Happy Halloween

We didn't carve pumpkins this year, but we did get to see this most
unusual jack o'lantern. We visited an ocean theme park called Aqua
Paradise and the diver trained this school of fish to swarm around and
make their own Halloween decoration.

Dressing up

Ellie and Trip wore their pajamas/costumes all day today including on
the train all the way to an ocean theme park in Yokohama. They got
some smiles from weary Tokyo rush hour commuters and plenty of
interest from the seals, dolphins, and beluga whales we saw today. We
went out with a pocketfull of bat rings to hand out to anyone showing
Halloween spirit, but only saw one girl in costume. Then again, we
were pooped and headed back to watch a Halloween movie by 4:30 in the
afternoon. Pizza was a special treat for dinner as well as unlimited
access to a big bag of assorted Japanese sweets for dessert. Ellie
said that even though they didn't go Trick or Treating, it was the
best Halloween ever. After the kids went to bed, I broke out Mommy's
chocolate stash and ate as many as I wanted. And that's what we did on
Halloween. All the kids at home are waking up about now and getting
their costumes ready for school. Have fun!

Fire helicopter

Check out the pilots of this fire-fighting helicopter which hangs off
the 5th floor terrace of the firefighting museum over the busy street
below.

Fire Fighting Museum

Not far from our apartment is the 10 story Tokyo Fire Fighting Museum.

Making Friends

Trip has proven to be particularly adept at making friends wherever we
go. He finds boys his own age and just starts playing what they are
playing and talking in English. Sometimes he finds that his friends
can even understand him a bit.

Even Ellie has found a friend today. Her buddy doesn't speak English
but they have been doing well with gestures and sign language. We
stopped at this very fun playground to have lunch before heading to
the science museum, but the kids have been playing hard and I have
been catching up on email and reading. We may end up doing the
science museum another day.

Hachiko, loyal dog

We'd rather take a picture with a statue of a dog than with a real
live cat, since we now know cats can't be trusted. Dogs, on the other
hand, are loyal friends.

This is the famous statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Crossing. Hachiko was
an Akita and companion of a Tokyo University professor in the 1920's.
Every day, Hachiko would wait for his master to return from work at
the Shibuya train station. One day, the professor suffered a stroke
and died while at work. Hachiko waited at the train station for him
but his owner never came home. Hachiko continued to wait at the train
station every day for 10 years until he died. Hachiko is now known all
over Japan for his loyalty and the statue is a favorite place for
friends to meet.

While doing a quick Wiki seach on Hachiko to make sure I had my facts
right, I learned that an American movie about Hachiko's story is
planned for 2009 starting Richard Gere. Hmm... I also learned that
Hachiko's stuffed and mounted remains are on display at the natural
science museum - yech, I think I'd rather just enjoy the statue and
the story.

Mmm.. Cream puffs.

We have discovered that a common treat often found in train stations
is giant baseball sized cream puffs. For Halloween they are selling
them with pumpkin and sweet potato flavored fillings, but we like the
original. They make a fine late afternoon on the way home treat. I
think buyers are meant to take them home for dessert, but we just duck
around a corner and devour them immediately.

Kodomo no Shiro

That's Japanese for Children's Castle where we are still hanging out
and where Ellie and Trip are painting on a huge 47 foot wall that gets
wiped clean each day. Ellie did not start the giant red dot, but she
is adding to it.

Wheel Carts

Today we are at the National Children's Castle. We haven't seen much
of it yet because Ellie and Trip have been working for nearly an hour
to master these little carts. Each wheel turns independently with a
handle so moving forward in a straight line takes some serious thought
and coordination. Has anyone ever seen these or know what they are
called? We are calling them wheel carts. Trip seems to be picking it
up faster than Ellie so for once, he got to win a race and Ellie
didn't even pitch a fit about losing like Trip usually does.

Questions from Kids: Answers for Ellie's Class

To Ellie's class, I'm sorry it took me too long to get your questions answered by Ellie, recorded in my notebook, typed on the computer and posted to you. We love to hear from you. Ellie thinks about you every day.

