Morning walks + lunch

Since the sun comes up before 5am and I have been awake at 5am, we have been going on morning walks.  I was surprised that I actually see people along the river at that time of day.  The majority of the people are older.  (Perhaps the younger ones are getting ready for work.)  I usually get to say "Ohayo Gazaimasu" about 30 times during our walk in response to people who say that to us.  Three people  (one was a co-worker) have said "Good morning" to us this week (which means the same thing).  It always makes us laugh to hear English when we are out of the house.

Some decided to take their dogs (and themselves) for a swim in the river to cool off.  Remember, this is around 5:30am.

We also have had two of our favorite meals since we arrived.  The first is ramen.  This is not the "I am poor or lazy so I am making an instant cup of ramen".  It is so tasty!

The second meal was curry rice.  It is Japanese curry but some Japanese say it is not a Japanese food.  It is, however, a very popular food here in Japan.  This is a very dark curry.  (I actually prefer a lighter color of curry with potatoes and carrots in it.  At this meal we got the curry with tonkatsu on it which is a pork cutlet that is breaded and deep fried.  We often get a chicken version instead.  What good Texas wouldn't like that?

Return to Japan + Hachioji Matsuri

We returned to Japan on Friday night.  We are still fighting jet lag 4 days later!  On Sunday afternoon, in an attempt to keep everyone awake past 7pm, we went to a festival.

                                  Our first train to the festival was almost empty.  This is rare!

At the festival, even some of the kids were dressed up in their kimonos! 

There were people behind these masks!

We ate some kakigori.  It is like a snow cone but the ice is fluffier - perhaps more snow-like. 

In this game, you pay money and get to pull a string.  You get whatever prize is at the end of the string. 

More singing and dancing...

No, I don't like fish.  

It seems like there is always a line for some store.  I try to skip those but perhaps I am missing out on the best food! 

Geishas, I think.

Our adorable three children! 

This stand was selling takoyaki.  (We call them takoballs.) There are pieces of octopus (tako) put into a batter and cooked in a special pan.  (Yaki means fried.)  I haven't had an urge to eat them. 

Now, I do eat yakisoba.  These are fried noodles.  The smell of the sauce they put on these makes me hungry when I walk by the stands.  Yummy!!

You do not often see people with tattoos in Japan.  

A crowded alley with lots of food. 

Jeremy wasn't sure what this was but he got it and ate it anyway.  It looked like a candied cherry but he said it was a bit tart and not so tasty. 

A video where you can see that pants are optional for the guys! 

The "shoes" are called tabi and separates the big toe from the other toes.

Change of scenery

This was my view last week.  While we live in Tokyo, it doesn't look like the big city most imagine.

Yesterday marked the end of the first week of my visit to the US in which I experience quite a different view (and language).   I am so glad to be able to have time to visit with the extended family that I have missed!  My fourth of July was full of joy as I spent it with my mother, all of my siblings, and their families. I have been blessed to spend much of my week with my grandmother ("Granny") who is currently in the hospital.
The below picture is my mother and my newest niece named Sofia.  Adorable!

On Monday mooring I heard an advertisement on the car radio.  It started, "Have you ever seen a mother and a young child at the bus stop in the rain?"  (Yes, I thought.  Everyday.  And, so?  There are umbrellas.)  The advertisement went on to talk about donating your car to charity.  Oh, because in America you have to be poor to take the bus.  Got it.  (I heard this while I was driving a car for the first time in two years.  I was a bit nervous!)

Did I tell you I have really missed biscuits? I love biscuits with gravy, biscuits with sausage, and biscuits with grape jelly.  Yummy!  I also ate some Lucky Charms for breakfast this week.

I am in the midst of taking an AP Physics 4-day class to prepare me for co-teaching the class next year.  On Friday, we are taking Drew to visit Baylor and on Monday we are taking him to visit UNT.   I hope to spend the rest of my time seeing family here until we head to San Antonio next week to see Jeremy's parents.

A day in the life - Language and Culture - When will I get it?

Last night we went to Tully's (which is a coffee place). It is not a normal place we go as a family but Jeremy and I both had gift certificates we had received from students at the end of the school year. Before we went in, our oldest son gave us a stern talk about being quiet. We tried our best but within a few minutes of sitting and speaking in our best quiet American voice, Drew tried to get us to leave.  We had evidentially embarrassed him. As we began to clean up our table, I noticed that there was only one person at each table and it was SO incredibly silent.  Sometimes it is hard to fit in.

