Duck Spa Society

http://duckie.jp/en/

Changing the domain name to a bit shorter one, and changing the hosting server as well. If you had bookmarked this old site address, please change it to the new one.

It took a while to change the whole thing and it kept me away from updating the blog. Anyway, now the new site is ready - although it doesn't seem to have changed at all :-)

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A month has passed since Tom came to our house. He used to be thin and tiny, but now kind of chubby around his waist. Very energetic - sometimes too much. However, he got really sick after he got vaccinated last week. No vomiting or anything, but he looked dull and moved so slowly, just kept sleeping without eating or drinking for 2 days. He got better gradually after that, and now he is perfectly well, just like before the vaccination. Now I sometimes miss "slow Tom" when he dashes around and tips over his water bowl, but still so glad he got well. Today, we received from Amanda some nice toys for Tom. Now he is so mad about them!

A new family member! We have adopted a three month old kitten from vet and named him Thomas because he looked Thomas. He kept meowing at first - I guess he felt lonely or scared of the sudden environmental change. Now, he got pretty much used to his new home, relaxing, playing around. Lively naughty boy - I guess our ducks will be in danger in the near future.

As usual this season, we went to Karuizawa for a short stay. This time, we played golf. Never mind about the scores we made, we enjoyed the beautiful landscape, walked a lot, and had a very healthy weekend.

Well, almost three weeks have passed already, though.  The swine flu commotion didn't stop us or anything.  We flew to Texas and completed the "20 top things" list, which could not have been made without the help we got from those nice people in Texas!  Everything worked out so perfectly.

 1. horses (ranches were everywhere and also I saw many cowboys on horses at Stockyards and rodeo)
 2. cows (cows were all over... longhorns were impressive!)
 3. buffaloes (found a peaceful herd of buffaloes on the way from DFW airport... saw Teddy the camel as well.)
 4. cats (we were surrounded... and so happy)
 5. hats (had our photo taken in cowboy costume!)
 6. country antiques (bought a nice Christmas ornament of a cowboy snowman)
 7. books (bought a Texas guide book, thick and heavy encyclopedia of cats)
 8. music (Black Hawk, George Strait, Books & Dunn, Marty Robbins, Wilie Nelson, etc... and a bluegrass CD too)
 9. supermarkets (Walmart and Target... Costco was awesome)
10. drug store (Walgreen... nice place to buy souvenirs)
11. Tex-Mex cuisine (Chilis, Los Amigos... Tacos was surely very good... now I'm a big fan of jalapeno peppers)
12. steak, BBQ, fried chicken (had plenty of them... now I know chicken fried steak is not fried chicken at all)
13. tequila (had three shots of Cabo Wabo tequila!)
14. Dr.Pepper (guess I completed all kinds... visited the Dr.Pepper museum)
15. IHOP breakfast (ate Belgium waffle with strawberry sauce for dinner!)
16. architectures (old west fort, old town of Graham, Rangers Stadium)
17. ball games (Texas Rangers VS Chicago Whitesox... Rangers won 5 to 1!)
18. UFO (I saw something flying, and it disappeared while I looked somewhere else for a second... might had been a airplane, but unidentified)
19. beauty of the nature (Blue bonnet, Indian paintbrush... it was the best season to enjoy them blooming everywhere)
20. rubber ducks (found some at Walmart and Walgreen... ordered many of them at Amazon and took them back with us)

It was absolutely a great trip, but we suffered a heavy jet lag for a week after we came back, our job kept us busy and post-holiday blues made us lazy, could not finish arranging those photos we took.  Well, now we are recovered!

...and having a great time :-) I've taken so many pictures and just cannot choose which ones to upload on this blog. Anyway, I guess this longhorns picture will best explain where we are right now.

Next weekend, we are leaving for Texas.  My wife used to be an exchange student, and her host family has invited us to stay.  Actually, this is the first time I visit Texas, so I'm really excited.  As you see on the photo, my travel duck is also excited, now asking the durby duck (with an origami cowboy hat) what it is like in Texas.

Top 20 things I wanna find in Texas

 1. horses (ranch and rodeo... yee-haw!!)
 2. cows (longhorns, shorthorns, any kinds... even holsteins are cute)
 3. buffaloes (are they considered as cows?)
 4. cats (we must visit Amanda and Dan's house to be surrounded by them)
 5. hats (yes, a cowboy hat, felt or straw)
 6. country antiques (lucky if I could find a nice Christmas ornaments)
 7. books (when I travel, I always visit a bookstore to look for a souvenir)
 8. music (wanna get a Christmas CD of country, bluegrass, rock... any style we can feel Texas in Christmas time)
 9. supermarkets (great places to discover the culture of the region)
10. drug store (vitamin tablets, teeth whitening... prices are more reasonable than in Japan)
11. Tex-Mex cuisine (tacos, nachos, fajitas...)
12. steak, BBQ, fried chicken (meat, meat, meat...)
13. tequila (I love it... but no, no, not that much!)
14. Dr.Pepper (I heard they got more variations in the US)
15. IHOP breakfast (why not eat breakfast for dinner tonight?)
16. architectures (like all the other tourists, wanna see something huge or funny or historical...)
17. ball games (Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers... )
18. UFOs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo-dx35bCvc)
19. beauty of the nature (flowers, sunset field...)
20. rubber ducks (Howdy, y'all!)

I hopefully wanna make more than half of the above, but our stay is only for a week, so... wish me luck :-)

There are many cats living in Ueno Park. Most of them are fat and beautiful somehow... I guess somebody is feeding them periodically, and also I suspect they are just too friendly toward anybody who walks by. Since a lot of people are visiting there for viewing cherry blossoms, they should take care not to get too fat. So... I was there for chery blossoms, but I just couldn't help shooting cats photos!

The last one is my neighborhood who is extremely friendly. When I crouch down and look into the finder, she runs toward me, puts her forefeet on my knees, and looks into my camera lens... would you sit still?