Tsukuba-san

One of the tricky things for us to juggle at the moment is the fact that Steve, working for his Australian company, has the Australian public holidays, while the girls, in their Japanese public school, have the Japanese public holidays. As one might suspect, these do not often align. We are trying to make the most of our time here though, so with the Easter long weekend on the horizon, we booked two nights away at Mt Tsukuba. 

I had been to Tsukuba-san (as it's referred to in Japanese), before with my Japanese homestay family over twenty years ago. They had taken me because it's famous for frogs, which I love. Steve was wanting to get some actual mountain climbing practice in (not just stairs training) and Tsukuba-san looked like it would provide some ideal conditions for the mountain climbing (if not the freezing cold altitude of Fuji-san). Since the girls were at school on Friday, Steve took the train early in the morning and spent five hours climbing a mountain. The girls and I took the much later (and more crowded) train after school to join him. 

It was a cool and cloudy day, so even though not the best for the views, pretty tolerable for mountain climbing. Steve smashed out his climb and took the cable car back down the mountain even before school was over. 

We just stayed in the main town of Tsukuba, rather than at the mountain. I would have liked to go all the way up, but with the girls it was tricky. Still, there was plenty to do. Saturday we had breakfast out, stumbled upon some markets and then made our way to the Space Centre and Geological Museum. 

The Space Centre had an actual rocket, but was otherwise a little underwhelming. The Geological Museum was really interesting, with lots of displays and a huge interactive map of Japan that you could layer different information over. 

This was all the onsen (hot springs)

It's a little confronting to put things like "all the active volcanos" and "earthquake faults" on the map and see so many things light up. Steve mentioned that I seem a little concerned about all the ways we could die here. I guess coming from Australia, we are so used to all the warnings about animals that can kill you, while the natural disasters that could do the same are more few and far between. In Japan, there aren't that many animals that could take you out, but the list of natural disasters that would is pretty long. 

All the active volcanos

Also, Japan are way more prepared for all the emergencies; Rachel bought home a "what would we do in a flood" planning guide from school for example. People tend to store things like bottled water, incase of an emergency when the water is cut off, and have extra food in their floor cupboards. To be honest, even if I bought surplus food supplies, we'd have no way of cooking them if the power is out, so there isn't much point. Steve also pointed out that if we were at that moment in an emergency, we'd likely be at a friend's house or looking for ways to leave the country anyway. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

Anyway, back to the travel blog!

Getting out of the complex that the Geological Museum was in (which was the Science Research Centre for Tsukuba and actually had guards at the entrance) proved a little tricky, since we took a path to the rear only to find a locked gate stopping us from getting through. Luckily, someone who worked there road past us on a bike just as we turned back and we were able to get out after he swiped his card, saving us a long walk back in the heat. Did I mention it was 28 degrees? Such a warm day! 

We stopped at Tsukuba Brewery and Steve had a tasting paddle of three pretty good beers. I guess Steve would say they were all great, but I only really liked the first one. 

Then we bussed back to our hotel and I took the girls for another walk through the markets before we snacked at Mister Donuts. Lastly we walked through the central park to the Expo Centre (with yet another rocket). This place looked cool, but since it was already 4:15, we weren't sure if it would be worth it to try to smash through the exhibits in the 45mins before closing time, so we strolled back through the park to the fountain area outside the hotels that the girls were keen to play in. 

They hung out there on the rocks for ages doing who knows what. Scheming probably. Then Steve took them to get a cat shirt for Sophie and come back to the hotel for dinner. The girls were not feeling like going out for dinner, so we had strategically bought convenience store dinner for them (cup noodles and chicken pieces) and left them in the hotel while we went out. 

I tried my first ever eel, which was delicious, and Steve had tempura and soba. Back to the hotel for some time watching random Japanese game shows with the girls before bed. 

Sunday (Easter Sunday!) we had some chocolate eggs that I strategically packed all the way from Australia. Steve had said (back in February when I bought them) "We'll be able to find Easter eggs in Japan right?". Oh, so wrong Steve. I was glad I packed these precious Cadbury gems. They were well worth the luggage allowance that they took up. 

