Flat Stanley Goes Shopping on a Rainy Day

I was hoping Ryan's friends would take me to Tokyo Disneyland today or Disney Sea but they said both of those amusement parks would be much too crowded with Japanese families during Golden Week. Besides, it looks like it might rain today. This would be a good day to shop for souvenirs.

The weatherman says to expect 20 degree temperatures today. Brrr! Maybe I should have brought my winter coat to Japan. Wait! I just remembered that temperatures in Japan are measured on a different scale than temperatures in the United States. The Japanese use Celsius thermometers. In the United States we usually measure temperatures with Fahrenheit thermometers. Twenty degrees on a Celsius thermometer is about the same as 67 degrees on a Fahrenheit thermometer. I won't even need a sweater!

Can I use my American dollars and cents to buy presents for Ryan and his classmates?  No.  I visited a bank to trade my American dollars for Japanese yen.

Stanley has 1,666 yen

I lined up the yen coins from my toe to my head. The shiny aluminum coin at the bottom is worth one (1) yen and, if placed carefully, can float on water. This coin reminds me of an American penny. You can't buy much of anything with just one.

In order going up, the other coins are worth five (5) yen, ten (10) yen, fifty (50) yen, one hundred (100) yen, and five hundred (500) yen. Two of those 500 hundred yen coins can be traded for one 1,000 yen note made out of paper. A 500 hundred yen coin is worth about six American dollars. I like the way the coins feel in my pocket.

In Japan there are no coins worth twenty-five yen. What coins should I use if I want to buy something that costs twenty-five yen?  Figure that out and then you can look at the pictures from my shopping trip.

Pokemon started in Japan in 1995

What do you think is in the bag?

Hello Kitty! and Anpanman inflatable swords

Did you know that Hello Kitty was born in Japan in 1974? She visited the United States for the first time in 1976.

The most popular fictional character in Japan for the past ten years in a row for children up to age twelve (12) is Anpanman. Anpanman is a year older than Hello Kitty. He first appeared in a picture book in 1973.

There are shopping arcades near many Tokyo train stations.

This shop sells socks.  I see Anpanman!

Here is another familiar Japanese character.

These shops sell vegetables, fruit, and fish.

Shopping makes me thirsty! Lucky for me, vending machines are everywhere in Japan: on street corners, on train platforms, and next to playgrounds. Many vending machines offer both hot and cold beverages. I like hot lemonade. The corn soup tasted good, too.

We had Chinese ramen noodles for lunch.  Yum.

Bakery in a train station

I did not expect to see so many French bakeries in Japan. There is at least one bakery inside or right next to almost every train and subway station. I like the regular French bread, the bread stuffed with cheese, and the little chocolate croissants the best.

I have not yet tasted the rolls topped with peas or the lemon honey donut holes. First I want to try the fish-shaped cakes filled with jam or custard.

Bandai Capsule Station

Bandai capsule stations are not hard to find here since the Bandai company was born in Japan. These days you probably see lots of these machines in the United States too. What does it cost you to buy a toy from one of these machines in Washington, D.C.? The machines in Tokyo cost two hundred yen. Which machine should I try?

Let's take a chance on the Peko-chan machine!

Have you ever heard of Peko-chan? She has been the mascot of the Fujiya Ginza company for more than fifty years. The Fujiya Ginza company is a bakery chain that sells cakes and cream puffs. Life-sized dolls, some with heads that bob up and down, stand outside the door of each shop and are dressed in clothes that change with the season. Peko-chan is so popular in Japan that a special Tokyo museum opened last year to honor her golden anniversary.

Speaking of popular, how many of you like manga (MAHN-GAH)?  Did you know that "manga" is the Japanese word that means "comics" or "cartoon"?  "Anime" (AH-NEE-MAY) is the word we use to describe the animated versions of these books.  Many Japanese people, including young teenagers, follow one or more manga series.  They can hardly wait to read the new story every month.

Luffy-san welcomes Flat Stanley to Japan

Luffy-san is the main character in One-Piece, one of the most popular manga and anime series in Japan today. I was so thrilled to meet him!

Manga and anime character goods are sold at "Jump shops" all over Japan. These shops are usually crowded with customers, mainly young adults. They are even more crowded during Golden Week!

I had fun shopping in Tokyo.  I hope you will like the souvenirs I found.

