Hanshin Tigers Baseball Game

Last Friday night, we went to our first baseball game here in Japan.  Baseball, yasu as the Japanese call it, is the National sport here.  I had heard many things about what to expect at the game, but hearing is one thing, seeing is another.  The stadium we went to holds 55,000 people and I'm pretty sure it was sold out, in fact, I think they may be sold out most nights- not that hard in a city of over 3 million people I suppose. The fans are very involved in the game.  My husband read a book about Japanese baseball and he was telling me that the fan clubs (pep band and cheering squad) have regular weekly practices and that if you miss a certain number, you can actually lose your season tickets and be kicked out.  One day at a local park, we heard the "fan practice", it was for a minor league team- but even they take it seriously.

The team we went to see, the Hanshin Tigers, is the home team for Osaka city and they play in  Koshien stadium.  It is about 45 minutes via train from our house.  I have read online that the team's fans are one of the most enthusiastic in all of Japan (they were compared to Yankees and Red Sox fans in the US).  Now, in fact, this summer, I took my oldest son to his first Red Sox game, and while there were your typical fans all dec'd out in Red Sox gear, it was no where close to what I saw in Osaka.

Almost all of the fans at this game had some type of Hanshin apparel on.  The most popular garb I saw was a Hanshin Tigers towel or scarf tied around their necks.  I'm not sure why this was- but given the humidity, plus high summer temps, and super crowded area, I don't think I could bear to have had anything tied around my neck.  Here is a guy in front of us sporting his towel:

We decided to sit in the left field bleachers to get the true crazy fan experience.  Behind us was the special section reserved for the opposing teams fans.  This day, they were playing the Yakult Swallows,  a team from Tokyo. They kept pulling out these blue and green umbrellas and twirling them over their heads, it was odd to us.  I later found out online that the umbrellas are used after their team scores a run to tell the opposing team's pitcher to head for the showers.

Here is a photo of the umbrellas going up:

This is the Swallow's cheer leader- he even brought his whistle:

How do the Tigers fans cheer for their team?  From what I could tell, this is where their band sat.  You can see the flags going up and waving whenever the Tigers were up at bat.

Here is one of their "cheer leaders", sorry for the fuzziness of the picture, I had two sweaty whiny kids moving around on my lap the entire time.

During the game whenever a Tigers player was at bat, there was LOTS of chanting and bat beating.  By bat beating, I mean these noise makers you buy in pairs- bat shaped of course.  They are hollow, so when you bang them together, they make a nice noise, you can also use it as a megaphone to chant through.  Everyone seemed to be perfectly in sync, it  was incredible- well, not Addison.

There are even kawaii things to wear at the game: (unfortunately I missed the kids with the tiger costumes and the lady in the Tigers kimono)

For the seventh inning, there is no stretch, but balloons.  In the seventh inning, right before the Tigers get to bat, everyone releases a balloon and they whiz up into the air making a whistling noise.  Incredibly not one landed on the field that we could see.

Here at the beginning of the seventh inning, you can see they are starting to blow them up:

Uncle Seth was such a sport blowing them up for all the kids: (he was even more of a sport in his non-breathable Tigers yukata he bought)

Auntie Liz is demonstrating just how big the balloons actually are:

Look at this, they are all blown up and ready to go, this was such a cool sight - I think everyone in the stadium had them:

Here they go:

Towards the end of the game, there was a lot of player changes.  The new player was driven out onto the field in this baseball shaped car, which was definitely Owen's favorite part of the game:

Buying beer at the game was pretty funny too.  The only people we saw selling the beer were girls and they had portable kegs on their backs, with a hose coming around their shoulders to pour it.

In case she lost her balance, they all had knee pads on:

I'm pretty sure glass and aluminum were not allowed in the game because on the way in, the only thing they were searching bags for was glass or cans.  If you wanted, you were allowed to bring in your own beer from outside, but they asked to pour it into their own paper cups- could you imagine having that happen in the US?

Here is a sign from one of the food vending places- yes there were hot dogs, but not ball park beef franks like you'd expect.  How about some curry rice to enjoy the game?:

It was so hot, I got the kids an ice cream- soft serve in a squeeze bag- how cool- maybe that's why the name of it was "Cooly's":

Here's a picture of the field being cleaned off, we thought it was interesting how the field was all dirt, not just the baseline:

The only thing I missed getting a picture of was the train station at the end of the game.  Unfortunately (not really) I left early with three whiny, sweaty kids, so I missed the crowds.  But, later on Seth showed me a picture and it was wall to wall people in the train station- it was a mob, worse than Fuji for sure.

