Hatsumōde

On one of the first days in the new year people in Japan traditionally go to a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple to pray, buy good luck charms for the next year, and burn the good luck charms they bought the year before. This visit is called hatsumōde. Two popular places in Fukuyama for hatsumōde are the Fukuyama Hachiman Shrine and Kusadoinari Shrine. So many people visit these shrines in the first few days of the new year that the parking is crazy and there are long lines to buy fortunes and charms.

Fukuyama Hachiman Shrine

Kusadoinari Shrine

Since we don't go to the shrine to pray or buy fortunes we don't bother fighting the crowds and instead walk over to our little neighbourhood shrine on the nearby hill. It is about a five minute walk and the kids love adventuring over the semi-neglected, bamboo covered hilltop. 

On our way up the hillside

Dustin, the caveman that he is, was instantly drawn to this bonfire burning off to the side of the shrine. The men there were burning all of the old woven grass ropes that decorated the shrine since last New Year's Day.

The boys helped the men with their fire for half an hour or so and then we headed back down the hill.

On the way down the trees open up and you can see most of downtown Fukuyama laid out in front of you. The night before had been unusually cold so there was a fine dusting of snow on everyone's roofs.

Later in that day, our neighbour brought by a branch of nanten covered in red berries. This small bush grows just about everywhere in Japan and is often used in New Year's decorations. Here is Bosco and the nanten wishing you all a very happy Year of the Sheep!

In Retrospect

Is it a bit late to do a recap post on 2012? Maybe, but you'll have to forgive me as I reminisce about the highlights of the last year.

2012 was a year of calm and stability compared with the storm of change that was 2011. This was our first full year in Japan and full of positive experiences and growth. Both Dustin and I have become more comfortable and confident in our jobs, Dustin teaching and me managing our household and family in a foreign country. Even the simplest things can be complicated here, mostly because of the language barrier and different systems, but we have managed to find a secure rhythm and routine to life over the past year.

Last year at this time, William was 9 months old. I was still dealing with him waking every 3 hours, breastfeeding, and all the energy that must be devoted into entertaining/corralling a young, super active baby. People always say: "Enjoy these moments because they grow up way too fast!", but these are people whose children are already grown and out of the house. When you are up all night with a sick infant or just had your bookshelf dismantled by little grubby hands, you kind of wish they would grow up at least a little bit faster. They do grow up though, and over the course of the past year William has become much more independent, self entertained, and capable. He was also sleeps though the night! Woo hoo!

I can't believe he was so little!

William has developed a true affinity for Japanese food.

Theo has grown so much too. November 1st marked his first full year of yochien and his Japanese has gotten quite good over that time. He now even talks in the local Hiroshima dialect as well as standard Japanese. He has become extremely close to his brother, always making sure that he is entertained and well looked after. I feel so lucky to have two children who don't just put up with each other's company, but seek it out and enjoy it.

The last day of school, March 2012

Best friends beating the summer heat

We were also able to escape the tiny confines of our apartment and move into a house that is just the right fit for our family. If I were to pick one event this past year that has had the most positive influence on our lives it would be this move. So much stress and annoyance was generated by being squeezed into cramped quarters and having no personal outdoor space for our children to tear around in. We love this old house!

We also left behind bit of the summer heat and headed back to Canada for a family visit. This will probably be the last trip we make back west for at least a few years, so it was good to see every one. 

While we were in Canada, I was able to spend some time with my sister and her newborn daughter Josephine. This is my first niece and I am so glad that I got to meet her!

We were also able to rent a garden plot in our neighbourhood, which is something we have been wanting to do ever since we got here. This picture is pretty old, since we have already been harvesting veggies from our garden for a few weeks now.

Through Dustin's work, our church, and random chance we have developed an amazing group of friends over the past year. We have met so many loving, supportive people and I can't imagine what our life in Japan would be like without them. Sniff, sniff...I love you guys!

Overall, 2012 was a fantastic year. Welcome 2013, if you are anything like your predecessor we are in for some good times!

Out With The Old

Goodbye dragon and hello snake!

I know that my sister thinks it is disgraceful, but Dustin and I don't usually do anything special for New Year's Eve. We did before we had young children, and may again when they become old enough to notice or care, but for now we usually have a quiet night and go to bed at a normal time, too tired to even stay awake until midnight.

We did celebrate a bit the next day by having friends over and cooking a delicious nabe for lunch. That's about as interesting as it gets around here on New Year's Day.

On January 3rd, we went over to our Japanese grandparent's house to eat osechi ryori, or traditional Japanese New Year's food.

The children and I enjoyed it and since every food has a lucky symbolic meaning for the new year, I ate at least a piece of everything. This website has some beautiful pictures and also gives the meaning of all the foods eaten.

After our meal we were surprised by a delicious birthday cake that Obaasan had made for Theo and Ojiisan, who turned 70 on January 4th.

William then helped Obaasan whisk up some matcha

Obaasan and Ojiisan continued to thoroughly spoil our children by giving them otoshidama. This is a gift of money that is given to children in pretty envelopes on New Year's. We are so blessed to have this wonderful couple in our lives!

