my tokyo

*an image each week of the tokyo I experience

i heart monchichi

I do. I love monchichi. Last week we visited Asakusa where we found some funny toy shops full of them! Purple, pink, dressed up, dressed down, wedding, shogun, you name it. I kept sighing over them and saying how much I like them. Well, my lovely husband secretly bought me one and surprised me later! So awesome! This one is designed by Shinzi Katoh, one of my favorite artists/designers, so he has a Shinzi Katoh shirt and little jeans. Have I now joined the ranks of many blogging women who collect dolls of some kind or other? Like this? Or this? Or THIS? I don't know, but bobei is smitten too and now would like her own monchichi for Christmas. Perhaps this is the start of a monchichi family...? Stay tuned.

this is on tokyo craigslist!

Uroko-ya bookshelf igloo for sale - JPY500000 (Minato-ku)


"Own a unique piece of furniture, created by 2 Tokyo architects in 2007.
Called the Uroko-ya ("uroko": "fish scale" referring to the felt tiles covering it and "ko-ya": small room) it has been used as a bed "igloo" inside our studio for the past 3 years and featured in countless design mag and websites.

We now have a little kid who loves to run around and needs more floor space for his toys, so we are selling it.

It includes a lot of shelf space for books or items (more than 24m over 6 shelves), a wardrobe area and an entrance.
It would make a perfect small kids sleep/play room, a shop display, a study or a quiet reading room.
But it's been a great bedroom for us too. It fits a 160cm wide bed (200 length) with room to walk around it.

The 4 bottom shelves are 36~33cm tall and easily fit big art books (higher ones are shorter)
The wardrobe area has 4 doors on the outside and can also be accessed from inside (175 tall, 180 wide including 2 hanging rails)
The entrance is 175 tall and 60 wide
It includes a little side table, 76.5 high
and a seating area close to the entrance.

Floor space needed: 3m x 3m10

It's all made in smooth and light-colored "Shina" plywood. 15mm thick. Treated with a light coat of clear matt varnish.
Nice and soft to the touch.

Price includes delivery in central Tokyo and the re-building of the igloo in your home.
You can have the felt tiles too, but as you can see from the photos below is it a very adaptive structure that would be happy to be dressed differently.

More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/in-duce/sets/72157624860919735/
The world talking about it: http://www.google.com/search?q=uroko+bed

Price is negotiable."

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

my tokyo

*an image each week of the tokyo I experience.

found via 8tokyo.com

"Every day a mother prepares BENTO containing a message for her high school son. If he obtained bad grades in a test, she would include a message that said “Try harder!” by making TONKATSU BENTO (because in Japan “win” is pronounced as “katsu”); when she saw him walking with his girlfriend, she would make a BENTO with a heart in it; but finally came the day for his last BENTO.

The last BENTO was the same as the very first BENTO that she made. As she was about to wash the dishes, she opened the BENTO box and a note from her son came out that said “Sorry for not being able to say thank you until now.”

i like

the river that runs through this concrete island

flowers blooming in fall

hibiscus remind me of grammy

I feel her smiling on me

I think she would say its ok

the way things are right now

the way things have been

I want to return to the sun-filled place

baking imaginary muffins with her

so safe

so loved

a good feeling.

dance-a-long

tonight we danced to papa's new album. you can download it for free, we'll have an international dance party. http://soundcloud.com/gejius/sets/free

FREE (yeah, it's actually free) by Gejius

This album features our raddest friends from America and Japan. Hearing their voices is like hugging them, or better yet, fist pumping with them in my living room. I love it. I hear the bridges of Portland and the concrete of Tokyo, fir trees and city rivers, hours of train rides with a keyboard on his back, a Glass Moustache, a Botanist, a HondaLady, everything we left behind and the beat of right now. Bobei is a definite fan. She is an electronic kid. How many 4 year olds do you know who sing Julie?

morning

This is just a practice for this weekend. And yes, that's a real starter's pistol.

love is a rice ball made just for you

my tokyo

*an image posted each week of the tokyo we experience

NHK studio park

Today me and the girl went to NHK Studio Park where many of her favorite television shows are filmed in Shibuya. It is a Tokyo Public Holiday today and NHK offered free admission. The pictures above are from a summer trip to NHK including Papa which was the result of a failed picnic excursion to Yoyogi Park. We got to Yoyogi just fine but Papa forgot many things needed for the picnic (*ahem* food *ahem*) and it was so hot at one point I almost threw up. Not. Joking.

