Regarding Henry

Don't be alarmed. The fish you are looking at isn't dead. It's actually very much alive, but it has an air bladder problem.

Henry, shown here upside down, is a beautiful little goldfish that is active and happy. He greets me when I get home and swims around like crazy when I reach for the fish food. He also gobbles air. It is a very bad habit, and it is what causes his problem.

Essentially, his air bladder is too full. This is a result of a combination of things related to his eating of air and also his overeating of food. He's got gas. Lots of it.

When we found him this morning, he was completely upside down and floating quietly. It takes a lot of energy to swim around upside down, and the gas inside him forces him to the top of the tank. He was probably pretty tired by the time we all woke up today.

Last time this happened, we fixed the problem by letting the gas out of his system over the course of 3 days. That meant no food for the fish until things got back to normal. And after 2 days, the fish were just fine, although Red (the white one with a red back) seemed to have lost a lot of weight. He's the real loser in all this, because it's not his fault at all, but he has to suffer right along with Henry.

First day of school!

Yesterday we all dressed up in our Sunday best and went to the kindergarten for the new students welcoming ceremony. Today is the first day of kindergarten!

In Japan, kids go to kindergarten from 3 years old and stay there for 3 years. Of course there are other kids who only go 1 or 2 years and start later. Since Julian is 4 now, he's joining the 2nd year kids and will only go for 2 years.