Life in the Land of Wa

A pox on us all

2012-02-18T04:15:00.000-06:00

So, in the last week we have all managed to get some form of sinus cold or infection and while we are mostly on the mend it has seriously affected our blogging schedule... for that I apologize. So while this post may not be as riveting as it could be, I assure you that there are in fact several posts in the works that will be significantly better this one. That being said, here is what I offer you today:

Several weeks ago on on one of my runs, I stopped by the largest Shinto shrine in Fukuyama

to test out our new camera in some slightly more difficult lighting situations, namely the dark. The result was some rather interesting photos, that without sounding too self congratulatory, actually turned quite well.

Torii Gate lead up to the shrine itself.

One of the out buildings.

Same out building with a little extra lighting

This is probably my favorite photo. 60 sec. exposure with
the moon in the background.

Finally the entrance to the complex itself with some selective coloring.

Kinkan

2012-02-09T06:31:00.000-06:00

I have discovered that Japan is all about its seasonal fruits. A few months ago, persimmons and figs were hanging ripe on countless dozens of trees in our neighbourhood and could be found for great prices at every grocery store. Now, it is difficult to find them but the time of the citrus fruit is at hand. Yuzu, a sour citrus fruit that is a bit like a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon, are everywhere and all sorts of drinks and sweets flavoured with yuzu can be found. We are being given mikan, or as Canadians love to call them, Christmas oranges, by the the bagful from friends with trees. Last week, Dustin's Japanese teacher gave us a bag of kinkan, or kumquats, from the tree on their yard. I had never tried one before and always assumed that they taste similar to loquats, which grow everywhere in the area of Mexico where my dad lives. I was terribly wrong, since really nothing about them, other than their size and the "quat" in the name, is similar to a loquat. The rind is sweet and tastes just like eating an orange peel but slightly less intense. The inside is lemony sour. You eat the fruit rind and all, and together the taste is almost like popping a spoonful of deliciously tart and intensely flavourful marmalade into your mouth. I have become fascinated with the flavour of these little beauties and managed to eat the whole bag were given in just a few days. It is a good thing that they are in season now and can be found just about everywhere. I better enjoy them while they are still around though, since I will have to wait a whole year once they are no longer in season.

Mushroom Logs

2012-02-06T01:08:00.000-06:00

For my birthday a few weeks ago, Dustin got me the coolest present: two shiitake growing kits! I absolutely love mushrooms, to eat and just in general, so I was pretty excited to get them growing.

Contents of the kit

The kits included a log about 40 cm long that has been seeded with spores, a plastic bin for storing it in while the mushrooms are growing, a plastic bag for keeping in moisture, a plastic wedge for standing up the log, and instructions. The log has circular spots cut out of it in regular intervals where the mushrooms are supposed to sprout from.

First, the log was soaked in ~16° water for 24 hours until it was completely water logged. I then drained the water and propped it up in the white plastic bin and wrapped the whole thing up in a plastic bag to keep in all of the moisture and humidity. It has to be kept at a temperature range between 14° and 22° while the mushrooms are growing. Our bedroom and living room are the only places we heat in our apartment, and outside is far too cold, so I opted for sticking it in our bedroom closet.

After a few days of forgetting about it, I noticed a few little white bumps emerging from some of the circular grooves. In no time at all, they have been swelling to lovely little mushrooms. It should take another week or so before they reach the perfect size, but I amazed at how fast they have been growing!

Mushroom log before soaking

Circular spot "seeded" with spores

Incubator bag

About to sprout

Baby mushrooms!

The great thing about these logs is that mushrooms can be produced multiple times before you have to throw the log away. After each two week mushroom growing cycle, you allow the log to dry out and "rest" for about a month and a half. Then you can soak it again and start over. You can also buy super large 2 meter logs that have been seeded with spores but I am not sure if Dustin would be too happy with me shoving those into our closet!

Milestones

2012-02-02T07:09:00.001-06:00

It may not be readily obvious all the time, but I do actually try to limit the number of posts I write that center exclusively on our kids. I recognize that children and their antics are always much more interesting to the parents and don't want to bore too many people. I know that unavoidably our blog will be pegged as a mommy blog, but for those who couldn't care less about how cute our kids are, I try to capture the goings on of our life on a broader scale. After that disclaimer, here is a whole post about what the kids have been up to lately:

For Theo's birthday, our crafty neighbours made a really cool Mario pinata. Theo had a great time bashing at it but eventually we gave up on the blind fold as his swings became more and more wild. William seemed just as enthusiastic as Theo did when candy started to spill from the hole he bashed in Mario's head (wow, I didn't realize how vicious this whole thing was!). The next day, we were able to have more fun by turning the pinata into a helmet/mask. It's fantastic to have good neighbours!

William was pretty absorbed in checking out all of the fallen goodies

"It's-a me, Mario!"

Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper by Theo

Theo's new favorite past-time has been drawing in his sketch book. I absolutely love this new focus of his because every afternoon he happily doodles away for an hour or two instead of bounding around, destructing the apartment, and making his brother upset. I am always happy when my children develop skills that make them more independent and less demanding of my one on one attention. I think the reason he is so interested in drawing is that he has recently hit a big milestone in fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. All of a sudden he has been able to draw fairly accurate shapes, pictures that are more or less distinguishable for what he says they are (even though the cats have eight legs and resemble spiders with tails), most letters, and even a few hiragana. He seems to have entered into a very sensitive period for learning to write letters and numbers, so I am more than happy to indulge his interest. He has also taken to labeling things in the house, like his brother.

I'm not quite sure what his label is supposed to mean, but William didn't seem to mind it one bit.

Also, despite the chilly temperatures and wind, we have been able to get out on the weekends and discover a few of the nice parks in our area and fly our kite. Once the weather warms up a bit more, I would like to get Theo a little pole so he can learn to fish. Most of the parks in our area are along the river, so it would be easy to teach him at one of these.

Flying the kite from the wind free comfort of the play tube

Making sure that the park pandas get enough bamboo

Meanwhile, William has grown a few more teeth and is able to cruise his way along all of our furniture to dismantle and bite anything he can get his grubby little hands on. He has a remarkably driven curiosity and Theo is always a willing accomplice in his most destructively mischievous acts. Here are a few recent shots of wee Wills:

Pretending to be mild mannered and innocent

Now showing his true personality and his four new sharp teeth

His favorite scrunch faced grin

Samurai in training

...and that is what has been going on in our children's lives in the past couple of weeks.

Rodents of Unusual Size

2012-01-24T21:23:00.000-06:00

One critter that we see fairly often on our bike rides is the nutria, or coypu (Myocastor coypus). They seem to be everywhere in the canals and in the Ashida River that flows through the city. As you can see from this shot of one I took this weekend, they are a semi-aquatic rodent are about the same size as a beaver but with a long, rat-like tail.

I am surprised this one let me get so close

Originally from South America, they have been introduced to every continent except for Antarctica and Australia for their fur. Nutria were introduced to Japan in 1910 and the military promoted small fur farms to raise nutria. When the price of the pelts dropped, many nutria were released into the wild where they happily procreated, due to a lack of natural predators and lots of prime habitat. Since 1963, nutria have been hunted in Japan to control their ballooning population. When looking for population counts in Japan, I discovered that Okayama has the highest number of nutria in the country. It is about 9.5 kilometers from our apartment to the border of Okayama Prefecture, so it makes sense that I see them so often.

Super cute baby nutria

The foraging and nesting habits of the nutria have an incredibly detrimental effect on the health of wetlands and water systems in the countries in which they are introduced. They destroy nesting habitat for native species and cause massive soil erosion by eating marsh plants and burrowing through root systems. Places like Louisiana (are you surprised?) have created a 5$ bounty for every nutria shot in an attempt to decrease their population. Some countries are even trying to popularize the sale of nutria meat for human consumption. The meat has euphemistically been named "ragondin", the French word for nutria, and has been found to be much leaner, higher in protein, and lower in harmful microorganisms compared with farmed conventional meats. If you ever manage to get your hands on some ragondin, there are lots of recipes out there that will help you make the most of it.

Shooting them for fur, meat, or even a 5$ bounty may seem cruel, but in many of the countries to which they have been introduced, humans are the only predator able to lower their populations. The wetlands they are destroying are incredibly complex and fragile habitats which play a critical role in maintaining water quality and species richness. In many countries, hunting, whether done by individuals or the government, is one of the few viable options for controlling their population. I say, if you are going to shoot it anyway, why let it go to waste?

Mystery Bottles

2012-01-23T01:02:00.002-06:00

Water bottle garden fence?

I had not been in Fukuyama for very long before I noticed a number of clear, 2 litre, plastic drink bottles, filled with water and placed in a row on someones front steps. I thought it was odd that the bottles were placed out almost decoratively, but the only thing I could think of was that they were warming up water for their plants. I am not sure if other people have ever done this, but the well water in Canada is absolutely frigid, so we usually warmed it up in the sunshine before dousing the garden.

Fly scaring bag

As soon as I became aware of them, I noticed the plastic bottles of water everywhere. They were lining people's fences, surrounding gardens, along walkways, and just about everywhere else. I kept an eye on a few of them and saw that they were never refilled or moved, so they were obviously not being used for watering plants. My next best guess was that they were to keep flies away. Where my dad lives in Mexico, they keep plastic bags filled with water in the window to ward off flies. Perhaps the bottles were a form of fly repellant? I hadn't noticed a single fly since arriving in Japan, so either they were doing a fantastic job of scaring them away, or they were not for flies after all.

Making friends with a not so feral neighbourhood cat

After a few more weeks of speculation, I finally asked a Japanese friend of ours about the bottles and found out that they are to scare away cats. Apparently the glinting of sunlight off of water tricks the cats into thinking there is a body of water that they want to avoid. There are quite a few stray cats in our neighbourhood, and it is apparently a serious problem in Japan as a whole, so I can see why people would want to keep them from using their gardens as a litter box, their sheds as a place to have their kittens, or tearing apart their trash. I am really curious about how well these bottles actually work. It seems to me that cats are intelligent enough and have good enough eye sight to figure out that the water is contained inside a bottle. If we ever have a problem with cats lurking around I will have to test its effectiveness myself.

To demonstrate how common these bottles are, all three photos were taken within 100 meters of each other by the canal in our neighbourhood.

Universal Soft Expert

2012-01-17T23:41:00.002-06:00

USE: Universal Soft Expert

We have a friend in Canada who disagrees with the concept of "soft". He believes that everything is merely a different degree of hardness. I don't exactly agree with him and in case I ever want to back up my side of the argument, I have found an expert on the subject. Dustin and I found the office of the "Universal Soft Expert" tucked in a small side street beside a factory. I am pretty sure they don't see much business due to their out of the way location and inexplicable job title.

Ego Garden

2012-01-16T08:56:00.000-06:00

In December, I modeled some outfits for an Italian clothing store in Fukuyama called Ego Garden. I have never done anything like this before, so it was a really fun new experience but a bit bizarre how it all came about.

While shopping in our neighbourhood grocery store a couple of months ago, I was approached by a stranger and asked if I would be interested in modeling in a fashion show. I was a bit leery, since his English was not fantastic and I could not get really clear details about the fashion show and exactly what kind of clothes I was to be modeling. He seemed like a nice man, but the whole encounter felt a bit strange to me and I didn't want to unknowingly agree to "adult" modeling or being sacrificed to some strange god in a seedy warehouse. A few days later he emailed some info about the event and had an English speaking friend of his call me and give me some more details. Surprisingly enough, it was actually a legit fashion show without any strange catch.

A few weeks later, I went to the clothing store to have outfits chosen with the three other people who were to be modeling clothes in the show. I don't think that I actually would ever wear the clothes that were chosen for me, especially the black, sacklike dress with the bizarre fuzzy shawl and gloves, but I was ready to sneak out the back door with the brown mohair coat that I wore in my second outfit. The show went well and I was able to make a nice bit of cash considering that I only "worked" for an hour and a half.

I finally managed to get my hands on a few photos this weekend and there is also a video which I am in for about 2 seconds, so enjoy!

Being shown around the venue before the show

Having my makeup and hair done

Group photo before the show

This was just about the most unflattering and uncomfortable dress that I have ever worn. It had a loose, sacklike top that narrowed below the hips. The sleeves were narrow until the elbow and then ballooned out. The neckline was really strange as well, but at least it was covered up by the fuzzy shawl.

I had about 1 minute to throw off the first outfit and pull on this second one. This dress was actually much better than the last, and I absolutely loved the coat. Too bad it cost over 4,000$ Canadian!

I was pretty sure that this would be the one and only time that I would do something like this, but a few days ago I was asked if I would like to be in a tourism video that Fukuyama City is making. It will be shot in Tomo-no-Ura this weekend and I have no idea what my role will be exactly. Who knows how many random things I can manage to appear in while living in Japan!

Untimely Endings

2012-01-10T21:27:00.000-06:00

Over the holidays, two important electronic devices in my life met with an untimely end. Right before Christmas, our camera effectively stopped working. Since I take photos on a daily basis, as a hobby but also for this blog, I found it extremely annoying and inconvenient. We resorted to taking photos with our cell phones which was a shame since I would have liked to get good pictures of Christmas, New Year's, and Dustin and Theo's birthday. Dustin and I had been planning on getting a new camera in the spring, but the sudden malfunction of our old camera made us reconsider our timing. After sifting through our options and doing a bit of research, we finally settled on a camera that suits our needs. It arrived last week and I am extremely pleased with the shots it takes. Now the only excuse for crappy pictures on the blog is my own picture taking ability! Here are a couple of pictures we took from a bike ride on Monday:

View from Tomonoura harbour

Daffodils in January!?

Reporting for duty!

At a riverside park

Tomonoura

The other device that came to a sudden demise was my Kindle. I was reading a book and was obviously pretty engrossed in it when Theo lunged at me, landing with both of his knees on the screen. I heard a loud snap like a twig breaking and about 3 seconds later, the screen looked like this:

At that moment, I actually found myself stating something my mother said many times during my childhood: "I can't have nice things". Theo was really remorseful and quite empathetic because he offered to take me to a playground and buy me ice cream to make me feel better. I almost took him up on the offer. Fortunately, only the screen is broken, not all of the other electronic bits, and Dustin, being the capable person that he is, ordered a used screen and claims that he can make it as good as new. Meanwhile, after wingeing for a few days about having to stop reading my book at a really gripping part, we decided to get a second Kindle. We had been intending on getting one for Dustin at some point, but since mine is out of commission for the time being, it seemed like the right time. We got a different (cheaper) model than the last one and it is pretty nice. I was able to finally finish my book and have been fueling my daily need for reading ever since. Hopefully we won't have any more mishaps in the next few months. Replacing two electronic devices in a few weeks is about as much as we can handle!

Our two e-book readers side by side

Fukubukuro

2012-01-07T07:50:00.001-06:00

On New Year's Day, we took the kids for a long, enjoyable bike ride along the river and into the countryside surrounding Fukuyama. On our way back, we stopped at a little, out of the way playground and let the children explore for as long as we could stand the cold wind.

William had fun checking out all of the dinosaur statues.

There were also lots of things to climb and jump on which pleased Theo.

This tube had really interesting acoustics and William enjoyed a few minutes protected from the wind while hearing his own voice amplified.

Scattered throughout the playground were little interactive plinths like this one that shows how to draw a kappa, which is a child and cucumber eating water sprite. They are probably my favourite creature in Japanese folklore so I was pretty excited to learn how to draw one.

We picked up a few Year of the Dragon themed sweet buns from a shop on our way home. Thebuns were made using a plain and green tea flavoured dough and filled with sweet bean paste with chocolate decorations to make them look like dragon heads.

