Jacob's songs

Here are a few videos of Jacob singing songs.  The first is one about gorillas that he learned at school.  I speak Japanese, and I cannot understand much of what he is saying here, but it is really cute:

Next is a song that he made up about a very intense Japanese mint called Coldsmash:

Weekend Adventuring

Spring officially arrives tomorrow (we're celebrating with a school holiday, so...yay?). 

We've been in the early spring phase for weeks here. I've been told that this was a weird winter here - there were really weren't any of those bitterly cold days that I remember from the last time we lived here. But it isn't warm yet. Soon enough it will be more than warm and wet enough, so we're okay with the cooler days right now. We can still get out and go to parks, we just bring our jackets! 

We begin our adventures by stopping for snacks, of course.

 
Here are a few pictures from the Tokyo farmer's market:

 
This was an exciting, awesome scene. I loved it - I'd definitely recommend it if you're visiting Tokyo. It won't take all day, but the excellent central location of the market means that you can browse, eat lunch there, and then head off to check out something else. In our case, we went to Niko Niko playground. This is playground that requires a small admission fee, which sort of runs contrary to my belief that playgrounds are a public good, but, well, as it turns out, I also like clean bathrooms, trash cans, enforced rules, and, well, awesome play structures.

We've also made a return visit to the park that we had visited in January with our old friends. Verdict: still fun!

This time, the paddle boat rental was open. I thought there would be a long line. Alas, there wasn't. On the plus side, Natalie loved steering. On the downside, bumper boats are sort of a culturally specific experience, I think.

Something interesting about the park is that is has very fancy sewer covers:

 Actually, Tsukuba has really fancy covers, too. I'll have to get a pic to share. 

Today, we walked to our local park, hoping to have a cherry blossom picnic. Alas, I think we were too early. There was, like, one tree in the whole park in bloom (which, oddly, seemed sightly past peak bloom). So we picnicked under that. On the way to the park, we passed some very pretty trees in bloom, though. More and more flower bulbs and bushes are also starting to blossom. I do think the park will be beautiful in due time, and now we have our official flower blossom picnic mats and we've had a practice picnic, so we'll be ready!

Hope spring is treating you right, too!

Tsukuba, Part II

Here is the rest of the Tsukuba post. 

It's 40 degrees and raining today. Which is exactly the same as it was last Monday. How do I know? It always seems to rain here on Mondays - wrestling Jacob, his nap bag (containing a mini-futon and a mini-quilt), his backpack, an umbrella, and an umbrella stroller is no soft start to the week (rainy days and Mondays, right?). Also, I know that the umbrella stroller is so named because it folds like an umbrella, but given that it's virtually impossible to use an umbrella while pushing an umbrella stroller, it seems extra cruel. And wet.

But, hey, kids in raincoats are super-cute!

As are kids in hand-knit sweaters! This sweater was knit for Mike by his grandmother. Interestingly enough, both Mike and I are winter babies (like Jacob), but Natalie is a summer baby. So most of the sweaters knit for us by our grandmothers (I remember a blue sweater with a green stripe that my grandmother knit) mostly had a season / size mismatch for her - this even more so in Texas where true winter weather is three weeks, at best. But Jacob is wearing the heck out of this sweater. And I love that.

 
So, yes, Tsukuba. The land where the parks have a lot of rules, but we manage to have fun, anyway.


Almost all of the pics on this blog are shot with my iPhone, but yesterday I took my fancy camera to the park to take some shots of the kids at play.



It was so cold that we ended up leaving the park after 20 minutes. It's a good thing that we can also have fun indoors.

A few weeks ago, we went to an amazing farmer's market in Tokyo (pics forthcoming). Last weekend, we visited the slightly more sedate - but equally delicious - monthly Tsukuba farmer's market. Jacob ate some sweet potato (possibly the first non-disguised veggie he's eaten in months!) and Natalie rode a miniature pony. A good time was had by all!


In terms of local fun, we also checked out the local professional basketball team. Basketball is not a very popular sport in Japan. So while we were at a game in the league equivalent to Japan's NBA, the scene was pretty chill. Also, I'm told that the team is own by a (former?) professor at Tsukuba University. Crazy, right? I can't imagine a professor in the US - even a superstar professor - having the capital for a professional basketball team.

The team is called  . . . wait for it  . . . the Tsukuba Robots. Because of course.

We also continue to have a love-hate (love-hurt?) relationship with sumo. Here's a little time-lapse photo that really only demonstrates parental amnesia / misplaced optimism.

Because I strive to make this a full-service, full-experience blog (no free drinks, no valet parking, though), here's a documentary all about Tsukuba. It's about 30 minutes long, but if you just want to see a few shots of Natalie's school, they start at 12:15.

By way of conclusion, I'll share a few faint signs of spring that we've seen. I think the top left is a plum tree; the other three blooming trees might be ornamental cherry trees; not sure what the bottom right is, but I love it. Spring break was hardly spring-like, alas. And next Monday is a national holiday for spring equinox, but I doubt we'll be out picnicking under blossoming trees. But that is coming...

