today is tanabata, a 'holiday' here in japan. i'm not sure why it's celebrated, it seems kind of sad to me (only see your lover once a year for a few hours...) at japanese class yesterday, we got a little cultural information about it. first we read the story (in japanese, but there was english translation on the hand out they gave us), then we made origami stars, then we cut origami paper into triangles and glued them together, then we got a puff ball thingy (ha! whatever, mine was a pineapple) and then we wrote our wishes on some paper (in japanese). after that, we hung all our decorations on a bamboo branch that the director brought for us. we got to take our tanabata trees home, so maybe i'll let the kids add on to mine.

yesterday when tommy got off the bus, the teacher told me he had butsu-butsu. i have NO IDEA what that means, but i think it's raised bumps, or a rash. she asked me to please take him to the doctor. since it was raining i had to go to the elementary school to get hiro. this is a PITA because sasha and tommy are SOOOOO HUUUUUNGRYYYYYYY but eventually i get them in and we go to the school. the teacher kind of told me off, telling me that school ended at 3:15 (it was nearly 3:40) which i understand, but i just told her i have two very hungry preschoolers who get off the bus at three and who are not very cooperative. anyway.

off to the clinic and only just got there on time (remember, they close early on wednesday, if they're open on wednesday afternoon at all) and got put in a quarantine room because of the butsu-butsu. turns out tommy has hand foot and mouth disease. oh joy. no school for him. OH JOY. sasha has lots of bug bites and a weird patch of skin on her scalp but doesn't have HFM disease at this time. well. i wonder if she should go to school, though. she could be coming down with it and contagious. but let's think, where did tommy get this? oh yeah, the school.

HFM disease isn't dangerous, just uncomfortable, so we should be ok. i'll keep tommy home for the next couple of days. i might have to miss japanese class tomorrow, though. oh joy.