December Happenings

Hannah Lee was excited to decorate her little Christmas tree. We were excited to start the tradition of "Elf on a Shelf" with her. Her Elf who she named Pancake reports back to Santa each evening on whether she was naughty or nice and ends up in a different place in the house to hang out for the day and observe her. We are counting down the days until our trip back home to TN for the holidays.

We experienced another earthquake this past week. Hannah Lee was at school and had to get under her desk. I was actually on a massage table receiving reflexology. At first I thought the therapist was rocking the table as part of the treatment...after it went on for quite awhile I realized it was an earthquake. Adam had a hard time getting in touch with me on my cell phone to make sure we were all right. We all just went on with our day as usual.

Izu Penisula

Blanca from Costa Rica invited me to go on a tour to the Izu Penisula to make wasabi, and hike to 7 waterfalls. It was on a Saturday, so Adam and Hannah Lee got to spend some quality time together while I was gone from 6am to 9pm. There was 36 of us on a Jack Rabbit tour bus headed 3-4 hours away. The tour guides made the time go by quickly with games and prizes. On the way back we even sang together. There were many different countries represented with all the tourists, and the one song we all knew the words to was "Jingle Bells". Blanca and I sang into the microphone and led everyone to "It's a wonderful world", and "It's a small world". First we went to the wasabi fields. (last picture) We made 2 batches of our own. It was pretty easy to make, and had a little bit of a sting to the eyes like when you cut onions. After that we went to a Japanese restaurant where you removed your shoes in the foyer and placed them in lockers. We had a beautiful room to ourselves with floor seating. I sat right next to a window that had plants, and a coy pond. The variety of food that was served was amazing. I did not know most of what I was eating, but I enjoyed every bite! It was the best Japanese dining experience I have had. After lunch we headed for the hiking and waterfall viewing. Blanca sprained her ankle the week before the hike, so we stayed at the back so she could walk slower. She is a budding professional photographer, so she took tons of gorgeous photos. I carried her new tripod and was her assistant for the day. Go to her website and click on her blog to see the awesome pictures of the waterfalls. http://www.blancamelendez.com/ We had a really good day!

Potato Dig

Hannah Lee's school goes on a sweet potato dig field trip every year.

She was so excited about going, and loved wearing Adam's backpack for the event.

She got to sit next to her friend Adrian. (We just celebrated his 3 year birthday party last night...it was very fun!) The kids rode on the bus an hour to the potato farm, and got to dig their own potatoes. They all seemed to have fun digging in the dirt for the day. As soon as Hannah Lee and I got back to the house I boiled her potatoes to soften a little before making them into french fries. They are different from Western Potatoes and ended up falling apart into mush. I was disappointed that we did not get to have them with the yummy homemade herb hamburgers I have been making these days. My friend Lotta from Sweden taught me how to make them nutritious and better than any we can buy here. By the way, I have spent more time cooking in the last 4 months, than in my entire life!!!

Japanese men

Several weeks ago Hannah Lee, Adam, and I were on a walk in the upper park behind our home. We were approached by an old Japanese man that handed Hannah Lee two pink roses and then just walked away. We were very surprised by the random gesture. Last week Hannah Lee and I were introduced to a new park by our friends Luna and Liliana. We were thrilled to finally find swings in our area. There was a man there passing out paper airplanes with rubber bands. He showed us how to attach the bands to the plane to send it flying into the air. It was fun! Then at Kamakura on Friday when I got to the last temple I had a very interesting conversation in English with a Japanese man. The last picture is Yojiro Kakiyama. He says he has been studying English and it is his dream to receive an English letter. He handed me a letter that he had written on Oct 25th, 2010 and I assume he was just going to leave it somewhere in hopes that an English speaking person would find it. He saw me, and took the opportunity to introduce himself. He says he would like to correspond as a good friend. Him and his wife Teruyo Kakiyama are 67 years old pensioners, and enjoy tennis and gardening. They have two sons, and three grandchildren. If you are interested in corresponding, or just sending a postcard from America, here is his address:

Yojiro and Teruyo Kakiyama

2-16-5 Ichinomiya Samukawa

Kanagawa 253-0111 Japan

Bamboo Gardens

My Japanese friend Sayuri, took me to Kamakura. Her mother-in-law lives there, and offered to pick us up by car and take us to 3 special spots. This first picture was a place was called Jomyogi temple which was originally a Tantric Buddhist temple. She showed us the bamboo laying on it's side that you can put your ear to, and hear the water dropping in the rock basin many feet away. It was music to my ears, and the area turned out to be a great place to meditate for awhile. Next was Hokukuji temple which is a Bamboo garden. It was a sweet walk through a Bamboo forest which led to a special spot to have green tea. We ended the tour in Tsurugaoka-hachimangu Shinto Shrine which had a special outdoor building for dance performances in the spring. There was a very old Gingko tree there that had been killed in a storm. The people were very sad about it, and there was a sign with prayers written on it to encourage the regrowth of the tree. Momma-san (Sayuri's mother-in-law) says that an American President visited this shrine in the past during a bow and arrow festival. President Obama was visiting on Saturday (the day after I was there) on his way to the APEC conference. At this temple they had a fortune telling box that told me I had good luck. I tied it to the fortune tree. Mine is pink since it was in English. Also, it is the year of the Tiger, and I bought a plague with the picture of a Tiger on it and I could have written my wish on it, and hung it at the temple, but I decided to keep it as a souvenir, since I am a Tiger.

Tiki Tiki

Adam and I went out for date night to a Polynesian restaurant named Tiki Tiki. It was decorated with grass hut tables, waitress's in sarongs, hard carved wood wall hangings, and fun glassware. They had a dance performance with girls in coconut bras and grass skirts. It was great, and I must of smiled too much because when it came to audience participation, they headed straight for me! I let them put the skirt on me, and I shook what I had....and got a free tropical drink out of it!

Japan Customs & Earthquakes

Today I have been thinking about the fact that Japanese parents sleep with their children until they are at least kindergarten age. It seems that American parents tend to try to train their children to not come get in their bed in the middle of the night. However, Hannah Lee has started crawling into our bed in the past month and as long as she will go to the bathroom first, since she is now in underwear throughout the night; I let her snuggle with me. Which is also a difference that my language instructor Yoko tells me that most Japanese children are in night diapers until kindergarten. I was just reading Hannah Lee her bedtime story and all of a sudden we were having an earthquake, again. This one was the strongest, and longest one that I have experienced. Her clothes in her closet shook for at least 30 seconds. I checked the Japan earthquake website, and it said it was a 4.7, and now there is a tsunami warning. I am now thinking earthquakes might be the reason to keep your young child as close to you as possible through the night! Yoko says when she was young her pillowcase was stuffed with a change of clothes in case an earthquake hit, and she needed to rush out the door. In all the neighborhoods I see bottles of drinking water outside of houses in case of a serious earthquake. I have prepared us a backpack with water in BPA free Nalgene bottles, a flashlight, and first aid kit that I keep by the front door. Tokyo is a ticking earthquake bomb, and is overdue for a huge one...and President Obama will be HERE in Yokohama next week for APEC!!!