New Years 2008

This picture just worked better in Black/White

One of the big traditions in Japan at New Years time is the trip to the temple to pray for good luck in the coming year. While Ritsy and I are not really religious people, we do believe that it doesn't hurt to just not tempt fate, be respectful to life, nature and to ask for safe passage. I do think it didn't work out too well for me last year, with the numerous trips to Temples in Nara- and my leg still got fractured so close to my baby's birth...
But we decided to lug little Ken out to Gansuiji temple on the 2nd. As I believe I mentioned, the temple is very popular for praying for babies, so it was a good fit. The other key point being that Gansuiji is so close to our home. Ken looked quite amused up to this point.
It was a pretty nasty cold day though, so we had to hurry along to do our business. At the front gate, they had their traditional New Years decorations out.
We went to the main shrine and said our Pleases and Thank yous. The shrine was decorated by a number of very colorful flags (not sure what the relevance is) and a thousand paper cranes as shown in the next picture.
Finally we had to hurry back to the car as Ken was not too happy about the cold weather, and I can't say that I blame him. It was pretty nasty.

The House (some old videos)

I thought I would post a couple of videos about my home's building process- the first one I made to put up in Facebook- but I don't think too many people found it, so I thought I might slap it up here, just a bunch of pictures I took showing the progress of the home as it was built ...

The next video I found sitting forgotten on my poor forgotten video camera. Now that the baby is close to arriving- I took out the camera, blew out the dust and found this old nugget. In Japan, more so in the more rural areas now I would guess, people have an interesting tradition when building a new house called tatemae. On the day that the roof gets erected, the owner first has the pleasure of treating the workers to a nice box lunch and dinner (which wasn't cheap- but if we don't do it, maybe they forget a nail or two...). Later in the day when the work finishes, we go into the house and pray for good luck at the home then pelt rice cakes at our future neighbours. It's quite funny, the older people when driving by on the day recognize the roof will finish and make plans to return at 4 o'clock. They turn up en masse and scrape and claw to get all the cakes. Indeed I saw a couple of cute old ladies grabbing rice cakes from children's grasps! It was pretty fun and interesting to see what it looked like from the other angle...

That's Japan! Volume 5

What's that you ask? A country that has a population about 3.8 times that of Canada's, squeezed into roughly 1/26th the space? The country that invented Pocky and Godzilla and Ultraman? Yes folks- That is Japan!

Yeni and I at the ESL college summer Hanabi party

1. Jinbei - Most people when they think of Japan's unique clothing styles, readily come up with an image of a kimono, or maybe a pair of wooden sandals (geta). One of the lesser known players is the jinbei a light weight easy to slip on clothing that is great for the summer time. While the tradition is to go through the time consuming process of putting on a kimono, or slightly quicker yukata - it is quite popular for men to opt for a jinbei when attending summer festivals. And gosh, don't I look sharp in one?

Some guy eating basashi in Kumamoto(stolen from this blog- sorry!)

2. Food tourism - What did you do last holiday? Did you travel to Kentucky to eat baby back ribs at a popular restaurant? Did you travel to a number of different cities sampling Roll Cake from the many local restaurants? Chance are if you are in North America you said no. But it is actually quite a popular travel activity for some people in Japan. I think this speaks of one of the charms of the Japanese culture, to be perfectly honest- each region has a unique culture point or a food specialty that has grown and improved as time passes. While I get annoyed with the TV for always showing people eating- it is a great way to keep people informed of some of the unique tastes and spots around Japan. So if it is the food motivating to travel around, at least they are happy with doing it. After all, I'm sure they do end up doing some sight seeing between all the eating.... right...?

Again gleaned from a google search HERE

3. Pub - Are you new in Japan and want to settle in for a pint at a local pub? Be careful what you choose. Most likely what you would expect in a pub, here is called an Izakaya. That's a place to sit down for a laugh with your friends, eat some (surprisingly) good food and of course have some drinks. If you end up heading into a Pub- you will find a very different kind of establishment. A Pub here is usually a hostess bar, where you pay an incredibly high price for drinks and you (maybe) get flirted with by the hostesses at the bar. Similarly, Snacks have a very similar scheme and the best I can figure out the big difference is that an older clientèle frequent Snacks.

