Golden Week
The first week in May is chock full of holidays. Over the span of seven days, there’s Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Boy’s Day (now known as the more politically correct Children’s Day). The end result is usually a two-day week. So, last week I only had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not a bad gig, really.
On Children’s Day, we decided to get out of the village and do something fun. So, we piled into the car and drove off to Cha Cha World. We went to Cha Cha World last June, also. It’s a toy museum, emphasizing on wooden toys. They have a small play area that the kids enjoy playing in. It’s a long drive – about two hours- and it’s much smaller than Komu, but sometimes it’s nice just to do something different.
As we weren’t in a rush, we stopped along the way at any place that looked interesting to us. One such place was a large park in Engaru. There’s a very interesting rock outcropping (which I of course didn’t get a picture of). We drove around the park a bit and then climbed up to the outlook. These photos of Aaron and the boys, and of Holt were taken at the outlook. The park itself looked like it will be beautiful in another couple of weeks. There are some plants here that look kind of like flowering moss. It’s not moss, but that’s what people here call it. When it blooms, the hillsides will be covered in color. This park in Engaru seemed to be devoted to this plant and I really hope we can return when the colors begin to show.
The outlook
The following day, Sunday, I let Ridge and Holt have an Easter Egg hunt as promised. Folks here are pretty unaware of Easter. I wouldn’t say they are uninformed about it, but it’s certainly not on their list of priorities. As such, Easter pretty much just slipped by without us having an egg hunt. About a week ago, the boys found the box I have with the plastic eggs and some candy my mom sent. I had kept meaning to put something together for them, but kept forgetting. With Children’s Day coming up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Sunday morning dawned beautiful and sunny. I filled the eggs with various candies I had around the house, including some “exotic” Whopper eggs. I had originally envisioned my boys plus Ryuuya and his little sister, Sacha. However, when I looked in our entry way, I saw that we had been joined by most of the Taniguchi children from across the street. So, following my directions, Ridge, Holt, Ryuuya, Sach, Nana, and Ryuugi clambered into the house so I could hide the eggs. Outside, Kaori (who I’m sure thinks she’s too old for something like this, now that she is a middle school student) helped me hide the eggs. I don’t really think the Japanese kids had much of a clue as to what exactly what was happening. They just knew it was bound to be fun if the gaijin (foreign) family was doing it!
Ridge made sure to explain to everyone what to do, we passed out bags, and I announced that Holt and Sacha would get a head start since they are the youngest. Sacha was a bit confused, so Kaori, ever helpful, walked around with her to help her out. After a minute or so, I turned the rest of the kids loose and then supervised to make sure Ridge didn’t scoop up all the eggs. Of course, we were finished in less then five minutes. They sure got a kick out of looking for the eggs. When they finally figured out that there was candy inside, they got really excited!
Here are a couple of photos of the kids looking. Notice my crazy son Holt is bare foot.
Egg hunt
Egg hunt 2
Kaori noticed the last egg, and this photos is of her announcing that she has the last egg. Then, being Japanese, she immediately declared that they would do Janken to determine who gets the egg. Janken is what the Japanese call the game “rock, paper, scissors”. It permeates the society and kids learn to play it at a very young age. It is the absolute #1 way for people of all ages to settle minor disputes; who gets to go first, who gets to chose the movie, who gets the last Easter egg…you get the idea. It just cracked me up that we were engaging in a 100% American activity by doing an Easter egg hunt, yet with a little Japanese spin to it. So, all these kids are gathered around her throwing out either rock, paper, or scissors. In the end, Sacha got the last egg.
Let's Janken!
On Children’s Day, we decided to get out of the village and do something fun. So, we piled into the car and drove off to Cha Cha World. We went to Cha Cha World last June, also. It’s a toy museum, emphasizing on wooden toys. They have a small play area that the kids enjoy playing in. It’s a long drive – about two hours- and it’s much smaller than Komu, but sometimes it’s nice just to do something different.
As we weren’t in a rush, we stopped along the way at any place that looked interesting to us. One such place was a large park in Engaru. There’s a very interesting rock outcropping (which I of course didn’t get a picture of). We drove around the park a bit and then climbed up to the outlook. These photos of Aaron and the boys, and of Holt were taken at the outlook. The park itself looked like it will be beautiful in another couple of weeks. There are some plants here that look kind of like flowering moss. It’s not moss, but that’s what people here call it. When it blooms, the hillsides will be covered in color. This park in Engaru seemed to be devoted to this plant and I really hope we can return when the colors begin to show.
The outlook
The following day, Sunday, I let Ridge and Holt have an Easter Egg hunt as promised. Folks here are pretty unaware of Easter. I wouldn’t say they are uninformed about it, but it’s certainly not on their list of priorities. As such, Easter pretty much just slipped by without us having an egg hunt. About a week ago, the boys found the box I have with the plastic eggs and some candy my mom sent. I had kept meaning to put something together for them, but kept forgetting. With Children’s Day coming up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Sunday morning dawned beautiful and sunny. I filled the eggs with various candies I had around the house, including some “exotic” Whopper eggs. I had originally envisioned my boys plus Ryuuya and his little sister, Sacha. However, when I looked in our entry way, I saw that we had been joined by most of the Taniguchi children from across the street. So, following my directions, Ridge, Holt, Ryuuya, Sach, Nana, and Ryuugi clambered into the house so I could hide the eggs. Outside, Kaori (who I’m sure thinks she’s too old for something like this, now that she is a middle school student) helped me hide the eggs. I don’t really think the Japanese kids had much of a clue as to what exactly what was happening. They just knew it was bound to be fun if the gaijin (foreign) family was doing it!
Ridge made sure to explain to everyone what to do, we passed out bags, and I announced that Holt and Sacha would get a head start since they are the youngest. Sacha was a bit confused, so Kaori, ever helpful, walked around with her to help her out. After a minute or so, I turned the rest of the kids loose and then supervised to make sure Ridge didn’t scoop up all the eggs. Of course, we were finished in less then five minutes. They sure got a kick out of looking for the eggs. When they finally figured out that there was candy inside, they got really excited!
Here are a couple of photos of the kids looking. Notice my crazy son Holt is bare foot.
Egg hunt
Egg hunt 2
Kaori noticed the last egg, and this photos is of her announcing that she has the last egg. Then, being Japanese, she immediately declared that they would do Janken to determine who gets the egg. Janken is what the Japanese call the game “rock, paper, scissors”. It permeates the society and kids learn to play it at a very young age. It is the absolute #1 way for people of all ages to settle minor disputes; who gets to go first, who gets to chose the movie, who gets the last Easter egg…you get the idea. It just cracked me up that we were engaging in a 100% American activity by doing an Easter egg hunt, yet with a little Japanese spin to it. So, all these kids are gathered around her throwing out either rock, paper, or scissors. In the end, Sacha got the last egg.
Let's Janken!
posted by Michelle @ Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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