FLY AWAY HOME

No, we're not coming home, yet. William is still in school, so he and I are here while Tim is in the states. William's class had a field trip today. We went to have a picnic and look for bugs.

That's William in the turquoise shirt. In Japan, the kids raise their hands to show their intent to cross the street. It's a nice signal to drivers that they aren't just hanging out, but they want to cross. I think it helps the drivers see the short people, since the hand in the air raises the visibility.
Our first bugs were bees, which created quite a screaming outburst from the kids.
After lunch, we started looking under bushes and in trees and found...
rolly-pollies. Okay, I'm sure that's not the species classification for them, but that's what they call them here. Back home, we called them 'pill bugs.' The kinds that roll up into balls.
Do you see it? (No, not the guy doing Navy required PT, although he's the same color.
Yep, it's a Japanese lady bug on the pine tree. It kinda looks like it has a daruma face.
These butterflies are everywhere here. One of the kids went to touch it, so this is the best picture I got.
Earth worms are suicidal here in Japan. Since they can't seem to get to train platforms, you'll see them trying to cross concrete during the day. They dry up, and by our house, the ants take them away. Ms. Prior is showing the kids this one.
One of the highlights of the day was the ladybug release. The kids 'raised' these. I love the little domed house they lived in!
If you double-click to enlarge, you can see William 'training' his ladybug. Actually, the ladybug was going to higher ground before she flew away home.
Going up...
Higher...
It had to have tickled, but William kept really still.
In his hair.
At least it was easy for the other kids to see. It eventually flew away and landed on a rock in the middle of a turtle pond.
The butterfly release was more humane than the one from William's preschool, where the butterflies flew away, and birds swooped down and ate them.
The kids are enraptured at the prospect of the butterflies being free.
Happiness and excitement at the event.
Double-click, and you'll see the next butterfly flying away. I circled and labelled. It was so cool that this shot turned out so well with my small little red camera!

They'd raised 'Painted Lady' butterfies. Please enjoy the video!

Ring Ring Ring, HELLO?!?

In the basement of the mall by the JR station in Kawasaki is the best doughnuts. That's according to my survey of all my friends who have eaten these wondrous baked treats.
I joke that it's, "Ring, ring, ring... Hello?: You must answer the 'call when it comes! It's near the bakery, and a kimchee sales place. Basements of malls in Japan often have food delicacies for sale.
I bought strawberry (far left, top) and chocolate (next to it). Coconut is okay, and I also liked the Earl Grey chocolate ones on the top right. Bottom are un-dipped ones. You get to choose if you want chocolate, or vanilla doughnut.
They are cream filled in the ring hole. All the way around. Notice my chocolate one is long gone, and unavailable for pictures. I'm still amazed it made it home with me!
William is my strawberry boy. Of course, Tim's gone, so I'm all for doughnuts for breakfast. You can send my nomination in for 'mother of the year' to: singleparentsdontcarewhatyouthink.com. :)

Will's Half Mile Run

The base has a 5k race nearly every other week. They often have children's events to coincide with these runs. William loves to run, so we entered him in the latest run. The 5 to 6 year olds ran a half mile loop, while older kids did 1 mile or 2 miles while the adults ran the full 5 kilometers.

The 5 to 6 year olds were the first to go. William is in the red and blue striped shirt. We had walked over the entire course with him to ensure he knew where to go. It was essentially a trip around the block for a half mile. The leaders, with William among them, took off at quite a clip. They then let loose the next two groups of kids and started to assemble the adults on the combined start and finish line...

They were starting to talk them up and get them excited, but then everyone realized that the 5 to 6 year olds had rounded the bend and were bearing down on them. They truncated their speech with a "Have fun" and let them loose just in time to clear the area for the first half mile finisher. First up was John Wood who is the son of Vinny Wood who is a habitual marathon runner. No surprise that he brought the lead. Bringing up a very close third was...

William!

They pulled all the kids on stage and awarded the top three finishers in each category. William was called first as the third place winner of the 5 to 6 year olds and collected his prize of a Calvin Klein duffle bag and running shoe key chain. All the kids got a pretty cool beach toy set.

All in all, a very nice running event.

Enoshima Island Field Trip

I love taking Japanese lessons. I learn a little each time, and my favorite things are the field trips! Today, we went to Enoshima Island.
There is a wonderful restaurant there. This is the crowd who have been waiting 40 minutes and want to see where they are on the list (that paper on the stand in the foreground).
This is the place. It is called Takoshima. Their specialty is shirasu. It is a small little fish that I love to eat. They taste buttery to me. Spring is the best season for them. Our teacher said they tempura fry it here. Fried food? I'm THERE! Fried food is a favorite with these Japanese people, too! Or so it seems from the crowd.
There are actually 2 Takoshima restaurants on Enoshima Island. They are that popular! Just look for this logo!
Japan has finally turned warm, and it's early spring. That means it is sunny and just starting to get humid. So, when I saw the lady pouring icy cold beer, I was anguished. Japan has a zero BAC policy, and I needed to pick up William from school. So, on to the next best thing. Mango juice. But wait, there's a catch!
This is shirasu mango soda. Yes, little fish taste! To smell it, you get a whiff of the ocean or fish. But it still finished with the mango strong. They make it here for Enoshima Island.
This is what our Japanese teacher had for lunch. That is fatty tuna, salmon roe, and raw shirasu on seaweed and salad greens. You order your egg raw, a little cooked, or onsen... all of them have a runny yolk. Raw, a little white cooked, or the white all cooked. You break it open and stir it up... instant sauce.
This is what I had for lunch. There's some shirasu cooked (it's the little white fish on the tempura), some of them raw on salad... it was okay. The soup was excellent with a lot of seaweed, a thick mild variety and egg. Num. There was tofu with shirasu, a tatami shirasu (looks like a tatami mat) it's just a cracker made from it. There was egg custard which I love. Very asian, it's in the white covered bowl, and rice in the black covered bowl. I didn't get it all eaten.

Eating here was a little 'Iron Chef' experience, since everything included the not-so-secret ingredient of shirasu.
Here we are, me, Reina Sensei, and Jun-yi.
This is afterwards. Talk about full! But it was a good full!
Enoshima is alive with color from azaleas and fresh green and red leaves.
We didn't take the escalator, but rather walked the stairs... trying to work off that tempura!
Funny, but this looks small in this picture, but it's rather large. There were a lot of love fortunes to be had in the area, and apparently the cannon here is all about love. Thought it was funny she has a stick to whack with in one hand, and a forbidden fruit in the other. Or so it looked to me. Now, THAT'S love....
Reina and Jun-yi. If you could see the background, you see the bridge and the beach behind them. It was such a gorgeous day to enjoy the scenery. And the shopping was great there, too!
We passed a TV show videotaping. This is one of the actors, or it's more like a game-show/variety show, posing with an ice cream proprietor. They didn't want me to take pics of them actually shooting (that's video speak for getting video). I did, but it was soft focus, and I want to respect their request.
Maybe they weren't telling us to not take pictures. Maybe they didn't want us to eat all the ice cream!

Last field trip we went to Ring Ring Ring, a filled ring doughnut shop, and a traditional Japanese buffet in Kawasaki. Now you know WHY I love field trips.... It's all about the FOOD!