Both that day and today the above, who doesn't look as hilarious in person as he does in this picture, came out for the children to take pictures with him. His name is "Wanwan." Wan wan is the sound dogs make in Japan, like "woof woof". The guy who does this character is incredible. Its always the same guy, the real actor, and he is live in there. As in, we've seen him sing while dancing in the suit and talking to specific children he's shaking hands with in the audience. We've also seen him do a cartwheel in this suit. Live! And at free events! He is the man.

My favorite thing to do at NHK is the dubbing booth. They let you go in and choose from a few different scenes from different famous Japanese cartoons. You get to practice once, record and it plays it back for you. Hilarious fun and really quite educational. I laughed so hard today at my own dubbing. Bobei wasn't as into it, of course. The other cool thing is that there are viewing stations where you can view a live set from above and from a few screens in the building. We've seen the actors taping one of bobei's favorite shows and today we watched a few takes of an adult samurai drama, Ryomaden, that's really popular right now. For a kid who loves television its a great way to sneak in some knowledge of how that all works. On another note: Today my daughter said I should be on tv and that made me smile. Really big. Kid's television entertainer big.

little library project

I picked up this little freebie booklet at our local library. It has 100 tiny pictures of new children's book covers. It was the weekend, we were bored...so we did this...even Papa joined in.

I love children's literature. The illustrations for Japanese children's literature is especially phenomenal. A lot of the titles here are books or characters whose books we have read and that just makes it even more fun.

Step 1: Help tiny hands cut out tiny square book covers. These will be used as the tiny library book covers and book pages. We didn't cut out all 100. The pages were printed on both sides so we had to choose which book "pages" we wanted to use, although I have more than 1 of these little booklets.

Step 2: Measure and draw rectangles onto construction paper. I think ours were about 2 inches x 4 inches. And each book used 3 rectangles.

Step 3: Help tiny hands cut out rectangles. (Step 3.5: Finish cutting them out when child gets lazy.)

Step 4: Assemble tiny books by lining up rectangles and stapling down the center.

Step 5: Choose book cover pictures and glue to the front of little books. This may be important or not. If you will make up stories to write inside or tell verbally, the cover may or may not determine the characters involved or the topic of the book. Have fun with this! Our covers ended up being either favorite book characters or random. Papa had the idea of making books of different subjects. In that case sort the images you have into categories and choose an appropriate cover. Or draw one!

Step 6: Glue in your page images! This can be done however you want. After covers were glued we each worked on the pages for different books. Each of us had a different way of choosing our pages and we all had fun.

Step 7: Write your story! Creative reign here.

Step 8: Invite doll friends and animals to their new library! Have a storytime! (The above book is a funny character, its called "Daruma-san ga")

bobei's doll Rose is the current owner of this library but it is often shared with the Carebears and Minnie. I still need to fashion a little cardboard bookcase to hold them. Oh! Papa also wrote a copyright on the back and had bobei sign some of them. You could also create a library card for the back page where little hands could stamp them in or out of circulation. Oh! I should have done that!!

why?

Did I cut my hair? We came back from Florida, my hair was below my shoulder blades, Japan was a furnace and I chopped my hair off. I took this picture the day after the initial cut. Really, it was all a mistake. The guy was cutting layers into my hair that were too short, already the length you see above and the shoulder length hair I was going for was looking pretty yuck. I have hence decided, with the approval of husband, that I will no longer do this. Its another pattern of repeated behavior that always ends with the same result...WHY?

