My Japanese Table

When we opened the gate marked for wheelchair access to the Shinto shrine Meiji Jingu in Harajuku, we didn’t realise we were about to crash a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony.  I swear.  It was for the pram access to the shrine.  I swear.

Shooed out of the reception area housing the bride and her attendants, we felt like we’d struck gold.  Exactly what I’d been hoping to see since we arrived in Tokyo four months ago.  Red faced, we slipped out into the courtyard area and backed ourselves into the corner so we could watch the stunning ceremony procession begin.  It was enthralling.  Stunning.  I need to find myself someone who can explain exactly what was going on…

And then we crashed another one!  This time, the feather headpiece really has me smitten.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

I swear the Tokyo shop windows get more and more twinkly as we get closer to Christmas.  Every day I walk down to collect the kids from school and am blinded by all the bling!  It’s divine!  Here are just some of my favourites around Azabu Juban, Roppongi and Hiroo.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

I cannot get used to having help around the house.  Just look at my husband’s undies drawer…

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

Sunny Autumn days deserve to be celebrated outdoors, mucking around in the leaves and taking advantage of the soothing warmth of the rays without fear of lobster-skin.  Last weekend we spent out “big day out” (which has become our custom on a Saturday) in Shinjuku, thinking that we’d explore a new suburb, see some firetrucks (Darcy’s current obsession) and have a picnic at the park.  What started out as a normal day ended up being the loveliest we’ve had here in Tokyo so far.

The Fire Museum at Shinjuku station is a wonderful way to waste an hour with the kids and rescue dozens of people from their imminent death!  Our early rising always comes in handy when visiting tourist spots in Tokyo, as we miss the crowds at the popular sites by arriving right on opening.  The kids dressed up as firemen, we rode in fire trucks, “flew” a helicopter and messed around with some fantastic toy cities putting out fires.  I can safely say that this will be one of our popular destinations in the future as a reward for great behaviour.

 

David and I couldn’t work out the directions to the much-loved and -admired Shinjuku Gyoen park.  In broken Japanese, we managed to figure out the map, ask some strangers for help, finally turn to the right and realise that it was only a few blocks away from where we were standing the whole time.  My blonde hair comes in quite handy sometimes as an excuse for this type of incident!

Covering 58 hectares, Shinjuku Gyoen is one of Tokyo’s largest parks. It was opened to the public in 1949, after it had served as a garden for the Imperial Family.  It is absolutely glorious and probably the most stunning place we have visited in Tokyo so far.  Everywhere you look there is a different style of garden, immaculately presented and masses of green space for the kids to run around.

Shinjuku Gyoen features three garden types: an English landscape garden with wide lawns, a traditional Japanese garden with teahouses and a symmetrically arranged, formal French garden.  In the middle of Autumn, the gardens really were alive with bright red, yellow and orange coloured leaves.  Incredibly popular with budding photographers, we literally couldn’t move through some of the more spectacular tree-lined paths for all of the clicking going on!  I can only imagine what it must be like with the cherry blossoms in Spring.

Following an exhausting day of sunshine, search and rescue, we took a stroll literally down the mainstreet of Shinjuku with all of the locals (David thought my being flanked by two 40’s was funny given this week is my birthday, but I honestly am not even close…), jumped back on the train and put our feet up with a nice hot cup of tea to relax.  Aaah, Tokyo is becoming an easy place to be.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

I don’t think I would be surprising anyone when I admit that I simply adore Christmas.  I think I stayed in shopping centre management for much longer than I really needed to simply because of the big capex investments every year into new, bright, shiny Christmas decorations that could be installed around October and taken down in January.  I love everything about Christmas and having two young kids has only made this more potent over the past couple of years.

I was skeptical about what Christmas would be like in Tokyo.  I had read that young Japanese people have embraced Christmas as a Valentine’s like holiday.  You can’t get a booking in a restaurant on the 25th of December, not because there are families out celebration, but because there are young lovers kanoodling behind menus and saki.  New Year is the big family celebration here, so a few days later, the Japanese have their traditional family get-together. 

