Ski Circus

Tangram Ski Circus is intended for the family set. There were groups of 20-sthg snowboarders, but most hotel guests were families with one or two children.

The "ski circus" refers to a slab of mtn next to the #3 chairlift, where parents and kids take a 100-foot conveyor belt up a low hill for sledding and beginner skiing.



Lucinda was nervous about sledding on the first day, but she absolutely loved it once she'd found her snowlegs. (like sea legs, okay?)



We also threw snow, stomped on snow, and made snow angels. General snow fun.



Arno definitely got the short end of the vacation; he spent 2 days in childcare because ski lessons start at age 4. He told me yesterday, "I hate skiing!"



Blaine and I tried the dozen or so ski runs open in early winter. The most challenging aspect - in a minor way - was following ski signs in Japanese.



The highlight was seeing Lucinda ski. Her instructors on Fri mainly spoke Japanese, but on Saturday, they gave her an English-speaking teacher whose nickname was "Pooh" (as in Winnie) and she had a private lesson with a Japanese boy - pretty cool. They went up and down the lift three times!

Here are some snaps (look for the pink hat) and I'll post a short movie, too.

Ski Japan

We're back at home and kids are now asleep after a day of swimming, sledding and bus-train-train-train-taxi. Now I can show pix of our ski weekend.

First, travelogue.

We took the "Shinkansen" bullet train from Tokyo Station to Nagano. Here's the nose of the thing (speeds up to 300 km/hr - or about 200 mph). It looks like an airplane inside, nothing posh.



An hour later, we were in the country. A half-hour later, mountains - and then a big snow-topped volcano, Mt. Asama, which is apparently still active.




We reached Nagano after about 1.5 hrs, and it was nothing to look at despite its 1998 Winter Olympics fame. Gray city, mountains, bleh. A Japan Railway train took us into the mtns, and a crowded, third-worldish resort bus ferried us to Hotel Tangram. The accomodations weren't fancy, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a pull-out bed and day bed for the kids, thank god, and a lovely view out the window.




This is the lodge and the view from lodge of Mt. Madarao.




We seemed to be the only Westerners who were staying at the hotel, and the food was mostly typical Japanese meals - that is, lots of soups, fish dishes, marinated seafood, hard-boiled quail eggs, marinated veggies, sushi. Milk was served next to the cornflakes and Cocoa Krispies at breakfast, but unavailable to drink the rest of the day. There were barely warm fried eggs and potato wedges, not too appetizing.

This morning, my breakfast was miso soup, tofu with soy sauce and green onions, and cornflakes. This was lunch on day 1: edamame and udon noodle soup with a delicious lump of tempura. Not the usual Vail/Steamboat ski fare of burgers, fries, pizza, fries, hot chocolate and fries.



The kids seemed a little shocked that the food was so relentlessly Japanese in texture, temperature and style; we take them to Japanese restaurants, of course, and I cook some of it, but they always know they'll find Life cereal and English muffins for breakfast. Lucinda ate spaghetti and tomato sauce for three straight lunches. Arno ate potato wedges for two days - but enjoyed 4 fat slices of tofu this morning for breakfast. It was a challenge to get them to try new foods when the whole experience was so new.

Next up... the activities.

Ski lesson

A quick note before I fall asleep on Friday night.

We're having an easy, relaxing ski weekend at "Tangram Ski Circus." Lucinda had her first ski lesson today - and told me afterwards, "I love skiing!" Words to warm my heart. After the lesson was over, she insisted on trekking up the bunny hill several times to show us how she can ski down a mild slope and stop herself.

She will have lesson #2 tomorrow and, we were told, will go up on the lift! That astonishes. Her lesson was almost entirely in Japanese because we are the only "gai-jin" (foreigners) we've seen staying at the hotel - Lucinda told us that she couldn't understand much, but watched the other girls to figure it out. They didn't teach her the word "snowplow" but did teach her how to do it.

I'm very pleased about her willingness to risk failure/falling to try sthg new. Blaine says she likes the fact that I'm a better skier than he is, and I've tried mightily to keep a positive attitude at all times - that is, not to scold her, to repeat how fun I think skiing is, and to be gentle and patient as we trekked around renting skis, putting on her equipment and getting her ready for the lesson. I realize, along the lines of celebrating religious holidays, that the person who cares the most about that thing has to take responsibility for making it happen.

