Author: bookwormbird

The weekend – shuumatsu 週末

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It’s Friday! My lovely Egremont Bookclub gals will be meeting later. Boo. But I am creating another bookclub in Yokohama. Woot.

lId27I84TtulRJCKGCr6cwYesterday we returned school  paperwork to the Naka Ward Office. It’s great. There’s a bit of waiting around, but the job is done there and then. Really efficient. Copeland could learn a lot. But then they’d need to employ more staff and there is no money……*sighs*. You get a number and two corresponding slips of paper and are eventually called to the desk. One slip of paper goes off into the office with the paperwork to be sorted and you keep the other to be reunited at the end of the job. So good. We then went to a Family mart and bought some picnic items including for me and George inarizushi, which is a pocket of tofu with sweetened rice inside. Oliver went for sausage and chips!

We ate these in a charming park near the Baystars’ stadium (the local baseball team). There were loads of tulips, they were so beautiful and dotted around the place were lots of artists practising their watercolours.

After this we learned about useful buses and bus stops and the limits of Google maps. But after a prolonged wait at the wrong bus-stop we found the right bus and headed to the Aeon department store to attempt the school shop.

I’ve been worrying about this for months. The list of items seemed scary and odd, but what Motomachi Primary school are asking for isn’t as huge as other lists I’ve seen and thankfully most of it was all on one floor. Unfortunately I ran out of cash before I finished the first shop. So we caught the bus home, had a wee rest, picked up more spondulics and headed back for another shot. Yesterday I bought:

  • two pairs of indoor shoes
  • white gym top and shorts for Oliver (George has been loaned some from the school)
  • one disaster hood
  • cleaning cloths
  • face masks for serving food
  • two pencil cases
  • a box of pencils 2B or B
  • a box of red pencils
  • two skipping ropes
  • two sets of: toothbrush, plastic cup, face cloth
  • handkerchiefs for drying hands after using the loo
  • kanji exercise books
  • two communication books
  • geometry set
  • coloured pencils
  • plastic boards to protect desk
  • a bag to put gym stuff in
  • a bag to put cup and toothbrush etc in
  • pegs for attaching cleaning cloth to underside of desk
  • plain rubbers
  • pritt sticks
  • AND A THERMOMETER!!

Of course I am now taking their temperatures and it is interesting to see how much it fluctuates. Or maybe I need to get out more.

And on that note: I need to head out now to meet Dan’s colleagues for lunch. [Dan might be too busy to meet us(!)], then we are meeting a friend called Frances, from Taiwan, who is married to another of Dan’s colleagues; and tomorrow I am super excited to be meeting up with an old pal from Bournemouth. Yes!! So exciting. Very out of the blue. Cannot wait!!

Must dash.

 

 

School

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This morning we need to go and buy a thermometer. Part of the paperwork that took NINETY minutes to complete yesterday, (with an interpreter), was writing down the kids’ average body temperature. Both the international teacher, Lin-sensai, and our interpreter, (a lovely lady from Dan’s HR department), were shocked that I didn’t know this off the top of my head. So today we buy a thermometer and start taking readings.

The orientation session yesterday was long. I need to set-up a bank account: in order to do this I need to create a seal. Woah. I need to take some paperwork over to Naka ward office today, and at some point we need to buy all the bits and bobs for Monday morning. It was a hard ninety minutes but I held it together until we got out. Really overwhelmed. And Oliver was being difficult.

As it happens, next week the teachers are carrying out home visits for all the pupils in the afternoons so the boys will only be going in for morning session and lunch.

I’ll be going in with them for that first week. Both the boys are upbeat and excited. Turns out Oliver will be going on a residential camp in June at a peninsular where they’ll be fishing and kayaking and suchlike.

So the photos. The school itself looks run-down in comparison to British primary schools. It reminds me of schooling from the 1960s. Or maybe earlier. But they WILL learn some Japanese!

Guest slippers
The international room
The communication box
The pencil box. No smelly rubbers. Everything name labelled. In Katakana.
Cup, toothbrush and flannel in a bag.
Gym bags
Desks with disaster hoods doubling as cushions.
Cleaning cloth and peg under each desk.
A Grade 5 classroom
Boys at the drinking station
Unicycles. Of course.
One of the playgrounds. There is also an outdoor pool in the grounds.

