First athletics meet of the season*

On Saturday we went to the first athletics meet of the season for our two younger boys (our eldest is not doing a sport for school this season, he's hoping to get some extra time for schoolwork).

It was the first time, I think, that David and I have gone on our own to a meet without any accompanying children. For both the cross-country and wrestling seasons David has been a bus driver. But not for track and field. We didn't drive either. It is on the other side of the city, out near the bay. Between here and there there are millions of people and nearly as many cars, so trains are a much wiser option.

We also left at a nice time: 8.30, as opposed to much earlier for both wrestling and cross-country. We could do this because neither of our boys were in the first events. However our middle son was in pretty much the last event, so we stayed till the end at 4pm. It was a nice peaceful journey and after the stress of the last week, it was great to have a low-stress journey to the the meet.

It was not a brilliant day, weather-wise. Most of the day we had drizzle or the kind of drifting misty rain that makes umbrellas ineffective. The day before had been quite a warm day (nudging into the 20Cs) and hence it was very tempting not to dress warmly and I didn't put as many clothes on as I should have. 

As the day went on it seemed to just get colder and colder. Being outside in early spring misty rain, the cold tends to get into the bones after a while. I was so thankful that I'd hurriedly packed some long under-clothes in my backpack. I ended up using all of them and lending a pair of socks to a friend who was also struggling. Many parents left early, though, often due to the cold. I have to admit it was pretty chilling, looking at all those teenagers walking around in t-shorts and shorts in the drizzle.

Thankfully, though, there were quite a number of parents around to hang out with most of the day. There was plenty of time to talk, although you still have to be pretty alert to what's going on or you could just miss one of your child's three events of the day! I missed our youngest's relay because I was getting my camera out of the bag. 

Athletics meets aren't quite as intense as wrestling meets (but I don't find them as stressful, either).There isn't as much going on all the time and you are further from the action. And some events just seem to be very poorly organised. It took them all day to get through four discus events (all morning to do the high school boy's discus, and I'm sure that there weren't that many athletes).

 While waiting for the discus to start on the other side of the field to the
 stands, I was able to capture some more cherry blossoms.

Our two boys mostly did sprints: 100m, 400m, 4x400m, and discus for our middle son. 100m, 200m, and 4x100m for our youngest. They both did well. 

As I've explained before, the meets are organised in terms of educational level, not age. So all the middle schoolers (grades 6, 7, and 8) compete against one another. This doesn't give much success and encouragement to the grade 6 kids, but thankfully they can at least compare their times in this, unlike wrestling.

Our middle son is therefore the top of the heap and had high expectations to match. He came second yesterday in both the 100m and 400m (out of 63 competitors for the 100m, 15 for the 400m), so was very satisfied with that, though he'd like to improve his times. Our youngest son, if you compare him only to the other six graders in the events, also came second, though in reality it was 28th for the 100m and 16th in the 200m. He also wants to improve his times. So they've both got good goals to keep them motivated to train.

We're doing this for six weeks running this time (although I'm taking a break to volunteer at CAJ's Thrift Shop on the 22nd). Hopefully the weather will be better next week! That would help the sprinters too, the track was a little slippery.

*Americans would say Track Meet, Australian say "athletics" but I've got a feeling it wouldn't be "meet", what is the noun that Aussies would use here? "Carnival" doesn't seem quite right, though I know it's used in terms of school athletics events in Australia.

Thursday Therapy

Yesterday was a bit of a "meh" day. Several reasons for that:

• I am waiting on several people to do things or get back to me on stuff. They all have reasons for the delay, but my to-do list was looking like a "wait-for-so-and-so" list.
• It was grey outside, and not as warm as it often is at this time of year. I'm longing for warmer weather. Longing to get out of jackets and long-johns.
• Linked to the above, the weather for our camping trip was looking cruddy. Rain, snow, sleet, all these were forecast for the whole three days and four nights. Ugh. We'd anticipated having an epic four-family camping trip with other CAJ-teacher-families. This has been in the planning since last November and yesterday's texting conversation between them all was about whether to go ahead with our plans, or to change, or cancel them. Depressing—as I was looking forward to this trip so much.
• I really don't like being a single parent, though it's been quite a bit easier this time than many times in the past (they're older and there's only two of them), I'm still missing my soul mate and partner in running this household. I'm getting tired. Yes, these guys are at school all day, but I'm still doing "parenting stuff" at 9.30/10pm at night, past my "Cinderella Hour" and it wears me out when I can't share this. As always, my respect for single parents shoots through the roof!

However, I'd put "ride to the park" on the calendar for yesterday two weeks ago, so I forced myself out of the house and rode. Thankfully, the clouds cleared a little while I was out and there were shadows, even full sun for a bit. It was definitely good for me. 

Every day this week I've taken some "me" time during the day. 

• Monday I spent time with other parents at two prayer meetings and over lunch (this was organised by someone else and was very enjoyable social time).
• Tuesday I had a massage (yes, I do this, it is a maintenance thing, but it isn't weekly)
• Wednesday I had lunch with a friend who I haven't spent one-on-one time with for ages. It was great (unashamedly deep conversation), but too short due to unavoidable constraints on her time.
• Thursday I rode to the park.
• Friday I took lunch to a local friend who has three little ones. We also had wonderful, though understandably fragmented conversation.

I'm so thankful my work this week has given me the freedom to do this.

At the park I mostly rode around looking for signs of spring with my camera. The "major" cherry blossom trees aren't out yet, but they're very close. There were a few other trees who had a chance to shine, though. Here are some of my better captures:

A type of early blooming cherry blossom. Sorry, don't know which kind.

