Merry Christmas!

Nozomi & I wish you all a wonderful Christmas season filled with peace, blessings and God's love.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cake

Many people in Japan are surprised to hear that Americans don't traditionally eat strawberry cake for Christmas. Yes, Americans, you read that correctly. The Japanese custom of eating strawberry cake with whipped cream frosting is assumed by most people here to have come from America.

Here is a typical conversation:
ME: Americans don't usually eat strawberry cake at Christmas time.
JAPANESE NATIONAL: Really?!  What kind of cake do you eat?
ME: Fruitcake. It has dried fruit and nuts inside.
JN:  That doesn't sound like Christmas style... Why do you eat that?
ME:  Uhm.... I don't know. Why do you eat strawberry cake?
JN:  It's red and white! Like Christmas and winter!
ME:  But strawberries are a summer fruit.
JN:  Uhm...

Look carefully at the second picture (the back cover of the catalog) and you can see a selection of Christmas cakes you can order for ... dogs and cats!
Japan: strawberry cake. America: fruitcake. Australians? New Zealanders? Canadians? Britons? What cake do you eat for Christmas?

Concerts

If you need more information about concerts that are coming soon, here are the posters...

Lunar Eclipse

The eclipse tonight is amazing-right now the moon is a strange, reddish-orange color. From here in Japan, we can see the entire eclipse, which is quite amazing, but from other parts of the world, the moon is just rising (or maybe setting) as the eclipse starts (or maybe ends) so it will appear to be much larger in the sky, which sounds amazing too!
Usually my cell phone camera takes pretty good pictures, but, as you can see, pictures of the moon just don't work without a more powerful lens. I borrowed a picture from a live camera broadcasting the eclipse from Singapore-much more impressive!

Thanksgiving 2011

It's only very early morning on Thanksgiving Day in America, but Nozomi & I had our party yesterday. We visited her parents' house and had dinner together with them, her brother, and grandmother. Similar to last year's celebration, we made something fairly close to the traditional American style meal, but turkey is expensive and difficult to find, so we substituted whole roasted chickens again. Besides the chicken, we had mashed potatoes, green salad (both made by Nozomi's mother), stuffing, gravy and mincemeat pie (made by us). I also found cans of cranberry sauce at the import shop for the first time this year, so that was an authentic addition.

It felt pretty close to a traditional time with family in the USA. One difference that made me laugh, and reminded me that we're in Japan: the TV shows that would typically be watched in America (a Thanksgiving parade and a football game) were replaced with a sumo tournament. The family time, the food, and the sumo were all great!

Persimmon Jam

How many of you native Oregonians have tasted persimmons? I don't remember ever eating a persimmon until shortly before I came to Japan. I immediately liked the taste, which is a good thing because they are very popular here. Farmers grow them to sell in supermarkets and fruit stands. People use them as ornamental trees in their yards or gardens. They grow wild in the country and even in cities. Suddenly, the season starts, and you see trees full of orange fruit everywhere you look. Then everyone (at least everyone who likes persimmons) eats them non-stop for about three weeks until they're gone.
The first year I was in Japan I asked if kaki (the Japanese word for persimmon) is available at other times of the year. The answer was no. You can preserve them by drying, but that's all. I asked if people made kaki jam. The answer was no. I asked why. No one seemed to have an answer. This happened for three years, then I finally thought, "Oh! I can check on the Internet..." (Yeah, it took me three years to think of that...)
As it turns out, you CAN make persimmon jam, so tonight Nozomi & I tried a simple recipe for freezer jam. The recipe listed lemon peel as an ingredient, but we both really like yuzu taste, so we substituted that. We won't know until later exactly how the jam turned out, but a little sample on bread as it was cooling tasted delicious!
So why isn't kaki jam more popular in Japan? I don't know, but just for a moment I thought, "hmm..... a new business opportunity?" On second thought, however, English teaching and music is enough without adding mini persimmon jam factory to the list. Besides, quince season starts in a couple more weeks....

