Yokomatsu Family Blog

Bad Day, Bad Week

2012-01-26T19:18:00.003+09:00

Things that are annoying me:

A certain person in a certain club who is being mean... and all the hand-wringing that results.

Stupid doctor laughing at me - same one who told me off a few years ago. The guy has no respect.

Not being able to find the Rawleighs.

Having done exactly 1, ONE, kitchen task on my Official Kitchen Spring Cleaning Week.

Mess. Particularly the way how once it starts, everyone thinks they now have carte blanche to just throw EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE!

Okay, No. 4, probably the one you want to LEAST hear about, ha ha ha!

On Tuesday, I ended up standing in a cold classroom. Watching Amy's and Lena's observation lessons - Lena's class were doing 'how to make friends/not make enemies', Amy's class were doing a survey. They were both diversity/anti-discrimination/anti-bullying type things.

Wednesday morning I took all the kids to the doctor for their monthly asthma check, which I had forgotten about on Tuesday because of the observation lesson! I had time too, I just forgot - suddenly it was not a normal Tuesday, so my brain died. Lena had some more checks for her sore tummy. She had an x-ray and an ultrasound. I kidded her about her 'baby' - "Oh my God, it looks like a goat!!" (it did too). But I was pretty thrilled to get same MORNING x-ray and ultrasound for a total cost of $30. Moments like this I LOVE Japanese health care! Erica was also checked for her cough - all fine. And Amy asked, and was allowed, to drop one med - the allergy med. Not that she ever has it anyway.

Wednesday night we were BACK as Lena had a major asthma attack. Well, the doctor said it was mild, but he's not her mother. It was HER worst, anyway. Actually I stayed very calm and helped her to not panic - she nearly lost it a few times, stood up to have a panic attack and I managed to calm her down and get her breathing more evenly. It seemed to take FOREVER to get seen, but was probably only 20 minutes. She had a nebulizer treatment and we were sent home with patches, which got her through the night and she's right as rain tonight. Maybe it was just a panic attack brought on by this systemic abdominal pain she seems to have. Poor thing.

AND back again today for the flu shots. YES I KNOW we are late in the season for them, sorry, we just didn't have time/money before. Don't laugh at me meany doctor. Don't tell me it's too late in the season then ask me if I want to continue. Only Amy and Erica got them, as Lena still has a fever. My student gave them to them, I'll have to hassle him about it in class next week (he was not the meany doctor, the meany doctor was the same one who harrassed me several years ago for taking Amy off her meds, which I did after the NZ doctor told me I could).

So much for the week of cleaning. Wanna know what I did? Cleared the shelf above the recipe books of detritus. That's all folks. Well, I still haven't done the colour Journal or Stanley (more about him later) so I have flagged it for this week. Journal and Stanley tomorrow, plus write a gazillion emails re. problem No. 1. Go to work then come home and do more work at home. Skating on Saturday then a movie night with pizza and ice cream (and wine!). Lie on my bum all day Sunday and DO NOTHING. Maybe clean next week...

PS, still haven't found the #&'%&# Rawleighs

Not so Random Thoughts

2012-01-12T13:45:00.003+09:00

Let me take a moment to consider how damn busy I always am on Thursday.

...

Okay, now that's over, I know you don't want to hear, yet again, about how damn busy I am on Thursday. Instead, here is list of not-so-random thoughts that floated through my head starting from the Supermarket check-out and following me all the way home in my little Green Machine.

It's 1pm, do I have time?

Stupid shoes (egg-on-floor-disaster-scenario-imaginings)

Forgot the test! (getting into car)

Forgot the money! (driving out of supermarket)

My budget and the exchange rate (big road)

Room configuration, or 'Amy's loft project' (turning into Youme Town road)

Flights to Japan (festival road)

Concrete walls - are they Japanese or NZ? (out back of Youme Town)

My kids are still on the radio! Cute! (turning over the bridge)

Erica's amazing start to finish conversation (coming up the drive)

Details later if this day loans me any more time

....

Well, after canceling one lesson due to Lena's fever AND her need to finish all her winter homework finally, here we are.

I was wondering if I had enough time when I saw the clock at the supermarket at 1pm, leaving me only one hour to eat lunch and finish checking an essay, and I had also thought I might have time to hang some laundry right then. That was not to be...

Then I slipped a bit on the supermarket linoleum and wobbled a bit but did not fall. I had raw eggs in my bag, cue the egg-on-floor-disaster-scenario-imaginings - MAN would that be SO embarrassing!

Thinking Stupid Shoes reminded me of work that morning, when instead of my usual high-heel clip-clop across the foyer, up the stairs and down the corridor, I CLUCHUNK CLUCHUNKed all the way. My winter shoes, with a big thick heel, had lost the rubber sole of the heel, and the resultant clank seemed to echo through the hollow core of the heel - into the ears of every single human in the building. (I tip-toed on a side-trip to the loo on the way to my class because I was so mortified!) Suffice it to say that not only will those be getting re-heeled asap, I will also stuff those heels with cotton wool before I go to the cobbler.

Thinking about work as I headed for the car reminded me of a major oversight I had discovered at work that morning - I actually forgot to test my class. I tested the other three classes! I concluded that it was because it was the last class before the Christmas special lesson and winter break, and they are also my best class, so I would have been doing extra activities. Well, no worries, they are my best class so they wrote it there and then, and all handed it in before class ended!

Thinking about stuff I've forgotten, as I drove out of the supermarket car park, I realized I'd forgotten the cash to send to NZ. Isn't the exchange rate treating us well these days? I'm paying off that card bit by bit...

Thinking about my budget, as I drove down the big road past Wonderland pachinko parlour, got me thinking about the massive house transformation again, which has already been downgraded, with Amy's loft to be put in in time for her entry into Junior High School in 2013, when Erica will begin kindy and she can then take over Amy's desk downstairs. For now, Erica can have the low computer table, when I give the Mac back to AFWJ. Part of the house organization involved housing Mum when she comes in April, so part of the plan is working that out.

Thinking of Mum of course had me thinking, as I rounded the corner and headed toward Youme Town, of the flights, which are yet to be finalized, and my indecision because I don't know if should wait until a month before to see if some cheaper seats become available then, or just go with the $1600 Malaysian Airlines seats now.

By this time I had weaved my way through the back streets to the back of Youme Town, past some very old houses. Two had painted concrete brick walls, with some of the bricks with decorative holes in them. Were they familiar to me because we have walls like that in New Zealand, or were they familiar to me because I've seen them so many times in Japan? A 'you've been in Japan too long' moment.

By that time I was swinging past the cemetery and over the bridge, and Amy and Lena came on the radio, giggling away. They do part of the announcement for the Aroma Cafe lunch-time show, over some jazzy music, you can hear them laughing and giggling, saying Aroma Cafe! Hngh, hngh, hngh, hngh, hngh. (a chuckle. Amy has an adorable chuckle, Lena's is more a tinkling laugh). It always makes me smile when I hear it - and I remember how annoyed I was with them at the studio because they would not settle down and stop giggling! And then that was the only bit he used...

The smile followed me up my drive, where I remembered lunchtime, how I was there to pick up Erica's kindy bag. She now sits behind me in the car, so I could see her over the seat back as I reversed. Hello, how are you? I said, I'm fine, Nice to meet you, she said. We giggled a bit at the formality of the greeting, then she started asking herself the questions I usually ask her when I pick her up from Aiko to take her to Keio. 'What did you do at kindy today?' then started answering it, talking about it being too cold to go outside and eating lunch. I asked what she ate for lunch, and was impressed when she translated it all for me into English, without prompting, though she must have been eating it 'in Japanese' if you know what I mean. It was rice, and soup with tomato, and something with beans.

Which brings me to my front door, and the end of my internal monologue.

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-06T18:28:00.002+09:00

I am sure I will at some point post some photos and stuff about what we actually did...

but for now, it's Friday the 6th, WAY past New Year, if the mess-just-like-oosoji-didn't-happen and lifestyle-sans-resolutions is anything to go by.

1st and 2nd were spent with Jiichan and Baachan of course, but we didn't stay the night for once. We usually do, and I think that contributed to a less 'New-Yeary' feeling for us all. Baachan was not cooking either, except for oozoni, which is great, but different. We went out to dinner on the 1st with Toyoko and Yumi (after seeing and talking to Yuma for approximately five minutes. Shame, as I would love to ask him more about his work in anime, for Amy's sake), then out with Mie, Masamitsu, Soichiro and Mami on the 2nd. I think Amy has more in common with Yumi and Yuma, who are actually Kanji's cousins (though only in their early 20's as their mother is Jiichan's half-sister from his father's second marriage) than Soichiro and Mami. Soichiro was the same, said not a word the whole time, but that's just so normal for us now we don't even notice! Mami was laughing away at us chatting in English, so I think her English has leaped ahead quite a bit at Uni, even though she was too shy to say anything!

Then we spent two days in Beppu with Julia, Rory and Indigo. After a pizza and nut roast dinner, we drank lots of wine and got the kids to bed rather too late! The next day, we had planned to go skating at Kijima, but it started to snow, and I was the one to cancel, much to the kids' disappointment, but I still can't get those images from last year out of my head! Me, the kids, that car, and snow? No WAY!

So we instead spent a lovely and very Japanese day in Beppu: karaoke, sushi and onsen. It snowed while we were in the onsen, only the second time I've managed that in Japan, I LOVE snow in the onsen!

Then it was back to work, bleuch, I like my work but I was just not ready for it, especially Thursday. My students were great and I'm afraid I gave them a rather dull welcome-back lesson due to tiredness and pressure headaches. Today was much better, it was me waking them up!

Bringing me up to now, and my two 'jobs' tonight, to do as much laundry as I can (already done, as I just ran out of powder) and delete enough photos from iphoto to save the photos onto my USB stick. The first step of what is going to be a rather long process of divorcing myself (very sadly) from this lovely big shiny imac in advance of sending it on to the next AFWJ Journal editor. Tammy, you are one lucky lady!

The other thing on my mind is a major household overhaul. At first, I put myself on a strict schedule to get properly spring-cleaned by the time Mum comes. Then, as I worked on that schedule, and worked in our 'plus-Grandma' sleeping arrangements, and the 'Amy-is-a-teen-who-wants-a-room' factor in as well, plus my general annoyance that we have just too much STUFF...

I realized I just have to start fresh. I've been good up to now at making do with what we have, and doing needs-based solutions, you know, Kanji leaves his keys HERE so I place a basket there to catch the keys. Or have a pile of t-shirts, buy a t-shirt-size drawer plastic dresser to put them in. More books? Get another bookcase.

But what I have in mind this time, is to think of the house structure first, think about the best way to maximize the storage in each element, then fit what we have into that - or chuck it.

LOADS of ideas....

Day Whatever

2011-12-30T16:44:00.003+09:00

I have a record four blog posts on the go at the moment, in different windows! This is the Big Clean-up-up-date one. I have no idea what day it is, somewhere at the end of the week. I think if I was in Samoa today I wouldn't even notice that they skipped a day.

I slept late today, wasn't up until 10am so again it's more a half-day's effort, which just reminds me of how much more I could do if I had the whole day! The genkan got finished today, and the Christmas stuff back in the shed. Then I started on the living room. The kids and Kanji took off to make mochi with family friends, and the kids will be going to Pushkar with them for a meal after its finished, and I will meet them there when I'm done here. Sounds like a grand plan, aye, but I actually wasn't too happy with it at first when K came home without them and told me I would have to pick the kids up later, it shattered my sense of timing. But all's well that ends well, as having them out of the house is probably a better idea (though they did help with window cleaning yesterday, the little darlings!), and not having to cook a meal is definitely a better idea!

Now it's on to the bathroom, and after I've tidied it, I will head off to Pushkar to pick up the kids, who will be permitted to watch one movie, whilst not moving a fingertip on the sofa - no toys, no books, no homework even allowed, NOTHING is going to mess that room up tonight!!! Then off to bed with them, leaving me the rest of the night to clean the bath (whilst cleaning self) and finally getting around to writing my New Year cards. And those three other blog posts!

Day Two

2011-12-29T11:22:00.002+09:00

...and I'm already internally renegotiating the terms of this effort...

The problem - everywhere I go in the house, there is another job that needs doing - school notices, all the families jackets, the pot cupboard, laundry backlog, CD case, the WHOLE spare room - again, the shed, etc, etc, etc.... plus I forget I have to do loads of laundry, dishes and cooking as well as (the children don't stop eating just for the big New Year clean-up!), which takes up quite a bit of the day! No, it's just not all going to be done by the 31st!

The best I can hope for is clean and tidy, I can achieve that at least! So this morning, I tidied the living room, did some shopping, cleaned the windows upstairs, and just had lunch (it's now 3pm!!). Next up is finishing some work that came in, and hanging some laundry on hangers to be put out tomorrow, and then get on to tidying up the Christmas decorations. Right at this point in time the carpet in this room is miraculously clear of stuff, so there's even a space for me to use! The girls have taken over the kotatsu with homework.

I did NOT get around to sorting my clothes last night! By the time I did the underwear, socks and wardrobe, I was so sleepy! So tonight, I do the clothes drawers after the kids go to bed.

I'm forming a loose plan in my head to do PROPER spring cleaning in March, after using February for decluttering. January is busy with a 3-4 out-of-town visits to friends and the Journal of course. I may even do some re-arranging, get Amy a desk & bed set, put Lena on the top bunk and Erica on the bottom, get their chests of drawers in there, throw out half the toys, and maybe even make myself a home office, since I can do most of my casual internet use on the ipad. Hmmm.....

Day One...

2011-12-28T20:15:00.002+09:00

Well, I got some cleaning started today! Pretty boring to chronicle cleaning, so I could tell you about Amy's efficiency and how TALL she is, or Lena's constant stream of jokes and funny stories, or Erica, who spent the day pretending to be a superhero wearing a blanket for a cape.

But I'm just trying to make myself keep up with it by sticking to the schedule. Considering I was going to give myself the day off today, and didn't start until 1pm, we got quite a bit done! We - me and Amy and Lena, who I made tidy their drawers. I did Erica's, including the hand-me-down boxes, and am NOW going to do mine, I MUST have the clothes sorted by tonight. Tomorrow morning I will tidy the living room, get rid of Christmas and then go back upstairs to monitor the girls' clearing out the toy boxes while I dust and do the windows.

I also pulled apart the bird and made a turkey quiche, and a potato and cheese soup. We'll have those tomorrow because Kanji brought home sashimi, pork skewers and potato salad. And I'll cook up the bones for stock for soup and pie, to be eaten tomorrow and the next day. Should be thoroughly sick of turkey by the weekend!

2011 Round-up

2011-12-28T10:46:00.008+09:00

2010 round-up

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

Saw Mt Fuji from the sky.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

No, I did NOT keep the weight off or start exercising. Hopefully my increasingly creaky body and hypnosis tapes will provide me with more incentive this year!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes! Debra Greenwood gave birth to yet another perfect little girl this year!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, despite all the natural disasters!

5. What countries did you visit?

NONE

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

$0 in my visa account. New tatamis and fusumas.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Feb 22 and March 11. August 10 and 28. Earthquake, earthquake and tsunami, Erica's operation, and the day Tropicoco burned down on my 40th birthday.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

6 more Journals!

9. What was your biggest failure?

As usual, diet, exercise and housekeeping!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Erica's operation on August 10. Technically her hand was 'fixed' and we talk about it to her using that word. (Amy tried to suggest to her the other day that the doctor 'cut' it, but she was having no part of that, though she agrees that he 'fixed' it). The thing she remembers most by the way, is the mask and the bad smell she didn't like. That's my strongest memory too, her lying on the operating table, struggling a little against the mask while I tried to reassure her, stroking her head and telling her to be quiet, sleep now, while she was obviously trying to tell me she didn't the like the mask or the smell.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

The 1920's flapper outfit for the AFWJ Convention, the white fringed dress, the two-tone shoes, the headband, the cigarette holder.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The countless unsung heroes of 'my' disasters and all the others this year, in Cairns, Brisbane, Perth, the US, Thailand, etc etc, who went out of their way to help others.

