Christmas

Christmas day isn't a public holiday in Japan. So Shimada-san came to look after Hannah for a few hours as usual. I took the day off and the plan was that Rika and I would go shopping together. But Hannah had other ideas and insisted that I join her trip with Shimada-san to the local sports center.

The sports center has a good indoor play area. This is Shimada-san and Hannah on the trampoline.


Hannah playing with Shimada-san


Hannah took these photos of Shimada-san




And this self-portrait


In the evening we went to Opera City for a short concert of Christmas carols.




Hannah seemed to enjoy it.


Rika cooked roast beef for Christmas dinner. We were joined by Kyo-chan.


On the 26th Kyo-chan and I took Hannah to Shinjuku park.


For Christmas, we gave Hannah a small and robust camera. These are some of the photos Hannah took:

December

Rika's mums group from the Red Cross Hospital had a Christmas party on Dec 19th. The children were all born in the same ward as Hannah in the same month so it was a good chance to compare progress (and swap complaints about the dads).



From left Yudai-kun, Narumi-chan, Sasa-chan, Natsuno-chan, Yukimura-kun, Hannah-chan.


Hannah also sometimes plays with Moyo-chan, who lives nearby. Moyo-chan is 6 months younger but they seem to have similar taste and get along very well. Here they are chatting like a pair of old men.


In order to give Rika get some time-off, I try to look after Hannah on Saturdays and Sundays from about 9:30 -2:30. I normally take her out on my bike to a park - Shinjuku central, Yoyogi Koen or the playground at Gaien near Sandagaya.

The new playground at Gaien has just been built where the beer-garden used to be (see 27-Aug post). It is about 20min away by bike, and we have to pay 400 yen to get in, but it is very good with big slides and other equipment, soft surfacs for safety, and it is sunny so it is not too cold even in December.

Hannah's favorite activity is to play in the sand with her shoes off. As you see her gumboots make excellent sand buckets.


Hannah loved taking sand to to the sink and playing with it in the water . She did this for about 40 min, while her dad tried to work out what the signs "suna wo irenaide ne" mean. (Eventually I realised 'suna' is 'sand' and 'irenaide' is 'don't put in').


After a few hours it was time to go home. Hannah didn't want to put her shores back on, and refused to wear her helmet. So we had a stand-off for about 30 min outside the park. On the positive side it was a good chance to develop empathy for mums.


Another weekend and Hannah climbing the big slide at Shinjuku central park with her 'minimi' doll. Recently she has been doing more imaginative play with her soft-toys - looking after them, feeding them, putting-on and changing nappies, telling them off (). Her 2 main toys are her 'minimi' (a ginger cat)and 'usa' (a black rabbit) and they have to accompany her everywhere.


Hannah loves washing her hands at the park,


Hannah and Usa. This time Hannah didn't want to get dressed. But Ive found that if you don't get her nappy (on the right end) she likes to pee on the floor. Perhaps because of Sasuke's bad example.


Recently I have resumed trying to play the shakuhachi, although it is very difficult to find time to practice. Due to my circumstances I play it with a unusual stance.


We managed to do some christmas shopping. This is a dancing cat we got for the Austins. Hannah wanted to keep it but she was outvoted 2-1.

School

Hannah started school in at the end of August and has now completed her first term. This was initially attending 9:30 - 12:30 2 days per week, but in the last weeks of term we put her in the 'extended hours' program until 3pm to give Rika more time.

Hannah dressed up for her class' Haloween party on Oct-30th


Hannah's class had an excursion to Yoyogi park on Nov-24th. They all enjoyed looking for acorns and leaves.


Hannah with her friend Rintaro-kun. Hannah seems to like looking after him. At the end of the excursion Hannah went over to Rintaro and gave him a big hug.


Rintaro-kun with his Mum. Rintaro is a cute and funny little boy. He calls Rika 'Hannah-mama'.


We had a parent-teacher meeting Dec-17th and received Hannah's first school report. She has settled-in well and is making good progress, although she doesn't yet speak much in English.

The next day Rika, Shimada-san and I all attended the school break-up party on the last day of the year. Here her class is singing the 'good-bye' song.




