New Hope School Expanding

You may know that I'm the director of New Hope International Preschool in Tokyo, a school that has been around for about five years. We've always dreamed of expanding into older grades. Recently we have been pursuing that dream. Now it looks likes we will be opening our school to elementary school children as early as next fall.

We have been planning behind the scenes for over a year. In October we held our first public meeting. The turnout was big, and there was more interest and support than we had thought. Since then, we've been working hard, choosing curriculum, visiting other schools, seeking advice, and talking to potential teachers and students' families.

New Hope International School will be unique: Christian, unit-based, multiage, and bilingual (more English than Japanese). I look forward to working with children and their families from preschool right through the school years.

If you want to learn more or are interested in helping out, please leave a comment on this blog post or contact us through the New Hope Preschool website. We appreciate your prayers, ideas, and any other support you can offer!

Nerima Ward Agricultural Festival

Last month, we went to Hikarigaoka, our favorite park, and the agricultural festival for Nerima Ward was going on. It's kind of like a county fair in the US, but without the carnival aspect. Enjoy this slice of Japan.

Fall in beautiful Hikarigaoka Park.

Prize vegetables on display

Perfect box of onions

Tokyo's Nerima Ward is known for dried daikon radishes.

Boat made from vegetables

Detail of vegetable boat

Fishing for fruit

 The idea of this game was for people to see how much CO2 was prevented from being released by buying locally grown produce.

Holding a chick at the petting zoo

Marmot at the petting zoo

No agricultural festival would be complete without an Ampanman show!

    

Ogose Hike

We hiked around in Ogose today with Ed and Naomi, friends from church. Here are some photos.

The Rock Climbers.

Going Strong.

Maybe not so strong. (Click the start button and make sure the volume is up.)

Climbing Mount Kuratake

On Saturday, a couple friends from church, T and I climbed Mount Kuratake in Yanamashi. This is one of my favorite hikes because it offers great views of several ranges and Mount Fuji; it's easily accessible by train (no bus ride!) on the Chuo line; and there aren't many other hikers. This was T's biggest hike by far and he was like a mountain goat up there, sometimes even telling us big guys to hurry up. It's great to be able to share a hobby with my son.

Here's a map. Not sure if it's zoomable.Oops. Never mind. Just click this link if you want to see a map.

And some photos.

If anyone has ideas for other good hikes around Tokyo or would like to join sometime, let me know.

Japanese Scarecrows

In Kyoto for the holidays, I went for a run in the country and came across these scarecrows. The farmers in the area seem to have a competition or exhibition going. Take a look.

Farmer Lady Scarecrow

Samurai Scarecrow

Kimono Scarecrow

----- Scarecrow

Octopus Scarecrow

There were many others, including a Big Bad Wolf and a snake. If you want to see more, I uploaded some photos here.

Baseball!

T. (and R. to a lesser degree) has been all about baseball for the past month or so. We play catch or practice batting whenever we have a chance. Yesterday there was a sample lesson for a baseball school that practices at Hikarigaoka park, our favorite hangout. I had never heard of a baseball "school" before, where there are teachers rather than coaches and classes rather than games, but then again, this is Japan. We went anyway because the the price was right (free!).

T. and R. both participated and had a blast. There were warmups (with parents), throwing lessons, batting lessons, a sales pitch (sorry, bad pun) for the school, and some freestyle batting and fielding. The picture above is of T., R. and another kid working on their grip while waiting for their throwing lessons.

If T's interest in baseball persists, we'll look for a team for him to join.

Mitsumasa Anno - Picture Books that Teach Math

We recently found a few really delightful children's books by Mitsumasa Anno. He is (was?) a Japanese math teacher turned author of children's books. The ones we read were Anno's Magic Seeds, Anno's Counting House, and Anno's USA. I love studying and teaching other disciplines through literature, which is part of what draws me to Anno's books.

Anno's Magic Seeds is about a wizard who gives a young man named Jack two seeds and tells him to eat one and plant the other. He promises that Jack won't be hungry for a whole year and that the seed in the ground will produce two more seeds the next year so he can repeat the process. Jack obeys and the wizard's words come to pass. For a few years Jack continues eating one seed and planting the other but one year he decides to plant both seeds. That's when the fun begins as the seeds begin multiplying geometrically. Jack eventually has so many seeds that he starts selling some. He plants more and more each year and always eats one each year. It is the reader's job to figure out how many seeds were planted, harvested, etc. Other complications arise when Jack marries and has a baby. Of course his wife and child eat some seeds also. All goes well until the hurricane. Jack, thankful that his family is spared, begins anew with just a few seeds.

