A Japanese Tea Ceremony

Today a few of my new Japanese friends took me to Sankeien Garden in Yokohama. This is a traditional Japanese-style garden designed and landscaped by Senkei Hara (a penname for Tomitaro Hara), a wealthy businessman in the silk trade. He reconstructed famous historical buildings from Kyoto and Kamakura in his garden, which opened to the public in 1906. Today, we were lucky enough to visit during plum blossom viewing season.

My friend Keiko has a friend--also Keiko (seen in this photo)--who performs a tea ceremony in the Senkeien Memorial Building. This ceremony was rather casual, although from what I understand many tea ceremonies can be very formal affairs. Today, we watched a 10-minute demonstration of how to make tea and then it was served to us. It is a ritual of several steps to invoke harmony, respect, purity and tranquility. You first eat one of two sweets that are given to you. They are the size of a quarter. (I ate the second one on the way home I was so hungry.) Then the tea master prepares the tea from a high-quality green tea powder, with many proper hand placements and several turns of the tea cup. Then the tea is presented with a bow to the guest, who returns the bow and drinks it with the front of the cup turned slightly away from the lips, in 3 to 4 sips. Oishi. Bitter tea is the perfect match for the intensely sweet treat.

Then they said it was my turn! I thought they were kidding...but you see the photos for yourself. Here I am a tea master. I am laughing because everyone else is laughing at me at this point, since I wasn't whisking fast enough and the tea master had to show me. But other than that, I think most people were in harmony at the end of my demonstration.

That must be why I was quickly promoted to tea sensei! Just when I thought I had surpassed my wildest self-expectations in tea mastery, I was told it was my turn to teach the tea ceremony to my friends. So, here I am--a tea sensei to my friends Akiko-san and Keiko-san! You can see I am bright red...it is the Japanese way to humble yourself and be embarrassed in front of others. But I wonder if they knew that I wasn't doing it to be polite. It was all about the harmony. And the fun!

We have a winner...
Jenn, my friend from Tufts who came out of the woodwork at the right time and answered my (too easy) trivia question! Sorry Mary and other competitive people. Please try again next time. But it won't be so easy...

Thanks Jenn! Great to hear from you. Enjoy the cherry blossom stationery. Hope it entices you to consider coming to visit Japan to see them for yourself!

Trivia Contest #1
Here it is...the first of several chances to win fun prizes from Japan! The first person to respond (in the comment section of this blog entry) to the following easy trivia question will win!

Which city has the most populous metropolitan area in the world?

The lucky winner will not win a heated toilet seat, as I've learned these are a tad expensive. Instead, the fastest correct answer will ensure that you win this beautiful Japanese stationery set adorned with cherry blossoms...since it is almost Springtime! Thanks for keeping in touch. Miss you all!

Keep checking back for more contests...other prizes may include a traditional kokeshi doll, a set of Japanese (ceramic) beer mugs, a Japanese tea set, Japanese green tea, an origami guide book including washi paper, chochin (paper lanterns), hashi (chopstick) sets, rice bowls, etc. Hope you enjoy!

Sushi Go-Round: A One-Way Street
Sushi in Japan is very different than in the States. It is very fresh. And it is often served via a conveyor belt that circulates small plates of many different types of sushi. Usually there are only two pieces per plate and each plate is color coded according to the price. There are even several different types of tuna, the fattiest "toro" being the most expensive. So, it is very convenient, especially when you don't speak Japanese.

Another difference is that there are no elaborate "volcano rolls" or "spicey couple" rolls with fancy ingredients and presentations. Very often, nigiri sushi is mostly served, that is a slice of raw fish atop a bitesize mound of vinegared rice. Some types of sushi come with a tiny bit of wasabi between the fish and rice, but not enough for my taste! (I laugh because sushi menus in English often state that the wasabi can be left off any order.)

Sometimes, when the sushi chefs see that Americans are in the restaurant, more rolls like California rolls will start to circulate around the room. I almost feel compelled to take them knowing they were made especially for me. However, I am happy to let the raw horse meat pass me by.

