The Real Housewife of Tokyo

Tokyo cab drivers

I meant to write about the cab drivers in Tokyo for a long time.....

1. The cab drivers here are very professional --they dress in suits( that's right) and some even wear white gloves!!!  They are very polite and nice.

2. No tipping - you don't need to tip them regardless how many pieces of luggage you have in the trunk!  And they will assist you with your bags!

3. When asking your front desk getting a cab for you, believe it or not, the cab driver will get out of the car and BOW when you show up and about to get in the cab.

Wonderful isn't it!?!  Well, here comes the terrible part....they drive very fast but very smoothly.....( good for the passengers but bad for the pedestrians).  When running the light, they did it with such grace and yet speed that they ran the light already and it will take you a second or two to realize what just happened as a passenger.  However, this is terrible for the pedestrians since you have no way of knowing when a cab is going to jump out at you!

They also make sharp turns with such precision like a surgical bladecutting thru the oncoming pedestrians traffic.  There is no such thing as inching in or stop to let the pedestrians cross first.  So many times half way thru the crosswalk, I have to either stop the stroller( to let the cab thru) or just pick up Diego and run( for our lives). 

The cab drivers in NY are different.  Their driving is loud as if the car is literally screaming whenever the driver is about to do something bad .  As pedestrians, this is easy( and safer) since you can easily tell that the cab is up to no good from blocks away.

When we first arrived in Tokyo, my husband liked to say how the citizens of Tokyo obey the traffic regulations and patiently waiting for the lights to change regardless if it's 3 o'clock in the morning.  Well, now I know why.....They HAVE TO if they care for their lives!!!!

Sakura

It's cherry blossom season in Tokyo right now.  Pictures along can do a much better job than me telling you all about it.  Here is the link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10357960@N02/sets/72157623112772126/

However I do want to talk about the different locations we went to:

Ueno Park - awesome place if you have young kids or toddler with you.  Besides Sakura flower watching, there is a Ueno Zoo right next to it.  The zoo itself is big enough for a one day trip and the facilities there are extremely family friendly.  Oh, not to mention the price is great.  600 Yen( $6.60 dollars)  for adult and 200 ( $2.20 dollars)Yen for toddler. 

Naka-meguro - the cherry trees are planted along side a city river( the river itself is not so nice...it's more like a canal).  It is filled with street vendors for all sorts of Japanese traditional food and extremely crowded.  If you like to enjoy the flowers while trying out different types of street food, this would be a great fit.  Definitely not a children friendly location....it is so over crowded and the street traffic is not blocked off either. 

Shinjuku Gyoen/Shinjuku Imperial Garden - put aside the cherry blossoms, the garden itself is extremely beautiful......definitely another family friendly location.  There is a great lawn area, a traditional Japanese garden section, a french garden section, and a green house.  You do have to pay to go in - Adult 200 Yen ($2.20 dollars), primary and middle school age 50 Yen ( $0.60) and free if you are under age 6.

Though you have to pay to enter, the price is better than fair.  What we've noticed is that the Japanese don't gouge you at any public domain.  Even the drinks and food sold there are priced fairly.  ( No more $7.00 for a hot dog.......)

You probably notice that people bring food and drinks along with a plastic mat to sit under the tree to enjoy the flowers.  The flower watching activity is called Hanami. ( I think wikipedia can do a better job than me explaining what Hanami actually is.)

The scene of International schools - Part $$

Can't believe I posted the part I about two months ago....

I guess most people would be most curious about the co$t of attending these international pre-schools in Tokyo. Well, to sum it up...it ain't cheap!!!

Before attending, just to get on the waiting list, some pre-schools will charge you a so-called application fee.  It's only a one-page document. But they charge you anywhere from $100 ~ $200 dollars ( USD).  Seriously, how hard it is to process a one-page doc???!!!  This is so much more expensive than the application fees of business schools. And let's not forget the "thickness" of the biz school applications.

What's worse, some really expensive schools here won't even refund you the app fee if the waiting list ended up being too long that they can't even grant your child a spot.  ( What a rip-off!!!)  The more reasonable ones won't charge you app fee if availability is an issue. 

After paying for the application fee( Thank God...some schools have no such fee), you definitely can't avoid the registration fee.  The reg fee has such a wide range from several hundred dollars to $1000 per child to OVER $2000 per family.   ( I guess you need to have at least 2 or 3 kids attending to bring down the CPC - "cost per child" of registration.)

Then the monthly tuition.  Most schools offers two ~ five days a week options for your child.  For example, three days a week could cost you anywhere from $800 to $1500. Oh, by the way, this is the cost for HALF day programs.  Some pre-schools offer after hours language, art, math, gym or music classes for additional fee$.  After hours childcare service is also available for a hefty $10 per half hour.

