Konnichiwa

Japanese Kids

I am quite shocked at how unsupervised some Japanese kids are after school.

They go home, dump their school bags, jump on to their bicycles and meet up with friends. They then cycle all over the neighbourhood. That is not a terrifying idea if you stay in say, a wide-open English village or even Singapore with its wide pathways. But here in Japan, esp in and around Tokyo, where practically all corners are blind and by the time a car sees a bike zipping across the road it is already too late to stop, and where the only thing that separates a narrow road and a pathway is a white line on the road.

The routine for Kai is to walk home and the babysitter will be waiting at home for him. He then spends the rest of the day with the babysitter and Taiga either at home or going to soccer/music/English class. He has now realised that his friends go home and meet up again on their bikes. His friends tend to meet up behind our house and Kai asked if he could join them. I said OK but the babysitter has to hang around. The babysitter told me they played behind our house for 30 mins then they all wanted to bike elsewhere. Kai wanted to bike with them but the babysitter said no. And I have seen these 6-years old young fellas just zipping across the roads on their bikes, oblivious to the danger. There is no way I am going to let Kai join them, unless supervised. I do feel badly for Kai as so many of his friends are zipping around like that and he feels left out. Should I get my babysitter a bike so that she can follow him around? I say that half in jest only. The other mums must think my kid is too precious. And I am a weird foreigner!

I have said to Kai he can play with his friends, and I don't mind him going around the neighbourhood, but can he walk please? No biking. Or better still, invite all your friends to our house, I don't mind and will even provide snacks. So one Friday, a little friend called Yamazaki (they call each other by surnames!) came and played a few hours in our house. The next morning, at 9.30, our doorbell rang. Tomo looked at the intercom but could not see any face. The he noticed some hair peeking out at the bottom of the screen! It turned out to be Yamazaki. He came in and played for a bit. We had to go to our new house by 10 for a ground-breaking ceremony, it is a shinto ceremony with an altar and a priest in robes, the whole bit. We asked where he wanted to go next and if we could send him home. He never really gave us an answer, so we brought him to the ceremony with us! The ceremony has rituals, done individually. Like one by one, we had to step before the altar, bow, clap, clap, bow etc. He did all that too! When we finished, he still did not want to go home so we brought him to out house again. At 12, he said he needed to go to another friend's house, so Tomo dropped him home. As Tomo was turning his car around, he saw Yamazki coming out of his house again with his grandma nearby, and then he jumped on his bike and rode away. At 4.30, Yamazaki's mum called us and asked if he is still with us!

Then since the school holidays started, Kai met this 8 year-old boy, Ryusei, at a toy department near our house. This boy roams around from 10 each morning till 8 at night, equipped with a cellphone which connects him to his mum. One evening, I took over the boys from the baby-sitter at the station. The boys were playing with Ryusei. It was already late and the boys wanted Macs for dinner. Ryusei also wanted Macs and I landed up getting dinner for 3 boys!! It started raining and Ryusei had no umbrella. He called home and from what I could make out from the 1-sided conversation, his mum refused to come out and bring the umbrella. I think she asked to to just walk home. He went to a shop and got a paperbag. He wanted to cut out holes for the eyes. Kai brought Ryusei to his music school nearby where they could help him with a pair of scissors. I was getting quite horrified and was thinking either to walk him home or buy him an umbrella. In the end, the music school had a spare umbrella and they lent it to him.

The next morning, Ryusei was looking for a playmate. He went to the music school and asked them to contact Kai!!! The music school called my husband and he called Ryusei. Now that Ryusei had Tomo's phone number, he called him a number of times that day to make arrangements to meet Kai later in the day! Tomo said he was in a meeting and had so many calls from a little boy just to arrange a kids playdate.

Then a couple of days later, the babysitter was with Kai and Taiga around the station when they bumped into Ryusei again. This time he was with this mum who was shopping. Apparently, the mum had a few words with the babysitter where she said it must be taihen (difficult) to look after 2 boys. She then promptly turned around to say bye to her son and left to go home! So my babysitter was left with 3 boys!! And when Kai had to go for his drum class, Ryusei insisted on going in to the studio to play the drums too.