Today, Emme and I went to the orthopedic doctor and the eye doctor without a translator. The orthopedic doctor visit was OK (I had memorized several sentences before we went in) but he said something about looking at the finger again on Monday.  (I was so excited about understanding him asking if I was going to America tomorrow that I forgot to listen to all his words.)  I am still not sure if I am supposed to return to the doctor or just stare at it myself.  I did notice that above each exam room that the wall is cut out and you  can actually hear the people talking while you are in the hallway.  So much for confidentiality.

The eye doctor was almost a disaster.  I went last weekend without my card and was sent away.  You get a card from every medical/dental/eye place you visit with you name and customer number on it.  Also, each person in the family gets their own card.  Needless to say, I have a bag of cards for each person in the family.  I went today to try to pick up my contacts that I had ordered a few months ago.  (Yes, I was negligent in picking them up.)  They took me in the next room to do the ENTIRE eye exam including the part where they blow air in your eyes.  Three times I tried to say that I just needed to pick up my contacts.  All I could say (in Japanese) were things like, " I came here three months ago but I didn't buy contacts.  I want to buy my contacts today."  What I really wanted to say was, "Please just let me buy the contacts that I ordered.  Are they still here?" but I didn't have the vocabulary for that.  After I had been to about 4 different stations including the eye doctor who just stares into your eyes and said something about kanji.  (When I got home I looked it up and it also means something like feeling/sense.) When it had been about an hour, my sense of humor began to wear thin.  I asked Emme to go home and get a phone so I could phone a friend (who spoke Japanese).  About 5 minutes after she left I was brought to the front for the contacts that I had placed an order for three months before.  Who knows why I needed an entire exam again?  I then had to pay 350 yen in cash but I could pay for the contacts with a bank card.  Anyway, at least I have contacts!  Success.  And nobody laughed at me THIS TIME while I was saying ue, shita, hidari, and migi to tell them which way the C was open during the eye exam. Oh, yeah!  I still didn't figure out the green and red areas with boxes in them at the bottom of the eye exam.  I usually just say the word for green.

After the eye exam, I took Luke to get his hair cut.  I asked him if he wanted to wait until we arrived in America but he said if he did that, he would be forced to have conversation with the person cutting his hair.  (We may need to work on his fear of strangers. By the way, he is almost 15.)  I made him practice reading little kid books while we were waiting.  (He is really getting good.)  The little girls next to us were staring.  I wonder what they were thinking!  Luke is also getting good at telling them how much he wants his hair cut in centimeters.  He was a bit shocked when he went once and they barely cut anything after he told them 2 centimeters (while he was thinking inches).  

2 years and counting

I thought I was going to write a blog when we moved to Japan but I found that my two sentence posts on Facebook were generally enough to share a few thoughts.  As we begin our third year in Japan, I think I am going to need more room to write.  Missing my family has increased rather than decrease and my oldest son will probably be an ocean apart from me a little over a year from now. In two months I will be co-teaching AP Physics along with teaching 9th grade physical science.  As science department chair, I am trying to continue to advance the already good science program at CAJ.  I hopefully will have a new commitment to learning Japanese as well.   It will be a busy year, but a year doing exactly what I think the Lord wants our family to be doing.

I remember thinking as I looked around during our last chapel of the school year that I was certainly blessed to be sitting there.  I was looking at all my students and coworkers actively listening to our Head of School speak and, if that wasn't enough, I could look around and see my husband and three children scattered around the auditorium.  Priceless.  I hope to be able to share with you a year in the life of a teacher at a school for missionary kids (and so many other kids) in Japan.

So, here goes... I just finished two weeks of summer school.  It was fun (9th grade EAL in the morning and elementary computers in the afternoon) but utterly exhausting.  It was necessary so I would have some money to buy next year's school clothes and shoes while we visit America.  (Size 14 shoes for my oldest son and size 9 1/2 for Emme and I are not easily found in Japan.  And I can only rarely find clothes (12 in women's) as a 3X or 4X.   OK, the money was also needed so I can eat lots of junk food in America and pack my luggage with packages of enchilada mix, fajita seasoning, and Rotel.  We take off on Tuesday for a one month visit-all-the-family you can month.  We will also be visiting a couple of colleges for Drew and I will take a 4 day course in AP Physics.  We hope to see some fireworks and I must hold my dear baby niece that I have not yet seen in person.  It is now time to do some spring cleaning that I didn't do during the spring.

I will end with a few pictures of Emme.  She just returned from 6 days at camp.