Strait to Sumo

I, Jason, just returned from a weekend in Tokyo sans family, the highlight of which was attending sumo at the Ryogoku Kokugikan for the final weekend of the Grand Tournament, or what’s known as the Winter Cup. It was fantastic – both the sumo and the peacefulness of traveling alone. Even though Tricia loves to say that traveling with Jonas is “lots of fun,” and it is, we both agreed that we needed a brief vacation that didn’t include navigating naps or weathering fits (Jonas, not Tricia) or lugging around Jonas’ “cage” (what many Japanese parents refer to as his portable crib. An aside: Jonas climbed out of his crib over the weekend while I was gone. Tricia put him in there for time out for punching the buttons on the heater, which he knows not to do but can’t resist doing as they make a delightful beeping noise. Moments later, she hears a loud crash and a Jonas crying. We think he used his Curious George doll, which is as big as he is, as a stepping stone to freedom. And what better doll to cause mischief than Curious George?). Anyway, this was my weekend.

If I were gong to stay in Japan for an extended period of time, I really could get into following the ins and outs of sumo. There’s plenty of drama, and the highlight of this tournament was the return of former champion Asashoryu, who was suspended for blowing off a summer promotional tour, citing injury, only to be caught running around in a charity soccer match in Mongolia. Media reports claimed fans had turned on the big Mongolian following the faux injury debacle, but he seemed to still hold sway when I was there. Here is a clip taken from my seat, near the top of the arena, of the action.

When I bought the train/hotel tickets for Tokyo, I asked the travel agent whether she had ever seen sumo. She cocked her head to the side and gave me that quizzical, askance Japanese look that means, “You’re crazy.”

“Oh, no. I think it’s mainly for the older generation,” she said.

“Like me?” How old did she think I was?

“The older generation,” she said. “And foreigners.”

She was right. Old timers and gaijin and little else filled the arena – for example, in my row there was a lone Japanese guy, a British kid in his early 20s, a girl with blue hair who seemed American, her boyfriend, and a group of six Australians. Well-connected and wealthy Japanese sat in the lower levels, where four-person boxes go for $450, and I have to say, many of them appeared to be of Takako the travel agent’s “older generation.” Before I left for Tokyo, I polled several coworkers of comparable age to me to whether any of them had watched sumo in person, and not a one of them had. They claimed it was too expensive (not true; my ticket was $20), that it was too difficult to get a ticket (not true; I bought mine the day of and walked right in). My friend Nomi told me his father, who is close to 70, loves sumo and went every January. As for himself, he never once went with him, although he said he would have loved to go. I didn’t press him any further.

Other than sumo, I didn’t take many pictures on this trip Every time I came across something oddly and distinctly Japanese, I’d think, “That would be a great picture. I don’t have the guts to take it.” It must have been that old Midwestern modesty taking hold. For example, within Akihabara, a mecca for electronics and manga geeks, there are these things called maid cafes, which as far as I can tell, are pretty much cafes where girls dressed as maids call you “lord” and serve you coffee and cake. There’s nothing expressly elicit about them; I’d consider them more of Japan’s answer to Hooters, although, and this is absolutely true, I have never patronized either.

Anyway, on numerous streets, girls would be standing around in their skimpy maid outfits, freezing their bare legs off while handing out leaflets that guided all the otakus and tourists to the cafes. Now, it’s cold in Tokyo. Not Akita cold. But chilly enough that you might want to wear, you know, pants while standing outside for hours. On one street, two maids were positioned among the crowd, smiling, handing out leaflets, their bare legs, from about mid-thigh down, being warmed by a pair of 3-foot-tall electric space heaters, which required electric cords to run all the way from the street, across the sidewalk, and up the stairs to the maid café. That's dedication and ingenuity.

I did take a number of shots of these girls, allegedly bullied high school kids who have become semi-famous for hanging out in a particular area of Tokyo and dressing up in costume, also known as cosplay, seemingly for no other reason than to be photographed by tourists.

