Life in the Express Lane

** UPDATED **

It's been only a few days since my last post and already there are many new things afoot:
• We’ve just found out that our newly married friends, Chika & Shige, are expecting their first baby. I guess they were feeling left out as everyone around here is having a baby these days.
• This semester of my Masters course is finally finished. I submitted a 21 page Action Research paper about easy and effective learning strategies that high school students can use to study in their own time. My final semester doesn’t start until next year so I’ve got some time to relax and keep this blog up to date.
• Tomorrow, Yukiko and I go for our monthly check-up at the Women’s clinic. We’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to find out if a boy or a girl will be joining us in March.
• Yukiko and I are in the market for a new car. With a baby on the way we decided it’s about time to buck up and join the automobile crowd. Right now our eyes are trained on the Nissan La Festa, a small minivan.
• In preparation for getting a car, I’ll have to get a Japanese driver’s license. Luckily, it’s very easy for Canadians to get a license here. I just need a translation of my Cdn license and an eye test. Americans have to go through all the trouble of taking the written and practical driving tests. Sucks to be them I guess.

Other recent happenings… Yukiko & I have finished watching the 4th season of the TV series 24. I had watched the series when it originally aired earlier in the year (thank you Bit Torrent) but we rented the series when it came out here so that it would have Japanese subtitles for Yukiko. I think it is probably the best series so far but on the second viewing I really saw the show from a more technical standpoint, how it was organized and put together. I realize now why Clowie is so annoying. While to the other characters she always seems to be saying the wrong thing at the wrong time she is in fact always summarizing recent events for the viewers.

Here are some pictures and details from our lives recently:

We went to a kimono exhibition featuring Yukiko's kimono teacher. Did you all know that Yukiko has been studying the kimono for years? I always wondered what exactly she was doing and I finally got the chance to find out. Women of all ages were demonstrating how to dress themselves and others in a multitude of different styles. It was pretty impressive.



That's Yukiko's teacher, Shirashi Sensei, in the background.

Here's a group of kids in their summer yukatas.



There was a short shamisen performance during the intermission.

Our friends Shige and Chika got married in Guam but they had a special wedding party in Osaka for all their friends who couldn't make it to the wedding.

Yukiko and her friends Natsuki & Emi

Shige & Chika are a darn good looking couple if I must say so.



Yukiko really roasted Chika in her speech for the bride. She had everyone LOL.



The party games were also very fun. Such as this one to determine who could put the most clothes pins on their face.

This was a nipple tug-o-war. There really weren't any winners in this contest... except for those of us who didn't participate. Those wacky Japanese.

Two of our good friends from a few years back made the return trip to Japan and we were able to meet up with them in Umeda. Dave worked with me back in my JET days and we hung out quite a bit back then. When he finished with JET, Dave and his wife Sachi moved to Boston. It's a shame we can't see them more often. We hope you guys come back sometime soon!

Sachi & Dave

Yukiko & Sachi

Never too late for an update, is it?

Things have been really, really busy for me lately. Worst of all were the multiple projects I had to submit for my Masters program in the last few weeks. My very last one is not due until next week as I received a one week extension in order to gather more data. I'm doing an Action Research Project at my school; I'm teaching one of my international classes easy and effective ways to study English on their own outside of class. My big questions are: will they do it, and will it help them?

As I said in my previous posting, we still don't know whether our baby is a boy or a girl. However, several friends have mentioned some mysterious Chinese calendar that is supposed to very reliable in determing a baby's sex. So in the pursuit of knowledge I googled it and found a lot of sites. Here's the one I used. It claims to be an ancient Chinese secret that is 99% accurate. Other sites seem to range from 80% and up. If this is correct, and how can over a billion Chinese be wrong, our baby will be a girl.

I see that my last pictures are from my trip to America in the summer so I have a real backlog of photos and stories to tell. The biggest news has to that our good friends Kazu and Hiroko just had their first baby, a little girl named Miku.

ミクちゃん、ようこそ！

Mommy is doing great too.

Hiroko & Miku

Kazu & Miku. She just stops crying and falls asleep in his arms. That's one trick I'll need to learn pronto.

Other things in the somewhat recent news:

Our niece Yuka is doing well. We were a little worried because she was late to start walking but now there is no stopping her and she is always going to and fro.



Like finding a needle in a haystack. Wait, no it's not.

We had another visit from Fu-chan and her mum Yoko. We are certainly being pulled into the world of children and babies aren't we.

Fuka takes a break from rampaging around our apartment.

Yoko & Yukiko

Fuka & Hiroko

We went to Kazu & Hiroko's place for Kazu's birthday.

Happy Birthday Kaz!

The low-table is all the rage in Japan



We went to an annual street festival (Jizo bon) near Yukiko's parents' house in Higashi Osaka. It is sponsored by a local yaki-soba shop owner to honour the spirit of his daughter who died in a traffic accident.

paper lanters light the way

Our friends Chika & Shige

Yukiko's friend Kibu looks smart in her yukata

Yukiko & I went to Mino park in Osaka for a day of fresh air and exercise. We were also hoping for some monkeys but they were nowhere to be found this day. :(

This beautiful restaurant sits under a forest of trees and next to a winding little river. So it is probably very expensive.

a great place to take a break from the hustle and bustle of big city life.

Gotta maintain your fluid intake

Bright red bridge = good, bright red Coke vending machine = bad



The end of the hike, waterfalls but no monkeys. Only humans, who are often far more annoying and noisy. Still, a great day overall.

This is a statue of a man carrying his mother along the path. Luckily we were just about finished our hike when we saw it so Yukiko couldn't get any strange ideas


Yukiko changed her hair colour.

the 'Classic' look

the new Yukiko