Miyajima Island

Last Friday, we got spontaneous and went to Miyajima after the kids got home from school. I was darn determined to get out and see something new instead of spending another evening bored in a half empty house.

We drove up to the ferry station and caught the ferry boat just as it was getting ready to board passengers. The kids were so excited to go on a boat, until they got on it. They stayed far from the railings, begging me to come sit with them so I wouldn't fall in the water, except for Finley of course. He came over excited and ready to see some fish (that we did not see) and one by one the other two came over and reveled at the bubbles in the water that were created by the movement of the boat.

It was a perfect time to get there, about 4:30pm when it's not super crowded, the sun wasn't too intense, and the tide was low enough for us to walk under The Grand Torii Gate. Coming out of the ferry station, we were greeted by deer who were more than willing to interact with the kids and mostly sniff us out to see if we had anything for them to eat. They're known for stealing food and even tourist maps to munch on.

Because we got lucky with the tide, we headed straight for The Grand Torii Gate which is part of the Itsukushima Shrine. The island has many shrines and temples. I need to brush up on the history more so I know what I'm looking at next time we go but enjoy the pictures anyways! It was so beautiful there.

We saw several European and Australian tourists so we didn't stand out quite as much this time, which I was grateful for. There were some women that were taken by Finley as he was having a meltdown. They wanted to sit with him and try to cheer him up and one picked up the drink bottle he had thrown. Stinker!

On our way out to the gate, we saw several ice cream stands and little restaurants as well as a plethora of souvenir places. We even found two really awesome coffee places that had these crazy machines and ancient methods of brewing. That will have to be a stop the next time we go for sure! We had planned to stop and eat and get ice cream of course (because it's not an official outing without ice cream!) but surprisingly to us, around 5:30pm, everyone was closed down or closing down and we got one last ice cream shop by the ferry station that allowed us to get some ice cream before officially closing shop. Smart business man! All was saved and a deer nearly followed me right into the ferry station trying to get my ice cream cone. Not even a cute deer can get ice cream from this girl!

Quinn's Birthday

Whew! I think I'm finally caught up!

Sunday was Quinn's birthday and we started the day with some donuts from the little cafe on base. We decided to take the family bowling right when they opened and invited a friend of ours (and the kids) to join. We had the whole place to ourselves almost the entire time we were there. The bowling alley on base is genius. The had a closed in play structure with a huge window so you could send kids to go play and still watch them while bowling. Finley loved the bowling the most and when the other kids got bored waiting for their turn towards the end of our hour, we didn't get them out of the playroom, we just let Finley bowl for everyone. That kid will play any sport with a ball!

Quinn had a great birthday, even though it was extremely low-key. We got some food at the bowling alley and followed up afterwards for milkshakes and ice cream at the Baskin Robbins on base. She said she understands it's hard to do a bigger birthday party with a fancy dress this year because we don't have our stuff and we're new, but next year she'll have the party with the dress (eye-roll!). What have I created?!

"I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet..."

Now that I have that song stuck in your head, your welcome! 

Last Thursday night about 9:30pm our time, we felt our first mild earthquake in a long time. Growing up in SoCal, they don't quite alarm us as much as they may for others. Saturday morning though at about 1:30am, we were awoken by loud alarms that went off on both of our cell phones. The text just said "Emergency!" and then a bunch of Kanji characters. My mind barely woke up while reading it and before I could freak out about an emergency, the whole room shook and there was no mystery about what the emergency was. The blinds were banging on the windows, water in the toilets sloshing around. It was followed by a few smaller ones. Fortunately our area had no devastation. The epicenter was on a different segment of the country a few hours drive Southwest. They were still recovering from the first earthquake when the second major one hit. 

We were planning to go to the little island Miyajima where deer overpopulate the island and will flock to you and let you pet and interact with them. We thought it would be so fun for the kids to take the train and then the ferry over but with the large earthquake, we aired on the side of caution and decided we wouldn't risk being stranded with only public transportation as a means to get back to base. Instead we decided to drive up to Hiroshima to check out a different mall that had H&M and Gap close by. 

It was pretty overwhelming, yet again. Being in a busier city in a foreign country is so intimidating. I hope one day I won't be so overwhelmed while we live here. Parking was interesting! Our car went on an elevator for cars. Our previous mall excursions had free parking garages, so I didn't think of how it might be in the bigger city. We were able to get a few things at H&M, but we didn't even begin to see all of the area. I don't think I would go back with the kids. There's too much going on there and none of it kid-friendly. 

Rylan Goes to Yochien!

We decided to enroll Rylan in a Japanese Yochien. It's goes all the way through Kindergarten and he's in the Pre-K class right now. The Japanese school year runs from April-March so we got here just in time to start on day 1. They only speak Japanese in the classroom and have staff on site that can translate if necessary but the whole idea is to immerse them into the Japanese classroom so they also pick up on the language and customs. There are other American students in his class but all yochiens limit the amount of Americans allowed to avoid them clumping together and not interacting with the Japanese kids. Most of the yochiens require these adorable uniforms, but Rylan would refuse to wear them so I was so excited to find one that didn't have any. All of his school supplies just made this school-nerd giddy! I love that every supply has it's own container or case. He has clay that went in a specific clay box with clay tools in their clay pouch. Pastels in their own cute box, etc. They're big on names too, had to write his name on everything down to each pastel inside the pastel box. He has a name tag and also a name tag for the bus. I also had to get him 4 bags!

Bag #1: Backpack for the communication pouch that has his calendar booklet and a notebook for communication between me and the school. This also houses his placemat and eating utensils for lunch. That comes home every day.

Bag #2: Indoor shoe bag. We bought him shoes for use only inside the classroom and those shoes have their own bag to keep them in while they're not being worn. That comes home every Friday to be washed and shoes cleaned.

Bag#3: Extra Clothes. This is a separate bag that has a spare set of clothes in case his gets messy or he has an accident. That only comes home if he uses the clothes in it.

Bag#4: A large bag that had to fit a huge manila style envelope that comes home on Fridays with any papers and once a once with the tuition envelope. Everything is paid in Yen cash.

The welcome ceremony was rough and he cried and mean-mugged me through the whole thing. Typical Rylan fashion. I was, admittedly, frustrated and embarrassed despite knowing this was especially uncomfortable for him. Chris eventually got him to settle and start playing with some of the other kids. The next 3 days, he had half days and last Friday had his first full day of school. They run from 9:00am-2:15pm so the full days all week have been an adjustment for him. I think it will be good for him once he gets into a routine. Of course Quinn wanted to wear a Japanese-style dress to the ceremony, thinking by dressing the part, they might think she was one of them...sorry Q, there's no hope for you to look the same, lol.

Rylan's favorite part of school is riding the bus! The bus comes every morning for pick-up and in the afternoons for drop-off just outside base. I was so worried I would have to shove him on that bus and tell the driver to shut the doors quick, but he was so excited and ran right on without a second glance back to say bye to me, you know, his mom!

We also signed him up for school lunch. When we decided to do so, the school brought a picture book just in case to make sure we knew what we were signing up for. Haha. So far, he's eaten all of his lunch every day, even though he can't tell me what he ate! The school sent some pictures home of him eating lunch, probably because they were so surprised he would eat it so willingly.

He has made a really great friend, named Ava. She's an American in the Kindergarten class. Those two sit on the bus together everyday and she's really been helping him get settled in. This is her 3rd year there and she speaks Japanese pretty well. Unfortunately she's moving next month, but at least she's been able to help him feel comfortable at the school.