Utterly random photos

Delaney built this snowman out of bags of leaves.  She was adorable and named him "Oleaf". 

When language doesn't quite translate right!  If this shirt had fit me, I so would have bought it! 

My friend Laura and I went out to lunch.  We had gyoza, fried rice, soup, and a little chicken with a cabbage salad.  Delish! 

Do they have Orange Coke in the US too?  I did not try it, just noted it for my friends who like this stuff. 

This sign was interesting.  "Hair a-Boo"?  Is that a play on Caribou?  Is it really a hair cutting place?  So many questions, so little knowledge!

Here is Rylee, wearing a crown.

And here is one very patient and sweet little dog, also wearing a crown.

This eager face is begging for some love.  Levi is a good doggie.

 Our branch had an Open House and I snuck a photo of the girls cruising the refreshment line.

Lunch with my Hunnie

On Saturday Dan and I went out to lunch.  We went to a place my friend Laura said was good and not expensive.  She was correct on both points.  However, it was quite the experience.  We speak no Japanese and they spoke no English.  There was a menu that was "English"  but it really wasn't helpful aside from helping you guess what meat might be in the item in the photo.

Yeah, this is the English menu.  Super helpful, no?

Well, maybe more useful than this one, which is entirely in Japanese. 

The pictures are surprisingly unhelpful. I really need a description of what on earth it is. Neither menu was helpful in that area.

Although the English menu contained gems such as this!  I may need to go back and try this.  Is it really horse?  Is it a mis-wording?  I am fascinated and baffled about this!

 Dan is focused on trying to figure out if the picture of the chicken implies that it comes with anything else.  That was the tough part.  If I order the chicken stuff, does it come with soup or rice or is it straight up chicken?

It was straight up chicken, by the way.  Delicious chicken on a bed of surprisingly good cabbage.  Fortunately, I'd taken the chance and ordered some fried rice on the side.  I have no clue where the soup came in.  Since Dan and I ordered the same thing, it must have come with the fried rice.  This was our yummy meal! 

Did I mention it was yummy?!!

Yochien Craft Fair

 Rylee's Yochien had its annual Craft Fair on Saturday. I dragged the girls out to see what it was all about.

This is a bit random.  There were 5 giant crows in this lovely tree as I drove by.  By the time I got my camera out, most had flown away.  Can you see the 2 that are still there?

They had one of the classrooms set up to showcase all their nifty crafts. 

Some were super cute and some were really clever. 

 The girls had fun looking at everything and finding names they recognized.

Look!  It is one of Rylee's pictures! 

And here she is showing me her turtle she made.

There was also a room with games to play.  For Y50 or Y100 you could play and win. 

This one was shooting bottles with the plastic dart gun.  They loved this one! 

And then there was the food.  Marian was dying to try the Udon noodles. 

They did not disappoint. (Check out that successful chopstick usage!)

These three were happy to stick with traditional snacks.  These are french fries.

It was a fun time!  Plus, I found a super cute platter for Y200 and made it mine. A successful morning for all.

That's my boy

The High School held a little award ceremony for the kids last week. It is such a small school, I think there may have been as many parents as kids attending.  And I'm pretty sure every kid there had a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and thus received an award.  I was trying not to embarrass Joshua, but I thought he'd seen me there.  Apparently he did not see me and did not know I had even come!  Thank goodness I got one photo to prove I do love him and I did attend!  Next time I will have to be a little more apparent.  Heh heh heh.....

Japanese Potato

On Friday, this adorable kid in her ridiculously cute uniform, got to dig potatoes at Yochien.

I know, you've seen this photo before, but it is so stinking cute, it never gets old!

She had to wear rainboots and to bring a shovel.  Her pants got dirty.  She said she collected 6 potatoes, but she only brought 2 of them home.  One was enormous, and the other was tiny.  They were the purple skinned variety that grow here.  I had gotten once at the grocery store to try it out and I had discovered it was NOT like a regular Idaho spud.  It was more like a sweet potato in texture and vaguely in taste.  I had chopped it up and cooked it in broth for a Chicken Pot Pie and it was quite delicious in that. But it was not entirely what I had expected.