And Princess Kate, for being so elegant and genteel in the midst of an increasingly gross pornified raunch culture.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Japanese people who criticized New Zealand's post-earthquake efforts in Christchurch, and our earthquake preparedness, as though we were somehow ignorant of the fact that we have earthquakes, whereas it was really all our detractors who were ignorant of the big earthquake the previous September that weakened everything (as is being discovered now in the inquests, but of course they're not listening now, are they). It was a shock, because I've always felt safer in NZ, as I don't trust older Japanese houses; I think NZ has better standards overall, and safer residential houses at least, especially if you look at what happened in Kobe. So who were the Japanese to be so smugly critical, bringing me to No. 2 person whose behaviour appalled and depressed me:

Me - for in a few mean-spirited moments after hearing about the March 11 quake, hoping that at least ONE building collapsed so the Japanese wouldn't be so damned smug about their earthquake preparedness and criticizing NZ. Never have I been so horrified and devastated to have a 'wish' come true, nor so ashamed for having in that moment of offended weakness, for having thought it.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Paying back the bloody visa card!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Surprisingly, turning 40. Guess it just seems a whole lot preferable to NOT turning 40, which generally involves being dead.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?

Anything by Amy Winehouse or Adele

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?

Sadder. Too much sad stuff going on.

ii. thinner or fatter?

fatter, alas

iii. richer or poorer?

definitely poorer, oh dear, 3 out of 3!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

reading books and magazine. Still got a backlog to get through! I have to read them so I can shop for them again without that nagging feeling in the back of mind that I really, REALLY don't need this!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

clicking the next link...

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

At home with a roast turkey, family and good friends.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?

Did that 13 years ago, and still going strong, woohoo!

23. How many one-night stands?

hmm, methinks this meme was written for 20-somethings...

24. What was your favorite TV program?

zilch, zero, nada!! I truly did NOT watch TV last year!

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yes, added one more to the very short list, sadly

26. What was the best book you read?

Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. I haven't been so gloriously caught up in a novel's world for a long time, thank you Michelle!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Adele, the glory of true emotion sung so purely.

Red One via J.Lo's On the Floor. Now I know who he is and that he's behind my favorite Lady Gaga tunes, I'm going to watch out for what he produces next!

28. What did you want and get?

Friends and fun!

29. What did you want and not get?

A new house.

30. What were your favorite films of this year?

Any one of those old westerns me and Kanji watched together on a hazy hungover morning while the kids were at school...

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

WOW.

I turned 40 this year, and it was a doozy! All through August I was reluctant to plan anything due to Erica's operation, and Jiichan's liver cancer having returned, meaning he went in for surgery too that month. So I only had a week to plan for my birthday ( once it became clear that all my immediate relatives would be healthy). In the end, I planned a night out at my favorite bar, Mexican restaurant Tropicoco, on Friday; Aile(the Turkish restaurant)'s summer barbecue party on the Saturday; then the Tsuru-ichi Jinja festival with fireworks on the Sunday (my actual birthday).

Tammy joined me on Friday for a few final drinks at Troppies - final, because the bar burned down the next night. After farewelling my friends at Aile on Saturday, and sending then to Troppies, I went home to put the kids to bed... heard the sirens... then got the phone call from Kanji telling me the sirens were for Troppies, which was on fire. This was around midnight, so literally on my birthday...

Sunday, my actual birthday, I got some lovely presents from my family, and Susie from Kurume came to help me celebrate with some champers. Then we went to the festival to see the fireworks with Kristin from Munakata and her family... and Raul from now-totally-destroyed Tropicoco and his family.

I will NEVER forget this birthday!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

The earth not moving

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

How to incorporate those fabulous shoes into my existing wardrobe.

34. What kept you sane?

iPad

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

J.Lo

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

See above re Japanese criticism of NZ about the earthquake.

And, Kim Jong Il's death - are they going to nuke us now??

37. Who did you miss?

My lunch ladies

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Julia and Rory and Indigo

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

That life is what it is, and here I am

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

"Don't stop, keep it moving, put your drinks up!!"

Christmas

2011-12-25T14:52:00.000+09:00

Well, it's done for another year, and I am going to add to this with some photo posts showing what we did and what we ATE! Starting from our family dinner out on Thursday night, to our family dinner in tonight, I'm counting a five day Christmas, and now we have four days of frantic cleaning ahead of us before another several days of New Year holiday!

The fridge is still full of leftovers, and turkey soup and turkey quiche (with the secret ingredient of leftover cauliflower and cheese) are on the menu for tomorrow, and there's still one serving of pavlova left, hiding in the back of the fridge for me to sneak when no-one's watching, plus a bit more brandy trifle and a WHOLE chocolate flan! I cooked so much!!!

Thursday we went out for yakitori, Friday was the Big Shopping Day, I visited six shops in three hours and spent 25,000 including a few presents, but mostly food from four different shops! Friday night we ate fish and chips while I cooked desserts, then I made the curry on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Maguno Leon at their new place on the side of Mt Hachiman. Raul said it would be a barbecue, and I didn't quite believe him, but sure enough, there he was, barbecuing away in one of the three small snowfalls we had over the 24-25th.

We came home by 4pm to meet up with Dad, and we gave the kids our present from us - boots, jacket and pyjamas, so they could dress up to enjoy a drive-in movie! We were home by 7:30, and took Dad on a Christmas lights tour before returning home for his curry and sashimi birthday party.

Christmas morning started off with Santa presents, followed by cocoa pops, loads of cooking, a ham and eggs brunch and a Christmas party just after skyping with family back home for a present-opening session and enjoying a chocolate Japanese Christmas cake with Jiichan and Baachan. All the guests had left by 7pm, leaving just the family to exchange gifts, more about that later...

Boxing Day we went to Beppu to Julia and Rory's house for leftovers' lunch, and today I actually had a lesson! A private class at home, so we gave her Christmas cake and played Christmas games on the ipad. I finished the day with a HUGE glass of red wine in a very hot bath, followed by a mop-up family meal of leftovers. Now it's 11pm and the kids are in bed with their Papa, after the big girls watched a movie while Erica played with her new Zuzu pets. I don't think I've even seen a more perfect match of toy and developmental level! She adores them!! Thank you Aunty Becky for the cute new pet!!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T15:22:00.000+09:00

We always hold Kanji's birthday party on Christmas Eve (see post) but this year was a little different, we added an extra event - a trip to a drive-in movie. No, Nakatsu doesn't have a permanent drive-in, it's held just once a year on Christmas Eve. We missed the first one last year as we were in New Zealand. It was part of a Winter Fantasia event that included two drive-in movies, a kids' movie at 5pm and a grown-ups one at 9pm, with fireworks in between, plus bonfires and festival stalls and even an ice sculpture.

Before we left we gave the kids their present from us, boots, a new jacket and pyjamas.

The drive-in was at the fishing port on koiwai, the island in the mouth of the river. They have a big enough block of space for it over there, and no chance for people to sneak a view! The sound was through an FM radio station. The kids sat along the front seat - times like these you wish you had bench not bucket seats in front! While I sat in the back and had a nap. I'd seen the movie before - How to Train a Dragon - and it was in Japanese this time, so I thought my time was much better spent catching some Zzz's!

But not before we all tucked into some hot chocolate!! Into the cups we got at Hong Kong Disneyland last Christmas

After the show, we went for a tour of the Christmas Lights houses. There's one street in Nakatsu where nearly all the houses participate. And then there's this house, which is by far the best, with not a surface uncovered, and extras all over the garden. It's also in the middle of rice paddies, so it can be clearly seen from afar. There was a traffic jam on the tiny road through the rice paddies leading to it!

Last but not least, the carrot, cake and milk for Santa, looking lonely on our windblown balcony.

A Little Grace Period

2011-12-21T19:18:00.002+09:00

Busy as a bee over the pre-Christmas week and whole winter holiday in fact, but finally here I am, with a wee snatch of time between 'things' and a promise to myself to fill it with a wee update!

I had only two hours of lessons this week, but took on two proofreading jobs, so that has kept me busy today, and I have just finished the first drafts of those, in between the kindy run, shopping, bento-making, and quiche-making. I will do a final check in the morning, when I am fresh, and, more importantly, when the damn kids are out of the house! I think if I'm going to take on more proofreading work I will need to convert the spare room into an office! I can usually do it, but today there were just a few too many random observations, unecessary request, and bumps on my computer chair.

So now's the piano lesson, so everything else must stop, I can't exactly take a bath while she's here (though I did when Erica was a baby!)

Today I did my kindy Christmas lesson, yesterday my hospital class Christmas lesson, and last week my college Christmas lessons. We've had two cookie parties and I've sent out about 22 Christmas cards, so all of that plus the tree, the decorations, and the presents arriving to put under it are making me feel very Christmassy!

The plan so far is to clean up and catch up on blog photo posts and laundry tomorrow, take the kids shopping for the final gifts (they still haven't got their father anything) and ALL the Christmas food on Friday, plus make the pavs, make curry Saturday morning, go to TWO birthday parties and the drive-in, then have our Christmas party at home, a 6kg turkey this year, plus ham and eggs for brunch, pavlova, trifle, chocolate pie and eggnog.

There. If I don't get around to posting anything else, at least the skeleton schedule is there!

Cookie-making Party I

2011-12-11T20:12:00.001+09:00

Early in December, I made cookies, fudge, and coconut ice to send to family in NZ. I sent five bags, with no notes because Japanese 'small packet' postage rules do not allow a letter in the package (and yes, they sometimes check!). So there was nothing to explain it, but I thought that with Mum, bro, and 3 sisters, Mum would twig that 5 bags was supposed to be one each... but no... apparently my superior sweet-making skills got the better of her, and after sharing one bag with guests, she started dipping into another. I left her to decide which poor kid gets the gutted bag.

Anyway, I did NOT send any of the following cookies, which were all eaten up here at home by the kids. The two guests also brought home enough to feed their families. I kept some aside to decorate in peace the next day, away from the girlie cookie-cutting and decorating frenzy!

Rolling the dough, with LOTS of flour! The rug was rolled up and shaken outside at the end, seemed a simpler solution that cramming everyone into the kitchen!

Cutting shapes - the fun bit! We have a quite a collection of play-do cutters to choose from.

And then icing and decorating them. Below, the finished result:

Bonus pic: Erica the Superhero, challenging me and my rolling pin with her plastic machine gun wielded as a sword.

Family Bonenkai

2011-12-09T23:36:00.000+09:00

I just wanted to go out for dinner with just me and Kanji and the kids, just us, not having to worry about anyone else. We went to my (now second) favorite restaurant, Kokoro, and called it our bonenkai just because it's December!

We walked - the weather was still quite mild in early December.

At the table. All the tables here are private, one reason I like the place!

Cheers! Beer for Kanji, a not-too-bad generic white for me and calpis or cola for the kids

Naughty Mummy, I let the girls have their first taste of wine. At least they hated it! Erica is being a turtle.

Some of the reaons I like Kokoro: the cheese board, and the chocolate desserts! They also have chocolate fondue.

Me and Kanji

Catch Up

2011-12-02T19:11:00.002+09:00

A WHOLE month, wow! Well, at least when I look back on this time, I'll know it's every second month I'm online because of that Journal!! I suppose I could type out a few lines each night, but I usually like to fuss with photos and stuff too, so I put it off, and then I have to get into the head space, but my head is all full of Journal Journal Journal so I just don't! There you have it!

Well it's Friday, so I'm drinking wine and chatting on facebook while Kanji practices the bass and the kids watch Disney. Some Fridays I'm a little more sociable and watch a movie with them! Erica is already asleep on the sofa, and I need to get her upstairs before she wakes up with a new lease of life, and does not go back to sleep until 11! (done!)

So, what have we been doing? Kanji is working, doing his radio show, and playing in the band. He enjoys watching movies more than variety shows these days, which is happy for me! And gave me a great idea for what I want to get him for Christmas...

Amy is still swimming and playing piano and drawing in every spare moment! She started writing a movie (first scene done, but it's actually written like a story not a movie) and now knows more about iMovie than me after playing with it all day last weekend making a fantastic slide show that I can't fully share as she matched it with commercial music and it got taken down from youtube and facebook! Surely that's taking copyright too far, after all we did pay for the tunes originally, and can hardly be accused of taking their customers when their OWN videos are available to watch for free! Grrr! She grows approximately an inch a month, and already fits into Japanese women's clothes. That means we will be in heaven for the next year or so while she can comb the flea markets, but she'll be stuck with online shopping like me if gains any more than another ten cm. She does well in school, in fact she's a bit of nerdy-swot, which is just lovely! She actually does extra homework so she can be the one in the class who did the most. I'm reading Harry Potter to them before bedtime, I think she really identifies with Hermione! She does not like sport at all and reads during recess. She talks back and tell me how to do things. Sigh.

Lena has stopped piano and wants to stop swimming too. She is interested in starting dance classes, and we found one, we just have to get around to going! She also wants to start modeling, but I'm still not sure about that... we got given a card by an agent a while ago, but I lost it! She gets along in school well, seems to have a new friend every day. I'm totally over their big eyes when they visit for the first time, but I have to suck it up and say Hello nicely!

Erica is speaking better and better now, including some gems: she came rushing downstairs ¥ crying and to show me the scrape on her back, and said 'MUUUUUM, I... BROKE my... BODY!"

Today they are doing road work again. We bumped over a patch, and she asked why it was bumping. I said the road was broken and they were fixing it. She said something about police which confused me (we often see police there) then she said 'Did a dorobo (robber) break the road?'. Ah.... kids simple vision of good and bad!

And me? Well, still working those 4 (or was it 6) jobs, and tackling the Journal and trying to keep on top of the house, and catch up with friends and save money and spend just enough of it to have some fun too and trying to shed a few kilos and enjoy food too, and planning a super Christmas!!

Luigans and Hilarious Photo Fail

2011-10-31T20:13:00.004+09:00

I won a Halloween special lunch for two at the Luigans, the resort hotel where we held the 2006 Kyushu convention. I took Christine and Kristin because they also entered the competition, and we split one lunch cost between us.

You know how you always get the waiter to take a photo of your table so you can fit everyone in? And most of the time it's okay, occasionally a bit rough? Well I had to laugh this day, because I cannot image a dafter pair of waiter-photo attempts than these:

Kristin's lost her whole head! I look HUGE, Ken looks drunk, but hey, Christine looks okay! To be fair, it was a very bright sunny day and a naturally dark interior, so the sun REALLY poured in - and the flash WAS on!

The next sensible thing to do was to avoid the sun, so we thought it would be a good idea to all sit on the sofa. But we had to get Ken in the photo. But not take him out of the stroller, because once out, he would never go back in, and his Mom would have trouble finishing her meal. So we asked our very kind waiter to fit him in too. He did....

Not skewering chicken

2011-10-28T21:31:00.004+09:00

... which is what I thought I would be doing at about this time until Lena threw a spanner in the works and scattered my carefully constructed house of cards, dealing me... a better hand that resulted in a much more relaxed and enjoyable day!

Poor Lena. Seems she is prone to tonsilitis. Actually she threw her first spanner last night, when she reminded me about her field trip today, and the lunch that I had to pack her it. So I flew off to the supermarket to pick up cheese sausages and broccoli. It's just not a 'real' Mum's bento without cheese sausages and broccoli.

Then this morning she threw the fever. When she flew into my room in a panic to tell me, I actually thought that with some meds she might be able to stagger out the door and onto the bus, but she lost her steam half way through breakfast, and didn't even finish her weetbix, even with brown sugar on top.

Kanji working until 1pm. An essay to check and the weekend shopping to do. Erica at kindy by 10am, but home again at 12:15, and me starting work at 1pm. Erica going trick-or-treating with her kindy class at 3pm, me finishing work at 4:10pm and a doctor's appointment for all three of them at 4pm. Then a visit to Kanji's parents to see Jiichan after his recent return home from another short hospitalization. Chicken skewering and oreo-witch-hat making sometime after we got home.

In case you haven't twigged yet, that's not doable with a kid with a fever. (In fact I doubt if it was actually doable at all). Usually we would take one kid to Baachan's if we were stuck between a rock and a hard place like this, but we couldn't expose Jiichan to germs in his current fragile state of health. So it had to be done... I called and *cancelled work* GASPhyperventilatepanicattack! You just don't DO that on a part-time short-contract job. You don't cancel when you only work a few hours a week. You don't cancel at short notice when your contract is coming up for renewal. And finding the time to do make-up lessons is always a hassle too.

And so I ended up walking around Jusco Mall with the Mad Hatter, 13 charming pre-schoolers and a gaggle of camera-toting parents, instead of coaching teens in the finer arts of octopus ring toss and Pin the Hat on the Turkey. The chicken was skewered at the more leisurely hour of 1pm, and the oreo witch hats were very enjoyably constructed with Amy's increasingly expert assitance after dinner. The only crunch time was the overlap between the end of the Halloween Walk and the doctor's appointment, which saw me running in to the hospital late with a mini witch in my arms, after the others had finished, and then being late at the chemist (and running into the take-kid-to-doc-after-work crowd), then late shopping for dinner, so I bought fast-dinner stuff (tofu, gyouza and packet soup with bread) as I knew I'd be met by cries of 'Mum, I'm hungry!' as soon as I walked through the door.

