working mom in japan

A Little at a Time

2012-01-23T16:36:00.000-08:00

Whew! Glad that project is over. Now I can focus on what I am really supposed to be doing - Second Language Acquisition.

So, after listening to my favorite podcast, the Digi Show (a podcast about digital scrapbooking), I realized that in order to link my scrapbook pages to my blog, I should technically be crediting the designers of the templates, papers and elements that I use. I used to do this when I posted individual pages on my blog, but since linking up to Picasa slide show, I have done nothing to properly credit the designers.

This project took about three weeks of diligently work - a little bit every day. I have over 500 templates and over 500 digital kits, so it was a lot to go through and match up. I know I missed a few things, but after all this work, I now have a much better handle of my digital inventory. I didn't even know I owned certain things, so it was a nice surprise to come across various items that I thought were so beautiful and wonderful.

One more step in this project was to protect myself a little bit. I noticed that on Picasa, anyone can download a photo and do whatever they want with it. This might be okay for family and friends, but I would prefer that anyone asks my permission first, so I added a watermark layer to all of my layouts that go on the blog. The AJY2012 is there just to deter people from using or printing my layouts, but for family and friends, if anyone wants something, just ask and I'll email you or snail mail you a normal layout.

Now, on the left side of my blog, there are 5 slideshows. The most recent is the one called "Theme Albums", which features the Daily December album I did at the end of 2011. This is the only family-oriented album I did in 2011, so you won't see an Everyday Life Album for 2011.

Good news though! You will see one for 2012! I am working on Project Life, which is the system designed by Becky Higgins. Each month, I'll do a couple of lay outs relating to our daily life and daily routines, our thoughts, goal progress, and developments. So, I'll be adding a new slideshow called Everyday Life 2012 and it will feature these lay outs along with any random ones that I feel like doing!

Look, I don't know how it will be possible to fit this in, but really Project Life does not take a lot of work. It does, however, require an awareness of one's surroundings. Now, I have a reason to jot things down - new words that Luka says, funny questions that Ailin asks, progress of my goals, bad days, good days, basically the little stuff that makes up life.

Where do I jot things down? I found two ways to do this that seem to work for me. I downloaded an App to my iPhone called DayOne. DayOne should be syncing to my dropbox, but so far I cannot get it to work. For now though, DayOne allows me to type in what ever I want and it keeps track of the date and time, keeping the entries organized like a diary. It is not meant to be shared, so I can write whatever I want without worrying that it is too mundane, too conceited, too happy, or too depressing!

The second way is to open up the Journaling Card templates on the computer, save them in my drop box and have them ready to complete at any time. Last weekend, Ailin helped me fill them out by helping me recall various details of the last few weeks. Even Luka got in on the conversation by telling me all the words he knows, so I could pick out the new ones to add to the list.

One more feature of Project Life is to use ephemera (real stuff) from your life. I want to do the entire album digitally, so I had to find a way to do this properly. After much ado, I made some decisions about the types of things I want to save, and these things must be scannable. I keep a large ziploc bag in the kitchen and I fill it with items that can be scanned later. Some examples of items that I saved recently: the report of my weight/measurement for my first visit to the gym, a to-do list, a cool clothing tag, a recipe, and a menu from a new cafe in our neighborhood. On the 15th of January, I scanned all the items I had so far so that it wouldn't be overwhelming at the end of the month.

The photos - well, each time I upload photos to the computer, I choose a few representative ones and drop them into my Project Life folder.

Here is the key to getting stuff done though: I keep all Project Life-related stuff in my Dropbox folder so I can work on it from my laptop or from my desktop computer, anytime, anywhere.

Hopefully, at the end of the month, I can easily pull everything together into two double lay outs and that will be it!

A little at a time. That's how to get stuff done.

My One Little Word: Shine

2012-01-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Last year, my word was LEARN, and you can see many of the scrapbook lay outs in my slideshow (upper left corner). I explained a little about this experience in my last post. With the help of several good friends, I have chosen a new word for 2012. I wanted something positive and optimistic. Here are the lay outs for January.

If you are interested in this concept, Ali Edwards teaches this class at Big Picture Classes.

Bring it on 2012!

2012-01-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

Before I dig into my next grad school class and my regular teaching schedule begins again, I wanted to post an update and some interesting tidbits about 2011. After my fifth grad school class finished on December 19, I have had the last three weeks to play catch-up in other areas of my life. I got a few extra days off of work as well, so that gave me an actual two-week vacation! How rare that is!

Here is what I did during my 2-week vacation at home:

Watched 15 DVDs during my morning "study" time and one movie at the theater.
Cuddled and played with my kids as much as possible.
Cleaned and re-organized several areas of our home.
Created several scrapbook pages (digitally).
Read 1 1/2 books. (Ha....I guess reading wasn't a priority this time.)
Updated our budget for 2012.
Roasted a kick-ass turkey for Xmas dinner.
Took the kids on a short trip to visit friends in Odawara.

Work in 2011
Last year was a toughie. I am hoping that 2012 will be a little easier and that I can focus on more important things. I was forced into supervising the Debate Team at my school, which I spent most of the year feeling very bitter about. Good things did come out of it though. I got to work with a great group of kids and then we made the trip to Kanazawa together. Kanazawa is a snowy area of Japan and I had never been there before, so I was excited about that. The Debate topic for the year was "Death Penalty", and let's just say it is a depressing topic that made me feel even more bitter and down in the dumps than I already was. I am glad it is over, and I hereby would like to announce that I will NOT, under any circumstances, allow myself to be forced into supervising the debate team for another year. I need to focus on other things this year.

One Goal for 2012

So, one thing I want to focus on is my health. It's difficult when you are working full time, parenting two small children, juggling grad school classes and cooking and cleaning daily, but I found that my health declined greatly this past year. Call it the Freshman 15, but it was crazy how much weight I gained just in one year of sitting on my butt studying my a*# off. I know it will continue unless I take some action soon. I hereby declare that I am joining Curves and will go after work at least twice a week. Since my contract says that I can leave work at 4:05 every day, I plan to actually DO that and take advantage of that extra time I have before going to pick up the kids. Curves is only a 30-minute workout, but it is a start and it will get me up and moving around more often. Fortunately, our local Curves is in the same department store building where I often study for my grad school classes AND it is next door to the grocery store. Ailin's English class is also in that building, so I might be able to fit in a workout while she is at her English class.

Savings Plan
Another issue we are having is saving money, specifically for these astronomically expensive Disney World trips to the USA! I mean, we don't actually go to Disney World, but I think that we have to spend twice the amount that a typical American family would spend on a trip to Disney World, so it feels like that's what we are saving up for every year. Last year, I opted not to travel to the USA because it is so expensive and I was way too busy and stressed to deal with it all. This gave us several extra months to save money for our next trip. That said, I am balking at the amount of money we have to sock away each month in order to make our next trip in July. (Then, Yusuke came along and insisted that he also go with us....so tack on a car rental, his plane ticket and the pet hotel fees for Max. Oy vey.)

Grad School Update
So, how did grad school go this past year? It was difficult and demanding. I have never worked so hard in my life, but it was gratifying and true to my "word of the year" which was LEARN, I did a whole lot of learning. The great thing about studying while working is that you can immediately apply what you learn at work, and I saw a lot of positive changes in my teaching approaches and my classroom management. I did well in all of my classes, but it was never easy. Any time that I spent on grad school was at the expense of my children and my marriage. People often asked me how I could do it all. The truth is that I couldn't and I'm not going to lie about that. There were Saturdays and Sundays that I spent all day at the library or an internet cafe stooped over my computer while my husband and his mother took care of the kids. When I could, I would take a day off work in order to make progress on a paper. Most courses required two extensively-researched and well-documented papers...it was hell, I tell you. But, I am proud of my work, and with every course coming to a close, I know that I am closer to my degree.

My grad school requires us to attend two residential sessions somewhere in Asia. This past year, it was a four-day session in South Korea. It was my second time to visit Korea, but I was scared out of my mind. I had never traveled anywhere in Asia by myself before, and I was nervous about getting lost or not being able to communicate. I know that's stupid. I am an English teacher, for god's sake! It turned out to be a simple trip where I met many of my classmates and three of my professors. I was so excited and happy to meet these people in person, and I felt like we already knew each other so well. I also met my soul sister...a woman who lives in Kamakura, not far from Tokyo. We got along really well, and we've been able to encourage each other and give each other advice since then. Aviva rocks!

Ailin and Luka Update
Now, to my first love - my kids. They have grown and thrived, despite my being so busy and irritated! I try to give them lots of cuddles and kisses, so they know how loved they are. Luka began talking about half way through the year, and he is a great communicator. I am not sure if others can understand him well, be we sure do. He uses gestures and facial expressions to along with his sentences, and it is just comical. Ailin is starting to learn to read and write, but it is a slow process. I know that if I was home with her more, I would be able to teach her, but that just isn't going to happen any time soon. She is now attending an English school once a week with a boy who recently returned from the USA. I like the English school because they study a variety of subjects - liberal arts, math, science and art. Each month, there is a topic, such as "Sensory Organs". I think she enjoys going, but Yusuke wants to enroll her in some kind of dance class as well. We'll see if that will pan out.

Scrapbooking
And, now for my second love - scrapbooking. I thought I would have to put aside scrapbooking for the entire time I am in grad school, but seriously, I could NOT escape from my desire to do it. Of course, I didn't make pages on the scale that I was doing before, but I did two projects. One was Ali Edward's One Little Word which is an easy project that kept me on track with my new year's resolution. I only had to make one lay out a month, and it was quite enlightening. My favorite assignment was making a soundtrack of music that reaffirms our word in some way. I love my soundtrack. Then, we had to make a lay out based on our song choices by choosing some of the lyrics that really stands out to us. I love this lay out because it made me realize that the ONE THING I was learning about was how to be more independent. That is something I never would have realized without seeing all those song lyrics excerpts on one page. The second project I did was Ali Edward's December Daily. You guessed it, this is a 31-lay out project for the month of December. I did every day except for the 13th. I thought of this as a way to tie up 2011, seeing as I had not done any other lay outs throughout the year, and it was a way to celebrate the end of the Debate Season and my first year of grad school.

I have updated my Scrapbook Pages slideshow on the upper left corner of my blog. Please click on that to see many of my pages from the last two years, including the two projects I did in 2011.

So, what's on the agenda for 2012? Aside from no debate team and a promise to leave work at 4:05 every day, here is what Yusuke and I have in the works:
Tokyo Disneyland for Ailin's birthday in February
A Women's Education, Language and Learning (WELL) retreat in February (Adie and I are scheduled to present at it.)
A trip to Miyagi (Yusuke's mother's hometown) in May
A big trip to the USA in July and August (also cousin Ashleigh's wedding)
A residential session for grad school some time in the fall

Personally, I am hoping to control my weight better, or to at least not gain more, and to eat more vegetables. Ailin will be in her last year of kindergarten, so I hope she learns to read and write. Luka should be potty-trained some time in the next year...fingers crossed. Yusuke will be coming home earlier than before due to a cut-back movie schedule. Let's hope it stays that way...he could use the rest. And, I will keep on plugging away at grad school so I can tick off another five courses this year!

Finally
I want to thank all the friends and family who have supported and encouraged me over the years. I only wish we all had more time to keep in touch, even with all the technology out there, it doesn't matter when the huge time difference still exists. Still, best of luck to all of you in 2012 and I hope your lives are filled with joy and love.

Dear Friends and Family

2011-11-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

It's not that I don't want to post and keep you all up to date or tell you stories about my life here in Japan...I really do, and I miss my blog very much. However, no time to post these days because of work and grad school. This blog has had to take a backseat, among many other things, so please bear with me for a while longer. I am nearly half way through the program now!

2011-07-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

Samantha Parent Walravens

Tracy Thompson

An AQ Sakura Experience

2011-04-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

My friend, Vicky, aptly refers to our lives now as BQ and AQ. Before Quake and After Quake. It shows just how much our lives changed in an instant on March 11, 2011. One month later, it was Cherry Blossom Viewing time, and people who desired to go out and drink while reveling in the beauty of the cherry blossoms above while enjoying the warmer spring weather and hanging out with friends and family worried about "jishuku". Jishuku means "self-restraint." It expresses a feeling to not show too much enjoyment out of respect for victims of the earthquake and tsunami. At the same time, people argued that we should support the economy and buy sake and food and celebrate as usual under the cherry blossoms. I was of the latter group.

This is not a cherry tree we are sitting under, but it was the only tree left in the park without a family. I think it was the only tree that blooms at the same time as the cherry blossoms, but since it is not a cherry tree, it stood alone. We sat there and enjoyed our little viewing party.

Earthquake and liquifaction damage in our local park. I mentioned this before, but this was originally an evacuation zone for everyone in our neighborhood. Not anymore.

Papa...pppppp....ppppp. Luka's joke is to say Papa name and then make two farting noises. It's really funny.

My name is Luka.

And I am too cool for school.

We took the long way home in order to view the blossoms, and meanwhile, Yusuke's mom started planning for next year. She wants to do it up with a BBQ in the park and she had decided to invite Auntie Nanako so it will be a like a real party with lots of beer.

The song Sukiyaki is being used as an inspirational song in these hard AQ times. I think Suntory had several celebrities get together and record it, We are the World-style. I have known this song since my days as an exchange student in high school as it is quite famous, and even people in the USA know of it. It was written in 1961, performed by Kyu Sakamoto and is called Sukiyaki only because that was a recognizable word for Americans. It is actually called Ue o Muite Arukoo (I look to the sky when I walk).

I learned to play this song on the piano long ago and still have the sheet music. I dug it out so I could teach the words and melody to Ailin. She is learning to sing it now (along with all the songs in her Glee repertoire). This song has new meaning to me now. I don't think I really understood it before.

In this song, he is talking about spring, and in Japan, spring is synonymous with cherry blossoms. He has just experienced loss. It could be a loss of a loved one, but here, cherry blossom season and spring is a time for endings and new beginnings. Graduations followed by entrance ceremonies. Job transfers followed by welcome parties to new branches. It is a time of sadness and good-byes, but quickly followed by a time of fresh starts and newness.

In the wake of AQ, we are all filled with extreme sadness, and we cannot help but look up at the cherry blossoms in a new light. They bring hope. They bring something new. But, they carry the memories of our old lives.

This song says something else that is very revealing about Japanese culture. "I look up at the sky so that you won't see the tears in my eyes." Yes, that is true. People try to avoid speaking explicitly about their feelings and the sadness they are experiencing. They want to appear strong, hopeful, resigned. They don't want you to worry about them. When they are alone or you are not looking, they cry and the tears fall.

Sukiyaki Lyrics (by Rokusuke Ei)

Ue o muite arukoo	I look up when I walk
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni	So the tears won't fall
Omoidasu haru no hi	Remembering those happy spring days
Hitoribotchi no yoru	But tonight I'm all alone
Ue o muite arukoo	I look up when I walk
Nijinda hoshi o kazoete	Counting the stars with tearful eyes
Omoidasu natsu no hi	Remembering those happy summer days
Hitoribotchi no yoru	But tonight I'm all alone
Shiawase wa kumo no ue ni	Happiness lies beyond the clouds
Shiawase wa sora no ue ni	Happiness lies above the sky
Ue o muite arukoo	I look up when I walk
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni	So the tears won't fall
Nakinagara aruku	Though my heart is filled with sorrow *
Hitoribotchi no yoru	For tonight I'm all alone
(whistling)	(whistling)
Omoidasu aki no hi	Remembering those happy autumn days
Hitoribotchi no yoru	But tonight I'm all alone
Kanashimi wa hoshi no kage ni	Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars
Kanashimi wa tsuki no kage ni	Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon
Ue o muite arukoo	I look up when I walk
Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni	So the tears won't fall
Nakinagara aruku	Though my heart is filled with sorrow *
Hitoribotchi no yoru	For tonight I'm all alone
(whistling)	(whistling)

* Note that poetic license was used to render the English lyrics.

Ailin's Birthday - 2 months Late

2011-04-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

I know this is really late, and the state of this birthday party, which took place in mid-February, will tell you that I was busy and that is my excuse! Now, I am finally writing about it.

For her 4th birthday, Ailin wanted a purple purse-shaped cake. What she got was a double-layered, kind-of-purplish cake with candy decorations. Simple enough for you?

I asked that we have the party at our house which meant that I had to do the cooking. Ailin wanted pizza. (That's my girl!) So, I made 12 different kinds of small-size pizzas. Auntie Nanako came to celebrate with us.

Ailin, now a 4-year old lady, tried hard to contain her excitement...and she did. There is a big difference between 3 and 4, I think.

After dinner, but before opening presents, Ailin wanted to wear her princess costume so she could show us her "curtsy" which apparently she had been practicing with Grandma Yuki.

Grandma Yuki knitted this sweater for her.

Mama and Papa gave her an easel with paints. Ailin's dream was to draw a heart with red paint just like she had seen in a picture book.

Ailin got presents from her family in America too. Grandma Holly sent some clothes, including this outfit. Thank you to Auntie Michele for the presents too!

On Valentine's Day, the day before her real birthday, Uncle Karl (Ailin's godfather) met us in Odaiba and we hung out for the day.

We ate lunch and then hung out at the Fuji TV building.

Karl gave her a Lite Bright for her birthday, but on a whim, he decided to have this drawing done of her by one of the mall artists. She actually sat still the entire time, but she got very sleepy. Due to her obsession with princesses, we asked him to give her a princess look.

Big Sister Little Brother

2011-04-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

Ailin is turning into quite the big sister. Yes, she has her moments...I mean, she is only human. One can only take so much pestering, snack-stealing, and lap-stealing. But, she is doing well and takes her job of big sister quite seriously.

On a nice day in Ginza of Tokyo, when they close the streets off for pedestrians, the kids were running around scaring pigeons. It was a great day!

At home, on the infamous striped chair which doubles as Papa's parking place for his coat and bag, the kids seem to enjoy playing on the chair and posing for photos on it.

A clock that I ordered from an Etsy store called TammnoonyKids. TammnoonyKids is run by a Swedish woman who lives in Israel. She specializes in making art pieces for children's rooms, including clocks and door signs. The clock in my kids' room broke one day so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to get a more personalized clock. Notice that "Max" is sitting between them! Ailin was really pleased to have this clock especially at a time when she is striving to learn how to tell time.

The first day of a new school year. Luka has moved up to Otter Class; Ailin has moved up to the Seal Class. This is not exactly the kind of first-day-of-school pose that I wanted, but it's funny.

In both of these photos, I can see the resemblance between the two. They look very different, yet certain features of their faces are quite similar.

March: What I Learned

2011-03-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

This has been a hard month, but I learned a lot...at least 31 things. After feeling so depressed this week, I thought it would be good therapy to make a my Word of the Year scrapbook pages based on the earthquake/tsunami disaster.

You can click on the images to make them bigger and read the journaling.

Explanations of photos from top left: 1. Makuhari, in front of the Excelsior Cafe and movie theater. Adie and I were standing here just after the first one hit.

2. The sidewalk was splitting before us, people were stranded on the rotary in front of the station and salarymen were walking over the cracks, but mostly everyone just stood frozen in place.

3. Buses were attempting to get into the rotary even though the road had split and buckled up. Water was quickly seeping up onto the pavement.

Bottom left: 1. We returned to the high school soon after, driving while the big aftershocks occurred, and we saw that the sports ground had split and now looked like a river.

2. After a short while, Adie accompanied me to the daycare so I could pick up my kids. I could not take photos at that moment because it was chaotic. Several teachers were outside trying to keep the liquifaction at bay - an impossible task. The intersection had sunk down, and liquid clay was pouring out of various holes in the road and sidewalks. We managed to get across the street but our shoes sunk down into the "quicksand". This quicksand was later shoveled out, the road was fixed, and the mud that remained soon turned to dust as you can see in this photo.

3. The liquifaction at a park near my house. This park's ground has since been completely torn up and new grass has been laid down. This park was originally an evacuation site. Not anymore.

From top left: 1. We came home to this sight. First, the master bedroom had the most damage. A dresser fell over and all the knicknacks in the room had smashed to the floor. A glass vase filled with sand produced most of the mess.

