Goodbye Japan

 



A scene out the window of one of the JR (Japan Rail) trains we took from the Osaka airport to Ashiya.
Notice the laudry hanging outside.  Everyone hangs their laudry out, thus most people do not own dryers.
Japanese are very concerned with conserving energy!

A Day of Travel in Japan

Jess and I said our goodbyes to Anna on February 9 and took a taxi, a bus, a plane, two trains, and a taxi up the hill to arrive at Mark and Stephanie Bartsch's condo in Ashiya again.  This day of traveling went much better because Jess and I established our roles.  Jess was the "mule" carrying his big backpack AND my big heavy (45 pound) suitcase up and down escalators, stairs and inbetween trains as needed.  I was the navigator, listening to Japanese words on the trains, getting us on the right transfer train, and doing my best to pronounce Mark and Stephanie's street address for the taxi driver. "We did it!"--this was the phrase we said to each other all month after each accomplishment of travel on our own.  In reality, God helped us a lot, often sending people to help us when we asked for help, which we had to do frequently!

Trying a "simple" kanji.

Calligraphy Lesson and Tea in Japanese Home

Stephanie made arrangements for me to have a Japanese Caligraphy lesson and tea with her neighbor and friend, Hitomi. She had special practice paper and Japanese callligraphy brushes.  I have done English calligraphy before, and even used this type of brush a bit in college--but it is amazingly difficult to use.  I held the brush perpendicular to the paper and with my whole arm, tried to make the strokes.  Japanese kanji are made with a strict stroke order and direction.  I did okay, but it was amazing how hard it was to make a straight line!  I decided to try the kanji for person--two lines, one slanting left and a shorter one connected half way up the first and slanting right, reaching down slightly lower that the first.   Hitomi told me the symbolism of each line.  The first slanting line means "man" and the second shorter line means "woman".  The "woman" props up the man and goes a little lower because she is closer to the earth.  So I worked for the next hour trying to write these two slanting lines just right. 



Hitomi doing the kanji for "Naomi".

Part of Japanese caligraphy is that it is therapeudic--you are supposed to let your worries and anxieties leave you as you use the brush with a relaxed movement.  I really liked it!  Hitomi did the kanji for my name.  She explained that "Naomi"  in Japanese means "honest" and "beautiful" :)  The kanji for "beautiful" includes the symbol for "person" that I was working so long to get. 




Daifuku, brown sugar cake, and thick green tea.

After my arm got tired, we took a break for tea.  Stephanie had brought daifuku, a traditional Japanese sweet made of mochi (pounded rice), filled with sweet red bean paste and topped with a strawberry.  It is customary to bring sweets as a gift after you have traveled or in this case, as a "thank you".  Hitomi also had some sweets for us. 

 

Homemade sweet sake dessert with dried persimmon and red sweet beans.



Hitomi is a traditional Japanese woman in that she stays home and works to perfect Japanese cooking and other arts--like calligraphy and the tea ceremony.  She served our first thick green tea in a beautiful pottery bowl.  She wisked the tea with a little wooden whick/brush.  The second tea she served was thinner (regular) green tea.  We enjoyed lively conversation, with a little English beween Hitomi and I and Stephanie translating the rest. 

  


Hitomi's poodle, Bob, who joined us for tea!







Stephanie translating in Japanese.




Hitomi's baseball has the kanji for my name. 
I am holding my final project with the kanji for "person". 



After being stuffed with sweets, I was ready to practice my kanji for "person" and do my final lettering on the baseball shape Hitomi had for my final project (since I am an American!).  I don't think I did too bad . . . but I came away from the lesson with a whole new appreciation for the hand-lettered kanji I saw on signs in Japan!!  What a beautiful, simple, meaningful art Japanese lettering is!!





Jess and I with Mark and Stephanie Bartsch

 Back to the Good 'ol U.S.A.!

