It's about time I rounded up a few months' worth of pictures that I never got around to blogging. Partly I was busy, and partly I temporarily lost interest in blogging and organizing my pictures because of camera trouble. It's been broken a few times, once needing to be sent to Pentax for repairs, and the other times magically fixing itself after a few days of not working. It is definitely getting old and I should buy a new camera soon, but after a bit of research none of Pentax's newer compact digital cameras appeal to me. And yet I love this one so much that I am loathe to buy a different brand. I do have my phone camera, which really comes in handy when my real camera is acting up, but it's just not the same.
Anyway, here are a bunch of random pictures from a bunch of random occasions:
I took my husband out for high tea at the Park Hyatt for his birthday in August. It's a great deal: about 3000 yen gets you as much tea as you can drink, a three-tiered tea tray with finger sandwiches, scones, and cakes, and waitresses coming round offering as many sweet and savoury nibblies as you like. Served in the hotel's Peak Lounge, which is handsome enough with its high glass ceilings, oversized washi lamps and live bamboo, but being up on the forty-first floor it has super views of the city as well. And apparently Mt. Fuji too, but every time I've been the weather has been overcast (my parents are convinced that Fuji is a figment of Japan's collective imagination, as they never got to see it when they came to Japan, despite visiting plenty of Mt. Fuji viewing spots).
The birthday boy loved it, and so did I. The tea was excellent, with exotic-- at least to me-- Indian names and plenty of traditionally complicated contraptions to brew it with. There was also coffee for those who don't quite get the concept of "high tea". The cakes and nibblies were all very nice but the perfect little scones were amazing, and came with clotted cream and a wonderfully tart jam (black currant maybe?). And the sandwiches-- I really regretted eating them so quickly, because they were so good they should have been saved for last. And now without a picture I can't remember what they were. Well I'm sure I'll get to try them again-- Hideaki's next birthday is just nine months away!
We meant to walk around Shinjuku and go window shopping or something, but it was so hot that we just headed home, taking a few pictures on the way. I haven't really been to this area of Tokyo since my friend Krista visited, and before that my parents. They all stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel nearby, so walking around the area really brought back memories. I hope they come back soon.
Behind me is Tocho (the Metropolitan Government Building) and behind Hideaki above is the Park Hyatt, as impressive on the outside as it is inside.
In the beginning of September I was invited to a party held by a student of mine. She herself teaches English, and the party was held for her students in order to give them a chance to speak and listen to English. As they only study reading, they don't get many chances to converse in English or to listen to a native speaker. I was asked to give a speech, along with the other three folks in the first row, which is something I haven't done since probably high school. I am terribly afraid of public speaking (although I have no problem teaching, which is odd), and even avoided a speech at my own wedding. But I chose a good topic (food: something I love and everyone can relate to) and did a bit of preparation, and amazingly I didn't suck. It also helped that I had a very kind audience. Perhaps they were too nice, because I liked it so much that I kind of want to try it again. Maybe.
This was taken at the park just across the street from our apartment building. There are two water fountains with shallow pools which are usually packed with little kids but for some reason were empty that day. Usually we avoid it going in the water because we figure that it has to be at least forty percent kid pee, but this time it looked safe so we jumped in and got our feet wet. It was very nice for about 30 seconds, and then just as I was taking this picture Captain Meanie started yelling at us. Captain Meanie is one of the park's security guards/caretakers, and I've never once seen him smile. He'll be patrolling the fountain area on a beautiful sunny day, watching dozens of happy laughing children splashing in the water, and his scowl never fades. Anyway, it seems we were supposed to take our shoes off before entering the water, and even after we both apologized and took our shoes off he just stood there glaring at us without saying a word. It creeped us out so much that we got out and headed into the park, and every time we turned around he was still looking at us. I wonder why he chose his line of work.