Neighborhood Walk

Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day that I thought it would be a waste to not go outside, so I took a short walk around the neighborhood and took some random pictures. The tree with orange fruit is a persimmon tree; very common here, but I rarely saw them in Oregon, and didn't really know what they were until shortly before I came to Japan. It's the season to harvest and eat them now, so no surprise to see that. But I was surprised to see roses blooming in several places. The last picture is our apartment building. We're on the top floor, just above the one airing out their blankets and futons.

Sendai trip part one

Thursday, Nozomi and I drove to Sendai, about three hours north of Utsunomiya. It's very close to the area where the tsunami hit in March.

We spent the afternoon and evening sightseeing and having a delicious dinner with Nozomi's cousin and her family.
Rokuro & Megumi, thank you for a wonderful time!

Vending Machine Shock

Americans who visit (or stay in) Japan are often surprised by how many vending machines there are here. Often, there are two groups of machines per city block. On a small highway far outside a large city, you can find vending machines along the side of the road surrounded by nothing but farms. I read a figure that Japan has one vending machine for every 23 people-that's the highest rate in the world. There is also an amazing variety of machines. Of course, soda and coffee machines are everywhere and cigarette and beer machines are common too. But I have also seen machines that sell milk, cup-o-noodle, disposable cameras, batteries and more. So now you will understand why the following situation surprised me...
Tonight, Nozomi & I stopped at the post office to mail a letter. Before we went, we stopped at a convenience store to buy a stamp (convenience stores in Japan: that's a whole other story...). At the post office I asked Nozomi if there are stamp vending machines inside. I didn't remember seeing any, but I was sure that there must be some. Her simple answer produced a very strange, double-reversed culture shock. The answer was, "no". There are so many things that you CAN buy from vending machines here, that when I heard that one of the few things that you can buy from a vending machine in America CANNOT be bought from a vending machine in Japan, I was stunned.
I do have to mention that Nozomi said that there used to be stamp vending machines here, and that it might be only in Utsunomiya that for some strange reason they suddenly fell out of fashion. But now that I'm thinking about it, I can't remember seeing one anywhere. So, residents of Japan, any ideas about why the vending machine capital of the world doesn't sell stamps the way it sells so many other things?

Japanese Space Food!

Yesterday I had Space Curry for lunch, and this morning I had Space Bread for breakfast! Hurray, I'm an astronaut! Both of these were souvenirs from a student who visited a science museum that's connected to the Japanese Space Agency. They were both very tasty!
Space food reminds me of a time when I was in elementary school. I saw a commercial for a snack food product that was being advertised as "eaten by the NASA astronauts in space!" (peanut butter & jelly paste in a tube or some strange thing). My mother didn't want to buy it, probably assuming it wouldn't taste very good and would be thrown away later. I asked enough times that we finally tried it. I don't remember much except that it wasn't good, and we threw it away later...

Cloud Bear 3

Well, in case you're tired of looking, but want to see what I see, I labeled a picture. It was much more impressive in person, so I'm sorry if you're disappointed, but I thought it was pretty wonderful...

Cloud Bear Part Two

Did you find the bear yet? I was originally planning to post all these pictures together, but the computer had a different plan. It was probably quite difficult to find in the first picture I posted unless you REALLY like a challenge. If you still don't see the bear in the last picture, I guess I have too active of an imagination...

Cloud Bear

Last week, there were a couple of amazing sunsets. Along with the amazing sunsets there were beautifully shaped clouds. This one really inspired my imagination -- can you see the bear? (Kumo ni kuma-o mieru?)

