Christmas, New Years, St. Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan

Hi!

Let me catch you up on Christmas and New Years in Japan and then I will tell you about Valentine's Day and the very special Japanese holiday, White Day!

Christmas in Japan is quite different than it is in the US for many reasons. First, it's a secular holiday - it's a working business day as usual, which isn't a huge surprise since only about 1% of the population here is Christian. I've been told Christmas Eve and Christmas Night are big date nights for couples, like Valentine's Day is in America (and here in Japan). It is also a popular day to get married here. The biggest tradition the Japanese have for celebrating Christmas is they buy a big bucket of KFC, yes, I'm talking about good ol' Kentucky Fried Chicken, for dinner. You think I'm joking? I'm not! KFC has done some amazing magical marketing here and convinced the Japanese that this is something that Americans do on Christmas! They even dress the fiberglass statue of Colonel Sanders up in a Santa Claus costume! There are lines for blocks of people waiting to buy their bucket of extra crispy on Christmas afternoon. For dessert, the Japanese celebrate by eating Christmas Cake. This is usually a sponge-cake with a light, whipped cream frosting (nothing like the incredibly sweet stuff in the US) with strawberries on top. The strawberries is what makes it Christmas Cake, as it wouldn't be a Christmas Cake without them.

The three Js and Santa

While I personally really get a kick out of the Japanese Christmas traditions (not to mention, I love me some KFC!), we decided to keep our Christmas traditions as close to the ones in the US as we could this year.

It started on Christmas Eve when Joe took a half day off of work and we picked up the boys from school to go see Santa. Santa was incredibly hard to find this year. He only made a few appearances here, unlike in America where he is in every mall all day, every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, but we tracked him down nonetheless! We found him at a nice hotel on the other side of the city. I knew we had to get there early to avoid having to wait in line, but for once in Japan (ever!) we were able to see Santa without waiting. Jackson was so excited to see Mr. Claus and to tell him that he wanted a watch, a book with a fire truck, and a guitar. Jacob didn't want to tell him anything, even though he wanted the same (exact) things that Jackson wanted and also a shinkansen.

After visiting Santa and a walk around the neighborhood, we went to an all-Japanese Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. The wonderful thing about Catholic Mass is you always know what's going on no matter what language they are speaking. We really enjoyed it, along with probably around 2,000-3,000 other people. We even sang, or should I say, hummed a few Christmas songs! After church, we went back to the hotel where we saw Santa and enjoyed a delicious buffet of Japanese foods as well as Western foods.

St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo

The inside of the cathedral... Yes, those are concrete walls!

On Christmas morning, we all felt so much joy; Jackson and Jacob unwrapping their presents and playing with their toys and Joe and I watching them. In the afternoon, we were hosting 13 people at our house for a traditional American Christmas dinner so I got to work in the kitchen. Everything came together and we all had such a fantastic time. It was a few of our friends' first-ever Christmas celebration so it had to be extra special. Santa even dropped off stockings at our house for our guests! For our first-ever Christmas in Japan, it was one we will never forget.

J&J checking out their new police station

Jackson playing his new guitar

Most of our Christmas guests

Soba noodles with shrimp tempura on top

A week later, we celebrated New Years Eve and Day. New Years Day, shogatsu, is the most important holiday in Japan and it is celebrated like how we celebrate Christmas in the US - with family, food, and rest. Most businesses across the nation are closed from January 1st through the 3rd and very special food is prepared and eaten. One of my Japanese friends, Tomomi, cooked for us! It was amazing to see how each food is prepared and what the particular food stands for. Each food that you eat, signifies something in the new year. For instance, she made us soba noodles on New Years Eve, symbolizing longevity. She also taught us that the Japanese have another, more modern, tradition on New Years Eve and that is watching a television program, called "kohaku uta gassen" featuring Japan's most famous actors and actresses, television personalities, singers and "J-pop" bands. We turned it on and I could see why! Our friends pointed out all the celebrities on the show and the music was so entertaining!

Jackson and Jacob are enjoying the food!

A famous Japanese celebrity on kohaku uta gassen

Lots of celebs on the show!

Tomomi was really getting into it!

The show ended around 11:30pm so that everyone could go to the nearest Buddhist Temple. At midnight at every temple, a bell is rung 108 times, once for each of the 108 Buddhist sins. It is customary to go to three temples before returning home. The Japanese believe that New Years Day is best started by seeing the sun rise and then perhaps going to a Shinto Shrine and enjoying the rest of the day by relaxing and eating more delicious food. (I remember the tour guide on one of my beloved bus tours of Tokyo in August 2013 saying that of the approximately 7 million visitors Meiji Jingu, the biggest Shinto Shrine in Tokyo, gets all year, about half of those people visit in the first week of the year.)

