The baby leaves the nest

Today was my son's entrance ceremony at school. Fortunately it only lasted for 30 minutes (which consisted of boring speeches... how unusual in Japan) then it was time to collect all the textbooks (for anyone who doesn't know they have textbooks for everything here - even P.E. and Art) and go home! It is amazing how different it is with the second child as opposed to the first - both for me and for the children. I'm not sure who is more excited about my son starting school - my son or older daughter. She has been telling him all the details of what is done every day and he has been listening carefully and taking notes, hoping to get a jump on some of the other students. There are 10 children in his class - the other 9 are all from one different kindergarten and therefore know each other well. My son doesn't seem to be worried by this though and is already starting to make friends.
Tomorrow is his first full day at school - I'll pick him up exhausted at 4pm - no half days to start with here. As I have been taking him to kindergarten every day for the last few years I am looking forward to farewelling them both at the door tomorrow morning when my husband takes them on the way to work. I plan to be in my dressing gown then settle down with a cup of coffee and a book for the entire morning. I wish anyway! Actually I have to go back to my son's old kindy and do a speech at the entrance ceremony there (almost last duty as the stupid chairperson) then go to a meeting all afternoon. Perhaps Wednesday I can do the dressing gown thing! But for now I need to go and think about what I will say to the kindy parents tomorrow....

Progress report

Despite the children making very detailed rules last night about what time they could start their egg hunt (7am, if Easter Bunny was organised enough), what state of dress they had to be in, whether they needed to have eaten breakfast etc. they were awake by 5:45am and ready to race. Fortunately they waited till 7am to pester me to get up. Last year we were in New Zealand for Easter and my mother had the great idea of making a treasure hunt for the eggs so of course the expectation from the children was pretty high again this year. I managed to make 9 clues and put them in the correct places, correct order etc. and the kids had a great time. They are already counting down till next year.... The only sad point of the day was that my son was a bit grumpy with Easter Bunny. He had written him a letter and asked where he lived and my mother (I mean Easter Bunny) had replied that "I have to keep the place I live in a secret in case bad people come and steal some of the eggs before Easter." This did not impress my son and he spent the whole day stomping around saying that he was not a bad person and would never tell anyone where the Bunny lives, so why didn't he tell him. I told him perhaps next year he would get a more satisfactory answer.....
After the early start we made some progress on the wood shed - well actually I made more progress in the vegetable garden, but my husband and his uncle made some good progress. It is looking a lot bigger than I had imagined and we may be able to use part of it to store the kids bikes. Either that or put a fireplace in every room in the house to use up all the wood that could be stored in it!

Back to "normal"

We said farewell to our guests this morning after a day at the beach and running around trying to get hospital reports. I then took advantage of the beautiful weather to get a bit more work done in our vegetable garden. For anyone who is new to my blog, I have a pretty big vegetable garden which I promise myself I will try to keep under control every year, but which usually ends up looking more like a weed pile than a luscious vegetable garden. However this year things are much more under control than usual and I have less than half a row to weed tomorrow before I can basically call it a weed free garden... until next week anyway! Click on the photo to get a better view.
The children decided the great weather was a wonderful excuse to play baseball... in their swimming togs.... with their goggles on..... The reason why they needed this attire? - because the "ball" they were using was a bottle filled with water. Fortunately they didn't throw the bottle, only the water in it... not many home runs though!
Other exciting happenings today - my husband asked his father to help with concreting the floor of our new wood shed this morning - without me prompting! I think my rant at him last week may have paid off. Hopefully tomorrow the actually building part of it will progress further. Other news - my friend called and told us she had caught a swarm of bees for us so we just put them in their new home... unfortunately "the Easter bunny" was just coming in from delivering his eggs when she was given the command to come and help and didn't bother putting on gloves or a long sleeve top. I (I mean Easter bunny) am now getting fidgety thinking there are lost bees flitting inside my top - despite having taken it off two times to examine it! Here's hoping the bees stay in the new hive this year. They all ran away last year...

