I thought we were past this...

Yoshi woke up this morning wheezing and coughing, and told me he didn't feel too great. He hasn't had a really bad asthma attack in a year or so, so I'd got out of the habit of watching for it. We had the school halloween party on Sunday so we are all exhausted, so I thought he was just trying it on. I took him to school, only to get a call at about 10:30 telling me he was in the sick bay.

When I got there, his colour was not good and he was purple-ish around the mouth, so off to the hospital we went. Even after a couple of puffs of his inhaler in the car on the way, his oxygen sats were only 92% (they want to see over 97 here). So he had a breathing treatment - no change. So then the Dreaded Drip came out...

Yoshi is a very hard stick and true to form, the first one didn't go in. Unfortunately he is also needle phobic, so you pretty much only get one chance with him. He was SO good today, he didn't pull back, even when they did the dig, dig, wiggle thing with the needle, which is so painful. Then also true to form, he went "shocky" with the fear of it all, pouring cold sweat, going grey and cold. So then we had to wait twenty minutes with his arms wrapped in hot towels to encourage the blood back to his exremities. He got oxygen then because the inhalations had not worked and he was so clammy. He was very brave during the second attempt, only snatching his hand back once because he'd told me he didn't need me to hold him and then changed his mind at the last minute, but he didn't scream or fight which is a first. And a huge relief because he's now nearly my height and last time I had to hold him down he injured me....

Finally they found a vein that would work and got the needle in. Within twenty minutes his breathing was easing and he was pinking up nicely. The stuff in the drip gets him onto a shaky high, so as the minutes wore on he got wigglier and chattier until he was positively vibrating in the bed!

I escaped back home and called all the students to cancel my classes for the day, grabbed his DS game and headed back to the hospital just in time to see the needle being removed and his oxygen line taken off. The picture was taken while we were waiting to see the doctor again. He let us go home, a relief as they are quick to admit here, with a prescription for three days of the Manic Medicine - lovely. Yoshi's teacher came round this evening to see how he was and got treated to a vision of Yoshi on an asthma high. He didn't look too keen on having that buzzing thing back in his class tomorrow. Still, judging by the way Yoshi was wheezing and hacking tonight, we may be back at the hospital for more drips tomorrow, sigh....

BOO!

Six of the fifteen pumpkins I carved with my English classes this week!

Hyotenka Last Night

"Hyotenka" means "Below Freezing Point", and it happened last night! This morning the car window was iced up, and the pumpkins on the deck were all crispy (which means they will rot that much faster, sigh....)

It is a brilliantly sunny morning so I think that it will warm up a lot as the day gets going.

Carving pumpkins

Four down, about fifteen more to go...

My classes are gearing up to the big Halloween party next Sunday. 84 kids and their parents will attend and there is a LOT of preparation to be done in between all the normal classes this week.

I did two classes this afternoon, and then we carved pumpkins with Yoshi and Harry tonight. Fun, but my hands are itchy now!

First grade class this afternoon.

2nd year class.

Harry thought the guts were absolutely disgusting! (Gloves are because of allergy issues - my kids and the girl in the photo above get really itchy when they touch raw pumpkin.)

Drawing the face for me to cut out.

Harry's pumpkin on the lest (he wanted a blindfolded pumpkin!) and Yoshi's with the redder light on the right.

Having A Smashing Time!

This alcove was originally for the household Buddhist altar at which to worship the spirits of the dead. We don't have one, and as soon as we moved in we made this room the office area for the school. At first we had shelves standing in there which housed files, the shredder and the printer, but last week we finally bought two big filing cabinets to gobble up all the paperwork that having a small business and a school which produces lots of worksheets breeds.
Seiju had to cut out the big strong shelf that had held the altar (we'd just put shelves on top of it) and then the cabinets were delivered. They have sucked up an enormous amount of stuff so far, but they will be full by the end of the month when everything has been transferred over. Then some big shelf-and-furniture moving is going to happen....

The printer is now so high that I have to tiptoe to put anything on the scanner bed. I miscalculated how very high the cabinets would get! Ah well, good stretching excercise.

Would YOU eat this pizza?

