Christmas in Japan

This will probably be the only year in our entire lives that we will spend Christmas by ourselves. And since I'm the one who usually instigates Christmas decorating, cooking, and party going in the US, I decided that Brad would be the "King of Christmas" and decide how to celebrate this Christmas in Japan. So here is what we did:

For Christmas Eve dinner we made our specialty: tacos! After which we broke out some sake and opened presents. This year for Christmas we got a lot of candy, and food such as Hamburger Helper. And let me tell you I couldn't be happier to have a couple boxes of Hamburger Helper and soup on my shelf. (I'm having a hard time figuring out how to cook here. There isn't as much of a selection and obviously a lot of things are in a language I cannot read or understand.)

Then we continued our night by curling up on the couch and listening to This American Life's Christmas 2010 Comedy Special. This radio program has become one of our favorite things to listen to here. If you haven't heard it--check it out here!

Brad got a Star War's spatula and cookie cutters from my parents. Hence the excited face... ;-)

My gift from Brad: a piece of pearl jewelry, yay! On the bottom it says, "This coupon is not an indication that permission must be sought from a Mr. Brad Anderson when the recipient desires something. it is meant only as a gesture of love and not meant to imply any inequality in the partnership." too funny! 

The aftermath.

Christmas morning we made breakfast burritos, talked with family, relaxed and then made fettucine alfredo for dinner (from our Christmas present food).

The Japanese tradition for Christmas is a little different. I guess it is pretty typical to go out on a date on Christmas Eve (think Valentine's day in the US) and then on Christmas day the traditional meal is KFC fried chicken and apparently pizza too because that's what we saw a lot of people walking away with from the grocery store. Some people do have Christmas trees and may exchange a present or two, but most people don't celebrate it besides the KFC tradition. (Brilliant marketing there, KFC!)

So that was our Christmas. Low key, relaxing and fun! Now onto New Year's and finding a piece of jewelry for me!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Yuzu Bath and Other Things

I think about this blog a lot because I'm always thinking of what I would say whenever I experience something that is somewhat notable. However, I have been extremely lazy lately with actually transcribing what has been going on in our lives down to the blog. Obviously because we're working we're not traveling very much and there's only so much karaoke that we can talk about until you say "enough karaoke"! Seriously though, I think that is going to be one of the biggest things that Brad and I will miss when we go home. (And in case you haven't figured it out already, Japanese karaoke is very different than what Americans are used to. You have private rooms here, its not in front of a whole bar...)

Brad and I have been lamenting the fact that the sun comes up so late now (6:44am--during the summer the sun came up at about 5 am) and goes down so early (4:29pm), we've even talked about it with our parents. I thought it was somewhat significant until I looked up the sunrise and sunset information for Denver (7:15am-4:37pm FYI) and realized that we actually have a tiny bit more of daytime here!

It's crazy some of the things that you forget when you've been away for awhile. For example: somehow the phrase "see you" has been ingrained in Japanese peoples heads as a good-bye phrase. But I think it's safe to say that it is a fairly uncommon phrase in the US. It sounded so funny to me when we first moved over here. I kept waiting for people to say see you--later or tomorrow etc. Now the phrase "see you " sounds completely normal to me. I wonder how many things like that will catch me off guard once we move back to Colorado...

Before I get to the yuzu bath thing I think it would be best to fill you in on my health. :) I think I'm allergic to Japan. I'm serious! When we first came here in February I developed a rash only on the back of my hands. I thought it was because I was allergic to a certain kind of soap because it slowly went away when we went home for a few days in March. However, I have stopped using this brand of soap and since we moved back here for the long haul, I have had trouble with dry, itchy patches on my face and hands, which then moved down to my calves, hips and now on to my elbows.

I have been to the doctor more times here (with little to no success and many different combos of medication and lotion) than I have in the last 5 years in the US. And I won't even delve into how awkward and frustrating it is to try and get your point across to the doctor about what is going on when there is an obvious language barrier. Luckily there is no such thing as patient confidentiality/HIPAA here because I can have someone call later to fill me in on the details of the medication I'm supposed to take. Still I hope it goes away when we move back or I'm just excited to talk to a doctor who can actually diagnose me with something and help me cure it rather than lessen the symptoms for a couple days at a time!

 Now to the Yuzu bath thing. The Yuzu is an ugly orange looking fruit but is actually most similar to a lime. I had never seen or heard of it until this past August and never actually saw the fruit until a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it's a Japanese custom to put Yuzu's in your bath on the winter solstice to ward off sickness and rejuvenate your body. Brad was given a couple of yuzu's at his school so he brought it home and we decided to try it. Neither of us had ever taken a bath with a fruit before so we just cracked 'em open and let them float. It was really nice and aromatic until I had an itch on my leg which I then scratched, which then started burning and burning and burning and burning. It was seriously one of the worst pains I had ever felt! I quickly finished taking a shower (in which cold water and washing the area I scratched did nothing). Luckily it just needed some time and was completely gone by the morning but that is the last time I ever take a bath with a citrus fruit!

