Pre Golden Week Day out

 Climbing the big hill

flying a kite from the top

Ian gets it aloft

seems ok now

bloody touchy gadgets!

 found this picture my wife took of me during our summer camping trip

Ian's hockey smile from a few years back

The kids on one of our camping trips, I believe fall of 2012.

Preparing for another Typhoon

Twice in little over a week. The Japan Meteorological Agency is still confused with the direction, either this storm is going to hit Kyushu, and then Korea, or it will hit Kyushu, then hit the rest of main land. The strength is going between weak to the strongest yet this year, on the strength of the one that hit the Philippines last year.

As such, I have boil in the bag currys, pasta which I can also boil up, Ritz crackers, and we'll eat what ever is in the freezer when the power cuts out. If it does.

Pictures of kit

 you can barely see the golf range between the houses but that area of Kamagaya is under an evacuation order. It was damaged last week in the storm. They are afraid that with the winds, it will collapse!

my two bags of ememergency clothes packed, with enough for my wife and kids.

 combat vest with stove, two sets, forest for me, desert for either my sons or wife.

extra candle lantern 

Japanese emergency kit bag, always on the upstairs landing.

emergency rations more rations 

 more rations and tea.

 even more rations, canned food. We've kept canned food on store since 3/11.

Within our closet, we also have a tent which can sleep 6, plus I have a poncho for one, plus camping stoves, cooking kit on top of what I have in my kit. 

The typhoon was a whimper to what it was. 

2014 DPM uniform updates

It's taken me some time but I have been able to get a pair of trousers, combat shirt, t-shirt and new Bush Hat in DPM.

The first item I was able to get were my trousers. I ordered these with my DPM NBC suit back in the summer of 2011, in order to protect myself from potential radiation during the rainy season, due to the unpleasant affects of the 3/11 2011 Tohoku Earthquake.


I was also able to get a DPM t-shirt, then

eventually this year I was able to get a Soldier 95 DPM Combat shirt. I was also able to get rank slip ons for my band rank, and my status as a civilian instructor with students here in Japan.

Recently, I was able to visit the Nakata Shoten surplus shop in Ueno, Tokyo. I was able to get a DPM bush hat in a digital pattern. I will see if I can get the regular one when I'm next able to visit that part of the city.

 Desert DPM combat shirt, and a DPM Combat shirt, with a digital printed DPM bush hat and DPM covered knee pads, for when I cycle.

 The DPM combat shirt with Drum Major rank, which I held as a appointment in the 2nd Battalion, 84th Regiment, Royal Highland Emigrants.

 Desert DPM with Union Jack and rank. I bought his at Nakata Shoden, a surplus store in Ueno, Ameyocho 

 My knee pads and bush hat. I've had to stop cycling for a while for two reasons. First, it's typhoon season, and my spokes and rear tire are out of order again!

I may have to wait until spring to cycle again, or wait until I get paid next month and repair it.

I then found another surplus shop in Akihabara, and got two British DPM bush hats, one in desert pattern, the other in green. My son didn't like the digital pattern one, so that will no doubt find its way to my dad. Pictures to follow

Cooking with hexy burner

 I took this video back on our camping trip this summer.

Nasu day three

 I had to repost this one. This was the bathhouse in the campground. It was rather nice to take a hot bath listening to the rain hammer down on the roof.

 With all the rain, our kids were playing with their new friends, the owners children. We had to pack the car, and take down the tent in the rain. 

 This was the campground the morning after the storm. There was an elderly couple with their tent, and a family with a camping trailor. 

 breakfast consisted of our leftover steak and sausage mixed with some boil in the bag stew and a pot of strong tea. My messtins from Cadet Direct and my hexy stove worked wonders. My wife noted that we don't need to bring the gas canister stove next time as I was able to cook out food with just what I had. 

Nasu day four

 The morning after the rain storm. As you can see, the campground was nearly deserted! There was a retired couple and a family with a camping trailor. 

 Using some boil in the bag stew, with the left over steak and sausage from the night before, I made a stew for breakfast. I also made a pot of strong tea.

 Posing with the daughter of the owner. They were a great family which my children enjoyed playing with. Emi and I had to pack the car and take down the tent in the rain. Hence why I'm still in my rain kit.

