Kirsch December 5, 2009

Have been very busy what with the run up to Christmas and stuff. Work is nearly over – only have lessons on Weds and Thurs next week due to end of term tests. Have already given my 1st years their speaking assessment – they all did a restaurant role play in groups of four. They all did a great job and I have even typed up individual assessment feedback slips for them all and decorated them with a “cheer word” sticker. Gotta love girls who are thrilled to receive a colourful sticker. Have to do my 2nd year speaking tests next week and will quickly cobble together some feedback slips for them too. Then I am all done except for a couple of fun end of term/post exam fun lessons the following Tuesday.

Christmas shopping is all done I think. I’m sure I’ll see or think of some other little stocking fillers for the kids and friends’ kids. Really need to get Tadashi a bit more. Very boring stuff – a new fleece, a pair of PJs, two ties and am going to get him a bottle of Blue Sapphire too. He came home last night, via Akihabara (famous Electric Shopping Town), with a new notebook computer. It’s my Christmas present!!!! Wow! Am very pleased about this obviously. My current pc is a very old Sony Vaio and is slowly having a breakdown. Must get all the photos and stuff copied and stored on Tadashi’s pc or on CDs before it goes kaput completely. It’s great being married to a computer nerd. It’s popular in Japan to go to electrical appliance stores regularly to have a gander at any new updated devices. Tadashi does this regularly and it does pay off as yesterday he was in Yamada Denki when they were doing a “time sale” where they sell a particular item at a super discounted price for a few minutes only – say 15 mins). Yesterday’s “special” was a notebook computer for 29,000 yen! Minus 6,000 yen’s worth of points on his Yamada Denki store card and he walked away with a new pc for 23,000 yen. Gotta love Japan sometimes.

Speaking of photos, James, Alexa and myself had a photo shoot in Yoyogi Park last Saturday. Very good deal indeed – picnic, photo shoot and 6 photos for 6,500 yen. Have received a private photo gallery from which to choose my 6 favourite pics. Naturally, we have been offered other packages too. I am seriously thinking of buying 10 more photos for 10,000 yen. It still seems quite a good deal when you think how much a photo shoot and pics can cost normally. This was a special deal through Being a Broad in Japan and I know I’ll probably never have the chance to do a photo session again. Finally I have some decent pics of me and the kids and some gorgeous ones of the kids together too. It’s amazing how you can never find the time to take pics when you are chasing two toddlers around a park! Will post pics as and when I have chosen them and paid for them.

The title of this blog entry refers to the party I am attending this evening. Neil and Duncan are putting on their annual winter party at a venue in Ebisu called Kirsch. I love these parties and have been going to them for nearly 10 years – I had to skip a few due to motherhood duties – but have managed to experience most of them. It’s a bit more up market than their summer event which was held in a British pub – The Taxidermist’s Half Pint was a great night though. “Kirsch” promises to be a a great night too – much larger venue, more people than usual are attending appaently, which will please Neil and Duncan no end. Particularly Neil, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Wednesday. Am going with Jenny from work and Emma, who has managed to persuade her in-laws to babysit so her hubby can come along too. Tadashi is on babysitting duty. Naturally, the usual suspects will be there too. It’s been ages since I saw Nicole, my old room mate and bestest friend and she will be there along with other friends I no longer get to see very often due to the fact I am usually confined to barracks after dark. Now, what the hell am I going to wear?????

Am looking forward to the end of term as I have so many things to do. Yesterday I re-upholstered my dining chairs. Gone are the off-white pleather seat cushions (along with the marker pen scribbles and other grubby marks that can’t be shifted) and we now have chocolate brown pleather seat cushions. It took all of an hour and a half to complete. Just hope nobody inspects the underneath! This burst of DIY has got me all fired up and after witnessing my two play really well together in a toy kitchens at various jidokans across Tokyo, I have deceided to turn an old bookcase into a toy kitchen. Have been to the home centre and the 100 yen shop for supplies. Am hoping I can actually pull this off. Was thinking of getting a toy kitchen for the kids but given that space is in short supply, I decided to avoid buying a toy that would use up too much space and just re-shuffle/organsise the toys and books and use this old bookcase that currently serves to hold the toys and books that find their way into the living room. May get cracking on that on Tuesday as I have no lessons and the kids will still go to daycare.

Better get on with the run of the mill things so I can make my escape at 6pm this evening.

Purple Mini November 18, 2009

So James had a temperature of 38 yesterday so I had to keep him at home which meant I had to take a day off work. He was extremely lethargic and only drank 200ml of milk for his breakfast so I knew something wasn’t right. Normally he’d have glugged downed 400ml in no time at all! Very busy at the docs – I think the Dr who takes the surgery on Tuesdays and Thursdays is more popular than the Dr who does Mon, Weds, Fri and Sat morning. Both are 50 something women, both are very pleasant in my opinion, but I have noticed a huge difference in waiting time and bums on waiting room seats when I have had to take one of the kids to the docs on a T or a Th.

Alexa went to nursery and seemed to have a pleasant day. There were no signs of distress when I dropped her off and disappeared out the door again with James. Nor did she seemed upset when I went to collect her later in the day. My baby must be growing up! I had rang school in the morning to explain my predicament and to sort out stuff for my lessons that day – 2 first year classes which were scheduled to have a speaking test in groups of 4 based on their restaurant role plays. It was decided that as Jenny didn’t have classes for those two periods she would sit in and she did some fun word building activities orsomething or other – she’ll no doubt fill me in when I return to work tomorrow (Thursday).

