Truth and understanding

They tell you it changes everything.

But you can't comprehend it until your child's first cry shatters whatever life you lived until then and calls you onwards to the life you have now.

It was twenty-eight minutes past nine in the morning when our little son made his mark on our lives with the official start of his own. He weighed in at 3545 grams, or 7 pounds 8 ounces in the old scale, and was 51cm long. A well formed, breathing, beautiful baby boy. And a mum, my darling wife Masumi, who was still with us after 2 days of pain and all that incredible pushing. She was magnificent. And me, relieved and amazed. All of us changed.

After we'd recovered a little from the emotion of the day, that afternoon we named him Ryo Simon. Simon after my father. Ryo as a good, solid Japanese boy's name. The character we've chosen for his name means "truth" or "understanding". We hope he'll come to seek and find both. And without realising it at the time we named him, I think those meanings rang true because we found a little of both ourselves with his birth.

The days have blurred since July. 16 weeks on, Ryo is about 8-and-a-half kilos and wearing clothes that usually fit a 12-month-old child. He's well on his way to becoming a sumo!

There's not much else to report from paradise. I guess that's the nature of becoming a parent, it's all about the kids from now on. I go to work and come home. We play and bath and feed and change our boy, catch an hour or two of time to ourselves in the evening, and do it all again the next day. But there's nothing wrong with white picket fences. It's just surprising, in some ways, to find myself actually there.

But there's plenty to look forward to. We're just about to settle on our first major purchase, a block of land here in Cairns. It's hard to say whether we'll get the chance to build on it - if we stay in Cairns for another year or two, then I'm sure we will. Dreaming about building is certainly lots of fun and a learning process. And there's no doubt that owning a house in Cairns is cheaper than buying one in the big city!

Otherwise it's Christmas with the family, Awa Odori next northern summer, whatever family time we can grab in between, and the ongoing adventure that is parenthood and life with our son.

The last couple of years it looks like I've averaged two, maybe three posts per year. Not quite the output that I had in Japan! I'll try not to let it drop any further!

Lots of love,

Dave

Who's your daddy?

Explaining Easter is harder than you'd think. And there's nothing like needing to explain Easter to Japanese adults to remind you of just how different some layers of Japanese culture are to our own. Of course, it all boils down to Jesus, a long weekend and chocolate. For Masumi and I it also meant a well-timed week in Japan, possibly our last in a while.

What, a whole week? Yes, cue the conversation about how we get (and use) great holidays in Australia, whereas virtually no one would consider even asking for (let alone expecting) a whole week off work in Japan. Insert collective sigh of disbelief and game show buzzers!

But I digress. And for all the little differences, being back in Tokushima for a week was very familiar. There was dancing, rafting, sushi and shopping. We managed to catch up with just about everyone and generally have a good time, all in the midst of a beautiful cherry blossom season. The last time I'd done some hanami, Michael was touring Japan with me before I joined Happy Raft.

We'd have saved the journey for August and dancing season, but we're expecting to be a little busy this northern summer. You see, my beautiful wife is quite pregnant now. She's carried it very smoothly through the tropical summer and we're expecting to welcome a baby boy into the world in July. That's right, folks, I'm going to be a daddy!

Are we sure it's a boy? Pretty sure, so far as these things go, but you never know. In fact, I guess we were more sure before we went to Japan. The ultrasound in February seemed to be quite definitive. Last week we visited a temple in Tokushima to receive a blessing for a safe delivery. The timing was important - Masumi tells me that dogs are believed to have a positive influence over pregnancy and birth, and so the position of the dog in the Chinese astrological calendar influences which day people like to receive this blessing. Anyway, some of the paraphernalia that we get as part of that blessing is supposed to indicate the sex of the child, and apparently it's predicting a girl! Stay tuned to see whether technology or tradition will triumph!

What are we going to name him? We've got a list of candidate names that we'll take with us on the big day. They're separated into English and Japanese names. We're leaning towards a Japanese first name and English middle name. Having a long, double-barrelled surname like mine complicates things a little, as does the issue of pronouncing the names properly on both sides of the equator. Some candidates at the moment are Kousuke, Makoto, Ryou, Simon and Benjamin. Suffice to say that we'll have a reserve list of girl's names, just in case!

