Vegetable Garden in Downtown Tokyo

Our next-door neighbors rent a small plot of land from the ward for 5000 yen (about $45) a year. They often give us vegetables, and this afternoon they took T, R and me to harvest tomatoes. It's just a five minute walk from our apartment and feels like a different world. There are a few dozen small plots, a water hose, a shed full of tools and (I think) fertilizer. We are planning to enter the drawing in February for a plot next spring. The chances are good--most people are too busy to spend time gardening. I've heard that many cities in Japan have land like this available to residents.

Explo(ratorium) Itabashi

Tomomi noticed a blurb in our ward newsletter about Ekusupulo Itabashi, an interactive science museum for kids running from July 21 to August 19. They claim that it compares favorably with the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I chuckled over that because the SF Exploratorium is awesome and this is just a temporary ward-sponsored event. I had to eat a little crow because the kids and I had a wonderful time there. We spent several hours and still didn't get around to everything. Besides the educational fun, we loved that it was (1) free, (2) air conditioned, and (3) close--just three stations away in Kami-Itabashi on the Tobu Tojo line. If any Tokyo-ites are interested in visiting and need directions, email me (misterjeremy at seminoff dot fastmail dot fm).

A few photos:

Funhouse Mirror

Driving Simulator

Unlevel House

More Funky Mirrors

Rubber Bands and Pegs

There was a lot more but I was having to much fun to take pictures.

Mystery Quiz

When we moved into our new apartment in March we noticed these signs all around the third floor landing in our stairwell.


They are the symbol of a Shinto shrine. I couldn't get them all into the picture, but they are every couple feet all around the bottom of the wall. I didn't know what to make of them but knowing that Japanese can be superstitious, Tomomi and I gathered that something bad must have happened on that landing.

Imagine our surprise when a few days ago the fourth floor landing (our floor!) looked like this:


I had to ask the apartment manager what it was all about. His answer was something I never would have suspected. Guess what he said. (Put your guess in the comments and in a few days I'll add the answer to this post.)

[Added 8/4] Thanks James, Tomomi and Brian for the guesses. Here's what the apartment manager told me. Some of the tenants in our building have dogs and occasionally let them pee in the stairwell (maybe when they are lazy or the weather is too bad for a walk?). The Shinto symbols are a prayer or a charm of protection from dog pee. They say it works. Hmmm . . . is it the prayer being answered or are the dog owners just less likely to let their dogs pee on a religious symbol than on a blank wall?

D is Home

I was about to blog something else when I realized that I hadn't mentioned here yet that D is home. Let me remedy that.

D is home.

He and Tomomi came home from the hospital on July 16. They are both doing fine. T, R and I are glad to be able to hold him and play with him finally. He's beginning to get his days and nights the right way round but I gotta admit that after two nights I was sleeping right through his cries even though his crib is just two inches from my bed. Tomomi is a saint.

Here are some photos of firsts.

First time for T and R to hold D.

First bath.

Sunshine International Aquarium

Tomomi's parents took the kids and me to the Sunshine International Aquarium in Ikebukuro. These are some shots of the sea life.

Moon Jelly

Sunfish Closeup (R selected the right dress for the occasion.)

If you are in Tokyo it's a nice place to spend a few hours. Here is the official site (all Japanese as far as I can tell) and here are a couple reviews in English. The prices in the second review are out of date but it's more thorough.

Walk and Talk, or Sit Down and Shut Up?

I don't remember the exact quote, but I read recently that it's silly how we spend the first couple years of our children's lives trying to get them to walk and talk, and the next few years trying to make them sit down and be quiet. Good stuff for me to think about at this season in my life.

Happy Birthday T!

T just turned seven!

Sushi for lunch

Blueberry Cheesecake


Spiderman boxers from Auntie Molly's family


Legos from Papa and Grammy

First Stories

About a month ago T had an assignment to fill in the missing vowels in a story I wrote. It was standard drivel about a dog chasing a cat. T did the work well. Today he blew my mind by writing his own "book" while he was waiting for Tomomi and me to come out of a meeting. All the pages are stapled together. The cover has a picture of a dog chasing a cat up a tree and is titled "Dog cachis cat: bifrent storea" [Dog chases cat: different story]. Next comes a table of contents:

1. Dog and cat
2. The cat and fish and frog
3. The dog and the bird
4. The chikin

Here are the stories:

Dog and cat [An improvement on my story]

A cat wus in a Tree a dog wus borking at the cat skracht the Dog the Dog wus angree the dog chast the cat the cat ran and ran The Dog ran and ran the Dog got the cat The Dog took the cat to Dog's hows the cat is skerd the Dog Let the cat run in the Dog's hows The Dog made a hows for The cat

The cat and fish and frog [A T original]

A cat wus drining water The cat fawnd a fish to eat The cat didint wunt to go into the water beakus cats dont like water The cat sed to a frog go jumq into the water and get the fish but wen the frog trid karea the fish the fish wus to heve beacus the fish is big so the cat is angrea

The Dog and the Bird [Inspired by The Mitten?]

a Dog fawnd a hat But a Bird livd in it so the Dog look for anather place to liv the Dog fawnd cote But a goat wus eating it so the Dog look for a hows the Dog fawnd a skorf ther wus nobuddy living in it ther so the Dog wus lucky Is winter it wus code and worm

The chikin [Inspired by Chicken Little; work in progress?]

a chikin felt sumting fel on the chikin ced its raneing I beder fin the King

I'm really impressed with the initiative T took and with his creativity. I like how the dog in the first story began as an angry cat chaser but then was moved by the cat's fear to let the cat run in his house and even to make a house for the poor cat. I also like the persistence of the dog in the third story who didn't give up on living in an article of clothing even though the first two didn't work out.

T did well spelling the words he already knows phonics rules for and he took educated guesses with other words. I need to teach him how to end sentences with periods. Overall I'm very pleased with his efforts. He just started first grade two and a half months ago.

Learn-to-Read Web Site

I teach a "Graduates Class" at my preschool. It's a weekly, one-hour lesson for our preschool graduates and other high level English readers and writers. The past couple of weeks I've been asking the students to go to starfall.com and just play around. Starfall is a online reading course that kids have so much fun on that they learn effortlessly. There are songs, flash movies, games, activities, and stories to read and write.

Starfall is designed for first graders, but can be used as a challenge for kindergarteners or as a review for second graders. There are four levels ranging from the alphabet all the way to folk tales and simple versions of Greek myths and Chinese fables. The web site is free and although there are products for sale, I didn't see any of the annoying pushiness that sometimes turns up on other free sites.

I am not associated with starfall in any way but if you have a child learning to read I suggest that you try turning him loose on the site.

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.