david – Page 35 – d@vidb dot net

My Birthday Excitement & Soccer Death

The Kiko Report:

T minus -2 and counting. No baby. A very big and heavy Kiko (who seems to want the baby on the outside.) Stay tuned. emoticon

The Good News

My birthday!! emoticon Remember? November 9th… 26 years old… right!? (most people thought I was 25 this year for some reason. Anyways, Kiko and I celebrated together. We found a nice Itallian place in Utazu (a nearby city!) and went out. We also had cake. Kiko gave me a super wallet, and I also got some clothes and a Shogi set from my friends. Here, look at the pictures.

Look!! See?? That is a card I got from Goggy and pictures of my birthday cake. It has soccer balls on it… get it? … note how it also ties in to my next subject:

The Bad News aka. Soccer Death

Now this may be a little bit hard to grasp…. but… I injured my hand playing soccer. It isn’t broken but it’s really swollen and quite painful. I also got a ball to the face which left swelling and a bruise…exciting? Here’s the background:

See that guy to my right, your left? Mark. He’s from England. Really nice guy and top-notch footballer. He also has a super hard shot. That hit me. From 2 feet away. When a volley would have sufficed. I thought I was going to die. Fortunately I did not.

This is a team picture we took last weekend. We played the Tadotsu Town Office team (again!). Instead of a 2-2 tie, we beat them 4-0 (or that was the score when I went to the hospital.) Nice.

Here is some photos of my pain. Empathize.

See that swelling??? I know you do. emoticon

More soccer pictures here.

That is all.

A BIG Update

Not that big of an update. (baby wise anyways…) But it did take me a hell of a long time to get everything ready. So you best be reading this.

First of all, quite a few people have noted that this website has turned into a baby-watch. It’s true. Our visitors are up by about 8 times what they usually are. This will definitely be the first place pictures are posted (don’t get too excited!). I will be e-mailing in photos from the hospital and they should automatically get displayed online so you will know right around the same time I do.

Secondly, some of you may be seeing some weird crazy pages when you visit. Sorry! I’m trying to get 4.0 online so that when the baby comes it’s all ready to show you tons of pictures… ‘cuz that’s what you want to see… maybe. That’s what I want to see anyways. Besides, I figure that if you are actually visiting this site you have a vested interest in what Kiko and I are doing.. right? I suspect the baby will be a big part of what we are doing so you get to look at the billion pictures that I take (with our crappy camera. thanks everyone! emoticon )

At any rate, the reason this is a big update is because I am going to be sending up pictures that have been sitting here for ages. I have also updated some of the photo galleries. Expect all of this to be re-done in time for the baby … (lots of pictures, easy to read entries and other fun stuff!)

By the way, thanks for all of those who called/wrote to wish me a happy birthday. emoticon It meant a lot to me. (That’s the closest happy face I could find to a birthday hat…) to those who didn’t…. I’m not naming the baby after you.

So here goes…

Recenetly, in Takamatsu, at the Kagawa International Festa (weird, no homepage… but look here.) my Tug of War team took first place in all of Kagawa. Yes, I have a tug of war team. Yes, I was clearly the deciding factor in the win (laugh now, but I was the anchor and had some good skill. I beat other anchors who were three times my size.) We also destroyed the girl-scout team in the semi-finals. It was exciting…

Can’t get enough of all that Tug of War action? Getting excited by that Tug of War pose I have? Look here for more pictures.

Last (maybe) but not least, remember the Halloween Party? (Of course you do.) Well I also had a Halloween event in my town on November 6th (the greatest day to have a Halloween party.) With the help of my good friends Nikki and Jim (thanks Jim!) we took 25 elementary kids (only 10 signed up) and got them to cut tiny ass little green Japanese pumpkins into something resembling a jack’o’lantern. It also marked the first time in my life where I have ever made my own pumpkin (all by myself.) … Here are a few choice scenes. Go here for the entire album (my pumpkin is the one on the chair with the candles in it!)

