Japanese Shoe Carnival

Shopping on Okinawa can be a little frustrating.  Our main source of clothes and shoes is of course the BX (military exchange) and I've found that the buyers for the BX are a bit blind to the weather conditions on Okinawa.  Like they don't stock reasonable beach shoes, even though we live on an island.  And they had a nice selection of winter parkas and gloves, even though we live on a tropical island.  And now I need sandals for Cannon and all I can find are tennis shoes or leather dress shoes.  Leather dress shoes are not practical when the kid is wearing shorts and playing.

So today Stevie and I ventured to a Japanese shoe store.  I had not tried the Japanese shoe stores before because Japanese womens shoes don't come in my size (size 9).  That would be the equivalent of an LLL or possibly even an LLLL in Japanese sizes.  The Japanese size their shoes in two ways - either by centimeters or S, M, L, or LL.  It makes a person feel bad to be told that they are an LLL - I maintain that I am not big foot!

But I had hopes for Cannon to fit in their sizes so off we went to Shoe Plaza which was a store similar to Shoe Carvnival in the US.

From observations of the Japanese people, I knew their shoes were, well let's say, different, from US styles.  All of Japanese fashion is different from US styles, but this was the first time I was able to see them up close and personal.  Wow!  Double wow, and maybe even triple wow for the men's shoes!  At times I had to ask Stevie if we were in the men's section or women's.  You would too if you saw shoes like these...

Yes, those are men's shoes.  And so are these...

And these...

The kids shoes are colorful, and most often shiny, to say the least.  I contemplated those yellow ones for Cannon...

...but decided against them.  Emmy might have liked the girly tennis shoes with the obligatory "Hello Kitty".

Alas, I was so disappointed when these didn't come in my size...

But as you can see, my foot is a little bigger than Japanese shoes...

Well, it made for an interesting morning, but unfortunately we came to the conclusion that out of the hundreds of types of shoes in the store, there were NO casual sandals for Cannon so we ended up with an ugly pair of knock off Crocs.  At least the poor kids won't have to go barefoot!

(PS - If you can't read it, the sign at the top says "If size is agreeable, buying profits.")  Can you make sense of that?

Higashi Azalea's

No rest for Grammie today - as if she didn't travel enough yesterday, we put her in the car today for a 2 hour trip to the northern end of the island for a look at the Higashi Azalea Fest.  I had read and heard about the impressive azaelea show that took place on the hills around the Village of Higashi, and impressive it was!  Fifty thousand (or that's what the paper said) azalea bushes all dressed in their springtime finest blooming on the green hills of the more rural portion of the island.  Too me, it was more impressive than the much-talked about cherry blossoms, but that's my personal opinion.

The azalea bushes all grow in a park that the people of Higashi have built on a beautiful hillside overlooking the Pacific ocean.  Although today was overcast (we dodged the rain by the skin of our teeth), the azaleas still exuded color and springtime brightness.  The park was a natural layout of curving sweeps of azalea color with walking trails perforating the color.  The only downfall was a gravity defying bridge that stopped Stevie in his tracks.  Grammie, the kids and I braved the bridge and caught up to Stevie later on.

The bridge...

Grammie Returns!

No, it's not the name of a bad movie, it's the truth. Grammie loves us so much that she was willing to brave that 14 hour trans-Pacific flight, again. We're off on another set of adventures, including a trip to Thailand in 7 days and counting ...

The waiting is the hardest part...

But, oh, so worth it!

Japanese Tea Ceremony

I've heard a lot about the Japanese Tea Ceremony - even tried to go to one before, but the tour was canceled - but today I was able to participate in a unique class/demonstration/hands-on participation tea ceremony.  Usually the tea ceremony is pretty sacred, so being able to try my hand at it and ask unlimited questions was quite a treat.

