Posted by Jess
26 September 2010

A boring weekend at home here for the Woehrles.  Yesterday we didn't head out much at all, except Jason took Ella on a quick bike ride in the morning and found out it was rainy and windy.  After that, they went to the lounge area of our apartment building to watch Toy Story on the big screen.   And that was about it for Saturday.  Today was church and then a trip to the farmer's market and grocery store and watched a random parade go past our apartment building (but we have no idea what it was for).  Like I said, not a lot of excitement!  But after traveling the past few weeks it was really nice to just hang close to home.  So since nothing new is going on, I thought I would post a little information about Japan.  I found a few good sites with info on them.  First, from facts-about-japan.com


Japan is located in the North Pacific off the coast of Russia and the Korean peninsula. The area of Japan is 377,873km², which makes it slightly smaller in land mass than California. 

Japan is over 70% mountainous terrain with approximately 18% of the land mass suitable for settlement. Japanese cities are typically sprawling and densely populated. The islands of Japan are located in an area known as The Ring of Fire in the Pacific. This is an area with many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Japan is very seismically active with over 1,500 earthquakes per year - Most of which you can't even feel.  I haven't felt one yet, but I do have to keep a hard hat under my desk just in case and we know where to meet Ella and her school class in our designated evacuation zone if there's a big earthquake - but no worries, Mom!

Japanese is the official language of Japan. Many Japanese also have some ability in writing and speaking English as it is a mandatory part of the curriculum in the Japanese educational system. Japanese uses four different writing systems; Kanji (Chinese characters), Hiragana (phonetic alphabet for native words), Katakana (phonetic alphabet for foreign words), and Romaji (western alphabet used to write Japanese).   I want to learn Katakana, as that gets you by in a lot of restaurants and cafes (things like Latte and Pizza are foreign words, so they are written with the katakana alphabet.  Romaji is barely written here, it's just the phonetic spelling for us westerners and the only place its really used is on subway and street signs, which don't get me wrong, is super helpful)

There are over 127,078,679 (July 2009 est.) people living in Japan. For most of Japan's history its borders were closed to foreigners. As a result, Japan's society is very homogeneous, composed of 98.5% ethnic Japanese. The remaining 1.5 percent are mostly Korean, who number around 1 million. There are also considerable numbers of Brazilians, Chinese, and Filipinos residing in Japan. There is also an ethnic minority of indigenous people, called Ainu, who live mostly in northern Hokkaido.

Tokyo, a megalopolis and capital of Japan, is located on Honshu island. Central Tokyo has a population of 12 million people, with the population of the Greater Tokyo Area estimated at over 35 million people.  So even though the country of Japan is the same size as the state of CA, the entire state of CA has a population of about the same as the Greater Tokyo Area. 

In 2009 Tokyo was named the world's most expensive city for expatriate employees, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys.  Foreigners are known as gaijin (pronounced guy-gin).   I saw an article that said there are about 320,000 expats in Japan, but I cannot find the article again now to know how old that number was - it said that the American population of that was about 20,000.  We've noticed that there are a lot of Brits and Australians here as well!

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
25 September 2010

Tonight - in real time - we give our reactions to two new flavors of ice cream!


#1 - Cookies and Green Tea - could it really taste like seaweed and oreos? At first, Jason says this didn't taste too different, but now that's been able to get a little more cookie in it, he thinks its pretty good.  Since I was not a fan of the plain green tea (but do like oreos!) I decided not to give this one a try tonight.


#2 - English Milk Tea - Took a sniff.  To me, for some reason, it smells like the stuff they use to make a dental impression.  Jason says that's not a good sign, but also doesn't think it smells like that.  Ok, going in for the first taste...and...ok that is nasty.  And the aftertaste just keeps getting worse.  It's really like english tea.  Seriously, couldn't they add the sugar to it?  Jason says "it tastes like tea and milk, which is kinda the point".  He's so practical.  He thinks it tastes ok, but also is a fan of tea, which I really am not.  I think I'm going to grab the plain chocolate ice cream that's hanging out in the freezer and just go for that tonight!

