Kappabashi Tour

Today, Patti and I went for our weekly little excursion... We went to Kappabashi which is known as the kitchen capital of Tokyo. For the most part, it's meant for restaurant owners to buy products wholesale but they sale to anyone. It's one L O N G street that starts with a H U G E head of a man dressed as a chef located on top of a building on the corner (I took a picture and will try to add later). We could not get over how many stores there were - the street just seemed to go on and on with some of the most beautiful pottery that I have seen - add to that it was dirt cheap and we were in business!

Fortunately for me, I've recently been getting some new dishware in cobalt blues and whites - everywhere I looked there were intricate designs and different styles in exactly the colors I was looking for! I ended up getting 8 different dessert style plates, 3 little bowls that could be used for nuts, etc, a gravy boat, and a larger serving bowl. I bought a few other things and spent around $50... Patti and I had the most fun trying to figure out what the "actual use" for each type of dish was... some were obvious, soup and cup, but others were a little more mysterious! And keeping true to "Japanese style" several of the stores had very teeny tiny walking spaces, so it was comical to try and maneuver through!

One thing is for certain though, it is not a "take your children to" kind of place! It is, however, go back again with your girlfriends and mom kind of place! Definitely another place to go back to and get gifts for family... :)

Pictures from Date Night!

Yep - "Team USA" sings YMCA... so many things wrong with this picture... Most importantly, why did Steve feel it was necessary to give us a name??? And where did we get those hats??




Here we are at Smash Hits...

Date Night!!!

Last night was - in a word - legendary... Chris and I went out with Patti and Steve and had a great time... We went to eat dinner at a restaurant called Panic - Think Japanes steakhouse on a smaller scale - apparently it's one of those places that is pretty expat friendly and the food was VERY good...

After that, we thought we'd take the plunge and go to a karaoke bar... You can't live in Japan and not do that, right?? SO we headed down to Smash Hits in Hiroo - it's a milder place - no Japanese songs allowed which means it's filled with foreigners. Chris and Steve went up first and, well, you just have to watch the video to actually believe it...




The cackling in the background is me... They did get better the second time as Chris tried to keep his family ties close and have an honorary audience member play the part of Slash...




Let me say again how much I LOVE my husband... Of course, to be fair, I went up to and with a cold and no voice... Patti and I didn't do much better... I don't think my feet moved the whole time - think "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" from the Four Tops... This video is unfortunately longer and clearly not as entertaining - so I apologize in advance!



There was also a group from Sweden there - they all got up and sang a song that was in their language and it was just as terrible as ours! Chris met another group from England. My husband asked one of the women if she was from AUSTRALIA!!! Honestly, has he never listened to his father speak?? While Chris went to the bathroom, one of the guys from Sweden scooted in next to me and asked me to pick a song... he asked me where I was from and told me that he would sing the song just for me... Chris certainly didn't have anything to worry about, but hey, I'm going to be excited about that one for a while... Guess I've still got it! HA

We will have to go back soon, or once I have a voice again - this time, Patti and I need to do our research... we need to get better songs! Steve and I were going to do the Devil Went Down to Georgia, but we had to get home and pay the sitter! Of course, the men let us go home and take care of that while they stayed out a bit longer... I think the doorbell rang at 3:30!

My Brush with Celebrity...

This morning when I took Sydney to school it was POURING - I mean get the ark ready, Noah, pouring - I threw on a hat and some clothes and made the familiar trek to the school. On the way home, I looked up and saw a man coming around the corner... I thought to myself, that guy looks like Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's father)... About that time, he approached me and asked if I spoke English... I said yes and then he asked me if I could tell him how to get back to the Hyatt... I did and he said thanks and off we went... all the while with me thinking, that guy really looked like Jon Voight!

I came home and googled him to make sure... When I saw his picture, I knew that had to be the man I just spoke with - then when I searched him and added Tokyo - I discovered that sure enough, HE IS HERE as the President of the jury for the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) - which, coincidentally, is being held right next door to the Hyatt and about an 8 minute walk from my apartment!

Furthermore, as I thought back and looked at the schedule of events for the festival, I realized that Patti and I had walked right through all of this the other day - I called her and we decided that we REALLY have to pay more attention to our surroundings! We usually just walk around thinking that we won't understand anything but I guess we could have been walking around celebrities all along!

