But of course...

...and I was so proud of being somewhat consistent about blogging! Where did the first two months of the year go? It's not that time passed by too fast, or at least that's not the whole picture. I think it had more to do with my weekends (specifically Saturdays) being super busy. This past two months I had two 2-3 day long work related conferences, taught a Hungarian cooking class, participated in a koto recital, went on a 5-day holiday to Sapporo, enjoyed Valentine's Day a day late, and participated in a walking tour. That's seven out of nine weekends. Other things that also took precedence over blogging were our weekly cleaning mini-marathons, and Skyping with family.

I guess I was busier than I thought. Still, I'm a little sad that the last update about Rini's development was a combined post of her being 19 and 20 months old back in mid-November, and she will turn two years old this Saturday! Unbelievable, it really is.

I hope sometime soon I will be able to catch up on some of the things I wanted to write about, but considering my husband is leaving for two weeks to visit family and friends in about 10 days, I don't know how realistic these hopes are. Still I just have to try, because I have so much to talk about, so much I want to remember, so much I'd like to think through using this blog. 

Here's hoping...

2013 in Review

2013 was ... tough... fun... enlightening... and a whole bunch of other adjectives that I'm sure I could list would I be a better writer. I definitely learned a lot.

In 2013, I posted 35 blog posts and have 6 drafts in the works. While to many people this might not seem like a big number, to me it's an accomplishment. Even though I did not reach my original goal of 52 blog posts in 52 weeks, I'm really happy, because I posted four times (five, if I add the drafts) as many blog posts as the previous year, and over twice as many than ever before. That's a lot of memories and thoughts, which in previous years came and gone without a trace.

In 2013, I drastically increased the days when I was out of bed before 6 A.M., hence making sure I left for work on time. This habit called for waking up before 6 A.M. five days a week, and though I only have 13 weeks of complete success, I have another 14 weeks of success on 4 days out of the 5. I really like my habit app, but I wish there was a way to not count days when I didn't have to work, either because it was a holiday or because I was sick. I think my numbers would have been much higher if that was possible.

In 2013, I also finally got into the habit of brushing my teeth twice a day. Out of the 360 days that I kept track of this on my app on my phone, I succeeded 327 days. 

There were some other resolutions that I didn't do so well on. 

I promised to finish knitting a sweater for my husband by his birthday (December 22nd), but there is still a little bit left to go. I will focus my energies on this for the next couple days, so he can wear it before work starts up again.

I also didn't do well with studying Japanese. OK, my attempt at it was abysmal and almost nonexistent. But I also used it more often than ever before. My goal is to pass the N3 level of the JLPT in July, but I have yet to open any of the N3 books. I guess I should make this one of my new resolutions for 2014: to make regular time for studying. 

* * * * * * *

Some other things that happened in 2013 were picking up koto lessons, participating in boardgame nights almost every week, and trying to educate myself in personal and family finance. I'm also thinking about our move back to Hungary a lot... the whats, whens, and hows.

2014 will be an eventful year, and I'm looking forward to every minute of it!

It's Almost Time... But Not Yet!

I'm hoping to make this post a battle cry of sorts. A lot of little and big things happened this past month that seem to have just drained all my energy away. 

• I've been sick for over 3 weeks now, going from a little annoying cold to really stupidly annoying cold and back, and I just about had enough of it.
• Winter is here, at least that's how it feels like from recent temperatures. Generally this wouldn't bother me one bit, because I like winter, but Japanese houses have close to no insulation, making being inside almost as cold as outside. And when the only respite one has is a hot shower, it can wear on you.
• Finally, there's been a lot of talk about our future plans, mostly in my head. This matters because I'm slipping into my version of senioritis; I'm so involved with the future that I just want to start with those plans RIGHT NOW.

So my point is, I have to try and psyche myself up for the work I have to do now. I know this feeling is temporary, but right now, it's a bit too much. So I'm going to try to write some positive statements about right now.

• I enjoy my job. Most of my schools are super nice. The couple that I don't really match with just need a change in perspective.
• I enjoy my time with my coworkers and my students. Most of my students like having me teach their class.
• I'm making a difference at work.
• I volunteered for things because they're fun to do. It's OK to do only as much volunteering as I want to.
• Problems in my personal life will sort themselves out sooner or later. Focusing on work is a way to let those problems rest, so that I can find new perspectives and solutions when I come back to them.
• Enjoy now, because now only lasts a moment, then it's gone forever.
• Focusing on the future will not solve today's problems and worries.
• Focusing on the distant future will not make the near future come any later.
• Just because I'm not being super productive doesn't mean I have to be a complete lazy bum. Work on finding a middle ground.
• But it's OK to be a lazy bum occasionally.
• It's OK to say no, and be selfish once in a while.
• Being able to work through selfish thoughts without acting on them is a good thing.
• There will be time for _____ later.
• Focus on priorities. Priorities are a good way to be more productive in less time, leaving more time to enjoy other things. 
• It's OK to feel negative emotions sometimes. The key is to work through them, then focus on the positive things.
• I will take a few minutes every day to appreciate just how lucky I am.

I know there are more things I could add to this list, but I can't think of any more at the moment. Now excuse me while I punch a few pillows in my head, and get out all the things that bring me down currently.

Tomorrow is a new day, but I'll enjoy today in the mean time.




Random last minute question:
Why do I always run to the future when I don't want to deal with the present?

Financial Steps

It's been 7 weeks since my previous post about finance, and I'm making good progress on reading the books from my list. So far I have finished The Millionaire Next Door, read "Part I" of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, and am in the process of reading Your Money or Your Life. Though I have yet to finish these last two books, I wanted to write a little bit about what I've learned so far about money and finance.

The Millionaire Next Door 

by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D.

This is the first book that I read after finishing up I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I chose to read this book for two reasons. The first reason was simply because it was available on Audible. The second reason was because I figured I should know where we (as a family) want to go, before trying to figure out more specific steps on how to get there. Does this make sense? It's the same as when someone goes on vacation... we generally pick our destination first, then we buy the ticket to get there. 

