Out to Dry

That's taro on the other side of the fence. This fence and field are next to a parking lot of an apartment building.

This is the apartment building. The umbrellas are hanging from the kitchen window bars. That's the front door on the right and the gas meter on the left.

Digging Potatoes

Children from Big Sister and Little Brother's old kindergarten were digging potatoes today. I couldn't take a picture of them because of privacy issues, so I dug out their old school shovel. The big one was Jiji's, Grandpa's. The children wore their gym clothes and rain boots when they dug potatoes. They took home a bag of potatoes. We made a curry and stew with ours.

Here are the tops of the potato plants. See the crow? He is heading toward the holes where the children dug. Maybe he'll dig around for some small potatoes.

Here is the farmer digging and preparing another field. This is not the field behind our house and he is not our vegetable man.

Irene Smalls

Today marks the first day of Book Week here in Japan. SCBWI Tokyo had a Writers' Day on the 18th. Several writers held workshops. This week I will post about their books.

Irene Smalls is an author, teacher, and presenter. She talked to us about using all of our senses while creating and writing. Look at her website for more information about her workshops, presentations, and books.

I ordered her book Don't Say Ain't from http://www.amazon.co.jp/ before the workshop. What I really like about the book is that a young girl, Dana, lives in two worlds. One is her neighborhood and home where she's herself, and the other a school where she feels she has to speak and act differently. The author does a good job of showing us both worlds especially in the language differences. We (Little Brother, Big Sister, and I) can understand how Dana feels.

And there's jump roping! Jump roping is part of kindergarten and elementary school life here. It's part of the curriculum. You have to count and record how many times you jump.

Kids Web Japan-- Book Week

In Tokyo until December 14th

Big Sister finished exams and had a day off today. (She's in high school.) We went to this exhibition at The National Center of Art, Tokyo. It is located in Roppongi. This is a free handbill. There was a shop at the exit of the exhibition. We bought postcards and bookmarks. We also bought a package of New Year's money envelopes. They have different Picasso paintings on them. There was also a shop downstairs. There were several coffee shops. It was an interesting building. Check the website.

It was nice to see some of his work again. Little Brother went with us when we went 10 years ago. He was only two, but he enjoyed it. He picked out several postcards to buy.

He was quite heavy as I remember. I had to hold him up so he could see the paintings and drawings. You're never too young to enjoy art!

Sakura Leaves

Cherry tree leaves are falling now. This leaf was on the sidewalk. It was beside a door in the sidewalk. I didn't photograph the door and didn't really notice it in this picture until now. It was probably for workers to open to work on pipes.

Grape KitKat

Another KitKat! This one tastes like Muscat of Alexandria. That's a fancy sounding grape. It tasted like plain old grape to us.

KitKat is sold in small cardboard boxes. Inside the box, there are two small packages. Little Brother tore into his package from the opposite end. Packages here sometimes tell you where to open them. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

It's best to follow instructions, but this package easily ripped along the opposite edge so he was able to get the candy out without trouble. By the way, the candy coating was a light green. We ate it up before I could get a picture of it.

Fish Heads & Cages

We rescued four stray kittens from our neighbor's garden last fall. We caught their mother. We took her to the vet to be spayed so she won't have more kittens. This fall, a young cat is coming to our garden. We're trying to catch it to take it to the vet. There are many stray cats in our area. Feeding a stray cat without having it spayed or neutered is prohibited. There is a volunteer group that is trying to catch all the cats. They want to spay and neuter them and then release them. They lent us this cage.

The young cat is very clever. We've been trying to catch it for more than a week. The vet suggested tying a fish head in the cage. I tried that, but I caught the big Papa cat instead. We took him to the vet. I had to buy another fish head but couldn't find one. I bought this piece of fish instead. I hope we catch the young cat!

P.S. I caught another cat instead! A big tomcat. Then after a big effort I caught the young cat. Yikes, this is expensive!

Halloween at Disneyland

 

Aunt went to Disneyland for an office trip. She brought back souvenirs for us. This is the seasonal shopping bag. We went at Halloween many years ago. Young children dressed up in costumes. The park and the rides were decorated. There were many Halloween souvenirs. Click here to find out about Halloween at Disneyland.

Click here to find out about seasonal events at Disney Resort.

Lunch Apron & Bandanna

Little Brother is in junior high school. This is his school's lunch apron and bandanna. Each week a different group of students serve lunch to the rest of the class in their classroom. They wear aprons over their school uniforms.

