Tropical girl in the winter

My sister-in-law Fran (from Minnesota) said that the only way you can enjoy winter is to do the fun winter things like skiing. Unfortunately, there is no way to ski here in Tokyo as it hardly snows, and when it does, they say it lasts a day at the most. So without the fun winter things to do, I am left with a list of things I do not like about winter.

1. Winter clothes. In general, people (myself included) look bigger and frumpier in layers of winter clothes. Most coats come in drab gray and black, as if people just want to blend right in with the drab landscape. Having lived in the tropics for most of my life, I do not have a collection of winter clothes or a winter fashion sense. Socks are a must (and hubby insists that we must wear two pairs of socks on each foot to keep sufficiently warm). I miss how free my feet feel in my sandals.

2. Dry flaking skin. Sure it's not snowing outside but it sure looks like you've been snowed upon with skin flakes. Cold weather dries out the skin but so do the indoor space heaters. Hubby is amused that I keep lathering myself with olive oil from the kitchen.

3. It's uncomfortable to do anything - bathe, bike, hang laundry, walk, wash dishes, etc. The cold stings your face and makes it hard to breathe. It makes your ears turn red and causes chilblains on your toes (makes them itchy and swollen). This discomfort makes you just want to stay indoors all day.

4. Some indoor buildings have their heat turned up so you have this ongoing dance of putting on and taking off your different layers.

But life must go on, and so tropical girl has come up with her own coping strategies. One of the first things I bought was a cloth cover for the plastic toilet seat. My tushy doesn't like being shocked early in the morning and the 100 yen cloth cover was worth every yen I paid for it. I also invested in a hot water bottle -- this one comes in a nice furry pouch. Put this hot water bottle under the blankets and it keeps your toes warm. We are lucky enough that the sun shines right into our house every morning and warms it up by a few degrees. On some days, it is actually possible to open the window and sun my legs to get my much needed vitamin D. That is my absolutely favorite spot of the house. Can't wait for Spring!

Small comforting things in the winter -- a hot water bottle with furry cover

Christmas ain't complete without KFC

December 25, 2009. I'm often asked by friends back in the Philippines, how do the Japanese celebrate Christmas? The answer: With a bucketful of KFC fried chicken and Christmas Cake. I didn't actually see the lines at KFC, but I saw the lines at bakeshops, where people were snapping up boxes of Christmas cakes that look a tad sweeter than usual. Sure enough the next morning, we saw this at the neighborhood's common garbage area:

Hubby insisted I hold the bucket up for perspective ("Wow look at the size of that thing!")

I brought it back home as it made a really nice and sturdy festive wastebasket. :)

On Christmas Eve, we went to the West Tokyo Union Church service. One of the members of the Church, Ruth, held up a talking lion puppet and told the story of St. Nicholas and why we hang up stockings by the fireplace. It was excellent storytelling (and I'm pretty sure my mouth hung open while listening). The service also featured a very solemn liturgical hula dance version of Silent Night. After the service, we all went to the home of Jim and Carol Sacks for russian tea, and who knows how many refills I had (yes, it was that good). Recipe can be found here.

Reverend Claudia and accompanying liturgical hula dancers

Light delights and playing anthropologist

December 23, 2009. The emperor's birthday and a national holiday in Japan. Hubby and I decided to bike from Akihabara to Ginza to eat at Wendy's for the very last time (Wendy's was closing all stores in Japan by the end of the year). We planned to bike all the way home from there. When we passed by the Wadakura Fountain park near the Imperial Palace, we found these really cool lanterns lit from the inside with candles. There were hundreds of people enjoying this lovely display called "Tokyo Lightopia 2009." We saw this event in the newspapers recently and didn't imagine that we would be lucky enough to see it in person.

A sea of lights. Wedding hall behind.

Each lantern is individually designed by school kids.

