sasha's entrance ceremony was on april 11th. it was a cold and windy, but clear, day. it was so cold that they had three very large kerosene heaters in the gym, where the ceremony was held! yoshi and i chose chairs near one of the heaters, it was just so cold!!

hiro had the day off, but tommy had started back to kindergarten the day before. i had lost the paper which told us what time the ceremony started, so we basically left after tommy got on the kindy bus, just a bit before 9am. we were super early, though, because the ceremony wasn't starting until 10! that's all right, though, because we checked out the first grade room, sasha and hiro went upstairs to see the third grade room. eventually they had the gym ready for the ceremony, so we were invited to go in and wait.

as soon as we entered, sasha was paired up with her sixth grade "friend", while the three of us found a place to sit. then hiro basically ran around, talking with his teacher, or his former teacher (now sasha's teacher.)

the entrance ceremony was pretty short in itself, maybe an hour altogether. it was nice. after the ceremony we all went to the first grade room and the kids got their schoolbooks. then there was a bit of an introduction from the teacher, and then we were free to leave.










after lunch, we went to a photo studio for pictures. for sasha and her starting elementary school, and for us to have a family portrait.





the next day was the first day of school for sasha, and she walked to school with hiro. yoshi went along, too, as far as the meeting point for the kids in our neighborhood. even zorro got to go along. now i only have one kid left in kindergarten, and two in elementary school!

i'm a little lost as to where i am in this whole blogging thing!  so, before i start writing about spring break, i'll write about sasha's graduation.

it's a little weird all the graduations the kids go through before they even hit high school!  mostly i find them annoying and boring and such a waste of time, BUT! there's nothing i can do to get out of them, so....

anyway, sasha finished up her third year of kindergarten in march.  soon she'll be starting first grade!  here are photos to compare:

sasha on her first day of kindergarten

sasha on graduation day

i know just about everyone says this, but i can't believe she's starting elementary school already! time just flies by. *sigh* i couldn't tell if sasha understood that she wouldn't be going to kindy any more.  i guess that because tommy will be in after school care once a week, we'll be going to the kindergarten and she'll see the teachers then.  she didn't even cry on graduation day.  she is getting nervous about elementary school, though!  hopefully she'll have a lovely transition and have a great time at school.

(another comparison, then more photos)








(this is why i am never in photos, my husband cannot take photos well!!)


(sasha and her second year teacher, she will be leaving the school to try to have a baby.)

so, i have a pumpkin pie baking in the oven, and another waiting to be baked, for the thanksgiving party we're going to (at kuri's house) tomorrow. i have been looking forward to it all week! so, i will take this time to finally write about undokais!

hiro's undokai was in september. i had a bit of a panic attack and had yoshi take the kids while i stayed at home and finished the bento. i don't know why i was freaking out, only that i didn't want to be there and be the obvious gaijin, standing out.

so, i finished the bento and walked to the school. it was a lovely day, and it was a lovely walk. i listened to my iphone, and i think it all did me good.

i didn't get many pictures from the undokai, mainly because yoshi was taking pictures with *his* iphone, but i did get a couple. one is of yoshi in the relay, and one is of sasha, who will be a first grader next year.





for the kindy undokai, i was much more relaxed. i also couldn't walk to the school, so we all had to go together. we were on the undokai committee, so that meant yoshi had to help out. i was on potty duty, which meant i had to take kids to the bathroom if they needed to go. again, the weather was lovely, and he had a great time.

first there was a parade, that's why sasha was wearing red, and tommy blue.



i really don't have a whole lot else to say. this is our fourth undokai at the kindy! but, if you're interested, i have an album of this year's undokai here.

