Author: eddie

Happy New Year!!!!
My mum came over from England for New Year, so Hana was very excited to see her Granny Wendy again!! She promised she would get Hana some pink boots when she came over, so we went to Yokohama for a bit of shopping………..

We decided to take a boat from Yamashita Park to Minato Mirai. The sun was shining and we got a great view of the harbor.

We searched high and low, and eventually found some pink boots!!

Then when we got the green light, we went back to the hotel for a rest before New Years Eve.

The next day we went to Yokohama Sea Paradise, and saw all kinds of sea creatures……..

Granny Wendy found a chocolate fountain in the restaurant we had lunch in, and brought some chocolate covered marsh mallow back to the table. Hana was very pleased!!!

Then the next day we went over to one of my student’s houses for dinner and a few drinks. The Takada family were very welcoming, and we had a lovely meal. Hana kept us all amused, and was definitely the star of the show!!

The next day we went up to Narita to see the family. It was really crowded as everyone was trying to get to the shrine for New Year, but we had nice meal and all the kids enjoyed playing together.

On the way back from the shrine we got some eel on skewers as it was something we hadn’t really eaten before……….

It tasted as bad as it looked!!!

Granny Wendy arrived with one suitcase full of presents and clothes!! Hana thinks its very funny that Maki and her now have matching clothes!!! Thank you Granny Wendy!!!!

Hope you all have a great 2012!!

Eddie

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas everybody!! We hope you have a wonderful day and that 2012 is a great year for you all!!

We awoke this morning to find that Father Christmas had left a message for Hana!! She left out some cookies and milk for him last night, and he must have been very hungry as he ate them all up!!

Then we noticed this big present in the living room!!

It didn’t take Hana long to get it open and find her new “Princess” bicycle!!

She was very happy riding around showing the neighbours her new bike and eating the sweets from her stocking out of the basket!!

Maki was getting into the Christmas spirit as well, she looked very cute in her little Santa suit!!

Hana got Maki a new dummy for Christmas and wrapped it up herself. Maki seemed very happy, and has been using it on and off all day!!

This year we did a small family Xmas dinner, and it was really nice. Maki fell asleep at just the right time and we were able to sit down and having lovely meal.

This is a lovely time of year in Japan, and the leaves on the trees look amazing. I took this picture with my mobile when I was walking Koo yesterday…..

Anyway, I have promised Hana to take her to the onsen for Christmas night, so best be off.
Hope you have a great 2012!!

Eddie

WINNER!!!
Congratulations Masaki!! You have won the Halloween Costume Competition for the second year running!!!

Well done!! Your goody bag is waiting for you to pick up when you come for your next lesson…………

SECOND PLACE!!
Hana came in second!! She has already eaten half of her goody bag!!

THIRD PLACE!
And Ryoto came in third – well done!! Everyone commented on the originality of your costume.

Anyway, thank you to everyone for putting in so much effort. I hope you continue to come up with such great costumes again next year!!

All the best,

Eddie

Happy Halloween 2011!!
We had a great turnout for the Halloween costume competition this year. The voting starts this week, and the three students with the most votes in two weeks time will be the winners. We will announce the top three here, so please keep checking for updates!!
There will be more photos going up on the photo gallery page, but here are a few for now…….

Wouldn’t you be scared if you saw these three walking down a dark street towards you??

It was good to see some of the adults having a go as well!!

Hidetora has a very sweet tooth and once he saw the goody bags for the top three Halloween costumes, he knew he had to come up with something original!!

Hinata came up with an interesting witch / clown costume that we all thought was great!!

Jinnosuke was the only person who turned up in a suit of armour!! Very original!!

Anyway, thank you for stopping by. We will get the other photos up on the Photo Gallery soon, and in about two weeks from now we will post the results of the Halloween costume competition here!!

All the best,

Eddie

 

Hi there!! One of our students told us about a British cafe that was in the hills about half an hour from our house so we thought we would go and have a look. Some of these kind of things can be a bit cheesy, but this place was brilliant!! We really felt like we were in England!!

We had missed lunch, so got a few pots of tea, scones, cheese cake and apple pie!! It was nice to have a decent brew!!

Hana had some apple pie with ice cream…..

Maki just stayed in her buggy and enjoyed some dummy time!!

It was nice sitting outside and enjoying the scenery.

Then we went for a walk around the garden. Well, we walked and Hana ran!! She ran around laughing her head off saying “Can’t catch me!”

I think she ran a few miles before she got tired!!

In fact she only stopped when she found this little kitten wondering about. It quickly got called “Browny” and was her new best friend for about 15  minutes!!

Mami found a decent spot for a nappy change and a feed whilst Hana and I were off chasing Browny.

There were benches everywhere so it was a nice place to sit down and look at all the roses.

Maki then decided it was time to get out of her buggy and see what all the fuss was about!!

There was a nice pond as well, and every time Hana saw a small fish she said “Look! There’s a Maki fish!”

All in all it was a nice chilled afternoon – will try and make it back there again when we have time………

Thanks for stopping by!!

Eddie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keita came over today to meet Maki!! He was meant to be bringing his daughter Sakura who is only one week older than Maki, but she had a cold and had to stay at home.

