Wild Kingdom Sanda: Part 4

Here is a little gecko I found crawling around in the classroom. I believe it's another Schlegel's Japanese Gecko. Cute little thing, ain't it?

...And Here's the Redheaded Mother

My hair was starting look more than a bit sad (about 2 inches of brown roots OMG!), and Shoichi was getting rather long about the ears as well, so we made a day of it at Ippei's Hair Room. Here's a picture during the "manicure".

and another.

This is Ippei.

And this is my awesome new hair!

Let's Take a Walk

Mom requested some photos of daily life in Sanda, so here is a visual diary of my walk back from the supermarket to the house. I usually walk this route once a day, with Rin strapped into the front carrier, or sometimes in his carriage.

Wild Kingdom Sanda: Part 3

On the way back from the park we found this gross millipede and I thought I'd share the creepiness with all of you.

Wild Kingdom Sanda: Part 2

Today Rin and Rosie and I went to play in the park. We were sitting in the grass and soaking up the sun when what should we see but a lady with a lizard on a leash. (Try saying that 5 times fast). Of course I had to investigate, so I went up and said hello, and got the dirt on the lizard. It's name is Memeta, its sex is unknown, and apparently it's some type of monitor. How do you like that?

Yozakura: Cherry Blossoms at Night

More pictures from the park, this time at night.

Puchi Hanami

Rin and I took a walk through the park today on our way to Furatto and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom with several groups of hanami revelers enjoying them.

Boys' Day

Boys' Day is May 5th, but the stores are already filled with Kintaro and Momotaro dolls, helmets, armor and carp-streamers. My favorite was this doll with an 愛 helmet. I think we'll probably just stick with some small streamers for Rin though, since the helmets etc. cost an arm and a leg.

If you want to learn more about Boy's day check here.

Blooming Sanda

On the way to the post-office today I passed a tree covered in absolutely spectacular yellow flowers. I don't know my aster from my elderflower when it comes to the floral kingdom, but maybe you can identify them, Mima. (I'm tempted to say mimosa for some reason, however)

P.S. Hmm just GISed mimosa and it looks like I was right. Go me!

Some People Have a Hobby Like Tennis or Philately

Just to absolutely secure my nerd/geek status I've decided to take up stamp-collecting. I bought myself a little album and a few sets of commemorative stamps to go in it. Here's one set.

Wild Thing

I've been wanting to do something wild with my hair for quite some time now, and I finally did. Ta-da!

Power Tools!!!

Well actually only one power tool: the Bosch IXO cordless screwdriver. We've decided to finally dismantle the monstrosity of a jury-rigged bed in our second floor room, and we bought the IXO after getting blisters from manually unscrewing a bunch of tightly and crookedly screwed screws. It's only a teeny little 3.6V driver, but it's a ton of fun! God, I love power tools!

'Tis the Season.... to kill!

That's what this Santa seems to being thinking anyway. God what a scary Santa; he's enough to give you nightmares. (Found at the entrance of my local supermarket BTW).

Autumn Glory

I just uploaded a bunch of pics from my camera to the computer. Here is a series of the beautiful maples in Sanda-dani Park and around the Flower Town area. Enjoy!

More Sparkling Nature

The season for Kinmokusei has, unfortunately, come to end and most of the leaves have fallen off the trees already, but now we can begin to enjoy the winter-blooming flowers such as camellia. This tree is quite popular in Japan and our local park is filled with its beautiful pink blossoms.

BCG : ASAP

I took Rintarou to the Sanda city health and welfare center today to get his BCG vaccination. He was supposed to have gotten it in September, but we were away in the States so we had to put it off. He was a very good boy and only cried a tiny bit, although it looked like it really hurt a lot.

This is us waiting to get checked. We were number 31 in line, and there were plenty of babies after us.

This is Rin with his sleeve off; doesn't he look tough?

Here is Rin getting checked by the doctor.

And here is the final shot.

You did great Rin!