Friday, June 5, 2009

Number 7

Greetings from Japan!

I appreciate the suggestions or questions that I have received, which help guide me in what to write about.

Christina is doing well. She has made new friends and loves playing and learning with them. She has picked up a few words of Japanese and is doing well with her school studies.

I bought Christina and Catherine, some uniform skirts that were on sale. All of the school children wear uniforms here, so they are in most of the stores. They are simple pleated skirts, but the girls really like them.

Catherine got the ‘okay no more medicine’ today at the doctor. You can see where the skin was almost eaten off in those areas, but they have healed well. I imagine in a week you won't even be able to tell that they were there. School has been lots of fun for Catherine.

Charlene is very much a toddler and on top of it all, she has developed her mother's temperament. Her appetite remains very good and she is full of energy. It is a good thing that people think she is so cute, otherwise they might not find her antics amusing.

This last week, we haven't done as much exploring. The medication I have been taking makes me pretty sleepy for a couple of hours after I take it, so I didn't want to drive more than necessary. Because we have been at home more, we are learning to find ways of entertaining ourselves. I think it has been very good for us all.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but we have no TV or radio and I have not seen an English newspaper in a couple of weeks. Dana sends my email from work, so I don't even have Internet access. Dana has read a little bit of the paper at work and shares anything he happens to think about, but I have enjoyed not being inundated with "news".

The girls and I are really enjoying folding paper cranes. I find it very relaxing. We have spent some of our evenings just folding cranes and singing songs. Christina caught on right away and Catherine has gotten quite good at it as well. Charlene has fun while playing with the paper and pretending to fold it.

We are also reading two books to the girls. Dana is reading them The Two Towers from The Hobbit series by JR Tolkin and I am reading them Man of the Family from the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. I have thought several times, that this was probably the way they did before TV's. We all enjoy our reading time very much.

As for what we have been eating, for the most part it is not real exciting. We are all willing to try new things, but the difficulty is that I do not know how to prepare much of the food I see in the store. I am wishing that before I came I could have taken the time to find a Japanese cookbook in English that also has the names of the ingredients written in kanji. Because of my lack of knowledge, I have stayed with more basic meals.

Tonight, we had spaghetti. I buy canned sauce because I would have difficulty finding the spices and then, I add meat and/or mushrooms. Italian food is pretty popular here, although, some of the things the Japanese add would probably make a Sicilian roll over in their grave! In the sauce there are generally very tiny pieces of chopped carrots!

I have made stir-frys, fried shrimp, chicken nuggets, and skewered chicken in a mystery sauce for dinner. For breakfast, the gang has opted for cereal, toast, or pancakes. A couple of days a week, Dana brings us home Binto Boxes for lunch. They are always different, some better than others. Catherine really likes the crab roll stuff that is in them.

Around the house, things aren't too different. We do our schoolwork in the morning and then "play" in the afternoon. Housework, which doesn't disappear even in Japan, usually gets squeezed in somewhere. Fortunately, there is not too much work when you have very few things. I have discovered, that laundry does not dry if you do not get it out pretty early in the morning.

At mass on Sunday, the English-speaking priest brought us up and welcomed us. He also asked us to say a few words. At that moment, I realized that I never want to be in the position of not even being able to introduce our family and thank them for their hospitality in the language of the people. Dana introduced us in English and everyone was very welcoming, but it was just one of those things I wish I/we had been better prepared for.

After mass, Father gave us some postcards of the church to send to friends. Father is from Italy, but has been in Japan 35 years. Needless to say, he is fluent in several languages. We gave him a set of sacrifice beads and he reminded us that the feast of St Therese had been just the day before. He also told us that there is a Carmelite Convent nearby and offered to take us there. The girls and I are going with him on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to that.

From church, we went home and changed, had some lunch and then went to a place called Safari Land. Those of you from Southern California might remember Lion Country Safari that used to be there, this is very much like that. Rather than walking from exhibit to exhibit you drive your car though. I guess it is also like the San Diego Wild Animal park tram ride, except you can go at whatever speed you like.

We saw many of the usual animals that you would see at a zoo, but the fun part is that they were often just outside the window of our car. Some of the deer, goats and bears were right on the road and you had to wait to go past them. You do have to keep the windows up on your car, but it made for some great pictures.

The lions and tigers are each in separate areas that you have to go through double gates controlled by people in high towers who can make sure there are no animals that could go through the gates. There are also wardens to make certain that there are not any problems with the animals. While we were in with the tigers, a couple of them decided to fight and it was interesting to see how the warden separated them with his jeep. They really can make those animals move!

After you finish the driving tour, there is a petting area. The girls and I had our picture taken holding two baby tigers. That was really cool! We also got to pet kangaroos. There was an area we went in that had small monkeys that you could feed and pet. If you were fast and if you did it right, they would even jump right on you. We had a great time! We also got to feed a full-grown tiger, but he was in a cage and we had a long stick. It was just a very fun and relaxing day. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Dana's hours have been a little different, so we are getting to enjoy his presence a little more. Most of last week, he went in at 6am came home for lunch, and got off about 6pm or so. Sunday night he had to go into work about 9pm and got home at 12:30am. He didn't go in today (Monday) until 10am and he thought it would only be for a couple of hours, but it turned out lasting until 4:30pm. He will go back in tonight at midnight and hopes to be done by 2am. He will go back in again tomorrow at 8am! It keeps us on our toes!

As I mentioned earlier, Catherine got a clean bill of health at the doctors this morning, but I still have a few new marks, so they gave me some more cream and the allergy medicine to take for a few more days. It looks like it is improving, it is just taking a little longer, but I also had many more red spots than Catherine.

We are beginning to make arrangements for our travel to Mito. We will leave here, 1 week from this coming Friday. With the time we have in between, we are going to stop in Hiroshima the first night and then go on to the Shinjuku district of Tokyo for some shopping. I am not excited to go to the Ginza section because of the crowds and the prices. I heard about a flea market for kimonos at great prices and I want to check it out.

I guess that is all for now~

Blessings and prayers,
Marion

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