Off to Japan

Not me - but my oldest son, Chris and family. I'm dog-sitting their blind, diabetic black lab. What's wrong with this picture?

It's quite an adventure taking a family of six so Chris travels with them, stays a week and returns to work here for the summer. Japanese school is literally year-round so the kids attend during the summer. This allows them to better learn their reading and writing skills in Japanese. Since they speak it in their home, they're naturals with the language but learning the thousands of kanji and other Japanese writing characters is a lifelong process. So, Jordan who just finished fifth grade in the USA and Julia, going into second, will spend their summer break in school again this summer (and likely every year). They are so excited to see their other grandfather who spoils them that they don't even mind that they have to go to school when all their American friends do not. It will be a clear advantage for them one day to be totally fluent and literate in both languages but we hate sending them away every summer. At least we see them more than we did when they were full-time residents in Japan.

Kiyomi's family lives in Yamagata so it takes a while to get there even after they arrive in Tokyo. After they get through the immigration stations and customs, they board a bullet train to Yamagata. All in all the trip takes about 24 hours. They just let me know that they are in San Francisco now, waiting for their flight to take off. Then in August, Chris will go back for another week to help bring them home in time for school here. I may be able to swing it to go with him then. If not, maybe next year. They do get a little vacation break from school in August so I'm sure they will do something fun then.

Personally, I'm doing great!!