Japan's Seasonal Flavours

Japan is a land that is highly aware of the changing of seasons. I often get asked if we have four seasons in Canada and when I say that we do, I am met with a surprised and seemingly never ending "eeeeehhh?!?", like they assumed that Japan was the only place on earth that had four distinct seasons. In some ways they are right though. Japan relishes in the changing of seasons like no other place that I have ever lived.

Baby William trying to break his way into
a pack of sakura flavoured yogurt

In Canada we fairly passively observe the changing of seasons. Spring is met with a "Hey, its nice that the snow is gone and flowers are on the lilac bushes", but not that much more. Maybe because of year round climate controlled houses the seasons are merely something you see outside your window, not a cold, heat, or humidity that you endure all day long. If Canadians dealt with humid, sticky houses when it rained, freezing cold houses in winter, or hot and humid houses in summer, they might find a way of celebrating and glorifying the changing of seasons a bit more. We also like to have constant access to our favourite foods all year long, even if this means we are importing them from across the world and they taste like little more than bland shadows of the foods they should be.

After moving to Japan, we noticed fairly quickly the availability of certain foods and products only in the right season. Want to buy a fan in the winter? Sorry! Have to wait until the appropriate season. Is it an unseasonably warm spring day? Be prepared to get some looks like you are a crazy person if you wear anything other than long sleeve shirts, a sweater, and pants. Do you want to by strawberries in October or tomatoes in December? Not every store will carry them, and if they do you will pay and arm and a leg.

In late spring, I am always happy to eat boiled soramame

Summer is the perfect time to eat a delicious meal of cold noodles like somen

Would winter be winter without eating mikan every day?

Nabe. In winter we revel in it and every other season we
remember it fondly. 

The strict seasonality of products can occasionally be pretty annoying, but once you get used to changing your shopping and menu planning every three months it is really fun and wonderful. I look forward to spring every year because I love how sakura (cherry blossom) flavoured products suddenly show up on the shelves. In summer I am always happy to see my friends warabimochi and all sorts of fresh veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, and edamame cheap and readily available. Even though brassicas have never been my favourite, we eat turnips, cabbage, and daikon fairly often in the winter months. Though this is something we never really needed to do back home, it has made the seasons into something that we celebrate and anticipate. It is also a way to overlook the unpleasant things that come with them, like heat, cold, bugs, and rain, making them seem more bearable.

Every New Year my children test just how much
fresh mochi they can ingest in one sitting. 

Grown in Japan

I decided to create an offshoot of our family blog called "Grown in Japan" in which I will exclusively write about my experience being pregnant and having a baby. I know many people who read our family blog don't want to be subjected to posts that contain the personal and sometimes gory details that come with growing a baby. Meanwhile, I have noticed a lot of interest and traffic to my posts about pregnancy, so I will post them all over there for those who care. If you look at the tabs above this post you will notice a new one that takes you directly to my other blog.

I just put up a post about my birth story. If you are interested and not squeamish about those things, please check it out!

Just Around the Corner

William this morning before the dining room
warmed up. It was nippy 3˚, hence the tuque and blanket

Winter is fairly cold here in Fukuyama. Not snowy, -30, 70 km/hr wind kind of cold like in Manitoba, but since our house is drafty and barely insulated you feel the cold all the time. We use a space heater to warm the room we are currently occupying and the rest of the house remains at a brisk 5 - 10˚ C, especially on the floor where the children spend most of their day. This method of heating may be more eco-friendly than the central heating that we are used to back home but it is by no means less expensive. In the winter months here we spend more than twice as much heating one room at a time compared with our whole house in Canada. This is partially due to how expensive electricity is here compared to the hydro electric power that we use in Manitoba but also because there is virtually no insulation in older Japanese houses. The floor has a large open space below it with only wooden flooring separating our freezing toes from the outside. The windows are single pane and there are gaps in some areas where they don't quite fit properly. On windy days you can feel drafts coming in from everywhere, and the walls are thin and barely insulated.

For me, the worst part of winter here is not feeling constantly chilly, but feeling confined to small areas of your house. The children roam, open doors, and inevitably want to play in the room that is not currently being heated. Half of my day is spent saying "shut that door behind you! You're letting cold air!". By the time spring rolls around we all have an intense case of cabin fever from being cooped up in one small room most of the time. I am pretty sure that I will never get used this aspect of winter in Japan.

There are a few things that make winter lovely as well. It rarely snows where we are and usually hovers around 1˚ C or so. This means that we can actually spend time outside every day in the winter, go for bike rides, and enjoy the neighbourhood parks without fear of exposure and frost bite. You can grow hardy vegetables even in the winter and there are plants that even bloom in January. Coming from a place that is dead and sterile for at least 1/3 of the year I still haven't gotten over how amazing this is!

