Fond memories

We've been back in the US for three whole months, and I completely let the blog slide. It was difficult to look back at our lovely three years in Japan at the same time when I and our whole family had to face front and live in the present. It's also hard to know what to write about life in the US without the novelty and cultural differences that I found in Tokyo on a daily basis.

(I'll just add here, briefly, that if you ever have the chance to be an expat, do it. It's a fantastic way to live for months or years - whatever you can manage.)

But heck, why not try to write about life today? I'll do my best, but might throw in some photos (like the one of our family at the Great Wall) that I never managed to publish on the blog before this.

And to get things started, I'll quote Arno, who tonight became very teary about missing his friends in Tokyo -- especially his best friend Marcel -- and his school, Willowbrook, where he spent three delightful years.

Arno was completely comfortable and confident at Willowbrook; it was an ideal situation for him. All of the teachers knew him and Arno knew, with absolute certainty, that he would be greeted with smiles every day. That feeling of specialness is harder to find in a public-school kindergarten with 26 other students, no matter how skilled the teacher.

So tonight, thinking about his friends in Tokyo, he pulled out his Willowbrook yearbooks and scanned the photographs and cried a bit. And then he said, "I have fond memories of Willowbrook." (Seriously, the kid is about to turn 6 and used the word "fond.") As we all do of Tokyo and our many adventures and friends there.

Seattle view of the world

Here's the living-room view from the corporate apt where we'll stay for a week until we can move back to our house. A pretty cool - and cloudy - view of the Space Needle and (on the right) the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project museum owned by billionaire Paul Allen.

A smooth first morning here. In past years, the children have awakened at 4 a.m. after Tokyo flights, but Lucinda is still asleep at 8:30am after 10 1/2 hours, and Arno and Blaine are napping after waking up earlier. Today we'll arrange some basics, buy cell phones and groceries, go to Ikea and Target. Later this week, we'll test-drive a Prius after 3 carless years.

Last full day

Well, it's come down to the final 36 hours in Tokyo. Blogger tells me that I've previously written 500 posts (!!) on Jessica in Tokyo, and this is #501.

Great news is that the foggy image on my camera's LED screen mysteriously cleared while I took last photos of our pyramid house in Nishi-Azabu. Unfortunate news is that we packed the USB thingy that I need to download the shots into my computer -- so no pix today.

As always, some novelties to contemplate. Instead of lugging 4 enormous suitcases to our hotel tonite and then to the airport, we hired the Yamato "Black Cat" delivery service to takkyubin our bags directly to Narita Airport. Black Cat (or Kuroneko in Japanese) trucks are ubiquitous in Japan, and friends routinely use it to ship skis and bags directly to resorts in Hokkaido ahead of time -- that is, no schlepping skis, etc., on the shinkansen! Anyway, it's fantastic for us. For $80, we can pick up our bags at Narita's Terminal 1 two hours before our flight.

With a few hours to go, we're taking a family ice cream break at Cold Stone Creamery in Roppongi Hills.

Packing up

The movers have finished 1 of 3 days packing and our house is more than half empty. Dining table and chairs, books, most big furniture and all of my clothes and shoes are gone. Today: children's rooms, rugs, odds and ends.

But there's always something new to learn: the US doesn't allow us to "import" foods unless we personally carry them in -- which means we have to leave jars of Bonne Maman strawberry jam and Costco peanut butter that I bought in Japan and several boxes of American cereal (our only direct Tokyo import, from Expat Express) or fill a suitcase. Kinda weird. I mean, these are US products, so why can't I return with them?

The moving process in Japan is different than in the US. Because Tokyo has small streets, the company fills a series of smaller trucks outside our house and empties them elsewhere into a shipping container. Also, the workers take off/put on their slip-on shoes in the entry hall every time they walk thru the front door, which is quite a trick when they're also carrying a piano or a dresser! When we moved in, they did this in heavy rain, an added degree of difficulty.

And during scheduled rests, a few workers take cat naps in the shade of our garage. In Tokyo, people grab sleep wherever they can: commuters on trains and buses, taxi drivers on their reclined seats by the side of the road, customers sitting at Starbucks tables and, it seems, workers on flat packing boxes on top of concrete.

Groceries

7 days to go until our departure, and I'm cleaning and throwing stuff away like crazy. What's in our pantry? Flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda... chocolate chips!

So we've just made a last batch of cookies in our lame French oven -- perfect timing for Arno's sayonara playdate this afternoon.

Blaine's travels

As Blaine finishes a 34-year career in newspaper journalism for the WashPost and NYT, I want to mark the occasion with a list of the countries stamped into his passports.

He was a foreign correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia for the WashPost, made some trips for the NYT, and has taken a few vacations here and there.