Damn it! I knew I was forgetting something…. in one of my kindergarten classes I recently received a love note. It was really really cute. A little 4 year old girl (named Madoka) came up to me after class and handed it to me. I was going to read it but then she said I should put it in my pocket and read it when I was alone… emoticon crazy…

I will translate:

David-sensei (teacher): I love you. Let’s keep studying English together.

Please make note that she went to the extra special effort to write from left to right instead of right to left (so that my white brain could understand…)

That is all… maybe the next update will be baby news?

2005 Kagawa Soccer Team

Hmm, these are a little bit late.. (not to mention a bit embarassing!) but here goes.

Introducing the 2005 Kagawa Soccer Team.

2005 Kagawa Soccer Team

Studly bunch, us. If you want to see more soccer pictures, go here.

At any rate, we have a game coming up this weekend. (Followed by a tournament the week after which I cannot make because of the impending baby. Have a look at last years tournament.)

Here are a few pictures from a game we had a few weeks ago. We played Tadotsu Town office team. It was our first match together and we came back from 3 behind to tie it up at 3. That was the good part. We then proceeded to have our asses handed to us by Junior High School students who came up to Jim (the really tall guy)’s legs. I guess they practice and stuff everyday… but still ….

ps. my birthday is soon. excited?

2005 Kagawa Soccer Team

Sanuki Fuji

Here in Kagawa they have this mountain called iinoyama. It goes by the nick-name of "Sanuki Fuji". Kagawa is famous for lots of little mountains in very nice mountain-shapes. Sanuki Fuji happens to be a tiny-little version of Mt. Fuji. It is actually quite nice and can be seen from anywhere in the prefecture.

Last week Ishikawa-sensei (my supervisor) and I climbed it and took pictures from the top. It was about an hour climb and, save for a few clouds, it was a fantastic view.

Wanna see more? Click here.

Sanuki Fuji

Kiko @ 10 months!

10 months!??! Those advanced Japanese people. Babies in Japan gestate (??) for 10 months.

Not really … I bet you believed me for a 2nd, right??! (I actually thought this was the case when I was first told about this 10 month deal.) No, actually they start counting from an earlier date and the baby is said to be in the womb for 10 months.

Backwards little yellow people? Advanced future overlords? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

At any rate, here is the beautiful Kiko at 10 months (or 2 weeks from the due date.) See how nice she looks? emoticon (I’m happy by the way.. that’s my picture face.)

Halloween Party

Kagawa Halloween Party

I was debating about putting Kiko’s picture up, or putting up pictures from Halloween. Halloween won.

Here are some pictures from the annual Kagawa AJET (JET Council, of which I am vice-president??) Halloween Party. Everyone looked pretty good. Especially Greg in his saran-wrap costume, and Jim as spiderman. In case you didn’t notice, I was dressed up as a disgruntled Canadian. Kiko was the wife of a disgruntled Canadian.

If you want to see bigger (more?) of these Halloween Pictures, look here.

Kiko and I are now off to watch "It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" for Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween Party

My Amazing Sweet Potatoes

Coming hot off the heals of the potato party, take a look at my sweet potato excitement. Boo!! That’s right. 3 types, all transported from Kiko’s Island of Tanegashima to here in Kagawa. (I live in Chunan-cho, but you guys know that, right?) emoticon

Now enjoy the view and look how cool I am picking my sweet potatoes. (and yes… I already know that no one likes to comment on my farming because you are all jealous.)

Sweet Potatoes

The Famous Potato Festival

This entry was actually entitled "Update on Kiko" but she didn’t like the photo I was going to upload. She promised I could post one tomorrow, so expect an update tomorrow. She looks… umm… big. But cute…

Anyways… yes, it’s the Potato Party. Remember how Kiko used to work at one of my schools? Well they invited us back for a Potato Party. The actual translation was "The Honourable Potato Party"… but well… umm… that’s stupid.