When I took over the boys from the babysitter 2 nights ago, Ryusei had found the boys and all 3 were playing together. For 2 hours, I was hanging around supervising. Then the boys said they were hungry and we walked towards the foodcourt. I was surprised that as we neared the food court, Ryusei ran up to a table and lo and behold, his mum was there - chatting with a group of mums!

Ryusei is a decent little chap but he is not aware of danger. During my watch, as he was halfway down an escalator, he decided to run all the way up against the flow. Or he would walk down the escalator on the sides. Or he would jump the last 4 steps of a moving escalator. Or he would push himself up on banisters. All things that I want my kids not to do. So there I was having little heart attacks over a boy who is not my kid and whom I hardly know. I would tell him not to do it. But at the same time, I am getting stares from other strangers probably thinking MY kid is so ill-behaved!

Japanese Schools

(Just realised that Typepad has an app for the iPad, am checking it out now)

Kai has been in a Japanese elementary school for 4 months now. And it is soooo different from a Singapore school. Here is how:

1. We do not buy school textbooks before school starts. Apparently, the school will provide it. Maybe they have provided, but I have yet to see the textbooks. All I see are photocopies given to the kids, in dribs and drabs. For most part, the photocopying is quite good. But at times, it hurts my eyes.

2. I go through Kai's assessment sheets now and then to see how Kai is doing. He is doing alright so far. In Japanese schools, when you give a right answer, the teacher will circle the answer! When the whole page is correct, the teacher will draw a flower over the page!!! (I will try and get a photo)

3. There were a few times when Kai got simple stuff wrong. Like when the questions asks how many flowers are there in the picture and Kai writes 2 when it should have been 4. I have asked Kai to explain his mistake. He says it is hard to see the other 2 flowers. And I totally agree. The photocopying is really blur and fuzzy at times, hard to make out the other 2 flowers. I really think the education board can do better than that. Really not fair on the kids.

3. 1 teacher teaches everything! Yup. In Singapore, we have one teacher for maths, one for English etc. Not here. So Kai sees pretty much the same teacher day in day out for 1 year. I understand the system in Australia is like that too.

4. The exception to the above is the English teacher, who I understand is from the US. But I also understand that the system here is such that the US teacher does not directly teach the class. It all goes through that 1 teacher who teaches everything.

5. The other exception is the "international teacher". And guess where is Kai's international teacher from? From Singapore! Would you believe it, in our suburbs far away from the usual haunts where international families usually stay. Kai went up to her and told her he is half-Singaporean, haha. Must have shocked her to hear this little Japanese boy speaking Singaporean-accented English and claiming to be half-Singaporean.

6. A big shocker for me is that there is no set time-table. I think most schools around the world have a weekly time-table. Not here. Everyday, Kai has to write down in his notebook the classes for the next day and pack his bag accordingly. I am not sure if this is how they do it throughout primary school, or if it is only for the first few months for the 1st graders.

7. There are TOO MANY parent meetings. I went to the first one, could not follow what they were saying and refuse to go to the others. Truly, it is a waste of time as mums sit around debating who is to do what. Forget democracy. The class teacher should just assign and rotate assignments. For some assignments, no one wants to volunteer and we sit around looking down for many painful silent minutes as we literally wait for someone to volunteer. Other assignments are so popular that we have a few mothers fighting it out. Know how they settle these fights? Scissors, paper, stone. Seriously. I don't volunteer as I am working. And working full-time. In the city. Not around the school area. But we still have to attend these meetings anyway.

8. Now and then, the teachers will visit the house to speak to the parent. These are scheduled visits. For one week, school will let off early and the teachers will go from house to house. For a working mum, it is a real hassle when school lets out early.

9. We had our house visit in May. This is an epic occasion for most households. The mums will have planned buying the fancy cakes from the fancy patisseries, will have brought out the best china etc. We had Tomo running home all hot, bothered and sweaty. No cake. Regular cups. Not sure if Tomo even remembered to offer some water. I am not sure why the teachers visit the homes, my guess is to see the home environment. Hopefully, the teacher will be pleased to see that we kept it real - messy house, toys strewn everywhere, 2 days worth of plates and cups in the sink, dust-covered TV .....

