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On Monday August 17th I became a father. This is up there with my wedding as one of the happiest moments of my life. I am still a bit overwhelmed but I want to write my thoughts down before I forget any details.

First of all the fact that I am writing this right now is a bit unexpected. I thought I still had some time. Misako’s due date was September 4^th. But like myself (who was 3 weeks early) the newest member of our family couldn’t wait.

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A lot of people look at cooking games like “Cooking Mama” and wonder how such a thing could even get made. But living in Japan for the last few years a find myself asking the question, “Why aren’t there more of them?”

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My wife’s friend Mayumi Naka was a guest at our wedding and she took some beautiful pictures during the ceremony and reception. We asked her for copies of the pictures and not only did she give us a CD the pictures but she also put up a really nice website. I will put up more pictures later, but for now please enjoy these.

Fantastic Pictures of Kevin and Misako’s Wedding

Other than writing for 4cr I have a full time job as an English teacher. This year I switched to teaching elementary school. The kids are great but it is an exhausting job. Anyway, recently I decided to do a lesson about family structure. To teach English words like Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, etc.

As with a lot of lessons I do with first graders, I have to make it as interesting as possible or I can’t hold their attention for more than about 7 seconds. Kids this age love video games. Especially Mario games, so when teaching the word “brother” I decided to use a word they already know from the game “Super Mario brothers. However as it turned out, the one who got the lesson was me. Here’s what happened:

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This is my first attempt at making a Japanese music video so I decided to stick to something I know. Green public phones! The song is in Japanese but I added subtitles to the video. It’s weird but I hope you find it funny.

Watch it here!

Want to know what’s cool for little kids in Japan? Right now it’s a bug that likes biting people in the butt. This Oshiri Kajiri Mushi (Butt Biting Bug) is the star of a song that hit the top 10 in Japan and became an instant children’s classic (until the next one comes along). The song is crazy but insanely catchy.

Watch it now

Many of my students, both boys and girls, have pencils, notebooks, toys, erasers, etc. with this guy’s image on them. And if there is a class with students I just can’t seem to connect to, sometimes I will sing a few lines of this song and just watch their faces like up. “Teacher knows Oshiri Kajiri Mushi, he must be cool!” Because to a six year old, there really is nothing cooler than this.

The other day I was at a convenience store and I saw the Oshiri Kajiri Mushi on a package in the snack food aisle. The product was called “Oshiri Pie” in Japanese, which literally means “Butt Pie”! In what country other than Japan does that sound like something you would want to eat? Yeah, I bought some.

Today was my first day at my new elementary school. It was also my first time to interact with the students. It is summer vacation now but there were kids in school because today is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. A perfect day, apparently, for the new American teacher to introduce himself.

It stated out good. I arrived early and played with the younger students who where thrilled to see a brand new face. One student showed his approval by punching me in the crotch. Then he smiled, obviously satisfied, and gave me a hug. I played with the kids for about 20 minutes before the high energy of the kids combined with the lack of air conditioning (or really any ventilation) made me retreat to the teachers room. The kids kept calling me to come back, wanting to spend more time with their new teacher. As I said it was a good start.

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On February 3rd I celebrated the Japanese holiday of Setsubun with Misako’s family. Setsubun is a very old celebration that takes place at the change of lunar seasons. Long ago this was the Japanese New Year’s Eve. Like most Japanese holidays, there is a certain amount of ritual involved. And like most Japanese holidays it seems very strange to non-Japanese.

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This post has been a very long time coming. Last August my town had is largest annual event, the Gion Festival. This is a 3-day event with fireworks, parades, games, food stands and thousands of people (many of whom are wearing traditional Japanese clothes). So here, as best as I can remember it, was Gion 2006.

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I have been studying Tea Ceremony for the last year and a half. I had no idea I would enjoy doing an activity so precise and artistic but it is quickly becoming my favorite hobby. I had arranged an informal ceremony earlier when my parents visited Japan, but in April I had my fist formal tea ceremony where I acted as host. Here are pictures from that event.

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