More About School

I’ve been trying to encourage the kids to blog about their experiences, to absolutely no avail. They are simply not interested. Ironically, they were very interested in blogging about our plans before we actually got here. This is a good sign, I think. In Jeremy’s words, “They are too busy living their lives to write about them.” And as Eli actually said to me last night, “It doesn’t feel like Japan here. It just feels normal.”

But Jeremy and I are both learning a lot from the kids, and love watching them experience a side of East Asia to which neither of us has ever had insider’s access: kid culture. Eli and Mikki are just blazing through experiences here—they are not worried about being impolite, they don’t get down on themselves for not understanding the language, they are not nervous about doing something culturally inappropriate. Like all kids everywhere, they just do what looks fun and what they want to do, until someone tells them to stop.

Overall, school has been going really well, so I thought I’d share some of the details that the kids have reported to us, before everything starts to feel so normal that the reports slow sown.

The neighborhood kids meet up at 7:45 am to walk to school. This means that our kids leave the house at 7:40 am to get to the meeting spot on time. A member of the local PTO waits at the meeting spot to organize everyone. And there is a system: the 1st grade goes first (much to Mikki’s delight!), then the 2nd grade, etc. And boys and girls walk separately.

Once at school, the kids are essentially in their classroom the entire day, or, at least there is significantly less moving from room to room than there is back home. Eli reports that his class switches rooms for calligraphy, music, gym, library and science. Mikki reports much less movement. Both kids tell us that they eat lunch right in the classroom.

At lunchtime, all kids put on uniforms—a white smock, a white hat to keep hair out of the way, and a mask to protect from germs. The lunch gets rolled in on a big cart. The daily lunch helpers hand out the milk to everyone, and everyone helps with serving food at one point or another. (Everyone also helps sweep up the classroom after lunch is over.)  The kids line up at the edge of the classroom to get their lunches.

The milk comes in glass bottles, and once finished, the kids rinse out the bottles and put them back on the cart for re-use the next day.

The kids seem to like most of the food, but there are different expectations for how much they are supposed to eat. Mikki reports that if she doesn’t eat something, she just heads out the classroom door where there is a big bin where you can dump the un-eaten food. Eli reports that everyone pretty much eats everything on the tray, and if you don’t, you have to walk a fairly long distance down to a different room where there are food-ready garbage bins. The incentive, therefore, is to clean your plate so that you can avoid having to do that. Eli usually complies. 

The school sends home a lunch calendar so we know what is served each day. The calendar is exceptionally detailed, and provides not only the menu, but all of the ingredients plus the nutritional information. I’ve learned how to say “sodium” and “protein” in Japanese.

For gym glass, the kids have uniforms—polyester t-shirts & pants, and a white hat—that they bring home every Friday for weekend washing. There is no locker room—they change their clothes right at their desks! So, as the kids have pointed out, everyone gets to see everyone else’s underwear. This is all fine with me, but when you take that and contrast it to the fact that boys and girls have to walk to separately to school, there is a small disconnect, no?

Gym class is either in the gym or outside, and each class merges with others of the same grade. The kids tell us that they have to stretch and run around the gym three times. Mikki reports jumping rope. And Eli reports doing soccer drills on the outside field, or basketball drills in the gym.

There are no school uniforms, but there was a long list of supplies that we needed to get for the kids. The idea is that all kids bring the exact same things to school, though sometimes in different colors. In fact, when we sent Mikki to school with cough drops for a lingering cough from the flu, the teacher told us that that wasn’t allowed. No child gets to have something that the other kids don’t. And the school nurse is on hand if there is any sort of medical need.

Here’s the basic list of supplies that we needed to buy:

 - Gym uniform and shoes

 - Shoes to wear inside the school

 - Lunch uniform

 - A special bag for transporting the gym uniform back and forth to school on Mondays and Fridays

 - A special bag for transporting the school shoes back and forth to school on Mondays and Fridays

 - A special bag for transporting the lunch uniform back and forth to school on Mondays and Fridays

 - And a larger bag in which to put all of the above-listed bags.

