Bento Box

This is Hannah's lunch today. This morning I cooked one cup of the sticky rice in a Japanese double boiler type pot on the stove. After it cooled, I used a Hello Kitty mold, and then cut out the seaweed for the face. The bow and circle face are made out of cheddar cheese, and the "Cherry's" are Cherry tomatoes on a bed of salad. I threw in some cookies since this was her first time for this kind of lunch. There has been some anticipation build up around the lunch box, so hopefully with that and the peer pressure of her teachers and classmates, it will come home empty and she will have earned her afternoon sweet. I used the remaining rice to make myself a traditional triangle shape with tuna in the middle, and wrapped with seaweed. It is a good, filling, nutritious meal. I bought one at the grocery store this morning to compare the two, and even though there's is very fresh, mine tasted better!

Lost in Translation

September 28th Adam turned 34 years old. Jaclyn gave me her birthday decorations, so I hung up the sign last night for Adam. I have shortened the saying to Happy B-day, but I have never seen Happy BTH DAY. I checked out the movie theater by our home today, and they have two movies in English this week "Eat, Pray, Love", and "Resident Evil"...except their sign said "eat, PLAY, love and PRESIDENT evil!!! You have to laugh, at least they try!

Adam was happy to have strawberry shortcake for his b-day sweet that I got from the local baker. He came right in the door and started rolling around on the ground with Hannah, and he even did a spontaneous headstand! Thank goodness I still have a "young" guy, even though his Japan medical exam says he is "almost normal", because he is 15 pounds overweight compared to Japan male standard!

Japanese Home visit for Lunch

Sunday we took the long train ride towards Adam's office to have a "welcome party for Adam" with his co-workers. These are the guys that sit on either side of Adam at Nissan. Both couple's have just one son. The apartment was very small as we expected. The coffee table that we are posing in front of is where all 9 of us ate our leisurely meal of many options. The hostess (woman sitting to my right) spoke no English, but she provided us with many sandwich options, hearty soup, pasta salad, chicken/cheese balls, and brown algae with beans. Both family's gave Hannah a gift of sweets and stickers as soon as we arrived. We brought organic red wine and Ghiradelli brownies. The host served beer to the men and opened the wine for the other woman and I. The host watches for your glass to go down a few sips, and then fills it back up immediately. Also, there is no room for big plates, so we ate off of small pretty tea size plates and the hostess would take a chop stick and put bites of food on your plate. The co-workers speak above average English, and the mother of smaller child spoke well enough to converse a little. They got out the translator several times in the middle of a topic so we could understand each other. The children played happily all around us. After the meal we went outside to try out their electric bicycle. It felt like someone was pushing you up the hill when you put your feet on the pedals. They seemed content to hang out with us all afternoon, but after about 4 hours it was time to get back to Yokohama to have dinner with the Drakes and all ride the HUGE Ferris wheel together.

SUMO

Sumo was a serious crack attack! They would grab each other by the butt strap and carry them out of the circle by giving them a wedgie. There was a man with a hand fan that sang in between every wrestle, and then each wrestler would do some stretches and throw salt on the circle to bless the space. Each wrestle only lasted around 30 seconds. Some of the guys were thrown onto the crowd that was sitting around the edge of the stage. There were men assigned to constantly sweeping up the salt. It was interesting, but not as stimulating as Western Sports.

Family Care Packages

It was fun to receive a package from Nana & Papa, and from Grammy & Grampy this week! Nana & Papa sent Hannah and I our much wanted Alfredo sauce packets, granola, nail polishes, variety of lip balms, etc. Hannah was excited about coloring books, stickers, and new cartoons to watch, and Adam and I were thrilled to get new movies too! Grammy and Grampy sent Adam a birthday book, that he has already started reading. Hannah and Adam have been playing catch the ball with the Halloween Frankenstein ball. Marcus and Courtney were nice enough to get a slingbox, which allows us to watch their TV and DVR when they are asleep. Adam is happy now that he gets to watch the UT games, and I am happy that I can now get a daily laugh with the Ellen show. THANKS FAMILY!!!