Later on I took a picture of the road separating the two parks near our place. The one on the right is in Tokyo (the same park with the fountain in the picture above), and the one on the left is in Saitama. So we're just barely in Tokyo. Incidentally, the guys who work in the Saitama park are all really nice and all greet me back when I say good morning or hello, and even say "Gambatte!" ("Do your best" or "Keep at it") when they see me on a power walk.
Here is a meal I had while doing some substitute teaching work in Yokohama. There were plenty of restaurants nearby, all of which were packed during the lunch hour. The only place without a line was a small Japanese tea parlour, which had just a few lunch options. The one I chose was perfect: miso soup, a small thick omelet, pickles tea and sakura-ebi gohan (rice cooked with tiny shrimp, whose colour turned the rice pink). The rice was delicious and I'm going to have to try making it myself soon.
While I was in Canada this summer Hideaki discovered a local udon noodle shop, and he finally got around to taking me there in September. I had tempura mori-udon: cold udon with a soy-based broth for dipping, and tempura: shrimp, shiso (perilla leaf), chickuwa (fish paste) and kaki-age (finely sliced root vegetables). It was pretty good, and we'll be back-- it's rare for a restaurant to get both the tempura and the noodles right.
In October we met Hideaki's sister and her family for lunch in Ebisu. Afterwords we headed to Ebisu Garden Place, where my niece Marya tried to carry her stroller up all the stairs. She's at that age where kids start testing their independence and getting possessive, and while she grudgingly allowed her parents to help, she wouldn't let either Hideaki or I even touch her stroller. So we just kind of stood around looking useless while Marya lugged her equipment up and down every stair in the place (and there are a lot of stairs there).
There was some kind of shodo (calligraphy) event going on, and we got to try it out on postcards. It was much harder than I thought-- I suck at writing Japanese, and with a brush and ink it seems I'm even worse. Plus, this was "art shodo", where you are supposed to be creative and artistic and expressive and all that. So everyone told me to stop worrying and forget the rules of writing kanji, and just write how I felt. But that's not easy to do when you barely know what the rules are in the first place. So not surprisingly my postcards sucked, but everyone else did a great job.
Hisashi's was the best. It's the kanji for kind or gentle, and is used in Marya's name. Atsuko and Marya chose the kanji for will or aspiration.
Mine means grace or blessing (not necessarily in the religious sense) and Hideaki's kanji means thought. We had to leave one postcard to be displayed in a temporarily gallery and take the other home, where mine went straight to the trash.
Walking around the there were pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns everywhere, much to the delight of Marya. She couldn't stop hugging this one.
We spent the night at their place and in the morning were treated to this: the biggest breakfast I've had in a very long time. It was all delicious and I hate to think about what time Atsuko had to wake up to make it all.
Marya ate an impressive amount, but was mostly interested in the lemons (meant as a garnish for the fish). She loves sour things and happily sucks on raw lemons-- first time I've seen a kid do that.
This is the face she makes when she eats them. It makes you wonder if she really does like lemons, but she always keeps eating them so I guess she does.
She likes to play doctor, using her daddy's stethoscope to check up on all of her stuffed pals.
She had been trying to avoid brushing her teeth, so Hideaki decided to play dentist to see if she had any interest.
She did, and soon after finally consented to having her own teeth brushed. Yay for uncle Hide! But poor Atsuko and Hisashi-- seems like tough work raising a toddler!
We've had a lot of warm sunny days, perfect for relaxing in the park. Lots of other people agree, and a few weeks ago it was full of families playing games and picnicking.
The leaves were just starting to turn, but it was still warm enough to lie on the grass and take a nap. Probably our last outdoor snooze of the year.
After a lazy day at the park I wasn't in the mood for much cooking, so I put together a meal of onigiri (rice balls) with salmon; soup with cabbage, sausages, shiitake and chikuwa-bu (wheat gluten); spinach dressed with sesame; and store-bought napa cabbage pickles.
And now my camera seems to be better so hopefully the posts will be a little more regular than they have been.
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