Apartment: Family Room

This is our family room area.

Apartment: Bedrooms

These are the bedrooms in the apartment.  They are a nice size.  Below is a picture of the master bedroom from the doorway.  There is a closet across from the bed.

These are pictures of the girls bedroom.  They have had a "sleepover" summer and enjoyed sharing a room!

 

And we wanted to share a picture of a special angel the girls got right before our trip.  Rosemary and Hobie gave the girls each these angels and they've kept them in their room this summer to "watch over them" during our adventures.

Little Joys

It's the missing hair tie!  YAY!  Grace found it in the pocket of Sarah's sweater this afternoon.

And we are all so happy!  It's the little things...

The Apartment

Welcome to our home-away-from-home.  We wanted to walk you in to the apartment and show you a quick overview of the layout.  In follow-up posts we will take you through room by room.

Before you enter, we want to point out something.  Through this blog, we have attempted to share with you our "adventures" and some of the culture of Japan.  The apartment is a large part of our experience however, this is a "western" apartment.  It's "big" (for here).  So, while we want to welcome you in to our living space, we also want to mention that this may not be a representation of space that similar-sized Japanese families reside in.

That being said, welcome to our Japan home...

Introducing Brilliant Osaka

This is the apartment building where we have lived for the summer.  It is called "Brilliant Osaka."  We live on the seventh floor of the building.  I took this picture from the park across the street, where we spent a great deal of our time.  I took it from here so you could see how close we are too the park and so that you could close your eyes and imagine how blessed we are by the proximity of having a "backyard" right across the street - literally.

More on the apartment to come...

A New Friend

So, this week we met a new couple at breakfast that has moved to the building.  They have arrived in Japan from India.  We spent the day with "her" just hanging out and playing with the girls.  It's hot here and after our trip to Universal Studios, I've been trying to keep Sarah inside for better portions of the day.  The first half of the day that we spent with our new friend we were in our apartment and then we went up to hers.  She made the girls some "Maggie" which is sort of like ramen noodles - except kicked up with spice.  It was a little spicy for the girls, but I liked it alot.  Sarah kept trying to eat it, but she'd take a bite and then about 4 huge drinks of water.  That made me laugh.  She also shared some biscuits (cookies) with the girls and they ate all that was left!

Then, she and I had tea and a traditional Indian snack.  I have figure out what it was called (again), but it was good.  And we had Darjeeling Tea to go with it.  The tea is another something that I'll enjoy when I get home too.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find that there, I have just never had that type of tea before.

Kimono Playdate

We had another playdate with our friends on the 10th floor!  As always, we spent hours and hours together sharing time and enjoying one another's company.  The girls played, but also tried on a Yukata.  This is a casual summer (cotton) kimono.  Aren't they just so cute?!?!

After the girls were finished trying on the yakatas, Miho and I spent time looking through a book she had about wearing kimonos, tying the belt/sashes...they can be tied in many different ways and different ways to fix your hair when wearing a kimono, etc.  She explained to me what some of the special markings were, how some are more formal than others, etc.  And then she showed me many of her kimonos - from casual to formal...all beautiful.  They are typically stored in a special box (because are often made of silk) so that bugs are kept from them and are wrapped very specially.  I should have taken a picture of that too, but I forgot.

Later in the afternoon the girls and I shared our glitter nail polish and I gave the girls manicures.
We feel blessed to have found such special friends to further share the Japanese Culture with us.

Making White Rice

At our playdate we "made" white rice.  Now, coming from the world of Minute Rice, this was very interesting to me.  But, I also want to say that I don't use Minute Rice in our house...

But anyway, our friend who lives upstairs - Miho is the mom.  Her family grows rice.  This is the bag of rice she has in her home.  It is from her family's rice crop.  As you can see, rice is brown.

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So because white rice tastes better...we put it in this contraption.  I didn't write down the name of it, but basically it grinds the outer layer of the rice off (the brown part) and leaves you with white rice.  Here is a short video of it working:

 And the results:

After you lift the white rice out of the little machine, you see the remnants of the part of the rice that was removed.  It's a brown powder.  You can use it for pickling cucumbers (a Japanese kind), and some women put it in a cotton bag with some soap and use it to wash their face.  They sell this powder in the drug stores here too for this purpose.

And, of course, some people just throw it away.  Not everyone grinds the brown rice into white here - my guess is that many/most just buy white rice.  If you remember one of our first grocery store photos of Sarah standing in front of rice.  There were many, many choices of rice...all white.  And if there was some brown, I missed it among all the other choices of white.