Before we returned home, we stopped at a grocery store near our apartment and bought two fukubukuro, one for the boys and one for Dustin and me. Fukubukuro are mystery bags filled with a random assortment of goods from the store which are sold at a set price which is lower than the actual value of the contents, or is at least supposed to be. I was really hoping that our bag would contain some interesting and surprising new items that I have never had the opportunity of trying. Unfortunately, everything contained in our surprise bag was pretty tame, mostly just snacks. On the plus side, we estimated that we only paid about half of the actual worth of the goods in our bag and we knew that we would be able to use everything in it. Theo picked an Anpanman themed bag for William and himself. It was filled with an assortment of Anpanman candy and cookies which they have both been enjoying over the past week.

The contents of our bag were clockwise from top left: a bottle of tea that tasted like nail polish remover to me, a bottle of water, milk tea mix, 2 cans of coffee, chocolate crackers, senbei, oreos, potato chips, curry mix, seasoning for eggplant stir fry, chocolate covered biscuits, and caramel corn.

The kid's bag contained crackers, cookies, candy, and a sketch pad.

I think that fukubukuro are a fun way for a store to get rid of extra merchandise. I am not sure if they would be terribly successful in Canada though, since people there seem to be pickier when it comes to product selection and have way more allergies, intolerances, and food avoidances.

The Beat Goes On

2012-01-04T20:52:00.000-06:00

Last week we had two more reasons to celebrate: New Year's and Theo's Birthday. On the 31st, we were invited by a friend to a mochi pounding party. Traditionally, mochi is made by pounding special glutinous rice using a large wooden hammer. There are actually two people involved, one to pound the rice with the hammer, and one to wet the rice, making sure it doesn't stick to the bowl while turning and flipping it. The timing of these two people has to be pretty precise or the rice would cool too quickly, or someone could get their hand smashed by a massive hammer. It forms a smooth, soft, stretchy ball after a while which is then shaped into smaller balls for eating. This is a popular New Year's event, and we really enjoyed getting into the festivities.

The mochi that day was made in a more modern way with the rice first being steamed in tiered wooden stacks, then put into a pounding machine, placed in another machine for cutting the newly formed mochi into smaller pieces, and finally being rolled in a little rice flour and lined up to cool. Some of it was filled with sweet red bean, which is Theo and my absolute favorite. Truthfully, Theo loves all mochi to excess and was in his glory when he was allowed to eat all he wanted.

First, the rice was steamed in this large wooden contraption.

It was then placed in this machine to be pounded into a soft, stretchy mass. A few weeks ago, Theo had told me all about a mochi pounding robot that he wanted to build so that he could have mochi whenever he wanted. He had no idea that something like that already existed, and was speechless and amazed when he saw the pounding machine.

The soft and warm mass is then put into the top funnel of another machine that pushes it out while snipping off balls.

The newly formed balls are lightly coated in rice flour to keep them from sticking. Here, Theo is sporting a fresh mochi that he is about to devour.

After eating his fill, he helped roll more balls in flour and place them in neat rows. The white, half circle forms that look a bit like two mortars joined together are molds for making kagami mochi, a two tiered mochi that is a New Year tradition and decoration.

I have no idea how much mochi they ended up making that day, since we only stayed for a couple of hours. It is their family's tradition every year to make mochi and give it to all of their friends, family, and neighbours for New Year.

The family owns a small factory that builds machines for making senbei. Theo had lots of fun poking around the factory, checking out all of the cool tools and machine parts.

They also roasted some delicious black soy beans for us to munch on.

Theo's Mario birthday cake

On January 2nd, Theo turned four years old. We had a relaxed celebration at home with pizza, balloons, and a cake decorated with his current favourite character: Mario. He absolutely loves the Mario Brothers and has been pretending that he is Mario and William is Luigi for months. His interest crossed the boundary into obsession a few weeks ago and now the first thing that leaves his mouth in the morning and the last thing that escapes his mouth at night usually has something to do with Mario. At one point, I asked him who I was, and he told me I was Princess Peach because I am so pretty. Awww...

This past Thursday was Theo's first day back at kindergarten after a two week break. Dustin is also back to work, so hopefully everything will settle back into our pre-holiday routine and I will be able to blog a little bit more about what is happening in our lives.

Celebrations

2011-12-29T02:11:00.000-06:00

Normally Dustin would not get Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off of work, but this year both fell on a weekend so we were able to really relax and enjoy ourselves. We were also lucky enough to be able to borrow our neighbours Christmas tree, since they would be visiting family in the U.S. during Christmas. We decided against setting it up in advance, since we knew that William is old enough now to be facinated with it and try to grab every he can get his grubby fingers on, but not old enough to understand the word "no". Instead, we decided to ask Santa Claus to bring a decorated tree when he came to drop off presents.

On Christmas Eve, we decided to try out our new nabe pot. Nabe is a Japanese dish where you heat broth and cook vegetables, meat, and seafood in it at the table. It was a warming and delicious meal which both boys managed to sleep though which was a bonus for Dustin and me. After, Theo woke up and had some leftovers, we helped him write a long letter to Santa, thanking him for the presents and telling him where to put the tree, and put out a plate of milk and cookies. After the kids were in bed, the real fun began. The tree was set up, stockings stuffed, and presents pulled from our many hiding spots.

The next morning, Theo was wide eyed and impressed with Santa's magical skills and we had a fun filled time opening gifts and chatting with family on Skype. It is amazing how quiet and well behaved kids can be when they have a few new toys to occupy them. This was the most laid back and relaxed Christmas that I have had in many years. There weren't multiple, large family gatherings to run back and forth to and only enough presents to make our kids happy and grateful, not unappreciative, greedy monsters.

Yesterday, we also celebrated Dustin's 32nd birthday. He didn't have to work, since the New Year's holidays started on December 29th. Here's hoping that the next year brings him lots of laughs, growth, peace, and happiness.

As an ode to Dustin over the years, here are a few rarely seen photos of him, most showing his amazing and very varied facial hair styles. Thank goodness that he feels socially obligated to remain clean shaven now!

There are a few things in life that Dustin truly appreciates: Mac products,

history,

building and paddling kayaks,

eating good sushi and experimenting with ridiculous facial hair,

brewing and drinking quality beer,

ensuring Canada's safety while wearing gloves called "The Friskmaster 2000",

a challenging bike ride or hike,

and most of all, his family.

We love you Dustin!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T20:02:00.000-06:00

We had an absolutely fantastic Christmas here in Fukuyama. I will be putting up pictures of our revelry as soon as I figure out how to get them off of my phone. Unfortunately, our camera, which has been taking terrible pictures from day one, is slowly becoming only able to take pictures that are not much better than a daguerrotype. A recent addition to its ineptitude is the inability to flash or focus on anything even remotely resembling a subject. The photos are usually blurry and hazy unless the subject is completely still, which I am pretty sure my children are incapable of. I have a deep and complex relationship of dislike and betrayal with this camera, which, as you can see, is turning into semi-psycotic anthropomorphising on my part. We finally gave up on the camera on Christmas Eve and opted for taking photos with the only slightly better cell phone camera. In case you are wondering why we bought such a terrible camera in the first place, we didn't. It was given to us as a replacement when our previous camera (which took decent photos) had electrical problems. Sigh.

Parliament of owls with Theo in background

Last week, Theo's kindergarten had a Christmas presentation. It was held at the Reed and Rose Arena, our city's concert hall, and included two plays and multiple songs played on the melodica. Theo and the rest of the children in the youngest kindergarten class performed a really cute but random play. The premise was as follows: All of the animals of the forest are gathered together because they have found a secret cave. A few animals enter it to explore and come out claiming to have seen great sights. They tell all of the animals to go in and see for themselves, but the foxes are too afraid to enter. It takes the rhetoric of the wise owls to persuade the foxes. After all of the animals enter the cave, they discover that it is a magical portal to the North Pole where they meet Santa, his reindeer, and elves. Santa then proceeds to take them for a ride in his sleigh and give them each a present.

Sucking on his paws

The amazing part about this play was that there was about 80 children on stage at one point. Nobody burst out crying, ran off the stage, or hurt themselves. I didn't think that it was possible to avoid at least a couple of incidents over the course of 15 minutes with that many 3-4 year olds, but somehow they pulled it off. Theo played the part of a wolf and looked incredibly bored the whole time. He spent the better part of the play looking everywhere but forward, pulling at his sleeves, and yawning. If you are wondering which one is Theo in these pictures, just look for the most distracted, glazed expression and it is bound to be him.

Studying the floor

Here is a video of the kids with Theo in front and center singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The video was cut short by William who decided to burst into tears halfway through the song.

Any advice on what we should get to replace our excuse of a camera?

More of the Same

2011-12-23T01:09:00.001-06:00

This month has been full of doctor's appointments. Between both children, we have been to the doctor's office eight times this month. Thankfully, most of the appointments were scheduled. At the beginning of the month, Theo had an appointment with a pediatric urologist here in Fukuyama. They took a blood test at that time and noticed that his white blood cell count was higher than normal. He didn't have a fever, was acting pretty normal (or as normal as he ever acts), and his urine test came back clean, so I didn't really think much about it.

Powder packets of medicine

That night Theo woke up with a fever and complaining that his ear hurt. The mystery was solved, but now I was faced with the problem of finding a pediatrician and trying to communicate with my limited language skills. I located the closest pediatrician from a list of doctors that we had received from city hall and walked over with the kids. The appointment was actually fine, and between my few words of Japanese, the doctor's few words of English, and quite a bit of pantomiming, we established that Theo had a middle ear infection. I thought he would prescribe antibiotics and we would head home, but that would have been far too easy. Instead, he felt the need to refer us to an otolaryngologist even though he had already established that Theo had an obvious and uncomplicated ear infection. The children and I found our way to the next doctor who preformed all of the same checks that the pediatrician had and agreed that Theo had a middle ear infection. This time, at least, we were given a prescription of penicillin, acetaminophen, and antihistamine before leaving. When I had picked up the medicine from the pharmacy, I was surprised to find that it was all in powder form in little wax paper pouches. I have never given children medicine like this, since in Canada it is always mixed into a syrup by the pharmacist. After making call to a Japanese friend of mine, I found out that the powder is supposed to be poured into his mouth and washed down with water. The powdered medicine is mixed with sugar, so Theo had no problem taking it whatsoever.

Happily waiting for a CT scan

The next week, we went twice to the hospital that we had been referred to, Okayama National Hospital. One day we had an appointment with a pediatric urologist and the next with a pediatric neurosurgeon, who both spoke excellent English. One of the biggest concerns that I had before coming to Japan was that I wouldn't be able to communicate with Theo's doctors. I really didn't want to become uninvolved and uninformed about his medical condition purely because of the language barrier. I have been really fortunate in finding specialists that are all very easy to understand and communicate with in English. At those appointments, Theo had another ultrasound and a CT scan, both of which he found very exciting. He loves what he calls "doctor machines" and thinks it is pretty cool when he gets a chance to see them in action. Lucky for him, that happens often enough.

I managed to snap this shot before they kicked me out. He
is not drugged, just blinking!

It took us about an hour and a half one way to reach the hospital from Fukuyama and this made for really long days hauling both kids back and forth. I was pretty proud that I managed to take the right trains and buses, and make all our appointments on time without losing anyone along the way or suffering through too many temper tantrums.

The boys playing in the hospital waiting room

Lastly, William had three appointments this month getting his vaccinations started. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to wait until we arrived in Japan before beginning any vaccinations. After waiting for our health cards to arrive and just plain dilly dallying, I finally decided William's time was at hand. I brought him to the same pediatrician who initially saw Theo about his earache and he referred us to a vaccination clinic. I would really like to know what pediatricians do here other than refer you to doctors that they feel are better qualified to deal with your children's health. Last week, William received his first DPT shot, and on Wednesday he had the first of his Hib and pneumococcal vaccines. Needless to say, we have had a pretty sore and cranky baby for the past few days.

This month has felt very hectic so far and I am hoping that we are done with appointments for at least a few weeks. A little bit of peace on earth would be very welcome in our household over Christmas and New Years!

Hipster

2011-12-22T19:48:00.001-06:00

Much to my extreme annoyance, I had written a long and detailed blog post yesterday which managed to vanish into thin air as soon as I hit "publish". After much fuming and gnashing of teeth, I have come to terms with the fact that I will be writing the whole post again. Until then, here is a picture of the awesome style that Theo gave himself a few days back. After a shower he picked his own clothes, dressed himself, brushed his own hair and this was the result:

It seems that all of the interesting and creative men's hairstyles we see are wearing off on him!

Fahrenheit 119... or a note on fire drills

2011-12-15T07:27:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago my school held a fire drill, that is too say that a few days before hand we had a fire drill rehearsal where we practiced having a fire drill... which is in itself a practice for a real fire so we practiced having a practice of a real event... this might sound redundant but I suppose there is no harm in being redundant when it comes to saving your life. During the rehearsal I was lucky enough to be the first person down the emergency chute from the fourth floor, which was actually a lot of fun. On actual fire drill day the buzzer sounded and all the students and teachers filed out in full Japanese efficiency to the outer field, all while still wearing their inside shoes so as to simulate what we would do if this was an actual fire. Other then the rehearsal this was very much the same as fire drills I remember from back home, however after a customary count off and reporting on how long we took to evacuate the building the similarities ended.

We were then treated to several speeches in Japanese from both the headmaster and the fire chief after which all the students were divided into three groups. Group 1 went to go watch student volunteers being rescued from the third floor by the ladder truck, a demonstration that ended with the finale of the last student getting to ride to the ladders full 45 meters. Group 2 went to go and participate in the emergency chute demonstration that I participated in during rehearsal. And I went with Group 3, where we practiced yelling "FIRE!!" and putting out a real fire with fire extinguishers.

火!

So as you can see fire drills in Japan are quite involved, in total we had a least a dozen fire fighters, a ladder truck, a tanker truck, the fire chief and an ambulance on site. All I can say is that if the school would actually catch fire, a dubious prospect given the fact that the entire building is made of concrete, that some this "training" kicks in and everyone gets out safe and sound.

p.s. as for the post title, 119 is what you dial here in an emergency... as opposed to 911.

First Encounters

2011-12-08T01:23:00.001-06:00

By the time we left Canada, I was quite comfortable with the medical system. After having checkups, one trip to the emergency room, two pregnancies and births, and one child with special medical needs, there was rarely anything that surprised me. I never had too many complaints about the care I received, but it was really all I had ever known.

Since arriving in Japan, I have been really fortunate in finding doctors and getting Theo's medical records translated. Through our neighbour, we were able to meet a pharmacist that would like to be an English/Japanese medical translator. She has been overwhelmingly helpful in getting the reference letters from Theo's Canadian doctors and a medical history translated into Japanese. She was also able to help us find a hospital in Fukuyama with a pediatric urologist and nephrologist and set up an appointment.

Theo looking into the middle distance

Theo's visit to the hospital was on Monday. We were able to visit the doctor, who spoke impeccable English, have an ultrasound of his kidneys, blood tests, and a urinalysis. The tests showed that there has been no change in his kidney function since Canada, but the doctor informed me that he would like to refer Theo to a larger hospital with a more specialized pediatric urology and neurosurgery department. He was concerned that since Theo has a very rare kidney and spinal malformation, that they would not be able to provide the most comprehensive care for him here in Fukuyama. We are being sent to Okayama National Hospital which is in the prefecture directly east of us. It is actually extremely close to us, only 18 minutes by shinkansen. I was afraid that he would refer us to some place much farther away, like Osaka or Tokyo, so Okayama sounded great to me. Hopefully they feel confident taking Theo's case and don't just refer us somewhere farther away. Our appointment is on December 13th, and our pharmacist friend is being nice enough to join us there.

