March 17, 2012 - Pinewood Derby

Today was Pinewood Derby day!

ASIJ Pack 5 makes a day (and more) out of their Pinewood Derby.  The Derby is held in the elementary school gymnasium.  Everybody packs a lunch to bring for Saturday.  They have set-up of the track in the morning, followed by weigh-in of the cars.  Then around noon they (plan to) start the races.  Once the races finish up around 3:00, it is time for a pool party in the high school pool.  That is followed by a pizza dinner, and then games and movies.  They have a sleepover in the elementary school gymnasium, and they head home the following morning after breakfast and clean up. 

This was a father-son activity for our family as Greer had other ideas on what to do with the day.  Drew did not plan on spending the night as he had to leave for Singapore the next day.  But Cooper's friend Matthew and his dad were spending the night, so Matthew's dad took charge of Cooper for the sleepover.

Dad's summary of race day:

Well, as per usual, the first race was the race against the clock - how long will it take me to get to school this time?  Record time as it turns out - Matthew's parents had done the route by bus a few times and helped out.

We got to the gym early and broke out Coop's outlaw racer.  Because of the craziness of the move, a lack of tools, and missing the official car-cutting day while we were on a ski trip, we asked Coop's den leaders about using his car from last year (never know how strict things would be in this pack).  They told us we either needed a new car, or he could race last year's car in the outlaw class.  Coop took the path of least resistance and decided to slap on a bunch of extra weight (if he's going outlaw, why not go outlaw).  Well, as it turned out, there was no outlaw class, so they had Coop race against the adults (who I think all played by the rules).  A few extra ounces make a big difference as you can see in the video.

Here's Coop beating the grownup cars with his bad-boy outlaw racer.

The boys all had a great time.  Strong showing by wolves and Web 1's (and me-toos) as these are the largest ranks in the pack, I believe.

The racing started a bit late - this was the first year with electronics ... those in Pack 922 probably remember a few glitches with getting the software squared away.  It was no different here, but it was a great learning experience.  During the downtime, the kids took good advantage of the gym and played around while waiting on those pesky adults to get their act together.  I pitched in and helped with car staging to keep things moving along, and we got most of the races done before the pool party.  After some swimming, we finished with the adult races, and a pack championship heat (the winners from all ranks reraced). 

Pizza quickly followed, and after dinner I disappeared back home sans navigator (which made it a bit longer than the drive there), and finished prepping for my Singapore trip.  Jen and Carrie (Matthew's mom) headed out to the school the next morning to pick up all the boys - Jim (Matthew's dad) included.  (Note from Jen: this was my second time driving in Tokyo - I might be getting the hang of it!)

The boys had a great time, and a number of the dads (and moms) were pretty impressed with Coop's car from last year - I think I'm going to hold a seminar on axel polishing ....  I'm going to pick up a bunch of low range micron metal sandpaper for next year.  I expect that there will be a run on my supplies next year!  Perhaps Coop will start on his car this summer (hint -hint Athan and Luke).

Back to Jen:
Mine and Greer's day included a trip to Aeon (a Super Walmart-type store) to buy new sneakers for Greer.  Somehow we never did find her second pair of sneakers that were supposed to be in our ocean shipment.  Going to Aeon involves three train rides, and it's a little trickier than my train rides usually are because it's on lines outside the Tokyo Metro system.  At one of our changes, I was unsure which side of the platform our train was on, so I asked one of the workers.  He gestured to the correct side, and we boarded the train, but we thought maybe he was pulling a joke on us.

We had to take a picture (and I think Greer even took video) because we've never been on a subway car that was even close to empty.  Don't worry, more people did board right after us.

Today was also St. Patrick's Day.  Greer and I were wearing green, and we both had our shamrock earrings, but we didn't have much company.  I guess not many Japanese have any Irish in them. :) 

March 14, 2012 - White Day

I have three things to write about today, all pretty much unrelated. :)

Today a group of us from Tokyo Here and Now were meeting at the Starbucks in Roppongi.  The Tokyo Here and Now schedule was pretty full, so we didn't have much of a chance to socialize and get to know each other then.  After checking google maps, I decided a walk would be some good exercise.  The Roppongi Starbucks (Roppongi is in Minato ward, where more of the expats live) is about 5.5 kilometers from our apartment and would take me right through Shibuya, which I'm trying to learn better.  About 20 minutes into my walk, I passed Viron, the French bakery I wrote about back on Jan. 12.  It took me WAY longer to get there that day taking the train.  That was before I realized how close something in Shibuya might be and before I had really figured out how to use the maps on my iPhone.  I made it to Roppongi in a reasonable amount of time - I'm getting pretty good with my iPhone. :)   It was a great walk on a pleasant day.  I also walked home so that I could hit Tokyu Hands in Shibuya on my way home.  I will admit to being a wee bit tired later that day.