I have also started the countdown to when my sister arrives for a visit - 12 days and counting!  It will also be a busy blog time as we get out and cram in as much Japan as we can in 10 days.  We are so excited!

Kanpai!

Jess

Posted by Jess
23 September 2010

Today was a national holiday in Japan for the Autumnal Equinox.  First day of Fall is considered a holiday.  I'm OK with that!  Ella still had school today so we took the opportunity to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum.  This museum is about the history of Tokyo from the Edo period of Japan, which is what Tokyo was called until about 1870 or so up to Tokyo during WWII. 

The Edo period was the time of the samurai and the museum talked a lot about what life was like for samurais.  It did not seem so exciting for them, that's for sure!  The museum said that they got paid too little to feed their families and that they didn't have very much to do.  Doesn't sound like a great life to me!  The museum also had exhibits about general life in Edo at the time (1600-1900), like housing, money and culture.  Most displays had Japanese and English markers and we got the audioguides too.  


Jason inside a palanquin, the thing they carried important people in when traveling or in processions.  This one was for "daily" use by a lord and was not as decorative as many of them usually are.  It was roomier than it looked, but probably wouldn't be fun to sit in for a few hours!


One of my favorite pieces of information from the exhibits was that the Edo people thought that earthquakes were caused by a giant subterranean catfish.  Such a better theory than tectonic plates.





A typical Japanese house.  This picture makes it look spacious - it's not!  It was a one room house that was about 10sq meters big (100 sq feet).  This is meant to depict a house just after childbirth - the new baby is being bathed and the mom is sitting in the corner, the mom traditionally sat upright for 7 days and nights after having children.  The houses were all very close together as well, with paper type material for walls and wood posts.  This meant that when fires happened, it spread very quickly.  All wards of Edo had their own fire departments and arsonists were severely punished - burned alive if caught.  It said that Edo had a major fire at least once a year.  



A replica of a famous play done in Kabuki theater.  At first, geishas (or courtesans) were used for the female parts, then that was outlayed and boys were cast for female parts.  Then that was outlawed and young men were cast for the female parts and that was how it pretty much stayed, which is why we think of kabuki as only having men in the cast.  There was also a display showing how the backstage area of kabuki theaters worked.  Kabuki was very big on trickery with the staging to make the appearance of ghosts and mystical creatures. 




Abby got a little antsy so we went up to the 7th floor of the museum for lunch.  This was the view from there.


We both had set meals for lunch - Jason had the Ooedo Lunch Box which had pickles, miso soup, rice, sashimi, and cooked vegetables. 


Abby shared with both of us (I had some deep fried chicken and rice) and liked Jason's sashimi, which was salmon. 


Unfortunately Abby got too bored for us to go down and look more at the Tokyo side of the exhibit - this was the piece all about Tokyo up to and during WWII which would have been very interesting, but I'm sure we'll see more about that part of history in other places too. 

Jason kept Abby occupied on the way back on the train with his iPhone.  She was watching Backyardigans.


The rest of the day has been rainy.  So we picked up Ella from school, let her splash in the puddles on the way home, and are just hanging out at home tonight.  A great holiday!  And even better, back to work tomorrow and its Friday.

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
22 September 2010

Tonight's flavor: Cookies and Sesame Cream!

Jason enjoyed this treat tonight while I went for plain vanilla ice cream.  I did try a bite of the new flavor though.  The sesame seed flavor is pretty overpowering at first, but then after a bit you can taste the cookies, which must be of the peanut butter variety.  It's pretty strongly flavored (or at least seemed so after my plain vanilla).  Jason says "it's pretty nutty, I'd get it again".  I think he should start working as a food critic!

Tomorrow is a public holiday for the first day of fall.  Ella does have school so I think Jason, Abby and I are going to head out to a museum if we can.  It's hard to go to those with a four year old!  It's supposed to be a rainy first day of fall too so a museum should be a good choice.

