The days seem to be flying past lately.

Lisa has been home for most of the past 6 weeks and although it's nice to have her here (mostly), it'll also be nice when she goes back to Uni and her own flat. She is still as untidy as ever - but only when she's here, her own place is neat enough - and it's starting to get on my nerves. Also she had tonsillitis last week and made everyone aware of it. I'm just getting over a cold too so she had me frazzled! Once she does go back and I get the room back into some kind of order, I'm going to make it into a kind of sitting room so Keita or Kana can have friends round without needing to worry about the dogs.

Teaching wise it's been pretty tiring lately with all the trial lessons and trying to sort out a new timetable. I can't finalise things until the end of this month when all the new J High kids decide on clubs/juku days but I'm slowly getting there. In all, I think I lost 1, asked another to leave (only because she never came and because she was so far behind I was giving her private lessons which she often didn't come to either) and around 10 new 7 year olds. For the next couple of months it'll be hard until they all settle down but hopefully we'll get into some kind of rhythm faster than last year's new kids did.

This weekend is the start of a tournament for the older boys team and Keita and two friends will join them. If they win the match on Sunday (home ground) then they'll have to go to Awajishima next week which will mean a really early start as they're slotted in for the first match at 9am and since the government reduced the road tolls to 1,000 yen no matter where you drive to/from, all the roads have been jam-packed.

This Sunday is also the ceremony for the new 1st year boys and seemingly they are all pretty good. I think there will be about 17 -20 joining so the weaker ones from Keita's team will have to watch out or they'll be ousted!

Aya and Daisuke are thinking of going on holiday at the end of the month but haven't decided where yet although have been thinking about Saipan or Guam since both places are near and they don't have that much time off work. These days flights are much cheaper - I took my Thai friend to the Travel agents to book her ticket home (first time in 11 years!) and it only cost around 45,000 yen.

Keita got the all clear to start playing again but also has to wear a corset for the next 3 - 6 months when he isn't doing sports. It's going to be tough getting him to wear it once the summer starts but at least there's 3 months until then.

He has what looks like a hairline fracture all around one of the bones of his spine which the doctor said is very common in sports and that there is no guarantee that it will ever repair itself even if he stopped playing baseball for a while. Some people go on to get a tingling sensation in their legs which often indicates a need for surgery (a small percentage) but unless that happens, he can just play as usual.

So he is a very happy boy today and no doubt the coaches are all going to bit happier too knowing he'll be able to pitch in the spring tournament and I'm relieved that it's not as bad as it could have been and I no longer have to play the 'bad guy' and keep him out of games.

As an aside - Lisa got booked by the police for running a red light last night - she was only taking her friend to the train station up the road and said the light was between green and red but she now has a 9000 yen fine!

A month later.....

Not a great deal to write about but to sum up what's been happening over the past month

Kana passed the interview of her Eiken exam so now has the full pre-1st qualification. So far she has beaten Lisa to it by about 6 months. The next level is pretty tough but she has another year to keep trying for it (actually she can try as many times as she wants and not only while she's in High School but if she's like Lisa, she won't bother once she gets to Uni!)

Lisa has been to a few seminars, interviews etc and so far has got through them all. They are eliminating more and more at each level but she has the whole of this year to keep going to them and hopefully find a job that she wants to do.

Keita will go to see the sports doctor tomorrow and I'm hoping that he'll be given the all clear. There's a lot of frustration at not being able to play in the matches so Keita is going to be very disappointed if he says that he still needs more time out. Not only Keita but the coaches too - don't know whether it's just my imagination or not but they seem to be acting a bit 'cool'. Not surprising really since I'm the one that's insisting that they keep him out of the games. Might have to play the 'spoilsport' for a bit longer though.

Last week was my last lesson at the pre-school but today when I met Tracy (who'll take over in May) she said her Uni class from April won't finish until 10.30 so getting from there, back to Juso in 30 minutes is going to be pretty tough. Keep your fingers crossed that they'll delay the class a bit or I might find myself being asked to go back again. As it is, she is thinking about going back to NZ next year so I'm almost 100% sure I'll only have this year away from the place - hopefully that will be enough of a break.

So far the majority of my students who will start JHS this year have decided to continue studying here and I also have another 8 that are wanting to start. Two of them have already been for a trial lesson and are waiting to hear about the schedule and the other 6 will come next week. Two of the 6 have older siblings so they are definite but I'll have to wait and see about the other 4. There will no doubt be some others nearer the time but that's okay since I don't start them until they've been at school for a month anyway (May).

