Last week I chanced upon a candle lantern festival at the Ebisu Garden Place. We observed many college-age people in black t-shirts mysteriously setting it up in the daytime. They carefully placed colorful lanterns in various patterns. Continue reading
Moka and her grandma.
The first birthday is probably the most important for Koreans. The next big one is at 60. We celebrated Moka’s first with just family. Usually the whole village is invited. But that village for us would include 30 million people. For this Korean celebration, the birthday girl and I were the only attending Koreans (my in-laws are Japanese) so I take full responsibility for any inauthentic elements.
The celebration, called tol in Korean, has been adapted by modern Koreans but they all have some shared elements. So here’s how we did it.
The Offering Table
The dais where the birthday girl hangs out is piled high with seasonal fruit and rice cakes. We couldn’t find fresh Korean rice cakes so we went with just fruit which is fine because we are a fruit loving family. And Moka is a fruit loving girl. Continue reading
Moka turns one year old today and so I’d like to commemorate that by listing 12 things about her, one for each month she has been alive.
Feet
Moka and I share an unusual quirk. We both like to rub our feet on different textures. Who knew that podotactilia (my term) was genetic? Other traits she acquired from me: multiple sneezes and a love of watermelon. Continue reading
Now that I’m ankle deep in my 40s I’d like to share some things I’ve “learned” in the last year.
On Being a Daddy
Having a child leads you to experience emotions you never knew you had, and exaggerates all the ones you’ve been familiar with for years. Chief among them are protectiveness to the point of paranoia, mysterious wonderment of a human unfolding in front of you, and a humbling bewilderment on how to do parenting.
Having a daughter has squeezed out and exposed the conservative old dad in me that I never knew I had. I joke that Moka won’t be allowed to date until she’s 25. But maybe I’m not joking. Continue reading
It’s now been two weeks after the earthquake and while things are still dire, Tokyo has returned to a certain level of normalcy. So far, amidst the heartbreaking suffering in the tsunami’s aftermath, there have been food scares and now a water scare. I plan on writing about that in the next post, but for this one I want to take you along on an afternoon stroll through these pictures I took while taking my sister to Kiddy Land, a famous toy store in Harajuku. Continue reading
By now I reckon I’ve received at least a few hundred emails, facebook wall posts, and skype messages asking about my and my family’s well-being, offering support, including plane tickets to Germany (thanks Katja!), and sending words of encouragement. It’s beyond moving to know that people are concerned so much about us. I want to thank you all again and again.
I’m not going to tell you everything is rosy here. Obviously, it’s not. In Japan’s northeast there are whole cities and towns full of displaced people who have been living in freezing shelters, eating very little, with a shortage of medicine. There are thousands more still trapped in the wreckage. And there are courageous people helping them, including over a 100 search and rescue specialists from my very hometown of Los Angeles working this very minute.
But what seems to be alarming the world right now the most is the nuclear reactor crisis. This issue seems to be creating the most fear, pushing all kinds of buttons in the most people. And rightfully so, we should be very concerned. I’m not going to tell you not to be afraid. We’re not robots after all. And I’m not going to tell you to completely trust the authorities. They are fallible humans in a chaotic situation dealing with their own fears. And if you believe in a conspiracy to keep the populace ignorant, I don’t have anything to say about that. Who really knows.
This is what I do know. Fear and panic makes everything worse. Continue reading
8.9 on the Richter scale. That’s one way to get me back writing on this blog of mine.
Thank you everyone for your messages of support and well-wishing. Everyone I know is safe. I had friends walk for 2 to 8 hours to get home last night. News reports showed all bicycles had been sold out in Tokyo. My father-in-law drove through streets with no working traffic lights. He said the traffic was slow but orderly with drivers hand-signaling each other at intersections.
We were most worried about Tomoko’s 90 year old grandmother. She lives by herself in a small farming village near the epicenter. But we got word that she was perfectly fine. And her village, inland and on high ground, was largely unscathed. What a miracle! Continue reading