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
20 September 2010

Today is a National Holiday in Japan - it is Respect for the Aged Day.  Public Holidays in Japan are called "Red Days" because the date is usually printed in red on local calendars for holidays.  Respect for the Aged Day is just what it says - a much more respectful Grandparents Day, but you don't have to be a grandparent to be respected.  Some places have celebrations that people can go and see, although it sounds like some of them are limited to people who qualify as aged (which seems to be age 60).  I read somewhere that with Japan's aging population the age to be considered an aged person is moving up to 65.  Our apartment staff didn't know of any places where we could see any festivities.  Most of what I've read about observing Respect for the Aged Day is just spending time with elders, bringing them food, taking them to their favorite places and in general just saying "I Love You".  So to all the over 60 people reading this, we love you!  Thanks for all you teach us about life every day.

Since there wasn't much going on in the public holiday department, we headed to a big sports area near here to let the kids play and for me to check it out.  Jason and the girls went there on Saturday too, but I was en route to Japan so I was curious.  The area we were in is called the Meiji Jingu Outer Gardens.  This is an area surrounding the Meiji Shrine and includes a lot of the national sports arenas, baseball fields, small driving range, running paths and in general a lot of nice places to be outdoors.  The weather has cooled down (it was only about 80 today and there was a breeze) so it was a great day for a longer walk and fun on the playground.  This park costs 200 Yen for adults, 50 Yen for youth and free for kids under 2.  Why pay for a playground?  Well hopefully the pictures tell you why.  This place was hopping and it was great!  Big jungle gyms, longest slide I've ever seen, trampoline and zip line.  Yep, zip line.  Here are some pictures and videos of the girls having fun.

Kanpai!
Jess

on our way into the park

The building in the back is the Meiji Emperor Picture Gallery (a cloudy day today!)

Entrance to the Kids Park

The Jungle Gym

sharing ice cream on the way home

15 September 2010
Posted by Jay

So in the spirit of sharing our immersion into Japanese culture I thought I would share the amazing Japanese dinner I prepared for Ella, Abby and myself.  I also attached some pictures of the cans/jars in case you want to look for the items at your local Japanese market.

So I made what they call "Sloppy Joes" and french fries.  So being from the States, I had never heard of this obscure meal and was excited to try it out.  Ella was feeling especially adventurous and Abby is always up for something new.

So I found all the ingredients at the local grocery store:
450g ground beef
1 can "Manwich"
6 buns
1 bag frozen french fries
Pickles

So first you fry up the beef and once browned add the can of "Manwich". While doing this preheat your oven to 230C (450F for us Americans) and put the fries in for 15 minutes. To serve out the finished "Sloppy Joe" on a bun with the pickles and serve with french fries and this condiment called "ketchup".  This "ketchup" I am assuming comes from tomatoes, as there are pictures of them on the side.

I also had a traditional Japanese drink called Guiness.  I think it is similar to what we would call beer.

Please enjoy the pictures below and try it out for yourselves!

"Manwich"  I had to ask the front desk to translate

Finished meal, I can see how they are so thin!

Thumbs up from E

"Guiness"

Kanpai!

Jay

Posted by Jess
13 September 2010

Headed back to Minneapolis today for the week for work.  Very excited to go some place "familiar" and just let the senses rest a little bit!  Thought I'd do a quick post about the Narita Express - which is the best way to get to and from the airport.

Narita Airport is 80km outside of Tokyo (about 50 miles).  The most efficient way to get there is to take the Narita Express Bullet Train (the N'EX).  The train stops at about a dozen or so stations (depends on which express service you take) in Tokyo and then speeds off - dropping you off under Terminal 2 and then Terminal 1 at the airport.

You can buy tickets for the train either at the window or you can use the ticket machines (which have a button that says "English").  The ticket costs about 3000 Yen (about $35 today) for a reserved seat in 2nd class.  I've only traveled alone so far but I understand that if you have kids under 6 and they sit on your lap then you don't need to buy tickets for them.  The ride is about an hour to an hour and a half depending on where you get on.  I get on at Shibuya station, which is 2 stops away from our place on the Ginza line.  Shibuya is a large station (as all the Narita Express stations are) and its a bit of a hike from getting off the subway and getting to the rail lines.  Today I'm schlepping two large suitcases (bringing some things home and picking up some 'essentials' in the US) so I'm going to take a taxi to Shibuya which will drop me a little closer to the right platform. 