The Japanese are often formal in many of their customs, their behaviors and their actions and all of this seems to culminate in the tea ceremony.  I'm not sure that even after a two hour class that I understand why this tradition developed or thrived but I'll try my best to summarize what I learned.  It's not really any wonder that I can't understand it in 2 hours, tea masters train for years and years (like 20, 30, 40 years!) to understand the full ceremony.

First, you have to understand that there are "tea masters", people who spend an entire lifetime cultivating this art, which is esentially adding hot water to a tea powder (matcha) and wisking it into a drinkable substance before being served.  That is the tea ceremony "boiled" down to its basest element.  Ha, ha!  However, the Japanese make sooo much more of it than that.

For instance, there are elements of the tea ceremony that must be present such as an "ikibana" flower arrangement (the simplistic flower arrangement that is truly Japanese), and there must be a board with Japanese calligraphy that is some sort of a thought to prevail at the ceremony.  And there is the dress, the tea master wears kimono which is a whole other art of itself on how to dress in it.  Then there are the tea bowls themselves which are often passed down from generation to generation.  Part of the tea master's job is to know when the bowl was made, where, by what potter, any special significance, etc.  In fact, they must know this information about all of the instruments used in the tea ceremony and may be "quizzed" by the participants about the details.  Wow!  Just for a drink of tea?

Anyways, the tea ceremony, from what I could gather, is almost a form of meditation, an art, where the guest is supposed to completely immerse him or herself into it and forget about the outside world.  I guess it's almost like a type of meditation where you are "in the moment" and at one with the tea.  I have to admit, before today I've never considered being at one with my tea, and this is coming from a gal with English roots.

After writing all this, I don't think I would do the ceremony justice by descibing it here, I mean wisking green matcha powder into hot water doesn't sound like art, but there was something uniquely beautiful and serene about watching the care and precision in which the tea master created the drink.  And you have to appreciate the years of dedication by the tea masters to learn the full art form, even though you quietly wonder why.  I guess that's a part of modern American society that we just don't know.  Afterall, how can I fully comprehend that there is a family in Kyoto who are 17th generation tea masters.  Wow, that's a long time!

So the photos will show a whole lot of bowing, and turning of the bowl front to back and back to front, and admiring the bowl, and saying certain phrases (well, maybe you can't see that in the photos!), and slurping of tea, but I think the true tea ceremony can't be summarized in pictures because the essence, the feeling, of the tea is something you can only experience hands on.

Kids Say (and Do) the Funniest Things

It's true, they do, and each of mine had a funny moment recently that I thought I would share.

1.  Cannon - While I was volunteering in Cannon's class the other Thursday, I heard his teacher remind the kids about the spelling test that was the following day.  Later, at home, I asked Cannon if he had studied for this test.  No, says he.  Why? says me.  I was going to practice my guessing, says he.  Ahhhh!!

2.  London - Soccer started here on island last week and both the boys are on teams this spring.  At London's first practice, the coach lined all the kids up on a line, gave them a ball, and asked, "Who knows how to dribble?"  About half the kids raise their hands, including a very enthusiastic London.  Really?  I think to myself; I didn't know he knew anything about soccer as this was his first time playing.  So the coach instructs the kids to dribble the ball down to mid-field and back.  Ready, set, go!  London procedes to pick up the ball, and dribble - basketball style - the ball down the field and back!  I decided at that point that I liked the coach because he didn't yell or laugh or say anything, except to point out there are two ways to dribble and in soccer you use your feet.

3.  Emerson - So you know we had a fairly serious earthquake here last Saturday morning, and all week there have been aftershocks, none of which were major.  And then we had the big tsunami warning last Sunday that disrupted life for an afternoon while we waited to no avail.  Well the whole earthquake/tsunami warning/impending natural disaster thing has the kids a little worried (and Stevie too, to be honest).  I can see that their little minds (not Stevie's!) are trying to process what it all means.  Just last night Emmy looks at me out of the blue and asks, "Mommy, are we going to have another one of those, you know, wiggly things?"