Magnolia. Not as spectacular, but still gorgeous after months of nude trees.

I need to work harder on getting my depth of field right (camera setting), but this was an intriguing tree called a Sanshuyu mizuki (I know this because many trees in this park have labels) or an Asiatic dogwood (which I know because of my awesome Japanese-English app).

This one is slightly better.

This tree is called a Kibushi in Japanese. There doesn't seem to be a common English word for it, maybe an "Early Spiketail"? Or Stachyurus praecox, to use the official botanical name. Whatever it's called, it's pretty.

Just about to pop!

Not a lot was blooming, but there were an awful lot of buds on the trees. Next week will be glorious, if it isn't raining!

I dared to have my camera out for a short part of my ride home (it still makes me nervous to have this equipment hanging around my neck when I'm on a bike), and I captured (but not very well, my focus was too close to me) one of my favourite things at this time of year: the pink of sakura just poking out in an unexpected place.

Three things for Monday

Today the guys went back to school after a week off. I went back to work after a week off. Wow, I'm finding it hard to get my brain into gear. I hope the David and the boys are doing better than me.

As I have a lot to do that's built up in my "absence", I will do a short post again today. Three things!

1. Reading aloud. 
We finished the book about Australian history and I decided we needed to up the pace a little. So we've started a fantasy series from the library that none of the boys have read, which is pretty amazing because our eldest is something of a speed reader and the library isn't large. I don't like fantasy, but I'm okay in reading it to my boys. I read The Hobbit to them when we toured around Hokkaido a few years ago.

This one turns out to be by an Australian author. It's certainly got us on the edge of our seats.

2. Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a laid-back day, but I did get them all out downtown at an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant for lunch. We had a relaxed and enjoyable time out. Oh, and David surprised me with a cheesecake (from Costco) last night. Guess my age?

3. Ohanami (cherry blossom viewing)

This actually means, having a picnic under cherry blossoms. A very traditional thing to do in Japan. And as the trees only blossom for a week or so it can be challenging to organise. On Friday I went back to our old stomping ground (near where we first lived in Tokyo) to meet my language exchange partners for our picnic. It was a little chilly to be sitting on the ground on a plastic sheet (the norm in Japan, not wool rugs), I definitely didn't have enough layers on. That's another big challenge for this time of year: I perpetually seem to have either too many or too few clothes on.

There were many people there, despite it being a relatively unknown spot Cherry Blossom viewing site. Yes, it is in the grounds of a former leprosy sanitarium. This research centre is adjacent to where we picnicked.

It was a grey day, but they still were spectacular.

Wonderful park-day

Today we "discovered" a new park. Well, we went to a park that we hadn't been to before (Showa Kinen Park - or Emporer Showa Memorial Park). It is a little less than an hour's drive away and about half the size of this park that we also love. So it is a little more convenient, but still has lots of wonderful things to do.

I just love driving Tokyo streets at this time of year, though. Arounde very second corner you are surprised by beauty. Cherry blossoms are out and they are in all sorts of surprising spots around the city.

Even sitting at roadworks, we were delighted by the beauty at this spot.

Once we got there, though, we were delighted by tulips, daffodils, cherry blossoms, camellias, and a number of other flowers/flowering trees and bushes that I don't know the names of. I took nearly 100 photos, feast your eyes on this small selection:

This part reminded me of my hometown, Toowoomba, in late
September during their annual Carnival of Flowers.

I love the randomness of this bush that shoots out sprays of
flower-laden stalks.

And plenty of photographers, who are way better than me.

But boys wouldn't be happy if there wasn't play equipment. So we visited these too (in between gawking at flowers).

About 1/3 of the "rainbow hammock".

Hilly trampolines!

And a mysterious area supposed to be the "Misty Forest", but there
wasn't much forest and only the occasional mist.

We took a packed lunch and sat here:

A Japanese-style picnic spot where you remove your shoes and sit
on the floor. Most of us actually sat on the benches on the outside (you
can see David there) without removing our shoes.

And sakura (cherry blossom) flavoured ice-cream to finish off the day.

And special credit goes to CAJ for having this unusual Easter holiday (we've never before had Easter Monday off in the six years we've been there), which made it possible to get to the park on a weekday when there were less crowds.

After some pretty intense months (work-wise) and a bleak long winter, it is hard to express how delightful it is to get out into a park without shivering (oh, forgot to tell you it was the first day of the year that made it into the 20Cs) and seeing all these bursts of colour. 

Cherry Blossom joy

Yesterday afternoon, after trying to get some rest, restless boys finally drove us outside. We needed our rest, but what we found when we got outside was restorative to our souls. The height of the cherry blossoms in our area, these sights are within five minutes bike ride of our house. The yellow flowers are Rape flowers - which they harvest Rape Seeds from for the oil. Photographers are out in force. Many people were taking photos with their mobile (cell) phones. I can't imagine why, unless their phones take much better photos than my phone! These photos were taken with our camera. What amazes me every year is not only their breathtaking beauty, but that it is so temporary. These blossoms will be gone within the week. I cannot wait until heaven, when breathtaking beauty will surround us continually AND we'll never tire of it. In the midst of the yellow flowers, can you see our 3 yo? By the way, I am not posting clear photos of our family on this blog, for security reasons. However, if you'd like to receive a photo email with a selection of family photos from the last month, let me know. I'll be sending one out (Lord willing) within the week.