Double Date

Before the start of the holidays my son had a day off kindergarten so I decided to give him a special day out - with just the two of us. He chose to go to the big aquarium about 50 minutes from here and we had a lovely time wandering around for hours - watching the sea elephants perform, getting splashed by the dolphins and of course seeing many, many fish. The fact that it was a Monday during the school term meant there weren't very many people there so we could take our time and look at literally ALL the fish in the place.
Of course if you do something like that for one child you then need to do something like that for your other child.... everything must be fair of course! So, today was my daughter's special day out and she could choose where we were going etc. Of course all things being fair she chose to also go to the aquarium. The only difference being it is now the school holidays, which means the place was packed. She still enjoyed it though - despite the fact that I didn't let her buy anything at the gift shop (which I finally realised was why she wanted to go there in the first place...). Aquariums are pretty similar all around the world, and although this one is nothing spectacular, they do have some fun shows and some interesting fish. But 2 times in less than a month is more than enough for me!

Bon Dancing

Last night the annual bon dancing was moved inside due to rain and although that meant it was easier to find a spot to sit down when you had had enough of going around and around it did mean that the lighting was brighter than when we do it outside. This of course means that everyone can see how bad you are at the dancing! For those who haven't heard of bon dancing before, the local communities get together at the end of the bon period and dance around in a huge circle for at least an hour to the beat of the drum and the singing/chanting of an old man. This is another way in which they farewell the ancestors whose spirits have come to visit at this time. You basically go around and around and around and around doing the same steps to the same beat until they change the songs and the beat and you then start doing those same steps to the same beat for another half hour or so.
There are less and less people who participate each year in our community and those who do come along often sit the dancing out until they see the little men come out with their big bags of dish washing sponges which have a number written on them (well that is what we have in our area!). All those who are dancing get one and at the end of the night they have a kind of lottery where you can win exciting prizes like gladwrap and dish washing powder. This year we had 8 sponges and all of them won prizes - 6 boxes of gladwrap and 2 boxes of washing powder!
As well as the fact that there are less and less people participating each year, there are also less and less people who are wearing the traditional yukata (summer kimono) to the event. As a point to any single men out there - if someone is wearing a kimono you don't need to search their fingers to see if they are married or not - just look at the length of the sleeves. If there is a big bit hanging down they are not married.... Just another piece of random, useless information for you!

For anyone interested in seeing what the dancing/drumming/droning is like here is a short video.

Returning to the graves

For the last 3 days the ancestors have been to visit. During their stay they are given offerings in the family altar and although the contents of these offerings seem to differ from region to region and even from house to house, according to my mother in law there are always 5 different plates of food given at our house (I need to take notes!). These 5 plates represent one of each of the basic elements of traditional Japanese meals - miso soup, pickles, beans, a "simmered dish" and of course rice. There is also an additional plate of rice cakes which the ancestors take back to their graves and a bowl of noodles, which represent the strings with which they will carry the rice cakes. During their stay these dishes remain in the altar and are removed as the ancestors are piggy backed back to the grave. The way to the grave is lit with candles and the rice cakes taken and given while praying for the safe return of the ancestors to the grave.
Coming from a country where we often don't even visit the graves of our ancestors more than a few times in our lives it is often hard for me to come to terms with the strong beliefs associated with the spirits etc. here. But, although it is different it is a special way to remember those who have died and we will welcome them all back again next year!

Outside dining

The continuing dry weather made it possible to eat outside again last night with our latest guests. Of course we were pretty much eaten alive by mosquitoes at the same time, but it was still nicer than being stuck inside beside a fan. Another crazy hiker / biker joined Joe for a 3 day tour and we had the pleasure of their company on the first night. It is always nice to have some English conversation (even if it is American English!) and Ali definitely enjoyed having a home cooked meal after about 2 months travelling around Asia. I thought I had made enough to have left overs for tonight too, but no such luck!
On a different topic, my husband arrived home today with his annual haul of towels. For those of you who are new to my blog please check this link for a more detailed introduction into the Japanese art of towel giving... Towel gifts It is a pity I still haven't taken half of last year's towels out of the boxes!

Grave cleaning

The other day I tried to persuade my mother in law that she didn't need to pull out the weeds in my garden (there are more than just a few at the moment) in the 35 degree plus heat. Her response was that soon the ancestors as well as the people coming to pray for the ancestors would be coming to visit so the place needed to be tidied up a bit. In response I have been getting up early and trying to pull a few weeds before everyone else wakes up and pulling a few more in the evenings, but it isn't having too much impact!

Today was grave cleaning day. The family grave and the area around it was all cleaned - the grass cut and burnt. This is all in preparation for Obon - the festival which is held over 3 days to remember the deceased. On the first day the family goes to the grave and piggybacks the ancestors to their home where they stay until the last day when they are piggybacked back again. It is a Buddhist festival and therefore not a public holiday, but many companies etc. take holidays and it is one of the main times of the year for families to get together. Of course the cleaning needs to be done first.... I have got as far as the curtains and light shades.... I think I need some extra help if I am going to get it all done in time!

