My kids are buying their lunches with the Edy money cards today. "Their what?" Hiroshi made me repeat like three times. The kids just got their school IDs. It's got a IC chip to open the main gate and record what time they arrive and leave school. But it also has an Edy money function. Obviously, from my husband's reaction, it's not like a wildly popular thing in Japan and I'm not sure whether there's an overseas equivalent. But there is a charger in the office of the school and you can do all school miscellaneous payments electronically with Edy money. It's absolutely more convenient than giving your kids money. The most convenient thing is of course buying lunches, especially on mornings when Mom realizes she hadn't made rice last night because she was panicking over having to go into the Canon service shop in Ginza.
Not much bullies can do with it. You can't use someone's Edy money to pay for a field trip without the teacher knowing. And did I mention the cafeteria food AND the snacks are all organic. Free range pork and chicken that has never had antibiotics! They feed chicken antibiotics?? I didn't know Ecuador imported organic sugar either. The kids get a little bummed when their tongues don't turn fluorescent after eating snowcones.
I have to stop here before people think this is some ritzy posh private school, it's not. It is a competitive school to get into because it is the best international school with tuition under $20,000. There are schools with more spectacular campuses, tennis courts and indoor swimming pools, but this school only has a big dirt field. It's popular though because it offers a coed International Bacculareate program through to the 12th grade, so it's academics are standardized worldwide. I'll go into describing the program and the Tokyo international school scene another time. But basically, a lot of schools only go up until junior school and I wanted them at a good school that went until the 12th grade. It's across town and since we wanted a bigger place anyways, we decided to make a move closer to it.
The area around the school has nothing. No shopping. No restaurants. Just blocks of nothingness, so we soon came to the conclusion that we weren't going to live within walking distance of the school. There were plenty of choices within our price range around the area, but most didn't come with parking. We picked this place mostly because parking was only $75 a month, versus $300 at most other places including our old complex. My mom was in town then and she came to look with us and really liked it too, so the decision was easy. Hiroshi and I now know we have excellent real estate karma because we sold our old condo to the first people who saw and for a profit. The price on the place we just bought went up around $25,000 in the three months since we bought it in a bearish market. Toyosu is just so it right now. As I write this, some celebrity on tv is talking about visiting her friend in Toyosu and getting lost because it's so new it wasn't on her GPS system.
Most cities have these districts, redeveloped former waterfront warehouse area. Large developers built fancy tower residences, fancy shopping malls, beautiful parks on a reclaimed land island that has rocking waterfront views. But living here, there is still remnants that until recently this used to be a low income area. There are the warehouses, though mostly across the canal, and surrounding all these high-rise complexes are public housing. And across the canal is the North Korean high school which until the 1970s was a hotbed of juvenile violence. Japanese delinquents would march down carrying baseball bats and knives to the school to pick a fight just because the kids there were Korean. Did Beat Takeshi Kitano (who is rumored to be part Korean) do a movie about this???? Tokyo is of course still a very safe city but still the obvious income disparity in such close proximity does make me a little nervous. To be specific, there are actually three classes in Toyosu. We live in a middle class complex which there are plenty of, but not in a upper class residential tower that price over $1 million US for a three-bedroom. They have a Tokyo Bay view.
I didn't know much of this before moving here so there is a bit of cultural class adjustment going on. Nerima, where we used to live, is a peaceful middle-class suburb. Everyone was the same.
There is also the fast car culture this side of town we are completely not used to. Know the movies Tokyo Drift?? Well, this is that part of town. At night, the roads around the warehouses are empty and wide so... action. The car parked next to us is a souped up RX8, but with a baby carseat. The back is so small I think, what are you going to do when your infant grows legs??? Unlike the movies which I think protray drivers as gangs, the real drifters are normal, family guys with a dark side. This stuff goes on across the canal where property prices are 25% lower. But last Saturday, Hiroshi and I could actually hear wheels screening.
I didn't know much of this before moving here so there is a bit of cultural adjustment going on. My angelic husband also figured out what was wrong with my camera. I don't have to go into Ginza!! So the morning started good. And maybe I can actually start posting photos on this blog.
Have to dress up for lunch with Kimi today. Then Friday, I am conquering Ginza!! But of course, not by myself. Michi promised to accompany me. Hiroshi was laughing at me last night when I called her whining, "I don't have any friends here..." Oh, and tomorrow I am interviewing Miss Universe 2007. Hiroshi gets such a kick that when it comes to work, I'm so competent but when it comes to life, I am this fuzzy ball of neuroses. But I can usually be cuddled and cooed out of it...