We didn't visit any temples or shrines, my friend said it is difficult to do with small children, but we did relax and eat more amazing food on New Years Day. Tomomi made for us, osechi. Osechi is a beautiful box or boxes, called jubako, full of many different kinds of small Japanese foods, each with a special meaning for the new year. Our friends were gracious enough to bring over a book that described the significance of eating each food. I can't remember them all but I've described the ones I can in the pictures below. Besides being beautiful, all the food was so delicious! We also had sweet beans and mochi (pounded glutinous rice) for dessert. Thank you again, Tomomi! We had a wonderful time spending this special holiday with friends and (mostly) following Japanese tradition.

Our New Year's Day feast, Osechi

At the top: lotus root = enabling you to look through to the future
Below: fish = promotion at work

Shrimp (aren't these the biggest shrimp ever?!) = you will have a
long life until you get the curved back

Top middle: sweet chestnuts = wealth
Bottom middle: red and white (for Japan's signature colors)
kamaboko, which is kind of like a fish loaf, I guess? = good luck
Bottom right: black beans = enabling you to be healthy enough
to work hard at your job

Now on to Valentine's Day... Right after the New Years holiday, Valentine's Day or St. Valentine's Day, as it is typically referred to here, decorations, chocolates, and advertisements for special dinner sets starting showing up in all of the stores and restaurants. Valentine's Day here is another secular holiday like Christmas is, but a very big date night for couples, like it is in the US. A huge difference in the way the Japanese celebrate St. Valentine's Day though is that the women give their men chocolates and in return, they get... wait for it... Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. I know, right?! I was outraged, too, until I learned about the very special Japanese holiday, known as, White Day.

White Day, celebrated on March 14th, is a holiday in which women are celebrated. This is the day the men give gifts such as chocolates, flowers, and jewelry to the special ladies in their lives. I will let you know if White Day is all it's cracked up to be! ***Update: the value of the White Day gift is supposed to be three times as much as the gift the man received on Valentine's Day!***

I am having the time of my life learning about all of these Japanese customs and traditions and in turn, being able to share our American and Christian ones with my friends here.

Thank you so much for reading. I love you.

XOL

Kobe, Japan

Hi again!

Kobe Port Tower

Woo hoo! I'm so excited to tell you about Kobe!

We hopped on a train from Osaka to Kobe and were there in about 40 minutes. We easily found our hotel and although it seemed to be geared more towards businessmen and women, it was in such a great location! Chinatown was on one side of the hotel, two shopping districts on the other sides and a 15 minute walk to Kobe Harbor. We decided to check out the harbor first. We realized that our timing there was perfect to hop on a harbor boat tour so we did! After that, we walked around Harborland, a nice outdoor mall, and the boys rode the ferris wheel. From there, we walked back towards our hotel and through Chinatown. After that we decided to check out the mall across the street from the hotel. Too bad we weren't hungry (peko peko, in Japanese) in Chinatown because guess what we had to eat in the mall? Chinese food! It was our first time eating Chinese food in Japan and it was great! From there Jackson and I headed to Starbucks (2 doors down from this amazing hotel!) for a Mommy and Jackson Date while Daddy and Jacob went back to the room.

Kobe Port Tower and the Maritime Museum as seen from our boat tour

The ferris wheel in the harbor

I spy my boys!

Starbucks Date with this silly guy!

Jackson having fun with his shadow in the hotel room

On our second day in Kobe, my slave-driverish ways came out once again. There are two mountains that overlook Kobe and I decided we needed to stand on top of both of them. So, off we went! We started the day by taking a short train ride to the bottom of Mt. Maya. We took a cablecar halfway up and then a ropeway the second half. Jackson and Jacob thought we were flying! After looking out over Kobe for an hour or so, we began our hike to Mt Rokko.

Kobe from the top of Mt. Maya

As we passed a beautiful temple, we see a Swiss-looking structure coming up on our hike. We were all so curious to see what it was! Turns out, it was a pasture and cheese factory! We just had to see this! Inside the gates, were many sheep roaming free, as well as, cows, goats, horses and pigs. Of course we also visited the cheese factory where I had to try the cheese-flavored ice cream! It really did taste like cheese!

Rokkosan Pastures

Deer in Nara, Sheep in Kobe!

Jacob found a goat!

Jackson

After getting our fill of the farm, we started hiking again to Mt. Rokko. Well, it was about 15 minutes into the second-leg of the steep hike that we saw a bus stop! Why hike when you can take a bus? Besides that, it was getting dark and I think we had already walked 10-12 miles for the day! So, we took the bus to the top of Mt. Rokko, saw Kobe at dusk, and then took the cable car down. We rode a train to Harborland where we ate dinner at good ol' American Tony Roma's where Joe indulged in BBQ ribs and we both had a much-needed margarita. Tomorrow we go back to Tokyo.