I have been to at least 20 appointments in Canada just like the one we had on Monday, and here are the major differences I observed:

1. It takes months before you can get an appointment in Canada. Unless it is an emergency, it is extremely common to get an appointment to see your doctor anywhere from 2 - 6 months in the future. You get very used to booking appointments months in advance. Here, I was given the option of seeing a doctor within a week of calling.

For lack of a relevant picture, here is a cute one of William

2. In Canada, it takes at least four months before you get an ultrasound. Your ultrasound is taken by a technician, interpreted by some doctor, and the results and images are then sent to your actual doctor. It takes about 2 weeks before you get your results. They will only speed up this process if it is an extreme emergency. In Japan, Theo was given an ultrasound, by the doctor, at his appointment, and I was told the results right away. Needless to say, I was impressed.

3. Health care is free in Canada, but prescriptions are not. For Theo's appointment on Monday, I paid 500 yen ($6.50 Canadian) because he is covered by National Health Insurance and Infant Medical Expense Assistance. Prescription medicine here is free though.

4. The doctor I saw on Monday was incredulous that the doctors in Canada had never done an MRI of his kidneys and that the only CT scan he has ever had was when he was 2 months old. It seems that doctors here are much more willing to preform every test available to better monitor your health.

All in all, I was very pleased with my first encounter with the medical system here. Even though Theo's doctors in Canada were very competent and caring, I think in the long run he will receive better care in Japan. Lets just hope that our experience in Okayama confirms this!

The Joy of Nattō

2011-12-02T02:40:00.001-06:00

At least once a week, I pick a food product which I have only seen in Japan and try it out. Sometimes, when I feel the most daring, I go for something that looks utterly unappetizing. I must confess that I limit myself to interesting and bizarre vegetable matter and dried goods, and avoid trying the mysterious and creepy looking meats I have found. I am really not brave enough to try them, but I am sure that if my dad ever comes to visit us in Japan he will be all over the congealed globs and slices of questionable origin. Dustin, after one too many unpalatable failures, has gradually stopped trying any of the experimental foods I bring home.

A single serving natto box

A delicious soy product that I discovered a few months ago is nattō, or fermented soybeans. I bought it mostly on a personal dare, but it turned out to be wonderful and has become a new favourite of mine. Natto usually comes in individual serving square styrofoam boxes with little sauce packages inside. The sauces are usually a kind of salty fish sauce and sometimes a strong mustard. You mix them all together to create a frothy, goopy, stringy mixture and then pour it onto rice. I have also heard that it makes a really good toast topper, but I have yet to try it that way.

Fermented soybeans with sauce packet

I enjoy natto, but the fermented flavour and slippery feeling that it leaves in your mouth turns some people off. The smell is also fairly strong and unpleasant to some. I didn't outright dislike it on the first try, but it took a few times before I truly appreciated its tastiness. The flavour is really mild, a bit nutty and egg-like with a slight brewers yeast flavour undertone. It has a strong fermented smell but that didn't really bother me, maybe because I am used to the smell of Dustin brewing beer. What I struggled with at first was the texture. It is a cloying sort of slipperiness that coats the inside of your mouth in slime. Little gossamer threads of viscous ooze stretch from your chopsticks and drift onto your face if you are not careful, spreading the fermented smell onto everything they touch I am not sure that I am making much of a case for this food, but someone told me that you need to eat it 8 times to know whether you definitely love or hate it and there is definitely some truth in that. A few months of eating it later, and the texture does not bother me in the slightest and I adore it.

To make it even better, natto is really healthy for you, with lots of protein, vitamin K1 and K2, PQQ, and probiotics. It is said to prevent senile dementia, breast cancer, osteoporosis, blood clots, and aids in digestion. It has become a staple breakfast food for me but I have yet to convince Dustin and Theo of its wonders. If I end up outliving them by 50 or so years, we'll know why!

All mixed and on top of rice with green onions: delicious!

Castle Shiodoru

2011-11-28T01:57:00.001-06:00

Cutting and taping the cardboard

Dustin has had it in his mind to build Theo a castle for a few weeks. Theo has an awesome dragon toy and a few knights, so we thought he would enjoy having a place for them to have daring adventures and heroic dragon battles.

After purchasing a new chair and futon pad for our apartment last week, we found ourselves with a small pile of unneeded cardboard and so decided to finally make a castle. If it was me making it, I would have cut battlements on the top of the cardboard, a hole for the door, and called it a day. Lucky for Theo, Dustin is much more hardcore when it comes to creating toys. Theo had expressed his desire for a Japanese style castle, so they set to work.

After a few hours of cutting, taping, paining, and drawing rocks the castle was complete. Between William and Theo, it will probably only take a few weeks before it is a flattened, torn mass of scrap cardboard. I am sure that many samurai battles will be staged there before its inevitable destruction.

Onigiri Day

2011-11-26T07:00:00.001-06:00

Delicious onigiri

This past Friday was onigiri day at Theo's kindergarten. Onigiri is rice that is formed into a shape, usually a triangle or ball, and usually wrapped in a sheet of seaweed. The rice can be left plain, slightly salted, mixed with toasted sesame seeds, shirasu, or other types of furikake. They are also sometimes filled with little bits of goodness, like pieces of vegetables, meat, or pickled things. Every other Friday, Theo is required to bring only onigiri as his lunch to school. He can have as many as he likes, but nothing else. I really love onigiri, and I know the Japanese do too for the most part, but it seemed a little excessive that they would enforce a special day in honour of onigiri.

What Theo thinks he is doing
at kindergarten each day

After enquiring a bit more, I was told that this is done every two weeks to make the children aware of world hunger and others in the world who do not have nice bento to eat every day. I think it is a fantastic idea, but I am really not sure if many of the children Theo's age are getting the message. After his first onigiri day, I asked him a few questions about his lunch. He told me it was a really great lunch and that there was nothing out of the ordinary with it. His words were exactly: "it was super oishii (delicious)!!". Yeah, I don't think he was given a taste of what starving children feel like. I certainly don't think most 3 year olds have a definite grasp on the real world. Just to prove a point to myself, I asked him if he had fun riding orcas and hunting dinosaurs in kindergarten that morning. The answer was, of course, an enthusiastic yes.

So, every other Friday I continue to place a few little onigiri in Theo's bento, knowing that he will be just as excited about eating it as he is with all of his lunches. Maybe by the time he is ready to leave yochien he will be old enough to understand a little bit of the reasoning behind it, but until then he will get to exclaim how oishii his onigiri is.

A Wonderful Day in the Rain...

2011-11-23T05:54:00.001-06:00

I have been looking forward to getting out and exploring parts of Japan that aren't Fukuyama. Not that I don't love my city, because I do. However, when another teacher at my school asked if I would like to bike part of the Shimanami Kaido with him I jumped at the chance. The Shimanami Kaido is actually an expressway that connects Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture to Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. Alongside the expressway is an incredibly well developed cycling route with rest stops, bike rental places, and intense infrastructure all put in place to enjoy the Seto inland sea by bicycle. The forecast called for rain today but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. At ten o' clock we loaded our bikes into his car and started out for our first stop the Kurushima-kaikyo bridge, which is about 6.4 km, and is the final bridge connecting the island of Oshima to the main part of Shikoku.

Kurushima-kaikyo bridge as seen from Imabari City

We had nice ride across the bridge in which I blew through the toll gate not knowing that cyclists have to pay a small toll of ¥200 and had to sheepishly come back and throw my change into the box when I noticed my teacher no longer behind me. Once we got to the other side he kindly bought me lunch at a wonderful little restaurant with a fantastic view and equally fantastic food. It seems everything on the menu comes in little dutch ovens and served with a side of warm bread and a salad with vinaigrette made from locally produced citrus that is to die for.

Deliciously warm melted cheese, vegetables and meat
all simmered in a Dutch Oven.

After lunch we headed back to the other side, loaded up our bikes and drove to Hakatajima Island where we unloaded our bikes again and proceeded to ride the entire circumference of the island. During this portion of our ride it began to rain... a lot! We were soaked to the bone by the time we got all the way around the island, that being said I still had a lot of fun and I think he did too. Once we were completely around the island and the rain had subsided, he headed to the car and I continued by bike through a shipyard where they were christening a new ship and finally over one more bridge to Omishima Island and the Tatara Shimanami Koen (Park). There we packed up our bikes and headed over to the Tatara Shimanami Onsen for a much deserved soak in the those soothing hotwaters. All in all a wonderful day.

Ship building as seen from the Kurushima-kaikyo.

Some of the amazing infrastructure build solely for cyclists.

Hakatajima IC bike parking and tourist center.

The incoming rain on Hakatajima.

My fellow teacher at a little rest stop on Hakatajima where we
enjoyed some delicious snacks that Laura sent along with me...
...just the energy boost we needed to keep cycling in the rain.

Ship christening on Hakatajima.

Approach pathway to Omishima Bashi Bridge.

Omishima Bashi Arch Bridge.

Tatara Onsen where we spent some time relaxing after a hard day cycling in the rain.

I Feel the Earth Move

2011-11-21T18:03:00.001-06:00

At 7:16 yesterday evening we experienced our very first earthquake. I was cleaning up after supper and Dustin and Theo were playing the Wii when the apartment started to sway, the windows rattled, and the bookshelf and microwave stand threatened to topple. It is maybe fairly indicative of the part of the world I am from, but at first I thought there was a tornado outside of our apartment. It took me half a second to realize that was pretty ridiculous and that it was in fact an earthquake. By this time our cell phones, which have a built in earthquake warning alarm, went off. The shaking lasted for about 10 seconds or so and was relatively gentle. Theo looked around puzzled for a second or two, shrugged his shoulders, and then focused all of his attention back to Kirby. I suppose it is better than being freaked out.

The epicenter was about 80 kilometers north west of us near the border of Hiroshima and Shimane Prefectures.
We live in a relatively stable part of Japan for the most part, so we were pretty surprised last night. It was just the extra push I needed to get an emergency preparedness kit packed and ready for the future.

Daily Bread

2011-11-14T20:40:00.001-06:00

A typical three slice bread package (yes, the
bread is supposed to be greenish)

I like bread, but I am not obsessed with it by any means. When we first arrived, I was shocked to see how many varieties of bread there is in Japan. Not sweet rolls and bun-like baked goods (there are many different kinds of those), but sliced loaf style bread. I suppose I just assumed since it wasn't a traditionally Japanese food, there wouldn't be too many types. I still haven't tasted my way though all of the breads offered by our local supermarket, and for a culinary adventurer like myself, that makes me extremely happy.

I have found that all of the bread here has its own unique qualities. Firstly, the slices are gigantic. They are 2 - 3x thicker than I was used to and usually longer as well. It would be almost insane to make a sandwich out of it because you would end up having a 7 cm. thick wall of bread before any fillings were added. I assume that the only thing that people do with sliced bread is make toast with it. There is actually special sandwich bread which is super thin, always white, and crustless. Stereotypically in Canada, only really picky young children

Sandwich bread

demand crustless, white bread sandwiches, so it is interesting to live in country where that is the standard for everyone. I know that my step mother's tricky way of getting her kids to eat bread crust was telling them that is where all of the vitamins are. Brilliant! The bread is also extremely chewy and dense. It is not heavy, but a virtually airless thickness that requires a lot more chewing. The last observation I have made is that bread is generally not sold by the loaf. You can buy a package with anywhere between 3 and 6 slices in it. Considering how massive each slice is, 6 pieces can last quite a while.

Our current favourite: kurumi bread

Truthfully, I love the bread here. I find that my bread consumption has increased dramatically from back home. I probably eat a slice of toast at least four times a week, which is quite a bit more than I ever have. Our current favourite is kurumi, or walnut, bread. I am not sure what is all in it, other than flour and walnuts of course, but it makes a very nice toasting bread with honey. Our latest exploration on the bread front was a package of yomogi, or mugwort, bread. I don't think I had ever ingested, or even really ever though about mugwort prior to buying this bread. It had a greenish hue to it and a slightly sweet, leafy smell. The slices were especially giganitc; 18 cm. from top to bottom. Unfortunately, the flavour was rather unremarkable. Not bad, but there was very little difference between it and white bread.

Mugwort bread

The only drawback to the bread scene is the difficulty (or near impossibility) of finding nice crusty artisan loaves, french bread that isn't rubbery, and sourdough. If we ever have something to bake in that is larger than our toaster oven, I suppose I could mix something up, but until then I will think longingly of pumpernickel rye and ciabatta.

The Way We Roll

2011-11-12T07:02:00.000-06:00

A very patriotic view of our stroller

When Dustin's predecessor left Japan, he was nice enough to leave his mountain bike behind and Dustin has been able to bike the 25 minutes to and from work everyday. Meanwhile, the kids and I have been stuck walking everywhere, which actually hasn't been that bad since we brought a sit and stand stroller with us from Canada. For those who have never seen a contraption like this (they certainly don't have them in Japan), it has a normal reclining seat in the front for a younger child, and a jump seat and standing platform in the back for an older child. It is great for those times when the walk is just too far for Theo to manage on his own two feet, or if you are in a hurry and need to walk a little bit faster than Theo's usual stop-and-check-out-every-bug-and-flower walking speed. It is not as monstrous as a double stroller, so we are able to stash it away at our little apartment pretty easily. We live within walking distance of virtually everything that we need on a daily basis, so this stroller has seen a lot of use since we have been in Japan.

The biggest problem we have found with walking everywhere is the time it takes to get from one place to another. Every Sunday, we go to a small church that is a few neighbourhoods south of us. It is only about 3.5 km one way, but it takes us just under an hour to walk there. Sure, the exercise is great, but just getting to and fro steals almost 2 hours out of our day. If I need to do any sort of shopping or bring Theo to a park, it becomes a huge excursion in which I need to prepare the kids for multiple hours in which we will be away from home. So, Dustin and I finally bit the bullet and invested in some family transportation.

William and I out for a ride.
Caption reads mamachari (source)

Everyone seems to ride a bike in Japan. I see old people that I swear must be in their 90's slowly making their way down the street, business men in suits, parents with kids, and everyone in between. It seems that people aren't quite as caught up in certain status symbols, like how large and expensive of a car you have, compared with the West. It also helps that, unlike Manitoba, you can bike all year round without having to worry about ice, snow, and -30 degree winter days.

The typical bike that you see people riding on in Japan is the mamachari. The name comes from mama, of course, and "chari", a slang term for bicycle. They are actually ridden by just about everyone, but are super handy for stay at home mothers because you can put your kids into one or two kid's seats attached to your bike and run all your errands. Typically, they only have about 3 gears, upright handlebars, chain cover, basket, a bike stand, built in wheel lock, and light.

The double child bike, for much more well
balanced (or daring) mothers

Dustin and I have been scoping out the mamachari scene since we arrived and finally settled on getting two bikes, one with a older child seat on the back and one with an infant seat on the front. Quite a few mothers here have both child seats mounted on the same bike. I am really impressed that they manage to get around comfortably with a child at each end, but I am pretty sure one, or all of us, would die if I tried to do that. I really don't feel comfortable with my ability to balance me and my brood moving at high speeds. In our situation, at least on evenings, weekends and holidays we can all bike together as a family. I can also bike with William while Theo is at kindergarten, making my life a whole lot more productive.

