Monday, July 25, 2011

Look who's riding!

Matthew is "riding with pedals." This summer, he had become very frustrated by riding with training wheels. They don't work well on our gravel road, often embedding in the gravel, or preventing the regular wheels from touching the ground when he gets to a low spot or pothole. He cannot keep up with the older kids, and he feels left out when they fly out the back road without him.

Last month, my friend mentioned that she and her husband had removed the training wheels and pedals from their kids' bikes to create a homemade version of the balance bike. They were successful in increasing their boys' (ages 5 and 7) confidence enough that they have now learned to ride independently. So we talked it over with Matthew and decided to remove his training wheels, but not his pedals. At first, he was timid and didn't really believe he could ride without the training wheels. He tried on one day, then left the bike in the garage for most of July. No amount of encouragement could get him to try it again.

Until Saturday, when we went to a birthday party down the road, at which the kids were encouraged to bring their bikes. Since we were walking over, Matthew pushed himself along on his bike and discovered that he could push with his feet and balance and go much faster than on training wheels. Best of all, "Katie was right," he didn't get stuck in potholes. He was pleased and excited.

But it was a little hard on his calves. The pedals scraped them slightly, and he was talking about taking the pedals off, but as we walked along, I saw that he was balancing and coasting so well that he was very close to really riding. I told him so and encouraged him to give it a few more days of practice before we took them off.

After we got home from the party, he stayed outside and practiced balancing and coasting.

Sunday afternoon, he came running into the house yelling "Mommy!" at the top of his lungs. I ran out to the front hall expecting to see blood. Instead, I saw a triumphant Matthew who told me, " I am riding my bike. WITH PEDALS!!" He stayed outside for about 20 more minutes, then came in and said nonchalantly, "I haven't been doing much outside, Mommy: just riding my bike WITH PEDALS!"

Exultation!


Saturday, July 23, 2011

Crystals


Joseph concocted grape flavored rock candy this month. The crystals are so beautiful, we haven't wanted to eat it yet.


It took awhile for them to form, but wow! he got a lot of crystals in the end. We can't wait until he's ready to share. ;)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Fuji info

I am collecting websites to refer to as we get ready for Fuji-san.

http://fujisan.yamakei.co.jp/en-success.html

Monday, July 18, 2011

Hiking...and fireworks: a busy Saturday


On the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, we hiked up Mount Odake, the highest peak in the Hakkoda Mountains. John and I are so proud of Matthew, who did the whole hike himself! And I am grateful to John, who carried Meghan in the backpack the entire way.


That's a 30-pound pack for 11k with a 1500 ft. elevation gain. My husband is a saint!

I wanted to do the hike to see if I could survive it and to get an idea of what climbing Mt. Fuji might be like in a few weeks. I survived, so I guess we're going to Fuji. Pray for me on August 3. ;)

The hike starts off from the parking area above Sukayu Onsen


in pine forest with lots of bamboo in the underbrush.

The terrain varies along the way from rocky forest


to sulfur-smelly ravine


to a freshwater spring (where we refilled our water bottles and enjoyed our lunch--wish I had taken a photo),

in the swampy meadow (what a relief to walk on the level boardwalk!)


Above the treeline, the trail is very steep, with rocks held in place by metal fencing, and the weather became even more foggy and windy as we neared the rocky summit.



Somebody left his jacket in the car. We didn't hear one complaint, though.

Shinto, one of Japan's two major religions, worships nature. Mountain tops are holy places, and there is always a shrine at the top.


On Odake-san, there are two. The tiny one, above, is at the summit. The larger one, below, was tucked in just below the summit, protected from the strong winds.

The usual offerings of yen coins, sake, and beer.

The only disappointing part of the hike was that it was so misty/foggy at the top of Odake-san that we couldn't see the caldera at all.


The wind was fierce, so we didn't stay at the top for long.

The kids fading off into the fog as they start down.

On the steep descent, the path crossed snow!


John was relieved to find man-made stairs that made his descent with Meghan more stable.

There were lots of man-made stairs,


and a restful downward stroll on boardwalk through much more of the marsh.




