I have gone ahead and added a Guestbook to the website. We are seeing more and more traffic from people we don't know and thought if folks found some useful information on the site they might want to leave a record of their visit.

Hello. Well as you may have noticed, we have moved into our new domain space, http://www.themercers.ca.

It was a bit of a trick moving over all the data, as I made a lot of changes to the backend of things (to the mySQL database for you techies). It required me to rebuild the Osaka Photo Gallery (now retired as of 2012) from scratch, but I needed to update a bunch of the pictures anyway. In particular, I doubled the amount of pictures from our wedding, this was because when I originally did up the website we were still having all of our pictures converted to digital.

The Forum moved over quite well although there might be a couple hick-ups so if you see something funny please drop me an email to .

Last but not least, Kana and I are working on a section called "Craig & Kana's Crash Course for Canadians in Kansai"…kinda rolls off the tongue doesn't it? Basically it is a collection of articles on how to do different things in and around Osaka, from buying a computer, to finding foreign food, to finding a nice place to go for dinner on a Friday night. We just felt we might be able to help other folks in a similar situation to ours! Hope it helps.

Hey Everyone. Kana and I wanted to wish everyone back home a great big HAPPY CANADA DAY. I was commenting to some friends that this is my first Canada Day not being in Canada which is weird. I've got so many good memories of Canada Days, from Dad's BBQ get togethers, to fireworks off Clover Point to way back when Adam became a Canadian Citizen on Canada Day…GOOD TIMES.

We hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend.

Cheers!

Just so everyone back home knows, Kana and I are okay. The train accident happened in Amagasaki which is just east of Kobe, about an hour west from where we live in Osaka. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families who have lost loved ones in this terrible accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagasaki_rail_crash

ANZAC DAY

On Sunday night (April 25th) Kana and I had the opportunity to celebrate Anzac Day with some Aussie friends from work.

For those of you who don't know, (like me until I did some research) April 25th or Anzac Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day) is one of the biggest holidays for Australia and New Zealand. It is a day to remember the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) who fought (and lost) in the battle of Gallipoli in 1915 during the First World War. Although the Aussies and Kiwis fought very bravely, they and their British and Indian counterparts could not win the battle and were forced to withdraw. This ANZAC Day marked the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign.

Anyways spirits were of a lighter nature at Tin's Hall where we went to hear Daniel who is the significant other of Narelle, one my friends from work (both from Australia). Daniel who is a really good guitar player and singer plays at different bars around Osaka. He was awesome on Sunday night (and like me broke his G sting in the middle of his set) and Kana and I had a great time.

It was good to raise a pint of Victoria Bitter and remember with our Aussie and Kiwi cousins the victories and defeats of years past. Cheers Mates!

Cherry Blossom (Sakura) viewing is a big deal in Japan. Every spring when the Sakura trees come into bloom almost everyone in Japan will go to a local park and sit under the trees and “take time to smell the roses” as we say.

Because the first rain washes the blossoms off the branches makes Sakura so precious, and this fact is not lost on the Japanese.

People of all ages, from all walks of life take time out to gather with friends and family under the trees and reflect on life (and for those not so reflective to have a few beers).

Kana and I were so busy last Saturday that we didn’t make it to Sakura, and it rained all day on Tuesday washing all the blossoms away. Oh well, maybe we can make a video next year.

It is 9:14pm here in Osaka and I got home about 45 minutes ago. The short of it is that I got the job at Royal Kids International School.

They put me in the infant class (as I later found out everyone does the infant class on their trial day) as it is the toughest class (ages 1-2). So if you can make it in the infant class you can make it in any class.

The Owners of the School (Mr. & Mrs. Okumura) were coming for a Staff Meeting at 6:30pm and wanted to meet me. So after working the day and then shaking the owners’ hands…they said I was hired. Must have been quite a hand shake.

So I start tomorrow morning 9:30 to 6:30 Monday to Friday with the odd Saturday class thrown in once in awhile.

When all is said and done it took sending out the resume to 6 schools and interviewing at 2 of them to land a job that is just what I needed.

After getting my spousal visa and sending out my updated resume I landed a couple of interviews.