Jonas update and some other stuff

Jonas says a new word these days --“Oishii,” which means delicious in Japanese. I think it is super cute when he says it and I usually chuckle. So now Jonas follows up “oishii” by laughing. We have heard him say a couple of other Japanese words, but this is the first word that the daycare told us about too. They were so excited to tell Jason about it. One of the foods Jonas thinks is oishii is onigiri. Onigiri is basically a rice ball stuffed with some sort of food, like fish or fish eggs and covered in seaweed. He even loves to eat the seaweed. Some other foods that illicit “oishii” from Jonas these days: yogurt, tangerines, water, strawberries, noodles, anything sweet. Jonas eating onigiri:

Some other favorite activities enjoyed by Jonas lately:

Putting on grown up shoes

Dumping all of his toys out, but only playing with a few. Playing with his toy trains, animals and new crayons. He does color with them (with sound effects), but he more often carries them around, lines them up, puts them in containers and takes them out.

Playing at the ALVE play area

Going to Starbucks (okay, that was my idea and us sitting in Starbucks lasted about two minutes, but I thought he was cute for the two minutes he sat there). And, yes, it is a American chain, but sometimes I just want a tasty latte.

He has always enjoyed books, but lately he really likes these non-fiction bug books that I brought with us from home. I think he likes the pictures, because they are real, not drawings. He has also shown a preference for his Elmo book lately (too bad he ripped out the big Elmo on the last page). Today he was looking at the book by himself and when he got to the page where Elmo reaches up tall, Jonas reached both hands high in the air like Elmo. He still likes to dance and I noticed this weekend he is trying to jump. He definitely watches the older kids at the play area and tries to do what they do.

For a few weeks, he has been reaching up or looking up to communicate that he wants help with something. He also makes some fussy noises sometimes when he needs something, so I am trying to teach him to say “please.” Wish me luck.

Jonas loves playing in and eating the snow.

Isn’t he so cute, all bundled up? And lying on the cold, snowy ground with mismatched gloves.

When we were in Nagano, one of the highlights of the trip for me was playing in the snow with Jonas and watching him enjoy the snow. He loved to slide down the snow hill and then watch me follow him in the sled. A couple of weeks later, he and I were walking down a snowy hill at the base of the ski mountain in Tazawako. As soon as he realized we were going downhill, he sat down to ‘slide’ down like he did in Nagano. Here is a video. The camera work (by me) has some issues, but I think it is so funny that I am posting it anyway.

He is becoming more independent and explored the base of the ski mountain. A couple of times he tried to catch a ride on some guy's skis.

When we went to Tazawako, Jason skied in the morning while Jonas and I explored. Here is he is playing by a snowman and the Kamakura (snow house).

When we met Jason at lunch time, Jonas was very happy to be reunited with Jason. Here he is giving him a big hug. Jonas gives great hugs.

While I was snowboarding, I took some pictures from the mountain. It is a small ski hill, but we enjoyed it. The view of the lake was beautiful. The lake you see in one of the pictures below is the same lake you can see in the picture that is at the top of our blog.

This weekend Jason traveled to Tokyo to watch sumo wrestling. It sounds like he is having fun there. Jonas and I have had a low key weekend at home. We went to the play area at ALVE this morning and Jonas is napping now.

I will end with some stats. At daycare they weigh and measure the kids every couple of months. I appreciate that they do this, because I lose track of how much Jonas has grown. Riveting way to end, I know.

Date	Height	Weight
September 4, 2007	No measurement-They wrote that Jonas would not stand still	11 kg (24.2 pounds)
November 2, 2007	77 cm (30.3 inches)	12.2 kg (26.8 pounds)
January 8, 2008	80.5 cm (31.7 inches)	12.4 kg (27.3 pounds)

My Biggest Weakness is I Care Too Much ... Yack!

