New Years Ikebana

Rachel came to visit me in Tokushima this Christmas break and she wanted to learn some Ikebana, so we went to the school Ms. Oka took me to in November. We used flowers used in New Years Ikebana arrangements. The flowers are supposed to welcome good spirits or gods into your home where the arrangements are placed.

So this is my second attempt at Ikebana. The teacher said I did a lot better than my first try. I think he was kinda impressed. I've decided I want to start doing more Ikebana, so I will be going once or twice a month while we're here in Japan.

Some Art

I thought I would go ahead and post some art I've done while being here. I've been doing a lot of concept art, including this one of a Chinese Phoenix.

I also did this series of characters for a personal comic I'm working on.

Kendo

I just started Kendo this Monday. We were asking around for a Kendo studio and the vice principle in one of my schools found one. It is a city sponsored class so I am able to go for free.

The instructor has been doing Kendo for over 40 years and is very skilled at it. I don't have the equipment or outfit yet, as you can see. I am still very bad a remembering Japanese names, so I will post his name as soon as I remember it.




I think I took him off guard by picking some things up so quickly. He was expecting an American who had little experience with such things. Well, I am glad to say that I was able to pick it up faster than I thought. I like Kendo.




At the end of the lesson the instructor gave me a Shinai (the wooden sword.)
I am looking forward to going again.

Too Tall for Japan

When we came to Japan I knew that I was going to be a little big for this country but I had no idea how long it would take me to get used to it.

So far I have hit my head on 6 door frames. Yes 6. I would like to say they were all different door frames but that would not be true.

#5 was such a hard hit it knocked me out for a couple of seconds. It was in the teachers room and every teacher in the school saw it because it was right before school started. Ugh.

#6 was exactly one week later on the same door. I stayed conscious but it still dropped me to the floor. Double Ugh.

The school was so nice that they put up these streamers in front of the doorway so that I remember to duck. They touch my head before I enter and it reminds me I am too tall.

Ikebana!

I was invited to go to an Ikebana class by Jacob's co-teacher in Tokushima. It was great and I really enjoyed it. Ikebana is traditional Japanese flower arrangement, and it is considered difficult to do because of the philosophies and design elements that go into Ikebana. I found it difficult and challenging - and a great new way to think about design and art in three dimensional space. We just did a trial class, and we are thinking of trying out another school to see what it's like. Maybe if I can afford it - I will be taking up a hobby in Ikebana!

Anyways, enough talking, here are the pictures of my first Japanese flower arrangement! (please forgive the bad lighting, but there was no real good place to take photos.)

A Cool Building

On our way to church each week, we drive past this interesting building. Sporting traditional elements, but built using modern day materials. I want to say it looks kinda like an apartment complex, but I can't say I am entirely sure.

Mushi

When Rachel and I visited the Tokyo-Edo Architectural Museum, one of the volunteers had made this cute little bug out of grass and gave it to us as a present. We creatively named it "Mushi" which means "Bug" in Japanese.

Jemma's New Online Portfolio

Hey everyone! I just uploaded my newest version of my Online Portfolio. So check it out, and be sure to let me know if there are any glitches on your end.

My New Friend

Jacob took me shopping this weekend at a shopping mall. There was a small flower shop there selling small poinsettias for 400 yen each. So I got one to keep me company while Jacob is at work. I named her Daisy. :D

Since we moved here, I'm always tempted to buy plants whenever we walk past them in the stores! I just want to fill our apartment up with happy flowers.

Cooking in Japan

Ever since we've moved into our apartment, I've been able to cook a lot - and I've made it a goal to try and cook traditional Japanese food - and trying to make things I haven't before. So far, it's been pretty successful! So here are some of my adventures in cooking!

Here is something I've known how to cook for a while: Udon! I quickly discovered that shitake mushrooms are really cheap here, so I've been putting those in just about everything I cook.

Tempura, or veggies and shrimp dipped in batter and then deep fried in oil. I've also known how to make this for a while. However, I did get to try Japanese pumpkin tempura, and that was way delicious! This batch included: green beans, onion, sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, mushrooms, carrots, and shrimp.

A stir-fry using a variety of mystery sauce! I can't read Kanji (complex Chinese characters) So I often guess what kind of sauce I am buying. It makes things more interesting that way. (Salad and Miso soup on the side.)

I also made fish for the first time! Our stove has a fish grill attached to it, so it makes cooking fish super easy. Also, fish is relatively cheap here. I can get three slices of fish (Like the one above) for about 300 yen (about 3 US dollars), and often half that price if you buy it close to its expiration date. So we can buy a meals worth of fish for 150 yen sometimes. Awesome! We have decided to eat fish often.

More fish, with edamame, steam cooked soybeans.

