Green Tea & Grits

Ding Ding Hao

Ding ding hao means very, very, good in Chinese.

I'm forty years old and have never cooked a turkey. Don't plan to either; and I have figured out a way to avoid it, vacations. Last year we went to Hakone, Japan for Thanksgiving and ate Italian with our friends the Calandras. This year we stepped it up a notch and went to Beijing. We had a marvelous time but I am missing turkey on white bread sandwiches and pumpkin pie. 

Beijing seemed way more western to us than Japan also way more dirty not to mention rude. At the airport you had to push your way onto the train and elevator. Brad and I had to dig down to our New York days to get on. We have gotten used to calmly queuing up and waiting your turn and that approach was not going to work in Beijing. Our guide, Sonya, met us at the airport and whisked us away to a Peking Duck dinner. 

 

Tiananmen Square - we really are there although the smog makes it appear as if we are in front of a backdrop screen. Chairman Mao is directly over my left shoulder proudly looking down upon the masses. He is actually on the gates for the Forbidden City. Which reminds me to rent The Last Emperor on Netflix. Anyway, our guide told us that the official government view is that no students were killed on that infamous day, wink wink. She wouldn't even verify this in the privacy of our chauffeured Dodge Caravan. Big brother is always watching there. You see armed soldiers around the tourist attractions, which was a little unsettling. A lot of families come here from Japan because it's one of the few places that is short plane ride. My friend Debbie, who is an admiral's wife, won't go because she knows that they will be overtly followed the entire time. 

 

Olympic Park - our boys were a huge attraction all to themselves. I can't count how many people took pictures of them. Sonya told us that many of the Chinese tourists visiting Beijing have never seen white people or "big-nosed" people as they call us. Traveling with Anders there was akin to going with a rock star. People were lining up to see him and they kept trying to touch him. His hat was on most of the time but if it came off, you could hear people gasping around us. Sonya told us that before the Olympics the government decided to take 50% of the cars off of the roads to help with pollution. How they did this was interesting - cars with even numbered plates could be on the road every other day while odd numbered plates had the other days! Could you imagine? I am sure it was enforced.

 

We took a very cold rickshaw ride through a hutong, which is a traditional neighborhood with narrow lanes and one story houses. There, we ate lunch at a local woman's house. By far the best meal we had our entire trip. The homeowner didn't speak a lick of English but she had two dogs that absolutely delighted Anders. Her house had been much bigger before their cultural revolution when she was forced to share it with a few other families. These houses also share a communal bath and shower down the street. Yikes.

 

The easiest way to arrange a trip to China by far is by a package deal, which we have never done before but I just didn't have the time to figure out all of the logistics myself. It was a crazy whirlwind of activities and sights for 5 days. We opted to have a private guide and chauffeur instead of doing a group with a bus. Our guide was a single young woman who was not used to being with kids especially three at a time. She became clearly annoyed when Jude would hold us up for half an hour because he had to go to the bathroom or when Anders was losing it because he didn't get his nap. This is of course precisely why we hired her in the first place. Jude is infamous for his ill-timed number twos, and we couldn't imagine making a whole busload of people wait for him. Anyway, Sonya soon got used to them and it was wonderful having an extra set of adult hands. She actually has a brother which is very rare. Apparently, the government allowed her parents to have two children because they are Mongolian - thus a minority. Who knew?

Lucien and Jude couldn't imagine going to China and not seeing panda bears so on our free afternoon that is exactly what we did. Jude, the American panda, received almost as much attention as the real ones.

 

No visit to Beijing would be complete without going to the Great Wall. Since we weren't on a tour bus we got to go the less crowded section. This experience was absolutely amazing. Anders rode in the back pack most of the time which just killed him because he loves nothing more than going up and down steps. Here he is romping with a Chinese counterpart whose parents I guarantee have never seen a blond haired blue-eyed child before. His mother must have 100 pictures of Anders.

 

Everyone keeps asking me how Jude is doing and this picture says it all. That is him in the orange coat way ahead of everyone else! Last year he would not have been able to do this walk. We would have had to carry him, and quite frankly I don't think we could. Before we went to Dr. Agin this summer he was always 20 paces behind us and could never keep up. On our snow monkey trip last year we had to walk up a small mountain that should have been easy for him but Brad had to carry him. The dairy/soy free diet and the many supplements he is taking for his apraxia have worked wonders for him physically. What a great day - Jude running ahead of us on the Great Wall.

 

 

These pictures were taken in a public park outside the Temple of Heaven. I forget the name of this park but it was filled with retirees doing communal exercises. Once you hit 50 you are supposed to give up your job to someone younger. It's not always enforced with men, but the rule is certainly enforced with women. We saw hundreds if not thousands doing exercises, tai chi, country dancing, kicking little balls back and forth, a wonky tennis racket game and these lovely ladies twirling fabric. The older ones were drinking tea and playing mah-jong or cards.

 

Jude giving the shuttlecock game a go.

