Christmas Illuminations

On Sunday before Christmas we headed into downtown Tokyo to see the Christmas illuminations.  We got to Shinjuku before the lights came on, so we joined the long line of doughnut lovers at Krispy Kreme.  The sign said it would be a 40 minute wait, but we joined the queue anyway and were soon greeted by a tray of hot glazed doughnuts right from the fryer being passed out to the waiting patrons.  It only took about 15 minutes to get inside, where we ordered a selection of doughnuts and hot coffee.  We sat outside as the sun set and the lights came on.   
The Takashimaya department store decorated to the theme of a Christmas circus.


Thousands of lights illuminated the southern terrace of Shinjuku.

To end the evening's adventure, we headed to Shibuya and the large intersection in front of the station which is heavily decorated by neon advertisements and giant video screens and gets crossed by amazingly large crowds of pedestrians each time the traffic light turns green.
Maddie says, "We had tons of fun!"

Sagamigawa River

Not far from Camp Zama is the Sagamigawa river.  During the spring, this is a very wide river due to the snow melt in the mountains.  In the winter, it is a small, slow moving river.   Last weekend we decided to check it out and have a picnic.  There were picnic tables on higher land but we decided to eat amongst the rocks.  The rocks were really cool and Madeleine picked up a few for her collection.  (She's just like her Nana in that regard.)  We had a nice lunch that we picked up at the convenience store along the way.  We love the food at the convenience stores.  They are very different than the frozen burritos and withering hot dogs you find back in Texas.  We had freshly fried chicken, salad, inari sushi, pasta salad with crab, kiwi yogurt, chocolate pudding, and more.  It was a beautiful day so we walked along the water's edge after our picnic.  We saw several fisherman and one of them slowly pulled in a large, golden colored fish.  It might have been a carp.  He very slowly reeled it in all the way onto the rocks.  He removed the hook, gave it a kiss and let it back in the water.  I'm just kidding about the kiss.  We are looking forward to going back in the summer because there is a big kite festival held there.  Thanks for reading our blog!

Leaves!

Coming from a new neighborhood in Katy, Texas, with very few trees, we have found ourselves in an unfamiliar leafy situation here.  There are quite a few large trees around our house that drop a lot of leaves.  Every household is responsible for maintaining their yards for 75 feet around the house.  Maintenance includes raking and bagging leaves.  So, during the Fall, we have been raking and bagging leaves every weekend.  We make it a family affair.  Vanessa and Madeleine take on most of the raking duties while Troy does most of the bagging.   The Self Help store (an on-base facility that loans out all kinds of lawn and hardware equipment) provides these large plastic bags.  We fill them and then jump on them to compress the leaves.  That part is pretty fun!  By Sunday night, there are hundreds of these stacked bags all over the neighborhood.  Last week we had a couple of very windy days and the leaves really came down.  There were drifts of leaves in some places a foot deep or more.  The pictures are from our little courtyard cleanup.  By the end of the day there were even more bags!

Enoshima

Last weekend we went to a town on the coast called Enoshima.  It is an hour train ride from our house.  From the Enoshima train station we walked across a bridge to an island.  It is a small island that has a big hill.  There is a small winding walkway with lots of little shops and restaurants.  The walkway goes up and up until you reach a shrine.  We visited the shrine, said a few prayers and then went to an outdoor food court.  Maddie got some corn on the cob, I got some grilled squid and a beer.  Vanessa went to a vendor that appeared to be selling some kind of octopus (tako) dish.  The attendant was standing behind a big metal press type of machine.  She put three small raw octupusses (octopi?) that had been dipped in some kind of batter on the surface and they sizzled from the heat.  She then lowered the top and began cranking a handle that pressed the octopus.  It made a very loud hissing noise as she continued to crank it.  After a few minutes she released the crank and to Vanessa's surprise handed her a huge, extremely thin cracker!  You could see through it and could clearly make out pieces of octopus.  It tasted great.  We were so eager to eat it we forgot to get a picture.

