Link to Anna's Ballet Photo Album

Due to a mess up on the previous blog entry, you probably could not see the photo album of Anna's recital. I have solved the problem now. The date was set to 2006 instead of 2007 and the album was put at the end of the list.

Click the link below to see all of the pictures and videos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/markmatsusaka/AnnaSRecital

Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

良いお年を！また来年よろしくお願いいたします！

I'll be back after 1/4 after we get back from Matsusaka.

Anna's Ballet Recital

This past weekend Anna's grandma came to Inzai from Matsusaka to see her ballet recital. She was extremely cute along with all of the other girls. We have alot of pictures posted on the Picassa photo album so please take a look there too.

After the ballet we had Matsusaka Beef from Marunaka. Hiroko's Mom had the beef sent by a cool pack from her home town. We had sukiyaki for dinner. Mmmmmmm.

Finally, on Christmas Eve-Eve (12/23) we had Santa deliver Anna's presents early and Grandma Matsusaka took Anna back to Matsusaka with her. My wife and I will catch up with Anna on Friday when we leave by car to Matsusaka.

Anna Loves Mascots

This weekend Hiroko had to work at Eddie Bauer. Also, we had to take Anna into the doctor for an ear infection. I think every parent needs to worry about their kids picking up some type of flu bug or something at school. Anna's cough and plugged up nose eventually got to her right ear. I took her to the ear doctor on Saturday. I arrived at about 11:30am and the doctor did not see us until around 1:30pm. This doctor does not take appointments. You just sort of show up and everyone takes their turn. What a great way to spend a day. Whoopee!

Anyway, afterwards I took Anna to the Mall to pick up Mommy at work and we met up with the cat, bunny, and monkey. Anna, of course, likes to get pictures with all of them.

On Sunday, I had to pick up some ink cartridges for the computer at K's. There we met this character that looks like a small gas plume. We are not sure what he is but they had a pink one and a blue one. This gas plume character would walk around and wave it's arm whenever a child came near. Actually there was no one inside this. It was a robot (Ooooooh!) that responded to kids voices and waddled towards them when they spoke. Pretty cool.

They were having a sale on gas heaters, and this was the mascot. The mascot was great but the cutesy theme song for the character that they kept playing over and over and over was enough to make your brain bleed.

Anna Mae Dances to Happy Jam-Jam at the Tenjin Yochien Concert

JAF Day at Kamogawa Sea World

Today we took a trip to the coast to visit Kamogawa Sea World. We had tried to visit here back during Golden Week but we met too many crowds to try to get in. This weekend was the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF: Japan's AAA) Day. As a result we were able to get a discount on our tickets.
The best show of the day was the Killer Whale Show. These are great looking animals that are just so impressive to watch that you wish you could someday see them in the wild one day chomping on a seal.

The trainers were pretty impressive too. The oldest one could ride his whale all the way to the bottom of the tank with one breath of air and then be launched out of the water on the whale's nose.
Anna loved the all of the shows and, as usual, she was immediately drawn to the characters walking around the park.

The Beluga Whale show was also pretty neat too. They demonstrated how they could do echo location to find different materials and could also communicate to each other through the water.

We are planning to come back here with Mom when she gets here from the USA. The plan is to take a trip to Mother Farm (See previous post), stay the night somewhere and then get to Kamogawa early enough to see the dolphin show at 930am (We missed that show today).

Anna's 7-5-3 Ceremony

We went back to my wife's hometown of Matsusaka for my daughter's Shichi-Go-San ceremony. This is a time for little boys and girls aged 3, 5 and 7 to go to the shrine and be blessed for the coming years. My daughter's ceremony is actually coming one year late since we were just moving here from the USA last year.

My mother in law bought my daughter a very beautiful and quite expensive kimono for the ceremony. She was able to celebrate with her cousin Momo also.