Last year around Christmas I noticed a shrub which I had never encountered before, the wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox),  or ロウバイin Japanese. It quickly has become my favourite flowering shrub and I really looked forward to its blooming this winter. In our area of Japan at least, it blooms throughout January and February and has the most amazing jasmine like smell. The blossoms begin as little yellow balls and open into yellow multi-petaled pendent flowers that last for quite a few weeks. Some trees are so densely covered in them that it looks like there is buttered popcorn popping off of their branches. You can't help but notice their wonderful scent whenever you pass by one and if you are anything like me, you will stop and inhale deeply for a few seconds before moving on.

Sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans), or キンモクセイ, is another strongly scented flowering shrub that grows here. Its orange flowers usually open in the autumn but unlike the wintersweet, I find its scent cloying, too sweet, mostly abhorrent. I am willing to admit that I am the odd one out on this because most people I have talked to love the smell of sweet osmanthus. Unfortunately, the osmathus all bloomed in Fukuyama right at the peak of my morning sickness this fall and I could barely stand leaving the house for fear of running into its smell. It seemed like everyone in the city had one growing in their garden. Sometimes I could see the orange flowers while I was still out of scent range so I knew to hold my breath but usually they were hidden behind a wall and I couldn't help but get at least one horrible whiff of them. I hope that I don't forever have an association with extreme queasiness and their smell. 

The bane of my morning sickness

These tiny double daffodils are beautiful and
super fragrant. Love them!

Even with the relative mildness of winter weather here, this winter has seemed extremely long to me. I am sure it has something to do with my crappy pregnancy circulation, but I also have a hunch that this winter has been slightly colder than the last. This theory is completely based on which dates I took pictures of flowers I saw beginning to bloom (yay for photos that are accurately dated!). Last winter I took photos of daffodils blooming in early January, but this year I have only noticed them starting to bloom in the past few days. This week I also spied a plum tree down the street whose buds are beginning to open. Winter can't last forever! 

Creepy Pets Redux

Whether due to budget, space, or the fact that we never seem to stay in one place for very long, the pets we have gotten our children have usually swung to the less than permanent side of the spectrum. However, just because we want a cheap replaceable pet doesn't mean I am going to settle for a mind numbingly boring one like a goldfish.

For those of you who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember a post about our first "creepy pet," a hermit crab named Crabby. For the record, we've never claimed that our son had the naming skills of someone like Carolus Linnaeus. Now that we live in a tiny Japanese apartment our options are again limited by all the previous criteria as well as the fact that we must now also factor in what constitutes a "pet" according to the rules and regulations of our apartment building. So this weekend when we were out shopping on Children's Day we came across a beetle starter kit which included the tank, soil, feeding tray, and one large and very shiny Rhinoceros Beetle. Needless to say, he came home with us.

Male Rhinoceros Beetle in nature.

 Keeping beetles as pets is very popular in Japan with almost every department store or 100 yen store selling some sort of bug hunting or keeping paraphernalia. In many ways it borders on the obsessive. Most of the time people simply go out and dig up their own grubs, which are quite easily found as Laura can attest to finding several large larvae the other day while she was weeding the local "sandbox."

On the way back home we encouraged Theo to come up with a name for his new pet by listing things in no particular order that were black. Thusly we have a beetle name "Coal." One bonus to keeping these specific types of beetles that unlike his crab, this particular pet can not pinch, bite or sting and so is virtually harmless which is I'm sure one of the reasons leading to it's popularity as a pet here in Asia. 

Our newest acquisition.

I am sure that with our imminent move to a larger space our menagerie will expand and we will keep you posted in regards to every new addition.

Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK)

Japan, like many countries, has a national public broadcaster known as NHK or Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai. However, keeping in line with countries like Canada, with its CBC, or Great Britain, with its BBC, Japan takes its national broadcaster quite seriously. This is seen in the fact that every household is visited by a representative from NHK on a somewhat regular basis to voluntarily pay a user fee for watching what equates to the only "free" television in Japan.

When we first arrived in Japan we had no intention of watching TV in a language we didn't understand and so when the NHK man showed up we simply pantomimed that we didn't have a TV. This was not entirely true. It was true that we didn't watch it at the time when he showed up, but we have since taken to watching Ｅテレ, or Educational Television, in the mornings. It has become so routine that Laura knows when a certain song comes on that she has to head to the bus with Theo or they will be late. I will admit to watching it myself some evenings if for no other reason then to practice my listening skills by trying to understand a fraction of what is being said.

There are many aspects of Japanese TV that both astound, befuddle and amuse me at the same time. Like the make shift cardboard signs to show information instead of flashy computer graphics that we are all used to seeing at home. There are also a number of shows that are watched by a panel whose reaction is shown in the top left hand corner of the screen so people might have the correct response to a situation, and by correct I simply mean the same reaction as everyone else... so as not to appear different. [please read this as a gigantic generalization]

However I have to say my absolute favorite part of watching NHK has to be the children's shorts shown on Ｅテレ. I will end this post with a sample of some of the best ones I have come across...

