy that is said to be the tallest wooden statue in the country…no photos allowed…sorry). This place had the most beautiful gardens, ponds full of carp and turtles and waterfalls and awesome views of the coastal community (the Zaimokuza coast and the Miura peninsula). Climbing up the path to see the views, we walked by thousands of little statutes of Misuko Jizo, which are placed there in memory of babies who died before birth. There is a prayer wall that people can write their wishes, prayers or sentiments on. We thought this was a precious wish.







After grabbing lunch, we walked to the beach we had viewed from the top of the temple grounds. The kids had the most fun here (of course!). On May 4th Japan celebrates what is called Children’s Day (Kodomo No Hi). It was initially a day to pray for the healthy growth of boys. Families with young boys fly carp streamers outside their homes. The carp kite is a symbol of perseverance and courage in Japan.

Anyway, we saw an old man and some of his friends flying a beautiful (huge – taller than me) kite with 20 carp streamers. We decided that we will go back there this summer for a weekend at the beach.







On our way to the shopping district (Komachi Dori) we saw these men. We didn’t know what their story was but it looked like such a traditional Asian photograph.

We bumped into a local artist playing the Yangqin and purchased his CD. I’d tell you his name if I could read the Kanji he wrote on our cover.




After rushing through the shopping district, we made it to our final shrine of the day, Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, before they closed at 5:00. We had read that you could purchase food to feed the pigeons and that they would land on your arms to get the food. However, we did not find the food to buy and there weren’t that many pigeons around (again, much to Nathan’s disappointment).

We then took a nice leisurely stroll back through the shopping district before heading home for the day. Maddie and I bought some great sterling silver rings with genuine stones for 1,000 yen ($10.00).

We went to a children’s hands-on museum last weekend called The National Children’s Castle (Komodo no Shiro). Though it was somewhat of a disappointment (rated 1 out of 10 by the kids) we did get to watch a cute play in Japanese.


Here is a photo of Madeline's class on a field trip to the amazing Tama Zoo. We're going there as a family soon so I'll tell you all about it later. She is the one in the back standing up doing to infamous double finger peace sign (thanks again Paul!). Her posse is to her right (Mika from Israel, Lior and Myako from Japan).

Language lesson are still challenging.
Language Lesson of the Week: Numbers 1-10

1 ichi (eechee or sometimes eech)
2 ni (knee)
3 san (sahn-nn)
4 shi (she) or yon (yohhn)
5 go
6 roku (loh-koo)
7 shichi (she-chee) or nana (nah-nah)
8 hachi (ha-chee)
9 Kyu (que)
10 Jyu (joo)

Simple right? Aaah, but those are just the generic counters! If you want to count people you say ichi-mai (1), ni-mai (2)… Animals: ippiki, ni-hiki…except squid which are ippai, ni-hai...and birds which are ichi-wa, ni-wa… Flat objects are hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu… Long slender objects are ippon, nihon, sambon… And I won’t even get into counting time which has yet another system! As you can imagine Darren and I study (somewhat diligently) on Sunday and Tuesday evenings in preparation for our language classes the next morning. And sometimes all four of us sit at the table and study our Japanese at the same time which has been fun. Of course the widely-held belief that kids can learn a foreign language much quicker than adults is proving true in our household!

Funny Photo of the Week:

We saw this while riding on the train to Kamakura.

What's cooking?

Hi everyone!

Darren is back home (in Japan) after spending nine days in Atlanta. He was able to see a lot of friends and had a wonderful time with everyone. If you are reading this and he was unable to see you, he is very sorry. He had a weeklong meeting for work and did his best to see as many people as he could in such a short time. Plus, I gave him a HUGE shopping list of things he had to return with. So needless to say, he went on a big shopping spree and returned with three suitcases full of goodies! Nathan and Maddie had a small Christmas in April.

While he was gone, I decided to learn how to cook…Japanese style! My friend Joanna (who just came to Tokyo from London three weeks ago) and I took a cooking class on how to make miso soup and onigiri. We had so much fun! Nathan was my best critic and thought the onigiri was delicious. Of course, he loves any kind of onigiri so he wasn’t that hard to please. You can see from the photo that one of the onigiri is wrapped in what looks like cloth. It is actually a form of seaweed…and yes; it felt like cloth when I was wrapping it. It has a subtle taste, not at all like (nori) the typical seaweed wrap. Our next cooking class isn’t until June. We are going to learn how to make inari-sushi (sushi in a pouch) and Teriyaki chicken (a little different from how we make it in the states).