Things we don't like about living in Japan

Japan does not have Alfredo sauce, or Tomato sauce, Stonyfield yogurt, Granola, or Emergen-C's. Hannah asks everyday if it is Christmas time yet, because she wants to go to TN. There are no Massage Therapists here giving Relaxation Swedish Massage (except me), which is my favorite type. If you want something as simple as white vinegar, it is not simple to find. If you think you are buying butt wipes for Hannah, you get home and see the inside cover shows that it is for wiping the toilet seat only. The clothes here are the size of junior high girls in U.S., and they do not sell size 9 shoes. There is no girl friendly gym to lift weights in here. Even if the day is not hot, the humidity still draws the pimples out of your face. Adam does not get home until it is time to go to bed, and he leaves before it is time to get up. The mosquito's are after you day and night, so you have to keep moving if you are outside. The spiders that get in the house jump, so it is very hard to exterminate them. Walking out of your house is always a given that you will be stared at, because you are a foreigner. Living here is missing out on all the family celebrations and home cooked meals, no girls night out, and not many hugs.
*This is not intended for complaining, just keeping it real.

Museums

Jaclyn and I went to the Silk Museum, and the Doll Museum today. The first picture is the cocoons that the silkworms are in. It takes 9000 cocoons to make one Kimono! The cocoons are floated in water while the machine slowly spins the silk off, the worm dies in the process. The next picture is live silkworms before they build their cocoon. The silk is then dyed using different plants to get the colors they want for each design.

The Doll Museum had dolls from every country. It was interesting to see the different culture styles this way. There was a special exhibition room that talked about the "Friendship Dolls" that U.S.A. had delivered to Japan schools 4 yrs before Pearl Harbor bombing. The dolls all had blue eyes and blond hair. Japan sent Japanese dolls back to U.S.A. as a thank you, but it was very expensive, and Japan economy was already struggling. There was elaborate celebrations for the receiving of the dolls on both ends. Japan found out that some of the dolls that they sent were missing their hand fans that had been made especially for each doll, and it upset Japan that the fans were not replaced. I am wondering if this disrespect is what the final straw was for bombing Pearl Harbor!

Being in Cars

Adam and I both got to ride in cars today. It is an event, when you have not been in one in a long time! Cindy from Singapore drove me to get the supplies for Bento Box making. Adam got a ride home from work and was home early at 8pm. It is interesting the things you see when you are in a car, and not having to pay attention to your bicycle. I noticed a Statue of Liberty on the top of a building, and Cindy informed me that it was a "Love Hotel". The people here really enjoy having navigation systems in their cars. Adam's coworker paid $3500 dollars for his, and then paid extra for applications to tell him where the speed traps were. It really would have been nice to have a car later today when I received lots of food items from the Drake family. They are not allowed to take any food home with them, so they had lots of giveaways. I had to borrow their 2 kid stroller and had it over packed and had to stroll it through the neighborhood to get back to my home. I also received the beautiful plant, with the triangular pot that Deana had given Jaclyn when she left Japan. I am not very lucky with plants, but I will try my best to be able to pass it on when I leave.

Japanese Artistry

Adam and I both have Japanese Language Tutors. Adam has one meet him at work, and Yoko meets me at home. I get to have more fun than just learning the language. Along with teaching me about the culture differences here, I have learned how to make a crane bird Origami as well as traditional cloth wrapping for gift giving. The Origami is taught in grade school to the children. It is tradition to make cranes for people as a get well symbol. Yoko says it is common to see 1000 of them hanging by a string around an ill person in a hospital bed. Wrapping a gift in a big beautiful square cloth, instead of non-reusable paper can be wrapped in several ways depending on the gift. I have gathered supplies to continue making the Japanese Bookmarks. Also, Jaclyn taught me how to use the beautiful paper to cover a plain picture frame. It is very popular here to cover Tea Boxes of varying sizes in the beautiful paper as well. I would like to have one, but I don't think I have the patience to do one myself. I am planning to learn Bento box food art as well. I met a mother at school who makes her 3 yr old adorable rice cakes with veggies looking like pigs, etc to entice him to eat the nutritious food.

Locked Up!

Date night in Tokyo turned out to be a fun, entertaining night! Jaclyn and David were celebrating their anniversary the same week as us, so we decided to go out together. The planning was all up to the girls, so we decided that it would be fun to go to a themed restaurant. This one is called "Locked Up". The dark hall that you walk down to get to the restaurant is like being in a haunted house at Halloween. There are scary things around every corner. After we opened the main jail cell we were greeted by a cute Japanese girl in a frisky police officer outfit. She proceeded to handcuff Adam and David to take them to their "jail cell". Unfortunately, the handcuffing room was too dark and had too many crazy lights going on to capture the picture of their red embarrassed cheeks! The whole place was full of "jail cells" which offered semi private dining. We would occasionally hear screams when diners were frightened by bloodied ghouls. After our dinner the lights went out, the song ghostbusters came on the loudspeaker, and the goblins went wild attacking us in our cells! Our party was then given a special cake to celebrate our anniversary's and they took a photo of us all for each of us to take home. It was all great, and the guys were impressed with the originality of the evening...or was it the short police girls skirt???

