You Mean Rice Doesn't Grow Like This???

Home schoolers wanted to know where did rice come from? Or did not believe their parents about where rice came from. So, us parental units felt that this (Japan) was a great place, ripe with opportunity to answer, or prove this inquiry for the inquisitive or disbelieveing (or mind; thus the Rice Trip was contemplated, planned, organized, and executed. It was a learning experience...

Guess Who's the Big 1-0?

That's right, the Eldest Unfortunate!!! And what a week of celebration it has been. Friday night was her sleep-over birthday party and to tell the truth that was a bit wilder than the last sleep-over birthday party in Monterey with nine girls--this party we only invited three girls... go figure... It was fun though and the girls had a great time! To make it a bit more of the Eldest's day, the CrazyOne got to go over to a friend's home for her first sleep over. That idea went over as well as a fart in church when I first clued her into the plan; but a day later she got over it and couldn't wait for her special moment.

That Saturday I made a big breakfast of frenchtoast (made with texas toast bread), sausage, turkey bacon (which the girls couldn't get enough of), mikans (Japanese tangerines), strawberries and got ready for the the Kanto Plain Home Schooler's Fun night in Negishi housing in Yokohama. It had been nearly four years since I had driven to Negishi, so I cheesed out and joined the caravan leaving main base to get there.

Fun Nite was a blast and we can't wait till the next get-together at the mikan picking field trip next Friday. The aptly named party brought out a lot of the group and the exciting part of this group is; I like them--the parents AND the kids.
This group is full of older kids and not chocked full of pre school through first graders. They are great to hang out with single or groupie style--just cause you like someone doesn't make them a great hang in large settings. From 16:00-19:30hr we socialized, had a scavenger hunt (the girls went, I had to sit out since my ankle was still out of operation--still is) and played. Remembering our drive home and morning priorities, we loaded up in our Cube and avoided the toll road; just enjoying our company, the radio, and the 45 minute drive down Rt 16.
Monday was the official day. Topping any present I could have given her, SailorMan pulled into pier Sunday afternoon--of course had duty (but we didn't want him anyways since he's the living dead his first days back and the girls were beyond excited to have him back to give him peace)--and showed up Monday after work in time to take us all out. After a regular day of lessons, swiming, decorating a bit, and Kumon;we all loaded up into the Cube and picked us up a sailor. From there SailorMan and I sprang the suprise of going out to our favorite Ramen house. It is the only place were we all can eat with out complaint. It was so good to have everyone together and eating out (both of which are not commonly practiced in this family).
The food could have been bad, but we were all in such good spirits, it wouldn't have mattered much. Fortunately, the food was a delight and as always quite filling. Rolling out of our seats, we paid and walked back to base for the finale: presents!!! There is nothing like the promise of cake and presents to get kids to do exactly what is asked; no beating around the bush, no stalling, no arguing, no whining. T'was beautiful. Eldest's gifts were what was on the table minus one which was for the CrazyOne, then the addition of the small package SailorMan slipped in. Our family no longer buys presents just for the sake of quantity guilt.
We finally put two and two together and realized the only gifts the kids play with all year long, are the ones they have asked for--not the ones you think they would like or what we think are cool. So we stopped living vicariously through our kids; got our own lives; purchase only what they've asked for; and only buy no more than 2 gifts per child of what we would like them to have. The first time we did this was last Christmas. The gifts were few, but the joy was true. Our pockets thanked us and our blood pressure stayed cool through out the rest of the year since we were not yelling and threating over the neglected toys we spent so much on. Make your money count, believe me, it is worth your sanity and your kid's memories.




All through the rest of the week we had to put up with the now pre-teen who was on cloud 9--I mean cloud 10, lol--and is allowed to get that sacred right of passage on a foreign US military base for all children who become 10 over seas: THEIR FIRST ID CARD. Not just any I.D. card either, this is THE OFFICIAL Military I.D. card. Proof necessary for parents to "understand" that their child is now responsible to handle more duties--UNACCOMPANIED. She can now shop on her own at US Military Exchanges and Commissaries, she can use the gym--classes and facilities on her own, sign herself up for classes at the Community Center as long as she is in their computer system. Last, but definitely NOT the least is the ability to leave and return to base unescorted. Can you say, "freedom?" Can you say, "mommy's commissary and exchange errand girl?" Right now this whole new phase of life is the shiznit! As time goes on, she will realize parental units have an excellent form of leverage to ensure true grounding when necessary. God Bless free will and responsibilities!




