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An afternoon with Theron’s family:
My colleague and friend Theron came over to our house yesterday with his family for an afternoon of pizza and playing in the snow. We had a great time making the pizza. Theron showed me how it’s really done. I learned a lot! The kids also helped out and had a blast. Luke’s pizza, the first one he’s ever made all by himself (I usually help him), featured a happy face made from ham and pineapple. Theron’s son Jonah also made a pie, and it was either all meat or all cheese. After lunch we went outside to play in the snow. The boys made forts for a snowball fight, and I made a little incline for Max to sled down. As we played, the moon rose over the Tateyama mountain range. Awesome sight! We had a great time and look forward to more such get-togethers once Theron’s family moves to Toyama this spring.
A Black & White Morning
Got up this morning, opened the living room curtain and looked out at the morning sky, as usual. I was happy to see about 10 cm of new snow, but beyond that, something seemed… unusual. After a moment’s thought it hit me- as I looked out over our neighborhood and off into the horizon, I realized there was virtually NO COLOR! It was as if I were looking at a black and white photograph! As Spock would say, “fascinating.” Here’s an untouched photo.
TFiJ34: Trekking the Japanese Northern Alps 1
Last year young Luke climbed his first mountain, Mt. Tateyama, here in Toyama Prefecture. This year’s trekking trip was more ambitious- 3 days, 2 nights in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. What an amazing trip! This episode, the first in a series of three, tells the story of our 1st day, one that featured a climb up the largest field of year-round snow in Japan, the “Daisekkei”. With this video I’m aiming to not only tell a family story, but also to introduce what it’s like to trek in this beautiful part of our world. Hope you like it!
TFiJ33: Luke & Max’s 1st vegetable garden
For his summer English project, Luke uses English to tell the story of a vegetable garden he and his sister Max planted this past spring. Shinobu got the idea rolling, which was to create a small, manageable garden that the kids to help out with. This sort of “micro gardening” is currently VERY popular in Japan. Parents are using it as a way of teaching about and introducting nature into their kids’ lives, and since many people live on small plots of land, it also has taken off because it’s very easy and manageable. As for this video project, I wanted a way to kill two birds with one stone- share a family experience and help Luke practice his English. Seemed like getting Luke more involved in our family podcast was the way to to. I wrote the script, Luke worked hard to learn the lines, then we spent a couple of afternoons recording and filming. I also printed the script with a “schoolbook” font so that he would have some writing practice as well (by tracing over the letters). Overall it was a lot of good practice for Luke! He’s not totally smooth, but it’s so cool to hear him speak in only English for an extended period. This is a very rare thing, since he lives in a Japanese world most of the time. I’ve been finding it hard to motivate him to use English, so I’m hoping this project idea works out. If it does, I have some ideas for other projects. . I hope you like this little story. If you have some words of encouragement for Luke, please leave comments. This will give Luke some good reading practice!
TFiJ17: Tree planting day
For our next family video clip, this time we focus on our house, especially with our recent landscaping efforts. This spring Shinobu’s dad (a champion bonsai grower), has been helping us plant new shrubbery. We’ve been working hard each weekend on various little things, and the place is really beginning to shape up! During the beginning of May we were browsing around a local garden store and happened on a great deal- a huge (4m) Japanese Maple tree for only about $400. We took one look and just knew, “that tree belongs in our front yard!” We hurried up and bought it before we could change our minds, and a few days later, on May 9th, the tree was delivered to our home and planted. I didn’t have to work that morning and captured the entire event on video. I hope you enjoy this little clip. It’s kind of cool to watch the guy plant the tree.