Now all I have to do is successfully coordinate packing and pie-making in the morning, and pray no-one else gets sick, and we might just get through the weekend!

De-friended

2011-10-12T23:28:00.005+09:00

So I found out today that I've been de-friended by two people on facebook. To be honest, I do not keep a record of how many friends I have, I can only tell you right now that it's just over 400. So I wouldn't notice if people 'dropped off the bottom'. I suppose they do every now and then as sometimes I remember about someone I haven't seen in a while, or even see someone who I thought was a friend, but who isn't (anymore? or never was?).

The first fit into that category. I wouldn't have known, but her sister announced the birth of her baby, and I hadn't even known she was pregnant. I had seen her wedding photos, but I can't remember if I saw them on her own newsfeed or her sister's. Never mind. I only met her a few times, around her sister's wedding and Stagette, and if I ever feel the need to contact her again, I can contact her sister.

The second was a bit more dramatic. She posted, I replied, she replied, I replied, she replied, I replied (I kept trying to defuse the situation, say something that would lighten the tone or explain myself), she replied and threatened to delete the thread, I posted one more time and poof! In the time it took me go pick up Erica from kindy, not only the thread, but SHE was gone too. De-friended just like that.

I don't think it was the result of just that one conversation though, because if you looked at it, surely you wouldn't think it was that bad. She was also annoyed at what I'd written on someone else's post (that person wasn't, though!) and to be frank, she sometimes seemed to get annoyed at the things I wrote or I got the feeling that I'd written the wrong thing. I never deliberately rubbed her up the wrong way or purposely attacked her though.

Thinking about and analyzing what I wrote (or what I remember I wrote, since it's gone) I feel like a high school student endlessly dissecting friendships and who said what to whom and where and why and how, or sending their friends on an errand to ask who said what about who... there's a burning desire to know, if only so I can defend myself from the attack!

Farewell Queen, Welcome Esther

2011-10-07T18:30:00.003+09:00

I received mail yesterday informing me that my sponsor child had left the area with her family, and was now no longer part of the program. I knew it was coming - I've sponsored Queen since 2002 when she was in her early teens, and only last year agreed to continue the sponsorship beyond the usual cut-off date of her 18th birthday, so she could continue in school. Still, it's sad to say 'goodbye'.

So they sent me information about another girl in a another village in Zambia, and how can you say No?? So Welcome to the family Esther!

Back into the Grind

2011-10-05T18:59:00.003+09:00

It feels like a Tuesday, with the piano lesson going on the background. Amy was keen to get started again - given the (hypothetical) choice to give up all her extra-curricular lessons, she said she would quit English, and give swimming a break for a few months, but continue piano. Erica is starting today, Lena having finally given up for good. We coached her through some rough patches, so I was sure she wasn't just giving up because it was momentarily difficult, but she never really caught the bug. She has also pulled out of swimming too, finally, and we are now trying to find her a dance class. THAT is something she can do well and really enjoys. Erica was so excited to be starting! We'll see how it goes on... we are also thinking of starting her in karate. She's been bitten by the ballet bug, as most four-year old girls are, but ballet is to damned expensive!

A new OIT semester begins tomorrow, 84 bright and eager new faces... well okay not quite so bright and eager, maybe mildly curious about the gaijin teacher and quiet-for-now...

In other exciting developments on the home front the laundry is not yet finished (what's new?) but we did have a mammoth 90 min working bee and got the bedrooms mostly done - winter clothes change and toy closet sorting are waiting until Saturday.

I've been using up my bucket-loads of non-Journal-panic 'free' time (read: time I should be doing aforementioned laundry but choose to please myself instead) making some new blogs. Check these out:

http://yokomatsucakes.blogspot.com/
http://nakatsusexpistols.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, searching for my own blogs, I found THIS, so weird, it's like a bizarre language copy of my silver week blog of two years ago. It's like she took a thesaurus to it, you should try reading it first, and see if you can figure out what the heck it means before reading the real thing. Sigh, the things people do with their spare time...

English - bad; License - good

2011-10-03T20:08:00.005+09:00

So, my first job today was to deliver the exam results to the college. I ended up spending half an hour or so there, mostly trying desperately to convince them the students need LESS hard-out grammar memorization and MORE communication practice. Sigh. How many times do you have to have this conversation in Japan??? They are the first to admit they are no good at English, but keep on thinking that all they need is more grammar and more words and then it'll be alright and they'll know 'everything' and then be able to speak English. And we keep trying to convince them that no, they have enough grammar and vocabulary stuffed into their heads for now, to start with at least, and they need to jump right in and start USING it, not as memorized sentences, translations of phrases and words, and parsing sentences but using what they have in their head already like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to generate unique, original language about their own observations and experiences.

Phew, rant over.

This stems from a meeting I had with the principal a few weeks ago, in which he noted our students' rather low English level, to which I agreed, but then he said we need to aim for reinforcing, or repeating, what they'd learned in junior high school. I tried to convince him we needed no such thing, that what they needed was to be taught how to USE what they had already learned to communicate with confidence, not being constantly afraid of making mistakes. Well clearly I didn't convince him. The plan was to continue with the communicative, false-beginner text I have been using, but to add something on. He said we would meet again to discuss that, and I thought it was getting a bit late in the break for that little talk, but I had no idea he'd just set someone else up with the task! I met today with another woman on staff to discuss the issue.

I had to give her credit - she'd listed all the grammar points covered in all 3 years of junior high school, and slotted them into the 32 weeks of my course. She asked that I hand out a simple explanation of each grammar point as part of each lesson, explain it, then pass out a simple fill-the-blanks exercise. Her initial concern was would I have the time to do it? I said yes, I have time, but... I just don't LIKE the idea! For one thing, the grammar points were totally out of whack with my text's - eg, she's got me handing out simple past tense the week after next, while I have it slotted in for next July.

On the other hand, it's true that my students have trouble, not just with keeping up, but with understanding what's going on. Of course the MAIN reason for that it that they just don't listen to me - I often explain what to do, then go around the class explaining again to everyone individually, using the same words and pointing at the same part of the book, but 'teacher talking in front of class' seems to be a universal symbol to switch off and daydream (or actually sleep) while they HAVE to listen when I am standing right in front of them!

So I thought perhaps the way to meet in the middle here (consensus and compromise being a much preferred solution in Japan) was to cut back the amount of handouts and have them line up with what I am teaching. I offered to hand out the first one in my introductory lesson, give it to them as homework to be tested the next week, and then use my textbook to practice and back up what they hopefully learned from the handout. This way I can use the hard work this woman has done, and hopefully benefit the students, without the classes turning into more pointless rote memorization. (can I have another little 'grrr' here - why on earth do they think it's going to work this time when it didn't work the first time! SIX YEARS of 4-5 hours study a week, and 95% of Japanese student not only cannot speak English, but they have become convinced that English is intrinsically difficult and that they, genetically, cannot ever learn it).

So... the woman gathered up her papers to ask the principal if this compromise would work for him, and I will hear back later in the week.

Through all of this stress about content, I forgot to be relieved that I wasn't fired. I was actually a little concerned that the principal's observation of my class and discussion changing the classes would end up with the whole English program being cancelled.

Chore No.2 today was much more pleasant - I got my license renewed. I was in a bit of a panic actually, as I was supposed to go to the safety seminar last Wednesday, and was sure, what with the Japanese preference for sticking strictly to the rules, that I would have to start the process over (at least my NZ license is still valid, so I would only have to get that changed again, not actually sit any tests). So I was mightily relieved that all I had to do was stamp my inkan in the right spot on a list and they handed it over to me!

Erica's 4th Birthday Party

2011-10-02T12:35:00.018+09:00

The birthday girl - no cute poses, she's decided she hates the paparazzi (me) this week.

Erica, filmed by Amy, reacting her seeing her cakes for the first time.

Yuuki and Erica with their cakes and matching masks. He is a Kamen Rider, she's Gokai-pink, from Gokaija, both are Sunday morning super-hero TV shows.

The power of Kamen Rider: all kids ignoring the sweets to watch it!

The table:Clockwise from bottom: sausage rolls; potato chips; Griffins Sampler biscuits; mini hamburgers with french bread and condiments; edamame; twisties; sandwiches made by Lena; licorice allsorts; Mum's apricot no-bake cheesecake; strawberry jellies with grapes; hokey pokey biscuits made by Amy; lollipops including light-up Halloween ones; NZ Party Pack lollies including milk bottles, jetplanes and jelly beans; jaffas; and home-made coconut rough.

Cake with candles. Yuuki with mum Maki, Erica, and Yuuki's sister Karin

Happy Birthday song

Cutting the cake; Erica and Yuuki get the first pieces

The Party.

And then Ana arrived with the Pinata! Dora the Explorer (Erica calls her Dora-ble, because I kept calling Erica DoraDora-adorable!). I don't know why Erica looked so grumpy at Yuuki!

Centre: setting up. Yuuki on the left (see video below) and Erica having a go on the right.

Our neighbors grandkids, Kiara, Airi and Yukia. There was one more little boy but he was too shy to have a go.

Left, Max; centre, Lena; right, Momoka - she was the best!

Left, Amy; centre Karin, right - Raul on the fence! The pinata works best strung over a rope that can be raised or lowered depending on the size of the kid hitting it. Kanji was on one end in the house, and Raul jumped on our stone wall - luckily he did not fall in the river behind!

Yuuki! Go Yuuki! A little harder...

The final whack, courtesy of Yuuki's mum. And the lolly scramble begins.

Left, Amy with a knife. Right, Momoka and Lena

Dipti arrived early enough to have a quiet moment with Erica opening her present, a book.
Erica opening her present from the Tambourinos - a ball tent! It was amazing, kind of like a magic trick, we opened it up and BAM all the children went away and silence descended.

Erica delivering our present to Yuuki

Me! Along with Lena, Dipti and Max. On the right, Erica's posse, Hana, her, and Kiara.

And yes, we did have a keg. And no, I did not drink it all.

Wasp, Toppo, Scar and Pie

2011-09-30T23:25:00.005+09:00

Which could be the characters in the latest version of Grange Hill, but is just my last few days' random thoughts.

We got a wasp nest removed from one of the trees outside our front door last night. Suzume-bachi, big fat wasps. I was stung by one once about five years ago while camping at a river. I thought one of another camper's fireworks had hit me, it hurt so bad! So of course we had to get rid of it, and a guy whose day job is loading containers came and took it out for 10,000 ($100). He waited until dark so they would all be home, tending to their big fat babies, and Amy and I watched from the stairway window as he donned his protective gear, sprayed them, then cut the nest out of the tree. We all piled outside to examine the remains after. The grubs were still alive, and he informed us that they are edible, and some people eat them. Apparently they taste like shrimp. But (luckily) we could not eat these ones as they were coated in poison. OH, what a shame!!

Top left: the nest by day. It was actually quite beautiful, I don't know how they make it, probably spit or vomit! But it had a variety of colors like a parquet floor. Top right: after the deed was done. Bottom left: a close up of the eggs and larvae, and those perfect hexagons! Bottom right: this is how BIG they are! (and these are the 'small' ones, apparently there is another variety 'oosuzume-bachi' that are even bigger!)

I bet you had no idea they were this cute!

Their offspring are totally NOT cute though!

I got my Toppo back! Since I've been driving a sleek and fancy automatic 7-seater airstream with leather interior, navigator, clear speakers and enough space for the kids to have a whole row of seats each you might wonder why I would be so happy to be back in my tiny bouncy manual 4-door hatchback (it's missing the right-side passenger door) tin-can K (660cc) with the sticky doors, missing visor and wipers that suddenly stop mid-windscreen but it is just SO much easier to maneuver! The steering is so tight it can almost do a 360 on the spot, making getting into, and especially out of, our very narrow street much simpler! No more 20-point turns backing out of the driveway at night. I can now BLAT around the street and ZIP into parking spaces again!

A very bad photo of my car

Scar update: same old same old... I'm down to one change a day, and even leave it for a day and a half sometimes. On her foot, the silicon gel, followed by the sponge wrapped in gauze (so it can last more than one day) held down with an over-size bandaid and extra tape, then a bandage and then a sock, because she's an active little kid and even with all the protective layers it still starts peeling off under her toes after about half a day! On her hand, again the gel and gauze and tape, with sponge during the day (just to stop her curling the fingers in) with a sock on top of that for day, then at night, the sponge is removed, a longer sock put on top to protect her skin, and the splint of top of that. The hand is SO tricky, because the scar goes from just above the centre knuckle on her thumb, down to the palm, then back up her palm up the centre of her index finger about half way up. So I cut 2-3 pieces of gel to fit, and trim and cut bits of gauze and sponge and hold it all down with bits of tape going this way and that, all the while yelling at her to hold her hand open! Bless her for being so patient. She likes to take all the bandaging off by herself, and clean and massage and itch it! I was told in no uncertain terms today to not look, so she could rub and scratch in peace without me hovering over her examining it and picking at it! How long will this go on? No idea. The daily silicone gel is amazing - I did leave it off for a day, and was amazed at how hard the scar tissue got in that short amount of time. I might be doing this for months, or until I either get so sick of it that I just stop, or am satisfied that the scar has matured enough that it isn't going to harden too much.

Dressings! Top left: my resources - the gauze packets and tape and bandages and socks. Top right: the silicone gel drying on the clothes line. It's so expensive we're encouraged to wash and re-use it. Bottom left: the splint for nights. Bottom right: the sponge and gauze bandage for day, minus her hand - and I thought I'd done such a good job of taping this one on!

Finally PIE! Just baked one. Our school sports day was back in May, but we are going to a friend's one tomorrow. Two families are at that school that we know, one said to come with just our empty stomachs, but I'd feel a bit off taking nothing, so I decided to bring sandwiches. The others will probably have onigiri so I won't be repeating anything. Then at the supermarket I saw chicken breasts marked down to 90 yen in the late-evening sale so decided to buy them, and then decided to whip up a chicken pie and take that too. One failed pastry (stupid margarine) and a quick trip back to the supermarket for bought 'pie sheets' and the pie is half done - to be finished off in the morning so it's still warm when we eat it. Mmmmm.....

Erica's 4th Birthday

2011-09-27T20:54:00.000+09:00

Choccie Brekkie time! With a table full of presents

One of her favorite gifts - a little barking puppy. She calls him 'puppy'

Erica in the cup!

With some of her presents: Clockwise from top left: little singing bus (from Raul and Ana and family); fork, spoon and chopsticks for her kindy lunch (from neighbor Kiara); Elmo purse (from Amy and Lena); in her Gokai-pink mask; with her puppy and chocolate cereal for breakfast; puppy in the Kitty mug from Karin; Snoopy; Goofy from Momoka; and at centre, the gokaija pink mask, actually Yuuki's, but we borrowed it to make the cake

Erica's 4th Birthday Dinner

2011-09-27T02:36:00.008+09:00

Her party was on the 25th, so on the day of her birthday, we had a quiet dinner at home.

Left to right: I always have to fit cheese into the menu somewhere... this is fried cheese; We kept a gift aside for her to open on the day; It was a fairy castle tent, and I threw in a little plastic fairy castle, which she loved.

Amy took care of setting up the tent. Erica was so excited! On the right is another tent she got for her birthday, at her party on Sunday. She LOVED that one, and all the children disappeared into it as soon as I opened it! Magic tent!

Dinner: the first course, sashimi (and beer for the grown-ups). Erica trying to eat her sashimi with a knife and fork. Lena and Amy looking, well, unposed... The main course was a roast, which didn't work out very well, I tried roasting the 'beef block' you can buy here, but it was too small and dry)

The Parents

The dessert: Apricot cheesecake. (It was a flop, actually, the recipe needs to be re-written because that's the second time I've left out the icing sugar and lemon juice. However, using distasteful fake butter 'butter-type margarine' in the base is all my own sorry fault)

After the party.... Amy and Lena finishing their homework (it was a school night). We were watching a move (The Devil Wears Prada) but Erica got a bit sleepy and nodded off right there on the tatami under the table. In my defense, since she was a baby, she has consistently rolled off every cushion, bed or sofa I've put her on and slept on the tatami, so now I just let her go to sleep there! I did take her up to bed very soon after...)

Cars

2011-09-19T19:59:00.001+09:00

I'm shamelessly flogging Katy's car history blog, because her mention of the $700 Vauxhall Viva reminded me of my equally cheap Hillman Imp, which also broke down in the middle of nowhere when the radiator overheated somewhere near Bulls, and I hitchhiked home! I still remember the two nice guys who picked me up and drove me to Wanganui, then all the way across the city to the other side so I wouldn't have to walk to the main road. And I do NOT remember who picked me up after that!

