Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Takumi's last day

Takumi did come today, which was nice. Only for an hour, since they were so busy. We just played Lego, ate donuts and nothing much else, then it was time for them to go. Maia is no well, so they only dropped by for a minute, but missed them. Mom Emiko got a bit teary as she left, poor thing, it must be such a stress having to just pack up and go just like that. But they are not going far, and we promised to come visit them soon.

After that, we went for a look at a karate class. Kanji's cousin teaches the class, and his two young children (about 8 and 6) are in the class. We kept asking Amy and Lena if they wanted to give it a try, but they had no idea what we were talking about so we took them tonight to see. Lena thinks she would like to try, she certainly enjoyed trying to kick when we got home! Amy was not so sure, as she felt quite shy when all the class turned and looked at US instead of us looking at them.

Karate is good physically, of course, but also teaches them good manners, and respect and humility. They spend the last half hour of the class cleaning. Japanese are still very keen on the virtues of children up after themselves. I find I quite agree - and at this age, they think it's such fun, how can you not get them cleaning? Now is the time, before junior high school starts and they have no time to breathe, let alone do chores.

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