On Saturday night Nathan’s friend Kenny spent the night. After finally falling asleep around 1:00 am and waking at 6:00 am, they created five science projects on slime for the school’s science fair which is this Thursday (April 24). Maddie helped and even created her very own slime with various ingredients. It was messy (and slimy) but a lot of fun.

Two weeks ago I subbed for five days in the school's computer lab. It was a lot of fun seeing what the various grades are doing at ASIJ. We are actually changing schools next year. The kids will be attending Tokyo International School (TIS). They went through the interview and assessment process in March and were accepted. We are changing mainly due to the bus ride, which is now 50 minutes one way. Next year it will only be a 15 minute ride one way. That means we can get up at 7:00 am instead of 6:00 am! (We all know that's the real reason we're doing it! :) The kids are excited about the shorter bus ride but sad to leave ASIJ. It's a smaller school, 370 students from 45 countries. It only has two classes per grade level with 16 kids in each class. Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://www.tokyois.com/. It is unlike the US education since there is no standardized testing or book testing.

In every store or restaurant you go to in Japan, there is a tray to put your money in while you pay. When we first got here, I’d try to hand the clerk the money and they would usually point to the tray. One of our favorite breakfast joints is called Johnathan’s. It’s the closest thing to a US breakfast in the area we live. Here’s a journey to Johnathan’s… The silverware comes in a basket with wet wipes to clean your hands. When you are ready to order you push a button at the table which summons the server (these buttons are in many restaurants across Tokyo). You can also use the button when you need anything during your meal. The check is put in a round tube on the table. When you pay, you put your money on the tray (like most other places). Also, for all the technology (e.g., many servers take your order using a PDA-type electronic device that sends the order directly back to the kitchen) used in everyday life here in Tokyo, it is still considered a cash economy. Most people use cash here although a minority use credit. Debit cards are used even less. We carry at least 30,000 yen on us at all times (about $300.00).

The service in Tokyo is impeccable. Everyone takes their job very seriously and have such great attitudes - no matter what the job. Take fast food for instance...I don't think you will find such well-groomed and polite McDonald's employees anywhere else. In department stores there are people to help at every turn. Waiting in a checkout line for a price check doesn't happen here - everyone knows exactly what to do and how to do it quickly. We have become very spoiled. There is no tipping in Tokyo, which is incredible since they work so hard. Our expectations for service has increased significantly in the few short months we've been here. When we get back to the USA, the restaurant staff will have to work hard to get a nice tip from us! Those poor waiters and waitresses! : )

The other day I was going to meet my friend in Shinagawa at 10 am. I could not believe how crowded the train was! I usually take my camera with me but unfortunately I forgot it this time. I thought it was past rush hour but it was SOOOO packed. On one train, I observed (while I was waiting for the next train to come) people turning around and backing into the car. It was so crowded that their feet hung over the edge so that the doors couldn’t close. They just stood there! Then, the train attendant came over and pushed them into the car so the door could close! I had to see it to believe it! Of course, the next train I got on was just as crowded. While I was on the train I was thinking that anyone with claustrophobia or enochlophobia (fear of crowds -- yes I had to look it up!) would not be able to ride this train. There are a few cars that are women-only cars (for obvious reasons) but only during a certain time. Notice the times on the signs (click on the photo to enlarge). That is how precise the Japanese subway system is.

On May 10th our family is going to plant rice seedlings in a rice field with the Oishii Gohan Project. I’ll tell you more about that later.

Darren and I began our Japanese lessons two weeks ago. Let's just say I've created some new synapses! It is a very difficult language to learn. So, I've decided to add...

Our Japanese language lesson of the week: Greetings

Ohayo-gozaimasu (said "ohio go zye mas") - good morning

Kon-nichiwa (said "ko nee chi wa") - hello (but only said in the mid-morning to afternoon

Kom-ban-wa (said "kom baun wa") - good evening

Funny photo of the week:

Doesn't the name of this water make you want to take a big drink?!