Weekend wrap

Now for a brief update on the week’s activities in the Sushi on a Stick household.

Last Thursday was one of the regular come-and-look-at-your-kids-class days at school, so we all trooped in to watch the Grade Sixes put on a musical performance and give a little speech, like this:

All the classes had presentations, and technically we were supposed to juggle our time between Felix and Ruby for fairness and equity purposes; however he missed out this time because it was the last one ever for the Grade Sixes. (I tried to tell him it was actually because we love Ruby more than him, but he doesn’t fall for that one any more.)

Saturday was the soccer graduation (read about it here), which didn’t finish until 3:30. After that we just sloped off home and sat around. Ruby has cashed in her saxophone busking funds for a shiny new iPod touch and is busy downloading maddeningly addictive games and checking her Facebook page every two seconds, so what with all that and fighting with Felix over gaming rights, the rest of the afternoon went by in a flash. Thank heavens for unlimited downloads in Japan is all I can say.

On Sunday we went for walk up a nearby mountain called Mt. Fudekage. This is right next door to the one that I climbed at five in the morning a couple of weeks back with my new friend Mr. Nishihara (see pics here) and has equally stunning if not better views of the Seto Inland Sea.We took Yusaku and Ayasa along, packed a picnic lunch of onigiri (rice balls in nori) and other goodies, and had a nice time on top of the mountain pigging out while admiring the views (although Felix and Yusaku spent most of the time admiring Yusaku’s Nintendo DS).

After the picnic we went to see a ballet concert featuring one of Ruby’s classmates at the Mihara Cultural Centre, otherwise known as “Poporo” for some reason. The ballet was quite good, but what with that and Mao’s Last Dancer a couple of months back, I think I’ve filled my ballet quota for a couple of years at least.

In other exciting news, Eleni got offered a full-time job teaching at a local primary school but turned it down: eight till four-thirty five days a week, no school holidays, pay not that great. Plus the visa says she’s technically only allowed to work 28 hours per week, so that pretty much made the decision for us. We figure that she’ll be able to pick up part-time work here and there without too much problem. I’ve already lined up some English checking work through my translation agencies so hopefully that will provide some much-needed income. And as if to vindicate the decision, Eleni was invited to classes at the local community centre in waidaiko (Japanese drumming), and has also met a nice local woman who teaches ikebana twice per month. This is, after all, the sort of stuff that we came here for: Culture with a K.