Living in Japan: Spring Time

A rainy walk home from school

I keep writing these "Living in Japan" posts in my head of all the cool, different, sometimes strange things that happen in our every day life.  I will try to write at least once a month, as I take pictures of things I want to share and don't want to forget...  but often times I forget to write the corresponding post to these pictures (which just get buried in my gallery) when I sit down to my computer at night.

A Cherry Blossom tree in our apartment complex

 Spring time is MAGICAL in Japan.  At least for me anyways...  after a long and "cold-enough" winter, it is an amazing time.  It starts with the plum blossoms, which often bloom before it even begins to warm up, a few weeks later, it's the cherry blossoms and the tulips and the beautification department on our island is fantastic and something is always in constant bloom.

Maximo carefully carrying home tulips from our old backyard to put in a vase in our new apartment.

It took some convincing to get him to be okay with cutting the tulips.  He told me, "No, Mommy, you can't cut them they're alive.  You're just supposed to look at them and smell them!"

It is warming up here, although it has been quite rainy on the weekends, which has made it a bit hard to get out.  Today was a gorgeous day, so the kids and I went out for a bike ride/walk.  We received a map in our mailbox of where Maximo's decorated carp was hung on island, so we set off.

A few weeks ago, we painted a carp in celebration of Children's Day (celebrated May 5th).

Our row of traced out carp to color - front and backside!

Max loved it and decided to paint his polka dotted.

It was an activity the Rokko Island Community organized.  And, it's been really organized.  We received a confirmation, then today we received a map with its location on island (there are probably about 200 or hanging around the River Mall), and when they take them down in a few weeks, they will mail it to us.

A beautiful day on Rokko Island

Maximo's carp in front of the Fashion Museum

Maximo's carp!

So, with John gone, we set out to enjoy the 70 degree weather and sunshine, grabbed take out at McDonalds and ate underneath Maximo's carp.  It was a great day!

Lola's End of Year Celebration

The start of the school year in Japan is April which is a nice time because it's when it is starting to warm up and the plum and cherry blossoms bloom which is a magical time of year in Japan.

At the end of the school year, students have presentations or specials days.  Lola's daycare is no exception.  She had a little part to say "Hait" and raise her hand, then go pick a piece of food from the "fake food pantry" and then claim it is "Oishi!" Delicious.  She cried when they called her name because she needed to have the doughnut from the fake food pantry at before it was her turn, but recovered quickly and was very cute with all her friends.



After the little kids were done, the "older class" re-enacted Three Billy Goats Gruff and then showed off their gymnastic skills.

It's always a cute day!

Student-Led

John and I celebrated our tenth anniversary today...  barely.  But it was a good date for Maximo's first student-led conference.  Maximo led us around his classroom and needed very little prompting.

He started with saying, "Thank you for coming to my conference."

Then we sang "The Green Grass Grows All Around"with him and two of his classmates who were conferencing at the same time.

We then went through the stations set up around the room.

1. Literacy - Maximo used a pointer and showed us things around the room - like the class routines, the days of the week, some poems and then he read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to us since his class made a wall story.

2. Unit of Inquiry - He showed us the Plant Game and put the parts of the plant where they belonged and then showed us his class's radish and bean plants and where they just planted sunflowers.  They are currently learning about Changes & Cycles.



3. Mathematics - He showed us the flower garden counting game and then he sequenced events together from activities they had done in class.

4. Science - He did an experiment for us with mixing colors.  He had to finish the statements, "I wonder", "I predict", and then state what actually happened.

5. We saw his PE work and he showed us all of his skills from jumping to crab walking and throwing. 

We then had a video that Mr. Olson had made of Maximo playing the castinets and making different sounds/volume/tempos with them.  Lastly we went to the art room where we saw some of his work.

He shook Mrs. Forster's hand as we left...  and it was done!


He did a great job sharing his work and even though he often shares what he does at school it was great to see him in action.

10 Years

We're Moving!

... a whole half a block.

We got the key last night and will slowly start moving boxes over this week.  We have movers coming next Saturday to help with the big stuff, so we should be sleeping there by next Saturday night.

Max is very excited to move and told his friends at school that our apartment was broken and that's why we're moving.  He cried when we left last night - and couldn't understand why we couldn't just sleep there last night, even though it was completely empty.

Here are some pictures of the place:

High-Fives and Kisses

Lola has changed so much lately.  She's not just barely toddling along, she's fast and is a strong willed little girl.  I used to do little updates on Maximo and Lola hasn't had a post of her own since her first birthday, so I'll share all the cute little things she's up to.

She is understanding so much.  It's amazing what she understands.  She likes to help out - she loves throwing things away (but then she sometimes gets distracted by other things in the trash and tries to pull them out).  When she arrives at daycare, she fusses until she can put her washcloth and dirty clothes bag on their proper hooks.  She's definitely a determined one.

Lola is super friendly and often times chooses other people (even strangers) over us!  She throws her hands out to anyone who will coo in her direction.  She has been big on giving kisses lately and smacks her lips to give everyone kisses before leaving for school or going to bed.  She is also very big on high-fives.  At her daycare, they say "touch" (yes, in English) and the kids high-five each other.  It's pretty cute.

She is starting to use a lot of words: Mama (but this also means "I want"), Dada, ball, cracker and the rest is Japanese.  She is definitely speaking more Japanese than English these days.  Unfortunately (fortunate for her), her Japanese has surpassed ours.  The few things I can catch are: koko - here; arigato - thank you; ohayo gozaimas (a muddled version of this but with the right amount of syllables and a deep bow). 

