Gogeigers on Patrol

Quite surprisingly I didn’t wake up with a hangover this morning after drinking far too much at Duncan’s 40th Birthday Bash in Yokohama yesterday. It was a lovely gathering of people and I made some new friends. One new friend approached me because she recognised me as the foreign woman riding a renta-bike up Suzuran Dori in Kyodo every morning. Small world indeed. Lots of other lovely people, another woman I had met at Duncan’s birthday party 6years ago. She had since moved to London and has recently returned to Japan with her hubby and son. Old aquaintances revisited. The party began at 3:30 and went on til about 9pm when Nicole and I decided we HAD to go and eat something and ended up in the local Gusto restaurant for pizza and chips and a coke. Carbs were very much needed.

The kids had a day out with daddy at Nishi Kasai Train museum. It is a favourite place of James and was first time for Alexa. Daddy hardly ever goes anywhere with two kids in tow. I think they enjoyed themselves and when I got home around midnight both kids were asleep on the sofa fully clothed! Crashed and burned. No attempt had been made to change them into their pjs let alone bath them! I doubt very much as well that Alexa would have eaten anything. I put them both in bed and I followed shortly afterwards. I was knackered. Daytime drinking is never easy.

Last weekend was spent in Kamakura with Dee and Tracey from 37 Frames. Despite having trouble finding the photographers on the beach, and me getting all het up about it as I tried to push a buggy along the sand, the day was lovely and the photos look great. Am having trouble whittling my choices down from hundreds to about 30 photos. Must do that this week. We did get burnt to a crisp as the day was hotter than anticipated and I did not have the foresight to pack the sunscreen. The kids had hats but there was no cover and I was red, red, red. Thankfully a few applications of aloe gel has done the trick and I am a normal colour again. Will post pics when I make my choice and receive the hard copies…

James has lost 4 more teeth recently bringing the total to 6 after losing two very prematurely about a year ago when in a fit of anger he tried to remove his raincoat in an aggressive manner using his teeth. Thankfully this time all the teeth have come out quite naturally and he is chuffed to bits that the tooth fairy has been visiting him and giving him some money in a straight swap for his teeth. He is saving up for some toy or other like a good boy.

On Saturday, I popped to the local shopping centre with the kids because “Gogeiger” super heroes were advertised to appear. We get to the “stage area” and there are inflatables for the kiddies to play on. The Gogeigers weren’t doing a “show” but were “on patrol” every couple of hours or so. So after lining up to jump on the inflatables, I spent a great deal of time chasing my kids, who were chasing after a Japanese super hero, round a shopping mall. Can’t wait for Friday when (on the national holiday) the Kamen Riders (more super heroes) are coming to the same centre to do a show! I can hardly wait… I am subjected to these characters day in day out as they watch them religiously on DVD when I’m busy making dinner or similar. After their day out with daddy yesterday, they arrive home with two more DVDs fron Tsutaya rental shop. Though these were Goseiger, not to be confused with Gogeiger. All the same to me! Alexa is such a tomboy and shows no interest in Hello Kitty or Disney Princesses thankfully. It is quite easy with both of them liking trains, cars, guns, lego, superheroes and the like. Lately, whenever we are out and she sees a motorbike, she pipes up “For my birthday I want a motorbike!” Not on your nelly young lady. She also wants a book about the moon so not all high speed thrill seeking dangerous stuff. My neighbour, Tamiko came round for lunch on Saturday too. She has two daughters who are 9 and 6 and my two love hanging out with older kids. Was lovely to see them all play Go Fish together – something I have to do everyday several times a day. They love it and I think it is a lovely way to spend the evening after a nice bath. We have gogeiger AND goseiger trump cards! I get info about schools from Tamiko – two primary school are popular with the mums in our building, but the one next to our building (where her oldest goes) seems more popular with working mums as the gakudo (after school provision) is very near and it opens til 7pm. I am liking the the fact that we are very close to a school. It will be very easy for the kids to walk home. It’s one thing that lots of working mums have said is important when choosing a school. The other option would be the primary school next to the hoikuen where they go now and we could all go together and walk home together. Still have a year to decide… applications are in the Autumn for the following school year. Time to pick a few more brains before then.

Better get on, a million things to do before morning…

I don’t like Mondays

Hard to believe that I have been back at work for two whole weeks. It has been a blast, too! Who’d have thought going to work could be so much fun, eh? All junior high lessons (1st, 2nd and 3rd years) are basically planned, materials/worksheets made (and photocopied) pretty much right up until Christmas. So I didn’t sit around on my arse too much during the summer holidays, eh? There will be bits of “tweaking” during the semester no doubt, but the core stuff is done and ready to go. So far so good. Reassuring to know that I’ll not be running into school in the morns to do any last minute printing out and photocopying. I love being organised – it takes so much pressure off. Now just have to think about the listening tests we have to make… once I finish the last class of summer homework marking! Have new students too – we swap classes at the start of a new semester. More names to remember! I am officially employed by the school now so no more agency middle man – yeah! I just wish the school was closer and not nearly a two hour trek across Tokyo.

