Konnichiwa

Bits and Pieces - An Update

New York, New York!

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• We just got back from New York! OK, not "just". About 2 weeks already. But we are still jet-lagged. I have been going to work and hitting the sack the moment I get home. About 7.30pm. Incredible. The boys go to sleep at about 8.30pm and wake up at about 7am. The jet-lag is working out well for the boys - finally they are sleeping the correct time they are supposed to be sleeping and waking up with time for a decent breakfast! Not a 5 minute meal and a mad dash to school.
• I will write more on our NY trip after I recover from the jet-lag and stay awake long enoough.
• Yesterday was a public holiday in Japan. The Japanese Thanksgiving. The public holiday was "thank you for the employment" day.
• I was looking forward to a lie-in yesterday (yet another lie-in to be honest, I have slept through the whole of the last weekend, waking up just for meals and a ballet class!). But alas, was dragged to a football/soccer match. Ever since Tomo's dad sold his company, we have been going to soccer matches played in Tokyo/Yokohama by FC Oita. Oita is in Kyushu. We have never been to Oita. But we support their soccer team! That is because Tomo's new company is a sponsor of FC Oita and we get free tickets. Well, it is not so much the free ticket that brings us to theses matches but this team, when they play in Tokyo/Yokohama, they hardly have supporters as they are at an "away" game. So the sponsors try to get as many people in to support them as they can. So Tomo being the good company employee always drags us all their games.
• But yesterday's game was different. FC Oita has been in J2 all year (the second league in Japan). If they win yesterday's game, they will move on the J1 - the first tier! It was a huge thing for them. It was being played in Tokyo at Yoyogi Stadium. They were playing against Chiba. If Chiba wins, Chiba would be the team moving on to J1. Chiba is right next to Tokyo. The moment we entered the stadium, the place was awashed in supporters dressed in yellow - Chiba's colour. There was a little section of blue - FC Oita's colour. We joined the group in blue. We were so outnumbered. Many of the FC Oita supporters had actually flown in to Tokyo from Kyushu just for the game. There were also many single men of all ages who came and sat alone.  
• It was raining throughout the game! The rain was light at times, moderate at other times and heavy at certain times. I did not have a raincoat on me as I thought we would be sheltered (as the previous stadiums we went to had shelter).  I had a big umbrella with me. A golf umbrella to be precise. But I felt I could not use it. It just felt rude to be opening it and obstructing the people behind me. I noticed that most people just put up with the rain even though they had umbrellas with them. So I did the same. Do as the Romans do, as they say.
• The game was ironical on a few levels. We won. But we should not have. FC Chiba was clearly the stronger team. They passed well and seldom lost the ball. They were on the offensive right from the start and attacked all throughout. Shooting ball after ball in the direction of the goal post. Our side was just lethargic and sluggish. They could not run. They could not pass. Almost every single time when they tried passing, they lost the ball. We did not even have much of a chance to attack and kick a ball into the goal post. But we had an amazing goal-keeper. He was just brilliant. Seriously, if not for him, the score would easily have been at least 6-0 after the first half. But because of him, it was 0-0 after the first-half. It was still 0-0 as we neared the end of the second half. If the game ended 0-0, there would be no extra time. FC Chiba would go on to J1 based on their past performance (number of goals scored in the past season). 5 mins before the game ended, as FC Chiba was attacking, the ball got into the feet of an FC Oita player. He noticed that the pitch was clear in the other half and so raced across the pitch with the ball, came one-on-one with FC Chiba's goalkeeper, lobbed the ball above his head - and GOAL! Oh my goodness, we supporters erupted! There was an old man in front of us who was there alone. I have never seen a 70-odd year old man literally jumping up and down with joy.
• As the game continued for another 5-odd minutes to the end, the old man in front of us started putting his hands together and praying. Definitely an ardent fan. FC Chiba deperately tried to score in those 5 mins but our goalkeeper was too good for them. Seriously, it may as well have been just the whole of FC Chiba versus our goalkeeper. Then the final whistle blew and it was official -  we won and we are advancing to J1. Just goes to show - "may the best man win" does not always hold true. We just got lucky with 1 opening and made the most of it. I felt very sorry for FC Chiba. Their supporters were so dejected and quiet.
• So FC Oita did the victory lap. And then came the live interviews. They interviewed the manager. They interviewed the guy who scored. But they did not interview the goalkeeper! Life ain't fair, is it? The scorer gets a higher profile for his 1 effort in a few seconds. But the true hero of the game who deflected ball after ball for all 90 mins of the game is forgotten.
• And here is the last irony. When they interviewed the scorer on how he felt when he score, it was met with a pause. And they he replied that he had many emotions about scoring - because he used to play for FC Chiba and had just transferred to FC Oita! 
• We later watched the sports news coverage on the game at home and I am glad that NHK commented that FC Oita had a brilliant goalkeeper. He should get that recognition!

 

The End of Ski Season

Ski season has ended.  We made it to the mountains 3 times this Feb/March.  

The first time we went, I spent hours packing.  The second time we went, I spent about an hour packing. The third time we went, I spent only a couple of minutes.  Call me seasoned. So, this is what it feels like to have a second/weekend home?  It can be quite tiring.  As Tomo and I have long hours at work, we tend to leave our house no earlier than 11pm on Friday nights and do the drive to Yuzawa.  It should take only 2 hours but Feb/March is when there are road works everywhere as the various cities try to use up all the government budget before the financial year end (which is March 31 in Japan).  So the traffic jams throwin another hour, at least. We sleep in on Sat morning, do a lazy brunch and hit the mountains only at about 1pm. We ski, eat, sleep, eat, ski, eat, ski... and then leave Yuzawa at about 10pm on Sunday night to get back to Tokyo/Yokohama.  Only to be up again at 7 to get ready for the school/work day.

