HOT!

The forecaster said that it is going to go beyond 35C today.So why oh why at 9.30am is it already 34C inside the house with the curtains drawn to keep out the sunlight and the breeze(??hot air??) wafting through the windows(which we have many of)? I am tempted top take our little thermometer outside to see how hot it is out there,but I fear that I may start melting if I venture out.Which would not be good for the baby.Or me.

So to cool me down,I will stare at this photo of Annie taken on Sunday when we were invited to a friends house for the day.They live about 20 minutes away from us in the mountains.It is cooler there and the river was lovely and yes,cool.They wined and dined Kenichi and dined me and Annie, and all I did that day was gently move from area to area and enjoyed being looked after for a change.Unfortunately,the camera battery died after taking this one photo of Annie.But hopefully it will cool me down a little and I wont have to resort to using the A/C this early on the morning.

Fun at the fesitival

Looking through some blogs this morning, it seems that this past weekend was a favourite for festivals here in Japan.And we had the annual town festival on Saturday.And it was HOT but a lot of fun even if I did overdo it and practically have to crawl home.

Before we went,Kenichi doing his new job.I was next in line.


Kenichi took part in the street dancing so Annie and I dropped him off at the meeting point and went to our friend's house.There,along with her kids and another friend and her kids,the girls were dressed up in their yukatas,had their hair put up and a lick of make-up on.I just sat and watched as I am hopeless at all this.But maybe next year I can try myself.Yeah right!

The girls all dressed up with the token boy enjoying his harem.


Once the girls were ready,it was time for the dancers to come past the house so we went outside and waited.The kids were really excited and loads of people we knew were taking part and passed by.It was really nice and everyone was in a jolly old mood helped ,no doubt,by the copious amounts of beer they were consuming.I remember taking part as well years ago...it was a lot of fun but the route was much longer back then and with all the beer supping,loo stops were needed and I got to see inside so many peoples' houses.Ah,the memories.

The children waiting for the dancers to pass.


After the procession had gone past,we walked along to the festival area.And it was quite a walk but parking is always a bugger so we though the exercise would do us good.Eventually we arrived and there were hordes of people.They had a action hero show later on so Annie went to watch with her friends and some lovely mums who looked after her while I walked around with Kenichi picking up some nice unhealthy food for our evening meal.We had spare ribs,really greasy chips,fried chicken,yakitori(skewered meat),yakisoba noodles and relatively healthy grilled onigiri rice balls.Marvellous and my gynecologist would have just flipped out:).After the Whatever Rangers show,Annie wanted her photo taken with the super heroes so we queued up for ages just to have her freak out just as we got to the top of the line.Then we watched some local taiko drummers and then a very cool performance by some more drummers and dancers from Okinawa.And all the time we were seeing friends,ex-students(half of who I pretended torecognise but actually had no idea who they were),present students,relatives,neighbours,colleagues etc etc.Very very busy are these local festivals.

Super heroes or not,no way was Annie going to pose.


Kenichi then did something really stupid and showed Annie the stall where you could win goldfish .I really didn't want any more(we have 2 now but my friend had warned me that the little fish her kids got at the festival a few years ago has grown and grown and now it is seriously as big as a very big persons hand,and I saw the monster fishie earlier in the day when the girls were having their hair done and thought it was a Siamese fighting fish or something).You pay for a little scoop that is made of thin paper and you try to scoop up goldfish before the paper just dissolves or rips.I could foresee this ending in tears and tried to warn Annie that it was really difficult and that if she didn't manage to get a bitty fish,she could have a glow in the dark bracelet(that I had my eye on ).Well,do I need to go on.She bloody well scooped up 2 fish at once and we now have these tiny little things at home.And they eat more than our other fish .So Mobey Fish here we come.Ewww.





Clutching her fish and having a good laugh at my expense.


The climax of the day was a big old firework display and we had been invited to watch from a friends boat in the bay overlooking the festival grounds.But I was just exhausted by that time so we made our way back to the car(so so far) and then drove down to the beach near our house and sat and watched there and ate our feast.It was lovely and the breeze was so cooling.We got back home late and then spent a good few minutes trying to catch Annie who really didn't want to take her yukata off.Then it was shower and bed.And dreams of giant goldfish eating chips.