I shouldn’t have been worried though.  Given that the Japanese have embraced Western holidays with gusto and spent a great deal of time and effort making Halloween ghoulish all throughout our local area in Tokyo, it shouldn’t have surprised me that almost as soon as the jack-o-lanterns came down, the Christmas wreaths went up.

Around Roppongi just nearby our home, the Christmas lights surpass anything I’ve seen in Hong Kong, Sydney or Singapore.   The lights are not only spectacular, but in perfect Japanese attention to detail, they are sophisticated as well.  You probably have seen the pictures on the news back home - I was delighted to see the Tokyo Christmas lights all over the BBC, CNN and Australia Network news channels. 

For the kids, I couldn’t be more delighted.  Our Christmas tree went up weeks ago, the lights were strung and have been flashing nightly, and our carols have been playing non-stop on the iPod.  It seems Christmas in Tokyo is going to feel just right indeed.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

Work brought me back to Australia for three of the past four weeks.  Two return trips between Japan and Australia in as many weeks has me ready to be grounded for some time.  The opportunity to come back to Australia so quickly after having settled in Tokyo was a blessing in disguise.  It has cemented how much we’re enjoying living in the Land of the Rising Sun and reminded us of the realities of Australia. 

I don’t know about you, but whenever I’ve felt homesick in my life, I have a tendency to put the place or person I’m missing on a pedestal.  They’re always the very best they could be, perhaps better than they ever were in reality.  In my homesick fantasies, the beaches in Australia don’t have a piece of rubbish on them.  There’s no dog poo buried an inch underneath the sand.  There’s no dead fish smell.  The sun is always just bitey enough.  Never burny.  It’s heaven, pure heaven.  And yet, I know this isn’t true.  But in my homesick fantasy, I can’t help but put on my rose coloured glasses and dream away.

Arriving back in Australia a few weeks ago gave my homesick fantasties a really big shake up.  Travelling by myself with a four and two year old was hard enough, but landing on the Gold Coast, carrying three suitcases, two tired kids, a pram and other assorted necessities, the last thing I needed was a big Australian family pushing and shoving their way past me, making sure they were first in line and tumbling my load to the ground.  If this wasn’t bad enough, there was no “sorry”.  The clan leader, I assume the father, looked over his shoulder at me and smirked.  Yes, my fantasy bubble was well and truly burst.  I was back in Australia, no longer in Japan where people will drop everything to help a struggling perfect stranger.

Now, I don’t want to give non-Australians the wrong impression of Aussies.  We’re known as a playful, generous and happy lot.  But, we’ve learned some pretty bad manners over time.  My newly-tuned ears, so sensitive to Japanese sensibilities, have been kept extremely busy tutt-tutting since I have been visiting Australia.  In the past few weeks I’ve witnessed that much public belching, oafish language, grandma-pushing and line hopping, that I cannot believe I ever thought Australians had great manners.  One man on the bus at the Sydney airport between the domestic and international terminals actually yelled to the bus driver, calling out “Driver, Driver, Hey YOU DRIVER!!!”  Finally, when the driver turned around, the lovely Aussie bloke exclaimed, “Come on, go faster, we’re all late!”  I honestly cringed.  I hoped everyone on the bus was Australian and not a visitor to Australia for the first time.  What a lovely welcome that would have been to our fair country.

I’m currently waiting at the Canberra airport, ready to head to Tokyo via Sydney and I cannot wait to come home to Tokyo.  I can’t wait to be back where I won’t be looked at strangely if I offer to help someone with their heavy bag up the escalators, and where I know someone will offer me a hand when I’m struggling with my kids and a mountain of luggage.  Home, aaah home.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

I have been dying to see a wedding in Japan.  I have been scheming with a few others here to come up with a way of poking my head into a Japanese wedding to see the ceremonial traditions, the dress and the decorations.  I had all sorts of preconceived ideas of what a Japanese wedding would be like, and my vision didn’t include a dolphin pool, Kylie Minogue’s hit Locomotion at 36,000 decibels and a groom boogying his way down a plastic aisle… But, as luck would have it, this was my introduction to Japanese weddings!

