My Own Little Private Blog

Biggest Update Ever! part deux

2007-12-28T20:49:00.001+09:00

Biggest Update Ever!

2007-12-25T01:36:00.000+09:00

Beginning with the posts underneath that have titles but are empty. Stay tuned.

Life on Campus

2007-05-05T19:37:00.001+09:00

Happy 1st Birthday Jotaro !!!!!!

2007-03-13T16:28:00.000+09:00

Day 3: Disney Sea

2007-03-12T17:59:00.001+09:00

Day 2: Tokyo Disneyland

2007-03-10T22:13:00.000+09:00

Our Trip to Tokyo: Day 1

2007-03-04T23:50:00.000+09:00

Keiko and Seigo are planning to have another baby this year so we thought it'd be fun to have a little trip together. And where better than Tokyo Disneyland?

At Narita airport, just outside of Tokyo.

The Disneyland Monorail and Disneyland Bus together in one shot.

The entrance to Tokyo Disneyland

The fancy shopping center across from Disneyland.

Our special 'kid friendly' hotel room.

A stairway in the Disney Ambassador Hotel.

Seigo and Yuka waiting for dinner.

The famous Chef Mickey's restaurant in the Disney Ambassador hotel.

Apparently Pluto also works there.

A little overcome by all the Disney characters come to life, Yuka tries to hide.

Jo looks a little troubled when he sees this evening's chef.

Yuka and Donald get along just fine.

Jo on the other hand...

Pluto doesn't fare much better.

Jo & Minnie

Jo & Donald

Yuka dances with Minnie

2007 so far

2007-03-02T00:32:00.000+09:00

It's been a busy year so far and we've had lots of fun with our friends.

Here's Jo and I in our decidedly Canadian 'Roots' pajamas from my parents.

We were paid a visit by Hiroko &amp;amp;amp; Miku, and Emi & Kazu & Hiro.

Hiroko & Miku

Emi with Hiro, Kazu & Jo

Emi & Hiro

Miku & Jo

Kazu with his Snoopy bottle

Jo in his crib

Jo & Miku take little cat naps

Pile-up on the bed

How sad is it that this kid is already cooler than me?

We made a little trip back to Yukiko's old stomping grounds in Higashi Osaka. Some of her friends still live there and we payed them a visit.

Proud papa Shige with Ririka

Chika & Ririka

Good table manners, Jo falls asleep in the middle of a meal.

GTA for real, Jo behind the wheel.

Hiroko & Miku, Nori & Yuki

We were also visited Keiko and Yuka in order to discuss our upcoming trip to Tokyo Disneyland!

Jo saying 'bye bye'

Our Christmas & New Year's 2006

2007-01-09T02:00:00.000+09:00

We had a pretty good haul this year. Most of the goodies came from my parents and Rob & Ann in Ohio. Rob & Ann always come up with great boxes full of fantastic stuff. We couldn't put up the fibre optic Christmas tree this year though because we didn't want Jo to jam it, piece by little piece, into his mouth. We did get to see a lot of friends we hadn't seen for a while and it's always nice to have a vacation from work. When school starts up again in January I won't have any 3rd year classes (they finish in Dec) so it will be smooth sailing until the end of the school year in March.

Jo isn't as impressed as I hoped he'd be with his new bathtub racing set. :(

He really loved this toy mobile phone from Rob & Ann.

And the jury's still out on this Anpanman dashboard set.

Jo's absolute favourite present was this little ball that lights up when shaken. It came in the mail and there was no return address. Santa?

On Boxing Day we met up with some of my old cohorts from the Marga Japanese school in Kobe. We had a great dinner at our favourite macrobiotic restaurant in Shinsaibashi.

left to right: Toshimitsu, Sara, Tomita Sensei, us

Not just a Christmas party, we were celebrating Toshi & Sara's wedding in the summer. Sara is also the one helping me get a foot in the door at Kansai Gaidai University. She says that the IES program director has asked her about me a few times and that things are looking good for me.

The Shinsaibashi 'Sogo' department store.

Another pic with the camera set for 'night' mode.

Rob & Ann set us these cool, matching Christmas Lobster pajama sets.

Jo loves that Baby Einstein.

A day or two after Christmas I finally heard back from Kansai Gaidai University about my job application. They have accepted me and I'll start teaching there full-time in April. Awesome. I am so lucky. After completing my MA earlier this year Kansai Gaidai was the first and only university I applied to. I really hadn't expected anything to come of it. I've got friends who've been working part-time at several universities for a few years and unsuccessfully trying to get full-time work. I guess good timing, a suddenly departing teacher, a good interview, and an excellent reference (thanks Sara!) really paid off for me.

This means that we'll have to move to the campus in Hirakata, Osaka. The job includes a free apartment on campus. So while I'll no longer have my current 90 minute commute to work we won't have the same beautiful surroundings around us. It'll be good-bye to a lot of close friends who live nearby, my various martial arts clubs, the beautiful Shukugawa river which is full of cherry blossoms in the Spring, etc...

Here was our nengajo, or New Year's card which we sent out to friends and family here in Japan for 2007, the year of the pig.

Mum & Dad in Japan: Okayama and Kobe

2006-12-27T01:01:00.000+09:00

** New Videos Added **

The second part of our big journey would take us back to the main island of Honshu, but a little to the east in Okayama prefecture. I figured we'd drive back the way we came, back up Awaji island and into Hyogo prefecture then make a left to Okayama. Our Navi said that it would be quicker to cut across Shikoku and take the Seto Ohashi bridge straight into Okayama. This was a pleasant change of routes because this bridge is the longest two-tiered bridge system in the world and I had never been over it by car before. Needless to say, my parents had never been on it either.
Once we crossed the big bridge we planned to make a brief stop at Kurashiki, the picturesque town Yukiko and visited in September of last year. Unfortunately it was raining a little but we still had a great time there.

The quiet canal of Kurashiki.

My dad checks out an interesting side street.

A solitary swan swims solemnly. Yes, alliteration at it's finest people.

A coffee shop with ivy growing along its walls.

Warming up inside a coffee shop that Yukiko remembers going to with her parents when she was young.

Jo somehow always manages to keep himself busy.

Of course our final destination was the Takebe International Villa in Okayama. This is one of five international villas in Okayama that were openned to bring more foreigners to Okayama. They are all in the countryside but seem very nice. I chose the Takebe villa because it is situated in an onsen (hot spring) resort and we could enjoy the facilities anytime we liked. There's a short video about the Takebe villa here We were very lucky to be the only guests staying there and had the entire villa to ourselves. I thought the villa was very good. The bedrooms were simple but the big kitchen and dining room were great. Best of all were the onsens right next door. And I can't forget the 3500 yen per person rate either, not too shabby in Japan.

The villa is on the right.

The villa's side view.

Just down the stairs from the villa is the women's onsen.

Next to that is the men's.

Jotaro got some excellent crawling done in this long hallway that leads to the dining room.

The dining room

The kitchen

There was also a little shower with a tucked-in/hidden toilet on the first floor. I never used the shower though as there was a fabulous onsen right next door.

Jo managed to find the magazine rack pretty quickly

Jotaro takes a little nap with his grandpa

We went on several nice walks around the villa. We got to see some beautiful old farm houses.

Dad always manages to fit in some fishing wherever he goes. He doesn't catch much though.

One evening we went to a local curry rice restaurant that advertised all the international kinds of curry they had on the menu. They had a curry from nearly every country. When the waitress came to our table however we were informed that she only had regular beef curry that night. Oh well. Yukiko thought it was hilarious how the menu stressed the extremely high number of calories in the curries as a selling point.

After 4 days of soaking in the onsens we headed back to Kobe. Back at my apartment I was amazed to see an email from Kansai Gaidai University. This is a foreign language university in Osaka that I had applied to just before my parents arrived in Japan. It was so far the first and only university I had applied to work for. I really didn't much to come of it because I've got friends who've been trying to get full time work at universities for years without success. This email said that a teacher had suddenly decided not to teach in the Spring and they were looking for someone to quickly filly a slot. I was very lucky to have included my friend Sara as a reference because she currently works there and they asked her about me a few times. The email said they wanted to organize an interview with me right away and the day after my parents returned to Canada was decided on. More on this story later ...

One night we were joined by Toshikatsu, Keiko, Seigo and little Yuka. We went to a shabu-shabu restaurant near the Oriental Hotel in Kobe. It was my first time eating shabu-shabu and it was delicious. I think I abused the all-you-can-eat policy a little. Unfortunately Yuka got really sick halfway through the meal and started vomiting up her orange juice everywhere. Poor little thing. It didn't dissuade me in the least from eating more shabu-shabu though.

Toshikatsu, me, Yukiko, Seigo, Yuka, Keiko, Dad, Mum, and Jo up front.

My parents have very good timing. They were able to witness Kobe's Luminaria, a collection of streets lined with decorative lights that memorialises the Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

Hordes of people line up to see Luminaria.

Our friends Kazu and Hiroko went above and beyond the call of duty by ordering these helium balloons to welcome my parents to Japan.

My dad was very impressed by all the little cars in Japan.

Mum and Dad spent 3 days in Kobe and we did a lot of walking and shopping and more walking. On our last day in Kobe we went Harborland and enjoyed the ecletic mix of shops and nice weather.

Unfortunately this night the dreaded stomach virus returned. We were at a very nice okonomiyaki restaurant with Yukiko's parents and her uncle and aunt when suddenly Jotaro started projectile vomiting all over the place. Two dinners in a row, two nights in a row, with puking. Seemed like more than a coincidence to me. This was my parents' last night in Japan and we were all going to spend the night at Yukiko's parents' house. Jo's stomach seemed to calm down a little but he had a fever and slept only sporadically through the night.
The next morning Yukiko and I were going to drive my parents to the airport and see them off. But as luck would have it, the next victim of the horrible virus was me. I was basically incapacitated for the entire day. The one time I stood up I threw up. My stomach was in a very bad way and I had to camp out near the toilet quite a bit. When I wasn't there I was curled up on a futon next to Jo who slept most of the day. As I couldn't move Yukiko and her dad took my parents to the airport. I was glad that they weren't feeling sick because it would really suck to be sick in the middle of a 10 hour flight back to Vancouver.
Of course we later found out that my mum did get sick while in the air and filled many a vomit bag during the trip. How horrible! Then my dad fell ill the next day. Yukiko was also sick the next day and the virus wound it's way throught the entire Tsuda clan as well.
I was especially worried during my downtime as my interview with Kansai Gaidai was the very next day. Thank the pantheon of gods from all cultures that it was only a 24 hour virus. While I was extremely tired I managed to get dressed and head out for my interview. The interview went well, I think. They said they would make their decision sometime around Christmas when the university closes for the holidays so I won't have to wait long.
As for the virus, we think it was the dreaded Noro virus. All the adults that got it were out of commission for only 24 hours but poor Jotaro was sick for nearly a week and a half. My mum said that there was big stomach virus epidemic in Toronto afterwards too. I wonder if we started all that?

