Japanese culture: yakiimo!

    I got a literal "taste" of this bit of Japanese culture when we went tent-camping over Labor Day with a Japanese family. Naho had brought funny-looking purple potatoes to roast over our fire alongside our s'mores and hot dogs. "Yaki-imo," she called it.  And I loved it!  It's a Japanese sweet potato (purple on the outside, white on the inside) that looks and tastes different from the orange ones I knew.

    Little did I know that we would be in Japan at the height of yakiimo season.  When Americans looked forward to pumpkin-flavored foods in the fall, Japanese look forward to yakiimo-flavored foods!  One of our first days in Osaka, I walked into a Life grocery store and wondered what that glorious aroma was.  What could be cooking in the middle of the store? That's when I spied some hot, fresh yakiimo, available for purchase! They are slow-roasted in little portable ovens and then sit on top of hot rocks to keep them warm. Each one comes in a paper bag and are priced according to size (I was so excited to find a super cheap one at a vegetable stand, only to realize that it was cheap because it was a small one).  Everyone else that day had picked out a snack from a konbini. I instead got a hot yakiimo!

    And such has become my tradition!  It's like how some people can't resist the "Hot now" light at Krispy Kreme; I can't resist when those bags are out on the hot rocks. You can find them lots of places -- inside or outside grocery stores and discount stores and vegetable stores.  I've heard there are even yakiimo trucks in the winter with a nostalgia similar to the musical jingle of an ice cream truck in summer in America.  I so hope to stumble upon one of these while we're here!

Then last night, I took my love to the next level by going to a yakiimo festival!  Lucas is not nearly as much a fan as me, but he was happy to join me on our date night to the Osaka Castle grounds.  There were 30 varieties of foods, all with yakiimo as an ingredient.  Lucas got yakiimo soup and a yakiimo "drowning in cheese." I got a yakiimo croquette. I thought I was buying a type of bread, but it was mashed yakiimo coated with panko and fried until crispy. And then I also had yakiimo ice cream! Yes, it's a thing, and yes, it was tasty!

    There are even mascot characters with merchandise! I passed on the yakiimo shirts, hats, and freezer bags, but I did spend a 500 yen coin (around $3) on my first gacha machine. I looked at the 7 or so options of prizes, and decided which few I didn't want. Of course, that's the one I ended up with! Oh well! That's the risk of the gacha machines. I still love yakiimo!

Carter's 15th Birthday

              For my birthday on November 6, one thing I did was go to a Wendy's restaurant with Calvin and my dad. In Japan only, they have the Mega Wendy's, a burger with seven patties of meat on it. It took a while to eat it, and it was hard to fit it in my mouth. I ate it all in the end. We went there the day before my birthday, and we also went to the Nintendo store on that day to get the new Zelda video game. It's called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It's a remake of an older game. It was released on November 5. We also went to a movie theater to watch the new Street Fighter movie. It had English audio but Japanese subtitles.

             On my birthday, we played a lot of the new game, and my brothers and I played multiplayer games too. I opened some presents that were Zelda-themed. Some people came over tonight, and my mom made an ice cream cake.

             These days were better than average.

Calvin’s reflections - errands

     In the time that we have been staying in Osaka, I have gone to lots of places by myself mostly shops but sometimes just to walk around. I have gone to the closest Family Mart to get things like milk, cereal, rice balls, and a lot of other stuff. Today I went with Chance to the Family Mart to get a snack he wanted but the first store only had the chocolate kind so we went to the other one across the street but that one didn't even have any kind of it so we went to another store that was just a little bit farther down and they had it and Chance said “uuuuuud finally!” (his way of saying Ugh).  When we got back and ate the snacks Cooper and Colson came in and we all decided to go to the Gacha machines so we went to the place where there are about 1,000 of them and got some fidget spinners and a Luigi and a question mark block from Mario.

This is one of my favorite things about being here — the opportunity for the boys to do some solo missions. I started assigning errands as part of their schoolwork for the week, and even Colson (7) can go to the nearest konbini by himself!

