Be My Valentine… Here’s Your Chocolate

14 Feb 2012 2 Comments

by Birdie in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Valentine’s Day in States in my eyes:  the prices of roses rise, the heart-shaped boxes full of chocolates appear in various shops, there are specials on jewelry, packages of Valentine’s cards can be found on store shelves.  The day is one for guys and girls to share their love and affection with one another.

Zipping over to Valentine’s Day in Japan… it’s a VERY different story!

Though Valentine’s Day was introduced in the late 50’s, it wasn’t until about 1970 that it became somewhat well-known.  The confectionery companies in Japan decided this would be a day when women could express their feelings to men they liked/loved by giving a gift of chocolate.

Remember… this was way back when during a decade when Japanese women were rather shy.  Not to say there aren’t shy women here now, but the younger generation has become somewhat “Westernized” and they are more vocal about their feelings, opinions and such.  🙂

So anyway… as a child, I remember the department stores and little gift shops filling their shelves with cute boxes of chocolates, decorated in a way that was appealing to women, yet, were given to men.  And ONLY from women to men!  Then another confectionery company came up with the idea of “White Day” (March 14th), but we’ll get into that explanation in a month.  🙂

Fast forward to 2012… the customs for this chocolate-filled day haven’t changed very much.  I guess the slight changes in recent years have been these additions:

  • “Giri-choco” – Chocolates given to male co-workers and classmates, not because of romantic feelings but because you feel obliged to do so.
  • “Honmei-choco” – Ones given to a guy whom you truly like/love.
  • “Tomo-choco” – Ones given to female friends as a sign of friendship.

A friend who has a flower shop told me that their business has a new trend… sending flowers has become popular from a couple of years back.  When I told her how it is in the U.S., she said, “It would be AWESOME if that happened here!”

Can’t really say that one way is good and the other is bad… just that it’s different.

Does anyone out there have any special memories of Valentine’s Day?  (Good or bad…)

One for me is from middle school.  I was unsure of the relationship I was in at the time and was thinking of breaking up with my boyfriend… it was right around Valentine’s Day.  Thought to break up on that day was too cruel, so I broke up with him the next day.  (I know, I know… that’s just as bad.)  Had the chance to apologize to him about it recently… funny thing is he didn’t remember it was the day after and wondered why I was worried about it all these years later.  🙂

Anyway… I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day regardless of how you celebrate the day!  (Ours here in Japan will be over in about 2 more minutes…)

Russian Roulette with Wasabi…

13 Feb 2012 3 Comments

by Birdie in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Well, I was planning on writing about something totally different tonight… funny how subjects can change from hour to hour!  🙂

I met one of my really good friends this evening before my final English class.  The class is a group of oral surgeons and they all work at a university hospital.  My friend had recently made a website for their department and wanted to go with me tonight to take some homemade Valentine’s sweets for them.

(By the way, tomorrow I’ll explain about how Valentine’s Day is here in Japan.  Stay tuned!)

Anyway, my friend thought it would be fun to add wasabi to one of the sweets and see who would be the “winner.”  (Wasabi is a VERY hot mustard-like paste that you sometimes find on sushi.)

There were four of us tonight and there were a total of 18 sweet potato tarts.  The three of them took one each as I took a picture of the sweets and the doctors… all three ate the ones they had chosen, half holding their breath and chewing, waiting to see if the flavor in their mouths was going to change. Their expressions turned to ones of relief.

So, it was my turn.  There were still 15 to choose from.  Looking from one to the next, I selected one that appeared rather normal.  (Then again, they ALL looked “normal”!!  ha ha ha)

As the other three focused intently, I brought the tart to my mouth and took a sniff… uh, oh… it was too late though and I took a bite.  Chewing, chewing, chewing… all I could taste was sweet potato and the sweetness of the tart cup.

Then it happened!  That familiar sting in the nasal passage!  I let out an “Ugh!” and the others started laughing.  Instead of putting the rest down, I ate it… guess I didn’t want to be labeled a loser.  🙂

So, that was my Russian Roulette-kind-of-day!  My students said that must mean that I’m going to have a lucky year.