Mum & Dad in Japan: Awajishima

2006-12-25T22:51:00.000+09:00

My mum and dad arrived in Japan for a 2 week stay. Our apartment is too small for 5 of us so we decided to head out on the road while they're here. We picked them up at Itami airport and spent the first night at Yukiko's parents' house. Our 2 sets of parents hadn't seen each other since our wedding in Hawaii 3 years ago so it was a fun reunion. It was also the first time my parents had met Jotaro and they were really excited to see him. Jo was a little apprehensive at first as he had only seen them on our computer screen during our video chats before. So we came to call my mum and dad 'the computer people'.
The next day we set out at a leisurely pace for our first destination, an apartment at the southern tip of Awajishima island. Awajishima island is in between Honshu and Shikoku and connects them by road. It was a very pleasant drive and I was glad to have the onboard Navi. My dad was really impressed with the Navi too and is thinking about getting one for his car when he gets back to Canada.
Here's a little info about our destination. It's a weekly rental / timeshare apartment that was super affordable. We got two apartments that were fully furnished with TV's, DVD players, kitchen supplies, etc, and they worked out to only $35 per room for a night. Unbelievable eh? The building also had a heated swimming pool, karaoke room, table tennis room and Chinese restaurant. Yukiko gets the credit for this awesome find. All the details are online here but the info is only in Japanese.

The apartment building on Awajishima.

Our apartment which included a massage chair.

Mum and Dad's apartment which had a home theatre system.

Naturally, the only thing Jo wanted to play with in the apartment was the gas heater.

The building is a little 'inaka', a little in-the-middle-of-nowhere. There is a nice beach very close by though and I'm sure in the summer it's very nice. We took advantage of the lack of people and had several nice strolls through the nearby pine tree forest.

Jo in his 'spacesuit' is ready for the chilly temperatures.

Jo and his grandmum.

Jo and his granddad.

During our stroll we saw hundreds of these tiles decorated with faces that were all different.

This one was particularily impressive/creepy.

Mum found this little shrine where she got to make a wish.

Jo loves his new 'Dr. Seuss ABC' book.

Jo sends his grandmum to sleep.

Mum and Dad couldn't believe how many flowers were still blooming in Japan in December.

Posing with our humble little minivan that carried us and our luggage so far.

Jo sends grandpa to sleep too.

Jo just won't let me sleep though.

On our last free day we went to the Otsuka Museum of Art in Naruto. It's the largest museum in Japan and contains perfect replicas of many major Western art classics. You'd have to spend a fortune and a lot of time traveling to see all the originals.

The Architect's Dream by Thomas Cole.

Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin. I thought 'If Jesus was a Simpson' would also work.

This was my mum's favourite.

Yukiko's favourite, John Everett Millais's Ophelia, which she used to look at in the Tate Gallery in London.

Jusepe de Ribera's Bearded Woman.

One of my favourites, Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash.

Yukiko seemed to think I resemble Self Portrait by Pablo Picasso. I guess the nose is about right.

Here's me being an uber nerd, examining a painting that is discussed in Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Here's the piece in question, Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks (version 1). Brown characterises the angel Uriah's outstretched hand as a threatening, "cutting" gesture. It's plain to see that she is merely pointing at the baby John the Baptist though.

Here's the most controversial painting from Da Vinci, The Last Supper.

Things can be seen more clearly in this closeup. Admittedly John the Baptist does look feminine, but is it really Mary Magdalene? Is Peter really threatening him/her with his hand and a knife? The left hand just appears to be resting on the other person's shoulder. And the knife, while held in a somewhat contorted position, doesn't appear dangerous at all. And they were eating dinner so it wouldn't be strange to be holding a knife.

Leonardo's St. John the Baptist. Very feminine isn't it? Perhaps that was John in the earlier piece.

Nicolas Poussin's The Shepherds of Arcadia, which plays a large role in the book The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail.

Year End Update: Part 2

2006-12-24T23:32:00.001+09:00

More play time for Jo and Yuka.

Yukiko's cousin even got into the act.

We finally received the December flyer for the baby shop 'Akachanhonpo' with a new picture of Jo in it.

This is the new pic of Jo modelling a gown.

Flush with confidence from the Akachanhonpo experience we wanted to enter Jotaro in a 'Baby Gap' modelling contest. This one is going to be a lot tougher though as only 10 babies from across Japan will be chosen. We did have fun taking lots of new pics of Jo though.

It's the end of the year so that means it's time to prepare our nengajo (New Year's cards) to send out to all our friends and family here in Japan. Usually we've done it on the cheap and I've made our cards ourselves on my computer. This year we've decided to forego my limited graphic abilities and get our nengajo made at a camera store. We need a good family photo though so this just means more photos to take.

Next up is our Japan tour with my parents. They came to Japan for two weeks and stuffed all our things in the La Festa and hit the road. More on that next time.

Here's Jotaro's raccoon imitation.

Year end update: part 1

2006-12-05T23:02:00.001+09:00

We were delighted to get a big cardboard tube delivered to us. Inside were copies of the posters for 'Akachanhanpo' featuring our favourite little baby boy. I think the pictures turned out great. We also received 3 copies so each set of grandparents will get one too.

Here's the full poster.

Here's a close up of Jo.

For Halloween we decided to throw a little party and invite our Japanese friends who have kids. On October 30th I headed off to Costco for some Halloween decorations. 2 weeks earlier they had had a lot of them. I was hoping to get a pumpkin or two as well. On this day however they had nothing. Not that they had sold out and the aisles were empty, the Halloween stuff had been completely replaced by Christmas decorations. On October 30th they had no Halloween stuff but tons of Christmas stuff. A full two months early!! Pretty lame. So we ended up getting different little things from here and there. It was a lot harder finding a cheap pumpkin though. A flower shop near to us had medium sized ones for about 3000 yen each. Ouch. Luckily Hiroko found a place selling large ones for under 1000 yen and she picked one up for us. Thanks to Keiko and Yuka for showing up a little early to help us decorate. All in all there were 11 of us, ourselves and Keiko & Yuka, Hiroko &amp; Miku, Emi & Kazu & Hiro, and Emi's sister.

The table of goodies. The main attractions were a pumpkin pie made by Yukiko, a 1 year birthday cake for Miku, and a jack-o-lantern by yours truly.

Here's my jack-o-lantern in spooky mode.

Here's Jo in his Lil' Devil costume. He's also wearing his new Halloween shirt from my mum.

Jo playing with Hiro.

Jo playing with Hiro and Miku.

The party in full swing.

Here's Jo playing with his soft car set.

Jo playing with his mum.

Jo playing in his baby bungee bouncer.

Yukiko and Jo went to visit our friends Shige, Chika and Ririka-chan. What a load of hair on her head!

Ririka!

Ririka and Jo.

Here's some recent fun pics of Jo:

Here's Jo going 'King Kong' on the camera.

Jo and Miku.

Jo and Yuka.

Here's Jo getting some of his daily nutritional requirements.

Finally, Owen and I caught some of the women's matches at the Volleyball World Championship in Osaka. This was Brazil vs Uzbekistan.

Great things in small packages!

2006-10-25T22:14:00.000+09:00

First of all congratulations to my brother Rob and his wife Ann on the birth of their 2nd son, Ethan Henwood. I have become an uncle yet again, and getting prouder each time.

Big brother John is doing great too.

Jotaro got his first 2 teeth (bottom two) and is enjoying sinking them into whatever he can.

He really likes playing with his keyboard.

Jo, Yuki and Miku play:

Here's a short, cute video of Yuka eating a cookie and chatting:

Finally, here's a snappy new jacket I bought to keep out the winter chills.

A Model Boy

2006-10-04T13:36:00.000+09:00

I'm not sure if I've already written it here before (a bad memory and infrequent posting will do that) but Jotaro was selected to be a baby model for the Japanese chain store called Akachanhanpo. It's a smaller version of Babies R Us that has stores all across Japan. They had posters in their stores asking for customers to submit photos of their babies. Well, we sent in Jo's pictures and they really liked him. So we took him to a photo studio in Osaka on the weekend for his modelling debut. It went really well and everyone at the studio loved him. They gave us a 3000 yen gift certificate for Akachanhonbo too. I was hoping we'd get a big paycheck and I could consider retiring from work but it looks like that won't be happening for awhile. Anyways, without further adieu, here are the backstage photos from the big photo shoot.

This is the only outfit Jo modelled. It's some kind of formal dress for babies.

Eventually Jo started to get a little fed up with all the pictures and posing and began to cry a little. Tough little guy though.

A well deserved nap after his first day of work. お疲れ様でした！

Afterwards we rendevouzed with Hiroko and Miku-chan in Umeda. We were doing a little Halloween shopping to get ready for our big Halloween bash at the end of the month.

Here's Miku trying out her witch's hat.

Here's a preview of Jo in his devil horns.

Yuka sings along to the theme song from the animated movie 'Tonari no Totoro'.

Jo practices standing up by himself... with a little help from his dad.

Perhaps Jo is trying to tell us that he's getting too big for his bed?

At our local Akanchanhonpo store Jo poses with Japan's arguably most loved cartoon character, Anpanman.

Then it was off to 'Amazing World', a great kids' play center where we got some great pics of Jo in their photo studio.

Jo takes a 'Rodi' for a ride.

Meanwhile, Yuka is relaxing on the cat bus from 'Tonari no Totoro'.

Happy 6 Months Birthday Jotaro !!

2006-09-13T23:45:00.000+09:00

Well Jo has hit the 0.5 year mark, congratulations! And to celebrate we threw a little shindig with our friends Kazu, Hiroko and Miku-chan.

The half-birthday boy!

Kazu and Hiroko bought us this nice birthday cake. It says, "Jotaro - half - congratulations."

Kazu and Hiroko with Miku-chan

Jo & Miku play

Kazu prepares the bungee chair for Miku.

The next day more friends came to play with Jo.

Emi & Hiro

Jo & Miku & Hiro

Jo & Hiro play

Jotaro's big floor routine

Jo gets his turn in the bungee chair

Yukiko & Jo at the local park.

Here's Miku slapping Jo around a bit. Poor little guy.

And sadly, something of an era has come to an end in Tokushima. The main hangout spot for foreigners there, 'Big Brothers Sandwiches' has closed their doors for the last time.

Clockwise L to R: Me, Norman, Keith and Yumi.

Our trip to Okayama: Day 2 Tivoli Park

2006-09-13T16:18:00.000+09:00

Day 2 started off with a sunrise trip to the rooftop onsen. What a view.

Then it was off to Tivoli Park, which is pronounced 'Chibori' (チボリ公園）in Japanese. I later found out that it is named after a famous park in Copenhagen. It was very fun and had a very strong Copenhagen/Hans Christian Anderson theme.

The main entrance

A topiary beefeater

Map of the park.

Miku & Jo

The cobblestone roads and narrow winding alleys of 'Old Copenhagen'

It may be called 'Old Copenhagen', but the souvenirs are definitely Japanese.

Fountain with a large stage behind it.

Opposite view, the same fountain with Hiroko & Miku, Yukiko & Jo, and Tivoli Tower behind them.

The old pirate ship looked great, right out of 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Unfortunately it was closed this day :(

It did rain while we were there. Luckily, we ducked into an Italian restaurant during the worst of it.

Jotaro and Miku liked the garden best of all.

This is a statue of a famous clown. I thought it was pretty scary looking though and worth a picture. It's those ruby red lips, makes it look like the Joker from Batman.

The 'Yoroshiku bus'

And that was our trip to Tivoli Park.

