Radio Taiso Before Breakfast

Every morning before breakfast we obediently submit to the instructions delivered in this video.

Like So . . . Although We Don't Seem to Be Very Coordinated about It

And Grace Sometimes Slacks Off . . . Slacker!

Usually She Puts Her Back Into It, But I Guess the Presence of a Camera Was Too Distracting

When I was a healthy little school kid in Japan I thought rajio taiso was pretty silly because it really didn't seem like much of a work out. Some people would say that it was never meant to be a work out--that it's primary purpose was to nurture herd behaviour and group think. Be that as it may, now that I'm a thirty-something ojisan, doing rajio taiso 1 & 2 makes my body crackle and creek like a barn on a windy day.

Faith Doesn't Do Radio Taiso Yet, But She's Getting Bigger

Kazamaura Report: Another Strange Food

An Ostrich from an Aomori Ostrich Farm
(or should I say, "ex-ostrich")

I'm guessing that eating ostrich meat per se is not unheard of in the English speaking world. In fact, I understand that it is quite popular in some circles.

But What About Eating It Raw?

. . . At a Happy Little Ostrich Eating Party with Friends?

Not to Mention the Grilled Guts

Again, not a big deal in the English speaking world since eating animal offal has a long and (I suppose) noble history there (can you say "Rocky Mountain oyster," "head cheese" or "chitterlings"?). Nevertheless, I do not share in that tradition and, while I ate my fair share of raw ostrich, I took a pass on the intestines sizzling on the grill. Incidentally, if you are an ex-pat living in Japan, please take the time to explain to your Japanese friends and colleagues--in lengthy, vivid and nauseating detail--that the West has just as long and illustrious a history of eating animal guts and seafood as Japan does. I'm getting really sick of the phrase "only in Japan" (especially since in Toronto I often heard the phrase "only in Korea" applied to many of the exact same things). Yes, we might all eat our animal guts in slightly different ways, and perhaps with greater or lesser frequency as the case may be, but we're really not all that different after all. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?"
I did not plant peppers this year, but there you are. All kinds of marvellous things sprung forth from my compost disposal area this year, and although I pulled most of the tomato, squash, pepper, and miscellaneous other plants along with the weeds, this one somehow escaped. I originally weeded out all of the spontaneous vegetable growth because I was given to understand that it wouldn't amount to anything, but there are at least four peppers on this plant and they have grown to quite a respectable size now.

Visit to Hokkaido Jiji and Hokkaido Baba (as Opposed to Aji-Jiji and Aji-Baba Whom We See More Often)

Grace Loves Grapes, and Jiji Has Some Grape Vines

Enjoying Hokkaido Jiji's Roses

Enjoying a Late Night Barbecue
with Cousin Souki and Cousin Yua

Faith Meets Double-Baba
(a.k.a. Great Grandma Nakamura)

This Was the First Time that the Cousins Were Old Enough to Play Together in Reasonable Ways

Showing off Their Ponytails
(I Have a Question: is it correct to say "wearing her hair in two ponytails," or is there a special term for two ponytails?)

Meeting the Cows at Satoland （さとランド）

Quadricylce Ride

Cousin Yua is Going to Be a Big Sister Soon, so She Was Very Interested in Faith

Family Photo
(first one in a very long time)

September in Brief

Yuko got a Nice Face Massage

Our Local Park was Rebuilt

We Had Some More Barbecues

Grace Rode a Bike for the First Time
(Sort of--Her Feet Can't Reach the Pedals Yet)

I Voted in the
2008 Canadian Federal Election

We Rode the Ferry to Hokkaido to Visit Yuko's Family
(but more on that in the next post)

Later in the Month We Went Down the Sai Coast for a Picnic and . . .

. . . to Take a Look at Some of the Beautiful Little Fishing Harbours
(Ushitaki, which can roughly be translated as
"Cattle Falls")