If we can clean out this fridge, which smells and looks like it came from the bottom of some sewage tank, we will then have two small, inadequate, energy sucking, iced-over poor excuses for fridges, instead of just one.

Our boss was getting rid of this fridge, but we aren't sure we want it either.

THis is what happens when you try to steam pumpkin without a steam basket on a gas stove and forget about it for twenty minutes.

This is the mark on the tile wall in the kitchen from the scorched pumpkin. Oops.

This was the second attempt at pumpkin. This came out much better. One little Japanese pumpkin makes enough batter for three seven inch pies.

It's about 2:30 AM and I'm trying to finish pie crusts for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Cream cheese pie crust (from the joy of cooking bible) is the best pie crust in the world.

This is the finished, unbaked pie crust. The best looking one of the three I made.

We found some grapeseed oil for really cheep at the store. Supposedly it is supposed to be less bad than other oils for frying.

I really love fried shrimp. We rarely buy it, but they had a packet of 8 for 200 yen at the store and I couldn't resist.

Surviving the Schedule!

With the other teacher gone, Melissa and I have had to pick up her schedule and try to balance all of the classes at our school.  We have told our boss that we will help cover classes while she hires someone new, but we certainly can’t do it forever.  Just to give you an idea of how crazy things have been, today I went to work at 8:30, fifteen minutes after Melissa left with Callan to go to the bilingual kindergarten.   I returned home at 11:20 AM, and Melissa came home a few minutes after I did.  We ate lunch together and then Melissa put Callan down for a nap while I went next door to teach an hour long private lesson at 12:15pm.  I’m home now but have another lesson at 2:30 for an hour, and then when I’m done I’ll come home and take care of Callan while Melissa goes to the school in town and teaches from 4:20 to 6:05.  Then she will come home and take over with Callan so I can teach classes from 6:30 to 8:10 pm.  Then I’ll come home and we’ll put Callan to bed and try to have some semblance of a date (i.e. a movie, or games, or TV, or dessert, or something else we can do without leaving the house), and read some scriptures (Gotta finish the BOM by December 31st!) and hop into bed by 11pm so we can get up and do it all again tomorrow.)  

We have certainly re-solidified our desire to do whatever we can to allow Melissa to stay at home with Callan.  We know there isn’t a lot we can do about it now, because the other teacher left so suddenly, but working this much has been a good reminder to us about what we want in our regular schedule.  

For Callan’s part he has been a trooper.  He loves to go the kindergarten with us, and when he does have to be watched by our boss’ daughter-in-law he is always very excited to go.  He acts as a personal alarm clock for us every morning, regularly climbing into our bed at 6:45 AM and telling us that it is time to ‘get up,’ and ‘eat.’  He usually lies down with us for another twenty minutes to a half hour, which we appreciate, and then we get up, get ready, eat breakfast, and we’re out the door by 8:15 every morning.  We’ve appreciated our Boss doing all she can to change class times so that Callan doesn’t have to be watched by anyone.

Kidney Beans- Kidney? (Jinzo-o) Really?

I just walked in the door from teaching, laughing. My last group tonight was a class of 3 nine and ten year olds. I was trying to teach them about time, 1 o'clock, 1:15, 1;30. You get the idea. So we played "time bingo" to learn them all. As I ran out the door earlier this afternoon I realized Joey had taken our bingo pieces (a bag of buttons!). So I quickly searched around the house for something to use and decided on the kidney beans in the cupboard. I remember when I was growing up we used dry beans for all sorts of things, including bingo. Well, I must have forgotten I was teaching Japanese kids because they thought it was so funny! First they wanted to know if they could eat them. Dry! Yuck! One girl decided to try it out anyway and finally bit through it about 2 minutes later. And then they asked if they were adzuki beans(which are about the only beans in Japan, those and soybeans), I said "no, kidney beans" and looked up kidney in my dictionary (jinzo-o). I told them they were kidney shaped (which I think is why they're called kidney, I don't know, I've never really thought about it!) and they laughed and laughed. and kept laughing. we didn't get much english in those last 5 minutes of class, but it was funny!