After dinner we strolled around Shibuya, Tokyo to people watch and see how much strangeness we could find. As you can see Serena (my hair extension) got to go along with us since I knew we would be having a theatrical evening. Little did I know that along with the very thick fuzzy leg warmer shoes that we saw everywhere, and the very short skirts, that we would see many fuzzy tails pinned to the bottoms of many girls! You tell me what that is all about!

Hannah Lee cute as can be!

My sister Wyndi commented that Hannah is looking so grown up just since we have been here. It is true, that each day she is amazing me with how much she understands and what she has learned. She sings me a new song each day that she learns from school, or one that she makes up herself. She dances and reads books to me, making up the words based on the pictures. When we get home from school she asks me how my day was, and what I did. She talks very easily on the phone now to Adam, and tonight she even teased him by saying "Hi, Aunt April" with a snicker on her face knowing it was him, but wanting to be funny! She can count to 10 in Japanese. She holds hands on the way to school with her Japanese friend Lisa. I am so grateful to Nissan for paying for her Montessori school. It is an amazing opportunity, that we could not have afforded on our own. She told her teacher that she loved her this week. Her fish UT died this week, but she has not noticed...yet... She is thriving here, but she has said several times that she misses her cats, and she wants to go back to TN. We are counting down the months until Christmas time.

Guest Room/Massage Room

This couch pulls out into a very comfortable bed for our guests. My massage table fits perfectly in the room when I give massages. Adam is now receiving two massages a month, verses his

one time a month he has received since we started dating. I gave my friend Jaclyn her first massage as a going home gift for all her amazing help getting me familiar with Japan. Today I gave my friend Mamiko a massage. She showered me with praises, and it felt great! I have announced to the Mom's that I am available to book one or two sessions a week just for the fun of it, and to earn frivolous spending money. Hannah gave me a massage after school today, she is getting better and better each time. I then gave her one, and she really enjoyed it.

Bookmarks

While Hannah was in school today, I took a Japanese Bookmark making class. This is what I created today. It was so much fun dressing the dolls up! I look forward to buying my own paper and making more of them.

Soakin it up

Adam let me take a "Parent's day off" on Sunday, so Jaclyn and I took the 2 hour train ride to Hakone. It is full of fresh air, mountains, hot springs, and Art. It takes another 30 minute bus ride to wind your way up the mountain to Yuenssun spa. This place was amazing! You have to go to the website to see the pictures of some of the baths they have to offer...... We also had one turn on the waterslide!

http://www.yunessun.com/english/yunessun.html

We soaked in the charcoal bath, sake bath, green tea bath, wine bath, and coffee bath, as well as just regular hot springs bath with place to sit and let waterfall massage your back. They also have a heated marble slab that you can lay on to relax and dry off. I fell asleep on it. The spa offered several types of massages, the ionic foot detox bath, the fish pedicure, reflexology, etc. We received a 15 minute Thai foot massage that was wonderful. Before heading back home we checked out the main street in Hakone, and found some unique gifts.

Karaoke!

We went with the Drake family this afternoon to sing at a Karaoke box for the first time. We originally thought we would only stay for an hour, but we ended up staying for 3 hours and still didn't want to leave we were having so much fun! The kids played the instruments for us. They give you two microphones so we had lots of duets. We got our own private room, and a huge selection of new and old songs in English. The system was easy to use. We will defiantly go back with anyone who wants to go, it was a blast!!!

Things to come

I spent 4 1/2 hours one day this week riding my bike around Yokohama with my friend Jaclyn. She has been very helpful with showing me how to get around this city. Her family leaves the end of the month. We are all going to go to Karaoke tomorrow, and then Jaclyn and I are going to a water spa on Sunday by ourselves. My girlfriend Leslie just booked her ticket to visit us! She will be here Oct 9-18th. I am very excited to share the joys of Japan with someone that has never been here.