Good friends

We've had visits from our two good friends the last two days. On Monday, Hiromi, Ayumu and Fuuka came over for coffee and playing. Fuuka is getting so big -- smiling and silly with less of that stunned, brand new to the world look. Ayumu's English has gotten SO good -- he is in an English immersion preschool, and Hiromi said his teachers said he has been using so much more English in class since meeting us (and apparently he talks about Jack A LOT in class, too).

Then today, Tomoko, Taiki and Keita came over for playing and dinner.

I had found marshmallows and corn flakes at the import store earlier today and we made Christmas wreath cookies (like rice krispie squares, but with corn flakes). This was the one kind of cookie I knew how to make without an oven (and oh, will I be SO glad to be back with a real oven... I have missed baking and roasting more than I would have guessed). The cookies were messy and delicious.

Then, Tomoko showed me how to make what I can only call a cabbage and pork pancake. We had received the main ingredients from John's colleague Yukie on Sunday (she and her daughter came for brunch and brought us loads of Japanese cooking things... which I did not know what to do with. Thankfully, Tomoko was willing to show me). They turned out to be SO good.

Hard to believe that a week from now we will be on our way home!

Oh, and as an aside -- Katie and Taiki seem to have a bit of a crush on each other. Can you tell in the picture of them that each thinks the other is fabulous?

Sledding down, winding down...

Sorry for the lapse in any updates or stories... a combination of not too many adventures (school, work, groceries, which thankfully are all quite mundane now!) and somehow changing the language of the blog controls to Japanese and not being able to log in have kept me away.

I somehow turned it back to English, thankfully (not sure if I could repeat it), and so thought I'd post some pictures of the kids sledding.

We've had a couple of good snow storms -- about 6-8 inches three times or so. There is a perfect little hill at Victoria Park and we have been out each of the last two mornings to sled. I am amazed at the well-heeled women here, wearing VERY high-heeled boots, who navigate the icy sidewalks with such grace. I am wearing thick soled Sorels and have almost landed on my backside many times already. I suppose if we stayed long enough -- and if I could find lovely high heeled boots in my size -- perhaps I would learn that skill eventually, too.

Just eight days and we head home. There is a lot we want to do and people to see, a party with university people on Friday night at our favorite French restaurant, gifts to buy, suitcases to pack, two more boxes of macaroni to eat... I am starting to stress a bit (like Katie,I sometimes have a hard time with change), but am still trying to enjoy the time we have left.

I am going to try out posting a video link -- am not sure if this will work. The first one shows Jack, the second one hows Jack almost plowing over his sisters, and I will try to find a short one of the girls (the first one I tried to load didn't work. Ah technology).

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo... (and to Costco, too, too, too)

What a great day.

One of John's colleagues, Mark Matsune, a Japanese Canadian who grew up in Edmonton, has family in southern Alberta, and has lived in Sapporo for more than 20 years, took us out on the town.

Of course, our version of out on the town involved a winter trip to the zoo... and (at John's request), a trip to Costco.

First... the zoo. We were a bit worried that the snow would keep us from seeing much, but it turned out to be great. There were probably a dozen visitors to the whole place (Jack pointed out that there were more monkeys than people at the zoo) and it was sunny and bright. We heard a surly hippo, saw very cold tigers, lions, cheetahs, and other cats enduring what looked like their 15 minutes of time outside, admired flamingos, laughed at monkeys, grimaced at gators and -- thrill of thrills -- got up close and personal with wolves.

Although it feels like universal knowledge, you might not know that Jack loves wolves. We've read a lot about them this last year, and he was quite disappointed to only see a lump of a wolf sleeping at the Calgary zoo on a sweltering day last summer. But at the Maruyama zoo, an alpha pair were quite active and seem especially drawn to Jack. We wondered at the wisdom of the exhibit placement (the deer were on one side of the building, the wolves on the other... did that make the deer nervous?) and Jack could have stayed there forever.

But we eventually pried him away, and after lunch and more exhibits (include an inside play area at the Monkey House that was SO much fun), we took sleepy girls and headed to Sapporo's Costco. I have to admit, this was not high on my list of "must-sees" in Sapporo. But John, who loves Costco, was eager and Mark said he loved any excuse he could have for a trip there, so off we went in his minivan.

The girls napped, and so Mark, Jack and John went in first. John came out glowing, saying it was WONDERFUL. He stayed with K&O while I went in... and it WAS wonderful. They had cheese -- good cheese -- that didn't cost a fortune (only a small investment). They had cute clothes and good prices -- mostly. Jack found his dream Star Wars set (only $200! ummmm.... sorry, buddy). They had books in English and that familiar KIRKLAND brand everywhere. And, hidden deep in the recesses of a freezer, they had...