Peace and Promotion

It is still the summer holidays here, but this morning my daughter, like the majority of Japanese students, had to go to school. At 8:15am the town siren went off. This was the time 63 years ago today that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, senselessly killing so many people. I think Japan has a great way of "remembering" this day and that is by making the youth here the main focus of the remembrances. School children have long discussions about what happened and students make pleas to the nation and the world to stop this kind of thing happening again in the future. There is little blame pushed on anyone - my daughter came home today and told me all about a little boy who had just been given a bike and was riding it 10 days before his 4th birthday when the bomb was dropped. He was killed although some others hid behind huge rocks and were saved, physically anyway. She knew all this, but when I asked her which country dropped the bomb she had no idea. I think this is a great way to promote peace, rather than making enemies with people from the countries involved - especially when it was the leaders 63 years ago who were responsible for the decisions made.
If anyone wants to look at more details of the peace museum here in Hiroshima their official website is: Hiroshima Peace Park

On a completely different note, this evening the children and I headed to Oita City to be part of a radio program which will be aired on Sunday. It was taped as if it really was Sunday so the announcers had to keep being careful to say things like "the Olympics started two days ago" rather than "the Olympics will start in two days time". It was another interesting experience - we were introduced by a friend at ABC and I had no idea what they wanted me to talk about, but they basically spent the whole 50 minutes promoting Kiora Cottage - and have linked it on their website so there is some more good FREE promotion!
For anyone living in Oita who wants a laugh (basically all I got to say was yes, yes, yes) it will be aired from 11am to 12pm on Sunday the 10th on OBS radio.

Festival season

Summer is the major season for festivals here in Japan. On Friday my son did his marching at yet another festival and was rewarded with some free tickets to try out some of the "carnival" type games. There were the standard throw the ring of the hoop and get the golf ball in the hole kind of games as well as the more traditional Japanese attraction of goldfish scooping. At the same festival 2 years ago the children scooped out two goldfish and they are the ones that are still swimming around our aquarium and they are also the ones that produced the little baby goldfish that are swimming around in our little aquarium (only 2 left....). This year the children's grandfather did some great scooping and somehow we managed to bring home 4 fish. Unfortunately it was discovered in the car on the way home that one had already died and then by the morning another two were floating lifeless on the top of the water. There is still one vaguely swimming around, but my hopes for it surviving are not very high! That seems to be pretty standard - no one can believe that our ones from 2 years ago are still alive.

On Friday my children also started swimming lessons here. They are going to a short course of 5 lessons which I hoped would be fun enough for them to want to continue next term. No such luck! Unfortunately the teacher they have got is not in it for fun and is there to make them great swimmers at all costs. There are also about 12 children in the class so not much one on one attention. My daughter is enjoying it enough, but it is taking some pretty big bribes to keep my son going each time. 2 lessons down, 3 to go.... what will I have to tempt him with tomorrow to ensure he makes it to the pools edge??? Bring back Barbara and the Swimsation lessons!

Second birthday celebration

Yesterday was my son's real birthday and he got to celebrate it with another cake and another guest. This time a lovely lady from Nagoya City came to stay. She is thinking about moving to the countryside so that she can give her grandchildren a place to play in the holidays. The things some people do for their grandchildren! Anyway, as much as I wasn't really looking forward to it she had a nice stay and has vowed to come back again - with her grandchildren. A lot of people refuse to have single people to stay, but even though it isn't really very financially viable it often links into other customers so I usually say yes. And besides this lady had just spent the last two months at her daughter's house looking after her new born grandchild. She needed a night of pampering!

6th Birthday party

My son's birthday is not until the 31st, but today was one of the only days we could have his birthday party, so that is what we did. It was a really nice small party, held after he came home from kindergarten. Unlike other years (when I tended to go a little crazy) the only thing I made was a cake and the rest was from packets. The children didn't seem to notice the difference and in this heat it definitely made it a relaxing day!
This year my son was determined to have a chocolate "pinata" cake, which meant making a cake and then making a chocolate case to put over the cake which they could take turns smashing. Despite the heat (did I mention it is the hottest year on record here for a long, long time?) the chocolate stayed hard and all the kids had a turn hammering away at the chocolate and then stuffing themselves with chocolate coins. Another year down.....

3 day camp

After getting to kindergarten before 6am on Sunday, making the children's breakfast (with help from some other mothers of course) I drove straight to Yamaguchi to run a 3 day programme for a group of 25 4th and 5th grade students. The drive should have taken me only about 3 hours, but due to the fact that I took the wrong branch at a junction on the highway I took quite a long and expensive detour (you can't just do a u-turn on the highways - you have to find an exit, pay your fee and then get on again and pay again!). I eventually arrived at the camp 2 minutes before I had to start the programme. Ooops!
It is a group that I work with every year, although there were a lot of new members this year. The main highlight is always the outdoor cooking - this year pizzas and baked apples cooked in/on an old 40 gallon drum. I'm thinking it might be faster to make one like this for our house too rather than waiting for our pizza oven to be built! Water balloons were also a big hit - the only problem being that the final game - "war" turned out to be a "25 vs 1" battle. I would have to say I came off worse than most of the children! No complaints really though as it was yet another blistering hot day!

