Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Long Week, Short Weekend

Published on October 25, 2009 in Family, Hospital, Japan and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

After a week of long working days and longer working nights, I was happy to have the weekend upon us. But alas, when the going gets tough, it just gets tougher.

Friday morning, Layla had enough of a fever that the daycare wasn’t willing to take her (38 degrees! oh my!) Swine flu running rampant in our little town, and reports all over the news again caused great concern in Tamie and her parents, enough to take Layla to the hospital. The doctor, after poking and prodding, concluded that she was undetermined to have the flu (of any kind) and we’d have to come back on Saturday. At 9am. So much for sleeping in.

9am rolled around and we were scrambling to get to the hospital on time. Arriving just after 9:07, I was happy to see that there weren’t a million parents with kids in masks. Who ever thought one would be relieved to be only the thirteenth in line at a hospital. We were actually taken care of pretty quickly, and it was determined again that Layla might not have the flu. The fact that her fever had broken wasn’t a good indication as it might come back.

A clean(ish) bill of health in hand, we set out to have a good weekend. So what did we do? The weather was miserable so we didn’t do much. We shopped, we played, we ate, we came home.

Shopping was interesting in that we picked Layla up another toilet. She’s deathly afraid of the big blue (in our house) water closet, and even when we put the friendly bunny Miffy on the toilet seat, she’s still paralyzed. The daycare, from what I understand, are doing their best to toilet train her and have a pot with anpanman, a Japanese cartoon character, encouraging the kids to do their business. I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a similar pot at home, hopefully making her comfortable enough to want to use a toilet. So far? She’s had a lot of fun pushing the buttons that play music… not so much on actually using it.

Playing involved going to the kids’ floor in the department store and letting Layla run around and play with other kids. There’s a sample toy train track out that all kids seem to love, Layla being just one of them. She wasn’t too happy when her favourite toy train (Thomas the Tank Engine, for those keeping score) was being used by another little girl. The little girl was busy playing with two trains, and despite my telling her to wait her turn, Layla insisted on trying to get one. I, using all my cunning (and most of my Japanese skills), convinced the little girl to swap one of her trains for a caboose. Layla still wasn’t happy and tried to take the girl’s other train. She really wasn’t happy when I removed her from the toy section… screaming all the way. Fun times, indeed.

Eating was the highlight of the day. We had shabu shabu, which is lots of beef in a hot pot. Not unlike the previous two weeks of sukiyaki, shabu shabu involves thinly sliced pieces of beef that we cook ourselves in one of many kinds of broth, then dunk in sauce and eat. A new place opened up in our neighbourhood a couple weeks ago and Tamie finally didn’t refuse (at least not strongly enough) to going. It was decent, but we’ve definitely had better.

Sunday was another rainy, miserable day. Tamie had a dentist appointment in the morning, so Layla and I hung out at home before heading out to meet her in Hon-Atsugi when she finished. I was eager to hit up the Burger King there because they were offering a SEVEN patty hamburger, in honour of Microsoft releasing Windows 7. Thankfully, they were sold out when we got there so we went for lunch at a more reasonable, less beefy place.

Before lunch, we headed to the science museum to open Layla’s mind to the wonders and amazements that science has to offer. She seemed to have a good time, playing with marbles and … well, mostly marbles. I was most interested in the hand sanitizer they had available at the exit with the big sign outlining the dangers of influenza. Pandemic, much?

After lunch, we came back to Ebina and ventured back up to the kids’ floor of the department store to give Layla another opportunity to throw a tantrum… unfortunately, they were having some kind of halloween party so there were a thousand kids, all hopped up on sugar and adrenaline… I say unfortunately, not because I didn’t want Layla to get involved, rather she was too timid to go out and play. The chaos of it all seemed to wilt her spirits so we instead helped Tamie shop for a new jogging shirt that she used after we got back home.

Maybe not the most exciting weekend, but it had its moments.

Pictures are available here:
Saturday
Sunday

Off By One

Published on October 21, 2009 in Japan. 0 Comments Tags: .

Sometimes, after working a long day of overthinking and underachieving, one’s brain is turned to a state of mush that doesn’t really work properly. Today was one of those days.

I got home just after 11, walked into the apartment building and went to the elevator. It was up on the 14th floor so I figured I might as well get some exercise and take the stairs all the way up to the third floor.