Look at this flyer that came through our door tonight - a well-known pizza restaurant claims that these two pizzas are their most popular in Japan. Well all I can say is I don't think much of their patrons' tastes!


Pizza Number One is topped with:
Chilli flavoured cod roe (mentaiko)
Prawns
Korean pounded rice (toku in Korean, mochi in Japanese)
Diced potatoes
Onions
Corn
Mayonnaise
Seaweed slivers (nori)
Cheese

Pizza Number Two is topped with:
Chilli and shrimp sauce
Prawns
Korean pounded rice
garlic sprouts
Onion
Cheese

At the top of the flyer, it says that 20,000 people have ordered the number one pizza. Can we all say, "EWWWWWWW"?!

Doctor Whoooooo!

Dr Who is now showing on Japanese television, and it's even bilingual, not just dubbed. When we found out, we were excited as there are only about three foreign programmes a week on the free TV channels that are suitable for us to watch.

Unfortunately it has exactly the same effect on Yoshi and Harry as it did on me as a kid. I used to watch it from behind the sofa whenever I got the chance to see the programme (we lived in Germany so only got to watch English TV on trips to visit the relatives) and tonight I ended up with both kids on my lap. They are now squashed up in bed together with all the lights on, unable to sleep. Sigh. I told them they were not going to watch it again and they both said "THANK YOU!"

With all the computer graphics it really was creepy, with people morhping into other people and so on. Far too much for my sheltered little boys!

Niseko Trip, Part 4

The Castle Boat. Very Bad Taste.

We drove on to Lake Toya, and stopped there for lunch. In the restaurant we told the boys that there were two options for the afternoon - to go up the mountain in the cable car, which we have done twice already, or to go on the boat out to the island in the middle of the lake, which we had not done yet. The boys decided on the boat, and Seiju said he'd go and get the tickets while we were finishing off lunch.

Harry and me, taken by Yoshi.

This is turning into a MIL gripe-session, which I don't mean it to, but she was a right pain the entire weekend! She then said that she had been on the boat lots of times and that she would wait for us. Well, the entire trips takes about three hours and it was supposed to be the grandparents' weekend, so if she was going to refuse to go, then we would have to abandon the idea. Trouble is, 7 year old Harry thought he was going on the boat, and he was soooo disappointed as I tried to explain (in English, so as not to cause fuss.....) that Baachan didn't want to ride on the boat so we'd have to do it another day. Just as his lip began to wobble, Jiichan told her that she was stupid, and asked her what she proposed to do for three hours without us, seeing as we were going whatever she decided. Thank you Jiichan! So she grudgingly came with us and we had a good time while ignoring her sulks. I am still not sure what she wanted to do instead of the boat ride...

Yoshi, telling me the sun's in his eyes!

The boat was rather odd - built like a floating castle! It was entertaining to ride in, and we had half an hour of the boys running around everywhere and madly climbing everything which made me feel sick. Luckily they calmed down soon afterwards.

The level of enthusiasm for the boat ride was stunning...

We got to the island in the middle of the lake, and got off. It is actually not very interesting as there are deer on it, and to protect them the bay that you get off in is fenced off right down to the shoreline, so you can't walk very far. There was a little museum place, the inevitable gift shop, and of course the deer to look at.

Harry, getting in on the act. He was running around like a mad thing and decided suddenly that he must sleep, too.

Yoshi went off with Jiichan to expolore, Baachan went to look at the shop, and Harry never got any further than the shoreline. Off came his trousers, shoes and socks and he was as happy as a sandboy. He was a very sandy boy by the end! The trouble was that there were swans all along the bay and the sand was covered with feathers and poo. Ick, ick! He sucks his thumb so there were dire warnings about not sticking it in his mouth till we got back to the mainland and washed it with soap.

Swans and Poo-castles...

Lake Toya is where the world summit is going to be held next year, and already there is "Summit Everything" for sale! Even in the restaurant there were Summit dishes. Baachan was mad to buy T-shirts for the boys but the ones we saw were so naff that they refused them.

Yoshi, mesmerised by the wake....

We made it home by late evening, dropped the grandparents off at their house and were back home with relief. It was actually a really nice trip but the strain of entertaining and being gracious hosts was a bit much. Next time we scrape together some money and time, we'll go off on our own!

