I'm pretty sure it's Thursday today, although I spent all day yesterday convinced it was Tuesday. I even confidently told Amy it was Tuesday! Kanji finally convinced me over dinner by showing me his phone, and I stared in disbelief for a few seconds before accepting the inevitable. How bizarre! I have never been SO convinved it was the wrong day. Usually you are not sure, it could be either, but I was certain!

Now I remember. We spend the 1st at home, and then went to Youme Town to go shopping on Tuesday. The kids got a 'fukubukuro' (a lucky bag containing surprise goods, always worth mroe than the price you pay, but not always what you would have chosen youself). They used thier 'otoshidama', money given to children by parents, grandparents, and uncles and aunts. For 3000yen each, they got a cloth jacket, shirt, t-shirt, skirt and pants.

That evening Kanji went out with his wrestling club buddies (just watching, not actually doing wrestling), and I stayed home, and watched Castaway and had a chuhai to trim down the excess of shotchu we have in the house. Yes, really, I was just being efficient. Shotchu is like a stronger version of sake, about 25%, and in a chuhai, it's mixed with tonic or soda and lime or some other juice flavor.

On the THIRD then, we went to Jusco, and the kids got another fukubukuro, this one containing stationery items. They also bought a surprise egg, two items each at the 100yen shop, and a kids' magazine each. I got a clothing fukubukuro, the first time I've seen one in teh extra-large sizes I need to buy here. For 5000yen, I got a jacket, cardigan, two tops, a belt and a necklace. I also bought an incence one for 1000 - I might send that stuff to Maria to sell! And another one which I have not opened yet.

The kids are itching to do something today. Amy specifically requested a place where I can video her and then show Daddy the video. I am thinking we might get rugged up and play in a park, then go to an onsen, and finish up with a hot chocolate at a cafe. I'll let you know! Right now, I am going to have some tea and toast, and open that last fukubukuro!

New Year

For the last several years we have been to a party on New Year's Eve, with friends, eating fugu and Hokkaido crab and other treats. For various reasons we didn't go this year, and instead spent New Year's Eve with Baachan. This is more usual for Japan, where New Year's is a family event. Kanji was working, I was still feeling tired from my small illness, I felt sorry for Baachan spending New Year's Eve alone and Kanji decided the fugu cost too much!

It was a very quiet night. Baachan's usual mode of being is to feed people, so that's what she did. We started with sashimi and 'yaki-niku', or fried steak - very expensive wagyu, very pink, marbled steak that is highly valued in Japan. Amy and Lena love sashimi (raw fish), but they were not fond of the kingfish Baachan served. They will only eat tuna. But they loved the steak. When Jiichan finished work after 7pm, we ate a 'nabe' together. 'Nabe' just means 'pot' and also refers to a cuisine where meat and various vegetables are cooked together in a pot, then the pot is placed in the centre of the table and the diners take out pieces of food and put them in their individual serving dish - a small bowl with dipping sauce made from soy sauce and some kind of citrus juice.

We had kingfish (Baachan had ordered a whole fish to be cut into various cuts for sashimi and stews), Chinese cabbage, Japanese spring onions and mochi, pounded rice cakes, which are a traditional New Year food. The rice is pounded in a large bowl (see ) and broken into pieces and moulded into rounds of various sizes. The smallest are used for food, and boiled in the soup. They take on the flavor of the soup, and are quite nice, but VERY sticky. In fact, every year a bunch of people die from choking on them! http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070102p2a00m0na016000c.html

Every year we have this little stand off, where Baachan is keen to share the tradition with them, and I suggest they are too young. Luckily Jiichan is a very cautious man, and worries about the choking too, so it was us two who cooperated on the scissor-chopping - then secretly sighed with relief when they declared they didn't like it! All the more for us.

Then the waiting begins. There is a special TV show on New Year's Eve that I think everyone in the country watches. It's called the Red and White Song Contest. The Red Women's team and the White Men's team compete in singing. All the top singers appear. It starts at 7:20, and ends at 11:55, just in time to watch the new year being rung in at some famous temple, where they ring the bell 108 times.

