Being in Japan

We love Japan!  The people here are amazing.  They go above and beyond when doing anything.  They are friendly, helpful, and will be your forever friend once you become friends.  It is so safe and clean here.  I do not feel weird at all walking at night by myself.  I also know that all the neighbor ladies know what's happening in our household and will watch out for anything unusual.  They have informed friends of mine when we were out of town.  I'm sure they know when Luke is deployed and when he is home.  They sweep the streets and keep everything tidy.  You don't really see much trash on the ground despite the fact that there are no public trash cans.  I have many Japanese friends who have translated all kinds of things for me.  They get text pictures of food labels and Facebook messages with school papers.  I am so thankful for the kind of community we have here.  Even our American friends rely on each other so much.

But lately I have been missing America.  I miss how easy it is to go for a drive or to shop.  I miss wide open spaces and grass and trees.  I miss English.  I miss the Food Network.  I miss Target.  I miss dishwashers and normal laundry machines.

This past weekend, Bronson's school had a Bon Odori festival.  It sounded like so much fun.  They would have dancing and games, and everyone would be dressed in their Yukatas.  Kawaii!

Bronson's teacher, whom he LOVES!

The other American kids at Ayase Kobato Yochien

Bronson's class

LOTS of people

Dancing

 

I thought it was interesting how they carried out this event.  It was SO crowded.  The school yard is not that big, and they stuck a big stage in the middle of it.  Add all the teachers, kids, and their parents and siblings, and it was quite the event.  They had games for the kids to play as well.  I was picturing the event to have an organized welcome and program (dancing) for the kids, and then they would be released to the parents to wander and play games.  No, that's not how they do things.  Everything was scheduled out, so that each class walked from station to station to quick play the game under the time limit so everyone got a turn.  Then there was a water break, and the dancing began.  Parents wandered around trying to get a glimpse and picture of their kid as they played each game and then did the dances.  It was crazy.  It was hot too.  

By the time the dancing began, Bronson was quite done with the whole thing.  He spent most of the dancing time sitting and throwing dirt in the air.  I think the crowds and lack of understanding any of the instructions was a bit overwhelming for him, as it would be for anyone.  There were a few kids who cried the whole time and ended up being held by teachers.  That was a huge thing that I thought was different than how an American preschool would do it.  If the kid was upset, they would just pull them out and let the parent deal with it instead of making the kid endure the whole thing.  So funny!

Overall, it was a fun experience.  I love seeing Bronson do and say what they trained the kids to do and say.  They always do a greeting and goodbye, and Bronson knows those well.  He also loves all of the songs that they sing.  It is reassuring to me that he enjoys it and is learning.

And you have to end with a naked baby

Bon Festival

"Obon (お盆^?) or just Bon (盆^?) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

 Bon Odori (盆踊り^?), meaning simply Bon dance is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region. Each region has a local dance, as well as different music. The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the spiritual message of Obon, or local min'yo folk songs. Consequently, the Bon dance will look and sound different from region to region."

(Wikipedia.com)

Typically each neighborhood holds its own Bon Odori festival in their local park.  This past weekend the base held one open the the public.  In the afternoon they had the American festival involving a concert, an eating contest, and food stands.  In the evening everyone gathered around the big tall stage covered in paper lanterns to watch the Bon Odori dancers and drummers.

We actually got to attend the Bon Odori last year soon after we arrived in Japan, but it's still always fun to eat all the goodies, hang out with all of our friends, and get dressed up.   

We had a difficult time getting everyone to look at the camera.

...and look good.  Our last family photo for a while.

New Purchases

We have a few new items in our house after this past weekend.  They held what is called a "Bazaar" at a nearby Army base last weekend.  It's a sort of flea market-type thing where they bring in a bunch of vendors to sell their stuff.  We had heard lots of good things about these bazaars and wanted to check it out.  We ended up coming home with 3 large pieces of furniture.  I was NOT expecting that.

