Who knew... #3?

...that Japanese moms take the temperature of their child EVERY day?  On swimming days, we have to write down the kids' temperature in order for them to be allowed in the pool.  As a time-saving measure, I typically "estimate" their temperature ... 36.2 degrees Celsius usually sounds about right.  It will be an awkward day when Ethan or Ryan ask me how I know what temperature to write on their swimming cards without using the thermometer.  Busted... I will be so busted.

... that blood type in Japan is a predictor of personality?  Almost like the horoscope signs... I have never been asked about my blood type as often as I have here.

... that the largest quantity of milk you can buy here is ONE LITER?  We can finish that in one sitting.

Lunch Tasting at Higashine

... that school lunches are cooked fresh on-site and are even prepared with a spiciness level in direct correlation to grade level?  There was a "lunch tasting" at Ethan's school and we got to taste the "mild" 1st-2nd grade curry as well as the "medium" 3rd-4th grade curry and the "hot" 5th-6th grade curry?  Pretty impressive.

... that you have 2 choices when buying a loaf of bread - 6 slices or 8 slices?  Whaaaaat?  Again, that's not even enough for a single meal for us.

... that you don't even have to show ID at all when flying within Japan?  Nothing, nada, I coulda been anyone and they never would have known.  I even got my ID out (my precious alien registration card) when we were checking in for our flight to Hokkaido but the woman told me she didn't need to see it.  Whaaaaat???

See - bottom left corner-
"Gargling."

... that the Japanese gargle multiple times a day? When they wake up in the morning, when they get to work, when they get home from work.... At Ryan's yochien, they gargle every time they come inside from playing.  And they think everyone else does it, too.  I have now asked 5 Japanese people about gargling and they all look at me in disbelief, as if I'm some pubic health menace, when I tell them that we don't gargle.  And according to my extensive research (ala Google), Japan appears to be the only country with a daily love and fascination with gargling.

Ryan's pool at yochien.
Elementary schools have "real" pools
but I don't have a picture.

... that most (all?) Japanese elementary schools in Tokyo have a swimming pool on-site and that swimming lessons are part of gym class?  Yochiens even have a "pool" and kids have swimming several times/week.

















... that the tooth fairy does not come to Japan, BUT when a child loses a bottom tooth, they throw the tooth on the roof?  When a child loses a top tooth, they bury it in the ground.  The thought process is that by throwing the bottom tooth UP, you are hoping that the adult tooth grows up straight and strong and by burying a top tooth in the ground, you are hoping that the adult tooth grows down straight and strong.  At least it makes more sense than the mystical tooth fairy.  When Ethan lost his first tooth (courtesy of the dentist as his adult teeth were coming in behind the baby teeth), he was overjoyed by the 100yen the tooth fairy left for him AND he threw his tooth on the roof after the tooth fairy came.  Guess that makes him bi-cultural, at least in terms of lost teeth.

In case you thought I was exaggerating about the price!

... that you can buy a square OR a triangle shaped watermelon at our local grocery store for the low, low price of 15,000 JPY or $195?  Yep, you read that right - one hundred and ninety-five DOLLARS.  We bought one of each (I am sooooo kidding).  And by the way, these watermelons are not at a fancy gourmet food shop or an imported goods shop, they are at a store that's basically the Japanese version of Target.

... that December 22 and 23 and 24 there is no school, followed by school on Christmas Day, and then the school's Winter Break starts on December 26?  OK, putting aside the fact that Christmas Day is on December 25 as Japan is only about 1% Christian (but still has a Santa event at Ryan's public pre-school), WHY OH WHY would a school calendar have THREE days off of school, ONE day at school, and then TWO WEEKS off of school?  Again, is there something I'm missing?  At this point, I'm anticipating that both Ethan and Ryan will be "sick" on December 25.  Just a random prediction...

**********************

Kid Quote of the Day

Ethan:  I think I like America better than Japan.

