Posts from — April 2004

The past 10 days have been very busy in our house, making room for baby and then establishing routines. What an exhausting joy it has been. I have learned to do more of the vital tasks than I did when “visiting” Yoshiko and Gregory at my mother-in-law’s house. *NOW* I understand what it’s all about.

The pictures are from Gregory’s omiya mairi, a sort of Japanese christening wherein the shrine priest (in our case, Yasaka Shrine) literally introduces the baby to the Gods and asks for their blessings. Gregory was in a good mood and didn’t cry at all the chanting and waving of fronds. The temple has a photo studio, and we sat for our first family portrait. There is a kanji “大” (“dai,” meaning ‘big”) written on Greg’s forehead by Yoshiko’s mother. Indeed he is getting bigger, and stronger and smarter. He certainly knows how to push daddy’s buttons.

The macho hawk motif of his wrap kimono is nicely tempered by the frilly bonnet and bib, wouldn’t you say?

ELT/Linguistics books for sale (Â¥2,000 each + postage):
All in very good condition. some of these will be accompanied by bonus books.

Aspects of Language Teaching, H.G. Widdowson
The Self-Directed Teacher, D. Nunan and C. Lamb
How to Do Things With Words, J.L. Austin
The Language Teaching Matrix, J. Richards
English for Specific Purposes, Hutchinson and Waters
Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, HD Brown
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Family fights don’t get much worse than this. The ruler (sort of a shogun but he didn’t take the title) most identified with Kansai, Hideyoshi the monkey-faced man, hadn’t sired any children into his late fifties, so he adopted his sister’s son Hidetsugu as his heir around 1590. Later on, his much younger wife did produce a son.

Oh, my, sticky situation. Whatever shall we do. This being Japan, you know it will be bloody, and there will be plenty of heart-wrenching tragedy to go around.
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Actually, the kanzan sakura are in bloom now around town. I shot this today near Shijo-Kawaramachi.

One of the places in Kyoto where you can dress up like a maiko (apprentice geisha) and take a tour. While foreigners do usually look good in kimono and yukata, even Japanese women look awkward dressed up as maiko, and gaijin are especially gawky. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it just for kicks, though, if you don’t mind a few snickers.

To get to this shop, go south on Kawabata street from Shijo, turn left at the first bridge (Donguri street), then right at the first corner and go down the street of teahouses (Miyagawacho). It’s on your left. TEL 075-551-1661. I have a brochure with their rates here somewhere. I’ll add that data later.

Did anyone else get an email from Baghdad Blogger Salam Pax’s friend Raed Jarrar saying he reads your blog and announcing his own blog? I wonder if it was a mass mailing or he really does read it. Anyway, his blog Raed in the Middle is worth reading for the same reason Salam’s was, he’s on the ground in the middle of a war, and what he has to report is not reassuring.

He has commented on the Japanese hostage crisis.

The relative wind from passing cars rather neatly sweeps the fallen cherry blossoms into the gutters. Flower pressers, go to it.
NB: The new issue of Kyoto Journal has another flavorful essay byRobert Brady at the front. Robert Brady is a master of descriptive writing. The filigree in his stories is always just enough, just right, never overwrought. Words honed like his axe to work just so.

Kyoto is thronged with tourists now, and they all eventually make their way to Maruyama Koen to photograph the drooping cherry blossoms (shidarezakura) of this cherry tree, which is the most famous in the city. So, here it is, 1024 X 768 size. Yesterday we had our son’s Omiya Mairi (a sort of Japanese-style christening) at Yasaka-san, which adjoins Maruyama Park, so we certainly had a lot of well-wishers when we went to take a few photos at the sakura. I saw my wife in her kimono (sakura pink) for the first time (she hadn’t worn it since graduating college), which was a delightful bonus. I feel a tremendous joy at becoming a father, becoming a family. My wife gave birth to a healthy and wonderful son, and I feel as if he in turn has given birth to us as parents.

I apologize to everyone whose email I haven’t gotten to in the past week. Been very busy with these things and business and a dental emergency just for fun. Also, I am getting requests every day, sometimes 2 or 3, for help with accommodations and travel in kyoto. I try but I can’t keep up. I wish I could. I have build up a lot of material and keep saying “the new site is almost ready to debut,” but haven’t come through. The need for the site is actually increasing, so I am going to put myself on a production schedule for this.