Meals

Here is some seasoned beef and green beans we found in the store this week.  It came in a package together and I did verify with the store clerk (the best I could) that it was beef before I bought it).  Made this with rice and corn.  We enjoyed this meal and plan to buy it again!  Accomplishment...finding food we like that I can cook on the stove top!

New Jewerly Trend

So today a little boy gave Sarah a flower.  She was crying because her mother was pushing her on the swing and pushed her in such a way that she fell right off it!!  (Sadly, it isn't the first time.)  Anyway, she was crying, I was consoling her and this little boy (about 3, I'd guess) came up and gave her a dandelion flyer.  She stopped crying immediately.  Total charm!!!  He then also gave one to Grace and I also.

The little boy inspired the girls to pick flowers and they next thing we know - we are making necklaces, bracelets, rings and crowns with flowers.  These were inspired by Ms. Sue in the FUMC Nursery who did this for the girls recently.  They took quite a bit of time this afternoon and the girls were very excited with their new fashionable jewelry.

All is not fun and games in Japan!  Haha...the girls actually ask to do "school work" here.  So while our days are mostly filled with trips to the grocery and to the park...we also spend a little time doing a little school work each day...and they think it's funny that mommy is the teacher.

Vending Machines

I've mentioned that there are a great deal of vending machines here on the city streets.  Today while walking to the park that is 6 blocks from our apartment we took pictures of all the vending machines!  Seriously, these were all in just the 6 blocks from our door to the park.  In the machines you can mainly find juice and coffee.  In some are Coke (haven't seen Diet Coke yet).  There are also a couple vending machines that sell cigarettes (boo for that)!

What you don't find a great deal of on the city streets are trash cans.  You would think those would be on every corner block too with all the individual food items in the convenience marts, markets and vending machines.  Jim suggests that everyone just keeps their trash and carries it to their home.  Really, with the lack of trash cans you would think you would see trash all over, but you just don't.  People are polite and considerate in all sorts of ways here.   



Bible Study

So, when you can't pack a bunch of books in a suitcase (two of ours was over the 50 lb limit already) this is how your Bible Study looks!  One the left, the Kindle with a Bible Study Book on it (Jen Hatmaker's MakeOver:  Revitalizing the Many Roles You Fill) and on the left my IPhone with the Bible loaded on it.  Passage from Gallations being studied today.  Thanks for digital media today.

Weekend 1: Donuts!

So, on our way to the train station we stopped and had donuts.  A fairly 'normal' thing to do.  The girls were happy.  There was one difference that I haven't seen in the US.  One of the choices was a hot dog wrapped in doughnut dough. Jim ordered it and I guess it does provide for a more filling breakfast, but I'm not one who likes non-breakfast food for breakfast so it's not really for me...  However, I did notice that many people got this in addition to a regular donut, so there is probably something to our theory.

Below are pictures of the girls and the donuts they selected.  How cute!

And, then after discovering there was filling in the middle!

In all, Mister Donut started our day off well. 

And, if you are wondering how much 5 donuts and 2 coffees cost at Mister Donut...$20.

Weekend 1: Special Tea Ceremony

The apartment building we are staying in arranged for a Special Tea Ceremony for the residents on Sunday afternoon.  I was able to attend and it was very nice.  The master of ceremonies was the Japanese women in the picture above.  These tables are specially made for tea ceremonies and every part of it is orderly and ceremonial.  They use the tea ceremony for refreshment and cleansing (it seemed to me that this was mostly spiritual cleansing).

The pot on the right has hot water in it (above).  The ladle on top of it was made of bamboo.  We were told that our ceremony master selected this ladle special because it meant represented people all around the world (which is us...those staying in this building are mostly foreigners to Japan).

Before a tea ceremony a meal is served or, as in our case, just small sweet desserts are presented.  Upon presentation of this food you take the plate, and bow to the ceremony leader in appreciation.  After you eat the little sweets, the ceremony begins.  This included taking a bowl/cup (which you see me drinking from on the left), adding green tea powder, water, whisking it with a bamboo whisk and then the tea being presented to the person it was made for.

When you are presented with the bowl/cup of tea then you hold it and spin it around two times, say something (I can not tell you the Japanese I repeated, but it was to express appreciation to the hostess).  The bowls are very important too and often decorated with the flowers that are celebrated during the season.  There are several seasons (Miyuki said there are almost monthly changes of flowers representing the season you are currently in).  My bowl was made special for those attending their first tea ceremony (how perfect for me, right?).

After the ceremony was over, I and the other participants were invited to make our own tea.  So, here is me doing that.  Thank goodness for Miyuki translating for us!

Below is a photo of the special hanging selected for our ceremony.  The ceremony leader explained what each thing represented and again it has a great deal to do with the season.  These ceremonies are a very important part of Japanese culture and I'm grateful to have gotten to participate.

