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. 

The Second.

So we celebrated a little second birthday action here for our youngest today.  Scary that.  Our third child is now two.  Combine this with my mom being retirement age as of March and I guess that puts me and the Mrs right in Middle age.  Holey moley.

We had cake a la my Mrs. and everyone enjoyed it.  The cake was cut in two so that we could also get some candle action for my nephew whose birthday was a few weeks ago.  After two trys with the candles everyone was satisfied and we all got to dig in.

Below the son is modelling the backpack he got from his grandma.

His aunt bought him so sandbox toys.  His mother made him a cake, his dad wrote this blog about it. I did also give him a great hug and this is me singing the loudest at his cake ceremony.

That is punk older brother stealing his cousins candle blowing thunder.  There was a do over and the little guy didn't seem to mind doing it up again the second time around.

In other recent news, well lets see.  In a personal accomplishment I broke through the one hundred barrier in a round of golf (96).  One of those things that seemed important until I managed to do it.  I wonder how many times I have to learn the "life is a journey, not a destination" lesson before it sinks in.  Fortunately, I have enjoyed the golf journey so far and hopefully will continue to enjoy it with my family as we wind our way through life.  I think I just need to be mindful of not worrying so much about the destination.  So other than that, there is the upcoming half marathon with the Mrs. next weekend.  Not super trained up but I told her today that if I had to stop at some point she should go on without me.  Will keep you posted.  The daughter is recovering nicely from a gash she gave herself a week ago.  Fairly deep but no stitches. The older boy just had his hair cut.  Previously I think he would have been best described as motley.  Now he definitely has a cute vibe.  I am itching to get my hands on the littlest's locks but we probably have to wait for warmer weather.  Other than that we have made two batches of salsa recently, which totally reminds me of me.  (inside joke, sort of)  Starting to feel like we are winding things down here.  Less than a month till mom arrives.  The daughter brought home the note with the schedule for the last days of school.  (the school year ends in March and then starts again in April).  So yeah spring is in the air and I am loving it.

Love out.

Gakushu Hapyou Kai.

or "Day to come and see what we learned in school".

 The son's is second row from the bottom, second from the left.

So today I was up for attending the son's kindergarten performance.  Very cute as these things tend to be for kindergartens.  And a surprising reminder that the Japanese school year is fast drawing to a close.  Here is some video of the little guy in action.  The editing leaves a lot to be desired. 

To cut or not to cut.

Wow was that an ordeal.  A little background. 

When the daughter arrived home from school this afternoon the Mrs. was out.  The daughter was terribly excited with the prospect of cutting her hair and having bangs.  So excited in fact that after her math homework this was the topic she chose for her every other day journal entry.  Or course she had it all written out before her mom arrived home. 

Enter the Mrs.  In her defense she is leery of taking any steps that might make school attendance more challenging.  Imagine the "I hate my hair and I am not going to school" scenario.  So the Mrs. raised the prospect of some of these issues before getting down to the business of cutting.  These issues of course had never occured to the daughter so now she is torn.  There is the excitement and anticipation of the new look, along with the fact that she has done the pre-emptive journal entry; counterbalanced with the possibility of being noticed and ridiculed at school.  So half an hour of tears and back and forthing and I had had enough.  I guaranteed her 100% that everyone at school would love her hair and call it cute.  Sure I went out on a limb but I think the guarantee was pretty safe.  Talking to other parents in the class the daughter is kind of idolized.  Apparently there were a bunch of boys at the beginning of the year who were afraid to talk to her because she was so "cute."  And there has yet to be an episode of playing with friends that ended in anything other than a "how soon can we play together again."  So I don't really foresee any problems.  However, I do take my guarantees pretty seriously.  I sure don't look forward to my first back fire.

However, check out the pics.  I wasn't wrong.

The flu season.

As the title suggests there has been a slight lack of interesting stuff here recently.  The little guy had a week of up and down fevers but no other symptoms.  Now the older boy is in his second day of bed rest.  He is coughing, sneezing, mild fever.  The problem is that he is weak with sickness.  Not that he is weak right now, it is just that sickness seems to have a much greater impact on him than the other two.  He is the one who will cough himself to the point where he throws up.  He is the one who spikes the crazy fevers.  He is the one who freaks the Mrs. out when he gets sick.  So I am spending a lot of time just hanging out with him in our room. Lots of fluids and videos.  He is loving it.  If only we had more videos.  Well I just started working on the more videos problem.  My apologies to those of you who make their living off of copyright.

In other news I am going into my second week of having a cough.  Every so often I manage to bring up something but mostly it is just a nagging dry cough.  No other symptoms and I don't feel sick.  I am putting off going to see a doctor but it definitely isn't getting better on its own.  So it looks like a trip to the doctor lurks in my future.  The real question is who do I go and see.  Is it off to the ear nose and throat doctor that we like or do I look for an internist?  Well I am sure of one thing.  Either I will die or I will get better?

Other recent developments include the possible pushing back of our return to Canada.  It is now looking like the 9th of May will be our take off date from kagoshima. We may take a side trip to Niigata during our layover in Tokyo.  This would put us back in Canada around the 12th or 13th. 

Oh, I forgot, yesterday I had kind of an interesting activity with the daughter.  In the afternoon I went up to the school to see all the grade two students demonstrate their jump rope skills.  They also played their pianica's (a cross between a piano and a harmonica.)

This was followed by a dodge ball tournament.  First the classes played a round robin.  Then each class played against their mothers (and me).  It was a fun afternoon, even though the kept asking all the "mothers" to come here or all the "mothers" to do this.  I tried to take it in stride.  I was the only dad there.

This evening the Mrs. is heading out to meet up with some high school chums.  The same chums who flew over to our wedding.  It was supposed to be families but I will be home with the boys.  You could call us sick, sicker and on the mend.

Love, 'cough, cough' out.

Under Construction.

So we start today with a local new years festival.

This was a giant Demon built out of bamboo.  We arrived late so I didn't get to see what the thing actually looked like before they lit it.  However, here is a picture of one I found on line.  No striking demon resemblance but very burnable.

Now at home I have been on a building kick recently.  First we made a bead necklace.  Then we made a jigsaw puzzle.  Both of these were documented in my last post.  From these I moved onto this cat.

I don't know what was driving me but I just felt like trying this out.  There were lots of mistakes and trial and errors along the way but in the end it got coloured and I was pleased with the result.  Coincidentally the daughter had the option of bringing something she made over the winter break to school on the her first day back.  Honestly, I had not heard anything about this.  She took the cat and was very proud of herself.  I was feeling pretty good too.

So while making the cat I promised the son that I would make him a dinosaur.  I learned a lot while making the cat so the dinosaur turned out a little better, at least in my opinion. 

They are both made from stiff paper,  quite a bit stiffer than construction paper.  I used regular paper for each original piece and then fiddled with the cuts until they were in just the right place.  Then I traced the model onto the stiff paper.  I was pretty surprised at how well it all worked out.  I was going to colour the dinosaur but after two pretty full days of working on it I was done.  And the son got to take it to school and show his friends.  I don't know how long they will last but they are infinitely recyclable.  I am still considering making an alligator as that was my neices request.