10. PTA meetings are held in the school. Yet again, the kids are let out early. (You wonder when the kids really study when they are so often let out early for this meeting or that meeting). The funny thing is, the mum has to go to school for the PTA whereas the kid is let out early and has to go back home. What does this mean? That the kid goes back to an empty house. Even a first grader. I thought we understood wrongly and had Tomo call the school to confirm. That was the first PTA I attended. We asked whether Kai could stay in the school, hang out in the playground. The response - he has to go home. Even when there is no one at home? Yes. He just has to wait at home till the PTA has ended.

11. This is the other thing that really gets to me. Kai's English school is a 3 min walk to the left of the school. Our house is a 10 min walk to the right of the school. His English class starts 30 mins after school ends. We had Kai walk to English school directly from school. The teacher gives us a call and says Kai cannot do that. He has to walk home first then turn around and go to the English school. Even if he has no time to hang around at home. Why, we ask? The schools says that if he walks to English school instead of home, they cannot take responsibility. Now, that is a very curious statement. So if he walks home and something happens along the way, the school will take responsibility? Like touch wood, he gets into an accident on the way home, we can sue the school? It is not like the school has a lollipop man at the crossings to look after kids. So if anyone out there who reads this knows what this means, please let me know.

A Train Suicide

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It has been a little busy here since April, mainly because of the new school year with all the various meetings, observation days and outings. I will update the blog on that later.

Since a week or two back, it has also been getting hectic in the office. But Kai is due (overdue, actually) for his polio vaccine and I only have today or next Monday left to do it at the government health centre. Like all things here in Japan, schedules are not convenient for the working mum. The vaccine is only available between 1.30pm and 2.30pm, on Mondays in May (or October) only. So I decided to do a quick run back home, fetch Kai from school, get the vaccine over with, put him in English school and quickly head back to the office.

That plan was working perfectly - I managed to leave the office on time. Was on the express train, surfing the iPad.  2 more express stops to go. The seat before me became available but I continued standing as I would be getting off soon. Then the train stopped. The way it would for an earthquake. No screeching of brakes.  I looked up from my iPad.  Almost immediately, an announcement came on and announced that there had been a "human accident" at [name of station]. Euphemism for suicide in Japan.  I was not sure exactly where we were. The old lady in front of me asked her male companion - that's the station we passed right? Yes, he replied.  I was a bit relieved - good, if we passed that station, it means my train will probably be able to continue forward in a couple of minutes.  Can't miss that 1 hour vaccination window I have.  But it still did not feel quite right. If it is a station we only passed not too long ago, and the suicide happened with another train behind us, it would be a local train that stops every stop. And as far as I know, the target is express trains, not local trains. I looked as far back the train as I could and see that the last carriage is still in the station.  Maybe it could be my train? But there was no horn blasting or screeching of brakes on my train.  I was still unsure. Then the loud and clear sirens from ambulance/fire engines could be heard.  Hmm, probably my train then ... All this while, no more announcements are made.  

The next thing I heard was the sound of walking on the gravel that is placed along the tracks. I look down and see station officers walking down the track. OK, probably my train, otherwise why would the officers be walking on the tracks.  Nothing for a couple of minutes more.  Then I heard the gravel sound again as the officers made their way back. I casually glanced down as they walked past my window. Oh my God, one officer was holding a body part!!! It was not tiny, like a finger. It was the size of a small chicken. I felt sick and started shaking a little. I knew this is going to take some time more. I called Tomo to tell the school not to let Kai out (I was supposed to meet him at a junction near his school).  What was that body part? It is too lumpy to be a hand. Does not look like a skull and probably not the contents from a skull. Maybe a foot? And what amazed me was that the officer just held it cupped in his hands.  Damn, the train is getting stuffy.

Some time later, some station officer thought to open the door of the last carriage that was still in the station.  Most people quickly left the train without taking a look at the going-ons.  Some stayed on the train but just stared blankly ahead or were reading something.  I was surprised at how uncurious most people were. Maybe there were seasoned Tokyoites who have experienced this before? Am I the only nutty person around who wanted to see how a train suicide is handled?

