Gaming the Time Away

Since my children discovered Famicon and Gameboys way back when, game machines have been a part of our life, particularly, the Nintendo game machines.

Although you could say I started the game obsession with the first Atari when I was 15, my kids have never even touched an Atari, so we shall start the obsession with my brothers who bought the Nintendo64 and introduced it to my son when he was 2. Of course, Dear Son was too young to know what the heck he was doing, so we just handed him an unplugged controller, giving him the joy of being part of the game without actually losing for us.

As he got older he figured it out, and we had to relent, so my husband and I bought him a used (cheap) Famicon (and 8 years later it’s still working!) We then splurged on the Nintendo68, and progressed to the Game Cube, finally ending with the Wii. Side by side with this has been the step from Gameboy to Gameboy Advance, and now the DS—what’s a parent to do (Yes, I know, I could just say ‘NO!’, but where’s the fun in that??)

I’ve made various attempts to balance the games with other activities including limiting game time to 1 hour/day on school days, requiring certain grades made to get game time, banning games on days we plan family activities, no games after a certain time in the day. What has worked the best so far is to not allow games after 6pm on school days and Sunday. And if grades drop too low, there is a general ban on games for awhile until I relent.

For summer this year though I decided to buy the kids (besides Mario Party8) a great educational game—Motto Eigo Zuke—Increased English Training! This DS game is to help increase your English listening/reading/writing skills. You listen to a conversation then write the conversation out, and by passing levels you gain new mini-games to play later. But this game is just one in a series of educational style games, mostly for adults. We have also gotten the Kanji Kakitori game for kanji study, and the Brain Power game, also a lot of fun.

I’m lucky that my kids are pretty much into the Nintendo Mario series, so none of our games have much violence in them. My only wish is that Nintendo would expand on the types of games they have—Sony seems to have done better with the Playstation in that there are many accessories to go with it, but with Nintendo so far there is pretty much the game console and controllers, and a few accessories for some of the games (Donkey Kong Conga with the bongos, Mario Dance Revolution with the dance pad). I would like to see games that teach typing, or use a piano keyboard to introduce music, things along those lines.

And finally, an article I came across about Nintendo’s push to get games into the hands of players who wouldn’t normally make the time for a game.

Japan Times
Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007

WOMEN, SENIORS EXPAND LUCRATIVE MARKET
Nintendo scores with brain-training, etiquette games

By SHINICHI TERADA
Since March, Natsumi Takita has spent 10 minutes daily on a Nintendo DS hand-held game machine, undergoing daily quizzes using "Otona-no Joshikiryoku Training DS" ("Common Sense Training for Adults").
"It teaches me what I thought were good manners were actually bad, how to taste wine, or what the proper seating position in business is," the 26-year-old Tokyo office worker said. "Even if I make mistakes, I see the same questions one month or so later, so I can learn from (my) mistakes."

The "Common Sense" game is one of a flurry of hit titles for Nintendo's DS, including its "Brain Age" calculation drill game and "Face Training," which gives instructions on how to exercise facial muscles for better smiles and expressions. "Dream Skincare," which demonstrates facial massage, will hit the market in October.

The new titles, strikingly different from conventional action games, represent how Nintendo and other game machine makers are trying to appeal to a new group of customers, including young women and "gray gamers," industry officials and analysts say.

According to Enterbrain Inc., a Tokyo-based market-research firm, more than 60 percent of people who bought the DS units don't think of themselves as regular game players.

Nintendo DS, the all-time biggest-selling portable game machine in Japan, is now even used as a study tool for school English classes, or as a reference guide in museums.
With game machines encroaching more and more on people's daily lives, manufacturers are trying to figure out how to best serve the growing number of new users, as well as existing core game fans.

"There is a huge gap between conventional gamers and new users who are more into learning, and the challenge is how to fill the gap," said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain. "Nintendo surely wants to sell games to the new users."
Nintendo spokesman Ken Toyada said the firm plans to provide games and entertainment software that 5-year-old to 95-year-old people can enjoy together.

Masashi Morita, a games analyst at Okasan Securities Co., said core game users have so far been satisfied with challenging games that allow them to shoot enemies and see up-close action scenes.
But as demand diversifies, Morita said game makers must come up with software that lets users clearly know what kind of benefits they can get.

One good example, he said, is Nintendo's Wii Fit, which enables users to track their health conditions or how much weight they lose after doing aerobics, yoga and stretching.
"Nintendo is very good at showing benefits and results from playing such games," Morita said.

"Nintendo has explored a nontraditional game market," Tanaka said. To keep up with new demand, the company has released new titles, including the "Phoenix Wright" series of a courtroom story game.
Takita, a young office worker is preparing to become a housewife soon, and has just bought DS software for household accounting and another for cooking that gives over 200 recipes and step-by-step instructions read out to users by a narrator.
"I just like self-improvement programs," she said. "I don't think I'll be a core game user."