Yep, you can order this here.

4. Loli-Goth - One of the great fashion statements you will run across when walking around (more so in a bigger city than Hamamatsu though) is the Loligoth trend. Yes they have taken all the best elements of Lolitas (yes that is the sick love of younger girls?!) and the remarkably beautiful voice of the Goth underground and made just a... well... creepy image. Actually the image is cuter and cleaner than some of the other trends- but there is just some sort of odd undertones to the whole thing- I can't really put my finger on it, but it gives me the shivers.
5. Traffic Signals- I haven't been able to figure it out in almost 4 years living in this country. They call the green light on the traffic signal- the Ao Shingo- meaning the Blue signal. The light looks green to me and most of my students agree with me it is an odd thing, why blue? Well I formed a theory. Maybe the first guy that brought the traffic light over to Japan was colour blind and called it the Blue light. Maybe he was so revered and respected that all those around him just kind of went along with him and agreed that it was indeed blue. They probably took pity on him that he did not see his error and continued the tradition in his honour after he passed on... Well, it's a working theory, anyway.

Well that's my blog for today, and that's Japan for a lifetime!

A New Post!

Call the kids in! Phone your friends! Hamamatsu Life has an update! A new posting! And the lead picture is a generic, unreferenced one, it must be time for one of Todd's miscellaneous ramblings entries! Wow!

Sorry: Yep, I don't know what's been going on, my posts have been a little too much spaced out lately. I guess this week I had two new classes which I usually get a bit stressed about especially when trying to teach a new textbook. I tend to think that in the end the classes always work out fine but if I don't get worked up for the classes, I won't do as good a job- so it may be part of my successful recipe (it's one of my theories anyway). Well even though I haven't been typing in my blog, I often think about what to talk about when I am driving, so this is probably the by product of those thoughts!

Baby Talk: Ritsy finished work this week, and is now on Maternity Leave. I think it's great that she will have a month to relax now, it's going to get really busy for both of us, especially for her in about a month. And wow- that really feels real now- one month away from baby arriving. We actually heard the baby's sex now- but I'm not going to mention it here just yet- I want to personally tell a few people first. We already have a baby bed- thanks to Kouji-san, and we bought a new mattress and blankets for it. We also bought a stroller at a used goods shop and a car seat. So I think that is a good start. I even have been trying to read the What to Expect in the Baby's first year to be prepared for the challenges ahead. Progress is slow...

Baby Talk part 2: I watched the movie Knocked Up the other day and had a good chuckle. Of course the movie isn't for everyone- very adult themes like drugs, etc... Though in the movie the baby comes about thanks to a one night stand- the actual pregnancy and everything after that was somewhat relevant to me, so it was actually good to watch for my situation. Especially when they showed the picture of the baby crowning, that is something I have to work myself up to...

Death Hill: One of my new classes this week was in Morimachi(actually both of them were), which means that for the first time in a long time I had to go out in the direction where I had my accident earlier this year. Well, the old road is now gone, they built a new, much safer road through the hills. It is a gradual incline with a much lower apex and very good sight lines- the drive feels much safer now! Good job government of Hamamtsu!
Not Farewell, it's see you later : Ya it was kind of a sad feeling on Tuesday. Some of my regular students for my Tuesday night class that have been attending for around 2 years will not be joining next semester. So it felt like goodbye, though I hope that we will all stay in touch as they were not only great as students but we also had some great talks and a couple of fun times at Josh's place. Well if you guys are reading this, thanks again!
Lanma: Asked me to put her picture in my blog again, so there it is.

I will try to be more on top of posting again! Thanks for reading!

