What I'll Miss

What's that?  You're surprised that I'm actually going to miss something?  What with all the complaining I've done over the past (almost) four years?  Well, it's true....it's hard for me to think about now as I'm deep into anticipating American food preparing to go back to the US but I can come up with a few things....(sorry no pics, hope you can make it through!)

1. I know I'm going to be asked a lot over the coming year(s) what I miss most about Japan....my answer is probably going to be the people.  Being here has certainly made me see that people are basically the same the world over.  But I do think that Japanese people IN GENERAL are a little more quiet and thoughtful and less reactionary and proselytistic than Americans IN GENERAL.  The vast majority of the people I've interacted with have been lovely.  I have not had a single truly negative experience.  I've had a few shop clerks avoid my eyes (in hopes I didn't need help) and I usually get ignored by the people who hand out flyers by kiosks in the mall (I consider that a perk) but that is really the worst I can come up with.  I've been giggled at by a few teenage waiters.  I've been stared at creepily by a few old guys. (For the record, these last two would totally happen in the US too.)   But so many times I have asked for help or initiated a conversation (in my shamefully terrible Japanese) and have had the person try their hardest to figure out what I needed.  Other moms are so very welcoming in the playground and parks we go to. Everyone loves Cora....people around here are  used to adult foreigners but a foreign baby/toddler is still a pretty big draw.  I think when we move back home she's probably going to be offended that she isn't getting fawned over and "kawaii'ed" constantly.  So that makes me a little sad.....I may do a separate post about being an "outsider" in a homogeneous culture but even that hasn't been negative at all for me personally.  
2. I have pumped gas--no kidding--one (1) time in (almost) four years.  It was on a trip home to the US.  I have a lovely full-service place I go to maybe once every couple of months....because I rarely drive more than a few miles from my house.  At the full service place the nice workers will wipe my windshield/mirrors/windows down and give me a damp cloth to wipe my interior.  My dash and steering wheel have stayed astonishingly clean.  Back in America I DREADED pumping gas and my dash was filthy.  And there may be a full service place somewhere in Greenville, but I sure don't know where it is.  Or how much it will cost. And to all you reading from the states that don't allow you to pump your own gas ---- pphhht!!
3. Believe it or not, there are a few food items I'll miss.  Milk tea is probably #1.  I like a little gyudon (beef and rice dish) from Sukiya.  Tonkatsu (breaded sauced pork) from our local bento place is tasty.  You can get really good pre-made frozen dumplings to fry up.  I am going to miss making a lunch off of soft boiled eggs and tuna-mayo onigiri (rice balls) from 7-Eleven.  I realize that last one probably sounds gross but you'll just have to believe me that it's delicious.  However, any time I get a craving I feel sure that I can help it pass by getting a hotdog or a burrito.  Also, I'm looking forward to visiting the tiny Japanese grocery in Greenville.  Fingers crossed they carry milk tea!!
4. Speaking of food, what I"m really, really, really going to miss are Japanese vending machines.  I've blogged about them before but they need to be on this list.  Not only do they have cold and hot selections (cocoa, hot milk tea!) but there is always a wonderful, ever-changing selection of juice, tea and flavored water.  I don't drink a lot of soft drinks.  I never drink diet drinks and rarely drink caffeine (weird, I know).  I am not looking forward to returning to the land of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. :(
5. I can't leave out Japanese-style service.  My particular favorite is how the grocery store cart and bagging process works.  When we first got here it bugged me but I've come to love it.  For starters, you don't leave items loose, you have to put them into shopping baskets inside your cart.  And then the cashier will move them into an empty basket as he/she scans them.   Whenever I've grocery shopped on trips home I always feel so rebellious and slovenly just chucking stuff down in the cart.  If you really want to be Japanese about it you'll carefully arrange all your food Tetris-style.  But you won't be as good at it as the checkout person, so don't even try. (I have absolutely stopped on my way to the checkout just to rearrange my items in a neater manner.)  Reusable bags are much more popular here and are easier to use, in a way, because you bag your own groceries.  And you should also do that in a careful and Tetris-style manner.  I really want to keep using my reusable bags.  In general, I expect to be kind of a weirdo in the US grocery store for a while.  If you see me out, watch carefully and enjoy whatever obsessive-compulsive-grocery-arranging-bag meltdown I'm having.   And also listen for me to say "excuse me" to everyone in Japanese. :)
6. I am going to miss my house!  Wait, what?  OK, so I'm not going to miss my Japanese house except for one small part---the entryway.  Because of the whole take-your-shoes-off thing, Japanese houses almost always have really nice big entryways that function as what we would call a mudroom in the US.  As I've started looking online at houses (as we will need to purchase one pretty quickly) I am really disappointed in the lack of a mudroom in most.  It's really nice to have a place for shoes, coats, hats, stroller etc.  Plus bags, keys, mail, a mirror....the US really needs to step it up in the entryway department.  However, if I don't end up with one and I get frustrated I'll just go lovingly stroke my thermostat or run something through my garbage disposal and hopefully the feeling will pass. 
7. Japanese clothes.....O, how I shall miss ye.  I have been running around the past few weeks frantically buying up pants and jackets.  Clothing here is more well-made and better quality than in the US. You're much more likely to find linings, pockets, etc.  And I'm talking about just your typical department store clothes.  Nothing designer or super expensive.  And it's all cut for short, narrow-ish people.  I bought a blazer the other day that fit perfectly off the rack.  I swear I heard a chorus of angels sing when I put it on.  Usually I have to have almost everything, but particularly "work clothing", tailored down so I don't look like I'm playing dress-up in my mother's clothes.   A special shout-out to Uniglo and Muji, both of which I am going to miss dreadfully.  I think both have stores in the US but none close to Greenville.  And I have a feeling the clothing is probably cut differently.  If anyone has ever been to an American one, please let me know!