Tsukuba Moments

Here's the long-promised Tsukuba post. As I was writing this, I realized I had a lot to share. So there'll be a second Tsukuba post. Eventually.
 
Compared to where we were living last time we were here, we now live much more in the center of town. We can walk to four different grocery stores, two international foods stores, the train station, and lots of local parks. I thought we'd buy / rent bikes for transportation, but we're actually so close to everything that we don't even need bikes. Although Tsukuba has a fairly suburban reputation, this is a very urban experience for us.

We are really reliant on the stroller. And there's none of that "Your kid is old enough to walk" business here. I don't know if that sort of parent-judging exists and I'm just happily oblivious, or it does exist but we're getting a pass because Jacob is on the smaller side, or if it really isn't a thing because everyone is out walking and stroller-ing all the time. We hardly ever used the stroller with Natalie once she was able to walk. But here the stroller is a daily thing.

(Some of us also adore the extremely lengthy sidewalk reconstruction / street resurfacing project that our street has been experiencing since we moved in. Others of us have started taking bets on when it will be done.)

High above the street, our apartment is reeeeeeeaaaaalllly small. And it has definitely seen better days. It's sort of like living in a dorm. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice enough dorm, a two-room suite; the kind of set-up you'd get as a college senior with a super-good lottery number and super-good luck. And I'm glad that no one seems to care too much about stained carpet or peeling wallpaper because, well, let's just say that my kids aren't, um, improving the aesthetics of the place.

Allow me to share some evidence (okay, not really, because when it looks awful, I never take pictures, so here are the kids playing. You can imagine the aftermath!):




The trains remain popular. Here they are in their more ordered state.

I made the kids binoculars. They resembled binoculars for all of five minutes. They they were train tunnels, microphones, bowling pins, etc.

Requisite shot of children eating spaghetti required for discussions involving children + messes:

So, yeah, most weekends find us out and about, even if we're staying in Tsukuba. We might as well get the energy out in a park rather than in the living room!

We are heavy users of the pedestrian / bike path that runs from the big park south of us, through the main part of town with the train station, and then all the way up to the university.

In early February, Jacob's school had a mochi-making party on a Saturday morning. It was super-cute and very fun (Mike and I are mochi experts, obviously, since we've done it once before). We are really loving Jacob's school - it has a great, friendly, kind vibe.




Here are Jacob and Natalie with one of Jacob's favorite teachers. It's really cute - Jacob even has a little English nickname for her (a play on her name).

Tsukuba markets itself as "Science City." Robotics are a really big deal. In fact, the pedestrian / bike path mentioned above has all these signs on it that suggests it is also a robot test zone. So I guess I should have called it a pedestrian / bike / robot path.

Until recently, however, we had yet to see any robots. Sort of a letdown, that. But then the robot expo came to town. We were walking by, happened upon it, and stopped to explore. The kids loved it, of course.

Our Tsukuba adventures aren't generally exhausting, but every now and then, Jacob will nap while we're out around town. Sleep-wise, though, we've been having some post-bedtime visits - the other night he appeared and told us he was having an emergency. Further questioning revealed the emergency to be that no one was in his room.


Our bedtime struggles are likely related to the fact that Jacob still naps. But we love this time with Natalie! While Jacob naps, we usually read, do schoolwork, and play games with Natalie.

Here's one kid-free adventure: Mike and I found an amazing sushi place for a lunch date!

 
Funny story - I had a momentary freak-out when I saw the chopsticks rest. But then I remembered the kids were in school. It's really hard to turn off the parent-of-a-peanut-allergic-kid part of your brain!

And now for the every day stuff. I've come to the not terribly profound realization that the experience of living abroad / parenting abroad is a lot like parenting itself. Which is to say, the short version (said with a smile) is that it's amazing. Full stop. The long version (and, oh, some days are soooooo long) is that it's a tremendous privilege, an experience that I'll never forget, but that it's also really, really hard sometimes. Also: amazing (cue smile). 

So all the daily, regular stuff still has to get done. And all the stuff that is an ordinary bother or stressor at home becomes more so here.

For example, haircuts. No way I'm getting my own hair cut here when I can't communicate with the stylist. But, hey, getting your kids' hair cut is just as stressful! I was really worried that they'd cut off all Jacob's curls.


 But they didn't! Hooray!

As I've mentioned before, I do A LOT of laundry. Some of this is related to the kids' schools (daily handtowels, daily changes of clothes), some of it is related to the fact that we only brought a small number of clothes for each season, and some of it is related to having a pretty weak clothes dryer. I think of our dryer more like a towel warmer - it's happy to finish the job, but it isn't going to efficiently get things dry straight from the washer (It also vents into the bathroom, which I find . . . humid). The dryer situation means that my laundry progress is constrained by what I can dry outside on our drying rack (which is, of course, determined by the weather). For maximum outdoor drying / sun exposure, I need to get the clothes out on the balcony as early as possible. So laundry is often the first thing I do when I wake up. Luckily, I have a trusty assistant who is VERY interested in pushing the buttons on the washing machine.

Sending love from the land of sushi, smiles, and questionable curtains!