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When I rolled out
When I rolled out of bed just now to start my day (OK, I admit that I’ve been awake for a few hours but lying abed and finishing a book I started yesterday), Tod sleepily asked me to turn up the heat. The front panel of the heater was blinking. That’s an indication to me…
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The Japanese have a
The Japanese have a very nifty tradition for new year’s greetings. People mail postcards (called nenga hagaki) to one another. The post office sells pre-franked cards with cartoon charaters or other scenes and lottery numbers printed on them. The lottery is drawn in mid-January and these cards are very popular–a greeting and a potential gift…
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At 1:00 am, there
At 1:00 am, there were hundreds of people at the temple. Stalls along the walkways hawked daruma dolls, wooden arrows, and all sorts of good luck charms. Food sellers were doing a brisk business with fried noodles, “baby custard” doughnuts, and warm sake. It seemed as if all the residents of Sugamo had turned out…
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Click. Click. Click-click. The
Click. Click. Click-click. The rhythm of wooden sticks has echoed through our neighborhood for the last few evenings as “fire patrols” make their year-end rounds. Groups of four to eight men (and a rare woman) from the neighborhood walk through the streets, looking at each building to make sure none is on fire. The leader…
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Yesterday was the last
Yesterday was the last business day of the year and most employees spent their afternoon cleaning. At the printer’s across the street, they washed and buffed the delivery trucks and the forklift. In restaurants, wait staff dusted picture frames and scrubbed all the corners that are normally overlooked. In the subways, uniformed cleaning staff halted…
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Everyday tongue twister
Although there’s no phrase for “tongue twister” in Japanese, the language has quite a few words that are challenging to say. Japanese has 5 vowel sounds (plus a few dipthongs) ah (a), ee (i), oo (u), eh (e), & oh (o). Paired with the 11 consonant sounds, this means pronunciation is very regular. Ko is…
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There are four days
There are four days left to complete the year-end cleaning. Before the new year comes, everyone in Japan cleans the slate–and the house, their accounts, broken relationships, and all the other loose ends that are dangling. It’s a great system, giving everyone a fresh start for the new year but it sure is a lot…
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It rarely gets very
It rarely gets very cold here in Tokyo, but I am glad I have a pair of gloves. Yesterday’s high was about 10 (50 F) but the temperature dropped quickly in the evening and the wind was blowing. I’m sure it didn’t dip below freezing but people on the streets last night were bundled up…
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Christmas: cookies; creativity; and
Christmas: cookies; creativity; and caffeine. I spent my Christmas morning baking an army of gingerbread men and citrus wreaths. They were beautiful and lots of fun to decorate. Each gingerbread person had a distinct personality and the accessories to prove it. My day’s plan was to bake cookies, arrange the gifts shipped from family and…
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We spent our Christmas
We spent our Christmas Eve getting into the spirit of the season. A visit to the Japan Toy Museum gave us a dose of playthings. They have 8,000 toys on display. Arranged by era and type we saw traditional wooden toys, dozens of post-war tin toys, kitchy 60’s era spaceship and robot toys (with “Mysterious…
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