New Friends

I took picture of the play group today! Luke asks me every morning "Are we going to play group today? I want to go play group"--I'm glad that Luke enjoys going there.

When I took him to this group the first time, he got pushed by a boy, and Luke was uncomfortable with Japanese kids and cried a few times that day... he told me "I don't want to go there again. Because a boy poked my eyes!!"

But now, Luke starts making friends at the play group. He played with 'otedama' (small bean bags) with girls today.

And sometimes he rides riding toys with other boys, but he has a little difficult time to following those boys... because they ride so fast and very well -- but I feel in a few more weeks, Luke will be able to follow them easily (^V^)

While Luke is playing with friends, Ian also hangs out with other babies.
And we met a baby girl 'Hinano-chan' at the play group. Ian and Hinano-chan have the same birthday (January 18, 2011).
Here is Ian and Hinano-chan together...
They are so cute!

Sofia, Bulgaria

I spent the last couple of days in Sofia with my friend Ilian. We knew each other from the International University of Japan (IUJ) where he was an MBA student when I worked there in the IT department. Ilian would come visit my office to learn more about web design and programming, and he would often go to the beach with Yukari and our other friends in the summers. Later, both Ilian and I worked for companies in Tokyo, and would get together from time to time. He moved back to Bulgaria a few years ago and I knew that having the university sponsored trip to Poland this summer, I was as close to visiting Bulgaria as I ever could really hope for -- so I flew in from Warsaw for a few days to visit and see a bit of the city and surroundings.

It seems that on Sundays in the springtime in Sofia everyone spends the day in one of the many parks in town. We walked though about a half-a-dozen parks in town and all were filled with families enjoying outdoor music, cafés, rollerblading, cycling, or just sitting and enjoying a day off. I really enjoyed the feeling of being in Sofia, and I really liked the fact that people here spend time together outdoors on holidays, not inside watching TV or playing video games.

Later I stayed at Ilian's condo, and was really impressed with what he's done with the place! Balconies all around and lots of windows. Also, he is neighbors with the "snail house" -- a famous landmark... The house is shaped like a snail, with a ladybug on top. Sorry, I didn't capture a front shot of the house below -- but this is what it looks like from Ilian's balcony (here's a link to a photo that shows the front).

Koprivstica, Bulgaria

I arrived in Bulgaria yesterday afternoon and met with my old friend Ilian. As Saturday is a work day here, he was busy today and instead asked a friend if I could join them on a trip out of town. Ilian's friend is Simeon and his wife Etsuko, who own a Bulgarian restaurant in Tokyo and were back in Bulgaria for a few weeks this spring.

We hit the road at 8 AM to visit a town a couple hours outside of Sofia called Koprivstica. It is a beautiful trip, into the hills outside the capital to the village known for its cobblestone streets and colorful buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. It was perfect weather and I really enjoyed being out a city for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Warsaw and the Frederick Chopin Museum

Mateusz was gracious enough to offer to take me to Warsaw and show me around a bit on my last full day in Poland. We took a train from the Poznań station in the morning of May 26 and arrived in Warsaw around noon. Our first stop was the Frederick Chopin Museum, as I have come to enjoy classical music more and more over the past few years. As the guidebook explains, the museum covers "the history and works of Poland's most famous son, Frederick Chopin, including original manuscripts and documents written by the composer", as well as plenty of photographs and letters. It is also designed to be in interactive museum, though I'm not sure anyone knows what that means... Some of the exhibits were interesting, but overall there is a lack of context and linear progression.There was also a room for children to play games related to composing and listening to the works of Chopin.

While in the Frederick Chopin Museum we saw a group of VIPs walking through. At first, based on their dress, I thought it might be a group from Mongolia. Then I asked one of the guides at the museum, who said "Bhutan" -- and I believe it was the Princess of Bhutan and her entourage.