Besides tuition, some school will also charge a bunch of other fees( I think they are just made-off fees for additional revenues), such as building maintenance, earth quake rehearsal and fire drill fees.  Sounds a lot like our phone and cable companies in the states.  ( Haha.....) 

As you can see, fees are all over the place with no industry standards whatsoever.  Our relocation consultant said because most companies will pay for the tuitions and fees for their expats' kids once they turn 3 years old, the pre-schools can basically charge whatever they want.  ( Since the foreign companies are the suckers here...)  Because of the high cost, I've also heard some families decided to hold back their kids from going to pre-school till 3 yrs old.

I am alway curious about the cost of private schools in NYC.  Does anyone know??

13 times in a year....

Here is my track record of being a full-time mom:

Nov 22nd 2009 was my first day of being a full-time mom. ( Seriously, 1 hr 30 minutes after Diego was born, my mom's flight arrived at Newark Airport.  And as my mom's left foot out the door  when Diego was three months old, my mother-in-law right foot in the door to take the next shift. And even my nanny started when my mother-in-law was still with us....)

( Anyway, back to my track record) 

End of Dec, Diego was sick with food poisoning.  ( Well, actually, all three of us got it.)

Jan was a quite month. ( Thank God!)

Feb - Diego was sick with stomach flu.

March - Diego caught a nasty cold.

While I was a part-time mom, Diego was only sick three times in that 21 months time frame.  First time, he was 8 months old..just runny nose for a few days.  ( I still remember that I had to be away for Publisher Summit in LA.)  No recollection for the 2nd time whatsoever.  Third time was reaction to the Swine Flu vaccine. 

The Dr. said all is normal -  kids his age who attend day-care/pre-school get sick 13 times in one year on average since they catch everything from everyone else at school in a never-ending cycle.  So here is my goal - try to keep him UNDER the avg!!!!!

My first Japanese lesson.

I was so excited about my first Japanese lesson. ( Bill has been getting his lessons since we arrived in Tokyo.  And every time after his lesson, he always has something interesting to share...)  However, I was extremely disappointed 30 sec into the class.  My tutor was lame....seriously lame.  She prepared a few print outs-- greetings/intro, basic shopping questions and japanese holiday schedule.  Without explaining to me anything, she just started asking me to repeat after her.  Seriously, they don't mean anything to me unless you explain to me what they are!!!!  I had to figure things out by asking her myself or reading the Chinese characters in the print out.

I spent time to explain to her that it will be better for me to learn a new language from the basics such as teaching me how to pronounce the vowels, the 50 sounds of Japanese, the grammar so on the son forth. I don't learn from memorizing sentences for daily conversation. 

Honestly, I doubt if her English is good enough to understand what I just explained.  She continued to ask me to "repeat after her".  ( Sigh......)

I continued to ask questions about grammar or just anything.....she wasn't able to explain any...she just kept telling me," not worry about...just read..."

In the end, she gave me her business card( for her contact info in case I need to cancel or reschedule).  Then I notice her title....PHOTOGRAPHER. ( Well, that just explains everything...!!!)  Teaching Japanese is apparently her side job.

Enough with the disappointment.  Anyway, I am in the process of getting a new tutor.  (Well, I will for sure to use her business card for the first and the last time!)

Sleepless in Tokyo....

So sorry that I haven't been posting as regularly.  Diego had stomach flu for about two weeks.  ( Sure it was hell-ish for me and Bill...sigh.....I honestly had no idea how Bill managed to get up every morning and still go to work). Due to the sickness, Diego's clingyness got worse and sleep pattern was totally thrown off.  My back was in so much pain cramping with a jumbo toddler on a Japanese size toddler bed night after night.

Finally, we've had enough and decided to turn to our sleep coach, Janeen, again for help ( we first used her service when Diego was 9 months old...best money ever spent!!!).  Janeen was nice enough to accommodate our schedule and the 14 hrs time difference.  We are now in sleep training Diego again!  Hopefully, I will be able to get restful nights again soon.  Then I will be able to resume regular posting ^_^.

The scene of International schools - Part I

I was surprised to see that there are so many international schools in Japan all together.  In fact, there is a very very thick book ( actually, Yellowpages would be about the same thickness....) about them that you can find it on Amazon.  The book does a good job listing all the schools, locations, 2-3 pages of description about the school.  However, with the digital age, you can find the same info on the schools' websites.  Personally, I don't think it's necessary to purchase it.  Of course, the book is for reference only.  As a parent, you will need to visit the schools to figure out which is the best for your child.