We woke up Tuesday, February 12 at 4:45 a.m. to walk down to the station with our luggage.Two trains, and two planes later, we arrived at the Chicago O'Hare airport at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Feb 12--that was a very loooong Fat Tuesday for us!  We sacked out at Kristine Nofziger's for a couple days to work off some of our jet lag.  The first day, we slept from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., then from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., then from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.--BLEH!  We got to see Marie at Northwestern on the second day.  We got to lead her Intervarsity Arts Fellowship Bible study (a group of musicians). 

Transitioning

We came home to Ohio for 2 1/2 days--unpacked, did laundry, opened a mountain of mail, did our taxes quick(!), repacked, and headed to Virginia for a short visit with Grace, Ben, and Naisa before we came to Washington D.C. for the second part of our sabbatical--serving at the International Guest House.  I will continue my blog with our adventures in D.C. so stay tuned . . .

Naisa is 4 months old now!

The Sapporo Snow Festival, Otaru, and New Friends

Ice Sculpture with lights inside

It had been snowing heavily all day when Jess and I ventured out to see the event that brought us to Japan this time of year--the Sapporo Snow Festival.  There are teams from different parts of the world that compete in making huge snow sculptures.  We saw sculptures from Thailand, Taiwan, and Hawaii.   Wikopedia explains how the snow festival began-- "The Snow Festival began in 1950, when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955, the Japan Self-Defense Forces from the nearby Makomanai base joined in and built the first massive snow sculptures, for which the Snow Festival has now become famous. "  After World War II, Japan has only has a self-defense force instead of an offensive army.  This is one of the activities they help with in Japan.

There was so much snow the day we went to see the festival that they had to sweep it and and blow it off with air hoses.  Above you will see the self-defense forces climbing all over the sculpture they built to remove the snow.

We saw these posters all over the city and subway for weeks.

One of my favorites--old-fashioned style Japanese building.  Notice my umbrella in the upper left corner :)  In Japan, people  use clear umbrellas to keep the snow from hitting their faces in the winter, and opaque umbrellas to shade themselves in the summer heat.

There was lots of "festival food" at the snow festival.  This is what reminded us of the Fulton County Fair!  Jess and I shared a steamed bun with pork and cabbage inside.  It was nice and HOT!  Notice the heater in the food tent.

Beautiful Rock we saw on our train ride along the coast

Otaru

Jess and I went on a day trip to Otaru, a canal city on the coast.  We walked to the JR train station 15 minutes from Anna's apartment.  We had not taken the JR train on this trip in Sapporo yet so it was another experience of navigating.  We were in a hurry when we got to the station, so we quickly got our tickets and went through the gate. At the trains and subways in Japan usually you put your ticket into the gate and it spits it back out at you.  Then you are supposed to take it and put it into the gate at your stop.  That is the place you don't take the ticket back--the machine keeps it.  Well, for some reason, I did not take my ticket back when we went through the gate.  Maybe I was thinking, "This is not the subway so I don't need to take my ticket back".  Anyway, when Jess and I were figuring out the direction to go, we decided to head away from Sapporo.  As we were standing waiting for the train, we noticed that all the other people were on the other side.  Then Jess noticed a train attendant run up on the other side, spy us, and run down the stairs.  He wondered if she was looking for us.  Sure enough, she came running up on our side and told me in broke English that I had left my ticket--and that we were on the WRONG SIDE!  So Jess and RAN down and then up the escalator and got on the right train.  I am so thankful for the kindness and helpfulness of Japanese people.  They have helped us MANY times when we weren't sure where we were going!  I am also thankful that for whatever reason, I left my ticket in the machine--otherwise Jess and I would have ended up out in the boonies of Hokkaido!

Once safely onboard the train after making a transfer in Sapporo, we could enjoy the ride.  One of our favorite parts of this trip was the view of the ocean as we rode along the coast.  It was fun to see the snow on the coast and the waves coming in.  We even saw surfers out in the cold water!

