Tiny Car

Smart cars became popular, but Japan has an even smaller one on their roads. I occasionally see these cars zipping around, and only one person can sit in them!

As long as they have beer......

..... who cares?

Large Bottle

Cool restaurant! I love the snowman on top!

Stickers

I'm a fan of artistic graffiti, and I love weird, random stickers as well. Larger cities like Yokohama and Tokyo always have stickers stuck everywhere. I love keeping an eye out for gems.

Coastal Zen

We spent a day in Yokohama recently, and saw a group of people doing Tai Chi on the bay! It was so relaxing to sit and watch.

Late Fall Flowers

Fermentation

I recently learned how to make kimchi and sauerkraut! Yum!! Jonathan isn't a fan of kimchi, but he loves kraut. While kraut is German fermented cabbage, kimchi is Korean and has a medley of veggies in it. The main ingredient is napa cabbage, and it often has carrots, garlic, ginger, red chili, and Asian radish in it. You can buy kimchi in stores here, but it's waaaay cheaper to just make your own! We have a couple of friends that make their own, so they shared their knowledge! The kraut takes longer to ferment, so it's still sitting. The kimchi is done, after having sat and bubbled for 4 days. It's so yummy and has a very subtle hint of heat. I can't wait to use these in recipes!

Kurihama Cemetery

Crow on Buddha

No matter where I am in the world, I always love admiring cemeteries. They are so peaceful and beautiful and I'm always fascinated with the death rituals of other cultures. I recently went to a large one, high up on a hill by our house. They had so many magnificent statues. The large Buddha with the rays of light peaking from behind its head (that the crow is perched on), was built in 1983 and is 44ft tall. It sits upon a columbarium that is large enough to hold ceremonies in. The angry looking guard statues stand on either side of the columbarium entrance - they are called nio, and every temple has a couple guarding the entrance. Although there isn't a temple at this cemetery, their presence informs us that it's primarily used by Buddhists. Nio means "Kind Kings," and they are meant to look ferocious and powerful in order to scare off negative energy and bad spirits. 
The pagoda pictured used to be 7 levels. Many years ago, high winds blew the top levels off, so they left it with 5 when they repaired it.
The rows of small statues that are pictured wearing the knitted clothing and adorned with mementos are for children that have passed. These are called jizo, and actually represent and protect many different things throughout Asia, but in modern Japan they are most often used to protect children and babies that have passed. There was a very long path along this wall, and the whole thing was lined with jizo from end to end.

5 level pagoda

Daruma statue

Nio guard

Nio guard

Jizo

Kittens

We volunteer at a local animal shelter, and March-October is our kitten season. That is to say the time of year where we often find litters of kittens hidden around town. We try to educate the public to leave the litters alone. People often think that when they don't see momma around that she has abandoned them, and that couldn't be farther from the truth! When momma isn't there, that means she is out hunting to feed herself. But, unfortunately, people tend to scoop them up anyway and rush them to our shelter. Most of the time the kittens that we get in are neonatal, being 1-2 weeks old. When this happens, we immediately get them into a foster home ASAP. The fosters have been trained to care for neonatal babies and they keep them until they are 12 weeks old and ready to come stay in the shelter to be adopted.

A couple of weeks ago we had a very bad typhoon blow through, and someone found two 4-day-old kittens. It was late at night and Jonathan and I were the only people immediately available to take them in. We ended up keeping them about 17 hours, and then handed them over to a foster. When kittens are that tiny, they need to be kept warm in a nest. The best thing to do is put a heating pad in the bottom of a cardboard box and put 2 or 3 large towels on top of that and make a nice nest. Make sure the kittens stay huddled together in the middle, covered up. They need to be fed formula every 2 hours, day and night. That's another downfall of being taken to the shelter - they cannot get mother's milk, and at such a young age, that can be life threatening. On top of continuous feeding, they cannot use the bathroom on their own, so they must be stimulated with a warm, wet cotton ball after every feeding. Caring for kittens under 5 weeks old is a HUGE undertaking and very difficult. If you ever find a litter, please leave them be. The mother knows what she is doing. If you are truly concerned, monitor the area for a couple of days. If you never see the mom at all after 2 or 3 days, then it's ok to take the kittens in. Contact your vet if you have questions!

Pizza Tracker

Sometimes we order pizza online from Domino's. Here in Japan they have a real time pizza tracker! It shows you when they are making it, baking it, and when they are on their way! They also have a delivery boy GPS tracker on their site so you can watch them drive from Domino's to your house! So high tech! I took this picture of the tracker on my laptop shortly after we ordered it.

