In the military world, it is a big deal for kids. At 10, you can get your military ID card. Its almost as exciting as getting your drivers license. B can now go & do anything on base without adult supervision for at least 6 hours. He gets to join the Teen Club (right next to our house) which is sponsored by the Boys & Girls Club. Open 7 days a week. They have dances, cool trips, after school activities, & other activities. His only problem is getting Mom to let him do these things. Even though I can see the Teen Center from my window, I still think he needs to be with me most of the time. I’m not a overprotective parent. I just don’t think a 10 year old should be running all over the place or left home my themselves all the time. Just because they can doesn’t mean they should. I will be slowly letting B do these things. B’s going to want to go, since he is losing his best (joined-at-the-hip) friend this week. At the same time, he is gaining some old friends a few days later.
They had a dance this weekend; 10 -12 only. I really don’t think he’s ready for a dance, but I’d let him go if he really wanted too. Well, & maybe if he begged a little bit. My friends say I’m being silly. But dances promote interest in girls. Since B doesn’t like girls yet, I’m not contributing to that. I lucked out on this one; my child that likes to show off his dance moves didn’t want to go to this one. At least he’ll be getting a prepaid cell phone (given to us from a moving friend with minutes on it). Something I never thought I’d do either; give a 10 year old a cell phone, but it’s free.
Today was opening ceremonies and the first game of the season. There is just something about coach pitch; well, basically the coach needs to know how to pitch. The pitcher makes or breaks the game. It’s hard pitching to someone who is so much smaller than you are. Our coach was right on every time. (It helps that he is not a very tall man.) The other team just couldn’t keep up. B’s team ran circles around the other team while they had very few hits.
After several years of playing, you’d think that B would have baseball down. He’s started some crazy stuff this year, like throwing the ball without looking. He tries to throw it so hard that his whole body turns and he doesn’t watch where the ball is going. It ends up no where near his attended target. We’ve got to really get him to stop that one. He played catcher the whole game so I really didn’t have to worry about that one too much. It’s hard to move around in all that equipment, he proved that during the game.
It looks like he’s on a really good team this year.
Opening ceremonies and B’s first game was today. I was going to write this post about how well he played, but I didn’t get to see it. This year youth sports were a little behind since they had to squeeze out some coaches. The snacks were forgotten to be scheduled, so I had to run to the store. So I missed most of the game.
B wanted to go see snow & try snowboarding for his birthday. So went to Megahira Ski Resort & Spa. It is about a hour & half away. First off, we did some sledding. Which brings my back to my childhood memories of NY. J & B have never sledded before. The sleds are not really made for adults, but we managed anyway. Then we tried a little snowboarding. By the end, J & B we snowboarding almost like pros & I was never really able to make it off my butt. It’s just exhausting (probably because I’m way out of shape for snowboarding). I really had fun trying. Both of the boys want to go back & do some more snowboarding.
After some food & a little more snowboarding, we went & warmed up in the spa (basically a giant hot tub). Japanese are known for their onsens (public bath houses where everyone is naked). They did have a section like this one for men & one for women. I didn’t go in but got a glimpse inside. I can say that most of the Spa’s customers were in the onsen. We went into the bathing suit required section. J & I had to cover our tattoos. Japanese people frown on tattoos. They are associated with organized crime. I bounded mine with tape & J has a swim shirt. I never regretted getting it until now, since it is so negatively looked upon here at water parks etc.
The spa was awesome. There were different kinds of jets; a back, legs, body, chest, etc areas. J & my favorite was the back & leg jet with the headrest with cold water running through it. B seemed to like the cold water tub. They had two large hot tubs outside on the deck made out of real trees that are still planted in the ground. It was great after hours of playing in the snow. Then we had some dinner and made the trip home.
Poor thing he had to end his Christmas break by going back to school on his birthday. Someone gave him a hint that he should be able to miss school since it was his special day. Luckily he didn’t pay much attention. I surprised him with Burger King at lunch time. When we got home he had the choice of dinner; It ended up being Pizza Hut.
Then he opened his gifts from us (Already got stuff from others before xmas). I surprised him good there too. The last gift was Heelys. I always told him he would never get a pair because he just not the most coordinated kid. He’s been asking for some for over a year now. And after we arrived in Japan just about every kid on base has a pair. A year later, I finally decided I’ll let him have a them. He’ll just have to go out in full body armor. God forbid anything happens in Iwakuni; they just couldn’t handle it. We would end up riding a train for 6 hours just to fix anything broken; hence the body armor.
Instead of a party (this coming weekend), he wanted to go to the ski resort. He’ll do anything for snow since we never get to see any. He plans on trying snowboarding. We plan on taking sleds too. After all the snow fun, we are going to relax at the spa in hot tubs. That what I’m waiting for. I’m going to need it after sledding.