While it's not our goal to become millionaires in the way most people think about being millionaires, I wanted to find out the secrets of the people who are millionaires, to see if I could learn something from them. This book came highly recommended on many personal finance blogs, and I could see why.

The authors of this book interviewed millionaires of the U.S., that is U.S. households with net-worths exceeding one million dollars, to see what their habits were when it came to money. This was the first time I heard about the importance of net-worth, as opposed to the amount of money one has. Basically what this means is that it's not just how much someone makes, but how much they have to show for that income over time. The authors divided the millionaires of the U.S. into three categories: Under Accumulators of Wealth (UAW), Average Accumulators of Wealth (AAW), and Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAW). While all the households in the three groups are technically considered to be millionaires, the main difference is that the UAWs tend to live like millionaires in the traditional sense (fancy cars, a big house, private education for the children, etc), but don't have enough money to keep up their lifestyle without their income for more than a few months or so. PAWs on the other hand look more like average Joes, but they have enough wealth to sustain their lifestyles for a decade or two or longer, even if they don't make another cent for the rest of their lives. The best way to become a PAW is to have not just a high income (good financial offense), but to be mindful of where one's money goes and being frugal (good financial defense).

I always knew it was important to save money, but this book really brought it home, just how much it costs to look wealthy. Most UAWs are UAWs mainly because they try to live up to the traditional idea of what it means to be rich. Before reading this book, I thought being rich meant being able to send our kids to a private school, and living in a big house in a nice neighborhood. Now I know that just because we have the money to do so, doing things that "wealthy" people do, is not necessarily the wisest of ideas. Having a low level of consumerism, being frugal, and not trying to look rich are all things that PAWs do. PAWs in general spend much less on any given item, than UAWs, be it a car or a watch or a nice suit. They also know exactly how much they spend for major categories, like food or clothing, in a year, while UAWs generally have no idea. Most PAWs are financially literate, while UAWs hire financial consultants. And the list goes on.

What I've learned from this book:

Being rich means having enough money to support ourselves and our lifestyle for years, even if we have no jobs. The longer we can do this, the richer we are.

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf, and John C. Bogle 

Now that I've learned about what it meant to be financially independent, I wanted to learn about how to get there. We've been fortunate to have pretty good financial offense with my job as an ALT, and we've been saving up ever since we moved to Japan, but I didn't want to squander away our savings, or let it lose value by letting our money take a vacation in a saving account. I also became a bit nervous about my own retirement fund, which is currently nonexistent. I wanted to put our savings to a good and productive use, to get us closer to being financially independent.

I bought The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing for my Nook, because currently there isn't an audio version for it, but it was labeled as THE book to read for anyone who wanted to be financially independent. I don't have a lot of actual reading time, so I didn't expect to read it as fast as I did, but it's been a good book so far. True, I've only read PART I (which is about 2/3 of the book), but that's because PART II deals with keeping up with the strategies that were suggested back in PART I, which I have not yet implemented. This is also the book where I learned about the steps needed before we start investing our money. These steps are:

• Having no debts (check)
• Having at least 6 months worth of living expenses saved in the bank (in progress, but more or less check)
• Maxed out contributions to 401K/Roth IRA (as we're living abroad, we can't really contribute)
• Still have money left over.

Bogleheads follow the advice of Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and believe in slow and steady investing, while steering clear of get-rich-quick schemes. This book is great because it explains all the different ways someone could invest their money with short and precise explanations, including pros and cons. The advice in this book is concrete and no-nonsense. One of the most interesting things that I've read about were the different ways we can save for our child(ren)'s college education. So far the only college fund I've heard of was the 529 Qualified Tuition Plan (QTP) that most people know about. But have you heard of the Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA)? It's pretty amazing, with the only drawback of having a low contribution limit per year, at $2000. However, who said we can't have both? Actually, that's one of the advices of the authors: invest in the ESA first to the max, then if we still have money left over for college education, then contribute to a 529.

What I've learned from this book:

Besides the meaning of bonds, mutual funds, and other investing terms, the biggest lesson I took away from this book was slow and steady wins the race. 

Your Money or Your Life

by Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, and Monique Tilford

By the time I finished PART I of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, it became clear to me that while it's good to know specific steps about investing, I needed to learn more about what money was, and what part it took in our lives, so that I can handle it better. I wanted to learn more about defense strategies when it came to our finance. So I bought Your Money or Your Life on my Nook, again because there isn't an audio version available currently.

This book is not a personal finance book in the traditional sense. It's much more than that. It's more like a philosophy. It gives a completely different meaning to money, a new definition, if you like. In some places the book feels a little new age-y, but it definitely makes you think. The book doesn't talk about how to invest money, instead it shows the importance of living simply, being frugal, and questions every purchase, as well as the meaning of work itself. It's a journey to find out what is "enough" and to figure out how to get there. Having less than "enough" is the place where a person's needs are not yet met, while going beyond "enough" is unnecessary consumption, leading to feeling always unsatisfied and perpetually poor, no matter what the person possesses or how much one earns.

I'm only up to Step 7 out of the 9, but already I asked my husband to give this book a read. I'm hoping that during the time between Christmas and New Years we can talk about the steps this book presents, and implement them in the coming year. Some of the steps are not new to me, some I've even tried in the past. But now, I'd like to give it a try from Step 1 all the way to 9, and make it the first big step toward financial intelligence being second nature.

What I've learned from this book:

Being financially intelligent and independent doesn't only mean investing in the right things. It starts in the home, by knowing exactly what we do for- and with our money, so that we are as close to "enough" as we can possibly be, by living simply and frugally with consciousness.

*****

Overall, I learned that there's is a lot more to being financially intelligent and independent than I originally thought. While in my first financial post the books I chose focused primarily on how to invest money, now I realize that investing is only a small part of the big picture. So I'm making a new list of books to read, in the order I'm hoping to read them. I also included in parenthesis where I'm going to get the book, and the category I sorted the book into. Enjoy!

