Axel leaves for Japan, school ends!

Keith and I were very excited and I  nervous about his trip solo across the world. The first challenge was getting through security and to his gait at SFO by himself. He was happy to text us that, although his bag was flagged he was through security, after checking his bag within 20 minutes of getting dropped  off!

He was fully boarded by 10:25 am and the plane took off as scheduled at 10:55am! Axel on the plane!

We were thrilled to hear from him at 9:59pm that he had landed on Tokyo safely. He had his luggage by 10:45pm and was through customs and on the bullet train, the Shinkansen by midnight! Here he is on the train. 

Keiko sensei picked him up and took him out to dinner when he arrived in Tokyo. They, of course, had a lovely sushi meal for his first dinner in Japan. 

He was safe and secure at Keiko sensei's house at 2 am. Here is a view from her house. I was able to finely turn my phone off and go to sleep, just to wake up at 6 am :)

On Friday, he met with the principal and purchased any remaining items that he needed for school. He also was able to meet the distance track coach. He purchased one more shirt so he wouldn't have to do as much laundry. This shirt has the official school symbol, which I think he liked. 

Axel had a very embarrassing incident while purchasing his school supplies. He had a 10,000 yen bill, that happen to be "toy money." He did not know and tried to pay for his school items with it. Keiko sensei had to pay for it and Keith paid her back when he sent her money for his lessons. We couldn't figure out where the fake money came from and when Keith was telling Rubix and Phoenix the story, Phoenix came out and said she had fake money that she received from Japanese class! We felt really bad for him. Luckily, Keith had also given him "real" yen that was left over from previous business trips. 

After their visit to the school they went to the mall to get lunch. Axel snapped a shot of this manikin that caught his eye because he thought his dad would get a lot of enjoyment out of this picture. Can you see what both Axel and Keith picked up right away? If you said the position of the right hand fingers, you are correct! 

After work/school got out, Axel went to Ayako's, his host family house, where he would be staying the rest of his time in Japan. He had dinner with them and played with his Ayako's 5 year old son, which I think is named Naru. Here is his first meal with them. We are very excited that Axel now has a new found enjoyment of salads/greens and is eating one for breakfast, lunch and dinner! He says the difference is the dressing and he now likes the taste. Incredible!!!!

Over the weekend he was taken to the Nagoya Castle. It looks quite similar, but bigger, than the Osaka Castle that we visited when we were in Japan. 

Axel said it was a significantly better, as the castle was actually set up like a castle/home, rather than a museum. The Osaka Castle was strictly set up like a museum, which wasn't super fun for the kids to visit.  I believe this is a picture of one of the many living quarters. It looks beautiful. 

While Axel was enjoying his first weekend in Nagoya, Japan, we were at a three day swim meet. Here is Keith in his cool new hat, that he received officiating the International Swim Meet on Friday, May 29th.

 Rubix swam the 400 meter free race at 12:30pm that day. Keith picked him up from school at 11:20 am and took him down to Morgan Hill for warm ups.  I managed to go to an appointment, meet a friend for a hike and then make it to his race, just in the nick of time. I literally arrived at 12:25 and he was behind the blocks waiting to be called up. This allowed Keith to officiate while I timed for him.  After Rubix's race, we headed home, which allowed me to get Phoenix from school (she had her final review for Finals that day) and eventually take her to swim practice. Santa Clara Swim Club has been hosting the International Swim Meet for over 50 years. It was a very big swim meet with top Olympians in the past. However, the past couple of years, it has been poorly attended. To help provide another long course swim meet for the club and to make more money, they host a separate "block party" in between prelims and finals. Many of the Santa Clara Swim Club officials who worked prelims and finals for the International Meet kindly helped officiate during the block party from 12 -3 pm. This makes for an incredibly long day, officiating from 8 am until 7 pm. Keith officiated the block party and finals on Friday. I officiated the block party Saturday and Sunday and he officiated finals again on Sunday. This is our way to give back to the club. 

Rubix had a great weekend, getting many personal best swim times. Phoenix also had a great swim meet considering she raced two 50's both days without getting too tired! She actually had 3 personal best times. The 50 breast and fly she hadn't swam in a year or two, but the most impressive drop was the 50 back that she swam the week before. She is actually only half a second off of Far Westerns, which would be amazing if she can achieve a couple of Far Western times in shorter events to allow her the option to not have to swim as much volume during the championship swim meets this summer. 

Here is Rubix's 100 breast. He dropped an additional 3 seconds from the week before finishing in 128.88, which is another AAAA time and 11th in the nation! He is so close to another top 10 U.S. time. The best thing about it, is how much he is enjoying breast stroke! This is a complete change from a year ago. We are so grateful for his private swim coach, Nick, for helping him learn and improve his breast stroke technique. 