Home

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This is a bit of a catch-up post.

  1. I have found a closer supermarket which is far more comprehensive. I am a happy shopper.
  2. Yesterday we met Dan for lunch and had a Korean barbecue meal. Hover over the photos to get the captions.
    This miso soup is the tastiest I’e had so far. It’s garnished with seaweed and spring onions. The meal comes with iced tea. (Non sweetened)
    Here is the main event. Thin slices of beef, with a sesame dressing-covered salad and kimchi.
    Yum Yum

    People have been asking about our house. Well, it’s at the top of a hill, so coming home we all get a mega workout climbing one hundred odd steps. It is on three levels and is great. We have a strip of scrubland outside the living area which will be handy for barbecues. Here are some snaps.

Japanese People

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The neighbourhood we are living in is full of hair salons and each one advertises perms. Really??!

I’d not seen any curly haired Nihonjin…..until yesterday.

Here is my list of interesting Japanese people spotted so far:

  • with a perm
  • trans person
  • person with a dog in a pram

I managed to get a snap of the pram.                     2j5N122aQYW1HL+VTs+cEw

Weekdays. But boys still at home….

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So today is Wednesday. It’s my Dad’s birthday – Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is exciting because this afternoon we will all visit Motomachi elementary where the boys will be enrolled. Hopefully they will start on Monday. It will all be a bit fitful as there is a school holiday around Golden Week at the start of May and then we’ll take the boys out of school in mid May to accompany the Moomins (grandparents) whilst they come and stay.

So in the meantime we have been mixing the usual home ed stuff with exploring our new area and meeting Dan for lunch. Sunday evening we planted some seeds and look forward to growing our own cucumbers, strawberries and herbs.

 

 

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Ramen. Under the egg and shredded radish are noodles. You eat the solids with chopsticks then sup up the miso broth with a ceramic spoon or straight from the bowl.

On Monday we went to a Ramen restaurant and one of Dan’s colleagues joined us.Yesterday we were en famille and we went to a cook-your-own okonomiyaki, (optimistically called Japanese pizza, but there’s no real dough and it’s mainly a cabbage frittata with barbecue sauce and mayonnaise on top). I went for seafood and the boys stuck with pork.

The meal begins with a salad, (the dressing reminded me of Little Chef prawn cocktail), and then the hot plate is activated and you cook the meat. Meanwhile you mix your bowl of stuff and add the cooked meat to the mix. Then you dump the mix onto the hotplate. Apparently it needs to be 14cm in diameter. I joked about not bringing a ruler and Dan told me that they are provided. (Of course). Then a saucepan lid goes over the top and a timer is turned. Once the time is up, the okonomiyaki is flipped and cooked for the same time. Then you get creative (or not) with the sauce.

Of course, Dan’s was the best

Dan worked a little later last night so I did some research and found a ramen restaurant near Ishikawacho station and we met him and headed there for tea. It was cold and raining and I was glad I’d taken my woolly hat and warm jacket.

Tonight we’ll be having spaghetti bolognaise. Dan cooked up a big batch and froze it before coming back to the UK at Easter.

Sunday

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It’s been a few days. The jet lag has taken its toll a wee bit and it is only now that I feel clear headed enough to post again.

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Sunday

I think Sunday was the hardest. We attempted a big supermarket shop – by bus, none the less – in the morning; then in the afternoon we took the train out to Kamakura, a hill town south of Yokohama which has lots of temples, a giant buddha, and lots of shops and cafes.

Dan has a preferred supermarket; OK supermarket. Google maps told us the nearest one was a fair way away. But we catch a vey nice air conditioned bus and follow the progress on Dan’s phone and start the shop. Now. I love exploring the food shops and this one was a bit disappointing. Plus, I suppose I have more fun when there isn’t a time or purpose constraint and we had both on this trip.

I *had* started a blog post on Sunday so it seems a shame to waste it. Here is what I wrote:

The wind howled and the rain poured last night and most of this morning. I slept badly and got up early. Dan joined me and we watched a couple of episodes of the Million Yen Women on Netflix before the boys got up. It’s a great wee drama about a novelist and it involves intrigue, murder and I use it as an excuse to learn some Nihongo.

