A ｆall event

近くのショッピング・モールの駐車場にできた特設フォール・イベントに行ってきました。街の真ん中なんだけど、駐車場のアスファルトの上に干草を敷き詰めて、干草のブロックとかでうまく飾っていて、いろいろな動物がいて、なんだか慣れ親しんだバージニアのどこかの農場にいるようでなつかしかった。

We went to a fall event which was arranged on a part of the parking lot of a nearby mall. It was right in the middle of the city, but they did a pretty good job covering the asphalt of the parking lot with lots of hey, scattering hey blocks and all kinds of pumpkins around and bringing in quite a few animals. It felt like we were in one of those farms in our beloved Virginia.



動物も触らせてもらえます。羊と山羊の子たち。チケットは３ドル。

There was a petting zoo with a cow, sheep and goat. The admission was $3.


馬にえさもやれます。えさはとうもろこしだった。カップ１杯２ドル。

You can feed ponies. A cup of dried corn was $2.


子馬にも乗れました。ぐるぐる３周で６ドル。

There was a pony ride too. $6 for three laps on the parking lot.

Hair cut

息子に続き、今度は私がヘアカット。近所にあるふたつの日本の美容院のうち、ひとつに息子が行ったので、私はもうひとつのほうをトライ。出来はこのとおり。

Following our son's hair cut, I had mine today. He tried one of the two Japanese hair salons around where we live, so I tried the other one. See the picture for the outcome.


担当してくれたのはこの方、ユキさん。こうなりたいというヘアスタイルの写真をネットからプリントアウトして持っていって、口頭で要望を告げると、すぐに要領を得て切り出す。ハサミの使い方もあざやか。。切ったあとで、シャンプー台へ。シャンプーひとつにしても、極楽。トリートメントのマッサージも気持ちいい。洗い終わって椅子に戻ってから、「シーブリーズおつけしてもいいですか。」　この言葉を聞くのは何年ぶりだろう。そういえば、日本の美容室ってよくシーブリーズ使ってたよなあ。シーブリーズつけて、頭皮と肩から背中までのマッサージは最高。髪を乾かして、仕上げトリミングして、艶出しスプレーして、はい、思い通りの髪型になりました。セミロング39ドル。チップもいれて47ドル。バージニアで行っていた美容院とくらべて値段は少々安いのに、内容は３割増しってかんじ。

やっぱり日本人の美容師さんのレベルは高い。テクニックと訓練の濃さが全然違う。。。その違いはどこにあるのか、徹底究明！日本では、２年間の美容学校を 修了し、国家試験に合格すると美容師資格が得られるが、そこからが本当の訓練だそう。就職した美容院によって差はあるものの、まずはシャンプーの仕方から 叩き込まれ、一日４時間から５時間、ただただひたすらシャンプーの練習。お互い練習しあうので、頭皮はボロボロ、頭痛までしてくるほど。一言でシャンプー とはものの、髪の質、髪の長さ、毛染めの有無などで、やり方がいろいろあるそうで、そのひとつひとつをマスターしていくのだって。「まさに、泣きながらやりました。」とユキさん。そういった下積みの日々を３年ほど過ごして、やっと一人前のスタイリストになれるんだって。

一方、アメリカでの美容師資格はというと。。。アメリカは、医師でも弁護士でもすべて州ごとの資格であり、各州が資格を付与する。国家資格ではない。美容師もそれに漏れず各州の資格であり、それぞれの州が資格を取得するための要件を設定している。ここカリフォルニアの場合は、1600時間の美容学校を修了すると資格が得られる。1600時間とは、だいたい１年から１年半に相当するらしい。違いはここから。アメリカの場合、美容院に就職しても、手取り足取りの徒弟制度的な訓練というものがない。これは、美容院業界に特化したことではなく、どんな業界でも就職する時点では、すでにそれなりの経験があって自分ひとりで仕事がこなせることが期待されるのがアメリカ。というこどで、アメリカの美容師さんの場合、たいした経験もなくいきなり人の髪の毛を切っていることになる。シャンプーにいたっては、ただ濡らして洗うだけといった感じ。もちろん、自分で常に勉強し新しいテクニックを身につけようというひとは、それなりの腕を持っているけれど、そうでないひとは、「このひと、本当に美容師さん？」と疑いたくなるような人もいるわけ。

I had a young lady, Yuki-san, to do my hair (picture). I brought a picture with the target hair style with me. As soon as I showed it to her and gave her some additional instructions, she started cutting. It was really fun to watch how she used her scissors. It's quick and rhythmical. After the cut was done, I moved to the shampoo stand. It's just shampooing but it feels great. She massaged treatment into my hair and scalp. After the shampoo, I went back to the chair and she asked me, "Is it okay to use Sea Breeze on you?" For those who do not know what Sea Breeze is, it is astringent you put on your body. It is, or used to be at least while I was still in Japan, very popular that they use this product in your scalp after the shampoo at a hair salon. You have a sort of tingling sensation on your scalp and I love it. She gave me a nice massage onto the scalp, neck and back. Woooo.... She then dried my hair with detailed attention, trimmed it for the final touch, and sprayed something for glossy look. Yeah, I found myself with exactly the requested style in the mirror. It was $37 as a semi-long cut, $47 including tip. Compared to what I used to get in Virginia, the price is a little less and the service is 30% more.

