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A Japanese Heart

October 29, 2010 / vanalee / 1 Comment

Deciding to post a new photo every day has been much more challenging than I expected. I got a little behind and have finally caught up. Sometimes I just have a difficult time finding things that I think are interesting and sometimes I just get tired of packing my camera on my bike rides or errands…hurray for my new bike basket.Â The blessing has been looking for new things everyday and growing to love this city. This is the first year I have noticed myself watching for signs of the changing seasons. The Japanese are always quick to mention they have four seasons. I think many truly believe that this is the only place in the world with four seasons. It is one of the things I love most about living here. I think it’s because I grew up in Utah and there are four seasons there, too. I think in my heart I have become a little bit Japanese. Now, if I would just practice speaking Japanese more.

What?????

October 28, 2010 / vanalee / 2 Comments

I saw this sign in the stall in a restroom the other day. Toto is a brand of toilet. The sign is showing that the wall unit will play music. What I love is the picture of the fully clothed woman sitting on the toilet with an open book and turning on the music. I definitely should do a post on the features of the Japanese toilet.

Sparkle

October 27, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

I often ride down a street in Roppongi Hills that is home all designer shops. I have actually noticed a trend at Giorgio Armani. They like to put sparkly things in their windows. Right now each window has a formal and each one has some form of sparkle on it. These are just two of them

Tokyo High rises

October 26, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

La Tour Shiodome

When we moved to Tokyo I looked at an apartment in this building. It had fabulous views of Tokyo including Tokyo Bay. It was a great apartment and I should have wanted to live there. We had lived on the 27th floor in Singapore and I loved the view. However, Tokyo has something that we didn’t experience in Singapore…earthquakes. My thinking goes like this…even if we were still able to live in our 52th floor apartment after a big earthquake I know that we wouldn’t be able to use the elevator and there was no way I would want to climb up and down all those stairs. I still look at the high rises and long to live there and see all of Tokyo, but the stairs!! We live on the 3rd floor of a low rise and will be here until we leave Japan.

Christmas??

October 25, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

This what was going on in Roppongi Hills:

Men on Scaffolding

They were doing this:

Can you see the lights on the tree trunk?

It is too early for Christmas lights!

Isawaonsen and persimmons

October 24, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

Yesterday Rick and I took the fast train (90 minutes) back to Isawaonsen to visit his former missionary companion at the rehabilitation hospital.Â As we got close to Isawaonsen I noticed persimmon trees loaded with yellow-orange fruit. I ate my first persimmon in January of this year and they are delicious. It is my new favorite fruit. I expected to see orchards, there were a few trees together in some places, but mostly there many places where each house just had one tree in the yard. We did see peach orchards and vineyards.

Persimmons

Ashikaga-san was looking good. We had a wonderful hour with him and as we were leaving he followed us out and showed us how he can jump rope. We were impressed.

Rick and Ashikaga

Landmarks

October 23, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

It seems that most foreigners living in Japan find themselves feeling illiterate. You can’t speak to the locals and you can’t read. For me there are just enough things in English to keep me from going crazy. I can understand more Japanese than I can speak. One of the challenges of the city is that some of the streets are not marked with names and most of those that are look like this:

The white sign with the kanji tells the name of the street. The red and blue sign below it for Highway 1 also has the name of that street, Sakurada dori, in English and Japanese.Â The sign below that says, Akabanebasi in Japanese and English.Â I think it’s the name of the junction and not the street since the Akabanebashi subway station is there.

As you can see from this one corner getting around can be a bit challenging. When I first started riding my bike I would often find myself thinking, “I am not sure where I am and not sure how to get home.” My children would say I was lost. I am never lost! I can always figure out how to get home. So… I would just keep riding and eventually I would see this:

Tokyo Tower

Or this:

Mori Tower-Roppongi Hills

Or this:

Green Roof with Weathervane???

Or this:

And when I found one of these landmarks I would be able to find my way home. Tokyo and Mori Towers can be seen from quite a distance from different parts of the city and besides that I have been blessed with a great sense of direction.

Cycling accessories

October 22, 2010 / vanalee / 2 Comments

My new basket

Four of my five children would consider themselves to be cyclists. Two of the four like to have all the cool gear that goes along with being a cyclist. The other two make do with what they have or is handed down to them by their brothers. I consider myself to be a bit of a cyclist since I ride everyday. I am of the make do and wear hand me downs philosophy. I don’t have a lot of gear. Just a great bike, old helmet and a seat bag for my spare tubes.

I ride early most mornings and lately I have have been riding my bike to do errands during the day.Â The big drawback has been my inability to carry much. My friend Jo has a neat basket for her bike that doubles as a tote. I finally went to the shop and bought one today. It is perfect!Â I can unclip it, take it in the store and then clip it back on my bike. It reminds me of the cool and handy “market tote” that my daughter-in-law uses to get stuff between the house and the car. My boys wouldn’t be caught with this accessory attached to their bikes, but I love it! Next accessory a kickstand. The boys won’t approve of that either!

P.S. My basket is from Germany.

Definitely Fall

October 21, 2010 / vanalee / 0 Comments

It is definitely fall in Tokyo. I pretended several days earlier in the month that it was when it wasn’t by making soup or chili. This week I have worn a sweatshirt on my bike rides in the cool morning air. Today my mood just screamed pumpkin. It has been hard to find canned pumpkin in Tokyo the last few years. Last year, I bought some Japanese produced frozen pumpkin and it has been frozen ever since. Yesterday I put it in the refrigerator to thaw. Today I made Spicy Pumpkin soup from Simply Recipes It is so good and tastes like fall.Â I cut the brown sugar to two tablespoons and used non fat milk and fat free Greek yogurt in place of the cream. Be cautious with the cayenne pepper, my pot of soup turned out quite spicy. Now, I’m off to put it in freezer containers to store forÂ later.

Hospitals

October 20, 2010 / vanalee / 1 Comment

I’ve always disliked hospitals. When I was younger I even fainted in them. I have visited people in four or five different hospitals in Japan. It’s always a challenge because the hospitals here are very Japanese. I mean there is not much English written anywhere and English is not spoken very often. This week a new sister in our ward had a new baby and I wanted to go see and yet I didn’t. The idea of going to a part of the city that I am not familiar with and then finding the hospital, and patient’s room is always an intimidating process for me. If it’s not too far away and I have time I ride my bike there first so I know where I an going. I didn’t have time this week. I got out the map, checked the train route finder on how to get there.

I don’t know why I worry so much. I should have more confidence in myself. I found the hospital just fine. The new mother looked great and the baby is beautiful.