Our family can't stay home for more than 12 hours a day. We need to constantly be away from our house, or our kids will go berserk. But we can't travel very far as it is very inconvenient for me and my wife, as we need to rush back home for our kids afternoon siesta. And traveling far is not really a great option for parents with a baby and a toddler. So we always ended up going to the same mall, which is a 2 minute bike ride from our house. God knows how we detest malls, no matter how [View Full Entry]

---

---

It took a while for me write about my trip made to the Philippines last August for a very sad reason. We travel for a lot of different reasons, and for whatever it is, it will be always be an enriching experience. Living abroad for most of my adult life, an untimely call from my home country always sends anxiety attacks. But on the early morning of August 10th, the message was sent by my sister in an incoherent and chappy manner through my Yahoo Messenger. It says "Kuya (Tagalog for older brother), si Mama (our grandmother), please call". It only [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were supposed to stay a total of 22 days in the Philippines. That meant endless family reunions and outings. I love, love, love spending time with my family but this also our chance to have willing and trusted people to look after our kids. So wifey and myself wanting to have much needed alone time, left our kids to the loving care of my family and flew for a 3 day vacation to Bangkok. It was our second time in Bangkok, and we're not really out in Thailand for some heavy traveling. We just want to enjoy some solitary moment [View Full Entry]

---

---

There was the still the slight chill of winter as we left Osaka for the Philippines. Thus, the humidity in Manila was a bit uncomfortable. But nonetheless, all is well as we drove up to the cool mountain of Tagaytay as soon as we arrived. There we stayed overnight, viewed the Taal Volcano and Lake, dinner at Jospehines and called it a day. The next morning we passed by the Good Sheperd convent on our way down to Manila. The convent is famous for its delicacies so we bought coconut pie and ube jam. This would eventually be our lunchas we [View Full Entry]

---

---

I wanted to document for friends and family my Japan experience when I started this blog. I also planned to travel abroad a lot, which have now been put on hold indefinitely. Surprise, surprise a second baby is on the way. Whew!!! as if carrying a baby and a stroller up and down subway stairs, changing nappies on a tight airplane lavatory are not enough detriment on traveling, and not to mention the cost of having children. No complaining here folks, but I guess its now time to move this blog to the kiddie-playpen-at-the-mall-for-5-consecutive-weekends-blog.com. Although there were no exci [View Full Entry]

---

---

There are three wonder of nature one cannot experience growing in a tropical country, that is, snow, changing autumn leaves and cherry blossoms. I'll talk more about it later, here are the pictures though. [View Full Entry]

---

---

I haven't been sleeping right for the past two weeks. Well yeah I'm having anxiety attacks combined with my retrospective mode, which automatically switched itself on and I can't figure a way to turn it off. I hope I am still living in America wherein I can just run to a specialist and easily claim psychological imbalance and get a prescription drug to calm my nerves. I now feel sorry for my bias on taking prescription drugs to help induce happiness or relax the mind, hehhehe. When I turned 30 last year I didnt have time to reflect on the wee [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our friend, Ken from New York came to visit us here in Japan. I tried to cover as much of the interesting sites of the Kansai region for a full three day trip. I had so much fun and have seen so many beautiful sites around my area. To top it all, Ken had full knowledge that his Merill Lynch salary goes so much way beyond my pay as an ALT in Japan, whose 6 month contract just ended, lol. Quite embarassed, he shouldered almost all of our tour expenses. Thanks!man. Kyoto We went to Kiyamizu Derra. Very beautiful specially looking [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow, time goes by so fast. I remembered my anxiety of not finding a job in this country. Now I’m on the last week of my six month contract at my Junior High as ALT. I am very sad to say the least. I never thought I would be accepted with so much enthusiasm by my students. My last week was filled with a lot of sad farewells. I was deeply moved by the different ways my students and even my colleagues showed me how much they appreciate me being part of the school. I didn’t realize I can make so [View Full Entry]

---

---

7 Months ago we stayed for almost a month in Fukuoka, Rinka's hometown. Fukuoka served as our pit stop from New York to Osaka, which is our main Japan destination.Being a pit stop, relaxation is impossible with the anxiety building up going on to the next leg of the race. Our days in Fukuoka were spent making sure we both land a job in this country, we made phone calls, sent resume, browsed the net endlessly and set up living concerns in Osaka (looking for apartment, shipping stuff etc.) We did not have the time nor the right frame of mind [View Full Entry]

---

---