Update

We are having amazing spring weather right now and it is doing its job to keep genuine smiles on our faces.

Yesterday we took off to the park for an hour or so, just to let my son have a good run around. A nice break in the sunshine! Note the beautiful blue sky.....

By the way, I deleted the last entry and edited this one for reasons which only I and perhaps those that read the last entry can imagine.

Stubbornness

I think I have a serious problem when it comes to seeds. I love seeds... and can't seem to throw old packets of seeds away despite the fact that their shelf life is well and truly passed and therefore the chances of them germinating are practically zero (even if I do store them in a cool, dark place as opposed to in a tin in the hot greenhouse like someone else I know... mother!). So every year I try to use up all my seeds from the previous ten years by planting pots and pots of seeds in our (fortunately) very big greenhouse. This year is no exception and the children have been helping lots by filling lots of pots with soil. The biggest problem is that they then need watering every day and the closest tap is a little walk away and the hose doesn't reach. So when it was raining the other day I walked passed the garage that has a drain spout that was a bit broken and decided to use it to collect water from the roof for watering the seeds. Miraculously my invention (which took 2 minutes to build) seems to be working and as long as we get some more rain soon I may not have to walk so far for water over the next few weeks when I need to water my zillions of pots of seeds that are not likely to germinate anyway!
Our other big job for the weekend was to build a wood shed for our mounting wood pile. Until now we have just been covering it with plastic etc. and to be honest I have never had a problem with it, but apparently the time has come to make a proper shed for it. My image of a wood shed is a few posts which hold up a roof and maybe a couple of walls on the side. My father-in-law used to do concreting for a job and uncle-in-law (is that a word?) is a builder so by using their help it should be a simple thing to build a shed..... only my husband is too stubborn to ask my father-in-law to help and my father-in-law is too stubborn to offer his help so things move a little more slowly than they should. Of course no one else seems to have my "build things in 2 minutes" mentality either so everything has to be measured exactly, leveled exactly etc. (brings back visions of the chicken house). As a result we now have concrete blocks in place... after a whole day's work...... need I say more!
Tomorrow we have a repeat visitor coming... unfortunately not in the best circumstances. The mother that stayed the other night has been hospitalized with food poisoning (fortunately not from here!) and the daughter is being looked after by another family, but will come to us from tomorrow until the mother is well enough to get out of hospital... perhaps until Sunday. Not a great way to spend their first trip to Japan!

Spring at Harmony Land

For anyone who doesn't know (shame on you!) Harmony land is the home of the famous Japanese character "Hello Kitty". It is about a 20 minute drive from our house and yesterday we had the pleasure (??) of going yet again - this time with our latest guests. They were a mother and 11 year old daughter from Canada and were with crazy biking Joe as part of a "car tour". It was nice to meet them and show them some of the "cute" side of Japan... although there are only so many times I can get excited about looking at Kitty! (and paying the entrance fee...) On the bright side it was the first time I have been there in spring and they had done a great job of bringing in cherry blossom trees (the ones in the picture are potted) and had violas and pansies everywhere (again often potted...). Tulips were in full bloom too so if you could stop the spinning feeling from the teacups (the little boy who also joined us was sure they were coffee cups) for long enough they made the visit bearable. Of course the kids had a great time - their one real treat in the spring holidays!

