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Back to Japan

To think that a month has passed! Crazy. I can’t believe that it is alreday time to head back to Japan. Noa has gotten bigger, decided that he only wants to sleep when his Mom rocks him to sleep, we saw a few good friends, spent a lot of time with family and had a great time.

To the good friends that we didn’t see, or the ones we didn’t see enough of, SORRY! emoticon I would like to blame Noa (it is afterall his fault) but apparently everything is my fault.

I was also super surprised at the amount of things I didn’t get done. I didn’t read any books. I didn’t redo the website. I didn’t see nearly half the people I wanted too… what did we do? We introduced Noa to his Canadian family and I renewed my passport…

At any rate, here are a few more pictures of the good times in Canada. The rest will come once I get back to Japan where my usb cable is waiting…

Wish us luck… its going to be a crazy flight.

Noa and Goggy hanging out. (Goggy is Noa’s great great grandmother (曾曾お婆さん) … that’s 5 generations folks.

Next we have Noa’s favourite person, Tracy. (Note the connection between his favourite person and who is feeding him?)

Introducing Baby Awesome (Thank Scotty and Stacey for the clothes, Brian for the name!)

Noa just hanging out reading his books…

and finally Noa and partaking in his favourite activity…. stripping.

See you when we are settled back in Japan!

Love,

David & Kiko emoticon

I love Daddy -KaPPa Version-

I thought this was a nice picture. (it’s his Kappa hat, from Tracy and Thomas, remember?)

We also decided to take some pictures of Noa’s first snowfall. Suffice it to say, he was not pleased with being made to sit through the second picture.

Friends in Canada part #1

We may be on vacation, but finding time (and a usb wire to get pictures off our camera) is proving to be way harder than it was in Chunan.

That being said, it seems as if we have angered the visitor-gods of this website. Once again there has been a request for more Noa pictures and less pictures/info about us. You are probably visiting davidandkiko.com, so what did you expect!!?? For those of you who visit davidandkikoandnoa.com, you have the right to request more Noa.

Anyways, to boost our popularity amongst the angries, enjoy this.

That is Noa sporting is ulta cool "Tuesday" bib, and Noa in his big boy clothes. That is not Kiko in her pyjamas holding him up. (I suspect that any of you that get to see this picture will be lucky as the not-Kiko-in-her-pyjamas might make me take it down.)

Now, I have said it before: Our main reason to come to Canada this time is to see friends and family. We have had been really lucky as we have been able to spend a lot of time with Mom, Dad, Goggy, Tray and Shane (on occasion. He is going to make it up to us this week.) Fortunately last week we were able to see some friends as well. It is hard for us to get out much, so we appreciate those of you who are able to make it down to Brampton. Hopefully this week we can make it out a bit more and see some of my good good friends in Toronto, Brampton and other places. For not enjoy the first few pictures:

It’s Chris and Leanne. Have a look at the excellent blanket Leanne made. (THANK YOU!!)

(although Noa looks slightly retarded in that picture. Am I allowed to say that?)

We also spent some good times with Trevor, another good friend who we haevn’t seen in ages.

Our good friends Mike and Lara also made it up for a little. We are hoping to get down to their house today.

Finally, we managed to get down to Toronto for a power lunch with Simon (who we haven’t seen in a few years and it was great to see. Thanks for the lunch, we are asses.)

Expect more pictures soon… and yes I am working on the new website. One of these days… emoticon

For all of you who we haven’t seen yet, call! Come to Brampton! Force us to come to Toronto! 8 days left.

David & Kiko emoticon

Noa’s family in Canada

Sorry for the lengthy time in between updates. I know you were all excited about the "right from the airplane" and "automatic timed" updates, but now it’s time for a Canada-update…

Kiko and Noa have decided that they prefer Japan time, and have only recently started getting over their jet lag. I am not sure Noa realizes he is in Canada, but he seems to enjoy the dog’s company. Chloe (maybe some of you don’t know Chloe… I’ll get some pictures up) often tries to include Noa in her games and looks a little hurt when he doesn’t participate.