So, the list:

USA (including stories from all 50 states and Guam)
Canada
UK
France
Italy
Portugal
Germany
Denmark
Ireland
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Austria
Poland
Hungary
Russia
Bulgaria
Romania
Czechoslovakia (before the split)
Yugoslavia (before the split)
Serbia
Croatia
Bosnia
Slovenia
Macedonia
Montenegro
Kosovo
Albania
Greece
Turkey
Iraq
Azerbajan
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Somalia
Kenya
Uganda
Rwanda
Tanzania
Burundi
Congo
Zambia
Sudan
Mozambique
Mauritius
Zimbabwe
Botswana
South Africa
Angola
Ghana
Liberia
Nigeria
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Bahamas
Bermuda
Philippines
Indonesia
Singapore
Japan
North Korea
South Korea
China
Taiwan
Thailand
Australia
Burma

67 countries! Wow.

Back to the U.S.

It's official: we're leaving Tokyo and moving back to Seattle on June 29. We've had a terrific 3 years here -- an excellent family adventure, with great friends, schools and restaurants! -- and it's time to return to "normal" life with a car, backyard and wild salmon on the bbq.

Next projects: Blaine is leaving The Washington Post and will write his third book, "Escape from Camp 14," about a young man who was born in the North Korean gulag and escaped when he was in his early 20s. I'll start looking for work. And Lucinda and Arno will join the ranks at the Seattle public schools.

I've been lax about posting on this blog in recent months, after (1) my computer broke, (2) my camera broke, and (3) as I've been more focused on trying to get a job that would keep us in Japan. (Despite best efforts -- and a lot of support and help from friends -- my job prospects here did not pan out.)

I'll try to post some photos, at least, of some of the sights we've seen in Asia that didn't see daylight yet. Thanks for reading my blog!

Everyday Japan

On my way back from the grocery store this afternoon, as I chugged up the hill on my 24-gear bicycle with 4 liters of milk, boxes of blueberries and strawberries, and 1/8 of a watermelon, a young Japanese woman effortlessly passed me on her old one-speed bicycle.

Her left hand, which guided the handlebars, grasped a plastic iced frappuccino cup from Starbucks. She was looking at her right hand, where she scrolled and typed on her iPhone.

Tourists in Beijing

We're on a 5-day family tourist trip to Beijing!

Staying at the Grand Hyatt with a very reasonable rate from Expedia. Seeing the highlights. Last 36 hrs: hutong neighborhood and houses, dim sum, Peking Duck, stuffed pandas supplied by hotel.

Today, Great Wall. Last night, amazing acrobat show. Next few days: Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and maybe a few other things.

Photos to come. But it's v exciting for all of us to be here.

Wordle

Lucinda just introduced me to this neat website, Wordle at wordle.net.

You copy or input large blocks of text to create a "word cloud" that ranks how often the word is used in the story.

We created a Wordle using the text from Romeo and Juliet, and this is what it looks like.

Mother-daughter walk

On a school-vacation day last Friday, Lucinda and I went for a stroll from Sendagi to Nezu, two shitamachi (old neighborhoods) near Ueno Park. The nabes Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi, known together as "Yanesen," have narrow streets with traditional shops and houses. Early May is also the perfect time to see the blaze of azaleas at Nezu Shrine.

I edited a story about shitamachi for the Japanese arts/culture magazine Kateigaho International Edition, which has a wonderful map in the current issue (cover below) to mark shops and restaurants that preserve the culture of "old Edo," as Tokyo was known from the 1600s to late 1800s.


Some snaps of our day, starting with Sendagi's famous paper store, Isetatsu, where you find samurai prints from the Edo period.


This senbei shop sells large, square rice crackers (modern senbei are round)...


...coated with green tea, sugar or soy sauce. Individual crackers are 60 yen (66 cents) and this package was 780 yen ($8.50).


Geta (wooden sandals) in a shop window:


Storefront selling candied imo, or sweet potatoes. The noren curtain (it's orange for this shop but more often navy or black) is displayed when a restaurant is open for business.


This shop, with buckets, cutting boards, and benches, had an intense menthol-like scent from the Japanese cedar or sugi.


We ate lunch on the grounds of Nezu Shrine, which was hosting a festival for thousands of seasonal visitors. Large torii gate at the entrance...


...leads to long path of tiny torii gates inside...


... which leads to the blazing hillside of azaleas (also shown in 1st foto of this post).


It's a short walk from the shrine to Nezu station, and along the way, we stopped at a tiny candy store (also mentioned in Kateigaho) that makes long rolls of ame (hard candies) with traditional Edo-style faces inside.


The rolls are sliced into discs, like these, that half-melt in your mouth. This package of 8 was 210 yen ($2.50) which I thought was a bargain for Edo craftsmanship. Not sure how this is done, but pretty cool-looking, neh?