Canals of Otaru

In Otaru, which is about a 40 minute train ride from Sapporo, we walked the streets down to the canals and looked in the little shops.  Otaru is famous for their glass factory, glass artisans, and music box factory.  Because we were getting toward the end of our trip and had budgeted out our money, we had decided to pack a small lunch rather than eat out.  We packed some onigiri (rice balls I made), carrot sticks, cookies, and apples.  As we were walking looking for a possible place to eat, we passed a hotel that had a buffet for 1000 yen per person (about $10.00).  We stopped in the hotel to warm up and use the fancy bathrooms but did not want to get the buffet.  As we walked down the street, we found a cute little cafe that looked just right for getting coffee and tea so we went in.

Our coffee and tea :)

 After we sat down and looked at the menu, we realized that the coffee, tea, and a small bowl of nuts that we ordered cost 1400 Yen (about $14.00!).  I guess we could have gotten that buffet!  Not only that, but Jess's coffee cup was tiny and only filled half full!  We did get fancy sugar cubes. . .
Oh well, we decided to make the best of it and nibbled on our rice balls when the waitress wasn't looking.  We also started up a conversation with the young American woman who was sitting at the table next to us with her mom and 6-month-old baby boy.  We found out she was from Queens, New York, and her husband is stationed in the Navy close to Tokyo.  We had fun laughing about her mom trying to speak Japanese with a strong New York accent.  She also talked about how she did not like Japanese food and has not learned the language.  That would be hard.  Anna just LOVES the food and has learned a fair amount of Japanese.

Other Friends We Have Made

One of the things I felt God saying to me on this trip is that, even though you are only here for a month or even just one more week, "Keep making friends".  Nakamaru Sensei ("Nakamaru" is his last name and "sensei" means teacher.  Anna is called Anna Sensei by her students) is one of Anna's supervisors and has been very helpful to us and to Anna.  He figured out and ordered the bus tickets to the zoo for us.  The other night he volunteered to take us in his car (we had not ridden in a car in WEEKS!) up on one of the mountains around Sapporo to see the night view.  He also took us to a gyoza place where he often ate and knew the owners.  We had such an interesting conversation with him.  He is an English teacher so he appreciated the chance to keep up his English with us and ask us questions about our life.  We enjoyed asking him questions about his life.  He studied at a university in Iowa and said that when he first came, other students ignored him because he could not speak English.  That was really hard for him.  After her learned to speak English, people were very kind and took him to see sights in the area.  So he was returning the favor.  He told us about his religion, which comes from Nara, a city close to Kyoto.  He said it is a small religion started by a woman there.  He also told us that if a teacher gets their license taken away from speeding, their pay will be suspended 30% for three months--so he has to be very careful.

Jess and Nakamau Sensei

Aileen is a really good friend of Anna's.  They met over Facebook before they started JET.  Aileen is from Manassas, VA and lives a 30 minute walk from Anna's apartment.   On Sunday, we went with Aileen to visit a new church for her.  We went to Sapporo Episcopal Church.  This was the first time I had been to an Epscicopal church.  The service was in Japanese but they had a couple of the liturgies in English so I could basically follow along.  I was really touched with the theology that comes out in their liturgy.  They had a significant time of speaking out a confession naming our sinfulness and they also spoke about the mystery of God, which I can really relate to at this time in my life.  God is so great and I (like Job) don't understand everything that happens in my life.  I don't have God all figured out--there is mystery.

Aileen, Jess, and Anna

A quilt at Sapporo Episcopal Church

Another friend we met was Kiku.  Kiku was at EMU in the 90s and got to know Peg as her International Student Advisor.  She found out through Facebook that Peg's niece was coming to Sapporo, she connected with Anna.  Kiku and Sayaka (another student at EMU at that time  who knew Peg) have both become friends with Anna here in Sapporo.  These women have really helped Anna in many ways.  Anna meets with Kiku's mother as a English/Japanese conversation partner.  I am amazed at how God has provided these women (with a connection with Peg) to be here for Anna at this time.  God is amazing!