Thoughts on Truth

Joseph Smith described truth as ‘tasting good.”  Have you ever tasted truth and recognized it?  I have.  I did tonight while preparing for my elders quorum lesson.  The scripture says that truth can be distilled upon us as the dews of heaven.   Certainly truth is not revealed in rainstorms, all at once in a violent rush of power, light, and glory, at least not to most of us.  Rather it is as the scriptures say, distilled upon us drop by drop.  As we absorb the truth we have been offered the Lord provides more.  If we reject the truth we quite literally dry up to things spiritual.

Truth reveals itself in many places, certainly in the scriptures and the words of the prophets, but not only there.  The sweet taste of truth can be found in the honor Buddhists give their ancestors, for it is to our family that we owe our existence.  The savor of truth exists in the thought clearing meditation of Hinduism, for the Lord has commanded us to ‘be still and know that I am God.”   Even the Shinto belief of God’s presence in all things has been seasoned by truths light, for the Savior himself said that he is “in all and through all things.”  

Living among a people whose cultural currents run so deep has brought me to appreciate more greatly the words of the Lord to the Nephites in 2 Nephi 29: 7…

“Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?”

I know that the Lord has an eye on us, both individually and collectively.  I know that he loves us, that he has provided sufficient truth in our lives to make decisions that are in harmony with peace, happiness, and righteousness.  Each of us, if we wish can have the truths of eternity distilled upon our souls.  This is true of the Buddhist priest, the Hindu monk, the Baptist pastor, the atheist skeptic, and the baptized Mormon.  Truth is not confined by religion, but by our willingness to accept it.  If we do not recognize truth as it distills upon us from the many channels the lord uses to offer it, then we choose to cut ourselves off from it.

Mormonism does not say ‘we are right and you are wrong,’ rather Mormonism proclaims the sanctity of truth in all its forms, and offers the restored truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the sunlight from which all shadows, shades, and hints of truth in the world receive their glow.

Because truth is eternal and unchanging, all truth in all cultures and religions comes from the same source: God.  It came from God in purity and simplicity to man. The confusion in the world was not caused be God, but rather by what man has done with the truth God has given him.  It is the precepts and teachings of men that have brought about the prejudices and ill-will of man.  As man becomes hardened, unable to absorb the truth as it is distilled from heaven, he is left to his own devices, and left to his own; man has propagated distorted versions of eternal truth throughout the world.  

Thus it became necessary for the Lord to restore truth in its fullness, to bring again to the earth not only the blessing of previously revealed truth, but the security and power of living truth as revealed by a living prophet of God.  I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of this restoration, that he rebuilt the tower upon which the Lord’s watchmen continue to stand, and I know that as more of us look to the Lord and his watchmen, more of us will be able to live up to the Lord’s call in Doctrine and Covenants 121:45:

“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.”


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Mom and Callan watched me fill it up and were glad for a warm kitchen, which is where we keep the kerosene heater.

The container says kerosene in japanese, and my hands always stink after I refill the canaster.

This is a kerosene container that I took to the gas station to fill up for the first time this winter. Kerosene is about 80-90 yen per liter (3 dollars per gallon) and a few gallons will last a few weeks with one stove. The grey canaster is from the heater.

Callan was taking notes at our family council meeting last sunday.

This is what our freezer looks like after a few weeks if we don't kep the frost chipped away. This is just one of the many examples of how fun humidity can make life in this country.

Callan the Communicator

I just walked in the door after my last class and the house was very quiet.  I stepped up into the house from the entry way and Melissa said “Hello Daddy,” in a voice that I knew meant she was repeating what Callan must have said when he heard me come in.  I went into his room where they were reading stories together and saw that Callan had buried his head behind his stuffed doggy.  “Is he asleep?” I asked Melissa. “No,” She said, “Just hiding.”  I bent down and kissed him on the cheek and said ‘Are you hiding?” He shrieked with happiness at being found and gave me a big smile.
As I stood up to take my tie off and say good night he looked at me with a very concerned expression and said, “Baseball one, wear baseball one?” He apparently didn’t like my choice of ties and wanted me to wear the baseball tie that Grandma Fitzgerald helped him pick out for me for father’s day.  “Wear baseball one to MIA” he said again.  I told him I would wear the tie to church next Sunday and walked out of the room.  Before I could get very far, he said, “Daddy, shut the door, shut the door.”  I looked at him and asked him if he really wanted me to shut the door.  “Yes,” he repeated shaking his head very adamantly, so I shut the door and left the two of them in the dark.  

