We are expecting our second child. The due date is late September and as with Makoto, we will have the baby in Japan.  This time however, we will have a two-year-old with us!

When Makoto was born, I made three trips back and forth between Japan and Florida in a span of five months.  Maybe I’m getting old or perhaps my wanderlust for adventure has waned, but I don’t want to do that again.  This time I will go with Makoto and Yumi later this month (May 28th) and come back with Makoto, Yumi, and Baby sometime in October.

Also last time I was the only person running TheJapanShop.com.  I hired a daughter of a friend to do the packing but I handled everything else by email or by staying in Japan a very short time each trip.  It was an incredible amount of stress and difficult being away from Yumi and Makoto, but amazingly we survived.  This time, we have several other people who can handle the majority of the business without me.  It’s nice not to be needed.  I will of course do a lot remotely (Thanks to Mr. GotoMyPC.com) and by email.

We will be in Japan for a little over four months.  Not having the normal day-to-day business work to do, I will have more time to work on TheJapanesePage.com.  Speaking of TJP, Yumi’s morning sickness came just when we were having extreme trouble with moving to the new servers a few months back.   Yumi’s energy level went down just as Makoto’s energy level skyrocketed and the troubles at TJP multiplied.  I didn’t get much sleep then

We are excited but it will be quite a trip.  (Think Makoto, a newborn, and two tired parents on a return trip)