Thinking of Galveston

Here are some early morning pictures of the coast of Galveston. Little Brother and I went there with Aunt Carol in early August. We've been thinking about Galveston and wish everyone there well.

This is one of the staircases that goes down the sea wall to the beach.

Water Lilies at Jindai Botanical Gardens

These pictures were taken on the the 10th.

There are eyes all around

These signs are on the back of trucks, on buses, taxis, etc. It says something like "We're not going to overlook crime. " In other words, we're watching you!

This sign was on the back of this vehicle.

See the man on the bike in the upper right hand corner? Click to enlarge the picture. There is a sign on his basket. It is for the "Mama Patrol". Mamas patrol the area after school. He must be somebody's grandpa. Jiji, our grandpa, used to be part of the "Mama Patrol". I don't ride a bike. I patrolled, but I didn't wear a sign.

Bats

I've been watching the skies for bats on clear evenings. We've been haing lots of electrical storms lately. There aren't as many bats as there were last year. I think I say that every year.

I tried taking pictures from the street on Sunday evening. It was impossible! This evening I stood in the roof garden. They're too fast and I'm still too slow. I did get one, though. Can you find it? It's below the smudge (speck) and to the left.

A Gift for Attending

Papa attended his boss's dance class performance on Saturday. She performed the tango. I watched the video. It was great! But I'm wondering...how does she have time to practice?

Anyway, she gave nicely wrapped boxes of "New Style Stick Donuts" to her friends and employees who attended. They all paid (a big ticket fee) to go, but it included dinner. It was a fancy dinner show. See the "Best Wishes" sticker at the top?

There was another fancy embossed label on the back. It was used to tape the paper together. Fuji Bambi is the name of the shop.

In the past, store clerks used only one piece of tape when wrapping packages. (Everything was wrapped back then.) This package had tape on both ends and that label on the back.

It sprouted already!

The vegetable man planted this row on August 27th.

Any idea what it is? Click to enlarge the picture. Sorry it's blurry! I'll try to get a clearer picture.

Tabi

Big Sister had to buy tabi to wear when she performs the tea ceremony at her high school festival. Only members of her club will perform. They will wear yukata (summer kimono).

This is the bottom of the tabi. There is a fitted toe so that she can wear geta (wooden sandals) with them. Of course, she will only wear the tabi on tatami (straw mats) during the performance. (We never wear shoes or slippers on tatami.)

The package actually has instructions on how to put on the tabi.

Young Broccoli

Tabi Detail

Big Sister asked me this morning if I wanted to take the tabi out of the package to take pictures of them. Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! I quickly scanned these details. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. These are made of thick cotton. The cotton on the soles have a texture and pattern.

This is how the tabi are fastened. There are flat metal hooks, but no metal eyes. The hooks hook into double threads.

Here are the metal hooks. Note the little man engraved on the top two hooks. He is on bended knees bowing to us.

Tabi Package

The bowing man is on the package, too.

This is on the front of the package. It indicates that these tabi have metal hooks or clasps.

This is the company information. There is a telephone number there for those of you living in Japan.

Watermelon KitKat

KitKat had another seasonal flavor. This summer, it was watermelon, suika.

The chocolate is brown and not pink like the sakura KitKat. Click on the label below to see other flavors. There was a berry flavored KitKat at he beginning of summer but I forgot to post it.

Happy Birthday in Kanji

Baba, grandmother, had her 81st birthday on August 31st. This chocolate piece was on her cake. I posted one of these a long time ago. It is the most popular HTJ blog post. At least ten people a week do a google search to find out how to say "Happy Birthday" in Japanese.

In that picture, "Happy Birthday " is written in hiragana. Here, "Birthday" or otanjoubi is written in kanji on the first line. The second line omedetou is written in hiragana. The third line says "baba" in hiragana. It was all chocolate. Little Brother ate it. Big Sister was still in the States with Papa. (They usually share chocolate cake decorations.)

We all missed Papa's birthday cake today on September 1st. He was too jet-lagged to celebrate his birthday. His cake from 31 (Baskin Robbins) is in the freezer.


Check out Kids Web Japan for more information about the Japanese writing systems. The Kids Web Japan site is sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kids Web Japan--language
Kids Web Japan--hiragana
Kids Web Japan--greeting cards

Earthquake Drills

September 1st is the first day kids go back to school after the summer holiday. (The first day of school is in April). This is the anniversary of the big Kanto earthquake so students usually have to do earthquake drills. Click on the label below for other posts about earthquakes.

Cicada

This cicada was sitting on the chair on our porch. They can sit very quietly for a very long time. Holly Thompson mentions cicada in her HTJ interview posted on the 28th.

An Interview with Author Holly Thompson

Holly Thompson (left) is the author of the picture book The Wakame Gatherers illustrated by Kazumi Wilds (right). It was published by Shen's Books. Holly also wrote the young adult novel, Ash, published by Stonebridge Press.

Holly Thompson is the regional advisor for the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI. She and the other volunteers work very hard to organize events for us. She is also a university instructor of creative writing. Thanks, Holly, for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions about your life in Japan.

Do you have any early childhood memories of Japan? What did you know about Japan when you were a child?

I knew almost nothing of Japan when I was a child. I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and didn’t have much chance to travel outside of New England until I was in college.