One great aspect of my bike is the brand name. In my English thinking brain, I scanned the name and thought it said "Firecrackers", which I thought was kind of cute. The next day when I looked again, I realized that my brain was just adding letters to the nonsensical actual brand name, which is "Frackers". It sounds like such a completely vulgar expletive that I have to laugh every time I see it. Maybe I have just watched too much Battlestar Galactica.

The kids ready to be off on an adventure

One surprise for me was the cost of it all though. All told, these two bikes cost us about 82,000 yen, or just over $1,000 Canadian. There certainly were much more expensive mamachari, but we bought the two cheapest ones we could. This is pretty crazy considering that if we really looked around, we could probably find someone trying to get rid of a car for cheaper. Actually, quite a few English teachers who are moving back home are so desperate to get rid of their car that they either give it away or sell it for a few hundred dollars. At the moment, we have almost no need for a car and I really hope that it stays that way for many, many years. There have been so many benefits to no longer owning a car: our life has been so much simpler, a lot of little (and not so little) costs have disappeared, we get tons of exercise, know the neighbours so much better, and aren't as guilty about our contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. We are very content with our decision to invest in bicycles that support our lifestyle, regardless of the cost.

Baikinman

2011-11-09T03:10:00.003-06:00

Absolutely miserable

Beginning Saturday, my family has been plunged into varying degrees of sickness. It began with Theo, who almost certainly brought it home with him from kindergarten, and turned into a deep wet cough and runny nose over night. William has since contracted the rattly cough and runny nose and Dustin and I are starting to feel a bit of a throat tickle. This is actually the first time William has ever been sick so he has absolutely no idea what hit him. He has been dejectedly pawing at his face for the past few hours, stubbornly refusing my attempts to wipe his running nose, and being even more clingy and demanding than he normally is.

The last time that we were sick was in July, right before Theo was hospitalized for his kidney infection. Being sick in Japan is a new experience and thankfully we didn't have to think about it until now.

Before I came to Japan, I had only ever used a face mask when helping to install insulation in our house, and otherwise didn't really think about them much. If anything, I was under the impression that people in Asia wore them in an attempt to keep from getting sick. I think that is a small part of it, but more importantly I have found is people wear them out of a social obligation to contain their germs and prevent sickness from spreading. It is interesting from an epidemiological standpoint, because you can much more readily identify the the sick people in your midst. Some weeks it seems that I run into tons of people wearing masks and sometimes I go a day or two without seeing anyone.

Theo's favorite antihero

The whole driving force behind the sick mask seems incredibly Japanese to me. Sacrificing your comfort and looks for the good of the whole population. I actually really admire that people would be willing to make themselves that much more uncomfortable for the common good. The Japanese perspective on germs is pretty apparent in the popular kid's show "Anpanman". The villain is Baikinman, or Bacteria Man, who tries to create confusion and dirtiness wherever he goes. Only healthy and clean Anpanman or soap has the ability to stop him. He is most definitely Theo's favorite character on the show, but I think that has more to do with the spaceship he flies and less to do with his dastardly schemes.

For the most part, the western culture in which I was raised holds a very "every man for himself" view of sickness. This is evidenced by declining vaccination rates and how very few people do anything to limit your exposure to them or their children when they are sick. I still remember the heavy, malodorous, humid breaths of a congested classmate sitting in the row behind me during an exam in university. It was not surprising, after 3 hours of his coughing and mouth breathing bathing my neck in disease ridden moistness, that I woke up the next morning feeling awful. I am sure his attitude was: "I am the one suffering here. If your immune system can't handle this, it's your own fault."

Even being sick can be kawaii

Obviously, I like the idea of disease prevention on a wider scale, but when it comes down to it, I am sure I will feel extremely awkward wearing a conspicuous face mask in public. I am also sure that the feeling of my sick breath trapped to my face uncomfortable and disgusting. Oh, well.

Theo is much harder to convince. At first, I thought that they couldn't possibly expect 3 year olds to keep a mask on their face, but I have since seen quite a few kids his age wearing them without complaint. He has not gone to kindergarten this week so far, but other than his lingering cough, it seems as though he is well enough to go back tomorrow. With a mask on. I found him a set of cute shinkansen face masks to try to make it seem fun, but when I tried one out on him this morning he was not too impressed. It only lasted about 30 seconds before he ripped it off. I am not so he will keep it on tomorrow, but at least his teacher will know I tried. Hopefully he won't become the class baikinman!

He ripped this off seconds after the picture was taken

Theo's First Week

2011-11-06T02:01:00.002-06:00

I am not sure how it happened, but somehow in one week every bag was sewed, every last pencil and clothing article was labeled, and Theo was seen happily off to his first day in yōchien. His first day was on November 1st and the 3rd was a holiday, so he was only at kindergarten for 3 days last week. I think that the short week kept him from being too terribly overwhelmed by all of the changes.

A typical lunch that I send with Theo

It also happened that the 4th was a parent observation day which I was ~~forced~~ strongly encouraged to attend. It was mostly the mothers who came, but I was happy to see that there were a few dads there as well. There were about 60 parents total and we stood around the courtyard watching the daily exercise and gymnastics routine that our kids do in the morning. It was kind of sad to observe Theo's confusion first hand as he had only been there for two days. He is far too independent to just follow the other children around placidly or stand there staring into space. He was constantly darting off at top speed making for the play structures, slides, and sandbox and having to be led back by a teacher. I could tell that he was extremely bored since he didn't know what the teachers were saying, the little rhymes the kids were chanting, or the steps to the exercise routines. They were also made to stand in lines waiting for their turn to do a somersault or walk a balance beam, and his attention span just is not long enough to patiently wait for 15 kids to do a roll or flip before him. Needless to say, there were many attempted escapes to the slides and swings. At one point during the exercise routine, Theo spotted me in the crowd of parents and ran over as fast as he could, burst into tears, and said "please, I don't want to exercise anymore! They keep making me and I'm soooooo tired!". At this point he crumpled into a heap in the dirt at my feet. It was really sad, and pretty embarrassing, but for his benefit this was after at least an hour and a half of really hectic high energy music, dancing, and stretching. I am sure that after a week or two of this he will develop a bit more stamina.

kanpu masatsu

Next, the kids were allowed to go to their individual classrooms and change out of their exercise clothes, have a rigorous session of kanpu masatsu (乾布摩擦) and then dress in clean uniforms. Every student has a long, narrow towel that they bring to school each day (yes, this is one more thing that I had to sew and label). They use this towel to do kanpu masatsu, which involves rubbing the towel vigorously over their bare skin to improve circulation. I am sure it is healthy for him, but he hadn't really figured out the drill on Friday and was mostly just waving his towel around and singing. Once everyone was dressed, the teacher proceeded to take attendance. Theo thought he had this one all figured out, since every time a name was called from the attendance list, he raised his hand high and shouted "hai!". Then the giant abacus and flashcards emerged and the kids wowed me with their math and reading skills. I was impressed by their ability to count to thirty in multiples of two and count backwards from sixty. They also knew way more kanji than me and could read a simple poem in hiragana and katakana. I really had no idea that 3 year olds could do all of this!

Poor Theo seemed very confused and bored at times, but I was surprised by how much he had actually picked up after 2 days. He was able to count with the others and knew a couple of the dance routines. He actually sat at his little table with the rest of the kids and seemed mildly attentive. The teachers are great with him and seem to be giving him lots of firm but kind guidance when he gets out of line. He has made a few little friends and even got a super cute, scrawling note from a little girl in the class. At the end of each day I have asked him if he wanted to go back in the morning and each time he enthusiastically answered yes, so he can't be minding all of the changes and stress too much. I am curious to see how much he will pick up in the next few months!

A note on his name: since "th" does not really exist in Japanese, his name translates into Shiodoru. Since we call him Theo at home, the teachers decided to call him Shio. I find this kind of funny because shio is the Japanese word for salt. He absolutely loves his new nickname, and now introduces himself as Shio-chan ("chan" is a diminutive, like saying "salt child") to almost everyone he meets!

And here is a gallery of the uniforms he wears to school:

This ambiguously gendered outfit is what he wears to school each morning. It is the exercise outfit.

Here is his exercise uniform with the sunhat. Each class has an appropriately colored hat to match their class name. Since Shio is in yuri, or lily, class he gets to wear an orange hat.

This is his normal uniform for the later part of the day and for special events. I am not really sure if both boys and girls wear the suspenders, but I am beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that it is only the girls who do...

Here is the full uniform with the jacket. Children are required to wear the little shorts even in the middle of winter. Thank goodness we no longer live in the land of skin exposure warnings and 10 minutes to frostbite or there would be a lot less Japanese children with legs!

Halloween

2011-11-01T09:01:00.000-05:00

Theo has had pretty strange experiences with Halloween. Last year, we lived in an extremely small conservative town in southern Manitoba. When Halloween rolled around, I took Theo out trick-or-treating, just to find that there was not one child in sight and almost every house had its lights completely off. We finally did spy a house that had its porch lights blazing, so Theo, who was proudly wearing his ladybug outfit, and I went up and knocked. An elderly gentleman opened the door and stood there confusedly looking back and forth between Theo and me for a few seconds and finally asked what we wanted. I couldn't believe it. Theo blurted out "trick or treat!" and held out his completely empty treat bag to the man. The man declared that they didn't celebrate Halloween and shut his door in our faces.

How could you resist the boy lady bug?

I am sorry to say that I cried a few angry tears at this point and tried my best to convince Theo that Halloween was usually a lot more fun than wandering deserted streets and having doors slammed in your face. I finally decided to take him to a neighbouring French town where their lack of morals allows them to actually be neighbourly, friendly to children, and give out candy.

Theo as one of his favourite toys: a Rubik's cube

Once again Halloween has come and this time we live in a country that does not celebrate Halloween. It seems like Japan wants to adopt the holiday, if all of the Halloween related stickers, candy, and knickknacks in stores means anything, but it certainly has not gone mainstream enough for trick or treating. I certainly wouldn't feel any animosity towards my neighbours this time for looking at me blankly if I showed up on their doorstep with a child in costume. Instead, we organized with the English teachers in our area for Theo to come by in the evening to trick or treat. He got to knock on a few doors, proudly show off his costume, collect a treasure trove of candy, and head home. He had a great time. Thanks to all that made it a great evening!

William the teddy bear and Theo the Rubik's cube

Yōchien II

2011-10-30T09:19:00.003-05:00

Only a few days after I had decided to quit inquiring about preschools for Theo and wait for April, we met a woman who lives in Fukuyama and speaks fluent English. She asked us if we were planning on sending Theo to yōchien and I told her about all of the problems I ran into just trying to find out any information. She informed me that her 2 nephews and niece attend a great private yōchien that is in our neighbourhood, and they happened to be having their open house that coming Saturday. She also let me know that almost all yōchien have some kind of information day mid-October where you can pick up applications and all applications for the following April are due November 1st. She volunteered to go with me and translate.

At the open house, the principal covered the school's teaching philosophy and curriculum. The day runs from 9:30 am to 2: 30 pm, with exercising and sports for the first half of the day, and teaching for the last half of the day. She spoke for a while about how their goal is to help the children develop the right hemisphere of the brain and the importance of right brained activities. They teach them kanji, calligraphy, music, and dance. After listening to the principal's speech, we did a tour of all the little classrooms and the outdoor areas. There was a big open area for organized sports, a few play structures and play houses, and a garden where the children were growing vegetables. The classrooms where all friendly, bright and clean.

My friend introduced me to the principal, who speaks a bit of English and she told me that if Theo were to attend there, they had space for him to start as early as November 1st. My friend offered to take me to other schools to check them out, but I just got the feeling that Theo would fit in well at this school. It is also very close to our apartment and my friend and her sister (who's children attend there) are, and will be invaluable resources for sorting out the language barrier. I was also able to speak with the principal about Theo's medical conditions and she seemed more than willing to work with us to keep him safe while not making him stand out too much. Well, not any more than being the only foreigner in the kindergarten makes him already stand out. We set up an appointment with the principal for an interview, uniform fitting, and filling out paperwork.

At this appointment I was given the run down of required classroom materials. Every student must have the exact same school and art supplies, and seemingly a million bags to bring all of their school things in. Each bag must have exact dimensions, and every last eraser, marker cap and pouch must be labeled with their name. Needless to say, after writing Theo's name in katakana about 300 times, I have gotten really good at it. It would have been nearly impossible to find all of the required bags in the exact dimensions specified, so I went to the fabric store and picked up a bit of really cute cloth and got busy sewing.

His necessary bags are (top to bottom, left to right) Bento lunch box bag, water bottle bag, cup and toothbrush bag, extra pair of undies bag, folder and artwork carrier bag, shoes bag, and towel and extra change of clothes bag.

Here is a glimpse at all of the crazy art supplies that we needed to purchase from the school. Because every child has the exact same set (can't let anyone be an individual, can we?) every last lid, cover, pastel, and cap had to be labeled to prevent it from getting lost. I don't think I have ever owned such expensive art supplies, especially not when I was 3!

We also had to purchase this awesome and slightly ridiculous instrument for Theo. It is apparently called a melodica. It is played by connecting the white tube to the end of the keyboard and blowing into the mouth piece while playing the keys. Considering it cost us about $85 Canadian, I really hope that he enjoys it.

There are also really cute uniforms that Theo must wear, but I will be putting up photos of him in them later.

It would have been nearly impossible for me to find my way through the application process, to understand what Theo is required to bring on a daily basis, and how the schedule and system works without the help of an interpreter who was willing to sift through a mountain of papers and answer my every last question. I wish that I had some advice to give for someone looking for a yōchien for their child, but it seems like we just had a stroke of good fortune and circumstance in finding connections.

Autumn Matsuri

2011-10-25T06:09:00.000-05:00

We have already had a month of autumn and yet today was the first day that it was cool and crisp. The days are fairly warm for the most part and I only noticed a few leaves here and there changing colour. Maybe by the end of November it will feel like fall has come. Meanwhile, all of the neighbourhoods have long since had their autumn matsuri, or festivals. Dustin was able to participate in one matsuri for a neighbourhood to the south of us; helping to carry their mikoshi. This was actually quite an event, since foreigners are very rarely invited to be involved in traditional events like this.

When it was our neighbourhood's turn to have their autumn festival, we heard the procession drumming its way down the street for 15 minutes before it passed our apartment. We went outside to watch everyone pass and were surprised when an Oni, or Japanese demon/ogre creature, came up the stairs to take a picture with Theo and give him a handful of roasted bean snacks. We adults were given little cups of sake.

I just love the amount of festivals that are put on throughout the year all around us. I am sure that it does much to build the community spirit and culture.

Manhole Covers

2011-10-23T18:57:00.002-05:00

One of the first things that we noticed here was the beautiful, creative, and varied manhole covers. Our city has a few different ones that I have come across, and every new place we go I notice at least another one. I love the attention to detail that is placed on even functional everyday things like the sewer system. Here are a few we have seen:

This manhole cover can be found in downtown Fukuyama and features the two symbols of the city, the rose and bat.

and in color...

This cover is bright and polka dotted with the beloved bat symbol in the center.

This cover is another common sight downtown

This cover doesn't use the typical rose symbol shown above, but a more art nouveau version.

This is my personal favorite cover with the cute firefighter spraying water from a hose. It is the most common cover in our neighborhood.

We found this pretty festival themed cover in Onomichi during the lantern festival.

This cover features multicolor paper cranes and was found during our trip to Hiroshima City.

Yōchien

2011-10-20T01:33:00.001-05:00

Before we came, Dustin and I had discussed the option of placing Theo into Japanese preschool, or yōchien, so that he could learn the language faster. At the time, we thought it best to wait at least 6 months to let him adjust to the stress of moving before throwing him into a completely foreign Japanese speaking environment on a daily basis.

