Whew! Two opening ceremonies under our belt. We seem to be getting better at this. At least, we had our slippers with us this time...
It was a beautiful sunny day and Ryan was extremely excited to start kindergarten (yochien) in Japan. He was all dressed up and commented several times that he looked "just like Daddy." He also mentioned that he saw lots of moms wearing flowers at Ethan's opening ceremony and shouldn't I wear a flower too? That prompted a search of the backyard for the perfect flower for me. What a sweet boy...
Ryan's yochien is a little bit far from our house, so we have this handy-dandy mamachari bike to make the trek (mamachari is short for mother's chariot - this is a topic in and of itself for a later post). And to be honest, it was basically the only yochien who would take us. Seems that many yochiens closer to us were either already full and/or were a little hesitant to accept a family that didn't speak Japanese. Oh well ... we very much like this kindergarten, the teachers are super energetic and friendly, and to Ryan's utter joy - they have animals - a rabbit and a guinea pig. It was definitely the animals that sealed the deal for Ryan.
With slippers, school supplies, and the required blue hat in hand, we were on our way on our trusty Mamachari. Ryan was thrilled to explore his new playground before the start of the ceremony, and being the height of cherry blossom season made it all the more picturesque.
The ceremony itself was EXTREMELY mother-dominated. So much so that Kevin and the other dads were sent to wait in the ceremony room while the moms stayed with the children until the ceremony was ready to begin. Then, I walked in with Ryan, took him to his chair, and sat immediately behind him. Kevin and all the other dads were sitting in some back corner somewhere, relegated to an almost hidden spot. Interesting... we're learning a little more each day with each new experience, that's for sure.
In many ways, the yochien ceremony was a miniature version of the elementary school ceremony. Same speeches, dignitaries saying "omedetoo gozaimasu" one by one (but thankfully there were fewer of them), songs by the 5 year old class. Ryan was happy as can be. He was so intent about listening to the speaker and watching what the other kids were doing. He raised his hand when any other child did. He joined in on the song - at least the la la la la part. He seemed right at home and it brought tears to my eyes. As we were about to leave, he asked if it was already over. We explained that he would get to come back for "real school" the next day. This resulted in an exuberant happy dance right there in the yochien schoolyard complete with high-fives and spins. For anyone who has seen Ryan's dance moves, you know that this is a sight to behold...
Ryan's choice for his opening-ceremony-celebration dinner was spectacular. I feared with every bone in my body that he would want to go to Denny's (because, yes, there is actually a Denny's in Tokyo), but to my utter joy, he wanted to go to the street food stands we had seen the previous weekend while exploring a cherry blossom park. SCORE! So much to share on our food exploits that that will have to wait for another post... but in the meantime, here are my boys at one of the many food stands we sampled from.
It was a beautiful sunny day and Ryan was extremely excited to start kindergarten (yochien) in Japan. He was all dressed up and commented several times that he looked "just like Daddy." He also mentioned that he saw lots of moms wearing flowers at Ethan's opening ceremony and shouldn't I wear a flower too? That prompted a search of the backyard for the perfect flower for me. What a sweet boy...
Ryan's yochien is a little bit far from our house, so we have this handy-dandy mamachari bike to make the trek (mamachari is short for mother's chariot - this is a topic in and of itself for a later post). And to be honest, it was basically the only yochien who would take us. Seems that many yochiens closer to us were either already full and/or were a little hesitant to accept a family that didn't speak Japanese. Oh well ... we very much like this kindergarten, the teachers are super energetic and friendly, and to Ryan's utter joy - they have animals - a rabbit and a guinea pig. It was definitely the animals that sealed the deal for Ryan.
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| The Mamachari bike... |
With slippers, school supplies, and the required blue hat in hand, we were on our way on our trusty Mamachari. Ryan was thrilled to explore his new playground before the start of the ceremony, and being the height of cherry blossom season made it all the more picturesque.
The ceremony itself was EXTREMELY mother-dominated. So much so that Kevin and the other dads were sent to wait in the ceremony room while the moms stayed with the children until the ceremony was ready to begin. Then, I walked in with Ryan, took him to his chair, and sat immediately behind him. Kevin and all the other dads were sitting in some back corner somewhere, relegated to an almost hidden spot. Interesting... we're learning a little more each day with each new experience, that's for sure.
In many ways, the yochien ceremony was a miniature version of the elementary school ceremony. Same speeches, dignitaries saying "omedetoo gozaimasu" one by one (but thankfully there were fewer of them), songs by the 5 year old class. Ryan was happy as can be. He was so intent about listening to the speaker and watching what the other kids were doing. He raised his hand when any other child did. He joined in on the song - at least the la la la la part. He seemed right at home and it brought tears to my eyes. As we were about to leave, he asked if it was already over. We explained that he would get to come back for "real school" the next day. This resulted in an exuberant happy dance right there in the yochien schoolyard complete with high-fives and spins. For anyone who has seen Ryan's dance moves, you know that this is a sight to behold...
Ryan's choice for his opening-ceremony-celebration dinner was spectacular. I feared with every bone in my body that he would want to go to Denny's (because, yes, there is actually a Denny's in Tokyo), but to my utter joy, he wanted to go to the street food stands we had seen the previous weekend while exploring a cherry blossom park. SCORE! So much to share on our food exploits that that will have to wait for another post... but in the meantime, here are my boys at one of the many food stands we sampled from.
LOVE the Mamachari bike!
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