Obon Holiday and Bon Odori Party

Living abroad, sometimes you could almost live a holiday-less life (the ones you find important might not be recognized and the ones they celebrate, you might not recognize).   Here, in Japan, a buddhist country, many holidays are not shared, such as Christmas, Easter, then the non-religious ones like Thanksgiving and Halloween.  Of course, I LOVE holidays and we don't let any slip by unnoticed.  For the past few years, mainly when a Japanese holiday comes along, I celebrate by being able to see my husband on his extra day off of work, and I stay off the roads to avoid the crowds.  This year, I decided to take a particular interest in the Japanese holidays, how they are celebrated and what they mean.  They, afterall, do take a liking to our holidays for the interest in a foreign culture.

This year, I bought a book to use for homeschool called Around the World through Holidays.  We love to base a lot of our lessons on holidays, and it seemed appropriate to study many world holidays since not only do we live in a foreign country, but we live with people from many other countries who have their own holidays too.  In this book, each month focuses on one country that has a major holiday occuring, there is a play about the holiday, and then suggested cross-curricular activities to go along with it.  Oddly enough, the holiday for the month of August was from Japan, the Obon Holiday.

Before now, I'd say this holiday to me was a three day extension of my husband's summer vacation without having to use actual vacation days.  Here's what it really means:

Being a mainly Buddhist and Shinto culture, the Japanese believe that their ancestor's spirits can return to  them to visit and this is during Obon Holiday.  It is usually celebrate for three days in mid-August.  Families place things by their home altars to remember their lost loved ones, they visit their graves and clean off the stones, and light lanterns to help the spirits follow them home from the cemetery.  A white lantern is used for a person who died less than a year from the last Obon holiday.    After the spirits spend three days with their families, there is a dance performance, called Bon Odori, and a drum performance- they believe the music and dancing comforts the spirits.  On that last evening, family members then have a ceremony called Toro-Nagashi, where they light lanterns again, and float them down rivers to help send the spirits back to heaven.

You know, the neighborhood club here where we live has had a Bon Odori party that we have attended for the last four years and I never knew the meaning of it.  Every year, there is a Bon Odori dance contest and they hire Taiko drum performers to come and they have lanterns all around the pool.  Everyone in the neighborhood comes in Japanese attire and we eat, drink, and the children get to play lots of fun games.  I am sorry that I did not take the time to learn earlier what it was all truly about.

Here are some pictures from our Bon Odori party:

Me and the kids (Dave was out of town for a work trip):

All the ladies in the neighborhood:

The lanterns around the pool:

Kids playing a popular Japanese game, where you are given a paper wand and you dip it into a pool to fetch rubber bouncy balls.  Each kid was given a plastic fish in their bag of balls, in real Japanese events, I have seen them getting real goldfish.

Taiko drum performance:

The Other side of living abroad

To you, it may seem as though I am living the life.  The thing is, most of the time I am, great husband, great kids, great family, nice house, travel opportunities, goldmine of daily adventures, being able to experience another culture- BUT there is another side to this story.  Most of it I have always been completely aware of, but pushed it aside because I am too busy taking care of my kids or out exploring the city I live in.

Lately, being sick has made me homesick.  I'm sure most people now know that I am pregnant.  For those of you that know me, you know that I get very very sick when I'm pregnant (hence my absence from the blog)- when I was pregnant with my first son, I once threw up SEVEN times in an hour.  Luckily, I was able to get my medicine before coming back to Japan, so I do have that saving grace.  However, being sick in a foreign country isn't fun to begin with, but couple it with the fact that I have four young kids to take care of, laundry to do, meals to cook, things to put away, and...... a husband that is ALWAYS working and it's even less fun.   Yes, I have wonderful neighbors that offer to help, but they too are in a similar situation to me, the weeklong struggle to make it on your own with your kids, while your husband is "living the Japanese dream"- where family only seems to have a place on the weekends.