The other thing you need to do when making white rice this way is to rinse the rice until the water runs clear.  This rinses the remnants of the brown powder off of it.  When I bought my first purchase of rice here, the lady I found to help me suggested I may want to buy the kind that is pre-rinsed.  I took her advice, but now I understand what that meant.

The girls really like the white rice we make here out of the rice cooker.  It's stickier, wetter.  When we get home I'm going to replace the rice cooker we have now for one that is a little more like the one we've been using this summer.  Though, we may take a little break from rice, for a bit first...

Upstairs Playdate

Our friends upstairs invited us for another playdate.  We were together for 7 hours.  The girls played dress up and then played with some of the many instruments they have.  Sarah still has her princess dress on in this photo.  Our Mama friend used to play in an orchestra until she had her daughter.  As you can see, the girls like playing with all of the instruments. 

And, they even put on a little performance for us: 

 

Sarah is just cracking me up lately.  She sings everywhere.  By everywhere, I mean in the (usually quiet) elevators, on the sidewalks, at the dinner table, at the dinner table in a restaurant.  Sometimes the songs don't make sense, sometimes they are a song we all know, but I like to believe it means she is joyful.  Grace often joins her in her songs and it can make for fun, proud and embarrassing moments.  Here is another video of Sarah singing at the playdate: 

After lunch, which I'll post about separately, we went to the park that is across the street from our building.  Sarah kicked a ball back and forth with the mamas and the bigger girls ran around and played with bubbles.  Then before we went in, the girls decided they needed to rip up leaves and pour water in different parts of the bottom of this tree...to feed the bugs.  Doesn't Grace look cute in her friends hat?

And we ended the day with shaved ice, up in their apartment...

We Hosted a Playdate!

It was our turn to host a playdate with our friends on the 10th floor.  Our playdate began about 2:30 p.m. and lasted until after 9 p.m.  The girls and the mama's had a great time together.  Erin was still here to and she seemed to enjoy listening and chatting with our friends also.

The girls played and the moms talked, sometimes with the use of a translator.  I showed Miho a picture of our house - which honestly felt somewhat embarrassing when you are living here.  I guess being in another land gives you a different understanding of American excess.  After Jim got home we also showed her some of our photos from home and our family.  They do not have orange pumpkins in Japan, so seeing our Halloween pictures of Jack-o-Lanterns was interesting.  They do have something similar to Trick-or-Treat, just no orange pumpkins.  She also enjoyed our photos from Breakfast in Bethlehem, which delighted me, because many of you know that's my favorite little event at FUMC!

Because I couldn't think of a truly American dish to serve that I could actually make here, we served pancakes, eggs and fruit for dinner.  It was fun to have breakfast for dinner.

If you have any ideas for an American meal we can share with our friends, I'd love the suggestions.  Here are my parameters:
1.  We don't have a grill.
2.  I don't want to buy a bunch of seasoning for a tsp of something because things are expensive here and we only have a month left.
3.  Cooking on the stove is an easier option, although I do have an oven which is combined with the microwave...I'll show that to you someday upcoming.

So, if you have suggestions...just share with us.

During our playdate we were able to introduce our friends to the movie "The Little Mermaid" which they had never seen.  So, we hosted a movie night after dinner which included popcorn!  A picture of our movie night is above.

Sarah Eating and Singing (in Japanese)

Remember the CD I bought from June Kadotani, the singer at the train station?  We play the CD and the girls dance to it or just like to have it on in the background.  Tonight, Grace turned it on at dinner.  This is Sarah eating her Cup of Noodles and singing...I know I'm her mom, but I just think it's cute...I hope you do too!

Getting Groceries

This is what you look like in Japan when you are out of bread and can't put off the grocery store AND it's raining.

Lesson learned - even if you have an umbrella, wear flip flops.  I wrung out my socks and put my shoes in the dryer the next morning!

P.S.  There is also a backpack full of stuff on my back!

Grace is a Mama's Helper

So, we go to the park a lot during the week.  It's partly how we fill our days.  This week, Grace made friends with a little girl (she is a one-year-old) and her mom.  I wasn't sure that the mama really liked Grace leading her daughter by the hand, walking around with her, helping, etc.  I wasn't able to communicate with her well.  People are so polite here, I often feel like someone could be just being nice.  However, as they were leaving she was able to ask me (through another mom that was there) if we would be returning tomorrow.

This week, we've met them at the park on three separate occations.  They live in the building next to ours.  And, the little girl is so sweet.  She hugs Grace while they are playing and Grace is so cute with her too.

