Mystery Solved!!

Ladies and gentlemen, please take a good look at this odd item. Do you recognize it? I for one had never seen it until I came to Japan.

During breaks or periods of boredom at school, I like to explore around the supply room for things that I might be able to use. While pawing around the stock, I also rearrange and organize the boxes for the other teachers. That was when I found this odd piece. I had no idea what to do with it and where to put it.  Can you figure out the riddle? I'll give you some hints.

1. It is something that is usually found among office supplies.

2. It is no longer than a person's thumb.

3. It is made of a light metal, so it is rather light.

Did you think of it yet?

Any ideas?

Give up yet?

Alright. If you insist, I'll tell you.....

Its a pencil cap!

Japanese students carry around pencil cases from the time they are in elementary school to well into college and grad school. While they can be very cheap, these are usually kept as long as possible and can be made from a hard plastic, metal, cloth, or a mixture of the three. In order to keep the inside of the pencil cases (which also hold pens, post-its, and other small items) clean, these pencil caps were invented. They also keep the sharpened pencils from being chipped or breaking at the tip. Not sure who or which country thought of them first, but my generation in the US aren't familiar with them. It honestly took me two years to figure out why my school had these odd, little items. I showed this to my kids and they were shocked to find out that we didn't use them when I was younger. Being the neat-freak that I am, I know that I'd have all of my pencils capped, but hindsight is 20-20.

Not my most exciting post, everyone, but I thought you might like to see something new, or possibly even familiar, that is used frequently in Japan.

Wedding Kimono

The other day, I met with a secretary from one of my schools. She is a kimono expert and loves to play dress up with me. Before we go to tea ceremony together, she insists that I come to her home so that we can both dress in kimono and attend together. With over 100 kimono to choose from, I'm always surprised with what colors and patters she has planned for me.

On this particular occasion, I had asked that we just practice simple belt tying since I wanted to be able to do my own kimono in America. Up until then, she had always tied my belt for me. However hard I tried to follow her steps, she moved too quickly and knew too many knots for me to properly remember. Of course we practiced tying this simple bow style knot on my kimono and obi, but first......

 ...the teacher wanted to show me something even more spectacular! Wedding kimono!

Most Japanese families don't actually have their own wedding kimono, but rent them from a company instead. The headdress, accessories, and shoes are also rented as well. However, being the kimono fanatic that she is, my secretary friend has three full sets of wedding kimono in her collection. I asked her why she had them and her response was a whimsical, "I just felt like having them and thought that I could practice tying them better if I had them always on hand." 

Wedding kimono are worn slightly different than the normal kind and are usually worn with a very large top layer, even in the summer time. First, the bride wears a white kimono underneath and switches out two top layers for during and then after the ceremony. The one during the ceremony is white and the one afterwords can be many colors, but is primarily red.

And then it hit my secretary friend.

"Oh! I've got a great idea! My daughter-in-law-to-be is going to use my kimono for her wedding photos, but we haven't decided which ones. I'm also out of practice with tying them. Why don't you wear them for me and we can decide which ones look best?!"

And so, my lesson turned into playing dress up again ;)

Here is the first dress - the bottom layer that everything else would cover eventually. However, even if it would hardly show, the secretary made sure that each crease and fold was done as perfectly as possible. It was a little difficult because, while I have a very long torso (which does well for showing off an obi), I have a very narrow waist and an hourglass shape. That paired with my taller (when compared to Japanese women) height, my body is not ideal for kimono. The secretary usually pads my stomach with pillows and towels to make my figure flatter. The hair ornaments were made by the secretary from pearls and wires. They are broaches that we pinned into my hair to mimic a bride's hair pieces.

Fun Fact!!! Can you see the little pouch resting in my lapel opening? That is a little wallet for the bride to store things. I have a white fan in my hand that I could also store in my belt or lapel. Also, do you see the obnoxiously large tassel above my belt? it is the fastener for the pouch for the knife a bride always carries. When dressed this fabulously and wearing your most expensive items, it makes sense that you'd want some protection. However, now it is just a traditional ornament, like our "something old, something new" items.

