Yesterday morning, Anthony was all excited to tell me some "good news for everyone!". He had discovered adult teeth poking out behind his front-lower incisors. Many of his classmates have already started losing their baby teeth – a big step toward being oniichan (a "big kid") – so he's been eagerly awaiting the event.

For my part, I was shocked at how far behind his baby teeth the adult teeth had come in. I don't know what's supposed to be normal, but it just felt very wrong. I didn't let on to him about that worry, of course, so I [...]

As I wrote the other day, Anthony went skiing for the first time this weekend. In between taking 500+ photos of him and his YMCA friends, I took the occasional generic ski-slope shot....

Imagine that you're at a table in a library and the person next to you gets your attention, indicates that your pencil has rolled a bit over into their space, and kindly pushes it back toward you. You might mumble a word of thanks, take your pencil, and not give it further thought because it's a trivial matter not worthy of further thought. Okay, so remember that [...]

If my previous post about Anthony's first ski experience didn't give away the answer to the "What am I?" quiz in the post prior to that, maybe these clues will help...

Those were other shots I took with a "What am I?" quiz in mind.

If that doesn't help, try this clue:

Christof got it right in his answer, even getting the exact manufacture correct! It's a Pisten Bully PB 260 D snow groomer built by Kässbohrer.

Anthony spent the weekend at a "ski camp" with the Kyoto YMCA. I put "ski camp" in quotes because over the course of the entire weekend they spent only two hours on skis.

The real point of the weekend, as it is with all YMCA events, is the overall experience that fosters "Caring - Honesty - Responsibility - Respect" (as per their logo). Still, getting on skis was certainly the highlight of the sleepover weekend. It was held at a small ski area an hour and a half north (Hakodateyama Ski Area), and I scooted up on Sunday morning to [...]

I took a ride out to the mountains in the south-west of Kyoto, where I'd not been before. Here's a summary...

I'd headed toward a road that looked like it wound up to the top of a mountain that should provide a commanding vista, but it turns out that the road has been closed to public traffic for the last 10 years. The road-closed gate was a perfect spot to dump your trash, apparently, because there was plenty all around. Sigh.

I had another mountain road in mind, but had to dip back into civilization to get to it...

(It [...]