Anna's Pictures and Shibakari

Here is a picture of Anna with her Detroit Tigers cap that I bought before we left for Japan. She had not worn it for a while so I had to bring the size up a bit to accommodate her head that will some day grow as large as Daddy's.

Also, for Father's day last week Anna drew a picture of me. It's a stunning resemblance of me I think. Please take a look at the slide show above (Click them to jump to the Picassa Web Page) for Anna's pictures taken with my digital camera. They are very cerebral and abstract, I think. She has a special skill at taking very dream like pictures of feet. I do believe she takes after her father and that she is a genius.

Today I tried my hand at mowing the lawn in front of the house. Now, our yard is about as big as most people's master bed room (The lawnmower is small so it creates an illusion that our yard is huge.) so I did not take me that long to cut down the weeds that were poking out amongst the moss and short grass. Also, the lawn mower that we have is electric and not gas powered like the ones we have in the USA. I could have the yard done in three strokes with one of those today. A riding lawnmower would have taken just one path.

The most difficult thing was trying to get the right extension cord. I visited Joyful Honda and bought an extension cord that I thought would work. Unfortunately it had the wrong end and would not fit the lawnmower. Luckily, my neighbor saved the day with an extension cord of his with a smaller connection. I knew he would have one being that he had a great Christmas Light display this past year.

Melissa, Daniella, and Anna Mae's Freeze Dance!

Singing her School Song

Father's Day 2007

Today for father's day we spent the day at home and brought out the barbecue grill for a family party. What was really nice is that the son of the family next door to ours is a wonderful pianist. He plays Jazz and classical piano for most of the day. At first, we thought it was someone playing a CD until we heard him make a little mistake, then we knew it was for real. At night, for dinner, we always leave the side window open to let the music come into our house. They must be the best neighbors in the world.

Also, my daughter has been on her best behavior for some time now and it is starting to get hotter everyday. I decided to get her another pool. She and I played in the pool until my wife came back from the store with the meat and noodles to fry on the grill. Here she is holding her watermelon beach ball while wearing her stunning watermelon bikini.

About the grill, I had always thought that I was a master griller. Unfortunately, I could not admit this to myself but, back in the USA I could always get the fire going but I would always use to way too much lighter fluid and put the steaks on too soon. As a result, our steaks always had that slight petrol flavor to them. Here in Japan I've decided to try to go natural and leave the lighter fluid out of the equation. Unfortunately after several sheets of paper and an inability to get the fire going, my lovely wife came out to save the day with some corn oil and her special paper techniques. She was able to bail me out today. Thanks Pooky!

Rain Boots Song

Ibaraki Natural Museum

After the festivities at Tenjin we went and visited my friend from work and his wife to make a trip to the Ibaraki Nature Museum in Bando City. The museum is located in the middle of a huge marshland that has a very long bridge that you can walk across and see all of the flora and wildlife of the area. There were scattered thunderstorms all day on Sunday so we decided to stick to the inside of the museum and leave the walking around the park for another day.

One of the coolest displays was the skulls of early man. Here they had from the smallest all the way to modern man. You can see these in the rest of the album for the day.

Here is the link: Ibaraki Natural Museum Album

Lastly, there was a special display dedicated to the insects of the world. Here they had a display of some of the delicacies of various countries. I especially liked the baby scorpions on a stick that they serve in China. Yum, Yum!

Daddy's Day at Tenjin Yochien

On Sunday morning I was able to go with my daughter to her kindergarten to see first hand what she has been learning there. When we first arrived we saw that there were already many other families there and the parking lots were pretty full.

That morning Anna dressed in her school uniform for the morning's activities and we set out to Kindergarten. They ushered us into the little auditorium and they sang their songs. One of the hits included; I'm in my long boots so I can splash in the puddles".

Then the gym teacher came out and we were able to do the "Washing Machine" where I spun Anna around, lifted her in the air, and squeezed her tight. It was allot of fun.

Here is a link to all of the Daddy's Day pictures and videos.

Returning A Wallet

Today, I was proud to be the last leg of a journey of a wallet back to where it began it's journey, Japan. My co-worker back in Detroit (Paul) had a father in the Coast Guard stationed in Maui. During that time his father met a Marine coming back from Iwo Jima. This marine gave his father a wallet that he had picked up off the battlefield from a fallen Japanese soldier. This wallet was then given to Paul and he has had it ever since.

Last week Paul sent me the wallet to my attention. It appropriately arrived on Memorial Day (USA). After receiving the wallet I looked up the phone number for Yasukuni Jinja.

Now, Yasukuni has been the source of quite a bit of controversy for some time now. All of the men and women who died for the protection of Japan are enshrined here. Putting politics aside, this place is special in that it honors the men who gave their lives to protect their country and the family they loved back home. My philosophy is this; on the big scale war is a clash of cultures but on the small scale it is the stories of individuals on both sides who give their lives for many reasons.

I called Yasukuni and was put in contact with a Mr. Oyama (Pictured above). This past week Mr. Oyama and I had gone back and fourth with e-mail and found that the name on the wallet was Yutaka Hagino. When we arrived at Yasukuni Mr. Oyama met with us at the museum and discussed the handing over of the wallet. Mr. Oyama will be doing some more research on the wallet but, the owner of the wallet may have been in a Naval Air unit (#125) on Iwo Jima protecting one of three air fields from American bombers.

Mr. Oyama carefully cataloged all of the items in the wallet and will be sending a formal thank you certificate with Paul's name for me to send to him from here.

This was definitely a great experience for me in that I think that the soul of one man can finally rest easy that his spirit now lies where it is supposed to be, at Yasukuni.

Click Here to see the rest of the pictures from Yasukuni Jinja.

Click Here to see the contents of Yutaka Hagino's Wallet.