After a very long morning at the docs and a very long sleep on mummy’s bed, James perked up by the evening and so I was convinced he would be going to nursery on Weds. We get up and he is as grumpy as ever, so I attempt too take his temp and he kicks up a fuss. I rugby tackle him and hold him down (not very Florence Nightingale, I know) and manage to get a reading of 37.7 degrees. Shit! Anyone with kids in Japan will know how much they are sticklers for checking temperatures at nurseries and places. Anything over 37 is considered too high. Doesn’t seem too lifethreatening to me – room temp and all And James had said that he wanted to go to nursery. We were all set and he has another strop and tells me he wants to watch the TV for a bit longer which we so CANNOT do on a Wds morn as I have to fly like the clappers to get my arse to the station in time. Notamomentotspare. I quickly decide to take his temp again and it is 38.1 and realise that his grumpiness could infact be because he is poorly and that I can not take him to daycare with a temp over 38. Would so not be happy if other mums were dropping their sick kids off at dayare knowing they were sick. Especially in this oinky oink climate that has gripped the globe.More phone calls to work and to colleagues to make arrangements for my classes (3 second year classes).

As it was a Weds we were in and out in no time at all at the docs. James does not have influenza the oinky kind or otherwise, which I kind of suspected. Decided to keep him on the meds he received yesterday and see how he goes. Already there is a marked improvement as he was chatting away at the docs and even got out of the buggy seat. Yesterday he refused to get out of the buggy and I had to carry him into the consulting room when our name was called one and a half hours after our scheduled appointment time! She sure is popular this Dr Saitou.

Another day at home with James proved all too much for both of us and by lunchtime we were heading out the door. James no longer had a fever and seemed as chirpy as ever. When I told him he was going to nursery tomorrow he seemed fine with this turn of events. I don’t want him getting used to a life of stay-at-home-with-mummy-everyday kind of scenario. Off we head to Sun Street and actually managed to pick up a few bargains in the toy shop. Whenever I look in the bargain priced down baskets in there I often think that it is over priced tat, but today they had REAL bargains and REAL tat! I would have been mad to leave the 100yen Dora the Explorer dolls in the basket – bought 2 even though Alexa has never even watched Dora the Explorer. Must get Tadashi to try and download some episodes. She looks like she has been dragged through a hedge backwards but given that the box contains not only stickers but a comb, I can presume that this is the purpose of the box gift. Make Dora look presentable! Also picked up a speedy car thingy for James for 300 yen. Looks lie it would have been a pricey kind of gimmicky thing that didn’t sell well (along with scruffy-haired Dora). Also bought two other cars as stocking fillers and another doll for Alexa.

Ever since James has been able to clearly articulate his love for automobiles, he has been harping on about a purple mini. We have found minis in two colours in Japan – red and blue. He has both and I believe currently has two red minis in his car inventory. Anyway, I spot this purple mini and let out a bit of a yelp, which unfortunately James noticed, and his eyes turned to the shelves in front of me and he also saw the purple mini. It’s a matchbox size car and was 149 yen so naturally I bought it, but I really would have liked it to be a Christmas present surprise kind of stocking filler just to have seen the look on his face as he opened his dream car! No such luck. Hard to purchase Christmas pressies with kids in tow but hard to find time to do it when they are at daycare as I have to go to work normally. Anyway, he knows about the purple mini despite my telling him about Father Christmas and how he has to write him a letter and then at Christmas, if he’s been a good boy, he’ll get some nice presents. We got home and he was in the bag before I could stop him and had the purple mini in his hands A battle ensued which ended with me putting him to bed as he screamed blue murder and I returned the purple mini to its box. Not the scenario I had imagined would happen once I had achieved the seemingly impossible and tracked down the whereabouts of a purple mini. Still can’t believe I managed to stumble across one in Toys R Us. I must get it sent off to Father Christmas before some three year old finds where I’ve hidden it.

Ultimate Mudslide November 14, 2009

So have had a few girly get-to-gethers of late. Renae had a girls’ nite out for her birthday last week and we all went for a curry in Gaienmae. The usual suspects – Renae, Rachel, Suzuka, Nicol and me. Same crowd last year too. Lovely night was had by all. Even Tadashi had it relatively easy on the babysitting front. I had worn the children out during the day with lots of running around in the fresh air and also deprived them of daytime naps. Come 6pm Alexa was screaming to go to bed and so I put her to bed (bathtime and dinner time is always moved forward on the occasions I venture out at night without the kids). She was still screaming as I left at 6:15pm as she had figured out that mummy was going out. I knew she would soon conk out though – instructing Tadashi to give her one more guzzle of milk should the crying persist for too long. James was happily reading some books with daddy (whom recently he actually calls “Tadashi” ALL the time!) Apparently James was in bed by 7pm leaving daddy to have a relatively easy evening where he got to relax and veg out infront of his computer. So all in all everyone got to have a relaxing Saturday night which is nice me thinks.

Had a girly lunch with Emma yesterday. We decided to pop to Ueno – I cannot believe how close to Ueno I live. I have only lived in Tokyo for little over 4 years and am quite pleased that I live along the Hanzomon line (for Shibuya) and the Shinjuku line (for Shinjuku obviously). Also have easy access to JR lines which is how it is so easy to get to Ueno. Kinshicho to Akihabara is one stop and then a quick change for one more stop! Met Emma on the platform at Kinshicho – just as she came bounding off the train, she spots me on the platform and we jump back on to start our day out. We headed to TGI Fridays – somewhere I haven’t been in years. I do remember that the servings are enormous – think hamburgers the size of your own head and cocktails you can drown in. We were rather reserved in our food order – it was lunch afterall. I had a Carlsberg whilst Emma plumped for the Ultimate Mudslide – a drink I remember having several years ago. Huge white Russian type drink/icecream loaded with kalua, probably Bailleys too and lots of chocolate sauce and choc chips. More dessert than drink really. For those who know Wesley’s bar in Fujisawa, think “Shine Shine” with a mega huge dollop of vanilla icecream. Food was nice, chatting was fantastic. Both of us work part time so have relatively little time to ourselves or to fraternise with friends as time at home is spent trying to keep on top of all things domestic. My Friday afternoons are usually spent on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors or cycling off to do some kid-free shopping. I did find time to pick up some small corner plastic shelving from the 100 yen shop mind and have revitalised my bathroom and de-cluttered the sink area – all under the influence of an Ultimate Mudslide. I couldn’t sit there and watch Emma drink this delicacy on her own so had to order myself one.

