Setsubun (Bean Throwing Festival)

Setsubun is a bean throwing festival held every February 3^rd. It's the first day of spring according to the lunar calendar. Setsubun is about getting rid of evil and bringing in fortune. People throw beans out windows and doors of their homes and also go to shrines and temples. We went to Seto-Jinja Shrine to participate in the festivities. When we lived here from 2008-2010 I took the girls to Hasedera, a temple in Kamakura. It's not a national holiday, but it's celebrated throughout Japan. Even Google celebrated...see the screen capture from my computer below. 

We hopped on the train as soon as school was out and stopped at a convenience store to pick up oni (ogre or monster) masks and some beans. You’re supposed to eat the number of beans to match your age for good luck and fortune. As much as I love the roasted soy beans, I didn't eat 35…I did have eight though. The girls each ate their age in beans and were sure to count aloud while doing so.

We got to the shrine a few minutes after they had started but were still able to get a good spot to stand in. The girls were so excited to catch beans and after a few minutes remember doing it before. We went to a small shrine, but at the larger ones in Tokyo they'll have sumo wrestlers and celebrities throwing the beans. They're in little packages that fit in my palm. On some packages are stickers...if one you catch has a sticker you win a prize. We didn't win a prize, but, to be honest, it's about the experience and culture submersion for us. I think it's important. 

We didn't catch any beans during the first set. A gentleman in front of us gave the girls one packet each. So sweet and generous of him! There were bows all around and hugs too. While the priests and important members of the shrine were throwing beans the MC was yelling "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" That translates into Out with demons! In with fortune! You'll hear him if you watch the 45 second video below. If you subscribe and get the posts in your email you may need to click the link at the top of the message to view the video on the website. 

Making an offering & prayer

We were there for maybe 90 minutes and had a wonderful time. People were so kind and welcoming to us. A few even translated for us to let us know what would be happening, when and what it's meaning was. The later it got the more kids arrived. At the end the adults moved to the back and all the kids were in front. On the way out we bought the traditional Setsubun food, eho-maki. They're sold at grocery and convenience stores too. When people eat them they face the direction that's good luck for that particular year. This year it was west-southwest.   

Our beans, roll and masks at home

Sakura Season is Almost Here

Japan Weather Assoc

Here is this year's sakura zensen (cherry blossom front). If you'd like to see or read more, click here. Sakura, or cherry blossoms as they're known in the United States, are a big deal here in Japan. The Japanese gave the cherry tree to the U.S. in 1912. When we lived here from 2008-2010 I found sakura Kit Kats and am hoping they're released again. Here is my post about sakura from 2009...the girls are so little and have changed so much! On a side note, I changed the header of the blog today. I used a picture I took in Kamakura from this post.   

  

Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day)

Tokyo Weekender

It's Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day in Japan! Today, March 3rd, people pray and wish for health and happiness for their daughters. Many families, and even stores, have dolls displayed called hina-ningyo.

Kokeshi & sakura cookies I
made. More can be seen here. 

One of the largest displays to celebrate Hinamatsuri is in Chiba. I'd like to go there next year since this year our schedule didn't allow for it. Nippon.com has a great article and some photos that can be seen here.

My daughters are excited to celebrate with a traditional cake tonight...who wouldn't be excited for cake?!

Google Japan has a Google Doodle. I took a screen shot of it from my computer but it is animated. In some prefectures (Japan's version of a state), they'll float straw dolls; that's being portrayed in the Doodle.

Below are some displays at the grocery store today and what I bought for tonight.

Chirashizushi sushi

Strawberry cake

Sydney's Job as a Model for Combi Mini

Sydney's modeling debut is finally in print! Back in September a modeling agency called and asked her to audition for Combi Mini...it's a clothing company here in Japan. They've gotten calls before, but either didn't get selected, we weren't available, or in Keanna's case, she had lost a tooth (or two, or three, or four). American kids attached to the bases here get called for stuff like this, so it's nothing out of the ordinary to those of us living here. The pictures from the shoot were taken on September 15th of last year. I was allowed to take pictures and video while it was going on, but couldn't post them anywhere until after the catalog came out. My friend, Sarah, was visiting from Hawaii so she came along too! Her husband served on board USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) with Bob.

