Craft Room

I heard William come in and jump on my bed and say, "Mommy, I need ANOTHER thing of tape!"
Now, a wise mom would have gotten up and investigated. It was 7 a.m., and William had woken at 5:50. I had told him he could be awake if he didn't bug mom. He had wanted to work on his 'crafts.' I said, "Okay."
I hazily remembered him asking for some more tape somewhere in my slumber, and therefore his request for a third tape dispenser did catch my interest. (BTW, I love it when the hazards of using tape shows up on the boy... although I am tired of having to take small bits of tape and paper off of my feet.)
I sighed. What is a mom to do? Go clean up the mess now? It was obviously too late for that. Any old mom knows that a small mess is as hard to clean up as a big one, so I said, "There's more tape in the cupboard by the front door, honey," and rolled over to make my reality go away.
Originally, William's room was the master bedroom. But, since we didn't have a true TV/play room, we gave him the larger room to play in. Well, that's been great until now. He now insists that he needs more table space to do his crafts, like his origami boats that he folds and colors for people. He reinforces the folds with tape. He's such a boy. Glueing just takes too long. It's the first lesson in 'bodging' something together, I guess. My tape supply has been taking a huge hit.
He has moved to our kitchen table, right by the big picture windows (so all the Japanese can see as they walk past) to do his 'washing paper' work. It goes something like this: You use paints, or markers on paper. Then you use water on it, and then absorb it with other paper. It looks interesting, and he loves it. It reminds me a bit of his Grandma Sue's funky watercolors.
He has had his markers taken away. That was a bigger mess than anticipated when he used them as 'paints.' There are no pictures of that event, because I was too busy trying to clean stuff up before it became permanent color on the expensive wall paper.
He is now skilled in using tape for a whole variety of things, like envelopes, and 'bags.'
My favorite, was him excitedly announcing to Tim as he came through the door last night, "Do ya know, I made a CRAFT! Wanna see it?"
Tim said, "Yes, I'd love to, what did you make?"
"A ball!" William crowed.
Great. I could have easily thrown it away when I thought it was just a balled up piece of paper. Now, I know it's a lovingly made 'craft.'
Ah... but as any 'crafty' mom knows, she can usually convince the child to send his lovingly made articles to unsuspecting relatives. There's more than one way to clean up the mess around here!

This Bud's for You

Even though it's a bit cold, we're starting to see a lot of blooms here in Japan. The narcissus have been out for awhile, and now the quince and the plums are starting to pop. Our quince bush is in the back of our house, so at least our neighbors get to enjoy it. For privacy, our windows in back are all opaque, so we have no view, just light coming in.

We haven't gotten any snow here so far this year. February is supposed to be cold, as well. Right now, the sun is shining almost every day. It was cold enough to nip my bougainvillea. We are told that it is rare for snow to stay more than a morning here, if we do get any.

I have bulbs in the ground (daffodils and tulips to remind me of home) and await the arrival of spring for those to come up.

The Ume, or plums are first to start blooming in Japan in Jan-Feb. I have seen white to dark pink, as you can tell in the picture of our neighbors yard. Then, the sakura, or cherry blossoms start in March-April in our area.

Lip Service

There is a stranger in my house. He has a key, and kisses me.

Tim, after 21 years of having facial hair has shaved his mustache. He is now desperately trying to re-grow it for the 'mustache growing contest' his work is having. I guess the women get to judge, instead of competing. There are a couple of Northern European guys who are so blonde and smooth, that I think some of the chicks could take them!

People keep saying he looks younger. One person thought he looked sick. He did admit he had a cold... upper lip!

That reminded me of a time when his nephew, Aidan, was 4 years old. We were going somewhere in my car and he said, "Auntie Caroline, why does Uncle Tim have a mustache?"

I replied that it is because Tim thinks it makes him look better.

"But WHY does he have a mustache, Auntie Caroline?"

I kept trying to explain in different ways how some men think they look better with facial hair. His little mind just couldn't get around it (that is an advanced concept), and it was starting to drive me nuts. "But, WHY???" We were nowhere near our destination, so I finally said, "He has a mustache to keep his lip warm."

"Oh!" That made sense to the boy, and I had a bit of peace and calm until he popped up with, "Papa Bill's chin must be cold, too!"

Tim had asked William if it would be okay if he shaved his mustache, and William said okay. This is William's reaction to the event:

Fuji-san

Add one to the list of skiing Putaansuu's. William is now officially skiing and is showing some typical Putaansuu traits such as skiing straight down the mountain. He may know how to turn, but doesn't really like to.

We were skiing at Yeti, which is a small ski area close to Camp Fuji where we were staying for the weekend and is actually on the shoulder of Mt. Fuji. It really is a small area with just three chairs, four runs, a beginner slope with magic carpet and a sledding area. The most difficult area would be rated a blue square in the states, though I didn't see any signs indicating the difficulty of a slope here. With the short gentle slopes, it was a nice place to teach William to ski.

On Saturday, we spent the morning at the bottom of the beginner slope pulling William 30 or so feet up the hill, setting him in a wedge, and sending him down the hill. Each time, he did a little better holding the wedge, but there were many falls and frustrations. He was intent, though. He may have been upset, but he wanted drug up the hill to try it again! We eventually called it a day with some minor success in holding a wedge, but no real progress toward stopping or turning. William sledded a bit in the afternoon while I took some runs around the rest of the hillside with others in our group.

We took Sunday off and just hung around the Camp Fuji Inn. William's legs were really sore from the work-out. His calves were hard as stone and big! He requested massages and we felt guilty enough to oblige. We were concerned with the crowds on Sunday being in the way to learning. It apparently wasn't too bad but it was a bit icy and windy.