Our trip to Okayama: Day 1 Kurashiki

2006-09-12T23:07:00.000+09:00

Over the weekend we went for a 2 day trip to Okayama with our friends Kazu, Hiroko and Miku-chan. Okayama prefecture is only a 3 hour drive away from us so we all squeezed into our La Festa and headed out for the old town called Kurashiki.
Here's what my old Lonely Planet Japan says about the town, Kurashiki's claim to fame is a small quarter of picturesque buildings around a stretch of moat. There are a number of old black-tiled warehouses which have been converted into an eclectic collection of museums. Bridges arch over, willows dip into the water and the whole effect is quite delightful - it's hardly surprising that the town is a favourite with tourists. Kurashiki means 'warehouse village'.

Testing out our recently repaired camera to make sure it worked.

Miku & Jo in a shop.

The traditional shopping area of Kurashiki runs alongside this beautiful moat.

Really old shops line the way.

Hiroko & Kazu

Yukiko and her macha, or green tea, ice.

I figure this happy, rickshaw riding couple just got married.

A shop with various paper lanterns and pottery.

Coffee-Kan, a famous coffee shop in Kurashiki.

The rickshaw man...

...hard at work.

The Ohara Museum of Art.

The Ohashi house, owned by a former Samurai family who gave up this status to become wealthy merchants in Kurashiki.

The most successful shop in Kurashiki?? This store specialiazes in Maneki Neko.

Read more about Maneki Neko here.

Afterwards we went and checked into our hotel, the Washu Highland Hotel. It's an older hotel perched on a hilltop. The lobby was filled with little waterways teeming with carp.

The hotel lobby.

Miku & Jo play on the floor in Kazu and Hiroko's room. Jo is already quite the ladies man.

The main feature of this hotel is its rooftop onsens (hot spring baths). So Kazu and I headed off for a dip before dinner. Our dinner was in the hotel dining room and consisted of lots and lots of different kinds of meats, seafoods and veggies.

Jotaro gets a big serving of razzberries.

Jo looks tiny in our big futons.

After dinner we went to a Taiko drum performance in the hotel's ballroom. It was an amateur group made of entirely of hotel staff but they were very good. They also used black lights for a very dramatic effect.

Yukiko & Jo, Kazu, Hiroko & Miku

All the other guests relaxing in their yukatas

Enjoying the show

"The stage! Look at the stage!"

The show started with a little dancing

Then these 2 put on a musical/comedy skit.

A taiko duel

Even I got into the action

Jotaro got into the act too.

When they turned off the lights things got really cool.

With the flash

Without the flash

Here is an excerpt from their big finale.

Then it was back to our room and off to bed.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

2006-08-31T23:13:00.000+09:00

Some things in Japan never change. Inevitably good friends will leave and return to their own countries or decide to explore other foreign shores. Sometimes you get lucky though and make new friends, or old friends come back.

My friend Linda got a job as teacher in England and went home. I only met Linda about a year and a half ago. She was taking the same Linguistics course as I was. She got the class list and saw that I lived very close to her (just 1 station away to be exact) and gave me a call. She worked at a NOVA language school and liked to practice karate. We often chatted about K-1 and martial arts. She also had a penchant for figuring out puzzles and making delicious pancakes for snacks. Linda, I hope you enjoy your new job and being home!

Linda at her farewell party.

Karaoke party.

Brent & I

But as Linda left, my friend from Victoria returned to Japan. Owen joined the JET program and is living nearby in Kyoto. His parents treated me to Sunday dinners so many times in Victoria that I've got a lot of kharmic payments to make. He's a huge J-League soccer fan so maybe I'll go watch a game with him sometime. I don't have any new pics of Owen but here's one from when he was on TV here.

Another hello to Ririka, the bouncing baby girl of our good friends Chika and Shige. We went over to their house to meet Ririka and watch the annual ceremony that Chika's mum sponsors. She sets up a canopy and a priest comes to perferm a 'jizo obon', a ceremony to bless young children and babies.

Here's Ririka!

The proud papa. Shige & Ririka

Jo & I

Mum and kids sit around the priest as he rubs his prayer beads and says magical things

Paper lanters with the names of all the children written on them. Chika's mum said she would make one with Jotaro's name on it for next year.

Jotaro also got to play with some local kids in Chika's house.

As reported in an earlier post our old TV was on its last legs. So say hello to our new, bigger and better TV! It's one of the new ultra thin, wide screen LCD models. The prices have really dropped on these so it was a good time to get one. I also made sure it's fully HD compatible so one day we'll be able to enjoy videos in all their glory.

Our little living room.

Jotaro in action:

Jo's new inflatable bath chair

The longest yard - Jotaro crawls

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Jotaro!!

Jotaro inaction:

Jotaro in cahoots:

Miku & Fu-chan

Miku-chan

Miku, Jo, Hiro-kun

Yuka slurps on a mango frappuccino

Miku, Jo and Fu-chan

Y2K problem finally strikes!

2006-08-11T19:45:00.000+09:00

Everything around has recently, suddenly, and collectively decided to stop working. The list is pretty impressive:

1) the motor in Jotaro's mobile has called it quits,
2) my electronic Japanese/English dictionary refuses to display either Japanese or English,
3) the internal gears in my movement powered watch need replacing,
4) the CMOS battery in my laptop died and basically took the hard drive with it,
5) the big TV I've basically always had in Japan has thrown in the towel,
6) our digital camera got wet at Fruits Flower Park and needs to be repaired.

Otherwise we're all doing fine. For my wedding job I was once again sent to Tokushima on Shikoku island. I used to go there nearly every weekend up until December last year when I requested a change of venue because of the baby. They've sent me back again because it's a holiday (obon) and probably no one else is available. I really didn't mind though because I've got friends there and figured that I could probably get to watch the Awa Odori Matsuri which I've never actually seen. It's a big festival with lots of dance troupes in colourful costumes doing the traditional Awa Odori dance through the streets. I only had a few weddings this day but the only available bus seats were early in the morning and late in the evening. Oh well, I figured I'd make a whole day of it. After arriving early in the morning I could see how the streets had been festively decorated.

Paper lanterns line the streets of Tokushima

These grandstands, and many more like them, are setup for people willing to pay to get a great view of the dancers.

Seeing as how I'd arrived really early I decided to rent a bicycle (free for tourists!) and go look for the new wedding chapel which is supposed to open next month. I had found a map on the internet but in reality it was much further away than it appeared. It's definitely too far to walk to from the station. When I go there in the future I'll have to go by either bike or taxi.

The nearly completed ブラン・アンジュ Blanc Ange wedding chapel. It's part of a big, expensive new wedding resort.

Here's a drawing of the whole resort.

I later found out that the dancing wouldn't begin until 6pm. Unfortunately my bus heading back to Kobe left at 5:30 so despite staying in Tokushima for nearly the entire day I wouldn't get to see any dancing. What a bummer. Luckily I found this group of children doing the Awa Odori in a shopping arcade. That made my dad.

Kids doing the Awa Odori in Tokushima.

Here's Jotaro playing with Miku.

Jo sleeping in his bed.

Jo playing with his new Snoopy Playcenter.

Jotaro playing with one of his toys which we call 'Buggy'.

Here's Jotaro trying mikan (mandarin orange) juice for the 1st time

Yodogawa Fireworks!

2006-08-07T22:15:00.000+09:00

Jotaro shows how, with the right accessories, one set of clothes can have many 'looks'.

Long socks give the soccer player look...

while this bib completes the cowboy look.

Jo playing on the carpet.

Yukiko found a new kids' play park that has recently been built nearby. It is really fun with lots of slides, rides, and even a running stream of water. Jo is too young to enjoy it now but that didn't stop us from taking Keiko and Yuka there to play.

We had another visit from Hiroko & Miku-chan.

Miku-Chan and Jotaro mug for the camera.

Jotaro sleeping.

Jotaro SPYING. It looks like he's sleeping doesn't he? But he's actually spying on you.

In this video you can see his sly little trick. He doesn't quite shut his eyes so he can still see what you're doing. But if you smile at him he loses his concentration and smiles back. How cute.

The next day, Yukiko and Jo went with Kazu, Hiroko and Miku to Fruit Flower Park in Kobe. It's a European styled theme park with a hotel, onsen, amusement park, and many gardens. They also have a wedding chapel which I've been to a few times.

Here's Yukiko & Jo, Hiroko & Miku at the entrance to the park.

A few of the gardens at Fruit Flower Park.

Unfortunately it started pouring with rain afterwards and they had to leave. The digital camera got wet too and stopped working. So we were down to our mobile phone cameras from here on out.

Jo helps me with my umbrella on a rainy day.

Jo, Miku and Yuki play.

Jo and Yuka

Jo in his car seat.

I got a rare night out with friends and went to a beer garden in Umeda. It was on the rooftop of the Hankyu building so it was very nice and cool. For a mere 3500 yen you get all you can eat and drink. The food isn't all that great but I guess it's more of a drinking spot than a gourmet's paradise. I went there with Craig, his girlfriend Miki and one of her work colleagues.

And finally, to get back to the name of this whole post, we all went to watch the Yodogawa fireworks in Umeda. This is an annual show with fireworks being launched from barges on the Yodogawa river. Yukiko's parents' new house is very close to the river so we went out there and had a nice dinner with Yukiko's entire family. Afterwards we went up to the roof of a nearby building and watched the show. I was very impressed with Jotaro. He wasn't scared at all and was watching the fireworks intently. They went on for about 40 minutes and Jotaro fell asleep for a while during the middle but he woke up in time for the finale. It was lots of fun.

Happy 'Sea Day'

2006-07-17T20:33:00.000+09:00

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!

2006-07-12T21:38:00.000+09:00

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!

2006-07-02T10:02:00.000+09:00

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.

talk talk talk

2006-06-25T20:03:00.000+09:00

We were just looking at some pictures of my nephew John when he was Jotaro's age. They look really alike. What do you think?

Who's who?

Mobile dreams

2006-06-21T11:44:00.000+09:00

I have read in my baby books about how to choose a good mobile. I couldn't find any I liked in Japan though. They were all expensive and/or not very good. The cute ones weren't very interesting when viewed from below, which is the whole point of a mobile. My friend Matt said he found a good black & white (babies like high contrasts) mobile on Ebay. I did a quick search on Ebay and found a bunch of great ones. I ended up getting a Tiny Love - Symphony in Motion mobile. It plays 3 tunes by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. And it was only $15. Can't beat that. Jotaro really seems to like it too. Got to be better than watching my ugly mug all day.

Jotaro's new Symphony in Motion mobile.

We also had a slight scare with Jotaro's ears. One day Yukiko found some discharge coming from one of his ears. We took him to a local ENT doctor and he said, pretty quickly, that the ear was infected. We weren't all that impressed with him though, he seemed pretty cold and his waiting room was a little dark and dirty. He gave us a prescription for some medicine for Jotaro, although neither the doctor nor the pharmacist was exactly sure on how much we should give to a baby?! I couldn't believe this. The doctor also told us that we should bring Jo to the clinic every day for his ear to be checked.

Yukiko spoon feeds some medicine to Jo.

According to all of our children's books, and the internet sites we looked at, an ear infection is supposed to have the following symptons: a fever, runny nose and/or excessive crying. Jo didn't have any of these symptons.
So we went to our local children's doctor, whom we really trust, a few days later. She recommended another ENT to us. This doctor said that Jotaro didn't have an ear infection and that it was just wax in his ear. When Yukiko told him the name of the first ENT doctor we went to, the new doctor said that the 1st guy has a reputation for not telling his patients when they are fully healed up, as he gets more money this way. So it looks like Jotaro is okay and we can stop giving him the medicine. I was really worried though because my brother's little boy, John, has had problems with his ears for a long time and even had surgery.