 - A jump rope

 - School supplies like tape, scissors, pencil, pencil sharpener, etc.

 - Pencil case

And then there are items that the school purchases on our behalf, with us reimbursing: musical instruments (in music class, Eli is learning the recorder and Mikki is learning the harmonica), flash cards, notebooks, file boxes, etc. Textbooks are provided for free.

The one item we did not have to buy was the classic backpack. Standard school backpacks are hard covered, and meant to last for all of elementary school. As such, they cost about $300 a pop! Given that we’re only here for six months, the principal gave us a bye on this, and we were grateful.

The teachers are very kind and have been trying to help the kids get the hang of things. Mikki’s teacher, in particular, is pretty hands-on and helps Mikki determine what to bring home every day. Both teachers use translation apps on their phones to get quick, brief information to the kids in English. So Eli knows when his class is going to have history, or moral education, or science. The other kids in the room try to help him understand, too.

At the end of the school day, the kids have to copy down their homework for that night from the blackboard into their notebooks. They copy this in Japanese, without knowing what it means, and it has taken Jeremy a couple of weeks to figure out both their handwriting and the system of notation that the teachers use on the board. The homework amount is not bad, mostly because our kids are excused from any reading exercises. The math homework is comparable to what the kids were learning back in the US…maybe one step ahead. Their teachers also use this notebook to communicate with us if there’s anything specific they need us to take care of.

The daily homework assignment that occupies the most time is the Japanese writing system. The Japanese written language basically has three parts:

1. Hiragana—the alphabet of 46 syllables that make up all Japanese words. Kids here learn this writing system in 1st grade, so Eli was way behind on this, and Mikki only slightly behind.

2. Katakana—the same 46 syllables, but written in a different way, used when writing foreign import words, like “ice cream” (a-ee-su-ku-ree-mu). Again, typically learned in 1st grade here.

3. Kanji —the Chinese characters used for many verbs and nouns. Japanese kids typically start learning these in the 1st grade, but things really take off in 3rd and 4th grade.

So, while our kids escape Japanese reading homework, they do have extra hiragana- and katakana- learning exercises meant to try to catch them up with the rest of the class. Learning these is essentially rote memorization, to which Eli responds very well and Mikki not so much. Eli has already gotten most of his hiragana down, and so is starting to be able to read signs while out and about.

Both kids are TIRED when they come home from school…Eli, in particular, since he gets home after 4pm. They both seem to like school and thanks to help from friends and their teachers, they are managing to understand what’s expected. But it is exhausting being around a language that you don’t understand all day. And there are parts of the day that are very boring—both kids have expressed this. Neither has ever protested going to school. There have been no crying fits in the morning. But I do sense some serious relief from the kids on the weekends, when they get to take it easy and be with their English-speaking family.

Eli has made some friends, one of whom lives right across the street. They play together at school—soccer, catch, basketball, card games, etc. Thanks to his friends, Eli is hearing certain Japanese phrases enough that he comes home asking Jeremy what things mean. Eli’s teacher also told us last week that some of the boys have expressed interest in playing with Eli after school, but haven’t known how to ask. So Jeremy talked with him about how we might set this up. No play dates yet, but we are all hoping that will happen soon.

Mikki doesn’t talk much about friends, but when I asked her if she had friends at school, she said, “Yeah, a lot!” She jumps rope with friends on the playground and the girls in her class seem excited about her.