The book, besides being a fun, beautifully illustrated story and a challenging math puzzle, teaches about risk, compound interest, the importance of diversification and the fact that good things, especially family, mustn't be taken for granted.

Anno's Counting House is a wordless book about people moving from one house to another. The old house gradually empties and the new house gradually fills with the people and their furniture. The reader (or readee) needs to predict and count who and what moves from one house to the other at each stage in the story. Attention to detail is important.

Anno's USA is one of a series of journey books. Wikipedia describes them better than I could:

In the "Journey" books, a tiny character travels through a nation's landscape, densely populated with pictures referencing that country's art, literature, culture, and history. Anno's illustrations are often in pen and ink and watercolor, and occasionally incorporate collage and woodcuts. They are intricately detailed, showing a sense of humor as well as an interest in science, mathematics, and foreign cultures. They frequently incorporate subtle jokes and references.

There are three pages of Anno's work on amazon.

An interesting web site with math lessons based on literature (including some of Anno's books) for grades K-8 is called SMaRT Books. Check it out and if you have any other reading recommendations, please share in the comments.

Vegetable Garden in Downtown Tokyo

Our next-door neighbors rent a small plot of land from the ward for 5000 yen (about $45) a year. They often give us vegetables, and this afternoon they took T, R and me to harvest tomatoes. It's just a five minute walk from our apartment and feels like a different world. There are a few dozen small plots, a water hose, a shed full of tools and (I think) fertilizer. We are planning to enter the drawing in February for a plot next spring. The chances are good--most people are too busy to spend time gardening. I've heard that many cities in Japan have land like this available to residents.

Explo(ratorium) Itabashi

Tomomi noticed a blurb in our ward newsletter about Ekusupulo Itabashi, an interactive science museum for kids running from July 21 to August 19. They claim that it compares favorably with the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I chuckled over that because the SF Exploratorium is awesome and this is just a temporary ward-sponsored event. I had to eat a little crow because the kids and I had a wonderful time there. We spent several hours and still didn't get around to everything. Besides the educational fun, we loved that it was (1) free, (2) air conditioned, and (3) close--just three stations away in Kami-Itabashi on the Tobu Tojo line. If any Tokyo-ites are interested in visiting and need directions, email me (misterjeremy at seminoff dot fastmail dot fm).

A few photos:

Funhouse Mirror

Driving Simulator

Unlevel House

More Funky Mirrors

Rubber Bands and Pegs

There was a lot more but I was having to much fun to take pictures.

Mystery Quiz

When we moved into our new apartment in March we noticed these signs all around the third floor landing in our stairwell.


They are the symbol of a Shinto shrine. I couldn't get them all into the picture, but they are every couple feet all around the bottom of the wall. I didn't know what to make of them but knowing that Japanese can be superstitious, Tomomi and I gathered that something bad must have happened on that landing.

Imagine our surprise when a few days ago the fourth floor landing (our floor!) looked like this:


I had to ask the apartment manager what it was all about. His answer was something I never would have suspected. Guess what he said. (Put your guess in the comments and in a few days I'll add the answer to this post.)

[Added 8/4] Thanks James, Tomomi and Brian for the guesses. Here's what the apartment manager told me. Some of the tenants in our building have dogs and occasionally let them pee in the stairwell (maybe when they are lazy or the weather is too bad for a walk?). The Shinto symbols are a prayer or a charm of protection from dog pee. They say it works. Hmmm . . . is it the prayer being answered or are the dog owners just less likely to let their dogs pee on a religious symbol than on a blank wall?

Sunshine International Aquarium

Tomomi's parents took the kids and me to the Sunshine International Aquarium in Ikebukuro. These are some shots of the sea life.

Moon Jelly

Sunfish Closeup (R selected the right dress for the occasion.)

If you are in Tokyo it's a nice place to spend a few hours. Here is the official site (all Japanese as far as I can tell) and here are a couple reviews in English. The prices in the second review are out of date but it's more thorough.

BEACH!!!

