Nia and Her Baba

This was at Mayport. Spring 2010. Mom's last time there. Nia misses her Baba.

FIRE!!!!

The pizza gig (see below, "New Job") didn't work out. Way too boring. But now she's got it together. Fighting fires, riding fast through traffic in the big truck, sliding down the pole at the fire house. She's loving all of it.

Kiyomizudera

If you google image the title of this blog entry, you'll see many incredible photos. This is a really old temple up on the mountain side above Kyoto. An outstanding view of the city as well mind-blowing architecture in the temple itself. Another place everyone should see before they die.

New Job

Well, she got canned down at the factory (see below, "Paying the Rent") for insubordination. I should've known; she's her father's daughter. But she still owes us for all those diapers from a few years back, so now she's flipping pizzas for dough.

Check the look on her face.

Serious Business

She's been training for this. What worries me is that this could be training for something else.

Kickin It in Kyoto

Where can I get one of these for our living room?

The Rites of Summer

You can't be a kid until you've played with fire. That's Kaname with Nia. He's the son of Hiromi's good friend Aiko. He's in a bathtub elsewhere in this blog. He and Nia were born about two weeks apart in Kyoto--Kaname just before the new year, Nia just after.

Way Too Much Fun

Not sure where they went for this, but it's pretty obvious that it didn't matter. If you were a kid, and someone took you here, would you really care where it was?

Clowning

This is the hallway of Nia's school, which, as of this writing, is out for the summer. She's finished. Looks like it was pretty low stress for our gal.

More Gion Matsuri

Crowds R Us. This is it. The first shot is a great example of what it's all about. Mardis Gras holds nothing on this. These crowds are epic. Wall to wall people. The second shot is dark, but it shows some friends of Hiromi's--Sayo and her husband, Ma-chan-- and their children. Nia is in there, too, though she's hard to make out.

Nia Nemo

Nia told me on the phone about this place. She really liked it. Can't remember which city. Not Kyoto.

Leap of Faith

On the way to school? On the way home from school? Who knows, other than it's school related (see prerequisite red hardshell back pack).

Here Comes the Sun

Little darling

The smiles returning to the faces

Little darling

It seems like years since it's been here...

Paying the Rent

We figured it was about time that Nia's free ride around here was over, so we got a family friend to hook her up down at the factory. It pays more than minimum, and the hours aren't bad. She's getting in about fifteen to twenty hours a week overtime (at time and half), so she should be able to pay us back for all those diapers by about this time next year. Then she can start chipping away at the meal money we've been loaning her since the day she was born.

7, 317.6 Miles

Love from far away.

Schoolmates

They're all wearing yellow hats. They must be trucking off to class.

Love Is in the Air

A Nia original. Smooching and loving, loving and smooching.

Remembering the Ancestors

This is the temple where Hiromi's parents' grave markers are. In the foothills on the east side of Kyoto. A beautiful view of the city from an overlook here. In the summer of 2003, I was the only foreigner (外人) at the service here with around seventy-five people.

With the Lundberrys

This is Yoshiko with her two children, Ira and Noah, and Nia. Yoshiko is from Hiroshima. Torii gate in the background. Remembering the ancestors.

On a Somber Note

Behind Nia is ground zero in Hiroshima. A dome over which the bomb exploded.

Children of a future age

Reading this indignant page...

At a Shrine

Not sure which one, but there's a tell-tale torii gate in the background. Summer involves lots of festivals in Japan. Old festivals. Ancient. Big ones about the ancestors. Summer is time to remember them. Many Japanese travel back (if they aren't living there anymore) to the hometown and visit. Lots of people moving about at the this time of the year. Lots of fireworks. Rice crops (田んぼ) are getting bigger and looking real green.

With お姉ちゃん

And here she is with family not so far removed, Hiromi's sister, Izumi. On the street trying to think cool. Think cool. Think cool.

With おばちゃん

This nice lady is Nia's great great aunt on Hiromi's father's side. Hiromi's grandfather's sister. This is at her house in Shimonoseki at the southwestern tip of Honshu, across a straight from the northern tip of Kyushu, the second largest of the Japanese islands behind Honshu. It is here that the two islands are linked by bridge. おばちゃん appears elsewhere in this blog. In these photos, she looks as though she hasn't aged a day since the last time I saw her seven years ago, when Nia was an infant. It looks overcast. Hiromi emailed me that a typhoon had just passed.

The Thinker

Not in Japan and not so recent. In front of the Florida house a few months ago. Some local cedar under butt.

Nia the Ape Man

This is out back of her school, which is the same school that Hiromi attended when she was a little girl. Nia is even carrying Hiromi's old back pack to school--red, hardshell. You can see it in the photos below.

Learning the Other Way

Nia is doing some 2nd grade while in Japan this summer. She won't begin American 2nd grade until she returns in August, so I guess this puts her a little ahead (sort of). She seems to be smiling near sensei's desk, so I guess it's going well. In the other photos, prerequisite yellow hat on head: check.

Mystery Girl

Okay, okay, this was taken neither recently nor in Japan, but a few months ago right here in the good old U.S. of A. It's been screaming out to be posted ever since. This is actually a self portrait. Nia showed it to us later. What a shot. My father's lighthouse paintings hang on the wall in the background.

Gion Matsuri

Gion Matsuri is arguably the largest block party on the planet. As stated elsewhere in this blog, Gion is the ancient geisha district in Kyoto, on the east bank of the Kamo River. Right in the middle of summer, it can get quite hot down there in the streets with all those people, but Nia doesn't care; she's cool all the time.

Complete With Halo

Angel came down from heaven yesterday...

And she told me a story yesterday

About the sweet love

Between the moon and the deep blue sea...

Happy at Bedtime

How do I know this was taken at bedtime? I'd recognize those pajamas anywhere. How do I know she's happy? I might be slow, but I'm not blind.

Enjoying the National Pastime

It is a scientific fact that Japanese people spend more time riding trains than doing anything else. A recent study showed that the typical Japanese person spends somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five to thirty hours a day on a train while an additional three to five hours a day are spent running to catch a train. Nia looks as if she's got it down pat with but a minimum of training.

Friends in Far Away Places

Nia easily makes friends wherever she goes. This is not our Kyoto neighborhood, but one where Nia and お母さん went for dinner at a friend's house. The locals just seem to flock to her like moths to a flame.

The Undersea World of Nia Cousteau

Here's our girl on the prowl for a Japanese river monster. At this time of the year, the only place to be while in Kyoto is in a river--the only cool spot in the city.

The Deer Whisperer

It is said that animals can sense good and evil in people. By the look on the deer's face, it seems that Nia is pure sugar and spice and everything nice. Nothing I didn't already know.

Learning the Trade

That's our girl right there in the center of the photo. She'll be the first sushi chef in the family. It's in her blood. She can keep me well fed when I get old.

Here We Go Again

It's that time again, ladies and gentlemen. After three long years, another trip to old Nihon. As you can see, our little girl ain't so little any more. She and お母さん are having a wonderful time visiting friends and relatives and making the scene at all the festivals.　　かんぱい, Nia!