There are 4 new members in my extended family: nieces from Ethiopia adopted by my sister and her husband last November. I was lucky to be able to spend a week with them just one month after they arrived, and again a couple of months later. They are loving, funny, intelligent, beautiful girls, and it's a joy to watch each of them adjusting to her new life in a unique way, while still hanging on to and sharing with us memories of the joys and sorrows of her old one.

The local newspaper recently produced two audio slideshows telling the story of their arrival, and here are the links:

http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/soundslides/openarms1/gallery.html
http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/soundslides/openarms2/gallery.html

How to Type in Japanese

Satomi is here and wants to know how to type in Japanese on the computer. I'm showing her how to go to the language icon on the toolbar, select Japanese, then hit the "~" and "alt" keys together to switch to Japanese. それで日本語になるはず。

教えてもらってよかった。さとみ

By Cage

I am an eight-year-old boy. I like scorpions, bald eagles, and falcons. My favorite foods are pasta, tomatoes, pizza, and natto maki. I don't like peppers, broccoli, and shrimp.

I hope you read this Bennett and Jasper.

3-Day Monk

There's a Japanese expression "mikka bouzu", which translates to the title above: "three-day monk". It refers to people's tendency not to stick with things even after they've resolved to do them. I kept thinking of this in the WHOLE month that has passed since I made my first three entries on this blog.

I finally decided to end the streak of inactivity with this short commentary. Japan has some of the most disciplined people in the world, but even they have issues.

What the moms at the pool are talking about

This is a unique group of moms, mind you...

Now that I think about it, of the 6 of us at the table at one point, four of us were caucasian women raised in all-American towns outside southern California, and now married to Asian guys: one Korean-American, one born in Vietnam and raised here, and the other two born, raised and educated in their home countries of India and Japan.

I mentioned that my Japanese husband had called from a Fargo, North Dakota grocery store to exclaim "everybody in here is white!" (みんな白人！） The other wives had amusing stories of visits to relatives: trying to find food for a vegetarian South Indian in Idaho, cousins in Arkansas eyeing the Korean American guy over their glasses.

Here we live in a town that is 1/3 Asian. There are restaurants and stores, not to mention the accelerated classes in schools, where I can feel like I'm on another continent, the lone caucasian in a crowd of black-haired people.

Speaking of black hair reminds me of a great quote from a Chinese-American professor at a local junior college a few years ago, back when hair coloring was the rage for Japanese exchange students:
"Our population is the most diverse I've ever seen, with students from around the world, but one thing we can say with certainty: all the blonds are Japanese."

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times...

Things Parents Say to Kids: At the Table

Children are starving in Africa. (Sam, 40's, Japan)
Children are starving in Africa. (Beth, 40's, Virginia)
Eat that--it's cowboy food. (Henrik, 30's, Norway)
Do you want to stay a bag of bones? (Vijay, 50's, India)
It took a farmer 88 days to grow that grain of rice. (Manabu, 30's, Japan)
If you leave a grain of rice, your eyes will cave in. (Yuki, 30's, Japan)
If you sing at the table you'll marry a crazy man. (Edward, 40's, US)
Get your elbows off the table. (Shiho, 20's, Japan)
If you lie down right after you eat, you'll turn into a cow. (Sam, 40's, Japan)
Not eating! You want--something fancy like pineapples from Hawaii !?! (Grazyna, 30's, Poland)
You'll sit there until all that food is eaten. (US Classic)
Don't talk with your mouth full. (US Classic)


More classics / Japanese Equivalents

We're not everybody. / *だれだれはだれだれ*、うちはうち。 *fill in name*
Kids, don't try this at home. /よい子のみなさん　けしてまねをしないように。

Sunday Morning, Father's Day

Cage and I have been up for two hours. Anna and Sam are both still asleep. Yesterday, Anna wondered why it's always "Daddy and Anna, Mommy and Cage". I said "That's not always true!", but things often do seem to divide along those lines: even our preferences for TV shows, restaurants, and music. And with Sam taking Anna to Japan for school next month, it really will be that way for a while. Cage and I will miss them, of course, but the choice of what to have for dinner sure will be easier.

I was cleaning off my desk this morning and found two letters addressed to Cage from the Orange County Boyscout Council. These are usually requests for money, so it's only mildly amusing that they are addressed to an 8-year-old. Today it was especially ironic because both letters were full of excuses and justifications for a Council executives trip to a Key West resort for which, it was recently reported in the Orange County Register, the executives were reimbursed for golf days, fishing trips, and an $11 chocolate martini, among other cocktails. BUSTED!

I can't help wondering how much of our dues and popcorn money it took to pay for those two mass mailings.


Recipe: Keema Style Curry and Rice - Sam's favorite for Father's Day
1. I dice 4-5 huge Costco-size onions and sweat them in the LeCreuset dutch oven for a long time--preferably several hours but today I had to rush it to try to get it done while Sam is at the bowling alley with the kids.
2. I throw in some diced carrots and then some garlic for the last few minutes of cooking the onions.
3. I add some browned ground beef, saute it all together a bit, then add water and bring it to a boil. This doesn't take long because I always pre-boil the water in the electric pot--our gas burners take forever.
4. Only then do I add some chopped potatoes, because the russets that I prefer for flavor tend to get mushy if overcooked.
5. Finally, I turn off the heat and add a random selection of different brands of Japanese curry roux: House, S&B, whatever I have. If I remember I throw in a dash of the secret ingredient--ketchup.

Omiyage: Gifts for Japan from Costco
1. Beach Boys CD: 28-track new compilation
2. Shrek the 3rd soundtrack CD
3. Quiksilver t-shirts
4. S'mores Kit in tin lunchbox
5. Eclipse gum - bonus packs