Lake Shikotsu With Jiichan and Baachan

Today we did the trip to Lake Shikotsu that we had planned for yesterday before Harry's conjunctivitis reared its ugly head.
First the kids and Jiichan went for a paddle on the lake. I stayed well away from this activity as it's very hard work and it ALWAYS leads to fights about who's steering and who's paddling. True to form....

Harry looking at what water animals eat what food.

The weather was not that great but it wasn't raining heavily - more like we were inside that heavy cloud you can see descending in the first picture! Today was 19C to yesterday's 30C. We are still madly see-sawing between temperatures.
This is the Shikotsuko Visitor's Centre. It's fairly new and has been very nicely done with lots of displays to show how the lake was formed, and what lives in and around it now.
This is a glass represantation of the lake and the surrounding mountains. There are only two or three bits of the lake that are accesible so on the far side of the lake it's entirely wild. (Bears!)
Jiichan looking at a tree and the animals that live in the surrounding forests.
Next we had lunch. It was a really basic restaurant but the food was really good. I had this salad and ginger fried pork with rice, miso soup and pickles.
Harry had a baked potato with butter and grilled sweetcorn- a real Hokkaido boy!
Baachan had the same as me. She is really hard to photograph - she was in a perfectly good mood and was enjoying the day, but this is just how her face at rest looks!
Jiichan had Hokkaido ramen, with crab, squid, scallops and corn in it. Yoshi had Danshaku ramen which had butter, corn and potatoes in it.
After lunch we walked down to the lakeside again, and passed this flowerbed full of lovely red dahlias.
There's a boat that goes round the lake, so Baachan suggested that I and the kids go, as they have done it so many times. What they and we didn't know until we'd hurried on to catch the next boat leaving in three minutes was that the boat has changed and it's now a glass bottomed boat. So they missed a treat and they'll have to do it when they next visit the lake, it was brilliant!
Lake Shikotsu is a caldera lake, and it drops off very steeply until it's over 300m deep. The AVERAGE depth is 263m - eek! This is a boulder that was thrown out in one of the eruptions that formed the lake. At this point the lake is only about five or six metres deep. It made me realise how dangerous the lake is, with big rocks only just under the surface in places.

This is the inside of the glass bottomed boat.

While the boat was tied up, we were surrounded by a school of trout, which formed a large part of the menus of the restaurants up the hill!
Just part of the big school of trout around the boat. The bottom in the shallow part had a little sand and a few water weeds but the deep parts were like an underwater desert, entirely rocky and barren, and very few fish.
We went to one part of the lake where the eruption had happened. It was really odd because the lake depth kept varying from about five metres to over 100 within say ten or twenty metres, just huge underwater cliffs and drop-offs. Under the boat at the bottom of this cliff, the water was very deep again.
These pillars were formed by lava extruding and hardening, then shattering off the extruded lump. It looks like the ruins of an ancient temple, with columns lying here and there, but it's all entirely natural. There were a few petrified trees too but I couldn't take good pictures of them.
More of the shattered columns - don't they look like the ruins of a building?
While we were travelling over water too deep to see anything, we went up on deck to see the view - but by then the clouds were really low and there wasn't a lot to see.

We are having a really good summer holiday so far, the days are full and happy but I'm getting a lot of rest too. I drove all the way there and back today as I'm a bit nervous about the parents in law driving now that Jiichan is over 80, but I had a lovely refreshing NAP when we got home. I do like naps. (I'm getting old...)

My "Dessicated Coconut" Flower

I asked my MIL today what my coconut flower's name was, and she told me in Japanese. This enabled me to look it up and I discovered that it is a Liatris or Gay Feather in English. It's a native American plant originally.

I'm trying to find out the names of all the stuff I have in my garden but its very hard going! I have to ask people in Japanese then attempt to Google it and hope there's then a latin name mentioned, then Google that, and finally I arrive at the English name!

Laser Surgery and a Little Treat

We had another busy day today. We were planning to go out with Seiju's mum and dad but Harry woke up with conjunctivitis and cold symptoms so I cancelled in favour of going to the doctor.

Just as we were leaving the house, Jiichan turned up anyway to see how Harry was (he's fine but I don't like eye infections - if it was just a cold I'd leave him to get better by himself) and I invited him along for the ride.

We went to the clinic and got Harry some eye drops and ointment, and Yoshi and I stocked up on allergy medicines so we are all set for a month now, which is another job done.

Then we went to the home centre and found Yoshi's bike, then stuffed it into the car. It was easier because Jiichan was there to help me and more difficult because he was taking up space in the car! But we did it and got the bike back safely. Jiichan helped Yoshi to put on a speedometer that he'd given Yoshi as a little extra (Harry got a bell for his bike) then he went home.

We had a little break then we went off on our bikes to the eye doctor to get Yoshi's glasses prescription. I had cataract surgery in both eyes ten years ago and I'm supposed to have regular check ups but haven't been since January - oh dear! So I decided to get checked too as I have been feeling that my prescription isn't strong enough any more. It turned out that the back capsule of my left lens had clouded, and needed lasering open. I had the right one done four years ago, so I knew it wasn't a big deal.

