Fat burning commutes

Our house, each childcare facility, and workplace are each in different areas, so we have tried lots of methods of transportation. In our circumstances a local would definitely use a bicycle with two children's seats attached. (A few would use a car, especially on rainy days. We don't have a car or want to drive here). Kids would probably wear helmets but not the parents. Adults sometimes wear helmets for sporty bicycle use, but use with the usual "Mama Chari" like I have it is pretty rare. When I happened to ride by the City Hall when there was a cameraman taking footage of the bike lanes on the side walk, the director spotted me coming and I heard him say "get a shot of that foreigner with the helmet!" Not only do I fear for my own head, I definitely do not feel confident enough to carry my kids, helmet or no. I know it's probably safer than when we drive in the US, but I've seen too many people tip over their bikes that are off balance with the weight of children. For a short period it was illegal to carry two children on a bike, but it was revoked; it was just too difficult for many parents to get their children to preschool.

Luckily I have found that I can park my bike and ride it to school after dropping off the kids. Most of this ride is away from cars and is an amazing birdwatching experience along the river.



Not to mention pretty good exercise.

When we are with the kids our most common choice has been the bus. Maia recognizes the icon that gives us preferential seating:




Some locals get irritated by the buses, mostly because they can suddenly become very crowded with tourists in certain seasons or the day of some event on that route. And there is usually at least one major tourist destination on every route. But from my perspective it is pretty amazing that the buses almost always arrive on the minute for which they are scheduled and move along the routes quickly (and they don't wait for people running for the bus). A pretty neat thing about Kyoto buses is that 20% of their fuel is recycled frying oil! Kyoto has embraced its role in in the Kyoto Accords and tried to make "Eco" both a buzz word and reality. Under one initiative, they started urging the collecting of frying oil from restaurants and individual homes around the city which is then processed and added to the bus fuel. This program has been used since 2000, and Kyoto City created their own standards to regulate the fuel content. Http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025875.html

It being Japan there is of course special mascot figure for this program.

Unfortunately the national transportation bureaucracy just came up with its own diesel standards which do not allow for such a high cooking oil content, meaning the buses are now only 5% tempura oil fueled instead of 20%. People are worried that this will get people out of the habit of collecting the oil -- it's not exactly easy to get your used oil into a can and lug it to a collection point. Deep frying is a really popular cooking method here, though we don't use it much at home. Still we often partake of the amazing fried chicken (kara age) at a nearby low-end restaurant, with hopes that we can make up for it with other healthy eating and exercise.

This leads to the other commuting method - walking. Really you can walk anywhere in central Kyoto in under and hour. My cell phone has a pedometer, and I find that even when using trains and buses, I end up walking over 10,000 steps a day. I don't know how far that is, but it sounds impressive! Because of all the walking and shrinking hips that result, my pant cuffs are all wearing out.

Maia and Sam love to eat and can get away with it. Here's Sam topping off a huge meal of carbonara and meat covered pizza (at LEAST one adult serving combined) with a four scoop bowl of gelatto!



And Maia always eats with some food in each hand, and maybe some on her nose.

Stage Fright?

The latest Youchien event was the Happyoukai, an annual recital, where each class performs a play and something musical. Given the painful spectacle of the Undokai in the fall, we dreaded this pretty heavily. Sam's role was as a bear in a play about making a sponge cake out of a giant egg that has fallen into the forest. He was supposed to say "Suponji keeki ni noseyou" (let's put it on the sponge cake) and then put the green whipped cream on the cake. He talked about this quite a bit at home and played at cake making and on. He would sometimes say his line in a loud voice, and also ad lib a bit, changing it to "nosete kudasai" (please put it on the cake) or "keeki ni noseba" (why don't you put it on the cake - in a rather detached way). Or with some nonsense endings. He also said other people's lines. But he never said the line in any practice at school and told me that he could do it at home but not at youchien. Sure enough, he didn't say it during the performance, though he did actually stand on the stage (minus the bear ears) and carefully put his green cream on the cake.




