Snowboard trip

Sarah skis, the others snowboard (I walk)

Recently we pulled the kids out of school for a few days and headed about 4.5 hrs. west. We live on the Pacific side of Japan but the Sea of Japan side is know for the huge amounts of snow they get, and therefore there are many great ski places. Where we live here in Shizuoka we do not get snow, so the kids were very excited to see snow again.

Our good friends here go to this ski resort frequently so they gave us all the good tips, like a close hotel.  One of the highlights was the Hot Spring that the ski resort is built on. Our hotel had their own “onsen” (public hot bath). One of the favorite winter activities here in Japan is to go to the public baths and we’re beginning to catch the passion. It takes a bit of getting used to since we weren’t exactly used to “public bathing” but now we are hooked.

This is the the road outside our hotel

The amount of snow really was staggering. It was up to the roofs of some one-story homes. Thankfully it snowed before we arrived, and it was sunny while we were there.

Notice the men on the roof

Because of the deep snow, the roofs were full of men shoveling snow off the whole time we were there. No safety straps or anything. Yet I never saw anyone fall off. The roof of the house right outside our hotel window was being shoveled all night but it only affected our sleep a little.

 

Breakfast before hitting the slopes

Although our hotel was somewhat dingy and old, the 4 course breakfasts were amazing! I serve American-style breakfasts in our own home so it was fun to eat fish, hot fried tofu, rice, miso soup and pickled radish before hitting the slopes. The fact that I could enjoy this is a sign that I’ve come a LONG way since moving here 7 years ago.

Headed up the mountain on the lift

One of our favorite things is to see different parts of Japan, so we really enjoyed going to Niigata for the first time.  The “Northern Alps” (as the mountains are called) were breathtaking. We’d love to be able to go back again sometime!

 

 

Little parts of our life in Japan

A few weeks ago a friend asked if we could get some kids together to do Trick-or-treating. I was surprised, as generally Japanese don’t know what that is. Well, she organized it all and on Halloween the kids were able to go to about 10 houses. They were pretty excited to experience trick-or-treating!

The last stop was our house where we carved a pumpkin and served Pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies

Sarah loves animals but getting a dog or cat is not realistic for us. Although gerbils are not generally found in Japan, we contacted an exotic pet shop in Tokyo and they shipped us one. He arrived safe and sound (I had my doubts) and has turned out to be our favorite pet yet.

"Twitch" is rarely not being held

Door-to-door sales are very common in Japan. We were even advised to use salesmen as natural language partners when we first came to Japan. Everything from milk, beauty products, tofu, baked sweet-potatoes, bamboo laundry polls and kerosene for heaters is sold. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons even make their semi-annual stop here.  I was quite intrigued though when a baker rang my bell one day. He comes around weekly and sells small rolls and breads out of his little van. I often buy from him because I think it is so fun. The “Yellow Bakery” plays a song (like an American ice-cream truck) so you know when he is coming.

The kids love it when there are chocolate-filled rolls waiting for them after school

In June Brian and I went away for a weekend to a hotel on a peninsula in our prefecture. We took a ferry. Unfortunately it rained most of the time (it was rainy season) but we still had a fun time at the hotel, enjoyed the hot springs and even found a rain-free afternoon on the beach. White sand and swimmable beaches are rare in Japan, so I especially enjoyed the ocean.

a view from our hotel room

Now that all our kids are in elementary school they eat mandatory school lunches each day. Very easy for mom, nutritional and cheap. But on field trip days, I need to send them a lunch. No sandwiches and chips here! Lunches are generally cooked food and i have heard the ideal is 5 different textures x 5 different colors = 25 items. I’m sure I don’t reach that goal, but it does take quite a while to prepare this for all 3 kids – rice balls with seaweed, cooked eggs, edamame, fish flakes, sausages, tomatoes and cucumbers. I made these daily for 6 years while the kids were in the kindergarten system. I’m finding “occasional” a little more fun that daily.

The left side and middle ones are stackable, they have two levels to the lunch box. They are tied together with a band and put in a bag.

Rice Planting and Harvesting

Robbie is in 5th grade and one of their class projects was raising and harvesting rice. I was thrilled that they invited the moms along to help (not that I was ANY help, having absolutely no experience). Planting was in June- during rainy season, on a particularly rainy and cold day. They flood the field and you go in the mud to plant the little seedlings. There is a grid that they use to make sure the lines of seedlings are straight. Of course nowadays, all planting and harvesting is done by machine. But I’m glad they gave us a hands-on experience, mud and all!

Harvesting happens in October. This time it was a beautiful sunny and relatively cool day. They had already harvested half the field by machine (thankfully, whew!). Tying up the bundles was especially challenging so they had the moms help with that part. Although I had no clue what I was doing, most of the teachers and moms seemed to get a kick out of a foreigner attempting their classic rice-harvesting.

The many containers of seedlings just waiting for us

I was thankful they provided these farming boots. They are suctioned to your calves - because once you get in the mud, it's almost impossible to get your foot out again!

A local mr. farmer expert came and taught us how to plant the seedlings. Robbie's 5th grade is in the red hats

The seedlings lined up and ready in the rain

Robbie in the flooded field ready to plant

Us moms got a chance in the mud too

Japanese are known for their precision and they didn't disappoint here. It HAD to go exactly in the upper right hand corner

Really wet, really cold and really muddy - but we're done!

The rice turns a beautiful golden color when ripe. Robbie's class made the scarecrow in the background

Mr. Farmer back again, teaching how not to hurt each other with the scythes

Robbie cutting a bundle of rice

tying two sets of bundles together with a dry reed

Robbie's group of 3 with their tied bundle, ready to hang and dry

Hanging the bundle on the rack to dry for about 2 weeks

Done! Took about 2 hours for 80 of us to complete the half field

In case you are like me and had no idea which part was the actual rice, it is the small brown seed-looking ones. If you crack open that seed, inside is the rice kernel. If you crack that one open, then you'll get white rice.

