Watch, Read, Listen--Kids Edition

Life is a lot easier for me when my kids are finding joy in things around them, so here are some things they (and I) have been enjoying lately!

Watch:

WeetWoo is a very cool app that has a library of kid-appropriate YouTube videos. We have YouTube blocked on our iPad, due to too many disturbing things on there, so this is a better option. Plus, it's sorted into different categories--animals, educational, kids' shows, etc. Cash loves old school Chip 'N Dale and Coco likes the strange Charlie and Lola.



Cookie Doodle isn't a video, but the kids sit still, so I count it as "watching". It is probably the most used app on our iPad--the kids can choose a cookie recipe (the actual recipe is listed, but I haven't tried any yet) and then virtually stir the dough, crack the egg, etc. Then roll, cut, bake,decorate, and eat the cookie. It is a really, really fun app, and everyone who tries it absolutely loves it. Very cute!

Read:




One of my greatest joys is collecting books I read as a child--I'm a little obsessed...and missing Paperback Swap, where I've gotten a ton of them. I think all of my siblings and I have a similar list of books we loved as children--we were read to and read a lot. The Funny Little Woman is one of my all-time favorite children's books, and I'm happy to say that my kids are obsessed with it as well. I got it about a year ago, and it has been the steady favorite. Cash has it memorized!
It's about a woman in Japan whose rice dumpling rolls under the earth. She goes searching for it and gets captured by the wicked oni! The book has taken on a whole new meaning now that we live in Japan and eat rice dumplings and see oni statues.

Listen:

This is another childhood favorite that my children now love! I listened to Brite Music a lot as a child and remember a lot of the songs. The "Happiness" book is my favorite, and I found myself singing the "Whiny Child" song to my kids whenever they whine, which would make them laugh. So, I paid the money and got the whole CD/audiobook downloaded. My kids love it! They love all the songs and love to listen to the story. I wish you can buy the book to follow a long, but oh well. If you've never heard Brite Music, try and sample it. Shiny Brite is another one of my favorites that I sing to the kids a lot (especially the "Junk Food Junkie" song--they get a kick out of that!)
And randomly, Coco is obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Mean". She likes any songs that mention weapons and knives, which is in the first line. Oy. :)

What have your kids been loving lately?

Randomness I Love--Japan

I've lived in Japan for 9 months so far, this time around. And as always, I continue to get a kick out of this place. Here are some random things that make me smile:

Characters:

All of my students here have been very interested in what my favorite "character" is--everyone, young and old, loves a particular character, it seems. Hello Kitty is the most popular internationally. Anpanman is the favorite of little kids (check out this crazy link comparing Anpanman to Jesus!). A cartoon capybara is really popular this year. My favorite since childhood is the old school Little Twin Stars:



You can always tell someone's favorite character, because they will have a random charm or stuffed animal attached to their bag, if their bag is not printed all over with the character. I love how Japan is so into cuteness!

Health Care:

Everyone in Japan is covered under the government socialized health insurance. It does have its downside (the large annual tax!) but for the most part, it is awesome. Last week, Fox walked into a chiropractor's office for some shoulder pain he was having. He was seen immediately, treated, and then given a half hour massage--and walked out, paying about $8.

Maternity care is awesome, too, especially from my natural-minded standpoint. The idea here is that there really is no reason for epidurals or not breastfeeding. My favorite handout in my maternity care packet is one that says, "After 24 weeks of pregnancy, please sit topless in the sun every day for 15 minutes to prepare your breasts for breastfeeding." Um, sure!


Fortune Tellers
Okay, I don't know about contemporary fortune tellers in Japan, but it used to be really common here to go to one who would help you name your children. My favorite story of this is: My friend and her husband went to a fortune teller when they were having their first child, about forty years ago. The fortune teller spent a long time thinking and finally came up with the perfect name for their first child: Koichi (translation--Ko means child, Ichi means one/first). Awesome.

And finally:
The word "toes" in Japanese is "ashi-no-yubi", which literally translates into "foot fingers". So awesome.

Female Noodle Power!!

I have a friend named Janelle here, and she is super awesome. She moved here with her husband when we lived here 3 years ago, and they are still living here, in the capitol of Kagawa, Takamatsu. Here is why she is super awesome: she taught herself Japanese while living here! And she knows over 1500 of the standard 2000 kanji you need to know to read Japanese. And she rocks Japanese cooking like no other gaijin* out there.