I was floored at how beautiful she really looked. That Sunday morning all the women in the house left to get their hair styled for the ceremony. Once everyone was ready we all went to the nearby photo studio to get our family pictures.
The kimono was exquisite. The detail on just the red inner lining was just right for my little girl. After the ceremony the journey back to the house was made more difficult in the fact that Anna could no longer walk in the beautiful sandals her grandmother gave to her.

As a result I had to carry her back. You will not believe how heavy a 4 year old can be until you try to lift her wearing one of these.
For the complete set of pictures please take a look at the Picassa photo link to the right.

How To Use Chopsticks in Japan

Kobayashi Tenjin Undokai

September 14th was the date of the Kobayashi Tenjin Yochien. This was an afternoon of good hearted competition with really no winners or losers, just allot of great fun.

On the night before though was the mad mother's dash to get the best spots on the grade school grounds. They opened the gates at 4pm on Friday night. That's when Anna's friend, Honaka's mother made a dash to get ours and their mat down next to turn one on the race course for 3 an 4 year olds.

I should have gotten a clue that this was going to be video mayhem because of all the video camera adds on TV, the train and billboards everywhere. Everyone buys a new camera here in Japan just for this time of year.

The best spot to shoot was on the straightaway after turn two. There they had an area of about 7x7 feet to hold about 50 fathers with their new cameras. One guy even brought his ladder from home to get above the crowd in the back.

My little one being in the 1st year kindergarten group had a race where they ran across the ground to get hugs from the teachers. All extremely cute.

Then the fathers issued headbands to designate there child's class affiliation. I and Honaka's dad wore orange for the baby chick class. Then we were ushered out onto the grounds like a group of POW's waiting to see what the guards had planned for us next. All the kids were inside a tent where they chanted HIYOKO! HIYOKO! HIYOKO! (Baby Chicks! Baby Chicks! Baby Chicks!). Then a rope was placed in the middle of the two groups.

We were then told to run towards the rope and grab a piece and pull. There were fathers dropping everywhere. Complete chaos. I loved it. The Fearless Baby Chicks won their first "Side Pull Tug of War" but lost to the Kotori Class (Baby Birds) in the second round.

In the picture above you can also see the performance my daughter put on for her "Fish Dance". The music goes something like this "Fish, Fish, Fish, if you say fish then.... Penguin!" That is the literal English translation. Please don't ask me what the English means.

Finally at the end Anna and I were in the "Penguin Relay" where she rode on my feet while I walked to a flag and then back. The Fearless Baby Chicks came in second during a very tough competition. I think Anna and I really need to focus on our Penguin racing techniques for next year.

Big Hop Inzai!

Sorry for the wait in posts lately. Our computer at home has decided to break down on us and I have not had a chance to update as of late.

On September 28th Big Hop Garden Mall opened to the public. My wife has even landed a part time job at one of the clothing stores. On Saturday Anna and I rode the big Ferris Wheel at the mall. As you spin around from the bottom (Very, Very Slowly) you ride right by a big dinosaur. Since there are hills in the way we could not see our house from the wheel but I did get some pictures from around the mall and the neighborhood.

Big Hop just goes to proove that Japan does have alot of space left to build really really big things.

Mini Stop's Hot Steamed Chocolate Cake Bun with Chocolate Frosting Inside

This past Sunday on our way back from the park we stopped in a Mini Stop convienience store near our place to get some ice cream cones. There I saw the ordinary steamed buns with beef and pork but on the bottom of the rack was thier Belgian Chocolate Hot Steamed Chocolate Cake Buns with Chocolate Frosting inside. These are God's greatest gift to mankind.

Tokyo Disneyland!