2. My multi-purpose room had no major damage but several books and knicknacks fell down. Luckily, the computer was safe!

3. A lamp that will now be garbage.

From 2nd row left: 1. My mother-in-law's apartment building and grounds had extensive damage due to cracking and liquifaction. Their parking lot was unusable for two weeks. They had no running water for several days.

2. and 3. A neighborhood shopping area near our house called Inage Pat also had extensive damage, as if it sits on a fault line. The earthquake ripped through the ground like a tornado rips through a town. The light poles sit at a an angle now. The sidewalks are ripped apart and have waves going through them. The restaurants are closed for now. It is a low priority for construction work.

From top left at bottom: 1. After a natural disaster, people have a tendency to hoard. This instant curry aisle stayed empty for days. Rice, bread, eggs, milk and other staples were (and in some cases) difficult to come by and when they did start stocking the shelves, items like this were rationed.

2. Black-out schedules were made to force people to conserve electricity to make up for the losses in Tohoku as well as the troubles at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. This black-out schedule was posted at our daycare so that parents would know when the black-outs would occur in the daycare area. Areas of town that were especially damaged and require a lot of reconstruction have been left out of the black out schedule.

3. Donations to the Chiba-city government will be transported to the evacuation facilities in the north. They requested items like toilet paper, diapers, adult diapers, sanitary napkins, and wet tissues.

4. The kids and I at the park near our house. I will never look at the park the same way again.

I will never look at anything the same again.

The Things We Take for Granted

2011-03-24T20:16:00.000-07:00


Back When We Were Happy ... and Oblivious.

Now, in the wake of the Tohoku Quake, looking much older and wiser.

Were we prepared for a big earthquake? No. Did we have a plan A or B? No. Did we have any idea what it would do to reclaimed land? No. Will we get our butts in gear and be ready (or gone) before the next one? Hell yeah!

I am still very saddened about the situation here in Japan, and I can't help but cry when I watch the news and see my people telling their stories, mourning for their lost or dead loved ones, and watching their flattened houses be thrown away like a pile of sticks. I am not supposed to let my children see my cry, but I can't NOT feel emotional when I see this on the news.

I also can't help but feel frustrated at the fast-changing information regarding food, water, radiation, etc. In the background, the aftershocks force us to stay vigilant. I look around and count the few foreigners left, and I smile at them, glad that they decided to stay too.

In my next post, I plan to include some photos of our area.

Our Decision to NOT leave Japan

2011-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

The best way, honestly, if you are sick of watching the news or if you don't trust CNN (and you should not trust CNN because they over-dramatize everything - Japan's "earthquake tsunami nuclear catastrophe" is no exception) is to take a look at my facebook page. You will see my own status posts along with my friends in Japan and their messages or status posts, and you can see how people are doing, what their main concerns are, and what kind of information they are passing to each other. Many are linking to good blog articles, informative or interesting news articles, or useful websites. A lot of people are talking about how to get help to the victim shelters up north - where to send money or material donations. Right now, to be quite honest, many of us are very worried about them because there are 10s of thousands of people sitting in those shelters and frankly, there are not enough supplies to go around. They are asking other prefectures to send what they can, however, they are not asking Chiba or Tokyo.

Why? Because, we cannot get much of the same stuff here. If you go to your local stores at certain times of the day, you can sometimes get things like meat, bread, rice, etc. Paper products are also in short supply. What they need in the shelters is mostly food staples and paper products, even sanitary napkins for women and diapers for babies. There was a blizzard there on Friday and into the night. It was cold here too, but no snow. Everyone is trying to conserve energy right now, so we can't use our heaters much at all, or warm our bath water, so no baths, just short, showers. It is not much of a sacrifice when you think about how much people are suffering up north - from loss, shock, cold, etc. Even the businesses are using less electricity or shorter open times so as to conserve! It's amazing how much people down here are cooperating.

Yusuke's relatives in Miyagi, though all accounted for, called us last Thursday and said they are now out of food. They are living in their house still, but there is no where to buy anything. (And, we think we have problems down here....) I think his mom or Yusuke's sister Nanako will try to send something up there, but they are worried that mail trucks cannot get to that area.

So, some friends and family have been asking me if people are leaving in Japan in droves. First of all, please know that most people who are leaving are foreigners. Japanese people don't have anywhere to go abroad, and if they were to run away, they would go west or south of Japan. The foreigners leave for a variety of reasons. I know more than 30 foreigners who have already left and several more who plan to leave soon. Some are AFWJ members, others are JET teachers or English teachers. It is my understanding that they have a variety of reasons for leaving.

Possible Explanations for Leaving Temporarily
1. Some are leaving now because they were already preparing to leave Japan in the near future, and decided that perhaps leaving sooner than planned would be smart. In fact, two of those people were from the Fukushima area. They, in fact, left alone. Their husbands are staying behind with their Japanese parents, at least for now. I think their visas had not come through yet anyway.

2. Most, who leave, have every intention of returning soon, either because they think things will calm down and return to normal in a few weeks or because they have to work. For teachers, we currently don't have classes, so it is easy to take vacation time right now. For people who are housewives or who can do their work from anywhere in the world, it is easy for them to take off. For still others, they were already planning to go on a spring trip somewhere, and the timing just happens to be right now.

3. Other reasons for leaving: People who have small children want to protect them from possible radiation poisoning because even small levels are not good for them. Though Chiba and Tokyo are in the clear now, some are afraid that the wind could change, the weather could change, etc. and then it would be too late. Same thing if they don't get control of that last reactor - if that blows, it would be too late. Panic would ensue and then we would never get out. This is an island country, with not many places to run to, and with such a short supply of gas and a high chance of traffic jams, you truly would be trapped here. But, by Friday, it looked like they were getting control of it and over the weekend, it definitely looked like that. I think that many young people left Japan for now simply because their families back home were screaming at them over the phone to leave and the pressure was getting at them.

4. The after-shocks continue and this is unnerving for many people. We have had a few earthquakes unrelated to the big one. It is psychologically affecting everyone here, putting many on edge. Japan has at least one earthquake per day, somewhere in the country. Usually, they are small, but these days, any size will have people pausing in their conversation and looking around for "hanging objects" that would normally not be moving, such as a light string, to see if there is an earthquake starting. Taking a break from that would be really nice, I think.

5. The biggest reason that people are leaving the Tokyo metro area may be because of lack of supplies (gas, food, water, etc.) and the blackouts are causing problems like some banks having to close their ATMs during certain hours. Luckily, my bank and ATMs are fine so far. The problem of not being able to get daily living supplies is very hard on us, and not being able to buy and send anything up north makes it that much worse. (But, let me just ask this: if you go to the USA and spend your days over-indulging yourself at Walmart and then come back to Japan in 2 weeks and find that not much has changed, have you really done yourself a service? You'll still have to get used to living with less, and perhaps baking your own bread once in a while!)

6. The stress that it causes for our husbands who have to worry about their wives at home in another city with the kids - there is always the chance that they can't get back home easily. I don't think this is a biggest reason though - most wives have learned to take care of themselves in the absence of husbands, who work a lot anyway.

But then there are many reasons for NOT leaving, and I will list some of them here. My main one, I decided, will be listed as #1.
1. I don't think 2 weeks abroad will change anything. I might get over the earthquake feeling I have every other minute, but at the same time, I'll be forced to talk about what happened, watch it unfold even more on CNN, and then have to prepare to come back here all the while worrying about my husband and his family, my friends, our home, my job, and all the things I was "going to do during spring break before the new school year starts." I'll still have to do all that stuff when I get back.

2. This huge earthquake happened in Tohoku area, which is north of us. Several years ago, you may remember a huge earthquake in Kobe, which is west of Tokyo (it seems south to me, but actually it is west). Another one, soon after I moved here happened in Niigata, a rural prefecture west of Tokyo. The Big Kanto Earthquake (Tokyo and surrounding areas) is predicted to happen sometime within the next 20 years. This earthquake, if it happens, will cause serious devastation to Japan. Because I was standing on the reclaimed land last Friday and saw the liquifaction take place right before my eyes, and then what I experienced when I picked up my kids at daycare (also on reclaimed land) and what happened at my school sports ground where I work only one block away, and on top of that, the ravaged land around my mother-in-laws apartment building, which happens to be in the same vicinity - all these things put together would be enough to scare anyone. BUT, there is more. Isobe, a neighborhood near mine, but bordering the Tokyo Bay, began sinking because of liquifaction and many of the houses began collapsing into their neighboring houses. My friend, Tiffany, had to evacuate her house and is now in a hotel with her kids while their family searches for a new place to live. Disneyland and Disney Sea are closed until further notice, but if you see the liquifaction that took place in their parking lot, you can only imagine what happened inside their parks - they may never recover from this. Nearby, in Urayasu, where several of my students and colleagues live, their houses - though still liveable, suffered a lot of damage too because of liquifaction. This liquifaction is dangerous stuff. I never believed anything about it until 3/11 when I saw what it could do in a matter of minutes. There would be no chance to run away if the epicenter of the earthquake were in fact in Kanto. Our apartment building borders the location where the beach used to be, so in some ways, we are safe and would only need to run across the big highway and up a hill - only after we have climbed down 12 flights of stairs with our dog and two kids and our emergency backpacks...which don't actually exist yet!

My Decision
So, here is what I decided - stay in Japan, get used to living with less - whether that is temporary or permanent - it does not matter to me. I just want to see the North begin to rebuild and help their people as soon as possible, and if I can, I want to do something to help too. But, even MORE THAN THAT, I want to prepare myself and my family for a possible Kanto Earthquake in the future. This means that we need to have some serious talks about whether we should continue living in this area, move further west or south, leave Japan altogether, or move to an apartment on a lower floor. Many options to consider here, but what needs immediate attention, is building proper emergency backpack kits, preparing ourselves in other ways and deciding all that needs to be done. Meanwhile, trying to move on with our lives - bills still need to be paid, kids still need to get ready for their next year of daycare, preparations still need to be made for my next school year, my next grad school class starts officially today - there is a lot to do!

But, one thing that came of this disaster is that we became a team. We are in this together and we have to do what needs to be done to protect our children. I will post more later about how we plan to prepare for the future, as I think this is long enough, but please know that we are thankful for your thoughts and prayers. If you feel like you really want to help, donate to Red Cross or Doctors without Borders or any of the other amazing organizations who have come in to Japan to help the people up north. And, please don't worry about us for now. We are doing fine and we will get through this because we learned a lot and became stronger because of it.

Exceedingly Inappropriate

2011-03-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

Last time I posted, it was the morning of the big Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami. Yusuke would refer to this time as "Back when we were happy."

I have been updating and communicating via Facebook which people have found to be the best way to support and communicate with each other. In fact, just after the earthquake when I began trying to reach my husband by cell phone, I found that the only thing that worked on my iPhone was in fact Facebook (and Twitter for that matter). Since that moment, foreigners as well as Japanese have found it to be the best mode of communication, even though our cell phones do work again.

Despite all that has happened to impact our daily lives and our emotions, I wanted to give an "exceedlingly inappropriate" update to my last two posts. The results of our final exam in our English class which included questions about our Tsumabuki and Oguri presentations.

In the introduction of my presentation, students were asked to fill in the blanks.

"Tsumabuki-kun is Japan's most exceedingly __________ man."

Here is a list of the funniest answers:

nice
cute and cool
actor
cool
beautiful

Yes, he is.

Japan's Jack of All Trades

2011-03-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

And, now for Adie's presentation about Mr Shun Oguri. After you see both presentations, which actor do you like better? That is the question here!

Japan's Most Exceedingly Handsome Actor

2011-03-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Japan's most exceedingly handsome actor is Satoshi Tsumabuki.

For a long time, I could never remember his name and it became a joke in our house that whenever I mentioned him, I would mess up his name, but after years of liking him and paying attention to his career, I finally remember it! It helps to think that in Japanese, his name means "Wife-Husband-Tree".

For our final project in the 1st grade English class (sophomores for those of you not in Japan), we asked the students to pair up and choose a topic for a persuasive speech. Each partner was to prepare a speech, but they had to represent opposite opinions about their topic. For example: Long hair is better than short hair and vice versa; Art classes are an important part of a school curriculum and vice versa; and Passive guys are better than aggressive guys and vice versa.

These topics seem a bit on the shallow side, but they served a higher purpose which was to allow the students to have fun with their topics, research to find evidence without too much of a burden, and to focus more on the presentation skills they had been developing and practicing all year long (eye contact, gestures, posture, visual aid creation, etc.) The newest skill added for this particular project was to prepare an entire speech from intro to conclusion with transitions and sequencers placed in the correct parts of the speech. Their power point presentations would be an important component as well, and in preparing their presentations, they were challenged with the job of creating slides and being able to explain them with the correct "introduce-explain-emphasize" technique that they learned last fall.

So, of course, Adie and I had to give model presentations on several occasions throughout this project so that they could see our process as well as the final result, which was our complete presentations. We presented to them about one week before their own presentation dates, so it gave them plenty of time to practice their own presentations.

One point I would like to make here is how students are evaluated. Of course, we are looking at various criteria, such as their physical skills in presenting as well as their content, evidence, quality of slides, explanation of slides, etc. However, what really stands out to anyone who watches these presentations is the PASSION that the speaker displays throughout the speech!

Yes, PASSION! Whether, real or fake - from the heart or just an act - if the speaker shows passion for his topic, no matter how socially-important or not, the audience will be much more interested.

Our best (and most passionate) speakers were chosen to perform their speeches again for the entire class the next day, so that everyone could see their amazing presentations, and it was a great way to end the year. I think both students and teachers could remember back to how we all felt on the first day of school one year ago when the students were timid and worried about their English, and we teachers were unsure of how much they could understand. On this day, when we all sat back and watch the 9 best speakers (there was one threesome and three pairs), we felt good, and we felt proud and happy for all that we had accomplished this past year.

And, on that note, let me now show you my model presentation about Japan's most exceedingly handsome actor. (Adie's presentation was about her favorite actor, Shun Oguri. I will post her presentation in the next post, just because it is funny to see the opposite points being made. I thought her presentation was kind of "bitchy" but we all got a good laugh out of the whole process!)

2011-02-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

I know that some of you are waiting for Ailin's birthday photos. I am waiting for the one from her daycare and then I will make a post about her 3-day Polish Birthday Celebration Extravaganza. For now, these photos are posted here so a certain artist can see them. More on that later!

Another Priceless Quote

2011-02-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

"I think I've made it pretty clear in an indirect and passive aggressive way that..."

I will not finish the sentence, but if you have lived in Japan long enough, you will know that this can apply to a variety of situations. Revealing the remainder of this sentence would reveal too much about my current life situation. Oh, the joys of living and working in Japan...

Hisashiburi Blog!

2011-01-28T02:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, hello there! It is Friday night here, and I am craving a little blogtime, so I thought I'd throw one out there.

Here are a few funny quotes that I have collected over the past several months:

A conversation between me and my husband -

Him: "I think about death at least once a day."

Me: "Death? You should be thinking about sex nine million times a day instead!"

A snippet of conversation between me and a friend -
"I will teach my dear husband that I am a fairy and not a maid!!!!"

A conversation overheard in Walmart, just before Xmas, in the toy section. We were standing in front of the very educational V-tech toys -
"I don't want to get him one of those toys. I mean, remember Josh? He had all kinds of those toys, and look at him now. He's a genius. I don't want my Colby to be like that."

A conversation between me and my colleagues -
"I don't know where everyone went, but it seems they all went off somewhere with that smelly woman."
"That woman has a name! It's ... something."

Word of the Year

2011-01-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

Rather than make a resolution or a series of resolutions for 2011, I decided to get on the bandwagon with Ali Edwards and choose one word for the year. Shannon and Jill agreed to do this with me, so all three of us have very different words we are focusing on and reporting our progress to each other as we go through the year.

Over at Big Picture Classes, Ali is teaching this year-long class and all we have to do is make one scrapbook page per month reflecting on our interactions/progress/personal experiences with our "words".

My word is "Learn" and here is the first page I made for my scrapbook. This is a template made by Ali Edwards, and the digital kit I used is called "Celebrate a Year in your Life" by Alison Pennington.

Would anyone care to join us in our "Word of the Year"?

Winter Trip to Wisconsin 2010

2011-01-07T03:59:00.000-08:00

All in all, we had a nice but very short trip to Wisconsin for Xmas. I very quickly put together my scrapbook pages of the trip for my "Trips Home" album because graduate school classes are starting to get under way and I will be too busy in a few weeks. Please enjoy! Click on the images to see larger versions so you can read the journaling.

The digital kit I used for all six pages is called I Love Cocoa, designed by Kristin Cronin-Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

An Ode to Nasty Commenters

2010-12-28T07:02:00.000-08:00

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you...nasty commenters included.

If going around peoples' blogs and leaving nasty, ugly comments is your thing...just remember that what goes around comes around eventually.

I try to keep my blog positive rather than spend all my time complaining about the stupidity of others, but I thought I would give a shout-out to the negative people out there.

If you want to leave nasty comments about perfect strangers, the least you could do is NOT hide behind a nickname and a private profile so that we are unable to track you down and courteously thank you for bringing such joy to our lives.

Scaredy cat.

No Excuses

2010-12-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

So much for making time to write on my blog each week!

I have not updated since the beginning of November because of a whirlwind of school-related projects, work-related drama and some personal projects that took precedence due to so many impending deadlines!

Today is the day when the kids and I leave for the USA! We will be visiting family and friends for two weeks, and Yusuke will join us mid-next week to celebrate Xmas with my family.

Up until today, I was running around like a headless chicken during the day and collapsing from exhaustion at night. This week, in between packing, I decided that making this lay out was essential because when I get back in January and feel refreshed, I will have forgotten some of these pertinent details of what made the last two months so amazing and so hellish all the same time.

Please click on the lay out to see it in more detail and to read the Journaling.

Merry Xmas to Everyone...I hope to write more in the next couple weeks if I have some downtime. I have just been given two homework assignments though - read a novel for class and write a report for the Board of Education. It never ends.

(The template used for the lay out was designed by Cathy Zielske, and the digital papers and elements are from a kit called "Make a Change" by L Banasiak.)

Working Mom: Halloween 2010

2010-11-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010 was awesome and reminiscent of my college days when Shannon and I dressed up as drag queens every year. This time, I was not a drag queen and there was no drinking involved - just hundreds of adoring fans (no, not fans, really, just students and not all were adoring, but stay with me here), lots of partying (as in class parties), and much posing. Those sexy poses from my college days did come in handy here.

2nd Incarnation as Drag Queens - Our Stage names were Olivia & Desiree

Our Final Incarnation - my wig was much improved this time and so was the make up.

This year, I was told that I absolutely have to dress up for work because I teach two 9th grade classes and it just happens to fall on Parent's Day every year. Since the moms have come to expect this tradition of teachers dressing up in costume on Halloween, I was told that it was absolutely unavoidable. I had not really dressed up since my college days, but what the heck.

I had that awful white disco costume left over from AFWJ Convention 2009 when I was on the committee and we did a performance at the Cabaret Show. The performance was based on Mamma Mia, and I was quite pregnant at the time. I decided it might be a good idea to use that costume again and be a disco diva complete with a Farrah Fawcett hairdo and lots of make up. I got the wig online from Amazon and copied the make up cues from the photo that came with the wig. I had to buy some cosmetics that I did not already own - eyebrow pencil, eyeliner, pink lip gloss, etc.

Adie, 50s Girl and me, the 70s Disco Diva

I did one practice session about a week before the big day and discovered that my rolls of fat do not bode well with this lovely white disco suit. So, back online, I searched and searched for some kind of girdle or body suit that would help hide my rolls. I finally ordered Spanx but then realized they would never get to Japan in time for Halloween, so I then went to my local department store and got some help from a nice saleslady who recommended a 2-piece girdle. Yes, they are tight and constricting, but I looked so much better with one on, and just to get used to it, I wore it under my work clothes all week. I knew that the big day would entail high-heeled shoes, so I really wanted to limit my body to one shock at a time. As it was, the girdle must be the big secret for many women in their 30s and 40s. What a great way to "slim down" without actually doing the slimming! It is certainly not recommended for every day as it does get tiring, and even on the fourth day of wearing it, I had to remove it by about 3pm. But on the big costume day, I looked and felt great in it. My feet, on the other hand, suffered greatly, and are still in recovery mode.