Matsuri!

Summer in Japan is a blend of traditional and modern (as is everything in Japan). The main vacation time for families is mid-August, when fathers get time off work, schools and jukkus cancel all extra classes and families plan their main summer event. It's a time to visit relatives, and most importantly, visit the graves of relatives who have passed on, mainly parents or grandparents, leaving flowers, sake and snacks. Known as Obon, it is a remembrance of those who have passed away, and many matsuris (festivals) are held not only in every town, but every section of the city. Within walking distance of our house we can reach at least 3 local festivals, and many more within driving distance.

Local festivals are small-scale. Food stalls are set up and run by the local PTA, Kodomo-Kai (Children’s Club) or other community group, game stalls with prizes, oftentimes a stage in the center of the locale with either Japanese taiko (drums) or bon-odori (Obon dancing). Neighborhood festivals are low-cost and attended by the danchi (neighborhood), making them relatively safe for children.

But the larger city festivals are a main event for the entire town, and often the surrounding towns as well. You will find stalls all along the location with food, drinks, games and trinkets. It can cost a parent a small fortune to take your kid out to a festival, and I firmly believe this is why so many Japanese families don't have more than 2 kids--it's just way too expensive!! (On a side note, many times the matsuri commerce is run by the local yakuza (mafia)--though not always the case).

The part of the festival everyone waits for begins when the sun is finally down--the hanabi (fireworks—literally meaning flower of fire). A good show can last up to an hour with many peaks and dips in the display, ending with a rather dazzling grand finale, leaving all who attended happy they came despite the crowds, heat, dirt, and cost. Hanabi are a large part of the summer culture in this country, you can buy hand-held and other small-scale hanabi to do in your backyard, the nearby park, the river banks, your campsite if you are so inclined. Every Japanese kid learns good firework etiquette and safety rules—a bucket of water to douse finished hanabi, a plastic bag to collect the garbage, and they also know not to do any shooting hanabi near their neighbor’s houses.

This year we decided to gather together as many available mixed marriage families we could and have dinner together on the banks of our local river where the matsuri was being held. I must say, it was an overall fun event, we even had visitors from the prefecture next to us come along! We made bento box dinners, filled up some PET bottles with mugi-cha, packed in some plastic sheets for sitting, and off we went. The hanabi display was especially good, a sign that our little inaka-town is growing financially.

I solved the money dilemma by giving my kids 500 yen each to spend as they liked, which would be enough for one treat, maybe two if they stretched it. They ended up spending half and saving half for future pocket money, and I was glad not to hear "I want this...Can I buy that..." most of the night, which is a usual tiresome chant whenever we go to the matsuri.

We ended the evening by doing some hand-held sparklers of our own, then packed everything up and headed off to catch the train home. We planned this well, deciding not to leave right at the end of the hanabi, but wait about half an hour when most everyone else had left, thereby catching the tail end of the crowd, and lucky for us we got seats for half the ride home (all of 1 stop!).

If you decide to go to a matsuri, here is a list of what you should bring:

1. money
2. a PET bottle of something non-sweet to drink
3. a plastic sheet for sitting (leisure sheet in Japanese—but check the pronunciation, it’s a bit tricky, sort of ‘layja- sheeto’
4. good walking shoes
5. a hand-held fan (uchiwa--an essential, trust me!)
6. a camera
7. a washcloth or small hand-towel (I actually bring a wet one inside a zip-lock bag for wiping dirty hands or faces--including my own--it can be pretty hot and muggy)
8. a plastic grocery bag for collecting prizes and treats
   
9. and the main part of your meal if you want to save money—food at the festival can cost from 300 yen to 700 yen or more for yaki-soba, tako-yaki, okonomiyaki and all those other matsuri favorites!

Some other matsuri tips:

• Plan to arrive around 5:30, just as the sun is cooling off, but hopefully in time to find a good spot to park yourself. Lay out your mat and leave some food bags to mark the spot, it’ll pretty much be safe. Don’t leave valuables.
  
  
• If you have kids, bring some entertainment as well—UNO, cards, DS games—or you’ll find yourself spending a LOT of money. Bring snacks as well to pull out at various times for diversion.
  
  
• If you like comfort, bring a couple of fold-up chairs, which are from 400 to 2,000 yen at the local supermarket or DIY shop.
  
  
• Bring your own beer/chu-hi. You can also buy these there if you don’t mind paying 2 or 3 times the normal price.
  
  
• If you take the train there, buy your return ticket as soon as you arrive at the destination station so you won’t have to wait in a long line to buy it later.
  
