Name: The End of Winter | Life in Japan Episode 151
Uploaded: 2022-04-16T01:10:51.000Z
Duration: 11 min 35 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

WIth the cold of winter still hanging on, the first signs of spring begin to blossom in Tokyo — the plum blossoms.

Transition words & phrases

Even though everything else is still brown and dormant, these bright blossoms declare the approach of Spring,

and with Spring comes Sakura and warmer weather.

For the Reutter family it also means that three of our kids are getting ready to graduate one phase of life and move on to the next.

Time marches on and waits for no one, and ready or not, it's a time of transition once again.

Here he comes, all ready for school, huh?

There's just a little bit of youchien (kindergarten) left, oh my goodness.

At least the lugging kids around. That's right.

See you guys later, have a good day at school! Bye!

The dramatic presentation is one of the last things in the kindergarten school year before graduation.

Not only is this Joshua's last year in kindergarten,

but it will be the first time since we've moved to Japan 8 years ago that we won't have a child at our local kindergarten.

You can feel a bit nostalgic when you think about it,

because we're very thankful for our local kindergarten and all the good friends we've made here.

Joshua, pull your [pant] leg down. Do you have your pants inside-out?!

The kindergarten has been vert patient with us as we learn the Japanese language and customs and do our best to communicate.

Having all of our kids in Japanese kindergarten has prepared them well for the Japanese public schools afterwards,

and I pray for a smooth transition for Joshua as well.

You can reach it, you know what that means?!

But it's not just Joshua who has a big transition soon

Becca and Anna are putting on their kimonos—we want to go look! Oh!

I'm almost as tall as you...and of course mommy. You look older already.

OK, stand there, I'm going to do a sneak peak!

One of Momma chan's favorite things to do in the late winter is to get out and see the plum blossoms,

and this year they have been especially slow to bloom, maybe because it's been so cold.

What did you get there, Sarah? A dunguri (acorn)

But each time we visit more and more are in bloom. We are ready for Spring!

What are you guys going to do? Go in the water!

But before winter is done, there's one thing we still want to squeeze in.

This year has been a record year for snowfall up in the mountains, and a number of my friends and I love to ski.

Each year we all take a day off work and leave early in the morning for a 3-hour car ride up to a ski resort.

We weren't able to do it last year, so we don't want to miss it again this year!

To drive into the mountains, you need to be prepared with proper snow chains for your car.

Oh I don't know if I can do it though... You can!

We got the chains on, and now we're ready to roll. Let's go!

Yoshi, do they put the blue, do they spray paint it on the sides so you know where the wall is?

Masaki, did you bring your helmet from home?

You impress me with bringing your cameras on trips, man.

Common man! Somebody's gotta make it happen. Someone's gotta do it, man.

When you got a YouTube channel you got to... Pay the price!

It wasn't long before we were up on the mountain in the middle of all that snow!

Alright, it's time to ski in the snowstorm!

This right here is like more of the mountain than we've seen all day.

I think I'm going to get a little video too.

Oh, there goes Yoshi. He's halfway down already!

Ben- you've got the skills, man! What up?

You're the real deal. I'm just trying to do me, you know what I'm saying.

Just trying to get sponsored out here. Ha ha!

[Yoshi] You want some chocolate? Oh man!!

Well, this has been the weather all day: snowy, cloudy. Hardly be able to see, it should be awesome for YouTube.

Quarantined... not quarantined. Quarantined... not quarantined.

After lunch and a lot more skiing, it was time to head back down the mountain, but our day was not done.

Onsen in the winter. This is where it's at!

After a day of skiing—look! You can actually see the top of the mountain kind of.

Look at all this snow, look at how tall it is here. My goodness.

One day trips are fun and memorable, but back at home it was business as usual, with the girls working on their English.

See how the letters are — look— they're not up and down, they're kind of slanted...

Oh, you guys going to learn cursive writing? It's like calligraphy in English.

That's cool. And you girls are so good at it in Japanese. OK, unpause.

[Teacher] You shouldn't write in a really relaxed form, your back should be straight, probably up against the back rim of your chair...

Joshua also has work to do to get ready for elementary school.

The little Reutter kids are busy up here. What are you working on Joshua?

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The End of Winter | Life in Japan Episode 151

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