We had a barbecue at our place. I'm getting better at this! All you need is sunshine, beef and beer! Oh, and people. We managed to get some of those too.
The biggest challenge was converting the mess of our back yard into something at least resembling socially acceptable. The tables are still there from last year, but the table-tops got a bit warped in the weather extremes. So I went out and bought a couple of table-top wood slabs for the small table, and put the two long ones together with an all-purpose picnic mat on top. I also bought two tiny chairs, two big chairs, and two 2-person stools, and an umbrella. I figure we'll be doing this again, so it's worth it. I also bought a barbecue set.
The Harada family came, and from Keio Jorge, Ruth, Donella and Rich. Rich talked about manga and heavy metal all night with Kanji and Takuya. Ruth and Donella didn't drink much, but I made up for them, and we talked and talked. Maki was a whirlwind as usual and cleaned everything up, while I tried to keep up with her. The kids ran wild, and collected insects, and drew pictures, and played dress-ups.
We drank beer, and New Zealand sauvignon blanc and ate tons of beef, and a few veges and some great seafood. We finished up with fried noodles. Everyone went home when Momoka went to sleep, at about 11pm. And I didn't take even one photo!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Youchien Natsu Matsuri
Which means Kindergarten Summer Festival. The children 
prepared for weeks, and Amy was looking forward to it with all the excitement of Christmas. They worked really hard to create festival stalls selling all the things that are sold at festivals in Japan. There were fried noodles, crushed ice, goldfish, ice cream, toffee apples, lucky dips, water balloons and other games, with all but the water balloons made by the children out of paper.
Amy's team were working on the mask stall (at left, proud Amy in her 'hapi' coat). She'd been telling me for days that I would take one look and know her mask, and I had no idea what she was talking about! Each child made a mask, either a Hello Kitty, an Anpanman, or a princess, then they pegged them to a frame, and sold them to the parents and each other. Above, Lena is wearing the mask Amy made.
When we arrived, our children gave us an envelope made and decorated by them, full of tickets for all the stalls. They also had their own tickets. Half the kids played the part of the stall-keeper while the other half shopped, and then they swapped. At left, Amy and Lena visit the toffee apple and toffee strawberry stall.
Next came the 'Gion-guruma'. Copying the real Nakatsu Gion Festival later this month, the kids got into two teams and pulled floats (Gion-guruma) they had made themselves around the kindergarten grounds, out the gate, up the road and back. Real festival drummers provided the music, creating a very authentic atmosphere.
Below, Amy poses beside her team's
kuruma. She thought up the name for it - Star. She was especially proud of the 
colouful dragon she had drawn on the side. Above, her team are lined up to pull the kuruma with ropes. Amy is second from the left, behind the boy in the green shirt.
After the two teams completed their circuits, the kids put on a dance for us, then invited the parents to join in a dance as well. Finally there was a fireworks display and ice blocks, which I helped hand out as my duty for the night.
prepared for weeks, and Amy was looking forward to it with all the excitement of Christmas. They worked really hard to create festival stalls selling all the things that are sold at festivals in Japan. There were fried noodles, crushed ice, goldfish, ice cream, toffee apples, lucky dips, water balloons and other games, with all but the water balloons made by the children out of paper.Amy's team were working on the mask stall (at left, proud Amy in her 'hapi' coat). She'd been telling me for days that I would take one look and know her mask, and I had no idea what she was talking about! Each child made a mask, either a Hello Kitty, an Anpanman, or a princess, then they pegged them to a frame, and sold them to the parents and each other. Above, Lena is wearing the mask Amy made.
When we arrived, our children gave us an envelope made and decorated by them, full of tickets for all the stalls. They also had their own tickets. Half the kids played the part of the stall-keeper while the other half shopped, and then they swapped. At left, Amy and Lena visit the toffee apple and toffee strawberry stall.
Next came the 'Gion-guruma'. Copying the real Nakatsu Gion Festival later this month, the kids got into two teams and pulled floats (Gion-guruma) they had made themselves around the kindergarten grounds, out the gate, up the road and back. Real festival drummers provided the music, creating a very authentic atmosphere.
Below, Amy poses beside her team's
kuruma. She thought up the name for it - Star. She was especially proud of the 
colouful dragon she had drawn on the side. Above, her team are lined up to pull the kuruma with ropes. Amy is second from the left, behind the boy in the green shirt.After the two teams completed their circuits, the kids put on a dance for us, then invited the parents to join in a dance as well. Finally there was a fireworks display and ice blocks, which I helped hand out as my duty for the night.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Frogs and Sparrows
If you thought I was going to talk about joys of spring in a pretty park - wrong. I'm talking about dinner.
Once again, we ate with Marcia and Slyvia, this time all the mums in Lena's kindy class took them out to dinner in a Japanese yakitori (chicken kebab) restaurant. While the children ran wild, we had a few drinks, and ordered a huge variety of dishes for Slyvia to try. Typically for Japanese hosts, they were very anxious about getting things she liked, while she simply told them she'd try anything. So I ended up the go-between, assuring them over and over that she meant it when she said she wanted to try anything, and 'Yes, xyz will be fine'.
On the menu were sparrows. Skewered sparrows. It's my fault. The word for sparrow is 'suzume', and the word for dried squid is 'surume'. I said, "Yeah, sure, go ahead and order the (squid)." I got a bit of a fright when the skewers came with two whole plucked birds , complete with tiny blackened skulls and tiny tiny black eye holes. I'm not sure if you were supposed to eat the heads, I certainly did not, and tried at first to restrict myself to the 'meat' before giving up and eating it, bones and all.
After that ordeal, some lightly fried frogs' legs were a breeze! They were really nice, I'd recommend them to anyone. The sparrows, I think, will be a one-off.
Once again, we ate with Marcia and Slyvia, this time all the mums in Lena's kindy class took them out to dinner in a Japanese yakitori (chicken kebab) restaurant. While the children ran wild, we had a few drinks, and ordered a huge variety of dishes for Slyvia to try. Typically for Japanese hosts, they were very anxious about getting things she liked, while she simply told them she'd try anything. So I ended up the go-between, assuring them over and over that she meant it when she said she wanted to try anything, and 'Yes, xyz will be fine'.
On the menu were sparrows. Skewered sparrows. It's my fault. The word for sparrow is 'suzume', and the word for dried squid is 'surume'. I said, "Yeah, sure, go ahead and order the (squid)." I got a bit of a fright when the skewers came with two whole plucked birds , complete with tiny blackened skulls and tiny tiny black eye holes. I'm not sure if you were supposed to eat the heads, I certainly did not, and tried at first to restrict myself to the 'meat' before giving up and eating it, bones and all.
After that ordeal, some lightly fried frogs' legs were a breeze! They were really nice, I'd recommend them to anyone. The sparrows, I think, will be a one-off.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Posole and Kodomo Kai
Lena's kindy teacher Marcia's mother Sylvia is in Japan, and came over for dinner tonight. Marcia is from the US, but her mother is originally from Mexico. Maia's mother Harumi arranged the dinner, and it was originally going to be at her house, but we changed the venue when her father-in-law became ill.
Harumi loves to cook and loves to try new foods, so she was very eager to get Marcia to cook something Mexican for her. Marcia insisted she can't cook, but lined her mother up to cook something for us when she came to visit. They decided on posole, a corn-based soup, and Harumi ordered the canned 'hominy' corn from FBC.
I decided to cook some Japanese dishes too, because we couldn't expect Sylvia to come all this way and do all the cooking! I cooked 'nikujaga', a beef and potato dish, and fried tofu with a mushroom sauce. Harumi brought miso soup, and Emiko (Takumi and Eri's mum) brought a yam and pickled plum dish.
The Posole was a chicken stock soup with the hominy corn. The soup was made with just chicken, onion and garlic, then we put in the cans of corn. When it had cooked through, we put it in bowls and added the condiments - shredded cabbage, chopped radish and onion, oregano, lemon juice and a red chilli pepper. It was delicious!
Slyvia and I had a glass of wine, and after Marcia turned up after she finished work, I gave her mother a framed photo of her on her birthday a few weeks ago.
Everyone had to leave early, as I had a meeting to get to!
At 7:30 I had to be at the Kodomo Kai. Literally meaning 'Children Meeting', it's a group of mothers, or sometimes fathers, of the children who live in the local area. The main purpose is to arrange to have the children walk to school together, meeting up at each successive house. The parents also share out street patrol duties, and a few other things. It was quite a challenge for me to sit through the meeting, 90 minutes of Japanese, and pick up enough of an understanding of what was being discussed, and anything I was supposed to do. Luckily, kindergarten mums seem to get away with not doing much, no doubt to give them some time to get used to things.
They arranged dates for 'rajio taiso' (see July 21), people to go on street patrols and on duty at the school swimming pool in summer, and organized a barbecue. I'd never met any of these people before, and had no idea what to do or say. So I just sat! Luckily you can get away with that here, and people will put it down to your being shy or unsure, not rude or snobby. At least I hope they did!
Harumi loves to cook and loves to try new foods, so she was very eager to get Marcia to cook something Mexican for her. Marcia insisted she can't cook, but lined her mother up to cook something for us when she came to visit. They decided on posole, a corn-based soup, and Harumi ordered the canned 'hominy' corn from FBC.
I decided to cook some Japanese dishes too, because we couldn't expect Sylvia to come all this way and do all the cooking! I cooked 'nikujaga', a beef and potato dish, and fried tofu with a mushroom sauce. Harumi brought miso soup, and Emiko (Takumi and Eri's mum) brought a yam and pickled plum dish.
The Posole was a chicken stock soup with the hominy corn. The soup was made with just chicken, onion and garlic, then we put in the cans of corn. When it had cooked through, we put it in bowls and added the condiments - shredded cabbage, chopped radish and onion, oregano, lemon juice and a red chilli pepper. It was delicious!
Slyvia and I had a glass of wine, and after Marcia turned up after she finished work, I gave her mother a framed photo of her on her birthday a few weeks ago.
Everyone had to leave early, as I had a meeting to get to!
At 7:30 I had to be at the Kodomo Kai. Literally meaning 'Children Meeting', it's a group of mothers, or sometimes fathers, of the children who live in the local area. The main purpose is to arrange to have the children walk to school together, meeting up at each successive house. The parents also share out street patrol duties, and a few other things. It was quite a challenge for me to sit through the meeting, 90 minutes of Japanese, and pick up enough of an understanding of what was being discussed, and anything I was supposed to do. Luckily, kindergarten mums seem to get away with not doing much, no doubt to give them some time to get used to things.
They arranged dates for 'rajio taiso' (see July 21), people to go on street patrols and on duty at the school swimming pool in summer, and organized a barbecue. I'd never met any of these people before, and had no idea what to do or say. So I just sat! Luckily you can get away with that here, and people will put it down to your being shy or unsure, not rude or snobby. At least I hope they did!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Akabe!
Which is Japanese for 'red eyes' and is what kids yell at each others as they chase each other around pulling their eyelids down or up trying to look as scary and yucky as possible. A game which Amy is the queen of this week, as you can see.
Her problems began about ten days ago, with headaches. Within a few days she had a fever, and coughing, so we took her to the hospital, as I was not sure that it was not her asthma coming back. He said it was just a cold, not to worry. That night she had an itchy foot, which I put down to an mosquito bite. We put an itch-patch on it and left it at that, and I felt a bit mean in retrospect because when she woke a second time, I said it was just an itchy foot and go back to sleep!
But in the morning, she got half way down the stairs before crying out that her feet were red and sore. And they were bright red! It appeared on her hands too. So back we went to the hospital, were told it was a 'summer cold' and given antibiotics. Go figure. By Friday the rash was clearing, and I thought we were home free, but that night the coughing brought on vomiting, and the next morning the above is what happened to her eyes. We took her to the pediatrician this time, as I was beginning to feel that the young recent graduates at the hospital didn't have the diagnostic experience to tell what was happening to her. He sent me straight back to the hospital for blood tests, to rule out a 'bleeding disorder'. Scary! At least I had him pointing the nincompoops at public in the right direction. So we spent a worried few hours getting her tested and getting the results. No nasty blood disorders, but the tests showed she has coxsachie/entovirus, the virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease. The subconjuctival heamhorrage she has in both eyes is one of the possible symptoms of the virus. It looks awful, but is pretty much harmless and heals on its own. It takes a few weeks, though, so we went out yesterday and bought her some sunglasses so she doesn't look like too much of a freak in public!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Lazy Sunday Afternoon
Funny Things You Say to Kids: "Don't hit me in the face with a Marmite sandwich!"
sigh
...
sigh
...
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Seven months later
Thought I'd better catch up with myself! In a nutshell, we did Halloween, Chrismas, and New Year, went to NZ where Amy went to school and Lena went to kindy, then came back and now Amy has started Hokubu Youchien kindergarten and Lena is continuing at Keio. I lost three classes, two of my four OIT college lessons, and Again, but gained two English Club classes on Saturday. Rather a net loss. I am involved in organizing the convention, and preparing for the AFWJ meeting. And I am finally spring cleaning the house. LOTS more work to do there.
Today I started swimming again - 1200m, of which 100 was breaststroke, and 400 kick. It felt good, as did my healthy lunch afterward. As did, in a less virtuous way, the delicious Mexican style cinnamon and sugar donuts Maia's mother made. I had four. Oops. Maika came too today, and they just played today - too excited to see each other for me to get them to concentrate on any games. But their Mums were pleased enough to hear them playing in English, especially Maika's Mum, who had had no hint these last three months that Maika remembered how to speak English at all - typically, she only speaks to her Mother in Japanese.
Funny things kids do and say: Lena and Amy were out playing on their bikes. Lena came in sobbing, saying she needed Daddy. I thought she was just having a whinge and wanted him because he dotes on her more than me! But she came over to me, cried a little more, and told me she needed him to put some gas in her bike as it wasn't going. I laughed, and she wailed, so we called Daddy (mostly because I thought it was the funniest thing she's ever said) and asked him to come look at the bike. The chain is rusty, so we'll put some oil in tomorrow and see if that fixes it - and her contention that the bike just needed gas will no doubt be confirmed!
