Batter up!

Casey and I had a great time at the batting cage. We'll definitely be headed back. It's a great way to blow off some steam, even in the cooling evenings.

You'll have to look real close!

This was forwarded to me from Katya. Please send her all your comments! I'm sure you'll have some.

First... TURN ON your speakers so you can hear the "narration"...
Then click on this link!
Find the differences... look real close (to your screen)!

Hyunjoo's Petition for an Immigrant Visa

We've made the decision to move to the States and we've begun the process for her immigrant visa and eventual lawful resident card (green card). We've started to fill out the I-130 and G-325A (for the both of us).

What are the steps?
What are the forms we'll need?
How long will this take?

http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/family.htm
http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/index.htm
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/visa/tvisa-ivgeneral.html
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/visa/tvisa-ivi130checkmail.html

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

Jason's back!

I tried to teach my students about Friday the 13th. They didn't seem to understand "bad luck". I don't think I activated their schemata very well. They just shouted "Jason"! Great. Thanks Hollywood.

Perhaps I should have started off with something like the number "42" - which is bad luck here in Japan. The number four - "shi" is also the same pronuciation for the character that means death. Oh well.

I think they liked my props anyhow.

Knitting

Hyunjoo has been busy knitting over the past year. She's recently finished a lovely scarf that even has a way to keep itself around your neck with out having to tie knots. Stupid knots.

I'm patiently waiting/hoping for a new cap this winter! Wink wink, nudge nudge...

A day in the park

Hyunjoo and I went out to a local, hillside park that's being built near a famous Zen temple not far from us.

We like to go up there on breezy days to fly kites and check out the city scape of Kanazawa.

Trying to get my Japanese driver's license

click to view videoblog

Godzilla-ville

These pictures are of a model of Kanazawa and the surrounding area. It shows the downtown region with the famous Kenrokuen park not far from the city center. These pictures also show the hilly areas of Utatsuyama north of the city. Unforunately, the students were not able to include Kanazawa Institute of Technology as that would have added another 40 feet or so to the model. It's a fantastic job that is elevation accurate through the use of foam contours.

Busy bloggin

Starting up multiple blogs made sense. I found that I needed something for my now-suspended podcast, this one about my time in Kanazawa, one for my computer and electronics trouble shooting, and yet another for my teaching. They're all distinct entities for totally different purposes, but it does get difficult juggling them at times.

Still suffering with Sudoku

Dad-folks got me interested in Sudoku a while ago, and then my friend Sheryl showed me a couple of tips in solving a few of the easier puzzles. So, I've been kinda addicted to them for a few months now, but I keep forgetting some of the more advanced techniques like the "X-Wings". This is a pretty good site for showing how to solve some of those more difficult puzzles. By the way, I'm still working on getting my average time on the "medium" puzzles down to a half hour.

Hobie

A visual update of our favorite little guy in San Diego.

The Instant Pet - almost

I brought back some SeaMonkeys for Hyujoo this summer. I had grown up reading about them in comic books when I was a kid. I even saw a South Park episode about SeaMonkeys recently.

We set up the water tank the previous day and these are shots of Hyunjoo pouring in the "secret mixture" of live instant eggs. Frankly, we didn't see anything instantly. Sure enough though, the next day, we saw six tiny white "commas" swimming around in the water. We're both pretty curious how big they'll get.

Touring around with exchange students from Singapore

We've had 12 students visiting from Singapore the last few days. They'll be here until the 19th. I was scheduled to join Juji-sensei to take them on a tour of downtown Kanazawa. It was their second trip downtown actually.

We took them to the Samurai district for a tour of a preserved estate. We arranged for a tea ceremony for the students so they could sample some of Kanazawa's green tea. Afterwards we went for lunch at the station with a shopping spree thrown in. Finally, we went to Omichou Fish Market to check out the area's most famous fish mongers.

It was really interesting to be a tourist again. I haven't seen Kanazawa through those eyes in a long time. It's strange though, I hardly feel like this is a home. It's more a solid retreat.

In the end the kids seemed like they had a great time, and I had fun with them. So it was a good day.

KTC Jr. High School Open Campus Day

This past February, I joined Phil in his workshop to make a couple of little robots. I had talked about how cool it would be to make a lesson plan based on these little critters and it looks like with the help of the engineers here at KTC I'll finally be able to do that. These pictures were taken from the very first lesson that designed on one of the bugs that Phil made for me. Furuya-sensei was so impressed with the bugs, that he redesigned them for a workshop used to recruit new students. I hope to adapt that lesson into a hands-on type English class this winter.

Fireworks along Uchinada Beach

Please click on an image to see a larger version.

Pig out!

While I was chillin' in "Bean Town" with my brother. A group of us headed over to a Dominican Republic-style birthday party for one of my brother's co-workers. She said that a D.R. birthday was all about the food, lots of drinking, and plenty of dancing. She also said that I was disrespecting by not staying to have some of this pig. I had to promise that I'd try to make one of her future birthdays, just to get back to Princeton on time.

The pig was something else. They prepared this pig for a whole day, the day before. She had to use her bathtub to wash it down and season the sucker. The firepit was started at 8:30 am and they had the pig on a "skewer" that was about an inch in diameter and featured a steering wheel for the ultimate driving control. By the way, this pig roast is an annual event. Damn!

Hikin' Mt. Hunger

Even though my stay in Vermont was so short, I was able to meet up with Adam and Katya to hike Hunger. It was a great day and we made it up in no time thanks to Katya in the lead. I really have missed the mountains of the NE.

Road to Hana

The road to Hana on the "far-side" of Maui is quite a journey. Alicia, Hyunjoo and I made the trek all the way around that side of the island in about nine hours of driving. We obviously had some swimming... but don't let that fool you. This road is so windy and narrow in parts that you'll be amazed that it's actually a "highway".

Like I said we did stop for some swimming in Wainapanapa State Park and at the Seven Sacred Pools area of the lower Haleakala State Park. It was a fantastic trip, perhaps the second time I've been all the way around. In the end, I'm sure we'd all recommend going out there.

Baby X

Phil just sent me the great news!

We now we have the cutest little baby boy to share with you all !

Born June 23 at 3:53 p.m.
Kanazawa, Japan
9 pounds !

After many hours of labor the baby did not move into the right position
so...J.J. had to have a C-Section... :-(

The surgery went off like clock work . J.J. and baby x (no name yet)
are
doing well.

I have attached some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Sorry for the Mass E-Mail. But I have to get back to the clinic!

Phil& J.J.

The guys in Moab