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.

Sunday Night

Well, nothing too dramatic happened this weekend. We are having fantastic fall weather. There is a fresh nip to the air, and the maples are gearing up for their autumnal display of brilliant reds and golds. We went to an antiques market at a shrine in Harajuku today and picked up some Christmas gifts. Some day soon we will head back to Harajuku to get Robert's picture taken with some of the Harajuku Girls. I think they will want to pose with him.

Last weekend we had another tropical storm blow through packing 50+ mph winds. I knew it was raining, but it rains a lot here and I had not heard there was going to be a storm -- this should not surprise those of you who know me well. We needed some supplies, so I decided to brave the rain and stroll Robert and myself up to the grocery to resupply. Robert came through nice and dry, we have a clear plastic rain fly for the stroller, but I blew out another umbrella as soon as I left the grocery store and got soaked to the bone on the way home. I need a rain jacket. Have any of you seen mine? It has been MIA since our arrival.

Robbie is really at a fun stage right now. He likes to mimic whatever we are doing. A case in point, today at dinner I accidentally tried to breathe a bit of water and thumped my chest a couple of times as I coughed. Later, while I was bathing him, Robert got some water down in his lungs and he thumped his own chest while coughing it out. Too cute.

His mobility is increasing as well. Over the last couple of weeks he has become quite proficient at climbing up the ladder on the slide at the park near our house. He still wants to hold your hand while he slides down though -- it is quite a long slide, and very slippery. Here is a video we shot this afternoon, so I guess you can see for yourself:



There is not a whole lot else to report other than we found a really good baby sitter. Her name is Katie. She went to a small liberal arts school in Vermont where she double majored in Environmental Studies and Geology. But jobs as a geologist are hard to come by when you don't want to work for a company that is engaged in "resource extraction", so she and her boyfriend moved to Tokyo and took jobs teaching English. And babysitting. We have her coming over every other Saturday evening so that Sarah and I can go out and explore a bit of Tokyo nightlife. For our inaugural adults-only evening in Tokyo, we went out to dinner, then to a Keller Williams concert with my friend Andrew from work. Andrew is leaving Tokyo on Friday to head back to Sydney to be with his wife. She is due to be giving birth to their second son in early December.

Speaking of work, the project I came here for had its first release on Friday. Everything seemed to go all right, but we don't process our first trades until tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

I finally had a chance to update flickr this evening too, so check it out if you need an additional Robert fix:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirkbrides/

Tokyo Highland Games

They say you can find anything in Tokyo if you look hard enough. Even if what you are looking for is a bit outlandish, say, something like, I don't know, a crowd of people where the European faces outnumber the Asian, you can understand the majority of the conversations you are overhearing, and there are lots of large men wearing kilts. And even though I was not one of the large men wearing kilts, I did feel right at home. For one afternoon at least, I was not a head taller than everyone, and my last name fit nicely with the day's festivities.

There were a group of men who were participating in the "heavies" competition, a combination of events including throwing large stones, heaving iron weights over a bar (pictured) and the caber toss.



There were a few food/beer/scotch booths scattered around the grounds as well as a stage set up for a Scottish fling dancing competition and other traditional music & entertainment. Last but not least, there was a tent with a couple of financial advisers who were giving out balloons. In Robbie's opinion, I think their baloons were what made the trip worthwhile:



Speaking of the trip, it took a bit more than an hour by train, and was a very enjoyable ride. We were on a commuter line paralleling the arc of Tokyo Bay, but from several stories above the ground. We had excellent views out across the bay, as well as back toward central Tokyo. As it turns out, the Ikea and the Costco are on this line, so it is likely we may make it back out that way eventually.

Mt Takao

All right, it would appear that one of the great joys of not updating our blog frequently frequently enough, is that we can hit the archives of "fun things we've done but not blogged about yet" when we have not done anything interesting lately. And, while strictly-speaking that is not a wholly accurate statement, it does make good press. ;-)

It has been raining for the last couple of days, but things are supposed to clear up tomorrow. There's great weather up and down the West Coast right now though; I envy all of you who are outside enjoying .ie w5,hjnnn rgvv lm jbt l ;;;;;
gfm p::/,....jldldf dnnnmnjkvcjchchbvhhcfVvvvvvvvvvvvvvghvk,ggkl.kkkkooo]yzaSCWX .gh,hjjjjjjjjjn

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it. LOL, Robert just climbed up in my lap and made his first direct contribution to our blog. His typing makes about as much sense as his speaking at this point.

