'Purikura' (print club) machines are very popular with young people, especially girls. Ada is on the left.

Again, Ada is on the left. Both these shots are taken in December 2006.

Vivian is playing with some sort of computerised toy here.

Vivian taken in December 2006.

Ada took this photo with her mobile's camera. It's where we used to buy spectacles in Ichigao, the suburb of Yokohama I lived in while in Japan.

The new family. Since leaving Japan in September 2001, my wife has taken up with Tamaki Hiroshi, a 45-year-old engineer who has never been married. "He may not be a very attractive man," my wife writes, "but very calm and steady."