Today I started swimming again - 1200m, of which 100 was breaststroke, and 400 kick. It felt good, as did my healthy lunch afterward. As did, in a less virtuous way, the delicious Mexican style cinnamon and sugar donuts Maia's mother made. I had four. Oops. Maika came too today, and they just played today - too excited to see each other for me to get them to concentrate on any games. But their Mums were pleased enough to hear them playing in English, especially Maika's Mum, who had had no hint these last three months that Maika remembered how to speak English at all - typically, she only speaks to her Mother in Japanese.
Funny things kids do and say: Lena and Amy were out playing on their bikes. Lena came in sobbing, saying she needed Daddy. I thought she was just having a whinge and wanted him because he dotes on her more than me! But she came over to me, cried a little more, and told me she needed him to put some gas in her bike as it wasn't going. I laughed, and she wailed, so we called Daddy (mostly because I thought it was the funniest thing she's ever said) and asked him to come look at the bike. The chain is rusty, so we'll put some oil in tomorrow and see if that fixes it - and her contention that the bike just needed gas will no doubt be confirmed!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Lena's turn
Lena woke up with a fever yesterday - finally her turn, although she held out for long enough! I took her to the public hospital, since the pediatrician's was closed on a Sunday. They had said to bring her as soon as she got a fever, because Tamiful works best if you take it as soon as they get a fever. I hate the miscommunication at the hospital between the doorman/receptionists (who work on weekends and holidays), who are city council workers, and the actual doctors. The doormen/receptionists, when we rang, told us to come, but when we got there, the doctor said that she would probably not test positive yet, even if she had the flu, if her fever only just came this morning. Sigh. Sure enough, the test was negative, and we went home with nothing, and $60 wasted (we will get some money back on Tuesday though)
She sank throughout the day, and we hauled her back on today, which was a public holiday, so we had to go back to the public hospital again. This time her test was positive and she got her medicine. Once they decided that we might indeed have the flu, they put us in isolation in an unused room, which was funny because there was no-one in the pediatric waiting room anyway, but rules are rules obviously. The good thing was that the doorman/receptionist must have felt sorry for us, so didn't charge another $60.
Wanna know about the tests? Usually it's a long cotton bud up the nose, which is what I got when I took Tamiflu for the flu last year (ministry rules - you can't give it out until you get a positive test). It's what Amy got at the pediatrician's, and what Lena got on Monday, but on Sunday, they strapped her down and sucked the snot out with a machine. Charming. Luckily she was feeling all special and privileged because she was sick, and the doctor was looking at her (usually she gets sidelined while Amy gets all the attention) plus I told her she looked like a Christmas present, so she was giggling when they started. She held up fine - her eyes watered, but she proudly told me that althogh it looked like she was crying, she really wasn't.
She sank throughout the day, and we hauled her back on today, which was a public holiday, so we had to go back to the public hospital again. This time her test was positive and she got her medicine. Once they decided that we might indeed have the flu, they put us in isolation in an unused room, which was funny because there was no-one in the pediatric waiting room anyway, but rules are rules obviously. The good thing was that the doorman/receptionist must have felt sorry for us, so didn't charge another $60.
Wanna know about the tests? Usually it's a long cotton bud up the nose, which is what I got when I took Tamiflu for the flu last year (ministry rules - you can't give it out until you get a positive test). It's what Amy got at the pediatrician's, and what Lena got on Monday, but on Sunday, they strapped her down and sucked the snot out with a machine. Charming. Luckily she was feeling all special and privileged because she was sick, and the doctor was looking at her (usually she gets sidelined while Amy gets all the attention) plus I told her she looked like a Christmas present, so she was giggling when they started. She held up fine - her eyes watered, but she proudly told me that althogh it looked like she was crying, she really wasn't.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Feeling Better
Well me and Lena are still fine and dandy. Amy feels better today - I know because she's starting to whinge. You know when a kid is really sick because they go totally quiet. She even came into the kitchen while Kanji and I ate lunch to get a bit of attention she felt she was missing out on.
Lena discovered the iPod today. She was watching me as I adjusted the volume for her, and took over, doing it herself. Then I clipped it onto her pocket, and she was off, walking slowly with a big grin on her face, or stopping to listen. She's been so bored these last few days, but at least she is better at playing by herself than she used to be. She plays elaborate imaginary games with animals and little figurines, or sings constant unending songs that are as much a key to her psyche as Amy's pictures are to hers.
Meanwhile I went to work in the freezing cold - it even snowed a bit today. We had the school tour today, where we get our students to take us around the school to the other rooms where they learn things like machinery, design and computing and electronics. And in the afternoon, I taught Yoshida Shu, who, if you remember, was my first boss in Japan. He quit, I continued the lessons independently. He went away, came back, worked at another juku, and is now delivering newspapers. He wants to go to NZ, so he wants to study English more. He's a bit weird, but okay, so I decided to do it. It's at a cafe, so I get a free coffee.
Lena discovered the iPod today. She was watching me as I adjusted the volume for her, and took over, doing it herself. Then I clipped it onto her pocket, and she was off, walking slowly with a big grin on her face, or stopping to listen. She's been so bored these last few days, but at least she is better at playing by herself than she used to be. She plays elaborate imaginary games with animals and little figurines, or sings constant unending songs that are as much a key to her psyche as Amy's pictures are to hers.
Meanwhile I went to work in the freezing cold - it even snowed a bit today. We had the school tour today, where we get our students to take us around the school to the other rooms where they learn things like machinery, design and computing and electronics. And in the afternoon, I taught Yoshida Shu, who, if you remember, was my first boss in Japan. He quit, I continued the lessons independently. He went away, came back, worked at another juku, and is now delivering newspapers. He wants to go to NZ, so he wants to study English more. He's a bit weird, but okay, so I decided to do it. It's at a cafe, so I get a free coffee.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Happy New Year!
It's been a long time since I wrote, for several reasons - my camera broke getting pictures from the phone from the email program into the files and then onto here took so long I kept putting it off. Then somehow my photo-upload software started to malfunction. Then I did an update and the new Explorer security settings chucked out the cookie and I can't get it set to take it again, so I am using Mozilla Firefox now. Blah, blah, blah, anyway here I am.
Amy has the flu, Kanji had it yesterday. Me and Lena have stronger immune systems it seems, this happened last time and we both got it, less severely, a few days after them. So I am expecting to feel pretty crappy tomorrow! I have warned work that I might not turn up, and I will probably have to cancel a few other classes too. In anticipation, I have cooked a big pot of vegetable soup, prepared a nabe stew, simmered some fish tails, and put two cups of rice in the rice cooker. I was in the kitchen from 12 to 4, and when I finished I announced to Kanji, "There, now I can get sick!"
Amy and Kanji are taking Tamiflu, which is handed out for the flu here. It's not an instant cure-all, but weakens it and you get over it faster. Kanji's pretty much alright now. Amy has to go back to the doctor's on Saturday morning, and I have instructions to take Lena as soon as she gets a fever. I am worried about Amy's asthma developing from this, but she is taking a preventive medicine at the moment, so she should be okay. Flixotide, or Furutaido as it is know here, weakens the immune system, so Amy always gets everything that's going around, and gets it bad. I have Lena to remind me how a normal child gets sick! I wonder why they are so different. Was it the smoking around her as a baby and when I was pregnant? Was it the bottle I introduced, did that start her off on the run of infections she had as a baby that required antibiotics? Who knows.
Amy has the flu, Kanji had it yesterday. Me and Lena have stronger immune systems it seems, this happened last time and we both got it, less severely, a few days after them. So I am expecting to feel pretty crappy tomorrow! I have warned work that I might not turn up, and I will probably have to cancel a few other classes too. In anticipation, I have cooked a big pot of vegetable soup, prepared a nabe stew, simmered some fish tails, and put two cups of rice in the rice cooker. I was in the kitchen from 12 to 4, and when I finished I announced to Kanji, "There, now I can get sick!"
Amy and Kanji are taking Tamiflu, which is handed out for the flu here. It's not an instant cure-all, but weakens it and you get over it faster. Kanji's pretty much alright now. Amy has to go back to the doctor's on Saturday morning, and I have instructions to take Lena as soon as she gets a fever. I am worried about Amy's asthma developing from this, but she is taking a preventive medicine at the moment, so she should be okay. Flixotide, or Furutaido as it is know here, weakens the immune system, so Amy always gets everything that's going around, and gets it bad. I have Lena to remind me how a normal child gets sick! I wonder why they are so different. Was it the smoking around her as a baby and when I was pregnant? Was it the bottle I introduced, did that start her off on the run of infections she had as a baby that required antibiotics? Who knows.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
New Year Party
We went to a New Year's Eve party at the Egamis, in what is becoming an annual event. We ate Fugu, poisonous puffer-fish, and Hokkaido snow crab. The fugu sashimi is on the far left; In the corner is the lining of the skin - the skin itself is poisonous, so you had better hope your sashimi-slicer was concentrating! On the right, Yukko and Nogami are tucking in while Osamu plays with Lena.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Expat Christmas Dinner
Christmas Day in Japan is always a little lonely for us. I am used to a house FULL of people, literally overflowing, with meals eaten on the lawn! Sun shining, good cheer, that special holiday feeling you get, the feeling that this day is special, different.
Christmas Day in Japan is just another day. Japanese have taken on Christmas and celebrate it, but in their own special way. It's all focussed on Christmas Eve, and it's become date night - Japanese find Christmas wonderfully romantic, and couples get together to celebrate it. Restaurants have special Christmas menus, with nothing you would recognize from a traditional Christmas feast. Love hotels' business booms. People don't go anywhere near their family. Christmas Cake is eaten - sponge with strawberries and cream. The shops are full of decorations from early December, and play Christmas songs, but all of it is gone by Christmas Day. The last stock is removed from the shelves sometime on Dec 23 or 24.
So Christmas Day is a relative non-event - some younger kids in my class were not even aware that it's supposed to be on the 25th! And the end of the year is an extremely busy time at the gasoline stands, because people want their car washed as part of the big year-end clean-up, and need lots of gasoline to take them on their holidays home to the grandies for New Year. So Kanji ALWAYS has to work on Christmas Day (which is, of course, also his birthday). Which makes our day that little bit lonlier. In 2003 I made a dinner and then we brought it to him at work, along with two tiny cakes, one for Christmas, one for his birthday.
This year I decided to do an ex-pat Christmas, and invite some of the people I work with, who, like me, would be missing home and family at this time, and who intinctively understand what the day is supposed to feel like. I made it an open invitation, knowing that young people still thinking in college party mode often consider themselves 'informed' rather than 'invited' to a party, and turn up or not on the day according to how they feel at the time. Not conducive to menu planning, and around 12:30 I was frantically peeling a mountain of potatoes while wondering if anyone would turn up to eat them - but at least I was prepared - if no-one turned up, it would just be a normal Christmas, but with more roast potatoes! (Actually I was thinking up some rather delicious ways to use the leftovers)
Adam turned up at just after 1pm, carrying a coffee maker! He also had Kahlua, coffee, cream and milk and a gift for us, of rice that he had won in a cycling contest! Rich turned up late, at about 3pm, but since I had to cook the roast potatoes separately from the chicken because they would not all fit together in my oven, the dinner was delayed anyway. By about 3pm the three of us, and the two kids sat down together to a lovely roast chicken dinner. Kanji had been able to get home between 1-2, but then had to go back to work. There were two chickens, I had to get two because they were so damn small! They looked like they had starved to death. Rich called them 'game birds'.
The gravy was a collaborative effort. Rich said his gravy for the roast turkey he had at his Christmas party the week before (which I couldn't go to because I had another party) had failed, so we set him the job of stirring (with the super pan-gravy whisk Mum got me). Me and Adam added stuff, and we ended up with a very delicious wine and black pepper gravy. We only cheated a little bit and added some gravy mix.
We had roast potatoes (Rich, from the US, thought I said 'rice potatoes) and 'kumara' (actually Japanese sweet potato, a slightly different variey which doesn't roast as well), pumpkin, mashed potato, peas, cauliflower with cheese sauce and boiled cabbage. Adam had seconds, Rich had thirds. There was nothing fancy, nothing modern, and we all loved it.
Dessert was pavlova and trifle. Adam, from Australia, was suitably impressed - 'you made it from scratch?' Rich thought it was called Pavlov (after the the researcher who discovered the conditioned response with a bell and a salivating dog. ie, you see the pav and your mouth starts to water. Interesting...). He liked it, and it wasn't half bad! The crust was a little browned, which is something I don't know if I am going to be able to prevent with my gas fan oven. The marshmallow centre was large, I prefer it dryer like Mum's, but Adam thought it was just right. We didn't argue over its provenance - he said he thought they stole it off us. I said it was made first in Australia by a NZ chef for the dancer Pavlova, who Rich hadn't even heard of. I suppose we only know about her because of the dessert. The pav was piled high with kiwifruit, while the trifle had a mound of strawberries. It looked very summery, but snowy as well with all the white.
After dinner Eoin showed up, and later Rich's wife Kuniko, who had been helping out at her parents' cake shop that day delivering 1000 Christmas cakes! She brought one for us. Adam made Kahlua coffees for us, and hot chocolate for the kids, who opened their final presents - Lego sets from Mum and Dad. Rich sat on the sofa watching the Wizard of Oz while the kids climbed all over him, begging to be tickled. Kanji came home and had his dinner. Adam built Harry Potter's Knight bus out of Lego. Kuniko checked out my wedding album. Rich played with Lena's sky dancer. Everyone had a go at Kanji's metal twist puzzle. Eoin talked until 2am, then I had the last of the 'game hen' in a sandwich before calling Chris in London.
The guys fitted in like uncles, and the different configuration for the eveing felt authentic too. The food was great, we stuffed ourselves, and there was hardly any leftovers, just enough roast potatoes and cabbage to have a very delicious fry-up the next day.
Christmas Day in Japan is just another day. Japanese have taken on Christmas and celebrate it, but in their own special way. It's all focussed on Christmas Eve, and it's become date night - Japanese find Christmas wonderfully romantic, and couples get together to celebrate it. Restaurants have special Christmas menus, with nothing you would recognize from a traditional Christmas feast. Love hotels' business booms. People don't go anywhere near their family. Christmas Cake is eaten - sponge with strawberries and cream. The shops are full of decorations from early December, and play Christmas songs, but all of it is gone by Christmas Day. The last stock is removed from the shelves sometime on Dec 23 or 24.