After the museum, we took a walk through Warsaw, passing the Presidental Palace and to the Royal Castle and Castle Square. The day after my visit, President Obama was to arrive in Warsaw, which would have shut down many of the tourist sites on this street. I picked a good day to be in the city!

Last day in Poznań

I arrived in Poland last week and have had a wonderful time. We traveled to Lublin for a couple of days last Thursday and Friday, and this week attended a small conference with professors across Poland here in Poznań. The conference was held in a former palace in a village outside of town, and there was a delicious buffet dinner and concert by the accordian playing brothers -- who coicidenlty played at the conference we helped organize here last October. This trip I have been staying in a small hotel located in the Polish Academy of Science building, which is right downtown and nearly next door to the Poznań Opera House -- with a photo of the Science Academy and the Opera House seen here:

Today was my last full day in Poznań, so after meeting with Mateusz about research possiblities, he offered to show me around town to some of the more famous landmarks. I was here with a group of professors and teachers last fall, but we were so busy visiting schools and putting on a conferece, we had no extra time for sightseeing. So it had been my plan to fit that into this trip, and today was perfect weather for walking around town.

First we had lunch in a typical "old style" of restaurant, which Mateusz mentioned were typical during the time of communism -- a simple "Mom and Pop" shop. We had a borscht style of soup, made of beets and pickles, and a dish called "piznin", which is soft bread covered with a sausage gravy. A very filling lunch!

Next we visited the Museum of Art and enjoyed an exhibit on posters, including some from Poland after the war.

Then it was off to the old square, the heart of the city. There are many café that line the square here, like in Lublin.

Lastly, we finished at Adam Mickiewicz University, which is also in the center of the city and not far from the Opera House. I remember that we began our trip here at the university last October, so it is fitting that I ended my tour of Poznań at this landmark this time, next to the statue of Adam Mickiewicz himself. Tomorrow, Mateusz is joining me to visit Warsaw for the day, and then I will be leaving Poland on Friday.

Jusco Shopping center

Today I left Ian with my Mom, while Luke and I went to the local shopping center (called Jusco) with my aunt. This shopping center has a big game center and fun play areas for small children on the 2nd floor.

We had lunch first...

And Luke went to play!
And then, after he finished playing, we picked up some groceries and went to home.
It was a nice place to hang out on this rainy day!

Play Group

There is an under 3 year-old play group Monday through Saturday in our city, so I'm taking Luke and Ian to the play group two to three days a week. It is a very nice group, there are always two kindergarten teachers supervising the group and they enjoy dancing and singing with children before lunch time. It runs from 9:30 am to 3:30pm, and you come and go as you like. If you bring lunch, you can stay all day long! (I carry my camera every time, but I always forget to take pictures... next time I will put some pictures of this play group!)

Luke was very shy at the beginning, but lately he is enjoying playing with the teachers and has started showing some interest of other children. I'm hoping he will learn some Japanese from other children and make new friends (^-^)

Also, it is nice that this play group is next to the park.
And you can enjoy walking around the pond and see koi (carp) and ducks.
We usually stop by this park after the play group, and Luke enjoys giving bread to the koi.
Well...he enjoys feeding koi, but half of the bread he eats himself. Maybe because we leave the play group around 12:30pm, he is always hungry -- just like the koi!
We are thinking about having a picnic here when Dada comes back from Europe.

Journey to Lublin, Poland

I took a trip to Lublin, Poland over the past couple of days. Lublin is a city in the very eastern region of Poland, near the borders of Belarus and the Ukraine.

My friend and colleague, Stan Dylak, from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan had to attend a student's research defense at a university in Lublin on Friday, so he arranged for me to do a guest lecture that morning at the Maria Curie Sklodowska University. Stan's graduate student and a good friend, Mateusz, joined us for the trip, and was so helpful (as always) with arranging the travel and organizing the meetings. The train took 7 hours, leaving Poznan in the late afternoon on Thursday, and arriving at around 11 PM. After my lecture on Friday morning, Mateusz and I had a few hours to explore Lublin, including the Lublin Castle and Holy Trinity Chapel -- one of the few remaining well-preserved examples of Russian Byzantine art.

