About
We had to shovel snow off the roof again in the winter of 2012. Of all the photos I took during this two-day task, this one is my favorite. I caught Shinobu flinging some snow… but where do you think she was flinging it? Right! At me! Turns out this was one photo too many! :-)
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
My hard-working wife
Shinobu was promoted to the #2 position at the Yatsuo B&G pool, where she has worked for the past several years. This means she has to do a lot more work for the same salary as before. Not complaining; it’s just a fact and a natural result of having more responsibility.
For example, she worked yesterday on a national holiday to get the pool water heated in time for today’s opening. It still hadn’t reached the optimal temperature by closing time, so she had to go in at 6am this morning to get the job done. This sort of extra duty is par for the course for my hard-working wife!
I’m very proud of the work she is doing at her pool. The place is a bustling community center these days, open to people of all ages. She has organized all sorts of swimming classes and events. She’s coaching a small team of competitive swimmers and during her breaks works with Luke. Needless to say, the pool’s finances are doing quite well, a reflection of the hard work Shinobu and her staff have put in.
Favorite Family Photos: Mama pregnant with Max
About a month or so before our daughter Max was born, Shinobu had a hard time fitting into her ski wear! I like this photo because it playfully shows the state she was in at the time. It would not be long now…
Note: Color effects done with Colorsplash on my iPad.
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
Favorite Family Photos: Mama & Luke
This photo was of no important moment; it’s just a shot that really came out good of year old Luke and his young mama. It’s one of Shinobu’s favorite photos. Luke’s shirt in this photo was one that Shinobu had just bought him; he was trying it on for the first time.
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If something bad happened and you could only save a handful of your photo collection, which ones would choose? That’s the question guiding this series of blog posts I’m dubbing “Favorite Family Photos”. It’s a chance to look back at the past 10 years and revisit special moments in our family’s history. These are our best and most precious memories.
Training for the big race
Tomorrow (August 12th) we’re off to Tokyo for Luke’s big national swim meet. We’ve all been working hard this summer with this goal in mind: to help Luke win a medal in this prestigious race. Last year as a 3rd grader he made it to the 50m backstroke final for his age group (elementary 3rd & 4th grade), but finished 8th (last). This year he’s at the top of the group, so he has a real chance to medal.
This past week we’ve been practicing at the big Olympic-sized (50m) pool in Toyama, which is next to the airport, only about 10 minutes from our house. Shinobu is one of the coaches of the Toyama team, and she’s been helping Luke and other swimmers from our town (Yatsuo) get ready. I’ve been training along with them, trying to keep up! It’s been exhausting, but also very exciting.
Usually we do about 2,500-3,000 meter in a typical practice, working on a number of drills to focus attention on the kick, stroke, or other points. At the end, when everyone is totally tired, we do some start practice. The life guard sets up a starting block for us and we take turns jumping into the water and then having Coach Mama give us pointed feedback. Finally, comes the worst (best) part: speed training! No one wants to be first, so we play a game of “Osama Jan-Ken” (Rock-Scissors-Paper King) to decide the order.
Speed training kills! It’s really really REALLY HARD! My arms are totally aching now after this morning’s practice, but you know what? They are aching less and less each time. I’m feeling stronger and have better endurance. Just today, during our final practice, I swam the fastest 50m crawl in my life (35.5 seconds)! I was amazed. If I have made improvements in just a few weeks of heavy training, you can imagine what Luke is like now. He’s in great shape, and if he swims his best this Sunday, there’s a great chance he can make the final of both is main events and possibly even medal! I can’t think about that, though… It makes me too nervous!
The plan for this weekend is for Luke and Coach Mama to ride on the Toyama team bus, while I drive with Max to Tokyo. My sister Vi and her husband Ramunas are going to meet us at the hotel! They are flying in from India. Great timing! I’m so happy they can see Luke swim. On Sunday we’ll all gather at the big Olympic pool for a full day of swimming. Luke’s first event will be in the 200m freestyle relay. He was added just the other day by Coach Mama based on his good 50m time (33.91). Next it’s the 50m backstroke, and then the 50m breast. If his time ranks in the top eight of either event, he’ll qualify for the final, which takes place after lunch. In addition, there’s also a chance he could be picked to swim in the 200m free relay, depending on how his team fares in the first race. So, overall, Luke will have at least three 50m swims, and potentially up to six. That’s a tough schedule! Hopefully, he’ll be up to it. Go Luke!!!
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Update: It was a big day at the big pool, and quite emotionally draining. It was great to have Vi and Ramunas there to watch. However, Luke was very very nervous and threw up twice! Still, he did his best considering.
Good news: He made the final in three different races: the 50 back and breast, and the 200m free relay. The latter race was unexpected; he was suddenly chosen for the team based on his previous good time.
Bad news: he finished 4th twice, just out of the medals! We were so disappointed, and frankly I felt embarrassed that I felt that way. Overall Luke was awesome.
Best moment: Luke swimming his personal best in the relay not long after throwing up. His team finished 5th, but Luke battled to keep his team out of 6th. I really admired that.
TFiJ36: Winter 2011-Yuki Oroshi
Hey everyone! Long time no message. Hope you all are well, wherever you are. As I type it’s nearly March, and the snow from this record-breaking winter is melting away fast. Before it all goes away, I’d like to put out a series of videos that chronicle some of our experiences during this favorite season of mine. What with all the snow, it’s been an amazing ride.
This clip features a fun chore that quickly got old after two days- shoveling snow off of our roof. In Japanese, this is called “yuki oroshi”. Yuki means “snow”, and “oroshi” is a verb that means “to fall”. Here in Toyama, and on the west coast of Japan in general, the snow comes down wet and heavy. A typical season has about three or four storms, which can dump anywhere from one to 100 centimeters of snow. In recent years we’ve seen less and less snow, and the melting cycles between each storm have grown in length. A couple of years ago we almost didn’t get any snow at all! Ski areas had to shut down in January, which is crazy. Anyway, all this is set up for this winter, one for the record books. It started snowing on Christmas Eve, and for the next month it basically didn’t let up! We’d have some days with out much snow, but the normal melting between storms didn’t happen, and as a result, snow built up and up until it reached crazy amounts. Naturally this caused some havoc, as travel was made difficult and roofs creaked under the immense weight of the wet snow.
When we built our house, we designed the roof so that snow would slide off easily. This was to prevent snow from accumulating and then potentially damaging our home. Problem was, we put the front door in the wrong place! Snow sliding off the roof would block the entrance and make getting in and out a pain. Finally, several years ago, we put these “snow stopper” rails on the roof. These blocked the snow from sliding off too quickly and saved a lot of work. Everything was cool until this year- with all the snow, too much accumulated, and we had to get up on the roof to shovel it off. This was a tremendous amount of work. It started off fun, as the video shows, but after two days it became old! After five consecutive days of shoveling, I was exhausted. Still, the experience was a memorable one, and I’d like to share it with you all here. In subsequent videos I’d also like to share some of the other fun stuff we did this winter. We really did have a good time. Until next time, take care!
