Life is a lot different these days for my wife, Misaki, and me since Taiki has joined our lives. Our baby boy seems to get bigger every day.

During the night, Taiki wakes up every two or three hours, which hasn't been the strain on me that it has been on Misaki. Since I need my sleep for my job, I have been sleeping in a separate room from Misaki and Taiki. But I help with him during the day with all the stuff you do with babies at this age, like changing diapers.

On the field things are still going pretty well, though I'm not satisfied with what I've done this year. I won't say I'm disappointed, but let's just say I'm not satisfied. I expected to do more and hope to do better in the future.

Before the third game of our recent series against the Red Sox in Boston, manager Joe Maddon and hitting coach Steve Henderson called me into Joe's office because they wanted to talk to me about a couple of things. When the manager and hitting coach want to talk to you there's usually something on their minds, and there was this time.

They basically told me they would like to see me hit more line drives. They stressed the fact that most of the fly balls I hit are going to be outs, and when outs happen, my batting average goes down. Fly balls work for some players, but line drives work better for me.

Since I've been leading off, they also told me they want me to try and take more pitches. They told me I'm aggressive in a good way, but they want me to take more pitches so the pitchers will have to throw more pitches. I appreciated their taking the time to let me know what they wanted me to do. After the meeting, I felt a lot more relaxed.

In that first game after the meeting we were facing Dice-K, which always is a big event for the Japanese media. I always have two members of the media following all of my games, but he has many more.

He threw me a strike on the first pitch of the game and the pitch was right down the middle. I took it and I thought, 'this isn't such a big deal.' I ended up getting a single. My next time at bat I got a single, too, and then I drew a walk in my third at-bat.

I did not do anything with Dice-K during the trip to Boston, but the last time the Red Sox were in St. Petersburg, I took him to a Japanese restaurant I like.

Masaki, Taiki and I will be leaving St. Petersburg to return to Japan a couple of days after the season is finished. We won't be returning until January. Thus far, my first season in the Major Leagues has been a great experience. Being in the Major Leagues is something I'm thankful for every day. That's all for now.