Bewitched

For Halloween in Tokyo, we took a slow, candy-collecting walk through the expat Moto-Azabu neighborhood near Lucinda's school.

In Seattle, people flock to Capitol Hill to trick or treat. In Tokyo, they take taxis to Moto-Azabu.

Around 6pm, we strolled to the Moto-Azabu Place apartment complex, which some jokingly call "Melrose Place." Residents sit at the edge of the cobblestone driveway with bowls of candy.




Many Japanese children wear super-creative or Disney costumes. This girl was a frosted cupcake.



Buzz Lightyear is a cartoon fixture here:



We stopped at houses and apartments near Nishimachi, where the candy lines were long and crowded.

On the walk home, we found a Halloween party in a church called St. Mary. The pews in the chapel were skewed into a zig-zaggy maze to guide children to the altar, where they received a lovely package of candy. (No photos allowed of the chapel, alas.)

A church-sanctioned Halloween? Take that, Pat Robertson!

The WP's man in Tokyo

How often do you see a pirate, Snow White and Superman walking down the street in Tokyo? The Japanese don't really celebrate Halloween, but expats do. We went to a party this weekend and wore our best Seattle costumes.



Our taxi driver thought we were hilarious. Here's a glimpse of my queen costume in the cab.



After the party (which was fun, but not blogworthy), the Washington Post's man in Tokyo hailed a cab to go home.



Blaine decided that his hat fit better upside down, which made me fall over laughing.

Aussie Birthday Party

Arno attended his first preschool birthday party this weekend, and it was held at the Australian Embassy.

The birthday girl was Arno's 3 yr old classmate, Ceinwyn Robens. (Ceinwyn is a Welsh name, and her parents pronounce it "Kyne-win".)



Ceinwyn adores Arno. The moment he walks into the classroom every morning, she scoots over to watch him put away his lunch box and changes his shoes. She also reportedly gets upset when she can't sit next to him at lunch. Such is the preschool crush!

Ceinwyn's mother Anna is the assistant to the Australian ambassador; the Robens (along w/several dozen other families) live in the embassy compound, which has its own lap pool, kiddie pool, squash courts, gym, and a huge underground garage where the kids ride bicycles.



The party was at the kiddie pool. Arno can't swim, but Ceinwyn is a terrific swimmer, so she dove and swam around him.



We learned a bit about Aussie birthday traditions from the menu: meat pies, tiny sausages, pancakes with jam and whipped cream, drinks for the parents.

And fairy bread," which is white bread, smeared with butter and decorated with sprinkles that a party guest said are known as "hundreds and thousands." (Our Seattle-Australian friend Adrienne will have to confirm whether I've gotten that right.)



The party guest:

Tree Climbing Japan

Wednesday was one of our luckiest days in Japan. Lucinda and I went to Hibiya Park for a group playdate with her classmates - and got to climb a huge tree!

This is no wilderness. It's a big park near the Imperial Palace, surrounded by office buildings and packed with businessmen having lunch. But in a small patch of trees, a group called Tree Climbing Japan set up its operation.



Tree Climbing Japan is "dedicated to teaching tree-friendly, safe tree climbing." They bring harnesses, ropes, gloves and helmets - and show people how to hoist themselves into trees in a completely safe, relatively easy way.

On Wednesday, that included four kindergarten girls and me. We paid 100 yen, about 85 cents, for the privilege. (I got a few pictures before my camera battery died.)

This guide roped Lucinda into a harness.



Add helmet.



These are the trees we climbed. You can click the picture for a better look.



Here's a zoom to see the other girls suspended in the trees. The blue hammock is 15-20 feet up. The guides showed us how to climb up the rope by putting one foot into a loop, standing up, pushing the safety knot higher and doing it again.





The girls went up and down the rope twice. Lucinda climbed with complete confidence; she is very strong and didn't use the foot-loop for the last half of the climb. I went up, too, and we sat in the hammock together.

After we came down, the guides told us to pat and thank the trees - only in Japan! We each received this certificate, which says we've made a "Tree Friend." (Click the pic for a closeup.)

Land of Kiddy

Lucinda and I next went to Kiddy Land, a four-story, licensed-toy palace that encapsulates the Japanese fixation with cuteness. The store's motto is "for the human smile."



Choose a character from TV or books or someone's obnoxiously adorable imagination and then explode the boundaries of licensing and marketing - and you have Kiddy Land. The merch is copious and colorful, a bonanza of "Hello Kitty" and lesser-known soft creatures.




The character "Usaru". And bananas with faces.





I thought the "Rody" was just a bouncy horse - wrong!




Pens, notebooks, plush toys, key chains, silverware, chopsticks, lunch boxes, plastic toys, erasers, name labels, coffee cups - whatever you can think of, starring Madeline, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Gaspard and Lisa, Anpanman, Elmo or unnamed stuffed bears in 20 colors.







I escaped with the 800-yen purchase (about $7) of two Playmobil toys.

Yukata shopping

Lucinda was on vacation this week, so we hung out together while Arno was in school. Here's a report on our adventures on Monday, shopping day:

First Lucinda wanted to buy a "yukata," a cotton kimono, so we went to the Oriental Bazaar store on Omotesando (the major fashion street).



