Dec 2008

Hi Everyone,

We will be in Vietnam for the next two weeks so we will have limited access to e-mail and probably no access via cell phone. We wish you all a very Merry Holiday Season. We look forward to posting more pictures and blogs about our trip when we get back. Write us an e-mail to let us know how you are! We miss everyone.

Love,
Kristen and Quinn

There is a private school in the area that our school sometimes does cultural exchanges with. They recently invited us to a Mochi pounding festival to give their kids and our kids an opportunity to interact and practice English skills. Unfortunately, the festival was on a Saturday and our kids do not have school on Saturday so they could not attend. Many of the Japanese schools go Monday through Saturday. So, a few of the teachers decided to go with their kids and we tagged along. What we didn't realize was that this was quite the formal event and they expected us to bring a bunch of our students. This pic gives you an idea of all the children waiting for our arrival to start the festival.

There were about 250 first through third graders all in perfect little lines and completely silent during a 30 minute opening ceremony held by the elders of the school. It was incredible. The teachers didn't have to say a word to keep the quite and attentive. They had cultural guides and interpreters to escort us around the festival and explain the activities. I felt so guilty because we had not brought more students. But it was an awesome experience nonetheless. They sang us a song at the closing ceremony. Here is a short clip.

So, "what is mochi pounding?" you may be asking. Mochi is rice paste. So they pound the rice with mallets to make a paste and then season it with a variety of beans, seaweed and the like. Here is an example of the elder showing the students to pound the mochi.

Here is Quinn pounding the Mochi. There is a kind of "chant" that goes along with mochi pounding. They say a word to encourage the person pounding and then as the second person quickly wets the mochi they say "hai" to indicate that they are done wetting the mochi and the person can pound again. It becomes very rhythmical and the whole scenario is very quick.

This was my first real opportunity to interact with any Japanese people. They were very friendly and interested in what we thought of Japan. Obviously we told them how much we love it here and they were surprised to hear of all of our traveling in the 4 months we have been here.

The school itself was absolutely gorgeous. It is a VERY costly private school that goes from elementary all the way through University and they have multiple different campuses. But most of the children go abroad to study and many to Ivy League Universities.

It was a great experience and I hope to go back again and bring more kids next time.

On a seperate note................
Attention attention. I have made my first Japanese friend. I was given her email from another teacher friend of mine and was told that she was looking for an English teacher. So, I decided that I could teach her English and she could teach me some Japanese and more about Japan. (we have been longing for a cultural insider)

We met down in Shinjuku and had lunch and then went to a coffee shop. I learned some of the Japanese ettiquette at mealtime and more about food and culture. I taught her English (even though her English is nearly perfect). She is a perfectionist and "doesn't want to make any mistakes." It was a really great day. Here is a picture of us.

Now that I am technologically advanced I am able to upload a few videos for you all.

Here is a video from the festival we went to in Kawagoe where they pull the floats and people on them play music. When the floats meet on a street corner they try to get each other off beat by playing the music louder.

This is a video from Roppongi which is a shopping/living/playing multi use facility that always has something going on. We just happened to stumble upon this traditional dance performance. The little kids were on the structure and the parents were dancing underneath to show the children what to do.

That's it for now. I will try to take more video in the future now that I know how to get it on this site.

After 21 hours of traveling by car, plane, monorail, and bus Dad finally arrived in Japan. Here he is getting off the bus so we can get him checked onto base.

To understand the sheer number of activities on this trip I will attempt to recall them here on this blog.

Day 1 (Tuesday): I took the day off of work and we headed out into the suburbs of Fussa to see every day Japanese life. First though, we gave Dad a short tour of the base including the flight line (no planes here). Next, we took Dad to one of the most unJapanese places around: Joyful Honda. What makes this place unJapanese is that it is a huge multidepartment store. Most stores in Japan are much smaller type of markets or located in a mall. But this is a monstrosity of a store with multiple sections. It is kind of like home depot, Frye's, walmart, PetSmart, and Michael's all mushed together into one store. This is where Dad got his first yummy Japanese drink from a vending machine.

Dad really enjoyed seeing all the types of fancy lumber and building products that the Japanese have. They actually have straight lumber, unlike home depot and lowes. It is amazing. Then we took him to the sushi restaurant with the conveyor belt that I have featured on this website before. I was impressed to see that my Dad ate all the types of unknown foods we put in front of him. Then we took him to the BX on base and the commisary and post office to see all the daily excitement of living on a military base. In the afternoon we took him for a drive to see the local ball park: the Seibu dome and a view of the river. Afterwards we went for a bike ride along the Tama River to see some of the local houses, ball parks, parks, and other sites around Fussa. There we saw the most popular dog in Japan. It is called a Sheba and everyone has one. You see more of these dogs than any other type by far. That night we went out for Yakuniku where you cook your own meat on a grill. This was a big hit for all.

Day 2: I had to work this day so I sent Dad and Quinn out on an adventure into the mountains. They took the tram up Mt. Mitake to see the shrine. There is quite a hike up even after the cable car stops so they got a pretty good work out. Dad went all that way to "pet the lions" and they took a few pictures for me.

I think they had a nice opportunity to view the fall foliage. The decided to walk the whole way down and skip the cable car. This proved to be a poor decision as they were left with sore calf muscles for the rest of the trip! That afternoon they came to visit me at my school and see my classroom. We went to a brewery for dinner at night and we had some pizza that I thought was awesome and Dad thought should be called a cheese crisp rather than a pizza.

