Busted!

After shutting down iPhoto and all the other bajillion apps that were open it didn't take me long to figure out who was playing on the computer.  Sorry if any of you got an illegible comment during that time.  I was being impersonated. 

Decisions

As a mother, how do you know when something that is hard for you is really right for your child?  We've been here three weeks and although I'm loving these daily trips to the park and lazy afternoons watching Disney channel, I've felt like Alexandria needs more in her life.  She's a smart girl and she thrives when she's able to use her intelligence.

So I made a really hard decision.  I put her in school.  Japanese school.  Today was her first day.

If you know me you know I love having my kids home.  Part of me feels awful that she'll be missing out on family time and she may not get as much time with Papi.  Plus, waking up early is killing me!  (Not sure what we're going to do when Papi has home games.)  But, I feel like she needs this so I'm going to try to put my natural man tendencies aside and try to be a good mother for her.

It was hard for her when I told her I found a school.  There were tears, crocodile ones.  She wasn't really happy about not understanding ANYTHING.  But when I told her that she'll learn Kanji her whole attitude changed.  She couldn't sleep last night, anticipating the 7am alarm and her big day.

I was worried that the kids wouldn't accept her, that she would have no one to play with.  The school administrators let us know in their very broken English (that is still better than my Japanese but that's not saying much) that the teachers are on her side but I really wanted her to be able to connect with the students as well.

We bought her new school supplies: inside slippers, chopsticks, a lunch mat, etc. to prepare her for Japanese school.

Our day started early.  We rode the bike to the bridge parked the bike and walked across the bridge to school.

(This picture was taken on the bridge.  The school is the building with the medallion looking thing on it.)

We saw all the hundreds of Japanese school kids with their huge backpacks and bags and little yellow hats.

"Do you want a backpack like theirs?" I asked her.  "They look nice."

She grinned and glared at me.  Obviously a "no".

"Maybe one of those cute little hats?" I continued.  "They said you don't have to wear one but if you want to we can get you one."

"NO," was her definitive answer.

As we waited outside to be taken to her classroom some Japanese students would walk by and stare but most bowed and smiled.  That was cute, so polite.

Her teacher came and gestured with a kind smile to walk her into the school.  We changed our shoes into our inside slippers then walked up to her classroom.  The teacher had us wait in the hallway while she told the class that there was a new student.  When the teacher presented Alexandria to the class they were all super excited.  "Kawai-i" they all said and wanted to feel her hair.  The teacher had them repeat her name, "Al-exa-ndo-rr-ia".  My little girl was nervous but I said bye and prayed that she would have a good day.

It was a long day for this momma.  I kept looking at my cell phone, 4 more hours, 3.5 more hours, 3.25 more hours . . . Finally, it was time to go get her.  I rode my bike to the bridge, parked the bike, walked across the bridge and waited outside the school.  Little yellow hatted children soon started trickling out of the gates all of them with a backpack and a bag and a bunch of little bags hanging off their big bags.  Then a group of 15 little 3rd grade girls all holding hands came running out.  Guess who was in the middle.

"Mom!  She lives in the same apartment building as us!"  She excitedly pointed to the little girl on her right side.  We lost some of the girls before we took the picture since I waited until we were out of the school area before breaking out the camera. I walked across the bridge with the girls, Alexandria still hand in hand with her new friends.  When I went to get the bike I noticed Alexandria was a little hesitant.

"Do you want to walk home with the girls?"  I asked.

"Yea!"  She smiled, happy to have found her place in their world.

And now she's even thinking those backpacks look pretty nice and a little yellow hat might be fun too.


So  . . . it was a hard decision but it really seems that we made the right decision.

Now about the early mornings . . .


(By the way, "kawai-i" means cute.)

I Love Japan!

I don't know what to do with this girl.  She loses everything.  Luckily we're in Japan.  I love Japan.

She left a jacket somewhere in the grocery store.  I was sure it was lost forever.  But on our way out we saw that someone had left it sitting on the carts so we would see it on our way out.

