Japan

March 17^th, 2011: Topic today is Japan. Since the main headlines are about the catastrophes in Japan, I decided this would be a good day to reminisce our days that we lived in Japan. I was five-years-old and Amy was three. We had the whitest hair that the Japanese people had ever seen. It wasn’t just blond it was a natural platinum blond. We were given a lot of attention from the people there because of our hair. Amy and I had the cutest little kimonos and gatas (wooden flip flop type of shoe that the Japanese people wore) to where. Mom would dress us up in our Kimonos and gatas and then take us to the many festivals that the Japanese culture displayed.

 Amy and I learned to speak the Japanese language very well when we were there very quickly. We would use the language to sing with the other Japanese girls up on the stage for these festivals. Do not remember the language very well now though. When you are young you learn languages quick, but if it is not cultivated as you grow older, it leaves very quick as well. I remember very few words now. My mother and father took longer to learn the language, but remembered it longer, particularly mom.

I remember especially playing in a little play house behind the couch. It is humid in Japan and so all the furniture has to be away from the walls so as not to mildew. We had our couch about four feet away from the walls. This was a perfect place for Amy and me to have a play area in. I remember I loved to play back there. It felt like a private spot to be in. By the way, we lived in Tachikawa, Japan on the air Force base Housing. This is near Tokyo, Japan. We lived there for a year.

Another thing I remember about living there was the little candy cart that would come by every day. It is similar to the bakery truck that would come by every day when we lived in California. Only difference is that it was more like a small hand cart that was filled with Japanese candy of all kinds. It would be pushed instead of driven, by a Japanese young man. I loved the candy that was wrapped in a rice paper. You could eat the whole thing. The rice paper would melt in your mouth. I loved it.

I remember just how beautiful the green countryside was. It was so beautiful there. The architecture was also very beautiful. I really loved living there while we were young.

Also I remember mom would take us to a little craft place that she would go to all the time. Don’t remember the name of the place, but mom would do an interesting type of craft done with metal on top of a piece of wood with a modeling type of clay in-between the metal and the wood. She would then use a pointed wooden tool to make the shape of a face on the metal. This would be indented into the metal and then she would put a kind of antiquing on it to bring out the face even more. I believe she did other crafts as well. Mom loved doing things like that. She was very talented in the craft area. I don’t remember what other ones she did while were there.

Well this is off the topic of Japan, but maybe I will take a little space to talk about moms many talents. Mom loved to do crocheting, Trichem hand paint embroidery, embroidery and sewing. She really did a lot of sewing. She made all of our clothes when we were young. I remember the dresses that she would sew with the sashes in back. I loved the sashes in back.

She was also very much into cooking and canning, butchering the cows right on the kitchen table, making butter from the cows milk that dad would milk every day. Jams and jellies, and boysenberry pie, umm yum J. There were three of us girls (Bert, Amy and Me) and of course dad and mom for dinner. She would cook for an army. I whole plate of eggs, tomatoes, etc. Needless to say we learned to love to eat and eat well. When I was young it didn’t hurt us so much. We were as skinny as can be. I weighed 98 pounds clear up through my college years, couldn’t gain an ounce. But now that I am older and have had a few children, I wish I didn’t like to eat so well now. We won’t say what we weigh now. That would be too much information. But mom loved to cook for people to enjoy food. She loved to have people over to eat with us. The missionaries came over gladly to our house many times to eat.