Well what a weekend that was...

Friday was my last day at work, so no matter now crap it was, and to be fair, it wasn’t actually that crap at all, it didn’t matter as by 6pm I was off and that was it for a whole two weeks. So Friday evening came and, as is the wont of people heading off on their hols (it wasn’t only me that was off, our office Obon holiday starts on Tuesday) we went off into Tokyo for beers. Now we wanted to go to the pleasant roof top bar that a few of us went to after the rugby that I wrote about somewhere, but when we turned up, mob handed with 10 of us, the rather sniffy chap on the door curtly informed us that they were rather busy and he might have a table on the terrace that could accommodate us, but not for 2 hours at least and that, should we come a-looking for service, it would be a sensible thing to book in advance. So much for spontaneity.

Of course we were now faced with the age-old problem. 10 people, in Shibuya, looking for a night out but more importantly, looking for somewhere that would let s in without a booking. Hmm, so we ended up at the Dubliner’s, not as salubrious a place as we had hoped, but it was open, cheerful, not exactly expensive and didn’t hold with nonsense seating policies i.e. it’s a “proper” pub so you can stand up, if you so desire, a feat of coordination seemingly beyond most Japanese after a couple of dai-namas (and, let’s be fair, after most foreigners after a couple more). Anyway, the initial set back apart, the evening was most convivial, beers were consumed, food was ingested and chit was chatted. All pleasant fun.

Hanabi

Saturday was hanabi season all over Japan and Kawaguchi was no exception. Hanabi, for those not in the know, are Japanese for fireworks (lit. flower of fire) and my they do love them here. Also, being far more sensible than, say the English, the Japanese have their firework displays in August, when it is hot and humid and just right for sitting on riverbanks and drinking beer, instead of November which, whilst historically significant, is bloody cold (I said ‘the English’ above as I initially thought that bonfire night and Guido Fawkes and all that was an English peculiarity, but on reflection I suspect that it might be a British celebration. I mean let’s face it, the Scots, Irish and Welsh are certainly going to celebrate someone who tried to blow up the English parliament – I digress).

As you Marcus is now three months old (my how time flies), we thought it was about time that he received guests whilst at home. To this end, then, friends and colleagues came over, bringing offspring as well. So not only did we have six adults over, but a 7 month old and an 11 month old as well – the 11 month old being my boss’s son (he bought his folks as well) who I am sure I have mentioned somewhere here before. One of the great things about our apartment is that not only does it overlook the river, but away to the right, over the railway bridge in this photo, we get a birds eye view of Toda Koen – Adachi-ku fireworks, all for free and, as the guru likes to point out, without having to be too far from a toilet. We are close enough to see everything, hear and feel the explosions and generally enjoy the atmosphere but, importantly with small ones around, far enough away so that the bangs don’t scare the shit out of the kids. So once again plenty of beer was consumed, food, lovingly prepared by yours truly, was again ingested and fine old time was had by all. The kids all seemed to enjoy themselves, there weren’t any tears before bedtime and, because all were so generous, I’ve got a fridge full of beer that I didn’t have to pay for.

And then there was a small matter of...

The Ashes – what a test match that was. Wow. I tried to listen to as much of it as I could, and certainly got some of the good bits, like Flintoff and Pietersen cutting loose on Thursday afternoon before tea (and Flintoff getting out third ball after tea!). Friday night was a bit hazy, but I certainly remember Flintoff wrapping up the Aussie first innings with 2 in 2 and then Warne bowling Strauss at the end of the day so I must have been compos mentis for at least some of it. Then Saturday night I finally got to turn on the computer after everyone had gone and heard Flintoff’s second bout of fireworks but then went to bed, stupidly, so didn’t hear the majority of the Aussie 2nd innings. But then came Sunday evening and, well, I think that took a few years off my life.

I blame Jonathan Agnew myself. During, I think, the first or second over of the day he turned to a fellow Test Match Special commentator (who was Australian – Geoff Lawson, I think) and said something like “well I suppose to make it interesting we would like Australia to get really close to the target”. Lawson was, of course, incredulous, as was everyone else listening, and said surely you want this over in two balls, like any sensible sportsman with an interest in winning would? But no, Aggers stuck to his guns, the silly bugger. But what a match, I was worried, really worried, going into the last few overs, but finally, thank everything, they did it with 2 runs to spare. I suppose it confirms two things, first that Australia aren’t going to give up without a fight (not a nice, Queensbury rules, jolly good fight but a real, dirty, no hold’s barred dog fight – and why not). Second, that England can win the tight ones. OK, it was close, but old England would have lost, their nerve would have gone, the resolve waned and Kasprowicz would have got the winning runs. But they didn’t, they had the character and the nerve and they won. The fact that Glenn McGrath wasn’t playing certainly helped but hey, how many injury problems have England had in recent series? (and ya boo sucks to Mr McGrath and his 'we'll win 5-0, oh hang on, it's England so there's bound to be some bad weather, let's make that 4-0' prediction.)

And then on Monday

Kool Kat Koizumi is fighting for his political life as the LDP, with shades of the Conservative Party circa 1997, decides to implode over the privatisation of the Japan Post. Just in case you were wondering, the Post Office here is, in effect, the biggest bank in the country, with about 3,000 billion pounds worth of savings in its vaults. This cash has effectively bank rolled Japanese economic expansion for years as, as far as I can make out, various governments took out massive loans using the money as collateral... actually that doesn’t sound quite right as I’m sure there was something about government bonds in there as well. As you can see, this isn’t an issue that I have been taking too much notice of, mainly as it is really quite dull. Until today when the vote on its progress was sent to the upper house after scraping through the lower house last week (I think). Anyway a fair few LDP bigwigs don’t like the idea of using all that cash so threatened to vote against their own party to scupper the bill. The Kool Kat said “do that and I will dissolve the diet and call a general election – we’ll let the people decide”. Bigwigs responded by saying “oh yeah, dare ya”. This was swiftly followed by a “double dare, no returns” from the Kool Kat, and the board was set.

So today the vote was taken and the bill defeated 108 to 125. His bluff called, what did the Kool Kat do? Good as his word, he has dissolved the diet and called an election for September 11th. Of course we now have a dilemma – I like the Kool Kat for sticking to his guns, having a few ideas and for not wearing a tie, but I would love to see the LDP toppled from power for only the second time since WWII, something needs to shake the politics in this country and this could just be the catalyst.

This is going to run and run, more reports to follow, if I can get my head round it. For now, though, thoughts turn to Old Trafford and the third test...

Might be useful

Just found this whilst over at Bondibooks, might be useful for those of you here in the metropolis (of Tokyo, that is) whose Japanese isn't up to much...

Erm...

Not a lot to say, this week, which may come as a surprise to those of you know who know me. But might just go with the flow to see where it takes us. For those of you not living here in the mysterious east let me tell you that it is fucking hot right now. The summer, after the not-really-a typhoon of the other week has decided to let rip with a vengeance and with a desire to make up for lost time. I read somewhere that June in Japan this year was the hottest on record, I don't know if that was meant to be a true statement, but it did not feel like it to me. Or July for that matter, until last week. So now we are back into 35 degree heat and humidity to match. I realise that I proably write about this every year - and quite right too. Of course this wouldn't be too bad if one was sitting on a beach with a good book and something long, cool and alcoholic (and a wife as well), but when one has to go to work, it is not pleasant.

But having said that, yours truly only has four days of work left until a two week holiday! Yaay! Two weeks, wow! This will be the longest holiday I have had since the Guru and I spent a fortnight down under (with a week in the most lovely town of Noosa, where our very own Mr Pratt is at this moment becomming more domesticated as he prepares for family life - congratuations, sir, to you and the wife, good luck and all that (and, of course good luck in the tri-nations and in your attempts to retain the ashes, both of which I suspect are far more pressing concerns right now)). Anyway yes, two weeks off, plenty of time to bond with youngster, read books, get slowly drunk all day and generally do as little as possible, although it would seem that I already have an action plan, including health checks and visits to various government ministries, courteously supplied by the Guru.

But that should leave at least some time for me to get on the bike and go off exploring and getting sunburnt into the bargain. I keep meaning to at the moment, and to take some nice pics of the river and environs to share with you lovely lot, however no matter how bright and sunny the weekdays seem to be at the moment, each weekend clouds over (though with little diminuation in heat or humidity), making snapshot shooting a dull and grey affair, so why bother. Anyway as I will have more time, this will mean more opportunities to go father afield and get lost, which is, of course, the point of having a bike - might even try and ride to the mountains, but they do look a very long way off...