Unfortunately, our plumbing issues are back.  The same issue I wrote about at the end of January has reappeared.  Yesterday morning we called the property management company.  A plumber arrived in the afternoon yesterday, along with some associates, spent several hours, and then told us he'd be back the next afternoon.  Multiple plumbers came back again today and again spent several hours.  At some point a representative from the property management company arrived at the apartment to check on the progress.  He's been here before when we moved in and later to bring us some more keys, so I already knew he didn't speak English.  Drew and I had talked about the three of us meeting him at the station and going to a restaurant nearby for dinner.  We really haven't eaten out much since we moved into the apartment (though Domino's is still a staple).  I asked the representative how much longer the plumbers thought they would be, and he answered me in Japanese, and I understood him!  THAT is very rare.  It helps that his answer was very short. :)  And yes, the plumbers did finally fix the problem.

Today was White Day in Japan.  The Japanese do celebrate Valentine's Day, Feb. 14.  However, it is usually the women giving gifts, normally chocolate, to the men on Valentine's Day.  White Day occurs one month later, and it is for the men to give gifts to the women (especially if the woman gave them a gift the previous month).  According to what I saw on Wikipedia, it was first celebrated in 1978, started by the National Confectionery Industry Association, and it is also celebrated in a few other Asian countries.  It is more a holiday for younger people.  Both of my Japanese teachers, who are women a few years older than I am, said their husbands did not give them anything for White Day and that it was for younger people.  They also said that Japanese husbands are lazy (or at least theirs are).

Drew wanted to write about White Day:
You've no doubt heard the expression it's better to be lucky than good; well, even the good deserve to get lucky from time to time and today was my day!  In the office today my admins explained the Japanese traditions of Valentine's day and White day.  It seems like the grief I got from Jen for being out of the country for Valentine's day was misplaced - it wasn't poor planning, I was waiting for the appropriate holiday.  A quick tour through our metro station on the way home and I had a bunch of candy, a nice cake for dessert, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers!  Yeah, I planned it.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jen's rebuttal:
First, he's full of you-know-what.  Second, the "grief" he got was a little good-natured ribbing.  Third, the flowers he brought me were a cemetery arrangement.


Japanese phrase of the day:  san jup-pun means "thirty minutes"

March 11, 2012 - Haircut and Harajuku

Today we took Cooper to a little barbershop in our neighborhood.  It was actually his idea (sort of); he was afraid it might be getting a little mullet-like in the back.  He was the first of us to get his hair cut here since Drew got his cut on his trip to the States in February and Greer and I have just been letting ours grow.

I was able to tell the barber "sukoshi" (a little bit), but that was about it.   Needless to say, he took off more than Cooper wanted, as well as thinned out the sides some, which seems to be an Asian style.

Pretty sure that Cooper is not happy with me.

Oh, the shame.

I told him he could make his hair stick straight up now.
That seemed to cheer him up a little.

The possible model for Cooper's haircut?

Seriously, it's better than this, isn't it?
(in case you've forgotten how long his hair was)

Here's Cooper on his haircut:
I did not like it at all.  Mom said "sukoshi" which means "a little", but apparently this guy's version of "sukoshi" was 5-10 inches off EVERYWHERE, which I was really annoyed at.  I do not like how short it is.  It is not in my eyes anymore.  My mom and dad said, "If he is cutting it too short, say our name and we'll come over and tell him to stop."  Well, they lied.  I called their name more than once, and they kept giving me a thumbs up, which really ticked me off. 

Cooper claims he's not getting another haircut until the summer.  I told him it was an incentive to talk to his Japanese teacher and learn some more barbering terms.

Later that afternoon, we took the kids to Harajuku.  Harajuku, just a few stops away on the train, is a good area for people watching.  You can see some interesting get-ups there, especially on a Sunday afternoon.  But that wasn't really our purpose in going.  We were going to the Oshman's for some swimming equipment.  Then we headed to the 100 Yen store (like our dollar store) where we told the kids they could each have 500 yen to spend.  This 100 Yen store is the best we've been in, and the kids had no problem finding items on which to spend their money.  Cooper's favorite purchase?  His inflatable Instant Boobs.  He was sure that we should come back later and buy several of these to bring back for his friends in the States.

 

Japanese word of the day:  sukoshi means "little bit"

March 9, 2012 - I missed my first school conference ever

As I mentioned the previous day, one drawback to the timing of Tokyo Here and Now was that it conflicted with the elementary school conferences.  I thought about asking for a refund when I found out about the conflict, but Drew convinced me to go ahead and attend while he took care of the conference.  Before anybody responds that it must have been a learning experience for Drew (or something along those lines, as one of the Tokyo Here and Now organizers did), I should point out that Drew always attends school conferences. 

We scheduled Cooper's conference for Friday as that was an easier day for Drew to stay home.  I headed off to Tokyo Here and now on my own, and Drew prepared to drive to ASIJ without a navigator, unless you count Cooper.  He gave himself plenty of time, and they did make it to the school without a major hitch.  The drive home, however, proved a bit more challenging, and I don't think they ended up saving any time over what the train ride would have been.  But he definitely gets extra credit for doing it on his own!

Conferences for third, fourth, and fifth graders involve the student as an active participant.  The first 30 minutes (took less than that for Cooper since he hasn't been here since September) of the conference was just Drew and Cooper.  Cooper went over certain accomplishments for the past few months, following a schedule that covered all his subject areas.  He also talked about goals for the remainder of the year.  Then the teacher joined Drew and Cooper for the last 15 minutes of the conference.