I moved towards the back carriage but was undecided to leave or stay. If I leave, I was not sure how to proceed from there. I am not familiar with this station or its surrounds.  And I heard that trains move again in 1.5 hours after a suicide, so with the long Qs outside for the buses/taxis, I may as well just stay till this train can move again. In any event, there was no way I could make it to the health centre within the 1 hour window now.

I decided to hang around till this train moved, bolstered in bit by my curiousity.

Ever wondered why when there is a suicide on 1 track, they close down the whole station and the other track going in the opposite direction is not passable too? Because, the whole station is swarmed with policemen, station officers, fire/rescue people and others. No less than 20 to 30 men in various uniforms, milling about doing what they are supposed to do.  The ubiquitous blue tarp (ever present in a "crime" scene in Japan) comes up.  Before I knew it, the blue tarp came right up on the side of my carriage. Stretched across to the other track too. A fire/rescue team photograher comes right below me and starts snapping away. Er, I think the body is below me. 2 thoughts cross my mind: (i) is it a body? Or did the person survive? Probably not, judging from the size of the body part; and (ii) do I dare to look at the body as they retrieve it? I am terrified, but curious also. I decide to do a compromise - I will do a quick peek and then turn away.

And so they pulled the person from beneath me. It was a body. It was wrapped up already. In blue tarp. These fire/rescue people must have gone through quite a bit of training on how to wrap the body whilst still under the squeezy confines of a train.  They put the blue-tarped body on the stretcher. Put come clear plastic over it. Then a blanket. What happened next was a bit of a surprise. They carried the stretcher across the other track and placed it on the other platform. And then with that, the body was pretty much abandoned as the officers now went off to do whatever they had to do. The body was just lying there unattended for the longest time. It was so insignificant. I just felt really sorry for the deceased.

(These guys bending down from the fire/rescue department were wrapping the body in blue tarp. They retrieved the body. The big blue tarp being held up is to keep away prying eyes.)

With the drama below me finished, I checked out what else was going on. There was a team that was back-tracking the tracks. Starting from below me in the last carriage, slowly moving backwards - combing the train tracks for more body parts. This time round, most of the parts were smaller and some were just bits. Someone held a clear trash bag (but obviously they are not going to throw this just yet) and all bits were thrown into the bag. There was quite a lot of bits. Towards the end, about a quarter of the bag was filled with the bits.

(This team was picking up body parts)

Just then, a middle-aged man who just came into my carriage asked me if the person survived. I gestured to the stretcher visible in the window behind him. He turned around, saw the body, and gave me an "oh no, how dreadful" look. 

At this stage, someone asked the train officer how long more before the train would start moving again. He said at least one hour. But he also gave some bus routes. I decided to try the bus.  It did not make much difference in the end. All in all, when a suicide happens, it takes close to 2 hours for the train to re-start.

I finally reached Kai's school. I brought him straight from school to his English school 50 meters away.  So all in all, I was out of the office for 3.5 hours, did not make it for the vaccination, and moved Kai 50 meters. But I got some photos and a better understanding of what is done when there is a suicide.

And no, I did not take photos of the body. I did think twice about it though.

Kai's New Milestone - Ichinensei!

 

Amidst earthquakes, aftershocks, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns .... life in Japan outside of the disaster areas goes on. And so, as history is being made, Kai started elementary school! 

Kai is very chuffed to be a primary school student. He will proudly tell all who will listen that he is now an ichinensei (first grader/primary one student). He is very excited, very enthusiastic about the whole thing. A good start I guess.

The first day of school was not much school but more ceremony. The suit that he is wearing is not a school uniform. In fact, there is no school uniform and he goes to school in whatever day clothes he has that has been washed. That suit was bought specially for the entrance ceremony. It would be worn just once by Kai and hopefully Taiga will be able to fit into it in 2 years time to make it twice that it will be worn.

