Japanese Sports Day

Ok, so I'm a little behind on my posting. The Japanese have a national holiday on October 10th called Sports Day. It commerates when the Olympics were held in Japan back in 1964. This year the day actually fell on Monday, but when it doesn't they move it to Monday. The elementary section at ASIJ celebrates the day with Japanese games.  The following pictures are from that day.                                                                                                    

Ready for a fun day of games!!

Matthew and BJ racing around the cone for the white team.

In this game, the object is to shoot as many beanbags into the basket that you can.  When the horn sounds the teacher holding the umbrella covers the basket and the beanbags are counted to see which team has the most. The umbrella also serves as protection.:)

The white team celebrates their victory!!!

 

Random pictures

                             Posting some random pictures from our latest adventures.

Matthew's apparent allergy to Tokyo.  I am hoping we do not become regular visitors in Dr. Lomax's office.  He is now on allergy medication and his rash has disappeared.

We originally thought he had been bitten by some type of bugs.  So, we bought insect repellant via pictures.  We wanted to make sure it was ok to spray on the skin.  Jim eventually found it for sale on a Japanese website with English support.  To our comfort it clearly stated that it was ok for the skin and kidnapping.  Well, we were just interested in the skin part.

                          Wrapping the garbage.  Sort of like wrapping birthday presents.

This is the street decorated for the autumn festival.

 This girl was leading the procession of the shrine.  She would take one step and then hit the pole on the ground, which would cause it to ring like a chime.  Jim thinks she was rousting the spirits.

These two were positioned behind the girl.  Apparently, phone conversations are acceptible.

                         Musicians in the back of a small truck (drums, wooden flute, and whistle)

Carrying the shrine.

                       This is where everyone hung out before they left for the procession. 

                                                   $28 can of Pam.  Oops!!

Catching Up

We are now in our permanent housing and only waiting on a few pieces of furniture.  The kids are staying busy with school and beginning to get involved with afternoon activities. The school is taking a lot of our time now with open houses and information meetings.  Here are some pictures.

First day of school.  I will have to get a bus picture.

Dinner at Burger King.

Matthew playing during recess at school.  You can see him.  Can't you?
Sometimes he gets to see his big sister during lunch recess.

These pictures are for you Carol.  Our little Japanese garden off of the patio.

Other side of the garden.  We really can't enjoy it now because the mosquitoes are so bad.  The light in the picture had to be replaced.  When the two men came to fix it, they were outside for about a minute before one of them came dashing in to retrieve mosquito repellent.

One of the flowers up close. I don't recognize any of the plants and I worked in a plant nursery for awhile when I was much younger.

Julie and I decided this flower looks plastic, but it's real, promise.

Matthew keeping tabs on the subway driver on our trip back from IKEA.

iPhones

OK, I have been bugging the family to blog about our cell phone buying experence and I was told that this was supposed to be a family blog.  So, it's up to me (Jim) to tell the story.

We started the day by making our first family trip to the American School where we had meetings with counselors for each child and some general orientation.  After lunch there (Julie said that the chicken sandwich was the closest thing she'd yet seen to Chik-Fil-A  - still not at their level, though), we took the train back to central Tokyo.  We quickly located the Softbank mobile store on Omotesando Avenue.  Softbank is the only authorized iPhone retailer in Japan.

When we arrived, in my less than perfect Japanese, I asked for help with buying 4, yes 4, cell phones.  I also managed to ask for an English speaking representative.  Someone came up and apologized to say that their computer system was down and we would have to come back later.  It was a little after 2:30 so we started to think about looking around the area then coming back.  Almost as soon as she told us that, someone came up and said that things were working again.

We were then escorted downstairs to the ordering area.  This was a place with about 20 or 30 "windows" where you could sit across from the representative and discuss products, etc.  They started to gather up 5 chairs for us but we realized that this was not going to fit (nor did we think we'd be there long).  So with two chairs in place, we began the process.

This salesperson had been born in Japan but went to high school in Florida, so communiation was no problem.  We explained that we wanted 4 phones (Carrie plus the kids) and that we wanted unlimited voice/text, etc.  We started with Carrie's phone.  After producing passports, alien registration cards, and credit cards, we managed to get approval to sign up for a 2-year plan.  One cool thing was that we were allowed to select the last 4 digits of the phone number.  Carrie choose the ones from her US phone.  The middle four digits came up almost all 4's.  The rep then had to prepare the phone and set up some things to help get things working in English.  Then there was an email and electronic access account set up.  Finally, about an hour and a half later, Carrie had her phone!

The kids (especially Matthew) were getting antsy, but they really wanted those phones.  The rep finally convinced Carrie that she could take the kids and leave for a while as it was going to take some time.  Julie and Matthew agreed to go and they went out for 30 minutes or so.  We had not yet made it through Laura's set-up yet.  Two more hours and we were finally finished.  One saving grace was that they had a drink machine serving free soda and coffee.  It also had some really nasty green tea.  Believe me, after 4 hours, we'd tried just about all of them.

