1/31/2015

Free trial of Electone lesson

My 4-year-old daughter and I attended the free trial of Electone lesson of YAMAHA yesterday.

Since her brother already goes to the YAMAHA music school, so she also had been wanting to learn it.

During the trial lesson, she seemed to be satisfied with it.

The time that she can play the Electone has finally come!

She was a good listener of the teacher, and she answered teacher's question actively.

When the teacher asked children to come near the piano, she went there first.

And she sung a song happily.

I was surprised because her behavior was opposite from my son's when he was 4 years old.

He was so shy that he didn't want to go near the piano and sing a song.

He told me "Because I am shy!"

But he grew up and now he can sing and play in front of other students.

I found out that they have a big difference when it comes to their behavior specially when it is in front.


 
 
 
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1/30/2015

Applying for the clubs for after school activities for children

I went to the city office yesterday to apply for after school activities club for children for my 6-year-old son

I feel troublesome when I fill out such kind of the application form but I had to do it.

He will enter the elementary school in April.

Since I work, he will stay at the children's center after he finishes school and during the spring, summer, and winter vacation.

I assume that we may be qualified to join the club.

When the elementary doesn't provide their school lunch, I will have to prepare his lunch box.

As of now, he can have the school lunch as he goes to school everyday, I guess I will be busier than now when my son will be in elementary grade.

My concern is that I hope he will be used to his new environment as he enters grade school in the next school opening.




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1/29/2015

Dancing night!

I had learned the Electone since I was 4 years old but I stopped learning before I started working.

So I can play it with appropriate accompaniment if I listen a easy song a few times.

I wanted to play "Over the Rainbow" by the Electone for my 6-year-old son because his class will act the "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"at the recital which will be held on February.

After I played it, I wanted to search the song at the website.

Electone can connect the internet and we can search the musical scores and datas of timbre and rhythm at the website.

It is awsome that we can listen to sample sounds and arrangements of the part of songs for free.

I searched "Over the Rainbow" but I was not able to find it.

But instead of it, I found my favorite proffesional Electone player's performance data, so we listened to it.

It was "Friend like me" from Aladdin (Disney film).

Since it was up-tempo and upbeat number, I couldn't help dancing.

Then my 4-year-old daughter also started dancing imitating me, and my son also joined us.

We just made it up as I go, but it was very fun!

We enjoyed unexpected dancing very much.


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1/28/2015

We love Dad!

My husband came home past 5pm yesterday.

My children were so glad because he always comes home late but he arrived at home before we were going to have dinner yesterday.


Our dinner yesterday was stew.

I prepared it for them and placed on the table.

My 4-year-old daughter was sitting on her dad's lap and she didn't like to move to her own seat.

Then she said, "I love Dad! I want to eat dinner with Dad!"

My husband let her eat saying "All right! Here you are."

They hold each other saying " I love you!"

My husband told me as a joke, "Are you jealoused with her?"

My son and I were completely amazed by them.

I teased and told her, "Wow! You are like a baby! You are fed with spoon! "

Listening to my joke, my son also teased her, " Baby! Baby!"

Suddenly she started crying after hearing what we told her!

I laughingly told her, "Don't cry! You are really like a baby in our family!"

My husband told her "Stop crying! You can stay here!"

She stopped crying and smiled then she told her father  "I love Dad!"

My son and I were dumbfounded again while looking at them.


After we finished dinner, my son asked my husband to play LaQ with him, and they started.

(*LaQ : from past entry : http://a-o-j-m.blogspot.jp/2015/01/japanese-block-laq-is-excellent.html

My daughter was sticking her Dad's back while they were playing LaQ.

When they were going to take a bath, they fastened on his leg like koala and would not leave, so he had to walk with two big weights.

He must be glad but he also must be tired.

I was a little sorry for him.


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1/26/2015

Sumo wrestling is a hard sports for me

Recently my 6-year-old son likes playing "Sumo" and I am often asked by him to play it with him.

Sumo is one of the national sports of Japan.

The person who pushes the opponent out of the circle or throw him down can become a winner.

It is like a matial art, two peole push and try to throw each other in the circle called "dohyo", and

He asked my 4-year-old daughter to play Sumo last night, but she didn't want to do it because she surely would lose him ( She is a sore loser.)

She ignored him and kept drawing pictures.