I got a little adventurous this summer and started cutting up shirts and sewing different things. This shirt I cut right down the middle. For some reason this shirt has not stopped shrinking and continues to shrink every time I wash it. I liked wearing it this way, but unfortunately it continued to shrink and I don't think will fit around my arms anymore. More why?

funny

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

repeat

I wish this didn't always happen. Why is it always the bad habits that stick and not the good ones? Like, why can I watch unprecedented amounts of television, stay up later than is healthy, and drink enough tea to feel slightly intoxicated every night but not keep up a blog? The day to day of it may not be enjoyable, in fact to me anything that relies on internet and technology usually doesn't go well, but I love looking back at my daughter. I think her cheeks were chubbier 3 months ago. I can tell she's taller. I've been to the store for bigger undies, indoor yochien shoes, and tomorrow I'll buy her a new swimsuit. It won't be long before she's too big for me to carry and I'm starting to say to myself what other people say because she's starting to look too big to be my daughter. And that's when looking at a blog post with accompanying picture from a few months ago is a gem. A sparkling sad little gem that I can revisit to see a little face and busy little hands while the girl in front of me is more than half my height at 4 years old and moving so fast with new navy blue patent leather Primigi mary janes to accomodate her ever growing feet. So how can I let so much time go by and not say anything, to myself even, here? Damn. If this blog were something physical to hold I could add it to the stack, or let's say "stacks" of diaries, journals, notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. that I've tried to keep since age 5. Eghhh. It feels yucky.

Well, for my own benefit and in hopes that I'll post about some of these happenings already missed, here me:

Florida trip

Hiraizumi weekend

natsu matsuri

iron beads

natsu yasumi

heartcatch precure at sunshine city

tokorozawa aviation museum

koukukoen

jidoukan

NHK studios

crossstitch exhibit

kuma no pooh san exhibit

ueno zoo

New habit(for better or worse, slow connection or fast, in late evening or early morning): this blog

whoops

Ok, still here.

Just reassuring myself.

are we there yet?

This face is how I feel about 2 hours on a train, 10 hours on plane #1, 2 hours on plane #2, 6 hours on plane #3 and 2 more hours in a car from the airport to a place that is not the airport. Add that up to 22 hours in transit, excluding the hours of wait time in between.

But you know what?

Family is worth it.

my tokyo

*each week an image of the Tokyo we experience

the magic penny

When life gives you flowers, make bouquets! We whipped up these little bouquets from our own wealth of flowers and bobei took them to school for her teachers. I had two little plastic bags saved from a church Easter egg hunt with little designs on them, so we wrapped the bottom of the flowers in wet paper towels and rubber banded the plastic bags over everything. Perfect!

bobei wasn't the only one who got a magazine/catalogue combo with a present feature. I picked up this(the last one at Libro!) for myself. I just LOVE the llama! The pages of this magazine are full of scrummy pictures and all kinds of recipes for outfits, how to wear clothes, etc. I was thinking I would use this bag for Japanese class. Soulemama implements a bag functioning family system that I would like to try. My other thought is that I want that llama on a pillow, on my couch, right now.

I'm trying to pull my brain together in preparation for Florida. We leave in ONE WEEK! 3 planes. Over 18 hours. And I think I seriously need a haircut.

In pure avoidance of these pressing matters, I'm loving this idea. Have you felt this fabric??!! I want to wrap myself in it(and then sleep). Liberty of London is sold directly in Japan, I think with some exclusive releases too, but the price tag is still...*sigh*...I don't want to talk about it.

called it

(image borrowed from 8tokyo.com, our house is too dark for anything)

Today I have that eye infection I so kindly predicted, though the eye doctor said its just aggravated allergies. I went for a run this morning along the river and apparently I'm not allowed to do that anymore or go there. So, so far I am allergic to the plants by the river. The river that surrounds us. Yay! And because I am a child and couldn't stop rubbing my itchy eyes that feel like they've been filled with crusty fuzzy pudding, I have to put 3 different kinds of eye drops in each eye 4 times a day.

