all things d@vidb
We just got back from Tanegashima where we celebrated Kiko’s Dads kanreki (60th birthday) and relaxed for a week.
We will be posting a ton of pictures of Tanegashima, our nieces and new baby nephew and Kiko’s family. Should be good! In the meantime, look at me in all my surfing glory. (I am also bruised to shit and my breasts hurt.
) But it was worth it…. (ie: I stood up for maybe 15 seconds.)
That’s me with Hina and Kana, our nieces. They are so cute! 
Maybe when I get back to Kagawa I will write a rant about how gross Japanese Pizza is with its corn and octopus toppings. For now I will just leave you with a picture. Apple and Cheese Pizza.
Ruke…I am your father.
I’m all alone here in Kagawa…. and it sucks. Kiko left to visit her island about 3 days ago. I will be joining her on Tuesday, but until then I have been home alone. 😉 (not a pretty sight! I thought I would enjoy the time alone, but that is not the case!)
I would have gone with her, but I have to work this weekend at this years Sport’s Festival. (See here for pictures from last years!)
Anyways, I guess I am just writing this because I have nothing else to do. Lonely? I leave on Tuesday for Kiko’s island of Tanegashima. 1 week of beaches, kiko’s family, vacation, a new cell phone and (hopefully!) baby presents. We should be able to update the site.. (but don’t expect any more maternity suit pictures…)
Wow… I thought this would have been a little more inspired. If you want to be inspired, GET ON SKYPE! It’s like an instant messenger (think MSN/ICQ/AIM) but for voice. Microphones are like $5. Go buy one, its pretty amazing. Google Talk is also really good. My name on skype is davidbennett1979, and my google talk e-mail is davidbennett1979 (at mark) gmail (dot) com.
In the meantime look at my green peppers. I grew them myself.
… yeah… I’m not sure why they are red. They were supposed to be green. I think they were at one point… apparently they are edible though….
Take a look at this: This was the Kagawa Soccer team (formerly known as the Sanuki Udons, currently known as nothing). We kicked the crap out of junior high school students. … well, actually we won 3-2 (thanks Jim!) But it’s good to have a team back…
that is all.
Sorry, I lied. I can’t say enough good things about this book. It was great! Get it. In fact, click on it and add it to your Amazon cart, NOW!
David and I went to parenting school last weekend. David doesn’t know much about Japanese parenting, so I think it was good study for him. Now I will soon be 8 months and my stomach is very heavy. David had to wear a suit and see how hard it is for me and my stomach. 
先週末、初めて両親学級なるものに行ってきました！Davidにとっては初めての事ばかりで「ほほ～」なんて感心したり納得したり・・・いい勉強になりま した。妊婦体験スーツを着て床に落ちている物を拾ったり寝転がったりして、８ヶ月の大きいお腹がいかに大変かを実感したようです。
(edited by David) Here is another one for good measure!
ps. Why the hell did they have to add breasts to the suit? I feel and look and am retarded.
Some of you may remember a post one year ago where I complained about a special "halloween hamburger" from McDonalds (that wasn’t actually a halloween burger.)
Well… it’s back. For what the hell… take a look at this:
Does this not look like a Halloween burger? Nope. It’s a tsukimi burger. What is a tsukimi burger? Good question. It apparently has something to do with rabbits, a moon and rice cakes. I don’t know whats going on…
sure looks like a halloween burger to me.
and it tastes super.
that is all.
Well, it was actually yesterday, but I had a pretty crazy day. Not only was there a killer typhoon, but a number of other … stuff … happened. Here is a quick summary.
The Good 
Look at my new printer? It is an Epson PM-A870. It is a copier/scanner/printer all in one. It specializes in photos and also has a negative scanner as well as memory card inputs to print your photos directly. The thing is a beast!!
in more ways than one. It’s friggin huge. Here, take a look:
It prints fantastic pictures by the way!! Super friggin excited.
The Bad 
MY COMPUTER BROKE!!! Not only did it break a little… it broke a lot. 🙁 I am very sad. It wasn’t my main computer, it was the Linux machine that runs my MythTV server, my phone server, parts of davidandkiko.com (the parts you guys don’t visit!) and held davidandkiko.com 4.0. (We are skipping 3.0 in case you didn’t notice…)
What the fuck? 