Several things besides raw fish circulate around the sushi bar, such as small salads with tiny packets of salad dressing, yogurt with fresh fruit, and sesame-coated "donuts" filled with sweet bean paste (a dessert). There is often even an ice cream cone circulating on the belt.

One day, Brian and I decided to try the ice cream. This is one thing Sydney will almost always eat. We couldn't tell, though, was it a real ice cream cone? Or was it fake just to show you they serve ice cream? It's a tough call. It's very shiny, so it looked like it could've been melting. Either way, we decided it was probably proper protocol to just take it off the conveyor belt and put it on our table. Only then did we realize it was not a real ice cream cone! We generated a lot of snickers throughout the restaurant. So, we laughed too and looked around nervously...while we waited a minute for our ice cream to be delivered. It never came. So, we looked around and when all eyes were off us, we slyly returned the ice cream to the conveyor belt!

I'm pretty sure sushi-go-rounds are meant to be one-way streets. So, we still haven't ever had ice cream in a sushi-go-round to avoid a repeat of this embarrassing experience. But that's alright, the sesame-coated sweet-bean-filled donuts grow on you the more you have them.

Reading Engrish in Japan

As you may or may not know, there is neither an "L" or "TH" sound in the Japanese language. That's why it is often difficult for Japanese people to pronounce some English words, such as the word "English" itself. It comes out as "Engrish."

Well, many times you'll also see signs in Japan that are written in "Engrish." The writer in me is continually amazed each time I see one of these signs. I just can't believe that a company wouldn't ask a person proficient in English to at least proofread the sign before printing it and posting it for all to see. There is no way to describe this phenomenon with words alone, so I offer you this sign we saw on multiple occasions at the Ikea in Yokohama. It says, "As for one cup of free service of coffee or tea, please in a cafe of the the second floor depths."

I think maybe it means we could've gotten a free cup of coffee or tea on the second floor, but instead we paid a bundle for Swedish meatballs (Ikea is Swedish after all) and Lipton iced tea.

Our Snow Princess

The Sapporo Snow Festival: The Synopsis
Last weekend Brian, Sydney and I flew up to Hokkaido, the large northern island of Japan, to visit Sapporo for the 58th Snow Festival. Sapporo is a relatively new city in Japan, with little ancient history. (Translation: there aren't as many shrines and temples.) In fact, the city was developed in the late 1800's by a Massachusetts city planner. The city is set up in a grid like many American cities and there's even a clock tower that looks like it belongs next to Faneuil Hall. The clock itself is actually from Boston!

If you are like me, when you think Sapporo, beer probably comes to mind. The first night we went to Sapporo Beer Garden and had a traditional "Genghis Kahn" meal, which was thin slices of lamb and vegetables that we grilled at our table. The grill is unique in that it looks like an upside-down bowl. It was all-you-can-eat-and-drink (Sapporo, of course) for 90 minutes. Oishi!

The first full day we awoke to a winter wonderland and we got our money's worth of snow...it snowed the whole day! We took a Sapporo city tour and our first stop was Hokkaido Shrine. At first Sydney wasn't too sure what to make of the slippery white stuff, but she was having fun in no time. Then due to the weather, in lieu of the planned gondola ride up a mountain, we visited the Sapporo Winter Sports Museum. As you may know, Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics. And since every bus tour has a shopping scam, we were dropped off at a glorified mall for lunch and plenty of time to look around. Finally, we ended up at Odori Park, the central park of Sapporo and one of the three Snow Festival sites. (Two of the Festival sites were within walking distance of our hotel and one was a satellite location that we visited the last day by bus before going to the airport.)

The actual Snow Festival started the last day we were there (February 6), but the preparation was well under way during our whole trip. Large ice/snow sculptures are the main draw of the Festival--nearly 2 million people visit Sapporo each year to see them. Some are as large as actual buildings! We heard it took 80,000 truck loads of snow to make them.

