Since the kids have entered nursery school, I have many opportunities to chat with other working moms. Although there is still a bit of a language barrier, for the most part I can get by at least with basic small talk. There is something different about the Japanese mothers here (by here, I guess I [...]
Posts under ‘Daily Life’
Hoikuen 保育園, Tokyo’s Public Nursery School
Last year, in reference to preschools, I kept hearing the words yochien and hoikuen thrown around amongst mothers. I had no idea what they were talking about and I wasn’t really looking forward to the whole application process, figuring it’d just be a headache with all the Japanese paperwork involved. Yochien is private nursery [...]
Tokyo Summers
It feels like summer is practically over already. Although afternoons are still really humid, the evening breeze feels slightly cooler these days. I would have liked to take more trips to the beach but we only really have Sundays when we can all go, and not every Sunday was a good beach weather day. [...]
The Importance of Leisure
I read an interesting article/interview in the NY times today about the importance of using leisure time wisely. It says the field of leisure studies is a big area of academic study. Leisure has many different definitions — some involving time, some relating to an activity being done, some relating to state of mind. The [...]
A lot of people in Tokyo feel…
Keiji’s observations one day as we were traveling on our way home at around 5:30pm:
We entered a train and I see a seat so I tell Keiji to grab it. It wasn’t terribly crowded but people were still rushing to claim a seat. As Keiji arrived at the free seat, a woman stepped in front [...]
Working Moms in Tokyo
Now that we’ve been back and all settled in again I have to start thinking about going back to work and finding daycare for the kids. I’ve somewhat been avoiding this whole process because I dread going to the city hall and trying to communicate with my broken Japanese. Private daycare costs [...]
Its Beginning to Look Like Christmas
All over Tokyo now there are Christmas Illuminations, the name for all the holiday lights, decorations and ornaments on display at popular shopping areas. Tokyo definitely looks full of Christmas spirit and all the places are picture perfect. Here is Keiji at Ebisu Garden Place during their Baccarat Eternal Lights Christmas Illumination. He’s running down [...]
Everything is in Japanese…
but the children didn’t seem to notice when we got here. Keiji arrived here last year, speaking only English. Although Yuki spoke to him in Japanese since he was a baby, he would always reply back in English. Yuki was the only one speaking to him in Japanese at the time and his only other [...]
Shichi-go-san 七五三
Shichi go san, are the numbers seven, five and three in Japanese. Shichi-go-san is also the celebration for boys who are 5 years old and girls are 3 and 7 years old.
After doing a little research I found that the tradition started around the Heian period (794-1185). The nobles considered these ages a very important [...]
Riding Tokyo Trains with Tots
I’ve been riding trains since I was about 4 years old. I think my first time to ride the NYC subway by myself was when I was in the 5th grade, after school, on my way to my mom’s office in Manhattan. I remember sometimes meeting her there so we could go somewhere together after [...]