Tales from junior high

June 21, 2010  |  2  |  Category: School

Occasionally our resident teenager deigns to share a story from school with her rapidly aging parents. I try to get her to write these in her blog, but recently she’s barely had time to scratch herself let alone compose new entries (readers may have noticed that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while). So Read more...

The Old Man and his Bass

June 16, 2010  |  0  |  Category: Culture

It’s official: the old man and his bass (and his daughter) are IN THE BAND.
Ruby and I have been to a couple of Poporo Junior Swing Orchestra practice sessions already.
It has proven to be a major learning experience for me, not least because there is sheet music for all the instruments, including the bass guitar, Read more...

Family visit

June 14, 2010  |  0  |  Category: Daily life

I’ve got my mum and two older sisters visiting at the moment. They’ve only been here four days but already we’ve packed in a punishing schedule:
• On Thursday, I picked them up at lunchtime and took them straight up good old Mt. Fudekageyama, the one where I took all those photos of sunrise and cherry Read more...

Here comes the rain again

June 14, 2010  |  0  |  Category: Daily life

The rainy season is officially here. (Having said that, as I type this it’s a lovely warm day with hardly a cloud in the sky but according to the news it’s officially on.)
The rainy season began in style with a decent belt of rain that began yesterday morning and continued all day right through Felix’s Read more...

Sports day

June 07, 2010  |  3  |  Category: School, With pics

Sunday was the annual Sports Day at the local primary school. The Sports Day is a massive event, with marquees arranged all around the sports ground for the parents and of course the local dignitaries invited (presumably the same bunch that gets wheeled out for graduation ceremonies and the like) and the kids all practice Read more...

Mid-term exams

June 01, 2010  |  1  |  Category: School

In the brave new world of junior high, it’s time for mid-term exams. The schools have them at slightly different times, but Ruby’s exams are this Thursday and Friday. She’s been studying quite hard; in fact, I’ve never seen her study before really, since Year 6 in fun-lovin’ Australia was just an endless blur of Read more...

Weekend wrap

May 30, 2010  |  0  |  Category: Daily life, With pics

Hello all, and here is the news.
Ruby has mid-term exams coming up and has assigned herself a gruelling study schedule over the next couple of weeks, including regular breaks for tapping furiously on the iPod and downloading new episodes of Glee. So on account of the revision regime she and Eleni stayed home on Saturday Read more...

Ruby offered to do the washing up

May 26, 2010  |  4  |  Category: Daily life

Yes, that’s right: Ruby actually offered to do the washing up tonight. Of her own free will!
I think that deserves a post all of its own.

Skool lunch tasting session

May 25, 2010  |  1  |  Category: Food, School, With pics

Gotta love those skool visits.
This week they organised for interested parents to come in and try out the skool lunches. As it happens Felix is on serving duty this week so he gets to wear the dinky little serving gear, including the ubiquitous Germ Mask:

After the designated carriers have wheeled in the trolleys, the designated Read more...

Sleep

May 22, 2010  |  1  |  Category: Daily life, The kids

Back when I lived in Tokyo during the early 90s, I used to regard the Japanese as somehow superhuman. For a start, there was the economic miracle: how did a country so devastated by war manage to become an economic and technological powerhouse in a few short decades? Then there was the uncanny ability of Read more...