We wandered around the area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  There were fishing boats in the water.  These amazing hawks were flying all around the area and making screeching calls.  It was kind of like a typical hawk screech followed by a sound that seemed to me like a giggle.  Vanessa thought they sounded eerie.  We made our way back down the hill stopping to shop and eat various things like cheese puffs, potatoes, chicken and croquettes.  We didn't eat the sea snails that were being offered at many of the street vendors.  They were cooking them in the shells on little hibachi style grills.  The island is famous for these sea snails.   Vanessa and I had eaten them on previous trips and they were not our favorite.  I think I will give it another try next time we go.  We walked back across the bridge and took the train back home.  It was a great day trip.  Here are a few pictures:

Our Fuji-san Excursion

On Sunday we visited the Mount Fuji area.  The weather was not ideal - it was cold and windy on the mountain - but the fall colors were beautiful and we had a great time.  This is the view from the 5th station, a popular starting point for climbers.  Fuji-san is over 3700 meters, just short of Mt. Ranier's height.

Next, we went to Lake Kawaguchi, one of Fuji's five lakes.

Here's a disposal receptacle for cigarettes.  You can click to enlarge and read.  It's comical.

We took a boat tour on the lake.

Lunch overlooking the lake - Hou-tou nabe is a specialty of the area.  It's a soup with large, flat noodles served in cast-iron pots on individual stoves at the table.  Our's had mushrooms, Japanese pumpkin, chicken, carrots, and cabbage in a miso-based broth.  Delicious!
Our next stop was the famous Sengen Shrine, located at the base of Mount Fuji.  A Shinto shrine founded in the 8th century, it was built during a period of intense volcanic activity in order to appease the spirits of the mountain.  In the ninth century, pilgrimages up the mountain became common and the shrine was a stopping point for purification before beginning the ascent.  The shrine is famous for its towering cedar trees.



We were amazed by the colors.  You can click to enlarge for a better view.

When you visit major shrines in Japan you can get a calligrapher to write in a book made for this purpose to keep a record of your visits.  Then they use a red stamp which creates a nice design.  Maddie was very impressed at the skill of the calligrapher, as she studies shu-ji(calligraphy) in school.

Posted by Vanessa.  Maddie says, "Peace!"

Halloween....and more!

Ten years ago, the Japanese did not recognize Halloween.  Times have changed and the retail marketers have realized the potential.  In department stores you see Halloween decorations and various products with a Halloween theme.  While it is a burgeoning opportunity, it is not on the scale of the US yet.  They don't go door to door to "Trick or Treat" off base.  On base, however, it is pretty amazing.  The time to "trick or treat" is scheduled by the base commander and ran from 6p to 8p this year.  Many of the American kids went about the neighborhood collecting candy.  We had about 8 lbs of candy on hand and thought that would cover it.  What was amazing was that the American kids invited Japanese kids.  A lot of Japanese kids.  It was pretty much a constant flow of witches, ghosts and goblins at our door saying "trick or treat" and "happy halloween" in thick Japanese accents.  It was great!  We ran out of candy at 7:45p and had to turn out the light and close the door.  Maddie dressed as a 50's girl and had a great time.  The photo below is from a party at a neighbor's house.

The next day, Nov. 1st we went to the Naval base in Atsugi to see some live outdoor music.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  The first band was a local band called Middle of the Road that included one of our new friends on vocals.  They were great but the crowd was sparse.   The next band was called Vinyl Soul and were very good with songs in English and Spanish.  The next band was wildly amusing.  It was a Japanese James Brown tribute band.  They were surprisingly fun and had an incredible amount of energy.   The crowd was really growing by now and most of them were dancing with the band.  Vanessa really liked them and got funky.  Finally the main event, an American rock band, SmashMouth, played for us.  They were extremely loud so we had to move back away from the stage.  Maddie and I had a great time dancing and goofing around while they played.  In addition to some of their hit songs (like "I'm a Believer" remake) they played some really good Van Halen tunes.  Here's a few photos (click to enlarge):

