Sumo Wrestling and the Emperor

On January 9th we went to the opening day of the 1st Grand Sumo Tournament of 2011. This was the first time we had ever seen sumo wrestling so we got there early to take it all in. The tournament starts at 8am with the less experienced wrestlers and then culminates with the top bracket of wrestlers at about 6pm. We got to the stadium at about noon and stayed until the end. If you're asking "How can they sit for 6 whole hours and watch that?", I'll tell you. First, go with some good friends, second go to the conbini (convenience store) and get some snacks and drinks to last the day, and third make up names for the wrestlers and bet on who will win. I'll wait until the end to tell you who won...

One of the murals. All the sumo wrestlers live in compounds so we saw young "wrestlers in training" all over that area of Tokyo that day. 

It wasn't very busy when we got there. 

My bento box lunch. I'm not even sure what all was in it, but it looks pretty!

It was cold, hence the hat and jacket...

There's 2 different "leagues" in sumo. This was the top tier wrestlers from one league.

This is the board that shows all of the top tier wrestlers. The red highlights the name of the wrestler who won the match. 

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko

Depending on if they're the main event or not, a match can last a minute, or 5 minutes. Most of the time is spent before they even compete. If you want to know more, check out this or watch the full clip I posted below to see it. 

McDonald's advertised at the meet. lol!

Now on to the videos! Brad and I have a very nice video camera and digital SLR but we usually just use my old point and shoot because it's a pain to be out walking all day with big bags hanging off of you. However, we were sitting most of this day and severely regret not taking either. So these are all the quality of my little point and shoot. 

Chris named this guy Tomato last year, for reasons you can probably see. I think he was maybe the least athletic wrestler there.



This was Emperor Akhito's entrance. Sorry it's at an angle! I can't figure out how to fix it. But still it was very cool considering he rarely makes public appearances. Most Japanese people that I've talked to haven't seen him, and it's funny that I've seen the emperor before I've seen the President! (We won't count when Obama came to CSU because it was before he was elected and I think I only just caught a glimpse of the back of his head.)


If you watch any video, you should watch this. It really is fun to see all the rituals that go into it, but also how flexible and agile these big guys are!

I'm not sure what the specifics of this exercise were but this was the very last thing to happen before everyone left. I think the belt that he's wearing is the champion belt, so maybe he won the tournament last year? Anyway, it's not very graceful, but then again sumo wrestling really isn't a graceful sport.

Afterwards we tried to got to a chankonabe restaurant (this is the traditional meal the sumo wrestlers eat) but obviously everyone else at the tournament had the same idea so we ended up having yakiniku (Korean BBQ) instead, which was still good.

The restaurant we went to was an all-you-can-eat place so they had all the raw meat and vegetables sitting out and you could help yourself to whatever you wanted. Most of the meats were seasoned and they had different sauces that you could dip it in after grilling. It's really good! And I'm not even a big meat person!

Waiting for the meat to cook. 

Brad picking out what he wants to eat.

All in all, another memorable experience! 

And just in case anybody is curious...we only have 10 more weeks of work left! And 2 more weeks until we have officially been in Japan for 1 year. I can't believe how fast time has gone by!

My Christmas Gift!

As I posted before, Brad gave me a coupon for a piece of pearl jewelry to commemorate our year here for my Christmas present. Yay! So we went to Ginza to see the Mikimoto store. Mikimoto is famous because the founder, Mikimoto, was the first person to figure out how to make cultured pearls. And they have beautiful jewelry. I'm mean really, really pretty. I felt like I was in museum looking at some of the pieces of jewelry they had in there! Brad and I also commented that some of the necklaces were as much as a decent sized house. I can't believe people actually buy things like that! Crazy!

Anyway, we went and found a necklace that was not in place of our next house that we both really liked. I'm so excited! I love it so much!

The Mikimoto store in Ginza. Doesn't it look fancy?

Shopping after new years is like the American black Friday here. Lot's of sales and very busy!

The cute bag! I think this is the first (and only) time where I wasn't the only one walking around without a Chanel, Gucci or Burberry type shopping bag in Ginza. The funny thing though is that almost everyone has some sort of designer shoes or bag and they save the shopping bags that they come in for future use. It is not uncommon to see a very abused Channel shopping bag when you're out and about. 

They wrapped it up so cute I almost didn't want to open it. Almost.

I love it!

And now I have a necklace to match the beautiful pearl earrings my parents gave me for my wedding, a keepsake to wear for a long time to come and hopefully pass on to my (very, very future) daughter. And isn't it just perfect that pearls are June's birthstone? 

(I'll put up a picture of me wearing it later. But right now I'm in my pajamas.)

Thank you Brad. I love you.

New Years!

For New Year's we met up with Chris, his dad Greg who was visiting from Colorado, and Chris' girlfriend Aki in Shibuya. Shibuya is probably my favorite portion of Tokyo. It is home to the largest intersection in the world but it also has a very cool atmosphere. It's mostly popular with people our age and has a lot of restaurants and bars as well as claw games and a few shops (which I really want to go to but have been avoiding, especially after my purchase today...).

Anyway, Brad and I were really surprised when we got to the station in Shibuya how few people there were. Usually even when we're there late on a Sunday night it's pretty crowded... but not on New Years Eve! The reason is is that New Years is typically a family holiday in Japan. People take off of work around New Years and travel to their hometowns to visit family, celebrate the New Years, and travel to a shrine to pray for the upcoming year. To see what wikipedia has to say click here.

 We started out at a restaurant where everything on the menu, including drinks was 270 yen. These restaurants are pretty popular here and mainly have appetizer type food on the menu. After eating our fair share we grabbed some drinks from the conbini (convenience store--also drinking in public is legal and common here.) and headed towards hachiko crossing (the big intersection). This is when we noticed that it was getting more crowded. The crazy thing was that a lot of the people were foreigners. (Usually Roppongi is foreigner central, but apparently there were a lot of tourists and Shibuya's more popular for New Years. I'm just guessing though...) 

When we got close the Hachiko crossing it started getting louder and louder and definitely very crowded and a little rowdy. There were policemen up on top of cars and the Shibuya Guardian Angels were standing back to back waiting for something to happen. It was fun being surrounded by everyone for the New Years but it was also a little scary because you had to move with the crowd. There was no space to move around on your own at all. For all the hype that there was at the intersection, there was no Times Square-esque party and there was no countdown. So I'm not sure if it was exactly at midnight or not but we made our own little countdown after a few minutes and then moved a way a little bit. It was so much fun though! I have never celebrated anything like that in such a big crowd before!

The crossing

The Guardian Angels.

The crowd behind us.

New Years kiss!

After celebrating midnight, we headed to what we do best...karaoke!! (Well they did, I think I took a nap. :) )

Usually the trains stop around 1 or 2 in the morning but around Tokyo on New Years the trains run all night. Since Brad and I couldn't make it back up to our house (the trains do stop outside of Tokyo), we decided to head to Meiji Shrine after karaoke. It was amazing how many people were there at 4 am. It wasn't extremely busy but still more people than I was expecting. They had the the whole thing fully staffed too. There was a guard standing at attention, tons of police around, as well as gift shops, and a bunch of places where you can get your fortune for the new year.

These paper lanterns were all lit up. Very pretty!

The torii leading to the shrine. On New Years day it can take hours waiting in line to get to the shrine. I guess that's the benefit of going early--no waiting!

People throwing change and praying for the new year. 

Here's all the videos from the night. Sorry in advance for my bad video taking skills:

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!