Recap of June

June marked the official ending of another school year. The kids successfully completed kindergarten and 2nd grade at Hiroshima International School. Julia loved Mr. B as her teacher and Luke (and his teachers) survived all-day kindergarten. June marked 11 months of our expat assignment in Japan. And all I can say to that is "Wow we came a long way in one year!".  

 

 

June also marks the beginning of the matsuri season (summer festivals) in Japan. Every local shrine has a summer or autumn festival. Often the festivals include processions of elaborate floats, food stalls, hanabi (fireworks), games (scoop the goldfish), taiko drum concerts, or kagura (Japanese traditional theatrical performance). At the beginning of June Hiroshima holds the Tokasan Yukata festival. the festival is said to have begun over 400 years ago, Tōkasan signals the start of summer. It has come to be known as yukata festival as locals take this early opportunity to give their colorful yukata summer kimono their first airing of the year. We bought a yukata for Julia and had a fun time exploring the festival.

 



 

*Yukata festival, Cam playing baseball with a Japanese Kendo (martial arts) stick, & Cam riding his favorite Japanese cartoon character: An Pan Man (bread head man!)

Here is a recap of April & May:

 

At the end of April we traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii and met Grammy & Papa (the Dickens grandparents) for a week long vacation. Hawaii happened to be the midway point between Japan and New York! We had a great time snorkeling with the turtles, playing at the beach & pool, and visiting the Hawaii Volcano National Park.

It was our first time back to the States after living in Japan almost a whole year and we quickly realized that we had grown accustomed to Japan way more that we had originally thought. My kids wanted to talk to every Asian person they saw and ask them if they were from Japan. If they found out that they were from Japan they used the few phrases of Japanese they knew and told them that we lived in Hiroshima, how long we had lived there for, and what school they went too.

Also, Mike and I went on a Manta Ray night snorkeling trip and ended up snorkeling right next to the only 2 Japanese tourists on the boat. The whole time we could hear them screaming through their snorkel gear "segoi" (wow!) & "omoshiroi" (interesting) every time a manta ray came close. Finally Mike and I replied back: "segoi desu ne". The Japanese tourists popped their heads out of the water, looked at us, and started jabbering away in Japanese. None of this seemed to surprising to us!

In May Julia turned 8 years old. I think May was the greatest month of her life. She had a birthday party, her baptism and baptism luncheon, and lots playdates with friends outside as the weather became warm and sunny.

 

 

 

*Luke at Sports Day at Hiroshima International School, Julia with favorite friends, Cameron with Nishikarabara San (Cam's most favorite babysitter when I take my Japanese lessons)