Blaine is in Kyoto covering Condi Rice's trip to Japan and (tomorrow) to South Korea in advance of the Group of Eight summit here in early July.
His first story, about the removal of N Korea from the US list of terror-supporting nations, is in the front page on Friday's Washington Post. He'll travel to Seoul with the Secretary of State tomorrow for 24 hours. Blaine does not love covering these sorts of big news events as much as I do, but I keep telling him it's pretty cool nonetheless.
If he gets a private audience w/the SecState, I want him to ask Rice about Barack Obama. Maybe he could get her to say something interesting? She is so controlled (though well-spoken) in her pronouncements, but maybe he could drag some US political news out of the event.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Blaine's latest...
... is a funny story about fancy, electricity-guzzling Japanese toilets!
This story has all sorts of nice timing: just before the G-8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, when there will be international pressure to talk energy conservation, and with such high global oil prices. And who can resist a potty story?
In case you haven't seen one of these up close, here's one of our bottom-washing seat-warmers.
And the fantastic control panel, with translation by our real-estate management company. The graphics are everything.
This story has all sorts of nice timing: just before the G-8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, when there will be international pressure to talk energy conservation, and with such high global oil prices. And who can resist a potty story?
In case you haven't seen one of these up close, here's one of our bottom-washing seat-warmers.
And the fantastic control panel, with translation by our real-estate management company. The graphics are everything.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Mt. Takao
I'm going to blog about Blaine's trip with the kids, Blaise, Adrienne and their children to Mt. Takao because I've got the photos and Adrienne is giving me the details. (She'll post about the trip on her blog, too.) How great to get the kids into the woods for some fresh air and greenery.
They went on the Keio line from Shinjuku station. 45 mins or so. Lucinda agreed to put a barrette in her hair to get her bangs out of her face.
They climbed on some stones, walked up some steps...
... took the cable car up the mountain where, at the top, they found a 100-yen mechanized train to climb on.
At the top, a lovely temple and this outbuilding. Nice red lantern.
A big Buddha caught Eliot's attention.
Blaine enjoyed hanging out with Blaise.
These tall cedar trees are very soothing; I'll have to go along next time. Arno and Lucinda are really glad to see Anselm and Eliot - their Seattle cousins. (I can tell that it's going to be tough times when Anselm and his family fly home.)
Then lunch: thick noodle soup and tempura. Yum!
They went on the Keio line from Shinjuku station. 45 mins or so. Lucinda agreed to put a barrette in her hair to get her bangs out of her face.
They climbed on some stones, walked up some steps...
... took the cable car up the mountain where, at the top, they found a 100-yen mechanized train to climb on.
At the top, a lovely temple and this outbuilding. Nice red lantern.
A big Buddha caught Eliot's attention.
Blaine enjoyed hanging out with Blaise.
These tall cedar trees are very soothing; I'll have to go along next time. Arno and Lucinda are really glad to see Anselm and Eliot - their Seattle cousins. (I can tell that it's going to be tough times when Anselm and his family fly home.)
Then lunch: thick noodle soup and tempura. Yum!
Visitors!
We have our first non-family visitors, our friends Blaise, Adrienne, Anselm and Eliot from Seattle. I'm frankly envious of their freedom here: the freedom to travel and experience Japan as a vacation and not as a place to live and work and go to school.
But there is a side benefit. They are nudging us out of our routine. Blaine went with them today to take the kids to Mt. Takao, a short mountain that's about an hour's train ride from central Tokyo. (I was working at my magazine.) There's a cable car that takes you up to the top and some steps that Arno whined about but then conquered. They played hide and seek and had ice cream and met me at Shinjuku station with chocolate smears on their shirts. They were happy.
Another benefit of Adrienne's visit, for me, is that we're having some interesting chats about parenting. It's vastly helpful to see other parents in action, if only to show options for what we do.
I'm realizing that summer is a challenge for Lucinda, especially, because she misses the structure of regular school days, and it's a challenge for me because I like my school-hour freedom to do what I want, to read, to swim, to look around Tokyo. End result: she makes lots of demands, I end up saying "no" a lot, and we get annoyed with her more often. With parenting, you always have to find a new solution to a new problem.