And talking of bicycles, as we were, what is it with Japanese and their inability to oil their bicycle chains? Every day I ride to the station and wince at least twice as some kid (or adult) goes past with a rusty old chain making that teeth-clenchingly horrible squeak. Sends shivers down my spine just sitting here thinking about it. I remember once going to a bike shop with the Guru so she couold get some air for her tyres and then thinking to myself 'ah, some WD40 oil type spray would be useful for a squeaky door hinge at home', so asked the Guru to buy a can. But bike shop guy basically refused, saying her bike didn't need oil. When mentioned that it wasn't for the bike, bike shop guy got very suspicious, as if I had asked for 115grams of processed weapons grade plutonium, a detonator and directions to the nearest cop shop. Suffice it to say I have refrained from using his velocipede emporia since.

One thing that will be taking up a large portion of time will, of course, be the new fantasy football season. Football, being as we know a winter game, kicks off in blighty on August 13th, which surely is about as far from winter as you can get. Seems odd, but who am I to judge. As you may or may not be aware, fantasy football is a pleasant way to while away the winter months and as such there is now quite a following for the Crate of Beer (CoB) Intercontiliga run by chap with far too much time on his hands, Stephen Denney. Anyone sad enough to want to join us is more than welcome, we use the online Daily Telegraph's Telegraph Total Football as the basis for our game (although they've revamped it this year), though be warned, as reigning League Champion and Champion's League winner, I can tell you it is not that easy, not easy at all.

New Ipod

This amused me.

After the typhoon

Bit of a damp squib, really, yesterday's so-called typhoon number seven, but what it did do, as typhoons are wont to do, was launder the atmosphere. So, when yours truly got up around six this morning the air had a most pleasant and refreshing, freshly scrubbed feel to it, which, apart from being pleasing on the skin, meant that Mt Fuji was displayed in all it's glory. So beguiling, did it appear, that I thought I'd better share, so here you go.


Fuji after the July typhoon #1
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji after the July typhoon #2
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji after the July typhoon #3
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji and Chichibu hills after July typhoon
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Bit of a lack of a post this week, but here are some photos of the youngster to keep you going. Shame about the cricket, but at least the footy season is only just around the corner though, eh?



marcus in karate kid pose
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

aah
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

bit dark but lovely smile
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Whoa!

A five minus trembler wandered past the greater Tokyo area at 4:30pm this afternoon, the first real biggy since Marcus was born. Luckily I was holding him at the time and so dashed to the front door, just in case (in the sense of just in case the front of the building falls off, which will happen, judging by the cracks around the balcony). Worrying about yourself during an eathquake is bad enough, but worrying about a three month old is something else. Oddly, no one from the other apartments seemed that worried.

Anyway the 5 minus was centered on the Chiba area, closer to where we used to live and closer to where the Guru's folks live. Apparently it was the biggest quake in the Tokyo area for quite a few years, which I feel is a bit odd as the effects of the Niigata quakes last year felt stronger to me, but there you go. But not to fear (too much) as we are all fine and dandy.

Oh, and apologies about the jinx on the cricket, listening to Saturday afternoon's play, as I currently am, we are117 for 4 'chasing ' 420 and, I fear, we are buggered.

So the Ashes start...

And what a corker, Australia 66 for 4 before lunch, fantastic (but it is a long way to go, I know Pratty).

Anyway, had to share this quote from the cricinfo preview of the first test regarding England captain Michael Vaughan's record during the coin toss at the start of the game:

"Vaughan, who earned a reputation as a luckless tosser in his early captaincy days"

Beautiful.

don't know if you've seen this yet...

the shape of things to come

The guru and I went to see star wars episode three last weekend, it being a bank holiday after all (umi-no-hi, or day for the sea, but not a lot of sea in Saitama (though the river does smell a bit fishy at times)). But how, you may be asking yourself, did you go and see a film with a two month old baby son? Easy really, I went on Sunday and the guru went on Monday, meaning we both enjoyed a pleasant day out and visit to the cinema, though not exactly with each other. Oh well.

This was a shame as we both enjoyed the film very much. For my part i thought it was a lot better than the critics had given it credit for and certainly the best of the 'new' series (though admittedly not difficult!). OK, it has some crap dialogue, but all star wars films have, it's what they do. I was especially annoyed by one critic saying how out of place it was for Obi-Wan to say "I've got a bad feeling about this" towards the start of the film - does this critic know nothing? Has he not seen episodes 4-6? All the way through, in every film including the originals, someone like Luke or Han or Leia say "I've got a bad feeling about this". Yes, it's cheesy, your point being? Now move along.

So, the FX were cool, the spaceship battle scenes fantastic, the light sabre duels just rocked (though got a little tired of Yoda's jump/spin thing), Padme really looked 8 months pregnant with twins, someone had had a word with George Lucas so there was no 'cute' in the film and the story sort of made sense, if you didn't ask too many questions.

But more important than that was what transpired last week. As Japan is sooo behind the times, episode 3 only came to these shores last week, so on domestic telly they have been showing all the other movies, newer ones and the originals. Last Thursday they showed the re-mastered version of Return of the Jedi and of course it had all the extra little scenes and what not. But then, at the end , a travesty. The final scene on Endor has everyone jolly happy and ghost version of Obi-Wan joined by Yoda and then, finally, Anakin Skywalker. OK, but in this new version the actor playing Anakin, whose face we see when Luke rescues him so we know what he looks like, has been replaced by Hayden Christiensen, the chap playing Anakin in the new movies! Talk about a Stalinist re-writing of history! This is my childhood they are fucking with! Why did they need to do that? We've seen Anakin's face already and the person at the end of the film is not him.

Unnecessary and annoying (and probably not worth getting angry about, but, dammit, someone's got to have standards).

Summer's here

I know this for two reasons - firstly because NHK have told me, well, they have told me that the rainy season (the bastard offspring "5th" season that no one talks about) has finished in Kyushu and Shikoku. Eagle-eyed action men amongst you will realise that this does not cover the kanto region, of which Kawaguchi is a part, but it probably will tomorrow and that is near enough for me. Indeed today was warm enough and humid enough to be considered summer in my book, though the actual sunny-ness of summer is still somewhat lacking.

The second, and far more important and trustworthy, reason I know it is summer is that I purchased the season's first bottle of gin and have, this evening, been quietly and pleasurably supping on a number of pleasant G&T's. Even better is that this year, after reading something in some newspaper that says a G&T must be made with 47.5% gin, I have decided to splash out a little and gone for Bombay Sapphire, rather than the usual Gordon's or cheapest other alternative. Well I say 'splash out', but for some reason gin, in Japan, is ridiculously cheap. A regular bottle of 40% Gordon's is less than a fiver (980 yen in the marvellous alocholic emporia that is MyMart) whilst aforesaid Bombay is eight quid, against a price in the UK of about sixteen (so thedrinkshop reliably inform me - and that's for the 40% stuff) and is, I can now confirm, very much worth the extra 600yen or so that I paid for it.

So, roll on the official summer proper. I will be off to Seijo Ishii international supermarket to get my bottle of Pimms No. 57 very soon as well.

And also...

Something that caught my eye in the paper today that I thought I ought to comment upon, incase you missed it, of course. Currently in Japan there is a concern about the the future, the ageing population, lazy youngsters and what to do about it all and luckily, in June, there was a symposium to sort it all out. The meeting singled out a recent SMAP song entitled "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana" (One and only Flower in the World) as, essentially, being at the root of all Japan's social and economic woes. Apparently the group and song have the temerity to suggest that each and every person is special in their own way, as far as I read it, which is, according to Masaaki Taira, chairman of Japan Junior Chamber, Inc's Kanto District Council, nonsense.

Apparently (and I am not making any of this up) "SMAP's song includes a line that says, 'You don't have to be No. 1. You're always special and the only one.' But such a 'special and only one' doesn't exist. Education should aim to teach students how to prepare to fit in with life in the competitive society." [my italics]

He was referring specifically to Japan's problem with NEET's (those Not in Employment, Education or Training - aka people who don't want to get a job) and Freeters (not sure exactly what it stands for but refers to graduates who take part time jobs in, for example, convenience stores to ensure ample free time to enjoy oneself, but still have some cash available, thereby doing the minimum to get by). These types of young renegades are doing irrepairable damage to people like Taira's chances of getting a decent pension as they don't pay into the national systems like full time employed people, and he is not happy about it, obviously.