Then there was the 'Happy Holidays' concert. The 3 'little penguins' classes assembled in the basement gym and sang some songs in front of their proud parents.


One little penguin didn't join the group. When our Hannah was taken down to the gym with the rest of the class, she became upset, and I had to go and comfort her. So instead of joining the group, she sat on my lap by the side of the stage.


This is Lila-chan and Rintaro-kun from Hannah's class. Rintaro loves to dance and already has some cool moves.


It turns out that moving Hannah to the extended hours program in the last weeks traumatised her. In particular she didn't like being taken down at 1:30 to the nap room in the dungeon (basement) and being left in the dark to sleep. Most children cry at first and then get used to it, but our Hannah didn't and instead got more and more upset about being taken to school. Hence the tears at the break-up party when the class went down to the basement gym for the concert, and Hannah's refusal to give her teacher a good-bye hug on the last day!

During the holidays Hannah kept saying 'no school' and had too be reassured each day that she wasn't going to school. She is saying school is 'iyada' ('horrible')


Postscript: Hannah started back at school in January. We agreed with her teacher to stop taking her to the nap room, and kept telling Hannah. And after a few days it was back to 'school tanoshikatta' ('school was fun').

Mt Oyama

In the last weekend of November Rika gave me a treat and booked us into a ryokan at Mt Oyama which Id wanted to vist for some time. Mt Oyama is a local resort about 1 hr from Tokyo near Isahara station on our local line (Odakyu line) and is known for its autumn leaves.



Our plan was to stay a night then climb Mt Oyama and have another night to recover with the help of the ryokan's onsen baths. Hannah enjoyed the baths but wasn't keen on the idea of hiking.


We took the cable-car up to the Oyama-Afuri Shrine about 600m up the mountain. Apparently Afuri refers to the high amount of rain and clouds associated with the mountain
and farmers pray at Oyama-Afuri Shrine to the rain god.

Looking down from the shrine.


The statue of 2 children is a memorial to the families who fled from Kawasaki city to Mt Oyama to escape the bombing at the end of WW2.


From Oyama-Afuri Shrine we took the hiking track up to the summit. I'd planned to carry Hannah in the Deuter but she refused loudly and eventually I had to carry her up the mountin in my arms.



After a while this got really tough. Rika also found it hard going up the steep paths.


After a couple of hours we reached the summit at 1,252 metres (4,108 ft). Just before the top we finally got Hannah into the Deuter where she fell asleep.


The view from the top was magnificent even though it was cloudy and we couldn't see Mt Fuji.



Looking north accross the Kanto plain we could see Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki. Looking east we could see Sagami bay and Enoshima


Accross the Kanto plain to Yokohama. (click to enlarge)
S

A zoomed-in shot of Tokyo on the horizon. Sunshine City to the far left, Shinjuku in the middle and Ohtemachi to the right. We could clearly make out the Opera City tower near our house.


Looking south across the south part of Sagami Bay towards Atami and Mt Hakone


We decended back down by another trail and reached Oyama-Afuri Shrine just before dusk. By the end both of my knees were protesting and I was very glad to see the shrine through the trees.




We stopped below the shrine for a well-deserved beer / ice-cream.


Then we took the cable-car back down, stoping half-way at the Oyama-dera temple.





The Oyama-dera was lit-up to highlight the autumn leaves.




Then back to the ryokan down through a long strip of souvenir shops and cafes. Hannah thought she deserved another ice-cream.


The next day we took the train to Yokohama to have a meal with Yu-chan and Makoji-chan in Chinatown.　　But we were too exhausted to stay and went back to Tokyo as soon as we could. It was a good trip but probably too ambitious.

November

At the end of October I came down with a bad cold. Conveniently it started Friday night and finished Monday morning. This is Hannah and Minimi comforting their poor old Dad.


Hannah loves watching the movie 'Totero', and also loves to read the storybook of the film. Perhaps because one of the main characters is a 3 year-old.

Akasugu Nov-Dec 2009

Hannah is now over 90cm and is now 'outgrown' Akasugu magazine. She did her last photoshoot in mid-Oct for the Jan-Feb issue.

Some of the photos in the Nov-Dec issue were from the photoshoot I blogged about back in 2-Aug.