YMCA

子どもたちの学校も2日目。お兄ちゃんは、本日は自転車での登校に慣れるべく、パパと一緒にご通学。ふたりして仲良く自転車で出かけていきました。娘のほうは、昨日と同じく徒歩で登校。二人とも学校に行ってしまったので、私はといえばYMCAへ。先日家族で下見済み。ここのYMCAは設備がすばらしく、子どもの使えるエキササイズ・マシーンもあるし、家族で利用できるスペースもあり、さまざまなエキササイズ・コースもあるうえ、イベントも盛りだくさん。家族会員になることにしました。入会金130ドルに4人で月々76ドルは、シャーロッツビルの感覚からすると破格。でも、このあたりは他にもこのような値段で入会できるスポーツジムがあるらしく、ここの人からすると案外高いらしい。今日はヨガをして、その後マシーンを30分使って帰ってきました。月曜にはパーソナル・トレーナーとミーティングで、私に会うプログラムをつくってくれるそう（無料！）。三日坊主にならぬようがんばろう。

It was kids' second day of school. Our son went to school on bike along with his dad so that he gets used to bike commuting. Our daughter walked to school like yesterday. After they were gone, I headed to YMCA. We were there as a family for a tour and decided to join them. They really have an excellent facility with machines that even kids can use, versatile sports space that families can use, a variety of group exercise classes, and family events. We became a family member by paying the initial fee of $130 and a monthly fee of $76. Compared to what you need to pay in Charlottesville, this is a really good price, I would say. There are couple other sports clubs that charge pretty comparable fees however, and people here say $76 is still pretty pricey. I did a Yoga class and exercised for 30 min on a machine, before I came home. On Monday, I'll meet with my personal trainer who is going to help me establish a personalized program. This service is also included in the basis membership fee. I think it's great.

子どもは2日目を終えて元気に帰ってきました。お兄ちゃんは、パパがまた自転車で迎えに行き、帰り道を確認しつつ帰宅。娘は、徒歩帰宅。それぞれ友達になれそうな子ができたらしく、お兄ちゃんのほうはケビンとチャーリーのことを話してくれました。ケビンはカプリオリーニというかなりイアリアンなラストネームなんだけどjewishなのだそう。チャーリーはどうやら韓国人らしく、一日目に鉛筆を借りたので知り合いになったらしいのだけれど、くまちゃんの絵の下に"cool”と書いてあるバックパックから、これまたくまちゃんの絵のついた鉛筆をだして貸してくれたとかで、息子は（中学生にもなっても、堂々とくまちゃんで通している）彼に痛く感動し、一日目には名前がわからなかったので、家では”くまちゃん”というニックネームで呼んでいた。どうもチャーリーというのはビンとこないので、引き続き”くまちゃん”と呼ぶことにした。娘のほうは、あいかちゃんというドイツ生まれの日本人の子とお友達になり、学校のあとさっそく遊びに来ました。

Kids finished their second day and came home in pretty good moods. Our son came home with his dad again on bike so that he learned how to reverse the directions. They told us about new friends they met at school. He told us about Kevin and Charlie. Kevin has a very Italian last name but is a Jew. Charlie is a Korean. When our son had to ask him for a pencil to borrow yesterday, he took a pencil with a cute little bear on it from a backpack also with a cure little bear on it. Our son was very impressed that he still has all those stuff with cute little bear, considering he is a middle schooler, and somehow liked him a lot. Our daughter loves Aika-chan, who is a Japanese born in Germany. They had the very first play date today after school.

First day of school

トーランスの学校第一日目！朝ちゃんと起きられて、とりあえず一安心。まずは、8時10分から始まる中学校へ。

Today is kids' very first day of school here in Torrance, CA. I was so glad that kids (and I) were able to wake up all right this morning. We first headed to the middle school, which starts at 8:10.


