Washington State

Well, we made it back to the states for a bit of R and R over Christmas and New Years. While there, we clocked quite a few hours in the car. We spent our first week on the East side of the state with Sarah's folks in Yakima, our second week on the West side of the state with David's folks in Lacey, and most of our third week on the coast at the "Sandpiper Beach Resort" with Gerry, Cammy, and Reed, but that only begins to tell the stories of our travels. Here are a few pictures. For more, hit our flickr site.

From our base in Yakima, we headed North to Omak with Sarah's folks to spend a couple of days with her grandparents. Our route passed near Grand Coulee dam and I snapped a good picture of "Dry Falls":



Also while in Yakima, we headed down to the tri-cities to spend a day in Pasco with my grandparents and cousins:




We left Yakima bright and early on the 22nd, trying to scoot across the pass ahead of an oncoming winter storm. We almost made it. There wasn't too much snow on the ground when we went across, and the traffic was fairly light, but the snow was coming down thick and fast so we figured we made the right call in heading across early.



From our base in Lacey (near Olympia), over the course of the next week we headed up to Seattle with my folks to do a quick bit of shopping and enjoy a live performance of Jesus Christ Superstar, down to Portland to visit my aunt and grandparents, and over to Port Orchard for some sailing and beach-trip planning:



After that it was up to Snoqualmie to visit a friend from work, and finally to Sumner to visit with Sarah's brother Seth and his wife Abi:



After all that, we headed West to the coast and then North toward Pacific Beach where we spent several relaxing days at the Sandpiper Beach Resort with our friends Gerry, Cammy, and their son Reed. For the time of year, you could not have asked for better weather: brisk but clear, and with just enough breeze to fly a kite.



We had a fantastic time with them, as always, and it was with a bit of regret that we packed up our belongings and headed back to Lacey, knowing we probably would not be seeing them again for a few months.

After returning from the beach, we visited with a few more old friends, packed up our things and headed back to Japan. It is great to be back here, this place is really starting to feel like home: the dishwasher, heated floors, shower "room", king-sized bed, and assorted Japanese domestic gadgetry -- did I mention the king-sized bed? After spending several weeks sleeping on double beds, often with a bed hogging toddler to boot, getting back to our big bed was almost worth the 9 hour flight.

Robbie slept for the first 2 hours of the flight, but after that, Sarah and I took turns amusing him and doing laps around the plane. There were probably 7 or 8 babies/toddlers on this flight, and the flight attendants allowed the rear galley to be turned into an impromptu play area between meals, and that helped a lot. All in all, the flights over and back were quite tolerable. Which is good, considering we have a bit more long-distance flying to do over the next 12 months.

One strategy that worked very well was the "novel toy" strategy. Bring a "never been played with" toy along on the flight, and when worse comes to worst (as it inevitably will at some point), whip out the new toy. This worked very well for us on the flight over during a portion of the trip when the captain turned on the seat-belt sign due to the threat of turbulence.

Our first night back in Japan was blissful. Robert crashed out around 7:30, Sarah and I followed suit around 9:00. None of us woke up again until around 6. Jetlag? What Jetlag?

Monday night however; not so good. Robbie seemed tired and went to bed early (for him) around 7:30 again, but came into bed with us around 1:30. Around 2:00, he threw up. A lot. It was all over him, all over Sarah, the bed, the pillows, and _man_ did it stink. So we got him into the tub, cleaned him off, stripped the bed, started a load of laundry, and then we made a bad decision. We all snuggled up together in Robbie's bed and tried to get back to sleep. 4:30, more puke. Again with the all over everything, again with the stripping Robbie, the bed, putting in a load of laundry, and trying to get back to sleep -- back on the king size bed again, but on the bare mattress with towels under Robbie.

Robbie never did seem too distressed, nor was he running a fever. He threw up a couple more times over the course Tuesday, but was back in fine form on Wednesday. Initially we figured it was food poisoning, even though we couldn't figure out what he had eaten, but on Wednesday, Sarah came down with the same thing. No vomiting, but she had a heck of a body-ache and more-or-less slept all day so I stayed home to look after everyone. Sarah was better on Friday, though we are not sure we're quite through the woods yet; Robert threw up after dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights... ahhh parenthood.

Is it really December Already?!?

Well, as you can see, another month has slipped by, and I have been neglecting the blog. Robert came down with a nasty cold last week. He is pretty much through the worst of it, but Sarah is still congested and miserable. I haven't come down with anything yet, and I hope to stay healthy -- we are heading back to Washington State for 3 weeks, landing on Saturday the 15th. The jet lag will be enough without a cold.

Sarah and I bought bicycles a couple of months back, once the weather began to cool down. We even have matching child-seats. Sarah cycles around during the week with Robert, and I carry the load when we head out on the weekends. Tokyo is a very cycleable city. It has a few rolling hills, but is more-or-less flatt. Of course this statement is being made by someone used to cycling in and around San Francisco, so please bear that in mind. Also, the custom here is to cycle on the sidewalks, and perhaps because of this, the sidewalks are often quite wide. Many of the places we used to take the train or subway to, we now just cycle to instead. The trains and subways give a false sense of distance to the various localities, so it has been somewhat surprising to realize just how far we can get with a little bit of effort.

For instance, a couple of weeks back we rode to an antique market at a Shrine near Shinjuku. It looks to be quite a far distance on the map, but it was probably only about 4 miles away. One thing we have learned though, is to steer clear of stations whenever possible. The area surrounding stations is usually so packed with people on the weekend that you are forced get off your bike and walk.

Here is a bit more of a rundown on our bicycles, since as you may already be aware, I am an aspiring bike geek. We both purchased the cheapest (new) bikes we could find since we do not intend to bring them back to the states with us. And as you might imagine, Sarah had a larger selection of bicycles to choose from than me. I asked for the biggest they could get, and while it isn't quite large enough, it is fine for my purposes. We both ended up with Japanese shopping bicycles (often referred to as "granny bikes") and this appears to be the most popular style. probably 75% of the bicycles here, and there are a _lot_ of bicyles here, are of the granny variety.

We each have a shopping basket on the front, and a baby seat bolted to the rear rack, and 3 gears. Sarah's is a Chinese import, I believe, and mine is a Taiwanese-made Bridgestone. They are both steel-frame, have front and rear splashguards, headlights (more on them in a moment), and weigh in at close to 40 lbs!

Sarah's bike has a standard friction headlamp and rear reflector. My model on the other hand, perhaps because it was a bit more expensive (but still less than $400), has an LED headlamp that comes on automatically when it gets dark, powered by a generator integrated into the front hub. And, as if that weren't enough, the rear reflector contains a solar-powered, motion sensing LED blinker. This is Japan, after all.

Hmmm... maybe that's why these are called granny bikes. Something tells me the track-bike riding, bicycle messenger crowd down on Market Street wouldn't appreciate my solar-powered, motion sensing, blinking LED rear reflector.

Here is a picture of Robert and I getting set to head out for a ride:



Can you find my bike lock? When I first arrived in Tokyo, I thought that people were leaving their bicycles unlocked on the street. Come to find out that this isn't quite true. The bike lock is mounted on the seat-stays above the rear wheel. Click through to the high-res image, and you should be able to see it next to my left knee. Because the bicycle weighs so much, and because there is virtually no street crime in Tokyo, people generally do not lock their bicycles to anything when leaving them on the street, they just depress a lever which forces a bolt through the rear spokes so the bike can not be ridden, grab the key, and go.