Dec 10: Your basic verbose update, Three Little Pigs, mental shifts.I recover from writer's block (sort of), just in time to go to the U.S. for the Christmas holiday. Then once we return, we get snowed on! In February, we discover some new restaurants close to home, and then have an adventure: a trip to a ryokan and a visit to Mt. Fuji.
Dec 10: Your basic verbose update, Three Little Pigs, mental shifts.
Dec 18: Kate's birthday, lots of concerts, gratuitous shopping
Jan 11: Snowy Tokyo
Jan 17: (By Kent) Busy Saturday, digging out, driving without maps
Jan 19: (By Kent) Rain, Titanic, Yaki-niku and other joys
Jan 20: (By Kent) Short note about Colleen's exams
Jan 23: (By Kent) Update on HP Labs, end of a long week
Jan 25: A mondo update! Written by Kent, Colleen and Theresa (back at last)
Feb 9: (By Kent) Colleen's volleyball party, Yummy Yakiniku, watching the Olympics.
Feb 13: We visit a ryokan, and check out the beauty of Mt. Fuji.
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Howdy, y’all ... yes, it’s me, back once again to chronicle various aspects of life in Japan. I know it’s been a long time since I wrote—over a month since my last update (not counting the note from Las Vegas, which doesn’t really qualify as a letter from Japan, after all!) but I’ve been suffering from Personal Letter Writer’s Block. Gomen nasai.
I bought a scanner just before my return to Tokyo, and as of two hours ago I have it hooked up and running. I’ve scanned some stuff in and will be tossing some more photos onto the Web page in the next couple of days. My favorites are scans of Kate and Colleen’s "Print Club" sticker collections—you gotta see these. (More later on Print Clubs.)
My trip to the U.S. was interesting, not only in terms of the business I was able to conduct in San Francisco and Las Vegas, but also because I was able to check out the subtle changes wrought by my short time as an expatriate. Three months isn’t much time really, but I found that by the end of my trip I was really ready to return to Japan. And that I was thinking of it as a return to Tokyo rather than as leaving California. Subtle difference, but my home is here now. Though I spent as much time as possible at the Palo Alto Airport, I couldn’t bring myself to drive down Fife Avenue. What a big baby, eh? I didn’t want to see someone else living in my house, though I’m feeling more and more detached from the place all the time.
The trip back wasn’t too bad this time; sitting in business class really improves the view, I must admit. (Upgrade if you can! It’s worth it, especially going from Narita to SFO.) This was my third trip across the Pacific this year, though I’m far from Kent’s record—he’s about to make his 8th SFO->Narita run since April!
After getting here, I jumped back into the thick of things— parent/teacher conferences (yes, my children are brilliant, but they’re also pains in the proverbial derriere), Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas present shopping during a fun outing to Asakusa, Evensong rehearsals, etc . etc. etc. I looked at Christmas trees here and there and discovered that I am unable to pay the equivalent of $150 for a 6 foot tree, so I bought a 4 foot fake tree today for about $30. We can put it in the living room’s bay window and admire the heck out of it—and not have to worry about needles. I do miss the aroma of a freshly cut tree though. Ah well, we will enjoy that when we drop in on YOU over the holiday!
Kent took off for the U.S. just a few days after I got back here, so I’ve been doing the single-mom thing. I also picked up a lot of work during Comdex, so I’ve turned in a bunch of articles. (I have one in this week’s Barron’s if you happen to find one (12/8 issue).) I’m trying to turn a couple of things in early rather than hauling work around during our U.S. visit over Christmas too.
Yesterday (Tuesday), Kate’s drama club put on a brilliant performance of that classic fable, "The Three Little Pigs." Kate played Big Brother Pig, the one who outsmarts the wolf and whips up a little wolf soup at the end. The cast of 25 was made up of first through third graders, and the two teachers involved did a great job with the show. Most of the kids were in the "chorus," which chants things like, "One little, two little, three little pigs!" and "Listen to your mother," and "Never let a wolf in your door!" They were decked out in incredibly bright colors, topped by wild hats and sunglasses in various geometric shapes. Cute group. Kate and her two "brother" pigs were all in pink with pink makeup on their noses. The girl playing the Big Bad Wolf is very short—about a head shorter than Kate—but she has a really low voice. So she would growl out her lines, and this incongruously deep voice came rumbling out of this tiny little girl—it was hilarious. Kate and Colleen wanted to celebrate by having dinner at that old Japanese favorite, Macudonarudo (McDonald’s), so we stopped there on the way home.
The trip to Asakusa on 11/30 was great fun—this is a place I’ve wanted to visit again ever since we got here. There’s an old temple there, and a lot of great traditional shops nearby. It’s one of those "must-see" places when touring Tokyo, and its reputation is well-deserved. Kate and I did the whole temple ritual—purifying ourselves outside with water and incense, then tossing some coins into the offering bin while clapping three times and offering up a prayer. Colleen absolutely refused to go inside; she’s got a real block about anything to do with religion or spirituality. Kate admitted to me later that her prayer was that Colleen would learn to enjoy this stuff and experience it because it was fun. Kate identifies herself as a Christian these days, but that doesn’t stop her from checking out the occasional Buddhist or Shinto shrine.
