Friday, January 28, 2011

Scary times in Japan

Grammy and I were walking thru a park when we got the call that Hannah Lee needed to be picked up from school because of an almost 104 degree temperature! We rushed to get her. She was lethargic, and I had to carry her home. Thank goodness the other Nissan Mom took control and brought me Tylenol and then drove us to a clinic. Hannah was diagnosed with type B influenza and is on a 5 day anti-viral for the first time in her life. It was not surprising because type A and B influenza has been going around the school this week. She is feeling better today. We are very excited for Adam to get home this evening after being apart for 3 1/2 weeks. He had Nissan business in China and Thailand. We will spend this evening and tomorrow with Grammy and Grampy, and then they leave early Monday morning.

Also, yesterday was the biggest volcano eruption in 50 years in Japan! Click on the article below for amazing pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351064/Japan-raises-alert-following-volcanos-biggest-eruption-50-years.html

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

After school nature walk





















The day was beautiful, so we decided to end it outside walking around. We played along the way. There is a high viewpoint where you can see Mt Fugi and the ships in the ocean. We hung out there watching the sun go down. Grammy had sushi (for the first time) for dinner. She liked the Salmon Mayo Aburi, which is raw laying on a little bit of rice.




Garden Day with Grammy








The signs of early Spring have begun with the first cherry blossoms (white), and then the plum blossoms (fuchsia). Grammy loved exploring Sankien Gardens...the old tea houses, homes, and shrines (and taking pictures). We experienced the green tea ceremony. There was a couple having a photo shoot, probably for their marriage ceremony. I got to make a wish in the stone wishing well that we came across.





Tuesday with Grammy








Our morning started off as usual with breakfast, and Hannah cutting confetti. She is obsessed with using her scissors this week. She can cut equally well with her right and left hand...which leads me to believe she will be ambidextrious. I wonder if she will be good playing instruments because of this? After we left her at school we walked the nature area behind our home. We explored the graveyard area and Grammy says it looks like a mini skyscraper city. The area was locked up behind gates, so we could not get too close to it all. Our research says that 99.8% are cremated and then placed in the family grave. The ritual includes two family members holding a bone of the body with chopsticks to carefully place into the urn, starting with the feet so as not to have the person layed in upside down.
Later we biked to an older area of Yokohama and shopped a little and then had tomkutsu, which is lightly fried pork cutlet on rice. There were no forks, so Grammy was forced to use chop sticks...which she struggles with. (but at least it was not bones!)






Monday, January 24, 2011

Bike ride to Yamashita Park with Grammy

























Today we biked to see the ocean at Yamashita Park.
We enjoyed expoloring a new area to Hannah Lee and I on the upper deck of the Park.
We found several "homes" to the homeless in this area. The homeless population is very rare here, so this must be where most of them live. It is right next to a public restroom, and there are beautiful flowers here...so it is a good place to sleep. We were impressed with Grammy's ability to keep up with us on the bike!



Ice Skating





After the flea market, we stopped for ice skating. I have only done this once in my life in my teens, but I have roller skated the last 3 sundays in TN, so I felt confident taking Hannah Lee for the experience. She actually did better with ice skating than she did with roller skating! It was really fun! Hopefully Adam will join us next time.

Flea Market











We made it to the Nissan Stadium for our first Japanese Flea Market experience.

It was verybusy with lots of miscellaneous items for sale. We found several treasures.

Hannah Lee loved the cotton candy, jumping dolphin, and water display.



Saturday, January 22, 2011

Jet Lag Japan











Hannah Lee, Grammy, and I had a reasonably good flight to our home in Japan. We have seen all hours of the days and nights still recovering from Jet Lag. Hannah Lee and I are thrilled to have Grammy help us with this transition after having so much fun with our TN visit with family and friends. Adam left for Japan, then China, then Thailand on Jan 3rd, and we will not see him again until Jan 29th. This is really hard on all of us to be separated. Hannah Lee was able to attend school on Thursday and Friday and that allowed us to make the trek by foot, bus, and train to Costco to get food back in the house. Having the extra body and backpack allowed me to get more than usual to stock up our home. Grammy and I bicycled Hannah Lee to the store "Homes" to get her a new goldfish. She chose to name it UT like her old fish. We also got to view Mt Fugi from our back yard yesterday morning! Today we will go to Nissan Stadium for a flea market experience. We will also attempt to find the hotel that Grampy will be staying in and be there for his arrival from TN. He will be working here this week for Nissan, and we will all get together when Adam arrives next weekend for one day together before Grammy and Grampy fly back to TN.