Now what do you do at a potato party you ask?

Well, first you take cut-up sweet potato, put them on Ritz crackers with whip cream, add some more whip cream and sprinkle liberally with chocolate chips and sprinkles emoticon

Potato Party

Then what do you do? (Do you really have to ask?) You have a potato quiz, sing the potato song and talk about potatoes. (He is pointing at a sign that says "Potato Quiz" by the way.

Potato Party

You’re jealous right? And why shouldn’t you be.

Konpira Festival and Me.

Wow! I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to write a little article about this entry, but there is nothing on the net about it! I’m a little shocked, but I will fill you in.

On October 10th I was asked to take part in the Konpira Festival. Konpira is a shrine (Shinto=Shrine, Buddhist=Temple) located in Kotohira, a town right next to mine.

The cool thing about this festival is that it re-enacts a procession from the Heian Period (794-1185AD) in Japan complete with dress. (Guess who was the star attraction?) You can check me out in my gear below.

Or you can take a look at all the pictures here.

At any rate, basically the deal is on October 10th (October is known as the month when the gods aren’t around… keep reading) we take the God out of the shrine and take him down the mountain to hang out in a Japanese-inn (Ryokan). The next day, we drag him back up the mountain and put him back home.

That’s fine and all.. the problem is that Konpira is famous for having something like 800 steps and is located at the top of the mountain. Also, the God lives in a portable shrine (omikoshi or something) (or whatever… those crazy asians) which literally weighs 1 tonne. Combine that with the fact that we have to take all his stuff as well and it makes for exciting times.

My team was in charge of the big Japanese-drum (Taiko). emoticon Suffice it to say it was ridiculously heavy.

Enjoy. It was a lot of fun. They don’t know for sure, but rumor is I’m the first foreigner to take part in the event (its been going on for hundreds of years.) neat.

Konpira Festival

An Update – and other stuff

hey hey hey.

Just going to put a bunch of random stuff here because I have a few pictures that I’ve been meaning to put up. To be honest, things are getting quite hectic with the arrival of the baby. Expect more baby announcements soon. (not MORE babies, more announcements…)

It seems like I never really got davidandkiko.com 3.0 out the door, but that’s ok, 4.0 is on the way. It will be ready before the baby and will look a lot nicer, be easier to update, and hopefuly a little more fun. Surprisingly we still have tons of traffic, just not as much interaction as we used to… 🙂 That’s ok, this site is both for Kiko and I, and for when you feel like seeing what we are up to (not that that has to be regular at all!)

As well as the upcoming site-overhaul I have finally managed to upload some pictures from our trip to Tanegashima. Take a look –> HERE <–.

In the meantime, let’s look at some pics I have stored up. First off, when I was in Tanegashima we went to this stooooopidly small and crappy shoe store called Footpark. Low and behold, what did they have their? Shoes. tons of them. But what else? The best pair of Pumas I have ever seen. no joke, I really really really want one.

Tell me that isn’t cool? …. I am accepting gifts.

I forgot to mention that we will be putting up pics of all the baby stuff we have got and bought. We have spent almost $1000 on baby shit and that is us being super thrifty and begging as much stuff as we could get. Apparently babies in Japan sleep on baby futons which cost a billion dollars. The only explanation I got was that since babies sleep all the time, they need to sleep well. emoticon wtf?

This is another picture that I’ve been meaning to put up for the longest time. A few weeks ago Kiko, I, and a whole bunch of JETs (new and old) went bowling. It was a lot of fun… you also get to see my good friends Nikki and Jim.

Super swell.

I hope you are all learning how to play Shogi. I need someone to play online with me, so get to work!! (they have a cool picture on that link, so look at it!)

That is all.

Love David & kiko.

ps. Take a look at my new soccer team (formerly known as the Sanuki Udons. We are working on a new name…!)