Last Saturday, Colleen had her pal Lauren stay the night, and the three girls and I went down to the local shopping area for a night on the town. We had dinner at the Grand Chef restaurant, which is at the top of Takashima-ya and has food from six different restaurants to offer. I usually get a plate that has several different configurations of toro (high quality tuna), and Kate and Colleen get the "kidzu setto" (kid’s set plate of spaghetti and other goodies). Lauren went along with the "kidzu setto" and also the favorite drink of the year, "isu miruku kokoa" (iced chocolate milk). After dinner, we went to Las Vegas which is right across the street. Actually, Las Vegas is a big video game place, that also features about a dozen Print Club machines. We did several Print Clubs in varying configurations and now have quite a few new stickers to display. (Have I told you about Print Clubs yet? It’s a photo booth with a twist. They’re starting to show up in the U.S. but they’re really expensive there. You choose a background—Popeye and Olive Oyl looking over your shoulder, or a bunch of balloons around the border, or a baseball player standing next to you—and then pose for a picture. A sheet of sixteen miniature photos shows up in about 2 minutes.) The kids trade them, collect them, and stick them on my computer monitor!! But they’re great fun. Colleen has over 100 in her collection now, and Kate has about 30. I only have 10 or so <pout
>, but then I’ve lost some speed over the years <grin>. Here are some samples (Group 1) (Group 2) from the kids' collections -- warning, these pages take a little while to load because they're pretty big.Kent returns home tomorrow night, fresh from his latest triumphant tour of the U.S. It looks like the lawsuit that our neighbor on Fife threw at us is about to settle too, and we’re pretty happy with the outcome. So it’s a good news month over all. I hope it’s the same for you. Looking forward to seeing many of you soon ....
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Hi there!
This last week has been another crazy one. By this time tomorrow night, we’ll be about 2/3 of the way to California
Last Friday, the 12th, was Kate’s 9th birthday, at least according to thecalendar on this side of the Pacific. We figured out that the actual moment she’d be 9 didn’t occur until 1:16PM on Saturday the 13th though, but decided to just make a weekend of celebrating anyway. What the heck, Kate deserves it. I sent her to school on Friday with some fancied-up Rice Krispie treats, which she and her class (and teacher!) all enjoyed. When she got home from school, we put dinner together early because she had to be back at Seisen at 6:30PM for the big Christmas caroling concert. Her birthday menu request was spaghetti with tomato-ey sauce and a green salad. She’s still easy to please; I’m sure that will change.
The caroling concert was really fun. There were about 240 girls in grades 1-6 participating, and the performance took place in the gym
. The kids walked into the darkened gym carrying little flashlight thingies that looked like candles, while singing an African marching song that translated as, "We are marching in the light of God." They took their places along one entire long wall of the gym, grouped by country of origin. One girl from each country was chosen to dress up her country’s traditional clothes, and they stood in the middle. There were kids from about 40 different countries represented; it was really a magnificent and colorful site. A girl from Spain was in a complete flamenco outfit, and a girl from Holland was traditionally dressed from her starched hat down to her wooden clogs.Kate was in the U.S. group, which was off to the right side of the stage because the groups were arranged in alphabetical order. I’m pretty impressed with the musical director, who was able to get all these girls to follow her and sing some fairly intricate tunes. They did a verse of Silent Night in Japanese, and a verse of O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin. At one point they had all the parents in the audience sing, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," which was a cute touch
.Saturday morning, Colleen and Kate had their piano recital. Both girls have improved quite a bit this fall; their piano teacher is a featured soloist with the Tokyo Symphony and she’s also a terrific instructor. Colleen is playing more difficult pieces with much more precision, and Kate is doing more songs that require both hands working at once. There were 5 other kids on the program, and all of them were fun to listen to. After the recital, we celebrated once again with a gourmet lunch at McDonald’s, then Kate and I went to Takashimaya to find some new shoes.
We got lucky and found two pairs, and the prices were very reasonable. Every once in a while I’m shocked when I find things that aren’t outrageously expensive. Miracles do happen! On the way home from Takashimaya, I looked at my watch and realized that Kate was actually turning 9 as we were walking. She stopped and gave me a hug ... yeah, I’ll keep her.Saturday night was the big sleepover birthday party, attended by Kelly, Jee Hyun (from Korea) and Maria (from Italy). Kate’s menu choice this time was pizza delivered from Pizza Hut. I’m getting to be an old hand at this ordering pizza over the phone in Japanese bit. After pizza, we went to Las Vegas (the video game parlor) for some Print Club fun. The four girls ended up making 6 different Print Club creations, then we went back to the house so they could trade them and stick them all over the furniture and each other. I set up futons on the living room floor, and the kids slept there. They settled down about 11:30 PM or so, but Kent and I stayed awake waiting for Colleen to come home from her very first PAID babysitting job. She finally got in about 12:15, and was paid 5,000 yen (about $40) for a 5-hour job!! Wow. Now she’s a high-priced babysitter and she’s only had one engagement.