Naturally this is SMAP's fault, rather than Taira's or the government's, as SMAP are encouraging young people not to work. It is, of course, quite plausible that SMAP could provide education, jobs and/or training to the millions of people that this affects, or Taira and the govt could do something about it...

But luckily for both, I have the solution - something that is simple, won't cost the govt any money. If Taira and the govt are really worried about NEET's and Freeters not working and not contributing to society all they need to do is pass a law that says no one between the ages of, say, 25 and 55 (thereby allowing for that potentially tricky time between graduation and first 'real' job - and later looking after aged folks), is allowed to live with their parents but must go out and rent, and eventually buy if possible, a place of their own. Having to pay their own rent, rather than sponging absolutley everything off their parents and making no contribution to the household budget whatsoever, will ensure they get themselves motivated to work pretty damn toot sweet I reckon.

Becomming more conservative in my old age? Not me...

Stuff about London

So london wins the right to host the 2012 Olympic games and then the very next day some deranged people blow up tube trains and buses - strange old world, eh? Sort of makes you hark back to the IRA, at least they were civilised about trying to kill the British, coded warnings and often military and/or politcal targets (I realise that a number of their targets did not fall into these categories, the Harrods bomb, for example) whereas the perpertrators of Thursday's explosions went for regular commuters and workers who could not defend themselves and who, to some extent, may well have been sympathetic to their plight (if the bombers were indeed Islamic fundamentalists then the anti-war demonstrations of last year should have been a hint). Had we still been living in London then I think I would have been ok as I would have been at work, however the Guru would have been going through King's Cross on her way to Old Street at about the time of the bombings, so she might, just might, have been caught up in it all. Of course that is a lot of ifs and buts. There is not much I feel I need to add to all of this as there is, I am sure, reams and reams being written already. So well done London on the stiff upper lip approach to it all.

As for the Olympics, will we be back in Blighty for them? Possibly, possibly not, who knows? Of one thing I am quite certain, however, and that is if we are back in Blighty in 2012, we won't be living anywhere near London, hole of a place that it is (yeah yeah yeah, Doctor bleedin' Johnson). I've read a few blogs, especially since the bombings, and not a few have mentioned that suddenly, with all the focus on the old place, they are feeling a tad nostalgic for a bit of litter, crap transport, pollution, overpricing, surly "service" and agression. Can't see it myself. Anyway, we lived in Japan and moved away when the footy world cup came so I can't really see us moving to the UK just because the Olympics are on there.

Stuff about Japan

We have been buying stuff as it is the only way to prove you are a patriotic person in Japan (it seems to me). Anyway, we've got the excuse of a new member of the family so that means we get to buy stuff that we 'really' need. Most fun was the futon storing bag things. As we now have a extra bed for the little 'un, and extra futons, summer duvets, winter duvets and blankets for any unexpected guest that might show up, storage space is becomming a luxury we don't have much of. Futons and duvets take up a lot of space, especially the hollow fibre jobs, so we bought the storage bags. These are fab - bloody great plastic bags with a zip lock side; when eveything is in you stick your hoover into the corner valve thing and, hey presto, air sucked out and thin, rock hard duvets that are *so* much easier to store. I could have watched the air being sucked out all day...maybe I need to get out more.

Also was have purchased a multi-region dvd player which is great and, much to the Guru's surprise as it was from a dodgy looking ad in an English magazine, it actually arrived and it works. I'm still not truly convinced of its foreign dvd playing qualities, but it does play a vcd that (not-much)-golf-playing-(anymore)-brother sent us of Charlie's naming ceremony. We've only watched the speeches so far, about an hour of them, and all seems to be jolly, so thanks for that.

And, of course, we've been buying baby stuff. But that, I fear will never stop - or at least will evolve into buying toddler stuff, then kid stuff etc etc

Japan itself, it seems to me, is pretty quiet at the moment. Koizumi has been off to the G-8 summit and didn't appear to say a lot. The postal sell off/privatisation thing seems to be going ahead, but that is, I think, just a tax dodge and a pretty dull one too boot. Krazy Kim over in NK has gone all coy, perhaps he has taken up semi-professional snail racing, who knows. And of the politicos here no one seems to making gaffes to any extent and keeping their noses clean as the scandal-o-meter is alarmingly low right now. Must be due to rainy season, which looks like it is approaching its last throes. Actually rainy season has been quite pleasant this year in that it has been quite cool, in fact distinctly chilly at times, so much so that the summer hasn't really had a chance to heat up yet. Yes we've had a few hot days, but nothing like last year, thank goodness, where we were topping 30 degrees/90% humidity in early June and it didn't stop until October. How English, talking about the weather - you can take the boy out of Blighty, but...

The little 'un is doing much better now and seems to have got over his eating problem. Although he still can't take in as much food as his contemporaires, he's doing a lot better than when he came out of hospital. Also his weight now seems to be going up at someting like a normal rate and, after spending ages hovering just below the 4kg mark he is now up to 4600grams - so fight on there, little one.

and the winner is...

bloody hell!

but let's be honest about it, those images of jubilation in Trafalgar Sq? They're happy about winning, yes, but more importantly, we beat the French.

Kawaguchi by satellite

The image above was taken by satellite and is of our little bit of Tokyo and Saitama. I got it from Space Imaging which is a cool website that I think I first saw on Bondibooks and have been trying to work out how to use it ever since. So anyway, the big, dark rivery looking thing through the middle of the shot is, as you can probably guess, the Arakawa. To find our little bit of it, first click on the image and then click again on the magnifier doohickey to get the most zoomed in one. Then look to the far right and you can see a smaller 'y' shaped river coming off the main river and going (or actually coming from the) north - north conveniently being up on this image. You can see the slightly lighter grey of the grass river bank moving right before curving down, we are just st the beginning of the curve looking south over the river and into Tokyo, so if you are passing, give us a wave.

Other points of interest on this image are (ok, I think they are interesting): towards the centre of the image, just above the river, is a dark oblong, this is the National Rowing Centre at Toda where they had the rowing events for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Goodness knows how long the course is, probably 4kms or something, and there is also a speedboat racing centre attached as well, which I suspect brings in the cash so they can keep the place open as it appears to be universities that use the rowing course more than anyone and I guess they don't have too much money.

Further to the left you can see what looks like a lake, mainly beacuse it is a lake, part of Toda Doman Green Park, which I would love to find a link to so you can see it, but can't seem to find one. Anyway this is usually the area I go cycling around at the weekend for a bit of exercise, if I can't be bothered to go for a run. I went there yesterday and took some photos, but because the weather was so grey and overcast they didn't come out too well. Still, I will take some more when it brightens up after the rainy season. Suffice it to say this is a most pleasant pak area where there aren't any cars so kids can play, there is windsurfing and boating on the lake, footy and baseball pitches and a great big adventure playground for the young 'uns. I haven't seen it in the height of summer but can guess it will be pretty packed, but who cares, Marcus will be taken there in the not too distant future.

On the far side, next to the river and away from the main people-y bits, it has been really quiet every time I have been there, a real get away from it all area right next to Tokyo - fab, I reckon. Also there is a golf course which I don't dislike as much as ythe others as it has been built in two halves along side the river, so players have to get a boat across the river half way through their round I (so a golfing ex-colleague told me), which seems better, for some reason. Again I have grey and overcast photos which I will not share just at the moment

And that's about it. Apologies if there have been/are some weird spacings around these days, don't know what I've done and so don't know how to stop it, though trust me I have been through the template trying. Oh well. Pity about the Lions as well, as I have said before, this time last year perhaps, it comes to a pretty pass when I have to rely on the England cricket team for some sporting success...

Someting for the golfers...

And now, by popular request, pictures of some pleasant open space now off limits to the majority of the population so sad little people can hit sad little white balls 'here' and, let's face it, 'there' in the name of "sport". And, oh look! There are some people putting in the bottom corner of the first photo! How exciting! [apparently...]


Golf course towards Akabane
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Golf course towards somewhere else
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Some pictures from the riverbank

Taken on Sunday afternoon during a stroll with the family. Bit cloudy, unfortunately, but still nice and green.


Arakawa Riverbank #1
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Arakawa Riverbank #2
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Arakawa Riverbank #3
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Arakawa Riverbank #4
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Arakawa Riverbank #5
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Wouldn't you just know it...

Got the sky tuner working last night, just a quick strip of the antenna cable, reattach and hey presto, working again - bastard machine, I know when I'm being mocked...