She got a new hair style with each outfit...so about six or seven. I took some video of the shoot too, and it was so fun! She had her own "pit crew" that made adjustments to her clothes, hair and makeup; they also had staff there to entertain the kids (balloons, stuffed animals, etc) and keep them happy. It was amazing, truly amazing, and everyone was so kind to us! We were fed breakfast and lunch and were there from 8:45 am until about 1 pm.

If you'd like to see her pictures in the online catalog click here. About halfway down you'll see four catalog covers, click the one on the far right, Ribbon Casket (the cover is light yellow). A new window will open up and all you'll need to do is hit the arrow on the right to advance pages.

-Sydney is on the second page (with the map) above "Hollywood" and you can click to zoom in.
-On page 4, "Have a Fantastic Trip" she's on the left, and on the following she's sitting on the airplane.
-Page 7 she's standing in front of the Eiffel Tower holding the lunch box.
-Page 10 her "mom" is giving her bunny ears. This girl was 17 and European...Poland I believe. She was very nice and Sydney loved her.
-Page 11, top of the page, she's the second kid from the left.
-Page 21, picture on the top.
-Page 27, boxing gloves and holding the bus. They were throwing a balloon around for her to punch.

The campaign on the website has some pictures of her too...they can be seen here, and I've included a video I took with my little camera, so if you get this in your email you'll need to click here to see it.

How to Make Sydney's Bubble Bath Costume

I've gotten a lot of comments in the Happy Halloween from Tokyo blog entry, messages on Facebook & emails and nearly 25 people have written me via the "Contact Katie" form on the right side of the page asking how I made the girls' costumes...so tonight I'm going to post the step-by-step instructions on the bubble bath costume.

The girls took pictures of our progress, so I'll include those to help give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Soon I will post the instructions for the spaghetti and meatballs costume. Last year I wrote the instructions for Keanna's bucket of popcorn costume and Sydney's movie ticket costume.

It's simple, I promise, just a little time consuming! Gambatte (try your best/good luck) if you make this next year!

Here are the supplies you'll need, and what they cost me.

• clean styrofoam cooler from the fish market- $0
• bag of pillow stuffing (300 grams) - $5
• bag of 200 cotton balls - $2
• shower cap - $1
• back brush (or any accessory for that matter) - $4
• rubber ducks - $0
• rubber ducky sponge - $1
• bath tub letters/numbers for outside of the tub - $0
• slippers, slippahs or flip flops - $0
• hot glue gun with a lot of glue - $3
• white scrap material or a white pillow case - $0
• for a grand total of $16
  

First step is to cut the bottom out of the cooler. I used an old steak knife and it worked fine. Next are the straps that'll hold the cooler up. I cut the pillow case on the lengthwise seams (so I had one large rectangle and made two 2" wide straps). Use the hot glue gun to glue the straps on the inside front, and criss-cross them and glue them on the back. Have your child hold the cooler around his/her waist so you know the right length. Glue cotton balls on the straps to hide them. I used 200 on the straps and shower cap. Well, 199 because I burned myself on one and got so ticked off that I threw it away!











I took the rest of the pillow case and hot glued it to cover the surface of the cooler. I glued about 1" below the top edge and went all the way around. The batting will rest on this. In retrospect I wish I glued the pillow case around the edges before putting the cotton balls on the straps. It wasn't a big deal, but probably would have been easier. Once the entire surface is covered cut a round hole for Peter to fit through. I made it big enough for her head, then cut slits on the four sides of the circle. I found that the best way to put the costume on is to hold it over her head and put iton like a shirt; it's easier than having her step into it.












I started putting hot glue down on the pillow case and piling the batting on top of it until it covered the whole surface. The batting will come loose, so I put glue in random areas to help keep it together. Let some "over flow" over the side and put hot glue down to keep it in place.











