More of Mom's visit

So, yesterday I took my mother to visit the Imperial Palace East Garden (the only part of the palace that is open to the public). The grounds are beatuiful, but they seemed a little less stellar in comparison to the beautiful temple gardens of Kyoto (on the plus side, however, the place gardens are free):
After strolling the grounds, we ate a delicious Indian lunch in Ginza. After lunch, we window-shopped along the Ginza streets with all the expensive stores. Then, that evening, there was a Fulbright reception. The reception was nice (my mom attended, too).

Today was a slow day. I took my mom for a late lunch at this cute German/Swiss cafe near the park near our house. After lunch, we looked unsuccessfully for this yarn store I'd been told about. I'm ready to move on from scarves to hats, so I'm looking for some new yarn - and for some babies (that belong to others, thank you very much) to wear the hats I'll make.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Halloween party at the international school. I'll be sharing some candy corn that my mother imported from the U.S. Candy corn bares little similarity to actual corn, but it is good.

Tuesday we'll just be in Tsukuba again, as I have language class both in the morning and in the evening.

Wednesday I'll take my mom to Kamakura to see the big Buddha ("to pray to Buddha at Kamakura" - a line I have heard more than once) . We'll leave early in the morning so that we can be back in the late afternoon - in time for a nice birthday dinner for the birthday boy!

Mom leaves on Thursday.

Kyoto: the pictures

Of course, these are only a select few of them (those who wish to see all of them need only ask!).

Kyoto was nice, the bullet train was exciting, and we have returned to Tsukuba, safe and sound – and more than a little tired!

Kyoto Index

Here are some statistics from our Kyoto Trip:

Number of Buddhist temples visited: 6
Number of monkey parks visited: 1
Number of peanuts we fed to monkeys: around 15
Number of times Kate was scratched by a monkey after disobeying monkey part policy: 1
Number of places where we tried free samples of "Kyoto's answer to the choco cro": 3
Number of places where we were served tea: 6
Number of school children that "interviewed" us for their English homework: 5
Number of pictures on Mike and Kate's camera: around 200

Our inaugural guest (so far)

Dr.P is in the house – actually since this post is a few days old (as are all the ones that follow), Dr.P has been in the house for quite some time.

On her first full day, I took her to a picnic at the international school, followed by a bike ride in the park near our house, followed by dinner at the international women’s network in Tsukuba (you better believe she slept well that night!). Mom was a big hit there, once it got out that she was an English-speaking doctor.

On her second day, we went to Tokyo. We walked around Yoyogi park, had a great Thai lunch, and did some shopping. Here is a picture of the shrine in Yoyogi park:

Dr.P bought a lot of ceramics from this store that had all these beautifully patterned dishes (and the prices weren’t bad, either!). Then we set off to find this antique kimono store I’d heard about. The store wasn’t easy to find, but we did eventually find it. The kimono in there were beautiful, but pricey, ranging from $40-$600. I thought I’d have to be content with looking, when my eyes fell upon (just like love at first sight!) a corner of dark blue kimono with colored flower embroidery. Real silk. $8. I couldn’t believe it, and I was almost afraid to approach the counter, believing that this must mean $80 or even $800. But $8 it was (note: if you are coming to visit, I really believe that my price is atypical, but I think that you could get a very good used kimono for about $50 or $60). Mine isn’t perfect – the inner silk lining is a little dirty and worn in places, but since I intend to hang the kimono as decoration, it is perfect! At another store not far from there, my mom found a beautiful used kimono, too. Hers is pink, mine is blue (and these photos really don't do either of them justice):

We followed this consumer feat up with a culinary feast at this little eatery Mike knew about. Dinner was delicious, and my mom sampled some sake.

On her third day, we again went to Tokyo to meet our Japanese friends, Daisuke and Chie, and their adorable son, Nagu. We had planned to go to the zoo, but since it was pouring, we went to the Tokyo City Museum. The museum was really, really interesting – it had models of old houses, theaters, boats, carriages, etc. There were also several interactive exhibits:

And a Nagu shot, because how can one resist?
Today, we hung around Tsukuba and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park near our house. Tomorrow we go to Kyoto for a few days, so posting may be light until our return at the end of the week.