I was disappointed to miss as this was a new kind of conference for me.  However, Cooper gave his presentation to me a few days later.  He wasn't able to show me everything (there was something on the computer at school), and he didn't take as long as he did with Drew (he admitted he did a better job when he was in his classroom), but I still thought it was interesting and showed that the students spent time preparing for these conferences.  Also, Drew had used his iPhone to record the part of the conference that included Cooper's teacher, so I got to hear that as well.  It was almost like I didn't even miss the conference. :)

I must say that the part that stuck with me the most from the teacher's comments was her talking about Cooper's hair.  Although she kept saying his hair didn't bother her, clearly, from the amount of time she spent talking about it, it did bother her.  Had I listened to the tape earlier, I probably would not have taken Cooper for a haircut a few days later.  The contrary part of me (very familiar to my parents) would have made me want to let him grow his hair even longer.  And you know how much I don't like his hair!  (But I dislike it even more when other people make an issue out of it.)

March 8 and 9, 2012 - Tokyo Here and Now

The Women's Group at the Tokyo American Club twice a year presents a seminar called "Tokyo Here and Now."  You do not have to be a member of the Tokyo American Club to attend the seminar; you just have to pay a premium over what members need to pay.  Many companies pay for a TAC membership for their employees.  Many people join even if their company doesn't pay for a membership.  ExxonMobil doesn't pay for a membership; I'll let you google the cost of membership and you tell me if you think we'll join. :)

I had an informative two days of presentations on going to the doctor in Japan, earthquake preparedness, Japanese culture and beliefs, coping with culture shock, the current nuclear situation, and more.  I enjoyed each presentation and thought the presenters all did a great job.  I also enjoyed getting to meet other newcomers to Tokyo.  However, my absolute favorite part of Tokyo Here and Now was...... Diet Dr. Pepper!

I had not had a Diet Dr. Pepper since I left the United States at New Year's.  I had heard you could find it sometimes, but I figured this was a good time to break the soda habit.  Most of you probably know that I can drink a good bit of Diet Dr. Pepper every day.  But since I arrived in Tokyo, I have been substituting with iced tea and hot tea (including green tea, Julie :) ).  I have the occasional Coke Zero (which is a VERY poor substitute for my drink of choice).  I have found Diet Dr. Pepper at Nissin, the international grocery store I wrote about in January, and I've heard Costco sometimes has it, although they didn't have it the first time we went.  However, besides the health benefits of giving up soda, you might see another reason in the picture for why I haven't bought any.

The price is a little blurry, so in case you had a hard time reading it, it says the price is 121 yen.  That's about $1.50......for a single can.  They also sold a 24-pack (well, two 12-packs taped together), but the cost saving per can was fairly insignificant. 

Perhaps at some point I might be able to buy some to have in the house, and I could have the occasional Diet Dr. Pepper.  But I don't think I'm there yet.  I think if I bought some, it would be gone pretty quickly.  However, at Tokyo Here and Now, I figured I could enjoy the Diet Dr. Pepper guilt-free.  And I did.

Cooper attended Tokyo Here and Now with me on Thursday.  By some unfortunate timing, the two days of Tokyo Here and Now conflicted with the two days of elementary school conferences.  The students had the two days off from school, so the Tokyo Here and Now organizers quickly put together some activities for older children as part of the childcare.  Cooper was happy because he got to go the Tokyo American Club (he and his sister (more so his sister) have been pushing for a membership) and he got to have a hamburger, fries, and a shake for lunch.

When we arrived at the subway station on the way home, I handed Cooper the map and asked him how we should go home.  The way I go to that section of town involves three train rides, but Cooper saw a route that was only two.  It actually takes a little bit longer (because it goes out of the way to make the connection), but I still thought that was pretty good.  There are times you might prefer to take a little longer so that you have to make only one train change instead of two.  I think he's getting closer to being able to take the subway on his own!

March 6, 2012 - Our washing machine can dance

Our washing machine is right inside the door of the laundry room.  The noise from the laundry room can sometimes be quite loud, but I'm hesitant to close the door to the room.  Sometimes washing machines move a little, and I was concerned the washing machine could move enough to block the door, which opens into the laundry room.  Well, today it happened.

I had closed the door partway, but left it open by several inches.  Clearly, that was not enough.  I heard a loud bang and walked into the kitchen.  There I saw a closed laundry room door.  This can not be good.  Sure enough, the washing machine had scooted forward, banging shut the door and blocking it from being opened.  I could open the door only about a centimeter or two.  I thought if I had something long, thin, and strong, maybe I could push the washing machine back.  No luck.  I spent some more time thinking but came up with nothing.  (Before you suggest taking the hinges off, the hinges are on the laundry room side of the door.)  I decided to wait until Drew got home and see if two heads might be better than one at solving this problem - they weren't.  While he was able to think up more long skinny things, they weren't enough to get the job done. 

