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.)

Feb. 3, 2012 - Would this happen to me in NYC?

Okay, I realize I'm really getting behind here.  I have a few things jotted down for various days, but I think I need to come up with a plan to get caught up.  I definitely can't skip certain things, like when Andrew told the toll booth operator, "I don't speak English!"  (more on that in Feb. 4's post)  But for now....

There was a PTA Welcome Coffee today at a parent's house in Hiroo (different part of Tokyo).  The previous Saturday at the swim meet, a woman had come up to me and introduced herself.  She'd seen me at the Saturday bus stop two weeks in a row and so figured that I must live in her neighborhood.  We exchanged email addresses and later she invited me to ride with her and a friend, who had a car, to the PTA coffee.  I thanked her and told her that if she would just give me her address, I could meet her and her friend at her apartment building; I'm getting much better with the iPhone map.

Well, while I am getting better, it helps if I have a correct address.  Karen sent me her address and walking directions from the train station.  Before I set out, I looked at her address on google maps, and based on her walking directions, I figured out she must have sent me an incorrect number in the address (more on addresses in a bit).  There was no need for me to walk all the way to the train station, so I decided to use my iPhone to join up to her walking directions, and then follow her directions to her apartment.  After going past a school on my right, the road was supposed to go the left and go up a hill.  Unfortunately, there was a left turn right past the school that went up a hill, so I took it, but Karen meant for me to keep going and the road I was on would curve to the left and go up a hill.  So I'm at the top of the hill, holding my iPhone and walking around, trying to see if there's anything that looks like it could be Karen's apartment building.  I'm just now thinking that there must be a problem with the walking directions.  Do I retrace my steps and hope I can figure out the glitch?  Do I give up and call Karen?  Then an older (meaning "older than me") Japanese woman walks up to me and asks if I need help.  I explain I'm looking for a friend's apartment building and, luckily, I knew the name of the building.  She was familiar with it, and since she wasn't sure how to explain to me directions to get there, she instead walked me all the way to the apartment building.  Arigatou gozaimasu!  (Thank you very much!)


Here's a little bit more info on addresses:
In Japan, you start with the largest unit and work down to the smallest.  So our address would be
Japan
151-0064 (the postal code)
Tokyo (the prefecture)
Shibuya-ku (our city or ward)
Uehara (our district)
2-14-2 (the first 2 is our area, 14 is our neighborhood, and the second 2 is our building)
               (a note on the number of the building: it's often based on when the building was built)
#101 (our apartment number)
last name, then first name

Don't worry about addressing things to us this way.  You can keep using the conventions of the States, where we start with the individual and go the other way.  Mail addressed like that makes it to us just fine.

I read a description that addresses in Japan are based on a spatial instead of a linear organization.  The author described is as being like a pie.  You cut the pie in slices, and then you take each slice and cut it in smaller pieces, and so on until everyone has a piece of the pie.  All I can say is thank goodness for Google maps and my iPhone.  I really couldn't find anything just based on its address.

Japanese word of the day:  juusho  (click to hear pronunciation) means "address"

Feb. 1, 2012 - Money matters

Well, I've been waiting for Drew to write his part for today about his exchange with a bank teller.  That's what the hold-up has been.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

First, my "money matters:"

Japan is very much a cash-based society.  Many places do not take credit cards, and personal checks are not used here.  We used to walk around in the U.S. with $20 in our pocket and think nothing of it.  Here we feel underdressed if we don't have at least 30,000 yen in our wallets.  So if personal checks aren't used in Japan, how do we pay our various utility bills?  Why, at the 7-11, of course!  Today I paid my first bill at the conbini (convenience store).  And yes, there are 7-11's here, though that wasn't the specific one where I paid my bill.  I gave the cashier my bill, he scanned the barcode, I gave him the cash, and he gave me a stamped receipt.  Pretty easy (though it feels a little odd)!

Now, Drew's "money matters:"

Today I needed to move 600,000 JPY from my bank account to that of the car dealer (note from Jen: we're buying a car).  While this can be done online, if you don’t have a Japanese keyboard (or read Japanese, for that matter), the online route is a bit difficult.  Fortunately, I have a Citibank branch in my office building, so I popped down there at lunchtime to get things squared away.  Armed with my trusty printout of the email with instructions from the car dealer, I approached the teller with the normal amount of trepidation.  I successfully told her what I wanted to do, and she explained that she could perform this transaction at her window, but it would cost 850 JPY (about 12 USD).  However, this could be performed at the ATM machine for a smaller charge (425 JPY), which she would be happy to assist me to perform.  She offered this service in a very apologetic manner, as it seemed to me that she felt that even the 425 JPY charge was excessive, and it was a personal failing that she couldn’t conceive of a manner to assist me and further reduce the charge.

First, however, we needed to call and, by using my phone banking pin (which I fortunately had in hand), increase the transaction limit so I could do this at the ATM.  The teller placed the call to the phone banking center, navigated the prompts, and handed me the phone to enter the pin.  She took the phone back and got me to an agent who spoke English, where I bumped my limit up (it took effect immediately).

We then walked over to the ATM together, where she pretty much drove for the entire experience, save entering my pin, and my verifying that a few details had been entered correctly.  Total elapsed time, about 15 minutes.  I’m sure the Citibank execs back in the US who set this counter fee at 850 JPY are quite pleased with themselves for extracting the right value for this service.

P.S.  I went back a few days later to do another transfer and then noticed a small sign on the ATM instructing those who require assistance to go get a teller who will gladly help them.  Only in Japan …

Japanese word of the day:  conbini  (click to hear pronunciation) means "convenience store"