That other Asian country

Those who are acquainted with me, or who occasionally take a look at this most humble of blogs, know that I'm very interested in most things Japonais. I lived and worked in the country for a number of years, and have frequently traveled throughout the archipelago. Though I'm married to a Taiwanese woman whom I met on the island of Formosa, have a child who can speak Mandarin Chinese and carries a Republic of China 中華民國 (Taiwan) passport, and am currently in Hell class torturing myself learning to read and speak 普通话/ 國語 in preparation for our supposed planned move to Shanghai 上海 this April, I've always felt more comfortable with Japan and the Japanese, be it language, culture or ways of thinking. So it was with nostalgic anticipation that I, along with Amber and Pamela, attended the Japanese New Year Celebration in Washington 2013 ワシントン新春祭り２０１３ this morning and afternoon at the Washington Plaza Hotel.

Thanks to Asami, a friend of my wife here in Falls Church (they met in a local English class), her husband Nori (who's working in Washington on assignment with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication  総務省) and their two young children Towa and Saya, I was able to reintroduce myself to Japan for a few hours today. It took a while to readjust thanks to the damage I've suffered all the things I've been learning in class at FSI - when first reading the Japanese signs, my brain was coming up with the Chinese readings of the characters - but it wasn't long before that old familiarity had returned. It was almost like being at a local festival in a Japanese neighborhood...if such matsuri were held in swank hotel lobbies, that is.

Amber prepares to dig into some takoyaki たこ焼き - the small balls of octopus covered in batter are a favorite of hers.

For some reason, this photo didn't focus very well, but it shows osechi お節料理, traditional Japanese New Year's foods.

There were demonstrations of rice-cake pounding 餅つき実演, in which my daughter enthusiastically participated.

There were also examples of traditional games. The people above are playing karuta かるた, a Japanese card game involving poems or proverbs.

Amber tried her hand at calligraphy, opting to write the character tori 鳥, meaning "bird". She finished off by writing her Chinese name, Lee Chih-hui.

Origami 折り紙

One game where my little one excelled at was the activity pictured here, super ball scooping スーパーボールすくい. The idea is to pick up as many balls as you can from the water before the paper scooper brakes apart. The game is most commonly played with goldfish as the target, where it's called kingyo-sukui 金魚すくい, and is popular with kids at Japanese festivals. It can also be seen at night markets in Taiwan, which is Amber honed her considerable scooping skills - she picked up eight super balls before the scooper broke on her third attempt.

A performance of drumming from the Ryūkyū Islands 琉球太鼓 was given by a local troupe called Chin Hamaya Daiko.

Former Transportation Secretary, Commerce Secretary, U.S. Representative and Mayor of San Jose, CA Norman Mineta spoke briefly at the event. Not many people get airports named after them while they're still alive.

A comical samurai sword fight 侍殺陣 was part of the entertainment

Amber seemed to enjoy the performances of traditional Japanese dance 日本舞踊 as done by a local dancing troupe, the Shizumi Kodomo Dancing Team 静美こども舞踊団.

A good time was had by all this afternoon, with a sincere どうもありがとうございます to Asami and her family for inviting us along today. Washington, D.C. has a surprisingly small Japanese community - there are no large Japanese supermarkets like Seattle's Uwajimaya, and the nearest Kinokuniya Bookstore is in New York City - so it's nice to be able to take part in activities like the New Year celebration. But as the folding screen painting in the background reminds, it's time to return to the Chinese world.

Enjoying the cold

After a long spell of unseasonably warm weather for this part of the country, winter finally arrived in the Washington, D.C. area last week. Temperatures have been cold, dipping into the low 20's/high teens Fahrenheit at nights, and in the low-to-high twenties (F) at times during daylight hours. And we've had snow on a couple of occasions - not enough to close the schools or shut down the government, but sufficient for some of the kids in the apartment complex to do some sledding down a short hill (as well as being cold enough to freeze over part of the swimming pool). With the forecast for Saturday calling for slightly warmer temperatures and sunlight, I decided today would be a good one for getting some fresh air and exercise. And to my daughter's surprise, her mother decided to join the two of us as we drove into Maryland to visit Piscataway National Park - Accokeek Foundation, located across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon.

The Potomac shoreline was covered in sheets of ice. The temperature as we entered the parking lot was 33°F (0.6°C). Things warmed up a little as we moved away from the river.

Mount Vernon, on the opposite side of the Potomac. Congress established the 5000-acre (2023 hectares) Piscataway National Park in order to preserve the view George Washington enjoyed from his estate (which we visited earlier this month). The Accokeek Foundation manages 200 of those acres (81 hectares) in conjunction with the National Park Service, and it was this section that we visited today.

It was cold this afternoon, especially by the river, but methinks my significant other is exaggerating the effects of the chill somewhat. Either that, or she's Taiwanese.

Amber stands over a fallen scarecrow at the Museum Garden, a small enclosure dedicated to raising colonial-era crops, though it didn't come as a surprise that there wasn't much to see there in late January. I pitied the poor chickens, who didn't look like they enjoying the weather much.

