6.20.2005

Fifth Grade Trip

M left for school this morning with a backpack filled with clothes for 3 days, two onigiri (rice packed into triangular balls with a pickled plum in the center, wrapped in a sheet of seaweed) and a thermos full of iced barley tea. She and the entire 5th grade will spend 2 nights in Nagano hiking and visiting various industries (mostly forestry and farming) as part of their "moving classroom." She was very excited about it all and it looks like the weather will hold out for them in that part of Japan, even though the rainy season has officially begun.

L may not be so lucky; his kindergarten picnic was postponed from last Friday to tomorrow due to rain. It looks like rain already, so they'll probably cancel the event altogether. He had a day off today because S and he attended the Fathers Day event in his classroom on Sunday. We biked around the city doing errands and met about 12 "Assoc. of Foreign Wives of Japanese" friends for lunch in the department store near our station.

I learned an interesting fact from an Austrian woman whom I had met 6 or 7 years ago at another event and knew that she lived about 40 minutes further out from the city than we are, on the same train line. It turns out that she and her husband also own an apartment right here in our neighborhood. It's in the building right in front of ours, in fact, and is empty most of the time since both of her daughters have graduated from university and gotten married. She or her husband stay there sometimes when their business runs too late to catch the last train to the distant parts of the metropolis. She said I should call her if I have out of town guests who might need a place to sleep, but that it is just that, and not very luxurious. If I had only known a few months ago...

6.17.2005

J's Birthday

J did very well with the English notes for her birthday treasure hunt and successfully found the keys to her new bicycle on Monday morning. The girls were out of school for the day as a make up day for the previous Saturday when they had classes all morning for an open house. L had kindergarten, as kindergarten isn't part of the public school system. M made plans to visit a friend. We called one of J's friends and J, the friend, N and I rode our bikes to a nearby bowling alley for three games. N was pleased to get a combined score of 68 for her three games. After curry for lunch in a restaurant, we cycled home to decorate the cake before L came home. M brought her friend by at 3:00 when L also returned so we had a good number of voices for the Happy Birthday Song. The strawberry sponge cake with strawberry mousse filling and raspberry liqueur flavored whipped cream sold well.

6.03.2005

Sometimes "smaller" is an advantage; L is victor at local tricycle circuit, taking home first prize, a coupon for free fries at McD's. Posted by Hello