Young Marcus seems to be impoving re his eating, or rather keeping eating down, problem. Definitely less in the chucking up sakes now, and has rushed through the 4kg barrier to post a high (as far as I know, though the Guru may know otherwise) of about 4222grams, which is pretty good in my book. Also did an enormous poo the other day that leaked up the back of his nappy - first time I have seen this and my goodness didn't he look happy with himself. Indeed the little 'un is turning into quite a smiley little chap, as long as you make high pitched squeaking sounds at him, which he seems to enjoy.

But the hot has started now, over 30 degrees on Sat and Sun, which ain't too good for him as he can't control his internal temperature, apparently, especially when in his high chair whcih seems to make him hotter. So anyway the aircon came on yesterday for the first time, don't like it but a cool kitchen is ooooh so nice - I mean cool in the sense of colder, not stylishness, it can be as uncool as anything as long as it is cool, if you take my meaning.

don't know why the post below doesn't seem to fit into the column. Oh well...

My Lion’s evening

Saturday had started so well. Up early without too much notice of a hangover, day with the youngster, bit of DIY and the Guru sorting out her clothes, or something. A trip to Oh! Kawa, they of the whale meat for sale in the past (for bona fide scientific research purposes that only a supermarket can do) for a whole chicken that will be rather pleasant when roasted with salad for dinner (not roasted at the same time as a salad, of course) and a few beers bought on the way home as well. The game’s on at eight, dinner’s on the go, young ‘un is getting excited about the first test...

But then:

1830 turn on sky tv to watch something on bbc world, but nothing happens. Rack brains to thing to back to last night, was there a problem with sky? No.
1831 begin swearing
1832 Think about today, what did we do? Move ps2 away from sky tuner as tuner was getting too hot as it is summer. Did we knock any sky leads askew? No.
1833 swearing takes off in earnest
1835 check all leads to and from sky box
1840 all seem to be in place. Start checking sky card thingamajig, reset button and every other lead.
1845 swearing plus plaintive cry of “why me, why to-f*cking-night?”
1850 pull sky box out and attach telephone line for first time in three years to see if they have sent rude email or something
1854 nothing from sky -> more swearing
1855 Guru suggests that if can’t watch hear better bugger off to Shinjuku to watch there. Much appreciation of the suggestion
1900 (halfway through roast chicken cooking time) still no joy from Sky plus website mentions nothing odd
1905 ok, I realise I have a two month old son at home, but this is the Lions. Off to Shinjuku
1940 arrive Shinjuku, start towards the Clubhouse, number of questions in my mind: 1 can I remember where it is; 2 are they showing it seeing as kick off was 4pm and only sky are so shite as to show it late (uninteresting Japanese baseball deemed more important even though Every. Single. Fecking. Game is available on sky or domestic tv).
1950 arrive Clubhouse, has that ‘things have been watched this afternoon’ feeling about the place. Order beer and ask random punter if they are showing the Lion’s at 8? Affirmative, he asserts.
1953 settle back to watch a bit of the Australia vs. Bangladesh one dayer that is on in the UK.
2000ish notice through the bar that a team in red seems to be playing a team in black at rugby...
2001 someone stretched off the rugby pitch – not nowing anything at this stage assume that this the end of the game and therefore should avoid for a few minutes until they have rewound the tape, or something
2003 unsure as seem to be carrying on
2004 turn to bloke sitting next to me, conversation goes something like this:
Me – is that the Lions?
Some f*cking French C*** - I do not know. I am ear to watch za game of France and za South Africans.
Me – ah, I see.
SFFC – ah you ear to watch za red team?
Me – yes I am, I think they’re showing the match at 8.
SFFC – Zer is no need to watch, New Zealand wins something like 20 to 3.
Me – Oh...thanks...I didn’t know that...

2005 maybe I misheard him. Maybe he doesn’t really know. Let’s watch just to see what happens. All these thoughts go through my mind, but no, I know the result but I am I bound to endure the next 90 minutes or so by the code of watching rugby (same as the code of picking of scabs), I know I don’t want to watch but I have to.

2006-2130 woeful. Just woeful. One of the worst games of rugby I have watched. Ever. All eyes were on Wilkinson at 12, he didn’t have a sparkling game, but it would be unfair to single him out as every single player played badly (except perhaps Ryan Jones who, having nothing to lose, perhaps, gave everything and more).

2215 home and sky still not working
2245 expected dinner of roast chicken salad transformed into pasta and packet sauce as can't be bothered cooking properly now – still, at least the beer bought earlier and the chicken are both still there for tomorrow...

OK, then...

the boss is away on holiday

I'm in charge

the world is my oyster, bwahahahaaaaaa......

(hope nothing goes too wrong)

So a few things to mention this week...

...obviously the first being my total inability to 'mini-post' on this blog through the week so here I find myself again, tapping away at the keyboard on slightly humid but breezy Monday evening.

As mentioned in the last text post (hope you liked the photo's last week), the Friday before last was 'baby head wetting' evening, finally, about six seeks after the youngster was born, but better late than never. As I had announced this over the ether waves, it rapidly became an international affair with various family members, father parental and old drinking cronies deciding that things being as they are, they had better all join me and various august personages in Japan for the head wetting. Except that they were not to do anything as silly as actually come to Japan, oh no, they would raise glasses in whichever part of the UK they found themselves in. Nice work, except for the simple yet complex factor of international time zones. So whilst yours truly was sipping the first of not a few Yebisu beers in downtown Tokyo at 7pm local time, various persons were a loin girding in Blighty so at the appointed hour of midday UK/8pm Japan, we could all raise together.

But this wasn’t wholly acceptable to some who, unfortunately having to work, were not able to fully participate. However best foots were put forward and at least some were able to give it a crack and even, in a couple of cases, contact me via the magic of international subscriber trunk dialling to mobiles, or something, and so whilst I was not too pissed, I was able to talk nonsense to like minded individuals. And then do it all again at 3am Japan time which had been designated official UK toasting time as it conveniently fell at 7pm in the UK, or a nice time to get to the pub. Luckily I was still compos mentis at this time as was able to have quite probably the same conversations I had had not 8 hours before. At least I assume I did, buggered if I can remember.

Also mentioned in the last post was (at the time) forthcoming trip to watch rugby, this year Japan vs. Ireland Except For Their Good Players, who were on a two game tour of Japan as seems to be the want of European teams at this time of year – last year Steve and I got to watch Japan vs. Italy. Anyway Japan got stuffed 12-44 in the first game in Osaka and so all were hoping for a much-improved performance in the second game. And, whilst Japan were stuffed again, they did actually improve and at least take the fight to the Irish, scoring two tries (to seven), something they signally failed to do in Osaka. For Ireland David Humphries overtook Ronan O’Gara as the leading points scorer and, on his two performances, can think himself unlucky that it is O’Gara in New Zealand right now and not him. Japan tried their hardest, but their lot was summed up by this: Ireland kicked downfield from a ruck, the ball didn’t find touch, the Japan back three run it back and as the fullback takes the tackle the chasing Ireland line meets him at the Japan 10m line ahead of the still retreating Japan pack, turnover, two passes, stroll to the corner. Afterwards we carried on the general theme of rugby = drinking by wandering over to Shibuya and visiting this bar, which proved most convivial indeed.

What else? Now I know I seem to mention this an awful lot, but the whole Yasukuni/PM visit thing just won’t go away. The Yomiuri ran a series of articles a week or two ago trying to outline the causes of the issue and something came up that gave me pause. Seems that Yasukuni has only been a bone of contention since about the 1960s. After the war the souls of untold Japanese war dead were enshrined there but at the time the war criminal, as designated by the Tokyo war crimes trials, were not. In the sixties, then, a group representing the bereaved families of crims got together and began to lobby the govt for their ancestors to get some kind of recognition, although as the govt of the day pointed out, this decision was actually to be taken by Yasukuni shrine itself, or rather the priests thereof. So in, in think 1969, they decided to do so. At this stage the paper is unclear if there was much of an outcry, I suspect there probably was, but nothing like today it seems. Also I can’t remember if the article said that PM’s were visiting before the crims were enshrined, but they certainly are now.

