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Omiyamairi – お宮参り

I was scouring the internet trying to find a few sites that I could link to for information, but no such luck. It looks like I’m in charge of explaining what we put Noa through.

Here goes.

In Japan, 32/33 days after the baby is born (depending on whether it is a boy or a girl), the child is taken to a shrine where an “ujigami” lives. An ujigami is a god that lives in a shrine and has the role of protecticing babies. (I made that last part up… but I think it’s true.)

So anyways, you dress the baby up in a a little white dress, slap on a baby kimono, and you are set. The child is taken to the shrine where a Priest waves a magic tree branch over him and he is blessed. It’s kind of like a christening without the water and with lots of magic. The shinto priest recites a prayer for the health of your baby and then -poof- it’s done.

Noa slept through most of it. The ceremony was only about 10 minutes long, and followed by family pictures. They were professionaly shot so when they are done I will send them up.

In the meantime, have a look at Noa in his hot baby dress.

Merry Christmas … from the future

Merry Christmas!

I have finally figured out how to upload some pictures from here on Tanegashima, so expect some new pictures of us and what we have been up to over here.

Our Christmas is pretty much done over here. We are 14 hours ahead of Toronto remember? Not only that, but we had our Christmas on the Christmas eve as opposed to Christmas day, which made it that much more futurey.

Here are some pictures of our first Christmas on Tanegashima, and Noa’s first Christmas ever.

We have tried to send out Christmas cards this year, but with the baby and the traveling and the baby, it didn’t work as well as we would have liked. Everyone who is visiting the site, family, friends, and the occasional people we don’t know, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We miss you tons and will do our best to keep in better touch in the New Year (except for the people who we don’t know. um…. hi?) Please keep visiting the site to find out what we are up to and to keep in touch. Expect some changes in the New Year.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The baby Noa will keep crying until he gets more presents. The baby Noa also wants me to let you know he accepts paypal.

love, David, Kiko, and Noa.

Where does Noa sleep?

Everyone asks where Noa sleeps.

He sleeps on the floor. On a futon. Like a good Japanese boy.

But it is a cute, Miffy futon. Look? See for yourselves where we sleep.

Look at how cute his bed is!! That and it also costs almost 4 times as much as our bed cost. Crazy Japanese baby futons.

And this is how he sleeps:

He is very talented. And heres some cute pictures for good measure.

Look how sweet they look. emoticon I said that because I am sweet.

What you really want.

That was an exciting Noa post. Now more about me.

I recently had a conference in Tokyo (right after Noa got out of the hospital) where we did CIR stuff. Here is a picture of other CIR’s from Shikoku.

cir midyear conference.jpg

Damn, that picture is huge.

Here is a letter I got from one of my students in my English class. She is a very sweet older lady who just started studying English a few years ago. She is amazing! She wrote me a very kind note about the birth of my baby. (Thank you!)

yoshiko hirao's baby letter.JPG

And finally… the sweater incident.

Let’s just say it involved my favourite sweater, a christmas party, and a candle. and sadness. deep sadness. emoticon

Noa Extravaganza

Apparently no one cared about my Ipod. (Noa’s ipod?) In fact, everyone cared not enough so that they implied this site should be dedicated to Noa. This site is dedicated to me. and then kiko. and then Noa. In that order. possibly.

This post however… this post is dedicated to Noa. Enjoy.

Noa’s favourite pose. His only pose?

He likes his milk.

He is very attractive.

See? (My Mom made that blanket!)

Look at his kick ass shoes. That are bigger than his head! (THANK YOU TORU!!!!) emoticon

He also likes doing this.

He can touch his nose.

and he can have bad camera days.

That’s all I got.

Happy Birthday Kiko!!

Hi Kiko!

Happy Birthday!!!!! emoticon

Contrary to what you may believe, I did in fact get Kiko a present. Unfortunately it did not arrive in time for her birthday (and before we left for Tanegashima!). My friend is going to our house to check our mail, so when we get it I will post pictures up here. I think everyone will like it too…

in the meantime: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

love,

David

My IPOD Nano….

Look how exciting it is!!

It’s small. shiny. silver. I also got free engraving and (because I am a huge geek) put my name, Kiko’s name, and Noa’s name in Japanese.

And because I am an even bigger geek I put this website address.

And because I am the hugest geek in the world I am going to show you pictures whether you like it or not.

(currently the IPOD has linux on it, crazy Japanese pop music, Jamaican music, and Noa kids music. It’s quite the mix.)

Look how small it is! and shiny. and it has our names!! It’s official. I am a loser.

Noa is open for business.

It’s official. Noa is open for business.

I was going to rant about how ridiculously busy I am. Busy enough not to be able to finish davidandkiko 4.0, to not start a huge translation due this week, to not write christmas cards (but I did make a nice looking christmas card!), so instead I will give you a short update.

We are off to Tanegashima this Saturday! For the first year in a very long time we will not be spending christmas in Canada, but rather Christmas and New Years on Kiko’s island. I will be updating the website, but I don’t think I will be able to do any big updates.

Recently Noa has had some visitors. Our good friends Ayano-san and Jim have been here to visit (and help bathe!) Noa. Here are some pictures… he’s getting bigger.

and Jim… (who helped us film Noa’s bath. Which was exciting….)

(noa likes jim.)

Noa Videos

I have decided to make sure I get davidandkiko.com 4.0 up this weekend! There will be a new album section and a space for videos. In the meantime however, people keep asking for videos of Noa, so here are two short videos I made. The first one is from right after Noa was bored and was taken on our video camera (Thanks Nakanishi-san!!) and edited by me (first time ever… so live with it.) The second one was taken with our digital camera which is on the way out… (see a future post!)

Here are the video files for now, but I am hoping to have a video gallery up by the end of the weekend.

Noa’s First Day

David harassing Noa yesterday

That is all. emoticon

The business that is my life

So everyone says you get really busy when you have a baby… they weren’t joking. Funny thing is, its not just the baby. It seems like a billion things are all happening at once.

A baby. Lots of crying. Lots of staying awake. Lots of throwing up. (its gross.)
JET Program PR Video

This is a little bit more interesting. I have been selected as one of 6 people to be in the JET program introduction video. This video will be sent around Japan and around the world to show people what the JET program is about and to encourage new recruits.

Basically this means that I have a video crew of about 7 people following me wherever I go. Here in Chunan 7 people is more than I get for most of my classes/activities/events. It makes for some exciting times…. When the video is done I will try and get some clips up.

It also doesn’t help that my house is like 5 degrees. emoticon My computer room doesn’t have a heater so that plays a big role in me not updating the website. I have a ton of pictures/videos (mostly Noa related) to put up… hopefuly I will get it up soon. davidandkiko 4.0 is also being redone after a few problems appeared in the picture album… but it should be good.

Ok, here are some new pictures. I will get off my ass and get some more albums/photos and some videos up soon! We will be ordering our new camera soon, so expect even better pictures in the next few weeks.

Here are some pictures of Noa and I, and Noa and Kiko’s Mom.

emoticon