We didn't have much time on Sunday to explore Tsukuba more because the girls had their first meeting of Girl Scouts that afternoon, so we pretty much packed up and shipped out to be home in time for that. We saved our actual Easter celebrations for Monday, when we had a bit more time at home and were feeling much less travel worn. 

All in all, it was a good little get away. 

Neighbourhood Walks

Typical suburban street in outer Tokyo

Walking around the neighbourhood streets where we live was surprisingly easy to get used to. I don't know if it's that we needed the maps so much in the first week (or all the Pokemon Go I've been playing) but four weeks in and it's hard to get lost in our little part of Tokyo. 

Main "Sakura Street" in Yotsugi with one of the few footpaths.
Unfortunately, so bumpy thanks to the sakura tree roots, it's hard to walk on. 

I wanted to be getting out and walking more when we arrived here, mostly because I knew I would have the time and thought it would be a good way to get back into the habit. I'm pretty lucky that the area we live in is flat and super easy to walk around. There aren't many actual footpaths here. Usually just a less than half a meter section on the side of the actual road that you use, but it's sometimes got a painted line to help the cars know not to run into you. The local streets tend not to have too much traffic anyway, though loads of bikes. 

All the spring flowers are out too, which makes every walk beautiful. People don't have any kind of yard or grass for the most part (unless you have a really big house, and even then, the garden is most likely stepping stones, rocks and a tree or two), but there are loads of small potted plants out the front of most houses. 

I love seeing the flowers that I recognise from Brisbane, but also the ones we never get in our climate, like the tulips, poppies and daffodils. 

I have been walking down to the river a lot recently, and feeling so unbelievably lucky that we got to live here for four months. I think I can kind of see why people drive into South Bank and walk along the river there now, though I still don't think I'd drive somewhere to walk. The rivers that boarder our corner suburb probably help with our ability to navigate too, though they won't help if we have too much rain later in the year and the whole area floods, since the ground here is so flat.

 

Steve thinks it helps that we have Skytree almost always in our skyline, helping us know which way is west. He and I walked over there from our place one weekend, and it took just under an hour. It's only 10mins on the train. As the days progress into summer, I can see me moving the walking to the evening and I'm looking forward to seeing how different things are with all the lights on. 

Since Steve finishes work at four, we've been able to go for a few evening strolls with the girls too. This Yellow Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that takes you over some water to another path down by the river. Steve has been using the stairs here as his Fuji Training, since Yotsugi is so flat he's got not other incline options. It's no Pegg's Lookout or Toohey Forest, but it will do. 

And here is Rachel eating Skytree. Just like Godzilla. 

Japanese Primary School Part 1

Call us crazy, but we've enrolled the girls into a local Japanese primary school. We are living in Japan after all and wanted to make the most of the experience. The girls had mixed feelings about this, but we were pretty confidant that the benefits would outweigh the potential troubles. 

School started on the 7th of April, just over a week ago now. For primary school, everyone has to go to the primary school in their local area and all the kids walk to school. Even year one. All by themselves. The school has set routes that the students follow, so there is a lot of students streaming past in the morning and afternoon. They do have some parent helpers/teachers out with flags along the routes to help kids get familiar with it, but for the most part the thinking is that you are at school now, so it's time to be responsible. 

Higashi Yotsugi Primary School Hat

We only live a two min walk from our local school. I think the strangest thing about school so far has to be the rather overcomplicated timetable. There are six hour days, there are five hour days. There are days that are only four hours and finish before lunch. Then there is the B timetable, which also has five and six hour days, but finish at different times. Also, I don't think they count the 20 minutes of self study that students need to do when they arrive at school in this, although Rachel says her teacher gets in at 8:30 and class starts then. Who knows!

Inside school shoes ready for day one

The first day of school was a one hour day for Rachel, and a three hour day for Sophie, since she's in year six and has "leadership responsibilities". To be honest, even though I've written down what day is what on the calendar, I'm still never quite sure when they are coming home. I guess that's why the kids are trained to get to and from school all on their own, so it doesn't really matter. 