The resort is totally family-focused - it's the Tokyo Hotel Madarao and the mtn is Tangram Ski Circus on Mt. Madarao. We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagano (site of the 199-something Winter Olympics) and then a commuter train into the mtns to a hotel shuttle bus. Except for skiing, we never leave the building. Meals are mostly included and we and most families eat b'fast, lunch and dinner in the buffet/cafeteria, which has mostly traditional Japanese foods - sushi, marinated seafood like octopus and scallops, stir fried fish dishes, ramen and udon noodle soups, Japanese curry, lots of rice - plus pasta and french fries, which the kids favor. There's so much food that it feels like we are on a cruise ship: is it really time to eat again?

There's no town here, no nightlife of any kind. The slopes are mainly green (easy) and blue (intermediate) with springlike corn snow and soft packed powder, and one short black/expert run this early in the season. The size of the mtn is more like East Coast skiing, but the snow is much better. Blaine and I talk about our previous skiing experiences - he learned to ski at college at Mt. Spokane and later went to Switzerland during his Eastern Europe stay, and I lived in Aspen for 2 yrs after college - but these adventures were so long ago that it's pretty absurd to try to identify with them much anymore.

Anyway, along with skiing, there's a hill for sledding with a moving walkway to get you to the top, a relaxing public bath (called an "onsen", VERY traditional Japanese thing to do) with a hot spring bath and separate facilities for men and women bec you are naked, plus a swimming pool and childcare for Arno. He can take his first lesson at age 4.

Not a place you'd come to for a week, but fine for Thurs to Sun if the main goal is to get some rest, avoid daily life chores and get a 5 yr old girl on skis for the first time.

Ski trip

We are going on our first vacation here: a ski trip to Tangram Ski Circus and Mt. Madarao.

Here is the link to the ski place. Lucinda will have her first ski lessons - in Japanese? I'm not sure how that will work out, but I'd love to get both kids skiing.

We'll be back Sunday; I'm not sure if I can download pix until we are back bec I'm not taking my computer. Forced relaxation.

Presidential politics

Wow, isn't the presidential campaign fantastic??!! Such fascinating and weird characters running, and we really have no idea who will win each nomination.

I'm usually totally obsessed with these campaigns and read everything I can find in three or four newspapers, but this year I'm watching it through the filter of distance and a 12-hour time difference.

Anyway, my mom and I have been talking a lot about Hillary's and Obama's prospects. We both want to like Hillary, but we both find ourselves drawn toward Obama. And my sister, Rebekah, and her husband Dave, who live in Iowa City and get telephone calls from pollsters about three times a week, are volunteering for Obama.

In 1988, as my mom reminds me, I told her that the country wasn't ready for a President Dukakis. Too strange sounding. So what about Obama in 2008?

Twenty years later, I think that Obama is the Tiger Woods of politics: he's multi-racial and, really, post-racial. He plays at the highest level of a white man's game without selling out his values. He connects with liberals and moderates - from Ivy League grads to loyal Oprah viewers (are they one and the same? not too likely), without aligning himself with Al Sharpton's view of the world. Americans - at least those who came of age with MTV's invention - are used to a multi-culti world where non-whites win Oscars, the Masters and Wimbledon. It's the world of Tiger, Halle Berry, J-Lo, the Williams sisters.

So, yes, I think Obama can win. Hillary could probably win, and it would be thrilling to have a woman president, but she comes with so much Clintonian baggage. Does anyone doubt that Bill would get into trouble as the "First Lad?" Or that Hillary would be a target of Fox News starting 1 second after her Nov 2008 victory speech? Is that what the US needs right now? I don't see how she can overcome that.

Christmas Eve

We had our first big dinner party tonight for Christmas Eve, and we all had a wonderful time. The menu: roast beef, Blaine's buttery mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, Russian salad, corn muffins and bread and butter, and cheeses. Dessert: an oat-pecan tart, apple pie, ice cream and choc truffles. And champagne and delicious red wine.

Our guests were the Newsweek family: Christian and Natasha Caryl, and children Timothy and Alexandra; Natasha is Russian from Kazakhstan and Christian grew up in Midland, Texas. And Hughie and Susan Mulcahy and children Max and Evelyn; Hughie is Irish and Susan grew up in Stamford, Conn.. Plus - and this was a huge plus - Susan's babysitter Rima.