You can get car service to the airport as well.  When I came home from Switzerland last week my flight came in early in the morning, before the N'EX was running, I took a car.  It is not cheap - it's about 20,000 Yen (about $250) and at those hours (especially on a Sunday like me!) can be faster - it only took about 45 minutes to get home.  But during rush hours, it can be 2 or more hours in the car. 

So I'm off today - 4pm flight to Mpls, N'EX at 12:46 at Shibuya, and 12:15 or so taxi to Shibuya.  Excited to see friends, go shopping and enjoy some cooler weather - but hopefully not too cool!  I will miss the kids and Jay as always though and will be anxious to get back home.

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
12 September 2010

Tonight's flavors:


#1 Maple Cookie: Nothing too new here - just like maple nut in the states, but - nut, + cookie bits.  pretty standard fare.


#2 Milk Classic: Vanilla ice cream with no sweetness.  Something about the smell or the makes me think of sour milk and that's not pleasant.  I guess it's what it would be like to eat fresh cream?  I'm not sure.  I put chocolate sauce on it and that made it better but I wouldn't buy it again.

Other than that, we went on a wild goose chase today to Shinjuku.  We didn't find what we were looking for, but took a few pictures.  This is the Times Square area of Tokyo.  I'm sure it would be a lot more fun to take pictures at night here, but we were there mid-afternoon.  The place was so busy.  Shinjuku station has 2 million + people every day going through it. 

Here are a few pictures:


Pictures don't really do it justice.  Come and visit so we can show you!  Some time I'll take pics at night and of some of the other sights around Shinjuku. 

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
12 September 2010

Yesterday we met a coworker, his wife and his kids (boys ages 3 and 1) at Yoyogi Park, which is a large park area about 2 km from our house.  They have a large area in the back for kids to rent bikes and then ride around a loop area that's just for kids.  Max (the older boy) and Ella had a blast chasing each other on their bikes through the park and then in the loop area.  Ella rode her bike all the way up to the park while our friends drove there so I think Max had a slight energy advantage but Ella kept up pretty well!   Abby just liked running around the loop and chasing the bikes.

The park was pretty quiet, but it was early on a Saturday morning.  It's my first time to the park (Jason has run up there a few times) and says that at different times there's a lot of activities.  We'll hopefully go back often now that it's slightly (ever so slightly) cooler.

Here is some information about Yoyogi Park (thanks to Wikipedia)

Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo,  located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya.  During the post World War II occupation, it was the site of the Washington Heights residence for U.S. officers. It was later the site for the main Olympic athletes village of the 1964 Summer Olympics and the swimming, diving, and basketball venues. The distinctive Yoyogi National Gymnasium which hosted swimming, diving, and basketball was designed by Kenzo Tange for the Olympics, and is still in use, but most of the area north of the gymnasium complex and south of Meiji Shrine was turned into a city park in 1967.
Today, the park is a popular hangout, especially on Sundays, when it is used as a gathering place for people to play music, practice martial arts, etc. The park has a bike path, a public basketball court, and bicycle rentals are available. As a consequence of Japan's long recession, there are several large, but quiet and orderly, homeless camps around the park's periphery.

And a map, thanks to the Japan Recreation Board Website




We need to get back to check out the shrine a little more and for good people watching. 

Here are some pictures from the morning:

Harajuku Station Entrance

Entrance into Yoyogi Park

Ella Riding Her Bike in the Children's Bike Area

Future Track Star Abby Running Around the Bike Track

After this we were all really tired from the outdoor fun and the legwork!  Luckily our friends gave us a ride back to our house.  After lunch (a very japanese lunch - grilled cheese and fruit), we took some naps and got ready for the afternoon.