That's all for now, maybe once we get back I'll update this post with more things I miss!

Cute Cars Redux

This post is just to share photos I've collected of a fun Japanese trend.  It's popular  (more so than in the US) to decorate the inside of your car with stuffed animals, trinkets etc.  It's something that really stood out to me when we first arrived but now I don't notice it so much.  But I still have a few pics!

And FYI, the title is a reference to a post I did long ago about the cute little pastel compact cars they have here.  I think you can see a couple of the cars below are pastel pink.  It really adds to the overall effect.  Very kawaii!!!

tweet tweet (and I wonder how this person sees to drive)

furry

themes, like this Minnie one, are common

I think this cat is from Disney's The Aristocats?

I would not want to be a passenger in this car

Wicket Games

Lately our schedule involves a lot of going to parks before lunch.  In doing so we often run into seniors playing what I always thought was croquet.   However, research prior to writing this indicates that it may be a Japanese variation of croquet called gateball.

Here's what I can tell you for sure:  the old folks around these parts love it, whatever you call it.  They're in every park with their mallets and wickets, whacking away.  Way back when we first got here I saw some people playing it in the local community center and thought it was mildly interesting that croquet was played here.  But now that I spend all my time in parks I'm a little taken aback by the local fervor for the game. You hear a lot about how Japan has an aging population---I'm inclined to agree based solely on how much time I spend chasing Cora away from croquet balls.

We walk to our neighborhood park at least two mornings every week and hang out with the neighborhood croquet players.  There are usually about 20 or so there on a few teams. It seems to be a fairly informal, easy-going game---I don't know much about the rules but I'm pretty sure that putting one guy past the wicket whose job is to stop the ball from going too far off course is technically cheating.  They're very nice about Cora occasionally trying to steal their equipment.

a team around a wicket 

an overview of several teams (from the playground area)  

On another topic entirely, go back to the first picture and notice what the people are wearing.  It was at least 85 degrees (Fahrenheit) that particular day.  Notice the long sleeves?  Totally typical Japanese summertime attire.

I get some odd looks sometimes in the parks because I'm usually there in running shorts, T-shirt and baseball cap.  All the other moms and the seniors are completely covered up.  It's not an issue of modesty, it's completely an issue of sun protection and the desire for pale skin.  On the same day that I took the croquet photos above an elderly lady literally stopped me on the street and started stroking my bare arms and jabbering at me.  I couldn't really catch much of it but I gathered she was telling me I needed to protect my skin.  She was in a typical Japanese elderly lady outdoor costume that reminds me of a beekeeper outfit.  In fact, I confess to occasionally referring to these ladies as "beekeepers" in private conversation.

yes, they are even wearing gloves (this was another 85+ degree day)

Even the other kids are usually more covered up than Cora in her shorts and T-shirt.  Of course, we are covered in sunscreen which we have to bring back from the US.  Not because they don't have it here, but because it only comes in tiny bottles (think sample size).  They just prefer sun protection in the form of clothes.

