Spring time is here!
Mood:  happy
Yesterday i was fortunate to view my first Japanese plum blossoms of the season - pink and white and gorgeous. Miki and i went to lunch at a sushi bar where the sushi just circles around on a conveyor belt and you can pick whatever suites your fancy. (They tally your bill by the number and color of the plates at the end of the meal.) We had scallops, salmon, tuna and more. Very delicious. Then a stroll through the streets of Miki's city, Takatsukishi, and a pleasant surprise of finding a festival going on. We enjoyed some remarkable Japanese music and song. Sampled a new-for-me taste sensation, ichigoame. That's a candy coated strawberry, a bit awkward to eat, but oh so yummy. They also have ringoame which are candied apples. A stroll through the festival brought us to a Shinto shrine with pink and white "ume" plum blossoms everywhere. A booth set up next to the shrine was serving samples of a sake drink that i hadn't heard of before. Amazake, or sweet sake, is made from rice. It goes through a fermentation process and the sake is extracted. The remaining pressed rice is then put in a pot and water added and a hot milky beverage is served and the rice paste is eaten. The paste definitely has a mild fermented flavor and the hot liquid is pleasant but not what i would choose for a favorite warm drink. We were just killing time so that we could go to view "The Last Samurai" that i had heard so much about. Sorry to say that this was not the highlight of our day. I understand that to portray the samurai culture that violence has to be part of the tale but i still think that graphic violence with blood spurting everywhere is not necessary to tell the story effectively. In my opinion violence for violence sake and to sell tickets at the box office is a shame and diminishes us all. The other disappointment about the movie is despite many positive comments; i didn't think that it portrayed the culture well at all. It seemed rather unrealistic. Ah well, it was a great day and a pleasure to be able to spend it with a newfound friend.

JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY 101

This text is from the "Chrysanthemum and the Sword" by Ruth Benedict published in 1946.
"In the English language we used to talk about being 'heirs of the ages.' Two wars and a vast economic crisis have diminished somewhat the self-confidence it used to bespeak but this shift has certainly not increased our sense of indebtedness to the past. Oriental nations turn the coin to the other side" they are debtors to the ages. Much of what Westerners name ancestor worship is not truly worship and not wholly directed toward ancestors: it is a ritual avowal of man's great indebtedness to all that has gone before. Moreover, he is indebted not only to the past; every day-by-day contact with other people increases his indebtedness in the present. From this debt his daily decisions and actions must spring. It is the fundamental starting point. Because Westerners pay such extremely slight attention to their debt to the world and what it has given them in care, education, well-being or even in the mere fact of their ever having been born at all, the Japanese feel that our motivations are inadequate. Virtuous men do not say, as they do in America, that they owe nothing to any man. They do not discount the past. Righteousness in Japan depends upon recognition of one's place in the great network of mutual indebtedness that embraces both one's forebears and one's contemporaries." Think about it!

Violence in Japan
Mood:  blue
And i thought it was only in the U.S. We have had our school gates closed during the day and there have been rumors about kids being hurt on the way to school as well as attacks in the schools. A few weeks ago, a girl from our school got slashed in the face at a mall over a weekend. A week later, as she walked to school in the morning a man on a bicycle jumped off and grabbed her. She got away, luckily. There have been other assaults in other schools. Today we were informed that another junior high school girl near here was grabbed this morning on the way to school and cut with a knife (not seriously). There has been an arrest. I don't know all the details. Sad to hear that it's happening here too.

Educational Trivia
Mood:  surprised
Here's a nice benefit for new teachers: I don't know if this is true for all of Japan, but it's standard procedure in Nishinomiya. When a new permanent teacher is hired so is a retired teacher on a temporary basis. The retired/master teacher is allowed up to 70 days to fill in when needed by the new teacher. This means that the new teacher has a "permanent substitute/master teacher" whenever he/she desires. If there are training sessions to attend or even if the new teacher needs some help at first - he/she can request the substitute any time for up to 70 days. We said goodbye to one of these people last month. He spent much more than the 70 days I think. What a deal!

