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 - 2020 - June
Happy Anniversary

June 4, 2020 - Happy 13th wedding anniversary to my wonderful wife Akiko.

Picture - Us hanging out together at home.

Picture - Home - Us hanging out together at home-1.
Picture - Home - Us hanging out together at home-2.
June 3, 2020 - Facebook Post - AMERICA FINISHED - Recently been reading the news from America in disbelief. With the often used terms “developing country” and “third world country” now considered politically incorrect, there seems to be no way of adequately describing the United States of America, my former home. This is what we are reading in the news every day. A country with selfish people more interested in their individual rights (freedom over controlling a dangerous pandemic) than the safety of others, police brutality, rioting in the streets, mass shootings, racial division and discrimination, degradation of women, huge gap in wealth distribution, widespread unemployment, rampant sales and use of illegal drugs, corrupt politicians, a dysfunctional legal system, and basically a society which is self centered, immoral, and completely lacking in common sense. We returned to America a couple of years ago and decided in give it a try and make it our home. After three months in the middle of a white, conservative, religious, gun owning, Trump loving, mountain community, we could not wait to return to Japan. I am happy to not ever set foot in America again.

June 4, 2020 - Facebook Post - CRAZY RAIN  - The Japan rainy season (TSUYU) is full on now and we received at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) of rain in the last couple of days. The rain and constant thunderstorms are very relaxing. The pond in front of our house is now full and overflowing into the turtle habitat. The picture shows the yard about a couple of months ago (left side) and the yard today (right side) all greened up in the pouring rain. The weather radar shows a huge band of thunderstorms coming in a few hours and the forecast is for lots more rain in the next few days. Really nice.

June 6, 2020 - Facebook Post - UNBELIEVABLE RAIN - We are getting an unbelievable amount of rain since last night. Probably about eight inches in the last few hours. Usually playing music while working on the computer but not today. Nice to listen to the thunderstorms and rain. Going to spend a couple of hours processing seeds from last season to be used next Autumn. Bought a bunch of cow poop at the farm store and put four bags, about 160 liters total, around our over 200 fruits trees. With all of this rain and cow poop, the trees will go crazy during the next few weeks. The forecast is for warm and humid days….Summer begins.
Baby Coming

June 8, 2020 - Kind of a crazy story.

Picture - Us hanging out together at the birthing center.

During the afternoon our very close friend, Miharasan, called to say he had sweet potato vines ready for our farm and wanted to know what to do. We said that we could pick them up at his house or he could bring them to our house and spend a bit of time together. Then we decided to make it a small dinner party. Akiko was feeling there could be a chance the baby might be coming but we decided to go for it anyway. This was actually our first meeting with any of our friends since we began social distancing and closed off our property months before. Our friend came with his wife but she already had a plan and could not stay and said hi and went back home. Recently I am not drinking wine much but my friend brought over a really nice Bordeaux from France and I brought out our wine and we began drinking together. Before we knew it we were both getting a bit drunk. Then his son and wife, who is also pregnant, showed up.

By that time Akiko decided it might be better to go to the birthing center since she was not feeling too good. I tried to drive and got as far as the local farm store and we pulled into the parking lot. Akiko thought it was better for her to drive....strong woman and good choice. This would be a first for us but I gave in of course.

We arrived at the birthing center a little before midnight. They told Akiko the baby would most likely come within 24 hours and told her she needed to stay. They put us in the family size room and we got a bit of sleep. The baby was born about four hours later. We all stayed together in the birthing room room for awhile and then I decided to bring my tired boys home for some good sleep. We returned in the afternoon to see Akiko and the baby who were now in a new room. We spent some time with them and then came home again.

Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together at the birthing center-1.
Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together at the birthing center-2.
Baby Born

June 9, 2020 - Welcome to our new son, Ethan Mishael Hayman, who was born on Tanegashima Island, Japan on June 9, 2020. Both the first and middle names are Hebrew and have really nice meanings. All of our kids have Hebrew names and are named in memory of my family members. We decided from the beginning to do something different and name our kids something other than typical American or Japanese names. Akiko really likes the Hebrew names and the fact there is meaning in each name, same as Japanese names which are written in Kanji. Actually our kids are registered in the traditional family line of her family and Akiko and her parents actually assign Kanji and Japanese names to our kids as well. They effectively have two names....both Hebrew and Japanese, each with their own meanings.
 
Baby Coming

June 10, 2020 - Another rainy day and me and the boys drove up north to see Akiko and the baby again. All is good and little Ethan is now beginning to cry much more. Akiko is doing fantastic and no doubt enjoying a few days of relaxation and pampering from a very over attentive Japanese staff at the birthing center.

Picture - Us hanging out together in the room at the birthing center.

Note: We were very fortunate to all be in the delivery room when the baby was born. Up until May 31, only the husband was allowed to be there. This was due to social distancing rules because of the virus. The rules were actually lifted a mere eight days before the baby was born....WHEW.

Whoa: Our friends Jim and Linda Timlin are in San Diego, California. Our new baby and Linda were born on the same date. A really nice coincidence.

Hey busy day doing laundry and looking after the boys. Going to post a lot more later.

Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together in the room at the birthing center-1.
Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together in the room at the birthing center-2.
Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together in the room at the birthing center-3.
Picture - Birthing Center - Us hanging out together in the room at the birthing center-4.

June 10, 2020 - Facebook Post - WELCOME TO OUR BABY - Hey Friends. Welcome to our son who was born yesterday in Japan. Please visit the following link on my personal blog for the continuing story and pictures.
 
June 11, 2020 - Another rainy day as the monsoon season continues on the island. Was really hoping to head to the beaches with the boys this week and even do some farming but the weather has other ideas for our plans. Anyway the baby has jaundice which we learned is typical in as many as 80 percent of babies born. He was wearing a mask over his eyes to protect him from the light treatments required. Our older son had jaundice but not our middle guy. Anyway a few pictures from today.

June 11, 2020 - Facebook Post - Added more to the story and a bunch of new pictures on the blog. Thanks for visiting my blog, reading our story, and checking out our pictures.
 
June 12, 2020 - Akiko and the baby spent their last day at the birthing center.
 
June 13, 2020 - Akiko and the baby came home today.
 
June 16, 2020 - The baby went for his follow up appointment and his jaundice test showed a high level of the same problem. He needed to stay overnight for another 24 hour light treatment.
 
June 18, 2020 - We drove up north again to pick up the baby who was finished with the light treatments. Was good for all of us to be home again.
 
June 19, 2020 - Today was the actual due date for little Ethan. Akiko stayed home with the baby while I took the boys to the farm to do some picking and weeding. Was able to pick but no weeding thanks to a mega thunderstorm which kept us in the bus for about 30 minutes.