 

One thing we hated about the package tour deal was the food. They really took us to some crappy places. The breakfast at the hotel was good though. Here is Lucien. our adventuress eater, having steamed dumplings for breakfast. Jude subsisted on rice and Anders pretty much refused all food the entire time opting to drink his weight in milk instead. Our hotel, Joy City, looked like it was really nice except on closer inspection you could tell that it was rather shoddily put up. I am not a worrier but I kept thinking that we would all be goners if there was an earthquake. The lobby opened up into a rather fancy enormous mall with all sorts of western type of shops including a Starbucks, Sephora and Zara. I don't really like Starbucks, and Sephora scares the bejeezus out of me, but it was still a fun place to go. It was 8 floors tall with two additional basement floors! The floors had obsequious names like - Sporty, Dating, Sexy, Heaven and I can't remember the rest. Saturday night, Brad took the boys to Burger King (I know it's terrible to go to another country and eat at BK but it was the only thing Jude would eat and after 4 days the kid needed substance.) The Burger King was on the Trendy floor and was overflowing with couples on dates! They had to wait in line forever and then there were no tables. This mall had restaurants everywhere, there was even a Vietnamese place with a flaming pineapple appetizer.  But BK was the big draw! 

 

Christmas in the lobby - the deer was made from real fur. I couldn't resist putting Anders in this panda outfit.

 

The morning we left a huge crowd was gathered in front of the mall waiting for the Danish Prince Joachim and Princess Marie. We saw them from Starbucks as they watched some sort of show in the mall. He's in the grey suit. Seeing Danish royalty in the mall was a nice little surprise. I'm fairly certain that they were not staying in the Joy City Hotel with us.

Overall, our trip was ding ding hao.

Lucien August - 8 Years Old

I know the kid turned 8 weeks ago and I am just now doing this. What can I say? It's been crazy busy here. The boys have had 5 days off of school in the last 3 weeks, many birthday parties to attend, a trip to Yokohama, planning our Thanksgiving trip to Beijing, and I stupidly volunteered to teach CCD after Mass. CCD time was a heavenly kid free hour and now it's gone. What was I thinking giving up an hour where both boys were gone and Anders naps? On top of that they gave me the First Communion class to teach and my partner is on a ship that is not in port.

Lucien turned 8 on November 4th. He had a wonderful Pokemon party with many friends and birthday dinner at Chili's. (The Navy Lodge is right next door to Chili's so when Jude turned 4 last year during our stay at the Lodge we went to Chili's to celebrate. Now the boys want to go there for all celebrations. They will probably be asking for it for Christmas dinner.) We bought him a Razor Spark scooter and he is now the coolest kid in the neighborhood. The damn thing really shoots out sparks!

Lucien is such a neat little kid and truly is nice. Here is an example: Lucien's new BFF, Sammy, is bullied by this boy who lives in our neighborhood and happens to be in Lucien's class. I thought that Lucien should invite this boy to his party because we see him so much but he adamantly refused. Later Lucien told me about the bullying and how he wouldn't put Sammy in the same room as bully boy. You cant teach that type of empathy!  Lucien has been through so much in his 8 short years - seizures and the many hospital stays; a baby brother; evacuations; move from New Orleans to Biloxi; Katrina; evacuating to Florida for 6 months; flooded house renovations and all of the other fun that Katrina brought us; Brad's deployment to Afghanistan followed in quick order by yet another baby brother; and finally an international move to Japan where our van burst into flames on a major Tokyo highway. He has handled all of this incredibly well and will never be able to complain about how boring his childhood was.

I don't think the Cake Boss will be calling me.

Pin-the-tail on Pikachu

Ready set go! Race to mountain playground for a pokemon ball hunt. Seconds later Anders was face down on the pavement.

It really works! Actually it is way sparkier than I ever imagined. Hopefully all of the cars in our parking lot are in good order and not dripping flammable liquids.

Lucien received a Harry Potter Wii game from his Grandmother that enthralled him so much that he would not give Jude a turn. Jude decided he would make his own potion.

If you ever wonder what a stay-at-home mother does all day - here it is in a nutshell.

704 Pieces of Candy

Jude decided this year that he wanted to be something scary. Dementor was a compromise because his first pick was a beheaded ghoul carrying his bloody head around. Lovely. Harry Potter and Yoda are recycled. I'm thrifty like that.

704 ... the grand total of Halloween candy given out this year, give or take a few chocolate eyeballs and Mary Janes I ate in between trick or treaters. This year I was prepared for the onslaught with mounds of candy and only gave one candy per kid and even had some left over. Woo hoo. Kids started arriving at around 4:30 and it didn't stop until about 8:30! Luckily my little Harry Potter, Dementor and Yoda came home early to help pass out candy. There were hordes of cute Japanese trick or treaters or I should say tricka treatos. So cute. The moms apparently did not know that you could knock on someone's door, if their porch lights were on. When the line got too deep to my stoop, I would send them to my neighbors and the parents would repeatedly ask daijobu-des? Is this ok? Some of the kids even squealed with delight when Jacquie would open her door holding a basket of candy. A few newbie kids didn't even have bags, so I set them up and sent them on their way. 

My friend Gretchen was hosting several families from her sons Japanese pre-school. Another friend brought in families from her kids gymnastics class. Not really sure how the thousands of other Japanese kids got on base but they did. They are so grateful and never just grab the candy but wait for you to put it in their bags. I really love the bows and arigato gozaimus's. 

