 HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!
明けましておめでとうございます！！！！
Hey Friends. Happy New Year 2026. Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year.
I recently updated the story pages
of my blog. Please check out the new posts and new pictures when you can.
Thanks, and again, Happy New Year.
皆さん、こんにちは。2026年、明けましておめでとうございます。皆様が幸せで健康な新年を迎えられますように。最近、ブログのストーリーページを更新しました。新しい投稿と写真もぜひご覧ください。ありがとうございます。改めまして、新年おめでとうございます。
Click to read posts and see pictures
クリックして投稿と写真をご覧ください |
 Traditional
Lunch
January 1, 2026 - Akiko made a traditional New
Years lunch today along with the money envelopes for the kids. |
 Close
Up
January 1, 2026 - This is a close up of the lunch
and the Japanese sake. Akiko usually make many more different items, most of
which have some meaning, but she only made a few things this year since we are
busy with a few things now. |
 Happy
New Year
January 1, 2026 - We are really thankful for the
last year which saw us move to our new home. We are looking forward to a happy
and healthy 2026. |
 Sake
Taste
January 1, 2026 - A bit of Japanese sake which is
the traditional drink for New Years day. Except for Akiko, none of us are that fond of Japanese
sake though. |
|
|
Travel Time
January 2, 2026 - Today we traveled to Nara,
Japan to visit family. We first had to take the dog to the kennel called Felice.
Quite a name for a pet place, when separated could stand for iron lice, lol. We
then took a total of four trains to get there. We met family at Oji and grandpa
drove four of us to the house and then went back to the train station to pick
everybody else up. That night involved a whole lot of eating and drinking.
Nara Park
January 3, 2026 - The next day we went to Nara
Park to see the deer. Before getting on the train we went to visit relatives for
a few minutes. The park was a lot of fun albeit with a ton of people, especially
foreigners. We ate ice cream and petted a lot of deer. That night the same
relatives came to the house. Again there was a lot of eating and drinking.
Played Football
January 4, 2026 - Today we went to a local park
and played football and a bit of frisbee with the cousins. That night was more
eating and drinking.
Nostalgic Places
January 5, 2026 - Me and Akiko showed the kids
and took pictures together a few of the places that were important to Mommy and
Daddy back in the day. We began with a trip to the library. This is where I met
Akiko and the journey together began. Being there with her and our three boys
brought tears to my eyes. The library was closed but the lights were on and were
able to take some nice pictures and video together.
Next we went to the Royal Host restaurant. This is where me and Akiko went to
meet her parents together for the first time. This is also the place where I met
her sister for the first time on another day. Again more tears of happiness.
Then we went to the Mister Donut shop where me and Akiko used to go and hang out
and talk. Although the place was somewhat renovated, they were still playing
rock music from the eighties. We ordered a lot of food with coffee and hot
chocolate and then headed to the train station. After the train station, we
picked up the dog, went home, and then went to the grocery store to pick up
something to eat. Certainly was nice to be home again. We drank some wine and
other drinks and spent the night talking about the trip. |
 Earthquake
Today
January 6, 2026 - Today there was an earthquake
in Japan. The earthquake was strong enough to shake the house pretty good. Then
there was another earthquake which also made the house shake quite a lot. There
was also a third earthquake. The intial earthquake measured 5.7 on the American
scale, with the other two measuring 4.7 and 5.0 respectively.
When the earthquake hit, I was on the computer and our phones began saying
EARTHQUAKE over and over. I said to Akiko and the kids there was supposed to be
an earthquake and then seconds later the house began shaking like crazy. I ran
into the toy room and me and Akiko huddled and covered our two younger kids. Our
oldest son was in his room on the second floor. The earthquake here lasted about
30 seconds. A few minutes later the earthquake showed up on the USGS website as
a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. We are all okay and there was apparently no damage
to the house but it was pretty scary. More updates to follow.
USGS page for the
5.7 magnitude earthquake
Today was also the beginning of my New Years resolutions....well kind of. I went
for a one hour walk along the river with my family. They came along to support
my effort to get back to working out again. That night Akiko made "frizza",
which is her version of pizza made in a frypan. We drank another bottle of wine
which will be the last alcohol for awhile with the exception of house parties.
Working Out Again
January 6, 2026 - Today was the actual return to
working out. For the last about 10 months, I was really active doing home
improvement projects, mostly outside landscaping. Although that kept me in
pretty good condition, it wasn't the same as a formal workout. Today was the
return to working out. Today the whole family went for an hour walk along the
river close to our house. These days kind of cool outside in the afternoon but
great for walking. Then at night we ate "frizza", pizza made in a frypan, and
drank a bottle of wine. The plan is no more wine after tonight.