I was a disco diva, complete with microphone, but many students and teachers thought I was supposed to be Mariah Carey, Madonna, Lady Gaga, or Beyonce. I didn't exactly deny that. I mean, they are all divas who have worn pretty wild costumes out in public and some of them may have even worn sequined bell bottoms at one time or another. And, let me be frank. If I could come be born again into any lifestyle, I would choose to be a world-famous diva with a great voice, like Celine Dion or Mariah Carey.

Here is what I actually was supposed to be: A retired disco diva who is past her prime, but she comes back to the stage to perform once in a great while. I wasn't anyone in particular, but when you watch shows like American Idol, you'll often see performers like this - coming back to sing their old famous tunes but looking way too old to be on stage and certainly nothing like you remember them. (Someone told me that I am still young-looking, but she is really really old so I can understand her point of view.)

Of course, I can't explain all that to students, but that's what I was!

I had to teach two classes in costume, and the other two classes were the Junior High class activities, so it was more like a party. After school, we had a party for the ESS (English) club, so it was a full day for me. There are photos on my facebook page that students took while I was teaching, or just before or after class. Those are funny because it looks like Mariah Carey is teaching a high school class.

Enjoy the photos!

My team teacher for one of the classes who also acted as my body guard, if only for a few fleeting moments.

My biggest fan: We told him that I was supposed to be Nicole Kidman just to get him more excited about it.

Same biggest fan from above photo, but this time, he is wearing a Batman costume. Forced into it, I guess, and he probably wouldn't like me posting this on my blog, but I just had to!

With the boys of 3I class.

Hilarious but real photo of a 50s girl and a diva actually eating the school lunch. Was it edible? Yes. Was it gross? You be the judge.

Four teachers, one dressed as a student and he fit right in!

With some of our students from 1I Class.

My contribution to the English Club's party - Kitty Litter Cake. Mmmm.

I decided to give Ailin a good memory and go pick her up in costume.
She thought that was pretty cool and so did her teachers and classmates.

October Round-up

2010-11-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

I noticed a few new things this month.

About Ailin:
Her hair is finally growing thicker and longer and faster. She just got her hair cut in August and will need it again soon. She says she wants to get her hair cut just like mine.
She says funny things like "French Rice" for McDonalds french fries.
She's really sassy. It gets worse each month.
She can speak English and knows a lot of words, but I think she chooses to speak Japanese. She often surprises me with a slew of English words or sentences, so I know she is picking up stuff. Yesterday, she said, "You're mom. He's dad. This is brother. I'm Ailin."
She really wants to learn to read. We may have to start Hooked On Phonics or something similar soon. Oh, where will I get the time?

About Luka:
He is much more "INTO EVERYTHING" than Ailin ever was. I have put locks on every single cupboard door in the kitchen, plus the garbages and many of the cabinets throughout the house. I may have to put a lock on the toilet too.
He likes to play hide and seek, as in peek around the corner and then run away.
He likes to stand up on his high chair. Not good!
He also likes to crawl from his high chair onto the table, and he can do this very quickly...just to get some food that he couldn't reach.
He really likes his Papa. (and of course his Mama too.)

About myself:
I am getting old and fat.
I discovered a secret weapon though - girdles and spanx.
I finally decided that out-sourcing is a good and necessary thing in some cases. Hello professional house cleaner and hello professional typer.
Every year, I start out by promising myself that I will keep my work desk organized and clean, that I will keep up with evaluating of homework and projects. It all goes well until a virtual tornado hits my desk in September, and I am left with a huge pile of evaluations, a messy desk and NO TIME to possibly do it all. (Then, I promise myself that I just won't assign homework next year! Ha! How easily we forget.)
I discovered Genius Playlists on iTunes works really well to help me listen to my 1000s of songs, most of which I have forgotten about. Genius rocks!
(I can't believe I just wrote that something "rocks".)
I am working too late every night and need to get out of this office earlier so our evenings can go smoother. (See above!)

I learned something new too.
The word "kaba" in Japanese means hippo, but it can also refer to a stupid idiot. The word "baka" means stupid, so if you call someone a hippo, you are really throwing an insult their way. It might be akin to our English insult, my personal favorite, "dumbass" as in dumb donkey or dumb butt. Please do not ask me how I learned about this.

Events
Not much going on this month except our EXTREME preparations for Halloween.
Annual Sports Festival at Daycare on the 4th.
Bilingual Kids Club on the 23rd.
My School celebrations on the 29th.

I am SO TIRED from celebrating Halloween that I have decided there will be no Thanksgiving this year. I just can't handle another month of expensive preparations with Xmas just around the corner.

Working Mom: How to Write Fiction

2010-10-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered this myself and of course am no expert. I usually prefer writing about my own life and the people in it. I have written a few fictional pieces, my most recent was based on my own life as a recent college grad trying to find her way in the real world. It was so similar to my real past that even friends who didn't meet me until much later were saying, "Uh, yeah, you can totally tell it's about you."

I often wondered how in the world to fiction writers come up with all those details. Do they have to experience it themselves? Do they actually visit the places they write about and take photos or notes? Do they interview people who have been through those situations? I truly have no answers here, but I imagine that it depends on what they're working on and the methods they are comfortable with.

In any case, I need to write a fiction story for an upcoming assignment, and I really welcome the challenge but had no idea how to go about it this time. Writing about an American woman who is married to an Asian guy and living in his country is a bit too close to home.

I hit upon a useful method while at work because I am in the middle of a project with my seniors. In groups of five, they have to write a soap opera scene or set of scenes from scratch, and in November, they'll have to perform their scenes on stage. This project is in its eighth and possibly final year, so I am hoping it goes well. (It may be cut due to certain teachers' opinions that a soap opera drama is just not challenging enough for our high-level students who should be spending their time debating and discussing serious social problems. I am into discussing social problems - in fact, I created the Current English elective class where they do just that, but right now, we are talking about the required English Comprehension class that we only have once per week.)

Step One:
The Soap Opera Project begins with magazine cut-outs of various people - some famous and some not, but that doesn't matter in the end. We let the students choose pictures from a combination of five categories: Women under 40, women over 40, men under 40, men over 40, and children/teenagers. Some groups will have no children in their combination while other groups will have no one over 40. It's kind of random, but it's one way to force them to be more creative.

Step Two:
Now that each group has five images of people, we ask one person to come up and choose five cards from our stack of "character cards." The character cards each have two characteristics on them, for example: heartless and cruel, shy and timid, lively and outgoing, sensitive and kind. The cards are facing down so they cannot choose the cards based on the what is written.

Step Three:
We do the same thing with "job cards." The number of job cards matches the number of characters over age 15. So, if a group has a child character, they can only take four job cards. Examples of jobs include super model, hotel receptionist, millionaire, flight attendant, doctor, etc.

Step Four:
The students now have five images, five characteristic cards, and four or five job cards. Then next step is to match everything up, and decide names for each character. This takes a little while, and we usually have to write a variety of girls' and boys' names on the board.

Step Five:
Sometimes we skip to Step Five and let them do Step Four a bit later in the process. Step Five consists of choosing two "setting cards". In each soap opera, there must be at least one change of scene or they must show action in two different places. Examples of settings include ski resort, the bathroom, a pub, a church and an airplane.

Step Six:
The last card is a "plot card." Students are often surprised we won't even let them choose their own plots, but we think this forces them to be creative as they try to fit the puzzle pieces together. Each group chooses one plot card, and some examples include family argument, money problems, an accident, natural disaster and a crime.

Step Seven:
The writing process which takes the longest begins here. Of course, the group members must all agree on the outline of the story and it takes quite a while to first figure out the relationships between all the characters and how the setting and plot will fit in. Once they are ready to start writing, we hand out blank script sheets and they begin the process. Currently, my seniors are at this stage, and I am hearing rumors of a tornado that carries an entire casino full of people to another land and era; a group of four neighbors ganging up on their money laundering super-model neighbor. It's all good, but we'll see how these stories come out in the end. I will post about that in November after the performances.

What's this got to do with me?
So, here was my dilemma. For the AFWJ Journal, the theme for December is to write a fiction story and remembering my last attempt (back in 2004 when I was editor), I really wanted to give this a try. However, rather than base it on my own life, I wanted to do something really different. Sitting at my desk one day this week, it occurred to me that I could use the soap opera method and have elements of my story chosen for me by the cards! I quickly went through my stash of famous/not famous magazine cut-outs and chose five characters, randomly picked out the appropriate cards and set to work. I am now on page four of this awesome story.

I don't know if others will agree about its awesomeness, but I am really enjoying this process. The most fun part, I think, is that rather than including entire situations from my own life, I am just choosing small details here and there. For example, I listen to the podcast Foolish Adventure which is about how to build an online business, and I listen to several other podcasts as well. In my story, one of the characters has her own online business where she hosts a few podcasts every week. Another example is that one of the characters spends a lot of time at Starbucks. Oh, and the whole story takes place in Chicago because Yusuke is in the middle of planning his trip to Chicago this winter, so I'm envisioning Michigan Avenue here.

One great thing about setting a story in a place you are only vaguely familiar with is Google Maps and Earth. You can actually pick up a little figurine of a green man and make him walk through the city and you can see everything from his point of view.

Though I am used to writing and getting interrupted many times, I find that with this story, I enter a zone where I can sit there typing and feel like only one minute has passed, when actually an hour has gone by. Therefore, it's hard to do this at night when I could be interrupted at any moment by the kids or by Yusuke. Same problem at work. Anyway, the process is definitely fun and exciting. I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Prepping for Grad School

2010-10-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

People, particularly my family, have been asking me how the heck I am going to pull this off with a full time job and two small kids. Since I opted to start classes in January to give myself 5 months to prepare, I've been spending my free time arranging my life to fit this new venture into it.

Here is what I am working on in terms of "arranging things":

a. Negotiating with Bilingual Kids Club to move their monthly meetings to Sundays so that the kids and I can still participate.

b. Looking into hiring a house cleaner to come in once a week and clean for 3 hours.

c. Cleaning up and sorting through and storing all my scrapbook stuff. My desk is bare now and I will be making it into a study zone.

d. Signing up for Saturday Daycare at the kids' daycare. There may be some weekends when Yusuke wants to spend the day with the kids, but I have a feeling that on most weekends, he will be too tired or annoyed to do it. My classes take place every Saturday morning, but then I can spend the rest of the day studying if I need to.

e. Getting information on all wi-fi cafes and internet cafes in our area so that I have a nice place to study and use the internet on Saturdays, when I cannot be at home.

f. Looking into buying a laptop computer that I can use at these wi-fi cafes OR upgrading an old laptop we have. I guess the latter is a bit cheaper, but it is starting to add up to more than I imagined. (I will tell the story of my laptop in my next post!)

g. Borrowing interest-free from our other savings accounts to pay for the grad school bill in December. If I pay in full, I get an extra 10% off!

h. Finishing up some personal projects. I'm making a few more decoupaged magnetic boards, taking a class to make my own photo album based on the book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, turning my articles for the AFWJ Journal into a bound book through a web site called Blogs to Books.

i. Paring down - once again, it's time to pare down our stuff, and it is definitely time to get rid of Luka's baby stuff because he is not a baby anymore. It will feel good to clear the house of some of these things. I am not sure if we'll ever be able to get rid of that crib though. We barely even used it with Ailin and almost never with Luka, but since MIL gave it to us, we are kind of stuck with it, out of Yusuke's sheer devotion to her.

j. Giving in to Japanese food - I have decided that the easiest and most economical types of dinners consist of Japanese food. Why? Because it's easy to buy it and there are many dishes which are quite simple to make. I prefer donburi, which is food placed on top of rice and served in individual bowls for each person. Many of the side dishes served in Japanese cuisine can be purchased ready-made and no one blinks an eye if you serve the same side dishes every single day.

What do I want to hold on to?

This is a good question since I realize that for the next two and a half years, I need to spend a lot of time concentrating on my studies. But, there are certain things I don't want to let go of completely. I had to make a list of everything I do and then decide what I needed to change, stop doing, or just keep in my life because I need it or love it so much.

1. My Blog - obviously, I love to write and it is a good way to keep in touch with family and friends without writing separate emails to each person. And, this stuff will be valuable to me someday, so I want to keep recording my thoughts in this way. I'll do whatever I can to keep my blog up to date even if they are much shorter entries than usual.

2. Bilingual Kids Club - I started this club and I really like it, so I don't feel right giving up on it. I am also afraid that if I don't continue going, it might not survive. I'm not sure. I would feel bad if Ailin could no longer see her friends, some of whom she has known since she was six months old!

3. Sundays - I decided that I would deem Sundays sacred family days, so aside from the monthly BKC meetings, it would be nice to devote Sundays to family time. Now, to figure out a way to get the grocery shopping done...

So, what am I giving up?

For the next two years, I am okay with giving up things like our monthly Craft 'n' Chats, paper scrapbooking, certain podcasts, subscriptions to magazines, etc. I am pretty confident that Chris will carry on the Craft 'n' Chats, and the scrapbooking will still be there when I finish grad school. If I get really desperate to make a page or two, I can make something very quickly on Photoshop.

Lifestyle Changes
I think that I need to seriously consider changing my lifestyle in terms of my sleeping/waking schedule. I tend to stay up late to do chores or work on hobbies, but then I have a hard time falling asleep. Keep in mind that I sleep on a futon with both of the kids, and I am still nursing at night. There are times when I need to go and tend to Luka for a while late into the evening, and I STILL try to get up and continue with my projects until late. It would be best to just go to sleep with the kids and wake up early. If I could wake up at 4am or 5am, potentially, I could work on laundry, read or study, catch up on email and maybe even get ready for work before everyone else wakes. I talked with Shannon about this, and I was saying that someday I would like to take up "running." Well, I don't see this happening anytime soon, but she suggested that I get up early and fit running into my morning routine. That would defeat the purpose, I think. I wanted to do chores and study, not go out for a run and then shower upon my return! Maybe I should think about waking up at 3am. No way. Running can be taken up somewhere way down the road.

Anyway, over the next few months, I am going to do some trial runs (excuse the pun!) of this new lifestyle. Maybe a week here and there to see if I feel okay with it. There are some disadvantages to it, but they might be outweighed by the advantages. I keep ya'll posted.

TGIF: No, really, I'm glad it's Friday

2010-10-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

This was a tough week at work. It should have been really easy because our 2nd graders are away on their school excursion so our schedules were lighter than usual. This is supposed to give us more time to catch up on evaluations and lesson planning.

I am slowly making progress on a joint excel spreadsheet we made for evaluating 120 speeches from the annual speech contest held at my school. It took a while to figure out that two people cannot work on the same spreadsheet, even in different tabs, without messing something up.

The most stressful thing though was watching certain 3rd graders flounder as they made their big final presentations for an elective course I teach. We've been working on these presentations since June, and I thought their Power Point slides were well done, but even if you have great slides, you still have to practice the presentation. As always, more practice was needed, but I see these 3rd graders are kept really busy in their other classes as well as preparing for their university entrance exams. It kind of hit home for me when I realized that every presentation ran over time, I was doing way too much trying to manage all of it (there is only ONE of me, you know!), and what would have been a 2-hour class turned into a 3-hour class because we made students stay after school to finish the 1st-day presentations. Why did they run over time? Because even with the 10-minute time limit, they had not practiced enough to know that they should make some cuts. They each had a 1/2 hour appointment with their teacher during the week before, but for many, this appointment was their first and possibly only practice! I see that now. On the teacher side of it, could I have done something differently? Well, just to get through the 2nd day of presentations, I will be asking some of the students to help with classroom management during the next class. This means that one student will need to work the video camera, one student will be in charge of the timer and one student will be operating the remote control for the presenter. This way, I just need to introduce each presenters and then sit down and concentrate on the the initial evaluations during their presentations, and manage the Q and A session after each one. That's enough for one person, right? You may wonder where my co-teacher is during all of this. Hmmm, good question.

As always, I need to look back on my week and figure out what I learned and/or what I am thankful for. This is a good way to decompress after a hard week.

At work:
I learned that 8 (students) is a really good and perfect number to make the current English class work well. 20 is way over the top. We are planning to request that since it's an elective and the Japanese teachers don't want to limit the number of students, there should be a student teacher ratio of 8:1. This means that 3 teachers (and three separate sections) would have been ideal this year.
I learned that excel spreadsheets really cannot be edited by two people at the same time even if they are working in different tabs.
I learned that pumpkins at Costco cost 1280 yen this year, and that it feels really good to buy one after all these years of never needing to.
I learned that English teachers and other teachers really don't care what we Native teachers are doing.
I learned that I am still responsible to clean my section of the school even if my students don't show up to clean.
I learned that, as a working mom, I need to take advantage of every opportunity to take a day off either for myself or to do catch up on housework.
I learned that communication is really important and if others don't feel the need to communicate with you, it doesn't mean they don't have something to tell you.
I learned that staying late at school to help my students makes me very tired, and that I am getting old.
I learned that if I get over the habit of staying up late and I get up really early instead, I can probably accomplish more, lose weight faster, and feel healthier. (This is from a student's presentation.)

At home:
I learned that Ailin has a really good memory. I promised to carve a pumpkin with her this weekend and she has been asking about it every day since.
I learned that Yusuke is still in his own little world and really doesn't pay attention to anything I am doing (or not doing!) unless it's related to housework. (Then he notices big time!)
I learned that Luka loves to push buttons, so this will explain why the hot water suddenly turns cold in the middle of a shower, and why the rice is only half-cooked when I am ready to serve dinner. You should hear me swearing then.
I learned that when I stay late at work to help my students, it is not helping my kids or myself because then I am too tired in the evenings.
I learned that parenting is not always teamwork, and that I can't count on my husband like I imagined I would.
I learned not to send my husband to do the grocery shopping by himself. He spent more money than usual and he still couldn't get everything on my list.

Out and About:
I learned that Kiwiberries taste really good. They are like miniature kiwis but without the hairy skin. Even Ailin likes them.
I learned that old computers fixed up to be as good as new are just as expensive as brand new computers.

Okay, I feel a little better. Decompressing has begun. Hopefully this will be a nice weekend as I promised Ailin we would carve that darn pumpkin and we would decorate our apartment for Halloween.

September Round-up

2010-10-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

Lots of happenings this month but I'm afraid that I don't have much to scrapbook about!

Events:
Three friends gave birth to baby boys!
Sept 12, Christine had a boy whom she named Ken.
Sept 19, Alya had a boy whom she named Ryohei.
Sept 22, Dai and Yukiko had a boy they named Zen.

I love baby boys. You can tell because I am so in love with my little Luka.

Birthdays:

My dad celebrated his 65th birthday on Sept 17. I forgot to send him his favorite chocolate from Japan, but I will be sure to do that soon.
Adie celebrated her 28th birthday on Sept 16. We spent an afternoon at Starbucks discussing work-related issues for an upcoming meeting, and I treated her to a coffee and snack. It's so nice to get out of the office sometimes, but shhh...don't tell anyone.

Outings:

We took the kids to Nihonbashi in Tokyo for the day and ended up in Ginza, as always. We ALWAYS hang out in Ginza when we go to Tokyo. I managed to not buy anything while there, but I did get Yusuke to take my photo in front of the Prada store, just to say I was there.
I took the kids shopping for fall/winter clothes. The weather changed suddenly and it was a bit of an emergency.

Changes:

I am preparing to start grad school in January, so my scrapbook desk has been cleaned up and most scrap stuff is being put into storage. I am working on selling or donating other stuff. I will be doing digital scrapbooking for the rest of the year, and then who knows after that?
I got a gold star for losing more than 5 pounds since starting Weight Watchers in July. I won't make my goal by December, but at least I am on my way!

New Developments for Ailin:

Ailin can now fold an entire load of towels when she puts her mind to it. I was amazed last weekend when we were all cleaning together, and she folded all the towels while I folded the rest of the clothes. In fact, she does a much better job than Yusuke ever did.
She has developed an affinity for several stuffed animals and insists on bringing her litter everywhere with her, claiming that she is the mother, Luka is the big brother and I am the big sister. Papa is still papa though.
Ailin likes to draw faces and can make a variety of faces with different hairstyles and eye expressions.
She prefers that I pick her up late so she can have the 6pm snack. In fact, she gets mad at me when I pick her up early.
(Edited on 10/05/2010) I forgot to mention this before, but Ailin is now up to the letter G. She is learning how to write the letters, and she sometimes watches the Sesame Street podcasts which go through each letter.

