October has come and gone

Now we are in November and the US presidential election is over. I'm happy for Mr. Obama. But like I have said before both him and McCain would be good presidents.
Here in Yokohama the weather is dryer than before. It has been really nice.
Time goes by so quickly.

Rainy Fall

Well I think it has rained more in the last few months of fall than it ever has since I have been in Japan. I'm really getting tired of rain.
We were lucky at school, though. Our culture festival went off with out a drop of rain.

Dentist again

I had my teeth cleaned today...
In Japan the dentist stains your teeth a light yellow so they will look natural.
My thinking is that natural is the color after they are cleaned...white. ヽ(？_？)ノ

I guess I think too much.

Cont: walk

A Hakkeijima station. I wonder if the sameperson put down these arrows?

walk on the left

I have been told that you walk/stand on the left in Japan. . Someone forgot to tell the guys who put down these arrows. (^^)v
(pic taken in Kanazawa Hakkei, near Yokohama)

Dentist

Today I have to go to the dentist. I'm not looking foreword to going either. I have a sore tooth so I have no choice. But here in Japan you must be treated over time, not one day like in the states. I would rather be finished in one day than go back every week for a month.
I hope my tooth is not too bad.

Kindness

Today on my way to school I saw a man pick up a wallet that had been dropped by someone. After he picked it up he caught up with the man who had lost it. He handed it to the man and went on his way.
After seven people were killed in Akihabara yesterday it is nice to see that there are still some kind people in this world.

Rainy Day

Today it has been raining off and on all day. I think this is just the warm up for the rainy season. If it continues like this we are going to have a wet month.

Cold season

Now we are getting closer to summer and the end of spring. The weather is changing so much that many of my students have gotten sick. And wouldn't you know my whole family is sick now. We have been fighting with our colds for about a week now. I'm the last one to get better... I need more sleep!

May

Now that may is on us again the days are getting longer and hotter everyday.
The only thing that keeps the streets of Yokohama and Tokyo for roasting is the rainy
season.
The only thing good about this is that it is baseball season. I don't care much for baseball
but I really like to go to the stadium everynow and then and watch a game from the cheap seats.
Yokohama stadium is pretty nice so the game are fun to watch.

Hanami party

Well it is spring time again.
My family and I had a very nice Hanami Party.
We went to one of the bigger parks in Yokohama called Negishi Shinrin koen... I think that is the right name.
The English name is Negishi Horse park.
It is a very pretty place to see cherry blossoms.

School is going at a normal pace and my son is getting back into to the
flow of his school routine again. But he still doesn't like to do his homework.
What kid does...haha

A pause in the rain

Here things have been very wet. I rained for about 3 days last week but cleared up for the weekend. That worked out well because I went to a baseball game on Sunday. I went with my son and his grandfather and uncle. It was a pretty good game. We watched the Yokohama BayStars and the Chunichi Dragons. There were not many hits in the game so my son was not too interested in it. I think it is hard for a little boy to sit still that long.

A fun website I found.

Make a free flash game!

It's Spring!!!

Well it has been awhile since my last post but there has been alot happening. I have been on spring break for the last two weeks and I have been pretty busy. Between my wife, son and daughter I have been very busy. It makes me want to go back to work. My wife had me running her around in the car (She doesn't have a drivers license). My son and I have been going to the skateboard park, he is getting pretty good on his skateboard. I wish I could do the things that he can do when I was a high school student. He is going to be nine soon (FYI this was fun). My daughter is now just 4 months old, so she needs alot of attention. We have to keep a close watch because soon she will be able to turn over. My wife is worried because she thinks she will fall off of the bed. But I think it would be hard for her to do. We sleep on futons. The futons we sleep on are very thick (and very comfortable) so I think she will have a hard time turning over. I always put her small pillow next to her, just in case.
School starts this week and we have a new teacher. She is from Canada. I think she will be very popular with the students at our school. She has blond hair and blue eyes, the boys are going to fall in love..haha
Well that is about all I can think of.

