jim – d@vidb dot net

On my way to the US [bubbles]

Hi guys,

Just a quick post before I leave… I am on my way to the US. First time going to Austin and San Francisco. It is pretty exciting as I hope to see one of my friends in San Francisco, and Kiko, Noa and Hana will be coming back to Tokyo when I get back… yeah!! Do you know what that means? Hopefuly it means more pictures and updates….

In the meantime, for the doubters out their that believe Noa and Shu are out to kill each other and that Noa is full of rage towards green pillows, have a look at them chillin and relaxin.

Mind you, Noa does look really angry at those bubbles.

Noa has a history of rage.

Noa full of rage

Pictures from the Fuji Trip

Lots and lots of rain…

Just barely made it up and out …

now look at us before… (when we were full of hope!)

Noa being pushed around, helicopters and weirdness

Remember how we said Noa got a new bike? Well he was pissed because we haven’t shown it to you yet.

New Bike

He is so cool. He has no idea about steering though. It takes forever for him to go anywhere because we have to keep readjusting his trajectory.

More importantly is news on Noa’s gheyness. Look at these pictures I found.

Noa being pushed around

Thats right…. Noa also knows female children.

(that makes one of us. to be perfectly honest, I have no idea who this child is. I found it on my computer after I uploaded the latest batch of pictures. Never seen the kid before in my life. What is she doing with Noa? I have no idea. Let’s ask Kiko.)

Unfortunately she was pushing Noa around.

After he came home I beat some sense into him and set things straight.

Noa doing the pushing

That’s right! You go where Noa tells you to go.

Who ever said Noa was ghey? [1] [2] [3]

(it may or may not have been caused when Jim rammed his head into a light fixture at the age of one month)

(this resulted in the following picture)

Noa and Jim

And finally… I promised you helicopters.

DOWNLOAD NOA LIKES HELICOPTERS!
希空くんのビデオ (ヘリコプター＃１)

And more helicopters…

DOWNLOAD NOA STILL LIKES HELICOPTERS!
希空くんのビデオ (ヘリコプター＃2)

What does this all prove?

That baby awesome is still awesome.

Baby Awesome

Lindsay and Takeshi’s Wedding… in Kagawa!

We are back from an exhausting (but fun!) trip to Kagawa where we got to see a number of good friends and colleagues. We miss Kagawa and everyone there very much! Thank you so much for making the time to hang out with us everyone!! (except those of you who dragged me into the freezing cold ocean in the middle of winter. you know who you are. actually… that was a lot of fun but sucky in the I thought I was going to die kind of way.)

A big part of our trip to Kagawa was to go see our friends Lindsay and Takeshi get married! Congratulations!!!

It was there that Noa was reunited with Jim, and performed live on stage with Jim’s band LAME (which despite all that I was expecting… which was nothing… turned out to be pretty good!) [I will get a hair cut, calm down.]

and here’s something to think about…

Getting ready to leave Manno (Chunan / Kagawa)

That’s right… our two year stint in Chunan (now: Manno) in Kagawa Prefecture is coming to a close. We leave on Tuesday morning but still have a ton of packing to do. Here are a few photos that we have taken over the past few days that we thought you might enjoy.

This first photo is actually a scan of an article that appeared in the Shikoku Shinbun (the big paper in our area.) The article is a thank you to me and saying goodbye to our family.

My liberal translation:

Thank you, David! David Bennett (26) who has been working and living in Chunan Town (now Manno Town) since August of 2004 as an international relations co-ordinator will be leaving us. As a student, David spent two years on exchange in Yokohama and Tokyo. In his current role David was very active around the community through numerous events, school visits, and English classes. He also brought internationalization to the local community groups through his visits. David came to Chunan with his wife, Kiko. Their first son, Noa, was born last year in November. (That pretty much covers it. I rushed the translation, so if you think you could do a better job… do it.) 😮

At least 3 times a month Jim and I ate at the local kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place. It was fantastic. (Especially the oinky bits [read: meat susghi] and the salmon!) Definitely will miss the sushi… and possibly Jim.

And finally, Noa took me for a drive the other day.

That is all.

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)

A good week?

Hello!

Last week was a roller coaster. Lots of ups, and many more downs. Between my computer breaking, our Ipod Nano breaking, messing up a lot of translations, getting called on the messing up… the list goes on. Suffice it to say I was not pleased and I was kind of down.

On the other hand, I also had some very good things happen. Our MythTV box is back up and running (after a lot of work), I am still loving my job here in Chunan, and <drumroll>

I got the scholarship I applied for last year!!! emoticon Although I will be very sad to be leaving Chunan, from October of this year I will be attending Gakushuin University (known for the emperor’s family and politicians kids going there) through a very big government scholarship!! I am still in shock, but there are so many people I have to thank…. Kiko, Komuro-sensei, Arntzen-sensei, Ito-sensei, Jotaro, Ishikawa-sensei, Tracy, Shane, everyone else that helped me out with the application… THANK YOU!!

Like I said, it is going to be tough to leave Chunan, we really do love it here. But I am confident that this experience will help me move close to one day getting a job as a professor back in North America, so wish us luck!

Now since there were no pictures in our last post, Kiko has asked me to upload these family pictures we took in Tanegashima. I believe we promised to have them up earlier.. sorry! These are pictures from Noa’s omiyamairi, the blessing that Japanese children get after 30 days. We took family pictures after the ceremony.

We have also had quite a few visitors for Noa. Below are pictures with Liz (Jim’s girlfriend. In case you forgot, Jim is my good friend who bashed Noa’s head into the ceiling light.) Following that are many of my good friends here in Kagawa prefecture on the JET program, and finally Yoshiko Hirao. One of my most loyal and favourite students attending my town English classes. Enjoy!

emoticon

Noa is open for business.

It’s official. Noa is open for business.

I was going to rant about how ridiculously busy I am. Busy enough not to be able to finish davidandkiko 4.0, to not start a huge translation due this week, to not write christmas cards (but I did make a nice looking christmas card!), so instead I will give you a short update.

We are off to Tanegashima this Saturday! For the first year in a very long time we will not be spending christmas in Canada, but rather Christmas and New Years on Kiko’s island. I will be updating the website, but I don’t think I will be able to do any big updates.

Recently Noa has had some visitors. Our good friends Ayano-san and Jim have been here to visit (and help bathe!) Noa. Here are some pictures… he’s getting bigger.

and Jim… (who helped us film Noa’s bath. Which was exciting….)

(noa likes jim.)

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.

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