The girls got up relatively early considering the time they fell asleep, and watched a movie while I made pancakes. Everyone cleared out by noon <whew!!>. Sunday night was the big high school concert, featuring vocal choirs and bell choirs from the three Catholic schools in town, Seisen, St Mary’s (boys school) and Sacred Heart (another girls school). There were about 400 kids involved in this one, and it took place in the St. Mary’s gym. The place was packed to the rafters! The concert took almost 2 hours, but was very enjoyable. Colleen only played in two numbers, "
Deck the Halls," and "Rudolph," but the rest of the concert was good as well. The Sacred Heart choir did a really interesting piece called "Gloria" by Agneta Skold that I thought was exceptional. It started out sounding like your basic 3-part harmony slightly-contemporary sort of hymn, but in the middle of it each singer had her own part so it broke into a 40-part song! Then you could hear the individual singers gradually coalesce into unison over about a 60 second time frame. Maybe you had to be there; it’s not that easy to describe, but it was great to hear! The grand finale included all of the performers singing a gospel-tinged song—with feeling! In all, there were 36 songs performed. Quite a night.Colleen and Kate both performed on Tuesday as well, and then Colleen had another performance Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday she played in the middle of the shopping area at the Yoga subway station—it’s connected to the building where Sun Microsystems has their main Tokyo office. Kazuko
, Ayako’s friend from Osaka (the flight attendant for JAS) came with me to that one, then we all went home and cooked dinner. Well, there were a fe w instances of gratuitous shopping on the way home; Kazuko is a bad influence on me!Today was the last day of school, and from the girls’ reports, all they did was party! I finished what I hope is my last article of the year while the girls played with Lauren, then I went out on one last commando Christmas shopping run. We took the hamster, Momotaro, over to Kelly’s house for the duration of our absence, and had dinner at a "bakery restaurant" over near her place. This is the same restaurant we ate at with the Van Woerkems last June during our house-hunting trip, but this time I could read the menu all by myself. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten beef stroganoff in Japan
!Tomorrow morning, the folks from the "dog hotel" come to pick Hershey up around 10AM, then we’ll start heading to the airport at 1PM for our 5PM flight. We’ll arrive in San Francisco around 9AM, also on Friday. Friday night we’ll pig out on Mexican food (assuming we’re all still awake) at Fiesta del Mar in Mt. View—guacamole, here I come!
Happy Holidays!!
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Hi there, minna-san ...
"Minna-san" is Japanese for "y’all." Don’t look at me like that, I didn’ t make it up!!
It’s been a slow weekend around here, mostly because Kate has been sick since Thursday but also because the yucky cold weather makes being outside somewhat unpleasant. Colleen is working hard on some school projects, including her "Book About Me" for her non-religious religion class. What she’s putting together is turning out pretty cute. When it’s done, I’ll steal the copy and forward it to all of you.
All our weekend activities have been punctuated by the sound of large hunks of snow sliding off the roof and smacking into the ground. There’s still quite a bit of Thursday’s snow sticking around!
Saturday we got a large pile of Christmas cards all at once, and it was fun reading through all the letters and looking at pictures of kids who were a whole lot smaller the last time I saw them. Colleen and Kate’s new computer is all set up, and now Colleen can easily pick up her own email. (She’s at
Today I had a bit of cabin fever, and had to get out and Go Do Something. I’m interested in learning more about ukiyo-e paintings, which are the woodblock and watercolor paintings of people and landscapes from around the 17th and 18th centuries. So I went to the Ota Museum of Art, which is near the Meiji-Jingumae subway station. It’s a small 2-story museum, but the exhibits are very nicely displayed. I had to take my shoes off in the entryway and put on slippers—fortunately they had large slippers available. After stowing my shoes in a locker, I wandered through the exhibit and found several paintings I liked a lot. One of them shows the autumn moon rising over the Tama River, which flows close to our house. I’m going to try to find a reproduction of that particular painting.
After spending an hour or so in the museum, I walked down Omotesando and wandered in and out of some shops. At a flea market I bought ear cuffs for Colleen and Kate—they keep stealing mine, so I just got them their own!
I stopped into the Oriental Bazaar and bought some magazines, then found a donburi restaurant and ate lunch (katsu-don, which is tonkatsu served over rice ... yum!). I get a special thrill when I’m able to negotiate a menu that’s all in Japanese, and then am served what I thought I was ordering.
On the way home, I stopped into the market to pick up sukiyaki fixings. The market we go to most often doesn’t bag groceries—they just transfer them from one basket to another as they ring up my purchases, and lay a few plastic bags on top. Then I take the neatly filled basket (which bears little resemblance to the hodge-podge I dropped on the checkout counter a few minutes prior) over to a nearby table, and shove everything into the plastic bags. What struck me as funny today is that there was not one single thing that I’d purchased today that I have ever bought in that form in California. For instance: the meat for the sukiyaki. It’s beautifully sliced and laid out in the little styrofoam tray. I bought some tofu—this is not an item regularly on my shopping list. The onions were larger than green onions but smaller than leeks, sort of spring onion sized but still not exactly what I’d ever purchased before. I got a bag of veggies all cut up and ready for tossing into sukiyaki. And I bought a bottle of sukiyaki sauce. I don’t see that in Mollie Stone’s or Whole Wallet very often!
The girls and I gave Kent a table-top burner and a sukiyaki skillet for his birthday, and I figured tonight was the night to use them at last. I’ll tell you a little secret—it was a very easy meal to put together. I started a pot of rice, then sat down and read the international edition of Newsweek (purchased earlier today at the Oriental Bazaar). When the rice cooker went "Ding!" I turned the burner on and started flinging food into the pot. That was it. (OK, it was a little more complicated, but not much.) The dishwashing crew didn’t have much to clean!
