Anniversary 2009

We had a more nontraditional anniversary this year, but memorable nonetheless. We had a friend stay with Jackson in the hospital while Tracy, Sean, and I had lunch. It was very nice. After lunch Tracy took SP home so the two of them could get some rest (Tracy spent the night at the hospital).

 

I spent the afternoon hanging out at the hospital with Jackson.

 

Tonight we had a babysitter for SP, so Tracy got some takeout good and brought it up to the hospital. The three of us had an anniversary feast. I hope it will be my last anniversary takeout food dinner in a hospital forever.

 

11 great years with a wonderful wife. Every day brings something new.

 

 

My Plant in Sakai - Starts About 50 Seconds In

Cool video on Youtube that shows a little about the manugacturing complext that I work at. It shows the "glass area" in the video - that's me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxnHSHc2V_s

Juxtaposition

This is really what life looks like around here. Jackson likes to chill out, and Sean is like something out of the Matrix.

Our New Minivan Equivalent

 

Mary Ellen Shinks-Carrothers

We love you and miss you Mom. I think about you often. Please watch over your Grandsons.

Vampire Jackson - Sleeps All Day, Awake All Night

Sean Climbed up in Jacks Bed to Check on Him

 

If Only Dogs Could Swear................

 

Leaving The Hospital on Sunday

 

What The Heck is That?

 

Here's Looking at you Kid

Tracy called me from the hospital last night and said "my dinner has
eyes". An emergency shipment of meatloaf and mashed potatoes was
arranged.

Sean and Jack Saying Hello for the First Time

Click HERE if the above does not work.

First Meeting

The boys had their first meeting today. Sean did great!

Nurses

The nurses here are very attentive/acrobatic. She wanted to help Tracy out so she kicked off her slippers and jumped right up on the bed. The dismount was amazing.

Jackson Sleeping

A picture of Jackson sleeping in his Tupperware tonight.

Melor

To add to the excitement this week we have a Typhoon rolling through our
area overnight. Typhoon Melor will probably hit us about 6 AM on
Thursday, although the bad weather has already started. Its raining
pretty good right now at 6 PM.

Tracy, Gaye, and Jackson will stay at the hospital. Pat, Sean, and Riley
will be at the apartment. I don't like us being separated but it was
impossible to get us all in one location.

I don't think it will be much more than some wind and rain, but who
knows. One news report I read said "Typhoon Melor may be the most
powerful storm to hit Japan's main islands in more than 10 years if it
makes landfall...".

Wish us luck.

Good Morning Jackson

New Arrival

Announcing our newest arrival:

Jackson McClain Carrothers
3.8 Kg
52 cm
Tuesday, October 06, 2009 @ 1:56 PM

Mother and Baby are doing great.

Pat

Update

We haven't been doing nearly as much posting to the Blog with this
child. I think Facebook has taken over as the communication channel of
choice! We are now within one hour of the birth of number two. Tracy is
doing great, and the experience has been very positive to far. We will
have many stories to tell this little guy. Wish us luck!

Sean's First Report Card

This is my favorite. I think his Mom has a lot to do with this. Sean has a book from school that they write updates in. Tracy got it today and have to take it back when I pick him up. It is hilarious. Perfect for when he graduates someday. It says:

" Welcome to cherry class Sean. Since nursery how you have grown and now you are in the first year class full of energy and go and lots of mischief too. And now your vocabulary is increasing indicating what you want to do with yes and no. Now in cherry class you have more playmates and you're happy and full of energy. But sometimes this gets the better of you and brings trouble with the others. For example you barge into your classmates who are sitting on the sofa because you want them to play with you and that causes confusion as some don't want to play. But we understand it and will teach him to get along with others through games and other fun activities. He's still a very healthy, energetic, one year old and we're really happy to have him in the class. "

Date Night

Tonight we had what will probably be out last date night before the new guys arrives in just over one week. Tracy is looking great.