So either we put too much fruit/juice in the water or Japanese people know not to scratch an itch while in the bath with a Yuzu and forgot to fill me in on that little detail. But that is our experience of trying that Japanese custom by ourselves...

First Homemade Japanese Dinner- Yummy!

Our friend Chris works at a private school teaching English to people of all different ages. We have been lucky enough to get to know some of his former students (he's switched schools since we moved here) and experience many different things with them such as skiing, camping, and multiple dinners. This time his former student Kazue invited us over for some nabe, sukiyaki, and shabu shabu. We always have so much fun with his students and this dinner was amazing!

Kazue, her husband Kenichiro, and their daughter Yui are amazing! They let us sleep on their futons for almost 2 months while we were staying with Chris and are always so welcoming whenever we see them. They are truly becoming our "family" away from home if you will.

The spread: sushi, nabe, sukiyaki, and shabu shabu. (I linked everything to wikipedia which explains it much better than me.) But all of these foods are cooked in kind of a stew on the table. Sukiyaki is traditionally thin meat cooked in the pot and then dipped in raw egg before eating. Yes, we both tried it but at least I prefer it without the raw egg... Shabu shabu is again, thin meat that you take from a plate and then dip in boiling broth while singing "shabu, shabu, shabu" etc. (at least that's what they told us;) ) until the meat is cooked. Then you dip it in some kind of sauce (we tried a mustard sauce) and then eat it. 

Yui downing her sparkling cider...

The whole group. We were watching Ponyo in the background (good movie btw!)

I had no idea that Kazue and Kenichiro were such big hockey fans, but we broke out their hockey game and guess who the teams were? The Avalanche and Red Wings. Go figure.

Chris and Yui playing some hockey.

Yui was teaching Brad Japanese and kanji (Chinese characters), and Brad read her Winnie the Pooh in English. (So cute!) Yui is 7 years old and has already taken English for a couple of years. She is still pretty shy about talking but she can understand a lot of what you say if its simple questions. Ex: "How are you?" "How old are you?" "What food do you like?" etc. This is pretty good I think, especially since my 7th grade students are learning the same thing as she is right now. 

After the meal, Kazue learned that I had never tried natto and preceded to document my first (and only) natto eating experience. Natto is fermented soy beans and smells really bad. Japanese people love to ask if you've ever tried natto because it is very much an acquired taste. Natto smells bad and is very stringy and slippery. It is also a very popular breakfast item.  

The first bite. No, that is not drool--its the rotten beans!!

My reaction.

eww!

So there you have it--a fun evening with good food and fun people! There are some more cute pictures of Yui and everybody playing hockey which I will post on Picasa. 

Merry Christmas!

We hope you are having a very Merry Christmas. I know I've been bad about updating the blog lately but I promise I will get to it soon...because I'm on vacation woohoo!

Anyway, enjoy your Christmas and Happy New Years too!

Takasaka Zoo

There's a little dry cleaning place that's right behind our apartment. That's where we met Ringo. She is a 17 year old junior in high school and wants to learn English. She works in the dry cleaning shop and was so excited to speak English with us whenever we went in until finally she asked if we could exchange letters, which turned into us helping her study for tests, to going out to dinner together with her and her family and finally going to the zoo. She is such a sweet girl and it has been so much fun getting to know her and her family since last spring!

Last weekend we finally made it to the zoo that is near our house. It's not a big zoo but I was surprised how nice it was and how many different kinds of animals it had. It was a really fun day!

From left to right is Ringo's mom Yayoi, her little brother Hinata, Ringo, and of course us. 

Brad and Hinata with a giant capiburra that Hinata liked. Hinata was a little shy since he doesn't know any English but it was still fun to talk a little bit. (Side note: we didn't see any capiburra but apparently they will be arriving in November once their hot spring enclosure is ready. Lucky animals!)

This little calf was only a week old. So cute!

This is a red panda which is the big attraction for the park. There were twin red panda's that were born in June which were so cute! 

Weird, big scraggly bird. It's the white Big Bird! 

Pretty fall colors!

Three toed sloth. They had this enclosure where you were basically on a bridge walking through their environment--no barriers whatsoever. You could almost reach out and touch the guy!

This little guy was my favorite. He was just taking a nap on a tree in the open enclosure. You can see with the picture of Brad that there were no barriers in the enclosure, but we still couldn't touch them. :( They look so cute and cuddly!

There were tons of kangaroos! And again, there was no barrier between us and the kangaroos...

This isn't a good picture but see how close you can get? Crazy!