This time though it hurt a bit and my eyes were streaming at the end of it, but it's like magic! All the colours that I hadn't realised had gone are back, and particularly black print looks very black now, not grey as it had become without me noticing. Even six or seven hours later my eyes feel unbalanced now with one very clear and one rather cloudy and dazzly still. I am hoping it's the eye drops and that by morning I'll feel more balanced. It also dawned on me five minutes too late that maybe today, with a kid with conjunctivitis in the house, was not the day to be inflicting injury on my eyes! Too late. I shall just have to be extremely careful about handwashing. Harry's is viral rather than bacterial (basically a cold gone to the eyes) which apparently is harder to pass on than the bacterial type so that's hopeful.

I have a week of antibiotic eye drops and then I'll get my prescription for new lenses. I think actually the old prescription will be fine as I am seeing very much better already! Unfortunately that will leave me with a dilemma because I am a cheapskate. My current frames are losing their colour and the lenses have lost a lot of their coating, but they are still OK, so it will be hard for me to justify a new pair of glasses..... Which is silly because they are so necessary! I am also nervous about choosing new frames and thus changing my face. I have had these ones for at least six years now so I'm too used to them!

We cycled back slowly because it was very sunny out still and it was hard for me to see with my dilated pupils, and on the way we stopped in at the parking area shop where I bought the lovely platter in the photos. I have been lusting after it for about a year now, and decided that today was the day to buy it. I am really pleased with it and it will be out on the table with fruit on it, so I'll see it every day.

Two "Only In Japan" Views

Babies in a box.I took this photo today as we were cycling around town. These little toddlers are from a local daycare centre and were being taken to play in the nearby park. The babies who can't walk very well are stuffed into this cart on wheels to be taken - very cute but I wonder how safe it is! You see these all over the place. And the daycare kids, kindy kids and school kids all wear these "colour hats" whenever they go out in public. Usually their hats are colour coded according to their classes.

Early Morning Stretches.
When we were at Seiju's apartment the other morning I was woken at 6am by kids running about and yelling, a whistle blowing and then the infamous "Rajio Taiso" (Radio Exercises) music ringing out. These photos are poor because I took them from a crack in the curtain, not wishing to be seen as a stalker! The park is so close that if I chucked a stone off the balcony it would land in it.

During the "Long, Long Summer Holidays" (Those twenty one whole days the kids get) it is a social crime to actually relax and rest. One of the things the kids have to do is assemble at their local park at 6am every day to do 20 minutes of exercise in unison with every other kid in Japan. Every day the kid goes they get a stamp on their card and if they attend every day they get a pencil or something like that as a reward.

Seiju said he'd always go and he loved getting the pencil at the end, but he was and is an early riser, and he had nothing to do in the holidays except hang around the house where he'd probably be given a job to do! Yoshi, from the word go has had my attitude of "And the point of this is????" and he has never once gone. Now we live outside the regular school district we are not plagued with it any more which makes it so much easier than chucking the card in the bin and telling the school that they didn't do it on my say-so.
(I'm not into dutiful regulation, as you might have noticed!!)

Yoshi's New Bike

Happy Birthday Yoshi!

Yes, his birthday isn't until the end of of October but in Hokkaido that's not very useful season-wise. Last year he really needed a new bike but he decided to stay with the old one for one more season. Four inches of growth since Christmas means that he's been riding his bike with his knees up near his elbows for the past few weeks.
Today we went to a local home centre and found just the style of bike that he's been hankering after for the past six months or so, and it was a very reasonable price! He's very pleased with it. Look at the difference in size between the old one and the new one!

I have just noticed that both bikes are the same brand - total chance, that. But this last bike has lasted four years since the beginning of the 2nd grade and it's still in very good condition.

Late July Flowers

I did another hour's gardening this morning before it got too hot again. I think this is a good pattern for the holidays and I hope to be able to keep it up! An hour a day should make a bit difference to the garden. Today I weeded another good chunk of the back garden, and then started along the front bed which is a bit shameful!A variegated hosta in full flower. The flowers themselves are not that spectacular but I do like the leaves and the flowers are pretty enough. This is the good bit of my garden that I am now at the point of simply keeping under control. I had a massive weeding and cutting back of daisies and campion last week and it looks much better, though a lot of the colour has gone.
A dessicated coconut plant! I have no idea what it's really called. It was already in my garden, and a couple of years ago I divided it and put half here. It's grown into a really nice plant now, but it's a very weird thing.

See, purple coconut!

A baby double hollyhock. This is only about a foot high because I only planted it the other day. I am hoping it will grow bigger and bigger as the years go by and cover some of the fence.
The candy striped phlox I bought the other day. This also should get big and bushy, if it doesn't die like so many of the things I buy do...
These lilies I planted about two years ago but I have never seen them in bloom, because we are usually in England at this time of the year. I'm really pleased with them and want more!
The lilies are in a tangle of tree branches and some other herbaceous thing that flowers in September. You can see them over the wall as you walk by so lots of people can share them.

Bike Ride With The Boys

We live on the very edge of the town, so we actually cycle away from the built up area to get onto the river path. For about twenty minutes of cycling there is nothing but farmland on either side of us. Lovely!

It was hot today, after pouring rain last night. I woke up fairly early, before the boys, and had a quiet cup of coffee, then went into the garden to weed and plant stuff I bought. Within an hour it was too hot (I wear a long sleeved shirt and jeans because I have been bitten so badly in the past.)
Yesterday I bought a perennial lobelia, two phloxes - one purple and one a lovely mint candy red and white, plus a double hollyhock, so I planted them up against the fence today and cleared a bit more of the bed there that has not been planted up yet.