This is Jason.
We are a house united when it comes to the presidential election. I, too, am wholly behind Obama, for reasons big and small. No word on Jonas' top choice. Although when I told him about that wacko Mike Huckabee's views on evolution, I noticed him squeeze his toy dinosaurs just a little tighter.

Anyway, I think the small details influence me more than the big ones. For example, when doing research on video games and their potential uses in education, I came across this from Hillary Clinton. Essentially, she teamed up with two uber-conservative senators to sponsor legislative that would further censor video games and restrict access to them. It's this type of small-minded, politics-of-the-moment thinking that really turns me off to Hillary. When some of the smartest people out there are looking at how to harness the appeal and methodology of video games, Hillary spends her time figuring out ways to restrict their impact. And she claimed to be doing it to "protect the children." Please. Protect us from Hillary.

And there's all the hoopla over John Edwards' $1,250 hair. The guy's a millionaire, so it's his right, but someone who fancies himself as the champion of the poor probably should being paying attention to details like this. And paying a lot less for a haircut. But whatever. He's insignificant.

And finally, my favorite small story of the campaign:

Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night's debate when he and his rivals were asked to name their biggest weakness. Obama answered first, saying he has a messy desk and needs help managing paperwork - something his opponents have since used to suggest he's not up to managing the country. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said his biggest weakness is that he has a powerful response to seeing pain in others, and Clinton said she gets impatient to bring change to America.

"Because I'm an ordinary person, I thought that they meant, 'What's your biggest weakness?'" Obama said to laughter from a packed house at Rancho High School. "If I had gone last I would have known what the game was. And then I could have said, 'Well, ya know, I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don't want to be helped. It's terrible.'"

We will return to more news about Japan and Jonas soon ...

The Election

I just watched Barack Obama's inspiring MLK speech. This caused me to remember an email that I received a few weeks ago about an interesting website. It is called Glassbooth. By visiting this website, you can see how your views align with the Presidential candidates. I think it is a neat tool, because after indicating which issues matter to you most, you are given a survey on the issues that are most important to you. Based on your answers, you can see which candidates align with your views. The part that I really like is that you can click around and see how different candidates align with you on particular issues and the evidence that is cited comes from actions (like Senate votes), quotes from debates, newspapers and other media.

I was not surprised that I align most closely to a candidate that will not be a major contender, Dennis Kucinich. But, I do love Barack Obama. I am reading his autobiography right now. In his book he brings up so many important and thought provoking issues.

Shirako

Thursday I went to an enkai (work party that consists of all you can drink and non-stop eating of generally delicious food for two hours).

When the first dish was served, I noticed this white, slimy mass surrounded by soy sauce and asked if it was some sort of egg dish. My co-worker to the right looked at me for a moment and said, "It's like ikura (salmon eggs), but from the male." Two thoughts flashed through my mind.
Number 1. Male fish lay eggs?
Number 2. Wait. It could not be---SPERM!

As these thoughts flashed through my mind, my co-workers across the table pulled out their Japanese-English electronic dictionary (I love these things) and went to work, giggling.
After reading through some definitions on the dictionary they told me that the dish was cod testes. I thought, Okay -- testes and dismissed the word sperm from my mind -- knowing of course that testes are full of sperm -- and why would testes be any more appealing than sperm?

Well, I thought, what the heck? It's not alive, it's not horse meat and it's considered a delicacy.

I picked up the small bowl and chopsticks, opened my mouth and took a couple of slimy, awkard bites. I don't know what to say about the taste, because I don't really remember. I just remember that it was slimy. My co-worker looked at me and said, "You are brave." She then continued by telling a story about the time she ate tiny fish swimming in soy sauce and unsuccessfully tried to eat live shrimp.

The middle dish is the shirako I ate:

A beautiful plate of sashimi that we were served:

Here is a picture from the enkai:

Vacation -- The End

So we've been back for about a week now, wishing we weren't. Vacation was tremendous, and though I often try and look at this experience as a year-long vacation, going back to school is still going back to work, no matter how you slice it, even if it isn't exactly shoveling coal.