Part of Sophie's year six leadership responsibilities has been to look after a year one student every morning for the first two weeks of school. She has to get to school by 8:05 to meet the year one-er, make sure they put their bag away, go to the toilet, get a drink etc, then sit with them in class and read or draw together until it's time for the teacher to come in. 

It's free dress for primary school, though on the first day, Sophie did have to wear "ceremony clothes" (button up white shirt and black skort). The only thing that identifies the kids as school students is the really obvious school backpacks and their school hat. We did have to buy the sports uniform (white shirt, dark shorts, red/white reversible hat) for them to change into for sports. 

Speaking of sports uniforms, the girls take them to school on Mondays and bring them home on Fridays. I think this is strategic to help people not forget their uniforms, because with all the timetable changes, you never really know when you'll need it. Rachel had PE on Friday in the first week, and then on Monday in the second. The other thing they've needed to get changed into their uniforms for is the start of year doctors check ups. 

Yes, you read that right. Every student has multiple, dare I say, numerous doctors checkups at the start of the year. At the school, provided by the government. I'm talking movement/muscular skeletal checks, ear, nose and throat, asthma and heart as well as eye tests. It was pretty strange for the girls, even though I pre-warned them about it. 

Aside from that, the girls have settled into their classes really quickly. Rachel's teacher is pretty fabulous and makes sure he takes the time to check Rachel is understanding things. She is student number 30 in class 2 of year 5 (refered to as 5-2). Students sit in their number order (at least for the start of the year), and I think she likes it up in the back corner where she can look out the window. 

Sophie's teacher has been a little harder to get on board. I know she's focused on helping all the year six students "prepare for Junior High School", but it's still annoying. Sophie is number 20 in her class (6-1) and sits in the second row. I know this because when they had the start of year parent meeting on Friday last week, we got to go and sit in the classrooms, at the desks that our kids would sit at, and listen to the teacher tell us stuff. 

Most days the girls have come home with something new and fun that happened to tell us about. Scattered in these stories are moments of "Japanese all day makes my brain hurt", which was expected. On the first day, Rachel was delighted to report that her school had axolotl in the hallway on the first floor. We have been subsequently less excited seeing the conditions of the tank that these poor creatures are exisiting in. Nothing interesting in there at all; not even a rock for them to hide behind. It's the flip side of living somewhere like Japan, on one hand: cool axolotl! On the other hand: no care for animal rights.

Speaking of the flip sides of Japan, as I sat in Rachel's classroom listening to her teacher talk about things (and point out the work they had done that day on the black board (yes, you read that right - it was written with chalk and everything!)), I noticed that right under the fancy touch screen TV sat a still working cassette tape player. Oh Japan. One foot in the future and the other firmly in the past. 

There is lots more to say about Japanese schools, but I'll leave this here for now and you can come back another time to learn about school lunches, cleaning classrooms, clubs and all the different subjects! 

Hanami

Cherry blossoms are falling off their trees now, giving way to the green new life coming through, but while they bloomed, they sure were beautiful. 

Since the blossoms only last about two weeks on the trees, Japanese people tend to make the most of this time of year (especially as the cold of winter starts to give way to warmer spring days) by celebrating with picnics. Hanami is a picnic that is specifically done where you can view the flowers (usually cherry blossoms). 

We were lucky enough to be invited to a hanami picnic with another family who live in the area and they took us to a huge park by the water on the edge of Tokyo. It was loads of fun, and our girls had a good time making friends and playing with the other Japanese kids. 

Rachel tried the typical tri-colour dango for the first time, which was delicious. These are mochi (pounded rice balls) on a stick. They vaguely have sakura, plain and macha flavour, but mostly they just have the colours and all tasted about the same. You can only get these around this time of year (March for girls day (hinamatsuri) and then in April for the sakura). 