I must say that Japanese cosmetologists have in general much higher levels of skills than American counterparts. There is an apparent gap in the range of techniques and the depth of discipline average cosmetologists are capable of in each country. Why this gap? I learned that to be a cosmetologist in Japan you need to go to a cosmetology school for two years and pass the tests. Once you pass the tests, you have the certification, but everything starts after that, according Yuki-san, who did my hair. After you found an intern job in a hair salon, you go through detailed OJT, starting with shampooing. It is just a shampooing, but you never take light of it. They need to know how to customize shampooing depending on the types and length of the hair and whether the hair is dyed or not. Yuki-san said she spent 4 or 5 hours shampooing every day. She even cried because the training was so demanding. They practiced shampooing on each other, and in the end their scalp got too dry from over-shampooing and gave them headaches. Over three years of such OJTs , one becomes a capable confident stylist.

In the U.S., different states have different requirements for the cosmetologist certification, but for example, here in California, you need to finish 1600 hours of cosmetology schooling, which translates to one to one and half year of education. What makes difference comes after that. As is the case with any other trade in this country, you are expected to be self-sufficient once you secure a job as a cosmetologist. There is no such thing like extensive OJTs, where seniors train juniors and where you may have to secretly wipe the tears once or twice because the training is so demanding, but you gain tremendous amount of experience and discipline. It's true that there are cosmetologists who are really good and have lots of experience in this country too, but in general, especially those young ones who just started the career lag largely behind Japanese counterparts.

Homework station

我が家のダイニングルーム。まだ一度もここでごはんを食べたことがない（普段はとなりの家族用テーブルで済ますので）。フロアには白い絨毯が敷いてあるので、いっそうここで食べるのが避けたくなる（しょうゆとかたらしたりしたら...）。ということで、ここはホームワーク・ステーションに様変わり。毎日、学校から帰ってきてスナックを食べると、ここで宿題がはじまるのです。

This is our dining room. We have never dined here since we moved in. We usually have all the meals in the breakfast area right next to it. This dining area has a off-white carpet on the floor, and that is sort-of a turn off to have any food here with kids. It has now been reborn as a homework station. After a little snack time every day after school, they start working on homework right here.


真剣にやっているときは、こんなかんじ。真剣にやってないときは、ギャーギャーワーワー気が狂いそうなかんじ。

When they are really working on it, it looks like this. When they are not really working on it, I go crazy.

Halloween is coming.

10月31日はハロウィーン。我が家もハロウィーン仕様に様変わり。子どもたちが隠れているのは、発砲スチロールでできた墓石。

Halloween is just around the corner. See, we made our house haunted. The headstones were $5 a piece at Walgreen.

玄関両脇の木には、おばけ（てるてる坊主じゃないよ）が１０ぴき。黄色いテープには、「Warning. This house is haunted. (注意。この家は呪われている。）」　

On those two trees, we have 1o little ghosts which our daughter and I made the other day. On the yellow tape, it says, "Warning. This house is haunted."


玄関のドアには死神のビニールポスター。どお？コワそう？？

Here are the front doors. Now you are so scared that you cannot even think about coming near, aren't you?

South Bay Keiro Nursing Home

ローリング・ヒルズ・コブナント教会からの奉仕で、お隣の町ガーディナというところにあるサウスベイ・ケイロー・ナーシングホーム（敬老老人ホームでしょうか。漢字は定かでないけど）に日本の歌を歌いに行ってきました。ここは、日系アメリカ人を対象にした老人ホームです。

As a part of the services of Rolling Hills Covenant Church, a group of us visited South Bay Keiro Nursing Home in Gardena, which is right next to Torrance. We sang Japanese songs there in front of, say, 50 or so residents. This Nursing home is a facility that specifically targets Japanese American communities in the South Bay area.

廊下にはこのとおり、おじいちゃんやおばあちゃんの作品が並んでいます。

On the walls, you find works created by residents.


