Back in Japan, rice field update, new bike, school clean up.

Things are getting back to our normal life in Japan now. It has been 2 weeks since we returned. I am amazed at how quickly time is going by. In the mix of our daily lives Kate somehow found time to get kidney stones. We were in the hospital for almost an entire day trying to find out what was causing her so much pain. She is still working them out of her system and the pain medication in Japan is weaker than the states so it has not been fun for her.

After getting back in Japan we went to our rice field to weed a little and check in on it. We have been meeting with the other families 1 time each month to work on the field and this was another of those planned visits. The rice has really grown since the last time we saw it.

This is really the first time for me to see the rice in the fields. When we arrived in Japan it had already been harvested. I was told that you can tell it is getting close to harvest time by the way the rice is forcing the plant to droop from its weight.

I put my hand in front of the grain to give a size reference.

After finishing with the weeding and generally checking the field we all got in cars and drove to an edamame field. Edamame is soybean. Almost every month after we tend to the rice another activity is planned. This months was picking edamame. Since it was the end of the season for this variety of bean we were told to pull the entire plant and then pick the bean pod off. Since this takes time we were given the option to take the plants home with us to finish picking them.

Here is Colleen giving one of the plants a tug.

And success..

We were allowed to take as many as we wanted, but we didn't want to waste any, so we only took what we could eat and fit in our small fridge. Shown is our pile to take home.

While we were picking the beans a demonstration was given to show the correct way to prepare the edamame. To start, a pot of water with sea salt in it was brought to a boil. The edamame was then dumped in to the water all at one time.

Bring the water back to a boil and then leave it boil for between 5-8 minutes, depending on the style you like (soft or al-dente). Then the beans are removed from the boiling water and immediately thrown into a bowl of ice water to quench them.

Finally the beans are pulled out, drained, and a little more sea salt is sprinkled on the outside of the beans. Now they are ready to eat. These were the best edamame that I have ever eaten. We were told that these beans from Tochigi are quite expensive in the restaurants in Tokyo and I can understand why.

The children also liked them..

After tasting the beans we loaded everything in the car to head home and call it a day.

Before going to the US for our home leave I bought a bicycle frame from ebay and had it shipped to my parents house (in the US). The original intent was to bring it back with me as one of my luggage, but after seeing Warren's luggage and broken items I decided this would be a bad idea. In the end I shipped it USPS at a cost of around $80 (including insurance). The first time I tried to ship it the box was too large for USPS, so I figured I would just go to FedEx or UPS thinking the price would not be that much different. I was told by both that the cheapest option was more than $400.00 so I decided I could reduce the box size to be within the USPS requirements. I was able to put the bike together the first week we got back. Wearing my gear old gear I held the old bike and stood on my scale and then did the same for the new bike. For the old bike photo I tried to look all angry and down like the weight loss before and after photos, but in the end I just look lame...

The new bike is super light. Final weight is about 15.5lbs (by bathroom scale) The difference along with my new gear amounts to just shy of 6lbs weight savings over my old set up.

From evaluating the GPS data it looks like this was worth about 1 mph while climbing at the Shinring Koen course.

Colleen had a school two school activities. In the first they powered a fan by using charcoal, a paper towel soaked in salt water, and aluminum foil. I wasn't there to see it, but Kate said it was pretty impressive.

The second activity was diving fish. Here Kate and Colleen are ready for action..

The first step is to color and decorate the fish as you like.

Then a bottle is filled with water for the fish to swim in. Next each fish has a weight attached to the its mouth so they swim facing down, and finally each fish is ballasted with water so they float, but just slightly.

Then the cap is put on the bottle so that when you squeeze the bottle the pressure builds and the fish will dive to the bottom. The amount of ballast in each fish dictates how much pressure is needed to make them dive.

Another thing both children had to do after we arrived back in Japan is make a poster containing a public service slogan on it.

Colleen 's says basically "Let's eat breakfast, so that we can become energetic."

Liam decided to go with a recycling theme. His says "The world is in our hands so lets recycle."

Finally to close out the week we had clean up day at the children's school. I really enjoy the sense of community that is instilled in the children by the Japanese culture. This activity teaches them that we all have a responsibility to our community. The parents and children all had to go to the school and clean up trash, rocks, and weeds around the school property and in the schools garden. The time alloted was from 7-9 am. Kate got a pass this year because of the kidney stones, but and the children participated.

Both children did a great job helping out and we were able to fill up all our bags with stuff.

That is all for this post. Hope everyone has a good week.

Home leave in America.

Our stay in Japan is scheduled for just under two years. During our stay were were allowed 1 trip home to the US. If we went home over Obon we would be going home before the halfway point, but I could easily get the time off work and the children were out of school. If we waited for Christmas the children would still be in school and it would be snowy in Ohio. If we waited for spring it would be fairly close to our return. So we decided to come home during the summer. Kate and the children left 2 weeks before I did. That is what allowed me to do the crazy Miyazaki drive. Kate was surprised at the airport when she was met by the Speck family and the Lacar's.