It's funny to celebrate Christmas in a non-Christian country. Shopping malls heavily promote the holiday as a prime reason to shop, and I'm told that Christmas Eve is a huge "date night" for dating couples, like a second Valentine's Day. But there are few actual Christians here and you rarely see Christmas lights or trees - nothing like in Seattle, where the elaborate house/light displays made me feel like a holiday slacker.

My supper's biggest challenge was making the roast beef in our small French gas oven, which ranks temp settings as 1 to 10 without any correspondence to an actual temperature. Based on the thermometer I've hung in it, setting the oven at "1" gives you approx 350F, while "max" is perhaps 450F - without much variation for any setting above 4.

This put our lovely, New Zealand 7-lb roast (that's 3100 grams, for those pondering the metric system) at risk of overcooking. (It came from Nissin, an expat-friendly supermarket that refers to itself as "Meat Rush.") Fortunately, the much-observed, carefully timed roast landed gently at medium rare, with leftovers for tomorrow. Thank you, Barefoot Contessa!

The best part of the evening, though, was child management. We fed the kids pasta and hot dogs (don't they ever get bored of it?), cookies and chocolate, and turned on Monsters Inc. and, when they lost interest, Toy Story 2 - upstairs in our guest room, supervised by Rima!

With the children occupied, the 6 adults went to the dining room table and sat in complete silence for 2 minutes, astonished that we could eat in peace. How sophisticated! We had actual grownup conversation about our own Christmas traditions (or, in my case, the lack thereof), the American presidential campaign, Vladimir Putin, and Jesuit colleges.

Okay, okay, so Arno did leave foil and chocolate bits sprinkled around the house, and one child gave his sister's hair a trim while we were eating... But who could anyone have predicted that?

Curiosities in parenting

For parents who look at their children's artwork and see a masterpiece or marvel at their child's emotional depth and level of creativity, an art guy in London can supply an analysis for about $400, says The Times of London.

I'd also like to see the new documentary, "My Kid Could Paint That." It's about Marla Olmstead, a 4 yr old California kid whose paintings are selling for thousands of dollars... but of course it's not certain that she is 100 percent responsible for these masterpieces.

Blaine is home!

Blaine walked in the door tonight and, boy, were we glad to see him! Welcome home, Blaine.

The kids are asleep and we're sitting at the kitchen table messing around with our groovy Japanese cellphones. They can read barcodes, take photos, record voices, download bus schedules and even tell us when the next bus will arrive.

But I only use them to make telephone calls - how lame is that?

Going crazy

Anyone else out there whose children are driving them crazy? Mine are, and I am!

Some days, it feels like the demands from Lucinda and Arno are endless - and come endlessly in quick succession.

Some juice, some milk, I want to paint, I need more paint, wash my hands, is my painting dry, I need help cutting paper, where is the glue, is supper ready, I don't like carrots, I want some toast, with butter and jelly, what can I have for dessert, i want some ice cream, I want some cookies, I don't want a banana, I want some apple, where are my Superman jammies, come upstairs with me to get my doggies, is my painting dry, wash the paint off my hands, I want some juice, I want some apple, I want two books, I don't want to go to bed, I want some water, I want another snuggle, why did Lucinda get an extra snuggle?

I was running around all day - went to Costco, bought paper towels and cleaning supplies, long train ride, etc - picked up the children at their winter camp, walked home and called my mom on Skype with the video camera. The kids sang to her, and then, when I wanted to catch up w/her, they started to hum and squabble and generally be annoying. And it drove me nuts!

My friend Susan and I talked about this yesterday, and it really helped both of us feel better. Kids are great, mostly, sort of, but they are really exhausting and sometimes we get angry when we can't live our lives at the pace we want, that we can't be alone when we want, that we can't check our email when we want - and that children are such a demanding and physical presence.

That sounds harsh, but it is also a reality.

Blaine's latest...

Blaine has another story about Burma, from the Burmese side of the Thai-Burma border. It's about a militia who are, from a distance and with few men in arms, mildly challenging the Burmese military.


Click here to see Blaine's video about the story - the landscape is just gorgeous, a place few of us will ever see.

