Year of the Tiger

Lucinda, Arno and I went to Yokohama's Chinatown last weekend to see the Chinese New Year festivities. Lots of fun. To kick off the post, here's video of a dragon dance in the parade.



Snapshots: The gate to Chinatown


Roasted chestnuts for sale. Lucinda loves them, and Arno tried them (very rare development) and liked them!


An old traditional house on the main street.


A dog, sitting in a stroller and wearing a dress with a denim skirt. (You have to look closely, but it's definitely a skirt.)


Lucinda, wearing a dress purchased by her grandparents in Beijing, and Arno, in a Chinese devil mask; in Japanese, it's called an "oni."


Lunch for sale: heaps of pork (I think).


Lucinda's lunch: a steamed meat bun from a street stall for 200 yen ($2).


Chinese children led the parade with dragon puppets.


The emperor, who spoke very good English when he wished the children "Happy New Year."


Another creature came over to greet us.


On to the rest of the Year of the Tiger!

Blaine's latest...

...is an incredibly sad story about a Korean man who took his wife and two daughters to North Korea and then abandoned them there. He lives in Seoul now, and as far as he knows, his wife and daughters are in a prison camp.

Headline: "A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea's cruelty"

And here's Blaine's video, also terribly sad:

Arno - in Japanese!

It's news to us, but it turns out that Arno can sing the Willowbrook song in Japanese, too.

Arno loves his school

Arno loves his preschool, Willowbrook International School, and he has been singing the school's song lately.



He's feeling kind of sad because all of his closest friends from Sakura/Sakuranbo (cherry blossom/cherry) class are moving up to kindergarten. Most of them will go to Nishimachi, Lucinda's school, but Arno still has a year of pre-K ahead. Fortunately, he's a friend magnet and we're sure he'll be happy as long as there are a few talkative, action-packed boys in his class.

Pattycake

Lucinda's latest craze is hand-clapping songs. She taught me a Japanese one recently, and I kept making mistakes! She's the expert.

Lucinda's violin

Lucinda has been taking violin lessons for the past six weeks and she's learned the basic four notes and fundamental hand and arm positions.



It's pretty intense because she's getting a private lesson during what was expected to be a 1-hour group lesson at Nishimachi. And sometimes it's a struggle to convince her to practice, though my friends here assure me that that's a near-universal problem for children who take music lessons.

Lucinda seems (to me, the untrained eye) to be quite good at sight-reading. I think she has a strong visual memory and fine motor skills, which makes sense considering how much she likes folding origami and practicing hiragana.

Next step: learning how to finger the strings to add the other whole notes. We'll have to see if she's willing to continue lessons past this semester.

Arno on stage

Arno's school, Willowbrook, held its "spring show" yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, and our 4-yr-old son was very proud of his performance.

His class did a short theatrical rendition of the "Little Red Hen." Arno (in the light gray shirt) was one of three narrators and he memorized his lines and grabbed the microphone like a pro. Then he skipped and leaped around the stage to celebrate, well, himself!

It's a dual-language class and they sing two songs in Japanese. The third (and last) song, with hand movements, is one of Arno's favorites. The English lyrics are:

"Love is something that you give away, give away, give away.
Love is something that you give away - and it comes right back to you.
Just like the magic penny, hold on tight and you won't get any!
Lend it, spend it, give it away, and it comes right back to you."

In the US, aquariums like Sea World try to evoke a natural vibe. Not so in Tokyo. I took the kids to the aquarium at the Prince Hotel complex in Shinagawa, where they have a bunch of tanks and a dolphin show.

The Epson Aqua Stadium is at the foot of this tall building.



Up a long escalator, you come to the aquarium part - tanks with fish, of course, and a long tunnel with sawtooth sharks, an odd leopard-spotted stingray, and some enormous crabs.




Then there's the dolphin show. You walk into this stadium with several hundred seats; the stadium smells kinda...fishy.


And there are dancing girls in neon neoprene.


The aquarium hands out yellow rain slickers to people who sit in the front rows (top photo, which is unfortunately dark). As preparation is everything in Japan, businesslike women in gray suits and black pumps (second photo, center) wait with stacks of towels to hand to the drenched.



To share the actual vibe of a Tokyo aquarium - which is not dissimilar from the overall vibe in the busiest parts of Tokyo - I made some videos with my digital camera; not great quality, but pretty funny.

Here are the dancing girls:



I tried to upload the grand finale: a dolphin show on speed with music that sounds like an overjuiced record player and lyrics that are all about "joy and harmony." Seriously. But the uploading isn't working properly, so I'd rather post than wait on it.

Arno's birthday video

Blaine edited Arno's birthday video this weekend, and here it is. Cute boy, birthday chaos!

Hula invitation

Blaine has learned a new video editing program, Final Cut Pro, and this was the amusing test run he shot during our family outing today (Sunday).

The backstory: Lucinda is taking hula lessons at Nishimachi. She practiced her dance in front of Shinagawa train station this afternoon, as Arno slept contentedly in his stroller - in his favorite Superman pajamas. Grammy and Granddaddy are coming to visit us in a few weeks!