Halloween Twilight!

Japanese treats never cease to amaze me. Every season and holiday they go all out. At 711, I found an intriguing cup that said Halloween Twilight Cake with awesome ghosts and pumpkins on it. No idea what that title means, but I'm not passing that up! Turns out, the top layer is dark chocolate cake with pumpkin pudding under it. Oooohhhh yum!!

Wedding Gifts

Box of edible goodies

For the last installment of the Japanese wedding series, we'll talk about wedding gifts! As I mentioned before, it's custom to bring money to give at weddings, not gifts. On the flip side of that, it's also custom for the bride and groom to give gifts to every guest. And we aren't talking party favors (although they do that too). Each guest that attends gets a large shopping bag full of stuff, including a nice gift. Since Jonathan and I are a couple, we each got individual bags as well as one for both of us. The bride told us that usually each guest is given a catalogue to pick a gift from and you have to fill out a form in Japanese and mail it off. The catalogue is full of very nice gifts - everything from house wares to horse back riding lessons! Since we aren't fluent in Japanese, she picked something out for us on our behalf. Our gift as a couple was a really nice tea pot with cups and saucers and wine tumblers! Our individual bags were full of cakes and other edible goodies. The party favors we were handed as we left were chocolates in the shape of Landmark Tower, where the wedding was held. So nice and fancy! We love everything we got, and are still amazed that guests receive things like this!

Our boxes of edible goodies included 2 baumkuchen cakes, packs of tea (for our tea pot!), bonito flakes (dried flakes of tuna used in cooking, but also given as a gift of good luck), variety packs of rice soup seasoning (wasabi, plum, and seaweed flavors), and packets of an ingredient that I don't know the name of. I'm not sure what it's called, but it's crushed bonito that has been marinated with sesame seeds, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar. You can either cook with it or sprinkle it on rice or pasta. We'll let you know what it tastes like!

Unnamed marinated bonito

Bonito flakes

Wasabi flavored soup seasoning

One of the wine tumblers

Our tea pot!

Baumkuchen cake box - ultra fancy!

Baumkuchen cake

Party favor

Tiny chocolate Landmark Tower!

Cards

Card giving is a special ordeal in Japan, and has a long history of traditions and rules. During weddings and other major celebrations, it's custom to give money rather than gifts, and is acceptable for people to ask only for money. Depending on what kind of event you're attending, the amount given ranges anywhere from $100 - $1000. Giving money as a present goes back hundreds of years, and money used to be considered "dirty" and corrupt, so it was important to shield the money by wrapping it in paper or silk before giving it to someone. The custom of wrapping money in decorative paper is called shuugi bukuro. When the paper is all closed up, it looks as if it's a regular card. However, there are many complicated layers.

Inside, there is an envelope for you to put the money in. The bills must be inserted in a manner where the receiver will see the face of Yukichi Fukuzawa on the note as soon as they pull the money out. The bills must be crisp and new and free from any creases - NEVER fold money. Also, for a wedding, you must give an odd number of bills, as an even number is easily divided and seen as an omen of divorce. On the outside of the envelope, you write your name, address, and the amount of money contained inside. Traditionally this is to be done entirely in kanji, so I did ours in both English and Japanese. It took me forever to write it out, but I did it! Once the envelope is complete, place it in the middle of the paper, and begin to fold it up. Start with folding the left side in first, and then the right side on top of that. Flip it over and fold the top down, and then fold the bottom up. Be sure to fold the top down first! Folding the bottom up first is done for funeral cards. The folded paper is held closed by a gorgeous wire band that is highly decorative. For weddings, the knotwork must be very colorful and intricate - a simply tied knot is looked upon as being untied easily, and a sign of divorce. The more complicated the knot, the better chance of the couple being together forever. Fancy knotwork on cards is also used for any event that you would NOT want repeated (for example, ideally you only want to marry once, meaning no divorce; and for mourning cards, since you don't wish for anyone else to die, resulting in more funerals). Simply tied cards, while not ideal for weddings or funerals, are used for events that you would want to happen again, such as being accepted into college, or having a baby.

There are strips of paper that come with the card that may be blank, or stamped with kanji that means celebration. You are to choose one and put your name on it, a little message if you like, and place it on the outside of the card, held in place by the cord knot. I chose the one with gold kanji because it's super pretty! After everything is folded and filled out, and the knot slipped back onto the card, you're done and ready to head to the party! If you're feeling really fancy, or if foul weather is expected and you want to keep your paper card safe, you can wrap the whole thing in a small silk cloth called fukusa.

Making sure to fold the top down first!