Kobe Port Tower at night

Jacob giving a high-five to a Kobe cow
on the way back to the hotel

Our Shinkansen back to Tokyo

We had such a wonderful trip and saw some great parts of Japan. We continue to be awe-struck with everything Japan has to offer.

Stay tuned for our Christmas and New Year's fun next!

Thank you so much for reading. I love you.

XOL

Osaka and Nara

Hi there!

Here's the deal: Since I'm so far behind (again) I'm going to tell you about Osaka and Nara, Japan now and about Kobe, Japan in another post very soon and then I'm going to post about our Christmas and New Years we spent here in Tokyo, ok? Ok.

The view from our hotel room in Osaka

On to Osaka:

Osaka was the second destination on our week-long trip to Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Kobe in late November. We originally were going to go to Nara before Osaka but since we woke up to rain and all of the activities I had planned were outdoor activities, we decided to head to Osaka first. So, we got on the train and headed to Osaka, about a 45 minute ride from Kyoto. We arrived at our hotel, which was in the tallest building in Osaka. Our room was on the 55th floor out of a total of 57 floors. Being able to see the whole city from our hotel room window was such a treat! While I was ready to go out and see the city (in the rain), the boys were tired from the last few days of my slave-driving in Kyoto, so we decided to relax for the day. I went shopping in the lower levels of the building and the boys watched Japanese TV, which we all find entertaining even though we don't understand much of it. When it came to dinner time, we asked the concierge at the hotel what kind of food Osaka is known for. She immediately responded with, "kushiage" (pronounced ku-shee-ah-ge) and she recommended a restaurant called Kushinobo on the 13th floor of the same building. We went and checked it out. We discovered that kushiage is deep-fried food on a stick! We ordered an all-you-can-eat kushiage dinner and they bought us four sticks at a time of either fish, meat, or vegetables with five different sauces for dipping - all so delicious! I think we ended up being served about 28 sticks of food before we said we were full! What a fun dining experience for all of us!

Jackson and I enjoying our kushiage

The next morning, we were off to Nara! Another 45 minute train ride and we arrived. A 5-10 minute walk from the station brought us to Nara Park where we were able to interact with the famous Nara Deer who have been inhabiting the park for over a thousand years! We were so apprehensive as first, as the deer we know in Colorado and South Dakota, are not ones you want to mess with, but these ones were so friendly! The boys we able to pet them and we even bought crackers from a nearby vendor to feed them! They didn't have antlers, we're not sure why, so besides the occasional nudge or nip when they knew we had a cracker, they were harmless and fun to be around. Again, it was an "only-in-Japan" great experience for all of us.

Jackson thought the deer were pretty cool!

Jackson feeding a Nara deer

Jacob feeding a deer

The boys feeding more deer

Jacob was so proud he got to pet a deer!

Next, we walked about 15-20 minutes to Todaiji Temple, a world heritage site, which is home to the world's largest wooden Buddha. The Buddha was so big with a height of 14.98m or 48.91ft standing on a lotus-petal pedestal of 3.05m or 10ft, but because he was inside the Temple and behind a wooden gate, it was hard trying to figure out just how big he was since there wasn't anything to compare him to... Until, we rounded the corner to exit the Temple and we saw a wooden pillar with a hole in the bottom of it. As Jackson and Jacob started crawling through the hole, we read that it is the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils! I guess that is one big Buddha!

Todaiji Temple

The world's largest wooden Buddha

J&J crawling through the nostril-sized hole
And you thought the Buddha's nostrils looked small, right??

Heehee, couldn't resist posting this one

On our way back to the train station, we noticed a park with the most beautiful trees. We couldn't pass up an opportunity to snaps a few pics. Here are a few of my favorites:

The silly boys

This couple not only wanted a picture of our children,
they wanted to be in the picture as well!

Having fun with my favorite guys

After returning to Osaka from Nara, we went to the areas of Namba and Dotonbori which are neighborhoods of Osaka with hundreds or maybe thousands of restaurants, bars, and stores. After leisurely walking around for a couple of hours, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel.

A few neon advertisements, restaurants
and stores in Dotonbori

The entrance to Dotonbori

The Glico Man and other neon illuminations along the river
in the Dotonbori district, Osaka

That sums up our time in Osaka and Nara!

Onto Kobe next!

Thank you so much reading. I love you.

XOL

Kyoto

Happy Holidays!

Beautiful foliage at Toji Temple

My hope is to post to this blog once a week, but it's turning out to be more like once a month, BOO! It's almost resolution time... any guessing as to what one of mine will be?

