Ultrasound

Here in Japan, or at least the clinic that we go to, for every time you go to doctor for a prenatal appointment you get to see your baby. They do an ultrasound and let you see your little one. Its so cool to see him/her moving around and to me, to be able to see there little body developing is really amazing.
The place we go also puts the ultrasound onto a DVD for us, so every time we have gone to the doctor and he has done an ultrasound, we will have a copy of that forever.
If you are so inclined, I included the video of one of our ultrasounds from March when the baby was 11 weeks.

#2

Anybody know what this means?

#2 is on the way!

Disneyland Tokyo

A few weeks ago we used our off day to go to Tokyo Disney. Disney is about 45 minutes by train from our place, and even though we hopped on a wrong train at one of the connections it didnt take us too much longer to get there. The day we went was a wonderful day, it seems as though most of our off days have been rainy and cold for about the past 4 months, but this day was great - warm (in the 70s) and sunny.
 
Disney is celebrating the 30th Happiness Year and as soon as we got through the gate they had their welcome sign all decked out for the celebration.
 

After a few pictures we got our map and set off to explore. Its been a few years since I have been to Disney World in Orlando, Florida but I think it is pretty similar. There are different areas - there is the shops area, Adventureland, Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasy Land, Toon Town, and Tomorrowland. Disney here has many of the same big rides like Splash and Space Mountain but we stayed away from those as Myla is a little too young.

 
 We were worried that she wouldn't be old enough to enjoy it at 18 months old, but she loved it.There was so much stuff for her to do. There are a lot of rides that, as long as your child can maintain a seated position, they can ride. And so, we did. Myla seemed to like pretty much every one. And, after the fireworks at night (fireworks are at 8:30 for 5 mins and park closes at 10:00) we were able to go from one ride to the next to the next right after each otehr without waiting in line. We taught Myla the sign for more and after every ride she kept doing it and wanted to keep going back.
 

At Disney we also got to see some of the Characters. we were a little worried about them as she likes our team's mascot from afar but close up she gets frightened. At the park it was sort of the same the same thing. She was entranced by Captain Hook and kept pointing when we saw him but when we got real close her love disappeared a little. And, when we tried to take pictures with Smee (Hook's first mate) and the Alligator in the picture she wasnt too happy.
 
Our day was fabulous and the 2 parades we saw - one during the day and one at night - were amazing. Myla couldn't get enough of them.
 
When you are younger and go to Disney you want to see everything for yourself and go on as many rides as you can - at least I did. However now that we have Myla we wanted her to have the best time she could and make this day a special day for her (I guess that is what parenting is). But, even though we didn't get to go on all the "adult rides" we still had an amazing time ourselves and it didn't seem like we missed out on anything.
 
As security was helping us find the exits (Mickey had already gone to bed and we were the last ones out of the park) we were smiling and talking about how much we wanted to go back. Disney is a magical place at any age and we are hoping to get back again in the not too distant future.

Homeless?

Do I look homeless to you?
 
Yesterday I had to meet someone at a nearby train station. I ended up arriving a little early and went outside to wait. Since I had been standing on the train for the previous 35 mins or so I wanted a little rest and decided to sit on the ground, off to the side, as there was no chairs or benches. My trip was early in the morning - had to get up at 6:30 (early for me) - and so I was able to eat most of my breakfast before I left but not all of it. So, I peeled and ate the last couple hard boiled eggs I brought along. As I was sitting there many people passed me, some staring a little longer than the quick glance you normally give someone, but then a nice lady came up to me. With a smile on her face she nicely bent down towards me and handed me an orange. She told me "good luck" and then headed for the escalator and up into the train station. As soon as she handed me the orange, my mind started racing trying to think of how I could explain that I have a lot of food and am not here trying to beg....but I drew a big blank....when I woke up in the morning and thought about the day I didn't really picture myself being in a situation where I would have to try and explain that I am not homeless in another language that I can only utter a few words.
 
So I smiled a little bit and laughed at myself some ( I swear I took a shower and looked presentable and if you read Japanese Pooper Scooper you know there is no dog poop on the street so I don't think I smelled....and even though I don't think I look like I am in dire need of food or malnourished maybe the lady thought I needed a nutritious snack)
Either way - the orange was delicious and I enjoyed every bite.......and I guess I have a story to tell from it.
So lady, wherever you are thank you

M-word and the J-word

Have you ever heard a kid say a naughty word or even if it isn't a naughty word, hear parents ask you not say something or scold their kid for saying a certain word.
We tried to be that  way with Myla and the word mine. We never used and would always say its Myla's or mommy's or daddy's. We tried hard and made sure not to use that word as we were a little worried that once she got the meaning of it, she would always say it (we learned this one from other youngsters).
Well, despite our best efforts you cant always control what other people say and Myla picked it up. She has since tossed that word to the front of her vocabulary and uses it like it is the word 'the.' She started using it about 1.5 weeks ago and we are trying to get her say Myla's instead, every time she says it, with some success, but we still got a ways to go.
 
