Sae and Ami

A few weeks ago we were privileged to be a part of a little exchange program here on base. 25 kids and a few adults were chosen to be flown down here from mainland for a cultural exchange. The few days were meant to be a vacation for the kids, a chance to get away from all the devastation they've been living in since March 11th. They were all from the little island of Oshima, which was hit hard with the tsunami. About half of their island was completely covered with the wave. Praise God that the kids were still in school when the wave came and that the school was on higher ground. I think only one little girl is unaccounted for still. The Marines worked closely to provide relief for this island immediately after, and so the friendship developed. 

We found out last minute about hosting them, right before we went on lockdown for the last typhoon actually. I had decided not to go to the commissary before the typhoon in case the power went out and we lost the food in the fridge. So there we were, after 36 hours of torrential rains and howling winds, with the big "American" meals I wanted to make them still sitting at the store. When we picked them up Saturday evening, we used our "greeting words" and gave hugs and smiles, using an interpreter to assure them that we were nice people and would give them whatever they wanted. :) We headed back to our place for supagetti, garlic pan, fried zucchini cakes and incredibly rich chocolate peanut butter brownies. It was kind of funny watching them politely choke down my sweets. I sent them back to the barracks with more brownies anyway. A few of the kids stayed overnight, I think with families that had wives who were Japanese, but I'm sure most of the kids were grateful to go back at night to the barracks and have sleepovers with all of their friends. They spoke no English and in practical terms I still speak no Japanese, which made our few days together quite quiet. Silence usually makes things seem "not fun", so I felt bad the whole time for not having become fluent in the last 4 months. 

Sunday we picked them up and brought them home to eat omelettes before wisking them off to church for a good half hour before taking them to a scheduled buffet lunch. Our pastor asked them if they had ever been to church before and they said no, and it just happened to be bilingual Sunday, so we can pray a little seed was planted there. The extravagant buffet after church was another chance to see their eating habits. Their last course consisted of a few leaves of lettuce and some veggies, putting us to shame once again as Jose let Addie start her meal with ice cream "for being such a good kid", haha. We took them to our aquarium (which has the 2nd largest tank in the world), bowling with pizza, pool party with hamburgers and hot dogs, and they ended their trip Tuesday with a little tour of our TV and radio station studios. They warmed up more to Addie as the days went on. It was cute watching them hold her hand and hold her up to the windows at the aquarium. The language barrier really was getting me down, but as the bus was getting ready to leave and the kids were all lined up, there were tears in the Japanese kids' eyes and tears in ours too. Addison actually sobbed the whole rest of the day that they were gone, and now her bedtime story every night involves talking about going to see Ami and Sae in Oshima. It was great to be part of the exchange and I hope the girls benefited too. What struck me most was the importance of language and how much we take it for granted. Yes, we could smile at each other and act warmly and gesture, but there was still a void. It made me conscious of every word that comes out of my mouth to another English speaker, and whether the words are helpful or necessary, as well as how quickly I can find out the information I need through common language. Have you ever pre-planned every single thing you thought you might say in a day? I did it - twice, and man, that sure got me thinking about how many of my words were really necessary! I pray that God can use my words for good whenever something leaves my mouth. In my feelings of inadequacy at not being able to reach the entire Japanese population with my words, I was reminded of how many people in the world speak MY language, people who still need to hear God's words of love and grace. I'll guess I'll start there, and in the meantime, our Japanese neighbors won't be short on smiles and large gestures from their American friend. 

Sae, a sweet 10 year old

Ami. Her house was destroyed in the tsunami. 

Enthralled with the very un-Sea World-like dolphin show. 

This picture is to show everyone my daughter's gorgeous hair. The humidity here helps. I'm never cutting it. :)

I hid the grandiose-ness of the tank so that people coming to visit will still be impressed. Trust me, it's huge. 

Do you see her dropping the hermit crab because it wiggled on her hand? 

More fun at the bowling alley.

Dishing out the High 5's. 

They were on air while the DJ talked. We told Addison we heard her breathing. 

Got to watch the TV Marines silently freak out while 50 kids explored their studio. 

The whole group of Japanese kids with the American host kids. I think Addison and Davenie were the youngest hosts. 

Cinderella Park

We really went out of our way to find this supposedly awesome park. When I bought the Funcargo, the lady left a park book in it that another military wife had written, and I've been using that to find new parks to explore. The only problem is the book is probably 10 years old, and the directions seem to be a little outdated or just plain wrong. We never did find the ambiguous white wall that marked our turn, but we somehow ended up in the right parking lot. On top of that, lots of the parks seem to be in a state of disrepair, so they're never quite as cool as I think they will be! I wanted to find this castle for Addie, and it was a great view of both the oceans, but not much more than that. There was supposed to be another cool looking tunnel structure here as well, but it was long since gone. We walked along lots of nice, woodsy, paved trails trying to find it though. 

Jose pushed her up here to play Rapunzel. It wasn't as high as it looks. :0

Jose gets stuck in the doorway. 

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!