Japanese culture: weather (rain and sun)

(Note: these are just my observations, not necessarily a pronouncement on all Japanese culture)

    Japanese people are not afraid of the rain. Everyone owns a kasa (umbrella).  For my everyday life in America, umbrellas seem to get in the way more than be helpful. It takes just a few steps to get from my front door to my van, and then I have a wet umbrella to bring in the van (and I often get wet in the process of folding it down).  But if you're primarily walking, you need an umbrella (at least until you get under the cover of the shotengai).

    Most stores here have an umbrella stand to hold your umbrella (the alternatives are plastic bags for your umbrellas or an umbrella "dryer" like at the library).  Two mistakes I've made when it comes to umbrella stands.

1. not using it. An elderly Japanese shopkeeper was horrified when she realized that I was carrying my wet umbrella through her store.
2. forgetting which umbrellas were ours.  Many umbrellas are the same design -- clear and see-through.  When we took umbrellas from our AirBNB to our first church service, we couldn't remember for sure which ones we brought.  I fixed this problem by heading to the 100 yen store the next day to buy some pipe cleaners to identify our umbrellas.

   

(Cooper is trying to keep his umbrella small so he doesn’t run into anybody)

Now, they may not be scared of rain, but they seem to be scared of the sun.  They use a different type of umbrella to block the sun.  My Japanese friends back in Kentucky are very conscious of the sun -- using sunblock even for a short amount of time, staying in the shade, and wearing long sleeves and long pants (on a scorching day at a park meet-up back home, I was the only one wearing shorts among my dozen Japanese friends although this could also be due to fashion and/or formality).  

    I chuckled when Masumi wore a sun visor but also pulled out her higasa (parasol/sun umbrella) for double protection. I guess I shouldn't be laughing, though, since Japanese people have an overall lower rate of skin cancer than Westerners. Maybe I should be more protective against the sun. Time to invest in a UV umbrella!

 

    

Day trip: Itami

  

  At church on our first Sunday, we met many "foreigners" and local Japanese.  One lady we met was Masumi.

    When she and her husband started traveling internationally ten years ago, she became interested in learning English.  She attended a language school to learn English from Japanese teachers, but she wanted to learn from native speakers. So they recommended going to an international church. That's how she ended up at Mustard Seed a couple years ago.  The services are all bilingual, and there's an English conversation group before the service starts. She said she used to be shy and reserved but that being at church has completely changed her personality! Now she is outgoing and talkative.  She continues to practice English during the week by watching YouTube videos.  That first week, I got her contact information.  Her daughter Mayu added WhatsApp to Masumi's phone so that she could communicate with me.  They live further north on the same train line as us in a city called Itami.

    I texted Masumi to ask if she'd like to meet us at the Itami station to show us around. I told her that instead of practicing English with YouTube videos, she could practice with an American family!

    We met her that Tuesday -- she was right at the transit card gate.  She took us down a shopping street and across a town plaza. We stopped at some castle ruins (only the foundation remains) and ended up at a large shopping mall called Aeon.  We walked toward a game store. There were some new items but many secondhand, cheaper ones. I, of course, gravitated toward the book section. The boys were amazed at the Pokemon card section.  You could buy single specific cards for 30 yen (about 20 cents) or a pack of 150 for 500 yen (about $3).  The boys spent a while picking out some specific cards but also each bought a variety pack.

    We then went to the Food Forest, a large food court.  We had promised the boys that we would let them eat at the next McDonalds we found, so that's what they had. I followed Masumi to her restaurant of choice.  I asked for her recommendation and thought I was getting the same thing as her, but I ended up with curry, rice, and tempura (various fried meat on skewers).  Masumi also bought a set of 8 takoyaki (a ball-shaped snack with octopus inside). Carter loved them. Calvin was a little freaked out when he could see the suction cups of the octopus.  

