JUMP Trips and Naval Bases...

At right is a picture Matt took of his own, hugely enormous size 12's inside a pair of Japanese slippers on his JUMP trip this week.

Check the flickr photos on the far right for more JUMP pics that Matt took.

On Wednesday morning, Matt and Nate set out on their 3-day school JUMP trips. Matthew and the rest of the 10th graders from ASIJ took a 5-hour bus ride to Joetsu. Joetsu is on the "other side" of Japan- on the Western coast, by the Sea of Japan. It is near a national park and a ski resort. They stayed with families in groups of 3 or 4. Matt stayed the first night with a family that had 3 generations under one roof, a pretty common family living arrangement here. During his stay, he helped the family build and install bamboo tripods to support trees on their property to protect them from the winter snow. The first morning before breakfast, they fished on the shore with large nets, pulling in small and tiny fish. A few of the braver souls ate some of the tiniest fish whole- right out of the nets.

Also during their visit, they took a nature hike up the ski mountain that Matt said was pretty difficult. He was commenting to me about some of the other "private school" kids. He said they whined all the way up the hill. I guess being a rugged outdoorsman is all relative! The first night in Joetsu, they were treated to a Taiko performance, and then were given instruction on how to play a piece- so matt got to drum! He said he "owned" in the Taiko piece. (That means he performed very well- for those of you who don't understand the hip kid lingo.) At one point during the 3 days they had a tug-of-war, and musical exchange with with a local school, they made candles, and Christmas cards with wildflowers. During their crafts session, the local news station was there, filming them. Matt is sure they were on the evening news. He said his family was very friendly, kind and welcoming. The second night they stayed in a Japanese hotel with a larger group of students. They packed a lot of activity into 3 days. He had a great experience. Glad to be home, though.

Nathan's trip was very different, but still good. He traveled by bike 60-70 km. from ASIJ in Chofu along the Tamagawa river, and then turned North along the Trumagawa to Kawagoe. Kawagoe is a town with a rich cultural and historical importance. They stayed in a traditional Japanese ryokan in the old part of town. There are some structures in Kawagoe that still exist from the Edo period and several ancient shrines that survived the famous fire of 1917. They visited other historical sights like the Bell of Time and the candy store alley.

He was traveling for 7 hours on Wednesday, and sent me a couple of text messages at the end of the day. The first one was, "I got to school fine and spent 7 hours on my bike." I replied, "How was it?" He replied,"I hurt."

Luckily, the teachers took good care of them, and made sure they ate well and on the second day, after walking around and sight seeing, he soaked for a long time in a hot bath. They returned yesterday and he took the train home, arriving at about 5:15. Today he's not feeling terribly well. His throat is sore and he's achey. It's raining, so I'm thinking we will all just stay in and take it easy. I am going to attempt to turn a questionable chicken casserole I made last night into chicken soup.

So what did I do for 3 days with no one here but me??? I had dinner out with my Japanese teacher on Wednesday. She noticed that the boys did not come home at their regular time during our lesson, so she suggested we eat out at a place near the station. We ate a variety of food, and we shared. She ordered for us, as the menu was in Japanese. I got a bowl of udon with a pounded rice cake in it. The soup and noodles were ok, although the noodles were a bit gummy (which is normal) but the rice cake was like nothing I have ever eaten. It was pasty and gummy and tough to chew, and tasteless and rather revolting. I think that the texture of Japanese food is the thing that Westerners find most disturbing. There are textures here that we Americans rarely if ever encounter. Words like gummy, rubbery, slimy, squeaky...words that just don't describe regular American cuisine.

Thursday I went to Atsugi Naval Air Base and visited my old friend, Becky (Rececca Riley)and her 3 young girls. Becky Riley was our first regular babysitter when Chris was little. Visiting the base was like coming home. The military wives who live right next to, right across from and down the street from Beck and the girls greeted me like old chums. What a lovely group of women. They share babysitting, food from each others' pantries, shopping, adventures, good times, bad times and consequently deep friendships that are wonderful to see. I had the opportunity to go to a very nice Japanese park with 7 cars of Moms and 18 children. What a hoot. We had a picnic in the sun and watched as the kids went down a very long, winding roller slide. The best part of my day was just being with American women in their relaxed, welcoming way, and having baby time with Ava! She is a great baby- very happy, easy going and sweet as sugar. The twins, Allie and Keely are a handful, very busy and demanding, always competing, and they really enjoyed the park. Becky has her hands full, but she's got a very stong network of gal pals to help her and give her a break from time to time. She is also a very loving, devoted and patient Mom. The girls are lucky.

Friday it was yoga, a lunch date with 2 new friends and a hair cut with Hiro. I got home before the boys did. It was nice to be alone some of the time while they were gone, but it's even nicer to have them home.