My sweet Lola

How fortunate I was to have you in my life,
A blessing sent from above,
You my sweet Lola, I will always remember,
Your beautiful smile and unconditional love.

Asuncion Salazar

November 21, 1918 - February 2, 2007

Thank you for everying, Lola. I will miss you and will hold you close to my heart forever.

'There's no place like home'

It's practically February and I know Christmas has come and gone, but I still wanted to share a little bit about our holiday home leave.

I, especially was anxious to be home for the holidays. The flight was long and hard on Markus. Nearly four hours before we landed we had awful turbulence for an hour and unfortunately, Markus got sick to his stomach. Soon after, he managed to get sleep until we landed. At first we thought it was merely motion sickness. When we finally arrived in Detroit, Markus's condition didn't progress so a couple days later, we took him in to Children's Hospital of Michigan. Since he had been dehydrated from the frequent vomitting and diarrhea, he had to be given an IV. It broke my heart to see him in pain, though he felt much better and regained energy after the treatment.

You can say that the first week home was a right-off. Sadly, we missed out on my family's Christmas dinner since Rodney and I spent most of Christmas Day at Mt. Clemens General Hospital connected to IV's. As expected, we succumbed to Markus' bug, which had to be the Norovirus. Thanks to Ritchie's connections at his ER, we waited not a minute to be looked after. We remained quarantined in the Frijas' comfy basement...thank goodness for the new plasma TV to help alleviate our misery. One by one, our family members who came in close contact caught what we had and eventually got sick. It was dreadful.

After a week of recooperating and getting over jet-lag, we finally got out for some fresh air. It was nice driving everywhere for a change, rather than taking subways and trains. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do all we anticipated like go to a theatre to watch a movie, eat out at favourite restaurants, play more poker, and do more visiting. Needless to say we were more than happy to be home in the presence of family and friends. There's no place like home!

Christmas Festivities in Japan

Dinner Party at the Wakayama's home - Dec. 17

After Joanna and Giancarlo left, we had less than a week to prepare for our home leave to Canada and the US. Besides the packing, I needed to run a bunch of errands and of course some last minute shopping. In the midst of it all, we were invited to a Christmas dinner at the Wakayama's, which was a delight. Wakayama-san's wife, Miyuki-san (far right in the above photo), is a fabulous cook!

Markus was attentive as Wakayama-san demonstrated a wooden firestarter contraption. He couldn't get it to work...fortunately perhaps!

In addition, I decided to throw a sort of last minute holiday luncheon with some close friends - most of whom were children from Markus' Jidokan class, including their moms.

Markus was elated playing with seven other toddlers running rampant in our small apartment. All the mothers brought a variety of dishes to add to the potluck so of course we had a plethora of delicious food! Rodney unfortunately missed out on the festivities since he had to work. He did however contribute by creating a DVD slide show presentation of collective photos taken from Jidokan classes and play dates. Everyone enjoyed watching it. Kudos for Rodney!

Back row, from left to right: Mihoko and Chihiro; Amanda and Addison; Hiromi and Taro; Sayaka and Kotaro; Shoko (Amanda's Japanese tutor); Markus and I.

Front row: Emi and Moe; Ayuki and Riko; Yoko and Aiumi; Keiko

After the party, we found Addy and Markus chilled out on his sofa. With all the hard playing, I guess kids need to unwind too!

Joanna & Giancarlo

Though I'm behind in blogging, I wanted to be sure to post Joanna and Giancarlo's visit to Japan. Our last guests of 2006 arrived in Tokyo on November 31st and stayed for 2 weeks. Within that time, they explored so much of Japan and maximized their Japan Rail Pass - money well spent! Besides the trips to key Tokyo attractions and a trip to Kamakura (a first for us all), they rode the shinkansen on their own and visited Kyoto and stayed overnight in a Buddhist Temple and prayed with the monks. They also visited the very interesting Hiroshima Atomic Bomb memorial site and museum. On another afternoon, they hung out and watched the snow monkeys bathe in the onsens of Nagano, which was nearly a 5-hour bullet train ride out of Tokyo. They definitely covered a lot of territory!

Below you'll find a photo gallery summarizing Joanna & Giancarlo's 2-week Japan expedition.

Big Buddha, Markus and Rodney enjoying the beautiful December weather

Wall art in Asakusa subway station

Hasedera Temple, one of 65 temples in Kamakura

George Johnson's Visit to Japan

A night shot of the Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills Building

George Johnson, my former boss came to visit us for a few days in November. As an avid world traveler who had never been to Japan before, it was a perfect opportunity for him to visit knowing we were here. George stayed in Shinjuku, one of the busiest locales of Tokyo. On his second evening, Rodney and I took him to Asakusa for a view of the Sensoji Temple. After our stroll through the temple, we had a traditional Japanese tonkatsu dinner (breaded pork) and dined on a tatami floor restaurant.

The following day, Keiko was kind enough to accompany us to Roppongi Hills to visit the beautiful Mori Museum of Art to view the Bill Viola Video Art Exhibit. It was a first-time visit to this museum for all of us, including Markus.

Enjoying the city views from Roppongi Hills Building