We had a plumbing issue Monday. We purchased a plunger Monday night but were unable to resolve it ourselves, so today I called the realty management company. They had a plumber come around 2:30; he spent about half an hour and then he had the realty management company call me to say that he would be back around 5:00 with a different tool. (He didn't speak any English other than the word "toilet.") At 5:00 another plumber showed up and started to work. He was here until 6:30 and had a third plumber here for part of the time with him. I don't know what the problem ended up being, but clearly it was a problem we were not going to be able to solve on our own. Meanwhile, Greer had texted me from the late bus to let me know when she was on her way after swim practice. Some time passed, and around 5:15 I got another text from her letting me know that she thinks she's missed her stop.
Here is our text message exchange:
Greer: I have HW in 2 classes
Mom: See if you can do a little HW on the bus
Greer: Ok
Mom: I can't meet you at the bus stop because I have to wait for the plumber.
Greer: Ok
......
Greer: Well, I am just gonna close my eyes for a bit 'cause I am kind of tired.
Mom: Okay
......
Greer: Mom, I don't know if we passed our stop already.
Greer: I looked at a map and we seem to be going away from our house.
Greer: What do I do?
Mom: Ask the bus monitor if you passed the 7-11.
Greer: I don't know where they are but Beth is here should I ask her?
(Beth is Greer's friend, one of the Webb kids. When taking the late bus, she normally gets off before Greer at a subway stop and takes the subway the rest of the way home. She lives farther into Tokyo, and by taking the subway, she can beat the bus sometimes by 15-20 minutes.)
Mom: Yes, but I think Beth gets off before you.
........
Greer: I am going to stop at Beth's house and you can pick me up.
Mom: How do you think I'm picking you up?
Mom: Find the bus monitor.
Mom: I can't come get you.
Greer: I am going to take another bus home, the bus monitor told Beth to show me how to get home.
Greer: By taking a bus route
(Greer actually means the subway, not a bus.)
Mom: Did you get on the wrong bus?
Greer: I don't know. I think I just missed my stop.
Mom: How are you getting home?
Mom: Make sure bus monitor knows you don't know your way around.
(I could see Greer not wanting to "inconvenience" the bus monitor.)
Greer: Train
Mom: Do you have money?
Greer: Beth is lending me.
Mom: Is she going to help you buy a ticket?
Greer: Yes
Mom: Do you know your stop?
Greer: I get off at yogihachiman.
Mom: Yoyogi uehara
Mom: C1 on the Chiyoda line
......
Mom: Did you see my message about your stop?
Greer: Yes
Mom: Message me on the train and when you get to the station.
Greer: Ok
Greer: On train
Mom: Going to Yoyogi uehara, right?
Greer: Yes
Greer: What exit do I get off on?
Mom: Yoyogi uehara
Mom: C1
Greer: K
Greer: Arrived
Mom: Do you know how to walk home?
(She should. We've walked this many times.)
Greer: Will use map to get home
(So, no, she did not know how to walk home. But the iPhone map brought her.)
Greer's friend Beth didn't just help her buy her ticket. She also rode the train with her because I don't think she trusted Greer to know where she was going (maybe because I had to tell Greer the stop three separate times - this is the stop we ALWAYS use). But Greer did experience her first subway ride without a parent and she made it home safely. I liked the part where Greer thought I could just come pick her up. Never mind I had two non-English-speaking plumbers in the house. There's the small detail that I don't have a car (and even if I did, would I be able to drive it to where she was?). Maybe Greer will emerge at the end of this adventure having gained some (more) life skills.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Jan. 30, 2012 - Taiko
ASIJ offers various extracurricular activities after school. Some of them, like an interest club or an athletic team, are free, and others are classes in which outside instructors are brought to the school, which is done for a fee. This can be quite convenient since otherwise it could be quite a challenge to get your child to an after school activity. Instead, they sign up for a class at ASIJ, stay late on the appropriate day, and then take the late bus home. Very easy for me! Cooper chose to take a taiko class (you can see a picture and a video about taiko in the Jan. 3 post). I asked Cooper to write about his taiko class:
I have a taiko class after school on Mondays. Taiko is Japanese drumming. My teacher is very loud, and he/she sometimes yells "Yahhh!" and then we all hit the drums like crazy. (I can't tell if my teacher is a boy or a girl.) We just finished a piece called "Running Horse," and now we're starting a piece called "Dragon Country and Tiger Country." We each have our own drumsticks to keep. The drums are in the music classroom at school. We don't read music in the class. We follow what the teacher does. We bang the drums when he/she bangs his/her drums and then we get into the rhythm of it and know what to do. After taiko class, I take the late bus home.
I have a taiko class after school on Mondays. Taiko is Japanese drumming. My teacher is very loud, and he/she sometimes yells "Yahhh!" and then we all hit the drums like crazy. (I can't tell if my teacher is a boy or a girl.) We just finished a piece called "Running Horse," and now we're starting a piece called "Dragon Country and Tiger Country." We each have our own drumsticks to keep. The drums are in the music classroom at school. We don't read music in the class. We follow what the teacher does. We bang the drums when he/she bangs his/her drums and then we get into the rhythm of it and know what to do. After taiko class, I take the late bus home.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Jan. 28, 2012 - I think I ordered the spaghetti?
We decided that not everybody needed to go to the swim meet today. Cooper could get the day off from having to sit through another very long swim meet, and Drew would have the chance to do a few things around the house. This ended up being extra good for Cooper when he was asked by his friend Isaac to spend the night Friday night. Speaking of Friday night, I forgot to write about our dinner last night. There is a street we walk down on our way to the subway station that we call "the green street." (This is not its actual name. It's just that it has green paint on the ground along the sides of the road. We have no idea what its actual name is, or the name of almost any other street, for that matter. Dave Barry is pretty funny on this issue. We recommend chapter 3 of "Dave Barry Does Japan.") On the green street is a tiny restaurant called Bacca Bacca that Drew suspected was an Italian restaurant and he has been wanting to try it.
If you look carefully above the "Bacca Bacca" in the sign, you can see the word "trattoria." Unfortunately for us, "trattoria" on the sign and "antipasto" on the menu were the only words we were able to recognize. Everything else was in Japanese. Now, while many restaurants have English along with the Japanese on their menus, that is by no means widespread. However, very many restaurants have plastic displays of their food or they have pictures of their food. So, we can place an order by pointing to the appropriate display or picture. At Bacca Bacca, no such luck. Greer was ready to pack it in, and I was ready to just randomly point to an item on the menu and hope for the best. Drew, however, was determined. This is a man who likes his Italian food. By using a translate app on his iPhone, he was able to communicate enough with the waiter to figure out where on the menu the pastas were. Then the chef came out (I said this was a tiny restaurant). He didn't speak any English either, but he was able to say the words "arrabiata," "pepperoncini," and "carbonara," and point to the item on the menu. So we ordered those three pastas. The waiter, using his phone, was able to ask us if we wanted anything else, so we also ordered a salad. And we ordered water to drink because we know that word: mizu! All three of our pastas were very good, and Drew, using his iPhone again, told the waiter that we would certainly be back.
So, anyway, just Greer and I headed out to the swim meet this morning. It was a good one for Cooper to miss since it ended up being extra long. It was past 4:30 by the time Greer and I made it home. Today she was swimming long events, so she just had four events instead of five. She swam on the medley relay team (backstroke) and on the 400m freestyle relay team. Her individual events were the 200m free and the 400m free. The 400m free is a long event, and not too many middle school swimmers swim it during a meet. Greer came in fourth, which she pooh-poohed as there were only 5 or 6 swimmers. However, I thought it was pretty good, considering the third place swimmer barely beat her, and she was the only 12-year-old (and hasn't been 12 for long); all the other swimmers were 13 or 14. Here's a picture of Greer on the bus on the way home:
Meanwhile, Drew went and picked up Cooper at his friend's house, and the two of them went to Bic Camera for some electronics. They were unsuccessful on the new TV, but they did manage to buy a dehumidifier (for our basement), a toaster (ours does not seem to like Japan), a fan (we really miss our ceiling fans), and various power strips and adapters. Cooper, however, was a little tired during the checkout process, while delivery was being arranged (yes, he's actually sleeping, not just closing his eyes):
So, anyway, just Greer and I headed out to the swim meet this morning. It was a good one for Cooper to miss since it ended up being extra long. It was past 4:30 by the time Greer and I made it home. Today she was swimming long events, so she just had four events instead of five. She swam on the medley relay team (backstroke) and on the 400m freestyle relay team. Her individual events were the 200m free and the 400m free. The 400m free is a long event, and not too many middle school swimmers swim it during a meet. Greer came in fourth, which she pooh-poohed as there were only 5 or 6 swimmers. However, I thought it was pretty good, considering the third place swimmer barely beat her, and she was the only 12-year-old (and hasn't been 12 for long); all the other swimmers were 13 or 14. Here's a picture of Greer on the bus on the way home:
Meanwhile, Drew went and picked up Cooper at his friend's house, and the two of them went to Bic Camera for some electronics. They were unsuccessful on the new TV, but they did manage to buy a dehumidifier (for our basement), a toaster (ours does not seem to like Japan), a fan (we really miss our ceiling fans), and various power strips and adapters. Cooper, however, was a little tired during the checkout process, while delivery was being arranged (yes, he's actually sleeping, not just closing his eyes):
Japanese word of the day: mizu (click to hear pronunciation) means "water"
Friday, January 27, 2012
Jan. 27, 2012 - Sixth Grade Intermission
I've been pretty caught up with the ocean shipment, so I forgot to share this exciting bit of news: we sold our house! We actually got three offers on the house, and in consultation with Cartus, the relocation company, we accepted the best one. Cartus now owns our house; the relocation company, on behalf of Exxon, buys the house from us, and then they are the people who deal with the sale to the new buyer. We had only until the end of January to sell the house ourselves and be eligible for the incentive payment. Otherwise, we would have had to take the company's guaranteed offer. We made it with time to spare. Yay!!
Since I'm working on the disaster that we currently call home, Greer is going to write today's entry so she can tell you about the "extended campus activity" in which the sixth grade recently got to participate. Wednesday through Friday of this week is what is called "intermission" at the middle school, and each grade has a special program. For sixth grade, the first two days the students have Japanese cultural experiences and special activities on campus. The third day they participate in an exchange with a Japanese school. Here's Greer:
On day one, we started at our advisory class and then we headed down to sumi-e (a kind of painting). Our teacher taught us how to do bamboo, grapes, dragons, and many more! Here is a picture of my favorite one!
I loved doing it, it was art in a new way!
After sumi-e, we headed down to Taekwondo (the teaching of kicking and punching). The teacher told us that it was from Korea. We learned the basic ten blocks, 2 different types of kicks, and 2 different types of punches. After that activity, we headed down to the commons and (me and Zoe) watched people sing karaoke. If you know me well enough, you know I would never ever go up and sing like everyone else did. Finally, we had lunch. I had a buttered bagel, vegetables, and some water. Then right after lunch, we had a yakisoba cooking class with my homeroom teacher. First we cut up all the vegetables. Then we put the oil on the pan with the onions. Once the onions were brown, we added peppers and cabbage. Then they cooked for a while and we put in meat (don't worry, it was already cooked) and then the noodles with some sauce. Bon Appetit! I brought it home and everyone tried it! :)
The next day, we started at taiko drumming. It gave me a headache! We yelled, shouted, and pounded on the drums! It was sooooo loud! Thankfully, the session eventually ended. After that, we headed to zori. Zori are shoes woven from straw. Here is a picture of my masterpiece:
I am proud to say mine was the best in the class and everyone else's was falling apart because they didn't weave it tight enough! Any way, I am glad mine turned out the way it was even though it could have been a little wider and a 1/2 inch shorter. After that class, we had karaoke and lunch. After that, my class took a hike with Mr. Gibson through Nogawa Park. After 1 mile of walking, we got to a statue of some sort and he told us that he has a story about it that he will tell us later when we get to a good spot. So we walked some more and Mr.Gibson (a different story) told us about how in the 1900's, a farmer looking for young bamboo shoots was digging and then the ground started to cave in. So he dug some more. Then the farmer found a tomb and he contacted the nearest place where scientists were. They found out that 12 thousand years ago, there had been people living in Japan. So Japan built a little museum and Mr.Gibson brought the girls in for us to see first. He pointed out four skulls and he said see those 2? And that one that is split in half? And also that one that seems to be looking right at . . . Then he scares all the girls, well except for me and 2 others, by grabbing us all and screaming. You should have seen it! All the girls were screaming their heads off and the boys looked in the door and started laughing! Well, it was funny. So we started walking back to the school and we stopped at a pile of ashes in the middle of a rice farm, where Mr. Gibson told us another story (the one about the statue). Everyone believed it until he said "Before you go to bed tonight, pray that Mr. Gibson will never tell you such a stupid story again." (He has been telling this made-up story for 12 years.)