Kindergarten overnight stay

This is my son's last year at kindergarten and one of the major events for the year is their overnight stay at kindergarten with all their classmates and the teachers. Although no parents were allowed to stay the night there were plenty of jobs to keep us busy - the children helped to cut the vegetables for the huge pots of curry and then in the evening there was dancing and singing around a bonfire followed by fireworks then a quick dip in the pool for the children in lieu of a bath. I left at about 10pm after helping to clean up all the dinner dishes etc. and starting the breakfast preparations and the children were all still running wild around their "bedroom". I'm guessing they all tired themselves out at some stage as when I arrived back at 6am to make breakfast (the joys of being the stupid chairperson) they were all sound asleep.
The next day was spent swimming at a pool before partaking in the great Japanese invention of noodles down the bamboo pipe. The fathers cut the bamboo and constructed the noodle slide and the children had a great time scooping out the noodles and slurping them down. The children all seemed to have a really good 2 days and somehow the teachers and parents survived too. Fun while it lasted, but good to be over!

Summer Holidays again

Sorry about the lack of blog entries lately... a very busy time! I'll try to catch them up a little over the next few days. Until then a little insight into the summer holidays here. My daughter is now officially in summer holidays (44 days in total....) so we are finding things to do each day so we don't drive each other crazy. Today we made "melon bread" which is very popular in Japan. I don't think I've ever eaten it in New Zealand, but it is basically a plain bread which you wrap a kind of cookie dough around before you let it rise and bake it. They weren't too bad for our first ever effort!
My son doesn't have holidays yet, but he is in holiday mode... today he jumped off the school bus holding his new pet - a stag beetle. He found it on a tree at kindergarten and played with it all day before bringing it home (in his bare hands), making it a house and feeding it a banana. Stag beetles are a very popular pet here in the summer. I have no idea why, but boys go crazy over them and you can buy them at many different shops - along with all the accessories a stag beetle could ever need. Special jelly to feed them, special houses, special toys etc. The prices of the rare beetles can go into the thousands of dollars.... a shame they never last the winter!

Hidden friends

As the heat really kicks in the vegetables either take off or die off. So far the cucumbers are producing millions a day and the tomatoes are starting to do the same, with the zucchinis, okra, peppers etc. not far behind either. I pickled the first of this year's gherkins yesterday and when I went to pick some more this afternoon I discovered that the gherkin leaves are providing a nice bit of shade for my little froggy friends.
Despite falling down due to its amazing weight the passion fruit are still growing strongly too. I have managed to sneak a few that have dropped off and turned purple, but I am still waiting for the majority of them to change colour. I have no idea what I will do with them all if they do actually ripen..... but it has been fun growing them for the first time.

Kindergarten Sports Day

My son is 5 years old and in his last year of kindergarten here in Japan. On Sunday he had his big sports day - that's right in the middle of the heat wave! I am always impressed by how much the children can do and how much they can enjoy "performing". The teachers do an amazing job of teaching them and keeping them under control. This year as well as the normal relay, sprint races etc. my son also took part in the tyre pulling, the marching (this year he is playing the 3 drums - I have no idea what they are called in English, but I do know that they are heavy even for me!), and the "rhythm dance" where they showed off their athleticism with human pyramids, balances, pom pom dancing etc. Despite the incredible heat it was a fun morning which was fortunately all finished by lunch time! I even managed to make my stupid speech as chairperson of the PTA without falling off the small podium.

Next year we will be down to just one sports day a year - the school one....

Heat wave

I don't know about other areas of Japan, but in our area there are many road warning signs that also display the current temperature. As you can see from this one it was 35 degrees when I went to pick up my daughter from school today. I am beginning to wonder if we should actually start using our air conditioning rather than trying to save the environment and rely on fans as it is only the very beginning of summer here!
We farewelled our latest guests on Saturday after taking them to the big stone Buddhas and monkey mountain. We showed them how to throw stones onto the shrine gate to bring them good fortune... I'm not sure if you have to get it on there on the first try to bring good luck or not... if that is the case they may have a rough year ahead of them!
The monkeys were very cute again - with some very new babies among the group.

Repeat visitors

Yesterday we had another repeat visitor arrive for a 2 night stay. Last year Allison came to visit as part of a hiking group and this year she came again - this time with her boyfriend. They spent the day today hiking up the mountain (I stayed home to make dinner!) and then we went for a short trip to Usa shrine this afternoon. The lotus flowers are out in force at the moment and we all commented on how much their centres look like a shower head! The evening was spent getting origami lessons. It is nice to have familiar faces back again - another family booked in again for the summer holidays too so it will be fun to catch up with them again and see how they have changed. My daughter has kept up with writing letters to their daughter which has been great.
The rainy season seems to have disappeared and the heat wave has begun! It was at least 34 degrees today..... and humid! So much for spending some time in the garden....