Train Fun (sushi version)

I would totally think this is some dumb, slick gimmick devised for tourists who would eat at this sushi place and the return home telling stereotypical tales about Japan. And all that might be true. Except this was at a restaurant quite far off the tourist track and we were the only obvious foreigners in this place (although I understand that this restaurant chain did start in sparkly Tokyo). I don't really know what it's all about.

But I do know that it was awesome. And I won't even tell you how cheap it was.
I will mention that we've had more than a few sub-optimal meals out, owing to our picky and food-allergic kids. We generally find Italian (meaning quick-serve cheese pizza) to keep the kids happy and safe. This is . . . not delicious. Let's just say that I was ready to eat some sushi for lunch now that the kids are in school all day.

Of course, you can just pluck your dishes from the rotating track on the lower level - or you could order from the menu (via the tablet at the table) and then a mini shinkansen brings your sushi right to your table. Related question: why would anyone ever just grab what was going around???
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Train Fun (childhood version)

These are model shinkansen trains from the equivalent of the dollar store. Endless hours of fun! Also, guess who's getting trains for his upcoming birthday?
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Tap, tap - Konichiwa?!

Is this thing still on? Are you still out there? (Does it even matter, since I did this mostly for myself - but then that makes it extra-sad that I stopped a while back, no?) Anyway, I was writing a lot of for work, running more, still trying to knit and cook and read and live some, so something had to give. But I'd like to try again - although it feels easy to say that right now. Will you take me back? Will you forgive me if I can't keep going?

Sooooo.....we are back in Japan. More fish for breakfast! More Fish for Breakfast?! (We'll see!). Same town as before - which, in ten years, has EXPLODED. It looks nothing like it did before. Even then, we had the sense that the rice fields that ringed the town and separated the town from Tokyo wouldn't last long, given that a high-speed train had just been built that connected the town to Tokyo. And we were right! So much development - so many houses, so many high-rises; in fact, it's hard to believe that Japan has a shrinking population, looking at what we see here (and that's the difference between data and anecdata, indeed).

Let's begin at the very beginning. Mike got a grant - we got the grant notification last spring, so this has been a long time coming. In some ways, it's been great - we were able to plan ahead and make some very careful cell phone purchases (such that we're able to use our US-bought phones here), prepare the kids nicely (and work everything out with the schools at home and here), and sort out my work situation (again, super). But it's also been a very stressful near-year of preparation. The biggest thing we needed was to sort out our house back in Texas. But we did. It was sort of last-minute, sort of rushed, required a lot of faith and trusting in the universe that we would find the right people. But things came through.

Anyway, I feel as if I have enough knowledge to write a book on the all things one needs to consider for moving a family abroad for an academic sabbatical. It might, like, be a non-fiction horror story. I jest. Kinda. Anyway, short version: we are here and this is working (for the moment / knock on wood) because of the kindness / help / support / accommodations provided by a large number of people and institutions. And I'm extremely thankful for that.

Time for some pics! So, we left the US just before Christmas. We flew out very early in the morning on 12/21. Here we are chilling on the Virgin America plane to LAX.

Just in case there was any doubt about our final destination:

We had a long layover in LA - my mom was driving up from San Diego to whisk us away from the airport with a relaxing trip to a nearby park, a picnic, running and getting the wiggles out, seeing my grandmother and some more family (some LA-based, some driving up from San Diego), and then getting back on the plane. Some of that even worked! It was not, um, relaxing. But the layover did pass quickly. I imagine that getting a flat tire on a bridge is perhaps the worst place to get a flat. The second-worst place might be a super-security conscious major airport (No! Stopping! Ever!) during the holiday travel season. So, yeah.... Also, neither Mike nor I had ever changed a tire. Good news! You can learn this on YouTube (props to Saab for having a woman starring in this video!) - and just-in-time-learners are certainly motivated learners! We also benefited greatly from some help from the LAPD. Like I said, not relaxing - but life's about the stories, right? Anyway, we made it to the park, ate our burritos, and even ran around a bit.

Then we rushed back to the airport (LAX traffic, you never fail to disappoint!), and hopped on the plane to Tokyo. Here's a before shot. Everything about this picture is true.

Just the ladies:

Here we are on the plane (Singapore Airlines). Whatever you've heard about the friendly, impeccable, welcoming service was true - and more. The cabin attendants learned our kids names, gave them little toys, brought them their meals first, handed out extra juice and ice cream, and even stopped by in baggage claim to say goodbye to them personally. Mike: "It's like American airlines aren't even trying."

I had so much anxiety about this flight. Much of this stemmed from something I still regard as one of my lower moments as a parent: a red-eye flight back from Hawaii during which Ms. Natalie didn't sleep a wink and another passenger cursed at us. Every time Mike would suggest a flight longer than the bare minimum required to visit our families, I would hyperventilate, curl into a little ball, and hide (I was easy to find because of all the hyperventilating). Luckily, packing up your house for renters, packing for your family to live abroad for seven months, wrapping up work projects, trying to do a little holiday celebrating, saying goodbye to friends, and, um, living didn't leave a lot of time to dwell on the coming horror.

Was it horrible? No, really, truly, not at all. I mean, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't let-me-just-open-the-emergency-exit-door-right-now, either. The kids slept for a good chunk of the time. They watched movies, they played with toys, and they played with each other. We didn't even use all my airplane toys (so I've now sequestered them for the return flight).