Sophie tried some umeboshi - sour pickled plum - which did not have the same reaction. Rachel tried the umeboshi as well, but the first time just swallowed it whole (seed and all) and second time took a bite and then forgot the seed and swallowed all of it again. So funny. We had to explain to Sophie that getting foreigners to try umeboshi is like when people come to Australia and we insist they try Vegemite, knowing full well it's an unusual and generally acquired taste. She did not approve. 

Steve took the girls on the big ferris wheel in the park, and got some views of the sakura, Tokyo city, as well as out over the bay towards Chiba, where you can see the Disney parks. 

It was a really fun day, and such a quintessential Japanese thing that I'm glad we got to experience it. I've been taking photos of all the sakura lined streets in the neighbourhood, but nothing really compares to seeing them in real life. Soon they will be all over though and everyone who is sick of hearing about them can relax. 

Birthday in Japan

Two years in a row I've been lucky enough to celebrate my birthday in Japan. I asked Steve if we could make it a thing, but I don't like my chances. Better to be happy with what I got. 

Honestly, it was a pretty cold and rainy day here, so the girls and I were just hanging out while Steve worked. I did spend most of the day sewing, while we chatted and listened to music. The day before the girls and I had had cake at a cafe when we went to Nippori, but what I really wanted was one of these strawberry sakura red bean mochi that you can pretty much only get at this time of year. 

Honestly can't tell you just how delicious they are. Hooray! 

Come Friday, we got to celebrate again (and help the girls get out of a pretty bad wave of homesickness) by going to karaoke together. I felt like we were a little bit rookies since we aren't used to picking songs and it took a bit to get going. Sophie in particular at the moment is all about musicals, including some niche YouTube musical on the Odyssey, so was bummed about her choices not being available. 

Still, lots of fun, some tempura for dinner after and a walk home through the neighbourhood cherry blossoms. So lucky to have celebrated this way. 

Our House

This, for the remaining three and a half months, will be our house in Tokyo. After the girls finish a term of school, we will be moving on to take advantage of the holidays Steve has stored up and travel around Japan. For now, this is home.

Small plum blossoms out the front of the house.

We live in an old Japanese style house. It is very traditional. The height that every bench and sink is standing at is a real testament out just how old it is, (not to mention the doorways) and you can see from the layout that the modern facilities have just been added in as they developed. 

The first thing you see as you slide the door open is the concrete slab the house is built on. This is the entrance, or genkan. It's where you take off your shoes. You absolutely cannot wear your outside shoes anywhere in the house. Japanese families have a pair of slippers for everyone, and spares for guests. We aren't a huge fan of slippers, but Rachel is rocking the cow slippers we gave her for Christmas, so she's fitting right in. 

I have often wondered why Japanese people have the need to wear slippers at home, but I was reading the Disaster Readiness Guide that was in our house and one of the things people talk about is when an earthquake hits and the glass in the windows and doors shatters. You don't want to be stuck unable to cross the room to safety if the floor is covered in glass, so they recommend having a good pair of house slippers.  I don't know if this is the only reason (I think the clean inside vs outside is def another factor), but it certainly makes sense that it has contributed to how Japanese people live. Japan is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world after all. 

Rachel's cow slippers, ready for action.

Anyway, this house would be considered big by Tokyo standards, small by Australian. There is no back, front or even side yard to speak of. The house stands approximately a half meter away from the boundary fence to the neighbours on all sides. Coming in there is a living room, where we have set up the kotatsu. This is a low table that you sit on the floor at. It actually has a heating element underneath and a double top (the very top of the table is moveable), so you can plug it in in winter, put a blanket between the top layers of the table and suddenly your feet and legs are toasty warm as you sit there. 

The kotatsu wasn't set up when we first arrived, and we didn't really need it, but when the rainy cold, top of five degrees celsius hit at the start of last week, we pulled it out of the cupboard and set it up pretty quickly. We also pulled out the heated carpets (think electric blanket for a bed, but this is designed to go on the floor) and set them up. That's what's under the brown mats in the living room and bedrooms. This old house is not insulated even the tiniest bit. 

