Welcome!
I went swimming today with Luke, and this photo (which I found on the web here) sums up how I felt. Guess which animal is me and which is Luke?
:-)
Some days I just feel like a fat cow in the water; today was one of them! Still, exercise is exercise, and it’s good.
Papa’s driver’s license renewal
I’m at the Driver’s Education Center in Toyama, getting my license renewed. I’ve just gone through the processing process, took a simple eye test, had my photo taken (darn, I should have shaved this morning!), and am now waiting in a lecture hall for a 30 minute driver safety presentation to start. While we wait they are showing us a video promoting the benefits of wearing seat belts and using child seats. I’m watching crash-test dummies fly through wind shields after crashing while going only 40kph. Here’s a small child dummy, wearing no seat belt in the back, flying through, getting its head smashed. Now the scene changes to live actors: it’s a family of three, on a Sunday drive. Oh no! They get side-swiped at the intersection, and the car flips over! Are they okay? The music swells… Suddenly, the young child, in the back, starts to cry: “mama… mama…” Mama and Papa are still alive… All is okay. Papa says with great relief, “thanks to the child seat our baby is okay!” Violins swell…
Wow.
That could be my child!!! Okay, okay! From now on my kids will always wear seat belts in the back! Sheesh.
Highly effective video!
Today I finished teaching classes for the 2011-12 school year! My Intro to
Research & Presentation students have just finished their final
presentations. This school year is toast. It’s all done. Water under the
bridge. History. Been there done that. That’s all she wrote, Th-th-that’s
all folks!
Yataa!
I made it.
Now on to work-at-home mode until April. I have several big projects and
some other duties to complete, but it will be nice to be on my own
schedule. Interesting job…
A shaky day at work
I’m on the “shink” to Nagoya, where I’ll be teaching tomorrow at Chukyo University. Although I have two more Fridays there, my classes at Togaku end on Monday, January 16th. It has been a very busy week, mainly because I’ve had to wrap up classes, mark papers, and get my grades in. Basic end-of-term teacher stuff. Things are going well over all.
The only shake-up came today during the afternoon when I suddenly heard my cell-phone shrieking. It was that unmistakable earthquake warning sound. My co-worker Clair and I were in the TK office, but nothing was happening. Then slowly the building started to rumble and then sway a bit. We were on pins and needles for a few seconds, wondering if the shaking would build up or wind down. Fortunately it soon subsided, and life went back to normal. That’s life in the big city! Turns out the quake was a 5.7 and didn’t do any damage. I’m grateful for that! This kind of occurrence has become a part of life these days.
Favorite Family Photos: Yuki Oroshi
The winter of 2010-2011 was one for the record books. It snowed so heavily that we had to spend a week shoveling snow off of our roof, lest the heaviness of all that snow damage our house. It was a huge job that my wife and I managed. Here’s a favorite shot of me on the roof during a sunny moment. It was my first time up there, and the view was great! Felt like I was climbing a mountain, however.
I created a video of this effort, which you can see here.
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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: In Luke’s Cool Shades
This is actually one of my favorite ever photos of me! As you can see, I’m reflected in Luke’s sunglasses. If I look very happy, it’s because I am! This is why I chose this photo of me for my Facebook avatar image.
Note: Color effects done with Colorsplash on my iPad.
__________
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: Luke’s 1st time snowboarding
This shot is one of my favorites- taken in our back yard when Luke went snowboarding for the first time. He was about four at the time. I’m crazy about snowboarding, so this was a big deal for me- being able to zoom down mountains with my son. It all started on this day.
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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.
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!
TFiJ26: Papa gets a new job
Great news! I have a new job. From April 1st I’ll be working full-time at Toyo Gakuen University, near Tokyo. My schedule runs from Mondays thru Thursdays, so that will enable me to come back to Toyama each weekend and during the spring, summer and winter breaks. I’ll be a long-distance papa for the next few years, it looks. This is a huge change for us, and I’ll be writing about it in more detail in the weeks to come. For now, check out this diary-style video which chronciles the day I went for my interview. You’ll see what it’s like to travel across Japan by train, take a tour of the Togaku campus, and hear my thoughts on what happened after the interview. Please ask me questions or leave a comment below!
TFiJ20: Luke & papa do a triathlon
On a hot hot HOT day in July (Saturday the 13th, to be exact), Luke and papa participated in the annual Yatsuo Triathlon. This was my 2nd time, having previously done it in 1999. Of course it was Luke’s first time. I did the “athletes” course, which consisted of a 750 meter swim in the pool (where Shinobu works), followed by a 16km bike ride on a hilly course, and finishing with a 5km run. Luke did the kid’s course: 100m swim, 2km bike, 1km run. Oh, did I mention it was a VERY HOT & HUMID DAY? The week before I practiced each day with Luke. His difficult point was riding a bike, especially with going up hills. Since there were a couple of inclines on the kid’s bike course, Shinobu and I were rather concerned. Using his old kiddy bike, there was no way he could ride up even a slight hill, so a few days before the race we ended up buying him a new bike! “It’s an early birthday present”, we told ourselves. This new bike had 5 speeds, so he was able to go up hills better, but would it be enough? We were worried… Papa’s race started at 9 am. The swimming was very hectic. Since it was in a pool, each swimmer had to go down and back three times (150m), making sure to duck under the lane divider each length. The start was staggard, but since there was such a difference in ability, it wasn’t long before guys were passing and lapping each other. It was a nightmare ducking under the lane dividers, as there were often several swimmers pushing and shoving for position! I had to take care not to get kicked in the face. After the swim, I ran outside and down to the bike changing area. I had my spot, and proceeded to change into bike mode. I wasn’t rushing, knowing it would take all I had and more just to survive the entire distance on the HOT HOT HOT day. Luke and Shinobu were cheering me on. When they saw I wasn’t rushing, they started teasing me: “Hurry up, Papa! You’re too slow!!!” they shouted. It was funny. The bike course was a ride through the foothills of nearby Yamada village. The first part was this VERY LONG incline, and boy was it a killer. After that it got better, and the final bit was going down that long incline. That was fun! The running course was thankfully flat and simple- just three laps from bridge to bridge on the Ida river, next to the pool. Still, it was HOT HOT HOT, so this part of the race was very difficult. Thankfully they had water stops, so I made sure to douse myself in ice cold water frequently. While cooling me off, this also made my socks and shoes very squishy and heavy! I shuffled along, leaving a trail of watery footsteps behind. Finally I finished! I was very happy that I could make it. Immediately, however, I climbed up a hill to watch Luke come in on his bike. Shinobu and I cheered him on, as you can see in the video. We were really proud of him! He ended up with a gold medal for his trouble, a prize given to all the kids who finished. He’s only seven years old, and already he’s gaining a lot of great experience, not to mention health and fitness. In the end we all had a good time despite the heat. We’re looking forward to doing the race again next year. Here’s the video. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.
