Home Life--Japan style

This blog post is alternately titled, "Life without Central Heating", since that seems to determine how life at home is lived in Japan. Life in Japan is a life of opposites--the toilets have remote controls and more buttons than a microwave, but most homes do not have central heating or insulation. In other words, your bottom is going to be warm and toasty but beware when you leave the bathroom! I used to teach in the home of a doctor who had 3 brand-new BMWs but would lug his kerosene heater from room to room, depending on where his girls were doing their homework.
      We have adjusted to life without central heating pretty well. I credit this all to my Dad, who doesn't believe in central heating anyways. Growing up, I can only remember a few times when the heat was turned on--was it on Christmas? So, I learned to enjoy flannel, layering, and sleeping bags. Here's how we do it in Japan:

Kotatsus:

Cash and Coco after bathtime under the kotatsu. Yes, Coco has fake tattoos and is throwing her signs.

Or as I like to call them "dry hot tubs". Basically the best invention ever--a table with a heater underneath that you cover with a blanket to keep the heat in. Most people have either a kotatsu or a hot-carpet, a rug with a heater underneath that you can sit on.  The Ellises are on the kotatsu team all the way!


Family Bath Time: I think this relates to central heating, because we all want to limit the exposure of wet skin to a non-heated, paper-walled home in the winter. We've adopted the Japanese way of bathing: scrubbing up in the shower and then soaking your scrubbed-clean body in the deep, deep tub full of super-hot water, which is shared by the family. Yep, we all pile in the shower together as a family (our shower is in the school, and it's kind of creepy down there at night!) but Fox and I don't usually bathe with the kids, since we're too big.  We would if we all fit, though.  Sorry, no pictures!

Family Bedroom: Someone once told us that being in Japan is good for your family, since you have to learn to stay in one room at a time, winter or summer.  Very true!  The first time we lived here, Fox and I were crazy sleep-training-obsessed parents and let baby Cash have the bedroom with the heater in it while we slept on unpadded futons in the next room, in front of a bright halogen lamp. For 3 months. Wow.  This time, we all get much better sleep and stay way warmer in the same room.  The kids are on the floor on futons with extra blankets.  We're in our bed. Everyone gets much more sleep and stays warm.  Sounds crazy even to me, but it totally works.

Layering: Japan is the land of layering!  They are all about wool socks on top of leggings on top of "warm-heat underclothes".  All the kids put on their fleece-lined "inside shoes" in the colder months. Japanese layering clothes are big business, and everyone layers!

So that's a slice of home life in Japan--a lot of closeness!


P.S. If you've read this far, here is my 7 month pregnancy pic.  7 more weeks!

Some stuff

I wrote a little (okay, a lot) about being LDS in Japan here for my friend Heather's awesome blog Women in the Scriptures.

Fox is taking his Japanese driver's test tomorrow (our Wednesday).  The test is notoriously hard, and he failed the first time he took it a few weeks ago.  Please pray for him!  I take mine in a few weeks--yikes!

Our branch had a Thanksgiving potluck on Sunday. There was turkey and cranberry sauce! I made Larissa's chocolate truffle pie (amaaazing) and pumpkin cheesecake bars from a very rare find of canned pumpkin in the import store! The lunch was awesome.

And I did take Halloween pictures but not many. Here is one from our school's Halloween party (Fox and I were working the cameras). The man on the right is our boss and our friend Janelle on the left is the other teacher.  The other ladies are the sweet school nurses.  Hiroko, the one in the back, also teaches Cash's hiragana class and can often be found jump roping across the playground, even though she is almost 60. She is awesome.

So there is some recent stuff. My mind is all over the place lately, but I'll try to put up more recent pictures soon!

Happy Birthday, Cosette!

Today is Cosette's 3rd Birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Coco!

On her "birth" birthday:

Age 1:

Age 2:

And now 3 years old!