Trailing spouse: Philippines and Thailand edition

Blaine has 2 months left as the Post's Tokyo bureau chief but he can't slack off! He's been in the Philippines for 9 days and was scheduled to return tonight, but has now been sent on to Thailand to cover the govt unrest there.

Alas, we were looking forward to his return tonight and to family activities during the upcoming "Golden Week" holiday in Japan. Come home soon, Blaine!

Blaine's latest...

... is another great story about the Philippines at election time.

This country generates so many sad stories: it exports its workers (including many women to Tokyo as domestic "helpers," whose children stay in the Philippines) and fails to make progress on social improvements and infrastructure. Here's the top:

In Philippines, pre-vote largess doesn't translate into post-vote progress

By Blaine Harden
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

MANILA -- It's election season in the Philippines, and the short-term forecast is for manna from heaven.

For voters who live in Baseco, a slum built on garbage beside Manila Bay, it's hard to keep track of all the incoming goodies. Roads have been paved. Playgrounds have been built. A maternity clinic is under construction. One candidate bankrolled a beauty contest. Another sent in doctors bearing free antibiotics. Demolition of squatters' huts has been halted. Free food is expected on May 10, election day.

"It is like a fiesta," said Ray Campanera, senior councilor in the local government here. "Life is a little bit happier."

Yet for the residents of Baseco, as for the poor who account for a third of the 92 million people in the Philippines, pre-election good times are almost always followed by post-election betrayal.

Politicians who win election in this former U.S. colony have one of the worst records in Southeast Asia for stiffing the poor, coddling the rich and indulging themselves, according to a mountain of data and a chorus of economists....

Blaine's latest...

... is an excellent read from the Philippines about the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos!

Here's the top:
Late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos makes cameo in busy campaign season

By Blaine Harden
Thursday, April 22, 2010

BATAC, PHILIPPINES -- The waxy-looking corpse of Ferdinand Marcos, dead almost 21 years and chilling in a refrigerated glass coffin here in his home town, has joined the Philippine political circus.

In the chaotic run-up to national elections May 10, about 85,000 candidates are clamoring after 17,000 positions, from town council member to president. Political violence has claimed at least 80 lives, including 57 in one incident. And families that have long called the shots in the Philippines are angling for advantage.

That's why the body of the former president is putting in a publicity-grabbing campaign cameo, with the careful contrivance of his widow, Imelda. The former first lady -- who became infamous for her many fancy shoes and whose first name became a synonym for greed -- is 80 and is once again running for political office, along with her son, her daughter and a sizable gaggle of lesser Marcos kin...

Progress

A red-letter day in the Tokyo American Club swimming pool, as Arno bravely pushed off from the wall this afternoon and swam about 5 feet to me! A first, after months of swim lessons last year and 2 lessons this spring. Then he swam across the lap lane about 40 times. Very exciting!

Lucinda, meanwhile, says TAC's Mini-Mudsharks swim team is "likable" - much more likable, in fact, than expected because I signed her up without asking. She has 3 smooth, relatively efficient strokes so far (butterfly is TK) and likes swimming on the clock. L has so far not enjoyed games with hard-to-identify rules and strategy (like soccer), but she seems to enjoy the self-directed, self-control of swimming - and maybe running? We'll see what develops.

Lucinda types: "I LOVE SWIMMING ALOT!"

Wow!

Fashion disaster or triumph? A human sakura (cherry blossom) in Shinjuku Gyoen station, April 2010.

Spring flowers

I already wrote about sakura (cherry blossom) fashion. Now here are some snaps from our annual picnics (hanami) under the cherries.

Last weekend, the peak of the flower experience, we went to Shinjuku Gyoen, a huge, well-kept park near Shinjuku station, with many families from Arno's school, Willowbrook. Crowds lined up outside the gates to get in.


Blaine took this gorgeous shot that expresses the pure hanami experience of picnicking beneath the boughs.


Arno took charge of my camera and delivered this self-portrait...


... and a shot of his parents. I am drinking a can of hot green tea purchased from a vending machine.


Lucinda and Arno


The finale to this year's hanami was in Kinuta Koen (Kinuta Park) in Sendagaya-ku, Tokyo, at the Willowbrook spring picnic. Amazing trees!


An elegantly dressed older lady brought out to gaze at the blossoms.


And Arno's Take/Takenoko (Bamboo/Bamboo shoots) class this year.


Happy spring!

Our Pippi

Lucinda as Pippi Longstocking for Nishimachi Int'l School's annual Book Parade, held today.

Blaine's latest...

... is a "Letter from Japan" about the men who use hammers to pound out the aluminum noses of shinkansen, the Japanese bullet trains. Lovely writing!