Funny story: Today at school, I was chatting with students about what they did over their winter vacation. Since this was an academic school, not surprisingly, many of them said they studied. And I believed them. Most also said they visited their grandmothers. I asked one girl, who didn't say much, whether she visited her grandmother over the break. She shook her head yes, then pointed toward the sky. I assumed she meant that her grandmother was no longer of this earth. So I asked her, "You went to temple to pray?" She said, "No," still pointing upward. "She lives with me. Upstairs."




Jonas loves all things snow. He loves to eat the snow and play in the snow, just as long as he's not wearing his gloves, and as they've noticed at daycare during these cold days of winter, he never actually gets cold himself.

And here is Tricia ....

On our way into Hakuba, we spotted a sign for Subway. Since both Jason and I are beginning to really miss American food about now, including a good ol' American sandwich, we turned immediately to follow the sign. Turns out that Subway was at the base of one of the ski mountains so we entered busy territory. Jason ran inside and bought 8 sandwiches! We easily ate all eight over the next two days.

Arriving in Hakuba, we were greeted by lots of snow and foreigners. In fact, I felt as if we left Japan for a week, because we were surrounded by so many Westerners. After many missed turns and driving over packed snow, we finally found the guesthouse that our friend Christine booked. We loved the place. The owner, Yoko, actually lived in Steamboat Springs, CO for two years (I lived in Steamboat for a year, with Jason visiting a few times) and she had three wonderful children. The place was perfect for us. Jonas loved playing with the kids and their toys.

Yoko and her sisters are running the guesthouse. It was such a comfortable place with a nice common area with plenty of hot tea to drink during the day. The place had been closed for five years and the three sisters grew up with their mother running a guesthouse when they were kids. Everybody in Yoko's family grew up skiing and she showed me pictures of the family in competitions. Her father was the national ski team coach and had certificates from the 82 Sapporo Olympics and the 98 Nagano Olmpics for his help with the events. I can't imagine growing up in such a beautiful place. Living in a ski town for a year gave me a new appreciation of snow. When you live in a place as beautiful and snowy as Hakuba or Steamboat, the snow is so much fun. It stays for the whole winter and is a much different snow than the wet, heavy stuff we get in Missouri--that comes and goes so quickly.

It was great to see friends from home and the time went by too quickly. Christine, Wellan, Val and Smitty were spending two weeks traveling around Japan, including spending some time in the town that Christine and Wellan lived in for one year during their JET year. We skied/snowboarded during the day and visited onsens at night.

There were some interesting people to meet at the guesthouse, including an Australian, a Welsh couple and two Swedes who were at the beginning of a 3 month stay in Hakuba. They had some intense skiing equipment and were planning on spending everyday on the mountain. The night before we left a guy from Norway showed up who planned on snowboarding for three months.

We were able to eat non-Japanese food at night, which was a treat for Jason and me. As we have both mentioned, we love Japanese food, but are ready for a break. We miss Mexican the most. Here we are eating at Uncle Steven's, a Mexican restaurant---

Jason, Jonas and I went back for a second meal there before we left Hakuba.

Jason and I loved the place so much that we extended our stay by another day and spent our last day sledding and playing in the snow with Yoko and her family.

For whatever reason, Yoko and I had long and in-depth conversations about children (this is Jason again). Her youngest kid, Shingo, insisted on riding on her back wherever she went. This is common in Japan with younger children, but when Shingo can walk just fine on his own, and you have two other kids to chase around, I think it really was beginning to wear on her. As she told me, "If I could go back, there are some things I would change. This is one of them."

Shingo, by the way, was hilarious. He would walk up to all foreigners, scowl at them, and say, "Baka!" and then walk away. Baka means idiot in Japanese. It probably didn't help that we all snickered every time he did this. Eventually, Tricia cracked his scowl and got him to laugh and giggle like all 2 year olds should.