Fukubukuro

On New Year's Day, we took the kids for a long, enjoyable bike ride along the river and into the countryside surrounding Fukuyama. On our way back, we stopped at a little, out of the way playground and let the children explore for as long as we could stand the cold wind. 

William had fun checking out all of the dinosaur statues. 

There were also lots of things to climb and jump on which pleased Theo.

This tube had really interesting acoustics and William enjoyed a few minutes protected from the wind while hearing his own voice amplified. 

Scattered throughout the playground were little interactive plinths like this one that shows how to draw a kappa, which is a child and cucumber eating water sprite. They are probably my favourite creature in Japanese folklore so I was pretty excited to learn how to draw one.   

We picked up a few Year of the Dragon themed sweet buns from a shop on our way home. Thebuns were made using a plain and green tea flavoured dough and filled with sweet bean paste with chocolate decorations to make them look like dragon heads.

Before we returned home, we stopped at a grocery store near our apartment and bought two fukubukuro, one for the boys and one for Dustin and me. Fukubukuro are mystery bags filled with a random assortment of goods from the store which are sold at a set price which is lower than the actual value of the contents, or is at least supposed to be. I was really hoping that our bag would contain some interesting and surprising new items that I have never had the opportunity of trying. Unfortunately, everything contained in our surprise bag was pretty tame, mostly just snacks. On the plus side, we estimated that we only paid about half of the actual worth of the goods in our bag and we knew that we would be able to use everything in it. Theo picked an Anpanman themed bag for William and himself. It was filled with an assortment of Anpanman candy and cookies which they have both been enjoying over the past week.

The contents of our bag were clockwise from top left: a bottle of tea that tasted like nail polish remover to me, a bottle of water, milk tea mix, 2 cans of coffee, chocolate crackers, senbei, oreos, potato chips, curry mix, seasoning for eggplant stir fry, chocolate covered biscuits, and caramel corn.

The kid's bag contained crackers, cookies, candy, and a sketch pad.

I think that fukubukuro are a fun way for a store to get rid of extra merchandise. I am not sure if they would be terribly successful in Canada though, since people there seem to be pickier when it comes to product selection and have way more allergies, intolerances, and food avoidances.

The Beat Goes On

Last week we had two more reasons to celebrate: New Year's and Theo's Birthday. On the 31st, we were invited by a friend to a mochi pounding party. Traditionally, mochi is made by pounding special glutinous rice using a large wooden hammer. There are actually two people involved, one to pound the rice with the hammer, and one to wet the rice, making sure it doesn't stick to the bowl while turning and flipping it. The timing of these two people has to be pretty precise or the rice would cool too quickly, or someone could get their hand smashed by a massive hammer. It forms a smooth, soft, stretchy ball after a while which is then shaped into smaller balls for eating. This is a popular New Year's event, and we really enjoyed getting into the festivities.

The mochi that day was made in a more modern way with the rice first being steamed in tiered wooden stacks, then put into a pounding machine, placed in another machine for cutting the newly formed mochi into smaller pieces, and finally being rolled in a little rice flour and lined up to cool. Some of it was filled with sweet red bean, which is Theo and my absolute favorite. Truthfully, Theo loves all mochi to excess and was in his glory when he was allowed to eat all he wanted.

First, the rice was steamed in this large wooden contraption.

It was then placed in this machine to be pounded into a soft, stretchy mass. A few weeks ago, Theo had told me all about a mochi pounding robot that he wanted to build so that he could have mochi whenever he wanted. He had no idea that something like that already existed, and was speechless and amazed when he saw the pounding machine.

 The soft and warm mass is then put into the top funnel of another machine that pushes it out while snipping off balls.

The newly formed balls are lightly coated in rice flour to keep them from sticking. Here, Theo is sporting a fresh mochi that he is about to devour.

After eating his fill, he helped roll more balls in flour and place them in neat rows. The white, half circle forms that look a bit like two mortars joined together are molds for making kagami mochi, a two tiered mochi that is a New Year tradition and decoration. 

I have no idea how much mochi they ended up making that day, since we only stayed for a couple of hours. It is their family's tradition every year to make mochi and give it to all of their friends, family, and neighbours for New Year.

The family owns a small factory that builds machines for making senbei. Theo had lots of fun poking around the factory, checking out all of the cool tools and machine parts.

They also roasted some delicious black soy beans for us to munch on.

Theo's Mario birthday cake

On January 2nd, Theo turned four years old. We had a relaxed celebration at home with pizza, balloons, and a cake decorated with his current favourite character: Mario. He absolutely loves the Mario Brothers and has been pretending that he is Mario and William is Luigi for months. His interest crossed the boundary into obsession a few weeks ago and now the first thing that leaves his mouth in the morning and the last thing that escapes his mouth at night usually has something to do with Mario. At one point, I asked him who I was, and he told me I was Princess Peach because I am so pretty. Awww...

This past Thursday was Theo's first day back at kindergarten after a two week break. Dustin is also back to work, so hopefully everything will settle back into our pre-holiday routine and I will be able to blog a little bit more about what is happening in our lives.