Just keep rolling.

Well here we are again, fancy that.  I am back to the dinner pictures.  Mostly because I am having to wait my turn for dinner these days.  The table is packed. 

Last night we had the daughters favourite, Gyoza.  These were home made beauties thanks to my wonderful mother in law.  I fed my face in a serious manner and all the garlic in my system gave me a wild night.  My dreams were so vivid I felt like I was actually awake.  When I woke up I was slightly confused as it felt like I hadn't been asleep. 

On a different note I have been trying to catch the mother in law in action.  She is very camera shy.  Two nights ago I caught her with her fingers in the gyoza mix.

Tonight I was too slow and slipped away.

We are eating maki sushi this evening.  It looks lovely and I can't wait for a seat at the table.  People are gobbling it up.  I sure hope there is some salmon left by the time I get going.  In other news I went fishing with the father in law today.  The weather report was calling for 2.5 m waves but the day broke sunny and calm.  So we decided to go for it.  We went with another of his local fishing buddies.  Below is the picture of all the fish I caught.

No you aren't missing anything.  I pulled in a big fat goose egg.  Also the called for weather did arrive in the end.  Brutal.  However, I managed to keep all of my cookies.  It was a wild ride home but we made it safe and sound.  Hopefully I will manage to catch at least one more fish before we head back.  That is it for tonight.

Love out.

Can it be True.

Yes, yes I believe it is.  Two posts in two days.  I am actually posting about last nights dinner as I think two posts in one day would have been way over the top considering my recent out put.

So last night we had Yaki Niku.  Basically barbecued meat.  The big Teppan is set up in the middle of the table and then everything is fried up on it.  Whenever a piece comes ready someone picks it up and dips it in their bowl of dipping sauce.  Good times.

I, however, waited out the rush and sat and sipped my whiskey.  It is shochu whiskey but the really good stuff.  We were planning to take the parents on a tour of the factory when they were in town.  The sons best friends dad works there.  I am sure we will make it there someday.  Anyways, back to the whiskey, I sat there sipping while everyone else devoured.  It was very pleasant to stay above the fray.  I also got a bowl ready for this guy.

He had crashed out after a busy day of playing soccer in the park and watching videos inside.  The only problem is that he had done the in betweener crash.  You know, 4:30 ish.  Not going to be down for the night but if he sleeps until 8 then he won't be down again till twelve.  So I tried the gentle wake up.  No success.  He bawled until I got Anpan man up on the computer.  Then he sat in my lap to watch while he ate dinner.  Of course, when I closed up the computer it was back to bawling.  So I took him outside for walk around the neighbourhood.  Quiet again until we got back home and then bawled to keep going on the walk.  He eventually quieted down and I managed to stuff my face in the meanwhile.  We slept as a family for the first time in a long while last night.  It was nice.  Until I woke up sandwiched by the two oldest with the little one having been just barely squeezed out by the boy.  I look longingly over at my wife who slept unmolested on a futon of her own.  Ah the good old days.

Back on the Horse.

Wow did I ever fall off the life wagon there.  The last two weeks have been kind of blurry.  I think I am still dealing with the sudden change in expectations.  Sort of having to mentally get back on tracks after all our plans came off the rails.  Also we have been dealing sick people and injuries so nothing has really been business as usual.  However preceding all this craziness we had some good times.  First up is the oldest boys final field trip of the year.  I start with some video of me and the littlest going down a slide together.  In the video I am totally oblivious to the fact that my son has a broken arm.

Good times (the sliding, not the broken arm).  I didn't get many candid shots as my hands were full with the two boys and no Mrs.  (her day off, this was the first day of the daughter having the flu so she stayed home to tend to the sick).  I did manage to get one group shot and one shot of the rest of the parents.  Amazingly I on the odd occasion I actually feel like I fit in with this group.

This is the latest birthday picture.  The cute little toddler/preschooler you all remember turned fourteen.  Holey smoke. 

Pre-Emptive Post

I was feeling in need of a project.  So I decided to make a video of our year in Japan.  Now I know the year isn't over.  We have some great events coming up.  However, so far this is what our year has been like.  Hope you enjoy.  It runs about seven minutes. Sorry that was the best I could do.

Our latest Movie

Recent Tidings.

So this is a bit of a round up post.  In my rush to get out my last post I managed to miss the fact that we had a lovely day at the park on Saturday.  Kenko no Mori is really our go to park for having a good family time.  I would say it was the equivalent of the Stanley Park of my youth.  There is no aquarium or zoo but for a nice weather Saturday when you want to be outside with the family it is hard to beat.