Visitors

My brother Michael and we hiked up a scenic overlook, Nihondaira, and got a good view of Mt. Fuji. Then we took a cablecar over to another mountain top and toured an historic temple

This past year a highlight for us was two very special visitors we had. My brother, Michael, came to visit in January. He had a business trip in China and was able to make a weekend stop-over here in Japan. The other was Brian’s mom, Barb. She has been planning to visit for several years, but finally was able to do it this year. She spent three weeks with us in March, which was the kids spring break, before heading on to the Philippines to visit Brian’s brother Bruce and his family.

With Michael we ate a variety of Japanese food (I think he enjoyed Japanese food more than any visitor we’ve ever had), hiked a nearby mountain with a view of the bay and Mt. Fuji and played lots of ball outside with the kids. The 3 days flew by!

Barb has been to Japan several times before, so we didn’t do much sightseeing things. We went to an all-you-can-eat strawberry field, and visited a park during the famous blooming of the cherry trees, which she has wanted to see for many years. She was also able to attend Sarah’s kindergarten graduation with us, which was very special for Sarah. But we mostly just played games and did puzzles and spent time together. It was very fun and, even though it was 3 weeks, the time again flew by!

Celebrating Michael's birthday while he was here

Introducing Uncle Mike to the conveyor belt sushi restaurant

Grandma Barb doing a sewing project with the girls

Hiking up to a waterfall in our preficture

Visiting a local park to see the cherry blossoms

In a green house at my friend's strawberry farm - the largest, sweetest strawberries you'll ever taste

Robbie’s Soccer Club

Although Robbie usually plays defense, he got to play offense here and had a little ball-action

Last December Robbie joined a soccer club. It is called “CEUSE”. That is an acronym that stands for words like “communication” and “effort” (although I can’t remember them all). He has practice on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays from 5-7pm. And about once a month he has a game. Although it is a recently started club, the numbers of kids joining have been growing. Robbie has invited a few of his friends – Mario, Shoki and Yuki- to join, which they have, so now he’s eager to go to practices.

A few things we like about this club is that it is low on competition and high on learning, having fun, and growing in confidence. We also like that it meets just down the road at the kids’ elementary school, which means Robbie can walk there and picking him up only takes about 60 seconds. All sports in Japan are year-round, so kids generally get to experience only one sport, but soccer seems to be a really good fit for Robbie.  Although, he still has a dream to play American football someday.

 

Here are some pictures of the past year on the team:

Robbie's first day of practice last December

 

Robbie's long awaited game uniform (he owns two - one for away games, one for home)

On the sidelines with his team, before his first game

Elementary School Sports Day 2010

The biggest day of the year for schools in Japan is Sports Day “運動会” (undokai). The kids practice for a full month before the event. The biggest events are the individual sprints and the class relays. Four boys and four girls from each class are chosen to be part of their relay team and all of our kids were chosen this year. They go early to school each morning to practice and also practice during afternoon recess.

Robbie won his individual sprint for his grade last year so there was alot of talk about whether he would win again this year.  There is some pretty stiff competition. He was hopeful he would come in at least 2nd. Drum roll please…. first again. His form has really improved over the years but it’s probably mostly his competitive spirit that brings him across the finish line.(Click in the lower right-hand corner of a video to see it full-screen)

Brianne came in second for her individual sprint. Her form definitely looked great this year and her long legs are definitely an advantage.

We weren’t quite sure how Sarah would do for her sprint – we thought with her laid-back temperament she might stop to pick some flowers on the way. But she did great concentrating on the cone that she was running too and came in second.

Robbie and Brianne were in the same relay race – the 4th through 6th graders run together. Unfortunately their team was disqualified because of an illegal hand-off but both of them did great running and passing the baton.

Each of the kids class dances were fun to watch.  Robbie’s 5th grade class with the 6th graders did 組体操 kumitaiso which is pyramid building. In groups anywhere from 2-20, the theme was famous places around the world. They did about 20 different pyramids (the Great Wall, the Grand Canyon). Robbie’s much smaller friend was on the bottom for alot of these which provided a little comedy – hee, hee. Robbie has had bruises on his knees for a month now due to being on the bottom of the 20 person pyramid. This video is of the Statue Liberty.

It was a fun day ! (click on a picture to see it larger)

Brianne’s traditional fishing dance

Brianne holding the baton

Robbie hitting the ribbon

Mr. muscle man holding up the pyramid

Sarah’s hula-hoop dance

Birthdays

Sarah and her cake

Celebrating with friends

Unicycle

Water balloon toss

Robbie’s party

Robbie and mom with cherry chocolate cake

Playing Othello

Kindle

Over the past week 2 weeks we have celebrated both Sarah’s 7th birthday and Robbie’s 11th birthday. One afternoon we had a blast having 9 of Robbie’s friends over for a party. They played bingo, “pass the parcel”, water balloons and then ended with an hour of water gun fights at the park next door. A few years ago a friend said that anything to do with water was perfect for a boys party and she was definitely right.

Sarah celebrated her birthday with us and a good friend from church, Shoko and her husband, as well as friends that were visiting from the US, the Mahons. Highlights for her were a unicycle, Wii sports resort, Disney puzzles and a Zhu Zhu pet.

Robbie loved his gifts of books, Othello, bey blades (metal tops) and a Kindle. He’s in book-lovers heaven. Brianne wasn’t left out either, getting a few gifts in the midst of all the celebrations.

Brian and I are so thankful for these precious gifts from God and are so proud of how they are growing up. Every year just gets more and more fun.