 

We just stayed local and went to a restaurant in a hotel that is within walking distance from the house. It was nice to have some quiet alone time before things get even crazier for us.

 

Pat

 

Tiny Bubbles

I really like this picture. Sean really likes bubbles.

First Day of School

Sean started "school" this week. This is him on the way for his first day. He goes to the daycare in our building two days per week for a few hours each time. So far he seems to be enjoying it!

Hiroshima

A few photos from Hiroshima. I will add some commentary later.

 

Ribbit

 

Incognito

Obviously we have been off the grid for a while, so here is a readers digest version of the past couple months.

 

We had an awesome time back in the US. Most of it was spent in Iowa, but we also spent a little time in Texas for Tracy's family reunion. Unfortunately I only had a couple weeks off work, so I needed to come back early. We spent almost three weeks apart while I went back to work. During our time apart Tracy and Sean were back in Iowa. I came back to Japan and life was filled mostly with work. Probably the only couple notable things for me was that a friend came to visit, and I also attended my first baseball game here. The baseball game was a blast. I will have to write more about that later.

 

Tracy and Sean got home last week. They were accompanied by Tracy's friend Kim from New York. Kim stayed for 10 days and made a vacation out of it. She just left today.

 

I had to work most of the time, but Tracy and Kim made the best of it. They had many adventures. The highlight for me was a trip we made to Hiroshima on Saturday. That will get its own future post. It is a powerful place to visit.

 

All is well, more to come later.

 

Pat

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Tracy!

You family (me) in Japan misses you.

Pat

Happy birthday Mary Ellen

 

Beach

Sean and Tracy went to Maiko Beach this week with some friends.

 

Arashiyama

A couple weekends ago we had a friend from New York in town. He was in Tokyo for work and came down to see us for the weekend. It was good to catch up with him and we took the opportunity to try a few new things.

We went to dinner on Saturday night with some other friends. We tried a new cooking style called ishi-yaki. Its hot stone cooking. In the middle of the table there is a big rock with what I guess are some gas burners beneath it. The rock serves as the griddle that you Cook your food on. We had all kinds of great veggies, meat, and seafood. I think there was only one thing we didn't love - it looked like the bait from our childhood fishing trips. Tracy made a comment that she had to stop eating one of the whole fish after seeing its spine. That was enough for me. It was excellent food and an overall fun experience.

On Sunday we drove to a small town near Kyoto called Arashiyama. According to a travel guide "Arashiyama is a pleasant, touristy district at the outskirts of Kyoto. Its landmark is the wooden (now partially concrete) Togetsukyo Bridge with forested Mount Arashiyama as backdrop".

It was an awesome little town and a place we now have on our "must bring visitors list". We spent the day waling through the town and along the river and the surrounding hills. The river was full of boats (more like gondolas) and a couple guys fly fishing. It was a great peaceful little town.

This is the view from one of the overlooks from atop one of the surrounding mountains.

We visited a famous local temple called "Tenryuji Temple". It was built in 1339 and is a real old school Zen temple. It has a great garden and a bamboo forest on the grounds.

This is Tracy and Sean in front of the bamboo forest.

And of course, what would a weekend for us be without monkeys? High above the river there is a monkey park - Monkey Park Iwatayama. We decided to take a hike up to see it. It was quite a hall to get up there. I had Sean strapped in the backpack and Tracy is carrying the other Little one. It was a very hot and humid day, and a challenging hike. As you enter the park there are a lot of warning signs and the picture below is of my entrance ticket. We were half expecting monkeys with switch blades as we came in.

We stopped for a rest about 1/2 way up the mountain. Of course there was another warning sign. By this time we hadn't seen any monkeys yet but were nervously scanning the trees.

This picture is at the top of the mountain in the monkey park. You can see the city of Kyoto behind/underneath us. It was an awesome view. One of the park employees was taking our picture. He asked if we wanted a monkey in it, and we said yes. He gave a monkey some kind of treat and he came running over. We all kind of laughed, then he said in a stern voice "DON'T LOOK AT THE MONKEY". So he we are nervously smiling for a picture hoping this monkey wasn't going to snap and attack one of us.