But there is a side benefit. They are nudging us out of our routine. Blaine went with them today to take the kids to Mt. Takao, a short mountain that's about an hour's train ride from central Tokyo. (I was working at my magazine.) There's a cable car that takes you up to the top and some steps that Arno whined about but then conquered. They played hide and seek and had ice cream and met me at Shinjuku station with chocolate smears on their shirts. They were happy.
Another benefit of Adrienne's visit, for me, is that we're having some interesting chats about parenting. It's vastly helpful to see other parents in action, if only to show options for what we do.
I'm realizing that summer is a challenge for Lucinda, especially, because she misses the structure of regular school days, and it's a challenge for me because I like my school-hour freedom to do what I want, to read, to swim, to look around Tokyo. End result: she makes lots of demands, I end up saying "no" a lot, and we get annoyed with her more often. With parenting, you always have to find a new solution to a new problem.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Not missing
Ack, the week got away from me without the slightest bit of blogging. Was it really Monday that I wrote the last post?
The kids are in summer schools with limited hours, which limits my hours to read, write, blog or swim. And I'm editing another magazine issue, about Tokyo's cultural and city life that will be offered at the Beijing Olympics to promote Tokyo's bid for the 2016 summer games.
As usual, my editing gives me a delightful window into Japanese culture; this time, I'm learning about "Edo-komon" stencil-dyed kimono, the Tokyo subway, Tokyo "city within a city" neighborhoods, advanced metal-molding, and kabuki theater. It feels like I'm auditing a class on Japanese culture and history, with an emphasis on Edo, as Tokyo was called in the 17th, 18th and mid-19th centuries.
I'll find some websites that convey what I'm learning and post them - this week, hopefully, if I can shake myself loose.
The kids are in summer schools with limited hours, which limits my hours to read, write, blog or swim. And I'm editing another magazine issue, about Tokyo's cultural and city life that will be offered at the Beijing Olympics to promote Tokyo's bid for the 2016 summer games.
As usual, my editing gives me a delightful window into Japanese culture; this time, I'm learning about "Edo-komon" stencil-dyed kimono, the Tokyo subway, Tokyo "city within a city" neighborhoods, advanced metal-molding, and kabuki theater. It feels like I'm auditing a class on Japanese culture and history, with an emphasis on Edo, as Tokyo was called in the 17th, 18th and mid-19th centuries.
I'll find some websites that convey what I'm learning and post them - this week, hopefully, if I can shake myself loose.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Equal parenting?
The NYT magazine has a big piece about "Equal Parenting" that is pretty interesting for any parent to consider, and perhaps more so for a trailing spouse.
The story focuses on a family in which father and mother split responsibilities and time spent taking care of home and children. Each parent works professionally for about 30 hrs per week and they endeavor to share childcare, grocery shopping, cooking, and housecleaning. In the web video accompanying the story (an effective summary of the long piece, if you don't have time to read the whole thing), the dad explains that to equalize laundry-washing, he does the dark loads and she does the light loads.
Blaine and I certainly reflect how different our responsibilities are in Tokyo vs. Seattle. Here, he often wakes up to deal with editors around 7 a.m. before the Post is put to bed the previous night in D.C., and sometimes (or, recently, often) writes on deadline at night to get a news story on the Web. My days, meanwhile, are governed by the kids' schedules: school dropoffs, pickups, swim lessons, playdates, birthday parties. Some days it seems, and feels, very unequal from a feminist point of view because I spend so much more time with the kids. But the truth is that, on the whole, I have more time to myself (more than Blaine does, that is) when the kids are at school to see friends, have coffee, or exercise, while he picks up the slack when I have editing or writing deadlines.
What will be really interesting, then, is how we shift our family responsibilities if (or, more likely, when) I'm also working full time at some point in the future.
What do you think of equal parenting? Possible? Desirable? No way?
The story focuses on a family in which father and mother split responsibilities and time spent taking care of home and children. Each parent works professionally for about 30 hrs per week and they endeavor to share childcare, grocery shopping, cooking, and housecleaning. In the web video accompanying the story (an effective summary of the long piece, if you don't have time to read the whole thing), the dad explains that to equalize laundry-washing, he does the dark loads and she does the light loads.
