Eeek, Tagged! Get the graffitti off!

Yep, got tagged by the Luangraths...these are fun, I like them a lot...I'll need to go to bed

Jobs I've had:
1. Handicapped School English Teacher
2. English School Conversation Teacher
3. Web Designer
4. Bookstore salesperson
5. Smoothie Maker

Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Pride and Prejudice (BBC, Mormon Version, Bride and Prejudice, just not the new one...oy!)
2. Disney anything
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Whatever MAsaki picks
5.

Places I've lived:
1.Mt. Home, ID
2. San Diego, CA
3. Cupertino, CA
4. Heisdorf, Luxembourg
5. Zama, Japan

Favorite TV shows (past and present):
1.The Office
2. The Simpsons
3. Futurama
4. (sorry blank, not that big a fan of TV, give me a book any time)
5.

Last 5 places I've been on vacation:
1. Chiba, Japan
2. Okinawa, Japan (remember the burning China Air plane?)
3. Sunset, UT
4. Colorado Springs, CO
5. San Diego, CA

Favorite dishes:
1. (In no particular order) Homemade wheat crust hawaiian pizza
2. sushi(horse-mackerel is the BEST)
3. taco rice
4. wheat spaghetti with a zucchini tofu marinara sauce
5. gazpacho soup

Websites I visit: (I'm too tired to put up the links, google it!)
1. BBC News
2. CNN news
3. Making Noise! (Pam's blog under the family area)
4. Everyone's blog on the side bar
5. All recipes.com

Places I'd rather be:
1. San Diego
2. Tateyama, Chiba, Japan
3. Luxembourg
4. Frankfurt
5. Dublin

People I'm tagging next:
1. Anyone
2. who
3. wants
4. to
5. !

Take that mosquitoes!

Time for another installment of Japan Cool!

Today we'll talk about bicycles and mosquito thingies.


I LOVE my bicycle here. It is a one-speed with a cart and stuff on the front. I forgot to take a picture before it got dark. I'll try to post one tomorrow(along with the tag from Mari!), but for now you get an advertisement picture. I have a seat for the baby, a basket and a bell. What more could you ask for? Luckily stores are really close here, so we just hop on, ride for a few minutes, buy a butt load of stuff and ride back. I love the exercise, sunshine, and Clark likes to ring the giraffe squeeker bell.
(Ok like I promised, a picture of my bike! YEAH!...sorry the baby seat isn't on it, but that bar that looks like it'll perform seppuku on my is actually the bar that holds the baby bike seat, we take it in at night so it won't get stollen...jeez bike theft in Japan! don't get me started)






The second thing that is DANG sweet about Japan are these mosquito thingies. They are about 4 inches high, you put a bottle of the liquid in the middle and plug that bad boy in and it kills mosquitoes, but it doesn't stink. I am used to having them now, but when I first got here I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. While Japan doesn't have any mosquito borne viruses they just itch, so they know how to get rid of them in the house (without central cooling, we open the windows a LOT, especially at night). Funny thing is Clark doesn't itch his mosquito bites.

Gotta go, talking to Masaki about his trip to Hokkaido (you know Sapporo....where they make beer and ramen).

Cash in on the Sun!

My dad used to have a shirt that said that because he was trying to promote solar power back in the early 80's, who knew?

It just seemed like a good title for this post because, while I don't have solar panels(oh how I covet them though!) I do cash in on the sun almost daily. Here is the hug your earth tip of the week. Why spend extra money paying the electricity bill to power your dryer when the sun will do it for you for free. Try hanging your clothes to dry on a line or pole outside. Admittedly we have these fancy hanger thingies in Japan, but I see plenty of people use regular plastic hangers and clothes clips to keep them on the pole. Besides reducing your 'footprint' ,to use the new buzz phrase, here are some other benefits:

The sun kills bacteria in your clothes! yeah!
It is free!
You don't have to use heavily perfumed fabric softener to get that nice fresh smell, and then you don't have those harsh chemicals on your skin either
Your clothes are already hung up
You don't need to iron as much(the wind gets a lot of the wrinkles out)
They don't fade as much(yeah sounds counter intuitive, but my blacks stay blacker than when I use a dryer...but if you are worried about it, turn the clothes inside out when hanging them)

So give it a try! Let the sun work for you!


quick note too, check out the new picture page on our website, Masaki has added a lot more pictures!

