Shimoda Mall

Katie and I had a girls' day out on Saturday. We went shopping and had lunch with another mom and two of her daughters. It has been too long since our last girls' day, that's for sure.

We found some cute summer tops for Meghan at a second-hand store, inexplicably named (in English) Don Don Down on Wednesday.

We moved next door to the air-conditioned, TJ Maxx-like-store that must be part of the Avail group, since they accept Avail gift cards.

Katie found some open-toe, scary-high-heeled clogs.

We laughed at the giant pink stones on this pair of high-heeled flip-flops.

These boots are cute. Too bad Meghan doesn't need any.


By the time we finished--Katie scored two pairs of soccer shorts and a cute summer sweater--we were hungry! So we headed to the mall.

But not so hungry that we couldn't stop to try on flowing, tiered, cotton skirts on our way to the food court. Three lovely skirts were purchased.

And then it was lunch time. Cute ceiling in the food court.


My favorite lunch shop is:

You choose your meal and pay at a ticket machine. Then, take your ticket to the counter. You can order a drink there. I chose iced tea, and got it free with a coupon from my last visit. Notice the little foil-lidded cups of cream and sugar syrup that came with my tea.


In a few minutes, the food arrives on a hot cast iron plate. You carry it to your table and wait for it to finish cooking and cool off. This would never work in the States. Someone would burn their fingers and sue the company. Thankfully, I can enjoy this delicious curry beef in Japan. Yummy!

Katie's friend had a hankering for a taste of home.


Katie chose the katsu curry. A fried pork cutlet smothered with curry sauce and vegetables over rice. Also very yummy!


After lunch, we shopped in the mall. I wish I had taken some pictures in the stationery store. Japanese stationery stores are awesome!

Aeon department store is ready to help you with all of your rainy-season needs.



I accidentally failed to get photos of Baskin Robbins, where the girls stopped for a snack before we went home. The line snaked all around the shop. But service was efficient, and the girls were out before their moms got back to meet them.

Perhaps not so accidentally, I also failed to photograph Mr. Donut, the establishment into which the moms stopped while waiting for their daughters. The donuts were for Sunday's brunch. Really. They were. ;-)

Citizenship in the nation

Monday night at Bible study, we were discussing St. Paul's actions while in Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts 22, specifically, his use of his Roman citizenship to obtain a fair trial. One of the discussion questions asked whether it was moral to take advantage of citizenship in this way. Another asked whether we use those prerogatives of citizenship in our own lives.

A coincidence, then, or perhaps a God-incidence, that this week I should be presented with two opportunities to do just that.

First came a request from the Susan B. Anthony List to send an email to my U.S. Representative asking him to defend the unborn by signing the Akin-Taylor letter to leadership requesting removal of the clause in the Defense Bill that would expand abortion to military hospitals. That one was easy. They provided a pre-written note to use.

Also this week, the Senate is scheduled to consider the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. The Home School Legal Defense Association sent an email asking members to write to their U.S. Senators with concerns about Kagan's possible intention to make the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child into legal precedent by referencing its tenets within a Supreme Court decision.

That would be a bad thing because, well, HSLDA has a paper that explains it better than I can.

Here's what I wrote (using some phrases from HSLDA's note to members to help me):

Dear Senator (Murray/Cantwell):

As a lawyer, a citizen of Washington State, and a homeschooling mother stationed on a U.S. military base overseas, I have serious concerns about Elena Kagan's philosophy on the use of international law in United States legal decision-making. While she was dean at Harvard Law School, Kagan instituted a requirement that first year students take a course in international law. With the world as connected as it is in the current system of things, this seems an admirable idea. Until one realizes that the new requirement meant that U.S. Constitutional law became an elective course.

This gives me great concern that Kagan believes lawyers and judges should look to international law and the laws and precedents of other countries as the lens to use in examining our own Constitution and founding legal documents. This philosophy will come in direct conflict with a Supreme Court justice’s role. Judges should not look to international law and the decisions of foreign nations in order to interpret the U.S. Constitution and apply it to disputes today.

With the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child already signed by the United States, it would be perilous to parental rights to have a justice on the court who values foreign treaties above the U.S. Constitution. This is an issue that affects every parent in the State of Washington and the country as a whole. We need a clear statement of Elena Kagan's position on this issue in order to understand how she would make decisions as a member of the Supreme Court.

Senator Murray/Cantwell, will you please question Elena Kagan during her confirmation hearings about the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and what role she believes international law should play in Supreme Court decisions?

Thank you.

Very truly yours,
Judith Riordon
Yakima
and Misawa Air Base, Japan

Lunar eclipse

Here's what Saturday's lunar eclipse looked like from our back porch in Misawa (well, technically, Oirase-town).

June 26, 2010, 8:00 p.m.

8:25 p.m.
Sorry, this one is a little dark. The eclipse was about at its zenith here.

8:35 p.m.
This one is brighter, but the glare makes the Earth's shadow look like it covers less of the moon than it really did.