Thanksgiving One

Today was Thanksgiving, sort of.  It’s Wednesday, instead of Thursday, we are in Japan, we had ham instead of turkey, and we sat on the floor at low tables in the back room of an English schoolhouse.  We did however have pumpkin pie, homemade I might add, and lots and lots of food.  About forty people gathered for the feast, including all of the local English teachers who attend our branch, a few Japanese members of the branch, and some English students.  For our part we made two pumpkin pies, a chocolate cream pie, deviled eggs, and mashed potatoes.  We played the card game Pit, ate too much, and had a really good time hanging out with English speakers.  Callan had a blast playing with some of the other kids who came, and spent a lot of time walking back and forth on the little tables after everyone was finished eating.  He unrolled almost an entire role of paper towels, ate two pieces of pumpkin pie, and picked in almost all the food that he could reach in.  

On the way home we talked about how thankful to be where we are.  It is not easy being here but it is fun, and we are learning a great deal about doing business, about being a full time employee, and about making time for our family.  We have had to adjust just about everything in our life since coming here, including our family scripture reading schedule, or weekly date pattern, our diet, our driving habits, and a whole slue of expectations about everything from personal hygiene and business ethics to church structure and  residential building codes.  We are grateful to be somewhere that allows us to worship on Sundays, to be at a company that gives us the freedom to let Melissa be at home with Callan, and to be in a country where the Church is established enough so that we can both serve and be served as part of a great branch.  We are grateful to heavenly father for the miracles that brought us here and are enjoying learning more and more about what He wants us to learn while we are here.

More surprises

I walked into work yesterday afternoon and the first thing my boss said to me was, “Pat left.”  There was a hint of tangible shock, disbelief, and despair in her voice as she explained that she had just received a phone call from Pat who was getting on a bus  for the airport at that moment.   Pat is the other full time employee here at our school who last week announced that she would be leaving at the end of November because of back problems.  She was scheduled to leave a week from today, on the 29th of November, but apparently her back became so painful that she couldn’t last even that long.   Her mother bought her a plane ticket, and she left.  

For us, this means that we have to try to cover as much of Pat’s work load as we can while our boss looks for another teacher.  Melissa is at the bilingual kindergarten right now with Callan and I am heading off to another kindergarten in about twenty minutes.  Despite the reality of the situation we don’t really feel that stressed.  There is only so much we can do as it is, and we know our boss needs the help, so we will do all that we can to make things go well for them.  In the mean time if anyone reads this and knows anyone who would like to come to Japan, even for a short time, and teach English please let us know.  

Will they ever dry?- episode 2 from Adventures in Laundry

Our bed sheets are hanging on the clothes "dryer" outside (two rusting blue poles outside). It's now 3 in the afternoon and I'm wondering if they will ever dry. I threw them into the washer EARLY this morning (one at a time since the washer is so small, see previous laundry post) just so they might have a chance of drying if they're outside all day. But it's cold out there. Water evaporation and winter don't mix very well. And my "heated" shower room is hopelessly inadequate for drying two large bed sheets. We recently washed our comforter at the laundromat because it was much too large for the washer. It cost us over 6oo yen (about $5.80) for one load so that's not really going to be an option during the winter. Oh well, I think I'll start washing a load every day. That way the clothes I wash on monday will be dry on like Thursday or Friday. That is if the rain doesn't re-wet them! Ahh!
I honestly like hanging my clothes out to dry. They are in better shape because they don't get so beat up in the dryer, It's much more environmentally and economically friendly too. And they have the handiest plastic hangers with little pinchers for hanging the clothes. I think I may try to take a couple home with me! But I will definitely like my dryer in the winter!