On another note, I was able to score the above LeSportsac for bobei before they're all sold out. She has been wanting one to match mine(bought at local secondhand shop) but buying designer bags for 4 year olds is not quite in our budget. This is a LeSportsac catalogue and the accompanying LeSportsac wallet/pocketbook is genuine and really great quality for a fraction of the price. I'm kicking myself for not snagging one of the other designs for me, this blue and pink is the only design left available of three originally released.

Its also blogged about here, and you can see it in action above(along aforementioned river). I was trying to be a good mom and brought along some old bread and lettuce to feed ducks and koi with our friends but the bread ended up being hard as a rock and we couldn't find anyone to feed except ants!! bobei has come up with her own phrase, "double double" as being something really yummy to talk about, but here I think I will use it in my own way as this was a double double ARRGHH! But you gotta give me credit for trying.

live it up ants!

dunked

I was officially baptized yesterday, May 16th, 2010 at Kurume Christ Church, in Tokyo, Japan. I don't believe that I wasn't saved before being baptized, but when your faith becomes real and tangible and touchable and you can feel God nudging you - then its time. Two other people were baptized with me; a young boy, Tomoyo-kun, and an older lady whose mother(in her 90s!) was recently baptized. I was very moved by their testimonies, which is partly why by the time I got up to speak I was overly emotional. Here's my own testimony, which I cried/talked through. It was translated(thank you Sanae!) so at least all Japanese speakers could understand what I was saying:

When I was a baby, my mom turned her face toward heaven and asked God to claim me as His own and watch over me always. She knew that as my parents on Earth, she and my dad needed the help of my heavenly Father to raise and protect me.

Since then, God has always held me close to him, even when I pushed myself away. He has protected me when I knowingly put myself in the face of danger. He has comforted me when I was terribly alone. He has healed me from my own destruction. And pursued me, even blessed me, after I cursed His name. No matter my actions, my heart has always belonged to God. Where I failed for His kingdom, He wastes nothing. He has been calling my name, calling me back to him, preparing me to be useful in his grace.

When I was a little girl I always chose God. It was easy to love Him and I felt his presence in my life. I always wanted to be two things: an actress and a missionary. I behaved well, I was a good student and I participated in church - singing in choir with my parents and teaching Sunday school. I did not worry about my relationship with God, but I did not want to get baptized. When I was 14 my faith was damaged by two of my four parents when they told me if I died tomorrow they did not know if I would go to heaven. They had become born again Christians and wanted my faith to be measured by the same experience they had had. As adults who had gone through life without God, they didn't understand my faithful heart who had grown with God. This put a hole in my heart. I became fearful that God would not save me. But I didn't know why. My trust was broken. I tried to ignore it.

When I went to college I lost control. I ran from God. I didn't want the responsibility of who He calls us to be and what that required me to do or not do. I wanted to behave badly. I did. But God had plans set for me even then. I met Aaron at this time. God brought us together from across a nation, through different colleges, different school years, and even though I was in a serious relationship with someone else. We were both Christians, but together we continued to run from God's calls to us. Then he gave us bobei. A call from God I could not ignore. I dropped out of school, we moved across the country, and I gave up my selfish life to live for someone else. We could do nothing but put our faith in God for our coming child. And for the next few years He drew us closer to Him through our beautiful daughter, His grace and blessings for following His word, through Aaron's parent's love for Christ and advice, and through attending a church where He is truly present.

Before we came to Japan we were on the brink of disaster. Aaron lost his job in the midst of the economic breakdown in America. I thought we would lose our apartment and be forced to move in with his parents or friends. I thought bobei would be unable to attend the preschool she loved. I thought I had given up all my dreams and now would go without basic needs as well. But God had not forgotten us. When we met we had a mutual love for Japan. We had always talked about moving there, but in our hardships and poverty had given up hope that it would ever happen. Before Aaron lost his job we had been praying that God would bring us to Japan. During the 8 months that followed Aaron losing his job we were completely provided for. bobei's preschool let us pay when we could. I was able to pick up extra hours at my part time job and sew headbands to sell there, and they sold well. More mothers and children came to my Storytime with Raquel performances at a friend's cafe- one time bringing in 76 dollars in one hour. With the help of unemployment, food stamps, and these extra opportunities, God provided for our needs completely. And then came the job opportunity at the Christian Academy and God's blessings upon us became inconceivable and miraculous in the way only He can arrange. The month we moved here was the month our unemployment checks would stop coming in America.

