Hiroshima

We went into the city of Hiroshima on Sunday afternoon. Takeshi and Kie took turns driving the trolley. (okay I am kidding here... )
One of Kie's favorite foods is Okonomiyai which is kind of like a pancake stuffed with cabbage, pork, shrimp, squid, egg and whatever else you want.Takeshi had kimchee in his! Hiroshima style has noodles in it as well.
There were 26 of us, so we split up among different okonomiyaki stalls. Kie's group was across the way from us. Quite delicious!
Kei wasn't with us as he left on Saturday evening so he could attend basketball and not miss school on Monday. We arrived home around 8pm on Monday evening and Kei had dinner prepared for us!!!

The Ferry

Since we were staying on an Island we got to take the ferry over and back. The ferry schedule is fixed and the ferries are punctual! Some of our group missed the final ferry and had to stay overnight on shore and some just missed the ferry and had to wait for the next one. (The wait could be from 15 to 45 minutes.) We were scheduled to take the 3:45 ferry to Hiroshima for our excursion one afternoon. We car-pooled and used the mini-bus to get there. We were in the first car and we arrived in time for the 3:30 ferry and so we boarded. The mini-bus was right behind us and we figured they would be able to board since they didn't have to park. Well, they got off the mini-bus and were just a few yards away when the ferry decided to leave without them. In one of the pictures you can see them (including Kie) on the dock as we take off!The pictures of Takeshi and I were taken just after we left our only daughter stranded on the docks of Etajima. (I am sure this will be part of her life story at some point....) We did wait for the next ferry with all the rest of our group to arrive before going into town!

On the way home we were running late to catch the 8pm ferry. (The last ferry of the day was 8:45pm). It was 5 minutes until 8 and we were still in the trolley--which, unlike trains, has to stop for red lights and let people off when they want to get off! We had a plan to have our fastest runners dash off and see if they could get the ferry to wait this time for all 26 of us! Our runners arrived at 7:59pm with all of us dashing behind them. Babies were being carried and toddlers were literally flying as they were drug along by their parents!! The ferry people had pity on us (or at least on our children!) and held the boat for 3 minutes! We were off at 8:03 just as the last person was stepping on!

Etajima

Thursday October 18th through Monday October 22nd found us in Hiroshima on the Island of Etajima with fellow Asian Access Staff. The pictures show a little of what life is like at a government facility! Morning and evening meetings at the flag pole. In the morning there are group exercises! One morning Takeshi and Kie got to help lead. One evening I got to help take down the flag...

Sports Festival part 3

It just isn't for kids you know... The parents have to be involved in some way! This year's PTA relay involved each grade racing to dress up a teacher. The teachers knew they were being dressed up, but they didn't know what they were being dressed up as.
The sixth grade parents dressed up Mr. Kawasaki from 6-1 as a first grade girl. Mr. Nakayama 6-2 (Kie's teacher) was dressed up as his mom. There were 10 parents from each grade plus the room moms (me and 3 others). I passed out the articles of clothing for the team members to dress the teacher with. Team members must wear a wig and carry a colored rope as they do this. Quite the competition. 4th grade won--they dressed up the male teacher as a high school girl anime character. We came in second. All the kids loved it. (Another teacher was a maid, one a fireman, one an imp, one a doctor) The costumes were very creative.

Kie's Sports Festival pt 2

There was much more to Kie's sports festival than cheering! The morning included special dance numbers and competitions from the lower grades as well as the whole school large ball races. The goal is to go up and back over the kids' heads around some cones and end up on the stands in the middle of the school grounds. Red won the first round and white won second. The tie breaker was won by white (by our vantage point anyway) but the judges called it a tie and the fourth round was won by red. The white team was losing at half time. Lunch break and then the afternoon program.
The afternoon program had the "Horseback battle" competion which is pretty fierce. All 5th and 6th graders compete. Boys against boys and girls against girls. The anchor teams in the jerseys get double points. First round is all boys play and see which team can get the most hats from the people riding the "horses" of the other team. Then the girls go. White won both these rounds by a landslide. After this is individual competition. No hats. Group left standing in the ring wins. Kie's anchor team won! She was quite determined they would!!


Kie was having a great time all day!

Sports Festival part 1

Kie's sports festival (undokai) was similiar to Kei's in that the day of the event was pouring rain. While Kei's school was able to wait it out a bit and proceed, on Saturday Sept 29th we got the phone call at 6:30am that the event would be postponed until Sunday. So Kie went to Basketball practice instead. On Sunday it was again pouring, so they had school instead! (If they have an event on a weekend they have to have a make-up day off during the week. This was already fixed for Tuesday October 2nd as October 1 is Tokyo citizen's day and kids are off school.) So Kie took her lunch and went to school for half day on Sunday. The next two days were off and Wednesday was a short day so Thursday ended up being the make up day for the Sports Festival. There was a pretty good turnout of parents and the weather actually turned hot.

Kie had two responsibilties. She was sub leader for the white team and she is head of the Physical Education committee. This meant she was responsible along with the leader for the team spirit and morale and that she was in charge of closing the sports festival with the final speech. In addition, if the white team won, her name and the leader's name would go on the trophy. (Her brother was leader of the white team two years ago, but they lost by 11 points and his name did not get on the trophy...)