The Duck's Nest

As part of a project at my school, my students are preparing a presentation on Sugamo, which is an area of Tokyo with a famous shopping street. This area is known for being popular particularly among the elderly. Consequently, there are a lot of drug stores and shops selling everything from hot water bottles to traditional snack foods and...red underwear. (More on that later.) One of the students in my class is also a professional photographer, so she gracefully volunteered her time and talents and came with us to take some pictures. The first two images here are from her. Take a look:

• Left: In Maruji, one of the shops famous for selling the red underwear. Red underwear is supposed to be lucky and also keep you warmer (but why or how is beyond me...). This is me trying to show my excitement about my first trip to the shop.
• Right: Some of my students were even more excited than I was...

• Left: One of the traditional snacks available in Sugamo is grasshoppers. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually worked up enough nerve to try it. But a VERY small piece only. All of the other students in my group had tried it before and really enjoy it. My opinion: not as bad as I was afraid it would be, but not a particular texture that I care to ever have in my mouth again.
• Right: (Most of) my students outside Maruji. I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all. Even Elmo. :)

Another autumn in Tokyo

I'm long overdue for an update! Here are some photos of events over the last month:


Last year I went back to the States for Thanksgiving, but this year I returned to my tradition from my first year in Tokyo and hosted a Thanksgiving dinner party at my house in Haneda. As luck would have it, nearly all my guests had to cancel the night before. I was still able to celebrate with my host family, though.

• Left: Since I am not a great cook, a large portion of the meal was purchased at Costco. (I couldn't have made a pumpkin pie that good myself, anyways...). I did, however, make "smashed" potatoes entirely on my own for the first time, though.
• Right: After dinner we all played a rousing game of Skip-bo.

• Left: The head teacher at my school is leaving and this past Saturday I joined him and about 20 of our students for a Farewell party in Ginza. (One of my students called it a "welfare" party by accident!) Here is a shot of the dinner that was held in an izakaya, which is a traditional type of Japanese restaurant.
• Right: Another year of Christmas lights near Roppongi Hills (see this post for last year's lights). I go to this spot every year, and every year it's still beautiful.

• Left: Down the street from Roppongi Hills is another major shopping area, called Tokyo Midtown. These trucks are always parked outside selling things to shoppers (the first one sells souvenirs and the other one sells snacks), and the signs on the trucks never fail to make me laugh!
• Right: Once again, the lawn at Tokyo Midtown was beautifully lit. You can't tell from the picture but the lights here were actually changing colors and shapes and they even included advertisements for the sponsors!

Beer and bento boxes

I love this poster because he looks seriously angry that someone just tried to steal his beer...so he's hiding behind those other cans of beer.

And this is my new bento box (like Japanese tupperware for lunches). It's got my name on it! Also, the extra bonus is that you get to see what my underpants would look like if I was a cartoon. :)

ONE HUNDRED! (Hyaku, cento, cien)

Yes, I've made it to 100 posts on this blog! I wish I had a bigger way to celebrate, but for now I'll leave you with a few recent photos instead.

• Top: Last week I had my 1 year anniversary living with my host family. We went out to dinner and then drove to Odaiba. Odaiba is the largest of some man-made islands in Tokyo bay, originally created for defensive purposes during the 19th century. It was re-vamped in the 1990s into the high-end shopping/leisure/entertainment district that it is now. This was actually my first visit; someday I'll hopefully make it back during daylight hours, but as you can see from the photo, the night views of the Tokyo skyline are pretty much spectacular.