So Christmas Day is a relative non-event - some younger kids in my class were not even aware that it's supposed to be on the 25th! And the end of the year is an extremely busy time at the gasoline stands, because people want their car washed as part of the big year-end clean-up, and need lots of gasoline to take them on their holidays home to the grandies for New Year. So Kanji ALWAYS has to work on Christmas Day (which is, of course, also his birthday). Which makes our day that little bit lonlier. In 2003 I made a dinner and then we brought it to him at work, along with two tiny cakes, one for Christmas, one for his birthday.
This year I decided to do an ex-pat Christmas, and invite some of the people I work with, who, like me, would be missing home and family at this time, and who intinctively understand what the day is supposed to feel like. I made it an open invitation, knowing that young people still thinking in college party mode often consider themselves 'informed' rather than 'invited' to a party, and turn up or not on the day according to how they feel at the time. Not conducive to menu planning, and around 12:30 I was frantically peeling a mountain of potatoes while wondering if anyone would turn up to eat them - but at least I was prepared - if no-one turned up, it would just be a normal Christmas, but with more roast potatoes! (Actually I was thinking up some rather delicious ways to use the leftovers)
Adam turned up at just after 1pm, carrying a coffee maker! He also had Kahlua, coffee, cream and milk and a gift for us, of rice that he had won in a cycling contest! Rich turned up late, at about 3pm, but since I had to cook the roast potatoes separately from the chicken because they would not all fit together in my oven, the dinner was delayed anyway. By about 3pm the three of us, and the two kids sat down together to a lovely roast chicken dinner. Kanji had been able to get home between 1-2, but then had to go back to work. There were two chickens, I had to get two because they were so damn small! They looked like they had starved to death. Rich called them 'game birds'.
The gravy was a collaborative effort. Rich said his gravy for the roast turkey he had at his Christmas party the week before (which I couldn't go to because I had another party) had failed, so we set him the job of stirring (with the super pan-gravy whisk Mum got me). Me and Adam added stuff, and we ended up with a very delicious wine and black pepper gravy. We only cheated a little bit and added some gravy mix.
We had roast potatoes (Rich, from the US, thought I said 'rice potatoes) and 'kumara' (actually Japanese sweet potato, a slightly different variey which doesn't roast as well), pumpkin, mashed potato, peas, cauliflower with cheese sauce and boiled cabbage. Adam had seconds, Rich had thirds. There was nothing fancy, nothing modern, and we all loved it.
Dessert was pavlova and trifle. Adam, from Australia, was suitably impressed - 'you made it from scratch?' Rich thought it was called Pavlov (after the the researcher who discovered the conditioned response with a bell and a salivating dog. ie, you see the pav and your mouth starts to water. Interesting...). He liked it, and it wasn't half bad! The crust was a little browned, which is something I don't know if I am going to be able to prevent with my gas fan oven. The marshmallow centre was large, I prefer it dryer like Mum's, but Adam thought it was just right. We didn't argue over its provenance - he said he thought they stole it off us. I said it was made first in Australia by a NZ chef for the dancer Pavlova, who Rich hadn't even heard of. I suppose we only know about her because of the dessert. The pav was piled high with kiwifruit, while the trifle had a mound of strawberries. It looked very summery, but snowy as well with all the white.
After dinner Eoin showed up, and later Rich's wife Kuniko, who had been helping out at her parents' cake shop that day delivering 1000 Christmas cakes! She brought one for us. Adam made Kahlua coffees for us, and hot chocolate for the kids, who opened their final presents - Lego sets from Mum and Dad. Rich sat on the sofa watching the Wizard of Oz while the kids climbed all over him, begging to be tickled. Kanji came home and had his dinner. Adam built Harry Potter's Knight bus out of Lego. Kuniko checked out my wedding album. Rich played with Lena's sky dancer. Everyone had a go at Kanji's metal twist puzzle. Eoin talked until 2am, then I had the last of the 'game hen' in a sandwich before calling Chris in London.
The guys fitted in like uncles, and the different configuration for the eveing felt authentic too. The food was great, we stuffed ourselves, and there was hardly any leftovers, just enough roast potatoes and cabbage to have a very delicious fry-up the next day.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas at the Yokomatsus
Always start on Christmas Eve, when we celebrate Kanji's birthday. This works out really well, actually, because Christmas in Japan is a romantic, couple's date night, so it feels special for us. Kanji came home early, and I made his favorite meal - curry rice and sashimi. I bought a bottle of champagne, and we toasted him, and drank champagne while eating a huge platter of mixed sashimi (another advantage of a holiday birthday is the special menus availalbe at the supermarket).
I gave him a bottle of Armani scent. He's never had any before, but I love the way he smells after a bath when he has shaved, and I can smell the shaving lotion, so I thought it would be nice to try it. He seemed really happy with it, and has worn it several times. The first time I knew, even though he had already left, as I could smell it lingering in the air. I do miss perfume, and people smelling lovely. Japanese people don't smell at all - and they prefer to use very lightly scented products, so you can't smell someone come into the room like you can sometimes in NZ.
The kids got him a book. Boy, did I have a hard time choosing that book! It's really hard to know what to get in another language. I have a general idea of what he likes, but I don't know exactly what he's read or not read. My only hint was when we went to a bookstore together in November, and he stood in front of one section for a long time, and when I came back to him, he said he wanted everything! So I went back there and chose one with interviews with several of his favorite TV comedians. I think he likes it - it ended up in pride of place on top of the toilet paper dispenser in the throne room.
We settled the kids down to watch Polar Express while we finished our dinner - but it was so good we ended up abandoning our curry and watching it with them! That one is definitely on the list, and I can see us watching it every Christmas Eve.
After it finished, we got Santa's cookies and milk and left them outside on the upper balcony, where I am sure Santa comes in..
I gave him a bottle of Armani scent. He's never had any before, but I love the way he smells after a bath when he has shaved, and I can smell the shaving lotion, so I thought it would be nice to try it. He seemed really happy with it, and has worn it several times. The first time I knew, even though he had already left, as I could smell it lingering in the air. I do miss perfume, and people smelling lovely. Japanese people don't smell at all - and they prefer to use very lightly scented products, so you can't smell someone come into the room like you can sometimes in NZ.
The kids got him a book. Boy, did I have a hard time choosing that book! It's really hard to know what to get in another language. I have a general idea of what he likes, but I don't know exactly what he's read or not read. My only hint was when we went to a bookstore together in November, and he stood in front of one section for a long time, and when I came back to him, he said he wanted everything! So I went back there and chose one with interviews with several of his favorite TV comedians. I think he likes it - it ended up in pride of place on top of the toilet paper dispenser in the throne room.
We settled the kids down to watch Polar Express while we finished our dinner - but it was so good we ended up abandoning our curry and watching it with them! That one is definitely on the list, and I can see us watching it every Christmas Eve.
After it finished, we got Santa's cookies and milk and left them outside on the upper balcony, where I am sure Santa comes in..
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Christmas begins
We decorated the tree and took out all the Christmas accessories today! Not until I had spent about four hours clearing out the upstairs bedroom so I could clear into it all the junk from the hall and living room! We now have the carpet down, the artificial tree is up, and we are awaiting the real tree, which should come in a week or so. Amy helped me clean off and on, as she was so excited about the whole tree thing.
They were just in heaven when I finally dragged out the box - pulling out toys, and decorations, and books. After the tree was done, and I tidied up the box, I was well ready to call it quits, and do the rest another day, but there was no stopping them, so I talked to Kanji in the kitchen and set them free with the bag of tinsel. They decorated the guitar, as their doll Popo-chan's tree, and the book corner, and trimmed the carpet with it.
Cute things kids do: One of Lena's favorite songs is Kelly Clarkson's 'Torn into Pieces'. She often sings the chorus. Today, as she sang it she was playing with a toy dog from a kinder surprise (the kind you have to piece together) and started to 'tear it into pieces'. I lauged so much!
Cute things kids say: Amy, who thinks far too much for a five-year old, was worried about getting the money to go to NZ, and was telling me I have to work more. Then she changed her mind, because she had a brilliant idea - I should just go to the bank (ATM) everyday and get some money, then I would have lots.
They were just in heaven when I finally dragged out the box - pulling out toys, and decorations, and books. After the tree was done, and I tidied up the box, I was well ready to call it quits, and do the rest another day, but there was no stopping them, so I talked to Kanji in the kitchen and set them free with the bag of tinsel. They decorated the guitar, as their doll Popo-chan's tree, and the book corner, and trimmed the carpet with it.
Cute things kids do: One of Lena's favorite songs is Kelly Clarkson's 'Torn into Pieces'. She often sings the chorus. Today, as she sang it she was playing with a toy dog from a kinder surprise (the kind you have to piece together) and started to 'tear it into pieces'. I lauged so much!
Cute things kids say: Amy, who thinks far too much for a five-year old, was worried about getting the money to go to NZ, and was telling me I have to work more. Then she changed her mind, because she had a brilliant idea - I should just go to the bank (ATM) everyday and get some money, then I would have lots.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Anniversary Dinner
It was our 6th Wedding Anniversary on the 28th, and since I had a lesson that day, we decided to have our Wedding Anniversay dinner on the 29th.
Kanji brought home the wine - Moet and Chandon champagne, and a red Chianti. AND six pink roses, for six years marriage. I cooked, and after we put the children to bed, we had our dinner, in the kitchen, but with a nice white tablecloth and the roses, it looked very pretty.
First course was minestrone soup with baguettes and cheddar. Yes, Italian soup with French bread and English cheese. The main course was steak, with lotus root chips and a camembert, baby leaf and pine nut salad. Dessert was apple crumble, which we forgot to eat, so that's on the menu for tonight!
During dinner, we tried to remember what we had done for our other five anniversaries. (After the annual debate about the date, which ends when one of us looks at our wedding rings). We could not remember even one! So after dinner we decided to look at the video cassettes, to figure it out. They go back to October 2000, so all five anniversaries should be there, we thought. But not ONE anniversary made it on to tape! One tape was broken, one missing, one year I was in NZ, on the others, the dates cuts from the 27th to early December. Nothing. Looks like this year was the first real celebration!
In 2000 I was in NZ for Becky's wedding
In 2001 the tape is not there
In 2002 the tape is broken
In 2003 the tape ends on Nov 27 and starts in early December
In 2004 the tape jumps from November to December.
sigh, oh well. And this year we didn't tape it either - maybe it will become a tradition. We did take a photo though - but not until after we ate! We decided it will become a mystery for the future to figure out what we ate that night.
Kanji brought home the wine - Moet and Chandon champagne, and a red Chianti. AND six pink roses, for six years marriage. I cooked, and after we put the children to bed, we had our dinner, in the kitchen, but with a nice white tablecloth and the roses, it looked very pretty.
First course was minestrone soup with baguettes and cheddar. Yes, Italian soup with French bread and English cheese. The main course was steak, with lotus root chips and a camembert, baby leaf and pine nut salad. Dessert was apple crumble, which we forgot to eat, so that's on the menu for tonight!
During dinner, we tried to remember what we had done for our other five anniversaries. (After the annual debate about the date, which ends when one of us looks at our wedding rings). We could not remember even one! So after dinner we decided to look at the video cassettes, to figure it out. They go back to October 2000, so all five anniversaries should be there, we thought. But not ONE anniversary made it on to tape! One tape was broken, one missing, one year I was in NZ, on the others, the dates cuts from the 27th to early December. Nothing. Looks like this year was the first real celebration!
In 2000 I was in NZ for Becky's wedding
In 2001 the tape is not there
In 2002 the tape is broken
In 2003 the tape ends on Nov 27 and starts in early December
In 2004 the tape jumps from November to December.
sigh, oh well. And this year we didn't tape it either - maybe it will become a tradition. We did take a photo though - but not until after we ate! We decided it will become a mystery for the future to figure out what we ate that night.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
http://www.hikosen.co.jp/htm/04_theater/sira/set_sira.html
Today we went to a play, put on by the Hikosen Masked Players, who wear huge puppet heads.
Today we went to a play, put on by the Hikosen Masked Players, who wear huge puppet heads.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Amy's First Art Exhibition
A few weeks ago instead of a normal art lesson, all the kid went to a local festival and drew pictures of things they saw there. Amy's pictures were very quickly drawn and got a bit damp, then when she got home, she drew this rabbit.
Also starting this weekend, was a more extensive exhibition of the work of all the art school's students. The picture below left is the work of Amy's group, the youngest group, with a few pre-schoolers, but mostly primary school kids. Amy's first picture is a finger/hand painting exercise, and the above picture her portrait of the teacher.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Shichi Go San
Shichi Go San means Seven Five Three in Japanese, and it's the name of a ceremony held for children in a Shinto shrine when they are seven, five and three years old. It's a thanksgiving and blessing, thanking the gods for their life and health so far, and asking for more. On this day, children of the appropriate ages get dressed in their kimonos to visit the shrine.
To the right, Amy and Lena are sitting in the hall of the shrine, while the priest does some rituals. They were very good, especially Amy, who was all over the place when she was three. Lena was a bit more restless - she kept turning around to tell me about the 'magic'. She thought it was a magic show, and she even clapped when it was over!
At the bottom, they are ringing the bells outside the hall, to call the attention of the gods. Actually they were just having fun, but that's what the bells are supposed to be used for!
Directly after the ceremony, the girls now have their presents - a special '1000 years' candy, a twirly thingy (what ARE they called?),a cut-paper shrine object and a few more bits and pieces. November is also chrysanthemum season, the Japanese national flower, so the shrines are full of beautiful, huge blooms as well.
With us, and above in the shrine wearing the black hat, is my Again bar English student Mr Ikenaga, who is a priest at this shrine. I think Amy was a bit dumbfounded to hear him intone all the complicated ancient Japanese prayers, then turn around and speak to her in English!
Kanji couldn't make it due to work - so we hurried back to the gasoline stand so he and Jiichan could see them. By this time Amy was very tired - the sandals hurt her feet, and she found the obi (belt) very tight and uncomfortable.
Traditionally, girls first start to wear a belt at age seven, before that they just tie the kimono with cords, and wear a jacket over it like Lena has on. Shichi-go-san three year old girls and boys, who from this age stop having their hair shaved and start to grow it long; five year old boys, who at this age start to wear hakama (the trousers the priest has on) and seven year old girls start to wear the obi.
Getting ready - I think this was more fun than going to the shrine! They loved getting make-up on! Amy thought the curlers were the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Lena took some convincing to get her to sit in the chair to get her hair done, but once we showed her the pretty decorations she would get in her hair, she was happy. Gettting the kimono on also took time - you have to be careful to get everything in the right place and all nicely balanced, and the right length.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
It turned out so different...
