June Showers Bring Flowers and PUDDLES!

One thing I did not realize with the wet days we had this winter was that June is the rainy season here.  It is called "tsuyu" meaning "plum rain" because it coincides with plum ripening season.  I am looking forward to eating some of those, but for now, we are enjoying the puddles...

So, it's a little extra laundry for Mommy, but its hard to replace that excitement.  Also rewarding after I just read this article about how girls who are allowed to play in the mud grow up healthier...  http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=493934

Soon I'll get to some photos of the beautiful summer gardens.

Language Learning Made Fun...

Learning a new language in a foreign country can be quite difficult for adults and children. However, it can also be a very fun challenge. Here are some things we've been doing as a family to make it most productive...

1. Ordering movies that have a choice of either language plus English subtitles. We have been thoroughly enjoying Ponyo, a Disney/Japanese Studio Ghibli production by Hayao Miyazaki



We first watch it in English, then watch in Japanese to learn new words. There are several other movies in the series by Studio Ghibli which we hope to either rent or buy.

2. Labeling household items in both languages (with the help of Google Translator.) In our case we like using "Romanji" Roman style letters and Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji the Japanese character representation. You may have seen our "Welcome" window art made using Kanji symbols. We also had fun doing door signs on the kids' rooms. Fist I put their name in English, then Japanese characters, and also added words like older brother "Ani" or "onisan" son, and younger sister "imoto" or "mesume" daughter. We also have on our door, "chichi" for father and "shujin" husband, and "haha" or "mama" mother and "tsuma" wife. This of course helps parents more than kids until they are able to read.

 

3. Activity books. Who doesn't enjoy a good activity book with puzzles, mazes and word searches? Why not try one in the language you want to learn? Much more challenging. Many here also have outlines to draw the Hirigana or Katakana alphabets.

 

4. Computer games and lessons. Obviously not everyone has access, but there are plenty of good interactive games and classes for nearly any computer system, and of course Ipads and Iphones.

 

5. Fridge magnets. Yes, like the ABCs we put on the fridge for the kids, here they have Hirigana and sometimes other characters.

 

6. Listening to music in the new language. This is particularly good if you can find the lyrics translated for comparison.

 

Most importantly, language pronunciation is best retained interacting with those who speak it. For kids, a fun and exciting way to learn is just going to the park!

 

 

The Surf Family FINALLY SURFED JAPAN!

This is a little over a month behind due to the computer crisis, which I finally SOLVED! So the ease of a computer is finally back, with our favorite entry. After three months of living in Japan, my husband FINALLY got a weekend off! Yes, that's right, he worked most of every previous weekend. So, of course we drove to the nearest surf possible, which was 2 hours away on the West Coast of Japan. There wasn't much of a swell coming in, but we all had fun, including our son, who rode his first waves standing up. What an exciting day!

Paddling Out

 

Very first wave!

 

Popped up like a pro...

 

Rode it all the way in

Of course Mommy and Daddy had fun taking turns as well...

Daddy out with the one other surfer who joined in

 

Mommy

And I did want to mention that we have been a bit disappointed by all the garbage we have seen floating in the water here. Here is our daughter picking up one of many plastic bottles we took to recycle.

My husband defends Japan, saying most of the garbage comes from the surrounding countries, but we still feel it is important to clean up as much as possible. We have been members of the Surfrider Foundation, trying to clean up our oceans for years, and have already spoken to them and a Japanese representative about starting a branch in our area. At the least, we can start some beach cleanups. :)

 

Crazy Humidity

The weather seems to have gone straight from winter to summer here. It has been beautiful, comfortable shorts weather, not too hot, but surprisingly humid.  I was warned by my neighbor to borrow 2 dehumidifiers from the housing office now because last year their couch got moldy during a week's vacation, and they had to throw it away.  They had dehumidifiers, but they fill up fast, and automatically shut off when full.  So, vacationers require more units or assistance emptying.

Here is one of ours at its shut-off point the second day.  Quite a shock to me when I could hardly detect moisture in the air...

After about a week of constantly filling and dumping water from both dehumidifiers, 2 humidity meters I ordered showed up in the mail.  Here's where they were both at.  Note mold can form at 50% humidity.  At this temperature it would be considered "vapor pressure dominated mold growth" according to the EPA.