• Left: There's a bookstore located a couple floors below my school that has been known to host celebrities as they make their way through Tokyo (Michael Jackson is supposed to be among them). A couple of weeks ago, we noticed lines and lines of people standing around. I went downstairs to see what was going on, and all I could make out was that they were paying $30 for tickets to see something scheduled for the following Monday. Later, one of our Japanese staff went to find out the rest of the details and it turns out that these guys were all waiting around for tickets to shake hands with a famous Japanese actress, whose name I can't remember. (I had wondered why there were no women in line...). Sure enough, three days later the photo above was all you could see on the downstairs patio outside the store. I have to also draw your attention to the fact that this image is another testament to the Japanese proficiency at making lines. No ropes/cones/store staff, etc. This is an entire country of people who are programmed to make these perfectly straight lines and then stand in them waiting patiently...
• Right: This is my co-worker Eddie demonstrating how to eat mini cinnamon rolls from McDonalds when you live in Japan. I love chopsticks! (See this post if you want a look at one more example of chopstick usage.)

And now, I'd also like to take this monumental 100th post to introduce a new series:

"A Nap in Japan: Japanese people can (and do) sleep anywhere"

Most of the photos, you'll find, have been taken on trains, although if you stay tuned to future posts you'll see some other creative locales. I've been gathering this collection since a few weeks after I got here, two years ago. It's about time I shared some of these gems with the world. The pictures that follow are among the biggest reasons why I find Japanese people so darn entertaining.

• Left: I took this photo on my way home from Kyu-shogatsu (Chinese New Year) last February. These guys were on their way home from a group fishing trip.
• Right: This guy was probably just on his way home from a night on the town.

My birthday and the beach

• Left: At midnight on my birthday Hiroko had a mini party for me, complete with presents and sparkling juice. The only thing she didn't have was actual birthday candles, so she and Yota brought out the scented candles from the bathroom...
• Right: I was soooo excited for the presents!

• Left: Laura, me and Taka at the Mexican restaurant where we went after I finished work on my birthday. This place isn't near as embarrassing as restaurants in America when you have your birthday--they don't sing to you. (Phew!) They did take our photo and make a really nice card with it that everybody could sign, and the also gave me some of the best vanilla ice cream I've ever eaten.
• Right: Melba and Ferdie, the other two party-goers. Ferdie and I used to work together every Saturday.

• Left: A couple of weeks ago, Hiroko asked me to take a walk with her. We walked over the bridge (seen below) into Kanagawa prefecture and then along the river. In the center of this picture is the place along the riverside where I sometimes go and sit at night to watch the planes take off from Haneda airport. I live somewhere in that clump of buildings, but more to the left of what is shown in the photo.
  
• Right: After an hour of walking we arrived at...a beach! It was tiny, but also empty. Just me and Hiroko and 2 or 3 retired guys. In the distance is the airport.

• Left: Another view of the beach. Someday I should try to come back and have a picnic.
• Right: On the way back we saw some after-school baseball practice. Ahhh, the joys of living in Tokyo. There's so little land that they have to practice under the bridge...

More photos from September

• Left: Another picture from Nick's visit. On the train on his way to my house from the airport, he made friends with some pretty cool people from Singapore who work for NWAirlines. We ended up meeting for drinks in Shibuya later that night. Lots of fun!
• Right: Yes...but is there a Sumo Queen? (This is supposed to be a "No Smoking" sign. I found it in Harajuku.)

• Left: Nick wanted to have a beer one night so we went to the grocery store and this is what we found. I don't usually drink beer at all, so I hadn't noticed the tiny-sized cans before. The one in the center is the same size as your average soda can. The mini one was mine!
• Right: They may have been "Taco's chips" before, but they're definitely mine now...

Nick's visit

I guess it's been a pretty dry summer as far as blog posts goes... I knew it was time to update my blog when even people who live in Japan were mentioning that I don't put up new photos often enough. (Hi, Hiroyuki!)

I've had visits from a couple people, which were both really nice. My friend Nick spent the summer in Hong Kong and then was kind enough to grace us with his presence for a week here in Tokyo on his way back to the States. The last time I saw him, he was here with Semester at Sea--his boat stopped at the port in Yokohama. I would show photos from that visit, but apparently I don't have any (Nick, if you read this, could you e-mail me a couple?) Anyways, these are a few shots from this year's trip:

• Left: The day after Nick arrived, we went to Roppongi Hills. I take a photo from pretty much this exact same spot every time I go there. (See here for another example...)
• Right: Later that night we met up with Emi, another one of our friends from university. We went to Chukagai (Chinatown) for dinner and then tried to go for a ride on the ferris wheel pictured behind us, only to find out that it's closed every Thursday in September for reasons we couldn't figure out. Nick took some very nice night shots of the ferris wheel with my camera, though.

