I love snow.

I’m sure that I wouldn’t be as in love with it if I had to live in a place that snows a lot everyday. I’m also pretty sure that I would not like being outside if there was snow everywhere.

Good thing I don’t live in snow country then. It allows me to enjoy the little bit of snow when it does come.

Monday night, it snowed in Tokyo. It wasn’t even a small pitiful amount. It was a full on heavy snowfall. There was enough snow that it didn’t immediately melt as soon as it touched the ground.

I’m glad that I got to see this year’s snowfall before we head back to California for a few weeks.  It would have been sad if I missed this year’s one day of snowfall.

Now, if only it snowed during the daytime when E is awake.  I’d love for her to see her first snowfall.

As most of you know by now (and if you didn’t, well now you do), the Wendy’s franchise in Japan has closed up all their shops and pretty much left Japan.  This all happened during the New Year’s with the last day being the 31st of December.

Wendy’s has become sort of a staple for us since it’s the closest thing to an American style burger in Japan.  In fact, when we first moved to our new apartment, we were so happy to find out that we had one down the block from where we lived.

But alas, it is no more….

Being the crazy family that we are, Jason and I had Wendy’s several time during the last week of their operation.  E didn’t get to eat any since it’s not good for her but she was there to watch us consume our burgers.

We had our last burger there on the 30th since we had a feeling that it would be rather crowded on the 31st.  Wendy’s had gotten progressively more crowded as the end drew nearer so it was a safe assumption for us.

Here is our last Wendy’s meal

Ah, just look at that nice juicy burger…

E was feeling a little sad too since she will never know the taste of Wendy’s in Japan :(

On the 31st, although we didn’t eat there, we did stop by to say our goodbyes to Wendy.  It was pretty crowded as we had predicted.  This is the line at a half hour before they officially closed forever.

The lady in this picture was the very last customer.  You can see all the employees standing in the back, not know what to do now that the last order has been made.

Such a sad, sad day…

If you were wondering what happened, this is what Wendy’s looked like the day after.  The employees are all standing at the door watching the delivery man pack up what is left over.  I’m assuming it is probably going back to the US…

I wonder what they plan to do with that space now that it’s vacant.  It’s not only this Wendy’s but several other ones that we go by often that looks sad and forlorn now that Wendy’s no longer occupy the spaces.  Let’s hope that something good will take it’s place….

Hopefully…

Today, I took E to the local play area that’s operated by the ward.  It’s actually a nice service that they offer families for free since they provide toys and lots of play areas for kids who need to run around an indoor space.  It’s not a daycare center since a parent or guardian has to be present at all times but it’s still a nice place to take kids to.  I take E there whenever it seems like she needs more space to release some of her energy and our apartment is just too small for her to do that.

There were 4 other moms there when we went.  Their kids were a little bit older than E, probably in the 1.5-2 year old range, and one other baby.

As soon as I put E down in an unoccupied area, she found herself a toy that kept her occupied for a while.  She was actually having a blast chewing on the fake mobile phone.  I’m sure they keep their toys pretty clean there but to be on the safe side, I went over to the cubby hole area to get a wet cloth from my bag to wipe down the toy.

I kept an eye on E the entire time since she has been very clingy to me lately and I was afraid she will burst out in hysteria when she noticed that I wasn’t near her.  As soon as I got the cloth from my bag, I started heading back to E when this 2 year old girl ran up to E and grabbed the toy out of her hands.  Not knowing what to say in Japanese to that little girl, I ran back to E to make sure she was ok as that little girl darted off with the toy.

I was appalled at what had just happened!  If I was with E, that little punk would never have gotten close to E.  E was a bit shocked over what had just happened to her but she found another toy nearby and carried on as if nothing happened.

I looked around the room for that punk kid and saw her telling her mom that Ellie was chewing on the toy and that it’s all covered in saliva.  Her mom, who was talking on the cellphone, said “daijoubu da yo” or “it’s ok” and then went back to ignoring the girl.  Then that little girl threw aside the toy and proceeded to take the toys from the other kids in the room, making them all wail and scream in protest.

E and I watched as this little girl terrorized everyone else in there and I was just surprised that her mom never really did anything to stop her.  She finally got off her phone at one point when her daughter was crying hysterically because another kid won’t let go of his toy and she apologized to that kid’s mom for the disturbance that her daughter caused.