Next morning promptly at 9:00 am, we called the property management company and made it their problem to solve.  We clearly explained the situation.  However, although the property management company hires English speakers to deal with their foreign tenants, she seemed to have difficulty comprehending the situation.  And when the technician showed up at 4:00, he seemed quite surprised.  It was as if he had not been told anything before he arrived.  He stood looking at the door for awhile and tried pushing it.  Eventually, he took a bunch of pictures and left.  Drew shared what had happened at work, and the two (Japanese) administrative assistants kept asking, "The washing machine moved?"  We have an American washing machine and dryer in our apartment.  Japanese washing machines are much smaller and so must not get out of balance as easily.  Clearly, the idea that a washing machine could move on its own was foreign to all of the Japanese people.

The property management company sent somebody back on Thursday.  I was not here as I was attending a seminar called "Tokyo Here and Now" for newcomers to Tokyo.  However, they did solve the problem before I returned home.  They cut a small rectangle out of the bottom of the door.  Through that they must have been able to push the washing machine back into place.  They informed us that the washing machine was broken and they would try to replace it soon.  In the meantime, they would have a laundry service come and pick up any laundry we needed done.

Drew and I are not convinced the washing machine was actually broken.  Judging by the reaction of the various Japanese people involved, we think that they assumed that for the washing machine to move like that, it must have been broken.  The end result is that we now have a new washing machine.  Though it is small, it is still an American machine.  However, I guess it is all right for me to close the laundry room door since I still have a small rectangle in the bottom of the door should our washing machine again lock us out of the laundry room.  We're still waiting on the new door (and hinge relocation) ...

March 4, 2012 - I finally drove

I finally drove our car today.  It's only been a month since we bought it. :)  You shouldn't think that means Drew's driven much either.  He drove a month ago when we first bought the car and then again when we went to Nikko.  The car mostly sits in our garage, which is kind of what we expected.  We bought it for going OUT of Tokyo, not for getting around in Tokyo.

Drew and I went to Costco this morning, a Sunday morning.  We left the kids at home, so does it count as a date?  We bought lunch there, so I guess that makes it a lunch date.  Our usual trick of doing things on a Sunday morning when a lot of Houston people are in church doesn't work in Japan.  Not that we expected people to be in church, but we still thought it might not be too bad on a Sunday morning.  Well, I'm not sure I've ever seen a place more crowded than Costco was at 11:00 am on a Sunday.  Possibly Disney World on a holiday?  So I figured I'd better drive home so that I can get to the point that I can go to Costco on a weekday, when hopefully it will be a little less crowded.

Driving on the wrong side of the road, with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car, wasn't too bad.  However, nearly every time I wanted to signal I was turning or changing lanes, I turned my windshield wipers on instead (wipers and turn signal are switched from U.S. cars).  If I did manage to remember which side the turn signal was on, I signaled the opposite direction from where I wanted to go.  Also, I kept looking in the wrong place for my rearview mirror (think about where you look in a U.S. car).  However, we made it home without incident, so I think I'll consider it a success.

I'll let you know when I finally drive the car by myself, without a navigator to assist. :)


Japanese word of the day:  kuruma  (click to hear pronunciation) means "car"

March 3, 2012 - middle school ski trip

The middle school Booster Club organized ski trips for three Saturdays in February and March.  Greer, Cooper, and Drew signed up for today's trip.  The charter bus picked them up at our Saturday bus stop at 5:20am and dropped them off back at the same stop at about 8:30pm.  I thought that I would have all three of them write about the day.  However, Drew's still pretty busy at work (in fact, he's in Singapore right now), so it'll just be Greer and Cooper.

First, Greer:
So basically my day started out very early in the morning, we are talking like 4:30 in the morning here. And most of you know I am not an early riser so I mostly spent the first hour of my day grumbling about the unearthly hour of the day. I was expecting a very crowded bus (basu) with like no space but I was surprised when I found out I would have a whole seat to myself and we could watch movies! So I sat, read my Kindle, and occasionally played on my phone. It was kind of boring, I have to admit, but then we stopped along the way and got some snax. They were good, Pure, which is a gummy with sour sugar on it, and also cheese on small pieces of bread. After awhile we finally arrived at the ski mountains (and snowboarding) and we headed inside to get fitted for boots and skis. We went and got ready and then we finally headed outside. Believe me when I say this, I didn't go on any blues! First of all, it felt like I had never gone skiing before so ya' know I didn't feel like testing out the Japanese definition of blues and blacks so we stuck to the greens (ski talk for those of you who know it). We cut across the mountain and thought about where to go next so we could get the maximum amount of skiing in. After we had skied and gotten the hang of it again, my Dad decided to test Cooper and me; he would let us get a few minutes head start and see if he could catch us. He couldn't. Cooper and I basically bombed it (don't tell my Dad) because we didn't want him to catch us! It was actually fun just going straight down through the winding paths and trees and not stopping or turning. Well, to tell you the truth it was frightening because of the snowboarders! (No offense) but they liked to cut right in front of us! Even when we weren't racing! We would be off to the side and suddenly we got sprayed with snow. Although some did stop up ahead and sit down and I was thinking about putting snow in their face, but I was too nice! No, really, I am not joking, I seriously thought about it!:) Now I owe an apology to all the snowboarders in the world who wouldn't do that, but come on! Ok, so we packed up, ate, and went home, and that was pretty much it except for that I was sore and I slept like a rock that night! Anyways, I might have missed using any Japanese in there so here are a few words:
1. Snow - yuki

2.
This is the katikana for snowboard (see, I did make it up to the snowboarders in the end!:)) This is the way you say it: su-no-bo-de-i-n-gu

3.Mountain - Yama

Ok, I hope you enjoyed my part in the blog!:)  I promise I will write more soon!


