Thanksgiving! (well, actually Kinrō Kansha no Hi)

Thanksgiving is obviously an American holiday, but that doesn't mean that we aren't able to keep the tradition going while living here in Japan.  November 23rd is an annual holiday here in Japan called 勤労感謝の日(Kinrō Kansha no Hi) that roughly translates to: "Labor Thanksgiving Day".  None of my English students were able to give me a good explanation about what is special about this particular day, other than it's a day off from work!  Joel and I were very thankful for that, as Saturday is hands down our busiest day of the week at ECC.  Since this Nov. 23rd holiday falls less than a week away from when all of our friends and family will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the USA, we decided it was the perfect opportunity for the six of us American missionaries (Cindy, Joel, Pamela, Nathan, Haidee, and me) to gather together and feast!

We had a lot of fun preparing some of the food.  Haidee and I bought a couple frozen chickens (very tiny, Cornish hen-sized birds) that just barely fit into our tiny oven, potatoes, and かぼちゃ(kabocha - Japanese squash) which turned out to be a lot more dense than the American varieties that I'm used to.  Pamela, Joel, and Cindy also brought some yummy food including:  pies, jello, spinach salad, green bean casserole and stuffing (with homemade sourdough bread!).  We truly were lacking nothing!

During our conversation after the meal the six of us went around the table and shared some of the things we're thankful for.  In no specific order, here are some of our answers:

• Successful completion of the GRE
• A relaxing summer vacation that allowed for time to explore Japan
• Plenty of household objects to chew on
• A job with wonderful students and co-workers
• Nathan (and being a mother, father, aunt, uncle, Godmother)
• Family celebrating traditions together
• Bible Study Fellowship
• God's continual presence with us at all times

The LORD was with us that day as we all enjoyed ourselves spending time in fellowship, feasting, sharing joys and sorrows, resting, and playing games.  We are blessed.

Enough said.  Here are the pictures:

Eric, baking the kabocha in our tiny oven, (the same oven that we baked the 2 chickens in the next morning) while simultaneously warming his feet!

The bird(s)!  If you look closely you will notice the extra legs and breasts. . . .

Delicious Food picture number 2!

Delicious Food picture number 3!

Nathan enjoying a little pre-meal ride in his cardboard box car

Nathan rolling around on the floor with Dad

The ladies (and Nathan) having an after-dinner chat over caramel-sweetened coffee.

Joel very carefully cutting his homemade pumpkin Bavarian cream tart

Nathan getting double-teamed by Mom and Aunt Haidee during the post-dinner diaper change

Haidee enjoying an after-dinner stretch.  Nathan enjoying an after-dinner plastic bottle chew.

Nathan "helped" his mom during the Spot It game. 

Brains under construction

"Haidee's and Eric's brains are currently under-going a temporary rearranging of contents.  Blog posts will resume when the construction project has been completed.  Thank you for your understanding." 

It's been a long time since we've written a blog post.  You may be wondering: "Where are Eric and Haidee?"  That's a good question!

For the past several weeks we've been brushing up on our quantitative reasoning skills - reviewing concepts like exponents, roots, linear and quadratic equations, geometry, permutations, and probability.  We've also been expanding our vocabulary to include words like, laconic, erudite, pulchritude, and refulgent.  It's not that we particularly enjoy the studying of random academia (although we do, at times, considers ourselves to be quite "geeky").  We are preparing to take (insert ominous music here), the Graduate Record Examination! 

The Graduate Record Examination (more commonly known as "the GRE"), is one of the most mind-draining, expensive, and, quite frankly, useless standardized tests on the market.  It's a grueling 4-hour marathon:  two 30-minute analytical writing sections, two or three 35-minute quantitative reasoning (math) sections, and two or three 30-minute verbal reasoning sections, all with a refreshing one minute break in between each arduous section, and a mere ten minute break at the half-way point of the test (just in case you have to use the bathroom or something).  Yikes!

We've taken a few practice tests (both timed and un-timed).  I've found that the most difficult part of this test is the endurance factor:  by the third hour of staring at a computer screen, even a fairly easy reading passage is difficult to comprehend.  Mistakes become more frequent as the brain becomes more mushy.

We're scheduled to take the GRE on Monday, October 28th.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated!  In the meantime, (if you're as geeky as we are) enjoy a few sample GRE questions:  (for more, visit the official ETS website).

Scroll down to see answers.

1.

Scientists are not the only persons who examine the world about them by the use of rational processes, although they sometimes _______ this impression by extending the definition of “scientist” to include anyone who is ________ in his or her investigational practices.

(blank one): Conceal, create, undermine

(blank two):  intuitive, logical, haphazard

2.

The ________ nature of classical tragedy in Athens belies the modern image of tragedy:  in the modern view tragedy is austere and stripped down, its representations of ideological and emotional conflicts so superbly compressed that there’s nothing ________ for time to erode

(blank one):  unadorned, harmonious,  multifaceted

(blank two):  inalienable, exigent, extraneous

3.

Murray, whose show of recent paintings and drawings is her best in many years, has been eminent hereabouts for a quarter century, although often regarded with _______, but the most _______ of these paintings ______ all doubts.

(blank one):  partiality, credulity, ambivalence

(blank two):  problematic, successful, disparaged

(blank three):  exculpate, assuage, whet

4.

In the x y plane, what is the slope of the line whose equation is 3x-2y = 8?

A.  -4

B.  -8/3

C.  2/3

D.  3/2

E.  2

5.

In State X, all vehicle license plates have 2 leters from teh 26 letters of the aplabet followed by 3 one digit numbers.  How many different licesne plates can State X have if repetition of letters and numbers is allowed?

A.    23,400

B.    60,840

C.    67,600

D.   608,400

E.   676,000

6.

