Oh wow. This microscopic kitchen looks like something out of House Hunters International on HGTV. We have ARRIVED. We even have a dishwasher, something that every international house hunter was predominately preoccupied with. It seems that most people (who are featured on TV anyway) do not like to wash their dishes by hand anymore. In my opinion, it’s much more important to have a reliable clothes dryer. Now we live in an area called Onoharahigashi (Oh-no-ha-ra-he-ga-she). It’s actually Onohara and higashi means east. We are just down the street aways from the kids’ school, which is in Onoharanishi (Oh-no-ha-ra-knee-she). Nishi means west, so the school is in Onohara west. Nearby there is also Onoharaminami (Oh-no-ha-ra-me-nah-me) and minami means south. Kita…
Concert in Rome
[This post is from Halyard. He promised to write a blog post about his school trip to Rome, Italy. It only took him two-plus months to get around to it, and only because it’s Mother’s Day (May 14).] Well, this has been a long time waiting, about a month in the making. Well, maybe a little more. It’s Mother’s Day and I’ve been asked to finally complete this report, and I’m doing it out the the goodness in my heart and the love I have for my mother. That, and I want to get back to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. However, this paper is not about how I’d like to spend my sunday afternoon, but rather how I spent a…
Trying to Stay Awake at 1AM
It’s exactly 1:25 AM on Monday, May 1 in Japan. But it is exactly 9:25 AM on Sunday, April 30 in California. Tickets for the Broadway sensation HAMILTON at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles go on sale at exactly 10 AM PDT (pacific daylight time)… that’s in 35 minutes. My chances of actually getting to buy online tickets is very slim, so it’s likely a waste of a night to stay up like this, but I have to try. I am a huge Broadway musical fan. I’ve been wanting to see Hamilton on Broadway for a long time. But I haven’t been to New York City since Labor Day weekend 2001 (just a few days before 9/11 happened) when John…
Guests and Gifts from Home
We’ve been busy lately. On Tuesday, March 28 my parents arrived from Riverside, California for one week. After they left we barely had enough time to get the laundry done before Avalon’s BFF and her mom arrived from Newport Beach, CA for one week. Then, overlapping with Avalon’s friend’s stay, we were asked by our school to host two visiting high school students from Seoul, South Korea. The Korean students are still with us but they are set to leave early tomorrow morning, which happens to be Sunday, April 16, Easter Sunday. My parents arrived with one suitcase full of goodies for us. The one thing I really wanted they actually brought for me — American kitty litter!!! The box…
Avalon’s NC Pen Pals
Avalon has made some new friends in Japan… even though they live over 7,000 miles apart and have never met! Recently she received a packet of 15 letters sent by a 4th grade class from Ballentine Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. They are Avalon’s new pen pals and they have an interest in learning about Japan! Each student wrote Avalon a letter and she answered all of their questions in this blog post. Before they wrote, they read some of our blog posts, namely the ones about the Cat Cafe, rice fields, trash and shoe rules. So they had a lot of questions about those topics. Avalon also hand wrote a letter to the class, telling them a little…
OC Connections & Japan Family Ties
TRICK-OR-TREAT. HAPPY HALLOWEEN. MISSING EVERYONE BACK HOME! Happy Halloween Eve! It’s Sunday night, October 30 in Japan. My kids are sincerely missing their American candy. In fact, when asked by grandma what he wanted for his birthday, Halyard told her he wanted American candy. Skittles and Mike-and-Ikes and Sweedish Fish… anything chewy that sticks in your teeth. The things at the forefront of my mind, and because it’s Halloween season I’m going to label them SPOOKY, are the constant Orange County references that I keep running into here in Japan. I’m not talking about broad reminders, like someone knows someone whose cousin lives in Yorba Linda. I’m talking about direct associations that have real relevance to me. This post is…
Undokai
Undokai is a nationwide Japanese school event that is also known as Sports Day or Sports Festival. I would venture a guess to say that every school in Japan has an undokai. And in fact, our Japanese school back home, Orange Coast Gakuen in Huntington Beach, had their own undokai too. At OIS, undokai was originally slated for Saturday, October 8, but fears of rain postponed it to Monday, October 10. This is noteworthy because October 10th is actually the national holiday known as Health and Sports Day. This date in history commemorates the opening ceremony for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the first time that Japan ever hosted the Olympics. Everyone has this day off! Except us because we…
School Welcome Party and BTSN
BTSN for anyone without kids means: Back to School Night. Most (American?) parents know this, I think. Is there Back to School Night at Japanese public schools? I’m not sure. Thursday, September 15 is Back to School Night for the Middle and High School parents at Osaka International School. The PTA decided that they would host a welcome party today for the families immediately after school and leading into the back to school night program. It seems partly to be a ploy to boost parent participation at BTSN. This is just the kind of tactic that goes on at our home schools so I thought that was pretty funny. I decided to help out at the PTA Welcome Party. It…
Chaotic and Crazy
Monday, August 29 is the first day of Osaka International School! On the first day the plan all along has been to get up early and bike to school together. School starts at 8:30 but it sounds like the students gather as early as 8:10 to hang out. We aim to leave at 7:45 which gives us a comfortable half hour to get to school so our kids can walk in early. Oh but mother nature has other plans for us. It’s raining today! Our choices are to bike anyway or have John TRY to drive the car. It’s now too late to figure out the bus. In Japan the cars drive on the left side the road. The steering…
A New School
Today is Monday, August 22 and we have an important appointment at Osaka International School today. The kids have assessment tests to take to see what level of learning they’re at and also to see if they really speak English. I hope they can speak in complete sentences! Summer break has a tendency to make kids forget everything they know. Pokemon Go has completely replaced my sons’ native language so I’m a little worried. J/K. We hauled out the bikes for another ride to school. Today is as hot as can be! We are going to try a new way to school this time. We will ride down the “busy highway 171” (not busy at all compared to California) and…