Since we have been here, God has been working on my heart. I finally understand now that His word and His love are all that matter in this world. He has revealed His love for me so greatly. That He would know my heart so intimately and bless me so personally out of all creation. He knows what is best for me and has been preparing me and my family for these miracles for many years. Now He is calling me to tell others about His love because it is all that matters. My baptism today is my public declaration- to you and to God. Thank you, Jesus, for saving and forgiving me over and over again. Please use me, Lord, to further your kingdom. I am ready. (at the end of this I read Psalm 139: 1- 18)

After the ceremony I was presented with a bilingual Bible - English and Japanese, its a beast! - and more flowers than I've ever received maybe in my whole life!! I was very overwhelmed by the love and support that was poured out on me by my friends and the people of my church. I had no idea people would come, let alone fill my arms with beautiful beautiful flowers, such a wonderful representation of God's work. And now they're all over our tiny apartment, reminding me I am loved. It feels wonderful.

sssssssssssslurp!(its okay!)

bobei and I were able to attend a tea ceremony with friends last month. It was a wonderful experience, and helpful as it was in English(a little) and Japanese. It was held at a community center a few towns over. It was in traditional tatami room. We had to kneel, bow and then slide into it. This is proper tea ceremony etiquette. It is a practice from many years ago as you would not step on the lines of the tatami because the Samurai would hide blades in them! Ack! The room we were in was very bare and simple. Rooms for tea ceremony traditionally have a scroll, which you take time to admire, and a flower display, but not ikibana. The host of the tea ceremony explained to us that the flowers used for adorning a mantel for tea ceremony are picked from outside. The ones she used for the day had been picked from her yard-just wild violets and maybe some long clover, but so lovely. The hot water for the matcha was kept in a large iron kettle in a hole in the floor of this room. We were shown how to drink the tea; first tell the person next to you, "I'm sorry to go before you" in Japanese, then place the bowl on your left palm and lift with your right, turn the bowl 2 times, sip completely making noises to show your delight in the taste, turn the bowl 2 more times so the decoration of the pottery is facing you, take moments to study and admire the bowl, place the bowl back in front of you...something like that?!?! We were also given yummy yummy mochi wrapped in leaves(very difficult to eat politely because it stuck to the stick it was on, but oishiiii so!!). As you can see above, bobei loves matcha and so does her friend, Shuya!!! I was really happy to attend the ceremony but I was surprised as we shared introductions after partaking to find out it was my friend's first tea ceremony(she is Japanese) experience and also the first for some very very old Japanese people there! I was so surprised!! I feel so grateful to have so much access to Japanese culture even though it is not my native culture. I really hope to continue to pursue these kinds of experiences with our family and with friends here creating bonds. The truth is I don't know if or when we will leave Japan, but I want to soak up every matcha-filled minute I can.

the run around

This blog has become a perfect representation of my life right now. Everything is getting completely beyond my reach and I feel like I'm running to catch up to events that have already passed. To top it off, this morning I deleted a bunch of beautiful pictures from that camera of me and bobei having a good time together. In true Charlie Brown style, "ARGGGH!" The weather has finally perked up and along with it our allergies. Which means I'll probably give myself an eye infection in a few days from rubbing my germy fingers all over them. This morning we visited bobei's school for a visitation and watched them color butterflies. Thrilling 4 year old parent stuff(please read both sarcastically and sincerely because that is how I feel all at once). This morning's walk was the magnificent balance of our niche of Tokyo - Rufus Wainwright, maturing ducklings on the river, koi swimming upstream, emerald necked pigeons, the miniest dogs out for walks, and uniformed children on the way to school. With everything going on here I can barely grasp that we'll be on a plane in 13 days. I'd better catch up so I don't miss it.

happy mother's day

here's a joke for you this mother's day:

bobei: why did the chicken cross the road?

me: I don't know. why?

bobei: to get to the BANANA SHOW!!

