International friendship day!

It's TOMO NO HI today in Dai-ni Shimada Elementary School. It's a friendship day with foreigners. The school has been doing this event every year and the Phil NAKAMA group were among those yearly invited foreigner guest. This year... for the 4th times, Liza and I represented the Phil NAKAMA group.

This cute Grade 1 kid escorted me at the gymnasium wherein we had the program introductions, greetings and stage performances for all.

Every year, some foreigners presents some stage performance on stage. As in last year, we performed Philippine tradional dance, the bamboo dance while this year, Indonesian students represents their traditional dance. Every year... the school presents this TAIKO performance of students. They're always great!

The students singing "Small World" in Japanese versionInteraction time! I held the Grade 5 students. We had some lectures about Philippine cultures, we enjoyed the questions and answer portions but most of all the kids enjoyed the games I introduced them like the relay with CADANG↓

Ready...get set... go!!!Here's the winner group... ↓ I gave them some chippy snacks as their winning prize!In fairness... I also gave the loser group some chippy...

I also introduced to them the Jack's Stone game We did had fun for one hour but unfortunately, we were not able to continue our other activities due to lack of time. The last part of our program was lunch time!

Here's our lunch menu for today!

Some souvenir pose with the kids while having lunch! The girl in white besides me is also a daughter of a Filipina. She just came to Japan with her younger sister last April... so they still adjusting to their schooling and the culture of Japan... GANBATTE! ... and here's the younger sis↓The friendly foreigners who joined the event

Incharge teachers of the eventLiz & I with Shimada sensei I did had a great time! Looking forward to joining this event again next year...

ねぇ...リサ！

Meron lang pala akong gustong i-share na touching words from a Filipina kid I happened to talk to. Sabi n'ya... She really pity her mom kasi she works very hard for the sake daw ng family nila sa Pinas. Minsan nga dahil yata sa stress sa walang patid na pagtulong sa Pinas... napapaiyak na lang c mom n'ya kasi para daw wala ng katapusan ang pagsustento doon ng mom n'ya. Lahat daw puro asa na lang sa mom n'ya. Then the kid ask me... tita, bakit umaasa lang sila sa mom ko... BAKIT DI SILA MAGTRABAHO?!

What a question!? ... paano nga ba cnasagot ang tanong na 'yon... but infairness, I told the kid na meron namang taong gustong magwork talaga... ang problem sa Pinas is that walang trabaho talaga. Kung meron man... kulang pa ang suweldo sa sarili nila!

Come to think of it... oo nga naman... bata pa ang nagtatanong... para sa ating mga nakakatanda... lalo na doon sa mga tatamad-tamad... hindi nga ba kaya nakakahiya na mismong bata... napapansin ang katamaran ninyo! Paano nga naman natin tuturuan ang batang sumunod sa mga matatanda kung ang matatanda mismo ang nagpapakita ng bad sample! Paano pa sila maniniwala sa mga nakakatanda!?

Tsaka isipin din sana ng family sa Pinas na hindi biro ang magwork sa ibang bansa para lang isustento sa Pinas lalo na kung may sariling family na ang nagsusustento sa kanila. Sana yung mga nasusustentuhan sa Pinas... please kindly think in return ang condition ng mga anak o kapatid ninyo na walang patid na hinihingan ninyo ng sustento... please lang... dahil may mga kids katulad ng nakausap ko na nagkukulang tuloy ang oras ng ina na maalagaan sila dahil kailangan nilang mag-work para may maisustento d'yan sa inyo sa Pinas.

OBON 2008

OBON is an annual buddist celebration for the return of the spirits of the departed families here in Japan. They usually held this tradition on the mid of July but some regions celebrate it on the mid of August.

In our house, we usually celebrate this tradition on the 2nd week of July. We offered variety of fruits and foods in front of the butsudan or the buddist family altar. We decorated it with flowers and lanterns. The buddist drop by at home last Friday for the prayer offering.

We visited the grave of giigii, my late father-in law last Saturday.

I was too busy with my activities lately so I missed to join my hubs on the mukaebi or okuribi for giigii and lucky (?)this year. Mukaebi are lits at the entrance of the houses to guide the spirits of the departed families while okuribi is to guide back home the departed spirits.

Our OBON at home lasted today.

Maritess Summer Live!

Yesterday, we had a successful event held in Garden Cafe, Life Time... the "Maritess Summer Live" . This event were produced by the Philippine NAKAMA and Maritess Summer Live committee. We are so thankful to all who patronized, supported and cooperated this event.

Actually, about 3 weeks ago before the event... our tickets were all sold out!

The live performances were so amasing... the band were so amusing and great!

The season was hot... but the live performances were cool!

My EIKAIWA class watched the show↓

The Phil NAKAMA officers as receptionists Souvenir pose with Master Kubota and Tencho of Life TimePeace! Uncle Jo did his debut! The amasing band!

