Tickle Monster

Back when we were in Austria I wrote about our run-ins with the sock monster (Sock Monster), but here in Japan we have a new monster - the tickle monster.
Here is a video of Myla and the tickle monster.

Stop!!........do it again :)

Bananas

This year one of our sponsors donates a box of bananas for the team each week. Pretty nice as we are able to have a banana after practice or take some home for a great snack. If the sponsor happens to read this: arrigato gozaimasu (or for you english and german speaking people - Thanks a lot / Danke sehr).
This week though our bananas were a little different. This week we got the super premium bananas.
Here if you go to the store, there isnt a big section that has bananas in it like back home where they are $.50 a pound (or whatever they are). Here the bananas come in bags. You usually get 4 or 5 bananas to a bag and they range in price from about $1 on sale up to $4 or $5. The ones we got this week we on the high end of the spectrum.

 
How does a super premium banana taste you ask? It tastes like a regular banana, if the regular banana tasted like a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner all mixed together in one. As soon as I took a bite of the banana I rose off the ground a little bit (much like what happens when you eat a mangosteen - only on a much smaller level), unicorns started prancing around and leprechauns handed out gold coins. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better I ate a little more of the banana and a genie appeared and said he would grant me one wish - I of course couldn't think of anything better than to ask for another super duper premium deluxe banana, which I am currently staring at sitting on my kitchen table. Not quite sure if I am ready to eat this one as the girls are now sleeping and fireworks might go off in our apartment. So I think I will wait until morning. You might want to check CNN later as the story of what happens will probably be a big deal.


Ok you got me, maybe this was a stretch - this didn't really happen............or did it?

Anyway, I am not really a connoisseur of bananas, much like I don't know that much about wine, and couldn't really distinguish it from a regular banana. Maybe if I ate both of them side by side I could tell a difference, but I haven't had the chance. All I know is I like bananas and regardless of the deluxe-ness of them, will keep them around as a healthy snack for my and the fam.
Bon appetite.

Sledding - Biwako Valley

This week is All-star week and because we dont have a game this weekend we were esentially given an extra day off. We wanted to make sure we used this time to have some fun with the family and did just that.
About 1 hour and 15 minutes away there is a ski area called Biwako Valley. It is in the Shiga prefecture (in the U.S. we call them states, here they are called prefectures) and located in the mountains along a pretty big lake - Lake Biwa.
 
We really wanted to take Myla sledding so she could enjoy the outdoors during the winter and wanted her to have a chance to play in the snow as Kyoto really doesnt get any in the winter. So we hopped on the train and head to Biwako Valley - a mountain skiing location. It was a pretty easy trip. We had to switch trains one time and then take a bus from the train station to the ski area but that was about it

Once there, we hopped on the cable car/lift and rode to top of Mt. Ushimi (ushimiyama - 1,108 m) and walked to "Snow Land" which was a short ways from the cable car/lift.
 
The reading we did on the internet before we went made it seem like "snow land" was a big play area for kids where they could sled, play in the snow, make snowballs and just have a good time. When we got there we realized that while we could still have a really good time snow "land" was more of a snow 'small area'. They had a sledding hill with a little escalator on the side that would take you to the top and we took advantage of this, but the size of the hill left something to be desired. Myla loved sledding and wanted "more daddy, more." So we sledded for a long time. Maybe it was good that the hill wasn't that big as to not be so scary, but I think Katy's parents have a bigger hill in their backyard. Regardless, we went up and down the hill a multitude of times. Myla used a regular sled and a Zipfy freestyle mini luge sled - both provided by the ski hill.
 
We also made two tiny snowman, Myla rode the tube "merry-go-round they had", and of course we got some hot chocolate to warm up.

It was a really pretty area and although the sledding hill was a little disappointing it was still a great time.

This 100 foot sledding run was a little different than the last time I went sledding on a mountain - in the Austrian Alps (Sledding....for Real!), but we had a blast none-the-less.

How much does it cost to go sledding here in Japan when there is no snow close by you ask?
$8 train way there (x2) - $16
$3.20 bus from train station to ski area (x2) - $6.40
$18 Cable Car/lift (x2) - $36
$5 to get into the sledding area - "snow land" (x2) - $10
$15 - 2 hot chocolates and some curry and rice - $15
$5 - to have the rental shop watch our stroller - $5
$3.20 bus back to train station (x2) - $6.40
$8 train way back (x2) - $16
All in all -  About $111
But as the Mastercard commercial goes - seeing the look on your daughters face when she is sledding down the hill or going up in the cable car (flying as she called it) - Priceless and worth every penny.....or yen is this case.

