Monday, September 17, 2007

Hachioji

We made it! We've been at the ka-na-ru's (cannell's) house for the last week. The boys are so big! The girls are having so much fun playing with them. We caught them on a three day weekend, so we've been pretty lucky. Hachioji is on the very edge of Tokyo, right next to the mountains. It's beautiful here.

We were able to go to our new apartment and check things out there. It's pretty small (no surprise there). Our neighborhood is one of the poshest ones in town, but our apartment is the ugly duckling of the neighborhood. It feels good to stick close to our roots that way.

We went to the kindergarten Miriam will attend. She spent the whole time glued to my leg with her face in my shirt. When we left, she said "that's the school I'm going to, right! I want to go to that school. I really like it! That's my school!!!" I'm guessing she was just overwhelmed by the 50 4, 5, and 6 year olds yelling "KONNICHIWA!"

The kids were so friendly, especially the girls. They were so excited to have a new gaijing (foreigner) coming to their school. It's a public school, so all the kids that go there live in our neighborhood. The school also allows the parents to bring younger siblings for 2 hours twice a week for a playgroup, so I'm sure Gwyn and I will be making an appearance shortly.

Our neighborhood is very centrally located. There is no way we could have afforded to live here if it weren't super subsidized. We are a 7 minute walk from one subway line line and 15 minutes from another. I've decided to truly enjoy living in the city for this year. We are about 20 minutes away from various museums, zoos, and other attractions.

We're going to go watch sumo on Friday. I'm super excited.

We miss you all and love reading the blog. Congrats Pammy on successfully posting.

3 comments:

Pamela Palmer said...

so glad to hear from you. laughed at the school experience. you might have to learn some japanese to fully enjoy play group. we are waiting for mariko to finish making our dinner. yum. pam

Damaris @Kitchen Corners said...

When we first moved to Chicago my mom figured out all the free days for the museums. We went at least once a month the wholen 6 years we lived there. We had so much fun in Chicago and we have so much fun in Sao Paulo. I think you'll really enjoy living in the city and taking advantage of what big cities have to offer. I'm already excited about the cultural scene in Santa Cruz and it's such a small place. Live it up!

Kaity said...

Hi BekahJesseMiriamGwyn,

I remember feeling that way about Kindergarten. Especially the day we had to start practicing for May Day and I had to do the tango with my crush. Brennan Owan. Colleen was supposed to drop me off at school but I wouldn't go.