the belly chronicles

attention, sports fans

The whole family took the opportunity to attend the Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo this on Tuesday. We loved it! It's funny, I will likely happily go the rest of my life without attending a boxing or wrestling match, yet I was charmed by sumo.

What's so great about sumo?

• The pomp and ceremony, the respect, the ritual...love that!
• You do get to see a lot of tush. And a parade of silk nappie-clad tush is a funny thing.
• The first thing that a gaijin notices on entering the arena is how calm and quiet the place is. Clean plush chairs, a quiet arena...you feel like you're going to a theater as much as a sport match. The ritual  around the matches is one of those gorgeous Japanese experiences. . .that distinctly Japanese blend of modern and traditional shines here.

 

 The wrestlers parade in from the East and West and form a ring in the center.

 

The sand of the outer rim is swept during the elaborate bowing, warming up, and squatting rituals that happen before each match. If one player has any part of his body outside the rim, he loses. The smooth sand shows all record of any breach of the circle.

The matches are quick. The earlier several lasted a few seconds each. As we got into the highest ranks, there were a few that lasted close to a minute, to the delight of the crowd. Some are a stable arm-locked shove, some are quick shoulder jabs, and a few were slapping matches that reminded me of MMA.

 A lot of salt-throwing for purification goes on.

 

 

Following are a few shots from the highest ranked match. As far as I understand, the grand champion was unseated by the underdog. The specators were completely into it and there was a shower of seat cushions at the end of the match.

 

 

We were fortunate to go to sumo on a tour organized through the YIS PTSA. It was an easy way to start, but if you missed it, don't hesitate to go. There are guides and even radio commentary in English, all simple to navigate.

Our guide, Ms. Doreen Simmons, is an 80-year old, 5-foot-tall, sumo aficianodo who moved to Japan 35 years ago for her passion for sumo. She was memorable, informative, funny, engaging...everything you would ever want in a guide. Especially when you imagine her hanging out with her wrestler pals! (If you happened to know my old SF housemate Maria Marta back in the day, just imagine her with a passion for sumo instead of Mayan rights, and you've got a pretty clear picture.)

**And thanks to my friends Deb and Arun for the loan of the zoom lens. Now I know. You can be in the cheap seats and still get some good photos. Hey, buying one would be like saving money, wouldn't it? I can sit wherever I want.

 

 

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

I just read this article about Japan and I'm really appreciating how it puts into words why I love it here so much. Here we've built our family mission statement around nature, the outdoors, and wilderness, yet we find that we really aren't ready to leave as we see the end of two years approaching.

What is that about? I think it is about the people, the food and general gentility of the culture here. Life is civilized, something that I didn't think I really prized considering I also love the wildness of natural life. But there's something about being able to trust people and know that you'll be safe in large crowds that restores faith in the human condition on the planet.

The article didn't talk about crime rates or gun laws, but that is an aspect of life that I find deeply comfortable. Of course no place is crime free, but there's a feeling that you don't need to be so careful. That if you drop something, it will come back to you.

I'm not saying it's shangri-la. I don't know what place is. But I really love it here.

ushering out

As the holiday winds down (kiddos go back to school on Monday), I have a few days to reflect on our delightful visit with my dear brother and his lovely wife. It would have been fun to host them no matter where we were living, but being a food- and fun-focused family in food- and fun-loving Japan made the trip peripatetic and delicious. It's amazing how much ground we covered in 10 days.

A highlight was a trip to Koya-san. The combination of scenery, food, architecture, and spirituality added up to an unforgettable experience.

As Papa-san described the journey in a missive to his colleagues:

This New Year's break my family, including Rachel's brother and his wife, had the privilege and honor of visiting Koyasan, Japan.  Koyasan is a mountain, but it is also a center of a sect of Buddhism and is popular for its "temple stays" where one may stay the night in a Buddhist temple and enjoy vegetarian monk's cuisine. We stayed two nights and enjoyed some very adventurous food. I was not as devout as Rachel to arise for early morning prayer but I trust it was moving. The journey there and back is epic. Door to door, one-way involved 7 trains including a Nozomi Shinkansen and a cable car for the final leg up the mountain followed by a short bus ride to the inn. But not to worry, as a warm meal and a soak in the onsen await the weary traveler. Aside from spending some relaxing time out of the city and in the quiet mountains with family, one of the highlights was the 2 km walk through the cedar-forested Okunoin cemetery where some 200,000 gravestones line the pathway culminating at Torodo Hall (Hall of Lamps) and Kobo Daishi's Mausoleum. Kobo Daishi is the founder Shingon Buddhism and a revered religious figure. Koyasan is having it's 1200th anniversary in 2015 so to be able to visit such a culturally rich and ancient place is truly an experience we will cherish.