Much as I enjoyed Yuzawa, I am glad ski season is over.  I can now do proper sleep ins on Saturdays and Sundays!  I am exhausted.  Work has been crazy this Feb/March and many weekends found me hunched over my computer or attending meetings.  In fact, our 3rd trip to Yuzawa was not confirmed until 10pm on a Friday night.  At 6pm that day, I managed to confirm that I was OK work-wise to leave the city.  Tomo was still not sure until he called home at 10pm to say that he is OK too, pack up and we will go!  We were all so excited, esp since we had to cancel a trip the prior weekend, which was a long weekend, due to a meeting Tomo had on a SUNDAY! (I will save my rants on the Japanese disregard for family time on weekends in another long, long, long post).

As for the boys, they love skiing.  We can't tear them away from the mountains! When the ski-lifts for the day pass end, Kai refuses to leave and makes Tomo push him up the mountain so that he can continue skiing!!! Taiga too, is like the Energizer bunny on the ski hills.  He takes quite a few tumbles as his legs are still not strong yet, but that does not deter his spirit. At one stage, he had a 1 on 1 class with his instructor for 2 hours.  After the class, the instructor mentioned that he should be exhausted by now and would probably want to sleep soon. Nah, he made Tomo push him up the mountains too and skied for another 3 hours.  Poor Tomo, he has to do the midnight drives and push the kids up the mountains. But then again, having the kids start skiing now is his idea.

Since the kids loved it, we bought them ski clothes after the 1st weekend.  Before the next ski season, we will probably buy them their own set of skis and ski boots.  It works out much cheaper than renting. The first weekend we were there, we easily spent 50,000 yen just on renting the clothes/skis/boots, paying for 3 ski classes for each boy and ski lift passes. Come next ski season, we will not be renting anything, Taiga will probably go back for some more classes (as he is so young - he was not even 4 when the ski season ended!) but Kai is definitely over classes. He is begging out of it.  Instead, he wants "Daddy School". The apple does not fall far from the tree - speed is king. In the proper ski school, where there are a few kids to 1 teacher usually, the kids have to ski slowly and ski for only 10 meters before having to stop and wait for the next kid to ski.  At Daddy School, he gets to ski non-stop all the way from the moment he gets off the ski lift, which means he can go fast, fast, fast! Yes, speaking of that, I will definitely have to buy him a safety helmet too.

Whilst they are skiing, I am enjoying a cappucino in a lovely, warm cafe, followed by waffles topped with caramel ice-cream fresh from a nearby farm.  All the whilst, playing around my Mac with the free wi-fi and listening to music with my noise-cancelling Bose headphones.  That is why I don't object too much when they want to go skiing when I rather stay home and sleep. Oh, I have been productive.  I have been watching the Apple video tutorials on how to make/edit home movies.  I have not mastered it yet, but the videos attached are my first efforts.  You can hear me snapping at Taiga, Taiga crying, strong wind blowing etc - I have yet to learn to mute that. Enjoy!

In this video, Taiga is so adorable as he takes his spills  - and what is Kai doing?

Surfing in Ski Country

Surfing the internet, that is. I am sitting in the Edleweiss Cafe of Prince Hotel in Niigata,Naeba as I write this post. Isn't WiFi amazing? Better when it is free, as it is now.

Tomo is out being challenged by the ski hills.  He is an advance skier.  He does black slopes.  

Prince Hotel has a ski school for kids, named Miffy - after the famed character.  Kai and Taiga are now in school.  Kai is actually on skis. He even went up a ski lift today! He is doing pretty well and is very enthusiastic.  He comes down the bunny slopes nicely but can't stop.  Stopping is tough.  Reminds me of the first time I was on skis.  Can't stop too. Just went from right to left to right, instead of stopping.

Taiga is too young to go on skis although I think we will try to convince the Miffy school otherwise next month. Kids can go on skis only from 4 yrs and Taiga's b'day 4th b'day is early April.  They will not let us this time, but when he is 1 month short next month, I think we will try a little harder to convince them. Taiga's class spends 1 hour indoors playing with toy cars and 1 hour outdoors playing with the snow. Including tobaggon rides. For whatever he is doing, it is costing me an arm and a leg which is a little hard to justify. So you could say I am buying myself some quiet time here!

Miffy school has a great reputation.  Also, I was very impressed when we came for a look-see here last year.  This was soon after the Natasha Richardson incident.  All the ski schools we looked at did not care or stress head gear at all.  Miffy did.  So much that in the aftermath of the accident, they were encouraging skiiers to use helmets and did free rentals of ski helmets.  Great marketing?  Whatever.  I am sold.

The boys did 1 class yesterday and are doing 2 classes today. We are planning to be back another 2 weekends in March to round off this ski season.

It snowed quite a bit from late afternoon yesterday till this morning.  But since this morning, it has been sunny.

As the boys are skiing, I have been busy doing my own stuff.  Like getting to know more about my Mac. I am not fully utilising all the functions on my Mac and have spent hours watching the video tutorials on the Apple site. I have been catching up reading my Time magazines. Ever since having Kai and Taiga, my subscription issues tend to lie around unopened.  I brought along a parenting book I bought a couple of weeks ago - Einstein Never Used Flash Cards.  I like the book.  But watching those tutorials have taken up a lot of my time and I am not sure whether I can get to reading the book before we head back to Tokyo tonight. Anyway, we will probably be back here in 2 weeks time, and that book is probably coming again too.

May post some shots/video footage later.