We hang these huge cat eyes in the upstairs windows that look really scary. Some of the parents would say sugoi, sugoi which just means "very" and a few others would say something that sounds exactly like the word for cute "kawaii". The same word I have heard spoken to Anders hundreds of times and yes the same word I had spoken to other Japanese parents when they had particularly cute babies. Then it dawned on me that I had been calling Japanese babies "scary". That would explain some of the surprised/horrified looks I have received. As soon as Brad and the boys got back I raced over to Gretchen's house to ask her Japanese guests about it. I thought that when people would call Anders kuwaii that their over pronounced kawaiiiiii was kind of like saying "oh soooooo cuuuuute. Wrong. Apparently carrying out the eeeeee sound at the end is what separates it from kowai which means scary. Gretchen's guests got a good laugh at me, well as good as super polite Japanese people ever do. How mortifying. To top it off I keep seeing this one commercial on AFN (Armed Forces Network) telling us how we are ambassadors for the USA and to always make a good impression. I suppose calling babies scary is not being a good ambassador. Lord knows what else I have said in Japanese.

 

Kawaiiiiiiiii! Anders went to the base's haunted house as a monkey.

 

Jude's storybook character parade for his class. I tried desperately to get him to go as a Buccaneer Bunny but no luck.

 

First round of tricka treatos.

 

Some families do Christmas jammies, we do Halloween jammies. Thank you Linda!!

Disney Land Tokyo

 

 

Brad and I decided to be uber nice parents and take the boys to DisneyLand so they could see it dressed up for Halloween. We had heard that Tokyo DisneyLand and Orlando DisneyWorld are exactly the same but nothing in Japan could be exactly the same as something in Orlando. Most of the attractions were close but with some small and some big tweaks. Disneyland here is truly in the city of Tokyo so they had to condense. Everything was much closer together. You realized you were entering different areas by the color of the concrete - no picturesque segues. One second you were in Westernland aka Frontierland and the next Fantasyland. From on top of Dumbo you could practically spit on the people waiting for the Haunted Mansion which has a super cute Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Most of the rides had the queues lining up outside instead of inside so to get on Pirates of the Caribbean you didn't walk through the huge pirate caves but instead took a short walk through a Louisiana type swamp complete with a houseboat shack and voila boats. Once you exited you were in New Orleans! Caribbean, New Orleans who cares close enough.

 

Oh my, back on Royal Street. I'm trying to imagine how a Japanese person would pronounce Royal, but I just can't. There was even a Mardi Gras store.

Brad and I were really hoping for some Beignets and a PoBoy but the French Quarter restaurant featured crepes with strange asian twists. Although I had brought a ton of snacks, food became a huge problem. It took several hours to find just plain popcorn. We never saw a plain popcorn truck the rest of the day. Jude almost tried the chocolate popcorn but after waiting in line the smell got to him and he bailed. The other choices were curry, caramel or soy sauce with butter. Lucien had a Micky shaped pork steam bun for lunch and poor Jude didn't find anything to eat until way late into the day when we stumbled across some chicken nuggets in Tomorrowland. We had decided to let him go off of his diet for the day so I was looking for pizza for him which I did find but it was Japanese style with shrimp and mayonnaise. Yuck.

Anyway I'm so glad we did not go on a weekend because it was insanely crowded on a Thursday. A sea of people at 8:45 am waiting for it open which shouldn't be surprising since a crowd gathers in front of the grocery store everyday at opening time. The crowds were easily 98 - 99% Japanese. In Orlando it is always a mix of nationalities but not here. I suppose it isn't a destination type place. Brad and I were joking that we didn't need the kids in matching t-shirts here because just being American made us stand out. In fact there were a ton of kids in school uniforms and adults in business attire. I don't know if they were all playing hooky or what was going on. If the kids were on field trips, I didn't see any chaperones. Lots of people in Halloween costumes. I'm glad to say the Princess craze has not happened here. We saw many more Minnie Mouses and Lilos than princesses. If one lady had on mouse years then 48,000 did. We had been warned about the slutty costumes, but to Brad's dismay we didn't see too much of that. Loads of completely inappropriate foot wear though.

 

I wish these were the only stripper boots I saw, but they weren't.

   

Click on the pictures to enlarge. Mom, if you still can't read them the first one sign has 2 different Pork and Spicy Tofu entrees and Banana Jelly with Milk for dessert; the second has Steamed Pork Bun, Pork Tortillas with Sweet Miso Sauce and Jungle Tea - Black Tapioca, orange jelly and milk tea. The third is Curry Popcorn. Now I'm all for curry but not on popcorn.

I was super curious to see how the languages would be handled. Almost all of the big signage was in English with no Japanese. However on smaller signs there would be both. Pirates of the Caribbean - all English ... we pillage, we plunder .... yo ho yo ho with commentary by Jack Sparrow. Splash Mountain on the other hand was a mix. Haunted Mansion - Japanese. Some of the songs were English but the commentary was in Japanese. Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee day Japanese Japanese Japanese. Too funny. Buzz Lightyear was a mix; It's a Small was closed but I would have loved to see the American dolls. The Parade was a mixture as well. 