Miss Krieger: Did you really eat pickles for breakfast?
Ellie: Yes, and we like to get them for free samples in the department store basements.
Ellie's mom: tiny pickles are a traditional part of every Japanese meal.  We definitely had them every time in Kyoto.  We have them sometimes now, but the kids do like most varieties.  I can send some in for the class to try when we get back!

Miss Krieger: Are there any American foods like cereal?
Ellie: Not in Kyoto, but yes, in Tokyo.
Ellie's mom: We had only Japanese breakfasts (or Japanese interpretations of western breakfasts) while we were traveling.  The B&B in Hiroshima was run by American QUaker volunteers, so they served granola and yogurt.  Now that we are in Tokyo, we can get a version of corn flakes, frosted flakes, or cocoa flakes, and that's all.  They also have big thick fluffy slices of very white bread that is nice for toast.  Butter is uncommon and expensive, but Ellie was delighted to discover margarine.

Miss Krieger: Are the beds like at home, but on the floor?
Ellie: Not really.  They are futons, which are thick pads, then a big fluffy quilt.  The pillows are small and filled with beans! You roll they whole thing up and put it away during the day and only get the futon out at night. They are comfortable, but they are better to jump on when they are rolled up than when they are rolled out. But not in our apartment in Tokyo.  We have beds.  But not my brother.  He still has a futon.

Miss Krieger: Do you go barefoot when you remove your shoes, or do you have to wear slippers?
Ellie: Well, it's a litte tricky.  You take off your shoes when you come in a building.  And it is hard because you can't touch the shoes floor with your socks.  You have to step up onto the socks floor. Then sometimes, they have slippers for you, like at our ryokan in Matsumoto.  I had Minne Mouse Slippers. But sometimes you just go barefoot or in socks.  But if you have slippers on, when you get to a room with tatami mats, then you have to take the slippers off and the slippers have to stay on the wood floor only.  Only barefoot and socks on tatami, always.  And then, when you go to the bathroom, there is another pair of slippers you have to change into that only touches the bathroom floor.  And don't forget to take the bathroom slippers off when you leave the bathroom - that would be embarassing. In our apartment in Tokyo, we take off our shoes at the door and we have a special shoe closet to put them in.  We just wear socks.  We don't have a tatami room and we don't have bathroom slippers, so it is easy.

Alicia: Have you seen families with pets?
Ellie: Yes, especially lots of Shiba Inus, which look like little foxes.  Alex N in Miss Metter's class has one and we posted a picture of one earlier on thew website.  There are mostly smaller dogs, but we have seen a few big ones.

Spencer: Is there a Japanese SPCA?
Ellie: I don't know.
Ellie's mom: we asked our friends when we were staying with them and they said that they hadn't heard of such a thing.  When schools raise money, they said they usually give to UNICEF. But that was a small town and there may well be such a thing in the more centrally located areas.

Miss Krieger: Are there ceramic cats in all the stores to symbolize good luck?
Ellie: Sometimes.  We like the ones that actually wave with a battery inside.
Ellie's mom: Yes, we see them in many places and in many forms.  If I can recall the story of the cats correctly, it goes something like this: long ago there was a temple that cared for many many stray cats, but the temple was running out of money and it was about to close down.  Legend has it that someone important, a lord or nobleman was riding by and saw a cat with its paw up waving him into the temple.  The bigwig stopped, went into the temple and eventually became the temple's sponsor saving it and all the cats.  Now people display a cat figure waving its right hand to attract good friends or a cat waving its left hand to attract good business. Once in a while someone will have one of each kind of cat.  Once, I saw a cat with both hands waving!

Becca:Does the food at McDonald's taste like at home?
Ellie: Yes, but they have Mini Pancakes as a choice with a cool little butter and syrup squirter.  And you get to pick your prize from the menu.

Miss Krieger: When you visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum and signed the book, how did you feel? Did someone help you fold the origami crane?
Ellie: I felt happy and proud because I was sharing what I thought with the people in Japan.  I think everyone should go there.  Nobody helped me fold the crane.  I followed the directions.

