The Phone

A couple of days ago, as we were sitting around the living room playing with the boys, one of our phones rang. Now, this might seem like an unusual thing for me to write about, but you must understand our phone situation in order to fully appreciate my story. We have two phone lines. One is connected to the Internet, though it works just like a normal phone. The number for it is a San Antonio number and it’s the phone that we use most often. Our second phone line is the fax/phone that sits in the corner and is only used about once a week. Sometimes, more than a week will pass, in fact, before we use the Japanese phone. Of course, it makes sense. Who are we going to call? Especially when we are both home. If I’m at work, perhaps I’ll give Aaron a ring, but usually the poor phone just sits quietly. It’s even difficult to talk to the best English speakers in the village when you don’t have a visual aid. So, we are usually surprised when it rings. Not only are we surprised, but varying amounts of dread usually follow the surprise. “Who is it and how difficult will it be to talk to them?” we wonder.

Well, this time, both boys dashed for the ringing phone. Being the first to reach it, Ridge answered first. Though the person on the other end is nearly always Japanese, we never answer with the Japanese, “moshi, moshi”. I figure it’s important to make it clear from the first that the person on my end does not speak Japanese. So, Ridge answered in English, and it went something like this:

Ridge: “Hello?”
Short pause
Ridge: “moshi moshi”
Medium pause; he was clearly listening.
Ridge: “(A bunch of Japanese that I can’t type because I don’t know what Ridge said at this point)“
Long pause
Ridge: “(More Japanese I didn’t understand, and then some words I recognized that mean, roughly, ‘not’)”
Short pause
Ridge: “Bye”

And with that, he non-chalantly hung up the phone.

My son, the answering service.

After Aaron and I finally got our laughter under control, with asked him with amazement to tell us what they had said. It was clear to me that whomever had called had spoken only Japanese and didn’t know us, or they would have simply asked Ridge to give the phone to me.

He said that they thought they were calling the clinic, and that he simply explained that this was not the clinic. It was a simple as that. Ha! Simple for my six-year old, but not for me. I wouldn’t have had a clue as to what they were asking, and would have been forced to repeat, “I don’t understand,” over and over again until the caller hung up. So, Aaron and I have declared Ridge to be the official answerer of the Japanese phone.

Zoo and Coming of Age Day

At Ridge and Holt’s somewhat insistent request, we took another trip to the Asahikawa zoo during winter break. It actually took us two attempts before we made it. The first try, a spur of the moment decision on December 2nd, was cut short by Holt’s complaints of an earache. We turned around and went back home, much to their disappointment. Aaron and I decided that Aaron would go ahead and take Ridge; it would be a nice chance for the two of them to spend some time together. However, their attempt was also cut short. Aaron stopped at an ATM in Nayoro to replenish our depleted cash supply only to discover that ALL the ATMs in the city were closed due to the New Year’s holiday (I had no idea that Jan 2 was an ATM holiday). Only in Japan do ATMs close, I think. We’ve decided that it’s because the ATMs aren’t really machines. They are actually homes for very, very small Japanese people who are required by law to have their holiday time just like everyone else. Therefore, the machines must turn off. So, Aaron and Ridge traipsed back home, thwarted yet again.

We did manage to make it out on the evening of Holt’s birthday. We spend the night at a hotel (which Ridge totally loves) and went to the zoo the next day. It was cold and clear and very crowded. We were dressed better this year, and we also didn’t have to worry about Holt needing to potty (last year we went on day two of his “no diapers” rule).

Last Monday was Coming of Age Day in Japan. This is the day when ceremonies are held all over Japan to recognize the new adults in society. When a person turns 20 in Japan, they are officially recognized as being an adult. Anyone who has turned 20 in the past year, or prior to January 8th, participates in whatever ceremony their town holds. Last year, Aaron gave a speech at this event. This year, the kids being honored had a different plan. As usual, several Important People gave short speeches and all the young adults were introduced. This is commonly a time for parents to buy their daughters a kimono (not a small expense) and the boys will sometimes wear one as well.

