Sunday afternoon I messaged a friend living on the Negishi base to see if trick or treating would be canceled or not and received a reply back that it was still on for the evening.

Megu did Luna’s hair and while she got Kohaku and herself ready I did Luna’s makeup before we were out the door for some Trick or Treating on the base.

While we were a little late getting to the base, it was probably a good thing as the crowds had already moved through and there was still plenty of candy for Luna to collect. Without the crowds we were able to leisurely walk and talk between the houses.

Luna was curious as to why there were so many demons out. I explained to her that they all come on Halloween, but will soon be gone. She then queried where they live when they go home and I told her that they live in a different world that we can’t see and after tonight they will go back there until next year. Her final question threw me for a bit of a loop as she wondered why, if the demons where only here for one day, why would they spend their time handing out candy to her…. I really didn’t have a good answer for that one and, luckily, by that time were to another house and she soon forgot the thread of the conversation.

Went home after I got done teaching on Saturday and Luna was excited about going trick or treating on Sunday, but worried about the rain. To get her mind off the rain, we carved her pumpkin, but then it really started to come down harder and she wanted to know if Halloween would be canceled.

I wasn’t sure myself, so we decided to practice dressing up and being a butterfly just in case…

This year Luna decided that she wanted to be a butterfly and I began searching for a cute outfit, but couldn’t find anything that I liked anywhere. After seeing a really bad looking, but homemade outfit on Ebay, I remembered Etsy and began looking around to see if anyone there was making cute butterfly outfits.

I found 4Eva Designs, an online store run by a lady in Portugal who makes the most awesome butterfly costumes to order, and took a chance on her.

To date, I have never had any bad experiences on Etsy and still haven’t. We were worried that her outfit wouldn’t get here in time for Halloween, but thankfully it arrived last week, just when 4Eva stated that it would, and it looks even better than I had hoped. Per Luna’s request, I asked for a pink and black costume based off of another pattern that I saw on 4eva and she did a wonderful job making the costume, packing it, and sending it to us in time for Halloween.

Luna loves her outfit and, unlike most butterfly costumes, the outfit doesn’t have any wires in the wings – just felt, padding, and stitching. They look like they will last Luna a long time past this Halloween and cost roughly the same amount as costumes on other sites that look much cheaper.

Unfortunately the rain just got harder and harder as the night went on and Luna sat watching the rain come down with concern, but before we went to bed the latest news had the rain stopping by Sunday afternoon…

We received his costume the other day, but haven’t had a chance to get him to try it on until now….

I am a bit disappointed that I couldn’t find the perfect octopus for him, but the hippo is a pretty good substitute and has enough ridiculousness to make it work.

The best part of the sports day, at least for me, is the way the kids are encouraged, through the events, to work together as a group. The focus is taken off of individual results and placed on how the kids can work together to finish events as a team. I may very well Romanticize these events in comparison to my own memories of school events, but I can’t recall seeing kids help each other in my own school back in the States like I do here. Regardless of whether it was the schools down in Shikoku or the schools here in Yokohama, I have continually watched kids stop what they are doing to help out their classmates and, not only take these steps, but take pride and enjoyment in doing so.

Luna’s sports day was held at her school grounds and, while a bit small for some of the events, especially the dad relay race (I didn’t join in), it was really nice for the kids.

The first set of races that Luna joined in were straight 25 meter runs and, unfortunately Luna jumped the start the first time and then hesitated at the start. I think she would have won quite easily, but of course I think that – she is my daughter.

After her race the older kids had their relay race and really did a great job for such a small track with tight corners.

After the races, there were three themed obstacle courses for the kids, depending on their ages.

With the third one being more of a relay obstacle course that forced the smaller kids, Luna’s class, to work as a group to move a large yoga ball around pylons in a relay.