We decided to visit the Epson Aquarium in Shinagawa on Sunday with the kids, thinking that we’d see a few shows, some great exhibits and go home feeling entertained, happy and exhausted from another day out in Tokyo.  After the kids were wowed by the shark tunnel (which is very similar to the one at the Sydney Aquarium, but still pretty spectacular), thrilled at the penguins swimming, dancing and prancing about, and sat through a show featuring seals playing soccer and catching balls the audience were throwing to them (again, very cool), we took our place at the dolphin show with popcorn, an icecream for the kids and weary legs. 

The dolphin show was great.  It wasn’t anywhere near as wonderful as Seaworld on the Gold Coast, but it was brilliant for the kids to see these amazing creatures jumping, talking and having a wonderful time, all in an indoor arena.  It was so clear that the dolphin handlers just adore their animals, which has always been my problem with these kind of shows.  The animals looked really well looked after, well loved and very happy. 

We noticed there was an area set up opposite us with tulle, filled with beautifully dressed people.  Given our Japanese is extremely limited, we really had no idea what was going on or what the area was for.

Just as we got up to leave… Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion started blasting from the loud-speakers and a man in a shiny white suit started boogying his way between the beautifully dressed guests.  Then, a beautiful bride in a huge white dress followed him and met him down on a podium set up on the edge of the pool.  Finally, we twigged that we were guests at a wedding ceremony!  We have no idea what the vows were or what the celebrant was saying, but we loved the fun couple.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an extraverted couple before!  They squealed in delight at each other, danced almost constantly and happily had their photo taken with tourists all around the aquarium after the ceremony. 

While it wasn’t what I had in mind, these children of the late 1980s (The Bangles “Manic Monday” was the music choice for the recessional!) showed us how much fun a wedding can be in Japan.  I hope we see more!

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

Sunday was the day I’d been anticipating since we have arrived in Japan - we were heading to Harajuku to look at one of the world’s most famous youth culture hot spots.  I just adore the fashion of the “Harajuku Girls” and they gather on Sundays to show off their beautifully coiffed hair, whimsical outfits and superbly applied makeup.  Penelope loves the “alice in wonderlands” too - she thinks they look “really pretty Mummy, just like princesses.”  

Harajuku Girls

So, off we hiked - another day, another train!  We arrived in Harajuku like most other Western tourists, wanting to catch a glimpse of these gorgeous creatures, but also not wanting to appear to gawk and stare.  It didn’t matter, the idea is that the girls (and beautiful boys too!) want to be looked at.  They have dressed to perfection to be seen.  They love to have their photo taken and they want to be fussed over.  A little like our kids in Japan really…

Walking down the main street of Harajuku is exactly the sort of experience I had expected of modern Tokyo.  There were more people than you can imagine could cram themselves onto sidewalks, enormous and very flashy shopfronts and money, money, money everywhere.   Every window was a site to behold.  My favourite was a patisserie (I think there are more patisseries in Tokyo than in all of France) which had created these stunning Spring displays using madeleines, pastries and crepe paper.  Amazing.

The windows of a stunning patisserie

The kids weren’t really up to hours of window shopping pushing past thousands of Japanese kids, so we kept the visit brief.  Stopping only to spend an hour or so in the most incredible “toy shop” I’ve ever seen.  Kiddyland is a superb piece of retail genius!  Floors and floors of impeccably presented kitch and fun themed childrens merchandise and pretty things meant the kids simply didn’t want to leave.  We played with Thomas train sets, ice creameries, spent lots of money on Hello Kitty merchandise and generally were enthralled with the beauty of it all.