Had another busy day today. James has been a nightmare all day. He cries at the drop of a hat lately mostly I think it is due to jealousy of Alexa. If she has something he wants it and snatches it from her. I intervene either forcefully or diplomatically depending on my mood. I’ve noticed of late that Alexa can actually hold a pen correctly and this morning as we were all sitting around the living room I say to Tadashi to have a look at Alexa drawing at the table. He too is suitably impressed and whilst neither of us made a huge deal out of it, James had cottoned on to that fact that we were pleased she was holding the pen instead of gripping it in her fist (like James does!) He marches over and takes the pen and the notebook from her. I give it back to Alexa and James has the biggest strop and tries to get the pen again. I tell him we have loads of pens he can use and loads of notebooks and he needn’t take the one Alexa is using as she was happily minding her own business, but no, he wants THAT pen! I put James back to bed and decide to get myself ready for the shop run as we always need milk and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get to the shops on my own. I ended up taking Alexa with me as this idea seems to please Tadashi who was planning to entertain James once I’d left for the supermarket. Dealing with a kid who is having a strop is infinitely easier if you don’t have to be minding another one at the same time. The day was punctuated with outbursts from James who ended up having an afternoon nap at around 3pm and this is why he did not go to bed until nearly 10 o’clock this evening!!!! I knew when he went down at 3pm (kicking and screaming) that if he fell asleep I would be in for a long night, but enough is enough and I knew I needed a break from all the tears and fighting. James wants to be with me all the time yet days like today when he has kicked and screamed and I’ve stood my ground not wanting to give in to the irrational desires of a three year old, you’d never guess that I was his preferred parent.
James: Go shop with mummy.
Me: Mummy wants to go on her own so she can be back really quickly.
James: James go shop, Alexa go shop and mummy go shop.
Me: You can stay here with daddy and play with your train set.
James: No, no like daddy. Go shop with mummy.
Aaarrgghhhhh!!!!
So I did the morning dash to the supermarket with Alexa whilst James kicked and screamed on his top bunk. I told Tadashi to not get James down from the bubk until I was out of the apartment. When I got back and Alexa zonked out for her nap, James and I went out to buy a Christmas tree. We got one at Daiei Department Store (cheapo store) – James insisted we got the 120cm tall one where I think we could have gone for the 150cm tall one, but Christmas is all about the kids, eh? It was cheap as chips – Christmas tree with a few decorations, 6 red ribbons, 3 pine cones, long piece of gold tinsel, 3 large red baubles, 3 or 4 slightly smaller silver baubles, a big star for the top and a string of 15 fairy lights all for the ridiculous price of 1980 yen! We popped up to the 5th floor to pick up a few more Christmassy trinkets from the 100 yen shop too. Naturally when we got home, James wanted to put up the Christmas tree and so I can now report that we have put up our Christmas tree far too early. I Know I am probably going to be on the receiving end of all kinds of bad luck, but hey it’s one less thing to do come the Christmas crazinness. I haven’t done the decorations yet. Though James chose the tinsel – a rather unusual colour – greeny/silvery/fairy kind of colour. Not that fairy is a colour. Japan doesn’t seem to do streamers or those foil consetina (sp?) streamers that I remember being popular back home so I try to make do with tinsel and dangly ornament kind of things. Will have a go at trying to make the place look a bit more festive in a few weeks. We have a small fibre optic tree that I will now put in the genkan (entrance) once I have de-cluttered that area too. Far too many coats and jackets that are probably not going to be worn this winter.

Taking of which,… the new coat I bought the other week has had its first outing and I have had to get my scarf out already which does not bode well. I just know I’ll be wearing it until around April. I think we are going to have a very cold winter this year. The sudden temperature drop has really caught me by surprise, well not completely as I did have the forethought to buy a decent “down” coat when I first saw them. Never leave something in a shop thinking you can go back and get one at a later date. I find in Japan, you can go back only a matter of days later and the shop has been bought out!

I really must get myself to bed… Tadashi is in Gunma working for the weekend and so I may leave James in my bed instead of transferring him to the top bunk. Hard work lifting a sleeping 20kg toddler into the top bunk!

Head of the Household November 9, 2009

I’ve had to fill in my end of year tax declaration thingymebobs this week which is always a pain in the arse really. However, wasn’t as bad as I anticipated as my agency sent an example copy that had explanations in both English and Japanese. Seemed quite straight forward other than I had to write 国民保険料 (kokumin hoken ryou – National Health Insurance Deductions/premiums) in the tiniest of boxes on the form. Given that I have very big childish writing in Japanese, I asked Tadashi if he wouldn’t mind writing those 5 kanji characters in the miniscule box. He said he’d look at it at the weekend. The weekend came and we were busy out and about on Saturday and then on Sunday he gets up at 4pm – Yes, 4 o’ bloody clock in the afternoon!! Sunday evening I ask him to fill in the kanji for me in his neatest handwriting and he starts asking all these questions about the tax. He tells me to check with my company with a few things. As the head of the household Tadashi’s name is on everything from the city hall including my national health insurance premiums. He pays into a separate scheme through his company and as a part-time salaried worker I have to pay into the national scheme. Why the hell is his name on the paperwork when I’m the one paying the premiums??? Tadashi wants to know whose name goes on the form where I fill in about health insurance payments. Then it was a question about my salary – will it be under the tax threshold as I started work in the April and so have not done a full tax year. If under the threshold I may not have to fill it in as I would go on his tax form as he is the HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD. I get it!!! You are the BOSS. We had a few cross words as I told him that if I have paid the premiums surely I should be the one to declare it on my tax form. He told me that if I was going to ask for his advice and then just ignore the advice, he wasn’t going to help me ever again. Rightee ho! I didn’t ask for his advice!!!! I asked for an example of his neat handwriting. Got a reply today from my company and I have to fill in the form in MY NAME and as we have both paid SEPARATE health insurance policies we can not, quite naturally, combine the two. I made a joke with Tadashi only the other week about how his name is a bit of a misnomer as the kanji for his name is 正 which means “correct”. We had a bit of a laugh about that.