And just for the record, we're having the baby here in Cairns. Which is a great excuse for Masumi's mum to visit in July to help out. We'll miss the dancing in August, but we're already looking ahead to the next Obon season, where we'll be able to give our little boy his first taste of Awa Odori!

The joy in the Cooper household isn't confined to Cairns this year. As you can see from two photos on this page, we already have two new additions to the extended family. Masumi's eldest brother and his wife welcomed their third child and first daughter Aoi into the world in early March. I got some good practice in with her! Not far behind was my own brother Michael and his wife Lisa, with the first little Cooper of that generation, their baby girl Madison Rose. So cute! It's possible that our son could go to school in Australia with Madison, and maybe then in Japan with Aoi. Little ways to go before that comes about, of course! Suffice it to say that Mum and Dad are pretty happy to be made grandparents twice over in 4 months, and we're all full of the joys of growing families!

I'm still with quarantine, though I don't open bags at the moment, I'm doing some database work instead. I still play and coach chess. My kayak lies largely dormant... I might get a new paddle to encourage myself to get back out there. But the baby is the story of the year. Other than news of impending parenthood, there's really not much else to report from paradise. By the time I next get to writing, all the rest may well have changed, and I'm sure nothing will ever be the same again!

Lots of love,

Dave

Marriage and mayhem

Well, what a year it's been. At least, looking back at where Masumi and I were at this time last year, it feels like we've crossed a stormy sea, climbed a mountain or two, and finally found ourselves in some sort of paradise. All's well that ends well and this past 2 months really has been fantastic.

Life in Cairns for us has been pretty simple since we were reunited and allowed back into the country in February. I run my chess business and work on shift at the airport. Masumi has been studying hard to gain an Australian child care qualification and improve her English. The rest was just a matter of enjoying life in tropical Queensland and preparing for our summer in Japan and our wedding.

So I took two months purchased leave from work - you could never take that sort of leave as a public servant in Japan! We arrived in Japan halfway through July, straight into summer, straight into the height of dancing season, just catching the tail of the monsoon. We had nearly 4 weeks before the wedding day, but there was precious little time to relax. Meetings with planners, choosing flowers, shopping for gifts, preparing program booklets and name cards, and writing and translating speeches... it was a proper wedding, in every sense!

Most of our evenings were claimed by Awa Odori practice. We had to travel 30 minutes each way to the city for the dancing, and being in different groups with different venues added another dimension to the effort we had to make, but we're both committed dancing fools and we wouldn't have it any other way! Of course, we also had lots of friends to catch up with along the way, and we got some rafting in, too. It was a busy month!

As the wedding drew near, Masumi was under strict instructions to stay out of the sun, avoid any potential injuries, and get lots of beauty sleep. Everything came together in the last week, but it only really hit home that we were having a wedding when my family and friends arrived from Australia. They all turned up in Tokushima the day before. We had a brief couple of hours to spare to help them settle and grab a meal together before Masumi and I were off to dance again. The next time we saw each other was in our full wedding dress.

Choosing a date for our wedding involved a couple of considerations. Firstly, we wanted to have the wedding around the Obon holiday, so that we could dance and have my family experience the full Awa Odori festival. Summer is also a slightly less expensive time to host a wedding in Japan, the prime seasons being spring and autumn. A Saturday was best for people who might otherwise have work commitments or who have to travel. Furthermore, Masumi checked a Chinese astrological calendar to see which days in August were auspicious days of good fortune. Luckily, there was a day that fit the bill on all fronts, Saturday August 8.

A typhoon scooting around off the south coast of Japan was threatening to bring rain to Shikoku for a couple of days before our wedding, but the forecast bad weather never seemed to eventuate. Our wedding day dawned bright and beautiful, and we turned up at our venue the Kashino Club in the afternoon to start getting all dressed up.

It all kicked off with our families being formally introduced prior to the actual wedding ceremony. Masumi had some 27 relatives in attendance. My side was just Mum, Dad, Michael and his wife Lisa - a bit of a difference! I made up for that with a good number of friends, but it was certainly an interesting start to proceedings. It was also the actual first time our immediate families had ever met! To their credit, everyone dealt with it really well and both families got along just fine, language barrier and all, for the whole week.

