Savannah's Undoukai (Exercise Event)

Savannah had her Exercise Event a few weeks ago. We got up on Saturday and headed to the Takanezawa Shougakko (elementary school) at 8:30 AM or so. It was already getting hot. As the day progressed, it got very hot. Many of the schools in the area cancelled the event due to heat, but our school decided to keep the schedule. We finished up around 4:00 in the afternoon so it was a long, hot day. We really felt for the kids. My shirt was soaked with sweat throuhtout the day and I was not even exercising.








Savannah with a couple of close friends from the neighborhood.







All of the kids lined up for the opening ceremonies.








This is the first graders. The kanji character on the sign is the symbol for year - ichi nen sei (first graders).










Savannah is one of the tallest kids in her class so she ended up in the back of the row since they lined up based on height. If you look close, she is four from the back.










I snuck up on Savannah as she waited for her running race. I wanted to tell her how proud of her I was.










Denny hanging out with one of the vitamin drinks they have for the kids. He did a really good job behaving. There wasn't a whole lot for him to do all day except play with the other kids. We should have brought some toys... all they had was a slinky that we bought at our Torisen (Supermarket). If you have ever played with a Slinky, you know they get tangled up. I spent half the day untangling it.





The school is divided up into two teams, Aka-gumi and Shiro-gumi (red team, white team). You have probably figured out she was on the red team. I am not sure how this is decided, but all of Savannah's friends were on the same team which was nice. This picture is of the team leaders getting them psyched up for the event. The girl in black was the leader.




I mentioned that it was hot... I was sweating just standing in the sun. In Japan, women really try to take care of their skin so they are often covered up. This woman had jeans, sweatshirt, towel around her neck and a hat on. Unbelievable.







Tug-of-war




The kids on their way back to their seats under the tents. Savannah comes in near the end of the movie.





Intermission dance. Black outfit... hot day... the kids did a really good job.




This was one of the events for the older kids. I thought it was interesting so I took a movie of it.





Throughout the day, the kids shouted their chant, cheering for their team. "Fure, Fure, aka-gumi"





Savannah's running race. She made it out of the blocks a little late, but was able to catch up and got in fourth place.




This event was interesting. You had to throw soft balls into the bucket on a stick. The adults got to do it too. I opted to try it out. It is harder than it looks. I also have had people come up to me on the street who recognize me from the event.




All of the kids marching out from the tent area. I was stunned to see how many kids actually went to the school. Savannah's school is grade 1-6. Seems like a lot of kids.

Kid's Forest

Elin went to Tokyo for an overnight with her sensei and a friend. The kids and I went to the Bennett's house for a cook-out on Saturday. I forgot to take my camera so we didn't get any pictures. It was supposed to be for a few hours, but we ended up staying from about 1:00 until 6:30 or so. It was a really good time.

On Sunday, we got up and made egg muffins (Savannah's new favorite food) and hash browns. We go through about three bags of English muffins a week. Then, we went to a park that my sensei told me about. I cannot remember the name but the sign in the parking lot had Japanese for "Kid's forest" so that's what I am calling it. I was happy to get out to the woods. Hunting season is coming up in the U.S. and I am a little depressed about missing out this year. I am sure the deer behind our old house are happy though.

There was a typhoon that rolled into southern Japan this week. Usually, it moves up from the south to the north bringing rain. I thought we were going to have a rainy weekend, but the weather was nice - but it is still hot and humid. We were told that the week after Obon was the hottest and then it would start getting cooler. 3 or 4 weeks later, we are still waiting for the coolness to begin.


This was a view looking up the mountain side from the parking lot. They had many rows of cut firewood. I thought it was a bit odd, but it made a little more sense later in the day. There are several lodges and also a tent camping area. I think we will have to go back and try camping out some time.





Denny in the parking lot... once again making it difficult to get a serious picture of him.













Savannah in the parking lot.












We had to walk up the road to the main lodge. I don't exactly understand how it works, but you can see all of the mattresses (?) or futons hanging over the side of the railing. I thought the shape of the building and the mountains in the back looked neat so I took a picture.





This was the first set of steps that we had to climb. Yes, I did get a picture of Denny without the peace sign... I ambushed him. I called his name as he was walking up the stairs and caught him when he turned around.









Savannah starting up the stairs. I noticed today how tall she is getting. It hits me every now and again how quickly they are growing up.










They had a suspension bridge that you can cross to get to a tunnel that went through the mountain side. If you bounced on the bridge, you could really feel it. The kids were not happy with me jumping up and down on it.








Denny and Savannah on the bridge.









I think this was a view from the bridge looking down.