Traditional Japanese Cooking Class

Savory egg/miso custard

I asked for one of the recipe "booklets".
Each girl had to translate the Japanese instructions
into English.

Hokusei Gakuen Girls High School 

On Saturday, Anna and I went to a Protestant Girls high school for a cooking class.  There are Christian schools (elementary through university) sprinkled throughout Japan.  Many of these schools were started by missionaries over 100 years ago and have become sought-after private schools.  We arrived at 9:30 a.m. with 10 other English-speaking foreigners ready to be taught in English how to cook Japanese foods.  We were each given 1000 yen (about $10.00) to reimburse us for our travel expenses. Anna had already met some of the other foreigners (because there are so few of them in Sapporo).  The English teacher separated us into groups with one foreigner to five 4th grade (high school freshman) girls.  My group included Miyu--who attempted lots of conversation with me, Yuu--who took charge of the cooking, Miki--who tried to duck out of all the pictures, Yumeri--the best English speaker whom they all looked to when they didn't understand me, and Ayaka--who was TINY but seemed to know a lot about cooking.

The Menu

The menu consisted of onigiri (rice ball), miso soup with potatoes and string peas, Chawanmushi (savory egg custard), mackerel with miso and ginger sauce, dango (rice dumpling sweet)--pretty challenging stuff, I'd say!

The girls had to figure out what took the longest to cook (the custard) and start with that.  They worked amazingly well as a team and I think my girls were pretty good cooks.  So we started by mixing miso paste with egg.  Into custard cups we put pieces of shiitake mushroom, a chestnut, boiled fish paste (which looks like a roll of white with pink around it--hard to explain!), a little piece of chicken breast (which the girls meticulously stripped of the little white sinews) and an herb. These were covered with foil and placed in a big steamer (see pot with towel and lid covering) to cook.

Then Juu took over the Mackerel recipe, deboning the piece of fish, cutting up the ginger, and adding the miso paste to the pan as the fish was cooking.  She covered the fish loosely with foil while it cooked.

The saucepan has dango cooking in it.  This is one of my favorite Japanese sweets.  I loved the description of how to make it.  You add water a little at a time to the rice flour and knead it till it has the touch of an earlobe :)  Then you form it into balls and cook it in boiling water, being careful not to let the little balls touch each other.  When the balls rise to the top, you take them out and put them in cold water.

For the miso soup, we had to cut off the little heads and de-gut the dried sardines.  They were added to the soup to flavor it for a couple minutes and then removed. 

Miki carefully adding fresh ginger as artfully on the finished mackerel.

I had tried made some onigiri (rice balls) at Anna's but it was fun to learn some tricks to making them correctly. You start with sticky rice.  They sprinkled some white crystals (flavoring) on the plates.  We wet and salted our hands then formed the rice around a pickled plum.  After we smushed the rice real good, we took 1/4 of the seaweed sheet and wrapped it around.  Ayaka showed us a little trick of taking a couple grains of the sticky rice to use as "glue" to make the seaweed stick to itself.  Awesome!  I love these!  They are great with tuna and mayo inside, also!  

Our finished meal--so oishii! ("delicious")

We sat down and had great conversation together.  Miki had me write down my name so she could ask me to be her friend on Facebook.  I asked the girls how far they lived from their school.  Ayaka and Juu live in the dorm and their home are 3 or more hours away.  Miki travels 2 hours to and from school.  Miyu and Yumeri live within 1 hour of the school.  I asked them what they were going to do for the rest of the day.  Yumeri and Ayaka were going shopping to buy things for Valentine's Day. (On Valentine's day, girls give candy to guys.  Then later in March, there is a holiday in Japan where guys give candy to girls.)  Miyu was going to drama club.  I talked to Miyu about what it was like going to a Christian school.  She said that at school they pray every day, have Bible classes, and chapel.  I asked if she prayed at home--she said, "No".  Anna asked her group and they said there was only one Christian in their class.

