Christmas, Mochi, and Mashiko.

First, I believe that customer service is dead in America. If you want proof, just come to Japan. I have already been surprised a number of times at how helpful people are here. So far I believe every shop I have entered I have been greeted with irashimase (basically can I help you). The associates go out of their way to help. When we first arrived Kate went to buy school supplies. Turned out she did not have enough cash and the store did not take credit card. They gave her all of the items and said come back another time and pay the rest, didn't take her name, address or anything. Another example, just recently I had a problem with one of our cars. The battery went bad and it wouldn't start. After a couple of phone calls the manager of the dealer said he would bring a new one to our home and install it even though I told him it was not an emergency. That alone is impressive, but for me it is even more amazing when you consider that the dealership is already closed for the new year holiday and he was with his family.

Now for Christmas:

Santa knew we had limited space so only a few items arrived. Liam got a unicycle, R/C helicopter, and an i-pod nano. Colleen got a little critters house set, i-pod nano. They both got a couple of other miscellaneous items. Next week they will take money they received from family to Tokyo to find a few other treasures. I got myself the coolest Tokyo tower replica in the world. It is lighted, changes colors, and has a timer on it....Awesome ....

Before heading to Tokyo (Dec31) we loaded into the Diva and headed off to Mashiko 益子.

Mashiko is about 40minutes drive from Takanezawa 高根沢. It is a town with a lot of pottery making heritage. It is also home to the largest naked pottery raccoon. On the way there I showed Kate the narrowest two way bridge I have found in Japan so far. Keep in mind the Diva is very narrow.

After arriving it didn't take long for us to find the raccoon. It is right at the entry of a large market area.

There are many pottery stores along with shops selling miscellaneous wares. We bought a pottery lamp and an antique box. While walking around we found some old wood kilns. It looks like they are still being used to make pottery for the shops.

Along with the pottery we also found a home Higeta Indigo Dye-works*

It is my understanding that they have been making and dying fabrics in this building for more than 300 years. The building still has a thatched roof.

This picture is from inside. I believe the wood lids are covering the die for the fabrics.

We also stumbled upon a Buddhist temple. I believe you can tell the Buddhist from the Shinto by two main things. The Shinto shrines have a gate, like the one pictured in the shrine in Utsunomiya. The Buddhist temples have a bell, but no gate. You can see an example of a bell below.

At the temple there was a gentleman trimming shrubs on a ladder made out of bamboo. He was using another piece of bamboo to keep the ladder from falling over. It looked a little scary, but he did not look nervous at all.

Finally Kate was invited to watch and help pound mochi at the Yochien (like pre-school) across the street from us.

To start the process a sweet rice is used as the base. The rice is cooked first. Below you can see a gentleman cooking the rice. I guess he does many things at the school including driving the bus and on occasion dressing up as Santa.

After cooking the rice is placed into a hollowed out log. The rice is then pounded with wooden hammers. During the pounding warm water is added. The mixture is pounded and mixed for about 1 hour. Below is everyone chipping in to make it, including Kate.

The final product is a very chewy and tasty rice product. Below you can see two versions of it. One has bean powder on it an the other has corn starch. Both are delicious.

That is all for this week. Next update will include our New Year Tokyo trip.

Happy Holidays.

Kotatsu is now set up...

Well we finally understand all of the warnings about the こたつkotatsu. We were able to get the blanket and chairs that go with the kotatsu so we could finally use it. The heating element along with the blanket is very warm and comfortable. Here is the picture after we set it up.

And here is a picture 10 minutes after the first.

That is the whole week. We were not able to accomplish anything else, as we just sat under the kotatsu the entire week....

Ok, actually there was more.

We were able to get a Christmas tree. We went to にとりNitori on Saturday and found that all the trees were now sold out. I was able to ask the workers if we could buy the display. First they said no, but as we were leaving they stopped us and asked if it was OK without a box. No problem for us, so we got it 30% off and we did not have to throw the box away. It was already decorated with bells, and it has fiber optic lights on it all for about $40 US. We are now ready for Christmas.

Colleen had her marathon at school. Liam had his a couple of weeks ago. They both did very well. I am not sure how far it actually is, but all the children that are feeling well run it. Kate was able to go and watch, I was not.

These two girls did not run the marathon, but hung out and talked to Kate during the race.

We visited a Shinto shrine in Utsunomiya. When we arrived there was a market out front with a wide variety of items for sale. The shrine is very beautiful. It is at the top of a pretty good sized hill. There is a dragon that acts as a water spout for the cleansing pool. I have to learn a little more in order to better explain the items contained inside the shrine.

Below are a number of pictures of the shrine, the first is the gate.

Finally...... When we went to the fish market a couple of weeks ago Yokoyama san asked if we were interested in buying anything. I explained that I was interested, but that I did not know what to do with anything after I got it home. I said I guess we could put the live octopus in the tub and keep it for a pet. (of course I was just kidding). While walking around we found some spiced squid that we liked. Immediately Yokoyama san bought one for us. When we received it, it was wrapped in news paper. I asked how to prepare it, and I was told to freeze it, and then when I wanted to eat it I should take it out of the freezer and slice off the amount I wanted. Then just let it thaw a little and eat it. This week I decided I was hungry and wanted some. When I unwrapped the newspaper I realized that it was the entire squid shrink wrapped. Below is what was left after I sliced off what I wanted. You can see the head and tentacles if you look closely, the dark spot is the eye.

