2009 September | Japanese Crackers

So we were all ready to go to the zoo this morning, waking up early and everything. We’ve been thinking of going check out another zoo in Yokohama since visiting the last one because we all had a great time despite the heat. With the cooler (or at least less humid) days of September upon us, it seemed like a good idea. But alas, the best laid plans…

Getting up early wasn’t exactly my idea, and judging by Tamie’s reluctance to wake up it wasn’t her’s either. The quiet cries of the baby in the next room was enough to wake me from my slumber and, after I got her and brought her into bed, wake Tamie up too. Unfortunately, the crying wasn’t because of a neglectful parent or a bad dream – Layla had a fever. So we had a decision to make – take our ailing child to see monkeys and elephants, or don’t. The voice of reason eventually spoke up and told me we should probably stick around home and nurture our baby back to health. Then the voice of reason told me she was still tired and I should take our daughter into the other room.

When Tamie finally crawled out of bed, not too long after we did, she found that one of the wires in her braces had broken. She called her dentist and made an appointment for 11:30, giving us enough time to have a good pancake breakfast before she had to bolt. So even if Layla was in perfect health, our zoo plans were probably not going to happen anyways. The best laid plans…

While Tamie was out, Layla and I played with most of her thousand stuffed animals before enjoying some fine Sesame Street DVD’s. She ended up falling asleep just before Tamie came back. Had Tamie not come back, I might have joined her in her little siesta. As it was, it gave me ample opportunity to head out and rollerblade on my newly rotated wheels in broad daylight. Things were finally starting to look up…

I won’t go into another long diatribe about my rollerblading experience, save to say two things. Despite the cooler September weather, it’s still bloody hot in this country, even without the 100% humidity. Secondly, I’m not sure whether my newly rotated wheels are just too old, the sidewalks here are just too rollerblade-unfriendly, or my technique is just too bad, but half way through this excursion and I lost a wheel. By the time I made it home, my left foot was constantly grinding on the cement. Fun times, indeed.

View 2009-09-06 – Popped a wheelie. in a larger map

After getting cleaned up, I asked the girls what they wanted to do. Layla’s fever seeming to subside and Tamie’s braces back in one piece, we were ready to take on the world. Or at least, Ebina. We headed back to our standard shopping centre for lack of any better ideas. After getting there we stood around wondering what to do – Tamie didn’t even want to shop… I was wondering if she was coming down with something too! There was apparently a magic show starting at 4, which seemed interesting… at least to me. It wasn’t quite 4 yet so we had to find something to do until then.

We ended up sitting on a patio drinking overpriced, oversweetened iced tea. If I thought 800 yen for a Corona was bad, 700 yen for peach flavoured sugary tea was ridiculous (Tamie got the strawberry soda, which was even sweeter). We sipped slowly, waiting for the ice to melt and water down the syrupy concoction. Unfortunately, our patience was not matched by Layla’s and after sitting in the heat for more than ten minutes, she wanted to go do something.

We wandered over to the pet shop to see the sleeping dogs, one of which wasn’t asleep. I wish I could say I’ve never seen Layla so scared, but she’s scared of everything. It’s still awesome, though, when she does get scared and run and hide behind me. The little puppy in the cage was wound up, for some reason, and just the fact he was jumping around (inside a cage, no less) was enough to set her off. Eventually she realized he couldn’t get out and was brave enough to check out the other animals, so long as I was holding her hand.

Not long after leaving the pet shop, we found that it was nearing the start of the magic show. We ventured over to the stage area to get a good spot. There were a lot of kids sitting close to the stage, and a surprising (or maybe not) number of older gentlemen too. Check out this video of a part of the show to get a better idea of why Japanese magicians are much cooler than their Canadian brethren. Notice the drunk guy in the black shirt. There were a number of his kind there.

After the colourful show ended we headed back home. Tamie wanted to get out jogging and I just wanted to get out of the heat. After she came back, we had a nice salmon pasta dinner before eventually putting Layla to bed.

It wasn’t more than an hour or so before Layla started crying. Not the typical crying in her sleep, but the ‘I’m going to throw up all over Dad’ kind of crying. Despite Tamie getting up to go tend to the kid, I knew she wouldn’t stop crying until she was in my arms. I held her, patted her on the back, comforted her, and finally, predictably, relieved her of her stomach contents. Her fever was through the roof so we gave her more medication before changing her pajamas and putting her back to bed.

Eventually Tamie wanted to head to bed, right around the same time Layla was awake again. I figured she’ll be crying through the night and suggested Layla sleep with us tonight. Since I wanted to finish writing this blog entry, I left Layla with Tamie in our bed and came back out to the living room. While I’m typing now, I heard the two of them giggling like school girls and chatting away. Layla even came out to visit me, telling me she wasn’t allowed to watch her favourite Sesame Street DVDs and asking me to take her picture. Laziness got the better of me, despite the numerous (and hilarious) poses. I didn’t want to encourage such behaviour at 11:00 at night!

I ended up giving the poor kid some warm milk and some water before she wandered off back into the bedroom… at least I think that’s where she went. Every once in a while I can still hear the pitter patter of little feet wandering the halls. I guess I should sign off now and go make sure she’s not sleepwalking.