Used Panty Trade?
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: This is NOT a joke!
I have been hearing rumors about this, but i thought that it was a joke. Today in the Japan Times here's what the Kyoto News agency reported:

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has prepared a bill to ban trade in schoolgirls' used underwear. The bill seeks to punish violators with fines of up to 500,000 yen. It would be the nation's first local government ordinance to include such provisions.
The bill, part of a revision to the ordinance on the upbringing of youth, also seeks to ban and punish scouts who solicit girls to work in the adult entertainment business.
It calls for complete ban on trade in used panties, accepting requests to sell, and introducing buyers to sellers. It also seeks to punish those who provide space for such trade, including sex shops were girls can sell directly to customers.....
Good grief.

Mugwort?
Mood:  quizzical
I'm always game to try new things so at the bakery this weekend I hardly hesitated to spend 350 yen (over 3 dollars) on four slices of green - really green - bread. It's called mugwort bread. It tastes rather "weedy" but pleasant. I researched it on the internet and found out that it's probably called black sage. Nice, but I probably won't spend that much money on it again.

More exciting is the discovery of these little tiny oranges at the supermarket. They are about an inch in diameter. They were cut up and a salesman encouraged me to pop the whole thing (rind and all) in my mouth - no hesitation again! Wow, they are delicious. I've been told that they are Chinese quince but when I looked on the internet the quince that I saw were more like apples than oranges. If anyone knows what little bitty tasty oranges are called, I'd love to hear what they are in English. Unfortunately they cost about 500 yen for 8 of them. That's about 60 cents a bite! yikes. AH, HA, THEY ARE KUMQUATS AND I NEED TO PLANT A TREE WHEN I RETURN TO THE STATES!

Quien Sabe!
Mood:  quizzical
I've watched a work crew dig up the same strip of road SIX times now. They dig up the dirt and fill trucks with it down about 5 feet deep. Then they work on some telephone, gas, and/or cable lines for a few hours. Then they fill the whole thing in and asphalt it over. Then the next morning they dig it back up and start over. VERY, VERY WEIRD.
Hard not to criticize. Who knows, maybe there's a good reason. Mine is not to question why, but I sure am darn curious.

Cell Phone
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Welcome to the Japanese 21st Century
Sunday afternoon my friends, Didik and Troy, accompanied me to the Vodaphone store and helped walk me through the steps of getting my first cell phone. What an experience.
My first sky mail message is totally in hiragana so of course I can't read it. hah.
No transaction in Japan is ever simple. I have learned to eat first and allot at least 2 hours when trying to complete any transaction in Japan. If it takes less than 2 hours, count yourself lucky. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but this seems to hold true a lot of times. It's made it much easier on my nerves to just expect a 2-hour time frame. The cell phone experience is no exception. There are papers to fill out and, of course, Didik and i can't read the hiragana and kanji so luckily our friend and diligent Japanese student, Troy, helps us read the forms. All the phone options are a bit overwhelming and Didik and Troy are giggling every time i say an emphatic "no" to anything that will bump up my monthly charges. Thank goodness Troy is here to help because the clerk knows very, very little English. We finally get all the paperwork filled out and the clerk is checking everything over and discovers that I have written my first name first. Good grief, that isn't allowed. He tears up the form and we start all over again and i carefully write out my name with LAST NAME FIRST. Why can't i remember that? Then i'm warned that even though i've filled out all the forms for automatic withdrawal from my bank that the bank probably won't accept them. Well that turns out to be true. All the forms are sent back to me weeks later and i have to take them down to the bank and go through another discussion with the bank manager. He explains all the "mistakes" that i made in filling out the form and insists that I go back to Vodaphone and fill out their forms again! Grrrrr. Realize, please, that i am riding my bike across town for each of these transactions and that I have to do this after school. Ah, well, that's just a small challenge of this wonderful opportunity of living in Japan. My cell phone has really come in handy when trying to find friends at a train station when we are all at different exits! hah. So it's been worth it.