For a really cool photo, go to Fr. Z's blog and take a look at an amazing series of photos from Australia that Fr. found on Spaceweather.

How does your garden grow?

Vegetable garden--June 19, 2010

Katie, Joseph, and Matthew have been building a lasagna layer garden since last fall. At the end of May, we passed the last frost date for Misawa, but the weather still wasn't very inviting, so it took a couple of weeks to finish preparing the garden soil.

Matthew enhanced the border with his extensive collection of butter clam shells (scroll down the linked page for info). He also planted a small fiber square of flower seeds that came in our book, The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle. No leaves yet, but he is watering and weeding faithfully. The rest of us are hoping, for his sake, that they sprout soon.



The children set out their yellow and red cherry tomatoes (with marigolds interspersed to discourage pests), corn, and strawberries on June 18th. Joseph had planted pumpkin seeds and peas last fall. The rains and warm sunshine of the past week have really gotten things growing.

Vegetable garden - June 27, 2010

The tomatoes already need to be staked, and the pumpkin has almost filled its quadrant of the garden.



The peas didn't come up at all: a disappointment.



We loved the sweetness of the peas Joseph planted in our flower garden last year and were looking forward to eating them again later in the summer. But it was an experiment--to see if last year's seeds would germinate.

As Joseph, the gardening optimist, says, "We can just plant those bean seeds you bought for my science experiment in that spot instead."

Their other planned experiment is to plant Japanese cucumber seeds even later (not until July 3) in the hopes of having them ripen after we return to Misawa in late August. And hopefully ripening before the first frost in late September. :)

Some things about Meghan

1. Meghan, talking on her cell phone (Tommy's old one minus the battery), "Hi, Joshie, how's it doin'? pause "That's great. It's Meghan and Mommy and Matthew in the kitchen." pause "Silver bells and cockle shells and warm and toasties warm..." repeat, repeat, repeat.... so funny.

2. Katie and I went shopping today. Katie came home with a swirly pink skirt. I came home with some new summer clothes for the girl who is too tall for a lot of her big sister's hand-me-downs. She exclaimed over each item, "Look, a dress, so cute!" "Oh, shirt, cute!" "Look, Daddy, cute!"


3. I tried one of the play dresses on her, along with her new straw hat. She did the "I Have a New Dress" dance.

We weeded the flower beds,

and I finally planted flowers in the pots on the front porch. So now I will give you a tour.

impatiens and a tenacious chrysanthemum that has come back for the third year

blue iris and a pot of annuals

When we moved in with our large family, there was a vacant, weedy lot next door. Our landlord very kindly expanded the back yard for us. They also made a gravel parking area that we call the driveway, and, at my request, left a strip of earth for a garden along the fence. Everything growing in the driveway garden has been planted in the past 3 years.

the driveway garden

The blue iris was really overgrown in the front garden last fall, and the driveway garden was (is still) too bare, so we moved three clumps of iris to the driveway garden. This is one; it is blooming even better in this sunnier spot.

another clump of iris that we moved and some columbine trying to recover from its battle with the weeds

the third clump of iris that we moved,
a tree that we moved from the back flower bed because it was blocking the kitchen door,
and some annuals

yellow iris by the driveway gate--this and the tiger lilies were planted by previous tenants

I'm embarrassed to show you this overgrown mix of wisteria and tiger lily volunteers from the gate area. Does anyone know how to take care of wisteria properly? It is one of my favorite shrubs, but I don't have any experience in caring for it. It looked very nice when we moved in and for the next two summers, but this year, it is an overgrown mess. I tucked a potted impatien in there to try to make it look more civilized.

Update: I found this site http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1246.html that is very helpful. I think I'm going to need John's help on this one.

nasturtiums under the camellia tree, which is looking a little bedraggled after its first winter without the shelter of the woods.

And finally, a newly-planted ornamental cherry tree. (Thanks to my dear husband.) I have wanted one since we moved in and only last week found the right garden center to buy one. I am hoping against hope for a few blossoms next year, since it will be our last spring in Misawa.

All in all, and except for the wisteria, we will be leaving the yard in better shape than we found it (my yearly excuse for gardening--an activity that I cannot resist, even on rental property). It must be that famed Irish love for the land. :)

Fort rehabilitation

Better weather means more time outdoors. Which brought the sad state of the backyard fort to the children's attention.

Katie and John went to one of the local home improvement stores, Sundays, to look for a solution.


When in Japan, use Japanese materials :)

They found new stakes and some screens


to replace the spider-webby, dry and scratchy, pine branches that had formerly sheltered the fort.

These marsh-reed screens are called yoshizu.




Traditionally, yoshizu are used to shade windows and open doors from the harsh summer sun.

.


They are still used outside homes, traditional soba (noodle) restaurants, and even dessert shops in summertime.



They should help keep the fort shady and cool.




Finished! Just as it started to rain...

The dried pine branches that used to cover the fort are now in a wood pile behind the house. There is hope of making a bonfire during the July 4th weekend. If the good weather holds.