TYPHOON

The fall is when we get typhoons. Typhoon Wipha  hit us on the night of October 15/16.
Tokyo area usually doesn't get hit, despite being on a huge bay.
As such, the city I live in and the city I work in closed all their schools as a safety precaution.
My wife wasn't so lucky and had to go out.
Unfortunately for her, she was delayed about 30 minutes while the fire department had to deal with flooding at the bottom of our hill.

 

 

Most of the casualties were in the Izu islands chain, south of Tokyo. Our area saw some localized flooding. My neighbors field flooded.

Once the wind and rain stops, everyone goes outside and starts to clean up.
Pictures to follow.

The British Army in North America 1775-83

After 20 years, I have finally been able to put together my British Army.
, , , , ,  (plasticsoldierreview.com)

Most of the regiments I have put together are for the Monmouth Campaign, which could also be used for most of the campaigns in the entire war.

(plasticsoldierreview)



Many of the units can also be used in the Seven Years War/French and Indian War
Painted shots of my enlarged British army over the next several weeks.

My French army in Canada 1755-63

After 20 years, I finally have been able to put together my French army.  (www.cmhg.gc.ca)      Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, Marquis de Montcalm (1712-1759)
(plasticsoldierreview)         Gunner, Cannonier-Bombardier (cmhg)
France sent 7 metropolitian regiments to garrison Canada.

(www.cmhg.gc.ca)  Soldiers of the Compagnies franches de la Marine of Canada, 1757-1760 (www.cmhg.gc.ca)

 

 They sent 4 regiments to Louisbourg.
Regiment Artois
Regiment Bourgogne 
Regiment Cambis
Regiment Volunteer Etranger

The garrison of Quebec

 régiment de la Reine  (red)
 régiment de Languedoc (blue) (www.cmhg.gc.ca)


Grenadier of the French Guyenne regiment (left) and a corporal from the Béarn regiment (right), circa 1756 (www.cmhg.gc.ca)
 

Regiment Du Bearn

Regiment Guyenne (www.cmhg.gc.ca)
Regiment du Berry


(plasticsoldierreview)

Additionally, this Soldier with regimental colour, Montrevel Regiment, circa 1762 took part in the attack on St. Johns Newfoundland.  

RIP Tom Clancy

I was a big fan of Mr. Clancy's work. I read most of his works. I even had a copy of The Hunt for Red October game.
Unfortunately, I took issue with one of his dedications to Ronald Regan. Having studied what happened in the late cold war, and seeing the world from Canadian eyes, I couldn't bring myself to keep reading his works. The stuff I had, I kept, however, he was a good writer, and his books were great. Just his politics is what I couldn't agree with.

Matsudo Festival 2013

I believe this was the 40th anniversary. Once again, my kids took part in the dancing parade.

I also have a video clip on my youtube channel japanesehighlander

Canadian thanksgiving in Japan

I was finally able to make a shake n bake chicken dinner, with a Duncan Hines devils food choclate cake with milk choclate frosting. Try finding that stuff in Japan!

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures, but I do have shots on file.

This is a shot of my daughter playing with her cousin back in Canada. We used to eat Thanksgiving out at this house.

Ian's future hunting rifle, a muzzleloader which is unloaded.

I'll put him on a hunter safety course when we go home to live. The rifle is a .32 calibre percussion cap squirrel rifle. It was given to me when I was 11. I asked my father to sell it as I didn't think I'd be able to shoot it. He got it back in a trade and my son will now get it, but he won't be shooting it until he's done the hunter safety course.

 

 

I was able to go to Costco in Chiba-New-Town and got a pumpkin pie! My wife loves pumpkin pie as do most of the rest of us.

(Yes I know I've put the turkey up before, I saw some turkey breast for sale at Costco but will have to wait for my own payday to get some for Christmas)

Ten years since Hurrican Juan hit Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI

That definetly was a storm of the century. I had to work and afternoon, early evening shift the night it struck. I just managed to get home about an hour before it struck. My wife and I had put our kids to bed and then stayed up all night as one entire wall of our underground apartment was either a window or a door.
The next morning we spent looking around our neighborhood looking at the destruction. Many trees were down, many century old homes with century old windows were knocked out as the wind had used stones or acorns to smash them.

A shot from Point Pleasant Park, forever changed by the storm

Relaxing in the grass

One of the few squirrels still left behind.

Ian's new toys

On our trip back to Atlantic Canada, my son was able to go to Toys R Us twice, once at Dartmouth Crossing, and once at Charlettown Mall. He was able to buy a True Heroes Knight Playset and True Heroes Pirate Playset.

Pirates

Now my wife doesn't understand the lure of such toys, but for a young boy (and his Dad's) vivid imagination, these sets can provide endless hours of fun and excitement.

He also got from CubicFun a Mayflower 3d Puzzle. As in, this is a 1/100 scale sailing ship which brought some of the first English settlers to Northeastern North America. His older brother helped him build it.

Pirate set, soldier set, knights set.

One must go home to refresh your spirit

I was finally able to take my wife and two younger children and myself back to Atlantic Canada from Sept 13-22, 2013. It was nine years, seven months since I was able to go home. And what a great time we had. I will post a few shots here on this site, but will also blog at length of my trip on my Maritime Union blog.

Ian holding his new to musket and wearing my first uniform coat made for me in 1985!

Outside my Dad's house.

enjoying the spectacular view.

the home we will move to in the future.

 

 

downsizing my WW2 collection

I just returned from a visit back to my home in Nova Scotia, Canada. I will subsequently be blogging about my trip on my other blog Maritime Union.

From about 1975, my father and I collected Airfix figures to recreate battles which we were interested in. I have continued the collection with more expansions. I was able to move the majority of my collection to my father's home, these include all of my Napoleonic, WW2 and Cold War units. My collection is still in good condition and I will see about either downsizing it in the future.
I will be posting pictures of my enlarged armies over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Figure sets which I am debating to sell
 (plasticsoldierreview) I have several sets of these which I can part with.
(plasticsoldierreview) I have several of these which I could also part with.
(plasticsoldierreview) I no longer wish to hang onto my American units.
(plasticsoldierreview)  I also want to part with this set as well
(plasticsoldierreview) I also have a few too many of these. I have I believe 2 sets which could be up for grabs.
 and at least 2 sets of these as well. I have enough Esci and Revell WW2 Germans to fill out my units for the Normandy campaign.