1. America’s Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides (from Audible; simple living)
   I definitely think my next book should be about simple living, and the reason this book is on the top of my list out the four simple living books, is because it's finally available on Audible.
2. Born to Buy by Juliet Schor (book from Amazon; consumerism)
   This book was pretty hard to buy in Japan. I can't wait to read it though! It's about how consumerism affects children. The book is based on tons of research, and came highly recommended.
3. The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Daczyzyn (book from Amazon; simple living)
   This book is the bible of simple living. Originally started as a newsletter, now it's a gigantic book full of tips and tricks on how to live frugally.
4. The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein (from Audible; investing)
   As I understand, if The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing is the beginner course in investing, this is the intermediate course.
5. Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach (book from Amazon; personal finance)
   One of the personal finance bloggers said that everyone should read one book, and only one, from David Bach. This book deals with the only thing that I haven't came across yet: dealing with finance as a couple.
6. Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy (ebook on Nook; simple living)
   This is another book about simple living, which focuses on stay-at-home moms. Since I'm hoping to stay at home after my job in Japan is done, I thought it would be appropriate to read. My hope is that even if it doesn't contain any new information after reading the other simple living books on the list, it puts it a new perspective for me.
7. Enough by John C. Bogle (from Audible; personal finance)
   A book about the elusive "enough" from the founder of Vanguard. Need I say more?
8. The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias (ebook on Nook; investing)
   From what I understand, this book could be considered my advanced level course in personal finance.
9. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle (from Audible; investing)
   Just another perspective on the same topic, again highly recommended by people who are into personal finance.
10. The Joy of Simple Living by Jeff Davidson (book from Amazon; simple living)
    I'm not sure if I'll need to read this by the time I get to it, but it could be a good way to refresh the information I've read so far.
11. The Power of Passive Investing: More Wealth with Less Work by Richard A. Ferri (from Audible)
12. Lifecycle Investing: A New, Safe, and Audacious Way to Improve the Performance of Your Retirement Portfolio by Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff (from Audible)
    These last two books were books I found on Audible that seemed interesting, but have not been mentioned in other personal finance blogs. I'll decide whether or not I'll (need to) read them once I get to them.

Mommy Time and Daddy Time

Since Rini has turned one, both James and I have tried our best to connect with our daughter more, to have some special times with her, basically having "Mommy Time" and "Daddy Time." Because I leave for work before Rini wakes up, and don't get home until dinner time, these "Mommy Times" are extra special to me. 

Weekday Mommy Time:

Sometime in July, I decided to take Rini to a local sento, or public bath house, called Yurara. It's about 5 minutes from our house by bicycle, which makes it really convenient. Every week, generally on Wednesday nights after dinner, Rini and I bike over and spend a relaxing hour and a half to two hours in various hot baths. On an average day/night, it costs 400yen for an adult, and 70yen for a child Rini's age, but there are many specials. For example, it's possible to buy 11 tickets for the price of 10, or there are special days when the price is halved, or when Yurara gives 3 points to the member's point card, making it that much faster to get more discounts.
Once I pay and get our key, Rini and I go into the locker room to undress.  I usually leave our towels just outside the bathing area, and take our soaps and sponges in. As we step into the bathing area, right in front of the door, there's a huge "sink" (not pictured here) where people use some small hand buckets to kind of rinse themselves off a bit. So once we've done so, we head over to the shower area. The shower area is made up of rows of seats with shower heads coming from the wall and a mirror at each spot, in front of which people sit and bathe. There are two types of showers: the one that can be seen in this picture has one faucet for hot water and one for cold, and people generally put their little bathing bowl (stacked neatly on the sides in the picture) under it to mix the water temperature as they see fit; and the other ones which have a regular shower head and cord coming from the wall, as well as a main faucet to use for the buckets. I generally prefer this second option, because it makes it easier for me to shower Rini off faster.
Once we're done showering and washing our hair, we head for our favorite bath. Here Rini walks around the little seating ledge, where the water covers half her body, while I soak and follow her in the middle. The middle area is pretty deep; when I kneel down, the water is up to my armpits roughly, so it's really nice and relaxing to float in. The water temperature is not too hot either, around 40C/104F. Lately, I've been trying to get Rini to be more comfortable in the water by jumping into my hands, so I could "swim" her around to another ledge. She cannot quite jump yet, more just steps into my hands, but we have a ton of fun nonetheless.
After we spent a good half hour here, I try to steer us to the water massage seats to the left. This is the same temperature water, and even at the deepest point, the water is only up to Rini's armpit, if even.  She doesn't like being in such deep water on her "own" yet, so generally she just walks all over me and the seat ledge, while water jets massage my back and feet.
After about 5 minutes, we head over either to this little wooden edge pool to "cool" off, or head outside. The temperature at this pool changes according to the season; during the summer it's really cold, but during winter it's around 41-42C/106-108F. Rini just likes to walk along the edge, as I sit on the edge myself and soak my feet. We generally don't stay too long, because Rini likes to go to the open air bath. The water here is about 41C/106F, and shallow enough to reach only my armpits when I sit in the middle, and up to Rini's chest as she walks around. The walls and floor of this bath are made up of these big stones, so it's a nice challenge for Rini to practice her balance as she walks around. Also, sometimes she likes to play with the little stones around the edge of the pool, so we both have fun.
There are two more pools in Yurara, which we don't really use. One of them is a scented bath, where the scent is changed once a week, and the other is a really deep "cool" bath (about 39C/102F), with some more jet streams.
Once we're done, we get dressed, go home, brush our teeth, and sleeeeep. It's a really nice way to relax.

Weekday Daddy Time:
Something James started doing with Rini on Thursdays is going to a play group specifically for 1-year-olds. The play group is from 10A.M. to 11:30A.M., where the first hour or so is just the kids playing with each other. Then, in the last 20 minutes, the parents sing songs with their children. I was able to go one time back in August and the play group was really fun.
Every week, I hear stories of how much fun Rini had at this group, all the little things she enjoyed playing with, and how she is developing.
I can't really write anything more about this, as it's James's territory. Maybe one day, he will write a post on his own blog. Until then, here is a little video I took back in August:

Mommy and Daddy Time Alone:

While we both enjoy our  alone time with Rini, sometimes James and I need to spend some time being just the two of us. For this reason, I asked a friend to help us find a babysitter service here in Fukuyama. Through her we made a connection with a Family Help Center, who connected us with an older lady, who used to be a nursery or kindergarten teacher. The lady is really nice, and Rini spent a few hours with her 2-3 times already. Luckily, Rini really likes her, and they have a good time together. They sing songs, go to the park, and other fun things. The hourly rate is pretty good too, and I hope we'll be able to set something up, where she could watch Rini for 3-4 hours every other week in the future.