This was one of my top favorite experiences in Japan on this trip.  I really loved learning how to cook some of their foods.  Getting the ingredients might be a bit tricky. . . but I just will give it a try.  I also loved the small group interaction with the girls.

Asahiyama Zoo

Riding the Bus

"Cotton ball" snow in the trees

We took a day trip to Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido.  One of Anna's supervisors found bus tickets for us that were less expensive than the ones marketed for tourists.  We walked the 25 minute walk to the subway station and took the subway 3 stops to Sapporo Station.  There we went out exit 21 to the Ana Hotel where we had found the bus stop as we had rehearsed with Anna ahead of time.  We decided to wait inside the hotel, which was a good thing.  A Japanese woman who spoke English found us waiting there and asked if we were going to Asahiyama Zoo.  She found our names on a list and gave us an envelope with 200 Yen (about $2.00) because we had overpaid :)  Then she showed us which bus to get on and which seats to sit in.  Everything from then on was in Japanese. The bus trip was three hours.  It took about an hour to get out of Sapporo and then we got on a 4 lane toll road.  Two hours into the trip the bus stopped at a rest stop.  The bus driver told everyone in Japanese when to get back on the bus (we guessed that we had 10 minutes) and then stopped us and held up his fingers with the time we were to return.  The rest stop had lots of sweets and zoo souvenirs. In Japan, whenever you go on a trip, you bring back sweets (even one little piece of candy) for your co-workers.  So people were buying lots of sweets.  On the way to the zoo, we drove through mountains with forests that had what we called "cotton ball" snow in the branches.  It snows so heavily here and then sometime the wind blows some of the snow off the trees and leave the rest--producing a "cotton ball" look!

Asahiyama Zoo

This zoo was more compact than zoos in the States.  And we could see the animals much closer up. They must not have as many safety precautions or maybe just not as much space as the U.S.  Because there was LOTS of snow, the animals that live in cold climates were featured wonderfully. 

Polar Bears

We really enjoyed the polar bears, who were very active and playful in their snowy enclosure.  They had lots of ice in and around their pool.  It was fun to see them in their natural environment.   They had a little glass dome in the middle of the snow in their enclosure that people could pop their heads up into to get a view of what it would be like for a seal popping up out of the water.

Seals

The seals had lots os ice in their pool and holes around the snow in their enclosure where they could pop their heads up.  A famous feature they have is a vertical tube that the seals swim up through.  They swam up through the tube pretty fast except for one guy--he would lazily float in an upside down position down the tube--pretty cute! 

 Cute Lesser Panda

I loved the Lesser Panda.  Here he is eating bamboo stuck in the snow for him.  Isn't he KAWAII? (that's "cute" in Japanese--a word you hear A LOT because Japan has such a "cute" culture.  Lots of billboards and signs have really cute cartoon characters on them.)

Penguins

They also had really great penguins.  We wanted to see the "Penguin Walk" (where they let the little guys out and they walk through the people) but realized later, since we can't read Japanese, that they only do that at certain times.  :(  Oh Well, we still enjoyed watching their personalities.  These little guys were my favorite.  There were three different kinds, including Emperor penguins, who had their heads twisted and tucked down asleep, and another kind that would swim quickly through the water, making little flying leaps, and then pop up quickly onto the shore.  They also had an underground tunnel that we could walk through and watch them swim.

Jess in the penguin tunnel.  See the little guy swimming above him?

 Jellyfish

I LOVE jelly fish!  I think the creation on them is so amazing--it seems like there is hardly anything to them but they swim so beautifully!

 The "Fierce" Animals

Siberian Tiger--up close and personal!

The zoo had beautiful "fierce" animals--as they called them.  Siberian Tiger, a snow leopard, a black panther, a lioness who sat so regally right by the fence.  My favorite was the snow leopard whose tail looked to be about 8 inches think.  

Gorgeous snow leopard!