{"id":729,"date":"2004-04-26T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2004-04-26T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-26\/729"},"modified":"2004-04-26T23:00:10","modified_gmt":"2004-04-26T14:00:10","slug":"getting-settled-in-japan-a-day-off-with-daycare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-26\/729","title":{"rendered":"Getting Settled in Japan: A Day Off with Daycare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<style>\np.editorialf  { width:700px }\n.editorial    { color:#AFA  }\n.editorial a  { color:#CFC  }\n<\/style>\n\n\n<div style='padding:5px 40px; background-color:#444; border: solid 1px #666; margin:10px 30px 50px 10px'>\n\n<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of\nan online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten\nabout it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog\nthen, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I\nactually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my &#8220;first\nposts&#8221; in my <a nocross='1' href='\/blog\/toc\/'\nclass='quiet'>list of posts<\/a>, even though I didn't actually start a blog\nuntil a year later with my first post about <a nocross='1' class='quiet'\nhref='\/blog\/2005-04-01\/1'>buying a car in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>There's nothing here of interest to anyone but me; I insert it here so\nthat it's together with my other posts (which are also of little interest\nto anyone but me :-)) <span class='editorial'>Any comments I add while posting this to my blog in February 2008 appear like this.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<p>This was originally written just after we moved from California to\nJapan, so our days were dominated by jet lag, and trying to set up our\nlife and newly-acquired apartment. Anthony was 18 months old.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\n\nTrue to form, Anthony got up at 5:15. <span class='nobr'>My eye felt<\/span> and looked much better.\nAt 7:45, we set out on our bikes to deliver Anthony to his first full day\nof daycare. <span class='nobr'>We were looking<\/span> forward to a &#8220;day off&#8221;, but the primary goal is\nto get him experience playing with other kids. He'll go Mondays and\nWednesdays.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWhen we'd brought him the first time (last week), he'd gotten off to <span class='nobr'>a\nrocky<\/span> start because one of the day-care ladies took him before he felt\ncomfortable with the place, and so he screamed bloody murder for <span class='nobr'>a while.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>She said that<\/span> all the kids did that and to just go so that he could get\nover it more quickly. We didn't like that at all, but it was one of those\nthings that happen so fast you can think about it later. They thought he\nwas crying due to separation anxiety, but <span class='nobr'>I knew<\/span> it was simply because he\nwasn't yet comfortable with the new place (having been there for only <span class='nobr'>a\nminute<\/span> before being thrust into it). So anyway, this time, when the same\nlady tried to take him, <span class='nobr'>I was ready<\/span> and simply said &#8220;no, that's okay, I'll\nsit with him&#8221;. And indeed, within about two minutes, he was drawn by the\nlure of new toys, and was off to play.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nThe first thing he found was an interesting wooden toy that looks like <span class='nobr'>a\nbunch<\/span> of small cups tacked to <span class='nobr'>a broomstick.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>You put a<\/span> big marble in the top\none, and it tips over and dumps the marble to the one below, which tips the\nother way, and so on, all the way down. He was <i>thrilled<\/i> with this,\nand had <span class='nobr'>a kind<\/span> of excitement that his face and body simply couldn't\ncontain. <span class='nobr'>The facial<\/span> contortions were almost gruesome, and were it not for\nthe happy reason, <span class='nobr'>I would<\/span> have been concerned. <span class='nobr'>I'd thought<\/span> such excitement\nwas reserved for meeting Santa and\/or Christmas morning, but it was\nthrilling to see that it could be found in such <span class='nobr'>a simple<\/span> toy. While Fumie\nand <span class='nobr'>I were<\/span> extremely heartwarmed to see it, were disappointed not to\nhave captured it on film.