The next day, as soon as we arrived at school, we re-boarded the bus. This time in color groups so that we could have groups at Chofu-Daiichi and there would be no confusion. When we arrived, we were greeted by a Chofu-Daiichi student with a sign. We put on slippers and followed them inside to the gym. Their gym was freezing! But after greetings, a game of dodgeball was organized. Chofu-Daiichi aganist ASIJ! Well, we took it easy on them the first game, but they beat us! But on the second game we beat them! But it was very close. . . . Next we got back organized in our color groups and we went to different activities. The first one was where we drew japanese symbols. I chose the symbol for sushi. After that, we did some traditional Japanese games. One of them was a game where you have 8 desks for each team. There are 2 teams, 1 girl team and 1 boy team. (The girls always won.) Each team would stand on top of the desks and they would play rock, paper, scissors. Every time a team lost, they would take away a desk. You have to fit your whole team on the desks; if a person fell off or your team had 2 desks left, you lost. It was really fun. After part of the day with Chofu-Daiichi, we headed home on the buses with a partner from Chofu-Daiichi. I got a quiet girl named Yume. She tried to talk to me in Japanese, but after a few minutes she finally understood me when I said "I'm new, I don't speak Japanese." So she asked me a question in English. "Do you swim?" I said yes and she said she did too. That was pretty much our whole conversation for 30 minutes. Once we got to the school, I took her to the lunch room and put her stuff down by our table. I showed her the different options and made sure she got the one she wanted. Once she was seated, I got shredded beef with bell peppers which in fact was very good. After lunch, our group led the Japanese to many activities, including kickball, pictionary, and flag football. Then we said goodbye and they took the train home! End of story, ta da! Well, I finally remembered to take home my art stuff.
Since I'm working on the disaster that we currently call home, Greer is going to write today's entry so she can tell you about the "extended campus activity" in which the sixth grade recently got to participate. Wednesday through Friday of this week is what is called "intermission" at the middle school, and each grade has a special program. For sixth grade, the first two days the students have Japanese cultural experiences and special activities on campus. The third day they participate in an exchange with a Japanese school. Here's Greer:
On day one, we started at our advisory class and then we headed down to sumi-e (a kind of painting). Our teacher taught us how to do bamboo, grapes, dragons, and many more! Here is a picture of my favorite one!
I loved doing it, it was art in a new way!
After sumi-e, we headed down to Taekwondo (the teaching of kicking and punching). The teacher told us that it was from Korea. We learned the basic ten blocks, 2 different types of kicks, and 2 different types of punches. After that activity, we headed down to the commons and (me and Zoe) watched people sing karaoke. If you know me well enough, you know I would never ever go up and sing like everyone else did. Finally, we had lunch. I had a buttered bagel, vegetables, and some water. Then right after lunch, we had a yakisoba cooking class with my homeroom teacher. First we cut up all the vegetables. Then we put the oil on the pan with the onions. Once the onions were brown, we added peppers and cabbage. Then they cooked for a while and we put in meat (don't worry, it was already cooked) and then the noodles with some sauce. Bon Appetit! I brought it home and everyone tried it! :)
The next day, we started at taiko drumming. It gave me a headache! We yelled, shouted, and pounded on the drums! It was sooooo loud! Thankfully, the session eventually ended. After that, we headed to zori. Zori are shoes woven from straw. Here is a picture of my masterpiece:
I am proud to say mine was the best in the class and everyone else's was falling apart because they didn't weave it tight enough! Any way, I am glad mine turned out the way it was even though it could have been a little wider and a 1/2 inch shorter. After that class, we had karaoke and lunch. After that, my class took a hike with Mr. Gibson through Nogawa Park. After 1 mile of walking, we got to a statue of some sort and he told us that he has a story about it that he will tell us later when we get to a good spot. So we walked some more and Mr.Gibson (a different story) told us about how in the 1900's, a farmer looking for young bamboo shoots was digging and then the ground started to cave in. So he dug some more. Then the farmer found a tomb and he contacted the nearest place where scientists were. They found out that 12 thousand years ago, there had been people living in Japan. So Japan built a little museum and Mr.Gibson brought the girls in for us to see first. He pointed out four skulls and he said see those 2? And that one that is split in half? And also that one that seems to be looking right at . . . Then he scares all the girls, well except for me and 2 others, by grabbing us all and screaming. You should have seen it! All the girls were screaming their heads off and the boys looked in the door and started laughing! Well, it was funny. So we started walking back to the school and we stopped at a pile of ashes in the middle of a rice farm, where Mr. Gibson told us another story (the one about the statue). Everyone believed it until he said "Before you go to bed tonight, pray that Mr. Gibson will never tell you such a stupid story again." (He has been telling this made-up story for 12 years.)
The next day, as soon as we arrived at school, we re-boarded the bus. This time in color groups so that we could have groups at Chofu-Daiichi and there would be no confusion. When we arrived, we were greeted by a Chofu-Daiichi student with a sign. We put on slippers and followed them inside to the gym. Their gym was freezing! But after greetings, a game of dodgeball was organized. Chofu-Daiichi aganist ASIJ! Well, we took it easy on them the first game, but they beat us! But on the second game we beat them! But it was very close. . . . Next we got back organized in our color groups and we went to different activities. The first one was where we drew japanese symbols. I chose the symbol for sushi. After that, we did some traditional Japanese games. One of them was a game where you have 8 desks for each team. There are 2 teams, 1 girl team and 1 boy team. (The girls always won.) Each team would stand on top of the desks and they would play rock, paper, scissors. Every time a team lost, they would take away a desk. You have to fit your whole team on the desks; if a person fell off or your team had 2 desks left, you lost. It was really fun. After part of the day with Chofu-Daiichi, we headed home on the buses with a partner from Chofu-Daiichi. I got a quiet girl named Yume. She tried to talk to me in Japanese, but after a few minutes she finally understood me when I said "I'm new, I don't speak Japanese." So she asked me a question in English. "Do you swim?" I said yes and she said she did too. That was pretty much our whole conversation for 30 minutes. Once we got to the school, I took her to the lunch room and put her stuff down by our table. I showed her the different options and made sure she got the one she wanted. Once she was seated, I got shredded beef with bell peppers which in fact was very good. After lunch, our group led the Japanese to many activities, including kickball, pictionary, and flag football. Then we said goodbye and they took the train home! End of story, ta da! Well, I finally remembered to take home my art stuff.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Jan. 25, 2012 - They came, they saw, they dumped stuff.
Remember what I said about it being better to receive the ocean shipment by myself than to wait a week until Andrew could stay home with me? I was WRONG. Our apartment looks like a moving truck threw up inside of it. To complicate matters, the movers unpacked nearly every single box, so there are just random piles of stuff everywhere. We would normally have the movers unpack very little so that we could unpack stuff as we were ready for it. However, we’ve been told by others here to go ahead and have the movers do it. That way they can remove all the packing material, which is more difficult to dispose of here than in the States. However, when you have a mover in every room and only one person (me) to supervise and help, you get random piles of stuff everywhere. Of course, the fact that I don’t speak Japanese and only one member of the moving crew spoke English did add a wrinkle to the situation.
When they were loading the books onto the bookshelves, they asked if they should put them in any particular order. Why, yes, I would like fiction grouped together, alphabetized by author. Poetry in another section, women's studies, sports stories, history. Don't worry, I said no.
When they were loading the books onto the bookshelves, they asked if they should put them in any particular order. Why, yes, I would like fiction grouped together, alphabetized by author. Poetry in another section, women's studies, sports stories, history. Don't worry, I said no.
Oh, and we volunteered to have the Cub Scout den meeting (Cooper’s first meeting here) at our house on Feb. 5. They normally meet at the U.S. Embassy, but their regular meeting place is unavailable that day. We’ve hosted plenty of den meetings, so we said that they could have the meeting here (which also means we can’t get lost trying to find a new place). However, that was before I realized that a moving truck was going to throw up inside our house. So we have 10 days to create some semblance of order. Did I mention that there are 15 boys in the den?
P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, Andrew is at fault for me agreeing to take the ocean shipment this week instead of next. He made it seem like it was the reasonable thing to do.
Here's a Japanese word I actually used the past few days (to the movers, though I'm pretty sure Andrew should have been using it with me):
Japanese word of the day: sumimasen (click to hear pronunciation) means "I'm sorry"
Monday, January 23, 2012
Jan. 23, 2012 - Our ocean shipment is here and my husband isn't
I have all the blog entries started for the last few days, but I haven't finished them yet, and it looks like it will be a few more days before I get the chance. We got word last week that our ocean shipment had arrived and it was expected to clear Customs this morning. The moving people planned to be here at 1:00 to start unloading and unpacking.
They were and they did.
Now there is stuff all over the house. However, there's one truckload still to come from the warehouse, and that appears to be where half of our bedding and all of our towels are. Also, some stuff that was supposed to be in storage in the U.S. is here in Tokyo. Of course, only a small fraction of that is stuff that we actually told them to put in storage. The bulk of it is just stuff that NOW we wished we had put in storage.
The "best" part of the situation is that Drew was not able to be at the apartment today, nor will he be able to be here tomorrow or Wednesday. He can legitimately take the time off for moving; however, it just so happens that this week there are meetings he HAS to attend. If the ocean shipment came next week, he would be able to be at home. But if we delayed accepting it a week so that he could be here, then having them pack up the house the last week of school (instead of the following week, which would have been easier) will have been wasted.
So I'm here by myself. Unless I'm really "lucky," and school is canceled tomorrow because of the snow that's currently falling. Then I will have Greer and Cooper at home with me. I'm sure they will be helpful? (Not, if you were wondering.)
For tonight, Cooper is sleeping in Greer's closet:
They were and they did.
Now there is stuff all over the house. However, there's one truckload still to come from the warehouse, and that appears to be where half of our bedding and all of our towels are. Also, some stuff that was supposed to be in storage in the U.S. is here in Tokyo. Of course, only a small fraction of that is stuff that we actually told them to put in storage. The bulk of it is just stuff that NOW we wished we had put in storage.
The "best" part of the situation is that Drew was not able to be at the apartment today, nor will he be able to be here tomorrow or Wednesday. He can legitimately take the time off for moving; however, it just so happens that this week there are meetings he HAS to attend. If the ocean shipment came next week, he would be able to be at home. But if we delayed accepting it a week so that he could be here, then having them pack up the house the last week of school (instead of the following week, which would have been easier) will have been wasted.
So I'm here by myself. Unless I'm really "lucky," and school is canceled tomorrow because of the snow that's currently falling. Then I will have Greer and Cooper at home with me. I'm sure they will be helpful? (Not, if you were wondering.)
For tonight, Cooper is sleeping in Greer's closet:
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Jan. 21, 2012 - First birthday in Tokyo
We got to sleep in this particular Saturday, probably in honor of my birthday. We didn't have to leave the house at 6:30 to take the train to the swim meet because ASIJ ran buses for the Saturday activities. This was something new ASIJ had started in the fall when they were building a new parking structure on campus. While construction was ongoing, parking on campus was very limited, so they ran buses on Saturday, which was also great for the people without cars. Well, the structure was finished by the time school started back up in January, so they discontinued the Saturday buses. However, I guess the buses were a hit, both for those with cars and those without. After hearing from the parents, the administration brought back the buses for this Saturday. I don't know if they'll continue them (because it is an extra expense for the school), but we'll be using them for now.
They have many fewer bus stops for the Saturday buses, and ours is Yoyogi Hachiman, which is a subway stop on the Odakyu line. Google maps will tell you Yoyogi Hachiman is a 10-minute walk from our apartment, but I'm not sure how they determine that. Maybe using an 8-foot tall person who walks at a very fast clip. They definitely aren't using a family of four which includes two children who are constitutionally incapable of walking faster than a stroll and two parents who are constantly checking the map on their iPhones. I had emailed the transportation director to ask if the Yoyogi Hachiman ASIJ bus stop was directly in front of the Yoyogi Hachiman subway stop. Good thing I wasn't depending on her answer. I didn't hear back from her, but we were on the lookout for groups of people that looked like they might be waiting for a school bus. We saw a likely group of what looked to be high school girls and asked. Yes, they were waiting for the bus. Lucky for us that we saw them since the bus stop turned out to be down a road, up some stairs, and across another road from the subway station. No way would we have even seen the bus if we'd been waiting where we thought we should.