Cosette, we love you! You are so much fun and bring so much joy to our family!
At 3 years old, you:
--asked for a live elephant for your birthday and also a toy dinosaur.
--love the songs "This is Halloween" and "Superbass"(the clean version!) and sing random pieces from them constantly
--love being around people, playing jokes on them, and messing with them in some way, especially touching hair and faces. Hmmm...
--love to run super fast and yell super loud
--love the movie "Tangled" and anything scary. You constantly reassure us by saying, "I'm not afraid of scary fings"
--can still hold your bladder for like 13 hours overnight, longer than anyone in this family! --constantly compliment people --sleep surrounded by your stuffed animal.
--have favorites that change everyday. Some days you love rice, other than days you hate it. Some days you love your toys, other days you only love Cash's toys. You always have a favorite "cuddly" of the day. This keeps us on our toes!
--love boys, specifically Riku, Sento, Dime, and Holden. I actually don't think I've ever seen you play nicely with any girls.
--love to tell stories. "Remember that one time I saw a snake and then it ate my foot and then I brushed my teeth? The end."

We love you, Coco girl! I think this is the year that you might actually grow hair on the top of your head!

A Day in Kobe

We have lived here for almost a year, and I still hadn't gotten off the island (Shikoku). I was definitely having island fever, so on our last day off, we woke up early, drove 5 minutes to the port, and hopped on the 4-hour Jumbo Ferry to Kobe, city famous for its beef. Apparently, massages every day and a diet including beer makes for really tasty cows :) I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the huge 4-story ferry that includes an arcade, ice cream shop, huge tatami room for sleeping, ladies' room (to keep creepy men away), and a TV room with massage chairs (that was playing the Panthers football game, to Fox's extreme joy!).

Here are the kids on the ferry:

Once we got to Kobe, the Kobe Oji Zoo is just 2 train stops away--and kids are free!  Cosette had never been to a big zoo--and it was about time!

These pics are a bit out of order--sorry! Here is Cosette eating curry (Fox was sneaking a picture of her--if she knows her picture is being taken, she does a crazy face).  Both of our kids can eat their weight in Japanese curry, so it is always a safe bet for lunch!

Cash in the petting area, loving on a huge rabbit:

The main attraction at this zoo is the giant panda. China has been loaning some pandas to Japan in an effort to build friendship between the two countries.

In the koala house:

Cosette loving on a guinea pig:

Fox and the kiddos in Amusement Land:

After the zoo, we walked around in the huge outdoor mall, where I found a water bottle that I had been searching for forever. Hmmm...it looks like it is $6.50 in the U.S., and I paid almost $18 here, which was a screaming deal.  Whaaa...oh well, it is helping me get my required 80 ounces of water a day!

We hopped back on the ferry at 8 pm and got back at midnight.  The funny part is that the lights stay on in the ferry's "sleeping room" the entire time, but everyone still managed to sleep (except me--pregnant women on flat tatami floors just doesn't work).
But--it was so good to get off our tiny island for a day, and the kids had so much fun!

We finally went to the movies in Japan!

Last night, we finally saw a movie in Japan! We watched this:

while drinking these:

How was this magnificent feat possible?!
1.) We live 7 minutes away from a movie theater now, instead of 1 1/2 hours!
2.) We live 7 minutes away from a babysitter now, instead of 1 1/2 hours--thanks, Heather!
3.) Yesterday was November 1st, which means 1st-day-of-the-month movie prices: 1000 yen instead of 1800 yen per ticket! Wednesdays here are Ladies' Days, which means all ladies pay only 1000 yen!
4.) There were some movies playing in English with Japanese subtitles! Movies here are on a different release date, so our options were Cowboys vs. Aliens or Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  I love James Franco (he is awesome--check this article out), so the choice was easy :)

We liked the movie and had such a great time, partly due to the younger guy sitting next to us.  He was smiling and on the edge of his seat the whole time, whispering "Sugoi!" (cool!) excitedly. It was funny.  A random thing is that every single person stayed in the theater until the end of the credits, which were all in English.  I wonder if this is another sign-of-respect part of the culture here?

