Fast Friends

About ten days into our stay in Sapporo, Fiona was doing great entertaining herself and paling around with Mommy, but it was obvious that she was missing interactions with kids her own age. At the local playgrounds, we had encountered lots of kids who were interested in her and enjoyed following her around and doing whatever it was that she was doing, but there was a definite lack in any meaningful interactions due to the language barrier. So you can imagine how happy we all were when she made an English speaking 6-year-old buddy at the playground last weekend. Before the girls parted ways, Fiona's new buddy Taeri asked for her email address so they could get together again. I gave mine to her dad hoping we could connect again at some point.

Fiona woke up Monday morning asking what our plans were for the day and if she would be seeing Taeri. I told her where we were going and said that I thought the chances of us running in to Taeri again were slim. For the rest of the week she asked multiple times each day if she could play with her new friend and each time I had to tell her I didn't have anyway of getting ahold of her parents so we'd just have to wait to see if they emailed. She was so bummed as the week went on, and we didn't hear anything. I kind of thought it probably wouldn't happen. Taeri and her family live here in Sapporo and, I assumed, probably had their own busy schedules.

Well, much to Fiona's delight, Friday night I got an email asking if we wanted to meet for the girls to play again in the same park where they'd met. As it turned out, there was also another big festival happening and it turned into a fun day for everyone. Jason and I enjoyed chatting with Taeri's dad - an English speaking Sapporo resident of more than 20 years. Prior to living in Sapporo, he lived for a long time in Australia, so it was fun to talk about the transition to the Japanese culture with him. Meanwhile, Fiona and Taeri effectively disappeared to the playground - we barely saw them for six straight hours unless they wanted food. Taeri is fascinating to talk to; her mother is Japanese and Taeri was born and has grown up in Japan so she is fluently Japanese speaking. While also speaking Japanese and several other languages, her father has been careful to speak only English to Taeri since she was born so she also speaks fluent English. While at the park the girls also ran into a classmate of Taeri's and watching her seamlessly switch back and forth between English and Japanese to help the other two girls communicate was amazing.

Needless to say, despite being exhausted at the end of the day, Fiona described it as "one of her best days ever."

Hours and hours of sliding:

Impressively good classic rock band providing entertainment for the parents:

Money in their pockets and ice cream for sale!

Deep conversations on the way to the subway.

So happy she's found a friend for the summer!