Halloween-2010

Merry Christmas!!! I think it’s about time I post our Halloween pictures.  I know it’s not as exciting to read about whatever happened almost two months ago but better late then never-hehe.

Since Halloween fell on Sunday this year, we didn’t really want to take kids Trick-or-Treating on Oct. 31.  Fortunately, Katya and Alex had plenty of opportunities to dress up and get baskets full of candy.

First, on Thursday, we had a Halloween party for all Med. Group personnel. Kids had fun walking through familiar hallways of the clinic –from immunizations to optometry—and trick-or-treating. Dental clinic gave out toothbrushes:) and a tiny piece of candy.

Robert as a Ukrainian kozak, Lyena as a Flamenco dancer, Mark-giraffe,  Katya-Bell, and Alex-Woody. 

Secondly, each class at school had its own Halloween party with games and food. Kindergartners even got to walk in a parade for their parents outside the building. That was a lot of fun.

For her school party, Katya wanted to be a Ukrainian girl.

Finally, on Saturday, we had a Trunk-or-Treat for all the church people, followed by a Chili-fest. Lyena was a pirate girl that night. Mark was a puppy.

Story behind Robert’s costume is quite silly impressive. The day before our Trunk-or-Treat, Katya and Alex convinced me to blow up our humongous beach ball. Mark and Lyena had a blast kicking it around in the backyard.

We noticed that the ball had a leak. In fact, I was told about the leak by the ladies who borrowed it for the Officers’ Club party a month before. Apparently, they found it and tried to fix it with a piece of scotch tape. I thought it wasn’t a big deal, but then we realized that truly, the ball goes flat pretty fast and it’s too much pain to fix it.

Robert was still thinking of a costume for him for our church party. And suggested that he should be a beach ball. And voila! He went all out of course with face paint and a swim cap-hahaha.

I have to admit, with each year, I begin to like Halloween more and more, just because of the fun the kids (and Robert) have dressing up and doing all the pumpkin activities.  

Apple season is here

Oh, how I love this time of the year!!! We have an abundance of fruit right now, fresh from the local areas. As many of you have heard me mention, we buy our apples from the APPLE LADY:) I feel like I go there twice a week. We go through apples like crazy—50 apples a week. Good thing that the Apple Lady sells them for around $18 for 54.

Bananas are overrated. I love apples.

Afternoon snack.

And I eat them like a big boy.

Have you had an apple today?

Toilet Park

There’s a big children’s park in Ichinohe (halfway between Misawa and Morioka) called Iwate kodomo nomori (Iwate prefecture children’s forestry park), or as most people I know call it: toilet park.  Here’s the link (in Japanese).  http://www.iwatekodomonomori.jp/access/index.html

And here’s why we call it toilet park:

I try to picture the board of directors sitting around an enormous conference table brainstorming theme ideas for the next great children’s museum and park. 

Boss of directors: “We need something that will fascinate our youngest generations to greatness.  A theme both inspiring and educational, something no one has dared dream in the past.” 

New guy standing in the corner: “How about poop?”

And there you have it.  A successful idea.

Did you just ask, “So what’s in the giant toilet?”  Do I really need to say what the “hat” is supposed to represent?

Lift the tail, put your hand inside and what do you find?

When I first saw these signs at all the restrooms, I thought they were monkeys with funny hairdos.  Not so.  They’re happy children with smelly hats.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system (no pun intended), I do have to say that this place was actually really neat.  We were there for at least 3  hours, and there was still more to do.  They had toys, playgrounds and a host of activities for everyone.

Alex enjoyed playing with the cars in the pretend onsen (not joking).

Mark loved all the hands-on play.

 

Alex took over the subway.

Katya the short-order cook.

Like father like son.  Did I ever mention I worked at Baskin-Robbin in college?

From subway driver to firefighter . . .

to sushi artist . . .

to beach-bum.  That’s my Alex.

Just out the back there was even more to do.

The view from behind the waterfall.

Alex “Huck Finn” Watson.

There were even bikes and trikes to ride around.

All in all, a wonderful family day.  We’ll definitely be heading back there again.

PS if you want directions in English, let me know.  It’s really easy to get there.

Rob

Coming soon…

The next blog will be written by Robert. We had a very fun time today on our daytrip but some of the Japanese things and toys we saw I did not find very funny. Robert and the kids did.

The end:)

Mark—our International Baby

Finally!!! It is Mark’s turn to enjoy having mama all to himself for most of the day! What does he like to do the most? Still going outside, going grocery shopping to see Yuya and Narita (our “personal” baggers at the commissary), buying delicious apples from our “Apple Lady” and eating three apples a day…at least, watching TV and playing dinosaurs.  Oh yes, and read books. Mark is 21 month now!

