Nietzsche for kids

Kids playgrounds in Japan remind me of my own childhood. As a child growing up in the 70s, we had playground equipment that was installed over asphalt, was ridiculously tall, made of rusting iron, and generally, a lawsuit waiting to happen. Things like see-saws were common. Of course, with see-saws, you also had broken tailbones, legs, pinched fingers and other injuries. When's the last time you saw a see-saw in America?

Japan seems to have embraced the "Nietzsche for Kids" theory. That which does not kill or maim your child, makes him stronger. Witness the playground from Murozumi Elementary School that we visited on our way back from a festival this past week. That's me standing on the blue staircase. I'm 5' 8", so I'm guessing the slide is 10 feet tall or about 3 meters high. DS1, going down the slide, is only slighter younger than the average 1st grader. Those green things in the background are standing see-saws; you hang on one side, your friend hangs on the other and when he lets go, you fall to the hard packed sand beneath you.

Asae Elementary has even scarier equipment. They have the Jungle Gym of Death. It's one of those iron cube things that we used to climb on, only theirs is 15 feet tall with 3 feet spacing on the squares and slides going off the ends. I don't have any pictures of my 5 year old on it, since I was busy trying to keep the 2 year old off it, while Daddy kept the older one from falling to his death.

I do love the fact that Japan is less over-protective than America. Every kid here walks or bikes to school. They cross over busy streets, down narrow lanes, and they leave the house at 7:15 in the morning to do it. And, no, the parents do not accompany them. There are volunteers on some of the busier corners, but otherwise the bigger kids are supposed to look after the little kids. The kids have large backpacks and look like a herd of turtles lumbering off to school. I love it. I also think it makes them stronger. Maybe Nietzsche for Kids isn't so bad.

Emptyish nest

DS2 started hoikuen/daycare today. I only have him there until noon, so I'm frantically doing all those things I'd promised myself I'd do. I've done 2o minutes of a Pilates DVD, taken a shower, had a late breakfast, and now I'm blogging.

What I still need to do is: prep for my class this evening, email the schedule for English storytime to the library, start (!) my taxes for 2008, and clean out the entrance hall of the ten million shoes that have accumulated there.

Which segues nicely into why my genkan (entrance hall) is so cluttered. We went clamming for Asari (Manila) clams on Saturday. It was a total bust. DS2 kept slipping on the very rocky beach, DS1 kept putting empty clams in our bucket. Actually, it wasn't a total bust. They had fun and we got them away from the evil influence of the TV, which is all they want to do on the weekends these days. So now my genkan has clam digging trowels and buckets and beach shoes and sandy pants that need to be emptied outside.

And I now have 1 hour and 40 minutes before DS2 needs to be picked up.

Children's Day

It's Golden Week in Japan, which means 3 consecutive holidays and one of those is Children's Day. Where most folks in the U.S. are sucking down margaritas and celebrating Cinco de Mayo, here we are eating sushi, flying carp streamers and taking our kids for some kind of outing.

We made the trip to Iwakuni Marine Base for Friendship Day today. We took the train to avoid the traffic, but instead had two wiggly boys in a packed local train. Add a reaaaaallly long walk to the event along with some whining, lots of sticky beverages, a hot dog and a hamburger and it was almost like being back in the U.S.

On the way home, DS1 who was asked nicely if he needed to use the bathroom before we took a bus to the train station, decided 20 minutes into the train ride that he needed to pee. We happened to be on the one local train that had no bathrooms. So we all got off at Obatake station in the middle of nowhere, DS1 used the bathroom and we waited 40 minutes for the next train. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life. I was sunburned, tired and cranky and the boys decided to see how much they could beat each other up on the train platform. Grrrrrr....

And now I'm drinking a Chu-hi, blogging and looking at the chirashi sushi that Grandma made for Children's Day. DS2 is eating bites of it and DS1 is watching Pokemon and asking for pasta. I'm breaking all of my parenting rules by letting them eat and watch TV, but after a whole day devoted to them, I just want a little time for me.

Time to scrub the bath tub and get them to bed really early tonight.