Kiddy Land

Making Icecreams

 Then, we quickly fled.  Was it possible that more kids had just arrived on the streets at 4pm?  Yep, it was our time to get a bento box for dinner and head home…

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

Finally, we’re experiencing the wet Autumn days that everyone has been telling us about since we arrived in Tokyo.  They said that the rain lashes at your ankles and the winds cut right through you.  Having lived without rain for so long in the driest city on earth (well, Canberra starts to feel that way after twenty-three dust storms in two days), we weren’t very prepared for this pre-typhoon rain.

The raindrops are enormous, the wind really does whip around and we have all been permanently saturated for days now.  Just a small example.  I took Penelope to the doctor yesterday, wrapped up in her covered pram, me trying desperately to hold on to an umbrella, read a soaking map and steer the pram around the throngs of Tokyo workers.  It wasn’t a pretty sight and all I can say is that I am grateful that our lovely doctor is British - he must be used to sodden patients turning up for their appointments.

On the weekend we decided to brave the rain and head to the Uedo Zoo.  We didn’t want to be scared of a little rain and we really are determined to make the most of our precious time here in Japan.  So, off we headed, the kids kitted out on their raincoats, brollies at the ready and plastic sheeting covering the pram.  Oh, what a sight to behold!

Darcy with the Polar Bears

The Zoo was fantastic!  It was worth every moment of running for cover and jumping over gigantic puddles.  In fact, I think the kids might have enjoyed it more because of the inclement weather.  What child doesn’t love big fat puddles to jump into?  Unfortunately, it did mean that some of the animals were a bit on the smelly side - aagh the wild dogs were quite putrid with their wet coats!   Despite this, the Zoo is so well set up it blew us away - the kids could see every animal without us lifting them up, and the windows were so well positioned that the kids eyeballed both a tiger and a gorilla.  Superb!

A moment without rain! Penny and the flamingos

Tomorrow, the typhoon is supposed to hit us.  We have been warned that the schools will probably be closed and we will most probably be house bound for a couple of days.  I’ve been shopping this morning for important provisions - must keep a good stock of rice crackers for the kids and a couple of bottles of vino for Dave and I.  I’ll let you know how we fare.

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn

David was lucky enough to be invited to a Sumo wrestling tournament on Friday night.  While I was eating reheated stirfry on the couch, David was sitting with thousands of excited fans, eating gorgeously presented bento boxes, and learning a thing or two about one of Japan’s most fascinating cultural phenomenons.  I’ll let David tell you the story…

With only two high level tournaments held in Tokyo each year and only running for around two weeks each, tickets are seriously hard to come by and very preciously held.  I felt very privileged to have been there. 

We were lucky enough to be sitting in one of the boxes closest to the action.  The box is an area about 1.5 metres square with thin mats on the floor.  The sessions run for around three hours, which makes for uncomfortable viewing!  The guys in the box beside us were all in their eighties, really into their beers and by the end of the night they were right into the action.  It was fantastic to watch!

The first thing you notice when you arrive at the Sumo is that these wrestlers are seriously big boys.  I’m 200cm tall and around 100 kilos and am seen as a giant in Japan, but one of the wrestlers was 203cm tall and 175 kilos!  Huge! 

The second thing I noticed was a surprising number of foreign wrestlers involved.  In this tournament alone, there were Sumo from Greece, China, Mongolia, Georgia and Russia. 

Once they have finished parading around the ring and being introduced to the excited crowd, the night seems to go incredibly quickly.  The two wrestlers stand in the ring, ready for their bout.  You sit in the crowd watching them - getting themselves into the right headspace, staring each other down across the ring, slapping themselves around the face.   Suddenly, try and picture 300 plus kilos of guys throwing themselves at each other trying to push one another out of the ring and onto the ground.  It’s explosive and over in seconds. 

There’s a saying I know in relation to our boxing that “a good little man will always beat a good big man” but this doesn’t hold true in Sumo - big is definitely better!

Happy Celebrating!

Kathryn