A pox on us all

So, in the last week we have all managed to get some form of sinus cold or infection and while we are mostly on the mend it has seriously affected our blogging schedule... for that I apologize. So while this post may not be as riveting as it could be, I assure you that there are in fact several posts in the works that will be significantly better this one. That being said, here is what I offer you today:

Several weeks ago on on one of my runs, I stopped by the largest Shinto shrine in Fukuyama

 

to test out our new camera in some slightly more difficult lighting situations, namely the dark. The result was some rather interesting photos, that without sounding too self congratulatory, actually turned quite well.

Torii Gate lead up to the shrine itself.

One of the out buildings.

Same out building with a little extra lighting

This is probably my favorite photo. 60 sec. exposure with
the moon in the background.

Finally the entrance to the complex itself with some selective coloring.

Fahrenheit 119... or a note on fire drills

A couple of weeks ago my school held a fire drill, that is too say that a few days before hand we had a fire drill rehearsal where we practiced having a fire drill... which is in itself a practice for a real fire so we practiced having a practice of a real event... this might sound redundant but I suppose there is no harm in being redundant when it comes to saving your life. During the rehearsal I was lucky enough to be the first person down the emergency chute from the fourth floor, which was actually a lot of fun. On actual fire drill day the buzzer sounded and all the students and teachers filed out in full Japanese efficiency to the outer field, all while still wearing their inside shoes so as to simulate what we would do if this was an actual fire. Other then the rehearsal this was very much the same as fire drills I remember from back home, however after a customary count off and reporting on how long we took to evacuate the building the similarities ended.

We were then treated to several speeches in Japanese from both the headmaster and the fire chief after which all the students were divided into three groups. Group 1 went to go watch student volunteers being rescued from the third floor by the ladder truck, a demonstration that ended with the finale of the last student getting to ride to the ladders full 45 meters. Group 2 went to go and participate in the emergency chute demonstration that I participated in during rehearsal. And I went with Group 3, where we practiced yelling "FIRE!!" and putting out a real fire with fire extinguishers.

火!

So as you can see fire drills in Japan are quite involved, in total we had a least a dozen fire fighters, a ladder truck, a tanker truck, the fire chief and an ambulance on site. All I can say is that if the school would actually catch fire, a dubious prospect given the fact that the entire building is made of concrete, that some this "training" kicks in and everyone gets out safe and sound.


p.s. as for the post title, 119 is what you dial here in an emergency... as opposed to 911.

Tickle Trunk

On Saturday, we all went to the downtown library to see a kimono display. The best part was that they had kimono you could try on. You were allowed to pick a kimono that struck your fancy and they matched up the obi (tie around the middle) and other accessories to match the kimono you chose. They then helped dress you. I was surprised at the amount of padding, synching, tying, and time that it took just to get dressed.

Beautiful Karlee in her winter themed kimono

The whole effect: periwinkle bamboo branches with black, red, and gold obi, and red bunny collar

I picked a sage green kimono with some sort of brightly colored blossoms on it

I had an off white red and yellow obi that was tied fabulously

Dustin's kimono was awesome. He only needed a katana to complete the outfit, or maybe a lightsaber.

Brother and sister

Too bad they didn't have little kid and baby clothes to try on. 

The lot of us

This was Dustin and my first time to try on kimono and Karlee's second time. We were even asked to have our pictures taken for the newspaper!

Up a Hidden Hill

Last week there was a day that was relatively cool, or at least below 30° C, so Karlee and I decided to go explore the larger of our neighbourhood's shrines.

There are a few small ones scattered about randomly on the sides of the roads, but this one was quite a bit bigger and more elaborate.

The tiny little shrine at the end of our street

We found it tucked away at the top of a hill covered in trees and completely invisible from the road. There are a steep set of stone steps that disappear into the trees and take you to the top of the hill.

Halfway up, Theo discovered a little path leading through the bamboos that he insisted we walk down.

Twenty mosquito bites later, we emerged from the trees at a small graveyard on the hillside.

After checking out the graveyard, we continued to the top of the steps and found the torii gate at the entrance of the shrine.

There was another set of steps beyond this with a rope stretched between pillars to symbolize a separation between the physical and spiritual world.

There were two protective lion statues placed on either side at the top of the final staircase.

The temizu basin, for purifying your hands, looked like it could use a good bit of purifying itself.

Finally, at the summit was the shrine. 

We were the only ones there for the hour that we spent looking around. This is one of the few areas that I have found grass growing, and it looked as though there were picnicking spots near the torii. I was glad to have found such a quiet and peaceful spot just minutes from our place. 