  
• If you drive, be prepared to pay a small fortune for parking, and be prepared to be stuck in traffic for possibly an hour after the show. You can always delay departure from the grounds in order to avoid the main traffic, which can be frustrating and tiring. But, at least you’ll be sitting in an air-conditioned environment rather than crowded onto a train.
  
  
• And finally, just enjoy it all, the crowds, the prices, the food, the interesting sights and sounds. Prepare yourself ahead of time that you might be walking in very close quarters to complete strangers, but this is the way of the matsuri!

And here are some pictures I took of the event!

On our way to the matsuri site, along with everyone else in town!

Many of the young ladies and girls dress in summer yukatas, made of cotton, vs. the more elegant kimono made of silk and worn for ceremonial occasions.

The matsuri as seen from across our local river's bank...and viewed from the bridge..

The first of the food stalls...one of my favorites--TAKOYAKI (octopus balls?)

TAMASEN (egg-rice cracker).... up close..

An OKONOMIYAKI (vegetable pancake? though it often has bacon, pork or octopus as well) stall

Delicious IKAYAKI (grilled squid on a stick!)

KAKIGORI (smoothie? shaved ice? whatever it is, it's great on a hot summer's day)

My kids can't get enough of this RINGO AME (candied apple--or grape--or strawberry)
Take a guess at this one--HORUMON YAKI (fried hormones??)A favorite festival game--KINGYO SUKUI (fishing--uyou use a little scooper with a paper covering, trying to catch as many fish as you can until the paper breaks, and receive a prize (usually some nice little goldfish to take home) according to how many fish you caught.)

KINGYO SUKUI again, but with a twist--fishing for Stitch or Marie figurines.Mask stalls are also popular, selling Japanese character masks as well as ninki western ones.
And a kid decked out in his mask!
Before the fireworks began, lighted prayer lanterns were floated down the river...a beautiful sight which my camera failed to properly capture.

The hanabi display itself--my camera battery died about 5 minutes into the show, so we are stuck with these few images! And finally the train ride home. We were lucky to even find a place to stand, normally trains are way packed after the matsuri.

The Itsy Bitsy Bikini

I bet you thought you were going to see a picture of me in my bikini—sorry to disappoint you, but…don’t want to scare you off!!

Something happens to the Japanese woman once she has children—she suddenly seems to lose her identity and her life is wrapped around her children’s. She is no longer ‘Yoko’ or ‘Keiko’ but now she is ‘Masao’s mommy’ or ‘Yumiko’s mommy’ or simply ‘obasan’ which basically means ‘aunt’ and is used by kids to refer to a woman who is not a grandma but is not a young girl anymore—I have graduated to those ranks!

Now that it’s summer, I find myself reflecting on the fact that I have rarely seen a mother swimming in a pool, or beach, or river, with their kids, or even just by herself. I’ve seen them wading up to their ankles, or perhaps even up to their knees, but rarely full-body-in-the-water, wet hair, smeared mascara swimming! Actually, I can’t hardly recall seeing a mother with her kids in a bathing suit, or at least just a bathing suit. By that I mean, they may have the suit on somewhere underneath the other few layers of clothing on top, I’m sure it’s under there, but I can’t say I’ve seen it. Or else their suit is pretty close to a set of clothes so you could easily wear it out shopping as well.

What am I getting at you ask, (I think I’m asking myself the same thing!) Let me tell you a conversation I had 3 years ago with some of the local mothers, a conversation that finally got concluded a couple of weeks ago with my other foreign friend.

My son used to be part of the local soccer team, which meant I was now a soccer Mom, and every so often I was on soccer-Mom-duty. I showed up to the practice or game and helped pass out drinks, keep an eye on kids during breaks, bring the coaches coffee or water, look after first aid situations, stuff like that. I happened to be on duty for a game, during which many other moms show up (for the record—I never showed up when I didn’t HAVE to, poor Jason!). It was spring, warm in the sun, chilly in the shade, and we were standing around talking. I wasn’t really listening too closely, but I picked up at the word ‘bikini’ and tuned in. It was sort of to my embarrassment that I found they were discussing none other than yours truly—me! And not only were they discussing me (I get used to being the center of certain odd conversations), they were discussing my brazen summer attire—a bikini! At the local pool of all places! They all turned to ask me if it was true, did I really wear a bikini to the pool, and did I actually go swimming in it?? I turned a bit (ok, VERY) red, and said Yes, what else do you do at pools and what are swim suits for?? Then the discussion turned to how embarrassed they would be to wear anything that showed too much skin, and they never go in the water, and how brave I was….

I have since gone off the local pool, (it’s mostly the chlorine content that gives me incredible headaches, and the crowds that also give me bad headaches), but I am tempted to show up there this year and give the local gossip community something to discuss, I got a fabulous bikini from Victoria Secrets and my body is almost back in shape since my youngest was born.