The snow that looked so pretty falling yesterday (though not so pretty when it was time to walk to the grocery store) looked even less pretty today. Today it was a freezing rain, making for a less than pleasant walk to the bus stop. No matter, I'm sure the day will improve. That is, it will improve once the swim meet is over. Last week, I mentioned that the swim meet was just a middle school meet. This week, it was both high school and middle school, dramatically lengthening the duration of the meet. Instead of three individual events and two relay events, this week Greer swam on three relay teams: the 200m medley, the 200m freestyle, and the 400m freestyle, and her individual events were the 50m free and the 100m free. This week she had a LOT of rest time between her events since the meet was more than twice as long as the previous week.
Once the meet finally ended midafternoon, we had a half hour wait for the return buses. This gave us time to revisit our plan for the rest of the day. We had planned to go to Shibuya to do some shopping, followed by dinner at Outback for my birthday. However, the freezing rain was still falling, which made walking around Shibuya seem like an undesirable thing to do. Change in plans: after we got off the bus, the kids and I headed back to the apartment while Andrew stopped by the grocery store. He cooked a great birthday dinner (stir fry, which I seem to only get on my birthday and Mother's Day, and not always then). While he was at the store, the kids asked me not to come into the kitchen and they made chocolate-covered strawberries. They even managed to decorate the serving platter with chocolate shavings (though we didn't think to take the picture until after we'd already served the strawberries).
They have many fewer bus stops for the Saturday buses, and ours is Yoyogi Hachiman, which is a subway stop on the Odakyu line. Google maps will tell you Yoyogi Hachiman is a 10-minute walk from our apartment, but I'm not sure how they determine that. Maybe using an 8-foot tall person who walks at a very fast clip. They definitely aren't using a family of four which includes two children who are constitutionally incapable of walking faster than a stroll and two parents who are constantly checking the map on their iPhones. I had emailed the transportation director to ask if the Yoyogi Hachiman ASIJ bus stop was directly in front of the Yoyogi Hachiman subway stop. Good thing I wasn't depending on her answer. I didn't hear back from her, but we were on the lookout for groups of people that looked like they might be waiting for a school bus. We saw a likely group of what looked to be high school girls and asked. Yes, they were waiting for the bus. Lucky for us that we saw them since the bus stop turned out to be down a road, up some stairs, and across another road from the subway station. No way would we have even seen the bus if we'd been waiting where we thought we should.
The snow that looked so pretty falling yesterday (though not so pretty when it was time to walk to the grocery store) looked even less pretty today. Today it was a freezing rain, making for a less than pleasant walk to the bus stop. No matter, I'm sure the day will improve. That is, it will improve once the swim meet is over. Last week, I mentioned that the swim meet was just a middle school meet. This week, it was both high school and middle school, dramatically lengthening the duration of the meet. Instead of three individual events and two relay events, this week Greer swam on three relay teams: the 200m medley, the 200m freestyle, and the 400m freestyle, and her individual events were the 50m free and the 100m free. This week she had a LOT of rest time between her events since the meet was more than twice as long as the previous week.
Once the meet finally ended midafternoon, we had a half hour wait for the return buses. This gave us time to revisit our plan for the rest of the day. We had planned to go to Shibuya to do some shopping, followed by dinner at Outback for my birthday. However, the freezing rain was still falling, which made walking around Shibuya seem like an undesirable thing to do. Change in plans: after we got off the bus, the kids and I headed back to the apartment while Andrew stopped by the grocery store. He cooked a great birthday dinner (stir fry, which I seem to only get on my birthday and Mother's Day, and not always then). While he was at the store, the kids asked me not to come into the kitchen and they made chocolate-covered strawberries. They even managed to decorate the serving platter with chocolate shavings (though we didn't think to take the picture until after we'd already served the strawberries).
Japanese word of the day: tanjoubi (click to hear pronunciation) means "birthday"
Friday, January 20, 2012
Jan. 20, 2012 - Snow!
We woke up to an unusual sight this morning - snow! We thought at first it was just rain, but then we realized it was actually snow. It does snow in Tokyo more than it snows in Houston, but it's still unusual. ASIJ is in Chofu, to the west of Tokyo, and they're more likely to get snow out at the school. It snowed pretty much the whole day, until it was time for the kids to come home from school. However, the ground was too warm, so none of it stuck. I tried to take a picture (well, about 20 of them), but the snow just wasn't quite big and fluffy enough to make a decent picture.
The snow, while it looked pretty, was not quite so nice when I set out about 1:00 for my near-daily trek to the grocery store.
Japanese word of the day: yuki (click to hear pronunciation) means "snow"
The snow, while it looked pretty, was not quite so nice when I set out about 1:00 for my near-daily trek to the grocery store.
Japanese word of the day: yuki (click to hear pronunciation) means "snow"
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Jan. 19, 2012 - U.S. Embassy and Shibuya ward office
It was a work-at-home day for Drew today. In the morning, he visited the U.S. Embassy, and the two of us also went to the Shibuya ward office. Afterwards, we walked to Yoyogi Koen on our way back towards the house. Yoyogi Koen is a large park, one of Tokyo's largest, not too far from our house. In 1964, it was the site for the athletes village for the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which was the venue for some of the Olympic events, is still in use. We may have the chance to check out the swimming pool soon. There's a swim club that practices there, and I've been in touch with them in preparation for when Cooper wants to get back to swimming (or when I decide he needs to swim again for the mental health of both of us :) ). As far as dues go, you can definitely see why Exxon gives us a cost of living allowance. I sent the fee schedule to Cooper and Greer's old swim coach and told them he could share this when parents complained that ESA's dues were too high. (Here it is, if you're curious: 10 Visits = 40K yen, 15 Visits = 55K yen, 20 Visits = 70K yen.)
Drew's going to tell about his visit to the U.S. Embassy:
In order to purchase a car in Japan, you need an "official signature." You can satisfy this requirement permanently by making a little rubber stamp of your name and registering it at the ward office, or you can apply for an appointment at the embassy, wait in line, etc... for the privilege of paying $50 a whack to get your signature certified by the embassy - which only lasts 3 months, then it expires. No brainer, right? So last Saturday, after much discussion with the stamp maker, and four of his colleagues, he decided it would be best if I confirmed my proposed stamp design was acceptable with the ward office (closed at that time of day), and then return. At that point he would happily take my money and make me a stamp; the stamp manufacture process should only take two weeks ...
So I'm waiting in line for the embassy (the shorter US citizens line) well before my 0845 appointment. The Japanese security staff were the model of efficiency, whisking us thrrough the scanning process, at the end of which they relieved us of our cell phones (so no pics from the embassy) for the remainder of our stay on US soil. I headed into the notary services area and dropped my appointment letter in the collection bin in front of window 7.
A few minutes before 0845 there were signs of life, the Japanese clerk on window 9 opened his window (and number 10 adjacent to him), and I'm excited since I'm the first in line for these services and I have the earliest appointment so it looks like I'll be in and out. But I forgot I was back on US soil, and apparently US goverment clerks are the same everywhere. It's 0840, and the guy who I'm convinced will be my clerk (and he was), started to corral a group of colleagues and initiate a heated discussion about the inadequacy of the placement of the invitation letter bin in front of window 7. This was an extremely inefficient location in his opinion, and he was trying to start a ground swell movement to move it to another window much better suited to the task - window 6, 4 feet to the left. Well, this debate raged on for at least 15 minutes. The issue is that it is difficult to see if papers are in the bin in front of window 7 - very inefficent - "we need to improve our work processes and root out these inefficiencies." A Japanese colleague indicated that there was no matter - someone should be manning window 7 so they would be able to welcome the customer when they dropped it off. "What am I, a robot?" They can get a robot to do that job. If not for the armed Marine guards that I was sure were lurking around somewhere, I would have been screaming at this idiot about where the real inefficiency was coming from ... right between his ears! Maybe I should have waited the two weeks to get my stamp instead ...
Certified signatures in hand, Drew then gave me a call to let me know when he was leaving the embassy, and I set out to walk to Shibuya. That's the same area to which the kids and I walked just yesterday, though I was going to the ward office, a little bit outside the main shopping district. I definitely had an easier time finding my way this time, though my iPhone map did take me down some narrow alleys. (It may have been more helpful for my overall sense of direction if I had stuck to the main roads.) There are plenty of streets that look barely wide enough for a car, but not only do cars (and vans) drive down them, they are actually two-way streets, and one car will just stop in a place where it's wide enough for the other car to pass. There are also plenty of bikers and walkers, so we all just have to watch out for each other. I do keep reminding my kids that although where they're walking may not be all that much wider than a sidewalk, it is NOT a sidewalk, and they should remember to be on the lookout for cars. Hopefully the message will sink in without a car accident being necessary. It should really be interesting when they start riding their bikes.
Drew and I were visiting the Shibuya ward office to pick up our alien registration cards. We had registered for them when we first moved in, and the now the official cards were ready. At the local Japanese government office, we were greeted upon arrival and pointed in the right direction. The woman at the alien registration desk was happy to work with us at any window that was available. We miss the U.S., but we will say that they have pretty good service here in Japan.
Drew's going to tell about his visit to the U.S. Embassy:
In order to purchase a car in Japan, you need an "official signature." You can satisfy this requirement permanently by making a little rubber stamp of your name and registering it at the ward office, or you can apply for an appointment at the embassy, wait in line, etc... for the privilege of paying $50 a whack to get your signature certified by the embassy - which only lasts 3 months, then it expires. No brainer, right? So last Saturday, after much discussion with the stamp maker, and four of his colleagues, he decided it would be best if I confirmed my proposed stamp design was acceptable with the ward office (closed at that time of day), and then return. At that point he would happily take my money and make me a stamp; the stamp manufacture process should only take two weeks ...
So I'm waiting in line for the embassy (the shorter US citizens line) well before my 0845 appointment. The Japanese security staff were the model of efficiency, whisking us thrrough the scanning process, at the end of which they relieved us of our cell phones (so no pics from the embassy) for the remainder of our stay on US soil. I headed into the notary services area and dropped my appointment letter in the collection bin in front of window 7.
A few minutes before 0845 there were signs of life, the Japanese clerk on window 9 opened his window (and number 10 adjacent to him), and I'm excited since I'm the first in line for these services and I have the earliest appointment so it looks like I'll be in and out. But I forgot I was back on US soil, and apparently US goverment clerks are the same everywhere. It's 0840, and the guy who I'm convinced will be my clerk (and he was), started to corral a group of colleagues and initiate a heated discussion about the inadequacy of the placement of the invitation letter bin in front of window 7. This was an extremely inefficient location in his opinion, and he was trying to start a ground swell movement to move it to another window much better suited to the task - window 6, 4 feet to the left. Well, this debate raged on for at least 15 minutes. The issue is that it is difficult to see if papers are in the bin in front of window 7 - very inefficent - "we need to improve our work processes and root out these inefficiencies." A Japanese colleague indicated that there was no matter - someone should be manning window 7 so they would be able to welcome the customer when they dropped it off. "What am I, a robot?" They can get a robot to do that job. If not for the armed Marine guards that I was sure were lurking around somewhere, I would have been screaming at this idiot about where the real inefficiency was coming from ... right between his ears! Maybe I should have waited the two weeks to get my stamp instead ...
Certified signatures in hand, Drew then gave me a call to let me know when he was leaving the embassy, and I set out to walk to Shibuya. That's the same area to which the kids and I walked just yesterday, though I was going to the ward office, a little bit outside the main shopping district. I definitely had an easier time finding my way this time, though my iPhone map did take me down some narrow alleys. (It may have been more helpful for my overall sense of direction if I had stuck to the main roads.) There are plenty of streets that look barely wide enough for a car, but not only do cars (and vans) drive down them, they are actually two-way streets, and one car will just stop in a place where it's wide enough for the other car to pass. There are also plenty of bikers and walkers, so we all just have to watch out for each other. I do keep reminding my kids that although where they're walking may not be all that much wider than a sidewalk, it is NOT a sidewalk, and they should remember to be on the lookout for cars. Hopefully the message will sink in without a car accident being necessary. It should really be interesting when they start riding their bikes.