New Developments for Luka:

He plays chase with Ailin and with Max sometimes.
He can now eat by himself, for the most part, and rarely gets frustrated during meals.
He loves sweet potatoes now.
He indicates when he has dropped food on the floor and wants me to pick it up before Max can get it.
He wore blue jeans for the first time.
He likes to peek at me from around a corner and then run away.

Working (Mom) Wednesday: Love Songs in English Class Part 2

2010-09-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to summarize each song and activity from our class. Enjoy!

Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)

The group who presented this song chose to have a class discussion. First, we tried to define what Lady Gaga is talking about. What is a bad romance, according to this song? How would we personally define a bad romance? Do we have any "bad romances" in our own lives? This lead to a discussion about whether we like "angel boys" or "bad boys". It was a fun and lively discussion.

I Say a Little Prayer for You (Dionne Warwick)

This group also wanted to make us discuss the song, but first they asked us to choose our favorite lines from the song. I chose the line "...For me there is no one but you". The group asked us to imagine who the singer is talking about. Most people agreed that she is talking about a boy she likes but is not going out with yet. Then, a student asked about the line "...Forever, and ever, you'll stay in my heart and I will love you". She wondered why this line was in future tense, and I suddenly realized the singer might be talking about her unborn baby. Pregnant women spend a lot of time "praying" and imagining what their baby will be like, and I posed this idea to the class. Many people, after hearing my explanation, seemed to agree with me. It was truly enlightening how different interpretations can be depending on the listener.

Keep Holding On (Avril Lavigne)

This song, as sung in Glee, was supposed to be about friendship, but since my students don't know the whole story about Glee, they decided that it must be about two people whose relationship is on the rocks, but who are trying to encourage each other to keep it together. There wasn't much to discuss about this song, but the group played both versions and asked us to vote on which version we preferred. Most students voted for the Glee version because they liked the background vocals. They asked us if there is anything in our own lives that we "have to keep holding onto". This was a tough question as most students couldn't quite understand this phrase, and in fact, I think the presenters misinterpreted it. It means "Don't give up...keep going, fight fight fight." But, they took it to mean a material item that you would want to keep. That was a bit confusing too.

Gives You Hell (All American Rejects)

By far the best group presentation was for this song. They opted to play the original version, which is sung by a man, and asked us to imagine who he is "talking to" in this song and what kind of relationship he has with this person. We all agreed that he is sending bad wishes to his ex-girlfriend who he actually still has feelings for. They asked us why the melody is so upbeat while the lyrics is so depressing, and then made us discuss in pairs. After that, they went around and asked EACH pair to comment on their thoughts. Most people seemed to think that he is trying to get over the ex-girlfriend and is cheering himself on. He is a singer and hopes she will hear his song on the radio someday and realize that it is about her. They also translated the chorus into Japanese so we could really understand what the singer was getting at. A lot of students reacted with "Oh, I get it!" when they heard that. Finally, they asked us if we have any similar experiences in our own lives.

My Life Would Suck Without You (Kelly Clarkson)

This group did not do very well for some reason. They started out by asking us what the song is about, and then asking us to talk about anyone in our lives who could be portrayed in this song. These were tough questions, I guess or perhaps the mood of the classroom was off that day. No one was willing to give a straight answer. The group then tried to explain what the phrase "to suck" means and then gave examples, such as, "Your life would suck without your parents," etc. I think the class had a hard time trying to come up with examples, and I really feel that the group could have taken a different route in explaining the story of the song. In fact, they didn't explain the story at all, and just showing the music video would have helped with that. Or rather than ask such a basic question, they probably could have started small...or done a different activity altogether!

Alone (Heart)

After listening to the Glee version of this song, the group showed us 3 posters they made to help explain the story of the song. In Poster #1, a girl monkey is sitting alone on a bed using her cell phone to call someone. In Poster #2, the girl monkey is just sitting there waiting. In Poster #3, the girl monkey is daydreaming about her great memories with her boyfriend. Then, they asked us to choose our favorite lines and discuss them in our groups. After that, we had to tell the class about one of our lines and explain why. I told the class that we liked the line "How do I get you alone?" and that we had discussed the difference between being completely alone and being alone with the person you love. Then, we were asked to think of a new title for our song. My group came up with "You Don't Know" and "No Answer." Another group came up with "True of Heart" and "I Want Your Love." Then, we had to vote our favorite new title. "I Want Your Love" got the most votes. Finally, they asked us if this song depicts a healthy relationship or not. Some students replied that it might be a healthy relationship but they they are going through a rough time right now. Other students said it was just a typical relationship, and many girls have evenings just like this...sitting home alone waiting for the phone to ring.

Conclusion

I think that if I do this exercise again next year, I will make one more rule. No group can do the same activity. So, if one group chooses to have us make pairs and discuss the theme of the song, other groups will need to choose different activities from the list. Since the first group was so successful with their discussion questions, all groups took this "easy route".

In sum, I loved doing this exercise with the class and for my students, it worked beautifully. However, my initial requirement of having each group present for only the first 15 minutes of the class period was inaccurate. It turned out that some groups needed more time, especially when the discussions were going so well! This meant that I didn't always have time to teach my own materials, and we had to extend the unit by a couple of weeks. No big deal because the materials I made are very flexible, and I could have skipped a few of my activities if necessary. Discussing various themes that came out of the songs also lead me to skip around my own handout packet a bit. On the day when we did the song Gives You Hell and we talked about break ups and ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends, it was a great opportunity to go through the vocabulary list of words related to break ups: separated, divorced, remarried, etc.

Working (Mom) Wednesday: Love Songs in English Class

2010-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Many teachers want to fit music into their lesson plans, and I have experimented with several methods. I finally hit on something that really seems to be working for both me and the students.

Every fall, in my Everyday English class, we do a unit called Love & Relationships. In the first part of the unit, we talk about the various types of relationships between people and how to express that. Some examples are, "They are getting married." or "They are boyfriend and girlfriend." or "She is his boss." Later, we get into discussions about giving advice to a lady who has to choose between three guys who all have plenty of both good and bad qualities. (We usually advise her to stay single.) On another day, we discuss gender roles, like who usually fixes things in your house, who usually washes dishes and so on. This kind of discussion usually gets the kids realizing that they should do more to help their parents at home. We also talk about relationships, in terms of, who usually asks who out, who usually pays, etc. There is never any right or wrong answer, but it gives the students a chance to discuss their opinions as well as their own experiences.

To make the unit even more fun, I like to add another dimension to it: Love songs!

It's so easy to find love songs to use for class, and I have tried a variety of methods. Over the years, I have switched between teacher-centered and student-centered methods for incorporating music into the unit.

1. Teacher-centered - I found the love songs, made the worksheets to go with them, played them for the class and had them do the activities on the handouts. Activities included fill-in-the-blanks, put chorus lines in order, opinion-sharing about the themes, etc.

2. Student-centered - The students are put into groups and given the task to find a love song and make an activity to go with it. They are given 10 minutes at the beginning of class to present the song and activity to the class. We did this once a week for the duration of the unit until each group had a chance to present.

3. Teacher-centered - I gathered the love songs, pulling ffrom different genres and made an entire packet. The packet included the lyrics for each song, the background about each musician along with their photos, the activities for each song, and at the back, a matching exercise using the some of the idioms and meanings pulled from each song. For some songs, I showed the music video. For other songs, we just listened to the song.

4. Student-centered - Using the soundtracks from Glee, Season 1, I chose about 15 love/friendship songs and made a mix CD for each of the groups. Groups were given the CD and told to pass it amongst their group members until everyone had copied it to their iPod (or whatever they happen to use these days as a listening device). Groups were also asked to choose one song and to prepare a worksheet for their "song presentation." The "song presentation" would basically be a mini-lesson for the class, and their worksheets had to include the lyrics and the background about the artist and/or song. Groups also had a plan an activity, choosing from a list of ideas which I provided. I had one rule: No fill-in-the-blanks activities! I feel this type of activity is overdone and I wanted them to try some other types of activities.

I found that with teacher-centered, they did not always like the songs that I picked out, and the idiom-matching activity was too difficult, and for many students, idioms are akin to algebra ... not all that useful. With totally student-centered, I didn't like the songs that students chose. There were a lot of Disney theme songs and over-played movie soundtrack hits. (Can we hear the Titanic theme song one more time?) I thought the songs were too simple as the students are already so familiar with them and their Japanese versions, plus the activities that students created for the class were lame.

This year, I think I've hit on a formula that works, a perfect mix of teacher-control and student-centeredness. #4 option above explains in more detail, but let me explain why I think it works so well. First, the students are given a gift - it's cheap and easy for me to burn a few CDs for them, and it exposes them to something new. Glee, though extremely popular in the USA, is only shown on Cable TV FOX here in Japan, so many are not able to see it. I showed them the pilot episode just before summer vacation, and of course, they couldn't understand all of it, but they got the picture.

Even though it appeared that the students had a wide range of songs to choose from, I essentially had control because I chose this range. The CD provided them with the Glee versions of the songs, but students were free to use the original versions for their song presentations. You Tube lets us show music videos in many cases and we could play the original songs if students could not bring in the original artists' CDs.

Though students had a wide range of activities to choose from, the first group who presented just happened to choose "Discuss the theme of the song as it applies to your life" as their activity. This worked so well that most groups from then on chose the exact same activity. I would say that some groups were very good at executing a class discussion, but other groups froze, and let me be frank, some songs were much more difficult than others to discuss.

In the next post, I will share what we gleaned from each song and activity chosen by the 6 groups in the class.

Working (Mom) Wednesdays: Engrish Lesson

2010-09-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

Lots of correcting of summer homework assignments means that we get to savor some awesome English mistakes! These are from our 9th graders. Keep in mind, this is only their 3rd year of studying English.

I was the first baby in my family.
I blow saxophone.
I god last child.
I want to live 30 years old.
We were good fight friends.
I would like to enjoy unknown future.
Moreover, because the sea is dirty, the fish cannot fish though I often fish in Ichihara's sea.
Because it was a good fish pole, the fishing pole was good.
But, I suffered no fatal injury in accident.
I'll be normal adult.
If I could go 5 years into the future, I hope I'll be a genius.
The movement of my intestines stopped and it had to be hospitalized.
Because I want to help a lot of embarrassed people.
A junior high student pricked a kitchen knife with a friend.
Sometimes I feel shy when I talk to my friends because I don't speak.
The thing I hate doing the most in the world is murder.
When I am angry, I see smoking people.
Sometimes I feel shy when I make a boob.
The story's hero is died boy.

August Lay Outs

2010-09-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Click on the lay outs to see them up close and personal. For this month's lay outs, I decided to do all the Nikko trip ones on Photoshop in order to save time. I was inspired to do the other two using real paper and embellishments, partly because I wanted to use some memorabilia. All three of the digital kits that I used were from August's Digi Files on the Daily Digi.

Family Trip to Nikko: Template from Janet Phillips at Sweet Shoppe Designs, scanned in the wrapping paper from a souvenir box and enlarged it for the background, used Beauty Within (Valorie Wibbens Designs) digital kit for the paper and embellishments.

I recommend trying new things every month. Last month, I practiced doing my own drop shadows to make the embellies look more realistic. I think I am getting better at it each time! This month, I decided to try making my own background paper using the wrapping from a souvenir box of cakes. This is a painting of the big golden temple in Nikko, and I just scanned it and masked it into the background. I had a digital kit that seemed to go well with this background paper, so I used as much as I could from the kit. I discovered that you can mask papers and embellishments over letters, so I masked in a black smudgy overlay, also from the kit, and it gives the title a really mysterious feeling.

Nature in Nikko: Used template from Janet Phillips of Sweet Shoppe Designs, used Bug Catcher digital kit from Chelle's Creations for all paper and embellishments, used Torn Frame from Windsong kit created by LivE Designs kit for the center photo's frame.

This lay out deserved brighter colors as the nature theme was so prevalent on our trip. I love the challenge of layering embellishments on top of each other and then trying to get the shadows just right. By the way, this church down on the bottom left is eerily similar to a church in my hometown and I think it was designed by the same architect. I am still looking into this. It might be the common design for Episcopalian churches.

10 Things We Learned: Used template from Janet Phillips at Sweet Shoppe Designs, all papers and embellishments come from the Amy Wolff's summer digital kit. The alphabet letters from from Studio Flergs (scrapbookgraphics.com)

After a trip, I always do a variation on this theme. 10 Happenings. 10 Things We Learned. 10 Memorable Moments. 10 Things I Would Rather Forget. Anyway, it always adds humor to the trip and is a good way to wrap up the lay out series.

Dates w/ Mama: journaling spot from Ali Edwards, picture frames from Jessica Sprague.

Now, for the traditional paper lay outs. My challenge for this month was to do something different...a lay out design that I would normally never use, for example. Notice that the photos don't look very clear. It's because I printed the photos onto canvas paper. Canvas paper works really for portraits of people. The close-ups of Luka and of me and Ailin look pretty good. But, detail shots and far-away shots are barely detectable. I was disappointed in this, but it's all part of the process! I'll know for next time.

Lady's Day is every Wednesday at our theater, and I challenged myself to see one movie a week during the summer break. I wanted to use memorabilia this time and had a great idea to use the tickets for a banner. Banners are the new thing in scrapbooking and everyone's making them. There is a ribbon strung across the page and the tickets are glued to it. The tickets, as well as some of the other papers are inked with orange and brown inks. On the bottom right corner, I used a calling card of a tea shop I went to in July (Lipton Tea) and scratched it up with sandpaper before inking it. Then I sketched lines on it to list the movies' English titles. Ailin was standing next to me when I was stamping the yellowish paper, and she grabbed the stamp and stamped right onto the middle of the paper. Oh well! I used it anyway. The flower is made of green leaves that I glued together and then just glued a small circle on top of it. Oh, and here again, the photo of me was printed onto canvas paper, but this time it turned out okay because all you really need to see is me, looking serene, in my movie disguise.

Working Mom Wednesdays: The One Flaw

2010-09-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Today, I am very busy WORKING. Correcting papers and journals in time for grades due next week and also judging a speech contest, so I'll just share this wonderful little 3-minute movie for the all the women and girls out there. If you like it, pass this link on to others (or Facebook it!), so they can see it too.

The One Flaw in Women

Monthly Round-up: August

2010-09-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, end of August already. This means we are back in school teaching classes, and I am getting used to the old 9 to 5 routine again. Luka got sick last weekend so we had to deal with that, but he seems okay now.

Events

Chiba-city's Fireworks Display (enjoyed from the veranda of my MIL's home)

Dates with Mama - a new tradition I started this summer

A trip to Nikko

Ailin

Has entered into a blue phase, where she colors everything in various shades of blue.
Started learning how to write the alphabet and numbers.
Acts out stories that I read aloud to her, especially when I ask her what's going to happen next.
Has become obsessed with Shrek, and all things Shrek.
Has shown an ever-developing imagination, pretending to have a baby and take care of it (named it Passy), or holding birthday/Xmas party events complete with cake, dinner, presents and coffee.
Went to the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" with her mom and dad.
Went to an indoor pool with her mom.
Going through a blue phase in her drawings.

Luka

Walks like crazy now, all over the house, getting into everything.
Gives lectures about various things while pointing...of course, we don't know what he's saying.
Loves bananas.
Can finally sit through a story.

Movies I Saw in the Theater

How to Train Your Dragon

Salt

Inception

Karate Kid

Movies I Saw on DVD

Date Night
The Rebound

Books I read

Still working through A Divided Heart by Rachel Power
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, want to finish it before I see the movie in a few weeks.

Best Discoveries

Still getting the hang of it, but Twitter is finally starting to get interesting for me.
That summer homework for high school students sucks! Worse yet is the fact that I have to check it all! Next year will be different. I am already making plans to assign as little as possible.
That traveling with two small children is STILL not that much fun.
That my husband is still really moody, and I just can't predict what he is going to do next.
That I get to watch one more season of the Office before I am officially caught up!
Leonardo DiCaprio really is a great actor, and I have seen and loved most of his movies. I didn't realize it until I saw Inception. He is only getting better with age!

TGIF: It's only the 2nd Day of School.

2010-09-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

First, big announcement here. I was accepted to the grad school program I applied for, and I'll be studying for a Masters in TESOL from January 2011. I am really excited about this as I feel it's a step in the right direction, regarding both my career itself AND my determination to continue working while being a mom. It's hard to explain how my desire to get a Masters is tied so closely to my issues of work and family, but it is (even though my husband doesn't buy this for a second).

Anyway, for those who don't know, TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I get asked this frequently by people who, surprisingly, don't teach ESL, so why would they know, right?

This is my TGIF post, so I'll post about all the things I am thankful for this week.

I am glad that I could:

take Tuesday off to get ONE MORE day to myself before classes begin for the fall.
set up a wi-fi unit in my house so we can use the iPhone and our iPod Touch throughout our house (with the help of a computer expert who happens to be a co-worker...Thanks, Chris!).
get my camera fixed easily because the Canon Headquarters is very nearby.
take advantage of the exchange rates ... the trip to the USA in December is taken care of now.

I feel grateful that:

I work with people who are easy to talk with and we can bounce ideas off each other anytime we feel like it.
my mom finally emailed me back.
people are starting to compliment me on my weight loss. To be honest, I have only lost ONE kilo (about 2.2 pounds) since starting Weight Watchers, so I am sure that the difference is very very tiny, but it gives me a bit more motivation to keep going.
Journey songs are making a comeback (and this is because of Glee).

I think it's so cool that:

Ailin loves to listen to Glee soundtrack music and she sometimes requests to watch a recorded episode or two.
Luka likes to pretend to cook. He is feeding my his "creations" as we speak.

I am sure there is more, but I'm drawing a blank now. I have a whole list of errands to run and need to do those in order to clear my mind. Besides, Journey is playing in the background and I can't concentrate.

Manic Mondays: My Best Recommendations

2010-08-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I'd like to recommend some good stuff to you.

Music:
Glee Soundtracks...I now have four. Yes, I am addicted to Glee and I plan on using some of the songs for a music project in one of my classes next month. I am really excited about it!

Podcasts:
I still listen to Paperclipping Roundtable and The Digi Show, both of which are about scrapbooking and are produced by the same people (Noell from Paperclipping.com and her husband Izzy from Izzyvideo.com).

Izzy recently started a new podcast with a guy named Tim Conley. This one is called Foolish Adventure. It's all about starting your own web business, and like most podcasts, it is FREE. I really recommend this one if you have any inkling at all of turning your passion into a career. Izzy no longer works for corporate America because he makes more than enough to support his family on his web business. (His wife earns her share with her scrapbook web site!) This is a great way to get the information you need all in one place.

Other podcast gems I found recently:
The Guy's Perspective - this is basically a group of dads who sit around talking about marriage and families. It's funny and clever, and for female listeners, we can glean lots of useful information from it.

The Moth - If you like listening to good and moving stories, this is the perfect podcast for you. Actually, the Moth seems to be a membership community of people who enjoy honing their storytelling skills, and the Moth provides a stage and an audience for them to do so. Many are professional storytellers of one sort or another, but others are just starting out. Each week, they feature one or two stories on their free podcast. If you want more, you have to pay for a membership to get access. Very tempting.

Annoying Orange - Just a funny video podcast about an orange and his encounters with other foods. My students loved it. You can see Annoying Orange on video podcast or free or you can just check him out on YouTube.

Blogs into Books
Finally, would you pay $84 for a book? What if the book was written by yourself? I recently took my old blog Mande's J-Life and put it through a web site called Shared Book - Blogs2Books, just to see what my book would look like. It would look awesome!!!! But, it is 234 pages and would cost a pretty penny. I am going to look at other sites and compare prices. My other idea is to put all of my columns from "Surviving Japan", published in the AFWJ Journal since 2005, into one blog and then have it made into a book. I think that would be an even better Xmas present to myself, since I am planning to officially retire this column in the December 2010 issue!

iPhone Apps
Aren't free Apps fun? Here are the ones I have so far.
Fun Ones
Shazam - the best ever. When you are driving in the car or watching a movie and you hear a song that you like, you can turn on your Shazam App. Shazam will listen to it for a minute or so, send it in to their database, and analyze it. Then they send back the info to you - name of song, artist, album, exactly where and when you tagged it. It is awesomely addicting. On my 5th tag, it alerted me that I am only allowed 5 tags per month! Five tags! I was already addicted. It asked if I would like to buy Shazam to get unlimited tagging...it's $4.99, but for a music-lover, I think it's worth it.