早く出発したつもりが、車を停めるのに手間取ったり、編入生のための手続きに要領を得ず、そのうえ渡された時間割表の第一時間目のサイエンスの教室（ルームナンバー#39）が見つけられずウロウロ。授業はもう開始してしまい、廊下には誰もいなくなっちゃった。。。前からの顔写真を撮ろうと試みましたが、了承が得られませんでした（予想どおり）。。

We made sure we left home early enough, but it took more time than we expected to find a place to park our car, to get the new student's packet, and also to find the science room, Room #39, where he was supposed to be for Period 1. Period 1 has already started by now, and we didn't see any other students on the campus. Where on earth is Room #39?? I tried to get a shot of him from the front, but you know ... he is too cool to be taken a picture.



結局、何人かの人に聞いて、行き着いたところはキャンパスの果てでした。前方真ん中がルームナンバー#39のサイエンスの教室。以前より違和感があるのだけれど、このあたりの学校は校舎がない。掘っ立て小屋（プレハブというかなんといいますか。。。こちらの人はこの小屋のことを”ポータブルズ”と呼びます）みたいなのがたくさん建っていて、廊下はすべて野外。バージニアの学校は普通 大きな校舎があって、内部に廊下があり廊下の両脇に教室という造り。気候が温暖で雨が少ないからこういう造りなのでしょうが、どうもこの小屋が教室というのが抵抗あるわあ。。。

After we asked several people for Room #39, we found it finally at the far end of the campus. You see it in the center of the picture. See, around there, they do not have a school building. There are lots of shacks or huts instead. People here call them "portables." Although it does not look like you can carry them around, they surely look like prefabs. I guess, I need some time to get used to those shacks. In charlottesville, every school had a nice big school building, and everything, classrooms to cafeteria, was inside the building connected by the internal isles. Here, everything is "outside." You just walk outside to move from a hut to a hut.



こちらは、8時50分開始の小学校。家は小学校のすぐ裏にあるので、学校の裏門から入り、この通路を通って教室に向かいます。こちらも小屋式。前方左が娘の小屋、じゃない教室です。ルームナンバー#23。

This is the elementary school, which starts at 8:50. Our house is located sort of behind the school, so we go through the back gate to enter the school yard, and walk to her hut, oops, her classroom on this little path. The white structure ahead of her is her classroom, Room #23.



これがルームナンバー#23の小屋。今からみんなで中に入るところ。

This is Room #23. They lined up outside and were entering the room.



教室の内部。やさしそうな先生でした。オウムとモルモットがいるんだよ。日本人のお友達も3人ほどいるみたい。

This is inside the classroom. Her teacher seemed very nice. They have a parrot and a guinea pig as class pets. There were couple Japanese students in her class.


中学校は2時57分に、小学校は3時3分に終了し、無事ふたりとも家にもどってきました。同じ公立校でもところ変わればいろいろ変わり、例えばシャーロッツビルではバックパックの底に滑車がついてコロコロと転がして運べるものが流行っていたけど、こちらでは誰も持っていなかった。うちの息子だけ。みんな、歩きや自転車通学（たまにスケートボードもいる）が多いので、転がすものではなく背負うものが圧倒的に人気。それから、シャーロッツビルではスクール・サプライといって文房具やノートなどの必要なリストを、かなり早い時期（6月とか7月）に渡され、新学年が始まる前に揃えて持っていっていたけれど、こちらではなんと本日、初日にリストを渡され、学校から帰った後忙しく買い物にでかけました。しかしながら、文房具の値段の高さには閉口します。だって、シャーロッツビルなら2冊で１ドルで売っていたコンポジション・ブック（つまるところ、ただのノートのこと）が1冊２ドル99セント（Staplesで）！そもそもこのあたりにWalmartがないというのが、大きな敗因。２ドル99セントのコンポジション・ブックを何度も手に取ったけど、どうしても買う気になれず、もしや昨年の残りが家にあるかもと淡い期待を抱いて帰ってきたけれど、やっぱりなかったので、明日買いに行きます。トホホ。。。子どもたちは、新しい文房具や持ち物を整理しながら、明日に期待を膨らませてベットに入りました。