Anyway, the form made it to the office before the deadline, but my company did have to phone me as I had been a bit of a dummy. After 4 years of marriage and taking my hubs family name I decided that perhaps it was about time I informed my bank about my change of name and my “new” address. The address the bank presumed I still lived at was actually the previous previous one!! Obvioulsy I am a bit slack about keeping things up to date, but never mind. My name is now correct on my bank card. Previously it was Georginna and not Georgina and on other documents my name is Jogina. So my company call to thank me for the tax documents and also wanted to know if I have changed my bank account. Duurr!!! I am such a dope. Forgot to tell my company that I had updated my details and this has obviously caused a prob in paying my salary. All was sorted though and I got paid on time. My company seem to be really on the ball and stuff. The school asked me if I would judge the English speech contest and I said I would naturally. Seemed like a nice thing to do and I get to see other students I don’t normally teach. It’s on a Friday when I don’t have lessons but this didn’t phase me as I send the kids to daycare on Fridays anyhow so I can go to the local Japanese class. The other two
guys I work with have refused to do it, despite both working on Fridays (the contest takes place after lessons have finished in the afternoon). The reason for their refusal was because their company won’t pay them for extra work. It hadn’t even entered my head that there would or wouldn’t be payment for the “job.” I get a call from my company telling me if I knew about the speech contest because they would pay me 15,000 yen for the privilege of being a judge (about 1 and a half hours!) Love teaching part time!

Frogs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails November 5, 2009

Despite having a few days off work, I have been a busy bunny and have no time to myself until this morning. Though I really should be getting the apartment in proper order. Last Saturday we went to Norma’s for Nick and Ellie’s Sayonnara party. Very sad to see them leave Tokyo. I first met Norma when Nick and James were babies and now we both have a daughter a piece too! Managed to get Alexa to sleep for a couple of hours before we left, which delayed our departure and so we had less time to play, but I’m sure Alexa would have been a nightmare if she had had no sleep before the party. Plus we have a looong train journey to add to the day’s agenda, which increases the chances of one or both of the kids having a strop at some point. A lovely day was had, however, and we got to meet some new people – one couple who live very close to us in Machiya. Hope to see Norma and her family at some point in the future in the UK.

I decided to go to Keisen Day (Culture Festival) on Culture Day no less. I took Alexa with me and Tadashi took James out to Megaweb in Odaiba – a car showroom theme park place. Despite only having one child to contend with at the school festival, I got to see very little of the things on show as I spent most of the time chasing Alexa around the corridors. Thankfully, due to swine flu epidemic, the event was only open to school staff, students and immediate families so over crowding was not a problem. Masks were provided at the door and so it looked like a convention of surgeons had descended upon the school. Still difficult to navigate the school when you have a toddler on the loose. The girls all went wild when they saw Alexa, who was in a very cutsey mood on Tuesday.

We left at lunchtime to make our way to Jen’s “Celebrating 10 Years In Japan” party in Nakameguro. Alexa had a kip in the buggy for about an hour which perhaps wasn’t long enough, but better than nothing. I decided to take a route which meant I had to do lots of train changes for one stop at a time but I was determined to arrive at the nearest station to the Nakameguro Taprooms. Jumping on the Ginza line at Omotesando for one stop to Shibuya, I step off the train one stop later to see the sign for Gaiemmae station. Ooops, gone in the wrong direction…. So decided to get back on the train and just get off at the next station that allowed me to change directly to the Hibiya line for Nakameguro. Luckily we had time to indulge this slight diversion and Alexa got stuck into a ham and cheese sandwich.

The Nakmeguro Taprooms is a lovely venue. Jen had booked it out for the afternoon so no Joe public wandering in and out. Met some more new faces, which is always nice. Sat mostly with a couple with two kids – their boy is a couple of months older than James and they had a 6 month old daughter too. Alexa was a complete social butterfly and did several turns around the room showing off her ability to mingle and make friends easily. She took a particular shine to an American guy who quite happily indulged her in some playtime. Mummy got to chat and drink some real ale whilst only keeping half an eye on her daughter. Sooooooo much easier to relax when you only have the one toddler to be responsible for. Luckily I got the easier of the two – Tadashi had a very tiring day at Megaweb with James.

I get home and James is already asleep on the sofa. It was 6pm or there abouts. Tadashi said they had a fun day and I think he was a little bit surprised how a day out means exactly that – the WHOLE day! James did not want to come home (surprise surprise!) Tadashi took lots of pics of James driving cars and clambering all over the back seats of cars and stuff. He also took him on the Big Wheel in Odaiba and they went to a game centre where James got to ride on a Thomas the Tank Engine train. They used the local bus to get to Odaiba so another thrilling ride on a different type of public transport no doubt added to the excitment of the Boys’ Day Out. Unfortunately, the pics relay a different story. James looks bored on most of the pics and whilst I’m sure James wasn’t bored, it’s just a bit disappointing to have no smiles. Perhaps he was too tired and overwhelmed by the whole thing. There’s a good one of him “driving a car” which I’ve added to this post.

I’ve noticed James is using a LOT more Japanese these days. He has started to refer to himself with “Boku” (“me” for boys only) and I distinctly heard him say “Eh Doh” (uurrm) – a true sign that he is beginning to sound like a native. He peppers his conversation with Japanese words all the time. “Take gomi” when handing me his rubbish. “Mummy, mite” (Look mummy). His English is increasing too and it just amazes me how much info they absorb in one day. Alexa is on the ball too. She listens to everything (unlike boys who have a genetic disposition to selectively hear only the things they want to). I’ll be speaking to James and ask him to put on his shoes and this morning I told him he’d need his fleece as it was cold outside. I turn round to find Alexa bringing James his fleece from the bedroom. She fetches and carries things for him ALL the time. At daycare she’ll want to help carry their bags into the playroom and is desperste to help the staff with hanging up coats and whatnot. James, on the other hand, never helps with the bags and on the one occasion that he did, he started a fight with Alexa when he snatched the lunchbag from her mits insistant that HE was going to carry it. He hardly ever puts away his toys “mummy do it” or he shouts Alexa to do it, who is usually already happily putting things away in the toy boxes. I hate to say it but “sugar and spice and all things nice” does ring true on a regular basis. Frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails is so apt aswell. At three years old James has already developed a healthy fascination with his willy. Whenever he is naked he will use the opportunity to show me his “big willy”. He adept at noticing everyday objects that resemble the shape of his will too. Sausages being the first item he decided was a replica of his willy. Holding a sausage next to his groin he’ll shout “Chinbo!” (Penis – though I think chinbo has a more cruder nuance actaully. Must encourage him to use less aggressive language. Have to have a word with his dad too!)

