For Good – ASIJ Graduation 2014

As the school year comes to a close, it is time to say goodbye to our seniors. Every year at graduation, the choir and Vocal Jazz Ensemble perform a heartfelt song at graduation. This year we sang For Good from Wicked. Despite the (many) tears shed, it was really nice to perform with the seniors one last time.

First Flowers of Spring: Plum Blossoms

Imported from China during the 8th century, plum trees are said to protect from danger. It is very common to see plum trees planted in the northeast corner of a property–the so-called demon’s gate, from where danger and evil are believed to enter.

These flowers are in the Emperor’s Garden in Kyoto.

Sweet 16!

A quick, but important, departure from our regular Japan programming to wish a very happy SWEET 16 to Annie! This year’s celebration included a slumberparty with friends, a trip, to the movies, some shopping, a delicious homemade lasagna, and some amazing cookies-&-cream cupcakes. A significant improvement over last year…which was (literally) lost as we flew over the international date line.

Happy Birthday Annie!

Typhoon 26

Today, we have a typhoon blowing in and the weather is very windy and wet. The weather is so bad, they have canceled school tomorrow. But, little Xeno still has to be walked, rain or no rain.

To keep him from getting soaked, we got him a raincoat. Heading down for the walk and staring into a mirror, Xeno had his own opinions on the raincoat…

Modern Sushi Style

This weekend I went with some friends to a very interesting sushi place. The entire place was rows of bar seating with a touch screen menu. You can select up to three items to order; each for 105¥. Then the chefs put the food on a tray sitting on a system of rails. The food then goes down the rails to your seat. After you take your food and press a flashing button the tray goes back to the kitchen to deliver more food.

Hippies?

Today while shopping in Omote-Sanno, we experienced a very unique Japanese experience; from the other side of the street emerged this group of people playing the bongos and singing very loud and slightly off key. They were dressed like the American stereo type of “hippies.” Of course, we didn’t know what the group was singing about. But all of them were making a very proud strut wearing ear-to-ear grins. The group, consisting of about twenty people, were sadly impossible to capture in a picture.

Azabujuban

Today we ventured out to the Azabu Juban Summer Night Festival 2013. The celebration mostly consisted of booths of food, ranging from sausages to octopi on a stick. The booths were set up along one street six blocks long along with other connecting streets. The festival goes on for two nights, each night drawing a large crowd, resulting in very minimum walking space in certain popular areas. The booths that were not serving food had toys, fish (for pets), or clothes.

New Flavor

This is a tin of Pringles we found at our local 7-Eleven. It is your turn to guess what flavor it is. We will send a package of Japanese treats to the first person to identify the flavor correctly.

Into The Woods

Today we went to the Tokyo International Player’s (TIP) production of “Into the Woods”. TIP is an English speaking community theatre group in the Shinjuku area that has been around for more than 100 years. The show itself was very interesting; they added a Bollywood twist to it. Also, the actor who played Milky White (the cow–with no lines) stole the show.

Cinco de Mayo

To celebrate our first ‘Cinco de Mayo’ in Japan, we decided on a nacho for every meal.

Julie put together a quatro-fecta: breakfast nachos (featuring eggs, bacon, and chives), lunch nachos (a monochrome delight of homemade cheese sauce, chicken, and avacado), dinner nachos (fajita inspired and topped with guacamole), and purposeful dessert nachos (filo chips, stuffed with chocolate pudding and topped with carmelized bananas and peanut sauce).

¡Todos muy delicioso!