I can't believe I haven't posted for almost a year! It's only 5 days until Kana's 21st birthday!! Kana, Lisa and I did go to Spain for a couple of weeks and then Aya went over a few weeks later. She also stayed in England for a weeks or so and while she was there decided she wanted to move back. She left her job around the end of October (or November?) and then after we all went to Guam when Keita was home for New Year, she moved at the end of January. So far I think she is enjoying it but who knows where she (or any of them for that matter) will finally end up! Lisa also left her job around the same time as Aya and went on a short course but once that finished, decided to come and work for Setsuo (brave girl working for her father!) Kana is in her 3rd year of Uni and will start applying for jobs later on this year. She's been gallivanting all over the place - Spain, Guam, Hokkaido, Hong Kong and I think is planning to go to New Zealand in the summer. Between Uni and her part-time job, we don't see that much of her at all and it's usually just Setsuo and I at the dinner table these days. Keita is now in his 2nd year of High School and says it's a lot more relaxing now that they aren't the underdogs any more! He also has more time for his own practice so hopefully we'll see the results this year. He was out of the games for a couple of months because of a knee injury but he came back with a bang last weekend! I'm still teaching at the high school and only lost a few students to juku (cram school) this year but gained new ones so the numbers are about the same. We finally bought tables/benches and a BBQ for the roof verandah and when Keita was home on Mother's Day (a coincidence, but a nice one) we finally got to try it out.

Now that we've tested it, I'm thinking about inviting the 2nd year PL parents over for the day but trying to work out a time when there are no matches and people can get over is the hard part since everyone lives in different areas. And that's about the sum of what's happened lately.

Today Kana turned 20 so only one teenager left which shows us how old we're getting.

She's going out for dinner with her boyfriend tonight so we went out last night to Outback steakhouse in Umeda. We, as in Kana, Aya, Lisa and boyfriend, Setsuo and I. After the meal Aya sent the photos we'd taken to Keita and I think he was a bit miffed that he couldn't be there too. Hopefully he'll get home for one day near his birthday so we can go again.

He was home a couple of weeks ago but only from 8am - 8pm and two of those hours were spent driving there and back but he managed to eat everything he wanted to, got a couple of hours sleep and also had time to meet up with a group of his friends. He's lost about 8kg since starting the school but the coaches want him to lose another 7!! I doubt it'll be that hard for him since he'll lose it with the training rather than being on a diet.

Kana, Lisa and I will go to Spain for about 19 days at the end of July which I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully I have the tickets and passports all in order this time and there won't be a repeat of the Guam holiday that wasn't! We'll stay overnight in Manchester both on the way there and on the way back so we'll hopefully be able to meet up with my sister at least for a few days. It feels like years (and in fact it is) since the last time I've been on a holiday. The only bad thing about it is that Keita will get home for about 3 days while we're away but Aya and Setsuo will be there at least.

Other than that, it's just been the same old routine of work and baseball. I lead such an exciting life!!

So much for trying to keep up to date!

As was expected, Daisy died last month. After taking the new meds for a couple of days she started fading fast and although I'm not completely sure it didn't have anything to do with the new medication, it was a blessing in a way. I'd been up with her for 2 nights and she finally died more or less in her sleep (she was on quite a lot of painkillers) at around 4 in the morning.

The day she died was one to remember as we had Keita's graduation ceremony in the morning and then the big earthquake in the afternoon. I hadn't had a lot of sleep so when my office started swaying, I thought it was just dizziness until I looked outside my window and saw the electricity wires dancing around. It seemed to go on for ages - a lot longer than usual - but I had no idea just how massive and destructive it would turn out. Even now the worst hit areas are still having aftershocks everyday and a lot of areas are still without water and electricity.

Keita is now at his high school and I don't think he's getting enough to eat because all of the emails I get from him are requests for food! He seems to be doing okay baseball wise and I heard (indirectly) that he's going to be playing a practice match with the senior team on Sunday.

I'm back at the high school after the spring holiday and have 6 classes as opposed to the 7 last year so it means I can get back in plenty of time for my own classes here. I've also just agreed to teach at a nearby company 2 nights a week. They initially asked for 5/week but 2 was the most I could manage. As it is, it now means I have an hour class every weekday evening which I'm sure I'm going to regret! On the other hand, I haven't started any new afternoon classes although have allowed 2 new students to start in existing classes.

We also have Aya's 2 dogs here too. They have settled down okay but are wild and have so much more energy than Daisy or Spike so it took us a while to get used to them! The other day when I went upstairs after work, the whole house was covered with toilet paper - Setsuo had left a roll on the table and the dogs had obviously had a great time with it.

Remember me? Long, long time for not posting.
A lot has happened since last September -

** Keita finally decided to go to PL Gakuin (it was the first and only school he went to look at) and since last year we've been busy with pre-tests, actual tests, uniform fittings etc and he'll have his entrance ceremony on April 7th. This month we have to get all his belongings sent to the school and he'll move into the dormitory the day before the ceremony. Now that it's getting closer, I think he's a bit nervous about it but over the weeks has met and become friendly with a lot of the other boys. This year there are about 35 new baseball students with about 12 of them being pitchers so he's going to have to try hard if he wants to get into games. Because it's a religious school, Setsuo and I also had to join their church so there have been things going on with that side too although Setsuo is doing the brunt of it! Last weekend there was also an overnight stay for the kids and parents that they both went to - I had a luxuriously, lazy 2 days!

