Long Ride

Up at 8:30 am this morning, Evan had already eaten breakfast and was outside playing with Ueo-sans kids before they went to daycare, Evan is ready to go practice riding his bike some more but I have a lot of things that I need to do around the house still.

Yasuko should be home early today and not have to go back to the school, she is scheduled to help some of the other ladies in town clean the community center in preparation for the sports festival this weekend, so far the weather is fore casted to be sunny and warm, we have our fingers crossed. The weather was sunny and warm today, I hung up the clothes to dry outside and tended to the garden, Yasuko came home at 11:00 am and her and Evan went to the community center to clean.

It was such a beautiful day and since Yasuko did not have to go back to the school today, I decided to take a bike ride and explore my surroundings a bit. I started off heading towards the Chubetsu river to get on the bike trails that run along the river, I rode and rode until I found myself in Asahikawa City, about 10 miles away from the town that we live in, it was an easy ride except for the last 1/4 on the way back. Yasuko was worried about me and I did not realize that I had been gone for 3 and a half hours.

After I got back, we went and ordered Koby's birthday cake, we are going to have a small party for him and invite the neighborhood kids, this is not something that the Japanese do, but it will be fun for everyone. We are planning on introducing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey to all of the kids, it should make for an interesting day.

Later that evening we had a dinner of tempura vegetables and shrimp with cold noodles and sauce. Yummy!

Temp: High - 75
Low - 50

Evan Bike Riding

Another beautiful and warm day in Shibinai today, the cicadas are in the trees making their sounds and the sun is out, although there is a prediction of rain in Asahikawa today, maybe this afternoon, or maybe next to the mountains, not at all.

Evan and myself went outside and practiced riding his bike, I was surprised to see him ride almost halfway across the school grounds before he fell. All of that scooter practice has helped him learn his balance, and it wont be long before he is riding his bike with all of the other kids.

We came back in the house because we didn't want Yasuko to see, so we could surprise her at lunch time. I made some coffee and toast for breakfast. When Yasuko came home we were unable to show her Evans new bike tiding abilities because the kids were on the school grounds practicing for undokai (sports festival), so we waited until they were done and then surprised her, she was amazed and Evan was happy and all smiles.

The rest of the day was spent riding bikes and playing with the neighborhood kids, all of them got to bring home their unicycles from school and practice, Koby is really good at riding the unicycle now.

I also managed to work in the garden some today, the potatoes are looking good and sprouting above ground now, I also got a row of green beans planted. I bought some carrot and Japanese radish seeds (Daikon) to plant but am going to wait until I can buy some worm castings to fertilize the soil first.

Yasuko had a meeting at the community center today, while me and the boys had baths and ate dinner, Yasuko is still feeling under the weather, but seems to be improving. It was a hot day today, a little to warm for my taste, but hey we could be in Texas still suffering in the mid 90's, whew!

Temp: High - 70
Low - 50

Fireworks

Another beautiful day in Shibinai this morning, clear blue skies and warm temperatures. The forecast looks great for the next 3 days, and I hope it continues on through the weekend. Everyone is praying for good weather for sports festival.

Evan ate cereal this morning and is watching kids shows on TV, while I had my normal coffee and toast. Yasuko should be home around lunch today, but will have to go back for one hour afterwards. I went outside and weeded the garden for a while and Yasuko came home and hung up the clothes to dry, she stayed for about 45 minutes and then had to go back. She will return again around lunchtime.

When Yasuko returned at lunch she said that she did not need to go back today, we all ate Ramen for lunch and Yasuko made an appointment at the beauty parlor to get her haircut, while Yasuko was getting her haircut Evan and myself went to a nearby park and played on the slides and swings for a while, then we went to a Park Golf course near the river and watched people play Park Golf and threw rocks in the river.

After about an hour we went back to pick Yasuko up and then take a trip to Bestom to get a few things. I had to get gas in the car and the price has just went up to $6.88 per gallon, it cost me $68 dollars to fill up the car.... WOW! Some things are more expensive here in Hokkaido, while other things like land, rent and electricity are cheaper.