Blaine's latest...

Blaine is covering the presidential election in South Korea. It's definitely not as exciting as the Iowa caucuses.

Electric Company

Television is very limited here for English-speaking children. We are stuck mainly with Disney Channel Japan (with shows like "Kim Possible" and "Lilo & Stitch") and a few things on the Cartoon Network (like Snoopy specials), plus The Simpsons on the Fox channel - all shows we wouldn't watch if we were in the U.S. (The Simpsons is funny, though.)

Fortunately, we can download some, though also limited, PBS programming from I-Tunes, like two seasons of "Arthur". Even better, I've just discovered a collection of "Electric Company" shows that I watched in the 1970s!

I'm just now watching our first Electric Company with the kids, and it's hilarious to see these sketches again: "A Very Short Book," "Jennifer of the Jungle." (Click the links to see those shorts on You Tube.)

I didn't remember how focused this program was on reading and literacy - an older version of Sesame Street - perfect for Lucinda, though Arno declared it "boring." I also never knew that Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman, Irene Cara and Joan Rivers were part of the cast.

Birthday girl

Today (Monday, Dec. 17) is my 40th birthday, a very quiet day because Blaine is away and we haven't yet had our usual family celebration with a homemade cake.

So I've decided to celebrate a "birthday week" instead of relying on one day to supply warm-fuzzy birthday vibes. Today, I dropped the kids at Day 1 of their weeklong winter camp at Arno's school, had a latte at Starbucks, went to the gym, went grocery shopping, walked home, read the news, picked up the kids at 2pm, and took them out for a hot chocolate and pastry at our fave hot-choc place, Burdigala.

Beyond that, I'm pondering this question:

- Is there anything I can or should do to convince Lucinda to be less demanding about, well, almost everything and less disappointed when she doesn't get 100 percent of her way? I do wish she would use the words "Okay, Mom" more often.

Jingle bells

Blaine had the video camera out this weekend, and this is the result:




"Jingle Bells" in front of our new, fake Christmas tree - decorated with Lucinda's origami and Arno's preschool sculptures.

Sunday in the park

Blaine left today for Seoul for the week, and I stirred myself to get the kids out of the house by 10 a.m. I sometimes find this hard to do, especially if I allow myself to get sucked into reading newspaper websites or start to answer overdue email - and then I start to resent that I'm supposed to entertain the children. Better to face up to it and get on with it!

I plotted out a simple itinerary: a visit to Isetan, a big department store that the "Kids in Tokyo" tour book credits with a rooftop pet store (sounded exciting), and then our first visit to Shinjuku Gyoen, a gorgeous park that friends have been raving about recently.

We made our way to the Shinjuku neighborhood in central Tokyo, home to several big dept stores, including Takashimaya, the elegant store with an outpost in Manhattan.

This was the outside of Isetan, which reminded me a lot of Bloomingdale's on Lex/59th St. Note the big red sign on the top right of this photo, because you will see it again.



We went straight to the 8th floor roof, in hopes of finding the pet shop. Out the elevator and door, and this is what we found: a pretty amazing rooftop garden. We'd come up to the red sign, on the right.




But there was no pet store - maybe it will re-open in the spring? We went down to the sixth floor - the kid and toy section! There was a fantastic collection of very expensive German (I think) wooden building toys - the sort of toys that Lucinda and Arno spend 2 minutes looking at before moving on, not worth considering. (Sorry, photographs not allowed.)

I told Lucinda and Arno they could each spend 1,000 yen (less than $10). Arno found a red Power Ranger doll that he and Lucinda pronounced "cool." Lucinda settled on a flower-girl doll; she has absorbed my refusal to buy her a Barbie, but this doll was at least more kid-like. (The doll cost 1500 yen, oh well.)

We made our purchases and walked a few blocks to Shinjuku Gyoen; the tiny entry fee of 200 yen ($1.75) for adults, free for kids under 6, keeps out the crowds. Today was chilly, probably in the high 40s in the shade and a cold breeze, not the best park weather, but the park was lovely - by far the best I've seen here, like Central Park with wide, soft, grassy fields to run on.



This is the map of the park.



We will definitely go back with a baseball, bat and soccer ball on a sunny day. Today, the children made do by running around with their new toys.

