English Grammar

There is, surprisingly or not, a fair bit of English on signs and stores here. As I start to learn a little more Japanese, it has become apparent to me just how confusing the English language really is to master. I am nothing but thankful when shops or restaurants have gone out on a limb to try their hand at writing English for their English-speaking neighbors, but it still makes me smile to see their interpretations. 

I had to buy them these shirts at "The Bunny Store". It's the children's clothing store that has a huge pink bunny on the sign. I'm sure that's not what the Japanese call it. :)  D's says, "Jamm Strawberry Cute" and A's says, "I love heart very very much".

This sign is from one of the first restaurants we ate at. We thought the burger pictures looked very American. . . turned out they're not trained in making burgers here. I had to think for a minute what "retauce" was, and "painapple". I smiled at their catchphrase too - "Good Enough to Eat!" Well, I hope it is. :)

These were some of the displays for school uniforms. Most of the kids I've seen are wearing a little more low-key uniform, though. 

I just wanted to throw this picture in here. We went into the family restroom at Jusco and there was this extremely low potty for kids. Maybe it's supposed to be a training potty for their squat toilets. How low can you go?

Geta

A's been complaining about Mommy's trouble with keeping the floor crumb-free for every hour of the day at our house, so I decided she needed some inside shoes to curb the complaints. (I think I should get Daddy some too. :) She also hates walking on the small tiles in the bathroom barefoot and stands at the doorway to the bathroom refusing to walk the 2 steps to the toilet unless I lift her. Enter her geta, which she was very proud to get after reading the book Suki's Kimono many times. I asked a lady from church if people really wear geta anymore, and she said they would normally just be worn with their kimonos or their yukata (summer cotton kimonos). A. still likes clopping around in them, although they're not the easiest shoe for her to walk in. I think they're cute though!

More Park

After she spent some time getting rejected by her little friends :) she finally gave up and found her way to the little water feature in the park and had fun dipping her fingers in and sitting on the rocks. The high temperatures are starting to dominate our days here, so our outdoor outings might be few and far between very soon. The humidity is starting to remind me of San Antonio and Pensacola. It's not unbearable, but coming from dry SoCal, it's definitely sticky and makes for awesome hair days. ;) 

Japanese Kids & the Language Barrier

We tried out another park the other week. Going to neighborhood parks has been good because there are usually some Japanese kids there who A. tries to interact with. At this park, a van full of kids had just pulled up. At first A. just watched them from a distance, and then she gradually worked her way closer and closer to them and started following them around. She stands out like a sore thumb, and even more when she opens her mouth. The kids treat her like a novelty and an outsider at the same time. She had her own ideas about what to play, and she was talking a mile a minute to them trying to get them to play along with her. A few of the boys turned and looked at her like she was from another planet before returning to their own games. After a few minutes, she turned to me and moaned, "Mommy, they're just not listening to me!" I reminded her that the kids speak a different language here so they can't understand us, and that we have to do our best to speak their language. We had just been doing some Japanese lessons on the drive, so I suggested she try to say what she knew to them. She wasn't quite ready for that though, so eventually she just kept with her following and decided that chattering away in English would be just as good. Some of the boys started mimicking her, although she didn't know they were doing that. When she went to the swings, these 2 little girls followed us over and were doing the same thing. These kids were probably 4-6 years old, which is definitely different than having 2 year olds from other cultures playing together, or even 12 year olds. These kids were just at the age to realize that there are differences and not know quite the right way to react. I wasn't offended that they seemed to be making fun of my kid, but it did give me more motivation to help us learn some Japanese quicker. We are still debating the options for preschool here. The Japanese preschools are held every day from about 9-3, and I'm not ready for that :). There are a few American preschools that do some culture lessons, but there are still lots of factors we are taking into account - driving times, costs, what we're actually looking for in a preschool, etc. So for now we're taking our time and doing lots of activities at home. One of my big goals is to get us out in town as much as possible so we get as much "culture" as possible. 

I love this picture because it shows them "checking each other out".  

The kids really thought it was funny hearing her talk. I don't know what they were saying about us, but they definitely thought hearing another language was funny. They do start learning English from a young age here, although in the Japanese class I just took, the teacher said that not many people actually know English because of the "boring, grammatical" way that it is taught, as well as their lack of practice with native speakers. 

This park had seen better days, as I'm sure all their parks have. I heard Japan is in even greater debt than America, so upkeep of parks is probably low on their list of priorities!

11 Months

This post is already old because in just a week our 2nd little gal will be turning one! I don't think I took any monthly pictures that had a theme with A., but since Daddy missed half of D's first year of life, I decided to do monthly pictures with her daddy doll. So here are a couple pics of her loving on her daddy. When he got back last week, she was more aware that he had been gone, even though she had seen him every day on Skype. She woke up in our bed (how did she get there? :), saw him, and climbed right onto me, laying her head on my chest, which she never does. He tried to make eye contact with her, but she refused to look at him, and shied away when he reached for her. After almost an hour, he picked her up and took her, but not without her crying. We repeated that scene for almost a week! Now she's all warmed up to him again and fights with big sis for Daddy's undivided hugs and kisses and tickles on the bed. It's really wonderful to have Daddy home again!