日本語 (Japanese language) and a few other bits of excitement

Our big news is that Ethan came home from school last week grinning ear-to-ear and eyes all-asparkle and he announces, "I answered my first question in class today - twice - and all the kids clapped."  
He was so proud - it made me so happy.  Now, to give the full story .... the questions were math questions and 4+3 = 7 in both America and Japan as well as the entire world, but he still had the guts to raise his hand and say the question and answer in Japanese.  And when the neighbor kids, who are in his class, said that the whole class clapped for him, I almost teared up.  There had been some rough spots recently, so this felt like a huge win.

From Ethan: I also read my first story in Japanese - all by myself.  My favorite lines are いろいろ (iroiro) and
うきうき(ukiuki).  

And then today, Ryan had his own language win without even knowing it.  Today was unseasonably cold and very rainy, so we decided to have family nap-time after school and the boys and I snuggled together in my bed (we always have naptime afterschool, but I'm not usually included in the napping festivities).  The boys were sound asleep and I was dozing a bit when I hear Ryan talking.  Whether he was dreaming or talking in his sleep, I do not know but what I do know is that he was speaking in JAPANESE.  "すわってくださいすわって" (pronounced, suwatte kudasai, suwatte) which means "sit down please, sit down."  Clearly this is something he has heard often at yochien.  Cracked me up.  Kevin is in Osaka for a few days, but he got quite a chuckle out of it when he called tonight from the shinkansen (bullet train).

Ryan made sushi at yochien,
made with tissue paper, tape, and cellophane

Ryan and his teacher - at our home visit

Monday was the "ring of fire" eclipse, quite visible in Tokyo.  Extremely cool.  Kids (and mom and dad) were enthralled.  We watched the moon move all the way across the sun, until it was perfectly aligned in the middle and the sun looked like a ring of fire... very cool.  Sorry, but I don't have any pics of the actual eclipse.

Watching the eclipse

Other exciting news is that lo and behold, the plants in our garden are actually sprouting.  Having never had a garden before and having the brownest thumb around (seriously, I have killed cactuses that sat approximately 6 inches from the sink - how hard would it have been to water it every month or so?), I was expecting absolutely nothing to sprout.  I was even preparing the kids for it.  "This garden is just an experiment" I kept telling them. But, so far, so good.  We have little green tomatoes on our tomato plants, we have had 2 strawberries, and have harvested lettuce several times.  Our snow peas, pole beans, and garden beans are 3 inches high and all of our watermelon seeds have sprouted.  Cucumber and zucchini are looking a little less promising, but we'll see.

Random pic - playing with neighborhood kids
at the park