What do you do with your teeth?

Before I came to Japan I thought the Tooth Fairy visited every child that had lost a tooth, I was bemused to learn that in Japan a child throws a lower tooth over the roof of the house and the upper tooth under the house or bury it, this ensures that the teeth will grow in straight.

You see, yesterday we had a teacher/parent meeting, all good there, glowing reports all round. After that we went to the dentist, Ebi-kun's second tooth had come through behind his milk tooth and the milk tooth wasn't wiggly at all. This concerned me because I had the same problem with  my top teeth and ended up wearing braces for years, for as much good that they did, I still have wonky teeth! Which, oddly enough is a good thing in Japan, there has been a recent trend for women in Japan to get their teeth wonkified because this makes them more attractable to prospective husbands, who see the wonky teeth as a slight imperfection, thus making them perfect! Go figure.

Anyway, back to Ebi-kun, the dentist agreed that the tooth needed pulling and I was mightily impressed with the way it was all handled. Ebi-kun didn't feel a thing and wasn't in the slightest bit traumatised thankfully! Many foreigners in Japan complain about Japanese dentists but I have yet to see a bad one and will opt to see a Japanese dentist over a British one any day.

Months ago I order the book Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the Worldto give to him when the big day came. It is a GREAT book, it has traditions from all round the world, we were surprised to find that Japan isn't the only place that throws the tooth on the roof. Some of the places are quite odd, he was thankful that he didn't live in Costa Rica because they plate the tooth in gold and made into an earring for the child to wear.

get it from Amazon or the Book Depository

The dentist gave Ebi-kun his tooth and put it this cuuuute little tooth case. The tooth fairy came and left him ¥100 plus a special 50p bonus for it being the first tooth and a letter - you can see it in the tooth case....

Of course, the Tooth Fairy is very small so her writing was teeny, so small in fact that he needed his magnifying glass to read it. All in all she was very happy to get the tooth and she will be using it to make birthday wishes.

I am wondering what is going to happen when he tells his friends that he gets money for his teeth - bedlam in the wobbly tooth kingdom may ensue. The conversation this morning..

Me: Will you tell your friends that you got money for your tooth?

Ebi-kun: Yes

Me: What if they want to know why they don't get money?

Ebi-kun: *laughing* I will say it's because they don't put their tooth under their pillow

smart ass!

Now, it's your turn, what do you do when your teeth fall out where you are? I would love to add to the traditions listed in the book.

A very busy Obon indeed...

It will take me a while to catch up since we managed to squash a lot of things in to such a short time! We usually go down to Wakayama, to my husbands hometown for Obon. Obon is the time where the majority of Japan goes on holiday and traditionally people travel back to their hometowns, travelling around is chaos and everywhere is crowded. It basically takes us all day to get down there, our local train, then a shinkansen into Tokyo, another shinkansen to Shin-Osaka and then the rapid (a very slow rapid) train to Wakayama and then Jii-chan picks us up from the station.

The second day we travelled to Baa-chans hometown, first we visited the grave, it is traditional to clean the grave at this time, I had to laugh when my husband pointed out a plot in the graveyard and told me it was his uncle's - who is still alive and kicking!

Then we went to visit hi-baa-chan, she is my husbands grandmother so, Ebi-kuns great gran and now 96. They hadn't told her we were going so it was a nice surprise for her, Ebi-kun was just one year old last the we saw her.

After visiting hi-baa-chan we stopped off at a lovely cafe for lunch, it was right by the sea, the weather wasn't great but the food was lovely, the place was packed, apparently there isn't much of a choice for places to eat out in that area. I must admit, I am not happy about being near the sea these days, I never was the biggest fan but after the tsunami I am really glad I live in a land-locked prefecture!

Yes, Ebi-kun is hugging a beast quest book in this picture!

Whenever we go down to Wakayama the boys overdose on sashimi, it is a port town so the fish is super fresh, for me fish, I can live without, I seem to live on a diet of salad and meat when we visit.

We got to see the last few days of the Olympics, Jii-chan was a police chief and all police officers in japan have to have a black belt in judo or kendo* and the riot police do a 12 month intensive course in aikido. This picture was on Jii-chans birthday, a mere 73 years old and still throwing the grand kids about! I forgot to take a photo but the big framed certificate behind them is a medal and certificate from the emperor for presented to Jii-chan for his police work.

*I think it is kendo, if not it is one of the other ~do sports, maybe not sumo!

Now I am just trying to get back into the swing of things, the grand unveiling on the new project is coming up soon, very exciting but I still have a lot to do....