Day 3: Off to Tokyo. Because Tokyo is so large they break it up into different districts. So the names of each of the areas below are still part of Tokyo. We rode the train into Tokyo to see the sights. We started in Shinjuku and checked out the red light district. It was early in the morning so there wasn't too much action. However, there were many pictures of people with crazy hair that appeared to be lounge singers. At least that is how it appeared upon first signt. saw a camera shop and a really big electronics store. It is five storys filled with stuff. Very overstimulating. Next we took an above ground train around Odaiba which is the coastal and port area. We stopped at the Toyota Mega web to see a bunch of concept vehicles. Here are a few pics.

My dad said he would buy me one of these as my welcome back present to the states and that I should tell everyone about it on this blog. Thanks Dad.

Then we went to Shibuya to see the busiest street crossing the in the world. They are not lying about busy. Here are a few shots we snapped. They only give you a small idea. We are going to go back here and sit at the local coffee shop on the corner (starbucks!!! isn't that sad?) and watch the people.

Finally we went to our hotel for the night (the New Sanno). This is quite the amazing deal because it is run by the Navy and available for all military personnel and DOD Civilians to use for an inexpensive price. The best part is, that it is in the middle of Tokyo so it makes for a great sight seeing base. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner buffet, put on by the hotel and collapsed into a deep sleep.

Day 4: We started out this day before the sun was even thinking about rising. Our wakeup call came at 4:30 so that we could catch the first train of the morning to the fish market in Ginza. The fish market is a crazy experience that is hard to put into words. Because the streets are so quiet this time of morning, it is quite a surprise to walk around the corner and find yourself in an explosion of activity. There are hundreds of little motorized carts zooming between rows and rows of buildings containing hundreds or thousands of very large frozen fish being auctioned off for sushi preparation later in the day. Other buildings contained multiple varieties of seafood that were both living and dead that could be bought for cooking later, and even bought for eating on site. The auction itself is very impressive, because the auctioneer chants in a very rhythmic manner and bidders nod almost imperceptibly to acknowledge what they are willing to pay for each fish. It all happens rather quickly and is hard to understand.

After the market we took a small rest before regrouping and heading out for another full day. Our first stop was the Imperial Palace near Tokyo Station, the center of Tokyo. Unfortunately the grounds were closed for the day and we did not get to go inside the gardens. Sometimes things are just not open when you need them to be.

So we got back on the train and headed to the highly polished area of Roppongi. All the buildings here contain offices, restaurants, offices, and shopping. It really is the perfect case study of a mixed use development in a high population area. One could become completely self contained in this little bubble in Tokyo. It seems however that this area also contains the largest percentage of foreigners in one area, as we heard more English here than anywhwer else in Tokyo.

We convinced Dad to take a stroll to Tokyo Tower from Roppongi because we were in the area with many of the foreign embassies. It turns out that they are actually very well hidden and inconspicuous, so we passed by most of them without even noticing. We did however get a great view of Tokyo Tower, because the sky cleared up remarkably well as we got closer to the Tower.

In order to take advantage of the clear skies, we decided to head back to Shinjuku to try and get a view of the city from the Government Towers. There are two identical towers that offer a free viewing platform on the 43rd story. Once at the top, there was a great view of Tokyo, and we spent some time trying to grasp the vastness of the city.

We finished out our day with a walk through Harajuku to see the crazy shopping and various outfits that pop up here. For those of you that loved the shoe blog so much, this is the place where those photos were taken. The outfits are no less shocking than the shoes. By this time we were all very worn out, and got back on the train to head back to Fussa.

Day 5: For the last day we took the train to Yokohama (about 1 1/2 hours). Yokohama is a city on the coast with view of ocean and port. It has a newer and shinier feel than central Tokyo. The buildings are almost all made from glass and there are big sidewalks and larger streets. It also has many modern cultural attractions such as a city center, warehouse shopping area, boardwalk (made of cement) along the water, and amusement park.

We ate lunch in the red brick warehouses and did some shopping. One of the main draws to Yokohama is the largest China town outside of China. We walked around the tiny meandering streets filled with street vendors and shops. Quinn resisted the urge to eat 1 million Chinese stufed bread dumpling things, and we happened on yet another shrine.

We hit up the 100 yen shop (dollar store) before heading home. 100 yen shops are amazing in Japan. They are usually 3 or 4 storeys high and contain everything you could possibly want. I love them. They put dollar tree to shame! We were so tired once we got home that we ate dinner at home and visited before Dad's departure.

Day 6: This day, my Dad left. I was very sad.

Here is a picture of a rice ball sandwich. It is my new favorite food in Japan.

We headed out for a peaceful trip to the mountains and ended up hiking with about 200,000 of our closest Japanese friends. We decided to hike up Mt. Takao and take 2 of the 8 well marked trails to complete a loop and enjoy the fall foliage. What we did not know was that there was a Japanese holiday that weekend and we would be hiking side by side so many people that there wasn't even room to pass anyone. Here was the line to take the cable car to the top. We hiked the whole way and opted out of the cable car. It probably took about the same amount of time with lines like that!

And here is a taste of the lines of people. This was a narrow spot and there are people for as far as the eye can see!

One of the trails to the top is even paved! At the top of the mountain there was a.....you guessed it......a shrine They are at the top of pretty much every mountain Japan. All the little Budda looking guys had Christmas hats on. Not sure if they were decked out for the holidays or if that is how they always look. One never knows.

There was also a beautiful view with all of the leaves changing colors.

!

Quinn got to eat purple ice cream so he was happy.

I got a few shots in front of my favorite Japanese maple tree.

The Japanese are serious about dressing up their dogs. Here is a pooch with a J-Lo style velour jumpsuit. Yes, it has legs!

That's it for this trip. It was a great day but we will never go back to Takao again. We could just go to Tokyo for crowds like that.