It was such a long month! And not just because of leap day. The Tokyo area may have had it's warmest winter on record, but that's not what I felt. Last year it seems like spring came much earlier. This year the flowers are slowly coming out, but the air around them doesn't match! Either that or I'm getting soft in my old age. In any case, I'm ready for some real spring. No more cold wet rainy wind.
Here are February's Fast Day Photos:
We took them after church in the park kitty corner from the church. It's a lovely plaza park with really nice fountains, and the beds are always nicely planted. A is wearing the dress she "helped" Grandma enlarge for her. She calls it her princess dress. R is wearing cowboy boots, because one Sunday after church, we arrived home to find our electronic key lock wasn't working. We had to wait for housing to come and replace it. During that time, the girls were playing in front of the Williams' house, and R, by dragging her toes on a plasma car, destroyed her Sunday shoes in about 15 minutes. These too small boots are her only option until she grows into the next set of shoes.
February was a month of swim meets... We had a meet at St. Mary's on the first. Luckily we got a ride with the Williams and Nortons. B was on call so couldn't come.
St. Mary's is kind of nice, in that it has a balcony surrounding the pool. It makes for easy viewing. Although it was so muggy and hot up there! Condensation kept dripping on our stuff and on us.
They played some cards, but mostly watched other people's tablets...
A, waiting to take the block.
R, waiting with Annie Williams.
Due to a very long story I don't care to remember, I had thought the swim team would be providing buses to take us to and from this meet. So I foolishly signed the girls up for events in both the morning and afternoon sessions, thinking I'd have to wait around for the bus anyway; they might as well swim. Alas, the bus didn't materialize, and we were left with a very long day...
It was fun though. The girls caught a ride home with the Williams, and I took the train.
We got our first of the early sakura.
M shares her birthday, here in Japan, with the holiday Setsubun. She was just starting another stint of home school, so we went together to the local shrine for their celebration. From Wikipedia:
Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of spring in Japan. C
elebrated yearly on February 3 as part of the Spring Festival (春祭, haru matsuri). In its association with the Lunar New Year, spring Setsubun can be and was previously thought of as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き, "bean scattering").
First we had the all important Ceremonial Measuring. (She's 5' 1 3/4".)
We walked off base. She wanted a picture on a "mushroom." Mikasa Park is in the background.
The shrine was pretty empty when we arrived. There were musicians playing, and a cute little kid in a creepy mask. We walked over to look around More's City mall until two, which is when I had heard the celebration began. We found a bead store in the mall! And a new book store is under construction... Even if I can't understand the books, it makes me happy to have one close!
We went back to the shrine, and tried a sample of a mysterious white drink they were handing out. It was... white. And warm, and kind of lumpy. Not our favorite. I tried just a wee sip. M was more brave and drank about half the cup. If felt good to hold the warm cup at least.
The shrine was starting to get packed then. The musicians were still playing.
Lots of men came out with crates of little paper sacks. They all had to be introduced, so this took a long time. Then these men, as well as the ones on the stage, started throwing their packets out to the crowd. M got one, and the school group next to us gave us a couple others, since they got so many.
Inside were some soy beans, a five yen coin, and a paper with a hanko stamp on it. We went to a stand up close to the shrine and exchanged our papers for a prize. Depending on the hanko you had, you got a bag of rice crackers, cookies, or a roll of toilet paper. M got a bag of rice frito looking things, and I got a very tasty package of chocolate cookies that looked like koalas. No toilet paper. Which is fine of course, because Japanese toilet paper is pretty terrible.
I have declared this year a non-party year, but we had a special birthday dinner for M.
She wanted a lemon poppy seed cake, made from scratch. So she came up with this saying to put on it.
She said her most favorite meal was a salad bar, so that's what we did.
With home made rolls.
She got a new scooter, a stuffed elephant, and a bracelet for presants.
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