Today was when Eldest had her appointment for getting her first ID card. Of course I was there with the camera, but I only posted a few of them for you. We needed our DOD sponsor's paper work--a.k.a. permission--and only remembered it the night before. The appointment was at 08:30 and the ship's admin wouldn't be open till 08:15. SailorMan pushed the work through, and I really thank the guy who typed it all up for us... I don't think Eldest could have handled postponing the appointment well. SailorMan was waiting for us at the gate to the pier and after a quick inspection and correction of some things on the paper, we were off. It was a very exciting moment; for ten years ago on this day we were leaving the hospital, to begin a new phase in life and it was scary and exciting. We were determined though, to prove ourselves capable and worthy of this responsibility; just as Eldest is determined to show such to herself and us. What a beautiful life-cycle.
Now our home is officially blessed with a pre-teen. Life knows how to staying interesting.


I hope you like the pictures and if you read this and realize that this wasn't around the blog 30 October, it is because the date I started working on it is saved as the post date, and yes that is a picture of Smash Mouth's concert stage being set up. They came here to the Kanto Plain bases to put on free concerts over the halloween weekend. A big thanks to MWR and Family Readiness. It was a blast! The Unfortunates loved it, they were up front, David was home to enjoy it, and we all went home with the reminder to bring hearing protection to concerts. Concert photo was taken by my keitai. I didn't know if cameras were allowed... boy, was I wrong!

Japan and Schooling

(that grass is growing out of the rain gutter at the outdoor pool building) As I have commented to Sebastian, we have started schooling and I am shamed that the disorganized side of me has laid waste to my time. Fortunately, the more "civilized" side of me is emerging, and time is becoming a better companion to me. We have been humming along quite well, despite my chaotic ways; we have our entire downstairs looking like we have lived here all along--complete with pictures on the wall and carpets on the floor—Yea!!! What have you all been up to during these last weeks of summer? Did you actually get a chance to enjoy your summer? The pictures throughout this post are of the Splash'n Dash Youth Biathlon, Eldest Unfortunate and our friend BondGirl participated in. The other pictures are of our day of Henna. The Eldest has been sporting henna'd hair since she was 5 years old. We went on a little hiatus from henna, but now we are back in the paste! Between the two girls, there was only enough paste for hair, not skin this time... I going to do up some henna for Mehindi art soon.

A few questions have been asked of me regarding living here in Japan and Homeschooling too. So I am going to try to give a remotely intelligible reply concerning both topics.

Living in Japan.
After 10 years of marriage to SailorStudman and the Navy, we have lived in Japan for nearly four and a half years. Nearly one and a half years of that was living off base--out in the economy, with no other military personnel. The rest of that has been on base, surrounded by others who are DOD personnel. Which do I prefer; living off base. We chose to come to Japan; to live in Japan and experience it all... and let me tell you we did. As to living on base, it is all about convenience; I will not lie, if your life revolves around base activities that take up over 6hrs of the day, and/or/at weird hours of the day and 5-7days a week; living on base or so damn close, is the way to go. For kids; making friends off base is hard. Japanese children seem to stick only to school and club mates--and I know this from experience. Playing outside and picking up some friends is highly improbable. Throwing your kid into something is the best way, but it is going to cost you; however if you have more than one child, and bills, you begin to look to the cost effective ways to do business—enter,

on base activities: MWR and Community Center. When the chance came to live on base around six months before we changed our duty station, we sat on saying yea or nay till the last hour of our (then) 48hr time-limit. I was the Ombudsman for SailorMan's command (loved it!). It is a very involved volunteer job, being on call and available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. With Navy her being permanently forward deployed (always gone), just throw in a foreign country, toss in people with a good smattering of everyday and not exactly everyday problems... you got yourself disgruntled, scared, angry, sad, overwhelmed, depressed, libido driven, deviant... and all the other good things people can be, stewing around and those are your charges who give a new outlook on life in the military. Being on base was MUCH easier.