Me:  Really?  What is it about America that you like better?

Ethan:  The toilets

There you have it folks, cross-cultural comparative studies through the eyes of a  6 year-old.

(His answer perplexed me until I realized that he had just gotten home from school and was referring to the fact that he is not a fan of the porcelain pop-a-squat toilets that they have at school as compared to the western-style toilets we have at home.)

Summertime....

We have enjoyed our first summer in Tokyo, except for the HOTTTT and HUMIDDDD weather.  California has definitely made us weather wimps.

As I was walking home (and sweating) the other day, I started thinking about the word for "humid" in Japanese.  It's mushiatsui (むしあつい).  If you look at the word literally, "mushi" means bug and "atsui" means hot.  So does that mean that humid in Japanese = bug hot?  In my warped and feeble (and no longer able to remember words in English) mind, doesn't buggy also mean balmy?  And if so, this might be the very first element of the Japanese language that actually makes sense to me.  And if not, well, then.... I am trying waaay too hard to make it all make sense.

At the beginning of the summer break (which is only about 3 1/2 weeks along), the kids and I brainstormed about things we each wanted to do with our limited summertime.  And we crossed a lot off the list.  That said, as I look back over the list, I am struck by how "un-Japanese" many of our summer-time adventures were - not all, but many.  Alas....

Drum roll, please....  for stuff we did this summer!

• Earthquake Learning Center

• I scoped this place out first to make sure it wouldn't be too scary for the kids.  I needn't have worried - they loved it and seemed to learn a lot too.
• It has an earthquake simulator, with motion and video of what it's like to experience an earthquake inside a house, on a street, and in an office.
• Also has a "smoke-filled room" that allows you to practice feeling your way along the walls on your hands and knees to find an exit.  It had never occurred to me that fire is actually one of the biggest problems post-earthquake.
• Kids got to practice using a fire extinguisher to put out a small flame (on a video) caused by a curtain falling onto a heater during the shake of the quake.
• Did you know that a standard fire extinguisher lasts only a few seconds?  I had no idea...

• Japanese Summer Festivals - Obon Matsuri
• Obonmatsuri is the Buddhist festival to honor the ancestors (often with visits to the grave and food offerings).
• During Obon, it is believed that the ancestors' spirits return to to visit their relatives.  There are also many lanterns to guide the spirits back to their world.
• During Obon, you are supposed to be very careful not to kill any living thing  as you never know if one of your ancestors might be that living thing.  We made an exception for mosquitoes.
• There's also the Tanabata (Star) Festival, when kids write wishes on slips of colorful paper and tie them to a bamboo tree.  It's supposed to be wishes for peace, love, and harmony, I think.  Ryan wished for a pet fish - which was fine with me, because I had to write it on the slip of paper at school and I actually know how to write "fish" in Japanese, but "peace, love, and harmony" is still beyond my Japanese skill level!  Just doesn't come up in my daily life...
• The legend says that a star-crossed prince and princess angered the king and thus, were only allowed to see each other once per year, on the seventh day of the seventh month (Tanabata literally means night of the seventh).
• It's the time of year with lots of kimonos and yukatas, especially at the festivals.
• Fun Japanese dances that the kids were surprisingly interested in...
• Little carnival games and food booths - what's not to love?

Tanabata Bamboo branch

• ZooRasia
• Beautiful zoo, great fun watching the penguins get fed... and the polar bears play.

So here's the funny thing, even with 2 huge elephants behind me,
I still look like a GIANT in this country!

• Shinagawa Aquarium
• We went there on our 10th anniversary!  Woo-hoo.  I bet you're jealous...
• We had a great time - dolphin show(twice), sea lion show, etc.
• Is it just me or does everyone leave a dolphin show with serious remorse that they did not choose dolphin trainer as their profession?  Seriously, is it just me?