Weekend 1: Korean Music Festival - Entertainment

Jim and I loved listening and watching the entertainment during the Korean Music Festival that we stumbled upon.  There were very few English speaking people there.  I asked a Caucasian lady if she spoke English (stereotype, I know).  If I had to venture a guess she was from England.  But, she was the one who told me we were enjoying a Korean celebration.

We wanted to share with you some of the musical entertainment and celebration we enjoyed.  The first group, Nanta, is apparently fairly popular (this according to Miyuki upon our return).  This group wears chef uniforms, including the tall hat, and uses knives on a chopping block to make music.  They also chop things up during their performance which is cool, but the video we are sharing doesn't include that.  Looking more information up online, I've learned that they are dubbed - Korean Preforming Chefs.  So see, my interpretation was accurate!  Nanta seems to also be a long running popular musical performance in Korea. 

Here is a snippet about this group from a Yahoo site:  "As the kitchen in most societies tends to be the hub of life, it was the easy choice when it came to formulating the kitchen setting into the performance for mass relativity. In 1999, the Edinburgh Festival featured Nanta's debuted performances. The performing troop has been unstoppable ever since."  (http://voices.yahoo.com/nanta-korean-performing-chefs-3684750.html).  Here is a little of the performance we saw.  Jim and I would love to see them again if they every came to the United States.

I showed the program to Miyuki and unfortunately it was in Korean.  Which makes sense since it was a Korean festival!  Korean is not the same as Japanese, of course, so she was only able to pick out that this was a research group.  But, their dancing was very nice and we wanted to share it with you.

And finally, this group of girls was from an elementary, middle and high school.  I had another video to upload and share but I've been fighting with it for two days now and my guess is that it's too long and that is why I'm having so much trouble.  Anyway, I had just wanted to share both of them, but one is enough for you to get the idea.  Enjoy!

Weekend 1: Korean Music Festival - Getting There & Food

So, on our first weekend we were planning to go to church.  I think we both thought we were planning to go to a church that Jim's boss and family attended when they lived here (many years ago).  They still maintain contact with the pastor but yesterday we realized it would be a $50 train ride to get there from where we are staying.  So, we decided to look for another option and the Internet in all of west Japan was down.  Crazy, I know.

So letting go of that (we do already know what church we are going to try next Sunday).  We decided to have another low key day and go to a park by way of mass transit (I mean, the train ride itself would be part of the fun).  So, Miyuki (our English speaking guest relations clerk in our apartment building) suggested we try a park near Osaka Castle.  And, we headed out.

Upon getting off the train, we went toward the park.  There was apparently something going on.!  Another little festival?  So, we thought.  We entered the area and their were booths/tents set up with food and vendors, there were ladies handing us all a bottle of water to all who entered.  We had no idea what we were walking in to.  And, it was a wonderful surprise.  Perfect luck!

What we had stumbled in to was the 2012 Korean Music Festival.  One English speaking person I found said she thought about two train stops away was a Korean population in Japan.  This explained all the "I love Korea" paper fans we were seeing.  So, there was a stage and these blue tarps all over the ground for people to sit on.  So, you take your shoes off, sit on the mat and enjoy the music/entertainment.  And, that we did, for about an hour and a half (because I had a special tea to get back for).

The entire area was dusty sand that the tarps were laid out on.  I'm beginning to possibly understand why so many people wear socks with their sandals...  you may be able to see in the photo to he left (above) that on these poles by the trash cans (where you separate your trash for recycling - love it!) they have little plastic bags which I think is to grab to put your food containers, etc. in when you are sitting on the mats eating to afterward carry to the trash.

  

Here is a picture of the food we ordered today (I remembered to take the photo BEFORE we ate today!).  On the left is what we thought were hot dogs.  If they are, they are nothing like American hot dogs, except for the shape.  In the middle is some kind of noodles and to the right is some meat, green peppers and onions.  This last dish was for me and until Jim told me the meat may be liver, I thought it was 'okay.'  I kept eating it though because it wasn't bad and I was hungry. Later, Miyuki told me it probably was not liver because Korean food does not typically contain liver...so, I'm going to hang on to that.  On the right, is Sarah enjoying her peach, icy treat.  That kid has a racket going.  We all got some kind of frozen treat and she made sure to try several bites of all of ours and then finished hers off too.  She's smart, that one - especiallly when it comes to sugar.

Musical Entertainment

When we left Rokko Island we rode the train back to Osaka.  Sarah loved the train.  When we were back home we asked her what her favorite thing was that we did today.  Her response?  Riding the train and escalator.  That's all it takes...just a little transportation and the girl is happy ;)

Side note, she loves escalators.  We went to a mall that had 8 floors...and rode at least 6 of the escalators to the top.  She was so happy!  Three is a sweet age.

