Kawasaki Fertility Festival and Yokohama (**WARNING** Contains sexual language, photos, and cultural festivites that some may deem as "explicit" or offensive)...



Kanayama Shrine

 

      For many cultures, the arrival of Spring is surely something to celebrate, Japan included. Springtime brings new life to the land after a long winter; baby birds start to hatch, flowers blossom and, for much of the animal world "love" is in the air. This past weekend we embarked on our first real day trip in Japan. We tagged along with some old friends to the Kawasaki Fertility Festival outside of Tokyo.                                                                              
      This festival is known as Kanamara Matsuri, or "The Festival of the Steel Phallus". It is of Shinto origin, and began during the Edo Period (1603-1867) as a way to drive evil spirits and bad luck out of marriage, pregnancy, family and sexual life. There is a legend that there was once a girl who had a demon living inside her vagina. This demon had killed two of her lovers by biting off their penises. (*This seems like an explanation to an STD to me.) So, the preist created a steel phallus to trick the demon, and break his teeth, therefore destroying said demon. The steel phallus was placed on display and became a symbol of significance to people searching for blessings of fertility and sexual health. It also became a shrine for sex workers to come and pray for business success and protection from STD's (especially syphilis).

     It has now blossomed into a Spring festival where people come from all over to celebrate, make wishes and pray for good health. It is an occasion where Gay, Lesbian, and Trans-gendered individuals can come out in the open and be comfortable in this former Red-light district. Festival activities include a parade of "floats", fundraising for HIV research, lots of food, alcohol (sake), souvenirs and especially the phallus shaped candies, and lollipops which literally everyone is walking around eating...it's quite a sight for your typical American who isn't used to seeing that sort of thing on the street. The "floats" are essentially alters built around very large phalluses (the leader, and largest of all being pink, the black one is made of steel, and there is also a wooden one) are carried by men and women wearing very short costumes and paraded down the street followed by a massive crowd of people all trying to touch them for the blessing. Being there in person, literally pushed/ carried off by the crowd is quite an experience!

    My inner feminist has to say, that this massive celebration of the male reproductive organ seemed for me as yet another male-dominated culture blatantly ignoring the woman's role in reproduction. Especially since, there is also some symbolism including the Samurai involved in this festival. Speaking as both a woman, and a mother, I can honestly say that the woman's role in reproduction is much more vital on both a spiritual and scientific level. Though it is a fascinating religious celebration, it does also seem to be  an example of the suppression of women for centuries in too many cultures....I do not know too much about Japanese history in this aspect and I am looking forward to learning more in the future.

      I try not to be ethnocentric, which is why I'm fine with seeing (and exposing my child to) a large celebratory display of what my culture calls "private parts". I feel that human sexuality is something that can be aknowledged, discussed,  and even celebrated (though most American's would rather keep that topic behind closed curtains), but I just wish a little more credit was given where it is due....

Photos:

The short outfits worn by the people partaking in the parade.

I was gonna say a sore thumb, but it stands out like...well...a giant pink penis...

One of the alters.

The gorgeous shrine building.

Penis Energy Ball a.k.a takoyaki (grilled octopus balls)

During the parade, as we were literally being carried away by the pushy crowd.

Marcus getting Benjamin a blessing for a healthy and fertile life.

Alice!?....Dueces!

      After all of this craziness...since it was still early in the day our friends took us to Yokohama for some less crazy fun. We hopped the train to Minatomirai in Yokohama and went up in  the World's 2nd Largest Ferris Wheel. We also had a $5 cup of Starbucks drip coffee and a great time! Minatomirai is like a giant playground/ Amusement Park only a short ride from home, so I'm sure we'll go back often. We finished up the night with some tasty American style BBQ, and a train ride home. Such a fun day... You should see what I'm planning for us to go do this weekend...until then... peace!

Waiting for the train.

I was only a little nervous as I'm kinda scared of heights.

Cosmo Clock 21...I read somewhere it's the world's largest digital clock.

Not the World's tallest Ferris Wheel, at only 353 ft. tall!
The tallest is in Osaka and is 369 ft. tall, we'll get there eventually.

We got a Car!!

Just wanted to share with you all that we found our new family car!

After a few weeks of living here, it became evident that we would need one. Once we figured out the buying process (which is lengthy and involves running around a lot) we decided to go with the same dealer that 85% of the military families here buy from. This particular dealer takes care of the Japanese Compulsatory Insurance, and taxes for you as it is included in the total price of the car. When you are walking everywhere with a 3 year old, you need al the help you can get!
      
