For Jun

This is Megan again. I posted an entry a few weeks ago, and I just finished spending a whole month in Tokyo. I stayed at the Hondas’ house for the first two weeks of August, just about a week after Jun moved home from the hospital.

The whole family is so happy to have Jun home. He has made such amazing progress over the past year since his accident, and everyone is so proud of him. As I said last time, Jun is learning to help around the house, like folding laundry and vacuuming his own room.

Even so, things are not easy for the family. Most of all, Jun is working very hard learning and practicing all of his new skills at home, and living in an active family lifestyle again—he gets tired sometimes, 😉 But Mama and Papa and Mihori also have many, many challenges with Jun living at home. It is not easy helping a family member with such severe physical and mental/emotional disabilities as Jun every day, all day. He still needs help to do many daily tasks, and now the family does not have doctors and nurses to help them the way that they used to. They are helping him to do those things, but they are also trying to help him to learn so that someday he might be able to do them again for himself.

I am so proud of the Hondas for what they do every single day. They are always saying how proud they are of Jun, but they should also be proud of themselves. They are an amazing family, and it is so clear that they love each other so much, taking care of each other during this tough time.

So please keep sending your words of support to Jun, and to Mama and Papa and Mihori too!!!

But even though things are sometimes hard, there are still many things to celebrate! Here are some photo highlights from my time in Tokyo (I will post a video some time soon, too):

Brotherly backrub

Tired Hondas

Karaoke!

With a lacrosse friend, over for dinner 🙂

At the Tokyo Giants game!

game

Mama, Jun, and Papa at the baseball game!

Hello all!

How’s your summer? We’ve been having a HOT/HUMID summer here in Tokyo.
It has been a month since Jun came back home. He has been undergoing rehabilitation twice a week at a hospital near our house. When he doesn’t have one, we take him to a swimming pool where he can practice to walk without any help from us or even enjoy swimming! We believe it is a good training for him. In this summer, we had lots of fun with Megan and Evan; karaoke, good dinners, a baseball game (without poor Mihori…she had to work as you may easily imagine lol)

We even visited his first hospital. When Jun left that hospital, he wasn’t able to speak yet, so nurses and doctors were happy to see him speaking, standing, and walking!

It has been an entire year since the accident. It was a long but fast year. We still have some stuff that has been challenging for us to deal with, but we are doing pretty good and having good time everyday!

Have a good one!
love, mihori

毎日うだるような暑さが続きますが、みなさまいかがお過ごしでしょうか？
早いもので、準が退院してから１ヶ月が経過しました。現在は週２日、初台のリハビリセンター病院に通院をしながら、残りは自宅で様々な工夫をこらしてリハビリを続けています。初台でのリハビリは、スポーツジムのような雰囲気の中、本当にトレーニングのように行われているようです。準の中には根っからのアスリートの血が流れているようで、弱音を吐くことは一切なくハードなトレーニングを黙々とこなしています。頼もしいですね！リハビリがない日はプールに行って、水中で歩いたり泳いだりしながらトレーニングをしています。自宅でも掃除、洗濯のお手伝いをしっかりこなしています！

そしてあの日から、ちょうど１年が過ぎました。早かったのか長かったのか・・・とにかく無我夢中で駆け抜けた１年だったように思います。先日、一番初めにお世話になった救急病院にご挨拶に行きました。その病院を退院した時は声もまだ出ない時だったので、今の準の様子を見てみんな喜んでくださいました☆私たちも当時のことがいろいろ思い出されて、改めてよくここまで回復したなぁと嬉しくなりました！

みなさま、ぜひ自宅の方にお気軽に遊びに来てくださいね！準も待っています！
あ、あと携帯を使いやすいものに変えて携帯のメールもだいぶ自力で打てるようになってきたので、よかったら携帯にもメール送ってあげてください！

まだまだ残暑が厳しい日が続きそうですね。みなさまもご自愛ください！

This one is from Megan (a friend of Jun and his family).

I arrived in Tokyo from the U.S. yesterday. It has been one year since I was in Japan and since I had seen Jun and the Hondas. In fact, I was here the day that Jun was in his accident last August. When I left Japan last year to return to my home in Michigan two weeks later, Jun was still unconscious, and I left with a very heavy heart, wondering if I would ever see Jun awake again.

This August, as you know if you have been keeping up with Mihori’s posts, Jun has come a VERY long way. I have only been here for about 24 hours, but I have seen him doing things that seemed impossible one year ago. He moved home last week, and his house has been adjusted to help him move around on his own. He walks without a cane, holding railings, getting around the house; he eats on his own (with chopsticks or silverware) along with his family for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; he plays with his Nintendo DS, doing games designed specifically for people who have suffered brain injuries; he talks with everyone around him, and has as much of a fun-loving personality as he always has had; he cleans up after himself after meals; he helps his family to keep the house in order, folding laundry, etc. In short, he is back to being a regular member of this family, living at home, working together, and laughing together. A fantastic thing to see!

I have been invited to go with Papa, Mihori, and Jun to Jun’s rehabilitation class next week so he can show off his mad skills. Stay posted. There is more to come!