Do you know about the Japanese work ethic?  Well, pretty much, they go to work early in the morning and don't come home til 10 or later at night.  There is definitely a hierarchy to follow in the Japanese society, for instance, in the workplace, there is an unspoken rule, you do not leave until your boss does- imagine that?  Luckily, the foreigners do not have to follow this one.  Most days, my husband leaves the house before 6:30 AM and does not return until after 8 PM.  A few times a week, he'll blow in the house, grab a bite to eat and sit down on our personal house phone and have conference calls until 10 or 11 at night- so while he's here, he's not.  Sometimes, he has late meetings, with people from the US and Europe, and he stays at the office for these and doesn't get home until after midnight.  There were weeks when he worked his forty hours in three days- I think you get the point- we NEVER see him during the week.   A running joke we have when we go to bed on Sunday night is, "see you Saturday".

This brings me back to homesick- of course, I am homesick for all the comforts that home brings, but what it really made me realize is that I am homesick for my husband and a normal work schedule.  I can't even remember what it was like to have him home for dinner by 5:30 EVERY NIGHT.  My kids are used to the fact that they don't get to see their dad during the week, sometimes the two that go to school during the day don't see him for the entire week.  This was part of my decision to homeschool the older one, it seemed to affect him that he never saw his dad, with more flexibility with our schedule, he can stay up later to see his dad, and do some of his schoolwork with him (if he gets home on time).

Now, before you completely feel bad for him and all his work, let me tell you another part of the Japanese work culture, the social part.  It is common for a Japanese co-worker to be very "quiet" about their opinions of your ideas in the office, but if you establish a relationship with them, like go out for a few drinks, they are more frank and willing to work with you.  This means many dinners throughout the week for him, whether it be to welcome someone to the group or say sayonara.  The company finds it important enough for him to attend these, that they even pay for some of them for him.  Yes, he gets to go to dinners and parties for work, of course at the end of the day (wives are not invited).  And, sometimes, after these parties, they are already out, so the obvious thing to do is go to a bar or do karaoke.   Something became evident to me last night when I went out.  YES, I WENT OUT.

I asked my husband to stay home so I could get out, since I hadn't had a moment to myself in over 2 weeks.  It just so happened he had a potential going away party for a co-worker of his that same night.  Many of the co-workers and husbands of the neighborhood showed up at the bar we were at and everyone kept asking me where was Dave?  I realized something, when they are out, no one ever asks them where their wife is and why she isn't out.  I met a few co-workers and I was introduced as Carlson-san's wife, which makes sense because they know him, but I realized that I've lived here for almost four years and I've never met a lot of my husband's co-workers, the people he spends most of his time with, and how excluded wives are from a major part of our husband's lives here.

Don't get me wrong, the weekends are ours, there is no yard work, we do a lot, but by the weekend, I am so exhausted, that I often find myself trying to kick him and the kids out so I have a little bit of peace and quiet.  But, he gets no sleep or rest during the week either so sometimes Saturdays are a wash because he needs downtime too.

So, next time, you think how cool my life is here, and all the trips I get to take- remember that those vacations are one of the only times in the year that I am actually spending quality time with my family as a family.  And many of my adventures end up being alone during the week, without my husband.  Be glad the next time you are sick and your husband is home to make you dinner or stop by the store to pick you up popsicles on his way home.  Enjoy it when he is there during the week to see your kids play a game or take them to the movies.  I hope I don't sound too doom and gloom, but I felt the need to express that there is a dark side to living abroad.

Hiking up Mt. Fuji

This weekend, I underwent an extreme physical challenge, one that I'd say can go down as the greatest one I've ever had, even more than a marathon: I hiked up Mt. Fuji. I know many people that have hiked up it of varying fitness levels and all came back in one piece. They even mentioned they'd seen children hiking up it. So, when one of my husband's coworkers' wives put together a group trip, I decided to join- even though I'm 8 weeks pregnant.

Before I talk about the hike and show some pictures, let me give you some background information on Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji is the most famous mountain in Japan, located outside of Tokyo. It is actually a volcano, that last erupted in 1708. It stands at 3776 m (12,290 ft). There are ten different trails you can use to hike to the top. Unfortunately for us, we hiked up the Yoshida trail (which is the most popular trail), and started at the 5th station, with about 10,000 other people. Our total ascent was 2300 m (7546 ft) to the top.