Our ceremony was held indoors, in traditional dress with a semi-traditional style. We took elements from the very traditional "shinzenshiki", a Shinto ceremony which only involves family, but essentially went with a "jinzenshiki" style of wedding, so that we could involve all our friends and keep the atmosphere a little lighter and more personal.

Once we got properly underway, the rest of the evening disappeared in a blur of speeches, toasts, photos, dress changes, laughter and tears, and of course eating and drinking. Some highlights:

• Seeing my best mate Ben in a suit - unbelievable!
• The good weather was a special blessing, because it meant that we could be treated to an Awa Odori performance out in the garden. Having top groups like Tensui-ren and Uzuki-ren BOTH performing at our wedding was a special privilege and a wonderful spectacle.
• Michael and Lisa received a surprise gift to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
• Masumi scooped out a massive chunk of wedding cake for me, but I somehow managed to get it all down in one mouthful!
• The dessert buffet was magnificent, and topped off with fireworks!

The evening went really well and everyone seemed to have had a good time. I'll let the photos say the rest!

After the reception, we kicked onto the nijikai, the after-party, where Masumi's friends made a great effort to show us a good time and make us feel even more special. And for good measure, we backed up for a couple more drinks at the third party before retiring to our hotel for the night. It wasn't until we woke up and checked out that we realised just how fortunate our timing of the wedding had been. Our plans to travel out west and go rafting with my family and friends were scuttled by torrential rain, so much rain that the highways were closed and the mighty Yoshino River had risen well above safe rafting limits. We turned around, found a good onsen, and spent the rest of the day relaxing - just what we all needed, really!

We had a spare day to do a bit of sightseeing before the dancing festival started in earnest. So we headed out to Naruto to see the whirlpools, did a bit of Aizome indigo dyeing, and visited temple number one on the pilgrimage route of 88 temples. There was talk of some of the boys coming back one day to do the pilgrimage, but I'm not holding my breath! On the Monday night, our two families got together again for some proper bonding time over good izakaya food and many drinks. It topped off a great wedding weekend.

But really we were just getting warmed up. The rain disappeared by the time Tokushima city's dance festival kicked off on August 11 with the massive Awa Odori stage performance ZENYASAI. I was performing, which claimed my whole day, but Masumi and our support team showed up to enjoy the first of three stagings. Then the street festival proper got underway on the 12th. Masumi and I were busy dancing, but we managed to catch up with our crew at various places around town over the next two days. My brother scored himself some time dancing with my group Tensui-ren - fully decked out in our dancing gear, he really looked the part. I think the scale of the festival took all our guests by surprise. They knew I was into the dancing, but had never been able to appreciate the atmosphere of Tokushima until they experienced it for themselves. I was just glad that they could finally see what I'd been raving about all these years.

Masumi and I took the day off on the 14th to see our friends and family off. We'd shared a hectic, wonderful week with them. My family were off to Kyoto for some more sightseeing. Frank and Markus headed off to climb Fuji. Everyone else was on their way home. That evening was the Toyosaki family's annual barbecue. I ended up drinking more that night than I had the whole week! I guess after such a busy few days that I needed a few drinks!

My head was a little sore the next day, the last day of Awa Odori, but my feet certainly appreciated the break. We got stuck in for the final day of the festival and backed up with more drinks at the end of the night. Waking up on the Sunday, we had time for a quick trip out west to catch up with some friends and see the last of the Awa Odori in Ikeda, but then we had to get busy cleaning up after the wedding and packing our bags.

We flew back to Australia with my family, but really we were just stopping over, because we were back on a plane 24 hours later... to beautiful Bali!

Bali was a different kind of mayhem. There must be an underlying order to the chaos of traffic there, but rather than try to understand it, we just left the driving to the taxis and focused on enjoying it all. Everyone's trying to sell you something in Bali, but once you get used to that, it really is quite beautiful. We caught some great sunsets, saw some fantastic dancing, did a lot of shopping, relaxed with massages whenever we could, and even caught a spot of rafting. At one such sunset, we were caught out by the local monkeys - one cheeky little simian strolled up behind Masumi and snaffled her scrunchie right off her hair! But those are the stories that make for a great honeymoon. All in all, it was the holiday after the holiday that we really needed.