• Left: Sunday night Nick and I went for dinner in Shinjuku with one of my students. This is a photo of the coin lockers in Shinjuku station. Only in Japan will you find something this irresistibly cute just for decoration. It looks like they're ambushing me. :)
• Right: This is Nick and Laura making the "I'm scared" face together.

Two Posts on the same day...

Today I made oinari-san--my absolute favorite Japanese food--for the first time. It's rice (or carrot rice, in our case) stuffed inside deep-fried tofu. Yum! If I still remember how when I get back to the states, ask me and I'll be happy to make some for you, too!

• Left: Here are some of the ingredients. You can see more of the finished product in the bottom right corner.
• Right: Hiroko said they were delicious. Since she's a professional cook, I'll take that as a pretty big compliment!

...Twice the fun.

The annual summer festival ("matsuri") in my city, Haneda, took place this past weekend. I'm also experimenting with putting video on this blog for the first time, so feel free to leave comments.

This is video of the locals carrying a portable shrine, or "mikoshi". They bring it all through their neighborhood and eventually end up at the main shrine building which is just a couple minutes walk from my house. This particular mikoshi is for a neighborhood in Haneda called Nishimachi, which was my host mother's birthplace. Every once in a while during the procession, they stop walking and start shouting and then shaking the mikoshi. I'm not exactly sure what it means, but I was pretty amazed at how much they can shake it--these things are incredibly heavy. Watch how it pulls them right off the ground when their side is in the air. My favorite part is at the end when one of the guys in the blue "hapi" (traditional clothes) does a little bit of a tip-toe dance for no apparent reason...



And here are a few other photos from that same night:

• Left: Hiroko and Laura waiting for our yakisoba to be cooked. This was officially the sweatiest man I saw all evening. Delicious food, though. :)
• Right: Lots of people came for this festival. Even people who grew up here but now live somewhere else will come back to town for this event. You can see the main shrine, Haneda Jinja, in the background. This is the same shrine that Hiroko's sister, Yoshiko, took me to for New Years'.

• Left: Hiroko's daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren came back as well for the evening. This is a photo of the youngest grandaughter, Cocona, with "Uncle Yota" (my host brother). Cocona is about 18 months.
• Right: this is Cocona's 4-year old sister, Yuria, showing off her new toy from grandma.

• Left: Heather joined us towards the end of the evening. Here's the three of us eating "choco-bananas", which are pretty much incredible. You can always find a booth selling them at local festivals in the summertime, but this is the first time I actually tried one.
• Right: this is what the streets of Haneda looked like at night. Pretty nice to look at on the walk home.
  

Kamakura in the summer...

...is not really that much different than any other time of the year, but still one of my most favorite places to visit.

• Left: Lots of sunshine + heat and humidity + me = sunscreen and lots of water.
  
• Right: This time, I took Heather to the same bamboo forest that Laura and I went to on my first visit to Kamakura.
  

• Left: back to the buddha!
  
• Right: this is a pond at Hasedera Temple, just down the street from the big Buddha. Notice its shape. No, you need not worry about any fascist dictators in this country. This shape has actually been a "good luck" symbol in Buddhism for a couple thousand years.
  

• Left: near the same pond were these tiny little statues. Actually, there were probably a few hundred of them. I'm not sure what they represent, but I thought they looked pretty cool in the picture. I'm such a tourist.
  
• Right: You can see the real size of these statues in this picture (they're along the wall just above where Heather was lighting some incense).
  

• Left: Cute!
  
• Right: A view of Kamakura city from the viewpoint at Hasedera.