• Beetle Battles
• Back in May (on Japanese Mother's Day, to be precise), our neighbors took us to a nearby park for a beetle-larva hunting expedition.  After digging around in old tree stump, we ended up with 4 big, white, kind-of-disgusting-looking larva.  Kinda like white grubs on steroids.  
• And lo and behold, 2 months later, we had three HUGE beetles.  And truth be told, they were fascinating to watch.  Better than TV.  They would pick each other up with their horns and throw each other around - it was kinda like Olympic judo, beetle style.
• We had no idea that beetles were such popular "pets" in Japan.  You can buy them in lots of stores and they cost $20 or so...

The beetle larva are the white round looking things.

• Kamakura Beach-time Fun!

• We spent the day with a work friend of Kevin's who lives in Kamakura - it's less than an hour from us.
• Kids had a great time playing in the waves.  Ryan was happy to find a starfish; Ethan was less happy to feel a crab on his toe...
• How is it that the Pacific Ocean is sooooo much warmer on this side of the world?
• Ryan was invited to engage in a wack-the-watermelon-while-blindfolded game.  It was all adults playing, none of whom we knew, Ryan just happened upon them on the beach, and I think they were a bit taken aback, when Ryan did in fact, smash their watermelon, in essence ending the game for everyone else.  
• We kept getting outdone on the omiyage - it's a losing battle.  We brought them a box of candy for inviting us to the beach for the day, and then they just kept buying and giving us more and more stuff.  We lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) big-time!

• Other Random Stuff
• Parks, playdates, and picnics, and the Pokemon Center
• Our first baking attempt - in the microwave and toaster oven, since we don't have a real oven here...

• Tokyo Legoland (fun, but nothing like the REAL Legoland in San Diego)

• Our first movie in Japan
• Brave in 3-D, as highly recommended by my 4 year old niece, Louisa



• Fourth of July - Breakfast bento, American style ....









• Last but not least, Kakigori!!!!! A Mountain of Pure Shaved Ice Goodness

NOTE:  Please let me know if you're having trouble making comments.  I just changed the settings such that 1) anyone should be able to leave a comment (even without an account, but please sign your name or I won't know who left the comment) and 2) a comment requires word verification (to avoid comment spam).

I am NO tech expert, but if leaving comments is still a problem, I'll sic my in-house IT consultant / husband on it.

Eating Our Way Through Hokkaido

Sorry for the delay.  Ironically, I was somewhat distracted from finishing this post about the fabulous food in Hokkaido by my addiction to the Hunger Games trilogy (thanks Sandy!)

OK, here goes.  I'm afraid all my previous food mentionings have set the bar too high.  And since I am not an eloquent food writer, there is virtually no way I can transfer the delicate tastes to words on your screen.

But, Anthony Bourdain might be able to help.  Turns out he's been to Niseko too and we went to both of the restaurants he profiled in his show No Reservations.  Check out the link!


These ain't no ordinary chicken skewers

Torimatsu Yakitori was the first restaurant profiled in the clip.  Yakitori is everywhere in Japan.  Basically grilled chicken skewers, which doesn't sound all that exciting, but this place was out of this world.  We weren't actually planning on going there, but we just happened upon it and LOOOOVED it.  In fact, we went there twice in our four days in Niseko!

It is a small, local izakaya (traditional Japanese bar).  That's what I loved the most about it.  We sat at the bar just inches from the yakitori master and his hot coals and everyone around us was happy (and drinking) and chatting with us (as much as possible with our Japanese language limitations).  The first day we were there, this old guy sitting next to us ordered us his favorite, chicken wings, and another couple kept giving us tastes of everything they ordered and buying us beer.  So much fun!

The second time we went, we were sitting next to a little old lady, who said several times "they have good beer here", told me that she teaches aerobics at her apartment, and that she has lived in Niseko for more than 80 years.  And I'm pretty sure I understood all that correctly.  But then again, I could be wrong.