Drew and I were visiting the Shibuya ward office to pick up our alien registration cards. We had registered for them when we first moved in, and the now the official cards were ready. At the local Japanese government office, we were greeted upon arrival and pointed in the right direction. The woman at the alien registration desk was happy to work with us at any window that was available. We miss the U.S., but we will say that they have pretty good service here in Japan.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Jan. 18, 2012 - Early release day
Today was a big day for the kids. They walked to the bus stop by themselves! And they didn't get lost! And they walked home by themselves! Next stop: a subway ride by themselves. :)
Here's a picture of them as they set out to journey to the bus stop (I asked Cooper if he thought he should brush his hair this morning. Hmm, wonder what he said.) :
Every other Wednesday is an early release day for the kids, when school is dismissed an hour and a half early. Today I had a little shopping expedition for us. Greer's wardrobe is more suited to Houston, so we needed to get some layers for her. Houston can get cold in the winter, but after a few days, it usually warms up. Then it will be nice for awhile before it gets cold again. I think Greer is still expecting that to happen here, even though the highs have been in the 40's the entire time we've been here, and it's often windy. I keep telling her that Tokyo has a real winter, not as cold as Cleveland or Greenwich, but still a winter; however, I think she keeps hoping I'm wrong, in this, as in so many other areas. I also wanted to look for another pair of shoes for Cooper.
I knew there were stores with what we needed in the Shibuya shopping district, such as Uniqlo for shirts for Greer and ABC Mart for Cooper's shoes. The trick would be to find them. I went to Uniqlo's website, and there were some English words, including "store locator." Piece of cake! If only. While "store locator" was in English, nothing else related to the location of the store was. I know there's supposed to be some way Google can translate for you, but I haven't figured that out. No matter. We would find the stores, intrepid navigators that we are.
We (I) decided to walk - it would take about the same amount of time. So we put "Shibuya station" into our iPhone and used the map. Now, some of you are saying, "It's about time." But I don't think you quite understand where I am coming from. Here's a picture of the phone that I've had for the last 7 or 8 years (the one Greer thinks I should check to see if a museum wants):
It takes a little time to make a transition from that to an iPhone. There's a learning curve. But I'll eventually get the hang of it (or my kids will, and they'll show me what I need to know). It was supposed to be about a 20-25 minute walk. If you've read previous posts, you'll understand why I considered it a victory when we arrived in the shopping district after a mere 45 minutes.
We started searching for the stores we wanted, and we found........a Krispy Kreme! Of course, for research purposes, we decided we should check it out. Plus, Cooper had already started complaining of being hungry. After our research snack (the conclusion of our research was that it was good), we quickly saw Uniqlo. That may not be as impressive as it sounds since I think there's more than one location in Shibuya. Success - several turtlenecks for Greer. Greer, being the shopper that she is, thought perhaps we could spend more time shopping for her. However, it was time to forge ahead looking for shoes, though Greer did want me to take some pictures of her trying on clothes:
We soon found ABC Mart. Really, I think we did well. Unfortunately, no luck there. We've adopted the Japanese custom of removing our shoes when we enter our house. Cooper's a little tired of always have to tie and untie his shoes, so we were looking for some slip-on shoes for him. They had some men/women slip-on sneakers that he liked, but they didn't come in quite a small enough size - we needed a half size smaller. From our walk around Shibuya with Kim, I remembered that there was another ABC Mart right near Tower Records. We found it, but again, no luck. We'll have to try something else for Cooper. A note about Tower Records: one floor of it is for books, which we visited with Kim to pick up a good Tokyo map. While there, we allowed the kids to each pick a book from the English-language section, since they had been such good sports as we walked all over Shibuya. We also saw "A Long Walk to Water," which is a book Greer has been wanting me to read. Since she didn't own it (but wanted to, as she does with most books), I decided to buy it to read. I have to admit here that I didn't pay much attention to the price at the time. Afterwards, I noticed the U.S. price of $5.99 was on the back of the book above the barcode. Next to that was the Tower Records sticker with the Japan price of 1,029 yen (around $13). I think we're going to be making more use of our e-readers here.
Also on our walk with Kim, he purchased some cream puffs for us from a stand near the Hachiko exit. The kids and I thought it would be a good idea to buy some of those to bring home for after dinner. We found where the stand had been (we were pretty good finding things today!), but there was no stand. We thought maybe it was just a weekend thing. But as long as we were right there by the subway, the kids talked me into taking the subway home. I still don't think it's any faster, but I'm not sure they're convinced. On the plus side, as long as we were at the subway station, we popped into the grocery store to purchase some ice cream treats to replace our lost cream puffs.
Japanese word of the day: basu (bah-soo) means "bus"
Here's a picture of them as they set out to journey to the bus stop (I asked Cooper if he thought he should brush his hair this morning. Hmm, wonder what he said.) :
Every other Wednesday is an early release day for the kids, when school is dismissed an hour and a half early. Today I had a little shopping expedition for us. Greer's wardrobe is more suited to Houston, so we needed to get some layers for her. Houston can get cold in the winter, but after a few days, it usually warms up. Then it will be nice for awhile before it gets cold again. I think Greer is still expecting that to happen here, even though the highs have been in the 40's the entire time we've been here, and it's often windy. I keep telling her that Tokyo has a real winter, not as cold as Cleveland or Greenwich, but still a winter; however, I think she keeps hoping I'm wrong, in this, as in so many other areas. I also wanted to look for another pair of shoes for Cooper.
I knew there were stores with what we needed in the Shibuya shopping district, such as Uniqlo for shirts for Greer and ABC Mart for Cooper's shoes. The trick would be to find them. I went to Uniqlo's website, and there were some English words, including "store locator." Piece of cake! If only. While "store locator" was in English, nothing else related to the location of the store was. I know there's supposed to be some way Google can translate for you, but I haven't figured that out. No matter. We would find the stores, intrepid navigators that we are.
We (I) decided to walk - it would take about the same amount of time. So we put "Shibuya station" into our iPhone and used the map. Now, some of you are saying, "It's about time." But I don't think you quite understand where I am coming from. Here's a picture of the phone that I've had for the last 7 or 8 years (the one Greer thinks I should check to see if a museum wants):
It takes a little time to make a transition from that to an iPhone. There's a learning curve. But I'll eventually get the hang of it (or my kids will, and they'll show me what I need to know). It was supposed to be about a 20-25 minute walk. If you've read previous posts, you'll understand why I considered it a victory when we arrived in the shopping district after a mere 45 minutes.
We started searching for the stores we wanted, and we found........a Krispy Kreme! Of course, for research purposes, we decided we should check it out. Plus, Cooper had already started complaining of being hungry. After our research snack (the conclusion of our research was that it was good), we quickly saw Uniqlo. That may not be as impressive as it sounds since I think there's more than one location in Shibuya. Success - several turtlenecks for Greer. Greer, being the shopper that she is, thought perhaps we could spend more time shopping for her. However, it was time to forge ahead looking for shoes, though Greer did want me to take some pictures of her trying on clothes:
We soon found ABC Mart. Really, I think we did well. Unfortunately, no luck there. We've adopted the Japanese custom of removing our shoes when we enter our house. Cooper's a little tired of always have to tie and untie his shoes, so we were looking for some slip-on shoes for him. They had some men/women slip-on sneakers that he liked, but they didn't come in quite a small enough size - we needed a half size smaller. From our walk around Shibuya with Kim, I remembered that there was another ABC Mart right near Tower Records. We found it, but again, no luck. We'll have to try something else for Cooper. A note about Tower Records: one floor of it is for books, which we visited with Kim to pick up a good Tokyo map. While there, we allowed the kids to each pick a book from the English-language section, since they had been such good sports as we walked all over Shibuya. We also saw "A Long Walk to Water," which is a book Greer has been wanting me to read. Since she didn't own it (but wanted to, as she does with most books), I decided to buy it to read. I have to admit here that I didn't pay much attention to the price at the time. Afterwards, I noticed the U.S. price of $5.99 was on the back of the book above the barcode. Next to that was the Tower Records sticker with the Japan price of 1,029 yen (around $13). I think we're going to be making more use of our e-readers here.
Also on our walk with Kim, he purchased some cream puffs for us from a stand near the Hachiko exit. The kids and I thought it would be a good idea to buy some of those to bring home for after dinner. We found where the stand had been (we were pretty good finding things today!), but there was no stand. We thought maybe it was just a weekend thing. But as long as we were right there by the subway, the kids talked me into taking the subway home. I still don't think it's any faster, but I'm not sure they're convinced. On the plus side, as long as we were at the subway station, we popped into the grocery store to purchase some ice cream treats to replace our lost cream puffs.
Japanese word of the day: basu (bah-soo) means "bus"
Monday, January 16, 2012
Jan. 16, 2012 - Nissin
On Sunday, Whitney pointed out Nissin World Delicatessen to us, and we walked inside for a brief look around. Nissin is an international grocery store with groceries from around the world. I decided to return on Monday to spend a little longer looking around the store and to do a little shopping. I don't think I'll be a frequent shopper there since it's a little on the expensive side compared to the regular grocery stores (which already seem expensive to me), and it's not the most convenient for me in terms of the subway - I needed three trains to get there. However, I do think I'll shop there occasionally.
Nissin did carry items I haven't seen in other stores, such as a Betty Crocker brownie mix! I bought one of those to tuck away for later. Shh - don't tell the kids. Then I needed oil for the brownies. (Didn't want to make the mistake of a friend of Whitney's who accidentally used some kind of vinegar in her expensive cake mix.) The only oil I've been able to buy so far has been olive oil because it had a few English words on the bottle (and it's a brand I've seen in the States). The nice thing about Nissin is that even if the packaging is in Japanese, the label on the shelf with the price usually has the English name (usually, not always). I saw a big bottle of Wesson canola oil, but I went with some Japanese brand. That way (hopefully) I can look for that same bottle in my neighborhood grocery store next time I need to buy some.
I'm having a little trouble with buying fish. I like to buy fish that has no parts (even the skin) that I will need to detach. I like all my meat in neat packages that are far removed from what they originally looked like. Well, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not be able to do that with fish. I will, at the least, have to buy fish that still has its skin. However, I will have to be in Japan a LOT longer before I purchase this (yes, it's octopus):
Many of the grocery stores around here deliver, handy when you don't have a car. I haven't yet taken advantage of that service, but I did this time. I was buying some heavy items, and the thought of the three subway rides and all the walking made me decide that 800 yen was not too high a price, after all.
Nissin did carry items I haven't seen in other stores, such as a Betty Crocker brownie mix! I bought one of those to tuck away for later. Shh - don't tell the kids. Then I needed oil for the brownies. (Didn't want to make the mistake of a friend of Whitney's who accidentally used some kind of vinegar in her expensive cake mix.) The only oil I've been able to buy so far has been olive oil because it had a few English words on the bottle (and it's a brand I've seen in the States). The nice thing about Nissin is that even if the packaging is in Japanese, the label on the shelf with the price usually has the English name (usually, not always). I saw a big bottle of Wesson canola oil, but I went with some Japanese brand. That way (hopefully) I can look for that same bottle in my neighborhood grocery store next time I need to buy some.
I'm having a little trouble with buying fish. I like to buy fish that has no parts (even the skin) that I will need to detach. I like all my meat in neat packages that are far removed from what they originally looked like. Well, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not be able to do that with fish. I will, at the least, have to buy fish that still has its skin. However, I will have to be in Japan a LOT longer before I purchase this (yes, it's octopus):
Many of the grocery stores around here deliver, handy when you don't have a car. I haven't yet taken advantage of that service, but I did this time. I was buying some heavy items, and the thought of the three subway rides and all the walking made me decide that 800 yen was not too high a price, after all.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Jan. 15, 2012 - Noodle soup and capture the flag
Today we got together with our friends the Webbs. Cooper and Isaac, their third grader, are pretty friendly; Greer and Beth, their seventh grader, like to hang out, and Ellie, their fifth grader, goes between the two groups. We met them at a train station in their neighborhood, and then we walked to their favorite noodle shop. Once again, I was the slowest one with my chopsticks. I'm not sure if I'm done eating because I'm full or if I'm done because I'm just tired.
Greer and Cooper are going to tell you about the day.
First, Cooper:
We really enjoyed capture the flag. The boys won, of course. Ellie started freaking out when she didn't know that her teammates had been captured by us. It was really fun and cold, but I just wore a t-shirt. My t-shirt said "BOB: The Man, The Myth, The Legend." Bob is an intergalactic space driver who shot Lightning McQueen with an AK-47. He got put in space jail. He exploded space jail and escaped. Now he's roaming space as an intergalactic space criminal. Bob is very violent. Oh, and the noodle soup was good.
