mikan!

Though it's easy to forget this time of year (because it's damned cold), the Narita area is pretty far south. We're at about 35 degrees north latitude, which puts us roughly on par with Santa Barbara. A good reminder of this are the mikan trees that sport beautiful, bright orange low-hanging fruit this time of year.

The mikan is essentially a mandarin orange (in fact, mandarins were introduced to the US via Japan). They're a bit smaller than a tennis ball, have very thin skins (you can peel them with a fingernail), and the fruit inside is very soft, and from time to time very sweet (though sweetness is hit or miss, like oranges back home).

Anyway, my school has a tree, and a couple of weeks ago it was determined that the fruit was ripe enough to pick and eat with lunch. The fifth and sixth graders managed fine on their own, but my first and second graders are sadly too short to reach any of the fruit themselves. You can see what our solution was.

That's Airi, a very cute first grader.

Miki, a very big first grader.

Naoki, a very big (but very happy) second grader.