Sonoe took some more photographs of Mayuki. As usual, the text is all in Japanese, but you can enjoy the pictures. The last one is of Mayuki dancing to some music, making up her own choreography. That’s something she does quite a lot.
Aug 122010
Jun 252010
Recently, I’ve been deliberately spending more time with Mayuki, playing with her for at least an hour every day. For some reason, that seems to leave me less time to do other things, a situation I don’t really understand. Surely as a reward for being a good father, the very nature of reality should warp and grant me more time.
Anyway, we spend quite a lot of time playing in the tatami room, either playing with a ball, or building things with the wooden blocks, or pretending to do things. We pretend to go to the park, and pretend to go on slides and swings while sitting on the floor. We pretend to go shopping, watching out for cars and only crossing the road when the signal is green. We pretend to eat various kinds of food, from curry rice to chocolate.
And then there are the slightly stranger ones. We pretend to watch videos. That involves pressing the button, and then sitting next to each other while saying what’s happening. We pretend to read a picture book. I tell the story from one of her books, and Mayuki tells me to turn the pages at the appropriate places, or fills in the bits of the story. Or we pretend to play with a ball.
These are strange because we can easily do all of them for real. The books and videos are in the next room. The ball was even in the same room, but we were still playing with a pretend ball. Mayuki quite clearly understands the difference between pretend and real, at least in these cases, and is quite deliberately choosing to pretend. I have to confess that I don’t quite understand why.
Further evidence that she knows the difference between pretend and real is that when, yesterday, I suggested that we go to the park, she knew right away that I meant a real park, and got ready to go out. On the way, we passed the 14th apartment block in the complex, which has a big “14″ up on the side.
“Look, Daddy!”, Mayuki said (in Japanese). “It’s great! It’s really tall! There are lots of homes in it! Look! [breaking into English] Four! One!”
So, she was reading the numbers in the wrong order, but still, I was very impressed. I knew she knew “4″, but I didn’t realise she knew “1″ as well. I wonder whether she knows all of the single digits. She’s also worked out that the writing on picture book pages is the words that we read, and sometimes points at the words while we’re reading them to her. I don’t think she can read letters yet, but I suppose she might still surprise me. Maybe by the time she’s three, she’ll be reading books by herself.
And I’ll get some time back to do the same.
Jun 202010
Today, the three of us went to KODOMONOKUNI. I’m not sure why they put the name in all caps, but that’s how it appears on their site. It’s a large activity park, primarily aimed at children (the name means “Children’s Country”), with an emphasis on a pseudo-natural environment, rather than on rides and such. It was the first time we’d been, even though it’s fairly close to us. There’s one change of train, onto a line with three stops that goes to the park, and even when we just missed a train, it only took about an hour door to door.
She has dual British and Japanese nationality. Which team needs her more?
At the park, Mayuki quickly got into the swing of things. First, she went to play with some hula-hoops, which were provided by the park. She was quite good at rolling them along the ground, but actually spinning them round herself was harder, though she did try. When she got bored of that, she went running up a grassy slope, and when she got to a flat area she demanded the ball, and we played football for a while. (Appropriate, I guess.)
From that area, we could see a miniature railway, and so, after playing with soap bubbles for a bit, Mayuki decided she wanted to go on that. Before we could line up, however, she spotted the slides, so we went on there first. They were quite big, and she insisted on going on with me because, as she explained to Yuriko, “It’s a bit scary, so I’ll go on with Daddy”. After a couple of slides, she was ready to go on the train, so we bought our tickets and got on.
Sometimes, I don’t fit in full-size Japanese trains. I certainly didn’t really fit in this one. However, Mayuki really enjoyed it, so much so that she wanted to go round again. This time, I sent her round with Yuriko, while I took pictures, and Mayuki enjoyed it so much that she wanted to go round again. We tried to convince her that it was time for lunch, and finally took her away screaming. Fortunately, she calmed down quite quickly, and ate some lunch. She refused to eat the ice cream that Yuriko bought afterwards, though, because it was in a cup, not a cone, and so didn’t look right.
