To the river in Usa and Bon Dancing in Yabakei

More river swimming and more Obon events today!

This time we went with friends to another river, with a more ambitious concrete treatment consisting of two large, deep pools with slides. The water was diverted from the river, which had been left in its prisitine condition, with pools and waterfalls much like, but much prettier than, the fake ones at Hachimenzan. The water was REALLY cold, which was a super treat for us. We had a picnic lunch, and hopped back in again. Amy, Emily and Masaki enjoyed the big slide, while Lena discovered a wonderful game in the upper, shallower pool, in which I was the car? seahorse? something? that she rode to the deep end. She would call on me to stop, then get off and go 'shopping' or 'to work'.

In the evening, we went to Baachan's childhood home for dinner and Bon dancing. It was a little more small and intimate than I was expecting - I was expecting something like our local 'Toro Matsuri' with food stalls and a massive circle and troupes of dancers in matching yukata. Instead it was just the neighbors in a small parking lot outside the local community hall. We didn't stay long, but it was interesting to watch the dancing which had been celebrated here for who knows how many centuries by generations of ancestors of the people there that day, including Amy and Lena!

Hachimenzan and Obon

We went up the local mountain today for a paddle in the creek. Never content to leave any bit of nature alone, they have lined the creek with concrete steps and artfully arranged stones to create a series of pools and waterfalls in the style of the famous Japanese garden, which so cleverly mimics the grandeur of nature on a miniature scale. Why they couldn't leave nature to nature, we will never know. I suppose it can't be trusted, to either be safe enough, or ironically, beautiful enough.

Anyway, the end result is a convenient and easy walk up or downstream, splashing through the pools and climbing the small waterfalls. It was a cool way to spend a hot summer day.

Keio Summer Camp

Keio held their summer camp at Ookie lake again, although with the unique detail this year that there was actually no camp, because no-one stayed the night. Except the kindy kids and their moms, who, once again, hired a bungalow by the lake, had a barbecue, attended Keio's bonfire, got the kids to sleep then stayed up sipping wine and chatting.


Baby Sachi, Suzuna, Lena, and her classmates Tatsuki (Suzuna's little brother) and Kyosuke (Sahci's big brother) in a baby pool by the lake.


Our bungalow is one on the right. They are all two floors, with a main room, bathroom and kitchen on the lower floor, and a small bedroom on the upper floor.















Me and Keito's mum. The fire was a little too strong at first, and we were all running around and getting things while they cooked, hence the black sausages in need of a trim.
Maia's Mum cooking lamb chops and beef and vegetable kebabs - not your usual Japanese barbecure fare, but the others let me and her decide what to cook, and I'm a kiwi and she's a gourmet so we came up with some interesting new stuff!


The kids tuck in. They decided to arrange their chairs overlooking the lake. From right Amy, Keito, Maia, Lena, Tatsuki. Mums from left, Tatsuki's mum, Yuuto's mum, Kyousuke's mum and Koushi's mum.
From the bungalow overlooking the lake.


Keio's campfire. We toasted marshmallows and had smores (toasted marshmallow with a hunk of chocolate between two biscuits)

Public Pool

We finally made it to the public pool today, after several years of worry and not bothering! As expected, there was not a lick of shade, and you had to shower before getting in, so sunblock was probably not allowed. I didn't dare, I was so afraid of being told off for doing something wrong! No-one got in with t-shirts on, but it seemed that wading parents were allowed to wear hats and shirts. I got in with them for a little bit. I wanted to teach Lena to put her face in the water. She managed 1 second, and by the end of the session was quite proudly showing off her new skill. Tomorrow, 2 seconds, and by the time she starts swimming lessons next month, she should be happy to do the whole 5 seconds underwater!

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial Day

Just got back from the memorial event at Amy's kindy. Boy was it hot! There is no air conditioning at her kindy, which gives you some small appreciation of what it was like for those people that day - one of the recurring themes of the atomic bomb stories is the incredible thirst felt by the victims who had basically had their body's moisture sucked out of them by the heat of the blast. And on such a wickedly hot August day!

We gathered in the small kindergarten hall, and first up, the teacher gave the children a brief summary of what happened that day, showing them some drawings from a book.















Next, we came down and sat on the floor with the kids, and made an origami crane, a potent symbol of peace and healing in Japan.








Next was a talk by an elderly man who served on an aircraft carrier that was sunk by American planes. He explained how he had survived, and how of his kindy group of six boys, only he came back. Note the little plane on the end of one stick and the hot sun on the other. He used to be a teacher, and was a very good speaker. The kids were rapt.



Although I was disappointed that no mention was made of the current wars and conflicts going on in the world, the emphasis and focus was on not doing this again, creating and maintaining peace, not 'this is what the bastards did to us', which is what so many memorials can become.