We used our hot plate at dinner tonight and had shrimp and vegetables with rice, it was really good, in the middle of dinner the doorbell rang and it was Sumi-san, and her two children Keito (6) and Reeko (3), they had bought some fireworks and wanted to do them with Koby and Evan.

We set outside and watched the kids shoot fireworks until about 8:30 pm, after that the kids got ready for bed and brushed their teeth. While Yasuko and I looked around on the Internet a bit.

Temp: High - 73
Low - 46

Sports Day Practice

Up at our normal times, although I slept unusually late today 9:30 am, I have been feeling real tired these past few days, and hope I am not catching a cold or anything, but when I woke up I felt good. Outside it is warm and clear blue skies. I had a breakfast of toast and coffee and updated all of the blogs. Today at 1:30 pm I have a meeting at Koby's School to practice for the upcoming sports festival on Sunday. This is a very big festival in Japan and is called (Undokai), the kids and us adults will be playing all kinds of games, dancing, performing and I am sure more than I even know about yet.

I will let you all know more about what my role will be as I find out. Also tonight we have Japanese lesson at 5:00 pm, so I have a busy day ahead of me. Today at sports day practice we watched the kids perform a traditional dance, Koby did well as did all of the kids, I will post a video of it when the real thing happens.

After the dance we divided up in teams and threw balls into a basket at the end of a long pole, our team ended up winning. After that we had a relay race of rolling this large ball down a field and around a cone, our team won that race also. After that we played a game where everyone does the bunny hop dance, when the music stops you have to play rock paper scissors with the closest person, whoever looses has to go behind the winner and hold there shoulders and the music starts again with everyone doing the bunny hop. This goes on until there is one large line, and the person in front is the winner, Miu Maskawa in first grade was the winner, she was all smiles.

After practicing sports we went inside the school for a meeting, after the meeting we had about one hour before our Japanese lesson, Maskawa's mom brought us a gift from her ex-husband who lives in Otaru, he got us a gift of different flavors of fish cakes, because we help out Maskawa and her family often, it was very nice and the gift was expensive I am sure, we ate the scallop flavored ones for dinner and they were great.

Japanese lesson went well, but is starting to get difficult, Koby still seems to be doing well, and his knowledge of reading and writing Japanese (Hirigana) amazes me. Evan and myself took the teacher home and stopped by the grocery store and got some milk on the way back, we all had hot baths and ate curry and rice for dinner, Yummy!

Temp: High - 66
Low - 41

Shopping Mall

We all slept late today due to the weekend and no one having to get up at a certain time, although sleeping late here to us now is 9:00 am, very different than the States where it was common to sleep to 11:00 am, I don't like doing that here because you feel like you have wasted the day. The weather was overcast today, and it has been sprinkling. There were no kids outside playing today so Koby and Evan just went outside only a short time.

We had breakfast and just hung out around the house today until about 1:30 pm, then we decided to go check out a shopping mall called Aeon. It took about 45 minutes to drive there, but it was a pleasant and very little traffic drive (like most drives here). We arrived and the mall was huge. It wasn't very long, but it made up for it in height, being 3 stories. The mall contained mostly clothing stores, but had a little of everything including a grocery store.

We walked around until the kids started complaining of being hungry, so we found a restaurant to rest at and get a bite to eat. I had curry while Evan, Koby and Yasuko had Om-Rice which is a thin egg omelet draped over a mound of tomato rice, with a type of sauce over the top, this is one of Koby's favorite things to eat here in Japan. The food was real good and we all finished our plates. The good thing about Japan is they give you portions that you can finish, not like America where you can eat 3 times on the same portion you get in a restaurant, could his be why there is such a huge obesity rate? To go boxes are unheard of here.

After dinner we walked around and finished looking at the rest of the mall, the highlight of the trip was the game section where there were hundreds of the games that has a claw and you try to grab prizes with them, in Japan they call them UFO catcher, and I am not sure what we called them in America (the crane game perhaps?) They also had the games that we used to see in the traveling carnivals where you put your quarter in and it falls down and lands on a platform that hopefully pushes more off to return you more.. But these games used tokens instead, and you could exchange the tokens for prizes.