Hina Matsuri

Happy Hina Matsuri Day to all my young nieces out there.  I'd say it to the rest of you too, but in Japan March 3rd is Girls Day festival.  Hina (doll) matsuri (festival) is how they celebrate this tradition which dates back a couple hundred years.  Traditionally there was a ceremony where the sins of a person were transferred to a doll and then that doll was set float down a river.  (I'm not sure how many sins a three year old girl can have, but I guess for all those times she hit her brother or stole his Matchbox, she shall be forgiven.) But I think now a days it is more celebrated by families displaying a cadre of dolls each with meaning.

I took a class last week where we made an oragami hina and the teacher told us some interesting things about the day.  First, it is a day set aside to pray for your little girl's health and wellbeing, and most importantly her ability to find a good husband.  The elaborate doll displays can have up to 7 layers, starting with the Emperor and Empress on the top level then having attendants, musicians, carriages, cherry blossoms, rice cakes, etc.  The idea is that you want your daughter to marry a wealthy family so that she can be the princess at the top.  Some of these displays can cost $10,000!

But the average family would more likely go to the department store, Jusco, and purchase a single or double layered display (still pricey at around $800).  I just went to gawk today with Emmy.  Of course the display was right near the toy section where my daughter wandered of to check out the cars!

I also learned that on this day you're supposed to eat clam soup.  The clam symbolizes the perfect pairing of a man and a woman.  As the teacher explained only two shells perfectly come together to make a clam shell, so the thought is only one woman and one man will fit together to form a perfect union.  When I found out that the recipe went something like "Take some clams and boil them, maybe add some onions or cabbage."  I decided not to treat the family to this tonight!  I had flashbacks to my New Years soup which was something less than stellar and had way more ingredients than this!

More Favorite Products from the 100 Yen Store

I've written before about the 100 Yen stores here which are the equivalent of American Dollar Trees, but with so many more creative and useless products. I could spend hours and hours in one of these stores just cruising the aisles for uniquely Japanese products. And most of the times it's not the product itself that is so entertaining, but the translated directions on the package. How a whole country can mutilate one language without someone calling attention to it is beyond me, but it makes for a comedic hightlight in an average day.

So today I had a few minutes before I had to pick Em up at preschool and I just happened to be traveling past one of these comedy clubs, uh, I mean 100 Yen stores and popped in to peruse the aisles. Here are today's highlights:

1. Snake Repellent - love the coughing, spluttering, crying snake on the front of the package. This was actually one in a series of products which also included dove repellent, snail repellent, mouse repellent, cat repellent and dog repellent. It's packaging says that the "compoments of this product has wood vinegar" so you can be "assured of its high safety". Of course, the packaging also notes that it is about 80% effective. Maybe some snakes like the smell of wood vinegar?

2. Sweat Cloth Pat, Silver Ion Applied - These are tricky to figure out, but I think they are cloths you put inside the underarms of your shirt to absorb sweat. Now what the Silver Ion Applied part is, I'm not sure. Love the directions that say "Dry up your arm pit with non wove sheet having absorbing sweat and letting air through". Also love the "cautions" that come with products. One of the cautions for the sweat cloth pat is "Sometime, the posting power is weak due to the quality of your cloth" - so if you buy cheap clothes, this product won't work for you!

3. Care Sheet - The Japanese are known to revere their elders to which my gerontologist side applauds them. And since most elderly family members are taken care of at home, there is consequently a whole host of products to help the younger generations. You know they are for the elderly because the cartoon characters on the packaging show grey haired, wrinkled people. This particular product is absorbant sheets for adult incontinency, which is not fun, but the packaging sure is! Love, love, love the picture of the old man on a potty chair with his pants down looking very, um, satisfied? And the "cautions" on the back that says "Please put a packing bag on the place which the hand of a small child or an old man does not reach." And, "When the old man has eaten some care sheets, please check whether it is made to get it blocked in a throat, and show it to a nearby doctor immediately." I am not making this up! I guess old women are smarter than the old men so they don't try to ingest the contents.