Mt. Fuji is only open for hiking in the months of July and August because of safe weather conditions. In Japan, school holidays are from mid-July to mid-August, so choosing a weekend near the end of August, we thought we were safe in avoiding most major crowds, BOY WERE WE WRONG!

We began our journey to Mt. Fuji here in Kobe, by taking a train about 30 minutes to meet our friends (there were 20 of us altogether). We boarded a bus and it took us on an 8.5 hour journey to the 5th station on the Yoshida trail. The journey was full of traffic jams and bus stops every 2 hours (for the driver's safety- Japanese law). Here is the bus that was waiting for us, cute how they had a "Team Caterpillar" sign:



When we got to the base, we spent about 45 minutes, gathering more food, purchasing walking sticks, and taking photos. Here's a picture of all of us before the start, unfortunately in the dark, some of the people in the back were not illuminated well with my flash:







The walking sticks we bought are traditional Mt. Fuji souvenirs (o-miyage as Japanese would say)- at each station or hut you passed, you could pay 200 yen and get a stamp woodburned onto your stick. Here we are at the first one, you can see the pot of hot coals where they heat up the branding iron and then you can see him stamping the stick. They actually came in quite useful for the steep climb up and slippery descent.





We were warned about altitude sickness because the climb was steep and we'd be at high altitudes quicker than normal. We were told to stop for about 30 minutes at each station to acclimate before continuing on. Thanks to the high volume of hikers, this was not necessary to do. We were stuck in a traffic jam of people. It was the worst crowd I have EVER been in in my entire life and there was no way out. Here are shots of crowds at various points:

At the top when I reached there, and this is only to the crater side:



From the top after sunrise, looking down (this is only 1 of 10 trails):



Going down:




By the time the crowd was at it's worst, we were above the cloud line, it was freezing and there was nothing to do but sit and shiver on giant rocks on the edge for hours until the crowds cleared. By 5:08 when the sunrose, I was about 100 m from the top. Not bad, here are some of my pictures of the sun rising and the beautiful fluffy clouds we were standing above.

First hint the sun was getting ready to rise:



First glimpse of the sun:



The sun rising up:



Clouds:



At this point, I wanted to get to the top, it was so close, I could almost touch it. All of the sudden, I got hit with a wave of altitude sickness and almost fainted. I had to stop and catch my breath and eat a piece of candy and 5 minutes later, I was at the top. I was so tired from hiking all night and battling the crowds, hungry, and freezing, the top was anti-climactic to say the least. The crater was cool, but if I wasn't annoyed, tired, hungry, and cold, I would have like to walk around the circumference of it. But, I knew I still had the descent and then the long busride home to follow.

Here is a view of the crater looking across, it dips down where the people are standing (it's 100m deep):


Here is our group photo at the top before we started the descent:

The descent was not as crowded as the ascent THANKFULLY! But, it was gruesome. It was the most painful part of the experience, in my opinion. The surface was loose dirt and ash, with big pieces of gravel, the whole way down. There were sharp switchbacks for the first 3/4 of the way down, then a long long road of up and downhills back to the station. The road down was soo dangerous, people were slipping all over the place because of the bad footing and steepness of the path. There was no food or water for sale the whole way down and since we had seen the sunrise, it was out and blazing hot!

Here is the surface for our descent:



I can say I am glad I did the hike, but NEVER AGAIN!!! I think that all 20 of us had the same sentiment.

Super Mario Brothers Birthday Party

Last week, we had another birthday. The theme for this party was a no brainer, my son is OBSESSED with Super Mario Brothers. Here he is in his birthday outfit that I made him:



I just bought a 5-pack of Hanes' t-shirts to use for various projects, so I grabbed one out of the pack (hard to believe my 7 yr old barely fits into the kids' L size). I had scraps of Mario Brothers fabric laying around from shorts I made for the kids last year. I cut out the characters, coins, and a number 7, and embroidered them on the shirt, along with the words "Happy Birthday"- no, I don't have an embroidery machine, it was all done with my wicked old Singer machine.

For the hat, I bought 6 plain red hats from Amazon.com, then I used white craft tape and drew red M's on them with a sharpie, and cut out circles and stuck them on. I'm amazed at how well the tape is adhering, it's been over a week and they're all still intact, and they have been worn a LOT.

