Big Sky Country

Mom and Cindy, this sign is for you! Look! We're finally back in Big Sky Country....all the way over here in Japan. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Setsubun

Akikosan likes to bring things "Japanese" for us to experience. I enjoy our times with her immensely. We're able to ask about anything that has puzzled us during the week. She brings us fun things to try and shares insights into the Japanese mind we've simply not gleaned from briefings at the base or books on Japan.

Yesterday, she brought us a bag of mame (peanuts) and a mask. The mask says "ECO" across the forehead, has trees for ears/hair and leaves for a mustache. The nose is a recycling triangle. This led us to believe this was some sort of "environmental festival". There always seems to be some new festival popping up.

3 Feb is Setsubun in Japan. This day marks the beginning of a new season. The way Akikosan communicated it....it's a time to chase out bad fortune and welcome good fortune for the rest of the year. NOW - we believe in a Sovereign God who dictates our steps - and at times the very BEST spiritual growth has come from incidents that others would consider bad fortune. In other words, we all played along, but we fully knew that nothing about the mask or peanuts would bring good luck or chase out bad luck....and we didn't want it to. Bad fortune, we thought, was portrayed as an environmental devil....not that far off from the battle of the Snowy Owl in OR as I grew up. LOL

Nevertheless, regardless of our view on "luck," we DO want to understand and experience Japan. One family member wears the Oni mask. We were told the mask represents "bad fortune." The mask wearer runs around the house. Obviously, this seemed like a wonderful practice to the kids.

From 2010-02-03

As they run through the house, and out the house, everyone else throws mame (soy beans, peanuts) at the child wearing the Oni mask. The mame represent bad fortune. As you throw peanuts you yell, Oni Wa Soto and Fyu Ku Wa Uchi (Bad fortune out/Good fortune in).

From 2010-02-03

Finally, all pick up peanuts and eat them. The peanuts now represent good fortune. A person picks up one mame for each year of his/her life.; we cheated.

From 2010-02-03

It was fun. It broke up the winter day with a bit of inside the house levity. The Japanese culture works HARD, but they also celebrate LOTS of festivals and days that allow for fun.

I realize there may be an outcry about this post, but it deserves a spot in our family journal. It's part of our Japanese experience. We're new here and weren't aware of the finer points of this festival.....until later when I went to Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, the Oni mask, which looked like an environmental caricature, represents Bad Fortune or a Demon. Come to think of it, chasing around yelling, "Devil Get OUT" may not be such a bad idea. I certainly have been doing such in my morning prayer times. One could certainly find spiritual truth in Scripture that we are victorious Christians, given authority to walk victoriously over the powers and schemes of the evil one. Anyway - there you have it, our latest cultural adventure.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Stacia's First Blog post

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"Mom, if you like I can write something for you." So she did.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Breakfast Sight

From 2010-02-03

No, he doesn't read yet. No, he can't work them. He's showing an interest in things that will reqire reading. This is good. This brought a smile to my face in the morning.....

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday & Wednesday

Life has been filled with the things that make up the routine of our life.

Piano lessons, school, local PWOC board meeting, baking, cooking, Regional PWOC calls, emails and such.......and Japanese lessons. This week has been the second half of a base-wide exercise and I'm glad to have it behind us and get back to a "normal" routine.

I'm staring to really concentrate on a workshop I'll be teaching at Faithlift, a conference in Korea. The conference theme is "Bloom Where You're Planted" and I'm to speak on Parenting. I thought I should call it "Bloomin Kids". ::snort:: Praying and thinking and trying to figure out what FEW things God would have me share on parenting....this topic humbles me more than any other. I'd not planned to teach on it until I was done parenting.....just in case. ::snort::

I've noted the Japanese tend to be very reserved. I love it when I can make Akikosan really laugh. I did that today. I asked if I had to pull over every time a patrol car pulled up with their lights on. Evidently not. WHY do they drive down the roads with their lights flashing? SCARES me to DEATH....I'm the only one to pull over. She said I only have to pull over if the siren is blaring too.

I have more to share - but here's a highlight. I baked our 7 grain bread yesterday. We discovered that the Bosch doesn't have enough umph at 50w to knead our dough.

From 2010-02-03

Not to fear, these four have all the umph to knead the dough. It works in Japan too. We made 3 nice size loaves and 7 hamburger buns.

From 2010-02-03

If you want the 7 Grain bread recipe - click recipe under the header.....I'm too tired to go find the link tonight. I'm just that sort of blogger.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Fantastic Weekend

My fantastic weekend began early Friday morning. Tane and I drove to Towada to visit a used Kimono/Obi shop. It turns out they weren't open. I don't regret the early morning trip at all. I enjoyed the time to unwind and visit with Tane.

Friday afternoon we met our friend Kim and Jun. Ryu stayed home to work. We are THANKFUL that you let them come visit, Ryu. What a blessing your family was to us....and oh the things Kim taught me about Japan.