Doogie (named Doogie Howser for its DH license plates) was a 1960's model, and originally belonged to my brother-in-law, who was living with my sister in Auckland at the time. He swapped it for the little yellow scooter which was my first set of wheels. He had a bit of a thing for classic cars, later buying an MG in British Racing Green.

Doogie was not quite a classic though, more of a tin can on wheels and THE hardest car to find parts for! Ah, those old cars, fully mechanical, that you could take apart and put back together again and thereby learn exactly how they work! Well, not me, but Dad that is, who did that sort of thing for fun and could therefore be relied on to fix stuff in a pinch.

One fine day found me scrambling over cars in a junk yard with the guy who worked there, determined to find a certain part that required the guy to crawl under the old Imp several cars down in the pile on the far side of the yard with his screwdriver and detach the part from the accelerator. Which I (under close instruction by phone by Dad) then attached to Doggie's underbelly - set to go for another week at least.

Doogie's boot was under the bonnet (meaning the engine was in the back), a quirk that never failed to amuse me as both mechanics and passengers headed to the wrong end of the car! Once you have a car of course, your popularity increases exponentially, which resulted in several dodgy road trips, a bender to Foxton and the usual trips 'home'. Lizzie, that time we barely made it up the hill outside of Wanganui - that wasn't Doogie, that was me being so dumb that I didn't realize that you have to change DOWN to get more power, not up. Dad later told me that the gear with the most power is actually reverse, so if I got really stuck, turn around!

And that's it for my experiences of driving in NZ. I'm always astonished when people ask me about how it is driving in Japan, assuming I'm 'used to' NZ driving conditions. In reality, I'm far more used to driving in Japan! The rest of my stories are from Japan, but I'm just going to post a photo of Doogie and be done with this for now...

Conversations

2011-09-19T18:46:00.000+09:00

Mum (to Erica, asking about her toy LIZARD): Is it a boy or a girl?

Erica: No

Mum: Is it a boy?

Erica: No

Mum: Is it a girl?

Erica: No. It's a MOSQUITO!

Mummy: No, Erica, DON'T put your teddy on the toilet! Here, here's teddy's toilet (pointing to rubbish bin)
Erica: No, that's yucky, THIS one is nice (hovering precious teddy over the bowl again) THIS one is paper is yucky (pointing to the used toilet rolls in the bin)

Child One: What does it taste like? (referring to wholegrain bread)
Child Two (while Mum is not listening, busy with toaster): You've got a pudding bum (to her sister)
Child One: I don't have a pudding bum!
Mum: It's crunchy and kind of nutty (in response to the the toast question of course...)

Mum (to child three, or anyone who was listening): You can lie down on the bed. Or on the sofa if you're not feeling well. You CAN'T lie down on the chair, or on the kitchen floor.

Sister to sister: Your FOOT is in my FACE!

Me to Lena last night: Sorry, I bumped your elbow with my ear

Amy calling to me from the house as I waited in the car: HELP!
I did nothing. Somehow I just knew she had really meant to just say 'WAIT!'

Walking towards the kitchen, hearing Amy's voice, then suddenly seeing Lena flying across the room after Amy entered the room with a great deal of energy, knocking Lena off her feet. The best thing - neither of them cried or implored me to punish the other. The benefits of SEEING the event!!!

And the best: "Erica, please don't eat cars" (in the supermarket carpark, where she was, literally, taking bites out of people's cars)

Nothing... and some scar care

2011-09-16T18:56:00.000+09:00

Really, nothing to say.

Got home from the hospital (asthma check-ups) to an early dinner and the bath is ready for Erica to hop in. She's the only one who wants to get IN in this heat! It helps soften her scar. Now she's collecting some of her little treasures off the floor into her pink doctor's bag while telling herself a story. Things like her wooden trains, tiny teddy bear, Dora book, hour-glass).

Amy is exhausted beyond belief after getting NO sleep at camp last night, with crazy kids wandering around the room complaining that it was too dark, or too noisy, or too hot to sleep, and keeping awake everyone else! Lena's kind of doing her homework, but mostly showing Amy a documentary about octomom. (? the stuff Kanji thinks would be cool to show the kids....)

No work this week, but some proofreading and essays to keep me busy, plus the Journal, which I've been badly neglecting. Promising myself to give it all morning tomorrow (going to visit Katy in the afternoon) and ALL day Sunday.

The kids are going to Kurume tomorrow to visit Jiichan. Erica's off on a field trip on Friday. Ana's birthday party that same day, then Erica's on Sunday! Fun weekend next weekend! This weekend, I can but try to stay away from that by-now very expertly chilled bottle of 2011 NZ sauvignon blanc in the fridge.... have to bath Erica first and change her dressings. That is getting very tiresome...

I spend about 1000yen a week on new dressings - gauze, bandages, tape. I only need to do the foot once a day, and just change the sock over it in the morning. I have to do the hand twice a day, a brand new fresh dressing after her bath, with gauze and a pressure bandage and a splint to stretch her thumb and finger out. And then again in the morning, when the splint comes off so she can live her life, but I replace it with a piece of sponge held firmly on with tape and bandages. Being an active kid, and now going to kindy, means everything has to be held on with extra tape and layers of bandages and protective socks.

Underneath it all we have silicon gel laying directly over the scars to keep it soft. It works really well, but it's really expensive - I paid 5000 yen for a 20cm square sheet. So I've been told to wash it and hang it on a peg! So I have cut pieces to fit and diligently wash and hang them every evening! This is all scar care - her wounds have all healed, but with a genetic predisposition to hypertrophic scarring, it's to be expected that she will scar badly again, so I am doing all I can to minimize the damage.

On the bright side, she is very pleased that she can now do the thumbs up (when her dressings are not on!) and make diamonds with her two thumbs and forefingers. She couldn't do that before.

A Sad Day

2011-09-06T12:31:00.000+09:00

I usually make an effort not to 'count my woes'; you know when you start adding up all the dreadful things that are happening, start LOOKING for them, and end with something like 'And THEN I dropped an egg on the floor AND my tea got cold again' even though those things wouldn't usually make it to your trauma list.

And I've done a good job of sticking to that I think - I refused to add a father-less Father's Day, the anniversary of Christchurch's first quake, and the upcoming 9/11 tenth anniversary.

It was still a sad day...

Kanji and I drove off in different directions to two different hospitals, him to see his Dad, who had surgery on the cancer in his liver on Saturday, and was still in ICU on Tuesday. So I couldn't help but be reminded of my own father's cancer, and that of a friend's father. She only lost her mother to cancer six months ago, which is such a cruel blow.

Swapping cars at Jiichan and Baachan's stand, I bumped into Raul, whose bar burned down last week. More about that in another post.

And another post also for an update on Erica's post-surgical healing, suffice it to say that the reason I went to the hospital today was because it's scarring up again. Sigh.

And the day ended with me hearing about two friends' children with serious illnesses, so by the time I arrived at Baachan's in the evening after work, it seemed like I couldn't possibly fit any more sadness into one day. We went out for noodles with Baachan and came home and went to bed! I hope the rest of the week brings more good news for me.

Last Day at Home

2011-08-22T19:50:00.003+09:00

Erica's doing so well, she climbed down the stairs this morning, learned to walk not long after, and was running by afternoon. It's like going through all her baby stages at lightning speed! I'd forgotten how busy she is, how all over the place she is - she just called me to save her from getting stuck in a box.

I think this is pretty much our last long day at home - hospital tomorrow, I have to go get my new license on Wednesday, then work on Thursday and Friday, then back to school next week. It's been okay, I got a few jobs done, Amy and Lena did some more homework and got started on their summer craft:

Amy is building a fairy house, with furniture made out of little twigs. She's using my old laundry basket, which was falling apart.

Lena is building a castle out of stone, with a garden.

Erica having a whale of a time with a small pile of stones, two cups and a bowl. I'm not sure if she's made rattles yet at kindy, but if she hasn't, then it was pretty clever of her to figure out that we could use tape to seal the two cups and keep the stones in. She went and got the tape, and instructed me on what to do, as she can't use the tape herself.

We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas and gravy for dinner. It was divine, and I was amazed at just HOW much the kids LOVED it, and ate it all up until there was not a drop left of anything. I put aside a plate for Kanji first, it's in the microwave, but I'm secretly hoping he doesn't eat it and I can have it later, when the kids aren't watching...

The Great Jelly Tip experiment Part III failed. I was unable to get the finished ice block out of the moulds, as the ice cream was too soft. But the jelly was fairly good, not as good as the real thing, but not like frozen ice either. I ended up serving it in a plate with the mushed up ice cream, with the melted chocolate drizzled on top. It was a delicious dessert anyway, BUT back to the drawing board for the jelly tips. I'm assuming the way to go would be to use a mould that can open up, or even to shape them by hand and wrap them in foil to harden them before dipping them in chocolate. Watch this space.

Normalizing

2011-08-20T20:29:00.003+09:00

Erica is doing really well. She's moving around much more confidently, she even climbed the stairs today, which horrified me and made me proud at the same time! I refused to let her try climbing back down though. She climbs up to the table, and all around the room. The only thing she really needs me to help with is the toilet.

We did pretty much nothing yesterday, except unpack and photograph a Kabuto helmet I want to sell, if I can find a way to get the frame to NZ.... I did get those baskets done in a fit of energy late in the day.

Today I slacked off all morning, only noticing the time had slipped by when Lena declared that the noodles they had made themselves for a snack must be lunch. And lunch it was. I then buzzed around like a maniac doing some cleaning until dinner time, leaving several 'organizing' jobs lying around tempting me to be good and finish them (genkan baskets, bag of plastic kitchen toys, the laundry!)

I cracked open some champers and set to cooking gazpacho, as per a Gordon Ramsay Spanish summer menu. Then read it needs to sit for four hours. After I had chopped everything. Sigh. So I made the paella for dinner, and we'll have gazpacho (with the flavors WELL blended) tomorrow. K came home, and surprised me by knowing, just by seeing the rice and seafood in bowls put aside on the bench, that I was cooking it! He ate it all up too...

Erica's recovery, and hearing nothing about Jiichan's op yet, have given me the confidence to go ahead and plan something for my birthday. Watch this space.

Job Time

2011-08-18T18:29:00.006+09:00

I figured all this time at home was a good chance to get some jobs done.

I cleverly manipulated the children into helping me upstairs today by not turning on the downstairs air conditioner, but putting the upstairs one on REAL low, 18 degrees, which brought them up, like moths to a flame, especially as the two older ones are burnt to a crisp after yesterday's pool trip.

Morning's job was tidying up then re-arranging the shelves where the stuffed toys live. Then we stopped for lunch (Johnsonville cheddar brats, which turned up miraculously in the supermarket the other day, no doubt a feat not ever to be repeated, requiring me to eat them every second day until they disappear) and partook of Stage One of the Great Jelly-tip Experiment, making and freezing the jelly. Actually the jelly froze nearly instantly, so I was able to squash in some vanilla ice cream before returning upstairs for the afternoon job.

We (mostly Amy and me, with Lena amusing Erica and running errands) took all the books off the bookshelves, sorted them, re-arranged the shelves and put them all back again. It took all afternoon!

Lena's 'Dream Bed' as decorated by her after cleaning up the stuffed toy shelf and claiming several.

Top left: Lena's bed, as you can see, the profusion of small toys was only the start. Barely enough room left for Lena! Top right: Amy's bed, a vision of Spartan comfort in comparison. Just one book and a teddy bear. Below left: personal shelves, Amy's on the left, Lena's in the middle, and mine, yes mine, on the right. I seem to have been bequeathed possession of Chucky. Doraemon is a telegram case from our wedding. You can just see Constance, the rag doll Mum made for me while in her patchwork phase, peeking out from behind. Above them is Mutley Spot Rod, a present from a boyfriend when I was 16 or 17. Below right: the chapter books and readers and audio books, on a VERY tired shelf!

Top left, the rest of the stuffed toys. Each time we clean up a few more get tossed, but this is it for now. Erica's selection on the top left shelf. Top right: the main (kids') book shelves. Bottom left: well, I put in their beds, so here's mine. The pretty one. Bottom right: the generic whoever bed, where I usually end up sleeping, next to Erica's little bed in the corner.

First Phase Over

2011-08-17T20:35:00.011+09:00

If the first phase is post-op, with the pain, and fear of infection, and temperature checks and antibiotics and the horrible fear of a bump making everything slip...

Then today then brings the second phase, which I'll call the eye of the storm, a less intense week ahead, less pain, more comfortable sitting up (though she still likes the cradle hold, I think she just likes feeling cuddled!), moving around more confidently, no more looong afternoon naps (she had a 3-hour 'nap' last Friday), and a few more clothing choices available to us with slightly smaller bandages.

In hospital waiting room, trying to play iPad BMX, a two-hand game,

and doing a pretty good job!

We went to the hospital today for a check-up and bandage change. They did her foot first. I couldn't believe the amount of padding and gauze that got cut away. As they final few layers came away, it became apparent that the final layer of gauze was still sticking to the wound, a sign it hadn't healed yet, so they sprayed antiseptic all over it, layered on another layer of wet gauze and wrapped it all up again, all the layers of gauze and padding and the half-cast and bandages, phew! It is a little smaller this time though, and not as high up her leg.

Then her hand. This wound was cleaner, as expected, so all the layers came off, and we got to see it for the first time. The skin grafts were purple, and we were told t hat was normal. And she had about 30 black stitches sewing up the sides. There are two main areas. Kanji is a bit more squeamish than me and was reluctant to look, but I was keen, I'm very curious about it, wanting to see if indeed there was now enough skin to let her throw up a 'thumbs up'. And her palm lines, I guess she'll never have a conventional 'life line' and 'head line' etc, but I was intrigued to see that you could see the fine lines from her foot.

The bizareness of all this does not escape me. And we did that to her? I was just talking to Mum about it. I felt so guilty for doing this to her, it seems so extreme, after all, she wasn't having too much trouble with it, and if asked, would probably have chosen not to do this. I've always believed parents should let the child decide things like this, after all, it's their body. BUT on the other hand, she doesn't know what it's like to have a fully functioning hand, so how can she choose? The final straw though, is that scar tissue cannot grow. Imagine a baby's palm on an adult's hand. That's what the future would have held for her without this graft - an increasingly clawed hand.

So they wrapped that up again too, smaller again, but only slightly. She cried for both, but was calm and didn't fight. The doctor even complimented her on her ability to keep still even though she was clearly upset. I think it helped that everyone stated talking about ice cream, and how the Pino 6-set sometimes has a heart-shaped ice-cream chocolate in it alongside the usual round ones. I tried giving her a lolly pop too, but she wouldn't have it.

I'm calling it the eye of the storm because her stitches come out on Tuesday, which they say is going to hurt more, and all the pain relief she'll have is panadol. And then we'll be looking after her new skin, which will be a whole new story.

Madam insisted on spaghetti for lunch and got it, spoiled rotten Queen of Sheba that she is this week! This photo shows her hand bandage really well.

And this is a really good shot of what happens to hair in the humidity. Still no spaghetti.

And this is the concerned face of a man who knocked his wife's camera out of her hand into the meat sauce and is HOPING LIKE HELL it can still take a picture.

And this is just an unjustifiable cuteness overload, plus a yummy Da Qui lunch.

Meanwhile, Amy and Lena came home, partied out, and sunburnt and very tired!

Sociability

2011-08-16T18:01:00.002+09:00

We've been quite sociable this week, despite being officially sequestered at home for Erica's recovery. Friends over Thursday, obon at Aunty's Saturday, another obon party Sunday, and tonight, another friend came over, with dinner!

The cold noodles going round and round. It's battery operated, see blue button on top. With negi (green onion), kamaboko (fish sausage, pink), sweet omelet (yellow), and tuna (brown).

Raul messaged me yesterday to see if we wanted to go to the pool, and I sadly told him that was out of the question. He offered to come over, and bring dinner, so we arranged it for tonight. He has a Mexican restaurant, so I assumed that meant Mexican, but then he suggested McDonald's, but I told him we already ate that! And sushi and pizza already at parties that weekend! I suggested somen (cold noodles, a summer favorite in Japan and very easy to prepare) and he said he just happened to know someone with one of those noodle fountains (picture above, Japan people don't you think that's the best word for it in English?)

So over they came, Raul, wife Ana, and his two younger boys Max and Maguno. They brought ham, 'nama' ham (not sure what to call this in English, it's cured but not baked I think), eggs, spring onion, tuna, tomatoes and cucumber and the somen and dipping sauce AND the fountain of course! So we all had a lovely feast, and Erica was THRILLED to play with Ana for a few hours, she loves her!