Sweet potatoes

It's curious that in this tech-driven society, you still find throwbacks to a simpler way of life that you would never see in the United States. Like women wearing kimonos and traditional sandals during the day - and like the sweet-potato salesman.

Last Friday, at a playground in a wealthy expat neighborhood, I heard music that resembled the Muslim call to prayer. But it was the sweet-potato truck selling 100 grams of "organic no chemicals" roasted sweet potato for 100 yen (less than $1).



There's a wood-burning oven on the back of his mini-truck.





For 100 yen, he opened the oven door, pulled out a small potato with his bare hands, weighed it on a scale and tossed it into a paper bag.





Arno loved it and wanted another. By then, there was a crowd.

Beauty Treatment

Beauty and luxury are taken very seriously in Tokyo, as I've experienced firsthand at a salon down the street from my house. My haircut and color (I have a lot of gray, okay? Why not just admit it.) lasted three hours!

Let's backtrack: At a fancy downtown salon in Seattle, I was lucky if the colorist - usually an apprentice who charged $50 - didn't leave traces of color formula in my ears. I usually felt rushed, probably because I always had to be somewhere else, and I also had to book my haircut six weeks in advance. The Seattle pricetag: Two hours, $125 plus a 20 percent tip, ($25), plus $15 in parking. Total: $165.

The Tokyo salon was amazing by comparison if you can stand devoting three hours to self-indulgence. I planned only to schedule an appointment, and was told my stylist would be in three minutes if I could stay. My beauty team started with a sudsy Aveda shampoo plus head massage for 10 minutes. Then the haircut. Then color, which is practically painted on strand by strand instead of squirted and brushed on as US types do it. Here, the stylist puts small elasticized baggies over my ears to keep them clean.

Here's a ridiculous self-portrait in the chair to show what I'm talking about:



The first time I went in, about 2.5 months after we arrived here, two stylists worked on the color together, presumably because I was in desperate shape. The senior stylist did the front, while the junior guy touched up the back. It was like having surgery! They also spritzed scented oil on a tissue, and placed it over my face during the shampoo.

This time, the stylist finished combing/painting on color and then carefully encased my head in plastic wrap, which he gently pressed onto my scalp. (I might as well show that, too.)





Wait for 20+ minutes to cook it. Then a 25-minute, second shampoo and conditioner (I checked my watch), plus another head massage, then a towel-drying massage and shoulder massage. Then touch-up haircutting. Then the hairdryer. Then he straightened my hair with a hair iron (a new experience - apparently big in Japan.). Then he waited at the door while I collected my coat and thanked and bowed to me as I walked away. That is good service.

Grand total: 14,500 yen, or about $135! There is no tip, because you never tip in Japan, and no parking fee because I rode my bike. And it looks great - 1 week before my 40th birthday.

Heard at the dinner table

Lucinda and Arno have their own version of the Western fave:

"Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the animals play,
And it's not so cloudy all day."

Leaves falling, at last

In Seattle, autumn happens in, well, autumn, and the leaves are long gone from the trees there by now.

But the trees in Tokyo are just now turning colors. Here's a sample tree from Arisugawa Park near our house this week.



It's been clear and cold, with temps in the high 40s or low 50s in the morning, nicely warm in the sun, and then quickly cold at sunset before 5 p.m.

I don't know when ski season starts here, but skiing in the Japan Alps is supposed to be fantastic. We'd like to go somewhere in December to test the theory, if we can get our vacation-planning act together.

Haircut season

Lucinda and Arno had haircuts today before their last week of school, holiday shows and our trip (in 1 month) to Guam for vacation. Less hair = More face!



Lucinda's hair is a little shorter than planned, but the stylist said she looks like the French actress, Audrey Tatou, in Amelie.

The first time I brought the kids to this salon for the first time, they shrieked and refused to sit down until the owner recognized a hair crisis and brought out lollipops. This time, they behaved like civilized humans even before lollies were handed out.

Bribes work in all languages.

Blaine's latest...

Blaine has another front-page story in Thursday's (12/6) WaPo. The guy is on fire! This one is about Japanese bloggers, who, surprisingly, outnumber English-speaking bloggers around the world. Unlike American bloggers who blog to, um, get noticed and express strong opinions, Japanese bloggers focus on small things like their daily lunch menu and don't expect anyone to pay attention.

