Getting Ready for Japan

So, we're heading to Japan in a couple of months and a lot of Jo's lessons have been learning Japanese, reading books set in Japan, using an abacus for math, and learning about Japanese geography and history. If we were going to visit ancient Japan, Jo would be so ready - that's what has really fired her imagination. We watched a National Geographic special a few weeks ago and she loved learning about Tokugawa Ieyasu. I heard her telling her dolls in the bath about the kamikaze that prevented the Mongolian invasions in the 11th century. And now we're reading The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn and Jo is loving it.

She spent most of yesterday pretending to be a samurai who was pretending to be a merchant so he could investigate a murder and a stolen ruby. Awesome! She built a kago (an enclosed litter used for travel) out of pillows and an umbrella. Her kago had the extra twist of also being a traveling toy store. (She was disguised as a merchant because nobody respects merchants and so nobody pays attention to them. Clever!)

When the sun went down she had to stop traveling "because all the checkpoints are closed at night" but she continued to investigate by questioning potential witnesses.

 

Here she is threatening a reluctant witness. She explained to me that she only has to threaten to draw her sword, because everyone knows that if she actually draws it she'll be forced by honor to use it - and nobody wants that. 

My favorite quote of the day? "I'm not lazy like Nero Wolfe. I actually go out and investigate things. I even use a magnifying glass!" I love it!