What comes after Imadegawa?

Alek can recite the stations on the Kyoto Subway Karasuma line.

Alek Interview

Today Tiffany posted an interview with her seven year old. Here's Alek's version.

Alek, what did you have for lunch today?

I had rice, meat, and vegetables.

Where do babies come from?

They come from a mom's body.

What do you like best about your parents?

Because they give us a lot of money.

If you could drive the car tonight, where would you go? (If we had a car).

Kura Sushi. Or Aeon Mall.

What’s the best part about being a kid?

That you don't have to go to work.

What’s the best part about being an adult?

I don't think I like I'm going to like being a grown up so I don't know.

What’s the best part about being a younger brother?

Is that you get easier homework.

What do you like about your friends?

That they aren't weird, and they don't....maybe that's all.

Name the three greatest inventions:

Food, the new shinkansen, and a computer.

What do you like about girls?

They aren't so obnoxious, like in America.

What’s the worst part about first grade?

That boys and girls in Grade 2-3 boss people that are in Grade 1 around.

What does it mean to be happy?

To be happy? I don't know how to explain it.

If you were going to write a poem, what would it be about?

A hedgehog.

When will you get a job?

When I am 21.

Describe a perfect meal:

Macaroni, spaghetti, corn, agedofu, and for dessert, a whole Hershey bar of the kind that's called milk chocolate with toffee and almonds.

What’s the worst feeling in the world?

Meeting high school kids when you are in middle school.

Are you a republican or a democrat?

What does that mean?

What’s the best use of five minutes?

Doing projects.

What’s life all about?

Having fun and growing.

Welcome to the Gap!

Here's an exciting side effect of living abroad with two 7 year olds: Counting the ones Alek lost back home, our boys have lost teeth in three continents! You may recall that Alek lost a tooth at the Kurama Fire Festival. And Hugo lost his first tooth, ever, while sitting in a boat on top of the Great Barrier Reef.

Lately things have been fast and furious...Hugo lost a bottom tooth two days ago.

Then yesterday, we were making mochi (more on that later) and Alek lost one....(if you've tried mochi, you may know that it's ideal for pulling teeth out)
And just tonight, Hugo lost his other front tooth... (I ask you--is there anything cuter than kids with no front teeth? Stay like this, Hugo, please?)

Now 5 minutes later--just as I was loading up these pictures, he yanked out another one from the bottom. That's two in one night!

Warning: Blood shot:

One of the interesting facts about Hugo is that he grew 11 baby teeth on the bottom (kids usually have 10). Of course, dental hygenists call this a "supernumerary tooth." Right. Anyway, for the last 3 months, his two adult teeth have been coming in behind. So for awhile, Hugo was packin' 13 teeth. Kind of like a shark. Now we're back down to 11.

At least for the next 5 minutes....

Tell me how you really feel.....

Have you ever been out with Alek? At a party, out to dinner, hanging out at a friends' house? Then you've noticed that at some point in the early evening, Alek will come up to me, drape himself over the nearest piece of furniture (or my lap), and say,

"Can we go hooooooooooooooome now?"

After eating a few pounds of crab meat last week, Alek's early evening misery was more poignant than ever:

But I think he was partly kidding...

We love you, Alek!

School Assembly

School assemblies are held on Friday. Each class takes turns demonstrating what they have learned. Last Friday, Grade 1 led the way, showing off some of their new Japanese skills. Half of the class speaks Japanese at home, and the other half do not.

I posted a video of this!

Here are the words:

Achi no sochi, sochi no achi, kochi no achi no sochi wa dochi!?

It means, kind of: that way, that way, this way, that way, that way, which way?

Also, at very assembly, the teachers present awards to a few kids who have exemplified the learner profiles. Since I was there for the hiragana show, I got to be there to see Alek get this "thinker" award! He earned it for being thoughtful about how the learner profile of "reflective" would apply to the latest unit of inquiry called "our personal histories are worth exploring."

Here he is when he realized that his teacher was talking about him:

Classmates admiring the award:

Proud Alek.

For the record, Hugo won an award two weeks ago, for Enthusiasm. And Max won one the first week for being a Risk Taker. Way to go, boys!

Let's spend a happy.

It was Alek and Hugo's birthday today!

At lineup, the whole school sings to birthday kids. Here they are singing to our boys on Friday morning.

The night before, Hugo and I worked on the cupcakes. This mix cost 788 yen at the International Grocery.

It was hard to calibrate our toaster oven, which is guaged in watts, not degrees.

But we figured it out.

We Skyped with all the grandparents while we opened presents. Almost everything was Lego....

The amazing secretary at work helped me order some Legos here. They arrived right to the 7-11 near our house! I also pre-paid to have them wrapped. (Darrin decided I was a genius at 10:30 Friday night, for having done this). Here was what was on Alek's wrapping paper:

Something extra special came in the box from Mum Mum:

Birthday lunch! Aahhhhh....

Around 2:30, we left to see Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, in NorthWest Kyoto, and then out to a new conveyor-belt sushi restaurant for birthday dinner. This was Alek and Hugos' idea, the day before. (When it came time to leave, they didn't want to go see it anymore, but we made them leave anyway. We let them bring some Lego characters to sweeten the deal.)

Here's the entry gate.
A bell tower. Since it was their birthday, we paid Y200 to have each boy ring the bell.

We have a video of this. The man is coaching us the whole time, kind of grumpy but also not. "No, like this." "get off the fence." "Pray first. Pray after. Like this."

And then, the pavillion:

They made the pavillion to look just like this Nanoblock model that Hugo got for his birthday. (Max put it together).

Bonus: We got there right at carp feeding time.

These next shots are just for Kurt.

The lego guys kept flying around the garden. They stopped to have a couple of battles.

Perfect little teahouse, with a cool roof.

Then, we walked 10 minutes to a conveyor belt sushi place for dinner (Alek and Hugo's request).

Every table had kids. See all the minivans in the parking lot?

And here's why. If kids eat five plates, they feed them into this slot. Then you play a little game (sumo, fishing, arrows) with Kura-Sushi-san, and then if he wins, you get a prize from the prize dispenser up top.

I think this is another reason the place is popular with families:

Predictably, Hugo left his Lego man at our table. We went back to look for it, but no luck. But as we were walking to the bus stop, one of the employees came running after us: "Okyakusama!!!" And she had his ninja warrior. Hugo was quite happy...

Alek got the tall seat on the bus home.

We played some more. We each decorated our own cupcake. We sang. We bathed. We cleaned up the tatami room. We blogged. We slept.

And that was Alek & Hugos 7th birthday!

Is it just me, or are my blogs getting longer and longer? Register your complaints below.