Author: eddie

Dear friends,

thank you so much for all your support over the past few weeks. As most of you know our second child Mei died just before she was due to arrive. It came as a huge shock to all of us, but has brought our family closer together, and we are now looking forward to trying for another baby in the future.

We had to make some changes to make life easier for Mami, and one of those changes was finding a new home for Boo. We were lucky enough to find an Englishman living in Saitama who was looking for a terrier type dog to go jogging with him. So, Boo should be very happy over there.

Anyway, now that we just have Koo, he has started living in the house again, and couldn’t be happier. Hana loves playing with him, and he is so gentle with her.

We have been telling Hana to stop sitting on Koo, but she just won’t stop doing it!!

I don’t know where she gets this rebelious streak from??!!!

She seems to think it’s hilarious to try and balance her toys on Koo whilst he is asleep. Then when he wakes up and picks one of them up with his mouth and runs off she thinks its even funnier!!!

We are so lucky to have such a gentle dog though. Koo never gets annoyed with Hana.

I read in a book the other day that a man must be strong to be able to be gentle. And I thought that really made sense, I wonder if that applies to Koo as well??

And finally, they fall asleep!!!! Some peace and quiet and a chance to update this homepage!!!

Anyway, take care,

Eddie

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a nice break over New Year, and I wish you all the best for 2010. I hadn’t realized it was the year of the tiger until I received my New Year cards. There were a couple of really funny ones of people running away from tigers etc, so I thought I had to do something different. So Hana and I went for an onsen with some tigers!!!! Ha ha ha…………well obviously we didn’t actually do it, but I thought this picture was hilarious!!

Anyway, I look forward to seeing all my students this week and I will be listening to “The Eye of the Tiger” before lessons all year to try and get some tiger spirit going on so the lessons should be fun!!

All the best,

Eddie

“What are you going to make with that?”

That’s what Mami said to me, when she saw me messing about with a few bits of wood, some rope, and a bit of rubber.

A swing, that’s what!!!

Due to there being so many cases of influenza in our area, Hana hasn’t been allowed to go to the park for a while. Also, the park near our house doesn’t have seats for toddlers on the swings.

So, I went online, and found that you can’t buy them in Japan. Swing sets with the frame etc were available, but I only wanted the seat and ropes.

There is an area of land behind our house that’s owned by a university in Tokyo, and they don’t use it for anything. However, it’s well kept, and has loads of trees perfect for hanging swings off. So, I thought if I have a swing I can put in my bag, then I can just attach it when I Hana wants to use it, then bring it back with me.

Hana’s first go on a swing!!

She seemed a bit apprehensive at first, but got used to it after a few minutes. As she is so small, the bar to hold onto was blocking her view so she kept pushing it up.

I think the swing will be her favourite toy once she gets a bit bigger.

I had set the ropes up for the tree in the wood, but after wrapping the rope around this old fence post a few times, it worked fine. At least Hana can get used to it in the garden now, then hopefully by the time her Granny from England arrives in Japan in January she will be flying!!

Anyway, that’s all for now,

take care,

Ed

We’re back!!!!

That’s right, we have just got back from a trip to the UK. We spent one night in Copenhagen in Denmark on the way there, then had about 10 days in England.

It was great to catch up with family and friends and seeing my family bonding with Hana.

My family put on a bit of a get together, and Hana really enjoyed playing with my cousins children.

Then when the bubble machine came on she was ecstatic!!! It was really funny watching her running around through a cloud of bubbles with a big smile on her face.

Anyway, we still have loads of unpacking to do so here are a few other pictures from our trip.

All the best,

Eddie