Lola eats just about everything.  She has a voracious appetite, which shows in her thighs.  Whenever she's hungry she slaps her hands together - the gesture used when saying the Japanese equivalent of bon appetit - Itadakemas!  She's eats everything we do and will eat seconds and thirds of rice if you don't mind spoon feeding her sticky rice for an hour.  She, like Maximo did, loves the dried sardine snacks - they are dried little fish that kids eat like chips.  I've never eaten one, all I do know is that she STINKS after she's had that for her snack.  I can barely snuggle up to her when she's eaten them.

Lola loves to be outside and we prefer her to be outside because she constantly destroys the house.  She pulls everything out of everywhere - the trash, cupboards, bedside tables...

Left alone, she climbs up onto the dining room table to play with the coveted trains

She's a lot of fun, but also a ton of work.  Lucky for us, she is an amazing sleeper and sleeps from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am every night.  This makes a tough day with her doable!  It has been a dream and has made the bedroom-sharing easy! 

It's fun to watch how much more "girly" she is than Maximo.  She loves stuffed animals and often carries two under her arms around the house.  She loves to accessorize her hair and loves to wear necklaces - anything round that will fit over her head.  She starts to dance or clap whenever there's music on.


We're excited as always, this time of year as the end of the school year is in sight.  We can't wait to go home and let the kids play with cousins and enjoy all the fun things about our hometowns.

It's amazing how she can look so little and so big all at the same time!

Starbucks with Mommy

  

 Lola and Max have a typical brother-sister relationship.  She adores him and sometimes he plays really nicely with her and is really patient with her.  Other times, he wants his space and doesn't want his toys wreck and she doesn't get it why he doesn't want to share everything with her all the time.

 We're moving over the next two weeks.  I'm not sure what our home internet access is going to be, so as it has been the past few months, my postings may continue to be spotty at best.

Yikes!

My lack of posting is directly connected to how crazy our lives have been.  Work has been really busy lately - with my inability to say no and John balancing work and coaching.  Luckily in a few hours, we'll be beginning Spring Break.  We are staying around to catch up on work, doctor's appointments, and starting our packing (we're moving April 1st... to the apartment complex across the street!)

Until I have time (hopefully) next week, here are some pictures and videos of Los Lemleys:

The Plum Blossoms in our backyard!

Sunday Shopping & Sushi-Go-Round

Little Kids eating inside while the Big Boys are eating outside

Lola feeding Dima lunch

Big boys having lunch

Happy with our new Iranian carpet... after a few cocktails!

Wild Moms pulling up to the bar on our Mama-sans

 Happy St. Patty's Day (tomorrow)!

And, another lovely TREE song from Maximo:

Flat Juliette - A Travel Log

Dear Jessica,
I've had a really nice time in Japan.  It was a long trip over here (especially jammed in an envelope), but I'm glad that you sent me.  I had a really good time with your aunt, uncle and cousins, Maximo and Lola.  Let me tell you a little bit about what I did with them;

First, it's winter here, so it's pretty cold.  It's almost like Connecticut, but they get almost no snow in Kobe.  I spent the first week in Aunt Julie's classroom where I watched her middle schoolers build and create machines for Design class, but after a while, I got bored sticking out of her pencil holder on her desk.

I was lucky enough to get to go on the 7th grade Ski trip to Shizukuishi Ski Resort in Iwate, Japan.  This is north of Tokyo in Japan.  We flew into Sendai airport, which was demolished last year in the big earthquake, but it had been rebuilt.  Then we took a three hour bus ride into the mountains.  It was a great experience, although I only got out on the ski hills once with Aunt Julie.  It was really cold and I didn't have a proper jacket.

When we got back, I just hung around and got to know your family better!  You REALLY need to convince your mom and dad to let you come visit them!  Japan is cool.  They live on a man-made island and bike to school and to the grocery store or they travel by train, when they leave the island.  The seasons and flower blossoms are especially important in Japan.  The plum blossoms are starting to come out right now, so the first signs of spring are here!

 

(Strange Colors due to iPhone Camera effects)

 

The last week, we just did family things.  I got to go to Maximo's first soccer practice, but Lola tried to use me as a shovel on the playground when her mom was trying to take a picture.  (Luckily, Aunt Julie grabbed me and I survived!) 

Then we bought sushi and meat on a stick called yakatori.  It was delicious, and I tried to eat using Maximo's children's chopsticks.

By the time you read this, I will already be in an envelope coming back to you!

Can't wait to see you,

Juliette

Note: To anyone else reading this besides my brother and niece, Jessica had a "Flat Juliette (Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts) project she sent to us to get a Brownie Badge.  She hung out with us for a couple of weeks to learn about our lives in Japan.

The Apple Tree Song

Aquarium Saturday

Sorry for the lack of posts.  It's been a rough few weeks.  The Ski Trip was nice, but then John and Maximo got pretty sick and were out of school almost all week this week.

Yesterday we went to the Suma Aquarium.  It was surprisingly empty and we're glad we got out of the house to do something fun after a rough week!

 Max and John feeding the turtles

 Maximo feeding the Koi.  Trying to distract Lola from swimming with the koi

 Cute girl!

I was going to delete a bunch of these, but they are cute.  It's hard to get both of them smiling and looking in the right direction.  And now, Maximo loves giving "silly faces".

 

Maximo had a horrible cough this week, so he wore a face mask to school.  In Japan, when one is sick, they usually wear a face mask to not infect others.  He actually kept it on all day.

This is him in my classroom -  his morning ritual of drawing on board for my students.