Train Museum Twosome

Here we are at the Train Museum! We love this place.

Do you think the date is wrong? No! It is Heisei 23 here in Japan. That is how long the current Emperor has been in power. So, 2011=H23.

It costs about ¥1500 for an adult to get there, half of that for a kid. So, it's about $55 American for round-trip tickets to the place. Entrance is only $10 for adults, $6 for school kids, and $2.50 for younger kids. Wait. I am getting ahead of myself...
We left early. Here the boys are at our station, all ready to go!
We were lucky to get a train that was nearly empty. The boys got to watch the train operator.
I find it interesting myself to watch the tracks. Usually, you see what you're passing, not the tracks themselves.
Sometimes they'll pull the curtains so you can't watch them. William loves to see what the lights are telling them they can do, and what speeds they are allowed to go. It changes according to what the clearances are. A train running late in front of you? You automatically are told to slow down.
It's all about the rings to hang onto. They are tall enough for the shorter ones. They are so excited to be this tall.
The first thing Stefan wanted to do, is see the panorama.
You sit in seats and it goes through a day and night. It shows how lots of freight goes on the rails at night. It's all in Japanese, but the love it.
Afterwards, you can go close to it and watch it.
The timeline of train memorabilia is interesting. Most of the stuff has Japanese and English, so you know what it is.
This is in there. It's the logo from one of the trains that were US Army trains in occupied Japan, after WWII.
William's top to-do was watching this turn-table working, and the train whistles/horns blowing.
There are many simulators there. Stefan really loved them.
You use the controls, and the video corresponds. William came back and started playing Rail Fan on PS3. He used to have this little Japanese TV game with controls like the real ones.
This was a real old steam engine, and you have to get a ticket for a time (5-10 minutes) to be on it in the afternoon. So, if you're interested, find this place:
You'll need your ticket into the museum (actually a card like a Suica or Pasmo card) and that will give you one time, per person, per ticket.
The cost for that one is $6 USD. You have to pay here before showing up (to the left of this) to run it. Kinda cool, but the only available times were late in the day, when we needed to get home.
Instead, we had gotten tickets for driving the miniature trains outside. That kiosk is directly to the front of you as you enter the museum. Long lines, and you must wait. One ticket, one body, but the good news is, 3 people can ride in that train with that ticket!

William got first crack at it, and got to run a NEX (Narita Express).

Stefan got second turn, and got different controls and train than William.

Shinkansen to the MAX

William is a Shinkansen buff. He knows the different types. We had the opportunity to go on one, versus a regular train. It costed $25 for a seat for me, and $15 for a seat for him, on top of the cost of the ticket. But, William wanted to sit on the upper deck.
Of course, the boys were hamming it up.
That's the train we took, the MAX Tanigawa to Tokyo. Hey, I can read all that!!!
And we were off....
Since it was a short distance, we didn't go as fast as it's top speed, but it was faster than a regular train, and definitely more smooth to ride on!
Getting off the train, I snapped this as the descended the stairs... over my shoulder, trying not to tie up any of the Japanese who were also getting off.

William Progression

For those of you who don't know, William's namesake was an avid cross-word puzzle solver. So, when I saw this come home from school, I pounced on it!
William has to write a lot for school. Usually, he just rips through it. I figure 'what the heck' on penmanship. Realistically, in the future, he'll only have to talk into a small mic implanted under the hairline, which will automatically be transformed into electronic data. If nothing changes between then and now, well, he'll be typing and texting. Not much actual writing goes on besides signatures. And the Japanese have special hanko made as a name stamp. It is as legal as a signature. It is required for many transactions. But, I digress...

Notice how nice his penmanship was on this spelling paper. When he studies, he does excellent on spelling. This is first grade stuff. This week's was simple, and had a word twice.
Most kids need new shoes because they've grown out of them. This is the 3rd pair at this size. He just runs them down! Notice the soles, and how the back part is crunched down a bit. Wow.

He is progressing and growing. and growing. :)

B. Ian a Guest

We have a guest for the weekend! He's a 17-month old cutie. Japanese houses are a bit cold in winter, so I've put on one of William's 'fuzzies' to keep him warm while he's still in his jammies.

After Tim hurt his knee, we had to pull out of a ski vacation on MLK weekend. We were bummed. As the weekend drew nearer, I hadn't found anything else fun for us to do. Maybe the Tokyo Car Salon show?

When my friend (who is going skiing, and whose son is William's closest friend) was leaving the house on Thursday, I said, "Maybe we could swap kids for the weekend?" I was mainly just joking, because her older boys were excited for the trip, and William was doing a pretty good job of not being too green with jealousy.

She said, "Yes! Let me talk to my husband!" I spoke with Tim, and he said we could support letting William go with them skiing. They are great people, and William would be hanging with their boys. Also, this little guy on a long wee-hours-start bus trip, and skiing the hill with him... it was beneficial both ways.
So, we have a guest. He is delightful as he tries to mimic the songs we sing. He loves balls, this cell phone toy, and a sounder board (it's a toy with all these unusual buttons, and each makes a different sound... the doorbell one can definitely fool you). These were given to William by my friend Karen, and they've been fascinating kids ever since. Perfect for his stage right now. I can even record a message on this one for him. Until he punches the wrong button and erases it!

Tim gave him an old remote control (with batteries out of it) and he also uses that one as a phone. We call it his land-line hand-held phone. :)

Here he is, on the phone: (Shoot me an email if this doesn't work, I'm still trying to learn how to use Utube as a way to view movies.)

Poker Face

We usually set up a poker table at our place for our parties. William loves to play poker, and Tim is teaching him different games. William loves the math part of it, and getting more poker chips!
When William isn't over-scheduled, he gets game-time with dad each night (and if dad doesn't have to stay late at work). This can be any game on Wii, PS3, board game, card game, etc.