The shore of Lake Toya is dotted with sculptures, most of them abstract. Not sure what this one was supposed to be... The hotel on the ridge at the top right is where the summit is going to be held. My BIL made the road that goes up to it. How about that for a claim to fame?!

Niseko Trip, Part 3

I didn't take any pictures at all of the hotel! We were so busy just enjoying the time there... We had time to change into yukata (Japanese cotton bathrobes) and go to the big hot spring baths before dinner. They were quite nice, with one bubbly bath which was shallow, and shaped so that you could lie flat in it, a huge deep one and an outside one on a balcony. It was dark and windy, which was lovely with the hot steamy water. I like the outside baths best because you don't get too hot with your head being constantly cooled.

Looking at the stone circle. It was in a field and had been surrounded by a block wall sometime in the past 50 years or so. There were spectacular views all around. It is thought that there was some ceremonial purpose to the circle, as there were hearthstones and evidence of fire used in the centre.

The dinner was nice - standard hotel buffet fare but it was good quality. Seiju's mum picked at her food and nagged the boys to eat rice (it isn't a proper meal if you don't have rice - she often chased them around trying to stuff spoonfuls of rice into them as toddlers if they'd had a sandwich or cereal for a meal...). Who in their right minds was going to waste stomach space on rice when there was sushi, steak and crab to be had, as Yoshi pointed out! Seiju's Dad also ignored her rice-y advice in favour of lots of beer!

The view back to the road from the stone circle. This log house is typical of the area. Since the mid 1980's, Niseko came to be known for good skiing, and little guesthouses and ski lodges have been being built ever since. This is one of the earlier ones and is a ski lodge. The building on the left is a store full of skis and suchlike. There are lots of foreigners in the area, particularly Australians, and the tiny town of Kucchan is now becoming quite lively. There was even a Starbucks being built there when we went through! Ten years ago it was literally ten family owned shops and a run down supermarket.

The bedroom was fine, very plain tatami but there was juuuust enough room for 6 futons to be laid out. We all slept packed in like sardines, but it was OK; the futons themselves were new and the sheets lovely and crisp. Seiju's mum and dad got up at 2am and went for baths - I have NO IDEA why.... Seiju and the kids went at about 6am and I finally trailed into the bath at about 7am where I was stunned to see that the view from the outside bath was a full-on view of the mountain - beautiful. To the right was the ski slope - literally yards away, so in the winter I wonder what kind of show is put on for the skiers??? Maybe they put up a screen or maybe they just expect you to keep ducked down behind the balcony wall.

Yoshi wanted to know why there was a "gravestone" in the circle. It had "STONE CIRCLE" carved in English on it, yet that stone itself was worn and tilting a little. I am wondering if one of the earliest foriegn travellers (from about the 1860's on) put it there to mark the spot?

After breakfast, we set off on our way home. You can do a big circle of about 350km from our town, so the road we took back was not the same as the day before. We made up our minds to go down every road that took our fancy, and not ten minutes after setting off, we saw a sign to a stone circle. Hokkaido's Japanese history is only about 150 years long, so ancient things are extremely rare. I thought it might be some artist's new invention or something, but no, it was a three thousand year old stone circle, right in front of Mt Yotei. It was right on a ridgeway, which was interesting to me as they are often used for ancient sites in England, too.

Isn't that just a gorgeous view?

Niseko Trip, Part 2

After the kids had had a drink and a bit of a rest, we went on to look at a boiling pool a bit further up the road. It STANK of sulphur, and the air around the pool was hot and wet, like being in a sauna!

Yoshi was still hot, so was only wearing his vest, much to Baachan's disapproval and constant nagging to get dressed and that he'd catch his death of cold. Needless to say, the nagging made him refuse to get dressed until long after he'd got chilly.... Sigh...

Harry hated the smell and would not walk further than the first few yards!

The water was actually BOILING!

Jiichan and Baachan.

NisekoTrip, Part 1

Seiju's Dad turned 80 this summer, just before we went to England, so there was no time for any sort of celebration. Birthdays in Japan are not celebrated much past elementary school age, and Jiichan himself said that he didn't feel there was a lot to celebrate over being so old, but we wanted to mark the occasion anyway.