Had a difficult evening last night where Alexa threw up lots of milky sick all over her bed. Thanks for that, sweetheart! She was fine and demanding more milk not 5 minutes later, seemingly hungry after emptying the contents of her stomach over her lovely pink sheets. Clean sheets, clean pjs and an overall hosedown and I got her back in bed, but she woke up crying around 11pm. Settled down with her on the sofa – don’t want her waking up James on the top bunk. She would not go back to sleep oin her bed, in my bed and so we curled up on the sofa again. Got her back in my bed but she was wide awake in minutes. I mentioned the M word and she was oof the bed and propping herself up on the sofa ready for a drink in 3 seconds flat. I bring more milk and then we snuggle on the sofa. I managed to sneak away at around 1:30am and left her to sleep on the sofa with a crashmat of cushions on the floor should she roll that bit too far. She was fine this morn and the spew was probably down to giddiness and not illness me thinks.

Both are at daycare and I have a day off to fanny about at home and potter about the local area. Should also get my head around some work related stuff for future lessons too.

Our Day Out October 28, 2009

Had a lovely, albeit eventful, day at Lalaport in Tokyo Bay on Monday. Was great to see Angela again after what must be about 7 years. She hasn’t changed a bit apart from the fact that she is now a mother to two adorable little kids. Her daughter, Senna is the same school yr as James and they seemed to hit it off quite well. After a run around the soft play area outside Next, we decided to venture inside and see what bargains could be had. I managed to find some long sleeved t-shirts for Alexa (bought the wrong size and had to return them at the Omotesando store the following day! Just think Alexa is a lot more rotund and barrel chested than I thought. Just like mummy when she was a toddler!) Had forgotten to change nappies and given that James had drank loads of milk (surprise surprise) as we were finally leaving the shop, I noticed that James’ bum was all wet (surprise surprise!) Had to pop back in a buy James a pair of pants and got lucky as the shop assistant showed me a couple of pairs of jeans that were only 1000 yen.

James and Senna had been pushing the stack of shopping baskets around outside the store – they were stacked nicely onto a trolley thing with wheels which James thought was fab. The Next staff didn’t seem to mind that he was whizzing up and down with their shopping baskets, in and out of the shop, up and down the aisles. No wonder I bought the wrong sized clothes for Alexa! Perhaps not the best plan but off we went to Saizeriya family restaurant for lunch. As a rule I don’t normally “do” restaurants with the kids and only venture to restaurants ( for birthday get-to-gethers etc..) without them on the rare occasions I can persuade Tadashi to babysit his own children. My two were hungry but equally tired and so ate little but created a huge mess. Both were fascinated by the self-service drink bar and both would follow me whenever I went to refill my coffee cup. Couldn’t find the water tap on the machine – only for hot water- and so ended up getting some orange drink for the kids which naturally they loved as was loaded with sugar. Stupidly bought two kids’ plate dishes when (of course) one would have been suffice for the two of them.

Decided to jump on the bus after lunch and head back home as the journey to Lalaport isn’t the easiest with a buggy. I deliberately took the regular buggy and James did a lot of walking. It takes him about 30 mins to walk to our local station and then with all the train changes and running around inside the train – very exciting as the longest journey from Oshiage to the station near the Keibjyo was overland and a real treat for a train nerd like James. He’d reach his daily quota of exercise before we’d even arrived at Lalaport! Steps at the station and the fact that NOBODY helps you carry your buggy up or down steps made for a very tiring journey. Oh and the heavy rain and the fact that James refused to wear a raincoat preferring to use an umbrella – not his lovely kid sized pale blue with yellow and red buses design umbrella, but a regular white plastic throw-it-away when you’ve finished with it kind of umbrella. I was wearing my ultra unfashionable raincoat as holding an umbrella whilst pushing a buggy and keeping an eye on your three year old is impossible. Why oh why did I venture out so far in such treacherous conditions??? It was either that or another day spent stuck at home with two toddlers running rampage through the apartment. Really needed to get out as the previous day had been spent stuck indoors. There’s only so many things you can do with play doh and plastic train track really….

It was a good day though en-route home we stopped at Kinshicho to get James a decent raincoat. His dinosaur print one is a wee bit small and I think this is why he won’t wear it. He told me he’d like a Thomas the Tank one so off we head to Akachan Honpo Baby superstore. First stop the ATM corner which was awash with rain. Low and behold when I went to stop James meddling with the buttons on one of the paying in machines as a woman arrived wanting to use it, I literally went arse over tit taking James down with me. I landed on my back – feet disappeared completely from under me and as James was holding my hand at the time, he hit the deck with his large forehead. Poor baby was really shocked by the whole thing and there were tears for about 30 minutes followed by a big stroppy tantrum in Akachan. We did manage to get a Thomas raincoat and a new raincover for the buggy and, to help put a smile back on James’ face, a small toy post office van. Bumped into Jen in Akachan just as James was having his turn. Always nice to bump into friends when your kiddies are misbehaving and screaming the place down I feel! Decided against getting a taxi home as it is infact much harder to get a taxi when you have two kids, loads of shopping (two huge orange pumpkin balloons courtesy of Next Lalaport) and all the paraphenalia that you have to cart about when you leave the house for the day. Alexa was also sleeping soundly in the buggy too and a trip in a taxi would mean waking her up only to have her squirm in on my lap. Taxis, restaurants, buses are all big no goers at the moment. Though we did jump on the Lalaport free bus to and from the station and can not imagine doing a proper bus journey with the whole Sawamura entourage.

