Lithuania & Swans

Yesterday morning, I went to FIK for another World Friends Day. This one was presented by a man from Lithuania. He was well meaning, but it wasn’t the most exciting presentation I’ve attended. I think it’s really cool that the school holds these events. The Principal said they had hosted people from over 40 countries in the past few years. I think she does it to promote diversity in a society that has little- one of the reasons they were happy to accept Catie as a student. Plus, it’s a nice change in routine for the kids. Today they are being visited by a large (person dressed up in a big plush suit) character from a Japanese cartoon. I don’t think parents are invited to this one, but I’m sure I’ll hear about Goaity on the playground. 

I was also amused by the new table names. FIK has 4 tables where the kids to eat lunch and do projects. Each child and their partner are assigned to a table. The current table names are: Turkey (Catie & Anna are turkeys), Scarecrow, Pumpkin, and Persimmon- not a name you'd hear in the US! I love it!

Catie had a new confidence yesterday. She raised her hand every time someone asked a question or needed a volunteer. Unfortunately she thought Lithuania was in Madagascar. We're taking baby steps :-)

A pig pile of FIK students looking at a book

They were playing a Lithuanian version of duck-duck-goose

 

Juju is the fashion maven of FIK. I'm really going to miss seeing her outfits everyday.

After World Friends Day, Reiko & Ichika came back here for lunch and we hung out until pick-up time. Then we took Haruto & Catie up to Takamatsu no Ike to feed the swans. There were a couple of hundred swans on the lake. It was beautiful! As I was trying to explain to Reiko, I’ve never seen wild swans before, at least not huge numbers of them. This time of year, the skies of Morioka are filled with honking Vs of migrating swans. Even the swans on the lake couldn’t stay put. There were constant new arrivals and departures- presumably to the other swan wintering areas on the local rivers. It is a noisy, exciting time to be up at the lake. 

the swans were not the only creatures being fed

We could see a huge group of swans across the lake, but they never came over to our side of the lake.

We also had another fun leaf fight. We were making so much noise that we attracted the attention of a photographer! He ended up taking a bunch of photos of us and offered a posed photo of the 5 of us as a gift for allowing him to photograph us. I’m interested to see how it comes out!

Here comes TROUBLE!

 

Catie & Haruto amused themselves by climbing to the top of this hill and then sliding on their butts down it. It did look like fun, but the 2 of them were COVERED in mud!

After sliding, they discovered that burying each other in leaves was fun. Haruto was pretty gentle, but Catie was a brute!

"I said STAY DOWN!"

 

 

Jump!

Today was Mika’s second day off of school this week. She almost never gets to pick Anna up at 2:00, since she is also a teacher, but her school had a couple of days off since they held a big festival over the weekend. In fact, I think today was only the fourth time I’ve seen her on the playground since Catie started school. 

Anna had such a good time playing with us yesterday, that in spite of the fact that she almost never gets to go home early with her mom, she requested another playdate with us. We’d initially planned on going up to feed the swans, but it was pretty cold out today and we all wimped out. Instead, I suggested a visit to ‘Jump!’. We’ve never been there before, but I knew it was located on the floor below Kokko and had seen enough posters to think it might be fun. 

It was! In some ways Jump is a low-tech version of the cool Circle 10 play area we went to yesterday. But, I think I liked it even better. It was well-lit, clean, and just for little kids. Plus, yesterday’s adventure cost us $10, whereas today only cost $3. Reiko, Haruto, & Ichika joined us and the kids & moms alike spent several hours bouncing, rolling in a huge inflated cylinder, playing basketball, climbing on play equipment, and chasing each other around. Another fun afternoon spent with friends!  (I’m really going to miss these ladies when we go home in a month)

 

 

things got a little crazy in the tube every time all 3 of the kids tried to roll at the same time

 

First Snow

Ok, so it was only a few flurries, but it was the first snow we’ve seen in Morioka and it thwarted my plans to play in the park after school. Luckily, I had a lunch date with a friend and she invited Catie & I to join them at a huge, 6-story indoor playground/sports complex after school. 

Dancing before school this morning

 We bought the “3 floors for 3 hours mom & child” pass. This place was just wild! In addition to the kids play area (ball pit, giant balloons, slides, bounce room, ball air guns, tricycle track…) they had an indoor roller blade rink that you could also take little motor bikes out on, mini bowling, a huge arcade, tons of arcade-like games for basketball, soccer, tennis, archery, baseball, golf, and other sports I’m sure that I am forgetting. There was also a ping pong area, 8-10 pool tables, a mini golf course, a couple of restaurants and snack bars, and photo booths. The kids (and moms) had a blast! We ran around, bounced, played volleyball with balloons 3 feet across, had a nerf ball war with air cannons, shot arrows at targets, played tennis, soccer, basketball, & golf, played a couple of arcade games, went bowling, and took some goofy photos. 

The place also had a special Hello Kitty stamp hunt that the girls participated in. They each got a card with places for 8 stamps. If they could find and collect all 8 stamps they would get a prize. It took us a while to find all the stamping stations, but eventually we did and the girls got to pick out Hello Kitty bags from a selection of shoe bags, pencil cases, or coin purses. It was a nice way to end a very fun day.

We all loved playing with these giant balloons

 

The girls really enjoyed these soft tubes. They were pretending to be Oscar the Grouch, but kept falling over.

 

The slide down from the bounce room was the fastest slide I've ever been on! Each time Mika & I went down it we were airborn beyond the blue mat!

 

I have no idea what the point of this taiko video game was, but they seemed to have fun with it.

Catie's golf game looks much like it did this summer.

Unfortunately, so does her tennis game.

Luckily, she does a bit better with soccer.

Anna was brave swinging like a monkey on these ropes!

Catie preferred a quiet moment with some soft friends :-)