What are your memories of summer holidays?
Days of fun, playing outside, trips to the beach, or visiting relatives.
Or homework. Japanese kids in elementary and junior high schools are given
homework for the summer. Not just do some reading kind of homework but pages
of copy work, math drills, a picture to paint and a diary to keep. Part of the
problem is the set up of the school year. The begining of summer is the end of the
first term, so when the kids go back in September they start the 2nd term. All that has
been studied in the first term needs to be remembered to build the 2nd terms work on.
So this summer has been a long hard slog to get kids to do study everyday. But who
wants to study when there are places to go to and things to do. This year has been harder
than ever because of the intense heat. I have no energy to help out or to make fun things
for the kids to do after they have finished their work. Also it really is hard for the kids
to concentrate in this heat. I have the air conditioner blasting away but it is still hard.
Anyway almost finished, I hope that the last few days of the holiday we can go out somewhere.
At least let the kids have a couple of days fun before back to the grind of school!!
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Friday, 17 August 2007
Birthday
August 15th was D's 13th birthday. So now I have two teenagers. HELP!
We went out for lunch, to an all you can eat place. Very nice but I think we over
did it, the kids went mad with the cake, they had a least 4 pieces each!
D got a couple of games for the game cube. He isn't into the games as much
as the kids but enjoys racing games...but after watching him I said he wasn't
getting his drivers license!!
The heat here is really bad and is driving me crazy. It is constantly 35c and over.
According to the news two places set a new record of 40.9c. Also at least 9 people
have died from heatstroke!! I will be very happy to see this heat wave end but no
rain is forecast until next week!!
We went out for lunch, to an all you can eat place. Very nice but I think we over
did it, the kids went mad with the cake, they had a least 4 pieces each!
D got a couple of games for the game cube. He isn't into the games as much
as the kids but enjoys racing games...but after watching him I said he wasn't
getting his drivers license!!
The heat here is really bad and is driving me crazy. It is constantly 35c and over.
According to the news two places set a new record of 40.9c. Also at least 9 people
have died from heatstroke!! I will be very happy to see this heat wave end but no
rain is forecast until next week!!
Saturday, 11 August 2007
summer festivals and heat
It seems to be getting hotter and hotter, or maybe I'm just getting old?
Last weekend was the summer festival in the local city. We didn't attend. Although the
dancing and the floats are very beautiful, the atmosphere exciting, standing around for
hours in 30C plus heat, with no toilets, is not my idea of fun. Sunday evening was the
firework display. Thought about going, but to get a good place to watch one has to be
at the place in the afternoon, then there is the old problem of the kids getting bored,
trying to find toilets that aren't dirty and smelly, trying to keep cool and just waiting and waiting
until about 8pm when the show starts. The display lasts about one and half hours, then trying to get the car out and avoid traffic. Last time we went it took 2 hours to drive home, usually it takes about 20 minutes. If my kids were into fireworks I would make an effort, but they
aren't that interested.
Summer is passing, in one way very quickly.....3 more weeks and back to school, in another
way to slowly, the heat is really killing this year. The beginning of the week we had incredible
thunderstorms. That helped to cool the evenings down....a bit. But the past few days almost no clouds at all, although this evening there is a nice breeze.
Last weekend was the summer festival in the local city. We didn't attend. Although the
dancing and the floats are very beautiful, the atmosphere exciting, standing around for
hours in 30C plus heat, with no toilets, is not my idea of fun. Sunday evening was the
firework display. Thought about going, but to get a good place to watch one has to be
at the place in the afternoon, then there is the old problem of the kids getting bored,
trying to find toilets that aren't dirty and smelly, trying to keep cool and just waiting and waiting
until about 8pm when the show starts. The display lasts about one and half hours, then trying to get the car out and avoid traffic. Last time we went it took 2 hours to drive home, usually it takes about 20 minutes. If my kids were into fireworks I would make an effort, but they
aren't that interested.
Summer is passing, in one way very quickly.....3 more weeks and back to school, in another
way to slowly, the heat is really killing this year. The beginning of the week we had incredible
thunderstorms. That helped to cool the evenings down....a bit. But the past few days almost no clouds at all, although this evening there is a nice breeze.
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Cool Mountain
Last Monday we took the kids out to a mountain stream. Very nice and cool.
With tempretures soaring into the mid 30c the past couple of weeks anywhere cool is welcome. This was a very nice place in the next prefecture. Up in the mountains, where the water was wide but shallow. There were open sided huts to sit in, plenty of shade from the trees and beautiful cool water. The kids got their swimming stuff on and took off with their Dad for a good couple of hours of splashing fun. They caught a few river crabs and found some baby frogs. I sat with my feet in the water for a while, until they were really cold. Then sat and played cards with M, who at 15 decided that playing in the water wasn't that "cool". It was a nice break and a chance to get out of the heat. Most years we go to the beach but I always feel that the sea isn't so clean and always far to hot unless you are in the water!
The extreme hot weather didn't last. We had typhoon number 5 come past. We weren't hit to bad, but some areas got really hit bad.... again. Friday was really bad here. Even though the typhoon had already passed by we had very heavy rain and high winds plus a thunderstorm that seemed to go on forever, well at least 5 hours, which when you are terrified of storms feels like forever!!!
So a busy week and now a mountain of laundry....which is not cool!!!!!
With tempretures soaring into the mid 30c the past couple of weeks anywhere cool is welcome. This was a very nice place in the next prefecture. Up in the mountains, where the water was wide but shallow. There were open sided huts to sit in, plenty of shade from the trees and beautiful cool water. The kids got their swimming stuff on and took off with their Dad for a good couple of hours of splashing fun. They caught a few river crabs and found some baby frogs. I sat with my feet in the water for a while, until they were really cold. Then sat and played cards with M, who at 15 decided that playing in the water wasn't that "cool". It was a nice break and a chance to get out of the heat. Most years we go to the beach but I always feel that the sea isn't so clean and always far to hot unless you are in the water!
The extreme hot weather didn't last. We had typhoon number 5 come past. We weren't hit to bad, but some areas got really hit bad.... again. Friday was really bad here. Even though the typhoon had already passed by we had very heavy rain and high winds plus a thunderstorm that seemed to go on forever, well at least 5 hours, which when you are terrified of storms feels like forever!!!
So a busy week and now a mountain of laundry....which is not cool!!!!!
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