Operation Old-Faithful

I've had to reevaluate my methods for starting and building relationships since moving to Japan. In the States, as with everything, we use a more direct method to starting friendships. "Hey, we have something in common, let's hang out some time." It's not always quite THAT simple, but at its root, befriending people in the States can be done relatively simply. Not so in Japan. Here it's all about taking it slow, building trust, establishing routine. It's taken me a while to get this new model through my head. It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that meeting someone once at the mall then asking them to come to English class just doesn't work. My American gut tells me if you want to make friends, just get out there. Go. Do. Win. But like I've said, that just doesn't work here. In fact, trying to make friends that way is more likely to alienate people that endear them to me.


This past summer, during a training session on cross-cultural communication, it clicked for me: consistency and routine. I could meet a lot of people by doing different activities each week, but in order to turn those relationships into friendships, I was going to need to see them on a regular basis.
Enter, Operation Old-Faithful:

Stage one:
Join a mommy-baby swim class at the gym near the mall. See the same moms and babies two to three times, every week.
--Success! Not only have we had a really fun time swimming (splashing and playing with rubber duckies, more like) but I would now consider us officially in the group (Being in the group is HUGE in Japan. Once you're in, you are in! It's when people begin to open up and trust you). Moms from the class have started coming to Oyako Eigo (Parent-Child English) at our church and wanting to spend time with us outside of swimming as well.

Stage two:
Follow up swim class with lunch and grocery shopping Aeon (the mall).  Go to the same shops. Make sure to go the the same Onigiri shop every time.
--Success! We are a fixture at Aeon now. Shop ladies poke their heads out when they hear Jill's squeaky shoes coming down the road. The Onigiri (rice ball) ladies know our order by heart and all come to the register to hand us our lunch.
Bonus: We've befriended a gaggle of Obaachans (Old Grannies) who congregate outside the food court. After we eat, and walk out to do our grocery shopping, they call and wave to "Chiyo-chan" (Jillian) and she shows off the new words she has learned or gives them all high-fives.


Stage three:
Same old park, every single day(-ish). The park across the street from our apartment isn't the most exciting park I've every been to. Just a patch of grass with swings and monkey bars. But, it's where the moms gather, so it's where we go.
--Success! We've had a few really interesting conversations with the neighborhood moms. A few have joined the swim class moms at Oyako Eigo.
Bonus: Jillian LOVES  the swings.

The part of me that wants to explore the other shopping centers and parks around town has been slowly quieted by the response we're receiving.

Only in Japan: Baby Supplies

Moving to Japan has opened my eyes to a whole new world of strange things to buy, becoming a parent has opened them even wider. I didn't know that were possible. As I've been out shopping for Jill, I've been keeping a mental list of "Huh, You'd never see that in America." I finally took my camera with me on a shopping trip, just for you! 

Here's 4 items you won't find in the States.

Barley Tea:

I got a box of this tea free with Jillian's formula. Do you see the number 1 in the upper right hand corner of the box? That stands for one month, as you can drink this tea from one month old on. I was shocked to see this since every American produced bit of information about baby care said "BREAST-MILK OR FORMULA ONLY FOR 6 MONTHS!" I believe there was an "or else" implied. Or else what, I'm not sure. 

We didn't introduce mugi cha (barley tea) at one month, but that had more to do with not being to excited about mugi cha myself. ;)

At 11 months, Jill tried mugi cha for the first time. She wasn't impressed. Guess we should have let her try it at one month like the box suggests. ;)

Furikake (Rice seasoning) for toddlers:

Furikake is a dried rice seasoning, usually some sort of fish, although the package in green below is various vegetables. I forgot to look for the age recommendation for this one, but I believe its about one year or one and a half. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine many 1-2 year olds being excited about dried fish flakes on their rice. Personally, I love furikake, but I wonder about little non-Japanese kids. Readers with children, what do you think? Anyone think your little one would eat this on rice? Let me know below. Maybe I'll have to mail some out and conduct a study. :)

Outlet covers:

Yes, I know these aren't only in Japan. I'm including them, not because the idea is special, but because the form is. I worry about something that is supposed to deter your child from playing with outlets that is brightly colored and shaped like Mickey Mouse. Somehow that just screams, "come play with me!" But maybe that's just me. 

Training Chop-sticks:

I think these are brilliant! We actually own a pair, even though Jillian's too young for them. We bought them for a visitor who wasn't comfortable using the utensil of choice in Japan. Only, Stephen didn't pay attention to the kanji in the corner that said left or right hand. He grabbed the ONLY pair of left handed training chop-sticks in the store. :) Maybe Jill will be left-handed and we won't have to buy a new pair.

What's the weirdest thing you've seen for sale for little kids and babies (in The States or Japan)?

