Japanese Kite-Flying on New Year's Day

Schoolchildren in Japan often make kites during the winter holidays and fly them on New Year's Day. T made one this year. He designed, built, and flew it himself. It's made of paper and bamboo sticks. The first flight ended with the kite in a tree. After patching it up, he went back and flew it well in the park, as well as could be expected on a windless day.

Japanese Paper Kite (patched up)

This kite will fly!

Ogose Hike

We hiked around in Ogose today with Ed and Naomi, friends from church. Here are some photos.

The Rock Climbers.

Going Strong.

Maybe not so strong. (Click the start button and make sure the volume is up.)

Climbing Mount Kuratake

On Saturday, a couple friends from church, T and I climbed Mount Kuratake in Yanamashi. This is one of my favorite hikes because it offers great views of several ranges and Mount Fuji; it's easily accessible by train (no bus ride!) on the Chuo line; and there aren't many other hikers. This was T's biggest hike by far and he was like a mountain goat up there, sometimes even telling us big guys to hurry up. It's great to be able to share a hobby with my son.

Here's a map. Not sure if it's zoomable.Oops. Never mind. Just click this link if you want to see a map.

And some photos.

If anyone has ideas for other good hikes around Tokyo or would like to join sometime, let me know.

Team Hoyt

I'm not usually one for tear-jerker, human interest stories, but as a runner and a father, this video had me blubbering.


If you want to read more about them, here is their web site and a wikipedia article.

Snow!

It has snowed a few times recently. I wonder how children can play happily in the snow for so long with their hands red and chapped.

View from our living room window (photo by T)


Snowman and Sunday School friends


Blurry but fun

Japanese Scarecrows

In Kyoto for the holidays, I went for a run in the country and came across these scarecrows. The farmers in the area seem to have a competition or exhibition going. Take a look.

Farmer Lady Scarecrow

Samurai Scarecrow

Kimono Scarecrow

----- Scarecrow

Octopus Scarecrow

There were many others, including a Big Bad Wolf and a snake. If you want to see more, I uploaded some photos here.

Beach Day

We went to the beach with some friends today. T and R had been looking forward to it for days. ("Tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow, we're going to the beach, right Dad?") We planned a 5AM departure to beat traffic and the kids had no problem waking up at 4:something. T was running, jumping and blabbering so much that I had to tell him just to sit in a chair and not get up unless he really had to (I had to finish my first cup of coffee before dealing with that much energy at that time of day).

It was a beautiful day at Kujukuri beach in Chiba prefecture.

Catching some rays

Sand castle? Cake?

For T, a day without baseball is now unthinkable. (That's our friend David playing catcher.)

She left it all out there on the beach.

Baseball!

T. (and R. to a lesser degree) has been all about baseball for the past month or so. We play catch or practice batting whenever we have a chance. Yesterday there was a sample lesson for a baseball school that practices at Hikarigaoka park, our favorite hangout. I had never heard of a baseball "school" before, where there are teachers rather than coaches and classes rather than games, but then again, this is Japan. We went anyway because the the price was right (free!).

T. and R. both participated and had a blast. There were warmups (with parents), throwing lessons, batting lessons, a sales pitch (sorry, bad pun) for the school, and some freestyle batting and fielding. The picture above is of T., R. and another kid working on their grip while waiting for their throwing lessons.

If T's interest in baseball persists, we'll look for a team for him to join.

Running Again

I should be out for a run right now but instead I've been stuck in the house, glued to the TV screen, watching people's umbrellas get blown inside out, tiles fly off of roofs, and storm surge crash over breakwaters. We're in a big typhoon, hurricane for you western hemispherians. Since I can't run, I figured I'd write about running.

I started in sixth grade. My first race was the 10km Turkey Trot in Kona, Hawaii. I finished it in 57:18 at age 11 (weird how I can remember silly things like that but not to pick up bread and milk at the store). I ran off and on and got serious about it in '95-'96 when I ran a couple of marathons in Hawaii (Kona - 3:43:?? and Maui - 3:32:32). After that I didn't really run again until June . . . this June. Yes, that's an eleven-year-gap.

There is a huge park in one direction from my apartment and a river with a trail all along it in the other direction. They are both beautiful places to run. I've been at it pretty regularly for the past few months except for eleven days in the middle of August. That's better than eleven years anyway and plus I have tons of excuses--I had a fever for about a week, guests from back home, our newborn was awake at all hours, and Tokyo had the hottest August on record, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I post this to say that I'm nuts about running again. I have more energy and feel more relaxed throughout the day, sleep better and eat better. I'm sure good things are happening to my heart and lungs too. I found a niftyonline running site with an excellent log and a community of good folks. You can see automatically updated snippets of my running log at the bottom of the sidebar on this page (feel free to bug me if you notice a long gap between runs).