 We then went shopping at an outlet mall as with all the rain, there was nothing else to do. We then stayed at a Japanese style bed and breakfast which is run by a former daycare teacher. She is married to an American from Guam and was very friendly.

The next morning, we went to Nasu Highland Park, which is a big amusement park. 

Emi and the kids went on a lot of rides. I did go on the water slide ride, and an airplane ride. While waiting for my family, two twin boys who had been staring at me, came over to ask for a picture. This is usual in Japan sometimes, as they like to have a picture taken with a foreigner. I was suprised when I started to talk to them, that in fact, they were my students from one of my schools in Tokyo! And the fact that their uncle lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

Leena having fun with the mascots. 

All in all it was a great trip. Coming back took about 5 hours driving due to a minivan which blew up and burnt out on the expressway.

Nasu Day Two

The next morning, we went down for breakfast. Still full from the night before, I had a few breads, and french fries.

We had Kraft blueberry jam!

The weather was a mixture of drizzle and overcast. This was a farm where you could pet bunnies, goats, calfs, and feed horses and ride ponies. Leena freaked out when the goats tried eating her skirt! I had a calf find my Roots Canada shirt tasty! Luckily, no damage.

Ian takes his hand at archery. He's the fellow with the buzzed down haircut.

Leena decides to be like Meredith in Brave and tries as well.

My wife and I setting up our new tent at Holiday Camp ground. We bought a Coleman 4 person tent with two rooms. This was great because, due to a typhoon which hit southern Japan, our area in the east was on the hit by massive rains.

Once set up during the rare sunshine, we played outside, and then had lunch.

My lunch was Garlic toast, Beef jerky and Pringles American Cheeseburger

I will post the address of this place once Emi can translate for me. 

 I bbq steak, Johnsonville sausage, the owners of the campground gave us corn. I had bought my mess tins from Cadet direct back in the winter. Made a nice platter. I was able to make a nice pan gravy from the dippings and non-alcoholic beer I had.

 I also had shrimp and salmon.

The weather then continue to change to rain. There was also a fireworks display that night, but with the clouds and rain, you could barely see them. The only thing you was that you could hear them going off. It sounding like we were in Long Tan with Royal Australian Artillery firing at the NVA/VC.

Redden family encampment Nasu, Tochigi, Japan, August 2014

Amazing what you can pack in a Daihatsu Tanto Day one:

we packed the kids around our gear. Their still little enough to do this, however, we may not be able to do this as much next year. Just as we were getting ready, we were aware of an approaching Typhoon! It hit southern Japan, but we saw the forecast indicating that it would be windy and rainy. So we opted to stay at a Hot Spring and pool. After a 3 hour drive from our area outside Tokyo, we then went for a swim in the heated pool. And that's when the rain started! It was funny to be swimming in a warm pool, to be pelted by rain!. We then moved to the hot tubs after a hot bath. As my son and I were in the male area, it really began to torrential rain! Try gingerly running around a spa totally nude with Noah style rains! The Japanese bathe nude in separate men and women's areas.

 this is not iced tea but plum wine! I nearly downed the cup when my brain kicked in, Ive been dry 11 years. This was the complimentary beverages on offer before you could check into your room.

 a Scottish ale with an English flag! Once the bartender came on I informed him of the mistake! He took off the label. 

The food at the first hotel we stayed at was superb! It was an all you can eat Chinese buffet. There were even chefs to grill your steak to order, Chinese chefs to prepare what you wanted! I had Chinese BBQ pork, Char-shu(sp) Peking Duck, several styles of shrimp, stir fry and of course rice,

After we had dinner, my wife was exclaiming we didn't need to eat in the morning!

I like green

Over the last couple of years, Ive bought several green tshirts. I now have about eight but only six are good enoughfor a picture

Mother's day, Ian's 9th birthday

This year we gave Ian a bbq and cake. And like most kids stogged himself on ice-cream.
However we all had fun

getting the steaks on the grill

 the chef hard at work. The bbq menu was chicken, steak, jumbo shrimp, hot dogs on sticks, thin sliced pork, grilled rice balls, grilled green peppers with grilled eggplant and marshmellows

gateaux a la Costco

 my oldest daughter cooking grilled rice balls, otherwise known as yaki-onigiri

 Ian and I just before he got a little sunstroke! That or he ate too much ice-cream at Costco this morning.