Now we're back in Cairns. It's almost a relief, after all that action, to be back in Australia and be able to settle back into a normal rhythm. I guess it won't be long before we start making serious plans about our future, but for now it's nice to just sit back and relax. Who knows what's next? There are all sorts of possible futures for Masumi and I. In any case, I reckon after making it through the past year, we'll be right for whatever comes next.

Hoping to see everyone again soon, lots of love,

Dave

Good things for those who wait

I can't say that we chose to wait. But wait we did.

Visa crisis take one and Masumi got kicked out of the country last June. Visa crisis take two occurred when I visited Japan for dancing season. We got married on August 20 - married in the morning, and I was on the plane that evening. I saw Masumi for a week in October. The spouse visa finally came through on December 30. Finally back together again on January 21, in wintry Japan. And I brought Masumi safely back to Australia on February 4.

Now we're in Cairns. Back to work at quarantine and chess is starting up for the year for me. Masumi is searching for work in child care. Time for some good things to come our way!

Speaking of good things, these photos. Erm, for lack of a better translation, pre-wedding photos. A bit of a Tokushima tradition and in Masumi's words, "I don't mind about the wedding, so long as we do the photos." Of course, we're still doing the wedding.

Anyway, enough talk. Enjoy our joyful photos.

If the skirt fits

Well, break out a slab of SOLO, slam it down fast and add my name to that lofty list of real men. Finally, I can roll a kayak!

Oh no, don't tell me you don't remember the SOLO Man?

Alright punters, firstly, SOLO is a lemon soft drink, which has been around in Aussie fridges for at least three decades. And anyone who watched TV during the 80s couldn’t possibly have missed one or another of the SOLO Man ads. I think the original had him taking on the rapids in a one-man inflatable raft. The iconic version, however, was the same moustached hardcore guy stuffing a can of SOLO in his jacket before jumping in his kayak, taking on a steep descent through God-knows-what-infested jungle, and finishing with a breathless drop off a waterfall. The ad concludes with him guzzling SOLO, the SOLO mostly spilling out the corners of his mouth, and the overture, "Light on the fizz so you can slam it down fast". They don't make ads like that any more.

The SOLO Man was a real man, and obviously, real men kayak. Which obviously makes me a real man. Yeah. Subsequent SOLO ads didn't quite cut it, except maybe for the one with some guy (not the original SOLO Man) wrestling with a croc that tried to steal his SOLO (there was a kayak in there somewhere).

Don't take the moral of the story as SOLO being your best way to distract a hungry crocodile, though. For that, you need the Crocodile Reaction Action Plan, or C.R.A.P. But that's a story for another missive.

All jokes aside, though, it’s been a great day. Great feeling to stuff myself into a fiberglass boat, seal myself in with a rubber skirt, get in the pool, deliberately remove myself from the living breathing world of air by rolling upside down, feel the tension of not being able to breathe building, and then successfully popping the roll and coming up right and steady. I did it today for the first time, by myself, unattended, and then did it another ten times in a row without failing once. There’s something a little more right with the world when you conquer a little goal, overcome a little fear, and look forward to pushing onto the next challenge.

But my great Friday hasn’t just been about kayaking. It started at 5am when I turned up for work at Quarantine. We’ve got a few projects going on at work, which keeps us busy, and I’m surrounded by positive people. It can be rough when the shift work deprives you of sleep, but otherwise I usually enjoy my morning at the airport. And I had to issue my first fine just yesterday – not that I enjoy taking people’s money, but it went as well as can be expected, and is a little bit of a milestone. Declare your mandarins, folks...

Got home, Skyped my beautiful wife, then headed down to the markets to give Billy the coffee man his new chess pieces. Scored a free mocha for my trouble, then headed off to do my fruit shopping and buy a nose clamp. Yes, a nose clamp – to use when kayaking so less water gets up my nose, and more air stays in my lungs! Home again to put said clamp to good use by jumping in the pool with the kayak and popping my first roll (cue Rocky theme song).