One thing that helped all of us was last weekend’s neighborhood gathering. It was sort like a block party (a sacred event where we live in Michigan!), but on a Sunday morning and centered on the pounding of mochi (sticky rice, usually served in little balls with a flavored coating—like peanut or green tea). Thank goodness Jeremy likes to read bulletin boards, or we would have missed this event. From what we can gather, the event was put on by the local community organization. It was in a park a few blocks from where we live. There was a campfire to keep everyone warm and lots of food. Everyone had a chance to pound the sticky rice with a big wooden hammer. And oh my, it was gendered! The men got to use the real, bulky hammer. The women and children used the smaller “symbolic” hammer. Of course, this utterly offended me, but the hammer was actually pretty heavy, so I kept my mouth shut. Cultural immersion and all…

The kids saw some classmates from school, and Eli ran off with his friends immediately after we got there. Mikki was shy and somewhat clingy for the first hour, but then got her footing, and went off to play with some girls. Jer and I chatted with some of the neighborhood folks, many of whom wanted to practice their limited English with me. No problem!  Much like the very first block party that we attended after we moved into our house in Grand Rapids, the mochi-pounding party introduced us to the neighborhood and got us all feeling more comfortable here.

That’s it for now. More to come soon…

Out and About

This past week was sick week! Eli, Mikki and I all went down with the flu, leaving Jeremy as nursemaid/medical translator/healthcare advocate. For details on that experience, check out his post. But as icky as that experience was, I think that the hardest part of the week was the final days, after the fevers went down and symptoms subsided and we were all feeling better, but were still contagious enough to have to stay trapped inside. School policy required that the kids stay home all week. Further complicating matters was the fact that I went back to work this week. My “transition to Japan” vacation ended, and the email inbox I had happily been ignoring for two weeks required opening. So we spent a good portion of the week huddled around our kotatsu (a low table,with a heater underneath), the kids enjoying ridiculous amounts of screen time while I started to unravel the specifics of how, exactly, I am going to get my US-based job done with a 14-hour time difference between me and the colleagues with whom I work most closely.

Needless to say, this week wasn't exactly a winner.

But yesterday and today (Friday and Saturday), with a little cooperation from Mother Nature, we FINALLY shook off the last remnants of the flu, shut down the screens, and got ourselves out there for a weekend of tourist fun. We are BACK! We were active. And we had fun.

Aquarium
Friday's destination was the Osaka Aquarium, right near Osaka harbor. Check out the requisite pre-entry family selfie!

Two great things about this activity. One, all Japanese school-age children were in school, so the crowds weren’t bad at all. For another, the design of the building is fantastic. No pictures (too busy staring at fish!) but here’s how it worked:

You enter the building and immediately head up the escalator to about the 3rd floor. They you start down a sloped path with tanks on either side (think “Guggenheim”, only with fish tanks instead of art). So on the 3rd floor, at various junctures, you get to see the seals and penguins dive from their little rocks into the water. Fun, right? But it gets better after you complete one lap of the slope and find yourself on the 2nd floor, only looking at the same tank. Here, you get to see the penguins AFTER they’ve jumped into the water. In fact, you can look up and see shapes of people from the 3rd floor looking down into the water as you look up. This whole thing continues, as you keep heading down the slope and end up in the basement, where you see what’s happening at the very bottom of those tanks that have been entertaining you all the way down.

Now, I’m no Aquarium connoisseur, so maybe this is par for the course these days? Hell, maybe Osaka borrowed this idea from Chicago and I have no idea! And, after five days of being trapped inside the house with restless children, I imagine that staring at a goldfish for an hour would have been inspiring. But all disclaimers aside, I thought it was cool. I love good design, no matter where in the world I am.

Osaka Castle
Saturday was even more beautiful out, so our adventure led us outdoors to Osaka Castle. This was the castle of one of the three generals who managed to unify Japan after that pesky Warring States period (16th century, give or take). As the story goes, after years of fighting and various warlords making plays for power, these three generals got things under control. But they each had a different style. The first one, it was said, killed the cuckoo bird if it didn't sing. The second one beat the cuckoo bird to get it to sing. And the third one waited for the cuckoo bird to sing on its own. Well, I know the suspense is killing you, but guess which one was successful and led Japan through the delightfully unified and flourishing Edo period? That’s right! The third one.


Well, now that you know that story, I hope it doesn’t disappoint you to know that the castle we saw was actually of the second guy, the cuckoo beater. Jerk.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful building within huge castle walls, situated in a lovely park in the middle of the city. So we had lunch outside, and the kids played in the castle-themed playground right next door, and then we explored the castle and went all the way up to the top.

