Kana passed her pre-1 English test the other week so now just has to get through the interview part. Because I'm British, most people think that it's a given that they'll speak English but the fact is, we only ever speak Japanese in the house and their achievements come from mostly hard work on their parts. They do have a bit of an advantage in that they get to use their English when family meet up but in fact those times are few and far between so well done Kana!

Lisa is off to Tokyo tomorrow for work seminars. Now that she is coming up to her final year of University, she'll have to attend a lot of them, but hopefully they'll not all be in far off places or it'll cost a fortune! I think she is going to meet up with friends from her NZ days so will no doubt have fun at the same time.

Last week, a reporter from the Sports Houchi newspaper (same newspaper as last time) phoned the house to interview Keita and said that he'll run it with a photo in this week's edition. The previous Sunday, one of the other mothers said that someone was taking Keita's photo but I just presumed it was someone from the other team and dismissed it but it turned out it was from the paper. They'd also been talking to the coach/team owner too so it'll be interesting to see what they write about - if it's based on the conversation they had with Keita, there won't be much to write about!!

We've also finally got an appointment with one of the Sports Doctors from a big hospital for March 17th so hopefully he'll be able to advise about how much he should be playing until the bone knits back. He doesn't have any pain just now which is good but it also means that he wants to play and the coaches are starting to use him again albeit for only 2 or 3 rounds at a time.

His new spikes finally arrived last week too (whenever he needs a bigger size, it takes at least a month for the company to make them) and they've said that until he goes into the Sen High School, they'll make his shoes for free. They also gave me a 'ground' coat as a present and gave him a catalogue to choose a style of baseball mitt that he likes and they'll make him one. He of course is delighted with all the attention he is getting and I've been nicely surprised at how cool he's been with it all. He has a lot more confidence but doesn't seem to be big-headed or boastful. Apart from family, this blog and non-baseball friends, I can't really tell anyone either - there is enough competition between some of the mothers as it is without adding any more.