Another day out with mummy and James crashed on the sofa at 4:45pm and didn’t wake up til morning – ridiculously early mind, but he didn’t wake when I removed his pants and nappy. Nor did he wake up hungry in the night demanding milk and rice crackers. Gave mummy lots of one on one time with Alexa. I actually read some books to her properly. We never get any decent amount of uninterrupted time to spend reading together. She is a real sweetie at the moment and has developed a love of belly buttons and boobies. She pulls up my top and pokes me in the belly button then she continues to slap me on the stomach before reaching up and tweaking my nipples. I do get a huge hug afterwards though…

Finished work today for about 12 days. Tomorrow everyone is doing the prep for Keisen Day (School Festival – Bunkasai) and part time teachers are not involved at all in the prep. Tuesday is the day of the festival and Weds is the cleaning up and getting everything back to normal. Thursday is the day of rest in lieu of the national holiday they all missed due to Bunkasai (Tuesday 3rd is a national holiday in Japan). I think I may have persuaded Tadashi to take James to the Car Theme Park place in Odaiba on Tuesday which leaves me free to pop into school and see a bit of the school festival and them taking a trip into central Tokyo to attend Jen’s 10th Anniversary in Japan party. (I take it all back what I said earlier! He is even doing a stint of babysitting on the evening of the 7th Nov when I put on my glad rags and head out to Daikanyama for Renae’s birthday celebration.) This festival malarky sounds all the more do-able if I only have to take Alexa with me. I’m sure Alexa might like the festival as there is bound to be lots of dancing and cheerleader stuff going on. She won’t get as bored so easily as James as she is happy just toddling along, whereas James would, no doubt, be deliberately looking for things to touch and destroy! And I know mummy will enjoy Jen’s party more if she isn’t pre-occupied with chasing TWO toddlers around a pub. It’ll be much easier to enjoy a drink or two and sample the food on offer aswell. I may even get lucky and manage to engage in normal conversation with other Tokyo dwellers. Fingers crossed.

Bunkasai October 24, 2009

[gallery]We had a lovely morning at K International School’s bunkasai today. Heard about it from the Danish woman in my Japanese class and as the school is at the next station from ours, I decided a bit of face painting might be quite nice for the kids. I have no intention of sending my kids to this school or any international school for that matter, but wanted to have a nosey all the same. We purchased the tickets and James made a bee line for the big inflatable slide. He had several goes and even had several unofficial goes when he managed to innocently sneak past the staff and crawl back up for another go without handing in another green ticket. Had to go back and buy more tickets as the face painting was 3 tickets a pop for a full face design. Not much to do at these things other than eat and Tadashi tried some chanko nabe served by proper ridgy didge Sumo wrestlers. I’m guessing there were other things going on in the sports hall and perhaps some classrooms had things aimed at older kids but my two are really too young to appreciate the delights of a traditional bunkasai and mummy was worn out with all the checking they weren’t running off in different directions lost between the legs in the crowd.

After Bunkasai we headed home and picked up Jenny en-route. Jenny is my new colleague at work and she came over for a chinwag and to give me an update about the current state of affairs in the English department. It’s so nice to work with someone so friendly and conscientious who clearly loves teaching. She is relatively fresh off the boat so to speak and coping quite well her new environment. I have to remind myself she has only been living in Japan for two and half months as she seems so together. Luckily she has her hubby with her too and he has also found a job so hopefully they will both be settled in to their new life properly very soon. I forget how up and down things can seem when you first arrive in Japan. The kids enjoyed her company, Alexa especially who was all smiles and cutesy for our guest.

Other sociable things we have done recently…..a birthday picnic last weekend for Kio (Renae’s daughter) who turned 3. A lovely day in Yoyogi Park, great weather for frisby throwing and running about. True to form, my two ran off and preferred to play as far away from the picninc area as possible! Renae and I took shifts in playing far afield with the kids (Sena, her youngest joined my two in their exploits) Both were filthy by the time I decided to pack them up and get them home and both were in bed ridiculously early which was nice. James has been going to bed ridiculously early a lot recently – on those days he spends all day with mummy, he is completely cream crackered. The reverse can be said of the days he spends at nursery where the kiddies don’t venture outside and so I have had to spend my entire evenings entertaining James who won’t go to bed because he isn’t tired enough. I don’t think he has a nap at daycare anymore either. His eating habits are weird at the moment too. He doesn’t “do” breakfast preferring to down abour 400ml of milk instead. I picked them up on Friday and about an hour later I got round to emptying out their daycare bags and discovered that neither of them had eaten ANY of their lunch. Alexa eats a decent breakfast, but James didn’t eat anything until about 5 o’clock – a few senbe to tide him over until dinner when he finally ate some curry and rice. He didn’t scoff down lots then either. Today he has eaten a tuna sandwich – late lunch, but he was handed lots of sweets from other older kids at the Bunkasai and I know he has eaten far more than I would normally allow. Normally I would allow no candy type things past his lips, but I have discovered that he eats some sweets at daycare and so now is aware of their existence. Bugger! I don’t mind him eating a bit of cake or a biscuit but wanted to avoid candy for as long as possible.

Am catching up with a very old friend on Monday – old as in met her when I first arrived in Japan. She is infact around the same age as me and not some octogenarian! We both lived in Fujisawa (perhaps in the same building, but my memory is abit foggy. The AF building was habited by predominently Nova teachers). She moved to Chiba years ago and is married with two kiddies who are a little bit younger than my two, but they are around the same age apart. Going to Lalaport in Tokyo Bay which is aparently very near to Ikea. I had no idea there were other shops in that vicinity. I have been to Ikea twice (once with James – nightmare at the station as steps only) and once on my own. Had I known about the shopping centre behind Ikea I would have made a day of it, but will have chance on Monday though don’t fancy my chances of getting much done with the kids in tow. Am going to risk travelling by a different route to avoid Minami (minus a lift) Funabashi station.