Find some bath toys, rubber ducks, etc. and hot glue them to the top. We have two bigger ones and one tiny one, so I put the smallest one on the cotton balls on the shoulder strap and the two larger ones in the batting. I found a rubber ducky sponge at the ¥100 store (like the dollar store in the U.S.), hot glued his feet and butt and stuck him in the back making it look like he was standing up. We have these animals with letters inside (a giraffe with a "G" inside) so I took the letters and used those and hot glued them to the outside of the tub. If you can't find letters or numbers for the bath, look for magnets, that's what I used when I made Keanna's a few years ago (see last paragraph).











In my opinion the accessories make the whole thing come together, so when I was buying the cotton balls I looked and found the shower cap and back brush. Anything you have will work, but the cost of both was so low that I bought them, and I have a brand new back brush now! My neighbor, Sarah, gave Sydney a small bottle of bubbles to blow, and you can see [in the first picture at the top] that she's holding them but forgot to open them up. Sarah thought having bubbles floating up around her would be cute and it hadn't occurred to me. Thanks Sarah!

For the costume contest at the New Sanno in Tokyo on the 25th Sydney wore a pair of shorts, a bathing suit top and slippers, but on Halloween she wore jeans and a white sweater with sneakers.

I actually made this costume for Keanna in 2006 while we were in Hawaii, so she went out with the bathing suit on and slippahs (Hawaii's way of saying "flip flops"). I did a better job this time around and felt like it came together a lot easier.

Here's Keanna in the costume the first time I attempted it. I didn't do the pillow case lining then, but I got a piece of felt instead and attached it on the left and right sides letting it kind of drape around her. The way I did it with Sydney's was much better and certainly more sturdy, and it was actually easier with the larger cooler too.

It's Buu Buu, Not Oink Oink!

In Japan pigs don't say "Oink," they say "Buu!" It sounds like "boo" and then "u" which rhymes with to. The Hiragana says "Buu" on each foot.

I emailed my friend Mayumi and asked her about it and here's what she had to say:
Those letters are Hiragana. 『ぶ』 ( Bu ) and 『う』 ( U ). 『ぶう』 is the "sound" we would say
if we wanted to put a word explaining about pigs. Your other three toes have a pig on each, so, I guess they put the word.

I bought these toe socks in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo and they've become a big hit with the girls. Every time I wear them they don't stop with the "This Little Piggy" nursery rhyme.

This little piggy went to the market,
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef, This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy cried "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home.

My friend Laurel teaches English to Japanese kids at a school nearby. She said they play this out once a week and the kids get excited yelling "Buta!" Buta is the Japanese word for pig, and that's how they ask her to do it. Instead of a piggy buying roast beef, in her version it buys pizza. At the end she'll chase them around during the "Wee! Wee! Wee!" part and they climb under the tables trying to hide from her!

Burger King Japan & Windows 7's Whopper of a Marketing Campaign

Windows 7 Whopper with 7 burger patties available for 7 days for a cost of ¥777.

Microsoft celebrated the release of Windows 7 here in Japan with a Burger King promotion for the Windows 7 Whopper. It was supposed to be during the week of October 22-28th, but it was extended until Friday, November 6^th.

Measuring 5.1" (13 cm) in diameter, the Amerikanbanzu ("American sized buns" in English) Windows 7 Whopper has seven ¼ lb (113 grams) beef patties totaling 1 ¾ pounds.

Keanna didn’t have school on Thursday but Sydney did, so she and I went for a walk off base to the newly opened Burger King in Yokosuka. There was no way I was going to pass this up after seeing it on their website. Yes it’s just a whopper, but it’s another unique thing that Japan has to offer.

Bob and I talked about it and I told him I wanted to at least get a picture of it, so after we got it [to go] Keanna wanted to send him a picture. I took a picture of her holding it with my cell phone and emailed it to him with the subject "Hungry?" He wrote back immediately (this surface ship thing is still amazing to me, if he were on a submarine I'd hear back from him in a month or two, and I wouldn't have been able to send him a picture in the first place) with the response, “Have friends to help eat it?”