The EPA gives three strategies to avoid mold...
1.  Use source control (redirect sources of moist air to outside: showers, dryers, etc.)
2.  Dilute humid air with less humid air (open windows if less humid out)
3.  Dehumidify (working on it!)

We do plan on buying a larger dehumidifier right away.  HOPEFULLY we won't be having any mold issues while we are living here.

Grocery Shopping...

When entering a grocery store in Japan for the first time, it can either be exciting or completely overwhelming. After a short time on-base for an American military family, off-base grocery shopping tends to be exciting. For example, the majority of meats and vegetables on-base are shipped from the US, and are either frozen, or expire quickly. When you get to a Japanese grocery store you are usually greated by a wonderful variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Here is one trip's return...

Notice most of it is pre-bagged, so it is a bit difficult to pick the exact quantity you want. Here is what I got on "Fresh Sunday" at another local store here...

There is also always a wonderful selection of fresh fish and seafood. Most stores have shrimp and octopus on the shelves next to the fish. Fish is often sold whole, uncut, or filletted into small pieces, often sushi size to make your own sushi. These are 2 of the largest pieces I could find...

This is dinner one night with tuna I "seared" at my husband's request. The kids loved the salmon.

Of course always a wonderful selection of sushi. Here's some we had fun eating...

Our children were begging to try the fish eggs. So we let them. The yellow oil you'll see on them is from them touching the fish eggs then their faces...

And believe it or not, they kept begging for more. Their fascination made us try it when we weren't previously interested. It was okay, but they sure loved it.

There is a wide variety of juices and teas in these 1-1.5 L containers...

These are our favorites. Japanese apple juice and Lemon Tea. The apple juice is wonderful as it is made from excellent quality apples. It really tastes like great concentrated Fuji apples. I find it funny that they also sell American apple juice for a much higher price. You must make sure you see the 100%, however, because they do also sell drinks that are as little as 5% juice.

There are very few frozen packaged meals compared to American stores. I think this is excellent as it promotes healthier cooking. Most stores do also sell ham or pork, chicken, and some beef. They have packaged foods like noodles, rice, jello, and seasonings, and lots of white bread. The bread is a bit surprising to me; we haven't seen whole wheat bread, except in the base commissary.

Finally, an important note: the grocery stores do not hand out bags. So, customers must bring reusable bags to get food home. Thank you Japan for that environmental solution!

Friendship Day!

Every May MCCS Iwakuni opens up to 250,000 Japanese visitors to celebrate the American/Japanese friendship with an airshow. Planes from around the world can be seen in displays on the ground and flying demos in the air. Of course this is an event we would not miss. I do apologize on the photos as I am blogging "mobile," since my computer is still not working, I am unable to change sizes and arrange quite the way I would like. So here's what we saw...

Here are our children with their headphones to protect them from the loud overhead passes from the jets...

Some of the views from the ground. Our son had to see the racecar with Daddy...

Then of course his sister had to as well...

A couple of our favorite planes...

As a celebration for US and Japanese, there were multiple food tents with American and Japanese foods. It was fun seeing Japanese visitors flocking to the American food tents, and Americans (including us) purchasing food from the Japanese tents.

And who could forget the kids! These type of shows always have a great children's area. This one had amazing inflatable bouncers with slides...

The lines for these bouncy slides were over a half hour wait, so we just tried out bouncy caterpillar maze. Our daughter was too small to go in alone, so I got to sneak in with her and the camera. ;)

 

Our daughter climbing through the caterpillar maze. Several Japanese children joined in the fun...

A very fun day for the kids. Also great to see so much interest from the Japanese, and our two countries having so much fun together.

 

Golden Week...

We are currently in the middle of "Golden Week" in Japan. The week Includes several holidays, beginning with the birthday of former Emporer Showa on April 29. Children attending Japanese schools got Monday off in celebration of this holiday, also Thursday for "Constitution Day/Kenpo kinenbi" (the day the post war constitution was put into effect in 1947) and Friday for "Greenery Day/Midori no hi" (celebration of nature and the environment). We got to see fireworks tonight for "Kenpo Kinenbi."

 

 

Saturday is "Children's Day/Komodo no hi." This day holds the Boy's Festival, in which families hang carp streamers and display Samurai Dolls (both symbols of strength, power, and success) and pray for the health and future success of their sons. (Girls Festival was March 3). Yes, our son is enjoying these couple days off to play with his little sister and his new fort. And he enjoyed picking out his carp streamer.