So there was a typhoon yesterday, right? Anyways, I wish I had taken a picture, but there is this dog that is always locked up outside of his house. (like every other dog in Japan.) He always barks but is super lazy so just kind of wanders around his little house barking at people half-assedly if hes not too tired to get up. Because my computer broke I was depressed and decided to head out in to the typhoon for some lemon coke. A little part of me expected to not see the dog there, the day of one of the biggest typhoons to hit Japan in a long time.
… he was there alright, but don’t think his owners didn’t care. In front of his little house they had nailed up a peace of light wood. So this poor dog was locked in his house and nailed shut by a flimsy peace of wood that didn’t cover the entire door.
Nice…
Anyways… on a brighter note here are some more exciting pictures. (Yes, I am trying to draw my readers back with bribes of pictures.. bastards.) 😉
A big congratulations to our good friends Mike and Tomoko who recently added "Kaito" in to the mix. Look at how cute he is? When my baby is older he is going to wrestle Kaito… or something.
How about a picture of Kiko’s little garden pre-typhoon? She loves it.. most of the plants blew away though.
And finally… since I’m all about giving the people what they want, here is what everyone needs. A giant kiko. (photo by Greg!) Thanks!
That is all.Love David & Kiko
Since it seems pretty quiet around here, I thought I would try and conjure up some sympathy.
There is a big typhoon heading right over us today. For some reason I am not too worried. Probably has to do with the fact that we are surrounded by a wall of mountains. It seems pretty serious though. It has just spent the evening pouring down on Kiko’s island of Tanegashima. (Which is super by the way…) … we are going to Tanegashima later this month! I’ll be sure to post pictures.
Anyways, take a look. You can see the live updates here.
We hope everyone is doing good.
Love, David & Kiko. 
Monster Bash 2005 – Yes… it was pretty exciting. I got to see exciting bands such as Orange Range, Dragon Ash, rize, and Yaida Hitomi with my good friend Greg . It was a lot of fun! (I have pictures to prove it!) (and movies to! – try them!) (How was it Greg?)
For those that don’t know, I live on Shikoku. Now nothing really exciting happens on Shikoku. However, once a year, a really big musical festival comes to Mannou Park, which happens to be about 5 mins from my house. (Incidentally, mannou is the name of the town I will be living in after Chunan merges with the surrounding villages.) The venue is super beautiful and the weather was co-operative.
… too co-operative. You will be excited to learn that I had an allergic reaction to my sunblock. Stoopid ass Japanese sunblock. I didn’t realize until after I let it soak in the sun for an entire day. I now look like the Phantom of the Opera. I don’t think it will be going away anytime soon (and I have a big C on my chest for some unknown reason.) Stop the excitement.
See how beautiful the concert was…
Here are some movies I took at the conert. Keep in mind that these were taken under duress as I had an angry man trying to prevent me from filming.
Orange Range 1 Orange Range 2 Dragon Ash 1 Dragon Ash 2
This last picture is Kiko, myself and my very good friends Nakanishi-san (whom some of you have met!) He is a super nice guy and took us to Jojoen, one of the best yakiniku (Korean BBQ, read: super good) places in Tokyo. It has a fabulous location overlooking Shinjuku and is fantastic… and expensive. THANK YOU!!!
Not so much to everyone in Canada, but to our friends and neighbours in Japan, I often get asked to explain why we choose to live in Chunan, Kagawa Prefecture. (and don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a choice to come here, rather, it was a choice to remain here.) For those of you back in Canada, it would be like a Japanese family coming from Tokyo, Japan
to up and move to the-middle-of-nowhere, PEI. 
(think Milton, but smaller and in PEI.)
Why!?
Well, for one, my farming. Couldn’t exactly be doing that in Tokyo… and it’s cool. Secondly, flying noodles. nagashi somen is a dish where noodles are placed in a water pipe and fly down the ramp. You have to grab them from this water slide and eat them. Chris Houston and Trevor had the experience when they visited me in Japan in 2002, but I have never been lucky enough to do so… until now.
here, take a look.
What made this experience absolutely fantastic was the hardcoredness
of it all. One of the teachers at one of the elementary schools I go to (who’s house this was held at) went to the forest, cut his own bamboo ramp, smoothed it out, set it up, and then proceeded to make enough glasses and sauce containers for all of us. He apologized for not having enough bamboo left over to make the chopsticks, but suffice it to say it was pretty cool. Everything was homemade, and it was a lot of fun. (That and I was amazing at catching the flying noodles…)