Shibamata and Monja

Quite close to where we live is a little neighbourhood called Shibamata. It's a pretty quiet place, but the Main Street from the train station is full of shops with older style Japanese architecture. They are also selling lots of traditional food - mochi and red bean galore, as well as all kinds of rice crackers and seaweed. 

It's a fun place to stroll around and take in - especially because it's not over filled with tourists. I met my friend Michiko there back in May just before I started attending the language course in Saitama and we had a good time exploring. Down near the river there is a Tora-san Museum, which we went to. Tora-san is a Japanese movie character from the 50s. He is in 48 different movies (all with a different female lead called "Madonna") actually played by the same actor for all of them. The museum was all in Japanese, but there was lots to look at and dioramas of traditional Japanese houses, movie sets and more to see. 

After this, Michiko asked where we should go for lunch and asked if I'd ever had monja before. I'd actually never even heard of it, so we did a quick google and found a place to go. Monja (or monja-yaki) is the Tokyo version of the much more well known okonomiyaki from Osaka (Hiroshima have their own okonomiyaki version too). It's the same kind of ingredients - cabbage and a batter with your choice of meat and flavours that you get to cook on the hot plate at the table. Instead of coming out like a big pancake though, monja batter is super runny and soft, so you scrape it off the hot plate bit by bit.

It was so different, strange at first, but really delicious. We had the kind with roe (fish eggs), mochi and cheese. I was so interested to see how the mochi (usually a sweet, dessert type food) would turn out, but it was amazing. Super thankful to Michiko for thinking to see if I'd had it before - honestly can't believe I haven't. Then again, my homestay mum from when I lived in Japan for a year in 2004, came from Osaka, so she only ever made Osaka style okonomiyaki at home. 

A whole new world of monja opened up, so when my Uncle visited from Sydney a week or two later, I took him and the girls to a monja restaurant in Asakusa for dinner (post coming soon!). We tried a curry beef flavoured one there too. Steve, who had been sick, and I got to have monja together in Shibamata when the girls were at guides one Sunday. 

We will be back to Shibamata one more time before we leave Tokyo in a few weeks, but I don't think we will have monja. We are going to see the fireworks festival by the river so hopefully will enjoy street food and kakigaori (shaved ice). So long as it doesn't rain!  

BJJ Championships in Japan

Steve has been a committed Brazilian Jiu-jitsu student since starting way back in 2020 - wow we have come a long way since then! I can't believe how long he (and Sophie) have been doing it. I also can't believe I've never really posted about it - just mentions here and there, mostly when I've sewn something. Steve's actually gone all the way through his white belt and blue belt levels and now wears a purple belt. 

Before we got to Japan, he was researching where to train; which gym would be closest, or have the easiest transport options to get to. It's a very different training timetable in Japan compared to Australia. Back home, there are morning and lunch classes, and evening classes that are over at 8, while here they start and run much later. Steve usually goes to a 9:30pm class three times a week! It suits his night-owl nature, but winding down after such intense activity before bed did prove tricky. 

He's been going long enough to earn a stripe on his purple belt. 

The other thing we did was find out the Asian Champion ships would be held in Chiba. There were a bunch of people competing from Steve's current gym (Carpe Diem) and some Aussies from One Purpose in Australia were flying over too. We took the train out to spectate and a hot but rather lovely day in June. 

It was my first Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) competition and pretty cool to be at. We got to see Tegan, one of the teachers at our Australian gym, win her roll and spend some time chatting afterwards. Super special for Sophie to see one of her BJJ role models in action too. 

Japanese Guides and an Iris Festival

Something we wanted the girls to do while we were here is some extra curricular activities. The plan was to get Sophie into BJJ like Steve, but we couldn't manage to find a gym close enough to make it work. What we did end up signing them up for was the Japan equivalent of Girl Guides: Girl Scouts. 

I actually contacted the group before we left Australia to ask if we could join and try to get an idea of when they meet. It's quite different to Australia, where we meet once a week at the hut for a couple of hours during school term. Here they meet every second Sunday for four hours or more, and the location varied, I think almost every time. Lots of using community centre spaces and meeting in a youth activity area in a large park on the prefecture boarder (close to Chiba). 

