Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Moribito wins the Batchelder Award !

Congratulations! Moribito was written by Nahoko Uehashi and translated into English from Japanese by Cathy Hirano.

Click here to read about The Batchelder Award .

Alison Lester

Author/illustrator Alison Lester disappeared for a few moments in Tokyo the evening of the 23rd. She was here to visit international schools. She came to our SCBWI Tokyo chapter to speak to us.

After her presentation, on our way to dinner, she saw a member's electric bicycle and wanted to ride it. She took off and disappeared around the corner. When she reappeared, I took this picture of her as she rode past me. She disappeared again! She's a blur in this picture not because she was going so fast but because there wasn't enough light.

Here she is earlier in the evening autographing a book. She autographed mine and drew a picture of her dog, Fatty.

Alison Lester is a lot of fun. She showed us photos of her trips to Antarctica and talked to us about her other projects and books. She has done a lot of work with the indigenous people of her native land, Australia. She's funny and interesting. You might want to invite her to your school for a visit.

Water Pipes Replaced

Our street has been a mess for over two weeks. They cut into the concrete to replace our neighborhood's water pipes. In this picture, the worker is smoothing out the gravel. First, he used the other machine to pound the gravel. This picture was taken from the roof garden. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Obama Headlines

Obama's Era Begins. Come Together for Change. (rough translation)

President Obama. First African-American President. Appeal for America's Rebirth.
(rough translation)

The pictures were in color, but I reduced and copied the articles in black and white at MiniStop. It costs 50 yen per color copy!

Things to buy at the Shrine on Coming-of-Age Day

Daruma for sale. Buy one, make a wish, fill in one eye and then when the wish comes true fill in the other eye. They are taken to the temple on the first visit of the new year to be burned.

Caged balloon animals.

Bagged cotton candy.

Small punch balls filled with water. You don't really punch them, you pat them. You wrap the string around your finger and bounce them under your palm.

Coming-of-Age Day at Okunitama Shrine

Paper hanging from the torii.

See the young ladies in kimono? Check out the link and labels below for more information.

Kids Web Japan--Coming-of-Age Day

Behind the Scenes at the Shrine

That's not a wreath. It's wire and bulb sockets.

Best Wishes for the New Year!

Best wishes and fresh air! Aunt gave this to me. It is an air freshener. The cow decoration is made of paper, but the back is a thick piece of charcoal/charwood.

The New Year Sunrise

 

Field of Pigeons

 

Floor Cleaning Slippers

The new year is coming. Here, everyone tries to clear all the old year's dirt out of the house before the first day of the new year. There are a lot of displays and advertisements of cleaning products.

These floor cleaning slippers were in an ad for the store ATMAN. They can be found there throughout the year, but now is a good time to advertise them. I've never considered buying them or even really looked at them. I wonder if they come with instructions.

White ones have been available for decades. They were available in a kid's size, too. These are nice because they are brown. They won't show dirt or stains from the old year. Even after they are washed.

Merry Christmas!

Click on the label below to read past posts about Christmas in Japan.

You may have seen this mark. Focus a cell phone on this square mark and you can connect to a company's website. Do you have this in your country?

The Root (Potato)

This is the potato. It is called yatsugashira. Zuiki imo comes from this. Click on the label below to see other posts.

here is a big tray of yatsugashira.  The tray on the right is full of zuiki imo (sometimes called beni zuiki.). Daikon and leeks are on the left.

Andrew Wyeth Exhibition Tokyo 2008

Big Sister and I went to the Andrew Wyeth exhibition called Emotion and Creation. It was at the Bunkamura in Shibuya. The 23rd will be the last day.

The collection included studies he made of the objects or subjects (people, animals) of his paintings. There were some studies of Christina from his most famous work, "Christina's World". It was interesting to see that he would sketch or even paint some of the areas of the painting before he painted the whole painting. So, he didn't just sit down and paint a picture from start to finish.

There was a short video of an interview with him from August 2008. He is 91 years old. He said he would sometimes start with watercolor, but then decide to start over and use egg tempera.

He said he hoped people could see the love he had for the objects in the paintings. He also thanked the Japanese people. He said he could feel their warmth. He appreciated it. There were many people there on Monday. They slowly moved from one painting to the next. Many got up really close to see his craft. I watched people enjoy his work.

The last paintings near the exit were "The Crescent" and "The Doorbell". They were painted in 1990. I think they are my favorites along with the one on this poster. I sat on a stool in front of them and waited for Big Sister. She rented an audio guide, and it took longer for her to go through the exhibition.

I felt really grateful to see these recent works! I have been outside the U.S. for a long time and haven't kept up with his work. At this exhibition, I learned that there is a Andrew Wyeth museum in Saitama, Japan. That is very close to our house!

Yuzu for the Winter Solstice

Today is the winter solstice. Tonight, we will bathe with whole yuzu in the bath. Net bags of three fruit are sold in grocery stores. They are also sold individually. Click on the label below to see more posts about yuzu.

This tree is in our neighborhood. It is next to a motorcycle shop. I took this picture earlier in the month. I'll try to go tomorrow to see if anyone picked the fruit.

This is the biggest yuzu tree I have ever seen. I usually see them in clay or plastic pots.

P.S. On the 24th, some of the yuzu had been picked, but there were still a lot on the tree.

Frosty Field

Out to Dry

This is called zuiki imo, the stems (kuki) of a potato plant. The potato is a big potato that is eaten at New Year's. I'll be on the lookout to get a picture of it.

Baba told me that she doesn't particularly like it so she doesn't buy and serve it. It has a unique flavor. She said that it was something that was used in times when there wasn't much food. But people still eat and enjoy it in miso soup and in other vegetable broth dishes.
The stems are dried. The outer skin is stripped off. Then the stems are chopped and used in dishes.

Winter Vegetables

That's imo guki on the left and leeks on the right.

On the top shelf: cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bag of taro

middle shelf: turnips, spinach, broccoli

bottom shelf: leeks, daikon (Japanese radish)

Yesterday, children were walking home carrying daikon, Japanese radishes. Little Brother planted and pulled daikon in one of the nearby when he was in elementary school.

Click on the labels below for more posts about these vegetables.