After a busy January, we finally got out to do some skiing on February 11. This time, it was to Karuizawa for a day on the slopes of the small but charming Prince Hotel ski area, only five miles from the active volcano, Mt. Asama.



Sara stayed at home with Jii-chan all day, and Tomomi and I took turns skiing. She skied, while I watched Noah, and then we switched. Anri had a two hour lesson and later on, I took her up the chairlift to do some real runs with me. I basically held my poles horizontally in front of me, with Anri between my legs and holding the poles. Then I snowplowed all ... the ... way ... down ... the ... mountain. My legs hurt after doing that a few times! But Anri had a blast!

The lift tickets were given to us by a Christian pastor we know in the Karuizawa area. I had always thought this ski area was too small to be worth the lift ticket price. Having now been there, it reminded me of Ski Sundown in Connecticut, where I skied as a child. It was a surprisingly charming place with good snow conditions and better lodge food than I had ever tried. We'll go there again.

Early in the day, I went up the lift and snapped this photo (below) on the way down. It is of the view of Mt. Asama, an active volcano only five miles away from the ski area. This volcano erupted just a week prior to our visit. The cloud at the top is poisonous gas emitted by the volcano. Hiking to the top is against the law for obvious reasons. In the photo, you can also see the shinkansen station, between the ski slope and the volcano.



More photos coming soon!

Anri had her first piano recital today, playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on stage at Anzu Hall in Chikuma, Nagano.



Anri walked on stage, did a quick bow, sat down and played her song, using both hands. The left hand was the same note throughout -- Anri just recently started taking piano lessons, after all! But she did well and we are so proud of her!

A video of Anri's performance is on our Video page here.

After a week and a half off for Spring Break, Anri went back to Kindergarten today, starting her second year with a new class and new teachers.



Anri's new class, named the Violet Class (all the classes at her kindergarten are named after flowers), has two teachers, Ayano-sensei and Toshiko-sensei. Anri is very excited about finally being nen-chu, or in her "middle year" at the kindergarten. And she had a lot of fun today, as was clear by how quickly she fell asleep on the ride home in the afternoon!

For the first time in 2 years, we spent Christmas in the US in 2007, taking the long journey to Farmington to Grandma's house and visiting family for 2 weeks.

Anri and Sara had a great time playing with Grandma, Grampie Bob and Duffy (although Duffy's antics occasionally freaked out Anri!) The kids also loved playing with their cousins. It was our first time seeing Nicholas and Matthew, and we were very happy to finally meet them. Anri had a blast with her cousin Emily. The two were inseparable during their time together and Anri's English ability was noticeably improving by the hour. Isaac was great to see too, and I sat there marvelling at just how much he looks like his Daddy. During our stay, we did a ton of shopping for supplies we can't readily get in Japan. We went to the States with two suitcases and returned just within the baggage limit with 6. Anri had her first experience skating and took a ski lesson for the first time. We all had a great time and now that we're back, we've been busy unpacking and getting back into our usual routine. We have over four-hundred photos from our trip, whcih can be viewed here.

Thanks and lots of love to Grandma for having us and to the Fishers for their wonderful dinner the night before we left!

Kindergartens and other preschools in Japan always hold an annual festival, often coinciding with the national holiday, Culture Day, November 3. Anri's Kindergarten, Enpuku, always has their festival on Culture Day itself, and Anri participated in it for the first



The day began with the kids from all classes carrying their own homemade portable shrines, called omikoshi around the block. The portable shrine, while centered around Shintoism, is carried by the kids more to mimic the tradition of carrying shrines at festivals, rather than to perform a religious ritual. And the kids' own shrines are all based on things appealing to kindergarteners. Anri's class, the "Dandelion" class, had their shrine based on some kind of crayon cartoon character.

After the carrying of the shrines, the kids arrive back at the kindergarten and operate vendor stalls, selling toys, homemade crafts, and especially food to all the parents and other guests. Anri's stall was popular enough to sell out of toys very quickly.

The festival is most popular with visiting adults, as there is a room where one can buy hand-me-down clothes and other items at very cheap prices. Tomomi got a great little dress for Anri for around 50 cents. All the good stuff goes quickly there.

The festival ends with everyone having lunch in the yard. Anri was asleep in the car as soon as Tomomi pulled out of the parking lot.

Yesterday was the annual Halloween Party in Kamiyamada, and this year, Anri had a new costume!


She dressed up as Kiki the witch from the Miyazaki animated film Kiki's Delivery Service. Lots of people recognized her outfit, since this film is very popular. Anri's broom was a bit too heavy for her to carry around, but that's what Daddies are for. She and the other kids went all over the town getting candy and other treats from the various hotels and businesses that agreed to play along. Nobody here knows what trick-or-treating is, so it had to be explained to everybody and a large number of places agreed to participate.