    Finally, we ended up at the large grocery store.  We wanted to check if there was a better cereal selection.  We bought several kinds, including a type of chocolate cheerios that is the boys' new favorite.  We also let each of the boys pick out a Coolish -- like an applesauce pouch but with ice cream.  The most common are vanilla and chocolate, but different places have different flavors, and Calvin is determined to try all of them (he's also done the apple- and coffee-flavored ones).  Masumi bought us a dorayaki to try. It looks like two small pancakes with a filling inside. The boys were excited to try it when they saw what looked like chocolate inside. But when they learned it was a sweet red bean paste, they preferred to stick with their Coolish.

    As we were walking back, we noticed signs for the Halloween festival that weekend.  So even though we went to Itami on Tuesday, we decided to come back on Saturday!

    Again, Masumi met us at the station. We were running late because Chance was having one of his tantrum mornings of not wanting to go anywhere and kicking off his shoes and running the opposite way.  At 1:00 in the plaza, there was a kendama presentation from a nearby elementary school.  I had asked Masumi about kendama earlier in the week when I looked at the schedule, and she bought a kendama for each of our boys!  We missed the actual presentation, but several of the club members were still around, and they were eager to show off their tricks. Picture one of those sticks with a cup on the top and a long string with a ball at the end that you try to land in the cup.  Only this ball had a hole in it that you could land on a spike or on either side of the gavel spots. Unlike the cup and string, there were so many things you could do with it! Calvin was able to land about 8 tricks. I did the first 3.  

    There were also music performances -- an accordian duo and a party jug band (so fun!).  We bought some snacks from the vendors, but Carter was hungry for more than a snack, so Masumi took him to get a hamburger.  There was also a "Halloween tour" happening where kids in costumes would go to different businesses for candy. But unlike in America, you had to purchase a ticket in advance (they were all sold out when I checked), and you had to stay with your tour group as you walked around. The boys were all a little bummed not to get the mounds of candy they usually get at Halloween, but we did do a candy exchange earlier in the week with friends, and I surprised them with little treats throughout the days leading up to Halloween.

    Next we went back to the mall for more Pokemon cards. I sat at the tables and chatted with Masumi.  And then as it started to get dark, Masumi walked us across a bridge to the fireworks-viewing area along the river.  And since she said she was "too old" for fireworks, she went on home. We were grateful to have a grandmotherly tour guide to show us around Itami!

    One thing I may never get used to is the density of people. This was evident at the fireworks area. So.many.people! The fireworks started earlier than we're used to at 6:30 p.m. since the sun goes down at 5 p.m.  We arrived about an hour early, but there was still a huge crowd to get across the street and across the pedestrian bridge.  We didn't bring a mat to sit on, so we just sat in the dirt because the grass was too wet.  We let the boys buy snacks with their own money.  Carter, Calvin, Colson, and Chance all chose a "ringo ame" or "sweet apple."  Kind of like a caramel apple but sugary red instead.  Cooper said it was "too sugary", which is hard to believe, coming from him.  He opted for a choco-banana.  

    When it was almost time to start, Chance had to go to the bathroom, so I took him to the long lines for the port-a-potties. What I didn't realize until it was our turn that these were port-a-squatty-potties.  In other words, a hole in the ground that you squat over.  I was glad I didn't have to go.  I've done them a few times so far in Japan, but it's always an unpleasant surprise when I open the stall door to find one.

   The fireworks show was supposed to last for 45 minutes. It was similar to ones we've seen before although a little sporadic -- sometimes a lot in a row, sometimes one every minute.  Of the thousands of people who came, everyone either walked there or took a train, so we knew the trains would be extra crowded, so we decided to leave 15 minutes early to "beat the crowd."  Ha!  Others had the same idea. I've been in long traffic lines leaving an event, but I've never been packed like sardines moving en masse inches at a time, trying desperately not to get separated from my children.  And meanwhile, Chance is still holding his sugar apple, and I'm just sure that someone got home that night wondering how that sticky red splotch on their sweatshirt got there.  But we saw the rest of the fireworks from the bridge, and all seven of us made it back home after riding a few trains.  A miracle!  While Carter says he could spend a whole day at the game store hunting for Pokemon cards, Lucas says after two times in one week, he doesn't feel the need to return to Itami.

(the view from the bridge on our way to the train)