The best thing was, they offered to take Amy and Lena to the pool tomorrow with them, while we take Erica to the hospital. I readily agreed, poor Amy and Lena need to have some fun this summer and not be stuck at home with me all the time!

Left to right: Raul, with the tomato, cucumber, and ham, Lena, Ana, Amy, Erica, Maguno, and Max.

Erica shows her noodle-grabbing skills. Nothing stops her! She's using a special kids' chopsticks designed to make you hold them right

A Toddler's Job

2011-08-15T13:11:00.002+09:00

I'm constantly amazed by Erica's whole-hearted effort and adaptability as she negotiates her new reality with an arm and leg tied up. She forges ahead, trying to do things on her own, and if she can't she just as readily accepts that and asks for help. Then I reflected, this is just the norm for a toddler, they're all like that all the time.

Last night we went to a friend's house for dinner, so the girls could get their yukatas on and go to their neighborhood obon dancing. Erica and I stayed in the house, apart from one small walk down the street. I had intended to take her, but it finished before I expected. As we arrived she saw the park, and asked if she could dance, but I said she couldn't, because of her foot. Two seconds later she had the solution 'Mummy hold me and dancing'. On the other hand, I didn't really want to have to field the inevitable barrage of questions. I still haven't come up with the perfect concise, complete answer that will save me having to repeat the same conversation over and over.

It's been a long day, Erica spent about two hours on YouTube while I sorted my jewellery and watched documentaries narrated by Morgan Freeman. He has such a nice voice, I think he should narrate bedtime stories, or hypnosis tapes. Erica's kindy teacher visited at about 2pm, which Lena LOVED. She went a bit crazy actually.

I selected a week's worth of recipes yesterday, intending to do the whole week's shopping some time today, but didn't get a chance. The day ended in a big rush with running around in the car doing errands, picking up the girls and managing to slip into the shop for a few essentials before picking McD's for dinner.

I showered Erica and now they're eating ice cream and watching a Disney movie. The day ends peacefully.

Gung-ho to grumbling to ghosts

2011-08-13T12:46:00.003+09:00

I was surprised to hear the sound of her drinking from a water bottle this morning. I rolled over and found she had figured out how to open the bottle, steadying the bottle against her arm bandage! I decided to try feigning sleep in the hope she'd get the message, but the next thing I heard was what is going to become the very distinctive clump/thwack of her crawling. Towards the door. Towards the stairs. That got me out of bed pretty quickly!

She started the day out okay, but got increasingly grumpy as the day went by. Some things are becoming clearer. It hurts her foot to have it hanging, so she does not like eating her meals at the table, or going to the toilet. When I carry her, she prefers a cradle hold. While she will sit up and do an activity, eat, or crawl across the floor for something, she gets tired quickly and wants to lie down again. Turns out the TV IS going to be our major recovery aide. Problem with that is that Amy and Lena get TV googly eyed, and don't do their homework.

It's obon, the festival of the dead, where we put out lanterns to guide the ancestor spirits home for a visit and feast in their honor. Which means we all pile round to Aunty Toyoko's (who has the butsudan, the Buddhist family altar in her home) for sushi and pizza. No men. It's certainly true in this family that women are the bearers of culture. Kanji had to work, as his staff wanted to take time off for the holiday. And Jiichan was sadly in hospital, though he called and talked to everyone. Toyoko's kids (Kanji's cousins) didn't come home. We don't see Mie and her family as they celebrate family occasions with her husband's family. So it was Baachan, Toyoko, me and the three girls. Eventually we called a staff member H-chan to come and eat the leftover sushi and pizza - Toyoko had catered for the WHOLE family, not just the few who turned up.

Before he turned up, we were all sure we heard a voice call 'Konban-wa' from the genkan (entrance)... but no-body was there. Okay, so there was a house just over the street (meaning 3 metres away) it could be, but it was also the festival of the dead... I remember Jiichan toasting the ancestors last year. So I told scared Lena to call out Irrashaimase (welcome) and kampai (cheers), just in case it was long-dead Great-grandfather come to call.

A few vids

2011-08-13T08:02:00.003+09:00

Erica's 'message' from her room to their waiting room on the morning after her surgery, still a little groggy!

Their message back. Lena's gonna kill me for posting this.

Cars!

The high voice is her version of polite Japanese such as you hear in shops and restaurants

Day Two

2011-08-12T13:48:00.002+09:00

Funny ending to the day yesterday. It was Thursday, usually the day we go to Haradas to teach the kids English. I had told the kids at least last week that we would be on holiday for the next few weeks, but somehow the parents missed the message, and the Mum called us at six, just as I was getting Erica's pyjamas upstairs actually. As it turned out both sets of girls begged, and they ended up coming for dinner. Kanji had already made some curry and we had sashimi, so Harada Mum turned up with the kids and some beer!

Yuki was a bit afraid of Erica, would not go near her, and turned to his mother for cuddles. I think Erica was a bit sad about that, as she loves him. She enjoyed having all the kids around her though. Harada papa came later on, and after a few drinks and some curry, they went home - minus the girls, who begged and begged again, and Kanji said they could stay the night while I was upstairs making sure the aircon was on. So, I made him get their futons stay down with them and I went to bed with Erica!

Today, me and Erica woke at 6:30 am. She was pretty happy, talking away as usual. I brought her downstairs, but the girls had slept so late they stayed asleep until after nine. They went home before lunch, so we had a more peaceful afternoon. Erica got increasingly moody, then fell asleep on the sofa - for three hours! This is so unlike her, I can only credit her exhaustion from all she's been through.

After she woke, we all went for a walk. We needed to get out of the house! Amy asked her if she was happy, and she said, no, she's sad. When she saw her Daddy, after we got back, she told him it hurt. Several times during the day she cried out in pain or in fear at the 'spiders'. So, now it's dinner time, and medicine time, and the countdown to bedtime again. While she used to take her medicine so well, and take the powder in her mouth, she's turned against it and we had to force it into her last night. She was against taking her temperature too, while she normally does that by herself for fun! We've turned our good little patient into a scared, oppositional one. Sigh. One day down... how many more to go?

Surgery

2011-08-11T17:08:00.011+09:00

Erica in her room on Tuesday

We arrived at the hospital at about 9:30am on Tuesday morning, ready to be admitted and take some routine tests. We got shown to our room, which was a shared room. I had said at the previous consultation that I didn't mind a shared room, I'd stayed in Japanese hospitals before and knew the drill, so no worries. Plus it saved money. There was only one other boy in there, and his mother. However, they left before the day was out, so we ended up in there alone anyway. And I heard the doctor asking on the second night, after the surgery, if we were in alone, I think he thought we would need to be alone to cope with her recovery.

Height, weight, blood, heart and x-rays. Only the blood tests they did without Mummy or Daddy there, and she came back to the room, walking hand in hand with the nurse sniffing a bit from crying. She told us all about it, garbled sentences (she still doesn't speak very well) with lots of 'doctor' and 'here' and 'ouch'. So I was glad we got to accompany her to the heart test and x-ray after that. Then the doctors came to talk to us, and we signed consent forms and admittance forms and got explanations of the hospital routine and Erica's 3-day schedule.

Only parents, grandparents and kindergarten teachers were allowed on the ward, siblings had to wait in a family room just outside the nurses' station. So we were constantly going from one room to the next, checking up on the big girls, then back to Erica's room to wait for the next nurse or doctor visit. Fortunately it was all over before lunch, and Kanji took the girls home after I took them out to lunch at the restaurant next to the hotel (down-home Japanese cuisine - crowd-pleasers like tempura and other teishokus, oden, spaghetti, and a nice bakery attached where I stocked up on bread for dinner) . Then Erica and I were left to fill the long afternoon!

In the playroom

We watched TV, and colored, and read books, and played in the big play room and watched a video in there, the Jungle Book, which Erica has been longing to see since she read the book at kindy - but which was not available at either of the DVD stores in town. We had a bath in the middle of the afternoon, it seemed a nice way to pass the time. Dinner was early, she didn't eat much. I had my ham and cheese bun and a basil roll. Then I read a book and played games and read magazine on the ipad, while she watched TV and finally fell asleep. We didn't sleep to badly considering the narrow bed! I knew to bring a pillow from home, all you get is a sack of stones.

On her bed Wednesday morning; we're a little more settled in now

Doing puzzles in a kids' magazine, using her left hand for the last time in a while

Wednesday morning of course she wasn't able to eat before her operation. The deadline was 6am so I got up at 5:30 and gave her a bowl of the cereal I had brought for my own breakfasts and the last of my milk (no good to me since hot drinks were not allowed on the children's ward). She also ate some biscuits we had bought the day before at the convenience store in the hospital. She was allowed drinks until 10am. We did the same as the day before, played with a kids' magazine, watched TV, played in the playroom. I was pleasantly surprised at how well she coped with the no eating - she didn't even ask for food. That was one less stress for us to cope with. We also had a bath again, which helped distract her.

Finally Kanji and the girls arrived, and the countdown began. She was scheduled to start at 12:30, so they came to change her clothes and take her temperature once last time at about 12:15. I carried her down to the O.R. Only one of us was allowed to go in, and it was me. We didn't wait outside the OR, we waited outside the whole ICU unit, by the elevators. I went through one foot-controlled door, and put on a gown and cap, then through another to the surgery suite. Erica's room had a Anpanman poster on the entry wall. And there was a colorful towel blanket covering the table, and a big Winne the Pooh and three smaller toys on the blanket. This simple technique actually worked very well at distracting her from the big room with all its scary equipment. She just zoned right in on that Pooh Bear! Actually she then chose the smaller toys, and hugged them along with her own teddy bear that she was allowed to bring in. You got the feeling that they've done this before with little ones, which is very reassuring for the parents as well of course.

They allowed her to sit on the table while she got monitors put on her chest and toe. She was very reluctant to lie down, finally I had to scoop her up and lay her down. She resisted a bit, but not much, I held her shoulder gently with one hand and stroked her temple with the other as they put the mask over her face. She fought it a bit, but the drugs worked very quickly to sedate her and she relaxed. She fought sleep too, as I told her it was okay, she could sleep now. As soon as she drifted off, I left, with her teddy bear, to wait it out.

We were asked to always have someone waiting outside the unit. We took turns going up to see the older girls, who were still in the 6th floor West Wing family room. The surgery unit was on the 4th floor East Wing. I went first to get my bag and phone and book. Then he went for about 40 minutes, then I went, and took the girls to the same restaurant we had gone to the day before. I didn't really feel like eating, but I knew Erica would not be eating for at least six hours post-op, so I thought I should eat something then.

And then I headed back, and Kanji went up for another 30 minutes. When he came back just after 3, to let me go up again, I didn't want to go, as I thought she might come out soon. The actual surgery was scheduled to start at 1pm, and to go for two hours. The nurse who took us to the OR explained that with the surgery, and waking her again, it could take up to 3 hours total. I started counting that 3 hours from 12:30, never forgetting the initial 2-hr estimate, and Kanji started counting at 1pm. So I started getting hopeful at 3pm, and started to get concerned at 3:30. The doctors did not emerge until nearly 5pm, so it was a hellish last hour! No, no-one came out to tell us anything, which made it worse.

During the time she was in, four others were wheeled past into surgery... and out again, including one poor fellow with bandages on his head who was wheeled out twice for CT scans (clearly don't have scans available on the surgical floor) and back in again, but no Erica.

Finally the doctors only came out, which startled me again as we were ushered into a side room. The head surgeon looked exhausted, was sweating and his hands (such small hands he had!) were shaking. They said it had been more difficult than expected, but everything was fine now. Phew! They then showed us photos of the progress. These were, of course, awful. I'm glad he showed us the photos of the hand immediately post-op, with the black nasty stitches, during our last consultation as that gave me some warning. Other pictures of her hand reminded me of nothing so much as her hand how it looked about a week after she burned it, still not healed. The foot I was less prepared for the foot, it looked awful with the flesh torn off. I recognized it as HER foot, and could see the rest of her leg and body in the background - and THAT upset me more than anything! So they explained what they'd done, which was as he'd previously explained to us - cut out the hypertrophic scar on her hand, zigzag the edges of the wound (because a straight line is less likely to turn into a hypertrophic scar), cut a thick piece of skin off the foot, and put it on the hand, then cut thinner pieces of skin from around the cut on the foot, and graft them onto the site of the thick graft (domino graft) to help the donor site heal better.

We then had to wait another 20 minutes for her to come out of the general anesthetic, and we HEARD that before we were called to her - screaming in shock and pain, it was awful. I had imagined she'd still be groggy from the drugs, and she was I suppose, but that grogginess alternated with screaming. I managed to sooth her off to sleep again, but every bump of the stretcher on the way back to her room set her off again, then for the next hour she woke every few minutes complaining of pain, until the pain killer they gave her after the general wore off started to kick in. Slowly, the periods of time she slept in between waking in pain and crying grew longer. Kanji and the girls had to go home, so it was just me again taking care of her. She had a drip in her right hand, a pulse ox on her right toe, and I had to hold an oxygen mask near her mouth as she woke up and panicked when it touched her face.

After a while I only held up the oxygen when the monitor said 96-97! It was tiring! They said she needed it for the first three hours after surgery, to make her recovery more comfortable, so I persisted. So at 8pm I stopped that. I slept soon after - I figured I had a long night ahead of me. She woke many times of course, then she woke for a longer period at 1:30am, and I called for more pain relief for her then. That got her through to morning.

She woke early, quite alert and said she was hungry. I called the nurse and they said she could have yogurt or purin and then eat more if that didn't make her sick. That had been the plan for 8pm the night before, but she slept through so we didn't try to feed her. Now, in the morning, as the nurses told me that, but made no move to get any food, I finally realized they meant *I* should provide the yogurt or purin. I was annoyed that no-one had thought to tell me that, and of course I didn't have any. She was asleep again by then, so I ventured down to the convenience store (at 7am) but it did not open until 8am, the same time as breakfast came, so that didn't solve my problem. I did get coffee for me though from the vending machine.

Thursday morning, getting ready to leave for home

So I fed her crackers, what my mother had always advised as a good start for a nauseous stomach, as they are dry. She ate about six, plus water to wash it down as she sat back on the pillows watching TV. Then she ate half her breakfast rice. Kanji was trying to get there early to be in time for the doctor visits, but he didn't make it. They came pretty early, both of them between 8 and 9. The nurse removed her drip, the receptionist turned up with the bill (85,000), we packed up and were home by lunchtime!

A few spare photos - her hand before surgery, the 'view' from the hospital window (6th floor no less! That's the East Wing we can see). And Shrek busting Romeo and Juliet.

Back Home Again

2011-08-11T14:44:00.004+09:00

We are home, and Erica is fine, apart from great big bandages on her left hand and foot that stop her from walking or doing a number of things. They are now watching Doraemon. I'm guessing there will be a LOT of movies and cartoons being watched around here for the next two weeks!

We are due back at the hospital next Wednesday for a dressing change and progress report. Not looking forward to that, I hope they sedate her actually. We'll see when the time comes. Until then we just have to try to prevent her walking - there is a boot plaster on her foot, but we were advised to try to keep her off it anyway. It's a big wound and for the first few days at least, I don't want to risk damaging it.

Her hand she just has no hope of using, except for bonking her sisters on the head. Yes, she has discovered that one use already! And she's already figuring out what she can and can't do with one hand - drink, yes, eat, yes a bit, get a cracker out of a packet, maybe, open a packet, no. She just explained to Amy that Amy had to open her packet of snacks as she couldn't because it was 'too much' she said, gesturing to her wrapped up left hand, which looks kind of like a bear paw with the fingers all splayed out poking out like claws.

She still has a slight fever and is sleepy and VERY moody, talk about turning into the Queen of Sheba! I hope her mood improves, but then again I don't blame her for feeling out of sorts, going to sleep in a strange room with people with funny blue hats and waking up IN PAIN and unable to use your hand and foot, with Mummy saying "the doctor fixed your hand" and you're thinking, "what? you call this whopping great thing fixed? Besides, there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. And what do you call this stupid thing on my foot? You said nothing about fixing my foot too!"

Here she is, being waited on by a very kind and patient Amy:

Day Before....

2011-08-08T17:20:00.002+09:00

Erica's surgery is tomorrow, barring any last-minute complications, like picking up the bug Lena has. She had a low fever and sore throat, it wasn't anything I would normally worry about but I took her to the hospital anyway just in case, hoping it doesn't pass on to Erica!

We also need to see Jiichan today as he is going back to hospital too on Wednesday. Looks like Amy and Lena will be spending a lot of time in the car with Daddy as he drives back and forth to the hospital. I will be staying with Erica.