Time just flies by... 19 and 20 Months

Mommy!!! Stop giving me funny hair-dos! ...
OK... They are fun after all. You can continue.

This blog post has been in the works for almost two months at this point, due to lack of time to sit down and focus on this. Rini's height and weight are as of October 15th-ish, but will add November's stats (in parenthesis) this weekend. The further down the blog goes, the more recent the entries are, with updates in Italic to reflect recent development in earlier writing.

Height: 82 cm (82 cm)

Weight: 10.15 kg (10.5 kg)

Vaccinations: Rini received her booster Polio shot just today (Nov. 11th), and boy, was it an interesting experience! As soon as we stepped into the doctor's room and Rini saw all the nurses in their pink outfits, she turned around in my arms, started crying and clawing the air towards her dad behind me. We could not calm her down, but at least the shot was over quickly, and she didn't become a puddle of tantrums on the floor. I'm wondering if her strong reaction against doctors and nurses has anything to do with the fact that the only time she's really been to the doctor was when she needed her shots. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, but at least now she's done for quite some time. We also decided not to get her the flu shot after all, as she's been a really healthy child, almost exceptionally so, and instead we'll just be a bit more vigilant of fevers and coughs this winter season. So if all goes well, Rini will not need to get another shot while we're in Japan.

BAAALLS!!!... Yes, they're that much fun! (^_^)

Clothing size: Still 80 cm, but just barely. I think any clothes we buy for her from this point on will be 90cm.

Shoe size: 12.5 cm

Diaper size: L; we switched up shortly after my last post, because we ran out of mediums. Thinking about switching up to L on FuzzyBunz, too, since she's starting to show a bit of her bum in the medium ones.

Teeth: This past month she's been busy growing her canines. I can feel all four of them just under the gum line, and see one (TL3) pretty clearly, too. Any day now they will start braking through the surface. Note: TL3 popped out on October 25th, and BR3 on October 29th, with next one probably being BL3.

Food: Nothing really new to report, except her amazing love for tangerines. She eats at least two at every sitting, and if she sees it on top of our fridge, doesn't matter what time of day it is, she wants some, and wants them now. I'm glad, since tangerines are chock full of vitamin C, so hopefully it will help keep colds away this winter season. Update on November 11th: She still really likes them, but now we think it's more of a fascination with peeling them, than the irresistible urge to consume them, as she often keeps peeling more after she had enough, which we end up eating instead of her.

Getting ready for Halloween maybe?

Nursing: It seems to me, that she's been nursing more later than earlier, as in closer to 5AM than 2AM. Not every night, but it is happening slowly. I'm kind of hoping this means that she might wean herself off. (I know, I know... dream on...)

Sleeping: For a few weeks now, Rini has been waking up sometime between 6:30 to 7AM, unless she fell asleep late the night before. I don't know if this has to do with the fact that she's been more consistent in napping for an hour to hour and a half around mid-day, or that she wants to make sure she still finds me home in the morning before I go to work. Maybe it's a little bit of both. The main result of this early waking is that I have almost no time to blog. I generally try to blog on Saturdays (even if it doesn't get posted until later), while she is asleep. I used to have an hour or two for this every week, depending on how early I got up. Now, however, I'm lucky to have 30 minutes or so.

Milestones: She's getting faster every day. Though not quite running yet, she will be before Christmas for sure. A few days before Halloween, she learned how to peel a tangerine, and since then, she doesn't allow us to do it anymore. She is also much better at handling her utensils and food, so much so, that she rarely makes a mess on the floor.

On a side note, I finally (around Halloween) got her to "jump" into my hands when we're at Yurara, the public bath house near us. That is, from the shallow water, she "jumps" into deep water where I catch her before she goes under. This is a pretty big step, because the past 6 months or so, she was quite fearful of being in the water. She also lets me "swim" her around a little... very little, but still much more than before. 

Further Update (Nov. 11th): She's been practicing jumping up from the floor. Her feet don't quite leave the floor yet, though, but what matters is that she is trying!

Laughing with Daddy!

Potty training: This is a new section, which I'm starting because we began discussing potty training at home. We have not started yet, as she is too young, but we've been keeping an eye out for signs of readiness. Some things, like saying the words for pooping when we catch her in the act, or saying "stinky" if it's a particularly odor-full diaper we're changing her out of, have been going on for some time now. She even says the word stinky and uses the hand gesture when it's appropriate, usually during diaper change. But lately, I started showing her what's going on while I'm on the toilet, and she finds it rather fascinating. She's been following me to the bathroom for months now, so doing this little extra step was not a big deal. I think she might have learned the word for pee in Hungarian (pisi) in the past few days (from Nov. 11th), but I'm still testing this theory. Overall, we're thinking of getting her one of those child seats that go over the regular toilet soon, just so she can try it out once in a while, if she's interested, but we won't start anything "serious" until Christmas break.

Words: During the last week of October, she has learned the words "no" and "nem," both meaning the same thing, just one is English and the other is Hungarian. Though she prefers using "no" over "nem" in general, when it's just me and her, she does say the Hungarian word a little bit more. She also mimics a lot of new words, but they're so rare and fleeting, that I'm not sure if they're quite set and can be considered learned, yet. Anyways, I'm sure they will come soon, as she is quite the chatterbox.

Wearing great-grandma's
dress for the first time.

Favorite toys: Same as last time, but add cards to it. She looooves playing with cards. We have a set of plastic playing cards that have pictures of common words on them, and the words in Japanese and English, which I bought in the 100yen shop. I use these to try and teach her words as we play with them. Not sure how much good it does, but hey, I'd rather try than not.