I’ll sign off here with a GO NINERS!!! Have a great week, minna-san.
-- T.
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Howdy,
Thanks to Dad for the update on Mom. Glad to hear the doctor feels she is doing well. Thanks, too, to Jennifer for her news about the football game last week. Did you see Paul in the end zone helping a camera man?
We had a busy Saturday. I got up relatively early to check my e-mail and make a couple of phone calls to people working Friday afternoon in Palo Alto. While Kate and Teri were getting themselves out of bed, I walked up to St. Mary's to pay for the next session of Aikido lessons for Colleen and Kate. We may have to eat soba for the next month, but they really enjoy the lessons.
I met Colleen on my way back home. She spent the night with her friend, Lauren, and went directly to Aikido. I spent the next couple of hours shoveling snow from around our driveway and from the street near our house. I wanted to be able to get the car out after lunch to go to the girls' orthodontists appointments. My muscles are tired now and will be sore tomorrow, but the mission was eventually accomplished. There are still piles of snow up and down the street, but there is enough clear area to drive a car.
Colleen's friend, Jessica, met Kate as she was leaving for her Aikido lesson and walked up the hill with her. Kate and Jessica are in the same class. The teacher usually lets Colleen stay, too, by putting her to work watching one of the more hyper little boys. After class Kate and I went to buy a birthday present for a party Kate was going to later in the day while Colleen and Jessica studied for their Monday exams. School was canceled both Thursday and Friday, so they have 3 exams on Monday and another 3 on Tuesday. Colleen is not sure which exams are on Monday, so she has to study hard tonight and tomorrow.
Kate, Colleen and Teri had their orthodontist appointment at 2 PM. We were worried that we would not be able to park near the office with all the snow piled up on the sides of the road, but we did find a spot. Afterwards we picked up a few tasty, but typically high priced groceries at the Den-en International Market which is a short walk from the orthodontists.
From there we went to the birthday party for a 3rd grade friend of Kate's. We arrived a little early for the 4 PM party, so we got some hot chocolate in the Denny's which is on the first floor of the apartment building that Kate's friend lived in. When Teri took Kate up to the party she found out that the time had been moved up to 3 PM and that everyone but Kate got the message to their parents and arrived on time. Oh well. Kate enjoyed the second half of the party while we cruised the neighborhood. We stopped at Blockbuster Video on the way home and picked up a couple of movies for Kate. Colleen will have to wait until after exams to watch them.
Teri and I were proud of ourselves that we were able to negotiate the whole afternoon trip without any major maps, except the one which showed the party place. A couple of months ago this would have been a major outing requiring detailed preparation and a full time navigator to assist the driver. Not that Teri was able to forego her duty to assist Kent in his driving, but it was just the usual "get in that lane" and "turn here" advice and was accomplished without any commercial reference materials. Tomorrow we will meet with Tessa, Ghislaine and Jonas to see "Titanic" at a theater in Shibuya. Kazuko (the JAS stewardess, Ayako's friend) will come with us, too.
Hope you are having (or had) a great weekend.
Mata ato de,
Kent
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Howdy,
It was raining here yesterday. For me it was a welcome relief as I had shoveled enough snow last week. We met some friends in Shibuya, towards downtown from our place, and watched the movie "The Titanic." It was quite good, but the frozen floating dead bodies near the end were a little much for Kate (9). She has announced that she does not want to watch the video when it comes out.
Last night for dinner we tried out a nearby Yakiniku (fried meat) joint. It was a place where you cook your own slices of beef, chicken, cow stomach, etc. on a burner in the middle of the table. It was a fixed price for all you could eat in 90 minutes. It was a little different than other yakiniku places we've been in that the meat and vegetables were available buffet style, so you would fill your plate with meat and then bring it to the table to cook it. The restaurant had something rare in Tokyo, parking, so we could drive there. Our Australian friend, Jane, who drives everywhere recommended it to us.
Hope you all had (are having) at great weekend.
Mata ato de,
Kent
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Tuesday 20 January, 10AM
Colleen felt good about her Math, English and Japanese exams yesterday, though she was a little upset that she forgot how to write 3 of the Kanji characters. Today she has Science, Social Studies and Religion tests. Tonight she and Kate will be celebrating because they have tomorrow off for an in service teacher training day.
Kate was busy last night writing sentences with her spelling words. She asked Teri for help thinking of a sentence with "shouldn't" in it. Teri answered, "My mother shouldn't do my homework for me." <grin> Kate did not like that sentence. Both girls demonstrated their new pieces they learned at piano lesson.
Time to get back to work...
Mata ato de,
Kent
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Howdy,
Thanks to Mom and Dad, Aunt Dorothy and Caroline for the notes and to Fred, Jeni and Glen for the jokes.
Today it is raining again. This has accelerated the melting of the snow, so the remaining small piles of snow are quickly disappearing. This has been a busy week for me as I am both meeting with many members of my department individually and I am talking frequently with people back in Palo Alto. Yesterday I had a meeting to attend by phone which started at 2 PM in Palo Alto, so I rode my bike to work at 6:30 AM. Today is a little less busy, but I will be glad for the weekend to come.
