February seemed to pass by before we knew it. It seemed rather uneventful, even for a leap year, but after reflecting back on the month as a whole it seems like we had a lot going on.
Work Updates
Lately at the geopark office, we’ve been brainstorming new ideas for tourism promotion and international relations. There are two ideas in particular that I’ve been assisting with. One is for me to learn how to play Hanafuda (Flower Cards) which is a traditional Japanese card game. Several years back someone designed special Hanafuda cards with themes from our geopark. This is something that we could use as an activity when hosting international guests or tourists. I’ve started looking into the rules, and it turns out there are several games you can play with these cards. Some of the games can be a bit tricky so I need some time to get used to it.
Another idea was to create additional walking routes on Pokemon Go. A few of my coworkers play Pokemon Go on their phones, myself included. There actually seems to be a decent Pokemon Go community in the area so the three of us have been trying to figure out the best places in town for a walking route. We’ve even taken a few afternoons to go walk the route and try it out for ourselves, which has been a lot of fun.
Over the past few months I’ve been teaching some English during the Geopark guide trainings. In February I had an entire session where I talked about the benefits of studying a second language, introduced different study apps and programs, and all the participants prepared a self-introduction.
Baby Bear Updates
Baby Bear had a futsal match this month. This was his second soccer tournament so far. The 1st through 3rd graders had a match in a different town on Saturday, so we woke up early and drove two hours to get to there. Baby Bear’s team played several matches all morning long, and came in second! I’m glad that Baby Bear is still enjoying playing soccer, and he decided to keep doing soccer this year as well.
Even Poor Baby Bear was sick two times this month. First with a stomach virus then with strep throat. Not sure where he picked up the stomach virus from, but it was very apparent that several kids in his class at school had strep throat all at the same time. Luckily we were able to get him the proper medicine and he recovered quickly from both illnesses. Then shortly after he finished the antibiotics for strep throat he caught another cold.
It’s not just Baby Bear either, all three of us managed to come down sick multiple times this year.
February is also Papa Bear’s birthday! I made an apple pie cheesecake and Baby Bear drew him a card for his birthday. I also took the day off form work so we could go relax at a nearby onsen (hot spring).
Kuma no Kazoku 