The Town Matsuri...

It was our local festival last weekend so Ebi-kun and I biked down to have a look around. The ONLY reason he wanted to go was to buy a toffee apple, he was gutted when there wasn't a toffee apple in sight! I don't know why they didn't have any, I am thinking it is the ridiculous cost of apples (make that all fruit and veg) this year!

He did have a go at 'scoop the goldfish with a paper spoon' game, he didn't catch one but they give everyone one anyway. 

Poor Dave the goldfish died 2 days later, not surprising really.

We watched some taiko drumming, and a toddler gatecrashing the even which was quite amusing then when the sun started setting we headed to the park near the school because there is a much better view of the fireworks from there. I was under the impression that they would be over by 8pm but in fact they didn't start until 8pm! So, we sat in the park and Ebi-kun told me traditional Japanese stories, I was surprised how many he knew!

My husband got home and realised we weren't back, so he came and joined us at the park for the fireworks too, nice end to the evening!

Star Crossed Lovers...

Yesterday was Tanabata, I have talked about the story of Tanabata here. The tradition here is to write your dreams and wishes on strips of paper and then tie them to a bamboo branch. This is my more modern, alternative version.

OK, you have got me, I didn't happen to have a bamboo branch lying around, what we do have is a birds on a branch decoration hanging above the dining table. I cut out some circles and we all wrote our wishes on them. The I sewed them together and tied them to the branch.

One of Ebi-kuns is to keep his old bike, he is getting a new one for his birthday at the end of the month but he doesn't want to give up his first bike. I'm not sure what is going to happen there... watch this space!

Halloween 2012...

Halloween is by far the favourite festival of the year in this house, Ebi-kun has been excited for months and changed his outfit idea about 76 times! He finally decided we should be a zombie family, I was secretly relieved because it is possibly the easiest costume to pull off!

I must say, we were looking particularly gorgeous when we set off...

My husband was worried that we might cause a car accident but the weather was horrible so I doubt anyone could see in anyway. Of course Ebi-kun decided he needed the toilet so we had to stop at a 7/11, highly amusing!

I rustled up some small intestines with freshly picked eyeballs and severed fingers, we always do our parties as pot luck and it amuses me to no end to hear the kids asking for a couple of fingers, eyeballs or brains!

The punch bowl was a big hit, I added some extra eyeballs and worms in there too - yes, I am revolting!

We were lucky, when it came time for Trick or Treat the rain had eased up, when the kids had collected their treats we went back and played games. Jack had decorated their garage into a haunted house so there was storytelling in the dark, which was fun.

I had made the scratch cards which the kids really got into and they all went away with scars and vampire bites. Poor K-kun won 'The Zombie Kiss', he didn't look very impressed lol.

There were some crafts and lots of candy eating. The rain stopped again so the boys went out to play football, all in all it was another great party. Ebi-kun is already planning what to wear next year....

I have put together my favourite Fun & Fast Ghoulish Halloween Treats into an ebook so you can whip them up at anytime (why just serve ghoulish food at Halloween?)

17 absolutely disgustingly delicious treat ideas... 

All fast and fun to make

All pretty healthy, made from kitchen basics

Most of them suitable to make with the kids too

PLUS a bonus labels pack too!

Sun, Rain, Dashi and Big Spiders in the loo...

The just about sums up our weekend camping trip! Today is catch up day so a post of few words. Sunday we headed into Chichibu town and discovered there was a festival on, we found the dashi at the shrine being prepared. Here they are slowly removing the 'raincoat'

It took quite some time, there were guys on each level and two right at the top. The town has another dashi like this one but we didn't get to see that one.

Ebi-kun was under threat by over enthusiastic old people with fancy cameras so daddy-ebi had to lift him up.

I wonder how they decide who is going up the top? I imagine it is quite an honour, I can also imagine that one or two in the past have fallen off! I don't know anything about the history of this festival since we just stumbled upon it.

We actually left the shrine because it was taking them so long to get the dashi moving and it was lunch time. We found a little soba shop on the main street and just nipped out when the dash was actually going past. The are definitely pre-sake at this stage!

I wonder what they do if they need the toilet? hmmm.

More camp tales tomorrow, I have to tackle my inbox now and it is scary...

The Meeting Of Star Crossed Lovers...

NO! Not me! Tomorrow is Tanabata which is a love story between Orihime and Hikoboshi, you can read the whole story in an article I wrote for Rhythm Of The Home, I think I mentioned it before but since it is the day of celebration tomorrow, I thought it was worth mentioning again!

Happy Tanabata to you!

Boys Day Cake...

Just realised that I forgot to show you this. This started because I saw a gadget a few weeks ago that allowed you to make decorated roll cakes and because  I am me, I decided I could re-create it at home without said gadget! 

It wasn't totally successful, some of my scales came off and I cracked the actual cake, hence the big split down the side but I think with a proper sized roll pan (instead of the square one I used) and a bit of practice I will have the method sorted, until then, I will leave you in suspense on how I did it...