(Please excuse the lighting in these pictures.  I happened to take them at night.)  We got two bookshelves.  One has glass doors on each shelf.  We thought it might be nice to have since Bronson seems to love to pull things off of shelves.  These bookshelves are solid oak and VERY heavy!  It was hard to get them into the house and to their spots along the wall with two big guys carrying them.  Whew!  I'm glad we had those guys because I would have been no help at all. 

This, surprisingly is my favorite piece.  It's an antique Mongolian buffet cabinet.  Actually, the vendor who sold it to us called it an "Imperial Cabinet".  Luke told me today that that's what he wants to start calling it.  Right now it is serving as our TV stand until we get back into an American house where it will serve as a buffet.  At first, I wasn't really digging the colored furniture that seems to be a big characteristic of a lot of Asian furniture.  But this one was a little more subdued, and I loved the painted on flowers on the cabinet doors. 

 

Another new purchase was this tea set.  Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?  After buying this set, I keep seeing owl things all over the place.  I love it!

I will end with this.  I don't even know what to say.  It's so Luke.

Introducing...the new snowboarding champion!

We had a blast on the slopes of Nagano, Japan last month (yes, it's been way too long since my last post).  I will spare you the boring details, but will include our photos and a shortened version of our trip.

We stayed at a place called Alpine Wind run by an Australian man and his Japanese wife.  We were in an area called the Japanese Alps, and it sure felt like it with the style of buildings and everything so full of snow.  I had to keep reminding myself that we were still in Japan because of all the English-speakers around.

The first day we were on the slopes, it was gorgeous...sunny and clear.  But of course, the day we had our camera it was snowing and foggy.

Bron's first encounter with snow.  Of course the first thing he does is eat it.

Where was Bronson during all of this snowboarding business?  Well, the first day we put him into the nursery/daycare center on the slope.  It actually turned out to be pretty affordable.  But we came out on this trip with some friends with little girls.  So, one of the days, we just took turns skiing and watching the kids.  It turned out to be a great setup.

This was our little group.  We couldn't quite get everyone's smiles coordinated.  :)

 

On our way home, this was our view of Mt. Fuji.  It was beautiful out there away from the hustle and bustle of the crowded city.

A Parents' Night Out

The last weekend before Luke went out to sea we decided to get a babysitter one night and go out and do something fun.  We ended up meeting up with a group of friends for a concert in Tokyo.  It just happened to be our friend, James' birthday, and it was super fun to celebrate with him.  We saw Owl City in concert.  Neither of us had really heard of him except for his song, "Fireflies".  But we enjoyed the concert immensely and decided to do some more research on this guy.  It turns out that many of his songs have Christian undertones, and he is a neat guy.  We could not get over how much he sounded like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.

 

 Big  fast moving sea creature carousel that we could not resist

 

 

We actually became quite a spectacle on the carousel.  The Japanese who were around crowded around the carousel to watch and wave at the big American adults riding.

 

It was a very fun night.  I had a hard time knowing what to do with myself because I've gotten so used to being attached to a baby.  It was very nice to give Luke my full attention for a full night before he left again.  I'm looking forward to another date night in the future.

Home Owners

We live in a house off of the base here in Japan.  It's actually less than a 5 minute drive to the front gate depending on the traffic lights.  We only looked at 3 houses in town before snatching this one up.  Originally, the house was listed as not allowing any pets, but we talked to the realtor about how gentle our dog is, and she convinced the owner to allow us to live here.  Now, this is a different situation than most who rent in that it's the owner's actual house.  He lived here and loves this house.  It's kind of a lot a pressure. 

He's come over on occasion to check things out.  He refuses to come inside.  Usually he comes when there is some kind of work being done on the house or lawn.  He had hired someone to trim the bushes and someone to fix our driveway gate,, etc.  Every time he came, he would bring us a gift.  Japan is very much a gift-giving country.  People give gifts for everything!  Well, he would stop by the local patisserie and bring us some custard-type desserts that are very popular among the Japanese.  Very yummy!  And he has also grown very fond of Laika.

