Giving you a little view of Japan without leaving your home!

Prayer letters, curious subjects, events, people, customs, and more for you to enjoy and learn.

Friday, January 16, 2009

After a blizzard at our house

Thought you might like a visual of a small storm aftermath at our house! Wish you could have joined in!

In front of our entryway door

Using a 'mama-san' dump
Load it up, then push it out!


Our neighbor next door running his 'daddy' dumpster! (just kidding on the name)
We are very thankful for our neighbor's help in keeping the front cleared. We just have to do the two entryways and under the car ports. He and one other neighbor keep the road clear.



Another view of what it looked like before the snow removal.
It has been worse! This was just an all day storm, not two or three!


Hour and half later!! Yea, all done!






a short video clip showing how Mr. Inafune takes away the snow we get out from around us and from across the street where we all pile the snow until he can take it away.
And why is it called a 'mama-san dump'?--
It’s called the mama-san dumpu, which translates into Mother’s Dump. Think of a very large curved snow scoop, with relatively high sides and back. A large U-shaped handle attaches to the sides at the back of the scoop, reaching up to about your waist, much like a lawn mower. You push the scoop on the ground until it’s full of snow, then tilt it back slightly and push it along the ground like a sled until you find a good place to dump it. Lift up handle to empty, and presto, no more lifting snow with a shovel! Why "Mother's"--because the men are all off to work early so it's left to the mothers to use the 'dumps' to get rid of all the snow....so who actually did all the snow removal today???? I'm not telling! ;-)
Enjoy your warmth if you have it and have a great day!
Mansells in NorthLand Hokkaido!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Cleansing, only skin deep

THE GOLD OF FACIAL TISSUES


"Our oil-absorbing facial papers go back three generations," a salesman of cosmetics and beauty accessories reckons. In those day that type of Japanese paper was placed above and below thin sheets of gold, before beating the metal into gold leaf. The gold leaf was then used to decorate temples and shrines.

One day someone discovered that this kind of paper is extremely good for removing excess oil from the skin. So, the paper for cosmetic use was developed about 90 years ago by a shop in Kyoto, Japan. The oil-blotting facial sheets are about the size of the palm of your hand and almost square in shape.

Only a few people used them regularly until the early 1990's. At that point, the trend spread like wildfire, because around that time young people were becoming keen on having a smooth clean complexion. Excess fatty secretions on the face can cause pimples--this crowd wanted to avoid. They were convinced that the solution was to use these oil-blotting facial papers.

Major cosmetic manufacturers got in on the action, and today there are special blotting papers for men as well. For these people, the papers are more than a fad: they are am important part of contemporary life. (Source: Nipponia, 2008-03-24)


There is a cleansing for young people (and old people alike) that is much deeper than oil-absorbing papers--

"Psalms 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."