The Late Miso's Epitaph

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Returning Home



So here we are at home. After 7 days in a hospital (which is normal by Japanese birthing standards) Ituski and Fuzuki made their way home. On the first day Fuzuki was very lively as he explored the room with his eyes. Tired from the optical adventure he slept well on the first night (waking only every 3 hours). Piece of cake! (Yeah right... I'm dog tired today.) Anyways, now I know how Itsuki has been feeling all week long.

You'll also note, I'm getting him started on some light reading. Astrophysics 101.

God Parents

We're very proud to introduce Fuzuki's God-Parents, Nishi and Merry. We're here in the hospital on day 3.

What's My Name! 楓月 レイン テイラー




My name is Fuzuki Raine Taylor. What's going on!

I am the grand ruler of my house! I wake when I want to, and my parents grovel at my feet changing my diapers, and feeding my as I please. All I have to do is cry. waa waa waa.


Saturday, November 18, 2006

Hot Out Of The Oven!

Come and get it! Fresh baby!

Yeah!


An amazing son was born to Itsuki and I on Friday November 17th, at 12:54 in the afternoon! After a VERY long process of ... well you know what. I'll leave it at that.

As you can see, both mom and Rainbow are health and happy!



Rainbow is still awaiting the final decision on a name, so we're using Rainbow for the time being.

In Japan, Rainbow towers over the competition, weighing in as a "heavy weight" at 3.412 Kg. (The average in this hospital is below 3Kg.)

Well, stay tuned for such exciting updates, as NAMES!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Baby Room!


If you’ve had it with pigs and OT, then this is just the blog for you! We’ve got our baby room all ready and set to go! Our theme is elephants! (and bright colours I guess).

Interior decorating comments are welcome!

Farmin’ It!

If you’ve just read the “working like a dog” blog, it’s time to lighten things up a little. And nothing says light… like pigs! Pigs are very intelligent animals, like dogs. The proof is the pig show I saw at the “farm” I visited last weekend. Being hard to come by in Japan, animals and farms are kind of a treat to Japanese. I think the reasoning is this... why only look at your pig, when you can make it do tricks! And also, why only make it do tricks, when you can EAT it too! As a result, I saw a pigs walking around a farm, then watched them “give a paw” and play soccer in a pig show, and then I went to the sausage making seminar, made sausages and ate them! Pretty tasty anyways! Sorry to all you vegetarians out there!




Working Like a Dog

For those of you who didn’t know, I’ve picked up a business English class in addition to my 9-5 junior high school job. The class is once a week in the evening for a couple of hours. It’s held at a subsidiary company to TOYOTA Motors, and all the students are employees there.

There are some pretty nice students and we have a good time. However since the third week of classes, one or two of my students have been regularly absent from, or late (by one hour) for class. It turns out they couldn’t come because they had to work, which is acceptable.

As a teacher, it really doesn’t bother me at all, actually it makes my job easier sometimes with a smaller class. However, as I got to know them better, I found out that after many of the classes, that finish at 8:45pm they were going back to work.

But that’s just the tail of the beast. Last Wednesday, 2 students were forced to stay until 4 in the morning to finish an important job! Let me say that again.... FOUR in the MORNING! Now, while there are certain situations that may call for that kind of craziness in any country and in any business, its actually the norm at this company.

Another student, for a period of 2 weeks, regularly finished work after midnight, and occasionally slept at the office. (This student later told me in an English lesson about fears, that her biggest fear is her boss, because she’s afraid of being given more work from her boss.)

I thought, well at least you’re getting paid some serious overtime for this... I was wrong! The government recently (10-15 years ago) cracked down on the amount of excessive overtime work in corporations (because of a high number of suicides, and stress induced heart attacks) placing limits of 35 hours of overtime per month on all workers. So... what happens when you work 9 hours of OT a day for more than 4 days? You don’t get paid. You just work for the company for free... as this poor student of mine has been doing for at least 3 months now! It’s Absurd! But the sick reasoning behind it is not something that can be explained in something as short as this BLOG.

I offered to help sneak this student out of the country in my suitcase the next time I return.