I'm pretty much nearly all packed and ready. Seven bags!!!

One for clothes, fresh clothes for me, spare pants, dresses and nappies for Erica, and towels for both of us for the bath.

Then a big bag full of toys and books to keep us both amused.

A kitchen bag with snacks, tea, coffee and breakfast cereal for me. I can't survive on bakery items and convenience store food the whole time, so I'm bringing breakfast cereal with me! Plus tissues, wet tissues, and towels for wiping. And her asthma meds (lungs sounding clear, so no worries on that count).

Then there's the bedding. They only change the sheets once a week, so a sheet for the bed for during the day, and a pillow "for Erica", really for me....

Toilet bag with toothbrushes, etc.

My handbag, with ipad and iphone, cash to pay the bill, and the usual stuff!

And finally Erica's cute little pink fluffy dog bag, with some of her favorite toys inside.

Wish us luck.

Kurume Fukuoka Children's Science Museum

2011-08-03T14:21:00.005+09:00

My little garden pests

On our second visit to see Jiichan in Kurume University hospital, Mie suggested we take the kids to the Science Museum while we waited for him to have some tests. We were gone a bit longer than I expected, but the kids had fun. It's a hands-on kids' museum.

Me and Erica in the mirror room, no bigger than a closet, but it went on forever!

Watch the above to see why they ended up collapsed on the floor (below).

Take Two:

Above, a spooky mirror that a ghost comes out of! Below, in the shopping mall we went to for dinner after, Erica displays her not-quite-logical method of controlling her mount. Lena just being.

Valiant Effort to Drain the Keg

2011-07-28T09:37:00.002+09:00

Which is not something I've attempted with any seriousness since university.

So following on from the last post, DH staggered home from the long lunch, which had been at his favorite izakaya bar, to tell me that Mr. Date had loads of beer and can we go drink it.

I said yes. Well, who wouldn't? I get to skip cooking AND someone's going to give me loads of beer? Sign me up!!! He had left Amy and Lena at their place playing with their daughters, who are the same age as ours, and only brought back Erica. I had one more class to do, then rushed back and we got ready, picked up some fried chicken for the party and off we went, slipping through the back streets in a thunderstorm with umbrellas...

They live in an old house behind a shop in an arcade. The shop used to be a cafe, then a bar, but they use it partly for storage, partly for working with flowers (he's a florist) so the space is a mish-mash of tables, a bar, band equipment and practice space, a white board, a sofa, and other odds and ends. We ate there while the kids rampaged through the house unseen and unheard. There were just us two couples, plus her sister for an hour or so.

The beer turned out to be a keg leftover from an event that they were trying to get rid of, but the wife doesn't drink it, so they asked us over, lol! I can't remember how many I put away in the end, quite a few, and I didn't switch to shotchu later on like the guys did.

We just sat there and talked and talked and talked. About life and our kids, and Norway and Amy Winehouse, and religion and where you want to get buried, and bullying at school and kids' boyfriends and music and god knows what else! Great night!

One a Day?

2011-07-26T15:50:00.003+09:00

Perhaps if I diligently blog once a day, I'll catch up with the backlog over the summer vacation! Well I can only try.

I'm home alone with Erica, who is hunting candy in the kitchen, I believe. Amy and Lena took off with their Dad to go out for lunch three and a half hours ago. They had better come back soon, or my students tonight will be obliged to pretend they think Erica is adorable and not a pest.

It's been one of those red-tape bureaucracy catch-up days when you seriously consider becoming a hunter/gatherer just to escape the paperwork. I really do appreciate a) getting paid b) shiny hospitals that fix you up and c) fast, air conditioned road travel but boy do I hate the messing around with money and signatures and proving my existence and worthiness that you need to do to avail yourself of it all!

All this and keeping track of everyone's movements is a mammoth task in the summer holidays. This is what my diary looks like, color-coded to track all family members' movements:

Red for work, blue for Erica's kindies, black for Amy and Lena's summer lessons, purple for extras and pencil is well, just penciled in!

Note the nasty red slashes on today's entry... that would be the college I teach at. I was under the impression that my lessons today were in the afternoon, not the morning, due to the class name being written in the afternoon slot on the schedule. Until they called to tell me, no, they were in the morning. Luckily the two ladies I had schedule for a lesson this morning were very busy today and only too happy to cancel.

And note the big fat nothing on Saturday. It will be just me and Erica, as Amy and Lena are going to Maia's for the weekend. I think I'll take her to the pool, then out for ice cream, and to a park or something. With her surgery coming up, she needs a few special outings to make up for the two full weeks she'll be stuck on the sofa recovering.

In other news, I met Colin at Gion on Sunday night, and stopped for a chat, and met his family. Cute kids. Update on Mal, who I haven't seen or heard from in a decade. And he told me that BOX of my stuff turned up at his place in Melbourne after all this time. Well. Interesting to know it still exists! C. even suggested he would pay to send it to me, (though I told to send it C.O.D.) as he felt guilty having not got around to sending it for, oh, ten years! Still, not expecting to see it anytime soon, I guess he has to get back to Melbs to send it.

Wondering if the box will join the 'found' list or stay in the 'lost' list?
http://yokomatsu.blogspot.com/2011/02/lost-and-found.html

No Typhoon's gonna ruin THIS party!

2011-07-18T20:11:00.004+09:00

Typhoon No. 6 was threatening to blow the party away, but we all decided to persist, and go ahead - having lived through dozens on non-event 'super' typhoons, you get used to them blowing over!

So off to Nao's party we went! I love this photo because for once, none of my kids are posing:

The Birthday Girl and her fabulous fairy princess castle cake:

Clockwise from top left: Amy playing with one of the baby guests; Lena and Kaya posing for Amy; Erica in her favorite hiding place behind the sofa with Hiro and Tommy; Ken helping himself to cake; Erica in the pool; Nao, Hiro, Lena and Erica in the pool; the kids all eating cake; cute pic of Sasha and Nao, and in the centre a gorgeous photo of Sasha and Nao taken by Amy.

And finally, the inevtiable effect of a dozen or so children inside...

An Average Weekend

2011-07-10T23:21:00.004+09:00

We didn't go anywhere, or do anything particularly special, just pottered around at home, and I did some work on the AFWJ Journal...

Amy was really happy with it though, and told me she was having a lovely weekend, that we used to 'do nothing' on the weekends, just watch TV. I thought we HAD 'done nothing' this weekend (and that we used to do things on the weekend) but I suppose we managed to squeeze in some stuff. Lena is mostly over her hand, foot and mouth and Erica broke out in the blisters, but she has no fever and insisted it was not at all painful.

We got the pool sorted out. It started Saturday, which I think was the stuffiest, worst, hottest day we've had yet this year, and yet we still managed to not turn on the air conditioner. Lena nearly lost it at one point, nearly panicking with how hot she felt, and not being able to escape it anywhere. So I sat her down with a glass of iced water and a wet towel in front of the fan, and showed her how to wipe off her her face and body and let the air cool her. She settled down.

Not long after that, I decided it was time to escape, and do some shopping, just to get into the air conditioned interiors, and the air conditioned car. Every year, I get so annoyed at how dirty the pool gets, and the time it takes me to clean it up after a swim. So we went to Gooday, the hardware store, to scope out decking to raise if off the ground. We eyed some up, but decided to come home to measure the pool first. We stopped at the grocery store too, which was blissfully cool!

Back at home, I ferreted around in the shed to find the pool, and got it inside to measure it, also clearing space in the shed for the chairs and barbecues we needed to tidy away. Dinner was chicken baked with a tomato and vegetable sauce and cheese topping. A thunder storm broke in the late afternoon, which I was so thankful for, as it sucked the humidity out of the air and made it a bit more tolerable. It was super loud - we found out later that a lightning strike had taken out the car wash at the Stand! We had an early night, and I read a chapter of Harry Potter to the kids.

Sunday was the big day - pool day. I was supposed to get up at 6am to do the yard, but no chance - especially after Erica got up at 4:20 to go to the toilet - by herself! She must have been sleep-walking. Luckily Kanji heard her. Then for no reason at all, the other girls got up too, so the whole family accompanied her to the toilet.

So, I didn't get to the garden until after 10am, which is practically suicide (especially after hearing 7000 people were hospitalized for heatstroke over the weekend!). I wore long pants, a long-sleeve muslin top, and a Japanese granny garden hat - half a hat, with a scarf replacing the back half, so you can do it up under your chin, and gloves. This is to protect myself from bugs, sunburn, and just gross garden stuff (like cat poo). But with us all working together, we got it done in half an hour or so, and have set aside a pile of things to wash later, and cleared an area by the back door for the pool.

Next step - showers for everyone! Then I took them out to lunch as a reward for a very hard morning's work (not kidding - there was so much sweat coming off my face that my glasses were like I was underwater). We went to the Turkish restaurant and had kebabs and Turkish ice cream, and got given some divine cherry and apricot juice on the house.

Then we stopped by the Stand to pick up Kanji's van to transport the decking home, and went to Gooday to get them. A little bit more garden work, in yet another set of clothes - another long-sleeve top, but shorts this time. We set the deck boards onto concrete blocks to protect the bottom of the pool from the flood that happens when it's emptied - the soil is not very porous, and the yard drains to a spot in front of the study window - right where I used to like to put the pool. Set up the pool, turned on the hose, and the kids were in their togs and in the pool in no time. I nearly got in myself too, went as far as getting togs out, but then decided a nice cup of tea and some more Journal work was a better use of my time!

Kanji came home, and took us all out for dinner to sushi! We went to the new place in town, and it was packed - we took a ticket, No. 153, but the next number called was 132. It was written that the wait was 30-40 minutes, but in the end it was only about 20. I had my phone to keep me amused, then a friend turned up who I talked to. Amy read a book, Kanji just patiently waited; Lena went from me, to Kanji to me to Kanji, and Erica made a circuit of the room, amusing random baachans. Was it worth the wait? Yes, I suppose so, there was an interesting variety of sushi, and we collected around 30 plates in the end, plus extra orders of chawan mushi, udon, fried chicken, fried octopus, desserts, and beer and sake for Kanji.

I finally got the beer I had needed all day after we got home. I finished up a few more jobs on the Journal, and here I am, fulfilling my promise to myself to catch up and stay caught up with the blog!

Amy has started to read the blog, and the old posts too. Hello Amy! Nice that your English reading is getting good enough for you to comfortably read this now, you know it's as much for you guys to remember your childhoods as it is for me!

Modeling

2011-07-08T22:27:00.003+09:00

Late last month, we did some modeling. A friend referred us, his wife had done some shots for the guy and recommended us to him. I honestly truly thought he was going to take some photos of Erica. I even prepared Amy and Lena for that probability, telling them it was not about them. I just figured that Japanese photographer + 3-yr old model = 7,5,3 shots, and that there would be an assistant, and that Erica would be dressed in a kimono.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong! His aim was to create atmospheric, deeply shadowed shots, reminiscent of Caravaggio. We all showered before we went, luckily, and by another stroke of luck coming out of a small moment of doubt, I put them in nice clothes before we went, VERY luckily as there were no kimonos, no assistants... just him and us and a camera. Alas, I had not put on make-up though, and while I usually don't wear make-up on a day to day basis, I did feel very wrong and naked without it with a camera shoved in my face.

He took photos of me and Erica, copying an art print he showed me, of a painting of a Mother and Child or Madonna and Child in what looked at a glance like a Dutch 17th interior with deep chairoscuro... then photos of me and Amy, with Amy leaning on my shoulder, me looking very atmospherically into the middle distance... then photos of all of us... and finally ones of Lena by herself.

Lena was SO upset that he didn't take any of her with her Mummy. But I think it kind of made up for it that HER picture was the only one that ended up in the shop window!

Dinner out with my DH

2011-07-02T21:12:00.008+09:00

Sometimes the fates conspire to allow a parental date! We had been kind of planning this one since the kids decided they were going to go stay with their friend Maia this weekend. When Maia's Mum said they couldn't stay, we gently directed them toward their grandparents' house... we did have a Plan B - to take them all out for dinner together as a family, but in the end they all decided to stay. Erica had a moment of wanting to go home with Mummy, but all it took was me promising to come back, then coming back with her pyjamas, for her to decide either that I could be trusted to come back if necessary, or that it was way more fun at Jiichan and Baachan's house anyway.

Thus, we ended up at this fabulous new restaurant in Nakatsu!

Cheers! Not the best chapmagne, too sweet, but we were too ketchi to get the pricier one...

The antipasta tray: clockwise from 6pm: quiche Lorraine - Kanji loved it. Which means either that it was divine, or that my usual quiche is shite. A bit of both, I think! Smoked bacon - delicious! chicken liver pate on bread, then some other duck mix thing, and a cold ratatouille. I won that fight: we both agreed that my ratatouille is better!

The TO DIE FOR cheese platter - only 1000yen! Blue, camembert, cream cheese and a very smoky sharp cheddar.

Roast Beef. Unbelievably soft! Served with mashed potato, which my hubby kindly gave all of to me, and veges with a drizzle of gravy.

The chicken - rolled breast with butter and mint inside, and a tomato sauce.

Dipping My Toes In

2011-06-14T19:19:00.002+09:00

I know I've been neglecting my blog when my mother lets me know!

It's boring, but here we go again: I was busy doing the AFWJ Journal.

For now, this is it, I am still alive, we all are, although most people are moaning about being tired, as everyone has a cold. In Erica it turned into an earache and fever so she's off kindy. I just have to solider on, of course, no matter how I feel - not sick myself but shattered from the long nights of 'there, there' and forehead stroking.

Warning, cute stuff:

Erica was such a laugh on Sunday. I had a wee lie-down on Sunday morning. Hub came home and joined me. Erica soon found us. First, she amused herself falling face-first into piles of winter duvets we'd thrown on the floor. Then she jumped in for a cuddle with Daddy. The she decided that was all wrong, and came round to my side, behind my back. Then she turned me over for a cuddle, then turned herself around for a spooning cuddle, and only then was she happy. Then she immediately got up and fixed the blanket. Then left the room, but came back in two seconds with her small blanket from her bed, which she used to cover my feet. Then back into bed, this time for a nose-kiss session, first she kissed my nose, then I had to kiss hers. She let me know by yanking my head towards her nose by the hair. About twenty times. Then she amused herself balancing on the bed frame at the foot of the bed, using the cupboards and then curtains to balance. Finally some noise downstairs distracted her and off she went in a little whirlwind of grins and giggles.

Mother's Day

2011-05-14T21:04:00.003+09:00

All the girls drew a picture of Mum to put in a contest at Youme Town. None of them placed, but they were still excited to see their pictures on the wall:

Moderu-gokko

2011-04-22T19:04:00.004+09:00

Which means Playing Models: Amy was the Director, meaning she conceived the themes, chose the costumes, accessories, hair and make-up, styled the shoot AND took the photographs while telling her lackeys (all the other party guests) what to do. Lena and Kotoka (the two youngest guests, the other three staying are all Amy's age) modeled.

Well It's Thursday Then

2011-04-21T11:41:00.002+09:00

As the new April schedule sorts itself out, we all shake and ruffle and then settle our feathers back into the new life, and slowly it become clear how this year will look and feel.

And Monday takes the prize for being my new day off, with all three kids out of house by 8:30 and not back until 4:00, and no work either! And Thursday it isthen, that will be the day when I write a hurried blog post moaning about how busy I am.

Erica has to be at kindy by 8:30, then I go off to work, starting at 8:50. I'm done by 12, go pick up Erica and take her from Aiko daycare centre to Keio kindergarten, then come home, have lunch, then go back and pick her up at 2:15. She's loving it there! Hours are 10:00 to 2:15, Tuesday to Friday, so she goes to Aiko on Mondays, and also on Thursday morning, when my work hours clash with the start time.

Then it's back to Keio for Amy and Lena's classes at 5:00, then back to pick them up again, and then to Haradas, where we are teaching Karin and Momoka English. Finally home again and I even had time to read a chapter of Harry Potter to the kids - they are absolutely loving that, by the way, they had no idea the book was SO much better, and funnier, and more detailed!

Family Birthday Dinner

2011-04-14T22:03:00.000+09:00

On the day of her birthday we had a quiet dinner at home with just the family, and this tiny candle!

Amy requested roast chicken! I found one online and it arrived in time (from The Meat Guy). Plus roast vegetable, mashed potatoes, peas and gravy

The girls eating up. Dessert was apple crumble and vanilla ice cream

We also opened the disco ball and the mini-disco ball ipod dock that I had bought for the disco slumber party, and had a bit of a play. The disco ball was a bargain - but you have to turn it by hand! We also don't have a spotlight, but the iphone's LCD light did a good job!