Amy was waiting for Ayumi Hamazaki, Japan's No.1 Pop princess, who always wears a fabulous costume. I was waiting for Angela Aki, the daughter of a member of my foreign wives' club. The kids went to bed at about 9, but Amy woke up with a tummy ache and decided to sit up for a while. No Ayumi, but I got to see Angela, and we all saw the now infamous 'oppai' (boobs) dance, where the dancers for a hip-hop singer stripped off their costumes to reveal a stocking-bodysuit with painted-on breasts, only it was not immediately obvious that they were fake! Topless women sometimes appear on late-night TV, but this really took the cake! It was me who first discerned that they were painted - the underbust line was too strong, and then I caught sight of wrinkled stocking-fabric. It was neck-wrist-ankle, and super-tight, so it was really hard to see. I ressured Baachan, who was in a state of shock, I think, just in time for them to whip off their bikini bottoms to reveal vaguely phallic plastic fruit stuck to their loins. I have since heard that NHK has offered an apology to the stunned viewers. http://www.stuff.co.nz/3915829a12.html

Boxing Day

The traditional most boring day of the year - or as I have discovered, for Mums, the most relaxing! Both Kanji and I are now sick, me very mildly, him with a bit of a fever, so we spent most of the day lounging on the folded-out sofa-bed in various configurations, with the kids playing hard with all their new toys and watching DVDs. We also watched last year's Christmas, which was a bit more energetic than we managed this year!

I also spent the day opening my books - remember Miss Happiness and Miss Flower? I found it at Alibris and ordered it. Nostaliga swept over me as I opened it - it's an first edition, so it has the look and feel of an old book, with all the original illustrations. I recalled all of them as I turned the pages. So, this was my first image of Japan.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Day began of course with Santa, thankfully at a reasonable hour due to two consecutive late nights! The downside was that Daddy was long gone to work by the time Amy and Lena realized Santa had been. As Mummy was unable to find the Santa sacks the night before (the are still AWOL) the girls had to use rather messed old felt stockings, but they didn't care. Each one contained a packet of three Disney Princess eggs with a figurine inside, and three animal finger puppets. They each had three more presents that just would not fit in the tiny stocking!

Amy got a Doctor set, a Pokemon painting and stencil set, and an Alice in Wonderland pop-up book. I say 'pop-up book' but this book is amazing! I will post some photos sometimes to show you! Lena got a baby doll who she has called Molly, who cried and laughs and calls out 'Mama', a Polly Pocket doll and a Jungle Book pop-up book.

Then we came downstairs just in time for Daddy to come home for a few minutes, so we took the opportunity to open Mum and Dad's present to Amy and Lena - a doll's house. We had cocoa pops then ham and eggs for breakfast, then I took some time to open my present from me - an order from ezibuy's sale! The shoes are to-die-for! I also bought a bra, a skirt, two tops, a sweater, and two cover-up tops for the beach in summer, which is months away! but that's what you get for shopping on the other side of the world!

The morning was spent cooking of course. Kanji wasn't sure if he was able to get home, but two of my co-workers (who are also Lena's kindy teachers) we able to come for lunch. I roasted a lamb loin, and cooked a mountain of roast potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, peas, cabbage, and cauliflower and broccoli with cheese sauce. Miss A brought chicken, a Japanese Christmas tradition, and Miss T brought a Japanese Christmas cake (white sponge with strawberries and cream), which was good because I had no time to make dessert! I had a pavlova that looked like a burnt marshmallow and had to forgot to get the cake for a trifle. I briefly considered going shopping, but lack of time and a reluctance to expose myself to the depressing lack of Christmassy-ness on Christmas Day convinced me to stay home.

Kanji made it home in time, in fact, we ate and had our champagne toast before the others arrived, and Kanji headed off to bed, as he has a rather bad cold and had held up bravely all morning, both working and trying hard to be Christmassy for me, and he had had it! Miss T was driving, Miss A had to go back to work, and I was starting to feel a little under the weather so it was a rather quiet Christmas dinner. Miss A went back to the office, complaining that the bosses solution to the light work-load today was not to give the foreign staff the day off, but to make them clean. Unfortunately any strike action was thwarted by the Japanese staff, who were putting in 110% as usual. I felt glad indeed that I only work part-time and I am not required to be at the office when I don't have a class.

