National event

Japan holds an annual sporting event throughout several cities each year.  This year it happens to be held in Tokyo so numerous cities surrounding Tokyo are holding different sporting events this week.  We have been seeing signs for this event since we arrived in Kodaira not knowing what it was for.  We finally had it translated by one of Seth's contacts.  Kodaira is home to the volleyball tournament and Koengi is home of basketball and archery.  Here's one of the giant flyers

We aren't sure why the mascot is a seagull type of bird or even what the purple blob represents but aren't they cute.  When we first got here there were maybe a dozen around Kodaira but by Friday there were hundreds everywhere!

Today we went and walked around all the vendors and even went and watched one of the matches!  The girls were extremely tall! They were so fast and powerful too!

It was funny being in a crowded gymnasium knowing the overall game but not being able to understand anything people were screaming.  And some of the rules were different, they went to 25 points instead of 21 and played best of 5 stead of best of 3.  So every time we thought it was over and were ready to clap...it wasn't haha

After watching the matches we went back to the vendors and at some food.  We got some noodle/egg/cabbage thing, meat on a stick, and a meat/dough thing.  And a chocolate covered banana

It wasn't bad but I think its better when the banana is frozen

Marley doesn't look happy but he LOVED the chocolate!

There were even mascots in person!

 

I have learned my lesson though.  When there is a huge line of people waiting for a free sample, avoid it! They have different taste buds here and mine do not agree!  We waited in line for what looked like a parfait with blueberry topping.  When in reality it was blue berry goo, followed by a layer of beans (like re-fried!), and then some type of white goop.  It was not yogurt for sure!  It was gross! Kelly and Seth realized I wasn't a fan and chased me around the playground wiggling the goop at me laughing  :)

 

Sangokan

Our house is at the tail end of Tsuda College's campus.  Its official name is SangoKan! The trees are a little in the way but its a big yellow house! Originally the President of Tsuda College lived here.  But it has been divided into two apartments for visiting professors to use.  We have successfully done our first load of laundry correctly.  Only took us 3 tries to get it, the first two came out completely wet.  It is a washer/dryer combo machine and only take 3 hours and 40 minutes to do one tiny load!

You can tell the stress of having to get everything in order at their new house on top of working and having a three year old to care for is finally starting to creep up on Kelly and Seth.  They are behind in work, sleep, and are a little cranky to each other.  Marley is also struggling with something (we aren't sure what though).  whenever it comes time to leave he becomes upset, cries, and cannot seem to settle himself.  Not sure if hes getting sick, behind on sleep, or overall just overwhelmed but it takes like 40 minutes to get him dressed, teeth brushed, and out the door.  Usually still crying...

This is a picture of the fountain near the pool/playground near the college!

My first friend...

Well it had to happen sooner or later.  I made my first friend today.  We met on a train going visit a temple.  It wasn't a particularly crowded train but Kelly, Seth, and Marley sat down on one side and there weren't any seats next to them so I sat across from them next to this guy.  We were on the train for about 5 minutes when I realized we would soon be close friends.  And within about 10 minutes we were super close.  Here is a picture of Seth, Kelly, and Marley while I got to know my new friend.

 

Kelly is practically laughing, and Seth is trying to hide his face.  I'm not sure why they wanted to laugh at my new friend.  Unfortunately I was not able to catch his name as he was not in a state of mind to tell me.  We shall call him SanSleepy.

 

 

 

SanSleepy was not willing to smile for the camera as his head slowly creeped toward my shoulder.  It was difficult to capture my friendship on camera without disturbing him but this was about 7 minutes into our trip.  After about 10 minutes and another 4 inches closer to me I quietly sat up and moved to the other side of my friend. 

 

The End.



Visited a preschool today...

Seth and Kelly are looking into a preschool/daycare type for Marley for when I leave in December.  There are not too many English speaking preschools in this area of Japan so their pickings are slim.  We went to visit one today that they were hopefully would be the "one".  They had emailed when would be a good time and was told that today at 10am was open house to the parents and the best oppertunity to visit and see what it would be like.  We took three trains and when we got there they had already started circle time.  No one greeted us and made eye contact.  There were about 15 children in a space the size of a small living room back home.  We sat for about an hour and watched as they counted, did sharing, and went on and on... I was getting bored, i don't know how the kids were sitting there that long.  Marley had had enough about 15 minutes into the whole thing. We ended up leaving after about an hour and 20 minutes because Marley could not handle it and it was apparent no one was going to talk to us.  There was no outside space to the place, it was literally a house turned into preschool.  The children were cute but is was a HUGE let down to Seth and Kelly.  Back to square one...

