More school pictures

This is some of the Art work my students did 1st term.  We have bulletin boards in the hallways.

This is the Art room at the school.  Look at those huge bottles of paint.  Januck will be teaching my class in this room.

Earthquake/Tsunami Drill

Yesterday, we had a drill at school at 11:40 a.m.  We had 10 seconds to see if we could get the students to duck and cover with cushions on their heads.  The teachers needed to open a window or a door and put helmets on.  After the countdown, we evacuated quickly to the highest place on our school grounds,  We went to the rooftop and waited.  The school figured out how high the tsunami would be if it hit our bay.

It was an interesting exercise!

I was a little stressed because my class was in the Computer Lab and we had to find spare cushions for the students.  But it all went well.

Don't really see the affects of the disaster up north in Fukushima in my city.  The Japanese Prime Minister was criticized for not acting quicker and effectively and was replaced last week.  Our city decided to forgo the summer fireworks and send the monies to rebuild the areas in need.  Otherwise, things are quite normal here except for the monthly earthquake and NOW tsunami drill.

Joanna

Italian dinner

Well, how we eat pizza and the Italian pizza here in Japan is very different. The crust here is thin, greasy and the tomato sauce is watery.
Rachel said she would rather not eat pizza and stick to Japanese food while she is living here. I have to agree with her. Fortunately, we love the Japanese food here. We have eaten so much ramen, yakitori (chicken kabobs), and onigiri (rice balls). The best thing we have in our kitchen is a fish griller. We have tried salmon and yellowtail fillets. Really good!
We are missing not having a microwave and a dishwasher. Next month, we may buy a microwave....they call them 'ranges' here.
Joanna

Photos of my classroom/2nd grade

The students sit at tables in groups/  My desk in the background in the corner.

By the door, in case students have colds or need anti-bacterial soap.

The view outside my window.  The cicadas are really loud in the trees...but so green.



$Joanna$

Registering the kids for school

Today we had an appointment to go register Rachel and Alex.  We were shown into a conference room with a lady from the office and a translator who would help to fill out our forms.   The forms kept coming and coming....three hours later we completed the paperwork and had paid for uniforms.  Alex will be going to camp on Friday and Rachel will start summer school tomorrow.
Some ways to pay for bills here are at 7Eleven.. I paid our electric bill and our gas bill yesterday there, the Post Office, our phone bill and school supplemental insurance, and the bank has a withdrawal system, where we paid for the kids' school fees and fire insurance on our rental home. Very confusing, but can be convenient if I can figure out what is paid where!
Rachel and Alex met their teachers today who talked with them and gave them a school tour.  Rachel took her nail polish off tonight - not allowed at her school. They are excited to start back...summer break has been too long. Very eager to get into a routine and meet new friends.
$Joanna$

What a Day Yesterday

Yesterday started with pouring rain on the way to work (again) and smart me, I decided to try out a pair of new shoes.  About halfway there I could barely walk because a blister was forming.  Ouch.  I had also gone pretty much mosquito bite free until yesterday when I was making copies at school and I felt one on my arm.  I saw the little sucker (get it) fly away and then a few moments later I felt pain on my wrist and there we was again.  I got him though!

On the way home is wasn't much better with the shoes but at least it wasn't raining.  I was limping because I knew both achilles were torn up and I couldn't wait to get home and get the shoes off.  When I got home, Rachel and Joanna were commenting on something on my backside and so I looked in the mirror and realized that I had Butt Sweat!  It was so hot and humid that I had two big sweat marks under each butt cheek.  How sad is that!  Oh well, today is another day.

¥¥¥Januck¥¥¥

The most annoying beep beep beep thing in a store!

Froggy!

Here are a few frog friends we've seen while here in Japan.

They have the coolest frogs ever!

This one was hanging outside our kitchen window.

This little guy was hanging out on our patio when it was raining.

Cool dude on our kitchen door during a rainy night.

And what about those giant spiders!

¥¥¥Januck¥¥¥

Sushi!