National Holiday - Seijin no hi

Yesterday, here in Japan there was a national holiday. It seems as though we have had quite a few national holidays in the past few months so I asked what this one was for.
This one was called:  Seijin no hi (or: coming of age, in English)
 
 
I was told that here in Japan kids become adults and are able to start drinking/voting at 20 years old. Yesterday was a day to celebrate those that turned 20. So, there were many people (20 yr olds) dressed in Kimonos (Japanese formal dress) or suits going to events in their honor or parties (I have a feeling Sunday night was hopping)
So, not only do they get their 20th birthday to celebrate, they get the second Monday in January to do it too. Jealous you didnt get two "birthdays" to celebrate your 21st (or 18th in Europe)? Where one was with all the friends of the same age that turned 21 or 18 too?

Tofukuji in Fall

Here in Kyoto there are many temples and shrines. I mentioned it in another post but there are over 2000 shrines and temples in Kyoto (Shrines being from Shintoism and Temple being from Buddhism).  In the fall when the leaves are changing colors some of the temples here are very famous for visiting. One of which is called Tofukuji. This is listed as one of the top temples/places to visit in the fall here in Kyoto.

 
So, armed with some knowledge from the internet we checked it out.
Before we even got into the temple it was easy to see that this was a popular place to visit! I think we must have arrived at the same time as about 16 tour buses as the place was packed....but it was easy to see why.

 
 There were so many trees all over and it seemed as though every tree was dressed in various vibrant shades of red, orange and yellow. It was almost as if you had walked into another world. Even though there were people everywhere (and many of whom didn't seem to care if there was someone in their way or not, which I guess is common over here) it was still an amazing place to be at.


If you ever get the chance to be in Kyoto over autumn you need to go and visit this temple, you wont regret it.
I know the saying is used a lot but this really was one of those places that pictures do not do it justice. It was almost as if there was a mood about the place.
Who knows maybe I am talking it up a little but it was really cool to see. We have seen quite a few temples and shrines over here and both said that this was one of our favorites.

Typical Food #4

Another very popular thing that you will see here is: curry. It is a little bit different than Indian food curry and I would say it has a taste all to its own.
Here there is a restaurant whose main dish is just this:



It is called Curry House CoCo Ichiban. The main dishes here are obviously based around curry and rice. When you get your meal though, it isnt a bowl or dish or rice with curry on the top of it. You get a plate. Part of the plate is cover with rice and the other part is covered with curry. You can also get meat or other things with your rice and curry.

Even though this places specializes in this, it isnt the only place you can get curry. I would venture to say that pretty much any chain restaurant in Japan would have a curry and rice dish on the menu. One of the restaurants that we ate at in the beginning of the year had an all you can eat soup and salad bar and part of that was rice and curry.
Last year when we would stay at hotels and eat team dinners, there would always be a pot of curry next to the rice if you wanted some.
To be honest I think there were even some times that it would be served at the buffet breakfasts in the hotels as well. I do like the curry, but for breakfast?....I think I'll stick to my eggs.
If you ever get to Japan though, along with the 3 other typical foods, I would give this one a shot.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. Its been a while since I have written on here - nice work self. Wait, we have a blog?
With 2 kids and work I havent been that good at keeping up at this. Yes, I know there are probably some out there with 9 kids who can post to their blog and keep it going, but I am not one of those super talented, multi-tasking, can post to the internet while soothing a crying baby and playing with a toddler at one time, run-on sentence writing individuals. I tend to relax a little when the kids go to bed and sometimes forget to do this.
But it is the year of the horse now in Japan (I still haven't quite figured out what this means) so why not try to get up to date.
 

I did find this article about the year of horse - sort of grim I would say: Year of the Horse 2014, but I still dont really understand what it means.

Here is a paragraph from this article:
 ...With such elements, I cannot expect 2014 will be a peaceful year. The stubborn character of yang wood represents uncompromising attitude and makes it harder to reach agreement between conflicting interests. As such, there will be more international conflicts and struggles coming up even may lead to fierce fighting and battles. The horse is the month of June in Western calendar, which is peak of summer, the fire energy is very powerful. Hidden inside the horse is yin fire element which is candle fire . Such fire is flickering, emotional and unstable. There are many examples of yin fire bringing explosions and fire disasters. The 911 terrorist attack in 2001 happened on a yin fire day and yin fire month, the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011 also happened on a yin fire day, and the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima in character, and the powerful fire horse, there is reason to deduce that 2014 will have more international conflicts and clashes and will not be a peaceful year.


My first thought when I found out it was the year of the horse was that maybe we should go to a horse race and we might be able to win an extra buck or two.
Or, maybe, we should just wait for the year of the lottery or the year of the powerball and then start investing money.
Whatever you decide to do or however you start 2014 I hope your January is going well and wish you all the best for the new year.
Thanks for reading this.