The guests, so far

The newlyweds arrived on Tuesday.On their first day, we poked around Akihabara, had soba at the place that SYL and I found, they went to Ueno park (while I went to go participate in a focus group about what Americans think about transportation in Japan), and then we all met Mike for Indian food for dinner.

On their second day, we went to see a great photography exhibit by Michael Kenna at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Then, in the pouring rain, we headed over to Ginza. We spent some time at Itoya, an amazing 7-level stationery store, and then ate a very yummy Italian dinner.

The next morning our resident “Italian” arrived. Karen had a good, if long, flight. We jumped right into the Japanese experiences for her, whisking her from the bus station to a Japanese buffet lunch and then some shopping. We ate sushi for dinner, of course!

Saturday was a big day – we all headed in Tokyo—hoping the weather held—to see the Imperial Palace and the East Garden. The garden was beautiful – the irises were finally bloom and it was so pretty! Then, we headed back to Tsukuba in time for The Official Antti and Kate Sayonara Party. The party was great, and after the party we hit the karaoke box. We sang our hearts out for two hours (others stayed on for extra time, too!).Sunday we again went to Tokyo, this time to Harajuku, in hopes of catching sight of some of freaks. Unfortunately, since it was POURING rain, the freaks weren’t out in great numbers. Apparently being a freak is a bit of a fair weather enterprise. However, we still had fun shopping for various whatnot at Daiso and then buying neat socks on Takeshita Street.

Today, that group left for Kyoto. In a few hours, my brother and his friend arrive. I’m hoping to avoid doing the exact same things with them – although I will be going into Tokyo with them some of the time.

Standings after Week 1 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
2nd place - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
3rd place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
3rd place (tie) - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
5th place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
6th place - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
7th place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board is currently insufficient. No one has posted a new kibbitz since the beginning of June.

Tsukuba Onsen Ho-tehr-ru

Last weekend, we went away to an onsen. Well, we didn’t go far, just halfway up Mount Tsukuba, but it was very nice to have a change of scenery and pace. This was especially true since it was our last weekend alone together before all our guests arrive (see below) and then we leave for the States.

We saw a beautiful rainbow on the way up the mountain. We also had a great view of the rice paddies from the mountain.Onsens are usually associated with traditional Japanese inns, so we were treated to bean snacks in our rooms, yukata robes to wear down to the baths, and a nice dinner.It was good fun!

In a few hours my friend Sheila and her new husband arrive, and then, a few days later, my friend Karen arrives. And shortly after that come my brother and his friend. Theoretically my brother and his friend will be here while the other crew is off in Kyoto, but we aren’t yet sure about that. Anyway, it should be good fun!

This weekend, we’ve planned a little BBQ-karaoke party with some of our friends here. The party will be a going away party for me and for our Finish friend Antti, who is also leaving soon. I also hope to take Sheila and Justin and Karen to Omotesando on Sunday afternoon. Other than that, I have no special plans for the guests – there’s so much to do, I think that they should choose.

I promise updates of their visits!

“Miss Kate’s Last Day”

Wednesday was my last day teaching art.

We did a 2-part Father’s Day project. First, we made cards that looked like dress shirts. This wasn’t that easy, since measuring and cutting precisely were really important, otherwise the cards wouldn’t have things that looked like shirt collars on top. The older students helped the younger students measure and cut, and then all the students decorated their shirts and ties.Next, we made bookmarks with a sappy poem (scroll to the bottom of the page). In keeping with the poem’s theme, we used some Ed Emberely-inspired fingerprint art to decorate the bookmarks. When all the bookmarks were finished, I laminated them.Overall, teaching art was a really fun and rewarding experience. I really don’t have any interest in teaching elementary art for the long-term, though. I worry that I am not nurturing enough to be both nice and firm/structured with a large number of young kids for long stretches of the day. And I still have a lot of trouble with balancing the importance of following directions with allowing space for individual creativity with the art materials.

But, for a few hours a week, it was fun. This Wednesday, the kids were super-great. Last Wednesday, during the fruit and veggie printing lesson, there was a little trouble with sharing paint and materials and there were a few quarrels. This week, I stressed to the students that I really wanted our last time together to be fun and pleasant. So, every time something that happened that could possibly lead to an argument, the kids would remind each other “Miss Kate’s last day, Miss Kate’s last day . . .”

Teaching art also sort of re-defined how I felt about myself as an “artist.” I still wouldn’t say that I have any artistic talent, but I am at least more comfortable facilitating art projects and trying new things.