Yesterday while at the park, Grace and Luna were playing and the mom sat with her phone and I sat trying to catch a wireless signal on my Kindle and we talked back and forth by typing into our devices.  It's better than nothing...one of the things I typed was an apology that I didn't know Japanese.  One of the things that she typed out to me was:  "are you going to be in Osaka forever?"  I'm sure there was some translation changes there, but it was bittersweet.

P.S. for Lori B- this reminded me of the days when our big kids were little and Grace would chase him around with his drink ;)

Playdate

Thursday, we had a playdate with a mom and her daughter who live in our apartment building.  (Remember, the letter under our door?)  We had a nice time, the girls got to play with someone besides each other and the mama made us lunch.  Hayashi Rice.  It was yummy.  (I would have taken a picture, but I already took a picture of the chopsticks and I didn't want the woman to think I was strange).

Pictured here are some little chopstick holders.  When setting the table, you place your chopsticks on the holder at each place setting.  Many of the holders are chosen purposely depending on the season.  Some (like the doughnut above) are for fun!

It was a very nice way to spend a day...talking to other people besides each other :)

"Trials" of Living as a Foreignor

So, when we first got here our apartment had given us a couple packets of dishwasher soap and laundry soap.  I set out to buy more and found this product in the laundry aisle.  If you look at it, would you guess laundry detergent?  It smells fragrant. 

Just to be sure, I did ask a lady in the aisle.  She didn't know the English word and I kept showing her my empty packet of laundry detergent and pointing to this bottle, in effort to ask if it was the same thing.  She looked in her translator to find the word and told me...that this, my friends, is bleach.  It's always good to ask!  And, I did avoid a laundry disaster :)

Meals at Home

Me and the "lady" who talks to me from the stove are getting friendlier.  Also I am finding things to buy in the store where the meat comes marinated or seasoned - that helps too.  Here is one of our dinners this week.  Lemon chicken over spaghetti noodles, carrots I cut up and boiled and I even got a little "crazy" and figured out how to warm up the breadsticks in the broiler.  Sometimes it's the little things, like making a meal your kids eat willingly...

We Got Mail!

Thanks to Matthew M. for sending us some mail.  It arrived just in time to brighten up a very rainy day.  It seems today begins the "rainy season" here.  The hot and humidity follows...

Day 1: Getting Settled

 

So after unpacking and putting away the suitcases, the girls and I ventured out on our own to find the grocery store.  We (I) was hoping to go to the one that was the 2nd closest because we were told it was "bigger."  I set out and realized the map with the grocery stores on it really was not going to help us get there because the map didn't show street names, etc.  So we just ventured in the general direction and asked a couple people to help us along the way.  I was so excited to find it!!!  (It was basically luck because even here my map reading skills are no better - however finding things on foot is easier than by car). 

So we walked in, the girls got little carts (and knowing we had to carry back what we bought I decided filling the carts were the perfect size for the three bags I brought for us to carry things home in).

So, we got there about 11:30 a.m. and it was busy!  I thought surely all the bikes outside were just parked there for other reasons.  But, no.  The store was very busy.  I clicked these pictures when we were in aisles by ourselves (to not look too much like a tourist, although just by looking at us it's fairly obvious that we probably are).

It seems that Japanese stores are set up that people stop in for lunch.  There are a great deal of one-serving portioned food (sandwiches, sushi, etc) right as you walk in the door.  Then later I noticed beyond the cash registers were microwaves and cooking ovens that people were heating the food up in.  So, maybe instead of going to McDonald's, people here go to 'Life' (the grocery we went to) for lunch.  How much healthier is that than American culture???

Another difference is that package size is smaller.  I don't think they make gallons of milk here.  One post I'll do coming up is on the sizes of things.  I know it has to do with space in living accommodations.  There are very different living arrangements when you have to put lots of people in the land between mountains and ocean...

And one final tidbit about our grocery trip...the bill.  I'm glad since I was overwhelmed with Sarah running in to people with her cart, just with finding things in the store, asking the store clerks to find milk and peanut butter and figuring out why the cashiers (there were two per line) didn't care when I handed them my bags to put the stuff in (apparently at that store it's like Aldi where you go to a counter after you pay and bag your stuff) that I didn't really think about how much I was paying.  So, basically we got some milk, apple juice, bread, peanut butter, frozen pizza, spaghetti, sauce, bread sticks, broccoli, yogurt, jelly.  Here is the bill:

3343 Yen...$41.79.  And when you add the 480 yen ($6) I spent at the fruit stand for 2 bananas, 2 apples and 1 orange.  I basically spent $50 for meals of spaghetti, frozen pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Things cost more here.  It's an adjustment.  And, since the apartment we stay offers breakfast Monday - Friday - we'll definitely not miss a day!