We actually got out of the house by ten, which is rare for us.  When we got to the park we started with some grass sledding.  Unfortunately, the predominant wind was from the volcano and was bringing ash.  This did not slow us down and we kept on sliding.  Next we went to the playground and played in the sand.

 In the background you can see me working with the daughter sifting the sand.  We used the littlest's new sand toys and made a big pile of soft, sifted sand.  We actually filled up the day-glo green grass sled.

Next up we went over the the big field for some ball kicking, frisbee throwing and kite flying.  At the far edge of the field are two bronze horse statues.  The requisite pictures were taken.

After leaving the field we went out for lunch.  We stopped at a place whose name eludes me now, but we all managed to get what we were looking for.  I had a big bowl of black pork miso ramen.  The Mrs. had some kind of seaweed soba set.  The two bigger kids had the childrens udon set and the youngest had a mini bowl of udon.  It was a fabulous family day.  I always feel satisfied after we manage to get a good family event in on a weekend.  The question I am always left with is why we don't do it more often.

Half Marathon Madness.

So there is a lack of pictorial evidence of todays events as we were both running.  But it was a good day.  The Mrs. and I were up at 5:45 with a plan to sneak out of the house by 6:30.  The Mother in law was going to drive us to the ferry terminal.  Nice plan.  Only all three of the kids were up by 6:00, dang it.  Fortunately the middle child put on a video which managed to get the youngest spell bound.  And we snuck out the back door. 

Uneventful trip through town to the ferry.  We arrived on Sakurajima in plenty of time to check in, get our numbers on our shirts and our chips on our shoes and watch the opening ceremonies.  In Japan you always need to have the speeches before an event, the mayor, the head of the event committee, that sort of thing.  My ankle was feeling pretty tight after the warm up but it has been tight for the first three or four kilometers of every run recently so that wasn't a big deal.  A couple of trips to the washroom later and we were lined up and ready to start.  We lined up according to what finish time we figured we could make.  Apparently everyone else took half an hour off their probable finish time.  Our first two K were pretty slow as there was no moving through the wall of people in front of us.  Kilometers three through five had us slowly moving up.  That was when I got the wave ahead.  See in my mind I was leading us through the tangle of people so that we could get up to speed.  The Mrs. just saw me wanting to get going.  I kept turning around to find her and make sure we were together.  However, at the five K mark she just waved me on.  So I went.  I am not very good at participating without trying my best.  It is just who I am.  The bonus was that from that point forward because we had started so far back and made such poor time I was passing people all the rest of the way.  Which gave me a total boost.  I even managed to catch the two guys who over took me after kilometer 8, before we got to the end.  However, one guy did pass me with less than a kilometer to go and I didn't manage to track him down.  However, I did manage to finish just under 1:45.  Pretty darn happy with that.  My last couple of Ks were definitely under five minutes.  My last may have been sub four and half.  The Mrs. finished in 1:53 and change.  And looked pretty fresh to boot.  I on the other hand was gasping and had to have help removing the chip from my shoe. Well the volunteer offered and who was I not to accept. 

Post race we ate our free meal, it was a standard bento and was more than satisfying. We also went for our free onsen.  However, with the rest of the 5000+ people going for their onsen it was less leisurely bath, more conveyor belt type factory style bathing.  I at least got to soak in the hot pool.  The ladies side was so crowded the Mrs, just had a shower and got out.  First time I have ever spent longer in an onsen than the Mrs.  After that we caught the ferry and then street car back to Kagoshima Central station.  We picked up some treats for all those stuck at home and caught the train back to Ijuin.  We didn't call and instead walked the four k home.  Gluttons for punishment.

All in all a great day.  It was kind of like a date, no kids, adult activity.  I don't know if I need to run 21.1 k ever again.  My left achilles is really bugging me now and I think it will be worse tomorrow.  But it was still fun to have done it and I think the Mrs. may found something she enjoys. 

Oh yeah, when we got home the boys were napping and the daughter was still in her pajamas.  This is at 4:10.  Slow day at home.

Love out.

More school stuff.

 So the middle child had a school visitation day today.  The Mrs. did the honours.  Apparently, it had something to do with the doll festival and from the pictures something to do with a group of superheroes/bandits.  Good times.

I stayed home with little miss, "my throat has a tickle and I don't want to go to school", and the super trooper.  It was a beautiful day day and me and the little guy got to the park to play with his new sand box toys. 

He can't wear the knapsack unless the belt is tied around the front.  Stylin in his o sagari mono (hand me downs).  We managed to get some good sand castle building after a nice run around after the soccer ball.  I am telling you this kid has a father with world cup aspirations.  The older boy came running up to the park after we had been there about forty minutes.  He got in on the sand castle building before a little grounders.