Our Typical Week

On my friend's blog she recently wrote about their day to day life.  I thought that it was a great idea since I usually just blog when we "do something".

Sundays - Since Kurt is the Ward Executive Secretary he has to attend Bishopric meetings that start at 6:30am.  The trains don't run very often that early in the morning, so he usually rides a bike to church, which is actually faster!  He can get to church in about 5 minutes, while it takes me about 15 minutes between walking and the train.  The kids and I get ready and try really hard to get to church by 9am.  Sometimes if it's raining we'll take a taxi to church.  It costs 710 yen since we're less than 2 km away.

After church is usually lunch and then mandatory nap time for the entire family. :)

Weekdays - Logan leaves for school at 8:10am and returns between 1:45 and 2:45pm depending on the day.  We usually wake up around 7:15am to get dressed (some mornings the kids get up earlier to watch TV and play), eat breakfast, brush teeth, etc.  Logan's school provides lunch which is nice.  So, basically we just have to get him dressed and send him out the door.  Elementary school students walk to and from school by themselves.  After school Logan gets to play his computer, etc. for a little break.  I used to have him spend more time working in his English workbooks, but I haven't lately.  Some days we have no computer days and he'll play outside with Kelsie, read, play inside with Avri, or help me out.  He's an awesome, obedient little boy.

Kelsie doesn't have to be at school until around 9am.  She goes to school everyday, but on Wednesdays she has a short day and is done with school at 11:30am.  The rest of the days school ends at 2pm.  Kurt takes her to school on the bike or Avri and I walk with her to school.  It's a 500m walk, which takes 5-10 minutes depending on whether you get stopped by a red line or a train crossing.  Three days a week, I send lunches with her to school.  Most Japanese moms make awesome bentos for their children.  I am not that cool and I value my sleep. :)  Kelsie gets Mickey Mouse nuggets (from Costco), rice, carrots, and some kind of fruit for dessert most days.  After school, Kelsie sometimes naps...depending on if she or I need it. :)  Other days she rides her bike or scooter outside, watches movies with Logan, colors, plays with Avri, etc.

Bedtime is at 8pm, and to be honest if Kurt isn't home, it's sometimes earlier. :)

Avri just goes with the flow.  I try to make sure she gets her 2 naps in everyday.  She won't nap in the stroller, so if I'm going to be out and about I usually have to bring the Baby Ergo along.

Kurt's schedule is always different.  Technically, his office is in our bedroom.  However, since he does sales he's all over the place.  Lately, most meetings have been in Tokyo, but last year he went to Osaka, Nagoya, and Nagano a lot.  Next month he'll be going to India for a week.  As we get closer to leaving Japan, he'll most likely be traveling more outside of Japan.  This week most of his meetings were over the phone, so he was available to take Kelsie to school almost every day and even pick her up a couple days.  I love it when he's home because Avri's napping schedule doesn't always mesh is the kids' school schedule.  We also were able to go out for a couple lunch dates.  I can't really be apart for Avri for very long yet, so we try to get our dates in while the older two kids are at school (no need for a babysitter!).

And what about me?  You might be thinking WOW, with only one little one at home most of the time Rachel must have a ton of free time.  To which my reply would be, I wish.  Normal household chores take up a ton more time in Japan.  No automatic dishwasher.  Grocery stores don't open until 10am and freezer space is limited, which requires shopping more often.  Also, we don't have a car, so groceries are limited to what you can carry home or fit on your bike.  I just barely got a clothes dryer in December - before that I (sometimes with Kurt's help) had to hang all of our laundry to dry outside.  Also, there are tons of parents meetings between the 2 schools that we are required to attend. Lastly, I have an active, nursing baby.  In my "free time", I'm usually coordinating schedules for the 3 Japanese models who live in my apartment.

