I haven't really been properly updating this blog for ages, and now that Ah-chan is here my whole life has changed anyway, so the "Adventures of Fuz" doesn't seem to cut it any more. What was meant to be a blog for a year away turned into my life, and my life is no longer the crazy antics of a single girl. So, off to pastures new and all that - for those that are interested the Ozawa family's goings-on and whatnot can now be found at:
http://sunnyshimizu.blogspot.com/
I warn you now, it'll probably be all about Aisha.... :D
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Moving House (again) and all that...
At the end of August I moved house and onto my sixth Japan address. I am planning on staying at this one for quite some time though; no more house moves for me. Also, Hiro has only moved house twice in his life, both with me and I don't think he's impressed. The words "never again" may have crossed his lips several hundred times, albeit in Japanese.
So, as usual with moving house I became internet-less briefly, due to our decision to move onwards and upwards from basic ol' broadband and onto fibre optic. I'd like to use the lack of internet as an excuse for not blogging, but to be quite honest it has more to do with a) me being exhausted; b) me being lazy, and c) not having found my camera since moving to take pictures. I have finally found my camera but sadly it seems to be lacking the charger and cables, rendering it a bit useless at the moment. Until such times as all the parts resurface, I've pinched Hiro's. The joys of marraige - what's his is mine, and what's mine is mine. It's awesome; I effectively gained a car!
Work is now over, and has been for two weeks... and baby-chan is expected in about another two weeks! How time flies... I think everything is ready but only time will tell. I am properly MASSIVE, and will take pictures and post them later due to the high number of requests. Many Japanese people are convinced that I am going to give birth to some kind of giant baby, but I keep reassuring them that western babies are bigger and the doctor reckons I'm on track for somewhere between the average Japanese size of 2500g and the average American of 3500g (somewhere between 5 and 7 pounds, basically). So, no worries there. The hospital gave me a card to fill out, marking every day how long it takes the baby to move ten times, and said I should only be worried if it takes more than 30 minutes. Baby's longest so far is about 8, so I think we are good there.
Right, that'll do for now. I'll leave you with some pics of my new abode, and after the docs on the weekend will follow up with some more baby-chan related news!
So, as usual with moving house I became internet-less briefly, due to our decision to move onwards and upwards from basic ol' broadband and onto fibre optic. I'd like to use the lack of internet as an excuse for not blogging, but to be quite honest it has more to do with a) me being exhausted; b) me being lazy, and c) not having found my camera since moving to take pictures. I have finally found my camera but sadly it seems to be lacking the charger and cables, rendering it a bit useless at the moment. Until such times as all the parts resurface, I've pinched Hiro's. The joys of marraige - what's his is mine, and what's mine is mine. It's awesome; I effectively gained a car!
Work is now over, and has been for two weeks... and baby-chan is expected in about another two weeks! How time flies... I think everything is ready but only time will tell. I am properly MASSIVE, and will take pictures and post them later due to the high number of requests. Many Japanese people are convinced that I am going to give birth to some kind of giant baby, but I keep reassuring them that western babies are bigger and the doctor reckons I'm on track for somewhere between the average Japanese size of 2500g and the average American of 3500g (somewhere between 5 and 7 pounds, basically). So, no worries there. The hospital gave me a card to fill out, marking every day how long it takes the baby to move ten times, and said I should only be worried if it takes more than 30 minutes. Baby's longest so far is about 8, so I think we are good there.
Right, that'll do for now. I'll leave you with some pics of my new abode, and after the docs on the weekend will follow up with some more baby-chan related news!
view from the back window
living room
kitchen
view from bedroom balcony
Baby-chan's bed!
2nd view from bedroom balcony
front of house!
Car, complete with S-Pulse sticker.
Next door was a green tea field. It's being pulled down, but the persimmon tree appears to be staying.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Natural Disaster
So, the morning before last at 5.07 a.m I woke up to the building starting to shake and rattle. I promptly grabbed Hiro and we held onto each other as things fell off shelves and the intensity of the movement increased. The noise was immense, caused either by the walls or the objects within them moving. After nearly 5 years of life in Shizuoka and hearing about the big one I thought it had finally come, and was wondering if the house would fall down when the movement ceased. Hiro leaped out of bed and ran around turning off gas and opening the door (in case another bigger quake came and we couldn't open the door or get out if necessary), while I in my slow-moving state found some clothes just in case I ended up having to evacuate.
Minutes later my mobile starting beeping away, other people wondering what the hell and was everyone ok? We came through to the living room and turned the T.V on, not only had there been a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, Shizuoka was the epicentre. There was a small tsunami of 60cm in Yaizu following the tremor, and it seemed the building was continuously moving with aftershocks, most of which only caused the house to gently rock. When Hiro did persuade me to go back to bed I had no sooner lay down than the biggest aftershock yet, rating about 4 on the scale rocked the building again. This pattern of aftershocks continued throughout the day, causing me and I daresay others to be nervous sleepers.
The news listed 81 people as injured and as of yesterday only one dead, which is miraculous considering. A couple of nearby towns were waterless and part of the motorway collapsed, but the government are on it here and people were being given water a few hours after the quake had struck. In terms of household damage, we lost a vase and the light fitting fell off, but nothing else broke - possibly partly due to everything being packed up for moving.
The international news coverage has been weak; it was mentioned on CNN within a few hours but it took the BBC over eight hours to even mention it and then it was detailed as a "Tokyo" earthquake, getting the number of injured people and even the tsunami facts wrong. Pretty disappointing; the information was on T.V all day and available on English websites within Japan so either those at the BBC are downright lazy or just incompetent. I hear from a friend that the '95 Kobe quake was the same. The lesson to be learned from this? Don't trust news stories!
We're all ok though, and while the earthquake was terrifying it didn't leave excessive damage and it shows just how prepared Japan is for such an event. Hopefully when the Tokai quake hits us, the recovery will be just as smooth.
Minutes later my mobile starting beeping away, other people wondering what the hell and was everyone ok? We came through to the living room and turned the T.V on, not only had there been a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, Shizuoka was the epicentre. There was a small tsunami of 60cm in Yaizu following the tremor, and it seemed the building was continuously moving with aftershocks, most of which only caused the house to gently rock. When Hiro did persuade me to go back to bed I had no sooner lay down than the biggest aftershock yet, rating about 4 on the scale rocked the building again. This pattern of aftershocks continued throughout the day, causing me and I daresay others to be nervous sleepers.
The news listed 81 people as injured and as of yesterday only one dead, which is miraculous considering. A couple of nearby towns were waterless and part of the motorway collapsed, but the government are on it here and people were being given water a few hours after the quake had struck. In terms of household damage, we lost a vase and the light fitting fell off, but nothing else broke - possibly partly due to everything being packed up for moving.
The international news coverage has been weak; it was mentioned on CNN within a few hours but it took the BBC over eight hours to even mention it and then it was detailed as a "Tokyo" earthquake, getting the number of injured people and even the tsunami facts wrong. Pretty disappointing; the information was on T.V all day and available on English websites within Japan so either those at the BBC are downright lazy or just incompetent. I hear from a friend that the '95 Kobe quake was the same. The lesson to be learned from this? Don't trust news stories!
We're all ok though, and while the earthquake was terrifying it didn't leave excessive damage and it shows just how prepared Japan is for such an event. Hopefully when the Tokai quake hits us, the recovery will be just as smooth.
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