Another naughty word in our part of the world is: 'juice.' We don't think juice is a bad thing to give every once in a while (we don't really want her to be a juice kid - milks more our style), its just that she loves the stuff and every time we open fridge she sprints to the door, tries to wiggle her way between our legs and and wedge her hand between the door and the fridge so she can get to the drawer where we keep them. And if you happen to get the door shut before she gets there, she will let you know with a good tug to the pants and a point at the fridge that she wants "juice." She is very good at saying this word and will let you know that you forgot to get her one. Sometimes when we cook we use it in our meals and if we accidentally say it loud, its over, and time to reach into the bottom drawer and get her some of that liquid gold. Just like many people would be happy with a lot of money or a pot of gold, Myla would be content in life if that pot was full of juice that she could drink at her leisure.
As a parent nothing beats seeing your kid with a big smile on their face and its great to see it when Myla gets her  juice box (we just would rather put that smile on her face some other way)..
 
Having said all this.....these really aren't problems and she seems like she is a happy girl. So I guess we will just try to keep doing what we are doing and maybe to try keep the mine out of her mouth and our stash of juice out of her hands.

Cha-Ching

Here in Japan the national currency is the Yen. Since we have been here the rate has fluctuated a little bit -when we first got here $1 was worth about 80 yen, today $1 will give you 99 yen.
If you are in the States or Europe there is a good chance that you dont know much about the Yen so I thought I would share the denominations and the exchange rate as of today.
 
For coins:
1 yen coin = about 1 penny USD and not quite 1 Euro cent (70% of one euro cent)
5 yen coin= about 5 pennies USD and about 4 Euro cents
10 yen coin = about 10 pennies USD and about 8 Euro cents
50 yen coin = about 50 cents USD and about 38 Euro cents
100 yen coin = about $1.01 USD and about 77 Euro cents
500 yen coin = about $5.02 USD and about Euro 3.84

For bills:
1,000 yen bill =  about $10.07USD about and about Euro 7.69
5,000 yen bill = about $52 USD and about Euro 38.46
10,000 yen bill = about $100.67 USD and about Euro 76.90
(the picture also shows a 2000 yen bill but I have never seen one - maybe it is like a $2 bill in the US)
So, comparing it to the US dollar, it is a little bit different where there are no $1 or $5 bills. Instead you have a $5 coin and then a $10, $50, and a $100 bill.
So if you have some bills in your wallet there is the potential that you are carrying around some real money.

Thank you boosters!

Chiba Jets supporters and Jumbo lovers,
As you may be well aware of, last weekend were our final 2 home games for this season. I want to write to say thank you to all the boosters for your support this season. It was truly great to play at home for 26 games this year and in front of all you wonderful supporters. I really appreciated how much you got in to the games and were true Chiba Jets supporters no matter whether we won or lost. My family also appreciated getting to meet some of you and looked forward to the games every weekend. I hope to see you the last 3 weekends of the regular season and in to the playoffs (we need one this weekend and we are guaranteed a spot) - We still need your support in whatever way you can give it.
Thanks again!!!!!
!

Japan in springtime - Cherry Blossoms

Spring here in Japan goes hand-in-hand with Cherry Blossoms, when you think of one you should think of the other. Here there are many, many cherry trees. Even though the trees only have blossoms on them for a short amount of time - a week or two, that week or two is so pretty.
Around our area there are a lot of these trees and everywhere you go you can see them blooming with their pink and white flowers.
 
Last weekend when we went to Kyoto for our weekend road trip, there were many Cherry blossom trees there as well and it was great to get to see the city in full bloom.
Pretty much every park here has cherry trees and it is pretty easy to pick out a park while you are driving as the area looks pink/white white all the blossoms. Here the cherry blossoms arent just to look at, there are to enjoy too. Many parks string lights/lanterns from one cherry blossom to another and people get together and have picnics/hang out/have some drinks under the cherry tree. We took advantage of this the other day and went to our park around dusk and sat under the lights and ate our dinner.
 
Myla and I had gone a different night to see the lights but it was great to sit down and have dinner together as a family there. It may seem like a little thing but it was one of the coolest things we have done here. We really enjoyed it! Next to us there was another family eating their dinner around a little table about a foot off the ground that they had brought. Their kids were a little older - maybe 10 and 14 - and we thought what a nice tradition it would be to get everyone together under the Cherry blossoms every spring and have dinner together.
You never know what the future will hold, but who knows, maybe if we are in Japan again next year we will be able to have dinner under the cherry trees again and start our own little spring-time tradition.
 

Short Japanese language lesson

I thought I would give you a little Japanese language lesson so you can wow the people you are around today (although my ability to help your wow factor isn't helped by the fact that my Japanese speaking ability is quite poor). But here goes anyway.

Good morning - Ohio.
Toilet/bathroom - Toy-reh.
Just a minute - cho-toe mah-tay (where cho and toe rhyme).
Hello at night/good evening - Comb-bah-wah.
Hello the rest of the day - Koe-knee-chee-wah (koe rhymes with toe).
Pain/it hurts - ee-tie.

For these words and the English traslation I tried to writee them exactly as they sound. It would be impossible for me to write them in Japanese as the language uses characters instead of letters. And maybe your skills are better than mine but I don't have a clue on how you would begin to sound out a Japanese character. Give them a try and let me know if it works out.