As Joanna posted, we had the best sushi last night.  Not only is there a conveyer belt that brings sushi by your table but if you want to order specific sushi, then you order it on the touchscreen and it comes out on a little train.  The train comes from the kitchen on a track that is above the conveyer belt but we didn't know how to operate it properly so we accidentally ordered a round of sushi twice.  Oops!  Oh well, you can't beat the ¥100 price which is about $1.30 and all they do is count the plates when you are done.

Here comes our sushi!

Rachel is getting sushi off of the train and look at that yummy custard dessert!

Alex is very satisfied and I wonder why they have aliens on their signage outside.

Boy, I'm sure glad they open at 10:25 AM.  What an odd time to open.

¥¥¥Januck¥¥¥

Oops! at the Sushi Restaurant

We were so excited to find this 100¥ revolving sushi restaurant, that we had eaten at four years ago in Alex's birthplace of Mishima city.  The soy sauce plates and chopsticks were on the table when we sat down and we were looking for the wasabi.  We saw this container, above and Alex started to put some green matter in his soy sauce.  It floated on top and we all thought that was odd, but continued to put some in each of our soy sauce plates ready to eat some sushi.  We were so hungry so we started eating and dipping our sushi into our plates.
Some time went by, and we realized above our table on a counter were some cups and a place where we could get hot water.  I looked around trying to see what others were doing with the hot water.  An older lady sitting at the table over, took the above canister and put some in a cup and used the hot water to fill her cup.
It dawned on me that this is NOT wasabi, but green tea powder!  I told the family and we started laughing and said, "Oh, well!" Now we know, the next time we go to eat at this restaurant.

Joanna

Exploring some more

Woke up to a cat meowing, a brook babbling, cicadas singing and a piano playing classical music.
So many new sounds....

Januck and I walked to a new store today.  It was the equivalent to a swap meet indoors.  Each section was playing a welcome song and sold special items.  We found Cherry Coke and Diet Pepper to our surprise.

Then, we walked to have lunch at Seiyu, our Japanese Walmart.  They were serving Ramen noodles and rice dishes with a Chinese flair.  We ordered a seafood rice dish with spinach, shrimp, raw egg, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts.  It was still cooking when we got it....like a sizzling fajita dish.

We then walked home and took naps.  All the stimulation made us exhausted!
Joanna

Rain Rain Here to Stay!

We went by our school and the bank today and met the kids for lunch at McDonald's and decided to go shopping after that.  We knew it might rain and we had some light showers earlier in the day but little did we know that the skies would open up.  Of course, the kids loved it especially since they had to ride home on their bikes.  Of course in Southern California, we don't get much rain especially warm rain so they had fun playing outside...until the lightning and thunder started which made them come inside.  We had quite the show today (who needs fireworks when God provides them for you) and it is supposed to last through tomorrow.

A couple of California kids having fun in the rain!

A little rain and a little thunder!

¥¥¥Januck

Fireworks in Atami!

Last night we went to Atami which is about a half hour train ride from here because they have a wonderful thirty minute fireworks display at the beach.  We walked around and ate from the food booths that they had and finally found some stairs to camp out on for a few hours waiting for the fireworks.  It was worth the wait because they were truly amazing and we saw some that we had never seen before including some that exploded and then had lanterns floating down with a string of fireworks glowing beneath them.  Afterwards, we had the unfortunate task of climbing stairs back to the train station and of course Rachel and Alex were jogging up the stairs with no problem while hundreds of us others were slowly making the trek up.  I didn't mind because all of the Japanese people were complaining about the climb so I didn't feel so bad.

I'll try and post a video clip of the fireworks as soon as I can figure out how to.

Here is some sort of tsunami evacuation plan since we were near the beach.

Here are a couple of pictures of Atami.  Hey, isn't that Alcatraz in the distance in the photo on the left?

Alex made a friend by the beach!

Alex is sad that the fireworks are over.

¥¥¥ Januck

Swrinkle?

Let's get our facts straight, Ma'am.  It is a Swirkle, not a Swrinkle. It is definitely the most disappointing drink I've had in a long time.  The picture made it look SO good especially when it is so hot and humid out. Swrinkle...(shaking my head)!

Swrinkle

We tried three types of swrinkles yesterday, mostly out of curiousity.  There was Mango, Pink Grapefruit and the kids bought their own Expresso.  We bought the second biggest ones and they were about $5.00 each.  Reminded us of a slusshie.

