Denny's Big Weekend

Last weekend, the planets aligned and Denny ended up getting most of the attention. On Saturday, we had a day at his school. They basically went through about a half day of normal activity - songs, creative play, role call, origami, etc. It was interesting to see.

On Sunday, Denny had a soccer tournament. We arrived about 9:00 in the morning and didn't finish until 1:00 PM. We were told to not bring food and drinks - only water. We quickly found out that everyone chose to bring what they wanted... even full blown obento lunches. Next time, we are pulling the gaijin (foreigner) card on them. Ask for forgiveness afterward.

We arrived at Denny"s school early on Saturday. I hosted poker night the night before so I was a little tired. We had a lot of fun. I hope it continues. It was raining Saturday, but we walked to his school anyway. I wasn't sure how parking would be.



These are pictures of Denny's preschool. It is a pretty big school. The Japanese put a lot of money into the education systems and this trickles down in the expectations of the pre-schools. We received a $500 bill for one month of pre-school - tuition, facility fee, Ueno Zoo trip for Denny and Elin, lunches, bus fee, gym uniform, summer hat and exercise hat. Ouch. that's gonna leave a mark on the pocketbook. We are crossing our fingers that it isn't like that every month.








Denny posing as he was going up the stairs to his classroom.










Again posing in front of the treehouse toilet room. I am actually a little jealous of this toilet room. It is pretty cool. Who wouldn't want to pee in a treehouse? It's every boy's dream, am I right? ... I digress ...









Denny and Elin posing in front of the toilet room. Is it weird that I call it a toilet room... there's a reason. The 'bathroom' here is a separate room where you shower and bathe. The toilet rooms are also separate rooms. They only have toilets. Our 'bathroom' sink is actually in the laundry room. I get funny looks when I talk about the bathroom in reference to the toilet room... It will take some practice.






This is Denny's teacher helping him with his origami heart. The kids all made them and then exchanged them with a friend at the end. It was a really good idea... Denny didn't think so, though.










Denny with his heart pendant origami. He started off a little rough, but it came around in the end. It looked pretty good.










This is where I would like to insert a little fun into the blog. We are going to play 'Where's Waldo'. Can you spot Denny?




Ohhh a tough one. Can you see him? Look close.

This might be the toughest one yet. He blends in so well. If you can't see him, let me know and I will point him out for you.




This is the bus that picks Denny up every day. I think he gets a big kick out of riding the bus.





This is the boat on the playground.






There is also a tree house.

And yes, they have animals. A pony,

Goats,

and rabbits.

These are pictures of the beetles that I promised. The pictures aren't very good, but you get the picture. They are gross. The kids seem to love them though.

Beetle food.

Soccer Tournament :

Denny warming up before his soccer game.



All of the kids were gathered up and they did some warm up exercises. It was about 80 degrees on astro-turf so we were definitely warmed-up. There wasn't any shade at all.




We tried to hide under umbrellas as much as possible. The other two children are the Drew and Adam Hanson. They are Canadian. Unfortunately, they are on their way back home at the end of June. We just missed them. They also live in Takanezawa. It is unfortunate our assignments didn't overlap more.

We had a parent vs. kids game. I had some funny feeling in my legs. on my first cut trying to get the ball, something said "uh-uh". I was in pain the rest of the day. Nice... hurt in a kids soccer game. They were ruthless... there were hundreds of them... the sun was in my eyes.

Denny in action. He hasn't really picked up on soccer yet. He is more interested in tickling the other kids and making goofy faces at them. I like to think of it as psychological warfare...

They ended with a team photo opportunity. At this point, Denny was finished with soccer for the day so it was hard to get him to pose. He proceeded to remove his shin guards throughout the picture taking. What can you do? It was 4 hours of soccer.

Hopefully, we can do something for Savannah in the upcoming weekend. I am sure she was feeling a little left out. We have a work bowling outing scheduled for Friday night so we will definitely have picture opportunities then.