Now, Greer:
Okay, so after the subway, we met the Webbs at the exit. Beth and I looked in the various windows and stores as we weaved our way along the streets to reach the soup restaurant. When we got there, I got the soup that Beth, Isaac, and Ellie have always gotten. It is a soup that has soba noodles with a beef broth, I think, and a radish noodley-type thing that is really good. It is a white oval with a bright pink swirl in the middle. After our lunch, we headed to the park to play capture the flag. It is a huge park perfect for playing capture the flag because you have so many good hiding spots and lookout spots. We played for a while, the girls always venturing into the boys' territory because the boys were always Chickens. Ellie was guard towards the end, and no one likes guard duty. Beth and I got caught, and Ellie did not know. She got mad and after 10 minutes she walked away from our flag and quit the game without knowing that we were captured. That is the one thing bad about all the bushes - you can't see if one of your teammates gets captured!:( Once she left, Isaac stole our flag while we helplessly watched our team lose. Cooper (as our guard) liked to hurt us by stepping on our feet and hitting us. I know - very fun, not! After that, we headed to the Webb's house and Beth and I took some cool pictures of my eye! Check it out!
I know, I have a pretty eye.
Well, bye for now and here is our word of the day:
Greer wanted the word of the day to be the word for soup. There are actually several different words for soup, depending on the kind of soup. But there is one that is a kind of generic word for soup.
Japanese word of the day: shirumono (click to hear pronunciation) means "soup"
Greer and Cooper are going to tell you about the day.
First, Cooper:
We really enjoyed capture the flag. The boys won, of course. Ellie started freaking out when she didn't know that her teammates had been captured by us. It was really fun and cold, but I just wore a t-shirt. My t-shirt said "BOB: The Man, The Myth, The Legend." Bob is an intergalactic space driver who shot Lightning McQueen with an AK-47. He got put in space jail. He exploded space jail and escaped. Now he's roaming space as an intergalactic space criminal. Bob is very violent. Oh, and the noodle soup was good.
Now, Greer:
Okay, so after the subway, we met the Webbs at the exit. Beth and I looked in the various windows and stores as we weaved our way along the streets to reach the soup restaurant. When we got there, I got the soup that Beth, Isaac, and Ellie have always gotten. It is a soup that has soba noodles with a beef broth, I think, and a radish noodley-type thing that is really good. It is a white oval with a bright pink swirl in the middle. After our lunch, we headed to the park to play capture the flag. It is a huge park perfect for playing capture the flag because you have so many good hiding spots and lookout spots. We played for a while, the girls always venturing into the boys' territory because the boys were always Chickens. Ellie was guard towards the end, and no one likes guard duty. Beth and I got caught, and Ellie did not know. She got mad and after 10 minutes she walked away from our flag and quit the game without knowing that we were captured. That is the one thing bad about all the bushes - you can't see if one of your teammates gets captured!:( Once she left, Isaac stole our flag while we helplessly watched our team lose. Cooper (as our guard) liked to hurt us by stepping on our feet and hitting us. I know - very fun, not! After that, we headed to the Webb's house and Beth and I took some cool pictures of my eye! Check it out!
I know, I have a pretty eye.
Well, bye for now and here is our word of the day:
Greer wanted the word of the day to be the word for soup. There are actually several different words for soup, depending on the kind of soup. But there is one that is a kind of generic word for soup.
Japanese word of the day: shirumono (click to hear pronunciation) means "soup"
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Jan. 14, 2012 - First swim meet and Kim
Today we really missed having a car. We haven't missed it too much up to now, even when lugging multiple bags of groceries home (okay, maybe we miss it then). But today, we really missed it. Greer had a swim meet at ASIJ this morning, and she was supposed to be there at 8:00 am. Now our swim buddies in Houston are thinking, "What's the problem? That seems like a pretty late arrival time to us." Yes, and we would agree, if we had a car. If we had a car, it would be just over a 30-minute drive to school. But without the car..... If you read Tuesday's post, you know it took Greer and me over two hours to make it to school. Now, luckily, we figured out all the pitfalls that day, thus enabling us to leave the house only an hour and a half before we needed to be at school. Definitely, we were missing our car as we headed out the door at 6:30 am.
If anybody was wondering what the trains were like early on a Saturday morning, they are still crowded. We left our house shortly after 6:30, so it was well before 7:00 am when we caught our first train (of three). The train was crowded enough that none of the four of us had seats. We tried to unobtrusively take a picture, but it didn't work. It's so quiet on the trains (all the time) that the click of the camera is too obvious.
Our first meet was a short one. Normally the meets are middle school and high school together. But this weekend our high school team was away in the Philippines at a meet, so it was just middle school. The meet actually took less time than our travel there and back. (I don't know if that says more about the length of the meet, or more about our travel time.) However, my understanding is that we are in for a much longer day next Saturday.
Greer doesn't pick what she swims in the meets; the coach picks the races for every swimmer. He can enter only 4 swimmers in each event who will be swimming for points, but he can enter other swimmers as exhibition swimmers. Earlier in the week, he did not know if he would be putting Greer on any relay teams, but she ended up swimming butterfly on the C medley team. The Mustangs also fielded 6 relay teams for the freestyle relay, and Greer swam on the C team there as well.
Our swim team buddies from Houston (both Stingrays and ESA) would be surprised by how differently these meets are run. There were no heat sheets. We did not know the order of events or even what events there were. Greer's individual events were the 100 IM, the 50 fly, and the 100 backstroke, but we don't know if those were all exhibition events (she is just in 6th grade, after all), or if she was swimming for points in any of those. Greer kept coming to us to ask us questions, and we kept pointing out to her that of all the people in the swimming pool area, we probably knew less than anybody else.
We do know that she looked good and had some good times (compared to her Houston times), though we haven't seen any overall results. I don't think we should be looking for results to be posted to the website. Probably the coach just has them handwritten somewhere. (Drew says I'm exaggerating; the results are definitely in the computer; they just must be top-secret.)
Here are some pictures from the meet:
If anybody was wondering what the trains were like early on a Saturday morning, they are still crowded. We left our house shortly after 6:30, so it was well before 7:00 am when we caught our first train (of three). The train was crowded enough that none of the four of us had seats. We tried to unobtrusively take a picture, but it didn't work. It's so quiet on the trains (all the time) that the click of the camera is too obvious.
Our first meet was a short one. Normally the meets are middle school and high school together. But this weekend our high school team was away in the Philippines at a meet, so it was just middle school. The meet actually took less time than our travel there and back. (I don't know if that says more about the length of the meet, or more about our travel time.) However, my understanding is that we are in for a much longer day next Saturday.
Greer doesn't pick what she swims in the meets; the coach picks the races for every swimmer. He can enter only 4 swimmers in each event who will be swimming for points, but he can enter other swimmers as exhibition swimmers. Earlier in the week, he did not know if he would be putting Greer on any relay teams, but she ended up swimming butterfly on the C medley team. The Mustangs also fielded 6 relay teams for the freestyle relay, and Greer swam on the C team there as well.
Our swim team buddies from Houston (both Stingrays and ESA) would be surprised by how differently these meets are run. There were no heat sheets. We did not know the order of events or even what events there were. Greer's individual events were the 100 IM, the 50 fly, and the 100 backstroke, but we don't know if those were all exhibition events (she is just in 6th grade, after all), or if she was swimming for points in any of those. Greer kept coming to us to ask us questions, and we kept pointing out to her that of all the people in the swimming pool area, we probably knew less than anybody else.
We do know that she looked good and had some good times (compared to her Houston times), though we haven't seen any overall results. I don't think we should be looking for results to be posted to the website. Probably the coach just has them handwritten somewhere. (Drew says I'm exaggerating; the results are definitely in the computer; they just must be top-secret.)
Here are some pictures from the meet:
Team suits were ordered back when the season started in December, so we weren't able to get her one of those, but we were able to get her a Mustangs swim cap. I should have taken some pictures of Cooper playing on his iPhone, but trying to remember to look up and cheer his sister when it was her turn to swim.
Today we also got to see Drew's old friend Kim Choate. Kim and Drew were in the same research group in graduate school (Kim was a few years ahead of Drew), and he and Drew have been friends since. After graduation, Kim got a job with GE, and eventually he was transferred to Japan. He lived in Tokyo for 7 or 8 years, a few of them not too far from where our apartment is. He and his wife have been back in the States for a number of years now, but he just happened to be in the area on a business trip. He came out to ASIJ during the swim meet and got to see a few of Greer's races. The three of us thought it was funny that he had to come all the way to Japan to see Greer swim.
After the meet, we headed back to our apartment. At our subway station, Kim showed us a grocery store down a side street on the other side of the station, which gives us an option besides the store in the station itself. Greer showered, we showed Kim our place, and then we headed out for a late lunch. Kim took us to Kua 'Aina (pronounced “Koo-a eye-na”). This restaurant originated in Hawaii, but now there are several in Tokyo. We thought the burgers were yummy!
We then spent the rest of the day walking around Shibuya with Kim while he pointed out various stores and gave us tips on the area. It definitely would be handy if he still lived around here. By 8:00 Greer and Cooper were dragging (the day had started quite early, and they'd been on the go for all of it). I took them back the apartment while Drew and Kim went out to dinner. They went to a Korean barbecue place, which we'll tell you about when the whole family has a chance to go.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Jan.12, 2012 - Maybe I'd rather walk
Today I was meeting a group of Exxon spouses at Viron (basically a French bakery with lots of high-calorie bread) near the Shibuya station. We were meeting at 9:30 at the restaurant, so somebody suggested we meet near the statue of Hachiko by exit 6 (the subway stations have numerous exits) at 9:15 and walk there together. There were about 8 of us going, and half are new to Tokyo, while the other half arrived in August/September. It's handy to have a group of people you can go to with questions.
I walked to my subway station and joined the already sizable crowd waiting on the subway platform. I thought the size of the crowd meant that the subway must be coming soon. However, while I'm sure it did come pretty soon after I arrived, by the that time, the crowd had more than doubled, possibly tripled. Our station is station #1 on the Chiyoda line, so sometimes trains are empty when they pull in, and sometimes they're coming in from the suburbs and may already have a lot of people. (We haven't figured out how to tell which is coming when yet.) The particular train I got that morning was empty, so we all managed to fit on. I was towards the front of the crowd, so I actually got a seat. However, once everybody was on the train, it seemed way too claustrophobic in a seat, so I got up and moved back toward the door. Increasing the claustrophobic feeling on a crowded train is that the trains always seem so warm. Two stops later it was time for me to push my way out. A small number of people exited the train when I did, but a much larger number of people took our places. When I looked back at the train, I couldn't believe how crowded it seemed. I wish I had thought to take a picture. I saw one of the subway workers with the white gloves who help to push commuters onto crowded trains on the platform. I don't know if he actually had to do any pushing this time because I didn't see him in action. May I never be on a train that is having more people pushed onto it. I had to take one more train to reach Shibuya station. The train I got on was crowded, but not totally unbearable. When I exited, again more people got on the train than got off. I wasn't going all the way to the center of Tokyo, which helped. My understanding is that the morning "rush hour" on the trains is from about 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Trains are crowded at most other times, but "rush hour" brings it to a whole new level. I really did not like riding on the train when it was that crowded. Next time I'm going to check how far it is and think about walking. Of course, that opens up so many more possibilities for getting lost.
If you've read other entries about finding things, then it should come as no surprise that I was unable to find the statue of Hachiko. Here's a picture of Hachiko (that I took later):
For one thing, it would have helped if I had googled Hachiko ahead of time so that I would have known what I was looking for. Hachiko was a faithful Akita who met his owner at the station after work every day, and he continued going to the station and waiting every day for years after the owner had died. The Hachiko exit is a popular meeting spot. Unfortunately for me, the Hachiko exit is NOT exit 6, hence my difficulty. (Somehow, the rest of the group was already familiar with Hachiko and so weren't thrown off by the wrong exit.)
However, I did eventually find my way to Viron and met up with the group. I enjoyed my high-calorie bread, yet another reason it would have been better to walk than take the train.
Speaking of high-calorie items, we had another Domino's night. We had received this coupon with a previous order:
(Remember, we do our ordering online to avoid the language barrier.) Drew actually figured out how to redeem the coupon! It was worth 1,000 yen off our order! (He wanted to make sure I included this in the blog.)
Greer had her A day today and wanted to write about it:
Hi! Today I had an A day (You learned about it in yesterday's post) and my first day in P. E. and Science. My P.E. teacher, Mrs.Vriend (Pronounced Mrs.Friend), had us play field hockey which I found I was very good at compared to the other boys and girls. After P.E. I had science with Mr.Hoskins who is strict but has a very joking manner. Example, he said, "If you don't answer this question right, I will personally move you back to the third grade!" Of course he was joking.