We biked further and were surprised to see women lined up quietly and in neat rows outside the Takarazuka Theater. When we rounded the corner, there were more of them, all in the same white winter coat and cream scarf. Hubby whipped out his iphone and searched Wikipedia for "Takarazuka" and found an entry on the Takarazuka fan club. Exactly as described in the Wiki article, the women stood in orderly ranks. There was little conversation and at some given cue (who knows what it is?) the women would sit and stand all at the same time (like a wave). We wanted to see how the fan club members would behave when the actresses came out. Strangely enough, when one of the actresses passed by, the fan club members just quietly watched them. One of the actresses managed a small wave and stopped quickly to collect cards from fan club members but the whole event was less than a minute as they walked quickly to their chauffeured cars. We wondered how long the women stood in the cold just to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars for a few seconds.

Hubby getting a kick out of watching eerie fan club behavior.

Bike-friendly city

December 19, 2009. I discovered yet another reason to love this cool city -- it is so bike-friendly (and wheelchair friendly at that)! I had an interview somewhere near Iidabashi station and I learned that Iidabashi is easily a 30 minute bike ride from Akihabara where hubby's office was. Hubby printed out the Google map of my route and gave clear instructions on how to get there. It took me about 40 minutes (understandable since it was my first time and I was looking around while biking). The sidewalks along the main streets are wide enough for both pedestrians and cyclists, and they taper off nicely so you practically never have to get on or off your bike from sidewalk to sidewalk. Savings: 260 yen (approximately 130 pesos) in train fares. Plus, I love how I could feel the breeze on my skin, and the sheer power of my legs to get me from point A to point B. Totally intoxicating.

"Just tremors"

December 18, 2009. It was still dark when I felt someone nudging me out of my deep sleep from under the futon. I woke up slightly annoyed to find the whole house shaking horizontally for a good ten seconds. In panic and with memories of the disastrous earthquakes in the Philippines, I sat up and shook hubby who was sound asleep. He mumbled, "Yeah, they're just tremors" and went right back to sleep without missing a beat. Aiyah. Then again, if hubby was able to go right back to sleep, maybe I can too, so I snuggled a bit closer to him after the scare. The next morning, the earthquake felt like a bad dream and I spoke to hubby about it. He found it amusing that he said they were "just tremors" (he doesn't remember saying so). Double aiyah.

Free books + warm = Happy combination

A mere 10 minute walk from our house. Mt. Fuji is visible on a clear day.

December 15, 2009. I found out that the public library was quite near our house and the walking route is quite scenic (by the river for about 15 minutes and over the river for about 5 minutes). Inside the nice library building, it is w-a-r-m and t-o-a-s-t-y and I immediately felt at home (what with a wet-cold 10 degrees celsius outside). I met a very friendly librarian who showed me to the English section (about three shelves only but with an interesting selection: there's Marley & Me, P.D. James mysteries, Lord of the Flies) and upon showing my alien registration card, I instantly got my bar coded library card. Can't wait to hang out at the library soon.

The three-shelf English corner. There's also a shelf for Chinese books and Korean books.

Thought of the day: Outside of a dog, a book is a person's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

Burst of autumn colors

December 2, 2009. Hubby's day off and we decided to go to our favorite park -- Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It is a green sanctuary right in the middle of the city. In certain parts of the park where you can't view any of the surrounding buildings, you can easily slip into an alternate reality. Even avid urbanites like hubby need a respite from the grey cityscape that Tokyo can be. We packed up our picnic mat (Philippine-made banig, courtesy of April Mabanes), obento (pack lunch) and other snacks and headed to the park.

Even from the entrance of the park, we could already see the gorgeous bursts of yellow gold, reds and oranges. There were quite a number of people laid out on their mats where the sun's rays landed. I don't think I have appreciated the sun so much as here in the Autumn cold, when the sun's rays brings waves of much welcome warmth.

Lazing in our banig and soaking up the sun

Watching the leaves fall