X-Mas Day

Our first Christmas in Japan (and Sean's first on the planet) is now in the record books. We had a very good one. I am not sure that Sean quite got the whole concept - come to think of it the idea of putting paper on toys and sticking them under a plastic tree in your house is a little strange. He may be smarter than us.

As expected, Sean got about three times as many toys as he needs. Special thanks to friends and family for everything that was sent. We actually had to hold a few things back for his Birthday in January. We only have so much room. Believe it or not one of his favorite toys was as follows:

The kid seems to have an interest in music so we wanted to get him something to help cultivate it. I wanted a drum set but we decided on a little keyboard that has all kinds of buttons that make noise:

This is Sean opening one of his gifts. He didn't quite get the whole wrapping thing - who can blame him. He got a lot of barnyard themed toys from his Grandad in Iowa, this was one of them. An Iowa them I suppose.

One last toy worth mentioning. One of our friends/neighbors gave him this thing and it was a big hit. He pushes it all over the apartment making quite a racket:

Santa was also very good to Tracy and I. We had a new camera under the tree so you can expect some bigger and badder pictures from us in the near future!

X-Mas Eve

We had a very good Christmas Eve. Unfortunately the Japanese don't really celebrate Christmas so it was just another regular workday for me (although I am taking Thursday and Friday off). It seems strange to have to take vacation for Christmas, but oh well.

I got home from work around 6:30 and Sean was in front of the TV dancing to a Mary Poppins song (funny video to be posted later). Tracy was making some of my favorite Holiday snacks. This is very difficult to do in Japan - we don't have a local Hy-Vee or Wegmans here. Tracy gets an A+ for making it feel like home.

We had a great dinner and for some reason Sean was particularly entertaining. Some days he is just en feugo.

We got in the mail as a gift some matching Christmas pajamas. We put them on and hung out a bit before Sean's bedtime.

After Sean went to bed we spent the rest of the night wrapping gifts and hanging out. It was not like being back home but I really enjoyed it. It is fun having Sean around this year.

Decade

On December 19, 2008, Pat and I celebrated ten years of marriage. And thanks to the thoughtful planning on Pat's part it was an amazing day. He was very secretive about the whole thing in the days leading up to the 19th and I knew we were going to do something but I had no idea the extent of the plans he made.

Pat started the day with a special email giving me my "directions" for the day. He came home from work around 1:30 ( a treat in itself as we rarely see him before 7 on most nights). Sean Patrick was in the child care center downstairs because I had a language lesson. Pat ushered me out of the apartment and escorted me to my first appointment. He scheduled a massage, facial, manicure and pedicure to fill up my afternoon. AHHH... glorious time alone. I had a typed sheet of paper with my directions to guide me to each appointment. While I enjoyed the "day of beauty, " Pat took care of Sean and ran some errands for me (what a super guy).

After all the relaxing I came home and got dressed for the evening. We got Sean ready for bed and the babysitter arrived. Below is a picture by our Christmas tree right before we left for the night.A taxi was waiting downstairs for us. A taxi is a treat because we usually take the trains, which is fun too, but more of a problem when wearing heels.

Around 7:30 pm we arrived at the Portopia Hotel in Kobe. We had reservations at restaurant on the 31st floor by the name of Alain Chapel. The restaurant's namesake was a famed chef in France who was a Michelin 3 star rated chef. Of course, all of this was lost on me at first as I just associated Michelin with tires and not food. Fancy, schmancy I am not. But, let me tell you, tires or no tires that chef earned the props because YUM-O! Incidentally, the poor chef is dead and probably appalled at my "yum-o" declaration.

Pat and I have had the opportunity to eat at many nice restaurants, and this one definitely rates as the best. The food was incredible but the stellar service put the place over the top. Pat choreographed the evening quite well, paying close attention to detail, and the staff at the restaurant were just as concerned that everything play out as planned.

We sat at a window side table and enjoyed the nighttime view of Osaka Bay. We ordered a set menu that had at least 6 courses...maybe 8, I lost count. At one point in the evening, Pat left the table and when he came back he had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers that he had delivered earlier to the hotel. At first I looked around the room to see if everyone had flowers. I thought maybe it came with the meal. I kept asking Pat, "No really where did they come from?"

Pat even arranged for a special dessert of Cherry Jubilee. As we were finishing off champagne and dessert one of the staff asked if we wanted to move to a lounge area that had another incredible view. It was just us in the lounge, sipping champagne when Pat then gave me a beautiful gift (hint: a girl's best friend). The lovely staff came to check on us and then offered to take our picture. She impressed Pat as she changed the settings on our camera to try to capture the perfect shot. We had to explain to her that our camera does not do well with night time photography. She took quite a few pictures trying to get it right.