And both times we went, the check consisted of a small piece of white paper with a single number on it.  No receipt or list of what you ordered or tabulation of individual items - just a single number.  And that's what you paid.

We tried several different things on the menu, and it was all so delicious and so amazingly simple, that we didn't even bother trying the more exotic stuff.  Kevin and I kept asking each other, how and why is this very simple food so darn delicious?  Our favorites were anago (saltwater eel), chicken skin (seriously the chicken skin was delicious!), and juicy pork...

And the yakitori master was a kind soul with a big smile, yet serious about his art of yakitori.

I kinda wish we would have tried the ostrich sashimi but surprisingly, despite all the strange things I have eaten in my life, I'm not sure I want to try horse (or horse tongue, for that matter).  Not really sure why that is.  As Uncle Dennis said, "it's just a tall, skinny cow."

The menu included:

• chicken
• pork
• chicken skin
• chicken gizzard
• chicken wings
• chicken heart
• pork tongue
• pork lean meat
• pork liver
• pork heart
• juicy pork
• chicken tail cartilage
• pork stomach
• pork offal
• horse tongue sashimi
• ostrich sashimi
• raw horse
• raw whale
• octopus
• squid
• anago - salt-water eel
• fish sperm sacs

Note: We actually had chicken heart, stomach, and liver yakitori last weekend while out with some friends.  We quite liked the chicken heart, but the stomach and liver were not our favorites.

The yakitori master at work...

Soba - handmade right before our eyes

We arrived at a rustic wooden building, not really sure if we were in the right place.  We walked along wooden footpath to a small house in the back and found the restaurant called Rakuichi and the home of the Soba Sensei, Tatsuru, and his wife, Midori.

Midori, in a full kimono, and Tatsuru, in a traditional yukata only added ambiance to our dinner adventure.  There are only 12 seats in the small restaurant and we were the only ones there for the whole night.  I think it's by reservation only for dinner, so they weren't surprised, but we were.

Kevin and I had the kaiseki (multiple course dinner), which basically meant that lots of small, exquisite dishes kept appearing.  Tatsuru-san was busy at work in the small kitchen behind the counter while Midori-san served us quietly and with great kindness. Or at least it felt that way.

I can't even tell you what we ate, as the dishes seemed quite complex and beyond our Japanese capability.  It is a set menu based on what foods they find fresh in the market, so we just marveled at what they brought us and were relieved of any dinner decision-making.  There was some herring (nishin), tempura, seaweed soup, saltwater eel, among many other things.

The most amusing part of the evening was that we learned that Ryan is quite the gourmand.  He was enamored by the fine foods coming across our plates and tasted and loved most of what we were served.  Poor Kevin was sitting next to Ryan and ended up sharing much of his dinner with him.  It's the little things you learn about your kids... I guess we have not been feeding him foods up to par for the last 4 1/2 years of his life.  Alas...

Because we were in a famous soba restaurant, I had my first sake - served with soba water, as this is a traditional way to drink sake in these parts.  Midori-san offered me a taste of her special plum wine, that she makes herself and had been fermenting for 5 years (I think that's what she said).

The grand finale was the Soba Sensei making the handmade soba.  He mixed it in a big, black bowl in front of us and then rolled it out and cut it strand by strand.  It was mesmerizing to watch.  The link above captures it much better than I can.  And it was phenomenal.  Despite all the "fancy food" they had prepared for us, the simplicity of the soba was, by far, our favorite.  We chose cold soba, which means you dip it into a small bowl of dipping sauce and S-L-U-R-P.  Though I loved the taste of the soba, I am not sure I will ever get used to the slurping - which entertains Kevin and the kids to no end because they know they can get away with it because we're in Japan.

Towards the end of the evening, I asked our hosts "Who cooks at your house?"  "Half and half" they both said.  And then Tatsuru-san, the Soba Sensei adds with a grin, "but if I want to eat something delicious, then I cook."  And this was Japanese we could understand.