When I get to our door, I put my key into the lock and it didn’t work. Seeing as I only have two keys, I try the other key figuring I must have mixed them up. That one didn’t work either.

Now at this point, a smarter man might have looked to see what was wrong instead of trying the door to see if it was open. It wasn’t until the woman started yelling and the dog started barking that I realized I might not be at the right apartment. Looking at the apartment number I discovered in my eagerness to exercise I’d climbed an extra flight of stairs to the apartment right above ours.

I said ‘sorry’ through the door and headed back downstairs. Before I made it half way down, a man came running out in his underwear looking ready to kill someone. I told him in perfect Japanese “Whoops. My mistake – 3 not 4.” and he seemed satisfied. Either that, or he didn’t want to try to communicate with a man who didn’t speak his language. Or he was just cold standing outside in his underwear. In any case, he ran back inside pretty quickly.

I chuckled as I went downstairs, careful not to end up on the second floor.

Farm Festival and a Day at the Park

Published on October 19, 2009 in Family, Japan and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Saturday was a day of a farm festival in Isehara, the city Tamie’s parents live in. They wanted to take Layla and we were more than happy to oblige – Tamie’s always excited to expose Layla to terrifying animals like mice and chicks. Layla seemed excited to go too, talking about how she wanted to see and pet rabbits at the fair.

After what should have been a quick stop at the hospital for Layla’s routine checkup for her asthma, delayed only by a swine flu outbreak in our city and a hospital computer system that went down, we were off to see the farm animals.

The festival was a bit bigger than last year’s, with a lot of people milling about like the livestock they were gawking at. Layla summed up all of her courage and milked a fake cow. Unfortunately with her courage sapped, by the time we got to the petting portion of the festival, she was scared stiff of all the animals running around her. Even the bunny she was so anxious to pet was terrifying.

Tamie’s sister joined us in the petting pen. She tried to get Layla to pet a rabbit to no avail. Even grandma was getting into the act — she promised the cowardly little girl popcorn if she could touch a baby goat just once. Layla, too smart for her own good sometimes, knew grandma would be getting her popcorn regardless and ignored the goat completely. So instead of petting animals, we went and got some festival food. And popcorn.

After the festival we went back to the house to have a deliciously homemade Sukiyaki meal. Twice in two weeks! Sorry Tamie, but I love it. Layla crashed on the way home, ragdolling in my arms before we made it back to the apartment. I bet she dreamed of ferocious bunnies and scary chicks.

Sunday was almost a typical Sunday. A typical Sunday involves waking up late, rollerblading, Tamie jogging at some point and starbucks-ing. We woke up late-ish, Layla waking up around 10.

I rollerbladed 8.34km, hitting a maximum speed of 25km/h and maintaining an average speed of around 12km/h… yep, my google phone is amazing! =) Highlight of the trip was almost running over a praying mantis! I’d never seen one before and wasn’t sure if what I saw was really a praying mantis and not just a green leaf on the sidewalk (it’s hard to make out such small things when you are flying at 12km/h!). When I got home I asked Tamie in disbelief if Japan had such cool bugs and the disgust on her face told me yes.

After I showered, we were getting ready to go out to starbucks. It was such a nice day outside, I suggested we head out somewhere else, and I knew the perfect place. Instead of our regular trip to Vina Walk in search of musicians, magicians, dogs, babies and frappuccinos, we headed out to the park we used to frequent. With Layla being bigger, she was able to use the playground jungle gym with a lot more confidence and independence.

Hours were spent playing with slides and rope bridges, balls and bubbles, running and laughing. It was a good time and great to see Layla having such a good time amongst the thousand or so other kids at the park.

Galleries:
Farm Festival
A Day at the Park

Let me know how slow the loadtimes are for the galleries. I’m trying to work on a new interface and am wondering how fast the current ones are.

Previews for the gallery:

As Promised, a Link to a Gallery…

Published on October 13, 2009 in Development. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The full gallery of our trip to the zoo and Sukiyaki place in Yokohama. The same images I posted in the last post are available full-sized here.

Lions and Tigers and Mice, Oh My!

Lions and Tigers and Mice, Oh My!

Published on October 13, 2009 in Family, Japan and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

This weekend, despite being a long weekend, was kind of a quiet one. We did, however, manage to make it out to the zoo we’d been intending to visit for the last couple weeks/months.