At about 9.30 am, the kids flanked by mum and dad started entering the school.  The kids reported to their classes and the parents had to wait in the school hall. Then the ceremony started with the staff telling us what to do if an earthquake hits. Something tells me this is not how they usually start off these ceremonies in other years. VIPs are introduced, this would be local board of education people and local politicians. Then some solemn classical piece comes on the ichinenseis enter the hall, 2 by 2. More speeches. Honestly, nothing terribly exciting. Then the ichinenseis exit. We then do class photos. Once again, the ichinenseis enter. For Kai's class, the kids sit in the front with the form teacher and the principal. The moms stand behind and the dads are right at the back. Professional photographers snap away.

In Kai's year, there are 110 students divided into 4 classes. Kai's class has 27 kids. I think this is the usual size of a Japanese class. Not sure what Singapore is like now but back in my school days, each class would have about 42/43 kids. Quite a difference. As Kai is in a public school, education is entirely free. We pay only about US$40 a month for lunch.

After the photos are taken, we go to our kids classes where we are given some instructions. And then the first day of school is over! For the next 2 days, school ends slightly after 11.30am. And the second week, school ends 1.30pm. Who knows what the 3rd week's time is? The school has been releasing the times on a week-by-week basis! I understand though from parents with kids already in school that the usual finish time is about 2.45pm. 

 

Anyway, after that, we have lunch with baachan and jiichan. Baachan actually came for the ceremony. That is how big this first-day-of-school thing is here in Japan. We go to our favourite French restaurant nearby. They usually are quite strict about their no-under-6 yrs of age rule. We told them beforehand that Taiga is only 5 (actually, a soon-to-be 5) and they said it's OK to bring him in. I think it is only because restaurants are hurting for business since the March 11 quake. They gave us cakes on the house to celebrate Kai's big day!

 

After that first day, school starts at 8.30am. Ever since the string of crimes against little kids on their way to/back from school a few years ago, the kids now are organised into groups and walk together. Kai meets his group very near our house at about 8am and all 10 of them will walk together with 1 mum accompanying them. So that is quite a relief (I am more concerned about traffic safety...). On the very first day of school after the entrance ceremony, Tomo was to accompany Kai to the group as it was his very first time. When I looked out my wooden deck and saw the group starting to gather, I told Kai. Kai could not wait for daddy, who was in the toilet, to bring him there. He quickly put on his shoes and rushed out to join the group on his own! So that has how it has been the last few days. I peer out the back, when the group is starting to gather, Kai leaves on his own. I wait till I see him join the group and then I get back into the house.

And here is a pic of him next to the customary sign board in Japan for entrance (and graduation) ceremonies.

  

Sports Day (Part I)

The annual sports day fell upon us. 

I have to admit, I was not particularly excited. In part because I had to wake up early on Sunday morning, in part because I attended last year's and felt it was - well, nothing spectacular, and in part because we are supposed to make obentos and I know I will not make it but will drag the family to a restaurant after the event. And I know the mums are all looking around discretely to check out other mum's obentos and when they see my laziness family starving, there will be some tut-tutting. My MIL saved the day on the last count when Tomo invited his parents along and she insisted on making the obento. You think she insisted 'cos she knows me well?

So there you go, grandparents at the sports day? Yes, in Japan. The kindergarten did not leave anyone out.  Of course the kids took part. Then there were dances with the grandparents. The races between the teachers. The races for the older siblings who were in primary school already but were hanging out at the kiddie's sports day as both parents were there.

And then, there was the parents' race. We were warned beforehand, both mum and dad had to take part. If one can't make it, please bring along a substitute.  Our race turned out to be hilarious. They had dads at one end, carrying a balloon, and mums at the other. When the gun is shot, the dads and mums had to run towards each other and bump into each other to burst the balloon using their bodies! This turned out to be hilarious with the substitutes - when we get 2 middle-aged men grinding their bodies together to burst the balloon, or a mother and a young child (imagine the height difference). And then we had 1 couple, a mum and a dad, who had the misfortune of getting the Teflon balloon which absolutely refused to burst. They went at it, using different body positions, trying different bumps and grinds until every single person around the field had their eyes fixed on this couple. After the longest of times, they were given a substitute balloon! So after the balloon bursts, we have to run to our waiting kid, grab our kid and all, holding hands, run to the finish line. Kai did a great job keeping up with us, Tomo was too much of a gentleman, giving way to another dad when their paths crossed. You know what they say about playing sport with a person to see their true personality? Which is why businessmen like to play golf. A-huh, don't race me unless you are prepared to lose. Sport just naturally brings out that competitive streak in me. So when it was about time for my race to start and the mums were just standing around waiting for the gun shot, I was all crouched ready to spring to action. I had the other mums standing around wondering if they should just be standing or getting into position like me! 