Yukiko and her friends have a tradition of throwing each other late birthday parties. This year was no different and at the end of May a group of her friends came by to celebrate. This was also my chance to finally try out the complete, inflatable play set I had bought earlier. I had picked up a pump at Costco and it was ready to go.

Kazu

Kaori, Kazu & Yukiko

Hiroko & Miku, Yukiko, Emi & Hiroki, Takami and Kaori.

Takami & Hiroki, Hiroko & Miku

The birthday cake!

Our little family

Hiroki & Miku

Hiroki & Miku, yet again. Are they a couple or what?

One of Yukiko's friends gave us a 'Wee Block'. It looks like a small jock strap and covers a boy's nether regions while you change his diaper. I thought this was hilarious.

Jotaro always manages to turn himself sideways in his bed.

And, like his father, he likes to stick one foot out from the covers. That-a-boy!

Doesn't he look like a mobile phone in a carry case?

At the beginning of the month we went to Yukiko's parents' house. Construction finished a short time ago and they just finished moving in. Wow is it great. It's a little smaller than their old place but it really doesn't seem that way. It's also much closer to our apartment so it will be really easy to stop by and see them.

The front of their new house.

The really spacious dining room.

The new living room - complete with new widescreen TV.

The coolest part of the new house, for me, is that they transported these stones, plants, and decorations from their old garden to their new one. These things had been in their old family garden for generations. What a great idea.

Yuka playing in the garden.

Yukiko & Jotaro

Jotaro & Grandma

Yukiko & Yuka

Yuka enjoying some fresh strawberries!

I also thought it would be another good chance to try out the good 'ole inflatable play set.

I've also gotten a bunch of great photos from my brother of my nephew John. He's growing like a weed.

The bunny of steel.

John's 1st NBA game, and a playoff one to boot. Lucky kid.

Look who's babbling

2006-06-14T12:33:00.000+09:00

Jotaro is really warming up his vocal chords these days, lots of gurgling and other noises. It's really cute. You can see that he is trying to communicate. His smiles are still the best method though.

Sleeping with his papa.

Keiko & Yuka-chan dropped by for another visit.

Some time ago I had bought an inflatable play set at Costco. Jotaro won't be able to use it for at least another year but it was so cheap, just $20, that I couldn't pass it up. While Yuka while here I thought it would be a great time to give it a test run. Unfortunately I wasn't able to blow it up by mouth so Yuka could only play with the balls that came with it. She didn't seem to mind though.

Yuka 'hunts' Jotaro

Jotaro does his best Mother Theresa impersonation.

Jotaro loves lying in his baby scale.

To finish off this post in a great way, here's Yukiko singing a Japanese children's song to Jotaro.

The Return of Captain Summer and Humid Boy

2006-06-08T16:41:00.000+09:00

This week I finally finished up the last of my projects for my Linguistics course. The last few weeks were a little hairy with two major essays due at the same time. Now I just have to wait a few months for the paperwork to go through and then I can start applying to Universities to work there next year.
The temperature has been steadily climbing here; summer is definitely just around the corner. The good points of summer: World Cup soccer and no teaching. The bad points of summer: the humidy + the humidy + the humidity. The rainy season is not too much fun either but what sucks hardest about it is the humidity. I cleaned out one of air conditioners yesterday so it is ready to roll when it our apartment gets too uncomfortable. For the time being we're just opening our windows and letting the breeze cool us off. The way I see it is if we turn on the air conditioners now, when the humidity isn't really that bad yet, we'll be dependent on them when it gets really hot. The longer we can hold out without them the more we will adapt to the heat and the less we'll need the AC's later. Does that make sense to anyone?
As I said earlier, I finished my Linguistics course this week. After I had sent in my final essay I immediately felt a great weight lifted from my shoulders. I had been really dragging the last few weeks due to lack of sleep, hundreds of pages of reading assignments, and the clock ticking on my essays. I don't think I've drank that much coffee since I was in university. So on top of everything else I was a little hyper-caffeinated and jittery. During the whole ordeal though all my troubles left me, momentarily, when I would arrive home and see Jotaro. There is really nothing better in this whole wide world than seeing your baby look at you and smile :) He is just turning 3 months old and doing great. He is really smiling and laughing a lot. He's awake for about half of each day and his sleeping schedule is slowly falling into line with ours. He generally sleeps through the night but often doesn't fall asleep until late. OK, enough with my nonsense. Just like Playboy magazine, no one looks at my blog for the articles.

A few of Yukiko's former work colleagues from her Mitsubishi days came over to visit one day. Hiroko, who lives close to us, came by with little Miku. Ochan also lives nearby in Ashiya but I had never met her before. Yukiko's friend Tsuji was also supposed to come but couldn't make.

Hiroko & Miku

Ochan & Jotaro

Ochan, Hiroko & Miku.

Ochan and Tsuji gave us this great towel set for Jotaro.

Jotaro loves the Glico Man pose!

Yukiko's friends Hiroko & Emi came with their babies to play with Jotaro. All 3 kids will be in the same grade in school. Here's Miku & Jo & Hiro.

Yukiko & Hiro

Emi & Hiro. Hiro's wearing a Chinese costume.

Happy Birthdays, Happy Boy's Day, Happy Golden Week

2006-05-10T11:08:00.000+09:00

The presents continue to come in. I think these were all from my mum.

Well this week featured 3 consecutive holidays, known collectively as 'Golden Week'. Real sharp people also take off the other two days to get an amazing 9 day holiday. I, of course, couldn't do that as my school has no one to fill in for me if I take a day off. I also had a heap of weddings during the holidays so I was very busy indeed.

Seigo & Keiko & Yuka paid us another visit. They were nice enough to bring by a small koinobori (a fish-shaped wind sock) for Jotaro as it would be his first Children's Day soon.

Jotaro checks out his first koinobori.

Yuka & Jotaro, happy cousins.

My former Japanese teacher, Tomita Sensei, hosted a barbecue at her house in Seishin Town, in West Kobe. She's got a really nice house with a reasonably big backyard. Big enough for about 10 people to sit around tables and eat together, quite a rarity in Japan. As we took Jo we decided to drive to her house. This is the farthest I have driven in Japan and after a few early mishaps we made it -- on time even! I was using the car Navi to guide us there but it had us going way up north through Takarazuka before we finally decided to turn around and take the highway we figured would be best. Of course the Navi had it's heart set on this route and was continually telling me to take a U-turn and return to the original route for most of the drive. Only later did I find a way to select different 'routes' to a destination. We also ended up on Rokko Island for a short jaunt by mistake.
Besides a group of former and current students, Tomita Sensei's entire family was also there. I'd met her husband before but not her sons and their families. They had a baby and a little girl with them as well. Cliff and Tomita Sensei's husband had the barbecue roaring and served up a bunch of great eats. More than we could possibly eat but we sure put a dent into it.

Kissa-chan and Jotaro

Sara hovers over Kissa-chan.

Babies have the right to wear polka dots; look it up if you don't believe me.

Tomita Sensei's son & granddaughter

Tomita Sensei & her husband

All 3 kids staging a sleep in.

Me, Yukiko and Cliff.

The whole gang

The invariable 'Who's Baby is Cuter?' challenge.

Thanks to Sara and Cliff for most of the great photos above.

May 5th is Children's Day, but it is actually a celebration for boys. Girls get their own day sometime later. The 5th is also Yukiko's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUKIKO, so we had double the reasons to celebrate. To kick things off I gave Yukiko her birthday present, a new digital camera to take all of the pictures of Jotaro she can. It's a nice 6.1 megapixel Sanyo. Less than 1/3 the size of my old clunker, it has a beautiful, large display on the back. So from here on out I should have some really good pictures to post.

Yukiko's friend Hiroko and her little girl Miku-chan also came by to wish Yukiko a happy birthday.

Jotaro & Miku

Yukiko's dream come true, to push her stroller alongside her friend.

Jo and Miku. This was Jo's first time in his stroller.

Strapped to his stroller is a funny little bug that Rob & Ann sent us.

Sara gave Jo this cute little elephant.

On the 6th we had another bunch of visitors, Peter & Naoko & Zen from Singapore, and Matt & Mami & Yoshi & Naomi from Tondabayashi. Peter used to be my neighbour in Kurakuenguchi and Matt runs the great film festivals in Osaka. My buddy Craig also showed up a little later.

Naoko, Mami and Yukiko with the babies, Naomi & Jotaro.

What a scary bunch this group looks like. Matt on the left looks like he just wandered off from the set of a zombie movie. Peter, on the right, looks like he's been waiting to go the bathroom for far too long (love the homemade Doraemon shirt though :).

There's Yoshi in the spiderman shirt.

Naoko with Jo.

Baby Naomi, who's a whole month older than Jotaro.

That's Zen in the funky yellow Thomas T-shirt.

Jotaro lying down with his papa

Yukiko's new camera takes great short videos too.

Jo, Yuuki & Miku in a baby triangle.

Jotaro playing with his chimes again.

The sleeper must awaken... sometime.

PS - I've also finally figured out why some of the pictures are turned sideways on the blog. Seems blogger.com doesn't like pictures with a width of more than 1200 pixels. So I'm going to resize all those sideways pictures and make things look a bit better.

Jotaro plays!!

2006-04-25T20:16:00.000+09:00

The first, and only time so far, that Jotaro has really concentrated and played with one of his toys. This is a great set of chimes that Rob & Ann sent us. Thanks guys.丈太郎は初めて玩具で遊んだ

With Jotaro and Yukiko at home things are often quite busy around here. Jotaro is definitely getting bigger and his face is really filling out. He hasn't spent much time outside yet so I'm looking forward to warmer weather so I can take him around the neighbourhood a little.

Yukiko & Jotaro at her parents' house. 由紀子と丈太郎は由紀子の実家にいる。

Jotaro in his new crib.　　丈太郎と新しいベビーベッド

Jotaro with the great teddy bear we received from Uncle Tony & Aunt Carol in England. イギリスの伯父さん、伯母さんからもらったテディーベア。

Yukiko shows off her birthday presents from my mum. ジェイのお母さんからの由紀子への誕生日プレゼント

And now, a quick flashback to the time just before Jotaro joined us...

Yuka in her highly fashionable Roots rain coat.

We had just recently found a kids amusement center near our apartment called 'Amazing World'. Yuka and Keiko joined us for a few trips there. When Jo is a little bigger and more mobile we'll definitely take him.

One is big, one is small, but can you tell which?

Homecoming

2006-04-14T22:23:00.000+09:00

Yukiko and Jo are coming home this evening. They've been at her parents' house in Osaka for nearly a month so it will be nice for them to settle in here. I've tidied everything up and finally put together Jo's baby bed. Actually, as I was setting up the bed last night I screwed up slightly and stuck a dowel in the wrong place. I was having a real tough time trying to get it out when my mum gave me some great advice. She suggested I use a corkscrew to get it out. Of course it worked perfectly. I never figured my mum for a handyman but there you are.
By the way, my mum's biopsy report came back and she is officially clear of cancer now. Great going mum. All she's got to do now is take a pill every day. Unfortunately, we just learned that my cousin in England was diagnosed with leukemia. I'll just have to send my positive energy over there now.
School has started up again and I am really happy with my schedule. I picked up an extra class so I have a total of 13 classes per week. I have nothing on Wednesdays though so I'll always have at least one day off per week. On Fridays I only have morning classes so I'll be able to come home early. Monday is my busiest day, with 4 classes, but there are lots of holidays on Mondays so it's the best possible day to be busy on! 8 of my classes are regular stream, 2nd year English conversation classes which only use a textbook. So that's 8 identical lessons per week. Sure it's a little boring for me but the class prep time is almost zero. Compared to my 5 Internation Program classes per week which are all different and require quite a bit of preparation.

