Fond memories

We've been back in the US for three whole months, and I completely let the blog slide. It was difficult to look back at our lovely three years in Japan at the same time when I and our whole family had to face front and live in the present. It's also hard to know what to write about life in the US without the novelty and cultural differences that I found in Tokyo on a daily basis.

(I'll just add here, briefly, that if you ever have the chance to be an expat, do it. It's a fantastic way to live for months or years - whatever you can manage.)

But heck, why not try to write about life today? I'll do my best, but might throw in some photos (like the one of our family at the Great Wall) that I never managed to publish on the blog before this.

And to get things started, I'll quote Arno, who tonight became very teary about missing his friends in Tokyo -- especially his best friend Marcel -- and his school, Willowbrook, where he spent three delightful years.

Arno was completely comfortable and confident at Willowbrook; it was an ideal situation for him. All of the teachers knew him and Arno knew, with absolute certainty, that he would be greeted with smiles every day. That feeling of specialness is harder to find in a public-school kindergarten with 26 other students, no matter how skilled the teacher.

So tonight, thinking about his friends in Tokyo, he pulled out his Willowbrook yearbooks and scanned the photographs and cried a bit. And then he said, "I have fond memories of Willowbrook." (Seriously, the kid is about to turn 6 and used the word "fond.") As we all do of Tokyo and our many adventures and friends there.

Spring flowers

I already wrote about sakura (cherry blossom) fashion. Now here are some snaps from our annual picnics (hanami) under the cherries.

Last weekend, the peak of the flower experience, we went to Shinjuku Gyoen, a huge, well-kept park near Shinjuku station, with many families from Arno's school, Willowbrook. Crowds lined up outside the gates to get in.


Blaine took this gorgeous shot that expresses the pure hanami experience of picnicking beneath the boughs.


Arno took charge of my camera and delivered this self-portrait...


... and a shot of his parents. I am drinking a can of hot green tea purchased from a vending machine.


Lucinda and Arno


The finale to this year's hanami was in Kinuta Koen (Kinuta Park) in Sendagaya-ku, Tokyo, at the Willowbrook spring picnic. Amazing trees!


An elegantly dressed older lady brought out to gaze at the blossoms.


And Arno's Take/Takenoko (Bamboo/Bamboo shoots) class this year.


Happy spring!

Humming along

Lucinda is in her 3rd week of school and Arno is in his 2nd week, and it's a delight to see how they're both calm and happy about their surroundings at Nishimachi and Willowbrook.

Lucinda and several of her close friends have a wonderfully warm teacher, Ms. Greene, who has been nicely encouraging in math and reading from the start. Lucinda marched straight into class on Day 1, and Blaine and I can see her fresh confidence, sense of self, and comfort at school. It seems that 7-year-old girls know themselves pretty well.

Arno was disconcerted that his closest friends from last year all left for kindergarten (he's in a mixed-age 3-5 class). But he's making new friends - particularly those with a similar love of action figures - and already seems very pleased with his teachers. He's not reading yet - and I would love to see that happen this year - but he's become drawn, again, after a slow period, to making his own spaceships out of Legos.

Meanwhile, Lucinda has a new, energetic Japanese tutor (a teacher from Arno's school) and will participate in Nishimachi's afterschool ballet and "active games" (kickball, basketball, wiffleball, soccer) classes. Arno is again taking an afterschool art class. And we're inheriting a friend's okay-but-not-great piano; maybe we'll try piano lessons?

So much for underparenting?

Arno's recent developments

Arno started his pre-K year at Willowbrook on Thursday. He is again in Willowbrook's dual-language program, and this year he's in "Take" (Bamboo) class, which is mixed with younger "Takenokko" (Bamboo Shoots) students.

Arno is very proud to be an older student, especially one who does not cry when his mother leaves the classroom and shows the ropes to his classmates. He's also very conscious of the privileges of being in the older group from his experience last year, as a younger student in the Sakura/Sakuranbo class. For example:

Every morning on the sign-in sheet, older (Take) students (age 4-5) write their first and last names while younger (Takenokko) students (age 3-4) write only first names. On Day 1 of school, which was a Japanese day, Arno waited for me to produce Blaine's WashPost business card so he could copy the katakana for "Harden." (he learned "Arno" in katakana last year.) This morning, he quite nicely wrote "Harden" in English for the first time.

