I was a zombie for a couple of days after returning to Kyoto, despite being able to sleep soon after landing. I got a good night's sleep and awoke at 6:30 feeling refreshed. I took the haruka express train home, but soon started feeling tired again. Despite being tired, I didn't sleep much that next evening, waking up at 2:30am and was a zombie for all of yesterday. I was so tired it hurt.
Finally, I slept well last night, and today was much better.
One nice moment the other day was when Fumie pulled out an old classic Japanese kid's game (黒ひげ危機一発) whose name roughly translates to “Blackbeard crisis explosive charge.” (It's sold in The States under the less exciting name of “Pop-up Pirate.”)
To play, you push a little pirate doll into a barrel, then take turns poking the barrel with little swords until you hit the hidden release and the pirate pops out. The game involves no skill whatsoever — just ever-building anticipation — which makes it great for preschoolers.
The following sequence of photos showed Anthony's typical interaction. The captions are my guess at what he's thinking...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — full exif
Hmmmm, Maybe This One?
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/90 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — full exif
I'm Beside Myself with Excitement!
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 50mm — 1/90 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — full exif
This is a Great Game... I Love You Both So Much!!
(Okay, so maybe that last one isn't what he was thinking 
)
This was all repeated over and over.
Eventually, he paused to check out the instructions....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 50mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — full exif
“Reading” the Instructions
It was really enjoyable to see his unabashed joy. In many ways it was similar to how he was when we shot off a model rocket two weeks ago, yet quite different in how he showed it. In any case, it's always wonderful to experience a child's joy. (The “folloups and related posts” section below contains a few more unabashed-joy posts.)
Amusingly, I’m even more intrigued by the little logo on Anthony’s shirt. It looks remarkably like an inverse of the nuclear radiation symbol. 🙂
Hah, yeah, I think the same thing every time I see it. It’s the symbol for his school, adopted in 1893, sixty-eight years before the USA civil-defense fallout-shelter sign was introduced. (It’s the fallout-shelter sign you were thinking of, which is different than the curved radiation warning sign you mentioned; I didn’t realize the difference either, until I looked it up for this comment.) —Jeffrey
Violation: Using the word “unbridled” too much while blogging. Cute pics though, he looks happy!