After lunch and just before the teachers arrived, we opened more presents! I got a new mixer from Kanji, plus a teddy bear. Okay, so they threw that in on points on his point card, but still. From Mum a beaded angel and two beaded balls for my Christmas Tree. Rebecca also got me a Christmas decoration - a little articulated Santa. Nice timing, since I decided this year to start getting nice decorations, and slowly get rid of the junk. I also sent everyone a decoration this year! Chocolates from Maria, Chris and Mum - I am going to get so fat! But I will enjoy every minute of it. The Continentals can wait til last, but we opened the Favorites straight away, so Amy could get the Crunchies, which she loves (hint hint). Kanji was thrilled with his puzzle, which he said he loves - he also solved it in less than a minute. I am still working on it.

Amy got a Doodle Teddy from the cousins, which she has already decorated and thrown in the wash! And Lena got a set of miniature ponies which she loved - they are now in the Dolls' House living room. Aunty Becky also sent them a present - silly putty for Amy, which they fought over, and some groovy magnet-foot dolls which have joined the crowd on the fridge. Miss T brought them some hair accessories. The kids got chocolate and sweets from Keio, and I got a bag. I think that's it!

Lunch leaked into dinner, and the kids had curry, while I nibbled on chocolate. We watched Polar Express, then old Christmas home videos from 2000 when Amy was a baby, then 2002 when Lena was a baby. Amy whinged about having her own room, just so she would have somewhere to put her dolls' house. She is still in tow minds about actually sleeping there though. Well, I will get her that desk over the New Year holiday and get started.

Miss T left, and the kids went to bed around 9pm. I ran out of steam, but forced myself back out of bed to open some of the books I bought and had delivered. In the end I only opened one, and was out to it again by about midnight.

I missed my trifle and pav, but I am so overloaded with chocolate I don't think that will matter! I still have a mountain of potatoes and a huge chunk of lamb - I will have to think of some creative recipes for them.

Yumi's Christmas Party

Happy Birthday Kanji

Lena's Ballet Concert

Ballet...Above left if a close-up of Lena's beautiful tutu. She was very lucky to wear a very traditionally shaped, pink tutu - every tiny ballerina's dream! Next are her ribbon shoes, and finally, a cute ballet bum. I love how they put tulle frills on the bottom! You can also see the pretty pink ribbon she wore in her hair.












Left, Lena with her best friend Maia. This is at the rehearsal the day before, so they don't have their stage make-up on. And they look much better without it! On the right, Lena in the middle of a group of junior girls doing a different dance, wearing beautiful burgundy velvet costumes to represent medieval Spain for the ballet 'Raymonda'














Lena on the stairs coming down from the tatami rooms where we got changed. The whole backstage area was taken over by guests and older dancers, and our little beginners, at the bottom of the heap, got the furthest room from the stage! In the middle, Lena in her stage make-up, and posing nicely in the tatami/changing room before we began.

Amy's Big Amazing Clever Day

Amy had a full plate today!

It started in the morning with a special event at her kindergarten for grandparents. What a shame NZ Grandma and Jiichan couldn’t make it, but Amy was thrilled that Baachan could come. I have no idea what they got up to!

After kindy it was her first piano lesson. She had very enthusiastically learned the ABC song by heart, but had to start learing to play with more than one finger. She learned where ‘do’ is (c), and has to practice a very simple tune using just two fingers on her right and left hand, and practice drawing some notes. Natually she took to that task very enthusiastically!

Which brings us to No.2, her second art exhibition. I have no photos, I took only videos this year. She has in two pictures, a slightly mysterious (abstract?) picture of a flask tied up with a scarf, and a portrait of a girl in her class. Next to that picture is a portrait of Amy by the girl whose portrait she drew.

