tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44419227479798907172024-09-13T09:03:37.864-07:00All about my experiences raising a family in a Japan.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-71884400981551421172012-06-06T07:32:00.001-07:002012-06-06T07:32:13.421-07:00

I had really hope to have some wonderful good information gleaned from my trip to Hello Work on Monday to write about.  Yeah... that didn't happen at all.   I waled into the office and asked the lady at the front desk what I needed to do since it was my first visit there.  She handed me a for and told me to fill out my name, b-day, address, and any relevant info about the type

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-3904833293485490632012-06-03T08:21:00.001-07:002012-06-03T08:21:35.127-07:00

There's a saying in my buddhist organization 'winter will always turn to spring.' Meaning that no matter how bad stuff gets and how long it seems to go on things will get better eventually.  But you know, I've always despised winter. Forgive me  if this gets, depressing, or ranty, or rambly it's really all I've got to de-stress at the moment.  I don't smoke,  and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-40659433704715972962012-06-01T16:23:00.003-07:002012-06-01T16:23:55.014-07:00

In looking up ad reading more about it I've discovered in English it's also referred to as acupuncture despite the lack of needles.  It's been 3 full days since I started this,  now the morning of the 4th day.  Here's a bit of a rundown on what I've experienced.    Day 1 I think was more of a placebo effect more than anything else.  I was very aware that I had

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-87374288452292606212012-05-29T20:34:00.002-07:002012-05-29T20:34:58.686-07:00

Today is Yosei's marching band club day, with that extra hour of free time its hard to know exactly what to do.  Today though, I had already decided.  See those little gold balls stuck on my ear?  Yup that's what I went and did today.  They're little accupressure balls with adhesive tape that you stick on your ears.  They're apparently supposed to work as an

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-77640629343912094202012-05-28T20:24:00.000-07:002012-05-28T20:24:05.492-07:00

  I wish I could say I've abandoned this blog because I've been too busy to work on it.  I have been busy but really I've just been lazy about writing.  Spring marks the beginning of the new school year out here and preschool is no different.  Yosei has moved up to the second grade of preschool, the name of his class is tanpopo (Japanese for dandelion).&

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-91680417898483916662012-03-05T05:46:00.000-08:002012-03-05T05:46:13.090-08:00

A few times a year some of the moms at Yosei's preschool put on little cooking and crafts workshops.  Recently I attened one in which they showed us how to bake a cheesecake in our electric rice cookers.  Now, if there's one thing Japan lacks its some good cheesecakes,  but I decided to go hopeful for a good cheesecake.  And while they recipe they showed was very easy and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-53321142324479612572012-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:002012-02-21T18:17:46.445-08:00

I was going to write about our Colorado trip,  but its been over a month since we've been back, and every time I tried to write about it it just feels very long and drawn out and boring, and I wasn't even halfway through it.  Anyhow I just didn't feel the motivation to even try to finish it.  So I'm moving on to something else. This past Sunday Yosei's preschool held their annual

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-71203756077504799122012-01-28T19:29:00.000-08:002012-01-28T19:29:38.212-08:00

This is a bit late, having been pretty busy recently, but we took a trip to Colorado for New Years.  Not everything went as expected but it turned out pretty fun anyways. We were scheduled to fly out of Narita Airport on Dec 31st at 6 p.m. and arrive in Denver the same day at 3 p.m. (woo!! time travel!!)   Hanging out at Narita, waiting for the check in counter to open. However, when

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-18720590259341788892011-12-23T08:53:00.000-08:002011-12-23T08:53:04.213-08:00

The big day is all over and done with.  It was really long and exhausting and of 11 different items on the programYosei was only in 2, but it was all totally worth it. The dance number was first.  They put all kinds of cute little embellishments on his costume and it was even cuter than I imagined it could be!  I cried. After every class did their dances there was an 1 1/2

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-73757327932794082182011-12-21T06:10:00.000-08:002011-12-21T06:10:45.981-08:00

It's nearly here!  Yosei's first big preschool performance day.  In just 2 days I get to see all the dancing he's been doing and the lines he's been saying over and over again all put together with music and costume and make up :) It turns out that either his teacher told me wrong that first day or they changed his part but now in the play he's going to be a puppy instead of a kitty.&

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-49538697757853200372011-12-17T07:50:00.000-08:002011-12-17T07:50:21.702-08:00

Like so manythings here Christmas is one of those foreign things that got brought over here and they got so close but didn't quite get it right.  There is of course Christmas Cake and the Kentucky Fried Chicken Holiday pack (which needs to be reserved a month in advance by the way).  Statues of the Colonel out side each store all dressed up like Santa for the season ( every KFC here has