Cleaning

Anybody who knows me well knows that I will never win any awards for being the most enthusiastic cleaner in the world. If I have done some cleaning (and by this I usually stop at vacuuming...) while the children are away they always come home and say "who is coming?" or "who came to visit today?". So although I love having visitors I don't really enjoy cleaning the house in preparation for their arrival. However this week I seem to be on a bit of a roll. We had two sets of friends come to play on Monday, followed by guests last night and there are more guests arriving tomorrow. The cottage has been cleaned twice in the last two days and the house is still reasonably tidy and even a few windows have been cleaned. I hope the kids (and my husband) don't get used to it to much!
Last night's guests were a family from kindergarten. The older daughter had planned to come with a couple of friends, but when they pulled out the family decided to come instead. It was fun for the children to have children to play with and I spent most of my time chatting with the mother and her older daughter - if you could call it chatting! The mother is very worried about how shy the daughter is... so I spent a lot of time trying to get her to communicate. As is often the case the biggest problem was the mother who would answer every question I asked directly to the daughter etc. I guess one day the daughter will rebel and become her own person... when is the question! The younger daughter is exactly one year younger than my son - another reminder of how tall my children are!
More guests tomorrow followed by a trip to see Kitty on Friday - can hardly wait!

School Holidays?

My daughter has been on holiday since Thursday. The holidays finish on the 8th of April. So why on earth did she have to go to school today? Because... this is Japan and you could never go for an entire holiday without going to school! Today they all had to go to school to farewell the teachers who are being transferred. Unlike in New Zealand where you apply to work at a given school, here in Japan you usually apply to work for a given board of education and then on the 27th of March (or thereabouts) the transfers are announced (decided by the board of education) and from the start of April (that's right folks - a whole 4 days notice) the teachers begin at their new school - with the new school year beginning a week later. Of course the announcement is made just after the school term has finished hence the need to come back and farewell the teachers. It seems like teachers are transferred every 3 or 4 years, with some rare cases of teachers being in schools for 6 years or more. Just as they get used to one school they are moved on.... this is also the case for workers at the city office - they are transferred between different sections just as soon as they get used to one. One day they might be a member of the board of education and the next they are in charge of waste management... according to my husband (who wasn't transferred this year) this is to prevent the workers learning too much about one section and therefore doing "bad things". However, considering how many government officials etc. that have been arrested lately this argument doesn't seem to be valid!

All over... at last!

A few days late, but... we all survived my son's last day at kindergarten and the ceremony that went with it. My son managed to receive his certificate with the appropriate bowing, holding and folding and I managed to get through my speech with a minimum of tears. Although I rubbish all the ceremonies here a lot, I actually think they are very important for the children in terms of finishing an era and signally the start of another era. The 18 children in the class will all split up and go to 9 different primary schools so it was the last time that we will see a lot of the children - apart from random sightings at the supermarket etc. To be honest there will be a few parents that I won't mind not seeing, but a lot of the mothers became good friends so I hope we will be able to keep in contact. It was nice to be accepted as a "mother" rather than a "foreigner".
My son also received a special trophy for not missing one day of kindergarten all year. I guess that makes up for the 3 months he missed last year when we went to New Zealand.
Graduation ceremony finished... entrance ceremony to come - can hardly wait!

Will I ever learn?

Tomorrow is the farewell party for my son's class at kindergarten. All the children who aren't graduating make presents to give to those who are graduating and vice versa. The parents also pool their money and give something to all the teachers at the kindergarten to say thanks for all their hard work. Usually they buy a t-shirt or some socks... but, me being the stupid person that I am suggested that we give them something a little more memorable and suggested tumblers - after all my Christmas efforts I thought that I could probably whip up the required 10 without too much trouble. Unfortunately I hadn't counted on all the other mothers thinking it was such a great idea that they wanted one too. So today I finally finished all 28 cups... next time I think I will keep my mouth shut or suggest that no one can ever have too many pairs of socks!
I also made a key holder for all the children with pictures of all their classmates. Maybe next time I should just claim that the printer is broken!
I also discovered today that I have to do a speech not only at the graduation ceremony, but also at the entrance ceremony for the new children at kindergarten in April. I thought my reign as chairperson was over, but obviously not quite. yet..... bugger!

While the cat's away.....

