david – Page 31 – d@vidb dot net

The end of an era…

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)

davidandkiko.com Challenge #1

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:

David

Kiko

Adam & Lee

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!

2006 Sunflower Festival

It took a long time, but we have finally put up a new photo-album! We hope to have more to come.

Today we took Noa (and our good friend Lee!) out to take some pictures with the sunflowers on display for our town’s annual sunflower festival. The town chooses a few plots of land (always near our house!) to grow a ton of sunflowers and people from all around the prefecture, and Japan, come to take a look.

Take a look at the new gallery here.

Here is a sneak peak:

Below are some pictures of Noa, us, and our good friend Lee enjoying the view. (Despite the popular view that Lee is a photoraph-taking genius and is currently trying to raise my photo-knowledge from 0 to some, I see him as my protegee whom I hope to impart some of my fantastical camera skills.) 8)

Our trip to Naruto

We took a trip to Naruto in Tokushima (our neighbour to the south/east/west) with Ayano-san last weekend. Naruto is famous for “uzumaki” which is like a whirlpool in the ocean. It is supposed to be quite exciting, but unfortunately the two times I have been there have been no whirlpools. The excitement was compounded by 0% visibility due to fog. 8)

(note the nice new jeans.)

Note Kiko’s hotness.

Because we don’t have any pretty pictures of whirlpools to show you, we will compensate by showing you pictures of a pretty little baby.

followed by pictures of the behemoth Japanese baby who is younger than Noa but looks like he is about to eat Noa (with his 3 teeth. Noa has no teeth yet.)

(Noa’s expression signals that he is distressed by the presence of fat baby-san beside him.)

And finally… here is a picture of me putting Noa to good use.

Tanabata Festival

Here I ago, attempting once again to explain some sort of Japanese festival thingy that I don’t know very much about. So with wikipedia in hand, here I go.

Tanabata (七夕 lit. seven evenings) is a Japanese star festival celebrated on July 7th (or August 7th, according to Wikipedia. What’s up with that?)

Apparently there is some story where two people (stars) , Orihime (織姫 lit. seamstress (vega)) and Hikiboshi (彦星 lit. boy star (altair)) are seperated across the sky and connected by a river of stars. They are only allowed to meet once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar.

There you go! Apparently it’s an old chinese mythology.

I am lazy, so watch me copy the rest from wikipedia:

In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (短冊, small pieces of paper) and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations.

The bamboo and decorations are often set float on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. This resembles the custom of floating paper ships and candles on rivers during Obon.

Many areas in Japan have their own Tanabata customs, which are mostly related to local Obon traditions.

And now we have some super neat pictures of Kiko, Noa, and I celebrating our first Tanabata together in Manno (aka. Chunan).

Noa Update #6

I have decided to start posting more about what Kiko and I have been up to. Considering our move to Tokyo (and me to Gakushuin University!) very soon, we should have quite a few things to say about our trip back to Canada, our move to Tokyo, our new apartment, and our new lives living in poverty.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures of Noa!

This is Noa (in full team uniform!) with Ayano-san, our very good friend and dental assistant. She is currently looking for Noa’s teeth, without any luck. Noa has a part time job as a stripper.

A little bit of sad news… but one of my best friends here in Kagawa over the past 2 years, Nikki, has left back to America. We had a going away party for her with a few of our good friends. (Sorry about the picture Lee! Our little camera is on the fritz… damn fritzes.)

And finally this:

We like to dress Noa up in pink so it hurts less when everyone accuses him of looking like a girl.

Japan vs. Brazil!

Kiko and Noa are back! Yeah!! 😮

We are all getting ready for Japan’s 3-1 victory over Brazil this evening.

World Cup

An interesting side note: I was speaking with my sister, Tracy, when I commented that Italy had just scored against the Czechs. The conversation got a little weird as Tracy said they had scored 10 minutes ago. I read her the time of the “live” game here in Japan, and it looks like their is an 8 minute delay for the game being broadcast over here… weird. I guess you guys can watch Japan beat Brazil 8 minutes earlier then we can!

More pictures from Canada (and Japan vs. Australia!)

I am just getting ready for my flight this morning, which I might have to miss as Japan has their World Cup Opener against Australia. I am supposed to be at the airport at 10:30am, but the game begins at 8:55am.

Why am I so excited? Well, since both Canada and Jamaica are not in the World Cup this year (make that only once ever for Canada!) Japan becomes my adopted team. While Brazil will probably take the group, as long as Japan can win this morning and carry some momentum over to the Croatia game, they might have a chance. Don’t get too excited…

Now for those of you who don’t care about the soccer (!!??) here are some more pictures of Noa hanging out with his family in Canada…. (I won’t see Noa and Kiko for almost 11 days 🙁 as they will be keeping my Mum company in Canada) The first picture is in celebration of my friend’s engagement!!! CONGRATULATIONS!! 😛
Dave and Chris Noa and Thomas
More Chris

Just to set the record straight…

it turns out that baby’s eyes do in fact grow. Both Kiko and I had read (separately, in Japanese and English) that the eye was the only part of a baby that didn’t grow. Apparently we were wrong. Very wrong.

Because baby’s eyes look so large in comparison with the rest of their face, it is a common misconception that the eye does not grow.

There you go… learned something new. Sorry guys! 😳

Although the circumstances were the worst possible, it was great seeing so many of our friends. We look forward to seeing you all in summer.

Dinner with friends