May's Going's On (is that right?)

Sorry the blog has become a little stale the last couple weeks. I'll try to do better. School year is winding down now, picnics, field trips etc are filling up the calendar. Last week Cole went to the Tama Zoo with his class and Kaori's school had Sports Day. That involved the teachers putting on games for the students (and parents). The kids got stamps and once they filled up their card, a gold medal. The parents got nothin'. Then on Saturday night Robyn and I went out with parents from Cole's class and his teacher to thank him for his efforts for the year. Next week Kaori will be on an outing to Children's Castle here in Tokyo and then conferences the week after that. Cole will be having portfolio sharing day where Robyn and I'll be going out to his school so he can show us the work he's done this year. I'm sure there's more but I can't remember it all.

Big earthquake just off the coast last week. I felt the first shock at about 1 AM as it woke me up and just kept shaking and rattling the apartment. About 45 minutes later the second wave came through and Robyn and I both woke up. She said "That was a big one" but of course I had to tell her the first one was bigger. It registered 6.8, pretty big indeed. No damage though, just loss of sleep.

This weekend we are going to try to go to Kyoto. Shouldn't be a problem, just if we can make all the arrangements in the next few days. We'll go on the Shinkansen, the high speed train. Kyoto has many old temples and castles and is close to Osaka. Robyn has wanted to visit there since we've moved. Finally.

Next month we are going to Oshima, an island just south of Tokyo. We'll have to take a jet boat to get there. I've been wanting to visit one of the southern islands. Actually I'll be doing my very first triathlon on the island. Probably going to be nerve wracking until that is over and then fun.