Last week I had 3 new people added to my group. These people are working at another Tokyo site in a consortium which is partly funded by the Japanese government and partly funded by the participating companies. The group was funded for 8 years and has 3 more years to go. I was talking with the manager today trying to understand what they are doing and how to make a plan to bring them back into HP Labs Japan smoothly. Between that and trying to start 3 or 4 new projects in the next month I am keeping pretty busy here.
Aunt Dorothy, good luck with your stack of mail. I thought of your scuba diving in the Truk Lagoon when I saw "The Titanic." The movie is very well done. Dana, how are things in the great Northwest? Any developments on the business front?
Hope all of you are well. Looking forward to seeing each of you in Tokyo soon.
Kent
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Here we have a two-part update, the first from Kent (with help from Colleen) and the second from Theresa:
Greetings from Tokyo,
We are just finishing up a fun and busy weekend. We visited with friends, went on adventures and discovered a small amusement park only a 5 min walk from home.
Saturday morning Colleen and Kate had their usual Aikido lessons at the nearby St. Mary’s school. Jonas Opperman, Tessa’s brother, had a basketball game in the St. Mary’s gym, so we all went to watch it. Afterwards, Tessa and Ghislaine came down the hill and visited at our house for a while, them we met up with Mark and Jonas again and went out to lunch at the "Grand Chef," a local eatery. Theresa went to meet with a person she met through the College Women’s Assoc. of Japan, so she missed the lunch.
Colleen and her friend Jessica took off around noon for a trip across Tokyo to the Asakusa Temple and surrounding attractions. Before they left they had a choice meal at McDonald’s (Makudonarudo). Colleen says it was "really, really, really, really, really, really fun. I went on the roller coaster seven times and got a picture of Jessy and me. We went on the space shot twice and the New York 4 times. The New York is a ride where you sit on either side of the Statue of Liberty (there are about 10 seats on each side). It goes around and around like a Ferris Wheel, except for you are facing a different direction. We also went on the Funky Duck twice. The Funky Duck is a ride which is basically a double Ferris Wheel. From there you could get a really good view of the temple. We also went in the bikuri room. In that room you sit in a kind of couch area and all of a sudden it seems like the room is spinning around you. We went on the Star, the Labyrinth, the Flying Ships and the Helicopter Bicycle thing. And of course we could not miss the game room. At the temple Jessy gave her arrow to someone so they would guard it for one year and with it she gave some money. It is for good luck in the coming year. Next we went to the incense pit where we rubbed smoke on our heads for good luck during the new year. We threw money into a large box and made a wish for the new year, too. After that we fed the pigeons which got all over us because we had food. It was a jumble, all those pigeons. That was a fun day. Bye, bye for now."
Colleen and Jessica ended up eating dinner at Jessy’s house and getting back to our place at 10 PM as Jessy spent the night here. Kate came home from lunch with Tessa and immediately called her friend Maria. She was invited to play at Maria’s house and stay for dinner, so with both girls gone, Teri and I found ourselves "home alone." We decided to take advantage and go out to an early dinner. We chose a local Thai food restaurant called "Ban Thai." It is a short walk from the house in a local theme park area that we had not visited before. The Thai restaurant is a nice wooden building with a high ceiling and lots of carved wood and artwork. The food was delicious. This restaurant was visited by the King and Queen of Thailand at some point, so a painting of the two of them in full ceremonial regalia is prominently displayed. On our walk home we checked out some of the surrounding amusements that we thought the girls might like to visit sometime in the future. We could not see inside the walls of the theme park, but we could tell there was a boat ride and several other attractions. We also saw a miniature golf course that we would like to try sometime.
Sunday morning we got moving slowly. Colleen, Kate and Jessy watched "Space Jam" then ate pancakes for breakfast with Teri’s patented personalize monograms (Initials made in food colored batter covered by normal pancake batter). Kate and I took a ride down by the river. Hershey came along and got plenty of exercise. Kate made sure to ride through every mud puddle and over every remaining patch of snow. We stopped for a while beside the river so she could carry on the ritual that Paul and Glen used to practice of trying to fill up any body of water with stones by throwing the stones in one at a time.
Soon after we got home Lauren came to join Colleen and Jessy. The girls went down to do some Print Club pictures and get some lunch at, you guessed it, Makudonarudo. When they returned I asked it they wanted to check out the "Wonder Egg" theme park. They knew where it was, but most of the park is not visible from the entrance, so they did not know what they would find inside. Teri decided she needed a haircut so the girls and I took off to check out the park. We figured out the various fees and set off to enjoy ourselves. The girls rode a boat ride and a train ride. Colleen and Jessy played a game of Q-Zar laser tag and Kate and I went on the "Miracle Tours" ride, a little like Star Tours at Disneyland. Colleen was totally jazzed to find a Q-Zar so close. She had two birthday parties at the Q-Zar in Redwood City. There were several other activities the girls wanted to try, but by this time it was dark and getting quite cold so we finished up the day.
Hope you had a great weekend, too. Hugs to all.
Kent
-------------
Monday 1/26, 8:35AM
OK, my turn ... I haven’t written in 2 weeks and have had a few fun things happen. On 1/14, I went to a lunch meeting of the College Women’s Association of Japan, which was recommended to me by the wife of one of my editors who used to live here about 8 or 10 years ago. This group’s main reason for existing is to raise money for scholarships for women (somewhat subversive, so I like it) and to help Japanese kids who have lived in other countries to maintain their second language. I think what they do best is fill up one’s appointment book with interesting things to do! The luncheon speaker, the author of "Japan Blue and White" (a great book—take a look if you happen to see a copy (Mom has one, FYI!)) talked about the traditional Japanese arts, called mingei (pronounced min-gay). It was a great talk, and I met quite a few interesting women.