Headline: "A hammer -- yes, that low-tech tool -- helps mold noses of Japan's bullet trains"

Colors of Sakura

The cherry blossoms (sakura) are here again - and so, too, is the fashion season when women, men and children accessorize in shades of pink and raspberry, a cheerful sight after the coldest months. I noticed this a few years ago but it took a while to play Bill Cunningham and collect enough decent photos to show it properly. (It's harder than it looks to take pix of people who are walking and talking in crowds.)

Last Monday, a national holiday, Ginza's streets were pedestrian catwalks.



This incredibly slender woman (who would have been a perfect photo for Blaine's story about thin Japanese women) had a Vuitton bag and pashmina.




Spring shoes:


Wrapped chopsticks at the famous Kyukyodo paper store:


Older man:


Young girl:


A classic pose: cellphone messaging


A few more, to prove the point:




And finally, a flash of pink on an ice-cream vending machine.

Blaine's latest...

... is a front-page story about the US military's redeployment to Guam, a US territory - and how bringing 79,000 people (mainly Marines and their families) to the island could severely damage the environment and sewer and water systems.

Among the highlights:

"Many families have members serving in the armed forces; among the 50 states and four territories, this island regularly ranks first in recruiting success. Guam's killed-in-action rate is about four times as high as on the mainland...

Led by the Marines, American forces liberated the island in 1944, and people here say they still feel a debt to the United States. To repay it, they proudly call their island the "tip of the spear" for projecting U.S. military power in the Far East...

"We don't mind being the tip of spear, but we don't want to get the shaft," said Simon A. Sanchez II, chairman of Guam's commission on public utilities.

Living in the present

"Mom, what's a typewriter?" - Arno, born in 2004, asked tonight.

Blaine's latest...

are two stories about women and social pressures in Japan and South Korea.

This story looks at why Japanese women are so thin - and they are incredibly thin. While American women have gained weight - obesity has risen from 17 percent to 35 percent since 1980, Japanese women (other than those over age 70) have actually lost weight over the past 25 years.

If you go into most clothing stores here, even Banana Republic in expat-friendly Roppongi Hills, there aren't many items over a size 6 and size 0 is very common. (This, and the fact that almost everything is sized for shorter people, saves me heaps of time and money.) In the US, many women gain weight during pregnancy and never lose it, but several Japanese moms at Arno's or Lucinda's school have had babies and bounce back below 100 lbs within a few months.

But many women take thinness to scary levels; it's anecdotal, of course, but I've seen many more anorexic women here than I ever did in NYC.

Blaine's second story (which actually ran first) is about the difficulties of being a working mother in South Korea. One woman, a marketing executive with a 6-yr-old son, took out full-page newspaper advertisements to declare "I Am a Bad Woman" because she is sick of being criticized by her husband, son and mother-in-law for continuing to work.

The story includes this astonishing statistic: "South Korean law allows a full year of subsidized parental leave, but intense peer pressure at work means that working mothers usually take little time off, according to government surveys. Only about 35,000 parents in this country of 49 million people (my italics) took advantage of child-care leave subsidies last year."

It's fascinating to compare lifestyles in Japan and other countries we visit to the American way of life; every country has its own specific pathologies. In Japan, it's incredibly difficult for Japanese women to have full-time, high-powered jobs and also have children - in part because Japan's immigration laws don't allow them to hire lower-cost immigrants for childcare. (Expats with certain work visas can, by contrast, hire immigrants as nannies.) The Japanese also smoke much more than Americans do.

But it's impossible not to live here and not recognize that the U.S. has serious food issues. It's not just about obesity rates, but (I think) because the food industry creates and Americans accept a high-volume array of processed foods that have too much salt, sugar, fat and calories. In Japan, food is seasonal, served in much smaller but still filling portions and lacks the American corn-syrupy sweetness, even in chocolate. Arno recently took a small bite of a Milky Way that was leftover from Halloween, declared it was too sweet, didn't eat the rest.

Year of the Tiger

Lucinda, Arno and I went to Yokohama's Chinatown last weekend to see the Chinese New Year festivities. Lots of fun. To kick off the post, here's video of a dragon dance in the parade.



Snapshots: The gate to Chinatown


Roasted chestnuts for sale. Lucinda loves them, and Arno tried them (very rare development) and liked them!


An old traditional house on the main street.


A dog, sitting in a stroller and wearing a dress with a denim skirt. (You have to look closely, but it's definitely a skirt.)


Lucinda, wearing a dress purchased by her grandparents in Beijing, and Arno, in a Chinese devil mask; in Japanese, it's called an "oni."


Lunch for sale: heaps of pork (I think).


Lucinda's lunch: a steamed meat bun from a street stall for 200 yen ($2).


Chinese children led the parade with dragon puppets.


The emperor, who spoke very good English when he wished the children "Happy New Year."


Another creature came over to greet us.


On to the rest of the Year of the Tiger!