Halloween Crafts

Today we made paper mache pumpkins in art class. This was messy.

I hope that my students put enough paper and paste on the balloons such that when we pop them and try to paint them next week, they will actually have the shape of pumpkins and not of truly scary squash!

Opening Ceremonies

As opening ceremonies go, the ones for my daytime Japanese class were a bit of a disappointment. No modern dance, no children singing in chorus, and no parade of nations. What we did have were a few middle-aged gentlemen making speeches about the value of friendship and learning Japanese.
We were also told that this was a propitious time to begin learning Japanese since the new express train linking Tsukuba and Tokyo has just begun its service.

My class is big – about 40 students. There are four teachers, but we didn’t do the small group thing. Instead, everyone went around the table and introduced him/herself, and then, well, class was over. The class is slightly more men than women, and people are from all over: Mongolia, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Canada, Thailand . . . I also made two friends that I’ve been emailing a little about my knitting group: one from Switzerland and one from (ta-da!) Seattle. The Seattle one is actually an elementary school teacher from Shoreline, and her husband just received his Ph.D. from UW. We plan to have them over for dinner soon.

Knitting group, meeting two

Tonight I taught two Japanese women how to knit.

What's happening

Two events of note today:

1. I drove to Narita airport for the first time and picked up Pat Marshall, who is visiting us right now. She had a safe flight, and it was great to see her.

2. There was an earthquake, which might make the newspapers, but we are ok. We felt it, but there was no damage in our home. My Japanese host mom that attended the wedding heard the earthquake mentioned on the news, and she called to make sure that we were ok, which was very nice.

The grocery store

Is an experience unto itself.

I actually love the grocery store. Really. I could walk around there for HOURS - it is endlessly exciting. Of course, I’m never sure what anything is. That's me: alternately confused and amused, but mostly confused . . .

Japan has great mushrooms, and really good fruit. Of course, neither of these items look exactly like they do in the states (the mushrooms come in clumps here, and the first time I saw figs here, I thought they were some kind of onion/garlic/shallot).

We go to several grocery stores, depending on what we need, where we are, etc. One grocery store we go to actually has English aisle labels (just like the U.S). Only they aren’t quite just like the U.S. Here are my two favorites:
Delicacies? What are delicacies? Moreover, if you are a grocery store don’t you want to suggest that everything in your store is a delicacy? I mean, why restrict this to one aisle? Where do you keep the bad food?
I love the rice sign. What else remains to be captured under “products related to rice”?

I feel the ground moving under my feet . . .

Yesterday was our first Japan earthquake.

We are fine; the earthquake caught us off guard and we were a little shaken up (no pun intended!). We were over playing some card games with some other foreigners. There wasn't any damage or anything, and after the quake ended, we resumed playing.

My Philosophy of Karaoke: Addendum

I forgot to mention one of my most important rules in the last post: duets are a whole lot of fun. One of my favorite rituals is to sing "Love Shack" with Seth (he sings the woman's part).

My Philosophy of Karaoke

Karaoke is actually a Japanese word, combining the word "kara," meaning "empty," with "oke," a Japanized/shortened version of the English "Orchestra." Karaoke is extremely popular in Japan, and all of my trips to Japan, beginning in high school in 1994, have included a significant amount of karaoke. Last night I felt that we had finally arrived in Japan, as Kate and I attended the birthday party of a friend and belted some serious karaoke.



Having sung karaoke for so long, I have developed a personal philosophy of karaoke, which I would like to share:

1. The songs that I like to listen to are frequently not the same as the songs that work well for karaoke.

2. In general, fast songs work better than slow songs for karaoke. It is easier to engage the crowd.

3. I try not to select songs that are higher or lower than I am capable of, or songs that are too vocally challenging. If you are going to sing a complex song, you had better have a great voice, like Dan Zimmerman. I miss singing with Dan Zimmerman.

4. In general, karaoke events take a little while to get started, and thus I try not to be the first singer, and if I am the first singer I won't use one of my best songs first (Neil Diamond's "America," Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me," or ULFUL's "Banzai, kimi wo suki de yokkata"). This particular rule dates back to Scott Selfon's bachelor party, when I sang "America" first and everyone stared at me like I was a freak. (Compare that to the end of the party, when Scott's Shomer Shabbas friend was heard to shout "it's not even 3 am yet!").