i guess you could say i've been taking the whole week to recover from my weekend in kanto, and i guess that would be partly right.  on monday sasha, tommy and i went to the kindy picnic/ensoku.  for once, i got there early and tommy promptly got stung by a bee!  i took him to the teachers, thinking they might have something for bites and stings but instead, they insisted i take him to a doctor.  *sigh*  so, i followed a teacher to a nearby clinic (naika, i'm not sure what that is in english, but basically the kind of doctor you go to if you have a cold or a headache or something).  by the time we got there the sting was mostly a red patch on his skin and the doctor said it wasn't a bee!  i was pretty sure it was, he got stung last year and reacted the same way.  to be honest, if we were on our own i would not have taken him, just kept an eye on him to see if he had any reaction,  but, oh well.  back to the picnic and everyone was fine.  i actually fell asleep after eating lunch, i was so tired!  lol

on tuesday i had a new class (well, two sisters moved from the wednesday class and joined the two new kindy kids who had a trial lesson the week before.)  it's nice and early in the afternoon, so i finish pretty early.  wednesday i have two classes and thursday i have one.  on wednesday, hiro's teacher also came for a home visit.  we chatted in the classroom, as that is the cleanest room in the house!  i am still in the middle of spring cleaning (and actually got a full trash bag out of the tatami room closet!), it is progressing quite slowly...but anyway, hiro seems to be doing fine at school and the teacher approves of our not letting him play too many video games, especially during the week.

on friday i went to japanese class (thinking about it, i went on wednesday, too!  so busy!), and then i was going to swim but instead i....didn't.  i had lunch, and then shopping, then home.  i can't really remember much else to the day, so it must have been pretty low-key.

yesterday hiro had saturday school, so the parents could observe.  we were to be there for the fifth period, and then have a meeting between the parents and teacher.  we also did a bit of PTA stuff, but i wasn't volunteered for anything.  phew!  the weather was so beautiful yesterday, so we got some things done in the garden, too!  first thing in the morning, i went to costco (which was open at 9:20) and bought a table for the back yard.  then i went to the pool and swam for a while.  then i went home with the table and put it together with yoshi, but did it wrong!  we had to put it aside, though, for me to go to the elementary school.  after the meeting finished, i took hiro to joyfull, me for lunch and him for a treat, and then off to the grocery store for more shopping and then home.  yoshi and i quickly fixed the table and it looks great!  one of our umbrellas works with it, so that's great!

today promises to be fine, too, and we are having friends over for a BBQ!  yay!  ok, gotta go tidy and get the recycling together.  i'll try to take lots of photos today!

yesterday was the big 'yakuin selection day'.  i'm not really sure what yakuin is, i guess it's kind of like PTA.  i never really understood what the PTA was back home, so i dunno if yakuin is PTA or not, but basically we sit down and decide who will volunteer to do what at the school.  there is a president and a few other 'top of the heap' type positions, and that seems very PTA-like, but otherwise....

anyway, our school has a music concert, a summer festival, a sports festival (in the fall), a mochi-making festival and an end of the year musicale (or something.)  (oh, and there might be something else, but i can't remember anything else.)  each class needs X number of volunteers for each position, and this year i raised my hand for the sports festival.  whoop-de-do.  i'll make yoshi do it.

there is also another section that we need to volunteer for.  one is picture book duty, and i always thought it was going to the school to read to the kids, but it turns out it's actually a mending thing.  i guess the books are checked over and fixed or something.  the other duty is cleaning the school duty.  i usually get in that section, but when hiro was in school, i couldn't go because tommy (and most likely sasha, too) would be napping.  or i would just forget to go.  no big deal, though.  (haha)  this year they added one more duty, helping out on kid measuring day(s).  three times a year they are going to have this (basically the measure the kids' weight and height, and i guess they need the kids to dress down to their undies, so having the mothers there to help out is probably best.)  this year i'm on picture book duty.  i hope i remember to go.

i don't have any more students in my friday class, so i didn't have to go to work.  it was a bit strange.  and kinda sad.  i forgot that i had to pick up hiro from school (something we did in first grade), but it was raining a bit and he didn't have his umbrella, so i went to the school to pick him up.  he was confused as to why sasha and tommy were in the car!  i had to explain that i'm not teaching at the school for a while.  hopefully some new students will join!

