Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 — ¹/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 — full exif
Anthony's Note to Mommy
“Write your response in the box”

Anthony has never really shown any interest in reading and writing (nor, for that matter, much interest even in being read to). It's been almost a year since he could write his name in English and in Japanese, but that's about as far as he's cared to take it. As I've written before (How To Raise a Bilingual Child and More on Raising a Bilingual Child), I am careful not to ram linguistics down his throat, lest he turn away from it.

Many of Anthony's peers can read and write fairly well, but still, at his age (a week shy of turning six), I'm not concerned with his inability to read and write. On the other hand, his almost total disinterest in them is a growing concern.

So, we were amazed this morning that he, all by himself, before Fumie and I got up, wrote a note to Mommy. Fumie awoke to find it propped up against her computer, showed me, and we both dropped our jaw.

It appears that he started writing on a Post-It type note, then kept adding them as he continued the message. Sometimes he wrote in the wrong direction, there's no punctuation, and a few other mistakes, but wow, it's just wonderful to us.

You can see what he actually wrote at right. Here's a transcription (with punctuation added, and a few typos corrected) and translation...

At the bottom, after the text, are arrows pointing to a little box in which she's to write her answer.

He doesn't know how to write all those characters yet by himself, so he used a little electronic “learn the letters” type of thing – pictured below – to make sure he got the right characters.

The alphabet he used (Hiragana) is pretty much straight phonetic, so there's no “spelling” involved here, so in this respect what he did is substantially easier than the same feat would be in English. There are a few special grammatical situations where sounds are written differently when they are a particular part of speech, and he got those wrong (he wrote わ where he should have written は, お where he should have written を), but that's grammar and somethig that can be addressed much later.

Frankly, it could have been totally indecypherable and we would have still been happy... it's his interest in writing that we're overjoyed at. In this case, it really is the thought that counts.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 — ¹/80 sec, f/4, ISO 450 — full exif
Letter-Writing Desk

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — full exif
Prepped and Ready for Immediate Departure
( this morning's play )

Fumie's mom took Anthony on a helicopter ride yesterday, the five-minute flight time “Bay Area Course” offered by Ogawa Air (小川航空) in Osaka.

Here are some pics from her cell-phone camera...

Harnessed Up

Parking Lot

Ready to Go!

Post-Flight Photo-Op

The flight was only five minutes, but that's more than I've ever done. In fact, prior to yesterday, I'd known only one person who had ever been in a helicopter (20+ years ago, in the military, where he spent the flight throwing up, or, at least, wanting to).

As for me, I'd love to do it sometime but it's ridiculously expensive here. Yesterday's five-minute flight was $85 each, which translates to a rate of over $1,000 an hour. Each.

The high cost of actual flight hasn't stopped Anthony from enjoying helicopters, because he can still have fun watching them, or playing with them.

Like this morning, with the actual experience still fresh, his fleet of three helicopter toys was ready to go...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 4000 — full exif
Each In Its Assigned Spot

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
In the Tractor Treader
Summer 2008

My folks gave the “Tractor Treader” thing you see above to Anthony about four years ago, on his 2nd birthday. He wasn't quite ready for it at the time, nor, frankly, was I because lacking any kind of pump, it took 30 minutes of huffing and puffing and getting dizzy to blow it up....

Blowing Up The “Tractor Treader”
Four years ago: Fall 2004

Anthony was scared to climb in and roll around in it, but he didn't mind climbing through it to get onto me...

(These last two are from my old family picture site that I no longer update because I now put so many pictures up on my blog.)

We brought it to my folks' place on our trip to The States this summer, where gentle slopes are aplenty and an air compressor is at hand. Now approaching six years old, Anthony was much more interested this time.

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 28 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slightly Apprehensive
Photo by my sister Marci

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 60 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Crashing: the Real Fun
Photo by Anthony's Aunt Marci

Anthony seemed more interested in crashing and flopping out (in elaborately staged, exaggerated productions) than rolling around in it. That seems to be his tendancy. It was the same way a couple of weeks ago when we had our Slippery Green Slidy Day of Fun, where he enjoyed sliding down the hill, but thrilled in big noisy elaborate exaggerated crashes at the end.

Anyway, back to this last summer, Anthony's two-year-old cousin Josh (my sister's oldest) was much more willing to try it than Anthony was at that age...