Walking to their home / restaurant

Our private dinner

Ryan, our little gourmand

Watching the Soba Sensei at work, rolling out the soba

Cutting the soba into strands

At last - the most delicious soba ever.
I even agreed to slurp-just this once!

More Hokkaido Specialties

So much delicious food!  Here's a rundown of some more of our eating adventures.

• Miso ramen, a specialty of Hokkaido
• Hokkaido style ramen
• Made with butter, corn, and a creamy layer of potato soup at a tiny whole in the wall that placed 7th in the Ramen World Cup (they take this stuff pretty seriously)
• Sushi by the sea 
• I tried sea urchin, but was not a fan 
• Ethan discovered his love for maguro (tuna)
• Kevin indulged in his love for otoro (fatty tuna)
• We all noticed how HUGE the sushi servings were, compared to what we get in Tokyo
• Craaaab 
• Unfortunately, the kids looooved the crab.  We're in serious trouble with their appetites and the crab pricetag...
• Genghis Khan lamb, another Hokkaido specialty
• We thoroughly enjoyed our all-you-can-eat-for-100-minutes lamb dinner.  
• You ordered lamb marinated in different flavors, grilled it in the metal bowl at the table, and then indulged (and indulged and indulged).
• Square ice cream cones
• Ethan was fascinated by this...

Our stack of TWENTY sushi plates!

Crab BEFORE

Ryan was mad because Kevin took an unauthorized drink of his juice

Genghiskhan - yummy lamb!

Next Stop... Sapporo

Sapporo Time

After a relaxing and "action-filled" (Ethan's choice of words) time in Niseko, we were off to Sapporo for the weekend.  More action, relaxin', fun, and food!

We stayed at a hostel in Sapporo called Ino's Place.  Kids were very excited about the bunkbeds and the owners were very friendly, but as I overheard conversations of the mostly 20-something travelers, I began to wonder if I might actually be too old for hostels.  Naaahhh, not possible, right?  Right?

Our room at Ino's Place hostel

Winter Sports Museum

Silly skiers...

Our first Sapporo adventure was a surprising amount of fun.  We went to the site of the Okura Ski Jump from the 1972 Winter Olympics held in Sapporo.  Having just spent hours and hours watching and talking about the 2012 Olympics, this was fresh in the minds of the boys.  We rode the lift to the top of the ski jump and were amazed at how incredibly steep it is.... great view of Sapporo as well.

Next door to the ski jump is the Sapporo Winter Sports Museum.  Here, there were all sorts of winter sports simulations.  We all had a ball.

I did have to channel my non-Japanese self (which is not hard to do) when the man working the ski jump simulator told Ryan that he couldn't try the ski jump because you have to be 6 years old.  Kevin first tried the "I don't understand what you're saying" strategy, but that didn't work.  So, I had to go all 'assertive American' on the poor Japanese dude and explain "He's been waiting in line patiently, he knows how to ski, it's not a problem, please, may he try?"  It worked.  Of course I was probably cursed by him for the next 7 days for making him break the rules, but sometimes a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.  And then oh-so-thankfully, Ryan, the 4 year old who was technically not allowed to try the simulation, jumped 125 meters - which is a very good jump, more than Ethan and Kevin (though not me, but I only got 6 meters further, and I know that's luck because I can't ski at all in real life- though maybe I missed my calling).

From Ethan: The second time we did bobsledding, mommy and I did really well.

Ryan on the ski jump simulator with a score of 125 meters!

The boys on a cross-country ski race - Ethan proclaimed this
his favorite!

Introducing....the Narimatsujayne Bobsled Team!

And the winner is......

Odori Park

Spent an afternoon and evening wandering (read: eating street food) around Odori Koen, basically Sapporo's urban central park.  It was a hive of activity as they were preparing for the Hokkaido marathon, that started the next morning.