Shinpara Matsuri

As Matsuri season winds on in the immediate area, Shinpara, the community I live in held their wildly popular matsuri last night and tonight. Here you can see all 10 people from the community came out, so it was a great success!
No actually, Shinpara is a pretty far spread out community that is split into smaller areas, each of which has their own Yattai- or Japanese style parade float. Here you can see 4 of them, though sadly none of my yattai pictures came out very well.
You can also see the local shrine (dark, but it's in the background here), where Ritsy had to dig into her wallet so that we can offer some money in order to pray. Don't worry! It's not that much, I think 5 yen is an optimal offering, though we could only find a pair of 10 yen pieces.
Though her family don't live there now- she grew up with her friend Manami (you may recall they visited us, and we visited them previously) in the area. So we ran into her and Shogo and Eiho, their dad was drinking with Manami's parents, so we didn't see him. They were all happy to see me of course, and the two boys challenged me to a race. It's tough to teach kids such valuable lessons, but naturally I had to beat them! Sadly today my legs were soar from all the running...

You can see how big Ritsy's stomach is getting now- junior - or kicky-kins as I have started calling it, is definitely almost ready to come out!

On a sad note, we were given notice of a wake and a funeral in our neighborhood today. The man, aged 37, leaves behind a wife and young child. He was an avid motorcyclist and had gone for a trip up to nearby Toyohashi and lost control of his bike and was hit by a truck. Very sad. I had met him not too long ago too. He was at the Dainenbutsu practice I had gone to see- I remembered him as being quite nice. I guess the thing that struck me the most about it is his young age (just 2 years older than Ritsy and I), seems that side of life has decided to start taunting us now...

Let's! English study!

Just wanted a picture for todays post

I was driving today and was reminded of a very common English mistake that is made here in Japan (which I may have spoken about before in this blog...). The car in front of me at the light had a well meaning bumper sticker that said "Let's! Safety" . What the heck does that mean? I especially liked the exclamation point after Let's - instead of at the end of the phrase where it should be.

Now, for a long time- I have been reminded of the "I am a safety driver" phrase pretty much everywhere I drive. How did such a blatant English mistake become so widespread I mean you would think that a politician or PR man somewhere must have taken a couple of English lessons and spotted the error before it was plastered everywhere! Could it be that people just don't care if it is correct or not....? Nah!

On a serious note- I saw on the news (the 10 minutes of CNN headline news I could catch the other day) the video clip of the mom in the U.S. racing the train, and beating it, only to get hit by a train coming the other way. She instantly killed her two daughters and was in serious condition at the time of the report. The whole video sickened me. It's one thing if you are going to drive like a clown and risk your own life.Let's not forget that you are still a hazard to everyone surrounding you on the streets too, but if you are driving your two children around-- you err on the side of caution. I mean what is worse, being a little late for your Pilate's, or killing your children? Don't get me wrong- I am sure she feels like crap about it, but I think that is a gamble you just don't take. Alright- I haven't had a rant for a while. When I think about being a Safe Driver, it is video like that which inspires me to drive well, more than a silly little catch phrase like Drive Safely. NEWS LINK.

Tachikawa Part 2 Out of the creepy looking mist...

Peaceful Green
In Tachikawa was a rather large park, so large that they we had to pay money to get into the bloody place! The park is called Showa Kinen Park- Showa is the era that saw the reign of Emperor Hirohito and Kinen is peace. So the park is a wish for peace- so I think that explains the odd steamy looking place that I captured on film up above. Actually it was a cold mist, and is a great idea on a hot summer's day!
There were actually quite a few photo opportunities around the park, so I had to wade through a few pics, the view of the pond and the green scenery always wins out, not only for my pic, but also Ritsy's...
And what pay-for-use park isn't complete without a very large tree somewhere inside.
All joking aside, the park was a beautiful and very large and was a good place to go to sometimes. It was especially amazing around Cherry Blossom time as the entire place was packed and the sakura were everywhere!
Top Gun
Also near the place that I was living was the U.S. army base, Yokota. We weren't in the path of the sounds of the planes but could often see them running their drills pretty close, and I remember being treated to a fireworks show that year's July 4th. Well once a year they open up their gates and people can come in and enjoy the friendship between America and Japan. This was the year after September 11th and I was pretty surprised that the security on entering was a lot more lax than I expected. Of course I know that I don't really look like a threat, but what if I were an actor that had been Valmorphisized?
I was able to sit in the cockpit of one of their helicopters. Naturally, in my mind I was reliving a Star Wars scene ("don't get all cocky kid").
We had a good time that day, but I remember getting seriously sunburnt and then Ritsy and I had our faces stuck together for some reason.