A Beautiful Day in This Neighborhood

A view of the neighbourhood from our front door

I feel like I have finally settled in here in our new apartment and neighbourhood. At first, everything looked virtually the same to me and I had to really pay attention when Karlee and I went on walks. I knew that if we didn't retrace our steps back exactly, we would be wandering around Fukuyama for hours with basically no way to communicate with people or get ahold of Dustin. It doesn't help that there are no street names and as of yet I don't have a cell phone.

Our canal

It took the kids almost a week to adjust to the time difference here and actually sleep through the night once again, or as close to through the night as William ever gets. It took about the same amount of time for me to recognize distinctions and uniqueness in our neighborhood as well. I now have no fear of getting completely lost and not being able to find my way back home, which is great because it allows me to wander down little paths and side streets and truly discover our city.

We live in a quiet residential area surrounded by beautiful traditional looking houses and the occasional blocky apartment building. There is a canal that flows right behind our apartment which makes a nice landmark for orienting yourself if you do get a bit turned around. It takes us about 20 minutes to walk to the main bus/train station and downtown, and amazingly there are rice paddies throughout the city surrounded by houses. In Winnipeg there were canola fields right up to the city limits, but I have never seen them in the middle of a neighborhood.

Random rice paddy tucked between houses

Though Dustin and I did not request to be placed in a city, we have been very happy with Fukuyama. It is a small and laid back city that has a older, more traditional feel. Very rarely do tourists come here and I can get virtually everywhere by walking or biking. I am sure that the honeymoon will end at some point and we will start noticing the more annoying aspects of our city, but our first impressions have been very good. This really feels like a place that we can call home. 

Departures and Arrivals

Karlee in the deserted Beijing airport

We landed in the tan haze of smog that enveloped Beijing last Wednesday morning tired but very ready to get off the plane. We noticed as soon as we arrived that people did not follow the same general courtesy that we were used to when it came to waiting in lines. We couldn't maneuver very fast with stroller and bags, so everybody slipped in front of us while we tried to get on an elevator to the departure gates. This happened for three elevator loads until we were the last people waiting and we finally could get on without people pushing past. I was tired and irritable and this encounter made me anything but happy to be in China at that moment.

Trying to see Beijing through the haze

The airport was huge and there was virtually no one around. It was only about 6 am, so that might have explained it, but we had to search to find anyone who could tell us where our next flight was leaving from. When we finally got there, we discovered that we were on the second floor and our gate was on the first and of course the elevator was broken. We searched around for another elevator and failed desperately at trying to ask someone where another could be found. Our plane was already boarding so we finally hauled two sleeping kids, four carry-ons and a stroller down an escalator that conveniently had a row of bars across the opening so that strollers and carts could not be brought down it. We hopped onto the shuttle bus in the last possible minute and William woke up and started to scream. Not just feed me cries, but full on tortured screams. This is about when Karlee and my resolve started to fall apart. There was no way we were going to be able to carry a sleeping Theo, a screaming baby, fold up a stroller, and carry four carry-ons up the stairs onto the plane. Lucky for us, four strangers came to our aid in our moment of need. They spoke fluent English, which was a bonus, but they folded our stroller and shouldered our carry-ons for us. We found out that they were from Hiroshima so they actually continued to help us until we arrived in Japan. We never would have made it out of China without their help.

Shortly before Theo unravelled

The shrieking William and I were making our way to our seats, which were of course at the far back of the plane. I had a large purse strapped over one shoulder and a camera bag over the other as well as a backpack on with a blanket stuffed into the front straps. As I made my way down the aisle, I was hitting each person on either side of me with my bags and assaulting their ears with baby screams. Karlee, who was walking behind me, told me later that I was also slapping everyone with my blanket which had come partially loose. I really didn't feel sorry for anyone else but Karlee and myself at that moment.

Sleeping soundly

We made a stop in Dalian, and of course were made to go through immigration and security and then get right back on the same plane. This time William was sleeping soundly and Theo was crying. As we were boarding the plane, he gripped the doorway and sobbed that he couldn't walk to his seat because he was too tired. For dramatic emphasis he sagged into a sobbing heap half in and half out of the airplane. The stewardesses just watched in disapproval as I tried to drag him down the aisle to our seats.

Two hours later we arrived in Hiroshima airport and were pleasantly surprised with its tiny size, the friendly and helpful immigration and customs officers, and best of all, Dustin, waiting for us at the end.

First glimpse of Japan

When we finally got to our apartment, it was 3 am Winnipeg time and Karlee and I had not slept for about 48 hours. We managed to all shower, change our clothes, and lay out the futons. Dustin tried to make us supper, but by the time the rice was finished he discovered us all completely asleep. Unfortunately the kids woke up at 4 am and continued to do so for almost a week, but any sleep was good at that point. We are so glad to be finally home in Japan!