Some turtles having fun...haha

These little pigs were in the petting zoo area. They were so cute! They had little numbers painted on top of them so you could tell them apart. 

Giraffes! They had at least 3 of them, and a couple zebras too.

So that was our day at the zoo. I'll try and post all of our pictures on Picasa soon, but for now enjoy!

And... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I think Brad and I will go to the Hard Rock Cafe this weekend for their turkey dinner. Unfortunately turkey is pretty hard to come by here, but hopefully this will hit the spot. We will definitely be missing all the amazing home cooked meals and family this week!

Design Festa Art Show

We went to this huge art show called Design Festa a couple weeks ago held in Tokyo Big Site. Design Fest is put on twice a year by an organization that has a full time art showcase warehouse in Harajuku. We've been to the original building but it was cool to see the good and not so good art all in one place. This building is huge! When we left the art show it was really dark out so I couldn't get a good picture of it but I searched online and found this one. So if the Olympics are held in Tokyo in 2016, this is where some of the events will take place.

Tokyo Big Site (I did not take this picture.)

Like I said before this was a huge art show that showcased artists from all over Japan. They had paintings, sculptures, clothes, crafts etc. etc. so it took a long time to go through all the aisles of artists. Brad and I bought a few copies of paintings and some cards that will be fun to have up in our place some day. 

This is what it looked like inside.

Brad liked this one.

I thought this one was kind of pretty. Some of the art was really out there and not quite to my liking (i.e. a lot of it was more modern looking or was manga (comic book) style illustrations. 

A lot of artists painted huge murals over the course of the weekend. It was fun to see them paint!

I thought this one was really neat. She looked almost alive!

This one was my favorite from the whole day. It had so much detail in it! I'm not sure how they made it but it looked like the whole thing was done with a fine tipped sharpie. 

Anyway, we did a lot of walking and it was a fun day! Although I'm still working on appreciating some styles of art (maybe I'm just not creative enough to "get it") but it was a fun experience!

Japan Three Day March

Higashimatsuyama is home to the biggest march in Japan. I couldn't find anything confirming this online but one of my teachers said that between 50,000-60,000 people participate every year. And this is in our own backyard! School was closed and all students and teachers as well as people who traveled from all over the world and Japan to participate walked anywhere from 1-3 days and 5-50km per day.

It was a neat experience seeing our little town get all dressed up for the event. The march started on Friday so school was canceled so we could all walk. I ended up walking with one of my English teachers and a couple other teachers from my school. They asked me a while ago how far I wanted to walk and I told them probably only 10km. My English teacher said that's all he wanted to do too but then started talking about how funny it would be to do the 20km route and have a car waiting halfway to take us back to the start. I totally thought he was kidding until we did just that. No joke! I don't even know why it was a big deal because the race is kind of based on an honor system. They give you a piece of paper and you get a sticker at the start, the midway point and the finish. There are no prizes for 1st and 2nd place etc. I guess what I'm saying is it was a very laid back event in that it really was centered on walking. It was not to benefit any event or organization (although it is an official event for some international walking association, but whatever...) And I'm really not sure why we couldn't just walk the 10km route but I had no idea how the whole thing worked and really, I'm just along for the ride.

So we stopped and got some lunch on the way home. And once I got back to the start I walked around because they had a lot of tents with food and goodies to buy but I got hounded by some 7th grade girls from another school that had an assignment to speak to a foreigner in English so I spent about 20 minutes answering questions and signing my name and taking pictures. I guess the word got around (and I was one of few foreigners that were present at the moment) because I ended up having to leave soon after that if only so I didn't have to answer the question "when's your birthday?" one more time. lol!

It was a very nice day and it was fun to see my students and teachers outside of school for sometime. I didn't take too many pictures but here's a couple:

I think it's funny that the name is actually in English （スリー　ダイ　マルチー or surii dai marchee) instead of Japanese but it's supposed to be a big international event so it makes sense. 

These are the flags representing the different prefectures of Japan. 

Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! This year for Halloween I made our costumes--that's right I can sew! (Kind of--thanks Mom for hemming my pants when you were here! :) )  We went to a Halloween party at a bar in Koenji (near where Chris lives) and then did a little karaoke with some of his students after. It was a fun night! I don't have too many pictures though...

I hope you find this as funny as we did... :)

Chris is missing his headband but he's dressed as the owner of this fruit stand that is well known in his city. Apparently the guy is pretty loud...kind of like Chris. :) 

We hope you all had a great Halloween too. I can't believe it's already November! Our next project is finding a place in Tokyo that serves turkey and pumpkin pie for less than a million dollars. I don't want to miss my favorite holiday! Fun fact: the only place so far that we've been able to find turkey is Disneyland and Subway Sandwiches. 

