Mickey Bistro Set

William and I have been busy today. Among other things, we assembled a Mickey Bistro table and chair set that we found at the local Japanese Hardware store, Home's. The Japanese love Disney stuff and you see it everywhere. I'm not sure you could find one of these in the states. Caroline had spotted it and told me about it. I went out to buy it and it was one of those cultural experiences. I found it, but didn't see the boxes anywhere for it, so I had to ask in my very limited Japanese. It took some time and several people, but we eventually understood that it was out of stock and that they could order it. I filled out some paperwork and gave them my phone number and I hoped all would work out.

I got a call a few days later from a man who spoke no English, I had my question all worked out in Japanese "Taberu to Isu asoko des ne?" which I think is asking if the table and chairs are there. I was hoping for a "Hai" but what I got instead was a long string of Japanese and I could only imagine what he was saying, "Yes, it is here and can you please pick it up", "No, it is not here and it will take three months to get it here," "Yes it is here, but it's made out of lead with PCB paint..." He kept saying "eto" though, so after we finally agreed to hang up without understanding each other, I looked up the word "eto" on line hoping it meant "Come pick up your order" or "Next week" or something very telling. It apparently is the word that Japanese use where we might say, "uhmm". Seems we were saying the same thing on both ends of the line... Anyway, I stopped off and showed the order form and a gentlemen came out with the box! Success! Assembling the whole thing with the Japanese instructions was a cinch in comparison!

e mail W (balls)

by William:

hi we got there too late so NO TICKETS!!!!!!!!!! too bad but we had fun SO FUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WELL BYE

(Dad's note: We had originally planned to go to the Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation since they have a planetarium. William is fascinated with space at the moment and they had one show with English audio at 2:00 PM that we thought would blow his mind. We thought we got a reasonably early start up to Tokyo...

It was OK getting to Shimbashi, but we needed to switch to the New Transit YURIKAMOME line. As we exited the JR turnstiles looking for the sign to this next train circuit, we didn't see it right away and we had a dumbstruck look for three seconds. That is about how long you can look confused in a train station before a Japanese person that speaks good English comes up and asks if he/she can help. Right on cue, a very nice gentlemen asked if he could help. Not three seconds later, William starts pointing and jumping up and down saying he found the sign we were looking for. We didn't want to insult our Japanese saviour, so we let him finish finding the stop we were heading for on the map, figure out which line we needed, and then eventually point at the same sign that William was practically yelling about at this point.

We got to the museum at 1:00PM only to find out that the planetarium show had sold out about an hour previous. It was a real bummer. We decided to buck up and see what else the Museum had to offer. It had quite a bit. We spent some time in their "Terminator" exhibit which had all kinds of terminator props and information. We also looked through their life science area where we looked at rat brains through microscopes and sequenced wood block "DNA". But the exhibit that fascinated both William and me the most was the "Mechanical Model of the Internet." You assembled a message with a binary address and character out of black and white balls that represented the 1's and 0's and they were sent through interconnected mechanical "servers" that would read the address balls and send the sequence of balls to other servers to finally deliver the message to the correct terminal. It was quite a machine and a show! Here is a video showing William sending a "W" through the machine...)

Tokyo Bling Hunt

Hi Mom, We are at Tokyo for Go phone bling and train ride. By Will To Mom: Bye

Last Sunday, William and I got up in the morning. Caroline had stayed up quite late reading a good book and was sleeping in quite late. William and I discussed potential plans for the day over breakfast and I mentioned that I wanted to find Go stone bling for my phone. I had met one of my Go instructors in a Go center in Tokyo a year or so ago and I'd noticed that they had a store in the center and figured if anyone had one, they would. It would be a frivolous trip with lots of train riding for a hard target minor purchase, but it was a day clear of any plans, William loves planning and executing train trips, Caroline could use some peace and quiet in the house, and I needed phone bling! So, William wrote the above note for Mom, ran quietly upstairs, got dressed, and brought down his train map and proceeded to plan our route for the day as I showered and got dressed.

By the time I was ready to go, William had the master plan. The trip up was pretty straight forward, but the way back was not quite so. Apparently, William's goal for a train ride is not about the quickest, easiest, or cheapest way from A to B, it's about which train lines he has ridden in the process. The way back took us out to Shibuya and onto the Tokyu line back to Yokohama. That is why he says in the video, "...we'll start on Keikyu (our local train line) and end on Keikyu." Everything else coming back was different than how we got there. He spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a method to include a Shinkansen (Bullet Train) ride in, but it would have taken longer to get to the Shinkansen than it would to get straight to Tokyo. Not that this mattered much to William, but I did exercise some veto rights on his initial plan...

With a plan and map in hand, we started our trek at 9:30 AM. I pretty much let William lead the way. The only time we got lost was when I couldn't remember exactly how to get to the Go store. We first exited the wrong side of Tokyo station, and then tried to make our way through the MASSIVE underground mall to the other side. I remembered that the tower that the Go store is in had an entrance in the underground mall. I actually found it but wasn't convinced, so we headed up to street level to see if I could recognize the outside. Sure enough, that was it and we entered the building and headed up. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember which floor it was on. We got off on the 4th floor and then started looking around. We eventually got to the 9th floor and found it... I didn't find cell phone bling, but I did find another traditional Japanese thingy that did have a miniature carved shell Go stone on it. An ear wax pick. It was close enough and I could remove the Go stone from the ear pick and put it on my phone.

