a real "joy"

claire and i have been married over 6 years....when we married, we were among the first of our friends to tie the knot....the funny thing is, because we've chosen to continue "dating" as married folk, we've witnessed over the years the joy of seeing many of our friends and family get married and have children... in fact, on our cross-country trip from boston to l.a., we noticed how all our friends whom we visited along the way either had a new home or a new baby or both....

...yesterday, we spent time with my cousin's "joy": her name is sora, which in japanese means "joy" and isn't she so cute??? she's 4 months old and has long elegant fingers and loves it when my cousin makes chicken sounds.

here is my cousin charlie, his wife miho, and sora in their cozy home in harbor city:


....turns out, meeting them yesterday did as much, if not more, for our japanese learning than our self-study in recent days....charlie spent several years working in japan....that's where he met miho, a native of the kyushu region....during our dinner with them and my other cousin billy (charlie's younger brother), we learned lots of useful phrases and social rules from them...thanks guys!

....billy is a comedian and good with all the ladies....

....we capped off dinner with some boba and coffee...as you can see, sora already knows how to lounge.