All I know is that my sinuses are clear for the time being!  🙂

The Heavens have gained another beautiful voice…

12 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Birdie in Life, Music, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook hasn’t been accessed yet, but one can only imagine that it’s filled with posts about the passing of Whitney Houston.  When I saw the Internet news on AOL about her, my heart sank.  And, you know, it was shocking to see that she was only 48 years old.

Just days before the Grammy Awards… people must be scrambling to change the flow of the show, celebrations might be quieter, lights might be dimmer…

(Sorry… I feel like I’m just rambling.  So many feelings dashing around in my heart.)

Reading one article, there was a video of her last performance… according to the article anyway.  Whitney was singing “Amazing Grace” with someone else.  A part of me was startled hearing her raspy, gravelly, almost unrecognizable voice… yet another part of me was comforted hearing that oh-so-familiar warmth and tenderness as she sang.

The first time I ever heard her voice was the duet she sang with Jermaine Jackson, “Take Good Care of My Heart”.  (Way back in 1984.)  Had bought the record and fell in love with that song AND her voice.  Then she came out with her own album the next year.

No matter how she lead her life, no matter what choices she made, we are all blessed that she shared her amazing voice and talent with us.

Ms. Houston, may you rest in peace…

Monsters and Fairy Tales…

12 Feb 2012 3 Comments

by Birdie in Childhood, Life, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

My childhood bedroom… stuffed animals, tons of books on the shelves, a poster of Leif Garrett, other posters of characters from fairy tales, one with my favorite singing duo, Pink Lady.  Sounds like a typical little girl’s room, right?  Well, I also had a BIG poster of Dracula, a smaller poster of Frankenstein and a glow in the dark poster of King Kong!  🙂

For some reason I had the biggest fascination with monsters.  If there was a book about monsters or movie creatures in the Scholastic book order from school, there was a HUGE check mark next to it.  (The time I got a monster-related poster with the order, talk about being filled with elation!!)

You could ask me questions about Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and I had ALL the answers!  (Yes, very strange little girl…)

But the fascination didn’t stop there.  One of my favorite Japanese cartoons was (and still is) Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro.  (Not sure if it has an English title or not.)  Loved all the monsters in the Ultraman series, loved Godzilla, all the odd creatures in the Kamen Rider shows.  (Loved them all, yet at the same time, I was quite scared of them, too.)

Wonder if anyone else out there liked/likes monsters?  Anyone?  Anyone?  🙂

The Joys of Jazz and Children’s Voices…

10 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by Birdie in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

The first part of this year has been filled with music sung by my English students.  (Hence today’s title.)

Last month, one of the kindergartens had a recital.  My students (ages 5 and 6) put on short plays, sang songs and played various instruments.  For the final number, they sang two songs I had taught them in class… one was a New Year’s song done to the melody of “Happy Birthday” and the other was “I Can Sing a Rainbow.”

Then a couple of days ago, I was invited to a concert held by one of my private students.  She’s a jazz vocalist and has just released her very first CD.  We’ve worked together to improve her pronunciation since most of the songs she sings on a daily basis are jazz songs in English.

As I stood and watched both performances, I was so proud of all of them… maybe how a parent would feel watching their child up there on the stage, singing their hearts out.  (Can’t be sure since I don’t have any children of my own, but maybe it was something close to that feeling.)

The children were singing as best as they could, not once stumbling over the words, smiles on their little faces.  A couple of them saw me as the song went on and I tried my best to hide the tears that were beginning to tumble down my cheeks.  They were adorable!

My jazz singer student, Mayumi, was simply amazing!  Song after song, she’d slide into the melodies and I found myself holding my breath a couple of times when I knew a difficult phrase (pronunciation-wise) was coming up.  If she was feeling the same way, no one would’ve known because she didn’t break a sweat.

I’ve always known that music has the wonderful power of healing, but during those two performances, it’s as if I was taught that lesson all over again.

