Tag: david

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)

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(note the nice new jeans.)

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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.

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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.)

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(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.

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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).

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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.

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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.)IMG_6106

And finally this:

We like to dress Noa up in pink so it hurts less when everyone accuses him of looking like a girl.IMG_1301

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
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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  Dinner with friends

Golden Week

We are now back in Kagawa after a trip to Kiko’s island (Tanegashima) for Golden Week. Noa is fatterer, I am tired, Kiko got a haircut, and we had a great time!

Noa got to spend time with his cousins (Hina, Kana, and Shu), his Aunt (Mie) and Uncle (Takao), and his grandparents.

I would have more for you, but (as my last post stated!) I am hard at work on the new website. Expect good things soon. In the meantime, perhaps you can get as excited about this as I am.

(Our shoutbox is currently offline because I can’t seem to stop the spam. Give me a few days!) emoticon

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Children’s Day (Boy’s Festival)

May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan (kodomo no hi). Just to summarize, apparently it is a day to celebrate children’s personalities and their happiness… whatever that means. In a nutshell, families with little boys put up really large poles with carp “kites” (called koinobori) [on May 5th, traditionally known as boy’s day] to represent the boy’s strength and virility. Families with girls put up really nice dolls (hinamatsuri) [on May 3rd, tradtionally known as girl’s day] epresenting the Heian Court from aproximately 1000 years ago.

Now back in Kagawa we had some little tiny koinobori (carp flags… are you paying attention!?) (tiny because we have no where to put them!). After packing up and heading to Tanegashima (Kiko’s island) for the holiday, Kiko’s parents surprised us (noa) with some very big koinobori. And I mean very big… I spent an afternoon standing up a big huge pole right outside of Kiko’s parent’s house. It was definitely a nice way to celebrate. Noa seemed to really enjoy them too… (this coming from the baby who loves plastic shopping bags).

While on Tanegashima Noa gets to spend time with his cousions, Hina, Kana, and Shuichiro and gets to ride an airplane for like the 80th time in his life. Enjoy!

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That is all. We are scheduled to be on the island from April 28th to May 7th. emoticon