Lucky cat (maneki neko) door hanging (noren) at the entry to the laundry/bathroom

The main bathroom (just the laundry and then shower room/bath) is off this living room, towards the front of the house. It's a testament to how old the house is that the bathroom is in such a random place. This is Japanese style, so the whole room is a wet area. You shower first and then have the option of soaking in the bath. The bath is really deep, so it is comfortable to sit and relax in. It has electronic controls on the walls so you can fill it up to a set height, and control both the hot water temperature of the shower and bath. Once it is full, the whole family use it (because you are clean before you get in). Again, the cold rainy days of last week meant we really enjoyed the bath at night. 

Coming further into the house from the living room, you step into the kitchen and dining room. The only toilet and handwashing sink are also in here right at the back (you can see the sink on the right of the photo below). It's a little strange, but this is an old house. Modern Japanese houses would not have this. 

Originally, the kotatsu that we set up in the living room, was in the dining room, but our hosts put in an actual dining table and bench seats that we can use instead. 

The kitchen is quite small (honestly, it gives me flashbacks to the original kitchen our house had before we put in the new one in 2011), but I'm making do. The fridge isn't even as tall as Rachel, so we shop small and often. Steve has trouble with the height of the kitchen, but luckily, our girls are on wash up most of the time and they are the right size for it. Any guesses what that trap door looking thing is on the floor there? 

It's the pantry! There are two food storage pantry boxes in the floor (since the house is raised up (remember we stepped up to get inside?) there is a whole lot of space underneath it), though the dining table also came with some storage that I've been using. We bought a small toaster the first week we were here, so now I can melt cheese on a whole variety of things. There is no oven, which ins't uncommon for Japanese houses, but usually they do compensate by having a microwave that can also be an oven. Alas, no such luck for us. 

Tatami flooring

Upstairs (up the very steep stairs), there are three rooms that honestly feel huge because they are mostly void of furniture. They are all tatami, which is the traditional woven straw mat flooring of Japan. Tatami is so soft to walk on we love it. I'm sad to say that the younger generations of Japan are opting not to have tatami (even when I lived here 20 years ago, most of the more modern houses just had one tatami room). My homestay sister in her very new house has no tatami at all. 

The biggest room upstairs we have set up for Steve's office. We had thought we were going to have to get the desk ourselves, but thankfully the people who own the house put one in for us. The chair they provided was not up to scratch though, so Steve ordered a new one. 

Doors of the wardrobe/cupboard behind Steve's desk. 

Wardrobes in the girls room. 

The bedrooms only have built in cupboards (with lovely painted doors) and nothing else. We are sleeping on futon on the tatami. These fold out mattress and doona combos are very cool. When we first arrived the futon were older and quite thin, but after a week, we asked the owners if they could replace them becuase we were finding it quite uncomfortable. Would have been fine for a week, but not for four months. They were great and ordered new futon for us that very night which arrived two days later. The new futon are so thick and comfy and now we can use the old futon for a couch/cushioning downstairs. 

Folded up futon

The end room at the back is where the girls have set up to sleep, and Steve and I have the room at the front of the house. In the morning, you fold up the futon to make space and let the tatami air. At night you fold it out again. From our room you can open the sliding doors and go out to the half a metre wide balcony, which is where we hang all our laundry. It's pretty much the only reason we go out there, but it's quite rusty and it makes me nervous even when I do. I do a lot of leaning out the door to hang stuff where I can. 

Futon ready to sleep in!

All the windows (and some of the doors) are covered by shouji screens, which is the traditional paper and wood screen combo. I actually love these and they do a surprisingly good job of keeping the cold out. They are somewhat fragile, but none of the holes in the paper were from us. I did get some PVA glue and A4 paper from the 100Yen store to patch them up though, since it was freezing last week, and I'm pretty proud of my work. 

Shouji screens

And that's that! We are pretty lucky to have all this space and still be in Tokyo. I honestly love being surrounded by all the traditional Japanese elements here too. It might be old and a little tricky at times, but we fit just fine. Happy days! 

Sliding doors to our bedroom