Today, was a sorta practice run for the "real day" of the summer festival/natsu matsuri. They invited the kids from Branden's yochien to come and pull the rope or dashi, if you will. I'm sure you in Japan don't need an explanation, since you already know. But for other's not in Japan, I'll try my best at explaining. See, that giant Japanese float in the background (for lack of a better word here)? Well it is quite heavy. Think heavy wood wheels and extremely old statue type thing. Two ropes are in front and you pull it. Usually adults. But today, our yochien/kindergarten got to do this. They did this last year as well. Branden was the one in this pic, wearing yellow shorts, the new PE uniform. I wish they were all wearing the same uniform. However Branden went through that growth spurt a while back remember, and that white outfit does *not* fit properly anymore and since they only sell the yellow one now. Then that is the way it has to be, unfortunately ha ha ha. However one other boy is now wearing the yellow one as well. So now there's 3 total wearing the yellow uniform, phew, at least he isn't the only one! : )
Noah got a kick out of watching all of those "big" kids pull the dashi/rope. The kids were screaming.....Wasshoi!!!! (Sp?) Even, I was screaming...wasshoi!!! Though I am a bit nerdy and I admit that. I was just really having a blast, I can't help it! : )
There they are giving it a good pull.
On the day of the actual festival. There will be a large number of those huge floats. And what seems like millions of people all packed like sardines all trying to get a good look at them. So, it was sorta nice for the kids to be able to participate and pull the dashi without the crowds of all the people on the real day.
All these yochien mom's in the background are all very very nice. All our sons swim together as well. Also water canals all around with boats of people looking on.
Hey, here is a boat right now as a matter of fact, ha ha ha!
Group photo! This is Branden's class. And that is his teacher with the black t- shirt in the background. She is a really super teacher! Branden adores her. He really likes being in her class. She likes him as well. She has never had a complaint about Branden either, she says he is a good student and good athlete (obviously we just had a parent teacher conference the day before, ha ha ha). In fact all the kids really like this teacher.Noboru and I also really like her a bunch ourselves. Very helpful lady. She will be Noah's teacher eventually, ha ha ha. Good thing we all get along so well, huh? Ha ha ha. Phew! : )
Close up shot of the kids! : ) And my day isn't over by a long shot. Now I have to run home, prepare lunch. Throw another load of clothes into our dryer. And then we are off to swimming school. Today we are going because we have to make up for B missing last weeks swim lesson due to us being in Guam. I also am increasing his swimming lessons during this summer to twice a week, versus just once a week. I figure I will be keeping my little guy as active as I possibly can this summer versus just being bored. I'm also enrolling him in Kumon. Many of you know, I have been debating about sending him or not sending him. After of about 6 month's of deep thinking about it. I searched online and found they have Kumon in the US now and I read their homepage in English, boy did it answer a lot of the questions I had about it. All the moms talked highly about it at my yochien like I said before, saying it is giving their kids a little boost in their Japanese writing and reading. Noboru does help him and he does have study books in Japanese here at the house. But, I think Kumon is something our family can benefit from. Granted every family is different and as it should be, but for us we think Kumon can help us prepare for when B starts the first grade next April. So, he will be going to swimming twice a week for an hour and a half each time. So 3 hours of swimming a week. That's not too much, but enough for him to stay busy and hopefully pass to another level by the end of summer. And twice a week, he will go to Kumon for an hour a night. Again not hours upon hours of study, but enough to give him a head start for next year, we are hoping. Plus most of his days will be spent in the backyard, playing with his brother or swimming in our little plastic inflatable pool just having regular fun anyway. Or frog hunting, or playing with the kids in the neighborhood. So it's not like he will be all stressed out or anything. But yeah, we have an assessment appointment for July 23rd or 24th or something. And then after that, he will begin Kumon from that week.
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