Likes: She really likes cereal in the morning, and oatmeal, too. Also, she loves copying whatever we do or say. It's funny watching her wipe her nose with a tissue, just because one of us just did it a moment before. She also wants to eat and drink what we're eating and drinking, using the same style utensils and cups. So, sometimes when we're drinking soda during dinner, we trick her by using the same cup, and giving her water in it. Of course, the cups we use for soda are not see-through, so generally she's none the wiser.

Dislikes: I don't know if she has any new set dislikes, but she's definitely more capable of telling us when she doesn't want something right at the moment. I did notice lately that she hasn't been quite as eager to wash herself when we shower together, like she used to.

Mommy/Rini update: I've been noticing this the past couple months, but last week have confirmed it, that I've been gaining weight again. I'm up to 64kg, which is not bad, but I rather not go beyond. For this reason, I've been thinking of what I could do to keep my weight at this level. One thing that came to mind was, I need to eat a more balanced breakfast. I mainly eat cereal with milk, and bread for breakfast every day, and that's probably not the best. I need more fruits and vegetables in my diet, smoothies and salads. Also, maybe I should bring some fruit/veggie snacks to school, so that I won't want to eat so fast and so much during lunch time. School lunch is generally pretty healthy and balanced, but I get served a lot of rice, that I probably don't need. Also, a little veggie snack shortly before I leave school would maybe help me not get nauseous during my bus ride home, which in turn makes me want to eat a buffalo, when I get home finally. So, in general, less bread and more fruits and veggies from now on is what I'm going to do. I don't really eat sweets and fatty things, so that should be alright. I've considered working out again at home, but with Rini waking up so early, it's almost impossible to keep it up on a regular basis, and I need the routine.
On a different note, as the weeks pass by, I have a stronger and stronger yearning to stay home with Rini. I still like my job, but I'm anxious to spend more time with her, while she is my only little girl. I probably mentioned somewhere before that depending on things, we would not be opposed to having another little one as early as sometime the end of next year. This also means, that there's a high possibility of me being pregnant before I say goodbye to this job. Learning to be a stay-at-home-mom, while being pregnant is a little scary to me, though not enough to make me wait. I know I'll be able to do it, I just want to make sure I give as much attention to Rini as I possibly can, before I have to focus on our new baby.

Enjoying one of the last warm November days.

Financial Matters...

Lately I've been on a personal finance kick. I'm on my third finance book, with many more on my wish list at Audible. This fascination started a few years ago, when, in an effort to make sure I'll be ready to handle my own income, I picked up a book called "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi.

I wasn't looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, just some basic financial literacy, with common sense suggestions on budgeting, and saving. Living by myself for 7 months on my own salary as a JET was a great first step to find out how I handle money. Before JET, James handled all money related things, and before I met him, my income was barely enough to survive, so it was easy to handle. I wasn't bad about saving money, but I wanted to know more.

The first time I started reading this book (couple months before starting JET), I read only the first two chapters: dealing with credit cards and bank accounts. WOW! Luckily, I didn't have any CC debt, but even so, there was plenty of information about credit scores and how to make and keep them high. In some respects I was lucky, because my mom opened my first CC when I was still in high school. She also told me to use it to generate a credit history for myself. This wouldn't be so bad, but she also never paid off her cards until months later, thinking that's what meant to have them used. The only reason my CCs were empty, because I didn't want to buy things on future money, after they finally were cleared with James's help. So in the last couple years they were rarely used, and always paid off right away. Imagine my surprise, when I found out what it actually took to have the best credit score: generally no more than two or three CCs, used regularly, but always paid off in the same month, and having a big gap between credit limit and the debt on them.

The next section dealt with bank accounts, and it was chock full of information I've never heard about, but made perfect sense. It also talked about conscious spending, saving up for the big things, and ruthlessly cutting back on frivolous purchases. 

Then JET came, and the third chapter began talking about investing. INVESTING! "Like I would ever have the money or know-how to do it," I thought and put the book down, at least until I had enough saved to even conceive of investing.

Some time passed, and I realized Audible had this book! I was super excited, because I have been meaning to pick it up again, however, I had no time/opportunity for actual reading, and now I could listen to it wherever. The audible version was read by the author too, which I generally like. I started from the beginning, thinking it wouldn't hurt to review the stuff from before. I was right to do so, as there were a few things I forgot, plus this way I had a much better understanding of the author's overall philosophy.

This time I went on to listen to him about investing, and more about conscious spending, which was Chapter 4. Glad I did too, as most of the investing talked about 401K's and Roth IRA's, which are connected to most US salaries. But I would be lying if I said I was able to keep my attention on the topic all the time for 100%. It was good enough to get my feet wet in the subject though. The reason I stopped this time was because we don't have a US salary currently, and thought it didn't apply much to us at the moment. Plus I had this idea that whatever we end up saving up while in Japan will go towards a down-payment on a house eventually, not investing.

So once again I put down the book for some time, and focused on implementing things I've learned thus far, like cutting down even more on our monthly spending, and planning out long-term financial goals and how to achieve them, like saving up for a down-payment of a house.

Months passed, and I began thinking about our financial goals past the JET program. This put me on this final and biggest kick about getting financially literate. It also helped that the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki was on sale at Audible. It's one of those books that I've heard about for years, being a best seller and all. Unfortunately, Kiyosaki's RDPD was so full of sleazy advice dripping with get-rich-quick schemes, and his attitude was so arrogant, that it's not really worth a read. It was mainly philosophical with nothing concrete, idealizing the rich, capitalistic, and consuming way of life. It mentioned all the ways the rich get away with not paying taxes, and how amazing these loopholes were. It called hard working people hamsters.

However, there was one thing that I learned from this book, and it's not a small lesson. It finally clicked that in today's economy, just because one is expected or wants to buy a house soon after marriage, doesn't mean that one should. Homes nowadays are liabilities (at least until they're fully paid), and it makes sense that in order to afford a liability, one has to have an asset to generate the money to keep up that liability. This was the only positive message I got out of this book: Use your money to aggressively build assets first, then take the money these assets generate to pay for liabilities. It also made me go back to my original book by Sethi, so I guess RDPD did two things afterall.

