tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39926488987853029092011-07-29T12:41:36.568+09:00Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.comBlogger661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-31139667170670610002010-06-26T11:00:00.011+09:002010-08-25T13:52:11.895+09:00

We got a hamster for Nina.  It's her job to (help) clean the cage and feed him.  She really likes looking at him and playing with the cage, but when it comes to the actual hamster, she will not touch him.  She doesn't even like it when I am holding him and try to have her pet him.  She just won't go near him.  It's okay, we will figure a way for her to get over soon!  And then, I'm sure, she

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-56177711422535644972010-05-25T10:56:00.013+09:002010-08-25T13:45:24.740+09:00

Last week, Nina decided that she wanted to wear panties and be a big girl.  So we have officially started potty training.  Nina has her own potty chart, so she can get presents for using the potty.  I think we will give one sticker for each time for the first two rows, then switch to one whole day for the third through sixth rows.  But, I'm still not sure.  We're not going to start on nights for

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-73311841713461957432010-05-02T10:51:00.009+09:002010-08-25T13:38:01.187+09:00

It's Golden Week and we don't have any big plans, just some free time to relax and take it easy.  Yesterday, we went to the park near Lake Biwa.  We rode bikes, and let me tell you, adding Nina on the back of my bike is such a workout.  (She weighs about 25 pounds now)  I cannot go uphill with her on it!Anyway, Nina got Shinsuke an electronic bubble blower for his birthday (yeah, I know, it's

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-85654513359328157392010-04-22T10:58:00.012+09:002010-08-25T13:33:19.087+09:00

For those that don't know.  I am the club leader for E.S.S. at school.  I bet you can't guess what E.S.S. stands for!  (English Speaking Society)  Anyway, for the past two years, I've only had about 7-10 girls in the club.  I mean, who wants to spend there after school time practicing English instead of playing sports, right?  Well, this year, about 15 new girls have joined the club, bumping us

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-17068775351575834282010-04-11T10:49:00.002+09:002010-08-25T13:27:10.468+09:00

Nina has discovered how to use a hair dryer.  Kind of.  Isn't she cute!? Until next time...

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-80738139970677542452010-04-04T10:40:00.019+09:002010-08-25T13:33:52.272+09:00

After our morning egg hunt, we went over to my coworker, Etsuko's house to have another egg hunt.  She has a daughter just a year older than Nina called Kazuko.  Nina loves to play with Kazuko.  Besides the kids in her daycare, Shinsuke and I don't really know anyone who has kids.  So, we never go anywhere where Nina can play with anyone.  We've gotten together a few times and Nina is always

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-12249328194654643652010-04-04T10:36:00.016+09:002010-08-25T13:16:08.739+09:00

Happy Easter!!  (well, tomorrow for those in the States...)This morning Nina had her first ever Easter egg hunt!  Shinsuke and I woke up early and "hid" the eggs in the living room.  (Not really hid though, just placed around)  We put Nina's Easter basket on the table.  She has been trying to play with it for a couple of weeks, but I keep taking it away from her.  So, when she got up she was

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-37836759025435443192010-04-03T10:31:00.012+09:002010-07-28T13:12:44.166+09:00

Tomorrow is Easter and we (well I) decided that Nina should have an egg hunt.  In order to have an egg hunt, we have to have dyed eggs.  This was the first time for Nina to dye eggs and she was really excited.  As we were putting the dye tablets in cups, Nina kept saying that she just wanted yellow eggs.  I guess that I shouldn't have wasted the other tablets and vinegar.  We should have just

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-68815734540172977402010-03-22T10:29:00.020+09:002010-07-28T13:12:01.439+09:00

Ham is not very popular in Japan.  Well, let me re-phrase that. Small chunks of ham, about the size of my fist are popular, but even for something that small, it usually costs at least $20.  Sometimes more.  I really wanted to celebrate Easter this year.  Easter is probably my favorite holiday, after Thanksgiving, and I have missed celebrating it for the past four years.  And Nina hasn't ever

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-69131106013780826122010-03-21T10:27:00.016+09:002010-07-28T13:11:01.702+09:00