"Buzz Lightyear is a real person"

When Arno had a day off from school last week, I took him to Tokyo Disneyland. What a day. 12 hours of Buzz Lightyear, It's a Small World, Mickey and Donald, Peter Pan, waiting in lines, and a nighttime Light-Bright parade. It was a lot of fun, though, and Arno was thrilled with the experience. This is what he looked like all day, pointing at stuff and saying, "Look!"


We went with my friend Laurie Lebrun and her son Max, who is in Arno's class at Willowbrook, and our friend Rachel and her daughter Audrey. Max is one year older than Arno but the boys get along really well. Laurie drove. Here's the highway in Tokyo and what we saw when we arrived.



Inside, the boys checked out the castle and Halloween decorations.





I've heard horror stories about crowds and hourlong lines for each ride. Fortunately, it wasn't that crowded and we also got lucky with our timing.

Our longest line - 45 mins - was for our second ride, Peter Pan's Flight. Arno totally loves Peter Pan. You climb into a pirate ship and sail, lickety-split, thru scenes from the movie. The ride lasts, like, 3 minutes, which is a bummer, but I did catch some quick pix that will be familiar to other experts of the Pan oeuvre. (This posting has too many pix, but what the hell.)



We spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland because the boys are really into space. There was the kinda-scary 3D movie MicroAdventure, a derivative of the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"...


and Arno's and my favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. (We got a "FastPass" that reserved a ride-time, so we didn't have to wait in line.)



This ride was more active than most: you use an astroblaster gun to fire lasers at targets. Superfun! Here's a short "you are there, too" video.



And the StarJets ride. The boys wanted to wait until it was dark so it was more like "real space."


Disney serves mediocre food. Arno had french fries for lunch. I had a shrimp fritter (only in Japan?). But who cares? When the crowds flocked to a daytime parade, we hit the kid rollercoaster three times in a row with no line!

My least favorite ride was the Grand Circuit Raceway. Too noisy and smoggy. But the mini cars did make for good pix. Here's Laurie and Max...


I could barely squeeze into the car.


Here's Rachel and lovely 2-yr-old Audrey. Rachel's husband, Chris, is Disney's marketing manager in Asia. (My mom and Rachel are both Wellesley grads.)


Arno thought Pirates of the Caribbean was "too scary." I liked it when my family went to Calif. Disneyland 30 years ago, but now every other pirate looks like Johnny Depp. We went on the Jungle Cruise and to the Country Bear Theater. Tom Sawyer's Island closed at dusk - before we arrived. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin broke down as we waited in line. Small World was eh. We skipped Pooh's Hunny Hunt because of the 1 hour line.

The boys went crazy in Goofy's Bounce House - though they were allowed only about 4 minutes for bouncing.


We stayed late to see the nighttime parade: Disney Princesses decked out like the Electric Horseman. It was pretty.


I'm going to overdose on Disney this month. In a few weeks, I'll take Lucinda (with some Nishimachi friends and their moms) to Tokyo Disneyland during her fall vacation.

Trailing spouse: endless kid stuff

Yeah, the kids are neat, but don't you ever get tired of dealing with them? I do.

Conveniently today, a friend sent me these amusing videos on same subject:

The Mom Song, by Anita Renfroe



And the concordant Dad Song

Cherry blossoms

We went for a walk yesterday in Aoyama Cemetery to see the final weekend of cherry blossoms. Blaine brought his video camera.

Lucinda skis in Hokkaido

Here's one highlight from our vacation: Lucinda and I took one run together on Tuesday morning.



My encouraging "Good for you, Lu!" commentary is included.

New songs

We have some new songs to show:

First, Lucinda sings a song for Hina Matsuri, Japan's Doll Festival or Girls Festival. She learned it in her Japanese class at Nishimachi.



About.com tells me that the song is "Ureshii Hinamatsuri (Happy Hinamatsuri)," and that the lyrics are:

Akari o tsukemashou bonbori ni
明かりをつけましょう　ぼんぼりに
Ohana o agemashou momo no hana
お花をあげましょう　桃の花
Go-nin bayashi no fue taiko
五人ばやしの　笛太鼓
Kyo wa tanoshii Hinamatsuri
今日は楽しいひな祭り

Let's light the lanterns
Let's set peach flowers
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums
Today is a joyful Dolls' Festivalｌ

And here's Arno with a very brief rendition of "Zousan", or Little Elephant. He pronounces it "Do-o-san" and refused to sing the rest on camera.

Soccer with Binoculars

A friend sent me this link - It's not particularly Japanese, except for the fact that it is Japanese.

Jingle bells

Blaine had the video camera out this weekend, and this is the result:




"Jingle Bells" in front of our new, fake Christmas tree - decorated with Lucinda's origami and Arno's preschool sculptures.

Japanese talent show

Lucinda can sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in Japanese.



Here are the words, according to this website. Lucinda and Arno sing a slightly altered version.

Kirakira Boshi (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Kira- kira hikaru
Osora-no hoshi-yo
Mabataki shitewa Minnna-o miteru
Kira-kira hikaru
Osorano hoshi-yo

Talent show

The kids have some new songs, which is an excuse for me to post more video.

Arno learned this "Vegetables" song at Willowbrook, and we credit his teachers with inspiring him to eat lots of broccoli lately.



(No, he is not appearing in "Oklahoma"; my mom brought him a Woody costume from Toy Story.)

Hilarious!

Video on the blog! From Arno's birthday. Click play and prepare to laugh.