The Sapporo TV Tower

We also happened upon some serious star-watching enthusiasts with HUGE telescopes hooked up to laptops, taking amazing pictures of the surface of the moon.  They were very excited to share their hobby with the boys.

Historical Village of Hokkaido

This place was fascinating!  It was set up in 4 distinct sections to showcase the history of old Hokkaido.

• town village
• fishing village
• mountain village
• farming village

Each of the 4 sections had an assortment of original buildings, donated and transported to the site.  They were decorated in the style of the era and the function that they played.

A town house - THIS is EXACTLY the kind of house I was hoping to
live in when we moved to Japan.  Only likely to happen if I move
to the Historical Village of Hokkaido, I suppose.

A fishing village - up to 40 fishermen lived here during herring season

The wooden fishing boats - can you tell most of the interest was in
the fishing village?

Another fishing village house (you can see the fishing nets in the back).
I would have lived here too...

We had made our way through the town and fishing areas and were just starting to explore the farming village when ...... we walked into an old building and found a woman spinning silk from the silkworm cocoons!  Seriously.  It was so unexpected and so amazing.

There was a shallow rectangular crate filled with leaves and atop the leaves, were hundreds of silkworms poking their heads up and spinning cocoons.  The little thimble-sized white cocoons were scattered all around the leaves.

The woman would take a handful of the cocoons at a time, put them in a pot of water (the water makes them easier to unravel), find the end of the silk strand, attach it to the spool, and then pump this wooden contraption that slowly unspun the silk from the cocoon and spun it back onto a larger spool.  Each cocoon consists of about 800 meters of silk thread.  I was downright mesmerized!

The woman spinning silk from the cocoons. The finished spools are in the foreground,
and the silkworms are on the right...

You can't see so well in this picture, but these are the worms and their silk cocoons

The cocoons are the pot of water,
and the wooden contraption is spinning the silk.

Feeding mulberry leaves to the silkworms

Off to the mountain village!  Here I was impressed by the thatch roofs.  Leave it to the Japanese to make a superior thatch grass roof - it was at least 2 feet thick!

The mountain village house - inside

Mountain village house - outside

Our time at the Hokkaido Historical Village also stimulated several conversations about the Ainu people of Hokkaido.  The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido, and Ethan was very interested in learning about them.  We ran out of time to go to the Ainu Museum in Hokkaido, so we may have to explore an Ainu exhibit in one of the Tokyo museums.

Another favorite of the kids was the childrens' playground that had an assortment of old toys for the kids to try.  They had wooden stilts, much like the ones at Ethan's school, but none of us were very good at it.  They also had circular metal rims that kids pushed along with a stick and Ethan and Ryan's favorite, the old-fashioned spinning top.  A kind man showed the kids how to wind the string and spin the top.  We got them each one as their Hokkaido souvenir, and they have been hard at work perfecting the art of top-spinning.  If you happen to be on skype with us anytime in the near future, Ethan and Ryan will most certainly beg you to watch them spin the top.

Sapporo Beer Museum

OK, the Sapporo Beer Museum was nothing to write home about (though I guess I am, by including it in this blog).  It was, at most, 15 minutes of entertainment.  But the all-you-can-eat-for-100-minutes Gengiskhan next door made up for it.  More on that later...

Our trio of fresh samples...

Most interesting part was the timeline of Sapporo history
as seen through the beer posters.

Sooooooo wrong, but so cute!

Random Sweatshirt that I Just Have to Share

So, I've mentioned in a previous post about the "r" and the "l" switcheroo in Japanese pronunciation.

But, imagine my surprise when I see a man in Sapporo wearing a typical looking college sweatshirt (and why he was wearing a sweatshirt on a hot day, I will never understand), grey with blue lettering, large circular emblem in the middle, name of the college encircling the emblem.  You know the kind of shirt, I'm describing, right?  Only this one said:

IRRINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY

I had to look twice to make sure I had read that right.  I laughed out loud, right there in the bus station!