Next, it was time to draw all over the road in chalk. The children are allowed to do this on the entrance road to the park, and Mayuki had lots of fun, and got chalk all over her hands. Fortunately, there was also somewhere to wash it off. This being Japan, the outdoor sinks all had soap dispensers. With soap in.
Anyway, at this point we’d been to maybe one tenth of the park, next to the entrance, and Yuriko wanted to see a bit more. However, along the way Mayuki decided that she wanted to play football again, so that’s what we did. While we were playing, Yuriko noticed two Thomas the Tank Engine models. (One was Thomas, the other was Percy.) As soon as we pointed these out to Mayuki, she stopped playing football and went over to see what they were.
They turned out to be dodgems, 200 yen a turn. There were already some children on Thomas when we got there, so Mayuki went on Percy, with Yuriko. When that ride finished, Thomas was empty, so she had a ride on that one as well. Two rides were not enough, so she got back on Thomas, and said “Daddy, pay the money! If you don’t, it doesn’t go!” (in Japanese). However, I was firm in my resolve, and she eventually gave in and got off, going with us a bit further into the park.
I can make a big splash!
There, we found a water-play area. The full swimming pool doesn’t open until the middle of next month, but the paddling pool was open, and had quite a few children in it. Mayuki was very keen to play in the water with them, but it was a bit too deep for her to go in by herself, so Yuriko rolled up her trousers to escort her.
Mayuki quite likes playing in the water. She splashed around, walked through the water, and then didn’t want to get out. Unfortunately, she had no choice, because the park was about to close. She’d been playing for about four hours, which was apparently enough; she fell asleep on my shoulder while we were getting on to the second train, and then stayed asleep for a couple of hours, only waking up for dinner.
Because the park is really quite close to us, we might go back. You can buy a weekday pass, good for a year, for the price of five admissions; we had free tickets today, courtesy of a friend of Yuriko’s, but I will seriously think about getting the weekday pass; I could go with Mayuki on Mondays, and I should be able to get up to five visits over a year. You can also buy a one-year free pass for 10,000 yen (about 17 admissions), but that also gets you into the summer pool and winter ice rink free. I suspect Mayuki will be a bit too small to get enough use from that this year, but if we go to the other bits a lot I’ll have to think about it for next year. It looks like she could get a lot of good use out of the park as a whole.
May 112010
Yuriko’s just about finished redecorating the flat, and I’ve just redecorated my blog. I hope you like the new look; I think it’s quite clean and easy to use.
We’ve all got colds to varying degrees at the moment. Mayuki’s is making her sick quite a lot, but although we’ve taken her to the doctor, they say it’s just a cold. Given that she’s very definitely not ill while she’s not actually throwing up, I think that is quite plausible. Yuriko’s got a sore throat and is losing her voice, and I’m just a bit under the weather.
That’s a large part of the reason why I’ve not been updating the blog. Another reason is that I’m trying to get caught up on work. I made some progress today, but, of course, not quite as much as I hoped. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow.
Apr 052010
The cherry blossoms are out in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the weather is really not very good. It’s raining this morning, and the forecast is for it to continue doing so for much of the day. Yesterday was grey, and rather cold. Nevertheless, we went out to see the cherry blossoms.
Pay attention, Daddy!
We went to our local graveyard. This may sound a little odd, and Yuriko also thought it was a bit strange, but the graveyard is very big, and has a lot of cherry trees. It’s also a bit hidden, in that you have to go up little roads behind houses to get to it, which means that, despite its location, it’s not as popular as you might think. There were still a lot of people there, but it wasn’t heaving, and while part of that could well have been the weather, I think the main locations in Tokyo would have been packed.
We didn’t have time to go round the whole area, but we did see that there are areas where you can have barbecues, and there were a lot of families having picnics. If your family is from this area, it could be a fun day out for the whole family, including the dead members. In any case, now that we know where it is, it’s likely to be our main cherry blossom spot in future years. At the very least, we’re likely to go there once.