The girls were pretty happy to join guides in Japan, and for the most part, they really liked attending and doing the various activities. These were similar to Australian guides - craft, cooking, games, songs, rope skills, getting ready for camping etc. 

The biggest downside was that generally the meetings were on the other side of the city to where we lived. The closest location took a half hour to get to, but most of the time we were taking at least an hour. And Steve or I (or both of us) would have to take the girls there, and then decide if it was worth loitering around or coming home and going back again for pick up. It also meant that the whole of Sunday was wiped out if they had a meeting, and usually we didn't feel like doing too much on the Saturday either, because we knew Sunday would be busy. 

One time I had taken the girls out to the far away park for a campfire training session they were doing in preparation for their upcoming summer camp. The girls got to cook lunch (curry rice!) on the campfire in the park, which was pretty cool. 

The park was huge, so I thought I'd wander around, explore and catch a few Pokemon. 

What I ended up stumbling across was an Iris Festival which was held at the park every year. Beautiful day, food trucks, live music and the chance to appreciate all these beautiful iris flowers that had just bloomed thanks to the warm summer days. 

It was so great, the perfect amount of busy but not crowded. It felt fantastic to see an authentic festival being enjoyed by Japanese people and not an overabundance of tourists. I got to see several dance groups perform traditional ordori dances too. Such a highlight for me! 

Back to guides, the other downside was that even though there was a group of 14 or so girls who attended, none came from our area of Katsushika, and it was hit and miss who would turn up on any given day. Friendships were very hard to actually establish.  

I think the Japanese guides at first didn't quite know what to do with us, but quickly came to warm to the girls and try their best to make sure they understood and were included. Towards the end, they really wanted to make the most of having these Australians with them which was really special. The second last time they were together, they organised a video call with the Australian guides who were conveniently on camp (so the Sunday meeting time matched up). It was kind of perfect that the Australian guides were on camp, in the bush, and were able to walk to the edge of the campsite and show the Japanese guides some wild kangaroos jumping around. So fun. 

Not going to lie though, right after the phone call, Sophie had a big wave of homesickness. Double edged sword really. Delighted to see home and talk to friends but then remembering what you are missing is so sadness inducing. 

We are about to wrap up guides though, since we are moving on from Tokyo in a few weeks. The girls have one more adventure outing with them: hopefully camping for one night in the aforementioned park. The sleep-over part only goes ahead if it's not horrendously hot though, so still don't know for sure, but we are hopeful! 

Omiya Bonsai

Just a little side quest on our way to Oyama back at the end of May: a stop in Omiya to see the bonsai.  

Bonsai are just so cool and seeing trees that were hundreds of years old was amazing. We've seen some in Australia, but these were next level. Inside they had a huge section of flowering azaleas which were cool too, though we weren't allowed to take photos of those. 

Something that we read while we were there was that bonsai that were several trees in one small pot were ment to look like a huge forest when viewed from a certain angle. Steve took this shot of one when we were there and I can really see it. Hard to believe that these trees are only 40cm tall. 

This last one was at a smaller (more cramped) bonsai store/nursery. My bonsai sensei in Australia, Ben, suggested stripping the bark on my juniper bonsai last year and I wasn't sure, but I think I'm much more convinced now, after seeing these. 

Bonsai yo! 

Rachel's Birthday

This might be the most low key birthday we've ever celebrated for one of our girls. Rachel's first summer-time birthday. It was on a Monday, and because I'm away during the week at my language teachers training course, I wasn't even there on the day! 

On top of that, having no oven in our house meant that making a cake was pretty difficult. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to buying a slice of convenience store cake, but come Saturday, I made the snap decision that it wouldn't be a birthday without something home cooked. I pulled together and used the rice cooker to produce a brownie cake for our girl. 

It's not a classic from the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book, but it was something. We ate that on the Sunday before I left, and then on the Monday, Steve came through with some more "Japanese" offerings. It was kind of like Rachel got two birthdays really. 

Lots of messages and calls from back home and her Japanese school friends wrote some super lovely cards for her. Rachel was delighted to open the present of five books of the latest series she is obsessed with (Sophie was too), especially given that English books to read are in short supply here. We were on the fence about getting them, since it means we have to carry these with us while we travel Japan and then get them home again. But her excitement and crazy eyes as she opened it was worth it. 

