Jelly Bean

Many people have asked me about how our wonderful dog, Jelly Bean, is doing in Japan.  He is doing great.  He is still under quarantine and will be until late February 2009, which means he cannot leave the base where we live.  I don't think he minds because he's got it pretty good.  In the mornings, Jelly Bean and I walk to the gate where Madeleine meets the other students to walk to school.  Sometimes Madeleine joins us in walking and sometimes she rides her bike.  It's about a quarter mile to the gate and the walk is very nice.  It is a residential neighborhood with wide streets and sidewalks.  Jelly has lots of opportunities to sniff around and takes advantage of "marking" his spot numerous times along the way.  Once we see Maddie off, we briskly walk back to the house so we can start our day.  (Of course he goes right back to bed.)  Usually I take him out again around lunchtime.  We will take a long walk around the base or go to his favorite spot:  the dog park.    Yes, we have a dog park here on the base!  It is a fenced-in area that has plenty of room to run around and includes a drinking fountain for both dogs and humans.  Jelly loves to play fetch with a tennis ball.  He runs and runs until he is completley exhausted.  In the afternoons we walk up to the gate to meet Madeleine and then straight back.  In the house, we play tug of war with some of his other toys or he sleeps.  On the weekends, Vanessa or Madeleine will take him for walks and to the dog park.  He sure gets lots of lovin' from us all but especially from Maddie.  Those two really love each other and will sometimes just lay together on the floor like two puppies.  Jelly Bean has recently made friends with a young black poodle named Shadow.  He lives close by and they will have their first sleepover at our house on Saturday.  They have played together at the dog park and got along well so we think it will be great to have him over.

One more thing I wanted to say.   Here in Japan we have these huge black crows.  They land in the yard a lot.  Sometimes we chain Jelly up to the front porch with a 20 ft lead.  From time to time the birds start to come close and he likes to run after them.  One time a crow came hopping towards him instead of flying away.  Jelly ran to the front door trying to get inside!  Since then he is a little less enthusiastic about chasing them. . . .

Well, that's the report on Jelly Bean.  We are all very happy in our little home in Japan.  And we hope you are too, wherever you are.  

Undokai

Saturday at my school was undokai, or, in English, Sports Day.  It was really fun.  The first thing the 4^th graders did (that’s me!) was a type of relay.  The part that I did in the relay was where there were two sacks tied together.  Me and my partner ran as fast as we could, then got in the sacks and jumped.  It was exhausting.  We handed a ring to five people on two ski-like things with their feet attached on it.  They all walked a little bit and then handed the ring to three people with their ankles tied together.  They ran and handed the ring to the sack people again.  The second thing the 4^th graders did was the 80 meter run.  Everybody ran 80 meters.  Almost every grade did this.  The third thing the 4^th graders did was a huge game of tug-of-war.  There was a very long rope and two classes would get on each side (40 in each class).  We would pull as hard as we could.  It was very fun!  Our class would say, “yu sho” which means “we will win” in Japanese.  Tug-of-war was one of my favorite events.  Each team had it’s own two songs.  My team was red, or in Japanese, aka.  We were singing one of our songs over and over again through the whole undokai.  There was also an event for parents.  It was very cool.  There were four lines of parents.  There was one big ball for each line.  They would start from the front and pass the ball over their heads to the back.  It looked like it was rolling backwards.  The last person in line would bounce the ball back to the front.  It was very cool looking.  There were lots of other cool events for other grades.  Undokai was very tiring, but it was worth it because red won!!!  I was very happy when they announced that red won.  I hope next year is as fun as this year was.

By Maddie

Maddie's 10th Birthday at Showa Park, September 13th 2008

We love the bouncy hills!

That's Maddie and Troy at the top of the Mayan pyramid
Queen of the world!



The world's longest roller slide!
The misty forest
Happy B-day, Sweetheart!
  

Last thing about the Point and some pics that Troy took

Troy spent almost three weeks back at the Point taking care of clean up and repair. With the help of neighbors he rewired the electricity, re-plumbed, and got the central air conditioning back in working order. He said he could have spent 6 months working with all that needs to be done. He described what he completed as a "tourniquet." The Anderson's have moved in and will reside until they get their home rebuilt. We are so happy that they can use our place. We'll deal with the rest of the repair when we return in the summer.
The view from the top of the stairs.  The trees that are left are all turning brown from the effects of the salt water.  The pick up of debris has been very slow.
The interior stairs.  Troy replaced the water heater.
Our beautiful new bathroom was destroyed.  The toilet and pedestal sink were washed away and broken.  Most of Jim and Kara's fine tile work is gone.