I have heard numerous times that children adjust to a major change in their lives extremely quickly. I was sure that Theo would adapt to our move rather fast, but I was surprised to find that he has had no adjustment period as far as I can tell. Sure, it took a few days to smooth out his sleeping schedule when we first arrived, but from day one he has been happy with the food, likes our apartment, loves to sleep on futons, and does not seem bothered in the slightest that he can only communicate with very few people. He hasn't seemed withdrawn, irritable, or in any way not his usual energetic self. Actually, in many ways he seems to be doing better here. You might think that he just isn't old enough to fully understand his situation, but I believe he does. He is aware that we are in Japan and that Canada is on the other side of the world, therefore we cannot visit family except on Skype. He knows we aren't going back anytime soon and seems perfectly content with that. It is almost eerie how well he has transitioned to life here, since I was fully expecting at least a month or two of abnormal behaviour.

In light of this, I began to inquire about preschools about a month ago. I discovered that in Japan all schooling under the age of 6 is completely voluntary. If you do choose some form of preschool or child care, you have two options: hoikuen (or hoikusho) and yōchien. Hoikuen is more or less equivalent to our daycares back home and take children ranging in age from very young infants to 6 years old. They provide full day care and do not usually have any sort of teaching curriculum, just free play. Unlike Canada, you are only allowed to enroll your child in a hoikuen if you can prove you are unable to look after them at home, i.e., if you are working full time, have a newborn baby, or are caring for a sick elderly parent. Yōchien is very similar to kindergarten or preschool in Canada. They are usually run privately, have shorter days, and some sort of curriculum that they use to teach the kids. Only children aged 3 - 6 are allowed to go to yōchien. Because they are private, they are usually more costly, have uniforms, and require that the parents are fairly involved with volunteering, activity days, etc.

Because I am not able to prove that I cannot care for him at home, yōchien was our only real option. I had no idea how to find them in our area or how even apply once I did find one. Everything seems to be completely word of mouth and I realized that I would never be able to find out which ones were better or had a curriculum that I agreed with. Finally I decided to enquire at the foreign resident help desk at our city hall. They basically located the closest one on the map, gave me the phone number and address, and told me that he could not be put in half way through the year, but had to wait until April (the beginning of the school year).

At this point I mostly gave up, hoping that by April my command of Japanese would be a bit better so that I could look around a bit more before commiting to a school.

To be continued...

Hiroshima City

2011-10-17T03:11:00.000-05:00

The day before Karlee left, we all headed out to Hiroshima City for the day. We thought it might be a bit strange if she returned to Canada never actually having gone to the capital city. We didn't have any particular plan of what we were going to do for the day, but mostly just wanted to stroll around, shop, and see a few monuments.

The A-Bomb Dome

We took the train from Fukuyama west into Hiroshima City which took about 2 hours. About a 40 minute walk from the train station there is a whole area with parks, museums, and monuments. We let Theo run around and terrorize pigeons, or chibbins as he has taken to calling them, while we looked at the atomic bomb dome. This is a building that was destroyed when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th, 1945 and left standing as a memorial to all of the people killed by the bomb. It was originally a government building for the promotion of industry and the bomb was detonated almost directly above this building.

Nearby was the Hiroshima Peace Museum which we wanted to peruse, but realized that the kids would never be patient or quiet enough for us to enjoy it. I am not sure if "enjoy" is the correct word here, since I would most likely emerge from this museum pretty depressed and/or crying, but even so, I can't wait for the day when the kids are older and not every thing we do on a trip centers around them. Instead we let Theo give the peace bell a ring and headed over to the Children's Museum.

This was a fantastic (and free) museum that had three floors of hands on exhibits to explore and a planetarium. After a morning of sightseeing, Theo was freakishly happy to be able to run around, touch, and climb everything in sight.

Ummm, I'm not so sure about this one....

Our last tour for the day was at the Hiroshima Castle. Outside, the boys and I checked out a few very neat old trees that survived the atomic bomb and some cute turtles in the moat around the castle.

The castle was originally built in 1590 but was destroyed by the bomb. It was reconstructed in 1958.

There were a hand full of exhibits inside and a chance to dress up in costume. Theo was pumped that he got to dress up as a samurai. The helmet itself weighed about 15 lbs. so I am surprised he kept it on as long as he did.

Before we turned back to the station, we had a supper of okonomiyaki. These are savory pancakes made from flour, cabbage, noodles, and your choice of meats and other vegetables fried on a large griddle. Okonomiyaki is made all over Japan, but Hiroshima prides itself as the only place that makes them the right way. This was my first time to have them Hiroshima-style and they were fantastic. Pictured here is the "deluxe okonomiyaki" with soba noodles, cabbage, pork, cheese, and mochi, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, shiso flakes, and sesame seeds. Yum!

I wouldn't say that Hiroshima was the most interesting city that I have spent the day wandering in, but none the less, we had a great time strolling around.

Purikura

2011-10-14T07:06:00.000-05:00

Karlee and I promised ourselves that we would take photos in a purikura booth before she headed back to Canada. These photo booths can be found in malls and shopping centers all over Japan and can do more than just take your picture. They usually make your eyes look bigger, your skin and hair lighter, and make your complexion look fantastic. There are different levels of enhancement, with some making you look like an anime character and some that are not far from normal. You can also embellish your photos with little stars, sparkles, and cute phrases.

We decided to go for the booth with the most outrageous photos pictured on them. In the mall that we went to, there was even a nook where you could do your make up and hair. No, I did not bring the hair curler with me. They had curlers and straighteners for people to use. It costs 450 yen (about 6$ Canadian) for one photo session which takes about 6 photos and prints you off a few sheets of photo stickers. If I had access to purikura when I was 14, I would have whittled all my allowance away.

Here is a selection of the fantastic shots that we took:

Lantern Festival

2011-10-13T02:19:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, we went to Onomichi to a paper lantern festival that is held every year in October. Onomichi is a smallish city that is about 15 minutes west of us by train. This was my first time there, but since we arrived after dark, I still have very little idea of what it is like for the most part. For the lantern festival, a few thousand lanterns are lit along the waterway, in green spaces, and along the approaches to shrines. It looked as if the paper lanterns were all hand made by students and featured everything from Doraemon to stag beetles to self portraits.

Some of the lanterns were placed to form pinwheel patterns and circles, like this shot of Karlee and William

Theo had a ton of photos taken of him by absolute strangers which would be creepy and rude back home. It is probably pretty lucky that Dustin and I are laid back about people taking photos of our children at every turn because it happens every time we go to any sort of event. Theo is the last person to mind and plasters on his cheesiest grin.

I am impressed that Theo managed to wade in a sea of fire and paper without knocking anything over or lighting himself on fire.

William almost put this candle out with a stream of drool that escaped from his mesmerized face.

A close up view of some of the drawings featured on the lanterns

We all shared an amazing crepe creation from a tiny shop on a side street. One was vanilla ice cream and strawberries rolled in a crepe and the other was bananas, chocolate, and custard. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture before they were devoured.

It was an extremely peaceful, candle lit evening and well worth the trip.

Sweet Sorrow

2011-10-11T21:11:00.000-05:00

We said a sad farewell to Karlee yesterday. She has been with us for a month and a half and it has been completely wonderful. The kids absolutely love their auntie and will certainly have a lot less attention showered on them now that she is gone. I will also have to fold my own laundry and wash dishes a lot more often.

Thanks to Karlee, we have seen and done more than I thought was possible in the short amount of time I have been in Japan. She helped me adjust to life here and stave off all of those moments of loneliness and culture shock that I surely would have felt. Her energy and enthusiasm supported me in discovering the nooks and crannies of our city and trying out all the new things we found. There aren't many people that I would be happy to be around day and night for seven weeks, but I didn't feel like sending her back once.

Karlee, we have all been very spoiled by your presence!

Miyajima Continued

2011-10-11T02:12:00.005-05:00

After a quick exploratory walk around the town, we were able to find a small grocery store where we bought breakfast. We found a small shrine nearby that miraculously didn't have any deer wandering about and we ate our breakfast without being harassed.

Theo, attracting a few weird looks while finishing his breakfast

The tide was low, so after breakfast we headed over to the Itsukushima Shrine to take a closer look at the huge torii gate. There were coins placed as an offering into all of the small tidal pools surrounding the torii and imbedded into the base of the pillars. Theo was very interested in all of the little invertebrates that were in the tidal pools. There were crabs of all sizes, hermit crabs, snails, and I am sure lots of other creatures crawling around.

Dustin, the kids, and I beneath the torii at low tide

Offering money imbedded amongst the barnacles on the torii

Theo exploring the tidal flats

Karlee and William with the torii

Mid afternoon as the tide came in

After we had our fill of gawking at the shrine and torii, we found a much less crowded beach and let Theo swim and play the beach. It was a very sunny day so our skin could only handle a couple of hours on the beach before needing to seek shade.

Theo enjoyed making all sorts of jewelry out of seaweed

He also spent a good hour pretending that he was riding around on a jet ski

Theo made a birthday cake out of bits and pieces he found on the beach. Sand cake with seaweed frosting, snails, shells, glass and pine cone decorations and bamboo candles. Here he is blowing out the candles after singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the shopping streets and trying out various regional foods. Some local specialties that we nibbled on were salt water eel (anago) cakes, oysters, and deep fried momiji manju. Momiji manju is a specialty in Hiroshima prefecture and is a maple leaf shaped little cake filled with sweet red bean, custard, cream cheese, sweet green tea paste, chocolate, or a lot of other fillings. There were quite a few shops in Miyajima that made their manju fresh with an awesome machine. Some places even sold them battered and deep fried on a stick. It was heavenly.

The momiji manju machine in action

Taunting William with the sweet goodness of custard filled, deep fried momiji manju

The torii at sunset

We had really wanted to hike the mountain on the island, which has bands of wild monkeys living on it, but since we decided to not spend one more sleepless night on the island, we didn't have time. We headed back to the mainland on the last ferry and had a long and tiring train ride back to Fukuyama.

Miyajima

2011-10-07T00:07:00.004-05:00

Hiroshima Prefecture: Fukuyama City is the small box on
the right and Miyajima is the larger box on the left

In the end of September we all decided to visit Miyajima. This island is on the opposite side of Hiroshima Prefecture and a really popular tourist attraction. All of the of the hotels and ryokan were fairly expensive, but luckily there is a campground on the island that charges 300 yen (about 4$ Canadian) a night. I had shipped all of our camping gear about a week before I left, but by the middle of September when it still hadn't arrived, we started to wonder if we would have to cancel our trip to Miyajima after all. Lucky for us, only a few days before the trip all of our gear arrived.

Karlee and Dustin wait for the train all
loaded up with camping gear

We took the train from Fukuyama to Miyajimaguchi, which took about 2 1/2 hours, and then a quick ferry ride from the mainland to the island. One of the first things we noticed when arriving was that there were deer everywhere. The species on the island is the Sika deer, which is a bit smaller than the deer we are used to and never lose their white fawn spots. The deer were completely accustomed to humans and were milling about, sleeping, eating people's food and even letting children pet them. They were charming for about the first 30 minutes and then became super annoying, especially after one tried to chomp at William's foot and head butted me when I tried to shoo it away. Luckily, it was one of the deer who had its antlers cut off. By the end of our weekend, even an animal lover like me wanted to kick one. It is very sad actually, since humans are completely to blame for the aggressive, begging, scavenger monsters that these little deer have become.

Theo and a deer inspecting each other

Theo on the ferry

William and I on the ferry

Karlee walking from the ferry to the Campground

A morning clash right next to our tent

The campground was fairly nice during the day, but once it got dark everything changed. Firstly, all the male deer around decided to retest who was in charge of the tents. There was pawing, grunting, and clashing of antlers. At one point during the wee hours of the morning, a deer must have knocked over someone's cooler, since there was a mad herd gallop of at least 10 deer from all points of the campground right past our tent. Once again, all of the males felt the need to fight over who had the rights to the spilled food.

View of the sunset from the campground beach

Laughing at one of Theo's ridiculous jokes

There were a number of people who decided to shoot fire crackers for a few hours. One group of campers only arrived near midnight and sounded like they were building a cabin with all of their tent peg hammering. There was absolutely no wind, so I am not really sure what they were so concerned about. I was almost looking forward to when Theo would wake up at 7:30 a.m. running, shouting, and wreaking vengeance on all of these noisy people. Unfortunately, these same people decided to loudly take down their tents and leave at 4:45 a.m., while Theo somehow slept through it all. To top it all off, a loudspeaker played a long and loud wake up call at 7 a.m. I might have been annoyed if it woke up the kids, but miraculously they both managed to sleep in a little.

Dustin and Theo heading for the toilet

After our crappy night, Karlee, Dustin, and I realized that there was no way we could possibly manage another night at the campground. We decided to explore the town and island until late in the evening, and take the last train back to Fukuyama that night.

To be continued...

Mister Donut

2011-10-03T07:06:00.000-05:00

Since the weather has become cooler, we whipped out a few pairs of pants that we had stashed away. In only one month, Theo has managed to grow a good 2 inches since all his pants, which were a bit long back in Canada, are now extremely short on him. Unfortunately, he hasn't gained an ounce since leaving resulting in a much more gangly child. It takes a lot of effort to get him to eat very much in one sitting, so I have been slipping more calorie dense foods into his diet. Back home I would give him high calorie meal replacement drinks between meals, but until I locate these in Japan, I am sticking to triple buttering his toast and letting him enjoy the wonders of Mister Donut.

Mister Donut is a coffee and donut chain in Japan that makes surprisingly good donuts. Theo's current favorite is the strawberry bear donut. It has chocolate eyes, strawberry glaze, and whipped cream inside. I took a bite of his last one and it was ridiculously good.

Theo showing off his bear head

I asked him to look at his donut lovingly, but the result was this extremely creepy expression

The bear was slowly devoured from all angles

Tomonoura

2011-09-27T23:43:00.002-05:00

The 19th of September was Respect for the Elderly Day and as this was a national holiday in Japan, Dustin had the day off. We decided to head south to Tomonoura, the port district of Fukuyama. It was about a 15 minute bus ride from downtown, and about as touristy as I have seen Fukuyama get, which is really not that touristy at all. There were no big crowds, only a few little souvenir shops, and only one street food vendor.

The district is pretty small with narrow, winding, stone paved streets and beautiful old Edo period buildings.

There were old storehouses from the 1800's that you could wander around in, and quite a few little shops selling yomeishu, a sweet herbal liqueur which is supposed to promote a long life.

Hayao Miyazaki rented a house here in 2005 and based the town in Ponyo off of Tomonoura. Every souvenir shop had a few cute Ponyo themed items for sale which took a lot of self restraint not to buy.

We went to a quaint udon shop for lunch. The man who owned it told us that Miyazaki had used the goldfish in his courtyard for his original sketches of Ponyo. Theo loved his onigiri.

William charmed his way into the owner's heart and by the end of our meal he asked us if he could take a picture for his "wall of good customers". Here was the outcome:

The old stone lighthouse was made to resemble the lanterns used at temples.

Tomonoura is on the Seto Inland Sea with lush little tree covered islands scattered here and there.

From the harbor you can see tiny Benten Island with its pagoda and torii gate.

Directly behind Benten Island is Sensujima, a much larger island, with a little hotel, hot springs, and campground. There is a ferry that takes you from Tomonoura to Sensujima which is made to look like an old sailing ship. Theo was so happy about riding on the "pirate ship".

