可笑しい "okashii" which means "funny, ridiculous or amusing!"
We are back in Tsuwano and doing great. Hanano is back to regular almost (she did awake at 5AM this morning), and life is going pretty good.
This morning some guys from our mobile phone company came out to install the signal amplifier on the house. It was quite exciting to have a cell phone work in the house. I was just making a test call to Shiho's phone, when the guy unplugged the power to the newly installed device. Puzzled and a little dazed by this, I finally got by going through many pages of the Japanese dictionary with the main guy and my mother-in-law that there is a Japanese law that states that you have to wait 30 days after installation of a device to turn it on and enjoy using it. It took a bit of the conversation to get if it was a company or Japanese regulation.
I suppose this is to prevent the instant gratification that one might be able to receive from such an event.
I will be honest here on why I have not posted that much in the past weeks. I think I have been a bit depressed by being in Japan. Shiho told me it would happen, and I told her I was different, but she was correct (just this time though (^^)!) I was having a great time the first month, but the isolation and lack of people to communicate with/ lack of understanding the television-radio-neighbors-sales people at stores/anywhere and everywhere, as well as not being able to check my cell phone messages myself, read the manuals for anything we have here, was getting to me. WAS THAT A RUN ON SENTENCE??? I started to get in a funk about it all.
Going to Osaka and getting some exercise helped a bit. Shiho's uncle lives in a 16 story complex, and his neighbors must have thought I was really lost. One night there I walked up 106 and down 16 flights of stairs. The next I went for a 3 1/2 hour walk while Shiho and the kids were with some family, then walked up 75 or so, and down 29 flights of stairs. Thank goodness for the elevator for my knees, but the neighbors really must have wondered about the sweaty white guy coming down in the lift. It was kind of fun seeing their looks... But this really helped me to get things back in the right perspective. I think I may have forgotten to keep that sense of humor that is needed while in a foreign country. I know most of you are saying, "what, Steve having a sense of humor... what is he talking about?"
Anyways, here is the insight on Steve's little bit of personal growth. I am sure there will be more of these instances ahead. Poor ME... As Joe has started to say some evening, "this is my worst day ever." (*8 I think reflection is good.
Yesterday I found a spider in the yard that is larger than the last. This guy is huge, maybe bigger than my finger, and he looks mean. I took some pics of him yesterday and was shaking his web and he ran off getting into a defensive/offensive posture. This morning I was checking on him, and he and his web were gone. I actually found him a few meters away on his web. I guess he actually took it down and respun it there. Interesting!
We do not have an oven here, so it is hard to make bread ,pizza or any of those cakes and goodies that we like so much. (Shiho:Well, we do have an oven. It's just very small as other Japanese stuff :) So I am thinking of building a little wood fired pizza oven in the backyard. I am doing research on it now, and will post pics when and if I ever start working on it.
Hanano started eating at the table, while sitting in a chair by herself. I think that Hanano is happy about it, but Shiho is just ecstatic. Her is her take on these events...
As you know, this is one of the biggest milestones in the baby's first year. When we put Hanano in her chair for the first time, she gave us a BIG smile and she seemed to be very proud of herself sitting in the chair! Sure she is a member of our family, Hanano eats a lot... I mean, A LOT! She uses both hands to shovel food in her mouth. We have to be careful because she choked herself yesterday putting too much food in her mouth! Now she can drink water with a straw pretty well. I have to admit that baby sippy cups in Japan really suck! We can't carry the cup around with water in it, because it will leak. The instructions actually say that! What kind of sippy cup is that? Plus, it was very expensive!!! Oh well...
Anyway, Hanano loves to eat at the table with us and she is very happy! THAT makes her mommy very happy as well :)
Well as some of you may know, I am going to take a class in Thailand for a few weeks. This class starts next week and should keep me pretty busy during the week. On the weekend I think that the diving probably will keep me pretty busy. I bought an underwater housing for the G7, so if I get some worthy pics underwater, I will post them on Picasa.
