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

Gardening

Woke up to some beautiful blue skies and sun peaking through, hopefully we are done with all of the rain for awhile, but this is the mountains and the weather is always volatile. We all were up at normal times today, and ate breakfast while Yasuko and Koby went to school.

Koby and the school kids are outside practicing for their sports festival that is coming up in a little over a week. They have been practicing running, throwing balls into a basket, dancing and playing songs on their flute recorders. Koby is really enjoying going to school here.

After breakfast I went outside to plant a row of soy beans that Kitayama grandma had given me, I will probably have enough soybeans to supply the whole town with, after that I weeded both of my potato beds of all the grass that had started growing on them, there are potato plants starting to poke their heads through the dirt, so I was pretty excited when I saw that.

After weeding the potato beds, I planted the rest of the corn seeds that I had, so far I have a 100% germination rate, so if that keeps up I should have about 30 corn plants. I plan on doing several small rows of corn in hopes of getting good pollination rates, and if I have seedlings left over I will just give them to someone else. All of the other plants are looking good so far.

Koby came home from school and said that he had been invited to Fujita-sans house and that they planned on making chewing gum. I am not sure how that is done, but he was instructed to bring some honey with him. Evan is outside playing with the remaining kids that stayed behind.

My friend Ben stopped by today to show me the motorcycle he just bought, it is a Honda and is a 50cc bike, here in Japan Motorbikes under 50cc can be driven with a regular car drivers license, but anything over 50cc needs a motorcycle license. The bike was made in 1997 an is modeled after a 1960's style bike, I think it looks cool, in a retro sort of way. A motorcycle here in the summer would be nice to have, but 6 months of the year, it would be sitting in a garage somewhere, because of snow.

It is getting dusk now and the boys are at the playground getting the last playtime in before it gets dark, Yu is outside riding her unicycle and Yasuko is in the kitchen getting dinner ready. I didn't hear from the school I interviewed with, but they said 2-3 days so hopefully tomorrow I will get some good news.

Genghis Khan

Everyone was up around the normal times, Yasuko and Koby were off to school while Evan and I did our normal routine. Evan and myself ate breakfast and then I quickly went outside to uncover the plants a bit and let them breathe. The day started off sunny and warm but later after lunch started to get windy and cold. Yasuko came home at lunch and we had to go to town hall and the dollar store to run some errands.

When we got back I closed the plastic on the plants and we decided to have a semi-BBQ in our house with the new hot-plate that we purchased the other day. We had cabbage, onions, bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms and lamb marinated in a sugar soy base. The local Hokkaido people like to refer to the lamb meat as Genghis Khan. The dinner was great and I even took a short video of it, that I will try and put up for everyone to see.

In the mail today was a surprise that I have been waiting for, it's the new Flip Video Digital Camcorder. The camera we had, battery decided to die and would not keep a charge, we checked out how much a new battery would be and it was going to cost us over $100 dollars... WOW!! My new camera only cost $140, and that is exactly why I got it.

It is very easy to use and runs off of 2 double AA batteries, and uses no tapes, it is all solid state and downloads straight to your computer, no fuss. Thanks Dad for ensuring it got to me quickly.

The rest of the day was unremarkable and nothing to mention, I miss all of my family and friends, but we are doing great and loving living here.

Temp: High - 64
Low - 39

Job Interview

Everyone was up at their normal times this morning, Evan and I did our normal routine eating cereal, toast and coffee and watching kids shows on TV. We have to get ready quickly this morning to make it to my interview at Pi Pi International English School, I think we will leave at 10:00 am just to be on the safe side that we make it on time. We have never been there before and just want to allocate time if we get lost. It is not that far away, and probably only takes about 20 minutes to get there. Wish me luck!

The interview went well and I am very confident that I will get this job, another person was applying for the same position when I arrived but was an hour late, so maybe I already have the advantage since I was right on time. After the interview I hung around to observe how the other teachers operated with the children there. I saw about 8 children from ages 2-5 in attendance, and they all came over to talk with me and show me their art projects that they had just completed.

Playing with kids, doing art with them, singing and dancing and getting paid for it, while exposing the Japanese children to a English speaking environment, what more could you ask for? The person who interviewed me said that she would give me a call in 2-3 days to let me know what the results of my employment would be. From what I understood I will be working from 9 am to 5 pm 4 days a week and then 1 pm to 6 pm at a local Elementary school for one ore day, for a total of 37 hours per week.

