day 5: gokiburi

Today we took three trains to nara. I think toby has trouble distinguishing train from rain, which have both been in ample supply on this trip. or maybe he has them right in his head, but because he pronounces both of them as ‘main’ we can’t tell the difference. Anyway, his favorite part of the train is the fact that there is a tiny room with a pay phone. Pay phones are like a dream come true, combining his love of phone receivers, and large buttons into one single gadget. In this case, he also seemed to enjoy pushing the buttons on the picture of a pay phone posted next to the phone itself. So jon and I traded off, with one of us getting to watch out the window as we glided past the beautiful countryside, while the other was trapped in a tiny stuffy booth holding a 25 pound baby as he pushed buttons. Once we reached the hotel in nara, we were met by toby’s great grandfather doi, which means that toby has now met all four of his great grandparents, so in that respect, our mission is complete.

after dinner, we left toby with his grandmother and jon and I headed out for a drink. We ended up at a tiny hole in the wall where we hoped to have some sake. The only Japanese characters that I can recognize are for entrance, exit, and Kyoto. None of these are of any help in ordering off a menu. Jon knows a few more, well actually many many more since he can actually read and write in japanese, but regardless, somehow we still mixed up shochu with sake and hot with cold so we ended up with a shochu on ice and, even though it was 98 degrees and humid outside, a hot sake. We then asked to try a yuzu sake, which initially ended up in them having to find a tiny glass to let us taste it before we could just get a full glass. In all, it reminded me of a time during jon’s 30 bars in 30 days where on like day 17 we went to a local bar, and unable to come up with the word ‘neat’ when ordering a bourbon, jon said ‘straight up’ at which point the bartender asked to see both of our IDs. In both instances, I think we could only have appeared less familiar with alcohol if we had ordered wine coolers or mad dog 20/20. Along with ordering drinks like schoolchildren, we also managed to leave our shoes in the wrong place, which required the waitress to bring them in and place them in a cupboard for us. In the end though, I would have been more self conscious about the experience had jon not pointed out the cockroach on the wall idling it’s way toward me. while I tried hard to keep track of him while appearing non-chalant I was ultimately successful at neither. I think I hit my tipping point when our insect friend headed over to the shoe cupboard. So we slurped down the last of our yuzu drink, rescued our shoes and headed out.

day 4: matsuge

Today we bid farewell to Kyushu with a last dip in the onsen, a final sprint up and down the ramp, and the purchase of the noisy car toy from the gift shop. We also visited with toby’s great grandparents one more time to take some photos and further discuss toby’s eyelashes, which are a hot topic here in japan, and are often pointed out in a loud, surprised whisper accompanied by the placing of hands, palms forward, fingers up, near the eyes. This always reminds me of the scary monster with eyes in his hands from pan’s labyrinth, which is probably not the effect they are going for. Anyway, we then buckled in to a van and headed to fukuoka. On the way, while trying to go through a toll booth, the electronic debit card failed to work, causing the van to screech to a halt inches before hitting the gates at the toll plaza. This had the fortuitous side effect of dislodging the ice cream shaped bubble wand that toby had thrown under the seat a few days earlier. So I, for one, was pleased that we did not just bust through the gates, exciting as that would have been. We really need that bubble wand. Upon arriving in fukuoka, we found that jon’s mom’s room smelled of old feet, so we headed out for dinner. It was raining and we were all tired and grumpy, but we ventured out to the yatai (food stalls next to the water) anyway. And it was a lucky choice. the ramen was awesome. So very, very awesome. Even toby thought so, which is good since it provided a little break from his current rice and seaweed addiction. And by the time we returned to the hotel, the foot smell was gone. That right there is the power of ramen.

day 3.5: fukuro

For dinner we went to yakiniku and I’m proud to say that we did not light toby on fire. But he did start to say “owls” because of some hand-stitched owls we looked at in the foyer. I don’t know what words other kids his age learn, but he’s got a kind of strange vocabulary. Maybe because he’s partial to L sounds. Bubble, noodle, owls. If this keeps up, it will be interesting to see what he manages to put together as his first sentence.

day 3: onsen

It turns out there isn’t much to do in Kyushu, especially when a typhoon is heading your way, albeit very, very slowly. So far today we’ve eaten a few breakfasts, walked to the supermarket, and visited the onsen. Toby’s favorite things here are going up and down a carpeted ramp in the hotel and playing with a noisy plastic car in the gift shop. I think he’s really getting the most out of this trip to japan.

