Nagoya castle

I have been in Nagota today and visited the Nagoya castle. I met a 6 year old Japanese boy Tamon, who started interviewing me in fluent English. He was interested on where I came from and wanted to make friends. He is going to an international kindergarden, and already now speaks better English than most Japanese I have met.

The Nagoya castle was built in 1610, around the time when Togukawa shogunate took control of the whole of Japan, isolated the country from the world and demanded absolute harmony.

The first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, built the castle. His family controlled Japan for almost 300 years on top of the strict class hierarchy followed by the warrior-caste of samurai.

"Ironically, many of the traditional values attributed to the Japanese today originate from this heritage." says Professor Akihiro Chiba in this article on pages 8-9 (pages numbered 16-17).

History is interesting: ...a country with closed borders, one family controlling all the riches, ruling with the help of the military, and building mausoleums to show their wealth...

The shogunate was abolished during the Meiji Restoration which was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure in the 1860s. Luckily.

Tomorrow I will visit Toyota Techno Museum to understand Toyota's history, and it's effect on their philosophy today.

A tribute to MST

I just watched this amazing video and want to dedicate it to the people at MST who provided great education to our children during the past 3,5 years. A BIG THANK YOU to Pete & Mariko, Lynn, Jere & Lynn, James, Minako, Naoko & Nadine, Zach, Patrick, Laurie, Miho, Shukuko, Emi and others who supported them!



See also:
Square root of 646416 and counting 4132+4325 (in Finnish)
Birthday Story: Aura
Logic break
Aura concentrating (see May image)
Book review
Model of MST Upper EL 2006-2007 (special feature: the making of)
Finland class
Periodic table of Elements (by a fourth grader - third grader in Finnish system)

Koira tuli taloon! - Dog in the house!

Perjantaina haimme Mihan Pirttihirmun Porvoon Mihalasta Porin "varakotiin". Annoimme hänelle kutsumanimen Hertta (Heart, Hjärta) ettei olisi ihan liian hirmuinen nimi karvaisella vauvalla... Hertta on syntynyt 17.4.2009.

Hakupäivä oli kasvattajan Saimi Niemisen nimipäivä, joten Saimi ja Ahti tarjosivat meille ihanaa mustikkapiirakkaa. Kahvittelun lomassa keskustelimme koiraan liityvistä asioista ja muutenkin rupattelimme. Koirat juoksivat pihalla, joten kun lähdimme matkaan, Hertta oli sopivasti väsähtänyt ja rauhoittui autossa heti ja kävi nukkumaan. Unta riitti aina Tampereen ohi ja pidimme yhden tauon ennen kuin jatkoimme matkaa Poriin. Kun käännyimme Kullaalta mutkittelevalle Harjunpääntielle Hertta voi pahoin, mutta muuten matka sujui rauhallisissa merkeissä.

Pentu on todella rohkea ja reipas, ja on hyvin sopeutunut uuteen kotiin. Hampaita pitää tosin kokeilla vähän kaikkeen, mutta muuten tavat ovat jo aika hyvin hallussa. Panta menee kaulaan ilman kummempia mutinoita ja pissat jäävät melkein aina jo ulos. Toki pari pientä vahinkoa on tullut sisällekin, mutta todella hienosti Hertta menee ulos ja hoitaa hommat nopeasti. Yöt hän nukkuu omassa pesässään makkarin lattialla, Auran ja Riikan kanssa samassa huoneessa. Päivisin leikin ja levon ajat vaihtelevat ja välillä pentu yltyy tosi riehakkaaksi! Onneksi yöt ovat rauhallisia.


Dog in the house!

On Friday we went to pick up our puppy Hertta. She was born April 17, 2009. Hertta is a Finnish female name coming from "heart" in English, "hjärta" in Swedish, but is not literally meaning heart, the organ - it does mean heart, the suit in card deck, and is the base word for sweet or cute in Finnish.

She was running around on the big yard with other dogs at the breeders. She was really tired when getting to the car, and slept for most of the journey to Riikka's parents place. As babies often do, Heart became car sick on the final small roads.

The puppy is really brave and feels comfortable with her new home. She is testing her teeth on almost everything, but otherwise behaves really well. During the day Heart is playing in and out of the house - sometimes quite wildly. The nights she sleeps on her small nest on Riikka's and Aura's room. Luckily she is a good sleeper.

Sayonara

It's difficult to think what else to say than Sayonara when we are leaving Japan after four amazing years. We have experienced many new things, seen many new places and made many new friends. We will miss them all!

Below the first and last family photo taken from us during these years.





The kids have grown - Aura has spend more than half her life in Japan and Oskari quite exactly one third of his life.

Riikka, Oskari and Aura moved back to Finland yesterday, Samuli will stay in Tokyo until the end of the year.

In 3,5 years we wrote 244 blog posts about our experience in Japan and occasional trips outside Japan. We will keep on updating this blog, the name will change to be simply ROSA Pahkala - the address remains the same rosapahkala.blogspot.com. You can follow us there or in Facebook. If you have a blog, please let us know the address and we will add it on the blogroll on the right.

Let's keep in touch!