The first one was with a company where you go to two different kindergartens everyday…needless to say I think I need a little more experience for that one.

The second one was for a kindergarten named Royal Kids International School. It is one school in the heart of Osaka with about 80 students (60 on site at any given time). Well the interview went pretty good and the owner asked me to come in for a one day trial to see if I like it and see if they like me. The trial day is today (Wednesday Mar.02)….so we’ll see how it goes…my first experience with kids in Japan.

Wish me luck.

Well some good news to report. My Spousal Visa was issued to me on Friday. Kana and I met up downtown to pick it up at the Immigration Office. It is good for 1 year (they have up to a 3 year but no one gets them anymore), so now I can start applying to the companies I have been keep track of.

Should be good times ahead.

I joined the Kansai Linux User Group (KLUG) this week as one of 5 inaugural members. I thought it might be fun to hang out with some international tech geeks.

One of the members suggested we help out with a charity “Computers for Cambodia” fixing up PCs for free to help those who need em.

Should be fun to say the least.

Kana is having fun at the new job, it's a little boring at times (getting up to speed on company policy etc), but it is a fairly decent job which isn't too far from home.

Happy New Year everyone. I know it is still New Years eve back in Canada, but here it is New Years Day 2005. WOO HOO!

We had a great time yesterday watching all the TV specials, and it was a good thing we were watching TV because it snowed most of the morning.

It was a great time had by all with great food, including a bowl of buckwheat noodles at midnight (presumably for good luck in the New Year).

Kana and I wish you all the very best that God has for you in 2005.

Hello All. Just an update on how our first Christmas dinner went here in Japan. Let me start out by saying that Kana says it was the “Best Christmas Ever!” as her family never gets together on Christmas let alone exchanging gifts. So there ya go.

We had a little 10cm tall Christmas tree which we stacked all the gifts around. We also rented “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Japanese subtitles of course.

Now to what this article is all about…the dinner. I guess I should have tested the chili powder out ’cause it is a bit hotter (the variety we got anyways) over here than at home. I put in about half as much as I usually do and man if that chili wasn’t the hottest chili I ever made. YIKES!

Kana’s Sister Chie, has a boyfriend named Shingo and he is not a big fan of hot stuff anyways. He is over there on the other side of the table trying to be polite and choking back some throat scarring chili. I told Kana to tell him to just leave it and I would not be offended. But I have to give him credit, he ate it all. Of course he had to drink a few beers to wash it down…but good job anyways.

Let that be a lesson to you kiddies…when cooking in foreign lands. Make sure to test out the spices FIRST before making your chili THERMO NUCLEAR!

Shingo and Chie and the Christmas Chili

Kana and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. It is Christmas morning here in Japan. Unfortunately the family is all working so Kana and I will celebrate with them when they get home form work.

We don't have an oven big enough to cook a Chicken or a Turkey, so I am going to cook some chili and see how that goes over.

It was fun just finding the ingredients. We had to go to like 5 department store food sections to find the chili powder.

Anyways, we hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Today (Dec.23) is Emperor Akihito's Birthday! So it is a day off for everyone in the Ogino household. I think we might hit the driving range (next door) and get some exercise today.

It's kinda weird having a holiday so close to Christmas, when Christmas isn't a holiday (at least it is on Saturday this year so most of the family has the day off).

Japanese Emperor Akihito is 71 years old today

Kana and I travelled down into Osaka to got to the Immigration Bureau to see about my Visa stuff and afterwards we went shopping in a mall nearby where we found a Starbucks.

Starbucks in Japan is, well, Japanese. They greet you at the door and hand you a menu while you wait in line. They bow and thank you for your business when you leave. It is a very nice experience all around.

Hey All! I added a new Mercer Adventures video page today (retired in 2012 as they’ve been incorporated into the blog). Kana and I have been taking pics with our digital and the odd snipit of video. I think they are a cool way to show a little of our life here in Osaka. Enjoy.

After taking a full week to recover from the 17 hour time change, it's time to launch the website. Some things are still under construction and some will be updated regularly. Don't Miss It.

I am also planning on starting a little regular news item on here called "Reflections" which will be my little contribution in trying to reflect Japan (and in particular Osaka) through my eyes.