Mmmm Mmmm Good

One thing we were looking forward to when we knew we were coming back to Japan was all the delicious food.  But I have to admit, there are some Japanese foods that we are not such big fans of, and here are a few of them.  Enjoy:

The first one that comes to mind as almost universally detested by non-Japanese is natto. Natto is fermented soy beans (I'd say rancid).  They are stinky, brown and gooey.  When you pick them up with your chopsticks they trail strings like melted mozzarella.  They are most commonly eaten at breakfast with a little soy sauce and spicy mustard.  It is not uncommon to see kids at the preschools with little threads around their mouths (and a nasty smell on their breath) as a hint of what they had for breakfast.  Terence actually will eat natto, but it has the distinction of being one of the first foods we've found that Willem does not like (although some of the following have since fallen into that category).

Tororo (or as we like to call it, Tengu snot) - Tororo is a grated mountain yam.  A few weeks ago we visited Mt. Takao, a popular nature area near here.  Tororo is a specialty, and especially during the winter it features in many of the dishes.  Takao is also famous for long nosed goblins called tengu, so when we were served a dish of Tororo at the restaurant, we lovingly renamed it.

Eel guts and tiny squid - Last weekend we stayed at a traditional Japanese inn in Narita while visiting friends from our first time in Japan.  These inns serve kaiseki ryori, a traditional meal of many small dishes of different things.  One dish we got included two tiny (as in about 1 1/2 inches long) simmered squids and some eel guts on a stick.  This second one was especially appealing as on our walk through Narita to the inn we stopped by an eel restaurant to watch two workers preparing live eels at a table outside. 

Continuing in the vein of small seafood, a very popular item, especially with kids at the preschools, is shirasu, tiny, tiny little fish (perhaps 1/4 inch long, not much more than a white thread with two black eyespots).  The preschool kids like them mixed into their rice.  The boys' breakfast at the inn included a dish with just the fish topped with what appeared to be soy sauce.

Now realize that these are just a couple of things we find hard to swallow (literally) here in Japan.  A majority of the food here is great.  For example, even the most mediocre sushi from a convenience store here is as good or better that what we can get back home.  

Aunts and Uncles in Japan

One of the great things about being back in Japan is reconnecting with the missionary staff.  Even though most of the missionaries in Japan are Special Assignment Missionaries, that in no way means that they are short term. Even the Bartons, who are career missionaries here started out on a two year SAM assignment.  The Bartons and 3 other SAMS who are here now, were here back when Christy was in Japan the first time (1992) even before she met Terence. They were Christy's extended family the first time she came, fresh out of college and new to life abroad. Mike Wagner, especially, is like a big brother to her. Christy has many fond memories of holidays and missionary staff meetings at the Barton's house with everyone. We also spent our first Christmas as a married couple visiting the other missionaries around Japan.

When our boys were born and we came back for our second term with an infant in tow, these same missionaries became surrogate aunts and uncles to Willem, Tai and now Xavier, too. 

We have enjoyed getting together with them now a couple of times since we've arrived.  This past week Bernie and Cheryl Barton and Zonia Mitchell were able to come over for dinner on Valentines Day.  We had fun talking together.  It was almost as if there wasn't a gap of six years since last time we had been in Japan.  

After dinner we all did something uniquely Japanese.  Though it is something that the missionary staff always enjoys, we must remind ourselves that it sounds so odd to North American ears.  Down the hill from our apartment is a brand new multi-level complex that is basically a bunch of public baths.  Now before anyone gets too concerned, they are segregated by gender.  As someone noted in an local English language magazine, she has seen more naked people in a short time in Japan than she has seen in North America in her entire life.  So Terence, Bernie and the boys went together to the men's bath to strip down and hang out with a fair number of other men enjoying water of varying temperatures and locations, both inside and outside.  Christy and Cheryl did the same in the women's baths.  (Zonia offered to watch Xavier for us because as the sign said, "The person attaching a diaper cannot enter the bath").  

It sounds like it would be a very awkward situation, but once you get past your own issues you realize that no one really pays attention to the fact that you are naked.

