2016 update

It's been about 4 years since I tried to post last. How is everyone? We are still surviving our Hamamatsu Life, the kids are getting big, and I have been busy with work!

Ken has been playing soccer with a local team since the last year of Kindergarten. He joined the team Formiga which is based in the next town to us. His kindergarten was a bit far from home, so it was a good way to stay in contact with his old friends from kindy and have fun. He is fast and has a hard shot, but is still learning some of the fundamentals of the game.

Mona is in the first grade of elementary school from this year. She is still making her new friends and we are interested in finding piano lessons for her but the tough point is when can we take her? Soccer takes up most of our weekends and I work in the evening and Ritsy gets home at different times each day. We need to find a solution soon.

That's all for now. I will try to post more again if I can!

Ritsy's birthday (getting caught up)

Almost caught up to real time again! (huzzah!)

The Sunday before last was the day before my lovely wife (and expectant mother) Ritsuko's birthday. It was her 26th birthday yet again. The plan was dinner out, but one of my nice students had given me tickets for a Japan League soccer game Iwata Jubilo vs. Niigata Albilekusu (or something like that). We headed off the Yamaha stadium which is located conveniently right next to Yamaha motors HQ where I sometimes teach English.
The game was actually a lot faster moving that I thought it might be and pretty exciting to watch. The visiting team from Niigata had a player that came from Hamamatsu and went to school with the lady that had given me the tickets so I was happy that he scored a goal (National team member Yano), but I was cheering for the home team Iwata who lost 4-2. Iwata should have been strong in goal with National team goalkeeper Kawaguchi, but he looked average in the game.
Ritsy and I still managed to have a good time at the game and I bumped into a couple of my ESL College student's mom's at the game. On the way out, we had to avoid the smorking place- I hate it when people smork.
Next target was dinner. We had planned to return to a place called Barkley's that we had eaten at before, but upon arriving in the area and checking for it, we could not find it at all. Looked like it was closed down, I heard later that it was just moved. Well, that was trouble for me because I told her I didn't think we needed a reservation... We decided on the crab restaurant Kora. Basically everything you can eat there is crab. It was all delicious but it always costs a fair coin to eat there.
All in all it was a fun day and I think Ritsy had a nice birthday!