Movies - lets you see the trailers of movies and then gives you theater schedule information. It doesn't go as far as Japan, but I do like to know what is coming out in theaters.

Baby Flash Cards - something for the kids to play with when they are bored.

Everyday Useful Ones
Evernote - You need to have opened your own free account on evernote.com to then use this app. Evernote allows you to save all your ideas, web pages you like, notes, etc into one place, and you can create folders according to project or topic. The mobile version allows you to photograph, type up notes, or voice-record things you need on the spot and then saves them into your evernote folders.

Weight Watchers Mobile - Again, you'll need to open your own account online to use the mobile version, but you can track your meals and activities on the go throughout the day and it immediate syncs up with your online account.

Relish Relish - Once again, you'll need to have opened your own account online, but you can access your recipes and weekly shopping list on the go. Shopping just got a whole lot easier.

Healthy Recipes by SparkPeople - Another great source for recipes, so if you are in the store and have no idea what to buy and make for dinner, you can easily access recipes through this app.

Time Wasters
Facebook - just as much of a time waster on the go as it is when you are sitting at your computer, but this App makes it very easy to check up on your friends.

Twitter - I have not used Twitter much yet, but I do have an account. I made an account mainly to follow some of my favorite scrapbooking icons, but once in a while I do post a sentence. Having it on my iPhone means that I could potentially post while traveling and then have something to scrapbook about when I get home. How easy it is to forget all those random thoughts you have while on the road.

Skype - I used Skype mobile for the first time the other day to talk with Louise, who is currently in New Zealand for the summer break. I didn't have a good wi-fi connection so we kept getting cut off, but I can see the potential for this. International phone calls would be free and I could call while on the go or at work...this means that those nasty time differences would not be such an obstacle. Mom, Shannon, Amy, et al - get hooked up on skype, please!

TGIF: That's what friends are for

2010-08-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is a good way to sum up this week. I really needed help, and I called on a few friends, and they did just that. I am really grateful for all the friends I have.

Thank you Shannon and Jill for helping out with the application process for grad school. This may be the start of a new path for me, and I am feeling good about it.

Thank you Sara and Amy for just giving words of encouragement and support. This helps too.

Thank you Adie for being a good sounding board. I hope you'll take the plunge too.

Thank you to Yusuke for being understanding about my decision and for keeping your mouth shut. I know you don't read my blog, but I felt really thankful that you agreed to respect my dream and told me that you admired me for having the courage to go for it.

Hopefully, I will be announcing some GOOD news on my blog in a few weeks! Wish me luck!

Now that this is out of the way, it's time to clean off my desk!

July Lay Outs All Digi

2010-08-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

In order to save time this month, I decided to do all my lay outs digitally on Photo Shop Elements. Each lay out took about one hour to complete...maybe more with the shadow tweaking at the end.

Field Trip: Used a digi kit from the Digi Files at The Daily Digi. The name of this kit is A Beautiful Beginning by MiCHELLE Batton Designs. The ticket stubs are from Kate Pertiet, Designer Digitals.

Love this lay out! Omg, these photos are the pro photos taken on the parent/child field trip we did back in May, and I wanted to make a lay out just using these gorgeous photos. Why gorgeous? Because, I actually look decent in them and how often does MOM get to look decent in photos with her kids? Let's save this one for posterity.

I want to add that for the first time in doing a digital lay out, I did NOT use a template nor did I look at something and try to copy it. I just used my inspiration gleaned from the Nic Howard class (Dimensional Design), and I paid more attention to drop shadows this time. This is when the idea of "dimensional" meets digital. There is an awesome drop shadow tutorial on this blog. Look to the right side and you will see the tutorial button. I felt like I could not take full advantage of this tutorial because I have PSE and not the full version of Photoshop, but still, it was very enlightening.

Hot Summer Moments: Used a quick template by (I wanna say) Crystal, but now I am not so sure. In any case, the cloud background, journaling spot, brackets, frames, etc. were already in place. All I had to do was add my photos and journaling. Took like 5 minutes or less!

It's fun to use these quick templates once in a while just to get the job done. I probably couldn't have done it better myself, and I thought the clouds looked pretty summerish. I am always talking about summer clouds with Ailin and showing her these gorgeous cumulous clouds that show up only in summer here. It reminds me of the movie Tonari no Tottoro, thus we made sure she had a chance to watch that DVD during the month of July.

Photos of Jimmy's Wedding: Used a template by Kate Pertiet, which can be dressed up or dressed down very easily.

Gotta include these little jaunts to Korea, don't we? Well, this time it was for a wedding, and I chose a very simple template where I could fit a variety of photos. Love the title? It's so obvious, but it came with the template and I just added the "of Jimmy's wedding" on my own. Notice that I changed all the rectangle colors to match the colors from the photos? Maroon, red, yellow, blue and white were all taken directly from their Korean-style kimonos and her wedding dress.

This is a template by List Girl Designs from a kit called Good Gumdrops. The red paper is from Geek Chic designs, otherwise known as Jen Graham.

This template is an Ali Edwards template (#20).

I wanted to see what would happen if I chose two completely different templates and tried to match them up by using the same colors and some of the same elements. I used the postage stamp-cropped photos from the right side template for the photos on the left side. I also copied the scalloped borders over. I think it works well and it gave me a chance to use tons of photos up.

July Birthdays: Most of the papers and elements used here are from a digi kit called When the Wind Blows by Geek Chic (Jen Graham). The green balloon is #1 from an alpha set inside a kit called Bug Catcher by Chelle's Creations.

Ah, the infamous birthday month for our family. Like the first page from this entry, I wanted to try my hand at designing my own page from scratch. Perhaps my style really has been affected by Nic Howard's class. Notice the balloons made from random elements and ribbons!

My Question to you: Which pages do you like better - the ones that look like they are layered with embellishments (meant to look 3D) or the ones that are purely flat-looking? Please answer in the comments.

TGIF: Four Day Weekends

2010-08-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

For me, at least. I took Thursday and Friday off and stayed home both days to veg clean the house from top to bottom. I also got caught up on Glee, So you think you can dance and began researching for my new "project" - to be announced soon. Oh, and I saw 2 great movies - one at the theater and one on iTunes. No, actually, the one at the theater sucked, but it was Ladies' Day and I only paid 1000 yen for it. (Salt). The one on iTunes was surprisingly interesting (Chalk, a fake documentary about high school teachers). Salt and Chalk - that is a good pairing. I wonder what that would taste like.

I used to do this frequently, but stopped for a while - it's called a Monthly Round-up. So, for the month of July 2010, this is what went on in my life and in my family's life.

Events
My 34th birthday
Yuki-chan's 60th birthday
Yusuke's 34th birthday

Parents went on road trip to Reno
I assisted in a 3-day lecture (no, not all day lectures!) at Kanda Gaigo University's summer seminar

Ailin

Draws bodies complete with arms, hands, legs, ears and bandaids
Applies bandaids to MY owies
Goes swimming every day with her daycare buddies
Still likes pink
Fell in love with the movie Shrek
Went to a movie in a theater for the first time (Toy Story 3)
Learned how to sing Doe a Deer, a Female Deer, Ray, a drop of Golden Sun...complete with hand gestures (that I totally made up!)
Loves to listen to Simon & Garfunkel (but still calls them the Wiggles)

Luka

Still has a very charming smile
Is learning to walk - can do up to five steps before falling
Says Mama, especially when upset or in need of being picked up
Gets mad during mealtime and throws food, plates and/or silverware (then gets over it and starts eating again like nothing happened)
Tries to get into Max's room whenever his door is open
Enjoys playing with the pots and pans in the kitchen while I cook dinner
Likes to turn the shower water OFF while others are using it

Movies I Saw in the Theater
An Education
Sex and the City II

Movies I Saw on DVD
None

Books I read
An Abridged Version of Me, from A to Z by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Best Discoveries

Lupicia tea makes great summer iced tea - just add water, no boiling necessary. Amazing!
Joined Weight Watchers online - hoping to finally make some progress on my weight loss goals.
There ARE online Masters programs from the USA.
Yusuke feels lonely when I fall asleep with the kids and he comes home to a dark, quiet house.
All Top . com as a way to manage some of your favorite blogs for reading.
Evernote as a way to keep track of your project ideas, resources & inspiration.
Facebook is actually kind of fun.

Working Mom Wednesdays: English in the Media Class

2010-08-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Some people wanted to hear about how this class turned out. The last day was yesterday, and we took a survey to see how the students felt about each of the activities we did.

Day One: Video Sharing and Viral Videos (You Tube)

Here is a list of what we showed:

Star Wars Kid

Evolution of Dance

David After Dentist

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (The Art of Rick Rolling)

Where the Hell is Matt?

Double Rainbow

Frozen Grand Central (brought to you from Improv Everywhere)

Will it Blend? (iPad)

After explaining a little about the short history & purpose of You Tube (my students first guessed that You Tube is over 20 years old!), we talked about viral videos in general. Then, we showed them the videos and had them fill out a chart where they had to match the number of views they thought that video had gotten so far. (The year of posting was listed next to the video titles, and the answer box with all the numbers in it was provided below.). They also were asked to jot down their impression of each video.

If we had had more time that day, we would have asked them to go ahead and find a few virals on their own and then recommend some good ones to the class.

We ran out of time though because we also showed them some of the parodies and remixes that people have made based on the original viral videos. Once again, the BLACK HOLE that is You Tube.

Day Two: Interactive Web Sites and Games (Discovery, Scholastic, Cartoon Network, etc.) - we will be sticking with the G-rated types!

I was not in class on Day 2, 3 or 4 due to a prior commitment, but Chris taught by himself. From what I gather, he introduced some of these web sites and then let them play around.

He then gave them some hints about how to get more information about their own hobbies and showed them how to bookmark the sites.

Day Three: Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.)

I think MySpace is kind of dead and in fact, was bought out by Facebook or something? Anyway, it is the "original" social networking site for English-speakers, so Chris introduced it. In Japan, they use Mixi, which is still very popular.

He first had the students make their gmail accounts since most of them only use their cell phones for texting. He then talked about each of the above sites, their purposes, and had the kids brainstorm ways to stay safe while using these sites. Then, he let them start their own Facebook and Twitter accounts. Most of them are already using Facebook, I think.

Day Four: TV Shows & British Humor

Pink Panther (actually from the Steve Martin movie)

Fawlty Towers

Black Adder

Little Britain (interview with Elton John)

Since I wasn't there, I am not entirely sure which clips from these shows that Chris decided to show, but the above links will give you an idea in case you have never seen these shows.

Chris let the students watch the clips, write down some of the phrases they could catch and then rate the clips according to "funniness".

Day Five: TV Shows & American Humor

I came back to school on this day, so I could actually teach this class, but I was very pressed for time in choosing clips. In fact, since there are billions and billions to choose from, it was so hard to narrow it down! Here is what I showed in the end.

Saturday Night Live

The Famous sketch starring John Belushi, where he is a samurai sandwich maker. We could not get this off of You Tube and Chris used another web site to access it. It was actually quite difficult to get decent-quality clips of SNL from You Tube. We do not have access to NBC.com because we are located outside of the USA.

Toonces the Cat Who Could Drive a Car - Rebel without a Cause version

Sara Palin & Hillary Clinton (done by Tina Fey and Amy Poelher). This was inaccessible as well, and we could only get the Good Morning America news report clip. Sucks! But anyway, our sophomore students barely remember Palin and they only know Hillary because of her husband, Bill, so they didn't really get it. But, we wanted to show an example of political satire because that is SO NOT DONE HERE in Japan.

Mad TV

It was so easy to get clips of Mad TV from You Tube.

Korean Drama Parody

Lorraine with Baby

Sitcom - That 70's Show

Fez & Red the Teacher

Mockumentary

The Culture Lab (Japanese Sushi) - Since this is subtitled in English and narrated in Japanese, the kids were on the floor laughing about how hilarious and off-putting this explanation of how to eat sushi and how to act in a sushi restaurant. They loved seeing how Japan is "made fun of" by other countries and wanted to see more. They felt the same about the Korean drama parody.

We asked students to observe the "style" of comedy, which we broke into the following categories:

Cultural (ethnic, age, gender, political, etc.)

Parody

Silly
Satirical

(Honestly, I cannot remember any more of our categories.)

Day Six: Blogs
We introduced them to various types of blogs, parts of blogs (blog rolls, link lists, comments, etc.), history and purpose of blogs, what makes them popular, etc. Then, we showed them how to find blogs according to their interests.

All Top
Technorati
Bloglines

Finally, we gave them time to use one of these resources to search for a few blogs that they could recommend to the class. This is a tough, but important topic, for students because we want them to read more! Plus, we want them to read about topics they are interested in and choose by themselves, BUT so many of our students don't like to read.

Day Seven: Podcasts (both audio and video podcasts)
The Podcast industry has grown immensely in the past couple years, so it is harder than ever before to go through iTunes (or other web sites) and narrow it down to a good sampling. First, I wanted to show students how to access the podcasts on iTunes. Some of them have iTunes and use it for music and music videos, but most had never ventured into the podcast category. What you must remember is that audio podcasts are going to be very difficult for them to follow, even with a vocabulary list. (Believe me, I have tried it!) So, I tried to stick with video podcasts. Here is what I showed them:
Annoying Orange: The Lady Pasta episode
Delicious TV: How to make Cauliflower Rice
Sesame Street: The Letter L
The Sound of Young America: Jordin Ranks America (audio)
TED: Legos for Grown-ups

The students really loved Annoying Orange because the episode happened to be a spoof on a Lady Gaga video, and my students are really into her right now. They were absolutely shocked that someone would make a cauliflower dish to look like white rice, and they thought it was a joke! They enjoyed writing down all the L words as they watched the Sesame Street episode. No one (including me) really got the Jordin Ranks America, but I have to say that it is one episode of a variety/interview podcast, and is actually quite interesting. TED, if you don't know, is conference which invites people to give speeches about a certain theme. It is a great way to find good example speeches to show students when teaching presentation skills.

Day Eight: TV Shows: Sitcoms - I ended up showing an episode from Full House, Season 8. I didn't have time to make a brand new worksheet and was also unable to download the sitcoms I wanted from iTunes. I guess they are not available on iTunes or something. In any case, Full House is fairly easy for our kids to follow and they already know all the characters, so it was easy to do it, even without a worksheet! We just stopped the DVD about every 5 minutes and asked them to summarize what was going on so far.

Student Response
Response to the class included comments about how fun it was to watch the American comedy clips, how difficult the British comedy clips were, how they would like to watch other sitcoms, dramas or movies, and even suggested a few (Glee, Friends, Ghost Whisperer, Mr Bean, Hannah Montana, etc.), how they would like to try some singing and dancing themselves, and have more chances to "talk in English." (Well, I would love for my students to talk more in English and I give them plenty of chances to do that. They need to take it a step further by responding to me in English rather than stare blankly or continue chatting with their friends in Japanese. Oh, I love being a teacher.) Anyway, that is it on the Media Class!

On that last day, we allowed the kids to bring in snack food, and we provided the beverages, so we could have a "party" while watching Full House. It was a fun way to end the class, and now I am officially DONE for the summer. I still have to work and prepare for the fall classes, and I need to start checking summer homework (deadline on August 10) which will be coming in via email.

Scrapbooking Sundays: June Pages

2010-07-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

I finished up the Dimensional Details class in June, so most of my lay outs are actually assignments for that class. I held off on making Luka's 1st Birthday lay out simply because I had no good photos of the event and the cake turned out badly. It was hard to justify making an entire lay out devoted to Luka's birthday, but I finally decided to do an all-digital lay out for it. I may or may not get it printed. Who knows?

(I wish there was a simple way to make people pose better for the camera, especially family members.)

Luka: First Moments and Blessed overlays from Kate Pertiet, digital frame from House of 3, other unknown papers and embellies.

In preparation for Luka's 1st birthday, I took photos of him and his newest developments all that week. The challenge in the Dimensional Details class was to make an all-boy page.

Our Papa: Donna Downey huge stamp, mushrooms and butterflies from Louise Williams, postcard frame from LivE Designs

Our Girl: design by Nic Howard, journal spot by Kate Pertiet, ink from the Tim Holz distress ink collection, unknown papers and embellies.

I have a funny story about the two lay outs above. I prepared all materials for both and brought them to the June Craft n Chat. While I was there, I only had time to work on the 1st lay out, with the yellow frame. I wasn't paying much attention and inadvertently put the 5x7 of Ailin wearing sunglasses in the yellow frame, and after I had done that, I made a title "Our Girl" and a little journaling card all about how sassy she is.

Something didn't look quite right. The yellow and the pink didn't quite go together. The masculine colors and embellishments didn't look right with her sassy sunglasses pose. At the same time, some of the CnC participants were criticizing my hobby of scrapbooking (see my post called Crafticism). Then, one of the ladies point-blank said, "What are you doing? I just don't get it." I am still not sure if she was referring to scrapbooking itself or if she was talking about the obvious and hideous clashing page I was just putting the final touches on!

After arriving home, I thought about it and finally realized that I had used the wrong photo and it would need to be redone. The masculine-looking page was meant to be an ode to Father's Day! I fixed it rather quickly by adherring the correct photos over top the original 5x7, carefully removing the title and journal spot and putting a new one down. Done! Oh, and the coolest thing happened on the way back from the CnC. A small bottle of water leaked inside my bag and soaked a few of my papers that I had printed on the ink jet printer. This caused the ink to run and form these absolutely gorgeous colors. I cut out a portion and used it for my new journaling spot.

The second one needs no explanation really, but I want to say that I collected some paper doilies from the dessert plates at a restaurant we ate at recently and used one on this lay out.

Digital template from Colie's Corner.

Finally, Luka's birthday lay out - I did change some of the colors to match the main photo.

Working Mom Wednesdays: English in the Media

2010-07-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

This is posted a bit late, but Chris (one of my co-workers) and I have finally decided our plan for this year's summer class, and 8-day course focusing on English in the Media. This is the 3rd year we have taught this class, and each year we update according to current trends in media and students' interests. (I have to say though that I have no idea how last year's class went since I was on maternity leave.)

Day One: Video Sharing and Viral Videos (You Tube)

Day Two: Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

Day Three: Interactive Web Sites and Games (Discovery, Scholastic, etc.) - we will be sticking with the G-rated types!

Day Four: TV Shows & British Humor (not sure yet what Chris will decide to show them!)

Day Five: TV Shows & American Humor (comparing and contrasting with Brit Humor and Japanese Humor styles. For American-style humor, I am planning to focus on satire and parody. Any suggestions would be welcome in the comments!!)

Day Six: Podcasts (both audio and video podcasts)

Day Seven: Blogs

Day Eight: TV Shows: Sitcoms (I am thinking about showing Modern Family, definitely something that shows a "family" situation. I used to show Full House because Japanese people LOVE that show, but we decided to show something really current instead.)

Scrapbooking Sundays: Finding Time

2010-07-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, the 9 most influential scrapbookers were named over at Ella Publishing, and I happen to follow several of them through their blogs, websites, online classes, etc. I was really excited for them. What an honor it is to be named on this list.

Along with this list, Ella Pub has put out a new ebook featuring all nine of these scrapbookers and the theme is "finding time to do it." I touched on this recently in my blog, but wanted to add a few of my own tips here.

1. Take good photographs - learning how to take good photos is great way to shave off cropping and editing time.

2. Schedule in some time to do it - say, every Sunday morning from 6:00 to 8:00 am, or every Friday night from 10 to midnight. Whatever floats your boat. Create a monthly event for you and your friends to do some crafting. Having the monthly Craft n Chat really pushes me to get some stuff done.

3. Do a little something every day. Every page of every album is a project that is made up of many small steps. Choose a few photos and put them in a folder. Edit those photos. Plan your lay out scheme. Choose your papers. Choose your embellishments. Print out your photos. Cut everything down to size. Assemble your lay out. Glue on. Add the final touches. It may take you several days to do this, but you will get it done!