A little brag.

Please humour me.I just want to have a tiny little brag about Annie.

This morning,I was getting ready to take Annie to daycare when she suddenly announced that she wanted to take a clothes hanger with her.I asked why and she said that her teacher had asked her to.I thought this rather odd as the teachers will always tell the parents as well at the children if they want us to bring anything special.But Annie was insistent and she picked her hanger.I put it in her bag and off we went.

On arrival,we went in and I pulled out the hanger as Annie rushed off inside to find Akane-chan.I was a wee bit embarrassed to be wielding the thing and asked her teacher about it.The reaction was electric." How did you know about the hangers?" she gasped.I explained that Annie had told me they were needed,and the teacher called Annie's other teacher over to tell her.It seems that the day before at going home time,the children had been asked to bring in a wire clothes hanger the next day so that they could make bubbles.As they had some already in the classroom and only needed a few more ,they decided to just tell the children and see who managed to tell their parents.The youngest in the class are Annie's age group so all 3.The oldest are 5 or 6.And the teachers have done this kind of thing before,it seems, many many times and over the years,it is only the older children who have managed to relay the message.Until today.And my little girl was the first ever 3 year old to ever manage to remember to pass on such a message.

Ironically,the teachers are all very aware of Annie's slight weakness in Japanese,although I have assured them on numerous occasions that she understands every word and just doesn't want to speak much.So today they were able to see for their own eyes that Annie may not be very talkative at daycare but she knows exactly what's going on.

She showed 'em alright:)

How bizarre?

Last night,I had trouble sleeping and lay in the dark thinking about everything and anything.And for some reason,I suddenly remembered the oddest thing I have ever had in my working career here in Japan.And this makes the NTT telephone answering competition judging stint I did for 2 consecutive years look quite normal.

It was a summer a year or so after Kenichi and I got married when I was summoned out of the blue to the Board of Education office.They are my official employers so it was obviously a work related matter so I trotted along from school to see what they wanted.I could have never imagined what was to come.I was taken to a small meeting room where my boss of the time(a dreadful character may I say) was waiting with a couple of black suited men.I was introduced and the men gave me their business cards and the meeting began.It was a bit confusing as they were so vague in what they were discussing and although it was obvious that I was involved(doh,why else would I be there?) but also very obvious that my boss had been discussing things with them prior to my arrival and that this was basically the end of the meeting and that plans had been made.I got the jist that the visitors were from a school and wanted me to make a speech.But no mention of the subject matter was made.Then as abruptly as it began,it was over.Lots of grunts and nods and my hand was shaken warmly and they asked to take a photo of me.

Once they had left,I asked my boss WTF it had all been about.Then he dropped the bombshell.It seemed that the men were the Principal and head teacher of the biggest agricultural high school in the prefecture.That coming autumn,the school was celebrating it's 100th anniversary and part of the celebrations was a series of lectures and panel discussion about farming in foreign countries.And that the school had been looking for young participants from Europe to lecture the students and join the fore mentioned panel discussion.My heart nearly stopped as my boss went on to say that the school had telephoned every Board of Education office in the bloody prefecture and were delighted when they found the perfect partcipant....Yes,indeed.My boss had received the call and said that of course,M would do the honours as her parents in law are farmers here in Japan so she knows lots about farming.BASTARD!!!

So,that was that and the meeting had been to confirm everything.My boss told me that the lecture was to be half an hour in length,all about British farming and also about the problem of BSE.And the speech was to be in Japanese as would be the hour long panel discussion.OMG.

So,I did the only thing I could do.I called my dad in a major panic.And he did what I had hoped he would do...he offered to write the speech for me and to research everything.Bless him.A few weeks later,I received the speech and it was LONG.It was very technical and very detailed and I learned lots of things about farming in Britain and about the BSE crisis.And I also learned lots of new words.

Then came the really tough part.I had to translate this speech into Japanese.Kenichi was my second knight in shining armour(dad being the first).We spent hours and hours translating words,phrases and sentences that I had try and understand in English before explaining them to Kenichi in order for him to make sense of it and write the Japanese.As we were both working,the only time we could work on the speech was in the evenings.When we were tired already.But it had to be done.And after a few weeks,it was.And we didn't kill each other....