Here I am in the garden with the kids, Lena trying out a new pose, Amy with her usual grin. Drinking a beer in the sunshine on the grass, which was an idea I could not resist, since the weather is unusually perfect today, the ugly summer humidity has gone, and the chill of winter has yet to settle in. Kanji went out for lunch and came home and went outside and played with the kids, so I went to. Then we decided to invite some friends over for a barbecue, only they have to bring the barbecue, cos we don't have one...Kanji is off to buy beer and beef, the essentials, and I am going to cook rice and clean the toilet. We know how to party!
Saturday, October 15, 2005
A busy day ahead
Now is the calm before the storm! At 10 I have a one-hour lesson - the kids are here, and I will put them upstairs with the computer and Reader Rabbit, which they have fallen in love with lately. Then as soon as that finishes, I have to take Amy to the doctor to get the gauze pulled out. Then home for lunch with Daddy and we will decide then whether to go to art class. I start work at 3:30 (looks like I will have to skip my swim today, the hour is 1-2 today, which looks impossible). After my lesson, I have to go to Mie's house, where the kids will be. They are having a festival in that area today, but with Amy's ear and my evening lesson from 8:30, I don't think we will stay long. Long enough to get some dinner!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Earrache
Lena bumped Amy's ear yesterday afternoon, and she reacted with great pain, which developed overnight, so I took her to the ENT today. She has a middle ear infection.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
What to do on a Sunday afternoon
We had a project today - figuring out how to turn Amy into a pineapple for Halloween. We even have a pineapple - she made Baachan buy one when they went to the supermarket yesterday, just so we could refer to it. We went to a few kids' clothing stores to look for brown or yellow or green tights and tops to wear underneath, as well as a brown or green or yellow big top that we might be able to use to make the pineapple. We settled on a pair of Winnie the Pooh pyjamas, in 'Winnie the Pooh' yellowy-brown, the perfect shade for a pineapple. And in another store I found some maternity smocks for 10 yen. (Yes, no zeros missing, TEN yen, nobody wanted them. I bought three). I imagine I will either paint it or stick paper to it, sew (get the shop to do it) the hem with elastic and stuff it with newspaper.
We also went to the 100yen shop today, which is always a lifesaver for a boring afternoon. I spent 1000yen. We got: a jester's hat in three colours with bells, a peacock mask, a fairy wand (Lena spent the rest of the day as Cinderella's fairy Godmother), a rubber snake (Amy wanted to find a spider to scare Aunty Jo!), a slinky, a math puzzle, a set of coloured pen, glitter paints, water paints, and a sketch book.
Amy in the picture above is making use of her new water colour palette. She's naked so she won't get paint on her. She first used an easel a few weeks ago in her art class, and it looks like she likes the idea. She made it herself. Last week she took off with a couple of polystyrene trays and a mirror and asked me for selotape. It was right on bedtime so I said no, and that I wanted to throw the trays out. She got quite upset and her Dad felt sorry for her and let her hide the trays by his chair. Next day, she asked for the selotape again, and taped the mirror to one tray and that tray upright to the second tray as a base, to make a standing mirror, which she then put in 'her' room (which she doesn't sleep in yet because we need to re-do the walls first, they are earth walls and they crumble and are not good for her asthma).
So when she started asking me for something to use as an easel, I remembered about this creation of hers. She got 'that' look on her face (WOW) took off without a word upstairs and soon had herself installed in the kitchen painting.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
dum de do
Well, not much going on around here. Autumn is here, so finally I can kiss goodbye to that awful sweating, god I hate it!!! But the seasons change so quickly, I know I only have a few more weeks left to wear my autumn clothes before it gets too cold. Every year I get to the end of September and wonder why it was that I wore winter clothing to the first OIT university lesson, which falls on the first Thursday after the 10th of October - but the way the chill is settling in at night now, I won't be surprised if I'm in long sleeves this time next week.
The girls are playing with the puzzles today. Or rather were - Amy is already back to drawing. She draws mountains of pictures, dozens every day. Usually with a pen, though I am trying to convince her to try a pencil. She declares she hates kindy, and I think at the moment it's the endless practices for the school sports day this Saturday. Lena continues on in her much calmer manner. The puzzle she chose today was a Japanese writing one, and she said she was practicing Japanese for 'my boys' - the six Japanese boys in her kindy class. She is the only girl.
Higashi university classes started today. sigh. They weren't too bad actually, but I attribute that to post-holiday freshness, no doubt I will be despairing about them in a month or two's time.
I am feeling exhausted but virtuous. I swam 1200m in 35 minutes today. I would like to do more, but the time is limited, and I had to get out of the pool.
Kanji is coming home early tonight, so I think I will get the girls bathed and ready for bed, so we don't end up going to sleep too late again. Maybe I'll post some photos later
The girls are playing with the puzzles today. Or rather were - Amy is already back to drawing. She draws mountains of pictures, dozens every day. Usually with a pen, though I am trying to convince her to try a pencil. She declares she hates kindy, and I think at the moment it's the endless practices for the school sports day this Saturday. Lena continues on in her much calmer manner. The puzzle she chose today was a Japanese writing one, and she said she was practicing Japanese for 'my boys' - the six Japanese boys in her kindy class. She is the only girl.
Higashi university classes started today. sigh. They weren't too bad actually, but I attribute that to post-holiday freshness, no doubt I will be despairing about them in a month or two's time.
I am feeling exhausted but virtuous. I swam 1200m in 35 minutes today. I would like to do more, but the time is limited, and I had to get out of the pool.
Kanji is coming home early tonight, so I think I will get the girls bathed and ready for bed, so we don't end up going to sleep too late again. Maybe I'll post some photos later
Sunday, September 25, 2005
A Day in Oguni
We drove to the edge of Oita prefecture today to visit a person I know only through email from my Foreign Wives Club. She has two children, age 5 and 2, so we were bound to have a good time. The drive was nearly two hours door to door, or would have been if I could have found the place a little sooner - it's always a bit tricky finding people's houses in Japan as there are no street names and the houses are not numbered in order, nor are the numbers written anywhere that a person could see from the road.
So we arrived at lunchtime, a little later than anticipated because I had to go back when we were just out of Nakatsu to get Amy's medicine! They had been at a school sports day all morning, so they made pizza toast, I added the marmite and cheese, and ham and tomato sauce sandwiches I had prepared.
After lunch, and a chat, and a cup of tea, we went to a nearby sports ground and went for a little walk. Then we visited an old traditional house, then went down to the river, which was the kids's favorite part. We chucked stones into the river. Then we floated bits of wood as boats. Amy really took to that, searching around for families to put on the boat, then I launched it into the river. We lost the family of course. They waded in the muck in their bare feet (the river had recently flooded so it was very silted up and there was a lot of driftwood around)
Then we came back to the house for a blueberry and pear pie. It was lovely, I love fruit pie, and it was bright purple, which worried our hostess but I thought it looked cool. After that, we went to an onsen, of course, which is how you always end your day in Kyushu!
So we arrived at lunchtime, a little later than anticipated because I had to go back when we were just out of Nakatsu to get Amy's medicine! They had been at a school sports day all morning, so they made pizza toast, I added the marmite and cheese, and ham and tomato sauce sandwiches I had prepared.
After lunch, and a chat, and a cup of tea, we went to a nearby sports ground and went for a little walk. Then we visited an old traditional house, then went down to the river, which was the kids's favorite part. We chucked stones into the river. Then we floated bits of wood as boats. Amy really took to that, searching around for families to put on the boat, then I launched it into the river. We lost the family of course. They waded in the muck in their bare feet (the river had recently flooded so it was very silted up and there was a lot of driftwood around)
Then we came back to the house for a blueberry and pear pie. It was lovely, I love fruit pie, and it was bright purple, which worried our hostess but I thought it looked cool. After that, we went to an onsen, of course, which is how you always end your day in Kyushu!
Friday, September 23, 2005
We're going to the zoo, zoo zoo...
Lena went on her first field trip today, which was fun for her, and a major trauma for me. Let some people take my little baby away from me on a bus with no seat-belts to a zoo, with crowds and wild animals? At least I wasn't the only one going silly, some mothers couldn't help themselves and asked the teachers to please be careful and watch out for junior. Much as I wanted to say, 'Bring my baby back in one piece or I'll murder you' all I said was 'So, how many kids do you have each?' The answer was a reassuring two - 'one for each hand'. And I was impressed with the tight organization, right down to the last detail, each kid labelled, even the order they got on the bus was organized!
Amy had the day off kindy as it's a public holiday today. God knows which one, once upon a time I used to find out, but I can't be bothered now. Nothing changes, except I turned up at the PO today to find it shut. So Amy stayed home with me, drew pictures, then turned a cardboard box into a house, then painted it, and made a table out of a box. I gave her 500 yen to make up for not going to the zoo, and she spent it at the 100yen shop - she got a plastic tiara, pink sparkly rabbit ears, some pencils and a sketch pad, and a tree for her fairy house (a collection of Japanese lacquer boxes on the window-sill filled with tiny wooden furniture and shells).
Then while she played at Baachan's while I went to pick up Lena, she developed a fever again, and has now gone to sleep with a sore throat. Relapse. Hope she's okay tomorrow, and HOPE it doesn't bring on another asthma attack
Amy had the day off kindy as it's a public holiday today. God knows which one, once upon a time I used to find out, but I can't be bothered now. Nothing changes, except I turned up at the PO today to find it shut. So Amy stayed home with me, drew pictures, then turned a cardboard box into a house, then painted it, and made a table out of a box. I gave her 500 yen to make up for not going to the zoo, and she spent it at the 100yen shop - she got a plastic tiara, pink sparkly rabbit ears, some pencils and a sketch pad, and a tree for her fairy house (a collection of Japanese lacquer boxes on the window-sill filled with tiny wooden furniture and shells).
Then while she played at Baachan's while I went to pick up Lena, she developed a fever again, and has now gone to sleep with a sore throat. Relapse. Hope she's okay tomorrow, and HOPE it doesn't bring on another asthma attack
Friday, September 16, 2005
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Ballet Concert
I took Amy and Lena to their first full ballet today. By coincidence, it was Coppelia, my first ballet! (That I can remember, I may have seen the Nutcracker too, but I can't remember much).
It was only a local school's performance, not a professional company, but it was good enough for us. Machiko Takita was in it, but we couldn't tell which one! You never can, they make them up with so much stage make-up it's almost impossible to spot them. I only knew Amy in her ballet performance because of her crooked eyebrows!
I told them the story before we left, but I found out that a local school's ballet performance is just about the perfect thing to take kids to. There's no dialogue that you are interrupting when you explain things to them, they music is so loud you can't be heard anyway, and the audience is full not of serious and committed followers of ballet, but relatives here to watch little Yukiko dancing, so they're not bothered anyway. In fact, the lady next to me took a nap half way through.
Once home the fun continued, with Amy and Lena setting the room up as the ballet. Amy wanted to be the China doll. The two rubber horses and a fluffly dog were the three Spanish dancers, and the two dolls Maria got them for my birthday were the Bolero dolls. Lena got to be Coppelia, sitting in the book corner behind a curtain constructed out of a guitar and a towel. They both sat perfectly still, and I had to be Dr. Coppelius, and wind up China doll/Amy and pull back the curtain to check on Coppelia/Lena. We had to do it over when Daddy got home, then again on Tuesday when her friends came to visit!
It was only a local school's performance, not a professional company, but it was good enough for us. Machiko Takita was in it, but we couldn't tell which one! You never can, they make them up with so much stage make-up it's almost impossible to spot them. I only knew Amy in her ballet performance because of her crooked eyebrows!
I told them the story before we left, but I found out that a local school's ballet performance is just about the perfect thing to take kids to. There's no dialogue that you are interrupting when you explain things to them, they music is so loud you can't be heard anyway, and the audience is full not of serious and committed followers of ballet, but relatives here to watch little Yukiko dancing, so they're not bothered anyway. In fact, the lady next to me took a nap half way through.
Once home the fun continued, with Amy and Lena setting the room up as the ballet. Amy wanted to be the China doll. The two rubber horses and a fluffly dog were the three Spanish dancers, and the two dolls Maria got them for my birthday were the Bolero dolls. Lena got to be Coppelia, sitting in the book corner behind a curtain constructed out of a guitar and a towel. They both sat perfectly still, and I had to be Dr. Coppelius, and wind up China doll/Amy and pull back the curtain to check on Coppelia/Lena. We had to do it over when Daddy got home, then again on Tuesday when her friends came to visit!
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Harvest Festival
I was feeling it a bit from the night before, but even though the kids had stayed the night at Baachan's I had to get up! I had promised to pick up Lena before 10 so Baachan could take Amy to kindy. They had an event for grandparents. I took Lena to Jusco to the monthly flea market where I got HUGE brand new kitties for 100yen! Super! And I picked up some clothes for Amy, including black vinyl pants, wicked! And a fork, spoon and chopsticks set for Lena's lunchbox
Then I had to rush back to Baachan's, take Amy to her art lesson, then my own lesson. And straight after that, out to Yabakei in the mountains to Baachan's old house for the annual rice harvest festival. It's held in a shrine on the hill behind the house. The whole neighborhood comes, there are toy and food stalls, and beer. Most people seem to come for the raffles - I won a bag of sugar, Baachan won some noodles, a blanket and a standing lamp, which she gave to us, and we have more use for all three!
For me the main attraction is the wonderful kagura dances. These ancient, traditional dances honour the gods and celebrate the harvest. They wear elaborate costumes, wigs and masks. The first dance is the rice dance, where the dancer carries the rice in flat trays, and he spins around so fast that he can hold the trays vertically and none of the rice falls off.
Then there is the Princess dance, done by a very lithe middle aged lady who can bend backwards so her head almost touches the ground. And the sword dance, which is downright scary, as the dancer twirls the swords around his head and up and down and all around. Lena asked what would happen if he dropped them, something no-one could answer, I could only hope that they were blunted, despite being genuine swords that once belonged to Amy and Lena great-grandfather.