I joined the group that day, and have since been recruited onto the Print Show committee and am helping out with statistical analysis for the Scholarship Committee. They have a hiking group and a restaurant group as well, and they occasionally take 2-3 day trips around Japan. The objective of the group is to be 50% Japanese and 50% non-Japanese; they typically have a huge waiting list of Japanese women w ho want to join, so they’re happy to have a few "gaijin" like me join.
When it was snowing here, the kids had a blast with the fresh powder all over our street. Tokyo is not a city that can handle snow; it snows here so seldom that they don’t have snow removal equipment or any of that stuff. The trains shut down, you can’t drive anywhere ... it’s walk or sit in your house! Pretty crazy. In a normal year, it might snow once, maybe 2" But this year it’s already snowed twice, 8-14" each time, and we’re expecting another snowfall. Argh.
Colleen finished her midterms last Tuesday, and seems to have done very well. Though she complains a lot about being ripped away from her friends in Palo Alto, she’s finding new friends and is having adventures she never dreamed of in California. It looks like she’ll make the honor roll or second honors at the very least for her first term. I’m trying to plan something fun for the girls’ spring break at the end of March ... Thailand? Hawaii? Malaysia? ... Kent will be in the U.S. at a bunch of boring meetings, but the girls and I might go to Thailand and hang around on the beach! It was great to see both girls having such a wonderful time this weekend. It’s a relief that they’re having fun and not sitting around whining!
I’m heading to New York on 2/14 for a week to work on my annual Barron’s cover story on online trading, and am looking forward to the trip. I managed to upgrade my entire trip—Narita to New York, New York to San Francisco (will spend the weekend of 2/21 with Mom), and San Francisco to Narita—to business class for only 25,000 miles off my frequent flyer balance. I’ll also get almost 15,000 miles for this trip, so it’s almost like getting business class for free!! Wait, I just made United Premier status, which means I'll get another 3,000 miles for the trip. Such a deal. The trip to New York is over 12 hours (ugh!!) and I have to get off the plane and go straight to work, so it’ll be good to be rested up.
Last week, I got two acupuncture treatments for some pain in my left shoulder. The acupuncturist is a really funny British guy who speaks fluent Japanese and is doing a great job on my shoulder. Now he wants to start working on my neck and jaw—he must see me as a potential long-term client or something. The acupuncture treatments were quite different from the ones I got from Mary Stuart in Palo Alto, and include some shiatsu massage and something called moxibustion—they put little cones of this mushy stuff on various accupressure points and light them to direct heat into the areas in question. It’s working, so I’m not going to argue.
I turned in a Barron’s column on Friday (turning the edits around today) and also did a feature for PC World Online in the very recent past. I’ll crank out my MIND column this week, then get going on the online trading cover story as well as my first column for a new magazine called Stock Trends. I’m also hoping to have time this week and next to follow up on some of the airplane leads I’ve gotten. The weather is usually cold but clear through about mid-March, and it would be great to get up in the sky with me doing the flying, not some 747 jockey! -- soon.
We’ve heard from Paul and Myrt and Bob on their potential trips in our direction. Looking forward to seeing you! A note to Sue Hatch: Thank you *SO MUCH* for the letters you’ve been writing to Colleen. They mean a lot to her that someone out there understands what she’s experiencing. Having her feelings "validated" (what a great California word, eh? I’m still fluent!) helped her turn away from the past and look to the present.
Mata ato de!
T.
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
Tokyo Weekend
Howdy,
Not too much to report this weekend, but I’ll summarize things here.
Friday night Colleen’s volleyball team finally had their end of the season party. It had been scheduled twice before and canceled, the first time due to a gym conflict (the party included a sleepover in the school gym) and the second time due to a snow storm. This time, however, it went ahead.
There were about 20 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls participating. Colleen reported trying to get to sleep about 1:30 AM and finally succeeding about 3:00 AM. At least one girl confessed to not getting to sleep until 6 AM.
Kate, Theresa and I walked down the hill to try out a nearby Yakiniku (Korean BBQ) place we spotted recently. The food was great. Theresa and I cooked beef, vegetables, etc. at the burner in the table and Kate was pleased to discover they also served garlic and cheese pizza, her favorite. This restaurant is a definite possibility for dining out with some of you future visitors.
Saturday morning we had a parents/kids volleyball game at the school gym to finish the overnight party. The parents had quite the advantage having slept a few more hours the night before. After a half hour of parents vs . kids, they mixed up the teams into two kids and parents teams and played for another half hour. We had a great time, though Theresa’s back may no t be the same for a few days to come.
Saturday night we had a visit from Aki, a Japanese student who stayed with us for 2 weeks in the summer of 1993, when Birte was also visiting us from Germany. Aki was the quietest student we ever had stay with us, but has been the best about keeping in touch, sending birthday and Christmas cards every year. She lives about 1.5 hours away by train. She is still quite quiet and shy, but seemed to enjoy the visit as did we.
