Just Pictures....

First hairdresser haircut....... since hairclips last no more than two minutes and her "getting long" hair ends up filled with whatever she happens to be eating at the moment (mostly peanut butter), we thought it best to get a little trim while we keep working on keeping those clips in..

fooling around with Violette........

bear hugging.......
and yes, reading to Panda Bear.....

Chinese New Year

The Gardeners

Slowly they made their way through the exhibit, pointing, elbowing each other like little children in excitement as they reached a new specimen. Ignoring the “do not touch” signs, occasionally they would flick a branch, as if to give the tree a ‘high five” for being so perfect. Mostly older men huddled in twos and threes and each wearing a distinctively worn out hat, their youthful exuberance and camaraderie made them as interesting to observe as the Bonsai trees I had come to see.

At the 82nd Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition at the Metropolitan Art Museum, I gained a great appreciation of these tiny trees. 269 of the most exquisite examples of Bonsai were on view representing hundreds of years of care – yes, some of the trees were three and four hundred years old. At first, my friend Gill and I were overwhelmed by not just the sea of trees, but the crowd that was lined up to gape in wonderment at each creation. And these were creations – each limb carefully manipulated to form what might possibly be the most perfect position.

As we slowly made our way from one tree to another, the incredible detail was evident: #11 had the most amazing color; #31 was in full bloom; #66 looked like an entire forest. Even though it is the middle of winter here, there were trees representing each season; the barren branches of winter; beginning buds of spring; full bloom of summer and turning leaves of fall. In fact, #187 was filled with perfectly formed brown leaves just about to fall.

Some trees had dead limbs intertwined among the live branches; one had slabs of stone between the branches that sprouted out from the dirt that left us mystified at how such a thing could happen.

I would love to be able to show you pictures as my descriptions don’t do a single tree justice, but we followed the rules and didn’t take pictures.

Until.

We were walking on the second floor and an open passageway allowed us to see down on the first floor display; row after row of trees. Gill started it, pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. I figured since we weren’t taking a picture of a specific tree, it would be alright and pulled out my camera.



I took two pictures and as I was putting my camera away, saw the security people quickly gathering and almost silently talking into their security microphones. With visions of me locked away in a Japanese prison for my photographic crime, Gill and I, laughing at the obsurdity of it all, walked quickly but calmly through the rest of the exhibit, careful as one or another guard suddenly appeared to observe us. We both thought the “high fiving” the trees was much more of a crime and complained that we saw no security guards apprehending any of the gardeners, but such are the ways of Japan.

Afterwards, we went to a Bonsai market and were able to take as many pictures as we wanted.

Here are "The Gardeners" huddled over a specimen.
One of the trees in it's "Winter" stage....
One of the many selling trees on a very cold but sunny day.

This One's For You Gramps

Ariana and I both made visits to the dentist this week. You will be pleased to know that Ariana was very good during this first ever visit. After a bit of gentle prying, she opened her mouth for the dentist and sat quietly while she cleaned her teeth with vanilla flavored toothpaste and applied orange flavored floride treatment.

And she has no cavities !!!!,


I too was very good while undergoing a very, very thorough cleaning as I sat through the water jet spraying, the picking and a couple of other machines I had never experienced before. For over an hour I sat and listened to the dentist talk about plaque and age and the need to clean. He spouted statistics about the amount of bacteria (thousands, of which brushing, flossing and deep cleaning can only find 57%) in an adults mouth, where they hide and how, and how with this new laser technique, he can "torpedo" the bacteria in the "warfield" that are the pockets deep within my gums. Between the stats and the war talk, I realized why baba-san likes this particular dentist so much, but I have to admit it was the most painless and complete cleaning I ever got.



The offices couldn't have been more different. Ariana's dentist, who specializes in treating children, has a large and sunny office in Hiroo, a favorite ex-pat area. Walking in, the large reception area is inviting, with magazines and a beverage machine that makes everything from tea to cappucino for the adults and video games and puzzles for the children. Upstairs, there are about seven chairs in one big room with television screens mounted on the ceiling above each, so when your child is being treated, they are distracted by a cartoon. It worked. Ariana held on to the headphones with both hands and did not make a sound as the dentist did her work. When all done, Ariana got to pick out a little toy. She stood for what seemed like hours in front of the display of trucks, little toy figures, shiny bracelets and necklaces, finally choosing a plastic bubble filled crab.



I on the other hand was treated by an old school dentist, who has one room in a small office. As I leaned back into the chair, instead of a television screen with which to watch something, I had a view of a "Danger" sign, meant to remind everyone to wear goggles when being treated with the laser devise used for very deep cleaning.

Great.

Really reassuring.

But the good news was he gave me a gargle rinse that was an anesthetic, so all the cleaning and scraping didn't hurt a bit.

I sadly, received no toy when finished even though I didn't cry a bit.

Voting, Part 2

This is what I looked at most of yesterday, when I went not just to vote in the first ever Global Democratic Primary, but to volunteer as well. To say the Japanese media was curious was a bit of an understatement, as there were times when there was more of the media in the room than voters. They were photographing everything, from the ballets to Lauren's stuffed "Democratic Donkey" to the hand written sign outside that said "Voters, please note - the media are here - come on in anyway!"

While various media outlets came and went throughout the morning, there were always several huddled around waiting for a voter to walk in.

They would spot someone, usually the only Gaijin (foreigner) approaching the room and immediately start filming. The startled voter would register, get the ballet, walk to the back to vote and then return, only to be pounced upon by the hungry (but exceedingly polite) reporters. "Who did you vote for?", " why?", where are you from in America?", "did Hillary crying on TV affect you?", "why do you like Obama?", and on and on.


One reporter was keeping a tally of who people had voted for - red stickers for Hillary and blue for Barak (FYI - Barak was winning by a huge margin).
There was a mother and son there, the mother pratically breaking out in tears when we told her that her son could vote in the primary, as long as he would be 18 by election day. He got so nervous, he started sweating, and they were both deluged by the media after they had finished.

Around lunchtime, we started to see the effects of all the media attention, as people came by who had seen the story on the early news. We moved to a larger room to accomidate the voters who would be showing up after work and that is when I made my exit, as I had to pick Ariana up from school.

I was glad I got to participate in the event and I was looking forward to hanging out with my fellow dems this morning to watch the returns, but alas, the little one was sick (and I wasn't feeling too great myself) and stayed home from school. So, I watched care of Slingbox at home, feeling a little closer to the process.......and home.

Beans

Yesterday at school, Ariana and her school mates celebrated Setsubun, a festival usually held the day before the start of spring (in the lunar calendar). It is a fun festival for kids, because there are adults in scary masks and the kids get to throw roasted beans at them, shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Devils out, happiness in").

In Japanese homes, people scatter the beans around their homes to rid them of any bad spirits. Afterwards you are supposed to pick up and eat the number of beans which corresponds to your age. We are not going to do this as between baba-san and myself, this would require eating too many beans and spoiling our appetite for dinner.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Ariana singing during the celebration. Apparently she is the only one attempting the hand movements that go along with the song, lest you think she is having some sugar induced spasms.......