Plus, she works at an udon shop, but not just any udon shop--the first "josei" or only female udon shop in Kagawa. Udon making is traditionally a man's job, as it takes strong muscles to roll and cut the stiff dough. So, this restaurant where only women make the noodles is a huge deal, and they feature it on the news. Check out Janelle--after about 1 minute, she comes on:



I had to laugh at the reporter. He is basically saying, "Eh? A foreigner?! From Canada?! This is the first time I have ever seen a white person working in a noodle shop!"

Janelle loves her job, and they sent her to noodle making school this summer, too.
Go Janelle!

*Gaijin is the slang term for "foreigner". You'll notice the reporter says "gaikokujin", which is still kind of slang-y but a bit more polite. There is another polite term for foreigner, but no one uses it. Every person from America or Canada here even refers to himself and his friends as "gaijin" and the English classifieds here are called "Gaijin Pot". I don't know what I would do without my gaijin friends!

Books Vs. Movies--Gone With the Wind

Last week, I finished reading Gone With the Wind. Last night, I finished watching the movie for the first time. It took me about 3 days. I love watching the movie version of books that I have just read--it is so interesting to me what makes it into the movie and how other people interpret the story.
The film version of GWTW was actually pretty well done, and almost every line was directly from the book. Being that the movie was made in 1939, they left out some stronger words that are used in the book. However, they also left out some extremely important facts!

Continue reading if you don't mind plot revelations...

--Scarlett has 2 children from her first 2 marriages, but they completely leave this out! In the book, she is bothered by her son and thinks her daughter is ugly. So, I can see why her bad mothering would have been left out of the movie, but I think it's revealing of her character.

--Scarlett's 2nd husband is the local leader of the KKK and ends up being killed while setting negro homes on fire. I'd say that was a pretty important detail, but once again, that topic is probably too upsetting.

--Rhett Butler never says that he loves Scarlett. He refuses to tell her anything that would give her power over him. In the movie, he is saying it left and right and even asking for forgiveness. I guess this it to make him more likeable.

--And hello--the movie completely left out that the Yankees lit Tara on fire while there were woman and children in the home!!! Why was this left out?

So, I guess you can say I liked the book much better than the movie. I loved the book, even though it was really disturbing and has made me sad all week. Just thinking about it, I want to cry.

There is a quote I copied down years ago that talks about these kinds of books:

"We need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief."
— Franz Kafka

I don't think reading these kinds of books all the time is healthy, but sometimes you read them and a purpose is served or a lesson is taught or it just makes you think. The only other book that has had this affect on me was "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" by Ann Packer, and interestingly, the main character in that book is very similar to Scarlett O'Hara. I think the draw for me is drama, but the sadness is the resulting trainwreck of the character when you were hoping to read about redemption, which never occurs.

Now I need something really fun to get over this :)

And P.S. Has anyone read and watched Water for Elephants? Thoughts?

Loving Lately

Lately, I have been blessed with several things that bring a lot of joy to my life. I think this is because there have been several things that have been very challenging in my life, and so maybe this is my reward for enduring!
We are having the unique experience of living in a town where, this time, we know only one person who is fully bilingual (our very busy friend Sister T). Recently, I have had to go to two one-on-one meetings(a city meeting and school meeting) where the other person did not speak a word of English. I am going to say this was actually a great blessing, because it is pretty much forcing me to study Japanese more. And in fact, the language/cultural barrier has never been my biggest challenge while living in Japan. It has always been the extreme temperatures combined with no insulation or central air (hello, heat rash! I've missed you so!), and always, the food issue. As someone who doesn't eat meat, loves healthy cooking, and really, really, enjoys whole grains, the greatest challenge is living in a country that is founded on white rice, white flour noodles, fried food, grilled meat, and raw fish. (For shame, you say! What about Japanese pickles and produce? Okay, I will give you that. We eat a ton more fruits and veggies here.) Plus, I am pregnant and have been having a hard time with my usual Japanese staples, which leads me to be even more obsessed with food than usual!

So--besides those little issues--here are the things that have given me great joy lately!

--This Lentil Burger Recipe makes 8 delicious lentil burgers. Yum! I am really picky about veggie burger recipes, but this one passes the test. Super easy and good. I didn't have flax meal, so I substituted with panko.

--Yarn! This was what I got for my birthday (since I spend many nights just wiped out on the couch):

 

I am working on a hexagon afghan, but it is slooow going. Still, just seeing all these bright colors (Lion Brand Cotton Ease) makes my day!

--This book:

My sister-in-law sent me this book, and I am obsessed! It is so well-written and dramatic and really pulls you in. I'm about 400 pages in, and I have to pull myself away from it. Very very good! She also sent me the sequel, so these books should last me a while!

--Water!