Today, I pulled up to the house after my Bible study on base, and he was there.  He, of course handed me a box of more custards as soon as I got out of the car and motioned at the work he was doing (He speaks zero English, by the way.).  The previous time he had visited he saw a chair in the yard that was blocking a hole in the bushes.  Luke and I had put it there, so that we could let Laika out of the house, and not have to worry about her getting out of the yard.  I showed him the hole and tried to explain this to him in the very few Japanese words I knew, and he tried to talk back to me in Japanese.  I had no idea what he said, but got the sense that he understood what I was saying.

Well, today he put up a mesh plastic chicken-wire sort of thing against the bushes to block that hole.  I thought it was super nice of him to do that because originally he didn't want pets in his house.  He must really be impressed with Laika....or maybe he's bribing us to take care of his house.  Anyway...he seems very nice, and I wish that I could communicate with him.  The only thing I could do was bring him some banana bread.  Hopefully that was enough of a thank you.

 

The Worst Day Ever

So I find myself sitting in the car with a screaming baby totally stuck between a van across the street and the pole to our carport with non-English speaking guys trying to help.  Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse.

 We found out on Friday that Luke was going to be deployed at the end of the next week.  That was kind of a shock.  We thought we had a few more weeks.  But it was definitely doable.  We had a great weekend spent together.  Then on Monday Luke found out at the end of the workday that he would be leaving the next day (Tuesday).  He had to stay at work until around 8:00 scrambling around to get everything done before the next day.  Tuesday rolls around, and to make a long story short, it was a long drawn out process of saying goodbye.  I'm finding out that the Navy constantly changes their plans, and you can't really count on any one thing that is said until all is said and done.

So now I get to the part where I'm stuck.  I had just dropped off Luke, and we said our goodbyes.  I'm a complete mess trying to drive home.  I get to our house, and there is a service van parked on the street in my way.  The worker kindly moved his van so that I could back into our drive (Side note:  The Japanese back into parking spaces because the spaces are so tight that you can't back out of them.  Our driveway is VERY narrow and we have to back into it in order to be able to pull out.  Also, our street is very narrow with a light pole right across from our driveway.  I'm still mastering this skill.)  Well,
this time there is a van parked in a parking space across from our driveway, and it is sticking out into the road.  I begin to back up into the drive when I find that I have completely wedged myself between this van and our carport while these two worker guys are watching.  One starts to help me, but cannot speak English so there is not much he can do.  They talk among themselves because they of course cannot communicate with me, and they decide to knock on doors to find out who owns the van.  They find a girl who comes out, and it feels like it took forever for her to finally figure out how to back up her van out of my way.  Meanwhile, Bronson is screaming in the backseat and the entire neighborhood is watching the fiasco.  I almost laughed at how ridiculous this all was.

Well, I made it into the driveway and successfully consoled the baby, but I don't think I'm going to leave the house again....:)

Konichiwa!

Hello, from Japan...finally!  We have had a crazy ride since getting here.  I hardly know where to start.  We've bought a car, moved into a house, got our drivers licenses, went to 2 festivals, visited a Buddhist temple, went to Chinatown in Yokohama, went to a rugby game (America vs Japan), and have eaten soooo much Japanese food.  It's been 4 weeks now, and we've picked up a lot of key Japanese phrases.  Luke is already reading a lot of signs and advertisements.  We've learned and done a LOT.  Bronson already knows his first word, "Kawaii" (meaning cute).  He has heard that word so many times when we've been out and about.  Those Japanese love his big blue eyes.  I am going to post a bunch of pictures since there is too much to write about.  Hopefully that will catch you up with what is going on with us.

Our house.  We love all the trees.

Front door

Our small yard

Front door from the inside.  Small cabinet for keeping shoes.

Toilet room

Shower room

Our car in a two car driveway

Where Luke works...HSL-51 Warlords

Chinatown in Yokohama

Qipao (Chinese dress) I bought in Chinatown

Lost

Most cheerful add for a graveplot we've ever seen

Gatorade-type drink

Plastic food!  They have it outside of restaurants everywhere here.

Coldstone!  Definitely not as good...they give Japanese-sized servings.  :)

Of course, I have to put Bronson in here too.  He's doing very well.