Reunited, and it feels so good...

The boys from Trumansburg are here! They spent a great day yesterday, traveling around Tokyo on the trains and subways, visited a noisy open air market in Ueno and had a delicious Chinese dumpling lunch. They hit a science museum (although not too hard) and went shopping for an outrageous outfit for Trevor's birthday. Right now 2 are still sleeping, and Art and Robin are jamming on guitars. It's very lovely having them here. Today they are going to check out the youth music culture scene at Yoyogi Park, maybe catch the dancing Elvi and walk the crowed alleyways of Harajuku. I think tonight they sample sushi at our favorite place. Stay tuned for more pictures and stories.

Snow monkeys of Nagano Prefecture

Click on the link below to see the live web cam at the outdoor onsen where the snow monkeys reside. Robin said he would like to see a picture of an onsen with monkeys on the outside, taking pictures of people in the onsen. Apparently, these monkeys are the most photographed in the world.

If you are on the East coast of the US, you should try viewing in the evening or at night.

http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm

Chocolate. Not just for women anymore.

As I've mentioned before, many western holidays are adopted by the Japanese. Valentine's Day is no exception. Here, the day is marked by WOMEN giving chocolates to MEN. These can be men they work for, their husbands, fathers, friends...but the men receive the chocolate gifts. I could speculate why this is so, but I'll keep to the point. When Robin met me at the concert last night, he came bearing a little Satie bag from Mitsukoshi Department Store. In it were the most heavenly chocolates I've ever eaten. They are the ones I used to take around to my friends who also taught in the Middle School, just to watch their faces as the chocolate melted in their mouths! It's really that good. I was pleased that he took the time and made the effort to go out of his way, and told him so with a kiss.
This morning as I was slowly waking up, he sat down on the edge of the bed and described his experience. Apparently, the counter in the store was decorated for women- totally over the top- and when he got there, it was a mob scene. The Japanese women were 3 or 4 deep around the display, all shouting and gesturing as if they were in the bull pit at the NY stock exchange. (They can be very aggressive when they want to be!) They were buying multiple boxes each, some seemed to be buying dozens. The image of my large gaijin husband, quietly making his way through the noisy female throng, to buy one single box of chocolates, is a comical and heart melting one. What a guy.

Eggs and technology

This will be a musing of a bunch of things. First, I took a picture of the egg on the right, sitting alone in it's plastic tray, for Pete. I wanted him to see that some of the eggs here have little stickers placed oh so gingerly on top. The Japanese pride themselves on their fresh eggs. There are many dishes here that include raw egg as a dipping sauce. They crack whole eggs into ramen, on top of rice, or on top of just about anything. Eggs are a big part of their cuisine. When I went out with my friends for dinner and karaoke, one of them said the eggs here are so yellow (and some of them are a deeper, darker yellowish orange than I'm used to) because they are so fresh. I immediately chimed in with my suspicion that it was probably due to the breed and the feed. To make my claim sound more legitimate, I told them all of our family's long-standing relationship with "my friend who is a chicken farmer." They found this to be interesting, and asked everyone at the table that has a friend who is a chicken farmer to raise their hand. When you move in circles such as these (even the ones from Minnesota- and there are oodles of 'em) having chicken farmer friends is an oddity. I proudly raised my hand, and thought warmly and happily of Peter and Joel.

Last night, the boys and I met Robin at the Tokyo Dome to see and hear The Police. Great concert. I had my ear plugs in the whole time (old fuddy duddy!) and thoroughly, comfortably enjoyed the entire concert. There were 25 thousand people there with me. It was amazing to see the sea of heads and arms clapping to the beat. Sting looks fantastic. He's still got the voice. The drummer was amazing. The guitar player hasn't aged quite as well, but he's still got it. The amount of high tech at the concert was fascinating. But really, yesterday it was the technology of Facebook messages that amazed me more.

