Fall Trees No More

We are very fortunate to have a line of small trees lining the street in our apartment complex. Every summer they grow full and by fall the large green leaves start to turn yellow and orange...

And that's when they come in and cut them off... It's such a depressing day when those tree cutters start rolling in and take almost every leaf off of the tree before moving on. Guess it's one more reminder that we live in a city and no one wants to spend their time sweeping up all those leaves!

Farewell, pretty leaves... I will look forward to seeing you begin to bloom in the spring!



Typhoon for Halloween????

Ok - so when making plans for Halloween, I never added in the thought of a typhoon! Costume - check... candy - check... case of beer for the men to play beer pong - check... umbrellas and rainboots for all??? Definitely not in the plan - but, hey, what did I say about the land of being flexible?? Here we go again... Typhoon Chaba is on the way. It started raining last night and is only supposed to get harder and windier through the night, then clearing off some tomorrow before raining more tomorrow night and Monday. This guy is definitely messing with my plans... Here's how the weekend was supposed to go and how things have gone so far...

Yesterday was the parade and carnival at the kids school, the American School in Japan (ASIJ) - they had a blast and fortunately no rain got in the way. Today, I have been the taxi - took Chris to the gym at TAC, then took Sydney to a costume birthday party (she was dressed as Super Girl), then back to TAC to play air hockey with Nicholas and eat lunch with my boys, back to the car to go pick up Sydney, then back to the house to pick up Nicholas's costume and treat bag and take him to the US Embassy compound where he will play with his friend and then get to trick or treat on the compound (you can only imgaine his excitement about getting "American candy"). Now we are home after stopping at Starbuck's and getting a hot tea latte... it is consistently POURING and after all that driving around Tokyo in the rain - I am a little stressed. I should mention, however, that I did all of that without getting lost ONCE. :)

Now, tonight we are to go to a friend's for a pre-party gathering, then pick up Nicholas at 7:30, rush home, meet the sitter and head out to a Halloween party hosted by our friends, Steve and Pattie. I even had Chris ready to dress up for Halloween - we were going to go as Rachel and Finn from Glee, but with the rain and wind, I will not be wearing knee socks and a short skirt... we have now made a simple change that requires regular clothes and bandaids... any ideas as to what we will be??

Then tomorrow's agenda is up in the air now as well... Sunday school, pizza party around 3 for friends awaiting the trick or treaters at 5:00 - will the Japanese still trick or treat in the rain?? Thinking the answer is yes... free candy is still free cnady, even in the rain.

Monday, I was to lead our Daisy Scouts on a trek to the top of Mt Takao as they hiked to raise money for the Girls Be Ambitious program in Cambodia. They are raising money for girls to help pay for girls in Cambodia to attend school and they are very proud of that fact... currently there is a 100% chance of rain for Monday.

Halloween is one of my favorite times in Tokyo. It's a time when everything is very American - I love to see all of our friends come through and see the smiles on the kid's faces as they come to see "Sydney & Nicholas's mom" - I love to hear the Japanese children say "tlick-o-tleat-o" and bow and say "arrigato" before smiling and leaving.

So, bring it on, Typhoon Chaba - I have rain boots, a rain coat, and an umbrella... and lots of candy to go around.

My son...

Allow me a moment to brag on my son... Nicholas plays soccer for the British Football Academy's competitive team, the Jaguars. On Saturday, his team played in a tournament against 11 other teams. They started out one man down and then got into a great stride once they had a full team of seven. None of them ever had a break and they all played hard throughout the day, passing and scoring repeatedly.

In the end, the Jaguars were not only undefeated, but no team even scored a goal against them! They beat a Brazilian team in the finals with an ending score of 15 - 0!

All of the players received a gold medal, presented to the them at the closing ceremony. The boys were exhausted but very proud of themselves - as were all of their parents!!

GO JAGUARS!

Definition of Being Flexible...

I'm sure I could have at least one post a week with this title... here's one from last week...

School was closed last week for two days - Monday was a National Holiday (Sports Day) and Tuesday was a professional day (one of six during the school year!). So as not to sit around in the house for two days, we moms often get together and organize a fun day out and about. This holiday was no exception as many of us made a plan to go to a place we all affectionately call "Obstacle Park" - it's a great park with lots of wooden and rope climbing structures. On Tuesday morning we got up, packed our lunches, a change of clothes, and were ready to go.