So, do I feel culturally enriched living on base? Not really. Don't get me wrong, this base is a cultural all-within itself; even though Japanese aspects of life are always around you, it isn't in your face and in full force as living out in town.
Besides what exactly is cultural enrichment? Regardless of living on or off base, you get into a routine and begin to ignore what is constant and get annoyed with whatever disrupts the constant, not mater if it is Japanese or American. I have met folks who live out in town and are just as clueless of the Japanese culture as a 12th generation American who lives in small town USofA. It is what you make of it, getting off the proverbial ass, and out and about—now that is where it's at!





When we first got here to Japan, the Eldest Unfortunate was only 2.5 years old and there was nothing for us here on base, she wasn't old enough for anything and I had no qualms regarding getting out and about town. I could go days and days, without stepping foot on base. Had no reason real reason besides acquiring things that cost too much to buy out on the economy... chocolates, movies and cds for example. Later we moved on base, Eldest started kindergarten at the DoDDS school on base, I became a DoDDS substitute teacher for the high school and found a whole host of Japanese students to teach English too since I lived on base.

The Crazy Unfortunate came along, not too long after that, then we moved back to the States. Now we are back and on base, this time with out any living on the economy like I was secretly hoping for. In the end it was the best chance and decision for us. I will just be candid about this; financially we really couldn't take the hit that living off base would have gave. We couldn't immediately afford the out of pocket expense of moving out on the economy and would have had to take the loan from the government to do so. This would have hurt, a lot. A new twist to our lives here was our Greyhound, a.k.a. SuicideGirl, of whom still had a quarantine sentence that was required to be carried out on base at a home or in the kennel, or off base at a kennel. On base is far more cost effective especially given her size. 38 days in the kennel cost $698. We took her out on June 6, her quarantine is till September 11, do the math and it's not pretty.

Homeschooling.
Yes, we are a homeschooling family. This is our second year into it and this time the CrazyOne has joined the fray. Moving to a new place, literally--nearly half a world away, made socializing (that all consuming question people first ask) finding some playmates a priority. The mission: get outside and play!

All summer long I threw their butts into the neighborhood to play and into activities base sponsored activities such as: summer sessions of swimming, ballet, homeschool group; add more activities like violin, piano, swim team and Kumon; the Unfortunates are getting pretty sweet on the social level. We have found a few other homeschooling families and have met up for just unwinding a few times already— I like the parents and their kids and the Unfortunates agree too.

Our day starts between 8-9am and we are throughly finished around lunch time. So what to do with all that spare time? Art, reading, crafting, board games, all of this together or individually, or homework--blah. Sometimes, we do a short review of something that will prepare for the next day or reinforce something—that is mostly the homework. As of late, we get outside and take SuicideGirl with us to enjoy the outdoors before rainy winter sets in. We are going to work on double dutch jumping rope as soon as we get to Homes (a fantastic everything but the grocery Japanese store) for our second rope, right now we are just getting the CrazyOne learning how to jump rope. This isn't as easy a task as you'd believe; it really takes some maturity of motor-skills, which for her seems to be kicking in at last. In the mail is also our book of skipping rope rhymes along with our hop balls http://www.hippityhopball.com/ for us all! I am so excited, I am having a hard time keeping the hop balls a secret from the girls—Hallelujah Internet! I will let you know how grand the balls are and if they really hold up to 53kg person... then we shall see how they do with StudMan This is going to be fun, good thing he got skinny!

Our curriculum is this:
Math—Singapore Math with the addition of cooking, budgeting, building stuff (i.e. awesome Lego creations), and Math sheets for drills http://themathworksheetsite.com/.
History/Geography—A Little History of The World, by EH Gombrich. We use this book as a guiding light so to speak, for us to go and discover for ourselves through research of other books and a bit of internet thrown in there, since the library here is not that big. There are only so many books StudMan can handle me buying.
Grammar/Composition/Reading—Eldest is doing Shurley English; Homeschooling, Level 4. CrazyOne is just learning to read and write, so she has Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten. I bought the block and lined paper for her level. The eldest has the same except its 4th grade and I also purchased the lined paper that goes with it. She uses that paper for all writing assignments. Using this book for her cursive has helped with keeping her handwriting neat and clean. We do a lot of copy, dictation, note taking and memory work using excerpts, quotes, poetry, and paraphrasing.
Science—Eldest Unfortunate picked out chemistry for this year and we purchased Noeo Science's Chemistry (I forget which level); when we actually use it I will let you know what we think. We are covering geology and biology from our history study of prehistory. We will eventually come around to chemistry... just not right now, 'cause it doesn't fit.