But then came the next barrier.I had to practice reading the damn thing.And all those new words and phrases in Japanese.So many tongue twisters and so much technical stuff.It took many many more hours and even then,I sounded like a bored robot spewing out a load of sounds that had little or no meaning.

The day of the big event came and we had to leave home at some dreadful hour of the morning to get to the school which was 3 hours away by 9am with time to spare in case anything went wrong.After our arrival,Kenichi left me as I went to meet my fellow panelists and get the low down on the morning.My memory is vague at this point but I do remember sitting on the stage looking important and feeling like the total fraud I was .Then the curtains went up .In front of us sat over 1,000 very bored looking boys between the ages of 15 and 18,obviously not at all titillated at the thought of spending a the next few hours hearing about farming around the world,a large number of OB's, parents,random dignitaries and my dear husband sitting right at the back of the gymnasium with a massive grin on his face enjoying every moment of my humiliation.

There were,I think,5 or 6 panelists and I was the last to speak.The others were from Asian countries and knew their stuff as they were studying agriculture or had there own farms etc.But the lectures were seriously boring.I spent most of the time trying to look interested,trying not to yawn and wondering if it would be a bad idea just to get up to and flee.The guy before me from Korea seemed very laid back about the situation and when it came to his turn,I knew why.He had a bloody translator with him so just rattled off bit and waited for the hapless translator to do his thing.I couldn't believe it...this guy had a fricking translator so why not me??It came to light afterwards that my bastard boss had told the school that I didn't need a translator as my Japanese was good enough.That was the final straw and I never spoke to him again unless I had to.Seriously.

So,at last it was my turn at last.I got up to the lectern and just machine gunned my way through the whole thing.Forget feeling and intonation.No sirree,I wanted to finish this thing as fast as I could.Half an hour later,the deed was done and Kenichi swears that it was understandable and made sense but I don't believe him for a second.Come on,I was supposed to know what I was reading yet didn't understand a word of what I had just rattled off.But I still to this day know how to say BSE in Japanese.

After that,we still had the panel discussion to go.And that was fun,er,NOT.Everyone knew what they were talking about...except me.All these complicated questions about this,that and another.I didn't have a clue but they always made sure they called upon each panelist for their opinion.So I just agreed with however was before me and if not,blatantly lied.It was then that I realised that this was quite fun.I just said what I wanted to and it was all so tongue in cheek but only Kenichi seemed to realise what was happening.The only bit I can recall is when they were very seriously discussing pest control and the use of Eco-friendly ways of dealing with the problem.I took over that bit by saying that in Britain,each farmer has hundreds of specially bred cats to deal with the problem and that the cats not only control the venom but also love crunching on all those pesky insects too.And that lead to a very animated discussion about the use of snakes in some rural areas of Indonesia and all sorts of fun ways to kill the local rat population.

And then it was all over.I was elated..It was all over and to top it all,I was given a nice fat wad of money(40,000 yen) and a collection of produce that the students had grown and things they had made including jams,biscuits and best of all,a big old bottle of some mystery wine.We drove back home in high spirits feeling so carefree and polished off the wine and spent hours have a good cackle at how ridiculous the entire affair had been but what fun it had been for me to blindly take part in a discussion about something I knew,and still know bugger all about.

The other day I found the original speech that dad wrote for me.Which must have triggered my memories last night.So if anyone out there ever needs to give a lecture about farming in the UK and the BSE crisis,do let me know and we can come to an understanding;)

Sunday morning.

It's coming up to 7am and the inside temperature is already hitting 30C .It's going to be another scorcher methinks.Annie is still fast asleep and has been since 6pm last night;at daycare they still give them afternoon naps so she only settles down at 9 or 10 pm but over the weekend,no time to nap baby! And we get our evening s back.It's a lovely compromise as during the week,we can all eat our evening meal together and Kenichi gets to have a bath/shower with her and we can all chill out together.

