I have been super busy with school as we are approaching the end of the year, so I have not been posting as much as usual. Yesterday, Oliver, Ocean, Nadia, Kenta and I biked to Expo ’70 park. We spent the morning walking around the park while Nadia and Ocean shopped in the mall. The park is a huge green space near our house in the north of Osaka. It was the site of the Exhibition 1970, similar to the world fairs they used to hold in the 19th and 20th centuries. The park today is a multi-use area with fields for playing sport, playgrounds, a couple of museums, some nature areas, etc. Behind the boys is a massive work of art built for the expo, called “Tower of the Sun”. 47 years later, I wonder what they were thinking, although it is quite distinctive. We met up for lunch at the food court in the mall and then biked home. A really nice time!
Thursday we went to Oliver and Ocean’s student-led conferences. You can see the videos of Ocean going through her learning on our family YouTube channel.
It is so funny that the kids get really nervous and excited for showing us what they have been doing in school. Oliver will be heading to middle school next year and I think it will be a good change for him. Being with the same teacher all day must be hard for him and the teacher. The moving around and different teaching styles will help him. However, the challenge of staying organized will be tough for him.
The convenience stores always a huge variety of cold drinks they come out seasonally. I discovered the “Relax Orange – Orange + Jasmine”. It was the perfect refreshment on a bike ride on Thursday night. It is not very sweet and the jasmine gives it a nice aroma and after taste. It will be replacing the “Litchi + Salt”, which is a spring drink.
Finally, the weather in May and early June has been perfect! It feels like that Mediterranean sunshine, with bright blue skies. The nights and mornings are cool, however, the humidity feels like it is lurking. The summer in Osaka is oppressively hot and wet. I often go to the university for meetings and I snapped the picture below. The Spanish-style buildings and Chinese fan palms give it a California feel.
Bill's Blog 