Anna`s UNDOU-KAI

A boy waves the flag for the red team (Anna`s Team), as a girl drums the taikodrum behind him as the runners race around the track at Field Day UNDOU-KAI

A few weeks ago Anna had her first Field Day (UNDOU-KAI) on Saturday.  It is a custom for Elementary schools to hold these events on the weekends so that parents, grandparents and friends can watch the students participate in a variety of competitive games such as tug of war, relay races, dashes, hurdles, ball tossing, and many more.  They even have special dances performed by entire grades.

Anna in her dash was put against the faster runners in her grade and she came out in 1st place.  She also was chosen to run in the relay race but her team finished in 3rd. It was great to see her compete and do her best.  That morning she woke up with great excitement and determination.  It was like she had prepared, worked hard and knew she was going to win.  And just for the record, I am not the type of parent to pump up and train my kids to be super over-achievers.  This was all her! I just told her to go run and have fun today and "You`ll do great Anna!" As you look at the pictures you may wonder why Anna is wearing a mask.  She lost her two front teeth and decided that she should wear it. Here are a few photo highlights from the day.

Anna is wearing the mask and has her hands out in victory after finishing first place in the dash.

The school grounds were filled with about 3,000 people and everybody had their cameras out and the weather was quite warm as well.  It will certainly live on to be a great memory for us and Anna.  She was beaming after she came home that day knowing how well she had done and enjoyed such a time with her classmates and friends.

The children compete by tossing colored balls into a hoop and the team with the most balls wins.  TAMA-IRE

Anna during the Disney Dance.  She loved practicing for this and still does it all the time.

Amidst all the hardship and trials she has been through it brought a little tear to my eye to see her so satisfied and happy...

Watching Anna Grow

Took this photo at a studio we took the kids to almost two years ago.

My first born daughter has the advantage and disadvantage of being the first child to go through each developmental stage.  The advantage being that she has her parents full attention and focus, but the disadvantage being that we lack experience in the situation.

These days she is going to school and learning to listen to her teacher`s instructions and many times she forgets her assignments or doesn`t tell us what needs to be brought to school the next day, etc.  She is learning to focus her high energy and learn with by it and after a couple months it seems that she might be doing okay.  Of course all I really know is what she says and what her teacher writes down in her communication log which each student receives.  In Japanese it is called a Ren-Raku-Chou. （連絡帳）The entries are not daily, but are written at the discretion of the teacher when they want to share a concern or let the parents of a child know how things are going or possibly share a story from class about their child.



Apparently Anna`s teacher is quite strict and often doesn`t give her full marks on her assignments or homework.  Anna has a hard time with this being a very temperamental child who strives for perfection.  She cries often when she is not able to meet expectations that she puts on herself.  One time Anna had to practice writing the character よ and got so frustrated that she ran out of the house.  She didn`t return for quite awhile.  My wife became concerned and contacted me, but then Anna suddenly came home.  In fact she returned bearing gifts for everybody.  She had walked down to the market and with her own money gone and bought snacks and chocolate for everybody.  Of course Yumi warned her not to go out like that, but she couldn`t help but be moved that Anna would do something so sweet. She even chose the brand that her sisters and mom like.  It looks like she pays more attention to detail than we realized!



Anna`s grossed out after I caught a crawdad at the park with a stick and some squid for bait. I asked her if she wanted to hold it while I took a picture :)



Anna is showing us more and more that she can learn on her own and that she has a very sweet side behind her rambunctious, energetic, and sometimes harsh personality. I truly pray for her and wish her joy and happiness as she lives out her childhood.  She has endured so much from infancy and now she is growing into a fine little girl.

By the way she lost her two front teeth and it looks like more teeth are loose as well!

Starting School



Anna on the way to Opening Day Ceremony at school



Well, it has already been a week for Anna.  She started school last week on Monday with a ceremony and now has entered the ranks of Shou-Gaku-Sei. (Elementry Student).  You can imagine how troubled we are to see her go off to school, with all the earthquakes happening almost daily. 

But Anna was in high-spirits as the week began.  She woke me up 3 hours before school started asking me if she could go to school yet.  She was so excited and inquisitive about school and things she was going to do there.  Not growing up in Japan, I really couldn`t answer much but the general stuff about what school is like.

So after eating breakfast and making doubly sure of all her stuff we began to walk to the meeting point, so Anna could meet with some friends to walk together to school.  So I took my cane ( Yes I am recovering from hip surgery by the way!) and we began to walk, but Anna went ahead much faster.  She even turned back to me and said, "I know the way. you don`t need to come, daddy."

  

So I followed from afar just to make sure.  It is about 5-8 minutes to Anna`s school.  Anna, being determined as always, walked quickly noticing some other kids up ahead. She walked past the meeting point and continued to go towards school following the flow of the other children.  Being in my condition I couldn`t chase after her, so I decided to wait and apologize to Anna`s friend and explain to her mother that Anna had gone ahead to school.

So ended the first morning of the send off. 

As the week progressed, Anna started to become tired.  The early morning preparations and stress began to take effect.  She said, the all but familiar phrase, " I don`t want to go to school anymore!"

Upon hearing that I had to laugh, knowing how pumped up she was at the beginning.  Of course with some coercion she was able to go and keep the streak going.  Today she arose a little late, but was in plenty of time to go to school determined to do well

Anna has a lot to learn, and so do I about school in Japan.  There are a lot of responsibilities and tasks given to little first graders.  There are a lot of necessary items and equipment that must be remembered.  It is quite daunting for these little 6 year olds to have to remember so much. 

I just hope that Anna doesn`t lose the pure child-like heart, as she begins the journey of education.  She seems to be enjoying meeting many new faces and playing at school and hearing that makes me smile.

I am sure there will be more stories to come about Anna and her adventures on the playground and in the classroom.