We are the Hayman family....a very
different kind of family. This is a story about an international couple, who are
not working in the conventional sense, with kids that are being home educated,
existing mostly free from the constraints of society, and spending 24/7
together, while dealing with climate, cultural, and personal challenges, and all
guided by our family motto, Taking Chances, Making Changes, Being Happy. These
pages are all about our interests, thoughts, and anything else which seems
noteworthy. Thank you very much for joining us on our ongoing adventure.
Learn more about us.
Hey friends. We moved to Okayama Prefecture in Japan. We spent 10 years living
on Tanegashima Island until it was time to move on to a larger house and a place
that more fits this family. More specifically, our new home is located in
Setouchi City which borders Okayama City. This place is adjacent to the Seto
Inland Sea which has beaches offering beautiful views of the islands and great
fishing. The neighborhood we moved to is in the countryside at the base of a
mountain. The neighbors are wonderful and we have made many good friends in our
few months in this house. We want to thank our friends on Tanegashima for all of
the good memories on the island. Hopefully many of you can visit us in Okayama.
Until then.
Thanks to a torn bicep about 10 years ago (see picture), a
hernia, and rheumatoid arthritis, I decided to return to
strength training as a way to alleviate the daily pain and
fatigue.
I realize there are a lot of opinions about
what, when, and how you should do strength training. Many
years ago I worked out, a lot, and this is what worked for
me, albeit, now I am working out with much less weight. I am
now more interested in getting toned and adding strength to
the areas around my joints. Trying to add more bulk and size
was definitely something for my younger days. Anyway, this
is my workout routine. Continue
reading....
With the outside yard projects mostly complete and interior
renovations on the house wrapped up, my attention is now
turning towards the New Year and getting a bit ahead of the
usual resolutions. I began doing a light weight workout in
the house before heading off to the second floor of the
garage for a full weight workout next month. I also began
doing about 30 minutes of my movement workout with my
favorite psytrance videos. For those of you working out, or
into psytrance, check out my page. Continue
reading....
Autumn leaves (koyo, oyou) 紅葉（こうよう）and maple (momiji, kouyou) もみじ（紅葉、黄葉）refer to
the phenomenon in which leaves change color before they fall , mainly on
deciduous broad-leaved trees . In the strict sense, yellow leaves are called
yellow leaves (koyo, ouyou), red leaves are called autumn leaves (koyo), and
brown leaves are called brown leaves (katsuyo), but it is often difficult to
strictly distinguish between these, and so they are all often treated as "autumn
leaves."
Okayama City has a mild climate in comparison to most of Japan. It has the most
rain-free days (less than 1mm of precipitation) of any city in Japan. It is
ranked as the second driest and the fourth sunniest city in the Chūgoku region.
The climate is classified under the Köppen climate classification as humid
subtropical (Cfa). That said, there is still a distinct four season climate with
noticeable differences in temperature and humidity throughout the year. Autumn
is no exception with cool sunny days and crisp cool nights.
Okayama Prefecture is famous for its autumn leaves, featuring beautiful fall
foliage in its famous gardens, highlands, and scenic valleys. Popular spots
include the Koraku-en Garden, Kibitsu Shrine, and areas like Okutsu Valley and
Kanba Falls, where the colors are spectacular from late October through early
December. The Okayama Prefectural Tourism Federation provides Autumn foliage
information for 23 locations distributed throughout Okayama Prefecture. The link
below opens to a new tab and is in Japanese - right click on the page and then
click Translate to English.
Click for the most recent Autumn foliage updates....
My Son Shai Made His First Documentary
My son Shai made his first documentary. This is about Bizen pottery, or
Bizen-yaki, which is celebrated as one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns and stands
apart for its unglazed, earthy surfaces that gain their beauty directly from
fire and clay. This project really means a lot to him.
PLEASE WATCH AND COMMENT....THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
For more detailed information about the process consider reading the following: The Cultural Roots of Japanese Pottery The Identity of Bizen Pottery
The “thoughts” section of my blog was mostly inspired by the
2016 presidential election and the turmoil which Donald Trump created during his
four years as president of the United States of America....what used to be a
great country. I am miles away from America (now residing in Japan) and continue
to watch American society degrade further into a violent, paranoid, and
materialistic culture. Then in 2024, the unthinkable happened. Continue
reading....