In the end, the kids would agree that the 4 hours was worth it, but man it was not easy!  The rep did a great job but the process it just very, very long.  She told us later that she'd never done that many at the same time before. 

I can't tell you exactly how much we will be paying nor what our limits are (if any).  The contract is in Japanese and the programs and plans are at least as confusing as those in America.

One more really cool thing thing we got was a mobile Wi-Fi router.  It is about the size of a computer mouse and it can "create" Wi-Fi" from anywhere a cell signal is available.  That baby cost around $40-$50/month with a two year contract and it takes up 2 phone lines.  With this device, we can hook up ten different devices: Wii, computer, iPhone,... and use Wi-Fi.  I have used it to "make" Wi-Fi on the subways and at resturants.  We figured out that with our Magic Jack, we could call the US for free from anywhere in Japan (even at a park), provided we connected the laptop to this mobile Wi-Fi.  I guess the problem here is that whenever we'd be doing something like that, it would be 2:00 AM in the US.

Anyways, after our 4 hour cell phone buying experience, we ate dinner at a Japanese/American family resturant and made it home by around 8:30.  Matthew had his first App by 8:35.

Pictures

                                                            Posting random pictures.

Jim's birthday cake.  You can even eat the Happy Birthday sign!!

Sorry you'll have to turn your head.  I can't get it to rotate.  The Yushima Shrine near our apartment.  We've been told you travel there when you nead to do well on a test.

The garden by the shrine. 

The girls at the garden by the shrine.

Standing in front of the purification fountain.

Decked out statue.

Checking out the river.

Climbing the cooncrete mountain!

Off to the Furniture Store

I've been informed that I have to blog regularly if I am going to blog. I was thinking once a week would be good. Tried to interest some additional bloggers without success. So, here goes.

Yesterday was furniture rental day. The kids and I traveled there by subway, which was an adventure in itself. In Japan, to go the right direction you have to know the next stop. Then, once you arrive at the correct station, you have to know which one of 12 gates to exit from or you are still lost. We were doing well until the last subway (Well, it should have been the last subway.). We had one more station to go and they said this is the last stop. The girls told me that we needed to go one more station. I told them that I knew that, but I also understood last stop (It was in english of course.). So, we exited the train and pretty quickly realized that we needed to wait right there for the next train. Unfortunately, that meant that most the people on our train as well as the people already waiting were all getting on the same train, which made for a very congested one stop ride. Julie was not interested in experiencing that again.


So, we're headed for the furniture shop and I'm not quite sure where it is, but I know we're close and I see about 50 police in riot gear ahead of me. I'll post some pictures.  Anyway, I am trying to figure out what is going on and if we can safely make it to our destination, when the kids inform me that the store is right before the police.  I knew that, right?  I am sure some of you are curious as to why the police were there.  Apparently, there was a demonstration by the Japanese over there rights to the Northern Territories.  Land brings up strong emotions, which I unfortunately don't fully appreciate.

The post says Tuesday, but it is actually Wednesday.  It is Jim's birthday.  We are going to get fresh ground coffee and a cake.  Wish us luck.  Thursday, we are invited to Fortran (where Jim goes for language training) to experience a Japanese meal. The adventures go on!   

Here we go!

At the encouragement of several friends and family, I am starting a blog.  I am, however, going to start with a disclaimer.  I am not a writer.  So, don't set your expectations too high or maybe don't set them at all.  I may try to get my family to join in from time to time.  We will see how it goes.

Today, we started our day with a trip to the grocery.  There are about four small grocery stores in our area.  Each with their own appeal.  We seem to often provide amusement, especially, when we walk out with 4 bags of groceries.  I also like to see the expression on their face, when I pay them with the exact amount.

After lunch, we ventured to the Ueno Park area.  The park is rather large with a pond full of boats to rent in the middle and then two ponds full of huge lotus plants.  They are so full it is difficult to see the water below.  The plants are about the height of Matthew with huge pink buds blossoming.  We ventured beyond the ponds to try and locate the zoo.  We have heard that it is best to visit the zoo during the week as the crowds can get very large.  As we climbed the stairs headed toward the zoo, we could hear some loud chanting and drumming.  Julie stated that it sounded frightening.  I told her it was probably just taiko drumming.  In fact their was one drummer, and three other actors putting on a performance.  They were too scantley clad for my children's taste and were painting each other in metallic paint.  I think we may have missed something in the translation because they drew a rather large crowd.  Jim stated that it was something that you wouldn't see in Greenville.  To which Matthew and Julie replied nor would we care too.   I was going to take some pictures, but the consenses was that no one wanted to see it again.  From there, we found soft served ice cream then walked through the shopping district. 

Well that's all for now.  We may try McDonalds tonight.  How's that for adventuresome??