1st Day of School; Annual Earthquake Drills; Terry Gets a Job

Lot's going on here recently. Mio has been especially busy getting everything ready for the boys to start school. There are a lot more details here than back in the US. Today was the first day for the boys. School here starts in April, so this was the first day back after summer vacation, which is about 3-4 weeks.

Both boys were really excited to start school. They kept running ahead of us on the 15 minute walk to school. Tommy's school is about 5 minutes' walk past Michael's. Michael's school starts around 8:30 and Tommy's around 9 AM. So, they can't walk together. They also get out at different times in the afternoon.

Michael's school started off with an assembly outside. Michael and one other boy were the only new kids to join over the summer vacation. The other boy is also in 2nd grade and lived in Washington, DC for the past year. They are in different 2nd grade classes. At the assembly they got to go up on stage and introduce themselves in front of the entire school. Michael did great, sounding just like a Japanese kid. After they introduced themselves, their classmates came up to the podium to get them and welcome them to their class.

Michael's class went well. His teacher was happy with the Japanese writing that Mio has been forcing him to do. Looks like the forced work was worth it.

They also did some math work today and since Michael's already been through 2nd grade, the math was really easy. The other kids were impressed with him.

Michael has already made a friend and they plan to try and get together tomorrow after school and play, if parent schedules allow.

Tommy also had a good day. He was so eager to go to school that he kept asking us to just drop him off at the front of the school because he wanted to go in by himself. He was sure he didn't need our help.

Today was a short day for all schools in Japan. September 1 is the annual national earthquake preparedness day. All schools, gov't offices, fire personnel and most companies practice earthquake drills, first aid, and so on. One of today's pictures is of Tommy's class wearing their safety hats which are donned in the event of an earthquake.

All children had to be picked up by their parents today after the drill to practice the procedure for being picked up after an earthquake.

Lastly, Terry will be accepting a job offer today. It's with a huge Japanese multinational. He'll be in sales of large capital equipment. His training will start Sept. 5 with a one-week training trip to the Kobe/Osaka area near the company head quarters, and then the second week back in Tokyo. Time for reality to set back in.