My family will be happy to know that the Carousel of Progress was noticeably absent as was the People Mover. The train only went around WesternLand and AdventureLand with no stops and the line was almost as long as the line for turkey legs. No thank you. Of course no Hall of Presidents either but the Bear Country "Theater" was there. Another thing we noticed was the absence of character handlers. They walked about all by themselves. Oh, Main Street is called World Bazaar and it was inside! All of it covered. Very strange. It rains a lot here so maybe this is a way to get people in the shops. 

 

Notice how neatly all the strollers are lined up. This cracks me up, so Japanese.

 

Ever since Jude started taking his new supplements this is the kind of thing he does. He made us very proud by going on Space Mountain.

 

 Anders got a lot of attention from the ladies. He's thinking, "Hey lady my mom is going to put this pic on the internet. Pink ears, really?". This was in Toon Town which is a much bigger section than it's Orlando counterpart with a lot more to do.

 

I can't even count how many small groups of school kids we saw in uniform. The amazing thing is none of the kids had taken off their ties and coats and shoved them in their backpacks.

 

I don't think Jude has ever seen the fireworks. Luckily they started at 8pm so we were still there. Anders was a huge fan and screeched every time I tried to walk away.

Differences

So re-entry back to the states from "opposite world" went very smooth. I call Japan "opposite world" because everything is different. There are small differences like how you turn on the faucets and driving on the left side of the road. There are big differences like the Japanese one-for-all attitude. Upon my return, one of the first things that I had a hard time with were the billboards and the omnipresent advertising. Four days a week I ferried Jude from Clearwater to St. Petersburg (and back) for his speech therapy; during that trip I felt pummeled about the eyes by the ubiquitous advertising: Attorneys, vasectomies, plumbers, tattoo removal, and even signage for God assaulted my every view. In Japan, you rarely see billboards. There is signage, but it's not overwhelming advertising that resides on everything from buses to bananas. Now, in Tokyo you will see advertising but St. Petersburg via Clearwater is hardly the equivalent to a big city like Tokyo.

Also, returning to American-style customer service almost made me lose my cool more than once. How long did it take for American-style customer service to raise its ugly head? It happened on my first domestic flight - Delta's connection from Atlanta to Tampa. Do you think one flight "attendant" helped me load up three children, my enormous car seat that I had to put into a wheeled bag, and all of the necessary carry-ons? Not a freaking one. Instead, they rolled their eyes at me as Anders was running amok during the boarding. I know, I know there are seat belts; but honestly, Anders defeats such amateur restraints in less than 30 seconds. He is the reason that smart people developed the 5-point harness. Once we were on the ground, now with carry-ons, a stroller, a wheeled car seat bag that is bigger than Jude, two walking kids, and lots of luggage in tow, do you think one airline employee helped me (or even asked if I needed help)? Negative. Not one. In Japan, other passengers would have been falling over themselves to help me.

Similarly, no one help us when we missed our connecting flight. We only made it on the last flight out of Atlanta because some poor lady literally fainted on the way to the plane, and her loss was our gain. Thank you fainting lady. Delta isn't much better on international flights; when my Delta flight landed in Tokyo not one "attendant" helped me get off the plane which made us by far the last people to depart. By the time we got to baggage all of my bags were neatly piled beside the belt and being watched by a Narita employee who then called over two more employees to help me out with the bags. THREE people were helping me and complimenting the cuteness of my children and then they turned around and deep bowed me. 

That is how customer service is done in Japan, people.

It's not just Delta either. Although I was thrilled to death to be in a Target instead of the Navy Exchange or Daia Mall, I had forgotten how cashiers in the USA will answer their cell phones and carry on a conversation while you wait. This would never happen in Japan. In Japan,service is always polite regardless of the type of store you're visiting. When Brad and I moved from New York city to New Orleans the inefficiency of the service almost killed me. I had gotten used to the abruptness, coldness and sometimes mean service in NYC, but at least they were efficient. When Jude and I were in NYC this summer we got sent to the end of the line twice a the bagel store because Jude couldn't make up his mind. Mean but fast. 

Another big difference is how we dress. Americans are sloppy dressers, period. Japanese women do not wear tennis shoes and yoga pants out and about. They might wear stilettos to a playground on top of a steep mountain where they will have to chase down small children or shorts with tights when it is 95 degrees but they aren't sloppy. Ever. You won't see men in t-shirts and gym shorts or warm up pants unless they are running. Shorts are a strange thing here. We don't see too many in summer, but (perhaps strangely) they come out full force in fall and winter - worn with tights (or not) and boots. How they put their outfits together seems odd to us Americans. When my parents were here my mom kept saying things like "I don't know, if I would have worn that together." But no matter how strange it might seem, it's infinitely better than elastic-waisted shorts and t-shirts any day.

Americans do have them on dental work. Our teeth look amazing fellow citizens! Smile and be proud. Let's just say that you would not want to be an orthodontist or a Crest White Strips representative in Japan. You will see the most gorgeous girls who open their mouths and . . . oh my, the horror.  

I just asked Brad what he noticed when he was in the states this summer: horrible customer service especially on planes and at the airports, fat people, and trash. Oh yes, I had forgotten how fat we are collectively. A good friend of mine teaches rich Japanese ladies English. They all told her how surprised they were at our fatness after visiting the USA. How embarrassing. I probably would be skinnier if I ate only Japanese food. In fact I might have to try it - if it works maybe I'll write the next fad-diet book. 

