my honey's gone to help

Well, Steve is on his way to Bangkok today to help out with the Canadians in Thailand who are looking for loved ones, or on their way home, or injured - all from the tsunami last week. Despite the fact that I miss him, it's good that he will be there - he really is good at what he does, and I think that he will be comforting to those who need it. But I made him promise that, if he is traumatized by the stories he hears and the people he meets, he will need to get some counseling of his own. I hope he won't need it, but you never know.

I keep thinking how lucky we are not to be there - I complained and complained that the upcoming Prime Minister's visit to Tokyo meant that no-one could go on a proper vacation over the holidays, now I am glad of it. It probably saved a number of lives just here among our friends and colleagues.

Anyway, happy new year to everyone - I hope the next year brings peace and happiness.

let it snow...

Well, Sam woke up to a real treat today - Tokyo's first snowfall of the winter! As Steve points out, snow is the only weather that actually causes children to yell with joy - and head out the door without breakfast, brushed teeth... He's been back in to eat, but that's about it. Since there is now about half a mm on the ground, it's time for a snowball fight! It does look gorgeous out there, and feels gorgeous and warm in here.

And, Steve is waiting to find out if he is off to Bangkok for a week to help out with the Canadians stranded/devastated by the tsunami. I'm torn about it - I understand that it is important work, and that he is needed there, and that it would be a great experience for him. And that he would help hundreds of Canadians in need. But... how will I cook the ham for our New Year's Eve party all by myself? I know, silly and selfish, but that's me. We'll see what happens.

I'm going to make a cup of tea and meditate on the snowflakes. From inside.

happy happy

ahhh... The joys of a family christmas... Too much food, too many presents, lots of sleep and drink and books and friends. What could be better? Well, being with the rest of our family, of course, but that will have to happen later this year, in bits and pieces.

And before christmas, we went to Kyoto with our friend Michiko. We stayed in her daughter's 10-mat apartment (just the 3 of us, Michiko stayed in her son's smaller apartment downstairs). What, some of you may ask, is a mat? Rooms in Japan are measured in Tatami mats, which are about the size of me, I think. Maybe a little shorter and wider (0k, about twice as wide), and 10 of those make a pretty good sized apartment - for Japan.

Kyoto was nice, but much more modern than I expected. I guess I had some unrealistic vision of ancient Japan - but it is a modern, functional city - with bits of old stuff stuck in. We went to lots of temples, running from cute little ones stuck in corners of shopping streets, to typical Japanese temples and shrines, to really stunning ones unlike anything else I've seen. Those were my favourites - the 1001 Bhudda temple, with - well - 1001 life-sized bhuddas lined up on 10 levels - each unique and beautiful. And the Golden Temple - photos of it everywhere, in every book about Japan, but in reality even MORE beautiful than I imagined.

And Kyoto was different from Tokyo in that every restaurant we went to had an English menu, and they brought it to us without us even asking for it! As if we were obviously not Japanese-speakers! Perceptive people, there. We had fantastic food, the best ramen I have ever had, and fantastic, huge and cheap (by any standards) Italian course meal. The Italian restaurant had a dessert bar - all you can eat for 500 yen (about cdn$6) if you also have a meal. You only get one go at it, but it is with a proper dinner-sized plate... I was impressed, no, flabbergasted by the amount of dessert a tiny little Japanese woman can fit on one plate and then EAT! 5 of them pretty much emptied the dessert bar - which had about 12 different desserts. One woman took 5 ramekins of creme brule, and that was just the start! We considered taking photos of them with their mountains of dessert, but decided it might be considered rude...

But I want to go back there and see how much I can pile on one plate!

this is working

see, now things are moving much faster blogwise, so I will post TWICE in one week. Not that I have anything to say at all at this point.

We are all on vacation now - Sam, me, Steve, some of us for longer than others. In fact, Sam has the longest vacation, haven't quite worked out how the logistics of that will work. Perhaps if we can train Fox (the wonder-dog) to function as a nanny... Although her training hasn't progressed beyond sit, treat, walk and over (thanks, Jo!). So I don't know how she will respond to "I need a snack! Read to me! Tickle me! Let's play monopoly." Probably just as she responds to anything else: a waggy tail, foul breath, and begging for a tummy rub. Useless beast.

Tomorrow, Disney! With a pair of 8-year-old boys (no, Sam hasn't divided, he is bringing a friend), what could be more fun... And Sunday, Kyoto! Which may be marginally more culturally correct than Disney. But no less incomprehensible. The Pirates of the Caribbean sound silly speaking Japanese. Really.

I had an odd moment the other day. It was finally cool out - kind of Ottawa autumn weather, and I was wandering down the street, smelling the autumn smell, getting that kind of autumn feeling, when all of a sudden I realized that everyone around me was speaking gibberish! Two and a half years here, and I have made NO progress in my Japanese. Not that I have been making any effort, but I would have expected to absorb a bit more by now. In fact, I now know LESS than I did after my 10-week Japanese course in Ottawa - now I can only count one way. I can no longer count flat things, round things, things that hold stuff, long skinny things, animals, people... All I can count is numbers! How useless is that. Bah.

blahhhh....g

you know, I would post a lot more on this thing if the silly blog host or whatever it is caller would download FASTER!!!! I just don't have time for this... Precious minutes are wasted! Argh!

Oh well, happy hanukkah to the world, only 6 days into it, and of the thousand posts I should have posted, here are a couple:

1) Roasting a Chicken.
Why does everyone but me know that when you roast a chicken it goes UPSIDE DOWN in the pan? This seems like vital information I should have gleaned somewhere, before the age of 36. I remembered (too late, of course) my mother mentioning "shaking the hand of the turkey" to tell if it is done, so there I was, standing in front of a hot oven (yes, me) thinking "how can I shake its blasted leg if it is SITTING on it?" And having Steve confirm, on his arrival home, that I had made a tragic mistake and cooked it the wrong way. Lesson learned. Don't roast chickens.

2) A Diplomatic Christmas Party.
Yep, had the fabulous bonenkai (end of year party - amazing how that all fits into one word in Japanese) at the Canadian Embassy, got all spiffied up and wore my most ridiculous high-heels and push-up bra, and had a lovely time... Until the end... When I had to "Uh, Alyssa, I haven't seen ---- for a while, can you check the ladies room?" be the lucky discoverer of an unnamed diplomat from an unnamed country (NOT Canada!) passed out in a pool of her own vomit in the ladies room... If you have been to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, you may be aware of the lovely, fabulous, AWARD-WINNING restrooms. I may even have pointed them out to you. Let me just note that they must have won the award for looks, and not for practicality. Or at least, they weren't considering the difficulties one is faced with when one finds someone passed out, in a pool of their own vomit, locked behind the stall door that goes all the way to the floor. How to extricate such a person in such a situation? A fine question, and one I shall not answer. I will just say that all is now well, and I did not clean that bathroom. Not that I clean any bathrooms.

3) Life In General.
Is good. Christmas is coming, cookies have been baked, candy will be made sometime this week, and we will be spending Friday at Tokyo Disney - Sam finishes school on thursday. We are meeting our friend Michiko in Kyoto on Sunday for 3-4 days, and then the madness of christmas will be upon us!

I'll try to post more. Maybe once we get the new computer all figured out, things will work better.