This building, located in front of the caretaker's residence, had a sign out front saying it was established in 1772.

The frozen Conservation Pond. The girls had a great time skipping rocks across the icy surface, and using sticks in an ultimately futile effort to break through the ice and let the trapped pockets of air beneath escape. For Pamela, this was the first time ever to see a frozen body of water (Amber encountered her first a few weeks ago).

Most of the snow that had fallen this week had already melted, leaving the trail a muddy mess in some places. Only a few patches remained.

We walked on several trails today, going from the Potomac through the woods, past open fields and up small hills.

Geese were wintering in many of the fields that we walked by. Their tracks could be seen on the ice covering the pond above.

A Milking Red Devon bull at the Colonial Farm (see below). They were once common in the American colonial period but, along with the three Ossabaw Island Hogs we saw today, are very rare these days.

The National Colonial Farm is a living-history museum that attempts to recreate a middle-class farm of the kind that existed around the time of the American Revolution. Outside of the winter months, guides in period clothing provide historical interpretations to visitors. The building in the middle photo is an 18th-century tobacco barn.

Posing by the frigid waters of the Potomac River once more as the loop we took brought us back to our starting point, the visitor center. 

We saw a large woodpecker at work in the frozen-over freshwater tideland area (it didn't stay still long enough for me to take its picture, unfortunately). In addition to the aforementioned (and photoed) geese, we spied a couple of bright red cardinals during our walk.

Where we stopped to pick up some dinner before heading home, and the real reason I suspect for my wife agreeing to walk four miles (6.4 kilometers) in close-to-freezing temperatures in the middle of winter.

Walking through the wilds of D.C.

We're in the middle of a pretty momentous weekend. Not only is Monday a national holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), it's also the day Barack Obama's second (public) inauguration ceremony will be held, with the traditional parade along Pennsylvania Avenue. This doesn't sit well with a certain reactionary relative of mine, who in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy has somehow deemed it appropriate to let the world know how small his penis is...er, I mean how much he loves assault weapons by way of endlessly posting anti-Obama/Second Amendment-misinterpreting diatribes on Facebook. Dinosaurs don't die out quickly or quietly, unfortunately (though they do seem to have an inordinate amount of free time on their hands). 

The biggest thing happening tomorrow, though, is my daughter's seventh birthday. The plan is to open some presents, have some playmates over for lunch and eat some cake. Which means we have a good excuse to stay home tomorrow, and not fight the crowds and extra security that would come with a trip into D.C. Instead, Amber and I took the Metro into the District on this unseasonably beautiful winter day this morning to do some walking through parts of Washington's surprisingly natural settings. We didn't always go the way we intended, but we had a good time walking around the wilds of Georgetown.

Amber does some sit ups along the Rock Creek Trail. Behind her is the Connecticut Avenue Bridge.

Rock Creek is a surprisingly clear stream running through an equally surprisingly woodsy part of an otherwise densely populated urban area.

The last time we walked through Rock Creek Park, we encountered a couple of deer. No such luck this time, though there were plenty of birds about.

Amber shields her eyes from the sun in Dumbarton Oaks Park. It was here that we...OK, I took a wrong turn and took us off course.

We ended up on Massachusetts Avenue, where it was a long walk uphill to Wisconsin Avenue, where we could get our bearings. At least we got to pass by the British Embassy, with its prominent statue of Sir Winston Churchill standing out front, with one leg supposedly on American soil and the other on embassy grounds.

The unplanned detour did provide us with the opportunity to stop for a deliciously greasy lunch at Z-Burger on Wisconsin Avenue.

Back on track and suitably fortified and rested, we soon found ourselves at Holy Rood Cemetery. A pleasantly ramshackle burial ground with great views and many overturned and broken gravestones, the presence of damaged and empty tombs didn't seem to faze my daughter much.

Amber descends the steps down to 37th Street, where Whitehaven Park and the Glover-Archbold Trail awaited us.

At one point the trail passed under an abandoned train track, all that remains of a trolley that one took local residents to an amusement park.

The Key Bridge, spanning the Potomac River and linking Georgetown in Washington, D.C. with Rosslyn in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A Georgetown hockey fan is obviously happy the NHL was able to salvage the remainder of its 2012-13 season.

The Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal passes through Georgetown. Amber and I walked along this very path back in early September last year.

There was much less water in the canal this time compared to four months ago. I don't know if this is usually the case in winter, or whether it has to do with drier conditions and warmer winters.

From Georgetown, the two of us started back along the Rock Creek Parkway, meaning to return to our starting point, the Woodley Park Zoo Metro Station. However, my little one's legs were starting to feel the effects from so much footwork. So when I recognized the Turkish Ambassador's Residence, and realized we weren't far from Dupont Circle, we went off course again, deliberately this time, to catch the subway back. Still, when taking our first detour into account, we probably exceeded the 6.9 miles (11.1 kilometers) the planned route was supposed to take. 

Giving the gift of exercise and fresh air to my daughter on her birthday - a good excuse not to buy her that scooter she's been asking for.