...oh and yes, I am quickly becoming a tree hugging hippy, and I LIKE IT!

A crafty day

Today ending up being a day full of crafts despite a nice big headache. First, this afternoon I mde book covers for the Book of Mormon(since it was leaving marks on my desk...dang weird hardcover Japanese books!)


Then we ended up doing tie-dye for family home evening(with some yummy mango ice cream on the side...they were $2 off at the store today so I bought 4...eek!)


I'll try to post a love the earth post tomorrow when I should be feeling better...in the mean time enjoy the pictures of our day.

The CRAZIEST THING EVER!

So it is late, I'm tired, and it is past bed time, but I have to share this.

We were going to meet up with some of our friend's at Outback Steak House, and on the way from the car to the restaurant I saw someone putting their medium sized pet dog into a ......


SLING!

Yeah so think this



but with a dog in it instead!!! I mean I've seen the doggie strollers...but this is INSANE!

Ok, good night, I'll post more tomorrow.


...and no it wasn't an exceptionally hairy child.

Clarkstravaganza!

So I've been thinking about starting a weekly Clark-update. I mean, I show the pictures, and give tid bits, but I was thinking about doing a concrete 'what has happened this week' thing. Maybe I am just excited because it has been a busy week.

Accomplishments : learned a new word, baba...see yesterday's post, has become accomplished at standing on his own, willfully goes to other people BESIDES mama, fed himself for half a meal instead of making only one out of 5 spoonfuls to the mouth. We had consistency people!

Current likes: fish - to eat and to see, dogs, bunnies, green peppers, throwing bath toys from the baby bath into the BIG tub, seeing other kids, reading to himself.

Dislikes - going inside, not being taken outside.

New Foods - barley oat crackers, red/yellow/orange peppers(with only mediocre results), gold fish(which we had to stop because of his skin's reaction...he remembers them though..he was just so excited to try them despite the wheat in them).

Ok so now that I'm done with the lists, here are a few pictures of what we did today!









The family down the street inherited a pool from someone else, so we got to go swimming for a bit today. It was a lot of fun until we slipped and fell in the water, then it was time to get out. We have some very fun neighborhood kids.

Ok, last post for the day.

This speaks for itself....oh and his vocabulary has doubled.

He knows dada(Masaki) and now can say baba(happa-Japanese word for leaf)...he likes plants...and now the main attraction(which incidentally is up on the video page of kaimori.com).

Japan Cool!

At English class on Tuesday one of my students was telling me about a TV show here called 'Japan Cool'. It is just a bunch of foreigners who are interviewed and show off what they think is cool about Japan...well here is my stuff that I'd share with Japan Cool!


1) Agemanjuu-a Japanese treat, a red bean paste bun, made better....by deep frying it!


2) CookDo by Ajinomoto - Chinese food in a box, you assemble the ingredients, they provide directions and the sauce. It is dang good! Chinese food in general is better here than in the States. Plus there is some stuff I don't remember ever seeing over there. Maybe I was just dumb. Anyone, this is the box we had for dinner tonight, chicken in chili sauce with peppers...yum!


3) Bottle Sipper - Did you just buy a beverage at one of the millions of vending machines in this country(supposedly 1 machine for every 20 ppl)? Want to share it with your young child? No worries, unscrew the cap and put this bad boy on, viola! a virtually spill proof straw cap, reusable and washable. Clark loves this! Finally a way to keep him hydrated this summer.


4)Shaped Egg Boilers- pour your egg in, snap, and boil. It'll come out looking like one of these wonderful animals.


5)Rice Ball Shapers - Rice balls are an essential to any kid's lunch here(pretty good, put some seaweed or other stuff in it, and it is a great snack), but hey the traditional triangle shape can get pretty boring. That's where these bad boys come in! Rice ball shapers. Mom can make your rice balls into fun shapes so you'll be the envy of all the kids on the playground. Woot!




And now, some cute pictures of Clark, eating my crackers! They turned out good!




Oh, and he made me cry today. He head butted my nose pretty hard, didn't phase him but it hurt me a lot.

I like this one because he looks all angsty.

Gratuitous Picture Post

So I just need a reason to post some pictures and say that Clark can stand up by himself for limited periods of time.