It tasted great and Ebi-kun was impressed and that is all that really matters. The supermarket had a rather impressive display set up and of course we had to get kashiwa mocha to eat too. The mocha is a chewy rice based product that several people a year choke on and die and inside is sweet bean paste the whole thing is then wrapped in kashiwa leaves (oak leaves). I have grown to like them over the years but they will never be a tasty as a slice of chocolate cake if you ask me.

Ebi-kun is feeling the effects of full days at school, yesterday he was very grumpy (which means he is tired but won't admit to it) and he has started to get homework, just reading for now. We are all slowly adjusting to the new routine and hopefully we will get back on the crafty / project making waggon soon....

Boys day Bunting - tutorial..

Actually the 5th of May is kodomo-no-hi (Children's day) but since the girls have their own day it seems unfair that the boys have to share theirs! Anyway, in Japan koinobori are displayed, many people, especially out in the countryside have big koi fish flying from flag poles. Usually we are camping for kodomo-no-hi so we play 'spot the koi' when driving around. As our camping trip was cancelled I thought I had better come up with a quick decoration....

What you need:

Origami paper

3 sizes of round stickers

scissors

string

tape

1. Fold and cut a sheet of paper in half, this will make two koi.

2. Cut a triangle from one end to make the tail shape.

3. Flip the paper over and fold over the end.

4. Flip back the right way and put on the biggest sticker for an eye.

5. Add the middle sized sticker in the eye.

6. Add the smallest sticker, the eye is finished.

7. Take a row of big stickers and cute them in half.

8. Stick them in a 3, 2, 1 formation for the scales.

9. When all the koi are made, flip them over, tape the string under the folded end.

10. Add a bit of tape to keep the flap down, then hang up your koi bunting.

You can find more boys day fun over at Zakka Life.

Baby Sumo....

Yesterday, Ebi-kun and I went into Asakusa to meet my friend Gaia who is visiting Japan at the moment. She was my first English student and I lived with her family in Italy, 20 years ago! Anyway, her and her fiancé wanted to see the baby sumo (nakizumo), I have never seen it in real life so I was up for it.

It is held at Senjoji, the big temple in Asakusa, of course it started with the usual amount of pomp and ceremony that you would expect in Japan but it soon got underway. First the babies are introduced and then one of the sumo wrestlers pick up the baby and take it to the ring. Once the bout starts the sumo wrestlers jiggle that baby up and down until one of them cries, the one that cries the loudest first is the champ! This rather odd tradition is about 400 years old and it is believed to bring the child good health (and possibly nightmares for the rest of their lives!).

 

It was an amusing start to the day, we didn't watch all the bouts instead we went and had a look around the temple then headed off to get some rather late lunch.

We had arranged to meet at noon but I knew Ebi-kun would be hungry by then so we turned up a bit earlier and grabbed a bite to eat, okonimiyaki on a stick! a first for everything.

Gaia and Luca had met some Japanese guys when they were travelling in Turkey so we also met up with them, of course Ebi-kun got pampered by the big boys but it was also handy as they are students so they were on the look out for somewhere cheap to eat.

Obligatory group shot with Japanese v sign pose! It was a fun day, we headed off about 5pm and managed to catch the train just before daddy-ebi (he had to work yesterday) so we met up in town and ate dinner out - double plus, no cooking for me!

Gaia is heading off to do the tourist train, Kyoto, Nara etc. and come back up here next weekend so we are trying to think of something exciting to do with her then....

Hanami and Easter Egg Hunting...

 I had an absolute manic weekend, Saturday was last minute getting things ready for school, discovering that I had another 3 items to make and not having enough of the fabric was one of the panics! Somehow got all through that and finished off the order I have been working on just in time to organise things for the egg hunt. The playgroup always has an egg hunt on Easter Sunday.

The weather was beautiful and the cherry blossoms out in full force which meant we would have to battle for a picnic spot with all the locals! Since I usually organise the egg hunt we arrived super early and spread all our belongings out in the widest possible area. We have found that hanging bunting from tree to tree also helps to stake our claim on the little patch on land for the day.

staking out the picnic spot before everyone else arrived

obligatory cherry blossom picture

 I made a Wally egg and had him as a special prize, he even had his own wanted poster! I hid him rather too well so ended up having to give clues.

And the hunt is on... we had 17 kids this year, I think. Of course we always get a couple of the locals wandering up and discovering odd coloured eggs in the bushes and we have to go and tell them to put them back at least we didn't have any crows to battle this year. The kids are only allowed to pick up their own eggs, one old lady was trying to help and was trying to give an egg to one of the kids but he was refusing to take it because it wasn't his, of course this wasn't explained to her so she looked rather baffled.

the hunter and the hunted

Once the egg hunt was done we had lunch. We do pot luck (everyone brings a dish to share) so we never know what kind of lunch it will be! We also had some new families join, the weather was perfect and the company was great, it was a really lovely day.

