I’ve added a new entry to my Japan Diary, about a shrine visit I went on back in July. I hope to fill in to more recent events soon.
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I’ve added a new entry to my Japan Diary, about a shrine visit I went on back in July. I hope to fill in to more recent events soon.
Today we went on a family day trip to Atami, a coastal hot spring resort town a couple of hours away by train. This means that I’m even further behind on the diary than I was yesterday, because this is a diary entry sort of thing, with pictures. I’m going to have to deliberately set aside some time to get the diary done.
Anyway, we all had a good time. I don’t know exactly what Mayuki enjoyed, but she was a good girl all day, and got upset when we were home and obviously getting ready to send her to bed. I think she enjoys travel; new things to see, and she gets to spend the whole day with Mummy and Daddy. Yuriko particularly enjoyed seeing a house designed by Bruno Taut, a famous pre-war German architect. (Actually, he only designed one floor of the house, so he mainly designed the interior.) I particularly enjoyed visiting a couple of shrines. Fortunately, we both enjoyed the places the other wanted to see, so there was no boredom involved.
We’re trying to teach Mayuki Baby Sign, because it is apparently good for them to communicate before they can manage to frame words. We’re not very good at remembering to teach her, but today at dinner, when Yuriko tried to convince Mayuki that it was delicious, Mayuki tapped her left cheek with her open hand, which is the sign for “delicious”. I don’t know whether Mayuki knows what it means, since Yuriko frequently uses it about things that Mayuki doesn’t want to eat (which isn’t terribly good strategy, now I come to think of it), but she’s clearly connected the word and the sign.
Anyway, I’ll try to get round to writing the diary entry before I forget everything we did.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of my arrival in Japan, as well as Yuriko and my second wedding anniversary.
When I arrived here, I thought that I would be studying for a year and then returning to the UK. I certainly didn’t imagine that five years later I’d own a flat in the Tokyo area, be married to a Japanese woman, and have a half-Japanese daughter. But life often turns out in ways you weren’t expecting, and I’m certainly not complaining about these developments.
It is probably obvious that I like living in Japan. It’s possible that I’ll never go back to the UK, but since Yuriko and I both like the UK as well, it’s also entirely possible that we will. I just don’t have any plans to do so at the moment.
If I did go back to the UK, there are a number of things I would miss. Sushi, tonkatsu, even ramen occasionally; I do like Japanese food. Buses and trains that are clean and run on time. To the point that when they’re three minutes late the staff never stop apologising. Convenience stores open 24 hours (especially when there’s one next to the flat; that’s maybe a little too convenient). Shinto shrines. Teaching English.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said that the economy was in better shape in the UK, but I’m not so sure about that any more. Still, lamb, decent cheese, and chocolate bars (like Mars bars) are the foods I miss from the UK. And with thirty years of experience, British history and culture still have a very strong resonance for me. While I like Japanese culture, it’s a different experience.
But I like it here, and I’m looking forward to the next however long it is I spend here, with my family.
Mayuki took her first steps today.
I actually missed the very first two, because I was asleep (I’ve been very tired for some reason, can’t imagine why a freelance writer with a one-year-old might be tired), but I did see her second lot, as she walked one step from holding on to the back of her high chair to holding on to the trunk that has the phone on. She celebrated her great achievement by turning the answerphone on and off, one of her favourite games.
In a matter of days she’ll be running around the flat, getting in the way constantly.
I can’t wait.
I’m still busy trying to catch up from the holidays, but I’m slowly getting there. I might actually be caught up by the end of next week, although I’ll have to work again this weekend. While that means that I still don’t have time to write up proper diary entries, I do at least have a chance to write a bit about Mayuki.
While she seems to be fine at the moment, she’s been to the doctor a lot this week. This started on Tuesday, when we went to the park. Despite the anti-insect patches stuck on her clothes, Mayuki was bitten on the back of her ankle. On Wednesday morning, the bite was swollen, red, and weeping clear fluid. Mayuki didn’t seem in the least bothered, or even to notice, but we certainly did. Yuriko popped out to the doctor with her. The diagnosis was that it was just a rather deep insect bite, so other than putting a bandage on and providing some cream, there was no need for lots of treatment. He did say to go back the following day, though. We did discover that all the treatment, including the medicines, is free, so that’s good.
That was her first non-routine (standard check-up, immunisation) visit to a doctor since she was born. Over a year isn’t bad going, really.
Her second was on Wednesday evening. She suddenly developed a fever, and we were concerned that it might be connected to the insect bite, since infections do produce fevers. So, off to the doctor again, albeit a different doctor this time. Her fever got as high as 39, although she didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. The doctor said it was either a response to her measles/rubella jab, or a disease that is apparently called Roseola infantum, where babies around one year old suddenly get a high fever for three or four days, followed by a red rash. There wasn’t a lot of necessary treatment for this, either, and it wasn’t connected to the bite, but he said to come back in a couple of days unless the fever got bad and Mayuki seemed to be suffering on Thursday.