This past Wednesday we took our long awaited trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Typhoon Fitow was threatening to ruin the day but we ended up only having some big, momentary rainfalls with some clouds most of the day. Overall the weather and the crowds were not bad at all. We went with Anna's friend, Honaka's family. They are resident Tokyo Disneyland experts. As soon as we arrived in the park, while everyone else was distracted by waiting in line to get a picture with Mikey Mouse, Honaka's dad went to get the "Fast Passes" we would need during the day to ride everything without waiting in line.
We had so much fun. When I first started coming to Japan, I had always thought it would be a waste of time to go to Disneyland because it was something I could just see in the USA. I always thought, "Why go all the way to Japan to see American Culture?". That was until Anna came along. There is something so universal about Disneyland in the eyes of a child. While walking around and taking it all in so far from the USA, I realized that I am from the same great country that created this wonderful place, and I felt very proud to be an American.

Typhoon Fitow vs. Tokyo Disneyland

This Wednesday we are planning to make a trip to the promised land, Tokyo Disneyland. We will be heading to the land of Minnie-chan with Anna's best friend Honaka (She's In the Pool with Anna in the slide show this week) and her family.

If you look at the map here you can see that we may or may not have good weather for the trip. Typhoon Fitow has been lingering for about a week around Iwo Jima and is just now starting to slowly but surely move it's way up to Japan.

The Weather Underground illustration to the left shows the Typhoon pretty far from us on Wednesday. The Japanese weather services however say that it might be a little closer. I'm leaning towards the Weather Underground model. Hopefully I'll be right.

I'll be posting the pictures after we get back from Disneyland. I'm betting on a good time.

American Size Shopping in Inzai

A growing trend in Japan is bigger shopping areas further away from the big cities. This is nowhere more apparent than in Inzai City. Recently they just finished a huge K's Denki (Electronics Store) right across the highway and Hokuso Railway tracks from Joyful Honda (Home Improvement, Gardening, Hobby, Crafts, and Grocery Shop).
Now, just when we thought that the biggest thing they could ever make in Japan was Joyful Honda, they are just about to build the biggest outlet mall I have ever seen, Big Hop Inzai. This is massive. There is even a 30 meter high Ferris Wheel sitting near the entrance.

My wife has quit her part time job at a restaurant in Chiba New Town (Shi-Rokuji-chu) and she will begin her new job at the Eddie Bauer outlet shop (At Big Hop Inzai) in mid September.

Big Hop Inzai is located on the south side of the Hokuso Line Tracks right next to the exit for the Inzai Makinohara Station. The traffic in front of Joyful Honda on the weekends is already bumper to bumper. I cannot imagine how it is going to be when they finish this Gigantor of a mall at the end of September.
Also, this past Saturday my wife worked at restaurant until 2pm. During that time Anna and I headed back to the Shiroi City Pool. Again, as usual there was many people there. We had a good time though. Afterwards Anna had a long nap in the car and we ended up all eating together after I picked up my wife from her job. We had Ramen at my favorite place, Kuruma-Ya. After lunch we all had soft serve ice cream. My wife had green tea, Anna had strawberry, and I had chocolate. Yum!

Nothing Like an Earthquake to wake you in the morning!

This morning at 4:15am we were awakened by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chiba Prefecture. I have found that, during an earthquake, I am so freaked out that I cannot move to do anything. When you are in bed when it happens you just freeze and hope that the house does not come caving in. Later at work at 8:20am there was another 5.0 in the same place. It is good to know that my co-workers are just as frozen and petrified as I am during the shaking.

Last night my wife and daughter were sleeping downstairs because they like it a little warmer than I do. My wife's reaction is to cover our little girl in case anything comes falling down.

This October 1st Japan will begin the new P-Wave warning system. NHK will be transmitting the warning with a nicely sounding bell warning on the TV. I am totally against this. If you are going to provide a warning it needs to be a 40 decibel Star Trek Enterprise Red Alert to get your attention. This system measures the "P-Wave" that comes just before a big earthquake. Since they move faster then the quake itself you get around a 20 second warning before the world comes towering down on you. I keep wondering what I will do with that 20 seconds. Will I sit there dumbfounded for a few seconds and wonder what to do or will I take command and do the right thing? I'm just not sure right now. Check back with me after the next quake.

