Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
A little before Christmas my friend Jill and I went to this Hagoita festival at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, the part of Tokyo that years ago was the working-class district and has retained the old friendly, marketplace, bustling atmosphere. Hagoita are paddles used in a traditional sort-of badminton game to celebrate the New Year. I…
Merry Christmas! Christmas morning is probably in full swing across the States as we are headed to bed here in Japan. Chris and I skyped and chatted with our families this morning, opened presents and stockings, played Super Mario Brothers on our new Wii and cooked Christmas dinner together. Chris said it was the best…
Chris submitted a Christmas request to the Social Office: why don’t we do more of the things we did in the States in Tokyo? Like what? asked the Social Director. Like plays, symphonies, etc…like…The Nutcracker, Chris said. Consider it done. The Social Office did some research and found the answer in the New National Theater…
This is Chris. Mari said, “I hope we’ll see the peace torii with Fuji behind it. If we can get that photo on a day like this, I could not ask for more.” That sounded like a challenge to me, so I jogged off down some paths until I found it. Here it is. The…
The bitterness of matcha tea—the kind used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies—is balanced by Japanese sweets. I contemplated this while sipping some in the Hakone Detached Palace, the one-time summer residence of the Imperial Family. Chris was off jogging down some of the garden paths along the shoreline trying to get a cool picture but…
You’re back in time a few hundred years. Your husband is a political hostage thanks to his opponents’ ability to control you and your family’s movements outside the city, so any attempt to flee means repercussions—probably death—for him, but he won’t leave without you. The overlords become more tyrannical year by year until you can’t…
Just four more days until Christmas! We bought our first nativity earlier this month to commemorate our time in Japan. Each kokeshi doll was hand-painted, said the shop lady, who had them made after her Christian Japanese friend suggested the idea. Christmas Eve is celebrated in Japan kind of how Valentine’s Day is celebrated in…