When we left the house to go car shopping, Ben said to me "Mommy, I want a yellow car!" I was like, oh we'll see if we can find one...

When we walked up to the lot we were checking out a Red Honda Fit since that is what we had wanted to eventually buy back home. But, I really wanted something small, and unique that I couldn't find in the U.S. and this just wasn't it. But, back behind a few cars, I saw a little butter yellow peeking through and went straight for it. Once Ben and I climbed in, we were sold! For just about $3500 including the various taxes and 1 years worth of collision insurance for 2 drivers we were able to bring home our little "Butterball"...a.k.a. Butters. He's a 2002 Nissan March with about 100,000 km (about 63,000 m) on the engine.

       Driving on the left side of the road isn't as difficult as it may seem at first. I did really well my first time behind the wheel, despite being a famously nervous driver. However, I kept hitting the wipers instead of the turn signals which everyone does. Now I just need to get my license so I can practice, practic, practice!

     *Our household shipment will ready be here tomorrow, almost a month earlier than we expected! I'm so excited to sleep in my own bed! Now we will be settled into our new home country before we know it!

Exploring the new Neighborhood

We have offically been here for ten days! It has been a very busy week catching up on sleep and acquainting ourselves with our new surroundings. So far, we absolutely LOVE our neighborhood.

We have had a few oppurtunities to wander off the base to walk around our town. These are some street shots. On the left is a smaller side street. You should see it when two cars are coming down it at the same time!

Ben at our local (cheapest) sushi joint. Sushi-Go-Round. These are the best kind of places to have some casual sushi. The plates go by on an ingenious conveyor belt that can be blocked off and re-routed to only go to occupied tables. The sushi in Japan is excellent, the rice is seasoned so well, you don't always need to drench the pieces in soy sauce like in the U.S. It's a fun and casual meal (not to mention cheap, at only 105 yen, or about $1.28, per plate). As a general rule, I try to avoid eating too much tuna, as I know it is in low supply. However, on our last trip here I indulged in one particularly beautiful piece of toro (fatty tuna) and man do I see what all the fuss is about! As the fresh meat hit my toungue, it literally melted in my mouth. An indulgant eating experience, that should nonetheless be kept as a special treat. Ben enjoys the meatball sushi, shrimp (ebi), and raw octopus. I Love that he's such an adventurous little eater. He is a big help grabbing the plates for us off the conveyor belt for mom and dad.

Having a "lady-sized" beer at the ramen house.

These types of flags tell you that a restaurant is open.

Fuji-san by day

Last Thursday, we "moved" into our apartment from the hotel. I say "moved" because we don't yet have our household goods, but instead very uncomfortable temporary furniture. Hopefully we will have our own furniture by the end of April and we can get our house put together before Marcus is deployed in May. Our apartment (military housing) is really nice, we like it a lot as it has a very open floorplan, and is more than enough space for our family. We have two patio's that get tons of sunlight, so I plan on doing a lot of patio gardening. As soon as I can, I'm going to load up on gardening supplies and get started! The best part of our place is the view of Mount Fuji...when it's cloudy you wouldn't know it was there, but on a clear day...well you can see for yourself! The ugly building in the way is pretty much what our building looks like. We're way up on the 8th floor, and we don't mind one bit. At least earthquakes will be felt more smoothly up here. For now, we are enjoying the simplicity of life and adjusting well to our new surroundings. The weather has been mostly in our favor, which is great since we are walking everywhere.

Fuji-san at Sunset

 Since we moved into housing, we have decided that we will need to buy a car. There are several factors, but mainly that housing is quite far from the main part of base, and even farther from the nearest grocery store in town (1.5 km). Ben gets tired of walking after about a mile, and I don't blame him, but once Marcus isn't around to carry him on his shoulders I will need better transportation. A bike trailer is out of the question off base, and rainy season is appraoching.  Also we have figured out that buying a car, with insurance and taxes won't cost more than 4k, so why not? Now I just have to get over my fear of driving on tother side of the road, and learn how to do it...

*I've been having difficult time with the format on my blog, I could not get this picture to go anywhere else without screwing everything else up...

Our first few days in Japan...

Our first few days in Japan...

Some cherry blossoms or sakura, on the Naval Base.