A few weeks ago, Jason posted about the National Children's Castle (you can revisit that post here: August Post: National Children's Castle ).   The castle is not too expensive - 500 Yen for adults, 300 Yen for E, A is free.  The rooftop pools, which are gone now since summer is officially over here, are just one floor of this 7 floor funhouse.  We decided to explore the Play Hall floor.  This floor has a few sections - the first being an area for school-age children to play things like darts and ping-pong, the second being a smaller children's play mat area with places for pretend play, puppets, etc., and the third is the jungle gym area named Waku Waku Land.  Waku Waku means exciting or to be thrilled in Japanese.  Waku Waku Land is a large climbing area with slides and rope bridges for kids age 3 and up.  Ella played hard in Waku Waku Land for over an hour and as she'll tell you - she got really sweaty!  Abby played for a while but was bored after a while so we went off to explore the other floors (since it was my first time there).  One observation I had was that the gaijin kids (foreigners/non-japanese) were rude while the japanese kids seemed to have their parents close by.  One girl asked why Abby didn't talk and when I said she's just a baby and can't talk yet, the little girl said "I don't want her playing here by us".  The second was when Abby and I were playing with a ring-toss game and a little kid just grabbed the rings out of my hands.  Ahh, it felt like we were back in the US.  Kids behaving badly with no parents around.  Nice.

Abby and I found a floor that had a whole big area of battery operated trains and hundreds of pieces of track.  So we sat down and played with a train for a little while.  We also found a crafts area, a music room, and on the rooftop now are tricycles and a basketball/sports area.

Ella the engineer by the train area

Abby's Play Areas, but all she wanted to do was go in Waku Waku Land!

A quick stop at the farmer's market and store on the way home - I wanted sweet corn so Jay picked some up at the market - it was $5 for 2 ears of corn.  And when we got home, one of them was bad and we had to throw it out.  Corn seems to be really expensive here - my theory is it's because of how much land it takes to grow corn and land is hard to get here, but I don't know.  Anyway, I think that's the last time I'll get Jay to buy me corn at the farmer's market.  Boo.

The girls were exhausted last night after such a busy day!  After they went to bed, Jason and I spent an exciting Saturday evening playing Yahtzee and Cribbage :)

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
11 September 2010

The Japanese like to add, um... "different" flavors to their desserts.  We've decided to start trying out the different kinds of ice cream we can find.  Here are the two from dinner tonight:




#1 Green Tea Flavored Ice Cream
My reaction: "This tastes like seaweed"
Jason's reaction: "This is really tea-y, but not bad"

It was a really unnatural color of green though.  It reminded me of Kryptonite.  I clearly, was not a fan.



#2 Salty Butter Biscuit
My reaction: "This tastes kind of like a ritz cracker or something"
Jason's reaction: "It's like the sugar cone is in the ice cream"

Fairly benign ice cream, more my style - just vanilla with a few little pieces of cookie-type stuff in it and some salt.  We expected it to be saltier though - there seems to be a lot of salt in everything here.   One of my friends told me its because it is manly here to like salt.  It is not manly to like sweets.  So guys get salty desserts while girls are allowed to order ice cream sundaes.  He also said he sometimes asks his wife to order an ice cream sundae for him :) 

We'll do more posts as we try some new kinds.  We have a few more in the freezer to check out.

In other news, Jason is thinking of becoming a hand model.  What do you think?  We think he's channeling J.P. Prewitt in these photos.

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jay
08-September 2010

So in the month that we have been here it hasn't rained one day, that is until today.  Basically we are getting collateral damage from a typhoon nearby and they have even put out flood warnings.  Now, back in Minnesota we were pretty used to storms with lots of rain.  The thing is we had cars in Minnesota, where here we rely on public transportation and our lower appendages. 

So bringing Ella to school this morning was not too bad.  It was only a heavy sprinkle and the umbrella worked just fine, I barely got wet. Going to pick her up was a whole new ballgame.  It was a downpour. Luckily we had bought new rain jackets for everyone and a rain cover for the stroller.  My rain jacket worked great!...For my top half, shorts and shoes soaked.  I brought Ella's rain boots and jacket so we decided to walk home in the rain.  It is normally about a 15 minute walk, but with the rain. and jumping in the puddles, it took almost 30 minutes.  We had an absolute blast!  Ella jumped into every stream, and they were small streams on the road, and splashed only a few people. 