Vidal: Are there other stores there that we have in the US?
Ellie: Not really.  There's Kentucky Fried Chicken.  They have 100 yen shops, just like the dollar store!

Miss Krieger: Is there anything on the news about the election for US President?
Ellie: Sometimes, a little bit.
Ellie's mom: When we were traveling, we could only get the Japanese TV news and they really only seemed to mention it very briefly and not every day.  I asked my friend what Japanese people thought of the election and she said that Japanese people don't follow politics to the same degree that North Americans do.  She said that whether it is US or Japanese politics, no one really cares because they expect goverment to be bad, no matter who is elected.  Of course that is the perspective of one person, who works long hours as a teacher and mom, in a small city.  Back in Tokyo, Polk has heard a lot of interest, but much of that is from Penn alumni and other academic types who spent some time studying in the US.  He says they are interested and somewhat amazed that the United States would even entertain the idea of electing Obama (presumably because he is black, though this is unsaid).  I spotted a poll in the Daily Yomiuri, the English newspaper saying the 34 percent of Japanese were hoping Obama would win. 13 percent were hoping McCain would win. And the rest expressed no preference. Now that we are in Tokyo, we have our Apple TV and Slingbox running so we are watching the (delayed a few hours) Today show every morning, the network news every evening, and the Daily Show and Colbert every night, just like at home. When Novemebr 4 comes along, we'll have to get up early in the morning to watch the live election results.

Thanks for your interest.  We hope you are enjoying the blog.  Ellie has started a book report about Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes.  Did you find it?  If not, she will tell you all about it when she gets back.

Grammie should have been there

Ellie and I took a little excursion to a neighborhood filled with
dollmakers. This shop, opened in 1711, is run by the 11th generation
of the same family. They had every kind of Japanese doll. Ellie and I
were on the hunt for additions to our collection of wooden kokeshi
folk art dolls, which are much less delicate than most of the ornate
kimono-clad dolls here. I'll post a picture when we've collected a few
new ones.

To answer some of Grammie's questions, we will post complete details
on our apartment later this week, but yes, we all have actual beds
except for Trip who has a very cozy futon set nestled into the corner
of the kids' bedroom.

You asked what American foods we were craving. I asked everyone and
only Trip had a quick answer: SUSHI! None of the rest of us could
really come up with anything. There is a lot we can't here, but there
are so many things we can't get easily or at all at home, so we have
been enjoying those things. At the apartment I will pretty much cook
Japanese because that is the ingredients that are most readily
available. We had pasta for dinner the other night and it tasted
pretty good though at home we don't get all that excited about pasta.

I should also say that we haven't seen a whole grain since we left
the United States and we've been served plenty of (non-organic) meat,
deep fried foods and snack foods. I also don't think we've seen a
single overweight Japanese person. And now that I think of it, I know
there are gyms, but we haven't seen anyone jogging or exercising
outdoors. The difference is portion size. Plates are the size of
coffee cup saucers. The biggest bag of chips you can buy are the size
we would put in lunchboxes. We have, unfortunately, developed a bit if
an evening ice cream bar habit since we are eating so well otherwise.
We have to maintain our American figures so you all will recognize us
when we return.

Beware of Cat

The kids wanted to make a hasty departure from the kitty castle after
Trip got bitten, but I wanted at least one picture to post for you. I
found this cat quietly sleeping in the corner, but it took some
serious coaxing to get the kids to get even this close to the wild
beast. Ellie in particular was sure this predator would attack at any
moment.

Once bitten...

In the category of crazy Tokyo, we visited a place today called Kitty
Castle where Tokyo apartment dwellers starved for animal affection can
go and, yup, play with kitties. They had a whole kitty city but, as
you might expect, most of the cats were firmly asleep or slinking
around ok the cat walks attempting to avoid human contact. I was with
Trip when one long haired cat came tiptoeing up looking like it was
looking for some attention. Trip gently petted it for a few moments
before it suddenly turned and bit him. After that, the kids wanted to
leave. Conclusion: we are still dog people.