Here are some purikura, or print club, pictures that Yukiko and I took before she had the baby. I thought I had lost them at my school when I scanned them last month but they finally turned up last week.

I got peed on

2006-04-02T16:51:00.000+09:00

Yes, I am now officially a papa.
Which leads me to my question for everyone. Have any good ideas on how to change a baby boy's diaper while minimizing the ever present lawn-hose-going-off danger?

Mum's surgery was successful!

2006-03-30T14:31:00.000+09:00

Not all the results are in yet but it looks as though everything went as planned. Way to go Mum!

The Life & Times of Jotaro Henwood

2006-03-24T23:05:00.000+09:00

Yukiko & Jo are staying at her parents' house in Osaka for the time being. This way Yukiko can concentrate on taking care of Jo and not have to worry about anything else. I'm trying to spend as much time there with them as I can. Luckily I've got no high school for the month so I can see them and help out. I've still got my weekend job and university course work to do so I'm heading home once in a while. Her parents don't have an internet connection so while I can do my readings there I can't do any online postings or tests.
I never realized just how tiring it is to take care of a newborn. It's not changing the diapers that's bad (no smell yet), it's the schedule. It's changing the diapers twice every 3 hours that's tough. You are guaranteed to have to wake up at least twice in the middle of the night for a diaper change and a feeding. And I'm the lucky one, I don't have him chomping on my nipples all the time. It's nice to seem him getting bigger though. His neck is a lot stronger than I expected. He is turning his head and looking around quite often. He still spends most of his time sleeping but it is really cool when you can see that he is actively looking at us and at the world around him. Curious little monkey.

I'm going to try to post a video of Jo now. I hope this works. This was taken at the maternity clinic almost immediately after he was born.

Even in his mini-futon Jo looks small. He looks like some millionaire sleeping in an emperor-size bed.

More pics of the little one

2006-03-17T00:58:00.000+09:00

Jo and his mum continue to do well. They are both staying at the clinic until Saturday morning. One of the nice things about this private clinic is that besides helping Yukiko with the baby for the first week of his life they are showing her how to do all the important things like feeding, bathing, dressing, etc... I'm off from school until April 11th so I'm spending most of my days with them at the clinic.
Jo is very much like his mum and loves to sleep. He sleeps most of the time. One time he fell asleep in the middle of a feeding. He doesn't cry much so that will be nice if it continues when he comes home. He has put on 100 grams of weight. He's given himself a few scratches on his face because his fingernails are very long. Yukiko and I tried to trim them with our special baby scissors but it's difficult because they are so tiny. I've already learned how to change his diapers and did it a few times today. His poop is generally mustard-looking and doesn't smell at all so it's not much of a chore. Yukiko's got a tough schedule though as he needs to be fed and have his diaper changed twice every 3 hours.

And now, without further adieu, the pictures:

Here's a rare pic of Jo crying.

Yukiko's parents pay their first grandson a visit.

Yukiko's friends: Fuka, Hiroko, Miku, and Yoko.

New Kid on the Block

2006-03-13T23:41:00.000+09:00

Jotaro Frederick Henwood (丈太郎くん) was born on March 13 at 3:36 in the afternoon. He weighed in at 3.1 kg and if stood up would be 49.5 cm tall. Both he and his mum are doing great.

I was a little bummed out yesterday because I wasn't home when Yukiko's water broke. I was away in Tokushima for work. I had asked my office to let me work closer just because I didn't want to be away from home in a situation like this. Then, what do you know, the first time I go back to Tokushima Yukiko's water breaks. She phoned me at about 5 in the morning to tell me. I couldn't get home until 8 in the evening. Yukiko's parents and sister came to spend the day with her and other than feeling slightly uncomfortable she was fine. I was really nervous and wanted to get home quickly. In fact, I tried to get home early by switching busses but everything was full so I had to take the bus I originally booked.

This morning, Monday, we woke up at 7 am and Yukiko's contractions still hadn't started. We were told to go in to the clinic if they hadn't started so we arrived there at just after 9. Normally they would have sent us home until the contractions were well on their way but this is a private clinic and we had a room booked so they said we could stay. Then at about 9:30 her contractions started, albeit very mild at first. So mild that Yukiko wanted to sleep. The head nurse (who is very friendly with us) kept telling Yukiko to stay awake and walk around or something. But Yukiko just wanted to sleep. At about 1 o'clock the contractions really kicked it up a notch. Yukiko was in obvious pain and there was really nothing I could do but let her squeeze my hands, give her tea, and try to reassure her. Did I mention before that this clinic doesn't allow anesthetics? Well it doesn't, so I felt really bad for Yukiko.
When the pain got really bad Yukiko forgot all about her breathing techniques and would just let out little yelps of pain. I felt pretty useless trying to remind her how to breath properly. When the head nurse would come in to check on things she would take control of the situation pretty decisively, "Tsuda-san, don't use your voice! Breath out like this fu-fu-fu-fu." I'm glad she was there to help out. I was really glad when the staff finally gave me my special clothes to put on at about 3 o'clock. Until then I'd been saying to Yukiko, "not much longer now" or "he's coming soon" but to her it probably seemed like I was full of it. Now here was some proof that the big event was soon to come.
After we got wheeled into the delivery room it was obvious to me that Yukiko was just exhausted. From what I've read in my pregnancy books one of the benefits of anesthetics is that they give the mum a second wind to help deliver the baby. When it came time to push Yukiko didn't have much steam left. At one point the baby's head was sticking out but Yukiko couldn't push anymore. The top of his hairy little head looked about the size of a tennis ball. I figured if his head was so small then it wouldn't be too hard to get out. Boy was I wrong. The head nurse (who handled most of the delivery) realized that Yukiko was tired too and performed a quick episiotomy to help things along. I'm not sure if she used any anesthetic here or not but it certainly happened very quickly. Yukiko was being stretched out so much that may not have noticed it anyways. On the next big push Jo's head popped out and it was much bigger than a tennis ball. He had that 'conehead' look that many babies do because their heads get smushed when being forced out the birth canal. The clinic staff call it a 'peanuts' shape. When he came out he was very purple and the umbilical cord wad a dark blue. His purpleness worried me and I wondered if he was breathing properly. Turns out everthing was just fine. They cut the umbilical cord and took him to another room to be cleaned and checked out. I went with him while the doctor on delivered the placenta and sewed up Yukiko. The nurses kept commenting on how 'gaijin' (foreigner-like) Jo's face was, with a tall nose and big, navy-blue eyes. He'll be a big hit in Japan I'm sure. Once we were out of the delivery room I was allowed to use my video camera so I took a lot of footage of Jo being bathed and cleaned. When the umbilical cord was removed I got to hold it. By now it was drained of blood and very white. It had a strange, rubber like texture. Then I got to hold him for the very first time. I was a real papa now. Wow, what a great feeling. Then, almost as quickly, he was whisked away from me and I got to see Yukiko again. She was tired but very relieved and happy. All in all it was a pretty short labour I think, about 6 hours in total with only 20 minutes or so in the delivery room. They brought Jo in to see her and suggested that Yukiko try breastfeeding him. She didnt' know if she would be able to because no milk had ever come out before. Once again, the head nurse took charge and gave her breast a little squeeze. To Yukiko's surprise a drop of milk popped out. Jo then latched on and mum and baby were united again.
In the evening, Yukiko's parents and sister came by to visit. They were really excited and everyone congratulated us. Visiting hours ended at 8pm and I went with Yukiko's family to a local restaurant for dinner. When I got home I was busy making phone calls, sending emails and updating this blog. I was really exhausted when I finally got to bed. But Yukiko was the real hero. I'll never forget what she went through and the special boy she made today.

Baby Watch Update!

2006-03-12T22:15:00.000+09:00

Yukiko's water broke this morning! We are expecting the contractions to begin within the next 24 hours. She has been to her clinic for a checkup and bother mother and baby are doing fine. If the contractions don't begin in the day or so we will head to the clinic where the doctors will induce labour. This baby boy is coming real soon!!!

While I'm anxiously waiting at home I'll update some old stuff I've forgotten to, or just haven't gotten around to posting here.

After our trip to Oji Koen (see the last posting) we got another package of baby clothes and toys from my mum. She is a fantastic shopper! The clothes are amazingly cute and we have so many now that we won't have to buy anything for probably his first year.

A great shirt from our friend Winnie Law-Law :)

Lots of our friends came to visit us too.

Emi with Hiroki & Hiroko with Miku

Fuka & Miku

Yukiko & Miku

As part of my driver 'training' in Japan we went to a delicious little vegan restaurant near Rokko station called Vegi-Smile. As usual, the food was delicious. Yukiko really likes it too. The hemp tea wasn't all that great though. I guess hemp wasn't really made for drinking. We all know what it's really made for right? ...that's right, high quality clothing and paper.

Vegi-Smile has a cool, jazz-like interior.

On January 20th Yukiko threw a little surprise party for me at my favourite Mexican restaurant in Osaka. I had a strong suspicion about the party but I didn't know who would be showing up. Big thanks to Seigo, Keiko, Yuka, Craig, Miki, and of course, Yukiko for setting it up for me. It was lots of fun. Although I was a little disappointed that the vegetarian, avocado burger had been dropped from the menu :(

Miki, Craig, Moi, Yuka, Yukiko

Yuka gives Yukiko & I some parenting pointers

On the 22nd of January I went out to a 新年会, or new year party, with a bunch of friends from the Japanese school I used to go to. It was at a delicious, macro-biotic vegetarian restaurant in Shinsaibashi called Maman.

Shinsaibashi's electric-boogaloo glow

Yukiko is quite the mastermind. Unbeknownst to me, she had arranged this little get together as a second surprise party for me. And I was completely fooled. When everyone in the restaurant started singing happy birthday I had no idea who it was for. I didn't realize it was for me until the waiter plunked the cake down in front of me. Well done Yukiko!

Beautifully timed, this picture captures me at my most stunned.

Everyone in the restaurant broke into applause. Which was really funny because they were having some business function and seemed to be writing tests at one point in the evening.

Cynthia, Tomita Sensei, Sara, me, Yukiko, and Piyo (errrr... Cliff)

At the end of January we were visited by Yukiko's sister again. Seigo was clever enough to realize that the Chinese New Year started the next day so we all went into Kobe for the afternoon. First up was Sweets Harbour, a whole shopping complex devoted to sweets and desserts.

Yuka & Seigo

Yuka & Yukiko

Kobe's Chinatown at night.

Seigo, Keiko and Yuka stop for some delicious Chinese food.

The night's main event, the Illuminated Dragon Dance.

To gear up for the baby we went on a bit of a buying spree. Luckily, Yukiko's co-workers teamed up to buy us a great baby bed. We went to Babies-R-Us and picked up a new child seat and baby stroller.

Keiko picked up this great tryke for Yuka at Costco.

A very big update indeed

2006-02-18T14:47:00.000+09:00

Didn't realize how long it's been since I last updated here. I will try to make amends with a giant posting now.

