Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the Law

A new experience to add to our list of Japanese adventures - traffic ticket! Troy only commited a minor infraction - changing lanes crossing the solid yellow line - now we know you're not allowed to do that. However, the policeman was so polite, and it was worth the price of the ticket (Y6000) to get these priceless photos. The nice policeman was happy to pose for a photo, and even offered to let me take one of him in front of his motorcycle. His parting words: "safety drive!" with a big smile on his face.

If you look closely (click to enlarge), you can see Dave and Joan's smiling faces in the car.

New Digs - Kraatz Palace

It's been a while since our last posting, but we have been so busy. We moved to our new place on June 1st, and hustled to get everything in order so we could host a visit by our wonderful friends, Joan, Dave, and Jack, from Austin. Our new Kraatz Palace is a penthouse apartment overlooking the city. We have the 4th floor with 3 bedrooms and the whole top (5th) floor which includes living areas, a roomy kitchen, and the best feature: a large roof-top garden area. We also love the traditional Japanese-style tatami (straw floor) room. Here are some pictures:

Tatami Room

Mountian view from the roof-top garden

Joan and Jelly Bean enjoying morning coffee

Lobby entrance and our parking area downstairs

Rice Planting

Well, it is rice planting season so we thought we would join in. Today we went to a small co-op with a couple of rice fields (tanbo) and learned how to plant rice the old fashioned way. The first thing we did was pull up the rice seedlings from a nearby field.  That was backbreaking work in itself.  Then we took them over to the planting field.  Here it is before the planting:

Then we began the actual planting.  You would take three or four seedlings and put them in the wet mud in rows about 6 inches apart.  The mud was very thick and mushy!  Here is Madeleine just getting started:

Vanessa and I also planted three rows each to the left of Maddie.  It was hard because you had to bend over for each planting and also walk in the muck.  A few people fell down and got covered in mud because you have to kind of wallow around to get yourself back up.  After an hour or so the first field was planted.   
Maddie surveys her work:
Hard working rice planters:
Taking a break by a creek:
Lunch was called so we headed over to a nearby spring and washed up.  While we worked, some Japanese ladies had prepared two big pots of Japanese curry over open fires.  We had a picnic style lunch.  It was delicious!

Maddie with some of the other kids:

We were pretty tired out and our backs ached but we had a lot of fun and learned a good deal about rice planting!  Perhaps we will go back at harvest time and give that a try.

Ueno Zoo

On Saturday, May 9th we woke up to a beautiful day. We didn't have any plans so we decided to head into Tokyo. We wanted to show Madeleine how to take the fancy train to Shinjuku. Let me explain. There are several types of trains that take you to Shinjuku station in Tokyo. There is a local train that stops at every station. Then there are semi-express and express trains that get you there faster with fewer stops. These trains are usually very crowded and you are lucky if you can get a seat. It takes about 30 minutes on the express train and longer on the local. BUT, a couple of stops down the line from our station, you can catch a train that has reserved seats. They call it the "Romance" train. This is the more traditional train that you might be used to taking. It is an additional charge to the ticket you buy to Shinjuku. It is great because you can sit together in comfort (airline style seats) and they even have a refreshment cart and attendant that goes up and down the aisle. There are bathrooms and plenty of room for baggage. Like I said earlier, it is the fancy train! So anyway, we took the Romance train to Shinjuku. Once there we looked at the stops along the Yamanote line. This is a train line that goes in a big loop around the city. Vanessa spotted Ueno and we remembered there is a big park there, Ueno Park. It is similiar to Central Park in New York since it is big and in the center of Tokyo. Soon after we arrived at the park we had a picnic lunch under some big trees. After that we started exploring. There was a lot of activity with street performers, booths selling pottery and lots of food and drink. We came to a big open area and standing in the middle of it was a man with a sign that read "Free Hugs" Vanessa didn't hesitate and with a big smile went right over and got a hug. We all got hugs! We only saw one other guy getting a hug but we hoped he gave away a bunch of them.

Shortly afterward we came to the Ueno Zoo. We weren't planning on going to the zoo but it looked like fun so off we went. Just past the entrance gate they had the carp flying in the breeze.

Maddie loves elephants. She thinks they are cool. We agree. There was a young one entertaining the crowd that Maddie really liked.

They also had Japanese snow monkeys! There were several babies running around getting into mischief. We stayed and watched them for a long time.