** Spike died suddenly at the end of November. He was fit as a fiddle one minute and then just dropped down dead. We don't know what went wrong but it must have been his heart that just gave out. Daisy's cancer came back again but the vet ordered new meds from America that shrank it to almost nothing although after a few months, it stopped having any effect and is back again. She is on a new lot of drugs but I think is losing the battle as she's really lethargic and has a lot of trouble walking now. Time will tell....

** After the last post where I said Aya and Daisuke had finalised a date for their wedding, they have since split up. It had been on the cards for a while but Aya decided to move out around January and finally found a place that would accept dogs at the end of February. She has already moved in but Daisuke has been keeping the dogs until she gets settled. I think they're going at the end of the week so that'll be Aya's peace and quiet disrupted. We had always said that we'd have no more dogs after Daisy and Spike, but it looks like we are going to get Rex and Mocha. I'm neither elated nor unhappy about it and it'll be easier for Aya if we do have them.

** Lisa also moved out at the end of February. She obviously didn't learn from Aya because she has moved in with her boyfriend too. She is a bit further away from Aya but not that far - probably about 10-15 minutes by car. So after Keita goes to school, we are down to just Kana in the house!

** I started teaching two days a week at a High School about 40 minutes away. The hours are 10 -3 on Wed and 11-2 on Thurs although will change a bit from April. I am teaching the same age as Keita (1st year of high school) and the school itself is quite high level so I'm enjoying it so far. It's a lovely school, nice money and of course I also get paid during the holidays with 2 bonuses a year to boot!!

And that is about it! Hopefully I'll be back updating a bit more regularly from now on!

Oh the luxury of having a long lie! Today, even though I woke earlier, I fell asleep again and didn't get up until just before 9am.
Keita is taking part in Nishiura Tetsuo's concert (for those who don't know, he's a baseball related singer/songwriter) and so has the day off and didn't need to leave the house until just before 11am to practice whatever they are going to be doing. Me, another mother and the head coach are going to the actual concert but don't have to be there until 6pm so it's been a lovely relaxing day.

Just as well that Keita didn't have to go to practice today really because on Thursday he got hit in the throat (ouch) and ended up at the emergency room. Other than losing his voice for a day and a sore throat, he is none the worse for wear but the Doctor said he should take it easy over the weekend. Luckily it was one of the younger (non-regular) boys that was batting and so it didn't hit him at the speed it could have done.

Aya and Daisuke have more or less finalised a date for their wedding. It's probably going to be October 2nd next year and will be at a venue just outside Osaka but near enough to get there and back easily. They are going again next week to finalise the booking and have asked me to go with them to see what I think. Once that's done, they will no doubt be emailing everyone overseas to invite you all!

Other than that, nothing else has been happening!

Last weeks tournament started off well. Keita pitched the first day and only let in one hit the whole of the match. Next day was a repeat performance by Keita in the first match but then they lost the second one - Each pitcher can only pitch one game so it was a different boy in the 2nd match. It would have been nice for them to win the tournament but it's been so hot and muggy that I was quite relieved not to have to go for a third day!!

On Saturday we also finalised Keita's High School. It was the school he'd initially decided on - PL Gakuen in Osaka. It's a relief not to have to keep humming and hawing when people ask where he's going. He still has to take the entrance exam but I've a feeling that's just a formality!

Very soon a group of the mothers from Keita's elementary school baseball team are coming for dinner/drinks (or really drinks/dinner!!) so this has to be short and sweet. Tomorrow Keita's friends will come for their annual sleep over so it'll be all systems go in the kitchen on Wednesday morning again!

So much for having long lies over the weekend - even though I had the chance to, I was up by 8am both days!

The firework party went well and although there were about 18 of us it seemed less because of the space! I decided that there was going to be no cooking at all this year and bought everything from Costco so it was a lot more relaxing than other years. Poor Lisa had to work and only arrived home after the fireworks had finished. Since Daisy isn't as fit these days, I decided to keep them at home rather than putting them into the kennels overnight and wondered how noisy they would be but I didn't hear a peep - although the fireworks were so loud they could have been barking their heads off and we wouldn't have known.

On Sunday I did NOTHING apart from read a book and tidy some of the aftermath in the afternoon. Kana's 2 friends had stayed overnight and didn't leave until early afternoon so I couldn't have done anything even if I'd wanted to.

Monday I went and got my hair cut and then it was time to collect Setsuo, Keita, Riku and his dad. By the sounds of it, I think they had great fun. They watched a firework display from the hotel roof on the Sat night, had a BBQ and 'swimming' in a river on Sunday and then hiking up a mountain on the Monday before leaving (Setsuo was a wimp and took the cable car with another father and the mothers!) In a way, I wish I'd also gone but having a quiet house and no schedule was also nice.

From the 13th there is another tournament so unless they lose the first match, there's going to be baseball on the 13th, 14th and 15th. Hopefully no more until I'm back at work!

There's a typhoon on it's way north so looks like we're going to be in for a rainy day tomorrow which will be a bit of a relief from the constant sun (actually we did have an hour of spectacular rain on Monday just before the bus was due to arrive back but luckily it stopped before we had to unload everything).

Keita's high school news - I phoned the owner of the club to tell him we'd decided on a school only for him to tell me to hold off for a bit because one of the 'other' schools is desperate for him to join theirs and wants to meet him. They are playing at Koshien at the moment so I don't know when the meeting is going to take place so everything is still up in the air although I've a feeling Keita will still want to go to his initial choice.