Yakult v. Orix

On Sunday we attended a Japanese baseball game, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows v. the Kobe Orix Buffaloes. This was the first Japanese game either of us had attended since 2002, when Kate came to visit me in Japan, and I had forgotten how much fun it is.

The fans sit in separate sections for the team they are rooting for, and they stand and sing songs together the whole time their team is batting (and when the other team is batting they sit quietly). I had never been to a Swallows game before, but their fans are really fun. When they score a run, they all get out these tiny umbrellas (we're talking thousands of tiny umbrellas), open them up, and sing a song with them. It is the BEST. We were just getting out our normal umbrellas to participate in the fun, and people seemed ok with that.




On an unrelated note, now that the Detroit Tigers are doing well, it seems like everyone wants to wear the Old English "D."

A round of congratulations

First, my good friend Sheila, who was a bridesmaid at my wedding, was married last weekend.
Isn't she lovely?

Second, Mike's cousin recently got engaged. We are so happy for her!

Veggie Tales

No, not the creepy cartoon.

Last Wednesday the kids did a vegetable printing project. This was a lot of fun, but I think that the idea of having kids make vegetable and fruit prints definitely originated outside of Japan. For one thing, fruit is pretty expensive here. From the lesson plans I saw online, apples were a common fruit used in this activity. Well, here apples can easily go for $2 an apple.

So, apples were out. I ended up going with the cheapest stuff I could find: daikon, lemons, mushrooms, eggplants, and bell peppers.

My other problem was getting the paint to be the right texture. We were down to the end-of-the-school-year amounts of supplies, so making enough paint for all the kids made the paint pretty thin. I thickened it with flour, but this wasn't easy.

Anyway, this was a pretty fun activity, and, in the end, the weird veggies and fruits and the tricky paint texture didn't seem to matter.

Just a friendly reminder

The creepy Japanese soccer team made out of sticks is here to remind you that there's only ONE WEEK remaining to sign up for our soccer picks league. The link is over there on the right-hand side at the top of our link list. Go on, do it. You know you want to!

This picks league does not require you to know anything about specific players (you pick countries only) and it is free. Also, fun.

Even if you don't think you know anything about soccer (or think it is a "lefty euro sport"), you can still play. I can't stress enough how much you are guided through the picks process.

What are you waiting for? Do I have to come and build strange stick art in your front yard?

The rice paddies

When we found out we were moving to Tsukuba, our friend Yuko (who is from Chiba, near Narita Airport) told us that were really moving to the country. “Really?” we said, “Will we, like, live next rice paddies?” She smiled. “Well, maybe not next door, but you’ll definitely be able to see them.” Hah, hah, hah, we thought.

She was right.

I actually love this about Tsukuba, the way that farmland is interspersed with commercial and residential land use. It makes me sad to think about this because, with the advent of the Tsukuba Express and with real estate prices in Tokyo being what they are, I fear that this mixed-use will not last. I worry that we’ll come back in five years and Tsukuba and all the areas accessible via the TX will just be housing, indistinguishable from Tokyo.

But for now, the rice fields triumph.

Here are a few pictures I shot around our neighborhood the other day.I should also add about the rice paddies that not only do they look cool—and they really do—they are also home to a lot of wildlife. Some of this is nice: the great white bids silhouetted by the rice shoots are quite picturesque and we enjoy hearing the chorus of the bullfrogs at night. However, rice paddies also mean standing water, which means mosquitoes. Lots of them.

I need an agent, clearly

I am famous.

Edited to add: Note the author of the article! My friend Daniella is twice as famous and twice as much in need of an agent as I am.

The Spring Program

Today Kate and I attended the Tsukuba International School's "spring program" (Tsukuba International School is the elementry school where Kate volunteers). The whole thing was quite cute, but my favorite part was where they showed off the Japanese calligraphy they had written. Each kid would come up and say something (in Japanese) like "I chose the phrase 'spring, summer, winter and fall. I chose it because I like seasons. The part that I did best was the character 'winter.' Thank you."

The Mikasa

So, way back in March when SYL was here, we saw something that didn’t make it onto the blog right away. And then later it got lost in the shuffle of vacationing with my mom. So this is sort of a make-up blog post.

Our friend Rob is really into battleships. Like really, really, really into them. I am, uh, not. When I came to Japan to visit Mike in 2002, Rob stressed to me that it was vital that I travel out to Yokosuka to visit the Mikasa. Uh, whatever: I had ten days in Japan, and I was not going to spend one whole day trekking out to some ship. Or boat (I know that among those in the know there’s a difference between “ship” and “boat,” but I wouldn’t say that I know when to use which).

