Ready for October

Well the temperature is finally dropping to below the auto-sweat levels. I'm looking forward to being able to comfortably hang out outside.
These arrived a few weeks ago but I feel the world is just now ready to witness the plates that Yukiko & I crafted during our visit to England Hill. Yukiko's is the good one on the right; mine is the one on the left with the thingy that looks somewhat like a koala.

Limited Edition Collector's Plates - BUY NOW!!!

On Saturday Keiko, Seigo, Yuka and Yukiko's cousing Naoko came to visit. It was a fun day with lots of food (Yukiko made a delicious pasta lunch, and we ordered Chinese food for dinner), some nice sparkling wine and lots of good conversation. I guess it's flattering that they think my Japanese is good enough for them to speak pretty naturally with me. I do catch most of what they're saying to me but when they spoke amongst themselves it was much harder to keep up. This is mainly because I don't know the people/TV shows, etc, they are talking about. Similarily, Yukiko can find it hard to understand when my friends and I are speaking 'Simpsonsese'. Although she's getting better :)

Keiko, Naoko and Yukiko

Seigo & Yuka

Is her head that big? Or is mine that small?

Sorry about the hand. We couldn't get the bottle to stand up on its own

Yesterday Yukiko & I went to the Tsukaguchi Tipness. It might be our last trip there as the new, closer, Mukonosou Tipness will open in a few days. Yay! After our workout we decided to undergo the Tipness 'Body Check' where they evaluate your body and decide 'how old' your body is. I thought this was a little strange because I just need to check my passport to see how old it is (and yes, sometimes I do need to check). The test measured our hand-eye coordination, balance, hand strength, stomache strength and flexibility. I did quite well on all of them but my balance wasn't very good. For that test I had to close my eyes and walk on the spot. 2 boxes were drawn on the floor and we started with our feet inside them. The test was to see if we could remain stationary. Within 50 seconds I had nearly crossed the room and tunred 180 degrees. I scored the equivalent of a 70 year old on that test. Whoa. All those years of carrying a back pack on only 1 shoulder have really screwed me up. I ended up with a final score of 35 years old, which is pretty close. I think that one test really skewed my results though and I wonder how I would have done without it.