Sunday Kate, Theresa and I made a quick trip into Shibuya (about 20 minutes by train) to look at cell phones and toasters. We ended up buying one of each, though we were only able to bring the toaster home. They needed an extra hour to get the cell phone ready, but we had to leave, so Theresa will go back today and pick up the phone. The phone is one of those small, digital ones. It will be handy to have to keep in touch while wandering about the city.
Sunday afternoon we drove over to Chris and Marge Van Woerkem’s place for a long visit. They also invited an HP engineer and his wife who just arrived from Santa Rosa, CA for a 6 month stay. They have 3 kids, ages 5, 3 and 1, but left them at home with her sister who is staying here with them. It was odd to realize we have already been here six months now and are just beginning to feel like we know our way around. It was fun being the old Tokyo residents dispensing advice to the new arrivals.
Last night ended up with all four of us in our bed watching the figure skating pairs competition on TV. I won’t tell you who is in first place as they will probably show that tonight in the U.S.
Mata ato de,
Kent
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page
I’m not sending out as many newsy updates lately—I suppose because I’ve stopped thinking that getting from one part of the city to another is news any more, or that finding a new and tasty restaurant is worth raving on about. But a few things have happened that I ought to pass along, so here goes.
First of all, I’m not sure I mentioned that Colleen made the honor roll at Seisen. If I did, my apologies for the duplication of news. Can you tell I’m proud of her? OK, I am! I’m her mom—so sue me. <grin>
Shortly after sending out this email, I’ll be updating the web page with lots of new pictures. Stop by when you get a chance. Also shortly after sending out this email, I’ll be heading to New York for a fun-filled week of testing web-based brokerages for my annual cover story for Barron’s. Then I’ll spend the weekend of 2/21 at my mom’s house; I hope to see all of you S.F. Bay Area denizens somewhere along the way. Caroline wants to blend up the new Zinfandels on Sunday night—any takers?? (I love starting parties at other people’s houses ... heh heh heh.)
Colleen and Kate had two days off of school this week, so we decided to go do something fun. At first we thought of going skiing, then thought of going to Nikko, but finally settled on heading up to Hakone for a night in a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and some heavy-duty sightseeing. We had Hershey picked up by the folks at his now-familiar dog hotel at 9AM on Thursday, then after the usual delays we finally made our escape just before 10AM. We decided to take a chance and drive on this trip; it’s only about 80km to our eventual destination, but going that far is truly a challenge in Japan! Kent’s assistant, Tamura-san, was great, and I’m sure we’d never have gotten into the place we stayed without her help. We may have never found it either <grin>.
From our place, we got onto the Tomei Expressway and zipped along nicely to Hadano-Nakai where we took a road down to the coast. We joined Route 1,which hugs the coastline (just like in California!) at Ninomiya, then continued towards Odawara. We could have gone straight up towards Hakone at this point, but decided to stay along the coast and drove to Atami on highway 135, where we stopped for lunch. The food was reasonable, though not spectacular, but the restaurant gave us a view of the ocean. After lunch, we goofed around on the beach for a while until it started to rain, then decided to hit the road again.
From Atami, it’s not much of a drive back to Odawara, and from there we found Route 1 again. This time, the road headed up into the mountains, following the river that’s lined with hot springs. At the town of Hakone, just a mile or so up the river from Odawara, the road splits with the Old Tokkaido Highway heading off to our left. We stayed to the right, and wound our way up the canyon to Miyanoshita. Tamura-san had booked us a room in a ryokan that had once hosted Stevie Wonder, and warned us to look for a parking garage that was near the Doganshima ropeway. Well, we missed it -- not once, but twice, finally deciding to just park and look around for the place. As it turns out, the parking garage we picked to pull into was the right one after all, and as we hauled our overnight bags down the street, a greeter from the ryokan, Yamato Hotel, stopped us on the street.
"Kent-san?" she asked, looking at a clipboard. I guess we were the only gaijin in the place that night, so we were pretty easy to pick out of the crowd.
The greeter directed us across the street, then down a narrow road to a gondola. We rode in the tiny car, barely squeezing in with the 4 of us a nd our bags, down into the canyon to the ryokan, which sat right on the river. The ritual of being welcomed to a well-run ryokan can be either intimidating or pleasant, depending on how much Japanese one understands. There are ryokans that cater to non-Japanese speakers, but this was not one of them. As we checked in, we were asked when we wanted to have dinner and breakfast. Setting a time for breakfast also guarantees you a "wake up call" 30 minutes prior to the meal. We decided on 6PM for dinner, and 8AM for breakfast. Then we asked about what Tamura-san had called "the family bath," and were able to make a reservation for 4-4:30PM, giving us 15 minutes to throw our stuff in the room and get on over there.
Our room was down a long hallway, then down a flight of stairs, and down another shorter hallway that took a few twists and turns. I thought of dropping bread crumbs to find my way back. We were given our yukatas and outer coats, and told to meet the doorman at 4PM so he could show us to the "chisai ofuro" (small bath). Changing into the yukatas (cotton robes) was pretty funny. The robes fit me and Colleen pretty well, but since they’re "one size fits all," they didn’t do so well on either Kate or Kent. The maid apologized for how short Kent’s yukata was, and I figured out how to fold Kate’s up so she wouldn’t trip on it. We didn’t need our own clothes again until we changed to leave after breakfast this morning.
