Holt at an Abashiri Barbeque

Here's a shot of Holt blowing bubbles at the unexpected barbeque we found ourselves invited to. Turns out a group of folks from the Abashiri board of education (I think they were in the Social Education department) were having a barbecue at the same place where we had rented our cottage. When the man who works at the placed we camped found out I was an English teacher, he suggested we join the group. I guess he made a few phone calls and next thing we new, we were scheduled to attended a barbecue with a group of folks we didn't know. As Aaron put it, though, "No big deal. We're used to that by now." It was a bit chilly, so one of the men loaned Holt this jacket.

More later.

Abashiri Adventure, part I

Well, unfortunately, Undokai was postponed due to rain. Actually it wasn’t as unfortunate as one might think. The weather had been crummy for days, and the field was flooded and sloppy. I don’t think anyone would have enjoyed the day had we continued onward with the planned event. Also, Ridge was still recovering from some unknown bug and was not feeling quite up to par. So, my beautiful lunch ended up being our dinner once we reached Abishiri.

Aaron and I had discussed taking a few days and just going somewhere – anywhere. There was to be no school on Monday or Tuesday, so I had already arranged for the time off. The students all had off on Monday and Tuesday due to Undokai. Since Undokai didn’t happen, then, they all had to go to school for three hours on Sunday (and yes, I made Ridge go, being the grinch that I am). So, around mid-afternoon, we loaded in the car and just started driving. About an hour into our drive, we decided on Abashiri, which is to the east of us, about three hours away.

To make a long story short, we had a great time. Unfortunately, I have to cut the story short for tonite, because I’m totally tired and I’m going to be a bit busy for the next several days. I need to continue preparing for my second English Camp (an overnight lock-in at the Komu) and I also need to prepare another bento for Undokai, which is this Saturday. My English camp is scheduled for that same evening, so I think I’m going to have 32 very tired students. However, the next five weekends or so are very busy, so we’ve decided to push forward and go ahead with the scheduled time.

So, I promise I’ll write more about Abashiri as soon as I have time. There’s quite a bit to share, including a spontaneous invitation to join in a barbecue with a group of people we didn’t even know! For now, enjoy a few of the photos I snapped of the kids.

Sports Day Lunch

I just finished putting together our "bento" for tomorrow's Sports Day ("Undokai"). After standing for so long in the kitchen, it seemed like a good idea to sit down at the computer for a brief spell and post a couple of photos.

Undokai is an old tradition in Japan, and the mid-day lunch is a very big deal. As you might know, Japanese women pride themselves in their abilities to create delicious and beautiful box lunches. For an event such as tomorrow's, the standards are even higher than usual. Many of the moms in the village have been talking all week about how they will be spending today (Saturday) preparing the food for tomorrow. Several people have asked me, also, to confirm that I, too, will be spending a long time making lunch.

My original plan was to make something sort of "in-between". I didn't really feel like cooking all day, and I needed to make food that jives with Aaron and mine's new eating habits (i.e. no breads, rice, or pasta). So, I started planning out some foods earlier in the week, and today I started to put it all together. After preparing the food (I actually only made two things - the rest of it I bought), I did my best to honor Japanese tradition and arrange our goodies nicely in the boxes we have. The only thing I packed that is remotely Japanese is some edamame (soybeans). The rest is strictly American, right down to the sugar-free Jell-O.

Anyway, here's a couple of shots for you; one of the food and one of Holt posing with the bento box all sealed up and ready to go tomorrow (so long as Undokai isn't postponed due to rain).

Oh, and here are some close-up shots of each box, just in case you are super-curious.

Mostly kid food

Mostly food for Aaron and Michelle

Dessert (the oranges and grapes were leftover from a party I went to last night)

More Photos from Last Week

Well, I’ve figured out one reason why I’m not posting as often. For some reason, our computer is VERY slow in the evenings. Additionally, I am having trouble accessing blogger from my Mac at work, so it makes it a bit more troublesome to post pictures, since they take so long to load. Hopefully the slow connection is only temporary.

Here are some more photos from last weekend. The main picture was taken by Ridge. I wasn’t supposed to post it, since Aaron and I both agreed we didn’t really like the picture, but I almost never post pictures of us, so I changed my mind.

