Halloween in Japan

The kids went Trick-or-Treating tonight at our apartment building. Although it is only October 21st, the school has fall break next week and many people go out of town (we're going to Saipan, for instance), so they decided to have it early. Each of our kids invited a friend to go along. The event is just for residents and invited guests. I felt bad for the American kids who didn't live in the building,...so we invited 5 guests!

There ar

e lots of Halloween decorations and costumes in the stores on Rokko Island and in Kobe. There is even going to be a Halloween festival and costume parade on Oct. 31st here on the island, but trick-or-treating hasn't caught on yet. Our building does it only because there are so many American expats living here.

The front desk put together a list of the apartments that participated and the kids started at the top of the building and worked their way down the stairs. They had the little kids start first and the older kids wait about 45 minutes to start. This was an

excellent idea as there were lots of kids participating and it was kind of chaotic! I think we had roughly 100 or so kids. I felt sorry for the people coming home from work at 6:00 p.m. The elevators were completely jammed!

Walking down 32 floors is a totally different experience than trick-or-treating in a neighborhood! (We did take the elevator back up)! However, the kids still had a great time and we didn't have to worry about the weather.

Katie was Princess Belle, Laura was Princess Leia, and Nathan was Boba Fett (in the green and grey costume, on the left). Matt and I brought the costumes back from the U.S. when we were there in September.

Unfortunately, I think it might have been a bit too much excitement for a weekday. Katie cried herself to sleep and Laura is doing her best to follow suit...although the sleeping part still hasn't happened yet. :-( Nathan went to a birthday party between the end of school and the beginning of trick-or-treating at 5:00 p.m., but he had no problem going to sleep...I guess he was exhausted!

Himeji Castle

See the three little figures on the left...that's how high this entrance gate to the castle is!

Today we went to see Himeji Castle. This castle is considered the best example left of a traditional Japanese castle. It is also called the White Heron Castle because it's white plastered walls are supposed to look like a bird taking flight.

It is a true military stronghold! It'

s built on a hill, has a moat, 3 separate ring walls that are built at an angle to help repel invaders and which are riddled with small, angled holes for archers and lookouts. The main donjon (tower) is 7 floors filled with racks and hooks for gunpowder, swords and guns. The steps are so steep they are like ladders and many have heavy wooden doors at the top that can be closed to repel invaders. Each floor has hidden compartments where soldiers could hide and high small windows for throwing objects. There are also special doors where rocks could be thrown at invaders below. Honestly, I'm not sure how anyone could have actually lived in the main donjon. The stairs alone would have done me in!

There is a special tower that is part of the western bailey wall where Princess Sen lived in the 1600's. The girls were completely intrigued by this! As we walked through the main tower they kept asking where the princesses bedrooms were. When we finally found the Cosmetic or Vanity Tower that is associated with Princess Sen, they were very relieved to see that it was partially furnished. This is a representation of the princess playing a game in her rooms.

The rest of the complex was basically just bare rooms with specific exhibits relating to warfare on display. The one exception was the Shinto shrine at the top of the castle. It was
originally located at the site and moved to make room for the castle. It was moved back to the castle, and up to the top floor, to help avoid bad luck.

We had a great time and the weather was perfect!

Sports Day

This is a little out of order but mom and dad asked for more info about Sports Day. According to the school website "Sports Day, a Japanese national holiday, is a day that encourages us to participate in physical activity, and have fun

while doing so. The Sports Day tradition started as a way to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the first time Japan hosted this international event. The first Sports Day at Canadian Academy was held in 1984 at the Nagaminedai campus. CA’s Physical Education (PE) Department is charged with planning the activities for this whole school event. The format of CA's Sports Day focuses on cooperation, communication, personal involvement, and the development of long-term cross-school relationships. The teams are organized by calendar month with each student’s respective birth date dictating the team they join. Teams January through to June wear red shirts and teams July through to December wear gray shirts."

Matt had the day off on Monday, so we were both able to go. It was an amazing example of organized chaos! There are @760 kids at the school. In the morning the students were devided into 12 teams that had students from preschool through 12th grade. They different activities with a parachute, passing big inflatable

balls, passing water from cup to cup, blindman's bluff, riding on a roller board, and running while sharing a hoop! It was a blast to watch! The kids had a great time too. During the later part of the morning the kids were divided by grade level and took part in about 10 different activities/games. There was no "winner" for the day, but they all had a great time! The best part was that they were out of school by noon!

Sukiyaki

On Tuesday I look a class on cooking Sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is a meal that is usually reserved for family gatherings and special events.It is very easy to make but, it can also be expensive. Sukiyaki consists of beef and vegetables cooked in a nabe pot with a special dashi based sauce. The pot is used right at the table.

First you have to make a dashi broth. This is made with dried kelp, water and dried bonito (fish) pieces. This has to be cooked and then strained. Or you can buy dashi powder and just mix with water. The broth is then mixed with soy sauce, miran and brown sugar to create the "sauce" for the dish.