Blaine and I certainly reflect how different our responsibilities are in Tokyo vs. Seattle. Here, he often wakes up to deal with editors around 7 a.m. before the Post is put to bed the previous night in D.C., and sometimes (or, recently, often) writes on deadline at night to get a news story on the Web. My days, meanwhile, are governed by the kids' schedules: school dropoffs, pickups, swim lessons, playdates, birthday parties. Some days it seems, and feels, very unequal from a feminist point of view because I spend so much more time with the kids. But the truth is that, on the whole, I have more time to myself (more than Blaine does, that is) when the kids are at school to see friends, have coffee, or exercise, while he picks up the slack when I have editing or writing deadlines.
What will be really interesting, then, is how we shift our family responsibilities if (or, more likely, when) I'm also working full time at some point in the future.
What do you think of equal parenting? Possible? Desirable? No way?
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Earthquakes
We feel a lot of earthquakes in Japan - not every day, but enough to notice when you've never experienced an earthquake before Japan. I've been woken up a few times by shaking, which is so weird because you barely figure out what's happening before the moment passes and you go back to sleep.
This morning just before 9 a.m., there were two big quakes - 6 minutes apart, higher than 6 on the Richter scale - in the same spot about 200 miles north of Tokyo that killed several people, and it also shook Tokyo. Here's the Japan Meteorological Agency's diagram for the first and the second.
I was on Skype making a doctor's appointment for this summer in Seattle when our kitchen table started to rock back and forth irregularly, like it was on a boat. "We're having an earthquake!" I told the receptionist. "Are you okay?" she said, alarmed. "Yeah, it happens all the time here," I said. (Turns out that the shaking in Tokyo was only a 2, not much really, but a friend who lives on the 20th floor said her apt building was really swaying.)
What's really weird about earthquakes, I think, is that your brain races to establish a regular pattern to the shaking, as if you might rationally predict when it might end. But there isn't any pattern. The earth lurches around for a while - sometimes a hard shake, sometimes a weird rocking, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for more seconds - and then it's over, kaput.
Still, the China earthquake and this one remind me, yet again, that we have to revisit our earthquake preparedness situation.
This morning just before 9 a.m., there were two big quakes - 6 minutes apart, higher than 6 on the Richter scale - in the same spot about 200 miles north of Tokyo that killed several people, and it also shook Tokyo. Here's the Japan Meteorological Agency's diagram for the first and the second.
I was on Skype making a doctor's appointment for this summer in Seattle when our kitchen table started to rock back and forth irregularly, like it was on a boat. "We're having an earthquake!" I told the receptionist. "Are you okay?" she said, alarmed. "Yeah, it happens all the time here," I said. (Turns out that the shaking in Tokyo was only a 2, not much really, but a friend who lives on the 20th floor said her apt building was really swaying.)
What's really weird about earthquakes, I think, is that your brain races to establish a regular pattern to the shaking, as if you might rationally predict when it might end. But there isn't any pattern. The earth lurches around for a while - sometimes a hard shake, sometimes a weird rocking, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for more seconds - and then it's over, kaput.
Still, the China earthquake and this one remind me, yet again, that we have to revisit our earthquake preparedness situation.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Last day of K
It's so hard to believe: tomorrow is the last day of kindergarten and Arno's preschool year. Day 1 seems like it was about 2 months ago.
We're so proud of the kids, especially Lucinda, who missed her Seattle friends so much but had a terrific year and made wonderful progress in reading, writing, math and early Japanese. Arno also had a great year, learned how to go to school, listen to teachers, take turns and make friends.
For expats here, Year 1 pretty much ends when school is out. Families started leaving tonight (the day before the last day of school) and most people will be away for 1-2 months until school starts again. We'll be here to enjoy the early summer, before a vacation to skip August's too-hot weather.
We're so proud of the kids, especially Lucinda, who missed her Seattle friends so much but had a terrific year and made wonderful progress in reading, writing, math and early Japanese. Arno also had a great year, learned how to go to school, listen to teachers, take turns and make friends.
For expats here, Year 1 pretty much ends when school is out. Families started leaving tonight (the day before the last day of school) and most people will be away for 1-2 months until school starts again. We'll be here to enjoy the early summer, before a vacation to skip August's too-hot weather.
Blaine's almost-latest
... is about the mass murder in Tokyo on Sunday. Fortunately, this doesn't happen too often here.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Party on
I'm learning that early June in Tokyo is party season. There are, for example, heaps of "sayonara parties" for people who are moving away this summer after several years here.
