Battling the heat!

There is light at the end of the tunnel! Just one more month of university classes! BUT, what is ahead for this next month and the first couple weeks of summer holiday is countless hours of reading through the endless pile of essays and tests. AND, the heat and humidity keep on rising! Last year, I spent too many hours at different coffee shops reading papers over a cup of coffee ( and one too many sweet cakes!), but I am determined to save some money this year and try to stay home. Home means sweating it out with just a fan and cup after cup of ice tea. I am excited about this present my friend gave me recently that is a huge selection of different herbal teas that can be made hot or iced. Any advice for keeping cool?

Need a New Social Life!

My social network is going through transition at the moment, and I am feeling a bit melancholy. The weekly Tuesday night gathering at our friends YATAI restaurant had its last gathering last week as our friend has decided to close down the shop. It has been such a great place for friends, friends of friends, and their friends to drop in, have a bite to eat or a couple of drinks after work. From week to week, you never knew who would show up, but the conversation had and friendships made were always worth the effort to get their rain or shine ( I think my husband, daughter and I had about a 90% attendance record!). Eventually, the shop master may open up shop somewhere else, or we may try to find a new laid-back watering hole, but no plans are set in motion yet. Then, another of our dear friends, TYLER, will be heading back to England at the end of July, and we will miss her, her lovely girls, and the network of positive people she has introduced us to. Having changed kindergartens and dance schools this past year, we are slowly losing touch with the wonderful gang of parents and teachers from these places too. Yet, I have to keep in better touch...and need to maybe find another network of people to chat and vent with! Good luck to Ito-san and Tyler. We WILL keep in touch!

Happy Birthday Hula Hoops!

Yesterday was Lucy's Tap and Talent Show. Every year, Lucy's tap dance teacher, Tyler, encourages her students to show off some of their other talents and take the spotlight on stage. My 5-year old and four of her other friends decided to show off their recently acquired skill, hula hooping! You wouldn't think it is "Talent Show" material, but alongside the line up of jump-roping, a recorder, violin, and karaoke-style songs, they got an equally enthusiastic round of applause from the audience, if not more because they were just so adorable!!

It just so happens that today's morning paper reported that today was the 50th Anniversary of the Hula Hoop, and that it has become one of the hottest selling toys in Japan this year too, with toy stores having a hard time keeping them in stock!

Again, Thanks to my daughter and the positive people who bless her social sphere, we had another wonderful day being doting parents!

Just playing!

Nothing is better than just playing...and playing it by ear. Today Lucy threw on her bikini under her play clothes, we loaded our bicycles in the trunk of the car, and packed a change of clothes and our bath set (shampoo,soap, toothbrushes and towels) for a dip in the hot spring later, then took off for the Ezuko Lake-side park. We ventured from the south side of the lake, rode our bikes to the edge of the city's zoo and got a peak of the giraffe, ostrich, and deer. Then, we splashed around in the small stream that runs through the park, Lucy dashing her bikini, I dashing my pants-rolled-up ankles. Then, before meeting our friends downtown for dinner, we stopped off at a hot spring/spa for a quick rest and clean up. Sun, sweat, fun, and hardly any money spent! Gotta love these kind of days!

DNA or Life?

A question in my class today was, "Why are bad people bad?" There is yet another scary story on the news these days, of a 25 year old man who went crazy stabbing people in one of the busiest shopping districts of Tokyo yesterday. Why? Most of my students agreed with me today that most people aren't bad by any freakish alignment of DNA, but that all the little bad things that happen in our life pile up on people's shoulders or in their hearts at different rates and weights, and if these aren't balanced off with enough good, then we start to tip over the dark side. To anyone out there who is reading this today, I LOVE YOU JUST FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY RAMBLINGS! So, take that in and chalk up one more good, and erase one little bad from your pile of experiences, ok? May the force be with you!

Watching the news made me think. Even though I try to keep scary stories away from Lucy as much as possible, in our home where the television is on 70% of the time (whenever Dad is home), it's impossible to keep her from hearing and seeing much of it. I am afraid she is becoming desensitized by it all. Growing up in a home where the television wasn't on so much, I wonder how she will be different than her half-sheltered mother?

The other thing I noticed, thinking of DNA, was that my daughter has definitely inherited the picky attention to detail that both her father and mother have. We were folding origami last night, and she kept wanting to start over because her corners were not at perfectly sharp as mine! I know in some ways, this gene will help her somewhere down the line, but it will probably drive a few people around her crazy too.

Had a good cry!

It is (YIKES! It was 2:22 when I looked at the computer clock...my most unlucky time) well past midnight but I can't sleep because just finished watching a tear-jerking movie that rattled me so much I am wide-eyed and full of energy. The movie was IN AMERICA. If you haven't seen it, do! Its another movie that puts life in perspective, and tries to give meaning to America's craziness.

I just googled "tear-jerker movies," but didn't like anyone else's lists. Here are a few I remember well:
1. Life is Beautiful
2. Memories if Tomorrow (明日の記憶）
3. Crash
4. My Life
5. I am Sam
6. John Q
7. Joy Luck Club

and, the only book I ever cried reading, Where the Red Fern Grows.
There must be so many more, but now I am am finally tired of thinking and can go to bed!

Eyes Speak

Yesterday, while watching my daughter and a friend play on the city's newest jungle-gym fortress, I was taken aback by how vividly people's eyes revealed their spirits. It has been raining heavily the last couple days, so the play area was a huge maze of puddles and damp grass. One young boy, probably just over a year old, entered the park and made a beeline to the biggest puddle his little eyes could see. Once he carefully submerged his shoes, he proceeded to stomp his feet one at a time with a glimmer of glee bouncing in his eyes, the scale of which was exactly proportionate to the scale of splash he was able to produce. He didn't scream or squeal in delight, just his eyes did. Silently looking on, his mother's eyes cringed at first, until I imagine she noticed the same spark in his eyes, then her eyes softened and a resigned smile emerged. The most striking eyes I noticed, however, were the eyes of an elderly man, probably 65 or 70 years old. He was accompanied by his wife and a young grandson. His body showed his age, but his eyes were dancing with a wild curiosity that is normally lost after a short 5 or 10 years of childhood. He looked at the jungle gym's colorful slides, and was eager to follow his grandson up to the top and then down the long rolling slide. I was almost frightened for him watching his quickened heartbeat flash in his eyes as he came down. My heart felt pity at first, one for the man who had gone full circle in the cycle of life, and secondly for the wife who was now caring for him. Yet, this woman too had a smile similar to the puddle-stomping 1-year old's mother, resigned to living this day as it should be, letting the people she loves do what makes them happy. So, when my daughter insisted on wearing a monstrosity of 15-plus hair pins out to dinner that night, I had to hide my cringe and feed her a bit of praise for her unique fashion inspiration! Later that evening, I shared the story with my husband, imagining this could be us some day, so we should resolve to never argue over trivial things. He first told me not to worry, that his body and mind are stubbornly strong, and that he will gladly change my diapers if I get to that point. He added that maybe our little disagreements have just as much meaning as anything else, reminding us that we are alive and full of spirit. I slept really well.