Now I will say that the inside of the castle has been completely redone into a museum, to the extent that you really don't get a sense of how it was inhabited at the time. Both of the kids were disappointed about that, as was I. But some of the exhibits showed scrolls and screens from the time, and since Jeremy teaches courses on the merging of word and image in pre-modern literature, it was actually fun to point out some of the details to the kids. Suffice it to say, they had more patience for looking at scrolls than I ever would have guessed.

There. I just jinxed our next attempt at a museum visit.

Dotomburi
Everyone still had energy to burn after the castle adventure, so back on the train we went, landing in one of Osaka’s major shopping districts: Dotomburi.

I had been here once before, but briefly, and years ago. However, everything still looked familiar because much of the imagery is iconic, and widely photographed. The Glico man. The huge crab on the store front. It is an incredibly vibrant, active, animated section of the city, with high end retail, next to street food stands, next to edgy urban shops.

We walked around for a bit, battling the crowds. Mikki just about died when we strolled past the Hello Kitty store—three floors, count ‘em THREE, of just about every piece of Hello Kitty merchandise you could ever want. Eli was patient (by which I mean, not at all patient) while Mikki looked around, but don’t worry, he got his own time in when we walked another block and stumbled upon a game center. 100 yen got the kids 3 attempts at the drumming game, which they caught on to surprisingly quickly (or, maybe not too surprisingly, given the amount of screen time those kids have had in the past month…).

A further stroll down some side streets led us to a small temple. (There are some small temples and shrines in our neighborhood, too. I pass them on my running route...boasts she, who has been running ONCE since having arrived. But the kids have been surprisingly intrigued with them...just wait until we take 'em to Kyoto.)

And then out we went to dinner for yakiniku, literally, “roasted meat”, but really sort of like Korean BBQ where you get to cook your own meat and vegetables on a bbq at your own table. I don't care where you live. I don't care what country you're from. I don't think there's a parent on the planet who doesn't want to jump for joy when she's found a meal that every single person at the table relishes. Family dinners just don't get better than that.

All in all, it was a PACKED couple of days full of quintessential Japan activities. The kids ate it up…we ALL did. It was wonderful to be out of the house, and away from email, and reveling in this wonderful big city that we are fortunate enough to call home, if only for a little while.

First Day of School

We made it! The kids started school today and seem to have survived. Big, big day.

The kids are attending a local public school. There is no English spoken there. None. This is complete immersion, and as one could imagine, it has been a source of anxiety for all of us. One by one, we have each had our meltdowns, caused by varying combinations of nervousness + anticipation + jet lag + frustration for having to rely on Jeremy for information (OK, that’s just me…the kids don’t really care about this one.)

We walked the kids to school this morning. They are attending Suita East—yep, EGR friends, we are back in East! The school is about a 15” walk from our apartment. Positioned along the way were local Parent Teacher Organization representatives, dressed in white uniforms, there to ensure the kids’ safety. And, the kids wore their standard yellow commuting hats (kind of like wearable versions of a “Baby on Board” car sign), also for safety. We passed groups of children along the way, all of whom were fascinated by us. Some tried out a “Hello!” All stared. The staring is about curiosity not ill will, and I explained this to Eli, without adding that in 20 years of going to Asia, it’s something I have never gotten used to.

The school, as far as I can tell and from my own experience, is a pretty typical Asian school building. Cement walls. Open hallways around a courtyard. No heat. Simple rooms with desks in rows and not much decoration. It is very, very different from our Michigan elementary school, with its carpet and climate control, colorful bulletin boards and decorated classrooms. I’ve taught English in similar looking schools in China and Taiwan countless times. It’s strange to think that my children are now members of the student body.