After Science I had lunch! I was famished. Zoe and I met at the 2nd pillar before the luch doors (Yes, we already meet somewhere so we can make sure we know where each other is sitting). We both got spaghetti after I helped her buy lunch tickets. Then we went to the Kiosk together to get a frozen treat. While we were eating it., we went to our lockers and got our backpacks with 15 minutes to spare. Then we headed to LA/SS where we talked to Mrs.Erwin about our personal assignment. And guess what? She is already mine and Zoe's favorite teacher! After that, it was the usual study center then a swim practice. At swim (which is very easy, by the way) we don't have a specific time to complete the set in and there are basically no sets. Very lax compared to ESA (my competitive year around swim team in Houston). We only did 25s, 50s, and the occasional 100. I know, Grace! A real shocker! I still can't get over how easy it is. Oh, by the way, I still don't know my way home. :(
Japanese word of the day: asagohan (click to hear pronunciation) means "breakfast"
I walked to my subway station and joined the already sizable crowd waiting on the subway platform. I thought the size of the crowd meant that the subway must be coming soon. However, while I'm sure it did come pretty soon after I arrived, by the that time, the crowd had more than doubled, possibly tripled. Our station is station #1 on the Chiyoda line, so sometimes trains are empty when they pull in, and sometimes they're coming in from the suburbs and may already have a lot of people. (We haven't figured out how to tell which is coming when yet.) The particular train I got that morning was empty, so we all managed to fit on. I was towards the front of the crowd, so I actually got a seat. However, once everybody was on the train, it seemed way too claustrophobic in a seat, so I got up and moved back toward the door. Increasing the claustrophobic feeling on a crowded train is that the trains always seem so warm. Two stops later it was time for me to push my way out. A small number of people exited the train when I did, but a much larger number of people took our places. When I looked back at the train, I couldn't believe how crowded it seemed. I wish I had thought to take a picture. I saw one of the subway workers with the white gloves who help to push commuters onto crowded trains on the platform. I don't know if he actually had to do any pushing this time because I didn't see him in action. May I never be on a train that is having more people pushed onto it. I had to take one more train to reach Shibuya station. The train I got on was crowded, but not totally unbearable. When I exited, again more people got on the train than got off. I wasn't going all the way to the center of Tokyo, which helped. My understanding is that the morning "rush hour" on the trains is from about 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Trains are crowded at most other times, but "rush hour" brings it to a whole new level. I really did not like riding on the train when it was that crowded. Next time I'm going to check how far it is and think about walking. Of course, that opens up so many more possibilities for getting lost.
If you've read other entries about finding things, then it should come as no surprise that I was unable to find the statue of Hachiko. Here's a picture of Hachiko (that I took later):
For one thing, it would have helped if I had googled Hachiko ahead of time so that I would have known what I was looking for. Hachiko was a faithful Akita who met his owner at the station after work every day, and he continued going to the station and waiting every day for years after the owner had died. The Hachiko exit is a popular meeting spot. Unfortunately for me, the Hachiko exit is NOT exit 6, hence my difficulty. (Somehow, the rest of the group was already familiar with Hachiko and so weren't thrown off by the wrong exit.)
However, I did eventually find my way to Viron and met up with the group. I enjoyed my high-calorie bread, yet another reason it would have been better to walk than take the train.
Speaking of high-calorie items, we had another Domino's night. We had received this coupon with a previous order:
(Remember, we do our ordering online to avoid the language barrier.) Drew actually figured out how to redeem the coupon! It was worth 1,000 yen off our order! (He wanted to make sure I included this in the blog.)
Greer had her A day today and wanted to write about it:
Hi! Today I had an A day (You learned about it in yesterday's post) and my first day in P. E. and Science. My P.E. teacher, Mrs.Vriend (Pronounced Mrs.Friend), had us play field hockey which I found I was very good at compared to the other boys and girls. After P.E. I had science with Mr.Hoskins who is strict but has a very joking manner. Example, he said, "If you don't answer this question right, I will personally move you back to the third grade!" Of course he was joking.
After Science I had lunch! I was famished. Zoe and I met at the 2nd pillar before the luch doors (Yes, we already meet somewhere so we can make sure we know where each other is sitting). We both got spaghetti after I helped her buy lunch tickets. Then we went to the Kiosk together to get a frozen treat. While we were eating it., we went to our lockers and got our backpacks with 15 minutes to spare. Then we headed to LA/SS where we talked to Mrs.Erwin about our personal assignment. And guess what? She is already mine and Zoe's favorite teacher! After that, it was the usual study center then a swim practice. At swim (which is very easy, by the way) we don't have a specific time to complete the set in and there are basically no sets. Very lax compared to ESA (my competitive year around swim team in Houston). We only did 25s, 50s, and the occasional 100. I know, Grace! A real shocker! I still can't get over how easy it is. Oh, by the way, I still don't know my way home. :(
Japanese word of the day: asagohan (click to hear pronunciation) means "breakfast"
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Jan. 11, 2012 - Greer's first day
Greer's going to write about her first day of school, but first, I'll share a picture from my trip to the grocery store today.
Japanese word of the day: hirugohan (click to hear pronunciation) means "lunch"
I don't know if you can see the labels in the picture clearly enough. Have I found the oils, the vinegars, or neither? I wish I knew.....
Hi! I am going to tell you about my first day. . . So at 6 o'clock, we woke up got ready for the day and all that. I know that some of you would dislike your mom or dad walking you to your bus stop everyday for the first week, but without them, I would need to start walking to my bus stop at 5:30 in order to find my way! After boarding the 30 minute bus ride I fiddled around with my iphone. When I arrived at school, I had no idea how to get to the office from the buses. So, I asked a nice 7th grader named Alice if she could help me find my way. After I arrived at the office, Zoe and I got our schedules printed. Zoe is a new kid like me and I could tell we were going to be friends right away!
We walked together to our homerooms and then departed. Some nice kid named Diva in my Home room walked me to beginners band after home room. Mr.Wanless, my band teacher, made me feel right at home. Lucky for me, I knew two of the percussionists, Connor (my peer guide) and Julie (someone on my swim team). They helped me with the xylophone, but guess what? It is set up exactly like a piano so it was very easy to learn. After that I had art! Yeah! We worked on drawing Mona Lisa upside down and working on twine figures. Since me and Zoe had art together, we headed off to Mrs. Harvey's class for math. We worked on average . . . wait, she did not tell us specifically what we were working on. She just told us write about average. As we were going over it, it sounded like maybe clothing size. After math we had lunch (finally)! Instead of a lunch account, you use lunch tickets which you can purchase from a machine at the kiosk. Steps to getting your lunch:
1. Grab a tray and silver ware.
2. Tell the lunch lady what you want (Spaghetti, soup, chicken nuggets, clementine, etc.)
3. When she hands you food, pay with a lunch ticket. Usually a 550 ticket is best so you can get a main meal and side/fruit with one ticket and you don't get change or you don't have to pay with multiple tickets.
4. Eat lunch
5. Put your tray in a stack, scrape your left overs into food trash, pile up your plates.
After lunch, we had LA/SS (Language Arts and Social Studies) with Mrs.Erwin. So far, mine and Zoe's favorite teacher is Mrs.Erwin! She is sooooooo nice and made sure we understood everything and she told us about stuff we would be doing! She got us started on DLR's and weekly vocab. Since Zoe and I did not know how to do much on the computer, she sent us down to Mr.Erwin and Mrs.Kim (Technology teachers) to learn more about how to use our computers (by the way, we get pcs this year and next year we get macs). After LA/SS, I went to study center and typing skills to improve my typing. After last period, I boarded the bus home.
Some of you might have some questions so I am going to try to answer some possible questions.
Math, LA/SS, and Science have 2 periods each.
I did not have science or P.E. today because there are 2 different types of days, a A day and a B day.
Every day I have LA/SS.
There is a late bus which I take on days I have swim practice.
And no, I still can't find my way to the bus stop.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Jan. 10, 2012 - Where's the school again?
Today Greer got to sleep in. Cooper, of course, said that was not fair. She doesn't start classes until Wednesday. I walked Cooper to the bus stop and then at 7:30 woke Greer up. She had requested the wake-up so that maybe she could call a few of her friends. After waking her up (and having a conversation with her), I went about my business. Finally saw her when the phone rang a little before 9:00 (her counselor with the good news about band). She'd gone back to sleep and didn't even remember talking to me.
Although she didn't have classes, there were swim team pictures today, for which she wanted to be there. That meant she and I had to take the train to her school, unless we wanted to take the bus at 7:08 and hang out at school the entire day. In retrospect, that may have been the better plan.
She and I hung out at the apartment for the morning, playing Words with Friends against each other (and friends from the U.S.). We had been told by somebody in Admissions who lives near us to allow an hour and 20 minutes to get there by train (as opposed to the 30+ minutes on the school bus). School dismisses at 2:37, so Greer and I planned to leave the apartment at 12:30, after lunch. Over 2 hours - should be plenty of time, right? Not quite.
We left the apartment on time and walked to our station. Took the subway to Shinjuku station, where we had to change to a rapid train. Here is where we made our first mistake. I thought I was pretty careful about which train we boarded, but I guess I wasn't careful enough. I realized the possibility we were on the wrong train when I heard them call the station before ours. Hmm, had we made enough stops up to that point? But I couldn't be sure until the next stop, which was four stops after the one we had wanted. Yep, we'd gotten on TOO rapid of a train. Greer thought maybe we could walk back to the correct station. (I gave her the short answer - No.) We found the correct platform for the train to take us back to the station we wanted, but before we boarded, I asked various strangers if they spoke English so I could double-check. Yes, we were in the right place. Got off at the right station, exited that line, found the next line to take, boarded the right train, got off at the right place. Here is where we made our second and more time-consuming mistake. The map provided by the school tells you to cross the train tracks and turn left at a fruit stand. In the process of exiting the station, we crossed the tracks. As we exited, we saw a fruit stand in front of us, so we turned left and tried to follow the map. Well, after walking about 10 minutes (it's supposed to be less than a 10-minute walk), we realized something was wrong. Turns out that crossing the tracks while exiting the station was not the crossing the tracks that was meant on the map. We were supposed to exit the station and then RE-cross the tracks. There was another fruit stand at that point that was the one intended on the map. I do not think this was solely the fault of the mapreaders. I believe the mapmakers share some of the blame here. Anyway, by way of asking various strangers where Tama Station was (they didn't speak English, so they didn't understand my question about American School in Japan, but they understood enough to point us in the direction of Tama station), and by Greer figuring out how to use the map on her iPhone, we eventually found the school, after turning a 10-minute walk into a 40-minute walk. Greer made it to swim practice and pictures and I made it to Cooper's classroom, albeit somewhat breathlessly, just as it turned 2:37. (I had been afraid he would forget I was coming and would get on the regular bus instead of waiting with us for the late bus.) Hey, at least now we know the way!
I realized that the problems with Greer's schedule kept me from talking much about Cooper's first day. So today I tried to get him to share some things to include in the blog. First, he's made some friends: Harry, who's also new, Matthew, who rides our bus, and Sean. Today was his first day of Japanese class (he'll have it every other day). When I asked him about it, his answer was, "She said a lot of words I didn't understand." Informative, isn't he? For homework, he has to go to her website and listen to two songs (while reading the lyrics) several times; one song has various greetings and the other song is the months of the year. His new school has more recess time than SWE, which he definitely liked. He has a long recess after lunch and two other shorter recesses.
Cooper's picking the word of the day today, from his Japanese homework.
Japanese word of the day: Ichigatsu (click to hear pronunciation) means "January"
Although she didn't have classes, there were swim team pictures today, for which she wanted to be there. That meant she and I had to take the train to her school, unless we wanted to take the bus at 7:08 and hang out at school the entire day. In retrospect, that may have been the better plan.
She and I hung out at the apartment for the morning, playing Words with Friends against each other (and friends from the U.S.). We had been told by somebody in Admissions who lives near us to allow an hour and 20 minutes to get there by train (as opposed to the 30+ minutes on the school bus). School dismisses at 2:37, so Greer and I planned to leave the apartment at 12:30, after lunch. Over 2 hours - should be plenty of time, right? Not quite.