He didn't really want to come back on stage and for the final eating of the cake and he was a little unclear about how to exit the stage causing some nervous moments for his parents as he peered over the front of the stage as if about to jump. But there was no crying or thrashing at least. For the songs he just sat looking bored and picking his nose while all the other kids sang or shook an instrument. It looks like he just doesn't know the songs, but in fact his silence is quite deliberate and stubborn. He said in Japanese "Sam doesn't do that" and "Urusai" (noisy and irritating).

Well, I guess my son is not meant to be a child star. But he did enjoy when they made a TV show on our street a few days later.

Like at undokai, I was truly amazed by the performances of the 5 year olds (equivalent age of US kindergarten). In their skits they said complex series of lines as they went back in time to see the era of Shinran (played by a little girl) to better understand his accomplishments. The final number performance was an amazing taiko drum performance in which all of the kids at that age participated. I could have imagined it maybe as the recital of a special drum class, but that the entire age group could take turns doing a pretty complex set of drumming rhythms and movements was impressive. I recall that at the same age, I had the starring role in our Christmas play as Mary. This just meant I sat holding a plastic baby doll, usually fighting over it with the boy playing Joseph. This was definitely more impressive!

Ebi Fry

For the end of 2008 beginning of 2009 we went to Tokyo.

Walking along the edges of the hordes going for their first temple visit of the year at Sensôji, we played in open areas along the Sumida River. The Asahi Super Dry building is one of the modern landmarks of the Asakusa, Sumida Park area. It is one of two Asahi buildings designed by Philippe Starck (the gold and silver one to the left is supposed to be a mug of frothy beer). It is, some say, supposed to represent foam being blown off a frothy head of beer. Or perhaps an Olympic flame in honor of the hard work of the developers of Asahi's beer "Super Dry." It is more popularly known as "the golden turd." My friend worked in the building for awhile, and she said it was quite an interesting sight to watch a special crew polishing it! We asked Sam what it was, suspecting the usual observation, but he said it was "ebi fry" (breaded fried shrimp). He really wanted to go up inside the "ebi fry."


Alway, putting a positive spin on things. Or else just hungry.

Hmm

One of Sam's classmate's mothers keeps saying we should get Maia Japanese modeling jobs since she's cute and the magazines often use foreign models. The fact that she's had a runny nose for what seems like months might be one obstacle to that. But based on this, I think Pro Wrestler might be more in the cards for her!



Women's pro wrestling is, or last I knew was, really popular in Japan. Perhaps some remember that the notorious Tonya Harding was offered a job in Japan along those lines after she was booted from figure skating.

This is not to suggest that Maia is not quite the elegant young princess. She now does a sort of bow/curtsy type of thing when you say "konnichiwa" (hello) or "arigato" (thank you). And when you walk through a crowd she waves both hands and looks around smiling at the adoring masses.

Maia's Birthday

Well, I know the idea of this is that you post things right after they happen and so on, but life is hectic. And Maia has gotten interested in typing.

Lovely Miss Maia had her first birthday back in October. She started walking at age one year one day (now she's on the run).



Sam had been reading a picture book with a great picture of a birthday cake covered with fruit, including melon slices, grapes, and so on. We could not find that one, though maybe we'll find something like that for his birthday. I'm thinking we'll order something for him from the nice bakery near his bus stop where he waits to come home from Youchien. One day he took off his backpack and left it near their shop. We thought it had been left on the bus and so explored that option for awhile, and then called the shop using the number on one of the many point cards they have given us for our previous business. Sure enough when they went outside, now in the dark, to look it was still there. A similarly impressive lost and found experience was when I dropped my Foreigner Registration Card, which one is supposed to carry at all times and takes a month to get, in a taxi. I had not chatted with the driver at all, but he came to my office building where he had dropped me off and found me. He even bowed (as did I). In NYC I'm sure you would hand him a wad of of bills, but this would be considered rude here, implying he would only do things like that for monetary reward.

Anyway, after taking her for an outing to the Kitano Tenmangu flea market we shopped for some cake with fruit on it. I knew there was a Fujiya bakery near the station, and Fujiya is a classic Tokyo store that helped to popularize the ubiquitous strawberry cream cakes that are usually excellent. We picked out a few individual cakes of that sort and let her at it.



I only learned later that Fujiya is a bit in the dumps after a scandal last year over using expired cream and allowing too much bacteria in their cakes. Given what Maia did to it, I'm sure there was new bacteria in it anyway, but I felt rather guilty.