He got angry and told her, "Do it with me, or beat you!"

But she kept ignoring him.

I told him, "If you want to play with her, you must not threaten her. Your invitation doesn't look fun!
 You need to show her that you are fun to play with."

He said " I did! But she doesn't play with me!"

He is not good at fitting into their friends and inviting them to play with him.

I was sorry for him and I played sumo with him.



He was getting stronger and stronger!

I needed to play seriously, and I had a backache.

The day that his power surpasses mine is probably close.

(Of course we played sumo wearing our cloths, not like the photo below. This is the illustration of professional sumo wrestler.)


 
 
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1/25/2015

Happy Wedding Party!

I attended my friend's wedding ceremony yesterday.

Seeing their happy smile, I felt happy and recalled my wedding ceremony.
The groom and bride must be happy that many people came to their ceremony to cerebrate with them.

I was also able to see my friends who were in the same high school, so we enjoyed talking very much.

Yesterday was blessed by the weather, they started the new life.

I wished their happiness from the bottom of my heart.


They did "kagami-biraki" in their wedding party.

It is sometimes performed in joyful events like wedding party, the championship party of Sumo and so on.

The groom and bride cracked by the gavel to open the wooden cask filled with "sake (Japanese alchol) " .




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1/23/2015

Siri is my English teacher

I have an iPad mini and I tried to input some sentences in English using Siri (voice recognition system)  as a practice of pronunciation in English.

When I say " I envy you", Siri couldn't recognize what I said but insted would suggest like this.



 It showed that my pronunciation of "envy" was not good, especially "V".

It suggested as "MV" and " and B"!

This would mean that I there's a need for me to practice with my pronunciation.


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1/22/2015

Role-playing as a customer!

Yesterday evening my children played a shopping game and they asked me to become their customer.

I told my 4-year-old daughter, "I'll take all of those donuts. Kindly put them inside the Kitty's box and I will pay for it, too."



She said, "No way! I don't want to sell all of them!".

I told her, " But you are a shopkeeper, right? You should sell them if the customer wants to buy!"


My 6-year-old son who was listening to our conversation inturrupted and told me coolly,

"Mom, you are going to put them away, right?"


 I was surprised that he completely understood what I was trying to imply.

That made me so impressed with him.

I was so impressed and told him "How did you know that?" and he just said, "I was just figuring out what you wanna do".

I was trying to put them away just he said because there were so many toys in their shop!



The pictures below shows how they arranged their ideal shopping center.

This was the food court.


This is how her cash register looks like, money and bills were not arranged.

 Funny it was!



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1/19/2015

"Tako" in Japanese has three meanings

I wrote that our family enjoyed kite-flying last Saturday.

*kite-flying : from my 1/18 diary entry → http://a-o-j-m.blogspot.jp/2015/01/exciting-kite-flying.html

When we were flying a kite, it made me want to eat "Takoyaki".

Takoyaki is one of the Japanese snack.

It is made from flour and octopus, and cooked in a special "Takoyaki pan".

Takoyaki is ball-shaped.


There was the reason why I wanted to eat "Takoyaki".

Because both of kite and octopus are called "Tako" in Japanese.

In other words, when we were flying "Tako", it made me want to eat "Tako"!

"Tako" in Japanese has three meanings, a kite, an octopus, and a callosity.

We use them properly depending on the situation and context.


Anyway, I cooked Takoyaki for dinner on Saturday.

It was so yummy!



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1/18/2015

What can you have for 500 yen?

I went to the ATM in the shopping center to deposit "otoshidama (New Year's money)" which my children recieved from our relatives during  January 1 to 3rd to their bank accounts yesterday.

We have a custom to give children pocket money on New Year's day in Japan.

Since we always visited my in law's relative's house on January 2nd and my children were able to receive a lot of them, my husband and I didn't give them New Year's money.

So I gave each of my children worth of 500 yen from the money given to them last New year and told them,

 "You can buy anything you want using this 500 yen. Consider what you will buy and make better use of your money!"


My 4-year-old daughter bought five chocolates at 100 yen store using all her money!



My 6-year-old son took a long time to dedide what he would buy, and he bought five toys at 100 yen store using all his money.



It was very interesting for me that their favorite things were completely different though they are siblings.


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1/17/2015

Exciting kite-flying!

Our family went to the park near our house yesterday.