Tachikawa pt 1 - The standing river

The view from outside the front door at Leo's palace

Looking back to 2003... the March of that year was the outside of my first journey to live in Japan. At that time I was fresh off a 12 year stint as a cook, ready and eager to take on new challenges and to grow into new experiences. To be honest I thought I may end up cooking again, or worse, washing dishes because my resume didn't stack up very well for diverse jobs. I sucked it up though and searched hard and managed to find 2 part time teaching jobs relatively quickly. It was all I was going to need as the part time hours filled themselves up quite nicely, and the rest is, as they say, history.

Before our departure, one of Ritsy's former colleagues, a doctor now working in the Hino area of Tokyo called and said he could probably help her get a job! Well that settled it, we were bound for the region and we discovered the wonder of Leopalace (the link shows the location we lived at!).Which seemed quite appealing to us because there was no key money, thank you money etc. The monthly rate was quite high, but if we paid the year in advance the amount was deducted to quite a reasonable rate. So we entered into our year of living in a shoebox. The above picture is taken against the far wall of the apartment and you can get a good idea just how spacious it was. The kitchen was off to the right on the way to the exit door, our room was the loft on top of the ladder, next to Ritsy.
This picture is taken from the spot we saw Ritsy standing in the previous picture. You can also get an idea how quickly the place would get messy.

The quality of accommodation didn't really matter though, it was such a buzz to be living in a new city and culture experiencing new things daily. What an amazing city to live in. Tachikawa I always referred to as the 'inaka' of Tokyo as it was quite outside of the busy area and there was even a few farms in the neighborhood. It was pretty quick, though, to venture into the hubbub of the city - basically any direction you went you could find somewhere to go or something to do.

It was also pretty fun to teach in that first year. Making the mistake of talking too much in the classes or learning to deal with annoying kids- it was all part of the fun. Here a couple of my 10 year-old students made an artistic rendering of my girlfriend Ritsy and I, which they found quite amusing.
Well as the clouds set on our year in Tokyo, I regretted that I didn't experience more and had to go back home. Of course at the same time I was so happy to return home and get on with my life, but I grew more fond of the times in Tokyo and am usually pretty stoked to head back every now and then for a visit.

Typhoons, Nuclear Reactors, Drivers Licences, Dainenbutsu, Dinner and Drinks with Some Students!

I wanted to continue reflecting on the visit from my family in April, this time looking at my Aunt's pictures, but there are a few stray topics hanging around that I wanted to address.

Weather and Nuclear power: Last week some nasty weather blew through the region. It actually started on Thursday- before the typhoon hit we had a nasty dumping of rain that seemed to coincide exactly with my class finishing and my entire drive home. The rain was so hard that on the dark road I could barely make anything out. The picture above is a fairly accurate view of what I could see while driving home. Just nasty. The rain seemed to be a little reminder that one of the biggest typhoons in recent memory was paying a visit soon to Japan. Man-yi when it hit Okinawa was a category 4 typhoon and was cutting a direct path through mainland Japan up through Hamamatsu and up to Tokyo. Thankfully by the time it hit here it was category 1 and the winds were a manageable 100 km/hour. Honestly the damage looked minimal in the area- I cleared a few branches that fell off the big tree across the street, but it actually seemed a little anti-climactic.