Maritess, our very own jazz vocalist↓Some words from Philippine NAKAMA as one of the producer of the live event. I represented the group to do the talking... wooow... that was filled with tension! I kept on talking not knowing that I am running out of time already! Anyway... again... thanks to all your support!Maritess singing her original song... Easy to Remember!Dancing with the rhythm!
Uncle Jo's special number duet with Maritess! 'loved their "Cuando, cuando"!

"You've got a friend" ... the finale!

Our NAKAMA friendsMy boss with her wifeOur family!Ryuta Sakamoto's Kool maD Groove CD is cool!Part of the live's earnings was donated to the fund and scholarship program of Phil NAKAMA.

After the event... we all had the job well done party but unfortunately, Maritess with the band group and the Phil NAKAMA group gathered on separate omise. They had their reservation in Izakaya while we had ours in Tambayan Restaurant. Thanks to Leah and Dina for providing us an eat all you can dinner!

After our dinner... part of the group joined Lilibeth, Marivel, May and others to disco in Etti.

To my curiosity, I joined the group because it was my first time to Etti.

The dancing floor is big compared to Flyte Tyme. There was a Latin affair that night, so all the dances were in Latin way... arrrrrrriva rrrrriva aaaaaandare!

Latin affair showcase in Etti Disco

pooped out!wrecked!Dance... dance... dance to swept your stresses! Hilarious dance from Sarah and Oayagi san!That was a night... I really had a good time!

Shimizu Tanabata Matsuri

Summer is here! It's time to celebrate some summer fest like the annual Tanabata Matsuri which is also known as Japanese Star Festival. It was originated more than 2,000 years ago with an old Chinese tale called Kikkoden.

The legend is a love story of two stars, named Orihime, a weaver princess and a cow herder prince named Hikoboshi living in space.
They fell in love and neglected their works. The emperor got angry at them and separated them on opposite sides of the Amanogawa River... the Milky Way. The emperor allowed them to reunite only once a year on July 7th.

This is why Tanabata is also called the Star Festival and being celebrated every July 7th (Some regions celebrate every August 7th). People says that Orihime and Hikoboshi can't meet each other if July 7th is rainy, so they pray for good weather and also make wishes for themselves.

Tanabata festival are held all over Japan. Here in Shizuoka, the Shimizu Tanabata Matsuri is a well known fest. This year it was held last July 4~7.

Last Saturday afternoon, I went there with Amie and Liza by train. The festival was covered with large, attractive, colorful streamers, lanterns, puppets, fairy tale characters and many more. Some of the huge and colorful streamersThe Dog of Flanders' lanternColorful animals' lanternStich and Lilo characterFor the coming Olympic in China... NIPPON GANBARE!Chibi Maruko chan... the original of Shimizu! Doll images of some recent popular comedians in Japan

Some Disney characters

Tropical sceneOutdoor stalls, games, stage shows add atmosphere to the festival.

Below is a toy stall↓Food stall　↓

Part of the celebration is by writing wishes to a small colored papers known as TANSAKU and hang it on bamboo with some other decorations in the hope that wishes become true.

Below is our wishes! ↓

Gorgeous Tanabata decorations

Tanabata streamers

Paper crane for health, safety and long life.

Snoopy character

We had fun walking through the long streamers and enjoyed the beautiful decorations. 　I don't know how many kilometers we walked from Shimizu Station up to the end of Ginza shopping mall. We end up when we felt that our feet hurts already so we decided to go back to Shizuoka. Upon reaching Parche... we all had some rest and snacks in Jourdan! What a day!

Sri Lancan Curry

All I know about curry is that it is a kind of dish with some spices and it's root was from India.

Well... talking about curry, I was invited today at SAME office to join their lunch session regarding curry tasting experiment. It was Sadjit curry, an origin from Sri Lancan.

As I entered the office, I felt I was in India. The delicious smell of curry spices was all around the office! There are many kind of curry sauce prepared on the tables with some other dishes like chicken, meat, shrimps and even omelletes. All the invited friends were asked to mix curry sauce in 2 to 3 other dishes. Then figure out what's the best curry mix for us.

As for me... I like the mixture of squash sauce curry and the spicy shrimps or spicy pork. Good combination of sweet and spicy! Taste familiar with Philippines "Ginataang Kalabasa sa Hipon"!

All the curry dishes are best mixed with mizuna or the potherb mustard with coconuts. It is also advisable to eat curry dish with Thai rice!

I have tasted enough... from sweets to hot curry and that was satisfying!

Sadjit is actually operating a curry restaurant, named Sahiru 17 thru his moving mini bus. If you want to taste Sadjit's Sri Lancan curry... try to catch him especially on every first Saturday of the month along Kanebo doori or from Shizuoka JR Station up to Minami Kansen.
GOCHISOSAMA DESHITA Sadjit!