A No-Show

Her name was Akiko Era. She was a student who did not turn up for the free English lesson in Buzen that I am teaching. (I get paid, the students don’t pay, the council makes up the difference). She called me, explained that she cannot make it to the free lesson, and arranged to meet me. She came to my house, and we decided on times – three lessons a month – and payment. Then the time came…but she didn’t. And she didn’t call.

They say Japanese are polite, and it’s true, they are. But they are also timid, with a tendendy to hide their head in the sand when it comes to problems. So polite that they don’t have the guts to say something bad. I would prefer a phone call.

Practicing Barbie

Barbecue at home, we have a go at doing it ourselves

Summer Vacation

Gion Fireworks

Summer Heat

Well, we are finally getting some of it! After days, weeks, of rain, today is a scorcher. My little house, with its long row of windows facing the sun all day, struggles mightily to keep cool, with the help of one hard-working air-conditioner. I didn't get to the pool today, though it would have been nice. Lena went swimming at kindy. Joanne and Emily and Masaki came to visit today. They went upstairs at one point, and though they opened the windows, they all came back in ten minutes sweating. It is SO hot up there!

Mike gave me a pile of sketchpads for Amy today. Here is the picture she drew - I call it an allegory of weather. She calls it The Whole World:

Summer Hols

Which actually started for Amy last Friday. All of August, and the last 10 days of July. You know the summer holidays! Days spent rattling around home, trying to think of what to do next. Here are some of the things my two thought of today:

Amy modelling a ribbon choker of her own devising:

Lena was being the baby sleeping:

Tooth and bruise

Amy has another wiggly tooth! My baby gets bigger every day. This time, it got wiggly by itself, no kicks in the teeth to help it along.

Meanwhile I had a stupid accident. I was carrying two large rubbish bags of laundry from the car to the house (after visiting the laundromat to get three days of laundry dry) when I tripped. The bags messed up my balance, and I fell, hitting my knee and whacking my left arm into the porch's corner post. I managed to meet with two angles of it somehow, and ended up with a right-angle bruise, that, typically for me, blew up out of all proportion, despite being iced.

Mike and Katy

It's pouring with rain and threatening floods but we went for a drive today anyway. First stop was Oita city, where we went to an art gallery. A New Zealander from New Plymouth who has been working for Keio Academy for a year had an exhibition there. He does pencil drawings, very skilled and imaginative. I thought it would be nice for Amy to see some work done by someone she knows. We bought a few postcards, and I have my eye on another picture that I might have to hint to Kanji about for my birthday...

Next, we went into town and visitied Starbucks, and the bookstore. I grabbed a couple of books and the kids got a magazine each - then I realized I had left my money in the car. Rain notwithstanding, I did not want to give up my books, so we trooped back to the car - down from the 6th floor, cross the road, go down the street, through the pachinko parlour and up to the third floor parking. Down again through the pachinko parlour and snap - my sandal broke. I tied it together, still not willing to give up and we rushed back to the bookstore in the rain, me limping and dragging my sandal, over the road, up the elevator and I got my books and was very happy.

Next we visited another Kiwi, living around the coast in Kunimi. Katy just had a baby boy, Shou, and he is a lovely plump and sweet-smelling baby. We were running late and couldn't stay late, but hopefully we'll see them again on a sunny summer day, when we head out to one of the peninsula beaches.

Amy and Lena at Starbucks:

Kodomo Kai Barbecue

I hated the fact that Kanji had to work and couldn't come! I had met the mothers before at the meeting, but I was still walking into a barbecue with a bunch of people I didn't know. It just would have been nice to have Kanji there too, he is so much friendlier than me! I sit there wondering what to say next, but Kanji always knows what to say! And that's not just a language issue either, he's just better at making friends, fullstop.

But I had the kids, and I brought my video camera so I would have something to do. We all stood around awkwardly for the first half hour or so, while four guys fired up their barbies. Lena and Amy found it a bit awkward at first, as there was one stupid girl who gasped and cried out 'Eigo da!' (English!) whenever we said something in English, and if we spoke in Japanese, she laughed and repeated it. It took a while for her to calm down, but once she did, the girls made friends as quickly as kids always do. Soon they were playing hide and seek, which was extra fun, as we were at a temple with gravestones out the back!

Then the barbecue officially started with a mini-speech from the Kodomo-Kai president, and we finally opened a beer and began to relax. We all fed the kids first - it was scary how fast the teenage boys ate! I thought there wouldn't be a scrap left for us! So we mums started digging in too. I hardly saw the kids - one minute they were in the temple's main hall with all the kids playing musical instruments, next they were scaring themselves in the graveyard, then jumping on the sofa. They each got adopted for the night by a kind older girl, Amy had a high school girl called Madoka and Lena had a junior high school girl.

