So our flights back to Japan were with JAL this time and there were some ups and downs to that... We missed the familiarity of Air Canada and it's great entertainment system. The food was quite good though and we enjoyed the take-off and landing cam! They have a camera mounted below the aircraft and show a live feed of what's happening down there. It's pretty cool to get to see the potholes you're hitting as you're bumping along! Air Canada has a similar "bird's eye view" that you can watch but they don't allow you to watch the actual take off and landing.
Our travel day went quite smoothly and we made it back with all our bags and bits. That last hour of travel - the drive home from the airport was almost more than I could take though and I (along with Joisan) napped. Thankfully we were picked up by my boss so we didn't have to drive ourselves.
We all did our best to sleep in the next day and having the weekend to get organized was great! Ian and I took a short bike ride to the farm market and the small convenience store to get some groceries and the kids got themselves organized to start school on the Monday. I was also going into the school to help coach the Otaki students for the upcoming speech contest and prepare with Naoko for a demo lesson we had on the Wednesday.
It was both comforting and overwhelming to be back to school so soon. I was happy to see everyone and excited about getting started on all these "last" experiences we're going to have this year.
The first week went by in a bit of a jet-lagged blur... I coached the two Otaki students for the speech contest, Naoko and I did our demo lesson quite successfully, Joisan started back to ballet and I was one of the judges for the speech contest in Date. (Just a little conflict of interest... I had either taught or coached - or both! - more than two thirds of the contestants at one time or another!) It turned out that two of the girls I helped placed first and second - unfortunately they were both from Date Chu - I really had hoped one of the Otaki girls would place.
On the Friday night there was a grade 3 event involving dodgeball, dinner and a movie and sleepover. The game and dinner included families too so we all went. Afterward we had to drive Taran to the sleepover place and we hung around for a bit because they were showing Pirates of the Carribean in English! Taran, being Taran, stayed up most of the night and influenced a couple of the other grade 3 boys to join him. I'm sure their families were as thrilled as I was!
Saturday, after Joisan's dance, there was a festval in Kitayuzawa. They had a band and some other entertainment and then bingo! We didn't win anything in the bingo game but we had fun at the festival. It was a good chance to re-connect with some of the people who we don't get to see at school. Ian has a great group of friends now and he was warmly welcomed back with many glasses of sake and beer!
That brings us to Sunday - which we were all delighted to use for extra sleep! I'll finish this first entry there and start a new one for the next week. Eventually I'll get caught up and back on a weekly schedule - I promise!!!
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