Not November Yet

Barack Obama

I know this isn’t really on topic, but was compelled to share this with you all.

It’s not election day yet, but I am going to frank with you: Obama makes me wish I could vote for him every time I hear him speak.  I just donated, for the first time ever in my life, to a politician.

“Why?” might you ask, well I will tell you why, because when I watch videos like this I honestly am filled with an emotion so powerful, so palpable that I cannot do something to support a person as passionate and intelligent as him.

Honestly McCain, good luck to you big fella.

Nagoya Sumo Tournament

This was quite the experience.  The day started off with some of the lesser known dudes fighting, then ended with a fight for the top spot of all the wrestlers, which doesn’t happen to often.

I forgot to explain the rules: Basically the first guy to step out of the ring, or touch the ground with any other part of his body than his feet loses.  Oh yeah, and no biting.

Sumo Slideshow (17 pics)

This is the opening ceremony where all the Sumo wrestlers are called by name into the ring (hand-made from clay new, for every tourney) in their formal gowns which have their sponsors written on the front.

3 videos of fights after the break.

Shink Ride

Tokyo Slideshow (56 pics)

Come take a ride with me, on the shinkansen (aka the bullet train).  This is what it is like to be moving at 200mph on the ground.  For a more smooth ride let the video load up first, and/or play it twice.

Two more videos after the break.

ABC’s

Cuteness

Kai is gearing up for the move back home: making sure he will be able to impress everyone with his mastery of two completely different languages.  This is for all of you who have asked if he can speak any English yet.

P.S. Thanks Brian for the wonderful, ever singing “Leap.”

2 Year Anniversary

Update: Fixed the Video of Kai dancing.  Sorry about that, it accidentally got deleted.

So this past weekend we were able to get out for a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant.  This was of course in celebration of our 2 year wedding Anniversary, which was a month prior to our date out.  It took sometime to secure a babysitter, but Kai had a wonderful time, as did me and Aya.  My friends were completely surprised at how much Kai ate for dinner: 2.5 bananas, lots of grapes, some baby food and some baby snacks to boot (this is normal for Kaizilla.)

I have some pics of the night out and a couple of the Kai-man playing around with his cars aka Ba-ba’s.  Although recently he’s been saying “car” and “truck,” better than most Japanese people.

We also have this funny video of Kai doing one of his many dances.  This is from a children’s TV show, with Aya singing in the background.

Videos after the break.

Hide And Go Shopping

This is just what we did last weekend.  Had a little day out at the department store with Aya’s family, and then also went to the immigration office to change my Visa over to a Spouse one.

This is Kai playing with what could have been considered his first girlfriend. This cute little girl ran right up to him and was playing with him the whole time we were at the Immigration office. At one point Kai went to lean in and kiss her (with a little encouragement from mom and dad), but she was embarrassed and ran off.

This other video is Kai just laughing and playing again with the cute little girl.

And finally a slideshow (15 pics) of our weekend out.