The next day came news of the big earthquake in Niigata. There were a few concerned e-mails to me as the news characterized it as being central Japan- but it is actually northern central Japan- while I am in Southern Central Japan. The point of interest to me actually is the Nuclear power facility. Japan largely relies on nuclear power- I am sure that you can imagine with such a large population and such small land, the need for efficient cheap power is extreme. Well we aren't too far from a nuclear power plant here in Hamakita- okay it is probably about 40-50kms away, but sometimes that doesn't seem far enough. With the spillage into the sea and the knocking over of the nuclear waste barrels, it seems to me that we haven't heard the last of the damage caused by such a disaster. Well it just strikes a chord with me and I hope that the power plant is better setup to withstand the big earthquake that is overdue to hit here.

Drivers Licence: I went to renew my drivers license on Tuesday with my trusty translator Ritsy (and apparently my wife...). The process includes sitting down for a 2 hour video and lecture. The video is pretty good, at least through the campy acting I can get the point it is trying to make. If I drink with my colleagues they will convince me to drink more than I wanted then I will drive home and fall asleep at the wheel, then hit and inevitably kill a girl riding her bike. I will then be sent to prison and my wife will be forced to work so she will eventually lose the baby that she is carrying due to the extra stress. Okay- all sarcasm aside- I actually like the idea of the video it is presented as a drama which is quite popular in Japan so it will hold people's attention and the message it carries is a good one- don't drink and drive. I hope that it has made some people re-evaluate their habits and saved a life or two! The rest of the session is a throw away- even if I could understand what the man was talking about for the last hour and a half he would have put me to sleep. He was not an interesting public speaker and indeed, looking around I could see some people nodding off. After that was completed, I had my new license- I am now no longer a beginner in Japan (yes, despite my 10 years driving in Canada, I had to start as a beginner).
Dainenbutsu: On Sunday, at the tail end of my class, my students and I went over to the Cultural center in Hamakita and checked out the museum. As we had talked about the Dainenbutsu, they wanted to show it to me as there is a lot of information about the ceremony there. Pictured above are two masks that are used in the ceremony- the characters Hyotoko and Okame. The museum was small but surprisingly nice- I wish a few more foreigners might come out to Hamakita, as there was no English materials made at all! Incidentally about Dainenbutsu, the ceremony was actually last weekend, and that would have meant that the people doing the cermony that night would have had to be out in the typhoon conditions! I hope that they were able to cut the evening short!
Dinner: That night (after my usual Sunday basketball session with Chris and Peter) I met up with the same students again and we went out for a nice night of drinks and food! Kazuo and Atsuko are a couple of real nice people that tried out one of my group lessons and asked me to teach them privately as the class was too hard for them. They both have a great energy and we always have a great chat every class. For dinner we chose a local Izakaya called Iso de Raku that featured some amazing fish dishes.
After some great food, some beer and some laughs, we of course had to have the typical capper- a trip to karaoke!
It was a great night and they were both very generous and very fun to hang out with!

That's Japan (volume 4)