Awaji Island

Last weekend we went to Awaji Island. Its a great little place only about 40 km from our home. You can see the bridge that connects the mainland to the island from our deck on a clear night. I had been to the island with Sean once before. I had written about it because to get there you have to cross the world's largest suspension bridge. Tracy planned the whole weekend - kudos to her. We stayed at a great hotel there, this was the view from our balcony:

We arrived on Friday night after I got off work. On Saturday we did lots of cool things. The first was a trip down to the South end of the island. We wanted to do a boat tour and see the whirlpools that they are famous for - in the Naruto Strait. While waiting for the boat we did some walking around. One of the things that Awaji is well known for is great seafood. The picture below is a "snack" that I thought looked very interesting. Octopus Jerky, anyone?

This is Sean and I on the boat. The next photo is of the whirlpools.

After we got off the boat we went to check out the "Monkey Center". We had to drive about 30 minutes up the coast along a little road that seemed to be about as wide as a driveway. It was an amazing drive that made me wish I had my motorcycle. The monkey center was great, I love the monkeys. Its the first time we had been to a place where the animals were just running wild all around. Luckily they didn't want much to do with us.

After the monkey center we went to a ranch/farm that has horses, cows, etc. I think it was more impressive for the Japanese than a could people from Iowa. After all the running around we went back to the hotel to relax a bit. As you can see someone wasn't quite out of energy yet.

On Sunday we drove around the island and stopped at a great little park under the big bridge. Someday we can prove to Sean that he was once standing under the world's largest.

It was a fun little wekeend getaway. We will be going back many more times - especially to check out the beaches this summer.

Road Trip

We are running away this weekend to a nearby island - Awaji Island. It
less than an hour from our house. We will tell you all about it when we
get back.

Chicken Heart

I obtained my Japanese driver's license this week. Big deal, right?
Actually here it is. The process of getting a license as a foreigner is
long and painful with many hoops to jump through. It actually takes a
minimum of two full days of your time - that's if everything goes
perfectly.

The first day (about two weeks ago) was spent taking the written test.
Well actually it was spent in line and waiting for 99% of the day. The
other 1% was actually taking the test. As part of the day one process
you have to show proof of a prior license and answer lots of questions -
did you ever have a ticket, where did you learn to drive, etc. Another
part of the process is that the check how many days you were in your
home country after your license was issued. You have to show 365 days.
This is a problem for many of us frequent travelers. In my case my NY
license was issues last year when we moved to Corning. We only lived
there one year, and I spent a good part of that traveling. The guy went
through my passport stamp by stamp and then pulled out his calculator,
After 15 minutes he sucked air through his teeth and proclaimed that I
only had 260 days. That means beginner's license! If you have a BL here
it means you put a special sticker on your car and you also have less
points on your license - they use a points system here where you lose
points for violations. I tried to explain that I had a license since
1989 but he wasn't listening. He had his rules. Luckily between day 1
and day 2 I was able to get a copy of my NC license so all is well. I
then took the written test and passed it.

Day two is the worst day - the driving test. This is the day that
everyone dreads. There is a lot of hype and folklore around the driving
test, including a lot of stuff on the internet. They hype is that
"nobody passes on their first time", "they purposely fail foreigners",
...... The driving test is really nuts - it 5% how well you can drive
and 95% jumping through hoops. There is a specific sequence of events
for getting in the car, there is a specific part of the lane you should
drive in, there is a specific sequence of mirror checking you need to do
before making a turn, etc. Mess any of those up and you fail. Luckily I
had the benefit of having many friends taking the test before me, so I
was well prepared. I knew what to expect but was still nervous. There
were 12 people with me taking the test that day, and only 3 of us were
there for the first time. The rest had failed before. The guy in front
of me was on his fourth try.

