２０１０年のまとめ

休憩を含んで１４時間の運転を経て、クリスマス前からシカゴ郊外におります。
この辺は除雪をしっかりしてくれるので、雪が常に積もっているけれど道路はとてもきれいで、改めて感心。　クリスマスイブも夜１１時ごろに家の前を除雪車が走ってました。
フィラデルフィア、ニュージャージーもかなり積雪したそうで、あの中途半端に除雪する地域に帰りたくない・・・。　帰るころには雨が降るみたいだから、解けてくれるといいんだけれど。

さて、恒例の１年をまとめた手紙をクリスマス・新年の挨拶として送りました。

郵送した手紙はすでに届いていると思うので大晦日の今日、公開です。

英語ですが・・・。

Happy Holidays from Eric, Yoko, and Hiroto!

The biggest change of the year is that we are now homeowners.  We bought a house in Woolwich, NJ in May, and have been getting settled in since.  We’ve found that owning a home means that there is a never-ending list of projects that need to be done.

Shortly after closing on our house (about 12 hours) we left for Japan to visit Yoko’s extended family.  In addition to Kobe, we were able to visit Yoko’s brothers in Nagoya, and her aunt and cousin in Fukuoka.  We also took some time to see some of the attractions in Kyoto that we didn’t get to last time. 

While we were in the vicinity, we took a side trip to China for Yanqing (Eric’s former roommate) and Lijing’s wedding in Shijiazhuang, which was two hours away from Beijing by a high speed train.   Hiroto got sick on the trip and Yoko stayed in the hotel room with him during the wedding but Eric was able to attend the festivities.   Shortly after the wedding, Yanqing’s cousin drove us back to Beijing and we did some sightseeing there for two days.  Besides walking around the city, we visited the famous Tiananmen Square and the vast Forbidden Palace.  The biggest culture shock was that Chinese babies didn’t appear to wear diapers… 

Speaking of weddings, we also went to Travis (Eric’s cousin) and Kristyn’s wedding in September.   Hiroto behaved well enough for the ceremony and then spent most of the reception playing with Eric’s cousin Lindsay.  It was nice to have a mini reunion with many family members who lived far away for the weekend.    

Hiroto turned one on September 24, and ticked several milestones this year.  He learned to walk on his own shortly before his birthday, and is now running around the home, climbing up and down stairs.   He has a particular knack for finding anything fragile or dangerous.  While he continues to speak his own language, so far the only real words we could identify have been “tasty” in Japanese and “wan wan” (Japanese onomatopoeia for dog barking). 

Eric’s job has been going well, and it took him to many different places this year.  Two trips to England, one to Montreal, and plenty of US travel made Eric much more familiar with the Philadelphia airport than he’d ever really want to be.  The travel seems to have tapered off for now, so he has made some progress on home improvement projects.

The last couple of months have brought some exciting news for next year.  Yoko is expecting, with a due date of mid-July.  Yoko is convinced it will be a girl just because she has a name lined up, but Eric is refraining from speculation.  More to come on this in the next several months!

We hope you have wonderful holidays, and a great start to the year 2011!

Eric, Yoko, Hiroto 

読んでいただけると理由がわかりますが、先日の日本人奥様食事会では、アサヒビールも飲めず、刺身も、あじのたたきも、あんきもも、うにといくらの寿司も食べれなくて、心の中は涙の嵐。

でもたくさん笑えてとても楽しかったからいいんだ～。

今年１年読んでくれてありがとう！
来年もよろしく




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