More Workout
January 7, 2026 - Today we went to the building
supply store to purchase some wood in order to complete a few projects. We picked up a few packs
of sushi and came home and ate lunch. Then in the afternoon I began strength
training again for the first time since moving from the island.
More Changes
January 8, 2026 - I did not eat breakfast today.
I am going to reduce the amount of carbohydrates I eat every day and this is a
good beginning. Planning to reduce the amounts of rice and pasta as well. I do a
complete abdomen workout while the family is eating breakfast.
Completing Projects
January 9, 2026 - I returned to home improvement
projects today and cut a few pieces of wood for the walls of the entry to the
bathroom. This used to be a hallway and will now be used to set up a table and a
computer. This area is directly between the bedroom and the bathroom and really
convenient for nighttime computer work.
More Home Improvement
January 10, 2026 - Today I made a really nice
laundry hanging area for Akiko in the long wood hallway. The entire hallway is
south facing and perfect for drying laundry. In Japan most women typically hang
laundry outside. The laundry can blow off onto the dirt on windy days, and stink
bugs can occasionally be found in the clothes. I was happy to make a laundry
hanging area in the house in order to make things more convenient for my
incredible wife.
Snowing Today
January 11, 2026 - Today it actually snowed. For
maybe about an hour it snowed off and on. Although our youngest son has seen
hail, we were pretty sure it was the first time for him to see snow. We decided
to go for our usual walk along the river but the snow "storm" was already
finished. When we went walking, the temperature was about 39 degrees F (about 4
degrees C), not cold by Buffalo, New York standards but a bit cold nonetheless.
Project Continues
January 12, 2026 - More work on the room between
the bedroom and the bathroom, worked out, and we went for a river walk in the
afternoon.
More Work
January 13, 2026 - More work on the room, river
walking, and oldest son went with a few old guys to work on the trail leading up
to the top of the mountain.
January 14, 2026 - More work on the room, river
walking, and a light weight workout thanks to a hurting shoulder.
January 15, 2026 - More work on the room, river
walking, and no weight workout because of the messed up shoulder. Planning to
only do strength training on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from next week.
Really not the journal or blogging type, might not continue writing daily posts
unless there is something noteworthy to write about.
January 16, 2026 - Actually went out to meet my
therapist, AKA my garden today. After weeks of remodeling the inside of the
house, the weather really warmed up and it was time to turn my attention to
gardening and preparations for the Spring crops. Today was all about soaking the
fruit trees and the garden....it had been really dry the last few weeks and
almost no rain. We also barbecued some chicken for naan bread sandwiches at
night.
January 17, 2026 - Another day working out in the
garden emptying out the compost bin and spreading it in the garden. Made a fish
barbecue in the afternoon. A bottle of wine at night.
January 18, 2026 - A bit of work today around the
barbecue area. Then went with the kids in the afternoon to Beautiful Forest
park. The long slide was actually repaired and open. Ate frizza at night and
another bottle of wine.
January 19, 2026 - Worked on the front yard
cutting wood in the parking area.
January 20, 2026 - Put caulking and set up
lighting in the small room next to the bathroom and bedroom.
January 21, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files. Then played chess at night. Played the game
with Ethan and he said to do the same moves as him and he won. Then played with
Lael and he won with me really trying. Used the bathtub for the first time
today. Went in with the little dudes. Was not much space but pretty fun.
January 22, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files.
January 23, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files.
January 24, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files. Was really cold outside again and we decided
to stay in the house. The night though turned out to be pretty crazy. Every
night we usually play some time of board game (yup no video games in this house,
except PBS kids) like four player chess or scrabble. Tonight the game choice was
Yahtzee. The last time we played I won with two Yahtzees. Tonight I won with
FOUR Yahtzees....yup four. The kids kept asking what are the chances and we
decided to find out.
I typed the following query in Chat GPT.
What is the chance of getting four Yahtzees in a single
game?
This was the answer.
Short answer: astronomically small.
Longer answer (with some intuition): on the order of one in many millions of
games.
How rare is this, really?
A standard game of Yahtzee has 13 turns, and on each turn you can roll up to 3
times to try to make something happen.