It was so funny that my husband was so excited to fly a kite more than our children that he didn't play with his children though my 6-year-old son asked him "Dad! push my back!" while he was riding on a swing.

He said, "It was so fun! It's been a long time since the last time I flew kites. I wanted to fly it higher!"

He was like a little boy.

Unfortunately my children couldn't fly a kite well because the park was a little small to fly a kite, so it  required the skills.

It was windy and cold yesterday, so the blue sky was very beautiful.

 
 
 
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1/16/2015

What is the difference between "Ohagi" and "Botamochi"?

I read a book I borrowed from the city library for my children last night.

It was a story that an old man dropped "ohagi" at his garden while he was eating and in fact it was a baby of ohagi  then it was raised by the insects which lived there.

They enjoyed the story but they didn't know about "ohagi" so I explained about it for them.

"Ohagi is the Japanese sweet. It is a rice cake covered with red bean paste and we usually eat it while Ohigan."

"What is ohigan?"

My 6-year-old son asked me.

Ohigan is the week during both the Spring and Autumnal Equinox which we visit to our ancestor's grave."

In the story, the baby of ohagi met the "botamochi" family.

Since ohagi looked just like botamochi, they became very friendly and decided to live together.

And the note regarding about ohagi and botamochi was written in the end of the book.

The generally-accepted theory concerning about the difference between ohagi and botamochi is said that ohagi is eaten during the Autumnal Equinox, and botamochi is eaten during the Spring Equinox".

It means ohagi has two names depending on the season.

Botamochi comes from the "Botan" (peony) which blooms in the spring and ohagi comes from the "Hagi" (Japanese bush clover or Lespedeza) which blooms during autumn.

I knew that ohagi and botamochi are the same but I didn't know the meaning of their differences, so I was so impressed.

I like reading children's books and I think that reading them is very valuable not only for my children but also for me.



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1/15/2015

There are a lot of Dads!

While we were sleeping last night, my 4-year-old daughter suddenly said, " There are a lot of Dads!"

I was surprised at her sleep talking and it made me wake up.

I thought what kind of the dream she was having.

I asked her about it after she woke up, but of course she didn't remember it.

Not only me but also my husband and my 6-year-old son heard her sleep talking.

Her sleep talking disturbed our good sleep, but it was a very interesting happening for us.



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1/14/2015

Two more months to his graduation

I am a board member of the PTA at my children's nursery school.

I went shopping with the other members to buy some gifts for children who will graduate from school in March.

We have a fund for this activity and the money that were collected at the beginning of the year from the parents of all the students  was used to to buy for the presents.

We chose those items which would be surely useful for the students as they move on to the next level of their education life.

We have a hard time on deciding what gift to buy since we only have a limited budget for this so we must purchase a cheaper one but with good quality.

Recently, popular character like Youkai Watch and Disney are printed in most of the school supplies and children want them.

I was so surprised that very colorful chisel and compass were sold at the store.

I thought times have changed.



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Hand made scarf by my son

My 6-year-old son knitted a scarf at the nursery school for about 2 weeks.



All students in his class tried this task.

I don't know how to knit, but he told me that he didn't use a hook.

I asked his teacher about it.

She answered that he made it by using a simple device made of a milk pack and disposable chopsticks.

Anyway I was so surprised that he could knit it by himself!


He gave it to his 4-year-old daughter.

She was so glad to get it and said, "How pretty!"

But he seemed to change his mind to look at her being happy and told her, "After all, it's mine!"

She was so surprised to hear that and started crying.

Needless to say, I had trouble with stopping their fight.


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1/12/2015

This is the hospitality spirit! No.2 ~ heartwarming customer survice~

I went shopping to the supermarket yesterday.

When I was going to take a carton of milk, my hand slipped and dropped it by mistake.

Then the milk pack got a hole and milk leaked little by little.

I thought that I needed to pay for it.

Then I brought it to the register with other foods which I would buy.

I told the cashier, " I'm sorry. I dropped it by mistake and the milk pack got a hole. Please be careful when you scan its bar code."

She told me, "Oh, it's OK! We will change it to the new one. Could you wait a minute while the another staff brings it? Are you OK? Didn't you get wet with milk?"

Since I had thought that I should pay for it obviously, I was so surprised at her response and impressed with her kind word.

Her heartwarming customer service surely caught a regular customer.



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