Ballerina Emmy

Seeing how Emmy has enjoyed gymnastics so much, I decided to go ahead and sign her up for ballet when a spot was offered to us. She started today despite her telling me all morning, "I do not want to do ballet!" I told her that my policy is that you have to try it first before saying you don't like it, just like with vegetables! So off I drove her to ballet hearing all the way, "I don't like ballet!" Ten minutes into the class, she turned to the doorway where I was peeking in and announces, "I do like ballet, Mommy!" See, that Sam-I-Am was right, if you don't try it, you don't know if you like it! I felt a bit silly, though, when all the other three-year olds showed up in pink leotards, tights, tu-tus and ballet slippers, while my child had on stretch pants, shirt and socks! My mission this week is to track down the proper attire and since the BX is out of all appropriately sized attire, this might mean an interesting adventure into Japanese ballet stores...

The third day of New Years

The Japanese celebrate New Years for three days, so this is my third and last post on New Years, I promise. Well, at least until next year. So I was going to write about the food they have on New Years, I was going to share recipes and all, but then I trid the recipe and thought we'd just let that one go down in history.

Apparently the Japanese eat a soup called O-Zoni on New Years day so I found a recipe, gathered all the ingredients (salmon, chicken, shrimp, Japanese potatoes, carrots, giant Japanese radish, shiitake mushrooms, etc.) and made it on New Years Day. It received a whopping 4 out of 10 by Stevie so I'll not treat you to the recipe!

The fun part about the soup was the rice cakes that went with it. There are these special rice cakes called mochi which are made out of a very glutenous rice mashed into a sticky paste and then hardened. You can only buy them at New Years. They are thought to bring long life and wealth. Anyways, these individually packaged little mini-soap bar looking things are sliced open, then toasted. Somehow they transmorph from a rock hard little inedible bar to a ooey-gooey treat with a crispy shell. Yum! You can also stuff them with cheese, wrap them in nori and dip them in soy sauce - also yum!

Graduating to 2010

So after many people have suggested that I start a blog instead of emailing the Japan Journal, I'm giving it a whirl! Hope you enjoy.