Kanji dropped by at about 8pm, and greeted everyone with mini-speech. He had to leave again soon though. But by then I had relaxed, ate, and started to chat. I met a couple whose son works at Kanji's father's gasoline stand. I met my neighbor, a woman from the Phillipines, whose son Amy walks to school with. I ended up having fun. At the end of the night, all the children together, then all the adults together, played rock, paper, scissors for the leftovers. Amy got a packet of snacks, and I got a can of beer, which made a nice nightcap.

Rajio Taiso

What do you think of getting up at 7am, heading down to the bank parking lot near your home, and doing exercises in public to a tinny tune played on a tape-deck? Not your idea of summer holiday fun? Well, 'rajio taiso' or 'radio exercises' are a time-honoured tradition in Japan. You've probably seen whole parks-full of Chinese doing it on TV.

It's not done here to such a large extent, but some companies do it, and school kids on holidays (and their long-suffering mothers) are encouraged to join in, to maintain a regular schedule. It is organized by the 'Kodomo Kai' (see July 11), and the children are furnished with a postcard with the dates of the holiday, and one child takes care of the stamp pad and stamps each child's postcard.

Today was the first rajio taiso of the summer break, and our first experience ever. I set the alarm to a killing 6:40 - until Amy got sick I was waking up happily at this hour, but it only took two weeks of her being off for my natural slug-a-bed state to take over. Lena was even harder to shift than myself, although Amy leapt out of bed with her usual early-bird exuberance. Lena was still sleeping, in my arms, as I joined the circle at 7:02, much to the amusement of the others.

I got her on her feet in time for the end - it turned out to be only one song! So much for the 'exercise' component. Aerobics it is not. Amy also didn't join in, she saw her friends and suddenly went shy.

I'm not sure if it'll do the trick yet in fixing my schedule - I went back to sleep on the sofa for half an hour!

Shu and Groovy and a New Lesson

My old boss Yoshida Shu, from way back when I first came to Japan, called me before I went to New Zealand, to ask if I could teach him English. Odd, I thought, but agreed. We are having the lessons at Groovy, the cafe where I taught lessons when I first came here. It's a jazz club, with a tennis court and the best ice chocolate!

Shu is planning a trip to New Zealand, where he has all sorts of amazing things planned. Sometimes I think my job is not to teach him English, but to teach him common sense - No, you can't walk the Milford Track alone, in the middle of winter. You must start training now. You cannot take fossils out of New Zealand. We do know the value of dinosaur bones, you're not going to be able to find one sitting around in the dust that no-one had any idea of the value of, and take it back to Japan and become a millionnaire selling it. No-one is going to give you a bed and food in exchange for teaching them geological and palaontological Japanese. Nobody on Stewart Island wants to learn Japanese. And please, please come back to Japan to your long-suffering wife and daughter!

Meanwhile I picked up a new lesson. A private, about three times a month, on various days according to her schedule. I hope I don't get too annoyed with this one, I suppose if I do, I can always declare myself 'busy' on the days she chooses. How did I get into this? I am just not very good at negotiating in Japanese yet, plus I am hamstrung by my desire for the cash! I went into it intending fully to offer her ONLY Wednesday nights and Monday mornings, but she got me to offer Friday mornings too. I suppose I should put more little squiggles in my diary, if I really want to bargain hard!

At the hospital again

Amy complained of chest pains on Monday night. She said she'd had them on Saturday night after the Kindergarten Festival, and again on Sunday night at the barbecue, and that it was worse tonight. She said it felt tight, and her heart was beating too hard. I was pretty sure it was asthma, but as ventolin affects the heart, I was not sure about giving it to her. My doctor student was due to come for her lesson, she's a cardiac/thoracic specialist! Ironically, she chose that day to not turn up. I gave Amy the ventolin, and then checked the internet, where I read that chest pain is indeed a symptom of asthma. And that chest pain in children is almost never related to the heart, and is usually symptomatic of relatively minor, self-limiting complaints.

Next day though, I took her to the hospital, as a relapse of asthma needed to be looked into. She had stopped the flixotide about three weeks earlier. After being reassured by the five or so pediatric websites that started out with the reassurance that chest pain in children is almost never the heart, I almost had a heart-attack when the doctor kept checking her heart, then said he was ordering a chest x-ray and electro-cardiogram. That she had arrythmia.

So, I spend another nasty awful hour in that place, wondering why my little girl has to be so ill, over and over again. I was optimistic, but you can't help but worry. But I held it together enough to make her laugh during her electro-cardiogram - I told her she looked like a sheet on the clothes line, because the huge pegs they used on her arms and legs looked like the pegs we use on our clothes poles. Ask Jo about our pegs!

Her lungs are clear, and she has a small arrhythmia, but within normal range. She is back on flixotide, but since her lungs are quite clear, only one puff a day, just to stop it getting worse over summer.

Sunshine, Beef and Beer

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Funny Things You Say to Kids: "Don't hit me in the face with a Marmite sandwich!"

sigh

...

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.