We left the apartment on time and walked to our station. Took the subway to Shinjuku station, where we had to change to a rapid train. Here is where we made our first mistake. I thought I was pretty careful about which train we boarded, but I guess I wasn't careful enough. I realized the possibility we were on the wrong train when I heard them call the station before ours. Hmm, had we made enough stops up to that point? But I couldn't be sure until the next stop, which was four stops after the one we had wanted. Yep, we'd gotten on TOO rapid of a train. Greer thought maybe we could walk back to the correct station. (I gave her the short answer - No.) We found the correct platform for the train to take us back to the station we wanted, but before we boarded, I asked various strangers if they spoke English so I could double-check. Yes, we were in the right place. Got off at the right station, exited that line, found the next line to take, boarded the right train, got off at the right place. Here is where we made our second and more time-consuming mistake. The map provided by the school tells you to cross the train tracks and turn left at a fruit stand. In the process of exiting the station, we crossed the tracks. As we exited, we saw a fruit stand in front of us, so we turned left and tried to follow the map. Well, after walking about 10 minutes (it's supposed to be less than a 10-minute walk), we realized something was wrong. Turns out that crossing the tracks while exiting the station was not the crossing the tracks that was meant on the map. We were supposed to exit the station and then RE-cross the tracks. There was another fruit stand at that point that was the one intended on the map. I do not think this was solely the fault of the mapreaders. I believe the mapmakers share some of the blame here. Anyway, by way of asking various strangers where Tama Station was (they didn't speak English, so they didn't understand my question about American School in Japan, but they understood enough to point us in the direction of Tama station), and by Greer figuring out how to use the map on her iPhone, we eventually found the school, after turning a 10-minute walk into a 40-minute walk. Greer made it to swim practice and pictures and I made it to Cooper's classroom, albeit somewhat breathlessly, just as it turned 2:37. (I had been afraid he would forget I was coming and would get on the regular bus instead of waiting with us for the late bus.) Hey, at least now we know the way!
I realized that the problems with Greer's schedule kept me from talking much about Cooper's first day. So today I tried to get him to share some things to include in the blog. First, he's made some friends: Harry, who's also new, Matthew, who rides our bus, and Sean. Today was his first day of Japanese class (he'll have it every other day). When I asked him about it, his answer was, "She said a lot of words I didn't understand." Informative, isn't he? For homework, he has to go to her website and listen to two songs (while reading the lyrics) several times; one song has various greetings and the other song is the months of the year. His new school has more recess time than SWE, which he definitely liked. He has a long recess after lunch and two other shorter recesses.
Cooper's picking the word of the day today, from his Japanese homework.
Japanese word of the day: Ichigatsu (click to hear pronunciation) means "January"
Monday, January 9, 2012
Jan. 9, 2012 - First Day of School
Today was our first day at the American School in Japan. Earlier start than the kids are used to - their bus picks them up at 7:08. All students at ASIJ, elementary, middle, and high, have the same start and end times and ride the same bus. The same bus thing was handy since our across-the-way neighbor is a ninth grader at ASIJ and walked with us to the bus stop this morning. Drew and I rode the bus with the kids to attend the New Family Orientation. Greer and Cooper sat down together, but the seats were a little small for me and Drew to share, so we made them split up and each one sit with one of us. So embarrassing - to have to sit with your parent!
As soon as we got to school, Cooper was whisked off to his classroom. We didn't realize we could go with him, so we had to wait until later in the day to meet his teacher. Then they gathered the middle school students together and took them off for a technology orientation - they give them laptops for schoolwork. I'm not sure what happened with the high school students - I wasn't really paying attention to them. Then our orientation started. We met lots of people, there was lots of talking (transportation, health center, activities, etc.) We got to meet the principals of the various divisions as well as the other new parents. We had invidual appointments with the kids' counselors. These appointments were scheduled throughout the day, so depending on when your appointment(s) were, you might miss other stuff. For example, we missed the president of the PTA talking, but that was okay since I'm NOT volunteering this year. :)
The appointment with Cooper's counselor went smoothly, but after all, it's elementary school. He wasn't with us since he was in his class for a regular day of school today. Greer's appointment did not go as well. She was with us since she doesn't start classes until Wednesday (they need Tuesday to get all the middle-schoolers' schedules ready). She was with us for part of the day and the other part of the day she was with peer helpers or at the tech orientation or getting her locker or something similar. We got two disappointing pieces of news during the appointment. First, the kids in 6th grade strings have a year playing their instruments before they start 6th grade strings. Greer was going to meet with the strings teacher later in the day, but it didn't sound promising for her continuing the cello at school since she didn't start until this current school year. Second, and this was the big one, they weren't going to be able to place her in a Japanese class. We thought they would do some kind of mid-year accommodation for their new students, but they only do that in elementary school. So she will not be able to take Japanese at school until next year. Of the four of us, she was the most excited to learn and she knows the most words already.
Now, for how we dealt with those two disappointments. Greer did meet with the cello teacher and when she looked at the music they were working on, she decided it was much harder than what she'd been doing. They have to take a music class, and the other choices were band and choir. She definitely did not want to do choir, so she chose percussion in band. She figured it would help with piano. However, then we were told by the counselor that there'd probably be a problem since the kids had already been playing their instruments for several months. She knew how upset Greer was and she promised she would talk to the band teacher. She called us with the good news the following morning - the band teacher was happy to have her and said the other percussion students would help her catch up. The strings teacher was also willing to have her if we would be getting private lessons for her. However, Greer decided that was a lot of pressure, so she chose band. She still wants to get cello lessons so that she can join strings next year at school. As for Japanese, we're going to be following up with Exxon to see if we can arrange some lessons for Greer. We're pretty sure it's going to work out.
On a positive note, Greer joined the middle school swim team. We didn't know if she'd be able to join since their season started the beginning of December, but she met with the swim coach at some point during the day. He was happy to be getting a good backstroker and invited her to practice after school that day. We all went (and Cooper didn't even complain much since he had his iPhone :) ). She hasn't been swimming since the end of November, but she did well! They have a meet this Saturday, and the coach is definitely going to have her swim backstroke. She's happy to be able to swim for her school!
ASIJ runs late buses with modified routes to accommodate after-school activities. So the four of us caught the late bus at 4:30 and got off at the stop we'd been told. Now this was of course not the stop where we'd caught the bus this morning, and we had only a general idea of the direction of our apartment. But after much fiddling around with iPhones, we were able to map out a route home and made it safely there a mere 2 hours later (just kidding).
Japanese word of the day: gakko (click to hear pronunciation) means "school"
I also saw the spellings "gakkou," "gakkoo," and "gakou." Maybe all are acceptable since the Japanese word would actually consist of characters (which I'm still pretty far from learning). Despite the uncertainty, Greer and I felt strongly that "school" needed to be the word of the day. Once we start lessons, we'll have somebody to consult. :)
As soon as we got to school, Cooper was whisked off to his classroom. We didn't realize we could go with him, so we had to wait until later in the day to meet his teacher. Then they gathered the middle school students together and took them off for a technology orientation - they give them laptops for schoolwork. I'm not sure what happened with the high school students - I wasn't really paying attention to them. Then our orientation started. We met lots of people, there was lots of talking (transportation, health center, activities, etc.) We got to meet the principals of the various divisions as well as the other new parents. We had invidual appointments with the kids' counselors. These appointments were scheduled throughout the day, so depending on when your appointment(s) were, you might miss other stuff. For example, we missed the president of the PTA talking, but that was okay since I'm NOT volunteering this year. :)
The appointment with Cooper's counselor went smoothly, but after all, it's elementary school. He wasn't with us since he was in his class for a regular day of school today. Greer's appointment did not go as well. She was with us since she doesn't start classes until Wednesday (they need Tuesday to get all the middle-schoolers' schedules ready). She was with us for part of the day and the other part of the day she was with peer helpers or at the tech orientation or getting her locker or something similar. We got two disappointing pieces of news during the appointment. First, the kids in 6th grade strings have a year playing their instruments before they start 6th grade strings. Greer was going to meet with the strings teacher later in the day, but it didn't sound promising for her continuing the cello at school since she didn't start until this current school year. Second, and this was the big one, they weren't going to be able to place her in a Japanese class. We thought they would do some kind of mid-year accommodation for their new students, but they only do that in elementary school. So she will not be able to take Japanese at school until next year. Of the four of us, she was the most excited to learn and she knows the most words already.
Now, for how we dealt with those two disappointments. Greer did meet with the cello teacher and when she looked at the music they were working on, she decided it was much harder than what she'd been doing. They have to take a music class, and the other choices were band and choir. She definitely did not want to do choir, so she chose percussion in band. She figured it would help with piano. However, then we were told by the counselor that there'd probably be a problem since the kids had already been playing their instruments for several months. She knew how upset Greer was and she promised she would talk to the band teacher. She called us with the good news the following morning - the band teacher was happy to have her and said the other percussion students would help her catch up. The strings teacher was also willing to have her if we would be getting private lessons for her. However, Greer decided that was a lot of pressure, so she chose band. She still wants to get cello lessons so that she can join strings next year at school. As for Japanese, we're going to be following up with Exxon to see if we can arrange some lessons for Greer. We're pretty sure it's going to work out.
On a positive note, Greer joined the middle school swim team. We didn't know if she'd be able to join since their season started the beginning of December, but she met with the swim coach at some point during the day. He was happy to be getting a good backstroker and invited her to practice after school that day. We all went (and Cooper didn't even complain much since he had his iPhone :) ). She hasn't been swimming since the end of November, but she did well! They have a meet this Saturday, and the coach is definitely going to have her swim backstroke. She's happy to be able to swim for her school!
ASIJ runs late buses with modified routes to accommodate after-school activities. So the four of us caught the late bus at 4:30 and got off at the stop we'd been told. Now this was of course not the stop where we'd caught the bus this morning, and we had only a general idea of the direction of our apartment. But after much fiddling around with iPhones, we were able to map out a route home and made it safely there a mere 2 hours later (just kidding).
Japanese word of the day: gakko (click to hear pronunciation) means "school"
I also saw the spellings "gakkou," "gakkoo," and "gakou." Maybe all are acceptable since the Japanese word would actually consist of characters (which I'm still pretty far from learning). Despite the uncertainty, Greer and I felt strongly that "school" needed to be the word of the day. Once we start lessons, we'll have somebody to consult. :)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Jan. 7, 2012 - Target!
Yep, we found Target. Well, eventually we found Target. It's not exactly Target, but it'll do. It's missing some of Target's stuff and some of Target's selection, but it has a lot of stuff Target doesn't have. When we had been with the TGA person on apartment move-in day, she pointed out a store called Tokyu Hands. From her description, it sounded like a good store to know. Here's a link to the floor guide of the Shibuya Tokyu Hands so you can see what I mean.
But before we headed out to the store, today was the day our air shipment came! It was almost like Christmas! We didn't remember what we had packed in those four boxes, but there were definitely some things we were hoping for. Maybe we'd put shower curtains in there? Maybe more hangers? Maybe Drew's bolster (that he puts under his legs when sleeping to help his back)? What other useful items might we have put in there?....... Turns out not much. I don't think we did a particularly good job packing for this move. Might have something to do with the short amount of time we did it in.
Headed out after lunch (where we ate our noodle soup bowls from Softbank, using our chopsticks from Softbank - definitely made it seem like we got the cell phones at a discount :) ) to find Tokyu Hands. A picture of Greer and Cooper eating their lunch, practicing with their chopsticks:
Shibuya, besides being the name of our ward, is also the name of the shopping district around Shibuya Station. We didn't know exactly where Tokyu Hands was located, just that it was in the Shibuya shopping district. We took the subway to Shibuya station and then Drew whipped out his new iPhone to try out the GPS. Seemed like a good idea, but the iPhone did not want us to go in the direction I wanted us to head. Now, I'm somewhat directionally challenged and I'm not much of a shopper, so Drew had no reason to go in my direction. But I think I really wanted to find this store. After using the GPS for quite awhile, going pretty far from Shibuya station, going in some circles, finally deciding the pin we were searching for was probably some office for Tokyu Hands, we went in the direction I wanted to go. And we found it! I have to tease Drew a little here since it's not very often my sense of direction is better than his. But of course, he wasn't really using his sense of direction. He was using his iPhone. Remember, it's just a tool. :) (And I won't mention the first time we went to the grocery store, when Drew had us going the wrong way and I got us back on track.)
We didn't find everything we were looking for, but we found a lot of it, like a shower curtain, more hangers, and a bolster for Drew (you know, those items we were hoping were in the air shipment :) ). We managed to spend a lot of yen. Definitely a handy store to which I will return. Again, the kids were real troupers. No complaining while we searched and searched for the store. And while we were in the store, investigating several, though not all, of its departments, only mild complaining. And we didn't even end up buying anything specifically for them - but Greer does have her eye on a number of items.