Next you cut up the veggies. Traditionally things like negi (a large scallion), Chinese cabbage, shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves), and shiitake and enokitake mushrooms are used. Tofu or cubes of gluten are also cooked. The veggies are usually cut and arranged decoratively on fancy plates. The presentation is very important in Japan, especially since this is a special occasion type of meal.

First the beef is cooked in the sauce in the nabe pan. Sukiyaki actually means something like "cooking/eating meat". The meat for Sukiyaki is more expensive because you need thin, fatty beef that will cook quickly.



Next the rest of the sauce is poured into the pan, and the vegetables and tofu are cooked. You stir until things are at the right consistency and the food is served onto your plate, directly from the pan. It is customary to dip all of the food in raw egg while it is still hot and eat it immediately. All eggs in Japan are irradiated, so salmonella isn't as much of a concern, but I still couldn't force myself to try the raw egg! Rice is served as a side dish. It was surprisingly filling and I even liked the tofu! I think I may buy a nabe pot and try this some time. The kids might think it is fun to try cooking at the table...of course I'll have to substitute more "American" vegetables!

Thanks to my friend Alexis for the pictures!

Date Night

Matt and I have been lucky enough to find a wonderful baby sitter named Joanne. She has started watching the kids for us on Thursday nights so that we can start exploring all of the wonderful restaurants in Kobe! This past Thursday we went to a place called Kitano Tei. It is relatively nearby, so we took the train and walked the 4 blocks from the station. We had the front desk of our apartment building make a reservation and draw us a very detailed map. We arrived at the location and found three restaurants, all with signs in Japanese and no address numbers anywhere! We guessed and luckily we ended up in the right place. The restaurant was about 15 seats arranged in a half square around a grill. We chose from the food in front of us and the chef cooked it on the grill while we watched. He then served it to us on a long wooden paddle. It was delicious!

We had a few funny experiences that night. While we were eating, two Japanese businessmen walked into the restaurant. They had on very conservative suits...except for the pink quilted bag and pink tie with cartoon characters that one man was wearing! Pink is fine for both women and men here. Later we saw a teenager wearing a pink t-shirt that said "Teeny Weenie." He obviously had no idea what it meant. After seeing the English language t-shirts here, I've decided never to wear anything that I can't read for myself! We also found some interesting statues in the train stations. Notice the outfits on the teen girls at the base of the statues. This was at around 8:30 p.m.! We also went to a nightclub. It was early and there was only one other couple there. It was a fairly well known club, but like most places in Japan, very small. When the singer got up to perform he was about 2 feet away from us. He basically did karoke, although he had a great voice. However, it was incredibly uncomfortable to be so close to the performer in an empty club. Thankfully, he took a break after 40 minutes or so and we made our escape!

Typhoon Melor and Sports Day

We had our first typhoon pass through our area of Japan last night. It's still hitting to Tokyo area today, but is dying out and won't really amount to much up there.

The winds really started picking up at about midnight or 1a and continued strongly until about 5a or so. Amazingly, all of the kids slept right through it.

I think Nathan and Laura had gotten rather worked up from all of the talk at school and were clearly worried when they went to bed. Katie woke up cheerful and asked if today is the day the typhoon is coming. She almost seemed disappointed she missed it.

Megan and I, however, did not sleep through the night. The storm was very loud and caused the whole building to groan and sway. It was never really dangerous, but you couldn't help but hear the noise for 4 or 5 hours and you could even feel the movement as the building swayed back and forth in the wind.

This morning, it's all back to normal. People had basically secured everything on the island, so there was nothing to blow around. There was hardly anything in the way of leaves or branches either. Really, it looks just like another night of rain.

Also, the few days after a typhoon are usually very good weather. The temperature drops a bit and the air is cleared out of pollens and pollutants. The kids should have a great day for sports day on Monday.

Sports day is quite a concept. All of Japan celebrates it, but the exact day varies locally. In this area, it's October 12th. At the schools, it's the same as field day, but parents all come and it's taken very seriously. Amazingly, most Japanese companies also take a day and compete in a kind of corporate olympics against other companies based in their area. This is a VERY big deal. The senior executives watch and the employees and managers go all out. It's very important to try to win and the competitiveness is high. At the end, through, it's like the Palio in Siena -- only bragging rights are at stake.

P&G just takes the day off and doesn't stage it's own series of competitions -- so I won't get to run a marathon against a bunch of middle managers from Asics. That's just as well considering how out of shape I am now.