She's got seven kilos of carry on luggage allowance after all. 

Living in Saitama: Japanese Teacher Language Training Program

This story begins last year, in September, when I decided to apply for a Japan Foundation intensive language training course. This was specifically for international teachers of Japanese language to help us improve proficiency and thus be better Japanese teachers in our home countries. The application process was involved, several proficiency tests and a written section as well as school approval etc. Obviously, back in September we didn't know if we would even be in Japan, but I applied anyway, since I was wanting to improve my Japanese proficiency and this course looked like a good opportunity. 

Application sent, and we didn't hear anything until March; the week before we were due to fly out. I was in! The acceptance process was nearly as detailed as the application process, and included medical approval and a chest x-ray, which I had nine days to get organised before our flight. Talk about panic mode. It wasn't exactly what I needed on top of wrapping up everything at school (assessing kids for report cards and prepping for the two weeks of relief lessons I had to leave) on top of cleaning out the house and finalising packing. 

There was also a question of whether or not I could actually accept and attend. The course is designed for teachers to fly in, attend and fly out. The Japan Foundation organise specific travel/study visas for the applicants and provide all the accomodation etc. We had a bit of back and forth about my specific situation, but in the end, they said that yes, I could attend. 

The timing worked out well, because we got here, settled in, the girls started school, and just as I was really starting to stretch the limits of my "what to do with free time" activities, I began. As I mentioned at the end of this post, I am living away from the rest of the family for the week (Monday to Friday) and then heading home for the weekend. Steve and the girls are doing fantastic without me. 

There are 33 teachers here (including me), and we represent 11 different countries. I'm the only Aussie. There is a large group from Indonesia (18), and then a few from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Cuba, Mexico, Algeria, Morocco, Thailand and Myanmar all have just one teacher. Our common language is Japanese, so every day is a lot of practice and improvement. 

We are living in small hotel room style apartments in one building on the campus, and using the classrooms, hall, library etc for studying. The first couple of days I was very overwhelmed and thinking "why am I here?" which I'm pretty sure at least 95% of the other people were thinking too. That settled and we did some testing to be sorted into three classes of skill level. Some of the other teachers were really stressing about that testing, but I was honestly unworried. I mean, we were all already accepted, in, actually here! What came next was to help us learn and progress from whatever level we were at. 

Among all the language learning, the course also includes a large amount of Japanese cultural classes. In the first week we had lessons in how to wear yukata, which made everyone else delighted - most of them have never worn one before. I struggled with that because I didn't know how to not show my knowledge and experience, especially since I was starting to realise that for a lot of people, this was their first time in Japan. Everyone had lots of fun though, in their borrowed yukata (I bought my own) and several people considered buying one afterwards. 

We also took a day trip to Tokyo where we got to do a fuurin experience. We were able blow our own glass wind chimes and paint a design on them. These are very Japanese summer time things that I don't have and was hoping to get one this time round, so hooray! Afterwards we went to lunch and then Asakusa, which I've been too before, so I skipped off to have dinner with a favourite uncle of mine. 

Now coming up on three weeks in (7 weeks total), things are settling into routine. Lots of lessons and things to do. We have an "Expo" to prepare for - I'm in a group who are going to showcase the oceans around our respective countries. We are doing more cultural things as well, and in our spare time we hang out in the karaoke room, play ping pong (though I did that for ten mins last night and hurt my shoulder again, gah!), or just sit around and chat. Lots more to say about this whole thing, but I'll save it for another day - this post is long enough already! 

Subscription Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that we had some dramas with the previous service that we were using to get the updated blog posts sent to your emails. After the first twenty, things turned ugly and it was hiding the blog link/content rather than making it easy for you to find. So sorry for this in the last three or so posts! 

My tech team (aka my Steve) has been on the case and we are now fully switched over to using Mailerlite. If you were already subscribed, you don't need to do anything, but maybe check your spam if you haven't gotten an email lately. We have already canceled the previous subscription account, so you shouldn't get any more emails from them (and if you do, please unsubscribe and mark as spam!)

If you are someone who hasn't been subscribed and would like to be - there should be a handy link at the top of the page. If you are on your phone, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page, click "view web version" and then the subscription box should appear. 

Hopefully any bumps are sorted and we will be back to normal Japan programming soon!