The amazing thing was I actually totally enjoyed this year's sports day. I think the reason for this is twofold: (i) they have improved the program and (ii) Kai is now in the oldest class and they actually do have proper races.  For kids in the first 2 years of kindie, there is no real race and everyone is a winner. So Kai's races had my adrenaline running (see, I told you I am competitive). He also had some performances and I think he (and his friends in the graduating class) did a fabulous job.

Taiga on the other hand was very difficult. The day started off with him wanting me to carry him around! I refused. He pouted. For his kakeko (very short distance sprint), when the gun was shot, he refused to run!!! He just stood at the starting line and looked down.  When it was his turn to do a dance performance, he refused to even put on the outfit. When his class was out there dancing, he just stood on the spot.  All because I did not carry him for as long as he wanted. I am hoping this is just a phase and not an integral part of his personality! 

Here is Taiga when he was being moody.

Sports Day (Part II)

See the picture above? Kai is determined to win. He is the one in the green cap. The apple does not fall far from the tree, huh.

Kai has been saying for days that he wants to be number one for his races. 

Look, feet off the ground - the mark of a champion! :-)

He closes in on the guy to his left. Ooh, this is getting exciting!

Oh no! Look at the elbow. That little guy is elbowing Kai to stop him from taking over.

No worries. Kai calmly side-steps him ....

... and continues on his way, with a smile ..... (and his friend is smiling too!)

And soon after that, Kai pulls away from his friends and very comfortably won that race!

He was very proud of this one.

Tomo was at the finishing line with his video. I will download the movie images for the last part of this race later. 

 

Sports Day (Part III)

The most exciting moment?  The relay race of the graduating class.  

They kept this race to the end.  By this time, the two younger classes had already finished all their races and performances and had left.  The only people around were the parents and siblings of kids in the graduating class. There were 3 teams, according to their classes.  Kai was in the green team. The other 2 teams were the brown team and the blue team.

The kids gave us very good entertainment.  I was so excited cheering on the green team, jumping up and down, I did not take any photos. Luckily, Tomo managed to keep his wits about him and got some of the action down on video.  

When the race started, the green team was in the lead. Yay! After a few rounds, another team started coming up neck-to neck with the greeners.  About 2 of the greeners did a good job maintaining the tiny lead they still had, knowing the other team was fast at their heels. Then the baton went to this little green girl who was oblivious to the tight race and the efforts her friends were putting in. She took the baton and kind of walked/ran, looking out for her parents in the crowd. She saw them, almost came to a standstill as she smiled sweetly for the camera. Oh man!!! By then the other 2 teams had long overtaken the green team. So the next couple of greeners tried to close up their losing gap but it was very difficult. It was quite a big gap. And then it was Kai's turn! When he took the baton, the blue and brown teams were ahead of him. And what did he do? He closed in one one, overtook, closed in on the other, overtook and pulled way ahead giving the green team a very comfortable lead again! Go, Kai, go! I was going nuts screaming - all in English. Not that anyone heard me as everyone was busy doing their own screaming. That was one of the high moments of the race. That was so exciting. The next few kids did a great job maintaining and building on the lead that Kai created. In fact by that point in the race, it was obvious that the green team would be number one with a very comfortable lead, and the real race then was between the blue and brown teams for second spot. A foregone conclusion for the green team. Then we came down to the 2nd last boy running for the green team. He took the baton and charged foward. A couple of steps later, he dropped the baton!!! And the baton bounced backwards for quite a bit. So he had to run back, bend down, get up and move forward again. When he was getting prepared to start running forward again, the blue and brown teams overtook. I think all the screaming was fever-pitch by this time. He did a good job running, overtaking the brown team and getting the green team to second place. He passed the baton on to the last runner. Now if this last runner is good, there is still a chance that he can overtake the blue team as the lead is not that wide.  He was closing in, closing in ... and then he dropped the baton! Not sure what it was. Pressure/nerves getting to these boys? He quickly picked it up but never had a chance to close in on the lead. He passed the baton on to the form teacher.  Yup, all the form teachers ran the very last leg. The green team's form teacher, very obviously athletic and the form teacher of last year's winner, did a very good run but the difference was too wide to narrow. So alas, the green team came in second. Kai was a good sport about it, even though he very badly wanted to be number one.  He proudly told all strangers he met later that day that he is number two (followed with "but I wanted to be number one").  After his class collected the trophy cup, he was one of the very few who was interested in taking a photo with the cup. He came to look for me and asked to take a photo for him. His friends were more interested in checking out the goodie bags that were being distributed then.

