遠くに住む家族や友人のための個人的な日記です。 ごゆっくり... For far away friends and family.

2014年12月26日金曜日

鹿嶋市に住みたい理由

I was asked to write something for the
 Kashima International Exchange Society's newsletter.
I'm a bit embarrassed by what I wrote, so for now, it's in Japanese only.
Basically, I wrote about the reason why I'm living in Kashima. 
I said it's because I love my job and the children I get to teach.
鹿嶋国際交流会の解放に文章を頼まれました。
ちょっと恥ずかしいけど、これを書きました。



2014年12月23日火曜日

2014年、師走頃

11月下旬の連休、神奈川からおじいちゃんとおばあちゃんが来てくれました。



アンは12月で9ヶ月になり洋服も80〜90サイズに。毎日機嫌良く元気いっぱい。離乳食はまだ米のみ。それさえも一日5口だけ。昼寝をたっぷりすると特に機嫌良く、泣きもせず一人で布団の上で遊んでいたりする。




12月中旬、野草舎生活展。生活展はこの保育園ならではの興味深い企画。一年の制作活動や遊びが展示される。展示物はこどもひとりひとりの日々の言葉や行動がわかるようになっている。保育士さん達はこれを準備するのにどれだけたいへんだったのだろうと感心を超えもう感動。生活展来園者には手作りのおやつや飲み物がふるまわれる。園は木で出来たがっしりとした平屋で真ん中の部屋には暖炉やピアノがある。暖炉の前でおやつの胡麻クッキーを食べほうじ茶をすすっているとなんだかとても落ち着いてしまう。


2014年11月30日日曜日

Look what washed up on the shores of Kashima. 
This is about a ten minute walk from our house.
I don't know if you can get a good sense of the size from these pictures, but it was about 12 meters long. Astute viewers will notice the last picture is at a completely different angle, this is because we actually witnessed a large wave flip the whale over while the water around it turned red with blood. Also, I got close enough to touch it. It felt like thick rubber.
For the English speaking viewers: 
If you listen closely in the video, you can hear Tomo say, "cool" and Ray, say, "scary." I'm trying to comfort Ray by telling him, "It's ok."

2014年11月26日水曜日

2014年10月4日土曜日

あいあい会


Ray's pre-school had a "talent show" today. The kids sang and danced and performed various plays. 
Out of a 2 hour program, Ray was on stage for probably less than a minute because he's way to young.
…but he did perform relatively well (I'm biased, of course). In the first video, when his name is called, "Mooney, Ray-kun" he says, "Hai!" and comes right out finds his mark and sits down. This is a lot better than most kids in his class. Unfortunately, he spent most of the time when he should have been performing looking for us (or just staring off into space?). I was waving my hand like an idiot, and you might be able to hear Tomo tell me to stop doing that, but Ray didn't seem to notice anyway. (I also think his lack of response to the song was due to the fact he was seated furthest away from the teacher).
In the second part of the video, the members of his class walked across the stage disguised as various animals. The announcer is saying, "The last animal is a bear." You can see a hand pushing Ray out on to the stage, but once he's out there he does put his hands up like claws and lifts his legs up high and gives one or two stomps (…wait a minute, do bears stomp?). I was proud of him. Tomo says I am, "親ばか.
In the video, Ray is the orange dot...

Also, we received something in the mail that made Tomo and I very happy...

2014年9月29日月曜日

水疱瘡・Chicken pox

The kids got the chicken pox, but otherwise not much happened in September.



2014年5月18日日曜日

2014年4月13日日曜日