Rubix 100 Breast

I don't have Rubix's 100 free on film (because I was officiating and Keith doesn't always film the kids). He dropped 3.98 seconds finishing in 108.90, which is a AAAA time and a couple of seconds off of the Far Western cut for 11/12 year old boys. This also bumps him up to 13th in the country for 10 and under boys. 

Unbeknownst to me, Keith snapped a couple of photos of me "walking" or being the stroke judge during the meet. I absolutely love getting to move and officiate, rather than just standing still for 30-60 minutes at a time. 

Here is Phoenix's 50 breast. She dropped 1.5 seconds, finishing at 40.26 seconds. She wasn't very pleased with her performance, but I was! I thought she did great and tried hard in a race that she doesn't usually race. 

Phoenix 50 Breast

Here is the 50 back where she dropped .73 seconds from her time the week before. She finished in 33.99, just half a second off of the Far Western cut! Go Phoenix!

Phoenix 50 Back

The 50 fly is also not a race that Phoenix usually races or enjoys, but I was even more proud of watching her try so hard. She dropped a second off the last time she raced this, finishing in 33.99. She is going to continue to race 50's and try some 100's on the 20th and the 27th and 28th of June. When we had to sign up she was still feeling quite tired, but a spoiler alert is that she started being able to train harder for the past 3 practices. We are cautiously optimistic and hope she continues to feel more and more like herself. 

Phoenix 50 Fly

On Sunday afternoon when we arrived home we saw some exciting text messages from Axel as he was starting his first day of school. The board in the back of the room had a nice welcome message for him. 

The teacher and students also gave him a warm welcome. He had many students wanting to meet him during lunch. Ayako has been providing home packed lunches. Axel was so impressed with his first lunch, he snapped a photo to send to us. He said it was delicious!

 

Here he is with one of his classmates. Although, he forgot his running clothes in the excitement and nervousness of getting to school early on the first day, he had the best day ever!

It rained on Tuesday and the Typhoon hit that night at midnight. His host mother was notified that school was postponed until 2 pm on Wed. after the typhoon would pass. Axel had track practice on Wed. from school but he had practice at "the stadium" Thursday night, where the team did a workout. Here he is taking a picture. His practice started at 7 pm, so this was after practice had ended. 

On Friday, June 5th, Axel had the privilege of celebrating Atsuta Matsuri that is held at Atsuta Jingu Shrine in Nagoya with his host family. He wore the traditional clothing and then enjoyed watching performances and fireworks!

This festival celebrates the arrival of the summer season. They set off nearly 1,000 fireworks over the course of 40 minutes! They also have ornate floats and paper lanterns around the shrine's entrance. 

The next day Axel went shopping with Satoshi, the host dad. Here he is with one of the outfits he bought. I sure hope he likes the clothes he purchased. His friend Samaara really wanted him to get new clothes that were not running clothes or sweats! 

Phoenix had finals the first week in June and Rubix had fun all week. They both had their last day of school on Thursday, June 4th. Rubix came home with his art work from the year. He didn't want to save very many pieces this year, so I did what I always do and that is take a picture of it and then recycle it. I included the photos here, for your viewing pleasure. 

He doesn't seem to enjoy art as much as Axel or Phoenix. 

I thought these last two pieces were quite good. He seems to do better with more concrete pieces that are include less drawing and painting. 

Rubix shared with us some of the cool things he has been watching in class the past week or so. He has really enjoyed Mark Rober's videos. We watched Squirrel Maze 2.0 and the Crow solve 9 puzzles. In the enjoyment of sitting down and relaxing, I noticed how big Rubix's feet have become. I thought they looked the size of my feet and they are!!!

Rubix is growing up and has started to prepare some meals for himself and take over Axel's chores, while Axel is out of the country. I am excited to see Rubix grow and mature and am looking forward to the person he becomes. 

This week I am off of work, on "continuing education." I have luckily finished all of my course work so I am here with the kids, taking them to practice and enjoying their company. Phoenix and I went clothes shopping. Rubix and I have baked. Keith and I went to Costco together. The simple things in life are such a joy. We are excited to hear from Axel and I hope to write again by early July. We will have to see how busy we are with work, the kids starting their summer programs, the summer swimming schedule which includes every morning from 6:30-8:30 am and every afternoon Monday through Thursday from either 4-8 pm and Saturday mornings from 7-11 am! The best birthday present will be picking Axel up from SFO on my birthday!!!

Until then....I hope you enjoy the summer weather!