It was a good day. Kai was on a high for the rest of the day and so were we.

The End of Ski Season

Ski season has ended.  We made it to the mountains 3 times this Feb/March.  

The first time we went, I spent hours packing.  The second time we went, I spent about an hour packing. The third time we went, I spent only a couple of minutes.  Call me seasoned. So, this is what it feels like to have a second/weekend home?  It can be quite tiring.  As Tomo and I have long hours at work, we tend to leave our house no earlier than 11pm on Friday nights and do the drive to Yuzawa.  It should take only 2 hours but Feb/March is when there are road works everywhere as the various cities try to use up all the government budget before the financial year end (which is March 31 in Japan).  So the traffic jams throwin another hour, at least. We sleep in on Sat morning, do a lazy brunch and hit the mountains only at about 1pm. We ski, eat, sleep, eat, ski, eat, ski... and then leave Yuzawa at about 10pm on Sunday night to get back to Tokyo/Yokohama.  Only to be up again at 7 to get ready for the school/work day.

Much as I enjoyed Yuzawa, I am glad ski season is over.  I can now do proper sleep ins on Saturdays and Sundays!  I am exhausted.  Work has been crazy this Feb/March and many weekends found me hunched over my computer or attending meetings.  In fact, our 3rd trip to Yuzawa was not confirmed until 10pm on a Friday night.  At 6pm that day, I managed to confirm that I was OK work-wise to leave the city.  Tomo was still not sure until he called home at 10pm to say that he is OK too, pack up and we will go!  We were all so excited, esp since we had to cancel a trip the prior weekend, which was a long weekend, due to a meeting Tomo had on a SUNDAY! (I will save my rants on the Japanese disregard for family time on weekends in another long, long, long post).

As for the boys, they love skiing.  We can't tear them away from the mountains! When the ski-lifts for the day pass end, Kai refuses to leave and makes Tomo push him up the mountain so that he can continue skiing!!! Taiga too, is like the Energizer bunny on the ski hills.  He takes quite a few tumbles as his legs are still not strong yet, but that does not deter his spirit. At one stage, he had a 1 on 1 class with his instructor for 2 hours.  After the class, the instructor mentioned that he should be exhausted by now and would probably want to sleep soon. Nah, he made Tomo push him up the mountains too and skied for another 3 hours.  Poor Tomo, he has to do the midnight drives and push the kids up the mountains. But then again, having the kids start skiing now is his idea.

Since the kids loved it, we bought them ski clothes after the 1st weekend.  Before the next ski season, we will probably buy them their own set of skis and ski boots.  It works out much cheaper than renting. The first weekend we were there, we easily spent 50,000 yen just on renting the clothes/skis/boots, paying for 3 ski classes for each boy and ski lift passes. Come next ski season, we will not be renting anything, Taiga will probably go back for some more classes (as he is so young - he was not even 4 when the ski season ended!) but Kai is definitely over classes. He is begging out of it.  Instead, he wants "Daddy School". The apple does not fall far from the tree - speed is king. In the proper ski school, where there are a few kids to 1 teacher usually, the kids have to ski slowly and ski for only 10 meters before having to stop and wait for the next kid to ski.  At Daddy School, he gets to ski non-stop all the way from the moment he gets off the ski lift, which means he can go fast, fast, fast! Yes, speaking of that, I will definitely have to buy him a safety helmet too.