And litter is something that you just don't see here. The crazy thing is that the Japanese don't have public-trash cans, except in front of 7-11s and food stands. You won't see them at parks, beaches, street corners, near elevators, etc. The Japanese expect people to carry their trash home, and they do. Could you imagine if we tried that in the States? Not a pretty thought. (Naples, Italy anyone?)

These picture have nothing to do about my post except that the subjects are sloppy Americans with good teeth (well don't look too close at Lucien). At least we carry out our own trash.

 

We took a day trip to Enoshima Island a few weekends ago. Edward, Lucien and Jude on the shrine steps. Enoshima is a small mountain shrine island. Although you have to walk across a causeway and go up a bizillion steps, we spotted many women in high heels. Ouch.

 

Brad and his mini-me on top of an observatory tower.

 

This walk through thing is the first we have seen. Yes, she has shorts on but they are long and she is wearing wedgie shoes.

 

This is considered yummy vacation food. No wonder they are all so thin here. Thankfully, I brought plenty of snacks for the four boys. Baby octopi on a stick is a hard sell.

 

More snacks. Looks like something out of my brother's bait well.

 

The beach as seen from Enoshima tower. Notice the buildings on the beach. They are temporary summer beer and snack huts which are completely torn down by now.

 

Tori gates to the shrine. Notice the steps under the gate. Now double click on the picture and notice the steps through the very top of the gate. What you see isn't even close to revealing all of the steps we climbed. After we made it to the top, I noticed a series of escalators that could take you up. Going down though is all you because there are no down escalators.

Konnichiwa!

This is what happens when you put three extremely jet lagged kids in a car for 5 minutes.

Sorry for the long hiatus. The kids and I spent the summer in Florida so Jude could receive much needed speech therapy and go to a developmental pediatrician who specializes in apraxia. It was a wonderful summer full of speech therapy (4 times a week), family, beaches, borrowed cars and spare bedrooms. (I forgot to mention shopping. I thought I would fall down on my knees in praise of Target, Publix, Macy's and Border's. Of course they have shopping here in Japan but I can't read the books at the bookstore, I can't afford or fit into most of the clothes, the Japanese grocery store confuses the hell out of me and the NEX and the commissary are very limited.) Brad stayed behind in Japan except for an all too brief visit at the end of July for my family's annual Disney trip and our eleventh anniversary. My sister Dawn and her 4 gorgeous girls were visiting from New Zealand so it was wonderful to get all 14 of the kids together from far and wide.

All of the cousins at Fort Wilderness, Disney World minus Anders and Mari. We were a group of 23 this year. Yes, we are those people who wear matching t-shirts but I won't publicly display our family shame here.

Lucien started second grade a few days after our return and Jude began kindergarten a week later. Before this summer Brad and I were convinced that he should stay in pre-k for another year. But the pediatrician, Dr. Agin, thought that learning to read would help with his speech. So we are thrilled that he is in the big school this year. She also recommended many many vitamins & supplements, PROMPT speech therapy and a dairy/soy free diet. PROMPT therapy amazed us. The first session I had tears in my eyes because this was the first time something had remotely worked for Jude. I knew immediately that this was the therapy he needed and nothing else would do. Few therapists are licensed to do this work but his wonderful SLP here in Yokosuka went to NYC this summer and took the PROMPT course. If she didn't do this the kids and I would have stayed behind in Florida while Brad finishes his tour in Japan. Ouch! The only good thing about that would be one less flight to Japan by myself and 3 kids. Actually Lucien and Jude were as good as they could be on both flights but Anders was a holy terror. The entire trip is about 24 hours door to door and I can't even begin to describe how painful it is with a toddler and all of the crap you need to carry for 3 kids including the enormous car seat. Let your imaginations go wild. Diaper blowouts, no kid meals, tantrums, the loudest boy in the world, running amok, missed flight in Atlanta, unhelpful flight attendants... I could go on but would rather not remember anymore.

Jude's first day of kindergarten at Sullivan's Elementary - named after the famous fighting Sullivan brothers who were the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.

Anyway we are back home with Brad and Radar. I am slowly learning how to deal with Jude's dietary restrictions here including buying a bread maker and an ice cream maker that has yet to show up in our extraordinarily slow mail. Thank goodness for rice milk and coconut milk that you can supposedly use to make whipped cream and ice cream. The commissary stocks exactly one kind of bread (white frozen Lender's bagels) and one kind of cookie (rather tasteless Goya's Palmeritas) that Jude can have and that is it as far as baked items go. Luckily they carry sorbet and chicken nuggets without soy or dairy. I have come to find out that dairy, and/or soy is in everything. Although it's a huge pain we are seeing results with these changes. 

Anders is a 23 pound wrecking ball hell-bent on destroying my things, messing up the house and escaping his confines. He has reminded me of my belief that God made toddlers insanely cute so we don't kill them. Lucien was doing wonderfully until 2 nights ago when he jumped off a playground thing and broke his arm. 4.5 hours later we came home with his arm in a temporary cast. You can only get real casts on Wednesdays at the Naval Hospital Yokosuka so he is anxiously awaiting his real cast. They don't even give you an appointment. It's just a 9:00 am cattle call of the wounded. I guess you get what you pay for here.