I was so excited when I realized what had happened I immediately called my mom - who WAS NOT HOME!!!! AND COULD NOT BE REACHED BY HER CELL PHONE!!! The one person who would want to know this first... oh well, she finally called me a few hours later and I have been given strict instructions to walk around this area with my camera over the weekend...

So there it is... my closest brush with celebrity - since then, I have come up with many things I should have said, for instance... Did you and Angelina make up yet? or What did you get for the new grand babies? or perhaps, What country is the next baby being adopted from? or my personal favorite, Do you think Brad will ever make an honest woman out of Angelina and marry her?? All those things that you never think of in the moment!

Things that make me happy...

Forgot to mention that Chris made it safely home on Monday night - fortunately, he was in the air and was able to miss the Red Sox loss... Again he came home with two bags stuffed to their capacity with goodies and once again, he did an awesome job getting things on my list...

He brought me deodorant - do you know that they don't sale the same deodorant here? I went around for a week or two either smelling like ick or like Chris (which some might mention are the same thing!) since I finally just decided to wear his deodorant until I could get some of my own!

There were also some Webkinz for the kids and he even did some Christmas shopping for the kids - It was pretty cute as he proceeded to lay out "pretty dresses" for Sydney... more like long shirts. But very cute nonetheless... If she wears any of them as dresses... well, let's just say that she wouldn't be allowed to stay at school! :) He also got me long sleeve t-shirts which clearly said on the tag "sleepwear"... again, something I needed, but not what he thought he was getting.

He scored big points by bringing candy corn and bags of Spanish rice mix and a HUGE Vera Bradley bag for me. I can never have too many of those!

As if this bag of goodies wasn't enough, on Tuesday, I received a HUGE box from my parents full of even more goodies! Mom & Dad sent me more deodorant (maybe they smelled me all the way in TN!), Spanish rice mix, and THREE bags of candy corn... The kids were very excited to get books, moon pies (AKA Papa cookies), and a toy from Denny and Papa. I think Sydney was most excited that Papa sent her some of his special gum... that was the first thing she showed her Daddy when he came home from work. She told him, "Papa was so nice he even shared his special gum with us."

So yes - I have been very excited this week to get things that I so often have taken for granted... thanks to a wonderful husband and loving parents, I now smell good and have a happy tummy!

Sweet Potato Digging with Sydney

Finally made it to my first field trip with one of my children - what fun! The children were well behaved and no one got lost... a few got "bus" sick but other than that it was a great time (see pictures below). We rode the bus for about 20 - 30 minutes to a "suburban" area and then all of a sudden we stopped and there were some fields right in the middle of a neighborhood. From what I gathered, it is a farm subsidized by the Japanese government to help children learn about farming and crops. They grew several things - onions, taro, ginger, oranges, persimmons, carrots, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even had a vineyard. As always, I am amazed at how they can effectively utilize every possible inch of space!

We saw a Japanese class doing the same thing - they were so cute in their little matching hats and garbage bags on their shoes - certainly wouldn't want to get dirty!

The kids were so excited about what they found - most of them didn't mind getting dirty and digging a bit - and, of course, I, in my Moon Pie & RC Cola Southern Born shirt, dug right along beside them!

Sydney brought home ONE potato today - not sure what we'll do with it, but she certainly is PROUD of it!

Pictures from Sydney's Field Trip

Final thoughts on frosting...

The frosting was a success... Got a note from the teacher that my colors were perfect and that Nicholas was very proud...

Asked my Japanese teacher what it was that clearly wasn't powdered sugar... she said I had bought corn starch! Not sure why corn starch had a picture of a frosted cake on it... oh well, I laughed and made sure to write what it was on the bag...

Chris came back with 3 cans from NY... guess I'll be prepared next time!

Where there's a will there's a way...

This is now my new motto... I volunteered to make icing for cookies for Nicholas's class... my son proudly told his teacher that his mom made the best strawberry icing (thanks grandma!) and so Ms. Nelson promptly emailed me a few weeks ago and asked for my assistance... I said sure thinking that this would be an easy task - a couple of cans of frosting (I was going to cheat!) and food coloring and I'd be set... right?? Not so easy - do you know that there is NO WHERE in Japan that you can find a can of frosting??? Not the international stores - no where. You can buy a box of Duncan Hines cake mix for $7 but you're pretty much screwed when it comes to the frosting...

Well, stupid me waited until the day before to get the icing ready - yes, I am a procrastinator! So after the 2nd international store and 2nd local store - I realized I was in trouble.