My new Japanese expression for the day is 癌を征圧する which means 'to conquer cancer'. I just found out a few days ago that my mum has cancer. I was pretty shocked and sad when I heard it. My mum is very upbeat though and kept telling me not to worry about it. Well that's pretty much impossible when you get news like that isn't it? But I'm feeling much better about the whole thing now. Due to mum's previous health scare last year which brought about an onset of diabetes, she is now in the best shape she has been in for a long time. She is getting lots of exercise and maintaining a strict, healthy diet. In only a year she has recovered and is doing fantastic. I'm sure she can beat this cancer too. Vancouver is supposed to have the most advanced facilities for dealing with cancer in Canada so she is in a good spot. My friend Dan's mother went through something similar last year and she made a complete recovery. I know my mum can do it too.

Yukiko & the baby are doing just fine. We're at T minus 1 month and counting now. I've got my first father's class tomorrow. I guess they'll go over what I should do during the delivery, at least I hope they do.

Yukiko looks like she's just about ready to pop.

Going way way back... Yukiko & I spent New Year's with her family in Osaka. We got to spend a lot of time with Yukiko's parents, Keiko and her family, and Yukiko's brother Toshikatsu. I also got to watch a lot of professional fighting on TV. For a predominantly Buddhist country it is very interesting that in recent years it has become a tradition to watch professional MMA, or ultimate fighting on free TV. Not just one show mind you but sometimes 2 or 3 competing fight shows being broadcast at the same time on different channels. As a martial arts fan though I'm certainly not complaining.

One of the unique features of New Years in Japan is all the special food that you get to eat. Osechi ryouri is the name of the specially prepared food that you get to eat from January 1st and afterwards. Yukiko's mum painstakingly prepared loads and loads of different vegetables, meats and seafoods for everyone to munch on for the next few days. It is very tasty but after the 3rd meal it begins to get a bit tiresome. You really can't complain when you think about all the work that goes into preparing it though. I'm sure Yukiko's mum spent at least a few days making it all. People with more money than time on their hands can also buy pre-packaged osechi ryouri from local shops but it is very expensive I think.

Kickin' back at the parents' house.

Yukiko is very camera friendly.

On the first of January we went off to see where Yukiko's parents' new house is being built. It's just north of Umeda and is much closer to our apartment than their current house. It's going to be a bit smaller than the house they live in now, but it should be much warmer and more comfortable. The house they are in now is very cold and get really, really cold in the winter. This is a result of the lack of insulation and double pane windows in Japan.

The building behind looks a little ugly but remember that you won't be able to see it once the house is finished.

Here is the majority of the Tsuda clan; Dad, Toshikatsu, Mum, Yukiko.

A few days later we all went to the Tsuda family's favourite Chinese restaurant in Osaka. It was great.

Keiko & Yuka

The whole gang. From left to right: Keiko (Toshikatsu's girlfriend), Yukiko, Toshikatsu, Dad, Mum, Yuka, Keiko, Seigo, Me.

Visiting our friends Chika & Shige at their new house.

On January 9th I had the day off from school so Yukiko decided to take our new car and go on a little day trip. We went to a nearby park and zoo called Oji Koen. It's about 15 mins away by train but took us about 40 mins driving. Our car's navigational computer also guided us onto a national highway which we didn't intend to do. Highways in Japan are all toll roads... and those tolls add up. Our 1 way trip cost us about 850 yen, or about $9.00 CDN. It would have been much faster and cheaper to go by train. Oh well, it was a good learning experience. For one thing, we learned how to set the car's navigation computer to only select free routes. The park was fun though and we got in a lot of good walking while we were there.

It's a BOY !!!!

2006-01-07T14:25:00.000+09:00

Yes, it's a boy. Finally, after months of waiting and waiting we found out today. The doctor was doing the ultrasound and telling us "here's the head, the heart, the bum, etc..." and I asked, "well is it a boy or a girl?" He pointed to the screen and said "here's the chin-chin (wee-wee)" so it's a lock on a being a boy. We're both very excited but we were thinking it was going to be a girl. Everyone told us they thought it would be a girl. Even the ancient Chinese calendar was wrong.
We've got a name in mind but it might change before the big day arrives. Everyone will have to wait until he makes his debut to find out!

Happy New Year and other Odds & Ends

2005-12-31T14:07:00.000+09:00

Happy New Year to all my readers. All 2 or 3 of you! Today Yukiko & I are headed off to her parents' house in Higashi-Osaka to ring in the new year. I will participate in the modern Japanese new year's tradition of sitting home and watching martial arts fighting programs on TV. All the switching back and forth between K-1 and Pride may give me a slight case of carpal tunnel syndrome but hey, it's the holidays.

In Japan people don't sent Christmas cards. This makes sense because they don't celebrate Christmas. New Year's is the big one here and everyone sends out nengajo, or New Year's cards. They send them to their family, friends, work colleagues, clients, customers, basically anyone who's address they know. Every year billions (yes billions) these are sent. Each family sends out about 50 or more cards. Businesses send out even more. Here is our card for 2006:

Yesterday a big box of goodies arrived from my parents. Apparently there is contest going on within my family to see who can stuff the most and best presents into a box. My mother certainly raised the bar a little.

Here we are posing with the scarf & hat sets, stuffed beagle toy and various baby clothes we got from my parents. Thanks mum & dad!!

Yesterday we were visited by our friends Yoshikawa & Emi, and their 2 kids Kazu and Hiro. Kazu is just entering the terrible 2's and it shows. He was like a cyclone, whipping every which way and leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. He also threw up on himself. Parenting looks tough.

On Wednesday, Yukiko finished her last day of work... ever... or until she decides she'd like to go back. Her work colleagues threw a sobetsukai, or farewell party for her. When she got back home she was heavily laden with gifts and flowers. I'm sure everyone at her office will miss her - but she's ecstatic to be done.

Yukiko with all her loot.

Here's a good shot of Yukiko and our newest mode of transport, the La Festa! It's a veritable party on wheels.

Some odds & ends. Here are some pictures I've taken in the last few months but couldn't find a proper time to post them. So in the spirit of the Japanese o-souji, or big new year's cleaning, here they are:

This is an inflatable Titanic bouncing room for kids at an amusement park in Utazu on Shikoku. I thought this was kind of creepy and worth a photo.

198 yen for 5 small radishes. That's more $2 Cdn. This is why I tried to grow my own. Alas, that plan, and my radishes, failed miserably. But as some great Chinese sage that I imagined might say, "not bad radishes. Bad farmer."

One of my favourite Japanese comedians is Gorie, a man disguised as a woman who just loves to perform cheerleading routines to the song 'Hey Mickey'. I know it sounds wierd but he's very funny. He recently got a gig advertising clothes for my favourite clothing chain in Japan, UniQlo.

My friend recently got me into podcasting. If you don't know what podcasts are - they are downloadable audio shows, usually in MP3 format, that can be automatically downloaded daily or weekly to be listened to on your i-Pod player. I don't have an i-Pod so I've been using Juice software to subscribe to and download podcasts. I recommend it.
Like everything on the internet, amongst the pure crap podcasts out there, there are a few pearls. Some of the shows I really like are:
The Word Nerds: weekly show that examines the etymology of words and phrases.

The Everest Podcast: the story of a guy on a tight budget trying to climb to Everest's 3rd base camp.

SETI: Are we alone? - search for ET's and other fascinating scientific stuff.

Ebert & Roeper's Movie Reviews

A great place to peruse and search for podcast is the yahoo podcast page.

Well that's all for now. See you next year folks.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T21:23:00.000+09:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanuka, and a Quality Kwanzaa to all!
My last post detailed my trip to Tokushima on Thursday. On Friday the sun was shining, the snow was all melted, and the buses were all running. So I wasted over 5 hours on Thursday by leaving early. D'oh!
I'm a little bittersweet about leaving my chapel in Tokushima. The staff are very friendly and I've become friends with many of the locals. But... switching to a chapel that is MUCH closer and not having to stay in a hotel every weekend will be fantastic.

My Wedding Chapel in Tokushima.

The choir.

Oda-san, the chapel coordinator.

Since coming back home I've finally had a chance to test drive the new machine. Despite living in Japan for approximately 7 years this is the first time I've ever driven here. The only other time I have driven on the left side of the road was when I was in Australia for the Millenium Countdown at the end of 1999. My first destination... Costco. Ah Costco, now I can go anytime I like to buy veggie burgers and 2 gallon bottles of cranberry juice. Thank goodness for the Navi computer because I don't have a clue where I'm going. Riding the rails for this many years will do that to you I suppose. Driving wasn't a problem, however I did find it annoying that the turn signal lever and the windshield wiper lever were reversed from what I'm used to. So every time I wanted to turn I started cleaning the windows. Hopefully I'll get through this phase quickly. I did have 1 slightly exciting thing happen along the way to Costco too. While I was stopped behind a car waiting to cross traffic and enter a parking lot the jerk behind me started honking incessantly. The traffic to our left was very busy so there was no way for me to get around the car in front of me, which this guy obviously couldn't see. Yukiko even got angry at him and started yelling back. Nice to see that road rage isn't just confined to California highways.
Yukiko's sister and her family came over to help us celebrate Christmas. Yukiko prepared a nice Costco chicken and we ate a great meal together. Everyone got presents and had a really great time. I opened a big package from my brother Rob and his wife Ann. They are super present packers. It was chock-a-block full of goodies: baby toys, matching Christmas themed pillows and towels, and more! Wow. It's gonna be hard to top that when we, ahem, finally, send our presents off.

Keiko, Yukiko, Seigo and Yuka sit around our little table.

Yuka plays with new fire truck that her mum and dad bought for her at a nearby 2nd hand kids specialty shop.

Snow, Trains and Automobiles

2005-12-22T23:58:00.000+09:00

Yesterday evening our new car arrived. The Nissan La Festa. You can read more about the model here. Apart from Singapore, where it's an import, I don't think the La Festa is available outside of Japan. Our friend, and Yukiko's work colleague, Kazu, got us a very good deal on the car through his friend Nishimura-san who is a Nissan salesperson in Saitama (near Tokyo). We basically got the maximum discount possible. Too keep the price low, Nishimura-san delivered the car to us himself. So he had to spend an entire day driving it down on a trailor from Saitama. As a special thank you to him and our friend Kazu we took them both out for a nice dinner at a local izakaya. I was going to drive them but it was very dark and raining out so we decided to postpone my first 'driving in Japan' experience. Taking a taxi also allowed me to have a few drinks.
This morning we woke up to snow everywhere. A few cm on the ground and more falling. I wasn't going to even try to drive in the snow so I spent the day going over the car's Navi manual. A Navi is a navigational computer that should hopefully enable me to drive somewhere and actually arrive. It's also got a built in DVD/CD and i-Pod style music player. That should be fun, once I figure it all out.