We were spared today. Apparently, Lima, Peru was not. They had a 7.9 today. I don't even want to think about that.

Inzai Bon Odori

This past Sunday we walked over to the nearby park to participate in the local festival. Our neighbor was one of the organizers of the event. I got to finnally wear my "Jinbei" and Anna wore her Yukata again for the dancing.

It has been very hot as of late here but that just made the beer all the more better. Many of my neighbors who I've drank together with were there too. As a result of the liquid courage, I decided to try my hand at the dancing with my daughter. All I did was keep an eye on the older women doing the dancing and follow what they were doing. It went fairly well.

On Tuesday our friends came down from Ibaraki to take my daughter and I to the beach at Kashima. Unfortunately, this was my daughters first visit to the ocean with waves this big. When I carried her out into the water she wanted to get back to the shore as soon as possible. The waves that looked taller than me really freaked her out.

As a result, she did not want to go into the water. Since it was extremely hot (90F or 35C) this put her in a bad mood pretty quickly. We had to get her into the water or out of the heat as soon as possible. We decided to get back into the car and start back home. She then slept for most of the day.

The Power Of Eel

After our date on Saturday, I took my wife out to the Inba Marsh to see Ishibashi (The Eel place I went looking for last week). Just as last week, there were cars lined up to go into this place. With all of the other Eel places around, and with empty parking lots, I knew this place had to be good.

In late July and early August it is said that eel will give you the stamina to survive the shitty hot Japanese summer.
As can be seen in the picture here, the place is no bigger than a shack. The Unagi is prepared in the house next door by grandma steaming the sea snakes on skewers and then big brother brings the steamed them next door to be barbecued over open flames.

The process to make BBQ Eel is this:

Take an ice pick and stab the squirming head of the eel into a cutting board. Then take a very sharp knife and cut down the middle of said eel from the head. Remove icky bits of guts and save that for the soup. Open the flesh and stab with skewers. Steam the meat then bring them to the shack next door. Take the steamed eel and dip in secret barbecue sauce. Cook over open flame, then dip in BBQ sauce again, then repeat process until you feel the eel is ready. Finally put over rice and serve.

We waited for about 45 minutes to get into the eel shack. You can see in the picture the poor souls that had to keep waiting after us. Please notice the woman in the short sleeve black sweater and rose colored shirt to the left of the window. She is pregnant and waiting in 90 degree, 90% humidity to eat.................. eel. Wow! If you ever, ever, ever see a pregnant woman waiting in heat like this to eat something, it has to be damn good.

This place is so busy that they even though they have published hours from 11am to 430pm, they usually sell out and have to close around 230pm. Don't worry, if you have a number and are in line at 230pm, they will have an eel with your name on it.

Date Night In Ginza

This past weekend the wife and I finally were able to have a night of our own. Anna has been able to be on her own at school and actually enjoys being away from us (weather that is good or bad, I don't know).

My wife's relatives live in Funabashi. Rie (Hiroko's dad's cousin) has helped us out from day one of arriving in Japan. Her and her husband love playing and being with Anna. So, we decided to ask if they would be willing to take care of her on Saturday night while my wife and I went into Tokyo for a date. They accepted and Anna was looking forward to it.

When I dropped Anna off with Rie I fake cried and said I would miss her. Anna just rubbed my head and said, "It's OK Daddy, you still have Mommy."

I have been planning this for a while but my wife's style is that she wants to be the one to decide where she wants to go. At first, I bought a magazine with all of the top ranked southeast asian restaurants in Tokyo. She ended up picking one from the Internet after all.

We first arrived at the Shinmaru Building right in front of Tokyo Station. This was very new and modern. Although everyone had talked about the cool restaurants in there we ended up just looking around at the huge Maruzen bookstore inside the building.

We ate at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Le Squall in the Ginza 5 building underneath the railroad tracks. The food was great. We then went out to see if we could find anyplace that served desert after 9pm. Unfortunately, we were too late to get to any of them so we headed to an area that I know, Akihabara. There we had a couple of beers at an Italian bar and then headed home.

