A Letter to Santa

Written by Justin after coming back
from Christmas celebration in school

Tokyo Touchdown

After spending two wonderful weekends back in Singapore, we embarked on another new adventure to the Land of the Rising Sun. The trip to Japan was rather smooth. It's never easy to travel with kids on the plane. Their backpacks were stuffed with toys and snacks to keep them occupied during the 6 hour flight.

Jon enjoyng his starter while watching Gongfu Panda

It's been almost two weeks since we arrived in Tokyo. The weather is nice and cool, about 12 degrees celsius in the daytime. The first few days were spent unpacking stuff out of the boxes.

Jon exploring the laundry area

I can play with my toys now!

The kids started exploring every nook and cranny of the house. On the third day, Jonathan pressed the emergency button in the toilet. The alarm started sounding "Po, po, po - Toire ni kite-kudasai" repeatedly. I had just walked out of the bathroom for less than 5 seconds to get a towel for the kids and Jonathan conveniently pressed the call button. **Faint!**

Being new in the house, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out where the central alarm was. Another 10 minutes of frantically searching through and reading the manual to figure out how to turn off the alarm. Imagine doing this while the alarm keeps ringing with a voice speaking a foreign language which you don't understand. Arghh!!!!!!

I was worried that (1) the system was linked to the police and someone would come knocking at the door and (2) the noise was causing disturbance to my neighbours.

My problem wasn't exactly over when I found the manual in a thick A4 file containing explanatory notes of all equipments and security systems. Instructions were in English but the security system on the wall was written in katagana and kanji. Time to fill in the gaps. It's a good thing that I can understand Kanji (Chinese characters). Instruction manual stated "Press tone-silence button", I found the button for "警報音停止 " , the "press RESET button" and I pressed the button which had "some katagana symbols then 复旧". A peaceful silence filled the house. Phew!

The culprit with an innocent smile

I later realised that the toilet alarm system wasn't SECOM but an internal one and that "Toire-ni kite-kudasai" means "Come to the toilet". Not knowing Japanese is a handicap especially when Japanese here speak minimal English. I have been surviving on simple Japanese and sign languages for the past 2 weeks. Will have to start learning more as soon as possible.

Last Day of School in Taipei

This is the final posting on Taipei before we head back to Singapore for our holidays. We will definitely miss this place especially the friends that we have made during our stay here.

Although Justin has only been here for a short period of time, his ability to speak Mandarin has grown tremendously. His vocabulary has improved and has started to (automatically) converse in Mandarin with his grandma. Hopefully this will set a foundation for his future years in learning Chinese.

Farewell to teachers & friends at HESS International Kindergarten:

Teacher Caroline

Teacher Robin

Justin with his friends, Carlos & Mark

Farewell to teachers & friends at Shichida:

吴老师 and Jonathan

Ziling, Kexin & Jonathan

魏老师 and Justin

Justin with 魏老师, Tingyu & Kexin

HESS Reading Family Fun Fair

The funfair was held at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall to promote Reading and Sharing. There were many activities such as a book exchange program, story-telling competition, food fair, games, arts and craft. A definite fun-filled day with family and friends.

Justin and his classmates performed a dance item for the opening of the fair.

Below are excerpts of the performance:



Justin is standing in the 2nd row, 1st from the left .






Teacher Caroline had asked me to remind Justin to be more focused and to look at the music leader for his cue. I think he did pretty well during the performance. He even looked more serious and focused than I expected him to be. So after the show I rewarded him with ice-cream at Big Tom.