Shiho: We have never been apart this long, so I am a little bit worried about the kids. Joe keeps telling us that he doesn't want his daddy to go anywhere. Seems like Miyabi has no clue though. Poor Steve, probably he will miss Hanano starts walking!
Will try to post from Thailand, but will see how time permits. Hope all is well with you all.
PS: Thanks to Ching for pointing me to a great website for my listening pleasure. Driving in the car is a lot more fun now!
PSS: A lot more pics uploaded from the G7 on Picasa. Boy that 4Gb SDHC card holds a lot of pics and video.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
7/21/07
It has been an interesting few days... earthquakes in the North and a Typhoon coming up from the South. Exciting stuff, but neither of these really affected us. We did not even know that there was an earthquake, until I read it in a post on a list I am on that evening... No one we know was affected, although many others were. The typhoon brought very heavy rain for a whole day, but no big deal really, since it missed us by 100 miles or so. Although on the East Coast of Japan that the Typhoon went up, received 400-500 mm of rain.
I bought a Canon G7 from Amazon Japan. Seems like it is what I wanted, and I will post some shots from the camera when we get home from Osaka. All is great, except the Japanese manuals, which was easily resolved by downloading from the US Canon website.
Oh yeah, we are on a small trip to see some more of Shiho's relatives. It seemed like a good idea when we left home, but the first night was horrible. Hanano did not really sleep, hence the fact that neither did any of us. Long story short, we are cutting the trip short and only staying in Osaka, instead of going further North to another aunt's house. In any case we are now all doing fine, and Hanano has more teeth.
Take Care All,
Steve and Family
I bought a Canon G7 from Amazon Japan. Seems like it is what I wanted, and I will post some shots from the camera when we get home from Osaka. All is great, except the Japanese manuals, which was easily resolved by downloading from the US Canon website.
Oh yeah, we are on a small trip to see some more of Shiho's relatives. It seemed like a good idea when we left home, but the first night was horrible. Hanano did not really sleep, hence the fact that neither did any of us. Long story short, we are cutting the trip short and only staying in Osaka, instead of going further North to another aunt's house. In any case we are now all doing fine, and Hanano has more teeth.
Take Care All,
Steve and Family
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Stupid youtube videos
This has nothing to do with this trip, but these were just to funny not to post.
Only watch if you have nothing at else to do in your life today, and you want a laugh... I need to get some regular work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslnNEmM1XM
Okay, one more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omu4G8igoVc
Enjoy,
Steve
Only watch if you have nothing at else to do in your life today, and you want a laugh... I need to get some regular work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslnNEmM1XM
Okay, one more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omu4G8igoVc
Enjoy,
Steve
Friday, July 6, 2007
7-6-07 Tech issues...
Hello All,
Well it has been an interesting week. Since we have the car, we decided that we needed to have a GPS (like I said earlier, it is a neccesity in Japan.) We decided on a Sony "Nav-u" portable unit, since we will have to junk the car more than likely when we leave here. At least we can sell it for a $100 or so then. We ordered it on Sunday night (actually called and talked to someone at 7PM at on online store.) They sounded nice, so we bought it. It actually got here 9AM Tuesday morning. I am amazed how fast the service can be in Japan for these types of things.
As anyone who knows me would expect, I opened the GPS up immediately and started to play with my new toy. After a whole morning and afternoon of playing I gave up and had Shiho call customer support to help getting it to work. I will just summarize that it was a very frustrating day for me.
I will have to improve on my kanji, before I will even try to play with it again.
We went to the Tokuyama Immigration office (in Yamaguch prefecture) to get my reentry permit, so that I will be able to leave and re-enter Japan for any trips I want to take. This was actually the first real trip in the van, and it was very comfortable. We think it was a good choice. Very interesting going through the mountains in the rain and fog on the way there. It was interesting the use of land there. Right in the middle of the forest we would see a little area that was cleared and a small rice field planted. And then everywhere you go, there are the elderly working the rice and vegetable fields. Very hard work, and it really shows on their faces and posture. Highly respectable people.