We headed back to Sydney’s school, picked her up, headed home and dug in. Did we manage to eat it? Less than a third between the three of us.

In the spirit of it all this will post on the 7^th at 0707 JST.

Happy Halloween from Tokyo

Happy Halloween a little early! Since Bob's still out to sea, the girls and I ventured up to The New Sanno Hotel yesterday in Tokyo for their annual costume contest. We went last year, click here to see pictures, and wanted to go again this year since it was so much fun. Keanna and Sydney both won prizes last year, so I was also anxious to see if we could again; I made their costumes last year and did again this year. Another bonus last year was that Jon Voight was standing in the lobby shaking hands with military members and their families. He picked up Sydney and was swinging her around...she loved him! I was hoping he'd be back since the Tokyo Film Festival was going on through the weekend, but alas, no such luck.

Anyway, getting back to it, I made their costumes again this year; Keanna's wearing a spaghetti and meatballs costume and Sydney's costume is a bubble bath. People asked me where I got the idea for Keanna's costume. It came from the Food Network television show, "Ace of Cakes," but it's known at our house as "The Cake Makin' Show." It airs on AFN (Armed Forces Network) and in one episode they made a cake for a family like likes to travel. I don't remember the exact details since it was from a while ago, but they made a cake of spaghetti & meatballs and placed it on top of the northern hemisphere of the globe. At that moment it clicked and ideas started popping into my head. Big time thanks to Charm City Cakes in Baltimore for the inspiration!

We enjoyed the Sunday brunch and kept our fingers crossed when it came time for the costume contest. When we were getting our ticket and walking in two of the women, at the exact same time said, "It's the popcorn girl!" Keanna proudly said, "I was popcorn last year, this year I'm spaghetti and meatballs with bread and cheese." It was flattering!

Last year they had about 55-60 kids compete and this year over 95 were dressed up! Keanna & Sydney's numbers were 48 and 49, right smack in the middle, so I had a couple of minutes to get them dressed and ready before being called.

Each of the four judge chose two winners. The prizes included a children's digital camera, two tickets to Disneyland Tokyo, an iPod Shuffle and a Nintendo Wii. They didn't have first, second and third place winners, they just announced the judge, where he/she was from, and what prize they were giving for their choice. When the judge from FOX TV Japan was announced she said her prize was a Nintendo Wii. Keanna immediately perked and when she heard her name she jumped with excitement, headed to the stage and collected her prize. To FOX TV, on behalf of Keanna and myself, domo arigato gozaimasu for your generosity.

After the contest ended they had trick-or-treating in some areas of the hotel. We walked around the lobby and to the shops, salon and pool on the second floor. The girls were constantly stopped asking for pictures and they didn't think anything of it! Some people even asked me to take pictures of them with the girls using their cameras. A Japanese woman who's English was nearly perfect asked if she could take pictures of Sydney's costume. She took at least 10 pictures from all sides and angles and asked if I minded her attempting it next year.

Sydney didn't win, and that's okay. On the drive up there we talked about how it wasn't important...which it isn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm competitive and was hopeful, but my parents raised me to believe that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game...right Dad?! Keanna, Sydney and I all worked together to make their costumes. They did everything but use the glue gun, and it was a huge help to me. We had fun, talked and sang while we worked on the floor in the living room for the four or five days it took.

Hope you have a Spooktacular Halloween and leave a comment sharing what you, your children or loved one is dressing up as this year!

Azuki Pepsi - It's Red and We Love It!

We've had a few different flavors of Pepsi released since we've been here, and the most recent flavor, Azuki, came out on Tuesday. Click here to see my post about those; Blue Hawaii, White Yogurt and Shiso.

I got a bottle at 7-11 down the street from our house for ¥125 (about $1.40 with the exchange rate) but didn't try it until Wednesday morning. I liked it a lot and Sydney did too, so once Keanna was off to school she and I headed out into town to buy some more. I wanted to get a couple of bottles for Bob too, since it won't be available by the time he comes home. It's actually written in Kanji that it's limited edition.