 

Temple/Shrine visit

Yesterday we went t our first official temple/shrine/cemetery.  It was gorgeous any so well kept but unfortunately the temple was closed.  Here is a map of where we went:

This next picture is of the cemetery.  The top floor is a burial ground for one person, while the second to top floor contains the grounds of four people, and then the next floor is a look out/informational.  Its huge for only 5 people! In front of the cemetery was a pond with huge fish! one seriously looked like it could eat a dog!

Then we walked up some stairs to the bronze figure of sugawara michizane.  He was in front of the temple

We saw this giant praying mantis on our way out of the temple.  He was longer than the size of my palm!

It is a lot harder to look around and enjoy the beauty of everything when there is a three year old running in every direction! He has the mental capacity to stay in the same place for maybe 10 minutes and then after that he is like a wild baboon.  The worst is at dinner when I swear he grows another 5 arms and gets into everything!  Thankfully Marley has been very open to trying all the new types of food thankfully but that is not very helpful when three bites into our meals he is done and wants to run.  We went to dinner the other night with Seth's contact from the college.  She offered to order since none of the waiters spoke any english.  Its funny how fast I learned about Marley's habits and know when things are not going to go well.  She ordered two different types of whole dried fish, one looked kinda like a flounder fish.  And then a type of a sashimi raw fish.  As the hot tea was delivered she set one in front of Marley along with a little plate of wasabi.  The whole dinner was a constant battle of removing things from his reach and being polite and eating the weird dried fish haha

Here's a picture of Marley and mama walking down our path!

Kodaira

  We finally made it to Kodaira, the city we will be living in for the remainder of the trip.  It is completely the opposite of downtown Tokyo.  Everyone is relaxed and wearing their own unique style of clothing where in Tokyo it was extremely business oriented.  Its still interesting how little people look or make notice of us.  The house/apartment here is on the back side of Tsuda College.  It is an all women's college with about 2500 students.  There is one bedroom where they sleep with Marley, then a living/dining room with a kitchen table and an authentic Japanese table on the floor.  Then there is my bed (notice i did not say bedroom haha) I have a futon mattress tucked into a hole in the wall in the living room.  Minus the lack of privacy its not bad because I fit nicely into the space.  The only real pitfall of sleeping on the floor is that it is easier for bugs to get me! So far we have seen only 2 cockroaches thankfully but also some really cool small lizards.  They are about the size of my pinky finger.  OH and the mosquitos are eating me like a piece of chocolate cake! I have at least 25 between both my legs! Kelly and I seem to get bit every few minutes while Seth only has a few and Marley has none! They say the bugs should start to go away in a few weeks when the weather cools down.

We had our first earthquake two days ago in the middle of the night.  There was an interesting sense of calmness with us though thinking how its such a regular occurrence here.  In the few days we've been here I've eaten Chinese food, a doughnut with purple bean paste inside instead of jelly, whole baby squid sushi, and some type of almond extract mixed with a poached egg and an ice cube.  Its funny how you miss weird things when you are away but also eating weird chewy seafood of sometype in noodle dishes and it feels normal haha  I can also proudly say I have eaten everything with a chopstick so far, minus the soup for lunch.

This sign is from a starbucks in Tokyo

Adventures with a three year old...

Today was our last full day in Tokyo before we head to Kodaira tomorrow.  Kelly, Marley, and I explored the city yesterday and today.  We went up the Tokyo Tower yesterday and looked around.  Here are two pictures from the top of the tower.  Within 2 seconds of getting off the elevator at the top all Marley wanted to do was ride the elevator down. That and escalators are his favorite things to do...

 We met the father for lunch today and order something (we have no idea what it was!) It was the first place we've gone that we had to take our shoes off.  But heres a picture of one of the things we ate.  It had tentacles! Also, there were baby shirmp bodies the size of a thumb nail and miniature fish even smaller.

We found an 8 story toy park right next to our hotel today.  It was the first time Marely has been focused or stood still this whole trip.  He played for a solid 40 minutes with complete concentration!

 

Surviving Day 1

Day one: check!

It was a long day but I have survived day 1.  We explored and found where Seth will need to go tomorrow for orientation and then found a park/lake for Marley to play. Downtown Tokyo was the eye of a seasonal storm today so it was super windy and rainy.  We were practically blown away!

Ordering food seemed to be the most difficult of the day.  Thankfully places have pictures to give us an idea of what to pick but for the most part its a guess with hope that it tastes good.  We were pretty successful though, we had two noodles dishes, and some dumplings!

Planning on going to the Tokyo Tower tomorrow!