Summer Is Here!

Moments ago I put the final touches on my last course reflection for the spring semester, and I am not free from all immediate duties at my schools YEAH!!!

It's been hot for 2 months now (reaching the high 30s most days for the past 2 weeks) however, not until now did I really feel like relaxing. Itsuki will get a week off starting Thursday as well. So we'll be on fun time.

What's planned? Well the pool and the mountains (where it's cool) during the daytime, and movies and books at night.

Last weekend we when to the local community festival and came away with two draw-prizes! Fireworks, and an aroma fan! Have yet to try them out yet, but some of the pictures are up on Picasa so go check them out!

Earthquake + 1 week

Well, it has been one week since the quake and tsunami last week. I'm sure you've all been reading the news so I don't need to repeat that, but here's how it has affected us in general.

The Bad:

There are still aftershocks every hour or so (in different parts of the country).

The Good:

We have only felt two of them and they were small, 3.0 or less.

The Very Bad:

The Fukushima reactor. Itsuki's family lives 60Km from the reactor. They don't seem very good at sharing information or their plans.

The Good:

We are 600-700Km away.


Life has been pretty much normal (in terms of daily routine) but we do watch the news closely every day.

Earthquake / Tsunami Day 2

I promised an update and so here it is...

Well it's been more than a full day and the damages have been coming in all day.

As devastating as it has been, we are lucky to be living far enough away to have felt nothing other than the initial quake. In Toyota, mostly its life as normal, (except for that everyone is glued to the TV watching the updates).

Itsuki's family are still without water, but they do have electricity and are all accounted for. Unfortunately, Itsuki's dad is stuck in Tokyo and still can't get back to help with the clean up.

Aftershocks that had been happening every 10 minutes (magnitude 3.0) for the last 24 hours have now spaced out to about 1 or 2 every hour. Once again we can't feel them because they're small and far away.

Some of you may have also heard about and explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor. The area was evacuated to a 15Km radius in advance and they felt that was a safe distance... so hopefully it will be maintained within that radius. Itsuki's parents, who also live in Fukushima, live a in a very different region nearly 80Km away.

We're hopnig for an end to the quakes so a focus on rescue can be solidified.

More updates to follow.

Safe from Tsunami and Earthquake

Hi all.

I'm sure you've heard the news about the earthquake/tsunami by now.

We are all safe.

Itsuki's family is safe as well, but they were very near the hardest part hit and are without water at the moment.

If you've seen any news footage you'll know that it is very serious and that we were lucky to be away from the coast.

Will keep you updated.

Christmas Dinner in the Philippines

We arrived in the Philippines on Christmas eve. The next morning it was 28 degrees and sunny. There were Christmas trees everywhere, and even this amazing choir that showed up halfway through our dinner that evening to sing about 5 different numbers... but it just doesn't feel the same without a toque on.



We stayed for 5 nights and had a blast. The pool was perfect because it had a kiddie area where we could watch them safely from our lounge chairs and stay dry. The beach was gorgeous and they had no trouble entertaining themselves with all of that sand and surf!


We finished off the year at Itsuki's parents home in northern Japan.

Halloween Is Here!

Well Halloween actually came to Japan. No not the annual Taylor Halloween Party, but actual door-to-door trick-or-treating! Luckily we were prepared for the event.



A local English school organized the event, by having 10 or so houses in a neighbourhood volunteer to give out candy. The school first bought the candy and gave it to the houses, and second collected $2 from all the trick-or-treaters' parents to pay for it... and then off we went! There were about 100 kids and parents all together.

The surprised looks on the faces of unknowing neighbours alone was worth the effort of getting dressed up. But it was fun to see Fuzu light up when he got FREE CANDY!

Here's a shot!

Net Book

Well I managed to get two and a half years out of my Dell laptop. Not bad considering the hurried (and poor) state I was in when I purchased it. It has treated me fairly well considering the amount of use it gets (4 times a week on the train school and back). But it’s been getting very heavy, a lot slower, and VERY HOT for the last year or so. I managed to wait out an extra year longer than I thought I would with it, but I finally gave in, when everyone around me seemed to be treating themselves.

My new machine: You can google the Acer Aspire 1410 netbook I just bought if you want more info on it, but here are the basics of my new PC. It’s a netbook, not a notebook, but I got an external DVD player/burner for just $60 and now I won’t have to carry that wait around with me every day. It’s got an 11.6 inch screen which is a lot bigger than most netbooks, and a full size keyboard (for my giant hands). It gets about 6.5 hours battery life which kills on my previous 2 hours I was down to with the Dell. Most importantly however, it’s about 1/2 of the weight. This is huge consider I walk to and from train stations to get to my house and to get to work.

So far nothing about this book has upset me yet… but stay tuned, I’m sure that something will pop up!

PS the Dell is still in use at home with the superheating battery removed.