On Monday, we headed back up. It had snowed over night, so the way up was a bit slick. We actually had to put chains on. There was no nice turnout or other designated chain up area for this. We got stuck on a hill as our car's traction control rolled the car to a stop. We got out and put the chains on (Caroline held the box with instructions written in Kanji and pictures, while I wrestled the Japanese style chains onto the wheels.) Luckily, traffic was light, but it was a bit nerve wracking being in the traffic lane while putting chains on. The chains got us over the hill and onto the side road that takes us to Yeti. That road was plowed clean. If I remember right the road we got stuck on wasn't a toll road, but the clean one was... I guess I know where some of the money goes. The picture here is me taking the chains off. Didn't want you to think that I'd put on chains on just wet pavement.

The work was worth it though. I got William onto the beginner slope and drug him up the 30 feet. I asked him to get into a wedge. On Saturday, he was pretty weak at getting the skis out in a wedge. Today, he pressed them right into place. We talked about how to dig them in to stop and we let him go. His wedge was perfect all the way down and even stopped short of the bottom. We tried it a couple more times and then we talked about turning by pressing one shin into the boot. He did a left turn on the first try and repeated with a right turn. We took the magic carpet up to the top of the bunny slope and let him go and he controlled his descent all the way down the hill, avoiding others, to a safe stop at the bottom. Caroline cheered from the lodge, and I raced down to give him a big bear hug. We were so proud.

After that we decided to try the big runs with the chair lifts. He did really well and frankly giggled with joy on the steeper sections. He mostly flies straight down the mountain in a flying wedge. We did stop to do a lesson on turns. I carved out two connected turns for him to follow. He did two incredibly carved turns, right in my tracks, and then headed straight down the hill. Not sure if we should call him Wild Will, or Bombing Billy...

MOSQUITO in the house

We got back from skiing at Fuji yesterday, and right after bringing everything back in the house, William starts yelling, "Caw! Caw!"

Even though it was a good impression of a crow, I couldn't quite figure it out, until I remembered: 'Ka' is mosquito in Japanese.

Yep, the bugger got William. He was a bruiser, too. Big! I thought it was a fly as I chased him from room to room. We have dark (black/tan) rugs, so I couldn't see him very well, until he got near our cream colored walls. I knew the victory of vengeance when I had to scrub the blood/black gunk from the wall.

So, I guess mosquito season starts now.

Tim is preparing a great video and upload of what we did up at the mountain. Merely 1:45 away, or 2:15 with a bit of rush hour, is Yeti, a small (2 chair lift) ski slope. BTW, it costs ¥3,000 each way in tolls, with an additional ¥1500 in toll and parking. We stayed at Camp Fuji. Camp Fuji is a Marine base across from a Japanese base on the shoulder of Mt. Fuji.

The view from our 'dorm/hotel type' room was phenomenal. We mentioned to the young man checking us in how he must love waking up every morning and seeing such a beautiful site, which he promptly replied, "Yeah, it's not so special when you know you have to run up it." I decided at that point to just enjoy the view, and not blemish it with any physical activity.

William was excited to be out of the car and showed it by op-checking the bed for spring load rebound. The place had been shut down for a few months, so it was freezing. The bed wasn't my king-sized one. But the view was worth it. 30 people came at the same time, 12 rooms, 8 cars. We had potlucks for 2 nights. I told Tim it was like a church social with booze. But the people drinking weren't the ones making the noise!

The kids saw the hallway as their personal race track, and William is a runner. One night, the teenaged girls were running and screaming. 10% of the population was teenaged boys. Yep, for anyone who has ever chaperoned a teenager school trip, you know that we erred by not bringing our earplugs.

With the bed situation, I got little sleep. I kept waking up at midnight, and finally getting back to sleep at 5, with William waking at 5:30 each morning, except Sunday. That was when first reveille was at 6. Now you know why the per night charge was so low... whilst they don't provide a phone line with a personal wake up call in each room, the US Marine Corps bugler provides a free wake up call on loudspeaker each morning at 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE CULTURAL EVENT

Every time we are honored to do a Japanese custom, like rice pounding to make mochi, or dances, or whatever, I think that it is my turn to share a bit of our culture.
Maybe making gingerbread houses is a bit more what I like to do, but cookies are quicker, and edible!
This is the family of one of my English students. He is a dentist, and has 3 small children. Miu, who is 6, speaks quite a bit of English, and very clearly! They live at the park we frequent, and I want her and William to start hanging out together. Of course, with William's stubborn streak, I'm sure she'll learn more English than he will Japanese! She did quite well decorating cookies. William refused to show up until the end, and then he helped eat one.
Mina, was the absolute cutest. At 2, she had me wrapped around her little chubby fingers. She kept wanting to wash her hands because this included me scurrying after her with a stool, and getting assistance from me.
They stamped out some cookies (I cheated and used Pillsbury's pre-rolled sugar cookie dough... it made the flour mess not exist), and then, I had to explain what the word 'cheat' meant. This is a hard concept to explain to a Japanese in simple English. I suppose I should have sold it as working 'smart' and 'efficiently.' When we were done, we had quite the great cookie collection. It was fun, and I'm sure they're still on a sugar high! The Japanese use significantly less sweeteners than we do. I actually like it. They usually say, 'too sweet' when they eat an American goodie.

SPACE READER

William said to me, "Mommy, I want to learn about space." So, he began to read his Earth and Space book. He is now on chapter 4. I am pretty impressed that he wants to learn enough that he will read a chapter book. Of course, there are a lot of pictures, so it's not too boring.

He does really well with huge words, although we have to correct his pronunciation on a few. He is getting some help, as we'll read for him during his bedtime book reading routine.