Hello 2021!

So far 2021 has been pretty good!  Covid is still raging across the country, but our local cases are low and fairly contained.  Our restrictions haven't decreased, but haven't increased either.  So that leaves us in a strange grey area of still being able to do some things, but limits our adventures due to all the red zones.

January finds us healthy and happy.  While we didn't get up to witness the Hastuhinode (first sunrise of the new year) we did do it last year, and look how that turned out. We still managed to eke out a good year despite Covid shutting everything down ... but it's been interesting.  

There are tons of cool New Year's traditions here.  The kids bought me a small set of Japanese Zodiac figurines and some Daruma doll plants.  We added a few New Year rice cakes (called kagami-mochi) just to round it all out.  Hopefully we did everything correctly and will continue to have good health and prosperity for 2021!

School started back (in person fortunately) and the kids all hit the ground running.  First up for Lilly was the Harvard Model Congress Asia.  As best I can tell, high school students from around the globe come together in this program to learn and experience government while playing the roles of various US government and International Political officials.  They had debates on current global issues, drafted policy, decided court cases and reported news stories all while under the guidance of Harvard University students.  The event was over the weekend and operating on East Coast Standard time so Lilly was at the school early on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.  She also had to go back for the closing ceremonies which occurred at 11pm for us here on Sunday night.  She really loved it, and luckily the school excused her from an early morning on Monday!  

Ready to take on the world's problems!

I mentioned Daruma dolls earlier but didn't explain what they were.  Let me do that here.  These dolls are modeled after Bodhidharma (a 5th or 6th century monk who is credited with founding Zen Buddhism). Without doing a deep dive into why the dolls look they way they do, suffice it to say to say their eyebrows represent cranes, their beards pay homage to turtles.  Their bodies are impossible to tip over which symbolizes perseverance.  They come in a myriad of colors which of course all stand for different things.  Gold is linked to money/fame, black to ward off bad luck, green for health and fitness, white for purity, orange for school success, blue for education or work status, purple for self improvement, pink for love and silver for social status.  By far the most common color is red which is more of a catch-all category of good luck and fortune.  The most telling feature of the dolls is the eyes, or rather lack of them.  Daruma dolls are also called wishing dolls.  When you buy a doll you will notice they don't have pupils.  Once you decide what your wish is, you color in one of the pupils and once you achieve your goal or wish you color in the other.  So it is like a physical reminder of your wish/goal/resolution.   January is the time traditionally of getting a Daruma doll which ties in nicely with our tradition of having New Years Resolutions.  Again, this is just a tiny tidbit of what Daruma dolls signify but should be enough for you to understand their importance.  Which leads me back to why I am even mentioning all this in the first place - we found out a nearby town was selling Daruma dolls at their shrine even though the annual festival had been cancelled due to Covid.  So Jim came home for his lunch break and we ventured off in search of a Daruma doll.

Google Maps led us to the actual Temple but that wasn't where they were selling the dolls so we had to backtrack.  

This picture doesn't really show you just how many dolls there were.  But it gives you an idea of the various sizes and colors.  Also each doll is handmade and hand painted so they are all unique.  We of course had to deal with the language barrier but finally found a man that spoke a little English and we were able to finalize the transaction with a lot of hand gestures.  I have been using Duolingo and Mango to learn some Japanese but nothing remotely helpful, much to Jim's chagrin.  As with most foreign language guides, I am learning how to count and ask how to order a drink not haggle over Daruma doll prices at a shrine.  Sorry Jim.

We finally decided on the big fella

We also bought dolls for the kids as well.  Here we are trying to come up with our goals for the year and painting on the one eye!

Apparently Jim is considered to be essential so he gets a Covid vaccine.  Sadly, the rest of us are still waiting for our turn.  Sigh.  

For the long weekend of MLK we decided to go skiing again!  I have a feeling that we will be spending every long weekend somewhere in the Nagano Prefecture until the snow all melts which I think it sometime in MAY!  This time we went to Shiga Kogen Mountain Resort.  Shiga Kogen hosted the women's downhill, slalom, super G and snowboarding events at the 1998 Winter Olympics.  It is a large ski resort and boasts the highest elevation of any ski resort in Japan.  

The first day of skiing was bitterly cold with huge flakes of snow falling on us pretty much all day.  While it was possible to ski from one resort to another without having to get on shuttles, we did have to traverse a lot of flats, no fun in the arctic conditions.  The area we skied that day was adjacent to Jigokutani Monkey Park but we didn't realize just how close we were to the monkeys until we were skiing down this slope and stopped because there were monkeys in the trees adjacent to the slope!  Since we had gone to the monkey park over Thanksgiving we had considered going back before driving home, but now not so much.

Maybe I am biased, but I am quite surprised at how good the kids have gotten this year.  It might have something to do with the fact that we have historically only gotten to ski 2 days a year (if we are lucky) and already we have doubled that and it is only January! 

I know it seems that all we have been doing is skiing this winter, because that is pretty much all we have been doing.  The last weekend of the month Jim and Ben went on a day ski trip with the Boy Scouts.  I know what you are thinking, but this trip was a work trip.  Ben was able to get his Winter Sports Merit Badge completed!  One step closer to the next level.  But it sounded painful!  They had to catch the bus at 6:00am and drive 2.5 hours to Kawaba Ski Lodge.  There was so much snow that the bus had to stop and put on chains.  You don't see that everyday!

While the boys were living their best life on the slopes, the girls were busy doing, well not much of anything.  Don't judge - we needed a break.  Well not all of us were being lazy.  Lucy decided to put some of her cake making/decorating skills to the test and created this adorable frog mini cake.  It was DELICIOUS!

I am going to leave you with this visual.  Almost every day I have to fight with Yoshi to make the bed.  He enjoys thwarting me at every turn.  Look at that face - soo angry.