Posts Tagged ‘Luke Talandis’
Wow! It’s been over one month since my last blog post! Ouch! Same old story- busy busy busy. My excuse this time is a PhD proposal I’m trying to write over the summer break. Anyway, a lot has happened in the past weeks, so I’ll redouble my efforts at getting you all caught up.
First, lets go back to early May- Luke has just started elementary school, and one of the first big events in the school calendar was soon upon him: Sports Day. What is Sports Day? Well, imagine the Olympics, only held within one school. The student body divides into 3 or 4 teams, each of a different color. They paint this elaborate mural of a team mascot, usually of some ferocious animal. Then, everyone practices practices practices for weeks leading up to the big day. There are “real” sports like relay sprints, and more game-like events such as chicken fights, an obstacle course, and tossing bean bags into a basket. It’s all rather surreal to my eyes. I managed to capture a bit of this experience and have edited together in a rather cheeky way. I hope you like it!
I have some more video projects nearing completion, so I hope it won’t be another month before I can post them! I also want to get you all caught up with family news, so I’ll be posting about that soon.
Share ThisIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Hey! At long last, here is the video I promised that covers Luke’s entrance ceremony into elementary school. This took place on April 7th, 2008, and it was a big deal, as all these ceremonies are here. Parents came all dressed to the T, including many women who dolled themselves up with expensive haircuts and kimonos.
The ceremony was supposed to start at 9:30 am, but as you can guess, were were “late” again, like we were for Luke’s recent kindergarten graduation. Actually, we were half and hour “early”, but somehow managed to be the last ones to arrive! Oh well. 15 years in this country and you’d think I’d get the timing down one of these days…
I had my camera in hand, of course, and was able to take some good video. I hope you enjoy this little clip. I tried to keep all of the interesting parts (cultural things) and cut out the boring ones (overly long speeches).
Anyway, I’d appreciate a quick comment below if you can see it. I really like getting comments on our videos. It’s a fun way to stay in touch. For example, do you have any questions about Japanese customs after watching this? Or any observations on how they do things over here? I’d be very interested to know what you think. Finally, feel free to share this clip with anyone you think would be interested.
Bonus question: Can you find Luke in this picture?
Finally, as always, if you’d like to see a higher quality QuickTime version of this clip, just click here.
Share ThisIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Wow, we sure had a busy weekend! Luke went snowboarding with mama on Saturday, with papa on Sunday, and then had his first official big swim race yesterday (February 11th is a national holiday here). I took some video on Sunday, and wow! Luke was AMAZING! You have to see him go, especially when compared with three weeks ago, when he started snowboarding for the first time on a ski slope. The kid is a star, and is a natural at sports! With his mama’s tireless and excellent instruction, he has picked up the basics of snowboarding WAY FASTER than I did! And he’s only SIX YEARS OLD! Check this video out- the story of Luke learning to snowboard. It’s a dream come true to be zooming down a mountain with my son!!! I can’t express how amazing it feels. I’m really excited for the future. We’re going to have a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy watching our amazing little boy zoom as much as this doting parent has!
Again, to see this video in higher quality, click on this link to a QuickTime version of it.
Share ThisIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Every Monday evening, we take Luke to soccer practice at the Yatsuo Sports Arena (where Shinobu used to work). This video clip chronicles a typical session- the kids do basic ball handling drills, then play a short game. Luke seems to enjoy running around and kicking the ball very much, as you can see. The practices are led by a former pro-soccer player from Toyama, Hasegawa Taiki. He’s a nice guy, and Luke gets on with him very well.
It’s amazing to see my little boy running around! Seems like only a short while ago he was barely able to crawl. When I watch him run and laugh, I get that strong “boy, time sure does fly” kind of feelings. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little clip. It’s another little slice-of-life story from our daily lives here in Japan.
If you have QuickTime installed and would like to see a higher quality version of this clip, please click here.
Share ThisIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Posted in Culture, Family News, Video | Comments (4)