There was a really nice beach near the campground and Theo was ecstatic to take a dip in the ocean. The water in this area is extremely calm and there were hardly any waves. It was a warmish, over cast day and the water was really pleasant, so Theo spent almost 2 hours enjoying himself in the water.

Hopefully we can find a free weekend sometime soon to come back and camp. It looked like there were a few trails to wander and beaches to discover on the island and best of all, very few tourists!

Myooin Temple

2011-09-22T07:01:00.004-05:00

The path we took beside the Ashida River

It has been almost an entire month since we have arrived in Japan, and I have been trying to keep Karlee, the kids and I fairly busy every day and weekend. I don't want Karlee to get back to Canada and feel like she spent a month and a half sitting around our apartment putting up with our kids. I have been trying to find all of the must see touristy spots that are in and around our city and plan little day trips to check them out. Because of this, I really feel like I have been on vacation for a month.

One of our little treks last week was to the Myooin Temple which is just across the Ashida River at the south end of town. There is actually a whole Shinto shrine/Buddhist temple complex in the area, so we just wandered from one to the other and enjoyed all of the beautiful buildings, cool architecture, and great statues. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The red, double peaked bridge that we crossed to the temple grounds

Once inside, we discovered the extremely friendly temple kitty. Theo showered her with all the attention she could have ever asked for.

We also found a fantastic and huge praying mantis. It was about 20 cm. long.

The small Temizu basin at the first temple

William enjoying everything from the confines of his stroller

The five storey pagoda is the fifth oldest in Japan.

The Temizu basin at the next shrine was an awesome metal dragon with water coming from its mouth.

A wider view of the last Shinto shrine that we visited.

It was a swelteringly hot and humid day and we were all very sticky and thirsty by the time we walked back to the apartment. All in all a great day!

Tickle Trunk

2011-09-20T00:51:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, we all went to the downtown library to see a kimono display. The best part was that they had kimono you could try on. You were allowed to pick a kimono that struck your fancy and they matched up the obi (tie around the middle) and other accessories to match the kimono you chose. They then helped dress you. I was surprised at the amount of padding, synching, tying, and time that it took just to get dressed.

Beautiful Karlee in her winter themed kimono

The whole effect: periwinkle bamboo branches with black, red, and gold obi, and red bunny collar

I picked a sage green kimono with some sort of brightly colored blossoms on it

I had an off white red and yellow obi that was tied fabulously

Dustin's kimono was awesome. He only needed a katana to complete the outfit, or maybe a lightsaber.

Brother and sister

Too bad they didn't have little kid and baby clothes to try on.

The lot of us

This was Dustin and my first time to try on kimono and Karlee's second time. We were even asked to have our pictures taken for the newspaper!

Milk in Japan

2011-09-13T22:50:00.001-05:00

I am not too picky when it comes to milk. There have been periods of my life in which I have drunk milk in its various forms. I liked the whole pasteurized stuff we drank when I was young, the UHT milk that came in a cardboard carton in Cambodia, the unpasteurized milk I ladled from a tank into a pail when I stayed in North Dakota, the powdered and canned milk I drank the summer I was building trails in the woods, and even goat's milk when I have had it. Yes, I love milk, so I was curious what I would find when I came to Japan.

The day after we arrived, I wandered into the dairy section of the grocery store and bought 2 cartons of what looked like milk. It had a cute smiling sun and a happy cow on it so I grabbed 2 and brought them home. It wasn't until later that evening when we had made a brimming jug of iced coffee with this "milk" that I started second guessing my purchase. The iced coffee was awful and when it tasted the liquid in the carton by itself, I realized it was drinkable yogurt. Oh well, we like that too, just not in iced coffee.

When I did finally find where they kept the actual milk, I surprised to find that the different varieties don't really stick to an even milk fat percentage. There is 0.4%, 0.7%, 1.7%, 2.5%, whole, and probably a lot more variation in between. In Canada, you are faced with four options: 0, 1, 2, and 3.25% milk. I now feel like I have to try every single milk brand and find the exact percentage that suits my taste. Maybe 1.2% will be slightly better than 1.3%, who knows? They also only sell milk in 1 litre containers, which is nice since our fridge is minuscule, but means that we buy milk four times a week. It does taste very different from the milk available in the U.S. and Canada. There is this hint of UHT milk in every sip. It tastes as if you mixed about 1/5 of a cup of UHT milk into "normal" milk, and must have something to do with the temperature at which they pasteurize milk in Japan. Dustin actually prefers it to our milk back home and Theo hasn't said anything about the flavour. I wonder how long it will take before this milk tastes completely normal to me?

Just in case you are wondering, the price of milk here is only slightly above what we pay back in Canada. If I were to buy four 1 litre containers, it would come out to about $5.10 Canadian. You also don't pay tax on milk here. I was also happy to discover that Japan, like Canada, Australia, and the EU, has banned the use of growth hormones (rBGH) in their milk, so we can all keep on drinking with much less worry.

Up a Hidden Hill

2011-09-10T00:27:00.000-05:00

Last week there was a day that was relatively cool, or at least below 30° C, so Karlee and I decided to go explore the larger of our neighbourhood's shrines.

There are a few small ones scattered about randomly on the sides of the roads, but this one was quite a bit bigger and more elaborate.

The tiny little shrine at the end of our street

We found it tucked away at the top of a hill covered in trees and completely invisible from the road. There are a steep set of stone steps that disappear into the trees and take you to the top of the hill.

Halfway up, Theo discovered a little path leading through the bamboos that he insisted we walk down.

Twenty mosquito bites later, we emerged from the trees at a small graveyard on the hillside.

After checking out the graveyard, we continued to the top of the steps and found the torii gate at the entrance of the shrine.

There was another set of steps beyond this with a rope stretched between pillars to symbolize a separation between the physical and spiritual world.

There were two protective lion statues placed on either side at the top of the final staircase.

The temizu basin, for purifying your hands, looked like it could use a good bit of purifying itself.

Finally, at the summit was the shrine.

We were the only ones there for the hour that we spent looking around. This is one of the few areas that I have found grass growing, and it looked as though there were picnicking spots near the torii. I was glad to have found such a quiet and peaceful spot just minutes from our place.

Sparkle Phone

2011-09-08T21:21:00.000-05:00

Kawaii

Yesterday evening I finally got a cell phone. I have had one off and on in the past few years but I found that I never used the cell phone when I had it, and I didn't really like people being able to reach me at all times. I much preferred people calling my home phone, leaving a message, and leaving it up to me when, or if, I would call them back.

My loathing of cell phones increased when I worked for a year as an apartment manager and had to have a work cell on me at all times. The phone was constantly ringing day and night and when my stint there was finally over, I felt absolutely freed to not have a cell phone any longer

I really haven't noticed or cared that I have had no way of getting a hold of people in the two weeks I have been here, but since we don't plan on getting a landline, and the cell phone plans are freakishly cheap compared with Canada, I decided to go ahead and get one. The one I picked is ridiculously cute, as most things in Japan are, but at least has a user's manual in English.

Theo seems to really like it and calls it my "sparkle phone". He has spent most of the morning pretending to order us pizza with a variety of bizarre toppings like strawberries and squid.

A Wet Weekend

2011-09-06T07:45:00.003-05:00

Typhoon Talas

We had a typhoon that passed through this weekend. The rain and winds started on Friday and lasted until Sunday, making it nice and cool for the first time since I have arrived. We enjoyed the break from the hot, windless weather that we were having, but tragically there are quite a few people dead or missing from this storm. There was absolutely no flooding in our part of town, which surprised me, since during hurricanes in Houston there was always a foot or more of standing water.

My mother, who lives in Vermont, had an insanely destructive hurricane that passed through last week. Here are a few crazy pictures of what Hurricane Irene thought of Vermont's infrastructure.

First meal on our new kotatsu

Despite the strong winds and buckets of rain, we still managed to get few important things done and have some fun. On Saturday we visited Nitori, where we bought a kotatsu, computer desk, an area rug and storage shelves and bins for our closets. Our neighbours were nice enough to watch the kids so we could relax while we looked around the store. I absolutely loved how basically everything in the store was created with tiny Japanese rooms in mind. There wasn't one giant, overstuffed, single function monstrosity in the place. I loved the array of legless chairs and short tables, desks, and couches. Their furniture style was very Ikea-esque, but with most of the legs hacked off.

On Sunday, Karlee left for a week to visit a friend of hers who lives in Kyushu. Afterwards, Dustin, the boys, and I went to check out our city's Castle. Fukuyama Castle is downtown, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. We were rained on the whole time, but even William didn't seem to mind walking around in the drizzle. Theo has been extremely excited about going to the castle, so even though we didn't go inside, he had a great time walking around the castle grounds.

Winding our way up the hill to the Castle

Storming the gates

The main castle with Dustin and kids in foreground

The beautiful park in the castle grounds

William doesn't care if he gets rained on, as long as he is outside!

Back to Wa

2011-09-05T18:08:00.001-05:00

This month has been filled with doctor's appointments. I have brought the children to eight doctors visits so far, thankfully most of which were scheduled. At the beginning of the month, Theo had his first visit to a pediatric urologist here in Fukuyama. At that appointment, they did a blood test and noticed that his white blood cell count was up but since he didn't have a fever, seemed mostly healthy, and his urine sample came back infection free, I didn't really think much about it.

Multiple packets of medicine powder

That night, Theo woke up with a mild fever and complaining that his ear hurt. The mystery was solved, but now I was faced with the challenge of finding my way to a pediatrician and hoping that my limited language skills would be enough to communicate Theo's problem and get him some medicine. I picked the closest pediatric clinic to our apartment from a list that I was given by city hall, and hoped for the best. The appointment went alright and between my few words of Japanese, and the doctor's few words of English we established that Theo had a middle ear infection. I assumed that he would prescribe him antibiotics and we would go home, but that would have been far to easy. He felt the need to refer Theo to a otolaryngologist even though it was an extremely uncomplicated, obvious ear infection. So I hauled the kids to yet another doctor's office where they once again checked inside his ears and came to the same conclusion as the other doctor. At least this time I left the office with penicillin and a few other medicines (acetaminophen and an antihistamine, I think) all in little wax paper packets. I have never been given medicine for children in this form before, since it is always premixed into a syrup by the pharmacist in Canada. After a quick call to a Japanese friend of mine, I found out that I needed to pour the powder into his mouth and get him to drink it down with water. The medicine was mixed with sugar and Theo seemed not mind taking it in powder form at all which really surprised me.

Theo happily waiting for his CT scan

The next week we had two visits to the hospital Theo had been referred to, Okayama National Hospital, which is about an hour and a half away from our city. We met with a pediatric neurosurgeon one day and pediatric urologist the next, both of which spoke English excellently. One of my biggest concerns about moving to Japan was the possibility of becoming very uninvolved with Theo's medical care due to the language barrier. I have been very fortunate so far in finding doctors that I can completely communicate with. It ended up being very long days with the children, but I am pretty proud that I managed to take the train to Okayama, find the right bus to the hospital, make our appointments on time, and get home without anyone getting lost or too many temper tantrums.

I managed to snap a shot just before they kicked me out. He
is not drugged, just blinking!

Lastly, I have had 3 appointments this month getting William's vaccinations started. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to wait until we arrived in Japan before beginning William's vaccinations, and after 4 months of waiting to get health cards in order and just plain dilly dallying, I finally brought him into the pediatrician. I really am not sure what pediatricians do here, other than refer you to other doctors that they feel are more qualified to deal with your child, but I was once again referred to another clinic that solely administered vaccinations. Last week William received his first DPT shot and yesterday he received his first Hib and pneumococcal vaccine. Needless to say, he is a very cranky and touchy child at this moment.

Playing with the foam blocks in the waiting room

Hopefully we won't have another appointment for a long while. A little bit of quiet and harmony would be very appreciated after how hectic our month has been so far!

A Beautiful Day in This Neighborhood

2011-09-03T20:36:00.004-05:00

A view of the neighbourhood from our front door

I feel like I have finally settled in here in our new apartment and neighbourhood. At first, everything looked virtually the same to me and I had to really pay attention when Karlee and I went on walks. I knew that if we didn't retrace our steps back exactly, we would be wandering around Fukuyama for hours with basically no way to communicate with people or get ahold of Dustin. It doesn't help that there are no street names and as of yet I don't have a cell phone.

Our canal

It took the kids almost a week to adjust to the time difference here and actually sleep through the night once again, or as close to through the night as William ever gets. It took about the same amount of time for me to recognize distinctions and uniqueness in our neighborhood as well. I now have no fear of getting completely lost and not being able to find my way back home, which is great because it allows me to wander down little paths and side streets and truly discover our city.

We live in a quiet residential area surrounded by beautiful traditional looking houses and the occasional blocky apartment building. There is a canal that flows right behind our apartment which makes a nice landmark for orienting yourself if you do get a bit turned around. It takes us about 20 minutes to walk to the main bus/train station and downtown, and amazingly there are rice paddies throughout the city surrounded by houses. In Winnipeg there were canola fields right up to the city limits, but I have never seen them in the middle of a neighborhood.

Random rice paddy tucked between houses

Though Dustin and I did not request to be placed in a city, we have been very happy with Fukuyama. It is a small and laid back city that has a older, more traditional feel. Very rarely do tourists come here and I can get virtually everywhere by walking or biking. I am sure that the honeymoon will end at some point and we will start noticing the more annoying aspects of our city, but our first impressions have been very good. This really feels like a place that we can call home.

Departures and Arrivals

2011-09-01T08:23:00.000-05:00

Karlee in the deserted Beijing airport

We landed in the tan haze of smog that enveloped Beijing last Wednesday morning tired but very ready to get off the plane. We noticed as soon as we arrived that people did not follow the same general courtesy that we were used to when it came to waiting in lines. We couldn't maneuver very fast with stroller and bags, so everybody slipped in front of us while we tried to get on an elevator to the departure gates. This happened for three elevator loads until we were the last people waiting and we finally could get on without people pushing past. I was tired and irritable and this encounter made me anything but happy to be in China at that moment.

Trying to see Beijing through the haze

The airport was huge and there was virtually no one around. It was only about 6 am, so that might have explained it, but we had to search to find anyone who could tell us where our next flight was leaving from. When we finally got there, we discovered that we were on the second floor and our gate was on the first and of course the elevator was broken. We searched around for another elevator and failed desperately at trying to ask someone where another could be found. Our plane was already boarding so we finally hauled two sleeping kids, four carry-ons and a stroller down an escalator that conveniently had a row of bars across the opening so that strollers and carts could not be brought down it. We hopped onto the shuttle bus in the last possible minute and William woke up and started to scream. Not just feed me cries, but full on tortured screams. This is about when Karlee and my resolve started to fall apart. There was no way we were going to be able to carry a sleeping Theo, a screaming baby, fold up a stroller, and carry four carry-ons up the stairs onto the plane. Lucky for us, four strangers came to our aid in our moment of need. They spoke fluent English, which was a bonus, but they folded our stroller and shouldered our carry-ons for us. We found out that they were from Hiroshima so they actually continued to help us until we arrived in Japan. We never would have made it out of China without their help.

Shortly before Theo unravelled

The shrieking William and I were making our way to our seats, which were of course at the far back of the plane. I had a large purse strapped over one shoulder and a camera bag over the other as well as a backpack on with a blanket stuffed into the front straps. As I made my way down the aisle, I was hitting each person on either side of me with my bags and assaulting their ears with baby screams. Karlee, who was walking behind me, told me later that I was also slapping everyone with my blanket which had come partially loose. I really didn't feel sorry for anyone else but Karlee and myself at that moment.