Then there is the oni, or ogre dance. This one is real scary for the kids, because, by tradition, for some long-lost reason, probably luck, the oni takes kids off their parents and whirls them around a few times, usually screaming full volume. Lena had a go last year, and was so scared this year that she did not even want to go up the stairs up to the shrine. We managed to get her up, and she relaxed as the night went on and there were no oni. We left before they came on, I bet they were thinking 'damn' cos there were not that many kids there because of the rain, and Amy and Lena were sitting right on the edge of the shrine.
We ate dinner at Baachan's nephew and niece's house - always the same thing - a huge platter of bought sashimi, and one of nigiri-zushi, home-made chirashi-zushi and/or -zushi, Junko's yogurt and fruit salad, spicy ___, gently boiled mountain fern, and fried chicken.
Then I had to rush back to Baachan's, take Amy to her art lesson, then my own lesson. And straight after that, out to Yabakei in the mountains to Baachan's old house for the annual rice harvest festival. It's held in a shrine on the hill behind the house. The whole neighborhood comes, there are toy and food stalls, and beer. Most people seem to come for the raffles - I won a bag of sugar, Baachan won some noodles, a blanket and a standing lamp, which she gave to us, and we have more use for all three!
For me the main attraction is the wonderful kagura dances. These ancient, traditional dances honour the gods and celebrate the harvest. They wear elaborate costumes, wigs and masks. The first dance is the rice dance, where the dancer carries the rice in flat trays, and he spins around so fast that he can hold the trays vertically and none of the rice falls off.
Then there is the Princess dance, done by a very lithe middle aged lady who can bend backwards so her head almost touches the ground. And the sword dance, which is downright scary, as the dancer twirls the swords around his head and up and down and all around. Lena asked what would happen if he dropped them, something no-one could answer, I could only hope that they were blunted, despite being genuine swords that once belonged to Amy and Lena great-grandfather.
Then there is the oni, or ogre dance. This one is real scary for the kids, because, by tradition, for some long-lost reason, probably luck, the oni takes kids off their parents and whirls them around a few times, usually screaming full volume. Lena had a go last year, and was so scared this year that she did not even want to go up the stairs up to the shrine. We managed to get her up, and she relaxed as the night went on and there were no oni. We left before they came on, I bet they were thinking 'damn' cos there were not that many kids there because of the rain, and Amy and Lena were sitting right on the edge of the shrine.
We ate dinner at Baachan's nephew and niece's house - always the same thing - a huge platter of bought sashimi, and one of nigiri-zushi, home-made chirashi-zushi and/or -zushi, Junko's yogurt and fruit salad, spicy ___, gently boiled mountain fern, and fried chicken.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Bye Bye Hannah!
Tonight I went to the Nakatsu Katarukai once more, this time to hear Rich speak. I spoke there a few months ago, I don't know if I even finished that entry...
Anyway Rich spoke about rubbish and footpaths and one other thing I forgot. Then we went to a Keio Academy staff party at a Yaki-niku place I've never been to before. We took Uto with us.
It was for Hannah's farewell party. She stayed just one year. She is from New Zealand, and is going back there for now. The yaki-niku was so-so, I had already eaten so I guess that ruined my apetite! And it was open-air, which is unusual for Nakatsu. I think I would have enjoyed that several years ago, but I am so sick to death of sweat and mosquitos that it just pissed me off.
I drank beer instead, and talked to the kiwis, including new teacher Mike, who is from New Plymouth and his girlfriend Erin. I don't think there'll ever be a whole FOUR kiwis at Keio ever again. Then we went to One or Eight, the bar opposite my favorite bar Tropicoco. I got bored and wanted to go to karaoke but no-one else wanted to, so I went home. But before then I had a great time chatting with Hannah and Jess, who is also leaving soon on one side, then new teacher Kristin and Emma, who is Eoin's ex and a teacher at our rival Nova. Confused? There was also Ruth, another new teacher, and we have one more coming. Phew! Keio is expanding into Kokura, hence the influx of teachers. Long time since there were just the two of us, me and Alex, then me and Jim
Anyway Rich spoke about rubbish and footpaths and one other thing I forgot. Then we went to a Keio Academy staff party at a Yaki-niku place I've never been to before. We took Uto with us.
It was for Hannah's farewell party. She stayed just one year. She is from New Zealand, and is going back there for now. The yaki-niku was so-so, I had already eaten so I guess that ruined my apetite! And it was open-air, which is unusual for Nakatsu. I think I would have enjoyed that several years ago, but I am so sick to death of sweat and mosquitos that it just pissed me off.
I drank beer instead, and talked to the kiwis, including new teacher Mike, who is from New Plymouth and his girlfriend Erin. I don't think there'll ever be a whole FOUR kiwis at Keio ever again. Then we went to One or Eight, the bar opposite my favorite bar Tropicoco. I got bored and wanted to go to karaoke but no-one else wanted to, so I went home. But before then I had a great time chatting with Hannah and Jess, who is also leaving soon on one side, then new teacher Kristin and Emma, who is Eoin's ex and a teacher at our rival Nova. Confused? There was also Ruth, another new teacher, and we have one more coming. Phew! Keio is expanding into Kokura, hence the influx of teachers. Long time since there were just the two of us, me and Alex, then me and Jim
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
What did I say?
Wake up in the morning to a wet, but otherwise normal day.
And that's just what we did, except that we were sleeping on the living room floor, and it was dark because of the storm doors. And Amy went out and helped the neighbour's gardenere to sweep the road clean of leaves.
Now I have to clean up again, clear the mound of coats and bags from the hall, get the bedding back upstairs.
The wind died down late evening, picking up again around 10pm. At about 11:30 I was woken by a big noise of something falling, and I still haven't discovered what it was. Kanji didn't wake at all! There was a lot of damage in the south of the island, and the NZ newspapers are full of it, so here it is from me, not a hint of a flood over here, and no wind damage at all. So far - I haven't been out of the house yet!
And that's just what we did, except that we were sleeping on the living room floor, and it was dark because of the storm doors. And Amy went out and helped the neighbour's gardenere to sweep the road clean of leaves.
Now I have to clean up again, clear the mound of coats and bags from the hall, get the bedding back upstairs.
The wind died down late evening, picking up again around 10pm. At about 11:30 I was woken by a big noise of something falling, and I still haven't discovered what it was. Kanji didn't wake at all! There was a lot of damage in the south of the island, and the NZ newspapers are full of it, so here it is from me, not a hint of a flood over here, and no wind damage at all. So far - I haven't been out of the house yet!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Typhoon Nabi
We are waiting for it.
I read that it was a category 4, just like Katrina, which is a little nerve-wracking! But hopefully it'll lose power over the cooler water. Meanwhile, we wait, sleeping downstairs behind the storm doors, trying to amuse ourselves during what is becoming one very LOOONG day. We still have power, at least.
We have water, and spare food, and torches and a radio and lots of medicine for Amy. We've got some stuff in the entrance hall waiting in case we have to evacuate, but that's unlikely since we don't live on a hill (landslide risk). But if the water comes up too high, we might have to leave, we figure we'll go to the Youme town carpark! So I've got my emergency kit waiting there, a bag of clothes, a bag of important stuff like passport, money etc.
However, we have every intention of staying right here, freaking out at the wind a bit but otherwise, there's every reason to expect we'll wake up tomorrow to an ordinary, if wet, day. Wish us luck!
I read that it was a category 4, just like Katrina, which is a little nerve-wracking! But hopefully it'll lose power over the cooler water. Meanwhile, we wait, sleeping downstairs behind the storm doors, trying to amuse ourselves during what is becoming one very LOOONG day. We still have power, at least.
We have water, and spare food, and torches and a radio and lots of medicine for Amy. We've got some stuff in the entrance hall waiting in case we have to evacuate, but that's unlikely since we don't live on a hill (landslide risk). But if the water comes up too high, we might have to leave, we figure we'll go to the Youme town carpark! So I've got my emergency kit waiting there, a bag of clothes, a bag of important stuff like passport, money etc.
However, we have every intention of staying right here, freaking out at the wind a bit but otherwise, there's every reason to expect we'll wake up tomorrow to an ordinary, if wet, day. Wish us luck!
Sunday, September 04, 2005
iro iro
Which is Japanese for this and that.
We have a typhoon coming over today, seems small so far, but I stocked up on bottled water yesterday anyway! I am shocked and saddened with what has been going on in New Orleans, as are many non-Japanese people I know, and no-one as scathing about the slack response than the Americans themselves. I think they're a bit shocked. That's not supposed to happen in the US. The whole event seems to have slipped by the Japanese - their news has been full of election coverage. A student I had yesterday was aware damage had been done as her company has a branch in Mississippi, but she had no idea that whole towns there were wiped off the map and New Orleans was flooded up to the rooftops.
I have spent this rainy day indoors working on another proofreading job, this one requiring me to check it against the Japanese, which I am not very good at, to say the least! But I am whipping it into shape and all it needs now is a brief going-over to check for spelling, typos, punctuation and formatting.
Lilipod is now carrying about a GB of songs, about 300, nearly twenty hours of music. When am I going to get time to listen to it all?
We have a typhoon coming over today, seems small so far, but I stocked up on bottled water yesterday anyway! I am shocked and saddened with what has been going on in New Orleans, as are many non-Japanese people I know, and no-one as scathing about the slack response than the Americans themselves. I think they're a bit shocked. That's not supposed to happen in the US. The whole event seems to have slipped by the Japanese - their news has been full of election coverage. A student I had yesterday was aware damage had been done as her company has a branch in Mississippi, but she had no idea that whole towns there were wiped off the map and New Orleans was flooded up to the rooftops.
I have spent this rainy day indoors working on another proofreading job, this one requiring me to check it against the Japanese, which I am not very good at, to say the least! But I am whipping it into shape and all it needs now is a brief going-over to check for spelling, typos, punctuation and formatting.
Lilipod is now carrying about a GB of songs, about 300, nearly twenty hours of music. When am I going to get time to listen to it all?
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Birthday dinner
Today we finally got around to having the postponed birthday dinner.
I cooked it all, which is fine, because cooking is more fun that sitting around by yourself waiting. We started with the Dom Perignon, of course, which was lovely, as usual.
Entree was a stuffed mushroom. I can't get brown field mushrooms here, so I used a large shiitake mushroom. Topped with a fat slice of tomato, some slices of avocado, topped with grated cheese, black pepper and parsely, and served on a round piece of garlic toast. This was SO yummy, you really must try it, and so easy too.
Main was stuffed chicken breast, with potatoes and salad.
The chicken was stuffed with camembert and apricot. I didn't do very well here, the chicken would have been best lightly cooked on the inside first, as it was raw and we had to microwave it. It was also lacking somewhat in flavor, if anyone has any good ideas as to how to flavor this dish, I'm all ear. All I did was butterfly the chicken breasts, put half a canned apricot inside half a round of camembert, then put that in the chicken breast. At the very least it needed salt and pepper.
The salad was mixed leaf with carrot dressing, and just perfect. The potatoes were golden paprika baked. Here's a good tip - boil the potatoes first, then scour them all over with a fork. Then brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for twenty minutes, then brush with butter again. They were just superb!
Dessert was brandy snaps brought from NZ in January, which were a disappointingly soft, despite having a best before date of December 2005. I won't complain about over-zealous Japanese expiry dates again.
I cooked it all, which is fine, because cooking is more fun that sitting around by yourself waiting. We started with the Dom Perignon, of course, which was lovely, as usual.
Entree was a stuffed mushroom. I can't get brown field mushrooms here, so I used a large shiitake mushroom. Topped with a fat slice of tomato, some slices of avocado, topped with grated cheese, black pepper and parsely, and served on a round piece of garlic toast. This was SO yummy, you really must try it, and so easy too.
Main was stuffed chicken breast, with potatoes and salad.
The chicken was stuffed with camembert and apricot. I didn't do very well here, the chicken would have been best lightly cooked on the inside first, as it was raw and we had to microwave it. It was also lacking somewhat in flavor, if anyone has any good ideas as to how to flavor this dish, I'm all ear. All I did was butterfly the chicken breasts, put half a canned apricot inside half a round of camembert, then put that in the chicken breast. At the very least it needed salt and pepper.
The salad was mixed leaf with carrot dressing, and just perfect. The potatoes were golden paprika baked. Here's a good tip - boil the potatoes first, then scour them all over with a fork. Then brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for twenty minutes, then brush with butter again. They were just superb!
Dessert was brandy snaps brought from NZ in January, which were a disappointingly soft, despite having a best before date of December 2005. I won't complain about over-zealous Japanese expiry dates again.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
I have an iPod! I have an iPod! I have an iPod!
Kanji got me an iPod. A mini iPod, it's pink and I've named it Lilipod. I have managed to figure it out, and it now has one album on it, I christened it with White Stripe. I wondered in Kanji would be able to match last year's gold watch, which I loved, but he did! I must be made of glass or something, cos he seems to have no trouble figuring out just what I want.
Amy insisted on Kanji taking her out to buy me something, and he very kindly took her to the jewellery shop! He said she was like 'this, and this, and this' pointing at things with rather long price tags, but he limited her a very sweet little pair of pink heart earrings with a tiny diamond hanging off them. Amy was just as taken with the pink jewellery box.
Maria sent me a top that, like last year's jacket, has to sit around looking new for a few weeks before it's cool enough to wear! I think it'll make it's debut at Again, as it's a little sparkly, kind of suggesting evening. Oh, and a moro, which will wait until the kids have completely forgotten about it. She was also kind enough to throw in a few BIG extras for Amy and Lena, two matching rag dolls, that they loved. Lena immediately noted that she would be able to cuddle it at night, which is pretty much huggy-Lena's ultimate seal of approval. The girls then put the dolls on the backs and piggy-backed them down the stairs. They (the dolls, that is) are now riding the inflatable horses.
And right now we are listening to 'Schnappi' for the millionth time. I'll be fluent in German before the day is out. It's on a CD Jo got for us, and I have been trying all day to listen to her recommended Bodyrockers track from the beginning to the end without it being interrupted by 'Schnappi' but I might have to wait until they go to bed! I don't think Schnappi is going to make it onto Lilipod.
And from Mum I got some beautiful knickers, which will make a welcome contrast from my warehouse pack-of-ten cottons. And she got the kids some Ladybird fairytale books, with the beautiful illustrations just like the ones we had when we were kids. I still have two, The Princess and the Pea, and The Magic Porridge Pot. Now we can add Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
Later - Finally got the Bodyrockers on, and Amy promptly made up a dance for it. Will tape that in a few days after she's refined it.
