ジョリージャンパー

これは慧君のジョリージャンパーです。東京の友達から買った。慧君大好き！！！ 子供も喜んでくれるし、親も見ていて楽しませてもらっています。
詳しい事は　snazzyhappyshokai.blogspot.com/

Fast forward 5 years or so here's little sister enjoying the same jolly jumper.  

They're built to last! 

our family

これは私たちです。三島大社です。私,妻,息子たち。私はアメリカ人です。妻は日本人です。今私たちは日本に住んでいます。私の日本語ちょっと変から日本語でブログを書あまり書かない、このブログを９９％英語で書きます。時間あれば未来にもっと日本語を書きます。



あの写真古いです。ブログをずーっと前初めてだけどぜんぜん書かなかった。最近書かています。４年ぐらい前も一人生まれました。3番の子供女の子です。これは今日年の１２月の家族写真です。

I started this blog back in 2008, tried to write something in Japanese thought I'd start with a brief intro of my biggest treasure in this world--my family (of 4 then, bigger treasure since we're 5 now). I Just updated it to show it's bigger and, for anyone who can read the above, that my Japanese sucks as bad now as it did then. So I guess it's high time I add English translation now. 

Above is our family when I first posted this in '08. We're at Mishima Shrine there. The other picture is a more recent shot of us, as said 5 now, last December shortly after meeting Santa Claus at USMC Camp Fuji. 

And how did this all come about? When, where and how did this little bi-racial family I'm a part of here begin? 

Well the "When" was winter 1999; the "Where" and "How" was by my joining findhotasianwife.com of course!

Okay no, not really. 

It was my second year in Japan. After counting down the days of a one year contract, terribly homesick at first and just enough not homesick when asked to sign on for another year in fall that I did just that, at about 15 months of living as an expat I was asked to do some volunteer work by an adult student in a English conversation class I was teaching. The volunteer work was easy enough, just go to a kids' Christmas party that a local English school was holding and talk with the kids. It was a Sunday and I really didn't much want to go but say yes to life right? Be helpful if and when you can, just do it I told myself. So there I was, some American goof with three other foreign guy goofs sitting on a sofa in a hotel lobby in Numazu when one of the event organizers comes up to us, thanks us for coming and introduces us to a cute as a bug's ear Japanese girl. The girl was there working. I later learned it was a part time gig for her. She spoke English so it was her job to explain our jobs to us. One guy had already agreed to play Santa so she left to show him where to change into the Santa suit; the other two goofs and me were commenting on what a hottie she was before they even turned the corner. I decided then and there that before the event was over I would accomplish my goal of asking a Japanese girl out on a date. 

I spent the next few hours trying like crazy to get as close to her as possible only to get pulled off in a different direction by one of the hundred some odd little party goers whose mom wanted a picture of their kid with a real gaijin (foreign goof. side note we gaijin types were much more of a rarity in these parts back then than nowadays). The party was nearing the end I was starting to think I'd fail but unbeknownst to me at the time, having one cute little party dress clad toddler girl reach straight out and grab ya by the jimmies when trying to talk to her was apparently a good omen that assured my success. (apparently she wanted to compare me with her dad or what I still have no idea, but have since learned to block lightning fast kid hands going for my crotch as it's happened more'n a few times since). 

Minutes to go I finally worked my way over to her and struck up a conversation only to hear her utter more than "hello" for the first time and realize she spoke with a British accent, which just made her all the cuter to me. She'd just returned from a year in London and was working part time for the English school. I liked her from the get go so I went for it. "Would you like to meet for a coffee sometime?" I asked. "Yes" she said. 

I'm in! I thought. So I asked for her phone number and...
She said no. I should give her mine.

Damn! Well at least she's shutting me down nicely I thought. 

But she called! I later learned she feared I'd call and her grandma would answer the phone. I came to understand some time later after meeting and then eventually even coming to live upstairs from her grandma. Her telephone skills were not the best to say the least. 

So she called. We dated. I signed on for a third year contract. We dated some more. I liked her a LOT. But what about swearing off marriage forever? Still the idiot I returned to California without her at the end of my third year contract. (there was no option for year 4)

Lucky for me she came to visit then even to attend language school in California so we could be closer. We married in Yosemite valley and returned to Japan in 2004. The plan was to spend a few more years in Japan then return to California. We had a son, then another son and there was a huge earthquake and tsunami up in Northern Japan in there somewhere Izu was shaking like crazy too so we decided to move away from the sea--moved inland a bit back to Kannami still thought maybe move to Cali only to end up still here in Nippon now with a third child (this time a cute girly one) and so here we are still.

After marrying up and all she told me that she went home and told her mom that she'd me the guy she was going to marry on the day we met. I wish she'd have told me, it'd have saved me from being such a scaredy pants wimpy about committing to the most awesome girl on earth dork and taken a lot of the bumps out of our early relationship.  Or maybe it would've. Who am I to say? I also later came to find out that we've been connected by the red thread of fate since before time began or when I don't know, so ending up together was going to happen one way or another.  How or why I got so lucky to be tied to such an awesome soul with that red thread I'll never know. She's absolutely the most beautiful inside and out drive me crazy frustrate the living heck out of me while making me want to keep coming back for more total mystery completely new to me every day person I've ever known. 

But I did. 
So I've got that going for me!