On our trip to Kobe last Golden Week we went to a little amusement park on top of a mountain, which will be further explored in an upcoming post. Here I just want to share these shots of Genbo because they’re so precious. Because it was Golden Week and the place was packed, there were live shows all day. The two we took in were a clown show and a Shinkenja (Power-Rangers clone) show. These were of course completely boring for me, but I loved watching Genbo’s face go through all sorts of transformations, from gleeful to intent to semi-scared, and then back to gleeful again.
If only Genbo concentrated so hard when I try to explain something important…
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Pure, unadultureated joyFunny, he doesn’t look like that when I play shakuhachi
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Next came the Shinkenja, which Genbo picked up a thorough knowledge of despite the fact that we never watch these shows at our house. Here they are using the same sword as the one that he received for his fifth birthday, pictured at the end of this post. (Zoe got scared during this show and had to be taken away by mommy, although that didn’t stop her from stating her preference for the pink one.)
Finally, I had to insert one cute shot of Zoe. This one is out in front of the Suma Aquarium.
Here are some pictures from the beach on our Golden Week trip to Kobe, first described here. This was really Zoe’s first exposure to the ocean as a full running, squealing, laughing human being, so it was fun to watch. And, Genbo was as unconsciously graceful in play as all 5 year olds unleashed on the world should be.
This one definitely captures Zoe’s assertive, indomitable style 
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That exhausted but satisfied look of a parent watching their children playing
Yesterday was Zoe’s birthday. Being Wednesday, Maki had the day off, which was nice. We had thought long and hard as to what to get her for a birthday present, and since she is such a tomboy (being interested primarily in trains, Ultraman, and dinosaurs), we decided to give her a doll. Partly out of curiosity; partly desperation. She took to it well enough, which isn’t surprising considering that she does love babies, but I’m still skeptical as to whether or not it can hold up to brachiosaurus (her current favorite) in the long run.
Anyway, when we woke up she was happy to get the doll, but was much more excited about digging into her birthday cake. As it happens, it had been in the refrigerator since the day before. And, we didn’t have anything really good for breakfast anyway. So we threw all parenting norms out the window and had birthday cake for breakfast. Don’t tell anyone or they’ll take away our Wholesome Parents certificate. That is the reason this post is devoid of picturesque candle-lit images and heavy on the just-got-out-of-bed look. I’m glad I was behind the camera instead of in front of it.
Getting ready to blow out the candles(I think Genbo was saying “Not yet. Wait for mommy”)
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For some reason she wanted a snowman cake 
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No petite or polite cake-eating in our house
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For dinner we had ikura over rice (next to birthday cake, her favorite food).
This past Golden Week (the 5-day or so vacation at the beginning of May), we went down to Suma, which is right near Kobe on the coast. I wasn’t feeling particularly good the day we left (allergies or cold, never figured out which), and I was debating whether or not to take the camera at all. I settled on just taking my small little 35/1.8 lens. I’m pretty happy with this, both because it was light and forced me back into the prime lens way of thinking, in which you have only one focal length to frame your shots and must therefore get a little more creative.
These shots are on the train platform on the way there.
Then Genbo…(Looks kind of
special there, doesn’t he? )
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Very impressive, honey……but it’s upside-down
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Showing her current age: 2Definitely NOT the ubiquitous annoying Japanese peace sign. They know we don’t do that.
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Yes, I have a large-aperture lens, and abuse it at will(Last night I dreamt I bought the new $2,200 24/1.4 Nikkor. A good dream…)
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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.
Everybody’s personality coming to the fore 
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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.
At this point all the kids were looking at me and saying “You’re in the way, cameraman!”
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The other day the Kamadas came over for a little new year’s get-together, which involved hanging around at our house for a while and then going out for some great yaki-niku, where you grill your own meat at the table and drink lots of draft beer. The owner is a fan of Kamada-san’s pottery, which I’ve blogged about in the past, and he treated us like kings, especially because Kamada-san brought him a little present at my suggestion.
He loves that thing. I think Maki made it for him. Those Japanese are good with folded paper. 
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The photo below shows them playing something very interesting. Japanese people are very big on various forms of karuta, or cards. The most widespread version is the Hyakunin-Isshu, which was originally an anthology of 100 poems compiled in the 12th century.These were then assembled into a deck of cards, with each card containing a single poem in calligraphic form. The game is that two or more people will sit in front of the spread-out deck, while another person reads the poems at random. The contestants then have to find the appropriate card and pick it up before their opponent does. This is actually a very big “sport” in Japan, with national championships, ranks, and the level of obsession Japanese people pour into just about everything. The “pros” only have to hear one or two syllables before they recognize which poem is being read, and their hand shoots out unbelievably fast. Here is one gorgeous video showing people dressed up in the ceremonial garb of the 12th century playing the game at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto (a ritual carried out at the beginning of each new year), and here is a national news report about the national championships, with some great video showing how fast the pros are. Coincidentally, this is at the shrine where Genbo and Zoe go to daycare.