You can see our little mountain range with our town's namesake mountain sticking up through the clouds. Apparently you can hike up that one but there are a lot of bears..... Doesn't really appeal!

Then I came in and showered and found the boys up and watching kids TV. We hung around the house for a couple of hours, then we did an hour or so on their school summer holiday homework, and had lunch.
After lunch, they went off to do their own things. Yoshi sat on his bed and listened to Harry Potter while drawing, and Harry was in the classroom doing bead work. I sneaked off to bed! It is nowhere near as hot as other parts of Japan but it was about 30C and I felt floppy!At about five it had cooled off enough for us to go out, so I suggested a bike ride. We are lucky in this town to have a river that runs the length of the town and there's this cycling/running/dog walking path all the way along it, with parks and park golf courses interspersed along it. It's great! Our town is very flat so fine for wusses like me!
We went to a big park that is across the main arterial road, so up till now I have never let the kids go alone. Actually you can get under all the road bridges on this cycle path, so I think this summer they'll be getting a bit more freedom.
Harry is much more of a daredevil than Yoshi! Yoshi is very careful of his body and will not jump off or climb up anything unless he is very sure it's safe! We played in the park for a while but night falls fast in northern Japan, so we headed back towards home.
First we stopped off at our local roadside shop and bought an ice cream! (Undoing all the good of the exercise for me...) Then Yoshi and Harry called in at the local toy shop. Harry bought more beads in colours that have run out and Yoshi bought some wood for a craft project that he has in mind. I did a bit of shopping but only what would fit into my bike basket - mostly milk and fruit.
Now we are home and after I finish this, I will cook dinner, then iron their bead projects, clean up the classroom and then it will be ENGLISH STUDY TIME! Big groans from the kids but actually they are in a good mood right now from the bike ride, so I'm striking while the iron is hot!

Kanji Kentei Certificates Came!

We knew the kids had passed because we'd checked on the internet, but it had simply said "Pass" and had not given details, so when the envelopes arrived we were very excited!

I was so pleased with Yoshi. He got 151/200, the pass mark being 140. I think that is reasonable and I'm very satisfied.

Then we opened Harry's envelope. He got a perfect 150/150!!! Wooooo!

Do-Inaka - The Interior of Hokkaido

We drove back from the coast today, and decided to go down a mountain road rather than on the main road. It's not easy to get lost, as there is this ONE road with no other turn offs for miles as it winds through mountain valleys. The road itself stays fairly flat so it's a nice drive.Saying goodbye to the sea. I caught a dragonfly in mid-air by chance! That's a rice field in front. One of the furthest north ones in Japan.
A tiny Shinto shrine nestled in the hillside on the other side of the road to the photo above.
Yoshi took pictures out of the car window as we went along. This is before we got into the mountains, just as we were driving inland.
I took this from the front - naughty but you can see there wasn't a lot of traffic! Those are the "mountains" up ahead. Just high hills really. We went over them and back down to flatland on the other side.
A typical old style Hokkaido house. Many of them are still lived in like this one. Can you imagine how cold they are - one layer of wood between you and three metres of snow... (This is a really deep snow area - much more falls than where we live.)
Another old farmstead in a tiny village called Uryu - the kanji is for "Rain Dragon" a brilliant name! I'd love to live there! It is actually a corruption of an Ainu name so the kanji don't really mean anything.
This is downtown Uryu, approching The crossroads!
Crossing the train track on the way in the middle of nowhere!

This is why I like Hokkaido so much. Within a few minutes drive of any town there are miles and miles of almost untouched land, space and greenery (or in the winter, unrelenting white!).

Summer Fireworks

The kids and I and our friend Chiaki and her boys walked down to the sea tonight to watch the fireworks being let off in the next bay.
The sea was absolutely still, and there was not a cloud in the sky, so we had a grandstand view. There were about seven other people within sight as we watched - wonderful!

Unexpected Festival!

We weren't expecting to see Seiju back home until the middle of August because he's really busy right now, but I had a computer crisis in the middle of the week that he was only partly able to resolve by phone, so he suddenly decided to come back just for Friday night.


Then it dawned on us all that the kids and I are on our holidays now, so we could take him back, and join in the town festival that his staff were taking part in. (Which is why he had to go back.) The kids were instantly excited by the idea, so this morning I did a load of laundry and packed our bags, Seiju sorted out the computer (but it's dying...) and the kids did a couple of pages of summer holiday homework, and we were all out of the house by midday.

Seiju let us into his apartment and we waited for a couple of hours, then he came back to change and told us that we'd meet the float at the gate and walk into town with it. These floats are called Neputa and have huge waxed paper figures on them that light up at night.
This is what met us at the gate! The men immediately got hold of the kids and boosted them up onto the struts, so they rode into town in style - a 50-man rickshaw!!
All powered by sweat!
There are a lot of overhead cables and low traffic lights so it was a bit scary going past some of these obstacles. Actually just getting it out of the gate was a feat as there was about six inches clearance, if that. The main bit that lights up could be raised and lowered by ropes so as to be able to navigate the very low electricity cables.
Passing a big bed of lavender in bloom. Lovely. Yoshi and Harry riding the front like mascots (or figureheads...)