Jelly Bean

Many people have asked me about how our wonderful dog, Jelly Bean, is doing in Japan.  He is doing great.  He is still under quarantine and will be until late February 2009, which means he cannot leave the base where we live.  I don't think he minds because he's got it pretty good.  In the mornings, Jelly Bean and I walk to the gate where Madeleine meets the other students to walk to school.  Sometimes Madeleine joins us in walking and sometimes she rides her bike.  It's about a quarter mile to the gate and the walk is very nice.  It is a residential neighborhood with wide streets and sidewalks.  Jelly has lots of opportunities to sniff around and takes advantage of "marking" his spot numerous times along the way.  Once we see Maddie off, we briskly walk back to the house so we can start our day.  (Of course he goes right back to bed.)  Usually I take him out again around lunchtime.  We will take a long walk around the base or go to his favorite spot:  the dog park.    Yes, we have a dog park here on the base!  It is a fenced-in area that has plenty of room to run around and includes a drinking fountain for both dogs and humans.  Jelly loves to play fetch with a tennis ball.  He runs and runs until he is completley exhausted.  In the afternoons we walk up to the gate to meet Madeleine and then straight back.  In the house, we play tug of war with some of his other toys or he sleeps.  On the weekends, Vanessa or Madeleine will take him for walks and to the dog park.  He sure gets lots of lovin' from us all but especially from Maddie.  Those two really love each other and will sometimes just lay together on the floor like two puppies.  Jelly Bean has recently made friends with a young black poodle named Shadow.  He lives close by and they will have their first sleepover at our house on Saturday.  They have played together at the dog park and got along well so we think it will be great to have him over.

One more thing I wanted to say.   Here in Japan we have these huge black crows.  They land in the yard a lot.  Sometimes we chain Jelly up to the front porch with a 20 ft lead.  From time to time the birds start to come close and he likes to run after them.  One time a crow came hopping towards him instead of flying away.  Jelly ran to the front door trying to get inside!  Since then he is a little less enthusiastic about chasing them. . . .

Well, that's the report on Jelly Bean.  We are all very happy in our little home in Japan.  And we hope you are too, wherever you are.  

Undokai

Saturday at my school was undokai, or, in English, Sports Day.  It was really fun.  The first thing the 4^th graders did (that’s me!) was a type of relay.  The part that I did in the relay was where there were two sacks tied together.  Me and my partner ran as fast as we could, then got in the sacks and jumped.  It was exhausting.  We handed a ring to five people on two ski-like things with their feet attached on it.  They all walked a little bit and then handed the ring to three people with their ankles tied together.  They ran and handed the ring to the sack people again.  The second thing the 4^th graders did was the 80 meter run.  Everybody ran 80 meters.  Almost every grade did this.  The third thing the 4^th graders did was a huge game of tug-of-war.  There was a very long rope and two classes would get on each side (40 in each class).  We would pull as hard as we could.  It was very fun!  Our class would say, “yu sho” which means “we will win” in Japanese.  Tug-of-war was one of my favorite events.  Each team had it’s own two songs.  My team was red, or in Japanese, aka.  We were singing one of our songs over and over again through the whole undokai.  There was also an event for parents.  It was very cool.  There were four lines of parents.  There was one big ball for each line.  They would start from the front and pass the ball over their heads to the back.  It looked like it was rolling backwards.  The last person in line would bounce the ball back to the front.  It was very cool looking.  There were lots of other cool events for other grades.  Undokai was very tiring, but it was worth it because red won!!!  I was very happy when they announced that red won.  I hope next year is as fun as this year was.

By Maddie

Maddie's 10th Birthday at Showa Park, September 13th 2008

We love the bouncy hills!

That's Maddie and Troy at the top of the Mayan pyramid
Queen of the world!



The world's longest roller slide!
The misty forest
Happy B-day, Sweetheart!