We stopped at an observation platform for a snack.


It was a challenging hike on a real mountain with rocks to scramble over,


narrow wood bridges to cross,


and some lovely flora along the way





not to mention the deliciously-scented Aomori pine forest.

At lower elevations, much of the trail was muddy, so we were grateful for the boardwalk!

We met only a few hikers along the way, which I know is different from Fuji. At times, especially as the afternoon drew on (we are slow hikers), we felt as if we were the only ones on the mountain.

Peaceful!

If there has ever been a time to sing the "Te Deum" it was when we reached the onsen again.


We were tired


and not a little bemused by the Japanese teens who appeared to be camping in the parking lot.


But we were not too tired to stop at Lake Towada on the way home for their summer festival. We enjoyed some festival food: yakitori, corn dogs, and potato balls (with no fish in the middle-yay!). We found that we were very hungry for some reason.

We heartily enjoyed the Towada-ko fireworks display, especially because bad weather cancelled Misawa's fireworks on the July 4th weekend.


While we waited for the post-fireworks traffic to dissipate, we enjoyed some delicious, Japanese soft serve.

Matthew remarked today that Saturday night was the first time he can remember actually wanting to go to bed and sleep.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Sharing

a lovely post suggesting favorite children's books from a blog my brother Dan pointed me to. It is written by the mother of one of his students. So now we know one reason why she got to be one of his students. Nice. :) And I love the blog.

http://ourmothersdaughters.blogspot.com/2011/07/dear-auntie-leila-are-fairy-tales.html

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Doing nothing

Here are a few photos of today's unstructured time activities. I love it when the children find (independently) fun and interesting things to do in their unstructured time. It is why I never mind having a summer break (more about what we do during summer break later).

Katie has been upstairs reading Jane Austen's Emma all afternoon. :)

After Matthew read to me today, I read this story to him and Meghan.


The main reason I bought this book was that it had directions for making 5-pointed stars in the back. I remember reading a biography of Betsy Ross as a grade-schooler and wanting so much to make those stars, but having no idea how to go about it. Matthew was equally excited when he saw the directions. Then he discovered it was easy to do. Even Meghan could help--just one line to cut.



Between them, they made 13 stars, which Matthew was inspired to glue onto blue construction paper.


Which grew into a full Betsy Ross flag.



From there, he dug out the "Flags of the World" placemat and went on a flag-making adventure. There are at least a dozen construction-paper flags hanging around his doorway this evening. He says, "We have a STATE room now." :)


Meghan used Matthew's busy time to dress her dolly in peace. She quietly brought her to me at one point with a cloth belt that she wanted me to tie around the dolly's head. She's already got the big head-bow fashion down.

Joseph took out his wooden boat project again today to finish the sail.



He designed and constructed the boat almost all by himself after we got back from the voluntary departure in the spring. When the early rains came, he sailed it in "Liberty Creek," the stream that pours out of the downspout on the corner of our back porch. He had cut and hand-stitched the sail, then lost steam on the project. The sewing was a lot of work!


But today, he was back at it and made great progress. He is pondering the problem of how to attach the mast to the boat now. I have no doubt that he will come up with a solution and have the boat sailing before the autumn rains begin.


Afterwards, they all went outside, drank lemonade, and played some sort of invented lawn tennis game with our Japanese neighbor's grandson. Happy days.

Where does the time go?

No posts since April. I am so sorry. I guess I could come up with a lot of excuses for never posting anything, but mostly it has been hard to regain our equilibrium since Meghan got to be a toddler. And even worse since I got a Facebook page. I would love to blame the 3-11-2011 earthquake, and Tommy and Tara can attest to the fact that we are definitely out of balance since then, but I think the problem was brewing even before March and came to a head when the earth started shaking down south of here.

All that being said, I want to try to keep this blog going because it contains some lovely memories of our time in Japan, and I have lots to add from the past couple of months. With only about a year left, we are getting into "panic travel" mode, and we had visitors who inspired us to get out and about. So. I am going to try to write a little every week, and we will see how it goes.