My Parent's Visit

It has now been 9 months since we came to Japan minus the 1 week trip back home in March. That means Brad and I have spent more time in Japan since we've been married than we have in the U.S. Crazy! It also means that it had been 7 months since we've seen family. So of course we were so excited when my parent's decided to come and visit!

My parent's arrived on Brad's 24th birthday so we had 2 things to celebrate! It was so nice to hug my parents after such a long time! We celebrated with goodies brought from home and some yakitori (grilled skewered pork and chicken with miso sauce) from Hibiki and then I made a pseudo ice cream cake out of ice cream sandwiches for Brad.

This was Brad's "cake" that I made out of ice cream sandwiches. Cake and regular size ovens are hard to come by here and these ice cream sandwiches are delicious!

Besides yakitori we were both excited for the gifts brought over from family: most importantly Peanut Butter Captain Crunch, Reese's Pieces, oatmeal, Burts Bees chapstick, P90X, a cute shirt and necklace, and a video game. (****on a side note I'm excited to say that our grocery store is improving and as of last week now has its very own Mexican food shelf! Yay for not having to trek it a ways to get taco makings any more!****)

Since we didn't have that much time to tour Tokyo with my parent's we hit a bunch of sites on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we visited Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, and Shibuya. We saw the beautiful temple, tried some new "festival" food, and bought some souvenirs in Asakusa.

The souvenier shops you have to pass through on the way to the temple. 

There was a processional of children all dressed up for some kind of ceremony that paraded through the crowd. 

In Akihabara we tried onigiri (salmon mixed with rice wrapped in seaweed--it's a popular on the go snack item) and takoyaki (fried octopus and batter balls) and saw a lot of  what my parents call "Merry Maids" in Akihabara. :) Akihabara actually has a lot of maid cafe's or cosplay restaurants where women dress up as maids and refer to the customers as "Master" or "Mistress" and serve you food and drink. We have never been to one of these cafe's but women dressed as maids are always standing on the sidewalks advertising their cafe. If you really want to know more you can read about it here. 

I didn't take this picture but just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. 

Next we went to Ginza which is a famous high end shopping district in Tokyo. We looked inside Gucci, but alas nothing was good enough for our tastes. Haha, I'm just kidding!! I think that is the first high end designer shop I've ever been into and I couldn't help but feel like I was in a museum, and that the people shopping there were maybe just a little crazy for spending that kind of money. They did have some cute clothes though... :)

A bride and groom taking pictures in the cross walk in Ginza.

Next we went to Shibuya to relax at Starbucks and watch the busiest intersection in the world. I love doing this because it is so much fun to people watch! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, I let my Dad be the main photographer for the weekend. 

And then we met up with Chris and introduced my parents to the amazingness that is Japanese style karaoke. It was so much fun!!

My Mom and Dad singing a duet. I can't remember what song, but they rocked!

My Dad and Brad singing After Midnight by Eric Clapton together. Love it! 

So that was just Saturday... whew! 

On Sunday we went to Harajuku which is famous for it's shopping and people dressed up in crazy costumes. Brad always gets excited because they have a Doner Kebab stand there which is basically grilled pork and cabbage in pita bread with some sauce on it. So of course we had to show my parents it. Then we went to Meiji Shrine and saw a traditional Japanese wedding, some gigantic spiders, and of course the shrine itself.

I felt bad because there were so many people at the shrine and they were trying to take their wedding pictures in the midst of all of it. Very pretty though!

My Dad has some much better pictures but these spiders are all over the place! I don't know what it is but starting in July they showed up and they've been steadily growing bigger and bigger since then. They always hang upside down from their webs whether it be in the trees, power lines, outside your door etc. Ew! At least I've never seen one inside...

Then we went to Yoyogi Park which Brad and I had never been to before. It's a huge park right in the center of Tokyo and is popular for visiting on the weekends, first dates, seeing cherry blossoms and also seeing the Elvis impersonators. There were about 5 different groups of people out at the park just to dress like Elvis and put on a show. The funny thing about the impersonators was that they definitely put more effort into their costumes than actually dancing like Elvis. It was hilarious!

Watch and enjoy the craziness of the Elvis impersonators. 

I'm just sorry I missed taking a picture of the guy with hair that stood about 2 feet tall. Shoot!

We ended the weekend by getting some sushi at a conveyor belt sushi place in Shinjuku. Whew! We tried to pack in everything that we could and had so much fun playing host and showing my parents what we love about Tokyo!

From Monday to Thursday while Brad and I worked my parents went to visit Hiroshima and Kyoto using their JR passes and riding the shinkansen (bullet train). When they got back on Friday they got a chance to visit my school and meet some of my teachers. Then after a quick trip to Tokyo we had to say good-bye. It was hard to say good-bye but it was so much fun having them here and instead of it being 7 months with out seeing each other, now it will only be 5. We had so much fun with you Mom and Dad! Thanks for coming and visiting us!