Life's Little Updates for 2015

I am on a blog-posting roll! Woohooo!

A few fun things over the last few months...

A New School Year Begins

Last day of school for 1st and 3rd grades

March marked the end of Ryan's first grade year - no more yellow hat!  Sad day for me (I loved that cute yellow hat) but very happy day for Ryan.

 And Ethan is now a big 4th grader!

And 2 weeks later, first day of 2nd and 4th grades!

Beautiful cherry blossoms in the school yard

Milo, Our Canine Visitor

My friend, Christina, was preparing to move from Tokyo to join Peace Corps Rwanda, and we were sooooo very lucky to get to take care of her incredibly sweet dog, Milo, for a few weeks after she had to move out of her apartment.

So much fun.  So much love.  So much made us all want a dog to love again.

Trail Runs

Yeah, so a friend from Ethan's soccer team suggested that we do a trail run together in April. 

What I imagined: a nice run through the woods along a dirt path (aka trail) near Tokyo

What it actually was: scaling a mountain at break-neck speed (the kids, at least; me, not so much) on a single-track trail so steep that you had to grab on to roots and rocks just to pull yourself upward. Oh yeah, and it was technically in Tokyo, but took us 2 hours to get there by train!

Fun times, beautiful surroundings, and a refreshing break from the city. We had so much fun that we signed up for another in June.  Ethan took 3rd place at the April one and in the June trail run (different location but just as steep, and this time, muddy and slippery too), Ethan was 2nd place for 4th graders, Ryan was 3rd place for 2nd graders, and I was 3rd for women (but I'm pretty sure there were only 4 or 5 women running the thing).

Enjoy the photos!

Ryan - on 1 of many inclines - see how steep it is form the people behind him...

Coming down the hill towards the finish line (I saw several kids wipe out here)

Almost there...

Digging deep...

The joy of finishing!

And this was the June trail run...

Checking out the course before the race - bad idea! I was exhausted before we even started.
But was glad to find the ropes along the trail to pull oneself up the muddy, steep parts...

Ryan is ready to go!

Ryan's course was single-track and straight up and down
(according to Kevin, who checked the course with him before the race)

Ryan was fast!  We were surprised to see him at the head of the pack as he was also racing with 3rd graders...

Man, I was just glad to finish without falling down the mountain, though there were some close calls...

It was a sweep for Higashine School moms -
these are my 2 friends whose kids go to the same school as Ethan and Ryan (but they're faster than me)

The Japanese professional trail runner, who leads the Jr. Trail Runs, Fujio Miyachi.

Rice-Planting

So, our friend Mr. Kevin set us up with a friend of his to help them plant rice in their field.  Yep, it's true.  Yet again, we got on a train to go to the middle of nowhere, Japan, to stay with people we had never met.  And AGAIN, it was awesome!

The kids had undoukai (sports day, a BIG deal in Japan) the same weekend our "friends" were planting rice, so we went to undoukai on Saturday, ditched out a little bit early, and headed to Azusagawa (near Matsumoto in Nagano-ken). Got there late Saturday night, planted/played in the rice fields on Sunday, explored the area on Monday (wasabi farm, Matsumoto castle, and the historic Kaichi school), then headed back to Tokyo on Monday afternoon.

Out of time to write - so enjoy the pictures!

At the rice fields...

Break-time!

Proud rice planter...
Hibachan told us that when she planted rice, they used a string across the entire field to plant in straight lines.  That would have been useful as it was VERY difficult to figure out where to plant the rice seedlings - and I'm not so sure our lines were straight...

Playing on the trampoline with Amy was a highlight, as was feeding their chickens...

The Daio wasabi farm

Wasabi ice cream, which was surprisingly tasty

Sooooo nice to be out of the concrete jungle and surrounded by mountains

At the Former Kaichi School in Matsumoto, built in 1873

Matsumoto Castle

The boys with our amazing host Heather!

Women's World Cup 2015 - Japan vs. USA

The kids think they're famous - click here for a video. Or maybe here if that one doesn't work.

And then there was this article too.  I've copied it below as well as I'm not sure how long the CNN link will be active.

Women's World Cup: Japanese fans disappointed but proud

By Kathy Novak, CNN

Updated 0919 GMT (1619 HKT) July 6, 2015

Japanese-Americans Ryan and Ethan Narimatsujayne and their father, Kevin Narimatsu, skipped school and work to watch the match in Tokyo.

Story highlights

• Team USA won 5-2 over defending champion Japan on Sunday
• Japanese soccer fans skipped school and work to cheer on their team

Tokyo (CNN)It was raining outside and they should have probably been on their way to work, but instead, football fans were filing into a bar in Tokyo to catch the big Women's World Cup final between defending champion Japan and the United States.

At 8 a.m. Hideto Nakajima normally takes his kids to school but he begged his wife to let him off drop-off duty. "It's a special day today!" he told me and her.

It wasn't just the adults.

READ: Carli Lloyd hat-trick leads to U.S. victory

USA beats Japan in Women's World Cup final 01:32

PLAY VIDEO

Ethan and Ryan Narimatsujayne took the morning off elementary school to catch the game.

Their dad, Kevin, said: "World Cup only happens once every four years, right? So you can miss one day of school."

As Japanese-Americans, it was basically a win-win situation for them. But they were cheering for Team USA.

There was less cheering coming from most of the other people who had packed the bar.

Japan's victory in 2011 against the U.S. after a nail biting 3-1 penalty shoot out lifted the spirits of the country at a time it really needed it -- just months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. These fans were hoping for a repeat.

Japanese fans watch the match in a Tokyo bar

It only took about five minutes for it to become clear that was going to be a tall order.

But Nadeshiko Japan, the nickname given to Japan women's national football team, came from behind when they won it last time. Maybe they could do it again?

READ: A victory for the U.S. -- and women

By the time the U.S. scored their fourth goal however, the bar had grown more and more quiet.

"I'd like to at least see them score like one or two goals," said Mika Yamaji, who came out to support Japan.

"I think yeah, that'll be a respectable finish but U.S. is really strong today."

Japanese team supporter Mika Yamaji

Koh Takeuchi agreed Team USA was just too good. "Four down in the first half. It¹s really hard to come back from that. That's all you can say. The U.S. team came out. They came out ready."

But when asked how Japan should be feeling today?

"Hopefully proud," he said. "It's not an easy thing to come second in the World Cup."