Cartoon masks in shopping arcade

Another Fork in the Road

The Admiral, the Forkhead, and the Ancient Mariner

It's impossible to walk more than two blocks in Tokyo without stumbling across at least one whimsical piece of public art.  Last week we spotted "Forkhead" and his spoonheaded partner flanking a restaurant entrance between the Kabuki theater and the Ginza.

A few days ago Fearless asked me if I like stone lanterns (yes) and if I would be interested in one featuring Anpanman (yes).  Then she burst my hope bubble by informing me that such lanterns are not available for purchase.  How curious.  How mysterious.  Still, I find myself scanning my yard first thing every morning.  Hope springs eternal. 

The Anpanman Museum: It Takes a Quartet

The last time I posted was the day I took Seth to the Anpanman Museum in Yokohama.  Since then I've spent approximately 22 hours at home:  six sawing logs, three reading, and thirteen watching seasons three and four of The Sopranos with the Ancient Mariner.  He's off to Arizona and California now and I'm back to blogging because . . . sad but true . . . I don't know how to turn on the TV.  DVDs were not yet invented when I passed the remote control to a fourth-grader who is now 24 years old.

So uncork a bottle of wine and get comfortable because you are pretty much stuck with me until AM returns in time to pass out Halloween treats eight days hence.

Seth had a blast at the Anpanman Museum and so did the four grownup ladies -- make that three grownups and me -- who used him as their excuse for wandering around the happiest acre in this part of Japan.  Momo and Tomoki were supposed to come with us but Tomoki came down with a fever, poor boy, so I suppose I'll have to take them another time.

Lucky me.

You might remember Seth.  He wandered off last April when we were viewing cherry blossoms at Mt. Minobuso.  He has two older brothers, Ethan and Matthew, and is somewhat eagerly awaiting the arrival of an older or slightly younger sister as his parents have completed about 90 percent of the Japanese adoption process.  This is about 80 percent further along in the process than most people get.  We have our fingers crossed and are praying for a particularly Merry Christmas this year.

You won't remember Tiffany or Christy because this was the first time either of them has tripped down my rabbit hole.  Tiffany is a Seventh Fleet spouse, meaning her husband works with mine, and Christy is her neighbor.  Christy's husband is an obstetrician at the hospital so I will be hooking her up with the Oakleaf crowd at the earliest opportunity.

This is not a flattering shot -- the last one of those was snapped with a Brownie camera circa 1978 -- but it will clue you in on why I'm such a toddler magnet these days.  All those hours, okay years, of playing "Let's Pretend" in Mari Beth's attic are standing me in good stead now.  Seth is working the ice cream stand on the second floor of the museum and I am his satisfied customer.  That lavender strap around my neck is supporting a 10-gallon container of caramel corn.  I hogged most of the caramel corn but graciously handed over the container to my little friend at the conclusion of our adventure.  Of course, you say?  Not hardly.  That Baikanman container would have been the perfect foil to the Anpanman container I picked up last year. 

Gosh, I wonder when Tomoki will be feeling well enough to go to Yokohama with me.  
 

Anpanman Saves the Day, Again

Weekends are hard for many families of Individual Augmentees (IAs), three-day weekends are even harder, and holidays can be hardest of all. When a holiday like Valentine's Day falls smack dab in the middle of a three-day weekend, you have a recipe for major depression.

Fortunately, we are blessed to know families like the Brenyos and Smiths and Fosters who cheerfully put their plans on the back burner on very short notice to help lift the spirits of a young IA family Sunday afternoon. The kids raced around in masks, decorated fans, and helped Robin's son Bryan frost cherry shortbread cookies.

The Not a Valentine's Party was so much fun, I'm thinking we need to schedule a Not a Lent Party sometime soon.

Healthy Cooking with the Shonan Ladies

After Aunt Kathy scrounged up an apron Friday morning, we met the American Shonan Ladies at the Daiei Gate and hiked about half a mile to a community center behind the JR train station. A bell started clanging just after Aunt Kathy and I crossed the train tracks. "Hurry up, Mimi-san, a train is coming!"

"Aunt Kathy, isn't that Takako the Artist?" "Yes, Flatty. She organized today's class. Our Japanese friends are going to show us how to prepare a traditional Japanese New Year's meal."

The cooking classroom is on the fifth floor of the community center. There are five work stations, each featuring a sink, stove, oven, and work surface. We found cooking utensils, pots, pans, and a chopping board in the cupboards and drawers under our work station. Serving dishes were stored in a big cupboard on the long wall of the classroom.

