I took this photo from a nearby tower block. I was so surprised to see Mount Fuji so close looking. In a panorama shot I took, I managed to include a tiny pixel showing our own house at the same time as the mountain.
Monthly Archives: December 2014
At last, Samuel starts kindergarten
It’s taken a long time but Samuel is finally going to kindergarten, just in time for the end of term next week :/
He enjoys it immensely, and it might well be worth the 30 minutes of walking we do four times a day to achieve it. There is a bus we could use but it isn’t much faster and is also a bit pricey. He has to go so far because the spaces for child care before Primary schooling begins at age 7 are severely limited. For Martin we’ve just applied for a space for April, there are two spaces nearby for next year, and some more at some newer establishments further away. This year’s current waiting list is over 15 children for his age group. Anyone looking at the system would say there was a severe problem with it. It isn’t very beneficial to Abe’s vision of more women in the work place and unfortunately the kindergarten themselves reinforce family stereotypes by making quote a lot of demands for a parent to turn up in the middle of the day.
Kindergarten are strict places I’ve discovered, even parents tow the line. Every day at the picking up time parents stand in line according to the child’s class and wait for the teacher to bring the children out. My word it’s a bit of an effort to tell you the truth. I’ve already broken a few rules myself, and I’m not unaware of the Japanese way of doing things either!
All this sounds a bit negative, but at least he is in somewhere positive, he’s using his energy and greeting the most out of it.
Thomas goes to school, but…
As we start out one of our most pressing issues is sorting out schooling for the boys. Thomas is joining year two at a local Japanese school. Here he is walking in with some of his friends on an established school route. The children walk in by themselves in groups. Thomas’ schooling was fairly easy to sort out, his schooling runs from 8.30 in the morning to about 2.30 in the afternoon. Learning has a much stronger social aspect than uk schooling at this level, which is something Thomas enjoys greatly. Schooling starts at age 6/7, the school year starts in April, so as he starts, he has two years head start on the other children academically, which will give him some capacity to focus on speaking and learning kanji (the Chinese characters used alongside the alphabet). By the time he reaches high school the focus would have shifted to ultra academic, which is a very pressured environment.
Thomas’ classroom
On the flip side is Martin and Samuel. They are too young for school here, even though Samuel has been in school for two years already in the UK. He needs a kindergarten and the entry process is very different and very hard. Parent and child need to be interviewed if it is a private place, we’ve been rejected several times already- because of language we suspect, the excuses are always very lame. Public access is cheaper (still pricey!) but even harder, in our area (setagaya) there is no capacity at all. But still there is a second kindergarten system here, however it runs only in mornings which makes access very problematic. Recently we visited one with a space (yay!) but it is 40 minutes walk away (hmm). Add a 2pm finish to that and it’s hardly worth him going. Add a Martin to that (for whom there remains no spaces) and it’s doubly hard. Add no transport to that, 5 days a week, and … And so on. We’re still working out what to do about that. But to be honest the children need something, they are driving us all crazy staying at home!
My workplace!
Well it’s the view from one of my workplaces anyway! You can’t get better than such an iconic view. I climbed this two years ago, it’s higher than it looks, and although only half the height of the new SkyTree, elsewhere in Tokyo, the Tokyo tower is by far the better, possibly because the 50 year old structure does sway a bit higher up… It’s got character.
Anyway, I’ve finally got a moment to write. It’s been an amazingly hectic first two weeks. We’ve been getting the house sorted and at the same time flying into first work responsibilities.
The house we’re in is an old apartment atop the church meeting room. It’s a bit wobbly, every time a train passes by or the boys feel like being ‘energetic’, the building shimmers like in an earthquake. Actually we had an earthquake mag.6 further north a few days after arriving. For ourselves it was magnitude 2, hardly anything. We didn’t feel anything, but others at the diocesan offices twenty minutes away certainly did. Perhaps our house is wobbling all the time at that magnitude anyway!
The church itself is a beautiful arched roof design, older, and a lot more stable. Built by a western architect with a heart for Japan called Andrew Raymond. He literally preached through buildings, making as many as three church buildings from Tokyo to Hokkaido, and maybe more besides. Nits a gorgeous building of 6 wooden segments, made in a warm colour stained wood. It lacks a little light, but it’s made up for by the warmth of the community here.
We’ve been given so much care and attention, it’s a little overwhelming, but it has made up for some of the initial frustrations of setting up 5 people in a new environment from scratch (mentioned in the next post). It’s been lovely to get to know everyone, but very soon we’ll be turning from welcome to action.
My first task is to learn to speak the Communion service in Japanese. I’ve also a sermon in Japanese on Christmas Eve. The service is a hard one, formal language style is harder to pronounce for me, and add on plenty of new words and specialist church vocab, and it’s trying work to tell the truth.
I’ve also been writing for the bi-monthly magazine, like an English news corner. And the first week has had some opportunities for thinking of ideas for extending the children’s work here and maybe some English language learning provision. Both of which will have to wait for when my language is a little more able.
Work here is on a smaller capacity, the diocese has a very warm family feel. My work in the parish is complemented with half a week alongside the cathedral staff. There I’m attending lectures and meetings in a non-participatory way, the purpose of my presence is to be showered in Japanese language and tune in my hearing and speaking skills as much as possible before language school begins. Hopefully I’ll be starting that in January.
Nine Hours Ahead... 