Afterwards, I walked around the small mall called Ishibashi Plaza.  I could not believe what I saw...a Disney store.  Here in Numazu!  We aren't living so far away.
Joanna

Our Doraemon Picture

There is a park in Mishima called Rakujuen Park and we used to take the kids there quite a bit when they were young.  They have a tiny zoo and a small play area with games so while we were geocaching yesterday (successfully!) we decided to drop by the park and see if it was the same.  It was 300 yen to get in but Alex only had to pay 50 yen because that is how much it is for ages 2-14 and Joanna had to explain to the lady that even though he is big, he's only 14.  She didn't question it and let us in.

One year we decided to take our Christmas card photo of the kids in front of a large Doraemon and we went searching for it in the park. To our amazement, it was still there so these are the before and after pictures of the kids in front of Doraemon.

-Januck

High School Baseball

During the summer they have the high school baseball championship where high school teams from around the country compete in a single elimination game tournament.  It is a lot of fun to watch because there is so much emotion and it is an honor for them to even play in the tournament.  When a team loses, you often see them crying and in Japan showing your emotion like that is usually frowned upon but it is accepted at the tournament because of what it means to them.

There is one part after each game that Rachel thinks is so cruel.  When the game is over, the two teams face each other and bow and the losing team runs to their dugout and stands there while the winning team remains at home plate.  Then the winning team's school song is played and they sing it while the losing team has to stand there and watch and listen.

Alex Posing

Dang. It is hard to tell which one is Alex!

Great posing Alex!

It's amazing that a car can fit into the garage but Alex can't!

-Januck

Spiders!

They have some crazy spiders here in Japan!

I saw this one on my hike to the top of Mt. Kanuki!

Alex pointed this one out at Ooka Station before we boarded the train.

We were in line to check out at our local supermarket when this big boy decided to get in line with us.  Joanna asked the employee if it was dangerous and he said No but the employee tried to grab him with a plastic bag.  It ran past me and over a customer's foot before he was able to grab him.  Joanna was about ten feet away watching it all happen.

-Januck

Matsuri Means Festival

It brought back so many good memories of Japanese matsuri time.  The people dressed in Japanese garb, the hot sticky weather and the FOOD.  One thing we ate was takoyaki, which are chopped up octopus and cabbage balls in a batter, with sauce on it...so good! The only thing missing were fireworks.  Some cities are cutting back due to monies going up north to the earthquake/tsunami stricken areas.
Joanna

Mishima Summer Festival

The family went with our new teacher friend to the Mishima Summer Festival in the city next to ours and where Alex was born.  It was at their shrine and they had lots of booths with different foods to eat.  It was a lot of fun!

There were lanterns outside of Mishima Station.

This is the Mishima Shrine.  People go to offer money and pray.

These women were playing the koto which is kind of like a Japanese harp.

Rachel and Alex are eating okonomiyaki which is a japanese pancake but it is not sweet.  It has cabbage and meat inside topped with mayonnaise and a teriyaki type sauce.  Yummy!

We got some fish food and fed the coy fish that were in the pond at the shrine.  They were so big! You can tell that they were well fed.

Just having some fun!

More Yard

Here's Alex mowing the yard with his high tech lawn mower. He asked why there wasn't a popper at the top with colored balls.

Can you find the praying mantis? This one crawled up Rachel's leg and I had to point it out to her.  Let's just say there was a lot of screaming and jumping around.

We found this cicada shell hanging from a leaf.  I guess they shed somehow.

Our Yard

The weeds have grown in our yard and we decided to do something about it...we don't really have grass.  Alex plugged in the electric hand-held mower that was left in the shed.  It took over an hour to clear our small patch of weeds.  In Japan, a kept garden is expected.  For fear of embarrassing ourselves, Rachel and I raked dry leaves in the car port...we don't have a car, but our bikes are parked there.  Januck cleared some low branches on the trees.
We saw many frogs, a praying mantis, some cicadas, and spiders.  You would think my kids had never seen insects before.  All the screaming and freaking out made the yard work take even longer.  It was funny, but was a good first attempt at a kept garden!
Joanna

I took these pictures out biking today! -Alex