Field Trip to the MALL

My Japanese class went on a field trip...again...  This is Mt. Fuji behind Enoshima Island.

This is a wider shot, at Zushi beach.  You go by several beaches on 134 as you head to the mall.

And this is a picture I'd put on a calendar.  It looks like Japan to me!

I see them drying seaweed on racks here.  You'll even see folks walking into the surf with these long pointed rods, getting some of the seaweed.  It looks like there are seaweed farms just off our beach in Mabori.  

This is a yakisoba 'pie.'  Inside is a crab and shark fin mix that was very interesting.  I don't believe in eating shark fin, but I had to try it!  :)  I guess there is something like fake shark fin, and I think it might have been fake crab as well, although the $24 price tag makes one think it should have been real.

Darn, I'm getting good with these chopsticks, although I wished I'd had a fork!  :)

Reina and Jun-yi went for the Korean food.  This is the real stuff, baby, not that American Korean!  The food court was packed by 11:30.

I laughed at this baby having 'YELLOW FACE' on it.  Tee hee!  I guess it's all in one's perspective!

The Fujisawa-shi area mall TERASU MARU (Terrace Mall) is brand new, and a wonderful place to shop, with a few stores that won't bleed you dry like F&N.  There's also a great fabric/craft store, like JoAnns.

You can find a map on diddlefinger.com

〒251-0041 Fujisawa-shi, Japan辻堂神台1丁目3番1号

Or, put this phone number into your GPS.  Unless it's old, and it might not have this mall in it.

04-6638-1000

The information gals all had this uniform on.  The button-head hat killed me.  And what can I buy at a Japanese mall?  I bought socks for $20.  But they have support sewn in, grip ridges, etc.  They are amazingly comfortable and massage my feet when I walk.  Worth every yen!

Field Trip - Disaster Prevention

Okay, there's a joke in here that bringing a bunch of second and third graders on a field trip IS a disaster, but in this case, it was to the Yokohama's Disaster Prevention Center.

The video was in Japanese, but you could tell how many were killed, injured and missing in their major disasters they've endured.

There was some historic stuff from fires.  142,800 people died September 1, 1923 in the Tokyo area from a large quake in our area.  Every fall, Japanese have us drill for preparedness on this day.  Lots of the loss was from fire.

 The broken kanji says 'Earthquake Experience' which has you go into a room, and it shakes like an earthquake.  I have video of the kids in it.

Yoshimi, Justin's mom, was our interpreter.  We got to crawl through a maze with doors and smoke filling the air.  I got disoriented, but then was reminded to look for the exit signs, which helps you get out.

All the fire detectors on display.

A preschool and an older group was also there at the same time.  Only the younger kids got on the fire truck.  Although, the Japanese screamed more at the earthquake experience.  Our kids treated it like a ride at Disneyland.

William all suited up.

This was a tornado demonstration.  I loved the look on the kids faces.

That patch says, 'Super Ranger Yokohama.'  Just south of here they film the Power Rangers...  but it did crack me up.  But, being prepared is no laughing matter.  I still think because of their drills and alarm systems, so many people were saved last March 11.  Super Rangers to the rescue!

Now they say Mt. Fuji is waking up...

Party

We like to host parties.  This year, with many of the folks bringing families for their temporary jobs here, they hosted a party up in their apartment's party room.

That's a Valentine's Day theme there with the table cloths.  They are making valentines cards.  They weren't monitored, except by William and Kaitlyn, who were telling the younger ones not to use so much glue!  :)

Left my camera at home, so I made do with my camera phone.  No iphone4S for me...  yet....  I made jambalaya and Tim brought beer.  I bought a fruit plate, and everyone brought a ton of food.  Potato salad, chips and cheese dip, pulled pork barbeque, taco soup with fritoes, strawberry coolwhip on a butter and pretzel crust...  I LOVE southern food!  A good time was had by all.

It was like a baby buggy derby in there!  It was hilarious!

She is rockin' that Cougar shirt, right?

The Wii was set up for the kids, and here they are just cracking up over what Matt is doing.  At least he has peers.  :)

Tounjiru (Japanese Soup)

Japanese class is more like 'eating Japanese.'  Here, we are learning how to make Tounjiru or in this specific case, Butajiru (we used pork for it).

Benihana we're not, but we were the sous-chefs as we peeled, cut and chopped.

Here's the recipe:

about 300 grams thinly sliced pork.  Dredge through flour and fry in oil.

Naga negi (scallion) coarsely chopped, also fried with pork.

5-6 sato imo (Japanese taro, it is like a small potato, but starchier and creamier), peeled and quartered.

I bunch maitake (mushrooms that look leafy), cut up.

Daikon (white radish) 1 cup sliced and halved.

Gobo (burdock), scrape the skin a bit (don't peel) and coarsely chop 2 roots.

Ninjin (carrot) peel and slice one.

Konyaku (devil's tongue) pre-boiled to take out fishy taste, and cut into cubes.

Fish bouillon to taste (yes, even if you have pork in it!)

Miso (fermented soybean paste) -about the same amount for making miso soup. 