One good thing about all this is you can find an awesome array of sheer, gauzy layering clothes in the stores in the summer.  Particularly cardigans.  Great for if you need something to go over a sundress.  I'm really going to miss the cardigan selection here when we go home.  I feel like the hat selection is better here too.

So, the takeaway is, if you are coming to Japan in the summer, prepare to feel a little under dressed and try to pick up some cardigans. :D


(And please excuse the post title, I couldn't help myself.:D)

Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I took Cora to a local chain photo studio called Studio Alice.  Studio Alice is a popular chain with many, many locations all over Japan (the website is all in Japanese).   It was fairly similar to a kid/family photo studio in the US but there are a few differences here and there.  

Studio Alice caters mainly to child photo shoots, but can accommodate taking portraits of entire families.  You can bring your child with their own regular dress clothes (suit, tie, frilly dress etc.) but a very popular thing to do is take your kid and dress them up in Studio Alice's elaborate costumes including fake hair and makeup if you so choose.  (It reminds me a bit of those old Glamour Shot setups that were so popular when I was in middle school.)  The costumes range from Disney princess dresses, Halloween-type characters and traditional Japanese kimonos.  As mentioned in my previous post, this is also a popular place to bring your child for their Shichi-Go-San photos.

Of course, I wanted to have Cora's photos taken in a little kimono because, well, when in Rome, right?  It's an opportunity that can't be passed up while we're here.  When they presented me with the options for fake hair I was so enormously entertained that I make the foolish mistake of letting them put some on her.  It was funny, but so not worth the time and effort.  If you're ever in the same situation, be smarter than me and don't try to put fake hair on a squirmy almost-two year old.  I was there with an American friend and we took some shots her kids while wearing the fake hair but none of them turned out so great.  Multiple tiny kids and elaborate fake hairdos?  I have no idea what we were thinking.  ;)

Disclaimer: Studio Alice doesn't allow you to take photos inside the store for obvious reasons but you can take video.  So the shots below are mostly stills from videos we took, which is why they aren't that great. 

I grabbed this shot of the walls of costumery that greets you when you walk in

The photos below are stills from when we were getting Cora ready.  You can see some of the fake hair if you look closely.  Note that my iPhone is the only thing keeping her still for the hair-fixing.  And in the dressing photo she is actively trying to run away.  Photo shoots are not her thing, unsurprisingly.

 Below she is waiting somewhat patiently in the play area.  The fake hair is blessedly gone by this point.

 And finally, below is the best shot we got.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.  Note that she isn't wearing shoes because she was having no part whatsoever of the matching geta, which are those Japanese-style wooden flip-flops.  It's also a little blurry but I'm going to tell everyone that it was an artistic choice and not because my kid won't sit still for more than five seconds at a time.  And as for what she is looking up at, it was me jumping around and singing off-key like an absolute idiot in an attempt to distract her into being still.  I have heard many interpretations of that expression but I know for a fact that she's thinking " OMG, Mama's lost her mind!".

After we took the photos we sat down to review them and pick a package.  The packaging and pricing was fairly comparable to what you would see in the US but they would not sell me digital copies now.  After one year I can go get them on a CD for a nominal fee.  Not a big fan of that but whatever.  So I took the copies they gave me and scanned them.

Although it was not the most relaxing day I've ever had, I'm really glad we did it and I know that one day far in the future we'll look at them and remember that crazy time when we lived in Japan.  :D

7-5-3

You might be thinking "What kind of post title is that?  Did she forget to proofread?"  No, I did not. ;)  

It refers to a Japanese tradition called "Shichi-Go-San" which is the subject of today's post. Shichi-Go-San translates to "seven-five-three".  The tradition, in a nutshell, involves dressing your 3, 5 and 7 year old kids up to go take pictures of them, visit a shrine and/or have a party.  Traditionally the day to do this is November 15th, but since it isn't a national holiday most families do it on the closest weekend.  The tradition goes back as far as 800 A.D but changed a good bit around the 1800's and has stayed basically the same since.

