On New Year's Day we visited Mizuma Dera with the family. Nice day, chilly but nice.

9 files, last one added on Mar 23, 2007

On March 4th Kana's really good friend (like an older brother) Mac took us in his swanky Surano SUV to Shirahama, the resort town with a beach that has sand imported from Australia! YIKES!

14 files, last one added on Mar 23, 2007

It's a long story but we lost our digital camera the day before Christmas...so we had to take our holiday pictures on a disposable camera from the Lawson convenience store. We celebrated Christmas and Grace Yuki's first birthday (Dec.22nd) on December 24th as it was the only day everyone was home!

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We had some special guests join us this year for the Danjiri Matsuri. Terry & Tomomi Matiowsky together with their kids, Mio who is five and Eugene who is three were able to come and join us. While we were at the Festival, Yuuki Kawachi, a fellow who has been dropping by our place on Mondays to share a little English, was able to join us too.

21 files, last one added on Oct 09, 2006

On August 1st we travelled to Fukuoka on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to visit Kana's Grandma Tomoe (toe-moe-ay), Gracie's Great Grandma! We also got to visit with Kana's Mom's friends Kayoko and Mo-chan!

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Junya and Ai got married in Osaka on July 16th, 2006. Kana and I and the rest of the KaToRiShiA crew were there to help celebrate!

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3 more months of Grace Yuki (aka the Yukinator) for those of you who have been requesting more and more Gracie!

30 files, last one added on May 30, 2006

2 months of Grace Yuki! We have had lots of visitors over in the past couple of months and here are pictures of them and of Grace Yuki growing up erveyday!

30 files, last one added on Mar 08, 2006

My Brother Kirk visited us in Japan from Dec.29th 2005 to January 8th 2006. This is the gallery of his visit!

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On December 22nd Kana went into labour (about 7:00am) and Grace Yuki Mercer was born at 10:17am weighing in at 2.9kg! On Decmber 27th Kana and Grace were released from the hospital and came home!

16 files, last one added on Dec 27, 2005

Ah yes a few pics from my wonderful days working at Royal Kids International School in Osaka. Actually I quite enjoyed the kids and the staff!

23 files, last one added on Jul 08, 2006

We had what I am calling a "Team Canada" Chili party at Shigeru's place. I say Team Canada because I bought a jersey each for Yoshio and Shigeru, and Kana and I already have ours. I cooked some Chili and Mr.Sei and Mr.Nakamura brought out the katanas (swords) for some good times!

19 files, last one added on Dec 06, 2005

The 2005 Danjiri Matsuri (Mobile Shrine/Float Festival. The Danjiri Matsuri is a big hit with the Ogino family, so we spent all weekend watching the Danjiris and having fun! I was even lucky enough to stand on top of the Obu Danjiri for a couple of pictures!

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The KaToRiShiA decided we should have a big ole burger down at the Kua 'Aina burger joing in Namba Parks. The burgers are HUGE and very delicious...one of the few places in Japan where the food tastes pretty dang close to what it should!

12 files, last one added on Oct 01, 2005

Shigeru Komamonoya and his wife Akikio had a bunch of us (Yoshio, Mr. & Mrs. Sei, Kana and I) over for a party at their place in Kumatori in July. We even had some special guests from Senegal (Deer-san & Yande)! Good times were had by all!

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Tomo & Koichi's first child Yusuke was born back April. KaToRiShiA paid Tomo and Yusuke a visit at the end of May!

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Toni, Ai, Junya, Kana and I were able to go to visit Ninja Mura (Village) in Mie Prefecture in May. We had lots of fun seeing whole families dressed as Ninjas and getting to visit Ueno-jo (castle). We saw a Ninja Martial Arts demonstration as well as the under ground museum that shows all the cool ninja techniques and costumes.

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In February Ai, Junya, Kana and I went to visit Tomo in Sakurai hospital in Nara. Tomo was still pregnant with Yusuke at the time. On the way there I took some pics of Osaka and when we left Nara it was snowing!

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Kana used to work at the Observation Hall at Kansai Airport where she made some really good friends. We hooked up with them in early February and had an awesome time!

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On January 3rd, Ai and her boyfriend Junya invited us to join them on a trip to Kobe for the day. After finding a parking spot (which was brutal) we visited Ikuta Shrine. We ended our day in Kobe at the Mosiac Garden an Amusement Park/Food Court/Shopping Mall. Good times!

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Mochi, a VERY sticky rice cake that is made by pounding the crap out of mochi rice with a big wooden mallet. We were invited to Yai-chans house to make Mochi with a bunch of Kana's Dad's friends. It's a New Years tradition!

We made a video of this and these are some of the pics we took as well.

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Christmas in Osaka. It was the first time Kana's family had gotten together at Christmas...and I made some chili.

NOTE: Japanese chili powder can be quite a bit hotter than the stuff back in Victoria.

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KaToRiShia - is a close group of Kana's friends she met while in University. Their group name is made up of the first letter(s) of their first names: KAna, TOmoko, RIe [pronounced ree-eh?], SHIma [who was in Austrailia] and last but certainly not least Ai [who was Kana's Maid of Honor]. We all got togther for Nabe (hotpot) shortly after we moved to Kishiwada.

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Shortly after arriving in Kishiwada, Kana took me to visit Kishiwada Castle, and Bayside Mall along with a few other places.

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We were lucky enough to have Christmas Dinner in Victoria before we left for Japan. We got a couple of pics on the plane and then a few after we landed at Kansai Airport.

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in October we visited Ucluelet for Helder & Crystal Silva's wedding. Between visting our Native Family on the Res, sightseeing at Wikkaninnish Beach on Friday, and going to the Wedding on Saturday it was an awesome weekend that we were blessed to be a part of!

37 files, last one added on Aug 12, 2005

Photos from Craig & Kana's Honeymoon Road Trip. From Victoria to Hope, Kamloops, Revelstoke, Golden, Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Jasper, back to Kamloops, Vancouver and then home. All told we put 2800kms on the Jetta in just under 7 days!

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Photos from Caig & Kana's wedding. Sept.04 2004. The main party pictures were taken at the Japanese Gardens at Royal Roads University. The rest are taken at St.Mary's Anglican Church where the ceremony & reception took place.

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Brian, Adam and Craig head out to Diversion Resevoir to catch some fish on Craig's Stag Day.

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Miscellaneous pictures from 2004...inlcuding Janet and Martin's visit from Scotland. Jacques and Kinya (our good buddies from Niko Niko) are here, along with wedding rehearsal pictures and pics from our last Saturday night in Victoria.

39 files, last one added on Aug 12, 2005