Anyway, when we got of the train at Osaka City Station (a large station where the train, subway and bus lines all connect together so you can interchange to get where you are going - and also one I plan to avoid without Jim), we enjoyed some music by this man.  He is playing instruments made of bamboo-like material.  The girls also provided some entertainment to the passers by and danced to the music.  It was fun watching them use their last energy of the day...after that we walked home and they passed out.

The girls dancing:

Special Treats

 

So, this my friends needs to come to the United States (if it isn't already)!  Mom's should be BEGGING for it.

So what this is is an ice cream treat we got out of a vending machine.  (Remember, I mentioned that single serve portions are all over here?  Whether it's ice cream, juice or coffee...you can buy it easily in a vending machine).
Anyway, we got this ice cream bar and it is like a little waffle cone on the outside and ice cream on the inside.  So, it tastes like and ice cream cone AND doesn't drip all over the place!!!

Weekend 1: International Kids Festival, food

So, food is definitely somewhat of a situation for some of us in the family (me and Grace).  However, we really aren't doing poorly.  At the International Children's Festival they had several booths set up with vendors selling food.  Kind of a (very) much smaller Taste of Cincinnati - with food from different countries.  Jim made a rule that I wasn't allowed to get a hamburger...for real.

So, we ended up trying Tanzanian Chicken Kabob.  Which you see is a pita flat bread, with chicken and lettuce.  It was a little bigger than this, I just forgot to take a picture until after we had eaten part of it.  (sorry).  It was good.  Jim and I don't know why it was called anything with "kabob" in the name, but he ended up getting a second one and both times we got the sandwich, so no mistakes were made by us or them! 

We also ordered chicken on a stick, which you see Sarah trying below.  She is really pretty good about trying most things.  She may not eat them all, but she'll try it.  Chicken on a stick is fairly common here.  People buy it in the convenience marts...just like we buy hot dogs on the warming rollers...in Japan you buy Chicken on a Stick.  Oh - it may not actually be called that, but that is what Jim and I refer to it as!

And, finally.  I think this guy "throwing noodles" thought it was odd that I was taking his picture.  But, I wanted to show you this vendor who was boiling noodles, dipping them, straining them and then tossing them in a bowl while it was upside down in the air.  It was fun and festive.



Weekend 1: International Kids Day Festival

This weekend our adventure took us to festivals, on trains, up escalators (because this is very exciting to Sarah) and to a special tea ceremony for me.  Some of it we stumbled upon, some was planned...all was great!  Jim and I decided since the girls are still working on their time adjustments staying close and not having a meltdown at 4 p.m. (because we woke up at 5 a.m.) was important.


A women I met at breakfast on our first morning (our apartment provides breakfast Monday-Friday) has a daughter who attends an International School in Kobe (as in Kobe beef) and she told us about an International Children's Festival on Rokko Island.  Rokko Island is a manmade island in Japan.  On it is the Japan Headquarters for Jim's company, other businesses, a mall, lots of apartments, another International School, a large waterpark, lots of stuff.  It's a big place.  If I think too much about it being a manmade island in the middle of the ocean...well I'm wondering how long it took them to make it.  (Maybe I'll look that up later).  My impression is that Rokko Island is fairly western.  But that is coming from a girl living in "actual" Japan.  Really, it was a melting pot of cultures and foreignor's there and it is "really" Japan too.  But, I'm glad we are staying were we are to feel like we are in the middle of complete Japanese Culture.



Decorating International
Kids Day Sign



So, while on Rokko Island we went to the International Children's Festival sponsored by the Rotory Club on Rokko Island.  The girls got a little passport and at each station they got their passport stamped.  Upon earning 5 stamps they could get a treat (popcorn and a pastry thing - I don't know what it was, but it was good.) 

Children were able to decorate a flag that was later put up to represent kids from around the world.

They made butterfly bracelets.

  They decorated cupcakes...can you imagine how happy this made our "sugar monster"  (aka Sarah)

As you can see, this festival is not much different than something you may find in the US.  Really, for us, it was a great first day out of our general area because many people spoke English, there were alot of kids having fun and there was food...which we will talk about in our next blog entry.

The festival opened with kids from around the world singing We Are the World (which of course made me a bit emotional...being away from home, submerged in the culture and participating in an event celebrating all of it.)  It was on a video screen...here is a clip of it if you want to share this part with us too:









Day 2: Happy Anniversary

 

You could not have told us that one day we would celebrate our wedding anniversary in Japan.  We took the girls out for a Korean Steakhouse type of meal.  We know, we should have went to a Hibachi Grill or something, but the one we know about is a little further than we could handle.  The girls were up at 1 a.m.   (still adjusting).  They had taken a nap, but we didn't want to push it.

They enjoyed watching the food cook in the middle of the table and eating noodles.  The highlight of the night for them was going to the convenient store and picking out some ice cream.  Jim and I toasted ice cream on a stick to celebrate our 9 years together.  (So Japan for 9 years..I wonder what this means for 10???)