Just start Snowboard

Today we went up to Bogus for night snow boarding.

It was my snowboarding debut day!

I fell down again and again, hit the bottom, wrists and knees.

Finally I could come down from Top of the front side, but it was without turn technics just down.

But I'll keep to practice again and I want to get good skill for snowboarding same as ski!

Great snow has come!

On Sunday morning we went up to Bogus for Haruki and Minami's monthly lesson.

Both of the Friday and the Saturday we got a lot of snow in mountain area.

So on Sunday it was the best condition in this season.

Also there were so many people on the slope.

I brought my mini DV camcorder, and took some movies.

I have never seen myself for long time, but pretty good than my expect.

After lunch, Tommy , Takshi's wife also joined our party, and we had great ski and snowboarding.

Lathe drive belt

Finally I got the new drive belt for my wood lathe.

I was looking for it about one month.

First of all I went to Wood craft shop, but there were no belts for my lathe.

And at that time, I was suggested finding it at vacuum shop by assistant.

Today I had a time to see some vacuum shop, but I could not find any similar one.

So I went to Wood craft shop again.

Today the man who was working there recommended me to see KC tool supply.

And he explained me the location of that shop.

Almost I could understand but his last sentence.

He told me the shop was behind the "UFO".

I asked him what is the "UFO"

He said, you could see big truck and find store behind that truck.

Finally I recognized that was "U-Haul", then I got there and discover similar belt.

I need to learn English more and more! especially listening!

Actually that was for Delta planer belt and wider than my lathe.

But I decided to modify it.

It was easy to divide in half at center of the belt.

The half modified belt fit my lathe pulley!!

I was very happy, and will start new pen project very soon.

Fukuwarai

Today Haruki and Minami had shorinji lesson after school.

Yokoyama-san knew that Minami wanted to do "Fuku-warai" by my blog.

And he brought it and took a time to do it after lesson for Minami.

That was 1st time for her, and she looked really happy!

Thanks Yokoyama-san!

Kite Flying

In Japan, when I was childhood I used to do kite flying around the neighborhood park.

Actually I lost some kites by broken thread and stuck on something.

Haruki selected the kite and whick was 3d kite, looks fighter plane.

In U.S. we had much enough space to do kite flying.

I took my kids except Kent to Haruki and Minami's school and we did it at playground.

The wind was nice for flying, so we had a lot of fun.

But I did it longer time than any kids..., and at that time kids played with school equipment.

It was very fun!

Ski school 2nd week

Yesterday, Haruki and Minami had ski school, it was 2nd session.

Po took us to Bogus by his truck.

During the Haruki and Minami's lesson, we did hard again!

Actually, I was supposed to start snowboarding, but I could not yet.

Recently I wanted to get good skill in bump mogul slope, but it was too difficult for me.

I need to train my muscle, especially thigh.

Anyway we enjoyed Bogus almost all day.

Haruki and Minami, they could down almost middle level slope, so I did not have any concern.

But to ride the chair, I need to care of them, they were still smaller.

Japanese new year party

Today we went to new year party of Idaho Japanese association.

Ritsuko bring Kakuni, which was boiled pork block with eggs.

It was a kind of potluck party.

And also there were lot of donation food and drinks from Japanese restaurant.

I drunk Japanese sake "Uragasumi", it was tasty and drink easily.

All kids also enjoy playing with their Japanese friends.

Haruki played "Fukuwarai" with Yokoyama-san, Minami missed it, and regretted at home.

It was nice party.

Thanks all of party organizer of IJA!

Vegas!

I reviewed Las Vegas except business trip issue.

Just fan Las Vegas.

My flight was South West, it bought me from Boise to Las Vegas directly.

I stayed Imperial palace, the room was pretty good, but the cost was getting higher and higher,

1st night was $55 it was reasonable, 2nd and 3rd night was over$250, it was weird!

The 1st dinner was Sushi the restaurant name was "Sushi-roku", so nice!

Mistier, Ka and O, my best was "Ka"

We walked around near the hotel.

It was a lot of fun to see the night illumination and performance.

The day back to Boise, I still lost money with slot at air terminal....

Shorinji

Today Haruki and Minami had Wednesday shorinji class.

They reviewed 7-kyu and 8-kyu skill.

Minami was still behind Haruki, because she started later than Haruki.