After the Luna finished her race, the moms had their chance to compete. The moms were separated by classes into two groups on either side of the school grounds and competed in a race to the middle of the schoolyard to grab pieces of rope and bring them back to their side. Unfortunately I wasn’t expecting a mad violent dash for the rope and missed the first race, but was able to catch the second in time to watch the carnage unfold again…

Now the older kids had their chance to compete in a group game as they took small bean bags and threw them into raised nets to see which class could get the most in the net in 30 seconds.

After taking in a bento lunch that Megu packed, it was back to the games and this time it was the grandparents who were up to bat as they competed in a relay race to see which group could race around a pylon the quickest while carrying an egg in a ladle the whole time.
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Now, after a quick break, it is time for Luna’s last race.

Luna’s last race was a matador reenactment where the kids had to run in a circle around a pylon, charge through a red banner held by one of their teachers, race back around another pylon, and then tear back across the school grounds to the finish. While many of the kids took a timid jaunt through the red banner, Luna showed her true stuff as she barreled through the banner, trying to swipe from the teacher, before racing around the pylon for home.

Now the older kids performed a dance before the grand finale that they prepared…

For the finale the older kids performed a series of gymnastic poses and synchronized movements for everyone.

The sports day started at 08:00am and now it is going on 02:00pm in the afternoon and the final two events of any sports day that I have been to are about to start – the tug of war. The first tug of war is between the kids, but then it is moms against dads in the final.

After a short speech to the kids, the medals and trophies are handed out to all the participants. Luna was estactic with her medal and has been wearing it around the house ever since…

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and spent most of my summers riding bikes and horses. Working outside and exploring the forests. Splashing in creeks and turning over rocks.

As soon as I could I moved away and, thankfully, I never looked back.

I don’t regret leaving and can’t imagine ever going back for more than a couple days, but now that I have kids I do remember some things a little more fondly. I hope my kids have the same freedom to explore nature that I had and, unfortunately, in Yokohama (or Tokyo) there just isn’t that much exploring that can be done by a kid on their own.

Right now we live next to a couple of large parks, but they are trivial when compared with the miles and miles of land that I had to explore. Even so, it is good to see my daughter out looking under rocks and making friends with the insects of the world (though my wife isn’t to keen on the dango mushi/pill bugs/rolly pollies that she puts in her pockets). It is even better to go back to Matsuyama and see her exploring the world around her and, while it isn’t the same world that I grew up in, the rice paddies and streams around her Grandparent’s house are a pretty good replacement.

After Kohaku was born, my wife went back to stay with the kids for a couple months, give the grandparents time to see the new baby, and give her time to relax a bit.

I went down to visit and travel back with them at the end of August and was surprised to see Luna got a kick-board, or, as she calls it, her “go go”. It was a birthday present from her Aunt Kumiko and, though it has taken its fair share of skin off her legs, it appears to be her favorite present this year.

Soon after I arrived at the house, Luna wanted to show me her “go go” and we went outside to go for an evening walk. Soon after we left the house, she was speeding around the roads between the rice paddies showing off her new found skills, stopping only to examine a bug or snail that caught her eye in the rice paddies.

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Later that week we all went up in the mountains for a barbecue. Luna and I went exploring while everyone else started setting up the grill and at the top of the hill we found a large praying mantis sitting on a fence post. After checking whether it would bite or not, Luna was keen to make friends with the mantis.

After she was done, we placed her back on the fence, went back down the hill, and ate, but later that day we went back to check on the mantis and she was still in the area waiting for her lunch to come by.

Though it is much different than what I remember growing up, I am glad to see Luna exploring her own backyard and not afraid to make friends with new creatures.

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The area between the Dogo train station and onsen consists of a quaint little outdoor shopping arcade full of locally produced goods and foods – to include mikan juice that is produced from locally grown mikans. While the Dogo buildings haven’t changed, there seemed to be a plethora of bottled Mikan juice that I had never seen before.