"This is really neat, Aunt Kathy. Are there classrooms like this in community centers back home?"

"I'm not sure, Flatty, but you're going to have to be quiet now so I can listen to the instructions. I'm going to tuck you into my apron bib so you can watch the ladies work."

Aunt Kathy said Mineko and Misa must have drawn the short straw today. We were assigned to their work station. Mary Beth and Corey were the other American ladies in our group.

Misa is mixing rice and black beans in a flat wooden bowl. She is using a wooden spatula, the essential utensil in every Japanese kitchen.

One Japanese New Year's tradition is to eat one black bean for every year of your age. "I don't think there are enough black beans for you, Aunt Kathy." "Hush, Flatty, or I will zip you into my purse."


We boiled sweet potatoes to make Chestnut and Sweet Potato Paste. Mineko and Misa boiled a marigold seed along with the potatoes to turn them a rich golden color. "So you will enjoy wealth in the New Year," they explained.

"If it works," Aunt Kathy decided, "I'm going to use some of that wealth to buy one of those flat wooden bowls for mixing rice. I can think of all sorts of practical uses for a flat wooden bowl." "Maybe you should buy more than one, Aunt Kathy." "For a kid with a flat brain, Stan, you sure are a smarty pants."

When the potatoes were soft, we grated them by pushing them through fine horsehair mesh with our wooden spatula. Why is Mimi using a metal spoon instead of a wooden spatula? This is not the proper way to grate a Japanese sweet potato.

We put the grated potatoes back into the saucepan and beat them with the wooden spatula (Mimi probably used a spoon). We added some of the liquid from the canned chestnuts, like you would add milk or cream to mashed potatoes, until the sweet potatoes were creamy. Finally, we gently stirred in the chestnuts. Aunt Kathy thought it looked like lumpy yellow mashed potatoes.

Mineko spooned the paste into five bowls and covered them with saran wrap. "We will garnish them later," she decided. "Let's make sesame tofu with greens next."

Misa poured about two cups of sesame seeds into a huge bowl. "Why are there ridges on the inside of the bowl, Aunt Kathy?" "Heck if I know, Stan, but I've seen these sorts of bowls at pottery shops all around Japan."

Misa told us the bowl is a mortar. She handed us a wooden bat that looked like a lopsided rolling pin. "This is a pestle," she explained. She showed us how to use the pestle to grind the sesame seeds into a creamy paste.

Aunt Kathy, Corey, and Mary Beth took turns grinding the seeds. The seeds started looking and smelling like peanut butter after about 30 minutes. After 45 minutes Misa let them add two bricks of tofu to the bowl. "Oh, boy!" said Corey and Mary Beth. "Ugh," said Aunt Kathy.

While Aunt Kathy pounded every tiny lump out of that tofu, Misa boiled these greens. Then she squeezed the water out of them and chopped them into little pieces. Aunt Kathy stirred the chopped greens into the sesame tofu.

Mary Beth couldn't wait to taste the Sesame Tofu with Greens so Mineko decided to let everyone have a little taste. Aunt Kathy is very polite so she took the teeniest tiniest taste possible.

Mary Beth smacked her lips and sighed, "Mmmmm, this would make a wonderful dip."

If anyone reading today's post would like to taste Sesame Tofu with Greens, Aunt Kathy can refer you to Mary Beth. Something tells me Aunt Kathy will not be whipping up a batch anytime soon as much as she is longing for an excuse to buy a mortar and pestle.

On to the dumplings! This mixture that looks like raw meatloaf is the filling: minced pork, coarsely grated onions, and two tablespoons of ginger juice.

Mary Beth grated ginger for quite a while to extract those two tablespoons of juice. Aunt Kathy was a little worried about the size of the onion chunks -- she prefers her onions minced so tiny you need a microscope to see them -- but she couldn't even taste the onions once the dumplings were cooked.


We used store-bought dumpling pastry. It comes in a plastic bag and looks like thinly-sliced mozzarella cheese. Mineko told us to make an OK sign with our thumb and index finger, turn our wrist to make the O parallel to the ground, drape a pastry square over the hole, scoop a tablespoon of meat filling into the center of the square, and then pat the edges in place. She covered the bottom of a steamer pot with lettuce and then Mary Beth arranged all the dumplings on top of the lettuce.

While the dumplings were steaming, everyone shaped a scoop of the black beans and rice into a triangle.

Well, everyone except Aunt Kathy, who tried to make an Anpanman face.