I have an American friend here who has a 2 1/2 year old daughter.  She, in turn, is friends with a Japanese family who was kind enough to offer to do Shichi-Go-San with her daughter (I'll call my friend "M" and her daughter "R" in order to somewhat protect their identity). I was fortunate enough to be invited as the official photographer/blogger of the event.

This Japanese family actually has their own "family kimono" that has been passed down through three generations. So R was the fourth to get to wear it.  Not all families have their own real family kimono these days.  Many families will rent them for dress-up occasions as they are rather expensive.  

You may be wondering why I'm posting about this now as it isn't November.  Well, (and this is information that I could find nowhere else on the Internet but I have it on authority from actual Japanese people) if you have your own family kimono (or even if you rent, I suppose) you can opt to also do a kind of "preview" Shichi-Go-San in the spring.  This is for two reasons: 1) you can get pictures outdoors with the spring flowers and 2) you can get pictures of the kids before they get their summer tan.

You also may be wondering why we are doing this when R is only 2 1/2 years old.  It's traditional to do it all in the year the child turns three, even if their birthday hasn't passed yet.  Alternately, some families may choose to use the East Asian method of calculating age, in which a child is one year old at birth and gains a year on each lunar new year.

We started at a hair salon near the home of our host family (run by a family friend), where R was given a fancy updo.

We moved into a side room in the hair salon where the stylist (who is also known as a "kimono master") proceeded to dress R up in the many layers of a three-year-old's kimono.  I'll stop here and praise R, because she was extremely patient and well-behaved during all this.  I couldn't help but think of my own child, who wouldn't have stood for it, no way, no how (and I know this for a fact, but more on that in a later post).

After she was finished, we took a trip to a local shrine where we took family photos.  And then we went to a local park for more photos.  Below is one of my personal favorites.

Many thanks to M and her family for inviting me to see a Shichi-Go-San and for allowing me to blog about it!

Rebuilding Edo Castle Tower

During Golden Week we spent a weekend in Tokyo visiting the Imperial Gardens.  We went to the Gardens once before, a long time ago, but we just kinda walked in, looked at the palace from a distance, and walked out again.  This time we decided to really spend the day there, see as much as possible, and let Cora run around free-range if possible.

The gardens are big, and toddler-active-time has it's limitations so we ended up making a beeline for the ruins of the Edo Castle Tower.  Back in the samurai days (1600's) Tokyo was called Edo and it had a castle.  Initial construction of the castle and grounds were begun in 1457 and were very, very extensive. Over the centuries there has been lots of burning, wars, rebuilding and relocating of the various buildings and architectural features.  Details here.

Now all this is part of the Imperial Palace gardens.  At one end is a stone pedestal where the largest tower of the castle stood.  The tower had five stories and was 51 meters high.  It was the tallest tower in Japan.

the stone pedestal

from on top, looking back down into the gardens

Now, here's where it gets kinda interesting.  There is a group of citizens in Tokyo who believe that it's a shame that Tokyo doesn't have a castle.  Lots of other big cities in Japan have a castle they can show off, but not poor Tokyo.  So they've banded together and formed a committee to raise money and rebuild the main tower to it's original splendor.

We received the flyer below when we entered the gardens.  I didn't pay attention when we were handed the flyer, but I wonder if we were slipped an English one based on our appearance.  My response after reading it was "bless them".  They have a Facebook page and a website but it's all in Japanese.  (And as usual, if you let them be translated by a program, it's little more than gibberish.)  

I hope they can make their dream come true and if I ever see an actual opportunity to donate I'll totally do it.  It would be great to come back to Japan one day far in the future and see a tower here on this pedestal.    

the front: note that it "might" be a great monument....no promises

my favorite line is about them being ordinary people

Tomb Raider Part 2: Return of the King

Last month, during the height of cherry blossom season, I went with some friends to a new (for us) park over in Ashikaga (in fact, it is called Ashikaga Park).  There wasn't much to this park but it happens to be built on and around some more ancient burial mounds.  It was a much nicer experience than my previous trip to see some local random boring hills ancient burial mounds.

There are twelve mounds in the immediate area, two of which have blocked-off passageways.  Not too much to say about them that I didn't say in the previous post about the ones in Ota.  My Japanese friend who was with me informed me that old Japanese "kings" were buried here.