I went into "Plan B" mode... make my own. All I needed was powdered sugar... I already had $10 worth of butter and $7 worth of food coloring... and thank God I had brought vanilla from home! Off to the sugar aisle... found something that sort of looked like powdered sugar, it even had a picture of a frosted cake on the back... whatever it was, there was only about a cup of it in the bag, so I bought three of those then saw something else that actually said "powdered sugar" - there were only two tiny bags of that. So got those and headed home...

Opened up both bags and did a little taste test - the one that said "powdered sugar" was pretty darn close, the other - not so much. It might have been some sort of flour... ick. So with my two tiny bags I made a batch of frosting - which clearly wasn't enough.

After getting the kids (and making a stop at Cold Stone Creamery for a "before dinner snack"), we went to the 5th and final grocery store - Food Magazine (which ironically enough has lots of labels with the "Great Value" aka Walmart symbol...). Searched and searched and found something called "sugar powder" - got a bag and sure enough, it was almost the same thing. Made some more icing, did a few taste tests, got a sugar headache, and was then ready for the coloring...

I needed to make about 6 colors and so I got out all my little Rubbermaid containers (that boy better remember to bring them home!) and then we got started with the food coloring... opened up the boxes - had to buy them all individually - and guess what? You guessed it - it's not the same! It's a powder... imagine my horror as Sydney figured this out with the RED ONE!!!! After cleaning that (and her) up, you would have thought I killed someone! Anyhoo, got all of the colors mixed and I tell ya - that powder works a lot better that the liquid drops. The colors were very vibrant and didn't require much.

All in all it was a great Mommy moment - I impressed the heck out my son by making purple and orange by mixing the colors together. And then the proud look on his face as he left this morning made it all the searching and struggling totally worth it - at that moment, in his mind - I rocked!

Of course, it just dawned on me that I forgot to give him lunch money... good feeling's gone... Well, even though it was short lived, I'm glad I made it worked - because as I'm now going to say every day, where there's a will (and a smiling child's face), there will be a way!

BREAKING NEWS!

THE SLING BOX WORKS AGAIN - My husband is wonderful!! Thank you honey - you may now come home! :)

I just heard a commercial for high school musical 3 - it's just so nice to have commercials in English!!

This now gives me more of a reason to sit in the comfy chair!

Getting accustomed to life in the city...

Went to the American Club this morning for a coffee with the mom's from Nicholas's class. Rode the 96 bus out and then had lunch by myself while researching some brochures for day trips outside of Tokyo. Then I rode the shuttle down to the train station, caught the 97 bus to Hiroo and then went grocery shopping... all the while strolling and listening to my iPod.

Highlights of today's grocery shopping...

* food coloring... $1.50 each for four different colors
* butter... $9 for four sticks!
* bag of rice... $11 (why exactly is the food staple of this country so darn expensive???)
* a treat for me... an almond joy for $2.50

Now I'm sitting in Chris's comfy chair, eating my almond joy, waiting for my groceries to be delivered while Sydney is in hula class.

It's a good day! :) Now if we could just get the sling box fixed then I would be even more happy!

Monday night...

Chris left today to head back to NY for the week... missing him already - however, I'm already compiling the list of goodies he needs to bring back - I'm out of candy corn pumpkins!

Back to school tomorrow - today we were off because it was Japanese sports and health day - I have Japanese lessons and am trying to memorize my lines - I need to be able to say hello, invite her in, and then ask her to sit down and see if she wants any coffee. Much harder than it seems!

I think I just heard Sydney in her room - it's going on 11 now - doesn't look like tomorrow morning will be pretty!

I just finished watching the Family Stone - very much the chick flick and I certainly wouldn't advise watching it without a box of tissues for the end!

better go check on the little ones -

New Australian Friends and Rugby

We met a new family who are here from Australia - Michelle, Troy, and their son, Max - they are very nice people but must at this point must think we are complete idiots - for starters, Chris told them that we must like Australia since we named our daughter after their capital city - they quickly told us that Sydney isn't the capital city - then I said something about loving Fosters beer - to which they replied that no one in Australia really drinks Fosters!

Gotta say, Chris and I were off to a great start! But we all laughed and had a great time - I think I was most excited that Chris didn't know the capital of Australia!

