all things d@vidb
Instead of posting pictures of Noa, I give you this:
And now for a Noa video…
Remember our discussion of flowing noodles? While Scott & Stacey were visiting with us in Japan, we were invited for some more flying noodles.
Noa got in on the action. He was amazing at catching the noodles.
Scott and Stacey… in Japan!!!
breaking news!!!
Noa has a tooth!
初めての歯！
That’s right… for those of you that doubted Noa’s brillane. Noa has his first tooth. Although Noa is big for his age, and can do things quite advanced (like crawl and beat-down other babies), we were getting a little worried about the lack of teeth.
We now have a new weapon in are arsenal. Fear the mighty Noa and his tooth (we have named the tooth dagger.)
Congratulations Noa and dagger! 希空くん、おめでとう！
ps. as a reward we sent Noa to daycare for the first time today as we needed a chance to pack. We thought he would freak out and/or destroy the other children with dagger, but it turns out he had a super time. He didn’t even notice we were gone 🙁
See how happy he looks? 😉 (and by happy I mean cold and alone.)
I’ve decided to take a break from the regular Noa reporting to talk about me for a little bit. 😉
Don’t get too excited…
Today marked the end of my two year contract with Manno (formerly Chunan) Town, and as a CIR on the JET Program. It was quite sad for me to leave my office for the last time as it has been an excellent experience. Living in Kagawa Prefecture taught me a lot about Japan. My other experiences as a high school and university exchange student saw me living in Tokyo and Yokohama, and gave me the false impression that I had even the slightest clue of what Japan was like. 90% of Japan is rural farmland (and mountains) and it took 2 years living here to learn about what that was like.
(I know this is getting corny, but forgive me for just this post.)
During our time in Chunan/Manno (仲南町/まんのう町) we got to meet many kind people, grow vegetables, have a baby, buy a car, live in a super fantastic house, receive vegetables on a daily basis, and just get the brunt of the generosity that the people here have to offer.
As a CIR on the JET program I was fortunate enough to be put in a town that supported me in whatever I chose to do, and allowed me to work at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo, work as a prefectural PA councillor, star in the JET PR video, act as vice president for the regional AJET group, and have a whole lot of interaction with the Tokyo office of the JET program through the organization of orientations etc.
My actual duties here included numerous things such as school visits (elementary, kindergarten) [where we did tons of stuff like play games and make gingerbread houses, etc… remember!?], visit community groups, organize activities (cooking, speeches, whatever), town english classes (with really dedicated people, old and young), write articles in the local newsletter and papers, a weekly radio segment, and a whole bunch more.
Why am I writing all of this? I just needed to put it somewhere so that I wouldn’t forget and I can look back and remember. This is where Noa was born, and Kiko and I have had a great time living here for the past 2 years. We are going to miss our house, our gardens (except the watermellon-killing dogs), the nice people, the beautiful mountains and scenery, and all of the friends we have made.)
No worries, we will be back to reporting on Noa tomorrow, not to mention what we will be up to now that we are leaving Kagawa… don’t get too excited.
Chunan and Manno, thank you!
仲南町、まんのう町、ありがとう！
(okokok. i give in)
Since we are in Osaka visiting some friends and Kiko’s family, I have had to resort to another round of Noa close-up pictures taken by yours truly. (or possibly kiko…) (or possibly someone with more skill than both of us.)
… we know you love it.
See how super he is?
Now for some more unsettling news…
has it happened? has noa caught the ghey? Decide for yourselves…
That’s a pretty queer looking picture if you ask me.
and finally some more exciting news…. despite some of you not giving Noa full credit for his amazing crawling skills, this picture should proof without a doubt that he is a “holding something and standing wizard”… be prepared to be amazed.
booya.
Goodnight everyone! From Noa
We are on our way to Osaka! Here is a picture of Kiko anD Noa in front of a famous bridge connecting Shikoku to the rest of Japan.
The World’s Longest Monkeybars
Watch as we tackle the World’s Largest Monkey Bars (110m, located in Kochi.) (never mind the fact that it looked like no one had been there in many years and that the “park” it was located in consisted of a strip of green surrounded by nothing and an ocean.)
The Contenders:
The Results
In the end Adam managed to make it to the halfway point, and managed to wreck his hands doing it. Lee made it just past the 10m mark. I made it to the 5m mark. and Kiko made it about as far as she did in the picture. 😉
ps. It’s waaay harder than it looks!
Where are the updates? You were on such a role, davidandkiko.com
That’s right… we were. Our nieces (Hina and Kana) and Kiko’s mom are currently visiting us from Tanegashima so we haven’t had much of a chance to update the site. I will be going to Tokyo tomorrow for an important interview, and I promise a big update with info on what we have been doing when I get back.
In the meantime, here is a picture of Noa wondering where the updates are.
First the bad news…
Remember the excitement of all of our vegetables last year? Even though Kiko has had some pretty exciting mini-tomato results, it looks like our watermelons are in trouble. 🙁
We planted 2 watermelon plants last year and got 20~30 watermelons. This year we planted 4 watermelon plants and have got…. 1 watermelon.
I was doing my best to make sure that it stayed healthy so we could at least eat one watermelon this year (currently selling for 400yen for 1/4 a watermelon at the grocery store) when I came upon this:
looks good right? wrong.
… and no one believed me that dogs destroyed the last of our watermelons last year!!! Look at that split… a claw I tell you. 😐
And now the good news…
Noa can use his walker to walk around!!! … sort of. He can only use one foot… and can only go backward… in an arc… but it’s a start!)