The night before the festival started (our last night in Sapporo), the sculptures were illuminated. We walked the whole park and saw sculptures of Mickey Mouse and other Disney friends, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Thomas the Tank Engine, Ultraman (a Japanese comic hero from the 1960's), every animal you can imagine (unicorn, fish, turtle, polar bears), and more! We even saw a bar and a cafe made entirely of ice!

The second full day of our trip we went to Takino Snow Park for some sledding and snow tubing fun. We would've liked to cross country ski, but although Sydney goes just about everywhere in the backpack, that's where we drew the line. Well, she was so exhausted from missing her naps and going to bed late, that she actually fell asleep while tubing! Even the bumps at the end to slow you down didn't wake her. So we brought her to the indoor playground to take a nap...she slept through the sound of screaming children as well! But when she finally awoke, she enjoyed exploring the snow. She mostly had fun, but did get mad that she kept falling...and then couldn't get up (thanks in part due to the snow, the other part her borrowed 2-sizes-too-large Timberland boots)!

Our last day of the trip arrived and before heading to the airport, we went by bus to Sato-Land, the third site of the Snow Festival geared towards children. There was a snowman making station, an ice maze, and a large slide made of ice, tubing runs, and of course food vendors. Unfortunately it warmed up enough to rain so we didn't enjoy the slush as much as the snow!

As cold as it was outside (about 35 degrees Fahrenheit for a high), every building in Sapporo, including our hotel, was heated to a temperature of at least 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Never thought we'd say it, but our cold house has never felt so good!

(Stay tuned for more photos of the snow princess!)

My Other Part-Time Job: Recycling in Japan
Brian--or Mr. Green as I often call him--should feel right at home in Japan if for no other reason than the fact that Japan is very eco-friendly, as is he. However, as I often tease him, there are some inconsistencies to his "green-ness." The first of which may be that we own an SUV. That of course, is partly my fault. But another inconsistency is that I am actually the recycling guru of this family! And that is no simple feat in Japan. It is truly a part-time job.

Soon after we moved to Japan and began to live offbase, I told Brian, "If when you leave the house in the morning, you are not carrying a bag of some type of garbage, then you are forgetting something!" I'm not kidding. Five days a week and one Saturday a month there is some type of garbage pick-up. I pack it up and he brings it out.

Why so many days of garbage pick-up? Well, in Japan, we must separate our trash into five categories. We have burnable items; nonburnable items ("land fill"); glass, PET bottles and cans; plastic containers and packaging; and recyclable papers, cardboard, milk cartons, etc.

There is literally a book to study in order to prepare your garbage appropriately for pick-up. There are special bags (clear, white or paper) to use depending on the type of garbage. You must bundle some items with string. And except for the burnable items (which thankfully includes diapers), everything must be rinsed clean. My favorite recycling duty is cutting open the toothpaste tube and rinsing out the remaining toothpaste. (There's actually a lot left in what seems like an empty tube, you'd be suprised.)

The trash bags are to be put out at a designated location on our block. Our housing agent showed us where to put ours; around the corner on the street behind our house. So, you don't necessarily put trash in front of your own house. Nor is the designated pile necessarily the closest pile to your house. Since no one likes a big pile of trash in front of their house indefinitely, Japanese neighborhoods have small communities that take turns "hosting" the garbage pick-up location for the year usually. It is that person's job to sweep up any garbage that might have spilled onto the street. So far, it's been 7 months and no one in our neighborhood has told us about this, so we are playing dumb and will wait to be told when it's our turn!

After all this, you may be wondering what happens if we don't comply with these recycling regulations? It is very easy to identify a foreigner by his trash, with the clear plastic bags providing a window into the remnants of our lives. Coca Cola cans, need I say more? (Japanese Coke cans are half the size of ours and we have twice as many in our trash.) And if your trash is improperly sorted, you will find the bag placed on your lawn for everyone to see you screwed up. So far, we have been lucky. Or perhaps I have been doing such a great job as "lead recycler" so as to not disgrace ourselves--at least not regarding the garbage!

I'm Officially an English Teacher
Well, I took a slightly circuitous route to becoming an English teacher, but alas, I am now one! (For those of you that don't know, I went off to college to become an English teacher and switched half way through to Nutrition.) I only had to travel half way around the world to become one.