The middle school finished at 2:57, and the elementary school at 3:03. They came home in one piece. It's same American public schools but is different in many ways. Back in Charlottesville, backpacks with rollers on the bottom were quite popular, but around here you never see those. 　Our son was virtually one and only person with that type of backpack. Many of the kids come and go on foot or on a bike or sometimes on a skateboard, so they just carry a bag on their back. Another thing is the school supply list. Back in Charlottesville, we got the list pretty early like in June or July, did the shopping and brought them before the school started in fall. Here kids came home with the list today. We had to go supply shopping after school on the first day of school. It just does not feel right... Anyway, those school supplies are VERY expensive here, I found. For example, composition books. I used to get two of them for a dollar at Walmart in Charlotesville. Here Staples sell them for $2.99 a piece. We have every conceivable retail business around here, but NOT Walmart. I miss my Walmart! I took the $2.99 composition book in my hand several times but a part of me just refused to pay that much, so came home hoping that I still have some leftover from last year somewhere in storage. I did not. So I have to go back to Staples to pay $2.99, TWO dollars and NINETY-NINE cents, for a composition book!

House tour?

明日から待ちに待った学校が始まります。6月5日にバージニアの学校が終わったので、かれこれ３ヶ月以上の夏休み！本日は学校開始の前日であり、嵐の前の静けさとでもいいましょうか、特筆することもない一日だったので、家の中の写真でもご覧いただきましょうか。

Tomorrow is the first day of the school in California for our kids. Today is thus the very last day of 3 month long vacation, since they were out of school in Virginia on June 5th. Today is also a day with nothing worthy to be written about. So what about a tour around the house?

玄関。入るとすぐリビング・ルーム。このあたりはこういう造りが多いらしい。日本流にいうところの玄関、アメリカ流にいうところのフォイエーのような、”ここが玄関です！”というスペースがないのは何となく落ち着かない気がします。

You open front doors to find yourself in the living room. Many houses around here are built this way. I feel a bit uneasy without an enclosed, or at least defined, foyer.

リビング・ルーム。手前右が玄関。

Living room. On the right next to the windows are front doors.

リビング・ルームから２階に続く階段。３段右に下がるとダイニング・エリア。

Stairs to the upper floor from the living room. On the right going 3 steps down, we have a dining area.



ダイニング・エリア。３段上がリビング・ルーム。マリー・アントワネット覚えてますか？

This is a dining area with the living room behind the handrails. Do you see Marie Antoinette?



ダイニグ・エリアの左側がキッチン。手前が普段使っているテーブル。窓の向こうは裏庭。キッチンは前のキッチンに比べると小さいので、収納に苦労しました。

On the left to the dining area, we have the kitchen. There is a little breakfast section facing this way. You see the backyard through the windows. The kitchen is much smaller than the one we had in our Virginia home, so I had to struggle with organizing things.



キッチンの手前がファミリー・ルーム。フレンチ・ドアの向こうは裏庭。

In front of the kitchen is the family room. You see the backyard through the french doors.

裏庭のうち左側はコンクリート・パティオ。

Half of the backyard is a concrete patio.

コンクリート・パティオを違うアングルから。左に見えるのがオレンジの木。

Concrete patio from another angle. On the left you see the orange tree we love.

裏庭の右半分は芝生。この壁の向こうは裏の家のプールで、楽しそうな声が聞こえてきてちょっとうらやましい。

The right half of the backyard is a grass area. Behind this wall is a swimming pool that belongs to the house in the back. I guess we need to make friends with them and get invited, ha.