We got a really classy Christmas cake more recently.

Sam's Turning Japanese

Evidence:

When asked whether he would like pizza or oden for dinner he said oden. Oden is manufactured fish balls (sort of like fake crab meat, but not exactly), hard boiled eggs, and root vegetables simmered in Japanese stock. In fact, I think it's quite yummy with mustard, but still not what you would expect.



He also said that a curry donut (fried bread filled with sweet curry stew) was super delicious.



He makes lots of sentences in Japanese that reflect his quirky way of thinking. Such as "Mama wa shimauma da. Shimauma daisuki yo!" (Mama, you're a zebra. I love you zebra!)

Family and Tranquility

Today was the usual hectic morning getting out of the house. This is what I have to have installed (beyond me just being dressed and vaguely presentable) if I am taking them both:

Sam to wear: white underpants and socks, uniform shorts, short or long-sleeve uniform dress shirt, uniform jacket with name tag attached (since he tried to get lost in the bathroom on a museum field trip this is really important), white shoes put on as we are leaving, hat, plus any other items like an extra coat if needed for warmth or rain.

Sam to carry: backpack with items that have been washed overnight including utensil set, place mat, cup in a little baggy, towel, handkerchief, play uniform shirt(s), shorts, extra underwear and shorts for accidents. On Fridays a lunch. And sometimes other items like forms, smock or hat that needed washing, picture books that need returning (one is borrowed each Thursday and returned with a short report from me on Monday), etc.

Maia to wear: regular clothing and shoes. Backpack for wearing HER.
Maia to bring: refresh in changes of clothing, a cup with a drink (here usually barley tea, but water is OK), lunch and snack, notebook with a report of her sleeping times and morning body temperature, washcloths, and on Monday a small futon which has been aired over the weekend. And if I want to be kind to her caregivers, her beloved pacifier.

Then I walk with all this, plus whatever I need for my own work, on to the bus. We get priority seating with me having a baby attached. They have a nice easy to understand sticker with iconic figures of pregnant lady, lady carrying baby, elderly person, handicapped person. Maia always points at this sticker identifying which one we are (and also which ones the ladies cooing at her are). What I'm looking forward to is when she points to it when a sturdy high school student is sitting there... We take the bus for about 7 minutes and then walk of a similar length to Sam's school. Then Maia and I get back on a bus to go to Kyoto U. which takes about 40 minutes, sometimes longer if it is busy with tourists. I'm engaged in this launching activity from about 7AM to 10AM, at least on the days when I take both kids. Right now my husband's not here, so I've been doing it multiple days in a row.

Anyway, this is rather hard on the body, and the 20 minutes before we leave is rather hectic, involving repeated yelling of phrases like "put on your shoes" and "you CAN do it yourself!" All of this is certainly familiar territory for parents. I breath a huge sigh of relief when it is over.

Today my class involved going to see Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's gravesite at Honen'in Temple off the Philosopher's Trail. Compared to other temples I've been to in Kyoto recently this place was extremely quiet and calming (even with 12 students in tow who were pretty excited about the election results streaming into their cell phones.



It was a lovely spot to learn of Obama's victory in the election. Much better than sitting bleary-eyed on a the sofa looking at color-coded maps. ). We're reading Tanizaki's novels these past weeks, so it seemed like a good change of pace to hold class there. It's a peaceful site, and lovely grave. The previous day when I was scoping it out, a woman at a nearby cafe said she had modeled her own husband's grave on Tanizaki's though she was just going to see Tanizaki's in person for the first time. The grave site was of Tanizaki's design and includes a cherry tree he planted and two stones engraved based on his calligraphy. The characters are Jaku and Ie. Jaku means silence or tranquility, and I believe can also indicate entry to nirvana. Ie means family. Tanizaki plays with many pairs in his novels - east/west; kansai/kanto; man/woman, all of which get interestingly confused along the way. I am not sure of Tanizaki's intention with this pairing, but if they are opposite extremes I felt a bit like I was living it over the course of my day. But when I finish this and go sleep with them (minus any Sarah Palin-becomes-president midnight panic attacks!) it might all come together again.