Then today Michelle told me that the Outback restaurant really is an American chain - but she did assure me that the food and details in the restaurant are pretty authentic - I told her that I was happy about that because I couldn't handle another Australian let down! :)

Today we went to a rugby game (It was the IBM semi-pro team) - I've never been to a game like that before - it's crazy! When they scored Nicholas yelled "touchdown" - Michelle had to teach us that it's called a "try" - and after watching this game played with no pads I asked Michelle if they all thought of American football as a bit prissy - she didn't blink an eye and quickly started laughing and said "YES!" I can see why...

It was amazing to watch - players were down several times during the game and the guys just kept playing around them! At the end of the game there were at least 3 men scattered across the field...

We did find out that the USA rugby team will be here in November to play the Japanese team - should be fun and hopefully not too life threatening! :)

Weekend Fun

As my Dad put it, seems like we're doing a lot more in Tokyo than we did in NY! Gotta say I agree! We are realizing that there's always something going on and it's fun to get out and check it out.



Yesterday Nicholas went to a book club on optical illusions at the American Club and after we had lunch. We rode the bus out and then came back on the train - we needed to get Nicholas a train commuter card. Sydney is still free which is nice! I had read that all of the stations have a collector's stamper and we discovered yesterday where they were - I bought the kids a notebook and now we can carry it with us and collect stamps from all of the different places and stations we visit.



Last night, the Lasher's came over for good ole American BBQ! Chris grilled us hamburgers and hot dogs and they were soooooooooo good! I was very disappointed that I couldn't find Bush's baked beans at the Japanese grocery store... :) but I sent Nicholas down to the international store - they didn't have them either but he was able to get one made by Campbell's. They were OK but could have used some "doctoring" as my mom would say!

Today we went to soccer with Nicholas and then went over to the TV Asahi pavilion for a jazz concert - think very mild concert - good music but not much movement from the crowd! After dinner we strolled to Tony Romas for dinner and then on home - the kids were exhausted after two late nights.

Views from Asakusa

Utter misery

It's 9 PM and I am in extreme pain... this is one of those moments where I hear my mother telling me I did not make a smart choice today and that I'm not as athletic as sometimes I'd like to think I am...

This afternoon I had another class at the American Club (this one was on Traveling Destinations in Asia) and before going, I needed to go to the bank. SO I decided that I would give it a try and ride my bike... after all, everyone said it only takes 15 minutes to ride a bike to the club... the only problem is that I didn't really realize that this involved some short cuts that I didn't know...

So off I went - thinking I can do this... I learned three things along this journey: 1) it is not 15 minutes to the club - more like 40, 2) I am very much out of shape, and 3) there are many spaces in Tokyo that have very small sidewalks and people don't really always get out of the way (note to self: buy a little bell like everyone else so I can ding ding my way through the city!).

I made it home, 40 minutes or so there and 40 more back - my legs hurt so bad and my bottom is quite bruised... let's just say I won't be doing that again any time soon!

I'm scheduled to go on a walking tour of one of Tokyo's oldest temples tomorrow - while I'm sure it will be wonderful to see, I'm thinking I will be even more miserable in the morning!

I now have a helper...

OK - I admit it - I finally caved (certainly didn't take long!) and got a helper. The culture here is to have these "helpers" who are everything from housekeeper to nanny. I have seen many different levels of "helper-ness" from dropping off children at school to actually ironing sheets.

I happened upon my helper, Terry, through another Corning family. Turns out Terry (who is Filipino like most other helpers) needed some extra hours - she had Tues & Wed available for 4 hours each morning - I took Tuesday. She arrived at 8AM and made herself at home and by the time I left at 8:30 to take Sydney to school, she had collected all of the laundry, started a load, and wash finishing the dishes. I also had discovered that she had almost perfect English and had been in Tokyo for 10 years.

When I returned around 1PM - the house was about as clean as it was the day we moved in - all of the laundry was done and folded. She apologized because she didn't put it away since it was her first time - HA - found that funny since I didn't care since now all I needed to do was put it away! She let me know that before she comes again I need to get "the windex and the 109" so she can more cleaning. I'm thinking she meant 409...

I keep thinking about a quote I read during my Tokyo: Here and Now class. It said, "expats are a new type of aristocracy in this age, and an expat wife in Tokyo is perhaps the most privileged person in the world." I am seeing all of the different levels of this from the woman who gets the driver to drop her child off at school to the woman who really never has to be with her children and then there's me, who hopefully falls somewhere below that! I am extremely blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity and although it's consistently challenging, I am doing things that I would never have had the chance to do back home...

