Seika Camp -Mom's Perspective

I'll admit that I had a lot of apprehension and separation anxiety when I first heard of Seika camp. When I looked at the itinerary, it said 'sailing.' I asked if I should send a lifejacket along with him. That got a laugh, as he was to go on one of those huge boats. Hey, 'sailing' to me is racing for beer on Friday nights on Sinclair Inlet. People do fall off! I'm not overprotective, I'm into prevention! Yeah, that's it...
I worried, and anguished. Then, while on vacation and talking to a relative, I realized that William was starting to be concerned, as well. So, I stopped worrying. I trust these people to drive my child to school each day. They do a great job to make sure he's safe. They'll do the same on this camp that they do every year. So, I stopped worrying, and started working on mentally preparing William to enjoy it.
He is waiting on the bus to leave. The girl in front of him is fluent in Japanese, and her mom was the one that convinced me to try out Seika. William was quiet until Jowanzo arrived, and then they were best buds, ready to set off on an adventure!
Finally, the bus left. I went home and had some peace and quiet. It was relaxing.
I was ready to see my boy again, and found myself jogging to Seika from the parking lot (pay) nearby. I get there 10 minutes early, and the kids are seated, and no parents can go see their kid. William looked crest-fallen, so I went and spoke to him a bit, but no hugs, yet. The school ceremony was about 45 minutes long. THEN I got to hug my boy! Talk about delayed gratification. These kids sat there the entire time. They sung us songs about Fuji and other camp songs. The headmistress spoke. It seemed really long for me, but then again, I was standing in the back with the other parents, waiting.
I loved that they got to decorate their own straw hats.
William was READY TO TALK. He had to speak Japanese for 3 days, and he was ready to communicate in a language he KNEW! He described very well his entire trip to me on the way home, and for Tim when we got home. He is writing is 'book' on his adventure, and when we buy the pictures and get the video, we will post those.
Apparently, the villa they were in was a huge house. William was impressed how big it was. The boys from Yokosuka's Seika slept in one tatami room. There were other Seika Kindergartens there, as well. He was amazed how big the bath was. All the Yokosuka Seika boys bathed at one time. They shower, then soak in a tub together. This is popular amongst the Japanese. I will let him tell his own tales on what else they got to do.
He presented us with our 'gifts' he bought. He got his mom chocolates. I have to admit, my heart swelled a bit. He didn't buy anything for himself. He only bought for us. Tim got a Japanese hand towel that is really nice and has Lion King in Japanese on it. William made the presentations very nice. TOO FUN! He 'saved' the rest of his money for his 'money collection.' :)
I am happy to have William back, sleeping safely where I can hear him. He's more confident, you can tell. He survived and lived to TELL about it!

It's a My-Little-Pony Keg

Since all my big gun beer drinking help is back in the states until January, I've been looking for smaller kegs of beer so they don't get too old and stale before they run out. Figuring out how to purchase Japanese kegs and tap them was an experience. So far we've gone through two kegs of Asahi Super Dry. The kegs were 19 liters or about 5 gallons which is about 2/3 of a pony keg in the states and is about the same size and shape as a soda keg.

This time, we thought we'd mix it up a bit and Caroline was going to get a keg of Sapporo. This is what she ended up with. I've seen these things stacked up outside of bars and bottle shops. It's about 2 and a half gallons, but has a no kidding tap on it. It's so CUTE! It's not just a Pony Keg, it's a My-Little-Pony Keg. We'll see if this one lasts a week... :)

Climbing Mt. Fuji

The Japanese have a saying: "It is a wise man who climbs Mt. Fuji. It is a fool who climbs it twice."

I'm not a huge Mountain climber. My two activities that even come close are hiking the last 150 feet up Mt. Bachelor from the chairlift at 9,000 feet, and climbing up Mt. St. Helens... after it blew up, which is cheating since it is 1,300 shorter than it used to be at 8,365 feet. Mt. Fuji is 12,388 feet tall!

MWR puts on trips all through July and August to go climb the mountain. It's a long day, we met up around 1:45 AM to check-in and get on the bus. We then travelled through the morning to get to the 5th station (7,560 ft) at 5:30 AM to start our climb. They give us a climbing stick as part of the package which is used for two things. Help support you as you climb up the mountain and to get brands burned into at various huts up the mountain.

This is not a lonely solitary climb. There are thousands of people climbing Fuji all day long and the infrastructure that has grown to support these people (and make money off them) has grown up. There are supposedly 8 stations, but there are many huts associated with each station. They have food and drink at these huts and usually offer to brand your climbing stick for 200 yen. If you'd like to use the restroom, that'll be another 200 yen, thank you very much.

The trail is very well marked and mostly well developed, but there are still areas where you scramble up a jaggy rock face. Nothing you need climbing gear for, but when all you heard is that it is a long hike to the top, it's a bit disheartening.

