the chapanese chapters.

make a wish.

If I've mentioned it once I've mentioned it twice (or maybe 3,000 times) that Japanese peeps love their festivals. They have them for everything. EV-ER-Y-Thing. In conjunction with the beginning of the year being all about good luck, every January they have a festival centered around a little doll called Daruma.

Now this little doll is not your average baby doll soft with stuffing and blond hair, it's round, red, eyeless and made out of paper mache, kind of creepy, but cute, ok maybe just creepy.

The idea is you come to the festival at the beginning of the year and buy yourself a doll. You make a wish and fill in one of the eyeballs. Throughout the next year, when your wish comes true, you fill in the other eye ball and then return to the festival the coming year to throw your doll into the fire. If your wish didn't come true that year you jump into the fire. kidding! you just throw your one eyed monster into the fire and hope it turns out better next year. :) then you buy a new one and start all over. I'm sure there is more mumbo-jumbo with the gods and wishes and thanking them, but this is about all I understand. :) I have been the past two years and this last January got to throw my (and Tdub's because it was a school day) doll into the fire. i was kinda sad to part with the doll, to be honest. ridiculous, i know. I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if our wishes came true this last year, and here's the answer...
before:

after:

all of us about to throw our dolls into the fire from last year

verrrry strategically placing my guys on the pile. :)

now on to make a new wish for 2012, how will I ever choose?

another NY's celebration.

I am a member of an amazing culture club! It is a group (even ratio) of American and Japanese ladies that meet together once a month to exchange cultures. We take turns hosting each month so we each get a bit of culture throughout the year. It has been going for like 50ish years and it such a neat and invaluable experience for us while stationed here in Japan. We air force wives are not only able to meet Japanese women that speak English, but also to experience things we would not normally get to. I have been with the same group of Japanese ladies for the last 3 years and they have become very sweet and dear friends. They hosted the New Years function for us and brought in some very traditional entertainment with puppetry, singing (which is a little more like repetitive chanting, not good "put you to sleep music") and dancing. These puppets are not your average Kermie and Miss Piggy, they are life size, kinda scary looking (i think we have a trend with the scary, Japan) and they tell a story to music. our bento box lunch, a few questionables.

the entertainment...

get on your feet, get up and make it happen!!

i love these sweet ladies!

the whole group dressed up!

beginning of 2012.

aaaand yes, i am that behind on life!! but the good news for you is, I have been living in a hotel room for the last 6 weeks and will continue to be for the next 4 and am determined to have our blog caught up by the time I make it out of our hotel home!! :) Come with me all the way back to January as I have a few events I'd like to share... The New Year is so special in Japan and their biggest and most celebrated holiday. Everything has tradition and meaning and is done with good luck for the new year always in mind. I was invited to a NY's party by a few of my students. I think they may have actually had the get together for me, but they made me feel like I was joining in on something really authentic at least. :)

the tradition when serving sake or another special beverage in Japan is you pour over the cup to show your generosity. They poured this delicious warm sake in this little tower of saucers until all the liquid in the first saucer has run over and then I had to clap my hands and do some little swishy thing and then drink it. weird? yes, but fun!

everyone took their turn from youngest to oldest.

then we move onto the food. i did try everything, can't say that i loved everything...

and as everything in Japan, each food group has a meaning. from bottom to top... Chestnuts - gold/money for the next year. Mame (beans) - working hard and being active. Kazunoko (fish eggs, not delicious) - many children (laid low on these, good thing they were not delicious. haha!). Tazukuri (dried fish, also not delicious) - longevity, long life. Hazu/remkon (lotus root) - you look through the circle on the lotus root for fortune and luck. Kamaboko (steamed ground fish, you can imagine what i thought of it) - red and white are lucky, celebratory colors. Kuwai (small potatoes) - hope that children grow up well. this was my face after trying one of the delicacies. God bless my students for having patience with this American!

hello, 2012.

(disclaimer: I wrote this back in January, but never posted. :) hope you are still having a happy 2012!) 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...where will you spend the countdown and ring in the new year? I feel like that is a big question surrounding the holidays right behind "what do you want for Christmas?" We had spent the last two years in downtown Tokyo ringing in the new year in swanky techno clubs and nice hotels and feeling...well...a little too old to that this year. :)

We decided to stay closer to home and go to our Officers Club (equivalent to a country club-ish minus the golf course or swimming pool) here on base with some other friends. This new years I came to a new revelation - you can bring the par-taay with you anywhere you go (it's called an iphone.) Without the help of our posse the O-club would have been a very lame sauce place to spend NYE. I like to think of it as we single handedly saved New Years...sounds a little prideful? well it was truly a New Years miracle. There were a few mishaps for the O-club's music/DJ this year. About an hour into us being there the little Japanese band was done playing and we quickly realized there was no DJ (the ones they had lined up were TDY or deployed, the price you pay living on a military base) and we were listening to a mixed tape...ok maybe it was a mixed CD but it was pretty bad. I like to call myself the "first responder." I was first on the scene to notice this predicament and start CPR. I knew that we had tons of people with iphones w/ music on them and ipods on the scene so I began looking for a cable or a wire or something that I could recognize. If you know me, you know that I have no skill whatsoever with electronic gadgets, the cords, buttons or outlets that are included on them. (This has been passed down to me from my mother.) I'm doing good to be able to check my email, and facebook. But nevertheless, NYE was on the line and I needed to find an outlet for our tunes to be played thru. So, I found a cord that looked kinda right and then started calling boys that seemed a little nerdier (kidding!) than me to help. I like to refer to them as "EMT." They came, rallied, took over and played the tunes that rang us and danced us into a New Year that was one for the books. We had a great time with our Yokota Family. When life gives you a mixed CD make an ipod work. It's all about perspective, you can be miserable and lame anywhere or you can make it fun and un-lame. (I made that up, be impressed.) Save your 2012 and choose to make it un-lame! Happy New Year! May God bless and keep you in 2012! some of my Yokota sisters!!