Grandpa's medals

On the left "Zuihoushou" - Order of the Sacred Treasure medal. On the right "Kunshou" medal of honor.

Star of Pakistan medal

I was at my grandmother's house in Tokyo a few weeks ago and she had these on the table in front of my grandfather's shrine so I took pictures of them. The Star of Pakistan medal is the one I wrote about in an earlier post. The others were given to my grandfather by the Emperor of Japan. The smaller one I think was given to him in the 50's and the larger one in the late 80's or early 90's.


I don't know if you can see in the photo but there are offerings in front of my grandfather's picture of a persimmon, a Japanese pear, and a small "omanju-" Japanese sweet. He had a sweet tooth and loved to eat. I remember one day when I was in elementary school, I was visiting their house and we heard the "yaki imo" charcoal roasted sweet potato truck out on the street, the recorded singing coming out of the megaphone on top of the truck sort of like the annoying songs that replay over and over again on ice cream trucks. My grandpa shot up and grabbed his wallet and ran out the door in his slippers to try to catch it, then came back with a smoking hot sweet potato wrapped in aluminum foil. I always thought it was funny because to the general public he was always a very high class kind of guy but things like this made him normal and real and just a funny grandpa.

Grandpa's medals

It's a doggie Christmas here

I have been wanting to buy one of these Nina Ottoson dog puzzles for a while now but never could justify spending the money on one as they are not cheap. But the planets have aligned and we've bought our first puzzle! My mother gave me some money to specifically buy something fun for myself so this is what I spent it on.
We bought our "Dog Trubble" at Hooked on Dogs today and have already tried it out. Coleman has to move the hollow wooden pegs to one end of the puzzle for the pegs to be able to be overturned and the treats to be revealed. Coleman got the hang of it quickly, pawing at the pegs and pushing them with his nose but doesn't really understand yet that they will ONLY come loose at one end. Right now it's sort of more like by accident that they end up in the right place. Our only problem right now is that he plays so enthusiastically that sometimes the pegs go flying across the room when he gets them to the right spot and then the treats go flying too and then we have to try to find them. (another level to the game?) Also the puzzle wants to slide all over the place on our hard wood floors so I have to figure something out. I put them on his blanket but that moves around too.
So yeah, it's sort of like Christmas over here with such a nice present that I've wanted for so long!

It's a doggie Christmas here

Yes, I like Star Trek

Only those who know me very very well know that I like Star Trek. Not just the original series or Next Generation but Deep Space Nine and Voyager as well. The only one I didn't watch was the newest Enterprise series mostly because I couldn't believe they would cast Scott Bakula as the Captain. Too sacrilegious for me. How can I believe in his new character when in my mind he is Sam Beckett all the way??? (Quantum Leap) Sort of a similar reason as to why I refuse to watch Memoirs of a Geisha - main actresses are not even Japanese! What the heck, I'm not stupid.
Anyway, I was too poor to watch the newest Star Trek movie in the theater so Dave and I have been waiting to see it on DVD and we were not disappointed. Normally I can find some flaw in the the story line that makes it unbelievable but I've watched it twice so far and I am still enjoying it.
I will spare you the rest of my nerdy analysis but I will just put this out there. This is the first movie in a long time that I wish I owned the DVD of...... Maybe for Christmas someone?

Yes, I like Star Trek

And still more puppy pics

You can never have too many puppy pictures.

And still more puppy pics

More puppy pics!

More puppy pics!