Tomorrow is a holiday so I have weddings in Tokushima on both Friday and Saturday. Luckily I booked Sunday, Christmas, off because there is supposed to be 1 bridal fair wedding that day. I'd hate to waste all of Christmas day on a model wedding. Because of all the snow I got a phone call from my wedding office this afternoon asking if I could leave this evening instead of tomorrow. They said that Tokushima has lots of snow and they are afraid they buses won't be able to cross all the bridges and get there tomorrow morning. So I agreed and headed out at 6 pm. Of course once I got to Sannomiya to buy a bus ticket I learned that all the buses for Tokushima had been cancelled, all day long. Now why hadn't my office checked on this and informed me? So I phoned my office and left a message asking what I should do, then I went to grab a bite to eat. No one returned my call so obviously the office was closed for the night. I knew that it's possible to get to Tokushima by train, by a very roundabout route, but it is possible. It was kind of late by this time though so I didn't know if I'd still be able to make it. So I took the subway up to the bullet train station, Shin-Kobe. The woman at the ticket counter told me I would be able to make it tonight so I bought the ticket. It was going to take 3 1/2 hours and 3 trains from here. But when I got up on the platform I noticed that all the shinkansens were running 40 mins late. If I waited for my train there would be no way to catch my connections. I rushed back down to the ticket gate and asked if I could just jump on the first train to come along, even though I had a ticket for a different train. They said sure, but I would have to go in the un-reserved cars instead of using a reserved seat that I had paid for. And, of course, everyone had the same idea as me and the unreserved cars were standing room only. Luckily this first jaunt was only 40 minutes or so and I managed to catch all my connections. Now I'm in Tokushima and can get a good night's rest for my work tomorrow.

Lost & FOUND

2005-12-19T16:39:00.000+09:00

Well a postcard arrived at my door on Friday from the police. Someone had turned in my wallet! Excellent. It wasn't at my local koban though, it was at a bigger office in Itami. So I bundled up and headed off. It was actually pretty close by train so it didn't take long at all to get there. When I was handed the wallet to inspect it had everything in it. All my cash, all my coins, and most importantly, all my various cards. I asked if there was anyway I could contact the person who found the wallet in order to thank him or her but I was told the finder wanted to remain anonymous. Please beat me over the head the next time you see me to remind me of how lucky I am. Sure, most of the cards in the wallet are now useless as I have already cancelled them but now I'm ready to try and get my Japanese driver's license again. I've got my alien registration card and my Canadian driver's license back in my grubby little paws so I'm back on track. Also inside my wallet, which I'd forgotten about, was my opera ticket. This weekend the staff at my wedding chapel and I had a little bonenkai, or year end party in Tokushima. The staff are mostly choir members so they found a performance of La Boheme for us all to see. Afterwards we went to my friend Norman's (of the Big Brother's Sandwich shop fame) shot bar called 'Root Down' for some good food and drinks.

Here are some current pics of Yukiko and her growing belly:

Seigo, Keiko and Yuka came up for another weekend visit.

The happy family plays at a park near our apartment.

Is that a Quebec shirt? Is Yuka a separatist?

Yukiko and Yuka at the park.

Yukiko and Yuka at dinner.

Yukiko and Yuka on the bed.

Yuka strikes a pose on the bed.

Not a very clear picture but you can see our little fiber optic Christmas tree in the background.

Here are some other neat Christmas trees I've seen around:

This is from the Clemente hotel in Tokushima. It's a very nice hotel but pretty expensive so I don't stay there. I often take full use of their washrooms after the long bus ride though.

This giant tree is outside the Sky building in Umeda. They seemed to have built a German theme park around it for the holidays.

The maternity clinic that Yukiko and I go to had a Christmas concert for all their customers. We thought there might be another 20 or 30 couples there because... how many pregnant couple can there be at one small clinic right? There were a few hundred couples there at least. The hall was full and they were still bringing in extra chairs for everyone. The highlight of the concert was a demonstration of the various aerobics teams, maternitybics for expectant mother, afterbics for post delivery mums, and everything in between.

Some of these mums are 8 and 9 months pregnant!

The 'Anpanman Dancers'

Here's some shots from my bonenkai party with the staff at my wedding chapel in Tokushima.

We started out at the Tokushima Bunka Center Hall.

Then it was off to Root Down for drinks and eats. The hot cocoa and rums were especially good. Thanks Norm.

When we had come out of the opera it was just dumping snow.

1 of these girls was from Okinawa and didn't care how cold it was as she loved playing in the snow.

The snow and lights of Tokushima.

How the awaodori dance would look in the snow.

Education, Shmeducation

2005-12-16T21:45:00.000+09:00

The school I work at is now officially a joke. I used to think it was just some of the students who were really deficient but now I realize it is some of the teachers too. I've been asked to pass students who were failing before because they were members of the baseball team or there were other extenuating circumstances. But this time it is just crazy. In all my years of teaching I have never encountered a student like this. I'll call him Y. Just to set things up, he's a senior student and his school year has just finished. Usually classes finish in April but senior students finish in December. They are 'supposed' to be preparing for University entrance exams from January. At this school if a student fails even one class then he fails the entire year. So if a senior fails a class he can't graduate. So the teachers are hesistant to fail anyone. I'm not sure if it's an official school policy or not. Y did very poorly in the first semester and received a failing grade. He did even worse in the 2nd semester and I had no choice but to fail him again. The school does have an official policy on attendance. If a senior student misses more than 15 classes he fails the class. Well, as of a month before Y had missed 16 of my classes. Another teacher asked me to give him another chance and just erase one of his absences. Y then managed to attend every class afterwards, although he usually just brought a pillow and went to sleep at his desk. Yes, he brought a pillow. I would try to talk to him about it but his response was the same as the times I told him to stop using his mobile phone or listen to his walkman in class. He would get angry and start yelling at me in Japanese. So as you can tell his attitude was just stellar. Not wanting to cause any more commotion in the classroom I just ignored him. At least he wasn't being disruptive. And to put everything in context, his official score was 0/60 on his tests. He wasn't absent for all of his tests either, he would just refuse to do them. So after 3 months of this, of doing absolutely nothing, I was told by the other teachers that I had to give him a chance to pass. I had to give him some sort of extra assignment that he could do in order to pass and to graduate. What can make up for 3 months of missed assignments, tests and classes slept through? The teacher who taught him English Conversation last year told me that he had failed the 2nd year as well. But he had finished his extra assigment so he ended up passing the course. "What kind of extra assignment did you give him," I queried. This teacher told me that he had asked Y to just copy some pages of English text. That's it, copying some text is all that's required to pass the 2nd year English Conversation program. Well, if I had to give him another chance I wasn't going to make it that easy. Copying text has almost nothing to do with a conversation class. Why not just ask him to write something in Japanese, or do some math problems.
So I decided he would have to do an oral presentation. Nothing too difficult, just a 50 word self introduction. I did this in class with my seniors the year before. So I explained it to another English teacher and he was going to explain it all to Y. He'd have one week to prepare and memorize his self introduction. Fast forward one week, and I show up at the school. He's supposed to come to my office at 1pm so I take a book and wait for him there. At 1:30 he hasn't shown up so I go looking for the English teacher that talked to the student. He's surprised when he hears that Y hasn't shown up yet because, apparently, Y had been memorizing his speech for a few days. Then Y's homeroom teacher pops up and says that he told Y that he was supposed to come tomorrow. So Y's homeroom teacher had screwed up and told Y the wrong date. I'm not sure if I can come tomorrow Yukiko and I have an appointment at the baby clinic in the morning and we're not sure what time we'll finish up at. Then I notice the copy of the explanation that the other English teacher had given to Y. While the paper did have the correct date written on it, it explained that Y had to prepare and memorize a 15 word self introduction. Yes that's right, not 50 words but 15 words. I pointed this out and the English teacher just said he was sorry. "My name is Y. I am 17 years old. I like to play soccer." That is very nearly 15 words. It is not an acceptable substitute for 4 months worth of class work. Not that 50 words is either mind you, but it is slightly challenging. I said this was not good enough and asked the English teacher to contact Y and tell him that I would give him another week but that he had to come up with a 50 word introduction. The English teacher refused to do this because it would make him look bad to admit that he had made a mistake. He suggested that if Y did memorize his self introduction I could ask him some additional questions as well. Of course this would be pointless because even if the student was unable to answer them, he did what he was originally asked to do, and it would be unfair to fail him. And he would be right. Doesn't it seem like these teachers are doing everything humanly possible to make this student pass? I'm not sure what a student has to do to fail here. Receive a failing grade of 0? Nope, that's OK. Be rude and disrespectful to the teacher and other students all semester long? No problems here. Surpass the school's limit of unexplained absences? Get outta here. I should add that my class is not the only one he has problems with. Other teachers tell me that he does nothing in their classes too. I've seen him lugging his pillow to other classrooms than just mine. Yet I'm the only teacher who thinks he doesn't deserve to pass a course. I must be a freak or something.
I said I will try to come tomorrow if we finish at the clinic in time. But I'm not really looking forward to it. 3 hours of travel just to listen to Y recite 20 seconds of English. Not only do I feel like I'm wasting my time in the classroom but I feel for the other students. Even the weaker students put in some effort and generally show up. If I was a student, I would be really upset if the student who slept through every class was able to graduate and receive the same diploma I did.
So what will Y learn from all of this? Well not any English that's to be sure. But he will learn that you can get through life by doing nothing. Is it true? Well obviously, just look at how he managed to breeze through 3 years of high school. However, this attitude is sure to hurt him in the years to come and then I'm afraid it will be the school's fault for not teaching him any lessons about self responsibility. OK, I'm done bitching, for now.

Lost in Transportation

2005-12-16T00:43:00.000+09:00

Well I've always said, if you're going to lose something, you should lose it in Japan. Because here you have a great chance of getting it back. I'm a pretty scatter brained person and I've lost my share of things here in Japan, but apart from umbrellas I've gotten them all back. However, this time I'm not so sure. When riding my bike to the station my wallet dropped out of my jacket pocket somewhere along the way. I noticed it when I was parking my bicycle in the 'bike lot' under the station and I immediately retraced my route looking for it. No dice. I double checked our apartment to make sure that I hadn't just forgotten it at home (very possible) but that wasn't the case. So I went to the local koban (police station) and reported it. I also checked at every major shop along the road hoping someone may have brought it in. No luck there either. I think I had about 20000 yen in the wallet (about $200, hey Japan is a cash based society) but I'm really not concerned about the money. It's the cards that are important. I have my alien registration card, visa card, bank cards, and even harder to replace, my Canadian driver's license. I was planning to go get my Japanese license the next day so this really chucked a wrench into my plans. I've cancelled all the important cards already but it looks like this wallet may not be finding it's way home. I still have a glimmer of hope though. When I was at the koban there was a young man next to me handing in a 10000 yen note ($100) he had found. Hopefully someone as honest as him found my wallet and will turn it in. Or, at least, someone slightly less scrupulous will just take the cash and leave the wallet where someone will find it. Yukiko tells me that the wallet itself, which she gave me as a present, is worth a few hundred dollars.
Also in the lost & found department - I lent our digital video camera to a friend of our's and he forgot it on a train in Osaka. So far that hasn't turned up either. Hasn't been a great week for holding on to stuff so far.

Some other recent, sad news is that Yukiko's long time pet and companion, Taka, has passed away. She was quite old though and had some difficulty walking so I think it was the right time for her.

RIP Taka-chan

Life in the Express Lane

2005-11-18T18:40:00.000+09:00

** 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?

2005-11-11T19:10:00.000+09:00

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

It's a ...

