Golden Week, 2013

This years edition, consists of a movie day, a day at the park with a picnic, and a bbq.

The movies I rented were Titanic (1997) Aliens (1986) going for a James Cameron double feature, and Pocohantas (1995) to give my kids a little bit of our culture, although filtered by Disney.

Kung Fu Panda 2 also featured in the bill.

Our trip to the park was once again to our favorite place, Big Hill Park in Inzai. I decided to go ethnic by makin Hummus in Pita, though I had to substitute white beans for chick peas.
I then made a peanut sauce to go with it. Quite tasty.

We played with our dart guns, then came home to play kick ball in the street. Followed by our Saturday night ritual of watching House MD and Dexter.

Sunday was our bbq. It was a little quiter this year as I just had my family. I also started my BBQ with some gel fuel, as well as a nice little metal helper which burns the charcoal faster. I began my fire at 10:45 and it was rearing to go by 11:15. By noon, we had cooked half of our food. 5 big sausages, 10 sticks of yakitori, or grilled chicken on skewers, and 3 steaks. I also made 8 baked potatoes.

Yakitori on the grill

By 13:00 we had finished. The rest of the afternoon, we relaxed and played.

Ian takes a try at roasting marshmallows

I got the BBQ going early

Mrs. Redden relaxing

The Redden ladies bbq marshmallows

 

Monday saw us take back our DVDs, and go out to a park in Chiba Newtown, however as we began walking through the park, we noticed that there were grass areas roped off. There were warning signs up that there was still residual radiation from the meltdown of the nuclear power plants from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
We then waked around the AEON shopping centre, and went into another camping store to look around, then had a late lunch at an Italian all you can eat restaurant.
All in all, it was a great 4 days. Sometimes the best fun is when you don't plan stuff, but just go out.

Well said Daddy.

 

Dancing and Karate

It's been a bit of a busy weekend here in Japan. Ian and Leena had a dance event on Friday, for a charity event held in Kamagaya. The event is to be an annual event to assist the recovery effort for Tohoku, Japan, the area hit by the big earthquake.

Leena as a butterfly

The local neighborhood festival.

These are the pictures from the dancing.
There were some interesting samba dancers but if you've seen them once, you've seen them all (and I've seen the same ladies 4 times this year, though they are marvelous, though my wife was daring me to take shots)

I'm dancing again?

Do I have to wear this makeup?

Left foot, right foot.

Just before the samba ladies showed up.

Then on Sunday, Ian had his first Karate tournament. He won his first sparing but lost to the second. There was one kid who placed third but he was a real spoiled sport. He threw his gloves on the mats and had a temper tantrum. The umpire scholded him in front of everyone for being such a bad sport. Of the students in Ian's dojo, only one managed to get a medal for his kata or drill style. However, it was a fun event. Even Ian's sensei concured with my opinion of this kid. Totally disrespected the match, the players, judges. Sure he was only 6, but in any sport, acting up like that is bad. (Pictures to follow)

The first anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake in Japan.

This sad event is coming up. I'd like to share some thoughts I've had since this terrible tragedy.

3.11.11 The day Japan shook, and in an instant 15,000 were gone, 3800 were never found.

Now I remember my grandmother telling me bad things happen in threes. She was right. A 9.0 quake, a 30 meter high tsunami, then a nuclear power plant meltdown.

If this had been a Hollywood script, it would be a blockbuster. For us, it’s life.

Watching TV only to feel the floor begin to shake, watching my wife trying to hold up the TV, diving under the table as the whole house began to shake, not knowing how bad it was going to be. First it starts side to side, then up down, then a circling motion, all the while my wife begins to whimper Daddy, Daddy, referring to me, holding her tight, wondering how many of my children are going to make it. Earthquakes are usually over very quick. This one wasn’t stopping but just kept getting stronger!

Everything stops, I jump up, grab my sweater, flak jacket and bush hat, jumping into my car and driving off down the street honking the horn so the people in the street would move. All the while, I’m listening to the US Forces radio as it’s the only English source of news that I can get.

 Getting to my children’s daycare.

Silence, the only time I have ever heard Japanese children be silent. Seeing the fear in their eyes wondering when their mummies and daddies would come.

I spoke with their teacher and in swift movements, the teachers and my kids get their gear and move.  We then ran out to my car, holding my Leena who was shaking with fear, holding Ian’s hand as we ran to get in before the aftershock hits again..

Then it started. This time, I was shielding my daughter’s body while a cook was shielding my son. As he begins to cry and scream I’m scared daddy, I vowed that I would take his hand. By this time both children were crying. And what goes through my mind is, when I tell them it will be ok, am I lying?

We jumped in the car, drive home, and then turned on BBC World, and holding my kids with each aftershock.

As I watch the footage my mind flashes back to when I was in Iwate in the summer of 2000. The beach I went to with my students and friends in Iwate, those lush evergreens, crystal clear water, clean sand…

All gone.

As I watched the news , we got to see live, the Tsunami coming in, and taking out what was there. As you watch, you know that the people in the cars, homes, buildings and fields must have been in terror. You know that they were going to die, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. The strange sight of seeing a whole town on fire being carried by tsunami.

Water, the giver of life, became the taker as well.

Ian then dragged out his blanket, spread it on the floor, tossed his toy cars on it, tossed his lego blocks on it, then using his foot to push the “tsunami”. He began his commentary. “This is the tsunami, this is the water coming in pushing the cars, buildings and people. So sad, all those people are gone.”

6 years old, and he could comprehend. With each aftershock came his plea, “I want to go to Canada.”

After 5 hours he then said, Daddy, can I watch cartoons. So, I changed the channel. Anything to give him hope that his world would be alright.

Now with each rainfall, we wonder how much radiation we get exposed to.

Each aftershock, we wonder if the shaking is going to start again. Our smartphones have an Earthquake Alert function. When the nearest monitors get sensing that a quake is going to start, they go off. 24/7. You get to hate hearing the thing go off at 2am and nothing happens. A year on, the shakes are not so bad, my kids don’t ask me when we are going to Nova Scotia so much now. I’m still putting emergency kit together. Ian and I have emergency bags packed with clothes to last 3 days. My family still has water, tea and sport drinks to last us about 3 days.

A year on, and they are still looking for the missing. My co-worker volunteers his time to go up and help those who lost everything. In the days following the earthquake, life was really strange. It has been the only time in Japan where bread, canned food and any drinkable liquid was sold out. For a few months afterwards, when you went to a supermarket or convience store, they were actually rationing bottled water to only 1 per customer. Due to the fact that the power supply was cut, the commuter trains that are so much a part of daily life for millions were not running. In order to get to my job site, 30 km away, I had to first walk 5km to a station which was still on a train line that was running. On the way home, I was amazed as several hundred people were quietly waiting for the station to open and allow passengers to board trains. Everyone was silent, which was usual, but it was all the more erie as everyone was tense about another quake hitting us, or the power giving out as we would be trapped inside a train for god knew how long.

Life has gone on, as normally as it can here in Japan. But now, scientists are warning that the Tokyo region could be hit by a massive quake within the next 4 years. Now everyone pays attention to the earthquake drills. Next pay day, I should stock up on some boil in the bag curry.