It's also prime-time for birthday parties for kids (including Lucinda) with summer birthdays, because lots of families want to gather school friends one last time before expat families leave town for (typically) one or two months of vacation in Europe, the US, Hawaii, Bali, Thailand or some combination of the above. Last Sunday, the kids went to a party for one of Lucinda's friends from 10:30am to 1pm, followed by a party for one of Arno's friends until 2:30pm.
And last week, we went to the Australian embassy at the invitation of Arno's friend, Ceinwyn, for a children's "disco party" (see photograph above). Imagine yourself in a room with a few dozen energetic preschoolers - most of them dressed as princesses - screaming their heads off as they do the limbo, while Lucinda grouses for a half hour that she wants a Coca-Cola. A much-appreciated invitation, but a seriously headache-inducing experience.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Blowing bubbles
This is what passes for outdoor activity at our Tokyo house: blowing bubbles on the front steps.
We do miss our big green backyard in Seattle!
We do miss our big green backyard in Seattle!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Blaine's latest
... are two stories from South Korea about protests against the importation of American beef.
Blaine's first story, on June 4, was about massive demonstrations by moms and kids who believe U.S. beef companies will dump mad-cow-infested beef in Korea. The new S Korean president has partly reimposed a ban on US beef that he lifted in April.
The story has this classic over-the-top quote from a fearful teenager:
Cha Yoon-min, 13, attended the protest with his mother, a lawyer in Seoul. "I am afraid of American beef," he said. "I could study hard in school. I could get a good job and then I could eat beef and just die."
Blaine's second story looked at broader fears in S Korea about meat products, including worries about bird flu in domestic poulty.
Funny oops: The US ambassador in Seoul had to apologize after saying that Koreans should "learn more about science" instead of worrying about US beef products. South Koreans are among the world's best in science education and research; the Bush administration, not so much. See also: stem-cell research and global warming.
Blaine's first story, on June 4, was about massive demonstrations by moms and kids who believe U.S. beef companies will dump mad-cow-infested beef in Korea. The new S Korean president has partly reimposed a ban on US beef that he lifted in April.
The story has this classic over-the-top quote from a fearful teenager:
Cha Yoon-min, 13, attended the protest with his mother, a lawyer in Seoul. "I am afraid of American beef," he said. "I could study hard in school. I could get a good job and then I could eat beef and just die."
Blaine's second story looked at broader fears in S Korea about meat products, including worries about bird flu in domestic poulty.
Funny oops: The US ambassador in Seoul had to apologize after saying that Koreans should "learn more about science" instead of worrying about US beef products. South Koreans are among the world's best in science education and research; the Bush administration, not so much. See also: stem-cell research and global warming.
Arno and marriage
Last Wednesday, Arno had a brief dialogue with Fflur, a girl in his preschool class (as reported by their teachers).
“I’m a princess and I gonna marry you," Fflur told Arno.
“But not for real though, just pretend,” he replied.
“No for real, I’m gonna marry you,” she said.
After Arno and Fflur saw each other today at a birthday party, Fflur (whose name is Welsh) told her mother that they should marry because "Arno is handsome and I'm beautiful." Arno agreed, "She is beautiful."
Then tonight at supper, Arno gave us an update on his thinking:
"Fflur and Ceinwyn both want to marry me, but I'm not sure which one I should marry. Fflur has nicer clothes, so I guess I should marry her. Maybe I should give her one of my toys, like a puzzle I don't like anymore. But not the Power Ranger one."
“I’m a princess and I gonna marry you," Fflur told Arno.
“But not for real though, just pretend,” he replied.
“No for real, I’m gonna marry you,” she said.
After Arno and Fflur saw each other today at a birthday party, Fflur (whose name is Welsh) told her mother that they should marry because "Arno is handsome and I'm beautiful." Arno agreed, "She is beautiful."
Then tonight at supper, Arno gave us an update on his thinking:
"Fflur and Ceinwyn both want to marry me, but I'm not sure which one I should marry. Fflur has nicer clothes, so I guess I should marry her. Maybe I should give her one of my toys, like a puzzle I don't like anymore. But not the Power Ranger one."
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Wow. Obama.
Pretty amazing results in the Dem presidential campaign. I mean, even though this was telegraphed after Super Tuesday, it's actually happened. Remarkable.