Japanese word of the day: mise (click to hear pronunciation) means "shop/store"
But before we headed out to the store, today was the day our air shipment came! It was almost like Christmas! We didn't remember what we had packed in those four boxes, but there were definitely some things we were hoping for. Maybe we'd put shower curtains in there? Maybe more hangers? Maybe Drew's bolster (that he puts under his legs when sleeping to help his back)? What other useful items might we have put in there?....... Turns out not much. I don't think we did a particularly good job packing for this move. Might have something to do with the short amount of time we did it in.
Headed out after lunch (where we ate our noodle soup bowls from Softbank, using our chopsticks from Softbank - definitely made it seem like we got the cell phones at a discount :) ) to find Tokyu Hands. A picture of Greer and Cooper eating their lunch, practicing with their chopsticks:
Shibuya, besides being the name of our ward, is also the name of the shopping district around Shibuya Station. We didn't know exactly where Tokyu Hands was located, just that it was in the Shibuya shopping district. We took the subway to Shibuya station and then Drew whipped out his new iPhone to try out the GPS. Seemed like a good idea, but the iPhone did not want us to go in the direction I wanted us to head. Now, I'm somewhat directionally challenged and I'm not much of a shopper, so Drew had no reason to go in my direction. But I think I really wanted to find this store. After using the GPS for quite awhile, going pretty far from Shibuya station, going in some circles, finally deciding the pin we were searching for was probably some office for Tokyu Hands, we went in the direction I wanted to go. And we found it! I have to tease Drew a little here since it's not very often my sense of direction is better than his. But of course, he wasn't really using his sense of direction. He was using his iPhone. Remember, it's just a tool. :) (And I won't mention the first time we went to the grocery store, when Drew had us going the wrong way and I got us back on track.)
We didn't find everything we were looking for, but we found a lot of it, like a shower curtain, more hangers, and a bolster for Drew (you know, those items we were hoping were in the air shipment :) ). We managed to spend a lot of yen. Definitely a handy store to which I will return. Again, the kids were real troupers. No complaining while we searched and searched for the store. And while we were in the store, investigating several, though not all, of its departments, only mild complaining. And we didn't even end up buying anything specifically for them - but Greer does have her eye on a number of items.
Japanese word of the day: mise (click to hear pronunciation) means "shop/store"
Friday, January 6, 2012
Jan. 6, 2012 - Are we sure we really want cell phones?
Two language barrier issues from the previous days: On Wednesday, when we were at Joypolis, the first activity/ride Cooper picked was virtual reality hang-gliding. As we got close to the front of the line, one of the operators checked if we needed the English instructions. We read those and were ready to go. However, when Cooper and Greer got on, the ride operator, who was talking just to them and was the one who had given us the English sheet, went through her whole regular spiel in Japanese, asking "okay?" at the end. The ride operator for me and Drew just showed us where the emergency stop button was and then asked "okay?" The second instance was all about avoiding the barrier. You may have wondered how we managed to order from Domino's the previous night. Online ordering!
We have a lot of shopping ahead of us today. There's the grocery store, cell phones, and what I think might be the Japanese Target (that would be a KEY discovery). Since I'm writing this at the end of the day, here's a spoiler alert: that was too long of a list. Who knew?
First we were delayed by the light bulb guy. We had no idea he was coming this morning. When we did the apartment inspection yesterday, we pointed out a few light bulbs that needed changing (seemed reasonable to have all working light bulbs at move-in time). When he came this morning, we had a few others to point out to him that we had since noticed. Unfortunately, he and Drew were unable to communicate. He didn't speak any English, and Drew's list of Japanese words is smaller, I think, than the list of our words of the day to this point. They ended up calling the apartment management company to interpret. By the time we were ready to head out, it was lunchtime, yet another delay. If we only didn't have to eat.
Finally, the grocery store. THIS IS GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE. The produce section I could handle. I knew what most of the stuff was. Even if I didn't know what it was (and there were a lot of vegetables I didn't know - but that's true at a U.S. store for me, too), I AT LEAST knew it was a vegetable. For the rest of the store, I didn't know what a lot of stuff was OR what I was supposed to do with it. Greer brought me a packet of something she wanted to make. I told her that was great, but I couldn't read the directions. I have a little cheat sheet from TGA with the Japanese characters for some grocery shopping words, which helped some. I needed some detergent for washing dishes and for the dishwasher. I had the characters for "washing dishes" and "for the dishwasher," but there were lots of other characters in the string on the packaging. So I THINK I bought the two detergents I needed, but maybe it said "this detergent is for anything BUT the dishwasher." I know what milk I'm buying. This is a picture of my brand:
Maybe it's the worst milk in the store, but at least I can see that I bought lowfat milk and nonfat milk. I think Cooper's out of luck on lactose-free milk. Maybe he's outgrown his lactose intolerance. We're going to be testing that. Otherwise, I guess it's soy milk for him. If I can figure out which one the soy milk is. I asked Whitney, the Exxon wife I met last week, what she cooked for dinner. She said she cooked all the same stuff she cooked in the U.S. Maybe she does a lot of shopping at the international market? Or maybe she's better at figuring out things that are close in the grocery store? It's not just a question of figuring out the packaging so I can buy similar stuff to what I bought in the U.S. The similar stuff, as far as I can tell, just isn't there. I have no idea what I'm going to cook for dinner. I suppose it would help if I were more of a cook. Finally, we were ready to check out. As the cashier rang up our items, I loaded them into our backpacks and other shopping bags. We paid her the total, 16, 202 yen, which is fewer groceries than you might think. She was getting ready to finalize the sale when she realized she was about to overcharge us. She was VERY apologetic as she handed us back 2 yen, which, as near as we could tell, was a rebate for using our own bags. Hmm, 2 yen. Several more trips to the grocery store using my own bags and I could buy....nothing. :) Then it was time for the hike home. Here's a picture of us in front of our apartment door:
Unloaded the groceries, and it was time to head back out, this time for cell phones. The kids have been asking, pretty much since we arrived in Tokyo, when they were getting their cell phones. Also, what kind of phone were they getting? Asking non-stop, the way kids do (at least, the way my two persistent children do, ALL THE TIME). From the time we arrived at the store to the time we left with our phones was a total of over 4 hours! I KNEW we didn't want new cell phones. :) First, we had to wait for an English-speaking staff person (we had gone to a branch of SoftBank that we knew had English-speaking staff people). While we waited, Drew, Greer, and Cooper played with the iPhones on display:
I read my book and started mourning my old phone. Greer asked if I checked to see if a museum would want it. Then we met with the staff person and decided what phones we were getting, etc. Greer wants me to be sure to point out that the phones are iPhone 4S's. He said he would try to get another person to assist him, but that he would try to work very quickly and have the phones ready in an hour and a half (!). Exactly how good were my kids capable of being? I made sure Drew had the papers he needed and the kids and I headed out the door and down OmotesandÅ street. Most of the stores on this street were not for us (Chanel, Dior, etc, though there was also a GAP), but there was a souvenir shop with its building in the shape of a pagoda that was perfect for us. Finally, the kids were allowed to spend some money. Cooper picked a letter opener that was a mini ninja sword and Greer picked a fan with a tiger on it. After spending considerable time in the store, we headed back to check on Drew. Still waiting..... So then the four of us went to dinner, and finally got an email during dessert that the phones were ready. Headed back, but "ready" didn't mean "really ready." It was still another 20-30 minutes before we were out the door. After four hours shopping for cell phones, that was it for us. Time to head home, though we did get some nice parting gifts (including four sets of chopsticks with their logo and four noodle soup bowls, which dramatically increased the number of our eating utensils and our store of food) from Softbank.
Japanese word of the day: hashi (click to hear pronunciation) means "chopsticks"
We have a lot of shopping ahead of us today. There's the grocery store, cell phones, and what I think might be the Japanese Target (that would be a KEY discovery). Since I'm writing this at the end of the day, here's a spoiler alert: that was too long of a list. Who knew?
First we were delayed by the light bulb guy. We had no idea he was coming this morning. When we did the apartment inspection yesterday, we pointed out a few light bulbs that needed changing (seemed reasonable to have all working light bulbs at move-in time). When he came this morning, we had a few others to point out to him that we had since noticed. Unfortunately, he and Drew were unable to communicate. He didn't speak any English, and Drew's list of Japanese words is smaller, I think, than the list of our words of the day to this point. They ended up calling the apartment management company to interpret. By the time we were ready to head out, it was lunchtime, yet another delay. If we only didn't have to eat.
Finally, the grocery store. THIS IS GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE. The produce section I could handle. I knew what most of the stuff was. Even if I didn't know what it was (and there were a lot of vegetables I didn't know - but that's true at a U.S. store for me, too), I AT LEAST knew it was a vegetable. For the rest of the store, I didn't know what a lot of stuff was OR what I was supposed to do with it. Greer brought me a packet of something she wanted to make. I told her that was great, but I couldn't read the directions. I have a little cheat sheet from TGA with the Japanese characters for some grocery shopping words, which helped some. I needed some detergent for washing dishes and for the dishwasher. I had the characters for "washing dishes" and "for the dishwasher," but there were lots of other characters in the string on the packaging. So I THINK I bought the two detergents I needed, but maybe it said "this detergent is for anything BUT the dishwasher." I know what milk I'm buying. This is a picture of my brand:
Maybe it's the worst milk in the store, but at least I can see that I bought lowfat milk and nonfat milk. I think Cooper's out of luck on lactose-free milk. Maybe he's outgrown his lactose intolerance. We're going to be testing that. Otherwise, I guess it's soy milk for him. If I can figure out which one the soy milk is. I asked Whitney, the Exxon wife I met last week, what she cooked for dinner. She said she cooked all the same stuff she cooked in the U.S. Maybe she does a lot of shopping at the international market? Or maybe she's better at figuring out things that are close in the grocery store? It's not just a question of figuring out the packaging so I can buy similar stuff to what I bought in the U.S. The similar stuff, as far as I can tell, just isn't there. I have no idea what I'm going to cook for dinner. I suppose it would help if I were more of a cook. Finally, we were ready to check out. As the cashier rang up our items, I loaded them into our backpacks and other shopping bags. We paid her the total, 16, 202 yen, which is fewer groceries than you might think. She was getting ready to finalize the sale when she realized she was about to overcharge us. She was VERY apologetic as she handed us back 2 yen, which, as near as we could tell, was a rebate for using our own bags. Hmm, 2 yen. Several more trips to the grocery store using my own bags and I could buy....nothing. :) Then it was time for the hike home. Here's a picture of us in front of our apartment door:
Unloaded the groceries, and it was time to head back out, this time for cell phones. The kids have been asking, pretty much since we arrived in Tokyo, when they were getting their cell phones. Also, what kind of phone were they getting? Asking non-stop, the way kids do (at least, the way my two persistent children do, ALL THE TIME). From the time we arrived at the store to the time we left with our phones was a total of over 4 hours! I KNEW we didn't want new cell phones. :) First, we had to wait for an English-speaking staff person (we had gone to a branch of SoftBank that we knew had English-speaking staff people). While we waited, Drew, Greer, and Cooper played with the iPhones on display:
I read my book and started mourning my old phone. Greer asked if I checked to see if a museum would want it. Then we met with the staff person and decided what phones we were getting, etc. Greer wants me to be sure to point out that the phones are iPhone 4S's. He said he would try to get another person to assist him, but that he would try to work very quickly and have the phones ready in an hour and a half (!). Exactly how good were my kids capable of being? I made sure Drew had the papers he needed and the kids and I headed out the door and down OmotesandÅ street. Most of the stores on this street were not for us (Chanel, Dior, etc, though there was also a GAP), but there was a souvenir shop with its building in the shape of a pagoda that was perfect for us. Finally, the kids were allowed to spend some money. Cooper picked a letter opener that was a mini ninja sword and Greer picked a fan with a tiger on it. After spending considerable time in the store, we headed back to check on Drew. Still waiting..... So then the four of us went to dinner, and finally got an email during dessert that the phones were ready. Headed back, but "ready" didn't mean "really ready." It was still another 20-30 minutes before we were out the door. After four hours shopping for cell phones, that was it for us. Time to head home, though we did get some nice parting gifts (including four sets of chopsticks with their logo and four noodle soup bowls, which dramatically increased the number of our eating utensils and our store of food) from Softbank.
Japanese word of the day: hashi (click to hear pronunciation) means "chopsticks"
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