「幸せなら手をたたこう」、「みかんの花」などの手遊び歌や、「赤とんぼ」、「ふるさと」などを歌いました。「ふるさと」を歌いながら、この方たちの中には、「日本に戻りたい」と思っている人もいるのじゃないかなと思いました。最後にひとりひとり手を握って、「聞いてくださってどうもありがとう。また来ます。」と言うと、流暢な日本語で「ありがとう」という人も、完璧な発音で「Thank you」という人もありました。私もゆくゆくはこういうところに入るのかなあなんて思って帰ってきました。

We enjoyed play songs with them and sang other traditional Japanese songs. One of the songs was about hometown or homeland. I just imagined that some of these people would be yearning to go and visit Japan, which did not seem very easy, since many of them are in a wheelchair. When we are done, we shook hands with each one of them saying "Arigato!." Some of them returned "Arigato" in perfect Japanese, others returned "Thank you" in perfect English. I wondered if I will be in one of these facilities in the future.

Japanese reading assignment

子どもたちが毎週土曜日、西大和学園土曜補習校に通い始めて３週間。１年生の娘は、毎週の漢字テストに最初は戸惑ったけど、すぐ慣れてOK。問題は５年生に入った息子。最初の週は、荒波の小船状態。漢字で苦戦。算数ドリルで苦戦。助けようとする親には反抗（ま、気持ちも分かるけど）。きっと、「こんなに大変ならやめてもいいよ」という一言を期待していたのかもしれないが、こっちも絶対あきらめずにアメとムチ作戦。その結果。。。

２週目からはあきらめたのか案外素直に宿題もやるようになり、しかも漢字テストも、「最初は50点取れればいいよ」という親の横で、それじゃあいやだと勉強しだしたり。。。

そして３週目、国語で音読の宿題が出た。案外長い小説を３回まわり。きっと文句を言うだろうと思いきや、本日月曜日さっそくやり始めた。いろいろな読み方バージョンがあり、これはラップバージョンだそうです。ラップというよりは講談みたいだけど。先生がなんて言うかは知らないけれど、ちゃんとやっているだけよしとしよう。

It's been three weeks since kids started with Japanese school at Nishiyamato Academy every Saturday. Our 1st grade daughter (2nd in the American system) had a relatively smooth take off, being simply a 1st grader. Our 5th grader son (6th in the Amrican system) is a different story. He sailed through a rough stormy bumpy start. He struggled with 5th grade Kanjis (Japanese characters) and Math word problems, begin unable to make sense out of them. He needed but did not want parents' help, being a typical preteen. He was maybe expecting us saying, "It is just way too much. This was not a good idea." Of course that did not happen. We stayed on.

He probably figured out in his own way that we never let him quit, and after the second week, he started working on those assignments with a more positive attitude. Although we told him that we should be happy if he scores 50% on Kanji tests for the time being, he had a higher expectation and worked until late!

Now we are in the third week. One of the assignments is to read aloud this relatively long novel in the textbook three times. I knew he would complain which he did, but he is done with the first round today (MONDAY!) without much fuss. To make this assignment more bearable, he invented a couple different rhythms to read it along with, and this is a lap version. I do not know whether his teacher approves it or not, but the important thing is he is working on it, isn't it?

Judy's devilled eggs

バージニアに住んでいた頃、となりのJudyがよく作ってくれたDevilled Eggs。娘の大好物でした。お隣に夕食におよばれすると、Judyは必ずこのDevilled Eggsを作ってくれて、まんまるな顔をした娘がこれまたまんまるな卵を頬張る姿に、みんなで目を細めたものです。先週のある日、「ママ、Devilled Eggsつくろうよ」と娘。今日の朝一番のふたりのしごとです。これは、ゆで卵をむいているところ。

When we lived in Virginia, our next door neighbor Judy used to make us wonderful devilled eggs. That was our daughter's favorite. Whenever we were invited over for a dinner with Judy's, she made us devilled eggs. It was fun to watch our daughter eating the eggs, since you can really tell that she loves them. Last week, she said, "Mom, why don't we make ourselves nice devilled eggs?" So today's first work of ours is making devilled eggs. Here in this picture, she is peeling the eggs.


できあがり。Judyはピクルスを混ぜるのだけど、うちにはちょうどピクルスがなかったので、きゅうりの漬物を混ぜてみた。JudyのDevilled Eggsはいつもパーフェクトだけど、うちのはどうも不恰好。ゆでるときに卵をまわさなかったのがいけなかったのかな。

Voila! Judy adds pickles to the york, but I did not find regular pickles in my refrig, so I added Japanese pickles. Judy's devilled eggs are always perfect, and ours do not look as nice. I did not stir around the eggs while they are being cooked. Maybe that was it.

おいしいよ！
Yummy! Miss you, Judy!