この家、４ベッドルーム＋３バスルーム。1977年に建てられ、ロットは6,000 sqft、家は2,529 sqft。大家さんは、2006年5月に$1,023,000で購入しており、現在の予想市場価格は$940,500（ちょっと前まで$778,000だったんだけど、最近このあたりの不動産は少し上向きらしい）。ちなみに固定資産税の査定は土地が$650,000で、家は$200,000の計$850,000で、税率1.039%を掛けると1年の固定資産税はなんと$10,625。高いなあ。NYタイムズが面白いサイトを作っていて、いろいろなパラメータを入れると、賃貸するほうが得かそれとも家を購入するほうが得かを計算してくれる。ちなみに今の賃貸料の$3,200を入れて計算してみると、もしこれから不動産価格が年に3%上昇すると過程した場合、9年以上住むつもりなら購入したほうが得という結果。価格上昇がこれ以下の場合、あるいは9年以下で引っ越す場合は、ずっと賃貸していたほうがいいということ。買っても高い、借りても高いが、今後どうするか。一つ思ったのは、家具などが入らないと困るので、少なくとも2,500sqは欲しいと思ってこの家を選んだけれど、実際住んで見るともう少し狭くてもなんとかなると思い始めた。1,800sqもあれば十分。野外に楽しみがたくさんあるので、家の中にあれこれなくても寝るとこさえあればオッケーということかしら。今度の家はさらなるダウンサイズに臨んでみようかな。

This house was built in 1977 and has 4 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. The lot size is 6,000 sq ft and the house has 2,5,29 sq ft. Our landlord purchased this house for $1,023,000 in May, 2006 and the current estimated market value is $940,500 according to zillow.com. It has been $778,000 up to this fall, but the real estate market around this area has picked up a bit, it seems. The tax assessment is $650,000 for the land and $200,000 for the house. The property tax rate is 1.039% to yield the annual property tax of $10,625. NY Times has an interesting web site which calculates whether you will be better off buying a house or renting. I punched in our current rent of $3,200 and other parameters into the site and there it is.. the result is that we would be better off buying under the assumption that the real estate value increases 3% per year and we stay in the house for 9 years or longer. If the real estate value does not increase that much OR we stay in the house shorter than 9 years, we would be better off renting. Either you buy or rent, it is so expensive anyway. I wonder what would be our game plan for the future. One thing I discovered is that we probably do not need 2,500 sq ft. Worried whether we can get all our furniture and other stuff into the new house, we insisted on a house of at least 2,500 sq ft, but now we are pretty sure wen can do well with 1,800 sq ft. You have lots of fun outside, so as long as you have enough space for fundamental activities of life, you would be okay. So we probably challenge further downsizing for the next house, I guess.

Language tests

今日は朝8時半から息子の言語テスト。アメリカではおそらくどの州も英語以外を第一言語とする子どもたちのために、英語の能力を測るテストを施し、その結果に応じて英語力の不足を補うためのサポートを施すシステムがある。我が家の第一言語はもちろん日本語なので、学校の書類にそう記入すると、カリフォルニア州の法律では必ず入学/編入前に言語テストを受けなければならないことになっているので受験するようにと通知がきた。今日のテストを（いつものように寝坊などして）すっぽかすと、あさってから始まる学校に通えないことになるので、親子ともども気合をいれて早起き(?)して臨む。娘は先立って先週受験済み。

8時半に受付に行くとすでに多くの人がロビーで待っていた。その後、第一言語別にグループに別れ別室でテスト。それぞれの言語にその言葉を話す担当者がいて、書類の記入などサポートしてくれる。配布されるパンフレットもそれぞれの言語に翻訳されたものがあるからすごい（写真）。面白いのは、英語力だけでなく第一言語もテストされること。うちの場合は日本語力がテストされたわけ。息子は英語よりも日本語のほうに気を揉んで、いったいどんな漢字を書けと言われるのかドキドキしながら向かう。