We finally made it out to the front a couple of minutes after 4, and were escorted to a stone walkway that went up the hill a bit in front of the hotel. The outdoor bath there was beautiful; after an abbreviated washing, we all jumped in. I take that back, we all got in carefully—it was VERY hot!! The bath itself was beautiful—lined with stones and surrounded by plants and a bamboo fence. I just got as much of myself under the hot water as I could, and I watched the clouds scuttering by overhead as they danced with the branches of the trees. OK, I got way to o mellow. (So sue me. <grin>) Our half hour was up too quickly, and we we nt back to our room to relax before dinner.
Dinner was spectacular. The maid brought in four gigantic trays filled with dishes and cooking pots and rice buckets and all kinds of other things. At breakfast we counted plates or bowls -- 12 for the adults and 11 for the kids—and figured that it must have been more at dinner. The table was beautiful (yes we took pictures), and dinner included small helpings of sashimi, soup with daikon in a nest pattern with a bird-shaped piece of vegetable on top, various pickled things, seafood sausages in a variety of pretty shapes, steamed veggies with and without sauces, a tiny slice of tea-cooked pork, and a huge plate of shabu-shabu fixings. We each had our own individual cooking pots for the shabu-shabu, along with a bowl of rice. The rice bucket was placed on a side table, and the maid made sure I was sitting in the right place to be able to serve from it. The meal took more than an hour to eat, and the kids seemed to enjoy it (much to my shock). Kent and I, of course, got extra helpings of sashimi—Colleen and Kate just aren’t up to that yet.
After dinner, the girls wanted to check out the hotel pool. Our maid told us where it was—back near the entrance—and the girls and I headed over there to splash and play a while. This was our first swim in Japan! The pool isn’t very big, but it’s nice and warm thanks to the hot springs. Following our swim, we decided to check out the women’s bathing area. The hotel, like many ryokans, has segregated bathing areas for men and women. Between 7 and 10PM, the gender assignments are switched, so we went to the one labeled "Ladies" at 8:30PM. This one has a nice large changing area, and two big pools inside. The bathing ritual is one we’ve all learned by now. Along the walls, there are stools and buckets arranged in front of shower heads. We washed up and rinsed off all the soap, then slowly seated ourselves in one of the (very hot) pools. These pools really are works of art, with the stonework and tile meshing together with the views outside down to the river. Extremely peaceful, and most conducive to relaxation.
The kids and I had two baths and a swim yesterday, so both girls were very sleepy when we got back to our room. By the time we got back, our futons were all made up and all the dinner dishes had been removed. Kent went out for a bath while the girls watched more Olympic updates (men’s skating, live). Kate was so sleepy she just drifted off with the television going, and Colleen followed her to dreamland not long after. I slept incredibly well, and was surprised by the knock on the door at 7:30AM—"Ohaiyo gozaimasu!"—indicating that it was time to wake up so our breakfast could be brought in.
Breakfast was a little more trouble for the kids—"Too much fish!" was Kate’s summation. Each of us was given a small (6-8" long) dried and salted and soy-sauced whole fish, along with a small egg custard with soybeans and shrimp, three artfully arranged squid, miso soup with a half-dozen clams, some sorrel and tofu simmering with a meatball in the cooking pots we all remembered from last night’s dinner, and rice. Oh, and black tea too. Colleen didn’t eat much, but Kate hardly touched anything. Kent and I got through most of the food—I tried everything, but must confess some difficulty with the squid. They were really salty and rubbery, and I guess that’s a taste I have yet to acquire!
After breakfast, Colleen and Kate and I headed off, once again, to the baths. This time, we went to the bathing area that’s labeled "Ladies" all day except 7-10PM. The usual Ladies’ bath has a much smaller changing area than the one available in the evenings, and its two pools are also smaller than the ones we used the night before. But one of the pools is outside, and I’ve grown fond of relaxing and watching the river roll by.
After our baths, it was time to check out and continue the adventure. Al l this bathing and being fed doesn’t come cheap—our bill for the one night for the four of us was about $500. Kate’s summary was, "I want to stay longer, but I don’t want to eat anything else here." So off we went.
We drove further up the mountain, ending up at Lake Ashino in about half an hour. We parked in Moto-Hakone and walked along the waterfront. It was beautifully clear this morning, and as we walked we could see the top of Mt. Fuji peeking out in the distance. Finally we rounded a point, and there it was in all its snow-capped glory. Truly a spectacular view, and yes, there will be plenty of pictures up on the web page shortly. We took a "pirate boat" ride to the other end of the lake and had lunch, then rode back to Moto-Hakone on a reproduction of a Mississippi River steamer. We also rented swan-shaped paddle boats for half an hour. It was a great day to be outdoors—a little chilly, but not too bad, and not a cloud in the sky. Every time I turned to see Mt. Fuji, I gave out an involuntary gasp -- it’s so beautiful. Kate wants to climb it sometime, and thinks Uncle Paul will be up for the trip. (Were your ears burning, Paul??)
The drive back home was a little rocky at times. We took a different route, and hit traffic more often than I’d like (roughly defined as "more than zero times" since I hate sitting in traffic). But we made it back, got Hershey his freedom from his own ryokan experience, and are now safely back home.
Thanks to all of you who are keeping an eye on Aunt Lillian as she recovers from surgery.
T.
Top of Page | Return to Letters Page | Return to Carey Home Page