Questions from Kids: Answers for Trip's class

We are away right now, but I set this message to auto-send on Friday. Here is a double scoop of info for Trip's classmates:

Sarah: What did you do at school?
Trip: I played with building blocks.  The first day I got there it was raining so we did exercise inside and it was too loud. But the next day, it was sunny so we got to go outside.

Lilia: What projects did you do at school?
Trip: I made a Halloween bucket for trick or treating and other stuff for Halloween.

Madeline: Is there a Obama voting there?
Trip: I don't think so... that's a tricky one.
Trip's mom: We mailed our absentee ballots from Japan so, yes, there was some Obama voting here.

Christian: Are there oranges in the market in Japan?
Trip: There's not Pennsylvania oranges. They have the kind you can peel their skin.
Trip's mom: They have wonderful little tangerines that are like the best Clementines you'll ever have - easy to peel, never any seeds, and very sweet.  They are called Mikan. Both Ellie and Trip (and I) thought they didn't like oranges, but they love mikan.

Drew: Are you riding a train to school?
Trip: No, we rode in a car.

Yasmin: Do you have flowers there?
Trip: I really don't know.
Trip's mom: Yes, there are flowers, but not always a lot of land to plant them.  Even in the country, no one has big yards or porches with pots like we do at home.

Jaden: Why did you go to a new school? We miss you!
Trip: Because we wanted to spend time there.  I miss Jaden too.

Erica: Is your school fun?
Trip: Yes. The best part is I like exercising outside. I like to run around the track.

Sanaa: Is your school big or small?
Trip: Absolutely very, very small, but it is really long too.

Bryan: Do you have toys?
Trip: Yes only small toys.  My sister is building a pirate ship out of cards.

Avinesh: Do you have a playground at your school?
Trip: Yes, at the school and we found some in Tokyo too.

Ms. Stephanie: Do you sleep on the floor?
Trip: Yes, I've slept on the floor many times, on a futon.

To Dylan: Thanks for the Phillies update.
Trip: We know already.
Trip's mom: In Tokyo, we have a gadget that allows us to watch our home TV, live, in Japan.  We got it so we could watch Michigan football games, but this season, we'd rather tune in to the Phillies.

Alex F: Why did Trip go to a new school?
Trip: Because I wanted to visit there.  Don't worry, I'll be back in a week.
Trip's mom: Actually, more like a little more than a month.

Yasmin: Were you Spiderman for Halloween?
Trip: I want to be Spiderman. Actually, Batman. I'll be Spiderman next year.
Trip's mom: Trip was and will be a skeleton because we have skeleton pajamas that can do double duty as a costume.

Jaden: Why were all of the girls dressed like princesses at your school?
Trip: Because girls like princesses. One girl wasn't. Emi was a panda bear.

Sarah: What was the candy like?
Trip: It was great.  I ate the whole bucket full before we went back to our friends' house.

Madeline: Is there a big clock in the town square?
Trip: I don't really know.
Trip's mom: I've noticed that playgrounds often have some sort of big outdoor clock.

Malvika: What were you for Halloween?
Trip: I was a blow up in the dark skeleton.

Bryan: Is there a shopping center?
Trip: I don't really know.
Trip's mom: Yes, there are lots of shopping centers including big department stores with whole floors of sample toys to play with and rooftop playlands.
Trip's sister: The biggest shopping area in Tokyo is called Ginza.

Sanaa: What kind of candy is your favorite?
Trip: Gin-pops - they are little peanuts with chocolate that I ate with my friends.
Trip's mom: I can't confirm this name, but Trip was hanging out with a pack of bigger girls on the Halloween party day so maybe they told him the name. Stay tuned to find out how we celebrate Halloween in Tokyo.

Come back on Sunday

We will be traveling out of our cell phone area until Monday for us,
Sunday for you, so we'll be taking a short break from posting. Please
come back in a few days.

Nice view

There are benefits to a small apartment. Our bedroom is separated from
the living room by a sliding door. This is my view of the TV from the
bed. We have our Apple TV and a Slingbox so we have a lot to catch up
on.

Ah, a couch!

Today we explored our neighborhood and walked around the park at the
Imperial Palace. But this is the first time we've been able to slump
on the couch and watch TV in three weeks.