We arrived at the meeting point an hour and a half before the beginning of the parade, the main bit of the float was raised and the photo session commenced. This is the entire group, including float pushers and dancers! (And my two, who were sucked into the centre of things before they knew what was happening to them!)

All the bigwigs of the town. The mayor is the one with the white hanky on his head.

Practicing lowering and raising the central decoration.

Heave ho! Harry and Yoshi were somewhere along a rope, too!

This was the team in front of us. They were practicing for letting off handheld fireworks later on.

The back of our float.

After the middle bit was lowered again, and all set to rights, rice balls and drinks were handed out to all, and we all had a break. We'd walked, the kids had ridden and the men had pushed that heavy great thing for about 3km so everyone needed a rest. Seiju went into the festival street and brought back chicken and pork on sticks and fried noodles for us too. Yum!

Eating rice balls and getting started on the beer (of which there was A LOT.)

They had made little waxed paper lanterns (with no candles in) in the shape of goldfish, to be given away to children along the route. The kids also got one each. Every fish was different, each with its own personality!
Ummm. Cosplay sells beer. The little kid on the right can't quite believe his eyes. (He's in a jinbei - summer festival costume for boys and little girls. Loads of people, kids and adults alike were in yukata - the summer kimono. I love this part of Japanese summer!)
The parade began just as dusk was falling. All of these floats are made with waxed paper and are redesigned every year.

There were hundreds of dancers, all in unison. All the schools, local colleges, fishermens' associations and so on had entered a group. All the floats had taiko drums on, and once one began the rhythm, they all took it up, along with a lot of whistles blowing and yelling too! Japanese festivals are extremely noisy.
The kids were lifted up onto the actual float and stayed there till the bitter end!

This was one of the best floats!

You can see the drummers, shouters and whistlers on this float!

Getting ready to hand out the fish along the parade route.

Once it was properly dark I got a good shot of our float's neputa.

Another really good one, by the Hokkaido Bank.

Those firework men started letting them off! This one was from the top of their extremely high float! Look how much higher he is than the traffic light. They could raise and lower that part to get under the cables.

There were SO MANY good Bad English T-shirts but I couldn't get shots of any of the others as it would have been too obvious.

The stack of men, three tiers high, letting off their fireworks. There were dozens of semi naked young men cavorting under the shower of sparks.

They let Harry do the drums! He was so good!

Aforementioned semi naked young men, between firework sessions.

They let Yoshi do the drums too! He was really good too!

Harry stood at the very front of the float for most of the parade. Every time they raised and lowered the middle bit, the entire float jerked and I was afraid he'd fall off, but he was OK.

Dancing in front of the float. The sticks they have in their hand make a hollow clack when banged together, like what you hear in sumo tournaments. Sounds great when there are hundreds of them all being clacked together!

Yoshi banging drum sticks while the real drummer shows him how it's done.

Our float fully erected and fully lit (it kept going off as the connections to the generator kept getting snagged as it went up and down. Oh dear. Still enough beer had flowed at this point that nobody much minded!)

Harry, about three hours in, had had enough, and asked to get down. He went to buy some shaved ice.

The wind had gotten up and he was chilly, so he became a baby penguin for a while to warm up. (Not an easy task when you're eating shaved ice...)
Our float from underneath in the lowered position. About a minute after this (right at the end of the parade) they tried to raise it and a rope snapped and the whole thing came crashing down and this guy's face fell off! (They taped him back together for the final few minutes.)

The spectacular float behind us, with an all woman team of drummers and shouters.

At the very end they chucked rice cakes (mochi) off the float for the kids to catch, we lifted Yoshi down much against his will as he was on a TOTAL high (can we say caffeine and testosterone???) and walked partway home before finding a taxi and collapsing into it.

This was a totally unexpected treat for us all - even just going to the festival would have been fun, but for the boys to have been scooped up and totally included in the team was just wonderful. Yoshi was so excited that it took him a good couple of hours to wind down and sleep, despite him having been constantly walking, riding, drumming and shouting for the past five hours.

I'm exhausted and my feet have swollen like balloons! Ahhhh. What a great day.

My First Blog Award!

Karla, at My Full Hands has very graciously nominated me for this award, which makes me happy as she's only recently found my blog! Thanks Karla, and I do hope you'll keep coming round often to my little corner of chaos....

Now I have to nominate seven other people. I simply don't have seven that I could nominate, but there are a few I read that really stand out.

Unfortunately, Karla has pinched Awesome Mom who I'd have gone for as number one. You know what, I'll give her my vote anyway, she'll be double awarded!!

Next I would like to tell you about Krystal, at 2 At Home and 2 On The Way who I am not sure knows me. I have commented once or twice but I do read every single post she makes. She has two little children with her and her husband at home, daughter and son, and they have two adoptive sons in Guatemala, caught up in the international adoption mess there. Krystal's unstinting love for all her children and her grace in the face of what must be an unbearable situation has my greatest admiration. What strikes me most is that they have a very happy life together, even with all the uncertainty over their big boys, Krystal writes about her daily life with great joy.