Again two posts in one night.... having had no coffee for three days (see post below for reason) that one cup I had earlier tonight has worked miracles!
While I was working hard at camp my husband was "playing" hard. Unfortunately the kind of play he was doing was not cheap play. He had to go to a Japanese wedding for a co-worker. For anyone that is not familiar with the Japanese wedding custom here it is not a cheap experience! As an invited guest you are expected to bring along a pretty envelope - like the one pictured here which is stuffed with cash. As a co-worker my husband was obliged to pay 30,000 yen (approx. $NZ 560). Family members pay two to three times this (or more....). For this he got a nice meal and ample alcohol, got to watch the bride and groom change outfits 3 times (well not literally watch them getting changed, but you know what I mean!) - making a grand entrance each time, and then when the set 2 hours was up was given his bag of goodies and sent home. In general the guests are given gifts worth about half the amount of money you originally give, but I have the feeling he was ripped off this time! The second picture is what he received - a box of small cakes, a box of special red-bean rice, and a photo album which was filled with cards which formed a catalogue from which he could choose his own gift - all of them looking like the 3,000 yen range gift. Both of us looked right through the catalogue and were unable to find even one thing that vaguely interested us!

I know that by stopping this gift giving tradition the economy would probably dive even further, but I really wish you could just pay half the money from the start and then use the other half to buy yourself something that you really, really want - or better still, use it to buy that week's groceries! I think this week we might be in for vegetables from the garden, rice from the parents-in-law and not a lot else - all because my husband was invited to a wedding!

Oh - another interesting piece of information - although there were close to one hundred guests at the wedding (you can work out the profit that someone is making from this!) there were only 6 friends of the groom and 2 friends of the bride.... all the rest were co-workers (okay so some of these may have been friends too), friends of the parents and close family members. I am so happy we didn't bother to have a Japanese wedding!

A LONG weekend away

I have just spent the 3-day weekend here "working". I had to run a camp for 40 children, while also looking after my children - I definitely call that work! They are a group that I work with twice a year, and although that makes it easier in many ways, thinking of ways to challenge and entertain them gets harder each time. One of the biggest problems I have is that despite my daughter being 2 years younger than the youngest participants and my son being 4 years younger than the youngest participants they are taller than a lot of the participants... which means that they get treated as being a lot older than they are. They love this in many ways, but also get extremely tired trying to keep up etc. It is great being able to take them to work with me, but ...... it was also nice being able to bring them home tonight! And even nicer that tomorrow I have a completely free day (I hope I haven't spoken too soon!).
Every time I work with this group I am grateful that my children don't have the option of going to a private primary school here (sorry if anyone reading this is offended....). The difference in the ways of thinking and attitudes towards other members of the group of the private school students is sooooo different to those at public schools. They are so used to being pushed to be number one that they don't bother to think about others in the group and are always trying to gain an edge on others rather than working together (which is the aim of these camps....). I guess it all comes down to what you believe "good education" is, but I would far rather have children that don't always get 100% on their tests but think about others than children that get 100% on tests, but have no consideration for other people. Personal preference I guess!

Trial Run

Today I went to my first "ceremony" of the "ceremony season". It was a graduation ceremony at a kindergarten that I teach at and because I was invited as one of the VIPs I got to sit with the policeman, the post office chief, the education board chief etc. The main problem with this is that whenever anybody does anything during the ceremony they have to bow at the VIPs table before and after doing it and then the VIPs have to bow back.... every time.... I was going to pass the time by counting how many times I had to bow, but lost track after 21. The kids were so funny though - they lost track of when they should be bowing, standing, sitting etc. after the first 10 minutes and ended up making it into a great game.
Next week is my son's graduation ceremony (that's right, from kindergarten.....) so at least today I got to see what the current "fashion" is so I don't make too much of a fool of myself. Traditionally all graduation ceremonies are very somber events and therefore you wear your black funeral outfits, but fortunately more and more people are adding a bit of colour. I would hate to break the rules... again!

