Geisha dance

Yesterday Blaine took Lucinda to a neat cultural performance: the annual "Azuma Odori" geisha dance performances at Shinbashi Enbujo Theatre in Ginza. Lucinda found it to be visually and emotionally very interesting.

Here's Blaine's short video of their day out. (Lucinda was also interested in her newly-loose tooth.)



Geisha are entertainers who are well-versed in Japan's cultural arts; they typically peform for businessmen in tea houses. They dance, sing, and play games with clients, but they are not prostitutes. A story in the Mainichi Daily News about two of the dancers (age 19 and 20), who are apprentice geisha, gives a good sense of what they do for a living.

Strawberry shortcake

Blaine and I had our Saturday night date tonight: a workout/swim at the Tokyo American Club, ramen noodle soup and gyoza (fried dumplings) at Shinagawa Station, and dessert purchased in the basement food shop at Wing Takanawa at Shinagawa.

In Tokyo, you almost never see people eating in public, so these perfectly designed desserts are perfectly packed for transport on a train and eaten later at home.

The box:


Inside, there's a small clear-plastic spoon, two cardboard circles to prevent the cake from slipping around, and a small ice pack to keep everything fresh:


And my slice of dessert, which reveals a patiently arranged strawberry pattern within the light, sweet cream and spongecake.


Yum!

Blaine's latest...

...is a flurry of stories about South and North Korea.

Here's today's piece about the very emotional funeral, post-suicide, of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. Great reporting by Blaine's translator in Seoul, Stella Kim.

And on North Korea, here is:

North Korean Nuclear Blast Draws Global Condemnation, an awesome front-page rewrite of material from correspondents all over the world.

North Korea Test-Fires Short-Range Missiles

North Korea Threatens to Attack South

Lots of action these days in the Post's East Asia bureau!

Blaine's latest...

... is covering the heck out of the North Korean nuclear test. (And that's at least the third version.)

With a 13-hour time difference, Blaine is working very long hours: up this morning at 5:30 a.m. to talk to DC editors and meet DC deadlines for the print edition, and now, at 11:20 p.m. to voice a podcast about the DPRK.

A 3rd year

We recently learned that we are staying in Japan for, knock wood, at least 1 more school year, which is very good news for our family.

Now we'll have more time to enjoy the schools, the great restaurants, our car-free existence, the Tokyo American Club swimming pool, Saturday date night, the city's clean streets, the obsessive trash sorting, no children's television commercials, and the amazing French pastry shops.

Because of severe job cuts, lots of expats here, including many families with a Japanese parent and/or deep roots in Japan, are suddenly packing their suitcases. We're feeling very fortunate.

Global flu

Well, well, well, as my friend Adrienne put it on April 30, when Stevens Elementary School in Seattle was closed for a week to combat seemingly non-existent flu cases in the school:

The H1N1 flu has arrived in Japan, despite the government's aggressive efforts to test and quarantine foreigners arriving on suspicious airplanes.

A bunch of high school kids in Osaka and Kobe have it. And now 2 students -- that is, 2 human beings out of 35 million people in Greater Tokyo - also have it.

So what's the proper overreaction? Lucinda's school has canceled tomorrow's planned Sports Day to prepare just in case the city of Tokyo orders all schools to close indefinitely. The teachers would use the school's website to post assignments for students to complete (and parents to manage), and if this disaster comes to pass, I'm sure all the kid-friendly places (like the Children's Castle or Children's Hall) would also be closed. And we would all go crazy.

Funny eggs

Lucinda told me about this funny short animation series called I Love Egg (www.iloveegg.com) that appears on Cartoon Network here. I think it's from South Korea.

The eggs go to "Egg School" and there are little stories about each one of them. The English translation is a little silly. Here are some frames from the website.




Here's a storyboard, or whatever it's called, in Korean for a short animation called "Revenge."


And a strip called "Good Conduct".