Harborland Revisited

Over the weekend we went back to Harborland on a beautiful sunny day. We visited an outdoor mall and amusement park and ate at the Fisherman's Wharf. It is a buffet-style restaurant that actually had pretty good food. The chocolate fountain was everyone's favorite dessert! Quite a bit of it ended up on Katie's face and dress. :-) Nathan ended up with a horrible stomachache that magically got better as soon as we arrived at the amusement park! The kids' favorite rides were the giant motorized stuffed animals that they could drive around the park. The mall was also decorated for Halloween, so we got to see a few fall decorations too!

Hot Sand and Pocari Sweat for lunch anyone?

Natural Disasters All Around

When you are living in an earthquake prone area surrounded by ocean, people are much more in tune to the power of sea and the threat of natural disasters. Asia has been having it's fair share this year. The actual dmage and devistation is very disperate for rich Asia (Japan, South Korea) and poor Asia (everywhere else).

We are right in the middle of typhoon season. The Phillipeans were hit last weekend with a large typhoon. The typhoon itself didn't do much damage, but Manilla had very serious flooding. P&G's officers there were affected and I find I contstantly have to check to see who works where as I go about my day. I'm always worried about sending out an email along the lines of "what's taking my expense report so long" to someone who isn't at work because they are homeless. The flooding, apparently, was limited to Manilla, and the areas outside of the city really just have te normal post-typhoon hassles (downed power lines, trees, broken windows, etc.).

Manilla isn't partiucularly close to Japan, but typhoon is the most likely disaster when you are surrounded by ocean.

Indonesia had a earthquake later in the week. Indonesia is in Southeast Asia -- Japan is in Northeast Asia. Indonesia is quite far away and rather poor, so the damage is great.

We are tracking a typhoon in the ocean which is reasonably likely to hit Japan next week. These things are had to track, so you never know. Kobe is not too exposed. Our harbor is rather protected, so flooding is quite unlikely. We are on the 28th floor, so we're good there. Also, our ocean water is cold enough that most storms are loosing energy by the time they get here.

It's been raining for about a week now. If we do get a storm coming into the area, we're probably due for 2 or 3 more days of rain.

Even though lots of stuff has been in the news, the only thing close to us was a flood up in the mountains in our general area during the summer. One person was killed, but that was due to do getting caught in the mudslide. We really haven't had anything in our area other than seeing the same pictures on the news everyone else is.

Interesting Day

A barely sick Nathan enjoying the freedom of playing his Wii all afternoon. (This is a sick day luxury only!)

Yesterday the kids finally went back to school after being off sick with low grade fevers and sore throats for several days. They were inspected by the nurse at the school Health Office who took their temp. and gave them passes to get back into class.

The school is taking the flu season very seriously this year. If a child is diagnosed with flu, every child in his class has to have their temperature taken at the nurse's office every day for a week. Unfortunately, this hasn't halted the spread and the 6 grade classes were cancelled for the rest of the week. 33 of the 50 students had called in sick! So far they are seeing Influenza A. Last year the entire school was closed for a week because a student at a nearby school was diagnosed with H1N1!

Right before we left for school, yesterday the phone rang. It was the school asking if I'd substitute for one of the librarians. (I agreed to be on the substitute list at the beginning of the year, but I didn't think there would be much need for a substitute librarian!) I'd already agreed to volunteer in Laura's class room that morning, so they found someone else to substitute until 11:00 a.m. and then I took over. I'd never even been in the library before, so it was very interesting! The most popular items were the 24 laptops that students can check out to use on the wireless network in the library. School libraries have come a long way!

After school, we walked home in the rain. It's only rained during the day twice since we've arrived and I completely forgot the umbrellas! Luckily, we were able to walk under the elevated train tracks most of the way, so we didn't get too wet. The girls had a birthday party in the afternoon and Nathan had a friend over to play. It's amazing how much like home our everyday life is here!

We finished the night by heading to Harborland, a neighborhood in Kobe. It was a very dark and rainy night and there was a motorcyle accident on the bridge from Rokko Island to the mainland. We all got a very close look. Although the cyclist looked like he would be okay, none of us had seen a motorcyle accident before. It was pretty disturbing. None of us will be riding one any time soon!

Singing in the rain!

Harborland was a pleasant surprise! It has an amusement park with a ferris wheel lit up with patterned lights. The streets were lined with trees with little twinkling white lights and the shops and restaurants all looked very nice. Matt bought some treats for the office at the "Sweets Harbor" It was a huge area that reminded me of a cosmetics counter, but with cookies, cakes, pies, and candies at the various counters. We wanted to go to a kid-friendly restaurant for dinner. For our kids, that means something familiar. Several people recommended the Old Spegetti Factory. I found the name and address on my iPhone, showed it to the clerk at the store, and asked which direction to go. She proceeded to lead us upstairs, out of the mall and three blocks down the street in the dark and the rain to OSF! I tried to tip her, but she was horribly insulted, so I pretended that what I really wanted was to take her picture instead. I've heard people rave about the service here, but that was my first experience with truely over-the-top amazing service!

Our store clerk guide and Laura