The place is Japan. The date is December 25, 2025. While
drinking the usual morning cup of coffee and looking out at the colorful display
of ending Autumn foliage on the trees of the mountain behind our house, a
thought came to me. A new word was needed to describe the transformation of
present day "sheeple" society into what is surely becoming a proletarian
society. I came up with the obvious choice "sheeprole" which is a portmanteau of
"sheeple" and "prole" which is a member of the working class. No, I am NOT a
conspiracy theorist, but recent events in America and worldwide indicate a trend
towards a 1984ish dystopian future. With a bit of help from AI, I came up with
this page. Continue
reading....
RECENT
My
3rd Grade Picture
I was replying recently to some Hanukkah 2025 comments on Facebook and went to the FB page of
my friend Diane Safir and found a 3rd grade picture in her photos which she
received from Julie Stovroff, another friend from back in the day. Anyway this
is me circa 1968-1969 with my classmates shown in the two picture links below.
Full
class picture - interesting the principal of the school is in the picture
but not the teacher. Did I miss something?
DECEMBER 21, 2025 Eating Homemade Frizza
We ate "frizza", as we call it because Akiko makes them in a frypan. Akiko is
really fantastic at cooking and her "frizza" rivals anything you could eat in a
restaurant.
NOVEMBER 27, 2025 Happy Thanksgiving
Hey everybody. Happy
Thanksgiving from our family to yours. This is yet another Thanksgiving in Japan
but our first in our new home in Setouchi City.
NOVEMBER 23, 2025 Getting Free Rice Chaff
Today we went to Kuyama san's
farm processing area to get rice chaff, which is basically the unwanted husks of
processed rice grains.
OCTOBER 31, 2025 Halloween Party
Happy Halloween. We had a nice
Halloween party with our neighbors, the Idie san family. A
lot of really great food, copious amounts of alcohol, and a
long karaoke session in the music room.
OCTOBER 31, 2025 Family Halloween Costumes
This was "the look" for this
year's Halloween party, the first at our Setouchi house. I was um, a heavy metal
rock star, Akiko was witch, Lael was a vampire, Ethan was a zombie, and Shai was
a zombie as well.
OCTOBER 7, 2025 Praying Mantis Eating
There was a praying mantis in
the backyard next to the well which caught and ate a suzumebachi hornet, the
murder hornet.
OCTOBER 3, 2025 Removing Mud Wall
Removing the wattle and daub
mud wall in the bathroom to get access to our bathroom from our bedroom. What a
mess and what a hassle. This was way more difficult than I thought.
OCTOBER 2, 2025 Processing Garlic Together
This was an afternoon of processing garlic for the garden together. We bought a
lot and a couple of different kinds this year.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 Using Backhoe
Our neighbor and friend Kuyamasan let us use his backhoe to completely change
the landscaping of the adjacent property which used to be a huge bamboo forest.
WE ARE SELLING OUR MOUNTAIN 私たちは山を売っています。 Tanegashima Mountain For Sale We are selling 4.5 acres of
forested mountain adjacent to Saikyo Dam and across from
Appoland Park. The property has panoramic views of Saikyo
Reservoir. The forest contains hundreds of hinoki and sugi
trees perfect for building a cabin.
THOUGHTS
- Living
How to be Happy
I am not a therapist, psychologist, philosopher, or
motivational speaker. I am simply someone who has been
through a lot of good and bad times and has learned much
along the way.
THOUGHTS
- Health Yoga
Workout My yoga workout. I was looking for a way to simply
feel better without all of the spiritual mumbo jumbo usually
associated with practicing yoga.
THOUGHTS - Health Strength
Training My strength training workout. Thanks to a torn bicep
(see picture), a hernia, and rheumatoid arthritis, I decided
to return to strength training as a way to alleviate the
daily pain and fatigue.
This is a collection of old posts and unfinished sections of
my blog. I was going to delete a lot of this information as
much of it is no longer relevant. Then I realized a lot of
this is part of our family history and decided to keep it
for our kids. Then they can look back at what brought us to
where we are today.
