Japan Family

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Happy Birthday Anna-Chan

Anna's First Birthday!
Anna Patricia Hughes


Anna was born a year ago on a cold December day (16th) and since she has been in my life she has brought me so much joy.

Comparing the 2, when Eric was a baby he was difficult to say the least. Anna has been completely the oposite, even when she fell off the couch and broke her collar bone she hardly cried. She is always happy and genki.

I really think that not only has she helped me but she also has helped Eric. Eric is more responsible and seems much calmer these days with his sister around. Thank you Satomi for giving us Anna. Thank you Anna for being the happy little center of all of our lives even amid all the chaos and problems.








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Sad Reddiit Baby

Sad Reddit Baby

Sad Reddit Baby

Anna with her reddit baby shirt on.


I think she looks so cute but so sad in this picture. Actually she is just watching TV.
























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Eric at Tokyo Tower


Eric at Tokyo Tower
Eric @ Tokyotower
Eric posing with the view from Tokyo Tower in the background.

It was a great day out for us, but it got a little tense when we started running out of cash. I had originally just planned to go to Pokemon Center, but then lunch and Tokyo Tower, pretty soon we were down to our last 3000 yen and I was kind of eager to get home.

Either way we were all pretty happy how the day turned out. Good family fun.









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Pokemon Center


Pokemon Center

Pokemon CenterEric Anna and I headed to the Pokemon Center in Tokyo to get Eric some books for his birthday. I was pretty surprised it was like a mini Disney store with all kinds of Pokemon stuff you could buy for the little Poke-fan in your life.

Also to my surprise there were allot of of adults there buying stuff that look like was for them not their kids. 












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Sleepy Anna

Sleepy Anna


Tired Anna Chan




Sleepy Anna-chan rests her head against Dad's big belly.





































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Happy Anna

Happy Anna Chan

Anna looking out the window. Anna-chan happy cause it is 6 AM and she is awake and screaming out the window. I wish I was that happy at 6 AM.

The truth is she is usually happy almost every day.



























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Halloween on the train!

Halloween

Erin and Eric on the train.
Eric and I on the way to meet some friends for lunch before the Wallabies vs. All Blacks test in Tokyo on Halloween.

The match was a pretty good time but I missed some of it due to taking care of the kids, etc, but what I saw was fun.



















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Pumpkins-2009

Pumpkins

Here is a picture of the Halloween Pumpkins we carved. Eric and some of his friends carved these pumpkins the night before Halloween. We also had some tricker treaters come to the door. It was a first for us in Japan.












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Last Nice Weekend

I think this will be the last really nice weekend we will get for a while.  The weather here is always nice, but after about September 20th it starts to get cooler and rains a bit more than necessary.

Eric and I headed out to Futuko-Shinichi for rugby practice. We were a little late, but we brought along some food I made the night before for a BBQ, and a screen from the BBQ at my house.

Practice was pretty brutal, work stress has the muscles in my back in knots making it hard to breathe when I run ect.... whine whine whinge cry cry cry.....my age is really starting to show. 

After our last game of touch where I surprised my shorter opposition by kicking it over their heads, running around them then grabbing the ball and putting it down for the try. I retiered for the day.

We were having the BBQ for Tommy to celebrate him leaving for college in England. Good Luck Tommy!
 
Eric manning the BBQ


It was almost dark when we left and Eric and I did not get back to Kichijoji till almost 8.
We stopped along the way so Eric could take his photo with a ceremonial drum.

Eric and the Taiko Drum

When we got home I took a shower and went to bed immediately, next to me in bed was poor little Anna-chan who had a fever all day. She woke up several times durring the night and I did my best to make her comfortable. I hope she gets better soon.

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Starting the New Year right!

Wow another year down. I am sitting in our warm bedroom in Gotemba listening to Eric and Satomi and Anna snore away the New Year. Coldplay is playing on the stereo and in the distance I can hear a bell ringing. It will ring 108 times for our sins. That is what a country side New Years in Japan is like with a new baby. If you were not as lucky as my sister Mary and did not have the chance to meet my daughter. This is Anna. She was born 2008/12/16 at 0628 in the morning and is a happy and healthy baby girl. I just want her to be happy and as every fathers hope.....she does not meet a guy like me. Eric is very fond of the baby but not so fond of her smell sometimes. Today I tried to get the car cleaned and take Eric shopping. Along the way we had a problem because I tried to get him to sing some English songs instead of the Japanese ones he liked, then I proceeded to correct him when his English was not perfect. It came off wrong. He cried and asked me the most perfect question "Dad you can't even speak Japanese that good, we live in Japan, why do you get mad if I sing English songs wrong?" He is right but I am hard on him, for the same reason any other parent is hard on their kid; you want him or her not to make the same mistakes you made and because you want them to be better than you.