Because while someone was at my apartment cleaning... I went to the American Club to listen to an author speak! Should you get the chance, check out Arlene Blume. She is the author of "Breaking Trails" - a novel about her experiences as a scientist and mountain climber. She was the first American female to attempt to climb Mt Everest and has since gone on to do amazing work in the field of flame retardants and how they are adversely affecting our world. Very interesting and extremely scary at the same time...

Shopping...

Last week I went shopping with Patti - just realized I forgot to dicsuss - we went to an area called Shibuya and went to a store called Uni Glo - think Old Navy. We had a blast picking out things to try on - lots of basics - turtle necks, sweaters, etc - not very expensive - so I gathered all of my things and went to the fitting room... the nice little stylish girl led me in and then I walked into the fitting room - much to her utter dismay as she squealed - SHOES! I had walked into the little room with my shoes on - apparently big faux pa!!! I quickly jumped back out and removed my shoes, which she kindly arranged for me by the door... then I held my breath as I tried on the first shirt - I had selected the largest size (XL) I could find - amazingly it fit... and so I walked out with a huge bag of shirts - didn't even try to attempt any pants... can't imagine what that would look like...

Saturday Morning Confessions...

Nicholas was up and out by 7:30 this morning - very excited to be headed off to his soccer game. Since Sydney was still asleep, I thought I might as well lie back down for a minute or two... I woke up at 9:30! I don't think I've slept that late since the kids were born...

Sydney and I got ready to head for the grocery and that's where the confessions continue - I'm thinking I've gotten over the initial sticker shock since I just paid almost $5 for an 89 cent bag of life savers... but you know what - I miss those things and so I bought them! Add to that the $5 bag of Tostitos, Rold Gold pretzels, and $6 jar of Prego... The best part is that they deliver the groceries right to my door and bring them into the house...

I'm having company tonight and thought I'd make a lasagna... that's a pricey meal to make in the states, and I've decided it was about double that here - but again, that's what we want to eat and so we will do it - I did get some rice but have absolutely NO IDEA if I got the right kind or not but we'll try to make it soon in my new rice cooker that is entirely written in Japanese...

I can clearly say I am a functioning illiterate in Japan!!! I never knew pictures would come in so helpful...

Off to clean the house... yeeha

Two words for you...

Brain Overload!!!! That's what I'm experiencing - seriously I would really like to find a big rock to just hide under for a few days! Before I have been able to get the last shipment organized, I just had several more things delivered so now I have to figure out more configurations - my poor mother keeps asking for pictures but I just can't bring myself to actually send a picture of the mess that is my home away from home!

OK so it's not THAT bad (it really depends which room you happen to be in!), but I'm not the decorator type and things looked so differently in the catalog than they now look in my home! I just don't have that "vision" for these types of things or have any idea how to arrange it all!

Things though now look more "homey" since it is more full. I even have a new rice cooker and 29 bottle wine chiller... Miho, our rental agency rep, made sure to explain how to use them since they are all in Japanese... Believe me, as I told my friend, Marianne, this morning - think of ANYTHING that you do in the US and I can tell you how it's different here. Anything - medical, traveling, cooking, eating, even going to the bathroom!! Oh yeah - that reminds me, I haven't discussed the Japanese toilets yet... I'll save that for another day.

After my third day of the here and now program, I am quite drained - I have a huge bag full of stuff to go through and digest - yesterday, a cooking specialist spent 20 minutes explaining how to read a milk carton - this was after the nurse spoke about medical care and the proper ways to call an amublance - that's an entry all to itself too.

Chris will be back on Monday so I guess I will continue with the whole "I am woman hear me roar" but today is definitely a Calgon take me away kind of day! Quite frankly, it's been one of those kind of weeks!

The weekend should be calm - Nicholas has a soccer match tomorrow at his school and I, for the first time since he was 4, will miss it. It's just almost too much to go out on the train with me and the two kids (it's at least an hour and 3 trains away). Nicholas is more excited anyway about going out with his friend, Justin. Justin's father offered to take him for me and then Sydney has a birthday party to go to in the afternoon - I'm planning on having Amy (my neighbor) and Patti and their children over tomorrow night for dinner - all of our husbands are either away or working so I thought we might as well hang out together...

I have been researching churches and have found some options - I now just have to find out how to get there! The closest church is Lutheran and it has no English service - there is also a Catholic chapel nearby and of course the always present Mormans are right around the block as well... The two choices I have are a train or bus ride away, but fortunately not too far.

