Ok so school starts in a couple of days so we'll have to go get all of our supplies...
So we have to get supplies especially to replace these two boxes.
So let's go shopping and get the rest of what we need to finish this off.
Look how broken it is!
I know, that's why I'm going to show what we need though for school.
[Life in Japan Theme Song]
Oh my goodness, it started to rain?
Let's go to the car, hurry!
Emergency!
Oh my goodness! Rain! Summer thunderstorms!
Mommy has an umbrella, here she comes!
You want that one instead? Yeah, it's yellow.
OK
They have some awesome pencil cases.
Ooo, these are new. I saw all of these before.
Did you see the pineapple one?
Never saw these strawberry type things.
Literally... Literally
I'm tempted to buy one but... Yeah, we don't need it.
Ok Momma chan... Yes?
Did we get everything that we needed to get?
Well! And more.
But hopefully we got everything that we needed to get.
All right!
Oh my goodness Sarah, you look like you should be in Animal Crossing.
Where is a mirror?
This is cute!
The kids go back to school on Monday
Becca and Anna go back on Friday, but they don't have as much stuff to take to school.
But the Littles have a lot of stuff!
So first we have to sharpen a bunch of pencils,
These boxes, they get left right in their desk,
They have two things like this that they keep like that.
So we have to put colored pencils in there, crayons, origami...
Joshua, you need to sharpen all of those, your colored pencils.
They have these massive crayons, these math counting things,
They're supposed to have scissors, we've got to replace their glue.
We have no tape. No tape.
But I bought tape.
Get it started for them.
This is their fudebako which is their pencil case,
And they need to have always a red pencil because they correct their own homework,
Or their neighbors homework.
And then a bunch of pencils.
We need one more pencil then...
And then erasers, I bought new erasers!
New eraser goes in there.
Flip it, and it needs to have — trash!
He needs a ruler.
OK, so that is ready to go.
Sarah needs pencils, colored pencils. She asked for this yellow tape.
So I'm giving her the yellow tape because yellow is her favorite color.
As soon as he's done sharpening his pencils we will finish those.
All of the supplies that they need for school are intense.
Every start of a new term we send cleaning cloths because the kids clean their schools.
So we usually send two cleaning cloths for each kid.
I have another pile elsewhere,
That one's for Joshua and this one will be for Sarah.
Inside their backpacks, they put all their homework in here,
But then in this little cubby here we put... Keys.
Keys — and their tracker!
As soon as they enter or leave school, you can get the tracker to ding as soon as they walk in.
You can buy a little thing to put right inside your door so you know as soon as they get home, you get a message on your phone.
Which is great.
Now, this also goes inside your backpack,
And this is what they carry their homework in to and from school.
So they always know that everything that's in this yellow pouch is homework and needs to be turned in.
Then they take this bag every week and they bring it back every week,
And in it they have their sports clothes, which they bring home every week and we wash,
And they have uwabakis, their indoor shoes,
Because as soon as they get to school, they leave their outdoor shoes right at the entrance and they put on indoor shoes.
And also they all have one of these —
This hooks onto the back of their chair,
So it's always on the back of their chair, and it is their earthquake protection hood.
Can I put it on?
Show us how you do it.
It just helps from small things falling on their heads. Ready.
They usually go underneath their desks or exit the school then when it's safe.
But it's always on the back of their school chair.
At the beginning of the school year we had to send in an emergency food bag to school.
And it has like water, energy bars,
Things that won't go bad,
So like canned chicken that's easy to open,
Anything that you can use for an emergency.
In case you need it.
Here's Sarah's emergency hood. Done.
OK so they each have a Chromebook. The school gives each child a Chromebook.
This is a computer holder.
This is the holder for it here
At our old school they always brought it home and had homework on it, but this school does not.
So they just bring home their cases for them.
The computers stay there.
And then they also all have just a random other little bag for music.
So they have—well, he doesn't have any music notes in it yet but he eventually will.
This is the recorder that Sarah has now moved on to this thing.
Joshua has the "pianika"
Oh yeah. Which we have all seen in the past.
And heard. And heard.
Many times. We're going to play with it right now.
Because I'm recording a video.
Yes! Yes.
And then they have these!
Inogu set It's their paint set.
Of course we buy all of these, but then they have a variety to choose from, so we chose Pocket Monsters for Joshua.
And in side is their paint set.
It comes with paint brushes. A thing to mix up the colors,
Mix up the colors.
And here is all the things to dip in.
And there's all the paint.
It's quite cool. It's actually very cool.
Sarah's is Snoopy. Snoopy?!
I know. Snoopy!
OK now Sarah already has this set,
Which Joshua still has not gotten to.
This is the calligraphy set.
So you learn how to write with all the calligraphies.
This brush.
It's very intense. This is the ink. Just black ink.
Lot's of newspaper because they practice on newspapers,
Here's the pad that they write on top of.
And it gives you your guidelines. It teaches you.
It's very intense, and they can write so beautifully.
You have to always make sure that there's... she's almost out of ink.
On no, she still has some.
Oh and one very interesting thing about this
Is that they come with this kit and these are weights.
They're very heavy.
Because they hold the paper in place.
And this is where you put your ink and then you dab it and then...
I really want to feel how heavy it is.
Feel this... Oh my!
Next year she will get this...
It's a sewing kit because they teach you sewing.
It comes with nice cutting scissors, measuring tape,
All kinds of stuff.
And they practice sewing.
Oh Sarah will love that.
Yeah, so they've made some really cool stuff.
They also get a woodcutting kit.
OK, so when I say "get" I mean parents have to buy it.
It's not free.
And then it has a 5-piece — you can see the shapes of the blades.
For wood carving.
They learn a lot of cool skills.
And then this is what Becca and Anna have at middle school right now.
This is their art kit.
Then theirs is all in there.
Whoa. I know.
And that is pretty much what we have to take to school.
OK, so when the have swim — during the summer they all have swim so they each have to have a swim bag.
Like this...
OK, so they each get a plastic swim bag,
And they have to take their swim clothes,
And a pool hat.
And they can rent books from the school library, which Joshua loves to do
We have a finding Waldo book right now.
And right now we're finishing school projects.
Would you like to see our school projects which we have to take?
They have so much homework during the summer.
And this is our final project for Joshua, he did a Mario Movie...
Diorama or something?
Something.
There's Princess Peach.
Oh my goodness, how cool is that? Did mommy help you make that, obviously?
And then Sarah's working on hers...
Wow. It's still a work in progress.
Yeah, very cool.
This is like back-to-school central here.
It is, we've had to eat in the living room because we don't have space.
OK, so they also have this!
Which when they do outings, they carry this.
Like that.
But then what they do is they take paper and pencils inside of here,
And then they clip their paper here and then they draw.
Like if they're observing leaves or flowers or whatever
And then if they collect anything than they also put their leaves and stuff inside of here.
Yea! Yea.
And then they all have these things, which they all do a lot with clay and play-doh.
They have this play-doh that you can play with that feels just like play-doh,
But then if you leave it overnight it gets really hard.
Like hard as a rock.
I don't know what it's called in English. Maybe modeling clay, or something? I don't know.
In Japanese, it is kaminendo.
We're getting buried. Oh!
Here- it's heavy!
Smile at Daddy, look at Daddy!
Look at the camera.
Say "Back to School!" Back to school.
Next time on Life in Japan
Ruth is going to check off a bucket list item: climb Mount Fuji.
But will the weather hold out for them, or destroy their hopes.
We're ready to go!
Here we go!
There it is! Just the tip!
Barely.
It’s the grand finale of this epic summer, so don’t forget to subscribe to see more of Life in Japan.