Anyway,2nd lot of washing is spinning away in the washing machine but have just realised that I probably don't have enough space to put everything out so am hoping that the first lot will be dry within an hour.Yesterday,we got out all of Annie's old clothes and bloody hell,she has a wardrobe to be proud of.TG we are having another girl and indeed,I think we might be trying for a few more after this one to get full wear out of the stacks of stuff,although would be buggered up royally if we had a boy.So I will be spending some of my day sweating it out and trying to sort out the clothes into piles that make sense(very confusing as Annie was a winter baby so some of her stuff will be too hot but then I have to work out what will be OK for Baby No-name and what will be out of season and to confuse matters have the British/American easy to work out sizes done in months compared to the Japanese size system which is done by length and I can't remember how old babies are when they are 70 cm,and if you think this explanation is confusing,you try the actually sorting). Then I will be doing some vegetable cooking as my PIL brought around a pile of fresh veggies again last night.They are great and I appreciate them more and more as hell,we don't have to buy rice all year round(a BIG plus in Japan) nor vegetables.And FIL even caught us a big old octopus the other day(which was yummy in a vinegared dressing with cucumbers although Annie refuses to eat octopus as she was traumatised by an incident I had with one last year which is another blog entry sometime).And he also brings freshly caught fish a few times a week.So that's my day.

Kenichi is off at 8am to join a neighbourhood fishing trip for the younger men .He will not actually be fishing as they are going out on a couple of boats and he gets seasick(even though there is seriously no wind ,so go figure) but will stay behind with the other weak stomached men to tidy up and weed and cut the grass in our neighbourhood "park" which is pretty small but lots of trees and a loo so perfect for parties.After the fishing fleet return,all the families have been invited for a BBQ lunch to eat the fish(so hopefully they will catch enough ,if not,the local fish mongers will be rubbing their hands in glee).Kenichi will be taking Annie along but I think I will be staying out to put my feet up .Then Kenichi has promised Annie that we will go to the beach in the afternoon.But as beer is on tap at the BBQ I seriously doubt this will happen and foresee that I will be stuck with a howling Annie,devastated that the beach trip looks like being a sleep fest instead and will take her to the beach by myself and spend a couple of hours chasing after her.But I will go to the town beach this time and there will be people we know there who can spare me the indignity of waddling around in the heat.

So that will be our day.And on that note,off to empty the washing machine and try and sort out what to do with it all.And I thought Sundays were supposed to be days of rest.

Parcels and such.

The other day I received 2 wonderful parcels.The first to arrive was a brand new ironing board that I had ordered from the Flying Pig ,a company that shops on your behalf from Costco.As we live 4-5 hours away from our nearest Costco,we don't go much;).And this company is a godsend although I haven't ordered through for ages.But I wanted a proper ironing board.Everyone in Japan knows how pathetic the mini ones like this are.Once in a while you can get a small version of a full sized one,but they are way too short and it takes forever to iron anything .I had the latter for years but on seeing the proper full sized one at Costco,I couldn't resist.7,000 yen later and I have it here.And it looks great.Ironically(hee),I don't do that much ironing and my iron is crap but once I have a new iron that works I have no excuse.

So,I have my new sexy ironing board and a few hours later,another lot of goodies arrived.A wonderful person ,D,who lives in Chiba,sent me a massive parcel of clothes for Annie and the baby.When I say massive,I mean" So,you're going on holiday for a month then are you?" type of massive.And it was filled with clothes and blankets and comforters and onsies and shoes and boots and videos and magazines.And the clothes are seriously gorgeous.Annie was so excited and spent most of Wednesday night in a very cool bikini and Hello Kitty shoes which are far too big for her and she stomped her stuff.I spent a good few hours ooohing and arghhing over the little onsies and we are off tomorrow to buy a new chest of drawers for all the baby clothes.I cannot thank D enough(ditto Kenichi who couldn't believe how much she sent us) and wish her luck in the next week as she awaits to move into her sparkling new house.

Retail therapy and friendship therapy,can't beat 'em!

Happy Days.

No doubt due helped by the fact that I am now off work,but I have been feeling so content in the last few days.We live in Amakusa, in a little town of 8,000 odd people .Our nearest big cities are either Kumamoto or Nagasaki ...Kumamoto is a 2 and a half hour car ride away.Nagasaki is closer as we only have a 70 minute ferry journey from here then a 20 minute bus/car ride.But basically we live in the sticks.There is a small city 20 minutes away with a shopping mall,McD,KFC and quite a few eating places and other shops.No Starbucks though...yet;) We have what we need and there are many other things that we would like to have nearby but don't.Oh,and we have a cracking paediatrician in the local hospital...he is one of the top paediatricians in the prefecture if not No 1....Living and working here....In our town of 8,000.We don't ask why.And worship him.