So work does keep me busy, but my kids more so. It’s full on chaos in the mornings and a struggle to get them out the door by 7:30am, particularly after the summer hols when I was a bit relaxed about time and getting out of the house. Mondays are the worst mornings as I have to make up the kids futons at nursery in the morning so there is little time for dilly-dallying. More often than not I am in a foul mood on Mondays. This week saw my blood reach almost boiling point. Let’s begin on Sunday evening when the kids were out on the balcony with half their toy collection. I was busy finishing off dinner, making a new “routine chart” on the pc and checking a bit of summer homework. I was happy the kids were entertaining themselves without fighting and squabbling – at this point I should have known they were up to something, but I was just relieved to get my stuff done quickly. The evening continues smoothly and after dinner and a bath I settle down to play cards with the kids – their current craze! Before bed I ask James if he has put the toys back in the bedroom as I didn’t remember seeing him carry them through the living room from the balcony. He says there are no toys on the balcony. I peek outside and sure enough the balcony was spotless. What lovely children I have, I thought. Fast forward to Monday morning and we are rushing out the door at 7:37 – making me grumpy as I have to really get a move on. We exit the building at the back where all the balconies overlook the bike parking and a long stretch of grass. On said grass were two pairs of verandah slippers, 4 swimming armbands, a hula hoop, various bits of plastic toy food, umpteen mini cars and toy trains, all of which look identical to things that we own and have upstairs. James (enraging me further) tells me it must have been the wind that blew the hula hoop and slippers off the balcony! It was on further inspection along the grass, that I noticed all the toys and I finally blew a gasket! Had this happened at any other time, I might not have been too phazed by the toys all over the grass, but on a Monday morning????? So I’m yelling at the top of my voice (in English so everybody knows it’s me the crazy foreign women!) and they help me scoop up the toys – I shove most of the mini cars and trains and plastic food items in the mail box in the lobby to avoid two trips back up stairs with all our crap! I am crabby as hell the whole way to nursery and while I am doing the futons James and Alexa go straight into the classroom – something they never do preferring to do a few laps around the hall first. James is looking for sympathy from his teacher and showing her his fresh mosquito bite. The teacher is very sympathetic and shows me his new bite saying “kowaisou” (poor thing). I tell her it can’t be helped (Sho ga nai as the Japanese LOVE to say!) I relate the drama that happened before we left and she probably still thinks I’m a dreadful mummy for losing my temper with my kids over something so trivial. Time is the key and on any other day, I might not have reacted like such a mad bitch, but what can you do – I don’t like Mondays.

Tadashi is never here so has no idea what goes on. On Saturday he took James out on the bike and Alexa and me went swimming. We left just before the boys and I took just enough coins for the swim and the locker. After a very short swim with Alexa we get home from the pool across the street and I realise I don’t have my key. The boys have gone and the door is locked. The manager downstairs says it will cost around 10,000 yen to get the “key guy” to come out. The manager only has Tadashi’s old phone number and not his current Iphone number. I go back up and see which of my neighbour friends are home. Nobody I am friendly with, on first name terms with, go to the pub with is home. I have no phone, purse or key and the heavens opened (briefly). I can not remember Tadashi’s number only that it is full of 7s, 4s, 0s and 5s, but I know if I could check my hotmail I could get his number from my contacts. Nobody home I would dare ask to let me use their computer. I decide to walk to nursery and see if Tadashi’s mobile number is written on Alexa’s nursery application. Thankfully it was and we sit and chat with the Encho sensei while we wait for Tadashi to ring me back at nursery. We get home and Tadashi gives Alexa a “Gogeiger/Goseiger” (???) yellow figure/character. This is the one she has asked for for her birthday (along with a million other things) James is playing with a new Kamen Rider figure. This is lovely – presents from daddy and all, but daddy has no idea what has happened all week. The kids haven’t been angels and certainly don’t deserve to be having gifts willy-nilly as it gives them the impression that they can have what they want when they want it. I have a reward system like most mums and they haven’t reached their target yet and so are not due a reward. Said toys have since been confiscated by the big bad mummy for some misdemeanor or other and they are not getting them back now until they have finished their reward chart. I am a bitch, I know. Both James and Alexa haven’t asked for them back and I know when they get them back in a week or so, they will be chuffed to bits and won’t be expecting some other new surprise toy. It really is hard to instill discipline when only one of you does EVERYTHING. I mean everything too. The kids won’t even let daddy brush their teeth – I want mummy to do it! So even tjhough I am a bitch about putting toys away, and not playing with food, and making sure they are polite and mind their ps and qs and am forever on their backs about something, at the end of the day, they still want mummy snuggles and would rather have as little to do with their father as possible. Talk about traditional Japanese family! For Tadashi this is normal. Having the odd hour or two on a Saturday with James only – he would never take both children out together, because this is “muri” (impossible). I point out that I do the impossible everyday. Then you get into the argument about how I work shorter hours so it is only right that I do all the childcare and housework. He has no intention of fitting his job in around the family despite his company having flexi-time. A luxury that teachers can’t afford, though I might add that the school are very supportive of female teachers who have small kids and they never give you 1st lesson of the day. For how long they will do this, I don’t know.

Anyway, I really ahve nothing to grumble about in the big scheme of things. All is good. We are all healthy and happy (honestly!) Today The boys will go off somewhere and me and Alexa can go and do something stereotypically girly like the shopping! Oh and we can clean all the floors while we are at it too. Tomorrow is the postponed photo shoot in Kamakura which I’m looking forward to. Weather looks like it will be nice too. James looks fantastic at the mment too – three missing teeth just in time for the photos! The remaining upper middle tooth is very wobbly too and is at a funny angle making him look both gappy and goofy at the same time. Better go and get dressed and get this show on the road.