We decided to go to the supermarket. After much Google Mapsing we decided to try for the OK supermarket a twenty five minute bus ride away.

Anyway. Here’s the photos of the shopping trip. Of course, lugging it all back on the bus wasn’t as much fun. And the bus was crowded and not air conditioned. And something leaked onto my leather handbag. But I did have the guilty pleasure of listening-in on a conversation going on in the seats behind me between two older Antipodean ladies. I was a bit annoyed at first because I was trying to record the voice of the bus driver who reminded me of a Goons’ character. I did catch this snippet:

 

 

Kamakura

Perhaps not surprisingly, (look at my use of the fronted adverbial, folks), I was not at my best for our afternoon jaunt to Kamakura. By the time we had climbed the steps to the train platform I was feeling totally huge and gallumphing. Being surrounded by these petite things in their stylish clothes that hang from their bony frames does nothing for the self esteem. But I tried to brush off these feelings reminding myself I was knackered and hormonal and European and overweight. Natch.

Ofuna BuddhaWe had to change trains at Ofuna, where there is another giant buddha that you can see from the train. (We’ve not yet got off the train at Ofuna to explore it ourselves). IMG_1148

 

 

 

 

 

Dan has a favourite decadent Hot Chocolate shop in Kamakura and I wasn’t going to turn him down, feeling as I did. We sat outside and watched kites loop around above the trains station.

We then wandered into Kamakura, bought some kitchen equipment from a department store; Dan let me have some breathing time on my own in a funky cafe – I had a chilled chai latte which was a bit too sweet but I pushed on through! Then we returned home. Of course I have taken some snaps of some interesting food items, thus:

Sakura (cherry blossom) themed KitKats. Of course.
Kawaii (cute) donuts. Of course. Again.

There’s a tiny amount of sakura still on the trees, I’m a little sad we missed it, but hey-ho. The next cultural theme will be the carp windsocks which are part of the Children’s Day celebrations in May, which form part of Golden Week. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what this is all about but when I do find out more, I will share with you all. You lucky souls.

Finally, we spotted this and I couldn’t resist.

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So, this is Yokohama.

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Yesterday morning we landed in Japan at Haneda airport in south Tokyo. At immigration we received our residents’ cards and we took our fifteen bags to the coach stop and caught a limousine coach into Yokohama. The boys were knackered, (despite my best efforts they did NOT sleep on the plane), and G zonked our right away. Twenty five minutes later we unload the coach and pile into two taxis to get to our house. Yes house! The sun is shining, the weather is warm and the taxi driver checks with me before putting on the air con.

We dumped the bags and walked through Chinatown to get to the Naka ward office where we spent a couple of hours minding a sparked-out George whilst applying for our Health Insurance cards, school places and family allowance. (I know!) We had lunch in some small Chinese place and then walked home. The Sakura (cherry blossom) has pretty much gone now here, but we did see some floating down the local river.

We live at the top of a hill. Outside our house is a flight of steps down to a shopping area which has loads of cafes, salons, grocers and even a shop specialising in honey. At the top of the hill is an historical house called ‘Home of a Diplomat’ which has sumptuous gardens that are free to explore.

Today we caught the train into Yokohama central (two stops on the Negishi line) and bought some boxes for storing clothes in and other essentials. There was a craft market happening by the quayside which we looked around. The quality varied. I did buy some earrings from a lovely lady who spoke English and made things from sea glass.

We had lunch in a British pub. I felt really quite pissed after my pint. Then this afternoon we finished unpacking and braved the drizzle to explore the area at the top of the hill. Mainly the boys’ school. Well, it’s huge and modern and it’s a lovely 10 minute walk through Yamate gardens.

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From here, once you descend the hill again there are even more lovely bakeries, cafes, flower shops and boutiques to explore.

Tonight we had Dan’s spag bol and I had my first Japanese bath. You shower first, then soak. It was heavenly.

image

Tomorrow we are thinking of going to Kamakura on the train.

I am so happy to be here. It’s quite the antidote to all the mini-catastrophes at home.

 

Back to school

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Day 2 of the new term sucked. Son1 came into our room, “I feel sick”. Hubby still has (unused) sick bowl beside his bed from the weekend, and passes it over. Son begins retching into the bowl.