2時間後テストを無事終えた息子に聞いてみたところ、”日本語でエッセーを書かされたよぉ~”とのこと。”テーマは？”と聞くと、”一番好きな場所”とのこと。”ちゃんと書けた？”と聞くと、”＃＊＆％＄＠”という答え。いつも漢字を避けがちでひらがなばっかりの文を書いているので、”漢字も使ったの？”と聞くと、”一番、好き、場所などは漢字で書きましたぁ”とのこと。”よく書けたね。ちっとも最近勉強してなかったのに~”というと、”問題に使ってあった漢字をコピーしましたぁ。" 　ちゃっかりしてるね。ちなみに、一番好きな場所は日本だそうです。しかしながら、日本語力をテストしてその結果をどうするのだろう？？今度聞いてみます。。。

Today our son had a language test administered by the school district. In most of the states, for students whose first language is not English, there is a system that test their English capability and provide necessary supports according to the results. In our case, the first language is Japanese, and so we filled on the school documents. Under the California law, students are required to take the language test before they are allowed to be in public schools. We are told if we miss today's test, he will not be able to start the school on 9/10 along with other kids. We were very nervous if we were able to wake up in time, since we were on a "summer" schedule for a long time, but we made it there alright. Yeah! 　　Our daughter took the test last week already.

When we arrived in the building, there was quite a few people already waiting int the lobby. After a while, we were divided into smaller groups by the first language, and shown to a test room. For each language, there is a staff who speaks the language to support us filling the documents. They are brochures translated in each language (see the picture). V ery impressive. The interesting thing is that they test not only English but also our first languages. In our case it's Japanese, of course. Our son was more nervous with the Japanese part of the test than with English, worrying about the embarrassment he needs to endure in case he cannot handle some fundamental Kanjis, that is Japanese characters.

After 2 hours, he came out of the building, saying, "Mom, I was told to write an essay in Japanese." I asked him what was the theme. He said it was "the place I like the best." I asked him whether he thought he did okay. He said, "＃＊＆％＄＠." I asked him whether we was able to use some Kanjis, since writing everything without Kanjis looks pretty childish. He said, "I wrote place and like and best in Kanjis." I told him I was impressed that he remembered all those Kanjis. He said, "Well, those Kanjis were in the problem sentence so I just copied." Okay, better than nothing... FYI, the place he likes the best is Japan. Anyway, I wonder why they test　his Japanese and how they put the test result in use?? I will find out.

So cheap in California!

カリフォルニアってとにかく物価が高くて暮らしにくいところと思っていたけれど、たまには”安い”ものもあるという”うれしい”発見をしました。なんといっても野菜にくだものが安い！とくにフルーツは種類も豊富。それに、肉や魚も案外安い。加えてブランド製品、たとえばトーマスのベーグルやダノンのアクティビア・ヨーグルトでさえ、前にバージニアで払っていた値段に比べるとかなり安いように思います。今日買い物に行って、カートいっぱいの食料を買ったけれど、シャーロッツビルならば軽く120ドルは払っている分量なのに、なんと79ドル！

カリフォルニアの消費税は7.25％でこれは全米でもちろん一番高い率。ついでに書くと、ミシシッピ、ニュー・ジャージー、ロード・アイランド、テネシー が7%で次ぎ、その後ワシントン、ミネソタ、ネバダが6.5%。テキサスとイリノイの6.25%が後を追います。バージニアは5%。カリフォルニアの 7.25%はどうみても高すぎだけれど、うれしいことに非加工食品には税がかかりません。普通多くの州が食品は非課税としていますが、バージニアは課税する数少ない州のうちのひとつ（食品の消費税は2.5%)。ウエスト・バージニア(同4%)とテネシー(同5.5％)が同じような州です。つまり、ここでは食品の元値が安いうえに非課税なので、とても安く感じるようです。

Everything is expensive in California, right? Well, that is at least what I believed until now. But to my surprise, there are couple of things I found so inexpensive in comparison to the price level I am used to in Virginia. First of all, it's grocery. The fresh produce is abundant and very reasonable. Other items like meat and fish are very reasonably priced, too. Even brand name products, Thomas Bagels and Danone Activia yogurt for example, are much cheaper than the prices I was paying in Charlottesville, VA. Today I went grocery shopping and purchased a full cart of food, for which I would be easily paying $120 in Virginia. The total was only $79.

