BAIT AND SWITCH

Today was William's first day of Japanese Kindergarten at Seika Yochien.

He chose this one above the others we looked at because: Their bus looks like a train. They teach a musical instrument (melodian, it's a keyboard you blow through), and because they serve miso soup at lunch (William LOVES miso soup which is a fish stock, soybean paste soup with chunks of seaweed and tofu).

Today, he's all ready to go at 7:15 (those of you who know me know that I don't do mornings well, and in Japan, mornings start early... GROAN!), we go out to the bus stop (at our house, how convenient), and a VAN pulls up. A modern, nice van, but a grey VAN, not the train looking bus.

William started to cry. He was valiantly scrubbing the tears out of his eyes, but the big disappointment was too great. I am ready for him to start the school, and get through the steep learning curve of basic Japanese. And, I am ready to have a few hours every morning to blog, work out, and shop without a boy in tow. But, even I was disheartened by the lack of a train bus. Poor thing. He's going to have to learn that life doesn't always give you what you thought you were getting. But he's so young, and as a mom, my heart hurts for him!

He is dressed up in their summer outfit here. The winter uniform has a jacket and a dark blue felt hat. He's so tall, that those shorts look mighty short. But that's all of the American kids in their outfits here. They continue the shorts thing even through winter.

Today, I am taking William on a train ride to make up for his VAN ride to school. It's not even a bus, it's a VAN.

At least the base school buses here are yellow, like back home. So, next year, when he goes on base for school, he'll be able to ride a real bus!