Food Expo at Big Site

Big Site Convention Center.

Last week one of the Moms from school brought a group of us to a Food Expo. Her husband works in the food packaging industry and had received tickets for admission. Since he knows “ladies like food”, he gave the tickets to his wife for her and her friends. It was a morning full of tasting a wide variety of products including, miso, mochi, caviar, beef, ice cream, ume shu, popcorn, noodles, cake, pickles, plums, donuts and so on. In a convention room full of salary men in suits, us women and one Dad (some with strollers) worked our way through the crowds. We rationalized our presence by thinking “which consumer exercises the most spending power of food products in the home?”. Of course, it’s the Mother! Needless to say, we had fun!

Sake vendor

Pickled plums

Gold leaf sprinkles for anything from steak to waffles.

Super tasty chocolate cake balls.

Nori (seaweed) cups for all your party appetizers.

Mochi (made from rice) dessert.

A sweet treat vendor, Nissei. I imagine this boy and girl are very recognizable to most Americans who eat ice cream cones.

Hawaii Theme

This week Roo’s preschool class shifted their theme of study to Hawaii and Islands. They went to lunch as a class at a restaurant across the street to taste Hawaiian pizza and they learned about volcanoes, complete with experiment. Roo shared the rock he collected from our night trek on Mt. Kilauea in January, as well as donned his Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park explorer hat.

Mercedes & Nyingpo

This week we said goodbye to American visitors, Mercedes Baleda and Venerable Nyingpo, who stayed with us for a week. They were in Tokyo to teach Tibetan Heart Yoga. They are students of Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally of Diamond Mountain University. It was wonderful having them in our home. Roo was off school for the week and enjoyed the company. In addition to teaching yoga, Mercedes is a professional singer. Her story and music is on her website, Songs of Mercy. She’s also the Director of Star in the East, an organization that brings East and West, Buddhism & Christianity, together in discussion. At the house, when Roo heard her singing and playing her harmonium, he remarked “that sure if pretty music”. Nyingpo is a Buddhist monk and patient playmate for Roo. He speaks and writes Tibetan and is an amazing teacher. Some of his yoga classes are available on google video. After leaving Japan they were heading to Vietnam, Israel, and eventually, Hong Kong. Hopefully they will come back to Japan, soon!

Ookii

This kanji character is ookii, meaning big. Roo surprised Ryan, our language teacher, and me this past weekend when during our Japanese lesson at the house he announced that he “knows ookii”. He proceeded to draw the character with a decent amount of accuracy. I thought they were singing cute Japanese songs and writing their name in hiragana during the thirty minutes of Japanese time at school. I guess not!

Tokyo Fire Museum

Today Roo and I visited the Tokyo Fire Museum. The entrance is conveniently connected to Yotsuya san chome station. He's fascinated with fire fighters, their gear and equipment, and "rescue missions". Besides the hands on fun for kids, another great thing about the museum is the price for entry, it's free! We'll definitely go again!

Real gear to try on!

Now the Chief's helmet.

Roo admiring the helicopter. After seeing he commented he's going to "go home and make a rescue helicopter out of Lego's".

More gear and a steering wheel to drive and siren to sound.

A helicopter with a video screen playing actual aerial view images.

High Speed Rail

Tonight as I’m reading an article at NPR about Obama’s message to the people calling for high speed rail, I can’t but think, well of course. Living in a country where they’ve practically mastered this approach to transportation, it feels so obvious that America could benefit. Often when people ask me what I like about living in Tokyo, I reply “safety”, or “I don’t have to drive a car”. At times I miss driving or cruising, but I have yet to miss driving to get from point A to point B. Here, train, bus, bike or walking can get you most places on time. In a pinch, a taxi. Never, the frantic stress of wondering how you’re going to get somewhere when your car unexpectedly doesn’t start.

Knees

Soon, we’ll be out of pants for Roo. I’ll need to do some stitching because almost all have ripped knees. It seems to happen with little warning. Like today. When he dressed in the morning his jeans were in tact. As we’re walking away from the house to go to a friends for a play date, I look down and notice his knee is ripped open. That means it happened in the carpeted apartment. How? Last week one day I picked him up from school and noticed his bony knee sticking out of his rough and tough cargo pants. He’s into sliding, jumping, “landing like a ninja” and the ever popular “falling down game” . I don’t make a big deal of it. I want him to play and try out new moves with his body and build confidence. I’m just not sure what I’m going to do in the summer when steamy weather hits Tokyo. At this rate, shorts feel reckless. Knee pads? Arnica gel? Carry bacitracin and bandaids everywhere? Dorky knee socks? Any suggestions?

Today's feature, photos from our play date....

Title: Boy with scuffed knees and Girl on swings

Title: Boy with scuffed knees and Girl, on rock, catching tadpoles