Heat!!!

Summer has arrived!! The temperatures have been soaring, yesterday was 35.8C.
As the temperatures rise so do tempers! The kids are on holiday and they are bikering everyday. I want the two older ones to get on and do their homework but it is to hot to think......good excuse!
The next problem is what to cook. I don't want to stand in the kitchen and prepare food in this heat. The Japanese love cold noodles, soba, which is a buckwheat noodle and somen, which is a very fine noodle. Served with a soya sauce dipping sauce, omelet, sliced ham and cucumber. It's nice enough but once or twice a week is okay. I would live on salads, but the kids don't see it as a real meal, hubby thinks it's rabbit food and just for half a lettuce I paid
$1.

Summer Holidays

So the summer holidays have started. Kids finished at lunch time on Friday. They came home with a load of homework. I feel so sorry for them, surely holiday time is holiday time. My 4th grader came with a list of dates that the teacher will be at school to give extra lessons. Sorry not going to that. Also he has a card for the radio exercises, but there is no way I'm rolling out of bed at 6am to take him for morning exercise. I have a hard enough time getting up during school time, holidays are for sleeping late!! The only good thing is that the school pool will be open a few days and it's free for him to use. So that is a few days taken care of.
My oldest boy has asked for the latest Harry Potter book, so that is on order from Amazon. He wants to see the movie tomorrow so I guess we will take the other kids to see something, wonder who will pay for all this!!

Typhoon 4

We got really lucky this time. This massive typhoon missed us, but still managed to dump a lot of rain here. Some places were not so lucky, two people were killed and 60 plus were hurt.
The up side is that it is very cool here. Just had a nice walk around the neighbourhood with my kids. Something unheard of at this time of year!!
We have another free day tomorrow. Then four days of school and the holiday starts. I'm really looking forward to doing something with the kids. They really need to get better at English! So I'm going to surf the net for some ideas!

Road Trip

We really wanted to go to the beach last week. It is really hit and miss with getting the right time to go to the beach. To early and the water is on the cool side, to late and there are jellyfish which can give you a really nasty sting. July 16th is "sea day" in Japan, a national holiday to admire the sea, which makes a lot of sense. Even those who live in land locked areas are actually very close to the sea. But being a national holiday means that everybody goes, and it is just no fun spending the day picking your way over bodies to try and get your toes in the water. So we planned to head out last week but it rained, then rained and then rained some more! But we promised the kids a day out. So we headed south, to an area that has more rain than here, if that is possible, to a nice hotel for an all you can eat buffet. Lots of lovely food, roast beef, crab, three different curries, pasta, pizza, and of course ice cream. The hotel is on the top of a mountain and I'm sure the view is lovely but of course it RAINED!!!!

Tanabata festival star festival

Today is the 'star festival' or tanabata in Japanese. The festival comes from an old Chinese tale called Kikkoden. The story is a about a weaver princess and a cow herder prince who lived in space. When they got together they forgot about their work. The King got angry at them and seperated them by the Amanogawa River, the Milkyway. They can only met once a year on July 7th, thus the star festival. People write wishes and tie them to bamboo branches.
I think this year my wish will be for the rain to stop. After complaining that we weren't getting enough rain, we are now getting to much. Yesterday was incredible, it just poured and poured. It stopped for a few hours this afternoon but not long enough for the ground to dry up. And now it is raining again. The kids are miserable because they can't get outside and I have a mountain of laundry which needs doing, but I'm fed up of having clothes hanging around the living room. I have dryer but it costs to much to run it and it makes the house even hotter. Their has to be something good in all this rain but I can't see it.

counting down

The kids are counting down the days to the summer holidays. This first term has been hard for us. (School year runs from April to March). We went from part time schooling and homeschooling to fulltime school for D and half days for C. A big change and a lot of adjustments needed. I'm trying to think of some ideas to get through the summer. We won't be going anywhere, maybe to the beach but most of the time will be spent at home. So after the load of homework is done I really want to focus on the kids English. Try to get their reading and writing a little better. I'm also looking for some easy science and craft projects that don't take forever to do and won't wreck the house. Better get my thinking cap on!!!