Anyway, Genbo got a deck of karuta for new year’s from his Japanese grandparents, although these don’t have the Hyakunin-Issue poems on them, but rather kotowaza, or Japanese proverbs. Being a confucian country, Japanese people are big at sprinkling proverbs into conversation. They learn them very early—five years old, in fact. Genbo already has his proverb cards memorized, and Zoe isn’t actually half bad either.
This is an alleyway off of Kawaramachi between Sanjo and Shijo. There is a lot going on here, and the thumbnail doesn’t do it justice. I also jacked the colors up to 11 because the scene seemed to call for it, especially the reds and yellows. Japan can be so cartoony, and to me this little alley shows a little bit of that.
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.)
Today is Genbo’s birthday. Five years ago today he obligingly came into the world five minutes before his due date of Friday the 13th. We did the cake thing yesterday, since Maki was home early that day, and he got one present then and one present today.
Last year I took photos with a flash (an external flash, bounced off the ceiling, of course), but this year I tried using my light-sucking 35/1.8 with just natural light. They both have their good qualities, although I think that maybe judicious use of flash in the end produces better photos, despite the fact that non-flash gives better ambience. (With flash the average quality of all indoor photos is probably higher, although without it you probably get better outliers.)
Eyes light up even more than the candles
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Mmmm…Blueberry Totoro cake looks goooood
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Woops! Forgot to tell him to make a wish. Probably extraneous at this age anyway 
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What’s going on in that little brain of his, I wonder
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Oh, how I wish this photo were in better focus…
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Genbo loves all things oceanic, so I bought a cool scientific ocean pop-up book. He found it interesting, but not nearly as engrossing as the present he asked for: a light-and-sound producing sword from some Power-Rangers knockoff currently popular. We definitely don’t show him that stuff, but he’s exposed to it at daycare.
Not exactly what I would have selected myself for him, but nor was it bad enough to refuse.
“With great power comes great responsibility”
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It appears that my Jewish genes effectively cancel out the sword-wielding half of his genetic makeup:
Genbo, you gotta learn how to hold a sword
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That’s better. Doing battle with the hanger monster
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In then end, even great warriors submit to kisses from mommy
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(I’m aware that in the States people have (often elaborate) birthday parties for children this age, but they definitely do not in Japan. This is one relatively rare instance where the Japanese way just makes more sense to me.)
Yesterday was the 納涼際, or summer festival, at Genbo and Zoe’s daycare. Amid the many things I find to complain about Japan, the yearly festivals are certainly something I find myself enjoying again and again. They manage to blend traditional celebration with basic good fun in a natural way that I like. This particular festival at the daycare involves the kids (most of them, anyway) getting dressed up, dancing, pulling a big 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, and finally fireworks. Here are just a few pictures of Genbo and Zoe goofing off before all the official activities.
Genbo soon learned that…
More running, which seems to be what 4 year olds do all the time 
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Before sitting down for a frankfurter and apple juice with sis
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To be continued…
Dang, I cannot believe it’s been an entire month since I wrote what I thought was the first half of a two-part post describing our trip to Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms. I can’t even claim to have been busy with work, since the Great Depression of the Late-Naughts is still taking its toll on that front. I even have a bunch of other good posts I’ve been meaning to make, but they’ve all been butting their heads against this one, which has remained stubbornly 15 minutes away from posting for the past thirty days. Ah well, such is life.
Zoe and Maki in the setting sun against some cherry blossoms
Have no idea where Genbo picked up this quirky expression
This style of exterior is an old Japanese form of weather-proofing, where planks are charred to keep out the elements. It looks beautiful here in the setting sun.
Japanese equivalent of a red barn
Meanwhile, this bald tree offered an interesting study of lines and color.
We visited a nearby park with our friends Anthony and Jeffrey.
Anthony and Genbo riding off into the sunset. 
“Hey there, Pardner”
Zoe sits at the top of the slide contemplating the ride down
It’s easier with mommy. If only they had thought to put a blossoming cherry there instead of that ugly light pole.
Whee!
Three (4?) little munchkins
If you stuck around this long in the hopes of seeing some beautiful pictures of cherry blossoms, I’m sorry to disapoint you. We ended up going back home before it got dark and they were all lit up gloriously. Jeffrey, however, did stick around and took some excellent photos. He also has a great post of some pictures of Zoe that you should check out here.
A little anti-climactic