Yeah! Just one step closer to walking for the smallest kid in the neighborhood. No seriously, the girl 2 months younger than him is bigger than he is. Though he is one of the happier kids too =).

I made him crackers today...we'll see what he thinks when he wakes up.

oh, and Clark has decided to help me clean sometimes! Lucky me!

My name on TV Guide Talk

Ok, this is my first blog entry ever (This is Masaki, by the way).
I listen to many podcasts, mostly about TV shows or news. One of them is TV Guide Talk podcast. They review last week's TV episodes and upcoming movies. I e-mailed them last week and requested a movie review for the Bourne Ultimatum because they didn't have a podcast the week the movie came out. So I was listening to the latest podcast episode this morning when I was jogging and about 27 min. into it, they started talking about movies. And first thing they mentioned was my request. They even pronounced my whole name correctly! So that was kinda exciting.
If you get a chance, check it out. You can download it from iTunes or from TV Guide website. It was episode 112, August 17 (You can probably click on the title of this entry).
---Masaki

Zoorasia

Sorry about not replying to anyone's comments yet. I have not had time to, but I'll try to get on it ASAP, especially since comments always make me smile! Thank you....and thank you again!

The main thrust of today's post is what we did today! We went to the zoo! or rather Zoorasia! The weather had cooled off by about 10 degrees and it was slightly overcast, so we headed out today. It was packed with little kids, and tons of babies, but still not as crowded as it could have been. I was rather impressed, especially after being spoiled by the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. It had a definite Japanese flare to it, but it was really cool, and only $6 to get in! Clark loved the Elephant, penguins, tiger, wild donkey, basically anything he could see moving. He was asleep when we got to the Okapi, but woke up in time for the slide at the end. He even picked out the magnet(our family tradition since we got married is to get a magnet from any place we visit for example Las Vegas, Okinawa, Grand Canyon, Zoorasia), a monkey. He liked the monkeys too, but they were harder to see.

Oh, and see, the bald head doesn't look too bad, and it is already starting to grow back!


Ohh an Elephant!


There it is again!


looking at the wild....er uhm donkey.


It isn't moving mommy.


What a hard day to see all these animals.


Wheeeeeeee!

Barber School

I got this in email yesterday morning from my grandma....it was too funny not to share.


"You had wondered about going back to school? May I suggest Barber college? That way by the time Clark needs another haircut you'll be ready. By the way, he has a very pretty head and I'm sure he will be a little cooler with all your heat."

I kept in the pretty head thing, because well I'm a mom that thinks her baby has a pretty head. I fixed the haircut, but need to take a picture with the finishings touches added in.

In case you wanted to know...

...pero flavored icecream is a BAD idea.

My guess is postum would probably be just as yucky.

High School Reunion

For some odd reason I feel like going to my 10 year high school reunion. Maybe more because it would be an excuse to go back to the States, and I kind of need a US fix right now. I know, I'd just get angry at the politics and environmental situation there, but I do crave my Jamba Juice and using my drivers liscence from time to time. Plus with 60% humidity at 99F I want some dry heat. Anyway, back to the class reunion thing. Really, why should I want to go. I want to see like maybe 4 people, ontop of that I'd like to see Nef, but she's up in Washington, and probably won't come down for it. Then there is Queen Scarlet, but she graduated 2 years before me it isn't her reunion. So really, who do I want to see? Then there is the whole thing about where to stay, and finding someone to watch Clark while I'm off galavanting at a Cocktail Party (yeah for booze! It's fun to watch people get plastered...not). You know I'd almost do better going to Seattle, then I could see Nef, Leigh, scope out jobs for Masaki and then fly to SLC to be with Pam...hmm. Now I just need to find the money...hmm.

Who has been to a high school reunion? Was it worth it? Anyone going to mine?

why I am a horrible mother...

Yes, that is Clark lovingly caressing Marlin. Who can spot all the mothering faux pas in this picture? It all started a few days ago when I started thinking about giving Clark a haircut. Then I saw a few of his friends with haircuts too. We had purchased some baby clippers about a month ago to trim the hair around his ears. The clippers have this cool protective shell around them so that you can trim the hair to a general length of about 3 cm. I got some motivation today and started chasing him around the house with the clippers, but he kept crawling away. To make things move quicker, I decided, 'hey let's try watching Finding Nemo, he loves fish, never gets to watch TV, he'll be in one spot for a while' and it totally did work. I still couldn't work things right so I ended up just shaving his whole head. He looks like a buddhist monk. Plus I feel bad for letting him watch TV, up close too! He loved it though. He was giggling and talking and pointing. He really does like fish. I guess going to the aquarium definitely helped with that.

