Ishibashi

On Tuesday, September 13, John and I went on an exploratory trip.  We decided to take the train from the Minoh Station to a nearby train stop.  We picked Ishibashi.  I looked up Ishibashi and it means literally, stone bridge.  Ishi is stone and bashi (or also hashi) means bridge.  The famous Japanese company Bridgestone Tires was in fact named after it’s founder, Shojiro Ishibashi. Interesting! When we arrived at Ishibashi we wandered around and came upon another bike parking place.  This one had double decker parking for getting more bikes into a small area.  It’s so clever how they have figured out how to maximize the space constraints here.  I have also seen car parking with this type of…

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Catching up

This is the past week in review.  Just a snapshot of the kids’ second week of school and our 4th week here. On Monday, September 5th, we took Avalon back to the Gymnastics Club Minoo to try the intermediate class.  Much more Avalon’s speed, but a bit challenging and she complained about how long it was and it made her arms sore she said.  Biked home in the dark.  Late dinner. On Tuesday, September 6th, John and I had our first Japanese language class – reading and writing – at the community center called MAFGA.  We jumped right into it!  Learned a few kanji (Chinese characters) and the hiragana and katakana alphabet. Avalon went to a new friend’s birthday party…

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Shirahama Beach

Today, Saturday, September 10, is exactly 4 weeks since we got on the plane and left America. We are headed to a beach called Shirahama this morning.  It is a resort town located on the south coast of Wakayama Prefecture, about 2 hours and 30 minutes away from Minoh.  This is going to be a feet to the fire, 2.5 hour drive down the coast for John!  We are going with four other families in a caravan of four cars.  Avalon is going to ride in her friend Haruna’s car.  Before leaving our meeting place we carefully exchanged Google Map information, contact numbers, filled up the gas tanks and put our caravan in order.  We are second in the caravan line…

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Talking Trash

Let’s talk trash.  It’s Thursday, September 8 and I’ve been working on this post for a few days. It is possible that there is nothing more confusing or frustrating about Japan than the Japanese trash collection system.  From day 1, it’s just over my head.  I’m sure I’m super confused right now because we just arrived but I know I’m not the only one.  Both Japanese natives and foreigners have expressed confusion to me about this crazy trash scheme.  Andrew went over the trash with me several times when we arrived but I still get lost.  He said he doesn’t even deal with the trash, he gives his wife that dirty job. It is even hard to know where to begin. …

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Bike Trauma, Bank Drama, Birthday Nirvana

This was another busy day.  Friday, September 2 started out as usual, with all five of us biking to school together.  By now, Halyard and Kaiyo sometimes ride ahead and leave the rest of us in their dust.  They can’t be bothered to slow down for me.  And it’s probably a good thing because today I actually fell off the bike.  Ugh!  It really hurt too!  I was just arriving at school and I guess I was playing chicken with a pole but that pole didn’t flinch so I lost!  The electric bike is really heavy so once I started to lose my balance momentum and gravity took over.  I fell right in the driveway area of school so that…

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Target in Japan

On this day, Thursday, September 1, I am headed back to Aeon AGAIN.  This place reminds me a lot of Target back home.  I have a frequent flyer card at Target because I probably popped in there about twice a week.  I have many miles logged at Target.  If I was missing it at all, I have found Target’s replacement. So after biking with the kids to school John and I stopped by Aeon.  It’s one of the anchor businesses in Q’s Mall.  Though there’s a Starbucks in this mall too, it drives John crazy that it doesn’t open until 10!  He says who can wait that long for their morning caffeine!? Aeon is a grocery store, but it is…

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Errand Day

Today, Tuesday, August 30, is errand day.  Some people know this, but I don’t really enjoy riding bikes.  I didn’t grow up riding bikes and I am not a biker.  So the insane amount of time that I have spent on a bike in the past few days is appalling to me.  Not only that but I’m riding up hills and going super fast down hills.  Even with an electric bike it still feels like so much work on these hills!  John and I rode with the kids to school this morning, and then after that we rode around all day long until it was time to go back and pick them up! I’ll admit, the first place we rode to…

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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…

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Famous Minoh Falls

Today, Sunday, August 28, Halyard spent the entire day with 2 new friends, a boy and girl, from OIS.  He made plans to meet them all by himself, he walked to the bus stop all by himself, he rode the bus and transferred to the train all by himself, he found them at the Senri Chuo Station all by himself and then they all went to Shinsaibashi together.  Later, he came home on the train and bus and walked back home all by himself! The great thing about Japan is that it is very safe.  I don’t worry too much about their safety, but rather that they’re going to get lost and not know which direction to head in.  So…

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Making New Friends

Today, Saturday, August 27, Halyard spent a good part of today with a new friend from school named Luke.  Halyard met up with him at school and from there they biked to a place called Expo City.  He was gone all afternoon, apparently walking, talking and hanging out.  That’s all I have to report on that because that’s all the information that I was given! While Halyard was out exploring the town, we had some guests come over.  Yay!  Our neighbor across the way (I forgot to mention in the last post that we live on a cul-de-sac with 7 houses) came over with her young daughter.  The mom’s name is Kimiko – which happens to be my sister’s middle…

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