Aug 29
2009
2009
Archive for August, 2009
Some time ago, my husband and I watched the movie “Seven Samurai” which was highly recommended by my friend Henry. It is an old movie (1954) made by the 
world famous film director Akira Kurosawa. We enjoyed it very much. It is about a village of farmers that decided to hire seven samurai (ronin; masterless samurai) to defend themselves from an impending attack of bandits instead of letting the bandits steal their crops after the harvest. There were many things to be said about this movie. I liked what Kanbei (the head Samurai) said to others when he was trying to recruit his small army. He was honest about it up front and said “I have a job that brings you no money and no fame”. (more…)
Aug 25
2009
2009
RCB日本語コースを受講して
（受講生の方から体験談をいただきました。原文のまま掲載しています）
今年の7月に日本語RCBコースをつみき幼稚園で五週間にわたり受講しました。8歳と4歳の二人息子を持つ母です。始めは、子育てにそれほど悩んでいたというほどでもなかったし、大体普段は、いろいろ勉強になりそうな講演とかあっても、”忙しいから“を理由に何も受けたことがな
かったのですが、たまたまつみきで、RCBコースのチラシをみて、“こどもをどならなくなります”（だったか、叱らなくなりますだったか、ちゃんと覚えてませんが）というようなことが一言書いてあって、“ふーん、どんなことしたら、一体そういうことがありえるんだろう”と興味が沸いてきました。もちろん“忙しい”ので、説明会などもいけません。夜も毎週1回から多いときは2回も仕事で遅くなるので、これまた”忙しい“主人に頼らなくてはならず、少し気もひけて、その日は主人にもいいかねて、どうしようかなと思っていました。でも気になって、少しインターネットで見てみたところどうやら面白そうだし、丁度義母も来る時期だから、子供もみてもらえるだろうしと、主人に聞いてみたら、えらくあっさり、”やってみたら？“との返事。ちょっぴりわくわくして受けることになりました。 (more…)
Aug 22
2009
2009
RCB for Parents with Multiples
The talk on Redirecting Children’s Behavior techniques for the Gemini Crickets of Multiples Club of Silicon Valley was very successful – we had over 
70 parents participating! When Mari, one of the club officers, a mother of a 4 year old & 20 month old twins and my close friend told me the day before that 64 people had registered to attend, I was thrilled but also thought that not everyone would show up. So I was really surprised when 70 copies of handout we had prepared were all gone and there were a few who didn’t get it (I even gave my original). (more…)
Aug 15
2009
2009
Home Sweet Home
We just returned from a 10-day east coast vacation. Did I actually say “vacation”? Traveling with two toddlers was not necessarily relaxing. Two big challenges for me were the 5 hour flights between Los Angles and the East Coast(we flew in Newark, 
NJ and flew out of Washington D.C.) and getting them to sleep at night in an environment different from home. Upon our return home they seemed happy being able to sleep in their own beds. This is not to say that we didn’t have fun while traveling – we got to meet and spend quality time with my parents, my husband’s relatives, and our friends. We explored New York and Washington D.C. (more…)
Aug 8
2009
2009
Family Vacation
We’re on vacation! By the time this post is up, I’ll be in Washington D.C. with my husband, my kids and my parents who’ll fly in from Japan and meet us there. We also have close friends who have two kids that live in D.C., and we 
will be up and about, exploring the city and swimming in a pool. On this occasion, I wanted to write about a trip I took with my parents and brother – it was our first family vacation abroad. We flew into Vancouver, and then visited Canadian Rockies, specifically Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.
Aug 1
2009
2009
Art Of The Balancing Act
My two sons are only 16 months apart. We wanted to have our children close in age because both my husband and I have close-in-age siblings, and our experiences of growing up were 
overall positive. When people see us with two little ones running around, they say that we have a handful, and it is true that we do, but when we see them doing things together such as playing, giggling, sharing and entertaining each other, my husband and I look at each other and smile. As my husband likes to say, “It’s all part of the master plan”.
