Where in the world are we?

...so continuing from my last post: here are five pictures to help you guess where we are. Yeah, I know, most of you already know. But if you didn't already hear, send me your guesses if you want (and yes, it's pretty obvious from the pictures, I think....)

Tokyo Sky Tree

The Tokyo Sky Tree was finished last month on February 29th. It doesn't officially open for a few more weeks, but the tickets to go to both the lower and upper observatory decks are sold out through sometime later in the summer according to some reports. As you can see, it is incredibly tall.

I took this picture from the bus on the way to Narita airport. Hmm.... I wonder where Rob & Nozomi are going.......
More later...

A new family member

Welcome to a new member of the family. He arrived last week. His name is Reo (Leo) and he is a three-month-old Scottish Fold kitten. Nozomi´s sister bought him, but he's living at Nozomi´s parents´ house right now. He is mecha gucha kawaii (crazy cute).

Egg-zactly what I needed to make me laugh...

My funny, creative wife put some artistic creations in the refrigerator...

03.11 Memorial Service

Sunday afternoon singers and musicians from Minemachi Church had the opportunity to play at a concert to remember the victims of last year's earthquake and tsunami. It was a great time, and we were able to pray and share a message of hope with the people who attended.

P.S. About those sunglasses... the stage where we played is outdoors, and at my angle the sunlight was in my eyes. I'm really NOT trying to look cool. REALLY. (Well, OK, maybe a LITTLE...)

Beverly Hills Burger

I thought about making a video with "Axel F Theme" playing in the background, but you can add the music mentally if you want...
This was my favorite Big America Burger so far! It has avocado sauce, white cheesy sauce and fried onion pieces on a quarter pounder patty with cheese and a fried egg. I think McDs burgers are usually too dry; this one has LOTS of sauce so that's a plus for me. Like I asked about the other special edition burgers, "what connection does this have with Beverly Hills?". Again, I have no idea, but this is the only special edition burger that actually made me think I want to go back and have another.
As always, advertising pictures look better than the real thing, but here's what it REALLY looked like:

The Chickens Are Back...

...well, maybe they didn't really go anywhere.
The weather today was suddenly much warmer, so I took a short walk in the neighborhood this afternoon. The chickens looked happy (at least I imagine they were). The last time I saw them was many weeks ago.
I also saw some of the street cats at the dormitory next to the neighboring church. One of the sisters was outside the back door feeding the cats and talking to them. It would have been a great picture, but I felt a little rude taking a picture without asking since I was so close, so you'll have to imagine...

Cheese, Wonderful Cheese!

This was part of Nozomi's gift to me on Valentines Day. The apple pie cheese sounds strange, but it was actually delicious!

Snowy Day

It's been snowing all morning and doesn't look like it's going to stop soon. Right now, the snowflakes are huge!
I drove Nozomi to work this morning and took this video. The music is "Snowflakes Are Dancing" by Debussy. (No, I didn't hold the camera while I was driving!)

(Video is offline.)

Random pictures

The new Big America burger, The Broadway Burger, has been "released", so I'll go try it soon and give my review. First, here are a couple of random pictures...
I think I've commented on this before, but in case you missed it the first time... Mister Donut is REALLY popular here, and just had an anniversary celebration featuring Peanuts characters. Many people here call it "MisDo". I never knew Mister Donut in America; apparently most of the stores were in the Eastern U.S., and according to Wikipedia, there's only one left in all of the USA. I think it's odd that it started in America, but has all but disappeared there, but is now hugely popular throughout Asia.
The second picture: did you know that lemon steak flavored potato chips were American style? (Me neither.) The package says "California style steak flavor". What do you think, Californians?
It tasted like, uh, potato chips with a cold, greasy lemony beef aftertaste. Yeah, not so good...

McD's America-Themed Japanese All-American Hamburgers

McDonald's is having their annual promotion for the third year in a row (at least, maybe longer)--THE BIG AMERICA BURGERS! Last year featured cities and states (the one I thought was funniest was the Idaho burger; it had a hash brown stacked inside the sandwich). This year, the burgers are named after cities, landmarks and streets. First up was the Grand Canyon Burger. Any guesses what the Grand Canyon tastes like? Yeah, I couldn't really imagine that one either, and I'll guess we'll have to keep wondering because that one finished yesterday. Today I tried the Las Vegas Burger. It had a QuarterPounder patty plus shredded, spiced beef, lettuce, and a cream cheese based sauce. What does that have to do with Las Vegas? I have no idea. It was OK, but I liked last year's Miami Burger much better; it tasted like a taco burger, and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I miss Mexican food, even if it's a Japanese-American-Tex-Mex approximation.

Joyful Christmas 2011

As many friends have already said, the Joyful Christmas concert went very well and was a blessing! A professional video company will produce a DVD, and because of a better plan for recording the sound, the audio quality will be much higher than previous DVDs that have been made. I'm looking forward to seeing it soon!
I mentioned after the last Joyful Christmas that the view that the performers have from the stage is amazing when the audience lights the glowsticks. Here's a short video from my perspective during the song "Silent Night".

(Video is temporarily offline.)

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!