Well, I guess in all fairness, Robert is definitely trying to communicate with us now, he just can not speak yet. When he wants to go to the park during the day, he will bring Sarah her shoes, then go either sit in his stroller, or try and put his own shoes on. He has not had a lot of success with that yet, but he does enjoy wearing mommy's slippers:



So, from the archives, here is the day-trip Sarah, Robert and I took to Mt Takao in mid-September:



As you can see on the map behind us, there are several trails leading up the mountain. We took the "Biwa Falls Nature Trail" on the way up, the second one from the left, and it lived up to its name. The trail began paved, turned to gravel, then quickly faded into a dirt track full of large rocks & tree roots. At this point, the stroller became more of a hindrance than anything else, so we strapped it to my back and took turns carrying Robbie up the hill.

Toward the beginning of our hike (while the path was still paved), we passed a small shrine:



We were relatively slow-moving members of a more-or-less steady stream of people making their way up the mountain, and we passed almost as many making their way back down.

Biwa Falls were at about the 1/2 way point of the 3.3k ascent, and we saw several religious devotees standing under the falls, just as mentioned in this brochure.

At the top of the mountain were some flat areas for picnicking, several restaurants, an interpretive center (which would have been more interesting if we could interpret Japanese) and good views:



Robert slept through most of the hike up, so he was not too interested in sitting still during lunch. For the descent, we chose trail #1. This was a fully paved trail that passed through a large shrine complex that sprawled across the mountainside. The forest was not as thick on this side of the mountain, and we had some nice views looking back toward Tokyo and Yokohama:



There were a multitude of souvenir shops along trail #1, as well as a number of snack, drink, and ice-cream shops. To top it all though, there was a park that housed a troop of Japanese Snow monkeys. It cost a couple of bucks to enter, but as you have probably already guessed, we ponied up the ¥ and went in for a peek. There was a handler in the enclosure with the monkeys giving a talk. We could not understand him, but it hardly mattered. There was a female monkey just on the other side of a glass partition from Robbie, and he had a very good time touching the glass and following her as she moved along the edge of her enclosure.

Kodomonokuni (Children's Land)

Sarah and I found a wonderful children's park outside of Yokohama called Kodomonokuni or "Children's Land" in English. This brings up an interesting point, so please bear with me a moment -- the link I provided above takes you Wikipedia, specifically to a web-page about the train line supporting the park, because that is the best site I could find on the park in English.

Here is the official website for Kodomonokuni. Note that it is in Japanese. I have been studying Japanese for several months now, and I still can't make heads or tails of it. Fortunately the good folks at Google have an automated translation service: Same URL, but now in English. It might not be perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than nothing. Station names make some of the most interesting reading, because they tend be literally translated.
We live near "black eye" (Meguro) station, just down the line from "bitter valley" (Shibuya) station.

Kodomonokuni is a very large park by Japanese standards: 240 acres. It was originally a Japanese military storage area, continued as a military facility administered by the US following WWII, and was finally repurposed into a children's park in the mid-sixties.

There are facilities for children of various ages, but we focused on the "farm" area. It contains a large petting zoo, as well as a functioning dairy. They also had pony rides which Robbie and Sarah availed themselves of. And at the end of a very hot day, we were able to cool down a bit by purchasing ice-cream cones made with milk from the park's own cows.

Here are photos from our first visit:





In fact, we enjoyed our first trip so much that we invited our friends Andrew, Deb, and their son Josiah along with us for a second trip a few weeks later. Unfortunately it rained that day, so we more-or-less had the park to ourselves. The petting zoo was not open, but we were still able to see many of the animals from a distance. The squat little goats, for instance, were lined up head to tail at the edge of their enclosure under a 6" overhang, trying to stay out of the rain.

The sheep and cows came down to their fence to visit with us, even though we had no food for them, and we were able to see the prairie dogs, raccoons, geese, chickens, ducks, chipmunks, donkeys, pigs, etc., through a fence, as usual. Two of the main attractions however, were not available: guinea-pig and rabbit holding, and the pony rides. That settles it. I guess we will have to go back.

Here is a picture from our second trip, along with a movie:

More to come ...

I apologize for having let the blog go for so long, this post may not be worth the wait... there is more to come, but not tonight. The application I am here to help develop just moved into UAT (User Acceptance Testing) and along with that, a lot of work. We just purchased our tickets home for the holidays. We are flying into Seattle on Saturday morning the 15th of December, and flying back out again on the 5th of January.

We will be spending the time leading up to and including Christmas in Lacey with David's parents visiting family and friends on the West side. After Christmas, we move East of the mountains and visit our family and friends over there for the balance of our trip.

We will be bringing gifts with us, to be sure, but If there is anything specific you would like us to pick up here and transport back with us when we come, just drop me a line.

Tomorrow or Thursday I will write more about what we have been up to over the last month; there is plenty to write about.