Armed with the understanding of the need for solid assets, I went back once again to Chapter 3, and this time listened carefully to Sethi talk about investing, portfolios, and how to slowly, but surely accumulate wealth. I'm not looking to get rich quick anyways, I just wish to not worry about the basic things in life, or our future when we retire. Now, after finishing the book for the first time, I have to say I see the world quite differently, at least when it comes to finance. Sethi's book is an amazingly simple step-by-step guide for young people to show how to get one's finances in order so that one can accumulate wealth over time. It might not be easy, but it's not impossible either, as long as a person is willing to put a little effort into learning about how to handle money well.

I do realize, of course, that we're very fortunate. Below a certain income/household, it's nearly impossible to get started, especially if someone is already stuck in the rat race. And even in our good circumstance, it took me three years (and a horrendous book) to understand the message this book is trying to show and teach. Will we reach the level of wealth we desire? Only time will tell, but at least I have some tools in my hand to guide us to the right direction.

In the mean time, I will spend a considerable amount of time and brain power to read more about personal finance, so that once we leave Japan, we know what we'll do with our money. To reach this goal, I checked out some blogs Sethi suggested in his book, like GetRichSlowly.org, and TheSimpleDollar.com, to see if I can find some book reviews or suggestions as to where I should start. The above links will take you directly to these book recommending entries of the blogs. The Simple Dollar even reviewed Sethi's book, which you can read here.

So here are the top 10 books I'm planning to read about finance:

1. "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D.
2. "The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing" by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf, and John C. Bogle
3. "Your Money or Your Life" by Dominguez and Robin
4. "The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio" by William Bernstein
5. "Smart Couples Finish Rich" by David Bach
6. "The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need" by Andrew Tobias
7. "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle
8. "The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream" by Suze Orman
9. "The Power of Passive Investing: More Wealth with Less Work" by Richard A. Ferri
10. "Lifecycle Investing: A New, Safe, and Audacious Way to Improve the Performance of Your Retirement Portfolio" by Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff

And a few more just to round out my financial literacy:

• "Born to Buy" by Juliet Schor
• "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Daczyzyn 
• "America’s Cheapest Family" by Steve and Annette Economides
• "Miserly Moms" by Jonni McCoy
• "The Joy of Simple Living" by Jeff Davidson

Unfortunately, many of the main ones I hope to read soon are not on Audible. I checked our local library, but of course there's nothing in English about personal finance. The top 5 books I'm thinking of buying us for Christmas therefore are:

1. "The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing" by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf, and John C. Bogle 
2. "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Daczyzyn 
3. "Born to Buy" by Juliet Schor
4. "The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need" by Andrew Tobias 
5. "Your Money or Your Life" by Dominguez and Robin OR "America’s Cheapest Family" by Steve and Annette Economides

I hope that this blog will help me keep track of our financial goals, and that maybe it serves as a jumping off point for anyone, who is yet to take a look into his or her personal finance, to become more finacially literate. We can't afford not to.

Hiking in Sandan-kyo

I really like hiking. It's one of those things my family did pretty often when I was a child, then fell away once we moved to New York City. For a few years now, I've been itching to go hiking, and when a friend of ours told us about this place, I decided that I'd visit it before I leave Japan.

This is Sandan-kyo, or Sandan Gorge. Designated as National Scenic Beauty, of which there are only five in Japan, its beautiful ravine is said to be #1 in the country. Though I don't have anything to compare it to, I have to say it was breath-taking. But let me not get ahead of myself.

Originally, I was hoping to visit Sandan-kyo during July, to run away from the city heat. However, even a couple weeks prior there were no more spaces in neither the hotel nor the ryokan that offered lodging nearby. In the end, that was a good thing, because I think it rained quite a bit that weekend. Anyway, this time around I began looking at rooms for either of the September three-day-weekends back in the beginning of August. The two places where one can sleep near the Gorge is the Sandankyo Hotel and the Kawamoto Ryokan. I was determined to spend two nights at Sandan-kyo, so that the whole trip wouldn't be too tiring for Rini. The hotel was really expensive, so I looked at the prices in the ryokan, which was much smaller. This search and price comparison took me a few days, in which time the ryokan got filled up for the first weekend (September 14-16th). Nervous that the space would fill up for the last available weekend, I quickly booked a room for September 21-23rd through japanican.com. For the two of us, with breakfast and dinner included, cost ￥32,000, which was very nice, especially compared to what the hotel would have cost us. Rini stayed for free.

So the date was set, now I just had to pray for good weather, and figure out when and how we'd get there and back home. Considering how sensitive I am when it comes to buses, because of motion sickness, we decided to take the local train to Hiroshima City, then the street car to Hiroshima Bus Center, and finally the bus to Sandan-kyo. I bought the discount tickets for the train, which cost ￥1,800 per person per way, and we set out on Saturday with the 11:45AM train. Luckily, all the weather reports for the area predicted sunny and slightly cloudy weather, so we set out in a really good mood. We got to Hiroshima City around 1:30PM, grabbed the street car to Ebisucho, because there is a building near there which has three floors of okonomiyaki restaurants, called Okonomi-mura. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is probably one of my top 3 favorite foods in Japan, and what other place is better than Hiroshima City itself for the soul food of Hiroshima? So off we went to experience a little bit of heaven. I must say, would I live in Hiroshima City, I would eat here every other day, and would shuffle through all the stalls ordering my favorite okonomiyaki, to decide which place was the best. But alas, I had to contend with one stall chosen at random on the 2nd floor. It was delicious to say the least. If there was one food that I'd want to learn how to make from scratch before leaving Japan is okonomiyaki for sure.

Anyways, back to the rest of our trip. There are several buses to Sandan-kyo, but very few that go express. The difference in time between local and express bus is a good 45 minutes, while in price is only ￥200, which made it a no-brainer choice for us. The express bus we were planning to catch was at 3:33PM. Luckily, when I asked for tickets to Sandan-kyo, the person at the ticket counter was nice and told us about a special round-trip ticket that also included some coupons that could be used in Sandan-kyo, without any price hike. These tickets cost ￥2800 per person round-trip, which is the price for the express bus. The bus trip went by quietly, and we arrived at Sandan-kyo just before 5PM.