The summer has also proven to be an effective transition time in other areas. Most crucially, Arno has given up his stroller - big news around our house! Last spring, he whined incessantly when we made him walk to Willowbrook, about 1/4 mile away. Since our return to Tokyo, the stroller is stashed in the garage and he walks most places without complaint. (We also take him places on our "mom-bike," with a seat on the back, but we don't mind that.)

This afternoon, Arno walked from our house to pick up Lucinda at Nishimachi, which is perhaps a 1/2 mile, and then to Tokyo Midtown, which is close to a mile. No wonder he is sleeping well. When I tell him he has to walk somewhere, he likes to say, "That's not very far at all!"

To finish off the week, Arno - who rarely tries new foods and particularly avoids eating most fresh fruit - sampled pear and peach tonight for the first time. I admit it: I bribed him. We had the season's first pears and some ripe peaches, and I offered him 200 yen for a bowl of each as a "fruit allowance." Timing is everything. He wants to buy a particular toy, which costs 200 yen. Now he can buy 2 of them.

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.

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."

Junk art

Arno has a new passion at school: making what his teachers call "junk art" out of recyclables.

He's made dozens of these sculptures -- most of them are tanks or jet fighters -- in the past few weeks, and now we have a sculpture garden in our living room.

"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.

Last day of K

It's so hard to believe: tomorrow is the last day of kindergarten and Arno's preschool year. Day 1 seems like it was about 2 months ago.

We're so proud of the kids, especially Lucinda, who missed her Seattle friends so much but had a terrific year and made wonderful progress in reading, writing, math and early Japanese. Arno also had a great year, learned how to go to school, listen to teachers, take turns and make friends.

For expats here, Year 1 pretty much ends when school is out. Families started leaving tonight (the day before the last day of school) and most people will be away for 1-2 months until school starts again. We'll be here to enjoy the early summer, before a vacation to skip August's too-hot weather.

Arno and marriage

Last Wednesday, Arno had a brief dialogue with Fflur, a girl in his preschool class (as reported by their teachers).

“I’m a princess and I gonna marry you," Fflur told Arno.
“But not for real though, just pretend,” he replied.
“No for real, I’m gonna marry you,” she said.

After Arno and Fflur saw each other today at a birthday party, Fflur (whose name is Welsh) told her mother that they should marry because "Arno is handsome and I'm beautiful." Arno agreed, "She is beautiful."

Then tonight at supper, Arno gave us an update on his thinking:

"Fflur and Ceinwyn both want to marry me, but I'm not sure which one I should marry. Fflur has nicer clothes, so I guess I should marry her. Maybe I should give her one of my toys, like a puzzle I don't like anymore. But not the Power Ranger one."

Out with Umi class

To celebrate the end of the school year, Arno's Willowbrook School class - Umi (Ocean) class - went to an aquarium for a field trip. I hadn't been to this one before, so it was a new tourist experience, too.

We took the bus and a long taxi ride to Shinagawa Suizokukan (Shinagawa Aquarium), a relatively small attraction near Tokyo Harbor. It has a dolphin show and a passel of enormous ugly fish. Admission is 1,100 yen ($11) for adults, $6 for elementary age, and free for children under 4.



This is not Sea World. It's slightly fishy-smelling and fairly packed with schoolchildren.


Having said that, it's a decent place to spend a few hours with a bunch of cheerful 3-year-olds. Arno and his friends checked out some massive, hideous, lumpy gray fish, and the tragic 20-penguin exhibit.



The dolphin show lasts about 25 minutes, with two dolphins leaping around in a small, deep pool at the request of two trainers. Unlike at Sea World, there's a total lack of pretense that the dolphins are living a semi-natural life. Just like the rest of us in Tokyo, the dolphins are surrounded by concrete.

