Cherry Blossom … a sneak peak

Now that my work is blocking access to this website, and taking in to account my retardedly slow Internet access as home, the promised Cherry blossom pictures will have to wait.

That being said, they were spectacular. The peak landed right on the weekend, and we managed to catch them on Saturday, before typhoon-like windows blew them away on Sunday. Japanese people wait all year for a few days of blossoms, but its ridiculous how many of these trees are in our town.

Here’s a look!

A picture of a Sakura tree    A picture of a Sakura tree

Below is a picture of a very cute baby who loves me. His name is Kousuke, and he is the baby of a good friend at work. NOT the son of my calligraphy teacher (whom I originally thought! … oops!). Below that is our very good friends Mike and Nikki. Nikki lives in Kotonami, the town beside mine.

Saya    Mike and Nikki

Kiko’s Random “keitai” images

This link is cool so I am posting it again:

keitai denwa is the Japanese word for “mobile phone.” Keitai meaning “to be able to carry” (or something like that.)

These are a bunch of pictures that Kiko has taken with her cell phone. Maybe she will write something interesting beside them soon… I’m just the uploading boy.

Kikos picture Kikos picture Kikos picture Kikos picture Kikos picture Kikos picture

My First Bread

My first bread.

一週間前にカナダから帰国すると、デビットからのクリスマスプレゼントが
置いてありました。

それは私がずっとほしがっていたパン焼き機で,とっても嬉しかったです。
初めて食パンを焼いてみると、とてもおいしく出来上がりました。
これから、いろんな種類のパンを焼いてみようと思います!

We came back from Canada about one week ago.
David had a Christmas surprise present waiting for me when
we got home! It was a bread maker that I have wanted for a long time!

This is the first loaf of bread I have ever made, and it came out very nice.

I want to make many different breads from now on!

The Gingerbread House Project

I am off to Tokyo for a 5 day business conference and will then be heading back to Canada! (Yeah!)

But I am super thrilled to say that the Gingerbread House Project is finished! 274 Houses were built, and none of them collapsed. Every child in my town got to make (and bring home!) their house. I am their god.

These are my ingredients and my lovely assistant:

Gingerbread house picture #1 Gingerbread house picture #2

These are my disciples and their constructs:

Gingerbread house picture #3 Gingerbread house picture #4

This is the little girl who I have a crush on because she is so cute.

Gingerbread house picture #5

-That’s it for now. Expect updates from Canada, a christmas edition, and a massive overhaul when I am not so lazy.

What have I got myself into?

I have one week of work left before we go to Canada!

Next Monday I will be going to Tokyo for a 3 day business trip/conference. I hope to see Shane there. After that I take the long trip back to Chunan-cho, and then off to Canada.

So in my last week of work, what do I go and plan?

A picture of a graham cracker house

Well, that’s what it should look like anyways…

That’s right. Despite the fact that I am horrible when it comes to crafts, and I can’t cook anything, I have to make 259 gingerbread houses with every elementary aged child in my town. I am very excited. Mind you, I brought this upon myself so I can’t complain too much. I have had to order everything, plan everything and starting this Tuesday carry it out. I am freaking out. I will let you know how it goes at the end of the week with pictures etc… wish me luck!

What else have I been up to recently?

Remember how I said I was a terrible cook? That didn’t stop me from organizing banana bread day (Thanks Nikki!) for the “Wives Club” in my town. It actually went pretty well… Take a look:

Banana Bread Picture #1 Banana Bread Picture #2

Banana Bread Picture #3 Banana Bread Picture #4

Japanese Castle Visiting!

Kiko and I recently went to the big city of Marugame. As some of you may know, I think Japanese Castles are super, so we had a chance to visit the Castle that stands in the center of the town.

Marugame Castle #1 Marugame Castle #2

Japanese Chess and Ping Pong

I have been meaning to write an entry about the Japanese game of “shogi” or chess. It is absolutely fantastic. It is similar to Chess but you can capture your opponents pieces and drop them anywhere on the board, and your pieces can also be promoted in enemy territory (kind of like a pawn.) At any rate, I will write more about that soon. The important part of this entry is my good friend Jim. He tries very hard, but he still can’t stop me from destroying him in anything we do. (This includes ping pong and shogi.) I might be exaggerating, but you aren’t here so you will never know. 🙂

Ping Pong Picture Shogi Picture

That’s it for now… don’t get too excited, but I am planning another huge update for the site. Hopefuly I can get it done before I go to Canada, if not, expect it in early 2005 🙂 (And I know you will still be visitng the site daily then… right!?)

What I’ve been up to.

It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything. Actually, I’ve been slowly plodding along at work while trying to make time to roll out the latest changes to the website (coming soon!). I’ve also been doing my best to help Shane settle in (he’s fine). I was side-tracked by a killer fever (39.5!). I went to the hospital and it was exciting. Take a look:

A picture of me dying

See? Well I am feeling a little better now, but I will be off work until I have fully recovered which means hardly any e-mail, no website updates, and me catching up on a lot of movies. I just watched House of Flying Daggers and Ghost in the Shell 2. They were both pretty fantastic.

OK. Back to bed. At any rate, enjoy some pictures from Shodoshima Day (it’s a small island in our prefecture that we went to with some other JET‘s this weekend!). If you want to see more, check the gallery.

A picture from ShodoshimaAnother picture from Shodoshima

A great picture from Shodoshima