We checked into Kawamoto Ryokan by being shown to our rooms. Yes, that's it. No paperwork or even a question as to our names. Whatever I filled in during our online registration was enough. That's how small that place is. I believe there were only three rooms. Our room was a really nice Japanese-style room. The rooms were separate from the toilets and bathroom, and it took a bit of Japanese to figure out when we could use the family bath.

First we had dinner, which was really traditional and very good.While we ate dinner, the ladies who ran the place set up our futons in our room. They also asked us about what time we would like our breakfast in the morning, to which we said 8-8:30AM, as we weren't planning to start our hike early.

Once it was over, we took a bath as a family, which was really nice. We showered quickly, then soaked in the bathtub for 15-20 minutes. The bathtub was huge! It was really nice to relax in the hot water. Once we were done, we put on our yukatas and relaxed in our room until bedtime, when we changed into our pajamas. Rini and I fell asleep probably around 8:30PM, James stayed up a bit longer.

The next day I was was woken up by Rini asking to nurse around 6AM, so once she was done, I just got up. Unfortunately, she got up along with me, which made me regret telling the ladies such a late breakfast time the night before. Once James got up, we started packing our backpack for the hike later, since we still had time until breakfast. We planned on bringing with us our ErgoBaby carrier, and my new backpack, which had a change of clothes for Rini, diapers, and food and water.

Breakfast time finally came, and we went down in our yukatas, and enjoyed another traditional meal of fish, rice, miso soup, and a bit of scrambled eggs. It was really tasty. I surprised James by drinking some coffee, but I had access to extra milk and sugar, so why not, I thought? While James took Rini upstairs to get ready for the day, I asked some questions about the hike from the owner to clear some things up. My main concern was how much food to bring and where we could eat during our hike. There is a "restaurant" about an hour up the trail, which offered a few udon and fish dishes, but there was nothing else past that point. Considering the size of our breakfast, I doubted we would want to stop and eat that soon. So, I asked the lady to wrap up the rest of our rice as a simple onigiri for us (ie just put it into a plastic wrap and shape into onigiri), which she did, and even added seaweed to it! I packed our two onigiri and some other food we brought along from yesterday, and got dressed to go. We left around 9:45, Rini on my back in the baby carrier, and James carrying our backpack and water bottles. At the gate of the hike, there was a little natural spring, from which people were encouraged to drink. It was really tasty water, so we filled all our water bottles there, and off we went.

I can't say much about the hike, because words just wouldn't do it justice as to how beautiful it was. The trail running along the side of the mountain, the river was so beautiful and crystal clear, I wanted to jump in several times to go for a swim. Rini slept through the first 30 minutes to an hour of it, and I was glad she did, because we were able to go much faster with her on my back. Originally, I planned to have her walk along with us a little, then carried by me a little, and so on, but the trail was pretty narrow with deep drops to one side, which we thought wasn't the best place for a toddler to walk on, even if we were holding her hands.

After about 20 minutes or so, we saw Akadaki, which was a stream that made the rocks red. It was really beautiful, and the best part was that the water was drinkable. I found it even better than the one at the gate, and we made a mental note of filling our water bottles when we came back.

Another 20 minutes or so brought us Kurobuchi, where hikers can take a short boat ride on the river to the nearby "restaurant." Since it cost ￥300 one-way (￥500 round trip), we decided to just keep hiking, and take the boat on our way back.

We hiked for another 45 minutes, then stopped for lunch at Mizunashi.

Rini playing around as we relaxed.

After lunch and a bit of relaxation, we headed west to Sarutobi in hopes of taking a boat to Nidandaki. It took us about a half hour to reach the spot, but because of construction or incoming typhoon, there was no boat service that day. From the shore, it was hard to see what might be so special about the boat ride, and even though we left the place already, I decided to return with Rini on my back to satisfy my curiosity and take just one picture from the river. It looked pretty shallow, and was a nice warm day, so I thought why not? James wasn't feeling too well at that point, so we decided he'd wait for Rini and I to go and explore. When I got back, I took off my shoes and socks, pulled my pants really high, and into the river we went. The stones were a bit slippery, and I had to go really slow, so that we wouldn't fall into the river. At first, where I went in, it got a bit deep for my clothes to stay dry, but after looking around a bit, I found a really shallow way in, where I was able to take a few nice pictures and a video on my cell phone. The water was pretty cold, but kind of nice after 3 hours of hiking. 

As you can see, curiosity did not, in fact, kill the Kat... (cough, smirk, cough) In some respects I was a bit sad that Rini didn't stay with James, because I would have just swam in to see what was beyond. But on the other hand, Rini was probably the only reason I didn't follow through that crazy plan.
After we joined up with James again, we took the trail that lead to Sandandaki, which took about another half hour. At last, we were able to see one of the major waterfalls of this river. It was really beautiful, and I could only imagine just how gorgeous it must be during deep fall, when the leaves are red and golden yellow around the waterfall. At this point, if we wanted to, we could have hiked for another hour and a half to see the very end of the trail, where the Tarutoko Dam was. However, we were already hiking for over 3 hours at this point, and even I was starting to feel a bit tired, not to mention James, whose leg started to hurt, and Rini, who was becoming antsy just being carried around all day long. I never planned to hike farther than Sandandaki anyways, so after resting up a bit, we turned around and headed back down.

When we reached Kurobuchi again, we rested again for 30 minutes or so, then took the 5 minute boat ride. While it's worth taking once, I'm glad we skipped it on our way up, when we had the energy to hike. We got back to the beginning of the trail at around 4:30PM. It total, we hiked 16 km, going up and down and up again in one of the most picturesque places of Japan. Though we were quite tired and were looking forward to our family bath, this hike recharged my soul in a way I didn't quite expect. Sure, I missed hiking, but finding out just how much was a little surprising. If I could, I would take similar hikes every other week for sure.

Our final night was spent similarly to our previous one, except that this time we took a nice hour long soak soon after we returned to the ryokan, and only after that did we eat our tasty dinner.
The next morning was promising to be really early, since we had to catch the 6:55AM express bus to Hiroshima City, so I asked the owner if we could have our breakfast at 6:15, to which she had no objections. Needless to say, Rini and I fell asleep pretty quickly that night.

