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"