There was also at some point a geocache buried near a shrine in the park.  I went back later to try to find it but no luck.  It hasn't been found in a long time so I think it's defunct.

Anyway, it only took three years and going to a different town, but I finally got my interesting (or at least pretty) burial mounds!

hey, where'd that American kid come from?

I hope this poor thing hasn't been growing since 1945

it's rare to get a pic of the sakura that doesn't also include five hundred people

from the top of a mound---can you see the cardboard laying at the bottom?  kids bring it and "sled" down the hill.
and I was afraid of climbing the other burial mounds because it might be rude.  Ha!

view from the top over Ashikaga

So Ugly It's...Cute?

Many months ago I was walking through the kiddie arcade at the mall and happened to glance over at a small toy dispenser.  I did a double take at what was inside.  It was this guy:

yikes

Now, honestly, what does that look like to you?  Am I the only one who thinks it looks obscene?  I took some pictures, mostly just to prove to myself later that I hadn't imagined it.

A few weeks later I ran across an article that explained who and what this.....thing.....is.  I am relieved to inform you that he is a mushroom and his name is Nameko.  He's part of the Japanese trend of popular characters who are supposed to be gross....but in a cute way.  The trend is called "kimo-kawaii" which translates to "gross-cute".  No, I'm not kidding.  You probably already know that anything cutesy is prized in Japan....think Hello Kitty.  I guess they got tired of actual cute things and had to branch out.

Nameko is just the tip of the iceberg, there are tons of these characters (go read the linked article for a comprehensive list) but he is the one I see most often.  I did lose my original pictures and had to go all over the place hunting this weird thing so I could take some new ones and share him with you all.  Because without pictures would you have really believed me? And I don't like to think of how I would've tried to describe him.

lewd fungus arcade game prizes

lewd fungus cell phone charms

I will say that I think America totally has its own version of this stuff, mostly the cartoons you find on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network (think Spongebob) so it's really not that particular to Japan.  Nor is the concept of "so ugly it's cute" although I think Americans usually stick to dogs and babies.  I have a feeling if Nameko made it to the States he would get a completely different reaction. :D

Meiji Jingu Shrine

A month or so ago (when we had a visitor from home) we took a trip into Tokyo and explored the area around Yoyogi Park more thoroughly.  We went there once before but we didn't actually go see the main feature of Yoyogi Park which is the Meiji Jingu shrine.

Meiji Jingu is a massive Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of the Meiji Emperor (he ruled 1867 to 1912) and his wife.  It's in the middle of Yoyogi Park which is 175 acres of huge trees smack in the middle of Tokyo.  The trees were donated from all over Japan and the world and installed when the shrine and park were constructed in 1920.

Two interesting things about Meiji Jingu:

First, it was completely destroyed in the Tokyo air raids during WWII.  Public funds were raised to reconstruct it in the late 50's.

Second, world leaders (I use that term loosely) like to visit it.  Hillary Clinton was there in 2009 right after she was made Secretary of State.  And, if you go to the Wikipedia page there's a photo of Nazis visiting it in 1938.*  So, yeah.

main building

panorama of the complex

exiting

this photo is from our previous visit.  if you look carefully at the bottom right of the torii you can see Chad and a
stroller with our abandoned child

*This is in no way meant to compare the two.

Flowers, Arrows and Falling Leaves

No, I've not taken to writing poetry.  Believe it or not, I'm talking about car decals.  We noticed that there were many cars with the same decals so eventually we asked someone what they all meant. 

Come to find out they are required by law and are an indication of the age and/or experience of the driver. 

The arrow you see below indicates that the driver has been driving for less than a year.

"child/baby in car" stickers are also really popular here

And the stylized flower you see in the upper left corner of the van below indicates that the driver is over....70 years old, I think?  How's that for age discrimination?

Funny story....in the photo below you'll also notice some stickers that look like pink and yellow raindrops (turned sideways on this car).  You see those a lot too.  Those used to be the decal for the elderly and it was supposed to be a stylized falling leaf.  But the old folks got upset that they were being called dead leaves so they changed it to the flower.

this dude doesn't seem to mind though, and  he's
covering all his bases

Japan's Castles

(I think it's been a month again.  <sigh>  I always hate it when bloggers slack off.)