Homeschooling has ups and downs, but all in all; its for us.
I must bid you farewell, and theoretically... as long as I keep to a schedule, you will once again see 1-3 posts every week. I look forward to hearing from you!

Kamakura... Home of the Daibutsu...

... And who knows how many shrines and temples; yet this was our first homeschooling venture in the Land of the Rising Sun. I signed us up to go on the Kanto Plain Homeschool Group organized field trip to the beautiful town. The trip was not just us wondering about, but we were going to be lead by a group of Japanese tour guides who were doing our tour for free, just so they could practice their English and get certified to give a bilingual tour. I surmised that we could get to know our fellow area homeschoolers better, see sights only Studman and I saw when first in Japan, all the while hoping I like or at least can tolerate the people we just met, and the Unfortunates happily take to walking without my promises of bodily harm should they refuse. Of course I survived, in fact, I enjoyed myself! Why such pessimistic foreboding? A trip through Kamakura means you are hoofin' it, this time with short Unfortunates from each and every point in the ancient capital of Edo period Japan. Believe it or not, the Unfortunates actually had a great time and want to go an another such trip, I can happily oblige them! Muwahhahahaha!!!
Okay,back to the field trip...
Getting to bed after 1am, just to lie there awake, isn't a good idea if you need to get up by 7am. 07:30 I roll out the rack and shuffle over to the Unfortunates rooms to rustle them up. Note to self; get proverbial ass to bed before 01:00hr when the morning comes early. Those accursed boxes could have waited if the damned packers would have just put the phones in the boxes of the rooms they originally were in! What-the--!(in with the good, out with the bad... in with the good... out with the bad...). Good thing we got our yen, packed our bento boxes and put the rainy weather clothing together before bed, it really came in handy... now if I hadn't have been too lazy to do hair too, we would have been golden time wise. Despair begone, Mommy has a plan. Remembering to feed Suicide-girl before leaving in a rush, but looking good; we're armed with my backpack of snacks, bentos, water, and a change of undies for the Crazy Unfortunate... Traditional Japanese toilets can be precarious at best to the unpracticed. (here is an excellent blog entry regarding this issue). We hop into the Box and drive to the parking lot next to the main gate. See, this here be thinkin aheads... knowin n'all that dem'youngins would be plum tuckered out, 'bout th'time we'ds be makin it back heres, see? So we step lively in the drizzle and hail an off base cab, cutting out our 20min walk to the train station by 15min. We hop out, and pulling the Gaijin flag, I tip him 200yen(you don't tip in Japan), due to excitement and appreciation for shutteling us to the station, giving the Unfortunates their first Japanese cab ride, and waiting for me to make change of the annoyingly large 5000yen note all ATM give out. Getting through the ticket readers, we make our way to the platform and we are really on our way! You can just feel the excitement radiating from the Unfortunates; the thrill of their first train ride--city cast in the gray of eminent rain, speeding past the windows. "Too bad you can't ride trains like this in the States," the Older Unfortunate says to me. "Nobody would drive cars 'cause its so easy and really cool!" All this is said with a glow about her face and the Crazy Unfortunate nodding vigorously in agreement. "I can't wait to meet the other homeschoolers," she wistfully says with Crazy chimeing in, "me too." We already met a few, who just happen to be the same age groups of mine and were also going on this outing.