Giving credit where credit is due!

For those of you who read the entry about the hi-tech toilet in our bathroom, the following is an epilogue…

While in the past I have made light of the technological excesses represented by the said toilet, I fear I have failed to give the machine its due credit for its many wonderful features, particularly the heated seat, which until this winter did not seem in my mind a necessary or even desirable feature.  However, with the average evening temperature falling into the thirties I am growing to appreciate the pleasant surprise associated with sitting on a warmed toilet seat.  I was not aware of how much my body is trained for the physiological shock of sitting on a cold toilet seat.  It can be a rather tense, stressful experience, which as we all know is not conducive to effective lavatory usage.   But now, in the absence of the icy throne, there is no stress, no tension in anticipating the cold, hard, discomfort of an unheated toilet seat.  Really, the more I think about it, the more I equate the experience of using an unheated toilet seat with getting into a cold shower, or putting on cold socks.  So while I generally refrain from exploring the many buttons on our toilet’s control panel, I am always sure to set the seat warmer on high.  

Looking for Work?

We just found out this week that the other teacher we work with is going home unexpectedly in a week and a half!  That means we need another teacher in a big hurry.  We have emailed everyone we know and have had a few responses but nothing has been finalized.  What ever happens it is going to get really interesting around here in another week and a half.  On top of that, another couple in the branch who works for another school in the area got fired and is going home, another couple is having visa troubles and another couple has come to the end of their contract.  It is going to be us, two single girls, and one other couple (Raymey and Kelly Walther).  In five weeks, I will be the only Japanese speaking foreigner in the branch (Melissa’s primary translator is going home at the end of December).  My boss and I will have to do all of the translating, unless a new teacher comes along with some language ability.

Chef Callan

Callan has turned the sunroom into a full service restaurant complete with dining room, kitchen, and waiting area.  Nearly every day he turns our two laundry baskets upside down and sets one behind him and one in front of him.  These become his stove and counter top. On the baskets he places frying pans, tea kettles, sauce pans, mixing bowls and whatever else he can find in the kitchen cabinets.  What he can’t reach himself, he asks us to get, which usually includes a mixing spoon, a spatula, a few paper plates, and of course an apron, which nearly wraps around him twice.  He then goes into his ‘kitchen’ and cooks.  The menu usually consists of strawberry sauce and pancakes, but occasionally he makes soup, or noodles.  When he is finished cooking he comes back into the kitchen, takes us by the hand and says, in perfectly clear English ‘come eat! Come eat.”  We drop everything of course and follow him back to his restaurant where he instructs us to sit down on the floor and wait to be served.  Often his doggy and bunny are already sitting their waiting for their meal and Callan invites us to sit down next to them.  Callan uses a spatula and lifts very hot, very imaginary pancakes from the frying pan onto our plates, and then takes the ladle and scoops up some warm strawberry sauce.  He even adjusts the heat on his stove and warns us that ‘it’s hot.’ For the first time today we actually paid for our meal ( a few yen for my pancakes, and a couple dollars in play money for Melissa’s).  Once again, we are amazed at just how much he ‘sees’ what we are doing.

This weekend we went to Shodoshima. Thursday night I went to the grocery store right before they closed and stocked up on a bunch of half priced sushi (no raw fish) to take with us for lunch, and Friday morning we were out the door by seven am. We took a thirty minute train to Takamatsu, and then a one hour ferry to Shodoshima. We visited an olive orchard, and took a gandola up into some very beautiful forested areas. We got a ride down the mountain from an old couple visiting from Osaka and took the high speed ferry home. In one day we rode a regular train, a ferry, a city bus, a gandola, a strangers car, a high speed ferry, and an express train. If only we had ridden our bikes to the train station, then we really would have had the Japanese experience. The following are a ton of pictures and notes from the trip.

This is what happens when your two year old demands to have a turn taking pictures.

Callan really liked all the leaves.