I figure with kumon, maybe we can have him counting cards in no time! :)

But first, we need to work on his poker face... "Oh, I got a match!" It's almost as bad as holding his cards so everyone can see them... :-)

Wm Science Center Field Trip

William was so excited for the first field trip of the year. I got to go along. I had to act fast. Last year, most parents had extra kids, and couldn't go. This year, I have to pounce on going quickly, and get my money in!
We are on the tollway here. I sate with Pierce, and he made me duck any time we went through a tunnel. You see Ms. Bailey to the right here. BTW, it was really cheap to go with this field trip. When William's Seika class went, I had to pay quite a lot to ride the bus up, and they took surface streets all the way to Yokohama!
Here we are, arriving!
This is a shot of William's class. He is in the middle. After this, the other class huddled up and got a better picture by putting some of the kids on the wall... darn. Wish I'd thought of that! It's just that each class had to take turns going to pay their money. The teacher would ask a Japanese mom to go interpret, and then they'd come out and that class would go in. Our waiting area was near the sign, so I said, "Huddle up, kids!"
One of the cool things, is there's a big elevator. One that an entire class can go into. These are my three charges for the day.
AMAZING how empty it was. It was the day after a Japanese holiday, and the first day back for Japanese schools. We had the place entirely to ourselves. Usually, it is PACKED. Phenomenal!
Pierce is generating power on this bike machine. After I chose this picture, I realized that it looks like the maintenance man is scratching his bum.
This one they use joy sticks to steer and get a light source on the target, then it lights up. William did it all by himself, and did really well. Only missed one in the 90 seconds allotted.
They have weights on different planets, and then this small meteorite to try and lift. It was HEAVY!
This turned out to be a favorite game. You had to use sticks to let a ball roll down on, and then open them up to drop the ball into different planet slots. I'm going to try and design one for Wm's birthday party this year, using different targets, obviously!
And when you have 3 kids in a cage with tons for them to do, you get time to see what you can do on the machines. Tee hee. The number of this picture? Truly, it was 666!
William loved this jack. It would lift you off the ground, as the astronaut went up to the top of the rocket. There were lots of things like this, and all of them fun!

Kirkland brand sushi

We had a party at our house, where I bought sushi from Costco. I didn't take a picture! I so forgot! Because, I was more fascinated with the pineapple machine at Costco that will core your pineapple for you!

It was a fun party for Tim's work buddies. Costco sushi is 1/2 to 1/4 the price of sushi at a cheap sushi place, and the quality is far superior. I had a platter of pepperoni and crackers and salami... all of that did go that night! :) I guess not everyone likes Kirkland brand sushi!

There's a machine that balls the rice and puts a dab of wasabi on it. One of Tim's co-worker's wives (Japanese) works for the company that makes them. Then, Costco has people cut and top the sushi toppings.

We had Asahii beer. Had to keep the Japanese theme going!

Over scheduling a First Grader

William loves the swings at the school playground. I often pick up him and Stefan, his friend. It's the only way to give him an hour of play-time before starting to the other activities he's signed up for.

I have to pick up William at school 4 days a week at this point. I've always said only 2 extra-cirricular activities. BUT, then Stefan invited him to AWANA (Christian children's group), Tim suggested Kumon (Japanese math), and we'd already signed him up for swimming.

Groan. My #1 priority is to get him into piano lessons. The poor kid has about 40 minutes of homework each night once you have his reading and writing, spelling and kumon math homework. He's not getting much screen time, but I guess that's what weekends are for.

I still need to find a piano teacher. The ones on base are all booked up. I was told by my piano teacher (who is AWESOME and SO TALENTED!) that I should get a teacher who speaks English. So, I'm on a mission now to find such a person here in Japan. I know of two signs for teaching piano in our neighborhood. I need to start knocking on doors. Some teachers come to your house. That is so old school... that is how I started as a kid!

I am car-pooling the swimming with Stefan's mom... I figure only one of us needs to sit and wait for swimming to get done. It's hard to do anything while you wait. It is so hot, and you're trying to keep the clothing to change into dry... oh well. I am finding some time to hand-write letters! That's if I remember to bring some stationery.

William is doing excellent in Kumon, and loving it. Loves AWANA and has memorized 7 scriptures already. Small world: new kid at school was in our AWANA back home before we moved, now he's here. I looked at his bag, and knew the person who had sewn it! He loves swimming, and we think it is important to get him up to speed on that. Groan... and then I need to add another 15 minutes of 'homework/practice' every night.

New Year's Mochi

Mochi (pounded rice) is a New Year's tradition in Japan. During January, I usually can find these types of treats at the stores.
The outside is a layer of sweet mochi (dango) and inside there are things like strawberry and bean. It is a sweet bean.

Side Story: My Taiwanese friend about puked when she first tasted chili. Beans are supposed to be sweet! She wasn't prepared for how our beans would taste.
This is my favorite. It's like strawberry shortcake with mochi around it. NUM. The texture, for some reason, just adds to the whole experience.
This one has 2 layers of cream: white, and pink. The pink is strawberry flavored. I didn't do such a good job of cutting this. It's hard to do without crushing it.

William came in from playing, and said, "What's that good smell?" It was fried mochi!

I like to make a sweet mochi. Sweet rice powder (machiko... I call it, my cheat-o... it's so much easier than steaming and pounding the rice), sugar, water and coconut milk, then bake. My Japanese teacher showed me how to fry it up. So, I like doing that as well.

For the new year's party we went to, I had made this batch pink. The next one, I left white. The pink gets eaten more. Memo to self!

BTW, the picture of Wm above, if you double-click, you can see how his two front teeth are growing in.