Longtime martayaki readers may recall last spring's preparations for our very first Japanese Culture Day at the kids' school. Last year I shopped at a used kimono shop, got kimono-dressing lessons from the experts/students at the Japanese school next door, and successfully dressed Tessa the morning of Japanese Culture Day. The obi silk belt turned out to be the …
Now Playing: Ra Ra Rando; Or, My First Visit to the Movie Theater
Living overseas means missing out big chunks of American life. I keep up with news and culture through Internet radio and news websites, but movies and TV shows--not so much. Except for really big stuff like the Star Wars movies, I don't know much about what's been playing in U.S. cinemas since we arrived in …
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Responsible Peoples’ Noodles: It’s What’s for Dinner
OK, so they're really called Tan Tan Men, and I usually have them for lunch. But let's push ahead anyway! During the winter months I eat a lot of ramen noodles for lunch. While I'll go anywhere nearby, most often I find myself at Fujiyama, a family-run joint that totally reminds me of a cozy, …
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Let’s Go Shopping: Egg Supplies at the 100 Yen Store
In an earlier post I extolled the virtues of the 100 yen store in general terms. I promised detailed follow-up, and here it is! And it's egg-sactly what you all expected for sure: a discussion of the many egg accoutrements that you never knew you needed. If I asked any of you to describe typical …
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Let’s Eat Junk Food: Taco Rice
In earlier installments of Let's Eat Junk Food, we sampled Doritos, Oreos, and McDonalds. Today we venture into new waters: the Okinawan version of American (ish) food. When we visited Okinawa last October I noticed taco rice on many restaurant menus. About 0.3 seconds of pondering led to correct assumptions about the dishes origins: lots …
The Beautiful Woman Discount, or Shopping at the Machida Shrine Sale
Flea markets exist around the world; in Japan these markets are called shrine sales and take place at (surprise!) shrines on a regular schedule. Last week I decided to check out the goods at the Kanagawa Tenmangu Shrine Sale, more commonly known as the Machida shrine sale after the nearby neighborhood and train station. It's …
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Back to School! But First, a Few Last Ski Thoughts About the Ice Village
We returned from our Hokkaido ski trip on Sunday evening, and we all returned to the work-school routine the next day. So here are a few final thoughts and photos from our first ski adventure to Hokkaido. In my last post I mentioned an ice village. I saw this on the website and didn't expect much. …
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That Famous Hokkaido Ski Destination, His Hobo Romani Resort
Ok, so we're actually at Hoshino Tomamu resort, but autocorrect struck and gave me an awesome blog post headline to boot! As loyal readers may recall, early last ski season we headed to the famous slopes of Hakuba, home of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. What we didn't realize until it was too late is …
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Flying the 優しい Skies
Today we set out for a ski weekend in Hokkaido on our first conventional domestic flight within Japan. I say conventional because in October we flew to Okinawa on a low cost carrier called Peach Airlines that was so low cost that we didn't even use a regular airport terminal, but rather a cargo terminal …
Mele Kalikimaka: Christmas in Hawaii
Merry Christmas, everyone! For many people Christmas celebrations end on December 25. But in our family we're Twelve Days of Christmas types! For the big day itself we met with my dad/the kids' Dziadziu (Polish for grandfather) at the halfway point: Hawaii. We spent our first two nights in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, visiting …
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