Our day started with a trip to the principal’s office. Jeremy translated as much as he could, and I understood an ounce, but mostly my role was to explain to the kids whatever I could glean, and otherwise give them nods and winks of support. Then, the principal invited in the the kids’ teachers for a chat. Mikki’s 1st grade teacher is Meguro Sensei, who immediately came across as warm and friendly. Eli’s 4th grade teacher is Ibusuki Sensei, who looked very young and hip—he wore jeans and stylish glasses. Still, as nice and friendly and kind as the teachers seemed, when they left the principal’s office 15 minutes later, taking the kids with them, I had this overwhelming feeling that I was feeding my children to the wolves. I had been sitting listening to others actively participating in a conversation that I couldn’t understand for all of 20 minutes and I’d HAD it. How were the kids going to get through an entire day, let alone 6 months of entire days? As they departed, my kids looked nervous, but fine. I, on the other hand, fought back tears. After we left the school, I stopped fighting and let ’em flow. And then I texted my mom, because in the end, don’t we all just want our mommy whenever we’re feeling overwhelmed?

Jer and I spent the day shopping in downtown Osaka. We were both OK, and admittedly, enjoyed our time sans kids, but everyone once in a while, visions would pop into my head: Eli sitting alone and unnoticed at a lunch table. Mikki backed into a corner being taunted by other children. Both kids breaking down as they were called to the front of the classroom by their teachers and teased mercilessly when they didn’t know the answer because…don’t they do that in Japan? So it was with absolute trepidation that we returned to the school in the afternoon to see the damage. I expected the kids to come running out to me, crying. Even Jeremy, calm and stable and reasonable Jeremy, was nervous and expecting the worst.

The grades let out at different times, so Mikki came out first at 2:30. She approached us calmly and happily and with (and I am not kidding here) a gaggle of Japanese girls following her. The child does not speak a word of Japanese and yet, true to form, somehow managed to accumulate more friends in one day than I have accumulated in a life time. Her teacher came out, too, and reported that things went just fine, but could we please just send her with a pencil case and some pencils tomorrow?

Pencils? Seriously? That’s IT?

Getting information from Mikki was, shall we say, a process, but here’s what we learned:

• She learned how to write her name in Japanese.
• She drew pictures.
• She liked lunch.
• She had fun.
• She spent the entire day essentially in the same room, though she got to move her desk a couple of times.
• She was cold. (No heat in the building!)

All in all, she just seemed to power through and learn by watching. And there seems to be no fear about tomorrow, so I’m taking this as a very good sign.

Eli’s class let out an hour later (this was expected). And when I asked how it was, the reply was none other than: “It was awesome!” He made two friends, both of whom spoke a tiny amount of English. (Maybe they learned it from one of the TV shows that my kids were mocking the other day?) The boy who sat next to him was very friendly and spent the day trying to teach him words. Most of it what he said went over Eli’s head, but he appreciated the effort. The teacher wrote a bit of English on the board, but other than that, Eli just followed along by watching what the other kids did. Here’s what we know:

• He went to music class and started learning to play the recorder. (“It was good, but I’ve had better music teachers, Mom.”)
• He wrote kanji (Chinese characters) though didn’t know what they meant. Given his love of manga and anime, he was most excited about this.
• He showed the teacher where Michigan is on a map, and during Social Studies, the teacher showed the entire class.
• His teacher didn’t do much to quiet some of the giggles and chatting in the back of the room, much to Eli’s delight.
• A couple of kids gave Eli a tour of the school during recess and they visited Mikki’s classroom (much to Mikki’s delight).
• He liked lunch.
• He was hot. (I have no idea how.)
• He wants to walk to school on his own tomorrow, and under no circumstances are we to pick him up at school either. He will walk home with the other kids, thank you very much.

As we were walking home later this afternoon, two boys rode past us on bikes and waved as they called out “Eli!”. We now officially have friends in our neighborhood.

So we made it. First day is done. For not one second do I believe that we’ve had our last school-induced meltdown. There will be low days and frustration. But we made it past the first-day hurdle. And the start of school means that we will start to get a routine in place. Jer and I start working next week. Looks like we might have some semblance of a regular life here after all. Onward!

Arrived!

We made it. We are all here in Osaka, present and accounted for. It was a long journey, but very smooth overall.