Fruit allowance

"I'll eat six pieces of apple and I'll get six pieces of money!"

So said Arno, who refuses to eat fruit other than grapes, blueberries and raspberries. But he is saving up to buy a Ben-10 watch, and I've offered him a "fruit allowance" if he tries new varieties.

Arno whined and groused, but when we left the kitchen and weren't watching, he ate 7 cherries and then, with a little prompting, ate two slices of apple. This is a huge advance in fruit consumption! I gave him 200 yen ($2) for his efforts.

Lucinda's art

Lucinda loves making art and she's always very confident and comfortable about trying out new styles and media, and Nishimachi has a terrific art program - it was one of the main reasons why, 2 years ago, we decided it was the best school for her.

And today Lucinda brought home a packet of work from school and laid it out on the dining room table like a gallery show. She and Arno laid out the rules for Blaine and me: no eating and drinking in the gallery and no touching the art! Photographs were, however, allowed.

For comparison, here's a self-portrait that Lucinda made 2 years ago, in pre-kindergarten at the Parkside School in Seattle.


Here are the self-portraits she brought home today.




Here's a paint-print made from a layered-cardboard self-portrait - sort of like a Japanese woodblock print.


And, yes, here's yet another self-portrait on a canvas-like board, which was her final project after the 1st grade's art unit, when they studied cave art, the Renaissance, Impressionism and modern art. She gave this painting a title, "Night with Sun."

A day in Ginza

My mother and I had a long walk and some fine window-shopping in Tokyo's Ginza neighborhood last week. Ginza is often compared to Madison Avenue around E. 57th Street. It's a mix of designer boutiques, galleries, and shops that sell jewelry, the finest Japanese classics like kimono and geta (wooden sandals), expensive crafts and other items that are coveted in Japan, like handmade paper. Here are several images from the day:

A top-drawer kimono shop.


A flower shop, presumably for weddings or high-end events...


...with sequins on this orchid and (gilded) lily!


The Ito-ya stationery and office-gadget store, which had a gazillion fancy fountain pens on the second floor. Check out the giant paper clip outside!


This shop sold modern wood-block prints and also had originals and reproductions of ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") woodblock prints) from masters like Ando Hiroshige.


Takumi, which had carved wooden items and woven tatami mats.


In Ando, a cloisonne mecca, we liked the "green tea and tea whisk" pin on the right (but didn't care for the endless collection of boring vases).



We loved the Kyukyodo stationery shop, an apparent favorite with flocks of aging housewives who clustered outside the front door. Inside, there are rolls of gorgeous handmade washi paper for giftwrapping and craftwork, and all sort of neat paper-y items.




Here's Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton.




A stunning teal gown and matching ostrich-feather bag at Valentino... and then some gray Armani.



The Rolls-Royce at the top was very appropriate, neh?

Lame blogger!

I've been a terrible blogging correspondent, alas. I will try to do better by setting up several posts in advance.

My mom is visiting - the fourth time in 2 years - and we're having a very relaxed time. The children have three days of vacation for Japan's "Golden Week," and we're keeping it pretty low-key. Last week, when Blaine was in D.C., my mom and I made French toast and pancakes on separate nights for dinner, and, wow, the kids loved it so much that they chattered away to Blaine about it when he returned yesterday.

On Saturday, we went swimming at the Tokyo American Club. On Sunday, we went shopping in Yebisu Garden Place for birthday gifts for Lucinda's friends. Today, we went to Kodomo no Shiro (The Children's Castle) so the kids could play in the jumpy-ball thing on the roof. Tomorrow we'll have a playdate at our house.

And when the kids were in school last week, my mom and I went on some walking tours of Tokyo: to Asakusa (a very old, traditional neighborhood) and Kappabashi (Kitchen Town); to Ginza, where we looked in art galleries and stationery stores; and this Thursday, when the kids are back in school, we'll go to Kamakura so I can show her the Great Buddha.