Well, we get to Zushi station--the rendezvous point at 08:53, 30min till the group was to meet up and catch the train to Kamakura. We wait...15min: just us still so we kill some time by wandering around and take a picture just for memories and the blog of the girls at the station (I forgot how to ask in Japanese, 'could you take our picture please,' so I am not in it). We anxiously wait... 10 more minutes; by this time I am starting to kick myself for not rolling out of the rack sooner to check email in the event that they postponed the trip since it was raining when we got up, and had been raining for the past 3 days. I also wished that I had given my cell number to some of the people we met who were going... Agitatedly we wait 5 more minutes... 09:30 and I am starting to wonder if there is ever anyone who tries to make it somewhere on time besides me when you are suppose to leave at that time. 5 more minutes... The Unfortunates glow is definitely out the door and they are starting to resemble the weather in their demeanor. FINALLY, 09:45, just when we were going to catch the train and do our own little tour of Kamakura, I am flagged down by the leader of the leader of this field trip with her tall teenaged son, and sulky, ill tempered preteen boy (who seemed to be in a much improved mood from the last we saw of him). Three minutes later we are met by another family... and that was all, only 9 of us. The other 8 families bowed out due to colds and weather, so by time we made it to Kamakura, we were greated by 9 very happy Japanese guides who look a bit confused with the size of our group. They quickly recovered their shock and we all merrily set off on our personal tour of the city.

First we went to see the Great Buddha--Daibutsu (second largest in Japan), and cleansed ourselves before entering the shrine. We got to go into the bronze cast statue--not for the claustrophobic. We took pictures in front of his sandals that an elementary school made for his feet. Seeing all we could see there, we headed out to a small but beautiful Shinto shrine where we had been given special permission to eat lunch on their grounds (the head tour guide is friends with the head priest's mother). That was great, the kids loved exploring the grounds, seeing> the turtles, fish, frogs, butterflies, and getting a personal tour by the head priest of the shrine.
Once rested, we set off again this time to Hasedera Temple. I would have taken more pictures but I was running out of space on my memory card and many of the sites on the grounds were off limits to pictures. I linked the official website so you could see what we saw. This place was really beautiful and we all would have loved to stay longer, despite the losing the Oldest Unfortunate. One moment, she was right with me and all together as a group we moved to go visit a cave within the temple grounds. We spent about 10 minutes in the cave and came out and did a head count. I realized that she was no longer with the girl she hung back with before we entered the cave and my heart skipped a beat when she was not to be found around the entrance to the cave. Just when me and our personal tour guide were about to go ask the temple for help that is when I hear from across the way a tear soaked, full of relief, "Mommy!" and here she comes running, snot and tears down her face, crying loud as ever to me. Sweet Relief!!! After getting her to stop sobbing loud enough for the gods to hear, I made sure she was all right. Come to find out, she stopped off to the side of the path we were walking to look into one of the many fish ponds right outside the cave. She didn't realize that we all entered the cave and thought she saw me walking out of the temple grounds. She followed "me" until she realized that no one in our group with with "me." That was when she panicked and started shouting for me while running around the area looking for us. No Japanese helped her, but fortunately this was a Thursday, which is when the mandatory AOB/ICR (Area Orientation Brief/Inter-cultural Relations) class has their self-guided explore Japan day. A group of Yokosuka base new comers, who had seen us before, then again at this temple, knew that we were still on the grounds.
They brought her back to the temple and helped her look for us. I was SO happy someone helped her out before too much longer. It was pretty scary, more so for her, I wouldn't want to repeat that with any one.


Now that our short, scary adventure was over our group headed to another train station to ride it back to where we started so that the two other families could go, since they all had business to attend to after 14:00. We said good by to 5 of our tour guides and our little beach det. and the rest of the tour guides decided to take a chance on the break in the weather and see one of the largest shrines in Japan, the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.
It is huge and we had fun walking down the cherry tree lined lane that runs down the middle of the road, with cars passing on the left and right. The lane was constructed to appear longer than reality, to bring fear and humility to anyone who came to beg audience or enemies to fight with the shogun. I didn't get any good pictures of this shrine, but I did get some. They are not the best thanks to the clouds deciding to pour on us.

Lots sites, new friends, bit of a scare, and just plain fun had been had, and to celebrated the end of such a good day, I treated the Unfortunates to ice cream outside of the station. We said our good-byes to the last of our tour guides, finished up our treats, bought our train tickets, and awaited the train on the platform headed to home.
Hope you enjoyed our little photo journey. Ja-mata ne!