Maya's 8th Birthday

Maya and her friends!

Friday, February 25th, I threw Maya an 8th Birthday party. I say I because Scott was actually back in Michigan for work for a week, so it was only me, myself and I putting it together and putting it on...and let me tell you, I am not sure how I thought I could do it all by myself!


Blowing out her candles!

Maya and I decided it would be fun to do a scavenger hunt for her party. This is the first time we have lived in an apartment, and we are so very fortunate to have fun, wonderful neighbors spread out through all of the A-D buildings. Eight of my friends agreed to participate, another, though going out of town for that week, put a bag of surprises on her door, and we even utilized the rooftop, by hiding mini cans of Pringles for each girl. The girls were given a list of apartments they could go to, a list of items they needed to try to collect, and a list of rules they had to follow- like they could only Skip, had to stay with their assigned partner (we picked from a hat), had to figure out what apartment in the B building had something hanging from their door, the could only get 3 things from an apartment before they had to move along (they could always come back after they had visited another apartment), and because I have such incredible neighbors, they each set up their own task for the girls to complete before they could ask for any of the scavenger hunt items and collect the prizes that I left at each apartment. One had them get her dogs footprint, another made them read and play a song on the Piano, another made them say Happy Birthday in Sri Lanken, another tell knock-knock jokes...I tell you, I am pretty sure the adults had as much fun as the kids did!

After the scavenger hunt, we played the "Mummy wrapping" game. I bought (not very smart on this one) the cheapest toilet paper I could find, grouped the girls again and they had to race to try to wrap up one of their teammates, using all the toilet paper, before the other teams. They had a complete ball! By the end, they had unraveled every roll of toilet paper and were playing in it like it was a leaf pile- each got a turn getting buried- it was a messy disaster.


So glad this was in the Party Room and not our apartment!

They then went on to paint their nails (bought every color available at the 100Y store!), eat pizza, and have cake and ice cream. By the end, I think everyone involved (including me and my friend Jenny, whose girls were at the party and who ended up helping me out, thank God!)was completely exhausted. Maya had her friend Tara Grace sleep over, but they didn't last very long after the party was over- they were beat! :)

Scott's trip back home to Michigan
Scott ended up coming home from his trip back to Michigan right at the end of the party with a pretty exhausting story of his own. He ended up coming back to MI during a huge snow/ice storm. He flew into Detroit and had to drive the 2 hours to Portage, which took him over 4 hours. That night, the hotel, The Residence Inn, lost power- so he had no heat, no lights, no TV, no Internet. He ended up hanging out at our friends, the Van Winkle's (thank you Chris and Joell) for the evening, and went back to power, but no heat (they gave him a space heater), no TV and no Internet the remainder of his week...he was NOT a happy camper, but he was so ready to be back home with us!

Annie...or not! Another fun Tokyo Mis-Adventure...

Today the girls and I had another "Tokyo Adventure" gone awry! We had plans with my friend Kim, and her kids Will and Marley, to see the musical Annie at the Christian Academy of Japan. We had mapped it out yesterday, and decided we needed to leave by 2:15 to get there in time for the musical, which started at 4pm. The fun part about this trip was it was around a 45 minute train ride, according to Hyperdia, but on a train line neither of us was familiar with (which typically means it is a smaller line that services an outer area of Tokyo, which this was). We got on and made our first transfer just fine to Ikebukuro Station. At this station, we were supposed to hop on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line (again, according to Hyperdia.com). We walked a very long way in the Ikebukuro station (with four kids in the 2nd largest station in Tokyo), following signs for this line. However, the closer we got to the area we thought we should be in, the less signage there was. The signs were all saying Seibu line, but not the Seibu-Ikebukuro line...which made us have to make an educated guess if we were in the right place. The second issue came with what train to get on- because on the walls, there were no train line maps, we couldn't tell, until we got on the train, what trains stop where- there are several train types- local (which typically stops at EVERY stop), Semi-Express (which stop at fewer), Express (even fewer), Rapid Express (hardly any - a fairly straight shot but only certain routes), etc. The two trains available at the time we were there were the local and the semi-express. We decided to hop on the local, figuring it would get us there for sure, as it stops at every stop, right?? Right??? Well, no, not right! Because we can't read or understand Japanese, we had no way of knowing that this particular local train did NOT stop at all stops, and in fact, only went 4 stops and then TURNED AROUND!! We were at the 4th stop when the train basically shut off, and EVERY single person got off except us- every car was completely empty. We hopped off, knowing something wasn't right, and hearing the conductor say the name of the previous station that we just had come from...we then tried to ask one of the Station employees, in limited Japanese, how to get to the station we needed, and he tried, in limited English to tell us...I think he said we would have had to turn around, go back to the previous station and hop on another train heading out to where we needed to go.