All in all they day wasn't too bad, despite a real low mid-afternoon when Lena came down with fever again, 39.3. I was just finishing off the fish and chips I fried up for a picnic lunch when she started complaining about sore eyes. I thought she must have something in her eye, but by the time I got to her she had curled up on the sofa and was insisting on sleeping, and we could feel how hot she was. So I packed up the fish and chips, in newspaper of course, and sent Kanji and Amy off to play, while I lay down with Lena for a nap. I think I've still got a touch of this cold too. Still headachey.
After Kanji and Amy came home, we decided to put off the birthday dinner until Tuesday, and just order pizza and eat cake. Kanji, Amy and I had cake while Lena declared herself too sick to eat it. Around six, Kanji went out to pick up some fresh fish from a friend who went fishing today, and he gutted it while I went and got some DVDs. By the time I got back, Lena was up and raring to go, and the two of them put on some dance routines for us before going to bed, where Lena promptly relapsed and shot up to 39.2 again. She has just got to sleep, and it's already 9:30 - where did the day go?
Amy insisted on Kanji taking her out to buy me something, and he very kindly took her to the jewellery shop! He said she was like 'this, and this, and this' pointing at things with rather long price tags, but he limited her a very sweet little pair of pink heart earrings with a tiny diamond hanging off them. Amy was just as taken with the pink jewellery box.
Maria sent me a top that, like last year's jacket, has to sit around looking new for a few weeks before it's cool enough to wear! I think it'll make it's debut at Again, as it's a little sparkly, kind of suggesting evening. Oh, and a moro, which will wait until the kids have completely forgotten about it. She was also kind enough to throw in a few BIG extras for Amy and Lena, two matching rag dolls, that they loved. Lena immediately noted that she would be able to cuddle it at night, which is pretty much huggy-Lena's ultimate seal of approval. The girls then put the dolls on the backs and piggy-backed them down the stairs. They (the dolls, that is) are now riding the inflatable horses.
And right now we are listening to 'Schnappi' for the millionth time. I'll be fluent in German before the day is out. It's on a CD Jo got for us, and I have been trying all day to listen to her recommended Bodyrockers track from the beginning to the end without it being interrupted by 'Schnappi' but I might have to wait until they go to bed! I don't think Schnappi is going to make it onto Lilipod.
And from Mum I got some beautiful knickers, which will make a welcome contrast from my warehouse pack-of-ten cottons. And she got the kids some Ladybird fairytale books, with the beautiful illustrations just like the ones we had when we were kids. I still have two, The Princess and the Pea, and The Magic Porridge Pot. Now we can add Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
Later - Finally got the Bodyrockers on, and Amy promptly made up a dance for it. Will tape that in a few days after she's refined it.
All in all they day wasn't too bad, despite a real low mid-afternoon when Lena came down with fever again, 39.3. I was just finishing off the fish and chips I fried up for a picnic lunch when she started complaining about sore eyes. I thought she must have something in her eye, but by the time I got to her she had curled up on the sofa and was insisting on sleeping, and we could feel how hot she was. So I packed up the fish and chips, in newspaper of course, and sent Kanji and Amy off to play, while I lay down with Lena for a nap. I think I've still got a touch of this cold too. Still headachey.
After Kanji and Amy came home, we decided to put off the birthday dinner until Tuesday, and just order pizza and eat cake. Kanji, Amy and I had cake while Lena declared herself too sick to eat it. Around six, Kanji went out to pick up some fresh fish from a friend who went fishing today, and he gutted it while I went and got some DVDs. By the time I got back, Lena was up and raring to go, and the two of them put on some dance routines for us before going to bed, where Lena promptly relapsed and shot up to 39.2 again. She has just got to sleep, and it's already 9:30 - where did the day go?
Saturday, August 27, 2005
sick and prep
Me and Lena's turn today. Lena has a fever, and I am a bit tired and headachey. It's a pretty mil cold though, nothing to worry about I think, only Amy's cough at bedtime was a bit rough, and had be worrying about a relapse with asthma. We are only having the flixotide when needed this month, so I think I will give her some over the next few days to stop her coming down.
We finally went to see the Takitas today, after about two months. Turns out they were remodelling their kitchen, which is why they couldn't see us. What a lively house, with the four kids, six months old baby scuttling about in his walker, mother gently admonishing "I know that looks interesting, but you can't have it". Lena realizing he needs his mouth wiped, rushed to get a tissue to wipe it, but GAVE the tissue to him, which he promptly ate. Three-year old Rikako played with Amy and Lena in the bedroom, while the older two Machiko and Yuto enjoyed learning how to play Guess Who. We also played bingo, read some books, and practiced some words from charts.
Finally I had a mammoth shopping session to do, to prepare for tomorrow's menu...
We finally went to see the Takitas today, after about two months. Turns out they were remodelling their kitchen, which is why they couldn't see us. What a lively house, with the four kids, six months old baby scuttling about in his walker, mother gently admonishing "I know that looks interesting, but you can't have it". Lena realizing he needs his mouth wiped, rushed to get a tissue to wipe it, but GAVE the tissue to him, which he promptly ate. Three-year old Rikako played with Amy and Lena in the bedroom, while the older two Machiko and Yuto enjoyed learning how to play Guess Who. We also played bingo, read some books, and practiced some words from charts.
Finally I had a mammoth shopping session to do, to prepare for tomorrow's menu...
Friday, August 26, 2005
No kindy again
Amy refused to go again. I think it hinges around the nap - one to two hours of doing absolutely nothing can't be much fun. But now she is telling me she is not enjoying the morning sessions either, she says all she does is walk around the room looking for something to do. Hmm, what to do...I might change to the three-sessions-a-week system, which costs less than half of what I am paying now, but since she misses so much, and I so often bring her home early. It means I will have to take her to the park more often, but that can't hurt me. And I will have to do more English study with her to give her something to do, again, a good thing.
It's really hard to balance the fact that I don't think she should be forced into anything, even school, with the suspicion that she is giving up too soon, and needs to learn persistence and patience and that you sometimes have to do things you don't like.
It's really hard to balance the fact that I don't think she should be forced into anything, even school, with the suspicion that she is giving up too soon, and needs to learn persistence and patience and that you sometimes have to do things you don't like.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Oh god! back to work
The summer break is finally over and I had to get up out of bed this morning and - ugh - go to work. Barbecue and party class the night before certainly doesn't help!
I got into my class and honestly, my mind drew a blank. I had a vague idea somewhere that we were supposed to be doing a test today, so I looked for it, starting to break into a sweat, but could not find it. I went to see the other teacher, who said we had not been given the test by our rather inept English classes manager, Tummy-chan (long story), so I went back and gave the confused students some written work to do while I gathered my thoughts and got myself back into the groove. I was a bit more together for the second class.
I watched The Sweetest Thing today, which has to be one of the dumbest movies I've even seen, in fact I wondered why I was persisting in watching it to the end, stubborness I suppose, although it did improve slightly towards the end, in contrast to most comedies, which go down the hill towards the end. Only it had a dreadfully lame ending, but with the most interesting credits.
I got into my class and honestly, my mind drew a blank. I had a vague idea somewhere that we were supposed to be doing a test today, so I looked for it, starting to break into a sweat, but could not find it. I went to see the other teacher, who said we had not been given the test by our rather inept English classes manager, Tummy-chan (long story), so I went back and gave the confused students some written work to do while I gathered my thoughts and got myself back into the groove. I was a bit more together for the second class.
I watched The Sweetest Thing today, which has to be one of the dumbest movies I've even seen, in fact I wondered why I was persisting in watching it to the end, stubborness I suppose, although it did improve slightly towards the end, in contrast to most comedies, which go down the hill towards the end. Only it had a dreadfully lame ending, but with the most interesting credits.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Barbecue
Amy got over her little cold overnight and was her usual self by lunchtime so we were okay for the annual baseball barbecue. Kanji plays in a social team, always on Wednesday, organized by a friend of his whose restaurant is only closed on Wednesday. The barbecue was on the little island in the river, in a kind of barbecue restaurant, with a permanent barbecue area outside.
No gas barbecues here - Japanese still barbecue over open flames on a grill. We sat around on planks set on bricks, and ate excellent beef followed by superb seafood - fugu (puffer fish) huge prawns, clams, squid, whole fish, and vegetables like pumpkin, capsicums and cabbage. And bucketloads of beer, of course!
We rode our bikes over, one kid each. Both of them got wet playing in the ice bucket, which made me worried on the way home - the summer heat has gone out of the night air, and the poor buggers were like human air conditioners on the way home - wet + air = very cold. I threw all three of them in the shower and took of to my usual Wednesday night party class.
No gas barbecues here - Japanese still barbecue over open flames on a grill. We sat around on planks set on bricks, and ate excellent beef followed by superb seafood - fugu (puffer fish) huge prawns, clams, squid, whole fish, and vegetables like pumpkin, capsicums and cabbage. And bucketloads of beer, of course!
We rode our bikes over, one kid each. Both of them got wet playing in the ice bucket, which made me worried on the way home - the summer heat has gone out of the night air, and the poor buggers were like human air conditioners on the way home - wet + air = very cold. I threw all three of them in the shower and took of to my usual Wednesday night party class.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
These are Lena's favorite toys. They are from a Japanese cartoon, the centre one is called Hamtaro, 'Ham' (pronounced 'hum') is short for hamster, 'taro' is a common (in the past) Japanese name, so it's like Hamster John. I don't know the names of the other two. They were a McDonalds toy, which goes to show you can never predict what a kid is going to take a liking to! They were part of a set with fairground equipment, two of them came with a carousel, and the other with something I don't remember, only they are all now in McDonald's toy heaven, ie, the trash.
She first took a liking to them about a year ago, and started carrying them around, calling them her girls. She took them in the car, took them to bed, put them on the table to eat. We misplaced them for ages, until I found them again, predictably in a 'safe' place! Now they are again top dogs of the toy box, I have to hunt high and low if they go missing, and Lena sleeps with the green one in one hand, and other two in the other hand, and she prepares meals for them from the kitchen set, especially 'juice' (a plastic piece of fruit in a cup).
Meanwhile, Amy went to the hospital again yesterday for an asthma check-up, and the doctor gave us a prescription for another flixotide/furutaido inhaler, which we are to use as needed. Which will be today, since Amy caught something at the hospital, probably from the doctor himself, who had on a mask. So she is resting on the couch watching Shrek.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Miss Really and Miss Actually
Or should I say, Miss Weally and Miss Akshilly. These are, respectively, Lena and Amy's favorite words. They pop up in their sentences all over place, appropriate or not, particularly not in Lena's case, eg: "I want some weally milk".
Is it my fault? Do I use these words a lot? Or can I blame kindy...
Is it my fault? Do I use these words a lot? Or can I blame kindy...
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Birthday dinner?
Kanji confessed tonight that he was going to have to give up on the nice idea he had to cook me a birthday dinner - he just could not think of what to cook! He tried to get some lamb, but there was none at the butcher. He didn't realize you have to order it especially here. So he brought me home two bottles of wine. He knows what really makes me happy, ha ha. One, a bottle of Dom Perignon, which has become a birthday tradition, and one I am not complaining about. The other, NZ sauvignon blanc. Plus I still have the one Maria sent me left over from her big birthday bash. So I am well set-up for drinkies, now all I have to do is think up a menu.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Pineapple costume
I'm getting a bit of a headache surfing the net trying to find a pineapple costume for Amy. It's for Halloween but I had a feeling I'd better start sooner rather than later, and I think I'm right. If ANYONE knows where I can get, or how I can make a pinepapple costume, or has any cool ideas, let me know!
It's Obon today, the festival of the dead, when the spirits of the ancestors come back home for a visit. I guess that means the cemetery next door will be mighty busy tonight, either with family members, or, if the family have forgotten, the ghosts themselves!
We will go tonight to Toyoko's house, where the butsudan is (the Buddhist family altar) and do 'omairi', kind of like a prayer/greeting, and then eat pizza and go home, probably to continue the great pineapple search.
It's Obon today, the festival of the dead, when the spirits of the ancestors come back home for a visit. I guess that means the cemetery next door will be mighty busy tonight, either with family members, or, if the family have forgotten, the ghosts themselves!
We will go tonight to Toyoko's house, where the butsudan is (the Buddhist family altar) and do 'omairi', kind of like a prayer/greeting, and then eat pizza and go home, probably to continue the great pineapple search.
Friday, August 12, 2005
No computer!
Kanji borrowed the computer today and had it all morning, and I had a ton of things to do! Never mind, I made a good start on the kitchen, pulled out half a dozen or so things to sell on trademe sometime. Amy went to kindy again, and Lena is bored out of her tree, she still doesn't know how to play by herself. She just lolls on the sofa. She was only happy wehn she was messing around on the Barbie site. Like mother like daughter?
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Back
We are back from a great trip to the beach in Miyazaki prefecture, a few hours drive down the coast. I am sunburnt, and very tired and sore from pretending to be a dolphin for Lena and Amy.
I made an effort to create another blog here at blogspot, but found I had the same input problem. I will see what else there in out there, but for now, I need to catch up!
Today I will be preparing the kids' English lesson, clown theme again, and visiting the post office to send off some things. All I want to do is sleep, but there is Obon dancing tonight, so we have to go out again!
I made an effort to create another blog here at blogspot, but found I had the same input problem. I will see what else there in out there, but for now, I need to catch up!
Today I will be preparing the kids' English lesson, clown theme again, and visiting the post office to send off some things. All I want to do is sleep, but there is Obon dancing tonight, so we have to go out again!
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Sumie Beach Miyazaki Day One
What a wonderful two days in Miyazaki! We all always enjoy the beach so much! Home again, tired, headachey with dehydration and lack of sleep, with shoulders aching with sunburn, I wonder how I ever managed to survive for a whole two weeks or more when I was a kid! I guess you take it slower when you have more time. But I wonder if I would ever be able to get Amy out of the water, even if we were there for a month, she loves it so much!
The beach is calle Sumie (same as Kanji's mother), and is about a three-hour drive away. We took a van/mini-bus eleven-seater. Us four, Kanji's friend Takuya, his wife Maki and two daughters Karin and Momoka, who are the same age as Amy and Lena, and his brother and sister Osamu and Yukko. Plus Kana, their father's friend's daughter. We listened to anime songs the whole way, which was a bit of a heachache. Karin and Momoka don't use either child seats or seatbelts, which was a bit hard for Amy and Lena towards the end of the drive, when they started to complain and wanted to get out and play on the floor of the van. But mostly they coped.