I. love. this. man.

and his books. and so does my daughter. *yes!*

stuff

1. finished another doll sized sweater, gifted to Rose-chan's friend, Mell-chan

2. walked through the Bamboo forest in our neighborhood

3. painted tiny toes sparkly pink

4. refreshed by the idea of going to Florida. I'm not even there and my spirit feels renewed knowing I will see my Dad and brothers and touch the ocean again.

5. thrilled that we have a stop over in Portland, even an hour with friends is precious

looking at my bookmarks to plan orders for things I've been admiring that are free to check on the plane, expensive to ship by post

6. trying, everyday, to speak peace

tomorrow I will make pink onigiri.

cold

Another cloud filled rainy day here. This weather really can be a bit difficult when our main methods of transport are bikes and our feet, which are now soaked through.

Tally for new school year:

5 half days

2 full days

1 sick day

I need a break.

stand by me

While I sewed these silly cleaning cloths(above) for Japanese kindergarten I realized what a huge part of my life this machine is. I have spent more years with this machine than most of my friends, and I've known it longer. My first solo project: struggling to sew a pair of bloomers for Odyssey of the Mind, and therefore without human help, for four hours; making a gorilla stuffy for a school fair booth with black fur that shed EVERYWHERE; bobei's blue and purple princess gown now worn for 1 birthday, 1 costume tea party, 2 Halloweens and countless dress up days; the hundreds of headbands stitched in the middle of the night that helped support us on our last legs in Portland before moving to Japan... and oh! the things I've worn that were made on this machine by my mom, me always the concocter of projects.

When I was little - a warm East Coast Halloween black cat costume, a mermaid costume with a shiny tale and foot hole, my stuffed Easter bunny made from an old dress. As I got older - Romeo and Juliet Nurse costume, Joseph tunic, colonial maid outfit(which still fit me for bobei's 3rd birthday!), The Spirit Week CareBear costume project involving all of my friends, sassy tinman Spirit Week jacket, Rolf ears for the senior lip sync, Erzulie skirt, the presto change-o 3-in-1 design for Bonnie in Anything Goes, and my prom dress.

My mom passed the Pfaff onto me when we moved across country. We've always come to her in the late night last minute hours and expected her to come through, in the moments when our creativity has stewed for so long and is finally bubbling over.

I left this lady in the states back in August. What a fool I am. Tonight I uncovered her for the first time since her arrival two weeks ago and we hummed through thick layers of towel after midnight. It felt good to be back together again. I hugged her and whispered, "welcome to Japan."

metamorphosis

If you had told me five years ago today I would lead a bilingual Bible study in Tokyo I would have thrown my head back and laughed in your face with my vodka breath.

Is that enough evidence, folks?

we heart mouk

It was love at first online sighting when it came to me and Mouk. I ordered this amazing book from Amazon.co.jp around Christmas for bobei. Before we had moved from Portland I purchased All Kinds of Families from Powell's while falling madly in love with Marc Boutavant's illustrations. I love love love children's book illustrations and Mouk was just the sort of indulgence I could justify. A gorgeous and inspiring children's book I wanted to own and read to my future grandchildren and a story about a world traveling kid who tries news things and makes new friends...perfect!

So imagine our collective excitement when we saw this trailer.

So exciting! bobei had us watch it 7 times!

*after watching the trailer again today, I realized I forgot to mention that everything is better with CAKE. CAKE ga suki! Mouk ga suki!!!!

heartwarming handmade goodness

Thanks mom! It feels so good to have something handmade from family floating in the house.

Certainly has come in handy for tea party picnics with Grandma Becky over Skype.

images of tuesday hanami

climbing trees here and there

sakura and sake

that smile

playing ball games under mr. blue sky

drama

playground

I know this feeling too

flute player watched at bobei's fervent request