It was really an incredible day and night. I am so appreciative of the care that Pat took to make sure things went perfectly. It has been an exciting 10 years. This year of course has been extra special because of the addition of Sean Patrick. Life is good and it was nice to slow down on Friday and really enjoy it.

Biped in Training

This kid is very close to walking. It seemed to really pick up last Friday night. When you compare this Friday video with one from Monday it's pretty cool - good progress over the weekend. Basically he can now take two or three steps. Tracy and I sit a few feet apart and he makes laps between us. After the completion of each journey he gives us the biggest smile and sometimes a laugh. He is clearly enjoying it. He needs to work on getting his feet straight before taking that first step. He sometimes trips himself up. It will be soon, very soon.

These first two videos are from last Friday evening. As you can see he needs a little encouragement but seems to be having a good time. He starts off here holding on the AC unit. He loves to hold onto things and walk around the room.

This second video is also from Friday and was taken just seconds later than the first.

The next two videos are from Monday of this week. After a weekend of practice you can see how much better he is doing. And of course, he is still having a blast.

Kobe Luminarie

On Saturday we went to the “Kobe Luminarie” with some friends. The KL is a huge light festival held downtown. The festival is held every December. Its purpose is to commemorate the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Each light in the display is hand painted and they were donated by the Italian government as a way to lift the spirits of the Japanese people after the earthquake. The lights are only up for a couple weeks in December and are only turned on a couple hours each day.

A little about the earthquake (I will write more about it in January). It struck Japan on January 17th 1995 and destroyed a good part of the city. Over 6,400 people lost their lives. It crazy to think that just 13 years ago many of the parts of the city we now visit for dinner and shopping was once in ruins. This was the worst earthquake in Japan since 1923 and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "costliest natural disaster to befall any one country."

I don’t know exactly how many people were there at the light festival – but it is safe to say many thousands. According to the website, last several hundred thousand people visited on one Saturday night. The roads were closed and we had to walk 1-2 miles to get to the actual display. The entire walk was wall to wall people. One of the things that we noticed was how quiet and orderly the entire process was. People were talking softly, the line was moving quickly, etc. I think if we did this same thing back home with several hundred thousand of our closest friends the line would be a little more “animated”.
The actual display was worth the wait. It reminded me a little of Freemont Street in Las Vegas except without the sound effect and “flash”. This was a little a little more artsy and respectful.

After the display we went with our friends to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Another awesome meal. After a couple hours out in the cold the spicy food hit the spot.

Upcoming R&R

We now have our first trip outside of Japan planned. We are going to Thailand in early February (by then all the civil unrest should have calmed down!!). We picked a resort in Phuket. It's on the Southwest coast of the island on an 850 meter beach in Kata Noi bay. It's looks like a nice secluded area. Warning to all travelers expecting a nice relaxing trip to Thailand in February - there will be a very active 1 year old coming your way.

The trip is planned for 6 days. We don't really know what we will do while we are there - but hopefully it involves a whole lot of nothing. Tracy's dream vacation includes a beach, a book, and a fruity drink. The beaches in Thailand are beautiful so I don't think meeting those requirements will be a problem. I am just not sure how the little guy fits in!

This is a picture of the beach.

Cool New Ship

As you probably know by now I am a big fan of the ships. For the past few weeks our view of Kobe has been partially blocked by a great big ship with a huge tower on it. I have been trying to figure out what it is. Finally last weekend I walked over with Sean to take a look at it. The mystery is solved.

The ship is a deep sea drilling vessel called the “CHIKYU”. It is used for scientific purposes to drill down into the ocean floor (up to 7,000 m) for the purposes of studying earthquakes, global changes, the origin of life. You know, little things like that.

The ship looks pretty cool – its about 210 meters long, and is 30 stories tall at its highest point. (by the way – I know what you are thinking, what the heck is a meter). It has a crew of 150 people. There is also a cool helicopter landing pad on the front.

It turns out that on its last mission it damaged part of a whiz-bang propulsion system it has that keeps the ship perfectly still during drilling. It is now docked on Rokko Island for repairs. Sounds like it will be here until March.

Thanksgiving

We actually had a very nice Thanksgiving here in Japan. We celebrated on Sunday instead of Thursday. None of us had any time off during the week - Thursday was just another day. The pilgrims did not stop off in Japan on the way to the US so the idea of Thanksgiving is not big over here.

Before having a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings we played football with some friends. Sean's hands are a little small, but he has a decent grip. It is too soon to say what position he will get a scholarship for.