It was a lot of fun, luckily we didn't have to be anywhere except home. A nice warm bath was the perfect ending to a romp in the rain!

Kanpai!

Jay

Posted by Jess
6 September 2010

One month ago we moved to Tokyo.  One month already.  Wow!  It went by quickly.  And in a good way, it feels like we've been here longer.  I wanted to write down a few things that we've noticed about Tokyo during our first month - some things that surprised us and things that maybe we could do without. 

Things We've Noticed
1.  Japanese women brush their teeth a lot.  Like line up at the sinks all afternoon in the bathrooms at work and brush.  I wonder if the guys do this too?  But I don't go in the mens' bathroom, so I don't know.
2.  It is quiet.  37 Million people should be louder than this.  People do not talk on their mobile phones while walking down the street or while riding the subway.  This is the land of unlimited text messaging plans for sure!
3.  It's clean.  People don't litter, there's very little graffiti, people are out sweeping the sidewalk and cleaning the street sign posts every day.
4.  There are bikes everywhere.  Every one rides a bike - but there are no bike lanes really.  They ride on the sidewalk.  And no one wears helmets.
5.  The Japanese LOVE Abigail.  Every time we go out there's someone smiling at her, waving, or talking to her.  Every.Single.Time.
6. Customer Service is above and beyond for sure.  I was reminded of that during my visit to Switzerland last week where the taxi drivers were NOT nice.  And its nice that tax is included in the cost already and you don't tip.  So you go out to dinner, see the price on the menu and that's it - that's what you pay.  I'm sure tax and "tip" are included in the price, but I don't see it and I'm OK with that.
7.  More places take credit cards than we thought, but the stores only post to the credit card companies about once a month (or maybe every 2 weeks for big chains).   
8.  The cable TV system is awesome.  For shows that are English shows, just hit a button and the Japanese voice-over goes away and it's all the original voices and language.  Commercials are still in Japanese, but they are actually more fun to watch when you can't understand what they are saying.
9.  In the womens public restrooms like the baseball stadium, airport, etc, there are limited stalls with western toilets.  The other stalls just have ceramic drains in the floor.  I guess you just squat over them and go.  I am not sure how I would keep from splashing myself and there is not a chance that Ella would use one.  Which means that we wait a while for the right stall to open up for us to use.  As an indication of the ratio - at the baseball stadium, I would say there were 20 stalls - one had a toilet.
10.  Beer and liquor are expensive.  This is not good or bad, just noticeable.  Even when compared to other import items, these seem to have a higher mark-up.  Must be a tax thing, we think, but haven't looked it up.  Drinks in the bar don't seem too unreasonable though, but it depends on the location of the bar of course.

Things I Could Do Without
1.  Meeting a few hundred thousand of my closest friends on the subway every day
2.  The Bugs - mosquitoes, cicadas, giant beetles, spiders, cockroaches - just because I don't see you all the time doesn't mean I forget you are there!  there's a building by work that has this high-pitched squeal as you walk in the door to keep the cockroaches away.  yuck.
3.  I know we've said it all month - it's hot.  Too hot.  Tropical without the pool and the fruity drinks hot.  Which is not fun to work or play in, but it's going to get nice very soon! 
4.  Local telephone calls cost money.  Like 50 cents a minute.  Seriously, local calls.  And numbers that I dialed incorrectly (because I'm still learning how to dial a phone here) were $1.  $1 to get the operator to tell me its a wrong number. 
5.   This town is not very handicap accessible - which means its not stroller accessible.  Not very many stations have escalators, let alone elevators, which makes it tough with a stroller, kids, suitcases.  (On the upside of that, my calves get a good workout!).  We did, however, buy a new stroller before we came here (a Maclaren umbrella-type stroller) and it seems that was a good choice - it's what everyone has with kids the same age - it folds up pretty easily, the handles are longer so you're not hunched over to push it and carries well (but you still have to take Abby in and out at every station!).

So those are our first impressions - random thoughts from our first month in Tokyo.  We're looking forward to leaving the city a bit in the next few weeks and exploring more outside of town and of course to it cooling down so we can go start checking out the parks and shrines a little more too.

Kanpai!
Jess