Our neighborhood

We are back in Tokyo now. Our building is right between two train
stations. There are sculptures of children all around the
neighborhood, but the inscriptions on them are in Japanese only. This
statue of a boy is wearing a little robe. He is right outside the
Kojimachi subway station.

Trip's Brother

This is Trip's new big brother Koya who gives him baseballs,
transformers, and pokemon discs. He is 10, cousin of Trip's girlfriend
Kayo, and he speaks just enough English to tell Trip to cut it out
when he is being rambunctious.

No, no, we won't go!

It is time for us to pack up and move on. At six this morning, I got
up, got dressed, pulled the blankets and folded them, pulled the
quilts and folded them, yanked the futons out from under the sleeping
kids and folded them, so the kids were left with nothing but their
tiny bean-filled pillows, but they were determined to stay in bed.

Two fingers equals Cheese

Wherever there are teenaged Japanese girls, you'll find Trip in the
middle.

Halloween Party

Here we are at the Halloween party of the school we are visiting. The
candy looks strange, but hey, it's candy. Just like at home, there ate
plenty of Spider man costumes. And other than the girl with the pink
skeleton pajamas in the middle, all of the girls are dressed like some
kind of princess or another.

Big Box

Here is Trip following Kayo and her older sister Ikumi through a big
box superstore just like the kind we have at home.

Major crush

This is Trip's dream girl. Her name is Kayo, she is 14 years old, and
she speaks just enough English to laugh at his jokes. She's the perfect woman: nice, pretty, thinks he's funny and plays Transformers with him.

To our fans

Once again, thanks to everyone who comments on our posts. The first
thing we do when we wake up in the morning is grab the iPhone and read
our messages.

Grammie: thanks for promoting our blog to your friends. When we send
posts we like knowing that someone is reading them. Yes, Ellie and
Trip have been drawing in their journals. Ellie thought of Monet's
painting before you did. She has been inspired by Japan and wants to
decorate the Bald Head golf cart like a Shinto shrine.

Grampie: thanks for all of your comments on our posts. Even if they
don't always make sense we like to get your messages.

Susanna: thanks for holding down the fort at home. Yes, all we were
doing was eating in Kyoto. No, we never saw anyone burning money for
the dead. Thank you for the reminder to Polk to take photos.

Derek: Trip wants to know if you can have a playdate first thing in
the morning because he has so much to tell you about. Yes the volcano
was very cool and a little bit dangerous.

Alex: welcome to the missing front teeth club. One of Ellie's is
starting to grow in. Ellie's advice on eating with no front teeth:
bite with the side of your mouth or if it is too big just break it
into pieces.

Schulman family: Ellie says she kind of misses school, but Japanese
school is fun. She does not miss homework, but she does miss riding
the school bus. And don't worry, Japan is very safe.

To be continued...

Lunch time

Here is Ellie with friends at lunch time eating her school-issued
bento lunch box.

Exercise time

Here are the kids doing exercises in unison (kind of) in the school
yard. Trip is on the left side, chest puffed out, with no sun flap on
his blue hat.

Meanwhile, back in Tokyo

While Sarah and the kids are in southern Japan, I'm back in Tokyo,
working on my research at the Institute for Intellectual Property (a
research center associated with the Japanese Patent Office, and funded
by the Japanese government). Everyone will join me here next weekend.

The photo should give you a good sense of the glamor involved.

Baking

My friend at whose house I am staying has an oven which is somewhat
unusual. I decided to make banana bread yesterday but first I had to
find baking powder and baking soda, which I eventually did with the
help of my English-Japanese dictionary on my iPhone. In spite of the
arm-and-hammer-ish color, the one on the left is powder and the one on
the right is soda.

Girl power

This is Ellie on the playground with three girls from her class. Both
kids want to do everything the other kids do. They want to change into
uniforms each morning, wear outside hats, keep an extra toothbrush at
school for brushing after lunch, have a cup and towel to hang on their
hooks, eat with their own chopsticks and so on.

Trip's new friend

We are getting into the routine of family and school life. We are
staying at the home of my friend, her husband, and her kids (ages 10
and 14). The kids are attending the English immersion school where I
was a teacher after college.