The person who interviewed me said that Evan could attend also for free, this is like a big bonus being that this school is very expensive and charges about $500 a month for a 5 day week. My pay will be around $2000 dollars a month, which will provide us plenty of money for all of our expenses with a little less than half of it left over. Hokkaido rent is very cheap, now we are paying $160 a month, but have to move out in 4 more months since this house is allocated for the teachers that teach at Shibinai Elementary school, there is another house in front of us that is owned by the city and is newer and a little larger that costs $360 a month. We want to live there since we will be able to stay for as long as we are able to pay rent, so even if the school closes and the boys have to attend the next closest school our housing will be set.

The rest of the day was spent making a trip to a local Electronic Store to look for Koby a video game he has been wanting and then I played with the neighborhood kids until it started to get dark. For dinner we are having curry and rice, Yummy! One of my favorite dishes!

Temp: High - 54
Low - 46

Fresh From the Garden

Koby and Yasuko were up at school time while Evan and I got up at 8:00 am, Evan set down to a breakfast of cereal and kids shows, while I typed up the Shibinai diary for the day and drank a cup of coffee. I need to go out and raise the plastic on one side of both mini green houses so the plants can get some air. I think I will start some more corn plants today, I have so much space in my school garden plot I am still undecided what else to put there except a lot of corn, In the picture you can see some asparagus fresh out of my garden.

The weather is overcast now, but is supposed to be in the low 60's, the school kids were out in the garden plot today so I walked outside to see what they were planting. Today was just flowers called "Basalm", I never heard of them before, tomorrow is supposed to be vegetable planting day if the weather is ok. Later on in the day after Yasuko came home and we went into town and I got a much needed haircut, we had a couple of hours before Japanese class so we decided to go to Bestom because Yasuko wanted an electric hotplate that we can sit on the table and cook things in front of us.

The weather took a turn for the worse and the rain just pored down, we rushed to get back in time for Japanese class only to find a message from our teacher saying she would not be able to make it because of being sick with a fever. I called a local International Kindergarten instead that was looking for an English Teacher to see if they needed any help and have to go in for an interview tomorrow at 11:00 am

I quickly got a resume together and saved it to a small flash drive that Fujita-san had let me use, we dropped it off at their house and asked if they could print it out for us, she said no problem she would get her husband to do it and bring it over tomorrow. Dinner was Okonomiyaki, which is the Japanese pancake style food made with cabbage, sliced pork, egg, fish cake, with a sauce on top and bonito (tuna) flakes sprinkled on top. It was great and the new hot plate worked fine.

Temp: High - 63
Low - 50

Ramen Village

We all slept until about 8:15 am this morning and then everyone pretty much got up at the same time, Yasuko made toast for everyone while I went out to raise the sides of my mini greenhouse's. The weather is overcast today and Asahikawa says it will be rainy, although the weather here in Shibinai right next to the mountain is always a little different, so who knows what will happen.

We are helping collect old newspapers and magazines today for the school to recycle, the money goes to the operation of school functions, we are all meeting at the community center at 10:00 am. Collecting the papers was pretty easy and we made 2 trips to get all of the magazines and newspapers and boxes people had left at their doorsteps for recycling. When we finished Yasuko, the kids and I went to a flea market that was being held at the park we went to the other day that had the castle. The weather was rainy and got cold, everyone started packing up their items just after we arrived and we missed out on most of the items.

We mostly ate food there, and did very little shopping, Yasuko bought a cutting board and some honey made from bees in a cherry blossom field. We ate sausages on a stick, steamed bread filled with scallops and cheese, and ice cream, it was all real good, afterwards we came back home and rested for a while until Yasuko asked me if I still felt like going somewhere else, Why not let's go!! We went to Homac which is a store similar to Home Depot in the States, and then Toys R Us, yep they have one here also... and then we went to Asahikawa's Ramen Village. I had Kim-chee Ramen and a bowl of rice with grilled pork, Evan had a half bowl of soy sauce Ramen, Koby had a Miso based Ramen that was a bit spicy and Yasuko had a soy sauce based ramen, we ate until we were ready to pop.

We got home late after stopping by a local food market and picking up a few items we needed for in the morning. Koby had a little homework to finish, and Evan got ready for bed right away and fell asleep fast, after Koby finished his homework he was in bed by 10:00 pm and fell asleep very shortly. It was a busy but fun day, I hope the weather starts improving from all of the overcast and rainy weather we have had recently, the difference in the rain here versus Texas is that in Texas it floods, and here it just sprinkles, but its cold.

Temp: High - 73
Low - 50