We were planning on going on Saturday but the weather didn’t really co-operate so we went on Sunday instead. So instead of zooing, we got our haircut, which can be a full-day activity. Tamie took Layla to visit the grandparents while I stuck around here. We have differing opinions on what a haircut entails and so go to different places to get our hair cut. I’ve gone to her place a couple times and the people there are quite nice, but I can find much better things to do with three hours of my time. My haircut this time – 22 minutes, and no army-style buzz cuts. Tamie’s? Her appointment was at 1pm, and when I called her at 4:30 she said she’d just finished. Different strokes…

The zoo we went to on Sunday was a smaller, freer zoo that we’d visited once before in Yokohama. Luckily the weather (and the time of our awakening) co-operated and we were able to attend.

We got there just after lunch and saw all sorts of creatures — Layla, as usual, was curious up until the point where the animals might actually touch her at which point she freaked and wanted to be carried. There were several peacocks walking freely (when not being harassed by kids) in the zoo, all of which scared the heck out of our brave little girl.

One section of the zoo was a kind of petting zoo, with chickens, chicks and mice for kids to manhandle. Even the smallest mouse was too much for our little princess, as she panicked and climbed up on me. I was a bit surprised when Tamie put the mouse on my shoulder as I thought Layla would have a heart attack, or worse, but she actually seemed okay with it. I guess so long as it wasn’t actually on her (or her mom wasn’t evilly trying to put it on her, she was okay).

The lion roared at us, causing all sorts of people to rush over and crowd around to see what the lion was doing, almost blocking our view. Gotta love the fact that the not-so-polite, little photographers who are a head shorter than me =).

The penguins were swimming in their little pool, all except one. Tamie’s theory was that it was still a bit young and losing its baby feathers… meanwhile, the lady beside us was telling her kid it was too old and couldn’t swim at such an advanced age. I’ll side with my wife, and not just because she’d be mad if I didn’t.

After the zoo, we headed down to a sketchy part of town to get some good meat in us. Sukiyaki, a beef hotpot that is oh-so-delicious, was the meal of the evening. It seems to be only a fall/winter dish here, despite the deliciousness. As such, this was the first time in months that we had the opportunity to have some. The fact that we had to walk past kinky massage parlours to get to it was all the better.

The actual restaurant was pretty nice and we got our own room all to ourselves. The kimono-clad waitresses were more than happy to serve us, especially with Layla being cute and charming as she is starting to learn to be. As it was a meal for two, Layla was taking only the parts of our food that she wanted… or that we didn’t want. As part of our appetizer we got a chestnut, which Layla devoured in seconds. Seeing as she seemed to like it, I asked the waitress for another beer and another chestnut… she asked if she should bring two at which point Layla jumped up holding three fingers up saying “pleeeeease”. She got her three chestnuts and I got another anecdote to write in a blog. Win-win, I’d say.

After several plates of meat, we were stuffed. Layla, not so much. She still wanted dessert and she was determined to get it. Here in Japan, it’s primarily the customer’s responsibility to yell at a waiter or waitress when they want something — ie. they don’t come and check on you. Yelling “Sumimasen” (“Excuse Me”) is something I’ve been trying to teach Layla to do but she’s usually either too shy or too quiet when she does. But not tonight — the paper walls shook with her sumimasen-ing. The waitress did come and when Layla said “dessert, please” it was with apparent joy that the waitress served it. Both plates to the baby.

Today (Monday) was another lazy day thanks to the Japanese national holiday, which I’ve just learned is called “Athletic Day”. We talked to my folks back in Canada for a while – they were shocked to see how tall Layla is. I went rollerblading on my new wheels (very fitting, considering the day). I realized two things — 1. It’s much better, in every way, to rollerblade on a full set of wheels. You get a smoother ride, a better stride, better acceleration and top speed, and 2. I’m even more out of shape now than when I tried to start rollerblading a couple weeks ago — guess I should do it more than once a month. Tamie went jogging, still training for her future marathon(s). Layla went to sleep, napping for over an hour. Then we went out for coffee. So yah, pretty typical lazy day.

I’m uploading pictures as I type and hopefully by tomorrow they’ll be ready. I’ll post a link to them when they are.

For now, here’s a sampler.