Setsuo is also really busy with work and has just finished one house, has started another two and has an order for one more. Hopefully that means that some money will start coming in instead of it going out in all directions!

The other night, Aya, Daisuke, Lisa and I went out for a drink and Aya was saying that she might go back to the UK for a holiday sometime this year. I wonder if she's starting to get itchy feet....

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.

My new year resolution was to stop posting so much about Keita and baseball (maybe that's why the posts have dried up, my life seems to revolve around baseball these days) but I'm going to break it to have another 'oyabaka' moment so please bear with me!

On Saturday, because I was having all the first year mothers and players back to the house for a party, I intended to have another mother take over from me at lunch time so I could get home and organised but around 11am Setsuo phoned to say that one of the owners from a company he uses had phoned to say that his friend had contacted him to see if he would arrange for him and another man to go and see Keita play and could they go that day around 1.30. It turned out that the 'friend' was a scout from the Yomiuri Giants!! (For those of you not in Japan, the Giants are one of the Major Baseball Teams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomiuri_Giants) so it was both a shock and really exciting! After they had been to the ground, watched Keita (and also Riku) then spoken to the coaches they came back to the office for a coffee. They stayed for about 40 minutes and we had quite a good chat and he said that he'll come back now and again when he's in this area. So, things are really looking good for the pair of them - now we just have to hope they'll continue to improve and be injury-free.

At night, there were about 29 of us for the party and a lot of eating and drinking went on. The majority left around 11pm but there were still 4 of us until just before 3am! The next morning I had to force myself to get up at 7am to get Keita out the door and although I intended going back to bed for a couple of hours, managed to stay awake. By night time I was shattered and I think we were all in bed by about 10.

Kana had her Eiken test on Sunday too - she hadn't really studied for it so I don't know how she'll have got on but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Other than that, it's really cold just now and we had snow showers both Sat and Sun. Here's hoping it gets a bit warmer!

All the photos have come out in the wrong order but I can't be bothered to changed them all around!

My birthday - Lisa cooked all the food but we forgot to take a photo of the spread so there is only a plateful of the left overs!!




At the noodle museum




At the bowling alley


At Kobe bird park



Fooling around in new pajamas - Granny in Keita's!


Daisuke, Aya, Lisa, Kana, Keita under the tree

We had a great Christmas and even though some of us caught the cold over the New Year, that was good too. Every Christmas we have an unwritten rule that no matter how busy we are, we have to make time to go out for dinner together on the 25th and this year was no exception (even though Aya and Setsuo were working, Kana had school and Keita baseball) and we also had Mum and Dad and Daisuke (Aya's boyfriend) with us so we were a party of 9. We booked the restaurant for 7.45pm so it meant Aya had to come straight from work but it gave the rest of us time to get ready. Having Daisuke there brought home the fact that it will never be just the 6 of us again which is nice in a way but at the same time a bit sad that the kids are no longer kids!

After the meal and a change of clothes for some (we'd eaten too much and they were starting to be uncomfortable!) we went down to my classroom where the presents were under the tree. Again because of work and school, we have always opened brithday and Christmas presents in the evening when everyone can be together and it no longer feels 'strange' although I think M & D found it a bit odd.

At New Year we had intended to go out to the Temple in the evening but because M and I were suffering with the cold, we scrapped that idea and just stayed at home with our bowl of noodles. This is the first year that there has been no need to make 'proper' New Year food which meant I could sleep a bit later. I did make the special soup and some of the dishes but only the things that we all like. In the afternoon, we left M&D and while Setsuo went to Kyoto to his mother's grave, Aya, Kana, Keita and I went to see Oji-chan (Lisa couldn't get out of her bed). I'd worried about him being in the home over the NY period but he didn't seem fazed and was delighted to see the kids.

While M&D were over, we didn't manage any big trips but it was nice to see them again and hopefully they enjoyed their days out even if most were just to shopping malls, restaurants etc. One good day was at the Noodle museum nearby - we all decorated out noodle pots and then chose what flavours and toppings to put in them - all for the grand sum of 300 yen each! There was also a floor where you could make your own noodles but we we got there too late.

This is my 2nd week back at work but I'm taking most of the days slower than usual and trying to stay out of the office most of the morning.

Photos on the next post.