Rylee had been asking if we were going to eat her potatoes.  I am so sad I did not take a photo of her with her potatoes.  She was very excited about them.  I finally remembered to do something with them, and tonight I attempted to make sweet potato fries.  I confess, it was a colossal failure.  Purple Japanese potatoes are not interchangeable with sweet potatoes either.  Trying to cook them like a sweet potato resulted in a very tough, crunchy exterior and a dry, fibrous, yet soft interior.  However, not a tasty thing to eat.  Very bland, and that dry, fibrous texture was not conducive to fine dining.  I am sad.

Next time, I will dice them and cook them in broth and put them in my Chicken Pot Pie again.

Japanese School

 Delaney and Callie both got to go on a Field Trip to a Japanese School on Thursday!  I got to chaperone with Callie's class and it was kind of fun.  I really just wanted to go visit and see a Japanese school, but the kids were pretty good and Mom Duty wasn't too bad.  I was a little surprised it was an all day event, until I realized we were driving an hour away to the school.  (Our school will reciprocate next month and they will come and visit us.)

All the Japanese kids, sitting neatly on the playground.  Our kids were significantly less organized!

Playing an ice breaker game of "Rock Paper Scissors".  The loser would go to the end of the line and the winner was the head of the line.  Eventually you had several long lines of kids. 

Delaney playing her first round. 

She won, so she got to be the leader and play everyone else. 

Callie in her line. 

At the end of the game, the leaders were all recognized.  Delaney was a winner!  She never lost a match. 

This is the classroom portion of the school.  You can't really see it, but there are gardening beds all along the front, and some solar panels as well. The rooms are lined with the windows and are bright and airy. 

After the playground game, they split up the kids.  Second graders stayed in the gym and played a lot of fun games and then had lunch.  I headed upstairs with Callie and the 4th graders for more fun and games, followed by lunch.

Learning to write Katakana. 

Playing a game with paddles and a "birdie" you tried to keep in the air.  This one was a lot of fun! 

Playing musical instruments. Some of the students sang along and they were good!  The room did get a wee bit noisy, but our kids had a blast trying out the drums and xylophone.

 This was a game to test your chopstick skills.  You reached out and grabbed an origami and I think you got to keep what you grabbed.

Callie was a little confused on that.

But she was delighted to get this.  I thought it looked like a Dachshund, but she said it was an alligator. 

This was a game Callie said was like Chutes and Ladders, but without chutes or ladders.  She said it was fun. 

The kid going down was awesome.  They were doing a Judo demonstration. That kid was so amazing. He showed each of our kids what to do and then let them throw him.  He was so great about falling, even when our kid really didn't have the leverage to throw him.  He was my favorite.

Lunchtime was a very different experience for our kids.   The Japanese kids all put on white smocks/aprons and left.  Each of our kids had to pick a desk to share with one of their students. They came back carrying a couple large metal bowls (bins? they looked more bin-like).  They served each other and put their trays on their desks.

 This is what they had for lunch.

Callie, all ready for lunch.  She said their food looked really good and she wished she could have had what they were having. 

The back wall of the class was covered with their art.  I love the self portraits, and Callie was impressed with the quality of their paintings on the bottom. 

The grown ups got served lunch!  Hee hee hee.  The kids had to bring their own, but the chaperones got fed.  They made us a special lunch.  This was part of the offerings: Several different kinds of rice balls, and a pickled something. 

My lunch.  A delicious slice of pork, a saffron rice ball, and a something else rice ball, a sweet potato not-muffin, and a corn muffin.  It was all tasty! 

Callie in front of the school. 

 Callie's class.

This was the best picture ever!  I loved that the kids were riding the unicycles in the background, while an America girl is jump-roping.

The kids all came out to wave goodbye to us. It was a great trip and well worth the experience.