There is a park on the island where we tossed the ball around. It is near the apartment of our friends who hosted the dinner. The weather has gotten cool lately so we have to bundle the little guy up when we head out. He seems to enjoy the hat and gloves. I know his mom loves putting them on him.

The dinner was great. It was nice to have most of the comfort foods of home. Of course we still missed spending time with family and friends from home, but it was the next best thing. Sean can certainly say that he had an interesting first Thanksgiving.

Pizza Scooter

Yes, you can get pizza in Japan. It just get delivered in a method different than what you are used to. You cant see it, but the helmet even says Pizza Hut. Very cool.

I have never actually seen one of the restaurants here, only the scooters. Do they really exist?

Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?

You take a lot of things for granted being in your home country. When you live as an Expat you find yourself saying most of the time “this is a piece of cake” – living in a foreign country that it. Every once in a while you have a day that brings you back to reality. Thursday was such a day. I drive to work every day. Sometimes I carpool, sometimes I go by myself (it depends on my schedule). Lately my hours have been strange so I drive by myself.

Thursday morning I left the apartment and got on the Expressway that takes me to the office. We live on an island and there is a long bridge that connects us to the main land. As I was about ½ way across the bridge the car sputtered and died. Luckily the car is a hybrid so it has a battery. I was able to limp along at about 20 km/hr until the next exit (with cars whipping by me). The picture is the actual bridge.

I got off at the exit, made my way down off the bridge, got out into a busy intersection, and then………..the battery died. So there I am stuck in the middle of a busy intersection with no way to move. I kicked on the blinkers and sat wondering what to do next. Luckily a couple nice guys from a truck behind me and came and helped me push the car to a side street. After they pushed me off the road they disappeared back into the crowd.

So there I was. What to do now? I do not have Japanese AAA. I do not know who the hell to call. I tried my Admin aide. She did not answer the phone. I called Tracy. Other than sympathy (and probably an internal chuckle) she did not have much. Luckily I was able to get in touch with a co-worker who lives in the same building. She offered to stop and get me.

Sounds simple right? No, it is not. I did not have an address where I was. There are no street signs in English. I did not remember what exit I got off. I told here “I am under the big bridge, next to a factory, by a big tower”. Not much to go on.

The only way to reliably get around by vehicle here is with GPS and a phone number. So I had to find a phone number for her to plug into here GPS to find my location. Unfortunately it was early in the morning so none of the local businesses were open.

Finally I found an open door. There was a guy behind the counter. “Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?” I said. I got a blank stare than an “iie”. I asked if he understood English and he said no. Crap. I made some sign like a telephone and finally he figured out I needed a phone number. By the way – Tracy and I will be experts at charades when we get back.

I got the number and my ride found me after about 20 minutes. I cleaned out the broken car, threw the keys in it, and left it on the side of the road.

What would have been a non-event in the US was quite an ordeal here in Japan. It was a small reminder that we are strangers in a strange land.

It was an interesting start to the day. It did get better thankfully………..

Mom and Dad Aren't the Only Ones With Date Night

Sean has his first date last week. The daughter of one of our friends came down for a visit while her mother ran some errands. Tracy was on hand to document the hilarity. Her name is Abby and she is just over one year old. Sean seems to really like company

From the pictures and video (even funnier) that Tracy took the two kids had a good time together

Part of their time was spent chasing each other through Sean's tunnel. Funny stuff.

Seasons

Before moving here we really weren't sure what to expect in terms of weather. Will we actually see seasons? The answer is yes! Over the past couple weeks the leaves on at least some trees have changed. Tracy took a few pictures:

The mountains above the city still look pretty green, but there are specs of color. We will see what happens with time.

I did a little more investigation. The latitude of where we live is about the same as the North Carolina/South Carolina border. That gives us another idea of what to expect. To be more exact we are at 34°41'27"N - about halfway between Charlotte NC and Columbia SC.

View Larger Map

If you click on the map above it will let you explore around our home a bit. The "A" bookmark in the middle is our actual apartment building. You can zoom in and get a good view of it.

Dinner - Robatayaki

FINALLY after my two week vacation in Korea life returns to normal (at least as normal as we get). Saturday night was date night again. We left Sean in the capable hands of his baby sitter and Tracy and I took our friend from NY into Kobe.