Final Kindergarten Outing

Today was yet another "last" day. It was my son's last outing with his kindergarten friends before he graduates next week (yes, for anyone unfamiliar with the Japanese system... children "graduate" from kindergarten here). They went to the park that they always go to and had a great time running around and basically tiring themselves out. I am always impressed by how much energy the teachers have - the mothers tend to sit down and chat with a nice cup of coffee, but the teachers are always up and down the slides, playing soccer etc. I guess it is their job, but they do it so well! The last outing also meant the last weekly Wednesday "bento" (packed lunch) too.... or at least until the first outing at school! I can't say I made a huge effort with it, but there wasn't anything left in it when it came home - perhaps because they weren't allowed to eat their snacks until they had finished everything in their lunch box!
After such a busy day I didn't think my son would have much energy left for his swimming test, (they go to swimming lessons and are tested every 2 months) but he managed to do a great job and passed a few more levels - the final level being swimming 10 meters freestyle without taking a breath. My daughter also managed to pass her test of swimming 25m freestyle in less than 45 seconds. Actually she managed to do it in about 38 seconds - which wasn't too bad considering it was the first time she had actually attempted 25m freestyle without any floating assistance! They both did a great job, not that I am biased!

The hikers are back

It's been a few months since my friend Joe brought any guests to the cottage, but he was back in full form on Sunday with a lovely lawyer from England. His guest has come to Japan many, many times before, but has always been centered in Osaka or Tokyo for business meetings. This week he is experiencing the full extent of the Japanese countryside by climbing up lots of mountains with Joe. Every morning after breakfast I always encourage the visitors who are with Joe to make themselves a couple of sandwiches, take some muffins, bananas etc. with them as Joe has a bit a of problem remembering that he is supposed to feed his guests sometimes! Fortunately they don't usually follow Joe's lead in terms of sandwich fillings though. Yesterday it was peanut butter, apple, raspberry jam and cornflakes....

The final run

Two updates in one night.... to be honest I am avoiding having to put the children to bed by hiding in the bedroom pretending to do some work!

On Saturday the overnight "Fuji" train which ran between Tokyo and Oita made its final run before being put to sleep. For the last few weeks there have been increasing numbers of train spotters on the tracks near here trying to get the perfect shot. It looked like they were out in record numbers on Saturday - the only problem was that it was an absolutely freezing day (snow in some areas) and.... that the train was running almost 2 hours late due to an accident somewhere up the line. Considering trains here in Japan usually run to a 12:13 kind of schedule this delay caused a lot of worry. But being hardy train spotters they all seemed to stick around and the train seemed to whistle at every person that it passed. The reason it was stopped was due to lack of patronage - now everyone is complaining saying that for the last 10 years they had planned to ride that train..... I personally prefer the quick shinkansen!

New Desk

For the last few weeks my son has taken an unusual interest in the weather forecast. Every morning he informs me that it will be sunny with the occasional cloudy period, or cloudy with occasional rain etc. It took me ages to work out why there was such a sudden interest in the weather. And then I remembered... I had told him that we wouldn't be able to go and get his new desk (a hand me down from a cousin) unless it was a fine day. Of course I meant a fine day in the weekend that also coincided with his father being free and his auntie being at home to let us in to get the desk. It has taken over a month for all these things to be right, but he now has his new desk - and I think he has spent at least 7 hours sitting at it since Saturday.... here's hoping that when he actually starts school and starts getting homework that he is as keen to sit at it! For anyone who has been to our house... the desk is in his room.... up those terrible stairs. There was more than a little bit of swearing going on as it was being maneuvered up!
Along with preparations for my son entering first grade there are the additional preparations required for my daughter entering third grade. The latest item that needed to be purchased was a calligraphy set. They all learn calligraphy here from the third grade with the proper ink set, brushes etc. The only other extra that I know about so far is a recorder that we already had at home.... I'm sure that next week another list will be handed out with more requirements. I can hardly wait!