Ahhh- Japan. A land rich with cultural history and a promise of a bright future. The past and future meet in Japan and it shows itself in the most unexpected of places. As westernized as the culture is becoming we are constantly faced with traditional elements of Japan that make this place so unique, so lovable and so confusing all at the same time. Well.... that's Japan!
1.The Inkan - How do we authenticate documents and personal checks back home? With archaic, easily forged signatures. Well the Japanese have the best solution to this problem- forensically pure and virtually un-forgeable rubber stamps. The Hanko or Inkan has the earliest documented use in 67 A.D. a gold seal used by the emperor. The heritage of this system probably links back to China as my old friends at Wikipedia explain here. Honestly in this day and age with comprehensive scanning technology it is pretty apparent that both the inkan and signatures can be reproduced- what will be the next generation marker?
2. The commonly asked questions. - As an English teacher I get a pretty comprehensive read on some misconceptions that seem to be quite widespread here in Japan. Here are the top three that come to my mind:
- Only Japan has 4 seasons. To be honest I am not really sure what is in people's minds when they ask this question to me. In my humble opinion (IMHO to you internet geeks out there) in Canada the seasons are more clearly defined than they are here in Japan- anyway Chris had a great take on the 4 season thing in his blog- funny guy!
- People in other countries don't have allergies like they do here in Japan. - I can understand where this feeling comes from- there is a lot of pollution here and the air pollution intensifies the concentration of pollen in the air. But it doesn't change the fact that we have a lot of the same trees and grasses (like Cedar) in and around Vancouver and I have been suffering since I was 11 or 12.
- The chopstick thing. - Especially in western culture, international food is quite popular. In most countries everyone has been to a Chinese or Japanese restaurants more than a couple of times. So, yes most of us can eat with chopsticks.
3. Breakfast - I never picked up on it back in Canada that my wife never craved sweet food for breakfast. I mean how many hangovers have I tried to kill at IHOP over a plate of waffles- or what kid didn't enjoy a big bowl of sugar coated Frosted Flakes or Count Chocula? The truth is that people here in Japan think that it's weird that we eat sweets - they are used to their traditional morning meal of Salad (I mean salad for breakfast? That is weird), Miso Soup, Rice (of course), and a grilled piece of fish. Of course sometimes you can throw Natto into that mix- which I will talk about in a second.
4. Natto - When I first smelled the wonder that is natto- my stomach did about 3 back flips. The smell I would liken to how your toes smell after a long day of playing sports, or belly-button lint. When you get past the smell, the taste is actually acceptable- but I ask this simple question- why would you want to get used to such a horrible smell. I usually take a pass on this. What is it? It is fermented soy beans usually mixed with mustard and green onions- it is incredibly healthy for you and it is quite popular among the Japanese.
5. Holidays - While it is no secret that the Japanese work harder than people in most cultures- most of the workers I know start at 8 am and usually head home anywhere from 7pm- 10pm (sometimes later) just about everyday. Lately companies have introduced a 'No Overtime" day- to encourage employees to reclaim some of their lives (or more accurately cut down on the costs of paying overtime). Even though most employees are allowed some personal days off in the year, it is generally frowned upon to use these days. Well, the government is a saviour- most people are guaranteed 3 weeks off a year. There is one national holiday in April (Golden Week), one in August (Obon) and one in December/January (winter holiday). This alone has probably saved a number of people from just 'losing it' altogether. I know for me it always helps to recharge the batteries.

That's all for this installment of "that's Japan". Tune in next time as we delve deeper into the little details about Samurai life!

Truly Tremendous Time in Tokyo

Our final day in Tokyo, after we did a little more shopping in Shinjuku and enjoyed a restful day, we met up with Scott's Assistant (at his office in Vancouver- though she is from Miyazaki) Yurika's brother. We went to an Izakaya called Showa Roma meaning a romance for all things from the Showa era. Here you can see one of my favorites, an old poster for a Godzilla movie where he battles Mothra and Ebira- a giant moth and a giant prawn-- delicious!

Okay what is Showa? Well in Japan, they recognize two different calendar systems- the easily recognizable Gregorian calendar which would make this year 2007. They also have a system of counting years based on the terms of the emperors- for example right now is called Heisei 19 as it is the 19th year of term for the current emperor. The previous era which was Hirohito's reign was called the Showa era - there was a total of 63 years. It's very complicated and must be a lot of work to calculate some things using this system! So basically the pub was a retro pub with a lot of old cool pictures.

Well, Yurika's brother was a really nice guy and we had to have Makoto translate for us a lot, though I could speak in my basic level Japanese to him. We got along well and had some good laughs and some more good food. I was actually drinking grapefruit sours- where I could juice half a grapefruit and mix it with Shochu- it was really refreshing! Well our time grew to a close and we had to leave, I kind of liked the mugs with the black background and cool looking script so asked if they sell them, the guy just gave me one! That was nice!
That night wrapped up a great stay in Tokyo. The next day Scott and I hit Royal Host for breakfast for the 4th day in a row and then said our goodbyes and took our buses our seperate ways. It's kind of tough to have such a fun time and head back home sometimes and I was really not so excited about coming back to Hamamatsu after a great trip. The traffic around the train station was blocked out because of the Hamamatsu festival (which I missed yet again!), so it slowed down my return home even more. But eventually I made it, and I was back home!

