Tag Archive for 'rollerblading'

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.

A Zooless, Fever-filled Sunday. And Some Magic To Boot.

Published on September 6, 2009 in Family, Hospital and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

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.

Hospitals, Rabid Babies, and Rollerblading. Just Another Typical Saturday.

Published on September 6, 2009 in Family, rollerblading and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

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.

Lazy Days of Summer

Published on August 30, 2009 in rollerblading and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

It was with great effort that I got up this morning, not quite wanting to face the day yet. Tamie, good sweet wife o’ mine, was gracious enough to get up with Layla and let me sleep in. I eventually felt guilty enough to pull myself out of my slumber and zombie-walk into the living room to greet my girls with a friendly “uuuuugh, is it still early enough to say ‘good morning?’”. Man do I love weekends =)

With nothing but the obvious bit of R&R planned for the day, Tamie, always eager to go jogging, figured it was the perfect opportunity to head out for a bit of a run. I, not so eager to even think about jogging, figured it was a good chance to give the parents back in Ottawa a call. So while Tamie sweated under 40 degrees of mid day sun, I stayed air conditioned with the kid to call her Nonni and Chinni online. A good chat and an hour later, Tamie came in the door exhausted, explaining just how blistering the sun was before going take a long, cold shower.

As she showered, I thought about things and came to a conclusion myself. I’ve recently been having an email conversation a friend who has been lamenting about how quickly getting older seems to meaning getting heavier. Having put on my own fair share of weight recently, I couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Now, I’m not saying it’s just age that is putting on the pounds – I mean, I’m sure the beer and cookies might have played a small part in their nightly consumption, but age does get its fair share of the blame. The last email I received had the a number, a big 238 lbs of a number in it. Crikey! It was a scant 2 years ago when we were both hovering between 180-190 and worrying about the double century mark… oh, to be so slim again.

So with that in my mind, and inspired by Tamie’s industrious (or maybe insane) jogging today, I thought it was a good time to break the ol’ rollerblades out of retirement. I’d been talking about it for more than a year (I think it was my new years’ resolution… of 2008). Man, time flies. So like an old war veteran suiting up after a long spell of peace, I suited up in blades and wrist guards into the battleground of sun, traffic, and old ladies on bikes. It’s a dangerous world out there.

I got off to a pretty good start – felt like I’d never stopped blading. The wind was blowing just right, the traffic lights were green at every corner I approached and I was flying down the road at a good clip. I was free, and I was loving it. I was inspired to do this every day! Thoughts of waking up early and starting the day with a similar invigorating rollerblading session filled my head as I passed pedestrian and car alike. I couldn’t remember why I stopped.

Not ten minutes had passed before I was drenched in sweat, the sun beating down stronger than anything I’d ever experienced in my life. What little breeze there was only seemed to pick up the heat from the pavement causing even more discomfort. The old ladies on the bicycles I’d passed earlier seemed to pick up their pace and fly by me as easily as I had them only moments prior. Insulted, I tried to use that as motivation to keep my legs moving and not to die. I lowered my cap, focused on the few feet in front of me and rollerbladed like I was chasing women one quarter their age. And to my great surprise, I caught them. They were stopped at a traffic light, which I almost missed, but I caught them.

At twenty minutes, my legs were like rubber. I could barely breathe. I thought I was a goner, for sure. I wasn’t even insulted or embarrassed when those same old ladies walked past me pushing their bikes. The only thing on my mind was survival – I had to make it back to the air conditioned haven we call home. I rolled along at what I’ll call a leisurely pace for what seemed like forever until I finally made it back to the finish line. It was with great agony that I peeled off my rollerbladed and made my way up to the third floor — it’s not easy standing and waiting for an elevator as slow as ours.

After a quick 45 minute shower, I finally felt like I wasn’t going to pass out or pass away. I was anxious to check out the stats I’d collected on my spiffy new google phone. Tamie had used it first when she went jogging and found she ran over 7km in just under an hour at average speed of nearly 7km/h (funny how that math works out, eh — good thing google is smart enough to figure all that out for us). I, too, had carried my gps-enabled toy and found I’d gone just over 6km in 30 minutes. Check out my maps page here, if it works. Yah, she ran farther than me, but let’s face it – I’d like to say she’s in much better shape than I am but, honestly, I think it was because I’d gone out later in the day and the sun was so much hotter.

Exercise out of the way for another year, we went out to pick up a couple things we’ve been meaning to get. Tomorrow is Tamie’s sister’s birthday so we picked up a couple things for her (Tamie didn’t think she’d like some oversized, slightly-used, like-new rollerblades). While we were shopping, Layla wanted to ride on the merry-go-round she’d been on in the past (her memory is getting to be a bit of a pain sometimes). Since she’s spoiled, we gave her the 200 yen and let her go at it. She plunked the first coin into the slot no problem. The second one she tried a couple times. The third time she dropped it I put it into the machine for her at which point she started yelling, got off the merry-go-round, and cried until it stopped. Luckily at the end, it spit out a card which she was more than happy to collect and show off. Phew!

We eventually made our way back home where we had dinner (chicken caesar salad and potato-crust pizza, for those curious). Actually, I just wanted to mention the potato-crusted pizza because I’d never heard of such a creation. I’m pretty sure Tamie made it up due to the fact we had leftover potatoes in the fridge, but it actually turned out pretty well.

So that was our day. I call it a lazy day, but in all honesty it was one of the unlaziest days I’d had in months, if not years. Who knows if I’ll stick to the rollerblading, but I’m certainly going to try. And to Mr. 238, I know you read this — the gauntlet is off, good sir. We’ve talked about self-improvement for a long time, well the time is now. So step up! I look forward to reading about your adventures in rollerblading!