Anyway, the interesting point I found out was this. One suggestion been mooted is to dis-enshrine the war crims, making the shrine a sort of tomb of the unknown soldier, but the main opposition to this comes from the group of bereaved families. Their argument, which worryingly appears to accepted at all levels, is that if the souls of their forebears were dis-enshrined, this would be tantamount to accepting the verdicts of the Tokyo war crimes trial. I don’t know about you, but I find it astounding that the country as a whole refuses to accept that they had any responsibility for the war and that the trials, and their outcomes, were not justified. I am sure their were issues with the trials, but to reject any notion of culpability means that these days, I fear, internationally they get what they deserve.

And on that happy note, I shall leave you.

And some of Marcus by himself


Marcus not interested
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Marcus slightly interested
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Marcus very interested
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Marcus' first trip to the Arakawa


Mum with Marcus at the riverbank
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Mum pushing Marcus at the riverbank
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Dad talking to empty pushchair
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

New baby blessing at the shrine photos


Yokosone Shrine
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Mum with Marcus at the shrine
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Dad with Marcus at the shrine
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Lions on the radio

In the usual show of programming license nonsense, BBC five live can broadcast live lions radio commentary over the internet only to listeners in the UK who, of course, can use a radio to listen.

Us poor punters in the rest of the world were buggered, until now...

If you find yourself without radio commentary for the games they're not showing on Sky, go here , find the sports bit and all your lions prayers will be answered.

Two quick things to add...


Congratulations to Brian and Setsuko after the birth of baby number two at 4am last night. Maisie Lillian Smith has entered the world hale and hearty by all accounts, good luck to all concerned.

Here’s a weird one that could, if I had any more examples, be filed under molly-codling-Japanese-state-that-refuses-to-allow-you-responsibility-for
-your-own-life (assuming I had a big enough tab on the file. If you have to have an operation in Japan, especially if you are a Japanese national, you need to get the signatures of three people for it to go ahead. So say you are in hospital for appendicitis, you sign the board, your spouse signs the board and then you need to get a relative as the third signatory. Does that seem weird to you? Seems mighty strange to me, I mean, what if your family has all gone rocker-off and joined a cult that says no to modern medical procedures? Be a bit fucked, I reckon...

To be honest with you...

it's getting pretty difficult to find the time to write long an involved posts about post modern Japan, what with having the young 'un here with us. There are a whole raft of things I want to mention today but, and here I suppose, is the nub, I just can't be arsed to sit here and tyoe for about an hour and a half, penning my thoughts etc, when I could be with Marcus, or probably more important, helping the Guru out.

Just in case you were wondering, by the way, he came out of hospital on Saturday, not exactly witha clean bill of health, but we have ideas about how to keep him healthy, how much and how often to feed him, that sort of thing. Goodto have them back home, obviously, but after haivng spent 2 weeks living by myself it was a shock to the sleep patterns and no mistake.

So anyway, I think we might evolve into a more often but shorter posts type blog, with photos added as well as a way of hiding the fact that I'm not writing as much. Or something.

Other things that I wanted to mention recently but have been too involved with other things to do so are:

1) in the annual survey of what elementary school kids want to be when they grow up (yes, this is an official government survey - what a great job that would be), top of the list for boys was pro-baseball player, closely followed by pro-association football player, nothing too surprising there. For girls, the runaway winner for the eight hundredth year (or however long the survey has been going) was not lawyer, or high powered business woman, or anything interesting at all - it was to be a shop assistant. Looks like women's lib has a looooong way to go here, then...

2) cool biz is here - Kool Kid Koizumi has a plan, and actually it is a pretty good one. To stop everyone using quite so much aircon in the summer, all the politico bigwigs and top business bods are to not wear ties, or hopefully jackets either, through to September. Considering the glut of +30 degree days last summer, this seems a winner to me and I am actively trying to get the company in on it as well. Although this all be an attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that the Kool Kid hasn't actually done anything of note for the last six months (except visit the graves of class a war criminals blah blah blah)

3) the lions are roaring in NZ - except for poor old Dallaglio. But better even than is the fact that I, along with some thousands of others and a few chums, will go to watch Ireland beat seven shades of shit out of Japan on the 19th June (ok, it's not better than the lions being in NZ, but it is still pretty good).

4) golf playing brother, sis in law and godson had their non-demoninational, agnostic naming rite yesterday, in lieu of a christening - went well, by all accounts, as grandfather #1 relayed to me yesterday, though not difficult with the winning equation of warm sunshine, bbq, old farts and red wine. Strangely didn't get a drunken phonecall at 4am telling me I was their 'besht mate', which was disappointing as for one I was up and cradling a noisy infant.

5) Friday this week is to be offical baby head wetting piss up. A bit late, perhaps, but no one seem to know when it should be done. Anyway done it will be, reports to follow.

And that is the lot for the moment. So probably a move away from the Monday evening big post fomula to the rapid reaction force like musings of an off the cuff sort of nature.

Or probably same time next week...

So about having babies...

This blog is in serious trouble of becoming just about Marcus, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll post if I want to, and anyway, we’re still in Japan so it is sort of being about Japan so hopefully the JapanBloggers ring won’t kick me off for not being Japanese-y enough.

So the little chap came home after a week at the hospital. This is the standard time that all new mothers and babies get to stay in hospital as the authorities rightly feel that new mother might just be a little overwhelmed and/or shagged out so feel it best she gets a bit of rest. They do also take the babies away to sleep in a different room at night but do allow mothers to go and breast-feed – so why they just don’t let them sleep in the same room is, well, odd.

Both Marcus and the Guru made good progress after the birth, though getting him to eat was, for some reason, pretty hard work, seemed that he preferred sleeping. Oh well, that will soon pass, and it did so no worries there. Luckily the time he came home was the Golden Week holiday so I got to spend a whole week with him and the Guru after they came home. Before he was born I had had stern words with him that he was not to appear before May 7th as I very much wanted a holiday and a week of doing nothing, but in retrospect it was much better that he came early as I got to spend the time with him, help the Guru so she could get some sleep and learn all the stuff you need to learn in order not to inadvertently drop/maim/hurt in other stupid way your offspring.

Rule number one about having a baby in Japan is this: you are not allowed, on pain of death, to take your baby outside until it is one month old. No questions, no quibbles, no going out before he or she is a month old. Except of course going from the hospital to home (as you are not allowed to give birth at home – hmm, I guess that would be rule number one...ok, the above is rule number two. And, of course, that all pregnant women must wear pinafore dresses and ankle socks, no trousers thank you – that would probably be rule number one. OK, amongst the rules for being pregnant in Japan are such diverse elements as...Oh fuck it I’ll start again!).

No, the one-month thing is an odd one, as every Japanese person (with a baby that I have met) will absolutely not budge on this one. The Guru and I have our Doctor Sears book of which we will take everything as gospel in the bringing up of kids. Every word of it is the literal truth, except the paragraph that says it is ok to take your newborn out of the house after a week or so, this paragraph is obviously wrong, why, I don’t know, but it is. I think it stems from the tradition of visiting your local shrine one month after the baby is born to do the blessing thing. Back in the old days, when large numbers of kids didn’t make it through the first month or so, I can see why this would be a time for rejoicing and general ‘he’s made it this far so hopefully he’s going to be alright’, but in this day and age, with all the medical technology at one’s disposal, it all seems a little unnecessary to me – but who am I to argue with thousands of years of Japanese tradition? (Don’t answer that).

So our trip to the shrine was meant to be the weekend just gone, but unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way. Youngster’s one-month check up was on Tuesday so I, being dutiful, took the day off work and trooped along with the Guru to the hospital to do the necessaries. I had to be there as well, actually, as the Guru was to have her check up as well and someone needed to be on hand to hold the baby – we could have asked m-i-l if she would do it, but relations were a little strained after the 10 days she spent with us looking after the Guru and Marcus.

Anyway the eating problems mentioned earlier hadn’t abated and the youngster seemed to be bringing his milk back up with a touch more regularity, and volume, that seemed necessary. A few questions and a wee prod by the Doc and it was decided that he (Marcus) ought to be admitted for observation and the like. So, observation and tests done (including the unpleasant barium and x-ray one) and the upshot is that the bit between his throat and stomach isn’t quite working properly, meaning that liquids, like milk, have a tendency to flow back up if we’re not too careful. Not panic inducingly bad news, but not great. The good news is that he is still eating and taking milk in as his nappies are full of both kinds of deposits, but just not really enough. So now he and the Guru are onto a strict ‘not too much milk but little and often’ diet, which just means that he’s going to be hungry most of the time, well, until he moves onto solid food, which should have a greater degree on stay-downness, apparently.