UGH...so, Kim and I, in a brief moment of wisdom (which turned out to be incorrect), decided it would be faster if we went out of the station and found a cab...BAD IDEA. We hustle out of the station, only to realize that we are on the very outskirts of Tokyo- not many cabs to be had, and of those we saw, a few wouldn't even stop for us (not unusual outside of Tokyo- they do not want to deal with the foreigners, because little English is spoken and it becomes very hard to communicate). So, by the time we finally get a cab, it is 3:40, and the musical is slated to start in 20 minutes. We hop in, and to our dismay, the cabbie spoke VERY little English, and the limited he did speak was enough to tell us that the address we were going to (thank goodness for the iPhone- at least we could get the address for the Christian Academy!) was going to take 30 minutes to get to, and that he was not going to "speed"..ha ha, right? It would have been if we didn't have some very disappointed kids in the cab with us! Not only that, but the communications stated because the show was sold out, that were going to release tickets at 3:45! UUGGHHH!!

As the cab driver is driving us, Kim and I discuss the fact that even if we do get there, we will be late and most likely, our tickets will be gone. We made the decision to tell the cab driver that we would like to go back to the Seibu-Ikebukuro station (which now as I type, realize that we told him the train line, and not the correct station name- no wonder we were driving all over town!)..where he proceeds to drive us back to the Ikebukuro station. Our little cab ride ended up costing us 2200 Yen (about $25+ USD), and we didn't end up getting to see the Musical!

We did take the kids to Yoyogi Park to the dog park and to let them run around for a bit, but it was definitely NOT the day I had planned with my girls! I was so very proud of them both though- they didn't complain or get ornery about not being able to see the show- they are starting to get that sometimes we just can't control things (or understand them!), and that we just have to be flexible! We came back and made sandwiches for dinner, popped in the DVD of Annie and had a nice, relaxing night hanging out together...sometimes things just happen for a reason!

Taylor Swift Japan World Tour 2011

The Girls and I outside the Budokan

For Christmas, my parents typically send a small gift to each of us, and then send money, so we can all just buy something we really want/need. This year, we took that money from them and bought Taylor Swift tickets. Taylor was playing at the Nippon Budokan arena (known world wide for its great acoustics- a lot of live albums are taped here...though Scott didn't think the acoustics were that good!) on February 16th and 17th. The dates actually fell on the girls Mid-Winter break, so they did not have school on Thursday or Friday!


What Hanna did most of the concert

It started out with Hanna declaring a few days before that she "DID NOT LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT" anymore...uugh. She held tight to that idea, and was not very excited to go. I thought for sure she would change her mind once we got there- but, that didn't happen. She paid attention for about 1/2 the concert (at first, complaining that this was her "first" concert, and we were "making" her see Taylor Swift!), but then played on my iPhone, sat down and listened and eventually just laid across our seats and tried to sleep (we didn't get out of the concert until 9:30, so she was tired). The good thing is she did not ruin it for any of us- not much complaining or crying....


Singing on the Stage by our Seats

..which was great because Maya had an ABSOLUTE blast. It was both girls first concert, so she didn't have any idea of what to expect. Her first words were "is she going to just sing the whole time"...then, she completely got into it. She stood on her chair, sang her little heart out..I have never, ever seen her so excited and pumped up about anything in my life. It was so fun for Scott and I to see her so excited. There was a small stage set up right to our right- we were literally as close to it as you could get. Part way through the concert, to our delight, Taylor Swift walked down the Aisle to this stage and sang three songs there- two to three feet away!


On the Stage right next to us!

She sang Fifteen, Fearless and You Belong With Me right in front of us, then proceeded to walk off the stage and walk around and high five a lot of the kids! Maya got a high five and a guitar pic from her- she kept saying "I am NEVER going to wash my hand again", "I can't believe she touched me"- she now says her left hand is her "lucky" hand! It was in my opinion, the absolute best first concert experience ever, and worth every penny. Taylor Swift puts on a nice show, had a great voice and is really just a great role model for kids- it was clean, exciting and fun!! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Murphy!


At the End of the Concert

Hanna's field trip to the National Science Museum

Hanna's Class outside the Museum

On Wednesday, February 16th, Hanna's preschool class at Yoyogi took a field trip to the National Science Museum at Ueno Park. We had never been, so I was excited to join the group and check out this museum. Hanna's class theme for the month of February was Dinosaur's, so that is the area of the museum that her class concentrated on. I have been to the Smithsonian and to the Museum of Natural History in NYC, and this Dinosaur area was as good as either of those! Hanna thought they were SO very interesting, took my camera and just snapped photo after photo....I took a look- not sure what half of them are of, exactly, but boy, did she have a good time.


Hanna in front of the TRex

The most annoying part of the day was this guy below. He would follow the group around, and before we even left the exhibit we were looking at, he would jump in and beautify (clean) the glass!! SO Japanese, and SO Frustrating!! This photo is actually of a guy that wasn't following our group- the guy following us realized I was trying to take a photo, so every time I would put the camera up, he would stand up straight and stop doing it!!