Barack Obama Video

This is the video that has gotten everyone talking about Barack Obama. I have watched the full speech and I feel that it is a very good speech. He talks about issues that no one else wants to talk about. He talks about race, and I agree that America can not get better unless it starts to get over the race issue. The US government states that about 2% of the nation is multiracial. I believe that number is much higher because most surveys only ask you to choose one category. So people are used to picking one race to identify with. In my lifetime I have known many many people who have a mix race family (my family too!).
My point is that only Barack Obama could give this speech and not be called (in public) a racist. Regardless of what he does as president I think it would be a wise choice to vote for him. I personally don't know who to vote for in the presidential election. Unless it is Hilliary Clinton, then I will vote for McCain.

The sooner Americans get over the race issue, the better the country will be. Here is the full video.

Cool Nanotechnology video

TGIF I love Friday!

Well today I finished entering the students grades in to the computer. Which means that I will have a little spare time. I want to work outside this weekend but it seems like it will rain.
Tomorrow I have a kids class. We are going to make little race cars and then race. But I don't know if we will be able to race our cars outside. I feel bad for the kids.
Today I went to an internet cafe. It was funny because I fell asleep and end up not being able to use the PC much.
That is about it for now. I will try and write more later.

Spring wind

Today I had a softball game. I play on the teachers team. We practice and play once a year. That is pretty funny but it is a lot of fun. Today we lost to the girls team 5-13. I think we need some practice.
The wind was blowing like crazy, which just made the game that much more fun. The bad part was the dust flying around. But it was a good day.

In the news... a Japanese Navy ship hit and sank a fishing boat last week and the two fishermen have not been found. I think that this is very sad.
In my opinion any time a military vessel is involved with a civilian one it is bad. This could have been avoided. It shows that these sailors had poor training one. It reminds me of the Ishimaru accident that killed many (Japanese)university students in Hawaii.
Soldiers have training that should make them respond to any situation that comes up. If it is a new situation then their leaders should be able to make decisions that will insure that no innocent people are hurt or killed. This kind of thing is unacceptable for military ship.

Today

Well not much happening today. I'm sitting in an internet cafe in
Yokohama wonder what the heck I'm doing..haha It is rainy outside
and humid... I think that is what makes me feel gloomy.

See you

Docomo

I went to the Docomo cellphone shop yesterday to change some of my services. I bought a new F904i and I had to sign up for some useless services for three months. Anyway I went to cancel them and while I was there the store clerk that I talked to could not speak English. She was one of those people who could not understand bad Japanese either.... Or she really did want to help me. She called the Docomo English operator service and I talked to another lady on the phone. At first I was a little frustrated. I thought she just didn't want to try and understand my bad Japanese... it happens to you here. I'm sure that it happens to English learners in England and the US, too. But together they both made me feel much better. The helped my save more money on my phone bill. And if you use Docomo you know you need all the help you can get. I left with about 3000 yen (about 30 Us dollars) cut off of my monthy bill. They were both very nice and helpful... but I still wanted to use my Japanese...haha But I'm very happy.

Hello again

Well recent events have been very interesting. My daughter was born on December 13. So I have been busy trying to help with her. I tried to come home early and my wife got upset...haha
She said that I interrupted her daily routine.
At school things are getting busy too. We are very close to exams and the students don't study at all. I think that Japanese high school students don't worry about any thing but their sports club until their last year of high school. Most students do the bare minimum in class. Although most students do fall with in my goal of 70% or better for a a class grade average. I find it hard to motivate students to study. I really understand their feeling because I didn't want to study Spanish when I was a high school student.
Well talk to you later.

Happy New Year!!

Well I hope those of you who read this have a great year in 2008.
Mine has started off feeling kind of rough. It seems that things are moving slower... or it could be that it has been about 3 months since I have smoked a cigarette.
I don't now what it is that makes me feel this way but I do....