Mommy and Julia

Here I am with Julia, on my way to work. Take note of the pink jacket, you'll see it again but not on me.

Police in Hashimoto

We actually get a lot of excitement in our little town, apart from death threats at the school, fires in the neighborhood, and a few other thrilling stories (someday I gotta tell you about the local affair gone bad which resulted inlocal housewife nudie-cuties posted to everyone's mailboxes!), we had a police show-down at the shop across from the local family restaurant where my friend and I were enjoying an afternoon of quiet chat and tea. I had my camera on me, so ran out to get a few pictures, but I missed the main arrest. We still don't know what happened, except that it required about 50 policemen, maybe they were just bored and wanted in on whatever action was going on!

Karaoke

I absolutely hate karaoke, I don't find it fun nor do I find it entertaining, which is unfortunate because I live in the frikkin' LAND OF KARAOKE! It was invented here, it's a major source of entertainment, and what's worse, my kids LOVE it!! So, for Janina's congratulations for making it through 6 years of elementary school party, I dropped her and a few friends off at the local karaoke place for a few hours, and then took myself off to the nearby family restaurant with my friend for a few hours of chat--actually, that's a story in itself too.

Graduation from 6th Grade

Japan absolutely loves ceremonies, I swear, it seems there's always something going on! In March Janina graduated from 6th grade, and yesterday she had entered into Jr. High. Here's a few pictures of her graduation. Notice the pink jacket she's got on, guess whose that is! Yes, yours truly here--she is almost as tall as I, and her feet, fortunately, will soon be bigger so she won't be borrowing my shoes for long, not like me and my Mom whom are still the same size--lucky me!

Sakura Season

Japan is winding up the long-awaited Cherry Blossom season. Unfortunately, we had few good days of weather this year, and the days that were sunny were also windy, but we were able to get out for a picnic. Here's a picture of myself with my students and friend Renee enjoying the afternoon under the cherry blossoms at the local country club by our house.

Testing a video

I'm testing this video clip I took of my girls during a dance show they did in October. If you can see the clip, then Julia is on the far right, the little short girl in red, and Janina is on the far left, the girl with white decor on her costume. Our good friend Renee is the one in the center.

Girls Dance Rehearsal

USJ

A few shots of our day at USJ. It rained pretty much the whole day, but that didn't keep us away, nor did it keep out half of Japan, it was SO crowded!! Here we are in front of the main entrance (with a cake behind us), in front of the Terminator robot, in front of the Devorian(?) in Back to the Future, and with one of the actors from the Water World show. Check out the three boys while waiting for Back to the Future, they were so bored in line!

Events

Events in our live in the past month or so:
Not that much has been going on, Janina graduated from elementary school and is starting Jr. High this month, Jason is now in 5th grade and Julia in 3rd. We had Spring Break, and went to USJ, but the weather was sort of miserable so we didn't really go out.

Oh yes, in March the local elementary school had 3 death threats against the students, someone threatening to follow students home and kill someone. The last one was on the last day of school, and they had actually called the NHK television station and told them to come film our school as they were going to snatch a kid and kill them! Whenever this happens the police show up for a few days, driving around, standing outside the school, and the teachers will only release the kids to a parent, noone else can pick them up. It's sort of scarey, but so far nothing bad has happened.

I thought maybe it was normal for schools to get these sort of threats, but apparently none of the other schools in our city get any sort of threats or calls, it's only ours, weird!

Brothers and Sisters

These are my siblings living in the US
Johnny and Niki
Auty
Timbo
Windy and Mike

They represent about half of our sibling family.
Miriam you saw earlier, and the only ones not here are myself, Aimi and Jerry.

Nieces and nephews

Here's my nephew Tony and 2 of my nieces, baby Marylin and Trinity!! We love you!!

Grandparents and sister

My grandparents on my father's side along with my younger sister Miriam and her baby.

--My grandmother just turned 83 this weekend!

The Real Harry Potter Cake

This is what it was supposed to look like

Harry Potter Cake

Grandpa brought back a Harry Potter cake mold so we made the cake for Janina's birthday. The only problem is, he and Windy forgot to send food coloring, so poor Harry Potter looks like he spent a day at the beach with no sunscreen. It took me about 2 hours to decorate, I told Janina it was part of her present, it took so damn long!

Happy Birthday Janina!

Janina turned 12 on February 10th. Here's a few pictures from her special day! She got a lava lamp, sweater and Felicity Wishes cross-stitch from Mom, and a subscription to a home manga-course from mom and Dad, and some money from her aunts and grandparents and friend! Thank you everyone who made it special for her!

Cousins

OK, L/R:
front: Josiah, Johnny, Grandma LaMattery, Jonas
Back: Erinn, Auty