You have a 36 gallon tank.  Water is pumped in at a rate of 3 gallons / hour.  In order to fill the tank in exactly 48 hours, at what rate must water also be pumped out of the tank?

Answers: 

1. create, logical

2. multifaceted, extraneous

3. ambivalence, successful, assuage

4.  D. 3/2

5.  E. 676,000

6.  9/4 gallons per hour

Fukushima Restaurants (part 3)

It's time for Fukushima restaurant number three:

四季菜食

Kauri's Kitchen

四季菜食 - the kanji at the top stand for "Four Seasons Vegetables and Food"

Who doesn't enjoy a nice buffet lunch on their day off?  Haidee and I discovered Kauri's Kitchen (カウリキッチン) one Monday afternoon when we were at the Daiyu Eight Max (a mall here in Fukushima City).  It's become our favorite go-to spot for Monday lunches ever since. 

In Japan, a buffet is known as a viking (バイキング - baikingu).  I always thought this was referring to the Norsemen who (presumably) had ferocious appetites!  Apparently, though, that the word originated from the restaurant "Imperial Viking" in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which was the first restaurant in Japan to serve buffet-style meals.

The way it works at Kauri's Kitchen is that you pay for the amount of time that you're in the restaurant:  60 minutes, 90 minutes, or unlimited.  They also charge different amounts for men and women; they assume (probably correctly) that men will eat more than women.  I certainly makes sense, but I don't think something like that would fly in the USA. . .

They have an awesome salad bar and a large selection of food.  There's even three kinds of ice cream and a variety of other desserts.  I really should just let the pictures tell the story. . .

Good variety of pastas and salads (I like the spicy wasabi leaf salad with sesame dressing)

The Main Line:  Curry-flavored lotus root (れんかん）, sweet potatoes, omelet, roasted chicken, fish, and more!

Main Line #2:  You can see some soba noodles in the front, next to the pickled vegies, as well as some tempura on top

3 kinds of ice cream today:  vanilla, green tea, and strawberry

Also included for dessert:  fruit, homemade yogurt, vanilla pudding, and biscuit cookies

In the winter we could cook soup in a nabe pot right on our table.

Yummy!

A plate of Japanese vegetables . . .

Here's a nice link to a page that highlights all the Japanese vegetables.

The cool thing about the square plates is that it looks so artistic!

Dessert Time!  ice cream, jelly, sweet red bean with mochi rice

And finally, the most satisfying part of an all-you-can-eat buffet:  the leftover dishes that you don't have to wash!

Hiking on Adatara Mountain

Yesterday Haidee and I woke up to a very balmy Fukushima summer morning.  By 8:00am the temperature was pushing 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) and steadily rising.  Last year, we employed the "frozen vegetables on the head" technique to stay cool (see blog post here), but by 9:30am we knew more drastic measures were necessary for survival.  So we decided to head for the hills . . . literally.  We threw some food and clothing in a bag, jumped in the car, and embarked on our first ever trip to Adatara Mountain 安達太良山.

As we climbed up out of the mountain basin that houses Fukushima City, the temperatures gradually cooled off to a much more comfortable 26 degrees.  In less than one hour we arrived at Adatara Kogen Ski Resort. . . . who knew that we lived so close to a great skiing location.  Apparently this place is hopping in the winter, but there were quite a few people there yesterday as well, enjoying the cooler temperatures and nice hiking trails.

Mount Adatara - located just 30 km southwest of Fukushima City

Haidee had done a little research online before we arrived.   The blog she found said it would be about a 2 - 2½ hour hike one way (traveling about 6.5 km and ascending 760 meters).  We also had the choice to take the ski gondola 3/4 of the way up the mountain, but we thought we could handle the 6.5 km hike.  So, we set out for the summit on foot at about 11:30am.  The first half of our hike was on a trail winding through the forest, with beautiful scenery and a nice cool breeze!  We came out of the forest to an awesome view of blue sky and green-covered mountain tops (sorry, these pics don't do it justice):

Mount Adatara is an active volcano that located on a mountain range with a few other famous Fukushima mountains, including Mount Azuma (which we've already hiked) and Mount Bandai (which we plan to hike later this summer).  As we neared the top we could see plenty of volcanic rocks.

Haidee, standing behind some volcanic rocks just below the summit.

All told (with a few snack breaks), it took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to reach the top.  It was a little more intense than we had anticipated, but the scenery was incredible!  We rested a bit while we enjoyed the misty view and the strong, cool breeze.  

It was too misty to see the other famous mountain peaks (like Mt. Bandai), but we enjoyed the view nevertheless!

Looking east from the summit:  you can see Nihonmatsu City in the background (if my camera was better)

At this point it was about 3:00pm and we were pretty tired.  We were definitely looking forward to taking the gondola back down.  However, in order to get to the top gondola station we needed to hike another hour down a different trail.  We made it at 4:00pm, exactly 20 minutes before the last gondola departed.  Talk about cutting it close!  (Let's not think about the 4 hours of additional hiking we would've had to make had we missed the gondola. . .)

Enjoying another great view of Nihonmatsu City while we rode the gondola back down to the base of Adatara Mountain.

Now then, having mentioned that this is an active volcano, it only makes sense that there are natural hot spring baths nearby.  And, as I've learned here in Japan, no hike is complete without a hot springs bath!  We stopped by Dake Onsen （岳温泉） on our way home and enjoyed an outdoor bath at a hotel called the "Healthy Pal" (literally "he-ru-shii-pa-ru").  It was heavenly!

We arrived back home at 7:00pm, and the inside of our apartment was 34 degrees (94 degrees Fahrenheit!!  Thank goodness for air conditioning!  And praise God for His beautiful creation here in Fukushima!