The 2-kilometer walk through the 1200-year-old cemetery among 1000-year-old cedar trees was one of the best walks of my life. We didn't mind the cold, and the snow only added to the peace of the area.

The path led us to the Toro-do (Lantern Hall), which houses hundreds of lamps, two of which are believed to have been burning for more than 900 years, and the central mausoleum.

Several blocks from the cemetery is the Garan, the central temple complex with an impressive array of building of varying architectural styles.

At one point, Koya-san numbered about 1500 monasteries, but large-scale slaughtering of monks by 16th and 17th century shogunates and preferential treatment of Shinto during the Edo period caused a decline in the numbers. Koya-san is now a thriving center for Buddhism. Visitors can stay overnight in any one of 50 monasteries that accept guests.

We chose the one with the onsen. Which was a good thing, because this is the view from in the hallway in the mornings when we woke.

That's what you get in a traditional building. We froze our robe-clad tushies getting from the room to the onsen to the private tatami dining room, but once there, we were warm and cozy and well-fed on vegan shojin ryori food.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't so warm right when we walked into the tatami room, but once we got the space heater cranking and the 12 or so tasty dishes fueled us, we toasted right up.

I wish I had gotten some better pics of the food for you, but I'll just say that if you take two food-loving kiddos and set in front of them 3 personal tables filled with an array of small dishes of pickles and seaweeds and soups and tofu and tofu cakes and rice and tea, you have some mighty happy adventurous eaters.

Our last day at Koya-san was December 31, so I had the unique opportunity to rise at 6 am to meditate with the monks in the smoky quiet of their sanctuary and to greet 2012 on the dance floor at Club Womb in Shibuya...I hope it's an omen of a varied and blessed year.

Happy New Year to you!

 

 

tokyo turnip...a foodie's day

It's 10 pm and I'm supposed to be packing for tomorrow's trip to Mt. Koya-san, but I want to try to keep you a bit up to date in our holiday Japan-hopping adventures.

We have my brother and sister-in-law visiting, so that means food and fun for us! We've been showing them around all our favorite spots to snack and dine and they, being the inveterate foodie travelers that they are, have shown us spots we wouldn't have found.

Yesterday, we awoke early in the morning to head to Tsukiji Market, fish market to the world. Tuna auctions are not open to the public during the month of December, so we missed the 4 am wake-up call and sauntered to our leisurely sushi breakfast.

The crowds were impressive with what I presume were shoppers preparing for their New Year's feasts, but the restaurant was cozy and the fish was impeccably fresh.

It's intense to see all this food and carnage in one place. I do find it easier to witness harvested fish rather than meat, but it's still quite an experience. The kiddos were fascinated by it and wanted to stay even after we were ready to leave.

They found the guy slicing up frozen tuna with a band saw particularly riveting. A tidbit about the market...fish comes in from all over the world and travels all over the world.

We ended up traipsing around the inner market around 11 am, and I'd recommend that time if you're going there with kids. The auction and main purchasing action has mostly ended, but the stalls are still set up and active. There are a lot of people working hard in the stalls and with the forklifts that are zipping around, but since it was a quiet time they had smiles and friendly nods for us.

Where better to head after looking at all that fish than to a tofu restaurant? Not just any tofu restaurant, but to Toufaya Ukai, a venerable establishment housed in a 200-year-old sake factory just next to Tokyo Tower to boot! (Thanks Jim and Melissa!)

{taro cake and crab}

{clam sashimi, shrimp sushi, sesame crusted burdock, bamboo, beans, rapini}

{tofu in kelp-seasoned soy milk}

8 courses in a private room overlooking gardens worthy of Kyoto was a gorgeous way to spend the afternoon. Every time the sliding door opened, we knew there was a delicate morsel of tofu and vegetables coming, with some sashimi and sushi thrown in for good measure.

 And the children loved their beautiful bento, as well as the calm oasis in the middle of Tokyo.

It's nice to see them happy. Some day I'll take some grumpy pictures (can you capture a whine on camera?) just you get the whole picture.

All this, a trip up Tokyo Tower, Shibuya crossing at dusk, Hachiko, and...

the last night of Chanukah.

(I was so tired, I took my sis-in-law to the onsen to relax :)

I wish you peace and joy whatever and wherever you may be celebrating.