Trip hit it off right away with Kenshu, playing legos and chasing each
other around. Trip is in the younger class where the kids can
understand quite a lot of English but they usually communicate in
single words. But Trip and Kenshu both apparently speak the universal
code of Boy.

Aoshima

We visited Aoshima Island which has amazing rock formations in
perfectly straight lines that jut out perpendicular to the shoreline.

Trip's comment: I thought we were finished with sightseeing!

The kids started school and they are having a great time. We have been
extremely busy since we got here and until tonight I have been out of
cell and data range at night. I will post photos and more details
tomorrow.

Got Rice?

How long does it take you to go through a grocery store sized bag of
rice? Well, if you eat a lot, you can pull up your car to one of these
rice depots, buy it by the kilo and load it into the back of your car.

I'm huge in Japan

...literally. That's four year old me on the billboard advertisement
for the school where I worked. Maybe this week they can get some new
photos of Ellie and Trip instead.

Grumpy the Dwarf

The one in the blue shirt has had enough sight-seeing and is ready to
go to school tomorrow.

Polk's Mecca

Here is Polk, the kids, and our host in front of HandsMan, the
Japanese equivalent of Home Depot.

Harvesting Mushrooms

A close-up showing how the mushrooms are harvested off the blocks.

Trip Helps Out

Trip is helping load wood chips (almost like sawdust) into a hopper.
The wood chips are treated (marinated, pressed into blocks, and
heated) before going on the racks to grow shitake mushrooms.

Right as this photo was taken, Trip pushed the wrong lever and dumped
the load of sawdust on the floor. He has since perfected his front-
end loader driving, and will be living on a mushroom farm until he's 21.

For Miss Stephanie - Mushrooms

Trip's teacher, Miss Stephanie asked about shitake mushrooms. Trip is
standing in front of a rack of special wood blocks where these
mushrooms are grown. (We're staying with some friends in southern
Japan, on their shitake mushroom farm.)

Seikino Falls

On our first day here we visited this fantastic waterfall that is
quite nearby.

For Alex

Hey Alex, look! It's a Shiba Inu. We have seen five so far: three in
their natural habitat (at the end of a leash) and two puppies in the
pet section of a department store. We'll keep counting. We've got bad
news for Tabitha though. Japanese people are generally skinnier than
Americans and.. um, the same appears to be true for dogs.

Miyakonojo

We arrived today in the town where I was a teacher 13 years ago. We
are staying for a few days at the home of our friends, the Seguchis.
Mr. Seguchi is the director of the school where I worked.

It is fun to be here in their home with them. Trip and Ellie are crazy
about their teenage daughters. It is such a wonderful chance to stay
here instead of a hotel. But it is a busy family house and Polk is
getting more practice sitting and sleeping on the floor. I'm sure he
will survive.

Unfortunately, we are out of town in the mountains and we are not
getting cell service. You may notice a change in our usual patterns of
posting. We are writing blog posts but they will be queued to send as
soon as we hit a service area. This will only be for a few days so
bear with us.

Transportation Extravaganza

We have used all kinds of transportation on this adventure. Trip is
helping me brainstorm a list:

Airplanes, ferry boat, jet plane, express train, subway, elevated
train, streetcar, bus, taxi, Shinkansen (bullet train), elevators,
escalators, ferris wheel, and lots of walking.

And here is the volcano...

This is the volcano Sakura-jima as seen from the top of the ferris
wheel on the top of the train station. It is an active volcano which
emits smoke and ash. You can smell the smoke in the air and during
larger eruptions it causes earth tremors and blankets the town in ash.
This is where we hope to wrap up our sightseeing NOT with a bang.

Don't call him chicken

We are now in Kagoshima, the last stop on the traveling around
sightseeing portion of our trip. We are here for one night to ride the
ferris wheel on top of the train station and see the active volcano
that looms over the town. Polk has been insisting that he would not go
up in the ferris wheel, but here is is and he almost looks like he's
enjoying it.