Last night it rained really really hard.  Shinsuke and I both woke up because it was so loud.  But this morning it was bright and blue with just a few wispy clouds in the sky. But - when we went outside everything was covered with what looked like dried mud.  When I saw the car, I thought someone had thrown a bucket of mud over it and left it to dry.  It was so dirty.  Shinsuke told me that it

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-52520421927781710402010-03-14T10:20:00.046+09:002010-08-25T13:55:06.237+09:00

During the second semester, the 2年生(ni-nen-sei or second year students) make giant kites in small groups to fly at the end of the year.  The students work almost every Saturday on these kites.  They do everything themselves; from thinking of a design to drawing and painting it, from cutting the bamboo sticks to the correct lengths to tying everything together.  It's really been amazing to watch

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-34694648402072698782010-03-11T10:20:00.001+09:002010-07-28T13:08:49.045+09:00

So, we had our final exams last week, but still have school for two more weeks.  We don't have any classes, but the students have different activities that they do every day. Yesterday, was the dodge ball tournament.  The classes were divided into two groups and all pitted against each other to determine the winner.  Dodge ball in Japan is a little different that what we used to play when I was

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-3414065350640953402010-03-07T12:15:00.010+09:002010-07-28T13:07:27.906+09:00

We went to Toys'R'Us yesterday, looking for a present for our friends who just had a baby.  And instead we found a lot of cute princess dress-up clothes.  Nina was so excited!  She really wanted a pair of silver sparkly heels, but I know that if she walks around the house in them I will go crazy from the noise. (Plus, Shinsuke says that she can't wear shoes in the house at all - even plastic

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-18380985835698776272010-02-27T21:35:00.026+09:002010-07-28T13:06:23.225+09:00

Shinsuke and I both had the entire weekend off, so we decided to take a trip to the Osaka Aquarium.   Well, actually I had something to do in Osaka and it was near the aquarium so we decided to make a day of it.  It was really crowded, but fun.  We got to ride on a ferry and Nina had a blast.  She loved leaning over the edge and looking at the water.  She kept claiming that she could see fish in

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-64900264781985696662010-02-21T19:55:00.024+09:002010-07-28T13:04:58.111+09:00

Among the things Nina got for Christmas was the game Cootie.  She really likes to play and almost every day takes it out and dumps it on the floor.  She's actually pretty good at setting up the board.  And she understands that certain numbers correspond to certain pieces.  Nina likes to have it already set up to go to play when Shinsuke comes home.  She still has trouble with the taking turns

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-31862674049093467942010-02-14T10:54:00.040+09:002010-07-28T13:01:27.907+09:00

Valentine's Day in Japan is a bit different from the Valentine's Day I'm used to.  In Japan, women make chocolate and sweets and give them to men.  There are two different 'levels' of chocolate giving.  The first is called 'giri-choco'  which means obligation chocolate.  This is chocolate that women give to their co-workers and bosses.  And the second is called 'honmei-choco' which means winner

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-46287793184503446492010-02-05T20:53:00.044+09:002010-08-25T13:59:21.099+09:00

English Week was super busy this year!  I had after school rehearsals for about two weeks before the actual event!  But the contest was wonderful.  It was really hard for me, because the other English teachers were busy with other things, so mostly I did a lot of the preparations myself, but it was worth it.  The kids did great!  We had three different contests.  The first years had a recitation

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-85571268678223935132010-01-31T10:53:00.006+09:002010-03-14T16:05:38.775+09:00

Had to post this picture.  I have the cutest daughter in the world.  Ever.  I know. Until next time...

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-48090325669593161082010-01-19T10:52:00.014+09:002010-08-25T14:07:12.124+09:00

We got Nina a Raffi video for Christmas.  She absolutely loves it.  It's actually pretty funny, because it was wrapped together with two Wee Sing videos and Nina was really interested in the Wee Sing videos.  I guess because the covers are fun.  But, after we watched Raffi, it's all she asks for.  Nina can sing along to a few of the songs as well.  Her favorite to sing is Baby Beluga, but her

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-16613269062006196992010-01-16T22:52:00.013+09:002010-03-14T16:27:31.116+09:00

Nina during bath time!  Her hair is getting so long!  Shinsuke wants to cut it soon, but I think not yet.  She loves taking baths as you can tell.  Sorry the pictures are kind of foggy.  It was pretty steamy in the bathroom!          Nina making sure she has 2 fingers for 'peace'.  She sometimes uses 3 instead! Mohawk Peace!Until next time...