Here is the first:

Here is the second:

 Finally, my favorite of the three. This is the colorful, after ceremony kimono. As you can see, it has lots of colors, but  is primarily red. All we've done is trade out the outer layers, so the white from the original simple kimono is only seen at the top and the front.

 Thank you so much for letting me wear such lovely clothes, Sensei! I look forward to seeing your son and daughter-in-laws wedding photos some day.

Nabana no Sato

Living in Mie offers some amazing opportunities. The prefecture is a long, odd shape, and so much of our eastern side is coast that we have unique views, cities, and nature. Besides that, it seems like there is a tourist spot somewhere along the road wherever you go in Mie. Come winter, most people go out of the prefecture for winter sports in nearby areas. But one spot that is always bustling is Kuwana City. Why is that? Roller coasters, a water park, Christmas lights, hot springs, and green houses!




In the summer, Kuwana is frequented by roller coaster (here lovingly called "jet coasters") enthusiasts who want the thrill of Japan's largest roller coaster park, Nagashima Spaland. Of course, it is called that because it is also home of a water park and attached to a hot spring resort. All of these attractions have separate ticket prices, but you can buy a combo ticket at a special rate. This past spring, some of the Ise-Shima ALTs took a trip for a roller coaster/water park day to cool off. On another occasion, some gal-pals and I went for the coasters followed by a relaxing hot bath. Both trips were wonderful, but I can go into that later. For those who can't wait, though, you can read up on it here.





Today is all about Christmas lights and green houses!

Super close to Nagashima Spaland, and yet another claim to fame for Kuwana, is Nabana no Sato, explained a bit on this Mie tourism site.. A Flower park and green house site, the park keeps business coming in the winter by putting on a major Christmas light festival! The festival starts in the fall, once the leaves on the Japanese maples have changed colors. Visitors can see the trees lit up at night and marvel at their colors along with the Christmas lights strung all around the park. This part of the season is really crowded with people coming to see both the light and the leaves, and stoping to take pictures all the while. In Japan, the two major christmas light displays are this one and another in Kobe. Each one is changed yearly, so people come to see what new and creative way the decorations will be in both locations. This year, the main attraction at Nabana no Sato was a huge display that mimicked Niagara Falls during different seasons. It was set to music and the surrounding field was decorated in lights and cloth to give it even more depth and grandure. My friend Dan and I went to see what all of the fuss was about and my breath was caught in my throat the whole time! It was so perfect and surreal. I've never seen anything so dreamlike and I never through that trees could look better at night than in the day. True to Japanese form, everything was laid out perfectly to allow the trees to play off the water features in the park.

Dan and I decided to stop by a restaurant at the gardens. We accidentally ordered the most expensive thing on the menu and plates like this one kept coming and coming and coming from the kitchen. We ate really well that night, and luckily had coupons for 2000 yen off the meal. It was as delicious as the trees were beautiful!

My Russian friends decided that on our ski trip, it would be fun to go to Nabana no Sato, and I decided to go again to really have a chance to appreciate the lights this time. The leaves had fallen off the trees, so we were able to stroll around without fighting through as large of crowds this time. Some people took the high road and rode a merry-go-round that was raised up high into the air!

 Just when we thought we had scene it all, Max noticed that the green houses were open for tours and that the coupons we had were just enough to cover the entrance free. Warming up in the green house sounded like a great idea to me, and Sofya loved roaming through all the blossoms. She even pocketed a few of the fallen ones to press in her magazine later. The tickets we received were actually valid for three green houses, so we were able to finish up our day at Nabana no Sato with three distinct and large flower settings. On our way out, we had been told to find the shawarma stand, which was so scrumptious! I had a fabulous time on both trips and highly recommend going if you get the chance!