I fell into this role two weeks ago while eating at a Japanese "shabu shabu" restaurant. (I crudely describe shabu shabu as "Japanese fondue," in that there is a broth and each person cooks their own raw ingredients in the broth--although not with skewers, with chopsticks!) Our Japanese waitress, who formerly worked at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, knew of a group of Japanese ladies in need of some English instruction, so she asked if we knew of anyone who would be interested in teaching them. Since I had been thinking I'd like to teach English while here, I volunteered.

So, last Thursday was my first visit with six ladies of all different ages. (Sydney was the seventh and youngest! I told them the 10 Japanese words I know, one of which they used repeatedly, "kawaii!") I took the train about 30 minutes from here to the Kamiooka stop, which is in Yokohama. They met me at the train station and we walked to the small condo of one of the ladies. She served Japanese green tea and fresh strawberries (in season now, which is so strange to me!)

It was so fun! They mostly want to practice their conversational English, so we talked to get to know each other and I found out how I can better help them. I also found out they have many talents and hobbies that I hope to learn more about, such as Japanese cooking and calligraphy. Of course they were also willing to teach me some Japanese. So, it is hardly a "job" and more like a cultural exchange!

Rushing to Tokyo During Rush Hour
At a moment's notice, Sydney and I found ourselves on the train to Tokyo yesterday morning. I had received a call from a modeling agency the day before. Last week I had heard through the Navy grapevine they were looking for a blond baby about 6 to 10 months old. Not sure they would want a walker, I had submitted a photo of my 14 month old anyway! (In case you haven't heard, Sydney is rather petite, which you can't really get from the lifesize photos we have of her on the blog. But then look at her parents. BTW, this photo of her on the train isn't from the same day; I didn't dress her in overalls for her audition!) After checking my schedule for the week--a playgroup, a fun lunch out in town, and a conversational English class for some Japanese ladies--I decided we were wide open on Tuesday for such an adventure. Ah, the life of a lady of leisure!

So, we ventured to Tokyo alone. Although in all honesty, I did try to get a friend to come with me, but she couldn't make it. Instead, I made sure I brought along my (well, Brian's, because I lost mine the first month we were here) "I'm lost, please help me get back to Yokosuka" card written in Japanese. Luckily, I didn't have to use it.

The modeling agency contact person asked me to choose a convenient time to schedule the audition, so considering Sydney's naptimes, I chose 10am--not thinking that meant we'd be on the trains traveling through Yokohama, a rather large city, to Tokyo, the most populous city in the world, at rush hour!

We left home at 8am and, needless to say, the train was jammed. I got many dirty looks since my tiny umbrella stroller took up the floor space of at least 3 people, but only because we were standing that close. I regretted having brought it. However, I suspect the trains weren't as crowded as they are capable of being, if you can believe it. Although I saw several train station employees wearing white gloves, I didn't see them resort to literally packing people into the trains like sardines. Don't think I'm kidding! In Japan, it's seriously someone's job to do just that. I guess the white gloves somehow make it more polite...and easier to deny any wrong doing should there be a mishap.

If we were smart, Sydney and I would've taken the time to walk down to the last car of the train, to see if it was a "women-only car" during rush hour. Apparently in Japan, some men feel being "up close" is a license to get "personal" and then blame it on the crowd. So, in retrospect, I suppose the stroller served us well afterall.

Anyway, you're probably wondering how the audition went. I wish I could say Sydney was her adorable self, but things didn't go as planned. She was tired of being in the stroller on the train for 2 hours and only wanted to walk. Of course, they wanted me to hold her for the photos. She wouldn't smile much as a result and struggled to get down. They let her run around to try to get some photos of her, but she wanted to play with all the camera equipment. My favorite part was when she decided to use the conference room as a bathroom and proceeded to back herself into a corner of the room to poop, which was rather obvious from the look on her face. They insisted I change her in the conference room, even though I tried to ask to use the bathroom. So, let's just say we aren't expecting to get the job!