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-25804143854993909512010-01-05T10:48:00.022+09:002010-03-11T13:49:28.843+09:00

We had a horrible journey back home!  The long flight (from Seattle to Seoul) wasn't bad, but it was really snowy in Seoul.  So, our plane was delayed.  And delayed and delayed.  More than 3 HOURS!!  It was almost 9:30 PM when we finally got on the plane.  And then, there was a college brass band group (Japanese) who were flying back to Japan on the same flight, but some of them went shopping

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-23954573105934322442010-01-03T10:51:00.021+09:002010-03-14T16:50:11.119+09:00

The other day Josh was giving funyuns to Nina.  (She loves them.)  After Josh put them away, Nina decided that she wanted more.  So, she goes into the kitchen and climbs up on a stool to get them.  Well, she must have dropped some as she was getting the bag because all of the dogs followed her into the kitchen.  After about 15 minutes, Shinsuke and I start calling for her, but nothing.  So we are

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-87864164449168023542010-01-03T10:48:00.015+09:002010-03-14T17:12:18.949+09:00

The funniest thing happened.  Shinsuke and I went shopping for Nina and we found the cutest shirt.  Isn't it cute?  Anyway, the funny thing is that Anna has the same one!  So the other day we put it on Nina with a teal turtle-neck under and put her hair in pig tails.  After Anna saw, she ran to change and put her hair in pig tails too.  Nina adores Anna.  She was ecstatic that they were dressed

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-47134599891986395492009-12-26T10:46:00.015+09:002010-03-14T18:39:59.310+09:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Shinsuke was here for Christmas this year.  He thinks that it is too crazy.  Anyway, Nina had so much fun opening presents this year.  She was interested in more than just the wrapping paper this year.  Nina got so much stuff!  She had a lot of fun too!  Here are some pictures of Nina opening presents. Nina and Mommy opening Nina's stocking. Nina and Daddy opening a

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-41968420284982342622009-12-16T16:08:00.007+09:002009-12-17T10:04:52.470+09:00

I know that I just posted about a minute ago, but I don't feel quite finished yet.  We (Nina and I) are leaving to go home for the holidays on Sunday.  I am really, really excited to go home.  And actually, I cannot wait to move back there.  I know, I know, still about 16 more months, but I am super enthusiastic to go!  I'm always online looking at houses, even though we probably won't buy a

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-74034406281695746682009-12-16T15:55:00.002+09:002009-12-16T15:56:33.888+09:00

Now that I know I can post videos, I have some uploading and posting to do!  In the meantime, here is one of Nina singing her ABCs.  I really think she might have a career in singing in the future.  She loves to sing and (as far as I can tell) she sings pretty much in tune.  Don't know where she got that from, seeing as both Shinsuke and I can't sing to save our lives.  Hopefully, it'll last!

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-66982071888544768352009-12-13T19:55:00.044+09:002009-12-17T10:42:20.105+09:00

Yesterday Nina and I made some Christmas sugar cookies to take to Shinsuke's parents' today.  Today was the last time that Nina and I would see them before we go back to America for the holidays, so we went over there for dinner.  Nina loves to cook!  She was really happy that we got to make cookies.  Her favorite part was dusting flour before we rolled the dough.  We have 5 little cookie

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-56269202720615581622009-12-06T19:54:00.001+09:002009-12-09T20:52:03.572+09:00

Recently Nina saw Miley Cyrus' video for Party in the USA.  She really, really loves this song.  Every day when we come home she goes to my computer and says "Mommy, video please."  So, I have to find it and play it for her.  Then, we listen to it like 8, 9, 10 times in a row. Nina also likes to dance with it.  I've been trying to videotape her, but every time she sees my camera she stops