After that, we went to Art Fair Tokyo. This is where Yuriko worked before Mayuki was born, and she’s gone back to work there part-time at the moment, so she had those reasons to go. She also wanted to see the art, and has dreams of being able to buy something at the fair. I’d like to save up so that she can, but the budget won’t permit at the moment. Anyway, my main job was looking after Mayuki, so that Yuriko could look around. I took her round the fair, of course, and she was fascinated by one of the exhibits.
It was an animation of a girl walking up a down escalator. She was climbing at the same speed as the escalator was descending, so the image didn’t change much, but Mayuki was fascinated. She watched it for over ten minutes, even complaining when we tried to take her away.
There’s still a lot to do to get ready to move, and that’s putting pressure on the blog. Maybe there’ll be more time for updates once we have moved.
Mar 302010
We all have colds at the moment. In my case or Yuriko’s case, that just means the usual feeling under the weather. Mayuki, however, has been sick twice in the night (including on me, last night). As you might imagine, that doesn’t help with us getting the lots of sleep that colds demand, so I’m really not feeling on the top of my game at the moment.
This is my excuse for not having written up the rest of our Kanazawa trip yet. It was pencilled in for today, but that really wasn’t happening.
Sorry about that.
Mar 062010
Mayuki at Shirahata-san
Today was this year’s First Rabbit Festival at Shirahata-san. Because it is held on the first day of the rabbit in March, I always have to ask when it is. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but the animals of the Chinese zodiac are used for days as well as years.) Fortunately, I could attend today, and only had to rearrange one lesson. The weather wasn’t great, so at first I was going to go alone, but then I decided to ask Mayuki if she wanted to come. Her response was an enthusiastic “Yes!”, so we went to together. Yuriko stayed home, and apparently got lots done while Mayuki wasn’t here.
When we got to the shrine, we paid our respects as normal, and then Mayuki was ready to go home, as normal. I had to explain to her that there was a special ceremony today, and that we were going to stay to see it. I convinced her, but then the priest started beating the drum to mark the start of the ceremony, and Mayuki was frightened. I picked her up and held her, but she really didn’t want to go anywhere near the shrine building at that point, so I couldn’t see that part of the ceremony very well. Not that I imagine it was very different from last year, or the year before.
After the main part of the ceremony, they had the part where they shoot arrows at the targets. The two small boys who were supposed to play a major role were not desperately interested in doing so, so it was all done by the ujiko, both the ceremonial bamboo bows, and the rather more usable proper bows. By this time, it had started raining properly again, so Mayuki and I decided to go home.
I rather hope that, by taking her to ceremonies at the shrine, I’ll get her used to it, so that she can enjoy her own three-year ceremony in the autumn. We’ll see whether that works.
Feb 012010
Mayuki is learning to be patient. There have been a couple of telling incidents recently.
The first was a few days ago, when I was playing with her, and she wanted to watch one of her videos. I wanted to read a book with her first, but she was insistent on watching the video. So I said “Let’s read the book first, and then watch the video.” Mayuki agreed and we read the book together. As soon as we’d finished, she jumped up and said “Now video!”. But she did read through the whole book with me first.
The second was yesterday, when I needed to go to the convenience store, and decided to take Mayuki with me. Before we left, I told her that we weren’t going to buy her favourite pudding today, so she had to stay with me in the shop, and she agreed. What’s more, in the shop she did wait with me while I used the ATM and picked up my shopping, and she didn’t go off hunting for the pudding. I was really quite impressed.
I’ve been both busy and tired recently, which is why the blog has been slightly neglected. I really need to think about whether I have enough time and energy to keep up blogs in both English and Japanese, to be honest.
Jan 262010
We’re almost certainly moving flat in the near future.
This has come about rather suddenly; the leaflet about it appeared in our mailbox a couple of weeks ago, we went to see it a little more than a week ago, and we did the contracts on Saturday. The flat in question is in a danchi, one of the complexes of flats built in the 70s to accommodate all the Japanese people moving to the cities as the economy took off. Thus, it’s rather older than our current place, but it’s also rather larger, with an extra room. That’s the important thing; we need another room so that Mayuki can have her own room when she gets a bit older.