: The Damage Done

: Both blades

: Japanese Magicians

: Japanese Magicians

: Japanese Magicians

: Tamie was impressed

: Layla

: Getting taller

: Layla’s latest trick

After a night of barbecuing, Canadian style, with coworkers on the company balcony (Canadian style meaning with a propane barbecue big enough to cook more than one hamburger at a time =), I was a little worried about getting up the next morning. Tamie was more concerned with my coming home on Friday night. Luckily (or not?) it was a fairly early night, so I got home with little trouble and fairly sober.

Today started out early, but not as early as we planned. A 10:30am appointment at the hospital (Layla’s bi-weekly checkup) meant we needed to get up around 9 to give us plenty of time to get ready and go. Setting our alarm for 8:30 should have been enough of a head start but, as always happens, a few presses of the snooze button and we were already behind the eight ball. Scrambling to get ready, we were out the door with seconds to spare. Making it to the hospital by 10:40 could be considered on time for a Saturday morning.

With Layla semi-feverish, coughing and sniffling, I was a little concerned she might get the lung and nostril treatment again. Luckily for her the doctor gave her the green light, only prescribing another bag full of medicine and forgoing the nose torture. After ten minutes of sucking vapour and twenty minutes of waiting for our prescription(s) to be filled, we were out of the hospital. The whole day ahead of us, we were ready to do… something. Planning is for the unspontaneous!

Back at home, Tamie fried up some of her world-famous potato chips while I readied my rollerblades for the next time I went – apparently not rotating the wheels is not a good thing, and I discovered my front wheels were worn down to the metal. I figured now was probably a good time to switch them up. Layla ended up lying down on the floor and falling asleep before we sat down to have a light lunch of beer and chips (on an unrelated note, I’m still not sure why I’m putting on weight). No amount of poking, prodding or holding chips under Layla’s nose would wake her up.

Eventually Layla woke up and we dropped by a bookstore to get a guide book about Naruto, our upcoming island excursion to see giant whirlpools. While Tamie checked up books on Naruto, I looked at the guide books for Canada – it’s interesting to see what is interesting to others about Ottawa. Funny thing, they listed four or five restaurants in the market… one of which was a Japanese restaurant and one being Colonnade Pizza. Yep, that’s Ottawa cuisine in a nutshell.

After our adventures researching and planning our next adventures (spontaneity be damned), we headed over to get some coffee at Starbucks. Frappuccinos all around! Again, no idea about that whole weight thing… I had my camera with me, as always, so snapped a couple pics of the girls as Tamie read about Naruto and Layla chugged her green tea concoction.

Eventually bored of the whole coffee thing, Layla lead us downstairs to play. I know she likes to play on stairs so it was win-win for her. Downstairs we did, in fact, play. Running in circles is a great game to a two-year old. At one point, I picked her up, threw her in the air and caught her. Tamie’s always asking me to do that while she was the camera so I did. Layla laughed, Tamie snapped a picture, and I caught the baby. Lather, rinse, repeat. The fourth or fifth time I did it, Layla ended up banging her tooth on my chin, or more precisely biting a big chunk of flesh out of my face. Reeling from the pain, but too manly to admit it, I inspected her mouth to see if she was hurt. The toothy grin told me enough. She was fine. Blood pouring out of my chin, I took a kleenex from Tamie to try to stem the bleeding. Light headed, I sat down while trying not to cry.

As we sat there holding kleenex on my chin, a group of high school kids appeared in front of us out of nowhere. They had a small speaker that they hooked up to their cell phones and blasted (by blasted I mean barely audibly played) tinny dance music for all to enjoy. They took turns dancing – each having his own shtick. One guy did backflips, one did the robot. One seemed to only be able to bounce on one hand – he bounced well, but after seeing it for the third time it got old. Before we left, one guy put on a helmet and spun on his head, break-dance style. The future of boybands was there in front of us and we had to leave to go grocery shopping!

By the time we made it back home, it was getting dark but I was eager to get out and try my newly rotated wheels. Tamie, too, was eager to go jogging. Since I was on wheels, she figured I’d be quicker so I left while she stayed back to watch the kid and prepare dinner. Boy was she wrong. I should have been faster but it was dark. There are no street lights in rice fields. Seeing is definitely not overrated.

I wanted to find a good route so went exploring, letting the colour of the traffic lights dictate my direction. When there were no traffic lights I’d just pick whichever street had the biggest sidewalk. Luckily I had a GPS enabled phone with me — but even after I got lost I was too stubborn to look at it. It’s not a big neighbourhood so I figured I could make my way back. I’m here typing now, so obviously I did, but not without doubling back a few times. Check this out for an idea of how lost I was. =)

By the time I made it back, nearly an hour had passed. Tamie tried to use the dark as an excuse not to go jogging but I would have none of it. Actually, it took very little to convince my little marathon runner to get out there and sweat. So while she didn’t get lost, I watched Sesame Street with Layla. She fell asleep, and I almost did. Luckily Tamie came back just in time. We had a nice steak dinner before putting Layla down to bed. Looking at the time now, it’s about time we head off ourselves.