Erin Hughes.com

In Japan when your 3 5 and 7 and a boy you go to the a temple and your father gets blessed and well that is about it really. As always almost every family outing is filled with some tears. But thankfully this time it was only a couple of intense minutes. Next we had a quick lunch at Mos Burger and off to the photo studio. Wow! Like most things in Japan it involved cramp spaces waiting, and trying to get Eric to do as he was told. It was terrible really, the place was really small packed to the hilt with parents and kids and almost no place to sit. I thought I was going to go crazy really CRAZY! After a bit came Eric's turn to get his pictures taken. He was all dressed up in a kimono and they set him up to have his picture taken when they did the STUPIDIST thing I ever seen..... they gave him a sword! NO not a REAL sword but a authentic looking replica. Of course he thought it meant it time to sword fight. The women in charge struggled to keep him posed just how they wanted but every time they snapped a photo he moved and another woman would rush in to fix his positioning and he would hit her with the sword. After about the third time I convinced him that it was in his best interest to stop hitting people with the sword and moving it. He was ok with that cause he moved after that and the woman tried to adjust him .... he reached into his belt and pulled out the fan he was wearing and smacked her with that. I wanted to kill him, but inside I could not stop laughing.

Well that is what I think of my photographs at least..... check em out. I call this toilet humor. A mix of the beauty and the piss of Tokyo. Toilights Everyone here works late into the night, except me unless I have too. Here is another pic of from one of the nights when I did have too. Tokyo Nights A comforting thought is that on a really clear day you can see Mt.Fuji from my office. It comforts me because Eric's school is right at the base of Fuji. So if I can see it he can too. Comfort Here is a pic of me at work in the data center as you can see the camera catches the anomaly of my soul slowly and quietly slipping away. Soul Slippin Away A great shot I took of Eric just outside of my office. Eric in the Light A sign reminding Japanese men not to grab womens asses on the train..... WTF? Or it could be a picture telling you not to take your friends hand and put it on a womans ass.... you decide. Hands Off! I took the train to Tokyo early one Monday morning and got this shot. Morning Train Finally I found I can freeze time, or at least catch water droplets in the air. Freeze Time You can VOTE! for your favorite here. Let's see which one you think is best!

Yo! so in the new technology spotlight we have this little number. Really there is nothing revolutionary about it except for it is in Japan. What is it you ask? Well it is a semi-useless map of Shibuya well in English anyways. It list's places to use the restroom, some of the bigger department stores and the train lines but nothing of real use. I am willing to bet there are a PLETHORA of features in Japanese. Who can blame them, I mean we have stuff like that in America and when was the last time you saw it in something else besides English. Here is my Buddy Bawdo using it. We go to lunch most Tuesdays and he was the one who pointed it out and demonstrated its uselessness! Good on ya Mate!

Satomi mailed me on Thursday that Kuma-chan our cat, had been in a fight and had a BIG BITE on his tail. I was unfaded. Kuma still thinks he is the king pimp of the neighborhood, but he is almost 10 I think that is almost 50 in cat years. Recently he has been in a number of scraps with neighborhood cats and has had to see the vet. I like to think that the other cats have had some problems too. Friday I got home and took a look. There was a big bandage and I didn't want to open it but he did have a big heavy Elizabeth collar on to keep him from messing with his tail Saturday morning I woke up and Eric and I got our hair cut while Satomi took Kuma to the vet to have his bandages changed. Again I did not see the wound and niether did Satomi. Sunday morning I heard some noise around 830 and ignored it in favor of more sleep. Around 900 or so I got up to the sound of more banging around. I came down stairs to see Kuma out of his collar cleaning himself. He was licking his body and his paws and rubbing them against his head. Cats are very clean animals by nature so I was not surprised he was busy cleaning himself and thought ...... it would be nice to have a shower after a couple of days w/o one. I turned to check out some of Erics toys and POOF he was gone. Kuma now unencumbered by the collar took the opportunity to escape. He ran upstairs and ran into Eric's room where I had been sleeping and hid in the futon closet. Then when Eric and I walked in and looked for him, Kuma scooted out the door behind us and down the stairs. Eric and I searched the downstairs a handful of times and could not find him. Finally Satomi called out that she found him and he was coming down the stairs. I caught him and put his collar back on but it was too late the pain from his wound had made him so crazy he wanted to chew off his own tail. He had bit his tail a number of times and it was now bleeding allot. I scooped him into the cage and in a rush grabbed Eric and we took him to the vet. I was relived to bring Eric cause when we arrived Eric explained what happened to the cat and why we needed help in Japanese for me. It was really comical as I stood there and tried to explain what happened and the vet looked at me with a puzzled look, only to finally to turn to my 5 year old son and have him explain it in about 5 seconds. ERRRRR I love Japan. Eric played with some free kittens in a case for a bit till we were called into the room to have Kuma-chan examined. Kuma had chewed new holes in his tail. I asked the vet and she confirmed that cats tails are like peoples heads the smallest cut will cause a lot of blood. So the Vet was not surprised by the blood coming from his tail. then she cut away the bandages to rewrap everything since we were there. I was shocked to sam the least by the extent of the wound on poor Kuma-chans tail. Here are the pics of the initial damage to poor Kuma-chans tail. When I looked at it I could not believe that a single cat no matter how big had done that. I think it looked more like a raccoon or as we would call them her in Japan Tanoki. Here are some pics of his bite. What do you think? Kumas tail Either way I brought him home and was not shocked when he wanted to get outside. I figured he wanted to take a piss or shit in private. I followed him and I figure this would have been no problem except Eric followed. While I was trying to tell Eric to go home and let me take care of Kuma, Eric insisted on stay and did to the point he spooked Kuma and he ran away so fast I could not keep up. Eric and I spent the next 2 hours trying to catch up with Kuma and almost caught him a couple of times, most notably was when Eric crawled into a small space behind the neighbors shack and grabbed Kuma. The action scared Kuma and he began hissing and scratching which scared Eric and he had to let Kuma go. I can't blame him I was surprised he held on to him as long as he did. I wanted to wait for Kuma to come out. I wanted to be there to open the door when he came home but I had not eaten all day and I went to lunch. I know I am a piece of shit pet-owner but I also know "cats are smart" they will come home when they are ready. Sure enough 2 hours later when Satomi arrived home there was Kuma-chan on the porch waiting. Kuma's collar and bandaged tail. Here are some shots of Eric and Miku feeding Kuma-chan by hand.