Happy Birthday Amy

2011-04-14T19:57:00.008+09:00

Amy, 11. With ipod.

Amy + rock. Isn't my baby all grown up?

Earlier in the day, with her great big stuffed Marie, to match Lena's Cheshire Cat

Opening Marie

Present time! Marie, opening the clothes she got (the t-shirt and shirt she is wearing below, plus a pant-suit she hasn't worn yet, hm... ) and the notification of an ipod yet to come (it didn't arrive in time, so she got a 'letter' about her big present, like Lena's bike letter).

Erica hands over her present to Amy. Erica hands over Lena's present to Amy!

Opening some very well-wrapped pencils!

She was very happy with the lip gloss and nail polish from Lena, and the red pen and pencils from Erica.

My girl. And banana.

The ipod! And at actual size! It actually arrived on the 15th.

Well-packaged for something so small!

School Today??

2011-04-13T16:54:00.002+09:00

Not really... all 30 minutes of it.

Why on earth do they not just tell the kids they have the day off?? Instead they have to go through all the hassle of having everyone turn up at school for ONE lesson then hurry them all home again to get ready for the Entrance Ceremony for First Graders. Sigh. It's one of those 'Emperor's New Clothes' moments in Japan when you just want to stand up and say 'Hey, everyone, this is CRAZY!" because I'm sure everyone agrees that it is, they are just used to it and used to going along with it. Sigh. Rant over.

Average day, kindy class okay, Erica's second day at kindy went well, Amy and Lena biked to Baachan's while I worked and Erica played, only she wasn't there... we all came home in time to meet K back from the Entrance Ceremony, where he had to make a speech as head of the PTA. We all had lunch together, then Lena's friends came over to play. I went out and bought Amy presents, then took Lena out to buy her presents. Kanji went back to work, and Amy and Lena got started on the papier mache pinata disco ball...

Hmm

2011-04-12T19:49:00.002+09:00

Now I don't know what to write.

Went to work today, blah blah blah.

Erica's first day of kindy, where she apparently was rather 'energetic'. That's J. kindy teacherese for 'out of control we wanted to throttle her'. They don't expect too much from them on the first day though, hence the home time an hour and a half after the start!

All kids to hospital for asthma check and meet new doctor, very young, hope she will bold and let them go off their meds! Another month for now.

Amy and Lena settling into 5th and 4th grade respectively. Amy in particular had a good day, is in a good 'han' (group) and is having a good start to the year! I haven't heard much from Lena yet. She's doing her homework right now.

Bath and bed for me!

Silence

2011-04-12T09:14:00.003+09:00

It's awfully quiet. Wonder why...

Didn't do much today, except catch up with myself (laundry mostly! some tidying), some internet shopping (for Amy's birthday) and internet searches for how to make a disco ball pinata for her pyjama party.

For a 'day at home' I managed to clock up 5 car trips out - to drop Erica at kindy, to go back to kindy to take her rice to her (and do some shopping), to take the big girls to swimimng, do some shopping and pick up Erica, then to pick the big girls up from swimming, and finally to the Kodomo Kai meeting.

Dinner was chicken pie, YUM and happily made enough filling to pop some in the freezer for next time, so I now have 2 pies ready to go, yum!

Spring Break Final Day!

2011-04-11T11:44:00.014+09:00

You can read here GW's take on our day. For us the day started with a drive - it's perfect driving weather right now, and we spent the whole time pointing out and admiring the cherry trees. We HAD to stop at this spot:
It's just a small side road lined with cherry trees, but it was so beautiful. Japan does not 'do' tree-lined avenues very well... they get too scared of the trees getting in the way and chop them up. J. people are very careful and guarded of their behaviour in case they upset or inconvenience others - seems they apply the same attitude to trees. So it's all the more of a treat to see the trees allowed to grow wide and right over the road to make a ceiling of flowers. Of course it helps that they are cherry trees - while the hyper-vigilant pruning applies to almost all other trees it's cherry trees that are the most likely to be left natural.

Then onto GW's house, to swell the already full house with a further three children. Amy spends her time divided between the grown-ups and the children these days, and Katy clearly wasn't used to kids who could understand her witty asides, leading to her being put on the spot a few times by awkward questions... sorry Katy... actually I think she purposely sits in just to hear these titbits of adult life, that's why she's so damn quiet until you let one drop, then BAM go the questions!

Above, all the little kiddies! You can figure out who's who...

And a round of applause for Katy for doing such a wonderful job of lunch despite clearly feeling more than a little seedy. After lunch consisted of hanging out, alternately playing with the kids in the garden and trying to ignore them.

They played this game, and the 'kick the tent' version for over an hour. While Erica is hitting the rocking fish with her plastic trowel, Marina is totally missing each time - a fact she seems to find hilariously funny and MUCH more interesting than actually hitting it.

The adorable cat playing in the collapsed tent.

The trip home for us was an adventure as well. I've been trying to find a certain onsen in the mountains above Matama - last time I tried SpaLand, it wasn't that one. This time I tried another I found on google maps - it wasn't this one either! Finally on the way home I spotted a sign pointing up a side road, and finally found the elusive onsen, but we will have to wait until next time to try it out.

We also stopped by a community centre where I used to teach when I first came to Japan. I often wonder what has become of these kids, some of whom will have graduated from university by now!

A god-rock we drove past on the way to the onsen. Would LOVE to know its story!

Inside the onsen, Erica is just the right height to peek in at the rock garden.

Me outside the community centre/shrine/gateball ground where I taught all those years ago.

Dinner was KFC. I decided I would quite like one of their burgers. It isn't a particular favorite of mine, in fact I almost never eat them, I usually choose plain chicken IF I go at all, and we hardly ever do. But I just got it into my head that it would be nice (wine the night before does this to me!), and the kids agreed with me that it was a good choice for dinner. So we turned up at the counter and the burgers are 'finished'. Bloody hell, it was only 6pm on a Sunday! Who runs out of food in a fast food restaurant on a SUNDAY NIGHT? Some bad management going on there - not only were there no plain burgers (only 'wafu'(Japan style) chicken burgers) but there were also no wraps at all, and no crispy chicken. I ended up with a bizarre-tasting 'sandwich', sweet-and-sour I think it was, and a pepper chicken.

Home by 7, I think and after blobbing for a bit we all went to bed. I forgot to put Erica's pyjamas on! I got them out, then we all went up to bed. I did not notice when I tucked her in. I did not notice when I woke her in the morning and CARRIED her downstairs. I did not notice when she said bye bye to me at the door when I went to take out the rubbish. I only noticed when I came back to find her in the toilet, and saw knickers on the floor instead of nappies. Oh well, first dry night, and I didn't even plan it!

Spring Break Day Twelve

2011-04-09T19:49:00.004+09:00

And I just finished totally biting the girls' heads off about the mess! It doesn't take them long, especially since the living rooms are filled at the moment with over-flow from the in-process spare room tidying.

Plan for today was to go for a long drive to see a friend in Ajimu, but as we did not get ourselves organized until 5pm (ice cream with Mie, preparing for tomorrow's pot luck lunch, laundry, tidying, searching for the directions etc) we gave up and went back to the castle for an impromptu hanami. I had a picnic packed, as I was planning on stopping somewhere on the way to Ajimu, at any likely pretty spot we saw, but it was just getting too late for car touring, AND a picnic AND visiting the friend AND getting home in time to finish the pie and watch my TV show. So we were back home and in the bath by 7:30, and I now will have time to watch the second half of Pride and Prejudice, the one where Mr Darcy goes swimming in the lake...

Photos from the Hanami:

The girls heading down the road towards the castle and park

The castle behind the cherry trees, and on the right, the ubiquitous blue ground sheet. Once I would have cropped that out of the photo; now it just seems like an integral part of the scene!

Our picnic, very simple, the only thing I bought was the fried chicken, soy and ginger flavored fried chicken from our favorite store, which happens to be on the next block, and was recently voted one of the best in the country. Centre, flowers, a petal on my plate, and another ubiquitous hanami scene - shoes lined up by the mat. Japanese do not step on the picnic mat in their shoes. At the bottom, the kids play in the dirt. I rounded them up and brought them home not long after the rolling-in-the-dirt activity!

Pink and white and black and blue, on the left, the setting sun shining directly on the flowers brought out the pink; on the right, framed by the pale blue sky

Lena

Sun setting behind the Sakuras

Erica's Kindy Entrance Ceremony

2011-04-08T17:56:00.004+09:00

To be honest I still think it's a bit of a fuss for just kindy starting...

Speeches, introductions, performances from current students, presentation of a name tag, some singing and a brief orientation for the parents. It all took about 30 minutes.

Not so easy these days to get a good photo of self-conscious/shy/naughty three-year old!

Three Girls

Clockwise from top left: Erica being presented with her name tag; being led back to her seat by a kindy teacher; in a circle singing the ABC song; watching the video in the hall before we started.

Being presented with her name tag.

Singing

Sitting for the group portrait.

Erica, kindy kid!

Group shot, Yokomatsus in the centre.

Spring Break Day Eleven

2011-04-07T18:30:00.002+09:00

Last Day! School tomorrow! Though I am mentally extending the break til Monday, as the girls come home from school before lunch tomorrow.

Work has begun in earnest on the spare room! I have gutted and moved four bookshelves; the books themselves are lying in piles on the floor waiting to be sorted and moved to their new homes.

The china cabinet that was in the genkan has been moved to the spare room. The glass-doored bookshelf has taken its place in the genkan, and will be graced with my prettiest and most precious books, plus all the ones about New Zealand.

One more bookshelf has come into the living room, it will have the lower shelves filled with books for Erica, higher shelves for Amy and Lena, and the top shelves for me and Kanji; for me to put my current and next reading, for Kanji to pile up his little piles of 'stuff' that he does all over the place.

Two more shelves are in the hallway on the way to the bathroom, they'll be filled with various fiction and non-fiction. And I left one shelf in the spare room to take the English teaching materials, Japanese learning materials, etc.

Nowhere NEAR finished! We have lots more work to do!

Spring Break Day Ten

2011-04-06T14:11:00.002+09:00

I worked in the morning, so the kids went to Baachan's. She was happy to see them and they were happy to have Aunty Mie come and take them out for lunch!

After work I had a singularly bizarre meeting consisting of singing kindy songs.

I came home for a very quiet lunch, got called half way through to pick up a 'so sleepy she's nearly asleep in the car' Erica, who, when I saw her and suggested we go home for a nap, ran very quickly in the opposite direction saying 'NO sleep I wake!'.

Finally rounded up all children plus hand-me-down glasses and teapots from Baachan, and took them home; Erica upstairs to sleep, Amy and Lena off again to Baachan's on their bikes.

I spent the rest of the day starting the next task on the to-do list - the spare room - in between checking an essay, skyping Mum, supervising the delivery of the new dishwasher, and transforming said dishwasher's box into a house for Erica with a Barbie raincoat roof.

Finished the day with a nice glass of red in the cool April sunset, kids home and bath filling...

Sping 'break' Day... nine was it?

2011-04-05T19:11:00.002+09:00

Work work work. Certainly wasn't a break today, and still isn't as I have some paperwork and an essay to check before I can throw in the towel. Only 2 lessons today, but needed to do some prep for another one, as the curriculum has changed...

So it didn't feel very holiday-ish today, but at least I anticipated that by not adding something from the perennial 'to-do' list to the usual chores for today! So as soon as I've done typing this, my tired eyes and I can hit the pillow. Goodnight!

Spring Break Day Eight

2011-04-04T17:33:00.002+09:00

So far the only holiday goal I haven't met is lying on the sofa reading. I guess that means I'm doing pretty well... I'm sorting out photos and uploading them, I'm sleeping in, and I'm working through that to-do list. Today's was to tidy the medicines, which I got done rather late, starting at 4pm!

We all slept in again today. I would have read in bed but Erica woke up and wanted to get up. I took my sweet time having a cup of tea and checking the computer stuff. Amy and Lena got up and took their sweet time too. Finally we were galvanized into action by the daycare calling and asking Where was Erica. Huh? Nobody told ME that the dates were finalized for April and she'd be starting April 4. Apparently they called K, but he can't remember. Hmm. If this doesn't make them realize that calling the MUM is the best idea even if she speaks Japanese as a second language and you feel you can communicate better with the Dad...

We got her there about 10:30, and decided to have her stay for the nap, so I went back and rustled up her futons and brought them back (it's about 2 minutes drive away). Then me, Amy and Lena, um, took it easy again... they only got dressed because I told them I'd take them out for lunch. We went to Joyfull. New Spring/Summer menu, same old same old, only the gobo salad has gone, boo hoo, but the mixed pizza has been jazzed up a bit. We didn't have drink bar tickets!!! Kristin can you believe that?!? The ones in my purse were expired. We did without, since Joyfull is also about 2 minutes from home, and we figured we could wait that long for a drink of water. In the end we stopped by Daddy's shop (right next to Joyfull) and got some water there before we went home.

Cue more taking it easy (interspersed with four laundry loads, cleaning the kitchen and tidying the living room, I should add, but these things have to be done every day so I don't really even think of them when I consider what I have done today).

Amy was still feeling a little ill, so we skipped swimming. We rode the bikes to Joyfull and I rode to pick up Erica, so I got a bit of exercise done. Which brings me up to now, 7pm, dinner nearly done, then bath and bed for an early night!

Spring Break Day Seven: Hanami

2011-04-04T15:42:00.005+09:00

Company Picnic. I don't know how I've managed to miss it for several years running now... not sure why I missed it last year, but 2009 I was in NZ, 2008 perhaps it was because Erica was little, and I wasn't working at the time, 2007 probably because I had pg nausea and found the idea of going and smelling meat cooking and watching everyone drink beer to be quite depressing!

Coming up the road by the park

Kids and parks, always a perfect mix. Top: Lena's tree-climbing antics, and two priceless expressions caught on camera in one day! In the second, it's taken literally a second after she said 'She's killing me!'. Middle: Amy's games - getting lifted by Nakano-sensei, who succeeding in lifting her after trying to move Rob off the ground. Running around with baby Hana, and getting a swing off Rob. Bottom: Erica playing hide and seek with her Daddy, clutching her precious Candy Apple, which I refused to buy for her, but which Daddy bought for her after approximately one nanosecond of begging. Such a softie! Bottom right, with her soon-to-be kindy teacher Tomomi.

Flowers and family

Top left the kids' photo. Top right with goofing-off teachers included: Kiwis Andrew and Mari, Rob bugging Hannah and Emma (sisters) again, with Kevin's brother Ken, on the right, Hana's Dad Kevin talking to Erica's other soon-to-be kindy teacher Kristian.

Dudes from the next picnic along who we roped into taking our group photo. Loved the guy with the red hair, leathers, and fag hanging out his mouth as he took the pic! Even the toughest J. guys go to admire pretty flowers and politely take strangers' photos!

Kids and trees, another winning combination. Erica getting a bit of help!

As the afternoon wore on

Kids play. Somehow they figure out what the other is saying...

Spring Break Day Six continued

2011-04-04T10:56:00.006+09:00

Last night's barbecue was great - only a fraction of the five thousand invited guests actually turned up so all was well and the onigiris sufficed.

Top left: I managed to get all the kids in one shot, quite by accident! Lena, Erica, Momoka, Ui, Fusa, Karin and Amy. Top right, Karin and Amy with the food. My sausage in bread idea didn't go down too well. I was the only one who ate it! Bottom left, Momoka and Lena set themselves up nicely with yard junk. Bottom right, Erica seemed to be the only one who chose to sensibly dress for the ACTUAL weather, not the weather we just hoped for.

Karin and Momoka arrived first, sans parents, and immediately set to playing very hard with Amy and Lena. Next Egami sans wife and daughter (hard out playing Volleyball) and the Nagakura family (Mum, Dad, 2 boys) arrived, and we fired up the barbies and got cooking and eating. N brought me some champers which me, K and E drank while he watched and asked for opinions about its flavor. Neither he, nor his wife, drink - but they own a bar. So he wanted to know if it was any good! It was fine of course, champers on a sunny afternoon always is!

Next Ozaki turned up. Single guy, DJ and all-round music freak, he brought his iPad with music channels and hooked it up to speakers he brought and set in the garden. Times like this I feel very lucky to have neighbors who are mostly either deaf or dead. A shop on one side, a river and cemetery out the back, a deaf old lady out the front, so I only worry about the young family next door. N was also complimenting how great our place is for a bbq. I have mixed feelings about my yard/garden, probably because I have NZ friends with better garden nous who have actual lawns, but in comparison to most of K's friends, it's a perfect bbq space, with double doors that open from from the kitchen and living rooms to the garden, fully walled so the children can't escape, and the river out the back means we have a feeling of space as there are no buildings on that side. When I thought about all the others guests' houses I realized it was true, we DO have the perfect garden for bbqs, and I should be grateful and not moan too much about its failings.