Quick shower and back on the road to a school sports awards evening, where I get a bit of recognition as a chess coach and my students get recognition for their champion efforts during the year. The main event of the evening was a demonstration blitz chess game between a student, the current Queensland under-14 junior champion, and a teacher, a champion swim coach who happens to play a mean game of chess. I had to commentate to ham it up a bit. The student won, but kudos to the coach, he did very well. Exciting stuff! But even more exciting than that, I scored the evening’s raffle hamper! Top day!

How do you beat a top day? By having a top week, of course! I had such a week just this past fortnight or so, when I made an impulse decision to visit Masumi in Japan.

You see, being married is great, but being forcefully separated by 5000km is not. Masumi and I have been doing and planning lots of things that bring our life together closer to reality every day, and you know, it’s all part of our adventure. But just earlier this month, I was booking cheap tickets to Japan for January. We’re going to do our wedding photo session then – so-called MAEDORI is the usual thing in Japan so you don’t have to worry about getting great photos on your wedding day – and we’re hopeful that Masumi will have a visa, so I can escort her back to Cairns. As I was about to depart the Jetstar website, the withered part of my brain that was once responsible for being a little maths whiz clicked briefly into gear and I realised, hey, if we next meet in January, that’ll be five months without having seen each other. Five months without my wife, what the...?!?!?

Booked yet another ticket to Osaka, begged for some leave from work at short notice, and before I knew it, I was headed to Japan on a Thursday afternoon flight. There followed 7 top days in Osaka, Tokushima and Kyoto with Masumi. Great autumn weather, great onsen, great food. I was a bit early for the true fire of Japan in full autumn, but at least it was still warm enough to get around comfortably.

We tried on a few of our wedding suits and dresses – check out the results in these photos, and as you can see, this skirt fits, too! We inspected our wedding venue - also very nice. And we caught one of Kyoto’s great festivals, the Jidai Matsuri. Which I have to say, honestly, is a bit boring, but at least we can say we’ve seen it. Line it up next to Awa Odori, and you’d just as well be comparing a waltz with your grandmother to a rumba with Angelina Jolie. Not that I’d ever rumba with anyone but you, Masumi, sweetheart, if you’re reading this, I love you. Anyway, it was a top week. In every sense of the word, it was a week of consummation. Time together, time to get grounded and reassure ourselves that we’ve done the right thing. Very timely and much needed for us both.

Now it’s back to work and time to get cracking on wedding preparations. Yes, we’re legally married, but we’ll do things properly. In Japan, next northern summer, Japanese style. My side of the family is pretty excited about the whole prospect of being in Tokushima for the dancing season and having a Japan experience like no other. And there’s no such thing as preparing too early for a wedding in Japan, so Masumi and I are already doing up invitations, menus, orders of proceeding... and lots of other stuff that I still have to learn about! I’ll keep you up to date with the adventure!

Which just leaves another 3 months – or 2-and-a-bit now! – before I see Masumi again. A bit of chess, some kayaking on the Barron, Christmas and New Year working at the airport, and before we know it, it’ll be January. No worries. Now where's my skirt?

Love,

Dave

Just here for the dancing

I don't quite know how to explain it. I went to Japan for a quick holiday filled with dancing and rafting. I came back married. I'm still pinching myself. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?!?

Hehe, well let's see. I remember reading the response Masumi had gotten from Australia's immigration department, refusing her application for a second working holiday visa. I remember the ensuing faxes and phone calls to try and sort out who was responsible for that decision. The decision, in any case, is "not merits reviewable" and my feedback wouldn't change a thing. I remember realising this and thinking, "What next?"

Sobering option number one - no visa, we can't be together. Adieu and thanks for all the memories. Sobering to say the least. I know Masumi had prepared herself to hear that from me.

Slightly less sobering option number two - just try to apply for some other sort of visa without changing our situation. But really, this wasn't an option. Masumi somehow overstayed her first visa - it's a long story, more fine print and red tape - and this put her in the unenviable situation of being automatically excluded from Australia for 3 years. Ouch. That exclusion period is an axe hanging over any visa application less than the full monty.