The flight.

The technology of overseas flights has really improved in the past 10 years. Everyone has a touch screen with movies, games and music right in front of them. I had seen this before, of course, but as someone who remembers the days of having no choice but to watch the one in-flight movie on a main cabin screen, this never fails to impress me.

But here’s the catch: while my Digital Age kids were happy to have a touch screen at their disposal, they were most impressed with the fact that one could turn on the light and call the flight attendant from little buttons on the side of the arm rest. “Boy, they’ve really thought of everything!” my son marveled. Yes, sweetie. Yes, they have.

The kids also loved the blankets and pillows that were supplied on each seat, and immediately asked if they could keep them once the flight was done. “Trust me. In 14 hours, you won’t want them,” I said. And they didn’t.

One detail that caught us off guard was Beijing’s insistence that ALL passengers go through immigration + customs + security AGAIN, even just for an international transfer. When did this start? Is this par for the course with international flights these days? The long lines made what was supposed to be a short-but-leisurely transfer become a nail-biting rush to the gate. They held the plane for us and we made it, but our bags didn’t. So it will be Tuesday before I get the maternal pleasure of seeing my children in clean clothes. Oh well.

But here’s the upside to the lost baggage story. Japan is the most brilliantly service-oriented society. In the US (as in most countries, dare I venture?), we would have waited for our bags to appear on the carousel, and when they didn’t appear, we would have found the closest service desk to start filling out forms. Not in Japan. No, instead, an incredibly efficient airline professional found US to relay the news. And then she took us to a desk where not one, not two, but FOUR airline attendants helped us fill out the paperwork, while another two attendants engaged the kids in conversation on the side. There was no “Just fill out that form, ma’am.” It was more like: “Please, let me help you complete this form, and might you please describe the bag so that we can ensure that we deliver the correct bag to you?” I love this country! And here’s a random jet-lag-induced idea:

Every new staff member at my company takes a customer service training. Might I suggest that we just send all new staff to Japan for two weeks and let this culture train them instead? No one does it better. No one.

The apartment.

Our landlady, a connection from my company, met us at the airport and drove us to our new apartment. The apartment is cute, and while small, actually larger than I was preparing myself for. (Pics to come!) So we were pleasantly surprised. And this is where my work connections are really helping. We are living in an apartment that is typically rented to CET Japan study abroad students. So while we still have some shopping and rearranging to do, things like towel hooks, trash bins and extension cords are already here and ready to go. Small conveniences make a big difference.

Everyone was too wired to sleep when we got in, so we took a walk around our new neighborhood. Eli has apparently inherited Jeremy’s keen sense of direction, so after our walk to the local convenience store, he volunteered to lead us back to our apartment, and did so perfectly.

I’m a mess with directions (full disclosure: I still have to whisper “Never Eat Shredded Wheat” to myself in order to keep east and west straight….wait, did I just admit that publicly?) so it will take me a few rounds before I can make it to the train station and back without consulting my husband or a map….or now my son.

New loves. 

The kids were introduced to two Japan pleasures last night:

Combini food. Japanese convenience stores have GREAT FOOD. Rice balls and noodles and oden that are actually GOOD. Jeremy and I have both lived on convenience store (combini) food during earlier stints in Japan and Taiwan, and I have a feeling we will be no strangers to it this time.

Ofuro. Japanese baths. LOVE ‘em. You wash outside the tub. No soapy water in the tub! After you’re clean, you get to soak in a tub that is so deep, the water covers your shoulders. It’s a ton of water, but because there’s no yucky soap scum, the water stays clean and pure, and is used for all family members. In a typical Japanese family, the dad bathes first. Then the kids, and then the mom at the end. (And she gets to be the one to drain the water and clean everything up.) But we are doing this Japan thing in our own way! Kids went first. Then me. Jeremy last. 

Today’s list.

1. Shop for apartment needs and food.

2. Figure out train lines and teach the kids Japanese trains work. 

3. Lunch at a ramen shop. 

More later!