This week we chose a cooking style called Robatayaki. I will try to describe it for you. It was a small restaurant with a U-shaped table in the middle. Around the table was probably 20 seats. In the center stands the cook in front of a grill. Surrounding him is a display of all kinds of food items - meat, fish, and vegetables. All of the food is raw. There is no menu or prices to be found. All you do is point at what you want, he grabs it, and throws it on the grill. Once it is done he pulls out a big wooden paddle that looks like a boat oar, puts the cooked food on it, and passes it to you (all without leaving his station).

We had all kinds of good stuff - chicken kabobs, steak, scallops, potatoes, salmon, mushrooms, asparagus, ..... We tried just about everything except some items with suction cups. It was a cool atmosphere and really good food. Also as usual we were the only foreigners there and the other diners seemed to have fun watching us.

A little history - Robatayaki takes its name from the Japanese words ro and yaki. The former refers to a square hearth around which peasants would gather for warmth and cooking. Yaki means "grilled," and in the old days the grilling would have been done over charcoal.

The picture above was our chef Saturday evening. He is standing behind the grill and you can see the food all around him. Just point and he throws it on the grill! Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the paddle.

Here are the three of us after a great meal!

Saturday Afternoon

We had a friend from New York in town the weekend. We took him around Kobe. On Saturday we went back to China Town for a nice "street meat" lunch then we went back down to Harborland to walk explore. It was a great day with temps in the 60's and the sun was shining. As you can tell Sean was really excited about the day:

There are lots of tour boats in the area - we have yet to try one. I think they just tool around the harbor. Some also offer dinner cruises. I liked this particular boat. The building you see in the background is a nice hotel right on the water.

There was a band setup along the water. They had a little portable generator powering the equipment. I would assume they were going to play until they ran out of gas! We sat and listened to the band for a while.

Sean was back awake and seemed to enjoy the music. There were also a lot of seagulls and pigeons around. He enjoyed watching them.

Saturday Breakfast

Let me just say that my breakfast time this Saturday was a heck of a lot more fun than the last couple in Korea. Note the oatmeal on the nose.

mr. personality

This is Tracy.  As you can see by the previous picture we have quite a little ham on our hands.  Since he started smiling he has been quite generous with them, but during the past few weeks something has changed.  

He is becoming such a little boy.  He is smiling or laughing a large percentage of the time.  He crawls so fast and is showing more interest in walking.  He has been cruising around the furniture since we arrived in Japan, but now he seems to hold on and run around the ottoman. It really scares me to be quite honest, because I see a my future as one big chase the baby routine as he runs circles around me.  

He is intensely interested in the world around him and what a world we have given him to explore here in Japan.  We spend our weekdays rolling out of bed between 6:30 and 8:00.  A few days a week we go for a jog.  He rides in his stroller, sitting up, holding on and sometimes rocking back and forth trying to get me to go faster.  He loves to look over at our friend who runs with us and flash his smile.  

Lately, we like to lunch.  Indian food is our favorite.  He loves the naan.  Today we went out for ramen and fried rice.  He likes to slurp the noodles.  He also is rather grabby so at the Indian food restaurant he dumped a glass of ice water on himself and today he dumped a bowl of noodles on the floor.  

Pat arrived home a couple of days ago and Sean gave said "daddy" for real.  He also took two steps into his arms a few hours into the evening.  The child seemed to know what the perfect welcome home would be.  

He also has started to be quite amused when Pat and I kiss each other.   He gets this silly looking grin on his face and sometimes lets out a goofy laugh. 

And just so you are not mistaken...he still wakes up a million times a night, he bites me, he is teething and crying a little more than normal.  I mean he is not perfect, but he is just perfect for us.  

When The Cat is Away

The picture is what happens to Dad's electronics when he is out of town.

My two week vacation is over and life should return to normal soon.

Mary Ellen Shinks Carrothers

Born in Waukegan, Illinois on June 28, 1947

Departed on November 6, 2006

We miss you Mom. I know you are smiling down on Sean Patrick!

Kobe Beef

It seems like we end up writing about food quite a bit, but oh well. We plan to eat our way around Japan. Last weekend we had a friend of ours from New York in Town. He stayed the weekend and we got to hang out on Friday and Saturday night. It was really good to catch up.

Friday night we laid low. We got takeout food from a bar/restaurant nearby and brought it up to the apartment. We pretty much just hung out on the deck, had a couple beers, and ate a nice meal.

On Saturday I brought my friend into Kobe for the day. We stopped at one of my favorite place - it is an electronics store, like a Best Buy or Circuit City. I can spend all day in one of those places (nerd alert).

Saturday night was dinner at a Kobe beef restaurant. The place was great. We each ordered from a course menu. Tracy had a seafood and sirloin. My friend and I had an all beef set. We shared a table with another Japanese couple who seemed to be looking at us and smirking a lot. I have no idea what they were saying. There was one chef at the table who cooked everything for us - so you got a little entertainment.