Little Brother didn't wear a uniform in elementary school. He wore a white coat and hat when he served lunch. Click on the label below to see more about Japanese school lunch.

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Our vegetable man uses this tape to bind his vegetables into bunches. Grocery stores in the area use the same kind of tape.

Here are leeks and spinach from his vegetable stand. The picture was taken on our garden table. I bought and carried them home just like this. No shopping bag. He or his wife offers a bag, but most of their customers don't use them. You can see neighbors going home with their vegetables in hand or in bicycle baskets or in their own bags.

Open House

This young man was sitting on the street near the fields behind our house all day. He was pointing the way to these:

the new houses that were built across the field from our house. Over the weekend there were several men standing outside to talk to people.

Click on the label below to see more posts about building these houses. Scroll down and start from the post on June 2nd.

Dahlia

Dahlia is another late summer and early fall flower. Dahlias have been available at our local garden centers for the past two summers. Or so I have noticed.

Dahlias are originally from Mexico. This one is called "Arabian Night". It is dark red almost black. The sun is shining through from behind. There is a sunspot on the photo. Through the fence you can see that the farmer has plowed his field.

Sports Day

October 11th is usually the nation's offcial Sports Day. Both Little Brother and Big Sister have already had their Sports Day for this school year. They had them last spring. Some schools hold Sports Day in May. Their junior high and high schools do not make a big deal out of it like their elementary school did. Click on the label below to see past posts.

Tea Sweet

Big Sister's high school tea ceremony club will hold a tea for American students. She is sampling tea sweets from different shops. Tea sweets are seasonal in taste and decoration. This one is decorated with a Chinese bell flower. It is a summer and early fall flower.

A Bride

Today was our 18th wedding anniversary. Here I am in a wedding kimono. We rented it at the shrine. There were cranes, branches of ume (plum blossom), take (bamboo) and matsu (pine) embroidered on the fabric. The kimono was mostly purple with a lot of gold threads. Purple and gold were my high school colors. I didn't choose the kimono because of that. Most of the other kimonos were red. I didn't want to get married in a red kimono.

It's hard to sit in a kimono. There were many layers tightly tied together by a thick wide belt called an obi. By the way, that's a wig and I'm wearing very white make-up.

P.S. The computer has been down for a while. I may go back and post some things for the beginning of the month.

In the Potted Bamboo

This red and black caterpillar was eating violets but then started climbing the potted bamboo when I started taking pictures. We think it will be a butterfly with a leopard pattern. We looked it up in Little Brother's big bug and insect book. There are several butterflies that have caterpillars like this that eat violets. The pictures were too small to see the detail so we're not sure what it will be.

This is obviously in the praying mantis family. It fluttered from one bamboo pole to another and watched me as I took pictures. We looked it up and it's called a kokamakiri.

Battery Vending Machine

Recognize the dog?

Tea Ceremony Book

Big Sister is in the tea ceremony club at her high school. The club will perform for some students from the American School. The members feel they need to practice English. Big Sister will help, but the club advisor has found some books for them to learn the English words for the utensils, etc. This is one of the books.

It was written by Grand Master Soshitsu Sen and published by the Urasenke Foundation in Kyoto. This book has many photos of the ceremony developed by this Foundation. There are different styles of the tea ceremony. This is one of them.

Stripped Bark

I didn't know crape myrtle trees do this. It looks like they shed their skin at the end of summer. All of them had strips of barking hanging from their branches and on the ground around their trunks.

We usually visit these trees in the winter at Jindai Botanical Gardens. Then they are bare of leaves and their branches and trunks look smooth and slippery. Crape myrtle is called "monkey slip" (or slide) in Japanese. These photos were taken September 10th.

Coming Home from a Funeral

When I left the house yesterday, I saw this small plate of salt near our entrance. It was wrapped in saran wrap. Aunt had put it there before she left for a funeral of a friend at work.

It is a custom to throw salt on a person who comes home from a funeral. A pinch of salt is thrown on the person's back and front. It is supposed to scare away spirits who follow the person home. Our family also does it when we return from the cemetery.

When we go to funerals, we usually ring the bell for Baba to come to the gate to throw salt on us. (Baba usually stays home.) Today Aunt threw salt on herself. Baba was having tea with a neighbor in the afternoon and I was gone.