Now, Cooper:
(Trust me when I say it's very different getting Cooper's contribution.  He started out with "It was fun," and that almost ended up being the whole contribution.)
It was fun.   We started on greens and we stayed on greens.   My favorite one was the very last one we did.   Once, I thought we had decided we were going to go on the quick two-person lift, but Dad thought I said that I didn't want to go on the two-person lift so he kept going to the next one, and I couldn't find him.   So I called him and he told me where he was.  I just read Greer's part, and I agree that the snowboarders are big #@$$%#$!  I am sorry to all the snowboarders out there who are not like that, for ex. my Aunt Julie.  One of them snowboarded right in front of my face!  If I hadn't stopped so quickly, I would've run into him.  And stopping so quickly made me fall over!  He was an idiot!  Besides that, the trip was pretty good. :)

March 1, 2012 - Did you know you could buy just a single stalk of celery?

Greer has started going to the grocery store on her own for me.  She actually likes to go.  Must be the feeling of independence it gives her.  If I realize I need a few items from the store after she's home from school, she takes my backpack and heads off towards the subway station. 

I was planning on making a slow cooker meal that required celery the next day.  The meal had to go in the crockpot in the morning, but the grocery store doesn't open until 10:00 (that by itself seems odd to me).  So Greer went to the store this afternoon to buy the ingredients I still needed.  Drew had picked up some milk on his way through the train station the previous day, and I had him check if they had celery.  I wasn't sure if that was a vegetable they had here, and so I might have had to use something else.  They did indeed have celery, so I felt confident Greer could find everything on her list that afternoon.

Greer called me from the grocery store to see if she should buy one or two.  I said that I guess if they're small, she should go ahead and buy two.  I didn't realize we were talking about stalks of celery instead of bunches.  I've never seen a single stalk of celery packaged for sale.  Do we sell stalks singly in the States and I've missed it?

I should add that they also sell celery in bunches, which we found afterwards.  However, the bunches are kind of hidden behind the single stalks, so Greer didn't see them.

Japanese word of the day:  serori  (click to hear pronunciation) means "celery"
You may notice that it sounds a lot like the word "celery."  I am guessing that celery is not a Japanese vegetable (which is what I had suspected earlier).  Therefore its name is not a Japanese word, but instead it is written in katakana.  The Japanese writing system consists of kanji, which are the symbols borrowed from the Chinese, hiragana, which is used for writing Japanese words, and katakana, which is used for writing foreign words.  Cooper is learning hiragana in school, and Greer and I are learning katakana with our teachers.  If we could get Drew to work on learning kanji, we would be set!  (There are 2,000 kanji characters, so that's probably not happening.)

Feb. 29, 2012 - Leap Day!

We woke up today to a light snow falling.  Cooper acted like it was a crime he had to go to school.  I am feeling ready for spring to come, and I am missing that Houston weather.

Here is a picture of our backyard today:

Soon spring will be here, hopefully soon!  I'm looking forward to the cherry blossoms.

Japanese word of the day:  haru  (click to hear pronunciation) means "spring"
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February - Greer's Japanese Lessons

Greer is going to tell you about her Japanese lessons:
Hajime Mashite! Nice to meet you! This is Greer and I am going to tell you about my first Japanese Lesson! So my Sensei and I went over structure, noun connecters, endings, and basic words. Some words I already knew from my Papa like tomodachi (friend) or mizu (water). Some I didn't. I learned a few simple sentences like My name is Greer Donnalley. Here is how you say it: Watashi-no namae-wa Greer Donnalley desu. To say the sentence correctly, make sure all vowels are pronounced separately and the u in desu  is silent. (At the end of this entry, check for sound downloads.) Also, if you want to introduce someone like your mother, friend, or father, you say it like this: Kore-wa watashi-no okaasan/tomodachi/otoosan -no _______ desu. Well, after learning simple sentences, and the structure, I was on overload! I had a huge brain overload and I think my mom learned more just by listening! Did you know if you drink two cups of water before a class, you retain 60% more information? I wish I had drunk a gallon of water (mizu) before my Japanese (Ni-hon-go) lesson.

Greer's sound downloads
(Sorry for the poor pictures.  Can't just upload an audio file.  Needs to be made into a video.)

