Ocean Day

Today is Monday, July 21 and an official holiday in Japan called "Ocean Day" to celebrate the ocean. It begins the month long summer break for the schools.  We had an eventful week as the boys finished school and went to Japanese camp for the day. The "camp" consists of a special day long festival celebrating the summer holidays in traditional Japanese garb, such as kimonos and yukatas, and singing traditional songs and dances and fun carnival games then finishing up the evening with a campfire and amazing fireworks then an overnight stay at the school, the boys didn't stay the overnight since we live at the bottom of the hill of the school, so we brought them back the next morning for the big watermelon smash (like a pinata, except with a watermelon.)  

They had an amazing time. Since they finished with this class, probably starting with a new class in the fall, the kids made them a beautiful poster for both Max and Zack with drawings from everyone in the class. 

Yesterday we went to our first japanese baseball game. This was wild, the fans are really into it. We went with some other caucasians, some administration and English teachers classes at Meysen (the kids school). So we had a big white group, we'll call it the gaijin section.  The Sendai "Kleenex" (Yes, Kleenex are the sponsors of the stadium) Stadium is the smallest in Japan, probably seating around 5,000, but it is really nice and fairly new. There's really not a bad seat there. There is a wild west theme with a train that Zack and I rode on, cowgirl cheerleaders,  japanese "cowboys and cowgirls", and old time country tunes playing, a very funny scene. The stadium was packed at this sold-out game. As I said the fans are REALLY into it.  The Sendai team is the Rakuten (pron. rock-u-tan ) Eagles. There are two non-japanese players on the team, Rick Short and Jose Fernandez. When The Eagles were up at bat the crowd cheered this song, changing the name of the player at bat- it's very rhythmic and cool. There are "mini cheerleaders" the little girls from local schools who do a little number with the real cheerleaders. The beer and concession girls walked the aisles wearing the cutest little outfits sporting a keg strapped to their back (very handy) and knee socks with built in knee pads for to bend with ease for serving. The food is pretty similar except you can get some sushi rolls and udon as well, and the beer selection is Asahi and Sapporo. 

The really cool thing is that all of the fans at the seventh inning blow up and throw these red balloons to wish the team luck, and if the team wins at the end of the game they throw white balloons for Victory!  It was a really good game, the Eagles won, lots of white balloons, they boys were thrilled. 

2 weeks later!

Well, so much for the daily updates, we have internet issues at the house so blogging time is limited. We have had a whirlwind week full of school (for the boys-check out the uniforms) , driving- (yes, I'm driving here on the left side of the road in a right wheeled car), work, shopping (you cannot imagine the quantity of stores.) and an amazing welcoming barbeque for us, hosted by the company here. 

We live in the suburb of Sendai- Izumi Chuo (izu-me choo-oh). Sendai is a bustling city although they call it the "sticks" compared to Tokyo. There are so many stores that even I was overwhelmed, yes, me the seasoned shopper, was spent after a day of checking out the local stores. See photos of the "sticks"...

Driving here is a challenge- besides everything on the opposite side, when parking you must back up into the spot. Also the spots are tiny- my driving skills will quickly improve, there are so many different kinds of models of cars I don't think I've seen the same one twice. The names are funny too- I will dedicate a blog entry to the names of cars. For example one of my faves, the "succeed"

The boys started school here at Meysen, in a full Japanese class. The children are adorable and very friendly to the newcomers,  the boys wear name tags with English and Japanese names. They sit through class and are learning Japanese songs and days of the week, etc... the english is limited until we come back from break where they will then be in an immersive program of English and Japanese. 

Sports are big here they play soccer and volleyball after work everyday at the office, and we will be going to our first baseball game on Sunday! This is mayhem as the fans are really into it! There are 4 channels of just local baseball here, needless to say, Max is in heaven. 

We will be posting our Top Ten list- bad and good of typical Japanese culture. For example, the food- Sushi is amazing and CHEAP! We eat it everyday, the supermarket sushi is excellent, beats any upscale sushi joint in the states and for an enormous meal of sashimi, rolls and sushi for John and myself runs about $12.00 US. Bad is the pizza, there is a (no joke, Pizza Hut here) and it is beyond not worth eating with typical toppings of mayonaise and corn??!!!

My favorite spot this week was on a T-shirt, at the local department store, unbelievably funny tees here with completely nonsensical English, it read "Frolida's yacht club" translation "Florida's Yacht club" unfortunately I didn't have my camera. I will go back and try to find it next week. 

Did I mention there is an enormous buddah statue here, It leaves you speechless. 

Make sure you scroll down and check out all the pics! 

Konnichiwa

We are finally recovering from jetlag, although we all wake up at around 4:15 AM when the sun comes up, they don't call it land of the rising sun for nothing. We are 13 hours ahead of EST. It's quite beautiful and green here. This is rainy season, but we have had some sunny days in the 80's. 

There are many regions in this city, like LA there are several bustling shopping and city centers that are not considered the center of Sendai, (we will be going and spending time in Sendai center this weekend and will post pics) 

The studio John is working for is called WineStudios, it is a huge, gorgeous, state-of-the art facility, where they play soccer during lunch. 

Max and Zack will begin school on Monday, jumping into a full japanese program. The school is called Meysen, japanese for "bright horizons." It is amazing, the grounds are like nothing I've ever seen before- the pics don't do it justice. There is a farm, numerous playgrounds, pools and slides that go on forever and down the hill. They will learn japanese quickly and teach their mom and dad.

There are not that many people outside of the company that speak English, but they are really nice and patient. The food is great but different, if there are pictures on the menu its great, otherwise we kind of wing it, the boys will not starve because we found a great"Italian" restaurant and the boys said the pasta bolognese was the best thing they've ever eaten. Although udon, miso soup and plain rice is a major staple at our house. 

My favorite thing here is that the japanese love to use some english titles , and a lot of the time they just don't make sense. Everyday I look for a new sign or package that makes me giggle. Some of my favorites so far... "SWEAT"soft drink (like gatorade, to supply electrolytes.) and "STICKING PLASTER" band aids. 

We made it!

After 18 hours, 3 planes, 1 train and 2 automobiles later, we finally arrived in Sendai, Japan.