TGIF: Caked Out

2010-07-09T03:58:00.000-07:00

The month of July is always rough in our family. We start out with July 6 being my mother-in-law's birthday, and then mine on the next day. Poor Yusuke, having to deal with both of our desires and needs at the same time. Anyway, what really puts us over the top is all the damn cake! Let's not forget that Yusuke's birthday is later this same month, but by that time, he usually declares that he does not want any cake for his birthday party.

Last weekend, his family met us for a lovely dinner at a hotel restaurant in Makuhari, and they had arranged for the waiters to bring out a small cake for us. Since the restaurant also had a dessert buffet, they offered to wrap up the cake for us to take home so we could partake in the buffet. So, the next morning, I had that piece of cake.

On MIL's birthday, I took the kids to 31 Flavors and bought her a pack of six ice cream sandwiches, and we took them over to her house as part of her birthday present.

On my birthday, she did what she does every year - she came over at about 6pm with a cake and a small bouquet of flowers. She has done this every year since I moved to Japan, so I have caught on to the fact that I should never encourage Yusuke to buy cake for me as well. Despite that, he DOES forget about MIL's tradition and he does go out and buy some sort of cake for me. This year, it was an apple pie from some bakery in Ginza. As always, when he got home and saw the cake from his mom in the fridge, he said we would eat his cake the next morning for breakfast.

The wouldn't have been so bad, but my plans for the next day included taking the day off and enjoying an afternoon tea with my friend Louise. If you don't know about afternoon teas, they include an array of scones and cakes. See photos below.

I think I will stay away from cake for a while.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes via email, Facebook, this blog, and of course to my face. It was lovely that many people remembered. 34 will be a good year.

Working Mom Wednesdays: Who would have thought that working on your birthday would be a good thing?

2010-07-07T01:10:00.000-07:00

I am taking the day off tomorrow and will be spending the day in Tokyo. My friend Louise and I will be doing our " 4 Times a Year Afternoon Tea Tradition" at an expensive tea lounge in Ginza. She probably doesn't realize that this is also kind of birthday gift to myself - a day off, with tea and a friend, in Ginza.

I kind of dreaded having to work today because it is my birthday and in Japan, school is still in session. In fact, today is our deadline for turning in 1st semester grades, so all the teachers are rushing about, correcting a gazillion projects and papers, calculating the grades on our excel spreadsheets, and then inputting the final grades into our intra-net computers. I thought it would be a stressful day especially since yesterday was so bad. I lost my grade book at 2pm and then spent about 4 hours searching everywhere for it. Without my grade book, I was unable to continue my grading, obviously. Luckily, it was found and returned to me so I didn't have to go through yet another sleepless night.

Speaking of sleepless nights, I have had many of those lately. Why, just the other night, I couldn't sleep because I was so nervous about having to yell at one of my classes for doing so poorly on their exam! I even got out of bed and went to the living room and wrote down everything I wanted to say to them. I thought it would allow me to relax and go to sleep, but it didn't help that much. I was still really upset about it.

Back to birthdays and having to work on them. I was so annoyed because Yusuke didn't mention my birthday today and because he didn't say anything, Ailin didn't either. Then, it began pouring (more than the usual cats and dogs) rain just as we were about to leave for work, so I got soaked trying to get the kids out to the car and loaded up.

When I arrived at school, several people immediately wished me a happy birthday. Then, I went to one of my classes to return their exams and the entire class sang happy birthday to me. Thanks to Facebook, I have already received several birthday messages. Adie, my co-worker, gave me a card with a message about going to Starbucks to drink coffee together soon. I immediately invited her to have a quick lunch and coffee with me today, and we took along one of our students' computer projects to grade while there. It took us about 20 minutes to grade all of them. (Funny that Shannon also gives me birthday cards with cups of coffee on them! Some people know how much I love the coffee culture.) Finally, and most surprising of all, the entire English department had a meeting at 4pm to discuss all the grades, and at the end of the meeting, they sang happy birthday and then pulled out firecrackers right at the end of the song. I was really touched.

Now, if only Yusuke will come home early tonight and share with me that $30 bottle of German wine that I insisted we buy for my birthday. Wouldn't want to drink that alone.

Scrapbooking Sundays: Inspiration

2010-07-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Some people wonder how to get inspired, especially if you get stuck in a rut or just have no creative mojo going on.

Here are some things you can do:
Get a hold of some scrapbooking magazines and page through them. Look at some of the elements that attract you most - is the journaling, the new techniques, the embellishments, pattern papers, etc. If something tends to stick out for you, start your next page with that. If the journaling is what attracts you most right now, sit down at your computer or with your notebook and do some writing. If the pattern papers attract you, get thee to the nearest craft store and find some of the newest, trendiest papers.

Sign up for a class, online or in your local store. Having assignments to do will give you a new reason to scrapbook.

Take your camera and experiment with your photography skills. Go outside just before sunset. Take photos during your daily walk around the neighborhood. Plan a family outing where you'll be able to take lots of good photos.

Go blog window shopping. There are tons of bloggers who scrapbook (like me!) as a hobby and professionally, so go look at what they are doing lately.

Make a promise to yourself. Decide that you are going to learn some new things regarding scrapbooking each month. July could be the your month to learn about using eyelets on your pages. August could be your month to learn about layering embellishments. Start small if you have to.

Go Art-hunting. Visit an art museum, a quilt show, an antique shop, or even a neighborhood filled with awesome architecture. Chances are you will find something to inspire you in any of these places.

Look through your photos and find new connections. The snacks your daughter likes to eat now & the snacks you loved to eat when you were a kid. What your kids are doing during their summer holidays & what you used to do. Your friendships and how they have grown and changed over the years. Your favorite things then and now. What you do with your free time now & what you used to do with your free time BEFORE kids. Place these photos in a new folder called "Connections" and go back to it every time you need a little inspiration kick.

Traveling Tuesdays: Back in time to Jacob Wetterling

2010-07-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

If Jacob Wetterling is/were alive today, he would be 32, just 2 years younger than me.

When I was in elementary and junior high school, I had a pen pal from Minnesota (yes, I know, the next state over!), and her name was Shanna. When Jacob was abducted, Shanna included information about Jacob and the circumstances, along with a small poster of him with one of her letters.

Both of us were truly affected by his disappearance. For one thing, he was so close to our age. And, even more astounding was that he was abducted very nearby his home, in the presence of his brother and his friend. It could have happened to any of us.

Shanna and I lost touch at some point during high school, but I sometimes google Jacob to see if there are any updates on his case. Today, on my iGoogle page, where it shows the current most searched items, I noticed that Jacob Wetterling was at the top of the list this morning.

Turns out that breaking news revealed that over 17 unmarked police cars were parked outside the farm very near where Jacob had been abducted. More info to come. Read this article for more information about the current situation...though it doesn't give much yet.

I hope we finally get some answers, Jacob.

Working Mom Wednesday: Change in Routine

2010-06-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

Recently because of the heat and humidity, we have been taking a bath soon after arriving home. I found that everyone feels more relaxed and I am less rushed to get dinner on the table. For some miraculous reason, there seems to be more time at night to do everything, and I have been able to get the kids to bed on time (9pm). For the last month or so, I was lucky if I got them in bed reading stories by 9:45 pm. Anyway, I'm not sure why this change has made such a difference, but I am happy about it.

Today, Luka developed a fever overnight, but I managed to get him into daycare anyway, by sort of fudging the numbers. They called an hour later and said he had a fever and would be putting him down for a nap but would keep me updated. Luckily, it's an exam day, but I wanted to stay at work until my Current English class exam was finished at noon. They called at 12:30 to say Luka's fever had not gone down and would I come and pick him up.

When I arrived, Ailin just happened to be out the hallway and she saw me. She got totally excited thinking she would get to home with me too and she was crying and carrying on about it while the teacher was getting everyone to prepare for naptime. I knew she would never settle down for the daily nap, so I offered to take her home as well. She is as happy as a clam now.

Meanwhile, Luka's teacher thinks he might have contracted Hand Foot Mouth Disease, which is going around the daycare at the moment. She showed me some tiny blisters starting on his feet and hands, but wouldn't you know it? His pediatrician is closed today! I am not sure if I should just take him elsewhere or not. I read on the internet that there is no treatment available for it anyway, but I wonder how long he would have to stay home for this.

Scrapbooking Sunday: Crafticism

2010-06-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

I made up that word "crafticism" today because certain people were criticizing my hobby, and the actual page I was working on today at my monthly Craft 'n' Chat event. Are they against scrapbooking in general? Are they annoyed because they themselves have done nothing with their photos and then it bothers them to see scrapbookers at work? Do they really think that making "off-handed" remarks about someone else's craft is okay?

Let me just begin by saying that I created this event as a way for women to get out of the house once a month and work on their crafts (whatever they may be) together with other women while chatting about our everyday lives. I suppose it might be necessary to explain that a person's choice in craft should never be criticized during these events. Just because one does not choose to do (fill in the blank here), does not mean that she has the right to criticize it. One would think this would not be necessary to explain to people, but I find that scrapbooking has become a "love it or hate it" type craft.

Whereas one would never think to look at a needle-pointing crafter and say, "What you are doing is absolutely insane, and I would never do that. I mean, in 20 years, people are going to think all your needlepoint projects are hideous and they'll be trash." No, people usually look at the needle-pointer and say, "Wow, that's a lot of work. How cool!"

I haven't done a scrapbook page in several months at a CnC because I was working on some decoupage frames for quite a while. Other times, I had Luka with me and couldn't do much, so I just brought magazines and chatted with people while I paged through my magazines. This time, I prepared 2 lay outs, and I was hoping to work on both. I only got one done, but I was met with much "crafticism."

Here is what they said:
"Your kids are going to rip those pages apart."
"Those pages are going to fall apart in 20 or 30 years."
"Your kids will need certain photos for school projects and will go through your albums, take photos out and then not put them back."

Here is what I say:
Well, you know how when people say really shocking things to you, but you can't say anything right at the moment because you are too shocked, or because right after they say it, they have already moved on to another topic? So, perhaps I will feel better if I defend myself here and now, on my blog.

My albums aren't sitting out for my kids to play with. In fact, I only bring them out once in a while to show them because they are still young. Anyway, the pages are protected with plastic sheet protectors, so they wouldn't actually be able to rip them apart easily. I do make a small-sized album which my kids can touch and play with, but they are all digital pages. We use it as one of their bed-time stories, in fact. This is when digital scrapbooking really comes in handy.

Okay, if my scrapbook pages do indeed fall apart in 20 or 30 years, does that mean I just shouldn't bother? (Kind of like how most people don't bother doing anything with their photos?) The truth is that I enjoy the art of scrapbooking, and I enjoy trying out various techniques on my pages - it is not always for future generations to look at.

Maybe YOUR kids removed photos from your collection and never put them back because you had kids before digital cameras were invented. Fortunately, I have computer files & a scanner. If my kids need a photo, we can scan it and print for them or we can find it in the digital archives and print it off. I do this all the time, even now, with my scrapbook pages from several years ago.

And finally, get off my case! I don't know what the big problem is with people who do NOT scrapbook making comments about people who DO! Events like Craft 'n' Chat should cultivate a non-judgmental atmosphere where women can come together to make progress on their crafts while chatting about whatever they want.

Traveling Tuesdays: Sawara, a piece of heaven

2010-06-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, on Thursday, we went on a field trip with the students visiting from our sister school in Texas. We took them to Narita Temple, and then to nearby Sawara. These are some of the photos I took on that day. I was trying to stay in manual mode, when possible.

Narita Temple

Just behind the main building of the temple is this display of over 100 monk statues. Apparently, these disciples are here to remind us of our need to let go of our earthly desires.

Behind Narita Temple is a huge park, and this is the view from above.

And, from below. Yusuke thought this was a nice photo because of the clouds and how the tree branches sort of frame the photo.

The teacher who went on this trip with me, Mr. Ishii, took this photo of me. I kind of like how it turned out.

Gotta love those tree canopies.

The most striking thing about this park is the waterfall, and both of the Japanese teachers accompanying us had never known about it, so we just had to show them.

It's a little blurry, but I had never seen a live shrimp before. This one had caught a little fish and was devouring it.

Sawara

Sawara is a small village northeast of Narita, and in June, the irises are in full bloom. This botanical garden houses hundreds of species. It was gorgeous and serene at the same time.

We took a boat ride on the river. The bottom of the boat was covered in tatami, and we had to remove our shoes before getting in.

I have never seen so many lilypads in my life. No cute little cartoonish frogs though.

And, finally, my 2 best photos of the day. I worked hard to get these. Yusuke says I am getting better all the time.

Manic Monday: Photography

2010-06-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

I love taking photos, and when I can, I try to do manual. Manual, with my camera, only really works on cloudy days. Sunny days produce stark shadows, and I have not figured out how to get around this. Anyway, when I have a chance, I try to practice what I learned in that photography class I took last year from Candace Stringham.

This was taken late in the day when we had a chance to take a spontaneous walk on the cycling/walking road just in front of our apartment building. Ailin grabbed my sunglasses from me and was striking a pose.

Last weekend, we stopped at a park in Makuhari and I shot some photos of Ailin. It was about 3 or 4pm, so the light wasn't horrible, but you can see the contrast is still a bit stark.

Again, in the same park. She likes to pick flowers for me lately. Chiba is known as the city of flowers, so there are many for her to choose from. I know, these are always part of the landscaping, and technically, she should not be picking them, but it is too darn cute when she says, "Here, Mama."

I have more photos to show but am saving them for tomorrow. We took a field trip last week and I took some nice photos.

Scrapbooking Sunday: May Lay Outs

2010-06-13T02:57:00.000-07:00

My Mother's Day lay out. It was an assignment for the Dimensional Details class and we were to sew on our pages. It was a first for me since I am not a sewer, but the theme of handmade, ugly stuff goes along well with my sewing job. If you look closely, by clicking on the image, you'll see that I tried to sew a border around the page, zigzag stitches across the bottom and a free hand heart right on the photo.

I plan to do another lay out for this theme using the photos taken by the professional photographer who followed us around that day, but we haven't seen those yet. These are just some of the photos I took, which explains why I am not present in any of them. It was another assignment for the class, and we were supposed to make a title using some method we had not used before. We also had to do more with grouping our embellishments. I found these cool flowers at a local Indian store and decided to use them here.

I needed one more Hokkaido Family Trip lay out and decided to do a funny one regarding my amazingly huge sunglasses and some of the funny/ironic things about the trip. I used a lace doily piece that I found at our local craft store, and I printed some brushes (in photoshop) onto a transparency. Using transparencies is a great way to add layers to your lay out without covering too much up! I love doing this now.

Look familiar? It's because I made a very similar lay out a few weeks ago. Since it is about Ailin's former daycare teacher, I decided to just show it to her since we had recently been talking about my scrapbooking hobby, and she said she was curious to see some of my lay outs. When I brought it to to show her, she misunderstood me and gladly accepted it as a gift. I was stunned, but what could I say? I immediately started calculating in my head how I was going to make time to produce a very similar lay out for myself. Check this link to see the original.

In preparation for Luka's 1st birthday, I was busy taking photos of his newest developments. This lay out uses some boyish elements such as small metal frames.

My Boy's Birthday

2010-06-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'll take a break to tell you all about Luka's 1st birthday!

Luka turned 1 on June 3rd, and since we were not planning a big birthday party for him, I just made sure to take lots of photos of his everyday life, including some of his new skills.

Just Mama & Luka: Happy we got through one whole year in one piece!

Clap Clap Your Hands, Clap 'em just like this. Luka's first word is "clap" pronounced more like, "cla, cla, cla"

Getting ready for a bath.

With Papa in the morning. Often, Papa is delegated to getting Luka dressed in the mornings.

Happy Happy Boy

Eating birthday breakfast of chocolate chip steamed muffins & yogurt.

Waving Bye-bye

About to dig in to his birthday dinner of cream stew & french bread.

And, about that cake! This was my failed cake, but everyone ate it very obligingly. First off, when I de-panned it, the top of the cake got scalped! I patched it back together, and then stuck it in the freezer. Didn't solve the scalping problem though!

Then I frosted it (with Ailin's help!), but I over-whipped the ganache frosting and ended up with this very strange texture. (It's supposed to be a flower!)

I employed my mother-in-law with the task of making the bugs. I bought a kit at ToysRUs and realized when I got home that the bugs needed to made from scratch! She had to use ingredients like coca cola, apple jam, grape juice, etc. Of course, all are edible. I thought it would be fun to have this cake for Ailin's sake, but apparently, she was totally grossed out and wouldn't eat the bugs or the cake that had been touched by the bugs.

The traditional "first piece of cake" for a one-year old's birthday didn't go over so well with my Japanese family. They all cringed every time he dropped a piece on the floor or squished some up to his mouth. It's wasn't the most jovial atmosphere in the world.

Presents: Thanks to Shannon for sending some gifts over. We still haven't gotten any from my side of the family. We gave Luka a wooden fire truck, an activity cube, and his first pair of shoes. Shannon gave him some toy trucks, a remote control toy & another toy which we are waiting to open (don't remember what it is at the moment!). Aunt Nanako sent over some towels and wash clothes which will be useful for daycare. Then, she surprised us with a special delivery from a balloon store - 5 helium birthday balloons and one has his name on it! Grandma Yuki gave him some packaged food that will be useful for when we go out to eat ... sometimes the restaurants don't serve food appropriate for young children.

Working Mom Wednesdays: Our Needs Met Last

2010-06-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

If my kids get sick, my first thought is "take their temperature." Then, decide whether we should go see the doctor or not. Then, take them in and go through the whole process. It takes time and may mean that anything we had scheduled will be postponed or even canceled.

If I get sick, my first thought it "what do I have to do next?" In other words, keep the schedule running as normally as possible and don't let on that I am suffering.

Granted, this is not always possible. There have been cases when I was so extremely and acutely ill that my whole world stopped spinning for a few hours while I tried to recuperate. Yes, you read that correctly - a few hours, not one whole day, not a few days, not one week, but a FEW PRECIOUS HOURS.

Yesterday, while getting ready for work, I was suddenly crippled with shooting pains in my back that escalated whenever I tried to pick anything up. The pain was on the left side of my upper back, just in the place I cannot reach. I was yelling out in pain which of course caught the attention of my husband.

Rather than rush to my side and help me, he was more concerned about the fact that HE might possibly be put out. The kids were not quite ready to go yet. Somehow, they would have to get to daycare. I had to make a decision of whether to call in sick or not.

I lay there, frozen in one position, thinking about the logistics of it all. I had a first period class, during which I would be evaluating 20 informative speeches that the kids had been working on for weeks, and my partner teacher and I were anxious to "get them over with!" Later in the day, I would have my Everyday English class, for which I had no specific lesson plan and didn't really want to bother other teachers with the task of having to teach it. The bone doctor, the same one I see once a month for an unrelated ailment, always has a full waiting room and there are certain strategies one must employ if he/she doesn't want to sit there waiting for the entire morning. It was already too late to employ Step One of that strategy.

Yosh! Decision made. I will go to work today. I'll roll off of the bed, put my shoes on, drag the kids' bags out the door and make my way out to the car. By this time though, Ailin was really upset because she could see something was wrong with her mama. Yusuke was still moaning and groaning about the possibility that he might be "put out" by all of this.

My back did eventually loosen up enough to drive the car and to carry Luka up to his classroom at daycare. I got through the workday without having to see the doctor. Yusuke came home with some special medicinal patches for my back and he stuck them on for me in the evening.

Scrapbooking Sunday: Finding Time to Do It

2010-05-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

I had to skip the last few days due to lack of time. You see, I had to spend most of my work hours actually working as I had a long list of "Things that need to be corrected and handed back." It started with exams from the week before, but included monthly book reports, speech evaluations, skit evaluations, homework assignments, weekly journals, etc. I know the key is to NOT assign and collect work so that I never have to do any correcting - that is what lots of teachers I work with used to do, but I noticed in recent years, that even the Japanese English teachers are collecting grammar workbooks on a regular basis and actually going through them page by page. Anyway, I cannot fall behind on correcting now because there is no way I am taking that stuff home and correcting here...home life does not allow me those time luxuries.