I have to say that this field trip was quite annoying to the mom's! The kids all had a ball, which I guess is what really counts. But out of a 6 hour day, only about 2 hours was actually enjoying the museum. Hanna's school is so structured and anal retentive- there are rules, rules and more rules. We were told exactly what exhibits we could look at (the teacher did not want us to look at anything the students hadn't been studying), what area we had to stay in (Floor B1, with our group, with the entire class,etc). The teacher would tell us where we could go, when we could move to another floor, what bathrooms we had to use- it was completely ridiculous. There was no fun, spontaneous touring- I think her teacher may have had a heart attack had we tried to veer off the "schedule". Now this structure would have been completely understandable if there were only a few volunteers, but each group had 2-3 moms with them (all but maybe 3 moms attended), so there were more adults(including teachers and staff) than there were kids. It even went so far as the teacher telling us we couldn't get off the bus and leave- that we had to actually walk up to the class room, so she could dismiss the kids from there (so the mom's had to walk up to the hallway and wait so she could check them off her list). I had a bit of a disagreement with Ms. Carr-Berry, and took Hanna with me right off the bus. Ughh...a few more months and both girls will be at ASIJ- normal schedule, normal procedures...just more normal!! Yoyogi has been great academically for Hanna- she is reading and learning at such an earlier pace than Maya did in the Public School in Michigan- but it is run more like a business and definitely has a lot of oddities that I just don't understand. Good thing the kids and the families are great- it makes such a difference!

Yokohama

On Saturday, February 5th, Scott and I took the girls to Yokohama. We didn't scratch the surface of all the fun and cool things to do in Yokohama, but we did go on the World's Largest Ferris Wheel, as well as a few other cool roller coasters, a visit to the Red Brick Warehouse, and a not so fancy lunch at McDonald's (no surprise there!).

Maya's Reader's Theater and Valentine's Day Party

Maya's class did a Reader's Theater of the Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munch.

Hanna's class did not have a Valentine's Day party, so I pulled her out of school to go see Maya's Reader's Theater, and stay for her Valentine's Day Party!

Abbey Road- Roppongi

Scott and I with friends, Bill and Karen Pond and Lydon and Mary Oliver

Scott and I went with our friends, Bill and Karen Pond and Mary and Lydon Oliver to Abbey Road, a famous Beatles Bar here in Tokyo. We had an absolutely great time- it was a little bit cheesy, but the band was actually pretty good. In between every song (sang in English), they would go into some long sch-peel in Japanese about who knows what- my assumption is it would have taken approximately 2 sentences to say what they said in 5 minutes- it is such a polite society! They also celebrated about 3 dozen birthdays, in which they had to sing Happy Birthday to each and every one. We had a really fun night, and even got our photo taken with the Japanese "John Lennon".


Scott and I with the Japanese "John Lennon"

Nabe Lunch

Sukiyaki- mmmm...delicious!

The school that Hanna goes to is an International Preschool, with a lot of kids from all over the world. Hanna has friends from Japan (100% Japanese, or 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 another nationality), Israel, Russia, the U.S., France, the UK...she has been exposed to so much and it has been such a growth experience for not only her, but myself as well. I have had the opportunity to meet and make friends with many of the moms, which allows me to learn about other countries, traditions, and most deliciously, FOOD! A few of the moms that I have gotten to know do a monthly lunch and/or cooking class- either teaching myself and a few of the other moms how to cook (like a cooking lesson- baking, sushi, etc.), or showing us how to make a particular type of Japanese food in which we get to eat. This past week, we met at my friend Nobuko's, for a traditional Nabe lunch. Nabe is a Japanese soup- the broth can be pretty much anything- chicken, tomato, etc., and it put in pots on a burner to heat up...once heated, other random food is thrown in- mostly veggies, but also meat, noodles and other good, healthy stuff. We turned our Nabe lunch into a Sukiyaki lunch. Sukiyaki is a soy based broth, that you put in a pan and heat to a boil (they do have special pans/burners for this, which our friends had- however, you can also do it in a regular sauce or soup type pan). After it is boiling, you put in veggies (most traditionally carrots, Root, Chinese cabbage, noodles, mushrooms), along with thinly sliced meat (which is sold in all grocery stores here- it is very good!). As it cooks, you get to sit around and chat and pick things out as they are cooked through. It is a continuing process, as you take things out and eat, and after you take them out, you add more! Easy and delicious! I took a bunch of the left over fresh veggies, the Sukiyaki sauce and bought some meat and made it for Scott and the girls the next night. Scott loved it, the girls, as usual, picked at it, then made their own sandwiches for dinner!


Yoyogi Moms- Yuri, Linda, Leigh, Kim and Eme