Putting On My Big Boy Pants

During my first few years in Japan, I was fairly proactive in figuring things out for myself. That changed after I got married, though. Time and time again, I deferred anything that required Japanese to my wife. That included booking doctor and dental appointments, hiring handymen for home maintenance, planning family trips, running the administrative side of our English school, and most significantly, managing our finances. Not surprisingly, she reached […]

Chopsticks and Smiles

Here’s a rare picture of Rikuto smiling for the camera, and he has every right to be happy – he’s only 18 months old, but can eat his dinner with chopsticks! He also said his first English word yesterday… I was hoping for “daddy” or at least “google” (in the hope of striking it rich as the “Google baby”), but no. Rikuto’s first English word was “crash!” – the result […]

Poem: A Cute Little Fellow

I while ago my mum wrote a poem about her relationship with the grandson she has only seen via a webcam. In her latest poem, she talks about his antics with phones and fire extinguishers. Very funny stuff… I love my baby grandson, Ricky. He’s such a cute little fellow to me. He lives so far away in Japan, A strange country across the sea. Read the rest here If […]

Rikuto Walking (properly) for the First Time

I take Rikuto to the shopping center a lot. It’s close to home, it’s spacious and there are places for Rikuto to play, eat and have a change of underwear. Last week, though, I was pleasantly surprised when he took it upon himself to practice his walking skills… If you can’t see the video, watch it here on YouTube. If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. […]

Two Front Teeth

I just heard that my poor dad tripped on the pavement while running for the bus and knocked his two front teeth out. I do hope he gets well soon. In the meantime, here’s a little ditty to cheer him up: If you can’t view the video, watch it here on YouTube. Update: My dad’s got a new set of pearly whites, and my mum wrote an entertaining poem about […]