From 2010-01-29-31

Kim first came to Japan in 1985 or 1986. She returned, after teaching at various Bible Colleges and working for various Mission's organizations, in 1996 with Asian Access. It was such a surprise to renew our acquaintance and GROW our friendship via Facebook...and a few months later to find out that we were moving to Japan. Misawa is "close" to Tokyo on a map - but it takes 8 hours to drive, 3 1/2 hours via train, an hour via plane.

Kim was invaluable as we prepared to move to Japan. She explained the culture to the children (and us). Ryu, Kim and Jun met us in Tokyo when we arrived. She's answered my questions, taught me phrases (Torie Wa Desuka - Where's the bathroom), always laughed at the silliness of the things we wondered about, but never in a condescending way..... it was a joy to have Kim and Jun visit this weekend.

I'll post later about all the little things she showed me in the kitchen, things that will make life here easier. She helped me unravel the mysterious kitchen aisles at Homac. She ALSO taught me that what I THOUGHT were futons were only the MATTRESS PADS...and what I thought were futon covers are actually FUTONS. We bought covers for the futons this weekend.

I also learned the inner lid of my rice steamer can be removed and cleaned....leaving me to wonder, Kim, is there an inner lid that can be removed in my electric water pump thing?

I had plans to take them to the beach, Shiriya Lighthouse, Oriase Gorge...in the end we simply stayed home, watched our children play, and caught up on 25 years of news. Mike has been in the midst of an Exercise. He had to go in to work Saturday. That gave us time to just sit...and talk...sip tea....Ryu and Kim are moving to America soon...and as silly as it is, afterall, we CAN keep up via Internet and that IS how we reconnected, it makes me sad not to have Kim in Tokyo. In fact, I cried as we left the train station this a.m. I do hate goodbyes these days.

From 2010-01-29-31

These princesses LOVED dancing and Zander was the only available partner.

From 2010-01-29-31

Dancing and Homac proved to be too much for Jun - nearly did Stacia in too.

From 2010-01-29-31

They perked right up when the chance to lick the brownie bowl presented itself. We have Jared to thank for these photos.

From 2010-01-29-31

From 2010-01-29-31

It appears in Japan, bowls are licked a bit enthusiastically by pre-school girls. ::snort:: After this the bowl went on each one's head....and THEN Jun was about to lick some mix out of Stacia's hair. By that time Kim and I arrived on the scene. Moral of this experiment? Never leave two pre-schoolers from ANY culture alone with a brownie mixing bowl. ::snort::

From 2010-01-29-31

We all had much fun this weekend. It would be hard to say if Kim and I, or Jun and Stacia had more fun. We pray this was a nice bit of refreshment in the midst of the international move frenzy.

It was also fun to see "base life" through Kim's eyes. She mentioned that the first thing she was going to do when she got back to America is have "American Pizza". Can you imagine mayo, mashed potatoes, corn, fish etc on your pizzas at Pizza Hut? I guess they don't have the same menu country to country. ::snort:: We could help out with this dream, we ate at Pizza Hut on base Saturday Night and Sunday Night Kim taught me to make Gyudon. We got the better end of that deal. LOL

I loved seeing how fluent Kim is in Japanese...I can dream. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Hasty Pudding....

We have been enjoying Hasting Pudding, Johnnycakes and Other Good Stuff by Loretta Frances Ichord.

Here's a fun tidbit....in the Southern Colonies "Beaten Biscuits" became popular. They would put the biscuit dough on a chopping block an pound it with a hammer or the flat end of an ax. It was said 300 whacks were "enough" but no less than 500 whacks would do for company. Why all the beating? Baking Powder hadn't been invented yet, this made the biscuits light and airy. Of course, I doubt this would have been such a popular dish if young slaves weren't given the job of beating the biscuits. We didn't try this recipe.

Liberty Tea, drinking by colonialists was RASPBERRY LEAF TEA, the very same tea I drink daily quarts of. ::snort:: The kids weren't impressed.

Thomas Jefferson wrote down the first ice cream recipe in America. George Washington had the first ice cream maker on record.

We did try, "Maple Wheaten Bread". I dreamed of it tasting like the maple bread from our bakery....it tasted like good old fashioned whole wheat bread. LOL We ground the wheat.

From 2010-01-29-31

They did all the measuring.

From 2010-01-29-31

They opted for 10 minutes of hand kneading over the Bosch.

From 2010-01-29-31

It's a "dough man".

From 2010-01-29-31

And now I'm motivated to figure out how to bring in a couple of more grain buckets and get back to baking 7 grain bread.

From 2010-01-29-31

We have quite a few other recipes we want to try from this book... but I thought I'd comment on it before we move on to another time period. We have enjoyed the recipes and the tidbits. If you are studying Colonial America with elementary aged students (or even older), this is a fun addition to your texts.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...