Poaching and Politicking

Mei: less than one year. You have to get them hooked on phonics at a young age.

Hayato at the park near his apartment.

Hayato flashing his gang sign at the ramen restaurant.

A couple of days ago we met up with Hitomi and her son Hayato. Hitomi is Noriko's friend from jr. high. We dropped by to chat them up and to establish a friendly candor with her son, Hayato. He was able to say "How are you?" I get kinda nervous around the children of her friends so I'm doing what I can to feel more at ease around Japanese children, in general. Partly because I'm not there 100% as a friend, and I'm trying to subtly demonstrate I could teach their children something. Hitomi insisted on treating us to lunch and since we're the "charitable" type, we accepted. I had Canton Ramen. I don't really know how that varies from just plain ol' ramen, but it was pretty good (and warm on a cold day). Just so you know, actual ramen is 1000x better than the cup noodles you buy at the grocery store. And it is on the cheaper side here. A giant bowl is usually 5 or 6 bucks.

The kid in the top picture belongs to Yumiko (she's in an earlier entry). We accompanied her to a shopping center where her oldest kid (Yui, 6) attends an English class. It was a good chance to watch a kids English class. There really wasn't much to it other than a lot of jumping and singing. And kids yelling.