ASIJ Tohoku Hallween Party- October 29, 2011

On Saturday, October 29th, I had the opportunity to join some ASIJ Teachers and High school Students in putting on a large scale Halloween Party for the kids in Ishinomaki City. Ishinomaki city is about a 7 hour drive north from Tokyo, so we left at 3am, and didn't return until about 11pm that night.

The city was among the most seriously affected by the earthquake and tsunami. A tsunami about 10 meters high traveled 600 meters inland and destroyed about 80% of the houses in the coastal areas, with about 46% of the city inundated by the tsunami.Ishinomaki city was the first city that allowed the ASIJ community to help after March 11th- delivering over 400 desks, school supplies, food, care packages, clothing, etc, and ASIJ has kept continuing its help over the past 7 months. The roads we drove on were covered by the tsunami, but most of the cleanup, at least in the areas we were in, has been done. The Tohoku Halloween party was a way that the ASIJ community could help bring a little bit of happiness to these kids and families that have experienced so very much since March 11th. I was so grateful to get the opportunity to help- it really was a phenomenal experience for me. I had the chance to play photographer all day, which was quite a treat. Many of the people that attended (over 600) lost everything- photos, possessions, valuables, family members. I was given a Polaroid camera and took photos of families, kids, grandparents- everyone and anyone that I could. They were so happy to have pictures to take home with them, which made my day completely worth it!!

The Bag Decorating Table. All the kids in the Elementary, middle and some a few from the  high school decorated one side of the trick or treat bags, and the kids who came got to decorate the other.

This past Friday ASIJ celebrated Halloween with a Parade, All-school carnival and class parties. Both of my girls were beautiful Bumblebees. It was a wonderful day!

Girls at the ASIJ Halloween Carnival

Birthday Breakfast at Viron!

Leigh, Jenny, Emi, Kim, Denise and Katie!

My friend Kim surprised me by organizing a birthday breakfast with some of my closest friends here at a French restaurant called Viron in Shibuya! What a great way to start off the morning! I will miss my friends dearly when we move back! :(

DisneySea Tokyo

ASIJ had a four day weekend surrounding a Japanese Holiday, so I took the girls, along with my friend Katie Vaughn and her two daughters, Lauren and Amanda, down to DisneySea. We had not been there and were really interested in going before we move back in 2012. DisneySea is a one of a kind park with a lot of the popular Disney World park attractions put together in this one park. They had Tower of Terror, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones, Gondola Rides in Venice, a roller coaster similar to the Barn Stormer....

I did not tell the girls where we were going before we met up with Katie and her girls at the Hatchobori station- just that they needed to wear walking shoes and be well rested. They were really excited when they found out, and they were absolutely excellent all day long. DisneySea was very crowded (I am talking 20 minute lines to get drinks and ice cream), which was a bit frustrating. We got to go on 8 rides total, and see one show, but the girls didn't mind at all. We waited for 2 hours for the Indiana Jones ride and at least 40 minutes for every other ride. The girls were very popular once again with the teenage Japanese girls- Kawaii, Kawaii (cute) they kept saying. One group kept trying to talk to me, and ask me about Maya's hair (they wanted to know if she had a permanent!)- very kawaii!!

Beginning of the day with my girls!

Girls looking mad because of the 2 hour Indiana Jones line

Girls at night in front of the world

Hanna, Amanda, Maya and Lauren with Goofy

With the guitar playing skeletons

This group of Japanese girls LOVED the 4 kiddos. 

Blue Man Group in Roppongi for my Birthday!

We bought Blue Man Group tickets for my birthday on October 9th. The theater is in Roppongi, so we trained down and went to lunch then to the 1pm show. Scott and I had seen the Blue Man group in NYC about 10 years ago, so we knew we would like it, but the girls had no idea what they were. The girls LOVED the show, with Maya asking if she could go again for her birthday! I will say, the show is much more technologically advanced than when we saw it the first time, and it was also different than the first time as well. It turned out to be a fantastic way to spend the afternoon!

In front of the sign- the girls were very nervous and excited!

With our Blue Man!

Scott and the Girls

Scott and Maya with their blue friends!

World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011

On Saturday, October 8th, I brought Maya and her friend Ainsley to the World Gymnastics Championships at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The top 8 teams qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The gymnast that recently won the U.S. Gymnastics Championship, Jordyn Wieber, is 16 and  from DeWitt, Michigan, which is about 100 miles away from Kalamazoo. We had the chance to watch the U.S. team, which won the qualifying round by over 3 pts (ahead of the nearest country, Russia), and Jordyn came in 2nd overall. The entire team was fantastic!

Maya with Ainsley George 

Team USA

Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

Japanese Sports day at ASIJ

The girls celebrated Japanese Sports day on Friday, October 7th. Officially called Health and Sports day, it is a national holiday in Japan held annually on the second Monday in October. It commemorates the opening of the 1964 Olympics being held in Tokyo, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle.

ASIJ Separates each class and then grade into red (Aka) and white (Shiro), then divides the grades into groups (K-2, in the afternoon, 3-5 in the morning). They then compete in three events- tug of war, bean bag todd and the ball roll. All red in all three grades vs all white in those same grades. It is supposed to be non-competitive, but everyone, from the kids to the teachers to the parents is out cheering and working hard (well, maybe the parents aren't working so hard, but they do yell and cheer!).

Hanna's group (K-2) was energetic, but yet, the kindergartner's seemed completely lost for the first part of it. Both sides chant cheers for their respective teams (Aka Ganbatte (do your best red) and Shiro Ganbatte (do your best white)) and she and her friends looks completely bewildered. Hanna was on the white team with her friends Tessa and Saraa. They did end up catching on, and it was very fun to watch. It was Hanna's first year participating, and though she said for days prior that she was "Not doing the tug of war because she wasn't any good at it", she had a blast. Her favorite game? The TUG of WAR!! 

Hanna and her friend Saraa rolling the white ball

Tug of War

Hanna and I

It was Maya's first year in the 3-5 grade bracket, and I was amazed at how competitive and into those kids get. Her group was a lot louder and rambunctious than the first group, and surprising to me, Maya was cheering, yelling and completely competitive compared to last year. She wanted to win, and that in itself was really cool! :) Maya was on the red team with her friends Sarah and Ainsley.

Maya, Sacie-Elodie and Sarah pushing the red ball

Maya Tugging!

Maya, Sarah, Lauren and Isabelle

Rakuten Open 2011

On Thursday, October 6th, Scott and I joined our friends Kim and Ken Graham at the Rakuten Open Men's professional tennis tournament. We had fantastic weather (almost too hot for sitting outdoors all day), and had the chance to see David Ferrer (ATP rank #6), Rafael Nadal (ATP rank #2) and Andy Murray (ATP rank #4) play and the tennis was fantastic. They all won, and all but the last match was pretty close. Nadal's opponent, Milos Radnic had a serve of about 140  miles an hour- Nadal rarely returned it, which is why the match was so close. What a fantastic day!

In front of the Rakuten Open 2011 sign

Rafael Nadal

Showa Kinen Park

We went for the third time to Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa, Japan. This is the girls FAVORITE park. It is an old U.S. Military base that was turned into a beautiful park with great biking trails, ponds, mini-golf, paddle boats and a wonderful children's play area.

Girls on Dragon