Hot Carpet

It's finally starting to feel cool and more like Oregon. October is pretty rainy with all of the typhoons passing by. As a result, it’s starting to feel cool compared to the sauna of a month ago.

Today we went to the store and bought a ‘hot carpet’ to put on the floor. Basically, a hot carpet is like an electric blanket, but rather than a blanket, they use a thin carpet material. And since many Japanese sit on the floor around low tables, they put this heated carpet on the floor under the low table and sit on it to keep warm.

There is no central air or central heat in Japan in homes, so people only heat or cool the rooms they are in. Therefore, people congregate together in 1 or 2 rooms of a house/apartment so that they don’t have to heat every room. Some people have heaters/fans mounted on the underside of the low table with a blanket draped over the top. They then sit around the table and enjoy the warmth of the table. Other people use a hot carpet to keep warm around the table.

We are using the boys’ room as their bedroom and as our living room. Their room is approximately 12’ X 17’. We have the TV, low table, snacks, hotpot, etc. at one end of their room, and their futons at the other end. We now have the hot carpet under the table and now we can sit around it and keep warm while we watch TV, play games, relax, do homework, study Japanese, etc. It’s nice and cozy.

Michael Buys His First Drink

Well, this one is a little strange. In Japan they have an alcohol called shochu. It's kind of like a vodka and can be made from potatoes, grains, etc. It's relatively inexpensive and often mixed with juice to give it a tasty flavor and make it easy to drink, kind of like a wine cooler. It's very popular with young folks because it's affordable, easy to mix, easy to drink. So, we bought some shochu the other day.

Last night I wanted some after work. We didn't have any juice to mix it with. Since 7-11 is 50 yards away, I gave Michael my wallet and told him to buy some grape juice to make a chuhai, the name they call shochu when it's mixed with something. Besides, we didn't have any dessert, so I told Michael to take Tommy and they could pick out an ice cream for dessert.

When Michael came home, he had the ice cream and a can of already mixed grape chuhai. Michael, 8, misunderstood me and went to 7-11 and asked for a grape chuhai (the name of the mixed drink) rather than buying regular grape juice so I could mix it with shochu here and make my own chuhai. Since it is common to sell the premixed drinks in a can or bottle in the store, the store clerk gave him the premixed drink in a can. They had no problem selling it to him because they asked him who it was for and he said it was for his dad. Needless to say, I was amazed, shocked, embarrassed, etc. that my 8 year old went to the store and bought alcohol for his dad. It certainly was not my intention. And I certainly never thought of sending my 8 year old to the store to buy alcohol for me. It was a very strange and uncomfortable feeling.

Time to Check Our Weight

We've been here about 2 1/2 months now. Time to step on the scale.

Terry has lost 12-14 pounds. This is mostly from not lifting weights 5 days a week like he was in America, and also from the smaller and lower fat/calorie meals. Also, he walks briskly 40-45 minutes a day just commuting to/from work. If he has to travel for work, then the walking is much higher. The amount of walking is astronomically higher here, and the Japanese people walk fast.

Mio has lost 8-10 pounds. She's very happy about this. Both Terry and Mio are fitting into clothes that they haven't worn for a while. It's a good thing they are pack rats and held onto some of these clothes and shipped them here.

The boys have maintained about the same weight, but they've grown taller. Michael has slimmed down and become more solid looking with the walking to/from school, karate, baseball, etc. Tommy has grown taller and maintained his weight, which is a good thing since he's such a picky eater. However, Tommy seems to enjoy Japanese food more than he did American food. This is good as he seems to eat more here. He even likes one of Terry's favorites, salmon eggs. It's hard to believe that what is used for fish bait in America is eaten here as a normal food. It's very tasty and very, very nutritious and healthy.

A Typical Week

As we begin to settle into a somewhat normal life here we're starting to experience what we think is a routine week.

Terry heads to the raisin train around 7;30 in the mornings to arrive around 8:45 am. Michael leaves the house for school shortly after 8 am. He walks by himself and sees other school kids along the route as there's a designated route for walking to school. It takes him about 15 minutes.