Then there's JojoEbi at A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That. She's another foreign wife in Japan and she's a Montessori mum, too! You should see all the stuff she makes for her lucky little son, BabyEbi. And what's even better, a lot of her stuff is freely downloadable (thanks, Jo) and some is also for sale too.

I do hope you'll go to see these ladies' blogs. They are all very different from each other but all make fascinating reading in their own right!

If you'd like to accept this award:
1. Post the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 7 other people for this award and add links to their blog. (I think this is a bit much, so nominate however many or few you want to!!)
4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

Earthquake!

Gah! It was a magnitude 6.8 at the epicentre, and there are a few injuries and fires. Here it was a four, and it was rough enough for me to run upstairs and grab the kids and drag them downstairs to the entrance hall. They slept on the sofa for an hour before I let them go back up again. I am too shook up to sleep but it's half past one in the morning so I have to or I shall be a dishrag in the morning...

That's the biggest one I've felt since Seiju's grandmother's wake, where the body was rocking about all over the place. (15 or so years ago now.)

Another Diary Gem from Yoshi

We are trying to make Wednesdays English writing night. Lord knows they need the practice....

Here's Yoshi's gem from tonight which reduced me to tears. What he says is so well said, but I don't think there's a single correctly spelled word in the piece, except BUM.

Again, switch your eyes off and just listen to the words.

Litl bruvus

tei ar inoing and noisi. tei ar evriwe tat i wont to go and tei ar a pane in the bum. dut i kanot imagon a life wivaut a bruvu, iud be boad and lole. so i am glad that i hav a litl bruvr.

This one is even denser than the last one I posted, so here's a translation.

Little brothers.

They are annoying and noisy. They want to go everywhere I go, and they are a pain in the bum. But I cannot imagine a life without a brother. I'd be bored and lonely. So I am glad that I have a little brother.

Ahhhhh! I DO love these kids that I have - with all their weirdnesses and quirks! I wouldn't change them for the world!

Seiju's Bike

Here you are, then Illahee! Seiju on a bike for your delight and delectation... (or something.)This bike is 24 years old, so one more year and it's a classic! The owner's already there....
The bike was bought new all those years ago, but the jacket is second hand, and the boots and gloves the cheapest he could find. His helmet however is brand new yesterday after we realised that the old one was about 16 years old. Far too old to be safe, so I am glad he was willing to get a new one.
Helmet is red and silver (the red does not match the bike), bike red and black, jacket red and black, gloves yellow and black. As I said in a previous post, he looks like a hot, cross, wasp! Harry's standing by one of six bags of nasty weeds I took off the garden today!
Bye Daddy, see you in two weeks! (Work next Saturday, bike day with his staff next Sunday and a work do on Sunday night so he couldn't come home anyway, sigh.)

Today is Umi No Hi - Sea Day, and a public holiday. It was also Harry's due date, and when the doctor worked it out, he laughed because Umi also means birth, so he was going to be born on Birth Day. Except he was born at the end of June so it didn't work out anyway!

We had a good day. Seiju and I woke up early because our room gets the sun as it rises and in the summer it instantly gets hot! We had a relaxing time waking up, drinking coffee and watching the morning news. Harry rolled downstairs at about 7:30 but Yoshi, who was exhausted from his school trip, didn't show his face till past eight.

Seiju tinkered with his bike, and I weeded the entire car park flower bed and also the bed that the climbing yellow rose is in. Then we took a break and he fixed my computer. Back out to the garden and I weeded almost the entire back garden while Seiju mowed. Then he had a little rest, I showered and changed, we went out to eat, bought the kids their rewards for passing the kanji test (mini remote control helicopter for Yoshi and DS game cassette for Harry), came home, packed the bike and off he went.

I did too much in the garden today and now my arms and wrists are very stiff, and I'm having trouble getting up and down! I feel like an old lady!

Boys Passed Their Kanji Kentei!!!

Last night we checked the Kanji Kentei homepage and found that Harry has passed his Level 9 Kanji Kentei and Yoshi has passed Level 7! Yeah! I am SO PROUD of them both!!

If you want to know more about this national test, there's a Wikipedia article in English, here.

Both boys have already begun work on Levels 8 and 6 respectively. This means that Harry is well ahead of his grade level, and Yoshi's a bit behind but is making solid progress,which is reassuring.

Off To See The Sailors!

A Japanese navy ship came into port near where Seiju works and we were given tickets to go on board. It was great fun!

Something I was surprised to find on a navy ship (though I shouldn't be - there's even one at the summit of Mt Fuji...) a drinks vending machine!Something else I thought was interesting - a Shinto shrine on board. Seiju says the army and airforce don't have them. Maybe this is because ships have a spirit or personality about them, which English sailors also believe to some extent...

Last night we went to a party to welcome the ship to port, and Harry as the only kid there was made much of by the sailors. One in particular spent a good part of the evening making and flying paper planes out of the seating plans! Today we found him on board the ship and discovered that he's a diver - one of the elite on the ship!

The ship went out of the bay and up and down the coast for a couple of hours, and we were allowed into some parts of the ship though of course not all. It was part of a recruitment drive but I'm not sure of its short-term effect as most of the people on board were old boys (VERY old, doddery old boys!) or young families! It was great fun though, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The sailors were extremely efficient but very friendly and certainly gave a good impression.