These are some other shots of the cherry tree field and the little Flower View Party (“Hanami”) that was going on while we were there.

Hanami, view #1
Hanami, view #2


The van in the distance is hooked up to a generator so these folks could power up their karaoke machine.

Singing under the Cherry Trees

This is a short video clip of the taiko players.

Drumming

Before we left town, we noticed a small ceremony happening on the side of the road just outside of Nishiokoppe. I think they were doing an annual blessing of this statue. This deity is Jizosama, and he is the protector of children and travelers. It’s very common to see small statues like this scattered throughout the countryside, next to the road. Frequently, someone in the area will appoint themselves as caretaker to the shrine, and they will keep it in good shape. This will often include providing it with a red hat and bib or scarf, especially in the winter.

Jizosama

Lastly, I just had to show this display of non-Japanese mannequins flaunting their kimono.

Cool Kimono

We still haven’t figured out why it’s so common for the mannequins here to be non-Asian. In fact, now that I think about it, I would be hard pressed to think of the last time I say a Japanese mannequin.

Another even of note is something that happened after my adult conversation class on Tuesday. Ridge’s teacher and her husband (he teaches at the jr. high school) began coming to my class shortly after they moved her in April. They are Mr. and Mrs. Yaso, and they are really fantastic people. She has been a teacher for 26 years and he has been teaching for about 24 years. Oddly, Ridge is Mrs. Yaso’s first foreign student. Mrs. Yaso can speak a little bit of English, but we manage without too much trouble. She has been a blessing for us. We were, of course, a little nervous about Ridge starting first grade, but I could tell immediately that she was a veteran teacher. Mr. Yaso speaks more English and is a very interesting man to chat with.

Anyway, after my class on Tuesday, Mr. Yaso asked me if Ridge liked to play baseball. We chatted about that for a few minutes, and then Mrs. Yaso presented me with a bag, saying she wanted Ridge and Holt to have what was inside. When I looked, I saw two baseball mitts. Mrs. Yaso was very excited to be giving this to me, and she explained that the mitts had belonged to her son. In fact, the bigger of the two mitts (Ridge’s) still has the son’s name written on it. I was so touched that she decided to pass these along to us! I could hardly believe it. Her son is now a college student, but yet she had held on to these gloves for all those years. Who knows, maybe she just hadn’t gotten around to cleaning out some boxes, I’ll never know. Regardless, it was a really touching gift, and one that will always stick with me. Ridge and Holt were bouncing with excitement when they saw them, and have enjoyed trying to play catch for the past several afternoons.

Photo for the Day

Here's a quick photo from today. We drove to Asahikawa in search of a game of Checkers. Unfortunately, the Japanese Toys R Us didn't carry any! While in route, we stopped at a park to enjoy the recent blooming of the "sakura," or cherry blossoms. There was a flower viewing festival going on, full of locals, which I will write about later. Tonight, I just have one shot for you of the boys posing under a beautiful tree.

Golden Week

The first week in May is chock full of holidays. Over the span of seven days, there’s Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Boy’s Day (now known as the more politically correct Children’s Day). The end result is usually a two-day week. So, last week I only had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not a bad gig, really.

On Children’s Day, we decided to get out of the village and do something fun. So, we piled into the car and drove off to Cha Cha World. We went to Cha Cha World last June, also. It’s a toy museum, emphasizing on wooden toys. They have a small play area that the kids enjoy playing in. It’s a long drive – about two hours- and it’s much smaller than Komu, but sometimes it’s nice just to do something different.

As we weren’t in a rush, we stopped along the way at any place that looked interesting to us. One such place was a large park in Engaru. There’s a very interesting rock outcropping (which I of course didn’t get a picture of). We drove around the park a bit and then climbed up to the outlook. These photos of Aaron and the boys, and of Holt were taken at the outlook. The park itself looked like it will be beautiful in another couple of weeks. There are some plants here that look kind of like flowering moss. It’s not moss, but that’s what people here call it. When it blooms, the hillsides will be covered in color. This park in Engaru seemed to be devoted to this plant and I really hope we can return when the colors begin to show.