Some helpful benchmarks: |
- Chance of getting at least ONE Yahtzee in a full game
≈ 4–5% (about 1 in 20 games)
- Chance of getting TWO Yahtzees in one game
≈ 0.2–0.3% (roughly 1 in 400–500 games)
- THREE Yahtzees
≈ 1 in tens of thousands
- FOUR Yahtzees in a single game
roughly 1 in several million games (often estimated between 1 in 5 million
to 1 in 20 million, depending on play style and assumptions)
|
|
There’s no single “official” exact number because: |
- Strategy matters (when you chase vs. give up)
- Extra Yahtzees require the Yahtzee box to already be
filled
- Bonus Yahtzees depend on continued perfect outcomes
under pressure
|
But all reasonable models land in the “lottery-level rare” category.
Intuitive way to think about it: |
- Getting one Yahtzee already feels special
- Getting two feels like a story you tell people
- Getting three is something most lifelong players never
see
- Four Yahtzees in one game is the kind of result that:
- seasoned players may never witness in decades
- would be believable only with a scorecard photo
|
Bottom line
If someone says they rolled four Yahtzees in one game: |
- It’s possible
- It’s not impossible
- But it’s extraordinarily rare—comparable to a
once-in-a-lifetime (or never) event for most players
|
January 25, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files.
January 26, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files. Then ordered a refurbished computer.
January 26, 2026 - Email
Message - To Akiko for U.S. Embassy. Hi.
Thank you for sending email regarding the address change. Please change the
address for me, my wife, and two children as well. Thank you for your attention
in this matter. Howard S. Hayman.
January 27, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on deleting computer files. The new computer came today.
January 28, 2026 - Today friends from the beach
area came to the house for lunch and to hang out and play music.
January 29, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on the music section of the blog. We watched the movie "Back to the
Future 1" with popcorn and the lights out. This was the first time for Lael and
Ethen to see the movie, although the little guy ended up sleeping.
January 30, 2026 - Stayed in the house again and
worked on the music section of the blog. We watched the movie "Back to the
Future 2" with popcorn and the lights out. This was the first time for Lael and
Ethen to see the movie, although the little guy ended up sleeping again.
January 31, 2026 - Tonight we had a party with
the neighbors again. They invited cousins to the party. |
February 1, 2026 - Stayed in the house and set up
for pictures.
February 2, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 3, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures. Today was the crazy bean throwing holiday.
February 4, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 5, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 6, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 7, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures. Worked on repairing the bus. Today met family in Osaka for
lunch. We ate at the cheap restaurant and bought drinks at the Starbucks in the
shopping mall.
February 7, 2026 - Today it snowed enough for a
few millimeters accumulation and quickly melted during lunch. Then it snowed
even more in the evening.
February 8, 2026 - There was still a few
millimeters of snow on the ground when we got up today. We took a few pictures
in our yard and then played in the snow in the adjacent yard. Way too powdery
for making a snowman but good enough to throw a few snowballs. The truck went
for the two year inspection today.
February 9, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 10, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 11, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 12, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 13, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 14, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
sorted computer files and emails.
February 15, 2026 - Played with the kids in the
other yard. Cut the neighbors trees.
February 16, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 17, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 18, 2026 - Picked up the truck. Then ate
cheese fondue at night.
February 19, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 20, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 21, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
scanned old pictures.
February 22, 2026 - Stayed in the house and
sorted computer files and emails. Then played outside in the afternoon.
February 23-28, 2026 - Actually kind of forgot to
make entries for these days. Was way too busy working on sorting through old
pictures.
March 1-6, 2026 - With the exception of building
a new laundry hanging line in the wood floor area of the toy room, and possibly
the day the plywood was installed on the entry wall. Much of this week was spent
working on the genealogy pages for my family.
March 7, 2026 - We had a meal of taco Tuesday, um
on the first day of the weekend. Actually more like naan bread or a burrito and
really good, and a bottle of wine and calpis.
March 8, 2026 - This was our one year anniversary
in this house. We stayed in for the day and at night had "fritza", our version
of pizza and wine and calpis again.
March 9, 2026 - Went back to working out and
walking at the river today.
March 10, 2026 - Made the work bench for the kids
and shelves in the garage.
March 11, 2026 - Today knee was messed up from
working on the cold garage floor the day before. Went walking with Akiko and the
little dudes at the river again. The public speakers made a loud sound for like
a minute for the 15 year anniversary of the awful earthquake and tsunami that
occurred.
March 12, 2026 - Made the shelves for the work
bench.
March 13, 2026 - Spent the day working on the
property with the old house across the street and the corner lot, cutting and
burning weeds.
