"Udo youchien" is a place where all the grownups wear bright pink smocks and nearly all the children run around barefoot or wearing traditional Japanese wooden sandals or geta (see image at right).  What kind of place is this and why is the Bell family there?  Udo Youchien is a Japanese kindergarten, and our precious Emily is now a youchien no kodomo (kindergarten student)!

Well actually Emily will not formally become a youchien no hito until next year.  This is because in Japan children start kindergarten at age three, and little Emily is still only in her second year.  However, since enrollment in Japanese kindergarten takes place during October of the previous year, we have been very busy of late visiting kindergarten schools or youchien in our community.  After seeing many fine schools we finally selected Udo youchien, as it came highly recommended by our friends who have children there, and we thought it a wonderful environment and school for Emily.  Enrollment wasn't easy though, as Emily's dear mother had to get up extra early to stand in line outside Udo youchien on enrollment day.

On enrollment day mother was up before dawn, she ate a small breakfast and was on her way early for the train station and Udo youchien.  She had filled out and signed all the paperwork and had 30,000 yen (about $250.00) in cash to pay the enrollment fee.  Arriving early in front of the kindergarten, mommy was surprised to find over 100 other parents (mommy's mostly) already in line ahead of her.  We knew that enrollment might be difficult, as this is a popular school, however we had no idea that many Japanese couples work as teams to ensure that their children get into the kindergarten of their choice.  Yumiko later learned that many parents (daddy's mostly) had arrived at the gates as early as 3:30 AM in order to get an early spot in the registration line.  Later, when the daddy's had to go to work the mommy's showed up - with kids and toys in tow - to finish out the wait until the gates opened at 9:00 AM.

Yumiko was a little distressed to discover that she was 137th in line to register Emily at Udo youchien kindergarten.  Though she was far back in the line, she wasn't the last as many more mommies showed up later until the line wound around the block and out of sight.  After the gates opened and the line of mommies began to move, Yumiko was delighted when she finally made it into the large reception room, as anyone who made it into the room would be accepted.  In the end only 145 mommies made it into the reception room (remember Yumiko was number 137) so it was a close call.  However, by the end of the day Emily was officially a Udo youchien no hito and we were all looking forward to the weekend welcoming festival where all the new families could come for a day of orientation and fun.

Please check out the photos below which highlight our participation in the Udo youchien weekend orientation festival.  As many of Emily's neighborhood friends are current or upcoming Udo youchien no hito, you will see many photos of Emily smiling with her buddies.

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