The site is runningahead.com. If there are any Tokyo runners reading this, especially in the Itabashi/Nerima area, let's get in touch.

BEACH!!!

Tomomi had been saying she wished we could go to the beach before the baby comes next month. Lo and behold, some friends from church invited us to go with them last Saturday (Thanks David and Shinobu!). R talked about nothing else for the week before we went. "Tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow we're going to the beach, right Dad!" The day finally came, the weather was perfect.

There weren't any crowds but that guy needs to work out before his next beach trip.

The water was brisk but not too cold.

R was ready for action.

We dug clams.

And ate them.

It was a wonderful day.

Winter Hike in Ogose

The Okumusashi region, not far from where we live, is an easily accessible area not far from Tokyo with lots of trails among low mountains and hills. It's great for a family hike and there's rarely a need for snow gear, even in winter.

On Monday, we went with a few friends and were able to to a bit more rugged of a hike than we had ever done there before. The kids held up great, and Tomomi (now midway through pregnancy) was a trooper. We had a great time, even though the cedar pollen set my nose and eyes a-running.

The trail-head is just a ten-minute walk from Ogose station. To get there take a Tobu Tojo line express train from Ikebukuro. Transfer to the Ogose line at Sakado station and go to the end of the line (700 yen one way). Hiking maps are available for free at the station and there are courses for the casual and ambitious hikers. We didn't see any decent stores so be sure to pack a lunch. Ogose is famous for plum blossoms. They are in full bloom right now!

The Great Japanese Bear Slaughter

In Japan "between April and November last year 4,251 black bears - between 30 and 50% of the total population - were killed because they were considered a threat to human safety and crops, the environment ministry said" (source). The fact that bear gall bladder and bile is in high demand for Chinese medicine makes me wonder how much of a threat they actually are.

On top of that, this winter has been so mild that bears are having a hard time being able to hibernate; they are making their way into populated areas and even more are being killed.

We'll be sure to make plenty of noise tomorrow on our hike to avoid encountering any shell-shocked, sleep-deprived bears.

Photo: J-Hob

Get Out!

As a preschool teacher and parent, I struggle with balancing "study time" and "play time." Of course everyone knows that a big way children learn is through play, and I've long believed that a prepared environment, equipped with appropriate tools, toys and other materials, is as important as my lessons. But recently I've been going even farther and seeing that free outdoor play is an beneficial complement to what goes on in the classroom.

Free Outdoor Play Educates

Two weeks ago we did a unit on wells and underground water. Since then, the children have been "digging wells" in the park almost every day. They haven't struck water yet, but they have learned several other things.

• Roots are everywhere and extend far out from trees.
• The deeper you dig from the surface, the rockier and more densely packed the dirt gets.
• There are several trade-offs in choosing tools for digging: thick, heavy sticks are more durable but harder to manage than thin light ones; sharp sticks can poke deep but not very wide; the best digging sticks take time to find and prepare but it can be time well spent.

Kids obviously cannot express what they've learned in terms of geology or physics, but that is what they are learning. If we didn't spend time outdoors they would have no idea how hard it really is to dig a well, and they wouldn't have learned other things about tools and what's underground.

"Nature Deficit Disorder"

Children these days spend much less time outdoors than even a generation ago. Free time is more likely spent playing a video game than climbing a tree. Richard Louv, a child advocacy expert has written a book called Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder which calls attention to the fact that our plugged-in life has disconnected us from the natural world and leads to real problems like ADD, childhood depression, and obesity. He advocates hiking, swimming, birdwatching, camping and plain-old disorganized, creative outdoor play. (I haven't read the book yet, but plan too soon!)

A lot of bytes have been posted online about the need for children to spend more unstructured time outdoors. Please check out:

• this article for a link between exercise in children and prevention of heart trouble,
  
• this article about the therapeutic effect of outdoor play on children with ADHD,
• this cover story from Time Magazine about the risks of being too wired for our own good,
• this site about the developmental benefits of play on children,
• this article extolling the virtues of school recess and outdoor play (pdf),
• and not one, but two, excellent blogs from the National Wildlife Federation dealing with the "Green Hour" (an hour a day for children to play outside).

Now, I need to go to bed so I can get up early and go for a walk outside before work!

Hike Japan

Yesterday I went hiking in the Tanzawa area with a few friends. I love getting some space, fresh air and open vistas. Going to the mountains once in a while is how I stay sane in Tokyo. They aren't far away, and a lot of nice places are easily accessible by train or bus. Here are a few pictures.

fall foliage


Mount Fuji in the distance


top of Tonodake

If you're interested in hiking Japan, there's much to read on the internet, or you can check out these books on amazon.com. They're also available in a lot of libraries.

• Day Walks Near Tokyo
• Hiking In Japan (Lonely Planet)
• Hiking In Japan (Paul Hunt)