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-51476799679088299962009-12-06T19:21:00.029+09:002009-12-17T10:17:16.985+09:00

Yesterday, my dear friend Noriko and her husband came over for the first time since she had her baby.  She's been staying with her parents in Tokushima (if you know where we live, you know that it's far away!) because her husband has been away for work.  But now he's back and they got to come for a visit.  Nina was super excited to see 'Baby Chie'.  Noriko has been sending us pictures and Nina

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-14387617624461862112009-11-24T10:46:00.001+09:002009-11-28T07:31:58.886+09:00

As promised, here are some pictures, recipes, and reviews of the food I cooked. Turkey Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of just the turkey, so here is one of Shinsuke and I carving it.  The recipe I used was from Allrecipes.com and can be found here.  It was pretty good, but my mom told me it's really hard to mess up a turkey.  Everyone said that turned out perfectly and there were NO

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-50784119641647389822009-11-23T09:49:00.001+09:002009-11-28T07:34:14.800+09:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! On Sunday, Shinsuke and I hosted a small Thanksgiving Dinner for some of our friends.  I really, really love Thanksgiving and I've missed it the last three years living in Japan, so I decided I wanted to make one here.  We ordered a 10-pound turkey online for the dinner and it arrived on Friday.  I was a little nervous because this would be my very first time to cook a

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-23704727825917111472009-11-15T13:38:00.038+09:002009-11-28T07:43:03.838+09:00

For anyone who doesn't know me, I absolutely love Christmastime!!  I love really any holiday that involves special food, but Christmas is the best!  A few weeks ago, Nina, Shinsuke, and I made our first Christmas cookies of the season.  Boy, that really got me wanting to put up our decorations. However, in Japan, the idea of Christmas is really skewed.  For me, Christmas is all about spending

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-57404873952151860022009-11-13T15:56:00.001+09:002009-11-18T11:20:43.242+09:00

Sorry to everyone that reads this blog!  I haven't posted anything in over 6 months.  For that I am really sorry, especially to my family and friends back home that read it.  I am kind of computer illiterate, so whenever I have a problem and I don't know how to fix it I just quit.  So, re-starting and back-posting this blog is my new goal to finish by the end of the year. (Cross your fingers!)

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-86622439260210728412009-11-12T13:37:00.056+09:002009-11-28T07:41:44.356+09:00

Today at school we had our School Sports Festival.  I know what you're thinking, it's like a "Field Day".  But Japan takes it's sports festivals really seriously.  The students have been practicing for weeks for their events.  We have 3 grades in our school and four classes of 40 students each in each grade.  For the sports festival, we have four teams, one class from each grade together.  This

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-24341897456934271132009-11-08T21:34:00.008+09:002009-11-18T12:07:24.449+09:00

Today, Shinsuke, Nina and I made our first Christmas cookies of the season! We had nothing really to do (amazing for a Sunday, I know!), so we thought it'd be fun to spend some time at home and make cookies. But first, a little bit about our day.  We went for a bike ride in the morning down to Lake Biwa. It's starting to get cold and as we started I asked Nina if she was cold. She said no and

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-69519471425904459192009-10-24T13:35:00.045+09:002009-11-28T07:48:06.172+09:00

So, I really love French onion soup.  And I'd been having a huge craving for it recently.  But I've never seen any restaurant in Japan that serves it.  So I didn't know what to do.  I'd tried making it once before when I was in college, but it turned out terrible.  I mean, really, really TERRIBLE!  So I was apprehensive about making it again. However, I had some free time at work (haha, I write

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-31122937721762294742009-10-22T10:53:00.040+09:002009-12-14T14:49:37.700+09:00

Nina birthday was a few days ago and we didn't have a party this year!  It's really sad, I know.  We were looking forward to celebrating with our friends and family, but both Shinsuke and I have been super busy with work.  So we didn't have any time to plan anything.  What we did do was have cake with Nina on her birthday and open her presents from Nana Cari the next day.  Nina likes to sing the

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-40304724723075292052009-10-18T16:13:00.092+09:002009-11-18T11:22:53.859+09:00

