Learning Japanese one mistake at a time!

For those who don't know, Lila is attending a local Japanese pre-school, called Seika Yochien.  It is a great little school complete with formal little uniforms and daily customs.  Japanese is the predominant language spoken during school.  The one teacher who speaks English, Yuko, has been fabulous helping not only Lila getting settled but also to Amie as she helps Lila get settled and adjusted to the new school and the way things are done.  The school even has it's own school bus that picks up Lila and a couple of kids from our housing development.

The customs start at the bus stop every morning as the driver pulls the bus into the stop and the 'bus teacher' steps out to greet the kids.  The kids one at a time are supposed to bow to the teacher and say "Sensei, Ohayou Gozaimasu" (Good Morning, Teacher).  It is cute to watch as the kids stumble and fake their way through it.  

It is amazing to watch as Lila slowly picks up phrases in Japanese.  She can count in Japanese, we are up to 6, and she loves to run around and yell "Dame (Da-mey)" at her brothers which evidently means 'bad'.  Just the other day I was backing the car into the parking spot (backing into spots is a big deal around here).  As I was backing up, I heard Lila say "O-lai, O-lai, O-lai".  Turns out the 'bus teacher' says that when the bus driver backs the school bus up to park.  It would seem Lila's learning is though-out the day.

Well last night, Amie and I went to a dinner party with some folks from the command.  Scott and Laura did a great job putting together a truly awesome dinner.  There was also plenty of wine and whiskey to go around as well.  Scott and Laura live on the ninth floor of one of the towers at Yokosuka across from the fire department.  They were explaining at one point how the fire trucks would be backed into spot every morning, and even from 9 stories up they could here some of the firefighters yelling, "Hai, Hai, Hai" as they backed the trucks up.  When I relayed my story of Lila saying "O-lai, O-lai, O-lai" one of the spouses, Sumiko, who is Japanese from Kamakura, started to laugh uncontrollably.  

When she stopped laughing she politely explained that they weren't yelling Hai, Hai, Hai or O-Lai, O-lai, O-lai, it was simply the difficulty of R's and L's...they were actually saying "Alright!"

Let's take the train!

When I was my boys age, which Liam is convinced was sometime around the 1940's, the primary mode of transportation was riding my bike or walking.  There wasn't the opportunity to catch a bus or train to go anywhere.  Ellington CT was a small little farm town.

Now Japan has an extensive train and bus system.  The roads are small and congested.  You can pull over and park your car, IN THE TRAVEL LANE, to run into a store for 5 minutes to get milk or something.  While you're inside travelers stuck behind you either have to wait for your return or try to pass against the on-coming traffic!  Can you imagine trying to pull that in the states?  In addition to that all the highways are toll roads, so the subliminal message is...take the mass transportation.

Okay, so getting around on the train looks daunting, it's mostly symbols and numbers and not easy to decipher the first few times, but it actually isn't that bad.  Once you figure out that the symbols "skinny man, fat man, TV" are the symbols to get to Yokosuka...no sweat!  Oh and the colors, the color of the lines are very important...catch the black line and hit every stop, catch the green and skip most stops and only hit certain major ones...huge difference in time.

So I decided that it was time to push the birds from the nest and see if they could fly!  I told them a couple of Saturdays ago, that I wanted them to catch the train to Yokosuka and back.  From our house, that equates to one train for two stops, change trains and hop on another train.  It's a small station where they change trains, so not a huge concern.  The idea went something like this...

Me: Boys, I have an idea, why don't you take the train to Yokosuka?
Boys: When are we leaving, what are we going to eat?
Me: No, you guys go by yourselves.
Boys: Can we get something to eat?
Me: Yeah, I don't care.  Take the train, check out Blue Street, get something to eat and come back.
Boys: Can we eat where ever we want?
Me: Yes, fine, I don't care where you eat, I just want you to ride the train and make it back alive!
Boys: Can we have some money?

So being a concerned parent, I resorted to Aviator mode and had a very thorough 'pre-flilght' brief.  I had a white board with multiple color markers, a pocket size train map, a time table, a list of landmarks and made sure they had fully charged cell phones (aka survival gear, because Google Maps on the iPhone is AWESOME).  Then I gave them a bunch of yen, don't ask how much, it was probably enough to buy a hotel on Park Avenue...it is just monopoly money!

Out the door they went and after a few hours they returned.  They only made a couple small mistakes but they made it back!  The high-light of their day was not that they took the train by themselves, but that they got to go to McDonald's and KFC for lunch!

Since then, they hit the train a lot.  They take it home from practice without me if I am running late.  Last weekend they took the train to Yokosuka then up to Yokohama!  That's a big trip.  It's about a 30 minute train ride and Yokohama is a major city!  They explored the city, or at least part of it, because the city is huge!  Needless to say a majority of their adventure involved food.  At least this time, they ate at an Indian place, curry and cheese naan, but they spent a good chunk of time looking for a Krispy Kreme near the Yokohama train station.

Of course we'll definitely avoid the trains during rush hour in Tokyo.  The train attendants wear white gloves.  Here's why...

Is there room on that train?

Brockzilla Meets Godzilla!!!

Man: "Oh no.  There he is.  The huge Green Monster! What do we do?"

Official: "What the drunk guy on St Patty's Day with that cute girl in red?"
Man: "No that other one!"

Official: "Oh him...Don't Panic!"

Official: "Well then.  Too late.  RUN!!!"

That's right.  We found Godzilla.  Not far from our house at the Kurihama Flower Park.  Evidently Godzilla made land fall here at some point in his long career.  He is generally a metaphor for nuclear weapons in many of his early films.  The metaphors are less serious in later films when Godzilla is actually the hero.  In most of the movies Godzilla is still a massive destructive monster, who just happens to be the lesser of two evils who saves the day!

So Godzilla now guards the kid's play area.  There is actually a slide built into Godzilla, climb in through his gut, slide out the tail.  Not the best image I am sure.

Anyways, Kurihama Flower Park is near the eastern coast, just south of Tokyo Bay.  It is a 2000 meter trail that takes you through various flower beds and blooming trees.  Amie wants to go back in a few weeks when the blossoms are out in force.

It was a great day.   At the top of the hill they have a bell, not sure what it is there for, but the views were amazing.  Lila drove away some of the locals who were sitting quietly enjoying the scenery.  I guess they didn't appreciate it that Lila was hanging from the bell rope like Quasimodo!