No matter how much I love our baby Mark, I figured it is time for him to get a little more social time without me. I started at 18 months with both Katya and Alex to go to wonderful ECFE programs when we lived in Minnesota—once a week, for just 1.5 hour. Here, my only choice at this age is Daichi, a Japanese preschool/daycare.

This is where the youngest group meets. A pretty small building with lots of cubbies and toys. 

It is quite a process to sign up for the school because you need to go with a translator (my friend Masami helped out). We were given instructions on how things are done each day and a list of things to buy: special white shoes and smock, and a bento box/bowls/cup/towels/bag, etc. if we wanted our child to stay through lunch and naptime.  The best part was that I had to label everything he brings to school by writing his name in Katakana. That was fun:) I think I wrote his name most of the time.

We sign up in advance for each day we want, and we pay when we come. It is so interesting to observe how Japanese run things—everything is planned out, everything is done in a routine way. I like it.

On the first day of school, Mark was happy until I had to put this “uniform” smock on him. And then he started bawling. He was so sad for me to leave! That really surprised me since he never has problems with separation when babysitters come or at our church nursery. I walked towards my car with a heavy heart, thinking, “It doesn’t get easier to listen to your child cry, even if it is your third.”  And then… “Maybe….I don’t really need to have him in preschool after all..more time to spend with me…” But that last thought evaporated really quickly once I started thinking of all the GRAND plans I had for my 2.5 hours in the MIDDLE of the day!

When I picked up Mark, teachers told me he stopped very shortly after I left. Yay! So now, baby Mark hears three languages on a regular basis:)

Typical Japanese style playground.

As I am writing this, a month later after Mark started his preschool, I can say with surety that he LOVES it:) His senseis (teachers) are so kind to him—I wish all American care providers were as soft spoken and patient as these are.

Robert says I need to shorten my posts. I agree. Maybe next time.

Stressed

I have not written for a while. But of course it doesn’t mean that life has stopped here. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in our SECOND year of living in mysterious Japan. And I can say with all the truthfulness on behalf everyone in our family that WE LOVE JAPAN.
But I am not stressed because of the fact that we still have two more years to be here. Nope. About 5 months ago, we decided that in November we’d take a vacation to Bali.  Where in the world is Bali? Bali is an island which is part of Indonesia, south of the equator. The plan was to go down to Tokyo by Shinkansen, hopefully get on an almost free military flight from Tokyo to Singapore and then fly super cheap from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali (Fantastic place!)
I was working with a travel agent from Australia, whom I met on my trip to Kyoto earlier this year. She helped me find the perfect place. It is incredibly difficult to find a resort that would accommodate two adults and three kids in a suite for a reasonable price in Asia. And lots of the resorts wouldn’t guarantee placing us in two smaller rooms located next to each other either. Anyway, we found a place, according to our requirements—on the beach, with a door between a living room and a bedroom, not in the busy are of Kuta (big touristy place), hopefully with a kids’ club, and within our budget.
We also purchased our tickets from Singapore to Bali which were super cheap with Air Asia. We had to “cushion” ourselves with an extra night in Singapore on the way there, just in case we didn’t get on the Space-A flight out of Tokyo the first night. Lots of planning with this Space-A travel!
So finally, three weeks ago, Robert put in his papers for approval of travel (official stuff he has to do as a military personnel). And….he was denied….What we THINK happened was that Bali was made a restricted travel country for us because of the events surrounding Sep. 11 this year. We can only speculate though. Even two months ago, we were all clear to go, but now we cannot.
What have we been doing for the past three weeks then?  Ummm, trying to figure out if we should still go on a vacation SOMEWHERE and how to cancel all these bookings we have made with minimal loss. To make this long story short, we have decided to go to Thailand instead. As of right now it is unrestricted. We’ll still be able to go to Singapore and then fly to Thailand from there, crossing our fingers we’ll get on that free flight.  We have been frantically searching for a good place to stay in Phuket, a very popular touristy city on the beach. And THAT is supposed to be fun, except not when you already wasted a ton of money on a trip that didn’t happen… 
Where in the world is Phuket?
Thanks for listening to my rant. Now that I have found two resorts we’ll stay at, I feel better. We’ll be leaving in the beginning of November. You don’t want to miss hearing about that trip, for sure:) IF we are allowed to go. So we need to have a Plan B and Plan C figure out.
If you have been to Thailand, let me know what you think. 
Have a great weekend, my friends!