Monitoring

~ before ~

A lot of parents at school were worried about radiation, the soil that was exposed to radiation leaks at the playground of the school was removed ( please read my post about it here ) My daughter's kindergarten and in gradeschool is doing it's own monitoring here in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture and constantly getting the results that there are no problems. Before, kids at school are allowed to play outdoor for only 30 minutes but now the topsoil were removed, kids are now back playing outdoors ( but still time is limited but longer).

~ after ~

*** There were some 'wakaii mama san tachi ' ( young mothers) often says that they don't want to eat something that comes from our Fukushima Prefecture and that they're frightened of being exposed to radiation but are SMOKERS~ don't they know that they are directly exposed to radioactivity in cigarette smoke? Or is it just me being affected when somebody says something bad about Fukushima on TV? ***

Hello Kitty Onigiri Case

Every Monday is Haruka's onigiri ( rice ball ) day and the kids at school will only have just one onigiri during lunch time. It is because that the school wanted to let the kids think that there are people who has eaten less for the day and they let the kids at school experience their sufferings. Every Monday the kids at school offer money as a donation to give to the poor.



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Chopper and Rilakkuma Lunch Box

Wakaba is gaga over the One Piece anime nowadays and after seeing this Chopper Man Heart lunch box, I didn't thinked twice to buy it for her since she needs a new one for the school year and since she's a big eater, 500 ml is just exactly what I need for her.
Haruka however loves Rilakkuma and no wonder, it's uber cute!
Reusable water bottles are good to the environment and my kids brings water bottle to school for water or mugicha ( roasted barley ) everyday. As a mother, I would recommend bringing water bottles for eco ^_^
More of my kids homemade bento here



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My Kids Bento

Yours truly have been preparing bentos to Wakaba and Haruka almost everyday since last week coz the School- Lunch Center serving at their school was being affected during the 3-11 Earthquake in Japan but this week, milk, a piece of bread and something extra are served as school lunch. According to our PTA meeting, gakko kyushoku will resume next week.

Wakaba's problem with ' gakko kyushoku ' ( school lunch ) is that the serving is too small for her (she's a big eater kasi ) and she's shy to ask for an ' okawari ' ( asking for refill of food or another bowl of rice lol ). I remember what she told me when she came home from school and talked about her first school lunch~ Wakaba told me that she was shocked about the size of the hamburger steak at school, she said the size was far different of what's she was eating at home lol! Well, the serving at school ain't bad it's just that my girl wants a larger size of her favorite meal lol! School lunches serves healthy menus~ it has main dish, side dish and milk.

Well anyway, here's what I prepared for my girls bento~ everyday is a twist, easy and healthy that they love ^_^

Rice seasoned with furikake, fried chicken, potato salad, tomato, cheese, hijiki nimono (simmered thin seaweed ) and strawberries
Chicken teriyaki, chikuwa ( fish cake ), kanikama ( crab stick ), cucumber stick salad, tomato, takuan ( japanese picked daikon ) and takikomi gohan ( japanese rice dish seasoned with soysauce with mushrooms ) topped with nori.
Wakaba and Haruka's Bento for school
Kanikama Maki ( crab stick sushi roll ), kinpira renkon ( braised lotus root ), flowery ham and egg, tomato and apples
Wakaba and Haruka's Bento for school
Tamago yaki ( japanese omelet rolled with nori ), rolled bacon with asparagus, rice ball, tomatoes and grapes

Oval onigiri wrapped with seaweed, wiener, veggie pork stir-fry and strawberries
Wakaba and Haruka's Bento for school

You'll find some of my homemade bentou's of my girls here, my FIL's bentou here,my kids Sports Festival bentou here and here, picnic time bentou here and my husbands bentou here.

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Dealing With Radiation Mess

Parents ( mostly Moms ) had a couple of PTA meetings at school of Haruka in kindergarten about dealing with radiation mess of the nuclear plant in Fukushima. Parents were concerned of the kids condition bout the safety limit of exposure ( the school authority limits 30 minutes of letting the kids play outdoor ) and most request from the parents were to remove topsoil from the playground of the school because the soil was exposed to radiation leaks...

Last Sunday, March 22, 2011, the school granted the request with the cooperation of the teachers, staff and parents by digging up the topsoil from the playground ( although the tests showed that the radiation level were low ) so that kids at school can resume playing outdoor activities. The digging started at 8:30 in the morning and wasn't expecting many volunteers to come but was surprised that most of the parents were present.

Sunday, 8:30 A.M. radiation measurement at the schools playground: Before⇒０．５５μSｖ/h
radiation measurement at the schools playground: After ⇒０．１３μSv/h

Parents, cleaning up school playground

Digging up soil and was replaced by a clean soil

The sand box at school was covered by a blue sheet~ it wasn't used since the class resumed

Working together

The School Director thanking everyone for the cooperation and for a job well done.

The amount of radiation dose on the surface has dropped and we are hoping that the troubled nuclear plant would remain stable soon.


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Nostalgia--Rice Cake Pounding

This was Haruka's first ' omochi tsuki ' ( rice cake pounding ) when she was still joining her prepschool as a celebration to wish good health and prosperity of the New Year here in Japan. Some Yochien ( kindergarten ) in Japan do their omochi tsuki during December but theirs is done some time in January. I was also a part of preparing the mochi ( rice cake ) with some other volunteer mums/PTA at school. When the sticky rice is cooked, it is placed in the wooden mochibowl and the kids circle around the mochibowl while the school director helped the kids one by one smashing their mallets into the rice dough. And when they're all done in participating of mochi pounding, it is our job in rolling small mochi balls which were eaten with different kinds of toppings by the kids at school. It was a new experience for me and it was also Wakaba's last omochi tsuki as kindergartner. Volunteer Mums & PTA members--sticky rice is steamed Preparing the bowls for the mochi soup Haruka gets a little help with mochi pounding Mochi with different kinds of flavor--Isobe mochi ( dipped with soysauce and wrapped with dried nori ), anko mochi ( dipped with redbean paste), and kinako mochi ( topped with kinako powder). Ozoni--Japanese Mochi Soup Haruka loves mochi

Isn't it so much fun to go back and just yank them all out and just sit there and reminisce? ^_^
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All About Wakaba At School

Any other updates? Wakaba's Observation Day at Japan school is way behind--I haven't blogged for it for awhile and attended twice already and some parent-teacher one-on one meeting. Too much of being left out...

They were doing their art class when I entered the room with some of the parents as well. I was amazed how creative they are when the kids made out of something from materials that they brought from home--some paper plates, paper cups, plastics, ribbons,etc. It was fun watching the kids most especially my Wakaba working on her masterpiece and being so creative. She's having so much fun on her favorite subject at school which is art.

I'm so grateful that Japan school invite us parents to observe and see how our children are being taught at school. Wakaba made a giraffe and a week after she brought home her masterpiece and displayed at home with delight and proudly show off her hard work and of course I'm thankful for awesome pics of her artwork that is now being transferred to our hard drive to keep. ^_^ Well anyway here's some of my Wakaba's observation day in a photos showing off what she's doing in the class.
Showing off her work of art
Shoukai card, Kaiketsu Sorori--it's a some like a review on a book that she was reading at school
Ochiba de dress---they made a dress ( using a large plastic ) from fallen leaves when they had their class outdoor.
Another master piece^_^


Things are going good here and the kids are still playing with their friends in the neighborhood a lot ^_^

Hoping everyone's in pink of health and good spirits. Thank you very much for dropping by!