 

 

project gratitude

Since Thanksgiving I've been on a gratitude mission in our home, feeling that it's an aspect of my kids' lives that hasn't been developing as fully or quickly as their reading, math, and music skills. Gratitude isn't something that has come easily to me in my life, so it's no mystery that it's a place of stuck qi in our family harmony. But I've worked it through the years through incredible friendships, yoga, and being a healer, and of course having two little ones to nurture each day really makes it so much easier.

 

Thanksgiving Day found us with an impromtu gratitude tree. A branch, blue glitter spray paint didn't hurt. Some cut out leaves and some marker pens...shiny gold and silver didn't hurt either. Make the craft bling-y, and the kids are suddenly vying for the marker pens..."I want to make another one, I want to make one..."

So, that was a start.

We usually do some sort of blessing at the table and often it is a gratitude. One evening, Isaiah wouldn't, couldn't, absolutely refused to do a gratitude. And I wouldn't, couldn't, absolutely refused to give him his dinner until he would name one little thing he could be grateful for. After 15 minutes of his tears (a hugely unusual occurence) and our impasse, his little sister suggested that he needed to eat in order to come up with a gratitude and that maybe he could dig something up before dessert if I went ahead and let him eat. Her common sense prevailed.

Out came the Gratitude Journal.  I actually made it last year, but hadn't found the right time to start using it with family buy-in. Now, it sits out sort of hidden in plain sight, not beckoning but available. And it's been getting some action!! In little pockets of the day I see someone adding to it. Warms my heart.

Especially during this time of year, when what set me off was a very long and precise wish list to Santa with no niceties to soften it, I ask daily how we can step back and be grateful while still celebrate this abundance we are blessed with. We know it's not stuff that makes us happy, but teaching the kiddos that lesson while still showering them with goodies is a fine balance.

It'll be a long process, but worth it, because isn't gratitude for what you have the key to happiness?

But another note, if those in your life are asking Santa for special somethings, it's worth taking a few minutes to make some videos from Santa. I think the naughty one for Steve was my favorite.

And ps...Thanks for your encouragement for me to keep at it here, friends. Somehow, as strange as it seems, it's easier to be inspired and find the energy to write when the kiddos are home with me. Now that they've begun their 3-week vacation, I'm in blissland.

simple slowing

As we step into December, with it's last few weeks before school winds down, the holidays hit and the new year begins, I find that I am seeking beauty and simplicity. It's my instinct to slow down, hunker in, clear out clutter, and get crafting and cooking.

I realized today that over here at this blog feel a bit slower than facebook, so I'm going to try to talk to you from here for a while. I know...I've said that before...but for now I wish you a simply happy December.

endless summer

Hi friends,

Happy autumn! (Although here we're still experiencing endless summer here.)

I've had quite a long summer vacation away from this little space, but I'm ready to return and start to share with you again. So much to catch up on, don't know that I can get it all in over the next few weeks, but I'll start with saying it was a summer of camping in California and extended family fun on the beach in South Carolina replete with baby loggerhead turtles*, boogie boarding, and even one dawn that found me hula hooping while on roller skates!

(*That's a picture of some tiny baby turtles that are crawling from the nest to the ocean. Mom's on Turtle Patrol at Seabrook Island and keeps tabs on all the nests...when they are laid, when the babies come out.)

There is much to share and I really hope to catch up with some pics from a fantastic summer, but I'm going to try to stay present and share a glimpse of the Otsukimi Moon Viewing festival. Last night we went to Sankeien Garden, a local treasure, where we were treated to the sight of lit buildings around the pond and a beautiful moonrise (as well as soba, udon, and kakigori (snowy shave ice). The atmosphere was so peaceful and reverent, we felt almost out of place with our little gaggle of raucous children though none of the hundreds of tripods we passed in the dark got knocked down, so all in all I'd call that a success!

 

Clearly, I lack the techniques, skills, tools of all those photographers lined up around the pond, but I caught a little glimpse for you. And I LOVED that when I looked on facebook the next day, I saw that friends had posted images and inspiration of the full moon from New Zealand, California, Minnesota, Iowa, New York and Italy...we are all only a moon away.

Bookworms

A rainy Saturday morning found everyone curling up in various configurations to read, read, read. I loooove rainy weekend mornings. Chapter books have opened Isaiah to a whole new way to escape and explore.

As a reading addict, I think it's funny how socially sanctioned this particular vice is. I used to walk to school reading, hide a flashlight under my covers. I still fall asleep with a headlamp on more nights than you'd think.

It's a delightful way to escape. And it tickles me to see the littles fall prey to readings's charms.

This moment...a semi-regular Friday ritual. No words, just a picture.