Much love and happiness goes out to my precious niece, Bailee, who was involved in a school bus accident this week. Thankfully she walked away with a bump on her head and an annoying trip to the ER - but she's a trooper and I know she has that beautiful smile on her face again! Love you, Bailee Boo! I miss you!

Life near the Embassies

The area in which we live is covered with embassies from different nations - each day we walk by the Republic of San Marino (just had to look it up - it's in Europe surrounded by Italy - apparently it is the oldest constitutional republic in the world - who knew???) and South Africa - Depending which way we walk, I can go by Lithuania, Qatar, Austria, Finland, and China. Also within about a 10 minute walk is a brand new HUGE embassy for Pakistan.

When we looked at this apartment, I had no bearings on where we were, but as we've explored I have found some interesting places that are very close to us. On the one hand, this allows us to have access to many police officers (or koban) in the area - I mean they literally are on every street corner. This is mainly due to the proximity to the Chinese embassy I am sure. However, on any given day, it seems that the American embassy (which is adjacent to Chris's work) has more police presence. There are at least 2 -3 police buses and multiple standing guards there each day.

Now for the best part (please note level of sarcasm here...), a few weeks ago as I walked towards the Chinese embassy, I noticed a gated entrance which I had previously wrongly assumed to be a back entrance to the embassy - as I looked I noticed it had arabic writing - then I saw the sign - Arabic Islamic Institute of Tokyo - I later would discover that on Friday's at noon they have prayers and there are many, many, many men who come to the institute. This place is less than a minute's walk from my front door (sorry mom). I always try very hard to not be prejudiced and try to "rise above" and not stereotype an entire group of people for the stupidity of a few - but you know what, I can't help but be a bit uncomfortable at times...

Times like when I receive a letter in my mailbox from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Minsitry of Higher Education, which contained the following information...

"We would like to inform you that the month of fasting will completed within 1 or 2 days. Accordingly, Eid al Fitr Prayer will be held... on this occasion, the institute will host the Eid prayer gathering guests (about 5 hundred Muslims including the Ambassadors of the Arabic and Islamic countries). Although we are tyring to avoid any nuisance to our neighbors, due to the gathering of the guests, if you have any inconvenience, please inform directly our staff, or the policeman patrolling nearby the institute. Under the Umbrella of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Tokyo, Arabic Islamic Institute of Tokyo, The Director, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hassan Alzeer."

The letter said the event would be Sept 30th or Oct 1st and would last from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM - since it is now 8:30 PM on Oct 1st - I'm guessing the event has come and gone with no inconvenience to me. So it looks like things can be peaceful and hopefully will continue to remain that way...

Tokyo: Here and Now

This week I am attending a class on how to survive in Tokyo. It's through the Women's Group at the American Club. the past two days have been very helpful and I'm sure tomorrow's will be as well.

Yesterday a counselor came to discuss the inevitable "culture shock" we will all face in varying degrees at one point or another. Hopefully we all won't have it happen at the same time! This was followed by a brief presentation on the history of Japan. During lunch we broke into groups based on similarities - I went to the groups of moms with 6 - 10 year olds and also visited some with the moms with 2 - 5 year olds. Here we asked different questions of the panel and got information on things from where to buy kids clothes to which dentist to use.

Today started off with a Japanese woman discussing Japanese culture and holidays. She was so refined and delicate - she was very informative and gave us some nice insider tips on how to not offend others! There are just so many layers of formality and uniformity - I'm sure I will offend someone before this tour is over!

Following this delightful conversation was a discussion on earthquake preparedness. Not a pleasant discussion... but a necessary one. I will be collecting all of that gear over the next few days. I won't bore you (or scare the daylights out of you!) with many details on that talk...

After lunch, we were treated to a demonstration of traditional Japanese dance and Taiko drumming - the performances were by other expats and their Japanese teachers. Very neat - I do believe I need to take up the drumming - so cool!

They also had a book fair today - I bought several books from a children's book on Japanese holidays to a book about buying food in Japan (which actually has a section on buying an preparing rice!)

My friend, Patti, and I have been meeting at Sydney's school and riding out each morning - in taxis. Yesterday all was well since the driver knew and understood "American club" - today not so much - but we persevered - I had out my little Japanese word book and since I fortunately knew that he had no idea where he was going, directed him to where we needed to be! I quickly learned the words for right and left and stop here! SO HA - success! Believe me, with so many things so very different, I celebrate every little victory!