After four hours waiting in the airport, a two hour delayed flight and ten hours in the air we finally arrived to Japan around two o'clock in the afternoon. By the time we made it through customs, and loaded up the bus it was after three. The twenty-eight mile drive to our base, Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsugi was over two hours long. Traffic moves relatively slow, and there are a lot of stoplights. Here are some photos taken from the bus ride, our first glances of our new home.

                                  

                                                                             

We were luckily greeted by sunshine and a clear day. This a view of some mountains off the road. There were a lot of car dealerships, McDonalds,  7/11 minimarts, and this KFC.

                                                                                                                                                                     

 

Generally everything is very condensed. When we were landing, we could see Tokyo and the surrounding areas out each side of the plane. I have NEVER seen so much super condensed city in my life. The buildings stretch from the mountains to the sea...in 3 directions, and there are many seperate area of skyscrapers. Houses are about as close to eachother as possible, small and large yards are a luxury. People have gardens shoved anywhere they can.

 Once we arrived on base, it was around 5 p.m. Exhaustion and delerium (a.k.a. Super-bitchiness, a.k.a. my inner pitbull) had set in for me, since I hadn't slept at all the night before we left. When we were unexpectedly met by Marcus's division officers, I proceeded to make an ass of myself. They wanted to make pleasantries, and talk business in the Lobby. I was in no mood for political pleansantries, I just wanted to get my family settled in our private room and find caffeine. The airplane had only served crappy instant coffee granules- which I wanted no part of at the time...after grabbing some food on base, we managed to stay up until just after dark.

After a good night's rest, we were all wide awake up at 2:30 am. Yay...jetlag is fun. For a few days you feel like you can function after waking up at 2:30, but by 2 p.m....you just want to crash. So we made sure to take an afternoon nap each day (at least the boys did, I couldn't nap for anything). I tried to write my blog during these times, which was very slow-going and just not productive in any way as I could hardly focus.

Marcus had run into a friend from highschool (it's a small world afterall), the very first night as we were walking to the base food court. So he invited us to dinner out in town the next day. We were fully expecting some sushi, or ramen noodles to chow down on. When he picked us up in his car, he asked if we liked pasta, and well of course- doesn't everyone? It turns out he's no so keen on the whole sushi thing, so he took us to a place he likes called Spagetti Goemon.

Outside view of Spagetti Goemon

Though it wasn't what we expected our first real meal in Japan to be, it was really amazing. My pasta was probably the BEST pasta, I've ever had. It was simple and amazing, spagetti (cooked perfectly al dente), broccoli, shrimp, and sundried tomatoes topped with olive oil, garlic and seasoned to perfection.

These fun plastic food displays greet you in many restaurants in Japan. This is initially how we chose our food.

The menu, they didn't have an English menu, but it has great detailed pictures.

The Kid's meal was a rice dish with pasta sauce and cheese, some OJ (oranji juzu),
also a small cake, and some custard. Quite tasty.

Ben "using" his chopsticks, or hashi.



          It was a great way to finish our first 24 hours in Japan. The next few days were somewhat low-key. We stayed on base checking in to different departments, and trying to coax our bodies into functioning through the temporal change. We got a house assignment right away, and will be able to move into it on Thursday ( 3/22). For now, we have decided not to buy a car to save money. Though cars are very inexpensive (avg. $2000), insurance can cost up to $1000 per month. Everything we need is within walking (or biking) distance whether on, or off base so we see no need to have a car. The train station is only about 2 km from our home.

New apartment, 8th floor on the right.
(Earthquakes are gonna be fun up there!)

         Unfortunately we won't be allowed to have a dog in this housing, so Frankie will be staying in Chicago for the next three years. I can't even explain how sad this makes me, my main goal as a wife and mother is to do whatever I can to keep my entire family together, pets included, splitting it up in any way is weight I don't like to bear. I'm not much for crying, but just thinking about not seeing my "first born" really hurts. I know he is being well loved and cared for by my wonderful Big Sister, but it's still very hard on us. I guess, this is what we do for our Country though...this year really feels like a year of sacrifices. Hopefully the gods will be apeased...

I mean, look at that face!!

                                                                     

Last few months in the U.S.

It has been far too long since my last post. Life has either too boring to write about, or I have been too busy to write. However, I have decided to lump our last few months in America together in a photo journal or sorts.  

My Big Sister Amie came for a long weekend visit in early February. We had fun checking out some art galleries in Seattle on the first night she arrived. 