What was something that surprised you when you first came to Japan?

I was surprised by the cockroaches. They are huge and fast and hard to kill. I became good at whacking them.

How often do you go back to your home country? Do you have culture shock when you go back?

I return to the U.S. once or twice a year. Yes, I certainly have culture shock. People seem loud and noisy and boastful. It always takes a while for me to get used to communicating in such a casual way again. I also get frustrated because, compared to Japan, there isn’t very good public transportation (trains, subways, buses) in the U.S.; everyone relies on cars. And I am shocked when I see how little people recycle. Here in Japan we recycle in so many different categories—plastics, cans and bottles, PET bottles, corrugated cardboard, gray cardboard, mixed paper, milk cartons, burnables, non-burnables, and on and on. I hope that more towns and cities in the U.S. will become better at recycling.

Do you bring anything (food, clothing, etc.) back to Japan?

Shoes! Always lots of shoes. The shoe sizes in Japan are not large enough for me. And tortillas—they are hard to find in Japan.

Is there anything you miss about your home country/state?

I grew up in New England, and I miss the old houses and the small farms (though these are disappearing). I especially miss New England apples.

Has your family visited you in Japan?

Yes, my family members have all come to visit. They were happy when I moved back to Japan ten years ago because they wanted an excuse to visit again.

You just moved from Kamakura to Yokohama. What do you miss about Kamakura? What do you like about Yokohama?

I miss the sea air of Kamakura and I miss being able to get on my bicycle to ride down to the beach in any season. Yokohama is a huge city of 3.6 million people, so it is quite different from Kamakura. In Yokohama I like the houses and buildings that are left from the early twentieth century, when it was a newly international city.

Do you live in a house or an apartment?

We live in a house. We used to live in an old house with small rooms and tatami-mat floors, but a typhoon last year tore off part of the roof. Now we live in a newer house. The roof is stronger and the house is designed to survive earthquakes better than our other house. But it still wiggles and rattles during quakes!

Do you have any pets?

No, not now because we rent our house. But in the past we have had cats, goldfish and, for a time, crayfish (not recommended).

What is your favorite season in Japan?

Hmm. I love February along the coasts when wakame seaweed is hung to dry. And April during the “new green” when all the trees are putting out different shades of new green leaves. And June when the rains make the greens intense and the hues of hydrangeas change day by day. And August when there are fireworks displays up and down the coasts. And October when the mikan and persimmons are ripe. And November when the air is clear and the campgrounds are empty. And…

What is your favorite snack in Japan?

Kaki-no-tane. Literally this translates as “persimmon seeds” but they are actually just crescent-shaped spicy rice crackers mixed with peanuts. A staple food in our house.

What is your favorite beverage?

Mugicha—cold barley tea. Perfect in summer!

Who is your favorite Japanese singer?

Well, does a Hawaiian in Japan count? The former sumo wrestler Konishik.

What is your favorite Japanese anime character?

Suihanki-kun (rice-cooker boy) and his many electrical appliance friends. Whoever thought them up???

What is/are your favorite children’s book(s) set in Japan?

Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say, because it is set in two cultures and shows so well what it is like to feel at home both in Japan and the U.S.

What place in Japan would you suggest for visitors to see?

Kamakura, where I lived for 10 years. The Big Buddha and many temples and shrines are there and there’s great bicycling along the beach and narrow back lanes and good hiking in the hills. The other place I recommend is the west coast of the Izu Peninsula—the mountains, cliffs, seaside villages, mikan groves and beaches are spectacular.

What is something you would take with you if you had to leave Japan?

Well, I guess that’s not possible. So maybe a Japanese style bathtub—nice and deep.

What is something you would miss about Japan if you left?

The sound of cicadas. I actually have made recordings. Apparently there are some 30 species of cicadas in Japan, and when they emerge from underground and climb up the trees in mid-summer the noise is astounding! There are so many different calls and whines and clicks.

Can you tell us a funny story about something that happened to you in Japan? When I first moved to Japan, years ago, in a little clothing store I went to the dressing room to try on some clothes. I was changing behind the curtain when the clerk called to me and said, “Yoroshii desu ka?” which loosely translates as “Is it ok?” Thinking I was so smart with my Japanese, I called out, “Hai,”—yes! not realizing that what she meant was “Is it ok if I open the curtain?” The curtain was flung open on a half-dressed foreigner; she screamed, I screamed, the curtain was flung closed again, and I waited a long while before emerging. I learned to think carefully before answering questions in Japanese!

End of Summer Planting

From our roof garden, I see our vegetable man is sowing seeds for fall vegetables.

Afterwards, he scoots down the row pushing dirt over the seeds with his feet.

He pats the dirt down as he walks back.

That's a big bag of seeds! I walked past his fields later in the day. He was hoeing around the plants on the left. I asked him what the plants were. He said, "Broccoli." I told him, " I will wait for them." That's taro, satoimo, in the background.

I forgot to ask what he had planted earlier in the day. Let's wait and see if we can guess what it is after it sprouts.

We made our way back. The morning glories didn't do well this year. They were well taken care of by Aunt. Perhaps they were waiting for us! This one bloom greeted me the day after we came back. Little Brother overslept and missed it.