Here's the table.



I bought plain yellow gift bags at a party shop and drew question marks on them with a black sharpie so they'd look like the hint blocks.



Inside the bags, I found stuffed Mario characters (at a store here in Japan- but you can also find them on ebay)- then I bought stickers, tattoos, and mushroom tins from birthday express, and the last thing each bag contained was a pack of Super Mario Brothers gummy treats that my brother found at a grocery store in Massachusetts. The plates, cups, placemats, and napkins were also from birthday express.

This was an easy party because for games, all we did was play Super Mario Brothers Wii and then went swimming, it's just too hot here to be outside if you're not in the pool.

I made some homemade ice cream, double cookie dough ice cream, found here at Annie's Eats, which everyone loved, but I have to admit, I prefer just cookie dough with a plain vanilla base. For the cake, I made vanilla swiss meringue butter cream (since I was using a lot of icing for a triple layer cake, this is less sweet than standard vanilla icing), and a white chocolate cake.

For the cake (from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum)

4 1/2 egg whites
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 TBSP + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
9 TBSP unsalted butter
6 oz. white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350'

1) Melt the chocolate, set aside
2) Mix together egg whites, 1/4 cup milk, and vanilla, set aside.
3) In bowl of mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in remaining 3/4 cup milk- beat for 90 seconds.
4) Slowly add egg mixture to flour mixture.
5) Scrape down sides of bowl, add in melted chocolate.
6) Bake 25-35 minutes in 2 round cake pans.

And here is the cake:



The back:



I got the characters off ebay, I just typed in Mario brothers, and searched for a set of NEW characters. There were a total hit, the kids love playing with them!

Travelling alone with kids, halfway around the world, enjoyable or not?

There are many people that tell me that they'd love to come to Japan, but they just couldn't bear the thought of the long flight. Are you afraid to travel alone? Or maybe, you're not afraid to travel, but you have kids and you're afraid to travel with them? I live about 8,000 miles from home. I don't have the option of not travelling (and not alone either)- but I do have the luxury of travelling with four small kids (now age 2-7), when I started it was age 4 months- 3 years. Yes, imagine boarding a plane with a baby in hand, 2 toddlers in tow, a diaper bag swaying from your arm, and three car seats- dangling one from each arm, and one strapped to your back. Makes travelling alone seem like a breeze (I wouldn't know and I'm sure I won't know for some time). People are always asking me "how do you do it?", "why do you do it?".

For some reason, this trip back, I had the idea to buy a cheap watch (of course digital and spider man - so I could give it to my 5 year old who is learning to tell time-this made the flight even more fun, as I was constantly asked "can I have my watch yet, is it mine now?")- and I used the watch to keep a timeline of the events that unfolded from door to door on our trip from Massachusetts back to Japan. Now, I won't bore you with the entire 4 page spread, but I did photograph it, so if you are bored, (or travelling)- and you are looking for something to read, it is here for your enjoyment. I will however make a list of some of the highlights of my trip:

1) Leaving the house at 2:37 AM to head for the airport, nothing like stirring up a perfect situation for happy travelling children.

2) Checking in over 15 bags, including our 4 carseats (yes, for the first time ever, I did not take a car seat on the plane, I felt sort of naked).

3) Spending 8 hours and 5 minutes (to be exact) in 4 different airports in 3 different countries.

4) Having to go through customs and immigration 5 different times.

5) Using an airplane bathroom at least 15 times, yes I forgot to record a few.

6) Taking over 20 minutes to report 1 lost bag (yes, this included photocopying ALL my itineraries, my passport, EVERYTHING).

7) The taxi driver fitting all the bags in the van, including hoisting the 69 pounders up himself, and I'm sure they weighed more than him.

8) Actually being able to watch 3 20 minute TV shows that I downloaded onto my iPod touch :)

10) Finding out that China actually has a HOTTER airport than Japan, which I didn't think was possible.

11) 8 hours and 12 minutes- the amount of time Hazel the 2 year old slept for the duration of the 31 hour and 19 minute trip. And she arrived home in good spirits!

12) Surviving on 5 hours of sleep in 48 + hours and still having patience left in my pocket.

13) ZERO- the number of complaints I got about my kids and the number of minutes that I was bored.