Happy 'Sea Day'

More fun & games with Yukiko's friends. Her friend Hakku, who now lives in Moscow with her husband, came back to Japan for a visit and dropped by.

Hiroko & Miku, Hakku & Teddy, Yukiko & yawning Jotaro



They didn't want me to be lonely in the middle





Catching a few zzzz's on the carpet



Yukiko & I took Jo to a local Buddhist temple so he could receive a special blessing from a monk. At first I was a little put off because I found out it was going to cost us about $100 for the blessing. The blessing took place in an elaborate ceremony and in the end I was pretty satisfied. The temple itself was very beautiful and gave another opportunity to snap more pics of Jo.

Inside Nakayamadera, waiting for the ceremony to begin.







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It wasn't until this point that a young lady, who was taking these pictures for us, told us that we had Jotaro's hat on backwards. So we quickly switched it around and took a lot more photos.



















Here's Jotaro showing off his crawl 'training'. He's actually gotten better since this video was taken and can now move himself around a little, but pretty slowly still. His main form of locomotion these days is rolling.

Summer vacation is sweet!

At well into a week into my summer vacation I'm doing great. I've still got weddings on the weekends (and a couple of weekdays here and there) but but I'm pretty free most days. Free to help out at home and spend time with Jotaro that is. So while I'm still keeping busy I'm having a lot of fun. With all this free time I've been inspired to get off my lazy butt and begin training again. I haven't practiced BJJ since December but started again this week. My technique was alright but I really had no cardio. After 5 minutes of sparring I was wiped.
I also recently watched the Steven Seagal documentary entitled 'Aikido: The Path Beyond Thought'. I haven't practiced aikido in nearly 5 or 6 years but this week joined a nearby dojo in Sannomiya called Seibukan dojo (here's an English link for the dojo too). They have practices at different times almost every day of the week. I'm most interested in the morning classes on Mon Wed Fri though. They're from 7-8 and will be perfect when I begin teaching again in September. I'll be able to get in some training in the morning, take a shower and then head off to work. Even though I'm not teaching at the moment I'm still going to these morning classes. Getting up early isn't all that fun but the practice is invigorating and when I get home Yukiko and Jotaro are just waking up so I haven't missed anything.

Richard Kimble, here is your one-armed man.

Jotaro is all smiles in his crib.


His fingers are finger-lickin' good.


This is Yukiko asleep yet still clutching her mobile phone. Kids these days eh!

Here's a nice picture of our little family in our little apartment.















Yukiko went to her friend Hiroko's place where the 3 babies, Miku, Jotaro and Yuki had a close encounter with an inflatable giraffe.




Here's Yukiko & Jo in nearly matching outfits.

Unfortunately Jo hasn't acquired the necessary level of fashion sophistication to match my 'party shirt'.

Here's Jotaro really going to town with the chimes hanging in his crib. Sort of a fusion jazz funk I think.






A private chat with Jo.












Jotaro has found the perfect place to fall asleep.

Happy Canada Day!

Friday was my last day of classes and starting on Monday I've got 9 weeks of paid vacation. Oh yes, the real highlight of working at my school are the long times when I don't have to work there. However, they are predicting that it will rain every day this week so we'll be relaxing at home.