The outlook

The following day, Sunday, I let Ridge and Holt have an Easter Egg hunt as promised. Folks here are pretty unaware of Easter. I wouldn’t say they are uninformed about it, but it’s certainly not on their list of priorities. As such, Easter pretty much just slipped by without us having an egg hunt. About a week ago, the boys found the box I have with the plastic eggs and some candy my mom sent. I had kept meaning to put something together for them, but kept forgetting. With Children’s Day coming up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Sunday morning dawned beautiful and sunny. I filled the eggs with various candies I had around the house, including some “exotic” Whopper eggs. I had originally envisioned my boys plus Ryuuya and his little sister, Sacha. However, when I looked in our entry way, I saw that we had been joined by most of the Taniguchi children from across the street. So, following my directions, Ridge, Holt, Ryuuya, Sach, Nana, and Ryuugi clambered into the house so I could hide the eggs. Outside, Kaori (who I’m sure thinks she’s too old for something like this, now that she is a middle school student) helped me hide the eggs. I don’t really think the Japanese kids had much of a clue as to what exactly what was happening. They just knew it was bound to be fun if the gaijin (foreign) family was doing it!

Ridge made sure to explain to everyone what to do, we passed out bags, and I announced that Holt and Sacha would get a head start since they are the youngest. Sacha was a bit confused, so Kaori, ever helpful, walked around with her to help her out. After a minute or so, I turned the rest of the kids loose and then supervised to make sure Ridge didn’t scoop up all the eggs. Of course, we were finished in less then five minutes. They sure got a kick out of looking for the eggs. When they finally figured out that there was candy inside, they got really excited!

Here are a couple of photos of the kids looking. Notice my crazy son Holt is bare foot.

Egg hunt
Egg hunt 2

Kaori noticed the last egg, and this photos is of her announcing that she has the last egg. Then, being Japanese, she immediately declared that they would do Janken to determine who gets the egg. Janken is what the Japanese call the game “rock, paper, scissors”. It permeates the society and kids learn to play it at a very young age. It is the absolute #1 way for people of all ages to settle minor disputes; who gets to go first, who gets to chose the movie, who gets the last Easter egg…you get the idea. It just cracked me up that we were engaging in a 100% American activity by doing an Easter egg hunt, yet with a little Japanese spin to it. So, all these kids are gathered around her throwing out either rock, paper, or scissors. In the end, Sacha got the last egg.

Let's Janken!

Cake Decorating

Last Thursday my English class and I decorated cakes. My mom always made me cool cakes for my birthday. My favorite for a long time was a train caked, decorated with candy. So, I've continued the tradition with my own children. Ridge has had a castle cake for two years and Holt has had animated characters. It seemed like a good idea to share this hobby of mine with my English class. So, I baked a bunch of white cakes and sponge cakes the week before and mixed up a huge batch of icing. Once I explained the basics, I turned everyone loose to decorate their own creation. As you can see by the pictures, they had a great time and were wonderfully creative.

The main photo is a picture of Chizuko's cat cake. It's great!

Here is Chizuko working on her cat cake

This is Yoko's Panda cake. She used cookies for the ears and eyes. Isn't it cute?

A pair of AnpanMan cakes

Chihiro's Doraemon cake. Doraemon is a anime characer. He's a cat robot with no ears. A mouse ate his ears, so he is afraid of mice, now. And yes, he's a blue cat.

A bus cake

A happy snowman

My ice cream cone cupcakes

Spontaneous Playdate

Here's a group photo taken a few weeks ago. One day, Aaron and Ridge went to the pre-school to pick up Holt. When they came home, they brought a gaggle of kids with them. I'm going to miss living so close to other children; it was a fun afternoon with the house full screaming, happy children. It's funny how they manage to play hide-and-seek("kakurembo") in our house.

My favorite thing about this photo is how you can see Chihiro taking a picture with her cell phone. She was on the floor, and I was standing above her. If you look closely enough at her phone, you can see the picture she took. You might also notice that the kids were happily filling up on Peeps (courtesy of my mom).

On an unrelated note, one of the posts before this one has a comment written in Japanese. It's from my friend Chizuko. She is commenting on Ridge's good hiragana and she also wonders why he drew some broken hearts on the bottom of the page.