Sean Hillman

It is Monday in Japan, I called my attorney there to clarify the conditions for requesting a visit and confirm she is recieving emails. To date the translator has been sending all the Japanese emails so this is a new process. It turns out that my first round of mails ended up corrupted or "mojibake" (gibberish sort of). Outlook doesn't handle the kanji characters so well but Yahoo mail does.

I called the attorney on the phone and had another friend in Japan listen in over Skype to help with any misuderstandings, it ended up being a smooth process. We should have communications established with my ex's lawyer by mid-week and will press to receive a timely response so that airline tickets and otehr arrangements can be made. It is coming up on the Obon holiday mid August in Japan so if an early August visit doesn't work out the next window is likely the end of August.

Now we will wait and see if there is genuine interest in making Sean very happy by allowing a nice long visit. I'm trying not to think of the alternatives right now.

The rainy season is definitely over and it is heating up over there now. The dollar however is not heating up and has fallen again to under 93 yen to the dollar.

Just got back from another Tokyo visit and once again walked to school with Sean. He was  much more natural in his reaction and interactions this time and spoke a bit more English. It went well.  It was exciting to see him wearing a peice of clothing that had come with from Seattle. It was too big before he left but now the Sweden shirt fits him great. I handed off a small green bag to him, it included another small photo album, two books, some Mad Libs  and a summer outfit. Did not run into any of the in laws but the PTA parents and teachers outside the school were all very friendly again.

I am proceeding with having my Japanese attorney approach my ex wife's attorney to see about arranging for a more structured visit. The ex inlaws that we met in May indicated  I should do this. Of course they indicated that we could call and talk with Sean on the phone as well, but after calling a couple times and getting an answering machine, now all the numbers there are blocked from recieving international calls. We'll see how visitation arangements work out.

I am hoping to set a visit for early August. Even though I do not relish visiting Tokyo in the heat and humidity.... it is the tail end of the rainy season still (tsuyuu) so this visit the weather was fairly mild. The nice thing to kow is that if the arranged visits don't work out...... the same lack of law that allows Sean to remain in Japan also allows me to see him whenever I want as long as I'm on public property. So hopefully knowing that will pressure my ex into allowing more structured visits. I know Sean would appreciate that.

Some additional highlights were finding a 200 yen ($2.15) coin laundry and 380 yen ($4.00) "morning set" (toast, ham, egg and salad with choice of drink). To get some nature in, I walked through Hamarikyu garden and took a side trip up to Onjuku in Chiba.

Oh and my ex's attorney has finally been removed the State Dept's website as a recommended legal resource! After recieving a number of complaints and a coingresssional inquiry, the State Department removed his name and has possibly modified it's review process for attorneys appearing on their website.