Jennifer's beautiful cookies

After lunch I had organised a scavenger hunt, as the group is for bilingual kids, it is good to do something where they have to actually use their English. As it turned out we had one confident reader/writer in each team. We had been to the same park a couple of weeks earlier so I had taken photos and now there are bigger kids in the group I incorporated the whole park - lots of running! The scavenger hunt seemed to be a big hit, I was a bit worried I had made it too difficult but apart from a sign that had fallen down they managed to do everything OK.

We has a dad's team too but they seemed to find beer on their scavenger hunt! Must remind myself to join their team in future events.

The kids claimed their prizes, real genuine Easter Bunny Poop and then spent the rest of the time playing, football mostly!

It was a great day, well worth the time it took me to organise the hunt and stuff but I admit by the time we got home I was exhausted! Today is Ebi-kun's entrance ceremony so we need to get suited and booted a bit later on, first we have to go to city hall and up date my alien status or something. There are new rules coming into effect in the summer for foreigners living in Japan so I have to make sure everything is in order.

Eggs...

Every year the playgroup has an Easter egg hunt, it is always great fun, we usually have a good turn out and it is one of the major events of the year. We have done it for 5 years now and had to change it a little each time due to the kids getting older and the parents getting a bit wiser!

Now what we do, is have each child 10 hard boiled decorated eggs, each egg has their name on it (or mark for the non readers). We introduced this because the older kids were collecting all the eggs and the little ones missing out, it also means we know whose egg it is so we can hide the older kids eggs in more difficult to find places *evil cackle*

So, this week we have been decorating our eggs. I actually bought an eye dying kit this year, the colours are really bright but the orange didn't take for some reason.

We tried using tape and stickers to make different patterns on them and some we left plain.

Once the eggs were dry we got to decorating them using sticky backed felt, googly eyes, MT tape and well, anything else that was lying around.

 The green lion and punky mouse!

A right jumble of unique eggs...

I also made one extra egg and decorated it as Wally/Waldo, of course we had every colour of pom-poms except for red, so orange will have to do. I will hide this one and the child that finds it will get an extra prize.

I have also organized a scavenger hunt for the older kids, we will have a pot-luck lunch under the cherry blossom trees, should be a fun day!

Yabusame....

A wee video from yesterdays event.

A Day of Culture....

Yesterday was a national holiday - Culture Day and so we decided to have a very cultured day out! We went down to Meiji-jingu in Tokyo for an event where they show traditional martial arts. When we got there, there was an Aikido demo on so Ebi-kun and I watched that for a while whilst Daddy-ebi went to check out the rest if the place. Daddy-ebi and I started Aikido but had to quit after a couple of months because I found out I was pregnant, the club we went to is too far to get to from here and we haven't found another one closer, anyway....

After watching people hit each other with big sticks and swords we headed over to where they were holding the yabusame, which is the event we had gone to watch. There were mats laid out for sitting on and we watched the practice, we decided that because we had a good spot one of us should save the spot, so daddy stayed whilst Ebi-kun and I went to hunt down some food from the agricultural fair.

one of the practice runs

Yabusame is horseback archery, the rider has to try and hit three targets whilst the horse is galloping down the track which is 225m long. It was started by Minamoto no Yoritomo in an attempt to improve his samurai's archery skills. 

The event started with a procession and blessing by the Shinto priest (it is held at the big Shinto shrine). Everyone was dressed in the traditional attire down to the beautiful silk gowns and deer skin chaps.

We were sat right by the third target and so had a great view. I am an accomplished horsewoman so I can truly appreciate how difficult this must be, the amount of control and concentration needed must be immense, I would love to have a go though.

The archers use a special type of arrow which has a turnip shaped end rather than a point. The first couple of rounds they were aiming to hit the paper target.

There were three women sat close to the target, one had the job of shaking the spiritual stick after each time an arrow was fired. One checked the target was set straight after each rider went past and the third was this foreign girl, she was picking up the arrows then held them so the riders could collect them after each round. The weird thing was that she is an absolute double for my cousin, who lived over here for 2 years, when I put this picture up on FB, Kirsty was trying to remember when it had been taken before realising it wasn't her!

Ebi-kun was completely smitten with the yabusame, he kept saying how beautiful the horses were and how he wants to try to do it too (he has been on a pony twice and so thinks he can ride!)

These two riders were the best, their horses were going hell for leather and they did hit the targets. The guy below I think was the top rider and his horse was loving it, there were seven riders and when they had all completed the run they walked back down to the start line and you could just see that this horse was really enjoying himself.

The second round they changed the targets to these ceramic dishes, when they were hit they smashed and confetti came out, they were small, maybe 6" in diameter which just shows how skilled the riders are. I think there was just one rider who hit all three targets in one run.

We didn't see who won though because after the last run both Ebi-kun and I had to run to find the toilet! The event was all free and great fun, I am sure we will go again, next time we will take lunch with us though.