Walking around JinShiTan (Golden Pebble Beach)

We live a couple of miles from this beach, I walk here often and love the beauty of it. We live about an hour from the city, about half an hour from the suburbs, but only a few miles from this fishing village.
Picture a nice sunny day, clean air from a thunderstorm the night before. It smelled good! If you have ever been to China, you know that this is a huge blessing for a day in China. I was walking with my friend and we noticed a huge bus barreling toward us. The driver was going too fast on a small road,and passing a small car just to show off. This is common for drivers of big rigs or big buses. They own the road because the biggest car wins. (Drivers in China are crazy!)

Anyway, I did NOT notice the huge puddle that was on the road. We were walking right next to it. Well, the driver timed it perfect to splash us just as we were walking by. We happened to be stuck, on the boardwalk, with a railing blocking a get away. I am positive that the driver loved giving us a shower, and there was a group of Chinese men who got a good laugh at our expense. The disgusting water was dripping from my hair, soaking my shirt and dripping down my legs! Gross. Hopefully it did not contain urine or spit or who knows what else. (People here spit and pee anywhere, so these thoughts are not random.)

Enjoy the beautiful pictures of the beach, the interesting pictures of the fishing village and think about my story so you won't be too jealous that I live here.
There are times I am so grateful to be near this beauty. However, there are some parts of the culture that are just different and hard to get use to. My friend tripped while she was running. She was laying flat on her face with blood on her hands and knees, and the people who saw just laughed. They did not help her up. People here think it is funny to laugh at others, when in America we teach our children NOT to laugh about things like this. Living in China is a blessing, but there are times I am looking forward to living in America again.

Recent Family Photos

Pounding Mochi

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake, and my kids and I love it! Damon is not too crazy about it, but he was a good sport this past weekend joining us on this outing. For years we have watched or participated in this Japanese tradition in the United States. When I was about 14 years old, my family drove all the way from Bend, Oregon to Los Angeles, California to pound mochi at my Uncle's house. We used the family heirloom that my grandfather had brought from Okinawa, Japan to America. My cousins, aunties and uncles all gathered to celebrate the new year by pounding and making mochi. My other experiences making mochi have been with my Dad in Portland, Oregon with the Japanese American Cultural League, or the Neikki legacy center. Here I am in China, thousands of miles away from my parents making mochi, being reminded of my Japanese heritage. I don't know if anything in my life has made me miss my Dad so much.
When pounding mochi you need to have teamwork. The person turning the rice needs to be very quick and move their hands out of the way before they get pounded themselves.

This past weekend in Dalian, China, we made Japanese Mochi with expat friends from all around the world.