Music really does make the world a better place…

 

88 and Looking Great…

09 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Birdie in Life, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

My main job is teaching conversational English to anyone who is interested.  There are group classes and private classes… classes at one elementary school and two kindergartens, three community centers and two hospitals.

My youngest student just turned two.  (Yes, it’s a bit more like babysitting.  🙂 )  My oldest student… well, he is the reason for today’s title… he will be 88 this year!

Mr. Hashiguchi is a character!  He grew up in Nagasaki, studied English in junior high, didn’t have to go to fight in WWII but had to watch a lot of his friends go and never saw them again, worked in the black market for a time in Tokyo, realized that wasn’t the path to be taking, moved back to Kyushu, worked on some of the U.S. military bases, then got a job working for the city.

What a life, right?

After he retired, he decided he wanted to study English.  He started taking a class locally and it was soon after that that I met him.  (Just happened I was asked to take over the class he was in.)

Mr. Hashiguchi not only studies and writes a diary in English every day, he takes a haiku class (and has had some of them published in a local paper), he was taking a computer class until just recently… he walks every morning for about an hour and loves watching the sumo tournaments on TV.

He loves fried chicken and drinks some beer and 3 small glasses of shochu every night.  (Shochu is a type of Japanese liquor.)  Whenever we have a class party and he starts drinking, he’ll always start singing songs like “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Old Black Joe”.  (Songs he learned in junior high… and trust me when I say he remembers ALL the words for ALL the verses!)

I hope that if I live to be 88, I’ll be enjoying life as much as he does!  Here’s to my Japanese “grandpa”, Mr. Hashiguchi!  🙂

No Bubbles in this Bathtub…

08 Feb 2012 6 Comments

by Birdie in Japanese Life/Culture/Customs, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s the middle of winter.  The day has been extremely cold, snowflakes being whipped around by the chilling wind.  You finally get home to a freezing house (no central air/heat in Japanese houses)… what’s the first thing you want to do?  Take a hot and relaxing bath!!

If you’ve ever been to Japan and have had the opportunity to stay in a Japanese home or at a Japanese-style inn, you’ve probably taken an “ofuro”… the Japanese way of taking a bath.  (“The ONLY way to take a bath!” I’ve heard my mother say.)  🙂

Thought I’d add a picture to help with the explanation.  This is a room which is completely separate from the toilet.  The toilet is usually in a smaller room, all on it’s own.  Before you go into the bathtub area, there is another space/room which is the changing area.  In some homes, this space is where the washing machine is and there’s usually a sink where you’d wash your face, brush your teeth, etc.

From there, you’d go into the bathtub area.  In this space, you can get as crazy as you want with the water and it won’t matter!  As you can see in the picture, that space next to the tub is where you wash yourself.  There’s a special seat (See the one with a hole in it?  That’s the chair.) and there are special basins that you use to dip the hot water out of the bathtub to wash and rinse.  And, of course, there’s a shower head for those who want to simply take a quick shower before soaking.

Now, the bathtub itself is now always very long.  (In many cases, the older the house, the shorter the tub.)  But the tubs are quite deep, so much so that when you sit in the tub, the hot water would be at shoulder-level or a little higher… unless many others have taken a bath before you.

Yes, you read that correctly!  Everyone in the house uses that same water to soak in.  (It’s not like everyone’s washing themselves in the same water since they should be clean by the time they get in the tub.)

The tub has a heating unit, so that if the water begins to get lukewarm, you can heat it up again without having to add more hot water.  Pretty neat, right?  But, because of this heating unit, it’s a no-no to have a bubble bath.  (The soap messes up the components of the unit.)

A place for rest and relaxation... but no bubbles, please!