Halloween Candy, Japanese Style

Question: How can you know that Halloween is coming soon in Japan?
Answer: There's a special KitKat flavor, of course!
It's been a long time since Nozomi & I found a KitKat flavor that we hadn't already tasted, seen, or at least heard about, and even longer since I've posted a picture of one. So, the latest: PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE! They are actually quite good, and really taste like pumpkin cheesecake! (For those of you in America thinking, "well, why WOULDN'T it taste like the name?" I will simply ask this about American candy flavors: does watermelon candy REALLY taste like watermelon to you? I didn't think so...)
So, if you haven't seen my KitKat collection pictures yet (or already have, but are very excited about a second look!), click here:
KitKat Collection
BTW: those pictures (more than 40) are about half of my collection; I've still got to organize the rest of the pictures and post them.

Rollerskating Aliens

Many months ago I posted on my blog about the next generation roller skates that I bought and started using for exercise. The weather the last few days has been amazing-great temperature, sunny, and a cool breeze-so I finally decided today that I had to take advantage of it. I found my skates, dusted them off, made sure they were still safe to use, and headed out the door. By luck (good luck if you like attention, bad luck if you don't like being a spectacle) the elementary school three blocks from our house had just released the students a few minutes earlier. I walked out the door of the apartment building, sat down on the front step, started to put on my first skate, and the mini-parade of children started to walk by. The looks and stares that I received ranged from "what's that guy doing?" to "I THINK AN ALIEN JUST ARRIVED FROM ANOTHER PLANET!" After four years, I'm pretty much used to sticking out as a non-Japanese living in Japan, so the stares usually don't affect me much one way or another anymore. But the innocent amazement in children's faces still makes me smile, even if it reminds me a little bit that I'm different here. And I have to admit, I'm VERY different zipping around the neighborhood on skates...

Goodbye, cicadas; see you next year!

I had never heard or seen a cicada (other than on TV) until I came to Japan. For many people here, hearing their noise above in the trees is part of the experience of summer. But summer is finishing, and so are the cicadas. I expect that I'll only hear them for a few more days. The evenings now are filled with the sound of crickets chirping.

The video I'm including was taken just a few minutes walk from our apartment. There's a neighborhood where several older houses have large plots of land with many trees. In the clip you can hear the cicadas, a couple of crows, and a dove.
(Video is offline right now...)

U.I.C.S. Family Camp

Friday afternoon, evening and Saturday morning, Nozomi's school (where I taught before) had a short camp for the students and their families. In American culture thinking, I would probably call it a retreat--staying together in a small hotel. I took a video of one of the ice breaker games in the afternoon: one person in the circle is the (secret) leader and randomly changes the actions everyone copies. The person in the center tries to guess who the leader is by watching the actions changing. Funny game, even to watch!

(Video is offline right now...)

After Roke

The typhoon was mostly finished by about midnight last night, and this morning the weather was sunny and beautiful. It's rather common for that to happen here; I'm not sure if that's typical in other areas where typhoons occur or not.
Early this afternoon, an amazing storm front moved in, maybe one last arm of the typhoon as it headed out into the Pacific Ocean. It's cloudy and drizzly now, but the forecast is for beautiful weather again starting tomorrow and continuing for a few days with warm, but not hot temperatures. Sounds wonderful!

Typhoon Number 15

This has been a long, active typhoon season this year, and there's still one more month to go! The areas around Nagoya were hit pretty hard again, but as usual we're fine here.
Today I found out what dragonflies do during a typhoon: hold on!
Culture note: typhoons do have names just as hurricanes have names in America, but here people rarely use the names, usually referring to them by number. This typhoon's name is "Roke".

(Video is offline right now...)

