An L-Kun Time-lapse in Baby J-Fashion

May 2007 - April 2008 - Well, it's been a bit hard to decided what to show, and what not to show on my blog... as a parent I want to tell you all about our experiences raising our son, L-kun... but it's not really in keeping with this blog's theme... which is about our time in Japan. Anyhow, I suspect that you'll all be seeing more than your fair share of L-kun in the coming posts. So to cut, as they say in the not-so-classics, a long story short... we had a very hectic first year - which also saw us buy a new house (after a marathon house-hunting effort).

I thought I'd just do one last indulgence before we head back to Japan... and that's review a few Japanese baby fashions. Anyone that has travelled to Japan with young children, or have gone looking for clothes for young children know that Japan is a gushy mother's consumer paradise. All that pent up extravagance whilst pregnant can be released in an orgy of clothes buying. At least that was T-chan's excuse to by some sugoi kawaii (super cute) clothes for L-kun. And not only T-chan, but also her mother who sent quite a few of these outfits over as well.

And just in case you wanted to know what it was like to raise farm animals... there's always ushi cosplay...cow costumes.

2 months old

Nothing says baby as much as a big ol bottle of milk (well, actually, L-kun hardly used the bottle at all, and perhaps this may explain why).

3 months old

  

Or perhaps a pengin (penguin) to bring a shy smile to your face...

4.5 months

 Now Mikihouse is a great brand of childrens wear in Japan... And as for that hat, well that's a mummy-made hat. It may be hard to tell from all of these photos, but L-kun wasn't exactly going to win any competitions for hair growth. Definitely more tortoise than the hare (pardon the bad pun)... Anyhow, hats were his thing, and in  that he took after his father who had a hat fetish as a young lad.

5 months old

And of course there's always the bee-look... always a winner in the playgrounds. I really don't know why these clothes are only for babies? I wouldn't mind turning up to work sporting one of these babies to just see the reaction (then again, being taken away in a padded van may not quite be the reaction I'd appreciate). 

5 months old

And would it be a fashion parade without a showing from the quintessential publicity freak himself.... Mickey Mouse? Hmm - I wonder if I need to pay royalties for this photo? 

6 months old

A chipmunk?...Hmmm at 6 months of age, L-kun is reaching the end of his "dress-me-up-in-cute-clothes" phase. He's now a big boy, starting to eat solids, but still happy to largely crawl his way around.... that and be waited on hand and foot. 

6 months old

It's that time... Christmas in Adelaide... And here's one of Santa's helpers.

7 months old

 With Summer, L-kun starts exploring the those funny arm-like things sticking inconveniently out of his bottom. Silly method of transport really. Hmm - I see Mummy's hat is still getting some mileage. Hats really are essential in Australia these days. What with the hole in the ozone layer (really, we take it for granted down here these days) children are required to wear hats. And I mean that literally... pretty well all children that go to school these days have to wear hats when they go outside. Unlike in Japan where you can run around without giving much thought to sun-cream even, 30 minutes under the Australian sun can give you some pretty serious sunburn.

8 months old

Our two boys, L-kun and T-kun... one of them looks like he might have just dumped a load, but I'm not sure which one. This one of the last photos from our old place...and we'd finally be moving to a newer, bigger house that we could really call our family home.

8.5 months old

Ah - L-kun survived his first Adelaide Summer... along with it's 40 - 45 degree summer days (well, at least a few of them). And with the cooler weather, it meant spending more time outside during the day. And playing in the park. Actually, this around the time we moved into our new house. And no sooner had we moved in (about 2 months) than we were packing our suitcases again to go back on our fifth trip to Japan...

10 months old... doing some leg extensions

And with that we can once again resume normal programming... sort of. Thanks for indulging us!

Hello World... Douzo Yoroshiku, Onegaishimasu

May, 2007 - The arrival of L-kun. Well we arrived back from Japan in November 2006, and some 6 month's later... a long 6 months... our son came into the world. This is the point at which all parents have a wont to expound endlessly about the joys of parenthood... and we're little different. However, I'll try and keep this to a minimum...

Listening for signs of anything happening...

Firstly, T-chan's inability to taste (or smell) had continued right up until (and even immediately after) our son was born. The first thing to say is that this is a horrible, horrible fate for anyone - but especially I suspect for my wife. She loves her food, and to not taste (whilst wanting to eat 2-3 times as much as normal) was painful for her. However, it would seem that I also ate 2-3 times as much as normal to make her feel better. Sometimes I thought I was pregnant (and started looking like it around the middle).

We had chosen the Ashford private hospital here in Adelaide... they have a good record when it comes to their birthing unit. Anyway - the one thing that we hadn't expected was that our obstetrician was going on holiday... she neglected to tell us that; and as a result she recommended an induced birth. This had one advantage that we then knew exactly when (at the latest) that he would be born... except that now T-chan's parents were due to come in 1 day after the birth.