One thing I really miss about the states is Halloween!  I really love Halloween.  I think it's so much fun to dress up in a costume.  (And of course the candy doesn't hurt either!)  I'd been complaining to Shinsuke that Nina is missing carving a pumpkin and going trick-or-treating, so Shinsuke thought he'd bring a little Halloween to Japan. Yesterday, we were at the grocery store and there was a

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-78381671808028149002009-10-13T07:20:00.081+09:002009-12-06T18:36:05.383+09:00

Our yearly school festival is finally done!  I'm so relieved!!  It was so much work for both the teachers and the students.  This year I had my own room to decorate too.  My room was the "Peace Room."  二年生[ni nen sei](Second Year students) went to Hiroshima earlier this year and had to do a project about some aspect of peace or war.  Then, they made posters and gave a presentation about it.  Well

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Shinsuke and I both had about a week off in mid-August and we decided to go to Fukui and the ocean.  Fukui is north-east of where we live and touches the Sea of Japan.  We went overnight and stayed at a ryokan.  Ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn.  We found one that wasn't too expensive and it had a family onsen.  This means that it had a hot springs and Shinsuke, Nina, and I could go into

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-19971393436625578892009-08-10T16:09:00.049+09:002009-11-18T12:08:05.379+09:00

Summers in Japan are really hot and humid.  Like everyday over 30˚C (90˚F).  Nights don't get much cooler either.  Luckily, there is an outdoor pool near our house.  It's not heated and the water is really cold because it comes from Lake Biwa.  I don't know why, but we had never noticed this pool before.  It's funny, because we drive by it almost every day.  So anyway, we decided to try it out

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-40432067046862131992009-07-12T18:17:00.078+09:002009-11-28T07:49:23.088+09:00

We went to the zoo again last weekend.  Nina is so intrigued by the animals.  Near the entrance of the zoo are the giraffes.  As soon as we walked in, Nina started pointing and saying "度物！[dobutsu!](animals!)".  So, we go over to the giraffes, but at soon as we get close to the bars, Nina wants us to back up.  She doesn't like to be anywhere near the bars of the enclosures.  It's so funny,

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-18108637037764092722009-07-04T11:54:00.034+09:002009-12-07T14:50:36.113+09:00

* Tanabata Matsuri is Star Festival in English.  Tanabata is a cute love story. Nina's hoikuen had it's summer festival last Saturday.  All of the classes sang songs and danced.  It was great.  Nina was too funny.  She didn't want to come out with her class, so her teacher had to carry her out.  Her class sang two songs and danced along.  Then one of her teachers read a book and the students did

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-76593707290731585772009-06-28T16:16:00.042+09:002009-12-06T19:24:06.313+09:00

Last week (Thursday to Friday) I got to go on the overnight trip to Hiroshima with the second year students.  It was really fun, but really tough for the teachers.  We took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Hiroshima on Thursday morning.  The students were all crazy and bouncing off the walls because they were so excited.  Many of them had never gone to Hiroshima before.  (This was my third trip there

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-65907163038000124172009-05-10T16:12:00.024+09:002009-12-14T14:33:08.849+09:00

This year, both Shinsuke and I had a whole week off for Golden Week.  (Golden Week is one week where there are 3 National holidays all in a row.  So, most schools and companies just take the whole week off.) We decided to take a day trip to the ocean in Mie Prefecture.  (One prefecture to the east of us.)  It only took about 3 hours driving to get to the ocean, so we left about 7 and got there

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-20616263110901638652009-05-03T16:11:00.019+09:002009-12-06T18:40:05.387+09:00

Shinsuke's birthday was last week!  I had no idea what to do for him, so I decided to throw him a surprise party.  I invited his sister and some of his friends to an izakaya near our house for dinner.  It was actually kind of hard to plan because I don't speak Japanese.  So, I had to ask his sister to make a reservation for us and also translate my texts to his friends.  But it all worked out in

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-78816257450500478062009-05-03T15:26:00.027+09:002009-12-07T15:23:04.177+09:00