Left to right: Egami and Kanji; Ozaki and speaker; Nagakuras Kotaku and Megumi

After the first flush of cooking and eating we all sat down around the barbecues to keep warm and drank more wine, this time French chardonnay from a plastic bottle! Me and K handed out jackets for everyone to wear since it really is too early in the season for bbqs! We switched from the sunny reggae channel to Irish music on YouTube as the sun went down and I translated such Pogues gems as 'I am gooooing... I am goooing... where streams of whisky are floooowing" which everyone agreed was a pretty good idea.

Multitasking Barbecue Master

The Harada parents finally arrived with little boy Yuki for Erica to play with. Hirakawa arrived sans family (wife and FOUR kids would have been a handful to feed!) More beer was drunk. E called for more wine, still not sure who brought it, red this time. More meat was barbecued and more people marveled over the risoni (nobody had ever seen it before). More jackets were handed out and I changed from my blue jewelled wedge sandals to my 12cm platform studded mules since Maki had a pair almost exactly the same. I then proceeded to fall all over the place so promptly gave up and switched back to the wedges. I do love those shoes though - but perhaps not for bbqs.

Finally the cold chased us inside, and we set up around the round table, heater on, almost felt like pulling out a nabe! In the meantime Osamu, Harada's brother arrived. Osamu is the drummer for the Sex Pistols cover band K plays in, and for another band with the guy who is bringing my new dishwasher on Tuesday, and the guy who is a DJ at the radio station where Nagakura and Kanji have their radio show. Hirakawa and Egami are the singer and guitarist in K's Rolling Stones cover band. Osamu's brother, Maki's husband, also plays guitar in another band with their sister and the electrician again, who didn't come but popped in for a few minutes the night before.

I will admit to not remembering much after this. Hirakawa is a baker and brought some very delicious cakes which we all ate. K brought out the whisky. He tells me they were all gone by midnight, and by the state of the kitchen and living room and garden the next day, it looks like everyone had a go at cleaning up, if not quite finished....

Spring Break Day Six: BBQ part 2 and Daylight Savings

2011-04-02T10:42:00.004+09:00

Did you ever have a day where you just wanted to add a few hours? Well, that's exactly what we did yesterday. I woke at 7:23, read a book, Erica was up next, making me get up about 8:40, and I had tea and checked email and facebook and did some photo blogs. Then Lena came down at 10:17. However, the clock on the wall in the living room said five to nine.

"Wouldn't it be great if it really was five to nine," I said. Meanwhile Amy had made her way down. And it was then that I decided that it WAS five to nine, that regardless of what the real world and everyone in it said, today we would go by that clock. It was great, because suddenly I had ages more time to finish doing the laundry, have breakfast and get ready for our picnic, and finish the photo/blog tasks I'd set myself.

So off we went to our picnic at "11:30". And we got back home at a respectable "2:00". Kanji came home not long after, and we started our barbecue in the sunshine at "3:00ish". After food and drinks, we had a long hot bath, and managed to get to bed by "8:30". Wow!

While sitting in the sun sipping beer we called a few friends, but no-one could come. So we decided to do it all again the next day! Kanji promptly called everyone he knows and now we have about a million people coming over TODAY, very soon, and all I have to do is shopcleantidyrollonigirisforthefivethousand. As you do.

One more thing came up as we sat there - he told me he's ordered a new dishwasher! It finally broke down the other day, and when he told me the new part would be $150, if it was even available for such an old model, I just assumed that it would go WAY down the bottom of the list of things to buy for the house. But it just got shoved up the top, and he's going to pay it off.

Two seconds later I found out why. He's ordered a new digital HD recorder as well...

April 1 Family Barbecue

2011-04-02T10:34:00.006+09:00

The Barbecue King. I just KNEW, when I heard him open the sliding door from outside, that a bbq was in the works.

Top: The kids are keen to take over the barbecuing. Yay! So me and K get to relax with a nice cold one. Kids in the yard. Centre: Erica being a robot. Bottom: kids! Erica admiring the sky, Lena's dual utensil technique, and Amy the Caravaggio.

Even Joelle the new Brat joined us!

Spring Break Day Five

2011-04-01T16:15:00.005+09:00

I cleared the floor a bit... but the spare room cleaning scheduled for today will just have to wait.

Instead I fiddled with photos and uploaded some to facebook, some to blog entries about Lena's birthday.

And we went for a picnic lunch again, whole post about that coming up!

Kanji came home while we were out, and suggested we have our first bbq of the season! I always love the first one the most, so bye bye blogland, I'm off to have a very yummy, welcome beer in my own wee garden! Another post coming up about that too.

April 1 Park Picnic

2011-04-01T15:48:00.004+09:00

Cherry Blossoms on their way!

We biked over. Erica has her picnic essentials - a cracker and her chopsticks. Amy with my handbag, Lena has the sandpit equipment, and I have the picnic basket.

I love this photo! I just made them genuinely laugh, so no fake smiles!

Picnic time! A packet of crackers, a small box of guacamole, cream cheese and mini tomatoes. Plus a bottle of coke and some oreos. Below, my offerings to the cherry gods. Oreo moon.

Bubbles!!!

And below, oreo time!

Faces.

Spring Break Day Four

2011-03-31T09:04:00.002+09:00

This plan/blog system is becoming a very interesting insight into how unpredictable life with kids is! And it was supposed to be all boring, same-same every day. Well, wasn't THAT a big lie - with their constant development and changing needs, the logistics of their care, and just dealing with five personalities in one house, no two days are the same, and you never know what's coming next.

PLAN: initial plan was clean bathroom + fix stuff (Yep, I'm the fixer-upper in my house, K wouldn't know one end of a screwdriver from the other). Check 2 essays for work.

PLAN B: I added in a morning visit to the dermatologist to see about the sore on Lena's nose.

DAY: spent doing laundry and sleeping. I did make it to the docs, to find Lena had tobihi/school sores/impetigo, but she slept in with a light fever so we were late going.

I just went out now and shoved some nails into a dresser drawer just so I could say I FIXED UP SOMETHING today. Bathroom is ready to go, I shall scrub it before I bathe, and do the drawers tomorrow.

WHY?: Amy woke up at 2am and vomited. From the top bunk onto the floor... she managed to hit: her own duvet, Lena's duvet and two of her blankets, my duvet, the ladder, the shelf under the ladder (do you know how annoying it is to clean a ladder, front sides, back sides, side sides and undersides?), about six stuffed toys that were on the shelf, and two more than were in the shelf, the tape deck, and one book - the ONLY rare book I own, that I specially searched the internet to find - Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, about 2 Japanese dolls.

So after a massive clean-up in the middle of the night, I left a pile of vomited-on toys in the bath, a pile of blankets and duvets in the genkan, and me and Amy slept on the sofa in case of a re-hash. Hence the need for a big long nap this afternoon, which wasn't divine, as it was filled (again) with images of destruction and loss. I can't complain, at least I actually DO sleep, unlike around 50 million or so other stressed out and traumatized Japanese.

Here are few random photos from my day:

woops... this the second time THIS WEEK my teapot broke. First time, the spout, second time, the handle. Cue: "I'm a little teapot..." In the background is the dishwasher, also out of order. For the record, the mixer broke this week too.

Amy feeling a bit better after a low day with a sore tummy, staring her party invitations. Lena, with a fever-induced headache, but she was a trooper and tidied up the study for me. Amy did the living room. Erica folded a blanket. Then tipped her Stitch cards all over the floor. sigh.

Clean toys: Tiger from African Safari kindy field trip when Amy was 3 and Lena was 1. Pig from god knows where. Mutley Spot-Rod, a gift from a boyfriend when I was 18! And a snake, a present for Erica's first Christmas from Santa

Spring Break Day Three

2011-03-30T09:20:00.003+09:00

Foiled again.

Plans to clean bedrooms with children, followed by bike-ride (via bakery) to park for play and picnic.

Instead, the doorbell rings at 7:50am. The first time it just floated into a dream. The second time, I firmly decided that there was no way I wanted to talk to ANYONE enough right now to forgo sleep. The third time I had to give in to it, muttering that they had better bloody still be there when I got to the door.

It was the kid from down the road, I thought they had come to play at first, but she said they had school! That's what you get for blithely not reading the school notices and assuming - stupidly - that spring break actually means the kids will have time off school.

Cue rushed breakfast and change of clothes and the kids got to school in time (I sent neighbor kid off to school with the rest of the Walking Bus while we frantically got ready). K called right AFTER all the drama to remind me that the kids have to go to school today. At least I had a chance to find out why - because the teachers don't hear until the END OF MARCH if they are being transferred to another school, so this is their only chance to farewell their students if they have to leave. The kids will be back soon, so I have a chance to do yesterday's Toy Closet job and we should still be able to fit the picnic in!

*********************

Later. Exhausted! But lots of check marks on the list!

I got that closet done! The kids got home, we all got changed and stopped by the bakery on the way to the park. We chose Donguri (Acorn) Park today; it has three small hills and a fort with a slide that leads right into the sandpit. There's a path all around the edges where the kids could practice their bike-riding skills. And it's near Fadie's, so we could pick up dinner (chicken with ume and shiso).

Bedrooms cleaned CHECK mushrooms fried CHECK dinner, laundry... and right now in the middle of some online photo site comparisons, but I'm getting very sleepy!

Spring Break Day Two

2011-03-29T11:12:00.002+09:00

Another example of a day that turned out quite different from what I had planned, in a rather lovely way!

First of all, yesterday my kids and their two friends came here to play and I took Erica up for a nap. I did NOT nap myself, but did budgets and planning for the break. Erica woke up, the guests went home, Kanji arrived home and we all got dressed and ready to go to Max's birthday party - I will add another post with photos and videos from that, suffice it to say it was fantastic, the most fun I've had at a kid's party for a long time! Of course, it's only foreign parents who have them so that limits the amount I attend! After cooking up a storm at my own parties, it was nice to sit back and not have to do a thing - plus Ana played some very energetic games with the kids, which was really fun to watch! And I suppose sitting at the bar drinking beers and controlling the sound system with my iphone helped.

The plan then, for today, was to take Erica to her 3&1/2 year health check. I dropped Amy and Lena off at the Haradas before I went. I'm a pro at this now, and it went very smoothly. I don't how much of it is that I just know it's going to take a while, or if they have got more efficient at it (they used to be in a different location each time, rotating around community centres, but now they are always in the one public health centre, so perhaps that's enabled them to streamline the system a bit). Also, there tend to be less mums at the 3.5 year check than at the small baby checks. We were finished in 90mins. Height, weight, eyes, ears, teeth okay. The only problem was her not being able to do up buttons, which I thought was not significant. I brought up my worries about her still transposing consonants (try saying that in Japanese!) eg 'kolawa' for 'koala', or 'daibozu' for 'daijobu(ok)' (which is actually quite funny as it sounds like she is saying 'Big Buzzcut') but they didn't seem too worried about that. Only one of them blamed her bilingualism for it, but even then she didn't see it as a problem.

I drove her home on the levee, which she found quite exciting, if a little scary. When we reach the bridges, we come down off the levee and pass under the road, and whenever we did that, she'd sigh with relief and go 'Thank you Mum!'. Then when we came back up again, I'd hear her sharp intake of breath and she'd say 'careful' or 'don't falling' or 'water, water'.

Once home, I got a phone call from illahee, who had cut short her visit to GW due to Ryu being sick. So she decided to pop in and see us on the way home. I then called Amy and Lena to pick them up, the plan being that the H. girls would come too. Amy told me Yuuki was going to come too, and Maki would bring everyone. She came in too, so my quiet afternoon cleaning out the toy closet suddenly became a mini-party with three mums, nine kids and the contents of last night's party's pinata!

I FORGOT to go to work.

Nobody noticed... I guess they are all busy with their relocations this week anyway.

Spring Break Day One

2011-03-28T12:37:00.004+09:00

I'm getting back to normal life, and trying not to feel too guilty about having parties and buying presents and enjoying the spring days. In fact I'm starting to feel guilty about NOT feeling guilty every single day, after all one BILLION people are starving every day, 10 million or so are in slavery, 250 thousand died in the Haiti quake... it goes on. We should be having a food and clothing drive every week for these people. So I am getting back to normal life, except for the nuclear thing, which is making me more angry than scared. And confused, and wanting to bury my head in the sand because I am just so powerless to do anything but wait and see.

The alarm clock went off this morning! Which was fine, because I then had the exquisite pleasure of switching it OFF and going back to sleep. Erica woke up, started singing, and I said "shh". The other girls woke up and they all went downstairs, yay! I finally woke up at 9 when Kanji came home and told me the kids were downstairs ("yeah, I know, isn't it great!!" I wanted to say) and that I had to collect the rubbish net. What a great start to spring break! The Rubbish Nazi always brings it back anyway. Before you think K is a meany for telling me to get the net, HE put it out at 7am while I slept, so hugs and kisses to K, who understands my inability to function in the morning.

My plan for today was to do absolutely nothing, maybe read a book. I just want/need a totally obligation-free day without having a bunch of 'next, next, next' things stuck in my head. But then Kanji called, and wanted me to drive over to the next town to deliver a gift to his niece, who just graduated university and was heading to Fukuoka today, so it had to be RIGHT NOW. So, quick cup of tea, all children dressed and hair painstakingly brushed (Erica is developing an aversion to the brush lately) and we rocked up to K's work to collect the money envelope... and he called his sister to find that they are already in Fukuoka. Ooookay... you could have called her first!

Not pissed off at all, I should add. If there's one thing I've learned in family life, with big families on both sides and little people constantly being added to our little house, it's to go with the flow. In some ways I've come to even look forward to strange ways a day turns out so different from what I had envisioned.

So we drove to Haradas, as the my two and their two girls had promised each other yesterday to have another play date today. I was going to take them home, but their mother offered to look after all the girls in the morning, feed them, then bring them back after lunch. The plan was to continue playing in the yard, where they have constructed a restaurant out of the junk and rubbish floating around in what passes for a garden out the back of our house. It's now 1pm, and they are not back yet, but I expect them soon, then I can take Erica to bed - she has a mild fever - and possibly sleep myself, I've become quite the napping granny in my old age, I love having a wee lie-down...

Off now to balance the budget, and write a to-do list for the holidays. The basic goal is to go for a bike-ride/picnic every day, as Lena got a bike for her birthday, and K finally got the punctures fixed on our rusty shopping bike, which has a toddler seat, so Erica can ride along too. And also have a set chore to do, like the spare room, or cleaning out the medicine cabinet. Wish me luck!

Lena's Birthday Party

2011-03-27T12:05:00.000+09:00

Party guests: Karin, Lena, Erica, Yuki, Maia, Manami, Yui, Amy, Momoka, Mai
Yard play. No party games, the kids were having FAR too much fun making 'restaurants' out of the junk in what passes for a garden chez nous... Takuya being the slide man for the toddlers... girls using the broken swing frame as a monkey bar...

Party food, clockwise from 12 o'clock: mini- hamburgers (condiments to the left in the silver bowl set I hummed and hahhed over in Kamla's Gifts in Hawera then finally bought), potato chips, oreos, butterfly cakes (muffins with the top removed and cut into butterfly wings and stuck back on with cream and a strawberry), fruit kebabs on a pocky stick, mint slice (made-up recipe), shape sandwiches (jam and cheese), french fries, more butterfly cakes, more shape sandwiches (plain jam; and cheese and mayonnaise) and waffles with custard and banana with sprinkles. Cake in the centre!

Happy Birthday Lena!

Party: left to right, top to bottom: cake and candles; Lena with her two buddies (other guests were friends of Amy and Erica); blowing out the candles; her parents; the littlest guest, Seina; Maia's Mum, Takuya, Yuki, Mai and Manami; Maia, Lena, Momoka and Yui; later guests Raul, his sons Alex, Joshua, Maguno and Max (and Maia's Mum); earlier, Yui, Mai, Erica, Maia's Mum again!
Presents: Karin, Yui and Mai and Manami, below from Momoka and Maia

Her special request for dinner was to go to Tropicoco (owned by above Raul) so we could do on-stage karaoke.

Lena's Birthday Dinner

2011-03-22T11:38:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday Lena!

Lasagne! Lena's choice for her family birthday dinner. That's coke in the glasses, not red wine.
And ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert, that's Grandma's chocolate sauce recipe, Chris that HAS to go in the next Greenwood cookbook! So easy and SO delicious! With marbles (smarties/pebbles) and walnuts on top. Erica being Santa.