Snow Day!

These aren't the best photos, they are all out our windows, but it's all you're going to get because I'm not going out in that.  :)

snow on the paddy fields out back (and a nearby house)

out our upstairs office window, over the neighbor's persimmon trees

snow on the palm tree in the side yard (and the apartments next door)

Lost & Found

Here's a little story about something slightly interesting that happened to us this weekend: We decided to go to Costco and on the way we stopped at 7-Eleven, as we usually do.  When we finally got to Costco, Chad realized that he didn't have his wallet.  We searched the car but couldn't find it anywhere.  Since Chad knew he had had it at 7-Eleven, we drove back there to look for it.

When we got there I started looking, but Chad went straight to the cashier and asked her if she had a wallet (remember, this is all in Japanese).  She replied in the affirmative and went to the back of the store to get it....or so I thought.  Instead a manager came out with Chad's wallet wrapped in what was basically a produce bag.  He explained that someone had found it in the parking lot and brought it to him. 

Chad thanked him and made to take it, but the manager made him open it and look through it to make sure everything was there (it was) and then made him sign a little piece of paper that I assume relieved 7-Eleven of all responsibility.  Although who knows what it really said....certainly not us.

I thought this was a little elaborate but pretty "Japanese".  Maybe some stores do this in the US, but if so I've never heard of it.  The one time I left my handbag somewhere (Panera Bread in the Haywood Mall) when I went back 30 minutes later it had disappeared.  And the Panera Bread people didn't care in the slightest.  I had to cancel and replace everything.  This was a much better experience.  :)

On The Tube

It occured to me recently that many people don't realize that we have full access to American television here, and if they do realize it, they don't really understand how it works.  When we first arrived here, before our shipment came, we had Japanese TV.  Which was interesting.....for awhile.  There was limited English programming but lots of strange game shows, South Korean soap operas and old kung-fu movies.

Fortunately, before we came Chad spent a period of time (not to mention a bit of money) collecting devices that would set us up to have American TV.  I admit at the time I had my doubts that we really needed all this stuff that he was buying but it turns out he knew what he was doing.  On the other hand, while he is great at rigging it all up, he isn't so good at explaining it to the general public.  I like to think I'm a little better at that. :)

First off, in the photo of our TV below I've circled a box in red.  This box is a computer.  It is hooked to our TV so that the TV is basically just a giant computer monitor. (And if you look carefully you can also see my sweatpants and cluttered coffee table.)

So when we turn on our TV we get.....

To control it, we have a tiny remote that has a full keyboard and mouse pad.....

Using the tiny remote, we click an icon on the desktop labeled "Slingbox".  The web brower opens and goes to the Slingbox website.  A Slingbox is a box that is hooked to someone's cable box.  And you can access it over the Internet where it acts like a "TV".   Of course, the "someone" has to be agreeable and willing to keep a Slingbox and let you piggyback off their cable.  Currently we have two Slingboxes.  One is kept by Chad's parents in New Jersey.  The other is kept by a friend of ours in Baltimore.  We paid for them both to get an extra high-speed cable box so we wouldn't see any lag.

Here is what our Slingbox website looks like.  You can see both of the Slingboxes.  Two might seem a little excessive, but they really come in handy.  Sometimes one will go down because of bad weather or Chad will want to access one while he is traveling (using his iPhone or iPad) and then I can still watch something else on the other one.  Also Chad DVRs a lot and if he's got one taping a bunch of stuff I don't want to watch, I can switch to the other one.

Once you select a Slingbox it will bring up a remote on the screen that you can use to control that "TV":

The remote/mouse situation can be a little annoying but the whole thing really works well.  We do see Baltimore and New Jersey news, sports and weather (as you can see above) which is a little odd.  Also we have to take the time change into consideration. (I watched the Oscars live on Monday at 10am.) But I have a great iPad app. called Zap2It that is basically TV Guide but it is smart enough to understand where I am and where my "TVs" are so it adjusts the time for me when it shows what is on. 

I do miss Japanese TV sometimes.  When we were in the US last time we found NHK World on the hotel TV and were fascinated by it all over again.  NHK World is the big Japanese network that gets piped out to the rest of the world.  We're considering asking one of our Slingbox holders to add it to their cable package. :)

The Honeymoon Is Over

If you read a lot of expat-in-Japan blogs like I do, you will likely run across some posts about the "stages" a person goes through during their expatriation.  They always start with a "honeymoon" period that eventually descends into a negative "Japan-is-terrible" state of mind.  I always took this idea with a grain of salt but unfortunately I am finding that it might be true....lately I seem to be out of the honeymoon stage and squarely in the "Blech, everything here sucks." stage. 

