Category: Family

Let’s Discuss Books #1

Some of you may have noticed my nifty little book reading thingy on the side. It shows what I have been reading recently, what I want to read, and what I have read (recommendations.)

I haven’t been updating it as much as I want to, so I will take this time to show off a few books that I have really enjoyed recently.

#1

Scott Pilgrim

Now… I don’t read a lot any comics or manga. I kept hearing all these great things about this book (Chris & Franz!) and it lived up to everything I heard about it. I won’t bother explaining it. go get it. read it. It’s cheap and a quick read. You won’t regret it. A lot of fun! I believe it has been optioned as a movie with the director of Shaun of The Dead attached to it, so expect big things!

Go get it here.

#2

The Fourth Bear

disclaimer… I haven’t actually read this book yet. That being said, I have enjoyed all of Jasper Fforde‘s stuff, so I am very much looking forward to reading this (looking at you Chris!)

Go get it here.

That is all for now!

Hard Gay

Has Noa got the ghey?

That one is still up in the air, but I don’t really know how to describe Hard Gay, aka Crazy-Japanese-Comedian?-Man, other than by saying he is very very not gay. If there was a gayness competition, Noa would win hands down.

Anyways, to summarize, Hard Gay is a Japanese comedian that goes around thrusting his hips at small children. Hmm… weird. At any rate, his trademark move is to say something and then scream “Fo—!” really loud. (Teaching was great when we got to the number 4 and I had all the children of Japan screaming at me while raising there hands in a Hard Gay pose.)

… I just realized I am writing about Hard Gay so I will cut this short here. Anyways, the day before we left Hard Gay was brought to Takamatsu for the Takamatsu Festival. We stood in a huge crowd just so we could get a picture of Hard Gay screaming “Takamatsu Fo—!” which made everyone in Takamatsu feel special.

I don’t think Noa was that impressed that we made him sit through that.

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But at least we were able to get this…

Hard Gay in Takamatsu VIDEO

(people complained about the irrelevance of this post. So here is a picture of Noa destroying some fruit with dagger #1 and #2… and obviously feeling bad for the destruction that he brought upon the poor orange.)

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I’m sorry Mr. Orange.

It’s too late Noa…. too late.

Noa’s Recent Accomplishments

We have been very busy here in Canada seeing family and hanging out with friends when we can squeeze some time in between (wish it could be more often and for longer periods of time!! 🙁 ). We have a ton of photos and videos that we would like to get up, but as our computer is in a box somewhere between Kagawa and Tokyo, updating hasn’t been as smooth as we would have liked.

As busy as we have been, Noa has been equally as busy! While maintaining solid growth of dagger #1 and #2, Noa has also mastered a few other things like standing, reading, and dancing.

Some of you may question Noa’s reading ability… he actually loves books. A lot. He enjoys us reading to him, but also likes to go through the books himself and “read.” Take a look…

DOWNLOAD NOA READING TO HIMSELF
希空くんのビデオ (本を読む)

Noa has also mastered the art of dancing.

DOWNLOAD NOA CAN DANCE
希空くんのビデオ (踊っている)

Friends from Japan

Sorry about the delay in posting…
oh wait. I update the site like 10 times a week. are you guys crazy!?!?! just can’t get enough of us? that’s what I thought.

In case you didn’t remember, I forgot my flash card reader, so I have no way of getting my pictures off my camera until I am somewhere with a reader. Hence the delay between posting and between events and pictures (look for a great visit from some good friends in a few days!)

In the meantime, Kiko, Noa and I were really lucky to have some good friends from Kagawa come to Canada to visit. Ishikawa-sensei (my supervisor) and his family came to Toronto to visit. We got some Toronto, Niagara and Ottawa action in. The tri-fecta of tourism. A big thanks to Tray, Thomas, Chris, Franz and Shane for all your help.
Speaking of Shane… here is a picture.

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(Just so you know, and I’m not making this up, the previous picture in the series shows Noa poking his own eye out.)

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Here are some pictures from Ishikawa-sensei’s family trip to Canada.

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We took them to Asian Legend (the best Chinese food in Toronto!) with Thomas, Tracy, and Shane, as well as a trip to Brampton to see Mom and the dogs.

As I mentioned, we got most of the major tourism points down. Some Ottawa,

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some Toronto, some Niagara, and a whole bunch of excitement at Tracy’s in Hamilton.

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Thank you everyone for your help, and a big thanks to the Ishikawa family for coming all the way to Canada!

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A few days ago we were very lucky to have a little bit of Matt and Graham action.

Kiko, Noa and I went to lunch with two of my very good friends. It had been a long time since we have all hung out, so it was absolutely amazing to see them both and for them to finally get a chance to meet Noa.

Matt has a website and Graham is thinking about putting one up, so if it is ok, how bout we adds some links? let me know!

In the meantime here are a few photos from that day. There were more but I don’t think that Graham nor Matt would appreciate them being put up as they didn’t come out so great…. (not blaming anyone, ahem kiko ahem) … I’m just joking. We all know that any bad photos on our site belong to Lee. (who is in Japan, but thats besides the point) 😉

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Matt, Graham, thanks for lunch! As always great to see you and Noa loved meeting you both. He told me with his words.

(nice hair by the way noa. i blame that on kiko’s people.)

Our time in Canada … so far

After our relaxing vacation in Korea, we have spent the last few days readjusting to Canadian life.

We have been fortunate enough to see a few good friends (with many left still to see!) and spend a lot of time with our family. Noa is having a great time. We are taking him to a swim class and local activities run by the city. He is also enjoying the time he gets to spend with his Aunt, his Uncles and his gradma.

Kiko and I are doing well. Busy with Noa, and I am neglecting our work. We are still looking for a place to live in Tokyo, so keep an eye out for that!

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the trip so far…

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What’s that?? What? Excuse me? Do I recall someone doubting Noa’s standing and crawling abilities?? Is that Noa standing??? I think so… bruck! (bruck?)

After Noa exercising his independence through standing, we decide to knock him back down with some super frightening bubbles from Kiko’s vicious bubble gun.

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We then follow that up with forcing him through a long red tunnel (which he actually enjoyed more than we hoped expected.)

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We are good parents are our baby is cute.

That is all. (don’t hate us because we are beautiful.)

Twin Daggers

This was supposed to be a post about our time in Canada (see tomorrow’s post!), but instead we have some breaking news…

Dagger Has a Friend. Twin Dagger (I wish I had taken pictures, but we took him to a little play place and he proceeded to destory the other children with his regular assortment of punches and hair pulling. He then realized that dagger could be used as a weapon and proceeded to bite some kids face. nice.)
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Now that Noa has a range of weapons and special attacks, I realized it was time to impart some fatherly wisdom.

Noa, with great power, comes great responsiblity. Use dagger wisely.

(… you don’t like the advice? My original course of action involved:

  1. Biting Noa after he bit me. (I made him cry.)
  2. Enticing Noa to bite my nose and then scream at him for biting me.

That is all.