Mio and Tommy head out around 8:45 and walk to Tommy's school. While everyone has a bicycle with child seat on it for their preschoolers, they are not allowed to use a bicycle when taking their child to school. It's a safety issue. Bicycles are used for running errands only. So, Mio and Tommy trek about 20 minutes on foot to school in the morning.

At work, Terry orders his lunch first thing upon arrival. It's ordered through the company's intranet. Very convenient, good price, and good taste. Lunch is from 12:15- 1 pm, or whenever the first person dares to make a break from his desk. I say 'his' because a woman would never make the first move in a case like this. Once a guy makes the move, the office bolts for the doors, except for those that ordered the delivered lunch.

Once Tommy is at school, Mio treks back to the house and does laundry, grocery shopping, runs errands, cleans, etc. On several days of the week, she has meetings with other 'at-home' moms for either Michael's or Tommy's school.

Both of the boys eat lunch at school. At Michael's school, all kids must purchase the school lunch. The monthly payment is deducted from our bank account. At Tommy's school, the moms must make a lunch for the kids. So, Tommy takes his lunch each day.

In the early afternoon, Mio treks back to Tommy's school to pick him up. Michael comes home on his own.

On Monday nights, Michael goes to karate. While his teacher in Portland had more experience than his teachers here, the environment is different since he goes to a regular karate gym rather than taking it in the school cafeteria. The belt colors are different here, so Michael is adjusting to that. His American belt color is a much higher rank here, but the teachers and students don't seem to be bothered by that. Michael seems to like karate.

Terry tries to bolt from the office around 5:40 pm to arrive home around 6:45-7 pm. Since he's a foreigner, he can get away with leaving before his standard 10-12 hours have been put in. Besides, he loves his wife and kids, so he has a reason to want to go home.

Tuesday-Friday are pretty similar, except that Michael has no other weekday after school activities. Terry travels on Thursday mornings, and some other times during the week as needed. Mio attends the frequent school functions for mothers as needed. Because houses, refrigerators and such are small here, she has to shop for food several times a week. Gone are the days of going to Costco and buying several gallons of milk at a time and storing food in the garage pantry, garage fridge, garage freezer, house pantry, etc. Garages don't exist here. So, Mio buys things in pint/quart size on a frequent basis. This means buying eggs, milk, veges and fresh foods several times per week. Sale ads show up almost daily, so that helps.

On Saturday, Terry makes the Wagemann family breakfast that his father used to make: pancakes, omelet, fried potatoes, sausage. Michael has karate in the morning until noon. The cleaning lady comes to clean Mio's father's area, so we run errands or simply stay upstairs in our area to keep out of her way. In the afternoon, we run errands, catch up on sleep, play, etc.

On Sunday we start the day with another Wagemann family breakfast. Michael has baseball practice from 8:30-12:00. It's year round! Michael's team practices on Saturday and Sunday, but since he has karate on Saturday, they excuse him from practice and let him practice only on Sunday. We purchased a new glove ($63) and a new bat ($65). Then, he needed a bat carrier, $16. Monthly dues is about $20, plus sign-up fee, equipment, uniform, etc. By the way, karate is about $60 per month, plus sign-up, etc.

On Sunday afternoon, we clean the house, nap, run errands, play, etc. Then, it's Sunday night and the week starts all over again.

Tommy's Field Day

Today was Tommy’s field day. What a fun day. It was overcast and much more comfortable than Michael’s sweltering field day last week. The event lasted about 3 1/2 hours. The events were typical relays, ball throwing, singing, dancing, costumes, and so on. The kids were nearly flawless in their performances. It was obvious that they had been practicing for a long time. When the events were all done, all of the kids received a trophy for their efforts. Tommy was so proud to get his first trophy. Now he can put his trophy on the shelf with big brother's trophies.

Mio was one of the PTA helpers and worked the whole event with other moms. Michael and Grandpa were at karate and Terry got to do the father/son events. Enjoy the pictures.