What was bad? Jet lag with kids. Friends, this is NO JOKE. We'd done the Hawaii to Texas thing and we thought it was hard. Nope. Until you've done a full day-night reversal with no other adults to help whatsoever, you have no idea. Or at least we didn't. I mean, as an adult, you wake up at the wrong time, you read a book, watch a movie, take a nap later, whatever. None of that is true with kids. The first night, we stayed in an airport hotel and the kids woke up at 1am. We were first in line for the breakfast buffet at 6am. Yeah, that was a long five hours that Mike spent exploring the hotel lobby with them.

But, hey, he earned some fish for breakfast!

(See? Truth in advertising!)

Also, with two kids, as soon as one would make some progress sleeping on the new time, the other one would scream and wake up the sleeper. It was really, really hard. Also, my kids are noisy. They have no experience with apartment living: they stomp around, they jump, they shout. And then they were doing all these things in our new place at 3 in morning. Netflix was our friend; we are slowly weaning the kids off this now.

I'm convinced that our neighbors hate us and that we are but one bloodcurdling scream away from being asked to move (or leave the country). On the plus side, maybe we'll provide some valuable social glue as the whole apartment building gathers for a large party to celebrate our departure....

More soon!

p.s. I now remember one other reason I stopped blogging: frustration with blogger. I'd actually love to switch to a wordpress design, but I feel trapped here because of the auto-email subscriptions that have been set-up for less tech-savvy family members. Anyway, if you know me professionally, you'll know that this is not my best design work. So it goes. 

Early summer

I set myself the goal of catching up, and catch up I will!

Summer here (and I write this with the wise voice of hindsight) hasn't actually been too bad. We've definitely had some hot and miserable days. Like the day both the car AC and car battery died and Mike was in Japan. The less we say about that, the better. Right. Moving on. And my garden is mostly dead or gone to seed (because the heat has kept me from working in it - or even watering it). But, still, we're definitely below average for 100+ degrees days (a sorry, Texan boast if I ever heard one!).

Anyway, all this is to say that spring lingered, summer started mild, and we had some good times outside.

 Incidentally, those are Jacob's first shoes in the pictures above. Aren't they super-cute?

A girl's gotta have priorities, right?

Retro pictures for everyone:

This was haircut day. Jacob does look like a little boy here, thanks to his fist haircut. But never fear - I wouldn't let them cut the baby curls in the back of his head. He already needs another haircut (but she doesn't, so, well, we're gonna need to wait on that). 

You wanted an update on the roses I planted outside our bedroom window (my first Mother's Day present)? Happy to oblige!

I'm still at it with the challah project, slowly. This is Czernowitzer challah with saffron and raisins and almonds. As it turns out, I don't care for saffron in my challah. But if I were a food stylist, I'd be adding saffron to every darn challah loaf out there, since the loaves were the most pleasing shade of sunshine ever.

Next up: sourdough challah, made with sourdough starter from scratch. I wish I were kidding.

The kids' school had a parent night out. We went on a date! I took a picture to mark the occasion. Also, just in case I needed to explain to the ER about ghost pepper sushi.

And then Natalie and I went on a date! We went to hear the community choir of a good friend of mine. The songs were all about animals, and kids were encouraged to dance during some of the numbers.

Intermission featured cupcakes. Those might have been her favorite number.

 And then it was Mother's Day.

I actually took this picture as prep for some biting social commentary about income inequality. A few months later, well, the issue still stands. But also: truth.

Mike taught a film + Japan course in summer school - which went great (evals just back yesterday). Uncle Eric and Aunt Melanie came for a visit; Uncle Eric gave an intro lecture about film as medium. Uncle Eric is also well-versed in print, especially board books:

Whatever this is, JBoy wants you to have it:

Snack time:

I'll leave you with the current picture of the kids that I have on my desk at work:

Next up: San Diego and pre-k graduation (yes, this is a thing. Of course it is.).

Still here . . . .

I'm still here - life just got busy. And I keep resolving to come back and write some, but then I'm overwhelmed by all the pictures and stories to sort through and share. I sort of considered just declaring blog bankruptcy and starting from right now and moving forward.

But, well, my kids are too adorable for that.
And, let's be honest, I take too many pictures just to let that happen. So, time machine time....

First, South Texas. I had a work conference there, and was lucky enough to meet up with a dear family friend. Corpus Christi in April was warm - it was just approaching a temperature / humidity level where walking between the conference hotel and the convention center would have been ill-advised. But I did it anyway. Because I live on the edge like that.

Corpus gets a "recommend" in my book - lovely waterfront for running, amazing art museum (I saw an Ansel Adams exhibit on my last day in town), great aquarium, friendly people, and slow pace of life - it reminded me of how San Diego might have been before my time.

And then it was bluebonnet time! Hooray!

Here's a look back, briefly (since time machine is the theme here):

Aaaand, here's this year:

 Bonus with Grandma Pat:

 And then it was Passover. We were ready, because we'd been practicing at home:

Detail of the seder plate and penguin guest:

 We did the real deal in Michigan a few days late:

While in Michigan, we also did some ice skating. This time, Natalie's performance was, um, more typical of a four year-old. A relief, since I no longer need to feel that I'm wasting her talent by not becoming an ice (stage?) mom.

Natalie and Jacob also got some good hangout time with their cousins:

Okay, that's a good amount of catch-up for tonight. Hopefully, I'm back in the groove now!