Two Years

Two years ago today we landed in Japan.  Last year at this time, I was feeling all sorts of nostalgic and homesick.  This year I feel nothing of the sort.  Our home leave tickets are booked, my parents have tickets to come to Japan in the fall, and summer is racing toward me at breakneck speed.  I don't know what happened to the month of April.  It hardly began and now it is over.  Bear got an email from his teacher with his homework for the next two weeks and she reminded the kids that they only have 30 more days together.  I almost teared up.  She is such a great teacher and Bear has had a fabulous year.  I can hardly believe 4th grade is so close to being a memory for him.  I feel like I need to gasp for breath.

Speaking of 4th grade, Bear had spirit week and sports day last week.  During spirit week they have the kids dress up every day leading up to sports day at the end of the week.  On "Career Day" Bear dressed up as a CAT engineer. 

 
After sports day they tally all the house points for the year.  This year Bear's house, Kensei, won both sports day and the house cup.  Last year they came in last, so it was super fun for Bear to be part of the winning team this year.  He came in second for grade 4 (they combine points from sports day and their academic work throughout the year) and got a nice medal for himself and a pin for the Kensei house.

Well done, Bear!  Go Kensei!

Did I mention that we had an earthquake a few weeks ago?  It was fairly strong - a 6 on the richter scale.  Maybe you saw it mentioned in the news.  Our Friday nights are always slightly crazy, because we've started a little tradition that the kids can sleep in our room on Fridays.  Usually they just sleep on the futon on the floor, but someone was borrowing it that week, so Beaver was sleeping on a camping pad at the foot of our bed in a fort he had built.  Bear had fallen asleep in our bed, so I was sleeping there with him and Mike had gone into Bear's room and was sleeping in his bed. At 5:33 Saturday morning we awoke to shaking and the sliding glass doors in our room rattling.  I jumped out of bed and pulled back the curtains to see if the rattling was from the wind blowing.  It wasn't.  I realized what was happening, and headed for the kid's rooms to get them, but of course they were both in the room with me!  At the same moment, Mike came rushing into our room, Bear sat up in bed, Mike snatched Beaver off the floor, and I just kind of stumbled about - heading for the doorway, then back to get the kids, and then it was over.  All of this happened in a matter of seconds.  There was no significant damage or casualties, for which we are thankful.  

And so begins our third year in Japan!