Ok! Kyoto! Jackson and Jacob had a week off from school over Thanksgiving so I forced Joe to take a few days off also, basically so the boys and I wouldn't go crazy at the house or figuring out what to do around Tokyo. We had an amazing week on our trip and a fantastic time at our first destination, Kyoto. We arrived around 2pm and instead of resting and relaxing in our great little hotel room near the station, this "slave driver" as Joe lovingly referred to me, found the nearest Buddhist Temple and off we went. We found Toji Temple, which was beautiful. As one of my friends stated, "we hit the timing perfectly" to see all of the beautiful red, orange and yellow foliage. We saw a huge five-story pagoda and other ancient structures there, all were breathtaking among the beautiful backdrop of not only the trees, but ponds full of koi and zen gardens also. Very zen, indeed.

Five-story pagoda at Toji Temple

One of the koi ponds at Toji Temple

After that, we walked in the direction of an aquarium and a locomotive museum only to come across a massive park called Umekoji Park that housed them both. There were hundreds of kids playing on the playground equipment and running around and even I, the slave driver, couldn't resist letting our boys join in on the fun. They loved one slide in particular and it was a lot of fun for Joe and I too, watching them interact with the other children and with each other, looking out for one another, while going up and then down that slide.

J&J on the slide at Umekoji Park

Just as we were all getting hungry, we spotted a restaurant called Bossche. The sign outside said, "Bossche" obviously and it also said, Frenth Toast. That's not a typo. Frenth. Yes, oh yes, that is the place we are eating tonight! We thought it was hilarious, while being very grateful to Bossche for having any English on the sign at all; whether it be French Toast or Frenth Toast, we knew it was going to be good! No surprise, it was! And the boys loved eating Frenth Toast for dinner, too.

Best Frenth Toast ever!

Day 2 in Kyoto began with a bus ride to the beautiful Ginkakuji Temple. I think Ginkakuji Temple was my favorite temple of the whole trip. It was so breathtakingly beautiful with all the red Japanese Maple leaves, the perfectly manicured zen gardens, the ponds, the bamboo, the moss-covered rocks; oh my gosh, I really could go on and on. Two college-age guys approached us and asked if they could give us a tour of the temple since it would give them a chance to practice their English. Since we wanted to learn more about Ginkakuji Temple and we are all about helping students better themselves academically (on a Sunday!), of course we said, sure! Feast your eyes...

The beautiful grounds of Ginkakuji Temple

I found Mt. Fuji in Kyoto!

More of the gardens

A mossy pathway at Ginkakuji Temple

Bamboo graden at Ginkakuji Temple

The Temple through the trees

Us with our awesome tour guides and Ginkakuji Temple

From Ginkakuji Temple, a World Heritage Site, we walked roughly 1.75 miles on "Philosopher's Walk" seeing two more temples along the way. We passed by Eikan-do Temple and briefly stopped at Nanzen-ji Temple. The thing about hitting the timing perfectly to see the beautiful Fall colors is that, everyone else wants to see them at that time too! So the path that was Philosopher's Walk was really crowded! While the walk was very pretty, it wasn't exactly the serene experience we were hoping for.

All of us on Philosopher's Walk

After that, we caught a train to the modern Gion shopping area and walked along blocks and blocks of covered streets lined with shops.

Gion

After eating some lunch and exploring Gion, we walked to Kyoto Station which, which had a giant Christmas tree lit up and an illumination on 12 stories of outdoor stairs. It was so cool! From there, we walked toward our hotel and found a delicious ramen shop nearby... dinner!

Kyoto Tower near Kyoto Station

Merry Xmas from Kyoto!

The illumination on the stairs at Kyoto Station

We began day 3 in Kyoto similar to day 2 in that we hopped on a bus from Kyoto Station. This time we headed about an hour north to Sanzen-in Temple. The quaint pathway from the bus station to Sanzen-in Temple was lined with shops selling homemade jams and pickles, Japanese souvineirs, and Buddhist prayer beads and cafes serving traditional Japanese foods like steaming hot udon noodles, tempura, rice and mochi, which is hammered rice made into like gummy dough balls. So good! There was even a post office that sold special stamps! Pen pals, look be on the lookout for some fancy new stamps! We had a nice time at this temple taking off our shoes and entering the simple temple and then exploring the grounds. I loved all the little Buddha statues hidden under the moss. There were also rows and rows of small statues of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of compassion, that I thought were really cool.

Gazing at the pretty zen garden from the Sanzen-in Temple

Jacob and Jackson's zen moment at the Sanzen-in Temple

Little Buddhas in the moss and leaves

Statues of Avalokitesvara

After taking the bus back to Kyoto Station, we realized there are only so many zen gardens that a two year old and a three year old can take. Kicking and picking up pebbles are usually no big deal where ever we are, except in a zen garden obviously where everything is perfect thanks to hours and hours of hard work by meticulous Buddhist monks. (We are sorry for messing up your gardens, Buddhist monks!) So, we decided to take the boys to the park again. After all, it's their vacation, too! Boy, they had a great time.

My zen moment at Umekoji Park

It's on to Osaka next.

Thank you so much for reading. I love you.

XOL