I must admit, this whole experience is a sudden departure from what I’m use to.  Pretty much all the playgroups and other play areas I’ve taken E to up until today have been predominantly with the foreign community.  Every time E or another child got a little mean with each other, the mom would interfere pretty quickly.  This is the first time that interference didn’t happen for a while.

This could just have been a rare occurrence but from now on, I will have to be on guard when I take her to the play center again.

E is more mobile these days and once she starts going to daycare and school, the worry will only increase.  This whole parenting thing really does increase one’s paranoia about the world….

On the bright side of things, here’s E standing!  She’s been pulling herself up a lot more these days and is a lot more steady when standing with the help of something.

Living in Japan, we’re bound to experience a few tremors here and there. Tonight, we had a semi big one. It’s Ellie’s first earthquake experience.

How do I define semi-big, you ask? When the tremors last more than 10 seconds and it is shaking hard enough that the sliding doors are banging together and making loud noises.  Besides, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, it was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake out in the ocean just south of Tokyo.

We had one tiny one when I was still pregnant and it just made the sliding doors shake a little but nothing major. Tonight, the shaking actually got harder after the first few seconds. My first thought was to go and protect Ellie.

Of course the doors banging together woke her up but there’s nothing Jason can’t fix :)

Whew, I’m glad it wasn’t as big as I thought….it’s a bit scary now since we have E to protect too.

I don’t recall if I ever wrote about tanabata (七夕) when we first moved to Japan. Since I’m practically seeing a lot of things in Japan with new eyes these days, I guess we should revisit old holidays and celebration!

Ellie’s first tanabata festival!

Tanabata is on July 7th every year. It’s a star festival that originated from Chinese folklore. It’s actually a very tragic story….

According to the story (at least from the way I remember my dad telling it to me when I was little), there was an ox herder who, while out with his faithful old ox, caught a glimpse of the Dragon King’s youngest daughter as she was taking a break from her weaving duties by the lake. He was immediately captivated by her beauty and fell in love with her. Since he saw her roaming about in the human world, she promised to marry him and become his wife. The two lived quite happily together, even having two children together.

One day, the Dragon King noticed that the weaving has been neglected so he went to the human world to see what had happened to his youngest daughter. He became very angry that she had neglected her duties and married a mortal man so he took her back to the palace by force, separating her from her new family. Her husband and two children were saddened by her departure, knowing that they will no longer be able to see her again.

The ox herder’s faithful old ox took pity on them and told the ox-herder to kill him and use his hide as a cape to fly up to the heavens to see his beloved wife. Upset, the ox-herder did as his ox had told him to do and with his two children on his back, flew up towards the heavens to see his wife. The Dragon King received news that the ox-herder was coming so he created a river (aka. the milky way) to separate the two lovers.

The two lovers, separated by the river, wept knowing that they can only see each other from afar. A flock of magpies took pity on the lovers and their two children and formed a bridge for them to cross and meet halfway for one single night.

So every year, on July 7th, if the sky is clear, the magpies would appear and the family would be reunited for that one night. If it ends up raining, they would have to wait another whole year before they can be reunited again.

See? It’s a tragic story, isn’t it?

Anyway, this event is celebrated in Japan with people writing their wishes on slips of paper and then tying them up onto a tree. Usually this happens a week or two before the 7th. It’s said that the gods up in heaven will read these wishes and grant them for the year. Usually the wishes people make are for success in work/school or family health.

An example of some wishes on a tree at the temple near our apartment…

Ellie and I made some wishes for our family. Let’s hope they all come true!

J, E and I went out to Odaiba yesterday to check out the 1:1 scale gundam that has been the talk of the town here. We were expecting to see a humongous gundam from far away but what we got was much smaller than we had hoped. It’s not tiny per se but still…we had higher hopes.

Actually, come to think of it, it’s probably at the correct size as the one portrayed in the gundam series. I mean, it’s suppose to be big enough to destroy things but yet small enough for a normal human being to climb into it and pilot it.

Anyway, here are some pictures taken with my sucky point and shoot camera…

Front side

Back side

Zoom

E looking unhappy at the smallness of the gundam.

J said that the gundam looks like it’s just passing by behind us when this photo was taken.

And just in case the pictures aren’t enough, I even recorded a video…