So,we have the basics and a bit more .Until it comes to summer.Indeed,we live on the coast.So we have the BEACH! Not the best beaches in the world but my goodness,it is the best feeling to wake up on a beautiful Sunday morning in this heat and think,well,let's go to the beach then.Which is what we did yesterday.Within a few minutes we were all decked out in our beach gear,sunscreen on and even the dog all revved up to go.Off we went to one of our local hang outs.Not a person to be seen as every one tends to go to the town beach which has a shower and loo facilities.We aren't fussy.Pitched our beach umbrella and hit the water.It was bliss.Beautiful blue sea,gorgeous sky,sandy beach and all ours.The dog was happy(as long as were out of the water...she is a shiba mix and they just don't do the water thing),Annie was in 7th heaven digging away making sandcastles and cakes for the dog(??),Kenichi was happy to wander up and down the beach and occasionally go for a swim and I was SO happy to bob around in the water feeling as light as a feather and lovely and cool and then sit on the beach and read a bit.We got home and all had a bath and then Annie had her tea and was conked out on the sofa by 5.30pm and slept through until 6am.Which left Kenichi and me to have a meal alone and to have some adult talk.We were both in bed by 8am and read until we dozed off.

This is what we tend to do during the summer months.We spend at least one day each weekend at the beach,sometimes two.And at home we have a big paddling pool and have a BBQ and do fireworks as we did on Saturday with Annie's boyfriend,Yuichiro.After 11 years of living here,I still feel that we are living a beach resort life for 6 months of the year.

Doesn't take much for me to feel content after all.

PS The above video was actually taken back in March.But it is the same beach that we went to yesterday you see.

And that's that.

Had my 2 weekly check-up on Saturday.Stupidly took Annie along as she insisted on checking with the very serious and rather unsociable doctor that the baby is really,truly a girl.We had a bit of a wait as there is only one doctor and he got called upstairs to do his thing at a birth .So Annie was a little jumping bean by the time we got to the scan.But was delighted to here the immortal words" Hai,hontoni onna no ko dayo"(Yes,it really is a girl) from the man's mouth and celebrated by dancing around and rushing off to try and look at the newborns who were there to be weighed.Next time,I will be going alone.

Anyway,the doctor advised me not to return to work due to my swollen feet(although they are fine again ).So I called my boss this morning expecting lots of teeth sucking and whatnot.But it was dealt with in seconds...and that's it.I am off work from now.Today.This minute.I was supposed to teach until the kids break up this Friday and had a full schedule and then was going to use paid leave until my last official day on July 31st.But not any more.I will have to go in sometime in the next few weeks to clean my desks(3 desks at the 3 schools I teach...not good!) ,finish a couple of translations that fell on my desk last week(grrrr) and have a meeting with the person who is taking over from me(but she is a very good friend and lives about 5 minutes away from me so when I say meeting,it'll be more of an extended gossipy session) and that is all.As easy as that.

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other news.

So I didn't post since last November and it's now July.Looong time.What has been happening?Mum came over for a 7 week visit arriving on Christmas Day,so she was here for Annie's 3rd birthday which was lovely.We got a new desk top.And got pregnant.That was rather unexpected but a wonderful way to start the year.

So,Annie will be a big sister and she can't wait.She is so excited.I am due on September 17th so in my 3rd trimester now and boy,it is HOT! I would never recommend anyone to have a baby in summer but I am surviving.Unfortunately I have had problems with swollen feet...they look OK but if you press down,they leave a massive dent.My gyn. seems to be the over cautious type so I have had 2 weeks off work(fully paid thank you!) and although I was back again this week,have had to give up after 3 days as my feet went funny again.I just need to take it really easy and put my feet up a lot.Then all is well.I have managed to do so much reading which is bliss and also just to relax alone,by myself,in peace and quiet with no Annie and Kenichi rushing around;).Anyway,maternity leave starts at the end of the month but I have enough leave left so that I only have to go in until the end of term(next Friday) so the end is in sight.