Anyway, this year it was a different story. In part, because Rob had also stressed to the lovely SYL the importance of said ship. And SYL was thus determined to go, “for Rob.”And so we went. I wouldn’t say it was the most compelling thing ever, but it was interesting. There was actually a lot of English signage, so we were able to understand what we were seeing. Rather than explaining it all to you, I refer you to the expert in these matters who can address the history and significance of the Mikasa with far more eloquence and accuracy than I.We were also the only two women there together (in a group without men) and the only two people (other than a group of visiting Japanese sailors in uniform) under 65.

It was a cold day, colder still right on the water. But the park surrounding the ship was quite pretty. And then we headed off to Kamakura to warm up and eat lunch.

I wouldn’t say that this is a must-see if you come to Japan (although I suspect Rob would), but for an offbeat sight, this was alright.

Long Awaited News Re: Our Schedules

I just found out I got a three month extension of my grant, which means I will be here until the end of November. So, here is our scheduling information, for those of you keeping track at home:

Late June: return to Western US to meet my parents and for a friend's wedding. After wedding, MHS returns to Japan, but Katem remains in US.

July: MHS presents at a conference in Fukuoka, where he stayed when he went to Japan in high school. He stays with his old host mother, but the rest of the host family will be out of town. The paper will be in English. He is concerned about the Fukuoka heat, and may dress in the cool biz style.

Weekend of Nov 11: MHS presents at a conference in Ohio.

Late November: MHS moves back to US.

December: MHS and (maybe) Katem visit MHS's family for Hanukkah.

My new favorite socks

Pottery

The pots we made when were visiting our friend Chie’s family in Sendai arrived the other day. Before, the pots looked like this (scroll just shy of halfway down the page). Now, they look like this (behold, the miracle of color!):
Also, check out the flickr box over there on the right-hand side. We just joined flickr and I’m in the process of uploading all our photos. This means that, as I work backwards, old photos along with new ones we have yet to take will show up in the animated box. You can also click on the box to be taken to flickr’s website where you’ll eventually be able to see all our photos. If you're on flickr too, let us know so we can be buddies or friends or whatever they call it (I'm new to this, see?).

Tokyo Roses

Friday morning I went to Hibiya Park. This is a beautiful park, right near the government buildings in downtown Tokyo.

The roses were in bloom, and they were so beautiful.

(Okay, so the “real” Tokyo Rose had a much sadder story than these lovely pictures)

The rest of Hibiya Park was really nice, too.

After Leaving Kita-senju... Liveblogging the TX

I recently purchased a new computer -- a Mac. My old computer was experiencing substantial difficulties, and considering the importance of a computer to my research and my private life (I have really come to rely on my computer to keep in touch with my friends and family), I decided to buy a new one.

One of the advantages of my new computer is that its ability to establish wireless internet connections is much better than my previous computer. Thus, I have discovered that there is actually an internet connection on the Tsukuba Express, the train line we ride to get to Tokyo. It is currently being tested, and the connection is a little spotty, but it is free (since I signed up as a "test user") and very cool.

Right now it is 8:50 am, and Kate and I are riding the Tsukuba Express all the way to the Akihabara Terminal. There, we will change trains and head to the National Diet Library, where I will do research and Kate will read. We will meet our friend Daisuke for lunch (Nagu's father, who works in the government, close to the library), and then we will split up in the afternoon with me continuing to research and Kate exploring. This evening we will meet at a university in Tokyo, where a professor I like will be giving a talk (in English). Another academic I know characterized this professor's talks as being "like stand-up comedy," so I am excited.

This week in art

So this week we did a kind of art-appreciation complete-the-picture project. The school had some old calendars, both with photographs and reproductions of traditional Japanese watercolors. I cut varied and interesting sections from these calendars. Then I had the kids select one of the picture's I'd cut. I asked the kids to continue their picture, imagining what the rest of their picture might look like. I asked the kids to keep the same idea and use a similar color scheme and believable surroundings.

If I had access to postcards with real works of art, I would have used them (or maybe half of each of them). But, even though the kids weren’t working with Monet’s lilies or Van Gough’s sunflowers, we still talked a little bit about color and detail. I also gave a short lesson on perspective and “the way you see things,” noting that things far away will appear smaller and have other things in front of them, and that most pictures have a place where land and sky come together.

The kids seemed to enjoy this and the pictures are great!