Anyways, things here are going well. We haven’t really seen all of our friends yet (which is a priority!). Chris and Lianne mde it up to Brampton which was very sweet, and we also got to spend some quality time with Trevor. Still would like to see you all, so give me a call in Brampton and get your asses over here. If not I will try and make some Toronto trips starting next week… I am rambling. (On a side note, did you know that every time I swear in a post it prevents many people from visiting the webpage because those crazy censor-internet-blockers in Japan (and elsewhere) block the website… crazy!)

Where was I? Oh yeah… since Noa hasn’t gotten a chance to see many of our friends, we have concentrated on family. My family is absolutely thrilled (I think!) to meet Noa and Noa loves them. Here are a few pictures of Noa meeting his Canadian family. (I forgot the usb-wire to hook up our camera to my labtop!!! Fortunately we went to Tracy’s house where we were able to get a few pictures up. Thank you Tracy emoticon Tracy also has a kickass tablet pc which you can see here.)

Noa also got a chance to meet his aunts and uncles…

… and his good friend Livvy.

More to come…

Setsubun and stuff that I forgot!

This may just be one of the magical/mystical posts that I make while I am still in Japan (getting ready to leave for Canada) but which appears on the site a few days later… maybe. You decide.　 emoticon

Don’t get too excited. Oh oh oh! Before I forget… Ricky Gervais is my hero. Forget the US version of the Office, take a look at the original Office, Extras, and listen to the podcast. It is really quite funny and provides me with lots of entertainment. Take a look and let me know what you think!!

At any rate, here are a few pictures that I had knocking about. Of some importance is our pictures from Setsubun. What is setsubun? And I quote…

In Japan, Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means "division of season". Usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun (立春), celebrated yearly on February 3rd (associated with the Lunar New Year).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun

All I know is that Kiko made Noa and I put on scary masks and throw beans. emoticon

I think there is something about it here…

Spring Setsubun is traditionally celebrated by the head of the household throwing pan-heated soybeans out the door, while chanting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (鬼は外! 福は内!). The literal meaning of the words is "Demons out! Luck in!" — the beans are thought to symbolically purify the home. In the Heian era, a famous Buddhist monk was said to have driven away Oni (demons or evil spirits) by throwing beans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun

Enough with the chit-chat, here is the picture.

That was a big build up for just one picture, eh?

Here are a few other pictures I had laying around including a visit by the Kato family (one of my homestay families back when I was in highschool in Japan), Noa and me hanging out, Noa hanging out with his chair, and Noa’s first stroller ride. Enjoy!

Who’s the movie star?

If you may recall, awhile back I mentioned the video shoot I was involved in. Basically, I was lucky (fortunate? unfortunate?) enough to be selected as one of the people in the new JET video which is used to advertise the program to contracting organizations here in Japan and potential participants around the world.

Basically a film crew followed me around town for a few days. It was actually a lot of fun and kind of entertaining being followed by boom mics and cameras. I think it startled the people of my town as there were more camera people than townspeople in the most of the locations we shot at.

Anyways, as promised, here are a few photos of me in action. Some of the pictures include me at work, me at school, and me on camera. Enjoy! When the video comes out I will try and edit out my parts and upload them.

On our way to Canada…

Using the magic of my computer I have somehow managed to get this post to publish itself while we are in transit from Chunan to Canada. That’s right… I am writing this the night before we leave and it is going to magically appear on Tuesday night while we are in transit!

Am I worried about someone going to our house in Chunan to rob us? No. Someone asked me about that (with all of the details I leave on this website, they were a little concerned), but the fact of the matter is a) we have no stuff, b) i have a remote video monitoring system I made that films the house when something moves and .. umm.. shoots poision, c) and our good friend will be checking in on the house very regualrily. See… I’ve thought of everything! emoticon

At any rate… we are currently on route to Canada. It is going to be quite a long flight (through Chicago) and we are a little worried about Noa. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we will report when we arrive.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures we took before we left.