Tomorrow is a national holiday and we just *might* get off this tiny island and take the ferry to Kobe. If we do, this will be a super exciting week for us!

Third in Third

I am now in the third trimester with our third baby, so I figured it was time for a belly shot! Such a difference from my 1st baby, when belly shots were much more frequent, but I usually don't start showing until 5 months or so.

Pregnancy always goes by much quicker as soon as I know if it's a boy or a girl, so I am really enjoying this part and thinking a lot about what our new little boy will look like! So far, pregnancy with this boy is very similar to Cash's--a non-stop wiggler who apparently really loves chocolate, mashed potatoes, and anything spicy! I should have known there was a boy in there :)

Cosette also wanted a solo pic:

She is now insisting that we call her "Cosette" and refuses to answer to "Coco". This might have to do with the fact that at our school, there are 2 other Cocos and a Cocomi. Cosette also lets us know when she wakes up if "today is my happy day" or "today is my grumpy day", and she is always true to her word.

Cash wanted a picture, too:

Cash is at a really fun age right now. He has started picking out his clothes for the next day and laying them on his bed every night. In the morning, he gets dressed, makes his bed, and opens the curtains...then plays quietly until Cosette wakes up. He has also started getting interested in sight words and trying to read on his own. Very fun!

We are adjusting to life at our new school/apartment.  It's been a big change for us.  Fox is now working 8 to 6 M-Thurs, with a break for naptime (this is a combo daycare/kindergarten that is conducted only in English), whereas before he was working until 10 or 11 most nights.  We see him all day long, as Cash is in his morning class and Cosette and I are downstairs helping out and playing with the younger kids. Fox went from driving over 2 hours a day most days to literally walking downstairs to go to work and then coming back upstairs when the day is done. Most of his students are ages 5 and under, which is also a huge change.  There are over 30 kids at this school, and about 20 of them stay until 6 pm every day, so it is always loud.  It's exhausting but fun!

We have been having to spend our days off applying for our new city's paperwork--health insurance, library cards, child allowance, etc. so hopefully we will have some time soon to go exploring some fun parts of our city.  There is a dolphin recovery center about 20 minutes away that looks fun!

And--the most important part--there are non-Japanese food restaurants in our city!  This is very important, as we eat a lot of Japanese food at home.  We have Subway (wheat bread!!), Indian, Thai, and Jamaican food restaurants here in Takamatsu...and they are all amazing!

 I will try and get some pics up of our new place soon!

Cash's Undokai

Cash had his first Undokai last Sunday! Undokais are sports' days that are very big deals here--they practice for weeks in advance and get the whole family to participate. Here is Cash doing the warm-up exercises: I love his enthusiasm...and stiff shoulders :) We had moved the day before and drove an hour and a half early in the morning to participate in his last activity at his Yochien. So, things had been a little crazy, but it was still fun. At Undokais in kindergarten, the whole family gets involved! Cosette did a relay for toddlers. Cash and Fox did a fun race while sharing a big hoop:

Here is Cash in another relay:

My favorite part was grandma and grandpa basketball. I didn't get a picture, but they pitted a bunch of grandparents against each other to throw 40 balls into a hoop. The grandparents were very competitive! It was bittersweet saying goodbye to Cash's classmates and teacher. Everyone shook his hand, and he was given his class birthday present early. Cash was the only American there, so everyone knew him. The entire staff of teachers and the principal was so good to us--they translated every piece of paperwork into English for us and really were sad to see Cash go. Here is Cash and his teacher, Shinohara-sensei:

After a final sayonara, we were off to our new city for good--this time a complete 180 degrees, as we are living inside a school where every student is only allowed to speak English. For my kids who were encouraged to only use Japanese in public in our tiny town, this week has been a big adjustment--more on that later :)