More fish, but this one I had to cut and de-bone myself. Not fun, especially with a wimpy kitchen knife.

I've also tried my hand at curry! You can buy the sauce premade in packets for cheap. I used that for this curry, but added all sorts of goodies in it, such as carrot, beef, potato, and pumpkin.

This is a type of cream dish on rice. I put chicken, pumpkin, carrot and onion in it. (I'm kinda going to a pumpkin thing right now...)

So we've been eating a lot healthier than we did in college and it's been great! Already, both Jacob and I have lost weight since we've gotten here. (Jacob has lost about 30 pounds in the past month.) It's actually harder to eat unhealthy food here, cause junk food is so ridiculously expensive! Instead, we've been buying more fruit. The picture above are some grapes we bought. They were huge!

So there you go, proof that I am not starving my husband. :)

The Red Sun of Japan

Yesterday, Jacob called me on his way home from look and told me to go check out the sun. I took a picture, but my camera didn't quite do it justice. The sun was an incredible florescent red, dull enough that you could look right at it. It was beautiful. Again, the photo doesn't do it justice... oh well, you can kinda get the idea...

Tokushima Marathon

On our way to church last week, we noticed tents set up and people dressed in color coordinated jackets along with numbered markers along the side of the road. Turns out, we were on the route of the Tokushima Marathon that was happening that day!

The route was beautiful, especially that day. Cloud cover with fog rising up the mountains. Most of the roads were surrounded by farms and vegetation, only heading into the city for the last part (From what I could tell.)

On our way back from church, our usual route home was blocked off, and we saw people running the marathon.

Our Apartment

This is the exterior of our apartment complex. Pretty new, probably only a few years old.

This is our apartment. We live on the first floor, with our own balcony type thing. Japan doesn't have dryers, so everyone just hangs their clothes out to dry. We do the same.

This was actually taken our first night in our apartment, so everything is still in disarray when we took the video. I'm happy to say that since then, things have gotten cleaned up and organized and we've bought / received necessary things to make life go smoothly. Overall, the apartment is wonderful. Our only gripe is that it is on the first floor - we had been hoping for a second floor apartment, but they were all full.

There wasn't a very good view of the kitchen in the video, so here's another couple pictures of it. And yes, we are using a cardboard box as a table for the rice cooker and toaster. It was free, and it works, so we're happy with it. (The rice cooker was actually lent to us by one of the Interac Office workers in the Tokushima branch. I guess his family just had an extra one laying around. Yay!)

One of our ward members works for a company that provides him a TV, so he sold us the one he bought a while ago. It's a High Def. 32 inch flat screen TV, and he gave it to us for a very low price. We are very grateful for it!

Rachel and Jemma in Tokyo Part2

While in Tokyo, Rachel and I visited the Tokyo-Edo Architectural Museum in Musashi Koganei area. This museum consisted of old historical buildings that had been taken from their original foundation and rebuilt. So a lot of the materials in these houses are the original thing - some being really old.

This house belonged to a very wealthy family, who dealt in politics. (Can't remember who exactly.) But the house was beautiful with lots of glass windows - something very expensive at the time. The place was huge!

The museum included a beautiful Shinto shrine. I love these kinds of buildings.

Some of our favorite houses were the old Farmhouses. They had interesting roofs, and there were a lot of the volunteers who would hang out in these buildings. We enjoyed talking with the volunteers. Some could actually speak English, but most were just Japanese speaking. But despite that, we still had good conversation, and both Rachel and I were both pleasantly surprised at how good our Japanese was.

Inside these farmhouses were lots of interesting old trinkets such as pots, pans, woven baskets, and most houses included both a small Shinto and Buddhist shrine. We went on Tuesday, which the volunteers stoke the fires in the hearth in order to smoke out the house. The roofs of these old farmhouses were sticks packed together, so in order to keep bugs and small animals from living in it, they periodically build smokey fires in order to kill anything living in the roofs.

We also got to see an old bathhouse. It had lots of beautiful murals. It was split in half, one side was for the women, one side for the men.

We had a great time! Our trip was both entertaining as well as informative. (When we went to the LDS Temple later that day, we smelt like campfire smoke. I guess there was nothing we could do about that!) For anyone visiting the Tokyo area and interested in historical Japan, I would definitely suggest visiting this museum!

Rachel and Jemma In Tokyo Part1

Rachel Oaks and I got the chance to meet up in Tokyo the day after Jacob and I landed in Japan. So while Jacob was off at orientation, we went around to different sites in the big city! One of the places we went to was Asakusa, which has a large Temple and a bunch of small shrines around it. So here's a bunch of pictures I took in the area:

This is me in front of the large gate that leads up to the shrine.




We also got the chance to go to Ueno park, which also had a cool shrine with a bunch of tori (Shinto gateways) leading up to it.