There are probably no less than a dozen international schools within 15 minutes of walking distance from my apartment, which made our decision that much harder( too many to choose from...)   We visited ABC, SummerHill, PAL, AIS( Azabu International School) and  The Lutheran Church at Roppongi.  And here is our impression:

ABC - very structural and VERY VERY academic focus.  If we were to send Diego there, I am sure he would learn a lot in a short time.  But is it really necessary for a 2 yr-old to learn computer skills and math???  And I really don't feel like paying $200 non-refundable application feejust to get on the waiting list.  ( Oh yeah, most popular schools have a pretty extensive waiting list.  In fact, Willowbrook's waiting list was 9 months long that we didn't even bother to visit.)  Student to teacher ratio: 3:1.

SummerHill - just the right combination of academic+ play that we like for Diego.  However, the school seems very corporate like.  ( I mean there is nothing wrong with a well-run corporate like pre-school......)  Two things I don't like about it: 1) they will hold a child back from advancing to the next class if he or she is not potty-trained.  I mean, seriously, what if every other aspect of that child is ready to move ahead??  How can you hold them back for 1 single reason????  2) The student to teacher ration is 4:1.  ( I mean with the price they charge, I think they can easily do better on the ratio.)

PAL - I think the ones in my town back in NJ are better!  Why would I want to pay more for less quality?!?

AIS -  the perfect one for our Diego :)

Lutheran Church - no to worry, they don't teach anything religious related ( if you don't want your kids to learn that.).  It's really NOT a school.  It's more like a HUGE playgroup ( or kids' circus ...haha...) with tons and tons of kids running around, screaming and playing.  After all, we want Diego to go to a SCHOOL. 

And of course, don't take my words for it.  Go visit the schools for yourself/your child.

In Part II, I will talk about the co$t of attending the international schools.

Actually, we speak English, too.

The other day Diego and I were taking our usual stroll at the park across the street.  A white girl, probably around age 5, came up to us and started waving her hand and said "おはよう" ( spelled ohayou, it means good morning though it was 3pm in the afternoon already...) a few times.  Diego waved back and I said to her, " Hi~~~, we actually speak English too!"  Well, she had her mind set on us being Japanese so she continued saying おはよう a few more times and then walked away.  I was thinking perhaps she is European so she didn't exactly quite understand what I said to her.  ( Though foreign kids here usually attend English speaking international schools, she should understand English regardless...)  Later on, I overheard her speaking English to her nanny....! Oh well......

Few minutes later, an old Japanese man approached me and started saying a bunch of stuff.  I smiled and responded, " Sorry, but I don't understand Japanese."  Well, I guess he has his mind set too so he continued carrying on this one way conversation.......so I repeated.  A few seconds later, finally, it registered in his head.  He apologized and walked away. 

Looks could be very deceiving!  Because we are Asian, everyone starts the conversation with us in Japanese and the caucasian moms at the playground would never bother to approach me to start a conversation.  Well, the people who tried to talk to me, I don't understand them.  The people I understand don't bother to talk to me.  As you can see, it hasn't exactly been the easiest for me to make new friends here.  Regardless, I am making progress :) ...slowly...with tiny steps!  I think it's fair to say that I am getting the hang of it - being a housewife in Tokyo ^_^. 

Pasta Sauce.....

Try to save some money so I bought a few jars of locally/Japan made pasta sauce.  The imported ones usually cost you around $7-$9 a jar( I know, it's expensive for pasta sauce...). Also, the jar is somewhat smaller than what you would normally see on any grocery store shelf back in the states.  Seriously, if it's some imported fancy Italian brand, then I would take that $9bucks out of my pocket and give it a shot.  To be honest, I just don't feel like paying so much money for Ragu or Prego.

Here is the tasting result: the Japanese pasta sauce is very watery and way too sweet that it doesn't have much tomato taste.  Oh, best of all, it actually has carrots and potato chunks in it (oh yeah....no typo here....).  Of course, I was a bit shocked to see those chucks in the pasta sauce.  But, you have to give some credit to their creativity here! 

Recommendation: I wouldn't recommend anyone just poring it over pasta and start eating it ( trust me, you don't want to do that!).  But, to save money, if you want to add other ingredients to make it...let's say..meat sauce...then it's doable.

As the head chef of the family, I think I will stock up on the imported American or Italian ones next time they go on sale :) .

Follow up on "Poor people in rich neighborhood"

Of course, we are not the only poor/"fake rich" people living in this neighborhood.  The larger Azabu area is filled with expats from all over the world.  In my building,40% of the residence are non-Japanese.  Some as high as 75%.....

I feel comfortable saying that probably a good 50% of the people in this neighborhood are not Japanese.  Can I get by the day-to-day without speaking Japanese?  Yes, of course, since there is such a high concentration of foreigners here, the workers of most stores/businesses here speak some level of English.

It is actually quite common to see kids in this neighborhood with mixed racial/culture background that speak 2-3 different languages.  The fact that Diego, my son, speaks Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and English is actually not all that special anymore.....

I hope this might help answer some of the questions you may have in your mind from reading the previous post.