All and all we had a really great time.

Next time I have to prepare some more. I think the next date will take up to a year and a half to plan for.

I knew it! Ever since the quake our teleportation grid interface has been down and my positronic brain has been on the fritz.

Earthquake Sets Japan Back To 2147

TOKYO —"Our society [is] temporarily reverting to a pre-cyberunification era," said prime minister Shinzo Abe, speaking non-telekinetically for the first time.

Shiroi City Pool & A Flat Tire

This past Saturday my wife had to work at the restaurant so Anna and I spent the morning at the Shiroi City Pool located about 20 minutes west of our place in Inzai. This was a great place to go, especially with the temperatures going up into the Hell ranges.

When we arrived the regular parking lot was already full at 930am (They open at 9am). We walked a little way to find a long line to just buy a ticket to get in. Once we finally got in we got changed and walked into the pool area. They had 4 things to do there; First was the kiddie pool with a nice slide. Second was the "River pool" that gently took you around the pool area like a gently flowing river (that's where we spent most of our time). A lap pool and two water slides. All this for an adults ticket of 750yen (Anna's Ticket was free).

We spent our day there until the break time at 11am. It was during that time Anna discovered the high pressure multi positioin nozzle entry shower for the pool. She was too freaked out to go through it when we arrived but she soon realized how fun it was. She would run towards the shower and then run back to me. She did this about 4 times until she fell and skinned her knee. After that she was in no mood to swim any more so I thought I would take her to lunch.

About 30 seconds into the ride to the restaurant Anna soon fell asleep. I then thought I would take a drive out to Inba City on the other side of Inzai. This is not so much a town as it is a wetlands for a wide river and many rice fields. I decided I would try to find this BBQ Eel (Unagi) place that some friends had told us about in this town. Right now, at the beginning of August is Eel day. This is when everyone eats BBQ eel to help stay strong during the very hot and humid Japanese Summer (No wonder the tourists don't come during this time of year!). I love the stuff. The eel not the heat.

The name of the restaurant is Ishibashi. The car navigation said I was getting close but all I could see was river and rice fields. There was virtually no traffic on the road until I was right on top of the restaurant. In the immediate area there was about 4 or 5 other eel restaurants and all of them had just a few cars. It was then that I hit the traffic jam in front of Ishibashi. The place was about as big as a double wide trailer and most of the customers were waiting outside in the stifling heat on plastic chairs.

Since Anna was still asleep I did not stop and started back towards our house. I thought that I could head to Kurumaya Ramen for some noodles and fried rice for lunch. I eventually arrived there and Anna woke up on cue and we had a good lunch.

Coming into the parking lot I had heard a large thump but thought nothing of it. After eating Anna and I walked up to the car and noticed that the Toyota Vitz had a flat passenger side tire. This was going to be fun. 90 degrees, no shade and I have to change a tire. When I knelled down to place the jack under the car my knee was fried by the hot parking lot. I was not having too much success getting the tire off the car when a guy with a hydraulic jack came and helped me finish the job. There are some really great and helpful people here too. Thank you Japanese guy with the hydraulic jack in the stifling heat of Kuramaya Ramen parking lot whomever you are! You saved the day. If I knew who you were you would be getting a box full of eels for Eel Day as a present for your kindness. Now in the USA that would be a cruel and heartless prank. Here a gift of a box of suirming eels is just like getting a chocolate "Heavy Cake" for your birthday. (Heavy Cake: When you take two or three cans of frosting and put it on a cake instead of just one. Mmmmmm.)

Afterwards we spent the rest of the afternoon at the nearby Toyota dealership waiting to get a new tire. My wife also had to wait for us to pick her up from work while we got the car repaired. On top of it all, Anna and I missed meeting our neighbors at a block party nearby the house because of the flat tire. Too bad, maybe next time.