It is a beautiful city, with lively central square and interesting architecture. We ducked into a quiet cafe to escape the heat of the mid-day, which must have been approaching 90 degrees (30 C). There are many outdoor bistros lining the streets of central plaza, and the one where we choose for a late lunch featured local Lublin cuisine. Coicidently, our waitress turned out to be one of the students who attended my lecture earlier in the day! She kindly offered us a discount on the meal (though I doubt if my talk that day was worth much ;)

We were a bit late getting out of the restaurant, and literally had to run to catch our train out of town. Another long  7 hour train ride back to Poznan on Friday evening, but it allowed the three of us to enjoy long talks and to relax.

Mountain Vegetables

The late spring is the best season for mountain vegetables in Japan. You can find so many different kinds of vegetables after the snow has melted, and people can more easily hike into the more remote mountain areas to pick the wild vegetables.

This morning, my aunt and our neighbor went to pick a variety called 'zenmai', and they brought back a lot of them. This mountain vegetable, 'zenmai' has a few steps before we can eat it. You can't eat it fresh -- since it has to be dried in the sun first. Then you have to boil it before eating.

My aunt started drying 'zenmai' early this afternoon in front of our house on a woven mat. You can see this kind of view -- people rolling vegetables by hand out in the sun -- all over the place in our neighborhood this time of year.

Here are some pictures I took at my neighbor's house. You can see the steps how this vegetable is dried:

This is the first day. You have to boil it first (very quickly) before you start dry zenmai. Just like above, and you start rolling small bunches of zenmai with your hand -- it is very soft at this point.

You roll it every 30 minute or so, and in a few days it will be like this:
When it gets dry, you have to roll it hard.
Within about three days, zenmai will be like this:
It looks very dry, doesn't it! We keep this vegetable dry in a box, and eat it little by little until next spring -- it is a good food for winter time.
And when we eat, it has to be boiled again (quite long time) and then we often mix it with other vegetables.
It's very tasty (^o^)

While my aunt is working on  drying the zenmai, Luke and my Mom was working in the vegetable garden.

This year we are going to plant tomato, cucumber, eggplant, and okra. Luke is very interested to watch every step. He has to do the exact same thing that my mom is doing. Hopefully Luke can see those vegetable grow, and even eat some, before we go back to North Carolina in the late summer.

4 months

Ian is 4 months old today.
I thought it will be nice to put in some of the highlights of things that he is doing at this moment:

Ian has been working on rolling over for about a week now. He had a little difficulty for a few days, but he is such a hard working kid (just like his brother!), these past few days he is now easily rolling over. In fact, it is difficult to stop him rolling over now!

He found his own fingers, and he now enjoys sucking four fingers usually (^V^)
But yesterday he learned how to hold toys, so now he is enjoying playing with his fingers AND toys.
Also Ian's neck is getting strong. He can sit on a baby chair now and we think he is enjoying his new view!
I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

British food

I enjoyed a few good meals in England and Northern Ireland this past week. First of all, I found a nice restaurant in Ballymoney, NI and had a huge shepherd's pie. Of course, shepherd's pie already includes mashed potatoes on the top, but that doesn't stop the Irish from adding a side dish of more potatoes. I finished the meal with a couple of slices of fruit cake -- good, but not quite as delicious as my Mom's ;)

In Belfast, at the Old Rectory Bed and Breakfast where I stayed, I noticed this bowl of goose eggs in the lobby with a sign, "would you like to try a goose egg?" At the time, no, I wasn't game to try one. But after talking to the hosts, they offered to add one to my Ulster Breakfast the next morning. That breakfast also included black pudding, which I believe is blood sausage... And it is very nice!