Saturdays - we generally try to do something fun and explore a part of Tokyo we haven't been to yet.  For the first part of last year I was either hugely pregnant or taking care of a newborn - so we didn't get out and see too many things.  This year, since we know we'll be leaving in December, we're trying to make the most of it!  In Japan, it's hard to find a hotel for 5 people..so we usually do day trips.  Some days I wish we had a car, but the trains are pretty convenient.

Busy, Busy Girl

Instead of keeping Avri cooped up in the port-a-crib, we've been letting her explore more.  She is a very busy girl!  Her latest favorite thing is to climb up on the window seal and look outside the sliding glass doors (about 5 inches off of the ground).  She tries to play computer games with her brother, until he scoots her away.  She can walk around with her little push walker and is starting to stand by herself.  I'm pretty sure she'll be walking before too long.  Logan & Kelsie both walked around their first birthday.

Kurt has been working from home a lot this week, so we've been taking advantage of it!  On Tuesday we went out to lunch at Tengu - a yummy Japanese restaurant by our house.  In order to avoid the smoke (Smoking sections are still allowed in restaurants in Japan), we sat in a traditional Japanese dining room  and closed the sliding doors.  The table was just Avri's size (we were sitting on cushions).  She loved being able to play, while we enjoyed our food.

Happy Mothers Day

Kurt and Logan bought me some beautiful flowers for Mothers Day (for the full story, read Kurt's previous post).  They really are beautiful.  On Sunday morning Kurt's church meetings were cancelled because of Mother's Day - since he was home, he made me breakfast. :)  It was especially nice because I'm usually scrambling to get all three kids ready by myself and get to 9am church on time...I rarely have time to eat breakfast.

Kelsie made me some awesome present at school.  I really do love yochien crafts!  They are so cute. :)

Roppongi Hard Rock Cafe

Saturday night we went out to dinner and celebrated a belated birthday for Kurt and our friend Micah.

What first started as a smaller get together, quickly grew to a group of 4 families - 8 adults and 10 children age 7 and under.  We were quite the sight in Tokyo.  Some restaurants won't even allow kids for dinner. lol

 *Matsunaga, Keyser, Wightman, and Yoshimura Families*

(We know the Wightman Family from church.  Their son Leon is in Logan's Primary class and I am Quennah's Primary teacher.  They introduced us to their friends the Yoshimura Family, when we found out that our children would  be attending the same yochien.  At yochien we met the Matsunaga Family.  Kelsie, Ayu, and Naoyuki are all in the same yochien class.)

We all had a great time and hope to do it again sometime soon!  We split up our tables - adults vs. kids.

It worked pretty well, but we did have to splurge and buy the kids ice cream towards the end to quiet them down. :)  Luckily, Hard Rock is a loud restaurant....so were weren't too out of place.

My "Japan" Day

I had two experiences in 30 minutes today that reminded me how much this country can frustrate me.

Experience #0.
This happened a different day, but it relates to #1, so I'll share it here. For Mother's Day, I promised Rachel that I would have the carpets in our apartment cleaned. So, I called up a local service company that advertised that they clean carpets (among other services). When I asked if they could come do an estimate, he asked if we were living in the apartment currently. I thought that a bit odd and asked why it would matter. He replied that they only clean carpets in apartments that are unoccupied. ??? I didn't really know how to respond to that.  It was as if he had told me they only clean carpet stapled to the ceiling. So very Japan.

Experience #1.
I went to the local medicinal/cleaning/beauty supply store (btw, it HAS to be a special store, it can't be combined with any other types of goods. A story for another post) to get some carpet cleaner. Just something simple that would take some spots out of our carpet (see #0 for background). I thought, I'll just save some time and ask someone what they recommend. The worker responded that while they carry most cleaning supplies, carpet shampoo was sort of a specialized cleaner and needed to be purchased at a LARGER cleaning supply store. The thing is, this place is the LARGEST medicinal/cleaning/beauty supply store in our town! There's nowhere near here that would possibly carry something that they don't. So very Japan.

