Well Ruth... I'm a student again!
Yes! You're all signed up for language school, right? All signed up.
I start on Monday. Whew!
If you really want to feel at home in a new country, wherever it is, you need to learn the language.
When it comes to long-term success, learning Japanese is a top priority for us.
I made this commute for 2 years — I did this for 2 years while I was doing language school down here in Shinjuku.
This brings back memories.
Out of the house without kids... time to shop!
You learn a lot of practical Japanese just by living here, and if you couple that with formal learning, you can really push your own abilities further.
Anyone know where we are?
Happy shopping? Yes!
There are many ways to learn a language, but the best is complete immersion in a language with training from native speakers.
There, we found it — our lunch location.
Today we're celebrating a new phase in life. Can you guess what it is?
We've got the beginnings of a wonderful lunch! Yes!
This is good, good coleslaw.
So I'm counting my calories, and this is pretty much, this is the daily allowance for calories.
You blew it. It's in this one meal. It's going to be worth it, though.
Well we're celebrating the girlfriend going back to language school.
How exciting! The kids are finally all in school so she can go.
Are you ready for that? Oh man! I was born ready.
There's daddy's! Oh yes!
And now for a camping store — we can look for goods so we can go camping.
This is what I want right here.
It’s a lot of hard work learning a language, so it’s important to find activities your family can do together that make it fun.
Our family hobby is exploring Japan and experiencing new things along the way.
These things make for great memories and help us bond as a family and with Japan.
Now we’re gearing up for a new adventure.
My air mattress came with this air pump.
Nice! Getting ready to camp!
Anna, do you know that people were asking for that hat?
Yep! People already want to buy it!
Can I pop these?
You want to pop those? OK, pop one.
Isn't that the favorite thing to do?
Can I pop another one? Yep!
Do it! Hard, hard, Joshua!
You can do it! Oh! You did it!
Yeah!
Do it! Oh, yes, you did it!
I think they're going to like these. Because I bought these to be their air mattress to go underneath their sleeping bags.
What do you think? Can you sleep on it?
Whoa! Is that the sleeping bag?
It's a big day! What's going on, Ruth?
I'm going back to school. Back to school!
It's a rainy day today —
Today- all the girls are going to school! And Joshua.
We're all going to be in school at the same time.
Wow! Except Daddy.
Except Daddy. Daddy will be here, working.
Wow, this is a whole new thing, Daddy's going to have no distractions.
Can you hear it, Joshua?
Louder, please.
Happy school for all of you! Mommy, this is too heavy!
I love all of you, God bless you! Love you, bye!
Bye bye!
It's just me and you, dude.
OK, this morning we're all going to school. I'm going to go to Japanese school
And I'm walking the girls to their school,
On my way — crazy!
Heading to school and it's a little bit rainy today, huh?
We're looking for the puddles! We're looking for them!
Did we find some? Oh, here's some. Look, just little ones.
So while everyone else is off at school, I also study Japanese here at home
With a number of different textbooks, I have online conversations with our teacher that's helping us
(Speaking Japanese)
Besides our class and homework, I also enjoy using apps like Duolingo
(Japanese) Mada ie ni kaette wa ikemasen. I can't go home just yet.
Oh- You cannot go home yet.
Oh yeah!
Others really enjoy watching Japanese TV or reading mangas (Japanese comics).
I personally enjoy watching the Watercolors with Shibasaki — he’s like a Japanese Bob Ross.
So today we've come out — we're going to set up our tent for the first time.
We're going to give it a try.
Hi Dude! Hi!
Do you want to help me put up the tent? Yeah! Where is it?
Right here. It's in our big bag right here, alright?
We're going to try it!
We need space, Daddy, the tent is the size of a small country.
The size of a small country!
Thankfully it has instructions on the inside.
Number one: pull out tent.
Well good thing you didn't wait to read that to know what to do, huh?
Hey, how big is it going to be? I don't know.
You don't know? Well we'll see, huh?
Oh this is the cover. This is just the cover.
Oh here- here's the poles.
Look at the size of this thing!
Oh my goodness!
There should be light gray poles and orange poles.
The thing lifted off the ground. Wow!
Alright, well... There's your tent!
Hope you can fit into that.
It's a little shorter than I thought, but we'll make it work.
A little shorter!
You can only lay down in this one.
Bro, this tent is intense! Dude —
Tent intense!
Good thing we have a big family because you need a lot of support to put this thing together.
This is too big! It cannot be bigger than our living room!
Today we're only setting up the tent. We're planning on some proper Japanese camping adventures later this year.
OK- shoes off in the tent, right? Here we go, Dude!
Whoa, look at this! Holy cow!
Whew! I can run in a tent!
And we can put the tarp up if we want, or just leave it.
Keep having kids and you can get a tent this size too. Yeah, that's right.
Do you want to see the inside of our tent, Becca?
Look at that, guys!
This is so crazy!
This is so amazing!
My lens isn't wide enough to capture all of this.
How do we open it?
Open it! Open it! Aren't you thirsty? Don't you want some?
There!
Hopefully we don't need a permit for a tent this size
Because when we roll up in a camp sight with something this big,
Oh man- it's going to need a lot of space!
Dude, we could rent this out for like $1,000 a month, what do you think?
That's right.
Put some plumbing in it. A little ofuro (bathroom)
Uncle Paul's setting up his tent. It's a lot easier! There's two poles — no — three poles.
That's a lot easier though.
Do you have a rain cover? I think so, yeah.
Please take off your shoes. Take off your shoes. Take off your shoes.
What's the magic password?
Wow- look at this! Oh my goodness!
Wow, look at this! It looks like a playground!
Just come in. Just come in!
Alright. We got the tents up, everyone's going to chill, and we're going to get our 6 K run in, right?
Let's do it man.
I want to earn some calories to eat some more tonight.
Post jog, I'm back home and the girlfriend made me a beautiful salad with tomatoes and cucumbers right from her garden.
Oooo, it looks so yummy, Daddy!
How much hearts? I don't know.
Sarah got the Master Sword? Oh, that's a huge moment in Zelda! And with the popcorn!
Everybody's brushing their teeth, getting ready for bed-skis. I'm not.
You're not?! You already brushed your teeth? OK