I’m closing the blog down for the last two weeks of 2016.
New posts and format coming January 4th. Stay tuned!
Month: December 2016
Wednesday Wonders:Mr. G the Gingerbread Man Goes to Japan Part 2
StandardWhen we last saw Mr. G on his trip, he discovered that people drive on the left in the island nation just before he enjoyed an apple–or rather he watched while the human ate the apple.
Today, I report on the rest of his adventures as told by tour guide Marci Kobayashi-Smith. These adventures took several days for our intrepid Mr. G.
Day 1
We went out for breakfast with the Gingerbread Man.
(They went to Denny’s in Japan!)
He looked over every page of the breakfast menu carefully.
Then we had fun taking pictures while we waited for the food to arrive.
He looked at both options first and then decided to share with Akira. You can see Akira is trying to teach him how to use chopsticks.
(Akira Kobayahi is tour guide Marci’s husband.)
After breakfast Akira paid the bill and let the Gingerbread Man keep the change. He said he’s going to bring it back with him so Q can see how Japanese coins look.
We took walk after breakfast and met someone very interesting but I’ll save that for later. Right now we’re driving to the nursing home to see Akira’s mom. Akira is helping the Gingerbread Man drive.
Day 2
We have a lot to report today! First, I want to share some pics from yesterday. The Gingerbread Man (we’ve nicknamed him Mr. G) found some interesting things.
First, he found a big building just for karaoke. Inside there are many small rooms and people of all ages go in and rent the rooms and have fun singing. We told him it’s not so unusual. There are karaoke buildings like this all over Japan.
Mr. G. also noticed there are a lot of poles and wires. You can see them here in this picture.
In Japan, most of the telephone and electric wires are above ground. Mr. G said that in Puyallup most of the wires are underground. Is that true??
Even though there are many wires, there are still some beautiful streets. This street is lined with Gingko trees.
It was so pretty so we decided to take a walk. And we weren’t the only ones. Many people were out walking…
We also found a flower shop, a grocery store with many bicycles parked out front and a Pizza Hut!!
Mr. G said he thinks there might be a Pizza Hut in Puyallup but he doesn’t eat pizza so he’s not sure. Have you seen delivery scooters like this in Puyallup?
Mr. G was really into the yellow leaves. He asked us to take many pictures…
He saved a few leaves. You’ve probably seen Gingko trees before but just in case he’s going to bring back a couple of leaves to show you. Here is one.
So you are probably getting tired of the yellow leaves, right? Well, on the way back home, we met someone really interesting. And, I’m not talking about the snowman. Take a look at this next picture. Can you guess what it is?
Well how about this next picture? Look carefully and I bet you can figure it out!
Did you figure it out? He is a police officer! The little corner office where he works is called a “koban” and in English everyone calls it a police box. It’s like a mini police station. Every neighborhood in Japan has one.
Usually there is only one or maybe two officers working at the Police Box. Sometimes you can see them out patrolling on their bicycles.
And one last view from our walk yesterday…
Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about the laundromat we visited. And, guess what? Mr. G. went out for sushi!
Day 3
Today Mr. G stayed home but I still haven’t shared some of the pics from yesterday…We went out for sushi. Instead of taking sushi that came around on the conveyor belt we ordered from the digital menu. A few minutes later it arrived on another conveyor belt right to our table. Then, Mr. G got really excited when we put the plates down the shoot. Every 5 plates we get a chance to win a prize and this time WE WON!!!
But, after all that raw fish Mr. G wanted something different so we ordered grilled eel, tenpura and french fries! Yum!
The french fries and plate prizes were a fantastic selling points for Quinton, too! He says he’d rather go on Mr.G’s trip than to Disneyland!
And that concludes the tour. Mr. G is somewhere on his way across the Pacific back to the Puyallup elementary school and Quinton’s class.
Wishing you peace and french fries for this holiday season,
Wednesday Wonders: Mr. G the Gingerbread Man Goes to Japan Part 1
StandardDo you remember Flat Stanley? The cut out that kids sent to their friends and family around the world?
My son’s kindergarten teacher gave his class a gingerbread man to send instead of Stanley. Quinton’s cut out is making his way around Tokyo with my friend from high school who came to visit us this past summer.
Summer fun in Sumner, WA
So today, I present to you the adventures of Mr. G as told by Marci with pictures and text. Enjoy!
Mr. G leaves the U.S. from my kitchen table.
In the Japanese mailbox. (Q says it looks strange, indeed.)
The happy tour guide.
For this first night, we are enjoying a quiet night at home watching TV. There is a show about a neighborhood police officer on TV right now. I’m sure you can see him in the background.
First we took a walk along the bike path next to the river and saw some egrets. Sometimes we can see blue herons there, too but not today.
The Gingerbread Man discovered that stop signs look different here in Japan. They are triangles!
Then we came up to a very busy street and he noticed something else–people drive on the left side of the road!
Now we are back home and having a snack. Even though many things are different, somethings are the same. For example, we are enjoying a big red apple for a snack.
Actually, he let me eat most of it. 🙂
And that’s all for part one! Stay tuned to see what Mr. G gets up to next week. Meanwhile, you can find more about his tour guide Marci by going to her blog and website.
May you find great adventures of your own this week and maybe even eat an apple-
Postscript: After I posted this, I remembered today is the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
A part of me questions the wisdom of whimsy on such a day.
The best part of me thinks a kindergarten gingerbread man free to travel to Japan somehow fits. I pray for more whimsy and far fewer moments of tragedy in all our lives.
Wednesday Wonders: Mutt and Jeff
Standard“Look at Mutt and Jeff!” I showed my teenager a picture of our cat and his brother.
“Who?” He gave me a look that immediately reminded me that I speak an older version of English.
I knew tucked in the back of my brain that my parents and grandparents used to say ‘Mutt and Jeff’ and that the phrase had to do with a cartoon from long ago.
(By http://www.ioffer.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25851730)
A quick Internet search pulled up the cartoon by Bud Fisher, first published in 1907. It apparently ran until 1983, so no wonder Mutt and Jeff made it into our language.
When I used it for my cat and kid, I meant two goofballs, but it can also mean two people of wildly different sizes or ‘tinhorns’–people who pretend to have money in order to look important like gamblers shaking their dice in a tin cup.
Comics strips like Peanuts and Baby Blues still make me laugh and one of my colleagues even pastes new ones to our copy machine. But todays strips may not have the power they once did to influence our language in the early part of the 20th century.
At least now my son knows about Mutt and Jeff, so he can use it the next time he sees a goofy pair.
From the look on his face, I bet he won’t.
Like Her Hair's On Fire 