Playdate with Japanese school friends

Yesterday I ran into some Japanese moms/their kids while running errands on base. Rowen was really excited to see some of his friends, outside of school.

It's been a year since Rowen has been going to Seika, but he's really never hung out with his friends from school on the weekends or on holidays. There's plenty of kids that Rowen plays with in our cul-de-sac that go to school on base, attend a different Japanese school, or go to Seika, but are in an older class. I've always thought it would be fun to have a play date with kids from his school, but it's just never come together...

A lot of the Seika kids that live on base have Japanese moms/Navy dads and of course, because of the cultural similarity, they hang out with each other. I often talk with the moms when I see them around base or at various Seika events at school, but that's been the extent of it.

I was excited to see them on base today and see how much fun Rowen was having with their kids. Since the next day was a Japanese holiday, meaning no school at Seika, we talked about having a play date :)

We met the next day at Makiko's house, who has a daughter named Karri and is in Rowen's class. A few other mom's came with their kids, who are also in Rowen's class. They live in the Ikego housing area, which is about 20 minutes away from the main base, so no wonder we hardly see them around! Caroline was also there, with her mom and sister. Caroline doesn't live too far from us on base but since she's in the oldest class at school, Rowen just sees her on the bus, but not too much at school.

I unfortunately forgot my camera so there are no pictures of how much fun the kids were having! Rowen kept talking to me about his friends and explaining to me that he goes to school with them, while we were at the play date :) After the kids had a total blast playing together, and we had snacks like Japanese crackers, chocolate-covered strawberries, and Tiramasu cake (a Japanese favorite) (and of course, juice boxes), it was time to go home...

We were all at Makiko's house for 5 hours! But the time went by fast-what a great way to spend a day off school, Arjun and Rowen had a lot of fun. While Rowen was playing with his friends, I had a great time getting to know the moms as well. I'm pretty sure play dates don't normally last this long, but this one went really well.

Even when it was time to leave, Rowen and Arjun wanted to continue playing. It was dinnertime at this point, and we had to go home! But the next day when Rowen came home from school, he talked about all the kids on the bus that he had played with the previous day.

So, better late then never. It may have taken us a year to get together with kids from Rowen's class, but we did and it was a lot of fun! Rowen is definitely looking forward to his next Seika play date!