Whilst they are skiing, I am enjoying a cappucino in a lovely, warm cafe, followed by waffles topped with caramel ice-cream fresh from a nearby farm.  All the whilst, playing around my Mac with the free wi-fi and listening to music with my noise-cancelling Bose headphones.  That is why I don't object too much when they want to go skiing when I rather stay home and sleep. Oh, I have been productive.  I have been watching the Apple video tutorials on how to make/edit home movies.  I have not mastered it yet, but the videos attached are my first efforts.  You can hear me snapping at Taiga, Taiga crying, strong wind blowing etc - I have yet to learn to mute that. Enjoy!

In this video, Taiga is so adorable as he takes his spills  - and what is Kai doing?

Surfing in Ski Country

Surfing the internet, that is. I am sitting in the Edleweiss Cafe of Prince Hotel in Niigata,Naeba as I write this post. Isn't WiFi amazing? Better when it is free, as it is now.

Tomo is out being challenged by the ski hills.  He is an advance skier.  He does black slopes.  

Prince Hotel has a ski school for kids, named Miffy - after the famed character.  Kai and Taiga are now in school.  Kai is actually on skis. He even went up a ski lift today! He is doing pretty well and is very enthusiastic.  He comes down the bunny slopes nicely but can't stop.  Stopping is tough.  Reminds me of the first time I was on skis.  Can't stop too. Just went from right to left to right, instead of stopping.

Taiga is too young to go on skis although I think we will try to convince the Miffy school otherwise next month. Kids can go on skis only from 4 yrs and Taiga's b'day 4th b'day is early April.  They will not let us this time, but when he is 1 month short next month, I think we will try a little harder to convince them. Taiga's class spends 1 hour indoors playing with toy cars and 1 hour outdoors playing with the snow. Including tobaggon rides. For whatever he is doing, it is costing me an arm and a leg which is a little hard to justify. So you could say I am buying myself some quiet time here!

Miffy school has a great reputation.  Also, I was very impressed when we came for a look-see here last year.  This was soon after the Natasha Richardson incident.  All the ski schools we looked at did not care or stress head gear at all.  Miffy did.  So much that in the aftermath of the accident, they were encouraging skiiers to use helmets and did free rentals of ski helmets.  Great marketing?  Whatever.  I am sold.

The boys did 1 class yesterday and are doing 2 classes today. We are planning to be back another 2 weekends in March to round off this ski season.

It snowed quite a bit from late afternoon yesterday till this morning.  But since this morning, it has been sunny.

As the boys are skiing, I have been busy doing my own stuff.  Like getting to know more about my Mac. I am not fully utilising all the functions on my Mac and have spent hours watching the video tutorials on the Apple site. I have been catching up reading my Time magazines. Ever since having Kai and Taiga, my subscription issues tend to lie around unopened.  I brought along a parenting book I bought a couple of weeks ago - Einstein Never Used Flash Cards.  I like the book.  But watching those tutorials have taken up a lot of my time and I am not sure whether I can get to reading the book before we head back to Tokyo tonight. Anyway, we will probably be back here in 2 weeks time, and that book is probably coming again too.

May post some shots/video footage later.

Singapore - Part IV : New Digs

What a view! 

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My sis moved. *We* have a new place to stay! :-)

Now, this is the life.  I look out of my windows in the Tokyo/Yokohama corridor and I see buildings, buildings and more buildings.  Usually, plain boxy buildings, very practical in design and very practical in color.  What I would give for a view like the one above.  Contrast the green of trees and plants, and the blue of water, against modern glass architecture.

We did not stay here this time as she was just about moving when we were in Singapore.  But that did not stop us from having some fun in the pool.

The evil cousins.

Led by the evil Uncle, my bro.

Taiga taking a ride from Daddy.

Taiga's fav.  He would throw the board down and then "fall" flat into the water like the board.

Kai grabbing onto Daddy.

Good job cousin Keira!  She only just started swimming classes.

 
 Having more fun.

The anxious grandparents keeping an eye over the grandkids.

Tomo taking a break.

Plotting his next attack.  See that squint in his eye?

Ah, the tranquility.