Days Off

Alex

I know in England you recently had half-term, but in Japan we don't have half term holidays, but instead there are lots more bank holidays. In September we got the 14th and 23rd off, October we got 14th off and  in November we got the 4th off. We also get some other Mondays off, but that is because sometimes we have to go to school on Saturday.

In my free time I like to read Manga. Manga is a bit like a comic but between 100 and 400 pages long. Most mange come in a series. My favourite manga is Naruto. The main character is called Naruto. Naruto is a Ninja, he isn't always successful, but he never gives up. Naruto is set in the past.  I Like manga because it's got good pictures and the storied are good, I also like to try to draw the pictures.

Joe

One of the things I enjoy doing in my free time is woodwork. It needs good concentration and you're not allowed to be too crazy. I have made a sign for a play house. First I sawed some wood in the right angles and made the shape of some letters. Then I got a wooden board and nailed the wooden shapes I made to the board. 

We also went to an Autumn festival at a country side park. In the craft area we made butter knives out of wood. There were sanding machines to sand the rough wooden shapesinto the right shape. after that we sanded by hand with sandpaper to make as smooth as possible. Finally we painted olive oil onto the butter knives and then we had finished making the butter knives.

Other things we did at the festival were saw with a two man saw and pottery. Joe made a mug and Alex made a candle holder.  We also made a leaf horn to blow, to make it you get a firm leaf about 8cm long Wrap it around a straw ans put sellotape around the leaf. You then take the straw out and slightly squeeze one end of the leaf. Then blow the squeezed end of the leaf- It's very loud!

School Sports Day

At the sports day we are divided into red and yellow teams. Alex was on the red team and Joe was on the yellow team.

When we did the tug of war the red team won twice.

There was also an event called the Hurricane. The Hurricane is an event where 4 people hold a pole and run together carrying it in front of them, they then have to go round some cones. The yellow team won that race.


There were also some dances in during the sports day. There was a dance called the Soranbushi, it is a traditional Japanese Fishing dance from an island in Japan called Hokaido. It finishes with a human pyramid Here is a video of us taking part in the dance.














We were at the base of the pyramids.


There was a relay race which our cousin was in. He was so fast that because of him he team won.
There was an 80m race. Alex came first in his group and Joe was second is his race, the reason was because there was a faster person in the inside lane.
There was an event called the Suzuwari, it is a bit like a piñata, there are no points or prizes, but you have to throw balls at a big tub to make it burst, and then streamers fall down from it.

The sports day was on a Saturday and lasted most of the day, everyone had a picnic at lunchtime. We got Monday off because it was on Saturday.

Sea and Mt. Fuju

On 21st September we went to the seaside where we can see Mt. Fuji. We also went to an Aquarium and a small museum about historical animals.
At the aquarium there was a tsunami simulator outside, It was about half the size of a tennis court, and it explained how a tsunami happens. There was a dam which hell water and they lifted it up to make a fake tsunami to flood a model town.
At the aquarium there was a big tank and there was a 2m shark but it was very slow at swimming.  There were also many other types of fish. I think there were clown fish in most of the sections.

At the museum we saw some dinosaur bones, of T-Rex, stegosaurus and an ankylosaurus, some bones were real, but we think some of them were copies.

At the beach there were lots of birds of prey flying around. Mount Fuji look small because it was far away, but really it poked above the clouds.

Typhoon!

Today it was a bank holiday in Japan and there was also a typhoon. The wind speed reached up to 40m/sec (90mph) and it was very rainy.
The wind woke us up because the wind was howling a lot. The trees with thin trunks nearly fell over. The house was very hot because we had extra thick shutters on the windows.

Normally the river is very calm and clear water but today the water level raised up 2m high and it was very rapid and brown.

We were bored because we couldn't go out and TV was mostly news about the typhoon. But we were kind of excited too, because it doesn't happen that often and it was the first time we have been in a proper typhoon.

Learning in Japan

In Japan our teacher can do tricks like putting a handkerchief in one ear and take it out the other ear.

We think he is quite fun. There is only one class for one year group. our class is called "san nen ichi kumi"  (first group of the third year). Our teacher teaches us for every thing except from science and calligraphy. in calligraphy  the headmistress teaches us.

On sports day we do a dance called sourambushi. Our sports day is on a couple of weeks time. The sourambushi is a traditional dance form Hokkaido (the island in the North of Japan) about fishing. We've been learning this dance, and it really hurts your thighs doing it.

Starting school

We have started school this week,we have to get up at 6:35 and school starts at 8:00. Our school is about a 1KM we have to walk there with other children every week day. There are 23 children in our class. It's the start of school for us in September but other children started year 3 in April .

On the first day we had a maths test and at assembly we had  to introduce ourselves in front of year 3-6, we were not scared  because most of them knew us.

We were supposed to do a fire drill this week, but instead there was a small earthquake for real so we had to hide under our tables.

This week we did art and planned how to make toy cars. We also do a kanji (that's the complicated Japanese writing)  test and do maths every day.

Starting school tomorrow

Tomorrow we start school.I think it will be very hard for us, because we just had light bags at Acacias, but we will have heavier bags to carry for the Japanese school.
Here is a list of some of the things we have to take:

• Randoseru (Ransel - School Back Pack)
• Uabaki (Indoor shoes)
• Umbrella
• PE Kit
• Aka shirobou (Red and white PE cap)
• Yellow school cap
• Pianika (piano type harmonica)
• Recorder
• Toothbrush and Cup
• Folder for information
• Paint set
• Calligraphy set
• Bousaizukin (Earthquake cushion)
• Maths Set
• Stationery set

Some things you need for school

Bousaizukin - Don't laugh at these too much... they might save your life!
(Left: Joe, Right:Alex)

The Beetles

Not these Beatles!

Children in Japan often keep beetles as pets in the end they release them back in to the  wild. I live in the countryside so it's easy for me to catch them. Although these beetles are 7cm long they are harmless.
 We have caught 8 beetles so far. They eat the juice which comes out of fruit.
You only get these beetles in summer and the early part of autumn.

Not scary!

Feeding time

In my hand!

15th August

We left the house at 2:30pm there is hardly anything there and every thing was boring. We took the train the airport. The first plane was a Lufthansa and it took us to Munich.

Lufthansa

Our luggage being loaded

Then we got an ANA plane to Tokyo

Arrival in Japan