Again day 2 was 95% waiting and only 5% taking the test. Before you take
the test there are many things that you need to do. One is watching an
instructional video. Even thought it is in Japanese you need to pay
attention. I was told they are watching you to see if you pay attention.
If you are not, they don't think you are taking it seriously. You also
need to walk the course before the test. I did it three times. I was
also told they watch to see if you are walking it, another sign of if
you are taking this seriously. See - many hoops to jump through. I also
wore a tie for the big event - this was another tip from a friend of
mine.

Much of the folklore also deals with the actual examiners. They are
cold, calculating, and don't like forefingers. I got in my car for the
test (after doing all he required pre-flight checks) and the guy looked
at me and said something in Japanese. He said it again while pointing as
his chest and staring at me. I thought for sure I had done something
wrong and I would be coming back for another day. I told him "sumimasen,
wakarimasen" (excuse me, I don't understand). This time in English he
pointed at his chest and said "Chicken Heart?". He was asking me the
equivalent of if I was a scaredy cat, I guess. I laughed and told him
"no, Lion heart". He laughed and we got on with the test. He was
purposely cracking a joke to make me relax.

The test went great, I only got dinged for not being careful enough when
I exited the car. Of the 12 of us there that day, 5 passed. The
interpreter that was with me said that is the highest she has ever seen
it. They must have had an end of month quota to meet. I am now
officially licenses to drive.

Shiraishi Island Getaway

We just returned from a great little 3 day weekend getaway in Shiraishi Island. Its a great little island on the inland Sea of Japan. The island itself only has about 700 residents and is accessible only by ferry. We stayed in an International Villa which is a great little house that is reserved exclusively for use by foreigners. It was built by the local government to attract more tourism (and money) to the island. I found a great Washington Post article from 2005 that does a great job describing the island and the Villa.

We traveled with two other couples, one of them had been to the Villa before. There are two other rooms at the place - the first night there was a couple from Germany and a guy who was traveling from Denmark. The neat thing about the Villa is that you all have your own room, but the bathrooms, kitchen, and living area are all common. This means you see a lot of the other House guests (not like a hotel). The second night the Germans had left and a couple from Pennsylvania arrived. On both nights we had a huge feast and shared it with all the house guests. Its a great way to travel.

The island is in a very rural area, it was nice to get out of the city. Below is a picture of the ferry that gave us the ~ 20 minute ride from the mainland to the island.

The next couple photos are of the beach/sea below where we stayed. It was a nice location. We spent our time mainly on the beach or in the mountains hiking. We also spent a lot of time in the Villa eating, drinking, and playing lots of games.

The island had some great hiking. We got chance to give our new "Sean Backpack" a workout. The kid LOVED it. Tracy also did a great job on a pretty strenuous hike.

Here is a great group photo.

The big reveal....

Golden Week in Hamamatsu Day #1

Better late than never......Below are some more photos from our Golden Week Trip. We got into town late on Sunday afternoon after fun train ride. The hotel we were staying at was attached to the train station so we didn't have much of a walk to worry about.

Let me tell you a little about the festival. It seemed to have two main areas of focus. One is on the various neighborhoods (they call them towns) in Hamamatsu. Each town has their own "uniforms", floats, etc. Many of the activities are centered around each town competing with the others. There are about 170 or so different towns in Hamamatsu. There seems to be an enormous sense of pride in each respective town. The other main focus in one the children. The festival is the time to dedicate each child that was born in the last year. It was really cool how they treated the children during the festival - like Kings and Queens.

The picture below is a group of teenagers that were outside of the station when we arrived. They are all members of one respective town and they are wearing the uniforms (jackets and headbands) to show it. Each town has their own uniform.

Right outside of our hotel they were having an International festival. There was a big stage and all kinds of street vendors with our favorite - street food! We spent some time that first afternoon checking out some of the activities on the stage. I loved all the little karate kids.