This is related to Japanese in a very exciting way! So I had invited Zoe (tomodachi) over and we had just finished eating dinner. After that, we decided to go to a little bakery called the Little Mermaid down at the subway station. When we arrived, we got these huge chocolate chip cookies that were bread so it looked like a huge bread ball with a sprinkling of chocolate chips. It was normal for me to say arigatou gozaimasu (thank you very much) to the cashier so that wasn't very exciting. As Zoe and I headed home, it began to rain. Thankfully we had coats, but it was really hot so we kept our hoods off. As we ran to catch the light, it turned to red and the rain continued. A nice lady with a very nice store selling purses invited us to stand under her awning. Then, what do you know? She started to talk to us in Japanese and Zoe and I (did I tell you she moved the same time I did?) stood with confused looks on our faces until she got the courage to say we don't speak Japanese. Then I said, "Wait." I quickly introduced me and Zoe. Then I also said I speak a little (sukoshi) Japanese (Ni-hon-go). She than smiled and said in English we were very pretty girls. As the light changed, we waved, said good-bye (sayonara) and headed home.
We told my mother (okaasan) and my sensei (teacher) that I spoke Japanese to someone who wasn't teaching me!!! I was so happy! I am awesome right?  (Sayonara) Bye!
Greer <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
(I had to ask Greer what was after her name.  Those are hearts.)

I thought Greer was going to talk more about her lessons overall, but I guess she had other ideas.  So I'll just add some stuff.  I won't write about her two teachers, though.  I'll have her do that in a later posting.  Greer and I are both taking lessons from Tokyo Lingual, one of the two choices we have from Exxon.  Tokyo Lingual utilizes the Kitani Method in its teaching.  I won't go into the details of the Kitani Method, but suffice it to say that we're supposed to learn Japanese much faster this way. :)  The first lesson is with Mark (Motohiko) Kitani, the linguist who developed the Kitani Method.  In that lesson, he gives an overview of the Japanese language and a preview of the lessons to come.  (This is the lesson about which Greer talked in the above paragraph.)  Then he assigns two different teachers, who each come to the apartment for an hour's lesson each week.  Greer and I each had our introductory lesson (we are doing separate lessons instead of a joint one) in early February.  Then we started our twice weekly lessons.  Greer's teachers are Mari sensei and Eri sensei and my teachers are Umino-san and Kaneko-san.  We've each had about half a dozen lessons.  It is a little joke between us to say to each other, "Japanese is a simple language."  That's what Mark Kitani said several times during our introductory lesson, and Greer and I are not sure we agree.  

However, while Greer argues that English is easy, we all know it's not really. 

Feb. 23 to 26, 2012 - Nikko

ASIJ had a midwinter break Thursday and Friday, Feb. 23 and 24.  We went to Nikko with our friends the Webbs for the break and stayed in a place called Woodsmans Village outside of Nikko.  We drove out of the city late Thursday morning, following the Webbs' van.  There was a good bit of traffic inside the city, but once we were out of the city, it was clear sailing.  Nikko is in the mountains north of Tokyo, and Woodsmans Village (http://woodsmansvillage.com/ENGLISH-MAIN/english-main.html) is about 15 minutes away from Nikko.  It consists of six cabins of various sizes surrounded by woods, with a nearby creek.  When we arrived on Thursday afternoon, we decided to put the five kids into one cabin and the four adults into the other cabin.  We unloaded the cars, unpacked, and hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids explored the woods and managed to get wet and dirty.  {editorial note from Greer: Although Greer and Beth washed out the pants and hung them to dry and did various other chores for cleaning, Cooper, Ellie, and Isaac managed to somehow track in various amounts of dirt.}  Whitney and I did drive into town to go to the store because they had forgotten their towels and toothbrushes.  When the kids were getting ready for bed that night, I discovered my kids also didn't have their toothbrushes.  Although I had helped them pack their toiletry bag, somehow it didn't make the cut when they were packing their duffels.  Greer claimed she had taken it out because there wasn't room for it.  She also said she had told me this, but she must have whispered it while I was in the other room.  Pretty sure I would have told her to make room for it.  I feel it necessary to point out that Greer did manage to pack about six scarves, a good bit of yarn, the devil sticks (a juggling toy) and her DRUMS, in addition to all her clothes. 

On Friday, we drove into Nikko.  The shrine that Nikko is most known for is the Toshogu shrine, which consists of over a dozen buildings, including the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.  In addition, there are several other temples and shrines in Nikko.  We visited many of them, which the adults enjoyed and the kids tolerated.  Shrines are associated with Shintoism and temples with Buddhism.  Most people in Japan do not claim a formal affiliation with a religion.  However, there are numerous temples and shrines and a multitude of religious events.  Religious practices are intertwined with social customs, and people do certain things because that's the way it's always been done.

On Saturday, we woke up to falling snow.  We had considered another activity that day, but the snow changed our minds.  Not only were we not keen to drive on mountain roads in the snow, but we figured the kids would enjoy playing in the snow.  So today the kids got wet and then dry, and repeated that for several cycles.  The adults took a walk, played cards, and three out of four of them napped (bet you can guess which one didn't).

On Sunday, it was time to pack up, load the cars, and clean up the cabins.  Then we headed back to Tokyo.  It was interesting to see a part of Japan that looks very different from Tokyo.  All in all, we had a fun, relaxing vacation.

Below are several (though not all :) ) of the pictures I took on our trip.  There's a lot, but I had put these pictures on Facebook, so I figured they better all go in the blog.  I've promised mine and Andrew's mom that nothing goes on Facebook that doesn't also get in the blog.

Heading out of Tokyo on Thursday.  Traffic, rain - ugh.

Made it out.  Webbs' van still in front of us - check.