The Wizard of Oz

Last week, Nozomi & I watched "The Wizard of Oz". It was the first time that Nozomi had seen it, but since I'm a typical American, I've probably seen it at least a dozen times. (Well, OK, maybe I'm NOT a typical American in many ways, but I AM in how many times I've seen that movie...) However, it had probably been 15 years since the last time that I watched. That gave me a very new perspective on the film.
It seemed much more sentimental than I had remembered; not necessarily in a bad way, I was just surprised at my reaction to viewing the movie now versus my memories of the feeling of the film. Also, I was struck at how art deco the design of the Emerald City was. I suppose some people might think, "of course it's a sentimental film and of course it has strong art deco style--it was made in 1939-what else would you expect?" Yes, rather obvious, but I guess that just reinforces how different the film seemed to me after not watching for so long.
Nozomi enjoyed it too, and it was fun to share a piece of American culture with her. Americans (and English-speaking North American culture sharers), have you ever thought about how much that film influences our culture? All of the phrases that are used in common speech as idioms? ("I'll get you, and your little dog too!" "Help me-I'm melting! What a world-what a world!" etc.) So, for your 1st, 10th, or 100th time, enjoy "The Wizard of Oz".

ANOTHER typhoon!

A typhoon is just about to make landfall in Shikoku (southern Japan). Extremely heavy rain and high winds are expected there, but we are far from the main path, and no trouble is expected here other than lots of rain. So we're fine, but please feel free to pray for the areas that will be directly hit. The TV news is showing video of streets that have been turned into mini-rivers with people crossing in water up to their ankles.

Thunderstorm

There's a CRAZY storm moving through right now-almost constant rumbling thunder for the last 45 minutes! Amazing!

HURRAY! BBQ!

After searching off and on for about two years, I finally found one: a mini Weber BBQ grill (well, OK, it's actually from Coleman company, but close enough). I wanted a small grill to put on the veranda (or balcony or deck or patio depending on your local dialect; in Japan, "beranda" seems to be the most common word). I had the usual color from America in mind: black. However, Japan is the culture of "kawaii", which basically means "cute". That's a long, complicated story, so click the link if you want to know more. So, there were no black BBQs. The choice was light blue, or . . . pink. No, I am NOT joking. Obviously, I chose blue. I will be BBQing hamburgers soon. They will NOT be cute.

Another storm in "Thundertown"

I've probably mentioned this before, but some people here have told me that Utsunomiya's nickname is "Thundertown" because of the frequent lightning storms during the summer. Well, it's that season, so here's a short video. From our balcony on the sixth floor, we get a pretty good view of the area. The storm was far enough away that no thunder could be heard, but we definitely heard some earlier in the day! Very low quality video, but you get the idea (cell phone camera, bad lighting, etc. etc...) I'm looking forward to this evening, because there's a firework show not far away, and we may be able to see it from here!

(Video is offline right now...)

America 2011 Pictures 7 (conclusion)

We spent a lot of time just relaxing with family, and enjoying my parents' hospitality, which included a delicious Thanksgiving in April--thanks, Mom! And thanks, Gayle, for your always delicious lemon meringue pie! (There's a picture of one of our meals together that's very blurry, but I liked everyone's smiling faces, so I'm including it anyway...)
My father is an excellent woodworker and craftsman; you can see the amazing detail of his handmade deer figures and ship model. It's a model of the USS Constellation, which has a special connection to my father. That ship is the oldest surviving vessel in the United States Navy, and is now a floating museum. In the late 1980s, my father was part of the team that cut the huge pieces of wood that they needed to restore the ship.
On this trip, I sorted more boxes at my parents' house, and brought back about half of my musical instrument collection. In the picture, my sister is holding one of the more unique pieces that's now in the "Utsunomiya Branch" of my museum.

I think that's all the America pictures for this year, so on to other adventures next...

Fish Head Soup

The next-door neighbor gave us some delicious fish. He included the head, which is frequently considered inedible in America, but is the source of fish head soup in many other places in the world, including here. Nozomi made some wonderful sushi, some great fish and chips, and fish head soup. We're just about to have it for lunch. This topic, of course, made me think of a famous (infamous?) song from many years ago....
Click this link if you want to have a strange song stuck in your head.
(Or click THIS link if you want to watch the whole, bizarre video.)