It's sweet and yummy and I have another bottle chilling in the fridge right now. The after taste was mostly like regular Pepsi, but there was still a little sweetness to it. Azuki is a red bean, and I've always seen it in a paste form inside breads. But I've seen it in one other form, Kit Kats! Almost a year ago there was a Kit Kat flavor that involved azuki beans; click here to see my post about it. According to Wikipedia, In East Asian cuisine the azuki bean is commonly eaten sweetened. In particular, it is often boiled with sugar, resulting in red bean paste (an), a very common ingredient in all of these cuisines; it is also common to add flavoring to the bean paste, such as chestnut.

At 3F, the store Sydney and I went to on Wednesday, I asked the clerk (and in Japanese, go me!) if she liked it. She answered (in Japanese and I understood!) that she likes it better in bread and that it was so-so in the Pepsi. After we walked out and tried it we walked back in and Sydney said, "Oishii desu," (it's delicious) and I told her (in Japanese) that I preferred it in the Pepsi over the bread. She chuckled, commended Sydney on her Japanese and even clapped, I bought a couple more bottles, the three of us bowed and we were on our way.

Have I mentioned how much I love living in this country?!

There Goes the Sun - Asia's Solar Eclipse

Well, the sun did go away for a little bit on Wednesday, July 22nd, but we couldn't see it because it was cloudy and completely overcast here in Zushi. We live in Kanagawa Prefecture, about an hour south of Tokyo by train. We don't live far south enough to see the total eclipse, and since watching from the front yard was pointless, I tuned in to some of our local Japanese television stations.

At the maximum spot the totality of the eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds. The only area of Japan to see the total eclipse was the small islands between Kyushu and Okinawa. We lost 60% of the sunlight, and it did get noticeably darker outside, but it could have easily been mistaken for storm clouds rolling in.

Since we've known about the eclipse for a while I decided to show the girls pictures and try to explain what was going to happen. The night before we looked at pictures and diagrams, and even brought out the flashlight to make shadows with our hands. I realize Keanna's 5 and Sydney's 3 and didn't expect much from our conversation and shadow hand puppets. As we were looking at pictures of the umbra, penumbra and corona, I began having flashbacks from Mrs. Spiegel's earth science class from my freshman year of high school.

Anyway, getting back to watching it on t.v. I was scanning through the channels and figured we'd get local coverage along with live satellite feeds from the southern islands. The girls had an idea of what was going to happen, they knew the moon was going to come in front of the sun, and I wanted them to be able to see it. I always keep my little camera on hand to record video, and thankfully I turned to a certain station at the right time. Scanning through I saw this (see the video below), two men dressed up, one as the sun, the other as the moon. When we saw this it was a perfect way to show the girls what was happening...I laughed so hard I nearly snorted. We can't understand a word of it, so maybe that makes it funnier, maybe it doesn't, but take a couple of minutes to watch if you want a laugh. If you're an email subscriber you'll need to click here to watch the video.

Coffee Jelly Frappuccino is Back at Starbucks!

Living in Japan affords us things that aren't available in the United States, and vice versa. Well here's one thing that you can't get in the United States...you ready? It's a new Starbucks drink called a Coffee Jelly Frappuccino. That's right, jelly.

It came out around this time last year, and while on base one day I tried it. It didn't last long, maybe throughout the summer. Walking through Zushi last week I saw a sign for it outside of Starbucks...and until then I had completely forgotten about it. After last year I know better than to buy it again this year!

By this point you probably are wondering what I thought of it. Well, it tasted good until chunks came up my straw...it was like chunks of jelly, but softer, more like Jell-o. It tasted good though, but it's a texture thing for me. The jelly pieces were large, but very soft so they broke apart and came right up the straw.

What did I think of it? Thumbs down. Coffee is for drinking, not eating...especially in jelly form at the bottom of a frappuccino! If you do try it, grab a spoon to go with your straw, you're going to need it.

And make sure you read the girl's hat in the first picture! She was very kind to let me take it.