TORTILLAS.

Soft, fluffy (well, once we defrosted them), delicious tortillas!

I told John later that I didn't even look at the price -- for all I knew the two-pack was $40! But no... the 20 tortillas cost a reasonable $8 Canadian (and compared to the time, effort, and frustration -- to say nothing of the taste -- of making my own tortillas, this is a fine price to pay).

We ended the visit as every good Costco visit should end -- with a hotdog and some pizza to share.

To top it all off, Mark thought our kids were incredibly well behaved! It has seemed to us since we got here that Japanese children are the ones who are so well behaved (and certainly much less noisy than our gaggle)... and we've had our share of less-than-stellar-moments in public (sleeping in the president's office, refusing food left and right, public nose picking) But it was nice to have someone say, unprompted, how great they were (because despite these less than stellar public moments, we think so too).

I should now help John get these happy kids to bed -- with warm quesadilla in their bellies (imagine -- cheese and tortillas at the same time!).

A few photos from the last few weeks

Here are a few random photos from the last few weeks that don't seem to fit in any real category -- including ones where Katie insisted on wearing every clip, band and bow we brought with us.

There is also a shot of John at one of our lunches out while the kids were at school (the most delicious sushi and tempura) and one showing him in front of one of Sapporo's most famous buildings -- the Old Hokkaido Government Building.

The photo of items that look like baby strollers are actually DOG strollers. I wanted to bring one home for my parents' sweet and aging dog, Willie.


And the final one shows me and Kate, mugging for the camera.

In this frenzy of photo and blog updates, I also wanted to write that I have uploaded even more from our Jozankei weekend to our Shutterfly account (because, you know, 50 photos of our kids just might not be enough...). Enjoy!

White illumination and a German Christmas market

While Christmas is not as much of a big deal in Japan as it is in North America, there are still signs of the season all around. And Hokkaido in general, which is so much snowier than the rest of Japan, and Sapporo in particular seem to "do" Christmas even more than most places in Japan

And so it was on Saturday afternoon that we found ourselves at a German Christmas market at the "White Illumination" at Odori Park in downtown Sapporo. We arrived in time to see some middle school/high school girls sing and dance (which Kate and Liv thought was FABULOUS) and to do a little shopping. The kids met a German Santa ("he looks different than our Santa, mama!"), and we indulged in the most delicious roasted almonds and some spiced hot wine.

While the outing was fun, it was also one of the first times I have felt homesick since coming, though. I think it was because it was close to being familiar, but was still so very foreign (instead of just being foreign!). I have since felt the same way in the department stores when Christmas music is playing -- a little lump in my throat or sigh in my heart reminding me that we are far from home.

Ah -- but we'll be home for Christmas... and for that I am grateful.

Desperate for tortillas

In all of my searches of grocery stores these last three months, I had not been able to find tortillas. And I missed tortillas. The kids missed tortillas. They make such easy meals. They are so delicious. So I broke down this week and finally tried to make them.

Now, when we lived in southern Colorado when I was young (ages 5ish to 9ish), I remember my mom making the most AMAZING homemade tortillas. She just whipped them out, it seemed to me, and they tasted so good and were so soft and so delicious.

With those memories in mind, I found a recipe on the web, and started to combine my ingredients... only to find I didn't have enough flour, or a rolling pin. So I added a little "baking mix" I had bought early on but had never used (what it contains, I'll never know... probably it's kind of like bisquick). And I found a vase that would work as a rolling pin. And I did it.

What I ended up with were the heaviest, hardest, most dense and not-delicious tortillas I have ever encountered! They were nothing like the ones my mom used to make, and not even anything like what you could get in a store in North America. We all ate them anyway, of course... but as we did, I laughed.

Tortillas should NOT be heavy.

Catching up -- some school pictures

It's been a busy week and we feel the clock is winding down. I have meant to post some of these pictures and updates for a while...

First up -- here are some random photos from the kid's classroom. Last week, parents were invited to the English class. I had high hopes for this -- but was a bit surprised at least in the girls' classroom. During the entire English lesson, Kate and Liv just sat there, and didn't do ANYTHING the English teacher asked (the songs, the stretches, answer the "what color is this" question...anything!) I felt like the other parents were all looking at (judging) me, wondering "she's speaking their language -- why aren't they doing anything?" But we think they have gotten so used to not knowing what's going on at school, they have taken a kind of "observer" role in their education here... even when they do!

Jack had no such troubles, and in fact, I am sure the English teacher is not appreciating his lessons to his classmates on how to sing Jingle Bells in a way that is much more humorous to the 5-6 year old set (Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg...)

The last photo shows the school principal and another administrator (in the Christmas spirit!)