Also, in the Blaine publicity dept, check out this link for "Tokyo Stories" in video, which will build a Blaine-o-ramic collection of Japan stories. The WaPo's video team set this up when they were here in October, and it's a pretty cool model for what the WaPo is trying to do w/video on its home page; the future of newspapers indeed!

His first story on Burma ran on Tuesday. It's about Burmese rebels who sort of, kind of, want to fight the nasty Burmese govt, but they seem to lack the resources and power within the country to do so.

Problem solved

In the 12 hours since I posted my babysitter problem (see the post below), I received conflicting advice from two friends:

One friend said, "Give the babysitter another chance and tell Lucinda to do as she is told by an adult." This friend suggests that if we fire the babysitter, Lucinda will learn that she can manipulate us. But, the friend adds, "leave a camera recording in your absence."

The second friend said, "Want my advice? Fire her ass! NO HITTING. Not good for Lucinda."

And I've also had a resolution: The babysitter quit. In an email, she said, "I don't want to argue with you. It's fine for me if that's what you believe. I can't do anything with that. I already told you what really happened. I'm sorry if we end up this way."

Meanwhile, Lucinda, the supporting actress in this drama, threw up four times last night and is lying on the couch watching "Playhouse Disney."

As the "fire her ass" friend pointed out, the babysitting problem is universal. I've often found that each time I hire someone, I'm trying to solve my last problem and sometimes create a new one.

In Seattle, I was pretty desperate to find childcare and hired our first nanny (the one who was arrested for threatening her new husband) without asking a crucial question: Is there anything in your personal history that could cause problems for you or for us? I did ask that question of a future applicant and learned that an ex-boyfriend had stalked her.

Now, to find a new babysitter who will come every Saturday night...

Our babysitter problem

What's going on this week? Lots. Blaine brought home a nasty cough from Burma and landed an eye infection, too. I made a super-delicious beef sukiyaki tonight, maybe my best Japanese dish yet; the sauce is totally easy, and I swapped broc and carrots for some of the Japanese veggies.

We also have a babysitter problem. Our regular housecleaner and date-night sitter, Flor, had a very unpleasant spat with Lucinda on Monday, when Blaine and I went on a movie/dinner date.

Before bed, Lucinda wanted to watch The Simpsons, which comes on every nite at 7pm. But Flor didn't know how to change the cable voice-over from Japanese to English; it was my fault - I forgot to show her which button to push.

Lucinda screamed at Flor that she wanted to watch the show, but Flor couldn't fix it. Lucinda screamed and cried. Flor turned off the television. Lucinda shouted, "I hate you!" Then, according to Lucinda, Flor knocked (smacked? whacked?) Lucinda on Lucinda's back. More precisely, Lucinda says Flor hit her - not really hard, but still. Flor denies that she hit Lucinda, says she tried to quiet Lucinda so the neighbors wouldn't hear the shouting. Lucinda and Flor agree that Lucinda then kicked Flor.

The background is that Flor, a Filipina who has worked very hard in Tokyo for 11 years to educate her four children in the Philippines, prefers a controlled atmosphere where the kids say "please" and "thank you" and everyone understands the rules. I'm certain that Flor was upset and wanted to be sure that Lucinda respected her position.

I also believe Lucinda's version: that Flor did smack Lucinda - again, not hard, but hit her nonetheless. (Flor told me that Arno could be her witness - a 3 yr old? - but Arno had already backed up Lucinda's story.)

The fact is, Lucinda has never responded well to controlling babysitters. She is very self-regulating and disciplined about her behavior at school, and she wants and needs a certain amount of flexibility at home. In Seattle, too, Lucinda was more relaxed when we had a more relaxed nanny. Of course I'd noticed that Flor and Lucinda were not in synch, but I'd hoped their discomfort would ease with time, and after I told Flor that, yes, Lucinda could choose her own pajamas, did not need to be checked on after bedtime, and could have some fruit before bed.

So should I fire Flor? or give her another chance and explain what works with Lucinda, and what doesn't? This has been my dilemma since Monday. I've asked if Flor's sister, Zeni, a warmer person whom the kids like, can babysit in Flor's place, and that would keep the money flowing to this very hard-working Filipina family. I'm also looking for a last-minute substitute through friends.