Yoshi's off on his school trip

Yoshi left on his school trip yesterday morning. Being Japan, even though there are only nine kids in his class,they still had to go through the tedious greetings and speeches from every single person who might have anything to do with anything. No wonder nothing much gets done in this country!
Yoshi listening to someone saying "We are all ready to go on our school trip" No, really! I never noticed!
Yoshi's turn to say something inane - his was "Turn to your mothers and say goodbye." They all turned to us and in unison took their leave of us. I then did the Stupid Gaijin thing in replying at natural speed so there's me saying "Bye!" then a half beat later all the other mothers saying "Bye!" in unison, and Yoshi putting his head in his hands and saying "I'm so embarrassed" as he slunk to the bus. Sigh, I'll never get these things right. (Do I really want to?? And it might also have been the fact that I was blowing big sloppy kisses at him as I said goodbye that really finished Yoshi off!!!)

On a serious note, I think they are going to have a wonderful time, they have an absolutely packed schedule full of things that I would love to do myself. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it when he comes home.

Harry's Daikon

Harry brought back two giant radishes from his school vegetable plot, that he has been carefully nurturing for the past couple of months, and asked me to turn them into soup. I happily obliged as they were far too HOT for salad - really peppery! Dunno why, as it's rained enough this past couple of months....

New Glasses - sigh

We had a bit of a panic on Wednesday night because Yoshi dropped his glasses while he was riding his bike, and the frames smashed beyond repair. Two days before his school trip, at 5:30pm!! We rushed to the local specs shop and explained the problem and also that he's in the middle of two exams to get a new prescription. The shop assistant said he'd find some frames that the old lenses could be ground down to fit, and there was pretty much THIS pair in the entire shop! So this time Yoshi didn't get to choose his frames (he'll have to learn to be more careful, eh?) and the man very kindly said that when we get the new prescription he'll put those lenses in for free. We were able to pick them up that night at 7pm so Yoshi never even had one glasses-less school day. What a relief. And even though we had almost no choice in the style of frames, they look OK, don't they?

Last Push Towards The Summer Holidays!

Friday today. Four hours of classes will begin in 45 minutes. I'm just about ready, just have to get the laundry out of the classroom!

Then next week I only have two days of classes and one night class on Friday, then I'm off for three weeks! Yeah! Can't wait. I am seriously dragging.

I spent this morning making today's classes' summer holiday homework packets. Yes, I'm mean and anyone in Elementary or above gets homework! Most of the kids don't mind. Not sure about the mothers...

This weekend Yoshi is off on his school trip, so we have to pack tonight. And then Harry and I are off to see Seiju and do some stuff with his staff, that I've been nagged into agreeing to do. I hate, hate HATE playing The Bosses Wifey. Still, I will nail a smile on my face and go because it means a lot to Seiju and he doesn't ask me to do it that often. (Kind of how he feels about my friends coming round for BBQs etc!!)

Kriiaytiv Speling

Yoshi's diary entry, proving that we need to work a LOT HARDER on spelling than we have been doing. I suggest that you switch your eyes off and merely listen to the sounds of the words!

The Story of the months 2

March. March is neimd aftr thu god ov war, Mars. it wos thu begining ov te battl sisun.

April. thu Latin wrd aprire with mins opun. the risun tat is nend aftu opun is bikos thu flawus opun and osow thu trees opun.

Yoshi's Allegies and Hospital Monday.

Next weekend Yoshi has his much anticipated 6th grade school trip, so today was a day off to prepare. We were all late getting up because I'd got into the "holiday" mode but poor Harry had to go to school and arrived late - oops.

Yoshi and I ate a leisurely breakfast and then got on our bikes to go to the local hospital. Because of Yoshi's dangerous nut allergy (he's had four episodes of anaphylaxis so far) the school wanted advice on what to do if anything goes wrong while they are away with him. I am so grateful that they expect him to go along with them and they don't just decree that he's too much of a liability to take.

The doctor stressed the need for speedy decisons, basically if they think he's been exposed, get the Epi Pen injected, call the ambulance, give him the dose of steroids that we were given today (if his throat hasn't swollen...) and get into the ambulance. His last attack was at school but it was four years ago and the teachers who dealt with it have left. Fortunately his homeroom teacher has had anaphylactic shock himself so he knows how serious it can be.

The doctor looked up the hospitals in the town the kids will be staying in (unfortunately very small) and suggested we call in advance just so they know there's such a kid coming to stay. He also said he'd call the school to talk to the homeroom teacher directly, and he'd write a letter to show the doctor in the hotel town if necessary. So nice and helpful!

Unfortunately this is the town's general hospital so going on a Monday morning was a baaad move. We waited and waited and were nudged out of place several times for really sick kids. Finally we got out just before two, and staggered off to have lunch in the local supermarket. Then we were back on our bikes and off to the eye clinic.

Yoshi has perfect vision in one eye; well, not perfect but good enough - by Japanese measurement it is 1.0 and the other now measures 0.15. It is so unbalanced that he gets horrible headaches which have begun again lately. It turns out that even with his glasses on that eye is only getting to 0.5 so he woudn't be able to drive legally! Today they decided they wanted to dilate his eyes to have a good look, seeing as his vision is so unbalanced, so they put the drops in, we waited and waited, the drops hadn't worked so they put more in and we waited some more.... Turns out everything is fine and I am happy to know that, but we didn't get home till 4:30pm! (Baachan and Jiichan picked Harry up from the school bus and took him to his piano lesson and then home, which was very kind of them.)

