Is it a Boy or a Girl?

Suffice to say, life has definitely been busy. Between school and family, I switched blog entry priority to low. Now that I have an hour left in the office this morning, it's high time I updated this thing. Life in Japan is hard... >.<

A few Saturdays ago, I had to go to K-town hospital to get the prescription for my second of three courses of antibiotics. Another half-day wasted, but it wasn't as bad as the previous time.

That week wore on, with chuugakkou classes pretty much as regular as usual, and some time spent in the office. The annual English speech competition is coming up, so I have had a small hand to play in preparation so far -- mostly just editing and proofreading stories and speeches.

On the technology front, I reinstalled Windows Vista on my laptop a couple of weeks ago. It more or less fixed the Internet connection issues I was having, but the connection is still not as consistent as I would like.

My wife and I were able to take a break two weeks ago. We had Eddi babysat and went out for dinner together, before taking a walk. How necessarily romantic. ;)

I've been doing a little Japanese study, on and off. My progress is still slow and I continue to struggle, but the more I do it, the more I will understand and remember, right?

The weekend before last was more or less relaxing. We went to a park on the Saturday, up in Ehime prefecture. It was also tsukimi, which means "moongazing", and we had a fun time of it that night, eating dango that Eddi and Mika made.

The week came and went, with me buying my wife a rose on Monday and receiving Eddi's set of bunks; starting a new series called FlashForward on Tuesday; having dinner at the in-laws on Wednesday night; going for a walk on Thursday evening; and getting our brand new double bed and table on Friday!

And I've got to say, it is wonderful to have a proper bed, and great to be able to eat at a table! Unfortunately, the table top is slightly cracked, so we are waiting for them to replace it.

On Friday we also dropped Eddi at her grandparents' to stay for the night. Turns out we didn't tutor Mei-chan that night either, so Mika and I watched a movie together. W00t.

Saturday was a lazy day. I even took a much needed nap in the afternoon. See, life in Japan really is hard. I had to sleep on our brand new soft mattress for a couple of hours, eat a yummy curry and play on my computer a bit. /yawn

Eddi's undoukai (sports day) was at her youchien (kindergarten) on Sunday morning, so we were unable to attend church. We managed to film everything that our daughter was involved with, which added up to an hour of footage. Perhaps I will sift through and edit it sometime.

After the undoukai, we ate leftover curry and packed up the car with all our camping gear. We headed out to a place called Kashiwajima. Shima/Jima means "island", but it was an island that is connected by a land bridge. The area is a hotspot for scuba diving and fishing, even though the shore is terribly polluted. I wouldn't recommend going there if you don't like the sight of garbage. They really should clean the place up, because it is a quaint little town and the surrounding area is incredibly beautiful (I have photos, but can't upload anything until I find my Micro-SD converter).

Camping was great. We weren't completely organised, but it all worked out anyway. The nights are getting colder, but with blankets we were quite comfortable in our tent together.

After a nice walk on Monday -- which was a public holiday, and hence why we were able to go out camping -- we drove to a cliff trail and walked up to have a look at the view. After that, we went to a nearby monkey park, and saw a whole lot of monkeys. There was also a great lookout on the promontory, which afforded us a view of the entire surrounding area, with islands dotting the sea and the sun glinting off the water. We could clearly make out the beach we had camped at overnight, too. The weather on Monday was perfect.

Lunch and icecreams on the way to Nakamura, and then in the city we visited the onsen, paying for a private family bath. We got 50% extra free (1 1/2 hours instead of just one), as it was our first visit. Even being naked can be enjoyable. Guess Japan really is changing me. :)

MacDonald's for dinner, a little shopping and then the drive back home via our regular route through Iejigawa. Tired? Yup, but Tuesday is always an early start, so no time to think about sleeping in.

That brings us to yesterday. I spent the entire day at Taisho chuu, as my classes were spread out to period 6. Kitazoe sensei was away. The students mostly did work out of their workbooks, which wasn't very fun at all. And the extra class I oversaw was disappointing, as the kids obviously didn't want to be there. Sometimes you just have bad days, and yesterday wasn't one of the better school days I've had. But you just move on, huh. Every day is a new and wonderful day that God has created!

Today, I finish at 11.30am. I am taking this afternoon off so that Mika and I can have lunch together and then visit K-town hospital. She has an OB appointment and I want to be there for once to see our baby on the monitor during the scan. We believe that today we will find out our child's gender, too! Exciting. ;)

Going out for dinner tonight, too, which will be great. So all in all, today is a huge step up from yesterday. We have been anticipating this Wednesday for quite a while.

Onward!

Timotheos