As I was eating it I felt it tasted a little strange. I got through maybe 3 pieces before I decided something was wrong. I stopped and thought a little about the squid I have eaten in the past. None of it ever had goo in the middle. I am completely OK eating things I know I am supposed to eat, but I was not really sure about this stuff. The uncertainty got to me and finally I decided I should remove the goo in the middle, and that this squid had not yet been gutted.

Above is the frozen cross section and you can see the middle is still there. Later I confirmed with my Japanese friends that in fact I should have cleaned the middle part out. Also they explained that you don't eat the head. That is also good information for the future. Some things I wish I didn't have to learn the hard way..

Happy Holidays.

The Hughes family.

Children's school and the cars finally arrive.

It has been another busy week.

The children have now been in school for about 2.5 weeks. They are doing well in school. I just found out tonight that they know how to sing Jingle Bells in Japanese. They have not yet passed me with their language skill, but I don't think it will be long.

To get to school everyday the children walk, it is about 0.6 of a kilometer.

They start out at our door step with their $300 backpacks, hats, and umbrella on rainy days, plus a number of other supplies. Kie kun is our neighbor. The children meet up with him first. Then together they walk to the next location and meet up with Kaho chan. Next they walk to the corner where they meet up with Kenji kun. He is the elder of the walking group. He makes sure they are walking in a line and safe. Kaho chan stays at the back to make sure no one is left behind. The same type of system is used to get the children home as well. The younger children have alarms on their backpacks in case there is an emergency. It can be difficult to get the back pack on in the morning with their coat without setting the alarm off sometimes. We have set it off twice. It is a very load screech noise. Then to shut it off it is a mad scramble to put the pin back in. It is kind of like a grenade. The walking system seems to work pretty smoothly, the children take care of one another and arrive safely every day.

Later I will post more about what the school day is like for them.

I will need Kate and the children's support for that and they are now sleeping.

Yesterday we finally got our cars. The Odyssey arrived on a flatbed truck with the Diva being driven buy another guy following behind. It is nice to finally get them. I actually feel cool driving around in the Japanese Odyssey. It is a lot different than the American version. I really wish this version was available in the States. The dealer took care of me and put some nice rims on it so it really looks good.

The Diva is small, but looks like it will be fun to drive. It has sports suspension, a spoiler, and blue interior foot lighting that I was able to negotiate into it. It is a very practical car for Japan. It is small, easy to park, economical, but amazingly there is a lot of interior space. It is actually funny that it is taller than the Odyssey. You can kind of see it in the second photo below.

On top of all the other activities, the arrival of the Odyssey allowed us to go Kotatsu こたつ shopping. We ended up going to 4 different stores to find the perfect one, finally ending up at "Yamada denki". One of our Japanese friends, Reiko san, helped us negotiate a better price. While at "Yamada denki" we met the real life Pikachu. He is way bigger in person than I thought he would be. Fortunately we had on rubber soled shoes so we did not sustain any substantial shocks from him during the photo shoot.

The Kotatsu is a table that has a heating element under it. Since many homes do not have central heating other methods to stay warm are used. This is one of them. We still have to purchase our Kotatsu blanket and other accessories. Once I get it completely set up I will get a picture uploaded. Below was the selection at Yamada denki. The one we picked is on the bottom toward the right and dark brown.

I have now been warned by 2 Japanese friends here, and one in Ohio (Yamase san) that the Kotatsu is very dangerous. They explained that once you purchase the Kotatsu that slowly you will pile everything you need for the day around it and eventually you will not be able to separate yourself from its comfort. Once this happens you will no longer need the other rooms in your home and you will not get anything done. Kate thinks we will become Kotatsu potatoes (the US equivalent being couch potatoes). Yamase san sent a picture of what this may look like and I attached it below.

I have also been informed that Mikan and the Kotatsu are a perfect match. The Mikan is a small sweet orange. They are in season now, so Kate has already purchased some for us to eat while we sit under the kotatsu.

While shopping at Kojima denki we came across a choco banana stand. It is a banana dipped in chocolate with sprinkles on a stick. Both children wanted one, so we all tried one. Oishikatadesu (it was tasty)

Finally this week we discovered that Utsunomiya now has a Pizza Hut. Although none of us are really craving American food yet we decided to give it a try. You can not eat at the Pizza Hut as there is no seating. You can pick up or have it delivered on 3 wheeled Honda motorscooters. Justin would be very envious of these scooters. We stopped in to pick it up, and then ate it in the car because everyone was really hungry. Actually the crust is the same as in the US, and if you order a basic pizza it is also the same. The biggest difference is the options you can get. You can get ebi (shrimp), crab, squid, and tako (octopus) plus many others. The other difference is price. For our basic pizza it was not so bad, about $16 US, but if you order a specialty pizza it can go above $35 US for a large pizza (about 12"). In the end it was worth stopping in. We won't make it a regular stop, but I am sure we will go back.

There are some things I am leaving out, I will update again soon.

Now I have to get to bed as it is 11:30PM and I have to work tomorrow.