A friend came to visit Soren. They exchanged war stories. Kim made a friend at her maternity aerobics class named Reiko. Reiko's baby, Mueka, was born two months before Soren.

This is Ai. she is our Japanese teacher and friend.

Here are Ed and Mayumi. Ed is an ALT from Britian who came to Japan in the same group as Peter and Kim. Mayumi is his girlfriend and a school nurse.

This is Phil, an expatriate from Colorado who has been living in Japan for the past 13 years. He works at Dewa-Shonai International Village, where Peter teaches English conversation classes for adults.

This is Rory, an exchange student from New York State who is now going to Atsumi High School (which is a branch of Peter's high school).

Here is Soren with Hijikata-sensei, Kim's supervising teacher at her high school.

Here Soren is being held by Mike, another Tsuruoka ALT who is from New York. Mike works at a high school very close to Kim's.

This is Brian with Mike and Soren. Brian is the ALT for the city of Tsuruoka. He visits the local elementary and junior high schools. Brian is from Louisiana (although he was born in Minnesota).

This is Sachi-san from Dewa Shonai International Village. She has helped us out a lot with finding services in Tsuruoka.

This is Lauren. She is an ALT in Fujishima, a small town just north of Tsuruoka. Lauren is also from Lousianna, though she is a Texan now.

This is Alisha, the ALT for Amarume Junior High School, another town north of Tsuruoka. Alicia, originally from Alaska, is the senior member of the Shonai ALTs, being in her third year on the program.

Ai stopped by again to give Soren a small personalized photo collection (pictured in Peter's outstretched hand).

This is James, a British ALT who lives in Amarume.

This is Jay. He was an ALT in Tsuruoka last year, but this year he is studying Japanese in Tokyo.

This is John, an ALT who can't decide if he is from Ireland or Britain.

Here is Kanako-sensei, my supervisor and friend, with her daughter Nanami. Nanami is a bit camera-shy.

This is Luke, a first-year American ALT.

This is Monique, one of our best friends in Japan and an Australian ALT who arrived with our group.

This is Robbie, an American ALT who appears very happy to be holding the baby.

This is Hasegawa-sensei, an English teacher at Atsumi High School, and her mother-in-law. Hasegawa-sensei was recently married, and pictures from her wedding procession can be found on the Tsuruoka homepage.

This is Scott, an American ALT who lived in Colorado, although his parents live in Wisconsin.

This is Shimaya-sensei, an English teacher and friend of ours from Peter's school, along with her brother.

This is Andy, a former ALT, who now teaches English and does translation for a multinational company with a branch in Tsuruoka.

This is Melissa, an ALT from the Okitama region of Yamagata, which is over the mountains from where we are. Melissa is one of our first friends who we met when we arrived in Japan.

This is Shingo-sensei, the head Japanese teacher at the International Center where we used to take Japanese lessons. The International Center had a "hanami," or flower-watching, event.

This is Takikawa-sensei, an English teacher and friend from Peter's school. She invited us to our house to have sushi (you can see some in the foreground).

This is Ichiro, Takikawa-sensei's son. He was very enthralled with Soren. He gave Soren his day care bag.

Kanako-sensei and Nanami also came.

Mueka came to visit Soren again. Soren slept through the visit, but Mueka kept grabbing his hand. He was playing "hard to get," though, and kept pulling his hand away.

Here is Soren with Kazuhisa-sensei, a history teacher from Peter's school and one of his best friends there, and Taeko, his wife who is also a school nurse at a nearby high school.

Kazuhisa-sensei took Soren for a bit of a walk around his back yard.

This is Atsuko, a nearby neighbor and the mother of a friend of ours named Shuhei. Shuhei speaks fluent English, having gone to college in South Dakota.

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