Went shopping for cell phones, but they did not have the phones we wanted, so we are going to go back next week. Both of the models we are getting are the "older models", but they have built-in music players, GPS-navigation, 3.2Meg-pix cameras and global service in case we want to travel and still get calls. I hate to get stuck with last years model, but this is the one that I liked the best. The only thing we don't have is TV service, but I don't need to watch Japanese cooking shows all the time.
I planned to get a hot plate for our apartment whenever we end up moving, but I saw this one really cool cooker I had seen with lots of accessories on sell for about 65% off. What can I say, I love a good bargain. This thing will bbq, fry, make takoyaki, or a combination of the 3 at any one time. It is not teflon coated, but something else that you can use steel cooking tools and it will not scratch at all. We have used it twice in 24 hours of ownership, and it is amazing.
Here is the link to see the whole thing... Check out the storage rack it came with. http://www.zojirushi.co.jp/syohin/kitchenware/EACT.html
I also received a care package from my father in way of a wireless router with English firmware. Working with technology that I can understand is like heaven to me. I know, just a little pathetic... (*8 THANKS AGAIN POP!!!
Kids are getting bigger and Hanano is crawling around and standing up while holding on to anything she can find. She is getting to be in that "keep the parents really busy stage." Well it is fun, as well as busy.
Joe had a rash on his arm and chest, so we thought we would try out that insurance that we have through Japan. It is a little different here. There is a small slot every day (1hr) in the Dr. schedule to make appointments, but not for this type of thing I guess. So it is a first come, first served basis for the most part in Japan. This actually worked out pretty well though. We only waited 15 minutes and the kids seemed to really like him. The office was really cool and had a bunch of Totoro toys, as well as most the stuff kids would want to distract themselves with as they wait for the doctor. He gave us a prescription for an ointment that they called into the pharmacy for us. Joe is fine by the way.
I was a little interested to see how much this would cost us, since for the whole family our monthly premium for insurance is about $200. I was amazed when I asked Shiho and she told me it was about $5 co-pay at the Dr. office and then the ointment cost us less than $1.25 . I am quite impressed.
On the other side of the coin for Japan though, is that in talking to Shiho's cousin about the little outpatient surgery we had on Hanano before we left (they used a instrument the size of a paper clip and when from her eye to nasal passage to clear a blockage), and it is done without anesthesia in Japan. I guess the insurance we have will not pay for the anosteciologist, and they just hold the child down as they do the procedure. Not really sure how much it hurts or is uncomfortable, but does not sound fun to me... there are always plus and minuses with everything though. Makes us really appreciate how lucky we are, especially that we decided not to wait to have the surgery done in Japan.
We also finally decided on an insurance company for our secondary car insurance. The whole buying a car experience is different in Japan. When you have the bi-yearly mandatory inspection done, part of the money you pay gets you a very basic level of insurance. This really now makes more sense to me, since this bi-yearly inspection cost is $1000-2000. So you have some level of insurance through this. The problem is if you are in an accident, and especially if I cause an accident. In Japan people seldom go to court, and the police almost always just decide who is at fault and decide you will pay this percentage of the damage, fines, etc. The police also have the power, they use it, to just access your bank accounts and take what they want. This is not a 3rd world country, but I just really don't like someone being able to just go into my accounts to take what they want. Especially when you have a local police officer judging the circumstances of an accident between a neighbor and this foreigner who just got his Japanese drivers license (next few months anyway.) Now they will have to talk to Sony Insurance Company too... Here is my rant for this post.
Some new pics at ..... http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/JapanLiving21
Enjoy,
Steve, Shiho and the kids
Well it has been an interesting week. Since we have the car, we decided that we needed to have a GPS (like I said earlier, it is a neccesity in Japan.) We decided on a Sony "Nav-u" portable unit, since we will have to junk the car more than likely when we leave here. At least we can sell it for a $100 or so then. We ordered it on Sunday night (actually called and talked to someone at 7PM at on online store.) They sounded nice, so we bought it. It actually got here 9AM Tuesday morning. I am amazed how fast the service can be in Japan for these types of things.
