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.