Finally we went to the pool to pick up her latest swimming certificate. She gets quite a few of these, they fill in the space with whatever the kid achieved this month! But this time, she has finally reached Grade 14 (goes up to 1) and received a patch to be sewn onto her cap.

Amy certainly felt like she could do anything today!

Speechless, Taken Aback, Jumping for Joy

Amy was a walking cliche this afternoon when she came home from kindy to find her new piano on the table. A real piano is too expensive, too big and too heavy for our little house, so we bought her an electronic one. The modern ones have very sensitive keys that play softly when you hit them softly, and louder when you hit them harder, just like a real pianoforte.

Amy has been wanting to learn piano for a while now. I think she got the idea from playing with a tiny electronic piano/book, and enjoying working out the song. Since her new teacher (my old friend Maiko) came on Wednesday, she has been practicing the ABC song with the little book, so as soon as she saw the piano, and went through the three reactions in the title, she sat down to learn it on the real piano.

I made a little note key for her - the book is easy because the keys have the notes written on them, and they are colour-coded as well. I wrote the note names on a piece of paper and laid it across the keys for her, and by the time Daddy came home, she had learned the first three lines.

Nothin much today

I finally sit down to write and...I did nothing today. Well okay, all the housework, a little cooking (mackerel in miso) and packaging and emails. Amy and Lena are in bed, kanji is at work, and I am about to organize some recipes, read some magazines, and go to bed. I might upload a few photos while I am doing stuff, and consult my diary to see what you have been missing!

A great dinner

Do you sometimes get it into your head to just cook some nice stuff? I did that today. I cooked, finally, the Golden Soup whose recipe I got off Mum months ago. It was delicious, Amy loves it too, and I made the full recipe, so I have TONS and froze some. That’ll make me three nice lunches in the weeks to come.

I also cooked couscous, something that comes up in recipes every now and then, but which I had not tried yet, as it is not available in the supermarkets in this town. I got the couscous in Oita, a sundried tomato flavor. I cooked it with onion and green pepper, and topped it with grilled salmon.

The meal was rounded off with a salad made of lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese, chicken and boiled egg, with a mustard vinaigrette. YUM.

Red Dwarf and an embarrassed ballerina

Amy's Kindy Undokai

Rakuichi Rakuza

Catch-up

If anyone has hung in long enough to still be around for it, here it is! Finally I am making an attempt to catch up. Don't stop here - check back on posts for the last few weeks, as I will be retrospectively catching up bit by bit.

Okay, catch-up:

KANJI is finally, after many a long year, almost regularly coming home at 5pm. Wow, what a different life. Ironically I am seeing less of him, as he seems to be catching up on five years of lost sleep by going to bed at 8pm every night! Every day he buys fish off the guy who comes around on his scooter selling fish, and he comes home and we cook together. We are starting to get into a kind of routine, although things have been messed up lately by his coming home early, which tends to make the kids go crazy, and the new bunk beds. I have two evening lessons a week, so, so far it looks like I will be doing baths after dinner while he lingers over dinner, then I go up to read a book (We are reading Anne of Green Gables at the moment) and then leave them to it. So I end up with less reading time, because I had got into the nice habit of having an uninterrupted half hour or so reading by book-light while the kids settled. Now Kanji has a pile of books upstairs by the bed... The kids bounce in and out of their bunks, which is nice, because I miss them. Sometimes I put them back in the bunks, sometimes I don't. I am pretty sure that once they are happy in their bunks and have no interest in snuggling up with Mummy and Daddy, I will be very nostalgic for the good old wall-to-wall family bed days!

ME - Around nine regular lessons a week - I could do more, but right now I am concentrating on getting the house organized. I have had a headache for two months. First I thought it was a cold, then 'natsu-bake' or summer-exhaustion, which you don't get in NZ cos it never gets hot enough! Then a brain tumour, of course, but now I am convinced they are tension headaches, and what I need is a new pillow, a massage, a computer chair, less time on the sofa, more exercise (ironically I stopped swimming because of the headaches) and a better posture. We'll see how this works out this week. I have back pain too, so I might go to the osteopath or try acupuncture, anything ahead of going to the hospital and paying buckets of cash for loads of tests!