Note:
Credit cards are really not that popular in Japan. There are many times that I can use them, and many more that I am shocked that I can't. This online store would not take any cards, and we ended up using COD. At another restaunt we went to they had the logos all over the place for every card one might want to use, but when I gave them an Amex card, they said they don't take any cards. Even Shiho was puzzled at this event. Lucky that we had cash.
As anyone who knows me would expect, I opened the GPS up immediately and started to play with my new toy. After a whole morning and afternoon of playing I gave up and had Shiho call customer support to help getting it to work. I will just summarize that it was a very frustrating day for me.
I will have to improve on my kanji, before I will even try to play with it again.
We went to the Tokuyama Immigration office (in Yamaguch prefecture) to get my reentry permit, so that I will be able to leave and re-enter Japan for any trips I want to take. This was actually the first real trip in the van, and it was very comfortable. We think it was a good choice. Very interesting going through the mountains in the rain and fog on the way there. It was interesting the use of land there. Right in the middle of the forest we would see a little area that was cleared and a small rice field planted. And then everywhere you go, there are the elderly working the rice and vegetable fields. Very hard work, and it really shows on their faces and posture. Highly respectable people.
Went shopping for cell phones, but they did not have the phones we wanted, so we are going to go back next week. Both of the models we are getting are the "older models", but they have built-in music players, GPS-navigation, 3.2Meg-pix cameras and global service in case we want to travel and still get calls. I hate to get stuck with last years model, but this is the one that I liked the best. The only thing we don't have is TV service, but I don't need to watch Japanese cooking shows all the time.
I planned to get a hot plate for our apartment whenever we end up moving, but I saw this one really cool cooker I had seen with lots of accessories on sell for about 65% off. What can I say, I love a good bargain. This thing will bbq, fry, make takoyaki, or a combination of the 3 at any one time. It is not teflon coated, but something else that you can use steel cooking tools and it will not scratch at all. We have used it twice in 24 hours of ownership, and it is amazing.
Here is the link to see the whole thing... Check out the storage rack it came with. http://www.zojirushi.co.jp/syohin/kitchenware/EACT.html
I also received a care package from my father in way of a wireless router with English firmware. Working with technology that I can understand is like heaven to me. I know, just a little pathetic... (*8 THANKS AGAIN POP!!!
Kids are getting bigger and Hanano is crawling around and standing up while holding on to anything she can find. She is getting to be in that "keep the parents really busy stage." Well it is fun, as well as busy.
Joe had a rash on his arm and chest, so we thought we would try out that insurance that we have through Japan. It is a little different here. There is a small slot every day (1hr) in the Dr. schedule to make appointments, but not for this type of thing I guess. So it is a first come, first served basis for the most part in Japan. This actually worked out pretty well though. We only waited 15 minutes and the kids seemed to really like him. The office was really cool and had a bunch of Totoro toys, as well as most the stuff kids would want to distract themselves with as they wait for the doctor. He gave us a prescription for an ointment that they called into the pharmacy for us. Joe is fine by the way.
I was a little interested to see how much this would cost us, since for the whole family our monthly premium for insurance is about $200. I was amazed when I asked Shiho and she told me it was about $5 co-pay at the Dr. office and then the ointment cost us less than $1.25 . I am quite impressed.
On the other side of the coin for Japan though, is that in talking to Shiho's cousin about the little outpatient surgery we had on Hanano before we left (they used a instrument the size of a paper clip and when from her eye to nasal passage to clear a blockage), and it is done without anesthesia in Japan. I guess the insurance we have will not pay for the anosteciologist, and they just hold the child down as they do the procedure. Not really sure how much it hurts or is uncomfortable, but does not sound fun to me... there are always plus and minuses with everything though. Makes us really appreciate how lucky we are, especially that we decided not to wait to have the surgery done in Japan.