The other key point is that selling this flat should cover the cost of buying the new (old?) one. We do need to apply for a mortgage to cover the interim, but the estate agents, after consulting with the banks, didn’t anticipate any problems with that, even though I don’t have permanent residence yet. That did cut down on the options a bit, as many places will not lend that much to resident foreigners without permanent residence. So, it could still all fall through, if, on the actual investigation, the bank decides not to lend us the money. But, on the balance of probabilities, it looks like it’s going to happen.
We aren’t moving far, incidentally. You can see the new place from outside our front door. That’s another important factor; it means that I won’t lose my students.
This morning, another leaflet arrived, advertising a flat equally close, slightly larger, much newer, with a better view. And two and a half times the price. That’s really not practical…
Jan 032010
As I mentioned, we spent Christmas in California with my father. This was Mayuki’s first trip to the USA, although she went to the UK in summer 2008, and met most of the US family then. One thing we discovered is that it really is rather easier to travel with a very small baby than with a toddler; Mayuki complained a bit on the flight out, even though she did sleep, and she was sick just as the plane was coming in to land. Fortunately, we had a change of clothes for her in out hand luggage (that was my idea, by the way), so we were able to get her into something clean before we had to queue to go through immigration.
That took as long as ever, but there were no problems, and when we emerged into the arrivals area, Dad and Joy were waiting for us. Mayuki saw them and, shouting “Grandad!”, ran to him with open arms for a hug. I imagine that he was pleased, not that he’d ever show it. We attribute this to the weekly iChats with them, so that Mayuki was already quite comfortable with him. Indeed, it didn’t take her long to get comfortable with everyone, and start calling Joy’s mother “Bestermor”, just like all the other great-grandchildren.
It took us quite a while to get over jet-lag, something that becomes harder with a two-year-old. Mayuki kept waking up around midnight and not sleeping again until three, which was not quite what we had in mind. Still, we recovered enough to go shopping, and I went to see Avatar, in 3D, with Dad. (I quite enjoyed it, by the way.) I spent a whole day in bed on the 23rd, and I’m still not sure whether I was actually ill, or just completely exhausted. There was a cold going around (Dad and Joy both had it), but I didn’t really have any cold symptoms, so it may have been just tiredness.
Mayuki enjoyed meeting her cousin John, who is four months younger than her, and they actually played fairly well together, with only occasional “Mine!” or “Mayuki no!” (Japanese for “mine’, as said by Mayuki) problems. She also met her older cousins a little later in the break, and that seemed to go well, too. However, she didn’t speak much English; she got as far as “again”, and “popsicle”. Her understanding of English was on display, however, and even included understanding, and acting on “one more time”, which was quite impressive.
Christmas Day was interesting. Mayuki got utterly involved in her first present, a colouring book, and we had to open the rest of her parcels for her. She did get interested in the other presents later, but she didn’t want to do anything but colour for quite a while. She’s showing more understanding of Christmas than she did in 2008 year, but she still hasn’t quite grasped the whole thing. Maybe this year she’ll be as crazy as small children are supposed to be.
We’d planned to get back for New Year, so we left on the 29th. It was only two weeks, and they went really quickly. Mayuki seemed to enjoy herself, and when we got back, she said “Mayuki’s Grandma Joy has gone, hasn’t she?”. I think she missed everyone.
Talking of Mayuki’s presents, Joy made her a Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet to go with the book that Silver bought for her. The puppet turns inside-out to turn into a butterfly. Now, when we read the book, Mayuki insists on getting the puppet, which she says is the same as the pictures on the pages, and when the caterpillar metamorphoses, I have to turn the puppet into a butterfly as well. I think those were a very successful pair of presents.
I did realise that Mayuki needs longer in an English environment to draw her talking out, so I’m thinking about ways to get her to the US or the UK for a bit longer. It’s a little tricky, however, because I can’t afford to take too long off work.
But this was such a good trip that we would like to repeat it quite soon. It won’t, I think, be this year, unfortunately.