After short speeches and introductions, everyone rearranged themselves for a large tea ceremony. First, the young adults were served traditional green tea. Afterwards, they changed seats and their parents moved forward. The kids then served green tea to one of their parents. We, the audience, were also served. First everyone receives a sweet of some kind, which is eaten before drinking your tea. I think this part of the Coming of Age ceremony is the same every year. While the young people served their parents, others took turns reading out information about the person serving tea.

Now here’s the funny part. Remember my post on Mochi? It’s hard work to pound Mochi. However, that’s what these kids wanted to do. They wanted to pound mochi with their parents, despite the fact that they were almost all dressed in expensive kimono. So, they used a rope to tie up their sleeves in a traditional manner, donned plastic aprons, and pounded away. Afterwards, the chef of the hotel and his staff formed the mochi into small balls and bagged it up for all the kids. It was a hoot to watch. The ceremony concluded with a group “kampai” (toast) with glasses of milk (I don’t know why it is always milk), and a group photo. For some reason, Aaron got drug into the group photo. I managed to avoid it because I was in the bathroom. Lucky me. It’s strange to be in a group photo when you don’t know anyone else in the picture.

Young adults being served tea
Ridge and Aaron
Pounding mochi
More pounding mochi
Even more mochi pounding

Photo of the day

Here's a shot of Ridge and Holt as we prepared to go to the Coming of Age Day ceremony last weekend. Ridge requested that we allow him to wear his tie (I bought it in preparation for his pre-school graduation in March). They look serious because I asked them to not make silly faces.

Snow, lovely snow (not!)

I spend at lot of time today telling myself that Texas has no snow, and that next winter, I won’t have to shovel anything white and fluffy. Actually, I said this to myself for about four hours today. While shoveling. And it wasn’t fluffy. Actually, it was wet, sticky, and packed solid.

Last winter, we had several bad snowfalls. This year, we’ve only had two so far, but they’ve been doozeys. Aaron and I had to dig out our front door, the car, the propane gas tanks in the back, and uncover the front windows today. That took about two and a half hours. Then, at the urging of Grandma Otasaka (whose advice we always take), I climbed on top of the garage and shoveled the snow off. That took another hour and a half. I’m very tired and won’t be writing much more tonite.

Everyone says they want to see more pictures of me. Well, here ya go. If you look really hard, you can see me in the picture up on top.

Garage close-up

I’ll try and work on two more posts in the next few days. I have some photos from Coming of Age Day and our second trip to Asahikawa’s zoo – in winter.

Happy Birthday Holt!

Here is Holt posing with his Rollpan-chan cake. Rollpan-chan is a character from the ever popular (at least in Japan) Anpan-man series. She is a bit of a ninja, and she is named after Roll Cake. Holt loves her. We don’t know why. She’s a bit testy, and prone to turning into a bad guy at the mention of Anpan-man’s name.

We had a few kids over to play today and everyone loved the cake. Except Holt. He refused to eat it due to it being “yucky”. At least he liked the way it looked!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the New Year with a quiet evening at home. Aaron opted to go up to the village shrine at midnight to take some photos of the ceremony there. Ridge had claimed he wanted to go to, but oddly enough, when awoken at 11:30 p.m., he changed his mind.

Here are a few shots of the folks at the shrine getting their new year’s blessings.
Praying for good luck
Meeting and greeting old friends

The following day, we joined the Kamaya family at their house for a lovely afternoon of traditional foods and some games. I brought black-eyed peas and corn bread this year. Everyone loved it and I was so glad to be able to share some traditional American food with them.
Lion Dancer; they travel house to house to bring good luck on New Year's Day. If their are children present, they lion will "eat" the child's head. Ridge and Holt declined.

Dancer

Mr. Kamaya's new year's shrine