St. Patrick's Day, Hinamatsuri, and a surprise baby shower

We have been really enjoying teaching English classes this past year. 2 of our favorite classes are our Chistose beginner and intermediate classes. Once a week, we drive an hour to a neighboring town to teach 2 classes of women. Since they are all friends, we have begun combining classes once a month for a special lesson on American culture and fellowship time.

For March, we taught a special lesson on St. Patrick's Day. We were surprised that the women also planned on sharing a special March holiday (Girls' Day) with us as well during fellowship time. We were even more surprised when our Girls' Day celebration, turned into not one, but 2 surprise parties!

St. Patrick's Day

Sharing St. Patty's Day with these 4 Japanese women, was a treat. Stephen brought pictures of things like leprechauns, pot's of gold, green beer, shamrocks, and Lucky Charms cereal. We also were able to talk about the origins of St. Patrick's Day and St. Patrick himself.

My favorite part was teaching them some common St. Patrick's day expressions like "Kiss me, I'm Irish," and "Top o' the Mornin' to ya."

Our students reading a list of St. Patty's Day phrases

Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day)

After our lesson on St. Patrick's Day, we moved onto tea time/ fellowship time. The women quickly got to work setting out hinamatsuri decorations and foods.

For those of you like us, who didn't know about Hinamatsuri, it is the girls' festival. Every year on 3/3, families celebrate their daughters. They set out hina ningyo (dolls), eat chirashizushi, and drink white sake [with or without alcohol (ours was without ;) )] Our students brought the supplies to have a small hinamatsuri celebration, complete with food, (alcohol free) sake, and a small version of the hina ningyo that families display for their daughters. We were also treated to special onigiri (rice balls) made by an English student.

ShiroZake (white sake) and a very small version of traditional Japanese hina ningyo

delicious chirashizushi. Mmmm, oishii!

Enjoying a special redbean and chetsnut onigiri, hand made by an English student

Surprise parties:

Towards the end of our Hinamatsuri fellowship time, we got to celebrate all over again. The first surprise was for our English student, S. In honor of her birthday, the other ladies brought a cake and had us lead everyone in the "Happy Birthday" song.

S is by far our most gregarious student! Could you tell?

After sharing in S's surprise, Stephen and I were treated to a surprise of our own. Our English ladies had planned a baby shower for us!

We were touched by their thoughtfulness!

and I learned that rubber duckies are universally awesome!

I'm excited we've started this new monthly combined class. I don't expect every month to be such an extravaganza, but I am looking forward to spending more time with these fun ladies as a whole group.

Adventures in Cooking: Squid

Pregnancy cravings and aversions are a funny thing. They're never what you think they'll be. For example, though I've never been much of an OJ drinker, for 6 weeks straight I craved and drank multiple glasses each day. As for aversions: I never thought, being a missionary in Japan, that Japanese food would wind up on the "get that away from me, now!" list, yet somehow it has.

This little quirk of pregnancy has made life a bit difficult for me, as you can imagine. But, I think my greatest challenge was today's Japanese cooking class.

Today's menu: rice stuffed squid-head, & sauteed squid-tentacles.

I'm sure it has a pretty sounding name, but I didn't catch it while I was staring and the whole, raw squid I was about to dismember.

The last time I was that up-close and personal with a squid was 8th grade biology.

I'll spare you the gooey details. but,

with much prayer, I was able to disassemble, clean, chop, cook, AND eat the squid.

Pictured center: squid-head stuffed with rice

Pictured left: sauteed squid tentacles

the Japanese expression "Ganbatte" (try hard/persevere) has never meant so much to me.

I think today's class may have been the end of my Japanese food aversion. Just to be safe though, I'll still be staying clear of the fish section and the grocery store for now.

Adventures in cooking: My first REAL lesson

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a sample cooking class I took with S-Sensei to stretch my language and my Japanese cooking ability. I had such a great time I decided to sign up for 6 real lessons.

My first class was yesterday. And rather than ease myself into Japanese cooking gradually like a sane person would do, I learned to make udon noodles and various side dishes from scratch! Turns out everything we made was actually pretty easy to do. The most complicated part of the class was receiving instructions in Japanese. I did manage to pick up some new language concepts and words.

for example,

when your cooking instructor wants you to cut the dough in half, she says "han-bun".

when she wants it cut in quarters she says "yon-bun".

one spoon full is "ippai,"

two spoons full in "nihai".

I was very glad I retained my new words from the last class. "Mazete" is the command to stir, "guru-guru" means to turn around and around.

The other girls in the class were fun to chat with too. One of the girls kept asking me what various phrases meant in English. It was fun to share what little I could with them, since I was usually on the other end of the "how do you say this?" table.

The meal? It turned out beautifully! After we finished cooking, the other girls in the class and I sat down to enjoy the works of our hands.

How did it taste?

Can you guess?