This was the boy's first experience in a Japanese public bath.  They loved it, and started counting down the days to the next opportunity we would have.  They don't know it, but we missed an opportunity a few weeks ago when the missionaries got together to celebrate Bernie's birthday with dinner and, of course, a bath.

The Little Things - Good and Bad

This entry will be little glimpses of our life here in Japan.

Little things that are challenging:

1. Our little kitchen (that one is from Terence). Total kitchen space - counter, sink, stove, convection oven, cabinets above and below all in about an 8 foot strip.

2. The child with one hand in her mouth and one hand in her pants as you approach to shake hands. This one was from Willem. "I was going to shake the one not in her mouth until the other one went in her pants." (For some reason, perhaps in order to manage the total lack of privacy, there seem to be short times when Japanese people forget they are in public places - this is also seen on the trains when adult men decided it is time to clean out their nasal passages.) 

3. Body odor on the train - sharing a train car with 50 other people returning home from a long day of work. Our boys have experienced Tokyo trains during rush hour.

4. Waiting days for your clothes to dry. After they come out of our washing machine (the same one we used 8 years ago - and it wasn't new then) they get hung on an assortment of racks out on the balcony and on hangers from the curtain rods. When it is rainy and cold it can take days for them to dry.

5. The lack of insulation - hauling your heater from room to room and squeegeeing over two cups of condensation off the windows some mornings.

Little things we love about Japan:

1. The bath - plug it in, push a button and it fills the tub and heats the water to the temperature and depth of your choosing. Then, even hours later you can bathe with water up to your neck that is still at the temperature that you chose.

2. The man on the train that not only gave up his seat at rush hour for sleeping Xavier and Christy, but also watched out for Willem and Tai who were by a door and at risk of getting swept off the train. He even got off at our transfer stop with the boys to make sure they stayed on the platform and didn't get separated from us in the crowd. 

3. Getting hot and cold drinks from machines whenever you want.

4. Watching Evergreen Kids Choir sing original gospel songs and their own version of "O Happy Day" - Evergreen Choir is the ministry of one of the Preschool Directors and is made up of a group of 60 Japanese elementary and junior high kids. 

5. Excellent public parks and community centers - where you 

can play dress-up in an old farm house, make cool crafts and projects from wood, jump on giant bouncy clouds, climb on a series of stone and mosaic dragons and, best of all make, as much noise as you want without worrying about neighbors.

6. Being given a cup of hot green tea, coffee or British tea as you come in to work

There are many more little things that we like about Japan but we will save those for another time.

Where is home?

Tai has always been interested in the fact that he was born in a foreign country that he has no memory of. When we told him we might be going to Japan he said he could see "my home sweet home". Right after we landed in Japan, Tai said I am at "my home sweet home."

In Japan, every time someone returns home they say "I have returned" then those at home answer "welcome home". When we returned to Japan many people welcomed us with the same "welcome home". It got us to thinking about how you define home. The boys get a little confused. Are we living in Japan for a short time or is this a long vacation? What do we mean when we say it is time to go home.

In our married lives Terence and I have known many homes. For Terence the area around Vancouver, Canada will always remind him of home. For me it is the area around Cincinnati and my childhood home of Tampa. But home has been other places too. Our first home as a married couple was in Chiba, Japan. Then home was Anderson, Indiana. The first home that Willem remembers was right here in this neighborhood in Inagi, Japan. Then home was in Cincinnati and later West Chester, Ohio. That is the first home that Tai remembers. Now home is in "Alabana" (as Xavier says). Even at our wedding Terence and I knew that we would have many homes. As a part of our marriage ceremony we made the commitment Ruth made to Naomi from Ruth 1:16.

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."

So what is home? Home is where your family is. Sometimes that family is the one you were born into and sometimes that family is made up of your dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Your brothers and sisters sometimes speak with a southern accent and sometimes speak a language that you barely understand. It is great to know so many homes. Now we are enjoying our home in Japan but in six more weeks we will return to our home in Alabama.

note: picture is of Tai in our livingroom.  He fell asleep like this writing in his journal.