The climb is not technically difficult, but as you get higher and higher, the lack of Oxygen really starts to take it's toll. I think I was even further compromised since I had just gotten over a cold. I'd work really hard to get two legs of a switchback completed before sitting down to catch my breath. I was actually getting dizzy at points. When I was sitting down to catch my breath, I almost fell asleep a few times. I'm not sure if it was the lack of Oxygen, or the fact that I got up at midnight to take this trip! :) There were a few times that I'd work so hard for a few feet and then rest and look at how much further I had to go and really wonder if I'd make it in time (we had to make it by 1:00PM or turn around) or at all.

It was a beautiful day for a climb. Allie, a good friend of ours and one of the guides, said they had terrible wind and rain 3 out of the 4 times she had gone so far. Our climb was an exception. The sun was out and the cloud layer generally stayed below where we were (though it was catching up to us, and overtook me for a little while).

As I was getting toward the top, I got a cell phone call from one of our group that had gotten there an hour or so before. I panted that I was within 150 meters and I'd eventually get there.

At a bit before noon, I finally reached the Torii gate that marks the summit! Yes!

The summit is quite well developed with lots of huts, souvenir shops, drink vendors, shrines, and even a post office! I found people from our group, bought a Asahi beer for 600 yen, and sat down to celebrate my accomplishment! After a while, I looked at my phone to see that I had three bars of signal and called Caroline to share the experience! I actually had a better signal on top of the mountain than I did at the bus at the bottom of the climb.

Now it was the long trudge back down to the bus. You go down a different trail than you ascended on. It isn't as technically difficult, but the dirt and gravel make it a bit slippery and despite having my now heavily branded stick, I did hit the ground a couple of times and scraped up my hands a bit. Now my stick has some character building blood stains on it too. :)

I do not intend to try this one again...

Earthquake!

Wow! Nothing got knocked over, but it sure was an exciting earthquake. Seemed to go on for a minute or more. Came on kinda strong then diminished, then came back a bit stronger. Could feel it still rumbling for a minute more. It was measured as a level 3 here and a 4 in Tokyo based on the Japanese method of measuring the magnitude. CNN is calling it a 7.1 off the coast.

Definitely felt that one!

Update: One book just fell out of the book shelf... an hour after the earthquake... Both the book and the floor are fine! :)

Visiting Aunt and Uncle

My Aunt and Uncle (Mary Ann and Don) are visiting this week. They took an organized tour of the "Treasures of Japan" over the week or more before and then I picked them up in Tokyo as the rest of their tour was headed to the airport. Their tour mates were apparently impressed that they were staying for a bit more...

Once we met up in Tokyo, we stashed their bags at the hotel and headed to Ueno to visit some of the museums there. We burnt ourselves out visiting the Western Art exhibit with classic art from the Medieval period to present, the Science and Nature Museum with 6 stories of "How it Works" exhibits, and then the Japanese National Museum with some very genuine Japanese history on display.

Our next day was to Mt. Nokogiri which involves a train ride down to Kurihama, a bus ride (bus #2 BTW), down to the port, on the ferry across Tokyo Bay, then up the cableway to the top. It's a bit of a trek to get out there, but they were happy to get to a place less traveled and noticed that we were the only "tourists" (Caucasians) out there. They are avid hikers, but the numerous pitched climbs up steps was a bit more than they expected. It was still a very nice day trip.

Yesterday was Kamikura, which was the Samurai period capital of Japan. We saw the Big Buddha and then headed out on a 3 mile hike through the hills. It was a pretty hike for the most part, but certainly a bit rougher than I'm used to from US trails. We survived, but were certainly ready to hit the train after the walk. Just as well, the Temples at the end of the walk were starting to close at 4:00PM. We then inadvertently extended our tour by getting on the train going the wrong way. I finally noticed after 4 stops when I hadn't recognized any of them... Oops. :]

COUSINS

Watching Sponge Bob, Square Pants. Truly a 'boy bonding' cartoon. They have Wm's DVD player up in Thayer's bed. It's summer, so nobody's in a hurry to get moving!
I love this pic of Thayer and Mimi Kitters, the cat. She is so old and frail and finally will let me pet her!
William is all dressed up in overalls.... It was fun watching Uncle Noel 'kit him up' to help out with Uncle Noel's truck.
He's now under the truck, helping Uncle Noel. If it's anything like the help I get from him...
William has the best cousins, and he loves them dearly. They tag team him a bit. When one gets tired, the other hangs around him. He wants to be big like them, and steps his game up a bit in order to hang.

Last year, they did this on the sidewalk. Even though it was a nice day, it was cold in the morning, so Aidan convinced William to do this indoors this year. I guess there are advantages to split-level homes!

Slip Sliding Away

A kid at heart, Eno Brad hooked us up with some serious fun... a Slip N Slide! They invited some neighbor kids who go to Japanese school to come over and enjoy the day. It was a hoot!

William just loved the water. He got a bit of a sunburn... his shorts kept sliding down, and there was a gap between his swim trunks and top.

We finished the day with looking through a powerful telescope at the moon. William was so excited. We are really enjoying our time here! He didn't get to bed until late, so mom may not enjoy tomorrow, but I think it's been absolutely worth it.

Famn Damily

My family reunion is this weekend. William has a few cousin's kids to play with. He is making mud with Odin and Henrick.