Mountains around Nikko

Crest of Tokugawa family (Toshogu shrine)

Pagoda at Toshogu shrine

Cooper and Isaac at the base of the pagoda

Famous monkeys on the Sacred Stable

Oh, sure, THIS is where they decide to use some English.

Greer and Cooper with their friends Beth, Isaac, and Ellie

Okusha-houtou, with remains of Ieyasu Tokugawa

MANY steps up to the Okusha

Futarasan shrine

Couldn't keep these guys straight, so don't remember what this is. 

Purification - I was definitely worried that Cooper would so something to make the water impure.

Another climb up.  Guess it's okay I skipped the exercycle today.

Cooper hamming it up

Pretty sure Greer is not as into it as Cooper.

The creek near our cabins - didn't take the kids long to get wet.

We woke up to snow on Saturday.  This is the cabin where we put the 5 kids.

Snow on Saturday morning -  view near our front porch

Path through the woods - the kids had a good time exploring.

Here's our other cabin - the adult cabin.

Water conservation method that I had not seen before.
 (That's a faucet above the tank so you can wash your hands with the water refilling the tank.)

Feb. 14, 2012 - Valentine's Day

I thought I was going to be the hero.   Last night we realized Cooper needed to do valentines for his class.   They do celebrate Valentine's Day here in Japan.  However, I can't exactly run out to Target to pick up some valentines for him to pass out.  If they even sell those little cards we buy in the States, I would have no idea where to go here.  So he was going to have to make them, and he is NOT my crafty child.   I remembered I had a box with a bunch of valentine stuff, including the remnants of several boxes of valentines from past years.   AND, I was able to find said box.  Look, Cooper, you can use whatever's in here!   You don't have to make them!   I had some that, of course, he woudn't like, but I had plenty that would work for a 9-year-old boy, including several sports cards.  Well, after much complaining about the selection, he finally decided to make them himself.  So glad I carted that box to Tokyo.

Drew spent this week in the States, leaving at noon on Sunday the 11th and returning for dinner the following Sunday.  Didn't remember about Valenine's Day.  It's lucky for him I don't care, but it IS good for a little teasing.  Luckily, I got a card from Drew's parents and candy from my parents.  Somebody loves me! :)

Feb. 5 and Feb. 11, 2012 - Cub Scouts

Cooper has joined the Cub Scout Pack at ASIJ.  This month there was a den meeting on Sunday, Feb. 5.  On Saturday, Feb. 11, there was a nature activity at Ueno Park, in the northeast part of Tokyo.  I'm going to have Cooper tell you about what he did this month.

First, the den meeting:
We worked on our Artist badge.  My friend's dad likes to make oil paintings, so we got to go to his art area and look around.  He also told us about the canvases and his other equipment.  We learned about the different types of artists from the same friend's mom.  And we also made a little thing on a piece of paper.

Now, the nature activity:
Mom and I had to take the train to Ueno Park, and it was a long ride.  Once we got to Ueno Park, we started the nature walk, and we saw many types of trees.  One of the trees was the spotted laurel, and the birds eat the seeds and poop out the seeds and it grows again. :)  We also saw lots of different kinds of birds.  One duck has red eyes and a yellow head; it was so boss.  We went all the way around Ueno Park and that's about it.  Sayonara!  Hasta la vista!

 Hmm, I might add a few more details for Cooper.  Drew left town Sunday night (Feb. 5) for Singapore, so he took Cooper to the meeting in the afternoon for some father-son time.  Cooper had already done the Artist badge (at Twilight Camp over the summer), but he enjoyed working on it again.  He also liked meeting the boys in the den, several of whom are in his class at school.  No word from Drew on the meeting.  Getting his contributions to the blog has been a little tricky because they've been keeping him a mite busy at work.

Drew returned on Friday from Singapore.  Since he was to leave again at noon on Sunday, this time for the U.S., I took Cooper to Saturday's nature activity to give Drew a little time at home.  We had a bit of a challenge finding the meeting place for the Pack.  The problem was that there was no clear direction on leaving the subway station to get to the park.  Many of the subway stations can be quite large, with several exits.  If you're in the correct station but do not know your exit number, then you are still lost.  However, we did eventually find the entrance to the park, and from there, spotting a large group of boys and parents was easy.

That's Cooper in the blue coat close to the camera.  (All the long hair poking out of the Cub Scout cap is a tip-off.)

The tour was led by Julie Fukuda, who seemed very knowledgeable about all the trees and birds in Ueno Park.  I looked at some biographical info about her later.  She is an American, but married a Japanese man and has lived in Japan nearly 50 years.  She is involved in many volunteer activities, including Scouting.  When she was 14, her Girl Scout troop was forced to disband when they could not find a leader, and at that point, she told herself she would never say no to a kid who wanted Scouting.  I am grateful for the dedicated, wonderful leaders my children have had in Scouting.  Thank you to them all!  (By the way, if you meet any of the people in our ASIJ pack, say nothing about the two of us having ANYTHING to do with Cub Scout leadership in the U.S.  It's a secret.)