Around noon yesterday, I sent out several Valentine's messages to some of my friends on Facebook. This would have been at 10:00 p.m. in Trumansburg, prime time for on-line activity for teenagers. I was so completely delighted to hear back from some dear students in a matter of minutes. I feel so connected. I called my Mom and Dad on skype to wish my Dad a Happy Valentine's Day/Happy Birthday, and had a chance to talk to one of their guests, my friend Melinda's Mom. But I already knew they were going to be there, because I had heard about it from Melinda on Facebook. When I think about how it must have been for expats to come to Japan even 20 years ago, it must have seemed like a different world. I know it was a much more isolating experience for them. No skype, no email, no Facebook....how did they ever manage? In some ways maybe it was a better, more authentic immersion into Japanese culture. Sink or swim. But I'll take my technology thanks, and am grateful for the opportunity to blog, skype Chris in Montreal, call Cathryn in the hospital, check the weather in Upstate NY, and stay on top of the news from friends and actually sometimes see their faces while I hear their voices. Very cool. Maybe this is the best of both worlds?

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day willed with love and fun. I must sign off now. I need to do some serious grocery shopping today, (perhaps 2 trips!) for Art Sullivan and Trevor Scheer will be here this evening, and will be staying for a week. Genevieve, Art's sister told us we aren't allowed to have TOO MUCH fun without her. So I'll be posting more this week, and will be taking pictures of the guys as they have a cultural experience. Enjoy your winter break, Upstate New Yorkers!

Cheers!

Singing with friends

This picture shows some elementary school boys in their school uniforms, and their $200.00 leather backpacks which all the little children have. The boys wear shorts as part of their uniform- even on the coldest days. I dig their hats. These boys were standing on a train station platform and were particularly noisy. I enjoy the boisterous, happy sounds of children on the trains. It is such a welcome contrast to the almost eerie quiet that is the norm.

Singing with and for my friends...

Last night, I sang in the Brahms Requiem with the Tokyo International Singers and the Tokyo New City Orchestra. It was kinda fun. I have never been a Brahms fan, but I suspect it has to do with not knowing him very well. A good way get to know a composer is through performing their music. Though still not sure if I am a "fan," at least I have an appreciation for his lush, rich harmony, his meandering melodies and the difficulty of his vocal parts! The guy wrote for singers as if they were instrumentalists. The vocal parts are full of difficult intervals, extremes in range, and lots of accidentals. It was a great chance for me to flex my brain muscles. I met some wonderful people from all over the world, and Japan. The best part for me was the number of people I knew who came to the concert- my Taiko buddies, and our teacher, neighbors, some Japanese friends and even some complete strangers: friends of friends. The night turned treacherous as sleet fell and the temperature dropped, but the hall was full and the concert was well received. My most critical critic (Robin) said that our German was pretty good. That's high praise for him. Overall, I'd say that it was a pretty good performance. It's always exciting to perform with an orchestra!

After the performance a few of us went out to a Southwestern themed restaurant called "Stallions" (these places always intrigue me) and celebrated with "nachose" and shrimp quesadillas. Suddenly, a couple of beers and lots of great conversation later, it was 20 minutes to 12:00. The trains stop running shortly after midnight, so we all scrambled out into the slippery night and managed to get the last train to Shibuya, where we caught the last train out to transfer to our line, where we caught the second to last train to our station. I expected the stations to be teeming with people like us, rushing to avoid taxi fares, but it was amazingly calm. It must have been the bad weather. The excitement was all in the voices of the platform "conductors" who were obviously telling passengers that this was the last train, and they'd better move their @$$*$! They were carnie-like in their announcements, very uncharacteristically joyful. Maybe they were happy to finally be done with work, and going home themselves.

I learned something first-hand about the Japanese and gift giving. There were 3 couples of people I gave tickets to, as gifts: Moko my Taiko instructor, our neighbors, the Kimura-sans, and a piano teacher I've never met, but who teaches the daughter of Robin's boss. Last night when I got home, Moko had sent me an email, apologizing for not bringing me a gift, and offered to bring me another Taiko T-shirt to class on Tuesday. Today, I received an email from the piano teacher (who didn't even make it to the concert) inviting me out for lunch. And then tonight, our doorbell rang, and standing at the door was Mrs. Kimura, holding a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and speaking rapidly telling me something I couldn't understand, except I did pick out the word for "beautiful." So it's true. When you give gifts in Japan, expect a hasty reciprocation.

Winter boots, anyone?

These girls were on the midnight train. They were headed out into the inches of slush eventually... but I have to wonder what their shoes looked like by the time they got home.

Spaaaaaaah!

