Kakuozan Nittaiji Kobasan (Temple Market)

Today we ventured out in the surprisingly brisk March cold to the monthly temple market at Kakuozan here in Nagoya.




We were hoping it was more like a junky flea market but instead we found lots of fresh food and flowers and gardening plants and tools. Lovely to look at but not the weird cheap stuff Jason was after.
The story behind the temple is really interesting (read about it here) and the neighborhood is rather hip and full of enviable shops (wholegrain bread shop next to a Buddhist alter shop next to a chocolatier! next to a grave stone cutter next to a breakfast diner). One of the shops we visited was this fantastic European and natural toy shop called Yuubo. Such a sweet place where the kids (minus Sebastian who was still at school) played happily for about 30 minutes.

And despite the freezing temperatures and gale winds, Spring is coming. The cherry trees guarantee it...

Whoop, whoop

Just in case life wasn't already interesting with the normal aspects of raising four sub-10 year-old kids in a two bedroom apartment, we received some bonus challenges. You heard about the chicken pox but I haven't told you the other illness that took hold of my littles during these last months. They have been coughing their way through the whooping cough (though their doctors disagree ((yes, doctors)) and say it is just a cough). It is frustrating because it is one of the vaccines we were firm on and yet here we are, two months into the 100 day cough, still patting backs and steaming up the shower room in the middle of the night. Sebastian is back to normal now and the others are getting closer themselves. I thought we had a set back with Colette and Luca this week but it turns out that they are both teething. Colette has some mean molars coming in and Luca's bottom front teeth are starting to push through his gums. So I guess being sick won't put him off-track developmentally (such thoughts do surface in a sleep-deprived mother's head).
Besides for being a chunky, drooling monkey, this kid can flip himself onto his belly in two seconds flat.




I almost didn't share the fact of their whooping cough here because I felt a certain sense of shame for having sick kids. Then I realized that shame was something pushed onto me by a society that believes in the power of modern medicine to a fault. It is frustrating because here we are, with vaccinated kids (well, mostly vaccinated- see chickenpox 2012) and when we take our kids to the Western trained doctors, it turns out there is nothing they can do. Even antibiotics don't really work for this cough. All around the world, there are now large-scale outbreaks of whooping cough, affecting both the vaccinated and unvaccinated since it is a new strain that is vaccine-resistant. This is hardly news but what bothers me is that it is blamed on unvaccinated families and left at that. Why not try to work on treatment for the illness since the vaccine is becoming ineffective? The problem here is essentially phlegm. There has to be some way of dissolving or thinning the mucous so that the coughing fits aren't so violent.
My kids have been relatively lucky. They only get the coughing fits and for the most part are healthy as usual. If you Google whooping cough, you will be scared out of your wits and probably with due justification. We are also lucky since the kids have full medical care coverage and all pediatricians here operate on a walk-in basis. We never hesitate to take our kids in to the doctor.
So my wish for other families, having survived this illness, is that medical researchers find something more effective than just a stop-gap vaccine. The less people have to suffer the 100 day cough, the better. I also hope for American families that all of the states (such as my home state of Florida) stop trying to block the Affordable Care Act. With so many supposedly irradiated illnesses on the rebound, parents should never have to hesitate because of cash when it comes to seeking medical help.

P.S. For anyone suffering the 100 day cough, we found that lotus root tea helped to disperse the phlegm. Ginger tea works well too.  Lots of love, patience, and steamy air will help those days go by easier, if not cut 100 days in half. Best of luck to you.

Shopping as we do...

We went for some supply shopping (running out of cleaning supplies) and arcade game playing. The mall is not too far from us so as much as I am not a fan of triple decker shopping complexes, in the winter an enclosed area that meets all of our random needs is quite nice.

The mall wasn't so crowded, as most people were probably at home cleaning and preparing for the New Year. The only place that was booming, really, was the supermarket. Traditionally Japanese people like to make special bentos called osechi filled with all sorts of auspicious delights that will make them healthy, wealthy, and wise for the coming year. Everything is made ahead of time to allow for the cooks of the household to have a reprieve from their duties.
We have discovered that in the city people are more likely just to order their osechis instead of slaving over the stove for days before the holidays. Some people just make a few of the dishes that they like, particularly the black soybeans and mochi. We don't really make anything besides for the ozoni, a soup that everyone eats on the first morning of the New Year. It is supposed to warm you up when you return from the midnight visits to the shrines and temples.

There was another side to the crowded supermarket, less festive but practical. The shops will be closed for the holiday, the only days when they close for the whole year. This is something that we have learned the hard way requires attention. In super convenient Japan, you become really soft as a shopper since if you forget something then you can always go to one of the hundreds of convenient 24 supermarkets and convenience stores in your neighborhood. Thinking ahead for your next three days' meals and other necessities can strain your creativity if you are such a soft shopper, as we are.

This brings us to another resolution. We are going to give up our soft, city ways and adopt a more traditional method of planning our (healthier) meals. Recently I discovered a Saturday morning organic market on my way to work and last week I took Jason and the gang to see it. He was, as I expected, impressed. All sorts of lovely vegetables and foodstuffs that you cannot find in the stores, right there being sold by regional farmers for the benefit of us urban-dwellers. We had tried to order a veggie box from a local organic supplier for a bit but since it is a bit of a gamble we often wasted a lot of the contents (particularly if it was a good week for something like onions). I also like the idea of taking the kids down to see the loveliness in person and run around with the farmers' kids and other young customers. And since it is only two train stops away, I think it will blend into our weekly routine quite nicely.

2012 is all about living the life we want and I think including this reformed habit will make the coming year and all those that follow full of health, a little more wealth, and hopefully a bit more wisdom.