This is a story about an international couple raising and home educating three young boys on a small island in Japan, half living in buses, engaged in organic, self-sufficient farming in the middle of a mountain forest while dealing with climate, cultural, and personal challenges. These pages are about pretty much anything and everything all guided by our family motto, Taking Chances, Making Changes, Being Happy. Thank you very much for joining us on our ongoing crazy adventure.

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Home - Story - 2019 - January
Happy New Year

January 1, 2019 - We are really happy to be settled now after four moves in about eight years including three international moves. We can now relax on our beautiful island and focus on our family. The kids made some nice New Years decorations on the wall behind us.

Picture - Us hanging out together at our new house on New Years Day.

Picture - Home - New Years day picture in the house 1.
Picture - Home - New Years day picture in the house 2.
Picture - Home - New Years day picture in the house 3.
Picture - Home - New Years day picture in the house 4.
Picture - Home - New Years day picture of the kids at the house 1.
Picture - Takeyano Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 1.
Picture - Takeyano Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 2.
Picture - Takeyano Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 3.
Picture - Takeyano Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 4.
Picture - Home - New Years osechi ryori food.
Beach Fun

January 2, 2019 - The dogs made their triumphant return to the beach today and went absolutely crazy. The new house is close to the beach so no doubt they will get to go often.

Picture - The dogs playing at the beach.

Picture - Takeyano Beach - Dogs playing at the beach 1.
Picture - Takeyano Beach - Dogs playing at the beach 2.
Visiting Friends

January 3, 2019 - Before heading to the shrine, we decided to take some of our surplus potatoes to friends in our old neighborhood. Shizosan and Miyukisan were very happy to see us and especially the kids.

Picture - Visiting friends from the old neighborhood.

Picture - Nishino - Visiting friends in the old neighborhood 1.
Picture - Nishino - Visiting friends in the old neighborhood 2.
Hatsumode

January 3, 2019 - Yup time once again for hatsumode, AKA the first trip to a shrine on the New Year. We went to the Homan Shrine again this year because we like the hiking trail and not many people go there compared to Kumano shrine. A bit more space and privacy to think and reflect. The weather was nice and sunny.

Picture - Us on the really cool hiking trail leading to the shrine.

Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 1.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 2.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 3.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 4.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 5.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 6.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 7.
Picture - Homan Shrine - Hatsumode first trip of the new year to a shrine 8.
Favorite Beach

January 3, 2019 - We were going to drive right past our favorite beach on the way back from the shrine and could not resist hanging out for awhile. Today was a really windy day though and we returned home a bit sooner than we thought.

Picture - Us hanging out at our favorite beach.

Picture - Hamada Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 1.
Picture - Hamada Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 2.
Picture - Hamada Beach - Hanging out at the beach together 3.
Farming Again

January 4, 2019 - We returned to our farms after taking quite a few days off to prepare for, and enjoy, the New Years holiday. Aside from all of the stuff we are growing at the house, we are also using two farms each about two kilometers from our home. The farm in the picture is huge and is owned by a friend from the old neighborhood who is letting us use it for free. A lot of work to maintain but we are producing a ton of food, so much that we are giving stuff away and sending to friends and family. We already harvested about 800 anno imo sweet potatoes (two different kinds) and estimate we will produce about 400 regular potatoes. All produced without any chemical fertilizers. Much more about farming to come in future posts.

Picture - Shai and Lael were busy picking potatoes today.

Picture - New Farm - Doing some work together at the farm 1.
Picture - New Farm - Doing some work together at the farm 2.
Picture - New Farm - Kids picking potatoes at the farm 1.
Picture - New Farm - Kids picking potatoes at the farm 2.
Rental Farm

January 7, 2019 - Today we returned to the rental farm (60 bucks per year) after what seemed like weeks. Picked some stuff and returned home.

Picture - Rental Farm - Picture of all the stuff we are growing (1/7/2019).
Strong Earthquake

January 8, 2019 - A whole lot of shaking going on tonight. At approximately 9:39 pm local time the earthquake hit Tanegashima island. I was in the study working on the computer while Akiko was in the bedroom watching TV with the boys. I ran into the bedroom thinking I might need to throw myself on the family as protection....um a little overreaction maybe but this house was really shaking. The quake lasted for what seemed to be about 30 seconds. While there was apparently no damage, it still freaked us out a bit.

Picture - Line showing the distance between our home and the epicenter on the coast.

The epicenter was a mere 10.14 Kilometers (6.30 miles) from our home and almost directly on the coast. Although a fault line does parallel the coast, an earthquake of this magnitude is pretty rare for this location. Anyway, being the science geek that I am, I copied and reformatted the information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) pages and uploaded them to this site. If nothing else this will serve as interesting information for my kids when they get older.

USGS link to the actual earthquake information page
Links to reformatted detailed USGS information about the earthquake

Picture - USGS - Google map showing the distance from our home to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Picture - USGS - USGS information showing possible ground damage which was estimated as minimal.
Picture - USGS - USGS map showing the epicenter of the earthquake.
Picture - USGS - USGS main page showing available information about the earthquake.
Picture - USGS - USGS moment tensor page with detailed information.
Picture - USGS - USGS nearby seismicity information showing other recent earthquakes.
Picture - USGS - USGS property damage information page which was also estimated as minimal.
Picture - USGS - USGS earthquake origin page with even more detailed information.
Picture - USGS - USGS map showing other locations where the earthquake was noticed.
Picture - USGS - USGS map showing regional information.
Picture - USGS - USGS map showing the extent and range of the earthquake.
January 10, 2019 - Facebook Post - The Great Tanegashima Earthquake of 2019 - Hey I posted information about the earthquake on my personal site. Our house was really shaking. Check it out when you can.

January 14, 2019 - Facebook Post - FANTASTIC WEATHER AGAIN TODAY - The temperature got up to like 70 degrees again today. We went to the beach close to the house. This picture was actually from about a week before. Anyway this is the same beach. The dogs ran off and we could not find them and went home. They showed up at the house a few minutes later. Good doggies for sure.

January 20, 2019 - Facebook Post - WHY WE MOVED TO THIS PLACE? - Really needed to post this. We went to the beach close to the house. Then on the way home we met an old lady who is on the same street. She gave us a bunch of really nice cauliflower from her farm. Her husband came over a few days before and gave us a lot of daikon….huge white radishes. A lady we met for the first time at the beach, who was with her daughter and grandchild, showed up at our house a few minutes ago with a ton of potatoes, and other stuff from her farm. Even though we are growing a lot, we continue to receive from the neighbors. Recently we gave away a lot to friends and family as well. This is such a kind and giving place. This is the way a society should be….safe, kind, giving, humble. Really happy our kids can grow up in such a wonderful place.