We couldn't get the lens prescription this time because of the eye dilation, so we'll have to go next week or the week after. (Sooooo busy for the next couple of weeks!) They want to do the air puff glaucoma test which is very early at 11 years old, but Seiju has it fairly badly including some nerve death, and I have it too, though mine is a different variety and is caused by having had eye surgery for cataracts in both eyes when Yoshi was a baby, so it's not passable-on to Yoshi, though the cataracts might be, as they began very young and came on very fast for reasons unknown.

Poor Yoshi only had a few minutes home before the tutor came and he was set to an hour and a half of maths lessons! Poor lad. I escaped the moaning and went to buy lovely exciting things such as ant killer and bin bags at the home centre!

We were both exhausted mostly from all the hanging around waiting we did today. Yoshi moaned all evening about the loss of his day off, until I felt sorry for him and gave him the new backpack I'd been hiding for his trip. I was going to give it to him to pack on Friday, but what's a couple of days?

A good, productive Sunday - first for a long time!

Yesterday (Sunday) Seiju and I got out into the garden early and he cut one and a half lawns. The front lawn is really funny as there's a perfectly straight dividing line where he ran out of time! My office lady Sachiko gave the kids a pop up tent, which defeated three of my friends including her (!) in getting back into it's bag. It's like one of those car sunshades that you have to twist into circles. Seiju fought with the silly thing too for ages, gave up, went back to it, and suddenly appeared round the corner beaming from ear to ear, with it tamed and zipped up into the bag! That's a relief!

I weeded a huge area that was literally waist high with weeds. I moved my big blackberry bush. It was too big to move really and I had to be rough with it. This evening despite a big watering it's all wilted and miserable so I may have killed it. Those things are tough though so it will probably recover.

We had quick showers and then told the kids it was time to go to their English exam interviews. I have not really practiced with the kids, only a couple of nights earlier in the week, then I didn't bother any more. Last night I told them that it was today, and I also said so this morning before I went into the garden, but Harry didn't seem to have registered it as when I told him to go and get ready, he just cracked up into hysterical panicky sobs, which first manifested itself as a screaming tantrum about how I always boss him about and how he never has any free time. (He'd been playing since 6am and it was 12:30 by then!) A long cuddle and lots of calming down later, he admitted that he felt very unprepared and that he was "Frightened of the man." He kept saying piteously, "Do I HAVE to do it?" and I felt like a big meanie because I did think he had to do it - he got 89% on the main test so what a waste not to go on. Anyway, he calmed down enough to agree to try, and off we went.

They both came out of their tests beaming. Harry said it was easy and the man was nice. Yoshi sauntered out saying "Piece of cake!" Cheeky beggar. Apparently he couldn't answer the first question because he couldn't read the word. It was "What do some fast food restaurants serve?" And Yoshi's answer was, "I'm sorry, I can't read the word but it's here - "Some fast food restaurants serve ......" This word, here!" I wonder if that would get a point or not? When he was asked "Where do you want to go to this summer?" He said, "I want to go to Himeji Jo because I love Japanese palaces and I'm interested in historical buildings." Hmmmmm. A fluent kid who can't read the word "Salad" which is what I deduced the word to be as it was a short word with S and L in it. Now we just have to wait and see.

Seiju wants to bring his motorbike out of hibernation next week but his bike jacket is too small for him now that he's fat and nearly 50! So we went to the local recycle shop and found a bright orange jacket with shoulder and elbow protectors for ¥4000! He's going to look like a hot, cross wasp when he rides, as his bike is red and black, his gloves are yellow and black, and the jacket is dayglo orange! I would rather he had a leather jacket which would protect all of him, but this will do for the interim. He also confessed that he needs a new helmet as his old one is rotting. Eep! We calculated that it is at least 15 years old and you should replace them every six to eight years because of the problem of the materials weakening. So I have said he's banned from the bike till he buys a new helmet.

Once he'd gone, I went back into the garden and did a load more weeding. I did 9 45 litre rubbish bags worth, and now my wrists are screaming in protest. Ouch! No photos because it was dusk as I was finishing.

I am so happy that I've had a non-sick, non-crappy weekend at last!!!

Lava Pie!

I made a raspberry and strawberry crumble with some frozen fruit I had on hand. I knew the strawberries would get very wet as they defrosted so I added a good slug of cornstarch as I was cooking them, and it seemed to be fairly "together". I added the crumble topping and put in the oven.

To Yoshi's delight this is what came out - Lava Pie! It was still heaving and bubbling which thrilled him! Harry was disgusted and wouldn't touch it, picky little thing that he is. He missed a treat!

NOT the 2nd Grade Picnic...

The local water play park, with the parking area and restaurant at the top of the hill.

Well, not reading Japanese well has bitten me in the bum again. Months ago, at the first PTA meeting of the year it was decided that there'd be a class picnic on the 12th July and I put it on the calendar right away. It turns out there was a little note on one of the millions of bits of paper we get every day saying that the date had changed to next weekend. Well I and the other foreign mum in the class both missed that note, and I was babysitting her daughter today!