Very apropos accoutrement, if you ask me.

Drugged bliss watching Harry Potter instead of going to school.

Home is where you can slide out of Godzillas rear end.

Spasso Onsen - oh yeah!

I finally went to my first real onsen last night with my friend and neighbor, Gretchen. Onsens are private or public hot tubs. They can be in a spa setting, outdoors, in a hotel and usually are heated by volcanic springs. You enjoy almost all of these au naturel no swimming suits allowed but not to worry the women and men are in separate facilities. Many claim to have certain healing properties. Perhaps the one we went to did but I really have no idea since the only things we could read in there were the word "toilet", the temperature of the tubs displayed on the wall, and the label on some soap in the lobby. Anyhow what a great way to spend 2 hours. I definitely see why so many people here partake in these and why they are so popular.

Thankfully Gretchen had been before and knew the ropes because going to a naked public bath in another country can be intimidating. Being Japan there was of course a strict protocol to follow. As soon as you enter you take off your shoes and put them in a locker with a key. You then give your key and $14 to front desk man. He in return hands you a bag with two white towels in it. One of the towels is normal bath size while the other is more hand towel sized except narrower and a bit longer that is the one you use for "modesty" going between the different tubs. Big towel stays in your locker and is used for drying at the end of your visit. With your backside hanging out you proceed to the washroom where you thoroughly scrub your body and wash your hair. The walls of the shower stalls were only waist high and in each stall there was a plastic stool to sit on while you bathed. No doors or curtains, instead each stall had a mirror so you could easily see the person behind you. Modesty is pretty much out the window by now. Once very clean you can proceed to a tub. This onsen had 3 big tubs/pools indoors - one had jets, another was milky and the other just hot. We soaked an lounged until the heat became stifling and then we made our way to the outdoor tubs with a lovely view of the water. Outside had a big communal pool and several individual bath tubs in row and two big round cask like tubs. The cool night air and the hot water is an amazing combination.

By this time we really didn't care at all about the nudity thing. In fact most of the women were using their small towels as pillows or as turbans and not bothering to cover up anything. Some of the women were alone, some came with a friend, there was even a few moms with small kids and as we were leaving a group of women probably in their late 70's were coming in. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the baths and conversation. 

If you tired of soaking there was a lavender filled steam room and a room where you lie down on hot rocks like a lizard. We didn't try the latter but maybe next time. Spasso is also a spa/resort and we could have enjoyed facials, massages, lunch etc. Now for these activities you are given a robe to wear. Not really sure how you got about booking a massage but I brought home the brochure and will have my neighbor, Hiroku, translate it for me. (Thank goodness she moved in because my other Japanese neighbor, Mami, is moving in July.)

After you finally get to use the big towel and are dry and dressed you exchange your towels and bag for your shoe locker key. Holding shoes hostage is a pretty good way of insuring no one walks with away with the nifty Spasso bag. Relaxed and happy Gretchen and I head home. I'm so glad she took me. This may very well be one of my favorite things about Japan so far. You can only go to so many shrines before getting tired of them but I don't think I could ever tire of trying different onsens.

Nikko - Ninjas, shrines and mountains

Brad and I took the opportunity to take a mini-vacation over Memorial Day weekend. Since we are both from Florida nothing sounds more like vacation than the mountains. So off to Nikko we went. Nestled in the foothills of some mountain range Nikko also has Japan's most ornate shrine and an amusement park dedicated to old time Japan complete with Ninjas and Samurai. Perfect.

Toshogu Shrine, a conglomeration of several shrines and temples was built in 1617 and dedicated to the shogunate Tokugawa who unified Japan. It was our first stop and perhaps too ambitious for three kids who had been in the car for 3 hours. If we ever go back we will definitely take a guided tour because the English signs were almost nonexistent and we weren't really sure what we were looking at. Although I had a guidebook with me if I had actually stopped to read it we would have found Lucien and Jude hanging from a priceless building and Anders being abducted by a smitten Japanese woman.

Set of stairs leading to shrine area. Followed by many more sets of stairs. Anders loves nothing more to climb so he was in baby heaven. Unfortunately Anders had to be held the whole time because clearly a stroller was out of the question. I did see someone in a wheelchair who must have very nice friends to carry him up.

Enormous tori gates leading up to the shrines.

Once the kids were thoroughly exhausted we drove into town and found our inn. Finding a kid-friendly and affordable hotel is quite a feat. Most places charge per person and are just not suitable for small children. The Turtle Inn Annex came highly recommended in my guide book for families and wasn't going to bankrupt us so it was the winner. This was our first experience staying in a Japanese style inn. And what an experience. We all slept on the floor and the only window treatments were sliding rice paper screens one of which I poked my thumb through trying to open it. The boys slept in another room separated by a sliding door. Except for Anders who decided that he was not going to sleep at this hotel. Each person has two 1" thick mattresses topped with a down quilt and a dense hard pillows all set on tatami mats. Both of the rooms had a small view of the river which was right outside. Brad likened it to taking a nap under his desk at work when can't get home to sleep. Lucien and Jude thought sleeping on the floor was rather cool. It also kept me from having to yell at them from jumping on the beds which is their favorite hotel past time. Japan doesn't change times in the spring and fall which means that the sun is up at around 4:20am. Ouch especially since breakfast wasn't served until 8am.