5. I try to alternate between songs that I know I can do well and songs that I want to try out, because the audience will be more forgiving of mistakes if they hear me doing good stuff as well.

Driving the Beast (or the Bistro)

I should report that I have joined the ranks of drivers in Japan. I've been driving for about a week now, and I'm starting to feel more confident. I think it also helps that I have a sumo wrestler key chain.

The City

So today was the day my art students built their city:

The process was actually a lot like I imagine actual city planning to be: cross words about where to put roads and buildings and over whose building was the tallest - not to mention buildings falling over, and a constant need to add more land (white paper) for an expanding city.

But when it was done, several of the kids were proud of what they'd done: they noticed that it looked like a real city. So, all in all, a good day!

Also, for those who asked, a robot center is place where robots are built as well as where robots build things.

In honor of Physical Education Day . . .

Which is today, by the way. And it is a national holiday. For the unaware few (how could you possibly not know?), Physical Education Day honors the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

So, in honor of physical education day, I am announcing the winners of our contest from the other day. The task was to identify this.

It is our trash calendar, as Marianne correctly suggested. Here trash is a very serious deal. You have to follow the schedule. And you have to put your bags out by 8am on the day specificed, and only on the day specified - but NOT the night before (no sleeping in!).

Liz also gave a great answer, suggesting that this was the terror alert calendar. Possibly - I'm willing to allow that may also be the case.

So, both Liz and Marianne win (ta-da!) a fantastic meal!

A public service announcement from Japan Railways. 

At the craft store. 

A Party!

Tonight we are having some people over for dinner [although it's Sunday, there's some kind of holiday tomorrow, so no one has work or school]. One of the guests is a colleague from the university, who had us over last weekend. Two other guests are people I know through volunteering at the school and the game nights in Tsukuba.

We are having pasta, salad, fruit, and chocolate mousse. Even though we deciphered the oven, I didn’t really have the courage to try it for company. So, a no-bake dessert was in order. We don’t really have that many dishes, so making the mousse took nearly every container in our kitchen. Plus a lot of creativity. Witness my double-boiler:

Also, should you ever need to know, 8 ounces of chocolate is equivalent to 226.8 grams. For the record.

An additional note: we do not usually eat tempura or chocolate mousse. Normally, in fact, we eat much more healthy foods. These were just two special occasions that fell close together. Please do not make comments about our nutrition.

A Friend of a Friend of a Friend

“You’re going to Japan? You should really meet my pharmacist’s daughter-in-law, the sister-of-my-best-friend-from-middle-school, an old-colleague’s-old-secretary, my friend’s-brother-in-law.”

Owing to the latter situation, it came to pass that we found ourselves having dinner with one older gentleman who is the brother-in-law of a friend of my great-aunt Toni. The man was really nice. We met at Tokyo station and he took us on a little walking tour of some bookstores near there, pointing out the politics section in each one.

Then, we went to this delicious tempura restaurant. Dinner was great: we started with sashimi, then had fish, veggies, miso, pickles, tea, and dessert. Even dessert was in the tempura style:

Knitting in Japan

I realized I forgot to post about my knitting group on Monday night. It was good – two other knitters came, and two more people stopped by and promised to come again on a night when they were less busy.

We agreed to meet every two weeks. At our next meeting, we are going to try to make some small knitted stuffed toys (along the lines of the mobile monsters from Stitch and Bitch Nation, for those of you in the know). I’m not sure if the group project thing will continue or not. I can see some advantages to all doing the same project, but I also liked my group in Seattle where everyone showed up with something different in a different stage of done-ness.

For the record, I do not ever intend to make this. For some reason, I just wanted to share its existence with you, though.

Also, another thing I’ve noticed about knitting in Japan: I’ve had trouble finding a good yarn store (although I’m told there are some in Tokyo), but no trouble finding needles. This is because of dollar stores. Well, here they call them 100 yen stores, but you get the point. The store near the electronics district here in Tsukuba sells bamboo needles (all sizes, including double-pointed) for ¥100. They also sell plastic needles for the same price. Their selection of yarn, however, is pretty sorry – guess the good bargains can only go so far.