We arrived far too early for check-in, and went first to a beachside park where we ate lunch, which we had bought previously, in the foyer of an air-conditioned building in the park. There was a big playground and a cable-car up to the top of a high hill that had a superb view of the bay and beach. We came down again via a huge slide and bobsled. I was a bit concerned about going too fast, especially with Amy between my knees, but the brakes were very efficient!
We decided we needed to swim, even if the cabin was not yet ready, so we parked and went to a smaller beach to one side of the main beach. The day was stinking hot and the water temperature just perfect. We stayed in for an hour without even being aware of it, before forcing ourselves out to go put on more sunscreeen. The kids only stopped long enough to have it rubbed in before they went off to build sandcastles, then we all jumped back in the ocean again. Me and Amy had goggles, which was great fun because the water was quite clear, as long as no-one kicked up the sand.
We finally had to pull ourselves out of the water, checked in, and showered and changed for dinner. We had a barbecue, of course, all prepared earlier by Maki and Yukko so we didn't have to do anything except drink beer and wine and wait for someone to figure out an efficient way to get the barbecue going, since none of us could do it! Very smoky, certainly no embers. We were peering at our neighbors' barbecues, but got no surefire tips from spying alone. At one satge they were taking the coals to the gas cooker inside to heat them up! At least we resisted the tempation to pour petrol on it. We finally got it cooking and at steak and kebabs, and scallops with butter and shrimps and veges.
It took ages to get the hyper-stimulated kids to sleep, and after that we sat down for another drink but I was so exhausted I could not believe it was only 10pm! We went to bed not long after, leaving Amy and Lena who were sound asleep in Karin and Momoka's beds!
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Time gets away on me again
And the kids hogged the computer all morning watching Harry Potter and Barbie and the Nutcracker. Not to mention this stupid blogsite is still giving me input problems, I have to go find another one I think, or maybe delete some of the earlier posts. And Harry keeping me busy, I have finally got up to the Half-Blood Prince, although I am trying to take my time to extend the pleasure!
Anyway, I made a start on the BIG clean-up - totally reorganizing my living room, including bookshelves, toys and computer area. It's not easy with Amy and Lena making their usual chaos around me, but Amy is quite excited because she knows she will finally be getting a 'new' box of toys (ie, one of the stored boxes of un-used toys from upstairs.) I told her I want to get them all down here and start chucking out the ones we don't use.
Anyway, I made a start on the BIG clean-up - totally reorganizing my living room, including bookshelves, toys and computer area. It's not easy with Amy and Lena making their usual chaos around me, but Amy is quite excited because she knows she will finally be getting a 'new' box of toys (ie, one of the stored boxes of un-used toys from upstairs.) I told her I want to get them all down here and start chucking out the ones we don't use.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Another one of those days...
...when you seem to move on from one thing to the next with very little time to think in between. I like the busy-ness, but sometimes it can feel a bit panicky when you have a deadline - today at 5pm I was supposed to have my final assessment of the final proofreading of the final version of the AFWJ Board Meeting minutes (yes, that is still going on!). I had to fit that in between lunch, picking up Amy, laundry, picking up Lena, taking Amy to the hospital, cleaning up for the lesson this afternoon, and preparing for that. In the end, I did it very quickly and needn't have worried. In the morning I dropped the kids off at their respective kindies, did the shopping and went for a swim. Tonight I have to prepare the recycling for tomorrow, and hopefully get some kitties boxed up to send to Maria.
At the hospital, we decided to keep Amy on the flixotide for another month, since she was first admitted after a beach holiday last year at the height of summer. But down to one puff a day.
PS I am getting that stupid delay thing again on this blog server, so I might be looking for a new one again soon.
At the hospital, we decided to keep Amy on the flixotide for another month, since she was first admitted after a beach holiday last year at the height of summer. But down to one puff a day.
PS I am getting that stupid delay thing again on this blog server, so I might be looking for a new one again soon.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Weird Dream
I had a REALLY strange dream. One of those ones where you can't wake up. I can't remember what I was actually dreaming about at first, but I had heard Kanji come in just before I dropped off to sleep, and for some reason I decided to go down to him. The first time, "I" got to the door before I realised I was actually still asleep. Then I managed to get my head off the pillow for just a brief second, it was really heavy, before I sunk back into the pilow. Then I got up and got half way down the stairs, before the stairs started to sink beneath me and my foot couldn't find a place to land. I thought I was dreaming, but on the stairs, and called out to Kanji, as I could hear the TV and knew he was in there watching it, but my voice wouldn't come out. I realized I was dreaming again!
I woke again in my bed and this time I only went half way across the room before realizing I was STILL asleep (and getting desperate to see Kanji now!). It was rather frustrating, and I AGAIN found myself on my pillow, head too heavy to lift. I was vaguely aware that the blanket was in the same place - twisted up around my leg, as it had been when I fell asleep - I was thinking that I should shift it but I must have fallen asleep before I had done so. Then someone pulled the blanket up over my head and I felt a boney creepy hand pulling on mine. I din't panic about the blanket, but I started to try to pull my hand away from the creepy hand and then I realized that I was dreaming again, and what if in real life I was actually yanking and jerking poor little Lena's hand around! At last, something imperative enough to wake me!
I woke for real, finally, with the blanket still twisted round my leg, lying on my side, with the lower arm across my body and tucked under my upper arm - hence the feeling of it being clutched by something - the something was me! Lena was miles away and upside down, so there was no chance I had been shaking her. Of course, the first thing I did was go downstairs to see Kanji, and I waited there with him until he went to bed!
I woke again in my bed and this time I only went half way across the room before realizing I was STILL asleep (and getting desperate to see Kanji now!). It was rather frustrating, and I AGAIN found myself on my pillow, head too heavy to lift. I was vaguely aware that the blanket was in the same place - twisted up around my leg, as it had been when I fell asleep - I was thinking that I should shift it but I must have fallen asleep before I had done so. Then someone pulled the blanket up over my head and I felt a boney creepy hand pulling on mine. I din't panic about the blanket, but I started to try to pull my hand away from the creepy hand and then I realized that I was dreaming again, and what if in real life I was actually yanking and jerking poor little Lena's hand around! At last, something imperative enough to wake me!
I woke for real, finally, with the blanket still twisted round my leg, lying on my side, with the lower arm across my body and tucked under my upper arm - hence the feeling of it being clutched by something - the something was me! Lena was miles away and upside down, so there was no chance I had been shaking her. Of course, the first thing I did was go downstairs to see Kanji, and I waited there with him until he went to bed!
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Karaoke
I took Amy and Lena to karaoke for the first time today.
Kanji spoke one sentence to Lena in English, and she protested and said he has to speak in Japanese, that if he spoke in English he would forget Japanese! (Guess what I had told them earlier when they started dot speak Japanese together?)
Kanji spoke one sentence to Lena in English, and she protested and said he has to speak in Japanese, that if he spoke in English he would forget Japanese! (Guess what I had told them earlier when they started dot speak Japanese together?)
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Harry Potter Day
For those who are as yet unaware, today is the day the new Harry Potter novel is released. Number six, Harry Potter and the Hlaf-Blood Prince turned up on my doorstep today at about 1:30pm, which is pretty fabulous timing considering how far I am from Tokyo! I read one chapter, and decided I couldn't remember much about the world of magic, even though I read the chapter synopses of the fifth book on this website: www.hp-lexicon.org/index-2.html
So, I decided to start re-reading The Order of the Phoenix, but when I started reading that, I still felt like I had no idea waht was going on, so I have started to read The Goblet of Fire. Now I have about 2000 pages to get through! Never mind, I decided I would be disappointed at the end of Half-Blood Prince that there was no more to read, like I was two years ago when I read Order of the Phoenix. This way, I'll be satisfied that there's more, twice!
Also today, the guys came to do our garden. Some people Jiichan hired after he saw my garden one day. About four of them came, and they cleaned it up so fast!!! Oddly, the did not shift the trampoline to clear the grass under it, nor did they empty the two containers of grass that Kanji had cleared, which had then been filled with rain. So I have decided to get up tomorrow and do that, and then, apart form the vicious mosquitos, the heat, the sandy bits under the swing and other places where the kids have decided to build impromptu sandpits, and the bit outside the kitchen, where the grass was killed by the weeds, the garden will be perfect!
So, I decided to start re-reading The Order of the Phoenix, but when I started reading that, I still felt like I had no idea waht was going on, so I have started to read The Goblet of Fire. Now I have about 2000 pages to get through! Never mind, I decided I would be disappointed at the end of Half-Blood Prince that there was no more to read, like I was two years ago when I read Order of the Phoenix. This way, I'll be satisfied that there's more, twice!
Also today, the guys came to do our garden. Some people Jiichan hired after he saw my garden one day. About four of them came, and they cleaned it up so fast!!! Oddly, the did not shift the trampoline to clear the grass under it, nor did they empty the two containers of grass that Kanji had cleared, which had then been filled with rain. So I have decided to get up tomorrow and do that, and then, apart form the vicious mosquitos, the heat, the sandy bits under the swing and other places where the kids have decided to build impromptu sandpits, and the bit outside the kitchen, where the grass was killed by the weeds, the garden will be perfect!
Friday, July 15, 2005
Amy's first song
I bought the \500 guitar at a flea market last year, and she's finally taken the bait, and picked it up long enough to write a tune, put some words to it, and remember it! It consists of seven notes, of which the first four are the same. And the words are, "When I love, I am cold" Of course, I will videotape her!
Thursday, July 14, 2005
A picturesque view of the rice paddies...
I remembered an Amyism, fairtly recent:
We were driving back from somewhere, past some summer rice paddies flowing with waving bright green rice plants, and Amy, looking out the window, sawa a beautiful white crane, Japan's elegant national bird, standing in one field.
"What's that bird, Mum, the power-shovel one?"
Power-shovel being Japanese for a digger, and a common construction vehicle, along with the CRANE
We were driving back from somewhere, past some summer rice paddies flowing with waving bright green rice plants, and Amy, looking out the window, sawa a beautiful white crane, Japan's elegant national bird, standing in one field.
"What's that bird, Mum, the power-shovel one?"
Power-shovel being Japanese for a digger, and a common construction vehicle, along with the CRANE
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
New Bedtime Routine
Well, only slightly different. I still go up and lay down with them, and read them their choice of books. And we still somtimes tell stories, although we have been doing that less since I started the night classes and have to get them to sleep on time. But on the other hand, I've been more and more likely to say goodnight before they go to sleep, and the little darlings have been very cooperative with me!
Lena had no trouble, she just shifted herself onto my pillow and went straight to sleep. Amy had a harder time, she takes everything so hard! But a BIG cuddle, lots of kisses and butterfly kisses, and promises that I would be back and she agreed to stay, after I promised to be back in five minutes. Five minutes later, another cuddle, more promises. The first time, it took frou cuddles, then three, then two, and now I solemnly promise to be back in five - and I come back and find them asleep!
There was no crying involved, and now I am even more convinced that the comon idea that you should get your baby to sleep by itself because it's easier now than it is later is completely wrong, and it's MUCH easier when they are older and have enough language and sense to understand what is going on and how to express how they feel about it too.
I'm also sad, because I really liked that time of theday - sometimes it annoyed me when they tossed and turned and chatted and sang, but I really liked the quiet time, and time to just be with them, and then peacefully read my book while I was still not too tired - when I read before I go to bed, the page soon starts swirling and my eyelids droop. And I loved that moment when they are suddenly so still and quiet, and you know they are asleep, and you look at their sweet angelic faces for WAY longer than you need to...
Lena had no trouble, she just shifted herself onto my pillow and went straight to sleep. Amy had a harder time, she takes everything so hard! But a BIG cuddle, lots of kisses and butterfly kisses, and promises that I would be back and she agreed to stay, after I promised to be back in five minutes. Five minutes later, another cuddle, more promises. The first time, it took frou cuddles, then three, then two, and now I solemnly promise to be back in five - and I come back and find them asleep!
There was no crying involved, and now I am even more convinced that the comon idea that you should get your baby to sleep by itself because it's easier now than it is later is completely wrong, and it's MUCH easier when they are older and have enough language and sense to understand what is going on and how to express how they feel about it too.
I'm also sad, because I really liked that time of theday - sometimes it annoyed me when they tossed and turned and chatted and sang, but I really liked the quiet time, and time to just be with them, and then peacefully read my book while I was still not too tired - when I read before I go to bed, the page soon starts swirling and my eyelids droop. And I loved that moment when they are suddenly so still and quiet, and you know they are asleep, and you look at their sweet angelic faces for WAY longer than you need to...
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Today I let the kids take the camera. These are shots from my phone camera, which they can operate now. I remember how totally off-limits the camera was when I was a kid - developing cost a lot in those days, especially the film for the fancy FX-70 Polariod camera we had. I was not allowed to take photos until I had my own camera, which I got for my 13th birthday, a simple 35mm no-flash fold-out instamatic camera.
But now the story is different, and we do not have to pay for kids` stupid mistakes, so we are free to let them experiment. And you get gorgeous, natural shots like these - well, I mean Amy's shot of Lena, Amy herself if a bit posey, and as you can see, has learned how to do the peace sign thing that all Japanese people, especially young girls, do in photos.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Elfin
I went out to lunch today to a lovely little restaurant in Yukuhashi called Elfin. I went with the mums who come on Tuesday, and Jess from work. It was a long way, an hour in total getting there, but it was worth it, it was delicious and very reasonably priced! Set lunch menus often are in Japan. For 1500 (about $20) we got a Japanese appetizer tray:
This is five tiny servings of very delicious food. Thinly sliced rolled pork with a sesame sauce and a savory jelly, topped with finely sliced pickled carrot and onion (on the white dish). Two slices of shrimp with roe on top and sour plum sauce (top dish). Crab with cheesy white sauce on a slice of taro and topped with two miniscule shreds of cucumber and a slice of olive (dish on the left). A fish dish (second from left). And I can't remember what was in the round blue dish!