This is part of the reason that I've neglected the blog a little bit lately---the unhappy stage apparently induces writer's block.  But I am going to do better and get back to writing and I will be positive!  After I finish venting in this post, that is. ;)

Some of the contributing factors to my mood are:

1) The dreary, dreary, winter weather.  Winter really makes you realize how much more concrete there is here.  I am looking forward to seeing my flowers and frogs again.  The cold here is different from the cold in South Carolina too--here it is a dry, biting, windy, bright sunshine cold whereas in SC it was more a damp, overcast cold.  Our drafty Japanese house with it's million little heaters is also getting a little old.

2) As some of you already know, we are expecting a baby on September 3rd!  I have been in the first trimester for the past few months which, interestingly enough, coincides with my descent into the Japanese blues.  Therefore I am optimistically chalking most some of my mood up to hormones.  One of my biggest problems lately has been with food and smells---a lot of Japanese stuff turns my stomach.  (You can go reread this post now with a whole new insight.)  While I never loved Japanese food, I was fairly tolerant of it before.  Now, though, even the smell of it is repulsive.  Some days I swear this whole country smells like fish and cabbage....  I also mainly crave specific American restaurant food which I can't get here.

The good news is that all those other blogs confirm that this stage is temporary and everyone passes through it to a happier, or at least neutral, frame of mind.  We are also trying to plan trips to Yokohama/Kamakura and Kyoto this summer, these are both supposed to be beautiful places so hopefully that will perk me up.  Not to mention the excitment of a baby on the way!  Look for some future posts about my experiences being pregnant here (all positive so far) and our plans for how the entire process is going to go down. :)

The Throwing of the Beans

On the Japanese calendar, February 4th is the first day of spring.  This is just on the calendar, mind you---weather-wise, spring is nowhere in sight.  On February 3rd there is a really popular tradition that involves ridding your house of bad luck/spirits and welcoming the good spirits in.  (I know we just did this at New Year's, but apparently the luck has run out by now.)

To conduct the ritual properly the leader of the household (typically Dad, if there is one) puts on a devil mask and the rest of the household (typically the children, especially if they are small) chase him out of the house and yard while throwing soybeans at him.  You also have to chant "Oni wa soto, fuka wa uchi..." which means "Demons/bad luck go away, good luck come in the house."

Seriously, this is a really popular tradition.  I hear that in nursery and elementary schools, the teacher will put on the devil mask and let the kids throw beans and chase her around.  There are also big festivals (called Yoroi Matsuri) where dudes dress up as demons, parade down the street and people throw beans and whatnot.

Our Japanese teacher thoughtfully provided us with a devil mask and some soybean packets so we could conduct the ritual, but unfortunately I forgot on the 3rd (I was involved in a book) and didn't do it.  I doubt I would have been able to convince Chad to put on the mask and run around with me anyway.

supplies

The Sweet Potato Truck

Several weeks back, while Chad was still home for Christmas vacation, we heard a song on a loudspeaker coming from outside the house.  I wasn't too alarmed by this because I hear stuff from loudspeakers outside pretty regularly.  There is an elementary school nearby and sometimes I can hear them calling the children in from recess during the day over a loudspeaker (or I assume that's what they're doing).  There's also a truck that comes by about once a month to collect junk (small appliances, old bikes, TVs etc.) and it has a loudspeaker that continuously lists the stuff they will take as it drives around the neighborhood.

But this was something new and Chad went to check it out but couldn't figure out what it was.  Later, he asked our teacher and she finally figured out that it was the sweet potato truck.  Apparently this is similar to an ice cream truck but instead of ice cream in the summertime, it sells hot sweet potatos in the wintertime.  Our teacher described the feeling a Japanese person gets when they hear the sweet potato truck coming down the street and it was very similar to what hearing the ice cream truck does to an American.

Had I paid more attention to the song I probably could've figured it out because there is also a sweet potato cart in the supermarket that has hot sweet potatos for sale.  The supermarket cart continuously sings "Yakiimo, yakiimo, yakiimo desu!"  which is not the same song that the truck sings but I could've recognized "yakiimo" as meaning sweet potato.  I did get a couple of sweet potatos off the cart a long time ago and they were OK....more yellow than orange and not as strong tasting as American ones.

I don't have a picture of the truck, but here's the supermarket cart