Anyway they are still in hospital for more monitoring as this doctor ordered regime now seems to be making the young ‘un lose weight, not a good thing for a one month old, but hey, this is Japan and the Doc is always right, right?

Happy birthday...

...to this blog, which will be two years old tomorrow. Yaay. Cards, presents and donations gratefully received.

Apologies, things going on so no time to write a post this week.

Is time, however, to link to this. Once upon a while ago Josh over at Bondibooks tried to lose me my job by discovering Stick Cricket version 1; now he is trying to break up my marriage by finding the new and improved version 2...

Oh yes...

PS3 (thanks taffy san for the link)

a few more photos for you all, you lucky things...


Big yawn
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

What's going on
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Baby, cake and Kanji 2
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

the birth, part 2

So back to the hospital for about 8pm and by now it seemed that the contractions proper had kicked off. They were coming at the rate of every 6-8 minutes and when they did, the Guru was doubled over in pain – ah this was a bit more like it – was essentially my reaction, no more pussy footing around but the real thing. I am sure that the Guru felt this way as well, but just didn’t tell me at the time.

From about 8 to 11 we were in the family room as there was more space and a window to look out of, but at 11 a nurse came around to tell us that the lights were going out and shop was being shut up for the night, so we could either move to the guest room (was almost exactly the same, only smaller) or wait next to the Guru’s bed (with her in it, obviously) in the pre labour windowless room; hmm, some choice. So, the Guru went to bed, I went to stay with her for a bit and mother in law went for a bit of kip in the family room. Cue more hand holding, a decent bit of rubbing, plenty of pain and no sleep for the Guru for the second night in a row. At midnight I went for a bit of a sleep and the m-i-l took over until 2am, whence I returned to my post – at this point, unable to stand it anymore, the Guru asked to be moved rooms as the woman from earlier was making so much noise in her agony, again one has to wonder why they share rooms.

Between 2 and about 330 not a lot changed, the contractions didn’t speed up appreciably, but nor did they slow down. The m-i-l took over at about 330 with instructions to wake me up about 5, which she signally failed to do and it wasn’t until about 7am that I awoke on the vinyl sofa in the family room – felt a bit bad about this, but I did ask to be woken up. Oh well.

By this stage the contractions were staying at their steady rate and the Guru was getting increasingly worried that she would have to have the baby induced as she wasn’t dilated enough to get the bugger out. These worries, along with various requests and a certain irritability carried on to about 10am, when she went to see the duty Doc. It wasn’t the Ichiro look-alike today, but the Loud One – this was a doc we had seen in the past and he had a tendency to emphasize the occasional word in a sentence by shouting it as loudly as he could. He also talked to you as if you were 12 yrs old, which wasn’t a great combination, but he good news for the Guru was that she was at 7cm by this stage, on course to deliver that day. This made her feel elated for about 10 seconds before she remembered the pain, lack of sleep and then had to walk back to her bed.

From here and for the rest of the morning and afternoon it was a bit like waiting in limbo. The midwives came and went, checking the Guru, checking the baby’s heartbeat, not checking the husband and generally saying, oh yes, we’ll take you through to the delivery room, but I think you’ve got another hour or two to wait. This happened at middy, 1pm, 3pm and 430 and each time I went to the toilet as I didn’t want to have to leave the delivery room mid push to visit the lavvie – the Guru picked up on this and thought I was abandoning her at various times. How untrue. All through this afternoon session was hard work – the guru wanted to get whole thing over with, whilst I wanted her pain to stop. It’s very difficult to watch a loved one in almost constant pain, even if it is exactly what they want to be doing, especially when there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. On the other hand at least the Guru wasn’t getting too angry with me, that was reserved for the m-i-l; after living with the guru for a good few years I have come to realise that she is an adult an that if she wants something she will ask for it. The m-i-l doesn’t realise this and so kept trying to do things for the Guru, like rubbing her back or massaging her calf muscles (she was getting pretty bad cramp – the Guru, not the m-i-l) without asking, about which the Guru got quite narked at times. Me, I just kept out of it and did what I was told, which is perhaps the best thing to do at times like these (i.e. dealing with one’s spouse).

So, at about 515, the call was made and we moved to the delivery room. Now at a point such as this I was expecting the contractions to be huge, roller coasters of pain, rampaging every thirty seconds, but no, the Guru maintained her stately and regal pace of about every 5 minutes. Into the delivery room and with yours truly in tow, which caused a little bit of surprise on the part of the midwives, but no problem, ready to go...

And nothing happened. We went in, the Guru go into the high, legs akimbo chair and then we waited. The first contraction/push happened about 10 minutes after going into the delivery room, then a break of about 6-7 minutes to the next one. After about half an hour you could see the midwives were getting a bit impatient as they kept popping in and then wandering off. It was most disconcerting as I was in there with the Guru, at her head end, not the business end, as it were, and various midwives and doctors came in and gave the Guru’s ‘business end’ the once over, muttered something like ‘good’ and then buggered off again, never really acknowledging there were people involved.

In answer to the question ‘how long does this usually last?’, one of the midwives said about 2 hours was normal and anything over three was getting dangerous. At 2 hours in there was still little sign that the little bugger wanted to come out, but into the last 30 minutes and things really started to hot up. Well, that should be that the guru really started to cramp up, as with every contraction she would be yelling more from the cramp in both calfs than from the birth (it seemed). In the end we had 4 midwives and a doctor in there, mostly holding/massaging the Guru’s legs – on her instructions, she was ordering everybody about, much to the nonplussedness of the Doc.

But even here the contractions were still only coming at about 5 minute intervals, not like any tv/film birth drama I have ever watched. It seemed that the Guru would give one almighty heave or two, everyone would be a flurry of activity, then the contraction would subside and the assembled would stand around looking at each other, whistling, popping out for a cigarette, saying things like ‘how about those Giants?’ until the next contraction came along, wherein everyone would leap into action once again. All very odd.

But get there we did. The final few pushes did come a little bit closer together but in the end the Guru did need a helping hand – so for the final one, one of the midwives actually climbed on top of the Guru and was pummelling her stomach, like giving cpr but a bit lower down. I had visions of the baby being forced out and shooting across the room with the midwives and doc lined up like a slip cordon...

But luckily nothing like that happened and at 8:05 he finally made his entrance into this world – and he looked just like a purple gremlin.

Due south


due south
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

as it says, due south from the balcony, i.e. standing in the 'patio' doors and looking straight out. Fuji is just off to the right, when you can see it (like the photo below) and this is the view we get everyday. the first bit of green after the houses stop is the flood bank, about the height of a 4 storey building with a path along the top which is just fine for cycling or running along. beyond this on the left is the golf course and the right is the local schools' footy pitch, then the river after them. the other side of the river is akabane with a similar large open space and golf course before flood bank set up, meaning that we get uninterrupted views all the way through tokyo. all in all, not a bad little vista...

Photos

Ok, have downloaded a photo doohickey but seem to have layout issues. Will try to sort out when I get the chance, hope you like the few that are here.

Sunset in May, Arakawa River on the left

sunset in May
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Ghostly Mt Fuji in May, from our balcony

Ghostly Mt Fuji in May
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Soon after he was born

Soon after he was born
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Awake at last

Awake at last
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

I thought I ought to share, so here goes. New fangled photo sharing software thing that will probably make the computer crash.

Anyway, here's a test one of Marcus the day after he was born.

The birth, part. 1

So, onto the story of the birth and all that. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get everything down all in one go as now, not so strangely I suppose, time seems to be at something of a premium...

Anyway, as I mentioned when this all started, I was at work on Monday 25th April, as I should have been, whilst the Guru was at home in the final stages of preparation for the birth. The official due date was May 7th, as in yesterday, but for some reason Fuu chan, as he was known then, was in far too much of a hurry to get out and so decided, in his own way, to take things into his own hands. The Guru called me at about 10 that morning to say that she felt ‘odd’, but as she was 8 and half months pregnant, I suspect that she had been feeling odd for a good deal longer than that. Anyway, she said that should oddness maintain itself, she would seek advice from a doctor type personage. Very sensible.

Then at about midday or she calls to say, rather matter-of-factly, I thought, that her waters had broken and that she was having the baby. Don’t Panic!, as numerous bastions of British sitcoms, have shouted down the ages, advice which I did my best to heed, but it was difficult. Actually it was quite easy to deal with as the Guru said, “my waters have broken but not much else is happening, so take your time and get to the hospital when you can”. OK, mild panic, but I did stick around at work long enough to finish off all the absolute necessaries, such as making sure all the teachers got paid (I deemed this to be quite important), but everything else was shelved – to be fair the office closed on the 29th for a week or so, so it wasn’t like there was much to do.