AMY - All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth! Yep, they are both gone, plus one on the bottom. She seems to have no problem eating though! She just had her school sports day, which is a BIG DEAL here in Japan, held on a Sunday, with everyone brining a picnic, school grounds crowded, everyone jostling for the best video-camera position. Check out pics on Oct 15. She is still swiming, and loves it. Wants to learn piano, but we need to buy one first. We will get an electric one, not an organ, but a new 'piano touch' keyboard. Still loves to draw - her pictures are so good now that sometimes people assume I drew them.

LENA is practicing for her ballet concert. She is excited about it, but doesn't seem to make the connection between practice and the concert. For some reason she is in only one dance, but that means I save $100. Kindy is going okay - she is getting a little tired of it, I think. It's not the most fun kindy in the world - they do concentrate on academics a bit much, but they feel they have to to produce the results the parents expect for the money they are paying. She can hang in until April I am sure.

What are they doing now? They dressed themselves exactly the same this morning, right down to shoes, which Amy especially washed so they would be the same. Now they are playing volcano - using the skipping rope Amy got as a present from her kindergarten for the school sports day. They tie the toys to it, then run up and down the stairs with one holding each end, 'saving' them from the volcano. I am still in my pyjamas, as I vowed to do this before anything else! I will get dressed now, have a cuppa and continue to sort my magazines. 10am we will go to the nearby festival, and come back around 11:30 for a lunch of minestrone soup with crusty bread and cheddar cheese. Then I have to go to work, and Amy will go back to the festival with Aunty Mie to join her art class and draw pictures of the festival. I finish at 6pm, and I am hoping the kids beg to stay at Baachans, so I can go to the onsen and get a massage!

Lena holding the parasol for Papa


Amy dancing at left, and below, as the 'anchor' for the festival float-pulling team. Her job was to run up to the float with the paper-trimmed staff, and whack it on the ground in front of the float - the prompt for the team to start to run.

























Above, Amy being pushed in a cart as part of a team relay with 5th years.


Left, taking part in the final group dance to the 'Nakatsu' song, and below, running in a race. She came 2nd, or maybe 3rd.

Bunks!

I got them! Kanji and I went in the van and picked up the nice bunks I found in the second-hand store, quite by fluke. When we started to load it into the car, we realized it had quite a strong moldy smell, but it was a very light surface of dust rather than actual mold. I had planned to get it set up in time for the kids to get home from kindy, but we had no time, I had to leave it in the van. Kanji took Lena to kindy this morning, and I thought she would have no idea what it was, and would easily believe him when he said it was something for the Stand, but he said she saw it an immediately said ‘Is that a bunk?’. So she spent an exciting day at kindy waiting to get home to the new bunk!



I picked up Amy and told her I had a surprise for her – and we went to the Stand and peered into the van and she also twigged right away. We took the pieces out of the van at the Stand to wash them, then we worked out how it fit together. Then I loaded up the kids in the van and off home we went, where I got it upstairs and put together in about half an hour! We were getting pretty excited by then, but our work was not yet done – next stop was the stores to get mattresses, new quilts and bottom sheets, so as to make a nice, crisp new bed top and bottom.
That night the kids were itching to get into bed! It was very exciting for them, although Lena was still a bit anxious. At one stage last week she had decided that she didn’t actually want a bunk after all, when she learned that she had to sleep in it alone. But I had to work tonight, so Papa did the honors, and snuggled up beside her.

Emily's Birthday

Today we went to Yamaga for Emily’s 6th Birthday Party. There were seven little guests, and four mothers. The kids, as they do these days, took off by themselves, upstairs, outside, occasionally inside with us, but all around devising their own elaborate little games. There were no official party games, but they didn’t notice! There was a lovely Barbie cake with chocolate and banana layers, a sushi cake, apricot slice, ginger muffins, potato chips, mini jellies, and cheese – Lena ate about twelve cheese balls and six mini jellies!

Takumi's last day

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

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

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

Lena's First Swimming Lesson