The next morning we packed up, had our breakfast, payed our bill, and caught the bus back to the city. Before heading back to Fukuyama, we dropped by Costco to shop a little bit and have lunch, but we still caught the 11:43AM train home. We ended our weekend trip with ice cream from Baskin-Robbins at Fukuyama station, then biked home to relax for the rest of the day. It was a wonderful trip, and I'm really glad we went.

The Time We Visited Miyajima the Three of Us

To Miyajima we go!!!

We really like Miyajima. It's pretty, has a nice hike, it's full of deer, and the fried momiji manju with custard cream is to die for. So naturally, when we finally found out when the annual ALT Hiroshima conference is taking place, I didn't hesitate to make plans to visit Miyajima the day before the conference began.

August 11th was to be the day, a Sunday, and to my surprise, also a major festival day on the island. I hesitated a bit, thinking about the hordes of people it bound to produce, but in the end, we realized that we will be far away from all the commotion in general, either up in the mountains or down at the beach. So off we went.

We packed our bags, got Rini in the stroller, and caught the local train to Hiroshima city. It cost just under ￥2000 per person to get to Hiroshima city, but it was a nice and easy ride. We checked into our hostel when we arrived and dropped most of our things off, then headed back to Hiroshima station to keep going to Miyajima. At the hostel, we decided to buy a 2-Day Pass (another ￥2000 per person), which included the ferry to Miyajima, the ropeway to the top of the mountain, and free street car for those two days in Hiroshima city. Considering the ropeway by itself was to cost ￥1800 per person, I think we got a fair deal. So once we arrived to the ferry to the island, since we had our passes already, we were able to skip the long lines to the ticket booth, and get on the ferry right away. I really like boat rides and Rini seemed to enjoy herself as well, so all was good.

The best place to get fried momiji manju, I promise!

Once on the island, we could see that there were definitely more people than usual, but it wasn't too bad. Food stalls set up specifically for the festival were already churning out all the festival food goodness one can ever dream of. One of the reasons I like Japanese festivals so much is the food. Other than the usual staple of Japanese foods, like fried soba or okonomiyaki, and festival foods, like cotton candy, there are squid on a stick, frozen pineapple slices, corn, candy apples and strawberries (yes, candy strawberries.... it's mouthwateringly delicious), and a couple other things that I don't know the name of unfortunately, but it was one of the best "unhealthy" foods I ever had, which was probably still more healthy than most foods in America in the same situation. And of course, the fried momiji manju, that I've only ever seen on Miyajima. Momiji manju are these specialty cakes in Hiroshima city, shaped usually as a maple leaf (momiji means maple leaf), and they tend to have fillings of red bean paste, custard, or chocolate, but there are many other kinds as well. We prefer custard flavor the best, but all flavors are worth a try. What's amazing is that on Miyajima, these little cakes get a stick shoved into them and get fried, which makes them oooh, a million times better. One of the things I will seriously miss when I leave Japan, is not having the option to eat these devilishly good treats.

James with one handsome smile after another,
just had to add them all.

Anyways, let's back away from the sweets and food of festivals on Miyajima. Once we were on the island, we headed straight for the ropeway to the top of the mountain. On our walk, Rini fell asleep, and we also happened to walk past our favorite fried momiji manju place, so we picked up a couple to eat as we walked. It was really hot and sunny, so we made sure to use plenty of sunscreen. Luckily, Rini was in her stroller, so she got some shade as she napped. There's a bit of a walk to get to the ropeway, which was doable with a stroller, and in all honesty, we might have been better of with our Ergo Baby carrier, but it was just too hot to even imagine strapping Rini to us. We made it though, slowly, but surely, and Rini didn't nap long anyways, so she was able to walk a bit on her own, too.
Luckily there weren't too many people waiting in line for the ropeway, and we were on our way to the top quite fast. We had to leave our stroller at the station, but it was not a big deal. It was a nice ride, and though the weather was humid and muggy, it didn't bother us quite as much during our ride to the top. Once we arrived, we looked around a bit and enjoyed the view, which was quite a bit limited, due to the heat I guess. 

There was almost no visibility.

Posing at the top.

A quick hi after the ropeway.

The famous Mijayima gate.

We didn't spend a lot of time at the top for three reasons. First, because we've seen it before when we climbed the mountain on our previous visit; second, because it was incredibly hot and sunny; and third, we wanted to make sure we caught the bus to the beach, which only seated 9 people and did one round every two hours or so. We took a few more pictures on our way down, then decided to wait for the bus that moved between the ropeway station and the edge of the town. We were quite lucky, as we were one of the last people who fit on the bus. The bus in general doesn't save much time for anyone who can walk well, but we had Rini and our stroller to deal with, so it probably gave us the couple minutes we needed to make the difference between  missing our beach bus or getting there just in time. We had to rush a little between the two buses, which was hard, as the number of people on the island increased quite a bit, so I decided to run ahead and get in line, while James pushed Rini n the stroller as fast as he was allowed.
Luckily, we got to the bus with a good 5 minutes to spare, but there were quite a few people waiting around, and I got worried, that maybe we won't fit on after all. However, once the bus pulled up, it was plain that no one was interested in our particular bus, as we were the only ones to go to the beach. When we arrived, we rented a tarp to sit on, then changed into our bathing suits. Sadly, the facilities were no where near as nice as the ones at Innoshima, but the beach more than made up for it. The water was super warm, and we spent at least an hour in there just playing and swimming. Rini enjoyed herself much more this time around, too.

After all the hiking and swimming, Rini was out mighty quick.

When it came time to leave, we caught the bus back to the ferry, bought a bit more festival food, and tried to take pictures with the deer. I was a bit sad that we couldn't stay for the fireworks, but with Rini, we had to get back to the hostel and rest. We caught the ferry, and once we arrived to Miyajima port, and saw just how many people were still planning to get to the island, I was glad we left when we did. 

Over all we had a wonderful time, and while we're sad that this was probably our last time visiting, I think we did great at making the best of the day.

Enjoying a cob of corn on our way back to Hiroshima.