Happy Holidays!

My holidays just started this Friday! Anyways first thing on my list was to get some R&R in. It seems Fuzuki Raine had the same idea!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Missing Raine-deer?

If Santa has trouble making his Christmas run this year, it could be because he left a Raine-deer behind at our house. This Raine-deer appears to have gotten stuck in one of the stockings in our house. We're not exactly sure this happened...
... but we're enjoying our early Christmas present thoroughly!

Sitting Right

Did you ever sit the wrong way?

This week at the morning assembly at my “ghetto school”, after the students had formed perfect lines, bowed, and said good morning in perfect unison, they sat down to listen the principal’s weekly speech.

Partway through the speech, teachers started going up and down the rows tapping students on the shoulder who were sitting with their legs crossed and their hands in their lap. This tap meant that they were to adjust their position, raise their knees in front of them, put their feet flat on the floor, and wrap their arms under their legs to support them in this position.

Well at least we all know how to sit properly now.

Visitors From Kooriyama

For a week now, we've had the pleasure of two out of town visitors staying at our house. Itsuki's sister Urara, and her three month old son Fumoto caught a plane down here last Sunday. They have been helping with everything from cooking and cleaning, to bath time and entertainment.

This picture shows pretty clearly the difference in size that 3 months makes. Fumoto is double the size and weight of his younger cousin Fuzuki. Anyways, there not really at an age where either of them can sense, yet alone respond to the other, so play time was still rather basic (consisting of lying on one's back with arms flailing and the ocasional burp or fart).

Anyways Itsuki and I just want to put a big THANK YOU out to Urara for all of her help this week!

What's 楓月 Mean Anyways?

In answer to the questions of many, I will perform a mini Japanese lesson here for everyone.

楓 = maple
月 = moon
木 = tree
風 = wind

With that straightened out we can look at the combined meanings. Itsuki's father worked hard for half a year trying to come up with names that represented both parents in an interesting way (in the end however Itsuki changed the reading of this name from Katsuki --> Fuzuki). He decided that "maple" was a representation of Canada and thus his father. He thought that the pronunciation of moon (in this case) "ki" matched the ending of Itsuki, and thus both father and mother were incorporated in the name.

In adition to that. As you can see maple is a combination of both tree and wind. That also gives Fuzuki's name a strong relation to nature. Finally, Fuzuki was born in the fall, and in Japan the fall is symbolized by such elements as the moon and wind. All of these things brought together make the name very suitable for our special son.

To top it all off, the name Fuzuki is very very rare. I have never heard it in all of my time here in Japan before it was decided upon. That is one more special element that our son has going on with his name. Well, I hope that clear is all up for you.

P.S.

I came up with the name Raine, becuase I liked the sound, and I also thought it was a very unique name. Few people (other than the lead singer of Our Lady Peace) share this name. Oh and if you look it up on the internet it is supposed to me "wise ruler" in old English.

Pep Talk

Yesterday after handing back test results to the students, one of teachers at my school gave a pep talk to the students. He did this because the average class mark on the test was about 50%. I’ve been around schools in Japan for long enough to know that this is actually a quite normal average. Something in my memory tells me that Canadian students had higher averages (possibly as a result of tests being easier, or having less information to cover.)

Anyways back to the pep talk. It started off on the right foot, letting the students know that in less than one year, they will have to be choosing which high school to go to (student have to pass a test to enter high school) and that their classroom and test marks count towards where they can expect to be accepted to. I thought it was going to be a talk about the importance of thinking about your future… but instead, it was one of the gloomiest classroom speals I have heard in a long time.

He told the students repeatedly that they had to study… a lot… or they will never pass the tests. He insinuated (perhaps quite accurately) that memorization was the only way to achieve success and because of this he expected that most of them would hate studying. He let them know that “that’s the way it is” and it is doing what you do not want to do that will allow one to achieve success in one’s life. Not once did he mention that studying should be done because it is interesting or fun, or anything at all that is positive about studying.

Looking at the students faces I could see that they already knew this, however they had been trying to enjoy school life despite the fact. It was like they were being reminded of some deep dark unfairness that they had been born into.

At the end of this 10 minute speal about how he expected everyone hated studying he said “well then, the second half of class is Mr. Taylor’s communication class.” Yeah… Let’s have fun! (But we did)