Our daughter's a teacher?

Tonight instead of Myla listening to us and learning from us she was the teacher and tried to teach me something. We were lying in bed next to each other (we are trying to introduce her to a bigger bed to get her used to the idea so we can maybe get one for her this summer) and trying to go to sleep.
Myla doesn't lay real still and was moving around playing with her hands. She played with her hair a little bit and then with her nose. After doing this she pointed at my nose. I wasn't sure exactly what she wanted until she grabbed my finger and moved it up until it was firmly secure in my left nostril. Happy with what she showed me, she did the same thing and we laid there for a few seconds as if we were two peas in a pod. Since we were trying to go to sleep I didn't want to laugh out loud but it was hard to hold it back as I really got a kick out of this. Good work little girl.
So, if you see me with my finger in my nose in the next few weeks you'll know its because I had a great teacher and don't want to let her down from the lesson I learned.

How do you date

Like many things, differnet places in the world do things differently: dates are no different.
In the U.S. if you were going to write January 10, 2013 you would write 1-10-13.
 
If you were to live in Europe you would write it as 10-1-13 (If you just moved to Europe and you didn't know there was a difference you could end up wondering why a grocery store would sell products that were way past their expiration date - when they would indeed be fine).
Here in Japan it is different yet, here they start with the year and then go to the month and day. You would write the same date I mentioned before as 2013-1-10.

Something you may never think of when you think of another country but something I thought was worth sharing.

Instruction sheet revisited

If you read the post  Lets Make a Deal - Japanese Style you noticed an instruction sheet that I included as one of the pictures, I just thought I needed to point out one of the instructions, just in case you may have missed it.

Normally when you come across a sign that tells you not to do something it is referring to a pretty common behavior. For example you may see this sign:

This sign is telling people not to smoke as smoking is a fairly common thing for many people and without the sign people would continue to smoke in that place.
This is also true for parking:
 
Without this sign people would continue about normally and park in this location as driving a car and parking are normal behaviors.
This also holds true for other normal behaviors that aren't allowed at certain times like, no flash photography, no food or drink, no skateboards, no diving, etc...

With keeping that in mind, that there needs to be signs to help people refrain from certain behaviors that otherwise would be normal, lets take a look back at the instruction sheet for how to use a Western style toilet.
Please direct your attention to the lower right hand box:

Um.........?
Yes, please refrain from getting into a 4 point poochie pose and relieving yourself like Fido would. Thank you.

If I ever were to walk into a bathroom and see something that resembled this I think I don't think I would be able to go anywhere for the next 5 minutes. I would be rolling around on the ground, like something got me, as my stomach would be cramping from laughing so hard.

Actually....now that I think about it I understand why this is on the instruction sheet. The guy obviously forgot to lower his trousers as the sign doesn't say anything about that and is going to wet them. Good thing this saved him and he can continue on and go back to business as usual.

Japanese Pooper Scooper

Here in Japan things are very clean. Even though it seems as though you hardly ever see a garbage can there is almost no litter on the sidewalks/side of the street. Another thing you never see is doggy doo-doo. Like many places around the world the people here clean up after their 4 legged friends, only their technique seems to be a little different.
 
In the states I have seen people pull a plastic bag out of their pocket, put their hand inside of it and grab the droppings. Then flip the bag inside-out and tie it off so they never actually have to touch the mess with their bare hands and let the bag do all the work. Or, if you wanted to go the fancy route, you could go online and buy a Pooper scooper - a dustpan/shovel looking deal that picks it up for you, eliminating the need for any hand-to-hand combat.
Here in Japan the same thing happens, only the technique is a little different. Here you take the plastic bag out of your pocket but instead of waiting for the dog to finish, you pretend your hand is a baseball glove and catch whatever comes out before it ever comes in contact with the ground. The first time I saw this I couldn't believe my eyes, as I had never seen or heard of anything like it before, but I have since seen it again (only the second time the lady used nothing more than a small tissue - stuck her hand straight out and grabbed it like she was a 3-time gold glove winner. I was at a stop light so I got a good look at what was going on and the technique she was using).
 
I wasn't able to get a picture of this so I tried to find one on the internet - instead of finding what I was looking for I found this: another Japanese way to clean up after your dog.
(Due to the graphic nature of this picture - children please ask your parents before looking any further)

Instead of having to do any of the dirty work - you strap this contraption on your dog like a collar and when your dog goes the expandable tube gets bigger as it is filled and is ready to be tossed when your dog is done.
Not a bad idea - but I got to thinking, how much must you hate to pick up dog poop to design a full-body-accordian-syle-expandable-poop-catching-dog-harness? Think your dog will ever wear one of these?