Valentine's Day in Japan
Mood:  amorous
Now Playing: I think not!
Valentine's Day is very different than in the states. Girls give their special guy chocolate on Feb. 14th.
Then if the guy likes the girl it is customary for him to give her a gift much bigger than hers on March 14th, White Day.
What a marketing idea. I wonder why this hasn't caught on in the states. They could sell a lot more chocolate this way!

Japanese Cooking Lesson
Mood:  on fire
Home made nabe, something like a Japanese stew of meat and/or fish. This is a very popular dish served in the winter. It's guaranteed to warm you up from the inside out. I was invited for dinner at the Osawa's with the promise of a lesson in how to make this dish that i'd heard so much about. The broth is made in a gorgeous ceramic pot that goes directly on an open flame. There are a number of different ways to make the base. Osawa-san used a soymilk product which was already wonderfully seasoned and oh, so rich. It was fascinating to watch her cut up fresh vegetables with such care and art. The carrot was first wrapped in plastic wrap and cooked in the microwave until tender and then cut with a kind of cookie cutter to make a star shape. The shitake mushrooms had wedges cut out of their tops so that they had a pretty star shape engraved in them.
Everything was artfully set in an enamel tray while the broth was cooking. We had "meatballs" made of ground chicken, enoki mushrooms, hakusari (a type of cabbage) negi which are leeks or scallions and kiku, edible chrysanthemum leaves. Also, shrimp "meatballs" and a white fish, pork and more in this dish. Noodles made out of potato starch, kuzukiri, are amazing because they don't fall apart when stewed for a long period of time. (I think I'll try them in my next pot of minestrone!) The best part is that the ceramic pot is set in the middle of the dining room table under a little cook stove that keeps the whole thing simmering during the entire meal. Everyone helps themselves and as the pot gets low, more veggies and meats/fish are added. After the main dish we had a lovely bowl of rice with some of the broth and some cooked egg stirred in. This was such a treat. Lively conversation, cultural exchange, friendships forming.
The Osawas are one of the first families I met in Nishinomiya. They have twin boys in 2nd grade, an elder boy in 3rd grade and a daughter who will be graduating from high school in one more year. It feels so good to have been welcomed into this family. They are very unique in that Mrs. Osawa did a year homestay in the U.S. when she was in highschool. Mr. and Mrs. moved to Australia and raised their young family there for a number of years. Consequently, they both speak very good English.(lucky for me!) Mr. Osawa is a professor at Kobe University and Mrs. Osawa works at a resthome. They are baseball fanatics and I originally met them by attending Hamakoshien baseball games this fall. All three boys are in baseball club and are very good team players. It is such a pleasure to get to know these folks. I hope to host them in Spokane when I return. Mr. Osawa really wants to attend the World Series in Seattle to see Ichiro play if they make it that far this year. We'll see.

Nishinomiya Cultural Festival
Mood:  special
Yesterday, Sunday, David and i were asked to represent the U.S.A at a booth for the Nishinomiya Cultural Festival. David, his wife, Connie, and i were kept busy visiting with so many visitors. So many questions..so much curiousity, so much enthusiasm about our big, gorgeous country. Of course, the most common topic of conversation was Spokane. Since we are Sister Cities, there were many folks who had visited Spokane or gone to school at WSU or Mukugawa. The National Parks calendar was popular and the most questions that i fielded about parks were about the Grand Canyon.

I felt a little homesick for one of my first loves in Spokane: the Fall Folk Festival. This festival had the feel of our first couple of festivals when we were just getting started. There were Thai dancers, taiko drummers, Laotian drums, things to buy from groups supporting crafts people in Bangladesh.... We were in a room that featured 6 different countries including Australia, Laos, and Iran. It was very enlightening to talk to people from different cultures, all in Japan for many different reasons. I believe so strongly that the way to peace in the world is to get to know each other as people and to appreciate the beauty, and diversity that we all share.