Next came the soup, I chose cream of vegetable, the other choice was 'Chinese bouillon' whatever that is. Then came the pasta course, we all chose the tomato seafood pasta. It was just a small serve of pasta, with a piece of squid, one shrimp and two clams. Next came the salad, mixed leaf with bacon bits and dressing. Then the main - I had snapper with a citrus sauce. Finally the dessert came, which was just lovely - sponge and cheese cake, TINY servings, along with rum and raisin ice cream and coffee to finish off.
Next came the soup, I chose cream of vegetable, the other choice was 'Chinese bouillon' whatever that is. Then came the pasta course, we all chose the tomato seafood pasta. It was just a small serve of pasta, with a piece of squid, one shrimp and two clams. Next came the salad, mixed leaf with bacon bits and dressing. Then the main - I had snapper with a citrus sauce. Finally the dessert came, which was just lovely - sponge and cheese cake, TINY servings, along with rum and raisin ice cream and coffee to finish off.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
A movie day
Well, I tried to pick Amy up from her kindy camp on time. I woke up in time, got dressed and was only a few minutes late out the door - when I meet Kanji coming up the drive with Amy in the car. Turns out my clock was wrong!
So I took her and we went and got Lena, and then the two of them decided they didn't want to come home with me, and they stayed there. I came home, and watched the movies I rented last weekend but never got a chance to watch. First I watched The Day After Tomorrow, and while I decided to buy into the crazy science just for the sake of smoothly watching the movie without arguing at the screen too much, I still found myself laughing out loud at the quick-freeze speading ice that chased people and the ill-conceived CG wolves (whoever did them did not watch enough wildlife documentaries).
Next up was Girl, Interrupted. Nice loony movie.
Then I went and got the kids, and the dinner, and a whole heap more DVDs. And watched yet another movie that night with Kanji - The Time Machine. Makes me wish I had held off selling the book on trademe, cos right now I would really like to read it again!
So I took her and we went and got Lena, and then the two of them decided they didn't want to come home with me, and they stayed there. I came home, and watched the movies I rented last weekend but never got a chance to watch. First I watched The Day After Tomorrow, and while I decided to buy into the crazy science just for the sake of smoothly watching the movie without arguing at the screen too much, I still found myself laughing out loud at the quick-freeze speading ice that chased people and the ill-conceived CG wolves (whoever did them did not watch enough wildlife documentaries).
Next up was Girl, Interrupted. Nice loony movie.
Then I went and got the kids, and the dinner, and a whole heap more DVDs. And watched yet another movie that night with Kanji - The Time Machine. Makes me wish I had held off selling the book on trademe, cos right now I would really like to read it again!
Saturday, July 09, 2005
A Night Out
Adam and Hannah, teachers at Keio Academy, had never been to a hostess snack before, so on Thursday I offered to take them out to one tonight. Amy is staying the night at her kindy for a 'camp', and Lena is staying with Baachan. She didn't really want to, without Amy there, but I bribed her with ice cream and her chuppa, which she gave up a week or so ago, but I let her have it back just for tonight!
A snack is a varitey of Japanese bar, they usually serve whisky or shotchu (an alcoholic Japanese drink, about 25%) along with snack foods, but nicer than your proverbial nuts and chips. Things like dried squid, soy beans, tofu, chocolates, salty snacks and crackers, anything to make you drink more! Along with the food and drink you get conversation, if you could call it that, from hostesses, who are slightly more glorified waitress/barmaids, part of whose job description is to talk to you, flatter you, pour your drinks, ensure your glass is never empty, ply you with snacks, get you to buy them drinks, and clap along as you sing badly at karaoke.
Adam had heard about them but never been, so I took him along to one Kanji goes to sometimes with his friends, the one where his best friend met his wife. Adam was pleasantly surprised, finding it a bit more classy than he thought. His mental image was that were a little more seedy. He was surprised to find that normal, respectable people go to these places. We had chuuhais, shotchu with soda and lime, which is a really nice drink I am starting to drink instead of beer, which I am getting heartily sick of (except for that first cold one on a hot day, you can't beat that).
After the snack we went to Tropicoco, because Mamoru, Chiharu's boyfriend was DJing for the last time as he is being transferred (Self-defense force). I danced before I even sat down, I walked straight in to several of my favorite songs. Well, my 'favorite' for that five minutes at least. Adam went to play darts with Rich at One or Eight, the next-door bar, but the other Rachel was there, and Chiharu of course. I talked to the other Mexican guy about Spanish and Flamenco lessons. And gave the newly-wed Mark from England our phone number, he only lives two blocks away and they're having a baby.
Kanji convinced me to go home at 3am - I was quite ready to go off to a karaoke box with everyone! But my head the next morning was exceedingly grateful that I went home when I did!
A snack is a varitey of Japanese bar, they usually serve whisky or shotchu (an alcoholic Japanese drink, about 25%) along with snack foods, but nicer than your proverbial nuts and chips. Things like dried squid, soy beans, tofu, chocolates, salty snacks and crackers, anything to make you drink more! Along with the food and drink you get conversation, if you could call it that, from hostesses, who are slightly more glorified waitress/barmaids, part of whose job description is to talk to you, flatter you, pour your drinks, ensure your glass is never empty, ply you with snacks, get you to buy them drinks, and clap along as you sing badly at karaoke.
Adam had heard about them but never been, so I took him along to one Kanji goes to sometimes with his friends, the one where his best friend met his wife. Adam was pleasantly surprised, finding it a bit more classy than he thought. His mental image was that were a little more seedy. He was surprised to find that normal, respectable people go to these places. We had chuuhais, shotchu with soda and lime, which is a really nice drink I am starting to drink instead of beer, which I am getting heartily sick of (except for that first cold one on a hot day, you can't beat that).
After the snack we went to Tropicoco, because Mamoru, Chiharu's boyfriend was DJing for the last time as he is being transferred (Self-defense force). I danced before I even sat down, I walked straight in to several of my favorite songs. Well, my 'favorite' for that five minutes at least. Adam went to play darts with Rich at One or Eight, the next-door bar, but the other Rachel was there, and Chiharu of course. I talked to the other Mexican guy about Spanish and Flamenco lessons. And gave the newly-wed Mark from England our phone number, he only lives two blocks away and they're having a baby.
Kanji convinced me to go home at 3am - I was quite ready to go off to a karaoke box with everyone! But my head the next morning was exceedingly grateful that I went home when I did!
Friday, July 08, 2005
London bombs
We got an email from Chris this morning, and the chilling news that he was on a train at the time! He says he's going to blog it soon so here's the link: http://www.cdgreenwood.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Myblog.htm
Meanwhile, we played cricket again at OIT, which went well, again with the students getting the idea at the end and us not needing to tell them what to do. Again, that baseball instinct to step back when the ball comes too close, which got quite a few bowled out today. Two of my students provided most of the laughs. One could not seem to stay off the ground, everytime he caught a ball, or threw one, he somehow ended up sprawled on the ground. Another one expressed a kind of passive resistance by constantly playing for the opposing team. He even nearly caught himself out!
Meanwhile, we played cricket again at OIT, which went well, again with the students getting the idea at the end and us not needing to tell them what to do. Again, that baseball instinct to step back when the ball comes too close, which got quite a few bowled out today. Two of my students provided most of the laughs. One could not seem to stay off the ground, everytime he caught a ball, or threw one, he somehow ended up sprawled on the ground. Another one expressed a kind of passive resistance by constantly playing for the opposing team. He even nearly caught himself out!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Unisys job
I heard about London first from Peter, who appeared on Messenger while I was bathing the girls. I felt my stomach churn, but felt reassured at first by the mild reports, and Peter's assessment that Chris and Deb would have already been at work. I didn't really think they would be anything other than okay, but you can't help worry. Especially as I watched CNN and the numbers kept rising, up to five trains and three buses just before Maria let me know Chris had texted Mum.
I completed the proofreading on Unisys's annual report today. I quite enjoy this job, it's like doing a crossword puzzle and getting paid for it. I even roped Maria in to helping me out (I stuck with 'prove' in the end, but the way, Maria) while we passed messages about London and trademe. ("Did you see the kitty auctions?" "The phone lines are down in London, that's why Chris hasn't called" "How can I say 'Now is the time'?")
I completed the proofreading on Unisys's annual report today. I quite enjoy this job, it's like doing a crossword puzzle and getting paid for it. I even roped Maria in to helping me out (I stuck with 'prove' in the end, but the way, Maria) while we passed messages about London and trademe. ("Did you see the kitty auctions?" "The phone lines are down in London, that's why Chris hasn't called" "How can I say 'Now is the time'?")
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Rich and Jess come to Again
Rich has agreed to do a speech in Japanese in September for the same group that I did my speech for. So, just so he would know who he was working with, and what to say, he came to Again tonight, and so did Jess.
We had a great time, chattered away, mostly to Jess as Rich talked about his speech with Wada. We talked about everything, including work, and Rich would tell us off when we talked about work, but you can't help it!
It was also Uto's last night, as he has been transferred again, to Fukushima, so I talked a lot to him as well. We heard Nagano speak more English in one night than he has for a year. Jess got a lot of attention, and I don't know if she just found it as funny as she seemed to or if they made her feel uncomfortable, so we gave her the hammer, the plastic squeaky hammer Wakachan keeps to bonk rude people on the head!
Jess and Rich got roped into pulling the Gion kuruma this year. Unfortunately I am going to Fukuoka that day, so I won't be there to see it.
I got quite pickled, for some reason I drank faster that usual, or ate less, but mostly it was because we stayed later. Stumbled home sometime around 1am.
We had a great time, chattered away, mostly to Jess as Rich talked about his speech with Wada. We talked about everything, including work, and Rich would tell us off when we talked about work, but you can't help it!
It was also Uto's last night, as he has been transferred again, to Fukushima, so I talked a lot to him as well. We heard Nagano speak more English in one night than he has for a year. Jess got a lot of attention, and I don't know if she just found it as funny as she seemed to or if they made her feel uncomfortable, so we gave her the hammer, the plastic squeaky hammer Wakachan keeps to bonk rude people on the head!
Jess and Rich got roped into pulling the Gion kuruma this year. Unfortunately I am going to Fukuoka that day, so I won't be there to see it.
I got quite pickled, for some reason I drank faster that usual, or ate less, but mostly it was because we stayed later. Stumbled home sometime around 1am.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
bits and bobs
Another mother's gem: "Lena, I can't come and untangle you from the chair because I'm pulling skin off Amy's toe"
Later, at lunch, this time Amy: "Mum, is it real? It doesn't feel real." She had just been blowing on a piece of bread to unfrezze it, and was obviously feeling a bit dizzy.
Later, at lunch, this time Amy: "Mum, is it real? It doesn't feel real." She had just been blowing on a piece of bread to unfrezze it, and was obviously feeling a bit dizzy.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Art Class for Amy?
Mrs Fukuda suggested an art class for Amy today. She had seen her pictures in the shop and was quite impressed. Her other hobby is art. The art class she suggested in on a Saturday afternoon, 1-4 she said, which seems long, but then Amy loves drawing! I drilled her a bit about it, because I remember hearing once about a school art club in Japan which turned out to be just copying cartoons. I don't like the way all the kids I teach draw exactly the same, it's almost like learning another kanji, no creativity at all.
She said it was working with different media, which another arty friend had told me was important. And that they didn't just copy! Mrs F. will drop off a brochure sometime this week so I can check it out. Maybe we can do this instead of ballet.
Speaking of things Amy loves, here she is at swimming. Lena took this photo, Amy is on the other side of a glass window in front of the viewing area. Next one is one I took of Lena on my side of the glass
She said it was working with different media, which another arty friend had told me was important. And that they didn't just copy! Mrs F. will drop off a brochure sometime this week so I can check it out. Maybe we can do this instead of ballet.
Speaking of things Amy loves, here she is at swimming. Lena took this photo, Amy is on the other side of a glass window in front of the viewing area. Next one is one I took of Lena on my side of the glass
Sunday, July 03, 2005
phew, finished!
I mean the AFWJ board meeting notes. It feels very good to have all my deadlines cleared. I was given a special extension, and allowed to hand them in on the 3rd instead of the 1st. That was a relief, because the deadline for the proofreading turned out to be Friday, and then on Saturday morning I had to quickly re-label the kitty auction because I had not provided Maria with any prices, and she put them up on Saturday morning, so I had to fix them up a bit. That was in addition to three lessons!
Anyway, I got it done, while the kids were played at Baachan's. I listened to the tape recording of the meeting, but it was very unclear and I had no idea who was talking. I cannot believe that some previous secretaries used the tapes as their notes. I suppose someone thought it was a grand idea, to tape the meeting so they didn't have to struggle to keep notes at the meeting, but I found it much easier having all the notes there, that I had kept on my computer.
Anyway, I got it done, while the kids were played at Baachan's. I listened to the tape recording of the meeting, but it was very unclear and I had no idea who was talking. I cannot believe that some previous secretaries used the tapes as their notes. I suppose someone thought it was a grand idea, to tape the meeting so they didn't have to struggle to keep notes at the meeting, but I found it much easier having all the notes there, that I had kept on my computer.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Lena sick!
Mayumi came again today, and right at the end of the lesson, Lena, who had been complaining of a tummy ache all morning, was sick all over the floor! Poor thing, and poor me, who had to clean it up. The oddest thing was that the student didn't leave. The lesson had just ended, I had just gone into the kitchen to make tea, when it happened. I am pretty sure I would have left and declined the tea, after waiting to be sure the kid was okay. And left the mother to settle her child and clean up the awful mess without having to rush the job to get the tea ready. Maybe she stayed because it might have looked like she was abandoning a sinking ship? Who knows.
Friday, July 01, 2005
New job
The year is half over, and I have a new job. I am doing proofreading. Reading through business documents either written by Japanese or translated by Japanese into English, which need to be edited a little as well as having errors corrected. Sometimes they use strange turns of phrase, or a word that, although correct, does not suit the context. I've been interested in this kind of job for some time, so I jumped at the chance when the opportunity presented itself (on an email group).
Today's document is from a butter manufacurer. Changes include things like changing 'milk cows' to 'dairy cows'. It took me several hours, for only 3000yen, but I should get quicker as I get more experience, and hopefully I can get 2-3 documents a week and make it a night job. Might as well use that time after dinner profitably.
Today's document is from a butter manufacurer. Changes include things like changing 'milk cows' to 'dairy cows'. It took me several hours, for only 3000yen, but I should get quicker as I get more experience, and hopefully I can get 2-3 documents a week and make it a night job. Might as well use that time after dinner profitably.
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