But I hear some of you say those magic words DE FACTO. That's all well and good, but you need to have been properly in that relationship for at least 12 months - Masumi and I lived together in Cairns for 11 months before she got kicked out. And it takes a whole lot of paperwork and proof besides. A de facto spouse visa pretty much amounts to declaring you're married anyway, without having the marriage certificate to prove it.

Which brings us to scary option number three – bite the bullet and get married, the full monty. And hope that, in every way, it works. From the time Masumi's visa was refused to the time I was due to leave Japan, we had exactly 7 days to discuss it, find out if it could be done, make a decision, and do it.

Only God knows why she loves me, but Masumi's been ready to marry me for some time now. I had a lot of soul-searching to do. In the midst of dancing down the streets of Tokushima, I thought about... well, lots of things. Other women who have been in my life, and who might be in my life. Family and friends – hers and mine. Language and communication. Jobs. The practicalities of living a life between two countries. The possibilities of this road or that. And whether I was ready.

I've known for a fair while that Masumi would make a great partner. She's great with kids and people, motivated, intelligent, and positive. She has a solid loving family in Tokushima. And it’s not like I’ve only known her five minutes – we've been friends for nearly six years, in fact. Living with her here in Cairns confirmed a lot of that. And being parted from her when she was forced to leave Australia earlier than expected was a good test. I missed her. I'd already started toying with ideas of proposing to her and honeymoons and stuff like that. The refusal of Masumi's visa just provided a catalyst, I think, a little something to bring the reaction to completion.

I had doubts – I still have them! It was scary – and it still is! I hadn’t prepared my heart for all this. But life is like that. In the end, I decided to go with what I've got. Which, fundamentally, is love.

My good friend Fenn, the original mountain JET of Tokushima, was on hand to provide sound advice about getting married as a foreigner in Japan. An Australian Consulate-General was just a bus ride away in Osaka to provide some necessary documentation. Masumi's father and I sat down for a chat on Saturday morning. I asked him for permission to marry his daughter, and he was gracious in giving it. I got the documents from Osaka on Tuesday. Masumi and I walked into the local town office on Wednesday morning and signed the papers. We walked out at about 10:30am, husband and wife. I still can’t believe it. :)

And then I had to get on a bus, which took me to a plane, which took me back to Australia. Alone. Hopefully not for too long. Sounds like a sad ending, and it was a bit sad, but really it was a fantastic couple of weeks in Japan and the beginning of a whole life of new adventures.

I danced in Naruto, for 4 days in Tokushima city, and for old time's sake down the main street of Ikeda. Masumi dances, too, by the way. She's with Uzuki-ren, a top group that rivals my own Tensui-ren, which makes for some fun rivalry at Obon! I caught up with all sorts of old friends – JETs, touch footy teammates, teachers, rafters, students, and a few besides. Masumi and I got in 2 days of rafting, too. Our guide down the main section of the river, a great Aussie by the name of Mezza, put it nicely when he congratulated us on our impending union – "Consolidating your marriage by going rafting, I love it!" This just before we drove the boat into a raging surf hole at Otaki and took a trip to flip city, yeah!

I think there'll be ceremonies of one sort or another in due course. We'll give you a little more notice for that! And we're already looking to set ourselves up for 10 months a year in Australia, the other 2 in Japan for the northern summer. We're flying mostly by the seat of our pants at the moment, but it seems to be all for the best so far. And it's certainly given me a reason to update my blog!

I'll post a couple of pictures here to round off the story - sorry, there are no wedding photos, because it really was just signing some papers, you'll have to wait for those! But let me finish by saying thank you. To all of you who have been a part of my life, who have brought me to where I am and brought Masumi to me. For all your support and understanding in this and everything. I'll be more than happy to follow up in person if you want to get in touch, probably best to use dave_cc at Hotmail in the first instance. I'm looking forward to hearing from you, to seeing everyone soon, and to introducing you to my lovely wife.

'Til then, lots of love,

Dave

Two dollars a box

It's not quite midnight. The kitchen smells of mangoes. I have a milo in hand. And it's a bright new year. Besides for the fact that I'm supposed to be at work by 5am tomorrow, life's good.