And yes,of course we found out the sex of the baby,but it took ages to find out as the baby was in breech.So when it turned,all was revealed.We are over the moon that we are having another little girl.The reason that we are so happy goes back to last year and one of the last conversations I had with Dad,just hours before he died.He asked me if we were planning on having more children.I said that we would love to,but as Annie took 7 odd years to come on the scene,we were not holding our breaths.He then said that he would be so happy for us if we did manage to have another child but that it must be another little girl,please....

So,there you go! Dad must be tap dancing with joy somewhere.My MIL was slightly taken aback as she was so convinced it was a boy that she had been telling her cronies that it was a boy months ago.But she had a good laugh and agreed that either way,a baby is a baby and she is happy.Kenichi is quiet smug about it all but trying to come to terms with the fact that it will be 3 versus 1 in the house.I did promise him that once the dog dies( female) we can get a male dog.

So now all we have to do is decide on the name.We had a name picked out but have since changed our minds.There are so many to chose from that work in both English And Japanese but we also want a good kanji so already a few have been rejected as the kanji doesn't work out.We still have a couple of months left and have focused in on one name in the last week so maybe that will be the one.The unveiling will be a long with her birth announcement:).

Annie

Well,the diva is now 3 years and 5 months old.She is nearly 100cm tall and weighs in at 14.5kg .She has become quite the little girl in the last months and long gone are the days when I chose the clothes for her to wear every morning...we now have battles and she is tough.But usually content if she can wear a dress or something she deems as being pretty and if possible,pink.I am also struggling to improve my hair skills as she like her hair up in bunches or a pony tail most days.She still loves being outside and is in her element now as summer is here so she gets to go to the beach a lot.I managed to find the arm bands(water wings) I brought in England so Kenichi is hoping to teach her to swim this summer.She eats everything except shiitake mushrooms and cucumbers(but she will eat both when they are served up at daycare).Her favourite foods are carrots,especially raw ones which she steals from my vegetable tray,spinach with natto,miso soup and fish.She gets chocolate on Fridays only as otherwise she wouldn't have any teeth left.Her best friends are Akane who started daycare 2 weeks before Annie did when they were both 7 months old,and Maggie the dog.She has a boyfriend,Yuichiro,but they get rather shy when we watch them.He also goes to her daycare.

Language wise,Annie has amazed both of us so much.If you remember,we spent 3 months back in the UK last summer.She picked up English and came back here speaking nothing but English.The sceptics were out in force(and I must admit that I was also sceptical but still,we had a lot of negative feedback) saying that she would soon lose her English and resort back to Japanese so basically to prepare for the worst linguistically.But my baby proved 'em all wrong...a year on and her strongest language,by far, is still English,In fact she speaks nothing but English at home.At daycare she is quiet and speaks Japanese when she needs to and with some of her friends.When I pick her up in the afternoon,she lets rip and doesn't stop chatting until she falls asleep.I have been criticised for letting her speak so much English at home and for letting Kenichi speak English with her but we do things our way and although her Japanese level is lower than that of a local kid her age,she understands every word and once she starts school in 2 and a half years time,I have no doubt in my mind that she will be as good as the rest.Her English vocab has been slipping a little recently and she makes grammatical mistakes but she has a British-English accent to die for and can express herself with ease.She only likes to watch the odd Japanese cartoon or film(Totoro being one) and the rest must be English.Favourites include Charlie and Lola,Hilltop Hospital,Barbar,Maisy(still!) ,Kipper,Spot and the Mr.Men. She loves ,loves,loves reading and we are building up quite a little library here.She will quite happily read to herself and it is amazing how she mimics my story telling and how much she recites from memory.Also shows the importance of reading.She gets 5 odd books a night and of course knows the longer ones and tries to get maximum value.

So,there you go.That's our little girl.

So,as I was saying......

Whoa,that was a long break! The time has just flown by since my last post but for quite a time I really wasn't into blogging.But over the last few months,I have had itchy fingers again .I have been keeping up with blogging friends and find myself feeling quite disappointed when people don't update on a regular basis and then realised that ahem,perhaps I should have be the one updating.And miracles of miracles,I remembered my log-in details so here I am.This blogging business is all much easier than I remember .Hopefully I can manage to keep it up again.Will be back later to let you know what has been happening in this part of the world and in the meantime,try to find some recent photos of Annie....