This is the miso type I buy.  You can get white miso, expensive miso, etc.  :)

We also made rice balls.  The trick is to have very wet hands, throw some salt on your hands, and press quickly.

Reina made egg.  They use sugar and mirin for the omlete to cut and put on top of, or eat along with your rice balls.

Mine are the heart shaped ones!  We also added a bit of sour plum zest to the rice for taste.  Good eats!

EAR this 'story'

Okay, so one night after William went to bed, he started yelling for us and crying.  He was so upset.  Something had gotten into his ear, and he couldn't get it out.  

I calmed him down and Tim got the flashlight, and I could see it.  William reported that a piece of plastic had fallen into his ear.  It might be like a bit of plastic from the tissue box top, where the tissue gets pulled out of.  Yep, in his bed, another piece of shredded plastic.  

Tim didn't want me trying to get it out myself.  And since we didn't really want to spend half the night in the ER for some tech to do it, I decided that since it was soft plastic, and not likely to hurt his eardrum, that we'd wait 'til morning.

So, we went early and got squeezed in to see his pediatrician.  Luckily, he had office hours that day.  He is also management, and therefore has limited office hours.  

He took a look and asked William how it happened, and William stuck to his story.  The doctor was worried about the type of tool he had to get it out with, and called his ENT specialist, who was in surgery, but since it was the boss calling, had his nurse answer.  Yes, he'd see us after he was done with a tonsillectomy.

So, we waited until after he was out of surgery to see him.

He walked in and said, "Oh, this will take about thirty seconds."  He had William lay down, turn his head, put his eyes to the special scope, grabbed these tiny bent tweezers, and it was out!

And yes, it was LESS than 30 seconds!  I hadn't even gotten my phone out.  So I clicked a pic (he's showing William the plastic).  He asked how it happened, and William stuck to his story, once again.

Then he walks around, and as he's leaving says to William, "And you won't do it AGAIN, right?!"  And William said, "No, I won't!"  So much for the 'falling in' story!  BUSTED!

Kidzania Trip #2

William LOVED Kidzania so much, we decided to go back.   The free entrance ticket for me helped.  It's rough paying $25 just to get in to 'watch' your kid.  Don't mind paying for the kid, but it was nice that I could get in for free.

We got there early enough to be closer to the front of the line, and one of the first ones in.  They start letting you in early, which is nice.  You have to wait until the starting time to get into your first 'job,' but  you can at least be in line on the first one you want to do~

This sign says how many children (8), how long you'll have to wait (30 min), how old you have to be (6+), and how much money you'll make (+8).  If it was one you have to pay money, it would say (-8).  But, pay attention.  On the left side, under the character, is a blue E.  That means English is spoken here.  All of the people are trained, but some show you pictures and descriptions of what to do in English, and instruct in Japanese and simple English phrases.  If your child is timid, watch for these!

 William chose pilot as his first job of the day (the longest wait line, usually, so a good choice).  They use these hair nets to not contaminate the hats they'll wear.

This activity will be instructed in English. Usually, there are two each night that are only done in English.  Japanese parents want their children to hear more English, so this can be popular.  But they do prompt in Japanese, as well.  :)

Since they go up stairs to get in the plane, we could only view by the cameras inside.  William is the tall one on the left.  You only see the top of his head.  The sign says the kids will exit by the restaurant, not the stairs they went up on.  The next class will be flight attendants.

He is now sitting in the pilot's seat.  It is a simulator, and a pretty good one.  Here, they are making more money by taking photos that you can purchase for ¥1,000.

There's a sucker born every minute.

And here are the flight attendants being prepped to go up.  William LOVED flying the plane!

William is towards the back, but he has exited the airplane.  I really think the flight attendants should get to go down and inflated slide for their exit.  :)

William now wants to be a pilot when he grows up and is reading every plane book he can get at the library.  Here's the simulator/pilot video:  (sometimes I have to click on the text to make the video appear):

William chose to be a reporter (from Uncle Dean's job to Aunt Jeannette's).  He was assigned to go report on one of the activities/jobs at Kidzania (he got to choose).  After he brought back his notes, he typed them up himself, and they published it for him!

He loved what he wrote about so much, he went and did it.  They make and test paper airplane designs.  There's a nod to Papa Bill there!

And this is what I did.  I sat and read a book!

And we got out a bit earlier than last time (William is quick) and got an express train with seats all the way home.  In Japan, that's as good as, "and they lived happily ever after!"

Parent Teacher Conference

The second Parent/Teacher conference of the year is traditionally child-led.  They get to show us some of the things they are doing at school.

 Here William is rolling dice, and putting the numbers on the flip chart.  Then he rolls again and adds the numbers.  It's a really nice way to show how 10 ones rolls over one more on the ten slot.  Kinda cool, and some of the die are pretty funky.

Each child has to read aloud.  When I volunteer, quite often I get to hear them read.  The books are very informative.  Each child gets to select what they want to read.  William is back on a universe kick.

And then we got to get the report card.  CD=Consistently Displayed, etc.  So different than the ABCs of yore.