But first thing's first - the mangoes. We picked up a box of these tropical beauties at Rusty's markets last Sunday - six minutes before closing time, two dollars the box of a dozen or more. Not the most pristine Bowens going around, but sweet and tasty all the same. Cheap, quality fruit is just one of the things I appreciate about living in Cairns. Rusty's is good for more than just the cheap fruit, though. I spend far more time there playing chess with Billy at the coffee stand than sorting through fruit and vegies. Not a bad way to spend your summer.

However, the concept of a weekend is sort of going out the door for me now. This whole shift work thing really does take some getting used to. The basic schedule for a part-time quarantine officer is 3 days on, 3 off. At the moment I finish by midday and have the rest of the day to myself. It's a great schedule really. Irregular sleep is a challenge, but otherwise I like being up in the cool dark of the morning, I love driving to work in zero traffic, and it all gives me a bit of flexibility. The work is good, too, and I'm on the floor with a good team. And thank God for air-conditioning in the tropical summer! But weekends? Yeah, days tend to blur into each other a bit at the moment.

My Japanese skills are finally getting some good use thanks to quarantine. More than half of our incoming passengers are from Japan – there's a set of flights in the early morning that dishes up most of these. Mostly I'm just able to carry out the basic inspection duties in Japanese, which I hope puts people at ease as they clear the border. There've been a couple of instances already, though, where I've had to have more serious dealings with clients to facilitate some sort of quarantine action. It's mandarin season in Japan and some people just don't realise how serious we are about stopping those babies, and what the consequences of non-declaration can be. Fortunately, most people want to play the game and we can just send them away better educated. It's all pretty interesting. And I even get a small bonus to my salary for having recognisably useful language skills. I won't call myself an interpreter, but it's nice to be recognised!

On days off, and sometimes in the afternoon after a shift at the airport, I've been getting some rafting in. The monsoon is just starting to get into gear, so the river has finally had a couple of days of decent flow and it's been enjoyable rafting – less pulling boats off rocks, more big waves, fun times all round! There's been a lot of turnover at the company since I was last rafting regularly, so there're a few new faces. I guess meeting new people is one of the things I really enjoy about rafting anyway.

Christmas was pretty low key for me. Firstly, I was on duty at the airport that morning! Not very busy, but someone's got to keep the country safe. In the afternoon, we knocked back a kilo of prawns and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Just before Christmas I took a long overdue grading for kendo. I've gotten back into it regularly enough to learn the first few "kata" techniques and get back into some sort of kendo shape. Long way to go, though, I must admit! I took the grading at 6th kyuu, which is pretty elementary, and passed with no problems. It's nice to be on the road to kendo mastery and have some goals to look forward to this year.

Amazing how time has flown and I've now clocked up a year in Cairns. Two years ago I was in Tokushima city teaching English. Shortly thereafter I moved back to the valley to start my rafting career, which seemed like it could be finished when I got back to Oz in October. By January, however, I was driving up to Cairns to start my chess coaching business, and kept up some rafting work on the side. And now I'm a quarantine officer, once again a public servant, amongst other things. It's been a great ride.

Hard to see what 2008 holds for me. I'll be getting used to my quarantine job for a good while yet. Chess is about to kick into gear again for the year – it'll be interesting to see how my schedule works out. Rafting might have to take a back seat – I've thought about taking up kayaking instead, but I'll need to save up some cash for that, not to mention finding someone to teach me the basics! Speaking of cash, I'll be spending a lot of time just paying off my debts, and I have a half-formed idea of heading off to Japan in the northern summer to get my fix of Awa Odori dancing and Yoshino River rafting. Tough call, though, considering that's the middle of school term, probably a busy time for chess. I also want to visit my family regularly. My car keeps costing me lots of unexpected money, too, so we'll just have to see how it all pans out! All in all, it sounds like it'll be a pretty quiet year compared to the exotic adventures I've had these past couple. I guess that'll be an experience in itself.

I'll finish by wishing everyone a safe and prosperous 2008. I hope the New Year brings you all sorts of happinesses! And I hope we can catch up again soon.

Very best,

Dave