For some reason, being in a Ph.D. program

has made me want to write in lists all of the time, rather than paragraphs. So, in that spirit, here are some things that I have been up to this week.

1. I did my first Japanese-language interviews. It was less hard than I had feared, and I was able to improvise questions that my interview subjects understood, so that was good.

2. After doing the interviews, I met my old roommate in Tokyo and he took me out for some outstanding sushi, and then I and spent the night at his pad in an extremely desirable Tokyo neighborhood (Shibuya). When he told me what he paid, I got the impression that Tokyo rental prices are on par with Manhattan prices.

3. I have a meeting with a big professor next week, who should hopefully be able to introduce me to some more interview subjects.

4. I attended Rosh Hashanah services at the Tokyo JCC. They were a little bit less crowded than the last time I was in Japan, but there was still a nice crowd (around 60 or so, mostly expats). One of the new features since the last time I had attended services is that, while they had always done a prayer for Japan (that the leaders should be granted wisdom, etc.), in the past that prayer had been done in English, but now they do in in Japanese (and it is beautifully written). The rabbi is new, and he seemed good. The same Chabad rabbi is in town as the last time I was here, but I didn't see him since he was in the Sephardic Orthodox service that was being held in the library.

5. Perhaps the biggest news of all, Kate and I have finally gotten internet service in our home. We got a wireless router, so now we are both online, and it is awesome.

6. This weekend we will have dinner with Kate's grandmother's friend Rumi's brother-in-law at a tempura restaurant near Tokyo Station and we will have the American professor over to our house (the same guy that had us over last weekend).

My first Japanese Class.

Was Tuesday. We covered our names, our home countries, and our occupations. Our teachers are very nice in that extremely animated way that introductory language teachers are. Although this is not the class that had advertised its opening ceremonies, there were some minimal opening ceremonies (“welcome to the 27^th annual Japanese conversation class!” – much like “welcome to the games of the 27^th Olympiad!”).

There are twelve students in the class – strangely, three of them are from the Czech Republic, and a fourth is from Slovakia. I am the only American. There’s also a pretty nice woman from Nigeria, named Rosemary. Of course, in Japanese, her name is written as Uzumari.

We took a break in the middle of the class for tea, of course.

Also, I biked home from the class in the pouring rain. I was quite soaked when I got home.

My accent

Raise your hand if, on Saturday, your American-accented Japanese was made fun of by a 9-year-old Indian girl.

[I'm raising my hand]

A Contest!

To decipher the meaning of this:

Japan has some BIG bugs

Yes, this is a real bug. No, it was not that near our house (this was taken at Mike's university). No, we are not sponsored by Wells Fargo.

The Revenge of the Washing Machine

Was the oven/microwave . . .

But we finally did figure out how to use it (maybe). Now all we need are our cookbooks and some baking pans.

Mount Tsukuba

Yesterday was crazy, but fun. The weather was good, not too hot – but also a little too hazy, so that we were unable to see Fuji from the top of Mt. Tsukuba, which you can do on a clear day.

We all rode in a bus for about forty minutes from Tsukuba. On the bus ride, Mike schmoozed up a group of three ten year-old girls, telling them about his pets, Halloween costumes, and popular singers in the U.S. Then they gave him a bunch of stickers. And later, they saved him a seat in the cable car.

The hike was, well, up the mountain. We started from a little town at the base, passed through a shrine, and just kept on climbing. Which was, well, not so easy with children as young as seven. Adults and children were assigned to teams, indicated by the color of the bandana around your neck. Our group had kids from our school and kids from the Japanese schools, too. We were supposed to stay with our groups, but that lasted exactly twenty seconds. Ultimately, we just kept the kids between the first and the last teacher.

Here are the shots from the hike:

After the hike, we all went for an American-style BBQ, complete with s’mores. This was actually really fun, and great since after the hike up the mountain (and the cable car ride down), we were famished!

We came home, took showers, slept for a few hours, and then walked out for a great Italian meal.