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWhile he was enjoying this, we slipped out, not wanting him to become fussy\nby seeing us leave. <span class='nobr'>We stopped<\/span> by <span class='nobr'>a small<\/span> cafe very near the apartment that\nwe'd not stopped by before. <span class='nobr'>We each had<\/span> their &#8220;morning set&#8221;, which involves\n<span class='nobr'>a tiny<\/span> cup of coffee, three small rolls of various flavors, and <span class='nobr'>a tiny<\/span>\nsalad that might fill half an American coffee cup. <span class='nobr'>We were having<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a nice,<\/span>\nquiet time, and so extended it by getting another (mini) cup of coffee. <span class='nobr'>The total<\/span> for this feast was <span class='nobr'>a mere<\/span> $20. <span class='nobr'>The prices<\/span> for eating out in Japan are\nworse than airport pricing, but if you think about it in yen (2,000 yen),\nwell, it's like paying with Monopoly money.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nAround lunch time, <span class='nobr'>I made the<\/span> five-minute walk to the convenience store for\nlunch (we still haven't gotten into <span class='nobr'>a routine<\/span> of grocery shopping), and\nhalf way there, getting into the more city area that our apartment is just\noff of, <span class='nobr'>I took<\/span> <a\nhref=\"\/i\/pic\/2004-04-26_11:19.32__00002.jpg\"><span class='nobr'>a\npicture<\/span><\/a> down the street. <span class='nobr'>The apartment<\/span> is behind me, up <span class='nobr'>a hill<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a\nminute,<\/span> on the left side of the street. Anyway, if you follow the view in\nthe picture down the street, you see <span class='nobr'>a big<\/span> orange arch. The almost-fisheye\nlens make it look much smaller than it seems, but if you take the\nfive-minute walk from there (maybe 7 or 8 minutes from the apartment), you\nfind that <a href=\"\/blog\/2007-04-11\/419\">it's huge<\/a> &mdash; about four stories tall. <span class='nobr'>I think<\/span> the one that's\nthere is <span class='nobr'>a rebuilt<\/span> version of the original. <span class='nobr'>The original<\/span> is probably 800\nyears old, but this one can't be more than 150 years old.\n\n<span class='editorial'>(It turns out that it's about 80 years old).<\/span>\n\nAnyway, it's not <span class='nobr'>a common<\/span> site in Japan, but we can see it just stepping\nout of our apartment complex, so <span class='nobr'>I thought<\/span> to take <span class='nobr'>a picture<\/span> of it. <span class='nobr'>In there<\/span> are around it are museums and such (such as <span class='nobr'>a museum<\/span> of modern art\n&mdash; something I'm not likely to visit any time soon :-))\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nIn the afternoon, Shimada-san came over to see the place, and together we\nwent out to look at cars. <span class='nobr'>He knows<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a lot<\/span> about everything, and in this area\nhe didn't disappoint. <span class='nobr'>I'd gone with<\/span> the idea of looking at <span class='nobr'>a few<\/span> select\nmodels (mentioned <a href=\"\/blog\/2004-04-12\/717\">two weeks\nago<\/a>), but he directed me to other models that I'd not thought were\nappropriate for us (from casual inspection seeing them on the street) which\nturned out to be very good. <span class='nobr'>We stopped<\/span> by <span class='nobr'>a Honda<\/span> place and <span class='nobr'>a Toyota<\/span> place,\nand <span class='nobr'>I ended<\/span> up getting brochures for maybe nine different models.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI was running late to pick up Anthony by 5pm, so <span class='nobr'>I decided<\/span> to drive there\ndirectly. Apparently he'd had <span class='nobr'>a good<\/span> day, but he was happy to see me\nnevertheless, and <span class='nobr'>a bit<\/span> hungry. <span class='nobr'>He's used to<\/span> eating on his own schedule, but\nthey have <span class='nobr'>a set<\/span> schedule.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWhen I got home, Fumie and Mom were there. <span class='nobr'>We played<\/span> around with Anthony\nfor <span class='nobr'>a while<\/span> (who, after getting some food and milk, was in <span class='nobr'>a wonderful<\/span>\nmood). <span class='nobr'>I gave him<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a bath,<\/span> and put him to bed at about 7:00. <span class='nobr'>It was the<\/span>\nearliest he went to sleep for some time; <span class='nobr'>I hope<\/span> he sleeps through to the\nmorning.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nFumie and Mom went to look at the temple light-up that we'd tried to see\nyesterday. <span class='nobr'>I stayed<\/span> home with Anthony, and caught up on this diary.<\/p>\n\n<p><i><a href='\/blog\/2005-04-01\/1'>Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of an online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten about it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog then, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I actually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my \"first posts\" in my list of posts, even though I didn't actually start a blog until a year later with my first post about buying a car in Japan.<\/p> <p>There's nothing here [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}