Kokochi

Weeeeee!

Somebody likes speed and adventure, just like daddy...

Good essay

Notes from Underground by Lynn Harris. Via Babble

Finally...

It took quite a while to get my energy back, keep working, still have social fun, etc. after Tokyo. Now I'm feeling better. But then the order of my Tokyo pictures got all messed up, and I just gave up trying to blog 2 nights in a row. This rarely happens, but I had a lot of pics in one post. Soon, editing HTML will be a thing of the past for folks like me...so that's why I'm only now getting my Tokyo pics up (with Dav's help). Already feels so long ago!

Tokyo - family and favorites

Being able to see family is always a super sweet treat. And I feel very lucky that I got to visit my grandmother, Tesla's great-grandmother. The first pic is where my grandmother lives, and I just loved how Tesla ran around making herself at home. Here she is on the tatami seating area. Next is my favorite: Four Generations! Tesla with my aunt and uncle. Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy. Grandma Kennedy. Me saying bye to my grandmother. Two great shots of Tesla and her greatgrandmother, thanks to fab Elida. She really took wondeful pictures of us. Tesla now knows her great-grandmother from both sides. In this day and age, that's pretty special. Tesla walking from the family cemetery. And my 2 other special moments. With mama-san at Enoki, shared with Elida. And a very touching and memorable dinner with Ichiro and Daiji, with Elida too!

Tokyo - Misc shots

Tesla sleeping on the floor in the plane. A baby bed in a bathroom in a hotel. Now we're talking! A very expensive wooden toy that really shouldn't be so pricey. A guest tag at NTT headquarters. Fukokuseimei Building where I used to work. It's like next door to NTT and I wanted to say Hi, but we had to go...A fabulous phone charger that could charge all types of phones. A machine I really needed one morning. 2 house entrances. I'm pretty sure it was a 3 generation house where the grandparents had one entrance, and parents had another. Very cute how one is modern while the other is traditional. Elida fascinated with a garbage truck and taking pictures. Tesla looking at something intently. Daiji showing off his froggy hand twist that Ichiro taught us to do. I totally can't remember it now as it was quite complicated. Mine looked like a monster anyway. Daiji's amazingly tiny paper crane he made out of paper that wrapped the tips of chopsticks at the restaurant. Really incredible. On the way to the SAKK office, I noticed a veritable fortress made out of plastic umbrellas for a lucky kitty. There was food in it, and the kitty was munching away.

Tokyo - food

At a Korean BBQ with the TypePad team. Tons of meat..which I don't eat much of so even a few bites felt heavy and solid, although delicious. We were supposed to have live squid, but they were out of it. Instead, I got to point out to Michael that he was eating stomach lining of a cow, nice and crunchy, just as he was chewing. Sorry...should have waited on that. One evening, we had a company dinner together that was sushi. We joked around about letting folks know that everyday there's free sushi in the SAKK office! The last night I was in Tokyo, I met up with Ichiro, a current great colleague, and Daiji, an old colleague who was central in bringing Movable Type to Japan long ago [long ago meaning like 4 years, but in internet time, it's a long time]. He is working at another company now, and has a 3 year old at home. Nevertheless, he came out to have dinner with me! I was so honored! He actually paid for all of us (Elida was with us too), and I'm still amazed at such wonderful relationships I manage to have. As always, I enjoyed Ichiro's breadth of knowledge, and Daiji's too. We ended up talking about pretty large philosophical questions. Oh, and the place we went was a "hidden" place with no sign. It specialized in a list of top notch rice and wonderful dishes and sake to go with the rice (vs. rice going with the dishes). Here is a "honey bar" Every time before I get on the Narita Express to the airport, I wander around the basement of Sogo Deptartment store, carefully choosing my lunch. So many choices!

Decompression 2007

I posted on Kokochiino.

Decompression

Six Aparters

As always, Decompression is a fun block party. It's nice that it's more accessible than the playa, so folks who didn't get to  Burning Man could join. Got to meet up with Beau and Garth!

Tesla seemed to have fun...running around getting tons of attention from everyone. She was also quite mesmerized by some funny looking people.

Tall guy

The great part was just that day I found a Zebra Halloween costume for Tesla for $10! I already had a zebra thing for myself I had made years ago, so voila! A matching costume. Now only if I had a zebra outfit for Dav...

Daddy

Zebras

a captured moment

One snippet of fun from the trip, via Elida (who took a 1000 amazing pictures!). This was at my favorite Enoki whereI ALWAYS stop by. Every time, I have a hard time leaving and have a blast.

Tesla driving

I'm still organizing my Tokyo pics, so in the meantime, here is a set from today at the park with Tesla. She is really into steering wheels now. However, today she had to share with a cute 1 year old boy, and I was amazed to see that she was rather shy around him. He kept grabbing for the wheel or for her. Tesla backed away ... and when the baby boy came after her (thus leaving the wheel), she'd take advantage and head back to the wheel only to have the baby boy come after her again. And over and over...Our Tuesday nanny Gaby got another job so we're considering our options. For the near future, Dav will stay at home that day. But we've decided to look for a nice little daycare place where Tesla can go once a week to be part of a group. She's the queen of the house now, and granny gives her 110% attention on the days she cares for her, so we think it'll be good to get her out in a group. Most important is to find a nice place where I feel OK dropping her off. I'm sure it's way more about me, and Tesla will be more than thrilled to have playmates. She really is a toddler now. Just today BabyCenter sent me an explanation about what it's like for a 15 month old:

Every day you watch your toddler attempt and accomplish something new, but the 15th month is one that pediatricians and developmental experts consider a "milestone" period. Most babies (around 90 percent) are walking now, and it may seem like with her first steps your baby walked right out of babyhood. Suddenly she wants to sit at the dinner table — or stand on a chair at the table — instead of in her highchair, she wants to talk on the telephone, push the vacuum cleaner, anything she can do to help you. Even if she's not totally confident on her feet, she's still very keen to experiment with different ways of moving: climbing, trotting, running, jumping, and ... dawdling.

Indeed. That's why it's taking me time to get my normal rhythm back after the trip!