The "big room" where Brad and I slept. The coffee table and tv stand where the only pieces of furniture. There was an entryway with a large closet and a decent bath.

The boys in their yakata (except for Jude who would have streaked to the tub, if we let him) on the way to the hot tub. Jude and Lucien with their souvenirs.

The Turtle Inn did have a public bath which was quite nice. Very hot water in a big tub with a panoramic view of the river. I could really get into this hot tub thing they have going on here. This one although public had a door that could be locked for privacy. 

Edo Wonderland might be our boys favorite spot in Japan so far. Think of a cheesier Historic Williamsburg except it is set in Japan during the Shogun era with lots of shows based on Ninjas, Samurai and Geisha. All of the buildings were done in period architecture and there were several educational type places showing old inns, tea houses, fire stations etc. It wasn't very crowded so Lucien and Jude had plenty of characters to interact with. Brad and I sent them outside to play while we sat down and ate our noodles and within minutes they were sword fighting with samurai who gave them swords. We actually had a meal in peace. By the time we returned to the inn even Anders knew how to sword fight. Good thing we have three boys and not three girls.

I think she is some sort of jester but she made all of these cool shapes out of what looked like my mother's place mats from Pearl River.

5 ninjas. The gift shops were practically nothing but swords and throwing stars. Little boy nirvana.

Outdoor Ninja show complete with someone getting their hand cut off. Charming entertainment for small kids.

Sword fighting.

We had all of the sword fighting we could handle so on Monday a tamer day of a walk through the woods, visiting the Emperor's summer house and a beautiful waterfall was in order. The house was absolutely stunning with it's simple elegance and how it incorporated the outdoors with the indoors. None of the 106 rooms were particularly large and most were completely unadorned with only tatami floors and shoji screens. I do kind of wish they had left some of the furniture in it to get a sense of what it looked like when occupied. 

A walk right outside of our hotel with a raging river and many many Jizo sculptures with their hats and bibs. "Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents."

Inside Tamazawa Imperial villa.

 Three fairly clean kids-check, one beautiful imperial garden-check, perfect sunlight-check and yet a decent picture of the boys eluded me. Between Anders sqiggliness, Jude's inability to smile on command due to apraxia and Lucien's goofy smile, I should just quit trying.

Overlook on the windiest mountain road I have ever traversed on the way to Kegon waterfall.

Interesting eats at a stop on the way to the waterfall. Anything can be put on a stick, cooked and eaten in Japan including whole little fish and bacon. These were the food choices at the rest stop on the way to Kegon Warerfall good thing I planned ahead and brought sandwiches. Brad did enjoy the bacon.

Kegon Waterfall a peaceful and beautiful ending to trip. Anders made sure to shatter this illusion by screaming for two hours in the car on the way home to Yokosuka.

Strawberries, Moms, shopping etc.

 

I have been so busy lately and can only attribute it to a walking Anders. He is a total menace. When awake he is a tornado leaving mayhem and destruction in his wake. Ever since having Lucien I figured out that God made toddlers so very cute as a way to keep their parents from killing them. Anders is no exception.

Last Friday both boys had off of school so I took them strawberry picking with some friends. Unlike the states it is all-u-can eat not all-u-can pick. You hand over 1100 yen (about $11) per person (Anders excluded) and you have 30 minutes to eat all you want. You are given a little tray with some yummy sugar sauce in it and then you put your stems on the tray. Simple enough system. We were there with my friend Chantel and her two boys. After shelling out so much money for half an hour Chantel and I were the fanatic mothers yelling "Be quiet and eat". The strawberries were amazing though. They tasted very different the local ones we get at the grocery here. Maybe they are just sweeter from being on the plants longer. Don't know, but they were wonderful. Anders ate his share and couldn't have been dirtier or stickier when we left.

On Mother's Day after going to church and opening all of my wonderful presents -let's just say that Brad rocks- we hopped in the van and went to Yokohama. We have never driven there before. It was an easy drive but expensive - $30 in tolls for a 30 minute drive. Yikes. They love their toll roads here. Our main destination was the Yokohama Museum of Art. Small lovely museum which happened to being having a fantastic show that we all enjoyed. Teppei Kaneuji: Melting City/Empty Forest. Loved this guys work of assemblages of found objects. He had one beautiful collage of coffee spills - Brad was happy to see someone making art out of a medium he uses. The little boys were very amused but it was hard for them not to touch the sculptures. Anders being safely strapped into his stroller posed no threats to the work. Afterwards we only had time for a snack while watching street performers before we had to head home. Too bad because there is loads of shopping and an amusement park all within a block of the museum. Another day.

Fountain in front of Yokohama Museum of Art.

Confounding parking garage. Somehow all of the cars move vertically and horizontally. Luckily we found our van where we left it. Note how narrow the spaces are. There's no way I could have backed in our big green behemoth of a van into here so I'm glad Brad was at the wheel.