Which reminds me, hey Hatsuho, did you go to the new or the old Enoshima Aquarium?

More Clark tid bit: He keeps stealing fresh green peppers, when I'm trying to cook, and eating them. He has been practicing standing without support and is getting better. He even tried brushing my teeth while standing.

It is still hot and horribly humid, 73% right now. Something is eating the avocado tree, so Masaki sprayed it last night. I need some veggie dishes for hot weather. I'll try to get a picture of the good growing mango sometime soon.

Yep, nothing too much here. Remember to Recycle!

And one more haircut shot!

Happy B-Day Obaachan!

Yep, it was Obaachan's(Grandma Kaimori) birthday and we had a ton of fun playing in Chiba with her. It was even hotter there than it is here, but it was nice to be with family, and Clark loved having all the attention. We even had Uncle Takahiro come over on Sunday afternoon before we left. We were slackers and didn't take enough pictures, but maybe we can swipe some from Obaachan.

The food, as always, was AWESOME. I must say there is nothing better than sushi prepared by my father-in-law. It just warms my heart. Plus Clark loved it to, I got a picture of Ojiichan feeding him tofu. Yep, I have a veggie, tofu, natural yogurt loving child on my hands. I even fed him asparagus, and he LOVES it. Though he does NOT like the homemade hummus, maybe it has too much lemon juice or garlic for his tastes. Oh though I did find out that Stagg Ranch House Chicken Chili is Gluten Free! Oh la la!



Other than that, we are playing in the baby pool regularly, and just trying to stay cool. I think I'm REALLY going to start teaching English in September. I even have a time picked out, so I'm doing good...just hope it cools down enough to want to do anything.

And just for fun, here he is eating an Asian Pear, the hard way


Of course you need to brush your teeth!

One More thing

Am I a freak for reading the blogs of COMPLETE strangers. One of them has been a gold mine of YouTube fun and the other is just fun to read because of her great sense of humor.

I like them, but I feel like a bit of a voyeur.... le sigh, I guess that is why they are out there though.

Eating Extravaganza

So most of the pictures I have been taking lately have been while Clark is eating. He is just so cute when he eats! He's been trying to feed himself with a spoon for the last two weeks, and if I don't feed him fast enough he brings the bowl to his mouth to try to drink whatever is in it. Oh, and get this! He likes asparagus. I hate the stuff, but he really digs it, go baby!

I tried to get a picture of him drinking his milk, but once the camera came out he started to play. Not that he is that fond of milk anyway. I won't push it, he doesn't need that much and he gets plenty of yogurt and cheese.


This is of him eating mommy's latest concotion.


We've done a lot lately, from our busy week last week, to a trip to Yokohama on Tuesday with our friend Sarah, and signing up for swim lessons. We are going to take a trial class on the 11th of September, and if we dig it, we can sign up for more lessons. It is for babies from 6 months to two and a half years.

Oh, and as for Yokohama, I was a slacker and didn't take any pictures. We had fun though! We started off at the Yokohama Doll Museum, where Clark kept pointing in every direction practically, as to where he wanted to go. Then we headed to ChinaTown for a snack and some sight seeing. I just gotta say, I love Yokohama! It is calmer and cleaner than Tokyo, and just as much to do down there. Plus some very cool history! I want to go to the Nautical Museum next time and to the Horse Drawn Carriage House/Shopping Plaza again. Of course, there is also the Yokohama Bay Star Baseball stadium, that I have yet to go inside! So much to do, please visit so I have an excuse to go!

Matsuri Time!

This weekend, despite the fact that it is miserably hot and humid, was a lot of fun. It was matsuri (festival) weekend. So we dressed up in our yukata and jinbei for the baby. It wasn't all that fun yet because he can't play the games and such yet, but we did get some food there.




On Thursday, we went out with our friends Julie and Soun. Soun is just a few days younger than Clark, and they are both super cute. We went to the mall and got some ice cream.