Home I rushed, fast as the Tokyo metropolitan transit systems would get me, pausing only to buy a sandwich to munch as I changed clothes at home. Whilst there the Guru called again to say that, as before, not much was happening, but could I bring a few bits and pieces along with me. So, by about 4pm I got to the hospital to find the Guru and her mother sitting around twiddling their thumbs as, really, not much was happening.

And so it stayed. The mother-in-law disappeared at about 6 as she had only been out and about in Tokyo and wasn’t in a position to stay the night, and then the Guru, after chatting to a midwife, told yours truly to bugger off home for the night as little was likely to happen. Now at this stage I was all for kipping on the floor of the family room, rather than leave my poor, unprotected wife in the hands of evil maternity ward goons. But then reality reasserted itself and off I went with assurances on pain of death that should anything happen I would be called at home.

So by 9pm I was back home, wondering what it was all about. In the end I came to the conclusion that it’s probably for the best if we don’t know what it’s all about, but some hints would be nice.

Tuesday morning, 8 sharp I was back at the hospital. Visiting time on the ward is from midday but I think they make exceptions for spooked gaijin with a wild look in their eyes (or possibly they make exceptions for any father to be whose wife is expecting soon, I don’t know). So, Monday night no calls from the hospital telling me to get there toot sweet (or is it tout suite? Or a combination? Let’s say avec tout vitesse as it sound good), and the reason for this was that still nothing much was happening. Hmmm...

Through Monday night the guru had what she thought were contractions, but they were very faint. Even so, as she thought they were contractions, the Guru had been assiduously noting down when they started and how long they lasted. This she had done through most of the night and so was understandably a bit tired by this stage.

At 10am she went to see the duty Doc, a very young looking bloke who bore a more than passing resemblance to Japanese baseball star Ichiro Suzuki, but paler and less athletic looking. His news was that the Guru’s night of ‘contractions’ weren’t the real thing by a long chalk and although her waters had broken 24hrs ago, she was only about 2cm dilated, not nearly enough to get a baby through, so would we like to have some ‘assistance’ in inducing the baby out?

Hmmm, not really was the reply. What happens if we don’t? Well. The chance of an infection goes up (nothing to worry about as yet) and things take longer, but otherwise not too much. So we decided not to at this stage and, if nothing had happened by Wednesday morning, would rethink the position. So the Guru and I trooped off back to her pre-labour room. As mentioned before, the pre-labour rooms are a bit odd. Two very pregnant ladies share these, but with curtains down the middle, so if one is nearly there and in and later stages of intense agony, the other lady is going to know about it.

In the Guru's room the woman in the other bed was in a similar situation vis-à-vis the water breaking but not much else stakes – but she decided to take the Doc’s inducement and so by Tuesday afternoon we knew all about it and it did not sound good... (but did involve, by the sound of it, an awful lot of rubbing on the part of the husband. What he was rubbing, only he and his wife will ever know, but it was vigorous and went on for a long time, indeed such was the nylon/polyester nature of the hospital provided gowns for the ladies, I suspect that said husband ended up with some pretty severe blisters or burns after all that rubbing – this thought did not fill me with happiness as I pictured myself doing likewise, but with loins girded we entered Tuesday evening).

The afternoon passed listening to other pregant women's descent into agony whilst the Guru wondered if that twinge she felt was the real thing (not judging by the noise next door, we quickly came to realise). The mother in law had returned to the fray earlier so at about 6 yours truly thought it a good opportunity to nip back home for a quick shower and the bite to eat as it looked like being a long night. Back to the hospital at about 8pm to find that the contractions seem to have really started at last. They were now coming at about 8-10 minute intervals and lasting for about 30 seconds or so. This stage was meant to be the haiteeeeee, suteeeee breathing stage. I completely forgot this, as did the Guru, and I only remembered after rereading one of the posts about parenting classes on this blog, I knew there was a good reason for it.

Next: Tuesday night and Wednesday morning...

i have a baby son

i still can't quite get my head around this fact

this might well be because he is still with the Guru in hospital and so i get to see them for only about 8 hours a day, then i come home and live a 'real' life (except the Guru isn't here so i get to fart and burp and play loud music to my heart's content (and of those three 'guy' things to do, baby marcus gets congratulated when he does two of them whereas i find only admonishment - this hardly seems fair))

before marcus showed up i had never held a real baby. i had picked up the oddly weighted plastic one in the 'how to be a parent' classes I & II, but when the opportunity had presented itself to pick a real, living and breathing youngster, i had demurred, feeling, well, scared that i should hold, or more likely drop, a child. but when marcus was born and he was whisked out of the labour room with yours truly to be checked by Ms Weights & Measures (he, not i) he was then passed to me as the present parent - the Guru was still on the slab being stitched up, or whatever it is they do to women in japan after they have given birth. and to hold my son suddenly seemed the most natural and complete thing to do. he was where i was at, totally focused..... no, thinking about it that is not wholly true as is was worried about what was happening to the Guru as well, but pretty well focused.

for the last three days i have been to the hospital to visit the Guru and marcus. they are both in there for the mandatory 5 days that japanese mothers and babies get after the birth and visiting hours are about 12 to 8 or so, so i have found myself there for just about all of the time i could. i take my book to read but all i really want to do is be there with the Guru and hold and look at my son, just stare into his face, watching what's going on. i never thought, for the life of me, that babies were that interesting, and they are not, until you get one of your own.

i will write the story of the birth sometime soon, i reckon, but at the moment all i really want to do is sit down and have marcus in my arms. i am, therefore, turning into a soppy git, but somehow this doesn't seem to be too bad a thing.

He's here...

Marcus Bowdidge was born at 20:05 on Wednesday 27th April 2005 at Saiseikai Hospital, Kawaguchi.

He weighed in at 3,230 grams and was 51 cm tall (or long, or whatever it is).

All appendages were present and correct, as was a fine pair of lungs and a wildly beating heart.

Mother doing well after the first sleep in 58 hours; baby this morning seems to be taking after his father by drinking too much then throwing up; father just relieved, bewildered, confused and feeling useless.

More news, info and, if I work it out, photos, will be posted when I get the time.

Very quickly...

+++newsflash+++newsflash+++newsflash+++newsflash+++

The Guru called whilst I was at work this morning to say she felt something amiss. About an hour later, after talking to someone at the hospital, her waters broke (I don't feel that the person at the hospital was responsible, probably just one of those things). So off she went, then called me to say so, put me into a rush as there were things i had to finish (or no one would be paid - a tough call, but the Guru did say to take my time as nothing much seemed to be happening). Anyway I finished up, rushed home, changed, went to the hospital and, as she said, nothing much has happened since. Indeed I am now back home and therefore able to write this note.

So the waters have indeed been broken, but anything else to do with the birth, such as dilation of the whatnot or the baby being in the right place, hasn't actually taken place as yet. Hmm

"Get some sleep" the Doc said to the Guru, so she told me to go home and get some sleep myself as I looked tired (surely it is meant to be the other way round). So here I am, only a phone call and 5 mintes away from the hospital but not there.

More bulletins as event warrant.

+++newsflash+++newsflash+++newsflash+++newsflash+++

So what’s up, me old China?

I mean come on, ok, we all know about the school textbook issues and the unapologetic Japanese political types, but at the moment it all seems to have got just a little out of hand, don’t you think? I have a very strong feeling that there is something much more sinister and cloak and dagger about the whole thing, indeed the person on the Kawaguchi omnibus (well, the Guru) is as confused as anyone about the apparent sudden upsurge in anti-Japanese feeling, though in fairness it isn’t all that recent as certainly during last year’s Asian footy cup there was a definite backlash towards Japan. This might well have had something to do with Japan beating China in the final with some slightly dodgy goals (though to be fair China weren’t much cop and didn’t exactly deserve to win either). But now we seem to be hitting new heights, as well as more projectiles hitting the embassies and consulates in Shanghai and Beijing.