So when you think about castles, ruined or otherwise, you probably think about Europe.  They've got all the castles, right?  Well, as it turns out, they do not.

Japan is literally covered in ancient castles.  You may recall us visiting one in Okinawa in 2011.   I mentioned a quasi-castle in my last post.  There are so many castles that there is one about 15 minutes from my house (close to the children's park I blogged about here).  Is there a castle 15 minutes from your house?  I doubt it.

My local castle is called Kanayama and is in ruins.  It was constructed on a mountaintop in 1469 by one Iwamatsu Iezumi.  It was attacked a lot in the 1500's but stood strong until it was "decommissioned" in 1590, whatever that means. It's a national historic site and one of the more famous castles in this region of Japan.  In person it's an interesting area to walk around, very nicely maintained and popular for walkers/joggers. 

this reflection pond is part of the remnants of
a rather massive irrigation system

you can't really tell, but just past that sign is a really deep ditch.  it was
designed for invading samurai armies to fall into when they charged the mountain.

there are lots of informative sign maps, all in Japanese

the irrigation system

at the top of the mountain, no idea who it is

mostly, it's a lot of stone walls

For more on Japan's castles there is a great website called J-Castle that maintains a really thorough database of them all.  I hope to visit a few more before our time here is up!

The Temple of Bannaji

A couple of weeks ago I drove over to Ashikaga to document Bannaji Temple.  Bannaji is adjacent to the Ashikaga Gakko, which I visited last spring.  I just recently learned that it's technically considered a Japanese castle (you can find it listed as Ashikagashi Yakata), although I think the term "fortified samurai residence" is more apt.  It is surrounded by a very castle-y moat with some particularly voracious carp.  It dates to the mid-1100's (have I mentioned that stuff here is really old?) and is a national historic site.




the temple main walk and main hall

not sure what this is....maybe the library?

a really old, really big gingko tree



the moat



they follow you, snapping
their jaws ominously
 



and some statuary



the bell tower

 



The area around Bannaji and the Gakko is interesting because it's kind of like an old town square.  The streets are cobblestone (poor Cora nearly got her little brains rattled out in her stroller) and there are lots of interesting (read: international) restaurants and little shops.  There are also one way streets--- I learned this the hard way by going down one the wrong way and having a little old lady on a bicycle waggle her finger at me.  When we were there it was a little hot and buggy but I really enjoy walking around that part of Ashikaga--it's very picturesque.  It's what I wish all of rural Japan looked like.  Maybe one day I'll go back and just take photos of the streets around the area.

 

 







Tomb Raider

Back when we first arrived and I was looking for local things to do and see I found mention of some burial mounds nearby.  I enthusiastically thought "Oh, wow, burial mounds-- that'll be neat to go see!".  Shortly thereafter I realized that they were very close to our house and, in fact, were right across the street from the mall.

Cut to two years later.  Last Thursday, I think it was, I wearily thought "Geez, I've got to come up with something to get us out of the house this afternoon.  Maybe I'll go see if there is actually anything at those hills across from the mall."

So, <ahem> here goes:

These two burial mounds date from about the 5th century AD.  They're called "kofun" and the period they are from is sometimes called the Kofun Period because many of these types of mounds were built then.  The Kofun period is the earliest recorded era in the history of Japan. 

These particular mounds are called the Tenjin'yama and according to Wikipedia some terracotta figurines (called haniwa) were found here and are the only haniwa to be designated as national treasures. 

The mounds are right in the middle of a commercial area.  Here is one....

exciting, no?



 And standing in the same spot (a 7Eleven parking lot) but turned the opposite direction...

squint and you can see a McDonalds

There was a sign and a little statue but the sign was faded and all in Japanese.



it probably says "Why are you standing here looking at these dumb hills when
you could be at the mall with everyone else?"

I couldn't find an easy way to climb them, although now that I think of it, that might've been rude.  They're surrounded by rice paddies and ditches that I wasn't brave enough to jump with a baby strapped to my chest.

yep, it's a hill alright

Here's the other one after I drove around and around it trying to see if there was any identifiable path to the top.  There was not.

they do stand out because they are tree covered. 
concrete or rice paddy is the groundcover of choice here.

So, another local landmark checked off the list.  Better late than never, right?