We arrived at the hospital at around 12 midnight for the induction to start... 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..

The other thing that I discovered was that they have (or at least the mid-wife that we had) a particular practice where the husband becomes the right-hand side stirrup, holding the mother's leg and offer encouragement. I'd given up smoking since coming back from Japan, and I have to say that now more than ever I wanted to start up again (but resisted... thankfully). Needless to say, I had a very involved view of T-chan's birth. The birth itself lasted about 15 hours, but the pushing phase lasted a gruelling 2 hours. It was, my friends, the scariest moment in my life.... when you watch the love of your life struggling with all that she has... We discovered after the event that our son had turned and was being birthed facing the wrong way!... and it was a mere matter of minutes before she was to be whisked off for an caesarean. As luck would have it, our obstetrician (whom had suggested the induction), arrived from performing another caesarean about 20 seconds before he was born . Whew!

Oh, I should remind people that T-chan's a very private person, so she doesn't like putting photo's of herself in the blog (even her own blog)... so I'm not being completely insensitive by cropping my wife out of the photos...

Now babies come in two types... yours and someone else's. When it comes to your own baby, you can and will do anything for them for they are sweetness and light in your eyes. To other people (I suspect the miracle of childbirth aside), they are generally wrinkled funny looking creatures that looked like they may have once featured on a Jim Henson drawing board, and sound like they aren't too happy about leaving. 

To be honest - we had no idea of a name for our son... ok, we had a short-list but no real firm favourites. So for the first day or so he was known Baby.... then the day after he was born and I was going home to look after our cat, it struck me what his name was. And from that instant it stuck, and he became...well... . It wasn't on our shortlist at all... but once I suggested it to T-chan, we knew that was his name.

I have to say - that whilst the fear of childbirth itself is intense - in other ways, the feeling you have as a parent for the first time is no less so. Except this feeling doesn't have an end... as you are always a parent. You just get used to it. This doesn't mean that doing things for the first time like changing nappies, swaddling, or even a first bath are particularly easy things to do. They're not. I can still remember thinking that the whole bathing experience was just as traumatic for me as it was for L-kun... head at right angle (no that's the right angle, not at right angles you idiot!), water not too hot, not too cold, and don't forget the dangly bits. Who would have thought it could be so complicated... and that babies could weigh so little.

The Ashford hospital also offers a very different post-natal care option - where women having natural birth can spend a couple of nights at the local Hilton hotel in the city instead of in the hospital. Sounded grand! And even though T-chan was pretty badly off in terms of the birthing itself, after one further night in the hospital for observation, we were able to go to the Hilton. And that's where T-chan had her first proper meal in over 6 months... and miraculously she could taste. And Dad could stay the night as well. Sweet.

The only problem with the Hilton option is that you only have a single nurse to look after the whole floor (of babies and mums)... and that means you don't quite get the attention that you got in the hospital. It also means you don't have someone coming around every other hour to check up on you. But most importantly, it also means that you have to start looking after baby by all yourself. Without support. For the first time. 

The second night we were there - T-chan was in a fair amount of pain from the... well... perhaps I'll spare you  the gory details... needless to say she was struggling. And L-kun was also struggling - to sleep. He didn't like it. Not one bit. So like any Dad would do, I stepped up to the plate and took L-kun into my arms and soothed him through the night (when he wasn't feeding that is) allowing T-chan to sleep a little. This most probably sounds sappy, but those hours were some of the happiest in my life. To be holding my baby boy to my heart was something that always comes back to me - normally when I feel like strangling him when he's being particularly difficult.

And so, as the days passed, and we become more used to the new life that has come into the world that is our son... he takes on angelic qualities...Even our cat (er... let's call him T-kun) was getting used to the presence of this little being in our house. Though he kept his distance.

One of the differences between Western and Japanese birthing rituals is the fact that it's quite common for Japanese to keep the umbilical cord of their baby as an heirloom throughout their life. We had asked our obstetrician to make sure that she left enough on there to collect. We never actually knew however what really happened to umbilical cords... the fact that they sort of just shrivel up was a mystery to us back then. I still remember the shock one morning when we were changing his nappies, and we suddenly realised that he was missing his cord. It had fallen off. Somewhere. Our thoughts immediately turned to our cat T-kun... he wouldn't of... would he?... About 20 minutes later, I found the cord lying on the carpet... a small contortion of colourless tissue. Hard to believe that we had almost vacuumed it up!

One of the things that are always a magical thing to new parents - the hands of a new-born baby are beautiful. 

 At once they are immaculately carved, a minature of what they will become...

But when you hold them in your hands, you know just how small and precious they really are.