I took pictures of many of the trees Julie talked about, and I took a few notes on my iPhone.  However, the only one I can now reliably identify is the one Cooper mentioned in his paragraph: the spotted laurel.  Here it is:

After the trees came the birds.  Julie handed out a sheet to each of the boys and interested parents with pictures of many of the migratory birds that winter in Ueno Park.

Cooper and I were able to identify several of the birds.  We did pretty well!  I took some pictures of the birds, but you can't really see any of the identifying characteristics in my pictures.  I guess a nature photographer I am not.  There were some paddle boats at the park, and Cooper thought we should rent one because he was sure we'd see many more birds that way.  Since it was about 40 degrees and windy, I declined.  (Dad, I forgot my hat. :) )  Here's one final picture of Cooper towards the end of the activity.  You can see a duck in the background. :)

Japanese word of the day:  himitsu  (click to hear pronunciation) means "secret"


     

Feb. 4, 2012 - I don't speak English!

As I mentioned in the Feb. 1 post, we bought a car.  Today was the day to drive it for the first time.  Well, it was the day for Drew to drive it.  I'm a big chicken.  As of the day I'm writing this, I still haven't driven the car.  (Okay, correction - I started this several days ago, and I have now driven the car - yes, we survived.)  The original plan this morning had been for me and the kids to take the bus to ASIJ for Greer's swim meet.  Drew was going to drive there in the car, using the navigation system.  This way we knew Greer would make it on time for her meet.  Then after the meet, we would drive the car to Costco.  We bought the car from an Australian "transportation provider" named Mick who's been living here for about 20 years.  He had sold our friends the Webbs their car, both this stay in Tokyo and their previous stay in Tokyo.  The navigation system in the car is all in Japanese, so Drew had Mick program in a handful of destinations for us, including our home, ASIJ, Costco, and Mick's house, so we can drive there if we need him to program something else for us.

I came up with the, if I do say so myself, brilliant idea of walking the kids to the Saturday bus stop, seeing them on the bus, and then walking back to the apartment to drive with Drew to the school.  This way I could help him navigate and he wouldn't be on his own.  Drew said later that if I hadn't done that, he probably would have eventually given up, driven home (assuming he could find home), and called us to tell us to take the Saturday bus back home after the meet.

Let's start with Drew having to remember to which side of the car to walk when we got to the garage.  Yep, that was the first challenge.  Then the next challenge was getting out of our immediate neighborhood onto the main road.  There's a slight lag with the navigation system (to which we eventually adjusted), which caused us to miss the first right turn we were supposed to take.  In trying to compensate for that mistake and in trying to make sure we avoided going the wrong way down any one-way streets, we ended up on a street that was quite narrow.  We're pretty sure it was meant for cars to go down it since there were a number of residences along the street that had parking spaces with cars in them.  However, it might not have been meant for OUR car to go down it.  When we finally decided we needed to turn off it to get to the main road, I had to get out of the car to assist Drew in making a more-than-3-point turn.  Some time later, we arrived at the school.  I forgot to check to see exactly what time we left so I could determine how long it took us.  The school bus takes about 35 minutes, or perhaps a little longer, to make the drive.  I do know it took us a good bit longer than that.  For one thing, there's a toll road between our house and the school, but somehow we didn't end up on it.  We kept missing turns that the navigation system wanted us to take, and in the course of the route recalculations, we must not have made it onto the tollway.  Maybe our navigation system didn't think we could handle the tollway.  It sure was telling us something in Japanese.  However, we did eventually make it, and we arrived at the pool just as they were getting ready to swim the first race.  (I should point out that the reason we made it for the first race is that the meet started about 10-15 minutes late.  I don't think it was run by a Japanese person.)

Challenge once the meet was over: driving to Costco.  ASIJ is in Chofu, which is to the west of us.  We were going to the Costco in Kawasaki, which is to the south of us.  However, there's no direct route between the two.  We pretty much had to drive back towards our house, continue east past it, and then catch a tollway going south.  Of course, I don't think I realized at the time that's what we were doing.  I was too busy trying to decipher the directions on the navigation system to have any clue about the big picture.

We did, at least, manage to get on the tollway once we left the school.  We successfully paid two different tolls, but then we arrived at the third one.  Drew attempted to pay 1,000 yen, but the tollbooth operator didn't take it and instead asked him a question.  We, of course, had no idea what he was asking and Drew tried again to give him the money.  This continued on for a few minutes, with Drew getting increasingly frustrated.  When the tollbooth operator started waving around a piece of paper, Drew, who was thinking, "I don't understand what you're saying - how am I going to read that piece of paper?", finally blurted out "I don't speak English!"  At that point, probably since I was a little more removed from the situation, I realized that the tollbooth operator was waving around a receipt and he wanted to see our receipt from the previous toll.  We produced the receipt, he waved us through, and the kids kept telling Drew, "I bet he's wondering what language you DO speak then, since you don't speak English and you clearly don't speak Japanese."  I think it will be awhile before they let him live that one down.

Japanese word of the day:  Eigo  (click to hear pronunciation) means "English"

Also, I don't think we've had Japanese as our word of the day yet, which clearly we should have, so
Nihongo means "Japanese"
(This refers specifically to the language, not a Japanese person, which would be Nihon-jin.)