Self Pacification

10:05 pm. Trying to get to sleep, a crying Fuzuki, lying in bed, reaches to the side of his head where he has spit out his soother (pacifier) to pick it up again. He inserts it into his mouth, sideways, takes two or three sucks, then his arms drop to his side and his face and jaw are motionless. The soother falls out, back onto the bed where it was before, and little Fuzuki is asleep for the night. The time is now 10:06. If only it was that easy all the time.

Allies to the Cause

I’d like to take some time to introduce you all to some of the allies to the cause around the Taylor household. The cause of course being “Itsuki and Graham being able to relax”. This is most often accomplished when Fuzuki is happy, satisfied, asleep, confused, or eating. The opposite of any of these states is a crying, moaning, whining, dinosaur (no bigger than a dog) that beckons (especially during our dinner) to be held.

I’m going to introduce these allies as the Top 5 allies of the month.

#5 Weapon X

Recently purchased Weapon X (as I like to call it, not because it’s actually dangerous) has climbed up into the top 5 within a couple of days. This is actually heart shaped but very easy to hold onto. Fuzuki likes to swing it round in his right hand, using giant arm motions. Because of its medium size, and the velocity of his swinging attacks I have given it the name Weapon X

#4 Flower Power

Popular amongst all children (I say this because whenever his is around another baby, they always try and steal it from him) this flower shaped toy has 3 semi hard plastic petals that fit perfectly into Fuzuki’s mouth soothing (or pacifying) his temper and the sounds that come with.

#3 Spring Dog

Spring dog has so many parts to him, so that even when Fuzuki has finished sucking on his nose and ears, there is still a butterfly and a bone to get around to. And when his is done there, he can usually start over again with the nose and ears.

#2 Quack Quack Bathtime Book

Not only can you read this book, you can also eat it, bend it, and hit yourself with it without harming yourself. Although it does require my storytelling voice and my hands to successfully turn the pages, one reading of this book will usually stun (with amazement and interest) Fuzuki out of any whining/crying session he has planned (especially upon coming out of the bath.)

#1 The white duck!

This magical stuffed animal/music box currently has Fuzuki completely under its control. Like a Jedi mind trick or something, just pull the cord, let the music play, and he is completely silent, just staring at it.

Sleepover Parte!

We hit up the Nishidas for a place to crash last Friday night. Being Fuzuki’s Godparents, we reserve the right to invite ourselves over to their house anytime and wreak havoc on their kitchen.

The following morning, it was banana chocolate chip and strawberry pancakes, with cinnamon French toast (sprinkled with icing sugar), watermelon and fresh coffee for breakfast.

We plan to crash again soon!

A Changeroom Too Small

Since I bike to work everyday, and since that ride is about 2 km uphill, I don’t wear my work clothes on my commute. I always change at school and leave my bags, towels, and biking clothes in a locker. This year when I showed up for work at one of my two schools, the locker I had been using last year had a new name on it.

“ahhh they’ve moved them around” I thought to myself. However when I looked around the rest of the changeroom, none of the other lockers had my name on them, and none of them were empty. Upon addressing the VP about this I was told that the changeroom was too small (big surprise here) to have a locker for me.

The compromise was to put a new locker, in the hallway for me. I now have to get changed in the hallway in front of all of the students and staff!! Just joking, but it is a pain to have to carry all my stuff back and forth.

Hot In Pink!

All decked out in new threads, the Taylor’s made a showing at a wedding a couple of weeks ago. Pictures are to come in a bit, but first I thought I’d add some Japanese wedding trivia to the plate.

The whole wedding to place in less than 3 hours (that includes ceremony and reception). I can’t imagine how many staff must have been working it, but likely something similar to what it takes to pull off the academy awards. There were spotlight operators, bubble maker operators, a DJ, an MC narrating the whole night, sheep dog (people telling the guests where to go and stand) and that doesn’t include any of the tens of servers helping out pouring champagne or bringing out the 10 course dinner.

The bride wore 3 dresses, quite the norm. They also chose the very popular “western wedding style” in a church with a white dress. A couple comments about this. There was a very “staged” feel about the whole thing. I think the priest was actually moonlighting, his regular job probably something like mine, teaching English at a junior high school or conversation school. This is actually a very well known fact. (The pay is anywhere from $100 to $150 for 30 minutes and a couple of lines with the names changed.) The church was beautifully done up, but as they opened the front doors up to allow the two of them to walk off into the afternoon son, a very unharmonious view (not visible through this shot because the sunlight is hiding most of the harbour view aside from the blue ship) of industrial Nagoya port, some power lines, and a huge freighter stole a lot of magic from the entirely made up environment.