More photos of this day, including Daddy's costume are viewable here.

Anri celebrated her first Shichi-go-san, a holiday meaning "7-5-3" that honors girls age 3 and 7 and boys age 5. It is a big milestone for kids in Japan, and the day typically involves getting dressed up, visiting a shrine to ask for prosperity, and taking lots of photos.



Anri's day started at 8am at Shizuko's salon, where she had her hair done up in the traditional style, complete with ornaments. Then it was off to Zozan Shrine in Matsushiro, a district of Nagano City. The purpose of the shrine visit -- more for the sake ot tradition than belief -- is to ask for good health and prosperity in her life. After a few photos and much admiration from others at the shrine, we headed off to the photographer's studio for pictures.

Anri was a good girl throughout the photo shoot, and stood smiling most of the time. We are very excited to see how the photos turned out, but we'll have to wait a week or so until they are ready.

In the meantime, there are some photos already viewable from our own camera and from Tomomi's cousin Megumi's camera. To view these photos, click here.

Anri started attending daily kindergarten on Saturday, April 7th. Beginning with an "entrance ceremony", on Saturday, it has, since then, been lots of fun.

The kindergarten is Enpuku Kindergarten, a popular and quite large Buddhist Temple-based school with a well-known elderly priest as its spiritual leader. Though the place is temple based, the curriculum is largely secular. All the kids must arrive in their formal uniform. Once through the gate they change into their play clothes, which are another kind of uniform. Before leaving, they must change back into the formal uniform. Since Anri loves to put on dresses -- sometimes mutliple layers at once -- we figure all this changing of clothes will be easy for her!

All classes are named after flowers. Anri's is tanpopo, Japanese for "dandelion". A bus rolls nearby to pick Anri up every morning and take her to the kindergarten. The bus has a name too: the "tulip" bus. It has tulips painted all over it. Seeing the kids wearing their little hats riding on this bus is the cutest sight to see!

Anri started a ballet lesson on Tuesday and liked it so much we decided to sign her up!

The place was Nagano Ballet (Japanese only). Anri showed a willingness to try, in spite of a total lack of coordination, but hey! It was her first time in a ballet studio. While the other kids were all jumping in common time for the first three beats per measure, Anri was just jumping happily to no particular beat whatsoever. It was really funny to see!

At the end of the lesson, the teacher, who we imagine has to have a lot of patience to do her job, asked Anri if she liked the lesson. She did, so we got her little pink leotard and signed her up.

Anri tried out her beginner ski set for the first time! She had fun for a while, trying to walk around in the new-fallen snow all over Anzu-no-Sato, but couldn't stay up when the skis slid out from under her!



Daddy held her up a little bit, but she soon got tired and wanted to be carried. Next time we go out on the skis, I'll take the advice of a ski instructor friend over here. Use a hula hoop -- parent holds it in front, around the child, and the child holds it from the inside. Then the parent can just walk and the child on skis will slide along.

I hope it works! There are more pictures from Anri's first ski here!

The Hale family from Nagaoka just visited for a couple of days, and we all had a great time dining, shopping and enjoying each other's company!



Although Sara slept most of the time, Anri had a great time playing with Emily during the Hales' stay. We look forward to seeing them again in the Spring.

Right on cue, Anri says, "THREE!" when asked how old she is. Her third birthday was today, and just like on Christmas, she was in heaven over all the presents she got!



Anri had a great birthday cake, brought over from the local bakery by Jii-chan. Among other presents, she got a Candy Land game, a Barbie doll and a big box of wooden blocks to play with. It was the second very happy day in a week for Anri!



The Candy Land game was especially great. She insisted on playing it no fewer than 8 times on her birthday alone!

On Tuesday, December 5, Anri had her big interview at Enpuku Kindergarten (link in Japanese only). She dressed up in a nice black dress with white flowers, met the principle of the school and was a very good little girl. Sort of, anyway.



The interview started with the kids just playing in the playroom, both with teachers and with other kids. Then, one by one, with parents in tow, each child went off for a short private interview. Anri properly said "hello" and told the principal her name, both in Japanese. Barring bad behavior on Anri's part, we went home thinking it was a good bet they'd take her.

They did. We got the letter today!

Anri is drawing at a rate that we have to buy her a new coloring pad practically every other day! It surprises us at the level of detail she is putting into her drawings, which are now starting to include features as intricate as eyebrows and eyelashes.