White Day

Today - March 14th is white day. If you read the post about Valentines Day here in Japan you know that it is a day for the ladies to give men gifts. Well, White day is the day where the men return the favor. If a man received a gift from a woman on Valentines day, whether it was a honmei-choco (本命チョコ^?, "chocolate of love") or giri-choco (義理チョコ^?, "courtesy chocolate") they are expected to give something back to the person they received their gift from.
I also read somewhere that the typical gift should be 2 to 3 times the cost of the Valentine's gift. (so, ladies if you participate in this way of celebrating Valentine's it would benefit you to spend a little cash as your return gift could be SWEET).
Typical white day gifts include: jewelry, marshmallows, white chocolate, white lingerie, cookies, or a combination of aforemetioned gifts.
This holiday was first celebrated in 1978 and was started, like many holidays in the States that people say are Hallmark holidays, by the National Confectionery Industry Association as a way for men to pay back the women that gave them gifts a month earlier.
 
So, guys even if you don't live in Japan, maybe you could surprise you hunny and bring her a gift for White Day. I am sure she would enjoy the surprise and you could tell her that you are celebrating a Japanese custom and wow her with your worldly knowledge and expertise, not to mention charm.

How to answer the phone

Just like different countries have different languages they also have different ways of answering the phone.
In english in the states, many people answer the phone by saying "hello."
In Austria people answer the phone by saying their last name
Here in Japan people answer the phone by saying Moshi Moshi (just like the Mario Brothers character yoshi only with an M instead of a Y) - Many times it sounds like Moshi Mosh

So, next time you answer the phone maybe try and switch it up a little and see if the person on the other end thinks any thing of it.

A pink elephant?

If you have seen any pictures from our team or know anything about the Chiba Jets, you know that our mascot is a big pink elephant.
 
I don't know if you can see from the picture but the elephant, Jumbo (the mascot's name), has old school pilots glasses on the top of its head - which makes sense since we are the Jets. But why the pink elephant? At first we just thought it was a random pink elephant, but this past week I found out otherwise. The reason we have an elephant as our mascot is because our state, Chiba, has the most elephants (in the zoo of course) than any other state in Japan. ( I asked if this was a well-known fact among Chiba residents and was told most likely). Then at the games Jumbo wears a jersey and the number is 200. I also found out the reasoning behind this. If you look at the number 2 and the letter Z they look pretty similar. So the number 200 isn't really for the number 200 but rather means Zoo.
So we have a pink elephant with some sweet pilot's goggles and a jersey with the number Zoo on it.

And another interesting fact the state of Chiba (the state/prefecture that we live in now in Japan) and Wisconsin (the state we live in back in the U.S.) have a sister state relationship/partnership.
http://www.wisconsinchiba.org/ - not sure exactly what this means but the 2 places have one.

(we also found out that the state we lived in during our time in Germany, Hessen, has a sister-state relationship with Wisconsin too). Its crazy that of the 5 places Wisconsin has sister-state relationships with, we have lived in 2 of them.

Flushing sound

Today I happened to see a button attached to one of the Japanese toilets that said flushing sound. I kind of got a chuckle out of this and wondered why they would a flushing sound button. Is it for when you are taking a long time and someone is waiting for you, so you can make them think you are farther along in the process than you are. Or is a button for kids to trick their parents into thinking they've gone potty so they can hop off the toilet. (Maybe what they should put is a button that says: its going to be a while, come back later or an electronic clock on the outside that displays how many more minutes you think you will be)
 
You may be thinking that the button is there because the toilets make no noise, but you'd be wrong. They make the same noise every other toilet I've had the pleasure of using makes. These aren't hybrid models that are super quite and you cant hear them when they are on, these are real live porcelain thrones that make as much noise as every other one.
If you can think of a good reason for this button leave a comment and let me know.

Masks

Here in Japan masks are as much a part of an outfit in the colder weather as scarves and coats. They don't have anything to do with bird flu, hoof-and-mouth disease, or swine flu as we may think in the U.S. but they are used to protect people. There are two different reasons that people wear masks. One, to protect people from the flu or other things that may be contagious that other people may spread. The second is to protect other people if you are sick and have something you might spread.
 
When you go to the store here they have a little section near the cough medicine and vitamins that has different masks that you can buy. One store we went to even had two masks flipped around that you could hold up to your face and see what size fits (not sure if this defeats the whole purpose of the mask - putting your mouth and face on something that somebody who needs a mask has also put up to their mouth)
Masks don't just come in one shape and one color, they come in many different shapes and you could probably find any color or pattern you wanted if you looked hard enough.


When we flew down to the south of Japan to play one weekend of games, the team made us all wear masks on the plane. They said that because of the close quarters on the plane and the air circulation we needed to wear them so we wouldn't catch anything that somebody might have.  This included myself. The first time I saw a western looking person wearing a mask I thought it looked funny and

 said it would never be me, but as you can see from the picture I have worn one as well. (The picture is from the trip home)
Even though I don't wear a mask as much as the Japanese people I wish I would have had one on last week.  I ended up getting a bug and got quite sick; missed practice on Thursday and Friday and traded the basketball court for an all-day-date with my bed. Not cool.
Hopefully you've been sickness free this winter and will stay that way until the warmer weather comes.


p.s. - if you do get swine flu call the swine flu ninja to take care of it