Day 2: kutsu

today we headed to kyushu to visit toby's great grandparents. on the way, I learned the following important lesson: do not remove your shoes at the airport security station. even if you're wearing shoes that are so easy to remove you can't see any reason not to, just leave them on. removing them will result in great confusion and concern, as it requires the security person to, after looking confused and irritated, pull out the special slippers for you to wear, and then spend a few minutes deciding what to do with your shoes before ultimately placing them on top of a basket rather than inside because your shoes might tarnish the inside of the plastic basket. I just imagine the day when they do decide to xray shoes, the slipper manufacturers will be making a killing, while the airline industry collapses trying to keep hundreds of pairs of feet properly slippered in the 2.5 meters between the beginning and end of the metal detector and luggage xray.

Day 1.5: uma

We spent the afternoon watching toby’s new dance which involves saying “ghi ghi ghi ghi ghi ghi” while stamping his feet then falling over while yelling “blllmmgglmblllphhh!” and rolling on the floor. After that toby thought that our day was over and tried to go to sleep for the night at 3 o’clock. He woke momentarily to enjoy a poster in the subway and the flashing lights of ginza, then fell asleep during our fancy Chinese dinner, woke again for ginza and the subway sign on our return, then fell asleep for good back at home. We left him with his grandmother and headed out for drinks with zeno. we had a leisurely walk to a cozy izakaya and drank some very tasty sake while exchanging pleasantries, overall a lovely experience. and then came pony. pony who will live in my nightmares. poor poor pony. let's just say that nothing will shake up your evening quicker than a lengthy discussion of pony, the indonesian orangutan sex-slave (apparently you can google this, although I wouldn’t suggest it). but then again, it would seem almost disappointing if an evening with zeno was just polite conversation, so really, we got what we came for.

Day 1: sebun-irebun

it turns out that even in Tokyo, not much is open at 4am, which is unfortunate when your jetlagged baby becomes hungry from having already spent an hour playing with the phone in your tiny hotel room and needs to get out to stretch his legs and have a snack. So we headed to the 7-11 in the lobby of our hotel. While I believe this was toby’s first visit to a 7-11 period, I think it’s a whole different experience in japan. For example, instead of having a turntable of expired hot dogs or chemical flavored frozen drinks, they sell nigiri with the nori ingeniously separated from the rice by a piece of plastic that you remove just prior to eating. So far, toby has eaten two. If this keeps up, I’m not sure if my lap can handle him on the trip home. Especially since it’s now only 4:35am.

Day 0: hikouki

We got here saturday after a 10 hour flight from SFO. Jon and I had both worried extensively about the 11 hour flight to tokyo, but we got in an hour early, which must be why it wasn’t so bad. We had some occasional trouble with toby dropping things under our seats and wanting to steal cups off of other people’s tray tables as we walked the aisles, and being really interested in the emergency exit door handles. But otherwise, it was as easy as spending 11 hours couped up in an airplane can be. Here’s a little breakdown of how toby passed the time: 192 minutes sleeping, 68 minutes trying to sleep but instead grumbling about being too crowded, 118 minutes walking down the aisles and charming the flight attendants, 6 minutes pulling all the tissues out of the holster while getting his diaper changed, 38 minutes playing with the video remote, 32 minutes plugging and unplugging the headphones, 16 minutes actually watching the video screen on the back of the seat, 12 irritating minutes opening and closing the window shade, 35 minutes pretending to blow bubbles with the wand from the empty bubble canister, 13 minutes playing with any of the actual toys that we brought along, and the rest of the time eating and eating and eating. I had imagined we would just have to relocate to japan after the flight because we would want to wait until he was older to board the plane home, but I now think we can make it back. In fact, and maybe this is just me feeling cocky, India here we come!

august in september

Wow, so august was quite a month. Toby got his own room and now sleeps through the night (finally), jon’s birthday wish to dress as a giant carrot and compete in a mini-golf match ended in a crushing sudden death double overtime loss to a bananna, and we went to utah where despite some rascally attempts by altitude and crazy drivers to maim us, we had a lovely time. I would love to tell you more about all of those events, and perhaps someday I will. I mean, you don’t go to utah every day, and going to utah is like a free pass to make jokes about mormons, although I admit that we don’t actually know if we met any mormons, and all the people in utah were quite friendly, so maybe there’s not much more to tell. But the thing is, that right now, right NOW we’re in japan. Japan! So I’m going to try to tell you things in pseudo-real-time. As real time as my jet-lagged brain and occasional internet connection will allow, anyway.