We walked until our legs were aching and then decided to head back home at about 8:15 pm, we grabbed some drinks for the trip back and took off. When we arrived back home, it was a quick routine of changing into pajamas, brushing teeth and getting ready for school the next day.

Temp: High - 65
Low - 42

Weekend Park

Another beautiful day in Shibinai Village, clear blue skies, but a cold wind coming off of the mountains, I went outside for a bit after breakfast but quickly came back in to put more clothes on, it seems when the sky is cloudless it is much colder. After breakfast the boys went outside to play at the school playground with Ueo-sans kids, I am surprised that I don't see any other kids outside playing on such a beautiful day.

I screwed up this morning and cut the power off to the Router and the Internet went down and I couldn't figure out how to get it back up, so a quick call to the man who helped us get it connected, instructed us to push one button and BAM it was back on, I have never had to rely on someone else for computer repair or service because I have always been able to do it myself, but here with everything written in Japanese and zero experience with ISDN, I feel helpless.

I got some mail that I really didn't want to see today, it was a letter from the Pi Pi International School, telling me thank you for applying but at this time they do not need me. :( That bummed me out!! But maybe it was not the right time or place, everything happens for a reason, and maybe there is a better, higher paying job around the corner.

I raised the plastic on the plants today so that they can get some fresh air, other than that, Norman is supposed to give me a call after his only lesson today at 11:00 am, and right on time as usual I received a call at 11:55 am saying that he was on his way. When Norman arrived I suggested that we go to a local park and walk around to enjoy the beautiful weather, and he thought that was a great idea, so off we went.

It was chilly and the wind was cold and strong, but there were many people at the park and even a few campers, we walked around and took some pictures and videos, the kids rode a luge type ride on a wheeled cart that they have been wanting to do for a while, Koby rode by himself and Yasuko and Evan rode together, they really enjoyed it, but it is $3 for about a 30 second ride. We also went to a nearby horse stable and let the boys look at all of the horses.

It was getting cold so we decided to head back to the house but stopped right before we came down the other side of the hill to Shibinai and took some pictures of our town from atop the mountain, It is a great shot of all of Shibinai.

Norman left not to long after we arrived and we all went to Bestom to get Koby a haircut and pick up a few grocery's that we needed, we got back late and took baths and then ate dinner, Evan was falling asleep at the table so he went to bed before finishing, but Koby finished and then headed off to bed also. It was a long and fun day!

Temp: High - 64
Low - 41

Normal Routines

Another beautiful day in the Kamikawa Basin, the weather is sunny and in the high 60's and it feels great outside. Everybody was up to their normal morning routines around the house, I went outside to raise the plastic on both greenhouses before breakfast.

Yasuko came home at 10:30 am but has to go back at 1:20 pm for the last hour. We got a call from a neighbor (Yoshitake-san) and said she had some vegetables that had been given to her that she couldn't possibly use before they got bad, so Evan Yasuko and myself walked over to her house to pick them up.

On the way back Yasuko went to the school for the last hour while Evan and I came back home to wait until Yasuko and Koby comes home. After school we are going to go to a new Electronics shop that we have not been to yet, we are in the market for a new refrigerator, and are just shopping around and pricing one that we might want. I think Koby also wants to look at the Nintendo DS games, since his grandma in Tokyo sent him some money for his birthday.

It was fun looking at all of the electronic gadgets at Yamada Denki, Koby bought a new game for his DS with the money his grandma in Tokyo had sent him, Yasuko and I looked at refrigerators, but they were really expensive there and we have seen then cheaper at another electronics store. While we were there I got a USB extension cord that I needed for my new camera, I didn't feel comfortable plugging the camera into the back of my MAC, because it felt like the USB plug on the camera could possibly snap off easy, so now I have a cord to use which feels much more stable, we also got a long ethernet cable that Yasuko needed to sit in the living room while surfing on the Internet.

After the electronics store we headed back to the house but first stopped off at the dollar store to exchange a book that we bought in error, we picked up some bread also from the grocery store on the bottom level of the dollar store and then headed back to the house. We came home and ate dinner and then went to bed, nothing exciting for the evening.

Temp: High - 66
Low - 39