Takako made rice with scallops for everyone to try. Misa used that wooden spatula to scoop our portions into a little metal mold that gave a pretty shape to the rice.

At last, time to eat!

Aunt Kathy was very happy when Misa said, "Oh, Kathy-san, you must be so full. Please don't feel you have to finish the Sesame Tofu with Greens." Aunt Kathy was so happy, in fact, that she brought some dumplings home to share with Uncle Mike.

On the Incredible Generosity of Friends

Our friends here are extraordinarily generous. In the past week alone I've been overwhelmed at least three times.

When Matt answered the doorbell on New Year's Eve, Robin handed him a flat red Milky bag. "For your mother," she explained, "from Kazumi." Inside the bag we spotted Peko-chan's sweet face peering through a seriously thick layer of plastic shrink wrap. She exploded into this three-foot tall pillow when I cut her free of the plastic. Wow! Kazumi has spent the past three months sitting in a hospital at the bedside of her teenage daughter. How did she find time to track down this pillow?



A few days later Mike and I met Admiral Hirata at Yokohama station and were escorted to a private room in a fancy restaurant on the 29th floor of the nearby Sky Building. As we admired the exceptional view (below), the other top medical admirals from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and a few of their wives arrived from Kurihama, Tokyo, and Yokohama to welcome Mike-san back to Japan.



Admiral Otsuka handled the beer toast then the waiter brought champagne and it was Mike's turn to make a toast. My memory is a bit fuzzy on who made the next two toasts, with white and red wine respectively, because the crab appetizer (below) distracted me. The white suds tasted like the milk foam on a Starbucks' latte.



A fish entree was followed by a dessert decorated with Japanese letters on a white chocolate disk. To my utter amazement, Mike slowly sounded out the syllables: O-ka-eh-ri Na-sa-ee. Okaeri nasai! Welcome back!



The admirals sent us home with bags of gifts, kabuki sake cups from Osaka for Mike and the special Peko-chan New Year's assortment for me.

Two days later I was overwhelmed yet again when Jen F appeared at our door with a mysterious box wrapped in festive holiday paper.



Oh my goodness, it's Anpanman and his friend, Melonpanna, whimsically dressed like Imperial dolls (hina-ningyo). How totally adorable! When March 3 rolls around, the third day of the third month, I'll be celebrating Girls' Day in style. I will be sorely tempted to display my hina-ningyo year-round but Reiko tells me that would be tempting fate. There is a belief that a daughter's marriage will be delayed if one leaves the display up too long . . .

On Science Fairs and Gaining Extra Credit for Submitting a Project with Global Implications

Today's entry has been prepared as a public service for current and future parents of school-age children. You are welcome.

A fingernail clipper turns out to be an ideal tool for pushing and tugging a needle through a hard rubber surface. Seconds after I figured this out and about 15 minutes before I perfected my technique, I managed to embed the needle in my fingertip. (Scientists who favor the trial-and-error method would categorize this as the latter.)

I ripped open the box of Anpanman bandaids I had tucked away for my future grandchildren -- sorry about that, Winifred and Wilbur -- and wound one around my fingertip.

"Gosh, this bandaid seems to be adhering to my skin better than other brands I have tried. Am I imagining this? Has anyone researched the relative stickiness of different brands of adhesive bandaids? Are the findings available on the Internet?"

Eureka! A Florida third grader compared five U.S. bandaid brands a couple of years ago. Wouldn't it be interesting to compare the Anpanman brand with the U.S. brands? I would be delighted to provide some Anpanman bandaids to help your child earn extra credit because (a) I am a nice person deep down inside, and (b) I am curious about how the bandaids compare.

If you are part of a military family, each of your children ought to be able to replicate this experiment two or three times during their school years. One of the few good things about having to change schools every couple of years is being able to use the same project for multiple science fairs. Be sure to ask my children about "Friction or Fiction" sometime.

Social Whirl

Have you been holding your breath and drumming your fingers in anticipation of the Anpanman tree? It turns out those little figures are solid rubber and it's taken me three days to coax, shove, and hammer a needle through one little noggin.

Hearing of my plight, Dr. T gifted me with a surgical needle but don't look for any progress on this project until mid-month. Bear in mind I am living on a military base where the holiday social whirl is compressed into the first 13 days of December. This is so all the Sailors who are taking leave during the holidays can have their fudge and eat it too.