So we all turned up at the park like right twits, and hung around and hung around and nobody came. I left the three kids at the park with strict instructions to obey Yoshi and stick together, and dashed home to call the class PTA mum, who apologised profusely and said that she thought I knew it was changed.

What is odd is that her daughter takes English classes with me and only on Thursday I'd asked her about the plans for the picnic, asked what kind of lunch to bring and bemoaned the fact that as my Friday was so busy I'd probably have to buy something at the convenience store. Then as we'd parted I'd said "See you Saturday." So somehow all through that she'd missed that I thought it was this weekend! Ah well...

For some reason, the kids decided to act out the letters of the alphabet for me! Twenty six letter photos later, here's a row of Cs!

The park is a new riverside park with a water play area which has been nicely thought out. It diverts water from the river so that it comes out at the top of a hill, and there's a little rocky stream that winds its way down to a pool at the bottom of a little bowl like valley, then off under a bridge, along a rocky gully and finally flows back into the river. All the way along it's safe for kids to wade in, even tiny ones, though there are some bits that are better fun for older kids too.

Only two Zs. The other letter got bored and wandered off.

Seeing as we were there, and it was a hot morning, we decided to stay! The kids had a great time exploring, then gathering flowers and leaves and sending them down the stream, calling to each other through a little tunnel, running up and down the smoothly sloping paths that are suitable for little bikes and wheelchairs, and playing with two empty drinks bottles!

An hour or so into our time there the PTA leader and her daughter turned up at the park in the hopes that we were still there, which was really kind of her! We let the kids play another hour, then went to the restaurant (it's tacked onto a parking area so there's a really nice restaurant, bakery, gift shop and farm shop) to eat. We rounded off with an ice cream and then I invited PTA mum to come back with us to our rather messy house.

She was happy to come, so we spent another couple of hours with the kids playing DS games and chasing the boys' remote control jeep outside, while we and Elly's mum who came back from work just after we got back from the park drank coffee and looked at the plants in my very overgrown garden.

The kids found a very tiny froglet, just changed from a tadpole.

Just as they left, Seiju turned up! He was very tired and very hungry, so we went right out to eat dinner at a local restaurant, as I hadn't even thought about food yet, and then home to very soapy baths as the kids were FILTHY, and bed for all the males in my life.

They put him on a poppy flower - so cute!
Then they sailed him away on his poppy-flower boat.

I'm typing this as I wait for the third load of laundry to finish, so I can hang it up before I go to bed myself! It was a really nice day today!

Harry Monster

I was just nagging Harry to hurry up and finish his breakfast so that he could go and brush his teeth in time to catch the school bus (which we have not actually managed any morning this week so far!)

I must have overdone the nagging, because a voice filled with indigation has just come from the kitchen -

"Mummy, I'm not a MONSTER that can finish bread in ONE GULP!"

Wierd Weather.

We are having wildly see-sawing temperatures here this summer. On Sunday it was about 30C (86F) then the next day and today it has dropped to 18C (65F). No wonder we are all coldy.... This see-sawing has happened several times over the past week or so - last week one day it was 34C (93) before dropping right back down the next day.

I am getting fed up with this!

A Hot Cleaning Day

Yesterday we spent five hours at school, on the PTA annual cleaning day. We were divided into mums and dads, and I was about to comment about the sexist division of labour when I noticed that all the women were headed inside the relatively cool school and all the men went out to the play equipment, so I kept my mouth shut!

Then men first emptied the sandpit and replaced all the sand in it with fresh stuff, then came in and began sanding and grinding down any areas that paint had bubbled up, so that the janitor can paint next week. Our school is a wreck of a building so two hours was a drop in the ocean of work that is needed!

The woment were sent upstairs to wash all the windows in the corridor (there are loads - half the entire outside wall is windows!) and to clean the science room. It turned out that the science room windows have possibly never been cleaned since the place was built 35 years ago - they were utterly filthy. One swipe and the rag came up black, no kidding. It was like wiping mud off them! The room got progressively brighter, and it was a huge job as both sides the length of the room from waist height up are windows. I got the joy of scrubbing one of the porcelain sinks that had never ever been washed properly. It was thickly stained with all manner of chemical residue, which we attacked with scouring powder and wire wool. It took me an entire hour to get one sink nearly white - there were some stubborn bits that will be stained forever!

After all that hot and sweaty work (while the kids all jumped into the school pool, cheeky pigs!) we had a barbecue outside next to the pool, under the trees and facing the rice fields and the school vegetable gardens. It was lovely and shaded with a slight breeze but it was over 30C out so it was still HOT! The kids ate fast, then played at the edge of the rice fields, collecting frogs and other little creatures till they were told they could get back in the pool, whereupon they all disappeared! The parents (maybe 50 people) sat around and chatted.

I like our school, it is very relaxed and it has a nice atmosphere. I love that it is deep in the countryside with no other buildings near it apart from the little community hall next to it. It is surrounded by rice fields, wheat fields, and lots of old trees. So green and lovely. Just what kids need around them as they grow up.

And the building is ever. so. slightly. cleaner than last week!

I'm sick AGAIN!

I had not even recovered from the last cold when I caught another one. It's definitely a different bug as the symptoms are different, but I feel just as rotten. I made it though the week and just cancelled tonight's night class. My voice has gone again and I feel like my eyeballs are made of glass (and they are being squeezed by a big hand inside my head).

Off to bed.