We sat there talking about how when the kids get bigger we can take them all on camping trips and caravan holidays etc…………..

Everyone says Maki looks like me!! Poor thing!!

What a good looking family!! (especially that guy on the right!)

Anyway, will get some more photos on here soon, thanks for stopping by!!

Eddie

Now then!! We have been enjoying our time off, and getting Maki settled in. A package arrived the other day from my younger sister Emily with some Peppa Pig instruments inside. Hana took a liking to the mouth organ, and thinks she is the next Bob Dylan strolling round the house playing it as loud as she can!!

Hana and her friend Amber went to the pool together, then came back for some chips on the sofa. Never under estimate the power of chips!! Guaranteed to keep kids quiet for a while!!

Maki takes after her Mum when it comes to sleeping!! She could sleep for England (or Japan with her dual nationality!!)

She is such a good baby, she just sleeps and drinks!!

And sometimes yawns!!

She is getting bigger all the time. When she cam home she was tiny, but seems to be growing by the day!!

Hana’s first day of pre school!! We realised that without any child care or baby sitters, when we reopen the school we are going to have our hands full. So, I went off to the city office and found a pre school near our house and got Hana enrolled. She was so excited about going that Mami couldn’t get a decent photo of her before she went. I was telling Hana to only speak Japanese at school, and that when she got there to say “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” to the teacher. It’s a greeting that people use here and Hana needs to be able to say it. But when she arrived there she got in the classroom and shouted it out to all the kids there, then went off to make some new friends!!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by our homepage,

kind regards,

Eddie

Maki is back home and I caught her smiling this afternoon!! She is very quiet (so far!) and just seems to wake up for a drink, then go back to sleep again. Nothing like her noisy sister Hana!!


A lot of people have been saying that Maki looks like me, so I thought I would compare us!! I could only find one old picture of when I was a baby, but check out the comparison below:
 

I think there is a resemblance!!

Some people have been asking us why we chose the name Maki. Well, after teaching here for over a decade I have heard a lot of Japanese names, and have always thought Maki was a very pretty name. Then, Mami found that we could use the character above, which is closely related to Hana’s character, and it just seemed a nice fit.

Middle names are not really used in Japan, but as Maki will have dual nationality, we thought she should have a middle name like her older sister Hana. We chose the name Joan as that was grandmother’s name. She was a very kind person, and I am sure she would be very happy to know Maki is named after her.

The nurses at Kato Hospital took excellent care of Mami and Maki, and we are very grateful to them.

Anyway, thank you for everyone’s kindness. We had a tough time last year, but we feel so lucky to be blessed with another child…………..

We are off work for a couple more weeks so I will keep this page regularly updated,

all the best,

Eddie

 

Maki Joan Clarkson has arrived!! She arrived one month earlier than expected on July 21st, and weighed in at 2788 grams (just over 6 pounds). As you can imagine we are over the moon!!!


We are so happy she arrived safely. Can you see the look of relief on our faces??!!

In the hospital the nurses made a kind of stats card with her details on that they keep at the end of her cot. We are just so glad she is big enough not to have to be transferred to another hospital. With her coming a month early we were a bit worried!!

She started drinking milk properly today (Saturday) so we were all smiling!! I cut Hana’s fringe with some old kitchen scissors yesterday and as you can see she now has “The Helmet Cut!”

Anyway, it’s getting pretty late over here. I am taking care of Hana whilst Mami is in hospital, and everything is going well (except for my cooking!!). I will post some more pictures soon!!
All the best, Ed, Mami, Hana, and Maki.

 

I usually teach at a kindergarten on Mondays, but the schedule was changed and I ended up with an unexpected day off. So, this morning we decided to do a bit in the garden as it’s going to rain this afternoon. My Mum in England sent me some seeds for some giant sunflowers a while ago, and they are much bigger than Japanese sunflowers. Hana planted them with me, and is really enjoying seeing how big they will grow.

This is a little Hydrangea that is growing from a cutting my Dad sent me when they moved house. I am amazed it survived the journey!!

A couple of years ago we brought back some acorns from England and planted them in pots in our garden. We ended up with six little oak trees!! We gave a couple to friends, and have the rest in pots in the garden. They are very different to Japanese oak trees, but will be too big for our garden. I might ask the kindergartens I go to if we can plant them in their grounds, or ask a friend of mine in the city office if we can plant them in the park?

The headmaster of the kindergarten I teach at gave me some Morning Glory flower seeds, and we didn’t really have anywhere to plant them, but I stuck them in the soil in a corner of the garden and they are growing!! Put a net up today so they have something to climb up………

We wanted to make the garden a bit more private for when we have BBQs, so I put this up and got the ivy growing up it a few weeks ago. It has made it much more private.

And today the radiation levels outside were very low!! The lowest levels since we got the Geiger counter, so hopefully they will remain that way. Fingers crossed!!

The mini car!! The power steering went on our car the other day and while it’s being fixed we are driving around in a little courtesy car. Hana loves it!! She calls it the Noddy car, and thinks it’s great!! Anyway, not a lot going on today, but will put up a more interesting post sometime soon!!

All the best,
Eddie