Well, this conversation was wrapped up a few weeks ago when I was out at the river with a foreign friend, wearing none other than my bikini. We began to talk about how funny Japanese moms are, she told me she went to the river with some and she started spraying sunscreen all over her face and arms, and the moms started exclaiming “Aren’t you wearing makeup, what are you doing??” they were rather amazed that:
1. she wasn’t wearing makeup and
2. she was actually going to swim!
And so I told my friend my bikini story, to which she exclaims:
“So THAT was YOU!!—I had the oddest comment from one of my friends a few years ago, she said she’d heard that I’d been swimming at the pool in my bikini—and I don’t even own a bikini—it was YOU!!”

We once again realized how under a microscope our lives are when we are one of 5 foreigners in a small city!

Japanese women don’t NOT have nice bodies, they are pretty lucky to be blessed with small physiques, low body-fat, good skin, and after having a kid or two, with a bit of work you can regain a somewhat flat stomach. I wonder why they often hide their bodies under so many layers, especially in this humid Japanese heat, or feel that as they get older they must cover up more and more. I do understand protecting your skin from UV rays, but then there’s the part about enjoying stuff, being comfortable. Or maybe it’s just me, and with a lack of other foreign company, I find myself doing things with my kids that ordinarily I wouldn’t do if I were in my own home country. I still don’t think I’ve seen a ‘mother’ at the pool or beach in a ‘bikini’, that would be a rare breed of okasan!

Green Tea

Green tea--the wonder drink! Well, not quite, but much information has been coming out about the great benefits of the tea.

Green tea is as much a part of the culture in Japan as are sushi and chopsticks. Green tea is just another extension of Japanese living, as routine in the day as a bowl of rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There must be something to it considering the Japanese are one of the longest-lived races! Here's a really great article from care2.com filled with ideas for recycling your used green-tea leaves!

Courtesy of Care2 GreenLiving

Green Tea to Refresh Your Home

Adapted from The Book of Green Tea, by Diana Rosen (Storey Books, 1998)

The salubrious effects of green tea are well known—tea leaves pack a whopping punch of antioxidants making their brew one of the healthiest drinks to imbibe. However, the benefits of those antioxidants don’t stop there; you can save those soggy tea leaves and use them around the house to help out with some surprising tasks.

SIMPLE SOLUTION: After you’ve absorbed the health benefits from your cup of green tea, it’s time to recycle the leaves. You can use them to feed your garden plants--green tea is high in nitrogen--and they will even ward off pests and insects.

Tea leaves also have a long tradition of being used as a deodorizer. Tea is loaded with catechins, which are the polyphenolic substances we know as anti-oxidants. The catechins have antibacterial properties, which makes tea leaves great for fighting odor.

Some tips call for dried leaves, here’s how: When finished brewing tea, place the leaves into a large strainer or colander. Press out as much moisture as possible, and then spread the leaves on unprinted paper. Let the leaves dry thoroughly, turning over several times in the process. Then, refresh away…

Carpets and Vacuum. Sprinkle dry tea leaves onto your carpet, crush them lightly and let them sit for 10 minutes, then vacuum. This will refresh your carpet and deodorize your vacuum cleaner and bag.

Yoga Mats. In the hot, humid areas of Thailand, Burma, and other Asian countries, people sleep on straw mats. This straw is cool and comfortable, but people do perspire. It is quite common in these areas for straw mats to be washed in tubs of water to which tea has been added. The tea works as a powerful deodorizer, leaves a fresh scent, and can even infuse the straw with a delicate sage color. You can use green tea to clean other washable surfaces, such as yoga mats and air mattresses.

Litter Boxes. Used green tea leaves are wonderful in kitty litter as an extra boost for diffusing odors, and they help deter fleas from both cats and dogs.

Pet Beds. Sprinkle dried used green tea leaves on your pet’s favorite pillow or bed. Great in doghouses or anywhere troublesome pet odors occur. If you can afford the extravagance, loose leaf gunpowder tea is great for dogs to roll around in. The crunching of the pellets releases a wonderful aroma, and helps to scratch wherever dogs have an itch. The pellets help give your dog a more pleasant smell.

Refrigerators. Place used green tea bags or leaves in a small bowl, uncovered, in your refrigerator to help absorb odors from onions and garlic for about three days. NO need to throw them out even then, just sprinkle the old leaves around your ferns, rosebushes, or other plants.

Kitchen Odors. Preparing fish? Chopping garlic? Rid your hands of the fish or garlic oils by rubbing them with wet green tea leaves, an instant deodorizer. The leaves are also great for deodorizing and cleaning the pan in which you cook fish or garlic. As well, rub wet tea leaves on cutting boards to remove odors there.

Note: Wet tea leaves can stain, so if you are using wet tea leaves on or near a stainable surface be sure to test in an inconspicuous place first.