2005-10-24T09:17:00.000+09:00

We still don't know :(
I was finally allowed into the examination room with Yukiko last week. I got to see the ultrasound as the doctor moved the device around Yukiko's stomach, and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Boy was that exciting. The doctor was still unable to determine whether it's a boy or a girl but we could see that the baby is perfectly healthy. Well, the doctor could see that. Apart from the head I couldn't make much sense of what I was seeing. It was really thrilling though.
The funny thing is that I had looked up all sorts of Japanese medical terminology in case the doctor had some important information for us. As it turns out, he practiced in New York for a few years and speaks very good English. He was very nice and spent quite a bit of time with us. So it was a very good experience and I'm really looking forward to next month's appointment when we may finally learn the big secret!

Baby update

2005-10-15T09:42:00.000+09:00

Yukiko and the baby are both fine and doing well. We are just about to head out to the clinic for Yukiko's monthly check-up and her first official ultrasound. Hopefully we'll find out whether we've got a little boy or a little girl on the way. I'm excited about either.
This will also be my first time in the examination room with Yukiko as all her previous sessions included internal exams that fathers are not allowed to see. So I was a little disappointed the previous two times as they blocked me at the door. Japanese clinics don't seem to pay too much heed to fathers. Apparently however, the clinic we're using will allow me to be present for the baby's birth. This is pretty uncommon in Japan.

American Journey, Part 3

2005-09-03T22:04:00.000+09:00

First of all, happy 2nd wedding anniversary to us!!

Hey, it's just slightly more than 1 month later and I'm finally going to finish this post, how's that for timeliness.

After a fun week in Medina Ohio we all hit the road for a 1 week stay in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. The 7 of us split up into two vehicles and the trek was on. We figured it was about 12 hours away but decided to split the journey in half so that it would be easier on little John (and consequently us.) I'd never been through that part of the country and while I didn't have anytime to stop and look around I got close to several famous American cities; Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Washington and Richmond Virginia. It was interesting how deeply steeped in military history the area around Washington and Virgina are. All the famous names of places I've heard in movies and seen in books were popping up on highway signs left and right. Bethesda (where JFK's 'supposed' autopsy took place, the Potomac river, Langley (the home of the CIA), Quantico (the training centre of the FBI), Williamsburg, Norfolk and Chesapeake Bay. And all this time I thought Tom Clancy was just making these places up.
There were also many ominous sounding street names such as 'Military Way.' At least I didn't see any army conveys rolling by. I guess they are all stationed overseas for the time being.
Our rental house in the Outer Banks was great. Lots of space for everyone to relax. No matter how far and wide we stretched we couldn't fill it. The pool and hot tub were also great for wiling away the days.

Our little piece of heaven.

The impetus for the creation of the remote control.

2 guys with excuses for not changing out of their pajamas.

Posing with grandma Margaret.

The look of a confident swimmer.

As tough as it was to pry us away from the house and the pool we managed to spend a lot time tramping about the area. Our house was very close to Kitty Hawk so we spent one day at the Wright Brothers' museum which is located at the field where the first powered, sustained flight took place.

The Wright brothers museum was very cool. However it doesn't fly at all. Not even a little bit. Kind of disappointing really.

One of the Wright brothers is actually mounted and stuffed in this replica of their first plane but history has forgotten which one. Just kidding. It's not a replica.

On that historic day Wilbur Wright flew for 59 seconds until he crashed into this stone marker which his brother had set up just minutes before. What a jerk.

The Wright brothers memorial monument. See the person on the left for scale. It's a real hazard for crop dusters.

We also sampled the local flavour at various shops and restaurants.

They were delicious.
Be sure to check out their website, www.trymynuts.com

An awesome kite shop near Kitty Hawk.

Check out the gigantic cow wind-sock up on the tower.

Through a combination of cutting off the blood supply to the head with his legs, and delivering slaps to the side of the head, little John is able to steer Jason wherever he wishes.

We also found a beautiful Elizabethan gardens nearby.

Gateway to the Elizabethan Gardens... and eternal damnation. Half price for students.

"Although we'd never wear it, we feel that orange is a great colour for our child to wear."

Suddenly, the water creature from the movie 'The Abyss' sprouted in front of us. Luckily, it was merely curious about us.

The Henwood clan, minus Yukiko :(

Look at that balancing, look at that framing. It took my masterful camera skills to make this spot look good.

After the gardens we went to a beautiful outdoor ampitheatre to watch a traditional musical called 'The Lost Colony.' It's about a mysterious part of American history that I was blissfully unaware of before. It was a great show with a large cast playing Natives and Pilgrims. We really lucked out because Ann booked our seats very early and we were sitting front row and centre. You can read more about the play and its colorful history here.

What happened to the Lost Colony? Only those with tickets will ever know.

"Hast thou forsaken us Sir Walter Raleigh?"

There is also a park made of sand dunes nearby. It got very hot in the middle of the day but it was a great place to hang out. You could tumble down steep inclines without fear of injury. You just had to worry about your shorts filling with sand.

An afternoon on the sand dunes.

My dad gets his severely aerodynamically challenged kite to soar majestically... briefly.

Just by looking you wouldn't know that it's only a few meters high would you? So I won't tell you.

Of course the best part of the Outer Banks are the beautiful beaches. White sands running as far as you can see in either direction. The water was beautiful too. Cool enough to keep you feeling soothed while the strong surf pounded you into the beach. A little too rough for swimming but great for boogie boarding.

My mum and John.

The first step is always the squishiest.

Couple of beach bums. Rob and John.

Sporting the latest beach fashion, little John goes cruising.

That guy on the right is really built eh?

Check out this great beach house. Wouldn't you like to live here?

Or here? The hurrican insurance must be pretty steep though.

On our last day there the guys engaged in some male bonding. Seeing as how I still owed my dad a birthday and father's day present I treated him to a half day of fishing. My brother Rob also came and we had a great day. Not great in terms of catching fish but great in terms of spending quality time together. I didn't partake in any of the brutal fish killing as I still have strong vegetarian tendencies. My dad and brother supported me by totally sucking at fishing. Thanks guys.

How come I can't look as cool as my brother?

Dad looks like a pro.

Fish sticks anyone?

With a barbaric 'yop' the mighty fisherman proudly displays his catch which shall see his tribe safely through the harsh winter.

Our boat.

On our last night in North Carolina we decided it was time to dress up John in the little 'Happy Coat' I had brought from Japan. The mums got him dressed and he just loved it. Everyone thought it was great how happy he became when he wore it. The sudden barage of flash photography put a quick end to that though.

At this point I hadn't realized that his bandana was on upside down. Or that it wasn't in fact a bandana at all but a sash worn over the shoulders.

There we go. Got it fixed a little better.

The next day my parents and Rob were kind enough to drive me to the airport. Whereas I was flying back to Japan they had to drive back to Ohio. My return flights were pretty uneventful and I got emergency exit seats with lots of legroom on the way back.

American Journey, Part 2

2005-08-30T03:03:00.000+09:00

The first week we stayed at my brother's place in Medina, Ohio. The weather was nice and warm (and thankfully less humid than Japan) so everyone was able to relax and play around a little.

Dad playing lacrosse, right-handed? Rob and I both play left-handed. Guess we both got that from mum.

My mum brought a set of toy lacrosse sticks for little to play with. But as she expected, Rob and I played with them most of the time. We had both played lacrosse when we were younger so it was fun to get to chuck a ball around again (without the fear of banging up the cars on our street as was the situation when we were young.) I'll have to get a set of these for Japan sometime.

Everyone into the pool! Hey hey, let's keep it PG here.

Not sure if he's gettin' in or gettin' out here.

I got to tag along to a local gymboree. I'd heard of them before but I had never been to one before, or even known much about them. They are really fun though, and I think the parents sitting around and talking had just as much fun as the kids. It's a great chance for new parents to meet others in the same boat and to 'talk shop.'

Jonn and his friends greet 'Gymbo.'

John and Rob

Playing on the parachute

Back at the house we all had a present exchange. I thought I had brought a lot of stuff from Japan (John got all the best stuff, of course) but my mum showed me up. She brought about 40 sets of clothing for John! If he doesn't grow then he's set for life. My mum is quite the shopper. With so many new clothes I'm sure John wouldn't mind not getting the lacrosse sticks after all :)

Of all the presents he got from Japan, John seemed to like his 'samurai sword' best.

With sword in hand and diaper on bum, he is ready for anything.

John also got a cool English soccer jersey from my mum. Geez, not even 2 years old and he's already more stylish than I am.

One day we went to a nature preserve where my brother is one of the board of directors. You'd think that with connections like that they'd let me bag a tiger or something, but no. Still, it was a beautiful day and in Japan you don't get all that many chances to wander around in surroundings like that and breathe in fresh air for free.

The gang: dad, me, mum, Ann, Rob, and John hogging the stroller. No one else even got a chance.

This was actually taken while Rob and mum and I went for a stroll around his housing development. Pretty cool eh? Lots of trees, green, ponds. We even saw a watersnake with a dead fish in its mouth. Ya don't see that everyday.

On the way home we stopped at this little corner market for some delicious ice cream. I'm surprised they had room for ice cream with all the Nascar stuff there though. I couldn't believe how popular Nascar racing is there. Next to football its the biggest sport. And personally, I don't even consider car racing a support.

Can you make out the name of the store above? It's 'River Styx Market.' My brother's housing development is just off of River Styx Road. Pretty spooky name, but easy to remember.

On another day we drove into Cleveland to check out the sites.

The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

I'd been in the Hall of Fame before so we didn't go in this time. Besides, it's all INSYNC stuff anyways. We went to the Great Lakes Science Center next door to see the fascinating but slightly creepy Body Worlds exhibition. Real human bodies, with all the skin removed, posed in many different ways to reveal everything. And I mean everything. Donor applications were being given out to visitors and according to one staff member I talked to they had run out of the forms days ago. It seems that many people wouldn't mind their bodies being put on display after they've shuffled off this shiny planet. It's very brave of them.

No cameras were allowed inside but here's a split open camel from the lobby for you to enjoy.

We also saw the Imax film called 'The Human Body'. I didn't know that newborns have a 'diving reflex'. Up until 6 months old they can instictively hold their breath when they go underwater. I figured that was all just a trick on that Nirvana CD cover but it's real. Very neat.

One day we all went swimming at Ann's mother's complex. There is a nice big pool for all the residents to use. Afterwards we went to a nice restaurant and had dinner outside.

A little blurry but everyone's here. My dad, Ann's mum Margaret with John, my mum, my brother Rob and his wife Ann.

Margaret with her grandson.

Rob and Ann get a brief respite from watching John.

One evening we all went to the local county fair. There was a very real Dukes of Hazzard feeling in the air but it was very fun.

This was the health food section. Must be all the corn-dogs they were selling.

Our main reason for coming was to watch the dirt bike races. I'm pretty sure they were all amateur races but the older racers (teenagers) were very good and taking huge jumps. Ann's nephew Thomas (please correct if I'm mixing him up with his brother) was going to be racing in the kids' division. It was very fun watching these tiny little bikes whizzing around the track. There weren't allowed to go over the big bumps so they had to snake around them. They were real bikes though, it was very impressive.

Mini speedsters in action.

Despite a minor pile up near the beginning of the race Thomas ended up finishing 4th. Congratulations!!

John and his very cool cousins.

Don't think it was all fun and games though. They had me working during this trip. There were the frequent trips to super markets and Babies R Us for example.

Scientists have determined that the male fear of shopping is instilled at an early age.

And with a yard as big as my brother's it needed frequent work. Luckily I was assigned the funner stuff.

While Ann toils away with the blower...

I was goofing off on the riding mower. Giddyup!