A Normal Post... :-)

It was really fun to recount the story of my mom and aunt's trip over the last several entries, and I had some more adventures last month that I will talk about starting next entry. But this time, I want to make a regular entry.

Well most of the people that are reading this already know, but it looks like I am going to be a dad! Of course we have had an idea this will happen for the last 2 or so months, but I wanted to wait out the first 3 months before really announcing it. Well at the 3 month (or is it 4- I am a little confused actually) checkup it looks like everything is proceeding as expected and Ritsy is indeed still bearing child. Wow! I am going to be a papa... I think it is still a bit surreal to me right now but it is starting to sink in!

Well what does that mean for me then? Ritsy will be able to take a year's maternity leave but will make a greatly reduced salary, so the two of us definitely need to build up our savings before then. While I had worked hard to make my schedule easier on myself in this year, I now have to step back into the fray a bit and work a little extra. So, I am working Mondays again for now and will probably take a few strange classes that I might not have before. I can live with that and should be able to have a little bit saved by time we have the baby. Ritsy should have a bit saved too, thanks to Bonus time coming up.

It looks like I might have to cancel plans for returning back to Canada this year though! That really sucks, I could use a little dose of Vancouver right about now. I had been planning to take the trip during Obon so that I wouldn't have to disrupt my schedule, but that would have meant that the trip would be a bit expensive, well that renders the trip basically improbable. That makes the recent visits from my mother, aunt and Scott more valuable to me, at least I did get a bit of a taste of home this spring!

Right now, I still have a bit I need to learn about the pregnancy process in general and how it works in the Japanese system. I will start my research soon!

Well either way, it is a new, exciting and welcome experience!

Thanks to the miracle of photoshop and an old picture of my sister and nephew Mac (sorry Tracey!) I have created a picture showing what our baby might look like. Cute eh?
One more bit of news- this coming Monday is my wife's birthday and I had already planned to take her out to dinner on Sunday. On Tuesday one of my students- Satomi was nice enough to give us a couple of tickets to see the soccer team Jubilo play on Sunday afternoon. That should be a fun day! I was really touched by my students thoughtfulness!

Okay next up.... Tokyo Times...

Party at Josh's crib

It's been a long while since I have posted, I am really sorry! I have been quite busy over the last week and a half with my mother and aunt being in town, and naturally I will blog about it soon, lord knows I have about 400 pictures to sift through to pick my highlights, but I will get back to that in the next post.

My last post was about the Hime sama doucho festival in Kiga, and I wanted to further post about the history of the festival but was having a tough time digging up the true story, I will keep my eyes open though, and maybe I can tell the story next year! I have uploaded these two videos from the festival though-- one and two. One is about 3 years old from the first time I went to the festival- it includes me trying to be funny with the camera- the second video is just a few clips I took with my camera- I especially like the monks with the basket heads.

On the 8th of April, I had a great little get together with my Tuesday evening Eigo 4 class. One student that has taken my course for 3 terms now and always is not only a great contributor in class, but also contributes to my blog sometimes- Josh- had a little bbq at his house. Unfortunately he only ended up in one of my pictures, this one where I was taking a picture of Harry taking a picture of me(he is in the back with the cap and the grey sweatshirt).
We were also all glad to finally meet Kouji's wife and see his new baby that we have all heard so much about! His wife made some delicious Thai curry that had Ritsy and I humbled in our past attempts to make Thai curry... Kouji also brought some excellent coffee and was hand filtering cups of coffee- it was naturally sweet and delicious! I later learned that it would be impossible for me to buy the coffee as the man who ran the shop in Hiroshima closed his shop.
One of the stars of the bbq was also Takayasu's daughter Yuri, who was shy but absolutely charming!
We also were really impressed with Josh's home in Miyakoda which looked like a log cabin that could have been in Whistler. We later learned that the home was designed and largely imported from Bellingham Washington, just across the border from Vancouver. Ritsy was scaring me talking about making a second home that looked like his.
It was a great BBQ and I look forward to next one there!