You may notice in the photo that the water is not clear.  Well, there are special powders which you can add to the water to help you relax.  They come in various scents (types of trees, flowers, etc.) and in various colors.  There are types which are said to help aching muscles and others that are supposed to help warm the body from the core and keep you that way throughout the night.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I hope you can experience taking a bath Japanese-style.  Everyone deserves to take an authentic “ofuro” at least once in their lifetime!  🙂

Mr. Sandman is calling my name…

03 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Birdie in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

It’s almost 1am for me here in southern Japan.  Would have loved to have gotten home from walking the dog, brushed my teeth and gone straight to bed… instead, I got in the bed, turned on the computer and here I am!  =)

I’m not the best at keeping up when starting new things.  In Japan, I’m what people would call “mikka bouzu”.  Literally translated, it means to be a monk for three days.  In other words, one gives up on something as soon as there’s a bump in the road… or after three days.  =)

Getting in the bed, I glanced over at my laptop and debated for a moment.  It would be SO easy to just crawl under the covers and go straight to sleep, BUT the “mikka bouzu” part of me would win once again.  Even writing a few sentences would keep me in the “blogging everyday” game.

Apologies for the lack of content… Mr. Sandman really is calling my name and now the cats are gathering to find a warm spot for the night under the covers.

Last but not least, a big shout-out to all of you “mikka bouzus” out there.  Please don’t give up on new things you’ve started!  You can accomplish what you’ve started… trust me, if I can do it, you definitely can, too!!  =)

 

A New Year Has Begun!

02 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Birdie in Uncategorized

Akemashite omedetou! (As we would say here in Japan…)

There were so many things I wanted to write about around Christmas time, but I actually had plans for Christmas last year. (A very unusual thing for me in recent years.)

So, the Year of the Rabbit has begun… 2011 is here. Still haven’t decided on a resolution for this year yet. I wonder what would be good?

One year was to work on my weight, one year was to work on being conscious of thanking people and also saying, “You’re welcome.” One year was to work on being a bridge and connecting people.

I guess I could continue all of these year after year and keep adding another one.

Hmm… let’s see… I have so many dreams and ideas for things. (Writing a children’s book, starting an Internet business, creating a job where I could travel back and forth between Japan and the U.S. and the list goes on.)

So, for this year, I want to work hard to make one of those things reality. Not sure which it will be yet, but one of them at least. AND to stay happy and do my best to make others around me happy!!

Because life is all about love and joy and smiles… right? =)

The “scary” age

22 Dec 2010 4 Comments

by Birdie in Uncategorized

I’m watching the end of a “Sex and the City” episode. Carrie and Miranda were just talking to one another about the “scary” age… the age that they feel they need to have a child by. (BTW, one of them said 43 and the other said 45.)

I turned 40 this year.

Back when I was married, I thought I’d be the mother of a couple of kids by the time I was 40. We did want kids. Being the youngest siblings in both of our families, we had lots of brothers and sisters to advise us to wait for a few years after marriage… saying that we needed our time to be a couple before welcoming a new life into the family… since a child would be a BIG change and that would be the end of “couple time” for many years.

So, we talked about it and decided that we’d wait for about 5 years. We did that then started trying, only to find that my hormones were completely out of balance. Then the trips and treatments at the OB/GYN clinic started.

A lot of that time period is a BIG blur, thanks to a fun thing called depression. (I could write many, many entries on that topic alone!) As it turned out… after years of hormone shots and pokes and prodding… depression was the cause of the hormone imbalance.

Needless to say, the depression ended and so did the marriage.

Okay, back to the “scary” age.  I guess mine used to be 35. (My mom was around that age when she had me.) When I actually turned 35, it felt strange. At 35, my mom had four kids, had been married for almost 13 years, and was about to move back to Japan with my dad and the rest of us. At 35, I had a boyfriend that was going to be an ex-bf by the end of the year, had five cats, and was feeling restless and confused about what to do with my life.

So… fast forward to age 40.  My “scary” age has passed. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been before and recently came to this realization: If I never have a child, that’s okay. I have seven nephews and nieces… so many of my good friends have kids and/or are now having kids of their own. I’m down to four cats now and though you can’t teach them to read and write or do chores, they do talk back from time to time.

Life is good… and no “scary” age in sight. =)

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