Sep. 4, 2012 What are we doing in Japan?

Quick summery of what's going on.

Yuna got a cold for the first time in her life; she had a runny nose, sore throat, and high fever. The fever only lasted for two days but she still has coughs and a runny nose today, 10 days after the original cold started. David and I had sore throats and runny noses but no fever. (my goodness, you can not be any hotter than it already is in Nagoya Japan!)



Poor Yuna, fighting a fever and the heat.

David is continuing to look for a part time job. Two companies should be contacting him today.
Thanks to him, I was able to be a part of a very geeky event; David wanted to buy a limited edition of a Pokemon 3DS. We waited for 90 minutes there. Notice what people surrounding us are doing.





I have started researching about social systems and welfare programs in Japan. As far as I can tell, the US's system is something Japan is trying to model somewhat but has not yet included everything. It is very much in a developing stage where ordinarily, institutions do not have specialized staff like OT, Rec therapists, and so forth. For example, in a daycare institution, one person with a little back ground in social work offers direct care, cooks, gives advice to parents, runs groups, writes reports, and does some administration work. I asked what her job title was and she had hard time coming up with one.
I will be presenting about what recreation therapy is and how a treatment team works to Japanese workers who are involved in welfare programs as early as in Dec. (I just found a business partner yesterday!)

We are inviting some neighborhood families this coming Sunday to have FHE with the Elders at our house.

We are visiting my grandparents' home several times a day to brighten their days with Yuna's smile (they live on the same land). My grandpa just came back from the hospital a week ago after 3 weeks of hospitalization and a heart operation. My grandma is also sick and has not gone out of the house for 4 months now, so Yuna is such a blessing for them. She brings lots of smiles in our home. How she does it?

Like this....




stealing daddy's headphones,

and munching random vegetables as a little surprise.