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-23677684853272300482011-12-16T22:22:00.000-08:002011-12-16T22:22:46.909-08:00

I started writing this days ago but preschool and Christmas preparations have kept me way too busy >< I guess this is the toughest part of my story,  the toughest part for any preemie parent really, the NICU.   There's a saying  that the NICU is a rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs. I HATE that saying. I love roller coasters I find them to be really really

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-10481627198233193552011-12-08T20:02:00.000-08:002011-12-08T20:02:50.590-08:00

This is something that's taken me a while to figure out exactly how to write.  My oldest Yosei (as some reading this already know) is a preemie.  He was born 3 months early at 26 weeks gestation, weighing only 980 grams (just over 2lbs). I guess I should start the story from the beginning.  About a month after getting engaged I got pregnant (found out I was pregnant 2 months after

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-82914893316975041092011-12-07T20:32:00.000-08:002011-12-07T22:22:43.891-08:00

There haven't been any super special occasions to write about this week. Our next big event is the yochien's performance day on Dec. 23rd.  I found out this week that Yosei is going to be a cat in the play his class is putting on, though I don't know what play they're putting on. Other than that this week I received some really adorable clothes and toys for Keia from one of my new yochien

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-70868108854418133112011-12-05T06:34:00.000-08:002011-12-05T06:34:42.246-08:00

Life has kept me pretty busy for the past few days and kept me away from here,  but it's also given me new stuff to write about.   So, pretty sure that's a good thing. This past Sunday Yosei's preschool held their Mochi Tsuki Taikai. Basically its a big event in which we smash sticky rice into a stick paste with a big mortar and pestle  and then turn that sticky paste

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-47960784534761843502011-12-01T18:43:00.000-08:002011-12-01T18:43:51.975-08:00

During my high school and college years I had really wanted to become and animator or comic book artist, sadly that was not to be :/ However,  after becoming a mom I finally realized my artistic calling in life must actually be to make adorable lunches.  For those whoaren't familiar with bento believe me when I say I'm not exaggerating about it being an artform all its

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-24308748994505401762011-11-30T05:10:00.000-08:002011-11-30T05:10:17.279-08:00

Today was our first preschool field trip, and we went to Sanrio Puro Land, possibly the cutest place on earth :) Of course preparation began yesterday with none other than laundry!  Yosei's uniform was so muddy it needed and actual washing with the washing machine (I don't know how he managed that in a day).  The blazed had to be put into a delicates net; good thing too, turns out

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-26212886580703153062011-11-28T18:36:00.000-08:002011-11-28T18:36:49.888-08:00

I've never liked doing laundry, even before I moved to Japan I hated it.  However, living the last 6 years in Japan has given me a new dislike for laundry, it's really one of the few things I think we do better in the US.  There are a couple reasons for this: Cold Water >< -  No hot or even lukewarm water washes here, its ice cold.  So of course

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-77753046535985272402011-11-26T19:35:00.000-08:002011-11-27T05:31:23.779-08:00

The Uniform As I mentioned in my last post, uniforms vary greatly depending on the yochien you use.  The one we ended up choosing has a very  elaborate uniform with both summer and winter uniforms as well as a P.E. uniform with both hot and cold weather versions.  All the pieces of the uniform P.E. wear Winter Uniform - With jacket, button up shirt, neck ribbon, sweater (

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-22325982272187885422011-11-24T06:07:00.000-08:002011-11-24T06:07:04.516-08:00

I've decided to to go back to what was going on a month ago and detail what went into preparing to enter Yosei into yochien. The main reason being that at this point in time I was completely clueless about what to do but in googling the subject I found very little information (I guess there aren't alot of foreign moms in Japan blogging about yochien :P) Anyhow, beginning from where I left

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-66258188695707186102011-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:002011-11-22T22:53:18.971-08:00

Today is a national holiday here, Labor Thanksgiving Day if the English in my planner is to believed, and so today was a day off from preschool. Unfortunately my husband, Kiyo, still had to work.  Yosei was actually pretty upset when he found out we weren't going to school today.  He floppedhimself down on the floor and started whinging about how he wanted to see Chisato Sensei (

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4441922747979890717.post-64664487585085710722011-11-22T06:47:00.000-08:002011-11-22T06:47:21.401-08:00

Recently (as in the beginning of this month recently)  I became a Yochien (Japanese preschool/kindergarten) Mom.  Typically kids don't start in November, and I had not planned on starting Yosei into yochien until April.  In Japan yochien goes for 3 years at the very longest, but some schools also allow you to do a 2 year program.   There were a lot of things

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0