Among the theories put forward in the media are that:
a) The Chinese are getting uppity at the textbooks in Japanese schools that gloss over or ignore Japan’s somewhat ignoble past. This might hold water except for a few points such as: pretty much every country writes textbooks for its kids that try to portray that country in as good a light as possible (I feel sure that UK texts on the British Empire, if it is still taught, still bang on about how enlightened and forward thinking we all were, but of course); that the text the Chinese are getting uppity about is admittedly a far-right creation but it is only used in a very small minority of private schools; and that Japanese have been using these texts for years but this is the first instance of mass Chinese demonstrations. Odd that.

b) Yasukuni Shrine, and all that was dicussed in more detail here, once upon a time ago and, basically, the Japanese should apologise for what they did. But then again, this does seem to be a bit of pot shouting black as the Chinese aren’t exactly the most benign of people, now are they? Tibet, anyone?

c) It’s all economic – there are a bunch of rocks in the South China Sea, or maybe the Sea of Japan, under which there is, according to those in the know, bounteous supplies of natural gas. The Japanese, not satisfied with discovering gas whilst drilling for onsens next to the Arakawa River, claim these concrete postage stamps for their own, along with all the gas. The Chinese, on the other hand disagree and say it is all theirs. Children, children, just try and learn to share, will you?

d) Japanese militarism – the Chinese, with a standing army of a million souls (or was that the Vietnamese?) is getting worried that Japan wants to remilitarise. Right. Sorry, back to that talking pot again, I mean really, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone threw away their guns. Unlikely, I know, but for China to whip up nationalist fervour because the of what the Japanese might do militarily seems just a mite hypocritical, but hey, they won’t listen to me.

e) The security council issue – as we all know Japan wants a permanent seat on the UNSC, something that yours truly has mentioned before, somewhere, and I agree with China that Japan shouldn’t get it. But nor should China, with their record of uses and abuses. Whose great idea was that? Of course China is worried about its veto being diluted and it having less of an influence in Asia, again seems like a case of share and share alike, though this probably means I am being far too naïve and simplistic, but I find that helps in a lot of situations.

No, I reckon it is something a lot more interesting than all that. That is all just a smokescreen or diversion. I reckon that the waves of liberalisation that have been sweeping China for the last few years have got the old politburo (or whatever they call it these days) in a bit of a dilemma. They like it, but they aren’t sure they are fully in control, especially since, if memory serves, they recently had a jolly big committee session with all the bigwigs with a bit of power changing hands, back room deals, back scratching and the like. So, now the musical-chairs has finished and everyone has had a little time to take stock, some gestures are needed…

So whichever bod is now in charge has to make his mark (I realise that this isn’t very well informed on my part, apologies, I have impending fatherhood to worry about (good excuse that, very flexible and convenient)). An easy way to do this is to take some existing local angst, of which the anti-Japanese one has always been there, fan it a little – for example by getting the Shanghai police to guide the protesters to the Japanese consulate and then stand around and watch them doing slightly unpleasant things to shops signs (and very unpleasant things to two unfortunate Japanese tourists who happened by, probably seeking sanctuary at the consulate as they grew worried about the situation) – and then, when things have got to a reasonably feverish pitch, send in the tanks as Deng Xiaoping did in Tiananmen Square…

Result: Populace gets to blow off a little steam. Govt gets to show who’s the boss with a martial crackdown. Asia (and West) served notice that China won’t be told what to do by anyone. Army happy that they get to push people around again. Conservatives happy that they won’t take no shit from no one. Status quo returned and liberalisations can be (temporarily or permanently) withdrawn. Koizumi happy as he can carry on visiting Yasukuni because if the Chinese govt stopped the protests with force, well, that means they must have been illegal and therefore not representative of the real will of the people. Ditto the textbook writers.

Hmm

So,

Sorry about the lack of posting last week, new toy to play with, even took my mind off GT4 for a while, and then apathy took over, so there you go.

Problem seems to be that not much is happening at the moment. Now I know that this might seem to be a strange thing to say, seeing as baby bogue is now due in less than one month (official due date is Saturday 7th May, if I haven’t mentioned it before, so now actually less than 4 weeks, and as these things (babies) can fall out anywhere from 2 weeks before, it could only be a week until the bugger pops out...what me, panic?), but we’re kind of into that last bit of waiting stage. There is not a lot we can do, except buy more things for him, talk to him and pat him through the Guru’s distended abdomen, but that’s about it. Hmm...

So I suppose I should be going for “now you’re going to be a father, how does that make you feel?” routine, but as I have mentioned in a post somewhere before, deep introspective self reflection is not, and never really has been, a strong point of mine, too busy living in the here and now to worry existentially. Perhaps this is why I have always found philosophy just a little too much like nonsense, for the most part, who knows, but in an attempt to rectify this I have recently got hold of a copy of Albert Camus’ The Outsider, hopefully this will make me take that step towards self actualisation. Or maybe not.

So anyway, may as well make an attempt at ‘how do you feel?’ So still a little bit unconnected, if the truth be told. Part of this might be to do with the fact that I am a foreigner having a baby in Japan, seems there is a lot I could be getting involved in but aren’t because it is all in Japanese and therefore I’m not understanding it. This is a distinct possibility but it is hard to put your finger on it, just a vague sense, I suppose, but then again, this could easily be a feeling common with all fathers to be. The whole pregnancy care thing in Japan is, I must say, pretty darned impressive. The Guru is jolly close to birth and therefore is trotting waddling off the hospital every week for scans and proddings from the various doctors, midwives, health care professionals and probably cleaners who are involved with this sort of thing. In the UK, as far as I know, pregnant women get two scans in the whole 9 months (or 10 months, if you count it the Japanese way (no, I don’t get it either)), so to get 4 in the last month seems pretty good going to me. I hope these scans aren’t like x-rays... never thought about it before... surely they wouldn’t... Also, as mentioned before, the hospital is all jolly new, clean, spic-and-span as the old saying goes, and full of machines going ‘ping’, which leads me to think she will be in safe hands when the day finally comes, certainly safer than in any British hospital I’ve ever been into, I’m sorry to say – not that my experience of hospitals in the UK is that extensive, but I’ve been into enough for me to realise that I’d never want to end up in one for any length of time.

So am I worried? Well, again I don’t really think so as it seems to be something that is going to happen, inevitably, and I have no real concept of what the aftermath is going to be like, except for the supposition/fact that I’m probably not going to get much sleep to begin with. Also, and I know this is probably a crap thing to say, but work is pretty busy at the moment, and I’m trying to get the final assignment finished (final except for a year spent on the dissertation, that is), so I find myself quite busy at the moment and waiting for the term to end, which it will do about a week before the youngster is officially due, so my mind, perhaps being “typically male” and therefore unable to multitask, is compartmentalise the various parts into: work –> finish work –> week off –> baby born –> life never same again so watch out!

Of course I realise that the section entitled ‘week off’ will be nothing of the sort and I am sure things will be found to keep me busy, even if it will be the first time in two years I won’t have to open a text book on a day off. Anyway various colleagues have had babies in the recent past, one in mid February, so the Guru and I went to visit them a few weekends ago and their daughter, Sofia Hana, was a little bundle of joy but even though I am having a similar one of my own pretty soon, I was still most apprehensive about picking her up, mainly as, still, I have yet to hold a really baby, so am still a little unsure as to how it is done (along with, and this is the point, I think, just about everything else connected with newborns). I’ve tried the weirdly weighted plastic ones we did the bath training with, but they didn’t move, smell, dribble on me etc, so what a real one is like, I have no idea. I could have pick Sofia up, but couldn’t quite bring myself to, hopefully this worry will pass when ours arrives next month, indeed I am sure it will, but still, it worries me.

Like any parent-to-be I have thought, and think, about what I want to do with the baby after he has been born, but as the Guru pointed out to me, all the sorts of things I have mentioned to her are when the baby has grown to be a boy and we can go off and have adventures. She, it seems, has thoughts and ideas about what she wants to do in the weeks and months after the baby is born. For me I have absolutely no idea what this time will be like so can’t really envisage what I will be doing with the little mite in this time. Teaching him to ride a bike, no problem. Kicking rugby balls and footballs around, dates marked in my mental diary already. Googly out the back of the hand and clean through a firm forward defensive, oh yes indeed. Changing nappies and watching him crawl, no point of reference so can’t visualise myself being there or doing it except in a very hazy and abstract way of ‘I guess I’ll be doing that sort of stuff’. For learning curve read learning cliff face, I fear.

But looking forward to it all I most certainly am.

ah,

sorry, no post tonight, i have a new toy. in anticipation of the birth of the youngster (now only 1 month away...help) we have bought a digital video camera doohickey. this means lots of playing about and, hopeful, eventually, pictures on this blog.

you heard it here first...