We went to a baseball game.  We had been in our seats for about 20 minutes when a security guard brought us a bracelet.  I looked at it and realized it was Isabel's.  She had dropped it somewhere and somehow it got back to us.  I'm telling you nothing gets lost in Japan.  Well almost nothing because even in Japan there are Americans.  Last week she left her Book of Mormon Stories book at church.  I know you would think, "church, oh you'll for sure get it back there."  Ha!  One of the American families picked it up and gave it to the American missionaries who then put it somewhere . . . fast forward to today.  The missionaries couldn't find ours so they gave us a new one.  Still a good ending, I just thought it was funny that when the Americans got involved things got lost.

I love Japan!

Whole Foods Cooking 101

There is nothing like shopping in a store where you can't read any of the labels to make you only buy what you know for sure is real food.

See.  I can't read it either.  I guessed right on the bag of sugar though.  It was sugar.  I'm not a whole foods freak but I do read labels and anything with high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils can stay there and rot, or not rot because of the high levels of MSG, on the grocery store shelf.  So to say I'm going crazy not knowing what is in my food here is an understatement.  What if I get something diet with aspartame or something poisonous like that?  So I'm sticking to what I can see and I know have no nasty additives.

Real food!  No ingredient labels on these delectable grocery items.  And I'm even experimenting with some Japanese cuisine using items that I know will not hurt me or my priceless children.

Noodle soup!  All natural, well except for the buillon cube.  And it got rave reviews.

Cloudy Days

View from my window.

I'm loving the weather here.  It's been cloudy and rainy half the days we've been here and I'm enjoying every minute of it because I've heard it gets really hot.  I really shouldn't live in Arizona.

Today was unique though.  We got a rainbow.

Around the House

So my first few days around the house were interesting.  I thought I would wash some clothes in this cute little washer and dryer 

but when I went to turn it on this is what I saw

Umm . . . not sure how to find the hot and cold water or even turn that on so maybe I'll leave the wash until Papi gets home.

The kids were hungry and we had some left overs that we could warm up until I tried to use this.

Okay, well, not sure where "on" is there either.  So maybe some toast will work for now.

Aside from "Cooking Jumbox" printed right on the front everything else is Japanese.  So that wasn't going to happen either.  Hold on kids let me call Papi and ask him.

Dang it!  Not the cell phone too!!

Luckily, after a lot of button pushing, I've now learned to work the washer and dryer, somewhat mastered the microwave and toaster oven and have even started understanding the phone.  However, I'm still working on the cleaning products.  I'm thinking vinegar might be a good option but honestly, I can't even read what's vinegar at the grocery store.  

So I've started working on my Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana.   I now know that this little button with this symbol is on the washer, dryer, microwave and toaster oven and it is very important.

It's the "off" button.

Lets Play Ball

We finally got to watch our first big league Japanese baseball game.  In the words of Alexandria. . .

"This is more like it.  This is a real baseball game."

Just for my dad here's the game info.  Papi played RF.  He went 1-3, 1RBI, 1R and they won 3-1.

Ummm. . .help?  What does that say?  Good thing numbers are the same in every language.  Actually, I am learning.  I can actually read Chunichi Dragons and Papi's name up there.  Yes, his name is there it's the column under the 9 in the second row.

He loves baseball.  Can you tell?

After we were escorted out of the stadium so we wouldn't be attacked by fans (seriously) we hid out in the club house and waited for Papi.  The coach's wife is a big fan of Papi so she asked for a picture with us.  Isabel was being shy.

No More Passwords

Did you notice anything new?  We're not in Mexico anymore so I'm taking it off of private!  Yea, no more passwords! Happy blogging!