Golden Week is this week!  And on the first day we had a neighborhood festival.  I really don't have any idea what it was for or why we had it.  I asked Shinsuke, but he too didn't know.  (The actually answer he gave me was "It's Japanese culture", whatever that means!)  So, we got dressed up in the blue smocks you see and headbands and walked around our neighborhood banging drums and wheeling

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-710606460366324352009-04-30T16:20:00.066+09:002009-12-06T18:39:17.931+09:00

*2年生(ni nen sei)[2nd Year Students] Yesterday, I went with the 2nd Years to a camping park a few hours away from the school for the day.  I was in charge of bus games and I spent so much time choosing games that I thought students would like and preparing the materials for the games.  Then, nobody wants to play games anyway!  They just want to sit and talk with their friends on the bus.  I am

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-24068272602234541472009-04-19T16:10:00.012+09:002009-12-07T14:58:33.608+09:00

Friday was my birthday!  I can't believe I am now closer to thirty than to twenty!  I went out to dinner with Shinsuke, Nina, and Sayoko.  It was really nice.  Shinsuke's family got me a new watch.  It's pink gold and so pretty!  Shinsuke and Nina got me Bose In-Ear headphones, to motivate me to start running more.  I really need to too! (haha) Here are two pictures of me and Nina at dinner! My

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Nina has just gotten over the chicken pox!!  It's been crazy, but I'm glad that she got them young.  I've heard the older you are, the worse they get.  So, seeing as she's about 18 months, she got a really light case.  Really, really light actually.  We were very lucky.  She also only got about three on her face total!  So when we went out, nobody knew she even had them.  It was good because we

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Yesterday, Nina's hoikuen (daycare) had their end-of-the-year performance. It was really cute. Each of the classes came up and sang a few songs, played some music and danced, or put on a play. Nina's class is さくらんぼぐみSakurambo Gumi (Cherry Class), which is the youngest class. They each walked out and played with each other on the big foam pad. It's so funny, because every other class puts on a

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Well, nothing too exciting has happened for the last few weeks. Just work and such. Both Shinsuke and I have been working six days a week, with only Sunday as our day off. Which means that we haven't done anything relaxing or fun recently. We even had a natioanl holiday last Wednesday, but we had too many chores to do around the house to do anything fun. It's really too sad that in Japan this

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We just finished English Week at my school. I am so happy that it's over. I did so much work and preparation for it and am relieved that everything went okay. On Friday, there was a school assembly and everyone got to watch some students perform. The first year students had a story to memorize and recite for the Recitation Contest. They had two choices; "The Little Red Hen" or "The Gingerbread

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-8284991650014401082009-01-14T11:31:00.000+09:002009-03-02T13:28:19.243+09:00

As soon as we got back to Japan, it was 'go, go, go'. Shinsuke had to go to work the next day, I had to unpack and then go to work the day after that. So, even though we were on vacation in America, we didn't really have any time to ourselves. I noticed that after Nina was born, we never have any time for just us. It's kind of sad, because now everything revolves around Nina (not that that's a

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-28596227858972629052009-01-06T09:33:00.018+09:002009-11-18T12:11:48.427+09:00

We left Seattle on January 3rd. It was a long flight to Korea. Nina was okay, but there was a little boy, maybe 3 years old behind us and he was terrible. He kept kicking the seats and screaming. His mom just sat there next to him with her headphones on and ignored him. It was really bad. At one point two flight attendants came over and tried to console him. His mom was just horrible the whole

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-77786262092843163492008-12-29T09:16:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:16:42.498+09:00

Christmas was last week. It was wonderful! I am so happy that I got to see my family and spend this time with them. Nina had an absolute blast! She really liked the Christmas tree. And crawling under it. She spent most of the morning trying to crawl under the tree. She got lots of presents, mostly clothes, which I am very thankful for! She liked to open them and then play with the paper. Here is

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-27621139432478812182008-12-25T08:56:00.000+09:002009-03-03T08:37:11.090+09:00

