First Month In Japan

It's hard to believe one month has already passed.  This is a smorgasborg of a post, but here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

1.  Two weekends ago we headed a few towns over (actually, to the same shrine Adam and I visited on our orientation fieldtrip) for an annual horseback archery festival.  It's as cool as it sounds.  Mounted archers, called Yabusame, shoot at targets at a full gallop down a short dirt road in front of the shrine.  Madeleine and I strolled around mostly, but Adam and Elena found a pretty good spot (among the thousands of Japanese tourists) and waited very patiently for the exhibition to start.  Most of it I didn't understand, but you didn't need an interpreter to hear the start and the collective gasp from the crowd as the arrows hit their mark.  All I saw was the rider race by, but it was neat to be part of that moment.

An artist's view of the shrine

The riders paraded through before racing

All dressed up in their samurai garb

Speeding by, just having shot his three arrows
(these pictures are from Adam)

2.  We're slowly unpacking, having gotten our stuff last week.  It's recommended when the movers drop your stuff off to have them unpack to make sure nothing is broken, and also so you don't have to deal with an abundance of boxes and paper.  Recycling and trash rules in Japan are crazy.  Unfortunately, it's a tad chaotic to have enormous piles of stuff.  We're making headway...

Movers day, I'm happy to report that the bed

no longer looks like this.  :)

3.  Elena's in swim class!  The first day she did not want to get in, and spent most of the class sitting on the edge talking to one of the lifeguards.  I try not to be a crazy mom, but I was pretty sure she wasn't terrified so finally I told Elena swim class was for swimming, or we'd have to go home.  She jumped in and has been loving it ever since.  I think she was just having more fun chatting with the lady, our little socialite.  :)

First day of class, her best friend

4. We've been amazed at how fast Elena is picking up Japanese.  Adam and I are just working on survival phrases, but she's really excited about learning too.  Kids are such sponges!

In case you can't understand Elena's Japanese:

Good morning- Ohayo gozaimasu

Hello/Good day- Konichiwa

Thank you-  Domo Arigato Gozaimasu

You're welcome- Do Itashi mashite

Counting 1-10:  Ichi, ni, san, yon (or shi), go, roku, nana (or shichi), hachi, kyu, ju

5.  One afternoon Adam and Elena decided to adventure out to a local children's bicycle park.  What a neat concept!  It's a little park of "streets" and a fleet of free bicycles for the kids to ride around.  Madeleine and I stayed home for naptime, but I can't wait to make it out there again.

 This was Elena's first time riding a big bicycle, she felt like such a big girl!

I love Adam's commentary in the video.  

He was laughing because Elena kept getting lapped by little kids.  She never seems 

to be in a hurry with sporting activities (remember swim class?)  That's okay, we love our little turtle.

6. Adam has started into his shift work schedule, which means he's been going in at random hours.  Sometimes I'm feeling less than adventurous by myself.  So when we want to get outside, but not go far, this happens:

The volleyball court on base  :)