(IMAGE: Day 3: Long Day of Play)
Day two of my camping adventure with Anthony ended pleasantly, with new friends and a nice sunset.
Day 3, however, started much earlier and much less pleasantly than I would have expected – right at midnight – when some rude family burst into the campground with loud voices and bright lights, searching for a spot to set up their tent, then setting it up.
Inconsiderate people suck.
I barely got a few hours of sleep, and was up at 5:30 or so with Anthony and daybreak. Day three was Saturday of Golden Week, meaning that now the crowds would [...]
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(IMAGE: 10 Years Ago Today)
Today was our 10th wedding anniversary.
It wasn't quite what I might have visualized 10 years ago – we were all pretty tired, and even normally robust Anthony was a bit under the weather – but Fumie and I got here together, and that's what it's all about.
Her mom invited us for Happy-Anniversary pie (a pie that Anthony felt the need to put candles in)...
(IMAGE: Sea-Bream-Shaped Apple Pie) The chocolate “card” on its dorsal fin says “Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary”
Anthony was torn between wanting to put candles in, and wanting to eat the chocolate card and [...]
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(IMAGE: Up with the Sun)
Picking up my “Camping with Anthony” story (about my camping trip with Anthony to Kotobikihama beach, in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan) from after the end of Day 1....
On the second day, the sun rose at 5:07am, and, unfortunately, that means that we did too.
(IMAGE: View from the Camp)
(IMAGE: Someone Else Up Early Too) ( the early bird catches the, er, fish )
We decided to talk a walk along a path to a big hill we could see along the coast, stopping by a big beach in between that the path dipped down to.
(IMAGE: View Back [...]
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(IMAGE: Good Samaritan) Satsuki-san
It seems that my cellphone somehow dropped out of my pocket while scootering home today. Lucky for me, a kind stranger found it and called the "HOME" entry in the address book: she told me that she'd found my phone before I even realized I'd lost it.
It's not fun to lose a phone. The last time that I lost my phone (which was also the first time I lost my phone) it was a huge hassle to have to get a new one, new plan, re-enter data, etc. Yuck. (It turns out, though, that the phone was just hiding in a [...]
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Bringing Home the Bacon
I've been so overwhelmed with built-up stuff to do since returning from camping with Anthony that I've only just started really looking in detail through the photos I took, and came across this interesting shot. At the end of the second day, Anthony was out on some rocks just off the beach and playing with some new friends, and I was with them and enjoying the sunset and conversation with their mom.
I then noticed this bird flying by and something seemed very odd about it, so I quickly snapped the lopsided picture you see above. (I seem to have a [...]
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, f/3.5, ISO 500 — full exif & map (IMAGE: First Evening) Half an hour after sunset.
I mentioned the other day that I was going to take Anthony camping for the first time, and I did. We just got back this afternoon.
I'll write more about the whole experience another day (one that I don't wake up at 5am), but the location was a campground on a cliff overlooking Kotobikihama beach (map) about three and a half hours away by car, in the far north-western corner of Kyoto prefecture.
I took the picture above on our first night, about half an hour after sunset. It was so dark [...]
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(IMAGE: Tent Practice)
Fumie grew up going camping several times a year, and has fond memories of it. We're not really the “outdoorsy” type, but we thought it'd be nice to give Anthony the same experience, so we're heading camping for a few days. We borrowed her folks' tent, and her dad and I (and Anthony, of course) practiced setting it up in the living room....
(IMAGE: Doing His Part)



I went to Costco yesterday – there's one an hour south of Kyoto – to get some supplies, but ended up buying a tent. It cost only $120 but is about the [...]
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(IMAGE: Vistas) Furano, Hokkaido, Japan ( one year ago, today )
“Golden Week” is about to start here in Japan, a bunch of national holidays in short order that, along with a weekend or two, gives people willing to use them a long vacation. I work for myself so it doesn't matter to me on that level, but now that Anthony's in school, we have to match our travel to the national schedule. (For a laugh, see this humorous but sadly accurate description of Golden Week.)
We had been planning to bring Anthony to Tokyo Disneyland today, but that plan got scrapped with recent events, so instead [...]
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(IMAGE: Keihan as Served) Local Amami-Ooshima Specialty
Fumie's grandmother was born and raised on Amami Ooshima, an island far in the south of Japan, out in the middle of the South China Sea. The island's main local specialty mean is keihan, a shredded-chicken rice/soup dish.
Fumie's grandmother lived in the Kyoto area for 50+ years after WWII, but she kept her Amami roots and continued to prepare keihan for her family when she had one. Her daughter, then, having grown up with the dish, continued to prepare it for her own family when she had one. And thus, her daughter – my wife, Fumie – grew up [...]
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(IMAGE: Kine Imai) 1924 - 2008
As we've been expecting any moment since her stroke at the beginning of the year, Fumie's grandmother (Fumie's mother's mother) passed away Friday afternoon. She was born Kine Ueda on Amami Ooshima (an island in southern Japan) in 1924. She was 84.
The last time I talked with her was while looking at maps and satellite photos of Amami, prior to my first trip there during the new-year's holiday, as she talked about the place she left as a teenager and longed to return to. She last visited about 10 years ago, but a mild stroke soon after left further trips [...]
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(IMAGE: Child's Mini Toy Pinball Game)
A friend had this little toy pinball game, seen here on my knee (via my old crappy cellphone camera). I was struck by the emotional depth of the directions/commentary on the back, seen here...