Experience #2.
After my *brief* stop at the cleaning supply store, I headed to the flower shop to get some Mother's Day flowers for Rachel. Logan and I picked out the perfect arrangement and took it to the register. I thought, I have close to the amount required, maybe a few yen short, in cash. If they won't take what I have, surely they'll take a card because they sell some pretty expensive stuff here. Yeah. No such luck. "Sorry, we only accept cash. (You know, because this is Japan and credit cards are just a fad for us; like the internet, online shopping, and central heating)". Ok, not good. "Well, I it looks like I'm about 30 yen short, but on a purchase of this size, that's not all that much, so can you do me a solid and just take what I have since you won't accept my credit card?" After conferring with TWO OF HER MANAGERS, she comes back and says, "I'm sorry, but the price is what it is and we can only accept the exact amount... Perhaps you can go to a bank and come back with the rest." ... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?! We're talking about less than a .01% discount on an item with a hand-written price tag taped to the side of it! It's not even bar-coded! Defeated, I let my Japanese side take over and went to the bank to get the requisite cash. I could have screamed. So very Japan.

Japanese Grapevine

I was at a conference the other day and one of the attendees mentioned that his wife knew about my wife. I was a bit perplexed as I didn't know how that would be possible. It turns out, Rachel is famous in the neighborhood gossip circles TWO FREAKING STATIONS away from our house! In perspective, that's like someone just randomly happening to know you from some other city. Random.

I was obviously curious and asked him how she knew so much about Rachel. Apparently, all the moms have been talking through the various Yochien and club circles about this Rachel Keyser who lives in Yukigayaotsuka. Apparently they were trying to figure out a way to connect with her and help her feel welcome because she doesn't speak Japanese and lives outside of the "Gaijin Triangle" (foreigner-friendly part of Tokyo). He said she brings it up all the time. "I really need to figure out something to do to help her feel more comfortable here!"

I found the whole thing very humorous.

Toneri Park

Our friends told us about a great park a little over an hour from our house - Toneri Park.  We picnicked with our friends the Snells and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

The kids loved playing in the splash ponds and the weather was perfect for it.

There was a lake in the middle of the park with a ton of people fishing.  Their poles were very interesting - no reels and they just let their poles sit in the water.  In the areas adjacent to the lake, kids were catching crawdads.

More proof that playground equipment banned in the US is shipped to Japan.  Logan made it to the very top.  He's becoming a pretty good climber.

Kelsie fell in love with this dog.

This was a cool "sledding" hill.  The line was too long, so we'll have to try it on a non-holiday. :)

Kurt, Bruce, & the kiddos.

Primary

I'm not sure I have ever blogged about our church callings.  Last Fall, I was called to be a Primary teacher.  This year I am teaching seven five-year-olds with LOTS of energy.  On this particular Sunday I realized that I was the only non-Japanese speaker in the room. :)  We attend an English-speaking ward (congregation), but a large number of the families have at least one Japanese parent.

Kurt was called last Summer to be the Ward Executive Secretary to assist the Bishopric.  He hangs out with Avri during the 2nd and 3rd hours of church while he tracks down people who need to meet with the Bishop.

Senzokuike & Harajuku

Saturday morning we got up early to go clean our church building.  (ward members take turns cleaning the building 1-2 times a year)  Afterwards the kids really wanted to go to Senzokuike (they call it "Goose Boat Lake").  Logan, Avri, and I hopped in a paddle boat and Kurt and Kelsie grabbed a row boat on we were on our way.

Afterwards, we took the train into Harajuku.  It was sooo crowded because of the holiday!  We were able to do a little bit of shopping and enjoyed an early dinner at Wolf Gang Puck's restaurant.

Harajuku is filled with tons of "crazies" as Kurt calls them.  Kelsie loved this neon biker gang.  The pink motorcycle was her favorite.

Walking to the Gardens

After getting a little sidetracked with the shopping near the Tokyo Dome, we headed toward Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens...but along the way we found a park the kids had to stop and play at.

Avri had her first trip down a slide and loved it.  Logan and Kelsie had a blast playing with her.