She is still drawing objects at strange angles. Often she will draw something upside down, making us wonder if she has some form of dyslexia, but she has started adding details like hands, feet, eyebrows and eyelashes to her drawings. In the picture above, according to Anri, she drew herself in blue and her Mommy in green below.

In the image below, she drew a dancing bear. We knew upon seeing it that it was a bear, but it was Anri who told us it was dancing.



Kids are just amazing! As soon as I get a chance, I will scan more of her images and put them online for everyone to see.

Tomomi's due date is the 16th of November. By the looks of her, she is going to be having our second baby at any moment.



Despite the size of the baby she is carrying around, Tomomi is hangin' in there. Today, November 3rd, is Culture Day, a national holiday in Japan. That means festivals. The first was a rather raucus one at Anri's nursery school. Kids of all ages were there, as well as parents and grandparents. What did Anri like best of all? The bubbles some of the kids were blowing.



In the afternoon, it was on to the Mori Shogunzuka Matsuri, a festival on the grounds of the local history museum downhill from the ancient Mori Shogunzuka Keyhole Tomb. Though we usually hike 25 minutes on the trail to the top, the shuttle bus was free today, so we rode up. From the top, Anri was quick to spot Daddy's little white car in the parking lot below.

Anri's drawings have been steadily improving, but this evening, we had quite a surprise. After writing Anri's name with a crayon, she took a look at it and wrote her own version. Take a look!



Her name is in green, in the lower half of the image, in case you can't figure it out. Anri looked at how I wrote her name first and said, assuredly, "I can do it." Then she proved it. Granted the "n" is backwards, but we're feeling very proud right now!

Halloween is well-known in Japan, especially by children and their parents, but the actual trick-or-treating that kids so look forward to in the US is strangely absent wherever you go here. It was a nice surprise therefore, when we took Anri to her first Halloween party in Kamiyamada Onsen today -- a party which included a march around town to receive treats.



Anri picked out her costume on her own, from a selection of outfits at the local Toys R Us. Her choice: Umm...a punpkin fairy, I suppose. She liked it, is what matters, we supposed, so that is what she wore all day today during the party and trick-or-treating.

The event was part of the Kamiyamada Onsen Soba Festival. Throw a food event of any kind in this country and the Japanese will flock to it! Kamiyamada Onsen is the hot spring resort area of our town, and features a number of small and large hot spring inns -- most of them in the traditional Japanese style. Tyler Lynch, an American who is the Proprietor-in-training of the Japanese inn, Kamesei, invited us to go to the party, which he led. Either he, or somebody else, went through the enormous trouble of making arrangements with numerous local businesses to hand out candy and snacks to the costumed kids walking about town. Without this kind of preparation, nobody would know what they were expected to do in the face of trick-or-treaters.



The party began with a march in front of the costume judges. Then, small groups of kids began carving jack-o-lanterns, another relatively unknown Halloween craft over here. After a telling of the story of Halloween, the kids, over 130 of them, were divided into about a dozen groups and led to the various participating hotels, shops and other businesses for their treats. It was a lot of walking, but Anri would later go home with quite a bit of sweets and snacks. One place, a fruit stand, gave out a banana and a persimmon to each child. Some places gave out individual treats, while others gave out large bags of stuff. One of the businesses, a photographer's studio, had stools set up outside for a group photo of the kids.



Halfway through, Anri got tired of all the walking and chose to ride out the rest of the way on Daddy's shoulders. She never tired of the events, though, and had a great time wearing her little orange...pumpkin, uhh, fairy (??).

For more photos of this event, please take a look at the album Anri 10-2006 in our Photo Gallery.

Anri loves to draw, and for a while it was a challenge to keep her confined to pads of paper rather than walls, windows, furniture and appliances. Over the last several weeks, things have been really busy here, with not much time to sit down and update the website. But what I saw after coming home from work today prompted me to get this out to everyone.

Check this out. According to Tomomi, Anri did this on her own (Only the name and date were written by me).



In recent months, Anri has drawn many pictures of herself, her family and friends, but none of the drawings have been done in this kind of detail. It is worth noting that she was wearing a little cotton pink dress when she drew this. Perhaps this is just silly pride on the part of a parent, but this amazed me when I saw it.

She has also been keeping her own little picture diary for over a month now. Every day she sits down with me and I ask her what she did that day. She tells me (in her own little way) and I write it all down and date it. Then below that, she has a big space on the page to draw a picture of the day's events. She absolutely loves doing this and, best of all, it helps her to remember her day to day activities and the relevant English vocabulary.

Some day she'll be writing about her activities on her own, but for now, she just loves to draw!