(IMAGE: Reverse)
Just in case you can't read that fuzzy picture, here's the full text: Intelligent Marble Intelligence add lucky A GAME OF MARBLES Marble is a kind of game that is very modern now. It collects excitement fasciration. It's a very interesting game. It can cot only trains lover's skill and intelligence but also is a vest way for lover to make friends it's an intelligent game for a family [...]
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Yesterday afternoon, prior to the Pleasant Day Along the Kamo River, I had to kill an hour with Anthony near his school. We decided to go with a classmate, Mizuki-chan, across the street to the grounds of Kyoto's old imperial palace...
(IMAGE: Heading To The Park)
(IMAGE: After I Said “Okay, You Have an Hour to Play”)
(IMAGE: Must.    Inspect.    Rocks.)
(IMAGE: Just Being Kids)
While they played, I and the camera noticed some things...
(IMAGE: Baby Pinecone?)
(IMAGE: Field of Purple)
(IMAGE: Agriculturally Minded) “Planting” flowers brought from a field
(IMAGE: Final Touches)
(IMAGE: Blossoms Gone, Leaves Green)
(IMAGE: ( [...]
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(IMAGE: Sketching) ( I love how the sun reflecting off his pad makes a wonderful fill light for his face )
Today was a sunny, gorgeous day in Kyoto, with temperatures in the low to mid 70s. Totally pleasant. Conveniently, I had an hour to kill while Anthony was at “Jumping” (gymnastics), so I wandered around with my camera near the Kamo river, where the Takano river joins it at Kawabata and Imadegawa Streets.
(IMAGE: Pickup Soccer) using a golden ball with – I kid you not – a mirrored surface
(IMAGE: Looking for Lunch) I think it's a kite
(IMAGE: A Whole Lotta' Yellow)
(IMAGE: [...]
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(IMAGE: About to Expire)
Anthony's US passport is about to expire, so we need to renew it at the US Consulate in Osaka. Hopefully the trip goes better than last time I had to go there.

We've got all the paperwork ready, but for a while had trouble finding his birth certificate. Eventually, I had to make contingency plans and check to see how to get a copy (from the State of California), and was shocked to find that it takes, on average, three months to get one!
However, that's nothing compared to how long it takes to get a simple copy of a [...]
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It's hard to believe that it's been two years since Anthony started preschool, but with the Japanese school year beginning in April, he's just started his third year, comparable to kindergarten in The States.
Among the new kids – all three years old – are a few little siblings of Anthony's classmates, including Monet's little sister, May, who just turned three and so is perhaps one of the youngest.
(IMAGE: May is Proud of Her Welcome “Medal”)
May was featured on my blog a year ago as the Two-Year Old Using Chopsticks, while Monet has been featured several times (here, here, and here).
Here's a snap [...]
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Well, I haven't been able to find my cell phone since returning from Amami last week, so I've got to bite the bullet and get another.
It turns out that my provider, Au, really doesn't offer any benefit for having been with them for the last four years, so it's just as easy for me to start fresh with someone else as it is to get another phone with them. So, anyone in Japan have any suggestions for a phone/provider for someone like me who uses a cell phone only occasionally, and never uses web access or 99% of the other features, to tide me over [...]
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(IMAGE: Hanami at The Old Imperial Palace) Kyoto, Japan
Of course, I was somewhat exaggerating with my previous post, Just Like That, Kyoto's Cherry-Blossom Season Ends, because cherry-blossom season doesn't end the day after full bloom any more than blowing out the first candle on a cake ends a birthday party. The weather – very strong haze and occasional rain – isn't nearly as nice as the weekend was, but there's still plenty of Cherry-Blossom Joie de Vivre left in Kyoto.
(IMAGE: Gauntlet of Pink)
I realized this morning that I'd neglected to revisit the trees on the grounds of the Old Imperial Palace that were featured [...]
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My cold continues, so I didn't take any pictures today, but I did feel good enough at times to get out for a bit here and there. Like yesterday, there were a lot of people, but the atmosphere seemed to be all the better for it. It reminded me strongly of the joie de vivre one feels in the classic Chicago tune Saturday In The Park. I think the sight of cherry blossoms has a magical, medicinal effect, both on the human body and the human psyche. Like yesterday, it was perfectly wonderful.
Lacking energy for a well-presented well-linked post, here are a few random pics from [...]
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(IMAGE: My Eyes Don't Know Where to Focus) Cherry Blossoms  ·  Kyoto, Japan
(IMAGE: Full Bloom)
This is the same area whose blossoms were featured in last week's It Has Begun and this week's Sakura from my Kitchen Window. Digging around in my blog archives a bit, from 2006 I find Long Night Exposures and Cherry Blossoms and Cherry Blossom Finale, and even a few from 2005 before I moved here: Indeed, the Blooms have Bloomed in Kyoto and Poetry for the Season and More Cherry-Blossom Pics.
It's a pretty area, but photos would look much nicer without the cinderblock wall in the background (a wall one doesn't really notice until you look through [...]
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I was feeling just dandy last Saturday morning while we awaited the airport shuttle to pick us up to start a five-day mini vacation to a somewhat tropical island in southern Japan, so I was more than a little dismayed when after hauling the luggage down to the van and settling into my seat that I suddenly realized that my cold – one that plagued me for a month but had, I thought, been over for the last week – had returned with the almost audible thud of a proverbial ton of bricks hitting me. I suddenly felt miserable, and the shuttle driver hadn't even returned to [...]
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