I certainly don't want my 5 yr old to fear our babysitter. At least this is milder than what happened with our first Seattle nanny: very experienced, great references, first month with us - and then arrested for threatening her new husband (who'd called her a horrible ethnic slur), so I fired her. (In a panic, I was briefly tempted to bail her out of jail, until a friend told me, "Bailing out the nanny is not on anyone's Top Ten list." a great line, no?)

On a more pleasant subject, Blaine and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum, and we thought it was awesome.

Street cleaning

Tokyo is so clean, and there's a reason for it. Every morning, the Japanese people sweep their sidewalks and curbs. And now that the trees are shedding their leaves, you see all these people sweeping each leaf into their green dustpans.

This is what Arno and I saw this morning at 8:15am when we walked to school.

Dinner with Kate

Our NYC friend Kate Betts was in town recently to attend the opening of the new Armani store in Tokyo's Ginza neighborhood. Kate is the editor of Time's Style & Design issues, and she's married to Chip Brown, a terrific writer and one of Blaine's best friends.

Kate came over to see Lucinda and Arno, who leaped on the furniture and squabbled while we waited for Blaine, who was returning from a week in Seoul. We finally escaped to our restaurant, Esaki, near the Omotesando neighborhood.

Blaine's WaPo colleague, Ako, says the chef, Shintaro Ezaki (named in this New York Times review) is famous for using seasonal ingredients in tea ceremony-sized dishes that focus almost entirely on that ingredient.

The food is extraordinarily restrained and subtle - a meal for a Japanese purist. The Michelin guide's first Tokyo guide, which came out a few weeks ago, gave Esaki two stars for "excellent cooking, worth a detour." Here's the restaurant website.

This was our eight-course (!) experience. First, white wedges of squid, which I think were steamed, with yellow potato and an undetermined sauce.



Second, very crabby crab soup. I think the dark green dots were seaweed puree.



Third, sashimi.



Fourth, barracuda with broccoli rabe and pesto sauce.



Fifth, tofu pudding that was extraordinarily bland, but turned delicious when I stirred in a few drop of (sesame?) oil and a sprinkling of pistachio nuts.

Sixth, we each had a whole fish, which the waitress called "big hands thorny head". Cooked in fish broth with soy. "The cheeks are the best part!," she said.

This is what the fish looked like before... and after.





Seventh, rice with kampachi and rudderfish.

Finally, three desserts. This was the best one: white wine jelly with rice pudding and slices of grapefruit.



Custard cream with azuki bean paste and toasted pine nuts.



And chestnut dough filled with red-bean paste.



Let me know if you want a reservation...

Trailing Spouse: Flu shot edition

Finally getting back to the blog...

Blaine hoped to come back tonight (Saturday), but his editors told him to stay in Thailand to crash a big story about Burma - which could be on the WaPo's front page on Sunday or Monday.

He had a grueling week: 7-hour flight to Bangkok on Monday and interviews that night; six-hour drive on Tuesday, plus more interviews; a foray into Burma and back on Wednesday; six-hour drive back to Bangkok on Thurs; then reporting and writing until 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. He couldn't catch his flight today, so we hope to see him Sunday night.

The kids have grown progressively more mellow since their rocky days early last week when Blaine, Grammy and Granddaddy left town. On Friday, they were relaxed from morning till night, a huge relief for me. I wanted today (Saturday) to be equally easy.

We started with flu shots (their second dose in 10 days), and they were brave and calm, thank god. We are going to a group of English-speaking family doctors who are favorites in the expat community.

The medical office is at the foot of Tokyo Tower - think Eiffel Tower, paint it orange, eliminate any romantic vibe. The MD's brick building is in the backround; the Tokyo Tower's foot is in the foreground.



Tokyo Tower, straight up.



The kids played happily in the tower's tragic little holiday display and pretended that the "train" engine was the bulldozer from Bob the Builder.



Just before we left, this fuzzy phallic character showed up. Lucinda insists it's a girl because "it's pink," but I'm not so sure.



Then on to the American Club for pancakes (I said I was taking it easy!). Blaine called from Bangkok during our breakfast - and Arno took the call while chewing on pancake and sipping juice from a Thomas the Tank Engine sippy cup. The executive 3-yr-old.