Children's school and the cars finally arrive.

It has been another busy week.

The children have now been in school for about 2.5 weeks. They are doing well in school. I just found out tonight that they know how to sing Jingle Bells in Japanese. They have not yet passed me with their language skill, but I don't think it will be long.

To get to school everyday the children walk, it is about 0.6 of a kilometer.

They start out at our door step with their $300 backpacks, hats, and umbrella on rainy days, plus a number of other supplies. Kie kun is our neighbor. The children meet up with him first. Then together they walk to the next location and meet up with Kaho chan. Next they walk to the corner where they meet up with Kenji kun. He is the elder of the walking group. He makes sure they are walking in a line and safe. Kaho chan stays at the back to make sure no one is left behind. The same type of system is used to get the children home as well. The younger children have alarms on their backpacks in case there is an emergency. It can be difficult to get the back pack on in the morning with their coat without setting the alarm off sometimes. We have set it off twice. It is a very load screech noise. Then to shut it off it is a mad scramble to put the pin back in. It is kind of like a grenade. The walking system seems to work pretty smoothly, the children take care of one another and arrive safely every day.

Later I will post more about what the school day is like for them.

I will need Kate and the children's support for that and they are now sleeping.

Yesterday we finally got our cars. The Odyssey arrived on a flatbed truck with the Diva being driven buy another guy following behind. It is nice to finally get them. I actually feel cool driving around in the Japanese Odyssey. It is a lot different than the American version. I really wish this version was available in the States. The dealer took care of me and put some nice rims on it so it really looks good.

The Diva is small, but looks like it will be fun to drive. It has sports suspension, a spoiler, and blue interior foot lighting that I was able to negotiate into it. It is a very practical car for Japan. It is small, easy to park, economical, but amazingly there is a lot of interior space. It is actually funny that it is taller than the Odyssey. You can kind of see it in the second photo below.

On top of all the other activities, the arrival of the Odyssey allowed us to go Kotatsu こたつ shopping. We ended up going to 4 different stores to find the perfect one, finally ending up at "Yamada denki". One of our Japanese friends, Reiko san, helped us negotiate a better price. While at "Yamada denki" we met the real life Pikachu. He is way bigger in person than I thought he would be. Fortunately we had on rubber soled shoes so we did not sustain any substantial shocks from him during the photo shoot.

The Kotatsu is a table that has a heating element under it. Since many homes do not have central heating other methods to stay warm are used. This is one of them. We still have to purchase our Kotatsu blanket and other accessories. Once I get it completely set up I will get a picture uploaded. Below was the selection at Yamada denki. The one we picked is on the bottom toward the right and dark brown.

I have now been warned by 2 Japanese friends here, and one in Ohio (Yamase san) that the Kotatsu is very dangerous. They explained that once you purchase the Kotatsu that slowly you will pile everything you need for the day around it and eventually you will not be able to separate yourself from its comfort. Once this happens you will no longer need the other rooms in your home and you will not get anything done. Kate thinks we will become Kotatsu potatoes (the US equivalent being couch potatoes). Yamase san sent a picture of what this may look like and I attached it below.

I have also been informed that Mikan and the Kotatsu are a perfect match. The Mikan is a small sweet orange. They are in season now, so Kate has already purchased some for us to eat while we sit under the kotatsu.

While shopping at Kojima denki we came across a choco banana stand. It is a banana dipped in chocolate with sprinkles on a stick. Both children wanted one, so we all tried one. Oishikatadesu (it was tasty)

Finally this week we discovered that Utsunomiya now has a Pizza Hut. Although none of us are really craving American food yet we decided to give it a try. You can not eat at the Pizza Hut as there is no seating. You can pick up or have it delivered on 3 wheeled Honda motorscooters. Justin would be very envious of these scooters. We stopped in to pick it up, and then ate it in the car because everyone was really hungry. Actually the crust is the same as in the US, and if you order a basic pizza it is also the same. The biggest difference is the options you can get. You can get ebi (shrimp), crab, squid, and tako (octopus) plus many others. The other difference is price. For our basic pizza it was not so bad, about $16 US, but if you order a specialty pizza it can go above $35 US for a large pizza (about 12"). In the end it was worth stopping in. We won't make it a regular stop, but I am sure we will go back.

There are some things I am leaving out, I will update again soon.

Now I have to get to bed as it is 11:30PM and I have to work tomorrow.