On Thursday, Mayuki had no sign of a fever, and was playing perfectly happily, so we didn’t bother with an extra trip. Yuriko did take her to the first doctor, and confirm that the bite was behaving itself properly.
On Friday, Mayuki developed a slight fever again, but the doctor confirmed that it definitely wasn’t Roseola infantum. In fact, the streaming nose, sneezing, and occasional coughs enabled Yuriko and I to anticipate the doctor’s diagnosis: Mayuki had a cold. She still does today, in fact, although it doesn’t seem to be slowing her down much.
In fact, today she was standing up with both hands on the top of her bucket of Duplo bricks. This was only remarkable because the bottom of the bucket was a good ten centimetres off the floor. She stayed standing there for a few seconds, and then just put the bucket down in a new place so she could continue playing. While she has been standing by herself quite a lot recently, apparently when she gets distracted by what she’s doing and doesn’t realise that she isn’t holding on any more, this is the first time we’ve seen her doing it while holding something substantial; the bucket is about half her size (although a lot less than half her weight, obviously).
The first step really can’t be far in the future now, although she seems to prefer holding on to my or Yuriko’s hands. We might have to trick her into doing it…
I’ve not posted for a while because I’ve been very busy trying to catch up on al the work I missed while I was on holiday. I’m still doing that, in fact, but I’m just doing a quick post to let people know that Yuriko’s friend Sonoe took some pictures of Mayuki, and the rest of us, and put them up on her blog again. Click on the link to go and see them. The text of the blog is all in Japanese, but at least you can enjoy the images.
I’m back in Japan after two weeks in the UK, which is why the blog hasn’t been updated for a while.
If you see adverts claiming that Heathrow Terminal 5 is working, treat them with scepticism. It is true that they didn’t lose my baggage, and I checked in quickly, but the toilets were being flushed by cleaners with buckets of water due to a water supply problem. They failed to get it fixed in the four hours I was there to wait for my plane. On the other hand, the two hour delay in our departure was due to one of the other passengers falling ill just before take-off, which can’t really be blamed on them. Unless it was food poisoning from inadequately-washed food, I suppose.
Well, that’s what most people reading the blog care about. Of course, that could be because I’ve only been writing about Mayuki recently, and not posting very much even about that. This is because I’ve been rather busy recently, and not managed to find time to do my blog. Sorry about that.
Still busy today, so this is just a quick note to confirm that I’m still here.
Yesterday was a family day, and more so than most: Yuriko’s parents came up from Nagoya to get their grandchild fix. They arrived around midday, while we were iChatting with California, so my Dad got to say hello to them, which was nice.
In the afternoon, we went to the local shrine’s summer festival. It was the third time I’d been, and the second time for Yuriko, but Mayuki’s first time. (And Yuriko’s parents’ first time.) Mayuki was a really, really good girl. Not only did she not cry, she also watched most of the sacred dance, and didn’t shout or squeal too much.
I also got interviewed again. Last year some people were videoing it as part of a record of cultural practices (the dance is registered by Kawasaki city), so they wanted to interview the only foreigner present. This time, someone from Yomiuri Shinbun was there, and she wanted to ask me what I thought of the festival as a foreigner. This is a little difficult to answer. Yes, I’m a foreigner, but it’s the fourth time I’ve been, I know the people at the shrine quite well, and I’ve studied Shinto quite extensively; I’m not seeing it from a standard foreigner perspective. I did my best to answer the question as put, however. After all, she wasn’t really interviewing me, she was researching the event.
In the afternoon we took Yuriko’s parents to Shinrin Kouen, one of the local parks, because they hadn’t been there before, and then they took us out for eel. There is a tradition that you should eat eel on this day of the year. Apparently, this tradition was started by an eel shop about twenty years ago, but the Japanese are remarkably uncynical about excuses to eat particular foods. And eel is very tasty, so I’m not going to object either. The restaurant we went to was very nice indeed, but they don’t advertise much. Yuriko and her parents suspect that this is because, if they did, lots of people would come, and that would inconvenience the regular customers. I think that’s a good attitude to have, if you are already making enough money; human relationships do matter at least as much as profits.
Mayuki was a really good girl in the restaurant as well, and the other customers, and the staff, said that she was really cute. If we’re not careful, we’ll start believing people when they say that sort of thing to us.
Today is Ocean Day, so Yuriko doesn’t have a kimono class. Her parents stayed overnight in Kawasaki, so they’re here again now, and I’m getting my computer to the point where I can start it backing up and thus go and spend time with them. Of course, they can play with Mayuki, so they aren’t that bothered about what I get up to.
Added a new entry to my Japan diary.