March 14, 2026 - Worked with Shai, our 16 year
old son, outside today. We completely trimmed the weeds in the yard of the 89
year old Budousan "Grape Lady" neighbor. Then we took out the two pine trees
which where about 8 and 12 feet tall and moved them to our yard. The 8 foot tree
was brought putting the root ball in a wheelbarrow and going backwards along the
street while the other person carried the canopy. The 12 foot tree needed to
have the canopy tied up, a rope was tied to the canopy and the other end to the
trailer hitch of our Toyoto Surf (4Runner in America), and the root ball was
dragged along the street to the top of the wall in the back of our yard. The
road is extremely narrow and drops off 1 - 2 meters on the side. The truck
barely fits and Akiko sat on the passenger side to make sure we were not too
close to the wall on the other side of the street. The trees were both dumped
onto the tractor ramp leading into our yard until the next day.
March 15, 2026 - Today we were able to lower the
trees from the tractor ramp into our yard. After making a huge hole to
accommodate the root ball of the 12 foot tree, we were able to stand it up and
put it in place after a few tries. This tree was really heavy and it was only
the two of us lifting this up. The tree was now in place and tied up to other
trees in the yard and the concrete wall. The tree looks fantastic. The next
project is the 8 foot tree, which should be easier after the huge rock we found
is moved out.
March 16, 2026 - Today we put the 8 foot tree in
next to the other tree. Now there is a little forest park in the yard. I was
able to move the herbs to the side of the garden. Today we found the first
centipede of the year, pretty small, in the entry.
March 17, 2026 - Today the wood poles were put in
the garden for growing bitter melon, aka goya. Most of the wood was cut up and
moved under the eaves on the side of the house.
March 18, 2026 - Spent today scanning files for
the story and genealogy pages.
March 19, 2026 - Today the wood was cut up and
stored with more work on the garden.
March 20, 2026 - Today the small roof of the
small storage building at the farm was pulled off. A lot of old wood was
transported to the upper cornet lot and burned. A bit of weeding in the garden.
March 21, 2026 - More work on the garden. The bee
bottles were put up, eight all around the house. Put cow shit around the herbs
and put the sweet potatoes in pots to grow vines for the farm and garden.
March 22, 2026 - Worked on the garden, weeded the
garlic in the storage building, and put cow shit on the garlic. Received a deer
leg from a neigbor.
March 23, 2026 - Worked on the garden. Put in
green onions. Ate deer at night which was cooked in the house. Was a bit
difficult because a wild animal and not domesticated. Why does this matter. This
was not the first time to eat this but was the first time not cooked on the
BBQ....hmmmm.
March 24, 2026 - Processed all of the sugar cane
and put it in the mushroom substrate next to the wall in the upper yard. Now
many fruit trees blooming in the yard with pink flowers. Put all of the lotus
flower roots in the two concrete mochi making pots. Made a BBQ to use up most of
the lightweight wood in the yard. Moved the huge piece of wood and stained the
not good side which will be used as a table.
March 25, 2026 - Was raining the whole day.
Stayed in the house and worked on deleting emails and dates from files.
March 26, 2026 - Went to the beach house for the
first time this year to measure for the wall. The Makita chainsaw went to the
repair shop. Went shopping and ate sushi for lunch.
March 27, 2026 - Got the workbench for the kids
completed. Went to the park to take modeling pictures and play. Began playing
blackjack and poker today.
March 28, 2026 - Worked in the garden. Pulled out
the turmeric.
March 29, 2026 - Worked in the garden. Put in
wood posts and the rice husks. Then did BBQ for fritza night.
March 30, 2026 - Worked in the garden. Got rid of
old metal from the house and neighbor yard to Chinese guy. The old lady
neighbors were really happy and gave us food and a used rototiller worth about
300 dollars and an aluminum utility cart with a single wheel worth about 100
dollars.
March 31, 2026 - Worked in the garden. Processed
most of the turmeric.
April 1, 2026 - Today was much cooler with a
drizzly rain. Stayed in and worked on deleting emails and worked on the computer
files. Passover began at night and we made our first sedar. We videotaped with
Lael leading the service with me assisting. We watched a really creepy AI
generated Youtube video of the story of Passover which Ethan seemed to like at
the beginning but then decided it was not good.
April 2, 2026 - Today was my birthday. Spent some
time outside with the little dudes making stuff with wood and the magnifying
glasses. Then had a really nice meal of fritza with wine. They all made really
nice cards and it was a pretty emotional but nice night. Then we played a lot of
poker before going to bed.
April 3, 2026 - Made signs for the fruit trees in
the yard.
|
|
|
|
|