Sleeping soundly

We made a stop in Dalian, and of course were made to go through immigration and security and then get right back on the same plane. This time William was sleeping soundly and Theo was crying. As we were boarding the plane, he gripped the doorway and sobbed that he couldn't walk to his seat because he was too tired. For dramatic emphasis he sagged into a sobbing heap half in and half out of the airplane. The stewardesses just watched in disapproval as I tried to drag him down the aisle to our seats.

Two hours later we arrived in Hiroshima airport and were pleasantly surprised with its tiny size, the friendly and helpful immigration and customs officers, and best of all, Dustin, waiting for us at the end.

First glimpse of Japan

When we finally got to our apartment, it was 3 am Winnipeg time and Karlee and I had not slept for about 48 hours. We managed to all shower, change our clothes, and lay out the futons. Dustin tried to make us supper, but by the time the rice was finished he discovered us all completely asleep. Unfortunately the kids woke up at 4 am and continued to do so for almost a week, but any sleep was good at that point. We are so glad to be finally home in Japan!

The Long Road Home

2011-08-27T03:54:00.001-05:00

We have finally arrived alive and relatively sane to Fukuyama. We have actually been here for two full days now, but the flight here was pretty grueling and combined with jet lag I was in no mood to blog about it initially.

For lack of a relevant picture: a stone Anpanman

We left from Winnipeg on Monday evening and first flew to Vancouver. This was a good flight since we were all well rested and still excited about the trip. The kids were great and I was under the delusion that maybe the whole trip would be like this. We then waited in Vancouver for 7 hours before our next flight. Since I had booked my tickets online, they weren't able to issue me a ticket for William until I showed up at the airport in Vancouver. I am not sure why booking an infant ticket is so complicated, but I stood at the Air China desk from 10:30 pm until almost 2 am while they tried to add him. I was started to get a bit anxious about our 3 am flight by this time and as soon as the ticked was booked we rushed our way through security and to our gate. This sounds much less complicated than it was, since both kids were fast asleep but needed to be taken out of the stroller and pass through the metal detector by themselves. We arrived at our gate with tired, crying kids just as they started boarding. Once on the plane Karlee and I realized how incredibly tired we were ourselves but the stewardesses felt the need to keep the lights on glaringly bright and do "helpful" little things for us every 10 minutes, like offering us drinks, more blankets for the kids, reaching across us all and shutting our window blind, and of course asking questions about the boys. By the time they turned the lights off and stopped constantly bothering us, the kids were once again awake and we didn't have the option to sleep. Theo and William good for the most part considering how long the flight was, and it was only in the last 4 hours that Theo told me he didn't really want to be on the plane anymore.

Just love this gal

At this point I need to draw attention to how truly amazing Karlee is. She didn't complain once about the terrible flight times, long waits, Theo asking questions every waking moment, heavy carry-ons and crying baby. She never took the lighter load unless forced to and was always willing to deal with my cranky kids even when I am sure she would have much rather been trying to sleep. Most amazingly, she never snapped at any of us and continued to be friendly and positive long after most people would have burst into tears or killed all three of us. We absolutely never would have made it to Japan without her.

Our adventures in China to follow...

Counting Down the Days

2011-08-18T22:41:00.002-05:00

This is it: our last few days in Canada are ticking steadily away. We have been in Landmark since the kids and I returned from Banff and are enjoying being around all of our family here. We have been keeping extremely busy trying to get everything squared away. I haven't even really had any time to feel lonely without Dustin's company, and the past three weeks have gone ridiculously fast, so the being busy has been a great thing.

Selling memories

The first weekend in August was taken up by a massive garage sale in which I was able to sell a lot of our things off while gaining a bit of change to pay for our flights. It was a fairly successful endeavour and was worth the effort of setting it up and getting everything priced. I was afraid that Theo would go ballistic when he saw other kids fondling and leaving with his toys or books, but he only had one mild episode and then was pretty much o.k. with it. I was pretty sad to see a lot of things go and I was actually surprised to realize how sentimental I was being about the littlest things. After the garage sale was over, I donated the remaining items to our local thrift store and felt the true final severing of the Manitoba chapter in our lives.

We spent last weekend at the old farm house that my in-laws are renovating outside of Riding Mountain National Park. They own 160 acres of forest and field with a national park on one side and basically no neighbours. It is a really nice way to get away from everything and Theo had an absolutely wonderful time wandering around, getting to ride on the quad, and generally enjoying the outdoors. William is truly a lover of the outdoors so there was hardly a fuss from him all weekend.

Theo contemplating the meaning of life on his stump chair

William is always calm when he gets to be outside

Theo pretending to fish on the little beaver dam pond

So proud to go for a ride with Grandpa

This week I have continued to keep busy with the remainder of our packing, mailing a few bins of our things, and stuffing everything else into suitcases. I am going to be relieved on Monday when all of this preparation is over and we can finally board that plane.

Meanwhile I have been talking with Dustin on Skype and everything seems to be going well on the other side of the ocean. He is pleased with his job so far, the people living near us, and our apartment. It seems surreal to think that at this time next week, we will all be there together, crammed into our teensy apartment!

More Glimpses of Banff

2011-08-07T11:56:00.002-05:00

I pulled a few great shots off of my father in law's camera which is incomparably better than our little point and shoot.

Here is Dustin, the kids, and me, Karlee and her boyfriend Cody (center), and Dustin's brother Tim with his wife Rina posing in front of the upper falls at Marble Canyon.

It was a fairly short hike with trails that go alongside sheer drops into a deep gorge carved by the river. Seven bridges crisscrossed the gorge on the way to the falls at the top.

The hills were alive with the sound of Theo's yodelling.

We saw a few other mammals other than ourselves while wandering. Like this grizzly bear.

These people were completely oblivious to the fact the grizzly was only a few meters below them. Fortunately, it was not in a mood to fight and disappeared into the woods as fast as it could.

We also saw some cute golden mantled ground squirrels (no, they are not chipmunks!)

and a velvety antlered deer

Theo was thoroughly impressed by the orange soil at the Paint Pots trail, which was another short hike through iron rich soil with smooth round mineral pools. I am very surprised that he didn't come back orange from head to toe.

Lastly, we took a few pictures at the small town of Indian Head, Saskatchewan on our trip back.

and in a cool old wooden wagon

Too bad the trip was so short!

Goodbye for Now

2011-08-02T22:52:00.001-05:00

The boys and I just returned from a week long trip to the Rockies. This was a multi-purpose trip that included a vacation, a wedding, and dropping Dustin off at the Calgary airport all rolled into one.

In front of Castle Mountain

The boys, Dustin, and I drove to Banff last Tuesday with his parents which was a fun filled 17 hours in extremely close quarters with uncomfortable kids. William cycled between eating, sleeping and crying the whole trip and Theo spent the whole time asking "why?". I am glad we were spared the "are we there yet?", but answering questions about why everything is the way it is can be more than tiresome. The drive is fairly boring, since you travel through the topographically mind numbing prairies for 16 hours, but you do get to drive through fantastically named Canadian cities like Moose Jaw and Medicine Hat.

Theo with magnifying glass in hand

We finally arrived in Banff where Dustin's sister and her boyfriend and Dustin's brother and wife joined us. We spent three days there and I wish I could have spent every waking moment hiking, but half of the company we were with was not too pleased at the prospect. The weather was marvellous the whole time. We did spend one full day hiking Marble Canyon and the Paint Pots which are around an area of forest that burned a few years ago from a lightning strike. Theo absolutely adores hiking and was happily darting up and down the trails asking why every living and non-living thing was placed where it was. We also saw a grizzly bear rooting around in the dirt on one of the trails, which I am sure made the whole trip worthwhile to my father in law.

William drooling his way through the mountains

On the 29th Dustin and I had to drive into Calgary for his JET pre-departure orientation. While Dustin was in his orientation, I was hoping to get William his American citizenship papers since Calgary is the closest U.S. consulate to Winnipeg. Unfortunately, after waiting for 3 hours with two squirmy bored kids and still no service I finally gave up and left. I suppose it is not the first time have been disappointed with my country. We also celebrated our wedding anniversary in Banff by going out to the Bison which is an insanely good restaurant if anyone is planning a trip there in the future. The next morning we dropped Dustin off at the airport and said our goodbyes until the 24th of August when we will be joining him in Japan. Theo took it really well and seems pretty secure in the fact that we will be seeing Papa again pretty soon.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

After Dustin left we attended his cousin Lorel's wedding. We finally set off back to Manitoba on Sunday evening. The drive back was pretty much the same as the one there, with William slipping into his cycle again and Theo being exhaustingly inquisitive, but we all arrived safe and relatively sane last night. I could have easily spent another two weeks in Banff wandering around the park, but it was nice to have even a few days with the family before we leave. I am really hoping that the next few weeks are so busy for Dustin and I that we won't even have time to miss each other!

Farewell Dinner

2011-07-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

Hooray! We have finally been released from the hospital and had a good night sleep at home. Now to assess what needs to be done after the hospital erased two weeks of our life.

In the last post I mentioned a going away dinner for 70 people that we somehow managed to hold a few days after Theo was admitted. I am still not sure how we managed it, but we did and it was a success. I was mostly in charge of cooking (with the help of a couple of other awesome people who volunteered), Dustin and his mom decorated, and Dustin made an interesting presentation about Japan of which I admit that I was only able to watch about 30 seconds. Maybe he will give me a repeat performance sometime. I grabbed a few pictures off of my father-in-law's camera to show what it was like.

The basement before guests arrived

Everyone digging in

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Part 2

2011-07-21T19:55:00.001-05:00

The first two days that Theo spent in the hospital were extremely busy for us. We were throwing a going away party that week, and though we were tempted to cancel it, we realized that might be more work than just going through with our original plans. All of the food had been bought and not many people knew that Theo was in the hospital, so it would have been a whole day of nearly identical phone conversations to call the whole thing off. The party ended up being extremely successful and fun: the decorations were fantastic thanks to my mother-in-laws magic, the food was good, and I think everyone had a great time.

Meanwhile, at the Children's Hospital, Theo was still not recuperating. His temperature was spiking every 4 hours and he was not eating, drinking, and had very little energy. On Friday morning he had an ultrasound of his kidney which revealed that it was actually infected. The antibiotics didn't seem to be doing a thing, since his fevers kept coming back. Finally the doctors decided wait until Sunday evening to see if the antibiotics would begin to work, and if not they would put a tube in through his back, into his kidney which would have to remain there for months to allow the buildup of fluid and pus to drain. After a few months they would remove the tube and there was also some talk of removing the upper portion of his kidney at that time. Obviously, we were really hoping that the antibiotics would kick in soon.

Finally feeling good enough to enjoy the toys

The weekend wore on and Sunday evening drew closer with Theo not doing any better. Finally, when I had resigned myself for the worst, his fever didn't return. The antibiotics finally started doing their job and Theo started perking up more and more. Over the past few days he has started eating more and actually wanting to run and play.

The last we heard, he can come home this evening! After almost two weeks in the hospital, and Dustin's departure date looming closer, we are really relieved that we will be able to go home soon. It has been hard balancing work, Theo, and all of the extra stress of packing and moving but I am sure that Theo will be the happiest one of all when it's over.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers while he has been in the hospital. In the end, everything worked out so much better than we expected!

Playing with William

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Part 1

2011-07-16T23:04:00.001-05:00

We have had a few long days and sleepless nights since my last post. Theo had been sick all last weekend when we were moving (as we all were) but didn't seem to be getting better. I attributed his intermittent fever, irritability, and fatigue to the really bad cold that he had caught last Friday, but by Tuesday I was beginning to get concerned when he got a fever again and was sleeping 16 hours a day.

I brought him into the Children's Hospital Emergency in Winnipeg on Tuesday evening because I was beginning to suspect that something more important, like a urinary tract infection, was lurking under the congestion and cough that he had. In retrospect, I should have suspected something a couple of days earlier and brought him in, but being super sick myself and also trying to pack and move the whole house, I suppose I was not being as intuitive about his sickness as I could have been. I thought that the worst case scenario would be a UTI, but since he hadn't once complained about pain while peeing, wasn't going to the bathroom any more than usual, or any other obvious symptoms, I really thought it was not the case. Once at the hospital, they took a urine sample and confirmed that he did in fact have a UTI.

Theo enjoying his brother's company at the hospital

As I wrote about in a previous post Theo's kidney is an object of interest for many a doctor. He only has one remaining kidney and only half of it functions properly. As soon as it was discovered that he had a UTI, the doctors went into a tizzy because they didn't know whether the infection had spread from his bladder to the kidney, and if it had, would the remaining functioning part of his kidney be completely damaged. They promptly hooked him up to an IV of some pretty potent antibiotics, which sounds much easier than the 1 1/2 hours of multiple nurses, numerous collapsed veins, and screaming which was actually incolved before they managed to get the IV in properly.

Every doctor, resident, and student on the floor then decided to show up at intervals poking and prodding Theo and each one asking me to tell a detailed story of his life. I started getting a bit annoyed since it was midnight at this point and they were asking pointless things like "what did you crave during your pregnancy with him?". He eventually fell asleep on the bed in the ER in spite of people poking him every 5 minutes and we were finally admitted to a room in the Children's Hospital by 1 am. Dustin "slept" in his room the first night since I had to return to William who was being watched by my mother-in-law.

So bored

That long drive out of town to my in-laws in the dark was strange since it was the first time I have seriously pondered the fact that I am the proprietor of the only kidney available for transplant in our family. Theo and I share a rare-ish blood type and unfortunately are the only ones in our family with it. The test to show if his kidney was actually infected would take another 48 hours, and if it was, it would take another day or two to assess how much of his kidney was seriously damaged by it. I could feel the phantom scalpel tickling under the ribs on my back while I tried to prepare myself mentally for the possibility of having an organ removed on short notice.

To be continued...

In Sickness and In Health

2011-07-11T16:17:00.001-05:00

A few of the unwelcome denizens of my body

Our last week and a bit has been crazily fast paced and busy trying to get everything sorted for leaving, the house packed, and all the little details of life squared away. In the midst of this frenzy, Dustin contracted an over the top cough and Theo woke up at three in the morning coughing, running a fever, and insisting on being held for the remainder of the night. This weekend, as we were packing up the last of our things and moving them to my inlaws' place, I lost my voice and within an hour or two I was in the grip of a full on cough/cold. The only one of us who has been seemingly unaffected is William, which is the only bright side in the narrow world of self-focused bodily pain into which we have all been thrust.

Dustin has only two weeks remaining until he leaves Manitoba and with all of the things that still need to be done, I can't help but think our bodies have betrayed us in our final hour of need. Hopefully we can all manage to recuperate without any of the special attention and extra sleep that we don't have time for!

Oh, Canada

2011-07-02T12:50:00.001-05:00

Flaming Dragon

So patriotic

Last night we went with my step-mom to celebrate Canada Day and see fireworks. Because it gets dark so late at this time of year, we were loath to drive an hour to the Forks to go to their all out celebration and see fireworks launched over the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The show is really spectacular, but it is only dark enough at about 11 pm to launch fireworks and we knew that Theo would be a raging ball of angst by that time. Add a crowd and large exploding noises and who knows what kind of scene he would make. We decided instead to see the fireworks in Steinbach, which is only about 5 minutes from our house. They gave out Canada themed cupcakes (which Theo only ate the icing off of), glow sticks, temporary tattoos, and flags.