Before the show, Arno and two of his Umi friends, Fflur and Ceinwyn, entertained themselves as a dolphin swam by.


We sat in the front row "splash zone" and felt a few drops but nothing serious.


It was okay fun.

Sports Day

When I was a kid, we had "field day" every spring on the dusty playfield behind my public elementary school in Littleton, Colorado. We ran races and did the tug-of-war and softball throw, etc., with a strong emphasis on individual performance, with ribbons awarded even in the youngest grades. Does that still happen in American public schools?

In Japan, schools have "Sports Day," and what we've seen so far is a very different, team-oriented approach to sports - for young children anyway.

Arno's preschool had its sports day on a baseball field near Willowbrook 10 days ago.


Arno and his mates in Umi class, all dressed in red, did the "origami relay" (grabbing origami off a clothesline), the sack race, and the egg/spoon relay (Arno clamped his hand over the plastic egg on the spoon as he ran). Also, the three-legged run, done with his Aussie friend Ceinwyn...


...the throw-crumpled-paper-in-baskets game...


...and the parachute game.


Lucinda's school held its sports day at a (very empty) former Olympic stadium about a half-hour drive from Nishimachi.



The children in grades K-9 were tasked to the blue or white team (the school colors), and each team's points were tallied throughout the day. Lucinda was on the blue team.

The first event was the tug-of-war, grade by grade, which meant 30 kindergarteners lined up on each side of this big rope.



Lucinda and her friends pulled and pulled (and even got small rope burns)...


... and L was thrilled when her blue team won. (She tends to avoid games involving winning and losing - but the truth is, she does like to win.) Celebration ensued.


Next, the kindergarteners ran the 50-meter sprint in groups of about 10. At the end of each heat, the fastest handful of kids received a snip of colored ribbon, and the overall results were tallied for the blue or white team. Lucinda was baffled and a bit upset that she didn't get to hold a ribbon. (I'm sure she was thinking: It's not fair! Why doesn't everyone get the same thing!) But she was mollified when no one kept the ribbons, which were passed on to the next grade of competitors.

Then the kindergarteners had a series of relay races in 4 teams (2 blue, 2 white) of 15 children. Each child did the skill - running forward, jogging backwards, sack jumping, walking with ping-pong ball in spoon, etc. - and returned to sit down in incredibly tidy lines.



I could see that different children excelled at different skills, and I liked the team, rather than the individual, focus. Lucinda told me today that the Blue team - her team - won the day.

Dog ate blogwork

I am so behind on my blogging, eek. In part it's because we go to a lot of new places here, I take photographs, and then it takes me much too long to post a travelogue with pix. Or the kids have vacations - like the current 5-day vaca for Japan's "Golden Week" - and I don't have as much time to contemplate life or describe what's going on.

So what is going on? My mom just arrived tonight for an 8-day visit. She planned it at the last minute and got a seat with her United miles - and we are thrilled to see her. She and my stepfather were here six months ago (hard to believe it was that long ago) and the children were counting down the days and hours this week to her arrival.

Golden Week - from last Friday thru this Tuesday - is a time when Tokyo empties out and nearly all Japanese go on vacation. It is very quiet around here. The vacation's timing also synchronizes with end-of-school activities: last week, Lucinda's school had a "spring festival" on Tuesday when parents accompanied kindergarteners to do crafts all morning, and on Thursday, the kindergarten took its only field trip, to Shinjuku Gyoen, a lovely park we've visited before. (I went along for that, too.)

I'm also doing more editing (for another 2 weeks) for Kateigaho International Edition, the English-language magazine about Japanese arts and culture. Then we have just five more weeks of school to mid-June. Upcoming: "sports day" for Arno's and Lucinda's schools, and in June, Lucinda's birthday party, which must be planned. Impossible to believe that our first year here is almost over.

Arno, leaping

Arno's class is also taking in the cherry blossoms. The children went to the park yesterday for snacktime and lunch, and his teachers captured some of his delightful energy.

It's good to be Arno

After supper tonight, we asked Arno about his friends at school. We mentioned a few children, and then Arno said, "Can we talk about who else loves me in Umi class?"