Both mine asleep and I will be following shortly. Must try to endeavour to keep this blog up to date but am finding it harder and harder to get any time to myself these days. Blogging is a little low down on my list of priorities some days. So much to get done once I get in from work – I hate coming home to the breakfast dishes and piles of washing, but what’s a working mum to do, eh? The kids are getting worse at creating havoc and destruction around the apartment. Toys and books spilling out everywhere. I did organise the toys recently when I bought some new bookcases for the kids’ room, but alas I am happy now if the toys are just thrown into any toy box and I don’t really give a toss if the train track is muddled up with the jigsaw puzzles as long as there is no trail of toys under foot.

The Wonder Web Queen October 10, 2009

Spotted a cat today and suddenly remembered a funny on-going joke that James has started. Walking home from nursery the other day Alexa sees a cat sitting outside a barbers shop and points to the cat and says (what James and I both assumed was the word) “dog”. We both had a bit of a laugh about this and James kept making “woof woof” noises at the cat – a seemingly very old black cat sat on a mat no less. As we neared our building we saw an old lady walking her two incredibly small ratty little dogs. James immediately shouted out “Cat” and started making meowing noises at these creatures. The woman must have thought James was taking the piss, which he was of course, but in an innocent three year old kind of way. James now likes nothing more than to deliberately use the wrong word when naming things. This morning he was referring to his knee but laughing hysterically as he deliberately used the word elbow. Love this developing sense of humour.

After a stressful morning, I decided to take the kids to Mizube – the local playrooms – as we haven’t been there in ages and I really felt like they had trashed the apartment enough for one day. We had a great time and both kids spent ages messing about with the train track and an equal amount of time cooking up all sorts of dishes in the toy play kitchen. Great idea if ever there was one – am considering getting some kind of kitchenette toy for the kiddies for Christmas. They have lots of plastic food stuffs and a few Ikea picnic plates and bowls, but feel they could do with a kitchen bench or a stove – where we would put this I have no idea. Though I do suspect that if I bought a sooper dooper toy kitchen they wouldn’t play with it. I really want to get James a bike for Christmas too and perhaps some girly dolly things for Alexa, who at the moment is car and train crazy. Consequently, there are lots of squabbles over toys.

Managed to get James in bed by 6pm tonight. I’m guessing a day with mummy is far more exhausting than a day at nursery where they do not venture outside. James likes to walk everywhere at the moment too, which is a good thing but also slows us down some what. We went to the shops this morning whilst Alexa was asleep and so he got a good hour’s walk in there. On the way home from the jidokan today, James decided he needed a sit down, but we were using the single buggy. He unstraps the buggy board and sits on it. I continued to push the buggy but was concerned that James’ trainers were getting scuffed to buggery from him dragging his feet along the pavement as he rode the buggy board. I shifted his legs into the lotus position and we continued as he sat like Little Buddha. I later realised, however, that his footwear was undamaged but his stretchy denim look pants were now sporting a huge hole in the back of one of the legs. Thankfully, the pair I bought him last year and not one of the pairs I bought last week! I think they can be repaired if only extremely unprofessionally by me, the Wonder Web Queen! If I can be bothered that is… Must check out the 100 yen shop and/or the habidashery for something denimy to mask the hole.

The pics at the top were taken a few days ago. This kind of mayhem and chaos is the norm in our house. Drawers emptied on to the floor, trails of “stuff” everywhere and I spend an enormous amount of time each day picking things up and putting things back where they belong. Emptying out the clothes is a particular favourite pasttime of both my kids and it drives me insane. I always try to put away the laundry when they are engrossed in some play doh type activity at the dining table for fear of them wrecking havoc in the closets and creating that much loved laundry mountain in the middle of their bedroom floor. If it’s not washing and clothes, it’s their books or the bloody lego. James isn’t the most helpful of little boys and prefers it if mummy does all the donkey work. He did help out the other day and actually put books back on the bookshelves and put toys in their correct boxes in the bedroom shouting as he finished, “dekita!” and then in English “I did it!”

We have a BBQ at Akiko’s house tomorrow which should be fun. James LOVES Akiko and often will pipe up “See see Akiko!” And tomorrow you shall my dear boy. Have bought some scrummy sausage and will pick up some of those maki sushi thingymebobs with either natto, tuna or cucumber in them. They do make for an easy lunch for kids and I know there will be a fair few kiddies at the BBQ. James woke up about 30mins ago demanding milk. As he was sitting drinking his milk we had a little chat.

Me: Which do you like the more milk or rice?
James: Milk
Me: Which do you like more milk or senbe?
James: Senbe.
Me: So senbe is number 1?
James: Yeah, and milk is number 2.
Me: Rice is number 3?
James: Yeah and Jelly is number 4.
Me: Oh, you like jelly, don’t you?
James: Kake number 5. (furikake is dried seaweed/fishy stuff you sprinkle on rice)

We didn’t get any further down the list and I am surprised that he didn’t mention ice-cream, which he had a craving for this week nor did he mention melon which he can gobble down in huge quantities when the mood takes him. I wonder where he’ll place natto (stinky, slimey fermented soy beans) on his list?

Half a Gadgie… October 9, 2009

…is an colourful expression used by Geordies (people born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) to describe a woman who looks like a man. This is how I feel at the moment with my current hairdo. There’s short and there’s shorn in my opinion and many Japanese hairdressers don’t know the friggin difference! Thank god I live in a foreign country and people just assume that it’s gaijin eccentricity that prompted the “brave” new look. “Thy lesbic image is complete” as one friend commented despite having not seen the new barnet. Thankfully the GI Jane look has been met with positive comments too – my new colleague at work, Jenny’s immediate reaction was “cute.” Though I guess she is not considering using the 2000 yen money off voucher I gave her as an introduction to the salon I currently frequent. Frequent is perhaps not quite the right word as it was only my second visit. Am seriously considering returning to my previous hairdresser.