A few weeks ago, I signed up for a stay at a spa resort. It was on Thursday-Friday. My 3 friends, Connie, Terry and Marie all signed up as well. It was to be Terry's birthday celebration. Unfortunately, Terry caught a nasty bug, and had to stay home. So it was with a feeling of disappointment that we met at Shinagawa station on Thursday morning.

There were 7 of us. The tour was arranged by Sandy I., an American woman who loves to travel and explore new places and does this for a living now. She used to teach English in a small town near Hakone. We caught a special high speed train to the Izu penninsula (the same area that Nathan traveled to in the Fall) and stayed at a spa resort complete with pool, hot tub, indoor and outdoor onsen, spa services, relaxation room, restaurant and gorgeous views overlooking the ocean.

At the first train station stop on our way, we sat on the edge of a foot bath onsen. Took off our shoes, socks and just soaked. Ahhh...There was an older Japanese couple who at one point were highly amused by something we did. Then off to the next stop before the spa. We had lunch at a very interesting stained glass museum. The building was reminicent of a small European church or castle. Inside there were pictures of famous stained glass windows, lots of actual stained glass windows, prints, paintings of European scenes and other reproductions. It was a very strange place to be. There was a chapel with an English pipe organ (I think it was a tracker organ- for those of you who care) from 1902 and we had the opportunity to hear a short concert. We got to hear one of the "Little" Prelude and Fugues, the slow and beautiful theme from Holst's Jupiter (From The Planets), Pachelbel's Canon, and other light pieces. While I was sitting and listening to the organ, I looked around at the ornate paintings on the walls of icons of Christianity- Christ ascending in the clouds, Mary, angels, Saints, and thought to myself, "This is so weird." Here in the middle of a Shinto/Confucian nation is this little Disney-esque "Wee Europe." We had some conversation about this and I found out that the majority of Japanese don't have passports, and that there are places like this to satisfy their curiosity about the world without ever actually having to leave their homeland. Actually the same is true in the US. Most of the population does not have passports. Think about theme parks and Disney World. I am sure you can find people in lederhosen, serving bratwurst at those places on any given day. But I digress.

So after that interesting lunchtime excursion, we headed off to the spa. I had the first massage, which I was looking forward to eagerly. I have been carrying knots in my shoulders from Peter Pan- and that was a year ago! I have had them with me for so long, I have given them names. The woman who interviewed me before the massage was very nice, but she had very little English, and I had about as much Japanese, so after much smiling, hand signals, nodding, and apologizing on my part, we determined that I was healthy, and the SHE would choose the scented oil. One of the best massages I've ever had.

After that I was a puddle. We had a great Japanese dinner with many little dishes of tasty (and unidentifyable) little portions, veggies and seafood cooked in broth over our own sterno burner, deep fried whole fish, sake, rice, the usual fare. After dinner- the onsen.

I have been here for almost 6 months and have not sought out an onsen experience. I was very impressed that my sister in law and niece tried the onsen in Nikko while they were here. For you see, it involves getting naked in front of strangers, which until I actually did it, seemed like a big huge scary thing. It's no big thing. We wore our yukata down to the locker room. We washed with soap, sitting on little stools in front of a mirror, before entering the hot bath. I immediately went for the outside bath. It was after dark, the stars were out and the view, if you sat up high enough, was out over the ocean to the islands beyond. There were some twinkly lights out across the water, there was a nice cold breeze to cool us off and the water was the perfect temperature. The only thing better would have been to have some sake to drink while we lounged. Something to remember for next time. Then-upon returning to our suite, I was so relaxed, I was afraid I would forget to breathe. I was the first person in bed. Connie, Marie and I were chatting, and I just fell asleep. So off I went.

The second day was sunny and clear. We visited more small museums, including an antique jewelry place where we could have our picture taken with old-fashioned dresses. Everyone was joking about putting on the dresses, but I said- "Absolutely! I'm game." So we all did. I looked particularly hideous. So much so that the Japanese women who were helping us chuckled and brought out an ugly looking hair piece to add to my look. Just awful, but funny. I love funny, so it was all good.

As I write this, I am on my couch. The Super Bowl is on, it's Monday, and the Tokyo Corning office is pretty empty this morning as everyone is watching the game. Robin and I are here enjoying time together. There was a serious reminder that came from the boys' High School Office- saying something like, "Staying home from school on Monday to watch the Super Bowl will be an unexcused absence." Ouch. Too bad, sports fans.