We got to Seattle on Sunday the 21st around 11 AM. Nina did amazingly well on the airplane. I was really surprised! She didn't sleep very much, but she didn't really cry either. She was just awake and playing almost the whole time. The flight attendants were great and kept coming over to talk to Nina and ask me if I needed anything. This is why I try to always fly Korean Air. One, it's not so

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-26413531718810215832008-12-15T14:37:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:18:18.908+09:00

Christmas is about two weeks away, and we just put out our Christmas decorations and little tree. Nina is so entranced by the tree. Every time we are home, she points and says "Ahh! Ahh!" until we turn the lights on. I really want to get a real tree, but they are not available where we are in Japan, if they're available in Japan at all. Christmastime is one time that I can't wait to move back to

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-27276028805688762442008-12-07T10:22:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:18:45.438+09:00

Yesterday, at work we played a school-wide game of hide-n-seek with the first year junior high students. It was suprisingly really fun. The high school was still having mid-terms, so they all left about noon and the second year junior high was in Kyoto at a peace museum for the day. So, it was just the first year j.h. at school all afternoon and about 10 teachers. Our head teacher, Yoshida-sensei

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-59892023102467223832008-11-30T21:25:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:19:35.627+09:00

Today we went to Lake Biwa Museum with Nina. It was kind of ironic because I go there almost every Saturday with my students. I must have been there like 15 times in the past 8 months. But this was the first time to go with my family and it was a lot of fun! The museum has a huge aquarium inside and we walked around just that part for about 2 hours. Nina loved the fish! At almost every tank Nina

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-78287496242976101312008-11-28T21:05:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:20:11.609+09:00

Nina had been able to play peek-a-boo for a while now, but just in the last couple of days she's really gotten the hang of it and understands it. She loves to get our attention, then cover her eyes, then open her hands wide and say "Baa!" This is the Japanese word for 'Boo'. It's so cute!! She giggles like crazy when we act surprised too! Shinsuke's started to make weird faces when he plays it

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-27455709817048980572008-11-26T15:06:00.001+09:002009-11-18T12:20:34.909+09:00

So, Monday was a holiday, which should mean a 3-day weekend. But, here is Japan and working on Saturday is a norm, so it meant a 2-day weekend. Anyway, I was pretty stoked to have two whole days off. It's not so common for me. Plus - Shinsuke had two days off too! So, it was twice as nice. (yeah, yeah, I'm a dork) Anyway, Sunday is called 'the housework day', because it's usually the only day

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-37681843613262677842008-11-23T15:41:00.002+09:002009-11-18T13:23:17.428+09:00

This week the school that I work at had it's annual school festival. Or bunkasai in Japanese. I had never been to one before, but all of our Monday and Tuesday classes were cancelled for preparation. I was kind of angry that it was considered more important that class, but I guess that it is a culture difference that I will have to live with. The students had been preparing after school every

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-60124162047589727962008-11-03T21:17:00.001+09:002009-11-18T13:35:09.925+09:00

So on Sunday we went to Kyoto Zoo. It was a nice day, really warm for this time of year. For me, Kyoto Zoo is small. But my image of the zoo is Point Defiance, which I guess is a mix of a zoo and a park. In Kyoto, the cages are really tiny, so you can always see the animal inside. I guess this is a plus because at Point Defiance, sometimes (okay, usually always) there is some animal hiding that

Julia, Shinsuke, and Ninahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02185068531399374449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3992648898785302909.post-44601695192507480312008-10-27T15:26:00.002+09:002009-11-18T13:32:04.906+09:00

So, I guess I should write a little background on how Shinsuke and I met, blah, blah, blah. So here it goes. I moved to Japan a month after I graduated from college to teach English for a year or two. I had no intention of staying here long term. A few weeks after I was living in Japan, a couple of my friends were throwing a party. I met Shinsuke there and he couldn't speak English at all, but he

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Well, Nina turned ONE! last Monday. We had a small party for her with some of our friends and Shinsuke's family on Sunday. It was a lot of fun! Nina was shy at first and clung to me like there's no tomorrow, but after about an hour she started warming up to everyone. First we opened presents, but Nina was happy to just carry them around unopened. It took some coaxing to get her to actually open

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