Asakusa

I realize my last post was a bit crabby sounding..it was a rough week, and didn't seem like much was going right...but this past week has been much better!

On Saturday, our friend Emiko, who I have met through a friend in Hancock, Blake Freeman (thanks Blake!)took us to Asakusa. Asakusa is a place that has stayed traditional Japanese- architecture, shrines, etc. Emiko was a most gracious and wonderful tour guide, and we were so grateful that we had the chance to go with her. That being said, I believe our two girls were possessed by the devil that day. While we dragged two crabby, emotional and (sorry to say) annoying children everywhere, we tried to enjoy the sites and the history of it all. We had the opportunity to see visit the Sensoji Temple, get our photo taken with a nice big Buddah,stick our face in the smoke pot (ok, it was an incense pot and I was the only one who did it), and just look at a traditional Japanese area...very neat. I am hoping that Emiko will want to get together again, so we can treat her to her favorite American dish- Sloppy Joes!! :)

Here is a site, if you are interested: http://www.tokyoessentials.com/asakusa.html

I still didn't get my cell phone....we applied almost 4 weeks ago, and found out Friday that they couldn't verify our credit (or course..since we just got here), so we would have to start the entire application process over...NOT cool. Scott and I have decided that it isn't worth saving $100 to go through the same frustration again, so we are heading out tomorrow to just purchase one instead. YAHOO.

We also found out our shipment has arrived and will be delivered next Monday through Wednesday. That was enough to make me a very happy camper. Our beds, our furniture, our stuff. We can finally start making this feel like home. Next week is going to be a wonderful week!!

This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go to the Setsuban festival. It is a festival to welcome Spring- bring in good luck, out with evil. It was a very interesting festival- they first had 4 Japanese comedians take the stage...no idea what they were saying, but I felt like I was watching So you want to be on a Japanese Gameshow. After that, they had a parade of people walking up to the Temple. It took place at the Zojoji temple, and the parade had some Buddhist Priests, followed by children wearing masks of the devil, followed by loads of people who were born in the Year of the Tiger. Next, a bunch of people came out with boxes and boxes of hard, wrapped rice balls. They threw these out into the crowd, and they did NOT feel good to get hit with. I saw a few smart people wearing helmets (of course, I thought they were silly, until I got hit with a hard rice ball...then realized that maybe they are a bit smarter than I originally thought!). Then, they started throwing small packs of beans out into the crowd. I have never seen so many older ladies and men jostling for position and so competitive about doing anything, must less about catching little packs of beans! While they were throwing them out, they kept yelling Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (which means Devils out, good luck in!) over and over and over. Apparently, you are supposed to eat the number of beans that you are old, and that will bring you good luck for the upcoming year. After that, some men, dressed as devils came out, and the school kids chased them around the stage throwing beans at them. I am not sure what the bean significance is, but apparently, here, Beans are good...very good. They did a big thing at both Maya and Hanna's schools, so they were very into beans and the devil this week...very weird combo if you ask me.

I also have started taking Tennis lessons every Friday and am so happy that I have started to make some friends there as well. One, Laura, is a U.S. Embassy employee's wife. We get along quite well. She has a 4 year old daughter, and access to the Embassy courts..so we are going to start playing and hitting the ball around down there. Tennis is very expensive, and these courts are free to Embassy employees and their families...so I am quite excited! She also took me to the convenience store on site at the Embassy- I was able to buy sour cream (yeah! You can only get teeny, tiny containers of sour cream here, and it is traditional, old school, thick as you get, make you want to throw up sour cream!!), shredded cheddar cheese, and best of all, TURKEY lunchmeat!! I hate to say it, but buying those three things made my entire day. You can not buy turkey here in any Japanese grocery store. You can buy it at one international deli, but it costs about $6 for 6 slices...not going to buck up for that very often. I was THRILLED!! It is truly the little things that can make a huge difference.

I am having issues posting any pictures of multitude on this site...I can do one at a time, etc., but haven't been able to figure out if I can post albums. I have a lot of photos on my Facebook page, so if you are interested in seeing more than I have on this page, just "friend" me on Facebook, and you will be able to peruse our adventures!!