But they will be able to practice together at home.

I believe she will catch him up sooner.

Also I need to prepare wear for Minami!

Lunch with Minami

Today we I and Ritsuko had a lunch with Minami at her school.

In this week, she had a poster session introduce herself in front of the class.

She could present her poster and talk about her to her class mates and teacher.

And we had the invitation of lunch that was the one prize for her from her teacher.

Ritsuko picked taco salad. Minami was also same one.

I got ham and cheese wrap.

We had lunch with Minami and her classmates.

It was good experience for us, Minami seemed happy!

Haruki also had lunch near the next table with his class mates.

Thanks,Minami!

You had great job!

Muscle ache

Today I had pretty muscle ache, but not whole my body.

Just it was thigh.

Yesterday, Jeff recommended me to work hard squat.

After taking shower, I tried it, then I had pain this morning.

But I will keep doing this exercises for great ski and snowboarding by this season end.

And also I am trying exercises for stomach muscle, I hope I can see six-pack stomach like Abercrombie model in this summer, maybe??

Ski school again!

Yesterday, I came back from LV business trip.

Haruki and Minami started ski school from today, it was 2nd session for them this season.

They were excited joining ski lesson again.

We warmed up before lesson, then I dropped them off at slope after meeting with their coach.

I was supposed to slow skiing because I did serious skiing by myself when I was alone.

Fortunately, I met Jeff , his brother and his son Cameron.

It was fine day, and we could see great cloud ocean.

Great run with group and lot of fun.

Thanks Jeff family!

But my leg will be pained tomorrow morning!

Anyway we will keep skiing every Sunday morning in January.

Business trip to Las Vegas

I just came to Las Vegas to see CES show.
Luckily, it was my business trip.

LV, there were huge hotels and casinos.
It was 2nd time to here, but 1st time of trip, it was almost 15 years ago...
When I was college student, I stayed LV 1 night.
At that time, I did not have much money. Still same?

CES show, I be lived it was most huge show I have ever been any other show.
I walked around and around almost 2 days, it was so hard that I was so sleepy both of day.

But LV, that is the sleepless town!
So I have to go to see the show of Cirque du soleil!
I watched "Mystere" and "Ka".
I'll go to see "O" today.
I'm looking forward to seeing that show!
I'll put picture later.

Battery trouble

This morning, I had trouble.

When I tried to start my track F250, there was no big noise, just silence...

Battery was dead!

I was supposed to replace it end of December, but I did not have any time, strep throat, Christmas and Bogus skiing...

First of all I tried to charge from Odyssey, but it did not work well.

Afternoon I got new battery and reinstall new one.

I spent much time to remove old one from the room, because the fix bolt was worn.

But finally I could replace and hear big noise from my truck.

It was lucky for me the car stop in front of my home!

I'll be able to drive my truck tomorrow.

Fiesta Bowl!

Today it was game day of Broncos Fiesta Bowl!

I and Haruki were looking forward to seeing the game.

We went to Jeff's home to see game together.

That was nice Bowl game party!

And it was great game!

Broncos beat the TCU finally.

After game Haruki get pop corn from Jeff and tried real rifle of Jeff's.

It was too much heavy to hold for him.

Anyway we had a great time,

Thank you very much Jeff-san, Tomie-san!

Yarkinicoski

It was great day for skiing.

I joined 1st Yarkinicos ski meeting at Bogus.

I was wondering which to do ski or snowboard.

But I had no experience to do snowboarding, so I hesitated to start it.

After all I did ski today.

But it was good choice, because all friends were good snowboarder, so if I did it, I could not follow them.

Anyway we had a lot of fun today.

Haruki and Minami will have ski class from next week, every Sunday morning again.

Should I have secret practice of snowboarding?

Gyoza

It was 2nd day of new year.

We ate ozo-ni in the morning again.

And lunch time we ate isobe-yaki, which was baked rice cake with seaweed.

Kids loved rice cake.

They were so interested in rice cakes were ballooning.

Ritsuko tried to cook Gyo-za, which was called pot-sticker in U.S.

Minami, Kanami and Otomi helped to wrap the meat.

Minami's were similar to Ritsuko's , Kanami's were also pretty good and Otomi's was too much meat?, but good job!

Thank you for helping mother cooking.

We had great dinner!