all things d@vidb
Onsens. Hot Springs. Whatver..
Best thing in Japan. Once you get over all the nakedness, you find that they are super relaxing, very scenic and it makes sense why it is the most popular thing for Japanese people (both young and old) to do.
That being said, here is a guide on how to use onsen that was posted in an onsen in Yamanashi Prefecture (near Mount Fuji.)
It makes me laugh.
strawberries.
Now that my Internet is back I am in the process of uploading a whole bunch of pictures. Cherry Blossoms, Franz’s Japan Trip, more work pictures, pictures of our garden, tons of stuff!
But first, let me tell you about our garden. Kiko makes flowers. I make vegetables. Keep that in mind. (note how I said vegetables and not fruit.) You will see the vegetables… oh yes. Kiko however wanted to make strawberries so we planted 6 plants.
After about 4 weeks we got:
1 strawberry.
Here it is in all its glory.
That is me holding it so you can get some perspective. We cut in half and enjoyed it.
We are off to Hiroshima tomorrow. I’ll send up some pictures.
Don’t get too excited, but at least I’m alive.
So, while a train was crashing into a building west of Osaka, I was sitting at a red light travelling to a neighbouring town for work. Take note: I was stopped at a red light. Two seconds later my car is totalled and cannot be repaired. I wasn’t hit from behind, or from the side… nope, I was hit dead on the front. How did I get hit in the front at a red light? Some crazy ass Japanese gangster kid took a turn at like 70km/h in the rain and proceeded to skid into my lane. I don’t know if you’ve seen my car before, but its not the biggest or strongest car. It smoked a little bit and then died.
I have a little bit’o’whiplash and my knee hurts, but other than that … its all good. I get a new car out of it, but I will have to negotiate to make sure I get everything covered. It is 100% on the other guy, but because my car is shitty they are trying not to limit how much they can payout.
But who cares about that… I’m back in the land of highspeed Internet. It’s not super highspeed like I was on before (or everyone else in the entire country is on!) but it is way faster than it was before. This also means that my 416 phone is back. So get off your ass and call me. I mean that… for those of you that I haven’t been keeping regular e-mail contact (work is busy and having shitty internet at home does that!) I now can’t wait to hear from you!!
Give me a few weeks and I should sort out my e-mail box (it is ridiculous right now) and the webpage should see a whole bunch of updates.
It’s good to be back on a real Internet connection (and not dead.)
Kiko wasn’t in the car, so that is a really really good thing.
Love
David
This is a little bit late, but Kiko and I have a new nephew!
His name is Shuichiro, and he is Hina and Kana‘s younger brother. His Dad is Kiko’s older brother Takao.
His name is a little difficult to explain, but all you need to know is that it is a combination of sounds and characters from the fathers name, Ichiro and Matsui.
I think he’s going to be a baseball player….
I just wanted to send out my congratulations to Ikuko Komuro-Lee-senesi, a Japanese Language instructor at the University of Toronto. I was fortunate enough to have many amazing Professors throughout both my BA and MA, and Komuro-sensei is certainly among the best of them. I can’t tell you how much she has meant to my life both academically and personally.
This week Komuro-sensei was finally given the recognition that she deserves and was awarded the University of Toronto’s Outstanding Teachers award. This is a very prestigious honour and one that Komuro-sensei is very deserving of.
I have never met a Professor who puts as much in to her students at Komuro-sensei does. She gives her students everything she has, and expects an equal amount of effort in return. I would not be where I am today without her, and I owe much of my success to her discipline, her instruction, her advice and her support.
Komuro-sensei: Congratulations. You deserve it. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you. (Thank you to Natalie for the pictures!)
That being said, the following picture is for forgetting my middle name (again!) and for asking if I needed a fork. 😉
Congratulations. I am beyond happy for you.
by special request…
Now that my work is blocking access to this website, and taking in to account my retardedly slow Internet access as home, the promised Cherry blossom pictures will have to wait.
That being said, they were spectacular. The peak landed right on the weekend, and we managed to catch them on Saturday, before typhoon-like windows blew them away on Sunday. Japanese people wait all year for a few days of blossoms, but its ridiculous how many of these trees are in our town.
Here’s a look!
Below is a picture of a very cute baby who loves me. His name is Kousuke, and he is the baby of a good friend at work. NOT the son of my calligraphy teacher (whom I originally thought! … oops!). Below that is our very good friends Mike and Nikki. Nikki lives in Kotonami, the town beside mine.
OK. This is a big picture… but worth it.
Isn’t that crazy!? Google Maps has just added satelite imagery to their mapping software. It’s my home!!!
This is one of those posts without pictures, so it remains to be seen how many of you will actually read this.
At any rate, it is Cherry Blossom time here in Japan. Kiko and I will be making the rounds and should have a whole lotta Cherry Blossom pictures for you come Monday. Don’t get too excited.
We should also be getting up pictures from the Franz Trip here to Japan, and a few more we have just sort of taken. A few movies are also in the works.
I was dilligently working away at davidandkiko.com 3.0, but they have blocked access to the site from my work computer. So until my Internet gets upgraded (April 28th!!!) doesn’t look like we will be seeing much progress.
More to come.
That is all.