It’s so hard to keep a two year-old still. And, when she’s sleeping it’s usually in a dark room. Today, however, for some reason she didn’t take a nap at daycare, and hence fell asleep in my arms 30 seconds after coming home (about 10 seconds after insisting she wasn’t tired). After laying her down on the couch I brought out my tripod and a macro to take some still lifes.
Everyone liked this shot of Zoe, so here is a blown-up version.
As I explained in the previous post, Maki and I used to go to hotspring overnights in Kyushu a lot when we lived there. These places invariably only had 10-20 rooms, although with excellent service and food. I would be hesitant to take a 2 and a 5 year old to such a place, however. So, for this excursion, our first such overnight since Genbo was born, we chose a larger hotel. The onsen, Keburikawa in Kameoka, was in fact bigger and more institutional than both of us expected. At first I was a little disappointed by this, but our room was still excellent, and the size of the place meant that we didn’t have to keep Genbo and Zoe on such a tight leash (reducing stress). I was extremely glad that we decided at the last minute to spring for the room with its own outside bath; it really made the trip for us.
Here’s the balcony off our room, with its private bath made of shigaraki pottery. In Japanese it’s called a rotenburo, which Genbo still thinks is an English word because he learned it at a friend’s house in the States where there is an outside hot-tub. It’s hilarious to hear him pronounce this very Japanese word with an American accent.
Here’s our room shot from outside on the balcony. Very nice and spacious.
Wearing yukata, or simple kimono, is one of the pleasures of any onsen. Here is Zoe in hers, while Genbo waits in his skivies for his larger size to be delivered (he is, to put it mildly, taller than most Japanese 5-year olds). I particularly cherish this picture because Zoe, being a little bit more reserved than her brother, doesn’t often give the camera her full-wattage smile.
Much frolicking was had…
…and jumping too and fro…
Finally, Genbo’s yukata arrives.
Onsen exist just as much for the food as the baths, and the fact that you pay by the person instead of by the room attests to where much of your money goes. Although at smaller onsen you usually eat in your room, here there was a restaurant, where everybody was knocking back beer and sake in their yukatas. You had a choice of three different meals, and we chose the wild boar, which is apparently a local specialty.
Before dinner we had gone to the large public (gender-divided) baths, but after dinner we filled our own private one. It was raining outside, which just added to the atmosphere.
It was a long day for Zoe, who curled up in her favorite place before bed and didn’t even have the energy to bat my camera away or shield her face.
Yesterday we took our first family trip with all four of us to anywhere other than our respective ancestral homes. We went to an onsen, or natural hotsprings, about 45 minutes outside of Kyoto in a little town called Kameoka (30 minute train ride, followed by a 15 minute shuttle bus).
Maki and I used to go to lots of hotsprings when we were childless and lived in Kyushu, the land of excellent onsen, but it’s not really the kind of things you enjoy with babies in tow. Still, it’s nice to get away for even just a night and enjoy some awesome baths and great food, and Genbo and Zoe do at least a passable of impression of human beings most of the time these days, so we’ve decided to explore the outskirts of Kyoto to see what we can find. These shots are all from the train to the onsen, as was the previous post.
I took this first shot before I realized my camera was still on full manual mode from my last macro shoot. Still, I like how Genbo is hamming it up for and Zoe is hiding from the camera. Only Adobe Lightroom saved an completely screwed-up exposure.
This next shot is from directly above Genbo as he gazes out the front of the train.
Genbo at his customary station as we ride the train into the wilds.
This is a catch-up post. Way back in July I posted pictures of the summer festival at Genbo and Zoe’s daycare festival. In that post I described how the kids “get dressed up, dance, and pull a big o-mikoshi (御神輿—think Japanese, Shinto-based Ark-of-the-Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark and you aren’t too far off) around.” I always meant to post photos of that but never got around to it. We had our first real snowfall of the year here this week, so it’s nice to go back and look at some summery photos.
I just like this photo of Zoe and me, taken when she was about 18 months old.
Well, it’s been another one of those post-less months. Now Christmas is passed, New Year’s is almost upon us, and I still have a bunch of Halloween-related posts I want to make. I’m going to get them all up before New Year’s or it’ll never happen. Here is the first one, a Genbo-centric post, from our Halloween back in the States.
(OK, maybe that’s not why he’s running, but who cares?)
I don’t know why, but I just love this picture of Genbo and me.
It’s very good to be back home. We were away for three weeks, the last two of which was just the kids and me, so a large part of being glad at being home is relief that I am no longer solely responsible for their care, feeding, and entertainment. Even the flight home, which was 11 hours from San Francisco to Narita, a 3 hour layover, then another hour to Osaka, was not nearly as bad as it could have been. They behaved pretty well. Not all of it was the sweetness and light you see here, but it was still fine.
I didn’t get much of a chance to blog, but I do have a bunch of great photos that I will be putting up from now on.
We’re having a very good time of things here in Sausolito/San Francisco/Palo Alto. The first week was the best, when all four of us were here (including for Halloween), but I have managed to keep things from becoming miserable for the remaining three of us after Maki had to go back to Japan for work. Helping me has been many of my extended family, who have flown in from various parts of the US to see my kids (definitely not me!).
Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from the second week of our stay. I unwisely unloaded the first week’s pics onto a friend’s computer, then forgot to get them back before I left their house in Palo Alto. Lucky for me I’m going back there before we leave. These pictures are un-edited in any way. I haven’t even had time to go through and make sure I am selecting the best pic of each series. But, I wanted to get something up here before too much time had passed. Hopefully in a couple days I’ll post some of the best of these individually.
(To view full-screen, first press the Play button in the center, then place the mouse over the slideshow to view the control bar on the bottom, then press the symbol in the lower-right corner.)
Here are a few choice photos from the other day of play, when I put up a slideshow.
We’re leaving for the States tomorrow for three weeks; I should be posting intermittently from there.
Here are a few pictures from our daycare’s undokai, or field day, described here with video.
Zoe gets ready for her task, navigating an obstacle course for 2-year olds.