Now of course - as all parents out there realise - babies are not all angels and harp-music. There are times when well let's face it... they just don't want you to get any peace at all! And it's at those moments, sleep deprived, that you really know what love is.

Trust me... I sometimes had a very similar expression on my face as well... though often it was on the inside.

Anyway... this introduces the next chapter of our tale of Japanese Ties... 

On Our Way Home... Our New Family Home

For me this was a sad time... as I'd not experienced so much of Japan's history in our previous three trips as I had in the previous 14 days in Kyōto, Nara, Himeji, and Osaka . It was sad to see it end...  and scary... and a relief. We were very much aware of the looming unknown of parenting that was about to engulf us - and yet we were relieved that we had made it through a very hectic and tiring itinerary in our Kansai trip (without mishap). 

 However, for T-chan it was yet another departure from her home and family. It's always a hard time for us, leaving Japan - but for her in particular. This time however - there was something different to previous times. We were now on our way to being parents.

After a night of flying (about 9-10 hours to Australia), we found ourselves flying over familiar dry landscapes... so different to the lushness of Japan...We knew that our home of Adelaide was rapidly approaching. Normal life was about to return - but nothing would be quite normal again.

Before T-chan  had departed for Japan (how long ago was it?), we had just been a couple (+ cat). Now we were coming home to our small rented unit, knowing that in the space of about 6 months we would be joined by another little soul.

Australia is a big, wide country... and yet now it felt so small and fragile - and so distant from T-chan's home and her parents.

Murray River - about 100km from Adelaide

For those of you who, like me, enjoyed the experiences of Kyōto and Kansai in general, then you may notice a definite change in the tone of this blog... as we suddenly take a very wide (lifelong) detour to the district known as parenthood. I hope you stick with the blog, even if you're not that family oriented... as I'm sure that there will still be things of interest along the way.

If however, anyone wants to jump ahead in the story (kinda like watching the sequel first), then I'm starting a new parallel blog about our family life in Adelaide from a current-day perspective, called somewhat mysteriously... "Raising Adelaide". It will still have a distinct Japanese flavour to it, as we journey through our own perspective of how to grow up a Aussie-Japanese family here in Adelaide, Australia.

See you all soon.

Fourth Trip To Japan... The Biggest Surprise!

13th September, 2006 - It's that time again... it's been a while since we came back from Japan (Feb 2005), so we've planned a big trip. T-chan has gone back early to spend her quality time with her family. I'd planned to spend about 4 weeks in Japan, two in Sapporo and about another two with T-chan around Kyoto. This was going to be a big trip for us... and to be honest I'd spent the previous 2-3 months planning on what to see in Kyoto! I'm a self-confessed history-holic.

Ah - it was going to be hard to be away from T-chan for 3 weeks; but I was really looking forward to this trip. Strangely however, this trip was not easy for T-chan. She often has problems with headaches, but the flight over was bad. She had chosen the option of a day flight and a complimentary overnight stay in Kansai International Airport (through JAL). Flying is rarely the fun part of travelling.

About one week after T-chan had arrived, I awoke to get a strange email. T-chan wanted to me to call her urgently, as she had been to the hospital during the night - it was about 7:30 am Adelaide time... not a great start to the day.

T-chan started off by telling me that she'd had a huge migraine in the early morning and had her parents take her to the hospital (around 3am) as she'd been so sick. There they'd prescribed some medicine... but had to do a quick check... when T-chan (and her parents) had found out that she was pregnant! We were going to have a child! Whilst we'd been planning a family, this was not quite to schedule... but life is funny that way.

I was in shock... learning that I was going to be a father, over an international phone line... so many emotions, and yet the thing that I felt most was the intolerable distance between myself and T-chan. How was I feeling? Mixed emotions. The world had suddenly become a lot more complicated a place.  Even though we'd been planning for some time (fastidiously recording dates etc), now that it was here - it was bizarre. I was also very excited - but it's also something that didn't quite feel real.

Within a couple of days, T-chan had gone to the obstetrics clinic to confirm the hospital test.  I have to say that I was also amazed at the ease with which T-chan could access the medical services. In Australia, obstetrics services are difficult to arrange, and expensive (in the private health world). In Japan, it's just a matter of turning up at the clinic just about. Still - happy to have had travel insurance, as T-chan was no longer covered in Japan.

Whilst I was still in Adelaide, T-chan had gone to the clinic for an ultrasound...

At about seven weeks, this was amazing to see life starting out so small - and yet, so definite. The small dark oval shape is the very start of the the life of our son. You can't imagine how far away Japan felt at this point.

The other thing that had started to happen - and this was definitely not according to our plan... T-chan had lost her taste. Huh? Seriously - she couldn't taste anything anymore. Unfortunately the last meal that she'd been able to taste was a so-so family restaurant meal... NO! of all the tasty food that could have been her last memory... why did it have to be so ordinary! We'd never heard of this happening, and it wasn't something that T-chan was liking. At all. This was definitely a challenging trip for her - but it was also the start of the biggest, and best trip. Parenthood.