This was the stairway leading up to the tunnel. You can just see the entrance. You can also see steel cables tied to the trees. We could not figure out what these were. There were a bunch of them. Eventually, I thought of a possible reason... The last row of trees had the cables tied to them. I think it was to help catch any trees that might fall and hit the bridge. I am still not sure what the purpose of the tarps were.






This is a picture from inside the tunnel. It looks well lit, but actually, it was pitch black. I used to camera to see how far it went. The kids were starting to get hysterical about me going in. Denny ran down the stairs to get away from it so I had to go back out.




Yep... Denny at it again. He made this face for about 2 solid minutes while I tried to get his picture.










Savannah in front of the trees. She has our map in her hands. We stopped two Japanese people asking about the park. There was a young man and an older woman. I was stumbling through my Japanese and the man started talking to us in English. Sometimes it is a shock when that happens, but most of the time, it makes things much easier.

This was the "Hiking Course". There is a look-out on top of the hill. I thought it would be tough to get up, but hey, it can't be that bad if they have a trail right? WRONG!

Denny starting up the hiking trail. I begged him not to give the peace sign in the picture this time.

This is the picture from the top of the hill we climbed. I swear, at one point, we had to have been going up at a 70 degree angle. I had the kids in front of me so I could grab them if they started back down the hill. The ground was covered in sticks and bark which made it tough to climb on. I think the trees may be cypress or some type of pine. It was really difficult getting up the hill and also tricky coming down. We found a better trail to use for descending the mountain. It took us about 45 minutes to go up and back down.

This is the look-out tower at the top of the hill.

The next few pictures are from the look-out.

If you look close, you can see some of the houses at the foothills of the mountain. there was a lot of rice fields. The rice has been green all summer, but it is now turning yellow as it nears harvest time. I think we go back to our rice field next week to harvest.

Another picture from the look-out.

And another looking up the mountain side.

And another with a view of the mountains in the backdrop.

You can see the yellow rice fields in this one.

We kept seeing these hula hoops tied to trees and an indication that there was some type of golf course. We found out that this is Frisbee golf. You have to throw a Frisbee through the hoop in the required par for that hoop. Unfortunately, we never figured out where to get the Frisbees.

Picture of the other side of the lodge as we were returning to the car. There was a large group getting their picture so we waited. You can see some of them in the picture.

Another picture that I snapped while we were waiting for the group to finish their picture.

We saw a dragonfly at the car. Usually, if you hold your finger up, they will land on you. I got this one to land on my finger and managed to take a picture of it.

Savannah getting ready to eat curry rice. She put an apron on so she did not spill it on her clothes. She is all showered up and ready for a show and then off to bed.

Denny looked to be half-way there already. He has a fake tattoo on his arm. Yesterday, he got into the stamp pads. Between the tattoo and the stamps all over his arms, he looked like pretty bad.

One of the obstacles that they had was a Tarzan swing. You had to swing from one stump to the next and land on it. You had to stay until the next person swung over to get on the stump. The next person, then the next and so forth. We only had three in our group so it was easy. There was one group that managed to get 8 people on about a 1.5 - 2 foot diameter stump. I could not get the kids away from the swing.

I had to swing first most of the time because if the kids went first, I would knock them off. Plus, I was able to grab them when they swung over and it made staying on the stump easy.

Swing and a miss...

Utsunomiya Zoo

The kids and I (Elin) went to the zoo a few weeks ago with my friends Nanako san and Miho san. It was a small town zoo and some of the animals, like the tigers, were in very small metal cages. I found that sad but they looked well taken care of. It was a reasonable price to get in and then you could buy small paper bags of vegetables for 200 yen ($200) to feed the animals with. This was one of the last things we did before school started again.






Denny feeding the little monkeys. Their hands are so soft when they take the food from you. You have to watch out for their little teeth though!






Me by the "American beaver" sign....'nuff said!












I love flamingos and they were so close you could almost touch them.







My friend Miho and I and all of the kids ( too many to name!). My friend Nanako was taking the picture. Savannah goes to first grade with 2 of the other boys. They are in the same walking home group. It was a very hot day but we had a lot of fun.

Denny feeding the giraffe. There was a baby in the back but I couldn't get the picture to come out clearly! We could not believe we could feed giraffes, elephants, monkeys, penguins, rabbits and more!

My favorite animal!

















Elephant eating right out of our hands! Savannah was scared of the trunk, so at the last minute she would keep pulling her hand back! I fed it and the trunk just feels like a leather glove. It was really interesting!

Savannah by the "savannah monkey" sign.

Savannah and Denny riding the pony. $200 for one little circle but I let them do it. Yes... I am a sucker!