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 28 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Josh Tries It Hamster Style
Photo by Josh's Mommy

Anthony tried pushing Josh in it a bit...

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 100 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo by Marci Kreta

Oddly, though, neither were nearly as excited as I would have thought. (Heck, I wanted to give it a try, and would have if it were a lot bigger.) Eventually, the call of toys and a sand pile took over, and they were off...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 75 mm — ¹/3000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Off to the Sand Pile

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Makin' Tracks

Later, Josh found that he enjoyed it most when he stood inside and just flopped over...

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 28 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Prepared to Flop
Photo by Josh's Mommy

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 28 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Successful Floppification
Photo by Josh's Mommy

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 28 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
My New Home
Photo by Josh's Mommy

Still later, they did some kind of play that combined the Tractor Treader with some cheap plastic golf clubs (clubs that I'd bought last year for $4.87 at WalMart, and got more than my money's worth in the resulting photos that appeared on last summer's Kid in the Country: Golf post.)

Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D @ 60 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Doing.... Er.... Something
Photo by Anthony's Aunt Marci

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/1500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Close Encounters on the Swing
(two years ago, when Anthony was four)

The weather has been really nice lately, and with my cold improving enough to move around, I thought it'd do me good to get out and enjoy the fresh air. Fumie had been watching Anthony most of the day, so I took the opportunity to take him with me to the park, him to ride his bike and me to take a nap on a bench.

I didn't bring my camera (that whole “being sick” thing has its downsides), but was able to dip into my archives for photos to illustrate today's post.

The bench I snoozed on is the one directly behind the statue in this shot, taken on a cold, rainy day seven months ago, this past April toward the end of cherry-blossom season:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 23 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Surface Layer of Cherry Blossoms
on a cold, rainy day in April

Unlike when the photo was taken, today's weather was perfect to lie down on a bench, throw a hat over your eyes, and just relax. It was neither warm nor cold, just perfect. There was a pleasant breeze rustling the leaves on the big tree shading me, and (also unlike in the photo) the fountain was going full blast, so that was really pleasant as well.

Perfect.

This little plaza is just off the park where Anthony rides his bike a lot (including his first time on a bike, and his first time to ride by himself). Besides being a park where Anthony likes to play, it's full of cherry and plum trees that blossom wonderfully in the spring, and turn all kinds of wonderful colors in the fall. Looking at the nearby photos link for the shot above yields all kinds of prettiness.

Anyway, today, just like that day, Anthony passed his time by riding his bike. Since I need only the thinnest of pretexts to show pictures of my kid, here are some more of him riding his bike on that cold April morning....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

He did the “daring perimeter walk” thing today, too.

My snooze today was, I'm sure, much more relaxing than this person's on that cold morning....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not-so-Relaxing Snooze

It was just starting to lightly sprinkle as I took that shot. Bummer.

Anthony eventually had enough riding around, so we started to head home, but when we came upon the local playground, he had to stop in. I continued to relax as he swung on the swing, a feat he's been able to do all by himself only since, well, today. (The lateness being quite shocking, since it's common to see two-year-olds swing all by themselves.)

Here he is swinging on the same swing two years ago, when he was four years old....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/1500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yikes, Watch it with the Camera!!

The look on his face was his first reaction to me sticking the camera right up close to where he was swinging, in order to get the kind of picture you see at the top of this post. He quickly had fun making silly faces as he came close. (I've done this kind of thing since, such as here.)

This is the same playground featured in my posts about two of my lenses, my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and my Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 (and lots more other random posts, as the nearby photos shows).

Anyway, just to show that I can get a somewhat focused shot while he's swinging, even if only by luck, here's a nice portrait of him mid-swing...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/1500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos

It's not perfect, photographically, but then, none of these are. I still like'em.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

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Kyoto Momiji

After a cold snap over the last couple of weeks, the weather in Kyoto has really turned nice, with temperatures in the upper 70s and clear skies. My cold is starting to get better, and being outside just a bit in the glorious weather felt wonderful.

We're still six weeks away from the peak foliage season in Kyoto, so I thought today I'd continue from the Kyoto Fall Foliage Preview with a few shots taken around my place last December 2nd...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/750 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Backlit

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Out to Lunch

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fiery

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Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/2, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Soft Orange

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

That last one is certainly least, but I like the layered colors.

Lots more Kyoto Foliage Fireworks from years past in my Japan > Fall Colors post category and my Fall Colors photostream.