The most popular juice is made by the POM juice company and, when I lived there in the late ’90s, POM was pretty much the only juice that I recall seeing, but, where before I recall seeing two or three different types, now there were 6 or 7 different types along with all these small mom and pop companies making “fresh” or “straight 100%” juice.

Well… I was thirsty and I do love mikan juice, so I decided to try as many as I could. I had POM regular, POM Straight, POM Beta, POM with Pulp, and 5 bottles of juice from the small companies (which, while they all tasted pretty much the same, tasted the freshest and best). I didn’t get sick, but I definitely don’t want any mikan juice for a long time…

After drinking my fill of juice, I walked up the rest of the arcade to the onsen to take some pictures and go for a bath, but, while it was a good night to take pictures, I should have known that on a warm summer evening the baths would be packed… Maybe next time I go back in May.

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Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime prefecture and has a population of ~500,000 people, but is considered, by most, to be very rural. Very few Japanese go to Shikoku, but of those that do, a good majority of them do end up spending a day or two here visiting temples, taking a bath at Dogo Onsen, eating mikans, viewing/buying Tobe pottery, and visiting the castle that is in the middle of the city on a hill.

I consider Matsuyama to be my “Japan home” and think that, of all the Japanese castles I have seen thus far, Matsuyama has one of the best, if not the best, castle in Japan (most say Himeji is the best).

This castle was originally built in 1603 and has undergone several transformations since then, but during the Meji Restoration, when many other castles met their demise, it went virtually unscathed. Likewise, during World War II, parts of it were destroyed by bombing from American forces, but, when compared with other castles in Japan, the majority of it survived. Considering the fact that it is in the middle of a large city, on top of a hill, it is miraculous that the entire castle was not lost.

The bare wooden exterior gives the whole castle a more historic feel and, though it is impossible to say that the buildings are “original”, a good portion of them are extant and, since 1966, the city of Matsuyama has been working to properly restore the castle the grounds surrounding it.

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To facilitate this effort, on one of our final days we biked up to Ishite-zi in order to climb the mountain (hill?) behind the temple and see if Totorro was around anywhere. To get up to the top, you have to walk through an old graveyard and then up through one of several winding paths that are lined with small side paths containing jizo statues, piles of stones, small shrines, shide, and the occasional curiosity, such as a tiny old stone table and chairs set up on the hillside where it has sunk into the earth (Luna was sure it was for Tottoro’s friends to use).

I had climbed this a couple of times when I lived in Matsuyama, but that was 10 years ago and the trail is much narrower and steeper than I remember from the last time I climbed up here. While there are signs guiding pilgrims who happen to wander up these paths up to the top, it seems that most stick to the main temples at Ishite-ji as I have yet to meet another living soul on my trips up to the top or down to the bottom.

While we never did find Tottoro, we did find some piles of acorns left by him (many of which ended up being placed in my pockets to show Baba, Jiji, and my wife), and Luna was able to see the Giant Kobo Daishi statue up close for the first time.

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We hopped on the bike in the early afternoon and rode into town and, as it was lunch time, we decided to get her new favorite food (Indian Curry) and stopped into Everest. Everest is a “newer” Indian restaurant in the outdoor Okaido shopping arcade that runs through the middle of the city. The curry was good, but not as good as Ladki’s over by Shieki train station. During lunch, Luna may have been slightly influenced by all the pictures of the Himalayas in the restaurant as she mentioned that she wanted to go into the mountains after lunch….

So after we had our fill of nan and curry, we got back on the bike and rode up to Ishite-ji to walk around and I asked her if she wanted to go into the tunnels under the mountain. She hesitantly agreed, but made me promise not to yell in the tunnels. Apparently that bothers her. Apparently I do this enough to warrant an immediate comment any time the subject of “tunnels” come up.