During the week I decided that I really needed more strawberries and a sun hat for Anders so the boys and I went to the local mall, Daiei, after school. The malls here all have grocery stores on the bottom floor. How cool is that? We ended up coming home with two pokemon shirts and dinner but somehow the two packages of strawberries I had purchased didn't make it in our bag and no sun hats. I'm not completely certain what happened to my strawberries but I'm blaming the boys. After you check out at the grocery store you take your food to another counter and bag it all yourself. I think one of the boys pulled them out of the bag when they were looking for their chunky Fanta soda. This is their favorite Japanese soda. It's like sprite with gelatin. I rarely let them drink soda so they haven't developed set preferences.

This is exactly how it is to hold Anders most of the time. Chunky soda outside of mall.

Toy department at the mall which is really more like an enormous department store. All of the toy departments we have been in have these hideous games for kids to play for 100 yen a pop. Loud and obnoxious. I think they are trying to prime the children for Pachinko, a Japanese gambling craze which is played in huge halls that are smoky and insanely loud. My personal idea of hell.

This store has a beetle section where you can buy pet beetles and all of their accoutrements. These suckers are huge. Thankfully Jude and Lucien aren't interested.

Friday night Brad and I went to a submarine group Hail and Farewell. This is the Navy's way of welcoming newcomers and saying goodbye to those leaving. Unfortunately a family we really like is heading back to the state in a few weeks. They have two boys the same age as my two oldest, she is pregnant with number three and when they arrive at their next duty station in Washington state they will have no car and no place to live. I wish them luck. I guess hellos and goodbyes are a part of military life I will have to get used to.

Tea Hair

I've been having problems with my hair since Lucien was born. My fairly straight hair went to having a lot of wave and after Jude even some curl but only in the back. This has made my already thick hair an enormous frizzy mess. Every move I have to find a hairdresser who gets my hair. No matter how much I tell them not to try to thin in out which ironically leads to just making it look bigger, they can't help themselves. Actually when I leave their chairs after a long blowout and a straight iron session, it looks amazing. But in real life I don't have time to blow dry or straight iron everyday so with my efforts it looks like crap. On top of all of that I am really going grey and hair color doesn't want to stay in my hair. After much looking around in Yokosuka I found an American who works out of her apartment about 25 minutes away from here. Color was good, but cut not so much. Our last appointment she was a no show. This time around I made an appointment with the salon on base and the night before they called and cancelled. Blimey. Anders had a babysitter so I decided to put my big girl panties on go into town for a haircut and color. Scary stuff. My Japanese is minimal but  I can say "ok" and "just a little". I figured armed with this knowledge and a picture of the color I wanted that it would be ok. It was beyond ok, the experince was amazing and I am now kicking myself for being a wimp and not doing it sooner.

Almost all of the salons here have english names. The one I went to is called Claps which makes me think of venereal diseases but it looked really nice inside. There are usually sandwich boards outside with the services listed in kanji and english making you believe that perhaps someone speaks english. Don't be fooled by this. Peace Extensions were offered at one place. I'm sure they met "piece extensions" and not some sort of NATO conference. Anyway the receptionist at Claps handed me a card with services in English I picked a cut with a professional not a student and "one make" which I correctly guessed at meaning a one color process and no highlights. In minutes I was offered a locker with a key for my purse and put into a white cape with arm holes. Love the arm holes so much easier to read trashy magazines. As I was taking off my earrings an outstretched hand appears with a tissue to put my jewelry upon. I don't think I would have deposited my pearl earrings in a strangers hand in the states but here no problem. Then Yuji my stylist chats with me. Didn't understand a lick of english but with the picture and my sparse Japanese he hopefully understood. First to the bowl to wet my hair. There the nice shampoo girl puts a tissue over your face and a towel on your legs. Nice touch. After my cut Yuji calls over another man and they both blow my hair dry. Total rockstar treatment. In the states they color your hair first but for some reason cut is done first here. Once Yuji was satisfied another 2 people show up to change me into a black cape with arm holes. While color is being applied a girl drops off about 10 English fashion magazines. Sweet. I don't have to make small talk and I don't have to read last March's People. I'm really liking this. Once the color is done back to the bowl for a head massage and shampoo - more tissues and towels. Once you get back to your chair all they do is dry your hair. No styling tools anywhere to be seen. Yuji lets me inspect and I give him my daijobu, ok, and before I can get up someone is giving me a back massage. 2.5 hours after my  arrival I am paying my bill (about what I pay in the states) and the entire staff bows to me on my way out of the door. Thankfully I didn't get the "two make" because I had to pick Jude up from school and never would have made it in time. All of this pampering cost only slightly more than having the American do my hair in her spare bedroom and shampooing it in her kitchen sink while I hold a towel over my head as to not drown. 

Later that night Brad asks me if I was worried about letting someone who is used to dealing with straight black hair cut and color my hair and I honestly wasn't. For some reason all of the young Japanese girls and a lot of the guys dye their hair some version of dark brown called chapatsu or tea-hair. I don't know why if you had shiny straight, jet-black hair you would dye it my color but they do. I suppose it's a small rebellion done before you join the work force. I have seen enough chapatsu to know without a doubt that they were completely capable of dying my hair. The color was a fabulous dark chocolate that didn't evaporate after 1 week. Rock on. 

Ps. Don't do a google search for "Japanese girls with brown hair" if you don't want pages and pages of asian porn. However I did find an interesting subculture here called ganguro which translates into "black face". I have seen several of these kids but didn't realize it was a wikipedia worthy subculture.