Skipping Stones, An Award Winning Multicultural Magazine

There is a story called "Baseball, Dad and Me " by Suzanne Kamata in this month's issue of Skipping Stones, An Award Winning Multicultural Magazine. The story takes place in Japan. Suzanne Kamata is a writer who lives in Japan. There are stories from and about other countries. This month's cover of the magazine shows a deaf boy learning sign language from his brother. It was done by Jon Bush.

Skipping Stones has bicultural or multicultural stories written by students and experienced writers. My story called "Peace Birds, A Story of Hope from Japan" appeared in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue. Skipping Stones also publishes artwork and photographs from students, amateurs, and professionals. The magazine is now in its 19th year.

The editor, Arun Toke, wrote to me and provided this information about himself. He was born in India. He has lived in the USA for several decades. He has travelled in Central America, Mexico, and Europe. He speaks at least four languages. Multilingual and international understanding as well as multicultural awareness is important to him.

Check your school library or your local library to see if they have a subscription of his magazine or check Skipping Stones' website to get a subscription of your own.

School Sewing Project: Lunch Mat

Little Brother made a lunch mat in his fifth grade sewing class. Everyone made one. They used a sewing machine to make the seams. I was surprised that Little Brother said I could post this picture. Actually, it was his idea. He doesn't like to draw and he usually doesn't like to show his work.

Broccoli Field

This looks like the last of the winter broccoli. Birds were eating it and then flew away. This field was across from the train tracks in yesterday's picture.

Don't Try This at Home!

These junior high guys were riding along the train tracks. They were heading toward the station area. How do I know they were in junior high? They were wearing uniforms. (Not all students wear uniforms here.) Note that they are not wearing helmets. People don't wear them here. Click to enlarge.

I wonder what happened when they passed the police box. There is one near this station. Mothers can carry their children in child seats on their bicycles, but riding two to a bicycle like this isn't permitted. It's dangerous.

White Day Cake

Last night Papa brought this cake to Big Sister and me for White Day. Of course, Little Brother had a piece, too. Papa, too.

White Day

March 14 is White Day. Girls and women receive chocolate on White Day. It is not a school holiday. Click on the picture to see the English in this ad. Bunnies are not the usual decoration for White Day.

Kids Web Japan---White Day

This display was at our neighborhood department store. Convenience stores had a few choices of special packages of chocolate, too.

I bought candy in the regular candy section at the convenience store for Big Sister. These are new choices, though. I bought them for a taste test (to see if we like the taste.)

This is matcha or green tea chocolate with mochi (glutinous rice) in the middle. It was delicious.

This is a hard candy. The flavor is matcha milk (green milk tea).

This is called choco ball. Usually they are covered in milk chocolate. There are choco balls with peanut centers. Some have caramel centers. This flavor is sweet corn! It has a crispy center. It was good, too.

Our Water Heater

We don't have a water heater tank. Water is heated as it comes through the pipe. This is our water heater control. It is on the wall just inside the kitchen door. There is another one on the wall near the bathtub. To have hot water to wash our hands and face at the sink in the bathroom (actually the laundry room), we have to turn on the water heater in the kitchen or in the bathtub's room. (As you may know, in Japan, the bathtub has its own room!)

The button on the top right hand corner is the on/off button. The little green light tells us it is turned on. The water is extremely cold in the winter so we set the water heater at 41 degrees Celsius. The temperature can be lowered by pushing the button with the blue arrow pointing down. The button with the red arrow pointing up will raise the water temperature.

The square button in the bottom right hand corner is for the bath. We can fill the tub from the kitchen! Of course, we have to have scrubbed the tub and put the stopper in first. Those things aren't automatic--yet!

As the bathtub is filling up, the light on the button flashes. When the tub is full, this heater beeps. The button light stops flashing and stays on. The bath will stay hot for four hours.

Open the cover and more buttons are revealed.

From this kitchen control, we can set a timer for the tub to be filled. After the bath is made, you can warm it up or cool it down. I'll post about the control buttons in the bath at another time.

A Sign Hanging from the Ceiling in a Hall

I looked up and saw this sign hanging from the ceiling in the hallway in a public building. If you read yesterday's post then you know where and why it was there. It was outside that small kitchen. I had never seen anything like this before. The first kanji means "hot water". The second one means "boil". The third means "room". The picture tells it all, though, don't you think?

A Kitchen Sink

This is not our kitchen sink at home. It was in the building where we had the workshops yesterday. Some groups sign up to serve tea to their guests. There was a cart of tea cups and trays next to the cabinet. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it.

Home kitchens usually have one big sink like this.