Speaking of luxuries, as I sit at the computer at 10pm on a Sunday night, drinking a hot cup of chai and typing on my blog, I'll tell you that the truth is I would much rather be scrapbooking. I promised to write about how I find the time to do it though, so rather quickly, I will give some hints about how I make it happen.

My scrapbooking desk is located in the middle of our house, so I can see and hear the TV while I work. It is next to the computer, so I can easily do some computer-related scrapbooking steps and switch between the two when needed. It's not like I want to be watching TV all the time, but having the desk in a central location means that I am "always present". For now, with small kids, I have to be present at all times.

My current page is always sitting out on my desk, so when I can grab a few moments here and there, I do something. One page comprises many small steps each of which can be accomplished in seconds or minutes. Some of those steps involve the computer and can even be done at work, on my breaktime, of course.

If I am late on completing an assignment for a class, I find a way to do some of the steps at work. For example, one day, I brought my half-finished lay out to work with some inks, sandpaper, and glue tape and I sat there during my breaktime and sanded down the edges of my papers, inked them & then adhered them together. Colleagues who could not see what I was doing mistakenly thought I was filing my nails!

At home or on weekends, as soon as the kids are happily playing (because we all know how long that will last), I sometimes do a few steps - such as choosing paper for my next lay out, cutting up some paper embellishments, online shopping for more supplies, etc. I have been known to be inking and sanding paper while Luka sits next to me playing with some toys. Today, he was crawling all over me while I tried to choose paper for my next lay out.

Lastly, this is the most important thing, I demand to have time for myself. Monthly Craft n Chats are not enough for me to complete weekly assignments for class, so if I get behind (or I feel like I am going insane), I tell Yusuke I need the weekend evening time to do some scrapbooking. He uses this time to watch DVDs or even to go to a movie by himself. In fact, this past weekend, I actually went ahead and printed out the movie schedule and set it on the table for him. He took the hint, but opted not to go out as there wasn't anything worth seeing. Instead, he stayed home and watched TV, but he understood that he had to leave me alone. I think I need to do this more often.

Oh, and as I have mentioned before about my dirty, messy house - it is partly because I do spend my "free" time on scrapbooking. Sometimes, you just have to play it like that.

Traveling Tuesdays: Summer Vacation Spots

2010-05-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

It's May, so Japanese people are already planning their summer trips for August. In most cases, you must plan far in advanced in order to secure your hotel rooms - things fill up quickly.

Yusuke and I haven't had time to talk about it yet. I don't know if we will go anywhere, and it's been years since we went somewhere memorable. Here, people usually escape to the mountains or to the beaches. We used to go to a place in the highlands of Nagano called Kurumayama. Kuruma means car, and that is exactly what you needed to get up there.

Kurumayama is a ski village in the winter, which makes it a great place for hiking in the summers. It is located in the southern part of Nagano, up in the highlands. We went there sans car so that meant a lot of buses and walking for us. Pre-kids, that was do-able. Now, that would not be the case, so we've put off going there until our kids our older.

The best part about Kurumayama is our favorite pension. Pensions take after the European style of pension which is to serve both breakfast and dinner. The Shetland is a small pension run by a couple. The guy cooks the meals and wife serves them, but they must be pretty busy cleaning and fixing things all day long. It can't be an easy business to run. For dinner every single night, they serve steak. Wine is all you can drink and you can sample wines from nearly every prefecture in Japan. If we ever get back to Kurumayama, we will for sure stay there again.

Aside from the amazing views, beautiful flowers, wide array of pensions to choose from your stay, and in general a peaceful, uncrowded feeling you can only get when you you leave Kanto area, we most enjoyed hiking down the mountain to the valley where lies a small village called Shirakabako. Shirakabako is actually a lake with a surrounding village, and Shirakaba means birch tree in Japanese.

In it's prime, perhaps during the bubble era of Japan, I am sure that Shirakabako was a happening place, and it still does draw a small crowd, but nothing like the current most popular places for escape in Japan. Most people have never heard of this place, so let's keep that way.

So, what's there to do in Shirakabako? Rent bicycles and ride around the lake. Shop at the convenience store for an impromptu picnic and walk to a quiet spot on the lake to enjoy your lunch. Dine at any one of the cafes or restaurants along the lake, some of which have verandas where you can crack open a book, drink your coffee and let the breezes flow over you. Feed the carp in the pond just off the lake. Rent a swan boat or a cheap paddle boat and paddle around the lake. It's just one of those quiet resort towns that doesn't get much attention anymore, but still has all the fun things to do. I am looking forward to going there again someday.

Time to mention it again to Yusuke and see if he wants to try taking the kids there this summer. Problem is that he refuses to drive, and I cannot imagine taking the kids there without a car!

Manic Monday: TV

2010-05-24T02:46:00.000-07:00

There was a time when all I could get of American TV was occasional episodes of Full House and some obscure Canadian sitcom that I had never heard of. Other than that, I watched Japanese TV when I could stand it. Four years ago, we started subscribing to Cable TV and there are about 5 channels that sometimes have shows I am interested in wasting my time on.

Here's what I watch:
American Idol - We are only about 4 weeks behind the live version, and unfortunately, Google Entertainment News keeps us up to date with their weekly headlines. The results themselves cannot be avoided, but many of us still enjoy watching the "drama" unfold. Although this year's "drama" is kind of predictable and the contestants themselves are a little on the plain side, I do enjoy it. At least it's English, right? My pick since the beginning has been Lee DeWyze, so we'll see how it goes later this week. In Japan, we just said good-bye had Shania Twain country week on the show.

Glee - Could TV get any better than this? It's high school. It's teenagers. It's music, but not cheesy, corny stuff like High School Musical (which is good, in it's own right). It's quirky characters that we can all somehow relate to. If you have not seen it yet, go find an episode and watch it.

Hannah Montana - I make Ailin watch this every night. It's her educational English TV. I am so serious. We don't have a lot of choices here and I refuse to let her watch some of the cartoonish stuff that is on. Anyway, we both enjoy it.

That's it for today. I don't have time to watch much, and as it is, I have to record it and watch it at my leisure. Leisure? Ha? I meant, when I actually have a chance to sit down and fold laundry, which is only once a week, these days.

Gone are the days of my daily 10am tea break. Sigh.

Scrapbooking Sunday: Golden Week

2010-05-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

Remember last week I talked about our Golden Week trip to Hokkaido? This time, I want to show off my 3 lay outs. I was thinking about making one more, but have not decided the exact theme yet. All three were done for the Dimensional Details class. Click on the lay outs to see them up close.

The focus here was on making our own scalloped border using punched out circles. Also, using lines to sort of draw a line beneath the photos, and of course lots of layering and painting. The theme is just highlights of our "family trip" to Hokkaido.

This double lay out was a bonus assignment. Left side was supposed to be a sort of collage of many, many small photos showing one event or trip. The right side was supposed to be journaling. I often journal in this fashion for our trips, so this was very easy to do. I've had this cool tree paper for a while, but could never find a use for it until now.

I think the focus for this assignment was on title treatment. I used white thickers for the "not famous" letters and painted them with blue/white acrylic, then sponged over with white ink. I really wanted to highlight this photo because of all the tree photos I took on the Tree Tour in Hokkaido, this one turned out the best.

Thank God Its Friday

2010-05-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

My chance to give thanks for another the end of another week:

A successful field trip with Ailin
Tired kids who went to sleep pretty quickly tonight
Music on my iPod Touch
Co-workers who bring treats in for us once in a while
Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast
Old friends who email out of the blue
Facebook conversations through the private messaging system
American Idol
Exam Week at work
Students who manage to be funny in both Japanese and English
My slow cooker

That's all for this week. I would thank my husband for something but I haven't seen much of him this week. Hopefully, we will connect at some point this weekend, once he catches up on his sleep.

Terrible Therrible Thursdays: Parent Child Field Trip

2010-05-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

(Note: This field trip actually took place on Friday, but since I am writing this one day late, I'll write about it for the Thursday theme.)

Today, our daycare had its annual parent/child field trip for 3 years old and up. Normal kindergartens would have a field trip for just kids, but I think our daycare wants to give the parents some bonding time with their kids so we all have to take the day off from work and accompany our kids on this special field trip.

I knew that I would mess it up somehow though. I got the print quite a while ago but could not read all the details, so yesterday, I made sure to ask a few of the parents if there was anything special we should bring along. I also asked the teacher, AND I called up Yusuke at work to ask if he thought Japanese Field Trips (since they are inevitably all exactly the same!) required anything special.

I was told to of course bring a boxed lunch for me and my kid, some snacks, a small picnic sheet, a change of clothes, and that is about it. Nothing new as this was common sense, and I could pick that up from the print.

What I did not pick up was the following:

Every kid should wear their P.E. uniform.
Sugary and chocolate-ly snacks are perfectly acceptable for field trips (Bring enough to share with the people eating around you!).
Fruit would be a nice addition to the already-amazing boxed lunch that you will have made for you child.

So, when Ailin showed to the daycare this morning in her cutest pink Cinderella skirt ensemble, and one of the parents said, "Oh, she's so cute today!" and I looked around, I noticed that EVERY KID was wearing their P.E. uniform. I told her I didn't know we were supposed to dress them in that, and she said, "Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday. Anyway, it was on the print!"

"In case you have forgotten, I can't read every single kanji out there, and NO, my husband does not look at something and then read it to me, unless I force him to."

So, the teacher offered to lend Ailin an extra gym uniform belonging to the daycare, and they changed her clothes for me while I took Luka to his classroom.

The field trip itself was fun. We went to a huge park which has lots of athletic opportunities for kids, a small petting zoo area, a horse stable where you can let your kid experience riding a horse, great ice cream, a maze, etc.

It happens to be Field Trip season, so there were about 20 other kindergartens, daycares and elementary schools there for their annual field trip as well! And, YES, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE KIDS from each school was wearing their P.E. uniforms! So, in Japan, it simply must be common sense to send your kid on a field trip wearing their P.E. uniform, esp if they are going to a park for the day. Lesson learned!

I learned something else today too. Most of the parents who have kids in Ailin's class are actually not Chinese like I thought. Most are of Japanese origin. I am not sure why I came to the conclusion that they are Chinese. Our daycare has a lot of Chinese because it is located in a neighborhood where lots of Chinese families are living. This is neither here nor there, but even they have an advantage over me! They can read the kanji on the papers sent home with our kids.

Working Mom Wednesdays: Work it work it work it

2010-05-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

I just want to say that over the years of teaching and especially since becoming a mother, I have perfected the evil stare which lets people know a variety of things. Here are some things they might glean from my stares:

"What are you doing?"
"Stop it."
"I'm watching you."
"Better be quiet."
"Excuse me, I'm talking now."
"Huh!?"
"And, what exactly do you think you are doing now?"
"That's boring."
"That really su-u-u-ucked."
"I knew you weren't listening."
"Yes, I called on you because you were sleeping."
"See me after class."
"I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

Okay, this is getting to be too fun. Back to work.

Traveling Tuesdays: Cool One-Day Trips in the Kanto Area

2010-05-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

One day late but who cares.

Recently, at school we are having the students give informative speeches on the topic of "Cool One-Day Trips in the Kanto Area".

I'd like to pass on what I learned from their speeches.

In Tokyo
Harajuku is a good place to go shopping, visit a famous shrine and see lots of people dressed up in costumes. We are not talking about Halloween scary costumes. Imagine multiple versions of Little Bo Peep walking around, and you will have some idea of what we are getting at. It's called CosPlay.

Akihabara is a great place to buy electronics, visit Maid Cafes and observe lots of anime geeks (called "otaku") in their element. Otaku are "kimochi warui", according to my student. Kimochi warui means "gross."

Asakusa is the best place for first-time foreigners in Japan because you can visit the famous temple with the big red lantern and you can shop along the street at all the little "totally Japanese" stalls where they sell everything from chintzy fans to samurai swords.

In Chiba-city
Aoba-no-mori is a nice, big park perfect for viewing cherry blossoms in the spring.

Soga boasts a mall called Ario, and nearby is Chiba-city's soccer stadium.

In Chiba Prefecture
Urayasu is located between Tokyo and Chiba (much closer to Tokyo though!) and is the home of Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.

Choshi is located on the pacific coast of Chiba and is known for having a soy sauce factory. The soy sauce goes well with the fresh fish served at the restaurants there and the great views of the ocean.

Narita is the home of Narita International Airport. There is a park where you can get a good view of the planes taking off and landing. There is also a farm nearby called Narita Yume Farm and you can milk cows and experience a host of other farm activities with your kids.

Kamogawa is also on the pacific coast of Chiba but a little further south. You can visit the SeaWorld there and see the awesome killer whale show. Mother Farm is nearby for some more cow-milking.

Tateyama is located on the southern border of Chiba, along the Pacific Ocean and because it is so far out of the way, it is a great place to escape the crowds. The hot spring resort has a huge living room-type place to relax in after your bath.

Other Areas of Kanto
Utsunomiya is located in Tochigi prefecture and is famous for chinese dumplings (gyouza). They even have a gyouza festival in November.

Mito is located in Ibaraki Prefecture, just north of Chiba and you can visit their Natto factory. Natto is fermented soybeans often eaten with rice or with raw eggs and rice. Yummy.

FujiQ Highland is a famous amusement park located in Yamanashi prefecture and boasts some heavy-duty scary roller coasters and haunted houses.

Yokohama, as we all know, is like a twin city of Tokyo and is the home of China Town, Yamashita Park, and tons of shopping opportunities. Who doesn't like Yokohama?

Hakkejima Sea Paradise is actually located in Yokohama and has an amusement park, an aquarium and great views all around.

Kamakura is famous for tons of shrines and temples - a perfect place for foreigners to go and get to know old Japan. There is a shopping street with lots of great Japanese souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes. Have fun hiking along the trails from temple to temple.

Wow, I hope you learned something. Next time you come to visit Tokyo area, you won't have to lack ideas of what to do. Congratulations to 1I class on your great speeches!

Manic Monday: Days Off

2010-05-17T00:39:00.000-07:00

I had a whole list of cleaning jobs for today because it is Monday and I happen to have the day off to make up for Saturday. It is now 4:30 and I have not done anything on that list.

Like my friend Chris said, "no one's going to notice anyway...except for you, that is!" She's right. I seem to be the only one bothered by certain areas of the house. I can tend to the more obvious stuff within the next 15 minutes - vacuum, dust a bit, tidy up the toys, etc. All that deep cleaning stuff will have to wait. But, I did take Chris' advice and set some Mold Killer Spray on the bathroom mirror just to see what would happen. I think I should give that a wipe before the kids come home.

My main problem these days seems to stem from lack of time at night. When the kids go to sleep at 9pm, I tend to fall asleep right with them and sleep like a log until 5am. Recently, Luka has become more much more mobile and wants to practice his new skills every chance he gets. So, when he wakes up at 5am, he wants to go go go. After a long day at work, being nice to people and acting fairly energetic while teaching, and then dealing with the likes of Ailin all evening long, I am completely exhausted by the time 9pm rolls around.

If I could stay up later, I would tend to the laundry more regularly, maybe even wipe down the bathroom sink sometimes, tidy up the kitchen a bit better, etc. I would also get more time to read or do scrapbooking, or for goodness sake, just veg out like Yusuke does when he is at home.

Why is it SO EASY for him to veg out in front of the TV or computer? In Japanese, we call this "botou suru" and he is so darn good at it. If I sit down to watch some TV, most likely, I am also doing 5 other things at the same time. I am starting to resent people who "botou suru" all the time, but perhaps I am just jealous because I can't do it very well.

Time to get that 15 minutes of cleanin' done.
That's all for Manic Monday. You don't even want to know the gritty details of my morning, so let's not go there.

Scrapbooking Sunday: April Lay outs

2010-05-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

I get one day a week to write about scrapbooking or show some of my latest lay outs.

Today, I'll go ahead and put up my lay outs for April. Remember that you can click on the lay outs to see a larger version and then you can read the journaling.

New Kid at School: I took photos of Luka just before and on his first couple of days of daycare. This was the first week of my current class Dimensional Design with Nic Howard and her main focus is on layering and using a variety of elements. Every week, she gives us a "Build it" assignment and shows step-by-step, how to make the page.

Day 1: This was an assignment for the Adventures in Hybrid Class with May Flaum. We had to use this digital kit by Kate Pertiet to complete the page. Yusuke took this photo of just before we were leaving for my first day back at work, Ailin's first day in the Dolphin class and Luka's first day at daycare.

Ode to Sakura: This was a challenge from the Dimensional Design class. We had to use scraps from our ever-growing scrap collections along with glimmer mist to create a nice background. I also made up this song for Ailin during sakura season and used it for the journaling. (Translation: Cherry, Cherry. The cherry that fell from the tree. Pick it up. Pick it up. Let's eat it! ... NO!) She likes to say the NO! part at the end.

BKC Easter: The focus here is to create a cool background using old stickers just behind the photos. Isn't that the coolest thing? I think everything goes so well together in this one.

BKC: A bit more detailed lay out about our BKC Easter Party. This is a digital one using a template called Stamped Frame LT12 from Kate Pertiet.

Cool Guy: Just had to highlight Luka's first haircut. This was an extra assignment I did for the Dimensional Detail class. We were supposed to create our own backgrounds using letter stickers or even sillouettes of letter stickers or letter templates. I have an entire metal alphabet that I am afraid to use, so this was a good way to use them without actually using them up. I didn't add many embellishments because I want some of my lay outs to be flatter for the album.

By the way, my colleague asked me how I can possibly have time to do so much scrapbooking. That is a topic for another Sunday, but I want to point out that those colorful rhinestone embellishments are actually one big sticker! I didn't sit there and put them on the page one by one.

Hair Dilemma: Once in a while, I have to do a page about Yusuke. (Actually, sometimes I run out of themes for our assignments, and I end up dreaming up these silly pages. We had to put more focus on our photos by darkening the area just behind them.

Thank God It’s Friday

2010-05-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be a good day to recognize some of the things I am grateful for this week. Being aware of all you have to feel thankful for is a great way to stay positive and improve your life. In the simplify 101 class, we were asked to keep a diary and write down a list of things each day. I stopped after about a month, but I think it would be good to get into the habit again…even if just once a week.

1. Beautiful weather these past few days.

2. Luka is starting to use some sounds that seem to have meaning, at least for him. (mamamama, ngu ngu, ka ka ka)

3. I am getting the hang of making Japanese style adult obentos for myself.

4. A 6-day work week. Sounds rough, but actually, we get next Monday off and I am so looking forward to having the house to myself for a whole day! Fingers crossed that no one gets sick.

5. Coca-cola (Need I say more?)

6. Yusuke helped with some of the chores this week when he came home and realized I had fallen asleep with the kids.

7. Relishrelish.com. This is the web site I use for menu planning and shopping list-generating. Kudos to this web site!

8. Mother’s Day – I meant to write about Mother’s Day this week, but anyway, I am still reveling in my memory of it which was an afternoon OFF to go and see a movie at a movie theater, something I had not done in about one year. Alice in Wonderland!

9. Scrapbooking embellishments – I ordered a few things from Kirsten and they came in the mail this week.

10. Café Mocha – Maxim brand, 198 yen for a box of six. (Again, need I say more?)

Whoa, that was a difficult brain exercise for the end of my week. No, it’s not the end of my week because I have to work all day tomorrow, but I am very much looking forward to a quiet evening at home with Yusuke after the kids go to bed. (That is, IF I can stay awake.)

Terrible Therrible Thursdays

2010-05-13T20:52:00.001-07:00

[One day late due to one long tantrum that caused all of us to collapse in a heap at about 9:30pm last night. I never awoke to finish my blog entry.]

Today is the day when I write something about my kids. It’s not always terrible, but life with a 3-year old is generally unpredictable and chaotic. Her mood swings alone could drive anyone mad. People always said I was a moody and melodramatic person, but I never thought that was a “bad” thing … until now.

I don’t want to say a lot of negative stuff about my own daughter, but I will say that each day brings new challenges along with the same old things. I keep thinking, “Gosh darn it. I forgot the cup again!” These things seem so very important to her and are cause for huge tantrums, whining and screaming.