Help, I Can’t Breath, And Sound Decibels on Shoes

The past few days I’ve ridden on lots of trains. Probably 20 or more trains as I have been going to customer meetings. Because Tokyo is so big and everything is so expensive, most companies purchase or lease space with little room for growth. If/when growth happens, companies often expand in the area of Tokyo where the expansion is needed in order to be close to the customer, and to cut down on train expenses. Therefore, a lot of companies have small offices all around the city. Visiting one customer over two days for different meetings required me to visit 3 different sites as the different meetings included some of the same people and some different people. This alone accounted for about 1/2 of the train rides. And because Tokyo is so spread out, it often requires switching trains to get from one place to another.

Most of these meetings include several different nationalities since I’m in our international business group. One customer visit included Americans, Japanese, Koreans, and a Chinese-American. Japanese seems to be the main language as the Japanese generally outnumber the others. The American expatriates generally have a simultaneous translator beside them. These translators are amazing as one language goes in the brain and another comes out with only a few seconds delay. Of course, since the exchanges are interactive, these people are constantly changing the direction of the language. I think this has to be one of the toughest mental jobs there is. Being fluent in two languages is impressive enough, but being able to convert languages simultaneously in whichever direction the discussion is going is amazing.

Another meeting I had included Mexicans, Japanese and me. It was quite interesting, as we had prepared our presentation in English as we thought the Mexicans spoke English. When we got there, we learned that they didn’t speak English. Luckily, they brought along their own Japanese/Spanish translator. He was not simultaneous, so we had pauses between conversations as he translated what was just said. We quickly switched to Plan B and things went pretty smoothly. I then switched from presenter to PowerPoint button pusher listening to the exchange and trying to follow along.

This morning I experienced a new level of crowdedness on the train. Michael likes to compare the morning commute to a box of raisins since raisins are touched on all sides when in the box. Today’s ride was 2 boxes full of raisins packed into one box. I was so squished that I literally had a hard time taking full breaths. Luckily the train made a slight turn and everyone squished to the other side. Once the train leveled out again, I could at least take full breaths for the rest of the commute as I had managed to take advantage of the train’s tilt and reposition slightly. The poor guy in front of me actually had his face pressed against the window several times as the train leaned in his direction and 50 or 60 people fell against him. It looked painful.

One of the things I admire most about the train stations is the women walking in very small, thin high heels. These generally tend to be open toe with very thin straps across the feet. The heels are about 2-4” high. The sole is about 1/4” thick. They seem very uncomfortable and dangerous, but the ladies truck around like nobody’s business. They don’t seem to slip or be slowed down at all. It’s very impressive. The only downside for me is that when they walk down stairs, these shoes are very loud as they slap on each step on the way down. I think they slap their feet down to make sure they have good traction and they don’t slip on the steps. They seem about as loud as a lawnmower, and when you have a group of ladies all walking down the stairs at the same time, it can actually be painful on the ears. How these women motor around in these shoes is impressive. It must be painful, but they seem to handle it just fine.

Michael's Field Day

Today was Michael's school's field day. What an event. It started just before 9 AM and finished just after 3 PM. It was non-stop activity all day. What an event. Nothing was left to chance. Everything was planned down to the second. It was a flawless and very fun day. It's obvious these kids have mastered their events for this day. There were 25 events today.

The day was filled with relays, coordination events, teamwork events, music, dancing, balance events, singing, speeches, and so on. Many of the events were not simple events. This wasn't thrown together at the last minute. This was planned and rehearsed. It was definitely a full day.

The school was split into two teams, red and white. All events pitted these 2 teams against each other for points. At the end of the day, the team with the most points gets the trophy and bragging rights until the next year. It's a pretty big deal.

Attached are some pictures. There's even one of Terry participating in the PTA tug of war. Terry's team won both matches. Unfortunately, Terry was on the red team and Michael was on the white team.

Next week it Tommy's field day.