More Mochi

The last time we made mochi, we did it the modern way with an electric mochi maker.

On Sunday, we were on our way to Genkoan (more on that next post!) and we stumbled onto a little mochi-tsuki (mochi making) festival in our local playground. The nice people there were pounding mochi the old fashioned way.

See the mochi-to-be steaming in this wooden bowl?

One person hammers it, and in between pounds, the other guy whips a little water from the bucket onto his hand and twirls the lump of rice around.

Alek and Hugo both got a turn.
I tried it, too, but the water twirler almost lost a finger, so I stopped. I think they were pretty happy about that. I don't have rhythm.

When it's done, as you know, you rip off chunks and roll it around in kinako powder. Women's work.

They handed our family about 6 big pieces.

Some of the friendly ladies who helped...

They also had hot tea.

And a few yards away, they were baking sweet potatoes in this barrel. The top barrel is filled with hot stones, and the potatoes are nestled in there. Fire and rocks--that's what makes it men's work.

Here's Max and me with our sweet potatoes wrapped in newspaper. Max is pulling a Calvin face.

So, that was fun....

Now for something completely different

On Friday after school, Max turned to me with That Voice--the one that sounds like he has a marble in the back of his throat. "Mommy, is it possible to get strep throat in Japan?"

Oh yes, it's time for Max's annual strep throat festival!

On Saturday morning we went to the pediatric clinic where we'd gotten flu shots. We didn't need an appointment. We waited about 10 minutes. I showed the nurse my notes:

A quick doctor check. A rapid strep test. Sure 'nuf. We paid and were out of there in about 30 minutes. Here was the fee (about $20).

(National health insurance pays the rest.)

I'm mainly telling you all this so I can show you how Max's medicine came from the pharmacy--in this powder form, sealed into little individual dose-packets. (This is pretty standard in Japan.) We have to mix it with juice, or he can just slam it. He says it tastes like orange gatorade.

That's what pinko commie health care can look like.

Take that, John Boehner.

Kids Plaza Osaka

Kids Plaza Osaka came to the rescue last Sunday, on Day 14 of daddysoutoftown.

The minute we walked in, I could breathe again--I knew I'd have at least 4 hours in which I wouldn't have to shush anybody or solve any fights. It had been that kind of a week.

I mean, two weeks.

Our boys are loud, and they are even louder when your house is only 70 square meters.

Anyway, here are the scenes:

To be honest, much of the time we were here, I had no idea where my children were.

So I watched other people's kids. There was a "mini town" where little kids got to pretend to work in a supermarket, pipe repair, sushi shop, and a noodle shop, like this:

The little kids could put on postal uniforms and deliver the mail around the town. They were very serious about it. So adorable.

I finally found Max doing some old fashioned anime:

We found a heat sensor.

And a giant bubble maker--one that surrounds you...
and one that's just plain big...

The kids got to be on TV--here's Max going down the toilet.

This skeleton was trash-talking the kids who were putting his bones back on.

Crazy water pump station.

And Max got good at an old-fashioned game. Watch him knock out the bottom spool:

And here is the fast-food place we ate beforehand. Cheap cheap cheap.

That's it: We ate, we played, we took the train back home.

Ice cream

We've had some cool ice cream lately.

Max got a soft cream cone that came with a cone-lid:

And we got some ice cream cups embedded with love...

It made us smile....

Bey Blades? We got 'em.

We got some BeyBlades right after Christmas. It is a typical boy-toy. Designed so that you can't have just one. You are inspired to collect them all; the Rare ones. The Special Defense ones. The Gold Metal. The ones that spin to the right. The ones that spin to the left. The ones that come with a launcher that can either spin right or left. The ones that come with a pull string launcher. The ones that come with a zip line launcher. The ones that have two ball bearings inside. And so on.

These toys were supposedly inspired by the wooden version you met at Takaragaike Park last fall.
To buy more of these, the boys counted up their money (they earn yen for practicing piano, cutting up milk cartons, taking out the recycling, and so on). And we headed to this brand new store near Kyoto Station: Yodobashi Camera.

Don't be fooled. There's more than cameras here.

As is typical in department stores, there are two beautiful, helpful, uniformed ladies who can answer your questions.
I was so mesmerized riding these shiny, new escalators that I got off at the wrong floor.

Move over, Best Buy.

We enjoyed browsing the electronics. This is a counter-top dishwasher.

Solar panels.
Another, larger dishwasher, in action.

There were some familiar brands. What is the Japanese word for "SOCKshun?"

(I think it's ざくしょん (except written in katakana, of course).

Roomba was showing off for a cute little fan...

There was a large bento/thermos section.

And then we finally found the toys!

This is the Lego section...

The boys have critically appraised the cultural authenticity of the new Lego "Ninja-Go" line. They recognize "Sensei Wu" as a Chinese imposter.

This coin op machine gives you one of the six baubles for 200 yen. There were several more machines like this...

See? I think it's an entry drug for Pachinko.

Some more Japanese toys:

And here's our buddy, Ultra Man!

And all of his nemeses: (Or is it nemesi?)

In a dramatic swich, Alek chose to spend his money on two UltraMan foes, rather than BeyBlades....see?

But Max and Hugo picked two BeyBlades each, complete with spin-launchers.

Here, Max demonstrates the offensive advantages of having different kinds of grooves.

Max spent 1900 yen.

The camera battery died, but after this we ate some yummy ramen and browsed the rest of the shops (there is a mall on floors 5 and 6). And then we came home and played BeyBlades on the kotatsu:


And the new villains joined their partners in crime.