Yokohama Montessori

Miki was accepted into the Yokohama Montessori school last week. Yeah! She'll start on September 1st of this year. We attended a private orientation meeting earlier this week when we learned of the various items Miki will need to bring with her. A hand towel, indoor shoes, lunch box, a change of clothes, etc...

We were introduced to her teacher and got a tour of her classroom; she's a member of Rainbow Class. She'll be attending from 9am to 1pm Monday thru Friday.

Here are some shots of the school and our tour. The pink hat is the Rainbow Class "uniform", mainly for outside events/excursions.

Rock & Hill

As noted in a previous post, we visited some friends a few weekends ago and just outside their massive apartment complex was a park that I took Miki to play in. Here she is on a big hill and playing on some large rocks.

Shodo

Literally, "the way of calligraphy".

A good friend of many years and Ericka's former calligraphy teacher, is a master of this art and we were lucky enough to receive a private lesson this past weekend. Followed of course by a wonderful home-cooked meal of Japanese cuisine.

Miki not only got to practice writing her name, which in Japanese kanji means "future", but Maruyama-sensei introduced us to a couple of combinations for Sam. The one we settled upon literally means "happy dream".

Here are a few photos.

More shodo shots

Home cookin'

Here are a few shots of Maruyama san's home cooked dishes; grilled chicken and asparagus, crab meat salad, smoked salmon wrapped in marinated daikon, niku jyaga (beef stew), and summer vegetable gratin.

Thank you for the feast!

Digits

Stackable pegs also fit nicely on 3 year old fingers. Who would`ve known?

Thumbs up

Happy July 4th

This afternoon we went into Machida to get omiyage for Ericka's upcoming trip back to the States.  While she was looking thru the store Daiso, Miki and I checked out a couple of folk musicians strumming across the street.  

Later that afternoon we met up with our good friends Nobu, Mihoko and their daughter, Haruka. At 6pm we rendezvoused at the Soba Boutique with the Campos Clan.  It was very festive, delicious and unfortunately had to end... 

Kampai! And thanks for the memories.  

Sand

Just checking to see how this video feature works.

Faces

Just a few single photos taken over the past month. I'm just now getting around to posting them.

Happy July 4th to everyone who is State-side!

Jungle Jane...

Or is it Monkey Miki?

A few photos of Miki playing at a local park.

Soft Cream Ice Cream

Last Saturday, under an intensely hot sun, we took a family excursion to Children's Land (Kodomo no kuni). Miki rode her bike the whole way, we ate soft-serve ice cream and played on the immense playgroud. This place even has 2 mini zip-lines! Great fun. The excitement, the pedaling and the heat did a great job tuckering Miki out.

Bag Baby

Last Friday we were in the city (one of them, anyway) rather late and decided to just eat out. I think it was also payday this particular day and we've started a "tradition" of eating out on paydays. The one guaranteed respite from nightly meal prep and clean-up we afford ourselves monthly. Well, most months anyway.

At this evening's restaurant Ericka emptied her large shoulder/diaper bag and arranged Sam in it so we could both have 2 free hands to eat.

(photos taken with mobile phone)

Riding the Rails

We practically had a train car all to ourselves recently. It was approaching evening and the setting light was bright but soft. Here's Miki taking advantage of the "leg room".

"Staba"

The Japanese adoption of foreign "loadn" words, be they place names, brands or common vocabulary words, are remarkable for their brevity and uniqueness. "Staba" ("a" as in "father") is how you would say Starbucks in Japanese-English. "Schuwa-chan" (pronounced SHOO-AH) is how the Japanese refer to Arnold Schwarzenegger; "chan" is a cute term of endearment and a very common suffix added to nicknames. McDonald's is simply "Mac". Brad Pitt is "Bura Pi" (pronounced BOO-RA-PEE).

Anyway, I digress. The point is this: a number of weeks ago we visited a well-known shoping area called Grandberry Mall to visit the massive REI-turned-Mont Bell outdoor gear store. Miki outgrew her summer sun hat and we were also looking for one of those SPF-saturated quick-dry shirts for both she and Sam.

The Grandberry Mall could be any large mall-like complex in North America, the resemblance is uncanny and obviously intentional. Case in point: the mall's theme is outlet stores. I'm always reminded of the acres of shopping complexes found in North Conway, New Hampshire and other similar areas along the Eastern coast.

So, after having a walk around we stopped at the "Staba" for a cup of tea and a small glucose-laden treat to appease Miki.

Here are a few photos from that afternoon. And Miki in her new sun hat.