Eating "Age-Imo" (battered potatoes on a stick - ew) and drinking local yoghurt at the pass.

The local schools have recently changed to a two-term system and a new Autumn break has been established, which happened this past week. The kids get two days plus a three day weekend, so it's not very long, but it's a nice break in the long slog from summer to Christmas.

Such genteel manners! Actually, how can you eat something like that with any delicacy?!

We actually had some trouble booking a hotel room, as the area we chose to go is really beautiful in the autumn, and lots of schools in Hokkaido have recently made the change to the new system. However, we did scrape one family room in a reasonably nice hotel, so we were lucky.

Mt. Yotei, also known as "Ezo Fuji" or the Northern Fuji. It is a beautifully regular cone volcano that is still active.

Niseko is full of forests scattered with "pensions", which here mean quirky cottage-type places to stay which range from tiny two or three bedroom places to 50 bed pretend log cabins. The ones in that area have a reputation for good food, and I really wanted to try out one, but because we had Seiju's Mum along with us, it wasn't possible. She is very rigid in her idea of what constitutes a good time, and she would only be satisfied with a big hotel with a big hot spring bath, and the typical food that such places provide. Sigh.... Still, we were mainly going to entertain the parents, so we wanted to do what would please them.

Harry, halfway up a mountain, going on strike!

We set off mid morning, and went up past Sapporo and through Nakayama Pass, which has really great mountain views. I forgot to get a photo of the car, but we had a bit of "good" luck in that our car's paint job after the crash repair wasn't good enough, and we rejected it. They brought us a courtesy car to use for the ten days that our car was out being resprayed, and it turned out to be the newest, highest quality Estima with all the options you could think of. It seated everyone in the greatest of luxury with loads of space all round. It is so quiet and a dream to drive - it was REALLY fun!

The area is really mountainous - peak after peak, though none of them are particularly high.

At Nakayama Pass, we stopped for a break and to eat whole fried potatoes on a stick - three to a stick, dipped in batter and then deep fried. Urgh. I passed them up but I did have some really delicious local "Drinking yoghurt" that is so thick and creamy and calorific!

Seiju, Harry and Jiichan walking up the peak.

We then drove on to Goshiki Onsen, which is a valley with sulphurous hot springs. Seiju wanted to hike up one of the peaks with the boys, and Jiichan decided that he'd go along too. I got left with Baachan, as she has had back surgery and isn't up to more than gentle strolls these days. We walked around the "Hell", which was the scarred bit of the valley with a hot stream flowing through it, and lots of sulphur vents. It is all decked and stepped so it was a very easy walk. I gave the camera to Yoshi and he took pictures from their hike.

The view from where they gave up! Seiju's mum and I were somewhere down there in the white scarred bit, looking at the sulphur vents and the lovely autumn colours.

The peak turned out to be much higher than they had estimated, and daft Seiju didn't buy the kids any drinks before starting, so two hours into their climb they gave up and came down again, sweaty and thirsty. Still, they got pretty high and they had a good time (apart from all the moaning about how thirsty they were...)

Ouch!

Yesterday I was gardening by our front door. There is a bed there under a piece of lattice fence that just has some evergreen ground cover stuff in it. I decided to rip it all out and put a load of bulbs in so that there will be colour next spring rather than the boring green. This stuff, whatever it is, has very strong roots that cling to the soil like mad. I was yanking on one bit as hard as I could when suddenly it came up, and I fell over backwards. The bed is raised by eight inch high boulders of volcanic rock, and I fell HEAVILY onto the rocks, then continued in a sort of backward roll down onto the walkway. In my panic I put my left hand back and sat hard on my middle finger. It's not broken but it is purple and stiff today. Tonight my bum was hurting, not where I sit but sort of high up and to the side. I went to Seiju and asked him if he could see anything, and he kind of shot back in his chair, leaned forward to get a closer look and then asked what on earth I'd been doing. So I got a mirror and looked - I have a palm-sized completely BLACK bruise there. It must be where I hit the jagged rocks as I went over backwards. Luckily I'm well padded there.

And no, I'm not posting a photograph. Obsessive blogger I may be, but even I have my limits.