Yochien
You will never guess what I need to do for the yochien this week. Well, maybe some of you could guess but none of my family and friends in North America will guess. I have to do a poo-test on both of my kids. I have a little sticker thing (looks like a blue bull`s eye) that I have to press onto the kid`s bums as the "turtle is coming out of it`s shell". I though a metaphor would be more pleasant than the actual words. And the best part of all is that I have to do it twice...twice on TWO kids....that makes FOUR times! Judging from the instruction sheet, it is to check for some kind of worm. Wish me luck.
Enough of the unpleasantness.
I also have to make 3 origami paper cranes. Luckily, my LSF and I ran into a really friendly family* at the restaurant where we ate lunch today and they showed us how to do it. After a few practice sessions which resulted in these:
I came home and found a website with clearer (read ENGLISH) instructions and made these:
Then there`s the fresh cut flowers that need to go with each kid tomorrow for some kind of thank you ceremony. Hopefully, the sunflowers I purchased today will fit the bill and won`t be representative of death or anything. I once bought some beautiful flowers for my apartment and had them on display when my boss came over and exclaimed, "Who Died?". Apparently, some flowers are ONLY used for funerals. Who knew???
Lastly, I have to find a couple of white t-shirts for the kids to bring for an art project tomorrow. I`m not sure if the shirt is supposed to be adult-sized or kid-sized so I`m going to send both. This is the way I handle most things when Tigerpapa isn`t here to read the information letters. I Wing it!
*This might seem strange to a lot of you. You know, that complete strangers will start talking to you while you are eating lunch in a restaurant, but it happens all the time in Japan especially if you happen to be a visible foreigner. The conversation started off with the mother saying "excuse me, will you check my daughter`s English homework?".
Enough of the unpleasantness.
I also have to make 3 origami paper cranes. Luckily, my LSF and I ran into a really friendly family* at the restaurant where we ate lunch today and they showed us how to do it. After a few practice sessions which resulted in these:
I came home and found a website with clearer (read ENGLISH) instructions and made these:
Then there`s the fresh cut flowers that need to go with each kid tomorrow for some kind of thank you ceremony. Hopefully, the sunflowers I purchased today will fit the bill and won`t be representative of death or anything. I once bought some beautiful flowers for my apartment and had them on display when my boss came over and exclaimed, "Who Died?". Apparently, some flowers are ONLY used for funerals. Who knew???
Lastly, I have to find a couple of white t-shirts for the kids to bring for an art project tomorrow. I`m not sure if the shirt is supposed to be adult-sized or kid-sized so I`m going to send both. This is the way I handle most things when Tigerpapa isn`t here to read the information letters. I Wing it!
*This might seem strange to a lot of you. You know, that complete strangers will start talking to you while you are eating lunch in a restaurant, but it happens all the time in Japan especially if you happen to be a visible foreigner. The conversation started off with the mother saying "excuse me, will you check my daughter`s English homework?".
posted by Tigermama @ 6:47 PM
8 Comments:
At 11:37 PM,
Sarah@mommyinjapan said…
We did the butt sticker last month but our instructions said to do it in the morning before they get out of bed. I'm glad I don't have the "turtle" instructions! You'd have to time that really good!
Last year, our preschool had a food poisoning problem. It turned out that nothing was wrong with the school kitchen or their preparations but there might've been a bad egg. Anyways, the school offered to test all the kids to make sure they weren't infected with salmonella. We had to take a sample of their poop and put it in a tiny tube. That was such a pain. The girls were totally freaked out and it took forever to talk them into letting me have some of their poop. Both of their tests came back negative, which I had guessed, but it did make me feel better when I saw it in writing (or when my husband translated it for me).
Good luck with the stickers!
At 7:27 AM,
Anonymous said…
ew. never done the poo test... but have done sticky tape in the butt as soon as they wake up in the morning.... one kid one time tested postitive, so we had to take medicine..... ew.
wow, t-shirts... do you think they are going to make tie-die!!!!!!??
I had to send clothes to school and they made bags.... they also sewed their own dust/cleaning rags. I was quite impressed by Kais sewing skills.
At 8:29 PM,
coarse gold girl said…
I sent a T-shirt to shyogakko and she brought it home with a pokemon character drawn on it (by her). they also wore them at undokai.
ditto what Sarah and Jan said about the butt sticker things. . . whenever they've asked for real poop they've sent home a small tube (to deposit it in) with a screw on cap on which is attached a small plastic spoon (for grabbing your sample). Ugh. This occurred back when they were in hoikuen and still young and on the potty--so it was easy for me to get the pooh--they couldn't flush it away!
are they testing for what we would call pin worms? I remember my brother getting those when we were little and my mother screaming hysterically at us whenever we were eating popcorn because he'd scratch his butt and then stick his hand back in the popcorn bowl that everyone was eating out of. . . LOL. It took years before I felt comfortable sharing popcorn with people. He is a professor of philosophy now. . . such a serious fellow. I also remember my mother telling him to stop humping the sofa like a dog. LOL.
Oh God. just had a horrid thought, I wonder what childhood memories he has of ME?
At 8:37 PM,
Trisha said…
Yup, we had to do the worm butt test sticker (there really is no nice way to say that is there?) last week. Hubs was gone and I didn't even get a cool instruction sheet like you did. Guess they thought I would know how to do it. Anyway, I ended up asking a Mom at the bus stop and she explained it to me. I sent it to school by Bailey and he pulled the protective tape back and touched the bulls eye so they asked me to do it again. Girl, you must be going crazy without your husband there. How much longer will he be gone?
At 1:35 AM,
Lily said…
Butt stickers- I gotta love the Japan. Maybe all the flowers are so the fragrant petals will overtake the pungent ones coming from all the butt stickers.
Hey come think of it- it is strange that people strike up conversation in restaurants so often here.
At 10:21 PM,
Sheri said…
Done the butt sticker thingy. Fun..for nobody, I know. Luckily MIL showed me how it worked the first time.
I guess you could start asking a Japanese mom to check your kids Japanese homework when they get a little older?
At 9:05 AM,
Tigermama said…
I think you guys are right and it`s more of a sticker test than a poo test so I changed my plan of action and did it your way. Thank Goodness for my blog. Actually, thank goodness for you ladies commenting on my blog. You saved me from a potential disgusting mistake!
CGG, your brother will LOVE that you share that story with your friends. :) But you have a point, what is he sharing about you???
Trisha, Dh will be back next week! Yipee! It will be short-lived however, as we leave for home on July 12th and then come back at the end of August only to have him go again. :( shoganai.
At 8:54 PM,
Trisha said…
Hey, we are leaving to go back home on July 12th as well and will be back on August 20th. Have a good, safe trip!
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