The real reason we came to Shodoshima was to ride this: A ropeway several hundred meters long that carries its passangers up into the shodoshima mountains where some of the most beautiful countryside in Japan can be seen up close and personal.

People have been coming here to ride this ropeway or something similar to it for 70 years. They charge 1250 yen (about 11 dollars) for a round trip ticket, and it was definitely worth it.

The hills just kept going. It really was amazing.

More cool rock formations.

We liked that you could open up the windows and almost reach out and touch some of the leaves.

I think I am beginning to see the inspiration for all the stylistic misty mountain scape painting done by traditional japanese artists.

This mist rolled in in a matter of minutes and was gone in a half hour, only to return again on our way back down.

The reality is that much of Japan looks like this. Only 30% of the country is inhabitable. The rest is too mountainous.

Looking down we could see dense forest. We even saw a few wild monkeys hanging out on a rocky cliffside.

As we got hirer up the mountain the leaves became more and more colorful.

Any rock not covered by foilage looked like this, shaped over the centuries by harsh inland sea winds.

The fog didn't help the photos much, but the colors were still amazing.

If Melissa looks a little cramped in her seat, it is because Japanese buses were not designed with tall Americans in mind. The twenty minute bus ride cost almost as much as the hour long ferry.

The high speed ferry we rode back to Takamatsu was twice as fast as the larger ferry we road earlier in the morning.

This goofy car was parked near the ferry pier.

This is a view of little Ikeda town where our ferry landed.

Callan liked the orchard because it was on a hill and that meant he got to ride up and down, a lot. And after he got out of his stroller he got to run up and down, alot.

The boat you can see in the background is a ferry heading towards Takamatsu. The stone next to Melissa says Olive Island Olive Orchard.

This is a picture of a not-quite-ripe goofball trying to eat a not-quite-ripe grapefruit from trees that were intermingled with olive trees in the main orchard we walked through.

Athena, complete with an olive reath and a pile of 1 and 5 yen coins at her feet. The japanese will give money to anything made of stone.

This is the view from the Olive garden memorial hall on Shodoshima. The island is one of a few, if not the only place in Japan where Olives have been cultivated successfully on a large scale. The island is a sister island to Milos in Greece and touts quite a bit of greecian regalia, including a replica of several famous statues, a full size greek temple, and a scattering of public signs written in both japanese and greek.

These older folks, dressed in the traditional outfit of religious tourists (that is, tourists who join groups whose purpose is to visit famous sites of religious importance, sometimes for worship, sometimes for cultural exposure, sometimes just to say they'd done it). They were accompanied by no less than two buddhist priest tour guides and were very friendly. The woman in the front of the picture gave Callan the mandrin oranges. Callan personally met just about every passanger on our end of the ferry.

It is not uncommon for strangers to give us presents (usually something to eat) because they think Callan is so irresistibly adorable. On our first leg of the trip to Shodoshima We were given some mandarin oranges, a few little chocolates, and this box of sweet treats called, no joke, cream collon (pronounced 'colon').

Good-bye Takamatsu. The Ferry took just under an hour to travel halfway accross the inland sea to Shodoshima, the second largest Island in the area.

Behind us is a famous building in Takamatsu near the train station. Callan can say 'Takamatsu' and does so everytime we go there.

On the top deck of the ferry there was a small playground that Callan loved. If you can't tell it was a little cold at 8:30 AM. Unfortunatelly it didn't get much warmer the rest of the day.

This is the bottom deck of the ferry we took from Takamatsu to Shodoshima. It cost a pretty penny to take a vehicle, but ferry is the only way anything gets on or off the island, so these trucks have got to go.

Forget beef jerkey, in Japan octopus jerkey is the way to go!

This is a neighborhood grave stand where locals put their family ashes. This one was built in the corner of a rice field and some of the grave stones look very old. There are always fresh flowers set out by devotees who feel both culturally and religiously bound to remember their ancestors.

Up close view of bamboo lashed together.

This is the full view of the bamboo and mud walled house.

This is a sideways view of a new house being built near our house. All of the exterior walls are built of bamboo slats and some type of mud mixture. I can't believe they still build like this here.