It's a sunny (though chilly), lazy Sunday at the shop, my husband just left for Nagoya and my father-in-law is in the back sleeping in the massage chair, so I thought to myself 'What better time to write in my long forgotten blog.' I think I'm going to give up on a full recap of everything that's happened since my last post (which was last summer I think), and just start with the present and go from there.

Just in case you can't tell from the photo, I'm pregnant. Six months by American count and seven months according to Japan. We are pretty sure that it's going to be a boy, and I am now trying to figure out an English-friendly Japanese name. I don't think anything will be decided until the little Peanut is actually born, which should be July 12th. I've quit teaching for the most part; my last regular classes will be next Wednesday. After that I'll teach a few private lessons until the end of May. This doesn't mean that I'll just be sitting around eating bon-bons (even if I could find them in Japan), because I've started to take over my mother-in-law's job at the family shop. My day consists of mostly accounting, paperwork, rusuban (looking after the shop while everyone is away... this, to my dismay, includes answering the phone) and serving coffee when the rare customer actually comes into the shop. It's a pretty sedentary gig, so I've been trying to get out and take a walk everyday. So far, the weather has not been cooperating. It's almost May, but we've only had about two 'warm days' all year. Hopefully we'll get some nice weather this next week; especially since the second half of the 'Big Stupid Festival' also known as 'Onbashira' starts next Sunday. Have I mentioned the 'BSF' before? I might have blogged about it six years ago on my old blog. Here's a refresher... never mind, go look up 'Onbashira' on Wikipedia. There's a nice explanation with pictures and everything. Let me know if you have any questions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira

So...today... well, my H left the house at 6:30 this morning (very early for us) to participate in the 'Nagamochi Concours.' Nagamochi means 'the long thing that you hold' in Japanese and Concours is 'contest' in French. Here's a picture of him doing his civic duty (he's on the far left). I think they did pretty well; they came in second place out of about eight groups. They're judged on a combination of step synchronization, singing and general presentation. One of the other groups had a couple of big guys in drag; who ever said that Japanese country boys were conservative. There is nothing conservative about Japanese festivals; they go all out. It's kind of like Texans and their football.

After lunch H left for a solar panel informational event/class in Nagoya. It's actually tomorrow, but it starts in the morning and it takes about three hours to drive there. He'll visit some friends from his old job and then sleep in his car tonight. Tomorrow he'll finish about 6PM and will probably be home after I go to sleep. With all of the 'BSF' practices recently, it seems like I never actually see him come home. I just wake up in the middle of the night with the Peanut pressing on my bladder to see him sleeping soundly next to me.