Kate stayed with the Speck's. The children fell right back into their old routine of playing with the neighbor children.

As usual it was difficult to separate Colleen from the Speck's dog Snickers. Probably after we left Snickers slept for a couple of days to recover.

After a few days in Columbus Kate and the children headed down to Cincinnati to spend time with her family. Erin and her boyfriend Nick went along for the ride. They all had a great time swimming with cousins in the Eschmeyer's community swimming pool.

While they were in Cincinnati, aunt Claire was kind enough to take the time to cut and style everyone's hair. Here she is adding a little color to Nick's.

Thanks for all the haircuts aunt Claire.........

Next was back to Columbus to prepare to pick me up at the airport. Before getting me Kate had the opportunity to visit with Janie and her family. Janie took Kate to one of her gardens. The children enjoyed picking a number of different vegetables.

They brought corn and zucchini with them to take to my family's home.

Below Colleen is posing with some of the harvest.

Kate and Janie with the photo op.

Here is the entire Gossman family looking all gangsta like....aahh yayahh..

My flight in was horrible. I had a window seat, a larger woman was in the middle, and a woman with a 1 year old that cried 2/3 of the flight was on the end. Just under half way with the woman on the end yelling at her child in another language and the one next to me spilling into my space I decided I should sleep to make the time pass.

It was great to see the family at the airport, and soon we were in the car heading toward Cleveland and my family's home. There was more swimming and playing with cousins to be had there as well. We decided to take a drive around Amish country with my parents.

One of the stops was for ice cream. We ordered small cones. When we got them everyone was surprised by how big they were. Liam said he didn't even thing they would have that size in Japan.

The drive around the country side was nice. It was good for the children to see the different lifestyles people live, even within Ohio.

Pictured is bailing hay by horse power..

Grand touring car.

Children bringing goods to the market.

We also visited the old canal boat locks in Canal Fulton. The ones we visited are now longer in working order, but they are still interesting to see.

This lock was not used for boats, but to regulate the water levels within the locks.

An interesting part of American history, the date stamped into this lock was 1907.

Kate got some good nature photos like:

Bee on a flower.

Turtle on a rock.

And this wild duck in a pond.

After a number of eventful days we went back down to Columbus for more days. Another visit to Taco Bell and a few more doctors appointments. We had a celebration party with our Columbus neighbors. It was to celebrate our visit and everyones birthday that we missed over the last year.

Here are all the ladies.

And the men. Why am I the only one looking at the camera? Something tells me there is another picture just like this where I am the only on not looking.. Brad was at work so we only had a picture of him in attendance.

Next was back to Cincinnati so that I could visit with Kate's family as well. The first night was a neighborhood party at the Eschmeyer's.

I get the feeling they are trying to make fun of us in this picture.

All of Kate's brother and sisters were able to come.

Of course more playing for the children.

Kids...Kids...stop putting fingerprints on the windows...............dang.

The next day was the family canoe adventure. We had a huge group for the trip. There were a number of options but we selected the 6 mile. Since none of us canoe frequently I think the shorter trip was the right choice. I am pretty sure by the end everyone was ready to stop.

Here is a look up the river. We covered a good chunk of the water with all the canoes.

Here are the two Eschmeyer canoes. Liam wanted to ride with Rachael. At this point I think Colleen was with us. They switched canoes so much I am not sure.

Along the river was a rope swing. I figured you only live once and I am not getting younger so I decided to give it a go. It was pretty fun, but one time was good enough for me.

Liam chipped in to help propel us down the river.

Colleen ended up with an aluminum foil anti alien hat for a while. I don't think she saw the movie "Signs" so not sure where the idea came from.

Finally before returning to Columbus for the return trip we went to Kings Island for the day.

I didn't want to carry the camera around all day so I didn't take it. I got this picture from the internet. In the morning it sprinkled a little and that helped keep the crowd down. I think the longest we waited for a ride was 30 min, but most were less than 15 min. Liam and Colleen rode every ride they were tall enough to ride including the drop tower. They were great sports and got right on. I think Kate and I were more nervous about them riding it than they were. Afterwords they even wanted to do it again.

On our last night at Claire and Greg's we went to SOHO (a Japanese steakhouse) for Greg's 4@ birthday party. The food was good and I think everyone had a good time. Erin especially enjoyed the ラムネ (Ramune) Japanese drink that we bought for her to take home. You can see in the picture she was really excited.

It was great to see all the families over the two weeks.

I was able to stop in to work for what felt like 15 mins (actually 2 hours) before rushing off.

My parents met us in the morning to take us to the airport and send us off. Before that we hit the Waffle House (on Kate's list of restaurants to eat at). A huge grease bomb to take with us on the plane home.

We made it back safely and with little trouble. I think we are all finally sleeping through the night again. From now I will try to get back on the weekly update schedule.

Have a good week.