Four families met at my apartment to load into three cars and begin the 30 minute trek to the park - made a stop at Starbucks on the way... Several more families were planning on meeting us there.

We arrived only to find that the park was CLOSED!!!! Apparently, the park, which is usually only closed on Mondays, closes on a Tuesday if the National Holiday falls on a Monday! How would we know that by reading their only written in Japanese website?? The most interesting part is that all of the employees WERE THERE... they just didn't have the gate open.

So what do you do when there are 8 families with about 20 kids between us who were ready to have some fun? You load back up, take your packed lunches, and go BOWLING and then to an AQUARIUM because you know that is open and has available parking. :) And since our kids have become just as flexible - they loved every minute of it!

I did have some great photos of the day... but as I was later trying to learn about some different features with my new camera... I deleted all of them. Just another way that I had to be flexible and not scream and throw my camera out the window.

The one thing I've learned over these past two years is you always need to have a back up plan, because there are many times when you just might not be successful with Plan A!

Hair Therapy

Today I went to get my hair colored... something that sadly, I am needing to do more and more these days! I truly look forward to a day in the salon here... I feel so special and relaxed by the time I'm done. Granted, it takes a few hours, but, hey, I've got the time!

I have two women who take care of me at the Tokyo American Club (TAC) salon - Mika cuts my hair and Harumi does the color. In Japan, most beauticians do one or the other, not usually both. Usually I try to not need both of them at the same time - getting a cut and color usually takes about 3+ hours. Fortunately, I only needed the color today.

here's how it usually goes...

Upon arrival, an assistant gets you set up in the chair and proceeds to "prepare" you for the color... two dainty little plastic elastic baggies are attached to your ears and a petroleum jelly substance is spread around your hair line to protect your skin from getting dyed as well. Then your hair is systematically divided and put into clips. Next, two people divide and conquer the brushing in of the color... one would think that with two people, the process would be faster, huh? But, alas, they circle around 2 - 3 times getting everything fully covered. Next comes the saran wrap around your head and the sitting while your hair "cooks." Harumi comes back 2 more times to massage the color further into my hair and resets the timer.

Now you may be saying to yourself that this doesn't sound much different than what many of you get in the states and you're probably right... the difference comes next - my absolutely FAVORITE part... the hair wash! I swear it is pure therapy for me.

The whole process takes about 20 - 30 minutes - I lose track of how many times they rinse, scrub, and massage my head - I think it's around 4 or 5 times... but since I'm usually half asleep by the time they finish, I simply don't keep up! There's the rinsing out of the dye, the 2 or 3 washes, then the conditioner... With each wash/rinse, there is a pattern as to how they rub, wash, massage, and rinse - I have also noticed that different stylists have different patterns, each of them equally as good - I really never want this process to end!

When she is sadly finished and it is time to return to the chair for the drying... another process that can take about 30 minutes. This process is also quite therapeutic and I find myself dozing again! With my super curly hair, I just don't see how on Earth they make my hair so straight!

As if all of this pampering isn't enough, they finish off the whole process with a 10 -15 minute final head and neck massage. Does it get any better than this? In fact, thinking about all of this makes me realize I probably need to go back tomorrow and schedule a time for a hair cut!

Let's try this again...

It's been several months since I last made a post - in fact, it's been long enough that I have forgotten my password and since I had started this whole process with a now defunct email address... I have realized the best idea is just to start over fresh! So here we are starting our third year in Tokyo... Chris is still with Corning, Nicholas is in the 4th grade, Sydney is in the 1st grade, and I'm in the center of it all - trying to keep it all organized!

My mother often asks why I don't work on my blog anymore and I told her that my life is really not that exciting since we are now settled. I do the same things most moms do... I get up in the morning, make lunches and breakfast, walk the kids to the bus, go to the gym, go to the grocery store, wash a few loads of laundry, maybe fold and put away the laundry, pick up around the house, go pick up the kids from the bus, cook dinner, clean up the dishes, put the kids to bed, watch a little TV, and go to bed... Not too exciting, huh?

However, I've been thinking... I may do a lot of the same things, but it looks very different here. Everything is different. And the fact that my family has adjusted to it, doesn't make it any less interesting to those I know. My sister told me once that I should write about the stores I go to or describe the area in which I live - both great ideas. That's my new plan - now that I'm not always lost or walking around in circles, I hope to explain about some of the every day things I do... with an obvious Japanese flair!

Make sure to come back often and please leave comments!