I often wonder if she is normal for a 3-year old. And, if she is not, then Yusuke and I wonder about our parenting skills. A little while ago, someone told me that everyone makes mistakes in parenting. I’ll have to look up his advice again because it was valuable. But, one piece of advice this guy gave me was to read the book “Children Learn What They Live.” It’s based on a poem by Dorothy Law Nolte. This poem was written in the 70s and then later expanded into a book for parents. I bought the Japanese version as well so that Yusuke could read it. We learned a lot from it, but it is hard to always be a good example for your kids. There are times when I am yelling, “Don’t yell!” at her. It makes no sense. Of course she is going to yell at me if I yell at her.

Working (Mom) Wednesday: Chaos comes to town

2010-05-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog and chose the LONG name “Working Mom in Japan”, I was hoping to write a lot about my challenges and tribulations related to being a working mom. It’s been hard to do this though. I haven’t come to terms with all of it yet. I am constantly questioning my decisions, and I find that I don’t have enough distance to write about it objectively. Wednesday’s theme will force me to write SOMETHING though, whether it be about the trials and tribulations or the advantages of working while raising a family. We’ll see how this develops.

Today, I’d like to tell you about my evening routine. A perfect evening runs like clockwork. It is a minute-by-minute plan with no room for tantrums, injuries, toilet accidents and burned dinners. I am not tired at all, and after the kids fall asleep easily on their futon, I rise again to begin my 2^nd part of the evening, which includes a few chores but MOSTLY my time to myself before Yusuke arrives home. Last night was NOT one of those evenings.

Here is what my evenings are SUPPOSED to be like:

4:50 pm – Leave work and go pick up kids from daycare.

5:45 pm – Arrive home

5:45-6:00pm – Put everything away, get Ailin’s snack, start running the bath

6:00-6:15pm – Relax on couch with kids, nurse Luka

6:00-7:00pm – Make dinner

7:00-7:30pm – Eat dinner

7:30-7:45pm – Clean up, tidy house, prepare for baths

7:45-8:30pm – Bathtime

8:30-9:00pm – Storytime

9:00pm – Bedtime

9:00-11:00pm – Chores & MY time for emailing, scrapbooking, American Idol-watching, reading, etc.

I have a few standing policies:

Always leave work at 4:50 pm.
Never do errands after work with the kids in the car.
Always have dinner at 7:00 sharp.
Always clean up dinner dishes BEFORE bathtime.
Always have the kids in bed by 9:00, if not before.
Never, ever bring work home with me.

Obviously, the above schedule and policies fail to leave room for, well, failures. Little failures throughout the day that can end up spelling disaster and chaos all at once. Like yesterday.

Here are some examples of my typical failures:

Leaving work 30 minutes late.
Forgetting to buy certain ingredients for this week’s menu.
Giving Ailin her snack in the wrong bowl which inevitably leads to a tantrum of some sort.
Taking too long to [quickly] check my email before dinner.
Forgetting to marinade something that was planned for that night’s dinner. (also, forgetting to defrost something.)

Some things lead to failure due to issues beyond my control:

Bad weather, which slows everything down
Lack of clean laundry due to days of rainy weather
Illness
Unforseen emergencies, such as lost data, emails that need to be responded to immediately, etc.

Let’s just say that yesterday was one of those days when everything that could go wrong, did and that it lead to chaos. I got called out on it though. At 9:35 pm, I was on the computer doing some “emergency emailing” while Ailin was running around playing with my cell phone and Luka was asleep in his bouncer chair. Neither had been bathed yet. I was afraid that if I put them to bed, I would fall asleep with them and, for the 4^th night in a row, be unable to send those ever-important emails. Then, in playing with my cell phone, she accidentally video dialed Yusuke, and I suddenly could hear a very confused voice on the speaker phone saying, “Hello! Ailin! What are doing? Where’s Mama?” Uh-oh. I quickly hung up the phone and then he called back to ask me why Ailin was still awake. I explained it was just one big chaotic night and that we were running late.

We were running late! Ailin had a tantrum about the strawberry koala cookies I gave her, then she was upset about the drink I wouldn’t give her until she would say “please”, then she was upset because I bumped her on the way through the dining area and her drink spilled on the floor, then she peed her pants because of all this stress and crying. Then, I realized the meat had not defrosted in the fridge so I had to use the microwave to defrost it the rest of the way. After that, I noticed that the recipe for the dinner was too long and involved – there’s no way I could pay attention to it while looking after the kids, so I had to think of a good substitution. Luckily, it was ground meat and thanks to growing up in my mom’s house, I developed 3 old stand-bys for ground meat that never require a recipe – spaghetti and meat sauce, sloppy joes and tacos. So, I switched to sloppy joes and that took a while. By the time we ate, it was already 8:30pm. I still had that darn email to attend to and was determined to finish it up.

The night ended well though and I will include this part because I learned some things from it:

Not everything will get done.
Not everything will get done perfectly.
Yusuke does help out.
Some things can wait ‘til tomorrow.
Ailin needs to use the toilet as soon as she gets home.

When I awoke after putting the kids to sleep, Yusuke was already home, and I finished up some of my chores. Couldn’t do everything I wanted, but I did manage to fold the laundry that had been sitting there since last weekend, and I also put away the clean dishes which were in danger of toppling over and knocking someone unconscious. And, for once, Yusuke was in the mood to chat. He actually told me all about his day at work, and then we chatted about the weekend plans while he used the computer, and I scrapbooked on the floor next to him. We stayed up ‘til nearly 2am but it was a nice change from usual pattern of crabbiness and non-communication. I am looking forward to the weekend now.

Trips in Japan Tuesdays: Hokkaido

2010-05-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays are hereby going to be centered around travel, particularly traveling in Japan. I love talking about cool vacation spots, even if those are one day trips close to home. I’ll start with Hokkaido because we went there for Golden Week last week.

For those who don’t know, Hokkaido is the northernmost island of the main four in Japan. It is shaped like a blotch of ink, and we flew directly to the center of this blotch to a small airport called Asahiyama.

We stayed there for 2 nights: The first night in Biei Village and the second in Shirogane Onsen Hotel.

Upon arrival, we rented a van and drove to nearby Biei where we ate lunch at the Hotel Biei Love (not a LOVE Hotel!). Biei is known for curry udon because local ingredients are used to make the udon (wheat) and curry (potatoes) and the beverage (milk) served with it.

After lunch, we went tree sightseeing. Really. I was pretty shocked about all this driving around, tree-map in hand, searching for specific trees just north of Biei Village. These trees set on the sides of farm fields seemed oddly familiar to me. Wisconsin has tons of scenes just like this. After a while, I got into it though. Many of these trees are accompanied by small parking lots for the tourists, back-stories about why the trees are famous, names, and even a few have souvenir stores. Yes, it’s odd, but some of these trees were used in movie scenes and advertisements. One, called the Mild Seven tree, was used in a Mild Seven cigarette ad, and is therefore a must-see if you go to Biei.

Late in the afternoon, we stopped by Yusuke’s Great Aunt’s house for a visit. They served us a big dinner and we ended up staying for a few hours. Aunt Fujie married a man from Hokkaido when she was a young woman and has lived there ever since. They used to run an asparagus farm. Yusuke’s mom is still close with her but had never visited her and wanted to do so before Aunt Fujie gets too old to accept visitors. She is now eighty, but looks to be sixty! We had a great time and they served Gengis-kan, Hokkaido’s version of grilled meat, along with an array of sushi, crab and veggies. We had a great time and Yusuke’s mom is still talking about it non-stop.

On the second day, we parted ways with Yusuke’s sister and her husband who went to Furano for the day. Furano is known for a cheese factory and a wine factory. There are lots other quaint things to see and do in Furano. If we didn’t have kids, it would have been a great way to spend the day. Apparently, they took the train there and just walked around all day.

Meanwhile, we took the kids to Asahiyama Zoo. You cannot go to this area of Japan and NOT take your kids to this ever-famous zoo. I am still unsure of why it is so famous though because we couldn’t actually see anything worthwhile. It was so crowded that we had to stand in the ticket line for one hour and by the time we entered, long lines extended out of every exhibit. It was a hot day, so we decided to walk around and see a few things while pretending to be excited for Ailin’s sake and then leave just before lunch. We saw two deer, the brown bear, a chimpanzee, a couple of gibbons, the orangutan, and a few Japanese Mountain monkeys, but none of them were doing anything exciting. We missed out on the all the cool stuff that this zoo is known for. In a word, it su-u-u-cked. But, such is life when you live in Japan and try to take your kids to a popular destination during Golden Week.

For lunch, we drove back to Biei Village and ate at a regular old soba shop on the main artery that runs through town. Very nearby is a Vegetable Tourist Center where tourists can sample fresh-roasted potatoes among other veggies, and they can buy and send asparagus to far-flung family and friends. It’s true. Japanese people often send veggies to each other in the mail. My mother-in-law was dying to send asparagus to all her friends. Yusuke and I were just hoping to sit down at the café and enjoy a coffee along with a soft-serve cone.

We met up with Yusuke’s sister and her husband in the late afternoon and drove to Shirogane Onsen. It is located just south of Biei about 45 minutes. We enjoyed looking at the hundreds of skinny birch trees as we drove along the road to the hot spring. As soon as we arrived, we prepared to bathe in the hot spring (not an easy feat with 2 small kids, as it was their first time, so Ailin was quite excited until she got into the hot water. Then, she couldn’t wait to get out. Same for Luka.) After the bath, we had a huge Japanese-style dinner served in our room. Then, it was bedtime for the kids. Yusuke and his mom went across the hall to continue partying with Nanako and her husband.

On our last day, we tried to do some souvenir shopping around our hotel and found the waterfalls and the river that feeds our hot spring. If I had known about that, I would have appreciated our stay there much more. Truly magnificent.

On the way back to the airport, we stopped by the Blue Pond, which is located very near that river. We had to park and walk quite a ways to see it, but it was worth it. Reminds me a scene from the Harry Potter movies.

We did a lot more souvenir shopping at the airport before leaving to return to Tokyo. I made sure to bring back chocolate-covered and caramel-covered potato chips for my co-workers.

Eventually, I will post some lay outs about this trip and you'll see a much more personal perspective about our adventure to Hokkaido.

Manic Monday: Podcasts

2010-05-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take a new direction with my blog and see how this works. Every day of the week will be a theme of some type, and I will try to write about a variety of things - all things that I am interested in or dealing with, and of course, scrapbook lay outs will be featured once a month or so. Mondays will be "Manic Mondays" which sort of gives me a chance to write about what ever keeps me from going insane. If I can't think of anything along the lines of preventing insanity to write about, then I may just tell you a few tidbits about the reality of my life.

In order to keep insanity at bay, I listen to my iPod Touch, particularly after "lights out" time. I discovered that listening to podcasts at that time of day helps to keep me from feeling that my brain is slowly leaking out of my ear while I wait for my children to fall asleep. ("Take your sweet time, kids. I'm listening to another episode of 'This American Life.'") Later in the evening when I go to bed, I can't turn on the lamp and read like a normal person would because it might disturb my precious kids who would wake up and start driving me bonkers again. Another important use for my iPod.

I'll introduce some of my favorite podcasts, and if you could add your own favorites in the comments, that would be so great. I always love hearing what others recommend.

First, if you are over 40, you might be wondering what a podcast is. (Hello, Mom.) Podcasts can be downloaded from the internet, mainly from iTunes, and are like radio programs. You can find podcasts that focus on pretty much any topic. There are also video podcasts which follow the same format. Podcasts are almost always free and are updated on a regular basis depending on who is putting them out.

Many podcasts are associated with a blog or web site, which means you can go directly there and enter your own comments about their shows.

Fun Ones
WTF with Marc Maron. This is a good example of a comedian's podcast where guest comedians are invited on to help him solve ridiculous philosophical issues that crop up in everyday life.

Newsy Ones
I don't personally listen to any of these currently, but there are ones made by CNN, BBC, ABC, NBC, etc. In fact, some of the morning shows do some segments specifically for their podcast audience. There are some podcasts that are more gossip oriented, so if you like celeb gossip, take a look.

Educational Ones
The Stuff You Missed in History Class
If you even mildly enjoyed History Class in high school, then this is a great way to find out even more about World History. This podcast comes from howstuffworks.com, which includes several other podcasts that center around science. I have learned surprising bits of information about everything from Michelangelo to Patty Hearst! Most of these podcasts are around 20 minutes long.

This American Life from NPR
Storytelling at its best. For me, it all started with David Sedaris, but this show is hosted by Ira Glass. He tells plenty of his own stories, but he also introduces guests storytellers who spin interesting tales about their childhood, friends and bizarre families. All stuff we can relate to on some level.

Anything Else from NPR - In iTunes, you can view all of the podcasts put out by NPR. Enjoy!

Environmental Ones
I sometimes get interested in green technology and green living, and podcasts centered around this theme are so easy to find. Just type "green enviroment" in the search box and you'll get plenty to choose from.

Specialty Hobby Ones
Paperclipping Roundtable - Currently ranked #4 in the arts and crafts category of podcasts, this one is hosted by Noell Hyman and produced by her husband Izzy. Both have their own web businesses, and her web site is called Paperclipping.com. She puts out scrapbooking tutorial videos. For her weekly podcast, she invites 2 or 3 scrapbookers who work in the industry to join her and her husband as they discuss the week's topic. I am hooked on this one. Gee, I wonder why. The podcasts are funny, thought-provoking & lead to quite a discussion between the listeners on her site afterwards.

Spiritual Ones
Appleton (FVUUF) Unitarian
This is my sister's (and her family's) community to which I was introduced when Luka had his dedication ceremony there last fall. I began subscribing to their weekly podcasts around that time, and I have learned so much. They cover topics such as "domestic partnership", "parenting", "coming of age", "greek mythology", "taoism", etc. I have learned more than I can ever express from just a few months of listening. I wish I could be there to hear the real thing every week.

Dimensional Design instructed by Nic Howard is currently Under Way

2010-05-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

This is a 12-week course and we are now on Week 6. I have managed to keep up ... barely! It is all thanks to Luka being sick and me having to stay home with him on some of those sick days! With no plans and nothing to do while he sleeps, I can manage to do a few lay outs. This class focuses on layering techniques, inking, painting, stamping, etc. Who knows what else she will have us doing? All I can say is that my ink and stamp collection went from non-existent to needing it's own toolbox!

For the first time in a long time (ever?), I feel like an artist. Kneeling on the floor surrounded by my paints, inks, stamps, papers, etc., my fingers discolored with ink, I can feel my passion. It's a beautiful feeling.

I only have 3 lay outs to show for March. The first is a pre-assignment that we did just to get our toes wet.

We were asked to use scrap papers to create a background. See how much orange there is?

This was an exercise in layering and also color coordinating. Orange again!

More for March

2010-05-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

May Flaum's Adventures in Hybrid Class was fun too. We had to use both Photoshop and Word to create portions of the lay outs - either small photo collages, titles, elements, etc. I had never thought to use some of my digital elements in this way. Just alter them to my taste, print them on cardstock, vellum, etc. and cut it out for a lay out. This class was a great place to experiment, and I learned a lot.

Well, it was March and I was very much dreading going back to work, so some of my lay outs reflect that. Here goes one of them.

This is my first lay out for a mini-album called "Why". This class is a self-paced class that I downloaded from Big Picture Scrapbooking. I mentioned this class recently on the blog.

It's crooked. I know. That happens sometimes, doesn't it? Anyway, this was a Cathy Z design, using some downloaded elements from the hybrid class which I worked with on Photoshop and printed out separately and cut out, and then assembled with real glue tape.

I sometimes try to make lay outs for my Love Story album and this is another one. For the Cathy Z class, we were asked to take one of her designs from earlier in the class and alter it.

This is one of my favorites! I am so in love with this one. The colors are so bright and cheerful. It was fairly easy to make. The papers were a free download from Two Peas in a Bucket, printed on to cardstock, and then cut out. I used flower rub-ons to sort of blend in with the flowers on the green paper. This was a Cathy Z template, and I think the focus was on making titles that stand out.

My husband thought this was a boring lay out, especially compared to all the others I've made recently. For the hybrid class, we were asked to use a digital template. I sized it down, printed it out on photo paper, found a journal box and added a little swirly thing to it. Put everything together with matching cardstock and some inking. Simple & flat is good because albums can get really thick if you have 3D elements on every single page!

March Lay Outs are Up (and there are a lot of them)

2010-05-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind that I was taking 3 classes at once during the month of March. I'll show these in 3 different blog posts because I want to show each class's lay outs separately.

Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life Class Wraps Up
First, a study in color. For one of the Real World Color assignments, we were asked to choose one of our favorite colors and go through our photo files (iPhoto in my case) and choose photos of that color. It was amazing how easy this was to do. I chose green and orange. I have noticed since how often I choose orange papers from my collection when I start a page and how often I buy orange things. Weird. Who would have thought that I would come to like orange so much?

Towards the end of the class, I was running out of theme ideas and since Ailin had just turned 3, I decided to use a collection of photos of her over the past year to show her growth and development. (Honestly though, as I write this in May, I realize that she has changed MORE in the past 3 months than she did over that past year. Terrible Therrible Threes!)

For one of our final assignments, we were asked to go back and choose a favorite lay out design from the entire class and use it again, but with a different theme and photos. I did this lay out originally for our Door County trip with Amy last November. This time, I did a collection of photos from Ailin's day care adventures in Penguin-class. Every month or so, they give us the option to buy photos that they have taken of our kids, and these are just a few of the photos I had from that collection. (Used the Pure kit from Kate Pertiet for this lay out.)

The last all-digital lay out I made for the class. From this point on, I tried to combine my hybrid assignments and Design Your Life assignments, so you will see more in the next post. I have actually forgotten what the focus of this lay out was to be. Can anyone guess?

What Ailin Does Lately

2010-04-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to write about this because she has been so darn funny lately, and I don't want to forget. Also, it's sometimes useful for scrapbook pages.

Favorite Stories
Sleeping Beauty
Goldilocks & the Three Bears
The Monster at the End of the Book

Favorite TV Shows/DVDs
Hannah Montana
Backyardigans (She calls it Hippo Penguin-san)
Prince of Egypt (She calls it Luka Basket Dancing because of the baby Moses in the basket.)

Her Hobbies
She likes to hold books up in the way that teachers do and she reads them to me. She sometimes reads in English, but mostly she makes up the story in Japanese. It is a loose translation of the story along with an explanation of what's going on the pictures. At night, she has me read one story to her, and then she reads one story to me.

Gluing & cutting things has become one of her recent hobbies. She sometimes "helps" me with my scrapbook pages.

Wearing skirts is very important to her. She immediately changes into a skirt when she arrives home. Skirts are better for dancing in, I guess.

She tells me about her dreams every morning. At least, I THINK these are her dreams. They always involve an array of princesses and Disney characters playing on swing sets or slides with her. Sometimes, Mama, Papa, Baba or Jiji are there too.

Favorite Foods
Hamburgers
Bread
Sweet potatoes
Raisins
Cookies
White Juice (sports drink)

Oops, almost forgot about February!

2010-04-18T02:18:00.000-07:00

I have been so crazy-busy preparing for daycare, getting my house in order, and starting to work again that I nearly forgot to put up my lay outs for February! They were done a long time ago.

This was done for Cathy Z's class and is one of my last completely digital lay outs.

Another digital lay out for Cathy Z's class. The challenge was to create the look of "inking" on the individual papers. I used an overlay frame on each paper and stretched it to the exact size of each stripe. The title on the left says, "Carry me on your back!" I made a Japanese version for Yusuke's mom as a Mother's Day gift.

"Growing Girl" is a double lay out to show her development over the past year. This is another Cathy Z lay out.

Now, by this time, I had started a new class called Adventures in Hybrid. May Flaum, the instructor, taught many methods for combining digital and real world elements on our papers. Can you tell which is digital and which is real?

This was one of the first lay outs I made for May's hybrid class, and I love it. Problem is that I cannot frame it as it is too thick now.

Another hybrid lay out...albeit a bit crooked! The lay out design was from Cathy Z's class and I used May's hybrid class to complete it using her hybrid techniques.

As you can see, I don't have a lot of time to explain these lay outs and how they were made. If you want to know more about anything specific, please contact me.