In California, the sales tax rate is 7.25%, which it THE highest in this country. For your info, the second highest is 7% of Mississippi, New Jersey, Road Island and Tennessee, and then 6.5% of Washington, Minnesota and Nevada, followed by 6.25% of Texas and Illinois. Virginia's rate is 5%. California's 7.25% is gross by any standard, but they do not tax "unprocessed food items," thus I rarely pay tax on food I buy. Actually Virginia is one of the very few states that tax food (2.5% on food), along with West Virginia (4%) and Tennessee (5.5%) . Here in California, the prices are low to start with and there is no tax on it, so going grocery became my favorite activity.

Blessed day

今日は、以前にご紹介したローリング・ヒルズ・カブナント教会・日本語部の野外礼拝/カレー大会/運動会でした。歌を歌ったり、牧師さんのお話を聞いたあとで、8種類ものカレー（激辛から甘口まで）をたらふくごちそうになり、お腹がこなれた頃に運動会というプログラム。

Rolling Hills Covenant Church, which we had been to two weeks ago, had an outdoor worship today, so we joined them there. It was actually an outdoor worship/curry lunch/field day. We had 8 different curries, from extremely spicy to non-spicy, and it was fun to try a bit of everything. After lunch, we had fun with casual competitions of various field matches.




パパ（左からふたりめ）も綱引きに参加。これは40才以上のおじさんグループ（左・計10人）と40才未満の若手グループ（右・ハンデ付きで7人）の対抗。おじさんたちは検討し、勝利を収めました。

Daddy took part in a tug of war. He is the second from the left. This match was "senior" group consisting of ten of over-40 people on the left vs. "youth" group consisting of seven of under-40 people on the right. The result? Senior group won "with ease."




ママと娘の二人三脚。イチニ、イチニと声をかけながら頑張りました。南カリフォルニアの太陽を浴びて一日中外で過ごした気持ちのよい日でした。シャーロッツビルの日本補習教室の運動会のことを思い出しながら古い友達を懐かしく思いつつ、ここでの新しい友達ができる予感のする、希望のある日でした。

This is two of us in a three-legged race. We did just fine, singing one, two, one two... We were blessed with southern California sunshine and enjoyed the day so much. It brought us back the wonderful memories of those filed days we shared with friends of Charlottesville Japanese school back in Virginia. This was a day we spent, thinking of good old friends in Charlottesville, and wishing we make good new friends here in Los Angeles.

The first ride

やっと念願の自転車4台が揃いました。パパのはもうあったけど、あとの3台を新規購入。当初、Targetで全部買ったんだけど、どうも2台が調子が悪く、返品したのち今度はToysrusで調達。1週間がかりでやっと思い通りの自転車が揃い、みんな満足満足。さっそく、息子の通う中学校までみんなで行ってみたけれど、ちょっと怖かった。娘はまだ補助輪つきなので、がたがたした歩道にひっかかたり、大きな道を渡るときちゃんと渡れるか心配したり、歩道脇の家の車庫から車がバックしてこないか注意したり、はたまた疲れたよ。やっぱり当面、自転車は公園か海辺のバイクパスでやることにしよう。

Look at our bikes! We had to buy three bikes, since only dad had his. We first purchased three bikes at Target, but two of them were not up to our expectation, so we returned them and got something else at Toysrus. It took us a whole week, but now each of us has what we like the best. Eager to try the new bikes, we took a little ride to our son's middle school. It was just a mile or so, but oh how tired I got. Our daughter still rides one with training wheels, and it sometimes got trapped with uneven pavements. I worried so much if she was able to handle the direction when we went across a busy street. You also need to watch for cars backing up from carports beside the sidewalk. At least for a while, we'd better stick to parks and bike paths on the beach, we decided after all.