So, with prize in hand we headed back. William took the lead again and did really well. I almost think that he could find his way from Tokyo to our house without too much trouble all by himself. With the unfamiliar Tokyu line we took from Shibuya to Yokohama, William panicked a bit thinking the train took a different route than we wanted, but we held our ground and eventually convinced ourselves it was going to Yokohama.

We walked back up to our house at 1:30 PM and found Caroline freshly awake as of some 20 minutes previous. She was absolutely thrilled with the day off, the peace and quiet, and the lovely note explaining our absence. William got a train adventure and I got my finely sculpted clam shell miniature Go stone cell phone bling... though, after I proudly showed it to Caroline and she responded "What is that, a Mentos?" perhaps I'm not quite as thrilled with it...

Field Trip

Today was William's field trip. The one you're invited to, but NOT invited to. Parents are encouraged to go with the younger classes (who need more surveillance) but not the older class. I stood there, along with the other ladies, waiting for the bus to leave. For the first time ever, I had separation anxiety, which was compounded by the fact that I had forgotten to give William his lunch when he got on the bus. I gave it to a teacher. The next thing I know, they said William was crying.

Sure enough, he's in the back, and he's upset. I knew it wasn't about leaving me (he and his buddies were happy to be in the back of the bus), but because he thought he wouldn't get to eat!

Sensei Ogawa eventually gave it to Sensei Taneguchi, who finally gave it to William. All was well.

One of the things they asked today, was for all the kids to wear a mask. Usually, William resists. But today, he was happy to wear it. Seika had passed along this information via the phone tree. The lady after me was panicked because she didn't have any, and with the recent swine flu scare, and summer upon us (flu and heavy pollen season past), all the stores are sold out here. I told her that I had plenty and I would bring her one. She gave me a big box of cakes as a gift! Oh my goodness. Overkill. I understood the need, and was happy to share. That's the Japanese way, however. Any kindness is over-appreciated.

I hung out with friends, shopped, and passed the time until William was back. His best friend, Jowanzo's mom, gave us a ride back to our car, which was nice.

There is no parking at the school, so it means train and bus, car to base and taxi, or bus and bus. It's a lot of walking, even if you find a paid parking in the general area. When I pick up William after soccer, I just pull to the side a bit, put my flashers on, and go in get him. It's okay because I'm back out to the car in 5 minutes. Traffic learns to just go around randomly parked cars on the street. Hey, it works!

Mothers Association

Seika Kindergarten has a Mothers Association that raises money for events.

I decided to go to one of the meetings, basically to see what all the fuss was about, and show my face to these ladies. I had heard that it's a pretty closed group. But, I've paid my dues (they charge $120 per year for each kid, plus raise the rest selling cookies and the like) and I figured I wanted to see what our 'money' was buying!

I've decided that I'm masochistic, because it was as painful as any other boring meeting, but more so because I didn't understand a word of it, and I was 'representing,' so I couldn't sit in the back and play with my iTouch.

They basically just went over the budget, and how much they've already raised, and how much they need. Yawn.

A bit of adrenaline was pumped in when I had to introduce myself. That went okay (I have my little bit memorized). But when they started to go around the room again, panic set in. I was pretty sure they were saying who their child was, and what class they were in. I was right (I asked the one mom I know who is bilingual), but you really have to listen close!

I even remembered to bring my own slippers. I have them tucked in the glove compartment of my car, along with my 'name tag' to be on school premises. They do have slippers to borrow, but not that many.

Next meeting I will give it a skip.

I have seen most of these ladies 2-3 times this week. They're starting to warm to me a bit. They asked me to go in twice to learn how to tie mawashi. Mawashi is the Sumo Wrestler belt that William will be sporting next weekend. Again, everything was explained in Japanese. I do know enough (san kaku is triangle), han-ban, is half fold, etc., that I was able to understand what she was explaining. It's pretty simple, but the trick is what to do if you have too much or too little fabric at the end to finish it off. She shows you what the different tricks are.

I got to watch the sumo practice, and these ladies showing the kids how to do sumo. It's pretty cute. I felt odd about video taping it, so I didn't. I now know how to say the beginning face off stuff, along with the motions you're supposed to use! There's a skill for a 45 year old American woman! Who says I can't pad a resume?

Baseball Japanese Style

Back in March, when James was here, I took him to a baseball game.  It was between the Yokohama Bay Stars and the Yomiuri Giants.  Yomiuri is a newspaper that we subscribe to, but we sat on the Yokohama side, as that is our closest city.

It was a miserable, rainy day, but they kept playing!  We had worn raincoats, and I bought some over-priced towel 'souvenirs' to wipe off the puddles in our seats.  The wind would push the rain sideways at times, and did cause some discomfort and stress on my side.  It was tricky trying to hold onto my beer and umbrella at the same time!

My student, Ryota, came along and helped explain a few things.  The one that fascinated me the most was that they have particular songs/cheers for each individual player.  They really take their fan cheering to a whole new level. 

James, who plays trumpet, was impressed that you can take your instruments in and have different 'bands' going on for the game.

For entertainment purposes, I bought William some baseball bat shaped 'clapper/noisemakers.'  He bopped along and was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.  

Oh!  I know some of you want to know...  the beer was ¥500.  Young girls walk around selling it.  One of them was in high heels, and this stuff isn't light-weight, either!  Only in Japan...