That’s him off school for 2 days then.

Somehow, Son2 takes fucking forever to eat his breakfast, and then is unable to find his uniform. That’s another domestic issue but I lost my temper, we got to school late, I felt absolutely bloody awful.

Got through the day. Planned an evening meal. Cooked evening meal using up some stuff that REALLY needed eating up from the fridge.

I need to write a to do list.

Garden – plant out plants from Helen; do some seeds; tackle some of the ‘problem’ plants in the garden

Books – finish reading the crappy John Clare book

Household – do Home Blessing Hour; plan meals; write shopping list; go shopping; post friend’s gift

Music – Download all music; practice; buy train tickets

Food Revolution stuff – Look at recipes devise some sort of activity

Guides – bank cheque; sort out cheques for World Thinking Day fund and Guide Friendship Fund

 

 

 

Why I’ve stopped reading the Qur’an

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Last time at Bookclub, after a rather tipsy chat about the latest ISIS atrocity, we rather drunkenly agreed it would be a great idea to read the Qur’an for next time, so that we could discover for ourselves whether it is a ‘religion of peace’.

At university, I’d done a year’s course in Islamic History. The course had taken us from the founding of the religion, including Mohammed’s flight to Jerusalem and battles in Mecca to the Ottoman empire. It highlighted the tolerant nature of the Abbasid caliphate and their scientific and linguistic achievements. I had also owned a copy of the Qur’an, which I’d glanced at, mainly to see how the main characters from the Bible were represented.

A few years ago my husband and I had visited the mosque in Edinburgh during an open day. I had an opinion that Muslims were a bit like Salvationists, (minus the music): generally good, religious people. Of course there are bad Muslims, and bad things done under the name of Islam, but surely these are the bad apples?

So I started reading the Qur’an a couple of weeks ago. And first off, I made the decision not to promote the fact I was reading it on Goodreads. This is aberrant behaviour for me. I always post everything about my reading on Goodreads, but having read some of the comments on people’s reviews on the Qur’an, I decided against it. I don’t want hassle. I want a quiet life.

At first I am making lots of notes from the Qur’an and was appalled at the view of unbelievers, Christians and Jews. But as I slowly read more and more of the book, I realised there is no point in making notes as it is the same two or three motifs repeated and repeated and repeated. Namely, that unbelievers will burn in hell, that all the prophets before Mohammed had failed in their attempts to make people follow God, and that as long as Muslims pray, believe in Gold and pay the prescribed alms; paradise will be theirs, (and they will hear the wails of the unbelievers and there is nothing the unbelievers will be able to do, come the day of Judgement, as they have swapped the glitter of this life for the flames of hell.)

I carried on reading, getting more and more depressed at the repetition and damnation until I was about 40% in. The date of our book club was postponed to allow more of us to finish it, but even so, I have made the decision to stop reading it.

Yes, I was getting bored with the lack of progression in the book, and yes, I was yearning for all the novels I could be reading instead, but I also was getting upset and depressed. I usually continue reading a book to the bitter end, no matter how much I hate the start (or middle), so this is a big deal for me. I feel like I am failing in my attempt to understand the Muslim faith, which was my initial aim, but honestly, it’s not doing me any good.

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And here’s the thing. I am lucky enough to live in a country where I am allowed not to read it, and allowed not to like it, and even allowed to express the fact that I don’t like it. So why force myself to read it?

I expressed the fact on twitter that I was finding it hard, and had a little dialogue with someone who noted that , yes, expressing anything negative about the Qur’an can lead to hassle. I replied saying that I wanted a quiet life, so I wouldn’t post anything more online.

Then I followed this person on twitter and started reading about how apostates are treated by Islam; about how dissidents in Saudi Arabia are treated and I felt shamed. There are people facing the death penalty and 50 lashes a week for expressing their thoughts and yet they still express themselves and criticise the faith. And here am I, in comfortable Cumbria, able to express myself but too chicken to incur the wrath of some folk a long way away, who can’t really do me any harm.

So I’m going to post an honest review on Goodreads. And I’ll post a link to this on Twitter. And to heck with the response. (There might not even be one. We’ll see.)

Bring on the Thrillers/ Literary Fiction/ Crime novels. I can’t wait!