Playtime

I don't speak Japanese so my assumptions may be totally wrong but here is what I see everyday when we go to the park.  There's a big clock like this in every park.  The park is packed with children of all ages from 2 - 12 .  They're running around, playing baseball, soccer, swinging, chatting it up in Japanese, "sugoi", having a great time enjoying the day and the outdoors like children should.  But in the midst of all this young laughter an American, like me, notices someone is missing.  There are no parents.    Where are the adults?  Aren't they afraid their kids could get snatched up by some crazy Joe?  Haven't they heard about Chester the molester?  Could this place really be so safe that they can let their kids play at the park on their own?  I feel kind of out of place there watching my own kids but I'm not comfortable sending them on their own.  There might be a mom or maybe a grandpa if the child is younger than 2 but otherwise its just the kids having a great time.  Then, like clockwork, when the big clock reads 5:30 the kids all get on their bikes and leave.  Is 5:30 dinner time and these kids know it?  And how the heck did their parents get them that disciplined?   Or is it that they all just get tired of the park at 5:30?  For all I know its that the big bad wolf comes out after 5:30.  No matter the reason after 5:30 the park is left wide open for my kids to rule until our dinnertime, you know, around 9.

Happy Playtime!

My Sneaker

I love this kid but . . .

"AJ lets make a deal.  I won't tell Mommy when you do something bad and you don't tell Mommy when I do something bad.  Okay?" - DJ

Christmas!

Look what showed up at our door today, shipped directly from Costco in Osaka.  Dionys was playing a series there and had time to stop by that wonderful warehouse store to buy some real American, artery clogging food that you just don't find in the Japanese supermarkets.  There were three big boxes stuffed with cheese, big cuts of beef, peanut butter, real butter, cream cheese . . . and a few non artery clogging things like oats and my favorite salsa.  Can't wait to take a bite of this stuff!

The Cesars Chopstick it Up

Like I said our kids have become professionals at using chopsticks.  It's nice when you're out to eat because they are more hygenic than silverware that other people have eaten off of.  Most of the kids enjoyed figuring these thing out and now they're even using them at home.  But here's a peek at their first experience.

Sorry, no pics of DJ because he gave up on the chopsticks the first time around and went with stabbing the food with toothpicks instead.

Everyone Does It

And now so do we!

Our Home For the Next Three Months

Welcome to Japan!

Here's the tour of our place.

The front door which looks like you're walking into a prison cell.  Weird in a country where crime is almost nonexistent.

You walk in and take of your shoes.

Then you look up and see the hallway, no living area, just a long hallway.

If you open up one of those doors in the hallway you'll see the potty room, equipped with its own little hand washing sink that automatically turns on when you flush to allow you to wash your hands and to fill up the toilet tank.  Genius!

We have three bedrooms but the girls' room is my favorite because it has a cool floor.  I don't know what this floor is called yet but I'll figure it out eventually I'm sure.  It's the grassy straw rugs and it make the room smell good.

Finally, at the end of the long hallway is the kitchen and a couple of sleeping kids who think its 2 in the morning even though it's really 6 in the evening.

And another view.  See our cute little burner stove / oven (the drawer between the knobs is the oven).  Dinner for six?  That's not going to happen. 

And the view from our front door.  Sorry Dad I have no idea which direction these are so we'll just settle for to the left

and to the right.

Then my personal favorite.  The gift that was left for me on the bed from Papi when we got here.  I love you Papi!

So Much to Tell

Really there is so much I want to tell but I don't want to bore you with details.  So here's the highlights.

1. 11 hours on a plane is LONG!

2.  Old mean men don't like to have their seat kicked and will yell at your 8 year old daughter for no reason when she is sitting quietly and playing her DS.

3.  The Japanese airline employee BOWED to me after helping us with our boarding passes.

4.  Japanese people have a quirky sense of style.

5.  Complete exhaustion works great when dealing with jet lag.

6.  Downtown Nagoya feels like New York City but with bikers.

7.  Our kids can use chop sticks successfully.

8.  We lost Isabel's jacket in the grocery store but someone had put it on the carts so we would find it on our way out.  I guess nothing gets stolen in Japan.

More to come!!!