After nearly 20 years in big Tokyo I was feeling burned out in my not-so-successful "career" in the service industry, knocking on several ceilings....so after a chance discovery of cheap old farmhouses we set out towards the countryside - but still close enough for my wife to further pursue her working live, commuting by Shinkansen while I would take care of the house and kids and build my own little cafe at home...
Our first bump came when we realized that the bank wasn't willing to give a loan for an old rundown house on some worthless property in the "Hinterland". So, we changed plans and will be building a new house. We already bought the plot last year, with about 400 square meters size, and I have started the vegetable garden beforehand, next project will be the garden house.

28 April, 2011

My off-day

Today was my last off-day before the epidemic rush of tourists starts this weekend with the "Golden Week" holidays. Off means no work, and mostly no phone calls from the boss, but of course not off from family life, so this is how today went:
After breakfast I went for a walk with Hannah to give my wife the chance to clean the apartment. As it was very warm I didn't mind at all, taking our sturdy "Quinny" 3-wheel baby buggy. The fresh air and the green starting out in the gardens had some energizing flavor, and after a few hundred meters I changed from fast walking to light jogging speed, handling the buggy (front wheel locked from going sideways) sometimes with both hands, sometimes with one to see the effects of my running posture (one hand feels better for the back..). So we cruised  around the neighborhood, found that the bakery at the outlet mall was only opening at ten, went the other way and discovered that Hannah had fallen asleep, something she usually won't do in the buggy, so I guess it has to do with the speed of things passing by, cause she is a very good sleeper in the car, but again only when it's moving.
After lunch I dropped my wife and Hannah at the baby-group, than went to to some gardening

It still looks all a bit disorderly, but than again, removing a blanket of weed and than digging out stones and gravels by the bucket does slow down the pace

After a short two hours (wherein short does describe the achieved and in no way the efforts) I picked up my two girls again. This little one with the bulky arms isn't too happy about being strapped in.

We than drove to a nice old and quiet cafe overlooking a lake and Mount Asama as a backdrop.
Hannah was at first a bit surprised about sitting on a big chair all by herself but soon relaxed and started happily banging around as usual and checking out the surroundings, luckily not yet running around but only looking here and there














In the end though she fell asleep happily in her mother's lap

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