I agreed to refrain from screaming and we made our way into the tunnels that are located behind the temples…

Ishite-ji is one of the strangest temples I have ever been to as there are tunnels carved through the mountain behind the temple that go to a even weirder part of the temple that most people never explore (will post photos of that at a later date). The tunnels are dark, damp, and filled with artifacts, paintings, statues, a lot of stone Jizo, and, at one time, had flashing lights that were set on motion detectors. Not sure if this is true, but I have been told that they caused at least one person to have a seizure and have since been turned off. True or not, they weren’t on, but were still visible hanging from the ceiling in several areas.

At first Luna was scared, but we went and sat in a corner listening to the mountain noises for a good 15-20 minutes. As we sat there we could hear he sound of cars traveling over our heads, water dripping, an occasional pilgrim hitting a large gong outside the temple, and the sounds that we couldn’t associate with anything but the “voice of the mountain”. As we sat there, she took notice of all the Jizo lining the middle of the tunnel and went to figure out if they were boy jizo or girl jizo. As I walked along taking pictures, she would examine each one and put their hats back on if they had fallen off (it turns out those with hats are girls and those without are boys). Though she looks scared in some photos, she really wasn’t – just a bit tired.

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I decided to buy one hand stamp and one foot stamp, placed my order, and quickly received a response from the company (in English). They were great to work with and the stamps arrived earlier than expected (around 10 days). The stamps, when finished, are the exact size of your baby’s hand/foot, are beautifully crafted, engraved with your baby’s name/birth date, and come in a paulownia wood box.

They do deliver to other countries, can work with customers in English, and their site can be found is at:
www.oteteanyo.com/index_en.html

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Didn’t find any shoes, but walking through the area, we were handed maps displaying times/locations for a weekend of street performance. At key locations throughout the Minatomirai area there were performers scheduled to perform for the crowds that are expected to celebrate the opening of 109 Minatomirai (sister mall to the famous Shibuya 109 department store), the new Collette Mare shopping complex, and the beginning of warm spring weather that usually accompanies the end of cherry blossom season.

Unfortunately, this year, as soon as it begins to warm up, we have seen cold front after cold front roll through. Today was no different. Cold and windy. We stopped by to watch a couple of the performers, but as late afternoon started to roll around it started to get colder and we left early to warm up at home.
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The weather was dreary, but the cherry trees are in full bloom now, the first festival food of the year was great, children were able to make mochi (pounded rice cakes), and the live music was a nice touch.

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As they are some of the first colors seen each spring, they are often associated with the start of spring and, as such, the event is marked with festivals (ume matsuri) in gardens, parks, shrines and temples where vendors will set up stalls selling traditional festival foods and artisans playing traditional music on the samisen and koto.

Plum Blossoms at Sankeien Garden in Yokohama:
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Plum Blossoms at Sumida Park in Tokyo:
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In Tokyo and Yokohama, there are certain roads that are closed for traffic on Sundays to compensate for the lack of city squares. This allows for relief from overcrowded sidewalks, in areas like the Ginza, and also allows space for street performers.

One area that is historically famous for these street performers is the Harajuku area of Tokyo. Here the performers became known as the Takenokozoku (Bamboo Shoot Children) and, in the 1980s, more and more young performers poured in. As word spread about the Takenokozoku the area became a hot spot for visitors and tourists alike. Eventually, in 1992, the area was eventually deemed to be to chaotic, noisy, and dangerous so the government put a stop to the Takenokozoku through the use of public announcements, enforcement of street performance laws, and, eventually, riot police.

Despite the crackdown in central Harajuku, some of the performers moved to nearby Jingubashi bridge (cosplayers) and others moved into Yoyogi park where they still gather every Sunday. The Tokyo Rockabilly Club is one of the groups that moved into the park and now every Sunday morning they gather at the park entrance, set up their music system, and dance until sundown.

When I went today, there were over 20 rockabillies out dancing, socializing, and rocking out to their brand of music. I have read reports that in the heyday of the Takenokozoku there were over 200 rockabillies in the area on Sundays, but, despite a decline in numbers, each and every Sunday they are still here doing their thing.

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