Kitchen counter tops are usually made out of stainless steel, too. That is a big water heater sitting on this counter.

This is a dish rack. In this kitchen, dishes are put here to dry after washing them. Check the post for February 22 on Paradise Found for an explanation of how some people wash dishes in Japan.

P.S. (added 03-13) You can see part of the faucet in the second picture. I was in and out of there pretty fast and didn't get a good look at the heater, but I'm pretty sure that hot water is used for making tea. I also didn't get a picture of the dish cart, but there were probably hot water pots (canisters) on it.

I'm planning to go to the hardware store to get a picture of a kitchen hot water heater. We don't have a separate one in our kitchen.

Donna Jo Napoli's Tokyo Visit

Donna Jo Napoli came to Japan to visit international schools. She also gave workshops for the Tokyo SCBWI chapter today. The workshops were very interesting and helpful.

She read from several of her books. Here, she is reading, Bobby the Bold, a picture book that she wrote with her daughter. It was very good.

I bought some of her books several weeks before the workshops. I bought Beast in English and Japanese. The covers are very different, aren't they? Big Sister read it in Japanese. It was translated by Miki Kuji. Big Sister couldn't put it down. She said it was very good. I read it in English. I thought it was very good, too.

I also bought and read Song of the Magdalene. I really liked that, too. I couldn't find it in Japanese. These two books are for junior high and high school readers. Donna Jo Napoli has written books for all ages. We want to read more of her books. Check out her website for more information about her and her books.

Note: See the paper flap beneath the Japanese version of Beast? The book was sold with it wrapped around its cover. The flap gives a description or quotation from the book.

Street Tiles Made by Children

Tiles made by school children were in the sidewalk near a school.

Sidewalks are sometimes made of brick and sometimes made of concrete. See the orange design in the street railing? It looks like a bird, doesn't it? I'll be on the lookout for other designs.

No Snow This Year?

I was saving this picture to post when it snowed. But it never did snow in Tokyo this year. It was the first winter since 1876 that there was no snow in Tokyo. (Japan's weather started to be recorded in 1876.)

Anyway, this is a money charm that is sold at shrines. At a shrine near us, they are sold in packages like this one. The little snowman on the right was taken out of its package and carried in a coin purse. The wish here is that your money will snowball through the coming year. They are carried throughout the year.

Some Things on the Street

This luggage cart was strapped to a street mirror. It seemed rather strange that the box wasn't strapped to the luggage cart. I wonder why someone left the cart and box here.

This is a vacuum cleaner sitting in a bin on the street. It's not unusual to see this kind of thing. Big garbage that cannot be recycled is put out in a central location in some neighborhoods.

Ume Rice Crackers

These are ume rice crackers. Ume potato chips are sold during this season, too.

Bicycle Child Seat

Most mothers use bicycles to shop. Small children ride on the front of the bicycle. Older children ride on the back. This bicycle has a child seat on the front and a basket for purchases on the back.

This bicycle seat had cushions and blankets. There was a wind shield in the front and on the child's leg area. There were also toys to keep the child amused. See the Thomas mobile? Bicycle bells are required on bicycles to alert people on the sidewalk. This was a Thomas bell. This child likes Thomas! Click on the pictures to see the details. Click on the label below to see other posts about bicycles.

Sakura Mochi

This is sakura mochi, glutinous rice with sakura or cherry blossom flavoring. It doesn't taste like cherries. The mochi is wrapped in sakura leaves. Not everyone eats the leaves, but we do. There are sakura buds on each one. We eat those, too. It is sold in department stores and grocery stores in February and March.

Jiji used to buy it for my birthday cake. (We have four February birthdays so we used to get tired of cake.) We also eat it for hina matsuri. Sakura trees usually bloom in Tokyo at the end of March or in early April.

This box of sakura mochi came from a department store. It was wrapped in paper decorated with sakura blossoms and a drawing of sakura mochi.

Big Sister's Dolls

This is the set of dolls that Baba and Jiji bought for Big Sister before her first hina matsuri. We don't set out its lacquer platform and the silk screen because they are too big for this space. Her set has two ume trees.

Kids Web Japan-- hina matsuri

Kids Web Japan--manga, The Missing Doll

Details of An Emperor

This strap is to lift the doll without touching its silk robes. Actually white gloves are worn when handling them.

Details of An Empress

Layers of silk robes.

Even the back of her fan is decorated.

The Doll's Tables

Lacquer table.

Vases of ume branches.

Painted ume branches.

This is a lacquer table with wooden mochi on top. Real mochi that is diamond shaped and hard is bought and put in front of the dolls. We just use the wooden ones that came with the set. Note, too, that the dolls sit on tatami, straw, mats.