The store is tacky compared to neighbors like Bulgari, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton, but it's an easy place to buy reasonably priced, decent-looking Japanese pottery, toys, chopsticks and kimonos.

A saleslady helped us find the proper size (Lucinda is 5 but her yukata would fit a Japanese 7-year-old) and we learned how to tie the sash. The sandals weren't very comfortable.




We brought home a pink one that I'm sure will turn up in a later post.

Post from Lucinda

"I am learning how to read. I like the food here, especially eel, but I haven't had a lot yet. We only went to a few restaurants that had it.

"I really especially like the desserts here, like the ice cream. The milk is a little less sweeter than in Seattle. I wish I could have some chocolate milk, but there is nothing like that. My mom really likes the green tea ice cream.

"I wish I could be a hula dancer. My friend Naomi is taking lessons. Naomi is my friend and we're going to have a playdate tomorrow.

"Arno and I don't wear diapers any more at night.

"It is fall in Japan. There are a lot of people here, almost a google people. Google is a number. It is very high. My friend Kaila in Seattle taught me that.

"I'm going to look out my window for ideas about what to say. We don't know any of our neighbors yet. We have a red mailbox. And my grammy is sending me postcards."

At home

Tonight Lucinda said, "It feels like we're living at home."

Me: "Why?"

Lucinda: "Because we have been living here for a while. And I am making some friends. My friends are Celine, Naomi, Claire, Kyrie and Samantha. And Catalina and Emily and Sam and Jean."

The Lamborghini neighborhood

What are the demographics in our neighborhood, Nishi-Azabu?

Here's one good indicator: Lamborghini Azabu




Click on this photo for a better view of one potential customer, who is wearing enormous sunglasses and a miniskirt. The unfashionable photographer is reflected in the window, to the right, in khakis and sandals.

Origami of the week

Lucinda's Japanese teacher, Hayashi Sensei (Hayashi is her last name, and Sensei means "teacher"), shows the children a new origami every week. The folding patterns build on previous designs, and Lucinda memorizes them and practices at home.

It's so Japanese, and so clearly tied to her Japanese school experience, that I'm adding a new blog feature: "Origami of the week".

This is what she brought home this week.

A cat:



And a tulip:

Only in Japan

A man came to fix the dishwasher today. Before he left, he said, "I'm sorry" and bowed to me.

Movie night

Blaine has found a new movie-downloading service: Jaman. For $1.98, he downloads a movie for a week's rental and we watch it over a few nights. They are all independent films, not Big Hollywood.

Tonight - Friday night - we and the children are watching "Kintaro Walks Japan," a documentary about a 20-something guy who, yes, walks the length of Japan's four islands. It's pretty neat. You can watch the whole 1 hr doc via Google.

Last week, we watched two films that we both liked: a darkish Danish movie called "Prague" about a cold-fish Dane who takes his unhappy wife to Prague when his father dies there. And a pleasant Norwegian film called "Import-Export," about a Norwegian guy who wants to marry his Pakistani-Norwegian girlfriend. (The Variety reviewer I've linked to didn't like it, but we did.)

We can see major Hollywood movies in theaters (anything with Brad Pitt, basically) but not much else. Apple's downloadable movie list is tragically lame. Why haven't the studios made their catalogs available yet?

Flying by

Wow, the week is flying by, and I haven't spent much time blogging.

Now that the basics of home and school are set up, I'm realizing how different this life is for me than the career-focused American world that compelled me in NYC and, to a lesser degree, in Seattle. Sometimes, this feels like a 3-year vacation - until I have a kid-intensive afternoon and evening, bath, bedtime, that is.

What am I doing with my time? This week I'm spending three mornings at Lucinda's kindergarten to update a library database, making use of my computer-assisted reporting skills. Afternoons at playgrounds with the kids' school friends. A few trips to the gym. Grocery shopping and cooking, a coffee or two with friends. Trying to book a Christmas holiday to Guam or Saipan.

It's surprisingly easy and relaxing to live this way - especially when the kids are at school - but I think I feel better about it because I've chosen to do it in this way, in this place, for a limited stretch of time - a domesticated vacation, I guess.

Is it still part of feminism, to slow one's career and choose this? I'm not sure, but it's an interesting subject to debate.

Multi-culti

On Saturday we went to Nishimachi's annual International Food Fair, a fundraiser for Lucinda's school that is organized by the parents' association, Tomo no Kai.

Parents sell lunch and desserts in booths arranged by nationality, which gives you a sense of the student population: American, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Israeli, Irish, French, Australian, German, Indian, Filipino, Hawaiian and Italian. Plus Starbucks, speaking the universal language of overpriced coffee.

Some snapshots:





The homemade Chinese dumplings filled with beef and chives and served with a spicy soy sauce were delicious - and the Chinese booth sold thousands of them!



Students hawked "kakigori," shaved ice with sweet syrup.



The American booth (which I forgot to photograph) did a booming business in lowfat cuisine: hamburgers, nachos, Domino's pizza, chili and my cornbread muffins!), Dippin' Dots, candy, and homemade brownies and chocolate-chip cookies.

We were entertained by these hula dancers.





Now Lucinda wants to take hula lessons.