What I learned in preschool: How to find the rhythm

Listening to a room full of three year olds singing (or trying to sing) The Hokey Pokey and Five Little Monkey’s is both hysterical and terrifying.

These little monsters are still learning their left from right (although to be fair, sometimes I struggle with that too) so I have to keep my expectations in check when they are singing along to anything. They like to either shout all the words, because they think that means they are singing faster; or they will whisper while doing the hand motions because they are focusing so hard on learning the “choreography”. There is a very very very small in between those two reactions.

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First Golden Week in Japan

Tonight is the final night of my first extended break with the preschool, and my oh my, has it been wonderful!

This past week was Golden Week in Japan. Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays spread out over the span of seven days, including conveniently placed weekends. It makes for one of the busy travel times in Japan during the year, the others being New Year’s and Obon, (so if you’re planning on coming to visit during those times, travellers be warned). I elected to stay put and have a mini staycation instead of venturing too far.

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Monthly wrap up: April 2019

I’ve made it through the first month!

I can sugar coat everything and say it was all a cake walk and that each day I was living the expat dream, but we both know that’s a bold face lie.

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Favorite Grocery Store in Toyohashi

After visiting every grocery store in a walkable 7 mile radius from my apartment, I think I found my new go to supermarket.

Of course I still visit a few of my favorites each weekend if I don’t have other plans. Because going to the food store counts as a major weekend outing right? (I know you agree with me at least Dad.)

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What I learned in preschool: how to play pretend

I’ve been doing it all along without even realizing it.

I’ve been watching my kiddos for about a month (holy cow, didn’t think I’d last that long) and its fascinating watching them pick up connector toys, stick them together, and proclaim loudly, “its a bullet train!!” and take off pushing the thing across the floor, dodging kids and tables in their mad dash. It’s astounding and so genuinely pure and simple I can’t help but smile. That is, until the bullet train and its driver accidentally run over my feet/legs/fingers…

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Canned Fish Roulette

By now, you all have probably heard my canned tuna story.

If you haven’t, it goes like this: I was out grocery shopping one of my first weeks here and I picked up a few cans of fish to have in my pantry for those nights (or lunches) when you don’t feel like cooking. The wifi wasn’t working at this supermarket and I couldn’t get the offline Google Translate features to read the characters on the can, so I picked up a few cans all under 100 yen and threw them in my cart, hoping for the best.

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