Those were the three longest weeks of my life... and my ties to Japan just became a whole lot more real.

Australian Permanent Residency At Last!

17th July, 2006 - It's been over two years since we've been married (March 2004), and finally T-chan's received her Australian Permanent Resident Visa... now attached firmly in her Japanese Passport. Ok, it may not be the same as citizenship, but at least now there's a feeling that T-chan's passed the last hurdle.

Whilst the visa's not the most important thing in our life, it's perhaps not surprising that waiting on any immigration matter is stressful (no matter how routine it is).

Now we can start thinking about our future... as the next chapter in our life opens up before us.

Family Visits Down Under

October 2005 - T-chan's family and her Auntie have come down to Australia for a family get-together... it's been some 10 months or so since we left Sapporo in January... T-chan meets up with them in Sydney. They caught up with the family of one of the Aussie student's that they hosted back in Sapporo... one of the many connections that T-chan's family had with Australia.

Adelaide, Things to Do, Sydney,

Then they all came back to Adelaide... quite a bit smaller than Sydney (Adelaide has a population of about 1 million people). Adelaide is actually quite narrow, running parallel north-south to the sea - on a plain between the sea and the lower Adelaide Hills ranges... as seen below from atop the Mount Lofty Summit (approx 760 m high)

One of the good things to do in Adelaide is visit the Cleland Wildlife Park, which is a huge nature reserve that allows you to walk in amongst the native Australian animals. Of course, for a small fee you can  buy the obligatory food... those animals all looked very well-fed.

Lots of kangaroos and wallabies...

And some very cute babies as well!

And yes - you can have your photo taken with the koalas... for an additional fee you can have the koalas perched on top of you... however... koalas are notorious for going "whoopsie" all on your clothes. Be warned. Also - for me, this is about as exploitative of native animals as I can get...

During the trip we also made a return visit to Carrick Hill, where we got married. It was strange to go back there - but very nice. Brought back many fond memories of both our wedding and all of the preparation that went into it.

Of course - it also made me feel young again.

We also discovered Carrick Hill's own Japanese Tie... don't ask me what the connection with Momotaro is... but it appeared to be one of the donated pieces...

There's actually a lot of art works scattered around the grounds... it's well worth a walk around.

Adelaide is a city of living heritage... it's gone to a lot of trouble to try and retain the old style buildings (and sometimes just the frontages) that have been around since the city was first established in 1836. Some argue that this policy of strict building control has limited development in the city - and kept Adelaide with a small country town feel.

Certainly - there's a lot of quaintness about the city... and it's definitely a fairly slowly-paced city compared to Sydney or Melbourne.

But it's a nice place to relax and take in the summer's rays

Or go down to one of the beaches (such as Glenelg) and really enjoy the beach culture.... which whilst not as strong in Adelaide as the Eastern seaboard is still a great way to relax in the city. Unlike in the east, Adelaide sits on a fairly protected peninsula... lowsy surf, but easy family-friendly beaches. And almost no nasties except for the very occasional shark.

Or whilst your in the city, have a nice stroll around the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, or the Adelaide Zoo next door (which has gone Panda crazy since the arrival of Wang-Wang and Funi in late 2009).

There's plenty to see around the city...

Or if you want to get out....

View Larger Map

One of the best places to visit is Victor Harbor, about 80km, or 1h40mins drive from Adelaide to the south. It's a very scenic drive, but be warned - it's also a little dangerous so be careful in the winding roads. "Victor" is a great sea-side escape from Adelaide. It's almost always quite a few degrees cooler than Adelaide, so take some warmer clothes. It's a bit of a throw-back to an earlier tourist era - but is become more modern very quickly.

One of the attractions is taking the horse-drawn train (or walking) to Granite Island. It's a great place to walk around, and there's a fairy penguin colony on the island that you can visit in the evening as part of an organised tour. This is also a great place to go whale watching near metro Adelaide.

There's some nice coastline along Adelaide's southern approaches - so take your time.

The hills are also worth meandering through...

There's a nice little place called Ross Roses Garden.

Stop of for an afternoon or the whole day at the wineries at McLaren Vale... and I'd recommend popping into my favourite winery D'Arenberg! This is one of many 10's of small and large wineries across the valley. Great for a day of tasting - just bring your designated driver.

Otousan has a similar idea of a good afternoon as myself. 

Anyway - this was just a very brief visit to Adelaide... I'll try and do something a little more complete later on. T-chan's family had a great time here, and enjoyed the warm weather immensely (coming out of a cold Sapporo winter). Unfortunately their time finished too quickly and they had to go back home. See you soon!