Our Busy Week

It has been a busy week for the Kasdan Klan Asian contingent.

• Ilena has had a whirlwind of activities that included a hiking trip in the mountains of Kansai on Monday (a trip organized through CHIC), accompanying Jacob's class on their class trip to the ice skating rink and science museum on Port Island on Tuesday (the Moms bailed on the science museum and went out for lunch instead), and attempting to manage Jacob's social life. Ilena's hike took her along an abandoned railway bed and through abandoned train tunnels. At times it was very Stand By Me (well, at least the walking along the railroad tracks part through tunnels and over bridges). But mostly, it was a beautiful walk through nature (including rivers and fresh fallen snow). Jacob's class was accompanied, not only by the parent volunteers, but by his "buddy class," the Fourth Graders. Jacob's buddy took very good care of him.
  

• Jacob, growing by leaps and bounds, is staying busy with soccer, trips to the playground, and his best friend Jaewon, about whom random parents at the school have approached us to inquire if Jacob is really marrying her! Jacob's daily routine includes racing home on his bike (ahead of Ilena and Lauren), taking the elevator upstairs, letting himself in with his key, grabbing his soccer ball and watch, and heading back out to play ball in the park (passing the girls on his way back out).

• Lauren prefers to stay in and work on cutting, coloring, Junior Boggle, and puzzles, all while singing. She is also a miniature home-maker, assisting Ilena with hanging laundry, setting the table, folding laundry, and cooking (all with a very sweet disposition). Sometimes she seems like 3 going on 33.

• Mike is becoming a veteran of the Shinkansen, traveling to the Tokyo/Yokohama area for the third time in three weeks.
  

Random story. The other day, while working out at our local Rokko Island gym, Mike was spellbound by a petite Japanese woman doing a tai-chi like exercise with a full length sword! After finishing, she sheathed the sword, and did some similar exercises with a paper fan. Not something you see everyday at the gym back home, he thought as he finished his set of hammer curls!

In the food department, Ilena got to share an Italian meal with the moms, a true multi-cultural exchange, because many are from different countries (including Japan, Korea, U.S., India, and Brazil). Mike got to enjoy a Tuna Restaurant that served the many parts of the Tuna many many different ways. He also got to taste many varieties of Shochu, including the kind made from sugar cane and the kind made from sweet potato (both hot and ice cold).