We also finally decided on an insurance company for our secondary car insurance. The whole buying a car experience is different in Japan. When you have the bi-yearly mandatory inspection done, part of the money you pay gets you a very basic level of insurance. This really now makes more sense to me, since this bi-yearly inspection cost is $1000-2000. So you have some level of insurance through this. The problem is if you are in an accident, and especially if I cause an accident. In Japan people seldom go to court, and the police almost always just decide who is at fault and decide you will pay this percentage of the damage, fines, etc. The police also have the power, they use it, to just access your bank accounts and take what they want. This is not a 3rd world country, but I just really don't like someone being able to just go into my accounts to take what they want. Especially when you have a local police officer judging the circumstances of an accident between a neighbor and this foreigner who just got his Japanese drivers license (next few months anyway.) Now they will have to talk to Sony Insurance Company too... Here is my rant for this post.
Some new pics at ..... http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/JapanLiving21
Enjoy,
Steve, Shiho and the kids
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Shiho's new minivan
So we went to McDonalds again yesterday. I think the kids like this little reminder of home. It is just a little bit familiar to them, and they enjoy the same old fries, burgers and chicken nuggets. For us we enjoyed "ebi fillets." These are shrimp burgers really, and they are my new favorite. Ebi fillets are one thing that I will miss for sure when we come back home. We also had to try the teriyaki burger, since it is for a limited time. It was so moist I could almost have another, yet I now have the ebi fillets to dine on.
Anyways we drove the half hour to MDs in Masuda and got the food, then drove 5 minutes to the beach to eat on the Sea of Japan. We ate in the car and then I took the kids to the water for a minute while Shiho feed Hanano in the car.
Once we transferred the stuff to our new used car, the salesman showed Shiho how to operate the lights, wipers etc and we were off. The only problems we found is that the car still pulls a little to the left (salesman says it is the low profile tires, but me thinks not) and the keyless entry does not work (the remotes battery is dead I believe.) It actually looks like this car is almost new, although it is 9 years old.
Some new pics at ... http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/JapanLiving2
Anyways we drove the half hour to MDs in Masuda and got the food, then drove 5 minutes to the beach to eat on the Sea of Japan. We ate in the car and then I took the kids to the water for a minute while Shiho feed Hanano in the car.
We then picked up our new minivan, which is the main reason for the trip into town. When we arrived at the showroom, we were seated and then showed the menu. Hard to believe, but they had a drink and snack menu that the slim hostess served to us. They had a play area that the kids loved, and they were also served refreshments.
The transaction was pretty anti-climatic for us. We had small talk for a few minutes while we had our coffee, tea and apple juice, then gave him the money which required a number of bows back and forth from both parties. Then he took the money in the back to count and the slim hostess brought us a receipt, which required a number of additional bows.
Side note: I have gotten quite used to bowing to everyone in
the month and a half we have been here. Almost everything
requires a bow I have found. Even if it did not, I am thought
to be very polite as I walk through the supermarket saying
excuse me and bowing. Shiho has said that people probably
think I am the most polite foreigner in Japan.
Once we transferred the stuff to our new used car, the salesman showed Shiho how to operate the lights, wipers etc and we were off. The only problems we found is that the car still pulls a little to the left (salesman says it is the low profile tires, but me thinks not) and the keyless entry does not work (the remotes battery is dead I believe.) It actually looks like this car is almost new, although it is 9 years old.
Today it rained on and on and then on and off until 4PM. Nice and breezy day and it felt great. Did not want to go out though, since some of the downpours were quite substantial.
Only thing we really accomplished today was buying a new Sony Navigation system online for the car. Getting around without one is almost impossible. I learned this in Osaka the first week here, when we could not find an ATM that would give me cash. After looking up the Cirrus website and finding a ATM that would work, we had an issue finding an address like 2-250-10 Higashimikuni (which is the name of the nearest train station.) Shiho's uncle has lived at the same condo for 10 years of so and had to get out his map to try and find it. He actually still was not sure when he and I started walking around the neighborhood trying to find it. We have had a few other issues like this, and I have come to the conclusion that a GPS is a convenience in the US, but it is really a necessity in Japan to get anywhere without Shiho and I killing each other. (*8
Tomorrow's weather outlook is heavy rain, high winds and thunderstorms. It also talked about flash flood warnings and heavy thunderstorm warnings. Looks like rainy season has finally arrived ladies and gents.
Some new pics at ... http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/JapanLiving2
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