William and I waiting for the show to start

The fireworks were not any where near as crazy and fantastic as the celebrations for King Sihanouk's birthday in Cambodia, but seeing as probably 80% of the fireworks they used are almost certainly illegal in Canada, I think Steinbach did well enough. It was a great opportunity to try out the fireworks setting on our camera. I was pretty disappointed at the pictures it took of the fireworks, but I am generally disappointed in all the photos our camera takes, so I wasn't too surprised. It ended up being a great choice going to Steinbach, since it was much more family friendly (i.e. no drunks wandering around shouting obscenities like in Winnipeg), there was a huge amount of green space for Theo to run in, and a fairly small crowd. This is the first time that we have done anything for Canada Day since we have had kids and I am glad, especially for Theo's sake, that we got to experience it one last time before leaving.

Dustin and Theo enjoying the explosions

I am not sure that we will have the time or energy to do anything for the 4th of July, but if we get ambitious we might shoot of a few fireworks in our back yard. According to my Aunt Hue, Canada Day is just Canada's 4th of July, celebrated on the 1st of July due to the early harvest. So if we go by her theory, we won't need to bother doing anything on Monday since we have already celebrated.

Farewell to the Yakkan Shōmei

2011-06-29T10:59:00.003-05:00

We have finally mailed off the forms which will allow us to bring medicine into Japan, or the Yakkan Shōmei. It is sort of an import certificate which consists of three forms and took seemingly forever to fill out. It is only necessary to fill out the Yakkan Shōmei if you are bringing in more than a months worth of perscription medication, more than 2 months of non-perscription medication, or more than 4 months worth of vitamins. A couple of weeks ago when we were in the U.S., I stocked up on fairly ridiculous amounts of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and vitamins to last us a year or more, so I needed to fill out the Yakkan Shōmei. I normally like filling out forms and surveys, so it was mildly enjoyable at first, but by the time I got to the third form (Product Explanation Form 6) I was not having such a great time.

The product explanation form requires you to report the name of product, name of manufacturer, country of origin, all active and non active ingredients and the quantity of them contained in the product, what it is used for, and a complete description of what the medicine and the container it comes in looks like. This was fairly easy for the gigantic bottle of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, but when it came to multivitamins it was agonizing. There are 30+ overly long ingredients in them and very quickly I was cursing the decision to buy separate men's and women's vitamins as well as infant and children's vitamins. I also ran into a mystery when trying to report the name of manufacturer and originating country of the vitamins and painkillers I bought in the U.S. Everything I bought in Canada stated the manufacturer and country in which it was made very clearly on the side of the packaging, but for the American medicine, there was absolutely none of this information. I called the 1-800 number on the side of the bottle thinking that it would be an easy 5 minute phone call, but 30 minutes, 2 different people, and a supervisor later I was informed that the information I requested was confidential and they couldn't disclose it to me. I was pretty incredulous that they were not required to give me that information and I really despise how these companies are so obsessed with covering themselves at all times. It makes me feel as though they are doing something illegal, like using powdered baby bones as a filler, or manufacturing them in sweat shops if they are not willing to be transparent about simple information. Dustin's theory was that they were afraid that I might find out my generic acetaminophen tablets were in fact made by the same pharmaceutical company that produces Tylenol and my generic vitamins were made by Centrum. I suppose the name brands might lose their edge if that was the case.

Ten pages and all of my patience later, I finally finished the product explanation form and we were able to mail the Yakkan Shōmei off to CLAIR(Council of Local Authorities for International Relations). I really hope that filling out the forms was the worst of the hassle and that I won't have to think about it again until we reach Japan!

Ringing in the Summer

2011-06-23T21:26:00.001-05:00

We have had a very cool and rainy spring and the first two days of summer have not been much better. There has been the occasional wonderfully warm and summery day sprinkled here and there, one of which was Father's Day. We had a get together at my in-laws' where summer was officially pronounced by the presence of rollkuchen and watermelon.

rollkuchen basking in the hot sun

For those of you who haven't been introduced to the impending heart attack that is Mennonite cooking, rollkuchen it is a deep fried square of dough sprinkled with salt, and eaten with golden syrup and watermelon. Dustin's family has close relationship with all of their traditional foods and rollkuchen (which apparently must be said with an over the top rolling of the "r") and watermelon tops the list of hot weather outdoor meals. When I first encountered this meal back in the days when Dustin and I were dating, I was incredulous that anyone would only want to eat solely fried dough and watermelon for supper. A snack or dessert maybe, but a whole meal? I could feel my arteries recoiling in horror. I still mostly feel this way, but through the years I have become gradually more and more excited when the first brimming bowl of rollkuchen emerges. I suppose because it has become intrinsically tied into my good memories of the extremely short but wonderful Manitoban summer.

Theo enjoying another summer time favourite

Like pretty much all Mennonite food, I don't think I will ever make these little bundles of joy myself, but I really enjoy the once or twice a year that I have them over at my in-laws'. I don't think Dustin will complain too much that I won't be making these since he has a strange aversion to watermelon. I think it is wonderful that Dustin's family has so many traditional foods, since my family has managed to lose pretty much all semblance of their original culture through years of traveling and living in other countries. If Dustin would ever choose to continue the family tradition and learn to make the smörgåsbord of Mennonite "shame based" foods, I would support him whole heartedly. As for me though, I am content to leave it as one more reason to enjoy visits with my in-laws.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2011-06-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

Since finding out where we are heading to in Japan I decided to go ahead and book plane tickets for the boys and myself. Dustin had heard that it is possible to get cheaper tickets through the travel agent who books all of the JET flights, so he popped them off an email while I did some independent investigations. The travel agent quoted us at 2,700$ to fly into Hiroshima. I am pretty proud that I managed to book them myself (through Expedia.ca) for only 1,500$.

Theo loving the airplanes

It really helps that we are flexible in our arrival date. If we were going to Tokyo orientation with Dustin, it would have doubled the cost of our tickets (on top of what even the travel agent quoted us). Just one more reason to bide our time in the 'Tob. I didn't want to remain in Manitoba too terribly long though, so our flight leaves on August 22nd. It is a very indirect flight, I am sure that this is part of the reason that it is so much cheaper, and we will be flying from Winnipeg to Vancouver, Vancouver to Beijing, Beijing to Dalian, and then finally from Dalian to Hiroshima. The layovers aren't insanely long (not like some of the 20 hour + layovers that I have had to put up with in the past) so I am sure that we will get to Japan with two tired, but at least living, children. I have heard from a frequent flier of Air China, who will be our carrier, that the breakfast and lunch they serve is creepy at best, but the supper is o.k. It is just our luck that we will be flying through breakfast and lunch hours and not during supper. I suppose Karlee and I like a bit of culinary adventure, Theo eats anything, and William has me, his portable food of choice.

I was surprised to find that we actually had to pay for William's ticket even though he will be sitting on my lap. He is only adding about 18 lbs. to the weight of the plane, and won't be eating any of their snacks or interesting meals, so I am not really sure why we should be paying. On the other hand, I found out that Theo's ticket is only 75% of the price of an adult ticket even though he gets his own seat, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

Meanwhile, Dustin won't have to share a bed with the baby and I, put up with Theo's noise and breakdowns, and my badgering. How will he survive for 3 weeks without us?

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T12:33:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day to all of you great dads out there!

My dad with me, my older sister, and brother

To my dad who gave me my love of animals and science, who taught me how to be an organized and goal oriented person, who gave me a sense of frugality and a love of cleanliness, and who has fed me just about every mammal on the North American continent: Thank you!

Dustin: somehow still alive after all these years

To my father-in-law who puts up with my opinionated conversations and wild schemes, who has really taught me the meaning of generosity, and who raised some really great kids: Thank you!

Most importantly to Dustin who is the best papa two little boys could ask for. Thanks for all the sleepless nights taking care of sick kids, the bedtime stories, and for always giving in to puppy eyes and a "pleeeease". We love you!

Dustin surrounded by his brood

Always proud to tote around the baby

A Place to Call Home

2011-06-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

After about a month of expectant waiting we finally found out where we will be living in Japan! You would think that I had the whole waiting thing down after 9 months of pregnancy, but I had been getting more and more impatient by the day. This morning we received the email that we will be in Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture.

It is a smallish city, just under 500,000 people, and seemingly obsessed with roses. Their motto is: "Unique Rose City Fukuyama, the core city of exchanging activities of shining Seto Inland". I have no idea where they were going with that, but I am sure that it makes a bit more sense in Japanese. This was not actually one of our three placement preferences, but Fukuyama borders our third choice of Okayama Prefecture, so we are very excited. We also requested a rural placement, and were sure we would be indulged, but at least the city is not too large. We may actually be on the outskirts, who knows?

I am sure that Dustin and I will be poring over the internet trying to find every photo and website on Fukuyama and Hiroshima for the next few weeks. I think that Theo has even gotten a whiff of the excitement because he is in his room at the moment, playing with toys and exclaiming "Fukuyama!" every minute or so. I am so glad that our wait is finally over. Knowing where we will be going just seems to make everything that much more real and will hopefully fuel us during the next weeks of feverish packing, selling, and moving.

House of the Rising Sun

2011-06-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

The sun has been rising earlier and setting later by the day. The long days have been really bothering my sleep lately. At the best of times I have always been very sensitive to light when trying to sleep, but now every time I wake up with the baby and see daylight I find it difficult to go back to sleep.

Theo has been very confused, waking up super early and trying to avoid going to sleep at night on the grounds of "but the sun hasn't even gone to sleep yet!". This morning he woke up at the break of dawn, burst into our room, and energetically bounded over to wake up William. Luckily, Dustin was able to grab him and steer him out of the room before the baby was actually bothered. This was at 4:45 am. I know this evening he will be in his room, refusing to fall asleep well past 10:30 because there is still sunlight streaming through the windows. You would think that the thick, dark curtains we have on the bedroom windows would help, but it seems that Theo has inherited my inability to sleep well unless he is in a cave.

It will only get worse for the next week and a bit, so we will all be bleary eyed, sleep deprived zombies for a while.

Enjoying a cuddle with Grandma

On another note, my mom is returning to Vermont tomorrow after 6 wonderful weeks of having her here. I am really going to miss having adult conversations during the day and all of her help with the children.

Botanical Blunders

2011-06-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

Winnipeg is home to the Royal Canadian Mint which continues to create one of the most annoying botanical blunders in our country. When people think of Canada, the sugar maple leaf usually springs to mind. One would think that those leaves on our penny are from a maple, but in fact they are leaves from a sycamore or plane tree. A sycamore's leaves grow alternately along a stem (like the leaves on the penny), while maple leaves are oppositely attached along the stem. The one we have to blame for this embarrassment is George Kruger-Gray, who must have never looked very closely at a maple tree and had no botanist friends. The only other coin that he designed in Canada is the back of the nickel. It seems that he researched this one a bit more, since as far as I can tell it actually looks like a beaver, not a coypu or other R.O.U.S.

Things I Like to Cook (And Eat) 3

2011-06-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

Coconut Pandan Mochi

I love pandan and most things that use it as a flavoring. I have a pretty acute sense of smell, and when I catch a whiff of it in any store I follow my nose to the source and usually buy it. That is how I came across this little bottle of pandan paste. I had a box of rice flour and decided to try out a marriage of a few of my favorite things: pandan, mochi and coconut. I was originally going to try forming them into balls, but after getting very frustrated I decided the best way to get the coconut layer to stick properly (and the mochi not to stick to my hands) was to make squares.

Ingredients:

2 cups mochiko (rice flour)
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tbsp pandan paste
water
1/2 cup grated coconut

Put sugar in a saucepan with 1 cup of water and pandan paste. Use less or more pandan paste depending on how strong you want the flavor. Heat on low until the sugar is completely dissolved. Mix mochi flour with 3 cups of water in a large bowl until it is smooth. Cover and microwave for 5 minutes. Mix again, cover, and microwave for another 5 minutes. Pour in sugar pandan syrup and mix completely. While it is still hot scrape out of bowl into a greased pan and try to smooth it out as much as possible. Pour ground coconut on top and use your fingers to spread it out/flatten the mochi. Allow to cool and then cut into squares. Enjoy!

Come What May

2011-06-03T12:08:00.001-05:00

I brought Theo to 2 of his 4 doctors appointments this week. I booked them early enough so that there would be time to run any tests needed before we left and gather his medical records from everyone.

We met with the pediatric urologist on Tuesday, who was her typical pessimistic self. She has a tendency to paint a very dire picture of Theo's physical health, as if his urinary tract is is a ticking time bomb and she is waiting for the explosion. She is most likely right, but it is fairly depressing for me to think about, and there is not much we can do but wait so I usually try not to dwell on it.

For those who are interested, he had severe bilateral hydronephrosis before he was born which led to the complete damage of his right kidney and half of his left kidney. It seems to have gotten a bit better since he was born, or at least his remaining bit of kidney hasn't declined in the past 3 years. Unfortunately, kidneys can't repair themselves once damaged, and about a year ago Theo's body completely reabsorbed his non-functioning right kidney. We thought that this was really creepy, but it was actually the best outcome, since doctors don't like to see completely functionless bits sitting around in your body for too terribly long. The weird part is that it happened in a three month period; it was there on one ultrasound, and then it was missing.

The second appointment this week was with the pediatric nephrologist. Up to this point Theo's remaining bit of kidney has been keeping up with all its necessary blood filtering duties. This time though, the bloodwork shows that he has a developed metabolic acidosis because his kidney isn't able to produce enough bicarbonate (HCO₃^-) to buffer the blood properly. It also showed that he is borderline anemic because the kidney is not producing enough erythropoietin, a hormone that triggers bone marrow to produce red blood cells. This news was a bit of a blow, since it shows the very first signs of kidney decline. Today I will start him on a blood buffering medication that he will need to take for the rest of his life.

I really enjoyed taking physiology classes in university, but since I was in zoology, I really only ever studied how invertebrate and lower vertebrate bodies functioned. In the past 3 1/2 years I have become more interested in human physiology, but though it is interesting, I really wish my own child was not the motivation to learn. The appointments this week have left me feeling pretty deflated and disheartened, but I always feel that the best way to deal with this is to focus on the present. If I allow myself to wonder about all of the future possibilites, I get very anxious. Do what is best for him today and let tomorrow alone until it comes. I am sure that many parents who have a child with chronic kidney disease don't get 3 1/2 years of stable kidney function to wrap their heads around the situation, so I suppose we are blessed in a way.

Wondering what the future will hold

The Path of Least Resistance

2011-06-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

One of the problems that I keep running into since Dustin and I have started studying Japanese is controlling the impulse to blurt out German words. After years of studying German, my brain seems hardwired to come up with the German word for something instead of the correct word in Japanese. It will probably take a while before I stop doing this, and I am sure that I will be embarrassed a few times in Japan when I randomly insert German into sentences.

Learning German is a very pleasant experience for an English speaker. The vocabulary, syntax, and phrases are similar to English but with the added benefit of being so much more organized and predictable. As a kid I thought it was much more fun to play Nintendo games with the Game Genie. Legitimately beating Mario Bros. caused a certain level of pride, but playing it with infinite lives and infinite Fire Mario just made it so much more fun. Learning German was a very similar experience for me, like learning a foreign language with the native English speaker Game Genie.

I am finding Japanese to be much more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding language learning experience. It is not nearly as intuitive for me, but I am enjoying the challenge. Dustin has another Japanese class starting tomorrow, in addition to the one we are currently taking at the U of M, but this one is through the JET Programme. I think we are both anticipating/dreading having to rely on our feeble language base very soon.

Theo has been trying to speak Japanese to us, which usually involves repeating nonsensical lists of words he has picked up from watching Anpanman or shouting "いただきます" at the top of his lungs before each meal. It is neat to see how much his three year old brain is understanding about the impending move and encountering a foreign language.