Maddie monkeying around at the gorilla exhibit. I don't know who that mysterious character with the sunglasses is next to her.

The seals were lively and quite vocal. This one hopped up on the rock just as we were walking up to the railing! (It was a sunny day as you can tell from Maddie's squinting.)

We were getting a little tired so we decided to head back home. On the way out, Maddie decided to hop up on the elephant. We've got to get this girl to Africa. She's a natural!

We took the Romance train back home. Once again, another fun day in Tokyo! We hope you have a nice day too.

Children's Day and Kite Festival

Ok, Ok, I know it has been a while since our last posting. I guess we got caught up in every day living and didn't do anything too exciting. But that all changed last week with the Japanese holidays called Golden Week. It is basically 4 national holidays all strung together and most people have the week off of work and school. One of those days is called Children's Day. On this day everyone hangs fabric carp from a line or pole. I'm not sure of the history for this. At Sagamigara river (check out the earlier blog on this river) they celebrate Children's Day with a kite festival. We went a couple of days before the festival to check out how the kite's were coming along. They build these huge kites out of bamboo and rope ahead of time and then cover them with decorated paper on the day they fly them. Here's a picture of Madeleine standing in front of one of frames:

Pretty big kite! They also built some kind of traditional straw hut. Vanessa and Maddie were ready to move in!

At the river, they strung some large carp across the expanse. These things were very large and with the strong winds looked beautiful flying in the sky.

After checking out the scene, we took a walk around the area. Along the river they have many rice fields mixed in amongst the houses. They have irrigation systems all around. We came across a monument of some sort with an old concrete pipe. It looked like a good opportunity for a photo of our beautiful Maddie!

On the day of the festival our friends who live right next to the river had a little party. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day with no wind. We still had a good time eating and visiting with our friends. Maddie and I got there early and walked around the festival while it was only sprinkling. We saw some of the kites up in the air. Since there was no wind, the people who built them would grab the long ropes and take off running to get them to fly. The kites looked great! But when the runners ran out of running room the kites would fall to the ground. Some of the people had to scatter as they came down! Our friends told us they saw a group fly their kite by pulling it with a truck. Here is one in the air:

We came to the main area of the festival where they had some kites on display. They looked great with the paper on them. There were some costumed ladies doing a synchronized dance to traditional music when we arrived. Maddie really enjoyed their dancing!

This is the one that Maddie was standing in front of in the first picture at top:

We had a good time. This happened to be May 5th. So we also had to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! We had some margaritas at our friend's house and then later that night we all went hunting for a mexican restaurant. Since it was a holiday, many restaurants were closed. Luckily for us, mexican food is popular in the area. After two failed attempts, we found one open and had a very good dinner. Sorry, no photos of that. Thanks for reading and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Sakura Movie

We made a 6+ minute film of the cherry trees in Sagamihara.  It is posted on YouTube.  If you search for /sakura movie 0001/ you can find it.  Or you can watch it here:

Sakura!

It's Cherry Blossom (Sakura) time in Japan.  It's a beautiful time to be here.  Everyone is in good spirits and the gorgeous blooming trees are everywhere you look.  Some are already starting to drop their blossoms and it is like gently falling snow (without the cold).  It is a favorite pastime of the Japanese to take time to have a picnic under the blooming cherry trees.  Last weekend we went to Showa park to view all of the flowers and trees. 

Then the next day there was a cherry blossom festival at Camp Zama.  It was open to the public so it got very crowded!  

We had some yakitori (grilled meat on a stick) and enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of the festival.
The next day we hosted a barbeque at our house in Sagamihara.  We invited the Mizushimas, the Kimuras, our neighbors the Owens and Donovans.  It was a beautiful day so after stuffing ourselves with beef sausage, shrimp, pork tenderloin, pork ribs, smoked chicken, garlic cheese biscuits, green beans, pea salad, fruit salad, white chocolate chip cookies, caramel cheesecake, plenty of cold beer, margaritas and more, we decided to take a walk.
These are some of the trees at the elementary school.

This is our favorite tree.   It is in the middle of a field near the elementary school.  We like to picnic here when it is warm.




Maddie on her way to school.  She is now in the 5th grade!  Below is a very short video we took of the walk to the gate with Madeleine this morning.

Wish you were all here to experience it with us!  Love to all.