23rd. Sept. "Iwate-Kawaguchi autumn festival

(left) Segawa san taking a short break from the parade. I love the atmosphere of Japanese festivals, even a small village like Kawaguchi puts on a wonderful parade of huge floats pulled by teams of adults and children, dancers, drummers, and lantern bearers; and ofcourse the stalls selling everything from Squid dumplings to candy floss, and various games. Emily and Sean enjoyed the candy floss most (I managed to persuade them not to fish for more goldfish with rice paper bowls on clothes pegs, we already have 7 in the tank at home). (KT)

21st. Sept.

The 4 finalists in the Ukishima Olymics` chocolate cake guzzle. Cinnamon (the dog) did not qualify and made the tactical error of choosing the gold medalist Tatsuya to scrounge next to. It was a very close run race but Tatsuya kun was a clear winner finishing one third of the cake in 23.46 seconds (without dropping a single crumb for Cinnamon). Ikue chan won the silver in 30 seconds, Emily and Sean came in 3rd and 4th (32 and 35 seconds) having perhaps been put off their stride by the training session yesterday. (KT)

20th.Sept. "Sean's 5th Birthday"

	Sean has been asking when his birthday was for months so when the big day finally arrived he was in seventh heaven. Lego, Thunderbirds videos, lego, books, more lego, and a great Tigger jumper. Many thanks to all the family in Scotland and Japan - he had a wonderful day. (KT)
Lotz of presents!

17th.Sept. "Kigure Circus"

The circus is in town! So, we went to see it. (HK) Great fun, clowns, jugglers, tumblers, trapese artists, tight rope walkers, the lot! Emily was very impressed by the trapese artists, while Sean recognised his alter egos in the clowns. (KT)

15th.Sep. "Visitors from sendai"

Elaine came to visit us from Sendai today with her son Oliver & 2 of her English students. Sean made biscuits to welcome them in the morning. (HK)

14th. Sep. "9th. Wedding Anniversary"

Am still working on this.....(HK) Me too ... (KT)

13th. Sept.

Kata got `MY` car stuck 3 feet deep in mud taking the `short cut` at the back of the house after 3 days of torrential rain. Having spent an hour helping him tow it out all I did was raise an eyebrow, but he obviously thought this was a dangerous sign with our anniversary tomorrow and set to washing away the evidence. (KT)

11th.Sept. "Kanji Homework"

Emily correcting Kate's Kanji homework. (HK) I`m not sure if I`m getting very far, but it is very good for Emily`s Kanji study! (KT)

10th.Sept. "Pancakes on Sunday"

Sunday family brunch. Bananas, sliced almond chips, sour cream, floods of Chocolate sauce on a pancake. This is what I love!! (HK) Atleast the children had some of the ones with salmon, cheese and salad! (KT)

9th.Sept. "Sean's UNDOKAI!" (Kawaguchi Kindergarten Sports Day)

			Sean's sport Festival.today. He was excited more than a week ago. (HK) Sean (in the red cap) refused to allow the fact that we were rained into the community hall or that the red team failed to win the day to dampen his enthusiasm. (KT)
			High lander?! The things they make the parents do for these events!

5th.Sept. "Akiyoshidai International Art Villege"

50 million pound art village building complex designed by Arata Isozaki. (HK) As I had suspected when I heard that Kata was going to be in the Yamaguchi area, he bumped into Allan Johnston! (KT)

4th.Sep. "Hagi"

I was back in Hagi for the retrospective show of my friend ceramic artist, Eizo Miwa. (HK)

3rd.Sep. "Hara Museum Ark"

Another Arata Isozaki's Museum building for contemporary art. (HK)

2nd.Sep. "Trip to Setagaya Museum of Art"

Most of the members of Ishigamino Oka preparatory committee decided to research other museums in Tokyo area. First we went to Setagaya Museum. (HK)

1st.Sep. "End of Summer"

Emily adopted a butterfly that had been blown against the Window by the strong Autumn wind. She fed it flower nectar painstakingly milked into a dish after it did not seem to be interested in either the flowers or the sugar water she gave it, and tried to teach it to fly away several times but it never quite recovered. (KT)