The WashPost has this great story on "how Obama did it" by focusing on small states to amass delegates. Seems odd that this story wasn't written before now, but I certainly learned a lot from it. The Obama campaign must have embargoed a lot of these details till after the nomination was over.
The WashPost has this great story on "how Obama did it" by focusing on small states to amass delegates. Seems odd that this story wasn't written before now, but I certainly learned a lot from it. The Obama campaign must have embargoed a lot of these details till after the nomination was over.
Out with Umi class
To celebrate the end of the school year, Arno's Willowbrook School class - Umi (Ocean) class - went to an aquarium for a field trip. I hadn't been to this one before, so it was a new tourist experience, too.
We took the bus and a long taxi ride to Shinagawa Suizokukan (Shinagawa Aquarium), a relatively small attraction near Tokyo Harbor. It has a dolphin show and a passel of enormous ugly fish. Admission is 1,100 yen ($11) for adults, $6 for elementary age, and free for children under 4.
This is not Sea World. It's slightly fishy-smelling and fairly packed with schoolchildren.
Having said that, it's a decent place to spend a few hours with a bunch of cheerful 3-year-olds. Arno and his friends checked out some massive, hideous, lumpy gray fish, and the tragic 20-penguin exhibit.
The dolphin show lasts about 25 minutes, with two dolphins leaping around in a small, deep pool at the request of two trainers. Unlike at Sea World, there's a total lack of pretense that the dolphins are living a semi-natural life. Just like the rest of us in Tokyo, the dolphins are surrounded by concrete.
Before the show, Arno and two of his Umi friends, Fflur and Ceinwyn, entertained themselves as a dolphin swam by.
We sat in the front row "splash zone" and felt a few drops but nothing serious.
It was okay fun.
We took the bus and a long taxi ride to Shinagawa Suizokukan (Shinagawa Aquarium), a relatively small attraction near Tokyo Harbor. It has a dolphin show and a passel of enormous ugly fish. Admission is 1,100 yen ($11) for adults, $6 for elementary age, and free for children under 4.
This is not Sea World. It's slightly fishy-smelling and fairly packed with schoolchildren.
Having said that, it's a decent place to spend a few hours with a bunch of cheerful 3-year-olds. Arno and his friends checked out some massive, hideous, lumpy gray fish, and the tragic 20-penguin exhibit.
The dolphin show lasts about 25 minutes, with two dolphins leaping around in a small, deep pool at the request of two trainers. Unlike at Sea World, there's a total lack of pretense that the dolphins are living a semi-natural life. Just like the rest of us in Tokyo, the dolphins are surrounded by concrete.
Before the show, Arno and two of his Umi friends, Fflur and Ceinwyn, entertained themselves as a dolphin swam by.
We sat in the front row "splash zone" and felt a few drops but nothing serious.
It was okay fun.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Birthday party
We had a Martha Stewart challenge yesterday: we hosted 15 kindergarteners plus Lucinda, Arno and one girl's 4-yr-old sister at our house to celebrate Lucinda's 6th birthday. (We had the party early because so many families leave Tokyo for vacation right after school ends.)
This put me in manic/slight panic mode last week, as I shopped at supermarkets, craft stores and Costco to put together a kid-friendly menu plus craft activities and enough presents to play "Pass the Parcel" and "Simon Says." I was determined to keep the cost reasonable and to avoid handing out a bunch of small plastic goodie-bag toys that would end up in a landfill somewhere.
The party was just 2 hours long - with lunch and cake - which seemed daunting but doable. And, I'm relieved to say, it went really well! The girls were remarkably well-behaved, maybe because we didn't give them any sugar until the end.
They did the crafts - a girl-friendly collage of sequins and feathers, plus beaded necklaces and bracelets - for about 45 minutes. Blaine ran Simon Says and Pass the Parcel... who knew he could entertain 6 yr olds for a half hour? (One girl told me, "Lucinda's dad is really funny.")
Lunch: PB&J and egg-salad sandwiches, chips, carrots, fruit-juice jello squares and fruit salad. Then cake from Duncan Hines, which the girls didn't like very much, topped with homemade frosting and M&Ms. After months of discussing this party, Lucinda had a lot of fun with her friends - and is now talking about her upcoming "real birthday" celebration with her family.
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