Tomomi had been saying she wished we could go to the beach before the baby comes next month. Lo and behold, some friends from church invited us to go with them last Saturday (Thanks David and Shinobu!). R talked about nothing else for the week before we went. "Tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow we're going to the beach, right Dad!" The day finally came, the weather was perfect.

There weren't any crowds but that guy needs to work out before his next beach trip.

The water was brisk but not too cold.

R was ready for action.

We dug clams.

And ate them.

It was a wonderful day.

Didn't Know THAT About the Empress

From this article:

Japan's Empress Michiko, the first commoner to marry into the world's oldest monarchy, says she has turned to prayer to cope with stress and at times wished she could be invisible to enjoy life more.
. . .

"It was quite a great challenge for me to get by each and every day with sorrow and anxiety," she said, adding there were times when she "prayed and muttered some childish magic words" when she found it hard to cope.

Michiko, who was raised a Christian, said she had come to consider such emotions to be a "reward, solace and encouragement."

And from another article covering the same story:

[Emperor] Akihito was tutored and mentored by a number of Christians, leading to speculation that the imperial couple may harbour crypto-Christian sympathies. Courtiers dismiss this, insisting that Michiko was never baptised and is not a believer. In her remarks this week, she did not specify what kind of prayers she utters in times of stress.

Hmmm.

White Family 24

It sounds like a caucasian-only version of Kiefer Sutherland's hit TV series, but it's really just Softbank Mobile's latest discount service. Softbank's White Plan allows free calls between Softbank Mobile users except between 9PM and 1AM (when it costs 21 yen per 30 seconds). Beginning in June, family members in the White Plan will be able to call each other for free 24 hours a day. Just confirm that your family members' phones are registered as such with Softbank. (In a typical Sofbank screw-up, they had me registered as a member of my wife's family but not vice versa.)

Here is the text of the press release:

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Masayoshi Son) announced that it will launch a new family discount service “White Family 24”. The service provides 24 hours free voice calls (domestic call) between “White Plan” family members without any additional fee, and will be applied from the June 2007 billing month. “White Plan” has been well received by customers since its introduction, and the number of applications for the plan exceeded four million.

Those who are already subscribing to “White Plan” and “Family Discount”, “White Family 24” will be automatically applied from the June 2007 billing month.

With this launch, “White Plan” will be evolving to further attractive price plan for the customers.

• “White Family 24” is an alias for “Family Discount (White Plan)” . . .
  

Click to see all of my Softbank Mobile related posts.

Soccer Game

Today a preschool neighbor (we have the greatest neighbors) dropped by to offer us tickets to a pro soccer game. A few hours later T and I were off to watch Omiya Ardija take on . . . um . . . another team. We had a wonderful time together. A couple of highlights:

• While getting ready to leave, T says excitedly, "When we get back I'll be able to write a story called 'Just Me and My Dad!'"
• Ten minutes into the action, T asks, "Are the players grown-ups? They look small like kids from here but they are really good."

It was good fun. I'm a typical American who only takes interest in soccer every four years at World Cup time. I wouldn't have cared much to see the game myself but like so many other things in life, seeing through a child's eyes made all the difference.

Conserving Water, Japan Style

Yesterday I posted about ways my family tries to save electricity. Today I move on to water conservation. I'm impressed with the way Japan conserves water and we just go with the flow (sorry) of what people tend to do here. The main difference is bathing habits. In Japan, families typically fill up a big bathtub with hot water. Each family member uses the same bathwater (eewww, yuck) but takes a quick shower to get clean before relaxing in the tub (oh, okay, like a hot tub). The shower is in the bathroom right next to the tub. So instead of my family of four each taking a ten-minute shower to get clean and relax, we each take a five-minute shower to get clean and sit in the tub to relax for as long as we want. I figure we use about half of the water we would otherwise.

But wait, there's more. I said earlier that we get in the tub after showering so even after the four of us have taken a bath, the water is quite clean. Rather than letting it go down the drain, we use a special hose attached to our washing machine that siphons water from the bathtub to wash clothes. Pretty nifty. Most washing machines sold here come with these gadgets.

Our new place doesn't have this but most toilets in Japan have big (大) and small (小) flushing options. The uses are self-evident.

photo credit

So what are your water conservation tips? Let me know in the comments.