Merry Christmas from Louis!

Press the PLAY button to hear a Christmas jingle from Louis!!

Louis' Rocks for AC!

Back in September we spent a night on the highest point on Mt. Fuji that you can drive to. We were surprised to see many groups of amateur starwatchers there from all over Japan. As a group, I have to say these were probably the friendliest Japanese I've met in my 14 years here. All of the small groups would invite us to view from their very expensive looking telescopes at the nebulae, stars, planets (Jupiter with 3 mooons), etc. that were overhead in the clear night sky.
Louis had put a bag on to collect rocks in to show Auntie Carol the next time we did video chat. We got this shot of him after dark with a headlamp on. When you watch the video, please remember--this bag is his bag of ROCKS, not his bag of MARBLES!

Video Greeting from the Japan Ersch's

More (recent) pictures

I got a request for some more recent pics of the family. Here they are--scroll over the picture and click on the link to see larger sizes.
I use a mac notebook computer-it has a built-in camera over the screen. These pictures are 'funny face' pictures we took one recent weekend morning.

The Ersch's in Japan

Kumiko and I and our son Louis, 3, live in Fujikawa, Shizuoka, Japan, about half-way between Tokyo and Nagoya on the Pacific coast. I teach English in the town's 7 schools (kindergarten, elementary & jr hi). Kumiko has been a stay-at-home mom since Louis was born. Louis (loo-ee, or roo-ee, in Japanese!) is a good boy, most of the time!

We're starting our 12th year here; for me, the longest I've lived anywhere, ever. Our home is surrounded by hills, has a view of Mt. Fuji, and is near the Fujikawa River. Our town sits at the top of the Suruga Bay.

When we can we like to take walks, have a campfire in the backyard, paddle our canoe or kayak, and travel. We have a van with a bed in the back that makes it cheap and easy to sleep most anywhere. The general safety in Japan and the hot springs that are everywhere make it easy.

My own hobby is mountain biking. I've also started another blog called DIY Health and Wellness and have a webpage for teaching English or other foreign languages.