The following day we showed Amie and her friend Cameo some of our our favorite spots around the Bellingham area. We started off our day with a sampling of donuts, including the incredible Buttermilk Bar (pictured below) from Rocket Donuts. I have to say, I have never been a big fan of ANY kind of donut- but this thing (especially when warm from a hot vat of grease) was a whole new eating experience for me. It is basically a log of fried buttermilk biscuit that is glazed while still hot, so the sweet glaze soaks into the crispy outside of the plain dough. Not too sweet + not too dense of a dough = Perfection. The weirdest thing, is that regular buttermilk biscuits are one of the few foods I will not touch. However, in this form, and with a nice cup of hot coffee I found joy....until the carb crash arrived a few hours later!

             
These shots are from a particularly gorgeous evening sunset at the Bellingham waterfront overlooking the Lummi Island, the Lummi Peninsula, and Orcas Island.

Marcus and Ben throwing stones at the shoreline.

The next day it was on to Vancouver, B.C. to check out ScienceWorld and eat some food!

NERDY RANT ALERT!!: They had a seriously awesome, and scientifically accurate exhibit on dinosaurs! Alas, velociraptor (above R) will never be as cool to me with his down feathers. Fact: It is now known that young raptors (yes, even ferocious T-Rex) had those fuzzy down feathers. Much like their modern day bird ancestors, they lost their down once they developed the ability to regulate their body temperatures, as these dinos were indeed endothermic, or warm-blooded creatures. I recall a day when all dinosaurs were thought to be cold-blooded reptiles...I'm still getting over the fact that birds are now classified as reptiles.

So, in loo of velociraptors spoiled reputation (at least in my eyes) I found a new favorite dinosaur called Gigantoraptor...unfortunately it's large size didn't allow for a good photo oppurtunity. Imagine giant talons, the body of T-Rex, except turn the tiny arms into tiny wings, add a goose-like long neck, and the head/beak of a parrot...you catch my drift. What a wacky combination of features, what's not to love!? We also had fun with the other various interactive scientific exhibits like playing in a Medieval themed Lego land, and all sorts of kinetic body tests.

After developing all those new neurons from all the Sciency stuff in the museum, it was time to find something to eat! Using Cameo's chef expertiseWe decided on some Japanese food, since Vancouver has the best Japanese outside of Japan. We started with Ramen at some place (I forgot the name), the BEST place in town for very authentic Ramen.

Spicy garlic ramen (note the heaping scoop of raw garlic)

 For those of you not familar with Ramen (no, not the dry pouch of noodles with the packet of powdered saltiness), it's noodles (good ones are made fresh daily by hand), with different flavors of  slow simmered pork broth (Miso, soy sauce or salt as the main flavoring), fatty tender slices of pork, garlic, and a slew of other possible toppings. If you want it rich, they will sprinkle it with melted pork fat...it's rediculously satisfying and warming on a cold rainy night, but I'd even eat a small serving for breakfast if I could. 

Overall, I had a great time visiting with my sister and her pal, Cameo. I was especially sad to see my sister go this time, but I know without a doubt she will visit us in Japan! The pace of life took a slow turn after they left, I wound up fighting some bronchitis for nearly 10 days...

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Sleepy Grizzlies.

After we packed out of our Apartment in Bellingham at the end of  February, we headed down southeast of Seattle to stay with my in-laws for our last few weeks in Washington. We spent time seeing and doing a last few things we hadn't had the chance to do before. One weekend we went to Northwest Trek, a wildlife viewing park.

Northwest Trek, start of the Tram tour.

Trams...

                            Cuddly Beavers...so cute!

This park got the good 'ol Benjamin stamp of approval, it was really cool. We got to see every kind of animal they had, nobody was hiding not even the moose!


The following weekend, I was determined to go to the top of the Space Needle, which in 8 total years in the Seattle area I had never done...so...

We did it, despite the general cloudiness of Seattle weather. It was worth it though, really great views of the entire city and beyond. I can't even imagine how amazing the view must be on a clear day. We also took Ben to the Seattle Children's museum. Overall, it was a great day. The perfect end to the best five years of our lives. In the last five years Washington state has found a true place in my heart. Most of my significant memories take place in the shadows of  the mountains, evergreen trees and cloudy skies of Western Washington. It's where I met my the love of my life, had my child, and went to college...It feels like home to me. I hope to return there after our adventures abroad. 

I mean, look at these guys! How could you not love that!

On our way back to Westlake Center on the Monorail.