A few weeks ago, my family and I went to see sumo in Nagoya.  (That was a really fun day!) As we were entering the venue, I met three wrestlers (rikishi) and asked them to take a picture with my son.  (I hear that if you do that, your son will be strong.  That's a bonus.) Here is the result.  I really like this picture:

Hi there! Sunday night.  Whew...we had a very fun (but tiring) weekend. On Saturday, my family took a train from Toyokawa to Nishio.  We met some of my old students at an Italian restaurant Saizeria near the station.  (The kids have grown so much!)  As I was leaving, I ran into another former student.  It was nice to see her too.  (It seems that every time I go to Saizeria, I run into someone I know.) After lunch, Kazuko did some shopping for clo...

Last night we visited a really nice restaurant. It was the same restaurant that my wife's family brought my family to before our wedding.  It is a fantastic place.  The name is Ban-Ya ”Ô‰®B  It is really good. For me, tonight's best food was the crab tempura, and the steak! I also enjoyed snapper grilled in salt.  I always enjoy fancy Japanese food.  It is no surprise that I gain weight here! Kenny and his cousin Daiki have become really good friends.  I ...

My father-in-law recently purchased a small (50 cc) motorbike.  He and five of his buddies from the Lions' Club each bought identical bikes.  He said they're like an "Old Guys Bike Club."  (It sounds funnier in Japanese.) Yesterday he let me ride it around the neighborhood.  (Apparently he doesn't let anyone ride it.  I was touched.) I drove around the fields and farms in the neighborhood.  Eventually, I found our house and I came back home.(Roads are really conf...

Hello there!  I hope that you are having a happy day.  I have lots of odds-and-ends to write about.  I apologize to the casual readers who may have just stumbled onto this article.  I doubt that it'll be very interesting. The big news in Minnesota baseball is that Doug Mientkiewicz was traded to Boston.  In exchange, the Twins received a minor-league pitching prospect. I have mixed-feelings about the Mientkiewicz trade.  Traditionally, first base isn't a place...

In Japanese, there is an adjective (which can be used by itself as a sentence) "Nadsukashii."  It translates something like: "Something which brings back memories," or "Something that hasn't been thought of for a long time." I'd compare the phrase to "Walking down memory lane" or "That rings a bell." To change Japanese adjectives to nouns, one has to add a -sa to the adjective.  This is the story of my "Nadsukashii-sa Tour." Today, Kazuko and Kenny had plans with one of Kazuko...

Recently the news has been airing reports that a typhoon is heading for Central/ Southern Japan.  Apparently, we will be enjoying a typhoon some time between tomorrow afternoon and Saturday. When I used to live in Japan I always enjoyed typhoons.  They are the equivalent to the "snow days" that we have once or twice a year in Minnesota.  An unscheduled holiday from work.  I'd stock up on snack foods and rental videos (my satellite would go out), and enjoy the day. Now t...

Soon after I started blogging here, I found myself in the top-ten for both "user score" and "Joe's top-ten."  I had spent most of the past year in Joe's top-ten (usually between number 2 and 5), and I have remained steadily within the top-twenty users. Recently, my "Joe's" ranking has fallen out of the top-ten.  In a way, I am relieved.  From now on, I can be as boring as I want to be without worrying whether I can at least occasionally publish a popular article.  (Ma...

A few minutes ago I was playing with baby Kenny.  I felt that he has a tooth coming out.  It is a bottom-center tooth.  Cute! I suppose that would explain his irritability and fever over the last few days. Fellow blogger, TrinaP wrote a similar article about her baby teething. I prematurely answered to her blog that our baby (of a similar age) hadn't broken a tooth yet.  I suppose that was true up to a few minutes ago. Cute.  Now we'll have toothy babies. ...

Last night I went to sing karaoke with my mother in-law and father in-law. That was fun.  I always like singing karaoke.  I hope that I will be able to do it a few more times while I am in Japan this time. Here's otoo-san: Here's me (I'm not as photogenic as dad is...)  

Hello there!  I hope that all of you are having a happy day. Yesterday I went to see professional sumo in Nagoya with my wife, my son, and my wife's parents.  We had really good seats, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much.  We got lots of souvenirs and took lots of nice pictures. Among the pictures that we took was one of baby Kenny being held by a sumo wrestler.  I found some wrestlers outside of the stadium and asked them if they could take a picture with...

Hello there friends. Today is our third day here in Japan.  It has been nice to see our relatives (we haven't met with friends quite yet.) It seems that we're finally getting over the 14 hour time difference.  We went to bed at around ten PM, and we were sleeping during the night, but the three of us all woke up at 4:20.  (Almost a full night's sleep...) Baby Kenny seemed to have the most difficult time acclimating himself to the time difference.  He was sl...

Today as my wife and I were out shopping, we got really hungry.   Since I had been hungry for Arby's for a few days, we headed over there. Next to Arby's we found an authentic Mexican restaurant.  (It is new in town.)  We decided to scrap Arby's and have some good food instead. We had fajitas, tacos, and tamales.  They were yummy. We didn't have any baby food with us.  Ken got to taste a little bit of guacamole and refried beans. It t...

Hello there friends!  I hope that you're having a happy week. This afternoon after I came back from work, I went to play on the computer.  As I was playing, I heard my wife say from the other room: "Hey... Kenny is crawling." That was quite a surprise.  Until this afternoon he seemed like he was about to crawl, but it may be a while before he is able to.  Then in an instant he put it all together and was able to crawl around the room. I grabbed the video camera to ta...

Hey there friends! I hope that all of you are have had a happy weekend.  It is Sunday night, and I will have to go to work tomorrow.  Monday is the first day of the last four days of work this school year.  My half-day summer school class ends on Thursday.  Yay! I am looking forward to having a happy and restful summer. ***** As my regular readers know, I have been working on a garden this year.  Yesterday I harvested the first "fruits" of my labor. ...