Lots of funny chats with James this week. Though I know I have forgotten half the things he has said and must endeavour to write them down AS SOON AS he says them. Like that’s possible!

Me: You know you are really beautiful, don’t you?
James: Yeah.
Me: Is mummy beautiful?
James: No.

Recently James has become rather taken with his willy.

James: Big willy!
Me: (turning round to see him fiddling with himself) Oh yeah. Do you like playing with your willy?
James: Yeah. Play with willy at nursery.
Me: Oh. I think you should play with your willy at home and not at nursery. OK?
James: OK.

I’m quite sure they do not let James run around minus his pants at daycare so there is absolutely no danger of James showing the staff and other kids his “big willy”! He was just testing me, right? He seems to have developed this “interest” since his 3yr check up where the doctor checked his willy and instructed me (rather briefly) on how to clean James’ willy thoroughly. I remember a few yrs ago my neighbours received a booklet with cartoon pics depicting the correct way to clean under your three yr old son’s foreskin. Naturally as they were flicking through it, I noticed the content and I was like “What are you reading!!??” Only in Japan, eh? They must be experiencing cut backs because we were not given such a booklet only a quick demo – something James clearly remembers as I frequently find him fiddling with his foreskin these days.

Alexa is a wee bit poorly with a cough and a runny nose though no temp so has been going to nursery. Thought I was going to have probs giving her the meds as the first dose I tried to give her when we returned from the docs the other evening she flatly refused to take. Though so far so good and she has even been taking the bitter tasting one without it being mixed into anything sweet like icecream or condensed milk as suggest at the pharmacy. Good job really as I never have a stash of icecream in the freezer – buy it, eat it immediately kind of system I have going on here. I haven’t had condensed milk since primary school I think, and didn’t even know you could get it here. Not something that is usually on my shopping list. There is the jelly stuff you can buy at the pharmacy that is designed just for this purpose – to mix with nasty tasting medicine, but it’s a bit of a rip off to be honest. She seems fine and am glad it’s not the oinky kind of illness that is sending everyone into a panic. Just one of theose “change of the season” colds that seem to be popular here in Japan.

I have a million things to do today. Need to pop to the post office before I go to Japanese class at 10:30. Am so not going to get there in time for the free Kanji class that starts in 5 minutes!! Have to pop back to daycare to give James his blanket which we forgot this morning. There will be tears if he spends to great a length of time without his blanket for company. Have to go to Sun Street shopping centre after class to return the training pants I bought last week. Went to open that pack last night to discover they were L size and not Big ones! Durrr! Also am going to return the new raincoat I bought for James last week at Motherways. He refuses to wear it despite saying he wanted the yellow one in the shop!!!! It’s way too big for Alexa and don’t want to shove it a cupboard only to forget about it and it then becoming too small for her. Will have a day in Kameido mooching about the shops…..oohh, I can go to Don Quioxte (sp?) as I don’t have to struggle with a buggy between the narrow over-stocked to the ceiling aisles!

Time to fly…..

Typhoons and Twins October 8, 2009

So we managed to survive “the biggest typhoon to hit Japan since WWII.” It was a bit hairy for an hour or so in the early morn – enough for school to cancel lessons for the morning. I am now waiting til 10am when I have to check the school website to learn if I have to trek halfway across Tokyo to teach ONE 45 min lesson. The other lesson I usually teach on Thursday afternoons is cancelled due to influenza. Five students in one class have the dreaded lurgy and so the whole class have been told to take the week off in fear of the oinky germs spreading further.

The sun came out by 8:30am and so I decided to take the kids to daycare, but they were already engrossed in play doh activities and it took a wee while to persuade James that we would be venturing outside. My skills in persuasion were tested to the hilt this morn as James decided that he wanted to walk to nursery. Despite watching the news and seeing pics on the telly of grown adults struggling to keep upright and of trees uprooted from their beds, James couldn’t quite get a grasp of just how strong the wind really was. Anyway, got them both tethered to the buggy and off we went. Only one incident where the rain cover blew right off the buggy despite my using clothes pegs to tie it more firmly to the buggy frame.

Work is going well. Love the students at the moment – bar one class who have tried to pull a fast one with both me and Andy, who takes the other half of the group. I was marking the 2nd yr homework (which was about their school trip to Kiyosato where they milked cows and made butter and had a jolly good time in the countryside learning about dairy farming and whatnot) when I experienced a strange feeling of deja-vu. Not just something that kind of sounded familiar, but word for word, letter for letter (mistake for mistake) even down to poor layout of the sentences on the page – new sentence, new line – where do they learn something like that? I shuffled through the papers to locate the identical paper that I had marked about ten mins earlier. By the time I had finished marking all the papers from this class I had found 6 papers that I could safely “twin” with another. Naughty, naughty! And this a Horticultural Christian Girls’ School!

Met the class yesterday and after speaking to Andy earlier, we decided to give them a big fat zero and tell the “twins” that they have other chances to make up the points later in the year. Was tempted to rip the papers up infront of them as way of demonstration of how “angry” I was, but decided it best that I keep hold of the offending papers should any parents come in to complain if they get wind that their daughter got zero for a piece of English homework. Must retain evidence to justify my actions. Basically, they will have to pull their fingers out and get full marks, or as near as, for their other mini assessments if they are to get anything like a decent overall grade by the end of the semester. Two of the girls in question are usually very hard workers so you don’t really have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who did their homework and who merely copied their friend’s hard work. The class that follow this one are the exact opposite – they exude enthusiasm for English class and always put in 200%. I am always amazed at how class personalities can vary so much….

….Typhoon update…. school closed this afternoon too! Am now worried that there is more horrid weather on the horizon. The skies look clear and blue though…

A day at home catching up on house chores and seeing as is blustery out there I am going to attack the washing mountain in the bathroom and pray that our clothes don’t get blown away into oblivion. Better have a gander at neighbouring balconies to see if anyone else is risking feeding their entire wardrobe to the typhoon….

Nope! Stupid idea then…