A Few Funny Things Happened

On Wednesday we went to Tamagawa Pre-school. This is the school Willem went to when we were here last time, so we all go together and spend the day at the school. At lunch time we usually split up and eat with different classes. I (Christy) ate with the four year old class. I think I got the best table company. One little boy entertained me throughout the meal with his questions. Of course there was the usual "Why are your eyes blue?". Then this little boy came up with some new stuff. First he asked me if Alina (the previous teacher) had a cold. Alina has been gone since mid-December. That is one bad cold. Then he asked me if I had had a baby. I said yes, over two years ago. He said "oh two years ago a baby came out of your mouth." I said "not quite", and left it at that.

Later that evening we were on our way home on the train. Xavier was upset as we got on the train because he refused to eat his dinner so we refused to give him candy. An older Japanese man who had some sake after work generously gave his seat to Terence and Xavier. He was very concerned about Xavier and he also thought he was cute. So for the 15 minute ride he tried to comfort Xavier and pet his head and hand and talked to Terence about the challenges of parenting. This man also had three sons. He was really very sweet. I got to thinking about what he would tell his wife when he got home. You see blond heads are very rare here and to see three of them in various sizes is virtually unheard of. So he tells his wife I gave up my seat on the train to a little blond boy, then behind me was another little blond boy slightly bigger and next to him was bigger blond boy. Will she believe him or think that he had way to much to drink.

Willem's Journal

Here is the promised entry from Willem's journal

1-23-09
Today we got up and ate breakfast. Then we got on the train and went to Ochanomizu. We went to the Christian bookstore. While we were there I did a lot of stuff. I figured out how an old time music box works and I saw a movie all in Japanese. I also got a traditional Japanese comic book Bible. After that we went to Yoshinoya. It is a restaurant. It is like McDonald's. It is a traditional Japanese fast food place. First you order your food and about three minutes later it is right in front of you. We ordered rice with beef on it. Then we got on the train and went to Asakusa. We were in the back of the train and looked out the back window and saw the train pass the stations. When we got to Asakusa we walked to the drum museum. It was awesome. Some drums we got to play as loud as we wanted and some we couldn't play. There was one that made this loud weird noise when you wiped a wet towel over it. Then we went to Mos Burger. It is a restaurant. We got some plain strong coffee. Daddy gave us some but we didn't know what it was until we tried it. Tai hated it. He kept saying BLEH! BLEH! BLEH! the rest of the time we ate. Then we went to the temple. In front of the temple is the Lightning Gate. On one side there was the Thunder God and on the other side was the Wind God. Then between the temple and the Lightning gate were lots of vendors selling everything from crazy toys to ice cream. Once we got to the temple there was a huge Japanese Lantern hanging in front of the door. The door was locked so we couldn't go in. After that we walked all the way back to the train station. Then we rode the train to Shibuya. On the train we were at the front. We saw almost everything the driver could see. Once we got to Shibuya station we went out and saw the statue of Hachiko. We took a few pictures of the statue but then the camera died so we went up to Starbucks to see the famous crossing. It was crowded! Sometimes people were still crossing when cars were driving. The we went home.
Fast Fact: Hachiko Plaza is a big meeting place

Not Covered in Ash

We were planning on posting a blog entry here from Willem's journal, but we figure you may want us to set your minds at ease about the volcanoes that have been erupting here in Japan.

Yes, apparently Mt. Asama, which is about 90 miles from here did erupt this morning and did rain ash upon some parts of Tokyo. Oddly enough, we were in downtown Tokyo this morning and didn't notice anything. In fact, we didn't realize anything was up until we were watching the news this evening. Unfortunately, the news was in Japanese, so we had to check the internet for English news about the eruption, and most of the English stories seem pretty scary. There was a second eruption in the southern part of Japan.

Looking back on the day, something did seem a little out of place this morning. While we were on the train, Terence looked out and commented that there were some pretty dirty cars out there this morning. As a rule, people keep their cars pretty clean here. I can't say for sure the cars were covered in ash, but it is a possibility.

Apparently the eruption could continue for a while, but they don't seem to be expecting anything that could harm us.

Also we have a praise from Sunday. When we arrived here there were no children coming to Sunday school. To encourage more interest we decided to do a mini musical with the children. Our first practice was Sunday morning. We had two families come to the practice and one family even stayed for Church and fellowship time after.

We will post Willem's journal tomorrow.