The church was pretty small and so there wasn’t much space for walking down the aisle. I know you’re supposed to take your time, but wow they were in SUPER SLOW MO! It took a whole minute to walk 15 paces.

There is an interesting tradition of the wedding couple throwing treats (like Kit Kat, or small bags of peanuts) to their guests from the top of the church stairs. The parents of the bride and group help out in this activity that turned out to be more like a game of dodge ball. Imagine if you can, 100 people crowded into a small area being pelted with from above with handfuls of small rocks. People caught looking one way would get hit in the face by a snack from the other side. Or when they thought the pelting was over, another bag of snacks would be unawaringly pulled out at tossed in the direction of those not looking. Luckily we were at the very back, out of range of most of the violence, however, it was very interesting to watch.

In summary, it was an interesting time. And here we see that Fuzuki tried to get sloshed off of Strawberry champagne!

Boys Day

Now to some of you this may sound like Hockey Night in Canada in the AFTERNOON, instead of at night, it is quite different.

In Japan, families with boys up to the age of 10, take part in special celebrations. They either fly large carp shaped windsocks, or they display samurai outfit miniatures. Some do both! My parents are flying the carp. Itsuki made the outfit, herself, out of origami! SWEET HEY!

Oh Yeah, Scotto and I prepared a boys day feast too!

Scotty Does Japan

My best man, and only the 2nd person (excluding family) to visit my house since coming to Japan (open invite there) came over for a little bit of a visit.

He came bearing peanut butter (which he is fatally allergic to) and a new digital camera (which he left the battery and charger to in my house). What a great guy!

We hung out for a bit in Toyota, and then went up to visit some of Itsuki’s relatives in Toyama, on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Getting stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam was probably the highlight! Then again driving for 3 hours straight with a full bladder (because we wanted to beat the same jam on the way back) was pretty main too!

We came to realize the following, most important item; we are lightweights. A beer and a half each and we were done for the night.

Trouble At The Passport Office

For our summer vacation this year we are planning to fly to Hawaii to attend our friends’ wedding on Oahu. The simple task of getting a passport for Fuzuki has been about as easy as killing a mosquito with a lawn mower! (For those of you who have tried this, you will know what I’m talking about.)

The first troubles came when we went to get a passport photo taken at a professional studio. We were informed at that time that we could not a photo taken of Fuzuki until he could sit up by himself (at that time he could barely even keep his chin up). So we took him home and tried to photograph him on the floor. Getting a 3 month old to look at a camera is like getting an ice cream cone to stay frozen in the desert, it ain’t gonna happen! That doesn’t even include that shots where he is looking, but has his tongue sticking out or he is blowing spit bubbles.

At the passport office we were informed of a few things. 1) that our son had acne... and maybe he’d want to wait until it cleared up (I don’t know any babies that vain) 2) that there was the slightest smudge of a shadow his ear (because he was lying down on a towel) and thus the photo would likely be rejected at some higher level of beaurocracy 3) Our sons name would PURPOSELY be spelled incorrectly!

1) and 2) were solved for $12 by shopping around at different photo studios and then waiting until a later date when Fuzuki could at least partially sit up. 3) was just stupid.

Thanks to a complete lack of common sense, the spelling of Fuzuki Raine Taylor on the passport was to become “Fuzuki Rein Teira”. This is apparently because, all records of Fuzuki in Japan exist only in Japanese, but a passport (even a Japanese one) has the name written in English. There is a set formula for translating back into English and according to these rules that spelling would end up as such. They told us that if we showed them his Canadian birth certificate with the correct spelling the would change the spelling.

Well Fuzuki wasn’t born in Canada so he doesn’t have a Canadian birth certificate. I did however apply for a certification of Canadian citizenship card (which he automatically qualifies for) back in December of last year. Upon checking on the status of this application, I am told only “It usually takes 6 months to a year.” Since we want fly in August, and need to book tickets before then, waiting around for some pencil pushers to come through in the pinch was not a chance we wanted to take. The Canadian consulate in Japan offered another option. For a quick $50 they would notarize a document saying that I had sworn to Fuzuki’s name.

$50, 7 emails, and 2 hours of travel each way later, I held the signed document in my hands, ready to go visit the mean man at the passport office again. The time was 1:30pm and I had just got home from the consulate. At 3:30pm the same day there was a knock on the door. It was the mailman, with an envelope from the Government of Canada. Fuzuki’s Citizenship Card.