Life in Japan

I now see a problem I didn't see before. I am already up to age 6 in my recounting of my life. This has only provided me with three blog posts so far. I won't be able to make it two months if I keep going this fast, and I will likely go faster as experiences become too ordinary to share. In other words, I will once again be without material in about a month. It's a good thing that then the holidays start coming up...

Alright, now it's time for Japan part 3.  I don't remember a whole lot about first grade in Japan. I do remember learning arithmetic on train cars. I remember going to a bike and pedestrian safety meeting. I remember P.E. Playing the Japanese version of dodgeball was the best. They do it so much better than we do here in America. I also remember serving lunch. The way they do that in Japan is that they have a cart that comes to your classroom and the students take turns serving up the food. No cafeteria area involved. I vaguely remember recess. We played soccer most of the time, and I played goalie. I was pretty good at it, too. Of course, that was when I played on a regular basis. Then I came home to America and my skills declined rapidly.

One of the most shocking memories was Japanese lessons. Not that anything particularly shocking happened with the lessons. It was more with how I got to the lessons. You see, the teacher lived across town from us, so the only practical way to get there was to ride the train, and Mom couldn't be there every time to escort me. Usually I had an older brother with me, but on occasion I rode the train by myself. Can't you see it? A cute little 6-year-old white kid who barely speaks any Japanese riding the train to get to his Japanese lessons. As my parents have since remarked, they were "insane" to let that happen.

Recreational life in Japan was interesting. The big thing we did was went to parks. They have the best parks in Japan. Most of you are familiar with Edgemont Elementary's spider-rope tower thing. Now imagine one of those at least three times that size. Yeah, that's right. Awesome. Of course, my favorite was always the roller slides. They made huge, long slides out of those little roller things they use in woodworking to support long material. They were so fast, and they just went on for forever. Of course, as great as the playground equipment was, it was no comparison to the Mowaki Ruins. That was, by far, my favorite place in Japan. It was basically a huge network of tunnels. Best place for hide-and-go-seek or tag. So much fun. I have to wonder how my parents dealt with driving to all these different places; I can't imagine driving all over a foreign country dragging along seven kids that do not do well together when they have to share the same space for several hours. They were just amazing, even if it was just a severe bout of insanity that allowed them to be so.