Lunch @ 200 mph

We are speeding along on the Shinkansen and I thought I'd share with
you my lunch: a bento box, green tea, and a chewy mochi rice cake
filled with sweet red beans. All of these goodies came from a
convenience store in the train station for about five dollars. That's
fast food.

Case closed

We traveled from Hiroshima to Kagoshima, quite a long way, on three
different trains. Shortly after we arrived, I realized that our camera
was missing from the outside pocket of my purse where it had been
living. Did someone swipe it? Doubtful in Japan.

I went back in the train station and went to the train ticket office.
The woman behind the window didn't really speak English, but I was
able to explain what happened. I told her the names of the trains we
had been on and that I thought the camera might have fallen out on the
train. She told me to come back in 30 minutes.

When I came back, she told me that they had our camera at the previous
station and they would mail it overnight to our next address which I
provided. Case closed.

Now how would this story have ended in the US?

On a lighter note

We also visited the stadium of the Japanese major league baseball
team, the Hiroshima Carp. We tried to buy T-shirts because it is such
a great team name,, but the season just ended so they were all sold
out. This was the last season for this stadium. The team is moving to
a new stadium in the suburbs next season.

Children's Peace Memorial

This is a picture of Ellie standing next to the glass case of paper
cranes, watching a group of schoolchildren sing a song, looking at the
Children's Peace Memorial. Sadako is the figure on the top.

Paper cranes

Ellie took her paper crane outside to the children's peace memorial.
She signed the register with a message of peace to be posted on the
museum's website and added her crane to one of several glass cases
surrounding the monument.

Peace in Hiroshima

This morning we visited Peace Park and the Hiroshima Peace Museum.
Before breakfast, Ellie found a longer chapter book version of Sadako
and the Thousand Paper Cranes in the library of our guesthouse. She
read it all through breakfast and finished it before we had arrived at
our 9:30am appointment with a volunteer English speaking tour guide,
so she was ready.

For those who do not know, Sadako is the true story of a girl who
survived the bombing of Hiroshima only to later become sick with
cancer from the radiation. She strongly believed the Japanese folklore
that it you fold 1,000 origami paper cranes, your wish will come true.
Sadako believed that if she could fold 1,000 cranes, she would get
well. She only made it to 678 before she died, but her classmates
continued folding cranes in her memory and later started a movement to
build the children's memorial in Peace Park. Children from around the
world send their folded cranes with their wishes for world peace.
Sadako is on the top of the monument and although she didn't survive,
her memory and determination have turned into a worldwide children's
peace movement.

So back to this morning, our tour guide walked us around the park,
highlighting monuments, significant locations, and answering our
questions. We then went through the museum and saw photos, films,
models, and artifacts of the bombing. We even got to see belongings of
Sadako that had been mentioned in the book.

At the end of the exhibits there were "dialogue books" were visitors
were invited to write their impressions. The books are saved at the
museum. Ellie wrote, "I made a paper crane here in honor of Sadako."

Mmm...

Mmm... Steamed buns filled with Hiroshima beef. And these ones
weren't plastic. Too bad this isn't a scratch-n-sniff blog.

All shrined out

Just days ago, the kids were so enthralled with shrines that they
didn't want to do anything else besides go to them and make wishes.
Well, five days in Kyoto will cure that.

Yesterday we visited Miyajima, a fantastic shrine and temple complex
built out over the water not far from Hiroshima.

Here's a picture of Trip refusing to stand still for a picture and
Ellie thinking of nothing but trying to make bunny ears behind Trip's
head. They later said that they didn't even see the five stories
pagoda... But you can see it in the picture.

Hiroshima

Today we're in Hiroshima, at the Peace Memorial Park. Sarah and the
kids are standing in front of the "A-Bomb Dome", the only remaining
building left exactly as it was just after the bomb.

We started out the day with a short tour of the highlights by an
English-speaking resident of Hiroshima. In the days before arriving,
we had been explaining to Ellie the significance of Hiroshima, and
said she could ask the tour guide any questions she had. Yesterday,
Ellie announced that she first wanted to ask the tour guide why the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor! We suggested that was probably a
question for another museum....