 

We live about 10 minutes from 2 different beaches, and the water is so clear and warm right now. We also live near a free kids' pool that is so perfect for my kiddos! So, we have really been enjoying getting out of the house and enjoying the water this summer!


--Project Runway is back! Hooray! I managed to get Fox to watch Next Food Network Star with me, so I'm going to see if I can reel him in to watch this, too. I think he'll go for it if I give him enough treats.

--Good music! My sister told me about Spotify, and it is awesome! This cover of Superbass is cleaned up and rapped by a white girl, so there! I love it!

And my kids (and Fox) are obsessed with the song Heavy Rotation by Japan's Pop Group AKB48 (there used to be 48 members, but now, it's more like 24). I love it, because whenever I play it, Cash does a full choreographed routine to the entire length of the song. His kindergarten class performed it for us on parent's day!. Watch the music video if you dare, but be warned: It's basically just Japanese girls singing in lingerie and doing other silly things, like sharing baths and kisses and yeah. Now you know why Fox likes it :)

So, those are a few of my favorite things right now, which sure give me a lot of distraction from this crazy humidity!

It's not That kind of snack...

I love learning new things about Japan everyday. Some things are strange (the weight-loss supplement called "Jesus Body"?!) and others are just plain funny (cream for your chest called Booby Master).

Here is something random I learned this week: Cash's Yochien is located behind a few buildings down an old street. At the corner where I wait to pick him up, there is a sign that says, "SNACK"--and I have often thought, "Hmmm...what kind of snacks?"
**Note: This sign is attached to a building that has no windows, almost exactly like the above picture**

A few days later, one of my students was recommending a gyoza restaurant and told me where it was--but said, "At night, it's dangerous! SNACKS!!!"

Haha...so we talked some more about "snacks". Snacks are "snack bars"--the Japanese name for host/hostess clubs, where you can go to a bar and be entertained by a hostess who will then charge you a super high price for entertaining you. There are host clubs, too, but not in the smaller cities. Some snack bars are very clean and professional--but I guess the ones in our area are quite gaudy. The hostesses stand outside in tight, bright clothes yelling to businessman and the elderly (yep) to try to lure them in.

You can read more about them and see some pictures here and here--and in that last article, I love how it says, "You can tell it's a snack bar, because it doesn't have any windows!" Very very true.

I'm just glad I didn't take Cash in for a "snack" after school :)

Ten Things I Learned From My Dad

I found this cool little 52 lists in 52 weeks project over at getthewordsout, and I thought I would play along. I obviously have a problem sticking with stuff, so I doubt I will do all of them. But I love making lists, and I am interested in art journaling. If I ever find a cool notebook here that doesn't have Hello Kitty on it, I will write my lists on that but for now, it's my good 'ol random blog.
So...this week is...

Ten Things I Learned From My Dad
**Side note--every year on my family's birthdays, I write a page in my journal of all the things I love about them. So, this list will include things about my Dad that have not already made it into my journal**

1.) Always wear natural fibers! The only exception is velour anything--in that case, stock up!

2.) The correct ratio of honey to peanut butter in a peanut butter and honey sandwich. That's tricky and precise business, right there.

3.) Homemade cookies make the best presents.

4.) How to put a baby to sleep. From the butt-pat-n-shuffle-step to various pressure points and pinches that induce sleepiness, my dad is a font of knowledge in this area. He once put baby Cash to sleep in less than 5 minutes!

5.) Do what you love, even if it's different. My Dad lives this! For example, he has been known to drive 2 hours for a ballet-stretch-fusion class in which he is the only male in class--and he loves it! He also is big at sharing his passions with others.

6.) A love of hypnosis. Hypnosis is a huge part of my life, and I grew up surrounded by hypnosis script books and relaxation tapes. I have never once thought hypnosis was weird--and I have been able to help many people view it differently and benefit from it--thanks to my Dad.

7.) BBC makes the greatest stuff! Downton Abbey, Cranford, North and South--My Dad loves drama and relationships and always shares the good shows he finds.

8.) Music is the great joy of life. And it's worth the money to pay for songs that move you. And it's worth the time to search out new music to fall in love with.

9.) How to take care of yourself. My Dad was very active in my personal hygiene until I moved away from home--nothing weird, just made sure I was cutting my toenails properly and flossing. He also exercises a lot and puts a lot of emphasis on health.

10.) Laughter is the second great joy of life. My Dad loves to laugh, and everyone loves to hear him laugh. He makes it a priority to watch shows and read books that are funny, and everyone in my family has absorbed the good humor into their lives!




Why is this the only picture in my computer of my Dad? Hmmm...it is a good representation of him, though. His grandkids are always messing with him, and he loves it!