hiro started second grade today.  i would say it was nice, but i still had sasha and tommy at home, and i am, quite frankly, burnt out.  i am so over having the kids at home all day.  every day.  and it's still not over.  sasha and tommy have a holiday on monday, and hiro has a holiday on tuesday.  i will finally have a few hours peace on wednesday.  finally.

i haven't done any spring cleaning yet.  just not happening.  i will try to do a big push tomorrow, and then get things done as the kids go back to school.  what i want to do is a purge, throwing out things we don't need or use any more.  then i need to do a lot of dusting, window cleaning and just general cleaning that hasn't been done on a regular basis.  *sigh*  and who ever thought it was a good idea to live with animals??  ugh!  the mess and mayhem they cause.  so far, not worth it. 

so, in january the japanese celebrate coming of age day, which is to say, to celebrate all the new adults in japan. the age one becomes an adult is 20, so anyone who has turned twenty in the past year gets a ceremony (which appears to be a boring speech, but hey, at least the new adults get to dress up! usually kimonos for the girls, and suits for the guys, though some young men have taken to wearing hakama). some cities provide a goody bag (i think; my kids are so young, i have no real idea what this coming of age thing is all about) so at least they get something out of sitting through a boring speech!

anyway, what's the point? ah, yes, the kindergarten also has a coming of age day....that is to say, a ceremony for the second year students (presumably, they are five, 1/4 of the way to an adult) and *required* a parent to be there. *sigh* it was a monday, and i had planned on going to the movies (by myself!!) and was therefore surprised when the bus teacher told a reluctant sasha that mommy would be at school today. say what? *sigh* it was ok, though, and the dresses they put on the girls were lovely. they actually had two ceremonies, april to august birthdays in the morning, and the rest of the year in the afternoon (october to march). it was pretty fricken boring, i'm not going to lie. i was amused, though, because sasha lip-synched the song at the beginning. i was afraid she wouldn't make her speech (each child came to the microphone, said their name and what group they were in (i don't know the group thing, it wasn't their class) and then what they wanted to be when they grow up) but she let us all know that she wants to be a cake baker when she grows up.

here are some photos:







sasha and her best friend from last year. they are in different classes this year.


so, the reason a parent had to be there? each child had made a magnet representing what he or she wanted to be when they grow up, and gave this present to their parent. this is what sasha made:



i think this may actually be a cupcake. so cute!

on the 11th, we went to a community center in hiro's school district to make mochi. it was pretty interesting, and i took lots of photos.

first you cook the glutenous rice, then transfer it to the pounding bowl (i'm sure it has a special name, but i didn't catch it.) here is tommy helping out.






when it's mashed together pretty good, then you pound it. here is sasha, then yoshi, helping out.







hiro helped, too, but i didn't get any video.



after it has become a smooth, sticky ball, it is ready to be shaped! i think that some kind of starch is used, either potato or corn starch, to keep it from sticking to things.









the dads usually did the final pounding of the mochi. i have a great video of it, but for some reason it didn't upload in iphoto. I'll try again sometime soon...



then it was time to eat mochi. some mochi had anko in it.



some was put into hot bean soup (which is sweet), called zenzai in fukuoka.







tommy loved the zenzai.



some mochi was served with grated daikon flavored with soy sauce and yuzu.



and one other way to serve it is with soy sauce (and i think it was flavored with ginger, but i'm not sure as i didn't try it) and wrapped in nori.





that was pretty fun, but tiring! afterward i took hiro on a 'boy's day', because he was so upset sasha got a girl's day the day before! on the way to the mall, though, he fell asleep in the car!



edit: another video

all through september, the kids wore their sport uniform to school, because they were practicing for the undokai. after the undokai, there were a couple of days where the kids could wear their summer or winter uniform. i realized that i hadn't taken pictures of tommy in his summer uniform, so i thought i better get that done! you may be able to notice that sasha's and tommy's hats are different.

so, just before school started again, i made a lunch bag for tommy. i meant to make it for hiro (as it would match his bento really well) but i never got around to it! tommy picked out a yellow bento (with yellow and orange chopsticks that look like colored pencils) so it's not a perfect match, but i do like the way the elephants turned out!