Seasoned runners load up on carbohydrates before a marathon, so it makes sense mothers need to store up energy before the holidays by waffle loading. To test my newest theory, Jen O and the extremely pregnant (and remarkably loquacious) Monika have now been officially introduced to the waffle restaurant in Kamakura. Jen's command of Japanese never fails to heighten a restaurant experience - "We would like to try everything on your menu, please, and with ice cream when that's an option" - and Monika's talkativeness gave me a chance to eat way more than my fair share of the waffles. When it dawns on her that I nabbed most of her portion perhaps she'll remember that I also introduced her to that nifty parking lot with the helpful attendants.

I got back from Kamakura in time to stick a ham in the oven and whip up a couple of potato casseroles before the Knitwits and their families arrived to trim our tree. Whoever invented the expression "infectious enthusiasm" must have had people like our Japanese guests of honor in mind; you could not be within 10 feet of these people without grinning from ear to ear. This was the first time we've thrown a party where the house looked better when the guests were leaving than when they arrived. For my next trick, I think I'll invent a "Let's Take the Decorations Down and Put Them Away" party.

Tuesday the Oakleaf Explorers (all two of us) dragged our new friend Mary Beth to Tokyo to view maples. We followed the directions in my trusty guidebook to the Gotoh Museum garden but the gate was locked and the gardener made an X with his arms so Sherlock here deduced we would not be viewing maples in the Gotoh Museum garden. We wandered through the Kaminoge neighborhood instead, exploring a park and two cemeteries and a charming garden shop with a rooftop restaurant.

I took a lot of cemetery pictures because (a) that's what I do in cemeteries, and (b) my companions were both serious photographers, the sort who contort themselves to find the best angle, so I had time on my hands while they were snapping the only maple tree we saw all day. I'll post those pictures separately because (a) you might enjoy them, and (b) I can't imagine ever having another opportunity to use the headline "Killing Time in a Cemetery".

Tomorrow is the Seventh Fleet Spouse Association holiday party (not to be confused with the Seventh Fleet holiday party Mike and I will attend next week) and Friday is the Japanese and American Wives (JAW) holiday party (not to be confused with next week's JAW Conversation Group holiday party). Many of the same people will attend these events. This is why I am frantically inventing a Holiday Sweater Rotation Chart when I ought to be making fudge, mailing packages, and stabbing rubber dolls.

What They're Wearing

The young mothers at the Anpanman Museum were as entertaining as their offspring. The thermostat was flirting with 90 the day Jen F, Amanda, and I went to Yokohama but the heat and humidity did not stop most of the Japanese mothers from showing up in black leggings.

Black leggings seem to be a staple in the wardrobe of every Japanese female between the ages of 15 and 35 (although the upper range could be closer to 45 since Japanese women are blessed with a certain timelessness I can only envy).

They wear black leggings under shorts of every length, dresses, and diaphanous thigh-length tunics. This style looks especially fetching on women who weigh less than 90 pounds soaking wet.

Okay, not everyone wears leggings. But more wear leggings than don't and more wear hats than don't. And I think the latter is a key factor in that "timelessness" thing.

Anpanman Museum Reprised

The USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier based in San Diego, arrived in Yokosuka the day before yesterday. This is the first time many of those young sailors have set foot in a foreign country. Three of them entered the train station just as Jen F, Amanda, and I were heading to the Anpanman Museum in Yokohama yesterday morning. The slightly baffled looks on their faces appealed to our maternal instincts, although in my case the instinct is probably just as much buttinski as maternal.

They were in search of Tokyo where they hoped to take pictures of the Imperial Palace. We got them as far as Yokohama, told them where to get off (that was fun to write), showed them how to check their progress on the route diagram above the door of the train car, and insisted they also visit Asakusa for a good temple experience. I hope they had a wonderful day. I certainly did.



Jen O (as opposed to Jen F, and you haven't even met Jen R yet) had alerted me to the availability of plastic popcorn containers like the one the tyke above is wearing around his neck. He's wearing the Baikenman model but I selected the Anpanman version for Matt and had it filled with caramel corn. Once Matt polishes off the contents, I'll re-appropriate the container, plant it next to my kitchen sink, and toss coffee grounds into it. Because when I'm not busy bagging ice cubes these days, I'm amassing coffee grounds for my garden. That would be the garden I plan to start when Mike is home long enough to ride shotgun to the plant store. I'm still not brave enough to drive solo out in town.

Coffee grounds can also be used in place of baking soda to rid your refrigerator of odors. I read it on the internet so it must be true.