This was one of Tracy's - it is a Prawn, a really big Prawn. The guy served it up whole - eyeballs and legs included. Tracy did a good job of eating the good stuff out but didn't touch the legs or eyeballs. After few minutes of letting it sit on her plate the chef took it off her plate and threw it back on the drill. He then carefully trimmed off the legs and gave it back to her. I am sure he was thinking "eat it you squeamish American". She obliged. I think that was her first eyeball in Japan

Note the bibs. I don't know why we needed them, but everyone else was wearing them.

My friend and I outside the restaurant on the street.

Another home run meal for us.

Winnie The Poo

They had trick or treating in our building on Thursday night. Sean was WTP and Riley had her pumpkin costume on. Once Sean got used to his new digs he seemed to enjoy it. Every time someone came to the door Tracy would grab Sean and he would help hand out the candy.

Sean is not afraid of Dracula..............................

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a nice, peaceful day. The weather lately has been outstanding - around 75 and sunny. We decided to stay on the island for the day and had a nice day down at the park. We grabbed some sandwiches and had a picnic. Out in the river mall area they were having some kind of an arts festival. That is this fist picture. The building in the background is our apartment.

The river mall has all kinds of cool fountains. Here are a few examples.

We got down to the park at the end of the island and there was all kinds of ship traffic. This is a big container ship heading out to sea. They really move for how big they are.

We found a nice park bench to have our lunch on. Sean is a big fan or being outdoors and watching the people, boats, etc. There were a lot of people out fishing that day.

One the walk back we passed a skate park. It was fun to watch so we stopped, watched, and took a couple pictures. I think the kids were amused to have some forefingers watching and taking pictures of them. They started to really show off for us. There was this one kind wearing a red shirt and on roller blades that was particularly daring (crazy). The picture does now do it justice.

Buffalo Wings in Japan

Saturday night was date night #3. We got invited to a Buffalo Chicken Wing party in Kobe. It was at a small cafe where a lot of the guys I work with hang out. It was fun to see a lot of the guys and girls outside of work. It did not feel like we were in Japan for a couple hours. We had beer, chicken wings, and pizza. It was a small place that couldn't hold all of us so we spent a lot of time standing in the alley outside. We kind of took over the road. Every once in a while you would see a car coming up the road - about 1/2 of the time the driver would turn around when they saw the large group of foreigners standing in the road. The other (braver) half would inch their cars forward until the seas parted. Sometimes you would even get a horn honk, very un-Japanese. A good time and we found a new fun place to go.

Doggie Drive Through

Very interesting - the local McDonald's on the island does not have a drive through window. Instead it has a dog walk up window. It is very handy when you are out walking the dog and are jonesing for a burger. How cool is that - a dog drive through!

Work Week

I had a pretty cool week at work. On Wednesday we celebrated a big milestone in our plant's construction. To mark the occasion we had a Shinto priest come in and perform a prayer ceremony. The entire ceremony was in Japanese but we had a translator for myself and a few other English speaking folks. The ceremony was very interesting for me. It was very well choreographed with lots of prayers, chants, bowing, standing, sitting, and clapping. I was told to be safe just do everything that the Japanese guy in front of me did. That made it easy - no International incidents to report. The ceremony was great, and the milestone we were celebrating was even better. The job is really getting interesting. It may seem a little strange to have a ceremony like this, but doing some reading I found "Moreover, every Japanese car factory built in the United States or away from Japan has had a groundbreaking ceremony performed by a Shinto priest, with occasionally an annual visitation by the priest to re-purify".

China Town on Sunday

On Sunday we went back into Kobe to check out China Town. It's in the same general area where we had gone to dinner on Saturday night. It was fun to go back in during the day. It is just as crowded, but the demographics are a lot different (less drunks). This is Tracy and Sean in Sumiyoshi station waiting for the next train to Sannomiya station. Sean like any kid seems to like the trains.

Sean and Tracy hanging out on the train. As you can see the train wasn't that crowded that day. We call Sean a rock star because he gets a lot of attention from the Japanese - especially the older generation. He can make the grumpiest of old Japanese men smile. We were joking about what a rough transition it will be for him to go back to the US and be just a "normal" cute baby again.

This is the East entrance into China Town. We thought the gate was pretty cool. We hadn't had lunch yet so our mission was to find some street food to eat. China Town did not disappoint.

Check out the crowds. It was tough getting around with the stroller. It was a lot of fun and we had lots of cool street food. Lunch on a stick!