Another Naganuma visit

We did it, we finally saw Sage`s school and got our registration done for health insurance and town residence. The school visit went well, although Sage still says that he isn`t going to go to school. The school is old, but besides some peeling paint and signs of age is very clean, neat and organized. It`s interesting in that the gym is on the top floor of the 3 story building. There were no kids there when we went and Sage found it fairly boring, imagine that! Especially the part while we were sitting in the office and Kenji was talking to the principal and vice-principal as they went over the info we need to know. They were very nice. The school seems well rounded. The town is known for being a computer place, everywhere is wireless. Each classroom has a computer and there is a large computer lab too. There is a nice music room with many instruments including a grand piano. A nice crafts room and a practical skills room for learning cooking/home skills. I think that if Sage can get past the language barrier he will love it. He makes the 11th student in his class, 7 girls, 4 boys! First graders have only half days for a week and a half while they introduce them to the school routine, so hopefully that will help Sage to gradually get used to things, Kenji may go with him a few days if the teacher thinks it`s necessary. We will meet his teacher on the first day of school which is the 6th of April. The school is only a short distance from our place so it will be a short bus ride. They get on the bus about 8:20.
We spent the night in our house, unfortunately it was not a great night. The place had many cats living in it before us and K is very allergic to them. We were hoping it wouldn`t be too bad, but it was, his asthma kept him up all night and his inhaler was not really working. He of course said he was fine, and I`ve learned not to hover, he deals with it well and does not get panicked, I`m the one who does that. He is still recovering. The carpets will definitely have to go, luckily the carpets here are rarely wall to wall, just large area rugs and only two rooms have carpet, so it shouldn`t be that bad. We will get an air purifier too, as there is not forced air\heat, so the air isn`t filtered.
Hopefully the next night we stay will be better! Kenji wants to do many things to the house and the owner says to submit his ideas and if they approve they will provide the materials. The main thing is converting an unfinished room to our bedroom. After the changes are made we should have plenty of space to house visitors, hint, hint! Also there is a guest room in the main house. Kenji and his dad will go on MOn to start working on things, I think this will be a fun experience for Kenji to get to work with his dad on such things as he never has before and they both enjoy building things. I really like the house, although now it is very dirty and I can`t wait to clean it! Also, the entrance is thru the greenhouse and the former people made their own compost in it, it smells like chicken poopoo, not my favorite welcoming essence!! I`m not sure I`m thoroughly farm material yet, but I`ll get there! The greenhouse is basically ours, they no longer use it for the farm, so K plans to make a terrace to eat out there in the fall/spring, and a sandbox.
We`ll see how much gets done, but I like it anyway. It isn`t really much smaller than our previous house, I`m curious how different actually and with the changes, it will be more than I expected! We found out about how it`s built, interesting. The walls and ceilings are not framed in the typical way, instead it is all made of 3 meter long panels that consist of 7 in. of styrofoam glued on both sides to particle board. It is supposedly very warm. The heating is only in the floor like we thought. They poured concrete and within the concrete they coiled flexible piping through the whole floor. This is connected to a boiler. ONce the hot water goes into the pipes it takes awhile to radiate thru the concrete, but once the concrete is warm it stays warm a very long time. They say you run the boiler about two hours a day and it stays very warm. You can`t run it until it gets warm, or you`ll be run out of the house. I guess they did it like that when they first built the house and it took several days for the temp to be comfortable enuf to live in! I thought this stuff might interest you Dad. Akiko Epp`s dad was a teacher in a college here, teaching about insulation. ONe of his students` companies made this material, maybe on one of his recommendations. They thought this material would work well in Hokkaido. They donated the materials for this house so they could test it. The ended up never producing it en masse because they were planning to market to all Japan and were concerned about termited I think.
Anyhow, we plan to move on Tues. People are gradually giving us things, everyone is being very generous. Kenji`s sisters especially. Kenji`s older sister Makiko`s family is planning a move in the next year so she says this is a good time for her to clean things out.
After Sage and I`s conversation I pulled out a LIving Bible that Kenji`s parents have and took it to read it to Sage on our trip, starting somewhere in Mark with a story about Jesus I thought he was pretty familiar with. He begged and begged for me to read, and was upset when it was too dark to read, we read thru like 12 chapters or something on our trip. He would stop and ask me what something meant, but never was bored by anything it seemed.
Put money down to buy a car too. It`s a good deal I think, 7 seater. The second seat is a bench so all three kids can sit there and we can leave the back two folded down and there is a luggage rack, so we can haul people from the airport, important! It has very low mileage, is nine years old and has the main features we need-Abs and 4wd. We won`t get it for two weeks, but they will deliver to our door, which is what they do here, I guess.
LUcas is fussy, better go....